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

MUHAMMAD ALI… GONE AND I DOUBT THAT ‘THE GREATEST’S’ FLAME WILL EVER BE FORGOTTEN… OR GO OUT… and ORLANDO GAY CLUB KILLINGS…

Well, even his illness Muhammad Ali managed to avoid having passed long ago.   For sure

LOUISVILLE, KY – JUNE 09: Muhammad Ali’s second wife Khalilah Camacho-Ali (L), his fourth wife Lonnie Ali (C), and daughter Laila Ali (R), holding a grandchild, attend an Islamic prayer service at the Kentucky Exposition Center on June 9, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky. The Jenazah service was held for the four-time world heavyweight boxing champion, who died on June 3 at age 74. A procession and memorial service are scheduled for Friday. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

some will say he fought a great fight… and perhaps his greatest was out side the ring fighting Parkinson.

I really do not know many people who have had the staying power of Muhammad Ali when it comes to battling the disease of  Parkinson.   And I guess 1 can say Ali fought and won because he managed, regardless of all the shaking… to keep his humor and be able to see the world in a light that most of us have no idea of… and the blessings we all have who do not have to battle to live or do for ourselves.

FILE – In this Oct. 1, 1975, file photo, spray flies from the head of challenger Joe Frazier as heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali connects with a right in the ninth round of their title fight in Manila, Philippines. Ali, the magnificent heavyweight champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality transcended sports and captivated the world, has died according to a statement released by his family Friday, June 3, 2016. He was 74. (AP Photo/Mitsunori Chigita, File)(AP6_4_2016_000105A)

I will never forget when Ali stood before the cameras and said because he did not believe in killing people based upon his religious belief… he, therefore, refused to be drafted and go to war, and fight in the Vietnam war.  That action caused many who hated this young black kid, who was so skillful in the boxing ring to get the ammunition to really go after him.  But though that action did color his earlier boxing achievements… and ended up with his title being taken from him, Muhammad Ali never let that stop him from being  the regal sportsmen he continued to be until the day he died.

Another time I will never forget is when Ali during his time from being not allowed to box by the U. S. government… came to visit our college campus.  He was in our Black House… the black student organization building… and he came to talk to us.  I cannot remember what Ali talked about… as all I can remember about that day was that there were a number of us black students in the our Black House that day… and Ali took a hundred dollar bill and bought McDonald’s for all of us.  This may not sound like much to you but to a whole bunch of mid-afternoon starving college students it was something truly great.  We were ecstatic that this great boxer was on our campus and we had a chance to  meet him 1 on 1.  Could not get home quick enough to tell my daddy… who was a major Muhammad Ali fan.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to witness Ali from the

Mohammed Ali

beginning until his end can truly say that he was indeed ‘the greatest of all times.’  No other box has bought to the prize ring the kind of interest and excitement of an Muhammad Ali fight… which was always colorful and full of rhythms such as, ‘Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.’   Or give us a thrill like the ‘Thriller in Ma’nilla.’

Not many have lived to see the greatest basketball player of all times... Michael Jordan.   Or the greatest female sister tennis players of all times… Venus and Serena Williams.  Or the greatest base ball players of all times… Hank Aaron.  The greatest golfer of all times… Tiger Woods.   Or the greatest female vocalist of all times… Whitney Houston… and the greatest entertainer of all times… Michael Jackson.  And Muhammad Ali the greatest heavy weight boxer of all times… from the Olympics into the professional boxing ring.  And what a gift for trash talking

The winners of the 1960 Olympic medals for light heavyweight boxing on the winners’ podium at Rome: Cassius Clay (now Muhammad Ali) (C), gold; Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland (R), silver; and Giulio Saraudi (Italy) and Anthony Madigan (Australia), joint bronze. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

…until 1 day God shut all that down… but did not take his life until now.

Yes, he was pretty.   No boxer prettier… or sharper or more on point than Ali.  And an Ali fight was guaranteed to be exciting and filled with the unexpected.

