I’ve already gotten in trouble for one of these ‘Just Another Day’ post. This won’t be any different. I decided to do this the day after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday because I started to reflect on quite a few things that are going on in today’s society. Anyone who knows me knows I usually don’t do montages or tributes. But as a natural observer, I look at things for what they are. Sometimes MY truth does not bode well with what society thinks. But I pose a question that had been on my mind all day yesterday. If Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was alive today would he be proud at what we have become as a population?

Dr. King had a dream. There are a multitude of visions of his dream. But when it is all said and done everything he did…everything accomplish, he fulfilled. God places us on this earth for a reason. We all have missions in life. And believe it or not, Dr. King completed what he started. He got the big boulder moving. It was a boulder that had been in place for a very long time. One man, with the help of others, moved that boulder so we all can live in a better society. He got the monster rolling. But…what have we done to keep it rolling?

If Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was alive, what would he think about the way the world has evolved today??

I can’t remember where I read this. I just copied and pasted it. It’s from motivational speaker Veraunda Jackson. It tells us:

It’s ok to quit…

1. Quit arguing with people about the same old foolishness! Respect their position and keep it moving!

2. Quit telling people your secrets when you know they are not going to keep them! And if you keep telling them, then quit getting mad when they tell your secrets!

3. Quit trying to pull people on your journey who don’t want to travel with you. Either they believe in you and value you…or they don’t!

4. Quit complaining about things you can’t and won’t change!

5. Quit gossiping about other people! Minding our own business should be a full time job!

6. Quit blaming each other for things that in the big picture aren’t going to matter three weeks from now! Talk solutions…and then implement them!

7. Quit eating things you know are not good for you! If you can’t quit…eat smaller portions!

8. Quit buying things when we know we can’t afford them! If you don’t have self control, then quit going to the stores! Quit charging things, especially when you don’t NEED them!

9. Quit staying in unhealthy relationships! It is not okay for people to verbally or physically abuse you! So quit lying to yourself! It is not okay to stay in the marriage for the children! Ask them and they will tell you that they really would prefer to see you happy and that the misery you and your spouse/partner are living with is affecting them!

10. Quit letting family members rope you into the drama! -Start telling them you don’t want to hear it! Quit spreading the drama! Quit calling other relatives and telling them about your cousin or aunt! Go back to #5 minding your own business should be enough to keep you busy!

11. Quit trying to change people! IT DOESN’T WORK! Quit cussing people out when you know that they are just being the miserable and jealous people that they are! If this is your mate – Quit them!

12. Quit the job you hate! Start pursuing your passion. Find the job that fuels your passion BEFORE you quit!

13. Quit volunteering for things that you aren’t getting any personal fulfillment from anymore! Quit volunteering for things and then failing to follow through with your commitment!

14. Quit listening to the naysayers! Quit watching the depressing news if you are going to live in the doom and gloom of it all!

15. Quit making excuses about why you are where you are or why you can’t do what you want to do!

16. Quit waiting on others to give you the answers…and start finding the answers for yourself! If what you are doing isn’t working for you…then quit it!

17. Quit settling and start making your dreams a reality!- Quit being afraid and START LIVING YOUR LIFE! CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT! If you want something different than what you have had in the past…

You must quit doing what you have done before and DO something different; possibly with someone new in your life! You are…….who you hang around! Who do you mirror?
JUST QUIT IT ……. and START DOING something to create the experience you want!

I was standing in line at the grocery store about to pay for my items and the young man in front of me was paying for his groceries. I wasn’t paying too much attention until I noticed it was taking him forever to pay. And then I noticed it…

He paid for his groceries with three food stamps cards and his debit card.

First it made me think, how in the hell did he get a hold of THREE food stamps cards?

What annoyed me even more was his groceries. It had a bunch of candy, snack chips, soda and a whole bunch of other junk food.

What did he pay for with his debit card?

A pack of Newports.

I’m not against people who use food stamps in order to get by, especially in this economy. According to statistics about 17% of people in the United States use food stamps.

That means almost one out of five people can’t afford to buy food and need to use the service.

But what really gets to me is this young man, who was probably no older than twenty-two or twenty-three years old had THREE food stamps cards.

That really pissed me off.

One of the things I can’t stand is when people take advantage of programs that are designed to help people. There are people in this country who TRULY NEED this program but we have a few who totally take advantage of the system.

I’ve heard stories where there are women who are on the Section 8 programs who pay anywhere between 25-200 bucks for their rent and use other addresses to use other government services.

That’s where our tax dollars go.

Are you pissed?

You should be.

Because there are people out there who are taking advantage of your hard working monies and putting it into their own pockets and stomachs while you are struggling to get ahead.

Then people wonder why youTube videos like these are made:

I receive emails on an almost every day basis telling me there aren’t any good men (women) out there right now and the pickings are slim. I’m going to introduce someone. Ladies, pay close attention.

• He was adopted.
• He was a college drop-out, only completing one semester.
• He used to sleep on friends’ floors while returning Coke bottles to feed himself.
• He was an admitted drug user (LSD).
• He had children with two different women.
• His work “outfit” was a pair of jeans and a mock turtleneck.

