National Politics: Why McCain will win (see: black people)

John McCain is our next president!!! The Republican Party is about to win the White House again, this time with an even lamer candidate than the buffoon that has occupied the office of President for the past eight years. I saw it coming two years ago, I even wrote a column about it. Two years ago a pair of members of the NC General Assembly, Senator Robert Holloman and Representative Howard Hunter Jr. both passed away within a week of each other, each leaving unfilled terms of service which needed to be filled by new officials. As a reporter for the Roanoke Chowan News Herald in Hertford County NC, I had a front row seat to the debacle and sham which led to two idiotic choices for replacements for Holloman and Hunter. Hertford, Northampton and Bertie counties, all within the coverage area of the News Herald and all within the constituency base for Hunter and Holloman, are all counties with predominantly black, excuse me, African American, population bases and race figured to play heavily into the selection for the two vacant seats. Of course, the replacements, who shall remain nameless less the mere mention of their names devalue the intellectualism of this column, were both indeed African American, no excuse me, black. Both Holloman and Hunter had at some point during their tenures as public servants fallen under suspicion of improprieties concerning the use of public funds and/or campaign donations. That story is nothing new for politicians, especially black politicians in North Carolina (see: Frank Ballance, Thomas Wright). While black politicians are not the only NC public servants who have been found guilty of illegalities (it doesn’t help that the biggest white politician to get nabbed in recent years was named Jim Black), at least you knew that Holloman and Hunter knew how to play the game. Their replacements had no business on the ballots to begin with. In fact one of the replacements was voted in because several members of the selection committee were her sorority sisters and the other candidate was a sentimental favorite among the over 50 crowd. Essentially two black politicians were replaced with two more black politicians in a popularity vote. Many blacks who do take the time to vote will always vote for the black candidate in a race against a white candidate regardless of what the black candidate’s position may be on serious political issues and while that may seem short sighted and narrow minded, it’s understandable. Much of black America still harbors deep rooted distrust and disdain for white America because of hundreds of years of racial inequality and violence inflicted on blacks by bigoted whites. Which begs the question; would whites vote for a white candidate running against a black candidate even if the black candidate was better qualified? Probably so, again, that’s understandable. Despite all of the appearances to the contrary, much of the apparent goodwill and fairness displayed by many whites toward blacks is merely a result of today’s media age making politically incorrect thinking in public or the workplace tantamount to slashing your wrists with a butter knife. For the baby boomer generation there’s no love lost (or gained) between the races, everybody just plays it cool. This brings me to the dynamic we face in the current race for the US Presidency. The Democrats should’ve announced Clinton as their nominee eight years ago, period. Had they done that, this election would be all but over and she could’ve started walking the halls of Congress pushing her agenda a full two years or so ahead of schedule. Instead, Obama has brought his rock star politics in front of the American voting public, most of whom are still white, and as such, the Democrats have now splintered their constituency enough that even McCain, who was really supposed to be nothing more than the next Bob Dole, will squeeze out an eight to ten percentage point victory come November. How, in the face of what is probably been the most horrendous presidency in the history of our nation, did the Democrats lose this election? I’ll give you two words…Oprah Winfrey. In fact I’ll give you two better words…black people. Barak Obama is a nice guy. He’s intelligent, charming, and media savvy. He’s a great orator, a very handsome man and a very accomplished public servant, but…(you know what’s coming)…there’s no way in hell he’s ready to be President of the United States. It’s not because Clinton is smarter than Obama, or morally superior to the Illinois Senator, in fact the exact opposite might even be true, but Obama has one major flaw that he cannot overcome, at least not for another couple of years. He’s not crooked enough. I’m not insinuating that Clinton is a crook, but hey we all know that there are a few skeletons in her closet that she would rather keep under lock and key (see: White Water, Vince Foster, Monicagate). While most of us see the improprieties of politicians as fodder for cable television and talk radio personalities, politicians at the highest level have another name for skeletons…bargaining chips. The office of the presidency is a corporate office today. Long gone are the days of war heroes (see: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Dwight Eisenhower), upstart cultural icons (see: John F. Kennedy) and American darlings (see: Jimmy Carter). With a presidential campaign costing upwards of 100 million dollars it’s safe to assume that huge political contributors are looking for more than a t-shirt and photo-op on the White House lawn if their candidate wins (see: Haliburton, war in Iraq). It’s not Obama’s skin color that will cause him to send tens of millions of white Americans scurrying to the polls to elect McCain, it’s who Obama’s campaign represents (see: black people). Former Secretary of State Colin Powell would crush both Clinton and McCain in an election, even, Condaleeza Rice would stand a better chance at winning than Obama ever could. The Illinois Senator might have powerful friends in Hollywood, but until those friends start building military weapons, buying banks or inventing new fuel sources, then the little Senator that could is nothing more to the machine that is the American Congress than Jesse Jackson on steroids. Clinton knows the game, has all the player’s names on speed dial and most importantly somewhere she has a little black book that can be used to dissuade political gridlock if necessary. Obama has Oprah and Tom Joyner. In the grimy take-no-prisoners world of international politics, that’s just not enough and informed voters know it. When white America sees legions of black Americans grinning from ear to ear about their champion who even managed to marry a black woman you can rest assured that across the country there will millions of Fuzzy Zoeller moments. Black America loves Barak Obama and that is exactly why he cannot win. I’m sorry but like Willie Brown said in the movie Crossroads “It seems like much has changed…then again not much has really changed.” This nation was built brick by brick and inch by inch on racism, genocide and bigoted religious principles, and just because we (blacks) have been allowed to eat at the table with massuh doesn’t mean we get to select what’s on the menu. Unfortunately the overwhelming support that Obama has garnered from the liberal elite of film and television is rapidly causing a divide in the Democratic party as a whole as Democratic voters are now playing the ‘take my ball and go home game’, with Obama voters saying they’ll never vote for Clinton and vice versa. That is exactly the best thing that could happen for John McCain and the G.O.P. knows it. Did you not notice how quick they were to show Romney and Huckabee the door? The Republicans wasted no time in seizing the opportunity to get their main guy out front and center. Right now McCain is looking like he’s running for President of the United States while Clinton and Obama look like they’re running for president of the Urban League. If there’s one thing you can say about the Republican Party it’s that they do know how to play the game, and to Clinton’s credit, so does she. If only black people didn’t like Obama, then he might actually have had a shot at winning (see: Clarence Thomas) and so would’ve Clinton (see: Bill Clinton). (4) Comments

Posted: 3/26/2008 12:32:37 PM

meaningless award nomination

(0) Comments

Posted: 9/5/2007 10:33:51 AM

New podcast from Curly Morris

http://cuttothechase.mypodcast.com/index.html (0) Comments

Posted: 7/19/2007 11:46:20 PM

Where's Curly Morris?

To all of my regular readers, I am sorry for my prolonged absence. I am no longer working with the News Herald and that was completely by choice. Contrary to rumors there was nothing sinister about my leaving the News Herald at all, just a realization that it was time to take a break and seek out out other opportunities. I am currently shopping several radio talk show for syndication and I hope to be able to offer you more info on when and where to find me in the near future. Until then I will try to be more ardent in posting some of the information that I have been transmitting in audio format as of late. Thanks for your support and I will try to be more in touch. Curly Morris. (2) Comments

Posted: 7/19/2007 8:37:25 PM

The real heroes of our nation

When former NBA player John Amechi came out of the "closet" about his sexuality, all I kept hearing was about what a hero he was. Give me a break. For telling the world he was homosexual that makes him a Hero? At least the LA Times Sportswriter who "came out" last week still has to work among fellow employees who are now privy to his preference for cross dressing, but even he has not saved anyone or helped anyone who really needed it. Of course I had a lot of people trying to throw me under the bus for my religion column last week. I tell you, those Christians sure are a violent bunch sometimes...oops my bad...I meant to say Muslims....or did I? Here's an article about some real heroes...past and present. (1) Comments

