Man.. I am a proud American and as such I am certainly saddened and disappointed about Sony’s decision to pull their movie “The Interview”. Yes, quite honestly I truly understand the hesitation and conservative position Sony took. The desire to protect their employees and the employees of the movie theaters that would have shown the movie is definitely understandable. But let me be clear, we are not a nation to be bullied.

I don’t care what someone else is threatening to do. We are the freest and most powerful nation in the world. Yes, I get it, there are many people who disagree with my view on this matter, but think about it for one second; what would you do if your job stopped you from posting on your personal social media account because they didn’t like the content that you were posting? Is that fair? Is that American?

See when the President spoke today and said that we cannot be bullied, or tolerate foreign countries using fear tactics to stop us from living the freedoms that are endowed in our Constitution, he was speaking about the fundamental foundation of what we as Americans hold dear. We should not, will not, and cannot allow anyone to stop us from carrying out American business in the American way.

See what I think should happen is that this movie should be released in theaters and online. Let those foreign son of a bitches know that we will not cower to your threats. We are a nation of freedoms that we will not allow anyone to take away. We should be defiant in our actions and stick it in the faces of the North Korea.

You know people here are so scared and pessimistic because of the attacks and wars we’ve had. But as I was once told, powerful and great things are constantly attacked by those who want what they powerful possess. That is what’s at stake here. The power of America, which is freedom. Whether you like or dislike the laws or the man elected to lead this country, the fact remains if you want to continue to enjoy the freedoms our American Military fight to protect, you must bow your back and not always scream uncle when things happen.

God Bless American and all the folks who make this nation great. And it is that premise that we must continue to live and not be afraid, for we are a nation of people protected by the mighty hand of God. All the steps of the world are ordered and we must never forget that. So live free and passionately and with great fervor.

I’m baaaaaack.. While I’ve kept myself involved with all the current events that have been happening the past month, I’ve also been a busy guy working and enjoying the holiday season. Refreshed a little, saddened and disappointed a lot, shit going on that keeps my mind constantly churning and me in a state of uncertainty.

Lets talk about the two biggest events in current news lately. One, the decision not to indite in Ferguson, MO and the decision to not indite in New York. While I must admit that I’m not surprised by these decisions made to not bring those officers to trial, I will say that I am extremely disappointed, hurt, and sad. See as a Black man in America, I know that we are always guilty until proven innocent in the eyes of the law, unless we have lots of money.

I have never seen a case where a prosecutor decides to unload all the evidence in just a Grand Jury indictment proceeding. I’ve also never seen a state telegraph the decision of said Jury like I did in Ferguson. Unless you have been in the situation that Mike Brown was in you don’t know how threatening it is to be approached by law enforcement that don’t really have your best interest at heart.

I will never condone committing a crime, which yes Mike Brown did steal cigars, but if anyone thinks that taking some cigars is justification for you to be shot and killed then I’m sorry you lack basic humanity. Just the same, Eric Gardner was put in a choke hold and killed because he was selling single cigarettes on the streets.

Again, it was a petty crime and only a crime because New York wants to make their money on the taxation of cigarettes; but the fact remains when he was stopped by those officers, he did not have any cigarettes on him and also he was not being unruly or disobedient to the officers. He was shown on camera with his hands up in the air and kept repeating that He couldn’t breathe.

I’ve been in situations similar to both men. No, I have not committed a crime, but I did have someone anonymously call the police and accuse me of breaking into cars downtown. The irony is that I was just standing outside of my car eating my food and talking to a friend. I had no less than six marked and unmarked police cars pull on me, guns drawn, police dogs in the back waiting to unload their guns and sick their vicious dogs on me.

Never in my life have I felt more afraid, embarrassed in my life. I was being treated as a criminal when I had done absolutely nothing wrong. The police could not figure out who called and never offered any apology. They just laughed it off, got back in their cars and disappeared as quickly as they arrived. So when anyone speaks to me about these cases, my first question is have you ever had the experience these men had. If you answer no, then quite honestly I don’t want to discuss this with you because you will never understand.

And No, I do not ever condone vandalism or arson, but as Dr. King so perfectly said it, Vandalism is the act of the voiceless. When you feel that you have no where to go and no one to listen to you how else do you make your point? I do have the solution and hence the title of this blog. The people have the power and its called voting.

