“The vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together.”

Robert F. Kennedy

So, what’s stopping all God’s children from walking together in peace and working together for the greater good of humanity’s culturally diverse global village? Is it Fear, Ignorance, Arrogance, Hate, Politics, or Tradition? Let me know what you think.

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

“If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself.  If we are weak, words will be of no help.”

John F. Kennedy

“Paradigm is a word too often used by those who would like to have a new idea but cannot think of one.”

Mervyn Allister King, then-Deputy Governor, Bank of England

When you want to make a difference, where do you get your ideas? When you aspire to inspire an entire generation of great people like us with great weaknesses like ours, where do you get your ideas? When you want to exchange “bad habits” for some “good habits,” where do you get your ideas? When your heart-felt desire is to inspire all God’s children to face their deepest fears and embrace Change, where do you get your ideas? Thanks to Cyberspace, no longer does one person need to do come up with all the brilliant ideas alone. Now that we’re much older and wiser than before, why try?

Personally, I get many of my ideas during my quiet talks with God while in my secret place on bended knee. I also get inspired by “the power of a wise woman’s words.” Wisdom is just one of the voices I listen to when experiencing writer’s block. Ladies, it may surprise you to discover that all the God-fearing men you meet when you show up here honestly believe that “a woman is a man’s most valuable resource.”

The great men you meet when you visit will treat great women like you with the honor and respect each of you deserves. God willing, you will learn to trust and respect us. Only then will you feel safe and secure enough to give and receive a love worth sharing. Besides, great women like you are supposed to feel loved, respected, and protected in the presence of great men. Ladies, please share your ideas. and teach us how to be better men, wiser men, better husbands, better lovers, better friends, better listeners, better daddies, better uncles, better brothers, better cousins, better leaders, better teachers, better role models, better mentors. Did I miss anything?

The world is desperately crying out for new leadership with fresh ideas to replace the recycled ones that have long outlived their effectiveness. The world desperately needs critical thinkers who aren’t afraid to take a stand and speak truth to power in the spirit of God’s love, never hate. I’m not so macho that I refuse to admit that I love each of you and need all of you to survive. I made a personal promise not to harm any of you with words from my mouth. Why? Because I’m not the only one who loves you and needs you to survive. So we, as flawed human beings, need each other more than we’re ready and willing to admit. Why?

Learning to love our neighbors as ourselves makes us all accountable to each other, but not in a co-dependent manner. Co-dependency will only hinder our God-given ability to make big dreams come true as we “challenge” one another to achieve great things in 2007. If you smoke, we’ll challenge you to quit while you can. If you’re hopelessly hooked to one of Pleasure’s addictive treasure, we’ll see to it that you receive the help you need.

Developing healthy, intimate relationships will challenge you to “begin within so you won’t have to do without.” You’re less likely to become hopelessly chained to the slave mentality of co-dependent behavior if you honestly believe that God Rules Everything Around Me. Interdependence, not co-dependence, is one of the essential leaderships qualities we hope to attain before this unpredictable “year of firsts” succumbs to 2008.

Where do you go to get your ideas when you need to inspire yourself to become bold and courageous enough to live your life for an audience of One? No longer will you need your peers’ attention, approval, acceptance, and affection before you know deep down inside the heart of your gifted soul the answer to the question, “Am I Good Enough?” If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get the idea that you weren’t good enough? Who told you that you weren’t good enough? Since you didn’t get that idea from God, consider the source and act accordingly.

Hopefully, you will begin to honestly believe that your gifted soul is divinely destined to achieve Greatness with God’s help. Did you imagine any brilliant ideas during our discussion today that you’d like to pursue? I hope so. If time permits, please share a few of your new ideas with the rest of our team.

Before we close, I need to tie up a few loose ends. I initiated an informal study group that centers around the insightful, profound, and provocative content of the book, The 8th Habit, “From Effectiveness To Greatness,” by Mr. Stephen Covey. This site is not monetized. I don’t desire to do so. In order to support my efforts, you can purchase The 8th Habit, or The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, or any of the many books featured on this site via my “Book Store” link located in the Side Bar of my Home page.

