PEARLS OF WISDOM FOR RITA

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

PEARLS OF WISDOM FOR RITA

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Rita, we're very dear friends, and I’m noticing that people who I thought would be around forever are dropping like flies. While I fully expect to outlive everybody I know, just in case I’m gone tomorrow, these are a few things I want you to always remember:

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*Ignorance is the root of all evil, because it is ignorance that gives money priority.

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*A conservative is one who is dedicated to "conserving" America's racist traditions.
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*A compassionate conservative is one who cuts your throat with tears in his eye.
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*"Faith" is choosing to believe in what man says over the common sense that you KNOW God gave you.
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*Religion is the belief in man over God.
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*A man of God is a pimp who only works on Sundays.
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*A politician is one who has chosen to embrace a life of self-service, lying and deceit.
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*Patriotism is the belief that God loves the lies that we tell more than the lies of others.
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* Think as a way of life, not just as a hobby.
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* Never think about what all the people are doing, think about all the things they are NOT doing.

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*You must recognize who you are, to visualize who you can be.
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*Never seek recognition. Always seek excellence, and allow recognition to seek you.

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*You are what you think, so if you refuse to think, you're nothing.
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*Seek to own the race track, not to become the horse.
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*Waiting on circumstances to make you happy will insure an unhappy existence. So be happy now, regardless of your situation.
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*The only mature form of competition is to compete against who you were the day before.
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*Never give anyone else's ability to think priority over your own - including mine.

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*Never become so enraptured by the thoughts of others that you fail to formulate your own.
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*Heroes are for kids, because kids don't have bills to pay.
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*Seek to become your own hero, and never allow anyone to remove your cape.

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*An unexamined life is a waste of skin.

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*Ignore hostility and haterism, because they’re the product of weak and frustrated minds.

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*There are only two kinds of people in this world - good people, and bad people - and ignorance is the dividing line between the two.

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*Without mistakes you would never grow, so you should never mourn your mistakes; you should celebrate your growth. 

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*We can't out-scream 'em because they control the media, and we can't out-fight 'em because they control the military and police, so our only option is to out-think 'em, and we can do that if we'd just come together and think as a class.
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*Efficient thought requires that you first, see life as it is, and only then, as you would have it.
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*Intelligence is not static. It rises to accommodate your level of curiosity and your desire for accomplishment.
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*The subconscious mind doesn't deal in self-assessment, so what you tell it you are, it believes, and begins to work under that assumption.  So always think of yourself as the world-class diva that you are, and never doubt yourself for a second.
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*Don't tell people who you are, show 'em.
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*Friends are at their best while embracing your mutual failure as their comfort zone, but if they succeed beyond you, you’ll soon find that many weren’t friends at all.
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*True love is always having your lover's back, and knowing you don't have to worry about your own.
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*Some of the greatest minds I've ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lot of ghetto liquor stores, so never discount their wisdom.
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*Never confuse credentials and the sign on a person's door with intelligence.
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*Never assume that an academic receipt for knowledge is valid.
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*Before you point your finger at someone else, always smell it first.
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*Adversity is the Harvard University of the hood, and it's graduates are just as distinguished.
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*Wit without wisdom is a waste. 
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*Man's innate thirst for knowledge will someday overwhelm his passionate lust for stupidity, so remain optimistic.
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*Show me a man who believes that Moses parted the Red Sea, and I'll show you a man whose grip on reality can't be relied upon, so season the words of ALL fanatics with a box of salt.
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*There's no such thing as a walkin' dead man or a talkin' snake.
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*More often than not, the happiest moments in your life didn't cost you a dime, so remember that while seeking wealth and fame.
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*Every experience is a source of knowledge, so having to endure adversity makes you more, rather than less.
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*You should take great pride in being the product of adversity, because your mere survival provides you with unassailable credentials, and it adds lyrics to your song.
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*If one can’t find happiness in poverty, wealth will prove to be an ineffective mentor.
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*We say that we’re Black and we’re proud, but for far too many of us, that's only until we escape the adversity of being Black.
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*We must buy a license to marry, but we're free to hate with impunity. Consider that.
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*Always follow truth, regardless to where it leads, or whose ox it gores.
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*A personal observation: Older women aren't quite as frisky as young ones, but at least I have someone to talk to when I'm done.
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*Another personal observation: Older women are capable of stimulating the mind as well as the body, so always celebrate your growing maturity. 
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*The perfect woman: One who only tells me to go to Hell half the time.
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*A personal epiphany: A man knows he's aging when he's got the hots for the lady in the Depends commercial.
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Eric

