Lessons Learned

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."
Thomas Alva Edison

I enjoy putting my thoughts on paper and sharing them with others. Yes, I am a writer. Notice I didn’t say that I want to be a writer. Writers write. Using this criterion, I call myself a writer without hesitation.

When I scratched out my first poem, I realized this writing thing was not as easy as it seems. Yet, the words still bubbled within like a volcano and nothing satisfied me until those words spilled from my head onto the blank page. It didn’t take me long to learn how much skill it takes to fine tune words until they paint an accurate picture of the thoughts, feelings, sights or sounds I wanted to convey. John Norley said "All things are difficult before they are easy". Pulling it all together is hard work. It takes time to research, edit, and revise the "little" things that make the difference between mediocre work and a highly polished, marketable product.

Fortunately, somewhere along the way, this writing thing gets easier, but, at the same time, it gets more difficult. Expectations are greater, reviews more critical, and the demand for improvement continuously escalates. Working on my first novel made me acutely aware of the value of tenacity. I learned that writing an hour or so every day or two or only when the mood strikes doesn’t produce the same results as writing regularly. Checking those emails, surfing the "net", even cleaning the toilet may sometimes seem like more fun, but the pay off won’t be a completed novel, packaged and on its way to an editor.

I’m sure you’ve heard people say someone "got lucky" when her novel was published. It makes you wonder if dedication and sacrifice really make a difference? Elmer Letterman tells us that "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." Will building your "writer’s tool kit" at seminars and conferences help? Could that information jump-start your imagination and get your creative juices flowing in the "write" direction? Could participating in writing contest, critique sessions, and hands on workshops be good building blocks for the future? I wonder- is it luck or preparation? I’ve learned not to count on "genius", or on things being "easy", or even on "luck". It’s preparation and perspiration that makes winners!

White House Trick or Treat

Let's face it. The White House will never be the same. I'm glad to see the 1st Family REALLY making the White House a HOME, a place of love and showing the world no matter who you are or how much money you have, you are still human and like doing the same things as the rest of the world.


I feel Honored to have President Obama as our President. He and his family show the true meaning to the word ‘family’and ‘love’and what and how a family should look and be. They are Great Role Models!!!


U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice dresses as the Disney character Goofy at a reception for children of military and White House staff families during Halloween at the White House.




White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wearing Star Wars' Darth Vader costume, with his son Ethan, talks to the media as during a Halloween celebration in the East Room at the White House.

Black Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust

Did you know
•that in the 1920's, there
were 24,000 Blacks living in Germany?

•that in the 1890s Blacks were tortured in German concentration camps in Southwest Africa (now called Namibia) when Adolph Hitler was only a child?

•that Colonial German doctors conducted unspeakable medical experiments on these emaciated helpless Africans decades before such atrocities were ever visited upon the Jews?

If you are like most people, you simply have never heard the unbelievable story of Black victims of the Holocaust. Well, neither did I. Here's how it happened, and how many of them were eventually caught unawares by the events of the Holocaust.

Like most West European nations, Germany established colonies in Africa in the late 1800's in what later became Togo, Cameroon , Namibia , and Tanzania. German genetic experiments began there, most notably involving prisoners taken from the 1904 Heroro Massacre that left 60,000 Africans dead, following a 4-year revolt against German colonization. After the shellacking Germany received in World War I, it was stripped of its African colonies in 1918.

As a spoil of war, the French were allowed to occupy Germany in the Rhineland --a bitter piece of real estate that has gone back and forth between the two nations
for centuries. The French willfully deployed their own colonized African soldiers as the occupying force. Germans viewed this as the final insult of World War I, and,
soon thereafter, 92% of them voted in the Nazi party. Hundreds of the African Rhineland-based soldiers intermarried with German women and raised their
children as Black Germans. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote about his plans for these "Rhineland Bastards". When he came to power, one of his first directives was aimed at these mixed-race children. Underscoring Hitler's obsession with racial purity, by 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the Rhineland had
been forcibly sterilized, in order to prevent further "race polluting", as Hitler termed it.

Although most Black Germans attempted to escape their fatherland, heading for France where people like Josephine Baker were steadily aiding and supporting the French Underground, many still encountered problems elsewhere. Nations shut their doors to Germans,including the Black ones.

Some Black Germans were able to eke out a living during Hitler's reign of terror by performing in Vaudeville shows, but many Blacks, steadfast in their belief that they were German first, Black second, opted to remain in Germany . Some fought with the Nazis (a few even became Lutwaffe pilots)! Unfortunately, many Black Germans were arrested, charged with treason, and shipped in cattle cars to concentration camps. Often these trains were so packed with people and (equipped with no bathroom
facilities or food), that, after the four-day journey, box car doors were opened to piles of the dead and dying.

Once inside the concentration camps, Blacks were given the worst jobs conceivable. Some Black American soldiers, who were captured and held as prisoners of war, recounted that, while they were being starved and forced into dangerous labor (violating the Geneva Convention), they were still better off than Black German
concentration camp detainees, who were forced to do the unthinkable-- man the crematoriums and work in labs where genetic experiments were being conducted. As a final sacrifice, these Blacks were killed every three months so that they would never be able to reveal the inner workings of the "Final Solution".

Little information remains about the numbers of Black Germans held in the camps or killed under the Nazi regime. Some Black survivors of the Holocaust
are still alive and telling their story in films such as "Black Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust". After the war, scores of Blacks who had somehow managed to survive the Nazi regime, were rounded up and tried as war criminals.

For further information, read: Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi. Other titles on the subject can be found on Amazon.com.

Watch Night Services: A Bit of History

Many of you who live or grew up in Black communities in the United States have probably heard of "Watch Night Services," the gathering of the faithful in church on New Year's Eve. For anyone who doesn't know about "Watch Night Services", here's a bit of history someone shared through snd email.


