House Formally issues Slavery Apology!

You kidnapped, raped, purchased, tricked, and murdered people. You committed Genocide and created an institution called Chattel Slavery that had never even existed in the history of the planet. You tortured, brainwashed and mutilated! You sold children of your own race into slavery simply because they were orphans and lied to them saying they were mulattoes! You sold and ignored your very own seed!

You and your ancestors pillaged an entire continent, looting it for its mineral wealth, you built up equity by insuring humans as you would a farm or a chicken. You erased any family history, religious tradition and ancestral names! You taught a perverted, corrupted version of religion to an already damaged, abused people.

But you're sorry!

Your ancestors created a system of racial apartheid that lasted two hundred years more than the four hundred years of bondage! Again, you falsely imprisoned, murdered, raped, cheated, denied education, the right to worship freely, the freedom to assemble, taxation without representation and the denied the right to vote. You even denied an entire people the right to have a birth certificate! Or to be buried in dignity!

But hey you're sorry!

It's a start but it's not enough! It will never be enough! That's what you are truly afraid of isn't it! European Jews suffered long before Adolf Hitler came on the scene but when that Demon and his followers did come, they attempted to slaughter an entire people. They committed Genocide culminating in the murder of six million European Jews! That slaughter was so terrible that the death camps stand today as monuments. You can't even plant or build on that land! The energy there will last forever!

So how much more for the African? 100 million estimated to be lost in the Atlantic Slave Trade. 100 Million human souls lost! Ships sank with human cargo. Africans tossed overboard callously to avoid the law!

But you said you're sorry!

Hey Congress, Get a photograph of The Door of No Return and try to stare at it! Go on!

You won't be able to stand it! What you're ancestors have done is so evil that even a photograph taken in the 20th century is too much!

Only God can forgive you and your people! But as we enter into a new epoch of oppression and disenfranchisement. As we still bear the weight of history and the burden of the present can we forgive you?

As you give welfare instead of job training! Can we forgive you? As you smear and murder our leaders and Icons can we forgive you? As you make it harder for any of the 36 million descendants of the enslaved to move up through legistration, lack of education, lack of health care and meaningful economic empowerment. Can we forgive you?

I wonder too!

BE Mindful! BE Prayerful! BE Careful!

Jaycee

EAAAAARTHQUAKE!

I was born and raised here in Los Angeles most of my life but I have never been in a major earthquake. I have always been either too young to remember or out of town. Here's hoping the streak don't end!

Yesterday, I was having a good nap! My building is on rockers and the as the building swayed and people in the neighborhood screamed, I thought the heaters at the next door laundrymat, a local nuisance had finally exploded and I jumped out of bed expecting a large fireball to be coming in my direction! Nope! Earthquake! Thankfully we are alright! My family is safe and are place is undamaged!

BE Careful! BE Mindful! BE Prayerful!

Jaycee

Soul Food For Thought!

Hey! Put that down! Stop it! Just stop it! Got one of my buds still ate up with it!

The first of the four noble truths that comprise Buddhist thought is that

All Life is Suffering!

Basic Christian Theology is confirms this by stating because of man's sin and the resulting sinful world we are separated from God and therefore suffer. But again, as in previous posts, how you handle it is up to you. Here's my suggestion. Talk with Jesus and think about Attachment! Some Buddhists believe we suffer because of Attachment, Attachment to things or ideas of what we think we should have or should be. Life is what it is! You get what you get!

The Book of Job outlines Job's suffering, Job's complaining to God about his innocence and the injustice of his plight, it lays out God (Elohim) checking Job for getting out of pocket, reminding him, hey you didn't teach the birds to fly or hang the sky, and then Job repeatedly re-affirming his love for God and his intention to worship him no matter what! Job was eventually restored! Life is cyclical and Job had his season. We also have ours!

You having yours!

So when you feel at your worst, count your blessings! No, really, count them individually!

1. I woke up this morning in my right mind!

2. I got some gas in the car!

3. I serve a Mighty God!

4. My family is healthy and safe!

5. I may have barely paid my bills but I paid them!

Count those blessings! I guarantee that the blessings will far outnumber your complaints!

