EMMETT TILL’S ACCUSER COMES CLEAN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS…

Well, it is Black History Month.   And I really can’t remember when this actually took place… the year when a young 15 year old youth went south to Mississippi from Chicago, to spend the summer with relatives in the south.

http://nypost.com/2017/01/27/emmett-tills-accuser-admits-it-was-all-a-lie/

In looking back at a newspaper article on the story, I see where it took place in 1955.  The summer Emmett Till went to spend what was to be his lastsummer visiting those cousins, and an aunt and uncle down south.  Because somewhere during that visit in August 1955 it was said
that Emmett took certainly liberties with some white woman.  He got out of place… he crossed that divide that colored and white were not to cross… because he was just being a young innocent kid… unaware of the do’s and the don’t of the then… and maybe still in some parts of the south.

Supposedly young Emmett while in this woman’s family store had told the white woman how he had dated a woman just like her up in Chicago.   And upon leaving the store it was said that young Emmett Till gave that woman 1 of those big long whistles, that men did back in that time when they thought a woman was beautiful… somewhat of a wolf call or something.

It was that story of Emmett Till which always colored me and my thoughts about how when you leave home… if you lived north of the Mason/Dixon Line… how you should behave very differently if you were to go down south.

Something like how you had to remember when you crossed that line …that Mason/Dixon Line going into the south, that you were no longer in the north… or in your little Northern town or big city, like Chicago or Detroit.   And how remembering this… that this ‘black and white thang’ could possibly save your life.

I recall once just we had crossed that line 1 summer on 1 our many drives south to visit my grand mother in the south, that once we pulled up to a motel where my mother sent me out to go inside and ask how much it would cost to get a room?

An occasional stop at a motel to freshen up used to be a habit of my family sometimes while we were making the more that 20 hour trip down south to Florida.  But this particular day as I almost was about to reach for the door leading into the motel office, out came running two black boys… or teens… something I couldn’t really tell how old they were as they came running through that door shouting back to me, ‘Get of of here!  Go!  Go!’

I immediately ran back to our car and reported to my mother and father what those 2 boys had told me as they had whizzed pass me and shouted for me to get out of there.

Suddenly, my mother started screaming at me to get in the car… and she started hollering they ain’t gonna take my sons.   ‘They ain’t gonna take my sons.’

Boy, I had never seen anything like it or ever heard my mother react in such a way.  But years later I understood.

At that time my brothers were young kids… maybe 10 or 11 or something like that.  But my mother having grown up in the south… my being a Jamaican had grew up in Jamaica so he had not really experienced any that Jim Crow stuff of the deep south.  But my mother knew it well.   And she knew that it would not matter to white folks that my brothers had not robbed or done whatever those 2 boys had done… but that they were black and that in of itself would have been enough for my young brothers to have been taken …in place of the real crooks or whatever they were who had come running out of that motel office.

I do not think we ever again stopped at another motel in all the years we continued to travel back and forth to Florida after that.

For years, I think that up until this very point I had always felt that Emmett Till  should have been told how to behave, and carry himself while down there in the south.  I always thought it was his mother’s fault for not sitting him down, and telling him how to behave down there when it came to being around white folks.   It was the typical blaming that many people do when they blame the dead for being dead.  Like some people blame Trayvon Martin for being out late… or out in the rain in that white neighborhood when he got shot and killed.

I thought that way because I  was stupid.  I was  blind.  Ignorant of the fact that many times it just didn’t matter what we did do or not, irregardless there was a very likely could still come up dead

He was a kid.   And you could have told him something a thousand times, and would you believe you wouldn’t have to tell him it again… as we all do when it comes to talking to our children?
Emmett Till did not live in the south.   Nor was there any reason for me to believe that what had been said regarding that story had been true.   For you see, evidently I had believed something inappropriate must have been done for those white men to go in the middle of the night seeking this young boy, regarding something something he had said and/or done.

That is the irony of it.  How readily we eat up the things we see or hear.

It had been a lie.   It had all been a lie.   And because some white woman had lied on her son, Mrs. Till was forced to go down to Mississippi and collect the bloated remains of her young teen age son, her only child… I think… and bring him back to Chicago in order to bury him.

Years later after Emmett Till had been viciously murder by a group of white men in the middle of the night, after going to his relative’s house and demanding that they send him out to them or they would burn them out and all up in their home.

How could that woman possibly live with herself after that?

Years later, I moved to Chicago and while working as a church secretary for a pastor by the name of Dr. A. L. Reynolds, Jr.,  I was told something by Dr. Reynolds, who pastored Sixth Grace United Presbyterian Church, at Cottage Grove and 35th Street, on the South Side.

Dr. Reynolds 1 day came into the office and for some reason began telling a story, of how he had had to run away from his home, which had been back in Arkansas.   The reason he had to pick up and get out of there he told me, was because some white woman wanted him and he didn’t want her.   That is exactly how he put it.   He said, ‘she wanted me.  But I didn’t want her.  So, I had to leave.’   Because I did not want her to lie on me.   Because in those days a white woman could say a black man raped her and they (meaning the other white people… mostly men) would kill him.

So, Dr. Reynolds said he got of Arkansas as quickly as he could.

And he said he left Arkansas running because he didn’t want her to tell a lie on him.

Through the our history in this country many black people have found it necessary to get up and get out of town in the middle of night, headed north or to other points unknown.  Because they were afraid of some type of bad consequence which might take hold upon them… or befall them due to a lie… or some white person wanting something that belonged to them.

It comes to mind that even in Biblical text Abram lied.  He was forced to lie when he and Sarah went to enter Egypt.   And he became afraid that the king… otherwise known as Pharaoh… would want his wife, Sarai…as she was then before being renamed by God Sarah.   Because the Bible says she was fair and goodly to look upon.

So, Abram felt that he would be killed by Pharaoh.   So, therefore, told Sarai that they should say that he was her brother rather than her husband.

The end of this story is that Pharaoh and the people of his kingdom are overtaken by what the Bible calls a ‘great plague.’   Pharaoh questions Abram and asked him why he had not told him that the woman, Sarai… was his wife?

We come into the 21st Century now, some more than 60 years later and now we hear that the white woman who had told her husband and his white buddies, that Emmett Till had whistled and spoken to her… a white woman inappropriately… that she had lied.

All that pain and heartbreak … tears shed had been over a lie.

A young boy was pulled and dragged out into the dark of night… tortured and beaten …then partially burned and thrown into the river… to be found days later a bloated beyond recognition dead decomposing body.   Because that woman lied.   And now …I guess on her death bed… or on her near death bed she tells the truth… that she lied about the whole thing.
How did that woman do that… when she knew what the consequences for any black man would be?

She knew what times she lived in.   But just did not care.  She told that lie knowing that some out of control white drunken men were going to go and find them a white boy, and have what they called ‘have some fun.’    While they enjoyed torturing him and beating him…and eventually killing him.

How did this young boy respond?

Can you imagine what was going through his mind and heart… scared beyond his wits…
kicked…slapped…punched… stomped… cut… lit on fire…

And all because some white woman thought it nothing to lie on him.   And me thinking years later that it had been his fault… because nobody every trained him properly how to behave around white folks.

This reminds me of how I hear black commentators on television now when they are talking about black men being shot and killed by white police officers.   Everybody saying they should have kept their hands on the dashboard… or where they could be seen… or not moved too quickly… etc… etc… etc….

Blaming the victim because racist people still abound….

Well, God bless… It was sleeting a little bit this morning.  But I hope it is nice and warm
where you are.  Have a good day all… and remember it’s BLACK HISTORY MONTH.   “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2017

Add a comment February 8, 2017

BLACK FOLK AND PLASTIC SURGERY…. ATLANTA PLASTIC….

I see where soon a new reality show is going to start called ‘ATLANTA PLASTIC.’

Truthfully speaking I fail to see why black folk are starting to jump on this band wagon?

I think we watch far too much TV and salivate far too much over all these so-called stars on these reality shows, who now seem to be creating a new standard as to what black folk should look like… by spending big bucks to go up some plastic surgeon to supposedly make them look like whatever they envision in their heads what they want to look like… down to skin color and everything else.

From NeNe Leakes on down it is far too much.  I happened to catch her just the other day on 1 of those networks where people sell their wares… and her hips were far too out there.  And I think she added lips, had her nose fixed, put in more boobs etc… etc… etc…

Why would I want to do that to myself?

First of all you have to consider that your body is in a consistent state of transitioning.  Your body never stands still.  Your face does not look the same as it did when you were ‘say’ 5 years old.  Your nose changed… eyes changed… your lips may have become fuller or more drawn out… but it is not the same and won’t be same when you hit 70… if you happened to be blessed enough to see 70 or 80.  Because we are continuously changing in terms of our shapes and sizes …and looks and even our heights.  Our body does not stand still and nor does our faces or our boobs …or the lack thereof.

My son and his friends love Tamar Braxton… but what is real about her face.  She looks fake… and I think she added boobs and the works too.

Then there is Wendy who wants everybody to believe she just developed naturally into what she looks like today… but if you could only see what she looked like in college.

So, you guys look at this stuff now and say, “Oh, wow…”

There is so much of it now.  And it is all over the place… and more and more black folk are beginning to lend towards it.

But I wish I could put up on my Facebook page of a picture of the woman who used to be a beautician who decided she was going to get some work done to her body.  It left her paralyzed and unable to work …or to do much of anything else and looking like a disaster.  That’s her is this picture here.

I never really liked what I looked like either… but then who really does as we are growing up?

But now when I see me in a mirror I have to marvel… because I am not half bad and certainly not as bad as I thought I had been.  But I have evolved …and I am yet evolving.  And so are you.

But I have never been into ‘self-hate’ and that is what I think of people who go out and destroy themselves believing they can create through the help of a plastic surgeon a ‘better them.’

There was a time when we used to scoff at people who went out to see plastic surgeons to have work done to themselves.  We laughed at people like Michael Jackson for bleaching their skin… changing their noses … or Janet having a rib removed.  But now black folks are running out like crazy and spending tons of money …on these wacko doctors or so-called doctors… better known as plastic surgeon to get all kinds of work done to themselves from belly tucks, cheekbones added, lipsuction, noses done, jawbones adjusted… etc… etc…   Michael even had a clef added to his chin.

And now this…  ATLANTA PLASTIC.

http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2015/07/atlantic-plastic-tv-show.html

smh….(for those of you who didn’t understand ‘smh’ …  I’m shaking my head)

All the wrong things are glorified in our culture today.  Just look at the mess that many people are in with all that tattooing.  So many of them have gone so overboard with it they look like Satan worshipers...  which many may well be.

The same thing could be said about piercing… not just your ears but everything else and in between.

It is really far too too too too much.

And here comes ‘ATLANTA PLASTIC’ to put the final nails to the coffin.

