The America I Know

It's not the  red,white and blue of the American flag or apple pie with ice cream,the America I know is one of struggle and pain.Struggle and pain for my father,grandfather,uncles and the men I grew up knowing as models in my community.What inspired me to write this post today was the response that I recieved from some  folks I follow on the blogersphere.Even though their comments were understood by me they were not taken as malicious or disrespectful,but simply as lack of experience in my world.Black men in these United States are demonized every hour of every day of the week.So my experience with Police are different from many who responded to my post on the thuggish behavior of three Pittsburgh Policemen.Black men are not respected by this society because of fears to many to name.Let me use some experience from my part time job at the convenice store,about 50% of the White folks I encounter have what I now call" The Sen. Harry Reid Diease".The only time they are comfortable interacting with black folk and black men in particular is when they precieve you to be safe.I watched as my father and grandfather had to jigg and buck dance to get the things they needed to substain their families.Sorry folks the days of jigging and buck dancing is over for many black men,your fears are not mine to assuage.
                                                                                                    Bigmac

Penn Hills Teachers Strike and the kids get dumber!

I have been a union person as long as I can remember,with that said I want to make clear that their are certain jobs in our society that a strike should be the last option.Those jobs are Police,Fire and Emergency responders and Teachers.Penn Hills,Pa. is a Township on Pittsburgh's eastern border,it's demographics has changed over the last 30-40 years and  it's 80% African-American in population,where it once was  a 80% White population.Most Black folk moved to Penn Hills over the past 30 years or so in the hope of escaping the City of Pittsburgh's urban problems.As more Black people moved to Penn Hills the White flight to more easternly suburbs increase,hence the change in demograhics.The catch here folks is that the political leadership has not changed,Penn Hills Mayor and majority Town Council is still White as is it's school board.As I have posted before Black folk in this region of Western PA. are not politically involved in the places that they live,98% have not a clue as to how the political process work. So yesterday when I read on line that the teachers were going out on strike,I wondered how many parents knew that this turmoil existed between the teachers and the school board.So I asked Valerie to call her daughter who has two boys in the school system and to inform her of the looming strike,not to my surprise she didn't have a clue either of the turmoil and pending strike.And Michelle  is generally one of the few Black parents who is on top of issues going on within the school system in general.So if Michelle didn't know I knew from my gut that the rest of the Black parents in this township had not a clue.The strike by the school teachers this thursday is a disgrace to the profession of teachers,if your heart is really into teaching then you must find a better way of working with the school board to work out a viable contract.As for the parents this a moment when you should ask yourself what the hell is going on,but hell will freeze over before that happens!
                             Bigmac

Not Enough Fire These Cops

EmailPrintPittsburgh cops put on paid leave during beating investigation

Monday, February 01, 2010

By Sadie Gurman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Three officers under investigation by the city for allegedly beating a Homewood teen during his arrest last month have been placed on paid administrative leave, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said this afternoon.



He said the decision would help put community concerns at ease and ensure the safety of the officers pending the investigation by the Office of Municipal Investigations.



"We can't take any final action until we know all the facts," Mr. Ravenstahl said at a news conference where he declined to take questions from reporters. He said he has asked OMI to wrap up its investigation by the end of this month, and "it will uncover those facts."



The officers -- Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte and David Sisak -- were working undercover on Jan. 12, when they arrested Jordan Miles, 18, in Homewood. The CAPA student said the officers brutally beat him as he walked on Tioga Street to his grandmother's house.



The officers were moved from plainclothes and into uniform after OMI launched its probe into the incident.



Mr. Ravenstahl said today's decision to place the officers on paid leave was a difficult one and urged the public to be patient during the investigation.



Police Chief Nate Harper declined to comment on the decision, saying the incident remains under investigation with possible litigation pending.



More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.



Sadie Gurman: sgurman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1878.



Copyright ©1997 - 2010 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.

PITTSBURGH'S BLACK POPULATION ASLEEP

Black folk in Pittsburgh have again shown me that they have not a clue as to what time it is politically,we have allowed the news media in this town to define how we should responed to the savage beating of one of our children by three Pittsburgh cops.As some of you may know I have a part time job in a stop and go kind of store and get to interact with a lot different people.O f the many black folk I get a chance to talk with not one has express any concern or angry  about this beat down of this 18 year old high school honor student.Yea I know we have gotten use to cops coming into our community knocking heads and getting away with it.But folks when is this shit going to stop?When are we as a community,going to demand that the police protect and serve us with justice and not a ass whipping? When are we going to get involved in the policing of our community? When are we going to elect leaders for City Council who truley represent our needs and issues? The City Councilman representing this area(HOMEWOOD) calls himself a man of the cloth! In my opinion he has not the balls of a lion,but of a pussy cat! The reason this lowlife bastard can get away with not being forceful about this beat down by these three thug cops is because most of the black community is asleep at the wheel of political and social reality of Pittsburgh,Pa.Black folks maybe in postions you would consider powerful postions,but the reality is they are puppets,like Police Chief Nate Harper,another person without balls. It's Friday and black folks  in this town  will fill all the bars and clubs  wall to wall tonight getting their grove on and someone's kid will be getting their ass beat or hassled tonight by Pittsburgh's thugs in blue! And these same thuggish bastards walk in the store where I work and wonder why I look at them with hate!
                                                                                          Bigmac

A Must Read Speech By MLK

osama husseini


Martin Luther King Jr.: "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

By Sam Husseini on January 10, 2007 8:39 PM
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Sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967:



A Real Audio file hosted here.



