Obama=Reparations: Yeah Right

Obama=Reparations: Yeah Right
Or
Let’s Get Off Our Asses and Stop Waiting For A Handout

Millions have cheered the last couple of days because Sen. Barack Obama became the first black man nominated by a major political party for the presidency. We all watched the convention with awe as a black man took center stage and proclaimed to the world that he is ready to “be the man.” Many blacks (African-Americans, Negros, Colored folk, etc.) are beside themselves at the prospect of having a black president. Why? Does it mean we are finally equal with other races and nationalities? Will brother Obama finally make the apology to the blacks for slavery? Will he finally give us reparations? Will you finally get your forty acres and a mule (promised to freed slaves after the Civil War)? Hell No!!! That is not his job first of all and secondly I don’t think he really cares. Barack Obama is just another politician out to get his by any means necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited by all of this, but I am also careful not to get my feelings hurt either. We, blacks, must prepare ourselves for the impending let down and take a stand at last to reclaim what is rightfully ours; our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Yes, blacks have been through a lot. But so have other nations of people who were able to overcome their hardships. Native Americans had their land stolen from them and then forced to live in the worst corners of it. Not all, but several tribes have turned their misfortune into success by opening casinos and taking all of your money, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods notably. Or how about the early Irish immigrants, who managed to bully their way into politics and come to dominate the NYPD. In early NYC, through the political machine known as Tammany Hall, the Irish grabbed onto power and staked their claim as people worthy of better. The Jews, who everyone hates for some strange reason, have shown how to make lemonade from lemons. In the early Jewish immigrant history, they were not allowed to go to any hospital, so they built their own-The Jew’s Hospital opened June 5, 1855-which we know today as Mount Sinai Hospital, one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the country. These nations invested in real estate and kept it in the family, looking to the success of future generations. They maintained their community as a means to survival. Just look at all the ethnic groups who were disenfranchised and turned things around for themselves. Read and open your minds to the “real world” and see how it has been done before and we can do it again. Not waiting for government to do it or for some handouts, but through the unbreakable wall of community they persevered.
I believe that a change is long overdue. We have sat on our hands for too long and accepted the crap thrown our way. We must first admit that we have no sense of community and work towards rebuilding our communities. No longer can we assume the roles portrayed in the media, we are not ghetto and we are not the dregs of society. Enough is enough; we must join together and take a stand to rectify the last 450 plus years of socio-political-economic oppression. This is the new revolution. If we want true equality, we must take it. We must break the bonds of ignorance and begin to develop our history and who we are as a people.
Deprogramming yourself is the first step. Who are you really? Are you the funny comedian with a sitcom? Are you the future top draft in the NBA or NFL? Maybe you are the successful black bitch, or the drug dealing thug on the street corner. Or are you the next gangsta rapper? Is that all that we can aspire to? I think not. Why do we not inspire ourselves and children to be more? What happened to the dreams of past revolutionaries who died fighting for our futures? Please don’t tell me the dreams died with them. We must resurrect the ideas of a successful black community and take action to make it so. Reshape your view of yourselves and the world around you; you are more than “they” say you are.
Each one teach one, can still be applied today. Sharing our knowledge with one another is the only way to better ourselves. We must also instill an attitude of self governing, where we hold each other in the community responsible for their actions. By doing this we can put an end to the aimlessness of youths wandering the streets and put them back in the education system. We can give every child several parents to raise them. We can keep our young men out of the prison system and give them a better future. The new gang in the hood would be made up of neighbors joined together to keep the community safe and on the path to social and economic independence. When we reestablish our communities, we can rebirth the black business, clean up the streets, provide a responsible future for our children and begin to live at peace.
Ask yourself if you are ready for change, not just a black face in the white house, but true change? It will not be easy, easy is doing nothing. Dedication and hard work will bring about the change we crave and need. I believe that Obama will be the next president, but have a hard time thinking that his success will mean success in the community. We must bring about that change and success. We must make a stand against the drug dealing on our blocks, the destruction of our businesses, the raping of our women and community, the emasculation and murder of our young boys and men. We must abandon the self-serving capitalist ideals that govern this nation we live in. We must rise above the greed and deception of our current policies and bring about a social reform that will bring fairness and equality to the people. The crabs in a barrel mentality, along with what the establishment has told us to be, has stifled our growth long enough, now is the time to uplift one another, to share our resources and pool our talents to bring about change and develop OUR COMMUNITY.

- J.B. Stevens

Conversations

A friend of mine told me something today that I want to post here because it really made me feel special:


Really Good Friend CT: I appreciate you support, no matter where life leads us all far or close; you will always be my one and only greatest friend! I love you a whole lot you are my homey for life and don’t you forget that.


Really good friends are hard to come by and I appreciate her friendship.

Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Me.

Yesterday I celebrated a milestone: 35 Fabulous, Grown & Sexy. Wow, and I feel great. I feel every bit of fabulous, every bit of grown, and every bit of sexy. I love myself silly right now. I love my family. I love my friends. I like my job. I love life and it feels good. I know that this feeling is all because of God. Everything I feel is possible because of GOD and I am so thankful.

The best gift I received was when I got home and my youngest had a cup-cake with lit candles and he sang Happy Birthday in Spanish. He looked up the words on the internet. Awwwwww. That made my day.

To everyone who remembered and showed me love: I am so grateful. To those who forgot, thats okay, I feel fabulous anyway.

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Grown & Sexy.

Grown & sexy. That's what I am always talking about. Someone beat me to it and wrote a mini-manual.

Grown Women
Girls want to control the man in their life.
Grown women know that if he's truly hers, he doesn't need controlling.
Girls yell at you for not calling them.
Grown women are too busy to realize you hadn't.
Girls are afraid to be alone.
Grown women revel in it -- using it as a time for personal growth.
Girls ignore the good guys.
Grown women ignore the bad guys.
Girls make you come home.
Grown women make you want to come home.
Girls leave their schedule wide-open and wait for a guy to call and make plans.
Grown women make their own plans and nicely tell the guy to get in where he fits in.
Girls worry about not being pretty and/or good enough for their man.
Grown women know that they are pretty and/or good enough for any man.
Girls try to monopolize all their man's time (i.e., don't want him hanging with his friends).
Grown women realize that a li'l bit of space makes the 'together time' even more special -- and goes out with her own friends.
Girls think a guy crying is weak.
Grown women offer their shoulder and a tissue.
Girls want to be spoiled and 'tell' their man so.
Grown women 'show' him and make him comfortable enough to reciprocate without fear of losing his 'manhood.'
Girls get hurt by one man and make all men pay for it.
Grown women know that was just one man.
Girls fall in love and chase aimlessly after the object of their affection, ignoring all 'signs.'
Grown women know that sometimes the ones you love, don't always love you back -- and move on, without bitterness.
Girls will read this and get an attitude.
Grown women will read this and pass it on to other Grown women and their male friends.

I am grown, not to mention sexy!!! How about you???

A Memory I Would Like to Erase.

Today is one of the saddest days. It's September 11 and although it has been six years, I try not to remember. Although I was not directly affected, the memory of the Twin Towers coming down brings tears to my eyes and I feel a weight on my heart. You would think that after six years I would forget, but it is just that I do not want to remember.

May God bless all those directly and indirectly affected by the collapse of the Twins. May God bless the Firefighters, Police Officers, EMS workers, and volunteers who put their lives on the line to save and/or help others. May God bless the servicemen and women who are still fighting for who knows what reason. May God bless us all.

Ever since September 11, 2001 I have not worked on that day. I was off on that day because I was taking the kids to the doctor. Then every year after that I just could not bring myself to work because it just felt like a day of mourning. I would always watch the news and memorials, and the reading of the names, and I would cry. As the years have gone by, it has become unbearable. I cannot bear to watch any more memorials. I do not want to watch any more movies. I wish the impossible. I wish this day would never have happened. It is the one memory I would like to erase.

Dogs and Flying Sh*t

So I was away in Arizona for a whole week back in the beginning of August. The flight was long and awful. There was lots of turbulence. But I am glad we were safe. Thank God for that. I have objections over the fact that if I wanted to eat on the plane, I had to pay $5 to eat. So many issues with airlines, from the cost of a plane ticket, to the wait times, the flights are almost always late in departure and arrival, and I have to pay for my food. Good thing I bought my own food before I got on the plane. On the way back to NYC they were serving breakfast instead of lunch and only had limited quantities. Whats that about? Oh and I want to bring up that at the airport in Arizona, Phoenix to be exact, there was a woman in the bathroom walking her dog. I mean newspaper spread on the floor, dog trying to sh*t, walking her dog. WTF, after seeing that I was so ready to come home. I thought the crazy stuff only happened in NY, apparently not. So glad to be back home.

Military Issue Part 2

And the story continues.