The purpose of this show is merely to glorify an already very growing trend among black folk today.  And it is not just in the secular world but also in the gospel and Christian world as well.  Pastors, gospel singers, evangelist etc… etc… etc.. are all indulging in fixing something about themselves from lightening their complexions to reconstructing their faces.  That Paula White you can’t even remember what she used to look like… but it sure wasn’t what she looks like today.  Juanita Bynum is another 1 who has hadtremendous work done on her face.  Bishop Paul Morton’s wife lightened her skin and did some other things to her face like fixed her nose.  That T. L. Penny …lighten herself, added boobs and did some other things too.  Kirk Franklin is said to have had some work done on his face.  And the list goes on and on and on and on…

And this show coming onto TV is going to push those numbers even further… and that is exactly what it has been produced to do… to create a desire in highly impressionable viewers to rush out and get some plastic surgery done on themselves too.  And hopefully… I guess the show wants them to be willing enough to make trips down to Atlanta to get it done.  So, look out for them to be pushing the doctors and exactly what they are supposedly experts at doing.

But I would say don’t fall for it.  There are things in life we are just made to endure… and becoming a mother causes some  leftover tell-tell factors on our bodies… but does that mean we should seeking to bring our bodies back to what it may have been and looked like before that 4th child?

I think not.

Recently I saw Salt and Pepa on an interview and I was shocked to see that Pepa… whom I always thought was beautiful… and ‘I LOVE PEP.’  But I saw that she too had gone up under some surgeon’s knife.   I won’t say what I thought of the after effects because I have always liked Pepa… she’s a very nice person but I really wish she had not gone to see any surgeon regarding her face… even with age she had to look better than what that surgeon left her.

Not really a big reality TV fan… or much of a television watcher anyway… I have no real idea of what Tamar used to look like but I can see that down to their mother they have all gone under the knife… including Toni.

I wouldn’t play with my face or body like that.  There are far too many disaster stories out there for me to consider going up under some plastic surgeon’s knife to cut or change anything about me artificially.  And I am a believer ‘if you are not sick… stay away from doctors… because they will make you sick if you don’t.’ 

And when it goes wrong… it goes wrong.  And there is no way to correct it after you and they… those plastic surgeons have messed you and your body up.

Talking about reality shows… since the 2nd episode of ‘PREACH’ I have yet to see any more episodes.  Did I just happen to miss them or was that show dropped following the first 2 screenings of it on TV?

Well, God bless…. it Friday and I haven’t really been all that busy this week, but I am now beginning to get back into the throws of things.  And it feels good.

I bought myself a blender off of 1 of those shopping networks.  So, I am shifting my eating habits a bit.  When I get out of here I’m going to go buy me some more bananas… or sometime this weekend.  I got a couple of whole pineapples and a can of peaches I’ve been looking forward to mixing up with some crushed ice… which my blender is quite capable of doing just fine.   And I am going to kick up my heels and enjoy the weekend… and I sincerely hope you do the same.

But I do not want to get out of here without making mention of Sandra Bland or Sam Du Bose… 2 very sad situations in the unnecessary deaths of yet 2 more black folk.  Of which I am highly sadden by… and question… and pray comfort and justice to their families… though nothing can give them back what they have lost and that is their love ones senselessly…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2015

Add a comment July 31, 2015

MASSACRE IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA… an issue of RACISM or TERRORISM…

It would be hard to not write anything about what happened Wednesday night at a what would have

Worshippers gather to pray in a hotel parking lot across the street from the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

normally been a quite little Church Bible study session.  But it was anything but quite… and the consequences were high.

Upon first reading about this story in a posting on Facebook by 1 of my cousins… I, of course, like her was immediately touched by it.

In the wake of so many police abuse and mis-killings of black folk… and now this???

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/17/white-gunman-sought-in-shooting-at-historic-charleston-african-ame-church/

When I saw a picture of the boy… or young man if you like…  I could not help but feel sorry for him.  Just 21 years young and his life is over.  And I knew that the energizing force within him… hatred… had been breast fed him since he was a baby.

You do not grow up feeling anger and hatred towards a whole group of people… because they are different from you… EXCEPT it is something you have been fed with all of your life.  And then for his 20th or 21st birthday his father bought him a gun and put it in that boy’s hand… baiting him to do what he did on Wednesday night.  It was a set-up… a set-up to fail… to be subdued or killed because he had been bred to be a mad-dog killer.

How does anyone do that to their child?

How do you teach your child to hate a certain group of people so much that you… his parent’s destroy HIS life.  You created him to be a killer… and kill he did.  And now one way or another he will be killed.

But you parent’s don’t blame it upon the victims he so viciously slayed in cold blood… or try to put it on a teacher or a school system… or even upon this country… because that is what seems to have been the problem.  You taught him to blame everybody else.

What a shame.

What a horrific tragedy and profound lost of good decent hardworking people… who appear to have only showed him kindness.  And with open arms allowed him to partake in their Bible study… while he sat there studying them… plotting how he was going to kill them and who he would take out first.

Was it an act of ‘terrorism’ or was it out and out ‘racism’ that motivated such an inhumane act?

Oh, I understand how the Klu Klux Klan tried to terrorize black folk.  I understood the sheets over their heads… trying to play like they were ghost.  I even understand the burning of crosses upon the land of black folks… trying to pretend that they were doing some kind of holy work.  But it was all done in the name of ‘racism.’  And that is exactly what the out and out murder of 9 black folk who had never met him before… never talked to him before… had never seen him before was all about.  He murdered them…

1. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, was the church’s pastor and a South Carolina state senator.
2. Depayne Middleton Doctor, 49, sang in the church choir, the Charleston newspaper reported.
3. Ethel Lance, 70, worked for 30 years at the church, a relative told the Post and Courier.
4. Susie Jackson, 87, a longtime church member, was Lance’s cousin, the newspaper reported.
5. Cynthia Hurd, 54, was branch manager of the St. Andrews Regional Library, just a few miles from the church where she was killed.
6. Tywanza Sanders, 26, was a 2014 graduate of Charleston’s Allen University.
7. Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45, was a church pastor and high school track and field coach, according to the Post and Courier.
8. Myra Thompson, 59, was an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
9. Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74, who died at a hospital, was a retired pastor from another Charleston church.

…9 innocent people whose only crime according to Dylann Roof, the young 21 year old murder… was that they were black.  Guilty of rapping and murdering people… taking jobs from white folks… and no good to society etc.  etc. etc. all those things that backward thinking white parents teach their children when they teach them how to hate other people… just for being…..

Truly sad…

Well, God bless…. I pray for every family and for all mankind.

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2015

Add a comment June 19, 2015

HAUNTED BY HER EYES… AND THE EVIL IN THIS WORLD

Ever since reading the caption under this little girl’s picture on a posting on my Facebook page… I have been haunted by her eyes.

But as I looked at her face it seemed to tell a story… of much sadness… weariness… and age.  She looked tired and older that her physical years… like an old woman.  A young face but so old.

I think what impacted me ever so much about this story is the fact that she was homeless with her mother… and I guess other siblings… living in a shelter.

Living in a shelter???

What?

Here?

In America????

Little children living in a shelter???

It is not that I am naive.  Because many years ago as I happened to be crossing a busy Manhattan street down near Macy’s… walking towards me was a woman pushing a baby carriage and a couple of other children along side of her.  But from the moment my eyes fell upon them walking towards me… as we were both going in opposite directions….  I could tell that that woman was homeless and her children too.  So, I have seen it… though you don’t often hear about it.  It is something that is hard not to notice when you see it.

I do not think that little children should be allowed to live in shelters… no matter what.  It is 1 thing for parents to have to go.  But I do not think children should be made to suffer that kind of experience when they had nothing to do with whatever circumstance fell upon their parent and/or parents.  Though some might argue that it is because of their children that they are in the state that they are in.  But children do not bring about poverty.  It is brought about by people who are not prepared to deal responsibly with their charge of caring for themselves.   Part of taking care of ourselves is also being able to take care of our children decently.  This is why we have be educated… work… and endeavor to provide even when times get hard.

Perhaps, I am not realistic.  I am not talking about pulling up your own bootstraps.  I’m talking about adulthood takes preparation and serious determination for a successful life.  And we can do that only by advancing ourselves… studying… improving our skills… get into training positions… and endeavoring to move up.

The 1 thing I can still foremost remember about parents of old… they almost all wanted their children to have better lives than they did.  So, they worked to make that happened.    They struggled to make that happened.  They saved to make that happened.  But there is a new parent of so-called parents… and everything appears to be more and more about them.

So, many of these young girls have killed off their children or attempted to kill off their children for the sank of some love interest… or because they were tired of being tied to their children… or whatever other excuse they may have had.  These people are having children without any paternal instinct in them at all.  I am not necessarily talking about Relisha’s mother… because I do not know her… nor do I know the situation that drove her to seek shelter with her children in a shelter.

Based upon the article a janitor working at the shelter where this little girl, Relisha Rudd, lived with her mother… a place where they have been living for the past 3 years.    The janitor befriended the mother who allowed him to take her daughter off… away from the shelter (on perhaps more than 1 occasion).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/before-relisha-rudd-went-missing-the-8-year-old-longed-to-escape-dcs-homeless-shelter/2014/04/05/e21a020a-bc19-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html

That was more than 3 weeks ago now… Relisha was never returned to the shelter… and it has since been discovered that the janitor killed his wife.  And then later somewhere… or where he killed his wife…  he took his own life.

And the story kind of ends there… except for the fact that they are searching for Relisha.

The police are out searching for her the little 8 year older who was allowed by her mother to go off with 1 of the shelter janitors.   A 2nd grader who lived in an old Washington, DC deserted hospital turned into a shelter for families.  A news article said…  ‘place said to be filled with bedbugs and no playground.’  It probably smelled… and an overall feeling of complete destitution abounded there.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/31/8-year-old-girl-missing/7119363/

I cannot imagine what it is like to be forced to go live in a shelter.  It seems to be the last resort for those forced in that situation… next to just plain living on the street.  And many people chose living on the streets if they can… because I have heard them say that the shelters were not safe.

I don’t know this child’s mother.  But as a mother I would not ever have allowed my daughter big or small to go off with some man.  Sometimes when we sit in situations of desperation we might do anything… that under ordinary circumstances we might not allow.  I have no idea what could have been going through this mother’s mind.  The first thought that would have come to me… was ‘why was this person so interested in my daughter?’

There are mothers who will turn their children over to people… because they have an interest in that person.  And the person’s interest in their child gets them attention from that person… because of their interest in the child.

I once knew a mother who used her children like that.  Not being worldly I really didn’t really know what was going on at the time… it is over a period of years that I now realize what I had been seeing.

This woman had a very attractive young daughter who she used to take to the club with her… a lesbian hang out.  An older lesbian woman… much older lesbian woman became interested in the woman’s daughter… who at the time may have been 12 or 14.  I am not sure as I did not know the family at the time.  I can only bear witness to what I saw when I came to meet them.

The older woman was about in her 40’s … approaching 50  at the time she took up becoming involved with the woman’s daughter.  This meant obviously perks for the mother and the daughter.  At some point the young girl started living with the older woman…  I met the daughter when she had moved back into her mother’s house… by this time the girl had developed her own mind and didn’t just want the older woman but wanted to play around with other woman… young girls etc.   She was exceedingly pretty… and knew it… everybody was chasing her.    The old woman truly cared for her and bought her everything the young girl wanted… clothes and everything she owned…  even after the young girl moved out and went back to her mother’s house.  And that young girl was very well dressed from head to toe.

When I met them their lives were different from what I was accustom to.  The mother’s house seemed like Madison Square Garden to me… or Penn Station.  People were coming and going from the mother’s house all night long.  It was like the local drop in center.   It was not until later that I noticed 1 of the younger sons answering the door… which usually was unlocked and people just walked in.  But the young boy sold the person some drugs.  I was taken aback by it.  I had never seen such a thing before… and a young kid doing it.  He was probably all of 9 or 10 at the time.

