Unbossed and
unbought news and information you can use
Vol. 14 No. 52…Dedicated to the Dialogue
on Race…December 28, 2011
Intuit's Vibe
Ya Strugglin'
By KRS-One
Are you proud man, of who you are?
Or does your pride come out of a jar
Cause if you bought it,
put it on, or sprayed it on
I tell you right now,
it won't stay long
Cause if it ain't natural, it ain't kosher
It's like buyin and wearin a culture
If that culture ain't yours naturally
it's his, not yours,
actually
You better wake up and smell the coffee
Look in the mirror and think Mr. Softie
People change, when they are ashamed
of how they look or from which they came
Are you ashamed, of original black?
If you're not, why
does your hair look like that?
Why is your nose straighter, from surgery?
I think you're really in a state of emergency
You're not sane to the African aim
so you're insane,
and you need to obtain ANY
average rap album sculpture
and study it,
JUST, to learn your
culture
Even though, you don't think it's music
It's the blackest
you'll EVER get, so use it
The blue-eyed Black man, to me, is buggin
Take a look at yourself man,
YA STRUGGLIN'
It's not a "perm"..
it's a
"temporary"!
By John Burl Smith
For
some people, Christmas is a time filled with joyful memories of family,
exchanging gifts, lavish dinners and wonderful gatherings shared with 
friends.
But for others, it is a very difficult period haunted by memories of economic
hard times, feelings of despair and a conspicuous absence of the fairy tale
surprises on Christmas morning. For many people, this dichotomy is part and
parcel of the whole idea of Christmas and the commercialization that diverges
entirely from what is supposedly the reason the day is celebrated. Clearly, my
early experiences place me in the latter category; nonetheless in my youth, I
drew strength from witnessing the struggles of my parents and those around me.
My wife Dot and I
grew up amidst challenging times for most black families. Our families escaped
the harsh life of sharecropping in
Although not
oblivious to these facts of life, with the arrival of the Christmas season,
along with our gleeful anticipation of Santa Claus' arrival, we ignored the
increased burden on our parents with our continuous chatter of toys and gifts.
The task of year-round survival was a paycheck to paycheck juggling act for our
parents, whose economic viability hung on the whims of chance. However that
reality did not stop them from trying to shield us from the debilitating impact
of poverty, and each year they mortgaged the family's future using their
willingness to struggle even harder the next year as collateral. How and where
they found the faith and strength to cast caution to the wind each year to give
their children that one day of hope and happiness is even more amazing today
than it was then.
The idea of giving
of one's self to see joy in the eyes of those one loves must have served as a
counter weight to the tremendous economic burden they placed on themselves each
year. Consequently, the arrival of this season always leaves Dot with a sense
of guilt and depression, knowing her parents gave so much to receive so little
in attempting to fulfill a fantasy. However, I believe that far from the
commercialism that dominates the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ
today, in an otherwise drab and desperate world, the small pleasure our parents
derived was worth the hidden pain behind their eyes, because it was about
bringing joy to others. Rather than feeling depressed because giving to those
they loved made it harder on them, we honor them and their effort by
remembering their sacrifice, which comes nearest to the true meaning of
Christmas - as a time of renewed hope, if only for one day.
Even though our
grandchildren, as most other children their age, are steeped in receiving and
lack an appreciation for the joy of giving, the challenge for parents today is
to not try and cover over the hard times we experienced by giving children
stuff we never received. Today, it is all about me! Children have little
concern for what it takes to purchase $200.00 games, designer fashions and
other high tech gadgets. What seems to be missing now from parents' efforts is
the inner strength to tell our children the truth about the gift of Christmas
and not let receiving from Santa Claus be the reason we celebrate. The inner
strength of parents must serve as a counter weight that says no to the total
commercialization of the idea of giving as opposed to receiving.
As children, our family
lived with a "shared sense of sacrifice." Although we wished for all
kinds of toys and gifts, in our hearts we knew we would not get everything we
wanted. If we were lucky, we got that one toy we craved. The intent here is not
a nostalgic stroll back to what may seem the "good old days" of
Christmas past. It is a plea to rekindle what parents of those days
communicated to their children regarding caring and sharing. Their sacrifice
and giving extended to each member of the family and from each member to one
another then out into the community.
