A Bit of Advice from The Publishing Poet:
I've published all my adult life. Nationally published The Black Pledge of Allegiance and done tv and radio and even had a column for a newspaper in L.A. for awhile once upon a time. I presently am catching hell getting my maunscript's published, so I know a thing or two about trials, and I know that whatever you've been challenged with you can challenge, and perhaps; it can be overcome with a lot of diligence and perserverance. And even if you don't succeed at least you gave it the best damn effort you could give.
Remember, There's only one way to win and that's to compete!!!

Dare to Win--People!!!

Latest thought:

Repeatedly,  I had read in the newspapers or heard something on the street about  how the government would not be able to pay our Social Security retirement benefits after the year 2027. Like most of us boomers, I worry. And I wonder how it's even possible that all that money taken from our checks for so many years is nearly gone.  How can I possibly, retire? I'm thinking.  Lord, Lord, hath thou forsaken me?

If thou seeketh love
Love shall seek thee

If thou sow eth Love
Love shall ye surely reap

For the Desire of Love
Is the manisfestation
Of Love's desire

copyright the publishing poet

Despair is not a pretty thing. Indeed, it is ugly. It is the bottom rung of the staircase of civilization. But, it is honor which endures when the finale period is attached to a man's life. For all we have and all we shall ever attain in the finale analysis is a plot of land where everyone's spirit roams free. I seek not fortune, but redemption; redemption for my sins and redemption for my behaviors towards humanity and God.

A Quote from my manuscript Struggling to Overcome the Willie Lynch in Me.

THE UNKNOWN LEGEND/WHAT'S WRONG WIT BLACK FOLK...A MEMOIR

You hired that nigga to do your roof? No wonder the thang still leaks! Hum?

We have a serious problem abusing one another. It is a continuous cycle that we must deal with if we expect to achieve our goals as individuals. When we abuse our brother or our sister we abuse ourselves. For It will surely return to haunt us when we least expect  or when we are totally unprepared for it. 

Legacy

 The boomer generation that brought about the civil rights struggle of the nineteen sixty's was nearly undivided in terms of our commitment to resist white supremacy and to preserve our race.

Black Power was our motto, unity and strength was our goal, and equality was our dream.
 The call for freedom took many forms, and our passion for blackness was profound.  We leave behind an unknowledgeable and uncaring me generation of youth who are ripe for picking, and the call for unity has been replaced by a desire for individual material wealth.

Our children will either further the cause of unity or let it die.    

  In regards to the black race America's history clearly shows periods of slow growth, and periods of no growth. However, we?ve never lost sight of our common struggle. The assimilation and miscegenation of blacks, having taken a toll to such an extent that I see few warriors willing to admit to moreover, to challenge the social fiber of our consciousness; our values and our norms, all of which have come about as a result of the influence of the reigning social order.

  I see even fewer blacks knowledgeable about the need for a consensus of debate expressing the need to address the underlying issue; the residual effects of slavery on blacks. Slave mentality has indeed, influenced our thoughts, and shaded our actions throughout history. It continues to short circuit every effort by
Blacks to unite. 

  It is true that we have never been truly unified. It is also true that the Continent of Africa is the home of many nations, and many tribes and villages dwell in each nation. Many wars have been waged between African nations. Many more will likely be waged in the future for humans are an egocentric lot.

 The bond that once held the Black race in America together was the realization that our condition was shared by every black man, black women, and black child. Even famous blacks have felt the sting of the racist's nectar.

  We will achieve true freedom only when we achieve economic freedom, and we will achieve economic freedom, only when we are successful in defeating slave mentality. We will accomplish little should we seek to have the one but not the other. We will remain at the bottom rung of America's economic ladder; looking up, ever praying,  always dreaming and never achieving.

