I was just watching CNN and Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush is basically saying that because the US Senate will not seat Roland Burris in the seat formerly occupied by President-Elect Barack Obama it has racist undertones. Jesse Jackson, Jr. also seems to be joining into the fray.
I personally didn't realize that there was not a sitting black Senator in the US Senate at this time. I understand that the US Senate is the more "prestigious" side of the United States Legislative Branch but I do not believe that their lack of color has anything to do with its regal position above the US House of Representative.
Now my people are throwing out the race card. Goodness gracious! The Governor of Illinois is a crook. Doesn't anyone directly involved with this issue see that besides me? Everyone asked this man not to appoint anyone because they would not be accepted. Rod Blagojevich has selfishly brought his state down by staying in his position as Governor with all of his drama.
But getting back to Burris, there is such a thing as protocol. The Illinois Secretary of State will not certify Governor Blagojevich's appointment of Roland Burris nor does his credentials bear the Illinois State Seal. So therefore, he does not have the credentials to be seated in the US Senate. It is like writing me on a piece of paper that I am to represent Alabama and not have the signatures to prove it.
I knew this situation was going to be a problem when our local "our unofficial black spokesman for everything that Alabama has done wrong to black people" Alvin Holmes, also the STATE Representative for the 78th District of Alabama, "is calling on the US Senate to allow former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to take a seat in the Senate." Holmes also said that "Burris' appointment is legal and it would be racism for white senators to block him from taking a seat." This part-time, at best, legislator for the State of Alabama has NO PULL whatsoever to even demand anything such as this. Nobody is going to listen to the "angry little black man". I am sorry, I call it like I see it. This man is another one of those black people that sometimes make black people have to drop their head in shame for the things that come out of his mouth.
This is not a racial issue. I mean come on people, we have a black president. Yeah yeah I hear ya, he is multi-ethnic (black and white). Well let me enlighten you on something, if he had a birth certificate from Alabama, he would be black. Sorry to burst your bubble on that one.
Stop with the RACE CARD. There is a time and place for it and this is not one of those times. Overuse and it makes that "card" like a two of clubs in a poker hand with Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of Diamonds - utterly useless.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Watch Out For Who Your Kid's Role Models Are!
I have just noticed over the last few weeks that I have been hearing a lot of sports figures in the news and it has not all been good.
Who does your children look up to? Many kids are into sports, no big deal. Sports are healthy. It fosters teamwork, cooperation, sportsmanship, humility, and strategic thinking. But does your kid look at these people in the sports field as their role models?
I am not hating on athletes or sports figures. Believe me, that is not the point I am trying to make but let me give some examples of some of your kid's "role models." Some are well known and some are obscure. Now remember, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
Vincent Jackson, San Diego Chargers Wide Receiver, arrest on January 6th for Suspicion for DUI and is on probation for a earlier drunk driving conviction.
Jason Richardson, Phoenix Sun Guard, arrested on December 21st for Suspicion for DUI.
Deon Tresvant, Senior Guard for Cal State Northridge, arrested for commercial burglary and grand theft (along with 3 others including the son of his coach).
Antoine Walker, former all-star Forward for the Boston Celtics arrested for DUI on January 5th.
Mark Ingram, former New York Giants Receiver, arrested after being on the run for a month for failing to report to prison for bank fraud and money laundering.
Kirk Earlywine, Eastern Washington Men's Basketball Coach, was arrested on December 26th for Suspicion of DUI.
Charles Barkley, NBA Basketball Great, was arrested on December 31st for Suspicion of DUI.
Danny Villa, Former New England Patriots Lineman and a High School Football Coach, was arrested December 27th on charges of raping a child.
I am sure the list is longer. There is nothing wrong with your child wanting to strive to be like someone outside the home but be sure that you strive to show them how to be a good and upright individual.
Who does your children look up to? Many kids are into sports, no big deal. Sports are healthy. It fosters teamwork, cooperation, sportsmanship, humility, and strategic thinking. But does your kid look at these people in the sports field as their role models?
