Hancock! Did they just use the Orisha?

I went to see Will Smith last weekend in his latest flick Hancock. It was cool but nothing special as far as Will's movies go. It was funnie and it had some great special effects but it just didn't live up to some of the other films that Will's done.

Hancock is about a dude with superpowers who is a colossal screw up because well...he drinks! The scene with him rescuing Walter the grey whale was hilarious. But on with the plot!

He saves a PR man from being crushed by a train and is invited home to eat with the PR mans family. Now, instantly Jason Bate man's wife doesn't like Hancock! In fact she wants him to get as far away from her family as possible. Hancock explains that he doesn't remember much about himself. He lost his memory but he's from Miami. He doesn't age. He just wanders along because in all that time no one has come to claim him. He's unloved and alone. That was 80 years ago when he left the hospital after being beaten with his new powers.

Now, later Cherize Theron who plays Bate mans wife, almost kisses Will, after Will puts a drunk Batemen to bed and then shows that she too has superpowers. She throws him through her kitchen wall. Later in a showdown, she explains to Will, yeah, I'm immortal, we know each other and by the way, I'm stronger and have more powers than you. We were created in pairs! To prove it she creates tornadoes and lightning and flies around beating the happy happy joy joy out of Will.

This reminded me then of Oya, the Orisha over change who incidentally has power of Tornadoes and thunder and lightning. Oya, was also one of Shango's wives. Oshun, Orisha over rivers and streams, good fortune and sensuality being the other.

Of course in keeping with Hollywood tradition while stealing ours. Cherize, (Oya) almost kisses Will, (Shango) states hey I'm your wife and to her current husband Bateman, Hey! Actually he's my Husband. So we don't have a real romance, it's never consomated on the screen because of Hollywood's oldest rule. It's just implied!

The Black dude will never romance or actually have the White woman, They might have sex, raw sexual power accepted but never an actual relationship. A relationship of equals. Sure, I believe that some in Hollywood do want to have a colorblind love affair of equals but it just has not happened. Something New is not a love of equals! Sorry, nice try. And it's a lame movie. Sorry, Saana! Luv you!

Don't agree?? I present to you the Bone collecter with Denzel and Angelina Jolie, where Denzel is paralyzed from the neck down. He can't make love to her and to make sure he's casted as half a man so it's implied that yes, I would have a relationship with you, it would be sexy if not for, well...you know.

Denzel again with Julia Roberts in the Pelican Brief. Denzel as Gray never touches Julia even though the book had them become a couple. A sexualized couple. No, in the movie they were just good friends.

Angela Bassett in 7 days. She doesn't get with the White dude she loves either, they just imply that they luvvvv each other. Halle and Billy Bob didn't even have love, they just had one of the nastiest, most brutally disgusting sex scenes ever to win an oscar committed to film in Monster's Ball! But I digress....

Shango, (Will) is a warrior, but all that aside. Did they just take a major Afrikan religion and use it in a movie? Did they just cast a beautiful but obviously European American woman as Oya? Did Chereze say that they were set down by the God(s) as a safety net just in case. Immortals to protect the earth but they are the last ones! Yeah, she did! Sounds like Odumare (God) and the Orishas, Mankind's celestrial helpers, Oshun, Shango, Yemoja, Eshu, Legba and the rest.

So once again an African icon has been stolen and re branded as white!

Cleopatra/Elizabeth Taylor, Isis/Venus has been casted as everybody from Vanna White and so on.

Why does it matter? Because we are allowing ourselves to be written out of history by allowing it to be stolen. You don't need to believe in Orisha to accept that it is part of your heritage. How many people believe today that Egypt is not in Afrika? Quite a few actually think that Kemet (Egypt) is in the middle east. How many people believe there is a middle east? Quite a few including the news media and most geography teachers. Not according to the map, Not according to history? Not even according to the Bible so it matters if we don't call folks on it! No, Egypt is in Afrika and it always has been so is Libya. Syria and Palenstine are right there from North Afrika. Look at the map!

Just something to think about!

Be Careful! Be Mindful! Be Prayerful!

Jaycee

We Won! Loyalty Oaths! Are you Kidding Part 2

This just in!

For those of y'all who read my May 13, 2008 post, Loyalty Oaths! Are you Kidding?

Well, just got word through email that Wendy Govanor has won thanks to 14,000 petitioners.

Here is a copy of her email. We all have more choice now and our freedom and patriotism can be defined by us! Mista Jaycee

We won! And I can't thank you enough!
You and 14,000 other people signed People For the American Way Foundation's petition to California State University after they fired me because I wouldn't sign a state-mandated "loyalty oath" without being able to attach an explanatory statement -- a statement I felt was necessary to protect my beliefs as a Quaker and a pacifist.