Watching the funeral on the television and seeing all the religious leaders seated on the stage at Ali’s funeral, and being fully aware of Ali’s own religious beliefs… I could not help but think, ‘If you serve anything other than the 1 and only living God, and his son Jesus… than you can belong to as many religion groups as you want, and be the very best person in the world and never make it to heaven.’

It is my hope that Muhammad Ali’s last and fight battle was 1 he also won… and came to professed that Jesus is Lord, and not a lower prophet under Allah.

Odd how that massive and very powerful man was never stopped by any of his opponents,  who were also big strong  massive heavy weight men with plenty of strength.   But having

U.S. boxing great Muhammad Ali poses during the Crystal Award ceremony at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 28, 2006. REUTERS/Andreas Meier/File Photo

suffered so many head injuries brought about a disease that ‘the greatest’ wrestled with for a very long time… and now probably never was overcome by it… but by age instead.  And he went out of here smiling at the ripe old age of 74…smiling because he defeated Parkinson too… but could not overcome age though many have tried.

One thing is for sure …Foreman… Frazier… and all the rest would never be nothing if there had not been an Ali, who allowed them the privilege to claim into his ring…

Well, God bless… and hope you have a beautiful weekend this weekend.  But as I close I cannot help but think about the terrible chain of events that took place in Orlando just this week.

After over a hundred people were shot and more than 50 killed it is insane to me to hear any pastor or supposed religious man laughing and stating from his pulpit that the cold blooded murder who shot and killed those people should have killed everybody who was in that gay club?

I have wonder what Bible are people studying from?

What manner of doctrine are they reading where it says, ‘God hated homosexuals enough to want them all dead.”   If that were the case I am more than sure that God even back in Biblical times surely would not have stopped with merely Sodom and Gomorrah… especially since it is widely known as recognized as almost customary for such things as that among men in Greece during that time.

There is no way that this Orlando gay night club shooting should not be classified as a ‘hate crime’ irregardless of the ethnic background of the shooter and his religion… because this crime was perpetrated solely against the gay men in that club for reasons of hate… due to their sexuality … perhaps because he found them to be attractive… and of interest to his sick perverted sexual desires, which to the shooters ethnic group were both against his religion and ethnicity.   Whom himself frequent that club trying to date many of those men… and met up with Hispanic gay men over the internet.   And there can be denying that this all came about just as we entered into June, which is gay pride month.

Our God has not given unto us the spirit of hate… or hate mongering.   But of love.  Biblical scripture tells us that we are to love one another as we lover ourselves… this comes without conditions or any special exemptions.

http://www.advocate.com/religion/2016/6/14/baptist-pastor-who-cheered-orlando-murders-isnt-alone

I’m off my band wagon for now.   But I pray that God sincerely touch every heart and change ever deprived mind that seeks to do evil.

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 ©2016

/news/190704_muhammad_ali_remembered_during_islamic_funeral_prayer_service/

Add a comment June 18, 2016

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

GATED COMMUNITIES…and the ZIMMERMAN CASE…

The first time I actually saw a gated community it was a warm summery day, and I was driving around with Mother Rochelle looking for some beach front property to buy.

We were in Coney Island when we came upon it… a gated community.  We were kind of in awe of it… because it was kind of off by itself.  We did not recognize immediately what it was that we were looking at… as it is just not the kind of thing you see in New York City.  And certainly not out in Coney Island ever… least ways I had not.

But by this time Coney Island had been converted into, I guess you could say, some type of urban oasis.  Gone were all the tall brick story housing complexes that used to line the skies in this section of Brooklyn, known to the world as Coney Island.  The place looked totally different and it was hard to believe what had once been.  I didn’t see the boardwalk or the amusement rides… none of it.   It was as if somebody had taken a pencil and erased it… all.

Then that is when Mother and I spotted it, a group of houses surround by a brick wall.  Up until this point… some time ago I had heard about gated communities but had never seen 1… or thought about it when I had seen them.  Because who thinks of these kind of things… gated communities?  I see such structures as just being more or less just  a group of apartments or houses… or housing complexes… or new housing developments.   But this place was  fenced in with wires going all around… almost like a prison.   The houses looked like that they had been shoved in and bunched up on top of each other… and that is what caught our attention.

