Congratulations are in order on day 21 on what is truly proving to be a history-making ”year of firsts” for the “first two Black head coaches” to reach the Super Bowl in the entire history of the National Football League.  On day 4 of February 2007, Chicago Bears head football coach, Mr. Lovey Smith, will face off against Indianapolis Colts’ head football coach, Mr. Tony Dungy, in the Super Bowl championship game during Black History Month!!  What’s so astonishing about thisunparalleled accomplishment is the fact that never ever before has any National Football League team had any Black head coach to lead a galvanized group of gridiron gladiators all the way to the Super Bowl.

As evidenced by their history-making accomplishments, Mr. Smith and Mr. Dungy learned to “choose their battles wisely.”  Yet another massive paradigm shift will occur on Super Bowl Sunday that will lift the unduly burdensome veil of ignorance off the eyes of all who honestly believed a Black man lacked the “intellectual acuity” and leadership skills to excel, succeed, and lead a National Football League team all the way to the Super Bowl as a head coach.  I don’t know about you but I feel inspired to continue my relentless pursuit of the big dreams and great things I pray will bring my family and me peace, love, joy, and happyness. 

Gotta go celebrate such a great accomplishment and momentous occasion and thank God our generation witnessed first-hand the day two Black Coaches became Super Bowl Bound.  Kudos to Mr. Tony Dungy and Mr. Lovey Smith.  Suffice it to say, I’m a little overwhelmed right now because yet another unduly burdensome weight has been lifted off the shoulders great men whose skin just happens to be darker than a brown paper bag.  For right now, there’s not a whole lot left to say about Mr. Dungy and Mr. Smith achieving their big dreams and accomplishing great things that were both long overdue for all the wrong reasons.  Matters not who wins or loses the Super Bowl championship game, somebody’s bound to make history on February 4, 2007.

If you’re interested in reading more about these two Black Super Bowl Bound coaches, clicking on the words “choose their battles wisely” will take you to part two of my say about this history-making day during this awe inspiring “year of firsts.”  Until we meet again, may the peace of God be with each of you today.

©Copyright 2007 by Roderick O. Solomon.  All Rights Reserved.

On day 20 of 2007, the inexplicable shooting of Kathryn Johnston, an elderly, 92-year old Black woman killed by undercover police officers executing a “no knock warrant” in Atlanta, Georgia, reminded me that social injustice anywhere is still a very clear and present danger to justice everywhere.  It’s also just as true today as it was yesterday that a  lie will never outlive the truth.  Maybe now, somebody with the power and authority to tear down the infamous “blue wall of silence” once and for all will listen to our cries for justice before another grandmother tries to protect her home and ”dies for nothing.”  Never again must the darkside of Big Daddy Blue be allowed to erect what has long been an unethical, albeit legally acceptable, obstruction to social justice in order to protect the illicit activities of the complicit police officers who perpetrate the unchecked hate they hide deep inside the heart of their soul under color of law as they patrol inner-city neighborhoods.  Enough Is Enough!!

Oh. Please don’t get it twisted.  As evidenced by the ending of today’s poetic essay, this is not a sweeping indictment of “all” police officers who dress up in blue since my sister and brother-in-law are both police detectives in another city.  Until we meet again, may the peace of God be with each of our teammates and every police officer who hates “racial profiling” and the collateral damage of social injustice by honoring their duty sworn promise to protect and serve all God’s people matters not the colour of that great person’s beautiful skin.

BIG DADDY BLUE PARTS I & II  

My God, that could’ve been you Big Daddy Blue kept beating while lying face down on the ground with no help in sight.  Can it be that all those pugnacious police dressed down in blue would’ve also accused you of “resisting arrest” had you fought back that night?  But isn’t fight or flight behavior just a normal, self-protective human reaction to flee a clear and present danger once our adrenaline begins to rise?  Big Daddy Blue is just a metaphor to symbolize the darkside of humanity that’s often protected by the violence of the blue wall of silence or some clever, unethical accomplice wearing a judicial disguise.

Community outrage on one side motivated the powers that be to employ the damage control tactics they escalated as Big Daddy Blue walked on egg shells and talked about erecting the blue wall police officers slid behind to keep protecting each other.  Nevertheless, Big Daddy Blue was finally caught out of control under color of law, while viciously beating up on an unarmed brother.  Exposed by a video, Big Daddy Blue finally knew how it felt to have no safe place to hide, as all the right people watched in utter disbelief the brutal images a white bystander recorded that night.  Thank God white community law enforcement officials finally saw Big Daddy Blue’s unlawful, incriminating behavior once the truth got exposed by a “ghetto bird’s” illuminating spotlight.