But with your help -- and People For Foundation's lawyers behind me -- we won!
I've got my job back, and Cal State has agreed to let me attach a statement to the oath explaining my religious and free speech concerns, enabling me to sign the oath in good conscience. And I'm confident, and most proud, that others in the future will be able to do the same.

So thank you again for exercising your first amendment right to free speech and religious liberty in support of mine.

With deepest graditude

Wendy Govenor

The Call for Change! Or Time For Jesse J to sit down?? Maybe!

Minister Jesse Jackson has had a tough week to say the least. Whew, Jesse!

Let's just get this out the way now! No, Black dude should ever even in jest say they are gonna cut someones ---! off! Given our history in this country and abroad. Shame on you Jesse!

But now let's have some real talk. Jesse is/was upset by Barack's seeming condensing tone in his recent speeches on personal responsibility to Black folks. This ain't something that hasn't been said before in Bam-Bam's historic campaign. Bam-Bam is righteously open for criticism.

Bam-Bam's completely spineless vote for the FISA bill is one such instance. And his recent pandering to right wing prone GOP leaning voters is another.

But the other thing is our collective frustration with our traditional leadership and icons. Jesse Jackson has done great things and his legacy is secure in our history. I feel this way with most of our leadership.

It would be a mistake for us to ignore Jesse's past and current contributions. He has knowledge and wisdom that we need and it should be taken advantage of. Now, I know that some people would like Jesse to go somewhere and sit down. I feel that way too sometimes but I am a realist and I think we all need to be realists as well. Minister Jesse and his colleagues are from a 60's era civil rights struggle. He has seen the non violent action and resistance movement and the Black Power and Black Liberation movements that came from that as well. He's more than earned his right to speak and be taken seriously.

One of the problems facing us today that is hindering progress is that there is no direct lineage in mentor ship. Jesse and Andrew Young came out from under Dr. King and Dr. Ralph Abernathy. Dr. King from Bayard Rustin and Dr. Vernon Johns. Even though each man took the movement or his ministry perhaps in another direction than their mentors they were connected and we could verify them.

Barack Obama and Harold Ford Jr and some of the young lions are not from that school of training and in fact there is no verifiable school that we can look to in order to see their lineage. They didn't come out of the traditional Black civil rights movement. They've shown contempt in some cases towards that leadership. But even more than that none of the young lions have any real political stripes and clout in the Black community. Barack's strategy has been to distance himself from any traditional Black leadership including his pastor.

Now, on the other hand I've been waiting for Jesse, Al Sharpton, Minister Louis, Andrew Young, Julian Bond, Bobby Seale and the bunch... I've been ready for y'all to pass the torch! But who would they pass it to? The days of handpicked successors are gone. Good riddance! Nepotism certainly has not been a benefit for anyone except those already in power. I cite the Bushes, The Castro's, The Duvalier's and so many others. If I were Jesse I wouldn't just step aside just cause folks have found someone new and pretty

So we are not looking for someone with necessarily with the endorsement of the establishment but we do need young, new leaders that engage us.

Remember US?

The people???

Dr. Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and David Hillard didn't come out of the traditional civil rights movement. But Huey came out of Phi Beta Sigma and was connected in that regard. He espoused the views of Malcolm X without Malcolm's religious ideology. Stokley Carmicheal was a King Kid from SNCC then he became a Panther but he maintained dialogue with his mentor. Where is that connection with the new Black leadership? So I understand why Jesse and some others may be mad.

Now, on the other hand it seems to me that the youth have not been groomed to take over and lead with confidence instead our present elders have tried not to groom but clone themselves in younger versions. This is the problem. Some of your views, the world that you knew is outmoded, outdated and stale and it only serves to keep the status quo. To keep you in power!

Bruce Gordon, recently past president, of the NAACP, left after squabbles with the board of directors of the NAACP. It's been said that the board didn't like the changes he was trying to implement. Quote... we hired you to maintain the organization not to remake it. Again, the status quo. How many new members does the NAACP recruit, where are they battling now? The NAACP needs to be made over. It's been that way a long time. This is not the organization of Robert F. Williams, Dr WEB Dubois or Langston Hughes anymore. It's the organization of Walter White and his merry bunch and it's time for a change. That's goes for several other organizations too.

Where is Jesse and the traditional leadership on the lack of home ownership, high school dropout rates, increasing prison population representation, lack of banks, supermarkets and medical care in the Black Community? And for you so called conservatives Black or White, The General Motors rule is in effect. So goes the Black community so goes the country!

