Congratulations to the UMES Hawks Cheerleaders!

On March 4, 2012, the University of Maryland Eastern's Cheerleaders participated in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Cheerleading competition at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The UMES Hawks Cheerleading Team competed in the Co-Ed division against other teams in their conference.  Year the team placed third at the competition and the year before they placed second. This year the team placed first in their division, the first time ever that they have accomplished this task.

In addition, the team also came in second place in the overall competition placing just four points below the eventual winner Morgan State University.  However, this is not all, as Adrian Gibbs, a senior on the team, placed first in the All-Star performance.  This catagory highlights the outstanding performer in the entire competition.

We extend our congratulations to the UMES Hawks Cheerleading for this outstanding accomplishment!

Root Canal

“The man who came to Washington on a wave of euphoria has had a presidency with all the joy of a root canal, dragged down by W.’s recklessness and his own inability to read America’s panic and its thirst for a strong leader.”

This was part of a column written by the always interesting Maureen Dowd I found on the New York Times website. I have to agree with her but not for what I think her reasons are.

The economy, the political process and the like are today filled with infection and other problems. Congress is useless. They only move on what the party feels is important for itself.  One is only moving to ensure that the current president is a one term president.  The other is too much of a coward to move on anything else.  I am told if you do nothing you will fail one hundred percent of the time.  We have a Congress filled with do nothings. 

Even worse is the fact that the American public is in a stage of self imposed ignorance about what is really going on.  The American public has allowed this mess to continue.  We have allowed it to fester and become infected.  We don’t even take the time to actually find out the truths behind any of the issues and now just allow the so called news media (blog, print cable, web) to tell us what to think and feel.  Today more than anything the media is out to get rating and not facts.  The public in turn sides with whatever media side they favor and walk around in a daze.  Sure we wear our tea party hats or occupy places, but where does it get us?

We have allowed this condition to settle in a fester.  Injuring and causing decay towards the common good of this country. It is causing pain and anguish and a whole lot of other problems. So what is the cure?

I don’t know exactly but we will have to sit through the “root canal” to help alleviate the pain.

I remember when President Obama first started his presidency. He said something to the affect that it would get worse before it gets better. Everyone became up in arms about this and so the statement was softly quieted. Today we know for a fact that it indeed has gotten worse with signs it is slowly getting better.

Very slowly. So slowly it is almost going backward.

So the message is to take care of your teeth or you might have to sit through another root canal.

Ouch.

The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth - RIP

I don’t have anything against the late Steve Jobs.  He was very successful in what he did in his life and the technology he advance has perhaps led to our present day society.  His technological impact will live on perhaps forever.  And it made him a very rich man.  I owned an Ipod once (that was stolen) but somehow it wasn't really that important in my life. 

It must have been important to someone as I have seen and glanced over quite a few tributes to the man.  Everyone from Rush Limbaugh, to Mitt Romney, to Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates all have expressed their condolences. So indeed Mr. Jobs, rest in peace. 

I have seen less articles and news stories and tributes to a man that means much more to me.  That man is The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth who dies at a Birmingham hospital on Wednesday.  He was 89 years old. 

Rev, Shuttlesworth was a co-founder of the Southern Leadership conference with Ralph Abernathy and Dr. King and is considered one of the giants of the Civil Rights movement.  He is considered one of its heroes. 

In 2006 Jabari Asim wrote in the Washington Post, the following about Rev. Shuttlesworth: 

“In 1963, during the most volatile period of the Birmingham campaign led by the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a fireman hit Shuttlesworth with a blast from his hose and pinned him against the wall of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The stunned minister was taken away in an ambulance under the watchful eye of Bull Connor, the city’s notorious public safety commissioner. Watching the vehicle drive off, Connor declared, “I wish they had carried him away in a hearse.” 

There were many other acts of violence that were done to him.  Someone ignited 16 sticks of dynamite and blew up his house in 1956, with the Reverend and his family inside.  Another time an angry mob stabbed his wife in the hip.  And somehow I believe those same cowards serve in all forms of government even today. 

In 1957, the Rev. Shuttlesworth tried to enroll his children in the all-white Phillips High School. For this simple act he was beaten by cowards with brass knuckles, chains and wooden clubs.  It’s always a mob in these cases, never a lone thug.  I guess those idiots were really afraid. 

He dedicated his life to helping people who were not even considered citizens much less humans to obtain their rights.  He never got the fame.  He never got the money.  He in fact pretty much always got himself a hospital stay because he was beaten so badly.  They never carried Reverend Shuttlesworth away in a hearse.  In fact he outlived Connor’s brand of racism, cowardice and stupidity.  Even up until about 2006 he was only sidelined a little because of a brain tumor. 

