Well, the NBA draft has come and gone and again….my Knicks have surprised me with the only pick they had this year. Not knocking the european player, or the link he has with our new coach, but #1 he’s not been scouted as much as the other picks who were of equal or greater draft value, #2 we are in restructuring mode. We need real help. I just don’t know if this kid is that impact, team-changing player the Knicks need.
We’ve already got plenty of young talent on our bench that we’re using… wrongly. I mean Wilson Chandler, Randolph Morris, and this is just from last year. Agreed, Marty Collins needs to wake up a lil bit and play ball, but that may not be entirely his fault. Reynaldo Balkman needs to spend some gym time shooting mid range and practicing to finish at the rim because with all his energy and great defensive play, his liability at the offensive end gives the other team reason to play off him and use that man as an extra defender on our more offensive threats.
We as Knicks have one great liability as a whole however and its not a 20/10 player, it’s not lack of leadership on the court, it’s us. Our biggest issue facing the New York Knicks is how we treat and look at our team, and how our team lost the meaning of being a Knick.
Would we ever have booed a Patrick Ewing-led Knick squad? Hell no. As a matter-of-fact, when the Knicks were led by head coach Hubie Brown and they had players like Rory Sparrow, Trent Tucker and Bill Cartwright at the center we were a “bottom-tier” squad and no boos.
Today’s Knick fans have forgotten “the dunk” the “four-point play” and all of the spirit of Madison Square Garden. In turn, the Knick players have forgotten heart. They have forgotten that before the 90s seasons, we hadn’t seen true success in the playoffs since 1973. Knick players are playing for a paycheck and nothing more.
Stephon Marbury is no leader. I don’t care if his contract is up next year or in 10 years. He’s been a Knick since 2000. His being from New York should have spoken volumes to that true Knick tenacity but alas, our hopes of continuing in the traditions of Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy have been dashed. We’ve had 5 coaches in 7 years. We’ve traded away Antonio McDaniels & Nazr Mohammed (who have since gotten rings), We have dead weight on our roster that is almost impossible to move. We are “still” waiting for Eddy Curry to decide to be a beast in this league but his work-ethic (or lack thereof) keeps us wishing this big 7 foot ‘tough guy” would just trade away…
Our team has given us nothing to support, and so we have no support left. We’re still New Yorkers, and still Knick fans as I’ll always be. But it has becoming increasingly hard to watch a lazy, no heart having squad wear the same uniform as Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Patrick Ewing, Dave Deboucher, Bill Bradley, Mark Jackson, Bernard King, Rod Strickland, Larry Johnson, Anthony Mason, Marcus Camby, John Starks, Latrell Sprewell, Charles Oakley…
So I hope this draft pick helps. But Knicks… you need more than draft picks, “elite” players or blockbuster trades. You simply need to watch game films from the 70s, 80s and 90s… understand what it means to BE a Knick before you dive into the uniform.
We love you, why don’t you love us back?
That’s right I’m a fan, ya’ll… if you agree let me know, if you think we need more, let me know, if you can put these words in front of a Knick so they know how the fans feel, do it, and let us know what they say. Some how, some way, we need to get to these players and let them know “why” we disapprove, not just that we do. Booing doesn’t work. What will?
Last night, Senator Barack H. Obama won the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States of America. This is the first time in Black American History that one of our brothers have been *this* close to leading the country.
In thinking of this great achievement and milestone, it begs me to wonder. I wonder if (whether he wins or loses the race) we as a people will continue to cut each other from the knees, will we continue to let pettiness keep us short-sighted or will we as a community become one again.
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, our younger generation galvanized itself as a community. We had leaders, both political and religious. Societies were created (Nation of Islam, Nation of Gods and Earths, Black Panther Party, The National Black Caucus, The NAACP etc) in which we as a people could feel some sort of comfort in knowing WE HAD A VOICE, AND WE WERE GOING TO HAVE OUR SAY.
Since the 70s however, our culture as Black Americans was whitewashed (for lack of a better term). Somewhere along our way, we changed our focus from setting up our culture and our societies within the American infrastructure to melding with the infrastructure all together. Thus attaining a sense of equality unheard of just a decade or so prior.
