Keeping It Right

Keeping It Right is for thought provoking conversationist. It's for those who love to talk about today's issues, yesterday's history and tomorrow's future.

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Location: Texas, United States

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Super Bowl Holiday?

Its a commercial extravanganza. Millions of dollars are poured into this one sports event. Millions watch it and celebrate. What is this I'm talking about? The Super Bowl...Think about it...Like the 4th of July. The Super Bowl demands "get togethers", BBQ's, Beer and the wearing of the colors. And also like the 4th of July, the Super Bowl is the ultimate time where one has the day of Super Bowl and up until the first day of NFL season to talk as much smack as he or she wants. Now like the 4th of July, not everyone is down with the Super Bowl, especially if it were your team that either failed to make the playoffs or like the Indianapolis Chokes errrr Colts failed to seal the deal. Look, do you honestly believe the Brits are gitty over our calling our shot in declaring our independence and then punking them in the Revolutionary War. Oh yeah the Super Bowl needs to be a holiday, because of the celebration and the pagentry of it all, I mean look how emotional the sport can get..In the beginning you are treated to additional motivation and extra pump by whomever is entertaining the crowd (memo to NFL, please Not Ashlee Simpson)..And then you are taken down a peg or two, when our great national anthem is song or played (memo to NFL, please not R-Kelly, some of us Americans can't "Chicago Step"). And then after the National Anthem is played we have kick off...and if your not drunk or full to the point that your going to need da pink stuff..then you have four quarters and half time to get yourself to that point. And then the finale, either you can talk smack or you'll about to receive an years worth of dogging..Don't believe me ask Raider fan. Oh the Super Bowl needs to be a holiday. Have A Great Super Bowl Day!!!

Is This What The Democrats Have Come Too

You know things are bad when a certified nut case is talking about running for United States Senate. Cindy Sheehan, while in Venelueza, said that she is not happy with Sen. Diane Feinstein for supporting the war in Iraq and not supporting John Kerry's filibuster of Judge Sam Alito. For the record, as of this post, Feinstein not only withdrew her "no filibuster", but voted "Nay" for confirmation of Judge Alito. So you can chalk that little critique as a victory for Sheehan. But how bad are thing for the democrats, when a nut case like Sheehan is getting all this pull within the democratic party? Everytime she mutters and rants charges against the democratic party, things happen. I have to admit she is a woman of action. If only we can get her to make charges against the Congressional Black Caucus, maybe the inner cities will see some improvement in the form of less crime, better schools and good jobs. Is this the abyss for the democratic party, where a woman who pitched a tent in Crawford, Texas seeking to get a second meeting with the President to call him a liar and get him to withdraw our troops in Iraq. Only to be denied that meeting, but given a "everyone has the right to express their disagreement" send off.

So Sheehan, who is not getting attention from the republicans and the President has set her sight on the democrats who probably in her opinion is not doing enough to stop, the person she deems is evil and a liar. And the democrats are giving in faster than the French at the sound of a pop gun. Which by the tone of most members of that party in regard to "cutting boots" in Iraq is no surprise. So in her bid to run for Senate, I support Cindy. Just like I support Howard Dean in his role as DNC Chair. And for my democratic friends, my heart goes out to you while you try to figure out what the heck happened to your party. I only pray you dig yourselves out of the muck that outside interest groups and race baiters have dug you in.

Coretta Scott King

Today, it was announced that Coretta Scott King has passed. She was 78.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Round I - Jackson def. Peterson

Last week a jury found Jesse Jackson NOT Liable for damages against Jesse Peterson. The jury's verdict said that Jackson was not responsible for assault and said that Jackson's son, Jonathan, well "maybe." It was deadlocked on that matter. No mention on Greg Mathis, yeah the same Greg Mathis who appears on television as "Judge Mathis." Peterson sued Jackson alleging that at a conference held in Southern California and Jackson's party physically assaulted him and his aide after Peterson asked a Toyota official of whether funds given to Jackson were available for other groups. Conservative groups to be exact. Peterson, alleges that he was then told to get out and received jeers from the crowd. Among the people allegedly assaulting Peterson was Jonathan Jackson and Greg Mathis. Mathis repeatedly asked Peterson, "where's your friend, O'Reilly?". Peterson makes appearance on FOX Cable News Channel. All of this was going on while Jackson allegedly stood back and said nothing. (apparently nothing was said to his son, either). The problem with this story is that Peterson did not get assistance from the police and press charges. This would have been on paper on the criminal side. Not saying that I don't believe Peterson's story, but if your going around the country, speaking on the radio and having yearly events repudiating someone. To a jury, you come off as someone with an axe to grind. Why didn't Peterson and his aide get assistance from the police? and then turn around and sue Jackson civilly? I don't get it, it makes sense to get the ball rolling criminally. No jury, with the exception of the OJ jury would come back and say, Jackson was not liable. So what now for Peterson? I imagine he'll have to keep pounding sand to get his message across. And again this is not a swipe on Peterson, but I've said this before. I believe his heart is in the right place in regard to helping the black community. But his message is sometimes flawed. And now with this loss in court last week. He better be sure his charges against Jackson are air tight

Are You Curious?

