Progressive Voices for the World......

Establishing A New Black Think Tank…....

Progressive Voices For the World…..

The Fronts We MUST Be Working On Fighting On and Developing On:

Nation Building: As Black Progressives; Black Radicals; Radicals in General ; Progressives in General; The Progressive and Radical Left Latin community; Progressive and Radical Left Native Americans; The Progressive and Radical Left Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Community; Progressive and Radical Left Women; Progressive and Radical Left men; the Pro Labor movement; Human Rights Activists; Civil Rights Activist, etc. We need to be communicating more about how we are going to Build Our Nation within this Nation and around the world. We need to be trouble shooting on certain problems of Nation Building such as building a Left economic base, devising housing for ourselves, our families, our children, our elders, and the rest of us; How we are going to educate ourselves; how we are going to take back the biggest chunk of or the entire Means of Production for the People of the U.S. and the People of the world against the Oligarchy, the Ruling Class, the So-Called rulers of the world. [In my opinion they need to give up 80 % of their money to a Special Fund that ends their oppression of us to be run and monitored by people We like and who really represent us as humans I this struggle. I am doing good work, but I rarely hear from other Radical Blacks about what I’m doing or get a decent phone call. I know I’m reaching people, because Google themselves say I have reached 7,400 visitors since I started my blog two years ago. What gives… I need to hear from you and get intellectual sustenance more often. I don’t even hear about meetings as much as I used to….

Inclusion: We have to continue to press for the inclusion of Our People in the economic and social process that generate money and well- being such as jobs; the established education process; connection to food and water [a few months ago I literally didn’t have enough money to get food. That was very frightening.].

Nutrition, Getting Exercise and Health: We should be formulating groups to get out and get walks in the morning to get exercise; buy food in groups if and where we can to save money; We need to keep pressing for change among the business and social order as to how and what people eat. Have you ever just taken a look at some of the body sizes walking around in our communities… There are some really BIG Brothers and SISTERS out there. Our hearts and body systems need help and are getting over taxes and over worked with all that body weight. [We should NOT feel we can’t write the White House and the First Lady on such issues and tell the First Lady she is doing a good job on this one [very little else do they take any positive action on]… We must also press for and advocate for more and better Health Care for oppressed people and our children…

Healing Our Broken Souls: We are a Broken poem in Need of Repair: Some of our oppression we carry on ourselves. We need to learn how not to do this and how to get mental and emotional help when we need it. ``I am recovering from mental illness.’’ We have to be willing to say that if it is true. There is nothing to be ashamed of if we are working on our issues… It takes literally years to work through issues, but we can help the process by going to the Free Library in our community and, for free, turning off the TV and getting a book of interests to one of our issues. Go to the Self Help Section in the Free Library and read up on self-hatred and building self-esteem or even bullying if you find yourself getting into trouble and going against the Law for bullying people. Let’s look at some of the root causes for these behaviors. I know how expensive therapy is—some of our Best and ``most talented’’ celebrities need therapy Like Beyonce and Kanye West. I’m not just joking around and saying they need their heads examined but look what images they are putting across and what their aesthetic values of Black people—women, men, even transgendered people are. Is it an image of self hate and continuing the process of aggrandizing White culture, or is it a positive fixation on Africa and African lands and African people? These people may be some of the richest of North Americans, yet I profess to you they are poor o Spirit and they have badly broken souls.

Helping Our Children Grow Up Properly: Mentally, Physically and Emotionally…..AND getting a good Education for Them…

Helping Our Children Grow into Decent, Responsible, Respectable, Well-Raised Human Beings has to be one of our top priorities in life--even if we DON'T have children... I am only an uncle, but I have to ask our community.....Do We take the time? You can’t just let a child go to His or Her room and cry if you just had a conflict with them and that was how they sought refuge from you. Once you have gotten yourself back together and discovered just how slight the whole conflict was in the first place and how you really need to inroad what the conflict was and reach out with an open heart and LOVe,  find out what the hurt is about and how your family can mend and heal itself back together. Seek professional help if you can get it. Even if you have only medicare or Medicaid, you may be able to get psychiatric of psychological help if you need it or if you child needs it. Don't be afraid to get evaluated properly for such help.  If you are a bit fearful at first talk to a reliable older family member about it or a church minister or Pastor. If you are really hurting or if the child is really hurting, please, for GoD's sake, let them say so to the proper authorities from the medical and or psychological fields.  Children are a gift. Give the gift that has been given to you--that child--the gift of your own personal time and attention. You don’t have to be directly involved to help out children either…… Call your local Boys and Girls Club and give them a small donation, even a very small donation of a dollar or two and just watch miracles happen for our children and our families....

