December Carnival Submission: What are you thankful and hopeful for?

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December Carnival submission, hopefulness, thankfulness

I really am a simple person at heart.  I need to love and be loved.

So with that in mind I am very thankful for getting engaged this year.  Not only have a found the person I want to and believe with whom I will share the rest of my life, but it is his love and support that allows me to do my thing, and the love and support that I give to him that brings me balance and helps me remember it is not all about me.

I am hopeful that the business seeds I have planted this year will grow beyond my wildest imagination next year and continue to return annually.  Like a lovely fragrant flower, I am hopeful that my business endeavors will not only enhance my surroundings but those of countless others.

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December Carnival Submission:: What are you thankful and hopeful for?

“Great topic – but to be honest…this takes some time to think about…you know, to try to formulate your thoughts correctly.”

This was a comment left on my blog page in response to the December Carnival topic. Does it take that much effort to think about something positive…. to share what we are thankful for and hopeful of? And is this effort and time worth expending? Well it appears the answer is a resounding “yes” and “no” respectively, as only one person submitted a post…. and it wasn’t the commentator above. But here is mine since I choose to end the year on a positive note.

There are 2 things that I want to share that I am thankful for in 2007. One of course is the birth of my son. I was told by many people that my life would change. Intellectually I thought I understood… but I didn’t realize how much of a change. I love him so much. I cannot think of my life without him in it. My priorities, values and beliefs have all shifted…. for the better no doubt.

The second is the formation of the this Afrospear Think Tank page. The collective comprising of the original six started out strong with vision, energy and great ideas. It was ground-breaking in how it galvanized the Afrosphere and Blackosphere. It was unique in it’s attempt to bring together a variety of Afrocentric voices from different countries and continents. It is disappointing that the voices have dissipated…. have gone silent. I thank and commend Adrianne for keeping my hope alive by regularly contributing to this page. I am also thankful for Francis Holland, AAPP, Mark and Bronze Trinity who worked and struggled through the ups and downs to expand the scope of the vision and brought substance to the ideas. This leads into what I am hopeful for…..

I am hopeful that this page will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes. Some others will catch the vision and see the value of contributing to this collective effort.

I am also hopeful that we as people of African descent will move towards emotional and intellectual healing and clarity…. and subsequently create our own ideologies. Not based on a reflection from the opaque and broken mirror of Eurocenric values, judging others based on religious and political beliefs, as well as their materialistic and social status. I am hopeful that we will create ideologies based on integrity, accountablility, resposibility and respect. We will be an example of the beneficial returns of listening intently to those who may disagree with our beliefs and have different values…. so that we can learn through humility (and to be humble).

I am finally both thankful and hopeful because of Anika at Writeblack who took the time and effort to share the five books she is thankful to have read and why (click here).                     

December Carnival: What are you thankful and hopeful for?

It took me a while to be able to sit down and formulate the topic for this month’s carnival topic, but here it is. I wanted come up with something positive to reflect upon, in relation for both the out-going and the upcoming year. Most of us have just come through the Thanksgiving festivities and are now gearing up for the holiday season and new year.

I read a lot of different materials. I read a lot of blogs also…. and there is a dominant  undercurrent of negativity (I know some would call it: controversy) in the media, whether it is print or visual, and especially in the most popular blogs. But it’s understandable because controversy and negativity sells. It get’s the attention. That’s the way our societal mentality has developed…. so we are subconsciously and consciously programmed to focus on the bad…. the negative…. the so-called controversial. So I ain’t mad at yah! However I would like to end the year by asking us here to flip the script, stop drinking the koolaid for a moment, clear our minds and refocus our perspective, and seriously reflect on what are some of the things we are thankful for in 2007, and what are we hopeful for in 2008? What are the achievements in 2007 you are most proud of and what do you hope to achieve in 2008? It can be either personal, as a community you identify with or both…. and please don’t take it as you’re making some sort of new year’s resolution. That’s not the point of this exercise.

Please have the link to your post submitted by next Tuesday 11 December  at Afrospear@hotmail.com, and the carnival date will be Thursday 13 December.

Afrosphere Blogs, Marches, Lawyers and Mainstream Media Pressure Win Victory in the Jena Six Case!

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AfroSpear, AfroSphere, Criminal Justice, Jena 6

RE:  Afrosphere press releases in the Jena Six Case

I am encouraging all of the AfroSpear and afrosphere bloggers who have talked to members of the press about this case to call those contacts and offer a statement for articles about this victory:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In response to the advocacy of AfroSpear and other bloggers, tens of thousands of Black marchers, the mainstream media and intervention by the governor of Louisiana, the district attorney in the Jena Six case has reduced the requested penalty from 22 years to 18 months in the prosecution  of Mychal D. Bell.

1).  “AfroSpear bloggers and our audiences will continue to assert our role as forceful advocates of equal justice for Blacks in the American justice system.”

2.  “Although the charges against Mychal D. Bell have been reduced, it still is not equal justice when a Black student receives an eighteen month prison sentence while the white students are not penalized at all for their offenses.”

3).  “We will continue to insist that ALL ADULT AND JUVENILE CHARGES AGAINST ALL 6 DEFENDANTS  be dropped and foreclosed for the future, and that de jure and de facto segregation be ended at Jena High School.”

4).  “This victory shows that Blacks armed with blogs can confront injustice and win. Our readers, those who marched to Jena, oppose unequal justice in Jena and everywhere such outrages occur.”

5).   “We have to ask ourselves whether the final result in this criminal case is what it would have been if Mychal D. Bell were white. We know that it isn’t.  Black young people in Jena should not go to jail while white students commit the same acts with impunity.”6).  “This is still not equal justice, because white students who committed armed assault, and terroristic acts in this case still have not been charged at all.”   (One white person confronted Black students with a firearm at a variety store, and white students hung three nooses on school grounds and were not criminally charged at all.)
Sincerely,

Francis L. Holland, Esq.
francislholland@yahoo.com

NOTE: The purpose of the Black Accused Support Groups is to publicize cases of unjust treatment of Blacks at the hands of legal systems while building on this advocacy to promote fundamental and systemic change, so that Blacks will, for the first time, be treated equally before the law.