The service usually begins anywhere from 7 p.m. To 10 p.m. And ends at midnight with the entrance of the New Year. Some folks come to church first, before going out to celebrate. For others, church is the only New Year's Eve event. Like many others, I always assumed that Watch Night was a fairly standard Christian religious service -- made a bit more Afro centric because that's what happens when elements of Christianity become linked with the Black Church. Still, it seemed that predominately White Christian churches did not include Watch Night services on their calendars, but focused instead on Christmas Eve programs.


In fact, there were instances where clergy in mainline denominations wondered aloud about the propriety of linking religious services with a secular holiday like New Year's Eve.

However, there is a reason for the importance of New Year's Eve services in African American congregations. The Watch Night Services in Black communities that we celebrate today can be traced back to gatherings on December 31, 1862, also known as "Freedom's Eve." On that night, Blacks came together in churches and private homes all across the nation, anxiously awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law.. Then, at the stroke of midnight, it was January 1, 1863, and all slaves in the Confederate States were declared legally free .

When the news was received, there were prayers, shouts and songs of joy as people fell to their knees and thanked God. Black folks have gathered in churches annually on New Year's Eve ever since, praising God for bringing us safely through another year.

It's been 145 years since that first Freedom's Eve and many of us were never taught the African American history of Watch Night, but tradition still brings us together at this time every year to celebrate
"how we got over."

Now, go tell that!

Missing in Action: Civilty and Common Sense

Here's another "Stop The Madness Moment".

Can you believe that this illustration was given to an eighth grade math class as part of an assignment? The picture has the caption “Solving Equations Using Multiplication and Division. Inder the black face photo are the words "no way".

The teacher apologized, saying he “had no idea that I might offend anyone” with the picture. He said he got the illustration off the Internet and chose to use it because the term no way “is a comment my students make when I require them to show each calculation.”

NAACP leaders and the parents of one of the students met with the principal to discuss the incident. The Bucks County, PA NAACP is calling for disciplinary action for the teacher and sensitivity training throughout the Central Bucks School District.

How could this teacher not have thought this image was offensive? Well, we know that's bull, but in today's climate, civility and common sense are missing in action. Think about the negative slurs from the McCain-Palin political campaign. What about the images from the "Tea Party" gatherings? Yes, in today's climate, some politicans are even talking withdrawing from the Union. Remember the Obama bucks and other disrespectful racist gadgets? Listen to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Seems like you can call the president of the United States anything you can think of without meaningful consequence. There are the "Birthers" and the "Death Camps" and talk of pulling the plug on Grandma. You can even interrupt the president's remarks to a joint session of Congress, shouting out "You Lie".

When there's no consequences for bad behavior, chaos rules. We need to "Stop the Madness".

Yesterday...Today...Tomorrow

There are two days in every week about which we should try not to worry. Two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is YESTERDAY with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. YESTERDAY has passed forever beyond our control.

All the money in the world cannot bring back YESTERDAY. We cannot undo a single act we performed: we cannot erase a single word we said...YESTERDAY is gone.

The other day we should not worry about is TOMORROW with its possible adversaries, its burdens, its large promise and poor performanced. TOMORROW is beyond our immediate control.

TOMORROW’s sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise. Until it does, we have a stake in TOMORROW for it is as yet unborn.


This leaves only one day...TODAY. Any person can fight the battle of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities...YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW that we break down. It is not the experience of TODAY that drives people mad-- it is remorse or bitterness for something which happened YESTERDAY and the dread of what TOMORROW will bring.

LET US THEREFORE LIVE BUT ONE DAY AT A TIME, ONE HOUR AT A TIME, ONE SECOND AT A TIME.

WHEN is the most important moment in our life? WHEN?...The answer is NOW, since we can touch it, drink it, love it, Too many of us go around all of our life dsaying...”Remember the good old days!...FORGET THE GOOD OLD DAYS...Every time we “LIVE YESTERDAY” we “AVOID TODAY” and when we “AVOID TODAY” we “RUN TOMORROW”.

In fact...”LIVE EVERYDAY AS IF ITS OUR LAST AND SOMEDAY WE WILL BE RIGHT!

Live Today

Too many people put off something that brings
them joy just because they haven't thought about it,
don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was
coming or are too rigid to depart from their
routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those women
on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that
fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then
on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home
because their husband didn't suggest going out to
dinner until after something had been thawed? Does
the word "refrigeration" mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids (or someone) dropped in to talk and
sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on
television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and
said, "How about going to lunch in a half hour?"
She would gas up and stammer, "I can't. I have
clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I
had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It
looks like rain." And my personal favorite: "It's
Monday." ...She died a few years ago.. We never did
have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives,
we tend to schedule our headaches... We live on a
sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when
all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we
get Stevie toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we
replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a
second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of
college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older.
The days get shorter, and the list of promises to
ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and
all we have to show for our lives is a litany of
"I'm going to," "I plan on," and "Someday, when
things are settled down a bit."

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend,
she is open to adventure and available for trips.
She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm
for life is contagious. You talk with her for five
minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for
a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a
bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years.
I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well
apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and
eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I
stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my
car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have
died happy.

Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something
you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO
list. If you were going to die soon and had only one
phone call you could make, who would you call and
what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go
round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed
at the sun into the fading night? Do you run
through each day on the fly? When you ask "How are
you?" Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed
with the next hundred chores running through your
head? Ever told your child, "We'll do it tomorrow."
And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost
touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say
"Hi"?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is
like an unopened gift....Thrown away... Life is not
a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the
song is over.
.

"Life may not be the party we hoped for... but
while we are here we might as well dance!"

Source: E-Mail Post