Oh yeah, him.

The majority of you are reading this post from a Macintosh computer or your iPhone. You probably know someone who owns an iPad or listens to their iPod probably through iTunes… etc, etc, etc with all of the “i”s and Apple products.

Sometimes when looking for our mate we want them to be EXACTLY what we want. They HAVE TO HAVE certain attributes and have to have the perfect past in order to be considered.

I’m not telling you to settle. Sometimes we don’t give a person a shot in our lives because of things they went through in their past. So, when you decide to turn away someone because they aren’t the “perfect” prototype, realize you may be turning away a person who is supposed to change the world.

Sometimes you have to judge a book by its character and NOT by its cover.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs
Be well…

I was pumping gas and I noticed a car pull up to the pump. A woman was driving and a man was in the passenger seat. She got out of the car and went inside and paid for her gas. When she came back out, she went to the pump and started pumping the gas.

I looked at the guy in the car and he looked as if he was texting. I was confused at first because I wondered why this guy hadn’t hopped out the car to pump the gas but he continued to sit there, playing with his phone.

I wrote it off as to, “Maybe he’s disabled or something” until she hopped back into the driver’s seat. I heard him say:

“You didn’t get me any cigarettes?”

Disgusted, he hopped out of the car and walked (very upright, I might add) into the store to grab a pack of cigarettes.

I figured this was a one-time incident until I needed to fill up again. And the more I looked, the more I noticed, more and more men had their WOMAN pump the gas while they sat in the car.

((sigh))

I received numerous of emails asking about chivalry and why men seem to think that it’s okay to walk through the door first or have their woman take out the trash or the women pull out their own seat at dinner.

I’m not going to get into how this started or why it’s going on because it’s a personal theory that’s not relevant in this post. The most important thing is a solution.

Fellas, you claim the “independent woman” doesn’t want chivalry; that she can do everything herself. Grab your balls and make your presence known. If she refuses your chivalrous behavior then you have to decide if she is someone you want to be bothered with. If you like your balls in your back pocket instead of where they belong,  by all means, continue to allow her to wear the pants. Demand it, and she will respect you in the end.

Ladies, chivalry is dead only if you allow it. If you have a man that doesn’t do the basic things such as holding open the door for you, taking out the trash or doing other chivalrous things, you need a new man in your life.

It’s just that simple.

It’s not your job to train him because he should have been trained when he was younger (HINT as to why chivalry is on life support). Ask for what you want and see if you get it. If you don’t, then you have to decide if chivalry is what you want or if the other things he does outweighs the things you need.

Chivalry might be on life support.
But it’s up to YOU to revive it.

Be well…

Let’s skip over the famous Johnnie Cochran line, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” and let’s think about a couple of things.

What if Troy Davis is supposed to die?
Before you RETWEET or SHARE this post saying I have completely lost my mind, have an open mind, sit back and relax.

If you’re Christian, it’s your belief that Jesus died on the cross in order to save the world from sin. Using that thinking, maybe Troy Davis is supposed to die to save the United States from an obviously flawed justice system.

We have seen a lot of people get acquitted because there was reasonable doubt (air quotes). Let’s take the aforementioned OJ Simpson. He was proven innocent by the jury of his peers because there was not enough evidence to convict him.

Casey Anthony was recently acquitted for killing her two year old daughter because the state didn’t meet its burden, beyond reasonable doubt.

And there are plenty of other cases where someone was acquitted of a crime they probably committed.

And then there is Troy Davis.
Troy Davis, sitting on death row after the Supreme Court held up his execution. He has until September 28, 2011 for SCOTUS to listen to his case. It’s tragic to think there is a man who “could be” innocent of the charges of which he was convicted.

In Christian teachings it is taught to celebrate the DEATH of Jesus but in actuality, isn’t one supposed to celebrating Jesus’ life and teachings? He taught to love everyone as if they were family and to embrace everyone no matter if they were a drunk, whore, adulterer and all of those sins that are listed in the Bible.

What if Troy Davis is supposed to die?
Even Davis said “this is bigger than me.”

“The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I’m in good spirits and I’m prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I’ve taken my last breath.”

Jesus’ death was a tragedy but if one is to follow the MODERN day teachings, then one should be celebrating Davis’ DEATH and doing something about the travesty of justice IF, in fact, he is innocent of killing Savannah, Ga., policeman Mark MacPhail.

Will his life have more meaning if he was executed or if he was alive?

You can’t have it both ways.

SIDENOTE: This is NOT an endorsement of the death penalty or to say if Troy Davis is innocent or guilty. This isn’t to say that Troy Davis is Jesus Christ. It’s just a couple of thoughts rambling through my head. BUT, you know what you they say about opinions…

SIDENOTE: This post was written right after SCOTUS delayed Troy Davis’ execution. Since then the courts denied his appeal and he was executed a couple of hours later.

This video was floating around Facebook the other day.

Naw, this rant is going out to YOU… the person reading this post right now.
See, you’re the one who either buys this music or knows of people who have bought it.