The houses did not look like anything spectacular to me.  None of them had any real land around them.   Just a group of regular New York style non-distinct houses, of various kinds.  Nothing big or fancy.  Nothing that looked rizie… just plain common ordinary houses.  Nothing to brag about.  But they were fenced in by this brick wall that went all the way around it.

I remember saying to Mother, “Look Mother, a gated community.”

I was surprised to see it… and especially in New York City… and Mother was too.  And even more especially in Coney Island… a place where nothing but public housing complexes used to stand, for as far as the eyes could see… but they were now all gone.

I can’t remember having seen 1 public housing complex that day in this section of Coney Island, that I used to visit often once upon a time.

Actually, they are not all certainly gone… at least ways not all of New York’s public housing… otherwise known as projects.  But many have now been transformed.  The old tenants moved or were forced out by the city of the developers, who had come in to possess this waterfront section of Brooklyn,  known as Coney Island.  And the buildings that those people all once used to live in have become condos and co-ops, which are very popular in New York City among those who can afford it.  Or they were torn down totally.  And that was what Mother Rochelle and I were looking at… an area where all the old housing complexes were totally gone.

But while writing my blog, THE ZIMMERMAN CASE WHAT A FARCE, I had heard in 1 of the YouTube videos that I put into that blog… how Zimmerman’s gated community had had a few recent robberies.

In 1 of those videos…. 1 of the homeowners, said to have been 1 of Zimmerman’s neighbor in the gated community… he commented on how a couple of the houses had recently been broken into and robbed.  How Zimmerman had stopped robbers from breaking into his house.  And he also stated this was the reason for why Zimmerman should have been on his guard for any suspicious characters in their neighborhood… being that Zimmerman was Captain of the neighborhood watch.

Since having heard that I have been thinking…  Gated community… neighborhood watch?

Didn’t people move into gated communities for security?

Isn’t that the purpose for gated communities coming about?

Then why did Zimmerman’s complex… being that it was supposed to be a gated community need to have a neighborhood watch?

Something was not working here.  Either the police in Sanford were not doing their job.  Or the gate… usually some type of high brick wall… wasn’t working either.

Or maybe these people were just lying.  Maybe they hadn’t had those break-ins.

I would love to see the records regarding break-ins in Zimmerman’s neighborhood.  And I would love to know exactly how long their neighborhood watch had been in effect?

Were these just a bunch of fearful people?

I mean who else would elect to live in a gated community… except for people who are fearful of the world around them.

The gate in gated communities is meant to keep out certain elements.  These elements usually mean… the wrong kind of people… drugs and the woes that the rest of the world has to face simply by living among them.

Was Zimmerman’s complex actually under attack by the outside world?

If outsider’s were coming in… which as stated by the man in that video… some young black men robbing them… who was letting them in?

Most gated communities have security… mostly at the main entrance gate if nowhere else.

When I was in Altamonte Springs a small Florida town not far out from Sanford, where Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin… I recall visiting a friend whose parents lived in such a complex.  While driving into the complex upon her directions to me… I drove through the front gate and up to her parent’s house.  At the time it had not dawn on me that they had lived in a gated community.  I saw it only as an up-scale new housing complex.

When you consider it… isn’t it kind of insane to believe you can lock yourself away from all the trouble of the world?

Evidently, Zimmerman’s housing complex had some problems.  Otherwise there would not have been a need for someone like George Zimmerman… operating in the capacity in which they had assigned him… Captain of their neighborhood watch.

What were they paying all that money for… if their gated complex was no safer than that of the people on the other side of their wall, which was suppose to be their gate of secured safety.

Had none of them considered that the elements which lived inside among them was just as dangerous… if not more so than many of the people on the opposite side of their wall?

Because George Zimmerman lived within their midst.