Posted: 5/7/2007 2:40:58 PM

National Politics: Hero, not a word to be taken lightly

This article first appeared in the Roanoke Chowan news Herald on May1, 2007 "We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by." Will Rogers I knew that my decision to challenge organized religion last week would be met with vehement opposition. Most of the responses I received were from people offering me their sympathy for being so confused as well as their intentions to keep me and my daughter in their prayers. Thank you to all who offered to pray for me, I can always use some extra prayer. I struggled all week with how I would formulate the proper response to the multitude of opinions I received and then lo and behold the ebb and flow of the universe dictated that I end up in Sunbury Saturday morning, and I knew I had my response. Well it wasn't necessarily the ebb and flow of the universe that sent me to Sunbury Saturday afternoon, it was more like my editor sending me out on an assignment and suggesting that if I would like to continue getting paid then I should be sure to attend. As the majority of America spent their Saturday afternoon enjoying the privileges of living in a country where individuals are free to not only have their own opinion but also free to share them with anyone who will listen without fear of lifelong imprisonment, several dozen individuals spent Saturday being acknowledged for ensuring that freedom. Unfortunately, these individuals live a life of relative anonymity, simultaneously unable to enjoy the fruits of their eternal sacrifices. I made the comment in the newsroom the other day that if I lived in North Korea, China or Iran I would most certainly be a political prisoner. That is, if I lived in either of those countries and had the same compulsion to question the workings of my government and the status quo of society as a whole. As it is, being born in the United States, I was taught early on of the efforts made by those who founded this nation to assure that no single ideology or any singularly opinionated group would ever monopolize the privilege of maintaining the status of our republic. In a dimly lit room, barely the size of the living room of many American homes, men and women who sacrificed their own freedom of mobility, freedom of shopping, freedom of swimming, freedom of driving and pretty much their freedom of a normal life were allowed to take part in one of many events which occur nationwide to try to express our nation's gratitude. When I first arrived at VFW Post 7312 in Sunbury, you could hear the music and good times before you ever entered the building. There were several men in their wheelchairs sitting outside of the building, doing nothing more than sitting. I conversed with them for a little while, discussing things like how big my camera was and the weather, the entire time feeling uncomfortable because I had the option of leaving and going anywhere I wanted to go in the world unassisted and they did not. It was difficult wondering how much of my interaction would be gauged by the men as genuine and how often they might believe I was merely patronizing them. I am an honorably discharged veteran, but unlike these men, I had never seen combat when I was in the Army. As an individual who stretches my constitutional right to free speech to its limit on many occasions, when face to face with people who literally sacrificed their own well being so that I could be Curly Morris, I could not help but feel unworthy. It is incumbent upon us as American citizens to hold our government accountable at all times, that directive was mandated by the founding fathers. When the men and women who established this republic formulated the concept of a free and independent nation, the cornerstone of that ideal was that each individual has inalienable rights given to them by their creator, whoever that individual feels their creator may be. Our nation has a long track record of discord with nations who have exhibited an unwillingness to allow its citizens to live; vote and, yes, even worship freely. The basis for much of the rhetoric against Islamic fundamentalists who are being painted worldwide as unforgiving terrorists is their supposed intolerance for varying religious and social ideals shared by this and other democratic nations. Although I fully expected the backlash, I think that many of you would be surprised with the unwavering, polarized responses I received from some readers about last week's column. Some of the venomous rebuttals I received sounded eerily similar to the principles and ideals attributed to so called terrorists groups. My greeting at Post 7312 Saturday was in stark contrast to the majority of the responses I received from the general public. For the first time since I have been employed at the News Herald I found myself among fellow Americans who accepted me not for who as I was as an individual, but rather what my camera, my pen and my presence represented. It is why so many Americans throughout history have found themselves confined to lives most of us would shudder to imagine, requiring assistance for tasks we take for granted on a daily basis. Our nation is the poster child for dissention and the freedoms bestowed upon American citizens remain the primary lure of untold immigrants to our country every year. More than any other event I've had the privilege of attending, Saturday's event at Post 7312 inspired me and reminded me that there are men and women right now in a desert in Iraq, who disagree with me as much as many of you. The difference between them and us is that they are walking the walk and not just talking the talk. For as long as God allows them to walk and talk, whoever their God might be. (0) Comments

Posted: 5/7/2007 2:35:53 PM

Ahhh religion...finally

If there is an individual who is the Devil than it must be me because nobody is more dead ass serious about attacking organized religion than I am. While I belive that I was indeed created by a power higher than myself, I am sick and tired of listening to all of these asinine religions attempt to give us stories of God and his chosen messengers and the like. I tried very hard on more than one occasion to assimilate with both Christianity and Islam, but at no point in time did I feel as If I really belived. I was just going through the motions because I was scared NOT to belive in God. Of course most black leaders shut the hell up completely whenever I bring up religion and the relationship of the American Negro and Christianity. I lost any and all friends I may have had in the region when I dropped this one. Like I care. For those of you who might get upset about the piece...oh well. (0) Comments

Posted: 5/7/2007 2:20:43 PM

Daddy's Uniformed little Girl

This article originally ran in the Roanoke Chowan News Herald on Tuesday April 24 2007 Of all of the topics I have addressed in my columns, this one will surely create the most enemies for me. I bet however, this is the topic I will get the least amount of response from, and I'll explain why towards the end of the column. I had two epiphanies the other day while watching the world's reaction to the murders in Blacksburg VA last week. The first was that my three-year-old daughter Jamila has no clue who or what God or even the concept of God is. The second revelation that came to me almost immediately was that I'm not sure that I want her to know. While I know those statements seem blasphemous to the majority of our readers, I will now explain, finally, how I've come to that particular train of thought. I grew up in a time when attending Sunday School and church was pretty much mandatory for most families. When I moved to North Carolina the same ritual applied to my siblings and I as we made the trek to Indian Woods Baptist Church every Sunday morning to be taught the lessons of the gospel and Jesus Christ. Not long after leaving North Carolina to join the Army, I was introduced to the religion of Islam. Of the three major religions, Islam is the only one that I ever felt had a true pulse on the nature of mankind and what his relationship should be not just with our creator, but with the believers of other faiths as well. One of the reasons that I was so receptive to Islam was because after having Jesus forced down my throat as a child, anything that was outside of what I had been accustomed to was refreshing to say the least. Fortunately for me the religion of Islam almost mandates that its believers become well versed with the other two major faiths before they can comfortably say they have an understanding of God. In fact, Muslims know far more about Christianity and Judaism than those religions know about Islam, but that's not my point. My thirst for the knowledge of God eventually led me to conclude that all religions were man made attempts to explain the unknown and as they were all invented by men. I discounted them all and still do. My family still regards me as a Muslim even though I do not consider myself a religious person at all. I still pray five times a day, the way I was taught in Islam, but my prayers are to no specific entity, just to the universe as a whole. I do believe that some force greater than myself is responsible for my creation, but I don't think that anyone who wrote any of the so-called Holy books had a clue about who or what that force actually is/was. Personally I do not hold the writings of Europeans in the 13th and 14th centuries as the word of God, so that eliminated the Bible as a document rooted in fact as far as my studies concluded. As a man of color I figured that the only justification slavery was to assume the reason God allowed so many Africans to be stolen and made slaves in North America was so that Africans could be taught Christianity. That rationale comes from having traveled to the continent of Africa three times and realizing that all of the Christian Missionaries hovering around the continent are relatively recent in the great scheme of things. In other words, the slaves who were brought to the country were not Christians; in fact, over half of them were indeed Muslims who were forced to convert once they reached the plantations of America. Considering the state of Christian-Muslims relations today, I guess that made a lot of sense to slave owners. That dynamic pretty much put the entire concept of Christianity out of my mind forever. While I do not believe in any of the miracles attributed to Jesus during his life, I do believe in his existence and much of what he supposedly had to say. The fact that the Jewish faith pretty much looks at Jesus in the same vein that white America views Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says to me that followers of the Jewish faith are 'haters' so that took care of them in my opinion. So as I ponder how to introduce my daughter to the concept of a higher power, I do not have access to any answers directly from the creator, just versions of flawed men, in some cases severely morally flawed men. Which made me wonder if she's better off letting God reveal himself/herself directly to her without the aid of some 4,000-year old text that does not at all fit with the world as we know it today, or her daddy who doesn't believe any of the hype anyway. That prospect both intrigues and scares me. Our judicial system is bricked and mortared on the basic tenants of morality as detailed in the Ten Commandments (which, by the way, the world owes the Jews a big thanks for). But if those Ten Commandments are nothing more than the inventions of European slave holders and murderers looking to pacify the masses so they could continue to reap the benefits of aristocracy, then what validity do they actually hold? Where is our moral center; in the hearts of mankind or in the words mankind uses to profess to know the mind of God? Do I introduce the concepts of 'right and wrong' to my daughter as an obligation to an omnipotent being or as the best way to ensure survival of her family and the species? The reason this column will create a nice buzz is because I write for a newspaper that lies in a terrain of 'blind conviction' to religion and more importantly because religion is big business nowadays. I do not expect very much response to the column however, because anytime I speak candidly about my thoughts on religion, everyone just clams up. That, more than anything else, allows me to see the world for what it is more often than not, full of false prophets and I don't want any of them messing with my daughter's relationship with her God. Whoever that may end up being. (0) Comments

Posted: 5/7/2007 2:14:21 PM

You and your family are gang members...act accordingly

<> Free Image Hosting by ImageCave.com That is my daughter Jamila in the above picture. Her mother took that photo Tuesday afternoon. I hope and pray that Jamila does not end up in a gang when she gets older. Then again the problem is what does society consider to be a gang? I know in certain cities in America, three or more teens standing in close proximity is considered a gang. If that applied to all of America then most offices staffs, people standing in lines at banks, grocery stores all of that should be considered potential gang hubs. So why is it that society is so quick to classify our youth as gangs and do teens feeds into all of the attention? My column this week addresses the concept of an infrastruture that is deigned to perpetuate what is tantamount to slave labor. If I make it to next week...it'll get much more intense. Peace, Holla back! (4) Comments

Posted: 3/27/2007 11:49:41 AM

Local Politics: Am I the one that's tripping?

