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Do you think it is far-fetched to design applications in United States classrooms, using mathematics and sports? Science, physics and chemistry can also be blended with sports for an interdisciplinary learning experience for students at all levels.
My article on "The Nitty-Gritty of the NFL Football" and an article in the Official Pro Football Hall of Fame Yearbook (2007) discuss the characteristics and "Evolution of the Football." On pages 100-104 in the Pro Football Hall of Fame magazine, you learn that the football is not a pigskin. You see images of the early football in 1894, the Duke Football, and the White Football in 1956.
Once more, you read:
"On January 1, 2006, New England Patriots backup quarterback Doug Flutie converted the NFL's first successful dropkick since 1941. He converted an extra point in the fourth quarter of the season-ending game against the Miami Dolphins.
"Prior to Flutie's kick, the league's last successful dropkick was on December 21, 1941--two weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor--when Ray "Scooter" McLean drop-kicked an extra point as the Chicago Bears beat the New York Giants, 37-9, in the NFL championship game."
Why is the above quote so important? Here is the answer:
"Changes to the football made the art of drop-kicking significantly more difficult due to the more erratic bounce (physics) of a tapered ball.
"The upward bounce of the older, rounder version of the ball was much more predictable (physics and mathematics)."
The NFL archives enlighten the 2009 fans, telling us that in 1899 the Official Football Rules Book contained a definition to include the descriptive shape.
The 1899 Rules Book says that "the football used shall be of leather, enclosing an inflated rubber bladder. The ball shall have the shape of a prolate spheroid."
Prolate spheroid? You mean to say that the football officials knew the mathematics term, prolate spheroid! Yes, and it could mean that the students in 1899 may have known and loved mathematics more than the students in 2009.
Well, it's clear to me that there is so much knowledge embedded in the world of sports that we must be like "gold diggers." We should, perhaps, chisel through the surface and get to the deeper things that need to be revealed in the world of sports.
Why? We need to motivate our students to the highest level of excellence, again, so as to maintain our position and rank in an international setting.
In January 2009 at the Joint Mathematics Meeting, in Washington, D.C., there were several sessions, conducted by mathematicians, disseminating information on sports and mathematics. One session was led by Howard Penn of the United States Naval Academy.
The topic I prepared for presentation in the 2009 Washington, D. C. meeting was titled, "New Ways of Assessing NFL Players." The inspiration came from the observation that many NFL players who made outstanding contributions to the sport, have been misrepresented by statistics which lacked the dimensionality to describe their intensity and integrity as sportsmen.
Data was collected from public databases. Mathematical modeling was used to compare players, and interesting results were evident. I tagged a term "sport's prodigy" because some guys were able to set records in a much shorter time frame than others.
The argument could go like this: Just as we marvel over the 13 year-old B/R writers who publish such powerful and outstanding work at such a young age, there are NFL players who performed on the playing field, doing marvelous feats, yet their career was not long.
Bleacher Report encourages us to give credit where credit is due. As a sports writing site, we, then, must give credit to the players when credit is due.
It's the 21st century. We need not rant and rave about who is the better player. We must, I believe, use more sophisticated analysis and assessment strategies to measure and identify impact in the games, and in the entire sports industry.
Not only have I and other B/R sportswriters been perceived as underrated, there are many sportsmen of my generation who have been both underrated, and I might add, berated.
They have been berated by faulty reasoning, and incomplete analysis with gaps in understanding.
In some cases, too little emphasis has been placed on athletic performance, and too much on personal challenges which are intimately connected with, in my opinion, the culture of the sports and entertainment industry.
There have been growth and "forgiveness" in the media recorded images of the lives of some great sportsmen. For example, Kobe Bryant and Majic Johnson have been able to move forward in their lives, although human error put pimples on their careers in the past.
So how do we use these ideas in the classroom?
We teach cognitive, affective and psycho-motor skills. The content for the cognitive lessons can be draw from sports databases.
The biographical sketches of the stars who achieved, stumbled in some social or legal way, and then are in recovery and redemptive stages, can be used to educate in the affective domain.
Finally, the archival records demonstrating superior athletic skills, feats of endurance, courage and compassion, can be used to teach in the psycho-motor domain.
In early October 2009, another conference, sponsored by the U. S. Department of Education will convene in Washington, D. C. I will be there representing the National Association of Mathematicians, and my good experiences of learning more about sports through my interactions with the Bleacher Report (B/R) will be shared with some of my colleagues.
