I love to big up people doing big things in our local communities and spreading knowledge to our people. Common is always pushing the envelope of awareness and integrating our communities with a sense of pride. If you are not familiar, I suggest you get familiar with his non profit Common Ground Foundation. There are several programs that this organization uses to empower our youth, I want to thank Common and the other artists who recognize that we need organizations like this to build our communities together!

Mission Statement:
The Common Ground Foundation is dedicated to the empowerment and development of urban youth in the United States.

Vision Statement:
The Common Ground Foundation was created by Hip Hop artist, actor and children’s author Lonnie Rashid Lynn, known as “Common”. Common’s social-conscience message serves as inspiration for equality, opportunity and hope among youth in underserved communities. The Foundation is committed to empowering youth in urban neighborhoods and providing life skills needed to achieve their dreams.

Click here to donate
http://www.commongroundfoundation.org/donate.html

This is really sad news, my heart truly goes out to this man’s family. Kirk Wright, a Harvard educated manager of a popular hedge fund killed himself this past Memorial Day weekend after being convicted of mail fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering in federal court.

Kirk Wright was the manager of the Marietta Hedge Fund. The bigger issue here to me is that a well educated, intelligent brother has taken his own life. A problem we often neglect in black communities and believe it or not white communities as well is how serious depression really is. It seems we have yet to find a productive way as a society to deal with how people emotionally handle times of crisis. Often these states of depression drive people right off the edge and they do drastic things like committing violent crimes even inflicting pain upon themselves. I send my deepest condolences to this brothers family and I pray that as a community we can start discussing the need to make mental health a core issue in our lives and finding beneficial remedies.

for more on this story check out:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/05/26/wright_0527.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in.” Joshua 6: 2-5

Happy Memorial Day, I just got back from the local parade in my town where there was a nice sound off for our soldiers, the ones living and those who have had an untimely demise. I wound up there because my little sister is in the marching band, sweet little girl, she’s growing so big. However, hearing the horns made me think of our soldiers fighting at war right now. My cousin has been in Iraq for the past however many moths and just this past Friday my God Sister told me that her orders have her leaving for Iraq soon. Immediately, I was upset by this but after hearing her energy I thought that it is just best for me to support her and pray for her.

So as I read the scripture above and I think of all of the family members and friends that we have at war I ask myself where are our priests? Where are our horns, where is our protection, where is the support for our troops in the name of our Lord. I know often my disdain with the government and our rationale for being at war makes me angry with the military but I recognize that this is misplaced anger. I look at the story of Jericho and it makes me want to support our troops even more, makes me think that we as a community of Christians we should be as supportive of the troops as possible to ensure that they come to a victory and come home safely. It is only through God’s will that our families and friends will be safe so I believe we must invoke the spirit of the days spoken of in the scripture and protect our troops with the armor of God. Peace and Grace be unto you.

No matter how long the night, the day is sure to come.

There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24
Whoever walks with the wise will become wise; whoever walks with the fools will suffer harm. Proverbs 13:20

I woke up very late this morning (lol) after having a “great” weekend. One of the first things on my mind was how lucky I am to have built such great friendships. This entire weekend was spent with people whom I truly consider my closest friends and we wound up any and everywhere. A great part of building friendships is having the opportunity to watch your friends grow and prosper. One person landed a new high - paying job, so we drove to NY to celebrate. Three more are graduating from Temple this week; more cause to celebrate. And lastly if I was Kanye West (which I’m not, I’m THE CEDRIC SHINE, LOL) my buddy Chris Thomas would be Jay - Z, making him my Big Brother. Yesterday I got to watch him graduate from Penn State’s phenomenal Business Program gaining his MBA.

All this to say I am very grateful for the friends that I have in my life and very thankful that I can be a special part of their finest moments. I feel my time is better spent around people who have my best interest at heart and I have theirs. We are as good as the company we keep around ourselves. The bible tells us that iron sharpens iron, and judging from this weekend I have some of the sharpest iron surrounding me. I pray that I can be as sharp as those who have influenced me. So today I am honoring my great friendships, I think you should too for without them there would be no us. Peace and Grace be unto you.

A wise man who knows proverbs reconciles difficulties.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:26

For some odd reason this scripture has been on my mind this morning. A few days ago my mother and I were talking about this Marvin Gaye special she was watching on tv (she’s a huge marvin Gaye fan). The special talked about how torn Marvin was and how he dealt with so many internal demons. His father was a pastor and they had a very strange relationship but she told me of this one story where Marvin threw a load of money on his parent’s bed to symbolize that he had finally made it. His father then quoted this exact scripture to him. It got me to thinking, thinking about how we live in a culture where we obsess over so many superficial things.

