America 's High Tech "Invisible Man"

Dr. Mark Dean

By Tyrone D. Taborn

You may not have heard of Dr. Mark Dean. And you aren't alone.  But almost everything in your life has been affected by his work.

Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from Stanford University .  He is in the National Hall of Inventors.  He has more than 30 patents pending.  He is a vice president with IBM.  Oh yeah, and he is also the architect of the modern-day personal computer.

Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer that all PCs are based upon.  And, Dr. Mark Dean is an African American. So how is it that we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal computer without reading or hearing a single word about him?  Given all of the pressure mass media are under about negative portrayals of African Americans on television and in print, you would think it would be a slam dunk to highlight someone like Dr. Dean.

Somehow, though, we have managed to miss the shot.  History is cruel when it comes to telling the stories of African Americans.  Dr. Dean isn't the first Black inventor to be overlooked Consider John Stanard, inventor of the refrigerator, George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer, Alexander Miles and his elevator, Lewis Latimer and the electric lamp.  All of these inventors share two things: One, they changed the landscape of our society; and, two, society relegated them to the footnotes of history.  Hopefully, Dr. Mark Dean won't go away as quietly as they did.  He certainly shouldn't.  Dr. Dean helped start a Digital Revolution that created people like Microsoft's Bill Gates and Dell Computer's Michael Dell.  Millions of jobs in information technology can be traced back directly to Dr. Dean.

More important, stories like Dr. Mark Dean's should serve as inspiration for African-American children.  Already victims of the "Digital Divide" and failing school systems, young, Black kids might embrace technology with more enthusiasm if they knew someone like Dr. Dean already was leading the way.

Although technically Dr. Dean can't be credited with creating the computer -- that is left to Alan Turing, a pioneering 20th-century English mathematician, widely considered to be the father of modern computer science -- Dr. Dean rightly deserves to take a bow for the machine we use today.  The computer really wasn't practical for home or small business use until he came along, leading a team that developed the interior architecture (ISA systems bus) that enables multiple devices, such as modems and printers, to be connected to personal computers.

In other words, because of Dr. Dean, the PC became a part of our daily lives.  For most of us, changing the face of society would have been enough.  But not for Dr. Dean ..... Still in his early forties, he has a lot of inventing left in him.

He recently made history again by leading the design team responsible for creating the first 1-gigahertz processor chip.  It's just another huge step in making computers faster and smaller.  As the world congratulates itself for the new Digital Age brought on by the personal computer, we need to guarantee that the African-American story is part of the hoopla surrounding the most stunning technological advance the world has ever seen. We cannot afford to let Dr. Mark Dean become a footnote in history.  He is well worth his own history book.

First Woman Ascends to Top Drill Sergeant Spot

Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa L. King , the first woman to run the Army’s Drill Sergeant School.
Her new job will have significant influence over the basic training of every enlisted soldier.

By JAMES DAO- Published: September 21, 2009

FORT JACKSON, S.C. — It may come as no surprise that the Army’s new top drill sergeant idolizes Gen. George S. Patton Jr., has jumped out of planes 33 times, aces every physical training test and drives a black Corvette with “noslack” vanity plates.

Command Sgt. Maj. King held a meeting with her first sergeants.

On Tuesday, the Army will make Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa L. King, 48, commandant of its drill sergeant school here. It is a first. No woman has run one of the Army’s rigorous schools for drill instructors.
Petite yet imposing, Sergeant Major King seems a drill sergeant at heart, ever vigilant for busted rules: soldiers nodding off in class, soldiers with hair a fraction too long, soldiers who run too slow. “Are you crazy?” she shouts at one who is walking across a lawn. “Get off my grass!”

The eighth of 12 children, the sergeant major is the daughter of a sharecropper who grew cucumbers and tobacco near Fort Bragg, N.C. Her first job in the Army was as a postal clerk, a traditional position for women in those days.