Many of the articles on B/R are loaded with wisdom, knowledge and analysis in each of the cognitive, affective and psycho-motor domains. The concepts in these domains are taught in curriculum and instruction.
Once we eradicate the "warts" on our complexion, we will display a beautiful image of the creative uses of the Bleacher Report.
B/R is an excellent outlet to demonstrate that sports can entertain, educate and even elevate academic achievement in America, if we collaborate and put our best foot forward.
One of the amenities of our mission is to share the concept:
Sports can help entertain, educate, and elevate academic achievement in America, and in the international community.
Finally, one good way to get started on this mission is to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame website or contact Mr. Jerry Csaki, the education director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in Canton, Ohio.
When can you get started? My answer: In a few days the 2009 Enshrinement Ceremonies will begin. Not only should you be there for that historical event, but also spend a little time visiting the education division of the Hall of Fame.
On June 27th we will be supporting OFA's National Health Care Day of Service by hosting an educational healthcare community event. Please visit FIND EVENTS for June 27th events or in the zip code of 33004. This event stems from this past Saturday's National Kick-Off of Health Care Reforum events to begin the Grassroots movements and to pull the communities together to take action. It was a great turn-out and I hope to see this group grow.
A meeting is scheduled for this weekend day & time forthcoming. If you are interested in attending, volunteering or being a participate please contact the event host.
Dear President Obama,
I want to welcome you to home of the Nubians,home of original vivilization.I hope this visit will bring you prosperous peace to the Arab world. The world is well over due for Peace. War is no longer the answer. Us human beings have to find another method to co-exist on this planet.Most times,going against the odds is not easy.
I believe that you are now the most powerful man on earth,but there is a higher being who you are still answerable to. And as you know,God,your concience,the people you serve.I see that you are aware of all in the way you have handled your first few days in office.I hope when you visit west Africa you will include Sierra Leone. Home of Gold and Diamond.We can also do business with you.
Please stay focused!
Aunty Mariama Sape Turay
Congratulations President Obama on your recent award at the University of Notre Dame.Again you rose up to the occasion. You are thinking like the twenty first century man.People want to jump the gun by judging others,but do not want to identify the cause of the problem.Rich folks don't think about poor folks.
When a woman gets pregnant,the first thing that comes to mind is caring for that child, secondly, the way parents rage when they find out about the prenancy.May the lord forbid if it is an African father. The aggravation,and nagging and chastisement is what girls are afraid of.The african parent will never accept the changes that have occured in the world. They still measure their children by the ancient standard.
The ultimate result of the above,drive some girls to resolve to terminating the pregnancy.Porverty also makes the parents to worry about how to support the unborn child.
President, I saw in the News that you will go to Ghana in July; WHAT ABOUT SIERRA LEONE?
DO YOU know THAT MICHELLE'S ANCESTORS ARE FROM SIERRA LEONE? ALL AFRICANS AMERICANS In
CHALESTON. SOUTH CAROLINA ARE FROM SIERRA LEONE.
THIS IS MY WISH TO YOU.
AUNTY MARIAMA
As I observe and see the task ahead of you,I also marvell at the way you have handled your job.I am proud of you.I know that you still have a long way to go,but my prayer will continue to go for you.I cannot believe my eyes,nor my thought that at age fifty eight, I will wake up in the morning to see a black president from an African immigrant and an African American woman in the white house. A house built by slave,is now occupied by the builders themselves. My God is a wonderful God.
The lesson to you is, you must never give up as you have always done. When the road gets tough,remember that you should continue to strive harder. You are never alone.Some of us out here will continue to stand with you. You fought a brave fight. You must continue. God almighty will guide.
Aunty Mariama Turay, in Silver spring,Md
The US/Britain 200 Years war against Islamic pirates - terrorists
For young Somalis, piracy offers power, prosperity The Associated Press There are several known pirate groups in Somalia. One is based in the southern port town of Kismayo, which is controlled by Islamic insurgents. … http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iR9XICoYi0CQt77GJUw5lNAPpG_AD97EGS200
Hot Air » Blog Archive » Somali pirates seize American ship, crew … by Ed Morrissey Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates …one cannot get around what Jefferson heard when he went with John Adams to wait upon Tripoli’s ambassador to London in March 1785. When they inquired by what right the Barbary states preyed upon American shipping … So here was an early instance of the “heads I win, tails you lose” dilemma, in which the United States is faced with corrupt regimes, on the one hand, and Islamic militants, on the other—or indeed a collusion between them. … http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/08/somali-pirates-seize-american-ship-crew/
A look back at history
Britain’s 200-year jihad (and US facing them)
Britain’s 200-year jihad There are many similarities between the stateless jihad of the 1700’s and ….. The pirate ships set sail for Algeria later that day, with the captives on … http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/008320.php
America’s Earliest Terrorists
Lessons from America’s first war against Islamic terror.
