God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah Psalm 46: 1-3

Good afternoon, pardon the delay, I had a presentation to give so I was unable to sit at the computer. But I already knew what I wanted to write, I just needed to find the bible verse to go along with it. Low and behold I found it in the Great book of Psalms. God is our refuge, our strength, an ever present help in trouble. I could not agree more and i am thankful that I can find such truths within the bible. So where does all this come from you ask? Well yesterday while traveling home I reflected on my day. I decided to write a message and the contents I will share with you:

Today was just another day where the Lord showed me that I am blessed. Blessed to have such a father, blessed to have such a savior. A God who looks past my many flaws and even looks past the fact that at times I doubt that he hears me. No today the Lord managed to cement more in my head how much he loves me. He never ceases to amaze me, I think its time that I begin to pray for that unyielding faith, that faith where nothing affects me because if something does I know it is the Lord who is channeling his energy through me. I know it is him preparing me to be  the greatest good that I can be. Thank you Lord for your blessings, you are forever loved, appreciated. I pray that we only get closer, I think back to a year ago and where we were then and where we are now. How far you have brought me, what a noble, amazing God we serve. Simply amazing!

Shortly after I wrote this I lost my wallet on the train. My wallet only included my license, credit cards, school id, and my expensive LIRR monthly train pass. It may not sound like much but for like 5 minutes I was devastated. There lay my wallet under the seat and the conductors would not open the door for me and the train just coasted off. So here i am stranded at the train station 40 minutes away from my house with no money, no id no nothing. Well I did have my computer, if I didn’t have that i may have had to jump! But seriously in such a moment of trouble God reached down to help the Ced Meister out. The conductor of a different train went above and beyond to help me. Took me into the conductor’s booth and I literally watched him call any and everybody that could possibly help me. At that moment I knew God was helping me, that god was moving through this man and guiding me out of the situation. Right then I said even if I don’t find the wallet, I don’t care. I am just thankful that even when I am in a bad situation I know I can depend on the Lord. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Bout to be some HELL UP IN EUROPE. While we moan and groan about paying 4 dollars a gallon for gas, the Europeans are paying an average of $8.70. This is insane, like oil companies are making their highest profits ever while everyday people are more than struggling trying to afford a basic neccessity.

If gas reaches $9 here in the States, I don’t know what I would do. I am so good on going back to riding a bike, I don’t care how healthy it is. Riding a bike was for my pre - sixteen days. The Europeans are staging tons of protests and will more than likely grow angrier if something is not done about the price of fuel. These protests are not just angry people in the streets, they are hitting industries in their pockets and the industries are even protesting. Truckers, fisherman, farmers you name it they are protesting. They unlike Americans hold their governments accountable.

Last night a few friends and I were discussing the impact of Barack Obama and I believe that he is encouraging the people of these United States of America to stand up and become a part of our government so that we can change the system. While at a first glance the previous statement may have nothing to do with rising gas prices in Europe. Think again! I just told you the European governments are trying to do something to calm their people because they know that they are informed and will utilize their right to vote to allow their voices to be heard about things they are concerned about. Maybe one day we Americans will start to think in a similar fashion!

YES WE CAN! SI SE PUEDE!
My Vote’s for Obama (if I could vote) …by Michael Moore

April 21st, 2008

Friends,

I don’t get to vote for President this primary season. I live
in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.)
couldn’t get their act together, and thus our votes will not
be counted.

So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will
you please cast my vote — and yours — on Tuesday for Senator
Barack Obama?

I haven’t spoken publicly ’til now as to who I would vote for,
primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most
people I know) don’t give a rat’s ass whose name is on the
ballot in November, as long as there’s a picture of JFK and
FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word
“Democratic” next to the candidate’s name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don’t care if the name
under the Big “D” is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It
can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two
months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone
from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I
guess the debate last week was the final straw. I’ve watched
Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to
the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she
hurled the name “Farrakhan” out of nowhere, well that’s when
the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the “F”
word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama
has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator
Clinton, Obama’s pastor does — AND the “church bulletin” once
included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas!
No, not the church bulletin!

This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained
the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if
Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the
Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth,
that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!