I am not hating on athletes or sports figures. Believe me, that is not the point I am trying to make but let me give some examples of some of your kid's "role models." Some are well known and some are obscure. Now remember, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
Vincent Jackson, San Diego Chargers Wide Receiver, arrest on January 6th for Suspicion for DUI and is on probation for a earlier drunk driving conviction.
Jason Richardson, Phoenix Sun Guard, arrested on December 21st for Suspicion for DUI.
Deon Tresvant, Senior Guard for Cal State Northridge, arrested for commercial burglary and grand theft (along with 3 others including the son of his coach).
Antoine Walker, former all-star Forward for the Boston Celtics arrested for DUI on January 5th.
Mark Ingram, former New York Giants Receiver, arrested after being on the run for a month for failing to report to prison for bank fraud and money laundering.
Kirk Earlywine, Eastern Washington Men's Basketball Coach, was arrested on December 26th for Suspicion of DUI.
Charles Barkley, NBA Basketball Great, was arrested on December 31st for Suspicion of DUI.
Danny Villa, Former New England Patriots Lineman and a High School Football Coach, was arrested December 27th on charges of raping a child.
I am sure the list is longer. There is nothing wrong with your child wanting to strive to be like someone outside the home but be sure that you strive to show them how to be a good and upright individual.
Monday, January 5, 2009
A Sorry Excuse For a Father
This is definitely a "What's Going On?" moment.
This sorry excuse for a father says that he "had a whole bunch of reasons" for killing his 2 year old son. WTF? There are times when it might be justified (on the moral compass) to take a life such as to prevent the immediate death of you or another person and although it is an ugly subject, even war. But what DAMN reason is there to take the life of a defenseless 2 year old child - that is also your son.
Let's go to the video tape and see this Sorry Ass Black Man (SABM).
Now I have heard a comedian describe African Americans (or black people, whichever you prefer) as a race of people who all of us become embarrassed when one of our own screws up. This is definitely one of those times.
If this is over child support, that everyone seems to be speculating on, then it makes it an even sadder case. $4,000? I am sure that it is a lot if you do not have that much. I mean, I do all right financially but I could not come up with $4,000 immediately without a little effort. But only $4,000? He was getting a little over $100 a paycheck for the State of Louisiana to provide for his son what he should have been doing all along. You were getting off light Mother F$%ker!
I would love to know this man's reasons, no let me scratch that because he is not a man, this punk's reasons for doing this. A real man, in his situation, would be there for his child and had NO problem of helping to provide for him emotionally, financially, and even spiritually whether or not he was with the mother of the child.
This is what embarrasses me as a black man. You do not want to believe the stereotypes but it would not be a stereotype unless it actually happens enough for someone to notice. I don't have any child of my own flesh and blood but for those that have children, need to be there for their boys and girls. I understand that people do not get along after they have children. We have got to show these little boys that there can be some type of respect for his mother (and opther women) and these little girls that there are good men out there who can be a good provider, supporter, and partner (in every way).
Now I have no idea of Mr. Platt's background growing up. I don't know the situation with his own father (or mother). Maybe he is part of this "vicious cycle" but there has got to be a time where you look above it and see that there is something better. Prosperity and hope is all around us. It may not have been in the neighborhood that Mr. Platt grew up in (and again I am speculating) but it is there. Don't settle for being a stereotype, be an original (as I have discussed with someone close to me many times).
May God take care of Ja'Shawn and help his family with their grief.
This sorry excuse for a father says that he "had a whole bunch of reasons" for killing his 2 year old son. WTF? There are times when it might be justified (on the moral compass) to take a life such as to prevent the immediate death of you or another person and although it is an ugly subject, even war. But what DAMN reason is there to take the life of a defenseless 2 year old child - that is also your son.