Well, God bless…  Another beautiful day.  I got to get going.  Gotta edit some video footage for my television show.  In case you didn’t know you can check segments of it on youtube.  Just type in my name as it appears on my book cover, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the day… and your weekend.  Might be good beach weather.  A couple of Sunday’s ago that is where we were… aching foot and all.  My mother said salt water is good for healing the body.  So, we were out on the water front listening to the sound of the waves washing in… and getting our feet wet.  Bye… and enjoy.

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  ©2013

Add a comment July 31, 2013

Some of what you may be waiting on…

You have been reading my writings…   Well, some of them.  You may have even watched my book trailer for my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.

Now, and I want to show you something that I started yesterday.  It is the radio spot for my book.  I added some visual material just so I could launch it over youtube…and you would have something to watch.

But if you have been wondering about me… I mean my voice.   What I may or may not sound like.

I mean I would be curious about you… if  I read some of your work.  Most people flip over a book just to take a look at what the author looks like.  And I have given you that chance in my actual book trailer, which I have also included in this blog.

But I am so excited about my radio spot.  Tell me what you think.  And it is me speaking… but then I have told you that by profession I am a radio announcer.

And if  you think my radio spot is something… which thanks to a software call ‘Motion’… it really looks greater than I could have imagined.  Then ‘Final Cut’…was the software I used to put it all together.  And the rest is…   Well, you tell me…

And one other thing… I really wished you could see my website.  If you went and checked out my initial site…which really wasn’t much to check out.  Baby, you should see it now!

I just finished reading this story.  There are things that touch me…and things that make me mad.  This story did both.

http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/report-remains-found-of-missing-la-woman-mitrice-richardson/19591275?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fcrime%2Farticle%2Freport-remains-found-of-missing-la-woman-mitrice-richardson%2F19591275

This is the kind of  case you wished Johnny Cochran was still around  for.

How in the world could the LA police arrest a young woman mentally challenged, hold her for a few days then release her without her pocketbook, money, or any way to get home.  And seeing that the young woman was obviously distressed in some way.

How could they have done that to her?

It was a scenario set for doom.

If  they had set it up the LA police could not have done a better job in aiding in the murder of  this young woman.  The moment this young woman was released the chances of  her making it home safely  without something happening…in LA?

It  was slim at the very best.  And the worst part of it…. her loving and caring mother tried her best to keep anything from happening to her daughter.

I feel for this  family.

My goodness…what a terrible story.  I cannot imagine the hell or the evil that Matrice was thrown in or the fate that she had to endure.  What a terrible story.  No amount of money  or law suit can compensate  the injustice which was done here.

I restrain myself  from speaking on the Fantasia story.  To some degree I feel for her though.

There is something that I am so sure about.

“The devil desires to steal your life.”

And if  you let him he will.

There was once a time when I thought about suicide.  But thank God, He only let it be just a fleeing thought.

Matters of  the heart can make people do foolish things.

But the one thing about life is this…

There is always tomorrow.  And usually it is a much better day.

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12956553

I just finished talking to friend of mine who reminded me that Fantasia is illiterate.  It has been so long that I had forgotten it.  How she told the story of how she had to learn the songs for American Idol by having to have someone read her the words so that she could remember them.

Can you imagine that?

For her to do that… Fantasia in fact must be brilliant.  And if  she had learned to read and perhaps all those other basic things that we all pretty much take for granted… she might have well been further ahead today since having won American Idol a few years ago.

 There is no doubt that education is essential for success.  And true success cannot be had or maintained without it.

You know to know how to read, write, add and subtract.  Without these basic skills all of  us would find it difficult to survive.

Now with computers and with texting… who doesn’t need to know how to read or type… or write?  And it doesn’t matter whether you can type with 1 finger or with all 10… but without being familiar with the alphabet or without knowing how to read you would be lost… totally out of the loop.

Then she got caught up with a married man.

Then there was something about her a ‘sex tape.’

Could it be a need for some attention?

That is what my son says.

Or is it that Fantasia like some many other ‘so-called’ stars when they fall out of the glimmer of all the light… they reach out to do some desperate  or stupid things just to get catapulted back into the spot light?

