The Fairy Tale Came True- “Congratulations, Mr. President Barack Obama!”

Somebody pinch me! I thank God I have lived to see the day that Dr. King’s riveting prophecy has come to fruition: “…He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land.”


We as Americans have so much to be grateful for! Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American president is truly monumental and divinely ordained. Just as the ancient Hebrews were set free from 430 years of oppression, African-Americans have been vindicated approximately 400 years since their ancestors set foot in chains on American soil in 1619. Who but God could change the hearts and minds of the ancestors of former slave owners and slaves? America is now approaching the day when all men and women will be judged by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin, gender or nationality.

Yes, change has come to America and the world. As President Obama says, “change comes from the bottom up.” Barack has given us the vision, but we must carry out the mission. We can do so by starting with ourselves, our families, schools, churches, temples, and synagogues. Let us start by finding solutions to the following questions: How can we individually and collectively make this a better world? How can we as Americans conserve energy, our natural resources and protect our families? How can we be the change that we want to see in our life? How can we become our brother’s keeper?

Yes, I know we are in a recession, but how can we take our lemons and make lemonade out of them? Remember, this is the country where fairy tales can come true! Only in America can you have an Obama, an Oprah, a Chris Gardner or an Andrew Carnegie. We must use what’s in our hands like they did. By that I mean we must use our latent and dominant gifts, talents and skills. All of them started out at the bottom, but they developed a strong work ethic, a “yes I can” attitude and persisted until their gifts and talents were realized.

George Bernard Shaw once said, “Some men see things as they are and say 'why'? Others dream things that never were and say 'why not'?" A Native American elder offered advice that is applicable to many individuals as he described his own inner struggles: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. "When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, "The one I feed the most."

Which dog are you feeding? What dream do you respond to, - the one that says, “I think a can,” like The Little Engine That Could©, or are you feeding the evil dog in you that says fairy tales can’t come true? The choice is yours.

Again, congratulations President Barack Obama and all the dreamers that say, “Yes we can!”

C. Joyce Farrar-Rosemon
www.womensempowermentseminars.com

BLACK IN AMERICA- ARE WE VICTIMS, WHO IS REALLY RESPONSIBLE?

from cryptaniteat12

Response to "CNN Presents: Black in America" a six-hour television event"

There’s a story about a young newlywed bride who is cooking a ham dinner. She prepares it by cutting both ends of the ham off before she puts it into the pot. The groom asks the wife why she cut both ends off. The daughter then asks her mother and she replies that was how her mother taught her. At that point the grandmother comes in and she is asked why both ends are cut off. The grandmother replied that she didn’t have a big enough pot.

Black America when do we take responsibility for our condition? How long will we keep cutting off both ends of the ham? You may ask- how do we keep cutting off both ends? Let me give just 13 examples of dysfunctional behavior that some of us perpetuate:

1) Refusing to finish at a minimum high school
2) Failure to turn the television off
3) Failure to choose healthy foods
4) Failure to exercise
5) Choosing consumerism over education
6) Failure to adopt a global perspective, understand our history and world history
7) Using racism and sexism as an excuse for not achieving
8) Living in denial versus confronting our deficiencies and institutional societal wrongs including racism and sexism inside and outside of the church
9) Choosing an underachieving noncommittal black man because he is black
10) Failure to get tested for HIV/AIDS, wear a condom or have your partner wear one
11) Limiting your choice to only black men
12) Forgetting the ancient landmarks that allowed our ancestors to survive slavery
13) Refusal to accept the need for and release ourselves to a higher power in our lives

Black America no one is going to save us, but ourselves. Let’s stop cutting off both ends of the ham because it is comfortable and everyone else is supposedly doing the same. (By the way is ham still a staple in your diet?)

Leave me some comments as to how we can think outside the box rather than cutting off both ends through black homicide, HIV/AIDS (the number one killer of Black women aged 25-34), under and unemployment, disproportionally high school dropout rate, 50% black single parental rate etc.