Where are our leaders? Republican or Democrat when a corporation lays off twenty thousand people or more and then gives its top exec's large bonuses? When they loot the companies and institutions that you de-regulated and left people penniless? Again, leadership means you look at what's good and what's bad and didn't work and you fix it. I got a stronger door, better locks and changed my routine when I got robbed. What have y'all done? So far just left the door open.

Change is what we need! The GOP needs to change too. They have become outmoded. The cold war is over gentlemen. And guess what??? The New Deal worked! It did! Social Security worked, Medicare worked! The FDA worked! The clean air and water initiatives have the last 50 years have worked! Separation of Church and State is a good thing! It's kept us from killing each other. Sure each one of these programs could use some tweaking but not elimination.

Hey guess what? Diplomacy works too. Old Cain thinks that talking with the folks who hate us is a bad thing. Stupid out moded thinking! If I have a blood feud with someone I'm going to send my best negotiators to the table with me and we all gonna put our guns on that table and talk some real talk. But we will be at the table talking.

Iran, has some legitimate grievances with the west! We backed a series of puppets, that gave away their resources and oppressed them. Remember the Shah?

Iraq, again, series of puppet brutal strongmen who gave away the resources and oppressed the people. Remember Saddam Hussein?

Chile, we took out their democratically elected leader and backed a coup that put a maniacal puppet in power who oppressed the people. Remember Pinochet?

Cuba, since the start of that nation we've had our hands in it! We took the sugar, cigars and the people. We had a huge slave population there, we made it a casino and a whorehouse backed by a series of puppets who oppressed the people and gave away the peoples resources. Castro..Still there!

Venezuela, Chavez is in power and hostile to us cause we helped ferment a coup that disposed him for six days again, puppets in place. Haiti and Mexico we've had our hands in their pot too long. It's time for a change.

Perhaps we could create some real change in those countries by making sure that their resources actually get to their people. I'm sure clean water, good roads and electricity could change alot of minds about America. Perhaps in Sudan. There is only one airstrip in that entire country.

No, Barack Obama may be the change we need but even more so we need change. Anyone talking about the status quo and wants to maintain it we need to sit them down.

Change or it will be to our detriment!

Be Mindful! Be Careful! Be Prayerful

Jaycee

The TARDIS has Landed!

Calling all Dr. Who fans!

Years ago one of my buds called me and invited me to a Dr. Who party. It wasn't going to be anything special just a bunch of people chilling out watching the complete Dr. Who set on VHS. Now, I'm a Brotha from Compton, CA and the only thing I knew about Dr. Who was that I didn't get it! It was from England and it was well...weird!

It seemed to me the only one's I saw who even watched Dr. Who were these geeky, white, nerd boys and of course I was a cool black dude who read spider man, had no car or girlfriend and listened to Jazz even though the really hot women listened to Al B Sure and Tony, Tone, Toni.

Years later I finally did watch Dr. Who and then I got it!

I got why this show was great! Why it's lasted since 1963!

But of course two people got me to try Dr. Who! The Cyberwoman episode on the Dr. Who spin off Torchwood and Freema Agreman as Dr. Martha Jones with the 10th incarnation of Dr. Who. Fine sistahs!

Oh yeah! But the show was great and it made me go back and watch the previous seasons. I'm still trying to catch up but yeah!

The Doctor is a time lord from Planet Gallifrey travelling the multiverses across time in his ship the TARDIS; Which due to a glitch is permanently frozen in the shape of a British police call box. He chooses various companions who travel with him. I came in on Dr. Martha Jones and Rose Tyler both smart, brave, beautiful and hopelessly hoping to win the Doctor's two hearts!

The stories are interesting. Imagine landing in Pompeii on Volcano day!

Hilarious! But the enemies list is great too. The Cybermen who for you trekkies is like the Borg!

The Daleks, cylinder shaped group of beings, who are beyond conceited. They cry exterminate! To just about anyone who doesn't reach their standards! Wussies!

The Doctor regenerates so there are 10 doctors, each different in looks, voices, age and style but retaining the knowledge of each of the previous doctors. I like David Tennent in the role of the 10th doctor. I especially enjoy seeing the Caribbean and Black British folks that have been on. this makes for interesting TV. The monsters, the villains and Martha Jones.

Give it a try, You tube has all the episodes uploaded. Start with Smith and Jones and go from there!

So, to my man Joel, thanks for inviting me and I'm sorry I didn't attend.

I was wrong and I've grown up so I don't mind being a geeky sci fi nerd so there!

Be Careful! Be Mindful! Be Prayerful!