Attempting to commit suicide is illegal.  But I hear that Fantasia is due to release a new CD and sometime this week she begins making the rounds to various TV shows.  Perhaps it was…  just something to give her something to talk about while she sat down for those rounds of  TV interviews.  Or perhaps it was all for her to grab the attention of  Oprah and others to add her to their guest lists in the wake of her ordeal… and increase CD sales.

Who knows…

http://www.dvercity.com/drumbeats_fantasia.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/12/earlyshow/leisure/celebspot/main6766379.shtml

Hope you enjoy your weekend.   Summer will soon be coming to an end.  In many places school has already begun again.

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  ©2010

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale.  You can CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.

2 comments August 20, 2010

Honor student killed…Derrion Albert …Chicago murder

I have long held Chicago as being one of the most dangerous places I have ever lived in.  The level and the types of crimes I found there far exceeded and surpassed any I had ever encountered anywhere else…including New York.

While following this story as best as I could…being that I no longer watch TV or ever take out the time to read any newspapers.  I was stunned while standing in the laundromat doing my laundry this week.  When the story came up as an indepth report.   But that is not what stunned me…but hearing that there had been 40 murders of young people in Chicago this year alone.  That was not only stunning but shocking to me.

How could a problem such as gang or teen violence be so far out of controll?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/27/beating-death-of-derrien_n_301319.html

Though in Chicago…gang activity involves more than just teens…as 30 and 40 year old men…and I guess maybe women (and young girls)…are involved in gangs.  They actively recurit seeking out new members wherever they want to.

http://news.aol.com/article/derrion-alberts-beating-death-captured/690024

When I lived in Chicago, Dr. Reynolds (Dr. A. L. Reynolds of 6th Grace United Presbyterian Church) told me how they…some gang members had threaten to take his life.  And had annouced to him that they were going to come into his church to take who they wanted.  That is the kind of pressure that many face in Chicago.  They are under the constant threat of malicious malice by gangs…daily facing violence and all kinds of gang related activity.   With the gangs believing that they control everything… and everyone.

The problem is greater than the issue of ‘black-on-black crime.’   By far greater.  It is one of hate… and hating in particular of seeing someone… anyone raise above the preceived notions or standards of degradation… which many wallow in urban ghettos.

There has always been this problem of  black folks hating to see other black folks moving ahead…or getting further in life than themselves.  But I guess this trait is something which is in many…meaning that it is human in nature. 

When you consider history where several pockets of successful black folk, business owners, who were killed and burnt out of their homes and business prior to the 1960’s.  One such group was in Tulsa, Oakahoma, in 1921…and another in 1923 in Rosewood, Florida…as well as, other places.   But what happened to them happened because they were black…successful…and the communities in which they lived (their black communities) were flouishing… growing.    They became booming and profitable…too booming and too profitable.  

These 2 massacres, one known as the Rosewood Massacres and the other as the Tulsa Riots…were the burning out of and hanging of black folks.   They were not the acts of black- against-blacks.  But they were the product of white people against black people.   And these acts were very violent…and came about as a means of terrorizing the black people in their areas…as well as, a means to destroy everything that they had…and to  keep those ‘Negros’  in their  place.  Meaning…not thinking they were like white people…or equal to white people.  

I guess you could sort say that those boys that attacked Derrion Albert…beating him across the head with railroad irons, kicking and stomping at him…appeared to have had simular sentiments.  They wanted to keep him down.  Wanted to make an example of him…to others who might think like him…or desire to be like him.  Others who got ideas about learning…and achieving…and leaving the ghetto behind them.

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/rosewood-massacre-1923

http://rwor.org/a/v21/1040-049/1043/tulsa.htm

http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/massacre/

Considering the nature of man…that we would all be salvage beast except for the grace of God.  When you think of  the type of violence that the kids regularly watch and have become desentized to via movies, television, videos and video games…there is little wonder that we are seeing all of what we are seeing today.   Kids out on the streets banding together to attack one another…whether it is East Coast or West Coast…or Central America…their is a big problem with it.   Kids taking pleasure is beating down somebody…and everybody running to watch.  Or walking into schools or in college classrooms and shooting down everybody.  It is all very much the same whether it be in Columbine, Colorado or South Side Chicago. 