There is a reason that millions upon millions marched and fought for the right to give Black people the right to vote. They knew the impact and importance of voting. See we elect these people who run these states and counties and towns into office. We decide who will be hiring the folks to police our streets and protect us as citizens. If you really want to make your voice heard, the next time an election is held in your state VOTE!

And I’m not saying that this is the only thing that needs to happen, because lets face it, the Justice system is not really a fair system towards all people. The law does not necessarily look favorable of people of color. So there are many layers to this problem, but I do know that it starts with exercising your right to vote and to know what the folks running for office stand for.

Stop electing people whose policies don’t speak to your issues. Stop voting for people who don’t give a damn about you and allow new, fresh and caring blood to run for office and make a difference. My prayers and thoughts go out to the families of Mike Brown and Eric Gardner. America lets make sure we do our part; lets have the dialogue needed and make the necessary efforts to change our country.

If you ever stop to take inventory of your life, you might be able to understand where this analogy makes lots of sense. Often times many people smile against a back drop of sadness, they cover up their unhappiness by filling themselves with the materialistic things of the world. I wonder how many people out there are full and still empty.

Even the most attractive person on the outside can be hollow on the inside. The person who is financially well established can be internally lacking. Even the person with the most friends, can still be alone. The hardest thing to do is try to marry the external desire for success with the internal need for peace and satisfication.

I am sometimes a victim of this analogy, because more often than not there is some element of emptiness felt when things aren’t completely in order. There is, in my opinion, no such thing as a moral victory in life. Moral is basis for the word morale, and I don’t think that a moral victory equals a morale boost. I want for someone to define for me what is moral victory actually is?

A man with confidence, strong and independent, outgoing, inviting personality with a damn good education. A man with a swag unto himself and able to go toe to toe with the best, yet one who still yearns for that emotional, internal pleasure. More than sex, more than temporary relief and gratification; it is the desire to be a man well rounded on the outside and complete on the inside.

While only time will tell if these two worlds can be harmoniously merged together, there is a sense of failure when you feel like you’ve been so close, only to really be so far away. I have no problem admitting that I have failed at the something, and I also have no problem admitting that more work needs to be done. I do however have a problem accepting that no one seems to be ready to work with me, to fight to overcome.

Aaahhh… I’ m back.. after a much needed break to relax and recharge it’s time to get back to the business at hand.

So if you’ve ever had your heart broken before I wonder what your process is like for starting over and rebuilding yourself. Do you dwell on the pain of the breakup? Are you one who likes to wallow in your hurt and get lost in the failure? Is it possible that you are the type who moves on quickly? And you try to find the next one to develop that bond and become lovers? Or are you the pragmatic one; do you take the time to learn from what went wrong? Do you evaluate yourself and try to make sure that you clean up the areas that you know need improving?

All of these types of people and questions are very valid and they kind of tell the story as to why so many people struggle with relationships and building bonds with the next one, if they have haven’t truly gotten over the last one and allowed themselves to heal, learn, and grow. I have tried to do all three of these approaches at one time or the other. I have gotten right out of one relationship and turned to another, I’ve dwelled a bit on the end of a relationship and wallowed in my sorrow and I’ve also taken the pragmatic, systematic approach and allowed myself to recover from the emotions and things that come with ending a relationship.

I’ve always been curious though as to why so many like to land in one of the first two extremes of the breakup process. They either rush right into the next relationship or they just sit and wallow for so long that they miss the opportunity to really better themselves until the next one comes along, and by that time it’s really too late because you will wind up taking out that hurt, pain and emotion on the next one and you will lose that person. 

Could it partially be because so many people fear being along, so the minute that one relationship ends, whether it was a peaceful breakup or a painful breakup, instead of taking time to regroup and learn and grow, they just decide to charge ahead and bring in the next one who will ultimately pay the price because they’re getting an individual who is not really prepared for this relationship. I also feel like the person who spends too much time wallowing in their own sorrows doesn’t have the personal motivation to move forward and need that new interest in order to get the desire to want to do better.

All of it to me speaks to the bigger problem of: one, people not really willing to take their own responsibility for their role in the breakup and the mental fragility of people today and most importantly I think the need of people to feel like someone else loves them in order to feel good about themselves.

One thing you learn when you allow yourself to go through the process of recovering and rebuilding is that sometimes it’s truly not your fault and sometimes you are just as responsible as the other person. Another thing you learn is that your emotions can get the best of you if you don’t learn how to control them and to know that you are better than someone else validating your worth. So what does your recovery process look like when you’ve been heart broken?