I’m praying that the culture will wake up and take a stand. They should hug and love one another and leave the violence be. Its time to act with intelligence and make something out of nothing. Growth is what is needed and I’m quite disappointed at the lack of pride in our culture. Hating one another and not knowing why is just obsurb. Be humble and let the world know that you are here and have something to offer. Stop sitting back and blaming all your down falls on white America. Take a stand and take it today.

You can be something look at Tyler Perry, Denzel Washington, Maya Angelou or Fred Price. Come on people if there’s no jobs lets create them. Hire the experience but help your brothers or sisters out. Its time to make our presence known. I agree with diversity but guys its our month and I’m trying to encourage my people to feel proud of it. Walk with your head up and not down because your rent is behind. Pray and ask God to give you strength to carry on. African American is nothing I’m ashamed of. Some may not like being called African American. I’m proud of where we are today. Thank God no more water hose spraying of dog attacks on our people. I know that there is some sort of racism going on but not like it use to. Its time to stand up tall!

A little dedication to my people and encouragement for them that’s all I’m saying. They need some encouragement because many have given up and don’t believe they are wise and important. We are good people and will bring change! And please don’t believe that Obama did not bring any change because he did and he will continue too. Thanks for reading and stay blessed!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-One Dream Still Waiting for Be Fulfilled

One of the most famous speeches from Martin Luther King Jr was on August 28th 1963, where he had professed his dream that all people no matter which race would be considered equal. A dream which was the noble of thoughts and a dream that really still has not been yet to fulfilled to the extent that Dr. King may have envisioned.

In many ways, we have come a long way since the 1960s, but in other ways, society still is rather not equal for many ways. There is still a great deal of mistrust regarding certain races, which can lead to discrimination. Even if we just sit right inside the bubble of the United States and do not rather go outside of the borders, there are going to be a lot of issues involving discrimination.

People of a different skin color might not have to use a separate water fountain or move to the back of the bus any longer, but it would be foolish to think that there is not some form of discrimination going on in this country.  We might be all humans, but pride tends to be a downfall where we cannot truly admit our equality.  

And when we extend beyond the United States, then we really hit a powder keg of insanity involving racism. And going beyond the color of skin, there are religion, wealth, and many other things that people are judged upon, that indicates that equality and freedom is not something that is going to come across rather easily. Most certainly here in the United States but elsewhere around the world.

And equality is something that most do want, but the problem is, relations tend to be tense at best between different races. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that he had a dream and it is a dream that is shared by many. It is one dream that will keep people reaching for the stars, for some golden promise, that has ambitious lofty aims, perhaps too much so.

In the end, for all of the advancements that people have made, we still are rather stuck in our ways. We are all share the fact that we are living breathing people. Yet that fact is lost on some.

That is the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., where we will be all equal.

Is that dream still alive?

A question that may never be answered properly I’m sure.

Monday, January 16, 2011 will be the twenty-sixth celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the United States. The holiday was first celebrated on January 20, 1986 following the bill that was signed three years earlier by President Ronald Reagan. In 1992, President George H. W. Bush proclaimed the holiday to be held on the third Monday in January. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until January 17th of 2000 that the holiday was observed by all fifty states. The last states to recognize the holiday were Utah, Arizona and New Hampshire.

Many people have a vague knowledge of his role in the civil rights movement, and most have heard parts of his famous, “I Have a Dream” speech. What many people aren’t familiar with are the many awards and acknowledgments of respect that were bestowed upon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his life. He was awarded over fifty honorary degrees from colleges, both in the United States and overseas. He was given the American Liberties Medallion by the American Jewish Committee and the Margaret Sanger award by the Planned Parenthood Federation. Perhaps the culmination of his award path was his being the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis and was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But it could be said that none of the awards or laurels he has received rise to that of the national holiday in recognition for his service to the country. Take a moment on the third Monday in January to learn a bit about this great American and understand his contribution to the people.

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Born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15th, 1929, King was destined for greatness from the very beginning, it seems. By the time he was 15, he was already going to college. By the time he was 26, King was already an ordained pastor and had earned a doctorate in theology.

Married at 24 to Coretta Scott, the King family consisted of Dr. and Mrs. King and four children.

Though the degrees King held and at what age he earned them, these are minimal accomplishments compared to his place in our nation’s history. In the short time that King led the civil rights movement, more of an impact was made than in the entire time period prior.

