Rick Warren & The Easter Bunny

Is it homophobic to stand firm in the Christian belief that marriage should be between one man and one woman? Gays have every right to be gay but should they have the legal right to marry? I just don't think so. But today, Pastor Rick Warren flip-flopped on the issue.

Is it homophobic to invite families in general to the Easter Egg Roll at the White House without specifically sending invitations to gay families? Gay families should certainly be allowed to attend but why should any particular group be singled out to be invited? That's what Obama did this year. Politics . . . I get it.

It truly saddens me the way society is being bullied by the gay community. I absolutely believe that people should be allowed to exercise free will. That's Biblical. God says we can. But we don't have to pretend that what is wrong is right. . .

Bobby Jindal

I was anxiously anticipating Bobby Jindal’s response to President Obama’s speech on Tuesday night. After only a few minutes I could no longer stomach it and had to change the channel. The look on Jindal's face, his tone of voice, the cadence of his speech – everything was so annoying I couldn’t even “hear” him. The content of his speech may have been 100% on point (I don't know) but if so, his delivery completely detracted from it.

I thought this man was supposed to be ready to “stomp with the big dogs”. If he is the best the Republican Party has to offer – this is a party in trouble for real! I'd like to suggest that we go back to the drawing board . . .

NY Post’s Chimp Cartoon

I was going to let this one go but it just keeps growing and growing so I guess it’s time for me to chime in. The chimp cartoon, hmmm. . .

I must admit that my initial reaction to it was “wow, so in 2009 we’re still monkeys?” Then I really took some time to think about it and concluded that it is possible that racism was not the theme. It occurred to me that even if Bush was still president the NY Post would have probably published the exact same cartoon. And what would have been the difference then? There would have been no cries of racism, no protests, and no apologies. Politicians are prime targets for ridicule and attack – and the president is no exception. On the contrary, as long as I can remember, the President always seems to be the first target.

So as I continued to think about the uproar over the cartoon I wondered, if we (Black folks) are trying to have it all. We have a Black man as President but we also want our President to now be exempt from cartoons, jokes and other forms of ridicule? Because he is Black, are all jokes about Barack Obama going to be forever scrutinized and run through the racism meter? Give me a break!

And now who once again is at the forefront of the controversy? Al Sharpton – the voice of Black America, the bigotry monitor. Even though the paper and cartoonist have both apologized, Sharpton says it’s not enough. For me, any issue that could have had some validity is made questionable simply by Sharpton’s involvement. (Please just go sit down somewhere and close your mouth!!)

The cartoon was indeed in poor taste – whether racially motivated or not. But as far as I’m concerned the only person deserving an apology is Charla Nash. She sustained horrible injuries and nearly died as a result of the chimp attack. Her life will never be the same. That is absolutely NOT a laughing matter.

Inauguration Day Show Stoppers

These girls are just way too cute.

Our 44th President

We keep hearing it and I must say I feel the same way -- "I never thought I'd live to see the day." My kids asked me a few times over the years, "Do you think there will ever be a Black president?" My quick, canned answer remained, "Not in our lifetime." In spite of my lack of faith in the American people, today Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America. Despite my own personal political views, this is a very emotional and exciting day.

Seeing Michelle Obama at center stage is especially thrilling. I think I've always paid particular attention to First Ladies. I loved Laura Bush and I am already feeling similar admiration for Mrs. Obama. I am certain that she will add her own style, class and dignity to the White House.

Yes, today is a day of celebration but it should also be a day of prayer. Today we party, tomorrow back to reality.

Inaugural Prayers

There’s been a lot of fuss over the Inaugural prayers and who is being asked to lead them. Obama has asked an openly homosexual bishop to offer a prayer at an inauguration event next week. My mother always told me that “you can’t please everybody” but Obama sure is trying. Asking the Bishop V. Gene Robinson to pray was to satisfy those opposed to the invitation he extended to Pastor Rick Warren. Oh brother!

Anyway, Robinson said that he will not use the Bible and "will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer."

