Wednesday, February 20, 2008

My little slice of heaven

Thank God for my little slice of heaven today. I was able to see the lunar eclipse this evening. Here are pics. Some you may have to squint to see...lol Enjoy!

I shot this photo in black and white


This is a shot in natural color. Isn't nearly as beautiful as it is with ones own eyes.


Yes, that dot is the moon...lol

That's my definition of peace...

geneSis...

(I meant to do that *smile*)

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Short Change... Ladies First

I listened to the Michael Baisden show today and an extremely interesting illusion I had long not thought about... resurfaced Now, I could profess that the reason I had forgotten was due to it not directly affecting me daily... it would be true... but I dare not write that =(wink)=

Sexism is very ugly... any type of ism is ugly. Even that little tingle you feel about certain subjects means you carry an ism with you... and to deny it, would be to lie... and that's worse than ugly... that's fugly (for my hood challenged folk, that's f-ing ugly... I would go ahead and curse but I'm not trying to have a black eye in behind a seven letter word *Hi Mommy*).

What's fuglier is a man obtaining a position just because he is male.

What's more fuglier than that... is a well-qualified man obtaining a position just because he is male... and for said well- qualified man to believe he obtained that position because he was... umm... well-qualified.

Then... running neck-and-neck with the more fuglier example would be... a well-qualified man obtaining a position over a well-qualified woman because he is male... and for both to think it was fair play...

Yeah, some of that went over you all's heads, didn't it? Okay, maybe not... but WOMEN... when you hear or see sexism in action... do something about it. Brothas... it would be nice if you chimed in too... we need back up! Even if what you do is bring more awareness to it... it's needed....

It's needed because ism's are more undercover now. Our children need it... their children need it.

No one is going to discriminate you, at least not someone SMART, openly and obviously... they'll do something as sneaky as white men voting for Obama because they'd rather have a Black male leader than a female leader...

Yeah, that was a small portion of a big thing Baisden discussed on his show... but I'm not saying much more about it... support a brotha by visiting his website...

Now, I'm by no means a feminist... I'm more of a realist... but I am a Woman and I can't help but want Long Change... for-a-change

Here, I pay homage to Sojourner Truth in her speech "Ain't I a Woman"

Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio
Delivered 1851

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.


pic: www.kyphilom.com/www/truth.html

speech:www.infoplease.com

Monday, February 4, 2008

Short Change... AA Facts For the Shortest Month of the Year (02.05.08)

I mentioned on Feb. 1, 2008 that Lucy Terry was the first known AA poet. Here is the only poem that still survives as none of her writings were formally published. Born in Africa around 1730, it is unknown how she became literate.





BARS FIGHT

Seventeen hundred forty-six
The Indians did in ambush lay
Some very valiant men to slay
The names of whom I'll not leave out
Samuel Allen like a hero fout
And though he was so brave and bold
His face no more shall we behold.
Eleazer Hawks was killed outright
Before he had time to fight
Before he did the Indians see
Was shot and killed immediately.
Oliver Amsden he was slain
Which caused his friends much grief and pain.
Samuel Amsden they found dead
Not many rods off from his head.
Adonijah Gillet we do hear

Did lose his life which was so dear.
John Saddler fled across the water
And so escaped the dreadful slaughter.
Eunice Allen see the Indians comeing
And hoped to save herself by running
And had not her petticoats stopt her

The awful creatures had not cotched her
And tommyhawked her on the head
And left her on the ground for dead.
Young Samuel Allen, Oh! lack a-day
Was taken and carried to Canada.


For more information on Lucy Terry click here


Pic courtesy of
www.projo.com

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Short Change... AA Facts For the Shortest Month of the Year (02.04.08)

This is a wonderful quiz. Please enjoy and let me know your thoughts (and score)

Short Change... AA Facts For the Shortest Month of the Year (02.03.08)


On this day, in 1870, we were given the right to vote...

AMENDMENT XV

(The proposed amendment was sent to the states Feb. 27, 1869, by the Fortieth Congress. It was ratified Feb. 3, 1870.)

SECTION 1

[Right of certain citizens to vote established.]

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.




pic: http://www.laits.utexas.edu
info: www.infoplease.com

Friday, February 1, 2008

Short Change... AA Facts For the Shortest Month of the Year (02.02.08)

On July 31, 1966, Stokely Carmichael, the newly appointed Chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), describes black power to a mostly African American audience at Cobo Auditorium in Detroit. Part of the address appears below.



I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people. For example, I am black. I know that. I also know that while I am black I am a human being. Therefore I have the right to go into any public place. White people don't know that. Every time I tried to go into a public place they stopped me. So some boys had to write a bill to tell that white man, "He's a human being; don't stop him." That bill was for the white man, not for me. I knew I could vote all the time and that it wasn't a privilege but my right. Every time I tried I was shot, killed or jailed, beaten or economically deprived. So somebody had to write a bill to tell white people, "When a black man comes to vote, don't bother him." That bill was for white people. I know I can live anyplace I want to live. It is white people across this country who are incapable o fallowing me to live where I want. You need a civil rights bill, not me. The failure of the civil rights bill isn't because of Black Power or because of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or because of the rebellions that are occurring in the major cities. That failure is due to the white's incapacity to deal with their own problems inside their own communities. And so in a sense we must ask, How is it that black people move? And what do we do? But the question in a much greater sense is, How can white people who are the majority, and who are responsible for making democracy work, make it work? They have never made democracy work, be it inside the United States, Vietnam, South Africa, the Philippines, South America, Puerto Rico, or wherever America has been. We not only condemn the country for what it has done internally, but we must condemn it for what it does externally. We see this country trying to rule the world, and someone must stand up and start articulating that this country is not God, and that it cannot rule the world.


Sources: http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/black-power/
Picture from: BlackPast.org

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