Corporate greed…re-organizing… retraining…America’s work force…

I had not noticed it until my son pointed it out to me.   But recently a very large car dealership here closed.  One day their lots were full…and the next everything was gone.  It happened so fast…I hadn’t even noticed that it had.

The MG bankruptcy is very impactful upon us all. 

What happened to all those mechanics…sales people…parts people etc….?

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090613/AUTO01/906130324/1148/auto01/58+Michigan+dealers+axed

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23198.html

The dealership was large and had been in business for years…many years.  And I would have never guessed anything going on in the middle of this country would have effected it.   But it did.   And now a long time city company is now gone.  A city tax contributor…and employer is gone…a community event sponsor and underwriter is…very gone.

Now, one has to wonder what has happened to all those people who worked there?

Did they go to another dealership?

It is highly unlikely.  Even if one or 2 or…even a few of them managed to get a job at another dealership…the vast numbers of them did not.  Because every dealership is suffering from the same thing.  And all of them are fighting to keep their heads above the water.

Why?

Well, lets face it…who has money to buy a new car?

Everybody is trying to sit back and watch how things are going to work out.   So, it really isn’t a good time to go out and try to buy or make any large investments right now.  There is just to much…uncertainty.  That’s what people are thinking.   And rightly so.

So, there is an air of apprehension…and unsurety everywhere in this country…and probably around the world.

So, if people really aren’t spending money right now…every industry and company in this country is going to suffer. 

Then there is the other side of the coin too…

Many people have found themselves out of work and without any real prespects for future employment.

So, how is this thing going to work itself out?

How can it work itself out?

One of the most booming business is in the market today…is the computer…or better put is the internet.  Now, that is not to say that we are seeing the number of millionaires being churned out of it…as we did some years ago when interest in the infant stages of the internet initially started to take root.

What you see is a booming in wthe eb social sites…such as facebook, youtube, myspace etc….   And things like blogging, tweeting etc.

But people need jobs.  They need to be  able to meet their daily responsibilities and needs.

What about jobs?

What good is retraining people when they have nothing to be retained for?

It is  just a process with no real hope of a positive outcome for those who are being retained.

I recalled talking to someone who was in the process of graduating from a jr. college after being in a retaining program there.  She had worked many years in a factory doing piece-work.  So, she had to learn about computers…their operation and so on…and a bunch of other things which she never had to have a knowledge of before…nor had to worry about learning before.  She was happy and looking forward to a progressive and shinning future following her graduation and all the time she had invested in her retaining.

But after coming across her again some months later…all that hope and enthusiasm was gone.  It had turned into desperation.  She had been retained and was hoping to get into medical billing…but there were no jobs in our town or any of the neighboring towns in the field.  And her other problem was…her age.

Retraining people sounds good…but where do they go after they get retrained? 

Are they just being sold a bill of goods…false hopes…with no real relief once they have been forced out of their old jobs.

The first problem with the retraining system is that employers  need to be honest with the people they push out of  jobs.  Stop selling them a bill of goods…and false dreams when they know that there are no jobs out there for all these people.  And that those workers will never get back what they are loosing…by way of their old jobs…not to mention the pay…or benefits.

The only real way of fixing this problem is to bring  jobs back into America.  All this farming out of  jobs abroad has to stop.  Manufacturing has to be brought into this country.  There must be a recreation of  jobs in America.

All these American companies have gone abroad…where they can get labor cheaper…and this has seriously hurt the workers in this country…our economy…our neighborhoods…ownership of homes…and means of providing for our familes.

Jobs that millions of Americans used to get up and go out to daily are now gone…vanished into the thin air.  While their factories…and buildings…and compounds…sit abandon…or have been rehab into condominiums…or artists lofts. 

And the internet didn’t help any either.   It made it easy for companies to employ foreign workers…by merely writing a deal and providing them with phone lines.  It was just that easy.  They made a deal with someone sitting in a house or some back room somewhere…who you can’t even understand…and sounds like the exact same person from company to company whenever you have to contact a customer service department for any reason.   Some guy with a thick accent handling customer service for a lot of different companies.  

Forget about the fact that…you can’t understand them…rather him…because they (he) can’t understand you…and if  it’s not him…then it is her.  They must be related or a husband and wife team.   Because they have the exact same accent.  And you get them all the time…just him…or her…no matter what company or product you think  that you are calling about.

So, you call trying to work out a problem and hang up with a headache…having resolved nothing.  Because neither of you could understand the other.  Perhaps, the company who make deals with these type of service providers in various countries…and it sounds like one specific person…handling many different lines…but maybe the companies that farm out their customer service departments to entities such as these…really shouldn’t be getting our business in the first place.  Because they could care less if we get helped or not.   

They just want to say that they have customer service…because it makes people feel better when they buy a product or service to know that if their is a problem or question they can hound somebody about it.   So, these companies just want to say that they offer customer service…not intending to actually provide it.  So, they hire someone who can half speak English to help us.  

These companies…that gave away those jobs that Americans used to have in their customer service departments…they only look at the bottom line.   What do they care about service…or whether we get some or not?  Or whether the guy understands you or not?   They don’t have to talk to him…but we do. 

These companies really shouldn’t be getting our business…because in fact when they farm out jobs abroad…they are in fact…destroying this country…by destroying the job force here…by deleting more and more jobs in America in pursuit of  cheaper and cheaper labor.  It is really unfortunate that we never experience their poor customer service departments…until after we have bought into the service or purchased their products.

I understand that we live in a capitalistic society.  I even understand global capitalism…and that for capitalists the bottom line is everything…but not if you cut off your own nose in spite of your face.  And that is exactly what sending America’s  jobs abroad has ended up to being. 

Without jobs…people can’t buy…anything.   The whole country is at a stand still…because everything has been farmed out…outside of our own borders.  And though those countries are getting the jobs…but they are not earning enough money to uplift them or their country.  Therefore these companies seeking the cheap labor cannot create any other potenial customer markets for their companies which are taking advantage of these pooper countries…by under paying them.  Because they can’t afford anything…either…though they have the jobs.  But they are making no real money…or better put…earning.

GM dealership closings by state

Ala —.33; Alaska — 0; Ariz. — 11; Ark. — 17; Calif.— 65; Colo. — 15; Conn. — 11; Del. — 2; Fla. — 35; Ga. — 24; Hawaii — 2; Idaho — 8; Ill. — 66; Ind. — 48; Iowa — 46; Kan. — 29; Ky. — 23; La. — 10;.
Maine — 14; Md. — 21; Mass. — 29; Mich. — 58; Minn. — 39; Miss. — 14; Mo. — 38; Mont. — 16; Neb. — 21; Nev. — 3; N.H. — 6; N.J. — 33; N.M. — 10; N.Y. — 60; N.C. — 36; N.D. — 6.
Ohio — 79; Okla. — 17; Ore. — 21; Pa. — 90; R.I. — 3; S.C. — 24; S.D. — 16; Tenn. — 30; Texas — 55; Utah — 6; Vt. — 26; Wash. — 18; W.Va. — 25; Wis. — 50; Wyo. — 6.
Nation — 1,323

Therefore, greed just does not pay.

What seemed like a great idea…going abroad to obtain cheaper labor has in fact worked against these American companies.  So, it seems that the only way of rectifying the problem is to bring the jobs back to America…which is still the largest customer market in the world…when we are working.

So, yes…THE BISHOP’S WIFE, my book is due to be out soon.  A matter of a couple weeks now…and I am so excited.  I will keep you abreast.  And soon you will be to see the youtube ad for it.   Haven’t completed it yet…but I am working on it.  In it you actually get a chance to hear me.  I don’t think you will see me…but you will hear me…and perhaps see a phone.   As I see that many of you have checked out my ABOUT page…seeking to find out more info on me.

I am media…that is what I am.

 Well, enjoy the rest of your weekend. 

Just finished getting my hair done…and plan on being in church tomorrow.   And yes… I am still trying to catch up on my sleep…and will be doing so for quite time as I have a weeks of sleep to catch up on.

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…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

  THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

2 comments June 14, 2009

Chyrsler bankruptcy… cause and effect…Ancient African History…

I really do not like people who like to laugh and kajol themselves on the back of other people’s suffering.  As if Chrysler’s going into bankruptcy only impacted the top dogs at Chrysler.  If that was so…then maybe my attitude might be somewhat different too.  But it does not…the top dogs rarely feel much of the ping…when the zing falls hardest upon those at the bottom.  The top dogs get paid out…retire…and go on vacation for the rest of their lives while the poor factory workers get squeezed out of  jobs.   And are left suffering…wondering about tomorrow.