Let's go to the video tape and see this Sorry Ass Black Man (SABM).
| Danny Platt Apologizes for Killing Son, Ja'Shawn Powell |
Now I have heard a comedian describe African Americans (or black people, whichever you prefer) as a race of people who all of us become embarrassed when one of our own screws up. This is definitely one of those times.
If this is over child support, that everyone seems to be speculating on, then it makes it an even sadder case. $4,000? I am sure that it is a lot if you do not have that much. I mean, I do all right financially but I could not come up with $4,000 immediately without a little effort. But only $4,000? He was getting a little over $100 a paycheck for the State of Louisiana to provide for his son what he should have been doing all along. You were getting off light Mother F$%ker!
I would love to know this man's reasons, no let me scratch that because he is not a man, this punk's reasons for doing this. A real man, in his situation, would be there for his child and had NO problem of helping to provide for him emotionally, financially, and even spiritually whether or not he was with the mother of the child.
This is what embarrasses me as a black man. You do not want to believe the stereotypes but it would not be a stereotype unless it actually happens enough for someone to notice. I don't have any child of my own flesh and blood but for those that have children, need to be there for their boys and girls. I understand that people do not get along after they have children. We have got to show these little boys that there can be some type of respect for his mother (and opther women) and these little girls that there are good men out there who can be a good provider, supporter, and partner (in every way).
Now I have no idea of Mr. Platt's background growing up. I don't know the situation with his own father (or mother). Maybe he is part of this "vicious cycle" but there has got to be a time where you look above it and see that there is something better. Prosperity and hope is all around us. It may not have been in the neighborhood that Mr. Platt grew up in (and again I am speculating) but it is there. Don't settle for being a stereotype, be an original (as I have discussed with someone close to me many times).
May God take care of Ja'Shawn and help his family with their grief.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
A Little Fun Today - Some Favorites from SNL
Today, I looked throughout the news and saw nothing that made me want to blog about. There is a lot going on and to be honest, I needed to have a little pick me up. It may not be to everyone else's liking but it always gets a laugh out of me.
Friday, January 2, 2009
1958 University of Buffalo Bulls' Stand Against Discrimination
In my research for my blog on Turner Gill, I ran across this story on the 1958 University of Buffalo Bulls football team. I have always been a sucker for stories regarding the stand against things that are adamantly wrong. There was a lot of wrong decades ago against a lot of people (not just black people).
In 1958, the University of Buffalo football team won eight of nine regular-season games and was awarded the Lambert Cup as the best small-school program in the eastern United States. Team co-captains Nick Bottini and Lou Reale received the trophy during a Sunday night broadcast of "The Ed Sullivan Show" and dined that evening in Manhattan's famous Toots Shor's Restaurant.
Days later, the Bulls were invited to face Florida State in the 13th annual Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla. -- still the school's only bowl bid in 102 years of football.
In anticipation of their trip south, players were measured for new sport coats at The Kleinhans Company in downtown Buffalo. But before fabric for the coats ever was cut, the university learned that the team's two African-American players, starting halfback Willie Evans and reserve defensive end Mike Wilson, were not welcome in Orlando.
The Orlando High School Athletic Association, the Tangerine Bowl Stadium's leaseholder, prohibited blacks and whites from playing together. Despite the protestations of the Orlando Elks Lodge, the bowl game's sponsor, the Bulls would be allowed to participate only if Wilson and Evans did not play.
The university and coach Dick Offenhamer left it to the team to decide whether to accept the bid. The players gathered in a basement room of Clark Gymnasium on the Buffalo campus to take a vote. Bottini and Reale held small paper ballots in their hands, but before they could pass them out, the players spontaneously and unanimously rejected the bid.
"We weren't the same team without Willie and Mike," guard Phil Bamford remembers. "Whether they were benchwarmers or stars, we wouldn't have been the same team."
In 1958, the University of Buffalo football team won eight of nine regular-season games and was awarded the Lambert Cup as the best small-school program in the eastern United States. Team co-captains Nick Bottini and Lou Reale received the trophy during a Sunday night broadcast of "The Ed Sullivan Show" and dined that evening in Manhattan's famous Toots Shor's Restaurant.
