MORE THOUGHTS ON THE VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTINGS

Some students on the campus of the Virginia Tech shootings said that "Things like this don't happen here" and others in small quiet towns where similar shootings have occurred have echoed similar sentiments. It's like they somehow think they're isolated from the real world where things like this do happen.

I think maybe that's why this type of thing sometimes does happen in places where people think that they "can't happen" to give them a wake up call...a reality check...to shatter their illusionary view of themselves and the world.

And the news media...especially the local new media where I live in the Detroit, Michigan metro area...are just beating this dead horse (no pun intended) to death...milking this cow for all it's worth.

Today a local television news station trumpeted that there was a student from Mich who performed heroic feats of daring do while other students were running for cover. It turns out that the student wasn't even in the same building where the shooting was occurring. He just gave a helping hand to those students who were running into his building to get away from the scene of the shooting ...but he was a heroic figure in eyes of the news station.

Now granted it's good he helped the students running into his building ...but there were probably other students and faculty doing the same thing. Now if he'd had been in the building where the shooting was occurring and did what he did...then I would say he was a hero...but the news media seems to be looking for any angle...no matter how trivial...to keep their viewers tuning in.

On the one hand I can sympathize with the news media because they are in a competitive business and have to survive to stay in business...but don't you think there has to be some limit to the lengths they're willing to go to keep their viewers hyped up and tuned in to their broadcasts?

Virginia Tech Shooting Thoughts

I was just thinking about the shooting at Virginia Tech...the trauma...the terror...and the tragedy of it all...what a senseless occurrence...at least to us...but God knows what was going on the mind of the young man who was the shooter.

The people who do this (and they seem to be increasing over the years) are kind of like our version of the suicide bomber. The go into an area where they can kill as many people as possible and then kill themselves...which to me...increases the impact of the tragedy...because not only do have we deal with the deaths and wounding of lots of people...we don't know why they were attacked...that's a tragedy...because if we knew what thoughts, emotions, beliefs etc that lead the shooters to commit these acts...we might be able do something to prevent them from happening in the future.

So as horrible as any tragedy like this is... if we can't get a handle on what's going on in the minds of people that lead them to use guns, bombs etc to kill themselves and numerous innocent people...the long term recurrence of these tragedies...will be the greatest tragedy of all.

Now I know that some people say that guns don't kill people...people do...an interesting argument.

It's like saying bombs don't blow up people...people do.

It's like saying that guns aren't harmful in themselves that people make them harmful...well guns are harmful in themselves and so are bombs but if handled with extreme care they're harmfulness can be buffered.

People create bombs to kill people, they create guns to kill people...the history of war will confirm that.

I can understand why gun supporters and those who profit from gun sales like the phrase " guns don't kill people people do" it's clever, catchy and sounds intelligent...but it's really just self-serving rhetoric to make a point and to silence the opposition.

I'm not against guns but let's be real...the Virginia Tech shooter used two (at least that's what I heard) nine millimeter pistols for a reason...sure he could have used a knife but I don't think he would have done as much damage do you? He used guns because he obviously wanted to personally create as much massive destruction as possible...he knew guns are used everyday and have been used throughout their history to kill people individually and in massive numbers in wars.

I think people who use guns to kill want to be personally involved, up close and personal, when they're killing, so they can see the terror on faces of those they're shooting.

So not only do guns kill ...people use guns to kill...if guns didn't kill, people wouldn't use them for that purpose. And when guns fall into the hands of disturbed, hateful, individuals ...we're all in trouble.

VC Lamont Veasey

Getting Motivated and Staying Motivated!

Do you find it hard to get your motor running? Do you feel like you're running on low octane when you should be running on high octane? Do you find it hard to get motivated! Well let's see what we can do about helping you get motivated!

What is motivation?

Motivation is a need, desire, goal, emotion, interest or belief that triggers you into action!

It would appear that all you need to do to get motivated is to find goals that propel you into action! Although that's a necessary step, it may not be quite that simple. For example:

1.You may not be aware of what you hope to accomplish and can't get motivated because there's no clear-cut goal to focus on.

2.You may have two goals you desire, and can't get motivated because you can't decide which one you want to pursue first.

3.You may be ambivalent about a goal and can't get motivated because there are things you equally like as well as dislike about it.

4.You may be lazy! You aren't used to consistently pursuing a goal, because when the going gets tough, someone always bails you out!

