OLD SCHOOL FRIDAY 11/06/09

The work week is over! I am so glad that my time on the urban plantation is a wrap! I've rested and revived my work weary mind. Now it is time to get into some Old School music. This week's theme is:Songs That Inspire

My first selection is by Macy Gray:Moment To Myself


To Be Young, Gifted and Black by Nina Simone is still my second selection.


Old School Friday is the creation of Mrs Grapevine and Marva the Marvalus One.
Please check out the other OSF participants and you can learn how to join in on the party!.AJ - BklynQueen’86 - Bria - CC Groovy - Chocl8t - Cooper - Shawn - Dee - DP - Fresh and Fab - Hagar’s Daughters – Invisible Woman - John - Keith -Kevin - Kim - LaKeisha - LaShonda - Lil Creole Pimp - Lisa C - Mahogany - Malcolm - Marcus - MarvalusOne - Mike - Mrs Grapevine - MsLadyDeborah - Pjazzypar - Pop Art Diva - Quick - Regina - Revvy Rev - Shae-Shae - Sharon - Staci - Tha Connoisseur - Thembi -Villager - Vivrant Thang - Zenobia Verite Parlant
Have a great weekend! Happy OSF to you!

BLOGBLAST FOR PEACE 2009:THE PRELUDE

BLOGBLAST FOR PEACE 2009:MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS ON THE SUBJECT OF PEACE

It is the beginning of a new day in my part of the world. In a society that now functions on a 24/7 schedule, we often forget that the new day begins during the dark hours before the dawn. By the time the sun rises the day is actually several hours old.

This is a special day on my calender. A day that I made a commitment to join my published voice with thousands of others to speak Peace out into the atmosphere. This is the purpose of Blogblast 2009. To bring one voice to the forefront of the local, national and international conversations on this subject.

Attaining Peace is not a passive activity. It one that requires aggression with a purpose and goal. Peace making requires involvement with people who are in our communities and also outside of our communities.

Peace is an attitude adjustment. It is the declaration that confusion and chaos cannot reign supreme. Nor will these negative forces go unchallenged.

I had no set agenda for this particular post. I am just one among many who wants to speak up with a firm commitment to work for Peace. That requires me to be willing to stand up for what is right and what is just. I realize that Peace requires that I take an active interest in what occurs around me. Not just for today-but everyday. Whether it is in my home, on the job, within my community or elsewhere.

Peace requires risk taking. I must be willing to stand firm on what is true and be willing to do the right thing. Even when doing right is not the popular stance. That is not always easy. But then, neither is living with chaos or confusion. The fear of failure is not strong enough to deter me from my goal.

I know that as an individual, my work is limited. But, I also know that things change when one individual reaches out to another individual. Just making that extension is a beginning of forward movement. Peace will not be attained by sitting back and being a casual observer.

Peace is not going to just settle in because we want it to. It requires a firm commitment and a realistic viewpoint. If we all spent some of our time working towards creating Peace, eventually we will see the efforts of our labor.

This may sound like I believe in utopia. Peace is not perfection. It is an open display of human beings who are capable of resolving issues that affect our lives in ways that we no longer find acceptable.

Peace Poem


Blogblast for Peace was created by Mimi Lenox. Please take time to visit her site at Mimi Writes. You can link to other participants of Blogblast 2009. Get a Peace Globe and display it on your site. Let people know that you are an active Peace maker.

Peace be unto you on this day and all the remaining days of your life.

Related Links:
Bloggers Unite:Blogblast for Peace
International Day of Peace 2009

WORD ON WEDNESDAY 11/04/05

"The Gift"
Spoken Word Artist:Mayda Del Valle

FROM MY BROWN EYED VIEW 11/03/09

Four more women's bodies have been discovered at the residence of Anthony Sowell. That brings the body count up to ten women who have murdered by this man.

According to CNN:Authorities on Tuesday charged Anthony Sowell with five counts of aggravated murder after unearthing the bodies of women at his home last week, police said.

Sowell, 50, also was charged with rape, felonious assault and kidnapping, police said. His arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Police arrested Sowell on Saturday, two days after discovering the decomposing bodies of five females inside his home and another woman's body outside the house.

Earlier Tuesday, a source close to the investigation had told CNN that a seventh body had been found in the home. The source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, did not reveal the gender of the seventh body found at Sowell's home. The source did not say exactly where the body was found at the residence.

Authorities found the first two bodies last week while trying to serve an arrest and search warrant on Sowell related to a sexual assault investigation, and an intensive search began. Sowell was not home at the time; officers found him after a tipster told them of his whereabouts.

The decomposing bodies of the first six women, all of whom were African-American, could have been lying where they were found for "weeks, if not months or years," Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller III told CNN on Saturday.(source)

Sowell had been convicted of rape and served time from 1990 until 2005.

Yesterday I posted about how apathy assisted Sowell in his killing spree. I cannot help but to question if this story would be in the national headlines, if there had been a more active effort to discover the whereabouts of the missing women? This aspect of the story has to be brought up. Ten African American women go missing and it doesn't seem that it mattered-until they were discovered on Sowell's property. Now all ten of these women are getting nation wide exposure as victims. Perhaps they would not be receiving this type of exposure if their disappearances had been a matter of importance.

