Sunday, October 31, 2010

My Mother's Worth!

Let's Go!


My mother, my mother, my mother, NONE ELSE CAN COMPARE! There was a program on television the other day entitled Young Voices, I believe, and there was a poem performed by a tall young dark sister and a short young caucasian boy. The poem was a metaphor between a woman as the planet Earth, Mother Nature, and Humanity as a whole. It spoke of how the same way the Earth is 'treated' by man with his pollution, wars, destruction and violence, is the same way a woman is treated.

How quickly people forget just how much a mother is worth!!!!!

My mother is my heart! She is the closest thing to God in this world! She sacrificed EVERYTHING for the well being of her children and grandchildren, yet she's done it without the slightest concern for herself. Even when a person is 'all-grown-up,' off into the world, living and learning, that NEVER changes the fact that when that person was born, naked, frail, fragile, ignorant, defenseless, and helpless, Mommy took care of that ass! Had she not fed you, you wouldn't have eaten! Had she not cleaned and cuddled you, you wouldn't have lived! Some fools have the gumption to say, “I didn't ask to be born!” Such a sentiment curses one's Maker, and Justice will quicken.

Lately, you haven't been feeling appreciated, so let me remind you just how much your worth is remembered. I love you Ma!! You've never judged me, but you've always been there to guide me! You've been the most understanding all the while being the most misunderstood! I think you're perfect because your love is! You're beautiful within and without! People make buildings, YOU made a MAN! People save lives, you saved mine! People turn their backs, your arms never leave me! Friends become enemies, who you are has never changed! People lose hope, your faith in me only grows! If anyone has forgotten, count me amongst the few who will never, ever, ever forget the worth of a Mother!

I love you Ma!!!!!!!!!!!!

your FIRST, B!!!!!!!!

Excerpt from Prescient Education by Brian Holiday

Let's Go!

 "Once an individual's life-purpose becomes the compass with which he or she begins to navigate the seas of consciousness, life ceases to be a string of seemingly endless storms as the clouds of confusion and despair are driven away by the light of purpose and beacons of hope."

B.Holi

Prescient Education (this is an essay written for SEVEN and the C.I.F.A.

Let's Go!




