The evening had finally arrived when Barack Obama and John McCain would faceoff and articulate to the people of America who will best serve the interests of the country and the people who live here. John McCain attempted to suspend his campaign and reschedule the debate because of the Economic Crisis that the United States is going through much to the dismay of the Debate organizers at the University of Mississippi.

With all of this political hoopla a historic moment is being missed with the University of Mississippi being the backdrop for tonight’s debate where an African American man is running for the Presidency of the United States on a major ticket of one of country’s two largest parties platform.

The University of Mississippi affectionatley known as Ole Miss has other historic moments that have been neglected this week in our quest for a President. In 1962 The University of Mississippi was also the site of blatant racism and Sounther whites taking horrific measures to combat integration into Ole Miss.

The University of Mississippi was also the site of rioting during desegregation, when James Meredith of Kosciusko, Mississippi, attempted to enroll in the school to become the university’s first black student. Thousands of students and citizens from the surrounding area, a number of whom were armed, swarmed the campus on September 30, 1962 in a riotous effort to prevent Meredith’s enrollment. Meredith, thanks to the protection afforded by federal marshals, was able to enroll and attend his first class on October 2. Two people died during the race riots on campus. Following the riot, elements of an Army National Guard division were stationed in Oxford to subdue future riots. While most Ole Miss students did not riot prior to his official enrollment in the university, many harassed Meredith during his first two semesters on campus.

Without the struggle of James Meridith, Barack Obama would not be able to have stood on that stage one week ago this past Friday. It’s important that we pay our respects to the men and women who trailblazed through this country with hopes that one day Barack Obama could be in the position that he is.

Letterman said it best “You don’t quit”. Which is what John McCain has shown himself to be today, a proven quitter when the tough gets going!

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.”Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. Isaiah 5 : 1-5

Think of the above story as if it were your life. You have put alot of work into your life and at times it does not seem that your life yields success. But that is no reason to destroy your life. Do not ask, what else could you ahve done with your life. Maybe you should let go of some of the gardening practices that you are using. Let go of some of the chains that we have bound ourselves too. Free your mind and start anew!

The rain is pouring, smacking the streets violently while a track from Isaac Hayes album Hot Buttered Soul plays. Feels like a defining moment in ones life, the rain always seems to signify the end of one and the beginning of something else. I was reading Iyanla Vanzant’s Acts of Faith yesterday and she was talking about letting go. Whether you are letting go of a relationship, or relinquishing the psuedo control that you thought you had on your life, the issue is that we may have to let go. But letting go sounds insane, life’s troubles feel like your hanging from a cliff, your whole life depends on the moment you are in right now or so you think.

Who wants to let go, what ever you’re holding onto may feel to you like the bane of your existence. This is the mental build up that we give things, whether they are material or just things we feel like we can not live without. I read once, in order to receive you must strip yourself of all your possessions mentally and still believe that you have or will have again. This was a book dealing with taoism, it had some extremely great lessons. I have not been on my daily grind of writing this week. Check the blog, it’s updated sparingly. Partially it may be because I have no computer but more importantly it’s because I’m letting go. While letting go we do not know what door God will open but we have to have faith that he is about to show off in our lives. We have to have faith that these new beginnings, these new happenings though they may bare a dark moment, or a rainy day; there will be light in the end, a sun that shines upon our faces as we cry tears of joy. Peace and Grace be unto you!

You know, life is bound to be a roller-coaster if you keep looking back. A life that matters is focused on where you’re headed, not where you’ve already been.

It brings me great pleasure to applaud Brother Jeff Johnson on his new show on BET. Starting this Friday night Jeff Johnson will be hosting a news program geared discussing the news of the week, in depth coverage of the Presidential Elections while also addressing issues that are specific to the black community.

BET is often dubbed “the worst thing for black people”, Bamboozled Entertainment Television” and a host of other unflattering names. However, when shows like this are brought on the air they receive hardly any attention and viewership. Television is in the business of making money and if people are not watching news programming geared towards people of color then you can expect to not see those types of television shows on air. Support Brother Jeff Johnson as you supported Soledad O’Brien with CNN’s Black In America.

