Pages

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

South West Philly -- The Step Child of the CIty


The Step Child of the CIty -- South West Philadelphia...

By Brother Tracy Gibson

No body ever talks about it much. No body wants to admit how She is suffering. People would rather ignore Southwest Philadelphia and Her issues and concerns because there is little hope there and little concerted and consistent effort on the part of the social, economic, religious and political establishment to do ANYTHING to help Southwest Philadelphia--a section of the city that we mentally sweep under the rug each day. I'm pulling the rug back and looking at how to heal this community.
There are very few stores and unemployment is probably higher here than it is in ALL the other sections of the City including even North Philadelphia. But Southwest Philadelphia has children and teens living there who need to be nurtured, cared for and loved properly just like other sections of the City including Central City and West Philadelphia. My late father was a Real Estate investor and a landlord. He always said ``Location, Location, Location,'' when he was in the market to select a new property to buy and he would never, ever think about buying property in what is perceived of as a destitute, lonely, poor and isolated section of the City such as Southwest Philadelphia.
My real and present concern is how do we, as investors and concerned North Americans and concerned and caring Philadelphias, start a process to refurbish and rebuild Southwest Philadelphia and offer hope, jobs and decent livelihoods, good schools and other opportunities to these people {our People} without displacing and economically destabilizing this oppressed and historic neighborhood? How does that happen? I will be doing the research and writing to find out just how to answer this question.
I don't think even the Philadelphia Police look forward to being assigned to Southwest Philadelphia. But, there are thousands of people in Southwest Philadelphia who like many of us, are struggling to make it through school and university; make it to a job that doesn't pay enough; or make something healthy for dinner. These people often live in deplorable and depressing conditions and have to fend for themselves against great odds. They are often the first fired and the last hired and the first to come up against a hostile criminal justice system. They often have to decide between clothing, food and medicine--and often have to do without basic necessities we often take for granted.
They also have the problems that many of us face--no place to buy nutritious foods at a good price; no decent movie theaters; no reasonably-priced vibrant and lively restaurants to choose from; no theater to speak of; and only a few failing schools and out-of-date community centers to attend important meetings, gatherings and social and political events at.
Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm hoping someone will write and tell me, if I am, but I want to know more about Southwest Philadelphia and I' hope any of you who live there and want to tell these stories, will send me an e-mail so I might start researching and writing on the subject of Southwest Philadelphia and how to change Her into another vibrant, thriving section of the city without displacing the crucial indigenous people who have lived, worked, and purchased items there for generations.
This section of the City needs life and attention and financial investment more than just about any other section. Why open another store or restaurant in Central City when there is such need right under our noses? Write me at BLockBoi75@Yahoo.Com
If the People of Southwest want to start to pull themselves up economically they have little opportunities to do so because there are so few viable and profitable stores owned by the most oppressed in he community. They need OUR help. If you know of any people in Southwest--that is the area emanating from 56th and Elm wood Street--please let me know. I promise to do a series of articles on Southwest's most dedicated and successful social activists if I can get hold of some of them. Also, I promise to advocate for this section of the city in other ways as well, such as talking with and meeting with the area's politicians, business leaders, civic leaders and religious leaders to make things better for Southwest and Her people. I KNOW there are some dedicated and successful social activists in this area. If you know some of the community groups in the area or some of the names of politicians and religious leaders there--PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I CAN BE REACHED AT: 1-215-471-64.94. MORE TO COME!!!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

What to Eat and What Not TO...

What Up? First Up! Please read the article in ``The Advocate,'' for August 2012, Page 46 about health and nutrition. You will find much of this material listed here to be born out by that particular article!!!

What NOT TO Eat!!

Ranch Dressing
Blue Cheese Dressing
White Flour
White Rice
White Bread
Processed TV Dinners
Fried Chicken
Fried Fish
ANY Pork Products
ANY Beef Products
Whole Milk; Ice Cream
Potato Chips of any kind or variety
White Potatoes {Including French Fries}
Chocolate Cake
Carrot Cake {Except once in a while, without icing}
Angel food or Devil's Food Cake\Processed candy bars
Frito's
Any kind of cheese especially processed cheese
White Bread Hoggie rolls
Cheese Whizz and Cheese Products
Avoid Lard and heavy frying and cooking oils
High Sodium foods
Twinkies, Tasty Cakes

Don't eat ANY McDonald's Foods except for fruit, Oat Meal, and water

Avoid Heavy Creams
and Heavy Cream Sauces

Avoid High Salt Spaghetti Sauces

Avoid sugary sodas and avoid high fructose corn syrup in sodas
Avoid diet sodas
Avoid pre-packaged and processed foods such as oodals of noodles

Avoid Sausage Pizza and Pepperoni Pizza
Avoid Pork Sausage
Avoid Home Fries
Avoid White Toast
Avoid Bar-b-q Sauce
Avoid Spear Ribs
Avoid Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers


Many heart ailments, joint ailments and other physical problems, such as liver disease, high-blood pressure, heart attacks and stroke and Diabetes can be traced directly back to consumption of such foods as those listed above. Listen to what the First Lady--Mrs. Michelle Obama--has to say about diet / nutrition / and obesity. Read the book: ``How to Eat to Live,'' by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad; and look for books by Gary Null and Dick Gregory {``Dick Gregory's Natural Diet For Folks Who Eat: Cookin With Mother Nature,'' by Dick Gregory and James R. McGraw. on diet and health. Also read: ``The Gradual Vegetarian,'' by Lisa Tracy...; and ``Sugar Blues'' by William F. Duffy... ``Eating Well for Optimum Health,'' Dr. Andrew Weil. Avoid high-sodium Asian Sauces like Soy Sauce and other Asian Sauces like Hoysen Sauce; Use Olive Oil to Stir fry delicious vegetables.. Watch the salt level in food items and remember you can ask for a list of the sodium levels for most food items in even fast food Restaurants... Watch the SALT and sodium levels on ALL pre-packaged vegetarian items especially pre-packaged frozen vegetarian breakfast sausages or frozen vegetarian hamburgers. ``The Life You Want: Get Motivated, Lose Weight and be Happy,'' is also a good book to read. It is by Bob Greene and Ann Kearney-Cooke, Ph.D.; and Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D. It is available at the Penn Bookstore on the Penn Campus in West Philadelphia at 36th and Walnut Street and other fine bookstores.

The following is an excerpt from Mr. Bob Greene's ``The Life You Want,'' Mr. Greene says that some of the Major problems in life that cause over eating are: ``1] Family Conflicts; 2] Work and School conflicts; 3] Toxic Relationships; 4] Money Worries; 5] Health Issues (including an unhealthy lifestyle}; 6] Unresolved Loss/ Grief;'' He also has a great section about When Food Replaces Love, which I am convinced that many Black women and Black men suffer from in great numbers.

Some of Gary Null's Books are ``The Joy of Juicing: Creative Cooking with Your Juicer; Completely Revised and UpDated''. By Gary Null and Shelly Null.

``Kiss Your Fat Goodbye: The Ultimate Guide to Losing Weight and Building a Healthier Body for Life,'' by Gary Null, Ph.D.











Try to EAT THIS instead!!
HERE IS A LIST OF FOODS TO EAT THAT ARE HEALTHIER FOR YOU!!!

{Most of you already know this stuff, but there are far too many people dieing from heart ailments, obesity and Diabetes and other heart ailments such as heart attack and stroke for us NOT to reiterate.....}

Check out ``Vegetarian Times Magazine'' and try to stay away from red meats such as pork and beef.

Eat free range chicken, but DON'T fry it.
Eat baked fish of many varieties
Eat Whole grain or Brown Rice {Not instant}

Eat ALL fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables {especially organic and wash them completely}

Eat Wheat, 12 and 15 grain breads, and Whole grain Breads

Eat Egg Beaters instead of real eggs or mix them in with real eggs if you have a cholesterol problem...

Drink Spring Water and Seltzer Water with a little lemon or lime {Use an actual lime or lemon because the bottled kind can go ranced quckly.}

Tey to Eat Wheat Hoagie Rolls or Oat Hoagie rolls {Sub-Way is the ONLY place In Philly that I know of that has an option of fresh wheat and oat hoagie rolls. {The company that has a monopoly on the Hoggie rolls in Philadelphia {Amaroso's} doesn't make a more natural whole wheat, or oat variety, that I know of..}

Eat Low Sugar Zucchini Cake

Eat Low Sugar Pound Cake

Drink Soy milk or mix it with real milk. {I prefer Organic Whole mike because I just don't like the taste of skim milk}...

Drink Rice milk or mix it with organiz whole milk as well...

Eat Yams and Sweet Potatoes {White potatoes just aren't good for you and neither are all those French Fries we North Americans eat by the truck load--just ask Our First Lady, Michelle Obama, who has asked that we curb those fat cravings with a bit of dark chocolate once in a while.

Eat Balsamic Vinegar and French Dressing. Blue Cheese and Ranch dressings are very fat centered and very high in salt.

Eat plenty of Blue Berries; Black Berries; and Strawberries. They are high in anti-oxidents and Omega 3's which are very healthy and good for your fiber intake and health wise--according to OUR First Lady, Michelle Obama...

Eat Rye Bread with the seeds in it and Eat Pumpernickel Bread such dark crusty breads are great for fiber intake and good for you and your diet, so says Doctor Andrew Weil, who has been writing about nutrition, health and weight loss for decades. {See his book mentioned above.}


Go to Govinda's Vegetarian Restaurant at Broad and South Street in Philadelphia and enjoy the variety of vegetarian foods {See OUR ad on our Blog: http://thepoliticsofreal.blogspot.com

... When ordering from Chinese Restaurants get shrimp or vegetable egg rolls DO NOT ORDER PORK or BEEF items or FRIED ITEMS... or better yet, slowly work them out of your diet... Your doctor and our First Lady Michelle Obama will thank you for it when the National rates of heart disease goes down and our costs for health care actually goes down as well....
Join me in April, 2013 in joining and attending a local gym and getting a gym membership. Plan to get back in shape. It is never too late {I'm 56 and have NOT given up!!} Plan to go twice a week and build up to three times a week over a six or seven week period. ALWAYS CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE STARTING AN EXERCISE REGIMENT OR PROGRAM. Start changing your diet through a slow process over time. Please Don't try to make drastic changes all at once, you will lose interests when you don't get the weight loss and energy results you want and give up... Take your time and stay with it. I have had weeks when I didn't lose any weight and weeks when I put weight back on, but I've lost 35 pounds over a year!!!!! Plan out how much weight you want to lose over about a five month period. Keep records on weight so you can look back at your progress...

