That's what it's like wading through the thick sea of lies in mainstream media. Bu.sh came out today supposedly asking for $770 million in food aid--most of it slated for Africa, or so he says. But that's not what really caught my eye--trying hard to not concentrate on the fact that I'd be skeptical of any food "aid" coming from Amerikka--what really made me pause was uncovering that damn elusive needle.
Bus.h is ready to be humanitarian, but only if Congress should see fit to wrap this little package into a larger package that includes another $70 billion for Iraq. You know that country that Amerikka pre-emptively struck? The same country they've managed to demolish over the last five years? Yep, that country. They need $70 billion, because they're not planning to leave UNLESS and UNTIL Iraq comes before them on bended knee and kisses their pedophilia-laced ring.
And while they're waiting on Iraq, they're going to continue their current bullying of Iran. Eventually, Iran will receive the same pre-emptive strike laid on its counterpart. And do we expect anything else? After all, isn't that how business gets done?
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That’s the way real heroes come to us—right out of the ashes. In the case of Atlanta (Ga.) school bus driver Robert Watson, his heroic efforts were literally so.
On March 27, Watson earned the title of hero, and according to a recent news report, here’s why:
“The March 27 school day had been like any other. Watson picked up his charges on Bus 904 and began the journey home.
Soon after leaving school, though, Watson smelled smoke. He turned onto Chateaugay Lane, a residential street, and the odor became stronger. He pulled to the side of the street and ordered the 39 stunned and silent students to quickly exit.
‘After we got off the bus, I wasn't scared,’ said 8-year-old Courtney Sanford, who rides with her brother, Sterling. ‘But I had to calm a lot of people down. A lot of people were crying.’
About 30 seconds after the last child got off, the bus burst into flames.”
So many times in the news, especially recent news, we hear about all the bad that’s happening around the world. While the bad can bring higher ratings for networks, it also leaves many of us with a negative and bitter outlook on life.
News of this nature serves to remind us there are good things happening out there, with good people at the forefront. We can all do better to find something good in life. To be light to someone, as my husband would say.
For Watson’s light, I salute him.
More Information:
Bus Driver Honored for Saving 39 School Kids
*photo credit: Sarah Smith Elementary School*
]]>The next time you grab a gallon of milk out of your local grocery store, remember this video--if not for yourself, for your children. I can only ask that if you do nothing else in this lifetime that you research everything you're being told about your food, drink and "patented" medicines.
A recent news article highlights every reason why we cannot afford to allow others to be in charge of our livelihood. It also highlights why we cannot depend on others to feed and clothe us and our families.
While we may read this article and think that surely that would never happen in America, I disagree: it can and it is happening . . . and with the current path this country is on, it's only expected to get worse. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina should have brought that home for those of us too young to remember past disasters, depressions and recessions, like nothing else.
Each week I've noticed the increase in my own grocery bill, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. So, when do we begin to take charge of our lives? Do we have to first have the grocery shelves ripped from us to get it that we should be doing everything in our power to learn the basics of growing and tending our own sustenance?
And when it comes down to growing our own food, none of us have an excuse. Even people living in apartments can and have planted and harvested gardens on their patios and decks. I say, it's better to know and not need than to need and not know.
What strategies are you taking to ensure that come an extensive food shortage, you can feed your family? Has anyone developed co-ops or agreements with neighborhoods, family, friends or homeowner's association to grow food on vacant lots? Feel free to share your story.
]]>Author's Note: The following information is more important than Spitzer looking for love in all the wrong places--don't be misled.
For every news article that talks about the ever-weakening dollar, articles that tell by exactly how much the dollar has weakened become lost in the mix. And I can't say that's by accident, given that most mainstream articles speak of the dollars decline, but never inform us how far it's dropped.
After all, American citizens are seen as fragile people who must be protected from bad news at all costs, hence watered-down versions of what's really happening are the only way to go--not to mention, it's the American way.
