Is Blood Thicker than Water?

Michelle and Marie, ages 6 and 8, live with their father and his soon to be ex-wife. Chris (the kids father) works a part time job because of the bad economy, so he hustles on the side. Michelle and Marie's mother is addicted to the hustle. She is physically, mentally, financially and emotionally unstable. She can't look after the girls. Chris can't afford to take care of the girls, especially after his divorce. Chris is a good guy, but he has a junior high education, and he's addicted to the game, "for the love of Money," his family is also unstable.

One day Chris and his ex-wife, have an argument and she refuses to pick Michelle and Marie up from school. The girls are stuck at the school for nearly three hours, until Chris shows up.

When Chris arrives, DCF is accompanying his children out of the building. Chris is distraught, he rages out and is arrested.

At the county jail, they run Chris's fingerprints and find that he has a prior warrant out for his arrest. Chris gets thrown the book; 5 years in prison, out in 2 with good behavior.

Meanwhile, Michelle and Marie are stuck in DCF's custody while they try to find a suitable guardian. They later find that the girls' mother has a drug addiction problem so she is unable to care for them, and Chris's soon to be ex-wife refuses to take the girls for personal reasons.

What then do you do with the girls?

I decided to address this topic, because a lot of times in the African American community DCF has to get involved, and it's like the plague. People think that it's a bad thing for DCF to get involved, and a lot of time AA think that people are sell outs when they call DCF. Some AA, especially those from low poverty areas would rather the child not go into the system. I agree only under the stipulations that DCF aren't doing their job. In lots of cases AA and other minorities have to deal with ignorant, prejudice DCF workers that don't know what's going on. But since they have a certain perception of the inner city community they prejudge before they get to know the individual involved.

On the other hand, if DCF is on point, and the children are in unstable environments. For an example, if the mother and father come from a long line of criminals, liars, child abusers, drug dealers and drug addicts, then I believe that the children should be placed in foster care. At least, in foster care they have an opportunity to see life from another perspective. If children, are kept in those dysfunctional environments chances are they will become dysfunctional, and continue the vicious cycle of mental, physical, and verbal destruction.

Even in the chance that these individuals grow to be adults and they make it out of the "hood" they still tend to carry the mental and physical scars with them. This is why a lot of people become child abusers, because they were abused and they never knew how to deal with it. A change of economic status doesn't change your mental status.

"Child abuse cast a shadow the length of a lifetime" Herbert Ward

I know we've all met that person not living in the hood, middle/upper class, with a chip on their shoulders, so much rage in their heart, a ticking time bomb waiting to happen. For some of us it's our boss... Bottom line is, murderers, sociopaths, psychotics, child molesters, and abusers all have a past. More than likely they didn't just wake up and say "I think I will murder 15 people today (they probably did)". Seriously though, If the cycles aren't broken they will continue through the generations.

Be the one to break the cycle...

So I ask "is blood thicker than water?" If you have a niece, nephew or
cousin, being mentally, physically, verbally, or sexually abused "what will
you do?" What if they are living in a house with no electricity or food,
heat or hot water, and their parents are running the streets? Will you turn the other cheek, or will you break the cycle?"

80% of young adults who had been abused met the diagnostic criteria for at least 1 psychiatric disorder by age 21

1/3 of abused and neglected children will eventually victimize their own children

To Be or Not To Be, that is the Question

WASHINGTON – After the flub heard around the world, President Barack Obama has taken the oath of office. Again. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Obama on Wednesday night at the White House — a rare do-over. The surprise moment came in response to Tuesday's much-noticed stumble, when Roberts got the words of the oath a little off, which prompted Obama to do so, too.
Don't worry, the White House says: Obama has still been president since noon on Inauguration Day.
Nevertheless, Obama and Roberts went through the drill again out of what White House counsel Greg Craig called "an abundance of caution."
This time, the scene was the White House Map Room in front of a small group of reporters, not the Capitol platform before the whole watching world.
"We decided that because it was so much fun ...," Obama joked to reporters who followed press secretary Robert Gibbs into the room. No TV camera crews or news photographers were allowed in. A few of Obama's closest aides were there, along with a White House photographer.
Roberts put on his black robe.
"Are you ready to take the oath?" he said.
"Yes, I am," Obama said. "And we're going to do it very slowly."
Roberts then led Obama through the oath without any missteps.
The president said he did not have his Bible with him, but that the oath was binding anyway.
The original, bungled version on Tuesday caught observers by surprise and then got replayed on cable news shows.

*

It was more than a good idea for Obama to take the Oath again. I would hate for them to say that Obama wasn't President due to a technicality. The government is funny like that, or maybe I'm just going on with my conspiracy theory...

The Constitution states that the oath has to be repeated exactly the way that it is written. My question now is "did it matter about the Bible?" If it didn't matter in the first place why did Obama use Lincoln's Bible. But if the bible does matter, is he technically the President of the United States. I think Obama should do it again, after all, three times a charm.

I just need it to be absolutely official, and know that I can go to sleep and wake up with Obama still as President, not Jeb Bush, or any of the other Bush's for that matter.

Sorry Jenna and Barbara, your names precede you.

A Dawn of a New Era

Yesterday I watched history in the making. I watched Barack Obama become The first African American/Black President of the United Stated of America. Although, the results were in back on that beautiful day in November, it wasn't a reality to me until yesterday at 12noon.

