Can She Say That?

Star Parker can say what a lot of us think because she is black, and the media won't get all over her like they would us.

Gospel of dependence from National Urban League
Townhall.com ^ | March 30, 2009 | Star Parker


The National Urban League has just issued its annual State of Black America report. It provides a troubling statistical snapshot of where blacks stand today in our country.

Like Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, I'm concerned. But after concern, we part company. We have very different ideas of what it is we should be concerned about.

Morial, I am sure, sees his organization as part of the solution. From what I see, it is a well-funded symptom of the problem.

Shouldn't it embarrass black Americans that one the nation's largest and most prestigious civil rights organizations offers a long list of proposals to improve black life in our country, and every single proposal is a government program?

Government funded jobs as the answer to unemployment, more government money in public schools, government health care, government business loans, government money for retirement accounts, government programs for counseling homebuyers, government worker training programs, government money for building construction, and on and on.

There's not a single proposal that I could find in a several hundred-page report about improving black life that does not start with government. The civil rights movement once was about freedom and liberation. Now it's about government dependency. We should be ashamed.

The report is crafted to disabuse any notion that since we now have a black president, our discrimination woes are "relics of the past." The proof: blacks are "twice as likely as whites to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be incarcerated."

But with all the statistics reported, methodically ignored is that blacks are little more than 12 percent of the population, yet we account for 50 percent of new AIDS cases, almost 40 percent of abortions, and 70 percent of black babies are born to unwed mothers and grow up in single parent homes.

Please, hold the hate mail telling me that I only want to show the ugly side of black America. No, I want to show the side of black America for which we ourselves are responsible and which really point to where our problems lie.

The National Urban League report talks about black poverty. But it does not bother to point out that hand in hand with poverty are single-parent homes.

That black households with two married parents are not living in poverty and their household incomes are on par with those of white households.

Breakdown in family and values is at the root of poor education, unemployment, and crime as well.

Blacks have the highest church attendance in the country. If we paid attention to the gospel heard on Sunday, we wouldn't think that extorting welfare from taxpayers was the answer to our problems the other six days of the week.

Regarding discrimination, you have to wonder what it will take to get off this convenient excuse. Some 40 million white Americans voted for Barack Obama for president. That is two million more white Americans than voted for John Kerry in 2004.

As the civil rights movement transformed into a government dependency movement, the original focus on law and the U.S. constitution as the vehicles to protect all citizens has been lost.

My friend Pastor Walter Hoye sits in jail in Oakland, California for violating a clearly unconstitutional city ordinance prohibiting him from peacefully standing in front of an abortion clinic offering life literature to the mostly black clientele.

A black pastor's civil rights have been violated as he tried to save black babies. It happened in the district of Congresswoman Barbara Lee, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Yet, she could care less and has done nothing. The National Urban League could care less. The NAACP could care less.

What's wrong in black America? You won't find the answer in the National Urban League's report.

Profanity--It's Not Just For Sailors Anymore

Or farewell to the ingenue, that naive, innocent girl of yesteryear who would no more let a *bleep* pass her lips than . . . well I couldn't say that out loud! Because the Beaver has many teen friends I have been made aware of this phenomenon which I liken to as a brazen assault on the civility of the spoken word.

What I hear, and see in printed messages, is a new model of language filled with conversational flatulence of extreme expletives, obscenities, vulgarities and all manner of guttural language.

What these young adults aren't aware of is that what comes out of the mouth is a reflection of what goes on in the head; it reveals the character of the speaker. What becomes obvious is that they are mere lemmings following the group over the proverbial cliff; not realizing that cursing becomes a habit and the pandemic potty mouth soon becomes a vitriolic toxic waste dump not easily cleaned up.

Please don't tell me this is all a harmless phase teens go through. This is a reflection of our culture being manifested in our young people. And the words reflect an attitude--a kind of pathos, towards mankind. I followed the written account of a particular young lady(?) and she was very proud of her mean-spirited attack on a peer launched with no substance other than a volley of hostile and crude words. The scary part was that she knew she had made him feel small but excused her own behavior by saying he deserved it.

Again, for all of you who use profanity, and consider it harmless I ask: What good does it do? I'll agree that it is a part of our lexicon and for use in extreme situations. I can think of one account when Ward used it to great affect. His men were not accustomed to hearing cursing from their commander; when after being up for almost two days without rations, hearing that a superior officer was going to hold said rations, this young officer let loose with a string of expletives that he didn't even know he possessed! The superior officer apologized, sent the rations, and told Ward never to do that again.

