WORK, HOUSE ARREST, & FLASHLIGHTS

Good afternoon EVERYONE who is reading this! This week was quite a week in my little world. For everyone that is not aware, I have a 110 MILE DAILY COMMUTE to work and back. So, in TIME terms, this means about 3 hours/ day on the average. To add to that, here is how my week went: Monday: @ work = 11 hours; Tuesday: @ work = 9 hours. But Tuesday was a special day because I went to a cOmpAnY-spOnsOrEd seminar by dAlE vErmIllIon This day most likely changed my life permanently. We'll see... Anyway, I followed up that day on Wednesday with a LONG 12 hours. Thursday : @ work = 10 hours; Friday: @ work = 10.5; Saturday: @ work = 5 hours. So now I rest on Sunday (at least physically). Cuz now that I actually have time to sit down and reflect on my past week, I've made it a math problem and 74% of my available time (minus sleep) was dedicated to my job. Sorry bAbe!!!

INSERT PITY HERE!!!

Just playin'... Because now that I have that off my chest, I'd like to discuss and manifest what I did with my other 26%. Unless this is the first time you've read anything I've written, you know that I'm very concerned with the direction of our country, the politicizing of serious issues to distract us from them, the withering away of our personal rights, etc., you get the picture...so A LOT of my driving time is spent listening to shAdE 45 on SIRIUS satellite radio. If you don't have it, get it. At least an internet membership. You'll be amazed at what uncensored, live programming can do for your world view.



I wanna preface this comment with I detest gossip, especially "HOLLYWOOD" gossip, but there's a point to be made here. Uncle Jemimah above, or you may be more familiar with his government name Tracy Morgan, apparently rEAllY lOvEs tO drAnk!!! Which, if he'd keep it off the road, would be no business of ours. But what really grabbed my attention was he is now serving 30 days house arrest, and he's forbidden to drink. I'm sure many of us know folks who were on house arrest, probation, parole, whatever, where they weren't "aloud" to drink...but WE found this out discussing their civil restraints over a couple beers. Tracy, though, is wearing the infamous ankle bracelet with a twist. The one he wears automatically checks his blood-alcohol content every 30 minutes through whatever comes out of his pores. This is the first I've heard of this. WOW!

And a similar DUI-related discovery for me was how EVE got busted as a result of the flAshlIght brEAthAlYzEr! I may just be ignorant on this one, but this was the first I've heard of this. Whatever happened to OUr rIght tO plEAd thE 5th?, like Ollie North!?!

I THOUGHT THE REASON SCARFACE LOST WAS BECAUSE ALL HE HAD WAS HIS BALLS AND HIS WORD, AND HIS AMERICAN OPPONENTS HAD THESE!!!

With all that being said, let's get serious here...

WE HAVE TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT REALIZING WHAT'S IMPORTANT!!! Tell everyone you know that is pissed about their life in one way or another to VOTE. Straight up!!! Think about ALL the people in your circle of life who don't vote, as well as the people who cast ignorant votes. For example, voting REPUBLICAN ACROSS THE BOARD! Not a well thought out strategy. You need to realize that if everyone you know that has similar beliefs (that don't vote NOW) votes, it's gonna make a difference. That's the real reason people from ALL OVER THE WORLD come to this country. It's because of the type of government we have. But if you haven't been paying attention, gOvErnmEnt has been getting a lot MORE privacy, while we've been getting lEss & lEss!



TO BE CONTINUED...

ImUs & hIp hOp!

Good morning beautiful people! I hope everyone who knows the significance of 4:20 enjoyed themselves Friday night. Today's rambling is gonna be a little tough for some ears. So don't say this out loud, and you should still be safe. If you read my last blog, this one kinda pIggY-bAcks off the RACE discussion. And what really got me thinking more intensely about this is the RIDICULOUS amount of coverage by ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX the last 2 weeks of Imus and the V. Tech mAssAcrE!

I can't even front, this guy ImUs, I stereotyped him from the gate! I don't know if it's just me, but pretty much ANY whItE dUdE thAt OpEnlY wEArs A cOwbOy hAt is racist until proven otherwise. The ONLY exception to this rule is if the dude actually awakens when he hears cOck-A-dOOdlE-dOO, milks the cOws, then is outside in the sun the rest of the day rustlin' cattle or whatever. That would make sense to me; the hat is practical and serves a purpose; keeps the sun OFF your face and neck. Imus, on the other hand, wears his cOwbOY hAt to HIDE his red neck, not to prevent it.