Yes, there is a problem.  And it is neither black or white.  It is a human problem.

Out of all those people…who ran to help Derrion?

Out of all of those people standing around.  Who tried to help him?

No one.

In fact, it is said that Derrion…himself became an innocent victim…because he went to help someone else.

Let’s look at this….

Who did they kill?

Someone who they realized had a future. 

Someone whom they recognized was going someplace. 

Somebody who’s ambitions were greater than hanging out on the streets. 

Somebody who wanted to learn something… achieve something… do something with his life… more than what they were doing.

While they had made bad choices…lots of them concerning their own lives…and the direction that they were headed in.   Now with some on them on their way to prison behind their very senseless murder Derrion…a very innocent person. 

But was it necessary for them to steal somebody else’s dreams…or to want to?

To take away Derrion’s life…and try to defeat him by killing him…because he refused to submit to them…and the streets?

Because Derrion wanted more out of life?

 Becuse he saw where he did have a future…and could make something out his life?  

Because he chose to learn something…and then to do something with what he was learning?

It is kind of like those massacres which took place in Tulsa and Rosewood…and other placess…when you really look back on it.  They were about people who hated others because they became successfull…were progressing.  And that is why Darrion got attack too…and was eventually murdered.

He was progressing.  

Progressive…not stuck in a box.

Aspiring to be something.

He knew that there was more to life… lots more that it had to offer him… than gang life…and gang activities.

Derrion was a 16 year old honor student on his way to college.  He had visions of  making something out of his life.  He was on the path to going to college.  And gang life…and hanging out in the streets of Chicago just did not fit into his plans.

So, therefore, Derrion was a danger to them.  Because Derrion’s mind wasn’t warped by the reality of what was around him…into believing that there was nothing else…or something better.  That living as many lived around him…was all that there was.

And…so, they saw that Derrion was different and they killed him for it.  Like those progressive black communities of Tulsa and Rosewood…were burnt down and destroyed until there was no hope of them ever coming back.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/28/chicago.teen.beating/index.html

The problem with Chicago…is that their gang problem should have been dealt with long ago.  In 1981 when Mayor Jane Byrne moved into Cabrini Green, a housing project on Chicago’s West Side…it was because people couldn’t even step outside of their apartments without becoming moving targets for target practice by the gangs which controlled their project.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/photos/2009/10/mayor-byrne-moves-into-cabrini-green—1981.html

When gangs take over projects…hotels and are allowed to run wild and rule as they have in Chicago things can only get worst…and worst.  And they have…the levels of criminal activity in Chicago escalates from year to year. 

There is little wonder why it was not chosen for the site of the 2016 Olympic Games.

I was living in Chicago when the World Soccer Games was held there.  It was beautiful and festive.  Though Chicago is always beautiful.  But until the issue of gangs and crime is seriously addressed in Chicago…the lives of those living there will continued to be threaten by senseless acts of criminal activity.

And as long as the gang issue is considered a ‘black issue’  or a ‘minority thing’ nothing will ever be seriously done about it.  

And that goes for gang criminal acts everywhere.

Today started off  dark and rainy.  Thought that it was going to rain all day…but the sun is out now.  But there are still a few dark clouds in the sky.  So, I guess it might start raining again later.  But I hope that you are enjoying your day no matter what the weather is.  And always keep in mind sunny or dark…that God loves you. 

I am not going to get rid of this picture.   And no, I will not get tired of looking at it.  

It really does make me think of the weather that will soon be on its way. 

Well, God bless…

  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. 

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 

Add a comment October 13, 2009

Have Gun Will Travel, The Right To Bare Arms

The Suprem Court today agreed that individual Americans have the right to keep, have and to bear arms in a vote of 5 to 4 striking down the D.C .ban on hand guns.  A constitutional decision guaranteed to surely come to mean we all loose.