Successfully completing all the tasks required to publish my first reality based novel is priority number one for right now. I hope you understand. Delayed but not denied. So, please don’t abandon ship because you think I’ve discontinued our ever-evolving 8th Habit study group. Hopefully, you’ll keep reading and pondering the contents of Mr. Covey’s book until we can finish what we started together.

For the person who “tagged me” to share the 5 reasons why I blog, I haven’t forgotten. If any of our newest members would like to catch up, clicking “day 1″ will return you to day 1 of January’s calendar. Doing so will help you understand why this particular blog exists and what we’re attempting to accomplish by December 31, 2007.

Until we meet again, may the peace of God be with you and yours.

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

How many of you remember the first time you became aware of your fear of Failure? What defining moment in your life persuaded you to stop saying, “I know I can”? When did you stop believing that you “could” do something when you put your mind to it? According to what I heard from child psychologist, babies are only afraid of “two” things. The first is a “fear of falling.” The second is a “fear of loud noises.”

Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we also began to fear “Rejection” and “Failure.” So, did somebody go around from one classroom to the next teaching us to fear Failure? What happened? We began to believe the “true lie” that nobody loves a failure. Guess what? God does.

I can recall hearing Mr. Les Brown, The Motivator, share something during one of his speeches that has always stuck with me. He said something to the effect that if you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would succeed no matter what you chose to do, what would you do? I immediately wrote down a laundry list of things. One was becoming a published, award-winning author. The other was to create and publish my own collection of fine art photographic images that changed the way the world saw people whose skin was “darker than a brown paper bag.”

By the grace of God, I will accomplished both in my lifetime. Did I ever fail and fall flat on my face? Most definitely. Did it hurt. Most definitely. But Failure didn’t kill me. Failure taught me what didn’t work so I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Remember,

“the sun should never set on the same person twice.”

How many of you have ever eaten a Hershey Chocolate Bar? Would it surprise you to know that Milton S. Hershey failed and filed bankruptcy at least seven times before he invented the Hershey Bar? There are many other examples of everyday, ordinary people who failed their way to success. But because I promised my wife, KWiz, that I’d take it easy, I’ll stop with just one illustration that there’s life after a failure. As you know, I’ve failed to write blogs worth reading since birthing this site January 1, 2007. Only your comments will let me know if I’ve posted anything worth reading and sharing.

What’s stopping you from becoming one of those people who beats the odds with God’s help? Ask yourself these questions:

It has taken me at least 10 years to finish writing the first two books in a 3 part series of books. When Least Expected™, “Inspiration To Brighten Dark Days And Lonely Nights When All Seems Lost” is the title of the first book. Generation X’ed, Talent Alone Is Not Enough™ is the title of the second book. Over the years, I’ve shared the truth with college students with undeclared majors that I had to fail my way to success before discovering that Failure was not something to fear. For me, it was always better to find out early in life what I loved to do rather than to discover late in life what could have been. Do you know what you love to do?

After my great fall, I discovered my love of writing. Writing became therapeutic for me. Real men didn’t keep diaries and still don’t. We refer to them as “journals.” I wrote many of the poetic essays you’ve seen posted in previous months. Reading books written by successful people reassured me that failure was nothing to fear, nor was it an event to feel ashamed about. Failure was simply a necessary part of the learning process that all successful people endure. The choice to “do something” today that will enable you to overcome your fear of Failure is yours alone to make. What choice are you going to make?

I would like to close with a quote from Robert Schuller’s book, Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do, that says,

“Better
to
do something
imperfectly
than
to
do nothing
flawlessly.”

Matters not how old you are today. It’s always too early to quit and never too late to begin. So why not start today and take the first step towards making your big dream come true? Nobody enjoys singing the “woulda, coulda, shoulda blues.” To win, you must begin. If not now, when?