Black and Brown people will continue to take a bold and courageous non-violent stand against the violence of Big Daddy Blue’s unethical code of silence because the police brutality the whole world saw perpetrated under color of law must always be controlled.  Since “we’re not normal,” is this the type of excessive force that will replace the outlawed choke hold?  Big Daddy Blue, if Rodney King’s beating was nothing more than a so-called “aberration” as alleged by the police chief, can the victimized and traumatized children who fear you expect this vicious beating to be the last?  It makes a middle class white person who doesn’t live in South Central L.A. wonder just how often such inhumane treatment has occurred in the dark annals of Big Daddy’s past.

No wonder a little child cries out, “Big Daddy Blue is coming!  Black man, if you wanna live, you’d better run for you life!”  Instead of joy, peace and tranquility filling our hearts, killing actually innocent Black men and women produces the rage that permeates the air so swiftly as social injustice keeps cutting up justice with a jagged knife.  Big Daddy Blue, how would you explain to a little child why Black and Brown people are still racially profiled and prejudged by the skin covering their hand?  Since our generation is much stronger and wiser than the last, it is no longer optional that Big Daddy Blue treat Black and Brown people with dignity and respect because it is now a written formal demand!

Before closing, galvanized Black and Brown people realized that we failed to acknowledge all those police officers who chose to keep their promise to protect and serve all God’s people that don’t deserve our angry flak.  It’s difficult to separate the good cops from the bad cops who hate Black and Brown people after watching the darkside of Big Daddy Blue try to use a lie to justify such a brutally vicious attack.  The community activists and civil rights leaders must have the presence of mind to thank those kind and courteous police officers who never go astray and honestly endeavor to also protect and serve the poor.  Besides, none of us wants to rob any police officer of the just due good cops deserve since the unenviable task we often ask you to do can be a thankless job that takes courage and copious quantities of nerve since only God knows what danger awaits you behind every closed door.

Black and Brown people will exercise our free will to respect and salute those police officers, who treat poor people fairly, equally and bravely, as they take a gunshot in the chest nobody hopes will pierce their bullet proof vest just to make it safe again for little children to walk the street.  For reasons now known, grown folk with gray hair will pray everyday that God will protect your precious souls against unforeseen dangers, as you courageously take the heat from the bad guys and patrol your beat.  Hopefully this wasn’t the first heart-felt “thank you” good police officers like you will hear for your sincere efforts to protect us, even when tempers flair and it appears that nobody cares as your patience runs thin.  Native Americans will be quick to tell anybody wise enough to listen that one must never prejudge another person unless and until they have walked a mile in their moccasins.

©Copyright 1991-2007 by Roderick O. Solomon.  All Rights Reserved.

On day 19 of 2007, many of us are beginning to discover for the first time that digging deeper will reveal the main reasons why the excruciating bite Pain takes keeps growing stronger and lasting longer.  As we help each other climb higher, it may also surprise you to discover that you can feel another person’s pain.  Only God know why some people can see another person’s tears long before they begin to cry and know what’s wrong with their lives.  Intuition.  Discernment.  Empathy.  Call it what you may, but pray that God gifts you with the wisdom and understanding to know how to help heal the broken hearted.  What I saw inspired me do what I could to help make a difference.  Since I’ve had been tagged as one with the “gift of gab,” I began to volunteer for career day events.

Spending my free time learning how to work with the children who lived in an urban environment so violent made me cry in my secret place after many of my speaking engagements.  I remember how I felt upon discovering that one too many children living in South Central L.A. found no safe place to play.  I can’t begin to imagine how little children must have felt when forced to find a safe place to whittle away their time after the O.G.s, “Original Ganstas,” came back to reclaim real estate their blood stained hands never built.  The children in L. A. taught me more about myself than I thought.  So I wasn’t surprised when my precocious 2-1/2 old daughter started doing the same thing once she started to speak.

Today’s revised message was originally penned in ’93 to challenge the O.G.s who thought “gangstas could stack enough cheese to make the world go round.”  To avoid losing, the real “menace to society” will hit a red button that will split the atom of humanity’s global village in half to ensure nobody else can gain control of the real estate human hands never built.  L.A.’s O.G.s didn’t have to tell me why they kept forgetting that their never-ending bloodletting wouldn’t stop until they had cancelled each out.  Only God knows if the insanity of an O.G.’s win-at-all-costs slave mentality drove Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell to start railing on each other while our ailing society is failing.  Only God knows why both Trump and O’Donnell began to funnel so much wasted energies and the “lost dignities” they tossed like a bad hairdo down a dead end street.