I was clearly out of my element at the time… way out of it.  But going back to the young girl who at the time I met her… I thought she was 17 or 18…  later I came to find out she was only 15.  But thing was when you entered her mother’s house and then stepped into her room it was like stepping into another world.  Her room was like night and day to her mother’s house… because of how that older woman cared for her… by that I mean ‘took care of her.’  She had everything in her room… she never had to leave it.  She had a refrigerator… and I don’t know what else now.  Can’t remember…  all I remember is the shocked I had when I stepped in the young girl’s room in her mother’s house.

I had seen nothing like it.  She was well taken care of by the older woman… who obviously was so attached to her that she did not mind sharing her with other people… if that was the only way she could keep her.   It was wired…  but the young girl was not the only child of the mother that the mother let people take and do what they wanted.  She had a son… I could tell that the young boy… younger than his sister was obviously gay.  But the mother had a border living in her house.  And the 1 time that I visited their home the young boy and the young man who boarded their were having an argument and sounded like husband and wife.

I never went back to that woman’s house again it was too weird for me.  But I felt sorry for her children… all of them.  So, I would take them out trying to expose them to things that most little children usually do.  I drove them 1 day to the beach… can’t think of what else it has been so long.  But I cannot rationalize how any mother could exploit her children as that woman.  The girl’s mother liked me which is why she invited me to her house.  But their way of living was so foreign to me that I rarely ever went back to that house.  Mother knew that my eye was on her daughter which is why she invited to their house…  but when I found out her daughter’s real age…  there was a boundary that I could not cross and didn’t.  But I got to see a side of life I might not have ever otherwise… a dark side… a side where anything goes… and everything is alright if you show me some attention too.  That I think is how that young girl’s mother thought.

I do know that being homeless works on many people mind… and they become unglued.  They loose it mentally.  One can hardly blame them as the burden of homelessness must be so great… that it could tear most of us to pieces just thinking about it.

When I think of homelessness I often think of the lady who I used to pass everyday when I walked through the tunnel from the World Trade Center to the subway train going home or heading to someplace in Manhattan or going to Jersey.

She sat quietly on a large run to the left side of the wall between the Path and the ‘A’ train.  I have always wondered whether or not she made it out on the day that the airplanes flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, on 9/11.  But much like this young girl, Relisha…  memories of that woman many times haunted me.  I often wondered if there was something that I could do for her?

How the elderly woman became homeless I do not know.  She appeared to be very proud.  I once stopped to offer some food and she became very angry at me telling me she did not want it.  And she meant it… as she became very angry and I realized then that I had offended her by offering my food to her.

There is so much happening to young children today.  Every time you finish reading 1 story that is haunting and detestable to you… there pops up another even worst.

It would be my hope that Relisha is found unharmed… but the likelihood of that is bleak.  Perhaps it was conviction of his own conscious that had her kidnapper take his own life.

The story was sad enough just reading that she… this beautiful little child was living in a shelter.

I cannot imagine how many other children are living in shelters around this country or in this world.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the joys of our own lives… that we totally forget or are obvious to all the sadness that is in this world.  And there is much sadness in this world… whether it touches us personally or not.  But we should all be touched …or moved by it to try to help or make a difference in the lives of others less fortunate than we… somehow….

Just saw while looking info on this story that Mickey Rooney has passed.  There was hardly a Saturday afternoon that Mickey was not in some movie on our television.  I guess I could call him 1 of Saturday friends… just like Shirley (Temple) and Tarzan….

Mickey was 93….

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/07/showbiz/mickey-rooney-obit/

Since writing what I did above about Relisha Rudd the 8 year missing in Washington, DC… and though no one is saying it… thought to be dead… as they have on camera Relisha’s kidnapper purchasing large trash bags and buying lye.  Meaning he… if he did… killed her put her body into a trash bag and buried her pouring the lye all over her body to dissolve her away.  My, Lord…

I watched the video below where the mother speaks… and truthfully speaking you can tell the mother has problems.  She appears to be slow… if you know what that means.  She says she allowed the man… the kidnapped to take her because he did not seem to be the type of person who would do anything like that.  Many times it is exactly the people who appear ‘not’ to be ‘the type’... who are ‘the type.’  It is part of what gives them the thrill of doing whatever evil they do… because they know no one would believe ‘they would do something like that.’  I have never once heard a news items where someone was discovered committing heinous crimes or mass whatever’s where no one said ‘he just didn’t seem like that kind of guy.’

I would have to believe that this man may have had an obsession for little girls.  Many men do.  R. Kelly is not the only 1… or all by himself.  One thing that has aided in this kind of thing is the law becoming extremely lax when it comes to filing cases against men or boys… teenage or otherwise… who indulge in having sex with under age young girls.

Once I read a news article about a little 12 year old girl who had to be separated from her 17 year old brother.  The 12 year old was pregnant by him… and she was head over heels in love with her brother who obviously had been having sexual relations with his little sister for many years.  The young girl was so attached to him sexually that they had to remove her from him via court order for them to stay away from each other.  At 12 and having grown up being abused by her brother… I doubt that the young girl really understood the breath or the width of that order… or why it was being enacted.

They say the eyes are the window to the soul.  When I first looked upon this young girl’s picture all I really noticed were her eyes… and the sadness within them.  She looked old… worn… and had traveled many miles….

I posted a picture of her on my Facebook page and here is 1 of the comments I got concerning it… or this story…

Myra: This case makes me sick!!! The police should be concentrating on her family!! The last video shown of her was dated 2/28/14 shows her with the man in hallway of hotel wearing pink boots then last week the news reporter was interviewing the child’s grandmother and she shows the pink boots. She was last seen 3/1 so how did the grandmother get the boots?? The school reported her missing 3/19/14 not even her mother reported her missing!!! Then his wife’s body was found 3/20/14 so she knew too that’s why he killed her! The the coward kills himself without disclosing where she is! Somebody knows and needs to come forward’! Sickening

We must work to save the children… from despair… from homelessness… from abuse… from people who really can’t care for them or protect them properly…

Well, God bless…. its getting late and I am getting hungry.  I’m supposed to be working on another project for client.  And here I am writing this… but it was on my mind.   Enjoy your day and the rest of this week… and I think Spring is really in the air this time.

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2014

Add a comment April 8, 2014

BERNICE KING I STAND WITH YOU… SHIRLEY TEMPLE and more…

I have been trying to find the time to get around to writing this blog ever since I heard the latest on the dispute between the King siblings.

What bothered me the most was that everyone seemingly is coming down on Bernice King, the youngest of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.’s children, over this latest controversy in her family amongst her and her brothers.

Looking at the pictures it appears that Martin L. King, III has jumped ship.  At one point it had been him and Bernice against Dexter King, their baby brother.  Dexter and Martin 3 want to take out of the hands of Bernice their father’s traveling Bible, and what has to be any families most valued treasure if we could all get 1… Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize medal.

Who in their right mind would dare part with these 2 things?

There are just some things you simply cannot put a price tag on.

Perhaps, some down and out someone or other might think differently.  Or just some plain greedy kids… out to liquidate everything they can get their grubby little hands on of their mother’s and father’s estate.

Is it not enough that the court ordered Bernice to surrender to Dexter personal cards and letters written to their mother by their father… items that Mrs. King had personal given to her youngest daughter?

Now, here comes Dexter again… and this time Martin 3 is with him.  They are in the boat together to snatch out of their sister’s hands their father’s Bible (the Bible that President Barack Obama placed his hand upon when he took his oath for his 2nd term in the White House) and Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize.

How low can you go, Dexter and Martin 3?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/martin-luther-king-jr-s-children-battling-estate-article-1.1605655

Unless you have been there you will never understand how hard it is to stand when everyone around is grabbing for what they can get… and all you can think of  ‘my parent’s are gone.’  Dealing with loss can be very difficult.  And especially when the responsibility somehow falls upon you… be it a sense of duty or whatever…  but you are the one who ends up trying to maintain what you see as what your parent’s desire would be.

I clearly understand Bernice King and her decision to try to keep her brothers from selling off every piece of their family legacy to the highest bidder.

And why should she?

We have all heard of down and out athletes and actors selling off their championship rings or Academy awards… when left with no other options.  But this is something else.  It is just pure and simple greed driving Dexter boy and his older and brother, Martin #3.

It is always very unfortunate when the value of your things winds up meaning more to your children than you… or what your desires would be… or the remembrance of you… or in this case have a higher cost than the King legacy and remembrance of their mother and father to some of them.

Bernice King has every right to try to hold onto the precious memories and legacy of both her mother and father, without having gifts which her mother gave to her… entrusted her with …being lost to a couple of greedy brothers who care nothing about the King legacy, or even how bad they are making their family and themselves looked by forcing the hand of their baby sister in this matter.

I heard an interview where Andrew Young, a man who I thought used to be a King family friend, commented on this matter by merely snickering at it and saying, “They sue too much.”

You know what Mr. Young?

When you have to take somebody to court ….or they want to take you to court.  Baby, you better learn how to fight.  Cause if you don’t learn how to swing back… then just crawl into a hole and pull some grass over you and die.

Thank goodness Bernice has not decided to die.  When you honor your mother and father, and their memory… you don’t try to sell off precious things that belonged to them, because you cherish them.  Those things were a part of them… and they should remain in the King family to get pass down.  Many people today can’t even put their hands on old family pictures or 8mm films that may have been taken of them as children.  Because somebody in their family grabbed them all up and years later discarded them… or they somehow got lost.

I long for a picture my mother had taken of me and my sister many years ago.  We were just young children then.  My sister took my parent’s picture and cut it up throwing away my half of that picture while keeping herself.  Today not even that part exist.  There had been other copies of that picture which my mother had sent to various relatives, but I have never been able to track not 1 down….or put my hands on them some 50 or more years later because they too were probably destroyed.

http://rollingout.com/politics/dr-kings-children-profiting-from-the-martin-luther-king-jr-national-memorial/

The problem in this story is one of greed.  Dexter boy has been selling off everything… every piece of the King family estate he can since the passing of their mother… down to making the Federal government pay him for the use of his father’s image and likeness in the creation of his monument in Washington, D.C..  One would have thought that the honor and recognition given to his father in the creation of the Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. monument in D.C. would have filled him with joy.  That he would have been eager for the King family to assist anyway it could.  But no…  not Dexter.  He saw it as a money-making opportunity and milked the creation and erection of a monument to his father for every dime he could get out of it… including forcing them to pay for the use of any of Dr. King’s quotes.

http://theatlantavoice.com/news/2013/jul/16/mlks-youngest-son-weds-longtime-girlfriend/

[LISTEN] Bernice King Sets Record Straight on the King Family Feud

Why anyone would want to throw stones at Bernice King for standing up to her brothers in their pursuit to sell off what has to be two of the most valued possessions of both their mother and father, Dr. King’s Bible and Nobel Peace Prize… is crazy.  Clearly, those people do not know the whole story. But it has always been my experience to know that it is usually the good person… the person who is trying to do the right thing… the one who is innocent of trying to do wrong that gets blamed for starting the whole thing and is singled out as the culprit in the eyes of almost everyone looking in on matters like this.  I have been there… and in many ways I still am.  Trust me me I know.