What if, after twelve years of education, institutions of learning produced experts in every field
of study? All of the worlds great faiths make clear allusions to an omnipotent, omnipresent, and
omniscient grand architect that endowed humanity with every attribute possessed and expressed by
itself, but on a microcosmic scale. That each and every individual was made different and special, born
with unique gifts and talents with unlimited potential, is ubiquitous and suggested in the teachings of all faiths. The following essay supposes that the eradication of poverty hinges upon the successful integration of a system of education whose pedagogues are predicated upon the conceit that God gave each human being specific and particular abilities and psychological orientations that are exemplified by a persons earliest behavioral propensities and as such curriculum need be restructured into a pliable comprehensive matrix geared towards and conducive to the healthy manifestations of nascent potentialities.
Undeniably, a stark self-reinforcing correlation exists between ignorance and poverty. Both conditions are characterized by an utter or dire absence of vital necessities prerequisite for a substantive existence. Thus, one begets the other and the two produces the like. Furthermore, any effort, however elaborately conceived, to alter either is the equivalent of running on a treadmill. Much energy is exhausted, yet the runner will inevitably find him or herself in the same place that he or she began.
Likewise, the current educational landscape, particularly the pubic school system is the societal replica of a dog chasing its tail. Annually, millions of taxpayer, private and non-profit dollars are poured into an outmoded, outdated, broken system like water on burning sand, dryly resulting only in lower academic proficiency and higher dropout rates. Steadfast adherents to this trickle down theory as it applies to education continue to debate whether the parents, students or teachers are responsible for such a deplorable state-of-affairs never once questioning in open forum whether or not the system and its precepts are the cause of the malaise. The grossly under appreciated fact of the matter is, as it stands, the present day educational system does not educate, it simply trains. These are vastly different in scope. The current conveyor belt, one size fits all approach to learning and instruction retards the human spirit and its backward effects are exacerbated due to globalization and the rapidly changing technological frontier.
Owing its roots to the Latin word educare, educate literally means to bring out what is within. As alluded to in the abstract, that which is within the very make up of humanity was placed there by creative fate, by god. Early on, every child shows a knack for something specific, be it motor skills, memory, observation, speech etc. and as they age and mature into toddlers, in the proper environment, and with adequate attention and participation on the part of parents, guardians and teachers, these propensities become more pronounced especially prior to the advent of restrictive socialization. There is no shorty supply of stories about how this or that child exemplified a natural and almost magnetic inclination toward certain objects and or activities. “Every since he was young, each time I bought him a toy, he'd either take it apart and put it back together again, or turn it into something else...” marvels the mother of the now unemployed twenty three year old boy who never took a class in engineering.
Without a system of learning based on the idea that every individual is born with a God given blueprint predisposing him or her to naturally excel in specific areas of human activity, the innocence of adolescence, the vitality of youth and the inquisitive reach of early adulthood eventually gives way to stunted growth, disillusionment and marginalization, coalescing into a populace suspended within an overwhelming sense of purposelessness. Can any developed country afford to have a majority of its student collective continually questioning the practical significance and application of whats being taught?
Furthermore, should any policy designed or legislation enacted to eradicate poverty be taken seriously when seniors in high school are graduated without ever having taken a class on or been afforded the opportunity to develop and exhibit a sound understanding of taxes, debt, equity and investment when those same students are being bombarded with credit card and loan applications?
Indebtedness is the omen of poverty and ignorance is the precursor of indebtedness. A poorly informed mass of consumers is a virtual feeding frenzy for predatory creditors. Were children groomed from reading age to thoroughly explore and become masters of topics and subject matters that naturally appealed to innate curiosities and provided with a framework that integrated concrete, real-life exposure and punctuated with financial intelligence would there be as many poor people in the world as there are today? If institutions of learning made the soul of man, its basket of gifts and the highest development of those gifts its top priority would there be a fifty percent dropout rate or wide spread workplace disaffection or students entering undergraduate studies without a clearly defined career path or idea of what courses to major or minor in? Interdisciplinary studies was a step in the right direction, but what is sorely needed from early childhood education onwards is a daily period of study devoted to finding and defining what is the greatest motivator of all, one's purpose!
People of faith more so than any other segment of society understand and appreciate the saving power of purpose because people of faith are in effect people of purpose. Establishing purpose reinvigorates the will to create and produce. It galvanizes the human spirit and broadens the perceptive faculties of the mind enabling the vision necessary to see, seize and exploit opportunities heretofore unrecognizable to the disaffected and apathetic. Purpose is the foremost impetus to positive and constructive change as it calls upon and draws forth the largely untapped human potential that lies dormant within the cavernous psyche of man much like a sleeping giant. Everything in life takes on added meaning and usefulness when viewed through the lens of purpose. If students had a mere inkling of their life's purpose the importance of education and technical training would carry a premium of greater significance. Just as water seeks its own level, so does a person inspired by a thorough sense of purpose labors tirelessly to ascertain and utilize conduits for its fullest expression.
The challenge for this generation is to establish and institute a universally recognized and accepted mandate for making person-specific purpose and financial intelligence an integral part of curriculum at every grade level, increasing in depth and scope as individuals advance and mature through each successive level of schooling. Also, as the individual progresses he or she should assume a less and less passive role in course design because the more involved a student is it increases the likelihood of that student overachieving. Lastly, instruction and learning should no longer be relegated to the confines of the school buildings. The neighboring communities and the business world supporting them needs to become a permanent part of the classroom experience.
Faith-based organizations are the torch bearers of this grand experiment because their memberships incorporate every area of industry and expertise. Volunteerism and mentoring are the gateways of infusing purpose in the lives of students and the community at large. A consensus that each and every individual, regardless of race, creed, gender or ancestry was born with unique talents and abilities and therefore deserves the opportunity to explore, develop, enhance and monetize said gifts engenders an environment where innovation, entrepreneurship, service and industrious acts become the order of the day. Instead of people being prepared for careers, careers are being prepared for and by the people.
In order for poverty to exist and persist, the milieu and relevant elements must remain present. Likewise, poverty will be eradicated once its means of subsistence is terminated. Can a well-informed, purpose-driven individual or people ever be poor? Unemployed? Hungry? Idle? Once more, ignorance is the cocoon of poverty and all of its ills. People of faith see a universe and a world of abundance being sorely mismanaged by a powerful and greedy elite, but its atop the ignorance of the citizenry that their strength rests and unwarranted opulence thrives. People of faith, operating in the realm of social improvement are more often than not motivated by a spirit of morality and genuine compassion, not for monetary gain, so it is the responsibility of inter-faith coalitions consisting of industry professionals encompassing every discipline to instigate the educational reform since their interests are not vested in bottom lines, but in the uplifting of a fallen humanity.
Summarily, the development of educational reform that inculcates the ascertainment of an individual's life purpose and proficiency in financial intelligence as a gradient for present and future achievement, empowered by inter-faith based initiatives, manned by committed professionals spanning all fields of human activity is a sure fire way of ending the sprawl of poverty. The sooner an individual is certain of his or her purpose in life, the more apt the individual will be to begin valuing education as a life long investment and using time, information, and energy efficiently and systematically to materialize the type of existence that ensures him or her an abiding sense of purposefulness and well-being.