Samson
From the ancient
Hebrew Bible (Book of Judges: 13-16) comes the legend of Samson, who was born
in the city of 
and
his wife, who had been unable to conceive a child. The couple had been married
for many years when an angel appears proclaiming that they would soon have a
son who would begin to deliver the Israelites from Philistine oppression. This
son was to live under a Nazarite vow, which meant he would never cut his hair,
eat raisins or grapes, drink wine or touch a dead body. He was to live his life
dedicated to the service and will of God. In return, God granted Samson
supernatural strength with which to defeat the enemies of God.
Samson matures and
leaves home to see the cities of the Philistines; he falls in love with a
Philistine woman. Overcoming the objections of his parents, he seeks her hand
in marriage. On the way to ask for the woman's hand, he is attacked by a lion.
With his supernatural strength, Samson rips the lion apart. He keeps the deed a
secret. He wins the Philistine's hand in marriage.
On his way to the
wedding, Samson notices that bees have nested in the carcass of the lion and
have made honey. He eats a handful of honey and gives some to his parents. At
the wedding-feast, Samson challenges his thirty Philistine groomsmen to solve a
riddle. If they succeeded, Samson promised to give them thirty pieces of fine
linen and garments. The riddle ("Out of the eater, something to eat; out
of the strong, something sweet") is a reference to the beehive in the lion
carcass. Stumped by the riddle, the groomsmen tell Samson's new wife that they
will burn her and her father's household if she does not discover the riddle's
answer and give it to them. At her tearful urging, Samson tells her the
solution, and she tells it to the groomsmen.
Before
sunset on the seventh day the groomsmen tell Samson, "What is sweeter than
honey, and what is stronger than a lion?" He replies, "If you had not
plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle."
In a rage, Samson
slays thirty Philistines of Ashkelon for their garments, which he gives his
thirty groomsmen. He burns the Philistines' fields and they burn his wife and
father-in-law in revenge. Samson slaughters many more Philistines before taking
refuge in a cave in the rock of Etam. At the urging of the Philistine army, the
men of
Again
succumbing to his weakness for beautiful Philistine women, Samson falls in love
with Delilah, who is offered a great sum of silver coins in exchange for the
secret of Samson's strength. Using seduction and deception, Delilah eventually
learns the secret of Samson's strength was his seven unshorn locks. While
Samson sleeps, she and an accomplice shave his head, breaking the Nazirite
oath. Samson has already touched a dead body, eaten grapes and raisins and
drank wine, God leaves him. No longer possessing supernatural strength, Samson
is captured by the Philistines, who stab out his eyes. He is imprisoned and put
to work grinding grain.
Samson's hair grows
back, but now he is blind. Samson is summoned one day to the
As Samson stands between
the central pillars, the people laugh at and spit on him. Samson stretches his
mighty arms around the pillars and pulls with all of his might. The temple
crashes around him. Samson dies along with thousands of Dagon worshiping
Philistines. (Sources: www.friendshipbaptistchurch.com/cmay.html,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson,
and http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/p/samsondelilah.htm)
Hair: An Extension of the Nervous System
By C. Young
This information
about hair has been hidden from the public since the Viet Nam War. Our culture
leads people to believe that hair style is a matter of personal preference,
that hair style is a matter of fashion and/or convenience, and that how people
wear their hair is simply a cosmetic issue. Back in the
In
the early nineties, Sally [name changed to protect privacy] was married to a
licensed psychologist who worked at a VA Medical hospital. He worked with
combat veterans with PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. Most of them had
served in
Sally said, "I
remember clearly an evening when my husband came back to our apartment on
Doctor\'s Circle carrying a thick official looking folder in his hands. Inside
were hundreds of pages of certain studies commissioned by the government. He
was in shock from the contents. What he read in those documents completely
changed his life. From that moment on my conservative middle of the road
husband grew his hair and beard and never cut them again. What is more, the VA
Medical center let him do it, and other very conservative men in the staff
followed his example. As I read the documents, I learned why.