So, yes… I side with Bernice King.  I cheer you on Bernice King.  Do not give up the fight.  Fight the fight… it is well worth fighting.  And I pray you God speed and victory in this matter.  As there are some things you just do not sell off… like your birth right.  And the right of any 3rd or 4th generation King’s etc. to not have to go to a library or museum to see an award presented to their grand-father or great great grand-father, because his kids sold off everything.  Some things really are too sacred.

And I also pray for a changed mind and heart of both Dexter King and Martin #3.

In regards to Martin #3… I have no respect for him.

I recall going into court trying to fight for my father.  I went in thinking that 2 of my other siblings were on my side.  That is what they pretended… that is until we got before the Judge.  When we got before the Judge they said nothing.  They offered nothing not 1 agreement to anything to what I was saying.  I was left out there all alone trying to fight for our father to be returned home, and they said nothing.  I later came to realized that they never wanted daddy back home in the first place.  The house was divided and everybody had grabbed what they wanted.   My father’s house had been invaded and taken over… and daddy was forced out of his own property. A fact I never knew until some time after that court hearing.

It is amazing how quickly we can forget all the sacrifices and all the good times… and how much our parents poured into us.  If Dr. King had not struggled…  if he had not marched… if he not sacrificed his life… what would they have to fight over?

What would we all have to celebrate?

The car… the family house… everything that every family at the end is forced to fight over… I suspect they might have fought over that.  Because there will always be at least 1 who sees a bigger picture than just self and…  and thank God for that.  They see more than what they can get out of the passing of supposed love ones.  Always 1…  and it appears that Bernice King is the 1.   And yes… I stand with her.

http://blackamericaweb.com/tag/bernice-king/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/10/rev_bernice_king_elected_presi.html

On another note on the King family.  Dexter has gotten married.  This is really not new news.  But I know it is not mentioned or talked about but if the truth be told… Dexter is really not the marrying kind.  Everything for him is show.   His wife is a supposed ex-lesbian.  But I have known people who were gay who married with each 1 doing their own thing.

When I first encountered this it was a couple of the weirdest 2 people I had ever met.   The guy was flamingly gay… and between them they did have a child.  I really don’t know how she managed it?

But I figured out that they had been great friends and this is what laid the foundation for them agreeing to get together as husband and wife.

I also remember when once a lover of mine had been offered quite a considerable about of money from a man, who at the time was a boss of mine (he owned the radio station).  His son was very very gay and the father wanted a grand child… an heir or something I guess.  So, he proposed an offer to my girlfriend of this substantial amount of money to marry his 1 and only child, this gay son.   And no she did not do it… as it was totally out of the question.  But the point here is… is that there are some people who will do anything in order to have their gay children reform… get married… have children… even if it means they will not give them or leave them a dime unless they do.  Then there are some people who get married for various other reasons… other than love.   It’s called a ‘marriage or convenience.’

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hong-kong-billionaire-cecil-chao-doubles-marriage-bounty-to-80m-for-man-who-marries-his-lesbian-daughter-9080919.html

Well, God bless… it has been snowing… snowing…  And I have been out shoveling… shoveling…   I hope you have been keeping warm and dry.

I must say though… that all this snow is beautiful.

If you are out there in the snow please remember safety rules.  Drive with care and caution in the snow and ice.  Apply brakes when riding on icy roadways lightly… come to a nice and easy stop by slowing up.  Do not slam on your brakes… it will send your car sliding out of control.

I like this little cartoon  thing that one of my friends made.  I makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Guess I’m moving a little bit too fast.  I had all but forgotten about it being BLACK HISTORY MONTH.  So, in celebration of Black History Month let me just quick tell you about a young lady in England.  The youngest person to ever become a barrister (that is practicing lawyer in their terms).  Her name is Gabrielle Turnquest.  She is from the States, Florida to be exact… and she is just 18 years old.  Amazing.  To be young gifted and black… is definitely where it is at.

Happy BLACK HISTORY  MONTH….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385505/Gabrielle-Turnquest-Florida-18-year-old-youngest-barrister-UK.html

And let me not forget that this week Shirley Temple passed  (Shirley Temple Black) at age 85.  I cannot begin to tell you the countless Saturdays I spent watching Shirley Temple dance and sing her way down long stair steps… or try to cheer up a friend.  She was more than just a favorite… Shirley was my friend.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/chi-shirley-temple-black-appreciation,0,3833749.column

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20787230,00.html

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2014

Add a comment February 15, 2014

PRESIDENT OBAMA and GUN CONTROL… the View on Chris Christie and Weight…

It is a shame that it took this long for this conversation to sincerely and truthfully come to the forefront of American conscientiousness… but at last it has happened.  And 1 might say several senseless massacres too many before something should have really been done… like a long time ago.

After mass killings after mass killings finally the United States government is taking a stand, and President Obama is initiating laws against assault weapons and hand guns…all of which the Republicans for the most part want no part of it.

Well, I understand when your biggest financial campaign contributor is a gun manufacturer, and you have all those gun lobbyist sitting on Capitol Hill.  Yes, that might sway your judgment about gun control until it becomes a question of your own son or daughter…getting killed in some movie theater… grade school or upon some college campus etc…

I’m happy that President Obama has said enough is enough, and is taking a lead on doing something that the Congress and the Senate of the United States has refused to have taken seriously for all these years and episode after episode.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/16/16544842-obama-unveils-sweeping-new-gun-control-proposals?lite

But  what is so annoying and distasteful to me is how the Republicans hate President Obama…and are so very disrespectful of him.  they despise him. And no matter what good President Obama tries to do… they are against him.   Whereas, no matter what George Bush did…    In fact, it appeared that everything George Bush did was good to them… down to lying about weapons of mass destruction… and sending off people’s sons and daughters to be killed in wars which should not have been.   But they… those arrogant Republicans stood by George Bush… all the way.   Pushed pass everything Bush wanted without so much as a sniffle.  But oh how they cry bloody murder over everything that President Obama does or tries to do.  And then they want to say that ‘they are not racist.’

Yeah, sure…

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/states-obama-gun-proposals-constitutional/story?id=18243043

Finally got a chance to read the above entire article LINK.  Those republicans are a real joke. They can’t even bring themselves to call Obama ”Mister President” or ‘President Obama.’. It seems that uttering those words when referring to the President would seriously hurt them.

What kind of fool do they think President Obama is?

Trying to scare Obama by saying they will consider impeaching him for legally using Presidential authority granted unto him, as President of the United States. I don’t think anything dumber has EVER been said. What a bunch of fools.

Arrogance… ignorance and hatred will make a fool of you all the time… and that is the state that the American Republican party is in.  They are arrogant… ignorant fools.  And they show that by making the stupid statements such as those expressed in the above news LINK.

I am so happy Obama is not a chump. He doesn’t back down.. and he knows exactly who he is and they can’t stand that.

He’s the President…and they are only members of the House… He’s ”head houcho”…and that really bugs ’em…. And even worst of all Obama acts like it…and THAT is killing them.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/01/republicans-accuse-obama-of-using-position-as-president-to-lead-country.html

http://socialreader.com/me/channels/28439/content/sNxMe

It is far beyond the time for the Federal Government to step up into the role of ensuring the safety of the American Public by enacting laws that will lower the availability of guns to the criminally minded, and those who have some insane agendas.  These incidences have become too frequent and they are escalating.  I am just story that it took a bunch of very young school children to signify this point.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/01/17/Biden-Time-has-come-on-gun-violence/UPI-44991358409600/

I just happened to catch a segment on The View regarding gun control and various methods that can be put into place at schools.  It was 1 of those rare times that I must admit to being totally in agreement with Elisabeth Hasselbeck… who is almost always a voice of dissension on that show… and a devote Republican.

Whoopie, Sharri and Barbara were all for guns being given to school teachers as a good method of curving school killings.  Which is something I find to be totally ludicrous.

Do not teachers go berserk and fall off the deep end too?

Of, course some do.  And then the other side of that scenario is this…

What happens when a student gets a hold of 1 of his or her teacher’s guns?

Or even worst…  What happens when a school shooting occurs and the police arrive and can’t determine who is the real culprit with so many people firing guns?

Because arming teachers and/or other school faculty staff is a very very bad idea… so many walking and carrying guns in school this could very well become a worst problem… and dilemma would arise at  knowing who to shoot at.   In the heat of a shoot out… like out on the battlefield this is not necessary 1 of the easiest things to decipher…  Hence, ‘friendly fire.’

But fear and a haste to make all the wrong choices by putting into place measures that could bring about even worst consequences, than the problems we now face itself  are worthy of some deep thought.  And it is not Obama’s plans that I fear… but all these so-called do-gooders who may have some very flawed thinking triggered by lots of fear… or hidden agendas… all coming… running with their irrational suggestions.

I was not in favor either of arming flight attendants.  And thank God we got over that fear… when flying high in the friendly skies.

It would have been a disaster if suddenly a shoot out  between a passenger and airline personnel broke out in an aircraft… leaving all the passengers in grave danger not to mention the aircraft itself.  And so would be arming teachers or other supposed teaching professionals with guns be too.  The last time I checked that  shooting at Sandy Nook school, in Connecticut where 26 people were killed… and most of theml children under the age of 10… it was the mother (the school teacher of that classroom)… who had owned those guns which were used…by her crazed son.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/18/16584988-woman-protected-from-rapist-by-boy-14-with-hunting-knife-after-she-leaps-from-car?lite

The article reads that the woman…the female victim was the true hero here…

But, no.  It was the 14-year-old boy who opened the door and let her into him parent’s home who was the real hero…because it was at risk to himself and his 2 younger siblings.

I am, however, sure that his parent’s might have seen this picture entirely different… and particularly since the crazed man, who had kidnapped the young woman, torched their home in an effort to get the young female victim back.

The young 14-year-old in this story definitely deserves to be praised.  But I know his parents must have an entirely different take on this story.  But he saved that young woman’s life…while at the same time putting at risk his own, and that of his younger sister and brother.  And not to mention their family home.

But it was an unselfish act.  And a lot of times people can’t understand unselfish acts…because they only see the dangers in them.

But this boy will probably be blessed for the rest of his life…because he did what God calls all of us to do.  To love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  The text actually specks of laying down your life for your brother.  Something that I know would run across no parent’s mind at the time when they hear how their home and family was put into jeopardy by the actions of 1 their older child.

And going back to The View… on that same show they were also discussing Governor Chris Christie and his weight.  Truthfully speaking I felt a bit offended.  They made it sound like ALL overweight people are unhealthy… which is definitely not the case.  And they also made it sound like only overweight people have health problems… and we all know that is definitely not true.

But what struck me as being somewhat bias was Whoopie’s response to the whole conversation.  She who for many years… if not still… has been known to be a very heavy smoker.  Even while listening to Whoopie speak you can hear the effect of those years of smoking upon her voice.  Yet she failed to mention that her own addiction… the 1 to cigarettes is even far more unhealthy and harmful…if not just as much so… as she talked about all of Christie’s weight wearing on his heart… and would hinder his ability to do the job of a President effectively.

According to the consensus cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, accounting for close to 17 percent of total healthcare spending.  Cardiovascular issues include: hypertension, coronary artery disease, acute myocardial infarction, per-cutaneous coronary intervention, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure.

