A new USA/Gallup poll showed that 71% of the people surveyed don’t believe that President Obama has been tough enough, when dealing with BP and the oil spill. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl2579

Of that 71 percent that responded, I’d like to know what percentage of this 71 percentage are White and what percentage are African-American People of Color and other minorities? The reason that I ask this is because it appears that this scenario is being played out by showing 95-99% of White families and businesses. It seems as if Black America is not part of the participants, which are involved with how this Gulf Oil Spill will affect their livelihoods.

In case anyone is wondering what Black Fishermen I’m talking about, I did check things out and found out that there are some Black Fishermen in the Gulf, but I had to do a search because they’re not talked about, and neither are they shown. http://www.theroot.com/views/invisible-fishermen-oil-spill When I see what’s going on, it reminds me of Hurricane Katrina. Does anyone remember what happened after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, if so, do you remember how Black families were separated as they were during slavery? Today the Black Fishermen and their livelihoods aren’t talked about; it seems like these Black Fishermen have become almost invisible. America seems to be focusing on the White businesses and their livelihoods. Perhaps it’s because of a double standard, which always seems to come between Black and White in this country. I speak of this double standard in several places in my book, “Born In The Wrong Country.” At one point I speak of how White people were allowed to talk to their White supervisor in a certain tone and words, as opposed to Black people who were not allowed to talk to the same White supervisor in that same tone and words. The same words and tones from a Black employee could be cause for a reprimand or perhaps they could be fired....…. “There has always been a double standard in this country, one for Whites and another for Blacks.  Mind you, the higher standard was set for Blacks, making it harder for us to achieve the same mark as the Whites.”

When it comes to who has more businesses of a higher monetary value, Whites surpass the Blacks by a landslide. The means for achieving these standards were off balance from the beginning; one must remember that the African-American People of Color were former slaves; they weren’t allowed an education, or to be taught how to read, and they never received their 40 acres and a mule. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_couldn't_slaves_learn_how_to_read_and_write

This double standard is the kind of thing that is strangling what could be a stronger and greater nation, but the arrogant would rather weaken this country and continue with costly mistakes.

http://www.theroot.com/views/invisible-fishermen-oil-spill

It is said that BP used cheaper equipment and look what happened.

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1080069/pg1

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news ... ion-on-blown-out-rig.html

They have a disaster in the Gulf coast spewing millions of gallons of oil. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/0 ... tonpost/main6569705.shtml President Obama, the first Black President of the United States holds the reins of power and deals with BP as he should. Perhaps some people would like him to be like Moses, doing something miraculous as Moses did in parting the Red Sea and stop this ASAP; it doesn’t work that way. President Obama had nothing to do with this oil spill; he is the commander and chief of this country, who is the chief negotiator for all the people of this country, and is doing his best to see that this is cleaned up and that people are compensated by BP.

There’s always someone who wants to give their two cents, this time it is Mayor Bloomberg, who seems to be insinuating that if one starts blaming BP’s CEO, perhaps they might slack off in doing their job. Is he insinuating that this is what he would do if he were the CEO of BP? A comment like this makes one wonder; why else would he or anyone else make such an arrogant statement? To be more precise, this is exactly what Mayor Bloomberg said. .. “If you want him to fix it and they’re the only ones with the expertise, I think I might wait to assign blame till we get it fixed,” http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/201 ... ends-bps-chief-executive/

http://www.nypress.com/article-14061-conned-by-con-edison.html

In another statement Mayor Bloomberg warned about bashing Wall Street, when he said,.. “the bashing of Wall Street is something that should worry everybody.” One might ask, is this statement suggesting that perhaps Wall Street might pay back Obama and the American people for the way that President Obama criticized the financial firm, when trying to end risky trading?

Mayor Bloomberg already was criticized for his support in praising Con Edison’s in a nine-day blackout in Queens in 2006. These kinds of statements make one wonder; what was Mayor Bloomberg’s purpose for shooting off his mouth about the Gulf Oil Crisis, or is he playing devil’s advocate?

On the other hand President Obama is making sure that arrogance is not apart of his talks or concerns; he uses common sense and is trying to get his critics and other politicians to use that which is simple and makes good sense; whereas Mayor Bloomberg would rather insinuate things, thus letting his arrogance fly like stale air.