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

Today’s message was inspired, in part, by a comment I recently posted on the blog belonging to 2008 Presidential candidate, Senator Hillary Clinton. Click on the highlighted words “Clinton blog” to read Manchild’s comment. My decision to utilize Presidential candidate Clinton’s blog first was due in part to the fact that it was easily accessible. Nevertheless, the brief comment posted also serves as an “open letter” to any of the remaining 2008 Presidential candidates willing to address issues relevant to the rest of America’s “working class” poor. I, therefore, welcome any and all responses from the remaining presidential hopefuls.

Due to the widely held belief that “Cash Rules Everything Around Me,” civil litigants, unlike criminal litigants, must contribute large amounts of their own money if they expect to avoid the inherent dangers of proceeding “pro se” with a meritorious lawsuit. Due to the fact that America’s adversarial litigation process was designed by attorneys, and intended for the exclusive use of attorneys, outsiders are not welcomed nor are they treated objectively and fairly by biased judges. Hence, the working poor are forced to abandon meritorious civil actions or proceed before the courts of America’s justice system without the assistance of an adequate, effective attorney.

It doesn’t make me proud to know that one too many of America’s working class poor are repeatedly denied due process of law because Cash Rules Everything Around Me. According to Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12 (1956), “there can be no justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the money he has.” I’m, therefore, extremely interested in knowing, with specificity, what the next President of the United States will do to give hope to the poor, or “involuntary pro se civil litigants,” who can no longer afford to gain access to the U.S. Supreme Court?

What can the next President of the U.S. do to give “hope” to the working poor who can’t afford to pay an adequate, effective attorney $250 to $500 an hour for legal representation? What can the next President do to ensure that civil litigants, armed with meritorious civil actions, receive the same level of Constitutional safeguards that criminal litigants currently enjoy under the U.S. Constitution’s 6th Amendment? According to the law, “money” shouldn’t matter more than the “merits” of the case at bar. Even in the federal courts, C.R.E.A.M. for now.

“If an obscure Florida convict named Clarence Earl Gideon had not sat down in his prison cell … to write a letter to the Supreme Court … the vast machinery of American law would have gone on functioning undisturbed. But Gideon did write that letter, the Court did look into his case … and the whole course of American legal history has been changed.”

Robert F. Kennedy

God willing, the next U.S. President will initiate sweeping, far-reaching legislation to protect the rights of an emerging underclass of involuntary pro se civil litigants who have been denied “equal justice under law” and “fundamentally fair” treatment by the federal courts. Only God knows how many meritorious civil lawsuits never get filed or get involuntarily dismissed due to a procedural default and, therefore, never go to trial because Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

Is it unrealistic to believe that the next President of the United States can improve the critically ill state of the human condition in the U.S. absent the assistance of the American voters? Can the next President make “equal justice under law” a reality instead of an unrealized ideal that’s still beyond the reach of the poor? To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy’s question, what can we, as Americans, do for our country? What can everyday, ordinary people do to help the next President resurrect and restore the “integrity” and “credibility” of America’s electoral process, healthcare system, and adversarial litigation process in the discerning eyes of the world’s culturally diverse leaders?

As evidenced by the latest news reports about U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez, ethics, credibility, and integrity are essential leadership qualities that are woefully lacking in the current White House administration. Alas, one too many of President Bush’s top aides have repeatedly been accused of telling a lie to justify the unethical means employed to accomplish a predetermined end. One too many of America’s working class poor have lost faith in the integrity and credibility of America’s current system of justice that is based upon an adversarial litigation process where money still matters more than merits.

It’s no secret that the credibility and integrity of our country’s justice system has been “impinged” by the top aides of the Bush/Cheney administration who have repeatedly refused to make wise choices that will benefit all Americans. It doesn’t make me proud to know that Uncle Sam has lost the trust, respect, and loyalty of the world’s leaders since the beginning of the Iraq war. God willing, it’s just a matter of time before the truth that’s been suppressed rises again and exposes the identities of the clandestine parties involved in President Bush’s unwise decision to begin a civil war Uncle Sam can’t win.

