It Ain't Over

Okay here's another little known black history fact that I just read today and thought I'd share:


As track and field athlete, Alice Coachman was the first African-American woman to win a gold medal in Olympic competition. Initially banned from training with white athletes as a child, Coachman created her own athletic regimen and made her own equipment until she was able to join her high school team. She won a scholarship to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and competed as the only African-American athlete on five All-American teams. At the 1948 Olympics in London, Coachman battled through back problems to take home the gold medal. She was the only American woman to medal that year.

Always So Innovative

"We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us"

Doesn't that quote still ring very true for many of us today? Those words were spoken by Samual Cornish and John B. Russwurm on the front page of Freedom's Journal, the very 1st black owned and operater newspaper that was ever published in the US. This was a weekly publication in New York from 1827 to 1829.
Freedom's Journal denounced slavery and advocated for black people's political rights, the right to vote, and spoke out against lynchings. As a paper of record, Freedom's Journal published birth, death and wedding announcements. To encourage black achievement it featured biographies of renowned black figures such as Paul Cuffee, a black Bostonian who owned a trading ship staffed by free black people, Touissant L'Ouverture and poet Phyllis Wheatley. The paper also printed school, job and housing listings.

Just another Black History Fact for ya. It's something I didn't know so I thought I would share.

You Go Girl!

"Tears will get you sympathy. Sweat will get you change."-Jesse Jackson, minister and activist




Carol Mosely-Braun made history in 1992 when she was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first, and thus far only, black woman senator. Her election marked the first time Illinois had elected a woman, and the first time a black person was elected as a Democratic Party candidate to the United States Senate. She was one of two African Americans to serve in the Senate in the 20th century, and was the sole African American in the Senate from 1993 to 1999.
In Sept. 2003, she announced her candidacy for U.S. president making her the 3rd Black woman in history to try to become the president, but pulled out in Jan. 2004 to throw her support to Howard Dean.

Moseley-Braun graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1969 and earned a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1972. She currently owns and runs a private law firm, Moseley Braun LLC in Chicago.

Say It Loud!

Black History Quote for the Day: "Freedom is never given; it is won." A. Phillip Randolf

I think people like Shirley Chisholm exemplify this quote. Mrs. Chisholm was the first black person ever to run for President Candidacy. In 1964 Chisholm ran for a state assembly seat which she won and served in the New York General Assembly from 1964 to 1968. In 1968, after finishing her term in the legislature, Chisholm campaigned to represent New York's Twelfth Congressional District. Her campaign slogan was "Fighting Shirley Chisholm--Unbought and Unbossed." She won the election and became the first African American woman elected to Congress. On January 25, 1972, Chisholm announced her candidacy for president, which she did not win but received 151 delegate votes.

Women like Mrs. Shirley Chisholm make me proud to be a Black woman! For more information on Shirley Chisholm, of course you can Google her or check out this link: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/reference/articles/shirley_chisholm.html

The History of Black History Month

As we all know February is Black History Month, so I thought it would be cool to try to post everyday a new and maybe little known black history fact. Don't worry, I'm going to cover each one of those 6 folks who ran for president so you can look for that coming soon!

So, here is today's fact" Americans have recognized black history annually since 1926, first as "Negro History Week" and later as "Black History Month". We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study of black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Dr. Woodson, a Harvard PhD, decided to take on the challenge of writing Blacks into history books.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, we speak your name. (I borrowed that from Oprah!) I thank God that Dr. Woodson inconvenienced himself to do something special for his people. Without people like him we would still be absent from all history books, save for the brief mention we get when slavery is glanced over as the Emancipation Proclamation is taught.

Politics

I've just realized recently that I really don't know enough about politics or the rules of how our country is supposed to be run. Ya know they say ignorance or the lack of knowledge is the great divide, it's how the people who are in the know keep others out! I got my voters registration card when I turned 18 and have participated in every election since but I can truthfully say that I have just recently gotten more interested in the history of voting in the last couple of years. And actually interested enough to learn more in the last couple of months. I feel like I need to know everything about voting, our election process, The White House, and each past president we've had. I've been interested in the election process now since we have Hillary Clinton has through her hat in the ring for the 2008 election and hopefully so will Barack Obama. With the possibility that Mr. Obama will be running it made me start thinking "hey, how many black people have actually run for presidential candidacy?" I love Google, so I did a search and how found that only 6 black people have ever run for president.