5.You may have attempted to attain a goal, then gave up trying and have become indifferent about it, because of repeated failures.

6.You may not be motivated to attain a goal because that would bring you in conflict with someone you love or respect. (Example: If you attempt to attain a higher position than that attained by a domineering parent or spouse)

7.You may not be motivated to attain a goal because you believe you won't be able to handle it if you did!

So how do you get motivated!

There are basically two ways to get motivated. One way is to become aware of all the things that stop you from being motivated. The other way is to focus on all the things that help you get motivated. We've focused on the first way. Now let's focus on the second way.

1.If you're not aware of what motivates you. Make a list of things that you want. After writing down as many things as you can think of. Create another list, rating those things on a scale from 1-10, in order of importance to you. This exercise helps you become more aware of what motivates you and gives you a list of goals to focus on pursuing.

2.If you can't decide which one of two goals to pursue, make a list of their pros and cons. Rate them from 1-10. Alternately imagine how you'd feel if you had either one. Randomly pick one and pursue it. You may find that once you've done this, you become aware of the one you really want to pursue!

3.If you can't get motivated to pursue a goal because the pros and cons seem of equal importance, imagine how you would feel if only the pros existed. Then how you would feel if only the cons existed. Stop focusing on the goal for a while. Come back to it at a later date. Sometimes it's easier to make a decision once you done this.

4.If you aren't used to working at attaining a goal, You can train yourself to do so. Create an action plan and a deadline to accomplish your goal by. Spend a specific amount of time on it each day. Start with what you can handle. Gradually increase it. Don't allow anyone to bail you out! Keep at it!

5.If you've failed repeatedly trying to attain goals, It may be difficult for you to feel motivated, because based on past experience; you see no reason to try because you expect to fail again! But you're different now! Review the attitudes and thoughts you had then. What can you learn from those experiences? Is the goal you want to attain now attainable? Are your expectations about it realistic? You're not limited by past experiences. Every time you take new stab at it there's another chance you'll succeed this time around!

6.If you're holding back self-advancement to avoid the disapproval of a significant person, decide if your advancement is worth more than that person's displeasure! Decide whether you're going to live for yourself or to maintain that person's approval. Decide whether you deserve to advance in your career, regardless of who likes it or not!

7.If you're resisting attaining a goal, because you're not sure you can handle it. How will you know until you try to handle it! Research the goal. Find out everything you can about it. Talk to others who've done it. Pursue it! Once you've attained it, seek assistance from others involved in the field. Don't be afraid to ask questions. There are No dumb questions! Hang in there!

Here's one last thing you can do.

Use a chart, graph, or calendar, to keep track of where you are in relation to your goal. Track your progress, adjustments you can make and anything you can do to speed up the attainment of your goal.

For those of you who weren't clear about it, hopefully this article helped clarify what motivation is, what you can do to get motivated and maybe even added a thing or two for those of you who already knew this.

Now that you're aware of some of the things that can hinder you as well as help you get motivated. The next step is up to you!

But don't stop here!

Let this article spur you to create your own creative ideas about how to get movtivated and to stay motivated!


Copyright 2000 EL Veasey Publishing

The Metamorphosis of a Weed-Head!

Copyright 2006 El-Veasey Publishing Inc.

I was seventeen when I first started drinking. I had an older friend, Richard, who wanted to "show me the ropes" of how to be a man including knowing how to "hold your liquor". It was summer and almost every day he’d take me best friend, Anthony, down to our favorite waterfront park for lessons in "how to drink like a man!"

He would usually bring a fifth of whiskey and we’d sit around drinking, laughing, talking and watching the ships sail by until we killed the fifth!

I wasn’t used to drinking so of course, I didn’t have much of a tolerance for alcohol and I’d get intoxicated very quickly but pretended that I didn’t, so I wouldn’t be made fun of by Richard! But he could always seem to tell when I was faking it anyway!

I was a budding guitarist and I started playing in bars at that time. I was a terribly shy teen and had intense stage fright, so I drank to help ease my stage fright and shyness about mingling with people and talking to girls.

I did a stint in the army when I was 19. The army was another place where excessive drinking was enjoyed as part of being a man. Whenever I went out with my army buddies, I always did my share of heavy drinking like a real macho man should. I felt I had to prove that I could drink anyone of them "under the table" at anytime.