Free Image Hosting by ImageCave.com Idle minds, active playgrounds By Curly Morris Monday, March 26, 2007 9:17 PM CDT I know a guy who has lived a weird life. When he was in elementary school he received several dozen state writing awards and was touted as the next great literary genius. The kid spent his formative years growing up in what was considered the worst housing project in New York City, before his mother left his father and moved him to North Carolina. The young man eventually went on to attend one of the more storied institutions in the country and represented his country internationally in two sports before a knee injury cost him his athletic career. By the grace of his creator, the man eventually began associating with other individuals who helped him re-establish his passion and talent for writing and he eventually settled down in a small northeastern North Carolina community where he wrote for the local newspaper. What is not in this story is the tattoo the man has on his left shoulder that displays his former affiliation with a gang. The man was not just a member of any gang, but also a member of the gang, which federal authorities have determined to be the most influential and far-reaching gang in the United States. As difficult as it was to remove him from the lifestyle and culture of gang affiliation, the man never lost sight of how and why he ended up involved with people who introduced him to the gang lifestyle to begin with. Over the past couple of weeks, the man has read several newspaper articles about gang activity in the area where he lives and the plans local law enforcement and social groups have to address the situation. The man wondered why nobody ever called him about gang related activity but then he realized why. As the man watches, legions of so called experts in gang activity are preparing to descend on his region in an effort to do something about the escalating gang violence in the area. The man wonders what gangs these people are talking about. Are the rude and unruly children that attend school whenever they feel considered gang members now? They used to be called dropouts. Are the kids who's parents were sent to prison by a judicial system that has become a the fourth largest business in the nation, and has redesigned its statues to best allow the system to turn a profit at the expense of the nation's ghettoes considered gang members? Maybe the 15 and 16-year-old girls who started having sex with adult men several years ago are being labeled 'gang-bangers' by the Department of Social Services nowadays. Nevertheless the man doesn't have to attend any event where the experts will be because he knows how kids get into trouble, gangs or not. He knows how adults get into trouble, gangs or not. The man knows that gangs are not the problem of America they are the result. This experiment that we call America is rapidly coming to a place where some debts have to be paid. The man knows that the so-called gangs in this region are many times just disenfranchised children whose parents have been incarcerated for little or no good reason. Or children who come from homes where the parents received sub-standard education from some of these very same experts plan to speak to them about staying out of gangs. The local educational system has been a sham and has failed the region's children miserably. Worst of all, some of those people responsible for failing your children, still work for the school system. Brilliant! The school, the courts and the churches do the same things that so-called gangs have done and that is service their own. If your manner of reaching out to troubled youth is to convince them that your way is the right way and their way is the wrong way then you are completely wasting your time. These children have already watched how we all do things and they are certain that they do not want to be the minister who goes to prison for embezzlement or the judge or police officer who gets his or her kicks from locking black people up. There is also very little chance of any of these children being influenced by some educator from out of state who knows nothing about local culture. Today's children are not gang members (even if they think they are) they are members of a new army; an army that has spent the past two decades arming itself physically and mentally. If you want to retrain that army then you should direct your efforts at rebuilding your infrastructure to have activities that take this army's mentality into account, because you will never, ever, ever, change the way they see the world. You can change the world though, then it will look different to them and they might even respond positively. Since I have been here I have watched an $80 million prison go up and even more local funds being put into building an apartment complex for out of state teachers. That actually makes sense when you think about it. All we have to do is continue to fail our children academically. After they flunk out of school and start committing petty crimes we can let some local judge convince them to get their G.E.D. Of course the G.E.D. will not allow them to do much besides get a job that pays so little that you end up committing more petty crimes and then the same judge can send you to the new $80 million prison. Then, while you are in prison, your children can repeat the whole cycle, keeping both our judicial and penile system thriving. Eventually the state will decide that there are too many prisoners for it to manage, so they'll allow private companies to build prisons. Of course the prisoners will work for those private companies at these private prisons, and because the children of the prisoners are destined to become new labor, every Fortune 500 Company in America will soon be looking to build a private prison to 'help out' the state. Having said all of that, it appears that the biggest gang is the one hosting the seminar. Or am I just tripping? (1) Comments

Posted: 3/27/2007 10:32:02 AM

If you gotta be a monkey...be a gorilla!

Free Image Hosting by ImageCave.com My middle name must be f**k you...'cause everytime I'm the hood ni**as be like F**K YOU...I'll be dat...I'll bee dat...I'll bee dat...I'll bee dat Redman (above) wrote my theme song back in 2000 Since this is my own personal space in the News Herald, I will use it this one time for a shameless plug. If you need a great attorney that you won’t have to mortgage your home to pay for, call my man Louie Wilson in Murfreesboro; trust me on this. Now for this week’s column: The other night I was feeling nostalgic and decided to watch one of my favorite comedy films “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka”, the Keenan Ivory Wayans gem from the late 1980’s. In the movie, Wayans plays the main character Jack Spade who proclaims that every hero needs a theme song. Spade’s choice at the time was the song ‘Jack of Spades’ by rap group Boogie Down Productions. No mystery there, but it got me to thinking what would my theme song be if I could have a soundtrack follow me everywhere I traveled. After long and serious consideration, I narrowed my choices to ‘Midnight Rider’ by the Allman Brothers and ‘I’ll Bee Dat’ by Redman, eventually settling on the New Jersey rapper. For those of you not familiar with the rap artist Redman, a.k.a. ‘Funk Doctor Spot’, many of his lyrics are laced with profanity, so my theme song might be off limits for many of our readers. Of course after deciding on my own theme song, I made the effort to match theme songs with some of the people currently dominating today’s headlines as well as a few other people you might be familiar with. I’ll start right here in the offices of the News Herald. First up my editor, Cal Bryant. Cal is partial to the Marshall Tucker Band, which is a little odd being that they are from South Carolina and we all know how Cal feels about South Carolina. The song ‘24 hours at a time’ suits Cal just right if you realize that the woman in the song is named The News Herald. Other News Herald employees and their theme songs, Patrick Bryant – ‘Pimp Juice’ by Nelly, Thadd White – ‘The Way I Am’ by Eminem, Amanda VanDerBroek – ‘Leave Me Alone’ by Michael Jackson, Cheryl Manley – ‘Thong Song’ by Cisco (you’d have to ask Cheryl about that), Donna Jenkins – ‘Take this job and Shove It’ by Johnny Paycheck and finally Billy Harrell – ‘McDonalds and Mustangs’ by Billy Harrell (Oh, that’s not a real song? My bad). Today’s newsmakers: President George W. Bush – ‘How to Rob’ by 50 Cents. Has there ever been a bigger gangster than Dubya? I think not. Many Republicans say they don’t like the Democrats because they are a tax-&-spend party. On that assessment I’ll agree. President Bush is not a tax-&-spend president. At $500 billion and counting for an invasion on the country not responsible for 9/11 or home to Osama Bin Laden, he’s just a spend president (and a oil president and a death president and an elitist president). Newt Gingrich – ‘Who’s Doin Who?’ by 2 Live Crew. So let me get this straight, while Gingrich was telling the world how despicable of a human being Bill Clinton was for having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, he was having an affair with one of his own aides? Also, while Bill Clinton is impeachable for having an affair with one of his aides, Gingrich is brave for going public with his own affair? That’s the G.O.P. and their family values for you. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez – ‘What you Gon’ Do?’ by Lil John and the Eastside Boys. I never knew that the Attorney General was allowed to fire attorneys who did not see eye-to-eye with the president and his homeboys. In fact, the revelation that Gonzalez and his cohort Harriet Miers spearheaded this entire initiative is even more disturbing when you consider that President Bush had visions of the two of them being on the U.S. Supreme Court. Scary. Vice President Dick Cheney – ‘Who Shot Ya?’ by The Notorious B.I.G. No explanation required. Brittney Spears – ‘Bad Girl’ by Sinead O’Connor. Poor Brittney. It’s a long way back to the Mickey Mouse Club. Soon she’ll be known as Kevin Federline’s ex wife. At least her and O’Connor have something in common beside the haircuts, their careers are running parallel lines. Barak Obama – ‘Try Me’ by James Brown. Is our country really ready for a black president? Sure, and as soon as those 200 million snow boots arrive in hell, I’ll sign up for theology school. Hillary Clinton – ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’ by the Dixie Chicks. If Clinton makes it to the White House we may finally get to see the President of the United States slap a member of the U.S. Senate, that and the possibility of having an official feminine pad of the White House is enough to give me every column I’ll need for 2008 and beyond. John McCain/Joe Lieberman – ‘My Prerogative’, by Bobby Brown. “I’m a Republican, no I’m a Democrat.” “I support the war, then again, no, I don’t support the war.” “Boxers, briefs, wait a minute…bloomers!” Either of these guys could hold court in a nice presidential debate, with themselves. So, what’s your theme song? Holla back. (1) Comments

Posted: 3/21/2007 3:06:14 PM

National Politics: The Great Black Hope?