So, if we successfully assimilated into the American system, why has it taken so long to be recognized that we have the ability to make some of the most important decisions ever?
That being said, we also lost a lot of ourselves and who we were in this country because of the conforming issue. The things that made Black beautiful are the very things our culture is missing right now.
So I ask you, Are we ready to reclaim who we were and our Black American culture? Are we ready for Black to be beautiful again? IS this the second renaissance? Or will we continue to assimilate so much that we lose our Black culture all together?
Are we there yet? Or are we still in a fight?
Amadou Bailo Diallo (September 2, 1975 - February 4, 1999) was a 23-year-old immigrant to the United States from Guinea, who was shot and killed on February 4, 1999, by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss. The four men fired a total of 41 rounds. Diallo was unarmed at the time of the shooting, and a firestorm of controversy erupted subsequent to the event as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage both within and outside New York City. Issues such as police brutality, racial profiling, and contagious shooting were central to the ensuing controversy.
The shooting took place at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview section of The Bronx. The four officers involved were part of the now-defunct Street Crimes Unit. All of the officers were exonerated by jury trial of any wrongdoing.
Phillip Pannell was an African American teenager killed by Police Officer Gary Spath in Teaneck, New Jersey on April 10, 1990. Pannell was fleeing police when he was shot; Spath was later charged and acquitted on charges of manslaughter[1]. The case created controversy over the issues racial profiling and police brutality.
Rodney Glen King (born April 2, 1965 in Sacramento, California) is an African-American motorist driver who, in 1991 was stopped and then beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers (Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Sergeant Stacey Koon) after being chased for speeding. A bystander, George Holliday, videotaped much of the event from a distance. Part of the video was broadcast around the world and shows four LA police officers restraining and repeatedly striking a black man, while four to six other officers stand by.[1] There is no part of the tape that shows Mr. King attacking the officers, as some have claimed.[2]
The resulting public outrage raised tensions between the black community and the LAPD, and increased anger over police brutality and issues such as unemployment, racial tension, and poverty in the black community of South Central Los Angeles. The four officers were tried in a state court for using excessive force, but were acquitted. The annoucement of the acquittals sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots
(from Wikipedia.com)
My Brothers and Sisters,
The “editorial opinion” below was taken from the below link on craigslist.org. Apparently, though skewed opinion is floating around the internet and it is truly appalling to me. Being a black man married to a beautiful Nigerian woman of dark complexion and one who has been raised by a beautiful black American single mother and he who has 2 beautiful sisters find this testimonial to be false and extremely crass.
Unfortunately, due to the immense proportion of our sistren in the adult industry, the amount of single mothers in our culture and the amount of our brethren who date “outside” our culture, could there be any truth to this madness?
Here is the link and the quote. Please let me know what you think.
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/rnr/642308315.html
“There are very few attractive black women to begin with. I am talking about truly black, not red bone or Dalmatians. I mean 90% of the women are bald, have skin issues, have chicken legs with cottage cheese thighs. Very few black women actually look good with a fat ass. The average black woman has to work 10 times harder to look presentable. Otherwise they look like they got dipped into Crisco and just woke up. There is nothing special about a black woman, unless you have a fetish for them.
It may sound racist but even their own males don’t find them attractive. The common answer to that is well black woman are strong and don’t put up with shit. No the real answer is that black women are just not attractive to males, of any race.”
Here’s 25 more jewels for you all.
50. The Songhai Empire of 16th century West Africa had a government position called Minister for Etiquette and Protocol.
51. The mediaeval Nigerian city of Benin was built to “a scale comparable with the Great Wall of China”. There was a vast system of defensive walling totalling 10,000 miles in all. Even before the full extent of the city walling had become apparent the Guinness Book of Records carried an entry in the 1974 edition that described the city as: “The largest earthworks in the world carried out prior to the mechanical era.”
52. Benin art of the Middle Ages was of the highest quality. An official of the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde once stated that: “These works from Benin are equal to the very finest examples of European casting technique. Benvenuto Cellini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him . . . Technically, these bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.”
