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ON IYANLA VAN ZANT'S FIX MY LIFE,THAT COMES ON WEEKENDS AT NIGHT..ANOTHER BLACK PREACHER MARRIED WITH MISTRESSES ON THE SIDE...THIS PREACHER SAYS HE HAS MORE THAN 10 WOMEN ON THE SIDE.SOME WOMEN IN HIS CHURCH HE IS SEXUALLY INVOLVED WITH...ONE WOMAN HE HAD A CHILD WITH... HOW CAN PREACHERS PREACH THE 10 COMMANDMENTS ,WHEN IT SEEMS NONE OF THEM LIVE BY IT OR BELIEVE IT.....BIBLE SAYS ADULTERUS SHOULD BE STONED TO DEATH....////THIS PREACHER JOINS A GROWING LIST OF MARRIED BLACK PREACHERS WITH WOMEN ON THE SIDE AND HAVING A CHILD WITH A MISTRESSES..THEN THERE IS BISHOP EDDIE LNG..MARRIED SEXUALLY ROMANCING YOUNG BLACK BOYS, THAT THE NAACP, BLACK CHURCHES AND BLACK POLITICIANS CONDONE.///////YET BLACK PEOPLE ARE AMAZED AT VILE BEHAVIOR BY BLACK MALES THROUGH OUT BLACK COMMUNITIES.....////

It finally occurred to me that when it comes to the subject of whether or not writers should get paid for their work, I can speak with some degree of relevancy because of what I voluntarily did for free on the Cynique’s Corner site. After an ebook project I signed on with crashed and burned due to problems with implementation, I approached Troy about doing my own version of its concept. He graciously consented, and since he was doing me a favor by allowing me to serialize my book on a chapter-a-week basis, it never occurred to me to expect payment for this. I just thought it would be fun. And it was. I had no idea what the response would be to this updated version of a book I self-published 15 years ago, but I figured what did I have to lose? Well,- I don’t know how many people actually read the 22 chapters that I posted, but in regard to the number of hits, I’d estimate that I averaged about 60 a week. The original run of this paperback was 150 units. Selling copies for 5 bucks a pop at a few local fairs and venues, I got rid of about 100 over a 2-year period. But did I care? Not really. Self-publishing a novel includes total control, and this allows you to play God and create your own little world and your own characters and your own plots. What more can a mere mortal ask for? Positive feed back? I got that, too. Going waay back to the early 1970s, my prodigious letter-writing to editors, earned me a regular column in a Chicago newspaper. As a free lancer, I was given a 25-dollar savings bond for each article I submitted. I never expected to be paid when I requested my own by-line. I just wanted a forum for telling off white people during a racially-charged era when they needed to be put in check. My reward? How the newspaper was bombarded with letters from irate readers, complaining about “that nigger bitch troublemaker”. I loved it! So did the editors who regularly printed censored versions of some of the more outrageous responses. Several years later at a hometown achievers banquet, I was given a plaque for speaking out against racism. Money? No. Just appreciation from my peers. I’ve never considered myself a serious writer and my lackluster book covers and absence of a marketing plan attested to this. I wrote because I was fulfilled by the creative process. This is not to say that I would turn down any money someone offered to pay me. But when it came to writing books, the joy was more in the journey, than the destination. I don’t expect everybody to take this approach. To each his own. Fame and fortune is a powerful incentive. But I can say, that when it comes to my writing endeavors, I’ve never been disappointed.

I was discussing this topic with my daughter and she reminded me that as soon as I posted a comment here I was writing for free. Sadly she is right and this is exactly why we writers find ourselves are in a quandary. Our hubris is our downfall. We believe someone wants to read/hear what we have to express and when we do communicate our thoughts it diminishes the value of our rhetoric. Imagine being thought of as such a great thinker that people are willing to line up to purchase your thoughts. This is why I spend so much time reading writers of antiquity... They don't tweet, Facebook , blog, or visit forums. I can only find their work in a book so I'm willing to pay for it.

IMAGING,OUR VOICES TOGETHER,WE COULD BE STRONG AND PROFOUND..INSTEAD, SILENCE LIKE FALLING SNOW IS THE,REALITY, SOUND...BLACK PEOPLE,EACH DAY,EACH HOUR,EACH SECOND.,LIKE A WINTER SEASON IT SEEMS..SO DARK AND SO BARE LIKE NAKED WINTER TREES...THE ADDICTS,SELF DESTRUCTION,THERE ARE THOSE WITH WITHERED SOULS AMONG US...THE FIENDS,SABOTEURS, GANGSTERS,THAT WANT OUR RACE TO BE TOWARD A EXODUS...BLACK LEADERS,WATCHING THIS,SOME IGNORE,SOME RETREAT, OTHERS FLEE..SO DARK AND SO BARE LIKE WINTER NAKED TREES...THE RIGHTEOUS BLACK FOLKS WHO ARE CHURCH SUNDAY BOUND..SINISTER PREACHERS HAVE THEIR SOULS MORE WITHERED THAN THE LEAVES UPON THE GROUND..SOULS DRIFTING LIKE SNOWFLAKES UPON THE WINTER BREEZE.SO DARK AND SO BARE LIKE WINTER NAKED TREES....PLANTATION SLAVE HOUSES,EACH BLACK COMMUNITY SEEMS TO CONTAIN..BLACK PEOPLE,ENSLAVED,CONFINED AS IF THEY WERE I N CHAINS..ENEMIES OF BLACK PEOPLE WATCHING THIS, CAN SIT BACK WITH EASE.SO DARK AND SO BARE LIKE WINTER NAKED TREES...../.