The Washington, D.C. ban was a 32 year old ban which the Supreme Court said was illegal and violated the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution.  That amendment was written in during the Constitution Convention of 1787 stating that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Now living in the 21st Century some questions can be asked about the validity of that amendment today considering today’s violent culture.  Where guns are not used primarily to protect but to commit…crimes.  Every city and town in this country is faced with serious issues concerning increases in violent crimes of which guns are often times involved in. 

For the judges who voted to lift the ban on hand guns in D.C., which has a very high rate of violence…but for those judges the violence in the streets, school yards, businesses and homes in D.C…that violence may not have any affect upon them when they go home to exclusive or gated neighborhoods.  But for the everyday people who live, work and go to school in DC there was a reason why such a ban was put into place in the first place.

The issue of guns and violence in this country is a very big issue and a sincere problem in this country…and the out look does not look better…particularly not in light of this recent Supreme Court decision.  During the 1700’s perhaps there was a need for the militia, bands of men who carried guns, walking around to protect people, their land and other property and were used as their armies. 

But does the same hold true today?  

No, it does not.  We have Police Departments, paid civil servants who earn their pay filling that capacity.  So, there is no need for every citizen to bear arms in order to ensure their or anybody else’s security, safety or rights.  Furthermore, additional societal  development and organization over time since 1787 has removed the need for it.

In fact, today just the opposite is necessary.  We need more effective laws to get all these illegal guns off the streets and criminals locked away…not allowed to go into courts for a hearing then given another date to return back to court where they are then given another date to come back…as they are allowed free to rome the streets and neighborhoods at will.  The ineffectiveness of the court system is a joke to most criminals.  Which is why they continue to perpetrate more and more crimes.  

I am not a big freak on capital punisment.  I certainly don’t want to see more and more men or any one in jails and prisons in this country.  But I do believe that the laws are for the lawless…and therefore if you perpetrate you need to be regulated and dealt with appropriately.

I most recently myself got arrested.  It is a shame to wait until you get up in age and start finding yourself in jail. 

At any rate I had gone to court to take care of some family business when suddenly I was ordered to put my hands behind my back.  I was shocked.  I had no idea what was going on.  And suddenly the judge began talking to me about having a warrant for my arrest for not doing jury duty.

I was livid and I could barely gather my thoughts.  I ended up spending my whole day in jail over an error.  This kind of thing should never happen.  Not to mention that I was handcuffed and would have been shackled, but by the grace of God.  I am still sieving. 

What an embarrassment to be marched through the halls of the courthouse like a common criminal. 

How could such an error like that happen?

Because of problems in our legal and court systems errors do happen…and many times those who should be locked up never do…or end up spending very little time for whatever it was that they had done.

However, in no way should we be regulating more laws that aid and assist criminals to be criminals.  So they can walk into court after they shoot somebody for no reason…and say, “Well, I had a right to protect myself.”

This is not the wild wild west.

The criminals aready have guns.  Most decent people don’t want a gun anywhere around them.  So, why should we have to contend with the possibility of getting caught up in the crossfire of some lunatics suffering from road rage or gas pump frustration?

And it is a known fact that if you own a gun…in the heat of a moment you are subject to use it.  We have all gotten angry and wanted to kill somebody.  And if at the time we could have…we would have.  But I thank God now for temperance…but there was a time I didn’t have any.

 It is clear that this country is in need of gun controls that work not laxed restrictions which now allow every man, woman and child of…I don’t know what age…in Washington, D.C. to legally start packing a hand gun.

The question is…how long will it take the other states to follow?

Talk about opening up the flood gates.

This month is flying by so fast that I will soon wonder where did my summer go? 

Haven’t done much.  Need to clean the house but just can’t seem to get into the mood.  But I will soon get tired of looking at it and get busy then sit back and  marvel at what I did.  And think, “wow…”.  Then commence to get it right back into the state I just finished taking it from.

Can’t stand the clutter.  But I’ve got all summer to think about cleaning it up.  Except the bathroom and kitchen…those things I must do.  And do regularly…couldn’t stand it any other way.  And I always make my bed.

Maybe, I’m not so bad after all.  Enjoy your summer and don’t let yourself get bogged down.   God bless…  ©2008

Add a comment June 27, 2008