I knew about Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm (shout out to Tajh & Jai :0) and Carol Moseley Braun, who actually ran for the democratic candidacy in 2004; but I had no idea about Alan Keyes or Lenora Fulani. I bet most people have no idea of how many black folks have actually tried to be president, I actually thought it was a larger number; so I'm going to be posting some information on each one of these past candidates especially the ones that I don't know anything about. I figure as I learn about these great people why not share the knowledge. Also I'm going to be sharing some of the research that I do on the subjects I'm interested in that are listed above. If you have questions about our election process that I can try to help with let me know or even better if you have something to contribute leave a comment!

Let's get out and vote in Nov. 2008!

Oh, It's still very much alive

Racism & Ignorance! Boy, stuff like this just makes me furious and makes me wanna cuss. I know there are ignorant people of all colors and of each sex but I don't hear anybody telling the Jews to "just get over" the Holocaust or the Irish to get over the slavery their people went through. I'm going to get on my soapbox a little more before I post the dumb comments that Frank Hargrove, the Va state legislator, made in public! Okay so, slavery of any people is horrible. It was bad when the Egyptians had slaves just like the slavery was horrible here in America but there has never been a slavery system quite like the one here in the US where the people are set free into a worse situation! Sure now we have freedom but what am I supposed to due with it as a newly freed slave!!! You won't give me a decent paying job, I can't buy land, and I can't even eat or clothe myself. So 140 years later, which really isn't all that long ya know, most of us are still suffering from the effects of slavery. And this freakin idiot says we need to get over it. Boy I am steamed up right now!! I may post something a little less aggressive about this later but for now here is the article I read:

Lawmaker Under Fire for Slavery Comment
By BOB LEWIS
RICHMOND, Va. (Jan. 16) - A state legislator said black people "should get over" slavery and questioned whether Jews should apologize "for killing Christ," drawing denunciations Tuesday from stunned colleagues. Del. Frank D. Hargrove, 79, made his remarks in opposition to a measure that would apologize on the state's behalf to the descendants of slaves. In an interview published Tuesday in The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Hargrove said slavery ended nearly 140 years ago with the Civil War and added that "our black citizens should get over it."

The newspaper also quoted him as saying, "are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?" Black lawmakers swiftly denounced Hargrove's comments. "When somebody tells me I should just get over slavery, I can only express my emotion by projecting that I am appalled, absolutely appalled," said Del. Dwight C. Jones, head of the Legislative Black Caucus. Del. David L. Englin also criticized Hargrove's remarks, recalling that his grandparents were driven from their homes in Poland "by people who believed that as Jews, we killed Christ." When Hargrove rose to speak, he told Englin he didn't care about Englin's religion. "I think your skin was a little too thin," Hargrove said as lawmakers gasped and groaned.

Anyone remember...

When you could turn on the TV and there would actually be programs on about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? As I was off yesterday, I sat and looked through all the channels that we have (and we have quite a few) and I couldn't find any program at all. When I was younger, I remember watching at least 3 or 4 shows during that day off of school. No wonder people have forgotten, I think it's so sad.

No one wants to inconvenience themselves enough now to do anything like what Dr. King did for people. It took a lot of sacrifice on his part to be the man that he was. I'm sure it would have been easy for Dr. King to say, "No I think I'm going to stay home with my wife and children. Let someone else worry about it." I'm so glad that he didn't.

Since the television networks don't find it necessary to show programs about this great man's life, I will be purchasing the following 2 DVD's, so that my daughter can see and understand what we teach her about Dr. King. Because I'm sure that when she is old enough there won't even be much spoken about his legacy or work.

Our Friend Martin: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000TPAHY/ref=wl_it_dp/104-2846783-2911936?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3L1DGBN3C9RDZ&colid=28TR5BWFAEWEN

Citizen King: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006Z2L5G/ref=wl_it_dp/104-2846783-2911936?ie=UTF8&coliid=I286EZE65Y6ULZ&colid=28TR5BWFAEWEN

A New Year

It's been a while since I posted... Mostly due to vacation and really just trying to center myself to ramp up for this new year. I can feel big things on my horizon and I really feel that I need to be a lot more prepared than I am. I'm not 100% sure of what God will be sending my way but I do know that I want to be ready or at least as ready as I can be when I receive it.
So anyway I'm back and I plan on posting just a regularly as I was last year. Of course I've got some more thought provoking posts coming as well as some more product recommendations! I love to share cool products. So anyway, look out for the next posts and leave some comments whenever the mood strikes ya!