It seems that during
the Viet Nam War special forces in the war department had sent undercover
experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts, for
tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially
looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities.
Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively
documented as experts in tracking and survival.
With the usual
enticements, the well proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some
of these Indian trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing
happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation
seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as
expected in the field. Serious casualties and failures of performance led the
government to contract expensive testing of these recruits, and this is what
was found.
When questioned
about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied
consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they
could no longer 'sense' the enemy, they could no longer access a 'sixth sense'
, their 'intuition' no longer was reliable, they couldn't 'read' subtle signs
as well or access subtle extrasensory information. So the testing institute
recruited more Indian trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them
in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the
same scores on all the tests. They would let one man in the pair keep his hair
long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the
tests.
Time after time the
man with long hair kept making high scores. Time after time, the man with the
short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high scores.
Here is a typical
test: The recruit is sleeping out in the woods. An armed 'enemy' approaches the
sleeping man. The long haired man is awakened out of his sleep by a strong
sense of danger and gets away long before the enemy is close, long before any
sounds from the approaching enemy are audible. In another version of this test
the long haired man senses an approach and somehow intuits that the enemy will
perform a physical attack. He follows his 'sixth sense' and stays still,
pretending to be sleeping, but quickly grabs the attacker and 'kills' him as
the attacker reaches down to strangle him. This same man, after having passed
these and other tests, then received a military haircut and consistently failed
these tests, and many other tests that he had previously passed.
So, the document
recommended that all Indian trackers be exempt from military haircuts. In fact,
it required that trackers keep their hair long."
Comment...The
mammalian body has evolved over millions of years. Survival skills of human and
animal at times seem almost supernatural. Science is constantly coming up with
more discoveries about the amazing abilities of man and animal to survive. Each
part of the body has highly sensitive work to perform for the survival and well
being of the body as a whole. The body has a reason for every part of itself.
Hair is an extension
of the nervous system; it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type
of highly-evolved 'feelers' or 'antennae' that transmit vast amounts of
important information to the brainstem, the limbic system, and the neo-cortex.
Not only does hair in people, including facial hair in men, provide an
information highway reaching the brain, hair also emits energy, the
electromagnetic energy emitted by the brain into the outer environment. This
has been seen in Kirlian photography when a person is photographed with long
hair and then re-photographed after the hair is cut.
When hair is cut,
receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment are greatly
hampered. This results in 'numbing-out'. Cutting of hair is a contributing
factor to unawareness of environmental distress in local ecosystems. It is also
a contributing factor to insensitivity in relationships of all kinds. It
contributes to sexual frustration.
In searching for
solutions for the distress in our world, it may be time for us to consider that
many of our most basic assumptions about reality are in error. It may be that a
major part of the solution is looking at us in the face each morning when we
see ourselves in the mirror. The story of Sampson and Delilah in the Bible has
a lot of encoded truth to tell us. When Delilah cut Sampson's hair, the once
undefeated Sampson was defeated. (Source: http://rense.com/general95/hair.htm)
Hair Extension Dangers
Longing for longer
hair? From celebrities to housewives, women who dream of longer and fuller
hairstyles are turning to hair extensions to achieve what nature cannot or has
not provided-- long flowing locks. A visit to the local supermarket or mail can
attest to the popularity of hair extensions among women and girls, especially
black females. Scores can be seen wearing long braids or sporting
shoulder-length straight hair that is obviously not au naturel.
Hair
extensions are attached to the existing hair or scalp by either weaving, gluing
or clipping it on. Whether braided, woven or glued, there is a growing downside
to hair extensions. According to a segment of Good Morning America (10-14-11),
doctors have experienced a twenty (20) percent increase in the number of female
patients experiencing hair problems.
Dr. Eric Schweiger,
a NY City dermatologist, told "Good Morning America (GMA), "Now more
and more women are using extensions at home and work. Some as young as 19 are
experiencing the dangerous side effects that come with trying to transform
one's natural hair with hair pieces that make their hair longer and fuller. We
have patients who are in their early 20s come in after wearing hair extensions
for six months or one year, and they actually have bald spots."