But for the current generation of epidemic potty mouths what are we to do? There is help and I found it online! Look at Cuss Control Academy or pick up Cuss Control: The Book, by Jim O'Connor. Still not convinced? Look at this excerpt from the site:


What's Wrong With Swearing?

Swearing Imposes a Personal Penalty
It gives a bad impression
It makes you unpleasant to be with
It endangers your relationships
It's a tool for whiners and complainers
It reduces respect people have for you
It shows you don't have control
It's a sign of a bad attitude
It discloses a lack of character
It's immature
It reflects ignorance
It sets a bad example

Swearing is Bad for Society
It contributes to the decline of civility
It represents the dumbing down of America
It offends more people than you think
It makes others uncomfortable
It is disrespectful of others
It turns discussions into arguments
It can be a sign of hostility
It can lead to violence

Swearing corrupts the English language
It's abrasive, lazy language
It doesn't communicate clearly
It neglects more meaningful words
It lacks imagination
It has lost its effectiveness


Even if your friends and associates commonly use cuss words, you will be perceived as more mature, intelligent, articulate, polite, considerate and pleasant if you control your language and the emotions that typically prompt expletives. You can choose to have character and class, or be considered rude, crude and crass.

From 1976 Until 2009; He's Still The One!!

This is dedicated to the one I love. Happy Anniversary!! (An oldie but a goodie!)


STILL THE ONE (Orleans)

We've been together since way back when
Sometimes I never want to see you again
But I want you to know, after all these years
You're still the one I want whisperin' in my ear

You're still the one I want to talk to in bed
Still the one that turns my head
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

I looked at your face every day
But I never saw it 'til I went away
When winter came, I just wanted to go
Deep in the desert, I longed for the snow

You're still the one that makes me laugh
Still the one that's my better half
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You're still the one that makes me strong
Still the one I want to take along
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

Changing, our love is going gold
Even though we grow old, it grows new

You're still the one that I love to touch
Still the one and I can't get enough
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You're still the one who can scratch my itch
Still the one and I wouldn't switch
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You are still the one that makes me shout
Still the one that I dream about
We're still having fun, and you're still the one..

Army Wife Stuff

Here we go again. Every two years or so, Ward has to make a job change. His rank may stay the same, but that's just the way the Army works. One year, two years tops, at the same position. And occasionally, these jobs will involve being top dog, king of the hill, the big kahuna, you are in charge of this mess, type of position. Ward just left that kind of a job last year. He was a brigade commander. So, it was time to move on and he got posted in Iraq for a year. The last few months he has spent seeking his next position.

That has meant a roller coaster ride for the Beaver and myself. Will we go to Germany where there is no baseball and the Beaver would have to graduate high school overseas? Will it be Belgium? (Who cares if there's no baseball, they have the best chocolate in the world!) We've gone through this process so many times, it should be routine, right?

No, we always take into consideration our chidrens' needs. And that is what can make the process excruciatingly difficult. Like the time Ward got a battalion command position in Korea. We home schooled our kids so it shouldn't have been a tough one, but Wally would graduate high school in the middle of it, and besides he was pretty much through everything we could do at home. So we put him in a private boarding school (think $$$) so that he could bridge right on into his university studies. That worked out well, but it was oh so hard being out of the country when your oldest goes off to college.

Then there was the time in Korea when Ward could have taken a more prestigious position, but Betty just couldn't hack another year overseas. We honored that and came back to the states, knowing it might hurt Ward's chances for advancement.

So here we are again at the "two roads diverged in a yellow wood" juncture. What to do? What we always do. We pray, and let the Lord guide us. And "that has made all the difference."

The Mother Of All Comfort Foods

And you just know that is Mac and Cheese! Yesterday I made a whole cafeteria style comfort food meal and I didn't even get to eat it.

On the menu? Well, the best Macaroni and Cheese ever, which is homemade of course, Betty Crocker's meat loaf, your elementary cafeteria green beans with bits of bacon, and the pies de resistance, lime jello with pears! All that was missing was a lunch room lady and a hair net.

The reason the Beaver and I did not get to partake is that I made this meal for a special family who's Dad has brain cancer and has just completed radiation which has all but wiped out his taste buds and mouth lining. He needed something easy to chew and swallow, it didn't much matter what it tastes like. His eyesight is fine though. I hope that seeing all of these old school cafeteria specials (hey, I never missed Mac and Cheese day at school!) would bring back some happy memories.

My friend and her family were smiling broadly as I unloaded the "retro" fair. I'll find out today if it went down well, but they know that it was served with a big helping of love.