I guess part of me was thinking that it was all a dream, or the other part of America was going to create some type of conspiracy, but as of yesterday it was "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." I spent roughly about 8hours watching the whole inauguration and the festivities. That was the first time I ever watched the inauguration ceremony.

Truthfully it never mattered that much to me. In my mind, in the past, they were just more carbon copies getting the right to dictate how the U.S. should be looked after. Honestly, I lost a lot of faith in the U.S. government after the 2000 elections. But I am so anxious to see how things pan out of the years.

I guess in many ways I am like a lot of the other people in the world that thought that they would never see this day happen in their lifetime. Growing up as a minority, I was always told that I could be anything that I wanted to be; by my parents, teachers, and any authority figure that had the opportunity to spend a day with me. Even back then in my mind, there was that monkey on my back whispering in my ear "Anything but, the President of the United States". My young, brainwashed mentality told me that, Presidents were white, Presidents were men, two things that I am not. I'm not complaining one bit.

Now I can feel comfortable telling this new generation of minorities that they can be whatever they want. I can say it with confidence, and no reluctance.

I was watching the news this morning, and a lot of the nation still seems to be in shock, which to me doesn't seem surprising. What was really heart warming and touching were the interviews that they were conducting with children from all over the nation. The #1 thing that these children were saying was that now " they feel like they can be anything they want to be when they grow up." These were children of many different races and ethnic backgrounds. They were all observant in the fact that no previous President had been minority.

Today, after the dust has settled, I drink. I drink to the Dawn of a New Era. A better tomorrow. Better opportunities. Unity of a nation. The first African American President of the United States.

NOTORIOUS

2 months shy of the 12 year anniversary of the brutal assassination of Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, a biopic is released in his memorial. The movie entitled "Notorious" tells the story of the rise and untimely fall of one of Hip-Hop's most influential people. The movie in a nutshell is a must see. If you are a B.I.G. fan, if you love Hip-Hop, simply if you want to hear a different side of the story, other than what the "Media" portrayed over a decade ago; if you just want to see a good movie, go see Notorious, you will be impressed. I laughed, I cried, I was happy, and genuinely sad. Most importantly for me the movie brought back memories.

Not the memories of his murder, nor the memories of the so called East Coast, West Coast rivalry, but the memories of great music, the memories of the heart of Hip-Hop. The memories of why I fell in love with Hip-Hop in the first place.

I'm an 80's baby, born in 83 right in the heart of the Hip-Hop era, so although I grew to know and love MC Ricky D (Slick Rick), Kurtis Blow, Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy, NWA, KRS-One, Dana Dane, Doug E Fresh, Run DMC and a slew of other pioneers of Hip-Hop, Notorious B.I.G. came at a time when things went from concrete to abstract to me. I was just 10yrs old when I first heard something from B.I.G., but not until I was 11 did I get to hear what this artist was made of. Back in 94 there were other artists that were out making their rounds Craig Mac, Wu-Tang, Nas, and so many others, but no one stood alone in my eyes like Notorious.

Although, I couldn't understand the struggles that he was going through, and the majority of the things that he was rapping about I couldn't relate to, he was Art to me. An artist that epitomized Art. A Da Vinci at his craft. He used his words and painted pictures, and told beautiful stories of the struggles of the inner city minority. He was smooth and charismatic, and wasn't afraid to speak the truth a lot like Slick Rick. Thus he was the reason I fell in love with Hip-Hop.

He was the reason so many others fell in love with Hip-Hop also. He birthed the careers of a lot of the artists that came after him . He changed the game and the way so many people thought. He changed a city, a community, and in some ways a nation. He is the sole reason why I know who Jay-Z is. I didn't care about Jay-Z until I heard the song "Love the Dough" when "Life After Death" dropped. Then Jay instantly became the Prime artist, that kept me holding onto Hip-Hop. Partially because Jay reiterated his words over the years, but mainly because Jay-Z is also a great MC.

Still 12yrs later, B.I.G.'s words still ring loudly in my ear, in my mind. I still bop my head when I hear one of his songs; now that's legendary. I often think about Puff's words in the song "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems"--"10yrs from now we'll still be on top"-- B.I.G.'s legacy lives on through so many, in and out of the industry.

So in choosing to speak of his murder, I choose the word Assassinate, because he was assassinated. His murder was vicious, premeditated, untimely, and he was a public figure, that the media turned into a Political figure in the end. The media turned Both B.I.G. and Tupac into vicious people that started a coast to coast rivalry. This is how they want us to remember them. I read in a review of the movie "A funeral precession paints him as a saint and a lasting inspiration to his former neighborhood. In reality, he may have been influential, but no one familiar with his music or his life believed him to be an innocent victim of circumstance struck down just as he became a man."

Me personally, I refuse to remember him or Tupac as the way that the media portrayed them. The last image I have of him and I continue to have of him, is the simple smile that was captured in his video "Hypnotize".




http://www.joost.com/08201z4/t/The-Notorious-B-I-G-Hypnotize-(Video)

By no means am I saying that B.I.G. is Hip-Hop or birthed Hip-Hip, but I do believe that a major part of the music that we know as Hip-Hop died with B.I.G., and over the years people have been struggling to put a Soul back into the Music. I look at these artists now, and I think to myself "how many of these people will we remember 10yrs from now?..Not Many."

I hope this movie inspires many, just like the late Christopher Wallace did so many years ago. I hope this movie inspires the industry to find the soul that the music is yearning for.