There is also A Black-owned Restaurant at 4505 Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia. I always forget the name, but there food is quite good. They serve fish if you want that. they also serve a variety of vegetarian foods and that are quite good. {They recently catered an event for me and everybody loved the food...}

Additional Books: ``Eat,: The Effortless Weight Loss Solution,'' By Ian K. Smith, M.D.

``Eat Well, Live Well: More Than 150 Delicious specific Carbohydrate Diet (TM) Compliant Recipes,'' By Kendall Conrad and Elaine Gottschall.....

Latest Book: ``EAT: The Effortless Weight Loss Solution,'' Doc. Ian K. Smith,

A Letter to Mickey Dees!!!!!

From Brother Tracy Gibson
Teacher - Learner - Businessman - Fund Raiser
Writer - Political Organizer - Visionary
213 South 49th Street
Philadelphia, Penn 19139-4205
1.215.471.6494
BLockBoi75@Yahoo.Com

The McDonald's Corporation
Dear McDonald's:


I hope you are doing well as you walk this great earth of ours... I am writing you today to let you know we are boycotting your stores in the Philadelphia area. Our boycott will be joined with other such efforts in other parts of the Nation and the World.

I have to tell you that if you check your records, you will find that I have written you on at least two other occasions about the health risks of your food, but to no avail. You have no open and democratic system to determine what changes the public would like in your food and no mechanism to implement such changes. Your stores are responsible for about 6 % of the trash in our Nation. That is despicable and a real problem. You should do something about that. We have a litter free campaign going on in the Philadelphia area to help alert the public about trash and how to place it in the proper receptacles. We think you should have a similar campaign for your stores in the Philadelphia area. We are willing to work for you for no charge to design just such a campaign. As we said, we will do this for free.

What we really want to talk to you about is how eating @ McDonald's was once a very accepted thing because few people knew of or understood the health risks involved with gulping down Slurpee, fattening mile shakes; eating greasy French Fries; and eating contaminated cheeseburgers. Even your highly acclaimed Fish Sandwich contains contaminated fish, is fattening and covered with greasy tartar sauce. What are you going to do about this? You can't remain as a good corporate citizen and carry on flagrantly and blatantly as you do great damage to our Nation's people. We know you own another chain of stores {Or is it two other chains of stores?}... You have offered other food choices at these stores, however, unfortunately, these other food chains are equally contaminated, fattening and unhealthy.
You sit in your headquarters as if it were a citadel and make decisions that impact many, many millions of people. And people are led by the nose to your so-called restaurants to gouge themselves with so-called food that continues to give them high blood pressure; sugar diabetes; unheard of obesity; severe heart ailments; chronic joint pain; cancer and other health risks that are extremely costly in lives and in the amount of money they cost our health care system to treat and heal. How would you like The President to send YOU a bill for about $ 2 Billion Dollars and ask for YOU to pay for the health risks and health problems YOU are causing the American public?

As I have said in previous letters My company and myself are MORE than willing to work with you to get this situation rectified, work with you on making the proper changes, implementing those new policies and keeping you as a viable profit- making company. But you have to change with the new reality. For this, we would like a fee. That fee will be determined later. Most of the money, except for a small amount for living expenses, will go towards helping agencies, companies and Non-Profits that are helping the indigent, the temporarily disenfranchised and those who are too lazy and ignorant to help themselves by never entering your doors. I am African American, but this involves all kinds of variations of people.

I hope to hear positively from you soon. Otherwise, our boycott will be linked with other similar boycotts in France, England and Spain. You will feel the financial heat because as you know, a small decrease in your profit margin can close several stores in an economy such as the one we are struggling to survive in right now. I don't care how many billions of burgers you have sold to an unaware public, you can be stopped...
I am sure I will hear from you soon. Please don't waste my time with another pathetic form letter. This letter will be sent to the Black Association of McDonald's Owners and we expect a positive, coherent and well-thought-out response. We are also hoping that you will take us on as a client because we can help you see the light that you obviously don't see.
LOVE, Peace and Mo LOVE,

Brother Tracy Gibson,
President and CEO OF: Brother Tracy Gibson And Associates, INc.

Building a Better World with Integrity and Consistency of Effort...

What 's UP Mickey Dees???


Dear Good Brothers and Sisters: I have volunteered to help the MOVE Organization in the PHILADELPHIA area to act on a boycott of McDonald's. I know what you are going to say: Why McDonald's? There are plenty of other criminals selling us fast food that is killing us as well!!! This is true, but in the successful movements, you have to target your points and fine tune your message. You can't go after everybody. The reasons why we have selected McDonald's is that:
* McDonald's is really harming and victimizing animals in the way they kill stock for meat for burgers.
* McDonald's is very intransigent in the way they don't respond positively to customer complaints and suggestions about new products that are less fatty, salty, sugary, dangerous, and filled with pesticides. There are easy alternatives, but McDonald's keeps pumping out the same old stuff that is killing our people with High Blood Pressure; Heart Disease; Sugar Diabetes; Cancer and on and on. It is time to take a stand.
* McDonald's is responsible for on average of about 6 % of ALL the trash in the Whole Northern United States. They need to use less paper in their packaging and more environmentally purposeful packaging to lessen trash and the multitudes of trash that they are spreading across our Nation and the world.
* We also chose McDonald's because they are such an open target and because they are ALL OVER THE WORLD!!! They have a waiting line to get a franchise and it still cost over a million dollars to wreak this havoc on the people. It has to end and they need to be dragged, kicking and screaming if need be, into the future... A future that is more humane, decent, loving, kind, receptive, respectful, understanding and able to care for people instead of just seeing people as open wallets to be exploited.
* The MOVIE``Super Sizer Me'' really points out the health risks of eating at McDonald's on a regular basis. The director of the film eats at McDonald's for a period of time and finds his health going South steadily. { his liver practically turns to jelly} The film is a documentation about the real health risks of eating Double Quarter Pounders; Greasy fries; milk shakes; cokes; greasy piece-meal fish sandwiches covered with tarter sauce; sugary cookies and other items that Black, Latin and Poor White families across the Nation are stuffing down their children. IT HAS TO STOP SOMEWHERE!!!
* One Last Note: A Lot of People didn’t notice when the University of Pennsylvania Hospital closed the MacDonalds at Children’s Hospital. We DID!!!.... This proves that the food is NOT suitable for children who are trying to get better in the HOSPITAL—WHY IS IT EVER USEFUL OR HEALTHFUL AT ALL IF IT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF PENN HOSPITAL’S CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL COMPLEX?????
Please send this rational for the boycott of McDonald's to as many people as you wish and have them write me at: BLockBoi75@Yahoo.Com
If you want to read other articles by me as an activist and writer, please look up Brother Tracy Gibson under GOOGLE and look under ``The Politics of Real'' under their Blogg information.
Thank you and please stay in touch.....

If you want to write McDonalds: Please do so at: The McDonalds Corporation
1 McDonalds Drive
Oakbrook Ill 60523-1911

Write about how they need to change their food choices and make suggestions as to what they should sell to improve their menue.
Brother Tracy Gibson...

Alternatives to Mickie Dees...

There are a number of Black Restaurants in Philadelphia that serve as an alternative to the stuff that is passing as food at McDonald's. As you know, I am working with the MOVE organization to BOYCOTT McDonald's because of the poor quality food they have and the FACT that much of their food can be traced back to the health problems and physical ailments we have as Black and otherwise oppressed people. Such ailments as heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and joint ailments are linked to the food we eat that is not good for us. {See Reference to the nutrition article under What Up McDonald's}...

One restaurant I like and that has very good food is Baltimore Crab and Seafood at 4800 Spruce Street {48th and Spruce on the South West Corner in West Philadelphia}. They have VERY GOOD flounder; very good string beans and very good steamed vegetables and fresh salads. They take a few moments longer than some of the other restaurants, but what are we always in such a rush for anyway? Believe me, I hope you will try Baltimore Crab and Seafood. They once gave a donation for a Black party I was having when I was the Block Captain of the 4600 Black of Sansom Street and I have never forgotten them for that. THEY DIDN'T CHARGE US A THING. They are real community supporters and always meet us with a smile. During these hard economic times, we have to really support our Black businesses and this is a good one. Prices for platters range from $24.00 on the high side to $4.50 on the low side. Stop on by and give them a try. You can order ahead of time at: 1.215.472.7040. Open Mon through Thu. from Noon to 11 P.M.; Friday and Saturday from Noon to 12 Midnight; and 2 to 10 P.M. on Sunday.
As I have said in other articles: Family Variety and Deli at 310 South 52nd Street, is a delicious alternative to McDonald's. Their food is fresh, well prepared and they do NOT sell any pork, which The Nation has been telling us for decades is eroding the health and strength of our community. Family Variety and Deli sells great dinners on Fridays and Saturdays; as well as great sandwiches {You can get rye or wheat bread if you don't want the traditional hoggie rolls which are NOT good for health}. I often go to Family Variety and Deli and I find the ladies and gentlemen who work there to be kind, courteous, friendly and helpful. I STRONGLY recommend you support them.

Another Restaurant I visited in Upper Darby is Tim's Roti Shop/Restaurant {Phone} 484-461-3080
They have Jamaican / African cuisine and I had some and it is quite tasty. This place makes a nice divergence from the McDonald's right down the street, which has the same old dried out hamburgers; fattening fish o fillets; and sugary sodas, shakes and greasy fries... What Tim's has is jerk chicken {Nice and spicy and quite good; delicious beans and rice; good fish and veggies without meat in them such as collard greens and cabich. Enjoy!!! They are available for catering as well.....

If You want to write Black McDonald's Owners with your views and opinions: The National Black McDonald's Operators Association {NBMOA}; Post Office Box 820668; South Florida Florida 33082-0668


Saturday, February 23, 2013

SITAR INDIAN RESTARANT.....A Good Alternative for the Family Instead of Mickey Dees.....

They are at 60 South 38th Street. They make a wonderful alternative to McDonald's at 40th and Walnut, if you want to take you and your children and your friends and family for a special treat. [God Know Mickey Dees is literally killing people with the fried foods, the chemically raised and chemically treated foods, the fat, the salt and the pork and beef that are corn fed and loaded with chemicals. The sugar they are serving cannot be made light of and must be avoided in the diet in a real and general sense. God knows WE have to get used to eating better food and taking care of our health through the good and better foods WE eat.]