Now that you know my stance on him, we can move on to the REAL issue I have with the coverage of this most recent dIstrActIOn. SOMEHOW, the discussion got to the point of this crazy dOUblE stAndArd jIvE! We ALL know the biggest prerequisite for reporting the news is to sOUnd As whItE As pOssIblE! Ask the Gumble's... And to hear these guys say If rAppErs sAy hOE, nIggA, bItch, Etc., thEn whY cAn't ImUs? makes me sick. It's crazy!!!

OK, I know some of you might not be agreeing with me right now. Like, what the hell is this guy talking about? Well, if you're feeling like that right now, let me explain where I'm coming from...



HIP HOP IS A CULTURE that has evolved through the lessons learned by inner-city (mostly Black & Hispanic) poor folk after the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT OF THE 60'S Hip Hop, to me, is the result of how these people decided to live their lives after evaluating WHAT THEY HAD ACCOMPLISHED versus WHAT THEY HAD SACRIFICED in the previous 10 years.

Without a doubt, huge LEGAL strides were made (in some areas) for non-whites' civil liberties as a result of the sacrifices made/dues paid in the 60's. But something even more important than that manifested as a result; that would be to realize the POWER words really have, and how they can mentally enslave you if you're not aware of them. I'd be willing to bet that if I had .0000001 cent for every time a White person called a Black person NIGGER out of pure hatred/ignorance in the 60's, I'd be richer than Bill Gates. What's the point? It's that if you've only ever heard a word used out of negativity, then it becomes negative--and you can only imagine how many times that multiplies when the word is used to attack you, or used to let you know YOU ARE INFERIOR.

So what happens is that Blacks reverse the energy of the negative words into positive energy. That's why RAPPERS use words that Imus cannot. When words are said by a rapper, they're speaking from within Hip Hop Culture--where words have different meanings to different people. Imus will never OVERSTAND that. And by putting these words to music, it empowers them that much more. I might've lost some of ya'll on this one, so if you're lost, ask a question...

I can't believe these guys are trying to argue/debate from the angle of not being equal in some way, when they've been (unknowingly?) reaping the benefits of the WHITE PRIVILEGE seed that was planted for them when the first WASP's arrived and started killing off the rEd mAn These same reporters will NEVER do a story like why did GEORGE W BUSH make it to Virginia Tech the day after the massacre, BUT didn't make it to n'AwlIns fOr wEEks AftEr kAtrInA



Well, I gotta wrap this up prematurely, because MySpace is acting funny right now, and I don't wanna lose any of this.

I guess the moral of the story is DON'T DISCRIMINATE BLINDLY; DO YOUR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE EDUCATED DISCRIMINATION!!!

P.L.U.R.,
zAy

rAcE!

Hello to all on this EAstEr mOrnIng! Today's RAMBLING is gonna be about a topic that many of US reading this will not have a problem discussing amongst ourselves, BUT we also know that this topic can gEt pEOplE kIllEd! The topic is RACE!

This topic is always scary, mainly because you don't know what another person has been through. This is VERY sensitive to some and a JOKE to others. I usually don't like to refer to TV to make a point, but remember the show blAck. whItE., about a Black family and a White family who "switch places/races." The Black son was about 15, and the way he dealt with race was to ignore it and joke about it. It was just easier for him.

But others who take it VERY seriously and are frustrated with it will have shorter fuses. They'll also be less likely to wanna hear your side of the story because yOU nEvEr gEt A 2nd chAncE tO mAkE A 1st ImprEssIOn...as cliche as it might sound, it's the truth.



OK...as always, on these SENSITIVE TOPICS, I'll will start with MY stance, viewpoint, reasoning, experience, whatever you wanna call it, etc....

Born as JOSE VICTORIANO FRAYRE JUNIOR, I have to tell ya: A rOsE bY AnY OthEr nAmE dOEs NOT smEll As SwEEt!