Hallelujah! Allah U Akbar! Praise Jesus! Metta! Ashe! And So it is!

So pour out it, put it down and walk into your true destiny!

BE Mindful! BE Prayerful! BE Careful!

Jaycee

Before You See the New Batman Movie!

Joker: Hey Bats! Did you hear the joke about the two lunatics that escaped from the asylum?

Batman: No, never heard it!

Joker: Well, there are these two loons who escape at night and once they get to the roof they realize that it's too high and too far to the next building to jump across then one of them comes up with an amazing idea. He has a flashlight and he says to his loon in arms, I'll flash the beam to the roof of the other building and you just slide down on the beam of light!

The other lunatic replies " Hey! what da ya think I'm Crazy! You'd shut the light off when I was halfway down!

Bats: Ha ha ha ha aha ha ha!

The Killing Joke!

Years ago and I mean years.....! I read this graphic novel called Batman the Killing Joke! I was in my early twenties at the time and I had read some great horror, seen some pretty scary movies, been an avid heavy metal fan and grew up in the bloody eighties in Compton Ca. This book left me disturbed. The great writer and artist Frank Miller may have redefined Batman as the dark brooding vigilante Detective we all know and love but this book effectively redefined the Joker! Not as a crazy, giggling miscreant! But as a complex, multifaceted, tortured Homicidal Maniac! A Manic!

The Dark Detective realizes that the Joker is his deadliest enemy and of all the villains he has faced, some super powered, he knows the least about the Joker! The Clown Prince escapes the Arkham Asylum for the criminally insane. This must be the easiest joint to escape from in the history of prisons! Ever!

The Jokers on a mission to explain to the Batman and the world that it's easy to go LOOOOONY! If you just have a bad enough day. He kidnaps Commissioner Gordon and proceeds to prove his theory by subjecting him to a series of horrors. Sorta of like this is your life! In Hell!

Now I ain't gonna tell you the details but this has to be some of the source material for the Dark Detective and the Joker movie!

It's graphic! It's not restricted or banned but there are some disturbing scenes in The Killing Joke! Be Warned!

Be Mindful! Be Prayerful! Be Careful!

Jaycee

Soul Food For Thought!

I was talking with a friend today and they were having a rough go of it. It got me to thinking about just some simple rules to help us through our days here and I decided to share. As my late Brother Will used to to say to me. Don't get ate up wit it!

Rule 1. You can't take the world on your shoulders. This is why you were given a whole life to live. You are supposed to make mistakes! You ain't supposed to know everything! Jesus said he would help us! Didn't he promise he wouldn't give you more than you could bear? Well? And even then he promised to help you. Come unto me all y'all struggling and I will give you rest take my load upon you and learn of me My burden is light! Paraphrased

Rule 2. Old loves, good and bad memories, like good whiskey are to be sipped. That's why they are in the past and they are there to teach us, caution us and guide us back to God not for us to get lost in or to live in. That's what the here and now is for! Live in the now! I read that The Buddha figured that one out on his journey. If you gulp it all down then well, you know it's gonna jack you up!

Rule 3. If there is anymore confusion see Rule 1 in entirety.

Rule 4. If you can't relate to sipping cognac or whiskey this is cool too substitute whiskey and cognac for Boston cream pie, hot peach cobbler with a great flaky crust or a graham cracker crusted cheese cake. Either way it ain't to be eaten in one sitting. See rule 1 and 2 Dig?

Rule 5. Allah makes Muslims! But..But! Mista Jaycee, I'm not a Muslim! Well we all are for this rule. Here's the point, You can't make someone do anything! If there is a changing to be done then let God do it! The God of Abraham, I AM that I AM, has created you as you are. Since, it is God that made you it is God that will change you providing you allow him to. God made everyone else as well so the same rule applies. You didn't make you or anyone else and you can't change anyone else. That ain't your job!

Rule 6. Failure to adhere to these rules will cause unnecessary suffering and lead to even more until you get the message or....well y'all smart you will get the message!