53. Winwood Reade described his visit to the Ashanti Royal Palace of Kumasi in 1874: “We went to the king’s palace, which consists of many courtyards, each surrounded with alcoves and verandahs, and having two gates or doors, so that each yard was a thoroughfare . . . But the part of the palace fronting the street was a stone house, Moorish in its style . . . with a flat roof and a parapet, and suites of apartments on the first floor. It was built by Fanti masons many years ago. The rooms upstairs remind me of Wardour Street. Each was a perfect Old Curiosity Shop. Books in many languages, Bohemian glass, clocks, silver plate, old furniture, Persian rugs, Kidderminster carpets, pictures and engravings, numberless chests and coffers. A sword bearing the inscription From Queen Victoria to the King of Ashantee. A copy of the Times, 17 October 1843. With these were many specimens of Moorish and Ashanti handicraft.” Read More »
I saw this on NPR’s website and thought I should share. Sometimes *especially in this day and age* it’s nice to see GOOD NEWS for a change.
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.
But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.
He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.
“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,’” Diaz says.
As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”
The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, “like what’s going on here?” Diaz says. “He asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’”
Diaz replied: “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.
“You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help,” Diaz says.
Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.
“The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi,” Diaz says. “The kid was like, ‘You know everybody here. Do you own this place?’”
“No, I just eat here a lot,” Diaz says he told the teen. “He says, ‘But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.’”
Diaz replied, “Well, haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?”
“Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way,” the teen said.
Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. “He just had almost a sad face,” Diaz says.
The teen couldn’t answer Diaz — or he didn’t want to.
When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, “Look, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this bill ’cause you have my money and I can’t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I’ll gladly treat you.”
The teen “didn’t even think about it” and returned the wallet, Diaz says. “I gave him $20 … I figure maybe it’ll help him. I don’t know.”
Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen’s knife — “and he gave it to me.”
Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, “You’re the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch.”
“I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”
Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo.
Part 2 in my continued effort to highlight history.
26. West Africa had walled towns and cities in the pre-colonial period. Winwood Reade, an English historian visited West Africa in the nineteenth century and commented that: “There are . . . thousands of large walled cities resembling those of Europe in the Middle Ages, or of ancient Greece.”
27. Lord Lugard, an English official, estimated in 1904 that there were 170 walled towns still in existence in the whole of just the Kano province of northern Nigeria.
28. Cheques are not quite as new an invention as we were led to believe. In the tenth century, an Arab geographer, Ibn Haukal, visited a fringe region of Ancient Ghana. Writing in 951 AD, he told of a cheque for 42,000 golden dinars written to a merchant in the city of Audoghast by his partner in Sidjilmessa.
29. Ibn Haukal, writing in 951 AD, informs us that the King of Ghana was “the richest king on the face of the earth” whose pre-eminence was due to the quantity of gold nuggets that had been amassed by the himself and by his predecessors.
30. The Nigerian city of Ile-Ife was paved in 1000 AD on the orders of a female ruler with decorations that originated in Ancient America. Naturally, no-one wants to explain how this took place approximately 500 years before the time of Christopher Columbus! Read More »
In order to bring fairness and understanding to counter-act this nonsense about race and prejudice…*as you all know I’m trying to do…lol* I discovered this while researching to enlighten our readers. I will post 1-25 today, 26-50 tomorrow…etc… Enjoy! Thank you’s to Robin Walker for this!
http://www.whenweruled.com/articles. This is where I found this great info!
1. The human race is of African origin. The oldest known skeletal remains of anatomically modern humans (or homo sapiens) were excavated at sites in East Africa. Human remains were discovered at Omo in Ethiopia that were dated at 195,000 years old, the oldest known in the world.
2. Skeletons of pre-humans have been found in Africa that date back between 4 and 5 million years. The oldest known ancestral type of humanity is thought to have been the australopithecus ramidus, who lived at least 4.4 million years ago.
3. Africans were the first to organise fishing expeditions 90,000 years ago. At Katanda, a region in northeastern Zaïre (now Congo), was recovered a finely wrought series of harpoon points, all elaborately polished and barbed. Also uncovered was a tool, equally well crafted, believed to be a dagger. The discoveries suggested the existence of an early aquatic or fishing based culture. Read More »
P.Cash
fahthablessed
lawalker0854