Stay Blessed!
Joyce
P.S. I'm glad Barack Obama's parents didn’t cut off both ends of the ham!
www.womensempowermentseminars.com

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BARACK

From: Humanitainment (youtube)


I wanted to share a great video with you for those who love action, politics and a good laugh. Only in America could these dynamics be played out on television and in our lives. Regardless of who wins this election, politics in America will never be the same.

We have seen the good, the bad and the ugly during this election season. Now it is time for someone to step up to the plate and with sincerity strike back with effective decisions, sound judgment and an honest commitment to change America and the world. We all can be Winners at life, if we keep our focus on what’s best for the American people.

Stay Blessed!
Joyce

What President Barack Obama Would Mean to Black Youth- Thanks To White America!

Obama- The truth about suspending the "Gas Tax"


from youtube: spookytom


As I lay in bed early this morning I contemplated what Barack as president, an African-American male would mean to African-American youth, thanks to White America. These are the thoughts that came to me:

1) African-Americans could no longer pull the race card as an immediate defense.

2) I believe we would start to see a decline in the gang-banging mentality among African-American youth, females included.

3) Single moms (black and white) would have a role model for their African-American children to look up to.

4) African-American youth would be inspired to finish at least high school, if not college.

5) African-American males would be challenged to consummate their manhood in a monogamous relationship as opposed to being someone's "baby's daddy".

6) African-American youth would be challenged to end and lower the rates of teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, under and unemployment, poverty, crime, drug, alcohol and sexual abuse, and racism towards ourselves and whites.

7) African-American youth would be challenged to think and work with non-blacks on ways we can creatively find solutions to global warming, use our natural resources more responsibly to harness energy, lower gas emissions and use technology to produce more efficient crops, cars and jobs for all Americans.

I want to personally thank the thousands, if not millions of White Americans that voted for and will vote for Barack. I want to thank those who put aside Barack's race and saw as Dr. King insisted that we must do, the content of Barack's character, his judgement when faced with opposition and his hope for America.

Change does come from the bottom up and the annals of history will record that your judgement was right in choosing not a African-American or a man, but a person of character that wants to bring about a positive change for all Americans and the world. I truly believe we can all be Winners at life when we lay aside our differences and embrace what makes us stronger as a nation.

Stay Blessed!
Joyce

YES, THEY CAN! - HOPE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

Bronx students discuss Obama's race speech

From: BarackObamadotcom


Hi guys,
I came across this video and I was impressed by these students’ intense interest and views about politics in light of the Obama/Clinton race. What inspired me more was the hope and belief in the indomitable spirit of mankind and the American dream for all of its citizens.

This election has given me hope that King’s 40 year old prophetic dream that America will judge its citizens by their character and not their race or gender is about to be realized. Metaphysically 40 signifies completion. Remarkably, it is significant in Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and other Middle Eastern traditions; it can also represent a rough calculation, a huge sum of units, or simply put a lot of something:

-"Forty days and forty nights" describes the period for which rain fell during Noah's flood
-"Forty days" was the length of the period that the twelve spies explored the Promised Land
-"Forty years" was the length of Israel's wandering in the wilderness. This period of years represents a generation, that is, the time it takes for a new generation to arise.
-Moses' life is divided into three 40-year segments, separated by his fleeing from Egypt, and his return to lead the people out.
-Several Israelite leaders and kings are said to have ruled for "forty years", that is, a generation. (Examples: Eli, Saul, David, Solomon.)
-According to the Midrash, Moses spent three consecutive periods of "forty days and forty nights" on Mount Sinai.
-Rabbi Akiva, the greatest expositor of the Oral Torah, only began learning how to read Hebrew when he was 40 years old
-"Forty days and forty nights" was the period Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness, after which he was tempted by Satan.
-Forty days was the period from Jesus' resurrection till his ascension into heaven.
-In modern Christian practice, Lent consists of the 40 days preceding Easter. -The dead are usually mourned for forty days in Muslim cultures
-Muhammad is said to be forty years old when he first received the revelation delivered by an angel.
-In the Yazidi faith, The Chermera temple (meaning “40 Men” in the Yazidi dialect) is so old that no one remembers how it came to have that name but it is believed to derive from the burial of 40 men on the mountaintop site.
-In Hinduism, some popular religious prayers consist of forty shlokas or dohas (couplets, stanzas).