So my question is this – when you are being careful to not be “especially Christian”, to whom are you praying? Is that kind of prayer just kind of thrown out there in hopes of being answered by any old god who happens to be available and listening? He can leave me off his prayer list. . .

Someday At Christmas

I downloaded Christmas songs onto my iPod his weekend. Driving into the office this morning I turned to Stevie Wonder’s Christmas song, “Someday at Christmas” and I soon found myself completely choked up and crying. Of course I’m a big crybaby anyway and will drop a few tears over the smallest events but I was really touched listening to the song.

Someday at Christmas there'll be no tears
All men are equal and no men have fears
One shining moment my heart ran away
From our world today

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime

The part about all men being equal made me think of a time not so long ago when my grandmother would tell us about how segregated and racist Los Angeles used to be. (Yes, liberal, anything goes Los Angeles.) She would tell us of her days working as a maid for rich white folks in West Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. She certainly didn’t feel equal back then.

These words especially resonated with me because of the election of Barack Obama as president. While he was not my candidate, I continue to celebrate the historic significance of his impending presidency. I honestly did not think that I would live to see the day so the words “maybe not in time for you and me” made me realize that our country achieved what most of us thought was impossible.

Just look at where we are as a nation today. Sure racism and inequality still exist but look at how far we’ve come. . .

Amazing!


I’ve copied the lyrics to the entire song below. It’s one of my favorites.

Someday at Christmas
Someday at Christmas men won't be boys
Playing with bombs like kids play with toys
One warm December our hearts will see
A world where men are free

Someday at Christmas there'll be no wars
When we have learned what Christmas is for
When we have found what life's really worth
There'll be peace on earth

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime

Someday at Christmas we'll see a Man
No hungry children, no empty hand
One happy morning people will share
Our world where people care

Someday at Christmas there'll be no tears
All men are equal and no men have fears
One shinning moment my heart ran away
From our world today

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime

Someday at Christmas man will not fail
Take hope because your love will prevail
Someday a new world that we can start
With hope in every heart

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime
Someday at Christmastime

Obama Trivia

A friend sent an e-mail today reporting the following bits of trivia about Barack Obama:

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball
• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili
• His favorite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream
• His favorite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
• He can speak Spanish
• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
• His favorite drink is black forest berry iced tea
• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn't
• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
• His favorite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
• His favorite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
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• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• His favorite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
• He would have liked to have been an architect20if he were not a politician
• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
• His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita
• He says his worst habit is con stantly checking his Blackberry
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21
• His favorite fictional television programs are Mash and The Wire
• He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers
• He was nicknamed "Bear" by his late grandmother
• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
• His favorite artist is Pablo Picasso
• His speciality as a cook is chilli
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

Interesting but I wish there was a tidbit referencing his relationship with Christ.

Christmas at the White House

HGTV is one of my favorite cable television stations – especially at Christmas time. The past few years they have had a show featuring First Lady Laura Bush at the White House. Mrs. Bush provides a tour of the White House and describes the Christmas decorations, the themes of the various Christmas Trees, the gingerbread house, etc. She also shares the year’s Christmas card, who was commissioned to illustrate it and the story behind it. Being an artsy-craftsy, do-it-yourself kind of girl, I just find the entire tour and all the little back-stories fascinating.

The White House is always so beautifully decorated and Laura Bush always presents herself in such a refined, dignified, “First Lady-ish” manner that the show inspires me. Today I realized that this year will be the last one featuring Laura Bush. Christmas 2009 will feature Michelle Obama.

What will a Michelle Obama Christmas show look like? Michelle Obama strikes me as a woman who will make a graceful, traditional First Lady. I look forward to peeking into the White House for Christmas 2009. I’m sure Michelle Obama will do a grand job. Do you think during the Bush and Obama meeting yesterday, Laura and Michelle discussed Christmas?

President Obama

Congratulations to Barack Obama!

Pray

No matter how you are voting (or have voted) today -- please remember to pray for Barack Obama and his family. There remain people in this country who would rather go to jail or even die than to accept a Black man as President.

Racism is alive and well and living in every state, city and neighborhood. Let's pray that the Obama family does not become a victim of the ugliest display of racism.

