Thank God It’s Friday!

There was a time when I used to wish my life away. Every Monday morning without fail would find me doing my “I can’t wait til Friday” chant. And not that I was excited for Friday to come because I had some great elaborate plans. Just that I wanted to get through the week and get to the weekend. The only problem with that is, there are a lot of days, hours, minutes between Monday morning and Friday at quitting time. That is a lot of time to be miserable, bored, unhappy, unfulfilled, melancholy, (i think you get the picture). It took me quite a bit of time to realize that I was wasting a lot of my life, just wishing it away. And not a good waste like in Otis Redding’s “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay,” or Brad Paisley’s “Time Well Wasted,” when I’m just enjoying the quiet.

Well now I know better and I thank God for Friday and Monday and Wednesday and Sunday nights, etc. But I do just happen to be excited about this weekend. I have some great planning that I need to do and some writing I want to do and some time with my man planned. I have basketball games with the little kids and church early Sunday morning and some cleaning that I’m going to get done. That’s a lot of stuff that’s going to happen in the next couple of days and I’m sure it will spill over into my week but that’s ok. Cause it is only on Fridays that I get to really say, (deep breath here) THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY (exclamation point!!!) ENJOY!!

Until next time.

Peace. Two Fingers, One Love.

A Different World... Poverty pt. 2

A good friend of mine recently asked a question on his Facebook page. He asked his FB friends what they think it will take to stop the senseless black on black crime in our communities. People had some really good responses for him ranging from more police to better education to more community programs to better parenting to eliminating poverty. For sure, those things really need to happen to fix what's wrong in the "hood." But those things individually won't work and quite possibly all together may not work. Why?

Because there's something that will have to be understood and subsequently addressed by those involved in order for things to change. There is a MENTAL POVERTY that exists in the hood; a ghetto attitude and culture that has to be overcome before any of those other things will make a difference in large numbers. Our families have fallen under the rule of a new master; black media (or more accurately- white media perpetuating black stereotypes.)  It is teaching us how to be black and we are paying rapt attention. We are proud to "be" ghetto. We speak the language they tell us, wear the clothes they tell us, eat the food they tell us- all because they know there is nowhere for us to go by doing those things. It's actually a very successful (albeit detrimental) system.

The 40 year war on drugs is also a major player in the reasons the black community is in such dire straights. Between the users and the sellers, the community is full of junkies, prisoners, ex-prisoners, and gangs which leads to most of the senseless black on black killings. Once we can address these man-made issues, there won't be a need for more police, education will once again become a cornerstone of the black family, the black family will once again become the cornerstone of the black community and young folk will begin to attend the hundreds of community service programs that already exist. The village will FINALLY be in full effect.

Until next time.

Peace. Two fingers; one love.