KILLEEN, Tex. - Bronx soldier Jonathan Aponte doesn't know yet if he'll be punished by his superiors, but he's already taking lumps from his peers.
Since returning to his base, the 20-year-old private has felt the scorn of other soldiers - through stares and words - who are appalled that he hired someone to shoot him in the leg to avoid returning to Iraq.
"Some guys have been giving me a hard time, here and there," Aponte told the Daily News at Fort Hood, where he arrived Thursday after being ordered back by the U.S. Army. "It's random people," he said. "Not really anyone I know. They've been saying, 'You're a piece of s---.' I'm trying to take it lightly."
For the young G.I., the timing of his return could not have been worse. The day he got to Texas, officials announced two Fort Hood soldiers - Pfc. Ron Joshua, 19, and Pfc. Brandon Bobb, 20 - had been killed by a bomb.
The news left few soldiers sympathetic to Aponte's struggle.
"I wouldn't want him next to me in combat - not a chicken like that," said Dee Xiong, 22, an infantryman set to redeploy in December after serving 10 months in Iraq.
"What he did was wrong," said a 20-year-old Army mechanic who served a year in Iraq. "You know what you sign up for and you just have to finish it out."
Even residents and merchants near the base frowned on Aponte's actions, though they expressed a sincere appreciation for the difficulty of his job.
"He should have went about it in a different way," said Nancy Watts, 50, a manager at an Arby's. "There are people who can help you," said Watts, whose daughter is a retired Army medic. "I feel sorry for him that he felt he had to do something so drastic."
But one soldier confided he has thought about faking an injury to get out of service - saying the burden of war can leave the mind and body totally warped.
"I understand where he's coming," said a 20-year-old grunt from Amarillo, Tex., who asked not to be named. "There's a lot of stress and no downtime. People will do desperate things to stay with their families."
Aponte had served 10 months in Iraq when he returned to the Bronx on a two-week leave in June. He was scheduled to be redeployed on July 9. Instead of reporting for duty that day, he arranged to be shot in the knee by an acquaintance in exchange for $500, he has admitted.
He said he was so psychologically damaged by his time in Baghdad he could not return for another eight months, and that his scheme was hatched out of desperation.
Aponte, his wife and the alleged triggerman, have been charged with conspiracy and face serious jail time.
tel-ghobashy@nydailynews.com

And the following are a few comments from some daily news readers.

DaveP Jul 22, 2007 1:20 AM
His fellow soldiers are dispensing their own brand of justice, quite apart from whatever the Army does to him. This should not have had to happen, besides the fact that we shouldn't be there. This is what happens when there is an all volunteer military. You go to war with what you have- not what you wish you had. Not too many people would volunteer when they know they will be getting shot at. Being re-deployed into combat three and four times is mind boggling. In a way, I don't blame the guy, but it is what it is. The problem is that there isn't anyone else left to send. If Mexico invaded us there would be nobody to fight them. Forget Korea, they would have to fend for themselves.

Pomeranianzdad Jul 22, 2007 5:55 AM
I can understand why fellow soldiers feel anger towards Aponte, but I don't condone their actions. The questions that remain unanswered include 1--What has or hasn't the military offered Aponte in terms of support? 2--What would lead a person to have himself maimed to avoid returning to Iraq? 3--Is Aponte truly fearful or an opportunist? and (most importantly IMO) 4--Why are we still sentencing our troops to death in Iraq? BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!

hjo4 Jul 22, 2007 6:16 AM
Mr.Aponte's actions should be a lesson to all young people.Don't volunteer for anything unless you're prepared to finish it.Yes we're in a invasion in Iraq,but that's were he was ordered to go and fight.His feelings, concerns, wishes and wants are not relevant here,He goes proudly where hes ordered to and do what he's told to the best of his ability.Sadly this was his choice, (for his own reasons) now he must face the consequences of his actions.Anyone knows the military and the mafia has the same principal, once you join, you're in for life.The question becomes either punk out or risk your life on a bullshit tip that you have no control over.Kinda tough choice.
anjta Jul 22, 2007 7:04 AM

This guy is shell-shocked, but not enouugh to be declared unfit for compbat. Some of his peers probably hate his guts, and his lateral thinking, and they are disguising it as patriotism for the bandwagon effect.
loisdom Jul 22, 2007 7:30 AM

To pomeranianzdad Your statement "bring the troops home now!!" provides no answer to two questions: How to achieve victory? How to prevent a full scale genocide of millions Iraqis currently supporting our efforts? My assumption is that you care about neither. People like you completely vaccuous and clueless to life on the ground in Iraq can make these Sheehan like statements in the safety of their living rooms, but the death and carnage is for someone else to worry about. You would have us turn Iraq over to sub human animals that think nothing of strapping bombs to the retarded, the infantile, unwilling women, children. You may be a citizen, but an American; this is in question.

