6FootBombshell

I probably will lose followers and readers behind this but that’s why I blog and don’t write for the NY Times so I can control what goes from pen to paper. Well in this case,  fingers to keyboard.

I’m not going to go down memory lane.  We all remember 9/11.  Before 9/11 most ignorant people (before you get your panties in a bunch, there’s only something wrong with being unaware and uninformed when you chose not to become aware and informed) had a negative view on Islam and Muslims.  You were never forced to learn anything about them so you were ignorant to the culture.  Then there are you IGNORANT ones who want to know nothing about the culture so you can keep up with your hateful mindset.  The media, western media that is, also played a good role in keeping you scared.  All the media and the people who breed hate needed was 9/11 to solidify their stance in their hatred of this culture.

It’s estimated that 25%-30% of this world’s population is Muslim.  It’s the 2nd largest religion on the planet.  But yet throughout history, since our existence, most wars/religious wars and evil were done behind what religion?  I’ll let you figure it out, but it wasn’t Islam.  But I won’t even go there.  The point I’m trying to make is that the media has portrayed the religion and its followers as a religion of evil.  9/11, suicide bombers, the cover picture of the new Time Magazine with Muslim lady whose nose is cut off, Bin Laden, Hussein and all the other images used to brainwash and convince the masses to think a certain way is not even 1% of the Muslim world population.  That means the rest of the 29% of this religion and culture are law-abiding, good, loving, caring, Allah fearing, human beings.  They are not walking around with bombs strapped to their jock strap.  They condemned 9/11.  They were anti-Saddam.  They all do not hate America although we have not been truly that great to them.. but I won’t go there either.

Pay attention to the protests and what you people who are against this are saying.  Listen to your statements.  There’s a church that’s organizing a “Burn a Qur’an Day”.  Really?  Burn a Qur’an Day?   Most of the arguments I’ve read on blogs, online, watched on TV, are based out of pure ignorance and hatred.  If you don’t want a Mosque at ground zero then you think that all of Islam is to blame for ground zero.  How is that logical or fair?   Aren’t most of you the same ones that cry “We weren’t slave owners. We didn’t lynch blacks. Stop blaming us for something we didn’t do”?  Isn’t this the SAME exact thing you’re doing now?  You have grouped almost 2 billion people and linked them to the act of 8 people on those planes and the dozen of so on ground that helped them pull it off. You let news outlets dictate what you will learn.  Ground Zero is the perfect place for this community center because it can debunk your ignorant thinking.  What else is a better way to conquer ignorance?  What else is a better way to conquer hate and racism?   By informing the uninformed.  By educating the uneducated and the MISeducated.  A community center will raise awareness and open eyes.  Go in there and sit down and actually have a conversation with someone of that faith.  I bet most of you have never even said “hello” to a Muslim but you have an opinion of the entire religion.  Turn off CNN and Fox, go to a library and pick up a book on Islam and READ.  The Muslim family that moved next door to you, introduce yourself.  I guarantee that you will learn that Muslims have some of the same faith-based beliefs that you practice: not to murder, not to judge, to serve a higher being, to love their neighbor, to walk in line with a higher being.

Even if there are 1 million Islamic extremists on the planet, that leaves one billion five hundred sixty-nine million Muslims left over that are not.  Come on people.  I dare you to educate yourself.

Oh wait.  One more thing.  So should churches not be allowed to be built anywhere in the U.S.?  Their folks brutalized, tortured and murdered blacks and Native Americans all in the name of Christianity in every city for hundreds of years.

They say that the children are the future.  The seeds we plant in them today are directly correlated with what kind of trees they grow into tomorrow.  If the wrong seeds are planted or not enough are planted then we can expect a Decidous tree, which sheds and loses its foliage at the end of its growing cycle or we plant enough of the right seeds to produce the Evergreen tree, whose foliage persists and remains green throughout their life expectancy.

Budget cuts are happening across the country.  Every state, city and county is feeling the squeeze of the economy.  The money is just not there anymore.  We would like to hope that our elected officials are doing any and everything in an attempt to avoid the cuts.  Or at least making sure that cuts are made in the appropriate places.  It’s hard to think that’s the case when we see fire stations closing, schools closing and cops being taken off of some of the most dangerous streets in the country.  But cutting those seeds we need to plant will only ensure that some of those most dangerous streets, stay dangerous.  It’s a cycle. Taking opportunity away from a child will only make their possibilities bleak.