The sermon which I am preaching this morning in a sense is not the usual kind of sermon, but it is a sermon and an important subject, nevertheless, because the issue that I will be discussing today is one of the most controversial issues confronting our nation. I'm using as a subject from which to preach, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam."



Now, let me make it clear in the beginning, that I see this war as an unjust, evil, and futile war. I preach to you today on the war in Vietnam because my conscience leaves me with no other choice. The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth. "Ye shall know the truth," says Jesus, "and the truth shall set you free." Now, I've chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.



The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing, as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we're always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony. But we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for in all our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war, by the American people.



Polls reveal that almost fifteen million Americans explicitly oppose the war in Vietnam. Additional millions cannot bring themselves around to support it. And even those millions who do support the war [are] half-hearted, confused, and doubt-ridden. This reveals that millions have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism, to the high grounds of firm dissent, based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Now, of course, one of the difficulties in speaking out today grows the fact that there are those who are seeking to equate dissent with disloyalty. It's a dark day in our nation when high-level authorities will seek to use every method to silence dissent. But something is happening, and people are not going to be silenced. The truth must be told, and I say that those who are seeking to make it appear that anyone who opposes the war in Vietnam is a fool or a traitor or an enemy of our soldiers is a person that has taken a stand against the best in our tradition.



Yes, we must stand, and we must speak. [tape skip]...have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam. Many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns, this query has often loomed large and loud: "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent?" Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. And so this morning, I speak to you on this issue, because I am determined to take the Gospel seriously. And I come this morning to my pulpit to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation.



This sermon is not addressed to Hanoi, or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Nor is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they must play in a successful resolution of the problem. This morning, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellow Americans, who bear the greatest responsibility, and entered a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.



Now, since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is...a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed that there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the Poverty Program. There were experiments, hopes, and new beginnings. Then came the build-up in Vietnam. And I watched the program broken as if it was some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money, like some demonic, destructive suction tube. And you may not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries to people that are not poor. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such.



Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hope of the poor at home. It was sending their sons, and their brothers, and their husbands to fight and die in extraordinarily high proportion relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with a cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same school room. So we watch them in brutal solidarity, burning the huts of a poor village. But we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago or Atlanta. Now, I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.



My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years--especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action; for they ask and write me, "So what about Vietnam?" They ask if our nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence I cannot be silent. Been a lot of applauding over the last few years. They applauded our total movement; they've applauded me. America and most of its newspapers applauded me in Montgomery. And I stood before thousands of Negroes getting ready to riot when my home was bombed and said, we can't do it this way. They applauded us in the sit-in movement--we non-violently decided to sit in at lunch counters. The applauded us on the Freedom Rides when we accepted blows without retaliation. They praised us in Albany and Birmingham and Selma, Alabama. Oh, the press was so noble in its applause, and so noble in its praise when I was saying, Be non-violent toward Bull Connor;when I was saying, Be non-violent toward [Selma, Alabama segregationist sheriff] Jim Clark. There's something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you say, Be non-violent toward Jim Clark, but will curse and damn you when you say, "Be non-violent toward little brown Vietnamese children. There's something wrong with that press!



As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964. And I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize was not just something taking place, but it was a commission--a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for the brotherhood of Man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances. But even if it were not present, I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me, the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the Good News was meant for all men, for communists and capitalists, for their children and ours, for black and white, for revolutionary and conservative. Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved His enemies so fully that he died for them? What, then, can I say to the Vietcong, or to Castro, or to Mao, as a faithful minister to Jesus Christ? Can I threaten them with death, or must I not share with them my life? Finally, I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be the son of the Living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood. And because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned, especially for His suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come today to speak for them. And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak not now of the soldiers of each side, not of the military government of Saigon, but simply of the people who have been under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear their broken cries.



Now, let me tell you the truth about it. They must see Americans as strange liberators. Do you realize that the Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation. And incidentally, this was before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. And this is a little-known fact, and these people declared themselves independent in 1945. They quoted our Declaration of Independence in their document of freedom, and yet our government refused to recognize them. President Truman said they were not ready for independence. So we fell victim as a nation at that time of the same deadly arrogance that has poisoned the international situation for all of these years. France then set out to reconquer its former colony. And they fought eight long, hard, brutal years trying to re-conquer Vietnam. You know who helped France? It was the United States of America. It came to the point that we were meeting more than eighty percent of the war costs. And even when France started despairing of its reckless action, we did not. And in 1954, a conference was called at Geneva, and an agreement was reached, because France had been defeated at Dien Bien Phu. But even after that, and after the Geneva Accord, we did not stop. We must face the sad fact that our government sought, in a real sense, to sabotage the Geneva Accord. Well, after the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come through the Geneva agreement. But instead the United States came and started supporting a man named Diem who turned out to be one of the most ruthless dictators in the history of the world. He set out to silence all opposition. People were brutally murdered because they raised their voices against the brutal policies of Diem. And the peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by United States influence and by increasing numbers of United States troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown, they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change, especially in terms of their need for land and peace. And who are we supporting in Vietnam today? It's a man by the name of general Ky [Air Vice Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky] who fought with the French against his own people, and who said on one occasion that the greatest hero of his life is Hitler. This is who we are supporting in Vietnam today. Oh, our government and the press generally won't tell us these things, but God told me to tell you this morning. The truth must be told.