After getting out of the army at around age 21, I started playing in bands again. I got some gigs backing up some of the hot Motown acts of that era like Edwin Starr and the Spinners. Some musician friends introduced me to marijuana, under the guise of an experiment, pretending that had never used it before. Actually, they had some older guys in the band (they were only 28) to ask me if I wanted to "try a joint".

Marijuana was "dope" and dope had a bad name so they didn’t tell me it was marijuana. They told me to try it and see what I thought of it. I didn’t want to seem like a "square" so after asking a few questions about it I said; "OK I’ll try it." And I did. With sly smiles on their faces, they’d periodically ask me how I was feeling. I’d say, "I don’t feel anything. I don’t know what the big deal is! "

But, when we went on stage to backup Edwin Starr. All of a sudden the sound from my amp sounded like it was bouncing of the walls! Sometimes it sounded like it was coming from the dance floor where people were frantically dancing! My head would whip around to whatever direction the sound was bouncing from next!

I started shouting to the guys in the band, trying to be heard above the music, "Did you hear that? Did you hear that?" Each one of them would look at me in turn and say, "Hear what?" I’d say, "That sound!" Then with a delayed reaction, they almost simultaneously realized I was high and just burst-out laughing so hard that they almost couldn’t continue to play! I was the butt of "did you hear that!" jokes for weeks!

After that I got used to smoking marijuana or weed as we called it. I had so much fun when I was high! Everything seemed funny! My friends and I would just laugh and have a great time! I thought weed was the greatest thing I’d ever come across! Now I was drinking and smoking! Mainly, I smoked weed, but when we played bars I’d drink heavily also.
Then I started getting into psychedelics (mescaline, LSD) and cocaine.

Sometimes when I was playing I would be high on weed, alcohol, mescaline and coke at the same time!

I did this in some from or another for about 15 years straight! During that time there was probably only about 5 to 6 hours out of a day when I wasn’t high and that’s when I was asleep! And I was probably high even then!

When I woke-up in the mornings I would light up a joint! I’d eat breakfast and hit a joint! If I went to the store I’d fire-up a joint! During just about any activity I’d light up a joint! The attitude toward drugs then was "say yes to drugs!" If you didn’t get high we thought something was wrong with you! The prevailing slogan was "reality is for those who can’t do drugs!"

After 15 years of drugging and drinking almost, continuously, I tapered of a little and stopped doing psychedelics. I still did coke sporadically and mainly drank at night when I played bars. I didn’t smoke weed as much as I used to but I still smoked it every day!

Then I became severely depressed for about 2 years. All I wanted to do was stay high on weed, lie on my Living room floor, listen to psychedelic music and wallow in self-pity all day! I ate, used the bathroom and occasionally went to the store to buy munchies! Other than that, I stayed in the house with the shades down and the lights dimmed!

I could do this for 2 years because my girlfriend, whom I was living with at the time, who had 4 kids (not mine), and was on public assistance, supported me the whole time. I had no money. I had stopped doing gigs. I was totally financially dependent on her most of the time!

During my depressed states of mind when I was high, I was totally in another world! All I wanted to do was listen to Music, be high and be out of it! I was in this state most of the time I was awake. I would go through all kinds of hellish experiences and fantastic mental adventures! During one of these experiences I descended to the bottom of some deep, dimly lit ocean pit. I was down there just floating, doing nothing, wallowing in my self-pity and feeling kind of good about it! (Sometimes it feels good to feel bad! You know what I’m talking about!)

I was thinking about how bad my life had been up until then and how disappointed I was! How let down I was! When all of a sudden! I saw a soft light glowing in the distant darkness and heard a voice saying to me, "You have three choices. You can go insane, you can die, or you can go back and try to get your act together!"

I seriously thought about these options for a while, not knowing what I really wanted to do! The idea of death had a kind of a soothing appeal about it, so did insanity! But as I was contemplating this a beam of light struck me from the darkness like a thunder-flash! Something inside me said, "Go back and try to make a new start!" And that’s what I slowly did, very slowly!

My band Black Merda had gotten a record deal with a major record label (a dream come true for me at time, 1969. The label recorded us and made all these plans to make us a "Super Group". I was so happy! I was so hyped up I was jumping for joy! I just knew I was going to be a big recording star! Rich and famous! I was telling all my friends, all my relatives about it!----When----Out of the blue!---Like a lightning-bolt!

Marshall Chess the president of Chess Records sold the company and moved to England to head the Rolling Stones record company! I couldn’t believe it! Just like that! All my dreams were shattered! The new owners, GRT, didn’t follow through on Chess’ plans for us and did almost nothing for us. This was the precipitating event that was mainly responsible for my 2-year bout with depression!