In essence President Obama talked to BP and said that they will be held accountable for this disaster. People must understand that this disaster is manmade; it stems from BP’s drilling and their equipment. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127862326 

Regardless of whether BP rushed and used cheaper equipment and techniques to try and accomplish their job, it is their oil rig. They say that it wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did, and since it did, there needs to be some kind of plan that BP can institute to take care of this disaster as quickly and efficiently as possible. There is also a question about how forthcoming BP has been with the amount of oil being spewed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/us/11spill.html

We are quickly approaching the 5^th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina; we should remember the devastation that was caused and the work that still needs to be done. We should remember the people that died and the bodies that lay dying out in the open. There were bodies that were rotting in the streets, in the water and on rooftops because of the heat and slow response of the Bush administration. Bush’s eyes were still on an unjustified Iraqi War; people were being killed and the deaths of our own soldiers continued to mount. America should never forget what its real priority is; killing people abroad should never take precedence over our own people at home. We should always remember the African-American People of Color, poor White people and other minorities need our country to help us; though we may not be the financial backbone of this country, we are the real backbone of this nation.

America must stop playing the double standard game, one for Whites and one for Blacks and other minorities. Equality is something that still needs work. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said in one of his sermons… “I think that God is telling America you’re too arrogant.” We must not allow arrogance to overshadow common sense. Common sense will work if the politicians leave their egos out of it; common sense can do a lot of good that lies will only destroy, and ignorance makes for a rapid destruction of a powerful nation.

Recently CNN Politics online ran a story entitled “Why Obama doesn’t dare become the angry black man;” I believe that was a misstatement. I read the article and though it made some sense by the way that it was written, I just had to go a little further.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/0 ... e.obama/index.html?hpt=C1

When people don’t understand something they say something totally contrary to what should be said or leave things out. First of all that headline infers that Black men are angry, which is totally absurd. All Black men don’t act the same, and they certainly don’t act like you want them to just because you think they should. Black men are unique human beings that possess a natural aura all their own. Slavery ended a long time ago and White people need to understand that they do not call the shots of how an African-American Man of Color, especially one who is President of the United States of America should act.

One would think that it’s high time that White America finally got the picture about the Black man, after all they’ve been watching us for hundreds of years, but they cannot contain us without a whip and a chain. Though we all have feelings, we don’t all act the same; we have a mystique, which we bring to the table and the White man is in awe of what he doesn’t understand and has never understood.

Barack Obama is nothing like his former minister, the Reverend Wright. The role of a Black Minister is different than that of a President, and contrary to what people would like to believe sometimes; we all don’t look alike and we definitely don’t act the same. The fire within the Black man doesn’t always have to be expressed through anger; look at the differences between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.

I believe that there is a great problem, which stems from the way that the White man wrote the history of the United States of America, which was devoid of the Black man’s persona, except how they wanted to view him and how they wish to view him now. In my book, “Born In The Wrong Country,” I speak about this in the first chapter called “Paranoia, How To & America’s Flaws.” One way that I put it is, …….. “How America thinks of you is exactly how America sees you.” In another part of my book called “Forgiveness,” chapter 6, I put it another way by saying, ……“I know that the way you imagine us to be is the way that you look at us, yesterday that might have been acceptable, not today, for now we are showing you how we are, and we will refuse to be looked at any other way.” In both parts of my book I am speaking of the African-American People of Color, the Black people of this country. Though slavery was a long time ago, sometimes I think certain people ignore the fact that they don’t own Black people anymore; Chattel slavery is thing of the past.

Those who continue to wonder why Obama is not showing more anger must still possess a little of that slave mentality. This government, which has been predominately White for a very long time seems to have trouble following the African-American Person of Color’s train of thought, especially one that is the President of the United States. This is a first, it’s a historical time and some White people just don’t know how to act; they no longer hold the reins of power as being the most powerful person in the United States of America and in the world. For some reason they think that Obama needs to be instructed on how to act, when something of urgency and billions of dollars come up like the Gulf Oil Crisis. Haiti was totally different; it dealt with the devastation of poor Black people, which is contrary to what has happened in the Gulf. Now we are dealing with the livelihood of White people and some are suggesting that Obama show more anger to their plight. Does anyone remember 2005 and Hurricane Katrina? Did anyone dare to say that Bush was not acting angry enough?

Today it’s the White people that seem as of they don’t know how to act, and their true colors of seeing things the way they were used to imagining the Black man have come to light. You see there are some people just waiting for Obama to lose his cool, and then they can say, “I told you he was another angry Black man.”

Why would anyone want Obama to act like a White person, who gets angry in the public eye of Politics, does nothing, is not really saying anything and who ends up becoming a loud mouth piece to the likes of Sarah Palin?

Obama knows how to listen and think before speaking, and when he does speak, his answers are usually well thought out. Jumping to conclusions and staying hyped up will show anyone as an angry person. Obama knows the ‘how to’ of politics; he also knows that being on edge and acting more angry to please others would only be playing into their hands; he’s smart enough to know better.