FROM MY BROWN EYED VIEW 11/02/03

While everyone is running around in panic over H1N1, I find myself far more concerned about a disease that may end up killing more people than the flu ever will. That disease is apathy.

According to Dictionary.com the definition for apathy is:
Lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference.
Lack of emotion or feeling; impassiveness.

It seems to me that there is a major epidemic of apathy in the Black communities of this nation. I realized today that it definitely has hit hard in Cleveland, Ohio.
There was a story posted on Black and Missing But Not Forgotten that really got me stirred up this morning. Six women in a Cleveland community were found dead in a man's home. They had been raped, murdered and their bodies were decomposing inside of the house. This story by itself is gruesome and it has made headlines all across the O-State. I sat and watched the news story unfold on the evening news and all the updates that have followed.

What got the better of me is the responses of the residents where the bodies were found. "One of my neighbors has been missing since May, and now I wonder if she was in there," said Teresa Brown, 54, an usher at the nearby Perfect Peace Baptist Church. "If I'd done something, called someone, would it have made a difference?"

"The stench of decay was overwhelming," said Lt. Thomas Stacho, spokesman for the police department. "The closest I got was 15 feet from an open door, and it was more than bad enough. I can't figure out how the neighbors didn't know something was wrong."

They did.For months, they said, they gagged whenever they walked past the wood-framed house, with its listing porch and neatly mowed lawn. Some recalled that Sowell's clothing smelled bad enough to make their eyes water."He came into my store last week and reeked so bad, I had to open the front and back doors," said Eli Tayeh, who owns the Amira Imperial Beverage convenience store across the street. "I asked why he stunk. He shrugged, bought his beer and walked out."

Neighbors blamed the smell on mundane causes: body odor, the garbage bins Sowell picked through for scrap metal, the raw meat next door at Ray's Sausage Shop.No one called the authorities. No one, they said, even thought to do so. After all, in Cleveland these days, help can be hard to find.

"We kept away from him and he kept away from us," said Pierceton, 26, who lives in the predominantly black area. "We should have said something to someone. I wish I had." (source)

There are six families who will eventually wish that someone had called the police too. I find it difficult to imagine that type of stench did not disturb neighbors enough to contact the police or at the very least the Health Department. I know that Cleveland is going through tough economic times and the entire O-State is feeling the budget crunch. But no one seemed to feel motivated enough to find the source of the odor. All of the women who were murdered by Anthony Sowell were Black. Six women come up missing and no one thought to even have him checked out. Why not? This is a question that they will have to answer while learning to adjust to the reality of what has happened in their neighborhood.

There isn't a vaccine to help prevent apathy from spreading. Nor is there a pill that anyone can take that will shake them loose from its grip. If we are not willing to take responsibility and do the right thing for ourselves and the people who live in our communities-who should we blame for end results like this one?

I hope that this lesson is one that everybody takes note of. If just one person takes the initiative to do what their first mind says-this type of tragedy might be averted. We are the ones who have to take care of ourselves.

Please take time to look at the posts on Black and Missing But Not Forgotten. There are still individuals who are not accounted for. You never know-you might see someone that you have information about.

INSPIRATIONAL SUNDAY

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL OF OUR BLESSINGS FLOW!


(Photo by rainhophelp from Photobucket)
It is a beautiful Autumn afternoon here. I have enjoyed spending a portion of my day sitting down and thinking about Mother Earth and what a wonderful creation this planet truly is. Sometimes living the urban environment makes a person forget that there is beauty that surrounds us. If we allow ourselves to just slow down for a moment and take it in. We're usually in such a rush that we often over look the glorious palate that God has created for us to behold.

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
as I have seen in one autumnal face
Autumn quote by John Donne

I hope that you will take just a few moments of time to look around at the beauty that surrounds you. Give thanks for the blessings that you have at that very moment. Because there is someone who would truly appreciate being able to see
Mother Earth decked out in her Autumn Regalia. Be thankful that you can take it all in.

This meme was created by Sojourner's Place. You can visit my on line twin and see what she has prepared for you today. You can also learn how you can participate in this meme.

Have a blessed week!

OLD SCHOOL FRIDAY 10/30/09

The work week is a wrap for me. I have been in the company of people who are coming off of the sugar rush of Trick or Treat candy. Needless to say that the crash was no less than unattractive.

This is one of my favorite weekends of the year. I am so ready to turn my clock back one hour! I hate to spring ahead.

But I am into Old School Friday! This week's theme is: Songs that make you smile. My choice is Drive by Bobby Mcferrin. This is one of those get away tunes that makes me smile whenever I listen to it.

Old School Friday was created by Mrs. Grapevine and Marva the Marvelus One. You can check out the other OSF participants here:AJ - BklynQueen’86 - Bria - CC Groovy - Chocl8t - Cooper - Shawn - Dee - DP - Fresh and Fab - Hagar’s Daughters – Invisible Woman - John - Keith -Kevin - Kim - LaKeisha - LaShonda - Lil Creole Pimp - Lisa C - Mahogany - Malcolm - Marcus - MarvalusOne - Mike - Mrs Grapevine - MsLadyDeborah - Pjazzypar - Pop Art Diva - Quick - Regina - Revvy Rev - Shae-Shae - Sharon - Staci - Tha Connoisseur - Thembi -Villager - Vivrant Thang - Zenobia Verite Parlant