O.G., WHAT UP WITH THAT?
Excuse me sir, but please explain why strong men like you still believe that “busting a cap” is what you call “fundamental?”  Do you really believe that killing each other during a drive by or joining a street gang is the only way to survive in South Central?  Do you feel no shame when you blame exploitation films and “gangsta rap” for glamorizing street life or are we just too dumb to recognize a strategic setup?  Can it be that your need for money, power, and fame became the mental poison Greed designed to keep strong men like you from comin’ up?

O.G., what up with that?
Can it be that “O.G.” is also an appropriate title for the “powers that be” who believe all men with skin darker than a brown paper bag are up to no good?  Why aren’t there enough strong brothers like you with enough influence and common sense to stop shooting up each other’s neighborhood?  Imagine what will happen once streetwise gangstas like you realize where great things and big dreams always start.  Why not put your heads together to create the spiritual synergy needed to transform street knowledge into the wisdom that will still the wheel of the self-destructive behavior that’s tearing our communities apart?

O.G., what up with that?
“Living large” doesn’t give streetwise O.G.s any right to disrespect wise women, shoot innocent children, kill real men with vision, or slang kilos of deadly blow.  Why not check yourself instead of laughin’ at that nice lady in that “white house” who didn’t know children needed a reason to “Just Say No!?”  Since O.G.s like you didn’t cry when children kept dying for nothing, Buppies refused to justify their decision to abandon their drug-infested community.  Since drug money only escalated the violence grandparents hated, the Black elite stopped reaching back and giving back to the scapegoated “boys in the hood” who never got diplomatic immunity like the wealthy, white collar O.G.s could.

O.G., what up with that?
Can it be that many of us are just like that thirsty horse who, when led to fresh water, stubbornly refused to drink?  Can it be that money, power, sex, and the material things success brings make O.G.s like you refuse to raise the level at which we all must think?  Can streetwise warriors like you drop some street knowledge and explain why you still “kill against God’s will” and refuse to begin within so that no child of God has to do without?  Besides, the children “Crumb Snatcher” deceived believed they wouldn’t live to see their twenty-first birthday unless they can push the red button “first” and cancel each other out.

O.G., what up with that?

— To Be Continued —

©Copyright 1993-2007 by Roderick O. Solomon. All Rights Reserved.

Congratulations for getting up and showing up on day 18 of 2007.  Although I also got up and showed up, I failed to finish the message orginally planned for today.  Writer’s block?  Maybe.  Trying to hard?  Possibly.  If you also failed like I did to finish what you started today, don’t beat yourself up.  At least you got up, showed up, and took another step in the right direction.  Doing so was a choice you didn’t have to take, but you did it anyway. 

So you won’t walk away empty-handed today, here’s something from, THE LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE COLLECTION™, I penned in ’93 for you to think about.

CHOICES

Over the years, haven’t you noticed how some people manage to carve out a path around, over, or through life’s unforeseen obstables and learn how to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones?  There are those of us who would rather kick back and allow other people to do all the work until Curiosity compels them to blindly follow the beaten path just to see where it leads.  There are those of us who have a never ending love affair with sleep and eventually wake up wondering where in the world everybody else went.   

There are those of us who refuse to waste precious time listening to the deceptive voice of Procrastination and choose to do today what can’t wait until tomorrow.  There are those of us who expect other people to do more than what we should already be willing to do for ourselves until we end up chasing the fleet-footed horse of Momentum.  Finally, there are those of us who will always get stepped on because we’re too busy standing in the way of the people getting out of the way of the great men, women, and children now leading the way.

As we “keep on steppin’” towards our goal of “making our biggest dreams come true” and “achieving great things“ during this “year of firsts,” may the peace of God be with each of you until our blended, extended family of culturally diverse people can meet again. 

©Copyright 1993-2007 by Roderick O. Solomon. All Rights Reserved.

Congratulations to all the diligent, resilient souls who got up and showed up on day 17 of 2007 to inspire each other to keep digging deeper and climbing higher than before when we didn’t know better.  I challenge each of you to join hands as we stand tall on the strong shoulders of our ancestors and form a symbolic ”spiritual hedge of protection” around all the innocent children with “no safe place to play” during such a violent season as this.  To give all God’s children hope that they will live long enough to birth their big dreams, I challenge all who dwell under the rising and setting sun to end their prolonged betrayal of silence about Iraq and tell President George W. Bush,

“We The People” don’t want to study war no more!!