Women with thin or
weak hair and those with pre-existing medical conditions, such as anemia, are
particularly at risk for damage from wearing hair extensions. GMA interviewed
two young women that have experienced the downside of hair extensions.
Twenty-two-year-old
Maya Ramos of Delray Beach, Florida sought the help of a hair loss specialist
after shedding hair near the extensions. She 
was
diagnosed with traction alopecia, a form of gradual hair loss caused primarily
by a pulling force being applied to the hair. She ceased wearing hair
extensions and her natural hair finally grew back.
Twenty-five-year-old
Chioma Odimegwu of
Others, including
celebrities are experiencing difficulties. According to Jennifer Aniston in a
recent Instyle interview, "The real reason I cut my hair? My real hair was
getting thinned out again from all the extensions. It was starting to look
fake."
A ballpark estimate
of the cost of extensions range from $300 to $3,500+, so salons are making a
killing selling the hairstyle to women dreaming of long locks. But, Dr.
Schweiger says, "It's very important that people out there know the risks
of hair extensions before they get them done. If you're going to do any
extensions, just use them for a few hours and take them out. That's the safest
way."
See the complete GMA
segment on extensions at
http://abcnews.go.com/watch/good-morning-america/SH5587637/VD55148110/gma-1014-hair-extension-dangers.
Disgruntled feels: Deja vu! The latest
conservative Republican escapade involves 
married
to Suzann for nineteen years and has three young daughters. Despite the
appearance of adhering to conservative family values,
Disgruntled wants to know: The last combat
troops are packing up to leave 
have
never been started, since it was based on a pack of lies. While the
Disgruntled says: It is odd, to say the least,
that Time Magazine named "The Protester" as the Person of the Year.
The underdog, starting 
with
Mohammed Boudazzi, who set himself ablaze in protest in Tunisia, are getting
their butts beat by the military and police. From Zucotti Park in New York City
to Tahrir Square in Egypt, where police dragged a woman by the hair and beat
her senseless in the street, protesters have and continue to face many
challenges. Chief among those is the fact that the police, especially in the
US, that are sworn to serve and protect the public, behave like private
security, running interference and protecting the one-percent. Indeed, the Time
title is not without a sense of irony, since protesters have yet to win
anything. Setbacks in the Arab spring can attest to this assessment.
Coordinated police attacks and arrests of Occupy Wall Street protesters are
equally cogent. So, rather than highlight the exploits of a global profiteer, a
business mogul or some other member of the one-percent that would normally
garner the title, the magazine does just the opposite. Giving the title to
protesters seems a bit tongue-in-cheeky to me.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Telephone Calls
Email
mulindwa@look.ca...Americans Shoplifted $1.8 Billion Worth of Stuff This 
Christmas...Hope
you have a Merry Christmas,
Email
www.hindustantimes.com...Jolie criticised for Zahara's hair extensions...A
celebrity hair stylist has criticised actress Angelina Jolie for letting 
her
six-year-old daughter Zahara get hair extensions. "She is far too young
for that, and Angelina is creating insecurity in the little girl that what she
has is not good enough," aceshowbiz.com quoted DaRico Jackson as saying.
"Growing up with siblings who have long flowing hair, Zahara may grow to
feel that her own natural hair is not pretty enough, and that without the fake
hair she is not beautiful. She should be made to embrace who she is," she
said. Zahara was pictured sporting new hair extensions when stepping out in
Email
cosmidot@hotmail.com...Iran warns it might close Hormuz strait, stop oil...
Email http://msn.foxsports.com/..Conlin accused by 7th alleged victim...Another
woman came forward Friday to accuse Hall of Fame baseball 
writer
Bill Conlin of sexually abusing her when she was a child, The Philadelphia
Inquirer reported....The latest accuser is the third person to come forward
since Tuesday when The Inquirer first published a report detailing the alleged
abuse of three women and one man, who claimed the long-time columnist molested
them during the 1970s when they were aged between seven and 12. The now
mother-of-two said she decided to break her decades-long silence in light of
the courage of the other victims. The 77-year-old Conlin, a fixture in the