Are we chasing money and beauty rather than our own true passions. If we are, beauty fades and money is not promised to anyone (Just ask OJ). I know I do it, I have superficial desires and wants. I often wonder will we become all that we dream to be in exchange for our souls, in exchange for the goodness of our spirits. It’s easy to speak of balance and quickly read this and say that it does not apply to you. We can all have a perception of ourselves that is naturally flawed, more focused on what we expect life to be. Or how we believe that we view things, when in practice it may be very different. Just some food for thought for today, it’s raining outside and I am going to ponder on some of these questions and ask myself am I following my passions. Are you? Peace and Grace be unto you.

He who does not seize opportunity today, will be unable to seize tomorrow’s opportunity.

I spoke about drug abuse in a former post titled “Our Forgotten Family”, and this video reminds me of that piece. I’m worried about Lil Wayne, his actions as of late have been spiraling downward and I am worried about where this lifestyle will lead him. He says “not to worry” about him, but how can one not when his interviews are filled with incoherent sentences as we watch him sip from his cup of death. An artist with this much reaching capability can not be ignored and left to die from his own vices. We have watched too many greats pass because as a community of listeners we just sat by idly watching someone’s demise. I think it’s time that his fans start to reach out to him and let the young man know that people care about him enough to not watch him throw his life away.

This morning a fraternity brother of mine gave me some bad news about his church burning down. News reports state that the Prince of Peace Baptist Church which is located on 32nd and Berks Street in the Strawberry Mansion section of North Philadelphia has burned down and caused other neighboring houses to catch fire as well.
However let the Glory be to God because in this time of trials and tribulations, its members are not losing hope. A woman was quoted saying “”It’s bad seeing this happen,” she said, “but I firmly believe that in this God will get the glory. We have a crusade coming up in May. We’re not going to let this stop us. We’ll find a way.” My prayers go out to the community in which this church resides, the church itself and all of its members. They will get through this tough time and they will be blessed even more as they remain faithful to the word of God.

Here is a video of Kwame Kilpatrick using the black card. Please sit down Mr. Kilpatrick and stop embarrassing the city of Detroit. And why is it when people get in trouble they run to the black community even if they weren’t supporting them before. Like how do you cost a city millions of dollars and then claim to be the victim; dude sit down you are not a victim. You attempted to play the game, you did a very bad job at it mind you. Now please bow out gracefully so Detroit can begin to improve their image and recover from your nonsense and begin to affect the real problems of their city.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3WBeXBjjZA&hl=en]

So the lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand sheassess. Job 42:12

I use today’s verse to illustrate the blessings that the bible teaches us our Creator will bestow upon you if you are faithful to his word. The scripture comes from the story of Job; where Job’s life had been turned upside down while the devil continuously meddled in his life. Despite all of the negativity, hardship, pain and suffering Job endured, he remained faithful to God. For that, he was blessed more in the latter part of his life than he was in the first part of his life. Might I add that the first part of his life was not too shabby either; so he was ballin in the end!

I use this story because today I was given some sad news. A fraternity brother of mine emailed me and asked me to pray for his family, his church family and his pastor for this morning their church had burned down. A year ago, I would have been like “man that’s messed up” and then continued on in my day probably never giving it much thought again. However today I was upset to hear such information. People have lost their spiritual place of worship, and everything that church was doing for the community around it is put on hold for just a second during these trials and tribulations. That’s upsetting when you understand the type of impact a church can have on a community. So I got down to pray and while praying I realized it was just a test. This church and congregation will be even more blessed in the second part of their existence than they were in the first, if they remain faithful to the Lord and his ways. I see a new and improved building in their future, more ministries that reach out to the community around them, and an undeniable faith placed in the people of the congregation when they get through this together. So I pray for this church and congregation but I know that they know they will be blessed ten fold just because of their faith. Might be some hell in the hallway but they will find that other door of opportunity that the Lord has blessed them with and they will overcome these obstacles. Peace and Grace be unto you.

Where there’s a will there’s a way

YES WE CAN. SI SE PUEDE

Excerpts from Daily News:
THE CHOICE in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary is not only the one between a white woman and a black man. It’s a choice between the past and the future.
But the long slog through 44 primaries and caucuses has confirmed for us that Sen. Barack Obama’s vision of change - and the way he plans to pursue it - is what we need right now. Badly.
Contrary to Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign slogan, we believe Barack Obama is more likely to be “ready on Day One” to lead us in a new direction. Because of his experience.

It would not be content with eking out slim victories by playing to the narrow interests of the swing voters of the moment while leaving the rest of the country as deeply divided as ever. Instead, an Obama administration would seek to expand the number of Americans who believe that they have a personal stake in our collective future - and that they have the power to change things.

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080417_VOTE_FOR_BARACK_OBAMA.html