My advice to anyone believing this economy is going to all of a sudden blossom again is to forget about a new day in America where everything will be back to normal, gas prices will have reset, food will be cheaper, housing will be affordable, jobs will be plentiful and the water will be free of pharmaceuticals. Right now, American citizens have more pressing matters to attend.
America is in the throes of a collapse and has been for some time. It's only now that those who haven't been paying attention are realizing the extent to which so-called leaders have doomed this country. When quasi-government establishments such as the Federal Reserve begin lending "money" to "investment" banks (Bank of America, Washington Mutual--just to name a few), and then manipulate headlines with the illusion that the stock market has bounced back and seen it's largest point-jump in years, we should be suspicious--very suspicious, especially when that temporary salve is gone by the next day.
And if we were to look at the fine print, this is a temporary salve, meant to fool "consumers" aka investors into believing that everything will be OK--that is, as long as those investment banks can turn a profit on the "money" within the next 28 days. The fine print also tells us that the bad debts the Fed and central banks (international bankers) took off the hands of these investment banks will be handed back to them after completion of the temporary salve.
So, what plans have you set in motion for the coming outward collapse of America? Are you prepared to fend for yourself and your family for 30 days or more, if needed--keeping in mind that the dollar could be as worthless as it really is? Do you intend to stay in America or have you begun to lay the groundwork for repatriation or relocation?
More Information:
Federal Reserve Announces Results of Auction of $50 Billion in 28-day Credit Held on March 10, 2008
How Much is My Dollar Worth in Other Countries?
New York Fed to Discontinue Publication of Foreign Exchange Rates
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Divorcee Cylenthia Clark and her four daughters came to Georgia with the hopes of beginning a new life. As former second-in-charge of Fulton County, Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), Clark never imagined she’d one day be fighting against the very system she went to work for. That was until one night in March 2007, when she was awakened and arrested on charges of child cruelty by Fulton County police for allegedly striking her 9-year-old daughter 34 times with a leather belt. Since that time, Clark’s children have been shuttled through the foster-care system, to family members and are currently in the care of her ex-husband who lives in Chicago. Clark, who does admit to spanking her daughter, but not to the extent that has been reported, says she only went to such lengths because her daughter had earlier been accused of fighting an adult. Is Clark’s case an authentic case of abuse, or is there something far more sinister at work? Clark seems to think the latter, and she’s created a Web site to share her side of the story. “The subjectivity of child welfare allows social workers to make decisions about a family’s welfare based on their mood for the day, and sometimes their incompetence,” reads a quote from her site, Unseen Scars. She adds, “The worker in this case has past performance evaluations that support not only the fact that there were problems with her performance in the past, but she had been demoted at least once . . . and [had] continued recommendations for more training. So, why is she still allowed to do a job her record clearly indicates she cannot?” Clark considers the child welfare system to be one of genocide—at least, in the case of the Fulton County DFCS. “The children of minorities are taken away in this county for the most outrageous reasons: caseworkers don't agree with what you feed a child . . . fecal matter is found in your toilet (where else should it be?) . . . your child looks too little!!! I have spoken to other parents and I am outraged that anyone's children can be taken so easily.” On her Web site, Clark notes a May 2007 study conducted by National Coalition for Child Protection Reform Executive Director Richard Wexler that concludes Fulton County has the highest home-removal rate (70 percent) of “minorities” and impoverished children than any other county in the United States. “There are many other cases such as mine where parents are erroneously accused and those allegations turn into arrests, and those arrests turn into convictions,” she writes, adding, “all of which destroys the families they affect. These are the unseen scars.” Clark sees her actions as stepping up to the plate when it comes to parenting and writes, "No parent ever wants to hurt their child, and a parent does have the right to discipline a child for misbehaving. “Would you rather I not spank her and the next time she slaps your wife or husband (because she fought an adult this particular day), [. . .] the system will want to charge my child with assault and she ends up in the Juvenile Justice System?” Clark’s case begs the question: When and in what ways should government be allowed to intervene? And further, how much control over our families should we allow government to have? Additional Information: Clark’s site: Unseen Scars
The term diabetes is no stranger to the tongues of many Blacks. When I was a teenager, my mother joined the rank-and-file of those diagnosed with this hypo-, hyper-insulin condition. Following her diagnosis, everything on the menu changed in our household. Diet soda replaced regular soda. Regular sugar was replaced with Sweet 'n Low.