President Obama is a smart and intelligent politician; he didn’t show the anger that his opponent did while running for the Presidency; he just answered the questions with knowledge, showing the American people that he had done his homework and knew what he was talking about. The strategy he chose worked, and he won the Presidential election, becoming the first African-American Person of Color to win the oval office. When you do your homework, there is no need to show overt anger over something as some people are suggesting.

President Obama knows that no matter what he says or how he says something, that he will be compared to an angry Black man if he shows too much anger. He also knows and has found out that as a Black man, who is President, that he can’t say things that perhaps his predecessors could; he is a Black man and this country still has a lot of double standards in place when it comes to Black and White, but again he cannot say that either.

I believe that one of the reasons that the Tea Party chose Sarah Palin as its spokes person, was so that she could to continue to hammer into whatever the President says and does, no matter how misinformed she might be. Let’s not forget this Black man won the Presidency of the United States of America, and he did it winning by a landslide.

Friday, May 28, 2010 Gary Coleman died after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage two days earlier. He was at home when he suffered this hemorrhage, but died at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center when his life support was terminated. http://wcbstv.com/national/gary.colem ... spitalized.2.1720765.html

It is a shame that when people suffer and start demonstrating a different kind of behavior, our society would rather badger them like one would do in a courtroom, rather than trying to figure out what is wrong. Our society needs to know that people really can’t help how they act all the time.

When you see that someone has a problem you shouldn’t egg them on, what you say might frustrate or anger that person. Metaphorically speaking, there is no need to pour salt on the wound of another human being or take a knife and keep twisting it inside an already open wound. Human beings should know better, after all we’re supposed to be the intelligent ones of the species. Sometimes I wonder because it seems that some people are really mean spirited or perhaps some people aren’t really nice caring people.

Gary Coleman might have acted a little strange and perhaps one might even have called his behavior belligerent. None the less he should not have been egged on like some wild animal; he was badgered like a hostile witness who had committed a horrendous crime. At home from my where I was sitting, this man seemed to be broken and sick, someone that couldn’t stand up under the pressure of certain questions, or should I say the way questions were thrust at him.

When administering a drug, a doctor usually takes the safest and most effective way to administer medication; we should be like those doctors or better still like the nurses, since they are the ones who administer the medications. Those nurses are really like the back bones and spinal cords of the medical profession. Many of them have a quality of patient care that goes way beyond that of a doctor in hospital settings; it’s called tolerance and they are like the mothers to many patients in the hospitals. When someone is sick no one knows what kind of pain, mental or otherwise that the individual is going through. I hope that hindsight will enable people to be more humane when dealing with the sicknesses that are going on in our society. Someone that is a guest should be treated like a guest, and not a stepchild. It is not the job of a host to prove someone guilty; it’s the responsibility of our Judicial System to prove those cases.

As I say in my book “Born In The Wrong Country,” when speaking about Epilepsy..…. “The blame that I put is on ignorance, but unfortunately people remain ignorant to this, as with other ailments and many other diseases.” ….. This is what happens when we don’t know how to relate to various diseases in our lives.

Does anyone understand what a seizure might do an individual? Do they understand how one might feel after having a seizure in public, especially under the scrutiny that goes with being a child star? People who have started having seizures can be in kind of a denial because of what seems to be a cruel and unusual punishment, which leaves one feeling exhausted and fearful. If one can deny the seriousness of having seizures in order to keep friends and others from asking questions or talking about it, then the fear is lessoned, and normalcy is easier to maintain. Does anyone truly understand the ramifications a seizure can cause? I dare say that having a seizure is nothing that one would highlight as a career moment or put on their resume. I for one didn’t come totally clean about having seizures and being an epileptic until I wrote my book “Born In The Wrong Country,” so until one has lived with having seizures, experienced the fear, anxiety and depression that might accompany such a drooling ordeal, then they will not understand.

When I wrote my book I had to ask myself several questions, and one question was how honest did I want to be? I realized that to tell the stories in my book that I had to go beyond what I was initially telling and not hide who I am. I had experienced having seizures for almost forty years, and I am not a celebrity, but someone like Gary Coleman who started having seizures late in life, who already had two failed kidney transplants, would probably feel traumatized to some extent.