Cigarette smoking is a major contributor to the
three most prevalent causes of death in African Americans… heart disease, cancer, and stroke. All people, regardless of race and ethnicity, can become addicted to tobacco and can be damaged by the harmful effects of smoking.

So, what I am saying is this…  Governor Christie should not be singled out and declared unfit… or otherwise unhealthy simply because of his weight.  It brings about an astigmatism that is many times placed upon all heavy-set people unjustly.  Causing many of them to not get health benefits… jobs… and oftentimes ostracized.  Which certainly is not fair and treads upon their civil rights.

It is very likely that if Christie chooses to run again as Governor of New Jersey… tries to leap out into Presidential waters his weight is going to be continuously made a factor.  And that really should not be.

I recall that this guy wrote this book called ‘THE JOY OF JOGGING.’   He was an avid jogger.  By every regard he was considered in good health… and his body trim and fit.  One day while out jobbing the man dropped dead from a heart attack.  I am not trying to poke fun here… but merely saying skinny or fat… tall or short… you are subject to drop dead or have a heart attack.  And yes, I would agree that having more weight upon your body does put stress upon your heart, but so doesn’t smoking or some of those other bad habits like excessive drinking or drug abuse… etc…

So, then why keep talking about this man… Christie like it just doesn’t happen to skinny or fit people.  Because that is a lie.

Now, I do not advocate being overweight.  Lord, no…  I have had my own issues and battles with it.  But I also can see where such a conversation is hurtful, demeaning and liable to bring about discrimination to those seeking  job placement… or whatever.

God bless…hope you enjoy your weekend.  I think I may get so much needed sleep… and edit some video projects this weekend.

And remember that Monday… this coming Monday is both President Barack Obama’s second inaugural… AND Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.’s birthday celebration.  Enjoy them both… and I am hoping to see you in D.C for the festivities.  But if not please enjoy it for me too.

I am so happy about it.  Truly a time to remember…   And if you can be part of it don’t let the opportunity go by… by not being so.

And happy belated birthday FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA… can’t close without saying that.   I love you.

In fact, I love you both….  And 49 is a great year…  A very good year indeed…

And I hope that you are checking for a picture of me in these blogs…  Who knows I might even think of doing something real special.  Just keep looking out for me… in my blogs.

Add a comment January 18, 2013

POST OFFICE CLOSINGS….

I don’t know maybe it is just a sign of the times.  But yesterday when I went by our local post office I was greeted with a big sign on the door.

At first I could barely believe it.  I thought it was something that ‘they’ were just talking about.  I didn’t know that ‘they’ were really thinking about doing it.

It is hard to believe that 1 day this world will be without a postal system… but I see that day rapidly coming.  A day when children will never know what it is to walk into a building called the ‘POST OFFICE’ to purchase stamps… or ship off a box… or express a package.  Gone will be that place where sometimes you ran into a friend or 2.   That place whose rates beat that of  UPS or  FEDEX.  That place where you could go to buy a money order for any amount at a price below a dollar.

Yes, 1 day this world will be without a postal system as we know it.  It will be replaced with over-rated email accounts, SUPER-FED or undoubtably it will become something else.  Something  just like our current phone system.  It will be replaced by a bunch of people competing for our dollars… when we only used to pay just a few cents.

Yes, what was 42 cents compared to whatever fees they will being throwing at us? 

Gone will be the day you could just walk up to the counter and buy just a single stamp… or pick and chose between the Black History stamps, the flower stamps… or whatever other type of stamp you wanted.

Do you remember when television used to be free?????

I do…and I sure wish those day were back.  Because ounce per ounce who wants to pay for a bunch of re-runs day in and day out.  And with more than 100 channels… you still hear yourself sighing-

“There’s nothing on tonight.”

It is amazing how little we think of things until we lose them.

I like receiving my bills in the mail.  And I like sending off a check in the mail when I pay them.

Have you tried to pay a bill over the phone… only to find that there is a fee for doing so?

Have you ever had a dispute with a company… and didn’t have a detailed record… like your prior bills to prove that you were right?

Recently, we were hit with a major storm that put us all in the dark for a couple of weeks.  Everything was down.  The ATM machines were down, all the restaurants were closed… Walmart and everybody else was closed… and there he was…  that lone man in his uniform delivering our mail.

Treasure them while we still have them.  Because the world is changing.   And changing fast.

I’m missing ours already.

Can’t believe it.

Well, hope you had a good day.  Got much on my mind.  I have no doubt that I will probably write about it at some time or other.  But right now I’m just dealing with it…and depending upon the Lord to work it out on my behalf.  It is good to know that He is on my side.

Hope you had a great turkey day.  We had so much to be thankful for.  In fact, we always do.  And no matter what the situation God is forever good.  He never fails… even if the U.S. Postal system claims they are.

Well, God bless… and enjoy the rest of  your week.  How quickly these days are rolling by.

Almost December now…what am I talking about?  Tomorrow is December… and soon Christmas.  And then we will be into a new year… 2011 certainly did not stay around for long.

And soon… and very soon the rain drops in this picture will be replace by snow flakes.

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment November 30, 2011

THE TIMES…Pastor Zackery Tims and Nicholas Ashford… gone…

First Zackery Tims …and now Nicholas Ashford.

Oh, I know… I know that Nick was not known for writing and singing gospel music.  But no one can deny that he did come from a strong gospel background… that sometimes even managed to show up in his song writing and way of singing.

And what songs they were.  He was gifted… and what he didn’t have …his partner and later to become his wife… Valerie Simpson had.  Together they wrote some of Motow’s best known music.  Songs like ‘Ain’t No Moutain High Enough,’ ‘It Takes Two,’ ‘Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand’ ….just to name a few.  And I do mean just a few… because their list does indeed truly go on and on.

For a while Val and Nick could be caught holding down the evening drive-time radio slot at WBLS,in New York City.  In fact, 1 afternoon I decided to drop by BLS with the hope of getting in to see Vinny Brown, an old friend and co-worker who at the time was the Program Director for the station.  While waiting …to my unexpected surprise as I happened to look up… standing before me were 2 people I would have had to be totally blind to not to have recognized from the very moment my eyes came up on them.

“Val and Nick,” I heard myself say… as my head jerked back slightly in surprise.

It just kind of eased out of my mouth… I hadn’t realized they were handling BLS’s on-air  drive-time shift at that time.  So, I was really surprised to look up and see them, standing right there before me… close enough for me to just reach out and touch them.  Nick slightly smiled at me… while Val kind of looked off.

From the time I hit college Nick and Valerie had been busy in recording studios.  So, I had looked at and played  just about every album of their’s.  Definitely a sign of the time… because most of the kids don’t even know what an album was …or a 45 for that matter.  But yes …I had played Val and Nick for many years.  And it didn’t hurt for me to be a big fan either… which meant as often as I could I would sneak them in on my music lists rotations.

As the years went on I didn’t have to continue to ease… I just played them… back to back …or however I wanted.  Them and Phyllis Hyman… Donnie and Roberta… Friends of Distiction… Dells… Roy Ayres… George Duke… and whoever else I wanted to program.  Including Motown’s Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye… and just so much good music…  The kids don’t even have a clue… they have nothing like it today.

Nobody writes good music any more…  they don’t even know what it is to have anything called ‘good lyrics.’  They… the kids are too busy buying beats.  A lot of which are stolen from times gone… times that music like that during which Val and Nick came from …and wrote during.

Though they …Val and Nick had long since turned their attention to other things …such as going into the restaurant business… New York’s Sugarbar and I forget what their first restaurant was called …it had been on 22nd Street also in Manhattan.

And whenever traveling home on I-95… as I passed Stamford, CT… my mind would always run across them, as I knew that for a while at least they had made their home in Connecticut.

Having their number I called them once while seeking investors for 1 of my feature film projects.  Though I failed to reach them initially… you will never know to my surprise… how thrill I was to receive a call back from them concerning the message that I had left.  Val told me that they were just getting ready to open up another restaurant… which was to become the Sugarbar.  So, they couldn’t afford to do it at the time.  She appologized and told me maybe the next time.

I hung up not at all feeling let down.  All I could think was… wasn’t that nice for them to take the time to call me back?

This is my all time favorite song by Valerie Simpson and Nicholas Ashford.

While living in Chicago… Millie J… used to visit a friend of mine by the name of

Jean… who was Tyrone Davis’ sister.  Millie had come to town to perform and while talking with Jean… I overheard her say-

“While I was coming through the airport guess who I came across?  These two people walking around holding hands.  I didn’t even have to look twice.  I knew right off it was nobody but Nick and Val.”

They had that something special… kind of like what Michelle and Obama have.  A total appreciation for each other… and a desire to always be in touch with one another… as though they cannot do or bear to be without each other.

Just a few seconds ago, a friend of mine informed me that Nick had dealt with sustance abuse.  Never knew that …or ever heard that.  So, I don’t know for sure.  I have not seen him or Val for years now.  But I know their music anywhere or anyhow I hear it.

Personally, I cannot imagine Val without Nick.  She loved him… and held on to him.  And he loved her… and held onto her.   And together they held on to each other …a profoundly good example of 2 people who truly walked in love with one another.  I certainly pray her strenght in the Lord… and that of their children and other family members.

I had heard his testimony.  And what an awesome testimony he had had regarding how God had saved and pulled  him out of a messed up life of drug addiction… and having come from a home where nobody knew the Lord.   How God had put someone in his path that gave him an invitation… and 1 day for whatever reason Zackery Tims, some 8 or  so years ago… called a man on his job who had invited him to come and go to church with him.  And that night he got saved… and his life was forever changed.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20092873-504083.html

A megachurch Pastor having a congregation of more than 4,000 members in the Orlando, FL area… on this past Wednesday, Pastor Zackery Tims was found dead on the floor of his Time Square hotel room.  The first information said… heart attack.  But later information started circulating… that a white powder sustance… cocaine had been found on him.

I had long ago stopped watching him … or some reason or other.  I cannot remember why… but it always seems to me that as you watch some of these television evangelists… you like them in the beginning, but then they begin to shift.  And everything about them and what they are preaching changes.

I cannot say that about Pastor Tims… because I cannot remember what prompted me to stop watching his program. And it might not have had been anything with him… but a time conflict between the show schedule and my schedule.

His eyes lately were watery or shiney… glossy I guess you could say… whenever I would happen to catch the tailend or some part of his show.  And I am not just saying that because I am hoping that after the autopsy is finally released… it will show any drugs in his system.  Because I am not… if anything quite the opposite.

I would hate to think that he would have been drawn back… into something that he was blessed enough to have been released from.   But when you think back to the events that lead to his divorce… you have to think…    Well, maybe.

He was involved with a stripper for a year… that is what the article read.  But if it read a year… then it is possible that it was for a longer time than that.  While he was engaging in adultry with her… it is very likely that he was also indulging in other things too.  And while that relationship may have ended… and who really knows…  But if  he was drinking or indulging in drugs as well… it is not so likely that he also just stopped abusing either.  And do note I said ‘if’… because I don’t  know.

I didn’t know him… or much about him except what most of you who also watched the Word Network knew about him.  But I was watching the day he leaped upon the top of his pulpit  podium to dramatize something he was preaching.  I did think that  was very odd… and all I could think was-

“That is suppose to be holy.  How could he jump up on it?”