The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support and all the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps, where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go, primarily women, and children and the aged. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the towns and see thousands of thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only noncommunist revolutionary political force, the United Buddhist Church. This is a role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolutions impossible but refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that comes from the immense profits of overseas investments. I'm convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.



A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be changed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.



Oh, my friends, if there is any one thing that we must see today is that these are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. They are saying, unconsciously, as we say in one of our freedom songs, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around!" It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo, we shall boldly challenge unjust mores, and thereby speed up the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."



A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing, unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of mankind. And when I speak of love I'm not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of John: "Let us love one another, for God is love. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us."



Let me say finally that I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against this war, not in anger, but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and, above all, with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as the moral example of the world. I speak out against this war because I am disappointed with America. And there can be no great disappointment where there is not great love. I am disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. We are presently moving down a dead-end road that can lead to national disaster. America has strayed to the far country of racism and militarism. The home that all too many Americans left was solidly structured idealistically; its pillars were solidly grounded in the insights of our Judeo-Christian heritage. All men are made in the image of God. All men are bothers. All men are created equal. Every man is an heir to a legacy of dignity and worth. Every man has rights that are neither conferred by, nor derived from the State--they are God-given. Out of one blood, God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. What a marvelous foundation for any home! What a glorious and healthy place to inhabit. But America's strayed away, and this unnatural excursion has brought only confusion and bewilderment. It has left hearts aching with guilt and minds distorted with irrationality.



It is time for all people of conscience to call upon America to come back home. Come home, America. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on." I call on Washington today. I call on every man and woman of good will all over America today. I call on the young men of America who must make a choice today to take a stand on this issue. Tomorrow may be too late. The book may close. And don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant! And if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I'll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God."



Now it isn't easy to stand up for truth and for justice. Sometimes it means being frustrated. When you tell the truth and take a stand, sometimes it means that you will walk the streets with a burdened heart. Sometimes it means losing a job...means being abused and scorned. It may mean having a seven, eight year old child asking a daddy, "Why do you have to go to jail so much?" And I've long since learned that to be a follower to the Jesus Christ means taking up the cross. And my bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter. Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must bear. Let us bear it--bear it for truth, bear it for justice, and bear it for peace. Let us go out this morning with that determination. And I have not lost faith. I'm not in despair, because I know that there is a moral order. I haven't lost faith, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. I can still sing "We Shall Overcome" because Carlyle was right: "No lie can live forever." We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant was right: "Truth pressed to earth will rise again." We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell was right: "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne." Yet, that scaffold sways the future. We shall overcome because the bible is right: "You shall reap what you sow." With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when the lion and the lamb will lie down together, and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid because the words of the Lord have spoken it. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when all over the world we will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we're free at last!" With this faith, we'll sing it as we're getting ready to sing it now. Men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And nations will not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore. And I don't know about you, I ain't gonna study war no more.



Text from Pacifica Radio/KPFA/UC Berkeley Library's Media Resource Center's site. The sermon was at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, not the Riverside Church -- that speech is here.



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SO WHAT IS LOVE?

I read on one of the blogs this morning where the topic was interculture dating among Black people from different parts of the world.I'll be honest I don't really know what love is as many people speak about between two people.Don't misinterpet what I'm saying,I simple don't understand what love means from one person to another.All I know is if I'm in a relationship with you I'll do everything in my power to support you,protect you and help to keep a roof over our heads.I'll cry with you and laugh with you,but if a person is looking for me to be the type of man that Madison Ave. projects out here,then I would think a person would be looking for the wrong type of love from me.So am I missing something?
                                                                               Bigmac

Children from Haitian Orphanage Arrive In Pittsburgh

This morning about 9:30 am I finally felt the pain of the Haitian people in their struggle to navigate the aftermath of this natural disaster.
I watched as 53 children arrived at the Pittsburgh aiport from a orphanage in Haiti, as I sat in my big chair  watch the barley clothed kids deplane I started to cry uncontroled,finally feeling the human connection after almost a week of watching the news of this disaster.Maybe it's time for me to do more then write blogs condemming others and just get up off of my ass and just do something for the people of Haiti!
                                                                               Bigmac

MLK What This Day Means To Black Pittsburgh

On the surface MLK Day here in Pittsburgh is just another day of the week to 95% of the population,that's because people of color have no political juice in this city.A few months ago I started a part-time job at a local convenice store,I get a chance to interact with a lot of different people and boy was my eyes open to how some people interact.Last Friday I made a point to wish my customers a happy mlk holiday,most reacted with utter shock.I'm not just talking about my white customers but many of my black customers also.Some of my black customers were very sheepish when I said what I said,and in 2010 that tells me that MLK words are still needed . You see folks Blacks don't have any political power at all on the city or county levels.Thats because black folks don't get involved in politics period!Even townships where black folks are in the majority,whites still are in charge of the top political postions.So whats this all have to do with mlk day?Well when you in 2010 still can't make decisons about your life and what  to celebrate then you are still not free! And the reason I choose to wish folks on friday 01/15/2010 is because thats his real birthdate.
                                                                                                          Bigmac