December 16, 2005, 9:55 a.m. By Joshua E. London At the dawn of a new century, a newly elected United States president was forced to confront a grave threat to the nation — an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim terrorists. Worse still, these Islamic partisans operated under the protection and sponsorship of rogue Arab states ruled by ruthless and cunning dictators. Sluggish in recognizing the full nature of the threat, America entered the war well after the enemy’s call to arms. Poorly planned and feebly executed, the American effort proceeded badly and at great expense — resulting in a hastily negotiated peace and an equally hasty declaration of victory. As timely and familiar as these events may seem, they occurred more than two centuries ago. The president was Thomas Jefferson, and the terrorists were the Barbary pirates. Unfortunately, many of the easy lessons to be plucked from this experience have yet to be fully learned. The Barbary states, modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, are collectively known to the Arab world as the Maghrib (”Land of Sunset”), denoting Islam’s territorial holdings west of Egypt. With the advance of Mohammed’s armies into the Christian Levant in the seventh century, the Mediterranean was slowly transformed into the backwater frontier of the battles between crescent and cross. Battles raged on both land and sea, and religious piracy flourished. The Maghrib served as a staging ground for Muslim piracy throughout the Mediterranean, and even parts of the Atlantic. America’s struggle with the terror of Muslim piracy from the Barbary states began soon after the 13 colonies declared their independence from Britain in 1776, and continued for roughly four decades, finally ending in 1815. Although there is much in the history of America’s wars with the Barbary pirates that is of direct relevance to the current “war on terror,” one aspect seems particularly instructive to informing our understanding of contemporary Islamic terrorists. Very simply put, the Barbary pirates were committed, militant Muslims who meant to do exactly what they said. Take, for example, the 1786 meeting in London of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the Tripolitan ambassador to Britain. As American ambassadors to France and Britain respectively, Jefferson and Adams met with Ambassador Adja to negotiate a peace treaty and protect the United States from the threat of Barbary piracy. These future United States presidents questioned the ambassador as to why his government was so hostile to the new American republic even though America had done nothing to provoke any such animosity. Ambassador Adja answered them, as they reported to the Continental Congress, “that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.” Sound familiar? The candor of that Tripolitan ambassador is admirable in its way, but it certainly foreshadows the equally forthright declarations of, say, the Shiite Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the 1980s and the Sunni Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, not to mention the many pronouncements of their various minions, admirers, and followers. Note that America’s Barbary experience took place well before colonialism entered the lands of Islam, before there were any oil interests dragging the U.S. into the fray, and long before the founding of the state of Israel. America became entangled in the Islamic world and was dragged into a war with the Barbary states simply because of the religious obligation within Islam to bring belief to those who do not share it. This is not something limited to “radical” or “fundamentalist” Muslims. Which is not to say that such obligations lead inevitably to physical conflict, at least not in principle. After all peaceful proselytizing among various religious groups continues apace throughout the world, but within the teachings of Islam, and the history of Muslims, this is a well-established militant thread. The Islamic basis for piracy in the Mediterranean was an old doctrine relating to the physical or armed jihad, or struggle. To Muslims in the heyday of Barbary piracy, there were, at least in principle, only two forces at play in the world: the Dar al-Islam, or House of Islam, and the Dar al-Harb, or House of War. The House of Islam meant Muslim governance and the unrivaled authority of the sharia, Islam’s complex system of holy law. The House of War was simply everything that fell outside of the House of Islam — that area of the globe not under Muslim authority, where the infidel ruled. For Muslims, these two houses were perpetually at war — at least until mankind should finally embrace Allah and his teachings as revealed through his prophet, Mohammed. The point of jihad is not to convert by force, but to remove the obstacles to the infidels’ conversion so that they shall either convert or become a dhimmi (a non-Muslim who accepts Islamic dominion) and pay the jizya, or poll tax. The goal is to bring all of the Dar al-Harb into the peace of the Dar al-Islam, and to eradicate unbelief. The Koran also promises rewards to those who fight in the jihad, plunder and glory in this world and the delights of paradise in the next. Although the piratical activities of Barbary genuinely degenerated over the centuries from pure considerations of the glory of jihad to less grandiose visions of booty and state revenues, it is important to remember that the religious foundations of the institution of piracy remained central. Even after it became commonplace for the pirate captains or their crew to be renegade Europeans, it was essential that these former Christians “turn Turk” and convert to Islam before they could be accorded the honor of engagement in al-jihad fil-bahr, the holy war at sea. In fact, the peoples of Barbary continued to consider the pirates as holy warriors even after the Barbary rulers began to allow non-religious commitments to command their strategic use of piracy. The changes that the religious institution of piracy underwent were natural, if pathological. Just as the concept of jihad is invoked by Muslim terrorists today to legitimize suicide bombings of noncombatants for political gain, so too al-jihad fil-bahr, the holy war at sea, served as the cornerstone of the Barbary states’ interaction with Christendom.