But it would seem that not much is still considered to be holy any more in church.  I see preachers with baseball caps and hats on in the pulpit… and sweat suits and sneakers.  Anything it seems  goes today… whatever… however…  whenever.   My, Lord…

Whatever happened to reverencing the house …and the things of the Lord?

UPDATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 2012…As of New Years Eve this year Pastor Paula White has been chosen the Board of Regents of New Destiny Christian Center.  And it would seem that since the autopsy done on the body of  Pastor Tims was never released to the public…that drugs had indeed been found in the blood system of the late Pastor Zackary Tims.

With the announcement of  Paula White becoming the chosen replacement…  Well, it did not seem to sit right with Pastor Tims ex-wife.  Tims’ ex-wife claims that Tims’ and her children are being robbed of their inheritance.  You can read more on that by CLICKING the LINK below.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/riva-tims-paula-whites-appointment-process-was-illegal-and-deceptive-66161/

Since I am on the subject of Pastors… and since I did write a blog on it.  Let me just note here that I read somewhere… or heard it… that Bishop Eddie Long quietly settled his cases with the young men who had filed law suits against him, for supposedly taking sexual advantage of  them while they were under his religious leadership as young teenaged boys.

The settlement is said to have been $15 million total going out to the young men in question.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times… but I sincerely hope not.

Visiting with a niece and enjoying myself.   Can’t you tell?

I have so much time on my hands that I decided to take some of  it to write this blog.  I rarely have much time these days.  I am on assignment… and must pick up my pace.  I have to stay busy in the things of the Lord.   And at the end of the day… I just want to be ready when He comes.

And for as long as I can remember that has not changed.

I still love this picture… It is sooooo refreshing looking.

Speaking of which… while talking with a cousin this evening… she told me that they were buckling down for a bad storm that they… the insurance claims agents of the company she works for …are being prep for if  it should hit us this week on the east coast.

Better get out and pick up a few things for just in case.  And no need to wait until the last minute… do it now since you have gotten some advance info.

One other thing… while here.  My niece took me by Dr. Martin L. King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  Took a picture with a tour guide who informed me that every house on his street was bought by the Federal Government… and the only house on the street that is not owned by the Federal Government on that street is the King house… which is still owned by the King family.  But the house is open for tours …which are done on the half-hour. 

It was amazing watching the people… black and white touring the grounds of the King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  And it is all free… parking and everything without any hassles.

Mrs. Coretta Scott King was a very smart woman.  A woman who was determined that her husband’s death was not going to be in vain… or forgotten.  And I mean she did it… and she didn’t do it half-stepping either.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

4 comments August 23, 2011

Who is to blame?

I rarely follow 1 blog right behind the other… but I just finished reading this as I hit the button and said ‘post’ to my last blog.

It is a story about a woman who killed herself and 3 of her children with her.   Perhaps, you heard or read this story.  I now recall hearing someone vaguely mentioned something about it last week while I was in the beauty salon getting my hair done for Easter.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110427/ap_on_re_us/us_river_deaths_blame;_ylt=AvTGBx5blvs4ltAwbzNIdjA7PcB_;_ylu=X3oDMTM3c3E4MGFuBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNDI3L3VzX3JpdmVyX2RlYXRoc19ibGFtZQRjY29kZQNvZmZwemYzMARjcG9zAzYEcG9zAzYEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNmYXRoZXJnZXRzY3I–

So, I just finished reading the story to the situation…just CLICK the LINK ABOVE if you want to read it too… if you haven’t done so already.

Much effort in the story…the slant in the story is who is to blame.

Who is to BLAME??????

I am a firm believer that we all have to take responsibility for all our own actions.  It is something I tried to teach my son and to all of my nieces and nephews.  Because at the end of  the day… we have no one to blame but ourselves for the course of our own lives.  And many of the events that happen in it.

In the above story about this young woman who decided to take her own life and the lives of  her children… just 3 of  them by default.  Because she had a 4th child but when she drove into the Hudson River…he being older (her eldest child)…I think the story stated that he was anywhere from 7 to 10 years old.  But he somehow managed to swim a shore.

Supposedly, just prior to the woman driving into the Hudson River… she had just had an argument with her boyfriend.  The man who happened to be the father of  her last 3 children… to which she was not married.

The story states that the father… the man who was the father of the woman last 3 children was 25 years old.  Which leads me to believe that the woman who committed the murder/suicide… was also somewhere in her early 20’s.

The story goes that she supposedly became distraught after the argument… jumped into her car after packing in her children… and headed for a ramp leading into the Hudson River.

Now, who is to blame?

It seems that many in the story blame the supposed father.  They labeled him as a cheater and other things.

Some I have no doubt blame it upon the times.

Some maybe blame it upon the hardship of  just being a mother.

Others might say that she just became ‘overwhelmed.’

Then others might just say that she was just plain crazy.

Any and all of  these might very well be true.

But I see it as a bigger picture which is why I am taking this time now… while I should be up and doing something else… to write on this issue.

And it is an issue.

Recently, 1 of  my brothers started seeking treatment for diabetes.  A couple of weeks ago he was in the hospital due to now  dying kidneys.   Upon him being released from the hospital he called me and asked me to come sit with him.  So I have.

I have also started going with him to all his doctor’s appointments… and that has meant that every week since he came out of the hospital I have been sitting in some doctor’s office listening to them discuss my brother’s condition with him and me.

A couple of  times my brother had me pull up to a liquor store telling me he was going in to cash a check.  But the other day as we were on our way to the doctor I smelled the smell of  alcohol upon him.  So, I asked him about it and he told me that-

“Yeah, I take a couple of  sips every now and then.  Ain’t no big biggy.”

Here he is dizzy and hands shaking…and his kidneys on near collapse, and he is telling  me that taking a drink of alcohol  is ‘no biggy’  …not  a big thing?

Who in the world does my brother think that he is kidding?

Perhaps, he is trying to fool himself.

But I asked the doctors-

“Is there anyway possible that he can be maintained right here at this level without him going on dialysis?”

And somewhat hesitantly the doctor kind of  said yes.  But only if  my brother did what he was supposed to do.

But while at another doctor’s office when the doctor asked him about drug abuse… my brother informed him of something I was not aware of.   He told the doctor he used to snort heroin.  I just thought people shot that up… that is how native I am about drugs and alcohol.

But when the doctor asked my brother why he had done it… my brother told him because he had gotten with the wrong girl.

The doctor then commenced to tell me brother to not blame that on the girl.  And that he… my brother had made the choice for himself  to do it.   That the girl had not forced him to do anything.

And the doctor told my brother that he needed to take the responsibility for the choices that ‘he’  …my brother had made.

Having said that I imagine that you can guess where I am going with this.  But I am lead to speak it anyhow.

In regards to the young woman who drove into the Hudson River killing herself and 3 of  her children… who would you say is to blame?

Who would you blame for her chain of  circumstances?

Who would you say put her in the situation where she found herself?

Did her environment have anything to do with it?

Was it a matter of up-bringing?

Who made the choice to lay down and bare all those children?

Would marriage have made a difference in this story?

Can anyone say that anyone does not know or believe that the act of  engaging in sex was not given to us merely for pleasure… but for procreation?

A vast majority of  women become pregnant usually after indulging once… the very first time.   This was true for me as well.  So, I know this for myself.  But I elected not to continue.

I made my choices too.

Oh, I wasn’t against having children.  I wanted as many as I could have.  Truly, when I was a very young girl I made that decision 1 day.  But I also made another decision… that I wanted to save myself for my husband.  And I did up until the age of  25.

At that point I stepped into another lifestyle that greatly variated and deviated from the thoughts of  me as that young school girl.  But had I not… I still doubt that I would have laid down and allowed people to use me time and time again without any commitment… while yet aiding me into digging myself into a deeper hole.

Because truly 1 could say that the young man in this story…the supposed father… did aid in digging this young lady into a deeper and deeper hole.  And without a doubt he does have his own share of  blame concerning  some of the  problems and difficulty in her young life …and the lifes and end of  lifes concerning his children.

But every choice made by that young woman was her own… including the thought and action of  committing suicide …and the eventual murder of  3 of  her 4 children.

In terms of  Biblical text…1 could look at the story of  Leah.  But the difference here was that Leah was married to Jacob.  And  though Jacob loved Rachel… and was married to both… there had to been something about Leah.  Because she continued to give birth to children for him.  In fact, Leah was the mother of  Judah… and Judah is the line under which both David and Jesus emerge.

But getting off the Biblical angle and just going back to today’s reality… and this story there is only 1 reality when it comes to baring child after child for someone you hope you will be able to hold onto… or who will marry you.  And that is… baring children is not going to do it for you.

Yes, you have created a tie with a person that will be between you and that person for as long you and/or  he and/or the child lives… and in this case children lived.  But that is it.

It does not make them love you.  There is nowhere written that after Leah bared Jacob all those sons…and a daughter… that at any time Jacob came to love Leah.

But just for the sake of  Biblical text… let me note that Leah did get him in the end.  Because Jacob was buried in the tomb with her… while Rachel was buried along side the road on their way  after having died in child-birth.

It is evident that this young mother neither loved herself  or her children as much as she hated the prospect of  loosing this young man to another woman.

And that is the travesty of  it all.  Because at the end of  the day it does not matter what area you come from… or your level education… or your socio-economic advantages… or the lack thereof…  if you do not love yourself you will continued to make mistake after mistake and doom your own life.  And there will be no one to blame but you… yourself … and the ‘I’ whoever you are.

I have no doubt that the young woman in this story became overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed with having made 1 bad choice after another… and another.

Overwhelmed with trying to deal with those bad choices and not having any real support mechanism in place that might have aided her… or even assisted her in some way to start making some good choices in order to turn her life and situation around.

Nobody heard her voice.   Nobody saw her tears… nobody realized that she was way over being overwhelmed.

I am sadden by the lost of  her… and her innocent little children.  And by the knowledge that the little son  which survived will now live with this  for the rest of  his life.

If any of us were perfect then I guess we could all point fingers and laugh… joke about this… I guess to some degree.  But life is no joking matter.  It is precious.  Everybody’s life is precious.  And none of  us is exempt from mistake making.  Even at this age I still make mistakes.  But thank God…He is working on my behalf  that I am not overtaken.

I pray that God steps into every bad situation …and situation where people need help…

Now, maybe I can get up from here and finally do what I really have to do.  I have been up and working on blogs since 6 AM this morning.  And it really hadn’t even been my intent.  The day is slipping pass me… I have got to get moving.

Hope you have a beautiful rest of the day.

I have been searching for something that I really need to find.  So, I have really have to put my all and all into it today.

Well, God bless…

  Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment April 27, 2011

God is Faithful… a praise report…

Truly the prayers of the righteous availeth much.  I am just getting in after sitting in the emergency ward all night long.  About 7 PM  this evening my son called me and told me that 1 of my sisters wasn’t feeling well… and that she had said that she was going to the hospital.

Upon hearing this I quickly called my sister to find out what was going on.  And she informed me that she had gone her doctor early this morning and he had her rushed to the hospital.

Then about an hour and half later my son called me crying. I could barely understand him…and I just knew the worst. I thought that he was going to tell me that my sister had died.  But when he finally became audible to me… he was telling me that he was wrapped around a tree and his car was totalled… and that he was trapped inside the car.

