FOOD FOR THOUGHT...UNTIL A FEW WEEKS AGO, I HAD BEEN DEVOTING YEARS TO TRYING TO GET MORE AFRICAN-AMERICAN

I think that our children should be able to listen and view positive images of our community and our people rather than the denergrating stereotypical images that are truly unreflective of the who we really are as a people.

The other day my husband was playing some hip hop reggae gospel tune that he happened to enjoy, but our 5 year old was in the car with us also listening. I told my husband that now is the time for us to be saturating his mind and his soul with things that are going to benefit him rather than stere him in a direction (hip hop) that I feel would be unuseful and irrelevant.

I'm grooming the next African American president of the United States and I hardly thing listening to rap gospel music is going to be useful to him, afterall Hip Hop wasn't useful for Hip Hop Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at the end of the day... those lyrics about s*x and more s*x led him to an affair and being disbarred from practicing law or maybe not but hey I like to put that in there.

Jen, when I was coming up conscious hip hop was constantly played on the radio, now the hip hop that is out here today is becoming so hard to fathom. Of course we know hip hop appeals to a lot of youth but one thing that really gets to me is how some of "our" young men and women of today are dressing and acting. They get what they're doing straight out of these hip hop videos.

Their idea of keeping it real is smoking a lot of weed, having multiple s*x partners, robbing, stealing, and killing, It's really disturbing (to me), but to the other young folks of my generation it's just not a big deal. It's like they don't even recognize that not many people would look at them doing that and walk away thinking they had any class, dignity, respect or home training.

I believe there is a more balanced way to approach the situation because what good is tapping the young brothers or sisters on the shoulder and scolding them when they just really may not know any better, trying to get them to shift their thinking process closer to "right" would be more beneficial to them, and more balanced, than scolding them and looking at them with disgust? Then again their parent(s) might be in the home doing the same degrading things...

@ Sister Irma,
I do understand what you mean regarding giving children the freedom to be who they were intended to be by the Creator, but as a parent it is my responsibility to steer my child in the right direction until he has the maturity to do it for himself.

@ Sister Siebra,
I know, right! When I was coming up hip hop was about challenging us as a community to think for ourselves and come up with solutions to the problems going on in our communities, but the garbage that I hear and see isn't worth its salt. Its about getting mo money and buying all the *itches. I hate when I'm somewhere and see these youth with the imagery that really doesn't reflect their true worth and this is what I'm trying to gaurd against in my own child's life. I only want the best for him and becoming the next great African American professor, lawyer, doctor, indian chief, or president sounds like steps in the right direction! I should think he can make his choice amongst those great professions.

the law of Karma teaches that responsibility for unskillful actions is born by the person who commits them.

Let's take an example of a sequence of events. An unpleasant sensation occurs. A thought arises that the source of the unpleasantness was a person. (This thought is a delusion; any decisions based upon it will therefore be unskillful.) A thought arises that some past sensations of unpleasantness issued from this same person. (This thought is a further delusion.) This is followed by a willful decision to speak words that will produce an unpleasant sensation in that which is perceived as a person. (This decision is an act of hostility. Of all the events described so far, only this is called a karma.) Words are carefully chosen in the hopes that when heard they will cause pain. The words are pronounced aloud. (This is the execution of the decision to be hostile. It may also be classed as a kind of karma, although technically it is an after-karma.)

irma
the law of karma, says only this: `for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.' A skillful event is one that is not accompanied by craving, resistance or delusions; an unskillful event is one that is accompanied by any one of those things. (Events are not skillful in themselves, but are so called only in virtue of the mental events that occur with them.)

Being fully ethical is said to be impossible for those who make a distinction between self and other and show preference for the perceived self over the perceived other, for such perceptions inhibit being fully responsive. Being fully ethical is possible only for those who realize that all persons are empty, that is, devoid of personhood.

There is a fleeting joyful feeling of success in knowing that one has scored a damaging verbal blow. Eventually (perhaps much later) there is an unpleasant sensation of regret, perhaps taking the form of a sensation of fear that the perceived enemy may retaliate, or perhaps taking the form of remorse on having acted impetuously, like an immature child, and hping that no one will remember this childish action. (This regret or fear is the unpleasant ripening of the karma, the unskillful decision to inflict pain through words.)