Is the United States really ready for a black president? Sure...wait I have to finish letting the pigs fly out of my butt! Check out the column below! Free Image Hosting by ImageCave.com As we watch the 2008 presidential election evolve into the inevitable brouhaha that we will have before us next year, watching Barack Obama being hoisted up as the great black hope has already begun to wear me down. I know you that many of you are saying; Sheesh Curly, are there any black candidates that you do like? Yes, unfortunately most of them are too good of people to consider running for a political office (drum hit). I like Obama; in fact I like him quite a bit. I would like very much to see him run for the U.S. Senate again or, even better, Governor of Illinois. The media’s darling candidate is obviously a very intelligent, insightful gentleman who has a good grasp on the pulse of the general public. He also has a Bill Clintonesque ability to make people feel as though he feels their pain and sees eye to eye with them. Those characteristics will surely work in his favor as his political future blossoms. Until recently, however, Obama has not enough political clout to think that he could get very much legislation passed. For that matter he has not had enough time in service dealing with many of the hot button topics that will serve as sound-bite-fuel for whoever gets voted into the White House, and his father’s last name is not Bush. Like any other black American, it is indeed a delight to see someone of color who knows enough about the game to garner the respect of the multitude of political pundits covering this historical race. Unfortunately, as much as I want to stand up and do a jig every time I see the Illinois Senator on television, I smell a rat. I do not see the Republicans coming up with a very viable candidate who could defeat my girl Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head race. Rudy Giulani? Please, if you think convincing the old heads in the Midwest and the south to vote for a black man or a woman is a hard sell, try getting them to vote for a New Yawk Italian, (pronounced eye-tal-ean round dem’ parts). McCain might actually be the best candidate currently in the field, but his waffling and flip-flopping on key issues are going to put him in a very precarious position at the GOP convention. Mitt Romney’s obsession with leading the public to heaven will be too much for many people to take seriously. Sam Brownback? President Brownback? Sounds too screwy. The best hope for the Republican Party is Barak Obama. I believe that in spite of the racial tension that still underlies much of our society, the relationship between whites and blacks is much stronger than the relationship between whites and any other ethnic group in America. While Clinton could possible steal the soccer mom vote from the GOP, Obama could weaken her enough to have democrats seriously considering a Gore/Edwards ticket, a ticket that a McCain/Giuliani grouping could easily slaughter. If the Democrats want to win the White House next year, they need to push, no shove, Clinton to the highest mountain in the land and stand firmly behind her regardless of whatever the right wing conspiracy (Clinton’s favorite enemies) throws at her. What I see with Obama is the illusion that the country is finally ready for a black man to represent us in full view of the world. I don’t care how many of them show up at Hollywood fund raisers and public rallies in support of ‘political soul brother number one’, I just don’t believe that tens of millions of white voters will close the curtain behind them on Election Tuesday and actually cast a vote for him. This not the television show ‘24’ and there will be no Keifer Sutherland character to call Obama and tell him in three decibels lower than everyone else around him is speaking to say “Mr. President, the good-old-boys are coming to get you, and by the way, do you have a throat lozenge?” The prospect of seriously considering either a woman or minority for the office of president is a concept long overdue, but in my opinion we’ll need black and female candidates in both parties to see the notion come to fruition. Next year’s presidential race is turning into the political equivalent of American Idol, and right now Obama is hot, hot, hot! But until a black man is arbitrarily welcome in the homes of white America physically, I don’t see him being welcome ideologically either. So, politicians have finally figured out how to use to black vote constructively, as a divider. So what’s new about that? Do you remember Rodney King standing in front of a podium trying to calm down rioting citizens of Los Angeles after officers who beat him senseless were aquitted in court for violating his civil rights? “Can’t we all just get along?” Yes we can all get along, as long as we keep our distance from each other. Which is why I don’t see Obama winning the Democratic nomination, let alone the presidency. Until white America recognizes social injustices and steps up to rectify it without the aid of black or hispanic citizens, there is no resaon to belive that the climate of racism in this country has gone anywhere. We have figured out how to get along, but that doesn’t mean we actually like each other. I know that sounds pretty harsh but it’s true. I have spent almost a year detailing the viewpoint of many black Americans concerning race relations in America particularly in this region. Honestly I do not feel as though I have accomplished very much at all. Aside from winning a writing award, I have not affected the mindset of my community. It might have been very idealistic of me to think that I could actually make a difference in society, even a society as small as the one we live in, but the reality of the situation is that the hatred and distrust that exists among black and white America runs too deep to fathom any sort of reconcilliation. I know most religious people belive there is an Armegeddon type of event on the horoizon (yeah, it’s called a meteor). That’s what it will take for people to begin to stand unified as human beings and not as races of human beings. If God almighty was to descend to earth today and proclaim that we must all learn to love each other or perish in flames, I think somebody better make a b-line toward the fire extinguishers. I told Judge Cy Grant last month that many times when I am asked to speak to groups, I feel as though they are not really concerned with what I think, I’m just the ‘talking monkey’ entertainment. I think that soon enough, Obama will begin to feel the same way. Peace ya’ll, I’m out. (0) Comments

Posted: 3/21/2007 2:43:37 PM

March 6th preview

I deal with a lot of black people in this region that want to stand up and jump around everytime they think somebody white has wronged them. That is the problem though, they are not concerned with the masses as much as they are self serving in their rhetoric. Me, I am anti-establishment 100 percent. I think that our judicial system is full of crap, our government is full of crooks and our society is wandering around like lost sheep being led to slaughter. We are at a point where revolution is neccessary, unfortunately we do not have the same type of soldiers living today that we had decades ago. Most of the so called black leaders today stood their asses in the background while real soldiers fought and died for their freedom. Now years later they want to stand up and shout as if they were revolutionaries when in actuality they were the background that survuved the 1960's and 1970's. I'm not impressed. (0) Comments

Posted: 3/19/2007 3:01:01 PM

Black Folks: March 6th column

Now that the holiday is over Some concluding thoughts now that Black History Month has come and gone. Last week a beautiful young lady caught up with me in MugShotz and told me that she was so happy that I did not have any allegiances with people here in the area. Her point was that I was free to write whatever I wanted, without fear of upsetting any of my friends. She is correct. I could name my friends on one hand and still have fingers left over. The main reason that I don’t socialize much is because I can only endure but so much hypocrisy, and the world has become exactly that in my view, a big ball of hypocrisy. If you know anything about me at all then you know I’m nobody’s choirboy. I never try to put on airs that I am someone ‘better’ or ‘smarter’ than anyone else, I just try to pay attention to what many people ignore and write about it. My travels across the globe as well as my life experiences, good and bad, help give me the perspective I have now. I share most of my fondest memories about the world not with the people in the world who are considered the elite or upper echelon, but rather with my brothers and sisters in the ‘hood’ who have not had the benefit of good leadership since the late 1960’s. I have been to the ‘hood’ on four different continents and guess what, the hood is the hood no matter what country that you live in. You see many, (I wanted to say most), black people who took advantage of the works of frontline soldiers like Dr. King, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Shirley Chisholm and others like them, began tasting the sweet nectar of the American Dream and forgot about the struggle in the ghettoes. Many of the leaders we have in front of us today are people who stood in the background while their brethren were in the faces of their oppressors insisting on change, dying for freedom. If they didn’t forget about the struggle altogether then they began categorizing the people who were on the low end of the totem pole as a lost generation, or just discounted them altogether. Which is why they have no chance whatsoever of reaching today’s youth. Once the kids in the ghetto feel as though you have elevated yourself above them, they no longer want anything to do with you; no matter how many programs or seminars you host, they will not change their viewpoint of society. They might not say it to your face because of course it has been suggested to them that they might want to respect their elders, but the disconnect between the haves and have-nots as well as black youth and black adults in this country has never been greater. Basically, black children look at the generations that preceded them and they conclude that all we did was get into bed with our enemies. A 17 year old high school student in Fayetteville told me last week that when he studied American history what jumped out at him was the way black people stopped fighting for what was theirs and decided to just go along with what white people thought was the right thing. The young man said he didn’t understand how black people got so deep into church and other aspects of American society when it was this same culture that was responsible for their enslavement to begin with. Whoa! This was a just a kid playing hoops at the local recreation center. From the mouths of babes huh? You see the war that blacks must fight right now is more internal than external. We first have to redefine what it is to be black in America, then lose stupid descriptive terms such as African-American, ridiculous concepts like Kwanzaa and vehicles for our perpetual demise such as Black Entertainment Television (which has not been owned by anyone black since 1999). Africans did not name their own continent Africa and the natives of this country did not name it America, so when you claim that term African American, you are claiming two names given to groups of people by Europeans. Kwanzaa is just flat out ludicrous from every conceivable vantage point, and trust me, if there was a station called White Entertainment Television, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be picketing them right now. The reason we have lost the youth is because we lost our culture, our history, our names, our religion and obviously our minds. We will never recapture the youth until we can show them the same passion, courage and willingness to wage war against every facet of society that contributes to their struggle. February is not enough time to accomplish even a smidgen of that effort, and in my opinion makes the concept of Black History no more relevant than ‘affirmative action’ when it comes to sheer effectiveness. As long as today’s youth feel that we are “sleeping with the enemy” then expect them to not only continue to rebel, but to get more organized and passionate about their rebellion. Just like some of you used to do. (0) Comments