She says she regrets not having been deployed to a war zone during her 29-year Army career, though she has trained many soldiers who were. And now, in her new job, she will have significant influence over the basic training of every enlisted soldier. Last year the Army consolidated several drill schools into a single campus at this sprawling post, meaning Sergeant Major King, with her staff of 78 instructors, will oversee drill sergeant training for the entire Army.

Famous for their Smokey Bear hats, booming voices and no-nonsense demeanor, those sergeants transform tens of thousands of raw recruits into soldiers each year. It is one of the backbone jobs of the military, and having a woman in charge underscores the expanding role of women in the Army’s leadership.

But Sergeant Major King’s ascension is also a reminder of the limits of gender integration in the military. Just 8 percent of the active-duty Army’s highest-ranking enlisted soldiers — sergeants major and command sergeants major — are women, though more than 13 percent of Army personnel are female. In particular, the Army has struggled to recruit women as drill sergeants, citing pregnancy, long hours and the prohibition against women serving in frontline combat positions as reasons.

Sergeant Major King said one of her priorities would be to recruit more women into her school.
But she pushes back at the notion that she has risen because she is a woman. “When I look in the mirror, I don’t see a female,” Sergeant Major King said. “I see a soldier.”


As a child, she refused her mother’s cooking lessons, insisting on driving her father’s tractor and playing basketball instead. When her siblings got in trouble, she volunteered to take their spankings. It was the sight of a commanding-looking female soldier in a stylish red beret at the fort that inspired her to enlist while still in high school. Within three years, she was sent to drill sergeant school, graduating as one of five women in a class of 30. Willie Shelley, a retired command sergeant major who supervised Sergeant Major King in three postings, said that he once promoted her over the objections of his commander into a position at Fort Bragg that had been held only by men. “Turns out she was about the best first sergeant they ever had,” Mr. Shelley said. “It would not surprise me that she could become the first female sergeant major of the Army,” he added, referring to its top enlisted soldier.

In her clipped speaking style, acute command of regulations and visible disgust with slovenliness, Sergeant Major King prowls the grounds of Fort Jackson, where she was the top noncommissioned officer for a human resources battalion before being promoted to commandant.
“She can always find the cigarette butt under the mattress,” said Patrick J. Jones, a public affairs officer at Fort Jackson. Respect for rules and dedication to training is what keeps soldiers alive in combat, Sergeant Major King says, and she expects drill sergeants to embody that ethic 24 hours a day. “Most soldiers want to be like their drill sergeants,” she said. “They are the role models.”

Yet for all her gruffness, she can show surprising tenderness toward her charges. She describes her soldiers as “my children” and her approach to disciplining them as “tough love.” She wells up with emotion while describing how she once hugged a burly master sergeant whose wife had left him.
“She is confident, no nonsense, but compassionate about what’s right for the soldier,” said Col. John E. Bessler, her commander in a basic training battalion four years ago.

After a stint as a drill sergeant in her early 20s, Sergeant Major King went through a series of rapid promotions: aide to the secretary of defense, then Dick Cheney; senior enlisted positions near the demilitarized zone in Korea; with the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg; and at NATO headquarters in Europe.


For a time in her 30s, she was married to another soldier. She got pregnant but lost the baby, and eventually divorced. The failure of her marriage, she said, brought on a period of soul-searching that led her to study the Bible. She was planning to retire and join the ministry when her appointment to the drill sergeant school was announced over the summer. “On the other side, the military life, I was doing so good,” she said. “But my personal life just stunk.” Since her divorce, she added, “I just pour my heart into these soldiers.”
Looking back on her years in the Army, Sergeant Major King says she can think of few occasions where men challenged her authority because she was a woman. “And when they did,” she said, “I could handle it.”