Here was an actor that was having financial and marital problems on top of his long time medical problems, and now all of a sudden started having seizures; how do you think he felt with this added pressure? http://wcbstv.com/entertainment/Gary.Coleman.seizure.2.1411907.html   He probably thought that he already had enough on his plate, and now with the seizures, he probably was crying out for God to help him. Those of us looking on from the outside usually miss what is happening; sometimes our indifference or arrogance can really stifle us. This is all the more reason why we as people need to be more cognizant of what others are going through; we cannot understand what we haven’t gone through, but we need to try.

Remember that when someone is suffering and really fighting for their life we may not even know it, which is all the more reason that we should act like the caring human beings that we speak about all the time, after all this is what real love is all about.

On Friday, May 28, 2010, someone wonderful lost his fight. May Gary Coleman rest in peace.

The American people should be quite upset about what the Texas State School Board recently approved for its Social Studies Program. This new approval will affect their history books and have a great affect on how and what is taught. Unfortunately this ramification could extend way beyond Texas and have an effect on most of the country.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Media/ ... ionwide/story?id=10700720  What was just passed is a bigoted way to keep the truth from being exposed about what happened to the African-America People of Color and the slave trade of which the United States participated.

The real history and the ugly truth of what happened to the African-American People of Color, the slave trade and slavery in this country has never been told in the history books of this country, and the African-American People of Color have never been given a formal apology by this government, which is something that I point out in my book “Born In The Wrong Country.”

Texas now wants to use the Bible and Biblical teaching in the school system; I understand this because the Bibles that are in circulation now and used in this country were written by the White man. Look at the King James Version of The Holy Bible, and ask yourself what does that infer? When something is named after someone like King James, one must not be naive to think that he didn’t have any say about what went into The Holy Bible. King James was a White man with immense power as most kings had, and what he said was law. http://www.nndb.com/people/556/000093277/  One would have to be completely naive to think that just because his name was on the Holy Bible, that he was a devout Christian who was filled with love and respect of all people of the world. Let’s face facts and look at the various slave issues of the Bible.

What the Texas school board is trying to do is to circumvent the power that is emerging with the African-American People of Color and the Hispanic population of this country. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165395,00.html  Now is not the time to allow Texas to interfere with the real history of this country from being told.

Before trying to rewrite something to the conservative aspect of the Republican Party, Texas and America need to come clean and tell the truth about the real history of the American people who didn’t come in by way of Ellis Island, but who were brought in chains through what is now called the Middle Passage and other passages. Trying to change the name of the Slave Trade to the Atlantic Triangular Trade is a farce.

The action taken by the Texas School Board is upsetting; it should upset the entire country, especially those who claim to be fighting against bigotry and stupidity.

Dare the Texas School Board print what this country’s slavery and slave trade did to this nation, and do they have the gumption to put into print how many people of the African-American ancestry were maimed, killed and murdered during this slave trade and slavery; do they dare tell of what they continued doing while continuing to rape African-Americans long after slavery was abolished? These actions are only part of the vast racist behavior which still plagues this country. When are Texas and the United States of America going to finally have the audacity to tell the truth rather than show their arrogance and ineptitude?

Beside Texas becoming a minority, what other reason is there for changing the way history is being taught? Is Texas afraid of the real truth being exposed in the Social Studies and History classrooms? Texas and the other states of the United States of America should be working with African-American scholars and historians to create a history book, which would be accurate to the American Indians and the slaves, which were forced to work as slaves for an insidious nation.

It is said that Texas buys more school books than any state in the United States except California. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answ ... -bill-takes-aim-at-n.html With that being said, I wonder how long has this process been going on, and can that be one of the reasons that Black History is so scarce to non-existent in the American History Books? If basically every state is going to be influenced by Texas, then every state should have a say or not adhere to the Texas format. One case of bigotry and stupidity doesn’t mean that all states have to comply with the same racist, prejudicial system of telling their own story; it has been done for far too long. Texas has definitely gone too far, and I’d ask this country how long do the American People want to remain ignorant?

Stupidity irks me because it means that one wants to remain ignorant; racism and prejudice anger me because I see what they’ve done and continue doing to this country. Arrogance is the epitome of stupidity because it doesn’t care, and that is why the mistakes of an arrogant person or nation become so dangerous. Our previous presidential administration, which lasted from 2000-2008 proved to be a deadly example in body count and economic stability of this country. When soldiers are still being killed, when our people are still unemployed, and when so many in this country still don't have enough to eat is lesson that should have taught us to stay away from the right winged politics of this country.

A letter of apology from the Pope for sexual abuse is like a parent slapping a toddler’s hand when they’ve misbehaved.