“On the 25th anniversary of the King Federal Holiday, we still have work to do to realize Dr. King’s dream.  MLK Day of Service is the perfect time for Americans to answer Dr. King’s challenge to do something for others.  Just as Dr. King set big goals and focused relentlessly on results, we need sustained citizen action to address today’s social challenges.”

Just as he did in his life, the holiday honoring his service is our nation’s call to action for individuals. This Day of Service has grown into an organized and important day for Americans to do something to help in their communities and make the country better overall.

“The MLK Day of Service is a way to transform Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and teachings into community action that helps solve social problems. That service may meet a tangible need, or it may meet a need of the spirit. On this day, Americans of every age and background celebrate Dr. King through service projects that strengthen communities, empower individuals, bridge barriers, and create solutions.”

If you’re interested in finding projects to do on this national day of service, you can easily find projects to participate in for your community.

Dr. King participated in numerous non-violent protests in the name of civil rights, including bus boycotts, protesting the arrest of Rosa Parks, and countless other non-violent protests. He was pivotal in turning the civil rights movement into results. Because of his deication to civil rights, he was arrested a total of 30 times.

Toward the end of his life, his goals encompassed more than only civil rights.

His most famous speech is, “I have a dream,” which can be found online on the American Rhetoric web site. Full text and audio are available for Dr. King’s most famous speech.

“While Dr. King preached about justice, empowerment, love and peace, in the final months of his life, his attention was turned to fighting poverty. Sadly, more Americans live in poverty today than during Dr. King’s lifetime. Forty-seven million Americans currently fall below the poverty line.”

I’m sure that King would’ve had the same impact on the United States and the world had he not been assassinated, but the details of his death drive his point and message home with a force to be reckoned with. On April 4th, 1968, a white segregationalist named James Earl Ray shot Dr. King in cold blood. Ray was too late – King had already made an unstoppable impact and changed the course of history before his death, and his assassination just made him a more beloved leader.

“During the less than 13 years of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership of the modern American civil rights movement, from December 1955 until April 4, 1968, African Americans achieved more genuine progress toward racial equality than the previous 350 years had produced.” (From The Martin Luther King Jr. Center)

This is amazing progress by any standards, and Dr. King is the man responsible for pushing the movement in a forward direction to making a difference in society and the American culture. A successful, wise, and strong person from the very start. Dr. King is an integral part of our history and worked to drive his message home to everyone, raising the sympathy, understanding, and values of society.

The best way to honor Dr. King and his incredible impact on our lives is to participate in a community service or volunteer project on Monday, January 16th, which marks the 25th anniversary of the holiday.

       These are very inspiring words emphasizing that hate can never drive out hate. Hatred can be vanquished only by love. We must get rid of this very pernicious emotion  that has caused so many wars. There are numberless  ancient epics in almost all parts of the world,  where  we find that hatred of one person toward another has resulted in a lot of  bloodshed. 

In the 20th century,  some of  the most tragic murders-  the assassination of  Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy, Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her son

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 Gandhi- are testimony to the brutal fact that we are living in a barbarous age. These world-famous dignitaries were murdered due to hatred. This is absolutely certain that unless we control the emotion of  hatred, we will never get inner peace. If you hate any person, you are in fact saddening your life  much more than that of  your adversary. Dr.Martin Luther King Jr aptly says: “We’ve learned to fly the air like birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven’t learned to walk the earth as brothers and sisters.”

It will be very useful if keep in mind these noble words by the Nobel Laureate W. B. Yeats: “”And intellectual hatred is the worst,/ So let her think opinions are accursed.” This is a very impressive advice by the poet to his daughter. “For arrogance and hatred are the waves / Peddled in the thoroughfares.”

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From 1955 to 1965 there was a war right in the middle of America.  No, it wasn’t a war like World War II or the Revolutionary War.  It was a war for the heart and soul of this country to determine once and for all if America was really going to be a land of equal opportunity for all.   It is a war that eventually took on the name of “The Civil Rights Movement.”

We must make no mistake, this was not just a shouting match.  Some of the events that we even remember today became quite brutal and deadly.  Those who fought in this war on both sides were deadly serious about the causes they represented and willing to fight and even die to see their cause succeed.  The war waged for years and steady progress was made but not without tremendous sacrifice by the leaders of the movement who were committed to a giving a new meaning to the phrase “set my people free.”