This post brought to you by the Universal Defenders of International Goodwill!

U-DIG!

(smile)

Be Mindful! Be Prayerful! Be Careful!

Jaycee

Soul Food For Thought!

Not judgment and condemnation of others, but humility and distrust of self, is the teaching of Christ's parable. Not all that is sown in the field is good grain. The fact that men are in the church does not prove them Christians. Ellen G. White

Gotta Go up against the Best to be the Best!

Back in the 1940's before Charlie Parker played the harmonic equivalent of Einsteins Theory of Relativity E=MC square and blew every ones mind for the next two centuries he played local New York nightspots and after hours clubs like Milton's and Smalls Paradise and those in the know would go around telling everyone about this player from Kansas City that sounded like tenor master Lester Young on alto. At Minton's Monday nights was jam session night where the best players and the up and coming participated in cutting sessions. Serious competition to determine who was the big boy on the block. The audience listened and judged, the musicians for thier trouble recieved a good free meal, bragging rights or a whuppin, and innovation and creativity was always inspired. There was a lineage of jazz music and musicians that survives to this day. There was a tradition predicated on competition that also survives!

I was reading XXL or the Source or some kinda rap magazine and watching videos on You tube of rap music and I kept reading the comments sections, Jay-Z is the greatest rapper alive! No, Nas is the greatest! Nooooooo Lil Wayne is the greatest! And before that it was PAC or Biggie and I'm like ????@*###@

Biggie! Pac! What???

No offense to Tupac or Biggie Smalls, both great talents lost too soon but neither one of them was the greatest when they were alive!

Pac was talented and absolutely prolific but for every jewel he dropped he dropped about ten turds!

Heresy! You say.....

Pac wrote California Love, To live and Die in LA, Dear Mama and Keep your head up but recorded enough albums of filler like U can't c me and hit em up to fill up dodger stadium!

Now Biggie, that dude had a beautiful flow! Great improviser sure, but he didn't write anything that would change the world. He didn't! Ready to Die gave us Juicy, The 10 crack commandments and Warning, great songs but not timeless, life changing material just like Nirvana's Never mind it will stand testament as a document of that generations angst not a battle cry or call to arms!

Oh, what a wail it was though.

Now back to my point so I hear Biggie, Pac, Jay or Nas and I thought wait....KRS One aint dead! How is Jay the greatest? Rakim Allah ain't Dead! How are we speaking on Nas when that is reality?

Lil Wayne versus Jay? For The Greatest! How?

Now here's a real good spoiler for ya....LL COOL J

Never been bested in battle! The only one who ever hurt LL is LL?

Sorry L but trying to be a pop star and maintain lyrical supremacy and failing to roast the young upstarts has hurt ya bro. Roasting Canibus was funnie but too easy.

Tradition dictates that the up and coming players go up against the best in battle! Jay-Z has not battled KRS, NAS has not battled Rakim Allah!

Heck, Jay didn't even battle Big and Big didn't battle KRS or Rakim!

Jay and Nas battled each other. Nas winning the battle of Lyrical supremecy with the blistering "Ether" and Jay winning the war by sure attrition. Jay sold more good records alot more than Nas sold with his great ones.

So now we have another new generation of listeners debating the artists their listening too without any knowledge of who came before them. Lil Wayne has to go through Jay and then KRS to be King!

Well, Jaycee that's just opinion, your opinion, right?

Dig, if we do not continue to honor the tradition of our artists then the art just falls into whatever is current and commercial. The artist ceases to be an artist and becomes just another product a commericial enitity. We have to stop that before it happens!....Oh!...

KRS is over 30, putting his records out independently with no current hit record on the radio so he's passed over but KRS still rocks it in concert, still takes on all comers and no one has taken the crown yet! No, the top contenders are hiding behind their current record deals, putting out video after video claiming to be the king and avoiding battle with the real kings at all costs!

Why does it matter? Look at the state of heavyweight boxing right now. Who's the heavyweight champ right now?

How many conferences award belts?

The WBA, WBC, The IBF, The WBO and they all got heavyweight champions!