I have listen to Brother Jeff Johnson speak on numerous occasions and this is one intelligent man who has a knack for understanding issues and presenting them in a way that others can grasp them quickly as well. I look forward to this show and I applaud BET for attempting something like this. PLEASE SUPPORT!

Link

Now the mainstream media is announcing what we have known over here at Notes of This Native Son for quite some time. Colin Powell is set to announce his full fledged support behind Barack Obama at the Convention in Denver. Team Obama YES WE CAN!

Hopefully what this endorsement will show is that Conservatives do not believe in John McCain and his supporters will convert over to Team Obama. While watching CNN I saw a statistic that claimed that McCain has a 9 point lead with Americans feeling he would be better quipped to handle international conflict.

What I just saw from this past Russia - Georgia conflict is that McCain is a real tough talker. So tough in fact, that someone will call his bluff. Why do we feel safer with a person who seems more trigger happy, that trigger happy feeling is what has so many Americans dead in Iraq now. I would take sound judgment over a trigger happy fellow any day.

here’s the link

John McCain thinks so!

John McCain has no moral ground to stand on after his despicable portrayal of Barack Obama in his current ad titled “The One”. To call John McCain and his Campaign cohorts pathetic is an understatement. This idea that McCain will slide into the White House by making his campaign a referendum on Obama instead of his own credentials is preposterous. The American people are not as dumb as McCain thinks or would like us to believe.

The ad attempted to make you feel like you were being bamboozled by some televised church service. To claim to be a Man of God yet use people’s affinity with God to attack an opponent is down right disgusting. McCain should hang it up, I hope that he keeps this nonsense up into the fall so people can see him for who he truly is. A defeatist LOSER!

Here is an interesting article in TIME magazine about this nonsense.

These allegations have been hovering around Senator John Edwards for quite some time. I’ll admit, he had me fooled. When I heard the rumors I thought to myself, no way would this man have an extra-marital affair on his wife while she is in such a fragile state. John Edward’s wife Elizabeth has been battling cancer for some time now. His reputation is ruined but that’s not the important issue, he lied to the American Public but that’s the norm for politicians so that’s not the important issue.

The problem here is his wife has to stand by his side, standing up for someone who has embarrassed her in front of the whole world. John Edwards issued a statement saying “You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help,”. I mean even after the man has been caught red handed, he tries to moralize on the public as if he is not the ione who lied, cheated and created this trouble.

Once again I just feel sorry for the wife, she is the victim here. And the story gets even weirder. The woman with whom he cheated has a child who is said to be fathered by another married man who was a former aide to Edwards as well. These women who have these affairs with these married men, who somehow decide to have a conscience like to be the victims as well. Their not, this woman was sleeping with two married men, and having unprotected sex with both of them at that. Once again my prayers are with Elizabeth because she is the one who loses in all this. John Edwards political career was never going anywhere anyway so he’s not losing much.

link

Many don’t know but the thriving reason behind this is to build a network of young people who want to get to know God and dialogue about spirituality without judgment. A good friend of mine started sending me daily gospel songs that would compliment the daily spiritual message in Pardon me. Her unyielding effort to provide me with inspirational songs has inspired me to share those same songs with everyone who comes into contact with this site. Today’s first installation is Heaven by Mary Mary. I hope you enjoy!

On my way to a bbq and an engagement party. Figured I’d leave you with some good controversy by Immortal Technique “Tell the Truth”. I think I’m doing pretty good for a dude whose laptop got stolen last week as far as posting. 1

I guess the kid in me is coming out today. I saw this on CNN and I had to post it. Shout out to the Muppet Babies. Miss Piggy and Kermit and Gonzo. All of them gave me a great childhood. I used to watch the tv show, the movies, you name it I was watching it. I even had a little Kermit back in the day, he had a lumberjack vest on but I’m not sure what happened to him. I had him for years, the vest had been gone but now he’s gone too. Sad, just sad. Anyway shout out to the Smithsonian for celebrating the work of Jim Henson, Long Live the Muppets. Check below, I’ve included a clip of their great show!