Get the Catholic Church out of Haiti

And bring back the Haitian intellectals that have left the country,I'm so sick of the media's image of why Haiti is suffering after the earthquake.If the brain trust of Haiti had not been force to move to places like New York and other places in the world,just maybe they would have been in place to shored up the infurstrucal of this country.But no this rape of Haiti has been going on since the revolt of 1803,when the people of Haiti kicked Frances ass and sent them packing.I guess the 90 million Francs that France demanded after losing in that revolt doesn't make people think.Or the selling of that note to the US GOVERMENT IN 1834 makes anyone think as to just what the hell is going on in Haiti.I haven't heard one media report on the mining interest who daily rape the natural resources of Haiti,I haven't heard one media report on why the U.S.Government is sitting on the vast oil deposits in the north of Haiti.
I haven't heard one media report on how the Catholic Church has brainwashed the people of Haiti along with those other NGO'S into believing that they are there in country to save their black behinds.No the Catholic Church and the NGO'S are there in Haiti for one dam reason and it's simple ,to continue to rape this nation of it's resources.
                                                                                         Bigmac

A President with no balls!

President Obama is nothing but a figure head,because if he really was commander and chief alot more people in middle america would be back to work able to take care of their families and homes.
President Obama don't  have the balls or the authority to fire many of the incompetent people who now surround him.We might as well have Palin in the White House.
                                                                                                Bigmac

And the winner is Fox News

I just read where Palin has signed on with Fox News to be a pundit.
I mean who the hell is shocked?
                                                              Bigmac

Harry Reid hoppla old news

The fake disgust that I have been hearing all weekend about the statements that Harry Reid made about President Obama  is really nothing more then distraction at it's highest level.
If you have lived in America the past 57 years like me this line of thinking has always existed.
Black folk themselves still practice this light skin,dark skin nonsense,this type of thinking has it's roots in slavery.
Let's not pretend folks,we don't need Harry Reid to quit,we all need to educate ourselves and move into the 21st century.
                                                              Bigmac

Real Problems in the bedroom

Bigmacinpittsburgh can't really get it big any more,I have EDT FOLKS AT 57 YEARS OF AGE BIG MAC IS SMALL..Kit from her blog finally conveniences me to be honest,so I hope all of my other male friends will understand me coming out of the players closet.Bigmac can't keep it hard any more. There I said it ,laugh if you may but the truth has set my black behind free..
                                                                   Bigmac

Let's Make 2010 The Year Of Transformation

Happy New Years to all,let this year be the year that your wishes and dreams start to become true.
Let this be the year that we start to treat ourselves and others like we want for ourselves.
                                                                  Bigmac

President Obama fast aging

President Obama may have known intellectually how hard being the President of the United States was,but noting teachs a person like  hands on experience.I watch him at his press conference a few days ago while explaining the lastest news on the terrorist plot stopped in Detroit last week.I was shocked to see how much he has aged in less then a year.Your thoughts are welcome.
                                                             Bigmac

Listening with a third eye and ear

When President Obama was running for the office he now holds,how many of us were hearing and seeing with a third ear and eye? Not many is my guess,because the complaints and job approval rating for President Obama has plunged.Even in the Black community where Obama never showed up during his campaigning for office I see and hear loud chants of disapproval for the job he has done for our community.
Folks here is where that third eye and ear come into play,did you every asked your self why President Obama never held a rally in the straightup hood?Did you ever question why his wife was not with him on the campaign bus and plane? Now is the the time to ask yourself some tough questions,not the next election for President in 2012.
                                                            Bigmac

What the health care bill means

Without the public opition the health  care bill approved by the U.S.Senate this past weekend amounts to a joke for the average person out here.
One of the purpose of the public opition was to give incentive to the insurance industry to lower their prices and offer better health plans to the consumer.
I often wonder if the people in Washington who create these laws even feel just a little of the pain of the average joe and jane lunchbucket.
Do they ever feel the pain of not having the resources to pay the medical expenses of a sick child?
I wonder if the average congressperson or senator was to ever be without medical insurance would they then change their tune and then pass some real reform!
                                                                                     Bigmac

Unconditional love and forgiveness

Unconditional Love and ForgivenessI got this ideal to talk about unconditional love and forgiveness from a poster to Field Negro blogspot this morning.(http://www.field-negro.blogspot.com/) It's a worthy goal  to shoot  for but how practical is this in 2009? What do you think?No Repentance No God Loves You, But is His Forgiveness Unconditional?
                                                 Bigmac

Christmas Just Ain't Christmas

Church Mouse of Saint NicholasI remember Christmas when I was a child,it was fun and exciting even though my family was poor as a church mouse money wise.But we were rich in the small things of this life ,we were loved deeply.So now we enter the last week of "shopping" for Christmas  and I'm still not feeling Christ like about 12/25/2009.
Could it be I have been slammed with so many ideals and commericals that I have forgotten what Christmas  is suppose be ?
                                    Bigmac