Ali was the undisputed champ! Tyson was the undisputed champ! and the contenders Norton, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes, Spinx, Quarry were all top notch and ended up champions in their own right. That level of competition made Ali just as much as his stand against Vietnam!

Now, because they allowed it to be diluted and didn't allow real competition to weed out the suckas boxing has no real draw anymore. And it's in danger of being overrun by Mixed Martial Arts! Kimbo Slice anyone?

Jazz musicians had jam sessions and cut each other in battles because they were literally playing to eat. Their next gig depended on how they played against another player. Playing great may decide if a player got to record a single at all. It's the same with rap music. Where are those hungry artists, who literally are playing for they next gig, literally gigging to sell they records to eat and well make another record?

Naw, if you gonna be the best you have to go up against the best. That's the rule! Competition gives birth to excellence!

Don't agree, tough, I'm waitin to hear from ya!

Be Careful! Be Mindful! Be Prayerful!

Jaycee

The Dark Knight Returns!

Alburn University alum, retired NBA perennial all star power forward, social Critic and NBA commentator Sir Charles The Round Mound of Rebound Barkley just gave us another reason why we Luuuuuuuve him!

Sir Charles paid waiter Christian Abate's college tuition at Temple University! When he asked the unsuspecting waiter if he wanted him to do that, the waiter speechless was told he had the length of Barkley's meal to decide. It didn't take long! Smart kid, way to go Temple! Smart Kid!

Chuck, today dude, here's to you and thank God that he blessed you to be able to do it! For that you get an atta boy and you can play two rounds of golf. Oh, by the way Chuck, we need a sequel to Godzilla versus Barkley!

Work on that huh!

Be Careful! Be Mindful! Be Prayerful!

Jaycee

You'll Pry my pastrami from my cold dead hands!

The Plan is simple, feed them, fatten them up and then eat them!- Jaycee

To Serve Man! It's A Cookbook! -Twilight Zone

Soylent Green! It's People!- Soylent Green!

The Los Angeles City Council ever forward thinking discussed a proposal to enact a ban not on the proliferation of military style hand weapons and assault rifles or the effort to replace much needed bus routes and buses affecting the cities working class and poor populace or fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS, lack of jobs or youth programs and gangs but of the number of fast food joints in South Los Angeles. That used to be South Central and for you really hip folks Watts!

The proposal actually seeks to limit any new fast food type restaurants from opening in a specific geographic area in and around south central citing health concerns for the citizens. There are simply too many restaurants of the same type saturating this area. And they say were too fat! Of course everyone seems to agree that we city folks are fat, obese in fact! So it appears that the city council is proposing the ban in order to prevent an under served community from being abused further. So it appears.

There have been similar bans and proposals in other cities banning and limiting Liquor stores and Billboards that market smoking ads. So the proposals are not far fetched! But I wonder if these is just the precursor to a much different, much more sinister agenda for South Los Angeles. This proposal, on its face is presented like its for the protection of the community. The South Los Angeles community has a disproportionate amount of Liquor stores, Gun stores and advertising of Liquor and Cigarettes.

But the council has not wholeheartedly jumped into the fray over the fate of MLK Hospital. It has not sought funding to my knowledge to reopen the 96 preventive care clinics that served South Los Angeles and Los Angeles county. I have yet to see a gym or fitness center in South Los Angeles. So what gives? Could this be the opening volley to Gentrify South central?

The city council appears to battle not against gridlock or smog but against Clowns! Clowns hawking 2000 calorie, cheesy, pickled, mayo splashed, mustard soaked, catsup drenched grease fried pockets of death!

Ok, real talk! It was amazing to watch people on the news when asked about the proposed ban talk about how it's people's own choice to do what they want. No one should restrict them although yes, it would be nice to have better restaurants!

Now for a sensible blogger such as myself, I have self control! I can walk pass a burger stand, taco stand, chicken joint, donut shop and liquor store on every block within a four block radius and resist.....the urge to go in all of them at once. The fact that I have no cash and there's no bank or ATM nearby is not the reason I don't!

I have self control!

