Please Help! Barack Obama

June 30th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

With the Presidential campaign in full swing, it’s only right I get pissed off about something.

Barack Obama doesn’t want to be just another politician. I didn’t believe it when he said it, and everyday I believe it even less. John McCain has all this experience and a record of bipartisanship, but lacks the charisma of a garden snake. So what to do?

Barack Obama. Everyone knows your black. Even the white people who voted for you all over this country, they know you are black. So why do you show up at a black event and bring up race. Literally. I thought you didn’t want to be known as the black candidate. You had already won the Democratic Nomination, why then would you want to play the race card.

I want to like you. I’m trying. I loved the speech at one of those graduations, when you stood up and told fathers they need to play a greater role in their Children’s upbringing. I loved when you stood up and told graduates to go out and find a purpose instead of seeking out a hummer payment.

What I don’t understand? Number 1, wanting to pull out of Iraq. I haven’t heard anything about that in the news lately. Why? Because we’re winning. We are winning a war and the would be next president wants us to pull out. Only a real politician would change the message that got him elected when it no longer made sense. Oh wait any rational person would change their minds with differing circumstances. What makes a real politician, a presidential nominee that won’t acknowledge his own country’s success, because it would have a negative affect on his campaign.

Iraq, Jeremiah Wright, Trinity Church, time to go when you bring to much negative spotlight on Barack Obama.

Number 2, NO ENERGY POLICY. To hear a democrat tell it, we can get ourselves out of this oil crisis by taxing the oil companies. This is how I figure it. Imagine you invented a new drug to cure cancer. Now over the 15 years it took you to develop this technology, the government has been giving you tax breaks. Basically rewarding you for not really receiving a profit, because in the development phase your not making alot of money.

Your drug is approved and hits the market. It works. Everyone is cured and we live happily. Then there comes another kind of cancer, so you say, O.k. I got these tax breaks, so it won’t hurt the investors researching a new drug. Then along comes the government and says you have to solve this problem. We are going to repel all your tax breaks to help treat the sick people.

Why would you research a new drug? You would be like, people still pay for my first product. Why should I spend all this money, with no incentive. Oil companies have been investing billions of dollars in their companies, and now that their product is in high demand you hammer them with more taxes. Who would want to invest in a company they know will be paying a majority of their profits to the government.

And I have a question. Do the Caribou have to pay taxes for their trips across A.N.W.A.R? Is the cost of their food going up? Shouldn’t people care more about other people? It makes sense to drill where there is oil. To the critics that say we wouldn’t see that oil for at least ten years. That was the excuse over 12 years ago, when Bill Clinton signed the bill that made it illegal to drill of oil off our coast.

Then there’s the alternatives. Ethanol is eating up our food supply. Wind, solar, tidal, etc. are all years and years into the future. The most viable way to get off oil dependency lies in nuclear power, but yet again the democrats say No. The insurance companies say it’s not safe. You would think the trail lawyer democratic party would relish in the thought of suing the power plants, but I guess they draw the line at making policy that would matter.

In the life I’ve lived, you learn to see through bravado and look for substance. I just don’t see any substance in Barack Obama. The thought of him being in office, makes me not want to enter the next tax bracket. If he gets into office, it would probably be better to stay lower class and allow the government to take care of you. Because the harder you work and the more money you make, the more he’ll require you to give to those that don’t make as much.

So instead of having extra money to pay down your student loan, you will be paying for the tuition of someone that didn’t even try to compete for a scholarship. Instead of having extra money to save, you’ll be paying for insurance for someone that’s never worked a day in their life. Instead of having the money to put a down payment on a house, you will be bailing out the companies that robbed millions of people of their dream of homeownership. That’s scary.

I would like to think the harder I work, the more I should have, and the more I have, the more I can use to help people. People I really think need help. Working mothers that need help with childcare. College students that take lower paying jobs helping their communities, because their student loan is held for a year or two. Young people who study hard but have never had someone tell them they can go to college. Not because it’s free, but because you worked for it.

I want someone to write and tell me some substance of Barack Obama. Please help me.

RHIANNA VS BEYONCE: A GROWN WOMAN’S PERSPECTIVE

June 25th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

It’s a painful reality of life, we will all get our hearts broken once or twice. Not to sound like a rhyme, but it happens time to time. I’m kidding.

We women get a real difficult decision in those situations. We can go out like Beyonce and “Ring the Alarm” or we can be Rhianna and let him “Take a Bow” and go.

You have to understand what effect your response plays on a situation. Take Beyonce.