No Health Care Bill

So where is the health care reform that President Obama promise the American people last year during his run for office?
My guess is reality has finially has set in with people like myself,who now understand that President Obama is just a politican,with a slicker message for the masses.
I still love him for what he was able to accomplish by making it to the White House,but as far as "change" that's not going to happen.
                                  Bigmac

Mental Health And Black Folks

I just don't know what's it going to take for the Black Community to wake up and smell the coffee in regards to mental health issues in our community.
Have anyone ever given to thought as to why so many of us need to find an outlet such as drugs and alcohol?
The pain of my childhood could only be tamed by the glup of a Colt 45 and a shot of Rum,there was really no where else I could turn to get a understanding of what was happening to me.
I won't blame my parents for that pain because,lord knows the issues they had to deal with raising six children in the 1950-60's wasn't a easy one.
I often use their persaverance as a benchmark when things get a little rough now days.
                                                                                  Bigmac

Judging Tiger Woods

I was reading the blogspot of my friend rippa(rippdemup.blogspot.com) last night and I think some of the things he was saying about the Tiger Woods drama was spot on. Rippa never let's a reader misunderstands his point of view.
So my friend Carey chimes in to bring rippa back down to earth.
All which goes to show the powerful communication going on in parts of our community.
Carey makes some good points in pointing out the first inclination on most peoples part is to lie and see if we can get  away with the lie.careycarey-carrymehome.blogspot.com
My opinion  is that Tiger Woods will not change his strips, because he has enough money to tell even Jesus to go pound sand!
                                                                               Bigmac

Customer Service

We have all walked into a business and seen employees who treat you the customer like crap.
How many times have you return to that business to buy again?
My question today is do you think customer service in businesses have improved or gotten worse?
                                                                             Bigmac

Caught Between a Rock And a Hard Place!

I watch President Obama's speech last night and frankly I was feeling a little sorry for him.
The mess he is facing today must really be taking a toll on him,it's not a easy thing to make the decison to send 30,000 men and women to war.
I don't have an answer that would make sense to him or to the war hawks who have kept this mess going.
But what I do know within my own heart is that war is hell and if thats the game you want to play,then you and your love ones need to be on the front lines!
                                                                               Bigmac

Cop Killer killed,Who is shock of this outcome?

Well I said a few days ago that the man who killed those four policemen in Washington State over this past weekend  would never see the inside of a courtroom.
Well folks this evening  news reports a lone policeman investigating a stolen car report happen upon him.
Not like on "Law and Order" he was not told to raise his hands and get on the ground,he was tried,convicted and killed on the spot.
For all you folks out here in the heart land who believe we have a criminal justice system for all,you better take the blinders off and start watching your back!
                                                                                 Bigmac

Sick and tired of being sick and tired!

How often have that statement come out of our mouths?
How often have we said that we will do something better or different?
But we end up doing the same doggone thing over and over again.
Is there anything in your life that need to be done differently?
If so share- you can share them here without feeling less then a person?
                                              Bigmac

Giving Thanks Everyday

Now that the offical day of thanks has pass,most of you can go back to being the disconnect human being that you are.
I mean let's keep it real folks,we really do slack on letting people know how much we really care and love them.
How many of you have taken a older relative out to dinner or lunch lately?
How many of you call them on a regular cycle to just chit-chat?
Please don't just call me on those offical holidays,because they have been compromise .
Merry Christmas in advance!
                                                                      Bigmac

Tiger Tiger Tiger

Now of all people I don't have any room in my life to speak on other folks drama!
But for gods sake  does the Tiger Wood household want the public to believe that story about what happen on thanksgiven day?
                                                              Bigmac

Bring The Troops Home Now ! No More Excuses

The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society, The, Volume I, Books a la Carte Plus MyHistoryLab (7th Edition) (v. 1)I voted for President Obama for a few reasons,one of the main reasons my vote went to him was because he was talking strong on ending these two unwinnable wars our country is involved in.
President Obama has disappointed me,next week he's about to committ another 30-40 thousand troops to this middle east and asian madness.
President Obama you can't pimp me any more,all I need to hear from you in your next news conference is the boys and girls are on the plane too home!
                                                                         Bigmac

Poor as a Church Mouse but I got to make that sale

How many of you were up at midnight and roaring to be first in line for the day after thanksgiving sales?
For many that I know it wasn't even on their radar this year,many are trying to figure out how just to keep a roof over their heads.
My question this morning is are you headed out for after thanksgiving sales?
                                                    Bigmac

Didn't Wal Mart get the memo?It's Thanksgiving!

My God isn't anything respected for what it is anymore,I was watching the local news this morning and lord my shock meter went up.stores are open for business today!
Thanksgiving and Christmas were generally the two days most stores closed their doors for their employees to enjoy with their family and friends.
As a matter of fact I can remember not too long ago the only thing that was open on these two holidays was a gas station or two and 7-11!
And people wonder why we don't value anything anymore!
                                                                                            Bigmac

Do we value pets more then people?