Finally after 40 years, or essentially a generation later, Dr. King’s dream is being realized. It seems pretty clear that America will have a female or an African American as president. Let us learn from this historical moment the importance of instilling in the next generation the importance of not only the American dream, but their individual dreams. Although it may take time for us to realize our dreams, we must never give up on a heartfelt dream that benefits mankind. Defeat is not an option- when we persist through adversity, we will be Winners at life!

Stay Blessed!
Joyce

Obama Speech: 'A More Perfect Union'

From: BarackObamadotcom

In case you missed Barack's historic speech- here it is! The annals of America's text books will record this as one of the greatest speeches in the history of America and the world.

Truly a house divided can not stand. There is power in unity. It is time that we unite not just for a better America, but for a better world! Science tells us that underneath our skin, we are truly one kind,- human kind.

It is time for us to fulfill God's mandate to be our brother's keeper, to lay down our weapons of warfare, to replenish and not deplete the earth and to be fruitful and multiply.

Stay Blessed!
Joyce


'We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.'

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories tha t we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicia ns, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committ ed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”

“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Obama on The Run?

Obama on the Run

From: snideTV


Hi Guys,
I just had to add some humor to your day. Only in America can you find this type of parody. Watch this video below and you see what I mean. It is important to laugh at ourselves once in a while- it is better than crying. Hopefully when this election is over we will have a president that can initiate some real change in this country.

One thing Obama says that I do agree with is that change must come from the bottom up. We must be initiators of change if we want to leave this world better off than how we found it. It starts with being the best person we can be and teaching our children the importance of following the Golden Rule, studying hard and being a help and not a hindrance to society and our fellow man.

Enjoy your day and remember to laugh.

Stay Blessed!
Joyce

An Unsung Hero of Black History: Bayard Rustin

I want to thank a reader by the name of Joan Hervey who sent me this information about an unsung hero who also had a dream and who was instrumental and critical to the implementation of Dr. King’s dream. It’s written by Jennifer Vanasco and I have copied and pasted it below.

I hope you will see as I have discovered in my walk through life that it is important to focus on what binds us together as one instead of what separates us. Regardless of your political or religious views, what really matters is whether you have love for one another as Jesus instructed us to have.

I submit that the true test of what’s in your heart is whether you are truly your brother’s or sister’s keeper. Can you be that Good Samaritan that accepts someone from a different race, class or orientation, not because of legislation, but because of what’s in your heart? If we want to be Winners at life, we must focus on what builds up the human race not because it is politically correct, but because love is the more excellent way.

I Cor. 13 says it best:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up …. thinketh no evil;…And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Stay Blessed!
Joyce




Bayard Rustin had a dream, too

He Had a Dream
by Jennifer Vanasco, 365gay.com

He organized the 1963 March on Washington. He helped arrange the Montgomery, Ala. Bus boycott. He debated Malcolm X, learned non-violence directly from Gandhi's followers, went to jail for his civil rights protests, and is considered one of the architects of the black civil rights movement.

He was Bayard Rustin. He was gay. And he is all but forgotten during our country's annual January commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rustin was 17 years older than King, and had been working for the cause since leaving college. Born into a Quaker family in 1912 in a town where the Klu Klux Klan paraded proudly down the street on holidays and where blacks weren't able to take a seat in white restaurants or theaters, Rustin was soon convinced that non-violence was the answer to winning black civil rights. He traveled the country with the Fellowship of Reconcilliation, calling on "angelic troublemakers" to use their bodies to protest unfair conditions.

Rustin was athletic, polite and handsome. He was also completely unashamed of being gay. He met his first partner, Davis Platt, at a conference at Bryn Mawr College.