So, I really hate when I hear people laughing and joking about situations which impact poor innocent people…thousands upon thousands of them…just trying to make it…as black folks say…from day to day.

What could possibly be funny about another large American corporation having to declare bankruptcy?

It merely means more re-organizing…further cut backs and down-sizing…and the shuffling of more folks off into the unemployment lines.

It also means more mortgages can’t and won’t be met…due to people loosing their jobs.  Credit card bills that won’t get paid…because…  Well, people have lost their jobs.  Less consumer wares and other items being purchased…because…well…   Yes, people have lost their jobs.  More people waiting to collect unemployment…more food stamps that will have to be given out…more medical problems for Medicare to add to their rows etc…   More…more…more people who will need to be re-trained…for jobs which do not exist etc…etc…etc..

So, what is there to cheer about…concerning Chrysler filing bankruptcy?

And yes…President Obama should do everything he can to help constrain and assist Chrysler from totally going under.

Had I not gone to visit in Detroit last August such things would have never crossed my mind…but I cannot forget all those houses and all those buildings which I saw…street after street in Detroit all boarded up.  There is something about having seen that…that has compelled me to never forget the plight of others. 

Sometimes we get caught up in how big we are and how well we ourselves are doing… and what our family has…what we have…etc…etc…   That we forget all about others…and about what is going on with them.  But this is wrong.  Other people lives do impact our lives…whether we care to believe it or not.

Recently, we have seen a series of shootings…where people just walked into some crowded place…office…church…mall…store…house…neighborhood…and just started shooting.   And as you listened to the story unfold…you heard or read that the person who had done the shooting had just lost their job…been laid off…went seeking help and met up with nothing but frustration. 

When your world comes tumbling down around you…and your family needs to be fed…the rent is due…the utilities are beginning to be cut off…and you are facing eviction…I wonder if you would be laughing because you worked for Chrysler…and your livelihood company just filed bankruptcy…and that meant it was going to cost you your job…your only means of a livelihood…for yourself and your family? 

I doubt it.

The lost of jobs…corporate bankruptcies effect us all.  And though you may view it as a government bailout because Uncle Sam is trying to help these companies out…the situations are bigger than their CEO’s.  That money that Obama is taking to aid these companies is far less than what it would cost taxpayers to sustain those people…massive numbers of people who stand  to loose their jobs.  And I really hate to hear people who have limited vision…short sightedness…and who can’t see beyond their own nose…so much so…that they fail to see the bigger…and much broader picture concerning this issue.  

Trying to re-train people for new jobs…many of whom have no computer skills and only know how to work in a factory…who many may be well up in age…meaning old…too old in fact to actively and with any real hope of ever being hired for a decent job outside of becoming some store associate, perhaps… far from receiving the pay they earned while doing piece work while on their factory job.  Yet, they will be sent to school…enter junior colleges and things…on taxpayer dollars…and into various training programs…still on taxpayers dollars…they will receive unemployment…food stamps…Medicare etc…all of which will add up to far more than the cost of trying to keep Chrysler or any other large company on the verge of sinking from going totally under.

So, what is there to laugh about…and to say-

“There goes more taxpayers money.”

It is pay now…or pay far  more later. 

This recession thing is real.   I may not be feeling it personally…but there are  thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Americans who are.  And they are in dire need of this country’s help and support…without the criticism.

Most people in this country have had a desire for a piece of that American pie…and when circumstances change…they should not be held responsible because of  the curved balls that have been thrown their way.   They only work  for these companies and they should not be made to suffer because of them…ridiculed…or made to feel to blame because of any changes in the global economic environment…or the one here in America.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=13241226&ch=4226713&src=news

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090430/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_automakers

Well, it is not something that many black people had not known.    That is the fact that Africa is the cradle of civilization…the place of the origins of all man.  

The first shoes made were made in Africa.  University…library…books…etc…first in Africa.  It is a widely known fact that most of the great Greek  philosophers all studied in Africa.  Africa is also known to be the place where the Garden of Eden had been.   And where it may still well be…as there are still parts of  Africa not yet seen by modern man…as you probably remember that most recently in some South American country recently they had found some unknown tribe of  people who had not seen the modern world.   And that was in South America…a place which is not  two-thirds the size of  Africa.

But none of this should really be a secret  or  surprise…as much of the Bible takes place in what as then ancient Africa…as Africa in ancient times stretched all the way into Asia.   Ethiopia and other current African countries are cited in the Bible.  Haran, a village in Africa, was the original home of Abram whose name was later changed by God to Abraham.  And mentioned a few times in the Bible is the Queen of  Sheba…an great African queen, who upon one time where she is mentioned she paid a visit  to young king by the name of Solomon where she questioned him concerning things of  God…as she was  a woman of God.

So, if you want to read more on this story just CLICK the LINK BELOW.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090430/ap_on_sc/us_sci_african_origins

If you want to get an understanding of early African History…CLICK and watch the video BELOW.

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/africa/video/x1uic3_lost-civilizations-africa-a-history_travel

http://www.specialtyinterests.net/sheba.html

That being said…then China would really not be the oldest civilization known to man…as history is starting to show…but Africa…the oldest civilization of  all mankind. 

It is funny to me now…as I think back…but in one of my history classes about a year ago…I handed in a paper stating just that.  Not about Africa…but about history…and how depending upon who is writing that history it may or may not bare the whole truth…or even be correct.  I wrote that no matter how much man may try to corrupt history by purposely negilecting to tell some things…or by accidently doing so…that in time all things…meaning the truth…is eventually revealed through time.

Here is the newest African Beauty to emerge upon the stage of the world…and she is a high school student living with her family in Germany…and she is Germany’s next Top Model, Sara Nuru…an Ethiopian.

You must remember that it was a young beautiful…and evidently a very knowledgeable Ethiopian Queen…Sheba, who paid a visit upon King Solomon who brought him gifts and quizzed him.

Now, I am still trying to catch up on my sleep.  So, if  you will have to forgive me.   I got up and out early this morning.   I had to do what I really do not like to do too often…and that is catch the bus.  But I must say…as a writer…it really does give you a great source for acquiring interesting little stories.  

Hope you had a beautiful day…and for some reason I am feeling much anticipation.   I guess because my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE…is due out soon…and then the work really begins.  I will keep you abreast.

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…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

2 comments April 30, 2009

Making the most of my day… Mothership and Parenting… Michelle O’ working soup kitchen line…

I must say…if I have to say so myself…that I am so proud of me today.  Oh…I mean this morning.  I do not know what time I got up but by the time I laid back down…it was only 7:57 AM. 

I got up and had my Cream of  Wheat.   And yes…I am still enjoying it.  I had me a cup of tea…and read my Bible and then laid back down.  A few minutes later…perhaps an hour later…I got up again.  I pulled out my bucket…got the scrub brush…and pulled out the cleaners and scrubbed down the kitchen again…then I hit the doors and wall in the small hall leading towards the bathroom.  I sprayed down and lightly scrubed down the bathroom…and left it soaking. 

Wow…yeah….  I think I should be proud of myself…and it is not even noon yet.

There is something about getting up early.  You will get so much more done for some reason or another…if you get up and get started early.  There is just something about getting up early…there really is.  I do not know what…but that makes you work a little bit quicker and harder…and you just acheve more.  And now I feel so good.  And so…so proud of myself for taking care of my parent’s house in their absence.  For me having gotten up early today..and gotten started the very first thing this morning.

I have been busy working on building my website for the past couple of weeks…and the pages are coming along well.  I am really impressed with the pages that I have created thus far.  A few years ago I decided to begin taking some graphic arts classes. 

When I was in New York and started my own homebased business, an advertising agency, Queen Bee Multi-Media Advertising Agency.  I used to hire students from the campus right around the corner from my apartment…Pratt Institute, to do artwork for me.  Pratt has a very high reputation as a good art school…which I never knew at the time…but the students on that campus turned out some fantastic work for me.  I never went to see a client without feeling proud of our presentations which they had prepared under, of course, my direction.

I represented schools, furniture stores, boutiques, concert promoters etc…  There is little about advertising that I do not know about…having also a history in radio sales, media buying, telemarketing, product placement…etc…etc…etc…  But I had always had an artistic bug.