Background Note

I had an aunt (Bertha) who was an alcoholic wine-head! She got to the point where she would drink and not eat! She died in her late thirties from internal hemorrhaging! My uncle, Percy, was an avid gin drinker. He drank so much and for so many years he started having kidney problems! He would pee blood! But he wouldn’t go near a doctor or quit drinking! One day he took his girlfriend to see her doctor. While she was in the examining room, she heard over the intercom that someone had collapsed in the waiting room! It was my uncle! He died from a heart attack right there on the waiting room floor! He was in his mid fifties!

I had a younger brother who graduated from years of being crossed addicted to heroin, marijuana, and alcohol to just being an alcoholic. He started drinking more and eating less! The last six months of his life was spent with him being rushed back and forth to the emergency room because he was hemorrhaging internally! The doctors told him to stop drinking! He wouldn’t! His last visit to the emergency room was his last time alive! He was in his early thirties!

My mother and another brother died from alcohol related health problems also. She was in her early fifties. He was in his forties. By all accounts the deck was severely stacked against my being able to recover from my addictive behavior!. (End of background note.)

Because of feelings of low self-worth (caused by childhood emotional traumas) I began to read hundreds of books on psychology, religion, philosophy, new thought, spirituality, self-help, etc, (you name it) to try to find a way of overcoming my emotional problems!

I also read books on health, nutrition, and herbal therapy. I became a vegetarian for 4 years. I was a budding spiritual person, and started thinking more and more about if smoking weed and drinking were really healthy or spiritual or not!

I thought that I was in control of my drug use. I smoked weed because I wanted to! It wasn’t addicting. I could stop anytime I wanted to! So I one day I decided to test myself to see if this was true (having no doubts that it was)!

I was in the worst situation I could’ve been in to start testing myself. I was playing in a band, in bars, four to five nights a week; with band members who were also weed heads and heavy drinkers! We’d take three or four breaks a night and usually went outside to share a joint or two. During one of these breaks I decided not to smoke. The comments I got were, "You’re not smoking! Yeah right! Come on hit it! You know you really want to!"

Each night, on each break, I would be pressured to smoke weed against my will. And although I’d decided not to smoke weed for a week to test myself, I’d find myself with a joint in my hand, raising it up to my lips, before I’d suddenly realize what I was doing! I’d pass the joint back and say, "I don’t want this!" The responses were, "Just checking!" "Just trying to see if you’re really serious or not!"

I had many relapses tying to quit smoking weed. Whenever I’d relapse, I’d feel guilty and disappointed, because I thought I had control of my weed use and found that I didn’t! The more guilt I felt the more I’d smoke! The more I’d smoke the more guilt I felt! And round and round I’d go! Until finally I decided that, if I relapsed, I wasn’t going to feel guilty. I would just say, " Ok! You slipped-up! Now get back on track!" That helped me to stop feeling guilty about relapsing and having to get high to stop feeling guilty about getting high!

I found that the more emotionally healthy I became, the more of a negative effect getting high had on me! It made me paranoid, more depressed and less motivated to do things that I usually felt like doing! I didn’t like that! The more emotionally healthy I became, the less getting high appealed to me!

So with much struggle and determination I gradually started getting high less and less everyday until one day I finally quit! I followed this same process when I decided to stop drinking! Just insert getting intoxicated where I say getting high in the text.

Essentially what happened was that I had outgrown the need to medicate my emotional and spiritual problems by getting high or intoxicated! The more I experienced real fulfillment of my needs, the less I sought substitute fulfillment of those needs through weed and alcohol abuse!

I gradually became more emotionally and spiritually mature, more emotionally and spiritually an adult! I developed beyond the needs that fueled my addictive behavior and gradually beyond relapsing!

It took me a year of struggle, determination, and emotional and spiritual growth to finally slay this dragon, but I did it! Understanding what my real needs were and how to fulfill them, was the key to recovering from my addictive behavior for me!

This understanding and fulfillment came to me by opening up to a part of me that was outside of my personal, historical sense of self. You can call it my potential self, my ideal self, my God self, whatever! I call it the self that didn’t go through the meat grinder of my personal traumas! This self seemed to predate and postdate my personal history. It transcended and contained my personal history! It was wiser, more confident, more loving and more fulfilled than I was as I was then!