I lived in Harrisburg until the 5th grade, with majority Black friends @ school, my name was Jose. This is ages 5-10, the beginning of sports and competition. While the White kids were busy studying and going to church, I was with my Black friends playin' ball and listenin' to hIp hOp. And that was early 80's--around the last time thEsE gUYs won a championship...

Then I moved to Middletown...CULTURE SHOCK!...and that's weird because the shock was from not seeing any BLACK folk. In the mid-80's Middletown was practically segregated. There was definitely a "BLACK SECTION." One thing I can say I learned from this timeframe is that RESPECT means something different to WHITES than it did to BLACKS. Looking back now...I think it boils down to $$$mOnEY$$$ again. And here's what I mean by that: it seemed to me that the white dudes always ULTIMATELY had money to fall back on...if they lost a game or a fight, it wasn't that important because they were gonna sleep in their own bed in their own room that night. On the BLACK side, sports and fighting defined you more because you tend to have to curve out your own niche A LOT more. Ask any White kid who has really entered into the Hip Hop culture about curving out your niche. I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THESE DUDES THAT SAY THEY'RE HIP HOP AND DON'T EVEN KNOW ANY BLACK FOLK! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Anyway, it's as basic as MENTAL vs. PHYSICAL. It's the root of the relationship between Black Africans and the fOUndErs Of thIs cOUntrY.

Other than Africans, I consider anyone with NON-WHITE skin in my generic definition of the category BLACK. Because, unfortunately, the ONLY time thE mAn has historically proven not to discriminate is when he's deciding WHO to discriminate against.

Ask the Japanese, Mexicans, Cubans, Chinese, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and the list goes on and on...



OK, I guess this is really turning into a rambling...let me reel it back in...

I've been aware and interested in this complex paradigm we call RACE for my whole life. So I spent a lot of time researching it and doing my own "social experiments" to try and understand it better. It means a lot to me to do what I can to allow different races to be patient enough with each other to actually LISTEN to where the other is coming from. I have great BLACK friends; I have great WHITE friends; And I know that WHITES & BLACKS can get along GREAT! Because if they couldn't, there wouldn't be so many MIXED babies running around!

Our generation has the opportunity to turn around this country's philosophy about characterizing people by race. We have a WAY better understanding of how much skin color DOES NOT MATTER than our grandparents had. Unfortunately, our generation is also a generation of do-nothings. REVOLUTION no longer has the same meaning; although this country was founded as a result of a REVOLUTION. People are so concerned about their little RAT RACE that they ignore the fact that they would be SO much more POWERFUL as a group of like-minded people of ALL races fighting for the same reason. It's true that DEMOCRACY is the government OF THE PEOPLE.

The people need to be aware of this. Because the PEOPLE can be the PEOPLE'S worst nightmare if they are ignorant to what their GOVERNMENT is doing; Within a DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT, it is the PEOPLE'S (ANY COLOR) RESPONSIBLITY to revolt and make sure the government's policies reflect the majority. Race is the ultimate dIstrActIOn! While the poor and uneducated babble back and forth about it, kill themselves over it, the most powerful look at their plan and celebrate as people of all races get FATTER, ADDICTED TO MORE DRUGS(LEGAL), SPEND MORE THAN THEY MAKE, AND JUST GO ALONG WITH THE STATUS QUO.

Using this characterization of RACE is no different than using other similar labels, like Christian, Gay, Liberal, etc., to motivate people to engage in emotional HATE CRIMES. And if you think that these kind of distractions are too little to make a difference. Imagine if the KKK used their power and influence to LOVE instead of HATE. CONFLICT based on emotional factors can take over individuals, as well as groups, so much that not much else matters. IF YOUR BIGGEST CONCERN IN A DAY IS JUST TO GET THROUGH IT, THAT'S NOT HEALTHY!

I can ramble on about this forever. It's a very complex issue that affects us all. I just hope and pray that ONE DAY IT WON'T MATTER. Before that day, WE'RE going to have to take politics and government way more seriously. Until corporations like DuPont stop researching EUgEnIcs, we all have to have each other's back.

CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS BASED ON THE SPIRITUAL CONNECTIONS YOU SHARE; NOT SKIN COLOR!

HIP HOP CULTURE IS OUR GENERATION'S CHANCE TO BREAK THE CYCLE! DON'T LET IT GET PIMPED!



P. L. U. R.,
zAy