In times of conflict, America tends to focus on personalities over ideas or movements, trying to play the man, not the board — as if capturing or killing Osama bin Laden, for example, would instantly end the present conflict. But such thinking loses sight of the fact that ideas have consequences. If one believes that God commands something, this belief is not likely to dissipate just because the person who elucidated it has been silenced. Islam, as a faith, is as essential a feature of the terrorist threat today as it was of the Barbary piracy over two centuries ago. The Barbary pirates were not a “radical” or “fundamentalist” sect that had twisted religious doctrine for power and politics, or that came to recast aspects of their faith out of some form of insanity. They were simply a North African warrior caste involved in an armed jihad — a mainstream Muslim doctrine. This is how the Muslims understood Barbary piracy and armed jihad at the time, and, indeed, how the physical jihad has been understood since Mohammed revealed it as the prophecy of Allah. Obviously, and thankfully, not every Muslim is obligated, or even really inclined, to take up this jihad. Indeed, many Muslims are loath to personally embrace this physical struggle. But that does not mean they are all opposed to such a struggle any more than the choice of many Westerners not to join the police force or the armed services means they do not support those institutions. Whether “insurgents” are fighting in Iraq or “rebels” and “militants” are skirmishing in Chechnya or Hamas “activists” are detonating themselves in Israel, Westerners seem unwilling to bring attention to the most salient feature of all these groups: They claim to be acting in the name of Islam. It is very easy to chalk it all up to regional squabbles, economic depression, racism, or post-colonial nationalistic self-determinism. Such explanations undoubtedly enter into part of the equation — they are already part of the propaganda that clouds contemporary analysis. But as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams came to learn back in 1786, the situation becomes a lot clearer when you listen to the stated intentions and motivations of the terrorists and take them at face value. — Joshua E. London is the author of Victory in Tripoli: How America’s War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation (John Wiley & Sons, September 2005); for more about the book visit www.victoryintripoli.com. http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/london200512160955.asp
Jihad in the Days of Jefferson http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961230585&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
When the Founding Fathers Faced Islamists May 27, 2008 … birth of US Naval power and the campaign against the Barbary pirates: …. that United States did not start the war with the Jihadists. … http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/when-the-founding-fathers-faced-islamists/
Sally Rovers incident, at the height of North African Arab Muslim pirates’ crimes against Christians, mainly British
Britain’s 200-year jihad
On my travels for the past few days, I have been reading a book which tells the story of a quite astonishing part of British history of which I was previously unaware. In ‘White Gold’, Giles Milton records the appalling details — gleaned,it appears, from a wealth of historical documents including diaries and letters — of a seaborne Islamic jihad against Britain which lasted for no less than two centuries.
From the early seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, thousands of British men women and children were kidnapped by Arab corsairs and sold into slavery in Morocco where they were kept in conditions of unspeakable barbarism. The astounding thing is that these British victims were not merely seized at sea where they ran the gauntlet of such pirates in places such as the Straits of Gibraltar. They were actually abducted from Britain itself.