When I was a child, I had begged and begged my mother to buy me a home study art school course.  After begging for some time my mother finally broke down and ordered it for me.  That home study art school cost $300…and my mother ordered it for me.  As much as I begged for it…I only did one lesson of that course.  

Eventually, I gave away one of the books…of which there had been 3.  They were very big and thick…in a large binder…bound in expensive red binding filled with my untouched drawing lessons…and I gave away one of the 3 large lesson books and never touched those books again.  Something that my mother had sacrificed to buy for me…and that I had begged and begged for it.   And I did nothing with it…short of giving it away…and back then $300 was an awful lot of money…that really had to have been a sacrifice.   But she did it for me.

I guess she always recognized that I had talent…that I was gifted.  Though she would have done no less for any of my other sisters or brothers…and did.  As we all had to take music lessons…and all had various interests.  She had bought us all our own instrutments which she had purchased for us one Christmas. 

I will never forget that Christmas…which was our musical Christmas.  My mother must have bought everything the music store had.  Whoever owned that music store must have loved her.  That Christmas morning when we awoke…we found a large electric keyboard, piano, drum set, guiatar & amp and accordian all up under our Christmas tree. 

Before the day was out I had mastered that keyboard and could play several songs on it.  The next day that keyboard was gone.  My mother replaced it was a real full size organ.  I think back on that now and believe that she did it…because it had posed no real challenge in order to learn.   Today both the piano and the organ are still here in the house with me…and nobody plays a note on them.  That is not to say that they cannot play them…they just do not bother to do so.

My father, who had a saxaphone, a ukalie and a trumpet…which you could hear him practicing on sometimes late at night…he made me play the accordian.  When he would come home from work…I would have to pull it out  after he ate dinner that is when he forced me to practice…night after night.  None of my sisters or brothers had to practice anything before him…but me.  And he always would fall asleep on me. 

The accordian which was under the Christmas tree was my 2nd accordian.  It was the bigger version of what they had already gotten for me before a year or so ago.  And I went out every week to accordian lessons for years. 

I hated the accordian.  I loathe pokas.  I wanted to play the piano…and in the beginning I had both piano and accordian lessons.  But daddy wanted me to play the accordian…and we never argued against my mother or my father’s wishes.  So, then my piano lessons were stopped.  

As I stated in an earlier blog…our piano teacher was also my mother’s voice instructor…a little white woman who used to pay a couple of visits per week to our home…Mrs. Marlow.   She was a very nice lady…and she knew her stuff.   We were fortunate to have her.   And that she didn’t mind coming to the home of black folks…though we lived well.  At that time my parents had bought their 2nd house.  This house had 15 rooms not including its full basement…and the house sat upon a hill overlooking the waterfront…with a long driveway leading in to our house.

I liked the house…but not as much as our other house.   But it was grand…and it was spacious…but it was far more for us to clean…and especially for me…being the oldest. 

Oh, man…the living room had windows all the way around so you could look across at the water no matter whether you stood or sat.  And it had a very big fireplace…where we used to roast marshmellows…as though we were at camp.   It was fun.  And that house also had a raspberry tree growing in front of it, with a big lawn and all these beautiful trees with branchs swirling within it that yielded beautiful blossoms in the spring and summer.  

I liked it…but it was a lot of work that house…and none of my sisters or brothers had to do more of it than me.  I never held that against my parents though.  But I did against my sisters and brothers though.  They could never just drink from ‘one’ cup…or ‘one’ glass…I was washing dishes all day and night long.  I truly know how Cinderella felt.

My parents were hard working people…who always did things for other people…and were always doing  for us.    Their lives centered around us.  Which is why I regret never appreciating them as much as I should have. 

I appreciated them…in that I never once caused them any problems…(well…except for the time I thought I could drive…I will tell you about that in some other blog, I am sure).  I can’t say I may not have been a heartache…because I am sure that my being gay was not something hard for them to deal with…though they never once spoke about it.  I am sure they would be surprised that I am no longer in gay life.   But perhaps they had already known that at some point God was going to change my mind and my heart. 

But I never gave them as much as I should have.  Though they gave us the world…and everything else.  There was nothing new that came out that they didn’t buy…from dishwashers on.   As we became of age they bought us all cars.  And we were always going on trips. 

We went to the World Fair…

Do you remember that?  

It was here in the states…in New York City that year.  Now, only the big globe of the world remains at that site as a reminder of that very huge event.  The location today is where they play the US Open.  

But we were going to this place and that place…by train mostly when we were smaller…as we grew and learned to drive…mostly by car…and on by plane.  They took us everywhere…and everything was a family thing. 

I guess they lived the life that people who work…live for.  To be able to buy whatever they wanted…when they wanted it…and to do as they wanted.  And then…to be able to educate and provide for their children…which they certainly did.   And they did it well…as well as, for their god children, neighborhood kids, church people…and those in need. 

My parents had 8 of us…and spared nothing…including correcting us when it was called for. 

Today, I think my mother would be proud to know that her $300 investment in me…really didn’t quite go wasted.   As I later taught art in high school…which is so funny that should have happened…but it did.  But I don’t think my mother saw any humor in my wasting her $300 the way I did…because I didn’t even try to pretend to do any of those lessons from that home art school once I got pass the 1st lesson. 

One day…I think I was asking her for something else and she flared up at me suddenly saying-

“You are too talented and that is why you will never do nothing.”

Which was the tail end of whatever else she had said…I cannot remember the first part of it.  But she was mad when she said it.  And I was quite young…but somehow that always stuck with me.  I don’t know if I quite understood what she meant…but I had somewhat of a clue.  That statement has made me look at everything I have ever done…or thought to do…and it governs the things I am now doing. 

Everything I have ever done is in media.  From that day…when my mother told me …‘that is why you will never do nothing’…I have sought to not  half learn anything…or half do anything…but to become proficient in everything I lay my hands to…no matter how long it takes me…or how many hours in a day or night.  But if I set out to do it…then to stick with it. 

I had to learn how spend the time learning to perfect things.  To not get up from anything that I am doing…becoming readily interested in other things…other gifts…practicing something else. 

I do not eat or drink when I am working on something.   Nor do I take lunch breaks…or go to the bathroom…nothing.  I am throughly engulfed. 

Someone, an ex-,  told me that I have tunnel vision.  Meaning whatever it is, at that point or moment of my life, that I decide that I am going to do…I become so emerged and engrossed in it.  So much so…that I only see it…think about it…and in some cases dream about it.   I eat…sleep…and drink thinking about only what I am doing…when I am working on something.  When I had my advertising business…which I still do…there have been many nights when a client’s project concept came to me in my sleep.

A wise elderly woman…my friend who passed this pass August…whom I have wrote about in a couple of these blogs…she told me that my habit of not eating or going to bathroom from morning into the very late hours of the evening was not a good thing.   She told me that I would ruin my stomach…if I continued that practice.  So, I have since been working on adjusting myself…my schedule and my body.  I would hate to cause myself any medical conditions that I could have avoided.  I had always found her wise in her counsel to me.

Yes, I was too talented…like my mother said.  I could do a lot of things…and still can.  And there is a trap to being able to do so.  Most people are good at just one thing.  So, they focus on that one thing.   But to be multi-talented or gifted…you have to struggle with balancing your gifts. 

I had to learn to direct all those gifts…or I would have become a ‘jack of all trades…and a master of none.’   

My mother saw that…and that is what caused her to flare up at me telling me what she did that day…and how she told it to me.   From that moment I began to focus upon everything I do…like these blogs which to date I have written nearly if not more…than a 130 of them since starting in mid to late June of last year.   So, if you have just started reading them…you have alot of catching up to do.  And you will have an exam in the morning…

I have always had to direct everything…just so I wouldn’t be all over the place.  Though I do not think I have quite been so successful at doing that…I have endeavored nonetheless.  But the most I can say…is that it has all been media related.  But thank God for my mother saying that to me…and at a time when I needed to hear it…or I would have never been aware of something that was so crucial for me to grasp…and to have graspped it early.

It did not prohibit me from being more or less talented.  But made me aware that I needed to channel those talents and not be flighty with them…but to engage them…focus them…and develop them to their highest levels.  So, through my years that is what I have been doing.  And from time to time…I find myself taking classes here or there…just like my mother.  

That is so funny…when I think of.  That I continue to take classes just like my mother…which is also something that I wrote about….in a blog or 2 prior to this one. 