It was an innate experience that had only been partially allowed into my experience up until then but, never to its optimum capacity (Like some vast mostly untapped reservoir of potential). It was something I’d never experienced before and if I had I hadn’t been aware of it!

My goal was to reduce the gap between my historical and trans-historical sense of self until they intermingled like the Taoist Yin/Yang symbol!

The more I approximate this state, the wiser and more perfect my choices have become and all things in my life seems to fall more and more into place without me forcing them! (Like hitting the bull’s eye without trying to!) I'm feeling pretty good! The traumas and dark days seem like distant memories! That person I was then seems like someone else now! Like someone I had a dream about a long time ago!

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! What’s your story? Maybe you can do what I did, maybe you can’t! But, no one knows what you can do until you do it, not even you!

May the light never cease to lighten your mind!

I Want To Lose Weight But I Can’t It’s Too Hard!

Copyright 2000 El-Veasey Publishing Inc.

The first thing people who want to lose weight have to learn to deal with are feelings of ambivalence about losing weight! (Part of them wants to lose weight and part of them doesn't.) Part of this ambivalence, is fueled by the inertia involved in trying to change any habit that one has been doing on a frequent basis for a long time. (Inertia is the resistance of a habit to change.) To redirect it or to slow it down takes more energy than most of us are willing to expend! We may start out being gung-ho about changing it but after a while, we feel it's just easier and less tiring to continue the habit as before!

Another reason they may feel ambivalent about losing weight is, they have to pay more attention to what they eat then they did before! This can seem to be just too much of a hassle and not worth the effort to do!

An Additional Factor

If you’re dieting and feel you’re depriving yourself of the food you enjoy. You’ll be torn between your desire to lose weight and your desire to eat! The more deprived you feel the more resistant you’ll be to losing weight!

Other Factors

You may have negative expectations about losing weight! You want to lose weight but consciously or unconsciously feel you can't! You may have a lack of confidence in your ability to lose weight because of negative conditioning and past experiences of failure trying to lose weight!

You may be unrealistic about how fast, how much and how easily you should lose weight! Your goals may be so unrealistic that after repeated attempts and failures you may become so discouraged you give up trying to lose weight!

More factors

You may eat to help you cope with stress or boredom! Or eat as a way of suppressing anger! Instead of verbalizing anger, you eat and eat compulsively! The more you suppress your anger, the more compulsively you eat! The more compulsively you eat, the more you suppress your anger and so on and on in never ending cycle!

You may have a love affair with food! You just really like to eat! You like the taste of food! The way it looks! The color of it! The smell of it! Its texture! You enjoy eating so much you tend to overeat and overeat frequently!

Environmental Factors

Advertising is another factor influencing why it may be hard for you to lose weight! Television is saturated with images enticing you to have fun and to feel good about yourself by eating the products being broadcast! Print, radio and billboard advertising are constantly bombarding you with the idea of experiencing fun and excitement when the products being advertised are eaten! The emphasis is on instant gratification, indulging your appetite, impulsively buying and eating food!

You may find it hard to lose weight because instead of focusing on how to make it easier for you to lose weight, you focus on how hard it is for you to lose weight! Instead of thinking about all the foods you can eat! You think about all the foods you can't eat! You start feeling deprived and feeling deprived makes you overeat!

Changing Habits.

If you want to lose weight or change a habit the first step is to,

(1) Decide if that's what you really want to do!

(2) Realize that you may have two minds about it! (Ambivalence)

(3) Make a commitment to changing it!

(4) Write out a plan with clearly defined realistic goals! (Goals you're capable of attaining!)

(5) Seek counseling if you're having trouble sticking to your plan!

(6) If you slip up! Allow yourself a few minutes to feel guilty, then get back on track!

(7) Don't hold setbacks against yourself, It's self-defeating!

(8) Practice, Practice, Practice!

(9) Give yourself credit for the effort you’re making!

(10) Recognize any progress you make no matter how insignificant!

(11) Keep going even if you have setbacks!

(12) You can do it!

I hope you've enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it! And I hope you found it helpful!

Good-Luck!

Email: elveasey@yahoo.com

The Mirror Of Self-Reflection

The Mirror of Self-Reflection!

By El-Veasey

Copyright 2005 El-Veasey Publishing Inc


If you find yourself waiting around during the day or at night for a chance to flash your genitalia at someone, you may want to ask yourself why you want to do that.