Asked if women should be allowed into front line combat units, she said yes, but only if they meet the same standards as men. While she says most women cannot meet those standards, she believes she can. As if to prove her point, she scored a perfect 300 on her semiannual physical training test last week, doing 34 push-ups and 66 situps, each in under two minutes, then ran two miles in 16 minutes 10 seconds (well below the required 17:36 for her age group.) But before she started her test, she characteristically noticed something amiss. “Can you believe that?” the sergeant major asked no one in particular. “A bag of garbage outside my Dumpster.”

It's Okay to Quit!

Motivational Speaker - Veraunda Jackson 

1. Quit arguing with people about the same old foolishness! Respect their position and keep it moving!

2. Quit telling people your secrets when you know they are not going to keep them! And if you keep telling them, then quit getting mad when they tell your secrets!

3. Quit trying to pull people on your journey who don't want to travel with you. Either they believe in you and value you...or they don't!

4. Quit complaining about things you can't and won't change!

5. Quit gossiping about other people! Minding our own business should be a full time job!

6. Quit blaming each other for things that in the big picture aren't going to matter three weeks from now! Talk solutions...and then implement them!

7. Quit eating things you know are not good for you! If you can't quit...eat smaller portions!

8. Quit buying things when we know we can't afford them! If you don't have self control, then quit going to the stores! Quit charging things, especially when you don't NEED them!

9. Quit staying in unhealthy relationships! It is not okay for people to verbally or physically abuse you! So quit lying to yourself! It is not okay to stay in the marriage for the children! Ask them and they will tell you that they really would prefer to see you happy and that the misery you and your spouse/partner are living with is affecting them!

10. Quit letting family members rope you into the drama! -Start telling them you don't want to hear it! Quit spreading the drama! Quit calling other relatives and telling them about your cousin or aunt! Go back to #5 minding your own business should be enough to keep you busy!

11. Quit trying to change people! IT DOESN'T WORK! Quit cussing people out when you know that they are just being the miserable and jealous people that they are!

12. Quit the job you hate! Start pursuing your passion. Find the job that fuels your passion BEFORE you quit!

13. Quit volunteering for things that you aren't getting any personal fulfillment from anymore! Quit volunteering for things and then failing to follow through with your commitment!

14. Quit listening to the naysayers! Quit watching the depressing news if you are going to live in the doom and gloom of it all!

15. Quit making excuses about why you are where you are or why you can't do what you want to do!

16. Quit waiting on others to give you the answers...and start finding the answers for yourself! If what you are doing isn't working for you...then quit it!

17. Quit settling and start making your dreams a reality!- Quit being afraid and START LIVING YOUR LIFE! CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT! If you want something different than what you have had in the past....you must quit doing what you have done before and DO something different! JUST QUIT IT ...... and START DOING something to create the experience you want!

Dr. Andrew Manis: “When are we going to get over it?”

For much of the last forty years, ever since America “fixed” its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, “When are African Americans finally going to get over it?

Now I want to ask: “When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?

Recent reports that “Election Spurs Hundreds’ of Race Threats, Crimes” should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in “Bombingham,” Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than “talk the talk.”

Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.

We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps.

But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.

But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we’re back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we’ve proven what conservatives are always saying -that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that schoolchildren from Maine to California are talking about wanting to “assassinate Obama.”

Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, “How long?”

How long before we white people realize we can’t make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us?

How long until we white people can -once and for all- get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color?

How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior?

How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?

How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin?

How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?

I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners?

How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?

How long before we starting “living out the true meaning” of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that “red and yellow, black and white” all are precious in God’s sight?

Until this past November 4, I didn’t believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don’t believe I’ll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here’s my three-point plan:

First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built I’m going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.

Second, I’m going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.

Third, I’m going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can “in spirit and in truth” sing of our damnable color prejudice,

“We HAVE overcome.”

Andrew Manis is author of Macon Black and White and serves on the steering committee of Macon’s Center for Racial understanding.

It take a Village to protect our President!!!