Purposeful life and financial intelligence is the new gospel of the twenty-first century. Educational institutions must undergo a radical makeover and position at its core the concept that all people are created with a divinely inspired blueprint. The worlds foremost thinkers and industrial pioneers who see faith as the cornerstone and guiding principle in their lives must bring to the fore their ingenuity and expertise in the reshaping of the world's educational landscape. Poverty is a primary byproduct of ignorance and poor education. Once an individual's life-purpose becomes the compass with which he or she begins to navigate the seas of consciousness, life ceases to be a string of seemingly endless storms as the clouds of confusion and despair are driven away by the light of purpose and beacons of hope.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Crossroads!

Let's Go!

The Crossroads

The only place where the faith, character, and resilience of a person meet with the
circumstances that encourages spiritual and psychological transformation is THE CROSSROADS!
How else do you really come to know and appreciate just how beautiful and wonderfully you're made
than by being tried and tested? Indeed, the path of least resistance most often affords individuals the
temporary comforts of going with the flow, but what happens when you're forced to choose between
what feels right and what is right? What happens when the opinions of others that you hold in such
high esteem fail to quell the insatiable thirst of the ego??? What do you do when doing just enough is
not enough??? What do you do when you can no longer hear the voice of the one you've relied on to
remind you of your worth??? Where do you go, when you've realize that the very thing you desire to
break free from follows you wherever you find yourself? When all that you value begins to seem worthless, for what should you strive for??? If you had no phone, who would write you a letter??? If you had no home, who would open up their doors???

Embrace the hardships that has and will inevitably befall every human being! When problems arise,
give thanks to whatever Higher Power you look to for the opportunity to improve, for this is where
hope dies and gives birth to faith, and where faith is transformed into LOVE! It is only at the
Crossroads that humanity truly finds, experiences and appreciates all that life has to offer! Don't go
looking for it, but when it comes, turn not away from it, because through it you are reborn and made
new!

Monday, October 25, 2010

SERENITY

Today, I felt the waves of wrath fly out of my chest and my head, but my mouth remained clean.. Flashes of anger, hurt, and scorn formed, yet flew from me. I searched for a response to the cold misunderstanding, yet none were fit to reply to a conditioned rage. All I was able to bring myself to say is...

Time Heals All Wounds.

B-Holi

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Excerpt from The Intelligent Brotha' ; Transcending Race & Adversity

From a chapter entitled "Troubledale"

The first thing I noticed about Cassidy Elementary was that the students all but ran the school.  Of course, there were some teachers who didn’t play that, but for the most part there was a pervading sense of fear.  So many low income children packed in over-crowded classrooms only served to worsen the chances of a child getting a quality education in an already underresourced  public school system.  I went from seeing what was in my previous school relatively well-behaved children, who tended to be generally orderly in the hallways and all the more quiet and attentive during class in their neat blue and white uniforms, loafers and shoes  to…baggy jeans and play clothes worn during school hours, loud lunch rooms and hallways and generally disruptive classrooms.  Subjects like sex, and the personal opinions of students and faculty which would be spoken of discretely in my former school was commonly heard aloud during class and luch time in public schools.  Incidents of fighting and violence and student insubordination was much more rampant. The girls were ‘faster’.  I was flooded with every counter-productive element imaginable.  I learned later that my mother actually wanted me to continue attending parochial school in Philly, but my father decided against it.  I immediately noticed the lower academic  and behavioral standards and expectations for the students.  I remember thinking, “I learned all of this last year.”   Tests were easier because the instruction was less rigorous. More students per teacher meant less time a teacher could spend actually teaching.   Grading was usually on a curve, so the apparent indicators of academic achievements were inherently skewed.   Amidst the students, a greater concern was ploaced on outward appearance.  Status was based on clothes, machismo, promiscuity and a high level of academic performance was placed on the lowest scale of peer values.  It wasn’t cool to be smart, and it wasn’t until it was time for report cards to go home that a majority of the students showed any degree of genuine appreciation for the importance of education.  Then, the next week it was back to business as usual.  For the teachers, their report cards were the results of statewide testing.  During the days approaching the exam week, teachers, and faculty would promote one means or another for students to have some ‘extra’ time to review subjects expected to be in the state assessments, but once the results came back poor, insufficient resources and the students' behavioral problems and the like were held up as the reasons for the disparity in academic achievements in wealthy and generally White districts as compared to those largely inhabited by African Americans.  This cycle of underperformance reinforces itself until as a whole, people begin to simply expect less.  For  a majority of students in public schools, its survival of the fittest, the rat race.  Students don’t fall behind in middle and highschool.  Initially children fall behind as a prority at home.  The less time a parent spends going over homework with children at an early age, and not just giving them lipservice on how important an education is, the more disillusioned they become.  If poor academic performance in school is dismissed as a phase at an early age then the likelihood of that child growing increasingly estranged in the school setting as that child continues to fall behind.  Rewarding underachievement with the newest sneakers, or a video-game is not a detterent to underperformance.  But, parents do it all the time.  If instead of material items, parents set aside time to sit with the teachers and administrators and open dialogue about the child’s needs etc.  there wouldn’t be a such thing as a 50% dropout rate and an equally high incarceration and divorce rate.  Furthermore, school administrations become so preoccupied with behavior agendas that academic needs become less of a priority.  Nutrition and health concerns even more so become a passing issue, as ‘down-towns’ directives for diplomas become further tied to state exams, teachers and administrators fall all over themselves to teach to the test rather than teach to the curriculum.  It’s about pass or fail downtown when it should be about educating and insuring comprehension.  Years later I came to see the cycle from a full circle perspective as a guest teacher listeneing to a majority of instructors clamour on adnauseum in the teachers lounge and dining area about how problematic this or that child was or wasn’t.  I don’t recall one incident where a teacher wasn’t bemoaning his or her stressful classroom and didn’t meet with a chorus of vehement acceptance and agreement.  Not once did I hear constructive criticism of the teacher that suggested maybe she fine tuner her approach or spend a little more one on one time with the student.  For the most part the system’s shortfalls are passed back to the student, leaving the children to bear the brunt and burdens of a system supposedly designed for their benefit.