RITA EDMOND

AN APPEAL TO PRESERVE OUR CULTURE
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2017/06/an-appealto-preserveour-culture.html

Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING - BLACK MOSES

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Dr. Boyce Watkins Announces His Withdrawal from Cornel West Controversy

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree 

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Dr. Boyce Watkins Announces His Withdrawal from Cornel West Controversy

DR. BOYCE WATKINS

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In the recent video, "Dr. Boyce: My Two Cents on Michael Eric Dyson," released on Black Like Moi!, Dr. Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University announced his retirement from the Dr. Cornel West controversies. In the announcement Boyce indicated that "this battle between black scholars was not productive" - a point that I disagree with, by the way.

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But even as Watkins was walking away, it was clear that he just didn’t get it. Watkins indicated that the criticism of Cornel West based on his "critique" of President Obama was unfair, and everyone was jumping on West without examining the validity of West’s criticism.
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In response, what Watkins is clearly not getting is that the piling on directed at West is his own fault. Contrary to the claims by most of West’s defenders, the outrage directed toward West had nothing to do with his so-called critique of President Obama. On the contrary, West is being criticized because his comments toward Obama wasn’t a disciplined and scholarly critique.
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Cornel West is the victim of his own serious miscalculation. Being the publicity whore that he is, West thought that he was going to be greeted with a standing ovation for his courageous willingness to stand up to power. But he made the serious error of engaging in a gross, street-level slander of the first Black President of the United States, and then repeated the offense in his comments toward a high-profile Black female scholar, Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry. That didn’t constitute standing up to power -what it actually was, was an arrogant grandstand play and selfish attempt to manipulate the Black community that seriously backfired.

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If West had been a White man with the audacity to called the president a Black mascot and puppet, and Dr. Harris-Perry a liar and a fraud, we would have called him a virulent racist who was grossly disrespecting the Black community - and in spite of the fact that West is Black, that’s exactly what we did in this case. After all, since Black people are a product of the very same racist environment as White people, many of us are just as racist toward other Blacks as any Hillbilly, and West’s behavior clearly demonstrates that fact.