Corsairs from a place in Morocco called Sale — who became known in Britain as the ‘Sally Rovers’ — sailed up the Cornish coast in July 1625, for example, came ashore dressed in djellabas and wielding damascene scimitars, burst into the parish church at Mount’s Bay and dragged out 60 men women and children whom they shipped off to Morocco. Thousands more Britons were seized from their villages or their ships and dispatched to the hell-holes of the Moroccan slave pens, from where they were forced to work all hours in appalling conditions building the vast palace of the monstrous and psychopathic Sultan, Moulay Ismail, who tortured and butchered them at whim. Most of them perished, but the book records the survival of a tenacious Cornish boy Thomas Pellow, who survived 23 years of this ordeal and whose descendant, Lord Exmouth, finally ended the white slave trade when he destroyed Algiers in 1816.
The book makes clear that this assault upon the British people (and upon Europeans and Americans who were similarly seized) was a jihad. The Sally Rovers, writes Milton, were called ‘al-ghuzat’– the term once used for the soldiers who fought with the Prophet — and were hailed as religious warriors engaged in a holy war against the infidel Christians who were pressurised to convert to Islam under threat of hideous punishment. What is even more striking was the response of the British crown. For almost two centuries, it made only the most ineffectual attempts to rescue its enslaved subjects. Those who had succumbed to the torture and inhumanity of the Sultan and converted to Islam were deemed to be no longer British and therefore outside the scope of any rescue. The pleas of Pellow’s parents were simply brushed aside. Popular outrage forced successive Kings to dispatch a series of feeble emissaries to try to get the Sultan to end this vile traffic and release the slaves, all to no avail.
But this went on for virtually two centuries. For almost 200 years the British state either sat on its hands or wrung them impotently while the Islamic jihad seized, enslaved and butchered its people. And then it appears, this staggering onslaught was all but airbrushed out of our history.
Food for disquieting thought. http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001423.html
‘Pirates of Penzance’ redo? James Zumwalt Thursday, October 2, 2008 Soon after winning independence from England, the United States faced another war. Muslim pirates operating off North Africa’s Barbary Coast were seizing U.S., as well as European, ships sailing in international waters, holding them for tribute payment or plunder. In 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, meeting in London with Tripoli’s Muslim ambassador to Britain, inquired as to the reason for such Arab hostility. Acknowledging their attacks were unprovoked, the Tripoli ambassador explained it was their right and duty under the Koran as faithful Muslim followers to plunder and enslave the unfaithful - with those Muslims dying in the process going to paradise. To stop the attacks, the United States initially agreed to pay the Barbary pirates tribute, equal to about 20 percent of government revenues. Only later did an indignant United States launch two wars against them, ending in victory in 1815 and no further payments. European nations, acting individually and collectively, suppressed pirate activity as well, with the French conquest of Algiers in 1830 providing the last nail in the Barbary Pirates’ coffin. Today, Muslim pirates again sail the seas off Africa’s coast. Mostly Somalis, these pirates have already attacked more than 60 ships this year in the vicinity of the Gulf of Aden - almost 5 times more than occurred all last year. Pirates gain confidence as owners prove willing to pay ransoms for the safe return of ships and crews, much like the United States first did with the Barbary Pirates. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/02/pirates-of-penzance-redo/
My president is not a quitter. He hears the complains of the needy. I can see that he engages the human race to reduce suffering. Good health care for poor folks like me. Works towards reducing hunger,homelessness.Looks out for the disadvantaged population. Most rich folks don't like that.I see Michelle is a glamore girl in London.
I see that you are discussing about peace in the world.Don't stop smiling.It is the best medicine. Enemies don't like it when you smile.But don't stop smile.Those who love you know that you have always been smiling. That is how we know you.I see that the queen is happy to receive you.as a member of the former British colony, I saw the queen when she visited my country Sierra Leone in 1961.
Please tell the queen that the world is in dying need of peace and economic recovery.If your neighbor is hungry ,poor and miserable,have no doubt that it will affect you some how.I hope you guy in London on this important meeting will come up with a good economic plan with an inclusion of the under priviledgeg like me and others.
May God richly guide you through you come home safely. We miss you in America
I know that you are facing a very difficult task during your business meeting in London.But your policy of reaching out through diplomatic process I believe is very important during this critical moment in history.The entire universe is on the brink of economic crisis and turmoil. The world needs a level and steady headed person like you to face all the enormous challenges we are facing.