Posted: 3/19/2007 2:49:35 PM

Response to Hulda's answer

Thanks for the response Hulda! I always have a problem when the answer to a question of Christianity is centered on an assertion made in the Bible. The problem of course being, for people who view the Bible as nothing more than another book created by Europeans to fortify their religious beliefs, why we would hold that book in any more authority than the Koran, or the Kabbalah? Personally I don't believe that the Bible is any more authority on the truth about creation than any book that you or I might write. The authority of the book comes from individuals who you would first have to belive were divinely inpired(?) to begin with, and I have no confidence that Paul, John, Matthew, Luke, etc. were anything more than old school versions of bloggers. Authority to me is what's evdidenced by the world we see in front of us. Indisputable fact, or at least what a rationale human being would ackowledge as closer to truth than conjecture. People of every religion can offer testimony to support the belief in their religion. Of course the glue to any religion is the concept of faith. I have no faith whatsoever in any of the major religious books that have been offered to the world. When I see a book fall out of the sky, not penned by another mortal, then I will start turning cartwheels. Until then, as long as there another human being's name on the book, then it is just more space filler in Barnes & Noble. As I belive that you are obviously a person of faith, please do not take my comments as an attempt to belittle your viewpoints. I just would like for more people of faith to understand that there are many people who see these religious books as "books written by other men trying to prove their point", nothing more nothing less. (5) Comments

Posted: 2/18/2007 7:17:35 AM

Response to Ariana'a rebuttle

I'm not as much disagreeing with Ariana, as much as I am attempting to state the fact that what Amechi did by coming out a week before the All-star game and years after he was a serviceable player does not at all represent any facsimile of heroism. If he had come out while he was playing then his bravery alone would have to be recognized, and in that instance I could understand the gay comunity taking a cue from Amechi for having the guts to present himself in that light aginst an obvious climate of homophobia. Still, what the deal with the book? It's like people who tell you they can predict the future; why not hit a few Powerball's instead of trying to dupe people out of 39.95? Amechi's "coming out" was to promote a book; and that makes him a hero. Lastly, I don't care how the world looks at it, nobody is supposed to care about another individual's sexuality to begin with, so keep your mouth shut and be yourself. The gay community has tried to corner the market on the whole "He Hates Me" syndrome. Please...do what you do, nobody cares if you keep it to yourself. I deal with gay people in every walk of life which I'm involved in. Sometimes in the course of my job, I interview gay people. The topic of their sexuality never comes up, they do what they do and I do what I do, and it does not affect either of our ability to do our jobs. I do not at all agree with this connection of heroism and "coming out". Stright people talk about their sexuality in public all of the time, it's called pornography. The homosexual communty needs to give it a rest and stop trying to "Cash In" on their sexuality. Okay, Curly Morris is finally "coming out": I am a straight guy. I'm also a minority. Well, where's my applause. (3) Comments

Posted: 2/18/2007 6:57:25 AM

Everybody wants to be a hero

Who is the hero now? As soon as I heard about Tim Hardaway's comments about gay people, I immediatly knew that brother was in for hell in a handbasket. While we do have the right to free speech in the U.S., this is a country that is bricked and mortored on concepts of tolerance and freedom for all people. Timmy Crossover's position as a public figure requires even more diplomacy than the regular Joe Smoe on the street. I'm sure that if TH had taken three breaths before speaking he might have thought more wisely about what he said. All that being said, I think TH was firing the first shot of the counterattack. The counterattack that says it is insane and unproductive to the moral fabric of our society to glorify any individual and tab them as a "hero" for deciding to publish a book that essentially is a self absorbed tribute to their sexual preferences. Since when did "coming out" make you a hero? Obviously it doesn't take much to be a hero nowadays. So what John Amechi is gay? I personally wouldn't care if he held tea-parties with blow up dolls dressed as Margaret Thatcher. What a person does in the privacy of their own bedroom is not my concern. I don't think it's TH's concern either. But like TH, I get sick and tired of this concept that the homosexual community has some sort of shared suffering with minorities in this nation. I am in favor of hate crime laws that punish people for abusing anyone because of race, age, religion and even sexual preference. Enough with the homosexual community continuing to pander for the sympathies of the public like they were being burned at the stake in old world Salem Mass. The debate over whether or not an individual can be born gay will probably go on forever. So what? People are born without limbs, born with mental retardation, born deaf and born blind. When was the last time you heard of a person with Down's Syndrome being touted as a hero in the media? Which is a shame because people who have to overcome lifelong physical disabilities would have much more inspiring books for us to read, and for the media to blast all over front pages. But no, an able bodied former millionaire (soon to be a millionaire again) gets touted as a martyr because he decides that being gay amongst his friends and family wasn't enough. Amechi felt compelled to write a book about it and then to compund the hypocrisy, appear on every network posible to tell his story. Amechi's story is not at all unique. Millions of gay people live their lives the same way, cross dressers, B & B enthusiasts, swingers and heterosexuals live their sexual lives...in private. I now know this for a certainty, TH would not be the best person to negotiate a peace deal. His lack of diplomacy and rational thinking has been recognized now by everyone. Even more importantly, as evidenced by John Amechi's name being blasted all over the media, the world has started looking for heroes in all the wrong places. (2) Comments

Posted: 2/17/2007 5:27:16 AM

So many poets

I see there are quite a few poets here. My first book was comprised of 95% poetry with some fiction mixed in there as well. I also had four previously unpublished authors have their poems in the book so they could have at least one book credit. Below is one that many people told they enjoyed. I hope you do as well. I have thousands, literaly. I may do another poetry book later. (2) Comments

Posted: 2/15/2007 7:26:01 PM

Poem from New Word Order Vol. 1

No greater lover of beauty than I I beseech thee, allow me an ear "Art is suffering" My heels bear the blackened scars of countless tours thru purgatory This conspiracy against my very essence, is as much inside of my mind, as it is not inside of my mind. I feign fortitude. The diaphonous weapons I implore against my demise at the hands of caretakers, denigrate themselves as I stand idly by. Never did I have cause for optimism, not as a gainer of "things". In a physical sense I only found solace in peripheries of multiple bosoms, Excess in flesh, inspiring excess in spirit, surely no greater lover of beauty than I. Alas, my headrest will speak of the curses I spewed upon the weak, the attempts upon my life by the unworthy. At times I existed as a dragon, unworthy creatures would have had me slain, if it were not for the plot of the Gods themselves for me to speak on their behalf, for they cower at the judgements of men. I speak, due to their cowardice, and for that I became relegated to a most severe punishment. Still I encounter amusing thoughts at their expense, the only recompense against such foul beings as Gods Surely, no greater lover of beauty than I. I will allow my echo to bellow across the dunes and dungeons, if it pleases you, do not stoop to thank me for I do not give my tongue in earnest gaiety. But rather as capitulation of the relationship thrust upon me by light of life itself, as witness to the grand symphony, forced to summarize all that I have been privy to observe. The only console is Surely, there is no greater lover of beauty than I (1) Comments

Posted: 2/15/2007 7:23:59 PM

Today's article

I have been wanting to discuss black people and Christianity for some time now, but I have held off because I knew as soon as I did, that would effectively be the end of me here at this newspaper. But right now, I'm tired, stressed out and probably going to jail tommorrow, so I really don't care. My own people are sucking the lifeforce right out of me. The least they can do is listen to the truth...again. Enjoy, or not. (2) Comments

Posted: 2/12/2007 7:50:06 PM

Black Folks: Ya'll listen to your uncle now, ya'hear?