[By The Way, if you are Black and haven't read The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's ``What to Eat to Live,'' from Way back in the 1050's you are really missing something. I strongly suggest this book...]

Sitar India offers a buffet dinner every day for about $15.00 [including tip] and it is really great. The first thing I want to mention is the dessert which was a light dish with chick peas and walnuts. It was sweet and tasty and quite good. It also seemed quite nourishing as well. They also had many formations of chicken that were in delightful sauces and were quite good. You can eat all you want and there is also fruit salad and regular salad to clean the Colon and palate and make the body healthy.

If you are NOT in for the Buffet, there are also an assortment of other dishes [for dinner] that I think you might want to try and might like [I have to admit that I have only tried the buffet so far, but I will mention some items on the menu that I think you might want to try.]

From the seafood realm there is Curry Shrimp which is in a mildly spiced sauce. As you may know curry is a spice that generally speaking has many madisimal purposes that make it quite an advantage for the human body, mind and spirit. It is quite good for you and is one of the reasons why the East Indians have such good health generally as a people. Curry Shrimp is about $12.99 per person.

Another dish one might want to try is Masala Fish. This is served with ``exotic spices'' onion, green peppers and tomatoes. This sounds quite nice and I will have to try it the next time I am in the Sitar India Restaurant.

By the Way, this restaurant, which is within walking distance from my house in West Philadelphia near 38 and Sansom Street, is very nicely designed and the furniture and architecture is quite pleasing to the eye. It really allows one to relax and enjoy the person or people you might have brought with you or just dine peacefully alone. The service staff was also quite nice, polite and helpful and even made a suggestion that I have Indian Tea instead of regular tea, which was really, really quite good. I had a problem with my credit card that I wasn't at all expecting and instead of getting upset with me the management let me pay the $5. tip a few days later when I had more money. This is something they didn't even have to do and I was quite fortunate and lucky and happy that they allowed this. I, of course, paid the money back in a few days, so there was no incident or problem. It is always nice to have nice people who are forgiving of our little mistakes and human frailties, isn't it. Call them to ask when they are open at 215.662.08.18. They deliver also.

Take Em Down Starts by Lifting US Up...

There is a segment of the Black Adult film ``Take Em Down Two'' that features two attractive Black men who must have been Lovers in real life long before the cameras started rolling.  Slayer and Juice, the two gentlemen featured in the segment, didn't slap each other on the butt, call each other the ``N'' Word or otherwise physically or verbally abuse each other.  What they did do was made Love to each other in one of the most tender, Loving and intimate sexual exchanges I have ever seen depicted on screen.  They authentically seemed to care about each other as they used condoms in most scenes and took time and patience with each other in a Way I have never, ever seen present between two men before.  The thoughtfulness and kindness that goes into each scene is something other adult film directors should and MUST take note of.  So many new adult male films for the Black male audience show such a high level of abuse and disregard for the actors that I really can't bare to watch them.  There are whole segments of Gay adult porn for Black men that I will NOT purchase or buy.  There is just far too much recklessness as men enter each other without using condoms and hit and slap and curse one another. Slayer and Juice have an extraordinary sense of patience and LOVe with one another.  Such tender interactions are very much needed as We face some stipulations regarding the bedroom that need to be dealt with in a more honest, wholesome and truthful manner.  The days for sleeping with three different partners or men within a six month period for Black Gay Men need to be put to Rest forever.  We, as Black Gay Men, need to take our time and get to know each and every man we become intimate with for at lease a month before we enter into any  Level of intimacy with such a partner.  Such things, in this Year of Our Lord 2012, cannot be legislated, but We Must come to terms with the consequences of sharing our bodies with too many partners.  I predict that as marriage equality becomes more popular and advantages of the U.S. military's and Congress' recent rejection of Don't Ask Don't Tell hit home--it Will become more radially evident that a more reasonable history of who we share out beds with is the only path that makes good sense.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Ad For Black Business...

56-year-old BLACK Child of GOD needs Public support for His Business interests. Very Rooted in Helping the Black Community. Log onto: http://ThePoliticsofReal.Blogspot.Com

Brother Tracy Gibson 1.215.471.64.94.

BLockBoi75@Yahoo.Com


BrotherTracy11@GMail.Com


Monday, February 18, 2013

About the Author

About The Author


Brother Tracy Gibson’s legal name is Tracy Charles Gibson (He was named after actor Spenser Tracy by his mother in 1956). He was born and raised in Philadelphia and now lives back in Philadelphia after losing his home in New Castle Delaware to foreclosure on November 8th of 2011. He was educated in the Philadelphia public school system and went on to The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio where he received a B.A. degree in Journalism and Public Relations. He minored in Black Studies. He worked for 13 years as an editorial assistant at TV Guide Magazine in New York City and Radnor, PA. He also worked for a short time for the Philadelphia Tribune in Philadelphia where he devotedly covered North Philadelphia. He attended graduate school at Temple University where he studied Communications and Journalism under a Scripps-Howard Scholarship, but he never got his graduate degree. He left TV Guide in 1995 and never looked back. In 2003 he generated enough support for Himself from the community, family and friends to start his own business (Public Relations, Marketing, Education, Research Real Estate Managment and Community Advocacy) at 38th and Lancaster Avenue in the Powelton Village of Philadelphia. After a year and a half he had to move into his basement in New Castle, but plans to branch out once again very soon in the Philadelphia area..... [He has already attained two licenses and a Business Bank Account at PNC in Philadelphia.]

``Writing in Wet Cement,'' is his new BLOCKBUSTER book, due on February 9th 2013.… He has many expectations for it and has worked hard on it. His father, Mr. Charles S. Gibson, is now deceased, but before His death had supported Brother Gibson with ideas and some financial help along the Way as has his only sibling, Mrs. Aziza Gibson Hunter of Washington, D.C. He has been a political advocate for the economically disadvantaged, the Black and the left out for over 35 years and has worked for many political organizations in the Philadelphia area. Brother Gibson has also worked on political campaigns including the election of Philadelphia’s first Black mayor (W. Wilson Goode) and for his former State Representative, Vincent Hughes (Who is now a State Senator). He wrote for other publications such as Male Box Magazine, Au Courant and The Philadelphia Daily News (Guest Opinions). He presently writes for his own Blog: ``The Politics of Real''; and ``The Leon Williams Journal'' and He is working on parlaying his successes with the current book into a regular opinion piece for a major publication. His younger niece, Thandiwe Gibson-Hunter who now attends school at Spelman University in Atlanta, once told him that ``success is in the eye of the beholder.'' This quote is something positive to holds on to in the tough times, the former reporter says. You can reach the Writer/Journalist at BLockBoi75@Yahoo.Com or BrotherTracy11@GMail.com.

You can view some of my writing samples on the web at www.btganda.com or you can write him at:


Brother Tracy Gibson
Address: 213 South 49th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19139-4205
1.215.471.6494

Brother Gibson has several other projects in the works besides His books including: The Black Millionaire's Network [Which is a financial network and education tool to help Black People of all income levels to build up their finances and get on sure financial footing by: increasing their credit rating; investing in progressive non-military and non-oil company stocks; saving money; supporting Black stores and Black businesses; preparing to buy a home or income property; and increasing their income]. Members of The Black Millionaire's Network feels stabilizing Black families, Progressive Black People, Black Communities and Black Progressive Institutions is the best and quickest Way for Black People to realize their positive, constructive and forward-moving dreams; send their children to college; and buy property instead of losing property and experiencing an economic down turn. We want to see more Black People stabilizing their businesses; acting in a more direct, honest, responsible and professional manner regarding ALL actions, especially economic and financial actions; and thinking of Greening their businesses while planning for a more stable and sustainable future.

Another of His projects is known as ``The Knowledge Hut On-Line Store'' which is dedicated to bringing positive, proactive, and constructive educational products before Black youth especially, to help them build on strong family ethics and values that are hopefully centered in a positive household. If such values are sometimes lacking in the home, WE hope and believe our products Will help reconstruct and move those values ahead in our young people's minds--as Well as among their parents--and help them live better. We are working to see Black youth open their minds to thinking and acting more positively about moving forward in Ways where they interact positively with peers, older adults, parents, their church or Mosque, guardians, the public, their other family members, respected members of the communities in which they live and work and their siblings. WE want to have stores in several areas and cities across the Nation, but will start with an on-line store centered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

Letter to Potential Publishing Agent.... # 2

February 11, 2013 [Monday]


TO: Ms. Victoria Sanders and Associates, LLC

241 Avenue of the Americas,

Suite 11H

New York, New York 10014

From: Brother Tracy Gibson, Founder, President and CEO

OF: Brother Tracy Gibson and Associates, Inc.;

And: The Black Millionaire’s Network…

213 South 49th Street

Philadelphia, Pa 19139-4205

2154716494

BLockBoi75@Yahoo.Com

BrotherTracy11@GMai.Com



Dear Ms. Sanders:

I see you helped publish a book entitled: ``Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation,’’ by Jeff Chang. I am a Black writer who is very interested in helping Black youth and I have two books that I think will help significantly. I have also self-published a few hundred books in the past: [I mean actual copies of my book, not 200 titles.]. A book of poetry [``Words from My Heart and Soul: Poems from Tracy C. Kokayi Gibson’’; and a first edition of my current volume ``The Reawakening of the African Diaspora’’ [The title has since been changed to ``Writing in Wet Cement.’’

Right now I am working on publishing two works that have taken me about 15 years to write. 1] ``A Gather of Children: A Fantasy World of Real Life Poems,’’ [officially copyrighted on November 10th, 2011 Registration number PAu3-598-753]: and 2] ``Writing in Wet Cement.’’ [This 681 Page Volume has NOT been officially copyrighted as of February 11th, 2013]. I Will start with the second book first. ``Writing in Wet Cement,’’ is a work that is about 681 pages in length, but is chock full of my life story as a Black Gay writer who has ALWAYS been socially and politically active [since the age of 18]. It is designed to give our Black males hope, strength, mental endurance, political consciousness, an ethical code and a moral base of operation to not only survive life in North America, but to flourish in a positive Way. My goal in writing the book is to help Black males be a REAL attribute to the community in which they live instead of considered a detriment and a financial burden.