Around 2005, my mother began suffering horrible headaches, periods of confusion and agitation and bouts of insulin shock. All related to the natural progression of diabetes, changes to diet, too much insulin, too little insulin, etc., we were told by the doctors who attended her. They recommended extreme changes to her diet, which did little to alleviate her symptoms.
Months later, she was diagnosed with renal failure. Doctors said that kidney failure was a common occurrence among diabetics. The research geek that I am, I immediately began to conduct studies to find out what we could do to slow the progression.
Everything in the mainstream pointed to dietary changes, lowering of potassium levels--which is conflicting in itself considering that taking insulin can cause a condition called hypokalemia that can be dangerous--etc., but nothing informed me on how to go about reversing the damage, if at all possible. Then one day it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, there could be a drug correlation. Insulin + sustained, long-term usage = kidney failure.
I then began a new avenue of research. During that research, I stumbled on something that raised a number of red flags.
While the patient literature folded neatly inside the little boxes containing the little bottles of insulin didn't say anything unusual--if you don't consider injecting "a special non-disease-producing laboratory strain of Escherichia coli bacteria that has been genetically altered by the addition of the gene for human insulin production" into your body every day for years unusual--a chemical preservative listed on the package did: the insulin contained a preservative called metacresol.
I immediately typed the chemical in a search engine. I gasped out loud when I read the toxicity warnings on chemical manufacturer Spectrum Chemical's site. I also cringed knowingly when I got to the part where they stated in their own words that the chemical was highly toxic and could cause kidney failure, liver damage, cancer, etc. Don't believe me? See for yourself--I supplied you with the link right up above.
I soon presented my mother with the information I'd gathered. Like a lot of us, she was skeptical of the information at first. But the more she read, especially what the manufacturer of the chemical had to say, the more she considered the idea that the preservative could very well have led to her kidney failure, not "her" Type-2 diabetes. I say that because my mother had developed a personal relationship with her diabetes. I mean, she had been told that this was life long, after all.
I'd like to say that's where it all ended, but that wouldn't be true. She continued to take the insulin injections, feeling the benefits outweighed the risks and that, perhaps, the preservative might not have been the cause. By now, I should mention, she was performing dialysis at home and growing steadily ill. Months later, she ended up in the hospital, literally fighting for her life because the solution she used for the dialysis was infecting her system.
During her time in the hospital, the staff reduced her insulin injections, only giving them to her when her insulin levels dipped too low. Slowly, my mother grew stronger and she realized something--the less she took of the insulin, the better she felt.
Since that time, my mother has completely weaned herself from the insulin. In that time, her kidneys have returned to 100 percent normal functioning. We are now working to remove her completely from the dialysis--though the doctor in charge of it would wish her to stay until the day that it kills her--as the last few months that she has reported for dialysis there has been nothing to pull.
The challenge: I must reiterate the importance of finding out what chemicals and other ingredients are in the medicines we ingest and inject. Not knowing could be a matter of life and death. Something as simple as typing each ingredient, including preservatives, contained in medications into a search engine could save your life or the life of someone else. I know that from experience.
I would like to share that my mother feels as if she's been given a second chance at life. She's no longer overweight, eats better, exercises, stays away from artificial sweetners contained in diet sodas, sugarless gums, Nutrasweet, Splenda and other food and drink--which could have also served as a culprit in the kidney failure--and researches any and everything doctors recommend outside of eating right, getting enough rest, exercising and drinking enough fluids.
Also, I'd like to note that Eli Lilly did not make it easy for me to obtain in-depth information about my mother's insulin. For in-depth "prescribing information," I would have needed to register at a special site requiring a medical license number, etc. To "hide" information of such importance says to me only one thing: it's all about the bottom line. Some of the ingredient listings, however, can be found at the FDA's site. Simply type "insulin" or the drug's name in the site's search engine.