I do darn it!

I can quit eating fresh hot donuts anytime I want!

I just don't want to.

The amazing thing about it is that when someone wants to take away or do away with something for people's own good people freak out!

It's about Choice man!

Really? Was it your choice to have a ton of fast food joints in a whole section of town instead of quality grocery stores, banks and shopping centers? Was it your choice not to have any sit down quality restaurants where you could take a family or a date out for a night on the town?
Was it your choice to not have a movie theatre/cineplex, arcade, bowling alley or any good night club establishments?

So you chose to design your area with no farmer's market, no floral shop, no bank, no medical clinic, no gyms just a taco shop, next to a burger stand, across from a rib joint next to a discount smoke shop catercorner to a liquor store! You chose that? That was your design, huh?

No, you didn't design that! Previous city councils, searching for tax revenue allowed restaurants like all these fast food joints to build in one swatch of town even though it was overcrowded, discouraging to other types of businesses and an eyesore on the community. You telling me you chose to have an economic stink bomb that lowered your property values? You saying that you zoned a million small stone front churches alongside all these fast food joints? You chose to zone 3 payday loan, check cashing stores every two blocks next to the burger joints and storefront churches? You mean you chose a liquor store or two on every block in South Los Angeles, a gun shop, thrift shop, auto wrecking yard?

No, that wasn't your choice and it actually isn't your choice now either. The city council is still only concerned about tax revenues. They want the sales tax that they know they will be able to generate from rezoning the area and removing the clusters of low quality restaurants, which are mostly Mom and Pop and replacing them with more desirable edifices.

Question, what about a Mom and Pop restaurant perhaps a generational owned Rib shack that wants to become a sit down restaurant. Will they be afforded the same tax incentives and breaks as say a major chain? Or will they be put out of business?

Eventually the city will desire to add artist lofts, Condos, Houses, Theatres, retail shops and real restaurants and night clubs. Then the next phase will be moving the poor out!

They won't just leave premium real estate in the hands of the working class! No, Gentrification is the order on the menu! That is ultimately what they are talking about! They are gonna clean up the area that for 45 years they have let you rot in and collect top dollar for it.

If you really want to keep that from happening though, it is possible.

Here's how, first we start an email, snail mail letter writing campaign to Bernie Parks, Mark Ridley Thomas, Earvin Magic Johnson, Dennis Zine, Antonio Villarigoza, The Hahns since it is affectionately their father's and grandfather's district, Yvonne Braite Burke and some of the other council folks and politicos stating that hey we want a quality grocery store like a whole foods or trader joes or a 32nd street market. Then we write the farmers market association to get a farmers market(s) in specific areas of town.

We must get the media involved in our efforts. First we will must control the message. We will not be gentrified! If anyone is going to reap the benefits of urban renewal it will be those who are truly urban! Dig!

The council has the right idea giving tax incentives to sit down restaurants to attract interests but again, they got another thing coming if they think they will be allowed in without hiring folks that live in the neighborhood already.

Hey! I like good food and art and a safe viable business friendly neighborhood! I'm working towards that now but not for someone else to enjoy.

Noooooo! You wouldn't choose that! But hey! weren't we just talking about my double pastrami on rye right?

Yeah, we are and you can keep right on eating it too. They'll have to pry mine from my cold dead hands, oops hand, as I clutch my chest with the other one, but if we play our cards right instead of being a bunch of brain dead reactionaries then they can transport us in an ambulance to a quality medical facility nearby. Then, we can walk a decent urban neighborhood with a farmers market, a good grocery store, good shops, a theatre and the stuff a real neighborhood is made of. Then go and have half of a pastrami and a orange bang!

Be Mindful! Be Prayerful! Be Careful!
Jaycee

Opps! I Did It Again!

Last night, in the City of Champions, Inglewood, CA, former home to the Los Angeles Lakers, current home to The Great Western Forum and Faithful Central Bible Church at the Forum. There was an officer involved shooting resulting in the killing of 19 year veteran United States Postal mail carrier, Kevin Wicks. According to various news agencies Inglewood Police officers answer a domestic disturbance call sometime after midnight. They knocked on Mr. Wicks door and he answered, the officers allegedly stated "show us your hands" at which time Brian Wicks raised his hands, one in which he was hold a handgun. Officers fired striking Mr. Wicks, he was transported to a local hospital where he died.