Days later, the Bulls were invited to face Florida State in the 13th annual Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla. -- still the school's only bowl bid in 102 years of football.
In anticipation of their trip south, players were measured for new sport coats at The Kleinhans Company in downtown Buffalo. But before fabric for the coats ever was cut, the university learned that the team's two African-American players, starting halfback Willie Evans and reserve defensive end Mike Wilson, were not welcome in Orlando.
The Orlando High School Athletic Association, the Tangerine Bowl Stadium's leaseholder, prohibited blacks and whites from playing together. Despite the protestations of the Orlando Elks Lodge, the bowl game's sponsor, the Bulls would be allowed to participate only if Wilson and Evans did not play.
The university and coach Dick Offenhamer left it to the team to decide whether to accept the bid. The players gathered in a basement room of Clark Gymnasium on the Buffalo campus to take a vote. Bottini and Reale held small paper ballots in their hands, but before they could pass them out, the players spontaneously and unanimously rejected the bid.
"We weren't the same team without Willie and Mike," guard Phil Bamford remembers. "Whether they were benchwarmers or stars, we wouldn't have been the same team."
The "Real Reason" that Turner Gill was not chosen as the Auburn University head coach?
I am a reader of a blog called "I Date White" which deals in the life of Eathan and his life in Dallas as a divorced father of 2 sons. I find the blog interesting because his topics deal with interracial relationships.
I read his new entry this morning and had to comment on it and also share it with others. I am not one of those "angry black men" who think that "the man" is keeping us down because I have never in my life been kept down by anyone - black, white, yellow, tan, or red (hope no one took offense to that).
The blog was about Turner Gill, football coach for University of Buffalo Bulls and the reasons why he might have been taken out of the running of the Auburn University coaching job vacated by Tommy Tuberville. He certainly had a better record than Gene Chizik.
Although the "color barrier" of a black SEC coach was already broken by Sylvester Croom who coached Mississippi State University from 2004-2008, in my opinion, would have been a symbol of how the SEC and other southern collegiate conferences have changed over the last decades (as demonstrated in the HBO special "Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football).
If the reasons given in Eathan's blog have any merit to why Coach Gill was not picked for the Auburn job, this is a sad day for college sports.
Check out the blog below and you decide.
http://idatewhite.com/2009/01/01/idw-person-of-the-year-2008/
Thursday, January 1, 2009
What are we gonna do now?
Well that time is almost here.... the end of the college football season. And then another 8 months of mediocre sports and whiney millionaires in baseball and basketball who are not satified with a $35 million - 5 year contract. Boo hoo! Never been a fan of ice hockey. Do not like NASCAR all that much but I will watch a race every now and then. Golf, forget about it. To be honest, women's gymnastics on the collegiate level runs a very close second to college football.
Don't think I have forgotten about the pro football players. I just don't acknowledge them during college football season because they are a piddly runner up to seeing student-athletes strive to be the best on the field (and in the classroom). That title alone makes them better that any professional athlete EVER.
I am an University of Alabama fan - ROLL TIDE ROLL! - and cannot wait to watch my Tide play tomorrow in the Sugar Bowl versus Utah. Still do not know what a Ute is. I am not much of a guy who brags about my team but this is the culmination of a great season and definitely proud of my team.
So can anyone tell me - what are we gonna do now?
Don't think I have forgotten about the pro football players. I just don't acknowledge them during college football season because they are a piddly runner up to seeing student-athletes strive to be the best on the field (and in the classroom). That title alone makes them better that any professional athlete EVER.
I am an University of Alabama fan - ROLL TIDE ROLL! - and cannot wait to watch my Tide play tomorrow in the Sugar Bowl versus Utah. Still do not know what a Ute is. I am not much of a guy who brags about my team but this is the culmination of a great season and definitely proud of my team.
So can anyone tell me - what are we gonna do now?
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