In all of black history, there may be no more significant a time since the Civil War when the rights of African Americans were so deeply fought and won.  The tensions in the country had been building.  When the Supreme Court mandated desegregation in the schools in the historic case Brown versus the Board of Education, the stage was set.  But it was on December 1, 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white man that the movement finally took shape and became a titanic struggle for the rights of African Americans in America.  That first battle brought to the front line one of the most important figures to fight for Civil Rights of that era, the Reverend Martin Luther King.

This tremendous struggle for freedom was never easy and was often marked with violence.  Over the next ten years some of the most important milestone in black history took place including…

*        1957 – President Eisenhower had to send federal troops to Arkansas to secure admission to Central High School by nine black students.

*        1960 – The sit-in at Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro North Carolina set the stage for nonviolent protest that was used with great success for the rest of the struggle.  Nonviolent protest and civil disobedience became a staple of the civil rights movement because of the influence of Martin Luther King.

*        1963 – The historic March on Washington in which over 200,000 people gathered to hear Dr. Kings famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

*        1964 – President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill that was the most significant event of his presidency and one he believed deeply in, the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

*        1965 – The assignation of Malcolm X and the Watts race rights.

*        1965 – President Johnson takes another bold step to accelerate the civil rights movement implementing Affirmative Action when he issues Executive Order 11246.

This short list is just a few of the highlights of this troubled time in which the rights of all citizens of American, black and white and of all colors were being redefined both on the streets, in the courts and in the different branches of government.  In the years to come there would be great steps forward.  One by one, every area of American life would see breakthroughs by African Americans in the areas of sports, entertainment, education and politics.  There were many proud moments and there were moments of tremendous shame and heinous acts committed by both white and black people.  But through all that struggle, the society continued to grow and adapt to the will of the people as has always been the tradition in American culture.

The struggle is far from over.  Discrimination and hate speech continue to be a problem to this day.  And while it is easy to reflect on those days of struggle with regret, we can also look at them with pride.  We can be proud of the great leaders who demonstrated tremendous courage and wisdom to lead this nation to a better way of life.  And we can be proud of America because it is here where such a struggle can result in equality and freedom for all citizens, not just a few.

According to Deadline, Gibson can “collaborate” on the script, turn out the film through his Icon Productions company, and possibly direct.  If he will get behind the camera, it will be his 1st time directing since 2006’s Apocalypto. however his provocative 2004 film the fervour of the Christ is getting the most attention currently, attributable to its unfavorable depiction of Jews in the brutal retelling of Jesus’ crucifixion. Gibson has been blasted for his or her portrayal, additionally saying “f*cking Jews” and “the Jews are accountable for all the wars in the world” during his 2006 DUI arrest. And that’s solely the anti-semitic things he has said and worn out recent years. Let’s not forget the sexist, racist tirade he made to his ex-girlfriend, who won $750,000 during a courtroom settlement with Gibson last week.

In166 BC, Maccabee led a revolt against Greek leadership that forbade Jewish non secular practices. under his command, the Jewish forces engaged in guerrilla warfare against Syrian armies and grew large enough to march on Judea.  When his enemies were finally driven out, Maccabee purified the Temple of Jerusalem and restored services, a historic moment celebrated by the annual “Festival of Lights,” or Hanukkah.  A Gibson-directed reenactment would little question embody similar clashing hordes as his 1995 Oscar winner, Braveheart, however can the inevitable public firestorm engulf its potential quality?

Naturally, Jewish leaders are angry. during a statement to the Hollywood Reporter, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti Defamation League, said, “Judah Maccabee deserves better. he’s a hero of the Jewish people and a universal hero in the struggle for non secular liberty. it might be a travesty to possess his story told by one who has no respect and sensitivity for different people’s non secular views.”

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founding father of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, took it a step further, “Casting him as a director or perhaps because the star of Judah Maccabee is like casting Madoff to be the pinnacle of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or a white supremacist as making an attempt to portray Martin Luther King Jr. It’s merely an insult to Jews.”

Let’s simply hope Mel Gibson doesn’t get the bright idea to star in this too.  As moving as his meta performance was in the Beaver, imagine the outrage if Gibson grew a beard and declared himself Judah Maccabee for a movie. simply in time for Hanukkah.

In the novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, the author tries to convey the message that resilience is the key to success, even in the face of adversity. This message is shown in several instances. Among them, are her 8th grade graduation, falling silent after being raped, and her determination to get a job as a streetcar conductor.