  I see few reasons that allow me to believe that my cause; the cause of Douglass, Delaney, Tubman, Garvey, King, Malcolm and all the rest of our leaders who were so equipped with foresight to have fought, and in some cases died to preserve our family and our community of relatives has not been in vain. Our children are neither capable nor are they prepared to offer much resistance in the case of another movement by white's to move us from an annoying existence to a passive extinction. No longer are we a people with shared customs and ideals. We have in many ways become a reflection of our former masters.

 The Jewish people who were forced to walk into those horrific chambers of death did so while holding steadfast to their faith, their customs, and their families. Decades later their distinctly unique culture and way of life thrives and their descendants prosper. The same cannot be said for Blacks.

  It is imperative that we fight to sustain our uniqueness as a people, and that our contribution to the evolution of mankind is recognized. Our culture and way of life is equally important as any other race of people. Whether we survive or perish, whether we prosper as a people or merely become slightly darker white folks, will be determined by our commitment to affect the course of our destiny. Absolute obscurity will no doubt be the finale destination if the present course we travel continues.

  We must become as one finger of the hand of humanity. We must be able to move independently, yet; joined to the hand of humanity. Our willingness to be assimilated into the white race will someday be at a cost that is far too expensive for any people to willingly pay.
 It is a price that no other race in history has willingly paid.

 The bible says: you shall reap what you sow.  Since the advent of slavery black Americans have continually sown white mentality. It is not surprising that the crop (our children) we reap is slowly becoming whiter in every respect with each succeeding generation. The belief that the physical transformation that continues to alter our outward appearance from black to nearly white is but superficial, is a belief that is based in wishful thinking and not reality. The transformation extends far deeper than any physical appearance, and has thus far, a greater impact on our race than previously anticipated by many of our greatest leaders.

The seeds we have sown, shall we also reap.

 During slavery, our families were separated in a move that was considered essential to maintaining the institution of slavery. Family members were subjected to the auction block in order to prevent the natural occurrence of bonding between family members.  A slave carried no last name and the adoption of masta's last name was customary. To carry the name of the master afforded no reward for the slave for renaming was merely a method of identification. And should a slave be sold, the so-called Christian name of the latter master became the last name of the slave. It is therefore my conclusion that the descendants of the ancestral slave can never truly trace family roots.

 In all likelihood we have wedded and produced offspring with our own blood relatives. We are in the truest sense an extended family.

Our dedication, as well as our deprivations suffered, since being forcefully taken away from our homelands on those horrible slave ships and brought to American soil, should not merely be excused. These acts were criminal in nature and committed solely for the purpose of making more money for more white folk's. This includes many of our nations forefathers whose vast wealth accumolated not because of any dedicated work ethic, but because of the nearly cost free labor force that slave owning provided.
 
 Give me free labor and I shall become rich! This was likely the philosophy of America's 1st president, who owned hundreds of slaves! Yet, American history courses teach us to regard George Washington as an honorable man. A man who could not tell a lie! Thomas Jefferson, John Addams? the list of former presidents that owned slaves is long. In reality these men were not honorable at all, and if the writers of our history books were really intent on capturing the true story of American leadership, then perhaps we might actually learn something that could provide us with insight and possibly prevent future occurrences of misdeeds by our leaders.
 Warren G. Harding, who took the oath of the Klu Klux Clan while standing in the Oval Office during his term as President of the United States, should have been impeached for his well-documented acts of overt racism.
 President Abraham Lincoln, in a Debate with Steven A. Douglass in Peoria Illinois stated..." I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together in terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

  Frederick Douglass spoke of Lincoln at the dedication of a monument of which he'd been invited said..."Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places, and it is never more proper and beautiful in any case then when speaking of a great public man whose example is likely to be commended for honor and imitation long after his departure to the solemn shades...It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit, even in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man."

American Historians have not been truthful in regards to history.

  I have taken it upon myself to reveal how slave mentality deleteriously affected my parent's lives, my life, my friends and my five brothers. If my behaviors sound familiar to you, than you should probably read my book. If revealing my dirty laundry causes you examine your own behaviors, then I have accomplished my goal.