__________________________

More About Dr. Andrew M. Manis

Andrew Manis

Assistant Professor of History

Author, historian, researcher, lecturer

The author of five books, Dr. Manis is a frequent lecturer and has become one of Central Georgia’s leading authorities on the history of race relations, especially in the South. His most recent book, Macon Black and White: An Unutterable Separation of the American Century, published in 2004 by Mercer University Press and the Tubman African American Museum, earned him the 2005 Georgia Author of the Year (History Division) award, and he was a semifinalist for the 2005 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Manis’ previous book, a biography of Birmingham civil rights leader Fred Shuttlesworth, won a number of prizes, including the 2000 Lillian Smith Book Award. In addition, he has written many magazine articles about religion and religions in the South.

Thank you Renee

THE PLANET MERCURY IN RETROGRADE?

In the last few weeks alone there have been a number of situations that just haven't seemed right.

First, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson had his "you lie" outburst during President Obama's health care reform pitch to Congress, which was seen as strange to both Democrats and Republicans alike.
Then tennis phenom Serena Williams had her foulmouthed rant while playing at the U.S. Open, something we've never seen her do. And most recently, Kanye West transformed into the most hated man in music after stealing country singer Taylor Swift's acceptance speech moment. Not to mention all the random fights, brawls between sports teams, town hall meetings, relationships gone awry( and I may add town hall meeting and the Freedom Works attacks on the president) It lead us to ask the question, what the heck is going really on?

ESSENCE.com talked to astro-numerologist Lloyd Strayhorn to find some answers. He explained why we're ruled by Mercury in retrograde and reveals what we should all keep in mind during this time.What does Mercury in retrograde mean?

It means that the normal course of communication has slowed down. Mercury rules the planet of communication. When it's in retrograde, you're left with mis-communications and misunderstandings. Computers go on the blink and start running slower. If you buy a car, it's not luck that made you pick the worst car on the lot.

Think of it this way—when the local and express trains are traveling side-by-side at that same rate and speed and the local starts to slow down to make it into the next stop, those sitting on the express train look out to see what appears to be the local train moving backwards.

Mercury in retrograde takes place four times this year, which is a rarity. It usually only happens three times a year. It started on the west coast on September 6 at 9:45 P.M. and on the east coast on September 7 at 12:45 A.M. It will end on September 29 at 9:14 A.M. The next one will take place on December 26 at 9:38 A.M., and it will end on January 15, 2010, at 11:52 A.M.

I wouldn't sign any contracts. People usually want to revise or cancel what they've signed during this time. This is when you'll see a lot of people having arguments, like one person is serious but the other is just joking and vice-versa.

Also, lets say you have a very important contact and you're writing down the telephone number. The last four digits might be 1,2,3,4 but you've written down 1,2,4, 3. When you're dealing with important clients or friends, it might seem silly, but ask them to read it back.

If you have an appointment that normally takes you 20 minutes to get to, while we're in retrograde you should definitely add an extra 15 minutes on top of that just in case there's a glitch along the way.

Yes, there are exceptions. If you've been negotiating a deal since April or May and now it's ready to be signed off, go ahead and follow through. That will be fine. But you should not get up tomorrow and say while Mercury is in retrograde that you're going to sign a contract because things are likely to go foul. It's not the best time to start anything new.


It is possible that the recent events involving Kanye West, Serena Williams, Joe Wilson and others are a result of this phenomenon. Mercury is all retrograde here. Interestingly enough, Kanye West is a Gemini born on June 8. Beyoncé is a Virgo. Gemini is ruled by the planet of Mercury as is Virgo. My advice to them both going forward—be careful about what you say.

People need to use this time to learn about patience. Not only being patient but in finding ways to approach things with a more open mind rather than just assume. I say again, this is not the time to assume. We need to communicate openly and not be so reactionary.

More misunderstandings take place when Mercury in retrograde than any other time. Once we're out of it, people won't even know why they've been fighting.