Imagine living your whole life thinking you were only one race. Imagine thinking that since you were always whatever race you thought you were, that during your lifetime you insulted another race. Now, imagine that one day you decide to take a DNA test to examine your roots and you find out that bam! your not who you think you are. Prominent African American Studies Henry Gates, found out that he is half white. Yes, those of you who know Gates, would argue that his skin complexion is not white. But according to the attached article, Gates is in deed half white, 50% percent, his father was 67% white. So what does that do to one's phyche. I remember Gates doing a documentary on the African Passage. He went to the final passage in West Africa, and brought up questions as to how can one race of people betray its own people into slavery. And, how can another race be so cruel in its usage of slavery in a country where all men were supposed to be free. So are you curious? Are you afraid to see what your past is?

Article: Exploring Roots Of Famous Black Americans PBS Series Examines Blending Of Races, Cultures In U.S.January 30, 2006 By ROGER CATLIN, Courant TV Critic

When he employed DNA testing to find the roots of prominent African Americans for a new genealogy show on PBS for Black History Month, Henry Louis Gates Jr. couldn't resist looking into his own family's past.What he found surprised him: The W.E.B. Du Bois professor of humanities and chair of the African and African American Studies Department at Harvard University was half white. "Oh, man. It was the long dark night of the soul," Gates says about the discovery, joking: "what about my reparation check? I have to give away half of my reparation check? All that affirmative-action money - I have to give it back. It's terrible. It's very embarrassing to me."Gates, who hosts and produced "African American Lives," a four-hour, two-part series that begins Wednesday on PBS, says he knew his family had some white blood in it. But by administering one of the scientific tests in the program, he found that his father is 67 percent white and that he's 50 percent white."What does that mean? Does that make me less black? I had to ask all those questions," Gates says. "And, no, I mean, I'm very secure in my African American identity. It just means that African Americans and European Americans have been inextricably intertwined on the most intimate level from day one in this country."For those whose past he looks into on the program - including Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Tucker - he traces family lineage back through American history, often back to slavery and in some cases all the way back to Africa, using genealogy, oral history, family stories and modern DNA analysis.While he could have discovered just as interesting stories from ordinary African Americans, Gates says, he deliberately chose celebrities and prominent blacks in part because they would attract more viewers."I was trying to seduce high school and elementary school kids into science and into historical research, and I was trying to make a larger point," he says.Of the more than 100 series PBS has done on the African American experience, Gates says, most concentrate on a very few great people, including Frederick Douglass, W.E.B Du Bois and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "I wanted people representing a wide variety of occupations," he says. "So I didn't want to reinforce stereotypes about entertainers and athletes. But I wanted them to be seductive enough so people would actually watch."So besides the celebrities, he chose a scientist - Dr. Mae Jemison, the first black female astronaut; a religious leader, Bishop T.D. Jakes of Potter's House mega-church in Texas; and a doctor."Ben Carson was my classmate at Yale; he's the chief of pediatric neurosurgery down at Johns Hopkins," Gates says. "He was the first surgeon successfully to separate Siamese twins joined at the brain."Of Jemison, he says: "First of all, there's only been one black woman astronaut. So that was easy. And I knew that she had graduated from Stanford and had majored in African studies, among other things, and I wanted that message that here's a sister who is a medical doctor, who went to outer space and loved black people, black culture. That - you know, that's my trade, right? - so I wanted that."Jemison says participating in "African American Lives" "helped to put American history in context. The surprise for me was that my maternal grandfather was Asian."When she found that out, she says, "I said, `Oh, that's because in Mississippi there were a lot of Asian or Chinese workers that were brought in during this time period. And one of the things that we don't recognize, for example, in U.S. history is how many different groups of people that African Americans, Asians and Hispanics blended together and met and did work outside of the context of, you know, having European Americans as mediators."Jakes, the bishop, was the only one of the nine subjects to accurately guess which African tribe he descended from: the Ebo. "It was gratifying to fill in the missing spaces in my life," he said. "I've been fascinated by my family history for a long time and even about the roots of my culture." "There's been a great dispute in Africa over which tribe I belong to. So this dispels any myths," Jakes says. "They now have answered those questions in my mind, and it is impacting [me] on a very personal level and a very deep way to fill in those blanks."

Friday, January 27, 2006

Kerry At It Again...

You know I get sick and tired of guys who loses an election and continues to show why his backside is not in office. Last week, Al Gore was hollerin' and screamin' about the President's usage of taps on outgoing and incoming phone calls to known terrorist numbers. And this week it's John Kerry. Kerry lobbed a "lets filler'bust" the nomination of Judge Sam Alito from Switzerland yesterday. Kerry citing that Alito is not a friend of civil rights and the woman's right to privacy is the reason for his filler' bust. I don't know, is it me or do the democrats have a monopoly on filibusters? And its kinda funny in the 50's and 60's they, the democrats were filibusting civil rights for Black Americans and now, they are filibusting someone because of their perceived threat of "privacy". Does Kerry know what will happen if Alito and his colleagues overturn Roe v. Wade? I have to think so, but then again John McCain didn't. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortions will not be outlawed, it will simply fall right back to the states. period. Now if you live in a state that has outlawed abortion. Sounds like you might want to practice some personal responsibility and protect yourself. But I doubt that you'll hear that from the likes of Kerry...Besides the democrats and left are making huge gains in the scaring the mess out of the unknowing.