Because he had called me and sounded shaken up… I thought he was otherwise fine.  But after a while when I didn’t hear anything else from him… a mother’s fear kicked in.  And I began calling and calling… and calling… and calling him trying to reach him.

But to no avail.

I could not reach my son.  Worried I called my aunt…and told her that my sister was down in the emergency ward with an enlarged heart.  And that my son had just called saying his car had just been totaled and it was wrapped around a tree… and that he and 1 of my younger nephews could not get out.

And I told her that now I couldn’t reach him.  I said Tee…I  need you to call Barbara Jean…and tell her to start praying.   Tell her… we have got to pray.

Worried over my son I began crying and lifting up the name of the Lord… and calling on  ‘Jesus.’  

Hearing me my young niece got up and began weeping and praying with me.  Then the phone started ringing.  Don’t know how they knew but my other nieces began calling… and  my sobbing into the phone poured fear into each of  them.  Anguish was tearing at me now… and I was wailing uncontrollably

A sister from the church who is like part of our family called and said I’m coming to come and get you to bring you down to the hospital.  Then my sister who was down in the emergency ward called… saying they just wheeled my son and young nephew into the hospital.  Because she was dealing with her own health issue my niece begged me not to tell her that her young son and my son had just been involved in a terrible car accident.

To make a long story short.. .by the time I got to the hospital I was met by half of my family all gathered there smiling and talking.  My sister was still waiting to be seen and had been in emergency for over 12 hours now… my young nephew had been released and gone home with another family member.  And when I went in to see my son he was smiling and talked to me about the accident… telling me how a car had run the light,  and in trying to avoid being hit he swerved ending up wrapped around a tree while the other vehicle kept on going.

Nearly an hour later he was released with some stiffness to his neck… and now my sister’s hands began worrying her… becoming numb and losing feeling.  After 11:30 PM I finally I got them to get her into the triage.  The hospital medical staff began running tests  on her ordering a CAT scan, x-rays… and put her upon a monitor to monitor her heart.  And some time after 5:30 AM this morning she too was released and sent home.

The hospital medical staff  had told her that her heart was fine and they could find no other problems.

God truly is faithful… and there is no doubt about the power of prayer.  God hears… and I thank Him so much that my son and neither my young nephew lost their lives in that accident.  And that my sister went home feeling relieved… because whatever her personal doctor had seen early yesterday morning… in that he told her her heart was enlarged was gone.

God removed that condition and restored her heart  to its normal size.  And I cannot thank Him enough.

Truly…God is faithful.          ……thank you, Lord… thank you, Lord…  thank you… thank you, Lord…. thank you…….  I cannot thank you enough, Lord.  I truly love you.   I really really do.

Well, God bless…

  Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment March 23, 2011

Wolves in sheep clothing…

They are tall dark and handsome.  They look like a breath of  fresh air.  You think they are just what the doctor ordered.  But… what is really on their minds?

You vote these people in believing you are getting back at some other political party… when it really plays out to your own deficit.

What the people fail to realize when they listen to all the highfalutin talk made by Republicans during their campaigns to win political office… talk like government is too big… we need to cut taxes…  bring down the deficit …and slash all unnecessary spending… what they need to ask is who is he or she talking about?   Could it mean my job?

Because for the most part when Republicans talk… that is exactly who they are talking about.  They are not talking about slashing anything away from the rich… which is their political base and core supporters.  No….but they mean they will be going out after the poor… the hard workers … labourers …blue-collar people …people who barely can make enough to make ends meet.  And yes… as found out in Wisconsin… that includes unions and union workers too.

What a set-up.

In the 2010 November elections the governor race in Wisconsin was between a Republican named Scott Walker and a Democrat named Tom Barrett.   In that race Walker a political Republican insider after years in public service… sweeps the Wisconsin Governor’s race with more than 52% of  the votes.  While the Democrat, Barrett who had been the Mayor of  Milwaukee, only garnered a mere 45% of  the votes.  

Walker was younger, and looked like a Mit Romney type.  While Barret was older, and had grey hair compared to Walker’s thick dark hair.  And if  anybody tells you looks doesn’t matter… tell them to go and take a back seat somewhere.  Because it  does.

Have you not heard that  image is everything.  It doesn’t matter whether the image is a false image or a sincere image… it just matters how that image comes packaged.  And that will determine the outcome.

You can have more knowledge and skill than someone on your job, while outwardly they are better put together… classier… more out-going in their personality… but lack organization, effective communication skills and dedication… but they look better than you.   Who do you think will get the job… or the promotion?

More than likely the one well put together… though they come with none of  the expertise or inner skills to sufficiently do the job.  They just look good… or let me phrase it this way… they look better.

How do I know?

Because most of  my life I was looked over.   Looked over to the 1 that wasn’t fat… better put together …and looked pretty.   While she or  he couldn’t carry a note  to  me… if  they wanted to.  But they got picked… and I didn’t.   But in saying that… let me also say that it never made me bitter.  I do not become bitter over such things.  I just get better …and better.  And God has worked it all out for my good.

I remember this 1 job where I was doing sales for a radio station in New York.  I really wanted to be on-air but they didn’t have any openings … so I took sales.   As God would have it… I didn’t know that then but I do now… I somehow became the number 1 sales person at the station.  They gave  me the whole of  Jersey to work… and I was bringing in new accounts like crazy. 

But I also worked the New York side of the Hudson River also.  And many times when the owner or the person responsible for making decisions wasn’t  in the business when I dropped by… I would get his or  her name and number and leave my card.

What I didn’t know was that there were times when I was out of  the office… which was pretty much most of  the time… that I got calls from businesses that I had visited… and these calls were passed on to another account executive.

Her name was Carla… and was a pretty young woman who rarely left the office.  She seemed timid and often talked about how much she hated sales.  The chile couldn’t sell her way out of a trash bag… so of  course she was going to hate sales.  But it never dawn on me that some of my leads were being passed onto her.

But she worked there… and on that job  where you had to make sales in order to earn any pay.  It was commission only.  So, Carla was doing something.   And the something she was doing was robbing me.  Because our boss had her hooked up… she didn’t have to worry about a thing.   And it had never… ever dawn on me.  I wasn’t too smart back then.

Never thought about it really… but now it hits me.

While I had to get out and hustle for my bread and butter.  But she had looks… and I had that something which God bestowed upon me… something that seems to make everybody like me.  When I was young I didn’t like it… because even my friends parents loved me.  And I thought that was weird… and it just seemed odd to me.  I had no understanding of  the  wonderful gift that God had given to me.  None whatsoever.

People said they liked Walker because he would be good for the economy… he would turn the state around… and would cut out all of that state bureaucracy.  Yeah… but what… or better yet.   At  whose expense?

Did anyone ever stop to ask Walker that question?

Perhaps not.

Or was it that he was younger than his oppossing canidate?

Was it Walker’s good looks and seemingly good-guy demeanor… if  he has 1?

Was it how he spoke it… or the gleam in his eyes… or an easy smile?

What was it that the voters in Wisconsin fell for?

A  lot of  it has to do with political games.  And Republicans have become the master at it.

They munipulate the people with a bunch of  sweet sounding talk… laden with lies.   They spew out all kinds of  promises telling you how bad government is… but miss out on telling you who has richly aided in making our government so.

Long before Obama tried to save our automobile industry Republican Senators and Congressmen were laid up in bed with them… and with the lobbyist … the insurance companies …and the phramaceutical companies… the oil barons… utility companies… and anything and everybody else who could make them some  money.   And yes… many Democrats are guilty of  doing the same.

But I do believe that there are more Democrats fighting and trying to do the right thing… than there are Republicans.

The Republicans love winning political races and turning everything around… and more times than not… to suit  their owe benefits… and agendas.

I think …because I come from media… 1 of  the worst things that the Republicans could have done was remove FCC Rules and Regulations regarding sex and sexual content in music… and explicit language over the airwaves.  This was the Republicans doing… and the affect of  it has been devastating to this country.

But it has made a whole lot of money for some… and I am not talking about the little ignorant artists or other so-called talents who believe that they are doing something.  But I am talking about the kingpins in the back who own the companies that produce, release and distribute… exhibit and play the garbage that has worn away at  the very  moral fabric of  this country and the world.

I will get off  my soap box now… and  go back to politics.

Today they come beating a path to your door… or their recruits coming seeking your votes while knowing they mean you no good.  Shirt collars open and trying their best to look and smell like you… when they are just a bunch of wolves in sheep clothing.

Every political race does matter.  You cannot afford to become complacent with your vote.  Because your complacency is being used against you.

Republicans know that historically most people turn out for political races which they think really matters… the big ones… like voting in a President.  But they fail to take local races seriously.

But it is the local political races which will effect you the most.  The local races have to do with state matters… and state matters do not take as long to come into effect as do Federal matters… which have long processes to go through before even being voted on and then signed into effect… which entails some years before actually happening even after being signed into law by the President.

In the case of  Wisconsin …Walker decided that state workers were being paid too much, and were virtually holding the state ransom through the collective bargaining process of  their union.  He decided that in order to aid in cutting the state deficit he needed to put a restraint on the union so that the state would not be forced to issue increases in benefits or pay to state employees.  Which on its surface may sound like a good idea… but at the same time it plays a major role into weakening the power of  the worker’s union… giving the worker’s no voice to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay.’

There can be no argument that unions have played a major role in this country in aiding voiceless employees, who were badly treated… forced to  work long hours without compensation or other benefits… by improving their working conditions etc.

If  there had not been a dire need for unions in this country …as they are needed around the world… American workers would have had to continue to work under whatever standards  …conditions and orders issued to them by the entities for which they worked for…  and to do so without proper compensation and under hazardous conditions  in many cases to their lives and/or limbs …without health benefits …or re-course against false firings… promotions and/or  other forms of  help etc… that the unions protect them from.

While running for office Walker promised to cut both the state taxes and the government spending as the state of  Wisconsin was in dire financial straits.

Could Walker have come up with another plan other than virtually stripping the state worker’s of  their say so… destroying their right  to collectively bargain (under their union) for their raises, changes in their pension plans, health benefits etc.?

Probably.

Well, how do you know?

Because other states have faced the same kind of  problems… and so have individual cities… but none of  them set out to destroy the unions that represented their workers.  And yet those states and cities survived… managed… and eventually pulled through.  New York City had to do it... Boston had to do it… you name a place that has not had to suffer some kind of  re-arrangement in order to pull their city or state out of  near  financial collapse.  Even California has and is going through it.

So, why did Walker chose to go after the states public workers and their union?

In order to shut down the power of  the union.  The power of  the union to wheel and deal to the benefit of  its members.  Butt most importantly… because there is a push by Republicans  to stop union support of  political candidates which the unions  feel they cannot trust… which mostly tend to be Republicans.

They …the Republicans are just not for the working class.  And though in history that was different… today it is their stance… a  360 degree turn from how they thought during their early history which dates  back  to a pre-Lincoln.

Today they celebrate their great champion  that former actor… better known as Ronald Reagan… and the trickle-down theory.  Which never quite worked… and star wars.   What a massive waste of government spending there.   But the Republicans  didn’t and don’t today in hind sight see it that way… just a bunch of  short-term memory people when it suits them.   They loved the theories anyhow.