TOGETHER WE CAN

...."We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly...I can never be what I ought to be unless you are what you ought to be." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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TOGETHER WE CAN

PRAYING FOR THE FIELD OF EDUCATION IN U.S. SCHOOLS

It is incredible to learn that there are actually people in this country who have played into the wiles of Evil who have wrongfully accused President Obama of an inappropriate speech even BEFORE the speech had been made to American Schools. What I want to know is how can someone accuse another person of intending so say something BEFORE he has been able to say it. This sounds not only UnAmerican, and Un-Christian, but also un-intelligent and unfair. Some odeous people were ranting, crying, and shouting they would be removing their children from school -- which is always their right. Just go on and do it quietly and keep the foul stench of ignorance and unrighteousness to yourself, I say. Cacausian Presidents -- many before this African-American President == have spoken to America's students without fury. African-American's never have accused them of intended racism, nor socialism; so why are Cacausian's accusing this president of socialism and worse: politicism. Not one of them has been "forced" to display their entire speech in the press to convince the public that what they are saying is only words of encouragement. No fairly elected American President should have to go through that. But I commend our President that he has the humility to go on and do so to quell the evil-nature of the beast we are being confronted with. The rouse that a lesson plan that asks students to write how they would help the President is malicious. As a former teacher who assigned such topics (though usually students had their own options in my class), this is not only innocuous, but typical; and that it really is a question of how would students desire to help the country regardless of who the sitting president happens to be. It is similar to JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country", which was universally considered a highly patriotic statement.

What is more, we are hearing about a minister in his parish in Arizona who has openly said to his congregation that he wants President Obama dead and for his children to be fatherless. This is coming from a man who is supposedly "of the Cloth." Following that, one of his parishioners was seen at a Congressional meeting carrying an automatic rifle. What is this world coming to?!?!?!?!?!!! What are we teaching our children from our actions and words as parents, church, and community. The field of education must help our children make sense of all of this. Not by teaching politics, but in teaching intelligence, and how to read and think for themselves properly. . That is really the basis of it all.

Again, I beg of people all over this country to pray also against the Evil that is being dispersed through distractors and detractors in this country who are crying out against President Obama with false allegations, against a man who is in the uppermost position our nation, who only wants to encourage our nation's students to study and do well in school. So again, I ask the members of this site to come together in prayer in support of the person that God has allowed to be put in charge of this country at this moment in time. I have just heard a newscast that reports former First Lady Laura Bush has spoken out saying that she thinks President Obama is doing a good job, and is praising First Lady Michelle. I give her high commendations for this objective, Christian-like response of speaking out amid the evil-mongering of the Right, including those who are ill-advised of her own party. We need more Christians to speak out in righteous indignation against the discord that is going on through both parties in this country.

So I pray: Lord, God, help this nation to avert the tragedy of racism and divisiveness. Too many of us who believe in God and this nation's democratic principles are silent, when we should be either speaking out in grace and peace or in open prayer. Father, we all need Thee now more than ever! Show us the way for Thy Peace, Joy and Praise to exist righteously among the people of this land. Not arguing aimlessly in ignorance. We all need to study to show ourselves approved, workmen worthy in Thy sight. Father, help more of us who follow Thee rightly to have the courage to speak up and speak out in a peaceful, judicious manner against the evils that so easily beset us. For we know Thou are the God of Peace and not Confusion. Lord, we love Thee, we honor Thee and we adore Thee. And we will praise Thy name forever. Amen.