So, a few years ago, I decided to take some graphic art classes.  The marketplace has changed so vastly with the influx of computers and software…everything is done totally differently today no matter what field you are in.  So, I began taking these classes…and when I take classes I invest many after hours outside of the class to master the thing. 

I do nothing without mastering it…and I invest the time to do exactly that…and the effort.  Which when I decided to learn video production… it required me lugging around tons of heavy and very bulky equipment.   It was not uncoummon to find me shouldering a 3/4″ video recorder deck, tripod, large light kit and large video camera trying to board a bus.  And people wonder why I have muscles now…(smile).   And I learned all that equipment…every piece of it…every cable connector…every cable…every kind of editing system, software etc…everything.

It was a joke then…people would see me coming and say-

“Here comes Spike Lee’s sister.”

They don’t laugh any more though.  No, not today…instead they ask about my film projects and what I’m getting ready to do next.  I am no longer a joke…but it did not come without struggle.  Hours upon hours of vested  time, training, exploring…learning what I was doing wrong and trying to trouble shoot on my own…and sitting there until I got it done.  Never looking for pay…but always looking to assist others so that I could learn more and sharpen my own skills.  But I did what it took…and I still do. 

Sometimes even in writing these blogs…I work on them straight for more than 6 or 10 hours…if not more…and it is usually more dependng upon what I am writing about…including searching for pictures…seeking out errors etc.  

A professional is what I am…but a perfectionist is what I seek to be.  

So, to date the classes I have taken in graphic arts are these…Photoshop, Quark and  Illustrator…and additional software I have learned is FinalCut, Adobe Primere, Director, Flash,  Dreamweaver, Avid,  Fireworks…not to mention being able to write and read html…and having learned also all the latest stuff in radio studios.  Though I played a bit  with Freehand and at some point will try my hand at InDesign.  I love playing with this stuff…exploring the capabilities.

So, I am proud of myself  for having gotten up early this morning and gotten off to an early start with my cleaning.  I am proud that the website is coming along too.  And here is a preview , at the bottom of this blog, of something which I did this past week using the skills I have learned in graphic arts.  Those Pratt students can eat their hearts out now.   But those kids taught me a lot though…when they used to come for our conferences to discuss what my clients wanted.

Thank God for my mother and father…which is why I cannot understand that girl in Florida who killed her daughter and posted drawings of skeltons and other things symbolizing her acts.  Clearly, she was troubled.  But a guilty conscience will trouble you everytime.

There is something about mothers…real mothers…that when their child is missing nothing in this world can contain them.  They act in a certain way…they become obssessed…and there is no consoling them.  They are overtaken by grief and concern…and they are not interested in anybody or anything other than finding their child.

Once my son got separated from me.  You will not know the sheer horror that ran all through me during that very brief span of time…but it seemed to me to be enternity.  I was terribly horrorified.  I was overcome and on verge of perhaps loosing my mind.  I had lost my child in a large crowd of people at an outdoor affair which was quite crowded.  One second he was right there with me and the next he was gone. 

I felt someone had stolen him.  And that was all I could think.  I did not know which way to turn.  People were all about me.  I thought to scream out…but suddenly I looked up and across the field.  It was as though a  path had opened up…and there was my son.  One of  our neighbors had found him somewhere in the midst of all those people…and was bringing him back to me.  

I dropped to my knees and embraced my son so hard…I know I must have been crying.   I was so relieved…so happy…so overjoyed that someone had found him…and that it was one of our neighbors.  I never experienced another moment like that…as I learned like every good mother who loves her child or children…how to keep my eyes or hands on my child at all times. 

So, I certainly know the state that a real mother can fall into just believing her child is gone.  She begins grieving immediately…because she will only think of the worst scenario.

That is what I thought about the Susan Smith case.  The mother down in South Carolina…or somewhere south…that said that some black man had leaped into her car while she was stopped at a stop light.  She said that he had stolen her car and drove off with her 2 small children in the back seat.  I do not think that many people had to think twice about that story…but it was her actions following the supposed incident which gave her away.  And likewise…were the actions of this young woman in Florida.  She was out partying and having a good time.  

http://news.aol.com/article/caylee-anthony-documents/373178

When I thought of this young woman’s actions following the supposed disappearance of her 2 year old daughter…it made me think of that teenager who was at the prom and gave birth to her baby in a bathroom stall.  And how she had walked off and left the bady there in that stall.  She had returned to prom dance floor…and continued to dance and enjoy herself as if nothing had happened.  For which she only got 2 years…or something…might have been counselling.

I understand denial.  I understand that mothership may be difficult for many.  But what I do not understand is when someone…a mother…or who be it…commits such acts as these young women against innocence.  I cannot understand it.   I just can’t…I just can’t…   There are so many other options.

Parenting is a process…but some people they are just not equipped or mature enough to handle the responsibilities that it brings.  This is the reason…that I know that young kids should never be bearing children.  Everybody deserves to enjoy their youth…and have a time to grow up before taking on the task of motherhood and fatherhood way beyond the grade school level…and many times even beyond college.  I was 48 years old before I realized that I had become a woman…and that I needed to grow up and start acting like one.  Truthfully.

Not  to say…that I did not mother my child.  Oh, no…  I was at doctor’s appointment, dentist appointment…sitting in the back of  of my son’s classes when I had to…at every open house almost…and when I wasn’t my mother was.  You have to stay on top of your children (just a frame of speech…not literally)…and certainly not in a bad way.  But you have be conscious of them…what they are doing…who they are with…caring of them…and for them.   And you should never feel that they are an inconvenience to you…and certainly never give them to feel that.  

Therein lays the problem for the 3 young women whom I mentioned above.  They felt that they could just rid themselves of their unwanted burdens by doing away with them.  How sad for their children.  How very very very sad……..  Sad.

I was checking through my blogs today…I watch to see what people are reading and who has linked up with me etc…  I came upon this link in which the blogger found fault with a person who was standing in a soup kitchen line…and that person having a cell phone.  The blogger felt outraged because the person was supposed to be down and out…yet he had a cell phone.

I found that to be as selfish…as a time I was waiting in the grocery checkout line.  I never pay attention to what other people are buying…but this person near me…I believe she was just ahead of me but after the person who was checking out.  I overheard her saying-

“Did you see that?  She’s buying shrimps with foodstamps.  And do you see her pocketbook?  Honestly, buying shrimps on our money.”

Overhearing that, my curiosity was pricked…so I leaned a bit and saw that the woman had a Louis Vuitton handbag…a very nice and big one…and very nice expensive coat.  These are things I also never pay attention to.  What do I care about what people have on…as long as they have on clothes…or what type of pocketbook or handbag they have?  

It doesn’t make a difference to me.  

But I thought it a bit aburd of that the woman making the comment…that she was upset about the shrimps being purchased with the government supplied foodstamps.

Now, how stupid is that?

Even if she had gotten upset over the woman’s handbag…that would have been stupid too.

But she got upset…as if  poor people can’t…or should not be allowed to eat shrimp.  And that is not to say that that woman was poor…as none of us standing in that line knew her circumstances.  But to question what people can or cannot eat depending upon what is or is not our preceived notion of them and as to their place or circumstances in life is absolutely foolish. 

Why should that woman in that line…or anyone else in that line…or the whole store, for that matter…care whether or not that woman paid for those shrimps with her foodstamps?

Or whether or not she should eat shrimps or not?

She can eat whatever she wants.  And she had legal tender by which to purchase it.

Perhaps, it is just me.   Maybe, I’m the one obssessing.   Could be…

But I think that some people concern themselves with so many things that really…that they have no right to be thinking about.  As it is simply not their concern…or any of their business…nor their place to assess who can eat or cannot eat whatever. 

Just how dumb is that? 

But that is how I felt about that blog about a supposed poor person standing in a soup kitchen line taking a picture with his cell phone.   And here is that picture…

Yeah, he was standing in a line that Michelle Obama, First Lady Obama, was assisting in at a shelter kitchen feeding needy people in Washington, DC…which I believe she does every Friday.  I imagine a bunch of people were taking her picture including the camera crew that got these shots.  If I was there…I would have taken her picture.  And then asked her-

“Can we get one together?”

And whoever wrote that blog probably would have done the same thing. 

How many times do you come face to face with the President of the United States…or his wife?

“Better start snapping, baby.”