And can anybody believe that they …the Republicans are out against Obama’s pledge to up-grade our infrastructure and bring rapid mass transit into the states as it is aboard.   Yes, Republicans are lining up to say that they will go against it.

Hmmm… wonder how Obama’s ideas would fare if  he were a Republican?

And I won’t even say that other thing… that has to do with color… but it plays a big factor.  It just would not do to have a black man’s stamp  on such a big historic thing  as that.   It would be big… a rail system that cuts down commuter and travel time by shaving off  hours on long distance ground travel?  Adding ‘zoom service’  to commuter service…    Come on, that’s big.   And it  means big money… money that I  am sure that the Republicans would rather see in  their control and in the hands of  their many friends.

Can you imagine if  Obama came out talking about spending money on a project… hmmm… say ‘star wars.’   The Republicans would have been all over him…  even more than they are right now… and that’s kind of  hard to beat.

Think about it trying to beat the Russians into space  was utterly ridiculous.   The laugh is on both sides… as space cannot be conquered.  It will forever be an item of  mystery to us… as much as   the deepest of depths of   the sea.

Seeing how the Republicans stay on Obama about the Health Care Reform Bill  …Guantanamo Bay… to you name it… just take your pick… no matter what he does.   If  he had come up with a  star wars  idea  they would have chewed him up…and  laughed themselves into stitches while doing it.

Here it is  Obama comes up with highly sensible ideas like improving our country’s infrastructure and instituting  a rapid mass transit system in America (which really could bring about tons of  new jobs) …they bawk… and say they won’t support it.    Those Republicans. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110312/ap_on_re_us/us_high_speed_rail;_ylt=AthNvCRGYlehqbpbYiOSaPtH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTM2OXIwMjkzBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMzEyL3VzX2hpZ2hfc3BlZWRfcmFpbARjY29kZQNtcF9lY184XzEwBGNwb3MDNARwb3MDNARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2Zsb3JpZGFsb3Nlcw—

It is sad when you vote somebody into office… then realize… you made a mistake.  The same thing happens in churches… somebody gets appointed to fill a vacancy left by a passing pastor… or 1 who has moved on.  The replacement is fine for a short period of  time  …but gradually he or she starts making their moves.   And they …the congregation begins to find out that the person just wasn’t who or what they presented themselves to be… but now it is too late.   So it is in Wisconsin.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/02/republican-walker-defeats-barrett-win-wisconsin-governors-race/#

God bless… may you enjoy the remainder of your day.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42076054#42080998

Was up last night and caught the news over the internet  about the tsunami that struck Japan.  The  news piece said that the tsunami caused an earthquake that was the strongest ever in history… 8.9 in magnitude.  I could not help but think of  just how close we are coming to last days and times.

I know you probably do not want to hear this.  But it  is  true… devastation upon devastation.  There can be or is no other explanation for it.

You may say global warming… changing climate … and the changes with our eco-systems is causing them.  And that may appear to be the case… but there is something  greater operating who is orchestrating it all.

http://www.euronews.net/nocomment/2011/03/11/8-8-magnitude-earthquake-hits-japan/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110312/ap_on_re_us/us_japan_earthquake_pacific

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake

“…a thousand shall fall at thy side, and 10 thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh to thee.” 

We pray for the people whose homes, families, jobs and lives  have been impacted and turn around by this massive devastation.

Though I didn’t write anything on it… the devastation that hit Australia earlier this year with massive flooding… did not get pass me.

Truly sad… we cannot imagine.   Our hearts go out…

UPDATE:  Monday, March 14, 2011… What a massive devastation.   And now radiation problems from their nuclear reactors being breached due to the earthquake.

And now our West Coast shores are being bombarded as a result of  the tsunami that hit Japan as well… from California to Oregon and Washington State.  Not to mention Hawaii…

My…    We’re now being told it was he 4th most powerful earthquake known ever.  And thousands have been washed away… and was said to of  the magnitude of 9.0.

I am keenly aware that people read this blog all over the world.  And  I often see comments from folks in  the European Union, Asia, the Baltics and  Australia etc…   Thank you all for taking the time to read what I have to say.  And may God bless you and your families… and it is my sincere hope that God is keeping you and your families from all hurt and harm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12102126

The Church of  God in Christ recognizes  and mourns the passing of  Bishop Chandler D. Owens… one of  our  leaders.

http://www.jacksonadvocateonline.com/?p=2569

 Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment March 12, 2011

Land Court… Me… and the Judge… and God…

Today I had a court date in Land Court.   Blessingly, God blessed me not to have to travel to our state capitol to have to do it.

By the time I got off the bus… jumped the train… then walked up the hill… I could barely walk into the courtroom the last time.  In fact, I could hardly stand when they called my case before the judge.

Seeing that the judge suggested that we do our next  court date by phone in order to make it easier on me.  At first I was resistant to that idea because I felt I could better sway the judge… be more effective or otherwise do more and better  for my case by standing before the judge than I could over the phone.

But I forgot 1 key factor.

It is not me… that I now depend upon when I walk into a courtroom… or anywhere else for that matter… but the Lord.

I have come to know that  if you truly trust Him… then you have to act like you trust Him.  It is not about saying ‘I trust the Lord.’   But it is about putting that into action… showing it forth so that it may manifest to be so.

So, I longer study… or pour over anything pining or worrying about the outcome.  I never try to even think about what it is that I am suppose to dred… because I do not think about.  I do not let it interfere with my days or nights any longer… because God has said ‘cast our cares upon Him.’

And let me tell you… that when you do… you will not believe the outcome.

Truly… truly cast your cares upon Him.

Well, today when I got up… I went about my normal routine.  I read a chapter in my Bible.  But I decided not to eat anything… I just wanted to mediate on God and what was going to be ahead of me in a couple of hours… that court conference call.

For the first time I glanced over the documents that the lawyer representing the City had sent to me.  Pulled out my calculator and started examining the figures for the past 4 years of  property taxes owed.  Trying to find some discrepancies… and when you are dealing with figures there will always be some somewhere.

Finally, the phone rang.   It was the court.

As the judge began to speak to me she informed me that the lawyer for the City wasn’t feeling well.  I’m thinking wow… it’s over there will be a postponement for another date… and it will give me some more time.

I knew I needed time because no matter which way it went I was going to have to come up with some money.  So, I needed time in order to save up an amount that might be agreeable… since there was no issue that  the property taxes due.   And so…the issue would come down to how much can you pay now… if  any… and work out some kind of  payment arrangement.

So, I was happy to believe that the case was going to get pushed back again.

But then the judge said  that the lawyer for the City has laryngitis and is having trouble speaking.  But if  you have any problems hearing or understanding  just interrupt and I will have her repeat it.

When the lawyer talked I couldn’t understand a word she was saying.  I turned up my phone and it was worst.  But I decided to listen as closely as I could.

In order to try and save the voice of the City lawyer… the judge had me do most of  the talking.  In beginning I suddenly remembered our last  court  session and what questions I had posed about the total amount of  taxes owed upon my parent’s property.  There had been places in the statements from the City where the amount owed leaped 2 to 3 thousand dollars from 1 quarter to another.   So, of course… I questioned this along with some other points I had found in the documents sent to me.

By the time our session was over the judge said send copies of  what you have to the City lawyer, and I am sure that the 2 of  you should be able to work out something.  And if  not the court is always here.

And then the judge said-

“And you can get those documents to her when you can.  And send copies to the court.”

So, the judge did not schedule another court date and she left it up to me as to how soon I could send the documents in question.

No payment schedule was set.

No return court date.

Nothing.

And through it all the lawyer for the City never said anything… because she could not talk.  She had laryngitis.

It is amazing.  A few months ago the City lawyer had sent court notices to me and all my siblings that they were in possession of  my parent’s house… and that we had 30 days to respond.   And when I called the number and spoke with the man handling it… he demanded $2,000 now in order to stop the process.

And about 4 months later… that process has yet to see the light of  day.

And the ultimate decision lays in the hands of  the court… and the judge had just finished giving me some more time.

Wow…

God is truly something.

Some may say why do I give all the credit to God?

First,  you would have to know when events are beyond your control  there can only be ONE somebody who can turn them in your favor.  And that somebody is God.

I write this blog for those of  you going through something.  Tons of  people are going through foreclosure still and so many other things.  And though it may seem bleak… or impossible for you to overcome… I implore you to just turn it over to  Jesus and see for yourself … first hand  just what I am talking about.

No lawyer… or  doctor … or even judge…  can beat  God at what He does.   And every lawyer…. doctor … and judge… and everybody in between have to submit to the will of  God… like Pharaoh.

God hardened Pharaoh’s heart… until He decided to soften it.  And when God softened Pharaoh’s heart… Pharaoh did as God desired him… he let God’s people go… the Israelites.  But it was all God’s will… the hardening to not let the people… and the softening to let the people go.

And it was God’s will in land court today… what that man working for the City had said to me some months ago has not gone to naught.  I did not have to pay him $2,000 …and that was back in January when he told me that.  It is now March… and I am still here and nobody has a hammer over my head anymore… demanding anything from me by way of  my parent’s property taxes… or other funds.

That is not to say… the taxes or anything else  is not owed.  But it is to say… that time is on my side… through the sheer grace and mercy of  God.  I  yet have time to set my parent’s house in order.   Thank you, Lord God…

Well, God bless…and hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. 

Sometime during the course of  your day just take the time to look up and observe the beauty that God has planted up there  for you to enjoy.

Oh, yeah… been sharing the house with 1 of my nieces.  My sister put her out.

She is only 16 and has gone totally crazy over some boy.

Beautiful girl…smart and everything… and I do mean everything going for herself.  ‘A’ student… on the honor society at school… captain of the school soccer and volleyball team…   And  BAMB!

All of  it down the toilet after meeting this boy.  Who happens to be 17 and in the 10th grade.  LOSER.   And she has had sex with him… and now she is out in the streets with me… sharing the roof  over my parent’s house.

I can’t wait until my sister gets over being mad.   Noooo… but really I love my niece to death.  She is not bad… totally not.  But recently  she has made some very bad choices.

So, currently she is in ‘in-house’ at school because she has skipped tons of  classes.  Her grades have dropped from the ‘A’s’ to ‘E’s.’

How do you do that?

The spirit of  lust.  People have lost their homes and families… marriages… children…  all of their friends etc… etc… all because lust caused them to do some ugly… and bad things..  say some things… and forced everyone who  truly cares for them to turn away from them.. simply  because the person cannot hear… nor can they see.   They have eyes to see… but cannot see.  And ears to hear …but cannot hear.

So,  I thought she was going home Monday…  But my niece slipped up again.  She went missing for 4 hours while she was at school.

Of  one thing I am sure… my niece wants to hurry and get out of  here.  Because her aunt is no  joke.  Sometimes you just gotta seem to meaner than you really are.  And none of my nieces or  nephews  play with me.  But… they love me the most if  the truth be told.  I know they do… and it is because I love them… I have become to be an enforcer.  But I do it all in love… and I can laugh and have fun with them and still enforce.

Now my niece is counting the days when she can go back home… and I know they can’t come soon enough.  It is all she can talk about-

“Auntie, do you think my mom this… and my mom that.”

Mom come and ge your daughter… she is driving me crazy.

 Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment March 11, 2011