It seems not a day goes by that there isn't a news story on our local news here in Pittsburgh involving a pet of some kind.
The story is most often a case of abuse of some kind,there is a lot of stories involving people housing 50 or more pets in a small building or house.
The laws in Pennsylvania on animal abuse sometimes seems to me to be over the top in fines and jail time.
That's not to say that I approve of abusing animals,I'm just asking is the life of a family pet more a valueable then a human?
I really want to hear from PETA folks and other animal lovers,for the record I don't own a pet and have no plans too.
I think some folks take pet ownership to  an extreme that make me question their sanity,or am I the one out of the loop on the true value of a pet?
                                                                   Bigmac
                                                                    

Being Grateful Everyday

Well Thanksgiving Day is almost here and I'm seeing folks running mad to prepare for the day.
Don't get me wrong I'm not a hater for people who celebrate this day,but my question to everyone is why do most folks I know wait until this time of the year to be grateful?
                                                                              Bigmac

Doing Your Best In Everything You Do!

Do we always do our best when we interact with another human being?The answer for me is no,so with this post I have revised my lifes mission goal.So let me state from the door its a goal,because there are some people out here in this old world who will try Jesus! So my fellow cyber friends do you always do your best?How do you deal with other people?What is your life mission?
                                                                           Bigmac

It's time for me to do the dirty work

I have for years talked about what needs to be done to help folks who have less then me.I have screamed and holler the government needs to do this,the church needs to do that.But the only thing that was missing was me! So I have made a pledge to feed and clothed one homeless person a month,we all have walked past the person who asked for spare change and ignored them.But if not for the grace of god that could be you or me,the person will be anyone in need color, gender and all of those other ism won't matter,with your help we can help one person.If you would like to help you can donate right here on this site.Thanks in advance for helping me to do the dirty work.
Bigmac

Talking about stuff we don't talk about!

There are alot of things that go on in the Black culture in America that we don't talk about.One subject is child sexual abuse and incest,it happens more often then we openly discuss.Why did so many people get upset only about the 5 year old killed a few weeks ago in North Carolina?This happen everyday in Black America,the difference between the North Carolina case and what happens everyday is that the media got a hold of a story that was to their liking.(thats another post in its self)I want to know your thoughts.
Bigmac

You got me going in circles

Yea the great debate on health care by congress has gotten me going in circles.God knows I don't understand why those folks in washington can't see and understand the pain and suffering people are experenicing out here in the heart of america.I'm not that stupid as to not know that money talks and poor people die!
Bigmac

Uncaging the rage

Have it really occured to you as to how much Black folk get high?It don't matter what drug of choice we use to get high with we take getting high to another level.I have conculded the reason for getting high for a lot of black people is not to relax from a hard days work,but because we have a lot of rage in us that hasn't been processed properly.Think about what I have said and let me know what you think.
Bigmac

Government Panel to women JUST DIE!

What nerve to tell women in this country not to get regular breast exams until you are of a certain age.What bold guts they have,in todays enviroment breast cancer and other cancers are running crazy in our society.If women aren't moblized by what this panel has said then they are in deep do-do.
Bigmac

Black Politics In America

I often read different points of views from people in the blogspots on the internet.
There seem to be an overall view that all politics for Black people is liberal and Democratic.
I beg to differ with that point of view simply because I look back over my life time for proof that liberal and democratic has been helpful to black people.
I believe that liberal and democratic has been more harmful then helpful,because the only thing I see we have gotten is a fish.
We(black folk) need to learn how to fish for ourselves.
We need to stop waiting on politicans to throw us some crumbs.
Bigmac

Checking Your Attitude and Altitude

I went to Church today folks,not because I felt any great urge from God to get myself into the pews.
A friends grandchild was being introduced to the church and she asked for us to attend and be there to support the effort.
I looked at it as a opportunity to maybe find that one church where I will connect here in Pittsburgh,Pa.
Sorry to report folks it didn't happen,that connection just wasn't there.
I'am beginning to wonder if the black church is losing its mojo,have my attitude flown so high that I'm missing the message or has the black church forgotten it's roots?

When they are gone

The older I get the more I understand how precious this life of mine is.
When I was in my 20's,30's and 40's I didn't think like I do now.
I was out of my mine,drinking and party time was 24-7.
Today a friend lost her son to a early death,it doesn't matter how but THE SAME THING COULD HAVE HAPPEN TO ME! I don't remember believing in god and life like I do now but he was there protecting me in all of my crazyness.I don't want you to think that I'm going to preach to you and tell you what to do with your life,but I hope you don't have to find out the hard way.
Bigmac

Well Muhammad is dead so I guess it's safe to leave home?

I have read a few comments this morning on the killing of John Allen Muhammad last night.Yea I know the media says he was legally excuted by the State of Virginia,but let's just keep it as ugly as it is killing in the good name of the people of the State of Virginia.I'm not going to sit here and cry for John Allen Muhammad because what he did was straightup wrong,wrong ,wrong.But I can't help but think man they didn't waste no time killing him,no twenty years of appeals,no interviews on 60 Min,or 20-20.Yea the folks in Richmond said this Negro has got to go, quick fast and in a hurry.
Bigmac

WHO CARES ABOUT AFGHANISTAN WHAT ABOUT DETROIT

I think President Obama has it twisted about what should be on his plate of concern.Unemployment has hit 10.2% in this country so that means it must be 15% in the Black community.The bottom line for the average person in Detroit not to see freedom for the people of Afghanistan but to have a means of making money which means a job.President Obama needs to wakeup and not only smell the coffee but smell the stench of our dying cities.
Bigmac

Do White Folk Really Understand Me?