This book is filled with political analysis of the pertinent political, social and economic issues of the day and suggestions as to how to get involved on the grass-roots level in a positive, effective, progressive and on-going manner to help make a difference. It also describes how to successfully and effectively get involved in entrepreneurship and how to enhance and improve on life in the so-called ``ghetto.’’ Also explored: how to keep families together through the mentorship programs that already exist and / or how to start or get involved in such a mentorship program. The book is designed to get Black males involved, but is also for others in our community who have lost their way, but who have the sensibilities and awareness to know that they need help and want to get it. There is so much an individual can do. Especially with the right motivation, goal direction, fine tuning, pride and self-purpose. This book is designed to help create stable, centered, motivated, ethical leaders in our community. I also think it will help young men who are self-identified as gay or as men who have sex with men—a group that is more numerous than many of their parents have any idea about. It is also just a fun and upbeat read!!! Suggested ages for the book range from 15 to 85.

Each section has a paragraph or two on solutions about how to solve the problems or subjects that are discussed in the previous section. How to properly take advantage of the information in a safe, secure, proactive and positive Way is also included in the Solutions Sections.

It is my heartfelt belief that this book Will be of most value to Black youth and their parents, grandparents and guardians who are looking for examples of successes, positive role models [I’m not just talking about me, but Celebrities such as Denzel Washington, Malcolm X and John Legend are profiled and discussed as well as local heroes such as the 80-year-old, now deceased activist, Mr. Bill Hill who dedicated 50 years of His life to protest politics and making a difference. [He was like a Father to me personally.]

I have not had the courage to have anybody read the entire book because it is not properly registered with the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. [I sent the volume in, but never received a certified response from the Library of Congress that it was fully, completely and officially copyrighted and registered. I wrote them a second time, but have NOT heard back. I Will write them again soon. They did say they received it, however, but it was under the name: ``The Reawakening of the African Diaspora.’’ ]. {This is the name I originally had for the volume.} I have sent part of the book , [chapters and certain articles] out to allow people—friends and supporters-- to read it and have generally gotten good responses so far.

I have sent a partial outline of the chapters to Writer Charles Fuller—who as you know won a Pulitzer Prize for his work: ``A Solder’s Play,’’ [1982]. I have also sent letters to several publishers including Random House; the Harvard Press; and the Ohio State Press; Curtiss Publishing and to several writers including Sonya Sanchez, the celebrated Philadelphia-based poet. I am also planning to send letters of inquiry to Professor Charles Blockson, Professor Tony Montero, Professor Lynn Washington and Professor Molefi Kete Asante all of Philadelphia’s Temple University. [Professor Montero and Professor Asante I know personally and both have published.]

Please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience.



With Peace, Blessings, Real Justice and LOVE,







Brother Tracy Gibson…

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Statement On Pornography...

Those of us who look at pornography and support that industry with Our hard-earned dollars--and there is a strong river of support for the PORN industry Running through the Christian and Religious or Spiritual community--WE need to come clean and let our friends and familt [but NOT our children under the the age of 15]--know what we are doing.  The honesty Will be refreshing and helpful with you becoming more honest with yourself on many fronts.  Apply your strong religious values to your obsessive sexual desires and know that GOD, The Creator and Our African Ancestors, still LOVes you and LOVes us.  Just keep it cool and try, for now, not to be obsessive, but accept yourself and LOVe yourself and GOD, by ALL means. Don't feel judged from above and don't let others judge you. Basically they are no better than you are, because there is something about themselves they are hiding as Well.   If Pastors, Reverends and other Church elders are judging you, know they need to do What Michael Jackson said to do several years before His untimely death--and look at the Man in the Mirror...

The Other Day I sat down and came clean with the Lord.  I wrote an eight page letter to Gaudenzia House--a place in Philadelphia that helps people with mostly drug and alcohol addictions.  I told them I need help with the pornography addiction. I also told them I need help with the food addiction I have as well as with my high anger and frustration level.  I need help with the way I obsess about sex and sexuality.  These are the inner deamons I am fighting.  They are quickly being defeated. I am getting help from GOD, GOD's good People and many quarters I don't even know about.What I wrote was highly emotional, based on raw feelings and emotion and I felt naked--like the man in the mirror.  I am praying they write me back or call and are able to give me some help.  I am tired of the led weignt dragging me down when I have so much work to do on a host of issues each and every day.  It is odd how even with 35 plus years of therapy, I still have a host of other areas that need to be worked on.  I'll have something for sure to talk with my theapist about when I see Her in August!!!!...

Thursday, February 14, 2013

The Lies About Ronald Reagan...

There is a funny thing about lies and myths.  When People tell you them enough times or make you hear it enough and think about it enough. {Like McDonalds food being healthy for you} When they tell you about it over and over and over again [like McDonalds Billion Dollars in advertising per yer.]--people usually come around to believing it--even though it is a lie. A BOLD-FACED LIE!!! The Big Lie over the 20 or so years that Ronald Reagan has been dead is that he was a good, wonderful, honest, intelligent, articulate, masterful, bold, courageous and great President.  This is NOT the truth. Even President Barack Obama, our First Black President, has, for some strange reason kept a hot flame on this hot BIG lie.  Who was Ronald Reagan good for? Who did he support? Who got him into office? Who were his henchmen and supporters? How did he manipulate the North American public to get elected in landslide victories TWICE!!!??? Who did he help?  Who did he represent? What interests did he keep going?  Who were his enemies? What corporate connections and interests did he have and how did they also manipulate the North American electorate? Why did Black people hate him for the most part? Was he a friend to Black people or an enemy? Did he support or hurt the Labor Movement? Was he backed by the Right Wing of the Republican Party? Why did they love him?  Was he as conservative, right winger and as hateful towards the poor and the Labor Movement as WE think? Why do they lie about his record the way they do?  Is it to keep people thinking that there must be some silver lining about the Republicans--who are very racist, blood thirsty, and back-stabbing as far as I'm concerned--is it to keep us thinking there MUST, there just MUST be some degree of credence and goodness and substantial need for the Republican line of thought and thinking somewhere and that somewhere always seems to lie in the thoughts about, record of and actions of Ronald Reagan while he was on the public radar and on our lips and in our thoughts during his Presidency..........

It is ALL a lie--the idea and information that paints the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan as a good and honest and skilled man--ALL A LIE and I will spend the next 6 pages digging out the truth and discovering the truth and letting the people know that from the early days when he changed from a Democrat to a Republican and even before that, Ronald Reagan was nothing but another racist Republican who hated the poor people and the Black people and the progressives and the revolutionary thinkers and the progressive visionaries and he also hated people who exposed the ruthless misdeeds of the Republican Party and the ruthless misdeeds of the corporate sector in the U.S. He worked towards our demise as Black people from the early days of his Governorship of California and kept tabs on Our Activist Hero Angela Davis. Reagan tried to undermine Her and all-but have Her killed because She was about the truth--the REAL Liberation of Black, Latin, poor and oppressed people and the crushing of this racist country we have been fooled into believing is a democracy. He--Ronald Reagan--defied all logic and fired hundreds of air traffic controllers the day after he was first sworn into The White House as our 40th President of These United States.  He was also a war monger who had our precious Hero Maurice Bishop of the Island of  Granada ruthlessly and needlessly  killed. Bishop had one of the most highly trained, sophisiticated and intelligent REVOLUTIONARY BLACK MINDS on the whole earth and this low life, this Ronald Reagen had him destroyed and His island NATION embarrassed, stripped of its' dignity and invaded. MOST Americans--even many Democrats--still to this day--March 13th, 2013-- think that the cold-blooded and ruthless killing of Maurice Bishop and the invasion of Granada was TOTALLY justified. Many of us exits under the Myth that this murder and invasion was a requirement to keep U.S. National Security in place and in tact. This is still ANOTHER LIE!!!  more to come very soon...

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

How To Help In Our Work...And Move Forward...

We will accept small donations [$500. to $1,0000. Dollars] that will help us buy stamps; buy paper [100 % recycled]; buy computer cartridges; buy gas for the business use of the car [not yet purchased]; buy envelopes; pay rental fees[ starting very soon]; pay for office equipment such as new computers [starting very soon]; pay legal fees; pay for staffing; pay for the Founder, President and CEO's salary [ALL salaries are under $100,000 a year, including top salaries]; and buy Real Estate and Property to help financially stabilize our business....

Your donation will NOT be tax deductible because we are a for-profit company. We are determined and consistent in our activity to help our Black youth especially, to turn the corner and steer towards a better life for themselves and their families. ... We are doing this on four fronts. They are: 1] The soon-to-be-published books: ``Writing In Wet Cement,'' by Brother Tracy Gibson and ``A Gathering of Children: A Fantasy World of Real Life Poems,'' also by Brother Tracy Gibson. The first book intersperses the life of Brother Tracy Gibson--his travels, his youthful experiences and adventures, his schooling, his political education and his relationships--with some serious advice and political commentary about living the ethical and better life that builds responsibility, reliability, trustworthiness, and honor in our young people and the rest of us. He is NOT perfect in man's eyes, but has learned from the mistakes He has made. The book has its' controversial points, but is expected to be a best seller and a Blockbuster like ``Man-Child in the Promised Land,'' by Claude Brown was in the 1970's. The second book is an exciting book of poetry out in September of 2013....

Brother Gibson is also working on developing a network of stores called ``The Knowledge Hut Stores,'' that will offer a great selection of ethically chosen DVD's; CD's; Books; Tee-Shirts; Greeting cards; Posters; and a few healthy food items. These products are not to be just thrown at our Young people for them to purchase. They are carefully selected to build better character; build respect for elders and each other; build responsibility; build reliability; build trust; and build young minds that are more concerned with starting businesses than just getting a job. Young minds that will be guided--along with strong positive parental and guardian influences to end much of the madness that we have come to accept as normal in North American society. 

Our Business Plan--for The Knowledge Hut Store--is just about done [We attended the Small Business Development Center at Temple University for 10 weeks--We graduated and did our final presentation on May 31, 2012] and still have about two weeks to put the final touches on the Business Plan... [As we develop it, you can see our work on this Bloog. Look under The Knowledge Hut Business Plan].

