Category: Uncategorized

Giving food and money to your local Food Bank is such a mutually rewarding way to celebrate the holidays. The receiver happily eats healthy food and you get a warm fulfilling feeling inside for doing something good. US Census data shows that 10% of Americans (30 million people) go to bed hungry, not because they’re…

Having lived on Maui, seeing the apocalyptic fires that started on my birthday, was especially surreal. People, pets, Na ’Aikane Maui Cultural Center, homes, businesses in Lahaina – gone. Climate change deniers dismiss the facts about Earth burning up because of humans burning fossil fuels, releasing carbon dioxide (CO2), and industrialized cattle and hog farms…

Don’t be afraid to go for your dream. Sometimes being brave means doing something that you’ve been told you can’t do. Whether it’s escaping the hood, wasteland, or barrio, earning a college degree, starting a business, buying a home, as President Obama said, “the audacity of hope” can provide the courage needed to turn dreams…

https://www.youtube.com/live/-8IdJTtFx5w?feature=shareThings were simpler back in the day when rappers sampled (copied and pasted) music from classic funk and RnB songs. For example, Tupac’s “Dear Mama” sampled music from The Spinners’ hit “Sadie” written by Joseph Jefferson, Bruce Hawes and Charles Simmons. Tupac’s record company paid a licensing fee to the copyright owners of Sadie and…

News of the Ukrainian war really hit hard because of my personal connection with a Ukrainian musician on my new “Don’t let them get U down” album. After my daughter EDEN composed music for “Mystic Spirit,” one of the songs on my new album, I wrote lyrics; went into the studio, and laid down lead…

Do you know and do you care that the cocoa for the chocolate you eat was grown by child slave labor in Africa? These exploited children are not sent to school and are forced to work from sun up to sun down in Ivory Coast and Ghana, swinging machetes clearing brush; planting and harvesting cocoa…

My ever present smile finally disappeared after waiting 30 minutes in the “returns” line while the check out employees helped people from the “purchases” line. I was the lone black person in the store and the only customer in the “returns” line. Just as I readied myself to confront this discriminatory treatment and took out…

Growing up in South Carolina, water was free. It fell from the sky. I often heard the metaphor: “You never miss your water till your well runs dry.” They meant taking for granted love and not really knowing the importance of people until they’re no longer in our lives, but I’m talking about literally no…

How can I advocate love when hate lives within so many? We are taught to hate our enemies. Once someone is labeled the enemy, it becomes easy to hate and commit all kinds of horrific crimes – wars, homicide, genocide. Even if emotions don’t escalate all the way to hate, there’s an innate suspicion and…

The City Council of Evanston, Illinois voted 8-1 in favor of paying reparations to African Americans for past legal discrimination in housing, and for the savage holocaust of slavery. Funds from the 3% tax on marijuana businesses are being used to issue $25,000 real estate assistance payments to African American Evanston residents and direct descendants…