I'm not a hater of anyone because of the color of their skin,but lets keep it real folks,race is as American as apple pie.So lets talk about it,White's or shall I say most that I meet don't know how to chit chat with me.Unknowingly they deny my humanity,when the first thing out of their mouths to me is did or do I play basketball or football.Sometimes I Smile and say something to take them off guard because I know they don't know any better.Why can't a simple hello or how are you today be enough?Black men such as my self who has been blessed with height and size are not thought of as simply god fearing decent human being but as product.And just as unknowingly we buy into the sterotype.Ok so what are you folks feeling on this topic.
Bigmac

Congress's Game of Healthcare

Look folks healthcare is a serious issue for a lot of folks out here in middle America.Congress seems to not take the issue seriously simply because they have no up front personal experience to relate too.Along with the fact so many in Congress have been brought out by the healthcare industry lobbyists.The healthcare bill passed yesterday in congress will have to go through a conference committee before it see the light of day.So by the time it reachs President Obama's desk it will be so water down that it won't be any reform at all.Until we take the money out of politics in this country,anything that is good for "Joe and Jane Lunchbucket" pocketbook ain't gone to happen!
Bigmac

Spare me the tears of shock!

With all of the news media coverage of the murder and mayhem at Ft.Hood,Texas,what am I to think?Am I to get worked up and call for a midnight vigil for the murder and mayhem at Ft.Hood?I don't know what to do.If I promise to get worked up about the craziness at Ft.Hood will you join me in denouncing the daily maddness in Pittsburgh,Washington,DC?I'm sick of the media picking and choosing what lives I'm suppose to shed my tears for,I don't have too many left yall!

Wakeup Everybody!

Harold Melvin and the Blue-notes said it best in their song from the 1970's,the songs talked about how everybody in the community needed to do their job and be responsible for your life and family.They sung in that song how teachers needed to teach and preachers needed to preach.It talked about fathers needing to be fathers and mothers being mothers.It also talked about being responsible to our community in general.Well most teachers don't teach in 2009 and lord knows our preachers are out to lunch.
Politically poor folks are dead meat,we don't even rate a beep on a politican blackberry.We get the government that we vote for,if we don't vote well we get again the government of somebody elses choosing.What happen to all of the motivated voters from one year ago in 2008?Where were you yesterday?Folks Obama can't do the things we need done in our communities alone,we need to extend a hand by voting for the people who will go to Washington and support the programs we need in the poor communities of this country.The bottom line for poor folk in this country is you will continue to catch hell and poverty until you get up and take charge of your community.
See the previous post for the song by Harold Melvin and the Blue notes.
Bigmac.

YouTube - Wake Up Everybody---To Teddy

YouTube - Wake Up Everybody

The State of Black Church's,do we care?

So where is the Black Church in this economic downturn and recovery?What programs are in place to help Miss Minnie the 80 year old member who's been coming to the church since she was knee high to a frog? What is the church doing to help it's unemployed members find a job? Any job so at least some food can be put on the table and the rent is paid.Who in the church is up to speed on all of the government programs that are out here to help during this recovery period?I'm just asking folks,because from where I sit here on the porch ain't much happening help wise in most black churchs!But I do want to know what is being done with that money collected each sunday?Is that money being used to help the members who may need a box of grits to make breakfast?Is it being used to help someone keep their lights or gas on?What is that money collected on sunday morning being used for?Somebody tell me so I can sleep with both eyes shut!
                                                             Bigmac

Hero's And Shero's

We(Black Folk) need some heros and sheros quick fast and in a hurry,I'm telling you if we don't find some real heros and sheros soon there will be no good reason for any us to live.Some of my people are so far to the left( And I don't mean politically) that we can't see the forest for the trees.Some of us really believe that  all of the work is done in their lives.They have a good job,house,car and 2.5 children in the suburbs.Naw folks your work has only begun,because now you got to prepare for the day when your "good job" may be downsized in the language of the human resource experts.Where I come from that would be preparing for when you are let go,FIRED.I have lived in a few places throughout this country where black folks are living large and sometimes have titles and feel that they are in charge.But what are we building or how many jobs are we creating in these"powerful postions"? I'm just saying folks!Another thing when are we as a people going to start living within our means?All of the folks I see out here riding in those luxury German cars and living in subsidized housing need to get a reality check.Even if you can afford the payment,what sense does it make for you to be spending that kind of money for a damn car.That $500.00 month payment could go into a 529 education account for your children's education.And if you don't have children put that $500.00 payment in a CD making 2% interest every month.Yea folks we need some banking heros and sheros in our lives! Before anyone misunderstand where I'm coming from,I LOVE ALL OF MY PEOPLE I MAY NOT APPROVE OF YOUR BEHAVIOR BUT I LOVE YOU DISPITE YOUR SELVES.AND THERE ISN'T A DAMN THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT THAT FACT!
                                                             Bigmac

Many folk are doing like Otis Redding

You know just sitting on the dock of the bay,just watching the tide of life sail away.I don't care if you have a corporate job or a government job,today you may lose it or be downsize at any moment.What makes you think it can't happen to you?You think your bosses love you and care about the welfare of your family? If you think in those terms you better turn around and look at the highway behind you,it's littered with people who thought like you.So Bigmac Mr.Know it all what do you suggest that I do? Ok since you ask,open your eyes to the things that are really going on around you, from work to home life and begin to change what you can.Stop pretending that you are all that and a bag of chips.Start to reach back and pull someone else up so they may also begin to enjoy some of the fruits of life.
                                                                                   Bigmac

Why aren't you upset about the banks bonuses?

