Are we really living or just walking dead now! - Janelle Monae

Ummm Imus strikes again. WTF!

credit to
http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/06/23/imus-at-it-again/

IMUS AT IT AGAIN

Less than 15 months after losing his gig on WFAN and MSNBC for making racially charged comments regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team, radio icon Don Imus has danced dangerously close to, and arguably over, the line again.

On Monday, Imus had the following exchange with Warner Wolf:

Wolf:  “Defensive back Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones, recently signed by the Cowboys.  Here’s a guy suspended all of 2007 following a shooting in a Vegas night club.”

Imus:  “Well, stuff happens.  You’re in a night club, for God’s sake.  What do you think’s gonna happen in a night club?  People are drinking, they’re doing drugs.  There are women there, and people have guns.  So, there, go ahead.”

Wolf:  “He’s also been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005.”

Imus:  “What color is he?”

Wolf:  “He’s African-American.”

Imus:  “Well, there you go.  Now we know.”

Last time around, the comments represented a partial effort at humor.  This time around, it was a matter-of-fact statement, with no chuckles, yuks, tee-hees, or ha’s.  As we see it, if the comment wasn’t overtly and blatantly racist, then what the hell was it?

Maybe we’re wrong on this one.  Even so, it was nothing short of stoopid to fly so close to the flame that already burned him once.

Yves St. Laurent died Sunday night at his home in Paris due to a long time illness. The man will be remembered for his revolutionary contributions to the fashion game. He along with Christain Dior and Chanel made sure that Paris would forever be known as the fashion capital of the world.

Gotta pay hommage where hommage is due! My man kept the threads look real fly, I’ll have to add a pair of glasses into the summer wardrobe in his honor. Here are a few shots of the flavor Yves brought to the game, R.I.P.!

It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts! The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand, that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed. But you, O LORD, are exalted forever. For surely your enemies, O LORD, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered. You have exalted my horn [a] like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me. Psalm 92: 1-10

2:20 pm, this has to be a record set for the latest Pardon me. Well if I’m going to check in this late I must have some good news to share with you! You know I always have a story to tell, and the scripture represents how I feel about the Lord. How I have to praise his name because he always blesses ya boy. So this story starts somewhere during the semester, I thought i would be overseas with my homegirl Trudi enjoying Europe but God had other plans and that fell through. So needless to say I was not applying for jobs, more or less just doing my school work (sometimes less than more). But one of my other partners in crime hipped me to this fabulous program that she had attended and she thought that i would love it. It was a program teaching our youth the law and preparing them for a mock trial in front of a real Judge during the summer at St. Johns University.

Now you know Ced loves the kids, and I love anything that will allow me to talk and help teach someone something. So I sent my resume, this was the only resume I sent out this whole semester and I let the company know that I was willing to work for free. I just wanted to be apart of this movement that I saw them mobilizing. Doors were closed in my face because all the positions were filled and they could not even take me on as a volunteer. I emailed the executive director and asked him if i could shadow him, I let the man know that I would be an asset to his organization, ALL OF THIS TO NO AVAIL. Then last week I got a phone call, I thought it was the student loan people so I almost did not pick the phone up.

However, I’m glad I did, it was the same company offering me a phone interview right there on the spot. Before this I just planned to blog all summer, who knows where the wind would blow me but I was just going to fly. Today I had my second interview, where I had to do a practice lesson with adults acting as 8th graders. After the practice lesson and interview was over, the Executive Director stuck around, like he wanted to talk to me. That same home girl who first told me of him had told him of me. She let him know that I was a Christian and that I believed in the word of God. We rapped for maybe another 20 minutes just about the Lord and his Greatness and in the middle of that he said “Well, I can just tell you, you already got the job”.

God is good, and the man let me know God worked in mysterious ways on this one. Someone else had the paid position but something caused them to split ways with the gentleman. He said before they went back to the others they had interviewed he remembered that there was this persistent kid who kept emailing him. That pesky kid was me, and my buddy Maat let him know how we all know that God moves through us so he gave me a chance. So here I am, just thankful and thankful that I could share such a moment with you. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Thank you Lord for your blessings, thank the Almighty for the strength?

“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”- Galatians 5:13

Good afternoon, these messages have been getting later and later. Today I am on the run, I’m next in line for the shower and i still haven’t ironed. By the way Graduation starts at 1pm, hmmm its 12:44. So today is Graduation day and that is such a blessing. It has been an interesting week but at every turn we saw God bless us in some way. One of my brothers wasn’t about to walk because he had to fly to Miami for a job interview, but by the grace of God he is here now. He actually just got out the shower, so I am really writing on borrowed time.

Another brother of mines name means “we gave praises and he came”. That definition pretty much sums up how I feel about today, watching three of my closest friends close this chapter of their college education. The scripture above speaks of freedom, to me for these fellas it is freedom outside of the 4 walls of Temple University. God has blessed them to complete this endeavor and he wants for them to serve one another in love and serve our communities in love no matter what their field. What will be important is that they keep God and faith in their hearts. I really gotta run yall, God Bless all of the graduates this year. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Hip hip hooray!