I'm Dreaming of a....

Not a white Christmas because I don't have to dream about that. That is reality. I guess I'm dreaming of a more diverified Christmas. Ya know what I mean? I've been looking around for a tree topper that doesn't have blue eyes and blonde hair but it seems as though all angel tree toppers only come in that style. What if I wanted a Asian angel at the top of my tree? Why aren't there more types of ornaments available? Well my guess would be that we are all supposed to just conform to the way thing are now, pretty white Christmas. I don't think I want to adapt to that.

An Ah-Ha Moment

I heard a quote today that made me stop and really think. I mean, it was one of those light bulb moments where I had to really look inside to answer the question myself. That quote was simply this: "You never know when your life will change. Are you prepared?"

I don't know if that same statement will strike anyone the way it did with me but I really had to take a few moments to realize that my answer is mostly no. One of my goals is to be a writer. Actually I already am a writer in my mind but can I prove it to anyone else? What have I written, that if a publisher came to me and offered me a deal, that I could produce to have read. I also want to have my own business but do I have a concrete idea of what I want that business to be? Again, no. So even if someone where to come to me and say "hey, I will give you $500,000 to start a business right now if you can give me your business idea and plan" I would have to stumble through half thought out ideas of business that I would like to start but I wouln't have anything concrete. Hearing this quote today has kind of jarred me into a sense of urgency. I need to get prepared.

Most of us spend our lives living from day to day but not really preparing for the next level because we are so wrapped up just getting through the day. God did not give us life just to "get by". So again "You never know when your life will change. Are you prepared?"

We Need More Stories Like This..

I just read this article online, not only did I love what the mother did (I'm sure she was a black lady ) but I think more parents need to discipline their children more than making excuses for them. Those same excuses are why kids are doing just about anything nowadays. I'm only 28 but we had more respect for authority, parents, teacher, and even strangers back in the day. Anyway check out the article:

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A fed-up mother had her 12-year-old son arrested for allegedly rummaging through his great-grandmother's things and playing with his Christmas present early.
The mother called police Sunday after learning her son had disobeyed orders and repeatedly taken a Game Boy from its hiding place at his great-grandmother's house next door and played it. He was arrested on petty larceny charges, taken to the police station in handcuffs and held until his mother picked him up after church.
"My grandmother went out of her way to lay away a toy and paid on this thing for months," said the boy's mother, Brandi Ervin. "It was only to teach my son a lesson. He's been going through life doing things ... and getting away with it." Police did not release the boy's name.
The mother said that her son was found in the last year to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but that his medicine does not seem to help.
She said he faces an expulsion hearing at his school Wednesday. Rock Hill Police Capt. Mark Bollinger said the boy took a swing at a police officer assigned to the school last month. He has been suspended from school since then.
The boy's case will be presented to Department of Juvenile Justice officials in York County, who will decide what happens to him, Bollinger said. His mother hopes he can attend a program that will finally scare him straight.
"It's not even about the Christmas present," she said. "I only want positive things out of it. ... There's no need for him to act this way. I'd rather call myself than someone else call for him doing something worse than this."

I'm sure people will say what this mother did was uncalled for and wrong but I bet her son won't be out on the streets stealing from anybody else!

Experience is the name everyone gives to their Mistakes

That's a quote that I read today by Oscar Wilde. I read it and automatically thought, yes, that is so true! When you really think about it we go through these "seemingly" random experiences in life and we only remember the times when something adverse or negative happened. For some strange reason the mistakes that we make in life are viewed as experience. Why is it that as people we don't learn from the experiences of others as to avoid the mistake ourselves? Just my own thought for the day.