It takes an extra ordinary person with God's gift and wisdom to pursue the task which is encumbent on you.First and fore most,you have inherited a very bad budget.Secondly,people are very inpatient. How do they expect you to clean up this economic condition in one hundred days.I love you for one thing,you continue to handle the criticism very well. Continue to remain focused and stay calm.
You were criticized for laughing on theJayLeno show. Continue to laugh. God's children always laugh.During slavery,the African survived by singing and dancing and beating the drum.Beat the drum while you do the work. At the end of the day, the work is done.Laughter is a sign of strenght. It means, you love your job though it is difficult.We have come a long way,and we will continue a long way. The journey hasn't even started.Spin the wheel, Captain Spin the wheel. Laugh whenever you can.
Dear Mr President Barack Obama, I am pleased to say how much I appreciate your inclusion of women in your agenda during the first fifty days in office. I felt very elated to see Michelle and Hillary confer the awards to those women from diffrent parts of the world.That policy of inclusion is very important in an era where the world is getting smaller and smaller. The policy of inclusion and transparency is very important.when people know what is happening in their surroundings is very important.
As a young president, I believe you are better prepared for 21st century technology and the current problems of the youths and women. you seem to understand the concerns and frusrations of the lame man on the streets.The homeless,the hungry,sick people without insurance like me. Substitute teachers dont have pensions, no health insurances.very little salaries. we need that so
cial security to be protected. That is all I have when I retire. But you have given me hope when I know that you recgnize how us on main street feel.
Without struugle,there is no success.We will wait. We have come from the cotton fields to the white house. Good things come to those who wait. yes,we will wait till the train comes.
Rejoice that your Thorns have Roses
By Geneva Gamble
The only thing we can really change in this life is our attitudes. We should try to remember that all we are dealing with are thoughts, and thought can be changed. We may not have control over our circumstances, but we do have control over our thoughts, and we can choose how we will respond to the things that happen to us.
For the first time in the 57 years of my life I want to visit the White House! You see as a little girl, I always wondered why the only roles blacks could play or have in the white house was that of a servant or to support the president.
Well time has changed and I would love to be a guest of President Barack H. Obama and his gorgeous wife First Lady Michelle.
My total outlook has changed, I no longer just go through the motions of saluting the flag, singing the national anthem etc. With honor I do so now mainly because I am impressed with how our nation has embraced the first family and it seems for the first time the nation has embraced me.
To see President Obama walk up to the Helicopter that is waiting for him on the lawn at the White House and later walk up the steps of Air Force One, turn around and wave then duck and enter into it and take off is such a joy.
When I see their lovely daughters it reminds me of my daughters and granddaughters. I am happy, happy, and happy. You see we are as deserving as anyone else as I have always believed! I never let anyone define for me what being black in america meant. I fought against negative stereotypes. I realized the struggle of my elders and took it personally to do all I could in homage of their sacrifices. Primarily that of teaching my sons and daughters to also believe!
I am pleased with the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America.
America, America God sheds his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
Yes it is "My country tis of thee sweet land of liberty ...! "
Similarities of dictators' tolalitarianism, Chavez & Islamofascists
'You better say I am "nice" or you are "out".'
__________
Dictator Chavez: "You better say I am "not" a dictator... or else.
Venezuela ousts EU politician for insulting ChavezStory Highlights Venezuela ousts Spanish EU member Hugo Chavez's opposition had asked EU member to observe upcoming election Spaniard called Hugo Chavez a dictator Venezuelans to vote Sunday on whether to remove president's term limits CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) - Venezuela on Friday expelled a Spanish member of the European Parliament after he called President Hugo Chavez a dictator and criticized Chavez's handling of a referendum on term limits that the lawmaker had been set to observe.
Venezuela ousts EU politician for insulting Chavez
Story Highlights Venezuela ousts Spanish EU member Hugo Chavez's opposition had asked EU member to observe upcoming election Spaniard called Hugo Chavez a dictator Venezuelans to vote Sunday on whether to remove president's term limits CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) - Venezuela on Friday expelled a Spanish member of the European Parliament after he called President Hugo Chavez a dictator and criticized Chavez's handling of a referendum on term limits that the lawmaker had been set to observe.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/02/14/venezuela.chavez.expelled.dictator/
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Islamofascism: "You better say Islam is 'peace', or else..."