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So again, what brought many of us into the conversation wasn’t just a scholarly critique of President Obama. We were enraged by the hypocrisy and blatant disrespect embedded in what amounted to Cornel West’s racist slander of the first Black President of the United States. Even though West has made a career of telling anyone who will listen how much he "loves his people" - in fact, he generally prefaces his virulent comments with the hypocritical endearment of "my good brother" - but he then went on to say things that were so disrespectful of President Obama, and later, Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, that it carried the obvious implication that it’s alright to disrespect these people because, after all, beneath their titles they’re just two more insignificant Pickaninnies. I don't recall West ever showing such blatant disrespect toward Bush or Cheney.
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Thus, it’s my personal opinion that both Tavis Smiley and Cornel West (I mention them both since they seem to be attached at the hip) are two petty, self-serving egomaniacs who specialize in putting their own personal agendas ahead of what’s in the best interest of both the Black community, and the nation.
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Clear evidence of that is the fact that they both know full well that the GOP used the Iraq War to ravage the U.S. Treasury in order to justify attacking the entitlement programs put in place by the New Deal. Abolishing the New Deal has been the GOP’s main reason for being for over 70 years now. But the programs that they’d like to abolish - such as Social security, Medicare, and the Fair Labor standards Act - are much too popular among the American people to attack head on. So they purposely tried to bankrupt the nation as a pretext to preclude the funding, and/or, support of these programs. That agenda, along with regaining power, gives the GOP a vested interest in keeping America miserable, angry, and poor. So if Tavis and West were really concerned about the poor, minorities, and middle class, that’s what they’d be ranting about instead of helping the GOP bad-mouth Obama.
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They’re out there constantly criticizing Obama in spite of the fact that the GOP is clearly out to destroy the poor, minorities, and middle class in this country. So the obvious question is, if Obama’s so bad, who do they suggest that we vote for, Romney - a man who enjoys firing people, and think of families being put out of their homes as simply collateral damage in the further enrichment of Wall Street? Santorum - Who wants to abolish public education, thinks higher education is snobbish, and wants a government small enough to crawl up a woman’s uterus? Or maybe West thinks we should vote for Gingrich, who wants to fire the heads of households and put their kids to work for slave wages.
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But instead of fighting these domestic enemies of the American way of life, and educating the public to their agenda, Tavis and West are going around telling any and everybody who’ll listen that we should be so disenchanted with Obama - who they portray as the Bogeyman - that we should elect the Devil. West did the very same thing when he teamed up with Ralph Nader in the 2000 election and helped get George Bush elected. How did that help either the poor, middle class, or Black community? It didn’t. In fact, it’s the very reason that we’re in the situation that we’re in today, and that West is now trying to blame Barack Obama for not correcting fast enough.
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But if you bring up that point to the Nader/West supporters, they’ll immediately begin to obfuscate and engage in intellectual gymnastics in an attempt to avoid responsibility for the horrific fate that they brought upon this country. They’ll say things like, "It’s not our fault that Gore lost. He just didn’t fight hard enough for a recount." But by using such arguments what they’re actually saying is, "Gore just didn’t fight hard enough to undo the damage that we’d done." Because the bottom line is this – Gore lost the 2000 election to Bush in Florida by 537 votes, and the Nader/West coalition peeled off 97,488 votes from Gore in Florida alone. So don’t take my word for it – you do the math. And the unbelievable thing is, West is currently trying to team up with Nader again to undermine the people in this election!
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But before West supporters try to characterize me as an Obama cheerleader, I’d like to point out that just a cursory Google search will show that I’ve written several articles critical of Obama. But when I’m critical of the president, I make it issue-specific, I'm always respectful, and I never lodge a blanket attack against the president’s overall character. Thus, I only have one agenda, and that’s to promote truth, common sense, and logical, independent thinking. And in that regard, I think that it is incumbent upon everyone with common sense to do everything they can to keep the GOP out of office. Because, entrusting our nation and economy to the Republican Party would be like entrusting our children to convicted child molesters.
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So in closing, I’d like to say to Dr. Watkins that I am indeed gratified to see him extricate himself from this debate, because while I don’t always agree with him, I’ve always seen him as a sincere advocate of the people. But I’d also like to point out to him how important it is not to confuse the public rant that West lodged against President Obama with a critique. You can’t simply call a person a hypocritic, egomaniacal, lunatic, and call that a critique. In a critique you have to explain why you’re call him a lunatic. Thus, with respect to my good brother, Dr. Cornel West, this, is a critique.

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In Defense Of My Stance Against Cornel West

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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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The Hood Rat

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

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THE HOOD RAT

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Baby,
I’m sure you know that I love you.
You’re everything I need.
You fit the bill of all my desires,
a perfect match for all of my dreams.
From the moment I first laid eyes on you,
You were everything I craved -
that luscious vision from across the tracks,
that delicate flower, beyond my blade.

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But what you ask is foreign to me.

You need something that I’m not.

You said, just tweak my nature a little bit,

and you’ll give everything you’ve got.

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But that "tweak" you need is who I am -

it’s my essence, can’t you see?

How can you speak of loving my soul,

but, not the hood rat that makes me, me?

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While "hood rat" may seem trite to you,

it’s the very essence of my being.

