Last Breath

I know that I'm getting ahead of myself.  I've already started on my second book and I have the basic idea for my third one.  I guess I'm not procrastinating as far as how many books I want to write.  Now all I have to do is wrap up the first one and see where it all goes from there.  If this is what I want to do, then this is what I should do.  I have a job, but I'd like a career.  I'm still young enough to switch fields.  The time is probably about as ripe as it's going to be for me.  Things can change in the blink of an eye.  I don't want to get caught with my eyes closed when opportunity passes my way.  Yes, Last Breath is the current title of the third book.  What is it about?  You'll just have to wait. 

Black

Black: of the color black, of or relating to various groups of dark skinned people, wicked, evil, gloomy, dismal.  It's hard not to recall the scenes from the movie Malcolm X when "Red" was in prison.  I'm proud to be who I am, but it makes me wonder what the origins are for us being called Black.  My skin is not black and I'm not alone in that fact.  How did black become synonymous with evil or wicked?  It goes back to an earlier post that I made talking about skin tones.  That self hatred is in the very definition of the word.  Black is beautiful.  Plain and simple.  We sometimes that crab in a bucket mentality.  But when you put us against anybody else, we can easily unite for the cause.  President Obama is a good example of that, along with Michael Vick, Tiger Woods, and even O.J. Simpson.  We came out in record numbers to vote for the president in '08 and were the first to forgive the other three for their transgressions.  We have brought so much culturally and historically to this country yet we are relegated to second class citizens at times.  I tend to be critical of my own people because we think we have to hold ourselves to higher standards.  The deck is already stacked against us because of who we are.  That will change hopefully and I know it's ten times better than it was years ago.  But we still have a ways to go.  Anybody with a trace of Black in their blood is Black to me.  

Common Sense

President Obama can never rest comfortably.  It seems like when he does something that can possibly bring the country back together, the people that hate to see that find anything to attack him.  Recently The First Lady decided to celebrate poetry at the white house and invited Lonnie Lynn (MC Common) to perform.  Of course this decision was blasted by some that know nothing about Common or his music.  The funny part is that the people who were the most vocal about it were the ones who love the attention the most.  Sarah Palin and Bill O'Reilly always have something to say, even if it means making a big deal out of nothing.  They twisted everything around to say that Common advocated killing cops.  It's obvious they don't listen to his music and Palin is such a clown that she tried to say that she listens to rap as a way to make it OK for her to speak on him.  Nobody believes for a minute that she does because if she did then she would have been silent on the matter.  Common shined light on Assata Shakur.  He felt she was wrongly accused.  He has the freedom of speech to say that.  It sickens me when people act like their opinion is the only one that exists.  Luckily people came to Common's defense even though he didn't really need it.