The Pentagon: We ALL MUST work on getting heap big cut backs for the Pentagon and the military. The money they spend to continue to outrageously dominate the world for rich White men—and that is basically what they do—has to be turned around peacefully and we have to start finding non-military solutions to the world’s problems. We have to devise and construct a Peace-Time Economy as I have outlined in my UP-Coming book ``Writing in Wet Cement.’’ [Due out in May of  2013]. Military brutality is not acceptable and never was. [You can go to Google and input ``U.S. Military interventions since WWII and click the button and over 110 mostly senseless and expensive in human costs and monetary cost, will POP UP. This is shameful and watching another episode of ``Days of Our Lives or ``General Hospital'' won't help matters. When was the last time you visited a veterans Administration Hospital too let the vets know GOD is with them?… I am planning to go to one as soon as I get a chance. There are literally hundreds of thousands of injured men and women coming back from this nation’s wars of aggression around the world and for what….. To get cutbacks in veterans benefits; to have their parents told the military child will never walk again, see again, be able to move His or Her bowels again… Have you even seen the film ``Hearts and Minds’’ about the U’S’s military aggressions and actions in Viet Nam…. I recently got it from the library for free, but I had to return it without even watching it. It was just too gruesome… The scene of the little girl running down the street of Her tiny village with her skin literally falling off Her bones because of devastating napalm contamination was enough to make you sick and a shamed of what our government did in Viet Nam [I remember fro an earlier viewing of the film]; the scene of the young Viet Namese man being literally shot in the head just because He was Viet Kong.—these Beastly actions, these gruesome details about what our nation did in that region are documented facts that cannot be denied. There are literally millions of Asians who have these facts in the back of their heard and if they are any much Worth anything in the level of humanity they have for themselves, they haven't forgotten these things. How can we sit ideally by watching ``Dancing With the Stars,’’ as our lives and worlds fall down around us…… We have to Stand UP and do whatever we can to stop the U.S.’s wars of aggression against humanity at home and abroad. If We do nothing and they come to get us next—claiming we violated the Patriot Act I, or the Patriot Act II or the newer National Security Act… we will be victims of our own indifference, inaction and ignorance. Take heed and Take Action Now!!

Building Alternative Parties: It is quite obvious that the Democratic Party has, under President Barack Obama, been very, very unresponsive to the needs, issues and concerns of the Black people, Latin People, Progressives, Women, and Labor Unions, the Homeless and the Poor, The Disenfranchised etc. and even a few Radicals who put him into office. For some reason that mostly escapes me, but I have the sneaking suspicion it has to do with The White Male thing and economic, Our so-Called President has been definitely more responsive to the Gay and Lesbian community. I need to do more research on this, but, like I said, most White Gay men are just as racist as the rest of the general White population. There are definitely a few exceptions, such as some of the friends I have, but it is obvious that there is a need for a more inclusive, Radical, Diverse party that takes into account ALL the needs and issues of ALL the people who have voted for them including the groups I have mentioned here as well as a few others such as the disabled and children and teens [who can’t vote for themselves and who we ALL have to be sure get their social and economic needs met such as Day care; clothing; food; shelter; an open assessable road to opportunities for their futures; decent, fair and equitable education; and an ability to live without being sexually abused, molested, bullied or unduly arrested or persecuted without fair due process of the law.