So forget about what other’s say,

here’s what it means to me:

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I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of hell,

yet, managed to survive,

well educated and fully functional,

when I came out the other side.

I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard -

because knowledge, I found, was free.

But they’ll never obtain the lessons I’ve learned -

or my knowledge of adversity.

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While the "elite" may have heard a mournful Trane,

or Miles muted on a Summer night,

not in the context of hunger and pain,

or hopelessness, hatred, and blight.

*           

So while I've lived the life of a hood rat,

I’ve reaped a knowledge that money can't buy; 

a knowledge passed on to my son and daughter,

which has greatly enhanced their lives.

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Thus, I wouldn't change a thing in my life -

I’ve faced hell and passed the test.

I have a PhD in adversity, and

it's made me much more,
rather than less.

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So unlike the people at Harvard and Yale, who
try to buy intellectual clout,

they only study the genius of Miles and Trane,

while I'm who they’re talkin' about.

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So when snobs try to slur me as "just a hood rat,"

I say, "thank you," and don’t take offense.

I take great pride in surviving the travails in my life -

That’s what gives me my confidence.

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The Ivy League degrees of those of means

are only paper compared to mine;

they merely have a "receipt" for knowledge,

while mine is ETCHED in my mind.

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I can TEACH philosophy to Aristotle and Plato

with the adversity that I’ve endured,

and any snob who seeks to match my wit,

will come up short, and

that’s for sure.

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Snobs walk about quoting Socrates and such,

through their "education" they are prone;

but while they’re spewing the thoughts of various dead men,

I spend my time developing my own.

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We should never give the thoughts of ANY man

priority over our own;

You must collect the facts, and think for yourself,

that’s where Harvard and Yale has gone wrong.
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Whether they be preacher, politician, potentate or monk,
whatever their philosophy or point of view,
God didn't give them anything,
that he failed to also bestow upon you. 

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And being seen as a hood rat has its advantages -
especially against racists of limited wit;

I simply quietly wait for their condescension,

then show ‘em that they ain’t shit.

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God made birds to fly, fish to swim,

and man to think, that's the key.

So any man who claims superiority 
will have to PROVE his wit to me.
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Thus, knowledge is the key to set us free -

it doesn’t matter what the people say,

and there’s nothing more formidable than

a knowledgeable hood rat, and

that’s what you’re looking upon today.
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Yet, these are the things you want me to purge -

you want me to spurn the life I’ve led,

but I’m sorry, my love,
as much as I adore you,

the soul of a hood rat is my edge.

*

Wattree

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A MESSAGE TO THE HOOD

Some people take umbrage with my defining myself as a hood rat. They say that by doing so, I’m not only demeaning myself, but I’m also demeaning other Black people in the process. But people who think like that are violating one of the most important principles in life - that we should always seek to be independent thinkers. That entails being self-defining, never giving the thoughts of others priority over your own, and never allowing others to define your terms.