Mr. Wicks was alone in his apartment and according to neighbors had just arrived after working his normal shift. Neighbors and family members believe officers responded to the wrong address and go onto explain that in the neighborhood where Mr. Wicks resided you don't answer your door after midnight without something in your hand.

One of the officers, Brian Ragan, a five year veteran of the force, was involved in a controversial shooting this past May 13, 2008 and was until recently placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. According to various news agencies and the Inglewood Police Department that investigation is still ongoing.

Why was Officer Ragan allowed back out on patrol if he had not been cleared of any wrongdoing in the previous shooting?

Officer Ragan, was previously involved in a shooting in the early morning of May 13, 2008. Officers advised that they were responding to a call, exited their vehicles, saw a Black Male running across a parking lot and then heard multiple shots. They opened fire on the nearby car killing Michael Byoune, 19 and wounding another and a third passenger was unhurt. Upon investigation, there were no weapons or shell casings found and the victims accounts and witnesses advised that the young men had just purchased food from a Rally's Hamburger shop. According to the night manager Vidal Garcia, there had been shots fired in the area all evening.

On the May 13 shooting: Officers heard shots fired. Officers returned fire. No problem.

Officers had not confirmed that it was they who were being fired upon. They had not ascertained a direction the fire was coming from. Problem!

There were no holes in the vehicle or shell casings found near the officers. Problem!

Officers saw a Black Male running across a parking lot of a Rally's.

They fired without knowing if the young man was just getting in the car from getting a hamburger. Problem!

All of these questions should have been answered definitively before Officer Ragan was allowed back onto active patrol duty. Now, Officer Ragan is involved in another controversial shooting.

Could it be just a tragic mistake in both cases? Sure, it is tragic but more tragic than that is allowing Officer Regan to go back out on the street.

One opinion, not confirmed advised that the city police department is shorthanded and so Officer Regan was allowed back on duty. If that's true then Problem! Officer Ragan has not been cleared of wrongdoing in the other shooting! And let's face it for all we know Officer Ragan is as jumpy and unstable as Barney Fife!

So, you are shorthanded, I understand but you go shorthanded when you have an officer or officers involved in an ongoing controversial incident! That's justified that you would be shorthanded! That overtime may occur!

Officers have a dangerous job but they also receive intensive training. If an officer is trigger happy or skittish both which may be the case, then the department needs to know and handle it accordingly. If the officer holds any bias towards the community then the department needs to know that too.

Now for y'all unfamiliar with the City of Champions, Inglewood is located in LA county, ten minutes from Los Angeles International Airport. It has a large Black population, a Black mayor, Roosevelt Dorn, and a Black Woman police cheif, Jacqueline Seabrooks. In spite of that Inglewood Police department have had a number of problems involving arrests in recent years before Chief Seabrooks and currently under Chief Seabrooks.

One of the most famous or infamous is the arrest of then 16 year Donavon Jackson, a slightly retarded Black kid, (His retardation has been disputed) who was filmed being choked out on the trunk of a police cruiser then the officer was filmed using his fist to punch an already handcuffed Jackson. That officer was relieved of duty and to my knowledge no longer with the department. The officer testified that Donovan Jackson had grabbed and yanked his testicles and that is why he punched him however the film did not show any such occurrence. It showed that Donovan could not have since he was already handcuffed.

I would hope that Officer Ragan would be relieved off all duty and placed on administrative leave until the department and hopefully other outside agencies have thoroughly investigated both shootings. Furthermore, I would hope that if the shooting are declared to be unjustified that he, officer Ragan would be brought up on criminal charges and the city gets its act together. But I would say it would be safe to say Officer Ragan should not be out on patrol again and maybe just maybe should not be a police officer.

Be Mindful! Be Prayerful! Be Careful!

Jaycee