But why should anyone feel that other people…black… checkered….green…poor… or otherwise are not entitled to have certain things?

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/03/05/at_miriams_kitchen_michelle_ob.html

That really seems stupid and quite selfish to me…and certanly demeaning.

It is the way I feel when I hear someone say-

“Well, if they couldn’t afford the mortgage they shouldn’t have bought the house.”

 And I have heard this more than a few times…particularly following the last bailout of the banks on Wall Street. 

Did not your parents struggle?

Don\’t we all struggle to pay off stuff?

Most people do.  And they are not wrong to do it.

I believe that everyone wishes they had the money to buy and pay for everything that they want…when they want it…or need it.  But that is not how life is. 

The unfortunate thing about it…is that no one knows what tomorrow will bring.  And we are all looking towards tomorrow. 

When I looked upon house after house..and business after business boarded up in Detroit…I know that those people had been looking towards tomorrow.  But none of them realized that when tomorrow came it would mean that jobs would be cut back.  They did not see that the company they worked for…that their father and grand father had worked before them…that they would be downsizing or laying them off.  Or as they call it now…’re-organizing.’

Who thinks like that? 

 The wrong does not lay with them…most of the people who find themselves in foreclosure…it lays with the mortgage companies which preyed upon people with over inflated interest rates…red lining, offering higher rates to certain people…higher closing costs…a bunch of double talk and small print…with high late payment penalties…and absorbent legal costs which they love attaching to their costs.

I don’t know if any of you have ever had anything repossessed.  But once they repossess your vehicle or house or whatever…the company then comes back at you to extract the money even though they repossessed and sold off whatever it was…and they leave it sitting on your credit reports for years upon years hindering you from getting anything else.   This clearly is double dipping…and these companies…none of them should be allowed to do that. 

Once they have repossess the object…and they have sold it off that should settle the debt.  But no…they come back after you.  And not for the debt minus whatever they got for it…but the entire debt plus all other costs. 

A friend of mine who worked for Greyhound buslines once told me how she had been sold a faulty vehicle.  She said it was a real lemon from the day she pulled it off the dealer lot.  So, she returned the vehicle several times to the dealership who in turn never did anything fix the problem. 

Finally, she became tired of trying to deal with the auto dealer…and just returned back to the car to the dealership where she had bought it.  She said that she drove right up on the lot in the middle of the day and left it there.   She stopped making payments on it…telling them as she left the lot that they could keep their car. 

Years later, however, she noticed that her pay was being garnished…it was the dealership.  They had kept the car but now they were forcing her company to withdraw payments from her pay check in order to pay them for a car which she had given back to them.  And at this point…she just folded her hands and gave up.  She let the company take her money…because she felt that it was a hopeless situation.  

There is something seriously wrong with the system that allows companies to use these kind of tricks to get over on and rob people.  Companies like that dealership abuse…exploit and use the system…to their benefit…a company that knowingly sold her automobile which was not in sound operating condition…and they knew it.

I had asked her if she hadn’t gotten the notice to go to court?   And she told me that she had not.  Without going into court to defend yourself…as I have stated in another blog…the other side wins automatically.  If summoned to go to court…go.  It is scary…yes, but go.

The most that can happen is that the judge won’t decide in your favor. 

There is always a case that you may not receive the  summon…if they have it sent to another address.   These are games that people play.   It is the game that CitiMortgage played against my parent’s property.   But they had not counted on the fact that I knew…by the grace of God…to go into court and file my own complaint against them…to stop the auction…and have since gotten that mortgage nullified and made void.  And believe me when I said…by the shear grace and mercy of God.  That is how it was done.

In closing let me just say…

“Stay away from bad deals.”

If you are interested in something…or getting ready to sign a contract for the purchase of  something and that contract is not in your favor…do not sign it.  Do not go into a deal…or debt…in any type of an agreement in which you are not at least a partial winner.  Or at the very least…where the pain is not so great. 

Sometime, we have all had to swallow a little pain…until we can fix things…like our credit.  But yet beware of the sharks…stay away from them.

In the claim I had to file against CitiMortgage…they claimed that my father had taken a loan against the house for some $27,000 at a 16.20%  interest rate.  This total agreement netted CitiMortgage over $60,000 in interest money…making the total contract for over $97,000 worth of debt against my parent’s house. 

My father would have never made an agreement like that.  And the other part of it is…he wasn’t much of a borrower.  Didn’t have any charge cards or anything like that…because he earned money to pay for what he wanted.  And that is what he did.

Nobody in there right mind would have signed a deal like that.  The company was making 3 times as such as it was giving out…that is robbery no matter how bad your credit may or may not be.  And my father did not have bad credit.  

I knew that document was a forgery even before I saw the signature upon.  So, I took the case to court…claiming that they had preyed upon my father, if indeed he had signed it.  At the time that contract was supposedly sign my father had been diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s which would have rendered him as being legally incompetent to enter any type of legal or binding agreement.  Plus my father had several bank accounts and definitely had at least one which had more money than that in it.   So, I sued…of which I wrote about in a prior blog also.

I continue to pray for you and whatever situation or condition you are facing.  Be encouraged.   And stay away from bad deals.

Well, my little siesta is over…it is time for me to go back to work.   Actually, it ended hours ago.  

I have to finish scrubbing down the bathroom.  And I am getting a bit hungry now too.   But enjoy your weekend.  

I just finished looking out and it looks like snow…again.  But it is warm on the inside.  Though it might be that I am running a slight fever.  Been fighting off a dry cough for the past few days…but I am winning.  Well…some times…I think.

Maybe, I will just finish the bathroom…take a shower and crawl back into bed…and forget about mopping the floors tonight.  It’s late now.

Well…God bless…

Oh…yes, here is a taste of what the website will look like.  Now, you tell me whether or not if  you think some of those classes that I have taken are starting to pay off? 

Thank goodness for a mother who was not afraid to speak truth into the life of her child.

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  ©2009

4 comments March 8, 2009

BAILOUT….the ‘Big 3’…America’s Automobile Companies…Obama & Bush… Gulf War Syndrome

 Gulf War Syndrome

For some time the US government has failed to accept responsibility for having placed US Troops in harms way.  Part of the problem is that this country has boldly and somewhat routinely experimented on unsuspecting US citizens without consideration to them, their quality of life, or the effects such experimentation would have on their families.  And many times this experimentation has been on those serving in our own military…as well as, on some minorities in this country. 

Chemical warfare is real and this country engages in it as much as any other. 

During the Gulf War the US forces released certain chemicals without regard to our own troops.  This was something which occurred also during Vietnam and various other periods in the history of this country.  Very rarely has the US government ever accepted any culpability for these actions.  But finally, after numerous charges and group action suits brought on behalf of the Vietnam Vets against the US government the government finally owned up to having dropped Agent Orange during the Vietnam war which left thousands of American service men and women with all types of health issues and irregularities, e.g. various respiration problems, children with birth defects, increased incidences down syndrome, body rashes etc.

Now, after hundreds of thousands of complaints the Gulf War viets will finally find some relief after their long battle against America’s denial that they too have been injured and are suffering various ailments due our countries non-caring attitude when it comes to her own people…and particular to those serving in uniform trying to protect this country…our own troops.  Who have found that their own country was more deadly to them than those they were sent to fight.  It is called the ‘danger from within.’  The one which they certainly should not have suspected…nor did. 

But while our troops were busy down in the Gulf under the orders of the first George Bush…he had the military dropping a bunch of dirty little bombs filled with all kinds of chemical warfare.  And never whispered a word of it to our own troops…after which thousands upon thousands on this side of the battle became contaminated…and for have been suffering the paining affects of…all to the denial of this country until just recently.

It is sad to say but Sadom Hussein wasn’t the only person who ever hurt his own people.  And for a country who is the only country to have ever dropped an atomic bomb…this country not only has much to apologize for to other countries…but also to those living right here in America as well.

Last week Tuesday was Veterans Day.  Every so often we really do need to stop and consider them and their service to this country.  Without them where would this country be?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081117/ts_nm/us_usa_health_gulfwar

WELCOME TO MY HOME….

I had to chuckle when I read the article below. 

It is about body language.  It says that Obama and Bush may not have taken questions from the press but their body language spoke volumes.  You have got to read the article…I think you will enjoy it too. Just CLICK on the LINK below to read it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20081111/pl_ynews/ynews_pl148;_ylt=ApgRill4SpzF1QfaMXlCDbQGw_IE

OBAMA and MCCAIN meeting…

The one thing you have got to say about Barack Obama…and that is that he is no fool.  And he is not afraid to extend a hand and seek…to solicit the aid the help he feels he will need to help him to put this country back on track. 