Progressive Revolutionary Spirituality…..We have to understand that as we take action to build UP the poor and down trodden and disenfranchised in our own backyards and neighborhoods at home and fight against war and poverty around the world—this lifts our souls and our Spirits and allows us to find new strength to move forward. There are many places where war and repression has found little comfortable places to hind. In the minds of the oppressors, in the thinking of school teachers who fail to realize the issues of the oppressed in other places just because She has spent Her life working on Progressive, pro-Labor causes; in Our own thinking as we get cooped UP writing all day. Going to a Pro-Labor Rally or demonstration for a 56-year old like me can be like taking a shower after three days. All the old cob webs are washed away and what it is really like to be out in the forefront challenging parts of the system that we would really rather NOT challenge is right in our faces.

Finding Time With Family: Even though our families of activists are very, very busy, We must take on fighting yes—but we must also find time to rest in the arms of loved ones and find time for our children. This is very important. Even if you don’t have your own children, like I don’t, I think we have to be able to help our sister’s and brother’s or cousin’s children in whatever Way we can. As I said in my Up-Coming book ``Writing in Wet Cement’’ children are our hope, our passion and they carry our dreams that we were unable to fulfill into the future with them—if they so choose to do that….. Children are a gift from GOD and we must begin to value them as such.

Being Professional: Always carry yourself in a professional manner as much as possible. It is OK to lounge around in a robe or pajamas a few days a week if you work at home, but at least one day a week, if we work for ourselves, we should get dressed up and go out of the house and do some work or research so we don’t have to be cooped up all week. Try shaving and looking your best as much as possible. And always address people in the neighborhood, even silly or unprofessional people or drug addicted people, with the utmost respect at all times. I am still working on this and have not nearly perfected it, as yet.

Honesty and Integrity: With Yourself and Others:

Avoiding the Storm:

Whitney Houston. Who Was She to you….. Was she just a stat or an entertainer…. Was she a Mom and a wife….. Was She an exploited woman, a drug user, a professional woman who was being used by her producers and handlers like Clive Davis, to make money when they really didn’t care about Her….. Was she just someone to listen to on the radio or see on TV who you wish you were like Her, when in fact you may really know very little about the pain, anxiety, fear, emotional dishevelment and Spiritual disembowelment She suffered. Was she just another victim or was she also a perpetrator of some of the very problem that she faced as a woman, a mother, a wife, a singer, an actress, a producer and a Black human being. Were some of the problems that arrived on Here doorstep there because she was a Black woman—I venture to guess that this was the case. I just watched ``The Preacher’s Wife’’ from 2004? [Check] and found it, for the third or fourth time, to be an encouraging Black film that ALL family members can enjoy. There is one famous scene where Whitney goes out on the ice-skating rink with Denzel Washington [Who plays Her and Her Husband’s Guarding Angel], and she is heard saying: ``I’m a Mother, I can’t die like this,’’ I don’t know why that was in the scene, but it is really chilling because as you know Whitney, the gift, the star the Mother the Wife, is no longer with us…… She is proof positive of the exact same thing that happened to my Dearest Cousin Leslie. Leslie was a writer who was just reaching a real level of success when she was just exhausted with her Writing and Book-Touring schedule and got a rare form of cancer that could have been discovered and treated properly if She had been taking care of Herself properly. Leslie had the Good Sense to take on Her own marketing of Her works, but never took time to take time for Herself. This ended up costing Her, Her life. And Leslie was only about 51 when she left this place, this level of existence. Whitney was on drugs early on. From media reports, I think it was mostly cocaine and maybe alcohol. She had a grueling tour schedule of concerts, movie making, press interviews [She was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey shortly before Her untimely death] and other commercial engagements as well as her duties of raising a teen-aged daughter. [I am sure that many Mothers would say just raising a teen-aged daughter was enough to keep them busy without all that ``other stuff’’. One need only look at this natural talent, this gift, this incredible talent, to understand why everybody wanted a piece of Whitney….but the question is were these handlers and friends there trying to understand Her and help her cope through other means than illegal drugs and alcohol. Were there people around Whitney who just wanted to make sure she got REST—Plane old Good Old North American or African REST!!! This is a crucial part of any actor’s or entertainer’s or singer’s life and MUST be included in people’s contracts in a real and present form or they run the risk of being another Leslie Peterson or Whitney Houston. We can’t afford to lose Leslie’s and Whitney’s like that. Whitney and Leslie were people who only come along every 40 years or so. How long did it take for Ella Fitzgerald to get here or for Aretha Franklin to get here or for John Legend to get here or for Stevie Wonder to get here….. These people don’t just sing and act. They become the people they play in movies and project a sense of authenticity that is often unmatched…. This is why I profess, that we need our own network of clinics on the par with the Betty Ford clinic, not just for our stars, but for the rest of us. And we need them to be paid for by some system that allows us to pay as a community of wealth builder, for them ourselves. We need to get the government out of the Health care business. There needs to be some Way to rotate costs so people who want to pay more can do so to help others who can’t, but the government, eventually needs to get out of it because it is a large part of the corruption We have in government.