That’s how you feel when it first happens, but that’s when he or she still has control over you. You are so worried about how he’s spending his time, instead of healing yourself. That means if it doesn’t work out for you, you carry all that garbage with you to the next relationship.

Worst than that you allow the intruder know how much they hurt you. I love to show up happy and flossy, like I got gold mines in my living room. You feel better when you look good. You should concentrate of what somebody else it going to get, but it shouldn’t be the next female he plays. It should be the next man you decide to give your heart to.

Now this is the answer. Calm and cool, completely realizing it is their lost.

Even more than that, he or she will be standing there like no fussing or fighting. They would be shocked, because when they can get you to argue back you start to let down your defenses. Not to mention angry sex is awesome, and hard to turn away.

Beyonce’s performance speaks for itself. She is off the chain. When I first heard Ring the Alarm, I was like Hell Yeah. Then you flip through the channels and Court TV is headlining 3 trials where one spouse killed the other. Seriously. I got a little one and I be damned if I’m going to jail because you don’t know what you have.

I didn’t give Rhianna any props until this song. I stopped listening to the radio when “Umbrella” was in heavy rotation. It gave me a real bad mainstream song headache. Then she comes back and makes history. First artist to debut at #58 and make it to Number 1. Kudos.

So from a grown womans perspective. They are both beautiful. Beyonce is more successful right now, but Rhianna is quickly building a strong fan base. That means the choice will be ours. Not in which artist to like, but what approach to take.

Let’s see Beyonce ends her video in a police station and Rhianna ends hers with a smile of her face. Choice is yours.

Oh, let me cut you off. If you say that I should have compared “Irreplaceable” instead of “Ring the Alarm”, I refuse. I can have another you by tomorrow. Why would you want another him? Leave all your stuff in a box, for what? Take that shit. It’s your reward, I don’t want it. Except the car of course.

Hands from the Darkness

June 17th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

With darkness surrounding me, I try to climb

Willing myself, pushing already strained muscles,

Not expecting a hand to reach down and pull me up

Not expecting hands to reach from the darkness

And pull me back, but them come

Reaching out for my soul, forcing the load on my back

To double in weight

Shouts come, barely audible, but so loud

Understanding words, that make no sense combined

Understanding pain, so misdirected

What did I do so wrong?

I see bitterness and anger,

BUT I REFUSE TO MAKE THAT PLACE MY HOME

I see a way out

Light at the end of a road so dark

Sunshine piercing the night hues so common

No force beside gravity affects my ability to reach

Gravity can weigh me down

Problems will present themselves

But crumble at my WILL

Hands from the darkness are my biggest problem

Those that would block me by pulling me down

Instead of reaching up for themselves

Gladly would I fight for Pole Position

Never should I have to fight

Hands from the darkness to get to the light

Build A Network

June 17th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

Most times we look to family for insight. Even though they might not be the example you want to follow. The trick is to surround yourself with like-minded people.

Not people of the same color, religion, or political affiliation. People of the same character, moral values, and same desire to educate themselves and grow, financially and as a person.

“Ask advice only of your equals.” Danish Proverb

KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR MUSIC

June 17th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

People have been using music to keep historical records forever. They write songs about the things going on around them, and those songs are taught to their children. They pass them on to their children, who inturn create new music about how things have changed.

So KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR MUSIC.

As much as it pains me to say it, most of our current history is caught on CDS, Mixed Tapes, and battle raps on corners. It’s amazing to watch a young MC put his pain and achievement in a rap.

I don’t care what he is rapping about. I don’t care if it’s gun play, selling drugs, or women. Keep it on wax. Imagine a world where young black men used their words to solve issues instead of guns.

I don’t think the government could justify arresting young black men for throwing ideas and word play around. It’s alot easier to get the ones that shoot people, rob people, or sell drugs in real life.

The books that are published by us these days don’t get alot of attention. It’s not because white people are holding us down, it’s because we don’t spend money on books. Instead we buy the Cd, or download songs onto our Ipod.

Now I do the same, the difference? I utilize the public library. The problem with the library is you don’t find the opinions of those around you. I’m not talking about the college graduate, or the made it rich athlete.

I’m talking about the young men that turn into these…….

They may not know they are using similes, metaphors, iambic pentameter, and such, but they use it all. They display intellegence, quick thinking and response, and more than anything, hope, a future, a way out.

Not just in music. In thought. In sharing experinces, lessons, and humility. You know it’s nothing worse than losing a battle rap, but to have the courage to stand there and do it anyway. Take that swag into a job interview, mix it with correct english, and you got employeed men than can take care of their families.