Reading today’s entry will explain the reasons why I used the boundless gift of creativity, poetry, and photography to nullify the power of the true lie that compelled one too many young people to lose hope and unwisely choose to ”die high” instead of wisely choosing to spread their wings and fly like an eagle.  In 1992, I refused to embrace the true lie that every beautiful Black face I saw in South Central Los Angeles was a ”menace” to an “artificially stratified society” that had deliberately failed to edify the same God-fearing men with “skin darker than a brown paper bag” one too many self-deceived souls now called an “endangered species.”  Besides, God was still sitting high, but low, to ensure great people like you would know what to do with the huge mess Anger, Hate, and Injustice created.

After the “civil unrest” that rocked L.A. in 1992, a galvanized group of men from First A.M.E. Church, under the leadership of Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, walked the streets of South Central to take back our neighborhoods.  Our individual efforts varied according to the diversity of spiritual gifts and talents God blessed each of us with to fulfill our Father’s sovereign will.  For example, I met Dr. Bernard Kinsey while he was employed with Xerox.  I’ve always respected and admired this great man for utilizing his exemplary leadership skills to help steer the efforts of “Rebuild L.A.” through unchartered waters.  Mr. John “Hope” Bryant, a fellow member of F.A.M.E. birthed “Operation Hope” out of the ashes God traded for beauty.  Mr. Bryant focused much needed attention on the unmet financial needs of the South Central residents.  The practice of ”red lining” repeatedly denied many of these great people meaningful access to the same conventional bank loans with low interest rates that L.A.’s wealthy residents frequently enjoyed. 

Suffice it to say that U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters and former U.S. Congresswoman Diane Watson were just two of the great women who rose to the occasion, stood side by side with a galvanized group of great men, and chose to speak truth to power in love until somebody listened.   Although my military training and management experience taught me the basics about leadership, I learned so much while observing and working under a plethora of highly effective leadership styles.  What appeared to be just another painful moment became a meaningful moment as I stood amongst all the spiritual giants who kept writing “reality checks” that divisive spin doctors, politically correct power brokers, and disingenuous law enforcement officials kept sending back stamped “insufficient funds.”  

After the police officers who beat Mr. Rodney King were found “not guilty,” one too many of the impoverished residents of South Central L.A. felt that one too many powerful people sitting in influential positions of power had betrayed their trust with their prolonged silence about the truth.  All this pent up resentment and unresolved anger erupted at “ground zero” and spread like an unabated brush fire.  Meanwhile, one too many of the deceived members of violent, diametrically opposed street gangs believed the pervasive lie that “bustin’ a cap was fundamental” if they honestly expected to “survive in South Central.”  Alas, one stray bullet after another stopped hitting their intended targets and started killing the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the next gifted generation’s promising leaders.  It was perplexing to me back then to discover some of the underlying reasons why so many powerful people sitting in high places lacked the power and authority to stop the violence from erupting. 

It was also ironic that so many of the young children living in South Central L.A. didn’t trust the emotionally detached police officers swearing with one hand to protect and serve the same smiling faces they kept racially profiling under color of law with the other as their parents drove back and forth to work or church.  The tragic events of this eye opening experience became one the defining moments in my life that shifted my “petrified paradigm” about what the word “leadership” really meant.  As stated in a previous entry, I started reading books about leadership and learning how to develop the leadership skills that literally got birthed in the blazing fires that symbolized the darkness of the hopelessness Despair creates.  My traumatic ground zero experience gave a new meaning to the religious phrase, “baptized by fire.”   

I recall sending out a press release with the heading “ALL BLACK MEN DON’T GANG BANG!” with every word in the body of my release in ”all capital letters” before a trusted friend informed me that doing so symbolized that I was “yelling” every capitalized word.  Was I angry?  Yes.  I had heard that 1 out of every 4 Black men belonged to a gang or participated in some form of criminal activity.  So, I sat down and penned today’s entry about the other three Black men who also felt minimized, criminalized, and demoralized simply because they “fit the description.” 

THE OTHER THREE 

Are you a man of colour who, by the saving grace of Almighty God, has lived long enough to see at least three decades come and go?  I, like many, never had to gang bang to survive, partake in any illicit criminal activities, serve hard time for a violent crime, or grow up in an inner-city hood or the ghetto.  But this doesn’t make any of us better or give the middle or upper class the right to pass judgement on those who must live with the adverse consequences of the  choices they never personally selected.  Contrary to the popular belief of a few, only one out of every four Black men we meet on the street may be hangin’ out with Bad News and Trouble for failing to become inwardly instead of outwardly directed.