In the documentary "Brother Outsider," Platt recalls what Rustin was like: "Such intelligence, such a love of life, such a sense of humor, really a lot of wisdom. And he had absolutely no shame about being gay."

That comfort with his gayness ended in 1953 in Padadena, Calif., when he was caught by the police in the backseat of a car with two other men. His conviction for "sexual perversion" was to haunt him the rest of his life. It convinced him to tone down his sexuality in public, and was used by foes of the civil rights movement - notably Sen. Strom Thurmond (R- SC) - to try to convince the public that King was working with moral deviants.

Rustin was a long-time advisor to King - the documentary says that it was Rustin who really taught King the practical application of non-violence. Though all was not rosy, usually because of King's fears that Rustin would subvert the civil rights movement with his homosexuality. Though they were later reconciled, Rustin's strongest falling out with King, according to the documentary, came when Sen. Adam Clayton Powell threatened that he would accuse King and Rustin of having a sexual affair. King blinked, and friends recall Rustin as feeling personally betrayed.

While King inspired, Rustin's genius lay in the actual organizing of people and events. Rustin set up phone banks and transportation for the 1963 March on Washington, making the impossible possible. He insured that African-Americans around the country knew about the march, that every group that wanted a bus to Washington got one, and that no buses got lost.

King and Rustin were hoping for a crowd of 100,000 - instead, over 200,000 people from around the country packed the Washington Mall to hear King give his soaring "I Have a Dream" speech.

For the rest of his life, Rustin would continue his activism, working to end nuclear war, advocating on behalf of Soviet Jews and Israel, visiting refugee camps, and working with the gay and lesbian civil rights movement.

In 1977, Rustin met Walter Naegle in Times Square - they would be parters until R ustin's death of a ruptured appendix in 1987. Perhaps it was this relationship - and the changing times - that spurred him once again to be open about being gay.

Toward the end of his life, in 1986, Rustin said, "Indeed, if you want to know whether today people believe in democracy, if you want to know whether they are true democrats, if you want to know whether they are human rights activists, the question to ask is, 'What about gay people?' Because that is now the litmus paper by which this democracy is to be judged."

Bayard Rustin. An activist for civil rights for all.

.

Is America Ready For A Black President?

from BarackObamadotcom


Good Morning guys,
I want to share with you an article about how Europe sees Presidential candidate Obama. This is a historic time in our history and I think it is important to be cognizant of it and also to make your children aware of this great moment in time. Written by Troy McMullen it reads as follows:


Obama Takes Europe by Storm
After Iowa, Obama Becomes Candidate to Watch in Europe
By TROY MCMULLEN
BERLIN, Germany, Jan. 8, 2008 —
Americans enthralled by Barack Obama's sudden rise to the top of the political heap will have plenty of company when they tune in later today for the New Hampshire primary results.
Europeans, who typically have little interest in U.S. presidential primary contests, are likely to tune in as well.
"After Iowa much of Europe wants to know more about Barack Obama," said Christoph von Marschall, Washington bureau chief for Germany's Der Tagesspiegel newspaper and author of the book "Barack Obama, The Black Kennedy."
"Most Europeans and certainly many Germans know very little about Obama, but he's really captured their imaginations."
Obama's popularity has soared in Europe since his startling win in Iowa, with European newspapers and television networks from Stockholm to Berlin to London now filled with images of the Illinois senator.
In Paris, stories about Obama replaced President Nicolas Sarkozy's love life on the front pages of the newspapers Le Figaro, Libération and Le Monde, which on the day after the Iowa caucuses proclaimed: "The Greater America opts for the New Man."
At a news conference today in Paris, Sarkozy said he's also following the U.S. elections closely. In between fielding questions about his romance with French model Carla Bruni, Sarkozy said he has met with Obama, but would not hint at who he was backing. "It's not me who decides," he told reporters.
London dailies followed suit. "Race reshaped by the son of Kenyan goatherd," blared The Times of London, which, along with the Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian, featured large photos of Obama in front-page articles. Multipage spreads adorned the inside of top-selling British newspapers.
Here in Germany, where many were surprised to see Sen. Hillary Clinton place third in Iowa, major newspapers printed headlines comparing Obama with John F. Kennedy, still a revered figure in Germany and particularly in Berlin. A headline in The Berliner Morgenpost this weekend screamed "The New Kennedy." The tabloid newspaper Bild, the largest selling news daily in the country, went with, "This Black American Has Become the New Kennedy!"
As long lines of tourists gathered outside Berlin's Reichstag building today for daily tours, many people seemed eager to discuss U.S. politics.
"I think he is doing something quite special in America," Kerstin Schafer, a 38-year-old housewife from the eastern German city of Dessau, said of Obama. "I think many Germans see him as a better candidate than the others."
Anselm Unger, a 52-year-old machinist from Berlin, says he thinks Obama is exciting to watch, but said, "Mrs. Clinton is a very strong person with a lot of experience in these situations, so it may be too soon to say if Mr. Barack will win."
Although Obama's newfound popularity in western Europe underscores his broad appeal, it is somewhat surprising. According to his staff, he has made just three trips abroad while in the Senate, visiting a total of 14 countries. That included one visit to western or central Europe a brief stopover in London.
But Obama routinely addresses America's declining popularity in the world. "The day I'm inaugurated, America will look at itself differently, and the world will look at America differently," he said Monday while campaigning in New Hampshire.
Observers say his sharp rise in popularity in Europe is fueled by more than his staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, which has long been unpopular in Europe.
Gary Smith, executive director of the American Academy in Berlin, says that although Obama is still far from the White House, he's accentuating what's good in American politics if not in America itself, particularly as the end of the Bush era looms.
"Europeans are tired of the image of a divided America," said Smith. Obama's rise "gives a sense of hope and optimism of a more inclusive America that is likely to mend fences abroad, particularly in Europe."
Europeans have long followed U.S. presidential elections closely and polls here consistently show that they believe a change at the White House will have a positive effect on the United States and on America's relationships with other countries. Germans, in particular, have kept a watchful eye on U.S. political events after the rise of American influence after World War II.
But many people note a real surge of interest in this year's primary contests, mainly because several presidential contenders come to the race with global recognition.
Rudy Giuliani's international profile soared after the attacks on New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Because Bill Clinton was universally loved in much of Europe, Hillary Clinton attained instant star status when she declared her candidacy for the White House. And now Barack Obama, the strongest black candidate for president in decades, is catching on in Europe because many here are startled to see a black candidate do well in American politics.
Indeed, much of the buzz surrounding Obama centers on his race.
"Iowa is a U.S. state that has never elected an African-American to any office," the Berlin daily Die Tageszeitung wrote in an opinion piece. The paper's front page included a large photo of Obama beneath the headline "Whites select black."
Obama's race "is the kind of the thing that will certainly arouse interest" in Europe, says von Marschall, the German author and journalist. He says the fact that America is considering electing a black president is striking for Europeans who often view the United States and sometimes their own countries as still racially divided. By voting for a minority candidate, "Americans are closer to doing something that is still unimaginable in much of Europe."
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures


Is America ready for a Black President? You have a chance to decide when you go to the polls. I have found in life that it is not what others think about you, it’s what’s you think about yourself. Clearly Obama should be applauded for having a vision, a dream and the strength and passion to pursue it. Muhammad Ali had this same passion and convinced the world that he was the greatest!

What are you working on in your life- what is your passion? You can’t wait until the world says it’s time for your debut on stage. You have the power to decide. Only you know what gifts, talents and desires God has placed in you. Is America or the world ready to see your greatness? It’s up to you- do it afraid, but you must take the first step! Write your vision, your dream down on paper, ask for guidance from God and run with it until you get to the finish line. It will be 2009 before you know it. Like Obama, Ali, Helen Keller, and many others you too can be a Winner at life!

Stay Blessed!
Joyce