Yes, Senator Clinton, that’s how you sounded. Like you were
nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity.
How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you.
You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And
now to throw it all away for an office you can’t win unless
you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry
“Uncle (Tom)” and give it all to you.

But that can’t happen. You cast your die when you voted to
start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses
who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited
from entering the Promised Land.

How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman
elected to the White House. That day will come — but it won’t
be you. We’ll have to wait for the current Democratic governor
of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).

There are those who say Obama isn’t ready, or he’s voted wrong
on this or that. But that’s looking at the trees and not the
forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a
profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement
is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man.
But what’s going on is bigger than him at this point, and
that’s a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in
November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert
and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their
hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama
is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.

I know some of you will say, ‘Mike, what have the Democrats
done to deserve our vote?’ That’s a damn good question. In
November of ‘06, the country loudly sent a message that we
wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So
why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I’ll tell you why. Because I can’t stand one more friggin’
minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible
damage it has done to our people and to this world. I’m almost
at the point where I don’t care if the Democrats don’t have a
backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little
heads. Just as long as their name ain’t “Bush” and the word
“Republican” is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that’s
good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled
senseless for 8 long years. That’s why I will join millions of
citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like
a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one
eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters –
that big “D” on the ballot.

Don’t get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time
ago.

It’s foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer
version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the
corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat
must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day
we will have a party that’ll represent the people first, and
laws that allow that party an equal voice.

Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have
seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev.
Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking
the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout
at the TV, “Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband
were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky,
who did she and Bill bring to the White House for ’spiritual
counseling?’ THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!”

But no, Obama won’t throw that at her. It wouldn’t be right.
It wouldn’t be decent. She’s been through enough hurt. And so
he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.

That’s why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That’s
why he’ll take us down a more decent path. That’s why I would
vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.

But the question I keep hearing is… ‘can he win? Can he win
in November?’ In the distance we hear the siren of the death
train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it’s possible
to hear the words “President McCain” on January 20th. We know
there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black
man. Hillary knows it, too. She’s counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country,
has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to
shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written
there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or
woman was only “three fifths” human. On Tuesday, the good
people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

No Homo: A look into our prejudices

A few years back, Kanye West said, “the opposite of Hip-Hop is gay!” Take our extremely homophobic society coupled with the fact that being a black man and gay is the ultimate taboo, some thought Mr. West was committing career suicide. Well, I’m not saying the opposite of Hip-Hop is gay, I do think however that the issue of homosexuality is a topic that makes many men like myself uncomfortable.

I typically write about issues facing people of color, politics, and music; so where does this no homo topic come in. Is this not an issue facing people of color, is homosexuality not discussed in music, and we all know how it is woven into the fabric of political debates? While blogging and trying to find out more information on how to drive traffic to my blog, I was surfing through necole bitchie’s blog (www.necolebitchie.com). She had a feature that was dealing with this gentleman I had never heard of and some concreteloop website fiasco between the two. So I scrolled through her feature; dealing with how this blogger B. Scott and ConcreteLoop were having issues over people discriminating that ConcreteLoop had enlisted a homosexual as one of their weekly contributors.

Now at this point I don’t know who this man is, and I was actually about to click out of this post because it didn’t affect me personally. Before I left, I clicked the youtube link and low and behold I found out what all the drama had been about. To say I was caught off guard is an understatement; here was this openly gay man looking more like a woman than a lot of women. For me to sugar coat my feelings on what I saw would do this piece no justice, so I give to you my bare honesty. I’m sure I put forth expletives that would not be a delight to the young man’s ears. However, as I thought back to my spirituality, I remembered that I am no better than him and I had no right to judge. So I listened to his message and the content blew me away!

He was reaching out to a young man who had emailed him; and was contemplating suicide because of the ridicule he was receiving from his family and peers because he was gay. A young teenage black man was thinking about killing himself; gay or not, this young man has a world of opportunities to live for and call it naive of me but I was shocked to hear that such ridicule would drive someone so far. So I commend B. Scott for serving as a voice for these young men, inspiring them to be themselves and not allow OUR ridicule of their lifestyle to drive them to an early grave.