This is what’s happening right now in the Upper West Side and Harlem areas of New York.  Riverbank Hockey is a youth ice hockey program that teaches recreational skating to children from all walks of life.  Children from ages 5-14, from black to Asian, from Jewish to Muslim, from lower class to upper class, are taught how to skate and eventually how to play hockey.  The seeds that are being planted are teamwork, direction, fitness and discipline.  They are being given seeds of self-confidence, respect for themselves and each other, commitment and character and hard work.  Riverbank Hockey is bringing children together who probably under no other circumstance would have an opportunity to learn the sport.  Riverbank Hockey is introducing children to the ice when they probably have so many opportunities to be introduced to the streets.  All this is being taken away.

Apparently the parks business is a business.  And with like any other business, if it’s not putting money in the pocket of the powers-that-be, then it’s chopped up as a loss.  New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, Historic Preservation upcoming budget cuts will be the demise of the Riverbank Hockey Program.  It will send children with nowhere else to go, out in the cold.    That’s a bigger loss than any profit-loss statement can ever show.

To help keep these kids on the ice you MUST act now.  Call and write Governor David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson.

GOVERNOR DAVID PATERSON
Email/web contact page: http://www.state.ny.us/governor/contact/GovernorContactForm.php

Mailing Address:
State Capital
Albany, New York 12224
518-474-8390

Speaker of the New York State Assembly
Email address:speaker@assembly.state.ny.us
web contact page: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=064&sh=contact

District Office
250 Broadway
Suite 2307
New York, NY 10007
Tel: 212-312-1420

Albany Office
Legislative Office Building 932
Albany, NY 12248
Tel: 518-455-3791

District Office:
1222  East 96th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11236
Tel: 718-649-7653
Fax: 718-649-7661

Albany Office:
409 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
Tel: 518-455-2788
Fax: 518-426-6806

To hear how important this program is, please view the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVM6MTsRM-8&feature=player_embedded

You can also join the efforts to save Riverbank Hockey on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Riverbank-State-Park-hours-from-being-cut-in-the-State-budget/10150121886370438

While in Paris, helping to promote global literacy as part of a United Nations meeting, former first lady Laura Bush came forth to support President Barack Obama and his decision to speak to the nation’s school children.  Associated Press quotes her as saying it is “really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States…There’s a place for the president of the United States to talk to school children and encourage school children.”  

Mrs. Bush, a former school teacher/librarian stated that parents need to send that message as well.  The former First Lady also stated of parents who decide to keep their children from school because of the President’s speech, “That certainly is the right of parents to choose what they want their children to hear in school,” but again stated “I also think it’s also really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States.”

Thank you, Laura Bush for stepping outside of political partisanship and understanding what is in the interest of our children and our nation.

Source: http://www.detnews.com/article/20090908/POLITICS03/909080350/1361/Joe-the-Plumber-to-rally-against-gov-t-spending-today-in-Brighton/Laura+Bush+backs+Obama+on+school+speech

Still going to partake in the ‘National Truancy Day’ ya dummy? What’s your excuse now? Oh, I know. This isn’t the real speech, right? The real speech where he denounces America and partners with Bin Laden, plots with Castro and dines with dude who stole the Iranian presidency, is encrypted in this speech. The part where he tells your kids his socialist views is really being played by a transmitter that only school age kids can hear. I am laughing so hard at you guys now! So go ahead. I’m waiting. What’s wrong with this speech? He shouldn’t tell kids that they need education to be a police officer, architect or military personnel? He shouldn’t tell kids that ‘not trying is no excuse.’ STFU!

If you do take your child out of school on September 8th, please let me know who they are so that I can be no where near there dumb asses and your dumb ass in 20 years when they’ve become our future! STUPID!

OBAMA: Hello, everyone — how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through 12th grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday — at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer — maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper — but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor — maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine — but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life — I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that — if you quit on school — you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our first lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life — what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home — that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer — hundreds of extra hours — to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same. That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education — and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you — you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust — a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor — and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you — don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best. It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down — don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

I am so flabbergasted by this topic that I’m almost unable to say what I have to say in love and in a mature, educated and sensible fashion.  I literally don’t even know where to begin. 

