Death Brings Back Memories

I learned yesterday that a woman who served as my high school Forensics Speech Coach my senior year passed away. My first reaction was shock because she wasn't that old--only 59--which means she was barely out of college when she began teaching at my high school.

Then I started thinking about how she treated me at McKinley. She wasn't very nice to me and even though I was a state and national champion, she made it obvious that she preferred another student over me. If it hadn't been for her assistant (Ms. Harriet Weaver), I would've quit the team and gave up any opportunity to receive scholarship money to continue on the Forensics Team in college.

Now, this is where I could throw out the race card and say she was prejudiced. I don't know that for sure but I can tell you I made no effort to contact her over the years to tell her of my progress in life.

I do believe it is wrong to speak ill of the dead so all I have to say is "may she rest in peace somewhere."

Baby Boomer Jesse Drama

There’s an old saying in the black community: God looks after babies and fools. Well, we know Jesse Jackson is NOT a baby……

I, just like the majority of black America, am stunned over the comments the reverend made about democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during a conversation with a Fox & Friends guest before a live interview Sunday from Chicago. Thinking his mic was turned off, Rev Jackson whispered to a fellow panelist , "See, Barack been talking down to black people on this faith based ... I want cut his nuts off ... Barack ... he's talking down to black people."

Now Jackson claims he was reacting to the fact that he felt Obama's speeches "can come off as speaking down to black people" and that there were other important issues to be addressed in the black community, such as unemployment, the mortgage crisis and the number of blacks in prison.

Irregardless of what he was reacting to, Jackson ought to know better. First of all, he should’ve been smart enough to know anything you say can and will be used against you in front of a mic and in the media’s presence. Secondly, Jackson should be one of the last people to criticize anybody on the issues of faith and morality. Isn’t he the aging baby boomer who had an affair with a woman 20 years younger and fathered a child with her while married?

Now, to Jackson’s credit, he did issue an apology right away---even before the news media got a chance to blast it. He issued this statement:

"My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy..."

There’s another saying that goes: Open mouth, insert foot---but in this case---how about a Choc Full of NUTS!

Where do people like Jesse Helms go when they die?

I'm a baby boomer woman who believes in God. I believe in Heaven and hell. I believe in the Ten Commandments---one being “Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.” Now I’ll be the first to admit that’s not always easy to do because there are some people who do everything in their power to get on my last nerve. But then I think they probably don’t know any better so I just forgive them and move on.

So here we have former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms who died on July 4 at the ripe old age of 86. He spent his entire political career as a hate monger and he was never ashamed or apologetic about it. He was a master at creating fear in the hearts and minds of white, rural North Carolinians by pointing out the fact that if he weren’t in Congress to fight for their “white rights” black people would take over and take away everything they rightfully owned.

Many of the people he catered to were white baby boomers and seniors.

Today, as I watched a portion of his funeral on TV, I heard the minister called him a good, decent man who loved God and loved the people he served for thirty years. But what about the people he didn’t love?

Does loving God—but hating minorities—give him a free pass into Heaven? My pastor always says “How can you love a God whom you never see and despise your fellow man here on earth?” That’s what Jesse did all of his life.

And no, he didn’t have a come to Jesus moment right before his death---where he apologized for any past sins he may have committed. He didn’t come out and issue a statement saying he loved everybody and was just playing the political game of the times.

So tell me, where do people like Jesse go when they die? Does he think he’ll enter a segregated Heaven? Oh, and wouldn’t it be something if God didn’t look anything like some churches paint Him out to be?