Tyler Perry Does It Again

I know if you haven't seen the Madea plays or movies that you have at least heard of her and the man responsible for making us all laugh while he portrays Madea for us; Mr. Tyler Perry. Well he has a new movie coming out on Valentine's Day called Daddy's Little Girls. Please go check out the trailer for the movie: http://www.daddyslittlegirlsmovie.com/

Tyler Perry just keeps bring good solid black film to light. Keep doing whatcha do Tyler!

Something I Am Passionate About

Actually there are 2 things that I am very passionate about: kids going to college and homeownership. And really as I write this I have realized that these two things kinda go hand in hand. Not that you have to had gone to college to own your own home but I think it's the knowledge of knowing "how" to do something that I think are the same. Okay so I guess really what I'm passionate about is knowledge. I've heard it before and I'm sure you have too "Knowledge is power" and I truly believe that. If knowledge wasn't power why would the slave masters kill their slaves for learning, why are schools in poor (black) areas lacking in real education, why is it so hard for minorities to get into college, and why don't more minorities know the process of owning their own home? Well the "why" can be answered very simply: because those in power don't want us to know and because we actually have to get up and fight to get the knowledge, we quit before we get the information we needed.

The following are quotes from an article I read online today:
"Decades after the civil rights movement, racial disparities in income, education and home ownership persist and, by some measurements, are growing."
"White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than blacks and 40 percent higher than Hispanics last year"
"Home ownership grew among white middle-class families after World War II when access to credit and government programs made buying houses affordable. Black families were largely left out because of discrimination, and the effects are still being felt today"
"Home ownership creates wealth, which enables families to live in good neighborhoods with good schools."
"Income should not be a significant determining factor whether someone should have an opportunity to go to college"

These are the parts of the article that struck a major cord with me. I think I'll be posting on this subject a couple more times because it is so important and because I don't just want to post thoughts on these 2 subject but I want to give some "this is HOW you do it" answers.

Dedication & Obedience

Did you know that it took Noah 120 years to complete the ark? Oh, and did you know that it had never, ever rained in Noah's whole life. So if you think about it Noah heard God's voice tell him to build an big boat because He was going to make it rain for a long time. Not only did Noah live far from where he could even see a boat to have an idea of what to build but he had never even heard of rain. But Noah did what he was told to do anyway. He kept working on the ark to God's specifications no matter what (as I'm sure they did) other people said. Noah had no idea what this rain stuff was going to look like or what damage it was going to do but he listened to God although he couldn't understand God's big picture. What a great lesson for all of us to learn. Listen to God's voice and act upon it joyfully and unwaveringly. Why, because He said so.

You might like this too

Our daughter loves Dora the Explorer now. She doesn't really have much use for television unless Dora or some other singing cartoon is on. We recently bought one of these in the car dvd players and it is such a great product that I had to let other folks know about it. So here it is:
It comes with wireless headphones and is great. It comes with a headrest mount that makes the dvd player look likes it's installed in your car. This thing is great, and my daughter loves it. She tries to turn it on as soon as we get in the car! Oh and price wise it runs around 250 at www.crutchfield.com. They offer free shipping and they ship super fast. I ordered mine and it came the next day!

Imagine This

You have a child who plays on a sport team and they play this one particular team every season. This team is full of dirty players and everything the two teams face each other the "dirty" team cheats and always wins because of this. Your child usually leaves the game feeling very disappointed and has decided that it's not even worth the time or effort to play them any more and figures that it's easier to quit since the other team is just going to win anyway.


This scenario is very similar to how a lot of people (especially black people) feel about voting. You wouldn't tell you child to be a quitter now would you? No, I'm sure most of you would say "Baby, if you play the game with integrity and do the things that you are supposed to do then you will win one day. Cheaters never really win." I believe this same truth with voting. Please get out there tomorrow and exercise your RIGHT to vote. Voting is an important right that a lot of us have that we take for granted. If you don't vote then you can't complain about the education your children are receiving, the minimum wage rate, or any other thing that our Senators, Congressman, and President handle for us! Get out there tomorrow, November 7th, and Vote!