So, what about the other three Black men who seem to be ignored by society or trapped between oppressive hands of myopic men still trying to suppress their desire to excel?  How many falsely arrested Black men have mistakenly “fit the description” of the one out of every three deceived souls who believed a “true lie” and instead of heading up to college found themselves going down to jail?  How many actually innocent Black men did Injustice deny equal justice under a fatally flawed law to ensure eyes focused on a prize only saw the dark side of the moon?  No wonder the successful few who knew the truth that made captive souls free often reminisced about eighteen hour days they never missed when oatmeal, or no meal, kissed many a parched lip instead of the shiny tip of a silver spoon.

Despite a pervasive prejudicial belief that turned every Black man into a thief, hard work doesn’t frighten dark-skinned men with character but the prospects of finding honest work where the other three aren’t considered liabilities range from none to slim.  Would the same profiteers who profited at the expense of another human being for hundreds of years curse God and die high if every day of every week of every month Opportunity’s door remained off limits to them?  By grace will the truth that made the other three free also enable the guilty one to understand that when Adversity closes a door, the mighty hand of the Great Architect can create a window in the thickest of walls.  Besides, how long can a house divided by a true lie and built on the sinking sand of bipartisan division resist the mighty winds of Change before its very flawed foundation crumbles and falls?  Think about it.

In closing, challenge the great people you meet on the street to ask the Great Architect on high to gift our generation with the tools our noble hands need to stop the violence so heart-broken parents can stop crying over all the innocent children “dying for nothing.”  How many more children must die with big dreams still inside their gifted souls before their generation knows how it feels to stand tall on all the strong shoulders of ancestors now turning over in their graves?  I don’t know about you but one more deceased child is one too many.  Matters not the colour of that innocent child’s skin.  Besides, according to Acts 17:26, aren’t all the great women and men who populate humanity’s culturally diverse global village just one big dysfuntional blended extended family?  Think about it. 

©Copyright 1992-2007 by Roderick O. Solomon.  All Rights Reserved.

On day 16 of this “year of firsts,” I will challenge you to spend some quality time in your secret place having a quiet talk with our Father as you ponder the possibilities of what our galvanized generation of great people can achieve with God’s help once each of us stops repeating the self-defeating cycle of our own self-destructive behavior.  It still works for me.  As always, don’t take my word for it.  Challenge yourself to start each day talking to God before getting up and showing up as you keep walking in peace and working together with the rest of us who still have great things and big dreams to achieve.  Doing so during such troubling times as these will keep you from losing hope when things go wrong.

Before and after the civil unrest that torched South Central Los Angeles in 1992, I loved mentoring young children, creating artistic photographic images to change the way “invisible people” saw themselves, and writing many of the inspirational poetic essays you’re reading this week to inspire great people like you to “keep risin’ after every fall and steppin’ out the darkness.”  Many of this week’s poetic words were inspired by what I observed while walking together in peace with a great group of godly men as we worked together for good to take back the neighborhood “pusherman” tried to destroy with the debilitating street drugs flowing into the veins of L.A.’s inner city via boats, planes, and trains pusherman didn’t own. 

When a generation of critically thinking women and men asked the billion dollar question that demanded an answer about who grew all the toxic plants needed to produce crack cocaine, transported the dirty money that financed the wars Uncle Sam fought, or flew all the illegal street drugs pusherman pumped into the life support system of this great nation, the answers we sought never came. The double standards, hypocrisy, and bigotry I experienced while living in L. A. inspired me to design, create, and publish the 1994 calendar, LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE, “Begin Within So You Won’t have To Do Without.”

Before taking another step towards your destiny, ask yourself what self-defeating self-destructive behavior do you keep repeating year after year because you refuse to face your biggest fears about what always follows seasons of Change?  Are you still smoking too much, drinking too much, or eating too much?  Why?  Most of us already know that a clear sign of “temporary insanity” is doing the same thing this year we did last year while expecting a different result.  As Dr. Phillip C. McGraw of the Dr. Phil Show would say, “How’s that working for you?  Quick question.  Who or what is hindering your God-given  ability to face your biggests fears and embrace Change?  If you think you don’t know, check out some of Dr. Phil’s probing, thought-provoking books from the Book List found at the top of this site’s Home page.

Innocuous is the word of the day.  By now, you already know what to do next.  Until we meet again, may the peace of God be with you on day 16 of 2007.

AS WE STAND 

The skyline is black, kissed only by the light of the moon.  Pusherman has just awakened so he’ll be comin’ ’round soon.  Lord, why must another great person die before this problem can come to an end?  Why must another afflicted and addicted friend lose the capacity for their brain to comprehend?