It's been over a year since the economy has begun it's tailspin,but I don't see a lot of people upset? Have we not noticed all of our neighbors who are out of work?We continued to pretend that we are still all that and a bag of chips?What will it take for the average person out here to get outraged at the economy?
                                                                          Bigmac

Tyler Perry On The CBS Show 60 Mins.

I saw Tyler Perry last night on 60 Mins.,interesting segment for me,I learn a little more about Black life and myself everytime I hear  how others have experience life as a black man growing up here in the  good old USA.Man its hard being a poor black boy in this country,the media and the powers that be don't respect us the way God created us,so we as black people need to re-think how we treat each other.Some of us think because overt racism has gone underground that there is no work to be done.The work that needs to be done is truth seeking,the kind of truth seeking that hurts to the bone.Truth seeking will be my theme this week so stay tune!
                                              Bigmac

Could The Flu Emergency Be A Pig In The Blanket?You Tell Me

It seems President Obama has turned the heat up and has declared a national flu emergency,I personally don't know anyone with this new strain of the swine flu.I do remember the swine flu scare from 1976 and remember getting both the flu and the shot.So I'm relucdant to try the shot again.The most pressing reason for me in not getting the shot is simple,I don't trust our government period!And folks I'm no way as paranoid as you may think,I'm of the mind that a healthy dose of paranoid is good.And no I don't want to hear the arguement that I should now trust the government now the some of my kin folks now live in the "Brown House" erh I mean the "WhiteHouse".I don't trust a word that comes out of President Obama's mouth.And no my last name is not Limbaugh.It's simple folks President Obama is a first class politican that this country hasn't seen in it's life time.You know you got to be a bad MF if you can convince half of the rednecks in Pittsburgh to vote for your Black behind.So what makes Black folk think that he wouldn't sell our no information laden head down the river.What makes black folk think that President Obama wouldn't sell the ideal that we need these shots in the hood? Have yall forgotten your history?If I say Tuskegee,Alabama would that jog a few remnants of history for you.And for you folks who have forgotten about "health care reform"  When President Obama gets  the political will to step up to the plate and defy the health care industry and pass some sweeping reform,then maybe I'll give him some breathing room. So folks don't come talk to me about a pig in the blanket until you show me some beef on the issues most pressing in this country.JOBS,HOUSING,HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYONE!
                                                         Bigmac

All my skin folk,ain't my kin folk

I have followed another blog (Field Negro) and in the beginning thought I would find most people on the blog interested in helping black folk to better understand them selves and the world that we live.But that dream died a week into signing on,why in the world can't we share information or educate each other without name calling and degrading each other? Some folks lives depend on negitive vibes to exist.
                                                                           Bigmac

Why don't we get help for mental illness?

Everyday as the sun rise I have come to the  realize that some of my people are crazy as a bed bug. I don't say this with malise or disrepect but with compassion.We must begin to understand the long term damage that dysfunctional families have  on our minds and thoughts.Just the other day here in Pittsburgh I was in line at the Gaint Eagle and watched as a young mother berate in public on her cell phone the father of her young son,right in front of him and any one within hearing distance.People this not the White-mans fault this is our own behavior and we need to own it and correct it now!
                                                                                     Bigmac

So who's going to raise that child?

I'm so sick and tired of men in my community fathering children and just leaving them for the mother or her family to raise.Let me talk to you sorry son of bitches out there,you know who you are,Mr.Cool who claim that women can't keep their hands off of your sorry excuse of a human beings ass.Where in the name of God did you lose your responsiabilty for taking care of what you created or cause(bills,children in particular).The days of being "Macdaddy" are over,it's time you get up off of your asses and take care of the children you created and stop pimping others for your pleasure.It's time you get a real job,any dam job,if it requries you to work three at $6.00 a hour so be it,get your ass up and support your kids,or do you need the white folks from the courthouse to haul your ass down there to make you do what god created you to do?Damit I'm tired of looking at the 6pm news and seeing Skippy and Ray-Ray being hauled off to jail or being picked up off the corner to be taken to the Medical Examiner's Office.Don't give me your sorry ass excuses anymore that you can't do this or you can't find a job.Bullshit you can do whatever you want with  that mind that god created,getup out of that Bar or Club and get your ass home and mentor that child you created.IT'S TIME YOU START TO DO WHAT IS KNOWN IN THIS LIFE THE THE DIRTY WORK!
                                                     Bigmac

Somebody Has To Do The Dirty Work

Good Morning all,this my first post so don't go ballastic on me for errors,but I can't help but saying I'm sick of the excuse making going on in the African-American Community.I'm sick of the rating scale we have for getting disgusted at issues affecting our community.If someone White had done to that 16 year old kid in Chi-town every Black activist and politican would have been on this story like white on rice. Why are we afraid to do the dirty work thats needed in our community?
Bigmac