The Pivot

You will reach a point in life, a moment in time, when redundancy yields restlessness...the tedium of conformity strangles the will, the residue of an outdated paradigm stifles the imagination, the smallness of the voice of conscience grows louder, the environment becomes a solitary sign directing the soul toward the canal of destiny, every sound resonates in unison singing you in, your favorite foods fail to satisfy and quell your growing appetite, what is so important becomes insignificant, what is so urgent is rendered inconsequential, and what is so dire is rendered futile!  How fortunate you are to have come hence, how happy you will be to tredge onward, how damned are you to turn back...from the Pivot!

The Family Mandate

Who can express perfectly the importance of family?  Man o Man...if ye but knew the Providence of thine kindred, you would at once be humbled and so blessed by the sanctity of your blood.  What I'm saying is this, WE MUST BE TAKING IT FOR GRANTED!  My mother was born 51 years ago today!  Her trials are more than the hairs on my head...her love is stronger than the pride in my chest, her patience is longer than the orb of our planet.  Without her my days would have been shortened, my errors more costly, my ignorance more lonely!  I love her and every woman and soul like hers, for they are my FAMILY!  True Love comes from within, is offered up to the closest of kin, and radiates outward like rays of the sun. Let yours be TRUE!  Say no more, tommorrow I'll tell her...him...later on I'll show them...just how much love I feel...how much I care.  Such a moment is not promised, nor is the mind, the will, or the heart to!  Listen a little more to.....FAMILY!  Spend a little more time with....FAMILY!  Treat people a little bit more like....FAMILY!  And what would we as children of the Almighty inherit??????   Yes!  HEAVEN ON EARTH!  "for behold, the Kingdom of Heaven is where?????



WITHIN!
I find it highly probable that if Humanity began  treating their loved ones as if at ANY minute she could lose them, we'd all know what it really means to be 'saved!'

ISLAMAPHOBIA: Setting The Record Straight!

 straight!!1
Perhaps by now, news viewers have become aware of the ISLAMAPHOBIA issue engrossing the Ground Zero area in Manhattan and much of mainstream media following the announcement of the construction of a Mosque at the heart of the 911 attacks.


Suffice is to say, the current polemic is challenging the fundamental perceptions of religious diversity long-held by most Americans. What I’m about to bring your attention to may very well come as a shock to people of the Catholic, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths.

Most Americans are currently under the impression that America is, was, and always will be a Christian nation. In fact, so widespread is this largely unchallenged notion that I’m willing to bet that most Americans would wager their life’s earnings on it being one.

Unfortunately for many, it’s NOT! America was not founded by WASPS or Christians. But don’t take my word for it. There’s a little known and seldom referenced document called…

TREATY OF PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE BEY AND SUBJECTS OF TRIPOLI OF BARBARY, authored in 1796 by an AMERICAN diplomat by the name of Joel Barlow…you can read it in its entirety using the link below.

This treaty was sent to the floor of the Senate and read aloud. Then President John Adams ‘proudly signed it into law and proclaimed it to the nation.



Article 11 clearly states

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. (Emphasis mine)



Now, next time you hear your poorly informed country-men, ranting and raving over the devilish Moslems, and threatening to burn Qurans in the street, have them read the intelligent brotha’s blog entitled….ISLAMAPHOBIA: Setting the record straight!!1

Sincerely yours….BJ aka Theintelligentbrotha’

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/treaty_tripoli.html