As a Catholic, Latin... N.D.B. Sanskirt, learned sighing in college. (smile)

there are w-o-r-d-s and there are words. lol........

because humans are made up of energy, they are in action at all times...anyone alive and not breathing...Action is motion, thinking is energy aka motion= action, ect. (smile)

NO MATTER WHAT, ALWAYS GIVE IT YOUR VERY BEST. (SMILE)

Anyone speak: sign language, Latin, sanskirt? (smile)

@david,

Well "I" guess it is because I am a N.D.B. and we look at illusion (delusion)as: being ignorant of our potentials...not tapping into our unlimited wisdom, courage, hope, confidence, compassion, vilality and endurence. Instead of avoiding or fearing problems, we learn to confront them with joyful vigor, confidence in our abilit to surmount what ever life throws i our path aka Karma is A-C-T-I-O-N. (S-M-I-L-E)

@david, it could just be plain old every day common sense...or have you know anyone to go on a water drink strike like they do hunger strikes. lol (smile)

...and, not to worry both you and Jen, because by the time your children you are raisiing to be beutiful responsiable contributers of our world...there will be a brand new kind of music world to run them mad as them being the responsible parents...it always does. lol (smile)

@SIEBRA, I GATHER YOU HAVE ALREADY READ ME TALKING ABOUT HOW MY MOM BELIEVED ELVIS PRESLEY WAS THE DEVIL IN DESGUISE OUT TO RUIN ALL OF WOMANHOOD. (OTFL) (SMILE)

i RULLY UNDERSTAND WHEERE YOU ARE COMING FROM JEN...BUT A LOT OF WHAT i LEARNED ABOUT HOW WRONG i WAS IN RAISING MY CHILDREN BECAUSE i TOOK MY CHILD DEVELOPMENT CLASS AFTER MY GIRS WERE FULLY GROWN, EXAMPLE,

I AM STILL FACINATIED AT HOW WE DO TREAT OUR CHILDREN AS IF THEY ARE LITTLE ADULTS...AND, THE LITTLE INFO I LEARNED ABOUT SMALL CHILDREN NOT HAVEING THE ABILITY TO HAVE INTENT UNTIL A CERTAIN AGE AND THE THINGS WE SOULD NEVER PUNISH THEM FOR...LIKE WHEN THEY HIT ANOTHER CHILD IN THE HEAD, DON'T PUNISH THEM FOR NOAT ACTING LIKE THEY WERE NOT SORRY FOR HURTING THE OTHER CHILD...THE ONE WHO DID THE HITING DID NOT FEEL THE PAIN SO THEY HAVE NO WAY TO BE AWARE OF ANOTHER'S PAINS....

ILEARNED WHY MY CHILD HAD SUCH A FIT WHEN ALL I WAS DOING WAS GOING OUT TO HANG CLOTHES ON THE LINE...I HAD PROMISED HER, I WOULD BE RIGHT BACK...BUT AGAIN A CHILD UNTIL A CERTAIN AGE HAVE NO IDEA THAT IF THEY DON'T SEE YOU THAT YOU STILL EXIST...YES THEY HAVE THEIR OWN WORLD FOR WHICH SOME TIMES WE MUST LEARN TO FOLLOW THEIR LEAD. (SMILE)

IT IS YOUR CHILD BUT I WILL NEVER BELIEVE A CHILD IS PRIVATE PROPERTY...BUT, THIS IS JUST ME. (SMILE)

...and, Siebra, may I ad that they go read Jen's regrister to vote blog...now that blog is a life saver. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(smile)

...BUT, BY NOW JEN YOU SHOULD KNOW ME AND MY GOOD IS NEEDED TO BE A BALANCE FOR BAD MENTALITY. LOL (SMILE)

@JEN, I AM SURE OR AT LEAST HOPE THAT YOU DO WNAT YOUR SON TO GROW UP WITH AN OPENED MIND...WHAT I MEAN BY AN OPEN MIND IS WE ALL COME WITH HUMAN BEHAVIORS AND NOT PROGRAMED BEHAVIORS THAT SAYS THEE SHALL ONLY BE THE THINGS I LIKE AND NOT THE CHANCE TO MAKE MISTAKES AND TO LEARN FROM THEM, F-O-R MY SELF AND BY MY O-W-N EXPERIENCES?!? (SMILE)

BUT, TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT...FREEDOM TO BE HIS OWN SELF, CREAT HIS OWN IDENTITY AND NOT BE PROGRAMED AS AN EXTENTION OF THE PARENT'S MISTAKES MAKE UPS FOR THEM? (SMILE)