*Also of note is the fact that the majority of insulin drugs I have researched since that time all contain metacresol. Phenol, another toxic chemical, is also found in many of these drugs.
]]>Think you're doing a body good by drinking diet sodas, juices, sugarless gums or foods containing artificial sweetners? Well, think again, especially if you happen to be one of those diagnosed as being diabetic or pre-diabetic.
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Very interesting post. I agree with your points. However, my problem had always been, what to DO? I realized the place to start is with my home and family. It just seems like we live in (as you say), a virtual reality, and one where no real leader has emerged...not Sharpton, Jackson, etc. I am so not into politics or these candidates. I mean once you get past all the superficial stuff. At times I feel like rare politicians started out with your sentiments and attempted to be accountable. However, I really feel that at some point along the rise to them actually getting a foothold and getting heard, it all transforms to what we see of them today. It's almost a catch-22. In order to move beyond just "talk," you have to navigate a certain way but it's that navigation that destroys your initial purpose. -- comment from JWL reader Safa
What to DO? That seems to be the million-dollar question asked by Afrikans who want change, but seem inundated in confusion as to how to go about not only being change, but the catalyst for change.
But what to DO? What to DO? DO, a term that provokes action—that requires action on the part of the DOer. A question that were it not for Safa posing in her comment, I would not be performing an action provoked by its sheer mention.
So, again, what to DO? When we think on that question for any length of time, with that thinking comes a host of possible answers, more questions and that dirty old word: accountability.
In what way am I accountable to my people to DO something? In what ways DO my people depend on me to not only be accountable but to be in service to our greater good?
The DOism Factor
And what, in the end, will make me and others who feel we must DO something any different from leaders Safa has pointed out, who seem to have fallen victims to their DOism?
Did their failures come from their DOism being twisted and turned to the point of coming unDOne, or was it because their DOism wasn’t that stringent a requirement of their agenda in the first place?
But I’m sure Safa doesn’t want to beat around this issue anymore—and, frankly, I can’t blame her. She wants to know what to DO, differently. So differently that we’re not still hashing this out another 50 years from now as we’ve done 50 years past, and 50 years past that, and on and on.
I say to Safa that we must not only build the home in which we live, but we must build our extended family’s home (the Afrikan community). We must stop thinking that if we’re hired into, voted into or appointed into their systems that will lead to change.
History has proven that the only thing that leads to is assimilation of those members of us that were hired in, voted in or appointed to another man’s house. So, if that hasn’t worked and isn’t working, isn’t it time we reevaluated that concept?
Take for example, a friend of ours wants to get to the other side of a moat. He has two choices: he can swim across the moat and risk being attacked by crocodiles, or he can walk around the moat, which while safer, will require a long, strenuous trek.
Our friend decides to swim the moat and is quickly attacked and eaten by a crocodile.
Knowing very well the dangers of this moat, we then convince ourselves that the crocodile was probably just hungry and that just because our friend was eaten, doesn’t mean we will be, too.
So, we jump into the moat, completely ignoring the fate of our comrade and are promptly attacked and eaten. Rinse and repeat this scenario and you have the Afrikan presence in Amerikka.
Our failures come in choosing to swim across what we know to be a deadly moat. Many of our self-appointed leaders have failed because they felt compelled, in a half-hearted sort of way, to try to change the hearts of those who use our fears, our incorrect approaches, our need to be inclusive to continue their self-sanctioned domination over us.
Not only do they use our fear projections, low self-esteem and lack of trust and love toward each other against us, but they subtly hand us the fear, the low self-esteem, the lack of trust and love toward each other to further divide and conquer us. In the end, we become dazed and confused—some of us wanting to make change, but too confused as to how to make that change.