Paulie Walnuts Jul 22, 2007 7:41 AM
If this had happened during World War II, instead of during the current "politically correct" era, this cowardly punk would have faced a firing squad!!!
pluto24 Jul 22, 2007 8:09 AM

I served our country back in 1980-1986 in the US Army (3 yrs active//3 yrs inactive) & by the Grace of God I didn't experience war. Jonathan Aponte did, as well as thousands of other soldiers whom I do not know but feel their pain. I feel that there was other ways for Pvt Aponte to express his feelings about going back to Iraq. I understand that the military has counseling for soldiers with this fear of going back to war (hey, who can blame them, right?) but the one thing that I did know when I enlisted back then was that no matter what your assigned job classification is, bottom line: you're a soldier. In hiring someone to shoot him in the leg so that he doesn't have to go back was, whether he realized it or not, a disrespect to ALL of our soldier in arms. Some will understand, but the majority will feel betrayed by his actions. A betrayal that will not be welcomed if they do deploy him back to Iraq. Forgive him: YES! for GOD is about forgiveness! But Pvt Aponte has to ante u

mizonglohong Jul 22, 2007 8:12 AM
I wouldn't want to loose my life for this war or any one elses either. WWII was one thing, and the Iraq war is another. We were fighting against a dictator, not for one.

bklynmom Jul 22, 2007 10:40 AM
The world needs to take a look at this desparate measure as a cry that there's seriously something wrong with the war and the treatment that the soldiers receive when they return. Look at the soldier who went AWOL after he sought assistance for mental health treatment. It appears that the military is not providing the proper mental health treatment for soldiers before or after they go to a war zone. Yes, a mental health assessment should be done before the soldier goes to war, giving him/her a detailed description, which can include a video, of what they will be experiencing firsthand in an active war zone. Instead of chastising Aponte, use his actions as a starting point to create adequate mental health services for those suffering from post traumatic stress. We're not out there fighting with them. We only hear of the reports, and see very limited pictures. Their reality is being there, seeing comrades die, having to kill insurgents, smelling burning flesh, and other gory details.

This summer I went to the Six Flags Great Adventure and saw the US Marines had a recruiting station set up inside the park. They made it look fun and exciting to join the Marines, as if it was a ride. I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it for myself.

Did she really just say that?

This is a real life conversation that I had:

Ignorant Girl: My favorite quote is "Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders." by Ronald Reagan

Me: Hate to ask what you think about welfare?

Ignorant Girl: Poor people get everything, free housing, free food, free medical, free education, more $ for each kid, why the f*ck would you ever want to be a contributing citizen & work? Everyone I know on welfare is scamming it, I never met any legits. Best qualified should always get the job, pisses me off there are quotas, best qualified period.

Me: Well, well, well….that's quite an opinion there. Don’t know if I should RETORT or leave it alone.

That was the end of that conversation. I am not sure that at the time I could of been civilized enough to continue speaking to her. What I wanted to do is grab her by her hair and slam it against the wall and ask her what world had she been living in for her past 30 something odd years. I attribute her ignorance to being white. Not to say that all my white friends are ignorant but I know they don't all think like this. Do they???

Now that its been a few days I will start with her first comment. How can unemployment insurance be a pre-paid vacation? Correct me if I am wrong? but don't you originally have to be working to collect unemployment insurance? Does she think that most people quit their jobs to get unemployment insurance, which is never the amount you were making in the first place? I am sure there are people who delay going back to work to collect unemployment but that does not apply to everyone. Plus who pays unemployment insurance? States set up trust funds to pay be able to pay unemployment insurance to certain qualified individuals. I think I pay enough taxes that if I am unemployed, I should be able to get some funds for a little while until my next job. And last I checked unemployment is not only for poor Black/Brown people.

Now for her welfare comments. "Poor people get everything.........." Is she suggesting that being poor is lucrative. Is she suggesting that people strive to stay poor so that they can continue getting everything? To this I say research your government reform laws on welfare. because the last time I checked ONE person on welfare gets 68.50 bi wkly and as far as free education and free housing,has she seen OUR school system and it's FREE education? NYC public schools are not havens of education. People send there children to NYC public schools because they can not afford the private ones. Has she ever lived in these so called free housing? The projects are no Trump Towers. Plus, it is not free to live in the projects. Rent is according to income. Which by the way does anyone know what it costs to live in NY these days. Rents are ridiculous. Thank goodness for public housing, shabby as it is and all.

Now about EVERYONE on welfare that she knows being scammers. Who are her circle of friends? I know several former welfare recipients, me included. The emphasis is on FORMER. I didn't strive to stay on welfare. I didn't even want to be on welfare. I used it because I needed it and I was working all the while. I just wasn't making enough to support myself at the time so it was a supplement. That was then and this is now. So here comment is pure bullsh*t.

As far as quotas go: If it wasn't for quotas black/brown people wouldn't get the job even if they were qualified. Most if not all jobs would go to the most qualified WHITE person. If it wasn't for quotas we might not get into certain schools. Segragation was NOT that long ago. If you have been reading the current news, segragation is still being fought in the courts. This is 2007.

To all who share the ignorant opinion: Educate yourself before you speak so that you can stop talking SH*T.