Jaycee

Dr. Anderson and Senator Goldwater on So Called Conservatives

When someone says they are a con-serve-a-tive you must immediately ask them what are they conserving- Dr. Claud Anderson

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlemen. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. - Senator Barry Goldwater 1964

Celebrating John William Coltrane

I cued up Pharaoh Sanders and Kenny Garrett's duet and listening to Pharaoh I could hear John Coltrane's influence all through it. In fact when I listen to Kenny Garrett he is just like a mini trane on alto and that's just beautiful.

John Coltrane was always practicing, pushing the boundaries and searching. Listen to Alabama and instantly you are teleported there. Oak, Walnut and Magnolia trees, locusts buzzing in the summer heat, long walks on red clay roads. At night I can only imagine what it must have been like to deal with some small minded, small town sheriff, a white citizen council and an active Klan.

Then, you listen to A Love Supreme and it proves that music is spiritual! It enables transcendence! It takes you to that special place that only music can take you.

But, unless you listened to After the Rain at night while it's raining and hold a beautiful woman or be held by a strong, loving dude for you ladies, then you just don't know love songs! Ya just don't!

Happy Birthday John! Om Pad me Om! John! Praise the Lord, Hallelujah John! Thank you for blessing us with your talent!

A Love Supreme!

Mista Jaycee

Dollarhide Passes! First Black Mayor of Compton, CA

Story reprinted courtesy of the Los Angeles Sentinel

Douglas Dollarhide Dies
Written by Yussuf Simmonds, (Asst. Managing Editor), on 07-10-2008

First Black mayor of Compton brought many changes to city
The city of Compton is continuing to pay tribute to Douglas Dollarhide, the first Black mayor and city councilman of Compton who died on June 28 at the age of 85.

The city has ordered that his body lie in state in the Council Chambers at City Hall to allow the citizens to pay final respects to their fallen hero, a man who brought great change during his time as mayor.

In June 1969, Dollarhide was elected mayor after previously serving as the first Black city councilman in Compton for six years. At that time of his inauguration, the city had a population of approximately 65 percent African-American and was the largest city west of the Mississippi to have elected a Black mayor.

Dollarhide was born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma, in March 1923, the son of a former slave, Thomas V. Dollarhide and Daisy Williams Dollarhide. He joined the army after moving to San Jose, California, in 1940 and served in the “Red Ball Express” battalion in Europe during World War II until 1945. Along with his wife, Eliza, and daughter, Barbara, Dollarhide settled in Los Angeles after the war. He attended Metropolitan Business College, Long Beach City College and received his law degree from La Salle University Law School.

In 1963, he was elected to the Compton City Council serving as chairman of the finance committee and representing the city at the League of California Cities. Then he was elected mayor of the city making history not only as the first Black mayor, but also as the first Black mayor of a major city in California.

During his four years as mayor, there was an exodus of Whites to the suburbs transforming Compton into a predominantly African-American city. It was a bittersweet experience, which resulted in a decline in property. However, it set the tone for a string of Black mayors for the rest of the 20th century that has survived to the present.

Mayor Eric Perrodin, the current mayor of Compton, was lavish in his praise for the man who pioneered the way for him. He said, “All the people in the city of Compton will mourn the passing of Mayor Douglas Dollarhide; he was the first Black mayor of the city of Compton. If it weren’t for him many elected officials such as myself would not be sitting in the seats we are sitting in now.”

“He was a trailblazer for Black politicians and his passing is going to be felt by all—not just by Blacks, but by everyone. He was a good leader in the city of Compton and he inspired many politicians to do what’s right for the citizens,” Perrodin added.

Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, whose political career had just begun when Dollarhide became mayor remembered him this way, “Douglas Dollarhide represented a politics that was very conciliatory. He was very approachable and always willing to help. He was a cultured man and most effective as the mayor of Compton.”

Nathaniel “Nat” Trives, a trailblazer himself who became the first Black mayor of Santa Monica, recalled moments with Dollarhide and others when they shared experiences as “first mayors.”

“As members of NBLEO (National Black Local Elected Officials) organization, I had great respect for him. Back in the days with Tom (Bradley) and Lionel Wilson (first Black mayor of Oakland), we were all in the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Hearing about his death was a great shock and it’s a great loss of one of the pioneer African-American politicians in California,” Trives said.

Food for Thought!

Tonight I posted three videos from You tube, all contain something interesting and important to think about.
Rules to remember when watching.
Ideas are powerful! Be Careful!
Jaycee

I called the Bible, the Poison Book! You wonder why?
You see, poison in the hands of a doctor can cure you!
Poison in the hands of a fool will kill you!
Elijah Muhammed

THE DISENFRANCHISEMENT of AFRICAN AMERICANS

Dr. Claud Anderson. Powernomics
Jaycee

The True Islam #1

From the Showtime series Sleeper Cell. Awesome Series, Listen and learn
Jaycee