"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence." Fredrick Douglass It took me almost two weeks to realize that it was Black History Month. It's not like the signs weren't everywhere, for me to see, it just took me a minute to recognize them. God knows I should've known after watching the Super Bowl last week. Every announcer covering the event reminded us of the historical significance of having both the first and second black coaches to ever lead their teams to the big game. Unfortunately, I heard it so much that it began to sound like corporate sponsor jargon. The racial spin was only a day away from having its own logo. The month of February has kind of become that way to me. I know there are Valentines Day, Black History Month and Lincoln's birthday. It is also the month in which Fredrick Douglass was born, the man who the holiday was created for. (Did I just call Black History Month a holiday?) Dr. Carter G. Woodson, creator of Black History Week, which eventually evolved into Black History Month, said he wanted to honor the birthdays of Douglass and Lincoln, as the two men had done so much for the black community. What most people do not know is that Lincoln was actually in favor of a plan to send slaves back to Africa. That's not where I'm going with this right now, so I'll leave it alone. Did you know that both Lincoln and Douglass were both members of the Republican Party? (More food for thought that I will get to at a later date) What's on my mind right now is the confusion that this month causes me, and why it's so easy to take it as passé in today's climate. You see being black in America is not as easy as it might seem, mainly because of the identity confusion. Black History Month is designed to celebrate the history of African Americans, and the group that will lead the charge for celebrating it is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Can you understand my confusion? My freshman year in college my roommate was a guy named Craig Aiken. Craig was a white kid with flaming red hair and freckles. Craig was also a native of South Africa, so that would mean if he decided to marry an American woman and gain citizenship in this country he would have to be considered an African American right? He would certainly be more of an African American than me. I'm sure that wouldn't go over too well at Howard University or Morehouse College if Craig tried to assimilate with the current students who consider themselves African Americans. It's sort of like the sons and daughter of slaves adopting the religion of Christianity, I just don't get it. If a religion is beat into your grandparents, who fought and died to vigorously hold on to their original culture and customs, you would think that as soon as there was an opportunity to do so, their kin would reestablish their communities with the customs of their forefathers. I'm done with that concept however, because we're too deep into the church game to even consider trying to seek truth about this matter. I find this particularly strange because we managed to come up with this ridiculous concept of Kwanzaa to substitute for Christmas. Do you know why there is no African version of Christmas? Because Africans didn't celebrate Christmas! Also, since we're on black history, understand that there are 53 nations on the continent we know as Africa. Each of these nations has their own customs, traditions and history. If you were to meet someone who was born in the country Nigeria or Egypt he or she would not introduce himself or herself as African, they would say that they are Nigerian or Egyptian. Still, the "African" tag blankets every concept that involves the ancestors of American slaves even though many people of color in this country have either Caribbean or South American ancestry. It's not that we don't desire to have some connection with our origins; it's just that we aren't really concerned with making a true connection. While many blacks want to put forward the impression of wanting to represent the group of people who endured slavery on this continent, we usually stop far short of truth. I understand, nobody wants to rock the boat too hard. I mean it has already been a hard fight to get this far, having to assimilate with a culture and mindset that views us as second-class human beings. Good jobs, nice homes and clothes and college degrees made the struggle not one to return to concepts indigenous to the original slaves, but rather one of inclusion into the mainstream. They are, in fact, two different struggles. I read somewhere that when assisting with the television version of his monumental book Roots, Alex Haley struggled with a particular scene. It is one of the most memorable scenes in the movie in fact. When the character Toby, played by John Amos, is presenting his newborn daughter to God he refers to God as Allah. Haley was afraid this reference to he what he found to be the religion of his ancestors might alienate him from the majority of black Americans who had placed themselves solidly in the religion of Christianity. Of course, blacks just ignored that part of the movie and moved on. Like I almost did Black History Month. (1) Comments

Posted: 2/12/2007 7:47:37 PM

02/06/2007 column

The day the music died On many occasions I receive e-mails or phone calls telling me how brave I am to address certain topics in public. While I do appreciate the sentiment, my feeling is that I am not necessarily courageous for speaking the truth. I would be failing myself if I kept quiet however. Unfortunately, most of the time I don’t feel as though my readers are actually paying attention when I do approach a sensitive topic. So I’ve begun addressing my columns in more depth in my blog, which you are free to read at http://curlymo.newblog.com. Understand that these are extensions of my column not endorsed or edited by the News Herald. I am a product of the original hip-hop generation. While growing up in the Bronx, I watched the birth of rap music before there was ever a rap record. I knew all the early pioneers of rap as they used to come perform in my housing project on 143rd and Willis Avenue. My block in the Bronx was no joke; I watched my father get stabbed once and collapse right in front of my brother and I as he tried to make it to the fire station. My friend Lamont and I had to jump out of the way of bullets when two guys were shot to death in the lobby of my building when I was ten years old. I saw a woman who was just in a car accident get shot in the head by the driver of the car that she hit, in a case of road rage that almost turned horribly wrong when the shooter turned his gun and pointed it at me and my friends who happened to be onlookers. Fortunately for us he decided not to shoot, but rather try and make an escape. When I hear today’s rap artists claim to be hardcore, I don’t feel the same authenticity because most of today’s youth violence is generated by drug culture gone awry. I explained in the Column “The Beef Bacon Theory” how the cocaine trade is facilitated by the U.S. Government, which makes mandatory sentencing a double slap to minorities (read about it on my web page). There are still some rap artists with something positive and or insightful to say and if any of you were inclined to listen to them you’d be surprised at the level of awareness displayed by some of today’s rappers. Case in point check out this gem by The Roots on the song “It don’t feel right” “Children working weapon producing, natural disasters got the planet in a panic, but ya’ll go to make that livin’ sex, drugs, murder, politics and religion, forms of hustlin’, watch who you put all your trust in, world-wide we coincide with who’s sufferin’, who never had jack and ain’t got nothin’ but most are strugglin’ and if you want to run up in the (explicative) with guns on for a piece of the cake back, if I can’t work for it, I can certainly take that, I’m fired up thinking about the pay back ASAP, You mess around and be an enemy of the state black. Ill, but that be too real for T.V., It’s crazy when you too real to be free, If you ain’t got no money then steal the CD, Listen man I let you know how it feels To be me.” That’s poetry. Poetry which explains the way many disenfranchised youth view the world around them. I opened my first book with a poem call “Absird Speaks”, which sums up my experiences in this life, particularly the United States. “I get sick of big brother’s English, so I speak slang and Ebonics, creating new organisms with electronics. Everybody else is hooked on phonics, Brainwashed by the devil, Upset with me because I’m level. They say that I’m insane, They use morality to penetrate my membrane, It’s psuedo culture, I swoop down just like a vulture, A bird of prey, leading the way, For all of those the status quo would slay. They’re all fanatics. I use literary acrobatics to preach my sermon, So it can’t be decoded by the vermin, The unaware, that would stop and stare at my light, Telling the animals they’ve got the right, To speak, opposing thumbs got them feeling weak. I guess it’s in the scripture, But before words there were pictures, And they told a different story, and the end was not so hunky dory. So who knows more? The preachers or the writers? The teachers or the humorist reciters? I see ya’ll at the concerts flicking lighters, But I’ve got eternal flame, And soon you will all know my name.” Now that’s music, to somebody anyway. Peace, holla back. (0) Comments

Posted: 2/7/2007 3:52:39 PM

Local Politics: Concerning the rumors

I keep getting asked about the pictures I supposedly took before X-mas of a local L.E. officer purchasing drugs. IF those rumors were true then there is no way those pics would be anywhere in North Carolina right now, so stop asking about them, also, that has nothing to do with why I was in traffic court a few weeks back. I have had people doing a lot of slow driving around my house recently. At first I thought it might have been Elvis fans :) but somehow info about the alleged pictures got out, so I can't continue to be silent about the allegedness, because of course if that GANG decided to put a hole in my head there's not very much that I could do to stop them. So understand that IF I had some incriminating pictures the best thing for me to have done was contact some other agency so if I come up missing, someone might come asking questions. Of course that's all a real big IF, and if IF was a spliff.....well you know...Right now I fully expect that recent threats against my well being are more than just the rambling of ignorant fools. but it's cool...That's the main reason I was advised to go public with the blog...Ya'll know where I live...and everybody knows how people are down here...but don't get it twisted...I'm still Curl..nothing has changed...good looking you know who...peace... (1) Comments

Posted: 1/29/2007 3:34:07 PM

National Politics: I think you all just don't care

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." Martin Luther King, Jr. Of all the columns I've written, none was as important to me as "The Beef Bacon Theory". Guess what? Everybody ignored it. Let's clear something up here...in fact I will caps the next sentence so maybe you'll remember what I was talking about. THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT IS HELPING TO FACILTATE THE INTERNATIONAL DRUG TRADE! PURPOSELY! Whew...all that screaming. Our judicial system is being bricked and mortored on the backs of young black males in the ghetto. We have created a system in this country where the feds go cut deals to get drugs brought into this country by giving certain Columbians and Afghans free reign to travel with dilpomatic immunity. This is usually traded for future access and/or information at a later date. Then in order to pretend they care about the tens of millions of people who get high on the drugs they bought into the country, they pass legislation to make the police appear tough on drugs. Then they recycle drug users and dealers in and out of the system making them pay as they go in order to support the network of baby sitters they employ to manage the "druggie" until they are ready to move them to a private prison where they can then make them work for pennies on the dollar. It is, in fact, the new slavery. I know many law enforcemnet officials who I think deep down are good people. But I don't hear a single one of them fighting mandatory sentencing or private prisons. Americans continue to get force fed spin versions of the news to portray the drug problem in the hood as national problem How do you think the drugs get into this country? Who the hell do you think is bringing all of the guns into the US? The answers to these questions are so obvious and evident that it boggles my mind that so many people just shut up about it. I guess that's the punk in them. The reason my brother left law enforcement is because he said that after a while he couldn't stomach the hypocrisy anymore (he has a B.S degree in psychology and a masters in socialolgy). Day after day after day, the system continues to push more and more young blacks throught the system, spending tens of millions of dollars on a so called war on drugs. But nobody can spot the 20 BILLION TONS of drugs that manage to cross our borders every year. I can't walk down the street and spit without getting arrested, but somebody is bringing boat-loads of coacine and heroin into the country everyday anD nobody sees it? Over 10,000 guns are bought into the US illegalLY EVERY MONTH and nobody sees it, but they can find "trace weed" in a water bottle at the airport. I have no choice but to go along with the police when I get arrested, I don't have the money to "buy justice" that's why a person like me can get 2 years if 30 dollars of dope is found in my car. See if I had 30 TONS of dope in my car I would get a federal escort and a sweet lawyer to help me sue the city if someone searches my dope truck. There was a new prison built just down the road from my ofice. The prison is filled with black men, and guarded by black women (mostly). Most of those prisoners were arested by black police, sentenced by black judges, and baby sitted by black probation oficers...and somewhere, the white man who flew the plane to get the dope overhere is laughing his ass off when he asks his cousin the Senator, or the Governor or the business mogul how's the war on drugs going. Oh it's going just swell if you're playing both sides of it. "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." Martin Luther King, Jr. (0) Comments