Even with all of these accomplishments his death was still somehow overshadowed by Mr. Jobs.  I did a quick Google search and the only in the news politician I could find that said anything about his death was our current President:

"He was a testament to the strength of the human spirit. And today we stand on his shoulders, and the shoulders of all those who marched and sat and lifted their voices to help perfect our union."

I am probably wrong in my assessment and maybe I need to look a little deeper.  For instance, I know for a fact John Lewis mentioned his passing also.  I would expect nothing less from the man also in the trenches of the Civil Rights Era.  Nancy Pelosi also mentioned his death as did John Huntsman.  I just find it interesting that this great man's death appears to have been forgotten by the current crop of political bobble heads.

Shame.  I will look again though.

Rest in Peace Reverend Shuttlesworth.  We will see you later.  And you are not forgotten.

Obama Marched With New Black Panthers? Bull!

I know you’ve heard the story going about that stated in 2007 then candidate Barrack Obama marched with the New Black Panther Party.

First of all this story was concocted by none other the Andrew Breitbart who has made a career of lying about pretty much everything.  From Shirley Sherrod, to ACORN, Clinton Plotting a Tea Party Attack, University of Missouri Labor Class, etc.  The old joke states you can tell he’s lying because his mouth is moving.  You heard about the lies, I’m sure.  So rest assured that this is a lie also.  It’s funny how he’s lies so much and he still has a job.

The reason Obama was marching was to celebrate the 42^nd anniversary of the 1965 march from Selma which ended when the civil rights marchers were attacked by law enforcement at Edmund Pettus Bridge.  If you have to (shame on you), look into the whole story about the original march on the internet.  President Obama wasn’t the only one there.  Former president Bill and then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were also there.  Al Sharpton and the originator of the reenactment, the legendary Congressman John Lewis were there too.  So were about 10,000 other people.  So were members of the New Black Panthers Party.  If you read Breitbart’s original “story” notice that he doesn’t mention any of this.

Then candidate Obama and New Black Panthers leader Malik Zulu Shabazz both gave speeches at the event.  They spoke from the exact same podium and they both marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  It wasn’t Obama’s event.  It wasn’t Shabazz’s event.  It was an event that happened annually for many years.

So Briebart is lying.  Again.

He also implies that Obama’s campaign website posted an endorsement by the New Black Panther Party in March 2008.  "Who posted the Panthers' endorsement on the Obama campaign's website, and at whose instructions?" Briebart ask his readers.  The Washington Times, that bastion of conservative views posted the answer three years ago; the website, my.barackobama.com, allowed users to set up their own blog pages, and the Panthers themselves put up the endorsement. When the campaign became aware of the post, they took it down.

Even more important was that someone else marched on that day.  It was the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth “the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South” according to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  He died today at the age of 89.  Obama was pushing Shuttleworth along the route in his wheelchair.

Briebart is a nasty disgusting race baiter and liar and that is all that he will ever be.

There are much greater men we should be talking about.

The Problem We All Live With

It is a painting by Norman Rockwell.  Or maybe it’s more like an illustration.  He called it “The Problem We All Live With”.  It shows a six year old little girl being escorted by Marshalls to a newly integrated New Orleans school.  The wall behind her shows the results of tomatoes being thrown.  The letter “N” being partially blocked by the arm of a Marshall and the letter “R” being blocked partially by the tomato, the racist insult “nigger” is also shown on the wall.

The little girl is named Ruby Bridges.  She is a real person.  Today she is fifty six years of age not much older than me as a matter of fact.  So what is the big deal?  Well, President Obama has decided to place the picture outside of the Oval office.  Yes it is that simple.

Well you know that if the President did something, no matter how benign, it becomes a problem with certain folks.  For this simple act I’ve read how the President is “divisive”, “a racist” and other foolish things.  It is all part of the Obama Derangement Syndrome.

I don't even see what could possibly be "controver­sial" about hanging this painting. Unless, of course, you think the Civil Rights movement was a bad thing.

The reality is that some still will try to say and do anything to keep him out.  They claim he is a citizen of another country.  They claim he hates America.  They claim he is a communist or Marxist.  Or a secret Muslim (which really doesn’t disqualify him).  Some even have claim that he was the anti-christ.

I think hanging the painting there is great for it says that at one time people didn’t want Blacks to even enter into the same school as them.  Now here is a Black in the highest office in the land.