God and His Big Picture

I know I haven't posted on my conversation with Oprah yet but I have to make this post first. I actually spoke on the phone with Ms. Oprah Winfrey yesterday. Yes, I know it was a once in a lifetime type of blessing and I wanted so much just to enjoy the moment. While I was on hold listening to her opening monolgue I prepared some notes for all the things that I wanted to get out and say to her. I wanted to thank her for doing that wonderful "Legends Ball" because I think thanking those who came before us is such an important thing as well as reaching back to pull someone up to your level and even push them further; I wanted to tell her that in my short 28 years that I have learned that nothing happens by accident even me talking to her. I had all these things that I thought would make me sound smart and interesting and that would carry the conversation.

But right before I spoke to her (I was the 2nd caller of the day) I got on my knees and prayed to God: I asked Him to speak through me to help me give Ms. Winfrey a message that she might need to hear that day, I also asked that I not be nervous so that I could just enjoy listening to her live voice speaking to me. Then I thanked Him and sat back in my seat.

When I finally spoke to her I didn't say any of those things on that paper and truthfully I can't remeber a lot of what I said to her. I need to listen to the broadcast of our conversation to hear exactly what I said. After I got off the phone, I felt like I had blown a wonderful opportunity. I really didn't want to call anyone and tell them about the great conversation I had with her because I really didn't fell that it went that well since I didn't get to say all those things that I thought I should have said. I was really down when I went home and after I expressed to my husband how upset I was, I prayed again in the shower to God. This time I asked him to let the negative feeling I had to go away, that if I had said what He wanted me to say that somehow He could let me know. I asked that if He really spoke through me that I would feel better and that sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach go away. I even prayed that He take the conflicting thoughts I had and let me know that I did please Him with what was said. I still went to sleep trying hard not to think about all those other things I should've said.

At 5:50 this morning my husbands clock went off and woke me up, then at 5:55 I could hear my daughter talking in her room so I knew that she was awake too. After bringing her into our room and getting back in the bed I turned on the radio and figured I would listen to the Steve Harvey morning show, who opens his show every morning with a prayer and devotion to God. This morning Mr. Harvey spoke about how we as people try to map out everything including our lives but it's not even possible for us to do so because we don't even know where we are going. He said "God knows your Big Picture" and asked how can we map out a route to a place that we don't even know that we are headed to. Steve said that when you pray for something and God gives it to you, you can't keep thinking about how you could have done it differently! I was crying in my bed at this point and then Steve said that he had written something else to talk about this morning and hadn't even planned to talk about this subject but that God was speaking through him. And He was! He was talking to me this morning.

Lord, I thank you for answering my prayers. I thank you for the miricles that you have placed in my life and allowed me to experience. Thank you for speaking directly to me this morning and for the kisses from Sydney. I know that was you! Thank you.

Yes, I sure did talk to Gayle King Again

I can only say that I am blessed and that although I have no idea for these wonderful blessings I just thank the Lord. Now I'm sure some may read this and say why is she thanking God just to have talked to Gayle King? Well it was something that I never even thought possible that has been made possible all due to an email that I really only sent just to say that I loved her show. I guess that email really paid off huh? Well on Monday around 10:03(actually that's the exact time, I know because it's on my cell phone!) I got a call from Megan, who is one of the producers on Gayle's show. She told me that they didn't have enough callers for the show that day and asked if I would like to participate again! I almost fell down walking. Of course I wanted to speak to Gayle again. So Meagan told me to expect a call around 10:30 to be on the show.

But I must digress just a little to tell you why I almost fell in the floor when I got this call; well that would be because at 9:16 I got a call from a producer from Ms. Oprah Winfrey's (not that I needed to put her first and last name!)XM show to ask if I would like to talk to her! That's just a little teaser for you to come back and read the post on that!

So I got a call from Gayle's producer, Mark, at 10:49 and he told me that they really liked me and that I was their super caller. I'm like okay you probably say this to everyone, and he was like "no, no one else has called in twice" So I'm just feeling even most blessed and exstatic at this point. I vowed to myself this time that I would not be as nervous as I was the first time. So this time Gayle talked about going to parents weekend at her son's college. So when it was my turn I just asked her if she stayed on campus with him or if she got a hotel, to which she replied heck no girl, I got a hotel. Also I asked her how her son was doing because last week she talked about him having a problem with his arm tingling and feeling numb. She said he was still expriencing the same problem but that they had gotten his blood work done but did not have the results back yet. She thanked me for asking and that was our 2nd conversation. I think I'm ready to have Gayle over for dinner now!