As we stand watchin’ from our windows, it’s so hard to understand how pusherman can incorporate addictive drugs into a deadly business plan.  Is it really a question of survival or is it just pusherman’s selfish greed?  Can it be that pusherman is helpin’ Momma with hungry mouths to feed?

As we stand listenin’ to the gunshots, we kneel on bended knee.  Lord, we pray that you are listenin’.  Please hear our desperate plea.  Lord, grant us the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding we need to figure out a better way for pusherman to survive. Please lead us to what we need so our generation can end the violence before all the street gangs arrive.

As we stand, big tear drops flow from tired and weary eyes.  Drug addiction and colours aren’t the reasons why our unsung heroes and sheroes sacrificed their lives.  What happened Lord?  Dr. King’s big dream musn’t end this way.  Please don’t let us fall as we stand atop the strong shoulders of all who died before birthing their dreams of a better day.

©Copyright 1990-2007 by Roderick O. Solomon.  All Rights Reserved.

While attending Wichita State University, in Wichita, Kansas, I received my first “F” ever in life during my freshman year in 1975-76 after my English 101, or 102, teacher rejected the book report I proudly submitted about the one man who gave me the courage to stand up and speak truth to power in the spirit of love.  Mind you, I had never received anything less than A’s or B’s in any of my prior grade school, junior high and senior high school English classes until that day.  My myopic teacher erroneously presumed and alleged that writing about my outrageously courageous unsung heroe, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had no “educational or redeeming value.”  

My arrogant antagonist promptly suggested that I consider writing an acceptable book report about Mr. Benjamin Franklin.  In response, I refused to do so and took my grievance to the Dean of the English Department.  What a colossal waste of my time that course of action proved to be since I received no help.  For the remainder of that semester, I “boycotted” my English class.  Before the semester ended, the Dean contacted me to inform me that if I took the final exam, whatever grade I received on that test would be my final grade for the semester.

After praying about me dilemma, I declined the disingenuous offer of my antagonistic teacher. Besides, I knew they were only setting me up to fail.  Had I refused to take a stand during such a crucial age and critical stage of my development, I would still be falling for anything thrown my way today.  From that day forward, I spent most of my free time in libraries and book stores reading to learn and teaching myself what I needed to know to “rise above the oppressive rim of mediocrity.” 

Reading the book, A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by James M. Washington, will reveal copious reasons why I’m asking each of you to join hands with the person next to you as our galvanized group of great people stands together on bended knee to honor the king of a man who “died for something” when so many “lived for nothing.”  Oh.  Did you notice the italicized word for day 15 of 2007 in the previous paragraph?  Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!!

IN HONOR OF YOU  

On day 15 of 2007, men, women, and children humbly come to honor and give thanks to a king of a man who never let success blind him to the struggle of others.  We thank God that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a big dream and never said, “Since I struggled to get mine, you must now struggle to get yours,” or forgot to lead the way for the rest of his sisters and brothers.  How long would the light of hope continue to burn bright if nobody else decides to teach anybody that reaching and teaching is one price that we all must pay?  It is our prayer that they day will never come when the haves no longer care about the have nots and, unlike this king of a man, forget to lead the way.

The sweet smell of success never gave this brave king of a man amnesia about the long hard road from whence he came.  For many years, this great man of vision believed he had a responsibility to reach back and teach others how they could also do the same.  Imagine our different our lives would be today if our ancestors became blinded by  jealousy, anger, hate, or fear and couldn’t see the light of day.  Imagine living in a world where Everybody felt like Nobody cared about Anybody and, unlike this king of a man, decided that Somebody was better qualified to lead the way.

Would time stand still if Nobody came to ring in the new because Everybody was still too busy ringing out the old?  If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, would Anybody remember that Everybody must reach back and find Somebody to grab hold.  Thank you, Dr. King, for having a dream about the day where Anybody can expect to be treated equally by Everybody and live peacefully with Somebody in a fertile land where Nobody’s civil rights are denied and there’s “equal justice under law” for all.  Besides, how long can Anybody conduct business as usual because Nobody challenged the status quo to stop prejudging Somebody by the colour of their skin before Everybody suffers a great fall?

For reasons now known, grown folk and little children honor a king of a man who didn’t allow negative thoughts, hopelessness, or his fears of violence silence him or cause him to fall over the same stumbling blocks that caused Everybody to stumble up and down the wrong track.  We thank Dr. King for becoming part of the solution Nobody had by teaching Everybody how to turn Somebody’s stumbling blocks into the stepping stones Anybody could use to find the way back.  Because of Dr. King, the light of hope still burns bright so Anybody who sees it will reach one and teach one until Nobody forgets to inspire Everybody to help Somebody do the same.  Father, thank You, for letting Dr. King’s hindsight become our generation’s foresight, for gifting him with the ability to lead by example, and for blessing him with a dream that kept Everybody from forgetting from whence we came.