Don’t try to restrict the message. We can pick out those that have no substance. They might get a one hit wonder, but we’re not going to spend money on those who aren’t real with us.

Now having said all that. I would like to offer a challenge to all hip hop’ers. Let’s see a message. Not what you have, or about those who tried to stop you. Tell us about how hard you worked to acheive your success.

What did you have to give up? What sacrifices did you make? What lessons did you have to learn more than once? Why can’t I do it, if you can?

And for the Hip Hop’ers that are up and coming, I ask, What is the first thing you’re going to buy? Will you spend all your money, before you have guaranteed long term success? Will you reinvest, and it doesn’t have to be alot, back into the communities that supported you, or will you spend it on women or men that wouldn’t have paid you a bit of attention when you were broke?

What about health insurance, retirement, and high yield savings accounts? Now I know you think those issues wouldn’t make a good song. That’s the thing. Our young ones are so smart, they can flip it into a song. How many different ways have you heard someone describe shooting in a song? Too many, but they always find new ways to do it.

Tupac said he wouldn’t be the one that changed the world, but he would spark the brain of the one who would. Listen to Tupac. He rapped about guns, drugs, sexual irresponsibility, but he is one of my favorite rappers. He talks about loving black woman and treating them right, he talks about how he won his murder trial because he was right, and he talks about how we hold each other down.

I’m waiting for that brain to come alive and to have his or her voice heard. That person is out there. And I’m waiting to hear it.

BARACK OBAMA TRYING TO FIRE BLACK LEADERS

June 13th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

With his successful campaign, without the support of “black Leaders”, Barack Obama has already started signing the pink slips of Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the rest.

Now, Al Sharpton can come out a publically make an ass out of himself accusing the Duke Lacrosse Team of Rape, but can’t give his support for the first black candidate to actually have a real chance of becoming president. Maybe a little jealousy you weren’t taken seriously?

Rev. Jesse Jackson was also silent in the big build up to history. Though Jackson’s image was damaged in the black community with his mistress and love child, the Media still hold him as a ‘black leader’. Where was he shouting Barack Obama’s praises?

I thought about it hard, and I figured it out.

Barack Obama is about to cause some major layoffs. He will ship the “there is some magic white man out to get you” jobs overseas never to return. How can they continue to attack a government about not caring, when the president is a black man?

Now we should have been the ones to run these so called ‘black leaders’ off the scene. Take Al Sharton. He was taped by the government trying to negotiate a drug deal. His defense, they were out to get me. Okay. He is constantly in trouble for not paying taxes, most recently before starting his 2004 campaign when investors paid his owed taxes to clean his resume. I have to pay taxes, what makes you better than me? More recent than that, he was promoting Loan Max. You know the company that charges ridiculous rates for car title loans. Yeah they prey on poor minorities, not just blacks, and Sharpton was their spokesperson.

Now Jackson did the damage to himself, and we judged him accordingly.

Now they see their careers going down the drain. If they don’t have the race card, their hand is weak. They can’t win. People will start to realize the boundaries they set are imaginary. There is nothing that can stop them. How are they going to survive when black people are succeeding and they can’t intimidate people into taking them seriously.

I don’t plan on voting for Barack Obama, but I am so proud that he won the nomination. I can’t back his platform, but I respect the amount of work he put into accomplishing his goal. He ran a campaign free of facts and still one, that takes some charisma.

Having said that. Barack Obama sign those pink slips and will personally walk around and hand them out. I mean it. I will personally hunt down all those who tell us we can’t because a white person will stop us. On my own dime, I will tell them, your services are no longer needed.

Then we could place ads for real black leaders to step up. You know the people of color that made millions of dollars last year. Our ads would read:

A GIRL CAN DREAM.

A Walk In Someone Elses Shoes

June 11th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

We love to complain about the things that affect us. But rarely do we look around to see how worse things could be.

We complain about being poor. When there are people who haven’t eaten a good meal in months. We complain about limited rights. When there are people who don’t have any. We complain about gas prices. When there are people who walk 20 miles to go to school.

Take a look at those around you and know you are blessed.

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” Douglas Adams 1952-2001

Dear Mother

June 11th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

Dear Mother,

I miss you. I wanted to think of something poetic, that would truly touch the heart of those who read this, but those who deal with loss know that’s enough. I miss you.

Our family affairs, I spend waiting for the moment you would walk through the door. You never come, I know better than to think that one day you will.

I dream about you, when my mind is cluttered and my soul isn’t as ease. These are the moments I need you most and you never let me down. You don’t come with words of sorrow, validating the feelings I have inside. You come with rage.