There are several other components to the company we Incorporated in December of 2006 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania... Our Parent Company's name is: Brother Tracy Gibson and Associates, Inc..... We are an Education, Marketing, Publishing, Celebrity Management, Retail Outlets, Public Relations, Research, Fund Raising, Advertising and Advocacy concern with a heart and a deep concern for Black and African people throughout the world. We are especially concerned with People  in the Philadelphia vicinity where we were founded... We had an office at 3819 Lancaster Avenue for a year and a half [From April 2006 to September 2007] but had to temporarily close up shop when the economic down turn took hold. We are presently in the research and development stages, but still doing heavy advocacy for the Black community; the Progressive Community and for all people internationally who quest for change, democracy, Real Justice, Real Freedom, Hope, decency and a positive progressive order.

As part of our advocacy work, we literally write hundreds of letters a year. And make several phone calls. Some of those letters and phone calls have advocated for the following subjects [this list is NOT all inclusive]: Better housing; more jobs from the government and the private sector; Free trade and travel with Cuba; the rights of Same Gender Loving People such as job rights, the right to marry and the right to organize effectively; the Rights of oppressed women to work, go to school, make a living wage and live with dignity and grace; better artistic outlets for people of color and Non-Whites such as more intellectually challenging films, theater, music [especially rap and hip hop], videos, TV programming and other technical and traditional media venues; better nutrition for the Black community and better nutritional education--especially for the entire Black family and especially for Black children; the rights of Non-White children and Black children to have solid educations from kindergarten through college; The rights of the Palestinian People to live freely and travel and work in ALL Middle Eastern Territories and ALL parts of the so-called Middle East and Northern Africa; more freedom of information and freedom from cumbersome, bellicose laws such as the Patriot Act I, The Patriot Act II which impinge on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties [it is our position that these laws should be rescinded, turned back, overturned and rejected at every point as they have weakened our democracy, invaded the privacy of North American individuals, and encumbered the right to assemble, the right to protest, the right to gather and share information freely, and the right to legally redress grievances in a peaceful manner--rights which are guaranteed in Our Country's Constitution.]; An open and free Press and access to media and less concentrated ownership of media by the White and ultra rich [the media should ultimately be in the hands of the people--especially poor, disenfranchised  and oppressed people such as Black people, Latin people and poor Whites who are thinking clearly on the issues of race, gender rights, the rights of women, the rights of Gay and Lesbian People and the rights of the disabled]; and we have also written to find peaceful Ways to work with others [and within our own company] to develop a more free and open society and end the traditions of war our country has followed for generations.

If you want to join us in the import and crucial work we are doing, we hope you will read more of the articles on this Blogg. Access at: http://thepoliticsofeal.blogspot.com
 and send us the donation we talked about at the beginning of this promotional article. You can send your donations to The Black Millionaire's Network [See Address Below] ; or you can e-Mail us at: BLockBoi75@Yahoo.Com

you can also call us at: 1.215.471.64.94. You can also reach Brother Tracy Gibson--the Founder, President and CEO at: BrotherTracy11@GMail.Com

The more you can give, the quicker we will be able to get our work fully under way. Please send and ask for a full disclosure of the 8 business components we presently have. We thank you for considering us. If you want to partner with us on any particular business component, please call and let us know. We will have full disclosure, and all our legal agreements will be easy to follow and understand...


Send Money Orders to: The Black Millionaire's Network; Post Office Box 42878;   Philadelphia, Pa. 19101-2878.......
 
Make money orders payable to our Parent Company: Brother Tracy Gibson and Associates, Inc. and mail to the above address.  This is NOT tax deductible.  We thank you for each and every contribution you make because even the smallest ones make a Big Difference. May GOD Bless you and keep your every foot fall on a good and positive path. The Road to Self Actualization Can be filled with pride, wonder and economic prosperity if we take the time to look at our surroundings as advantages and not allow ourselves to be encumbered by the negative forces that might be near or even encroaching. God will not only protect our footfalls, but will stave off our enemies the more we work towards self-respect and sharing power and wealth...

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Why I'm Against Prostitution...

Prostitution is a dangerous game.  It involves, at least in the U.S., women and men selling time for themselves to be used as sexual slaves or sexual pawns.  Meanwhile the Capitalist state is under no duress to create decent well-paying jobs instead of slots in the prostitution game.... Prostitutes are prone to get beat up by their Johns and their pimps; and get sexual diseases that there are no cure for; and live a life on the illegal edge.  They deserve, as every real American or citizen in any country in this world deserves, a real job paying real decent money--a living wage. Decency and honor.  NOT PROSTITUTION.  And that means in South Africa or any other African country and the Caribbean as Well.  Being for Prostitution is just an easy way out for the former established order, who is only partly in control now, to have an excuse for NOT building infrastructure; building the decent schools we need for our children that include places and instructors for Physical Fitness; cooking and Home Economics; wood shop; industrial design and industrial engineering; auto shop [like the advanced program they have at West Philadelphia High School]; advanced mathematics; and advanced sciences.  These are the things the so-called rich and powerful should be paying for instead of taking money like cowards when they get $16 Million Dollar Bonuses and up. I challenge ALL BLACK people and Progressive thinking People to not only take a strong moral and ethical position AGAINST PROSTITUTION, but to also look at how we are selling out our children.  If you haven't noticed that is exactly what many of our young people are using their cell phones for--getting the hook up and getting easy money. This is wrong and money people know it.   Brother Tracy Gibson......

Baltimore Seafood!!!

Forty Eight and Spruce in West Philadelphia is the spot for Baltimore Seafood.  They are Black owned and serve a wonderful assortment of seafood that is Well prepared, tasty, Well spiced and cooked to perfection.  They also have a banana pudding [the small is $4.] that I have heard is o ``out of this world'' and sweet potato pie and pound cake that is also quite good and delicious.

But the thing I always get is the broiled seafood dinner [ $18.49] which includes broiled Salmon, [believe me when I tell you, that you have not had Salmon this good anywhere in Philadelphia] sauteed shrimp and broiled sea scallops.  This dish is served with butter and any variety of vegetables including cole slaw, collard greens, Broccoli and - or corn on the cob.  This place is NOT a sit down restaurant, but does offer the locals here, including me [i again live within walking distance] a chance to get away from the area fast foods of hoggies and french fries and really enjoy some down home cooking from Black kitchen help and Black chefs who know their Way around the kitchen and know what they are whipping together. Small side orders or around $3.49, medium are around $5.49 and large varey from $7. to $12.50. You can get crab legs for about $8 Bucks...

When I have the money, which unfortunately isn't too often, I head right for Baltimore Seafood.  I simply LOVE their food because you can tell it is wholesome and good and made from the top quality seafoods and vegetables.  They don't skimp on anything and that is why they have prices that are a bit higher, but if you know how importanat good food is to good health, you don't mind eating at nice places when you have the money.  McDonalds is like using a skate board to get 50 miles to work--it just doesn't cut it.  You end up with high blood pressure, high sugar and putting on 50 pounds because the food is just inferior, tasteless, over salty, high in fat content and high in sugar.  Why hurt yourself like that in a consistant basis when you can walk eight blocks to 48th and Spruce [from 40 and Walnut] and get a truely healthy scrumptious meal at Baltimore Seafood!!!  Their phone number is 1.215.472.7040. snf yhry are open noon to 11 p.m. monday through Thursday and noon to 12 A.M. on Friday and Saturday and 2 P.M. to 10 P.M. of Sunday.  Whenyou go there the next time be sure to tell them that Brother Tracy sent you and you will be SURE to get a smile.  Call ahead because they take a time for food that is well worth the wait. They ahve delivery.

SITAR INDIA RESTAURANT!!!

They are at 60 South 38th Street.  They make a wonderful alternative to McDonald's at 40th and Walnut, if you want to take you and your children and your friends and family for a special treat.  [God Knows McDonald's is literally killing people with the fried foods, the chemically raised and chemically treated foods, the fat, the salt and the pork and the sugar they are serving cannot be made light of and must be avoided in the diet in a real and general sense. This is NOT a persona vendetta against McDonald's, but a plea that we each save our own lives and the lives of others by eating much better.  God knows WE have to get used to eating better food and taking care of our health through the good and better food WE eat. Have you ever thought of how long it takes GOD and Nature to bring forth a salad leaf? And we just crunch down on the little leaf and forget all this after He took the time to Bless us yet another day with food. And then We wonder why He doesn't Bless us with the new money for the new clothes and the new car and the new house we want--the New Church building--when we are destroying ourselves with poison cheese cake and poison sugar and poison sodas. Don't forget that Man and Woman are GOD's most Masterful creations. How do you think He feels about us destroying us by bleaching our hair and doing damage to each other and the earth. This is why our prayers are not answered. ]

To help you get away from McDonalds by walking just a few blocks, Sitar India offers a buffet dinner every day for about $15.00 and it is really great.  The first thing I want to mention is the dessert which was a light dish with chick peas and walnuts.  It was sweet and tasty and quite good.  IT also seemed quite nourishing as well.  They also had many formations of chicken that were in delightful sauces and were quite good. You can eat all you want and there is also fruit salad and regular salad to clean the Colin and make the body healthy.

If you are NOT in for the Buffet, there are also an assortment of other dishes that I think you might want to try and might like [The other dishes may not be available all the time or at lunch. I have to admit that I have only tried the buffet so far, but I will mention some items on the menu that I think you might want to try.]

From the seafood realm there is Curry Shrimp which is in a mildly spiced sauce.  As you may know curry is a spice that generally speaking has many medicinal purposes that make it quite an advantage for the human body and mind and spirit.  It is quite good for you and is one of the reasons why the East Indians have such good health generally as a people.   Curry Shrimp is about $12.99 per person.

Another dish one might want to try is Masala Fish.  This is served with ``exotic spices'' onion, green peppers and tomatoes.  This sounds quite nice and I will have to try it the next time I am in the Sitar India Restaurant.

By the Way, this restaurant, which is within walking distance from my house in West Philadelphia near 38 and Sansom, is very nicely designed and the furniture and architecture is quite pleasing to the eye.  It really allows one to relax and enjoy the person or people you might have brought with you
or just dine peacefully alone.  The service staff was also quite nice, polite and helpful and even made a suggestion that I have Indian Tea instead of regular tea, which was really, really quite good. I want to mention one other surprise I discovered upon visiting this fine restaurant again.  There is a sweet and pungent plum sauce you can put on the salad that is absolutely found in a place of perfect taste and greatness. Don't forget to try it. It is of course purple and with the salads and the salad dressing.