IN SOUTH FLORIDA , 9 STUPID BLACK MEN ARRESTED FOR GAMBLING ON YOUTH FOOTBALL GAMES.GAMBLING ON YOUTH FOOTBALL GAMES..JUST WHEN I THINK BLACK MEN CANNOT GET ANY STUPIDER..GAMBLING ON YOUTH FOOTBALL GAMES...IN GREENVILLE,TEXAS, MISSING BLACK GIRL BODY FOUND IN STORAGE TRUNK....KLAN POLICE DID NOT PUT OUT A AMBER ALERT TILL AFTER THE GIRL WAS MISSING 3 DAYS..WHEN BLACK CHILDREN ARE MISSING, THE BLACK CHURCHES, NAACP AND BLACK POLITICANS DO NOT LLOK FOR BLACK CHILDREN... THEY ARE AS BAD AS THE KLAN POLICE..... GIRL NAMES WAS ALICIA MOORE....WHERE WAS THE TEXAS NAACP, BLACK CHURCHES AND POLITICIANS IN TEXAS....////

Glad this damn election is over. For me, the award for enduring the long tedious campaign is not that Obama won but that all the conservative right-wing Republican wackos and religious zealots have been defeated. Now, it's back to square one, unmindful that the economy will continue to do what it does, independent of the manipulations of human input. At least America lived up to its reputation for reuniting after a contentious election, Donald Trump aside. I knew FaceBook would be on fire when Obama was declared the winner, and reading all of the comments brought something home to me. Everyone was praising the lord, thanking Jesus, describing themselves as jumping up and down, the kind of jubulance associated with multi- million dollar lottery winners. One poster declared that this was the happiest day of his life. All of this confirmed why I took such a dim view of the proceedings that pitted these 2 candidates against each other. For some reason I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for purple-lipped Obama and his moon-faced wife, yet at the same time I found the robotic Romney and his mannikin mate obnoxious. Meoooow. But what overrode my personal prejudices had more to do with the people who supported Mitt and Barack. For Romney, it was the white, thinly disguised bigots whining for a return to the past, and the anti-women pro-lifers, and the narrow-minded bible-thumping Evangelicals, and the fascistic super patriots, and the black Uncle Toms. These were who totally turned me off. For Obama, I was irritated by the hard core, blindly loyal hero worshippers with their herd mentality, - black people looking for Obama to fulfill whatever was missing in their lives, satisfying their need for a savior to right past wrongs as they cast a jaundiced eye at any Black who didn’t get with the program. An anathema for a contrarian like me. However, I guess this is what choosing a leader is all about. Supporting the candidate with whom you can identify. The only problem is that presidential candidates seldom fulfill their promises. Their empty rhetoric is just an exercise in platitudes and sound bites. And they end up being at the mercy of Congress and corporate America and the military. Whatever. Barak Obama has won and America will now return to business as usual as he tries to make his audacity of hope a reality while treading a slippery slope that requires the cooperation of a non partisan senate. Have you got his back, God??

Stars All Fall Artist - Zion Birdsong, Musical Director of The Book Look Song - D. Amari Jackson, Creator of The Book Look

Because gang related violence has become so rampant in this country’s inner cities, attempts to focus on this problem have taken on celebrity involvement. Recently ABC news anchor, Diane Sawyer, showed up in Chicago to cover a gang summit being sponsored by Father Michael Pfleger, local hero, activist Catholic priest, and the white leader of an all black congregation. These high level meetings between the hierarchy of Chicago’s gangs have been held before and have not worked or will they ever because guards can never be lowered and ground never conceded. Reputations have to be maintained. What I find compelling about the situation is the reaity of what is at the root of a lot of the violence. Poverty and lack of jobs and the breakdown of the family don’t tell the whole story. It’s assumed that the wanton slayings are all gang-related, all about turfs and drugs and retaliations . But a lot of the killings are actually personal vendettas by macho cowards, - nonentities who are so consumed with their need to feel important that they cannot deal with rejection. Time and time again a familiar scenario is what triggers murder and mayhem. Someone is having a party with family and friends when an individual or a group crashes the affair and after stirring up trouble, are asked to leave. The second act of this drama plays out with the resentful offenders showing back up with a gun to shoot up the place. Other situations involve love triangles where one rival will gun down his cock-blocking competitor. Even making longer than necessary eye contact between adversaries can lead to drawn weapons. Any act of disrespect shown by one homie toward another, be it on a playground or at the club or on a FaceBook wall, or at a funeral for a murdered friend is grounds for pulled triggers. What used to be settled with fists is now finalized with guns in the hands of those who invaribly slaughter innocent bystanders, all in the ritual of proving one’s manhood by getting even. Unfortunately, this need to beat one’s chest doesn’t restrict itself to the ghetto. A more cold-blooded version exists across the board on all levels of society and can even lead to war. When the collective ego of one country is insulted by the collective ego of another country, battle lines are drawn. It's a fact life that an insatiable ego is an intrinsic part of all living creatures. It’s the nature of the beast to take offense at anything that constitutes a slight, and threatens one’s self esteem or, worse yet, exposes one’s insecurity. All cooler heads advocate replacing false pride with peace and love, citing these virtues as being the source of true strength because they call for the restraint that saves lives. "Blessed be the peacemakers", but everybody didn’t get the memo. The ruthless ego will not be denied. It rules everywhere as lions fight to be king of the jungle, - and men fight to be king of the hill. Crushing a threat to your status gives the ego an erection. That damned ego is at the root of all the problems of the world because it goes hand in hand with the quest for power. And power corrupts. God, you sure screwed up when you created us - in your image...