What do you hope to gain by flashing your genitalia at someone? Not only is it illegal, you're imposing your private reality on some innocent person's private space. Would you like if someone imposed a private reality on your personal space that you found disgusting?

You might want to ask yourself why you're so insensitive or hostile (whichever fits) toward the reality and personal space of others.

If you're out mugging people, breaking in houses, car jacking, robbing stores etc. you might want to look deeply into your heart ask yourself why you have the need to take away what belongs to others. Why you don't want to acquire your own valuables. Why you don't want to work for what you get or give things of equal value in exchange for what you get.

You might want to ask yourself what makes you so greedy for things belonging to others rather than going out and proudly acquiring your own things of value!

If you're an officer of the law and find yourself abusing, misusing or otherwise trashing the laws that you've vowed to uphold. You might want to ask yourself what the hell's going on with you!

Are you racial profiling? Are you on the take? Are you beating up suspects just because you can? Do you feel that you're above the laws and moral codes that apply to everyone else?

If you do you might want to do some deep soul searching to find out why you've allowed your vows and honor codes to become turned inside out!

If you're a parent who sexually, physically or verbally abuses your kids, or physically or emotionally neglects your kids. You might want to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself why you call yourself a parent! What the hell's wrong with you? What's the problem? What's going wrong in your head?

You might want to think about getting some deep professional help quick!

If you find yourself in a gang, living a brutal lifestyle, doing drive bys, doing hits, selling drugs, worried about getting busted. Worried about if you may get hit yourself, having to appear cold and unfeeling in the horror of all the violence and brutality you're involved in, so those you hang with won't take advantage of you and try to punk you out. You might want to sit down and rethink your position!

Do you really enjoy all of that turmoil and violence? Is it really worth your life? Do you really enjoy that lifestyle?

You might want to ask yourself what makes you so insensitive and callous about the violence you perpetrate on others!

If you find yourself dragging a black man behind your truck until he's decapitated. Shooting at minorities as they're leaving church services. Shooting up a Jewish daycare center, killing and tying a gay youth to a gate, blowing up men, women and children in a federal building, hanging a black youth etc.,

You might want to take a hard long look in the mirror of darkness and ask yourself if you really like what you see!

What motivates you to commit these horrendous acts? Why do they appeal to you? Were you born that way or did you learn to be that way? What makes you so eager to engage in acts of hatred, anger and bloodshed? Would you enjoy it if these acts were done to you, your family or your friends?

Your might want to ask yourself to let the true light shine into the true source of your dark motivations and hatreds!

The mirror of self-reflection doesn't play favorites. It reflects all sides of your personality equally.

Do you like what you see?

I Hope not!

Activist dredged up ‘family secret’ of plantation myth

Activist dredged up ‘family secret’ of plantation myth

By Heather Bolejack

October 29, 2002

Actor, singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte dredged up a centuries-old “family secret” for the world to hear when he likened Secretary of State Colin Powell to a plantation “house slave” who curries the favor of his master.

He made the comment during an Oct. 9 talk show interview with KFMB in San Diego.

In a follow-up interview with Larry King, Belafonte clarified that he was not intending to label Powell as an “Uncle Tom” with the comparisons to slavery. Belafonte, however, reiterated that there are “those who sit in the service of the house and those who sit in the service of those who languish on the plantation.”

Belafonte noted several times in his interview with King that he has dedicated himself to the service of the disenfranchised and impoverished peoples and has traveled the world to personally witness their suffering.

In order to truly serve those who “languish on the plantation,” must one stoop to pick the cotton and bloody his hands alongside those in the field every day, or can one be of equal service to his people “in the house”?

While shocking to the nation, Belafonte’s comments unearth the longstanding debate in the African-American community rooted in the plantation myth that the field slave was the rebel and the house slave the collaborator with the evil master. Like many arguments perpetuated over time, we often forget how the infighting began.

First of all, many house slaves were selected simply because they were the lighter-skinned blacks on the plantation, usually the result of the master’s “relationships” with slave women. The master’s system was calculated and mentally cruel. By separating light-skinned and darker-skinned blacks on the plantation and bestowing different privileges based on status, the master could divide and conquer and perpetuate racial self-hatred and division. With division, the slaves would never rally as one cohesive group to usurp the tyranny of the master.

Let’s wake up! The plantation divide among African Americans is alive and well. We perpetuate it today without the powerful persuasion of the master’s whip on our backs.