The greatest slave and liability is he who vows that “I don’t answer to nobody,” yet each day he wakes up to go to a job he hates, to sit around people he can’t stand and don’t doesn't feel comfortable with, to receive a paycheck that’s lower than everybody else’s, which is then used to buy rims that aren’t needed, luxury cars that tell lies, clothes that don’t appreciate, music that clutters the mind, and cable and an assortment of other mediums that are filled with propaganda and subliminal messaging.
I Can Change for You
I can change. At least that’s what Legend seemed to think. But can we really? Can we wake up one day and say enough is enough? Can we rise on that day and say no longer will I come to you for my sustenance, I’m going to tend my own garden?
Can we fling off the chains binding our feet, our hands and our MINDS and say I’m going to sit down with my brothers and sisters at the table and not only put our heads together to work out a plan of action, but our dollars as well?
Can we say that whether we are Christian or Muslim or Buddhist, or no religious affiliation at all, we will come together to DO this and this and this about our situation?
Back on Track
I seem to have gotten off-track in some ways, because Safa’s question was WHAT TO DO?
Safa, if I had even half the dollars that many of those with the power to do something “big” had and less than a quarter of a mega church’s congregation that were truly dedicated to change, you wouldn’t be asking that question. Instead, you’d be seeing the results.
We wouldn’t be trying to get them to vote us in, hire us in or appoint us to anywhere, because we’d be making our own laws, producing our own food, our own clothes, our own shelter, our own building equipment, our own technology, our own science, our own research.
But as it stands, those with the fortitude and determination to get things done are usually the ones who have an arduous road ahead of them when it comes to making things happen. To make it more difficult, we’re more likely to run into people who are not truly serious about making change and the sacrifices that come with it, than we are to find somebody ready to get down in the trenches.
They’ve programmed us to fear making enemies of them, but take pride in alienating and making enemies of our brothers and sisters. That’s why it’s not unusual that we don’t speak to each other on the streets; that we defile our women on television; that we defile ourselves through our music, books and movies; that we fight about whose church is better when the majority of them aren’t doing anything on a wide-scale level that benefits the whole of our parts; that we can’t admit to the truth when it’s staring us in the face; that we are in denial, in denial, in denial about our place in this country; and that we almost always choose a living death than one we can feel honored by because we died fighting for something we believed in like those rare real leaders who came before us.
Our oppressors have turned us into cowards and our children into disobedient, self-destructive, angry little people. Even those of us who know this oppressor for who he is has to fight a constant battle to prevent our children from becoming victims of his politics, his propaganda, his oppression, his destruction.
Every day I wake up to fight the oppressor—who I have aptly labeled my enemy—to share with others my fight against this enemy, this machine, in hopes they’ll be able to use some of my same strategies and the strategies I’ve learned from others to defeat him, to bring him to his knees and return him to his Ice Age and his Dark Ages.
Then, one day, it dawned on me that the enemy had moved in with me. That each day, I feed this enemy. This enemy knows my schedule—my likes, my dislikes. This enemy knows that I am working diligently to extract him from my home, so he fights just as diligently to remain there in the unassuming form of television, music, MySpace, Black Planet, magazines, electronics, mind control, distrust, demeaning of my role as a parent when I am not there to defend my position (e.g., school, day care, home).
If I do not continue to wage a battle, he will condition my children into everything that is a reflection of him and his domination: promiscuousness, irresponsibility, liars, non-linear thinkers, materialistic, underachievers, self-conscious, self-haters, murderers, etc.
Vigilance is the Answer
So, the most significant thing I can say in response to your question, Safa, is that you must practice vigilance, in everything you DO. We are not at a point of rest, or a point of play. We have work to DO.
The book of ancient truths and distortions (as I refer to the bible) says that for six days God labored. It wasn’t until the seventh day that he rested.
I’d like to say that while some of us might not be Christians or believers in this book, we can take a working message from it. That being, we must work and build and change things, especially our way of thinking, until we have completed the task at hand, until we have shaped the heavens above and below, until we have created the earth that lies between and the flowers and the trees, until we have the sun and the moon and stars to guide our way, we must DO.
And then, Safa, we can, like God from this book, say that “it is GOOD.”
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