Behead All Those Who Insult Islam by Michelle Malkin on National ..."Slay those who insult Islam. Butcher those who mock Islam."... They'll eventually pay lip service to The Religion of Peace
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MGI4MGU4NjUxZDRmZWQwOGEyMTA1NWM0NDcxYTcwYTQ=
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Church & State Talk Radio
February 6, 2009 248-202-5340
U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black
United States Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black will be a guest on
Church and State Talk Radio, Detroit
Saturday February 7, 2009
at 1:00pm EST on 1500AM Detroit, MI
Listen on line at: www.AM1500WLQV.com
U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black is the first person of color in the nation’s history to serve the spiritual needs of our lawmakers. Throughout the years, the United States Senate has honored the historic separation of Church and State, but not the separation of God and State The Office of the Chaplain is nonpartisan, nonpolitical, and nonsectarian
On June 27, 2003, Rear Admiral Barry C. Black (Ret.) was elected the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate. He began working in the Senate on July 7, 2003. Prior to coming to Capitol Hill, Chaplain Black served in the U.S. Navy for over twenty-seven years, ending his distinguished career as the Chief of Navy Chaplains.
Chaplain Black has been selected for many outstanding achievements. Of particular note, he was chosen from 127 nominees for the 1995 NAACP Renowned Service Award for his contribution to equal opportunity and civil rights. He also received the 2002 Benjamin Elijah Mays Distinguished Leadership Award from The Morehouse School of Religion.
Church & State Talk Radio was created as a bipartisan empowering, informative and motivating radio production. The hosts are a young and innovative team, paired with seasoned experts inspired by President Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change. Church & State Talk Radio aim to educate listeners every Saturday with a better understanding of government, politics and the religious community.
Church & State Talk Radio was privileged with seated tickets at the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. They are the first radio program of its kind in Detroit, Michigan to explore the religion of politics and the politics of religion.
To listen on line please visit www.am1500wlqv.com Saturdays at 1:00pm Eastern Standard Time. To submit your comments, questions or learn more about the show email: detroitradiopolitics@barackobama4change.us or visit the show's website www.churchandstateunited.com
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President Obama has inherited a very weak economy. I admire his courage and strong will during these hard times.I'm sure the American people are not dumb.Some will pretend not to understand. Even if they do,selfish political reasons coupled with the fact that he is a black president,will be a factor why some people will want to make his work even harder.
As a person with strong resilliency, I know he will prevail and succeed.history will one day prove that this great man survived the worst of times.Mr president,the harder the job,the better your brain will function. I have great confidence in your ability to continue to strive for the changes you have brought to your black race and the American people.
Like your fore fathers ahead of you, they never gave up.We would have never been where we are if they did. Remember the struggle of Nelson Mandela,Kwame Nkruma,Gabel Abdul Nasser, Sheku Toure,Rosa Parks,W.E. Duboi etc. These are all great men of courage.Michelle Obama's ancestors were from Sierra Leone historically. You will succeed. Some want you to fail,but you will not.Black people came in chains,but did not give up. Sengbeh was brave to get of the chain in the slave ship.Brought to the America,he became a hero,because he didn't give. He went back to Sierra Leone,west Africa.Michelle Obama is probably a mende woman,I am from that tribe.Very nice group of people who ruled the Songhai empire.You will succed. Don't give in.
I am one of the ticket holders that did not get into the blue section!
I am looking for Inauguration tickets for my parents, who are longtime civil rights activists in Florida named John Due and Dr. Patricia Stephens Due. Beyond my campaign calls and carefully-budgeted contributions, I am a political outsider…so I am making a simple appeal.
My parent celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary on Jan. 5, and the first lesson they passed to their three daughters was the most profound lesson there is: Individuals can change the world for the better.
My parents were foot-soldiers in the civil rights struggle. Like thousands of other activists of all races, they never got a holiday or a stamp—but without their sacrifices in the 1960s and beyond, we would not be inaugurating Barack Obama on Jan. 20.
As the late novelist Octavia E. Butler told us, “The only lasting truth is Change.”
But change always comes with a price.
To this day, my mother wears dark glasses even indoors because her eyes were injured by a teargas bomb thrown in her face by a police officer during a nonviolent march in Tallahassee in 1960. She was also shot at while trying to register Florida voters in 1963 and 1964. My father, who once represented Dr. King after an arrest in St. Augustine, got a call from the FBI warning him that he might be the target of a racist’s bomb—and that was in the late-1980s. U.S. bombings were in the news; home-grown, just like in Birmingham. I remember that call well.