            Maya Angelou’s 8th grade graduation was a huge deal for all of Stamps, and especially for her because of her being part of the “Nobility” (Angelou 169) of the graduating classes. This day was one of the most significant days in her entire life. However, when the white superintendent, Mr. Edward Donleavy spoke, he entailed the improvements that the white school would be getting while lauding the black boys only on their athletic achievement, failing to mention the girls at all. In Maya Angelou’s own words she states: “The white kids were going to have a chance to become Galileos and Madame Curies and Edisons and Gauguins, and our boys (the girls weren’t even in on it) would try to be Jesse Owenses and Joe Louises (179). This display of racism causes “…the proud graduating class of 1940 [to] drop their heads” (Angelou 180) in shame. However when Henry Reed’s graduation speech and leading of the black national anthem causes Maya to realize the tables have turned and the blacks had won, she takes pride in her race. “…I was a proud member of the wonderful, beautiful, Negro race” (Angelou 184). This event demonstrates Maya’s as well as her classmates’ resilience. Even when the adversity of Edward Donleavy’s speech disheartened many, they stayed strong and struck back.

            Another example of resilience in the novel is when Maya falls silent after being raped. When she hears of Mr. Freeman’s fate, she believes she caused it, “He was gone, and a man was dead because I lied” (Angelou 86). She explains that she fell silent because she could “feel the evilness flowing through [her] ready to rush off [her] tongue” (Angelou 86). To her the only way to stop this was to “stop talking” (Angelou 87). After falling silent because she thinks she is evil, her voice is only found again when Mrs. Flowers helps introduce her to classic books. But by finding her voice and starting to talk again, she in essence, forgives herself and starts anew, demonstrating the resilience that is so evident and important throughout the novel. This act of forgiveness symbolizes a fresh start and leaving her old “identity”  behind. Only by talking again could she have achieved what she has achieved.

Finally, Maya’s determination to get a job as a streetcar conductor despite being disadvantaged shows very clearly, her resilience. When Mother told her that they don’t accept colored people on the streetcars, her disappointment evolves into “That state of stubbornness where the mind is locked like the jaws of an enraged bulldog” (Angelou 265). Maya pursues her dream despite having race and tradition against her. The receptionist doesn’t give her respect when she applied for the job, “…swiveled the chair around on its rusty screws and with that I was supposed to be dismissed” (Angelou 266). Even when rejected by the receptionist and treated with little respect, her resilience caused her to remain in pursuit of her dream of being a streetcar conductor. “The next three weeks was a honeycomb of determination…” (Angelou 268). Finally, she had broken the barrier down and was hired as the “First Negro on the San Francisco streetcars” (Angelou 269). After pursuing her goal for three weeks, even after disappointment after disappointment, she remained strong and achieved her dream.

            Maya Angelou once said: “You may encounter many defeats, but you must never be defeated”. This quote comes from her collection of wisdom, wisdom picked up throughout her life, which in itself is a tale of resilience in adversity. She went from being a young black girl living in the small town of Stamps one of the greatest American writers of all time. Her secret is shown in the book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as remaining strong and being resilient throughout hardship.

As more and more schools adopt dress codes, back-to-school shopping is often a rather boring exercise. Polo shirts. Khaki pants. Plaid skirts. as the students would possibly say, bo-ring.

But in the nice tradition of teenagers challenging authority, students at schools that require uniforms are bending the foundations a trifle, showing up to class in cargo shorts, leggings and yoga pants. and a few schools are not solely trying the opposite method at the modifications, but explicitly allowing the fashion-forward items.

“At 1st they couldn’t decorate, but but, how do you tell somebody what color shoes to buy? That’s ridiculous,” said Beverly J. Hutton, principal of educational services for Burlington County Institute of Technology, a public high school district in New Jersey that recently relaxed its dress code. “We said no leggings, but, you know, you can’t management that — they have leggings that appear as if jeans now. thus we tend to simply raise them to remain at intervals the colour theme and to abide by the code as way as modesty.”

“They’re teenagers. If you take it all away, you get rebellion,” Dr. Hutton said.

Retailers are happily catering to the changes. For the first time this year, the Lands’ end uniform catalog is providing girls’ khakis in pencil and boot-cut silhouettes. There are also shawl-collar cardigans, fleece peacoats, leggings and yoga pants. French Toast, another large uniform company, has made its girls’ polos and blouses tighter-fitting, and has added items like a boyfriend cardigan.