 I had a problem with my credit card that I wasn't at all expecting and instead of getting upset with me the management let me pay the $5. tip a few days later when I had more cash money.  This is something they didn't even have to do for me and I was quite fortunate, lucky and happy that they allowed this.  I, or course, paid the money back in a few days, so there was no incident or problem.  It is always nice to have nice people who are forgiving of our little mistakes and human frailties, isn't it. Call them to ask when they are open at   They deliver also.  Make joyful noises in your life and move forward.....

LOVE

LOVE

The Article Below is By Brother Tracy Gibson...

I Think it was Che Ernesto Grevera who said--and I'm paraphrasing here--It is love, true love that is at the core and root of what motivates us as Revolutionaries...

I profess that our Latin Revolutionary mind--the mind of Che--was and is totally correct.  To love your fellow human being and want to see them totally free is the deepest love of all.  To really care about not only your own people or race, but all of humanity--even people who totally disagree with you politically is the real and actual apex AND BASE of LOVE.  It is not a low and corrupted desire for lust or a love for money that really is a high-minded love, although these formations of what the everyday man and everyday woman thinks of love also moves mountains and help motivate people to no end.  Such formations as physical lust and the love of money are not, and I repeat not true, pure and righteousness love formations.  They are about personal sexual gratification or they are about the need to surround yourself with things of monetary value like ornate furniture, exotic foreign cars and big fancy houses. This is often to show off to friends and family that you have acquired some of the better things and items in life.  This is to reflect another base or low human trait which is boastfulness ad pride derived from the ownership of things of great beauty and monetary value.  Creating jealousy in other people only shows another human frailty--not a human strength.  That is a dangerous game to play with another person's mind.


Of course there is also the LOVE between two adults--be it a woman and a man or same sex couples, or any variation of transgendered people with straight gay or other transgendered people.  This LOVE is also very special, wholesome and unique and may be within a race or between races, religions or what have you.  This LOVE can be very special and wonderful, especially for the young and young at heart.  It can really warm the soul and lift one's life to have that special someone in your life.  This cannot be denied, but such LOVE, even such LOVE as this, in my mind, rings somewhat hollow unless one has a connection to the LOVE of man and Woman kind that allows one to help the lower classes and rectify what is going on in the world that is evil, rotten and unfair.  Unless We are connected to correcting what is unfair and unjust, we are really unable to really have true LOVE at ALL--because we are acting with a form of ignorance or malice about our fellow human beings.  We must take up peaceful arms and use them, be it a pen or a picket sign, a bull horn or an artist paint brush , or a dollar or two to donate to a Homeless Shelter, we must be connected in this day and time when so much information is available to find out what is happening to ALL people [there really is no excuse] we must ALL be connected to making the world better somehow and helping the environment [which helps us all] or helping people who are in need get food and sustenance, or shelter, of clothing or decency in some other Way] or I can and do argue that we really don't have full and complete LOVE in our hearts.
We ALL deserve--just by being a part of the family of man--We ALL deserve a basic decent living standard and a basic living wage just for being human.  The concept of a soup kitchen and a homeless shelter should one day be cast aside and obsolete when More humans of wealth and power and the rest of the everyday human family discovers WE ALL have basic human needs that if gone unmet reflect a very low level of existence for ALL of us including even the richest and the most wealthy among us.

When an East Indian child, or an untouchable, or an African Child or baby cries for food or milk that Her or His Mother and Father do NOT have something inside ALL of us cries also.  I don't care how much you hide your head in the dirt of sand, there is something deep inside you not being fulfilled when even just one member of our family of man or one member of our family of woman goes hungry or without the basic needs we ALL should have.

Yes it is a cliche, but it is true--I'm--We all are our Brother's [and Sister's] Keeper......

I saw an image the other day on TV.  It is an old image and one I have seen many times before.  IT is very disturbing .  It is an image of a little man, a prisoner, a Viet Kong, handcuffed and literally being shot in the head.  It disturbed me greatly, even though I have seen it many times before and even though the Viet Nam war is long over.  The person pulling the trigger on the hand gun is White, but that only matters, somewhat, and only really in a political sense.  Cruelty against any person whether He be a Bradley Manning or a Malcolm X or a Martin Luther King, Jr., or a Fanny Lou Hammer or a Med gar Eve rs or a Mahatma Gandhi--or an ordinary little man like that Viet Kong.  It doesn't matter.  It is inhuman and cruel non the less.  Entire Nations such as the Congo have been robbed of decades of Progressive and Revolutionary leadership. When the orders were carried out by the United Nation's Security Council--which  ironically is suppose to care about peace and prosperity for us all--all over the world--I would think.  When such a body carries out the plan, to kill a person of the international stature and reputation of a Patrice Lamumba, who four months prior to His death was elected President of His country--The Congo--there is something hateful and wrong in the way some of our political bodies are being run.  There is something deeply wrong with even democracy as a process.  [but thank GOD democracies seem to have build into them some room for change]. But it is not only democracies that have such problems.  Another picture comes to mind.  Another two pictures stand out.  The student in China who stood in front of the armed tank at Tiananmen Square in Chine and defied the government of Red China--this is courage.  Much more courage than it takes to use the automatic, electronic devices one has to use to control the drone bombers that kill hundreds of people.  Much more courage than it takes to mindlessly shoot down children in Sandy Hook; much more courage than it takes to then stand before Congress and defend the right to bare arms and maintain the 2nd Amendment; and much more courage than it takes to let African and   Asian Children starve.  The gentleman at Tiananmen Square was not only motivated by deep and abiding feelings of desire for freedom he also wanted self-respect where self-respect was lacking.  He also wanted to taste real freedom.  A luscious sweetness we all need to taste.  We were getting this sweet nectar in our mouth in the 1960's, until Robert F. Kennedy was stolen away from us and the Law and Order Bitterness of Richard Nixon was presented to us. Such real freedom has been corrupted, eroded and receded even in our own country by the passage of Bills into Law of such items as the Patriot Act I [signed by President Bush]; and the Patriot Act II [signed by President Barack Obama] ; and the National Security Act [ also signed by President Barack Obama]. The gentleman student at Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989 was also motivate by some of the purest feelings of love that any man or woman could have.  These Laws refute such love, are an affront to humanity and MUST be repealed in the United States or anywhere wise where they show their ugly head.

This is what Che was talking about. This is what Che was describing to us. There is still another picture.  IT is of a young girl--a flower child--during Viet Nam--who put a flower in the end of a rifle.  This simple, perfect statement of non-violence, LOVE, PEACE and revolution was clear, concise and filled with human decency and LOVe and admiration for our fellow humans.  It shows the total power of LOVE and PEACE to disenfranchise and defeat hate and war at every turn. It is simple in its' concept and imagery, but so overwhelmingly powerful that the media picked it up and made it into a culturally classic photo.  It was what my late friend Activist Bill Hill would call a Classic Example of PEACE and Love!!

The LOVE of Freedom--against All Odds, against the hand of money, power and oppression when it is used for evil--no matter what color that oppressive hand comes in color or where it comes from...... There in another hand--the hand of freedom that still exists in this world.  What ever motivated such real feelings of Freedom no matter who has such feelings, be it Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth or Winnie Mandela--such efforts reflect a truer love than many of us will ever enjoy or understand if we have not stood up and said NO to the hand of oppression--in ALL its' colors, formations and trappings....  The love of a person like Paul Robeson--another Freedom Fighter or a Noam Chomsky or a Frederick Douglas.  This is true love. Ashe. AMEN!!

*Writer's Note: This article is still being finalized...  I may have used the term men and women for this article, but that in no way means to refute or lessen the significant contributions that people who are transgendered made to the societies of the World...

Copyright warnings and infringements from ``It's Your Biz,'' By Susan Wilson Solovic, [below]with Ellen R. Kadin and a forward by Edie Weiner. Page 150...


``Because I write many columns and blog posts for a variety of companies and media organizations, I use search-engine tools to alert me if anyone is picking up and using my material. Some people have literally copied my writing and presented it as their own, even though this is an obvious copyright infringement. There are both civil and criminal penalties for copyright violations, and the severity of the penalties depends on the situation.''

Monday, February 11, 2013

The Truth About the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

The Truth About The Honorable Elijah Muhammad May Never Have Been Admitted to, Told or Revealed.. If It Can be, Our Community Can Heal Greatly From this Process…

 
By Activist / Writer Brother Tracy Gibson…

This is serious business. Any time you are talking about healing old wounds—especially concerning an entire community of people--you are talking about serious business.

What I want to discuss today is an issue that harkens back to the time when Malcolm X was alive and going through his conflict with the Nation of Islam and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. It was the early 1960’s and Malcolm X was finding himself excluded from the Nation and isolated because he had been saying some things about Mr. Muhammad that were not appreciated by Nation leadership. Not many people knew if they were true or not. The truth has never come out and the incident of Malcolm X’s death and the surrounding controversy has left a deep, festering and unhealed scar on our community—our Black community.

The allegations against Brother Elijah were that he had impregnated some women who were under his employ during some sexual affairs and interludes he had been having with them. Malcolm was saying this was true and he was driving a deep division between himself and the Nation of Islam because of these allegations. [Brother Elijah Muhammad headed The Nation of Islam at the time.] In February of 1965 Malcolm ended up dead—shot down in Harlem--because of this controversy and some other differences he was having with the Nation of Islam. [Some people believe to this day that the reason for the assassination of Malcolm X was really the work of the FBI and other U.S. government forces who didn’t like or appreciate the independent thought, empowerment and Black liberation efforts that Malcolm represented. These ``U.S. Government forces’’ it is theorized, wanted to drive a wedge between Malcolm X and The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and may have successfully done so with this controversy and Malcolm X’s eventual murder.] Who really killed our Prince of Darkness—who pulled the triggers and gave the orders and paid any money that might have been paid, if any money was paid,—this may never all come out through true and reliable sources that can be trusted and verified and that don’t have a political ax to grind, as it were. . There have been allegations that the FBI paid some Muslim men to do it; there have been other charges and innuendo about who was responsible for the assassination of our Dark and Valeant Prince….