Did the Bush/Cheney administration’s fatally flawed belief that C.R.E.A.M. compel America’s political leadership to participate in unethical, clandestine activities to justify Uncle Sam’s repeated lapses in judgment?  What caused the Bush/Cheney administration’s repeated abuses of power, repeated violations of our civil rights, or repeated failures to adhere to the clearly established rules of the Patriot Act? Unfortunately, the fatally flawed belief of the White House’s top aides that the “ends justifies the means” is known the world over as the “American Way.” Since George W. Bush became President of the U.S., what image, or images, does the American Way conjure up in your mind?

It doesn’t make me proud to know that the pervasive Cash Rules Everything Around Me paradigm is the one “weapon of mass destruction” the Bush/Cheney administration overlooked.  C.R.E.A.M. is more of a clear and present threat to the American way of life than one too many of our nation’s political leaders are ready or willing to admit. Nevertheless, according to the law, the members of Bush/Cheney administration who continue to make politically motivated decisions based upon loyalty, not integrity, are still presumed innocent until proven guilty of committing a crime in a “recognized” court of law.

Before we go our separate ways, let’s flip this script and remind the culturally diverse members of humanity’s global village about the truth that makes people free.

It’s God, not Cash, not the Dollar Bill, not President Bush, not V.P. Cheney that rules everything around me. God Rules Everything Around Me. The answer to the question, “Am I Good Enough?” depends on whether this current generation of great men, women, and children honestly believes God loves us despite our great weaknesses. Because God Rules Everything Around Me, impossible is still nothing but a word to God.

Due to the pervasive “Bling Bling” culture that was birthed out of the belly of the popular, albeit faulty, belief that Cash Rules Everything Around Me, violent crime is once again on the rise. No. Don’t get it twisted. I’m not blaming Hip Hop, nor am I or scapegoating Gangsta Rap, for the recent spike in criminal activity. Nor do I blame crime on poverty.

Yet and still, I do blame much of today’s violent criminal behavior on our generation’s inability to trust God long enough to make wise choices. Once generations of impressionable little children know the reasons why they don’t need Bling Bling to deserve God’s attention, acceptance, and approval, they will begin to make wise choices and act accordingly. Matters not what the next President of the U.S. does or doesn’t do. God Rules Everything Around Me.

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

The title of today’s post comes from Proverbs 27:1. Why? This morning, I tried to get up, show up, and take the next step with our culturally diverse group that will bring us all closer to making our big dreams come as we help each other achieve great things in 2007. Unlike most mornings, my body had other plans and rebelled when I tried to rise to my feet. I couldn’t breathe deeply enough to talk, which hindered my ability to tell my wife, KWiz, what was wrong with me.

I had big productions plans for today but God had other plans for my day. So, off to the hospital I go to find out why my lungs were malfunctioning. Upon my arrival to the emergency room, I was immediately subjected to a plethora of lab tests and chest x-rays. Needles are always a part of the diagnostics one in my ailing condition must endure in order to draw blood samples from my uncooperative veins. Ouch!

The doctors and nurses determined that I had “acute bronchitis.” But by grace still go I, not the “Laws of Attraction.” If The Secret had anything to do with my unforeseen visit to the emergency room this morning, I will wait for God to reveal the reasons why my plans got delayed, but not denied.

Maybe, writing about “Tenacity” attracted an opportunity for me to prove to you that I can keep “pushing past the pain” as evidenced by the fact I still got up and showed up today. I guess Attila the Hun knew what he was talking about when he stated that Tenacity is indeed one of many essential leadership qualities.

God willing, and if the creek in my lungs doesn’t overflow again, I will meet you here tomorrow.

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

There’s a “hip hop” phrase that rap group, Wu-Tang Clan, introduced to the American public in 1993 via their debut album, Enter The Wu-Tang. Some of you may not be familiar with “C.R.E.A.M.” For those of you who don’t know, C.R.E.A.M. is an acronym for,

“Cash Rules Everything Around Me.”