“Schools really do fits fashion,” said Matt Buesing, school selling coordinator at French Toast. If a girl wears a polo that’s alittle form-fitting, for instance, “it might not work their code precisely, but the administrators in the school say, ‘That’s an appropriate shirt — we should always enable it.’ ”

Public schools are interested in student uniforms to reduce the number of exposed flesh, limit gang colors and eliminate disparities between the label-driven and people wearing hand-me-downs. while non-public schools have needed a dress code for many years, one of the first public school districts to try and do thus was Long Beach, Calif., which place all its elementary and middle-school students in uniforms in 1994. By 1996, President Clinton was urging different public schools to follow Long Beach’s example, saying uniforms might “reduce violence, scale back truancy, scale back disorder and increase learning.”

In the 2009-10 school year, the most recent year measured, 18.9 % of public schools said they needed uniforms, up from 12 % in 1999-2000, in step with the Education Department. quite [*fr1] have a dress code.

Lincoln Middle school in Indianapolis has began to enable leggings beneath skirts, polos in any color and camisole undershirts for girls. Ruby Luke, the extracurricular secretary-treasurer at Lincoln, said the looser policy had resulted in fewer interruptions during class, because academics rarely ought to eject students from class to alter into regulation clothing. “The youngsters are abundant happier, and there are not nearly as many dress code violations,” Ms. Luke said.

Sometimes, even with looser dress codes, students rebel anyway. Briarmeadow Charter school in Houston relaxed its dress code this year to allow leggings — and Andie Alexander, in eighth grade, has already gotten into bother over it.

“When i realized we tend to were going to be ready to wear leggings, I went and acquired a bunch in wild colors — neon purple, violet, bright inexperienced, turquoise, red and yellow,” said Andie, 13.

When school started last week, Andie wore her basic polo-shirt-and-khaki-skirt uniform on Monday, added red knee socks on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, wore bright leggings beneath her navy shorts.

“My science teacher looked at my turquoise leggings and said, ‘This is not going to work,’ ” Andie said. “So I told her there is nothing in the dress code against wearing turquoise leggings.”

On Thursday, her inexperienced leggings drew the same reaction from her math teacher. Andie then went to the principal, who said that the leggings were meant to keep students heat in winter, not let them add flair on 100-degree August days. He determined to allow leggings year-round, since the dress code had not specified a season for them, though not in neon colors.

The style comes with risks, though.

“One of my friends told me the opposite day i used to be a fashion uh-oh, which I’m guessing is a negative,” Andie said.

At Martin Luther King Jr. middle school in Charlotte, N.C., administrators asked students to help create the uniforms after they were 1st introduced in 2006 to attenuate resistance

His mother subsequently met and fell in love with the Indonesian man studying for his master’s degree, Lolo Soetoro. Soon they were married and the family then moved to Jakarta, Indonesia. At that time, the move, Barack was 6 There, they had a daughter, Barack’s half sister Maya. While in Indonesia, Barack attended a private school in a Catholic school, the SD of Assisi. Later, he participated in an excellent primary school, Menteng Besuki SD. After four years in Indonesia, Barack moved back to Hawaii and lived with his maternal grandmother.

After moving back to Hawaii, he often played basketball, a sport in which he excelled, and likes to play to this day. For most accounts, he is still very good. He even played with his school’s Varsity team, well kept, but not the starter. While in high school, he worked at Baskin-Robins ice cream shop.

After graduating from high school, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he attended Occidental College for two years. He got good grades, and when his second year, was transferred to Columbia University in New York. At the prestigious Ivy League school, he excelled again, and completed his political education.

Early political career

Barack is a state of the art in American politics, he was elected president of the United States in 2008. But he started much more modestly, he was back in his hometown of Chicago. He won the Illinois Senate seat in 1996, when he succeeds in all his opponents disqualified. When he was the only candidate ballot, he won easily.

In 1999, Obama began to fight for Congress seat Rep. Bobby Rush. He lost that race in 2000, but it was decided to continue his quest for federal office. To that end, Mr. Obama put his sights on the U.S. Senate. In 2003, in preparation for the 2004 election.

He once again managed to get significant assistance to the press and the errors of his opponents. His main challenger in the Democratic primary was ousted by the sex scandal that the Obama campaign was only too happy to help the media in reporting. Again, the future president used what some of the “dirty” tactics to help ensure the nomination.

This was only the beginning, however. Later in the campaign after he won the Democratic primary, he was again considerable support since the scandal of an opponent who was the beneficiary of his campaign. This time, it was his Republican opponent in 2004 Senate campaign, which fell from a boat, actually withdrawing from the elections and pave the way for Obama to win without opposition. He was a U. S. Senator.