Effectiveness before Growth: It’s Not Always ALL About Money. There are a hundred things Black people can do to pull themselves into more positive thinking. First of all if you are smoking and, GOD forbid, buying cigarettes from the corner store for $1 apiece, you need to stop doing that and get on a regimen to stop doing this and get off those cancer sticks. You can get really sick from smoking. Your family will no longer have you as a family member to rely on and you may become a physical liability early in your life with a bad smoking habit like Our President has. Not smoking can also save you hundreds of dollars a year. There is another Way to put money directly into your pocket. Stop believing the hype about the Lottery. Most likely no matter How much you play, you will almost always lose money. If you take that money and put it inside a jar and save it you will find yourself with a Big Enough stash to put inside a regular lack in a few short months. We dump thousands of dollars into the state lottery systems, only to find ourselves in the losing end of the situation every time. Is this wise? Is this what responsible Parents really want to reflect to their children? Taking small economic steps every week can dissolve away the biggest financial monster over time. For example to get a business license was only $35. But when you are struggling to get food and medicine in the house every month, $35 is like a King’s ransom. But if you make a sacrifice of turning off the Cable TV and sending it back to you so-called cable provider—you will save about $60. A month TA, DA!!! You have your $35. And it is going towards something that can bring in extra revenue—a business license. If you are not willing to make small sacrifice at least temporarily, you may find yourself on that Hampter Wheel of life again and just doing what we think we want to do instead of what we really like to do in life.

Putting Music Forward in Your Life And Taking Out The Drama: There are some people I had to let go in my life.  For the most part, I had to say, enough is enough and let them go.  The people or person was letting me down and dragging me down.  I don't thnk I am ANY better than they are per say, but I do have things I want to do in life and places I want to go and if you have someone who has a major mental health issue or social issue they refuse to deal with, you have to let them go their way and you go yours--especially if they refuse to se the issue and take positive action. If they are taking action, even moving forward in a small WAY, you can stick through it with them if they are a good friend.  But if they are NOT moving you can't move with them yu will be held back as they will. Don't let that happen to you. You are worth taking the action to remove yurself from a negative life force and moving forward.  Taking that action will be, if they were a good friend, one of the most painful things you have even done, but it is an action that will pay off in Big Dividens for you and your family. You have to do it if you want to walk with your head held high and join the decency of real humanity.  That person has a cloud over them that you can't lift.  The sooner you realize that the better.  I am telling you this from real experience. You will literally be putting the sound of JAZZ music back into your life. You will find other people more like you who are more able to accept a better path for themselves, finding you like a reord needle finds the grove in a record.  The music you both play together, even if it is just a friend, will be loud, soft, funky, rhymic, deep and pleasing. You will find new stillness, warmth, LOVe and life that reverberates in a smile on your face and a grove and rhythem in your step. Don't delay.  GOD sometimes has a seemingly cruel way of cutting things short sometimes, so relish in every step of positive movement you get to take in life. The negative people you have taken yourself away from will help you deal with staying away from the addictions that have hindered and crippled you and the person you have expatrioted yourself from will help you come to a new understanding of how to truely reach your potential in a loving, positive and effective Way. You will reach a new shore. You will find a New Country.  The most important thing is to be honest with yourself and LOVE yourself. Love yourself and surround yourself with honesty and love. And people who know how to honestly LOVe will find the shore of your New Country....