President Barack Obama

From:	President Barack Obama (info@barackobama.com)
Sent:	Wed 9/09/09 10:57 PM
To:	Ronald White (rgbw46@hotmail.com)

Ronald -- I just finished laying out my plan for health reform at a joint session of Congress. Now, I'm writing directly to you because what happens next is critical -- and I need your help. Change this big will not happen because I ask for it. It can only come when the nation demands it. Congress knows where I stand. Now they need to hear from you. Add your voice: Ask your representatives to support my plan for real health reform in 2009. The heart of my plan is simple: bring stability and security to Americans who already have health insurance, guarantee affordable coverage for those who don't, and rein in the cost of health care. Tonight, I offered a specific plan for how to make it happen. I incorporated the best ideas from Democrats and Republicans to create a plan that's bold, practical, and represents the broad consensus of the American people. We've come closer to real health reform in the last few months than we have in the last 60 years. But those who profit from the status quo -- and those who put partisan advantage above all else -- will fight us every inch of the way. We do not seek that fight, but we will not shrink from it. The stakes are too high to let scare tactics cloud the debate, or to allow partisan bickering to block the path. Your voice, right now, is essential. See my full plan and call on your representatives to support it: http://my.barackobama.com/SupportReform Ours is not the first generation to understand the dire need for health reform. And I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. Thank you, President Barack Obama Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Black Caucus Says Public Option Or Nothing

Black Caucus Says Public Option Or Nothing For Health Care

By News One September 9, 2009

Leading members of the Black Caucus are threatening to bring down healthcare reform if it does not include a strong public option.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said that President Obama will not be able to muscle through a bill that sidesteps a government-run plan.

"[Obama] can't get 218 without a public option," Conyers said on MSNBC last night. "This is simple arithmetic."

Conyers tallied up the progressive members he expects to join him in opposing a plan with no public option.

"There are 83 Progressive Caucus members, 42 Black Caucus members 25 Hispanic Caucus members, 14 Asian Pacific members, and most of them are public option people," Conyers said.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) agreed with Conyers's ominous analysis and warned that House liberals will not settle for the kind of compromise that might be necessary in the Senate.

"You're asking whether or not we will support some other altnerative to public option, and I want to be very, very clear," she told MSNBC's Ed Schultz.

"We've got to have a public option. I will not vote for anything that doesn't have a public option."

At a press conference today on Capitol Hill, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee said there was no room for debate on the issue.

"As members of the Congressional Black Caucus, we are unwavering in our support of a robust public option," she said, according to First Read.

Obama is expected to push for the public option in his address to Congress tonight, but will likely not "draw a line in the sand" by threatening to kill any reform package that lacks such a plan.

ANDY ROONEY AND PRAYER

I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December.

I don't agree with Darwin, but I didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his Theory of Evolution.

Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game. So what's the big deal? It's not like somebody is up there reading the entire Book of Acts. They're just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to grant safety to the players on the field and the fans going home from the game. But it's a Christian prayer, some will argue. Yes, and this is the United States of America, a country founded on Christian principles.

According to our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1. So what would you expect -- somebody chanting Hare Krishna? If I went to a football game in Jerusalem, I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer...

If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer.

If I went to a ping pong match in China, I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha..

And I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit. When in Rome .....




But what about the atheists? Is another argument.

What about them? Nobody is asking them to be baptized. We're not going to pass the collection plate. Just humor us for 30 seconds. If that's asking too much, bring a Walkman or a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession stand. Call your lawyer!

Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do. I don't think a short prayer at a football game is going to shake the world's foundations. Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights.

Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating, to pray before we go to sleep. Our Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying.

God, help us. And if that last sentence offends you, well, just sue me.

The silent majority has been silent too long It's time we tell that one or two who scream loud enough to be heard that the vast majority doesn't care what they want. It is time that the majority Rules!

It's time we tell them, you don't have to pray; you don't have to say the Pledge of Allegiance; you don't have to believe in God or attend services that honor Him. That is your right, and we will honor your right; but by golly, you are no longer going to take our rights away. We are fighting back, and we WILL WIN!

God bless us one and all ... Especially those who denounce Him , God bless America, despite all her faults. She is still the greatest nation of all. God bless our service men who are fighting to protect our right to pray and worship God.






Let's make 2009 the year the silent majority is heard and we put God back as the foundation of our families and institutions . And our military forces come home from all the wars..