C.R.E.A.M., or the mighty Dollar Bill, ultimately dictates who can successfully run for President, who wins or loses their meritorious lawsuits, who gets meaningful access to affordable healthcare, who gets their stomachs or prescriptions filled, who gains access to the best educational resources, who gets indicted for political reasons, who gets away with criminal activities, and who gets to live long enough to pursue whatever “floats boats.”

C.R.E.A.M. could also bolster the innuendo that a humorous Saturday Night Live skit alluded to some years ago about who is “really” running the White House and the United States of America. How many of you are more convinced than ever before that Vice President Dick Cheney controls a lot more than the White House behind the scenes? Even the jurors in the Scooter Libby trial doubted that the latest sacrificial scapegoat and fall guy, Scooter Libby acted alone. Do you? I slightly modified the original meaning of the acronym C.R.E.A.M. merely to provoke thought about recently televised news reports.

“Cheney Rules Everything Around Me.”

There may be more truth to my modified acronym of C.R.E.A.M. than initially believed since V.P. Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton Co., appears to be untouchable and can apparently do no wrong. The mainstream media has produced enough videotaped footage since the Bush/Cheney Administration assumed their positions of leadership in the White House. For those of you who embraced The Secret, was it God’s will, the “Law of Attraction,” or growing suspicions that C.R.E.A.M. enabled oil services and defense contractor Halliburton Co. to secure a no-bid contract that apparently cost U.S. citizens “billions” via American tax dollars?

Halliburton, a Texas based corporation, announced that it’s moving to Dubai. Only God knows how their departure from the U.S. will impact both the lower-class and middle-class working poor in Americans who are just a mere 1 to 2 paychecks away from financial disaster. It’s comforting to know that Almighty God, not the mighty Dollar Bill, not C.R.E.A.M., not O.G.s, not Gangstas, and definitely not The Secret, is the only One still making the world go round.

Halliburton’s decision to abandon Texas has raised suspicions and sends the wrong message to the rest of humanity’s global village about the morality and integrity of the American way. Did Halliburton profit at the expense of both the American and the Iraqi people? It sure smells like it. I don’t know about you but there’s something terribly wrong with this picture. I feel like somebody smacked me in the face with a C.R.E.A.M. pie. Do you?

— TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW –

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

Many years ago, I discovered the book, Leadership Secrets Of Attila The Hun, by Wess Roberts, Ph.D. One of the essential leadership qualities Attila The Hun highly regarded was “Tenacity.”

“The quality of unyielding drive to accomplish assignments is a desirable and essential quality of leadership. The weak persist only when things go their way. The strong persist and pursue through discouragement, deception and even personal abandonment. Pertinacity is often the key to achieving difficult assignments or meeting challenging goals.”

Here’s a brief quote from Chapter One of WHEN LEAST EXPECTED™ for you to think about after you leave here today. The father, Jonathan, is talking to his twin sons after the “invisible fist” strikes and sets a series of metaphorical dominoes in motion. Now that the collateral damage is done, their mentor shares some insightful words that challenges these emerging men to trust God as they birth another big dream to replace the one they lost. Before Jonathan closes their conversation, he says,

“Sons, your tomorrows will depend on what you choose to do with your todays. Only God knows how your futures will react to the impact of yesterday’s choices. So choose wisely.”

Watching news footage of the mugger who robbed the 101 year old woman outraged me. I hope they catch him so that he can get what he deserves. I’ve lived long enough to know that great people can make wise choices and still become subjected to the collateral damage of another person’s bad choices. When the dominoes start falling that our unwise decisions set in motion, these metaphorical antagonists don’t care how many actually innocent people their invisible fists hit. The “domino effect” refers to the collateral damage that happens after a great person makes a bad decision.

Have you ever been done dirty or robbed when the money your assailant took without asking was earmarked to pay your rent or house note? Have you ever been falsely arrested for a crime you didn’t commit and spent time in a jail cell instead of a college classroom? Before another person’s unwise choices adversely impacted my life, I often wondered why so many bad things kept happening to great people who had disciplined themselves to develop the good habit of making wise choices. When great people make bad choices, it indirectly affects the rest of our blended, extended family members in ways we may never know about. There’s no such thing as a “victimless” crime.