It must be pointed out early in this article that Brother Elijah Muhammad was a great and memorable Black man who achieved many, many accomplishments for his Black people. He trained Malcolm X; brought great unity and knowledge to his people; and helped thousands of Black men become constructive American citizens after their imprisonment.[Some activists have pointed out that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad may well have helped more Black men in prison than even the Federal Government was even able to help, during that particular time. Elijah Muhammad also: was promoted to Supreme Minister in 1933 and changed his name from Elijah Poole to Elijah Muhammad; In 1935 he was anointed as the leader of the Nation of Islam by W. Farad Muhammad; and from 1935 to 1975 he established over 150 temples and more than 40 universities of Islam. He had a following of over 200,000 people including such leaders as Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. Operated supermarkets, banks, newspapers [``Muhammad Speaks’’].

All his achievements are more the reason to work at lifting the cloud of suspicion and doubt about him so he can be righteously admonished, respected and honored by the larger Black community and the Black Muslim community at large as well. Black women, especially, want to see this cleared up once and for all and some Black women have discussed this concern with me.

One thing is clear—and long overdue-- a healing needs to take place on this issue. A healing for the women who may have been involved; for the community of Muslims involved; and for the larger Black community who loved both Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad. Frankly, it is also something our whole Nation needs to heal from. The whole country has a wound from the assassination of Malcolm X—it may not be nearly as deep as the wound the nation still feels from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but it is a deep and still festering wound non-the-less. Why do I say this? Because many concerned non-Muslims, White people and other non-Blacks who were and / or are more aware of the grass-roots politics involved, and even non-political and / or unaware people, including just plain old every day average Black people the world over also want the Nation of Islam to internally heal from the events of those days. Many people want the Nation of Islam to make some determinations and some statements about The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and those costly and devastating allegations that were made. If they are true, why not come out and say so. Some people have already forgiven him, [Elijah] even if they are NOT true. But others want a healing and some answers and clarification.

Why do we need healing on this and why am I bringing it up now some 46 years later? There is something in me that wants to see a positive resolution brought to this situation. Like a good therapist, I want to see the difficult things talked about and some honest conclusions reached—even if the parties involved have to peel off some emotional clothing and be honest with themselves to reaching that healing point…. I want to see us be adult enough to take the old skeletons out of the closet and say the events described here either happened, or didn’t happen. I want us to do this without the name calling, finger pointing and immaturity that we can all be capable of, but don’t need to exemplify regarding this matter. What are the explanations? Were these just false statements and allegations? Why have such explosive allegations been allowed to fester for so long if there is no truth to them? Are they just too hurtful to discuss? Some official, honest and open consideration by Elijah Muhammad’s supporters needs to come from this, and soon…

Recently I sent an open letter to a Sister named Maisha Sullivan, an activist in Philadelphia who specializes especially in helping young Black girls bring peace, economic stability, socially responsible conduct and wholesomeness to their lives, to try to come to grips with this controversy and bring on a climate of healing . Ms. Sullivan is a trusted and honored activist in the Philadelphia area and especially in the Black community of Philadelphia. She is also a friend of mine. She has worked with young girls to help them stress education; avoid teen pregnancy; and build constructive and positive lives for themselves. {She does a host of other work on building positive Black culture in the community as well…} I asked Sister Sullivan because I trust her and because she is usually very fair in dealing with the different and divergent interests that make up the Black community in Philadelphia and the Nation.

The E-Mail I sent out follows:



An Open Letter to Activist Maisha Sullivan



RE: About The Honorable Elijah Muhammad...



Dear Ms. Sullivan:



You have stood up for Black women and young Black girls for decades. [Not to mention just regular Black folks of every stripe.] You have championed their concerns and causes such as better and more ethnically diverse education; teen pregnancy; drug abuse; economic development and many other concerns and issues. I have been asked to speak on a sore subject that has kept us from moving ahead as a people for over 40 years. That is the alleged sexual exploits of the late, great Elijah Muhammad. I wrote the Board of the organization that represents the on-going work that is being done in his name [{CROE} The Coalition for the Remembrance of Elijah Muhammad at 2435 West 71st Street {CROE Lane}, Chicago, Illinois 60629. Phone # 1.773.925.1600.] I asked them if they could please, and with all due respect, please respond to the criticism that has been leveled against him as a leader, namely the allegations that he had several out-of-wedlock affairs and got a few women, possible secretaries of his, pregnant. I asked if a formal and civil response to these allegations could be offered because this ``possible history'' was getting in the way of women being more active in the movement and feeling respectful towards Mr. Muhammad. I was hoping that you could address this issue for the women and men readers I have on my list because it is still a sore point and, while many Black activist women I know want to respect and study Mr. Muhammad, they don't feel they can because of the fact that this has never been formally addressed by the Muslim, Pro-Nation leadership. I await your answer.



Sincerely,



Brother Tracy Gibson…

When the above e-mail was sent to my 300 plus e-mail readers, one of the responses I got back was as follows: It is from Writer-Activist Shahrazad Ali. [``The Blackman’s Guide to Understanding the Black Woman,’’ By Shahrazad Ali. ]

From Ms. Ali:

"Brother" Tracy, or is it "Sister" Tracy:

``It has come to my attention that you are still on some kind of rampage allegedly going around and trying to stir up negativity about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. A man who had the greatest program of "doing for self" that the Black people in America have ever had. He also taught Black manhood and Black womanhood which is sorely missing today. Your life is a testimony to the confusion our Black men have taken on as a result of rejecting self and choosing to live a beast life of savagery and perversion. Whatever went on with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is none of your, or anybody else's business. Clean up your own act before you try to attack others, especially regarding morals. Look at the immoral behavior you practice and fix that before you go hunting down others. You are just angry because the Messenger clearly rejected the idea of Black men being homosexual or having any kind of unnatural relations with another man. This is your real problem but you try to hide behind other people and claim you are representing them. We don't owe you any explanations about anything concerning the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You obviously have rejected everything he stood for to dignify and uplift the Black man and Black woman in America. So "Brother" Tracy, until you clean up your own act, keep the Messenger's holy and righteous name out of your filthy and perverted mouth. I really don't like to have to speak like this but you are out of order - and you need to find something better to do. Try bathing, putting on clean clothes, using deodorant and combing your hair and stop eating pork. This should keep you busy.’’

My Simple response was:

``Thank you for your kind and positive comments.’’

After more contemplation over a few days, my more expanded response to Ms Ali was:



Dear Ms. Ali:

I will deal with your personal attacks first. You are right, I very well may not be as ``clean’’ and hygienic as I should be. I am living in Philadelphia and Delaware because I have to take care of my elderly father [he is 84] two weeks out of the month, so taking care of my own personal business, running a business, doing outreach, writing my books, staying afloat financially and staying hygienic becomes a great challenge. I accept the criticism and I will do my best to do better at this. Also: I met a man who appeared to be homeless while I was at the train station last week. He told me about his being chastised and discriminated against just because he appeared homeless. He said and revealed to me that he was thrown out of the bathroom at 30th Street Station [in Philadelphia] because he ``looked like a homeless person’’ and they did not want him cleaning up in the bathroom. This gentleman could well have had a family and NOT been homeless at all. He was able to confide in me because I looked a little peaked around the edges. I, as a journalist, deeply appreciated his remarks and the fact that he felt comfortable enough with me to convey his feelings. That is one reason why I don’t always bath as much as I should and don’t dress all fancy in three-piece suits. Aside from the fact that I can’t afford to so, I also like to see how I am treated by my own people and others. My feeling is that if we cannot treat poor people—and I am poor, mind you--like human beings and with respect, then we need to get the heck out of the activism business because we are being two-faced and dishonest with ourselves...

As far as my being a homosexual and `` choosing to live a beast life of savagery and perversion’’ I think you, like many far-right wing Christians are living a life in the past and being intolerant and not accepting of the various aspects of the Black community. One out of every 10 Americans is homosexual and that includes Black people… We are real and we are here. I think our activists especially need to understand this and work on being more encompassing along gender and lifestyle lines and accepting of the diversity within our Black community. Much of your anger is based on Christian-based traditional hatred of gays, lesbians, transgendered people and bisexuals. This community of people—humans--has been scorned for years [if not generations] and I have worked hard for 35 or more years to help establish more acceptance of us by the dominate society just as I have worked for social and economic advances among and for Black people. I will continue to do so. I think we need to talk about ethical behavior and realize that ALL people can act ethically no matter if they are homosexual or heterosexual. Morality is Biblically based and is a judgment. The Bible itself says ``judge not yet ye be judged.’’ The Bible itself, as you know from studying ancient Black history, is a book that has been tampered with over the years... I go to church, but I don’t believe we should accept everything in the Bible, knowing full well that it was tampered with by White scholars, King James and many others. It has had books left out and it has been twisted to provide justification for some very strange behaviors over the years including slavery, racial hatred, and genocide, the beating of women, hangings, discrimination against the gay community and women, and castrations. I think we can put some of what it contains behind us and on the ash heap of history and move on… I am surprised that you use old-fashioned terms such as ``moral’’ in your language. It is outdated and old. I have lived my life as an open book. I am an out homosexual and proud of it. I don’t make excuses for being the way I am. A pastor on TV said ``go where you are celebrated, not where you are tolerated.’’ I have to agree with that. I no longer spend time around people who hate me, dislike me or discriminate against me because I’m a homosexual because I like and accept what I am. This positive mental attitude didn’t come easy for me, but is the result of a great deal of time, money and work. Work which is ongoing…..

I have not hid myself behind anyone or any institution to justify having a certain name or reputation. All I’m saying is that we need to heal as a community of Black people and forgive where it is needed and move on. I’m sure there are responsible people in the Nation of Islam who can answer the questions that me and some women friends have about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. If the allegations that Malcolm X had are false, why not come out and say so in a tempered, decent, respectful, open, and honest way? Why is this hidden and covered up like a deep dark secret. Everybody knows that the allegations were never answered and this fact hangs over the heads of members of the Nation like an ethical guillotine just waiting to fall. Black people are a loving and forgiving people. What the Honorable Elijah Muhammad did to help Black people such as his turning the lives of thousands of Black male inmates around for the better and helping them to become employed and desperately needed positive role models for our children in our community will never be erased. I think if these allegations were ever answered fully by your leadership, you would find more people having more respect for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. These people would more than likely also want to study him more as a historical figure and make damned sure our children know about him. As it is, many people want to forget because of the ``ethical cloud’’ hanging over his memory. Forgiveness and healing would run as deep as the Nile River and a whole new attitude of love, respect, understanding and forgiveness would run within our community. The Nation of Islam could give birth to this new attitude, but instead they sit on their hands and allow this problem to fester—and it is a problem—not just something I dreamed up.

