Happy Black History Month! Martin Luther King Jr.: I have chosen to strive to love, hate is too heavy a burden. Happy rememberances of all the joy, passion & creativity that our Maker has given to us- we who are the colour of the most life-giving source - the soil. Without soil, nothing would grow & there would be no life on planet Earth. We are special. Let us then learn to laugh at all who would seek to diminish us in so many, many subtle or open ways. Let us then Be ourselves...but our best selves. Yes, we can. I heard Barbara Walters doing her 100 influential persons & when she got to Kanye & Kim there was just something in the way that she was non-talking about them that made me say to myself what do they all have against this young man.Never having listened to a hip-hop or rap song I decided to go to the Kanye West concert & then followed it up with Jay-Z. I reasoned to myself that as a veteran opera goer, his show would be a performance piece & I could assess him at that level. Art always revels who you are. So on that bitter ice-storm day I went to see him. I thoroughly enjoyed Kanyes opera and inspite of all the f-bombs i put him down as a sensitive, caring artist & I will buy one of his CDs & listen to small doses of this music form. My question for all of you is this: Has hip-hop, rap & dance hall music had a positive influence on helping the Black race to keep rising? You who must pass on words of wisdom to the young must decide if this kind of music elevates the human spirit and discuss this with your children. This Black History Month let us face one of the most destructive results of racism...People forget that the same virtues & vices that belong in other groups are in their groups.I am not a fan of Justin Bieber but imagine that the Americans now have 100,000 signatures to keep him out of the USA ...why? because he is a bad influence for their children! Why have they done this? he belongs to another group. We as Blacks will always be the outside one, the other group because we are visible. Let us then examine ourselves, improve ourselves & stop trying to change any other group but ourselves. Let us teach our children to survive with a smile regardless of what they meet out there. As harsh economical winds blow let us acknowledge painful facts from Black Americans & know that they are also true in Canada: Blacks are the last to be hired & the first to be fired. Let us examine a great component of the struggle - JEALOUSY. It is not hatred that motivates the racist but jealousy. I am so proud of Dwight Drummond, watching him on CBC tonight reminded me that he has never sold out. He speaks his truth quietly & sincerely and without drama & he excels at his job. How many are jealous of the gifts that Blacks posses? Let us put on new spectacles and live our lives with joy & zest. I am not a Liberal, will not ever be a Liberal and yet one of my treasures are some words from Pierre Elliott Trudeau to the National Liberal Party Policy Convention in Ottawa, 1970: Life is confrontation, and vigilance, and a fierce struggle against any threat of intrusion or death. We are unworthy of our ideal if we are not ready to defend, as we would life itself, the only roads to change that respect the human person. I am a human person, are you? Happy Black History Month.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 06:41:39 +0000
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