He is a person who doesn’t think party when he is looking for the best people or when seeking the allies he knows he will need to assist in getting things through Congress and the Senate when he finally takes over the White House.  Even though the Democratics made significant gains in both the Senate and Congress during this past election…I agree with Obama.  It still doesn’t hurt to have friends on both side of the aisles.

It is just unfortunate that more politicians fail to share his perspective.

THE BIG 3…give them what they need.

This whole thing about bailing out the ‘Big 3’….GM, Ford and Chrysler reeks of partisanship if ever I have heard of it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081117/ts_afp/usautoeconomypolitics

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,24668402-31037,00.html

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,24668402-36418,00.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/business/19auto.html?_r=1&hp

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22887392#22887392

When you examine the map of this country you will find that the states whom the failure to bailout the big 3 will impact the most are those states which were ‘red’ and that turned ‘blue’ during this past Presidential Election 2 Thursdays ago.  If you want to talk about sour grapes and cry ‘foul’…now is the time. 

When those Republicans rushed back to Capital Hill to bail out Wall Street a few weeks ago…it was in the hopes of trying to save a sinking ship called the “Republican Party.”   It failed because…well, because John McCain did not win the Presidential race and a lot of their buddies and friends…and even some of them got voted out of office.  Now, as their last official act…that bunch of stub nosed politicians are targeting everyday people…who dared to go to the polls and voted them out.   And really…if the truth be known….they absolutely should have voted them out.

Had it not been for the Republican domination of the US Senate and Congress for nearly the past 8 years the Bush Administration may not have gotten away with as much…and we just might not be in the dire straights that this country is now in.

But why should that bunch of sour grape Republicans be upset?

They wholly deserved to be voted out of office because they failed to properly execute their positions properly.  Nobody voted them into office to ‘okay’ a bunch of failed Bush policies.  Then as a ‘new day’ came upon the horizon they all realized that they were in deep trouble…as well as they should have been for failure to represent their constituents.  But they were busy serving themselves, vying for higher and higher positions, and seeking ranking offices in their party rather than caring for what their voters had sent them to Capitol Hill to do.

So, Wall Street hit the wall and began to crumble a few weeks ago and they all went running in to Captiol Hill like a bunch of wild animals pretending that they hadn’t a clue…hadn’t expected it…didn’t know what to do…but knew that ‘no matter what Wall Street had to be bailed out.’   Now, those same nice little gentlemen with their righteous indignation say-

“Why should we bailout General Motors…or Chrysler…or the Ford Automobile Companies?”

I’ll tell you why…because it has nothing to do with one Corporate executive but everything to do with millions of soon to be displaced and out of work Americans who have depended on those companies to provide them with a living.  They are taxpayers…homeowners…and they deserve the same consideration and sense of emergency afforded to Wall Street.

How could we dare to be so jaded that we would dare to turn our backs on the workers upon which this country runs?

The blow to those people living in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio loosing any more jobs will be a shot heard around this country.  This country cannot afford to turn her back on these hard working people. 

I will not forget visting Detroit this past summer and seeing first hand every other house boarded up and every other business closed.  It is something that you will really have to see for yourself in order to understand just how extreme this thing was…and I do mean every other.  This was not a fantasy and I was amazed looking out at it street after street…main streets and side streets…all alike.  It is the reality that these hard working everyday people live in…many of them having already seen their neighbors loose everything due the downsizing and the shutting down of many automobile factories across this country as well as in Detroit, Indiana and Ohio.

And what industry was the one that has opened up in Detroit?

Casinos. 

Even GM has one which bares its logo very largely on the building.

For some reason every state and every politician believes that the cure all for the economy is to give people any kind of job…by the way of casinos.  They look at casinos as the new trend for job creation.  But somebody has to walk into those casinos and take some risk.  And usually it is those faced with what they believe is the last resort to saving their house or business.  Those who should least do it…but feel trapped and that there are no other options for them in oder to hold on to what they already have.

So, they go into the casino which has opened up while their jobs vanished…and they bet everything.  They bet it all.  And they end up loosing it all.  They gambled it all away.

Sooner rather than later, they found themselves without a job, had gambled away their severance pay…and then have no money left to even try to meet the debt on their homes or businesses which they had gone into the casino with the hopes of trying to save in the first place.  They are now in a worst state than they started in.

In Detroit many of factory jobs are gone…and yet that city has 2 very large brand new casinos…and a third, if you consider the casino across the waters from them in nearby Canada.  I had never been in Detroit before but I was amazed by all the houses that were boarded up and all the boarded up businesses…unbelieveably so.  In fact, between every boarded up house stood a house which wasn’t…and those people represented those who still had a job at GM.  And soon if something isn’t done for the ‘Big 3’ those people too will be out in the cold, and their houses will be boarded up as well…and other businesses will go under along with them.

That group of angry gentlemen Washington, DC…those Republicans seeking to pay back Americans for voting them out of office for their lousy job at co-governing this country and as the supposed ‘check & balances’ of this country.  They sincerely need to step back and take a deep breath to consider the millions of people who will suffer if they fail to vote in favor of bailouting the ‘Big 3.’   And it will hurt and it will reel some dire consequences upon us all if they don’t. 

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/19/news/companies/gm_failure_consumers/index.htm

But of course, such things really don’t matter to them…they live in other states and will soon be back home fishing or flying off to some remote island to retreat.

I think that there is just too little love of neighbor these days.   No one cares about anyone else anymore.  The populous is beginning to become just like the bunch of selfish and self-serving politicians.  Whom many of us are starting to emulate in every possible way…and look just like them too. 

Recently in one of my history classes we hit upon this subject…of how during the building of the EU (the European Union) many of the opinions about what is wrong or right with the EU are shaped by those in charge of media and in power.  Don’t let these same groups shape you or your opinions of others…or what is or isn’t right.

There was once a time that neighbors looked out for one another.  But those days are sadly long gone.  And it really is too bad.

Oh, yes…before I end this blog. 

Let me just say…that the automobile industry started in this country.  It is as American as apple pie.  It is a part of Americana…because other countries have entered the marketplace does not mean that we should forfeit an industry that belongs to country to foreign interests.  This is how we got into the mess we are in today with the foreign oil countries.  We forfeited that industry too.  We found it easier to buy from other countries than to continue to build upon our own reserves and resources.  And look at the state we are in because of it.   

There is no question that the American automobile companies should be bailed out.  There is no question that the automobile industry in this country would be suffering…who is buying anything these days?

Who can afford to?

We are all suffering from this current climate of failed economic management.  But is that any reason to desert our own people and an industry which this country single handedly created.

If the airlines and Wall Street have been bailed out…the auto industry certainly should be too.  To thousands from New Jersey and thousands in other states around this country upon whom there will be a great impact in lost of jobs, there can be no other answer.  But ‘bailout.’ 

Not to mention the lost that every US citizen themselves will suffer.  Heaven forbid that every American citizen should have to turn to foreign imports only as possible vihicle purchases whenever we decide we want to buy a car or SUV.  And that the only selection we will have is a foreign vehicle.  If this happens…this country will really be in big trouble.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080827/AUTO01/808270408

For an industry which has done over $70 billion worth of business in this country, with millions of car owners on the roadway today who all would stand to loose big, not even including the police departments and large companies who are invested in U.S. autos…if these companies were forced out of business by not being able to service, get parts or have any recourse when problems arose with their vehicles imagine the problems.  This would be a very great problem for tons of us.  And it is certainly something to be considered.

BAILOUT the BIG 3.

Well, have a beautiful day…and thank you, as always, for reading.

In memorial of Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham…I take this time to thank her for all of her dedication and love that she showed to our President.  And the aid that she gave him in becoming the person whom he is.  We applaud you and celebrate you…along with Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm, Fanny Lou Hamer, Harriette Tubman, Mary McLeod Bethune and many numerous other women for whom we owe much…and upon who’s shoulders we certainly now stand. 

Thank you Lord God for them.

 God bless…and thanks for reading ©2008

Loving You – Minnie Ripperton

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-obama-grandmother-madelyn-dunham,0,2249369.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/

…pass it on…’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com

1 comment November 19, 2008

WHAT? John Edwards too????