You tell me to move on, and to move forward. Even though you’re gone I still fear what will happen if I don’t obey. You did such a great job raising me. I was lucky enough to realize it before God called you home.

I know God loved his children. He even sends angels to watch over us. You were my angel. It was alot asking you to take in an infant when you had one son and a daughter on the way. You did it though.

I never once felt like I was anything other than your child. I got my share of snacks, two of the Klondike bars, I got my share of extra homework, believe if your teacher didn’t send any home you had some anyway, and I got my fair share of ass whoopins, I feel okay saying that cause I give them out now.

It wasn’t always easy, but we never saw you struggle. I know it had to be nights you wondered how you were going to go on, but there was only mornings of getting up and living. Nothing in life was worth sulking. It only required you keep moving forward.

You didn’t teach me politics, you taught me principles. You didn’t teach me economics, you taught me home to stretch a dollar til it popped. You didn’t teach me I could do anything, you dared me to say there was something I couldn’t do.

How do I thank you for that? If you were here you would give me that look that said how dare I ask such a question. Then I would’ve backed down. Now I would tell you, you were an angel, my Angel. I thank God everyday for you.

I miss you, but I’m not sad your gone. You told me, when all your children were gone you were going to disappear. We weren’t going to be able to find you. I laughed but I kinda knew it was true. You filled your blessing meter so high, so fast God had no choice but to allow you to rest.

I have to show the unselfishness you’ve always shown me. I want you to be at peace, watching over our family. Keeping us together when we don’t like each other that much. I

I could sit here all day telling you all the things you did for me, but that wouldn’t honor your memory. Instead, I’ll take care of me and mine. I’ll make sure I stand up and make my voice heard and my words count. I will raise my daughter to be better than me.

I’ll continue to move on. That’s how I’ll honor you.

Confederate Flag Coming to Hillsborough, Florida

June 9th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

Did you know that once, the United States had a war within itself? Yeah, the United States of America had a Civil War. We even called it The Civil War. It is apart of our history, the very fabric of our society.

The South broke away because the very fabric of their economy was being threatened. Slaves. Human Capitol. The funny thing, they lost. Slavery was abolished and we’ve spent the last hundred plus years trying to heal from that.

How do you heal if you try to erase the memory, instead of excepting and moving on?

In Hillsborough County Florida, The Sons of Confederate Veterans have plans to erect a 30×50 foot Confederate Flag on a 139 foot pole, the highest allowed, on private property on a busy highway intersection.

The group says the flag is not a racist statement but a piece of history. Most local businesses don’t find it offensive, but are worried about their customers.

Imagine so one telling a black organization, that they couldn’t erect a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. It wouldn’t happen. Robert E. Lee has memorials in my home town, Richmond Va. I took until my adulthood to realize I was standing on history.

I lived in a city where battle plans were made, soliders gathered and watched over each other, and decisive clashes took place. That’s history. It can not be changed or altered, nor should it be ignored.

I don’t care if you fly the Confederate Flag. I will assume you have racist beliefs. I will hold you accountable for my assumptions. I might be wrong, but it’s what you choose to show me. So if I was one of those shop owners, I would be worried.

I wouldn’t shop in the area because you were NOT offended. Because you did not stand up and say, we can find another way to honor the Confederate Soldiers, just because of the implication.

Local NAACP President Curtis Stokes was outraged the commissoner would allow the project to be completed. It’s your community. Instead of fighting the flag, use it for encouragement.

Ask them why they feel the group needs to make the flag so big? Tell them it’s because they are irrelvant in today’s society. It’s because they lost and because of it there is nothing that can stop you from one day having a statue raised of yourself for curing cancer or eliminating the national debt.

Choose the message carefully. Don’t tell our black people this is a sign of racism. Tell them that this is a sign that the racist are losing. Teach them about overcompensation, then maybe they won’t be so pressed to hustle for a hummer.

So I say raise the flag, watch the ecomony in the area decline, and realize that America isn’t as racist as we are thoughtful. We don’t mind you honoring our history, because it’s not just yours, but you should be sensitive in your praise.

Do It Just Because

June 8th, 2008 | By Sonnie Johnson

Upon spotting a situation where your assistance could be helpful, don’t first question what’s in it for you. The benefits or problems of a particular outcome may not reveal themselves until ready.

Meaning. Six years down the road your blessing may come. Don’t worry. God always closes his tab. So in the mean time, rack up the blessing helping all you see just because you know he’s real.

“Be alert to give service. What counts a good deal in life is what we do for others.”