Enough Said

This article is for people who say a lot like I use to but do little.

I want to let you all know that enough has been said.

We log into our Facebook accounts; we tweet on Twitter, and we talk about the tragic issues that are occurring in the world today.

We have conversations to express our feelings and to speak out against injustice, but then we leave it at that.

Voices provide knowledge to others about certain things. but action is what brings upon change.

We can’t just speak about the horrific events regarding Anna Brown, a woman who had life-threatening medical issues who was dragged out of a police car into a jail cell where she died because she refused to leave the hospital until she received medical attention.

We can’t just speak about the shooting death of young Trayvon Martin and expect change.

I’m not saying that we should react in rage.

I am saying that we should simply just react.

Let’s march like the great leaders before us did to bring upon change.

Let’s march like Martin Luther King Jr. when he fought to bring down the beast known as racial discrimination.

Let’s march like Ghandi when he strived to do the same.

It’s time to stop hiding behind our computers, our cell phones and other technological devices.

We need to stand up for a cause with our physical presence.

I don’t care what background people come from, what ethnicity or race an individual is, we should all be able to come together for a greater purpose because enough has been said.

Now it is time to put our words in motion to bring on change.

There is an opportunity for us to seek change March 31st at Noon people will be gathering at Martin Luther King Park to march for Trayvon Martin.

If you believe that enough has been said and now it’s time to do, then come to this event and make a difference.

I want to give a special thanks to Duke Turley for planning this event.

Come see me at the march if you would like to discuss the idea of enough being said.

One for the week:
You’ve got to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. A thermostat shapes the climate of opinion; a thermometer just reflects it. –Cornel West

Chained By Love

Value in the word love is a concept that is becoming foreign to people.

People use this word freely in everyday conversation; and, as a result, the expression behind this word diminishes.

Many of us are using the word love and not having a complete understanding about the meaning or power that the word has.

Now, young men tell young women that they love them in order to just have sex with them.

There are young women telling young men that they love them just to receive materialistic items from them.

We don’t understand how powerful this word is.

Love is caring enough about yourself to go through the process of getting tested and making your partner doing the same.

Love is mother working with her last bit of energy to secure a promising future for her children.

Love is parents holding their children accountable for the decisions they make and teaching them about the value of respect.

It isn’t the boy that gets a girl pregnant and walks away from his responsibility.

It isn’t a drug dealer supporting the habits of people that are allowing addictions to have control over their lives.

Love is more then a word it is security, its real, and it’s something that has value.

It is ok to be chained by love as long as it’s real and meaningful.

A person shouldn’t love someone because it sounds good; a person should love someone because he / she means it.

Love is doing the exact opposite of what it should be doing these days because many of us young people are confused when it comes to the meaning of love.

It hurts me to conduct a small research and discover that an imitation of love is killing people.

This imitation of love is causing people to navigate away from real love.

We cannot continue to be chained by this idea of what we think love is; we have to know that love is real before we pursue it.

One for the week: We can’t keep deceiving ourselves because if we do we will become our own oppressors.

Vacant Location

Today I came upon a statement that bothered me; a statement that has the ability to stir up a little anger inside of me.

I don’t find this statement provoking because it displays ignorance and is highly stereotypical; I find it provoking because as a person that is black I see some truth in this statement.

“If you want to hide valuable historical information from black people just put it in a book and place it on a shelf in a library.”

This is sad but in some way true when referring to many young black people today.

Even I am guilty of this sometimes.

Instead of being resourceful and reading certain books that are the sources from where much information originates, I go online and search for academic journals.

It seems like many of us are okay with allowing almost anyone who has the ability to compile factual information the right to teach us everything that we know.

There is danger in this because people change information all of the time to fit their beliefs.

Essentially, when we don’t seek out original sources, we are only harming ourselves and potentially filling our brains with what other people believe to be important.

Our community libraries should not be vacant locations, people, and they shouldn’t be filled just because they have Internet service either.

“We need to educate ourselves.”

We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to all of our leaders who fought day and night for us to have the right to read and learn.

When we don’t utilize our libraries for the right reasons, what statement are we all making?

We should not waste valuable space in our minds; there are so many interesting things to learn about that lie within the many books in our community libraries.

We need to educate ourselves, take control of our own beliefs, and stop allowing others to shape our beliefs without a challenge.

We have to be knowledgeable to face people with deceitful intentions.

We don’t want to be the generation that grows up on lies and deceit.

Many of our local nightclubs aren’t vacant, and our libraries shouldn’t be either.

One for the week: “As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, Aug. 16, 1967.