Trying to hide the truth only makes people feel less trusting of the Nation and want more answers. It also engenders a mistrust and disrespect among Black women who should be learning more about the Nation of Islam and the wonderful things the Honorable Elijah Muhammad did for Black people including the opening of hundreds of Mosques; the economic advances they made; and the establishment of the Muhammad Speaks Newspaper. Many regular Black women need to learn about the Nation of Islam and the wonderful things they are still doing today instead of frying their hair and chasing White men and drinking alcohol and doing drugs and partying all the time while trying to be WHITE!! I have a very close woman friend who has become a Muslim. She has taken on the most positive changes I could ever imagine. She takes better care of her children; she is more respected as a business woman; she dresses in the traditional clothing and looks clean and fantastic ALL the time whereas before she was a bit raggedy like me. She is a fine and outstanding example of Black womanhood like most women who are Muslims. But she deserves some answers about this whole Honorable Elijah Muhammad thing. I only took up this ``probing concern’’ about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad because women friends of mine asked me questions and it made me curious. I am not one to naturally stir up trouble with people who are naturally hostile to my community of people in the first place. Some people might think I’m crazy for challenging the Nation of Islam about this, but I just want answers and I want our community to heal and move forward in a more peaceful, respected and knowledgeable manner. I have to admit I would love to see the different factions within the community that have drawn lines on this issue heal and maybe even come together and forgive and talk…. It is a great thing when we as activists can build bridges within our community that strengthen our community and make us more able and ready to survive and fight where we need to. Truth and honesty helps create a stronger backbone for the Black community and helps us make it past the White man and his bag of tricks each and every day. Hiding, covering up and denying the facts only makes all the healing around this subject harder to come by. Maybe these allegations are nothing, but someone needs to say so and say so soon for the sake of the community and our collective sanity. Just about every great man throughout history has had some fault about something or the other. I don’t think, and I don’t believe you are naive enough to believe we have to have perfect leaders to help us make advances in the world. If we waited for perfect people to come along, we would never get anywhere because none of us are perfect. I want to introduce you to some imperfect people who are or were homosexuals who have or did dedicate their lives to helping Black people in one form or another. They are described in this edited letter [e-mail] I sent to my nephew…

``July 18, 2011 [Monday]

Dear Kamau:

I was a little taken back when you said recently upon a visit to Philadelphia, something to the effect that there is no example of a Black man who is ``differently oriented’’ making it big in America.

There are several examples: 1) James Baldwin—a novelist and writer who sold several million books and became a known lecturer, social critic and controversial figure. ``The Fire Next Time,’’ is one of his master works as was ``Just Above My Head.’’ He was quoted by many and received many literary awards before his death from Cancer in the late 1980’s.

2) Filmmaker Marlon Riggs, who directed ``Tongues Untied’’ (1989) and ``Black Is, Black Ain’t’’ http://newsreel.org/video/BLACK-IS-BLACK-AINT along with several other films. He was an important filmmaker and would have reached extraordinary success had he not succumbed to complications from AIDS early in his career.

3) Writer Joseph Beam. A friend of mine who wrote for and edited the first Black Gay Anthology ever in the United States. ``In the Life.’’ A brilliant writer who took his craft very seriously and taught me to do the same. He also succumbed to AIDS early in his career.

4) Essex Hemphill a Brilliant poet who has shared a stage with your mother on at least one occasion. He wrote at least two books of poetry and was a fabulous stage performer for his works. He also succumbed to AIDS early in his career, but has left us with his works and ideas to build on as has Beam and Riggs. One of his books was entitled ``Brother to Brother.’’

5) Arnold Jackson. Another friend of mine, now passed away, who served as a TV Host on alternative Public TV for a program about HIV and AIDS. He was also an activist, a writer and a stage performer. I once interviewed him for a piece I wrote for SBC Magazine back in the 1980’s.

6) Michelle Parkerson: a lesbian filmmaker [and a relative of your Aunt Leslie’s] who did a phenomenal documentary about Black lesbian poet, activist, orator and writer Audre Lorde: ``A Litany for Survival: The Life & Work of Audre Lorde,’’ [1995] and in 2008 did ``A Conversation with Lesbians of African Descent.’’

7) The guy who did ``Precious’’ [which, by the way, I don’t think was a good film]. Lee Daniels, is a Black homosexual and is putting together an important film about Selma, Alabama and the Civil Rights struggles that took place there over the years. I think this film will be very important and ground-breaking.

8) Brother Tracy Gibson. [Me] I served on the first committee that dealt with AIDS in the Black Community in Philadelphia [It was part of Philadelphia Community Health Alternatives and existed before Blacks Educating Blacks About Sexual Health Issues {BABASHI} existed, and before Action Aids existed. I was also a co-founder of Adodi Philadelphia Inc. [in 1986] which is a support group for Black gay men which has gone national and which has a national retreat every year in various parts of the country. I was a major organizer for Adodi Philadelphia Inc. and a chief facilitator for meetings when we were really in our hay day and up and running in the Philadelphia area. I am currently the head of several organizations and Founder, President and CEO Of my own company; Brother Tracy Gibson And; Associates, Inc. . I am also writing two books, which I will publish over the next six months.

9) Brother Clifford A. Rawlins. He was an arts therapist who was the founder, soul and spirit behind the support group Adodi, which was created to end the isolation that Black Gay men were feeling at the height of the early stages of the Aids Crisis in the Philadelphia area in 1986. ... After his death, Clifford is still given credit, and justifiably so, for the group Adodi which has touched thousands of lives and changed the course of thousands of people for the better…

10) Brother Darrell Waters. He was instrumental in taking the Adodi concept to New York City and helping popularize the organization there as well as helping lay the ground work for making Adodi a National organization. He served as a lead organizer and major facilitator for Adodi until his untimely passing. He helped motivate several other Brothers in the New York area who have kept the Adodi spirit and their activities alive as they celebrate their 25th anniversary this year….

These are just a few examples of Brothers and Sisters some of whom I personally know of or met who did great things. Well, Kamau, there were no examples of a Black woman making it as big as Oprah Winfrey did until Oprah herself came along. There was a forerunner to Rosa Parks, but her name escapes me. What if these great people just sat on the sidelines of life and waited instead of took steps forward—be they frightening steps to take—and decided NOT to put their people and themselves ahead in life? Where would we be then? My feeling is that as long as there is adequate persistence and talent among the gifts, mind-sets and skills included in the subjects seeking success he or she has a chance. The subjects’ personal qualities—his or her ability to positively interact with his or her fellow Black citizens, members of the Black business class and wealthy Blacks and with Whites who might want to extend funding, as well as people who can act as gate keepers and other professionals—having a left-leaning political view or being a homosexual shouldn’t matter as much as one would think or as much as you described. What one has to do is drip on the Powers That Be in an on-going and consistent manner until an effective, open, useful and meaningful avenue is discovered to take one on that road to success…. One person with the right money or connections willing to help and / or share can make all the difference. The secret is to be hard working, relentless and consistent and always find ways to improve, streamline, work around road blocks and NEVER give up. If I have to go to my grave working towards getting my books published…. If I have to hand my Business Plans down to you, Muata, Anoa and Thandiwe in hopes that one of you might be more effective at moving things forward—then so be it. Maybe there will be some small step I took that will help one of you do what you want to do easier. I’m not sure any of this really matters much anyway. What will be the difference in 20,000 years anyway? Will even the work, life, speeches and writings of Martin Luther King Jr. last that long? Thanks for letting me rant and share,

Your loving Uncle,



Brother Tracy Gibson…



P.S. Keep your head up and stay alert. There are plenty of potholes we want you to avoid and more ahead of you. GOD BLESS YOU!!!’’

In ending: I also think the Nation of Islam is strong enough and strong willed enough to not only survive any questions I might have, but may well come from a more powerful station and position once such questions are answered properly and once the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s memory is put in a more honest place. He was undoubtedly a great man and I have a lot of respect for him, but I still think the questions should be answered fairly, accurately, honestly and very soon…



By the way Ms. Ali: I also think Brother Martin Luther King, Jr., Brother Malcolm X and Brother Marcus Garvey had excellent and wonderful programs that would have and did help Black people as well—not just The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Sincerely,



Brother Tracy Gibson of Philadelphia and Delaware…

Back to me and the issue at hand:

It is obvious that this subject still generates some deeply hurt feelings, some misunderstandings and some deep-rooted hatred and resentment from within the Black community. What Ms. Ali said proves that there needs to be a statement made to bring this issue to the fore, heal hurt feelings, and begin a healing process that can bring us together as a people once and for all... Right now, many who respect the Black Muslims and their movement feel there is a dark cloud hanging over their work because of the age-old allegations and what they represent and mean to Black women… You can help the process by writing me concerning this matter. If you think it is best left alone, please write me and say so. If you understand the deep divisions that still exist, please write and tell me. I am especially interested in hearing from Black women on this matter and especially from older readers who were in the struggle back in the 1960’s and 1970’s. If you are knowledgeable about Malcolm X and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad [maybe you read ``The Autobiography of Malcolm X’’ by Alex Haley who assisted the late activist and Black Nationalist in writing; or maybe you saw the Spike Lee movie ``Malcolm X’’, or maybe you did some other independent reading or even saw a PBS documentary or two on this matter,] I am interested in hearing from you also. By the way, the late writer / activist Manning Marable has a new book out about Malcolm X entitled: ``Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.’’ I have heard it is well researched and worth reading. I am presently working on two books and generating funds for publishing them. Write me at: BLockBoi75@Yahoo.Com for more details.



Brother Tracy Gibson

Writer – Listener – Reader – Businessman

Fund Raiser – Organizer – Visionary

Human Rights Advocate – Gay Rights Advocate

213 South 49th Street 

Philadelphia, Pa 19139-4205

Reach me in Philadelphia at: 1.215.471.6494




Brother Gibson is Founder, President And CEO OF: Brother Tracy Gibson And Associates, Inc.; Founder and President of the Coalition to Find And Fund Sane, Peaceful And Coherent Solutions for the Crisis in the Middle East; President And Founder of The Black Millionaire’s Network; Founder of the Balance Movement...





[The Above article was edited slightly by Brother Tracy Gibson for clarity on February 11th And 13th, 2013]