About me and my cause

The business of filling our nation`s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs into the views of people`s normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields, physically handicapped and psychologically deranged cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love........ A Nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense, than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death. ( Martin Luther King Jr)..................DEFINITION:.......(Social)- Relating to Human Society and its members Living together or enjoying life in Communities or Organized groups./ Tending to move or live together in groups or colonies of the same kind................(Change)- Make or become different./ Transform...............(Mind)- The element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences to think and to feel./ The faculty of consciousness and thought.........................I have to DEFINE the title to my blog so that will not be any misunderstandings about the nature of what I am trying to achieve. I am not or ever was (AntiAmerican), I am just the opposite. When I explained to some individuals what I was trying to achieve in the writing of this Blog, they either tried to deter me from doing it or they are very encourageing. One person even said that I might have a visit from Homeland Security. I have nothing to hide, I am not afraid of speaking my constitutional right as an American. As an African American, who is also Homeless, I am only interested in change for myself, to become a better human being and hopefully share my insights and those of other`s along the way..........You do not have to agree with me and your opinions are truly welcomed, but if I can open up some of your eyes to some of the plights of what is happening to those less unfortunate than you than maybe this WORLD would be a better place to live in for all of us.

Invisible Man

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, It is as though I have been surronded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. when they approach me they see only my surrondings, themselves, or figments of their imagination-indeed, everything and anything ecept me. Ralph Ellisons`s " INVISIBLE MAN " ( Message to the Poor Man ) ............ Poor man we must not let our children be, as we are, Beggars of another man, for his Home, Facilities, Clothing, Food and means for providing a living. As a people, we must become producer`s and not remain consumer`s and employee`s. We must begin at the cradle and teach our babies that they must do something for self. We must educate ourselves and our children into the Rich Power of Knowledge......" Condensed from a speech by : The Honorable Elijah Muhammed........ In the Northampton Mass area there is a community called the Pedal People, yes those individuals you see collecting the garbage downtown. ALAS!!! but they are more than just Garbage Collectors ( which they are doing without the use of gas powered vehicles, which we all now know is harmful to our environment.) They are a bunch of beautiful people who have started their own Healthy Community!!!! They have a community garden, a Co-Op Food Market, where they share and distribute Wholesale Natural Foods. These beautiful people even open their doors to the community for a Potluck Dinner every monday night at 7:00 pm.... More to come on the Pedal people....... If you live in the Pioneer Valley there is an article in the "Daily Hampshire Gazette" regarding the homeless issue. Now I am a Homeless Individual and according to the article there will be a Housing Summitt at Holyoke Community College in the Kitteredge Center Peoples Bank Room. The host are the Mayors of Northampton, Holyoke and Springfield Mass..... With speakers from State and Federal governments. WE will see how serious our representives are in addressing our Homeless issue. " I will be there to voice my opinion"........As seen on a T-Shirt worn by a Female Employee of the Haymarket Cafe in Northampton Mass "LABOR CREATES ALL WEALTH"............I also Interviewed two young ladies from Smith College, who also volunteer at the Interfaith Homeless Shelter. Their Names are Estelle and Concetta, when asked what they thought of "the State of the Nation, Estelle responded " It`s a mess, the way we do things, we are in need of major changes. It is atrocious what we do and who we do it for(Nations).......When asked about Race Relations in this Nation, Concetta said"Of course the African Americans have had it worst of all but Americans has been Racist against every Nationality, that has come threw Ellis Island or across the U.S. borders......Why is that?....Why can`t we all just get along .......Until tomorrow.... please dont be afraid to share your views on the blog comments....

Wake Up Everybody

Okay so I got your attention!! What is my goal you might ask, it is to raise social consciousness about the problems that have been around since this nation was born. How will I go about this you may ask? By giving you different views from people from all walks of life. for example I interviewed a young lady today from Smith College here in Northampton Mass. Her name is Raquel Lopez and she she is from the Island of Puerto Rico. Her concerns was that until she came to mainland, she really never experienced racism. She told me that on the Island of Puerto Rico, every shade of Puerto Ricans are treated basically the same, until she came to Northampton Mass and saw some of the ugly incidents like the BLACK face incident, she really never experienced the ignorant reality of racism. She did feel upset about the reality of the American government who used Puerto Rican women as guinea pigs for the research of birth control. Just liked the used the African American male in their research of the effects of Syphillis. I also interviewed a almost 80 yr old Jewish women because of the fear of retaliation she did not want her name printed. That is a healthy fear and I will respect her wishes. She did say that she feels that in this day in age that America is going backwards but she is optimistic that there will be changes in the near future. God bless you Miss. ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW: Horace Clayton A Black Sociologist Co Authur ( with St Claire Drake) of THE BLACK METROPOLIS. Moved to Sweden in the late 1940`s after several years of comfortable life free of racism, he returned to the United States. he was homesick to everything american: Ham and Eggs, Camel cigarettes even the tensions of the day. You would have to say that he was Palpably, Indubitably, Hopelessly an American. From Studs Terkel: Race:How Blacks and Whites think and feel about the American Obsession.

Wake Up Everybody

Wake up everybody, no more sleeping in bed, no more backward thinking , time to think straight ahead. The world is such a different place from what it used to be, there is so much hatred, war and provety. From the song Wake Up Everybody by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes. Who am I? Why am I here? Answer: I am that man that Ralph Ellison wrote about 55 yrs ago, THE INVISIBLE MAN-40 yrs ago people from all walks of life marched in a struggle to give everybody their basic Human Civil Rights. So why is it in the Year of our Lord 2008, we are still struggling. I do not know where you live but I live Northampton Mass one of the first corporated settlements in the new world called AMERICA. So why does it feel like I am in 1960`s Birmingham Ala, Why do you say I feel this way? well this is just my opinion but I am sure that many who have come before me and many who will come after will agree, that there are lost citizens of this fine city with no sense of being. Wake up Nothampton and listen to your people. Your own children are calling out you saying " Look at me , What about me, Do I matter" I am a Black Male living in a town that is predominately well off White Working Class and Upper Class. So yes I am frustrated with how things are done in this great city of Northampton but so are your children. I am that INVISIBLE MAN that Ralph Ellison wote about, but your children are not. How soon we forget that you were the ones that spoke up for your alienable rights not so long ago. Have you forgotten your past? An old AFRICAN PROVERB says "It takes a Community to raise a child" So it also takes you as a community to listen to your children and neighbors, about what they are concerned about and then lets start a healthy dialouge so that we can address the Cause, Problem and most of all the Solution before it is to late. A friend of mine named Jen a Smith College student from Portland Maine is a true inspiration. Her views on the problems and solutions is what I am going to share with you in the coming weeks. but let me leave with this qoute: " To be in somebody else`s power.... Induces doubt about the order of the universe, while those who have the power, can assume it is the part of natural order of things and invent or adopt ideas which justify their possesion of it." Martin Luthor King " I came to see that no one gives up his privileges without strong resistance" Until tomorrow!!!!!