Some of these artist don’t deserve the fifteen minutes of fame we give them.
But we still buy their CDs or download their “music” to our iPods.

The sad thing, we (as consumers) have all of the control.

Do you remember the McRib?

McDonald’s came out with a sandwich called the McRib that was marketed to predominately African-Americans. Blacks HATED the McRib. So much that McDonald’s only sells the sandwich in certain areas of the country and it’s seasonal.

If the consumer can do it to THE LARGEST restaurant chain in the world, how come consumers can’t do it in the music industry?

Something to think about.

Because if something like that happened in the music industry, CNN wouldn’t have “mistakenly” play the song because it wouldn’t have existed.
Don’t get me wrong. CNN was dead wrong and they have apologized for it.

But we (as consumers) are more wrong by not demanding more from artist.
Stop buying and downloading their music and they’ll be forced to produce something worth listening to.

Be well…

When surfing the net the other day I ran across this trailer. I won’t give any initial commentary because this four and a half minutes says it all.

It would be easy to pass blame around as to who is at fault that Black fathers aren’t in the home raising their daughters.

It would be easy to pass blame on the “no good Black men” because they aren’t there for their children.
It would be easy to pass blame to the “overbearing Black woman” because either she ran him off or ((shrugging)) ULTIMATELY it was HER choice as to who impregnated her.
And how dare anyone bring up those staggering numbers of over 1.8 million Black women between the ages of 18-24 grew up without their biological fathers in the home.

BLAME
BLAME
BLAME

STOP!!

The reality is if these numbers are true:

Over 1.8 million Black women between the ages of 18-24 have not had a productive father figure in their lives.
Over 1.8 million Black women between the ages of 18-24 have not felt a father’s love.
Over 1.8 million Black women between the ages of 18-24 might be searching for love in all of the wrong places because they have not felt their father’s love.

The reality is:

Over 1.8 million Black women between the ages of 18-24 REALLY need for everyone to stop blaming other people as to the reason why there wasn’t a father figure in their lives. Over 1.8 million Black women between the ages of 18-24 need for our lives to be different so when the next wave of 18-24 year old Black women come along, they are not part of another statistic.

Are you one of those to help or are you going to continue to pass the blame?

There’s my 300 words…

Whew, the NFL lockout is over, training camp started on time and NOW, it’s time for some football.

“Good men” are not in church. That’s very true. It’s not because they don’t believe in God. It’s football season, DUH!!! Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.

The “bad men” are taking advantage of the fact it’s football season and there isn’t any “good men” in church. Preying (and praying) on unsuspecting women because she thinks he’s “good” because he’s there praising God. Go to the sports bar… bring your Bible with you. THAT’S the reason and you have a solution. So ENOUGH with the gender wars. Problem solved. That is all! You can’t say I didn’t warn you. You heard it here first…

Oh… you want to know the rules during football season?
This post is supposed to be three hundred words or less so I’m going to point you to another spot, JUST SO you’ll know the rules.

Be well…

THE OFFICIAL MINI GUIDE TO SURVIVE THE FOOTBALL SEASON IF YOU’RE NOT A FOOTBALL FAN

I’m going to call a few people out because this stuff at the club shouldn’t be going on. For those who STILL go to the club…

• Always eat something before you drink. Losing your guts because you drank too much and you had nothing to eat is not something you want to live with.
• Ladies… whoever told you to keep a man waiting for longer than a half an hour was dead wrong.
• ALWAYS have a designated driver. Unless you are in NYC where taking a cab and subway IS sexy.
• If you’re going to more than one place always schedule what you’re going to do. ‘Meet me here and there’ just doesn’t work with multiple of stops.
• Ordering JUST A SALAD when one can hear your stomach gurgling from the other side of the room aint sexy either.
• Wear proper attire at the club. Spaghetti straps in 30 degree weather aint sexy; wearing a sweater vest when it’s 90 degrees aint sexy either.
• Ladies, spaghetti straps, 30 degree weather & armpit hair (WTF) is DEFINITELY not sexy.
• Never roll with more than two people. There is ALWAYS a hater in a pack of three or more.
• When tryin to holla be sure you have gum or Altoids available. Alcohol on the breath even if you are drunk aint sexy. Dragon breath is a definite “no-no”.
• Buying a drink for a woman is okay. But don’t follow her around all night like a puppy, like she’s obligated to hang out with you.
• Just because they look good doesn’t mean they are good. The best dressed in the club are usually the ones who have NOTHING going for them.
• Always know how much alcohol you can handle. Never mix drinks; gin one minute and cognac the next aint sexy at all.
• Never shut down the club. If the club closes @ 4am leave before 2am, you are considered a bugaboo if you’re still dancing at 4am.
• Always tip your bartender. They have to make a living. The recession affects them too.
• Dancing to LL Cool J’s “Headsprung“… ((shaking my head)) Neva mind… do what you want with that one.
• Don’t go home with the TOTALLY drunk person. Sex with a drunken stranger is not too cool.

Have fun if you still club. One last thing…

If they look THAT good and you HAVE TO break the last rule… use a condom, please.

Be well…