So, yes—I want my parents to see the official ceremony up close; far more than I want to actually witness the Inauguration myself…although I surely do. My parents wouldn’t only be attending for themselves: They would be there on behalf of the countless other activists who did not, or could not, make it to witness this day.
In 2003, my mother and I published a memoir we co-authored: Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights. Researching that book about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, I learned first-hand how many of the 1960s activists did not make it to 2009 in body, mind or spirit. The war against them took a toll that is still vibrating through the next generations, and time is stealing them away day by day.
But some of them, like my parents, made it to Election Night. And Inauguration Day.
My mother talks about bringing back soil from Washington, D.C., to mix with the red clay of her birthplace in Gadsden County, Florida. Then she wants to plant a tree in honor of all of the foot-soldiers whose shoulders President-elect Obama is standing on.
Neither of my parents expected to get caught up in a political movement when they went to college. But in 1960, as a junior, my mother was arrested at a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter in Tallahassee. When she refused to pay her fine, my mother, aunt and three other Florida A&M students spent 49 days in jail, becoming the nation’s first Jail-In.
They received a telegram of support from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and baseball great Jackie Robinson published a letter my mother wrote from jail in his New York Post column. My father, then in college in Indiana, read about my mother in Jet magazine and applied to Florida A&M’s law school so he, too, could join the movement sweeping the South.
The rest is history. A lifelong match was born.
This weekend, my father wrote my mother a heartfelt note explaining why he wouldn’t dream of attending the Inauguration without her: “To go without you—when we are life partners—would have been like going to the 1963 March on Washington without you. It would have been impossible.”
Most children think their parents are special, but my sisters and I had constant confirmation. We saw their names cited in books. The phone rang constantly; people and organizations in need of guidance or support. One day, my mother put in a call to the governor’s office, and then-Gov. Bob Graham called back within an hour.
Although I attended public schools, my parents practically home-schooled me and my sisters with children’s books about Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, black cowboys and other oft-overlooked figures in American history. Mom, in particular, didn’t just haul it out in February: We heard about our history all year long.
While my parents often reminded us that Martin Luther King Jr. was just a man like anyone else, we always took the day off from school for his birthday, long before there was a national holiday. We drove to Miami’s Torch of Friendship and stood in a circle to say what Dr. King had meant to us. Then we would have pancakes and go home, where often my parents opened up the house to guests—activists and politicians and students—and played speeches and watched footage. Dr. King’s vibrato delivery always brought tears to my eyes.
Knowing that history—and the pride and perspective it gave me—meant the world to me. That’s why history is so firmly fixed in nearly everything I write. History has great power.
When Roots swept the nation in 1976 and I wanted to learn my family tree, my father told me story about freed slaves who built their own community in Indiana called Lyles Station—and fought off an attack by jealous whites. He even drew me pictures of a rousing battle in a round-house barn, with women handing their men rifles as the men stood firing from the rafters. I had never heard a story like that in any of my history books.
I didn’t follow the path of the activist, and my parents supported my passion to spread ideas using my writing rather than a picket signs or a megaphone. (Although, trust me, I’ve had plenty of experiences with picket signs, and even a megaphone…)
When I left the anti-apartheid takeover of the administration building at Northwestern University in the late-1980s to go out to dinner with a departing friend—rather than face arrest like my more courageous mates—I was embarrassed to tell my mother that I’d sold out. But when I called Mom to relate the shameful tale, she said, “Darling, I’m glad you didn’t get arrested. I went to jail so you wouldn’t have to.”
I went to jail so you wouldn’t have to.
Those are powerful words for a child to hear from her mother. Instead of celebrating Thanksgiving or Christmas as a family last year, my sisters and I brought our families, including five grandchildren, to visit my parents in Quincy, Florida so we could all watch the election returns together. It was a night I’ll never forget.
But I can only imagine what it meant to my parents. And because of their sacrifices as students, I was permitted the luxury of an extended childhood throughout my college years. I had time to develop my craft by day and fill my nights with laughter.
My parents are in fairly good health, but they are 69 and 74. The trip to Washington, D.C. won’t be easy on them. But they want to go. And since they’re going…I wish they had Inauguration tickets.
All I can offer is gratitude, but if you know of available tickets, please contact me at TheLivingBlood@gmail.com.
www.tananarivedue.com
www.tananarivedue.blogspot.com