But deeper than that, what did this say about me? When talking with some friends about the idea of even posting the video to bring light to this issue facing our communities, it was constantly brought to my attention “Cedric, if you do this people are going to start to wonder about you”. If you didn’t know, the best way to assassinate a straight black man’s character is to call him gay. However, being gay is the new black, please get riled up because I just said that but think about the statement objectively before you lash out. A professor told me once that the plight of homosexuals is very similar to that of the history of blacks here in this country. People use the bible to validate their negative beliefs that these individuals are inferior and have relegated gays to the social outcasts that blacks once were.

I told my best friend what the teacher told me some years ago, he looked at me like I had lost my mind and said that college was getting to me. Was it really that far fetched; just take a look at our country’s constitution? When it was written blacks were not a protected class of people. Right now in 2008 homosexuals are not a protected class of people in the land of the free. I have become no better than the white person who is called a racist and says, “but my best friend is black”. When people say Ced you’re homophobic I say, “nah, I’m not, my cousin is gay”. While I am not homophobic, I recognize that I do have some prejudices towards the gay lifestyle and as someone who has been discriminated against this is unacceptable. I am human though and I admit these flaws, the closer I get to God the more I learn that I have no right to judge anyone and by me judging someone I am opening myself up to have my imperfect life judged.

Barack Obama said that he will look to take away the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the military. I think people like myself have a policy with homosexuals more like “don’t show, don’t care”! I am not one who says, “gays shouldn’t be married, gays shouldn’t be allowed to raise children”. That’s absurd; some of the most competent and intelligent people in this world are gay, so I don’t feel their rights should be limited. However, this don’t show, don’t care policy comes out when we say “oh its ok to be gay but don’t do it around me”. My lifestyle might make some people uncomfortable; they have no right to tell me when and where I can express myself; I’m a grown man unless of course my mom has something to say lol. I say all this to say, watch the young man’s video with an open mind. I wrote this piece in hopes that we can start to have a dialogue in our communities and via the Internet about our prejudices and look to actively tear some of these walls down. If young men are killing themselves because of our ridicule of their lifestyle and we are all right with that, than I think there might not be as much wrong with them as there actually is with us. To minimize the life of another simply because of his/her sexual preference is bigoted hatred at its worst. NO HOMO!

WHY boastest thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good’ and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. Psalm 52: 1-4

This scripture reminds me of being a little boy and my mother popping me in my mouth for saying something smart; I think I sat on her clothes for work and when she complained I said “I didn’t tell you to put them there”. Such a dumb kid to utter those words out of my mouth, but I am reminded of that story as I read today’s scripture. The first line blatantly mocks the man who boasts and considers himself mighty, or one who feels that they are great beyond measure. The line following pays more attention to the fact that it is God who endures, it is God who is ever present and affords us the happiness in our lives. We should never walk with our heads down, we should be proud without being boastful, confident yet humble. Humility is an attractive characteristic because while we know we are blessed with talent, and an abundance of love, the way we wear it speaks volumes to others who look on and how we exemplify the God within.

But back to a man or a woman’s words, how mere words can cut so deep baffles me. But the scripture tells us that words cut deep; the deceitful tongue causes problems and all type of drama in our lives. So how do we escape it; for starters, watch your own mouth, watch what you say, because you may bring trouble into your own house because of the negative things that you say. Furthermore, when you are confronted by people who use their mouths against you for disdain you must remember what these people are doing. Hating, simply put, a hating tongue is a deceitful tongue. We are too good of a people to be bothered by such nonsense, I fall victim to it, and i tell myself ” I don’t care what anyone says about me”. But when people spread falsehoods that attack your character it can be hard to turn the other cheek. I think today’s word makes it easier to turn the other cheek, to turn your whole body away because its not worth your time. The bible clearly ostracizes these people and their hating ways, so you are in the right and have to act accordingly. Focus on yourself and pushing your goals forward and please do not be concerned with the negativity, because when you entertain the negativity you give it life. Remember that goodness of God is everlasting, so you have some pretty good back up and some great company that you can easily turn the cheek and allow others to wallow in their deceitful pity while you Shine in God’s glory. Peace and grace be unto you!

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.