©Copyright 1992-2007 by Roderick O. Solomon.  All Rights Reserved.

During week number 3 of 2007, please all me to share a few stones of remembrance written early in my writing career to inspire those of you who aspire to become great writers and published authors to pursue the profession or career of your choosing passionately.  If you choose to do what you love to do, the money will follow as you excel and succeed.  Each day this week, I’ll share a different poetic excerpt from THE LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE COLLECTION™, “Begin Within So You Won’t Have To Do Without.”

LEAVE ME ALONE 

Look, didn’t I tell you the other day that my final answer is still no, no, no, a thousand times no?!  Like a bad dream, disappear, go spook yourself, and until you can respect self, find someplace else to go.  You’d be better off talking to that brick wall because you can’t force me to terrorize my neighborhood.  Besides, don’t you feel stupid wasting precious time killing each other while fighting over turf and colors, always up to no good?

Mommy and Daddy taught me to become better, not bitter, to respect human life, and said gang banging wasn’t right.  It would break Mommy’s heart if, by choice, I ever had to kill another woman’s child behind some silly fight.  She works too long and too hard to worry about me every time a strange car goes speeding by.  Besides, does it ever bother you to hear about all of the innocent children who die when stray bullets start to fly?

Why don’t you just leave me alone and like all snakes, find some rock to crawl under until you get some dignity and pride?  Can’t you find honest work or use your time to get an education the streets will never provide?  The next time you see me, act like a slow car cruising in the fast lane, move over, and let great people like me pass.  Until you clean up your act, and deicde that you’re going to be somebody, get out of my face so I can hurry back to class.

Paternalism is the word for you to incorporate into you personal and professional conversations on day 14 of 2007.  Until we meet again, may the peace of God be with each of you as we keep walk togethering in peace and working together for good in the neighborhood where we live and give the great people we meet on the street nothing less than our best.  Struggling to love each other unconditionally on a daily basis even when we don’t feel like doing so will continue to test our faith.  But do it anyway.

©Copyright 1990-2007 by Roderick O. Solomon.  All Rights Reserved.

Congratulations!!  Great men, women, and children like with great weaknesses like ours exercised our free will to get up and show up on day number 13 of 2007 because we still believe we can achieve great things with God’s help.  Struggling to do the same thing the same way everyday may be boring to your pessimistic peers who are still snoring as they toss and turn in their beds like a hinged door.  Since only God knows the reasons why they failed to get out their beds today, please exercise your free will to love these great people anyway.  But, those of us who struggled to get up and show up even when we didn’t feel like doing so now know the reasons why choosing to master the basics and the fundamentals of life now will give each of us the inner strength of character we all need to excel and succeed later.  Besides, birthing big dreams wasn’t supposed to be as easy as birthing little dreams.  As stated earlier this week,

“where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” 

Did it encourage any of you to learn that “a faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted?”  Quick question.  For those of you who struggled to get up and show up for the past 13 days, what did you do for the “first” time this year that you failed to do too many times last year?  Digging deeper inside the heart of your gifted soul this year so you can keep climbing higher than ever before last year takes a lot of courage.  No wonder lying to you about yourself will still impede your God-given ability to excel and succeed until you achieve great things.  Quick question.  How well do you know yourself? 

In anticipation of meeting and greeting the rest of my blended, extended family members who populate humanity’s culturally diverse global village, I must spend the rest of this day completing all the behind the scene tasks in need of my attention.  As promised, I have prepared and posted the document detailing the “stones of remembrance” from my yesterdays that still profoundly and divinely impact the choices that will determine which battles I fight and which paths I walk during this unpredictable ”year of firsts.”  Click the “ABOUT” button on the HOME page.

Until our galvanized generation of great men, women, and children can meet again, here’s something to think about as you read about the place from whence my humbled soul came as I stand before you on bended knees ”naked and unashamed.”  “If failure always chooses to follow the rocky path of least persistence, which path will great people who still believe we can achieve great things with God’s help always choose to follow during such a season as this?” As you slow your roll and think about your answer, remember the truth that

“doing the impossible is still nothing to God.”

Ubiquitous is the word I challenge you to incorporate into your personal and professional conversations on day 13 of 2007.  May the peace of God be with each of you as we walk together in peace and work together for good.