Bert and Ernie are paying a special visit to the city that helped give birth to the “Sesame Street” gang.

Kermit the Frog will be part of an exhibit, “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World,” at the Smithsonian Institution.

But don’t expect to see the popular puppets strolling around Washington. Their fame and age (they’re sensitive to light) make too much exposure a security risk. Instead, they will be making their home, at least temporarily, in the underground International Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution as part of the exhibit “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.”

Visitors to the show, which opens Saturday and continues through Oct. 5, will find the Muppets under special lighting, behind glass and closely guarded.

“We consider every single thing in here to be precious,” said project director Deborah Macanic. Technically speaking, they’re all antiques.

It’s a homecoming for Muppets such as Kermit, the piano-playing dog Rowlf and others that first achieved stardom on Washington-area television shows and commercials — long before the success of “The Muppet Show” and “Sesame Street.” Muppets creator Jim Henson grew up in nearby Hyattsville, Maryland, and attended the University of Maryland, where his creative approach began to take shape.

“We’re showing how he went from drawing to a cartoon to a puppet to a moving image,” Macanic said, explaining the exhibit’s themes of visual thinking, storytelling and character development.

Through more than 100 original drawings, cartoons and story boards and about 14 famous Muppets, the exhibit traces Henson’s career as a puppeteer and filmmaker until his death in 1990.

Henson got his television start in 1954, creating a TV show, “Sam and Friends,” for Washington’s NBC station while still in college. Kermit the Frog’s character began developing from this show and later became a superstar.

The exhibit features one of the earliest sketches of Kermit, and a 1970s version of the puppet sits front and center to greet visitors near the entrance of the International Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center.

Kermit was originally conceived as a more abstract reptile character with less defined features. The original puppet was made in 1955 from an old turquoise coat with eyes made from a pingpong ball. Kermit continued to evolve from there to a frog in the 1960s.

“Then Kermit just kind of took over and became the news (reporter) guy with the hat and the trench coat and all that he was by the time he got to Sesame Street,” Macanic said.

The skinny, green frog became the most enduring Muppet character, in part because Jim Henson considered Kermit to be his alter-ego.

Henson’s personality shines through other characters as well, such as the furry, hippie Mahna Mahna who sings scat to a jazz song with two backup singers called the Snowths. The skit debuted in 1969 on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” with Henson performing the gruff voice of Mahna Mahna.

A few days before the exhibit’s opening, the three singers emerged from a wooden storage crate — all in need of a little primping. Josette Cole and Viki Possoff, Smithsonian exhibit registrars, carefully fluffed the pink Snowth puppets and twisted an arm to match a dance pose from a photograph.

“There’s a whole technique to it,” Cole said. “You use a dog brush, for one, and you don’t pull it through the hair because you’ll pull it off. You sort of have to pat it in place.”

Bert and Ernie were unpacked after the Snowths, apparently needing some extra rest after their last public appearance in June in Louisiana.

Museum workers are becoming experts in Muppet care as the exhibit makes a three-year tour. After the show in Washington, the Muppets will travel to Atlanta, Georgia; Orlando, Florida and five other cities through early 2011. The Smithsonian’s experts escort their Muppet treasures by tractor-trailer, tending to them at each stop.

The exhibit anchors a Muppet-themed summer of events at the Smithsonian and elsewhere in the Washington area. Through much of July and August, the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland, will host the film series “Muppets, Music and Magic: Jim Henson’s Legacy” as a tribute to Henson’s work. There will also be programs on puppetry and free Podcast tours.

The only thing missing from the Muppet festival may be the elegant Miss Piggy, who aggressively flirted with Kermit. Miss Piggy will show up in film only, but her puppet isn’t available. Apparently, the materials used to create Miss Piggy weren’t as sturdy for travel as Kermit’s, said Karen Falk, an archivist with The Jim Henson Co. who curated the exhibit.

“As you might expect,” said Falk, “she’s more sensitive.”

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc-4KFxSD4Q