I had gone into a local Jamacian restaurant to get my son something to eat when I first heard the story.  I was shocked and cried out aloud-

“Oh, no!  Not John Edwards too?”

Not squeaky clean John Edwards…a man who could have told me anything and I would have believed it.  The man I would have perfered to run for President over John Kerry in 2004.  The man that I was holding out and hoping that Barack Obama would name as his Vice Presidential running mate.  The man that I watched stand along side his wife as she went through her bout with cancer.

Yes, that John Edwards…the Senator from North Carolina…who had thrown his hat into the Presidential ring again for the second time this year…only to be forced out by Obama and Hillary.  The one… and I don’t know about you…but I thought he could do no wrong.

And now I find out…him too.

Ex-New York Govenor Eliot Spitzer,  Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Chatholic Priests, Detroit’s Mayor…Kwame Kilpatrick,  Bill Cosby, Racist Senator Storm Thurmond who fathered a child with a young…very young black woman who was only 15 at the time, Ex-Louisiana Senator David Vitter with his DC madames,  Dr. Jay…Julius Erving, Rudy Giuliani, George Bush who had had 2 mistresses…one which accused him of rape who later mysteriously committed suicide, New Jersey’s Ex-Govenor Jim McGreevey, Larry Craig and that whole men’s bathroom foot thang…and the list goes on and on…

I guess he met this woman, Rielle Hunter, who was an actress turned a videographer who was hired to follow him around some time during his last run for the White House, where he ended up being John Kerry’s running mate.  During the time of this affair Edwards fathered a child with the woman.  And though there had been some talk about him having had an affair, Edwards continually lied and called the claims false…like a true politican. 

And I thought he was better than that.

CLICK ARTICLES BELOW for more on the story.

http://www.cnn.com/?refresh=1

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/08/edwards_admits_to_affair.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_affair

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/08/allow_bret_easton_ellis_to_int.html

Men cheat on their wives with other women who can’t shake a stick to what they already have at home.

So, then why do they do it? 

The affair between Edwards and what’s her name…happened sometime, I guess, while he was running for President the first time. Though, however, that woman was brought onto his staff with a 6 figure salary, $100,000…money like that one hundred thousand dollars just to shoot behind the scene video footage of him?  Being able to command that type of salary might suggest that he knew her before she picked up the camera and began shooting.

Having that in his closet…one has to wonder what prompted Edwards to dare even think about running for the White House a second time…knowing that he had just fathered a child with some woman other than his wife.  And this mind you while pretending to be all supporting and caring of his ailing wife, Elizabeth…whom I have always thought seemed to be terribly nice…and a great mother with her children.

All to the discredit of John Edwards…and to the pain of his wife who was and is already suffering…still battling cancer…topped off with that of their own children who will also have to endure this scandal.

I would really have to believe that so much better looking woman have tried to enticed them other than just the ones these men have ultimately crawled into bed with…and I’m not talking about men like Larry Craig or Jim McGreevy because their stories are a whole other set of issues.

I have been in the presence of men who have discussed with me after their wives have died how they wished they had been better husbands…hadn’t cheated…etc…etc…

It is ashamed that she couldn’t hear that…I have thought when hearing this.  And I have no idea…as to why it is…men would share this with me.  But they have.

And I have known a different man…and I have shared some things about him…a bit about my time in Chicago…it was in my blog about Minnie Ripperton.

Dr. A. L. Reynolds, Jr. was a man who loved his wife.  I became his secretary…I don’t know how many years after her death…as I had never met her or even seen a picture of  her.  But one morning he can into the office and said to me-

“Today is my wife’s birthday.”

And I said back to him-

“I bet you couldn’t remember that when she was alive.”

I think back now…and realize that that was rather cruel of me.  But I was young…and I wasn’t trying to be rude.  It was the extent of my quick wit…I just didn’t have any…then or now.

But he loved his wife, Dr. Reynolds did.  Even though women would try to entice him…and even though she had already passed some years ago…he loved her.   Her only…and there could or would be no other.  As it tickled him…women trying to get his attention.   There was a little old church mother whom he had pointed out to me…telling me she was an admirer.  But he had lots of those…if you were the type of man he was…you would understand why.

And I admired him for that…because he felt that passionate about her…long after she was gone…and I am sure all the while he was married to her.

He oftentimes shared stories about her with me.  This I imagine kept her very much alive for him.

Yes, he was a man who had loved his wife greatly…and I imagine…she him…based upon his stories to me.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4424507

Here is a story that really makes you sick to your stomach.  CLICK BELOW to read it.  It is on the UN Peacekeepers…just in case you thought it was about something gory.  And to a degree it is.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/081zxelz.asp

It seems the world is going to the dogs. 

Is there no one who can be trusted?

It is a very sad commentary on just how far we have fallen…and are falling.

Kwame, the ex-Mayor of Detroit, and his girl…

 Well, I will be busy tomorrow…plan to open up my business.  Finally got everything I need but a few bags of ice.  Today I purchased the bread, charcoal, lighter fluid and a few other things.

I have to get up early as I plan to call into a local radio station and start to get the word out.  Then I am going to very quickly paint up my signs…which I should have done already.  But it has been very wet lately…a lot of rain.  Might even do that night…in fact I will.  And hopefully it will dry over night.

Got to make the barbeque sauce tonight too…planning on having very hot and a mild sauce.

I’ve got to unfreeze that meat too tonight.  I’m glad I’m thinking of all of this now.  And I need to freeze up some more ice.

I’ve got a lot to do.

Let me see…what else do I have to do.  Was going to do some baking.  Thought it might be nice to have something sweet on the table…but then I ran out of money.   Couldn’t get the eggs…but bought everything else…well, almost. 

Because I thought about making bread pudding…my father used to make the best.  And I have a taste for it…so, I guess I am really going to make it more for me than anyone else.  But you know…sometimes you just have taste for something. 

So, I bought everything but enough bread for which I could bake with.  I bought bread…but for the hundred of so sandwiches which I intend to sell.  But not enough to bake a couple of pans or even one pan of bread pudding.  And I can’t afford to mess with any of the bread I brought for the sandwiches…because the real money is in the sandwiches.

So, I’ll just have to put those things away until I can afford to buy some more bread and the eggs too…but I do have the raisins, sugar, milk etc…etc…

So, yes…tomorrow…tomorrow…here I come.       God bless… and enjoy your weekend. ©2008

Add a comment August 9, 2008

Detroit, Chicago, Abortion, Choice, hotels…

Well, it is 8 something in the morning and we’ve just gotten back into town. After Detroit we drove on into Chicago and stayed at the most fabulous hotel. But we drove and drove until 5 a.m in the morning trying to find a hotel outside of Chicago…because Chicago hotels are just too expensive…any hotel really inside a reasonble distance of a major city is. So, we really had to hunt for some place…and it got later and later and later. And after a while we were just pretty much burning gas.

But we continued looking. We drove and drove…all the way back into Indiana (which isn’t that very far, but seems endlessly long in the wee hours of the morn when you are very sleepy). We pulled in anywhere we saw a hotel sign. And there were times when we wished we had not even bothered as trying to get to some of them was just so convoluted with barren and long darken dangerous looking passageways.

Bates Motel…

The first hotel we pulled up to did have rooms but it just didn’t look clean and the cost was high. But it was the look that cancelled it out for me. Who wants to stay in a hotel room where you will be itching and scratching all night because you loathe the place?

And having just heard a news item over the radio about the number of hotels which have bed bugs…really didn’t help.

So, we continued our search for a nice clean hotel at a decent price.  After that first hotel everything was booked solid.

Well, it was Friday night…so, what really could you expect?  On weekends hotels load up like crazy. After hitting at least 10 hotels..and not a room in the bunch was available except for that dump where we had first stopped at and some other dump shortly after that…and they even wanted more money than the first dump…so, we were getting pretty flustered. 

Finally, I decided to drive out to O’Hare Airport knowing that we would be able to have our pick of hotels out there. And the first hotel we drove up to was this large grand looking hotel, Marriott Executive Suites Hotel, that I just knew we were not going to be able to afford…but I decided we would try it anyways.

It just goes to show what God has for you no man can put assunder.

At the lowest price offer of the night, under $100, and an extended check out time because we were checking in so late…we ended up in one of the most fabulous hotel rooms I have ever stayed in or seen or knew that they had. First of all you would really have to see it to believe it. But I will try my best to describe it to you.