When the Pope writes a letter apologizing for certain Priests who have been accused of sexually abusing children; what kind of message is this sending to the world? These priests in the Catholic Church have been caught with their pants down, or rather their robes in disarray, and a letter of apology doesn’t seem to be appropriate for such scandals; these scandals are crimes.

One would think that the Catholic Church would be extremely hard-lined on such crimes; after all they use their strong voice when it comes to their views on homosexuality, or is that a massive cover up of some kind? Sexual abuse is a crime, so let’s call it exactly what it is; crimes aren’t usually punished by a Pastoral Letter of apology from the Pope, or at least they shouldn’t be. When women, men or children are raped, that’s sexual abuse; when the abuse is by a brother, uncle, father, mother, sister, a cousin or even a Priest, it’s still sexual abuse and it’s still a crime. Sexual abuse is even more deplorable when it happens in the Church; this is supposed to be in a sanctuary of safety. These so-called Priests should be in the business of caring, loving and teaching; they are there to absolve parishioners and others from their sins, not commit heinous crimes. Unfortunately it looks as if they’re in the business of committing sexual abuse, and someone seems to be giving them absolutions for their sins; this isn’t helping. Is it possible that some of the Priests have been absolving the sins for other Priests that are committing these sexual abuses; and are these Priests in question hiding behind their vows? Penance without incarceration and or some kind of strict punishment is not a lesson that anyone will ever learn from; it doesn’t begin to address or solve the problem of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. If the Church is just absolving the sexual abuse sins of their fathers, then something must be done to stop this proliferation of sexual abuse. If there isn’t any rehabilitation, and if there is no deterrent to prevent these abusive actions, then they will continue for another hundred years.

When allegations have been brought against certain Priests because of their alleged sexual abuse, is the Pope saying that a letter of apology from him is all that is needed for these Priests? Is the Pope saying that because they are part of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, that the Church will protect them because they are in the Church? Does the Roman Catholic Church use its Stole, Collar or other part of their Priestly Vestments or Sacred Vows to keep the truth from being told? The New York Police Officer’s have an unspoken Blue Wall of Silence; what does the Roman Catholic Church have? If a Church is not going to divulge the entire truth, then where can we find truth and what can we believe in?

If a letter of apology is the mind set of this Pope, then I don’t believe that this position is one of which he is capable of rendering decisions for the Roman Catholic Church or any other Church. If this is the best that he can provide, do people of the world consider him worthy to continue being the leader of the Roman Catholic Church?

It seems as if the Roman Catholic Church has allowed some of their Priests to hide behind the Church; in the instances of sexual abuse, I find this is unconscionable. One has to wonder that with the thousands of sexual abuse cases, which have been going on for a very long time; could this possibly be one of the real reasons that the Roman Catholic Church remains so homophobic? If they have known about the behavior of their own Priests, who have been indulging in what one would call lewd and ungodly behavior with children, then what are we left to think? Could that be one of the scenarios of which the Roman Catholic Church has been abiding?

Could the real reason for their homophobic attitude hidden behind their Priestly Vestments and the Vows of the Roman Catholic Church? Let’s be real; these same Priests are the ones who have been celebrating the Eucharistic as they have been sexually abusing children, yet they have denied that same Eucharist to Gay Men and Women in the Roman Catholic Churches.

When someone gets slapped on the wrist with an apology letter for sexual misconduct, it makes me wonder if this could be a possible scenario. With all of the cases in the United States, no one can tell me that the Roman Catholic Church didn’t know that they had a problem, but refused to address years ago.

The Pastoral Letter from the Pope only speaks of Ireland’s sexual abuses; it does not address the sexual abuse of other countries or the thousands here in the United States of America.  In my book, “Born In The Wrong Country,” I speak of the sexual abuses in the Catholic Church in the United States. ….. “Raping little boys in Church, sodomizing children, and you’re now just beginning to uncover those sins of the fathers, no pun intended, but yes fathers – yours not mine.  10,667 cases of sexual abuse from 1950 through 2002 in the Catholic Church alone, and over $840,000,000.00 have been paid out since the 1950s.”…. http://www.democraticunderground.com/ ... l&address=104x3144928

Today it is said … “Ireland is one of the hardest hit Catholic countries, with some 13,000 known victims of clerical abuse.”

http://wcbstv.com/local/church.priest.abuse.2.1578288.html

Where does it stop; how many more findings of sexual abuse will be uncovered in the Catholic Church worldwide?

We are in the 21 century and before the Roman Catholic Church or any Church can teach about God or love, they must first clean out their own closets before they can speak of truth of anything else. Far too many lives have already been destroyed. To condone the crimes of these priests makes them just as guilty as the Priests that have committed those crimes.