Posted: 1/28/2007 10:42:48 PM

National Politics: The truth no one wants to hear

Finally, the beef bacon theory Thanks to all of the people who took the time to respond to last week’s column, “Where did all the bones come from?” The most unexpected response came from a 14-year-old boy in Texas named Drew who pretty much took religion to task for failing to produce any tangible evidence of an omniscient supreme being. Drew acknowledges the existence of one or more higher beings, but is more convinced of the existence of dinosaurs than the Son of God. The best response came from M. Hart, who called me out for baiting my audience into a set of facts that are challengeable themselves, primarily the assumption that dinosaurs and mankind co-exited. Thanks for all of your responses; you guys are great. Now, the moment I have been waiting years for. I present to you, my ‘Beef Bacon’ theory. Growing up, my father never allowed us to eat pork. So I grew accustomed to searching for beef bacon whenever I wanted to add some traditional symmetry to my breakfast meals. If you live in a part of the country where is there is a significant Jewish or Muslim population, then finding non-pork products is not too difficult of a task. More often than not, rural areas of the country especially in the south and Midwest would not stock beef bacon on their shelves. It’s the ‘supply and demand’ theory; if there is no demand, why bother keeping a supply. Fast forward to 2002 when I was a shift supervisor at a hot dog manufacturing plant. I witnessed first hand the distribution network necessary to facilitate our company making the beef related specialty products we produced, and the multitude of individuals needed to make that distribution work. Consider that right now, all over the country, there are restaurants, schools, prisons, airplanes, hotels, street vendors, hospitals and supermarkets that are delivering hamburgers, steaks, hot dogs and ground beef to consumers upon demand. Can you imagine the manpower needed for that type of effort in the U.S. alone? Let alone the entire globe. In 2005 the US imported nearly four billion pounds of beef. In order for a steak to make it to your dinner table it takes farmers, truck drivers, slaughterers, more truck drivers, manufacturing plants, more truck drivers, USDA agents, Federal import and export agents, cargo ships, dock workers, supermarket employees and advertising companies. Still, it is still not economically feasible to put beef bacon on most supermarket shelves. Yet, I have never been anywhere in the United States of America where there weren’t crack dealers. Now explain to me how if all the aforementioned labor force cannot manage to get beef bacon into the majority of US markets, the government would have me believe that “Pookie” and “Junebug” managed to get crack to infiltrate the entire nation? The U.S. is always talking about a war on drugs; really, where? There is no war on drugs; there is a war over drugs. I could spend four pages detailing Afghanistan the Taliban and their connection in the international drug trade, but I’ll digress because that story leads right back to the White House and I know that you would rather hear about the great job we are doing in Iraq. The amount of cocaine that comes into this country would boggle your mind. That’s why when I hear about four law enforcement officers (minimum combined salary ($80,000) recovering three grams of crack (maximum sale value ($60), I don’t jump up and down and say whoopee. The United States judicial system is profiting off of the drug trade like Budweiser at a ‘tractor pull’. The system of Border Control, DEA, local task forces, beat officers, sheriffs and deputies, district attorneys, defense attorneys, probation officers, rehab specialists, drug treatment clinics, D.A.R.E. program officials and whoever else that has specialized careers that focus on controlled substances is a self perpetuating cash cow. The system ‘re-ups’ with probation fees, bond fees, court costs, lawyer fees, confiscated vehicles and property seizures. The system keeps its primary labor force through, mandatory sentencing, specialized appointments of black judges and believe it or not, Black Entertainment Television. Everybody is getting rich off the backs of young black males in the ghetto. Sort of like slavery huh? Now don’t get me wrong, breaking the law is breaking the law. But when the methodology of enforcing any law allows for officials to create a police state in the part of the equation that is on the low end of the economic pie of the industry, you have to wonder who decides to not pursue the ‘big dogs’ of the drug trade? Do American citizens actually think that the hundreds of millions of dollars that are spent on drugs in this country only come from ‘the hood’, where the annual income for a family of four is less than $18,000 per year? So here is your word problem for the class ‘War on Drugs 101’. If it takes 10,000 people and 500 government officials to put beef bacon in 35% of the country; how many people and government officials does it take to put cocaine in 100% of the same country? Here’s another one. Since the courts have deemed that cigarettes are addictive, occasionally fatal and purposely made to be that way, then why don’t we have a war on tobacco? Last time I looked, it was growing and being picked and harvested in fields all around me, just like drug dealers. (0) Comments

Posted: 1/28/2007 10:23:16 PM

White Folks: I is sho sorry I sayd dat massuh

White people luvvvv for me to talk about my own community, but God forbid I turn the mirror back on them. Oh well. (0) Comments

Posted: 1/28/2007 10:21:34 PM

White Folks: Next time I'll wear a robe and sandals

This suspect always fits the description After three months of working for the News Herald, I have finally found a regular lunch spot. I will refrain from saying what eatery it is that has caught my fancy, but I will say this; in this heat, an all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar is not only good eating but also smart eating. Nevertheless, I was doing lunch the way I do most days, solo, and two white women came to eat and were seated two tables away. As they got up to visit the salad bar, one of them paused, glanced over at me and went back to her table to retrieve what looked to be several dollars from her purse and tried to inconspicuously slide them in her pocket. Let me explain something clearly, bigotry is not something that can be explained or understood, it can only be experienced. Most people I know are not bigots, but quite many are indeed prejudiced, and that goes for blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics. Comedians, especially black comedians, have made a living telling racially charged jokes. The basic premise is that blacks have a right to address racial issues in jest, because of the understood suffering blacks endured in the early inception of our nation. Most white people make every attempt to stay clear of racial jokes, at least in the company of blacks, for fear of being branded a racist and having to endure the public backlash of a liberal media. Unfortunately, dodging racial tensions have become more difficult and important than the underlying process that allows for racial stereotypes to develop in the first place. Did that woman really think that I was going to get up from my table where I was having lunch to go steal some piddling dollars from her purse? For those of you who are accustomed to seeing me dressed like LL Cool J, on this particular day I was actually wearing slacks, a polo style shirt and brown oxfords. I was also reading a book that I had borrowed from Thadd; a book written by a nationally known white sportscaster whose picture is on the cover. So let me get this straight, this woman looks at a man having lunch, wearing slacks, shirt and shoes, reading a book with a white man on the cover, and she was afraid that I was going to steal from her? Sure, but the question is why? I understand this dynamic, sort of. I like to think that I’m a smart enough person to know that the color of a person’s skin does not indicate anything except possibly the race of their parents. In this week’s News Herald we’ve already run stories about a home invader, a bank robber, a road rage murderer and two wannabe drug kingpins, all of whom were described in part as “a black male”. Again, I understand this dynamic, sort of. I wonder however if instead of a ‘black male’ at the table, it was North Carolina House Speaker Jim Black and former state representative Michael Decker sitting there, would she have been concerned about either of them stealing from her? From what I’ve been reading lately, she should’ve been. The differences between people primarily lies in perception, and perception is based on a person’s knowledge. If that knowledge is formed by years of academic study, good family values and interaction with varieties of people, then the perception of that person will probably be influenced by brainpower. If that knowledge is passed down from other individuals whose perception was flawed due to their lack of intellectualism, then you’ll get what bigots of today have to offer. So for the sake of creating a new perspective that doesn’t make articles like this appear controversial, let’s replace the word bigot with the word flawed, and let’s call non-bigots regular. I’m accustomed to dealing with flawed people as much as I’m used to dealing with regular people. I went to college in Nebraska, where blacks total only two percent of the state’s population. Most of my career has been spent in management or administration where my minority status doubles as soon as I enter the building. So what have I done to not be turned into flawed person? I don’t know, it never seemed to occupy my mind long enough to even care. I just accept the fact that there are flawed people in the world who will dislike me for things that I have no control over. The restaurant situation isn’t the only time in recent months that I’ve been obviously sized up and graded before I’ve even opened my mouth, but it is the one incident that has left the worse taste in mouth, because all I was doing was having lunch. (0) Comments

Posted: 1/28/2007 10:17:27 PM

Black Folks: Let niggas just be niggas?