Belafonte has exhibited the very plantation mentality he decries by perpetuating this age-old, divisive stereotype with the eyes of the world watching. He continues to belittle Powell simply because he does not subscribe to the view that all African Americans should share one voice, one view, one spokesperson and one political party.

Is Belafonte mad because Powell is “selling out” and “stepping and fetching,” or just mad that Powell isn’t stepping and fetching for Belafonte’s party of choice?

It is disheartening when I hear African Americans attack others of their race who have achieved the highest distinctions in their fields with such vitriol as “sell-out,” “Uncle Tom,” “house slave” and “wannabe.” On the shoulders of those who fought for civil rights, we are able to go forward serving others in the boardroom and elected office, on the stage, in the studio, on the factory line, in our homes, churches and schools. Why then do some blacks cry out that you are not “keepin’ it real” if you do not continue to somehow toil in the field?

The man or woman who wears the business suit is no less socially conscious than the brotha’ or sista’ wearing the dashiki. Harry Belafonte is a man of wealth, privilege and power. When he returns from trips to impoverished nations of the world, he does not return to a home located in what he referred to as “America’s plantations” in South-Central Los Angeles or Watts.

The fact that he returns to a life of status in no way undermines his activism. We should set high expectations for ourselves as African Americans and challenge each other in a healthy way to be better, for being average will never be enough as we compete for the same opportunities as whites.

I say “thank God” we have African Americans serving in the house, and in the field if that is what we still wish to call it.

If everyone would stop the infighting the master devised centuries ago, we would notice that if we are working in the field and in the house, we run the plantation.

Bolejack is an Indianapolis attorney.

Copyright 2002 The Indianapolis Star

Are Indians The First Native Americans?

Are Indians The First Native Americans?


By El-Veasey


Copyright 2005El-Veasey Publishing Inc

Native means belonging to a particular place by birth, as in native to Wisconsin, [Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary], making anyone born in the United States a Native American.

In 1996 the remains of a 9000 year old fossil of a man, dubbed the Kennewick man, was found near the Columbia River in Kennewick Washington State, causing a brewing controversy to stew over who legally own it and whether was of Indian (Native American) origin or not.

More fuel was thrown on the fire when Anthropologist Jim Chatters, and sculptor Thomas McClelland created a sculptured image of the fossil’s face that looked like a white man, [resembling the actor Patrick Stewart of Star Track Fame]; although it was pointed out the image also looks like the 1833 portrait of Chief Black Hawk.

Four Indian tribes, The Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama and Colville immediately claimed the fossil as their ancestor, the ancient one, and filed a claim in July 31, 1996 for the right to possess and rebury the fossil according to their religious laws.

It seems as long as the fossil was thought to be “Native American” [which has come to mean virtually anyone of American Indian descent], the tribes didn’t have a problem with scientific analysis being done on the remains to determine their age. But war clouds started rising when the fossil’s age and its accompanying artifacts were found to be older and unlike any previous “Native American” fossils or finds, explicitly challenging the long held idea that Indians are the first Americans.

The scientists involved ostensibly sought the right to examine the fossil to further help extend the knowledge of when and whom the first humans were to arrive on the continent. But since the race of the fossil has became an underlying issue, some scientists may have a conscious or unconscious investment in “seeing” the fossil as white or non-Indian, [just as the tribes want to see it as Indian], although there is nothing apparent to suggest that’s the case.But the point has been made by Knute Berger (a white Male writer) that that may be partly what’s going on here.

He paints the interesting scenario that Whites, including some scientists, may have long been intentionally and unintentionally attempting to justify forcefully taking the land from the Indians with ideas like manifest destiny, being descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and now, through the fossil, descendants of the first Americans, as a way of staking a deeper claim to the land other than the history of brute force.

The ensuing court battle was essentially about whether Indians tribes, who saw the fossil as the remains of one of their ancestors, could legally lay claim to the fossil or any human fossils for that matter, discovered in the United States, predating 1492 when the first Europeans were thought to have arrived on the shores of the Americas.

The US Circuit Court subsequently ruled against the tribes citing that there’s no evidence to support the fossil as being a direct ancestor of the Indians since nothing is know about the race or culture of the Kennewick Man, which seems a reasonable conclusion to me,

but when peoples egos, sense of self, self-pride, prestige and sense of cultural identity are questioned, it turns what should be a search for objective truth about the issue into a subjective search for ways to maintain one’s cultural self-image and to reject anything that will tarnish its illustrious glow.