Prez Obama wants to give a speech to kids encouraging them to study, work hard and stay in school.  There are idiots out there that are against this.  Some people think it’s propoganda.  Some people think it’s his way to pass down his ‘socialist’ views to our poor American children.  *playing violin* 

“Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me,” suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH. “I’m an American. They are Americans, and I don’t feel that’s OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now.”

Are you fucking kidding me Shanneen Barron from Denver and you other dummies who think like her?!?  You’re afraid of your children listening to the president tell them to not drop out and graduate?!?!  Are you that freaking stupid?  Come on America.. WAKE UP!

I can not wrap my mind around why a speech to American children, who by the way are not the smartest kids in the world (we are even behind children in some countries that are damn near on 3rd world status), who by the way play Wii more than they read, who by the way have a very high drop out rate, would evoke such venom from Republicans and stupid ass parents.  This has got to be the most over-the-top political spin I have ever seen.  Were any of you idiot parents protesting Bush’s 1991 speech to kids to say no to drugs and stay in school?  Or what about Reagan’s speech where he actually talked about how taxes are bad to schoolyard kiddies?  Probably not.  We have some of the dumbest, fattest, laziest kids (well people in general) in the world and the president wants to tell them to work hard, put down the damn gummy bears, replace the X Box control with a god damn book and somehow it’s disruptive, univited and ‘cult like’?   If you believe in anyway that it is somehow unhealthy for our president to tell them ‘hey little Jimmy, work hard and stay in school’, you’re stupid and I’m worried about your kids because your too stupid to raise them.

What exactly is the problem America?  Are you afraid of excellence?  Or is there some other underlying issue that you just won’t admit as to why you would disagree with this speech?  Is it the thought of THIS man in office?  Is that still bothering you?   Youre so stuck in your way of life that a man telling your child to stay in school is a cardinal sin.  I wasn’t a fan of Bush but if he had a message telling my children the importance of striving for excellence, I would let them listen without a second thought.  Or are you afraid of some of the truth?  Technically he’s not going to tell you the WHOLE truth.  Obama is a politician so in some sense he is still a puppet some of the time.

Be lucky it’s not me giving the speech because I’m going to tell your kids that being truly educated is not about just getting a degree that makes you certified in a field.  One of my Facebook friends says “real education is learning about the God in you, becoming one with the universe and mastering life itself.. that’s true divine knowledge.”  He is absolutely right.  Education is supposed to teach us HOW to think rather than WHAT to think.   This is a part of profound wisdom.

Beatrix Potter once said:  “Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality”

America.. I DARE you to educate yourself.

Ladies Please read this article and give me your thoughts.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32379727/ns/health-sexual_health/

Let’s debate this one!

The Rhodes Scholarship brings outstanding students from around the world to study at the prestigious Oxford University in England.  For the most part, prospective students are selected by their literary and scholastic attainments; energy to use one’s talents to the full;  truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak; and moral force of character and instincts to lead.

You do not attain this distinction by accident, or by playing the ‘dumb jock’ role but by sedulous study from the minute you step foot on your campus to the Rhodes application process. 

Myron Rolle, Florida State safety, earned the chance to study at Oxford.  He also earned a spot as a top NFL Draft prospect.  But most of you wouldn’t know that because it’s not scandal.  It’s not another Pacman Jones debacle.  If Myron would have been interviewed for a gun charge that would have been all over the news but his interview where he tells the world that he desires to bring specialized medicine to underdeveloped countries barely gets a ticker spot on the 6 o’clock news.  Nor does his 3.75 GPA or his announcement that he chooses to spend a year at Oxford studying medical anthropology over the NFL.

Yes, that’s right.  Myron Rolle delayed his NFL career to attend Oxford University. 

“It’s a great opportunity,” Rolle told ESPN.com. “I’m going to get the chance to study at Oxford and read some incredible books and be among scholars. The whole culture in England is just very appealing. It will make me a better person and a stronger advocate.”

He’s the epitome of ‘student athlete’.