Let's all pray for their safety. Then let's continue to pray for our nation.

Lord help. . .

I Can Only Imagine – Part II

So what might an Obama presidency look like?

With Obama in the White House, Black folks will have a direct and private line to the President of the United States. We will finally have someone in the White House who will make significant, positive changes in minority communities. We will have change beyond anything we could ever imagine.

With Obama in the White House our financial woes will be no more. He will make sure that all of the “little people” are not only heard but paid. Obama (the Robin Hood of “The Hood.”) will right all that is wrong with the world. President Obama will create peace on earth and good will toward all men. There will be hope at last for all the people who have been forgotten over the last 8 years.

I swear – this is what I hear on Black radio every day! Comical ain’t it?

I Can Only Imagine

What might a Barack Obama victory look like? Black radio and TV stations are absolutely working themselves into a frenzy with anticipation. Black folk know how to party and an Obama victory will have “us” literally dancing in the streets. Honestly, the history making aspect of it makes me proud as well.

For the first time in American history there will be an opportunity for Black folks to celebrate a significant event -- simultaneously. Not even the freeing of the slaves could have been as momentous (in terms of a collective celebration) because the news of freedom was spread so slowly. It will be a celebration like nothing we have ever seen.

Democrat or Republican, pro-Obama or pro-McCain – no matter how you vote, if Obama wins, I believe (at least initially) every Black person in America will celebrate the extraordinary moment. Just a few short years ago I said that I did not think there would be a Black president in my lifetime. And now, it’s a real possibility – even an eventuality.

But OK, Black folks, after the celebration be mindful of the fact that the excuses that we’ve used for so very long will no longer be valid. Hopefully we will begin to look to ourselves for solutions. Hopefully we will begin to accept responsibility for our own “stuff”. No longer will we be able to point to that obscure “man” as the reason for our continued struggles. If Obama wins – “the man” will be one of us.

A Black Republican Chick

 
I’ve avoided writing about anything political in a while because all of this has just been so draining. This is probably a tough time for Republicans in general, but to be Black and Republican is a truly test of my resolve and convictions.

CNN had James T. Harris on a few days ago. He is the Black man who dared to stand and show support for McCain at a McCain rally. Sadly, he has been called an Uncle Tom and totally vilified by the Black community because he is bold enough to stand by his conservative principles. It’s that continuing expectation – all Black people must vote for Barack Obama. Should someone dare to support the McCain/Pallin ticket they are considered out of touch, a traitor, ignorant, trying to be White or a “suck up”. It’s just all so tiring I’m just about ready to cry.

A close friend (knowing that I am Republican and will not be voting for Obama) challenged me about the intelligence of Sarah Pallin the other day. It was disguised as a joke but the tone really bothered me.

My daughter nearly walked out of her Sunday school class last week because the leader brought up the election and everyone (except my daughter) jumped on the Obama bandwagon. She literally begged them to return to the lesson but they refused.

Many of my neighbors have McCain/Pallin signs in their front yards. I was thinking of putting one up too but my aunt will be here next week –visiting from California – and I just don’t want to deal with her response.

My sisters and I speak regularly but it is as if the presidential race is not even taking place. We dare not speak of it. How I wish that we could simply agree to disagree. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. It would definitely get ugly if we were to talk politics.

So with all of this in mind I’ve just not been in the mood to write about politics – especially considering the fact McCain is losing in the polls. A line in a song from the movie Hustle and Flow goes, “you know it’s hard out here for a pimp”. For some reason every time I think of this battle I sing to myself, “you know it’s hard our here for a Black Republican chick”. :-)

Calgon Take Me Away

This is the point in my life where the entrepreneur, mother, Christian and concerned American in me are all taking big chunks of my time and energy. This past month has been a whirlwind and November promises to be more of the same. I can hardly believe that it’s been a month since I’ve written anything. Where did the time go?