Wow, I’ll stick to flying coach!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pm7PPCFZ9A&hl=en]

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26: 3-4

I remember being in junior high school and hearing Prodigy of Mobb Deep rap “there’s a war going on outside no man is safe from, you can run but you cant hide forever, from these streets that we done took, you walking wit ya head down scared to look, ya shook!” While I lay in bed this morning, refusing to get up I thought the same lyrics only I said there’s a war going on inside, inside ourselves, our own personal demons. We really can’t run from them even though we attempt to by suppressing our feelings and acting as if things aren’t truly bothering us. Prodigy rapped about the streets that he and his cohorts took; the demons that exist within us, the skeletons in our closet they take over the streets of our lives. Our minds, our hearts; they produce doubt and and low self esteem causing even more pain and strife in our lives.

So what do you do? Well we can keep running until the day it all catches up with us and we’re to fatigued to even fight back. Or we could trust in the Lord; but really trust in the Lord. I mean you can go to church and hear beautiful gospel songs, a mighty word that makes you jump and shout and go home and still feel empty. Trusting in the Lord starts with trusting in yourself and trusting that he made you the way you are supposed to be. Trust that the experiences that he takes you through, he is taking you through because you can handle them and he has a great reward for you when you pass his test with flying colors. I know I’ve been stressed out; went to church, felt good there, came home and was stressed out. Three weeks later, still stressed out until we really hear the words in today’s passage. Trust in the Lord forever for he is our ROCK. Trust in yourself because the Lord breathes within you and face the war going on inside because with his grace you are safe from it and you will prevail. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

A wise man’s heart guides his mouth and his lips promote instruction. Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones…. Proverbs 16:24

Last night I read something extremely powerful, I did not find it in the word, though I know it was heaven sent. I did not find it in any scholarly text books, nor was it a lecture by a famed orator. Nope, it was actually handwritten, on small sheets of notebook paper. Hopefully one day the contents of this letter I will be able to share with you but what impacted me most were the words. A gentleman who is locked away in prison sent me some of his writings and his words were so poignant, filled with hope and despair, filled with joy and pain. He thanked me for reaching out to him in his time of need and although he knew my reply would be “it’s nothing”, he went on for a paragraph or so just to thank me for taking the time out to build a relationship with him. Reading his words touched me in a way that I did not expect them too. His words gave me a sense of purpose and were extremely beneficial in me then writing three letters to three different brothers who are locked away as well.

With all the judgment that swirls around in today’s world it is easy for people to judge this man and his situation. However today’s scripture tells us that a wise man’s heart guides his mouth! This scripture is subtle yet extremely heavy because often the words that come from our mouths are not from our heart. We let our pain and fears speak for our heart and our lips just let it fly. But if we spoke from our hearts, think of all the good energy we would speak into the lives of other people. The word says pleasant words are sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. The young man’s words were healing to me, his compassion, his gratitude. What if we promoted this type of dialogue, would more souls be touched, would we be helping to create a more perfect world in which we are following Christ like principles? Just some food for thought. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Still your mind in me, still yourself in me, and without a doubt you shall be united with me, Lord of Love, dwelling in your heart.

February 28, 2008

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40: 28-31

Everything is subject to its own interpretation! I read the first line this morning in the new international version, and then I grabbed my bible which is the King James version and the difference in word usage gave me a different perspective. Neither is right or wrong but I found it interesting how the Word is so often subject to the interpretation of the interpreter. So from today’s word I felt like the page was talking to me, like someone was hipping me to some new information. Hast thou not known — Have we not heard that our God and creator is amazing, that he doesn’t dwell in worldly problems for he fainteth not. He created this world, I felt like it was someone whispering in my ear and enlightening me to the best kept secret. Then it spoke directly to me and how i feel when I’m DOWN AND OUT. He gives us power, the strength to battle whatever obstacles present themselves. Even when we are at our weakest point, it is then that we are truly being strong. Think about a weight set, you see how strong you are when you pile more weight on. When we pile more stress on, it is then when we push ourselves to the max to achieve, that strength that we let out, that power, it is innate within us because at those moments we are channeling the God within us.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary! That is us, that is the young generation. The young shall utterly fall, is that not what is going on in our communities right now? People have fallen, we are filled with despair because we give to much power to objects and things that cause unhappiness rather than the Lord and finding peace and happiness within ourselves. But those who wait upon the Lord, those who channel the God within, he will renew our strength and we will be as fly as fly can be. No pun intended, but we shall mount up with wings as eagles and soar, be at peace, be plentiful because we walk with the Lord. All this walking with the Lord talk, what does it mean. I don’t know, I am not the Judge, thats your mission, thats our mission. My mother always says there is more than one way to the KINGDOM of HEAVEN. Maybe some of the routes we are thinking are correct are in fact not, that’s why its important that we go now and try to build this relationship with the Lord and move forward and prosper. I hope I am articulating my thoughts because I am not speaking of conventional ways, the Lord has blessed in us creativity and innovativeness. If he has given us such talents and gifts, why not use those same talents to understand him and the relationship that we can have with him. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Anticipate the good so that you may enjoy it!