As you know, crime is once again on the rise. Why? Is it due to poverty, poor leadership, or our generation’s inability to trust God absent any reservations? Do desperate people, who do desperate things, do so because they still don’t honestly believe that nothing is impossible to God? What happened in your life when you lacked the faith to let our Father accept full responsibility for the consequences of our obedience? Did you make wise or unwise choices? In retrospect, why do we make the choices we made after Adversity decided to strike unexpectedly?

Crime is not always committed by the poor. Poverty alone doesn’t persuade poor people to commit crimes. One’s lack of patience and failure to trust that God will find a way to make a way out of no way, to turn the tables on our antagonists, to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones, to turn lemons into lemonade. What does it mean to keep turning the tables? How does one turn “stumbling blocks” into “stepping stones” during such a season as this? How does one turn lemons into lemonade?

What happens when God makes a way out of no way for you but you were there to walk through the door or window that didn’t exist until God created it just for you? How many times have we missed our blessings because we doubted God, got anxious, became impatient, or listened to the skeptics, cynics, and pundits? What did you do after the collateral damage the domino effect symbolizes adversely impacted your God-given ability to make big dreams come true and achieve great things? Now that violent crime is on the rise again, where do we go from here? Any suggestions?

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

Watching the ABC PRIMETIME Special, “Jesus Of Surburbia,” by Jim Avila, last Tuesday provoked me to post this message. On bended knee, please pray for all the generations of innocent children who know not what they’re doing. How many of those children still don’t know what the “666” symbolizes or still don’t know about the infamous mark of the beast, aka “Antichrist“? Do you know? If not, Dr. Charles Stanley, Pastor of In Touch Ministries, offers some biblically based insight about the “greatest pretender of all times.” Click on the highlighted word Antichrist to read what Dr. Stanley says.

During such treacherous times as these, let no one easily deceive you. Study. Research. Dig Deep. Ask questions. Think critically. But be forewarned. Critical thinking takes courage. Standing alone after stepping outside the comfort zone of what is known takes courage. Getting out of the boat that gives you a false sense of security during turbulent seasons of stormy weather takes courage.

As a critically thinking follower of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, my personal preference is to value my personal “relationship” with God more than I value the “religion” of Christianity. Do you know the difference between a relationship that “inspires” culturally diverse people to unite and a religion that “motivates” culturally diverse people to fight?

“Religions Divide What Relationships Unite.”

Cultural Diversity programs taught me to respectfully agree to disagree with my blended, extended family members. Are “professing” Christians the only people populating humanity’s culturally diverse global village of critical thinkers that God chooses and uses for the greater good? What do you believe? Why do you believe what you believe?

“Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honour for many generations, and in divers places. Do not believe a thing because many speak of it. Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past. Do not believe what you have imagined, persuading yourself that a god inspires you. Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters or priests. After examination, believe what you yourself have tested and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.”

Gautama Buddha

The day will come when, not if, the “invisible fist” of Adversity will strike absent any warning. Will you be ready? Will you know what to do next? Why? During your darkest night of the soul, what will inspire, encourage, and empower you to “keep risin’ after every fall”? If you’ve ever met the “greatness of God’s faithfulness during dark days and lonely nights when all seems lost,” then you already know the answer. But by grace still go I.

Critical thinking will most definitely test your faith. When was the last time Adversity tested your faith? Did you make “good choices” or “bad choices”? What did you learn about God, about yourself, about your faith? Did your actions speak louder than your words? Were your actions “fear-based” or “faith-based”? Do you know the difference? How would you know that “a faith that can’t be tested is a faith that can’t be trusted” if you haven’t learned how to live, love, and lead like Jesus did– by example?

You may be the only Bible the critically thinking people you meet on the street where you live or work will read on a daily basis. Based upon your leadership, will your choices teach a critically thinking generation with no “Sacred Text” to read that great people with great weaknesses can trust God absent any reservation during such tough times as these? Think about it.

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