This hotel room was like walking into someone’s very expensive one bedroom apartment on the lower East or Upper West side of New York City or something. It had 2 televisions, 3 rooms, 2 glass doors leading to the bedroom section, a separate room for the closet which had French doors, combined with 2 sinks and a long mirror in it.  The bathroom had a tub and a shower area separate of each other, and it was quite large with a beautiful Italian Marble floor.  The bathroom all by itself was huge and gorgeous.  I just kept staring at the bathroom floor wondering how much would it cost for me to have my partent’s bathroom done like that.  I loved it.  

In the bedroom were 2 large very very comfortable beds with the crispiest sheets and a view of the planes flying in and out of O’Hare Airport…which you could lay on the bed and just watch through a big floor to ceiling length window that ran the whole width of the bedroom. And this hotel room, our room, was a corner room…so, imagine the views.  Fantastic.

In what would have been the living room area of an apartment, there was a beautiful sleeper couch, coffee table, 2 arm chairs, and a large desk…which still had enough room for a few more pieces of furniture. And, of course,  the room came complete with an under the counter refrigerator and few other things like that.

After I showered and finally laid down between my wonderfully crisp sheets, I slept like a new born baby right up to 12:30 in the afternoon…though I had intended to get up early and go to church. But it just was not to be…we had been on the road most of day and night as we had done some sight seeing in Detroit before leaving.

Finally got to go to Motown and walk through that building. We arrived there just about the time it was closing. But the gentleman who met us in the hall virtually gave us our own personal tour of the place. It was interesting learning that the artist walked through that house, which today is a museum called ‘Hitsville U.S.A.’, to go to the garage in the back where the recording was done.

It was also very interesting to find out that as his company grew Berry Gordy bought all the houses next door to him to expand his business into, and each house represent an individual arm of the business. One house was artist development where they trained and polished the acts. Another house was for bookkeeping and clerical duties…and I have forgotten what the other houses were for. But they were all in a row right next door to each, about 6 or 7 houses all together. Oh, yeah…they had a house for the musicians, a house for wardrobing…Gordy had it set up almost like a movie studio lot with its various production houses.

Undoubtedly, Barry Gordy was a very smart man. He developed and grew an empire out of his garage, called Motown from which sprang forth a bunch of super stars the likes of Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Lionel Richie and the Commandors, the 4 Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, the Marvelettes, Jr. Walker and the Allstars, Gladys Knight and Pips, Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell, the DeBarges etc…etc…just to name a few. And I just had to go by there and see that little house…and little it was but my oh my…look what came out of it.  From $800 which he borrowed from family members Barry Gordy launched the careers of many a super stars and himself.  What a success story.

I didn’t say much in my blog about Black Music Month, last month, but Motown more than makes my statement for me…what a history when you consider Motown, the Philly Sound, those who came out of Chicago, New York City, Louisiana and everywhere else.  And that is not including gospel music…or jazz, swing, blues etc.

After going to Motown we had to go into Canada which is right across a bridge or through a tunnel depending upon which way you want to travel. And Ontario is that part of Canada which is right across the Michigan River from Detroit. It was clean and very much set up for tourism with lots of restaurants and little shops to walk into all along its tiny little streets. But it is the coming across or going back which might present a problem if you are not properly prepared with an appropriate ID and your birth certificate.

When we got into Chicago it was late and I just had to drive down onto Lake Shore Blvd as soon as we hit Chicago…something I have always loved doing. It is so beautiful with the city to the left and the lake to your right, I have forgotten what great lake that is…it has been a long time since I have been in Chicago…but amazingly I still remember how to get around in it. I remembered all my stops on the “L”…that’s short for elevated train (Detroit doesn’t really have a subway system…but they have this thing they call “The People Mover.” It only circles the main points in downtown Detroit.)

While in Chicago, I would have loved to drive by Oprah’s production studio…just to see what it looked like. But when I tried to call friends and ask them…no one picked up. So, I didn’t get to see it.

For the most part we only had beautiful weather during last week straight through to the 4th and into the 7th. But Chicago was much hotter than Detroit and it was also very much congested. And I could see tremendous growth in the size of the city, its skyline and that Chicago is booming as opposed to Detroit which is suffering from urban blige. Almost every other building in Detroit was boarded up and abandoned…both commercial property and resdential property.

When I asked our long lost relatives which I had just met while there in Detroit, they said that it was due to foreclosures and closings at General Motors and Ford. You would really have had to see this to clearly understand what I am talking about when I say it is like every other house is boarded up on all the streets…and on along all the major road ways sometimes the entire line of stores, gas stations, beauty salons, grocery stores etc…

You see it on the news but we don’t really get the full sense of it when they show those signs sitting out on people’s lawns reading ‘for sale.’ It is terrible that so many people have lost so much. I have never equated the closing down of whole plants or the relocation of companies with the lost of property due to not having a job that vanished into the thin air shortly after you just purchased it. Now, when I hear over the news that Ford is considering laying off another 2,400 people or shutting down another plant…I will equate that announcement with realizing that it means that those people…those ex-workers may well loose their homes, automobiles etc. because their company is downsizing or moving and leaving them with nothing.

While in Detroit our church convention was being picketed somewhat outside by a small group of people who were anti-Obama because of his stand on abortion. As we pulled to a stop at a stop light just outside of Cobo Center, the location of our church convention, I spotted the sign and a picketer, a pastor, whom I asked if he had picketed outside the courthouse against R. Kelly a known paedophile?  Of which he said ‘no.’  Not intending to be rude, we started to have somewhat of an exchange as to how he could pickete against Obama while living here in Detroit with a known paedophile, (though I now remember R. Kelly lives in Chicago)…someone who could pose some type of danger or possibly hurt to some child in his church, or one of his nieces or daughter, and he had not gone to the court to pickete against R. Kelly a known sex offender and paedophile and was yet out picketing in front of our church convention against Obama.  Needless to say, I thought his priorities were a bit out of order…but I was not overly obnoxious.

The issue of abortion, I know, it is a heated topic. But God gave us choice…the ability to choose right from wrong. And God has given us all choice in everything that we do…why then should a few try to restrict others by limiting their choices about anything when God has not?

Secondly, Obama did not write the legislation on abortion. He had nothing to do with it. It was written into law many years before him.  When that law was written and passed there were many many women seeking out abortions in back alleys and butcher shops etc…and for the most part these women were poor and they were loosing their lives in large numbers behind blouched abortions.  While rich women could fly aboard and have abortions done safely and return home to America where here at that time abortions were illegal.

In this day and time when so many women were so pro-Hillary for being a woman and a likely President…but yet so anti-women making such an important choice as to bare and bring forth a child or not to…on their own accord shows some lax in thinking.  If a woman can stand up and make all kinds of decisions concerning this country…then why should she be denied the right to make her own personal decisions as well concerning issues dealing with her body. 

I am certainly not for abortion but I am for women’s right to have a choice and freedom of will.

There are many things that I don’t agree with but I don’t try to go around and force them upon others. We all have to live with the choices that we have made…good and/or bad. Every day we make choices…some of us moment by moment. Now, who would I be to try to hinder you from doing that?

In the same token if I knew that you were doing something wrong and I failed to say something in order to have you consider your options…then I would be wrong in not doing so. But the choice is yours…as well as the costs, or penalties, or benefits. And if I were to try to impose my will upon you, I would be wrong in trying to take from you something which God himself has clearly given onto you…your ability to have freedom of choice. It is God given. He only asks that we endeavor to make the right choices.

I have a lot more to say…but I can’t think of it right now.   I’m tired.

Oh, yes…I heard Venus won Wimbledon on Saturday.  I was too sleepy to watch though I had on the TV…but it was mostly watching me.  Besides the match started off really slow and wasn’t very interesting…hopefully it picked up and that if you watched Venus and Serena on Saturday, hopefully you enjoyed them.  And I hope and trust that you all had a good 4th of July. 

And before I close let me say that my prayers are with Rev Timothy Wright and the entire Wright family as I along with entire COGIC Family and the gospel world mourn with them…when I heard the news of the car accident Saturday morning I immediately began to pray and hoped that it was not true…but so sadly…it was.

The Bible says that we are only here but for a twinkle of an eye…and that no man knows the hour…lost hurts and senseless lost all the more.   We pray for the parties involved.      God bless…  ©2008

4 comments July 8, 2008