Well, on September 7th we bought a puppy -- a mini-schnauzer named Euro. On September 8th my son’s childhood friend moved in with us. On September 9th my first grandchild (Pharyn) was born. In mid-September I decided that I needed larger offices for my business and began the search. I found the perfect office a few days later and we are moving next week. My daughter’s 17th birthday is this October 26th and I am shopping for a used car as a gift. When I add the election and the financial crisis to the mix – Calgon take me away!


Today I was “inspired” to write when someone emailed the picture above to me. I think it absolutely hits the nail on the head. Obama is seen as some type of superhero coming to save the nation. The problem with that view of course, is that this is not a movie. Or, as Jay-Z puts it, “this ain’t a movie dawg”

DNC Final Day -- Barack Obama

Last night featured Barack Obama – the Democratic nominee himself. After his speech Michelle, their two little girls and Barack Obama all held hands and walked out to the front of the stage. With music blaring and streamers flying they smiled and waved to the crowd. As a Black American, it was a very proud moment for me. This beautiful Black family was presented to the world. That presentation was not a Democratic or Republican moment. It was an American moment. It was a moment to be especially relished by Black America. It was a moment that clearly signifies that while we as a people still have a long way to go to achieve true equality – we have also come a very long way. It is enormously profound.

The dichotomy between being proud of the accomplishments of this Black man and voting for someone else is what I kept thinking about last night. I don’t agree but I do understand how so many Black people are caught up in the emotion and historic significance of it all.

I tried very hard last night to focus on the words in Barack Obama’s speech. It is almost natural to hear to a speech but not really listen to what is being said – so I really concentrated. Aside from the expected McCain bashing, I heard several contradictions and vague promises. From a personal standpoint, his beliefs and values remain at odds with mine. Like the other speeches of the week, Obama’s failed to move me.

Alright GOP, your turn. You'd better come with it. . .

Love Train

I'm watching the Democratic National Convention highlights right now. Can someone help me understand why they sang the O'Jays song "Love Train" afte making Obama's nomination official? I could be slow, but I don't get it.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton was the yesterday’s headliner at the Democratic National Convention. Hillary fans should have been pleased with her speech. I was actually amused and even got a chuckle out of a couple of her comments. Yes, she delivered a few successful jabs.

Her “No way. No how. No McCain” line was a good one. It was low but cute. That line is certain to be incorporated into the Obama campaign.

The thought provoking question posed to her followers was clever and bold -- “Were you in this campaign just for me?” I’m sure most of her staunch supporters are on the Obama bandwagon now.

I can only imagine what’s in store tonight and tomorrow. The Republicans are going to have to “come with it” next week. I hope they are taking thorough and complete notes. As the kids would say, “it’s on and poppin’ now!”

One last gratuitous comment -- orange is my favorite color but I was not feeling Hillary's suit. Can politicians be nominated for the show "What Not to Wear?". Enough with the loud pant-suits already. Stacy and Clinton, she needs you. . .

Michelle Obama

I, like many Americans, watched Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention last night. She was pretty, her hair was perfect and she was very articulate. I had, however, hoped to learn at least a little more about the Obama family. It just all sounded so boring, rehearsed and even a bit defensive.

Mrs. Obama is an intelligent Black woman and of that I am proud. But as far as Barack Obama as president – I heard nothing compelling.

As a basketball fan, I found it very interesting that her brother is a basketball coach. He and his sister clearly love one another. And as for their girls – they are absolutely adorable.

Great American family? Yes. First family? We shall see. . .

Obama/Biden on Abortion

I'm in the research stage where Joe Biden is concerned and am taking the issues one at a time -- beginning with abortion. I prefer Biden's position on abortion over Obama's. See below:


Biden On Abortion
• Accepts Catholic church view that life begins at conception. (Apr 2007)
• Supports partial-birth abortion ban, but not undoing Roe. (Apr 2007)
• Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions. (Oct 1999)
• Rated 36% by NARAL, indicating a mixed voting record on abortion. (Dec 2003)


Obama On Abortion
• Undecided on whether life begins at conception. (Apr 2008)
• Voted against banning partial birth abortion. (Oct 2007)
• Rated 100% by NARAL on pro-choice votes in 2005, 2006 & 2007. (Jan 2008)


More comparisons to come. . .