Yo homey, peep out my column Okay, this is not going to be very pretty. When I refer to the ‘n’ word, I’m pretty confident that most of you know what word I’m referring to, so let me jump straight into it. A few weeks back I was at a high school taking pictures of the football team practicing. In one area of the practice field the quarterbacks, four black kids, were doing some drills, while a white coach stood by and monitored them. As I approached the area where the players were doing their drills I could hear their conversation, and I was both ashamed and appalled. Here’s a sample of what the kids were saying, paraphrased of course; “Yo man, that ‘n’ had on some new Jordans, they were hot.” “For real? ‘N’ I want to get me some of those new black joints.” “Man I know this ‘n’ that got like all the new sneakers and the sweat suit that goes with them.” “Yeah man, that ‘n’ be ballin’ yo.” Now keep in mind that this conversation took place in front of a coach and a newspaper reporter, and it never crossed either of these kids minds that what they were doing was socially unacceptable. The ‘n’ word was tossed around like confetti in front of a white educator. As sad as I was to have to hear that conversation during an official practice, it was even sadder watching the white coach having to endure that conversation and try to act as if it didn’t bother him. I’m sure that the coach, who was probably in his mid-forties, has watched an entire generation of black youth evolve into something significantly different than the black kids he grew up with. When that white coach was an student in school, he probably watched black kids work their butts off to prove that they were intellectual equals to their white counterparts. The need for acceptance into ‘White America’ was a driving force behind the process of creating equal opportunity for blacks in this country. Early civil rights pioneers worked tirelessly to educate their children in spite of substandard educational opportunities, so that future generations would be judged for their minds, and not the color of their skin. There has been an effort by corporate America for some time now to incorporate the new “hip-hop” culture into promotional initiatives, as corporate America has recognized how much money black people are willing to spend on ‘fly-by-night fads and items that exacerbate the ‘gansta’ mentality. So when I recently got wind of a grant that a local school was interested in obtaining that would be used to teach educators the rules of “Ebonics”, I was disgusted to say the least. For those of you that don’t know, “Ebonics” (which by the way I’m forced to capitalize on my word processor), is defined by Dictionary.com as “Black English”. Let me repeat that, Ebonics is defined on the leading online dictionary as “Black English”. So this push by educators in several areas of the country is saying what exactly? That white teachers need to be taught how black people speak so that they can teach them better? I don’t know if that is more insulting than it is stupid, or vice versa. The last thing that black kids today need is a free pass from having to distinguish when and where they might want to be cognizant of proper speech. I’m sure that Buddy’s Pool Hall and Joe’s Car Wash might let you get a job without having learned the proper annunciation of the English language. If you want career as a doctor, lawyer, police officer, teacher or, for that matter, a door greeter you might want to brush up on traditional English, and maybe buy a suit. Do I think that the educators who attempt to introduce these types of grants and programs have less than honorable motivations when they speak about how great it would be if white teachers could talk jive? No, it’s just another case of how disconnected from the reality of the declining social etiquette of black kids, and further attempts to dumb down the system to allow more numbers of kids to pass through and receive whatever additional grants and funding that come along with higher numbers. Sort of like EOG exams, another brainstorm of somebody that had no clue on how to properly educate children. EOG exams do not come close to articulating what a child has retained in school or whether or not they have developed any social or cultural skills. It is a test that says simply, ‘if you pass this test, then you pass this class’. It’s funny how the leaders of our educational system put so much emphasis on exams that they themselves never had to take to get where they are today. If you think that my obvious passion about this subject is a bit overboard, I invite you to visit a couple of web sites that offer Ebonics dictionaries and Ebonics translators and you will quickly understand my ire. Black kids today don’t need to be told that if they don’t feel like speaking properly it’s okay; the teacher will learn to speak like them. What they need is to be made to understand that it is imperative for them to learn as much, if not more, about the proper use of language as their white counterparts, as they are already starting the race from the back of the pack. Don’t do these kids any more favors trying to recreate educational systems that incorporate the lesser dynamic of the black experience. I know several dozen black men and women with the letter PhD in front of their names and they had to learn English properly and as soon as possible. Comedian Chris Rock once said that he would hear white people talking about former Secretary of State Colin Powell saying things like ‘he speaks so well ‘. Rock’s assertion was that is something you would say about a monkey, not a college graduate. How was he supposed to speak? Oh that’s right, with Black English. (1) Comments

Posted: 1/28/2007 10:16:12 PM

National Politics: My man Dubya

I spent quite a bit of time slamming president George Bush last year. I don't think that Dubya is the worst person in America, but he's trying. What he has done to our nation in my mind is impeachable at best, and treasoness at worst. Of course where I live, many whites are in the minority politically so I had a bunch of rednecks and white supremist bloggers try to throw me under the bus whenever I spoke about their hero. But I knew that sooner or later the American public would get tired of his lies and arrogance. It's just too bad they let him Rummy and Cheney make so much blood money before making a change. If the Democrats want to really regain the public trust they will figure out a way to bring Bush and his cronies up on criminal charges. I know black men that are doing several dozens of years for one murder, Bush is responsible for tens of thousands. But because he does it while siting in the oval office, not only does he get away with it, but he has people rallying behind him. George Bush has been my measruing stick to determine the true nature of many people who I've met since I've been in North Carolina. How so? Okay watch this...for all of my white readers...if I told you that no matter what the evidence says, no matter how thorough the police investigation may have been, no matter how absolutely to the contrary to his own story every fact that was laid out in front of me suggests, I still don't think O.J. had anything to do with those murders; what would you think of me? Exactly. That's what I say when you try to defend this president. (0) Comments

Posted: 1/28/2007 10:12:26 PM

National Politics: He only lies when his lips move

Stem cells, sleeper cells, and jail cells “Many of us believe that wrongs aren't wrong if they’re done by nice people like ourselves.”-author unknown I can tolerate a liar more than I can tolerate a hypocrite. People lie all of the time, sometimes the lies are just bigger than others. Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, both lies. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, lie. “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit”, lie. “Iraq has stockpiled weapons of mass destruction”, lie. Law enforcement officers hear lies most of the time they are on the job. They usually ignore them and proceed forward until they get to the truth. The Merriam Webster online dictionary gives two definitions of a hypocrite. The first definition says that a hypocrite is a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion. Since the first definition of any word in a dictionary is traditionally the most commonly accepted version, I’ll stop right there. For anyone who has staggered out of a nightclub at 5 a.m., took a nap and went straight to church wearing the same clothes, don’t worry, I’m not picking on you. The president of my home country, on the other hand, has some issues I’d like to address. On Wednesday, President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would allow increased federal funding for new stem cell research. “This bill would support the taking of innocent human life, in the hope of finding medical benefits for others,” Bush said. “It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect.” This is the same person that oversaw 153 executions as Governor of Texas. DNA evidence suggests that at least 10 of those executed under Bush’s watch were innocent. Somewhere, over 39,000 civilians killed during our occupation of Iraq are cringing in their graves. I assume those deaths do not cross any supposed moral boundary since the majority of our House and Senate gave permission for our nation to go bomb Iraq (based on a lie I might add). The House and Senate are supposed to be representations of the American public, so in theory it was all of us who agreed to go to war. It’s funny how we as a society manage to find ways to condone killing a human being on one hand, but claim the same action under the guise of medicine or religion to be an inalienable right. Why did we go to war with Iraq? Religion disguised as terrorism. There are some Muslims who don’t like the United States and feel justified to attack us in order to please God. Why is there war between Israel and Lebanon right now? Religion disguised as property rights. Muslims and Jews have had a hate-hate relationship since the two entities decided that God deemed each group as chosen people. What is the justification for the United States to bomb and declare war on foreign nations? Manifest destiny disguised as religion? In an interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson, President Bush said that he believed that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. I find it interesting that the president would claim to share a God with Muslims, and not Jews, but has aligned our nation with Jews in a war against Muslims. Even more interesting is that nobody seems to mind the hypocrisy. Most religious people claim that the same Supreme Being created everything in heaven and on earth. So at what time did that Supreme Being start choosing favorites and giving permission for some countries to drop atomic bombs? Crash planes into buildings? Or pull the switch on an electric chair? The hypocrisy of our society lies in the weird dynamic that exists between the death penalty and abortion. On one hand, it’s not okay to kill someone, but it’s okay to kill someone who kills someone. The US government allows for abortion to be considered a medical practice and does not prosecute abortion doctors for murder. Yet the courts will execute any person who kills an abortion doctor. Our country condemns nations for developing weapons of mass destruction then uses weapons of mass destruction to keep other countries from developing weapons of mass destruction. I assume there is a book somewhere that I have not been privileged to read named “Murder Etiquette 101; When God gives permission to kill.” If you stumble across a copy please tell me where I can pick one up. Then I can tell when I’m being lied to, when a hypocrite is speaking, or when God said it was okay to take a life. Right now I’m a little confused. (0) Comments

Posted: 1/28/2007 10:04:03 PM