©Copyright 2007 by Roderick O. Solomon.  All Rights Reserved

On day 12 of 2007, a recent email from another teacher inspired me to take a moment to stand up and tip my hat to the great women and men with the inner strength of character and the “courage to teach.”  Let’s publicly recognize the exemplary, steadfast leadership of Ms. Marva Collins, who founded the Westside Preparatory School in 1975 as one of the many unsung sheroes who had the courage to teach the impoverished inner-city children of Chicago’s Garfield Park she valued enough to transform children public school authorities labeled as “borderline retarded” into respected scholars.  As documented in 1996 by the CBS program, 60 Minutes, and Ms Collins’ biography, “a little girl who had been labeled as borderline retarded, graduated in 1976 from college Summa Cum Laude.”  The Marva Collins Story starred Ms. Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman and first aired on television in 1982.  Ms. Marva Collins has always had my vote for “Secretary Of Education.”  Cast your vote and let me know who you believe deserves a nomination for 2007’s “Teacher Of The Year.”  The word for today is “Pedagogy.”

According to her bio, Marva Collins “graduates have entered some of our nation’s finest colleges and universities.”  Children once labeled as borderline retarded have “become physicians, lawyers, engineers, educators, and entered other professions.”  Imagine how different our lives would be today had it not been for that one underpaid, under appreciated unsung heroe, or sheroe, with the courage to teach.  During such a violent season as this, one too many of our teachers have thrown in the towel or have grown tired of trying to teach the uncooperative few who marred the educational experiences for one too many children.  Imagine all the possibilities that would happen if the annual salaries our teachers made matched the salaries we pay grown men to play athletic games and entertain us.  It’s fundamentally unfair to force a public school teacher to teach children who grow up and make more during one game than most teachers made during an entire school years.  As comedian Chris Rock would say, “That ain’t right!”

The book, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life, by author Mr. Parker J. Palmer, provides valuable insight about the “heart of a teacher” who does so in “a culture of fear.”For our resilient teammates, who are relentlessly pursuing dreams of becoming published writers and authors, how many days did you sit down last week to “sharpen your saws?”  How many days did you sit down an focus on writing new material for inclusion in the next best-selling book that may change your life and the lives of your readers forever?  How many different books did you choose to read last week?

Oh really!  Quick question.  Who befriended you and pretended to be your friend before convincing your gifted soul that learning to read books and reading books to learn wasn’t cool or in vogue anymore?  Obviously, you haven’t read the book, Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny, by author and actor Mr. Hill Harper.  Let’s congratulate all the great women and men who possess the courage to mentor and teach young boys and girls ready and willing to learn both inside and outside the walls of a traditional classroom.  I will always remain truly grateful for the privilege to actively participate in an educational process one too many impoverished children in third world countries seldom enjoy.  As reminded and suggested by the Ancient Asian Proverb I read on the Leadership Lifestyle website for the book, Leadership As a Lifestyle: The Path to Personal Integrity and Positive Influence, by author John Hawkins,

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

Great men, women, and children with the love of God in their hearts will refuse to ridicule and humiliate their peers for carrying the same book bag they had last year because its color didn’t match the new clothes they got for Christmas.  Besides, the love in the heart of a real friend will inspire that great person to tell you that learning to read and reading to learn early in life will exponentially enhance your ability to excel and succeed later in life.  I’m a grown man who’s not ashamed to let my peers see me with a book in my hands every chance I get to keep the sun from setting on the same person twice.  I still carry around an ugly gray book bag I bought over ten years ago because I still read more than one book at a time.  Besides, there are far too many great teachers and mentors with gray hairs adorning heads held high who are still busy achieving great things and enjoying the privilege of reading more than one book at a time decades after we graduated from the high school, college, or university of our choosing. 

In closing, I challenge you to take a look inside the Book Store link, now located in the sidebar of the Home Page, to see the plethora of “treasure chests disguised as books” still waiting for you to benefit from its contents.  Feel free to share the titles of some of your favorite books.  The list is dynamic and will grow as we walk together and work together during this “year of firsts.”  Excited?  I hope so.  On day 12 of 2007, I also challenge each of you to teach another something they didn’t know to inspire them to dig deeper and climb higher than they did in 2006. Be forewarned.  Doing so will test your faith in unforeseen ways as the truth you share shifts the foundation of their false beliefs about the true lie that still hinders our God-given abilities to achieve great things.  The courage to teach your peers how to do something new will test your faith in God.  Nevertheless, what you choose to do with the first day of the rest of your life is still yours alone to make.  As we strive to achieve what we used to believe was an impossibility before learning, keep reaching out and teaching each other that impossible is still nothing to God.  May the peace of God be with each of you until we meet again.

©Copyright 2007 by Roderick O. Solomon.  All Rights Reserved.