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Thus, people who see the phrase "hood rat" as demeaning have been brainwashed. They no longer think for themselves. They've allowed the attitude of others to take priority over their own, and they've also allowed society to define their terms. As a result, they've embraced the belief that people with their background are somehow less than others.
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I take pride in challenging that contention because the fact is, I grew up in the hood, so that's what makes me who I am, and since God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man think, in order for anybody to contend that I'm less than human, they're going to have to demonstrate that they can out-think me. You see, it's not enough to merely SAY, "I'm Black and I'm proud." We must put enough work into our intellectual development to say it, and mean it. Therefore, I proudly embrace the phrase hood rat as symbolic of my challenge to society to come SHOW me that I'm inferior, since it's my contention that it's society that's guilty of flawed thinking, not I.
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A perfect example of the flaw in society's thinking can be found in the fact that attendant to the negativity that society assigns to the term "rat" is the false assumption that a rat is something nasty, and therefore, beneath man. But the fact is, man himself is the nastiest animal on Earth. While a rat may leave droppings in his environment, and one might consider that nasty, man is so prolific with his own droppings - in the ocean, in the air, in space, and within the Earth itself - that he threatens the very survival of everything on the planet. So what’s nastier, a rat, or man?
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That illustrates why it’s so important to clean man’s droppings from our minds, and become independent thinkers. Because much of what we think of as true, is actually the corruption of truth that we’ve been taught by other men in order to promote their own self-interest.
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So while others are scrambling among themselves in an attempt to service their corruption and greed, it presents the Black community with the perfect opportunity to spend that same time becoming independent thinkers, and reassessing the mores that we've inherited from this corrupt society. Thereafter, we should replace the meaningless pursuit of the "American Dream" (bling), with the pursuit of character, wisdom, and knowledge. Because since knowledge is power, one invariably leads to the other, and much, much more.
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I’ve been fortunate enough to obtain a small measure of the American dream, but it was certainly not as a result of any kind of pursuit. I only stumbled upon it while on a mission to educate myself, because along with education comes skills. But also during my educational process, I found that what I was actually looking for was not so much the American dream, but happiness, and self-fulfillment. Yes, I wanted to live a comfortable life, but along with a TRUE education, you tend to develop a new definition of what that entails. And one of the things that I learned was that the American dream is only the illusion of happiness, since the mere acquisition of "things" can bring you neither happiness, nor fulfillment. True happiness and fulfillment can only be found in becoming the best that you can be. Our failure to understand that is the primary problem that we have as a nation - we're in much hotter pursuit of riches than we are of character.
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I wasted literally all of my teenage years - those years between 12 and 19 years of age, when I should have been educating myself - running the street. I spent that time dropping out of school, going in and out of various institutions, and using any kind of drug that I could get my hands on.
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But fortunately, I was arrested as an adult (at 19 years-old), and an insightful cop and a benevolent judge joined forces to get me to agree to go into the military (the army, I thought) in return for not being sent to prison, and the promise of expunging my record if I came out with an honorable discharge. Naturally, I eagerly agreed. But it was only later, to my complete shock and horror, did I learn that they had also managed to get the Marine Corps to ignore all of its regulations against accepting an illiterate delinquent. But once I got in there I found out why - they needed a warm body to use as a close combat dummy in order to train the "REAL MARINES."
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But once the marines finished showing me what a gangster REALLY was, they had me take the GED, and to everybody's amazement, I did really well on it. Although I did a lot of guessing, I scored much higher than anyone expected, especially myself (I'm still convinced it was a fluke). So they sent me to the Army/Navy Academy to get an actual diploma and further my educational development (I'll be eternally grateful to them for that).
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But fluke or not, that's where I learned a couple of very valuable lessons - you are what you think, and that knowledge is power. Instead of being called dummy, I was making a fortune writing love letters for other marines, and later I started working for my  battalion commander (who later became the commanding general of Camp Pendleton), and every word that came out of his mouth flowed from this "hood rat's" pen. I did all of his writing, including the officers' fitness reports - I was his "Radar O'Reilly."  It was the worst kept secret in the unit, that I was writing the fitness reports on my superior officers and the commander was simply reading and signing off on them. That gave me a lot of clout, a tremendous amount of clout ("Come on, Wattree! Why be so formal? There's no one around, so spare me the Captain crap. Just call me Larry.").  I used to drink Scotch at the time (I drink gin now, when my woman ain't lookin'), and between trying to squeeze information out of me, and trying to get on my good side, those officers used to keep me in Scotch. They used to come by my personal quarters at night, and every time one would come by he'd have a 5th of Scotch with him. My quarters looked like a liquor store.
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Then one night the commander showed up in my quarters - which he had allowed me to setup in one of the back offices of the battalion library - with two documents.  One, alerting the unit that they had just been redeployed overseas, for a second time; the other, was an early discharge for me. He said, "You're outta here. Go educate yourself." I was delighted, and by that time, college was just a matter of staying awake in school, and filling in the dots.
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During my time in the Marine Corps I had fallen in love with knowledge, and I also began to realize that since what I loved most was free, it couldn’t be denied me. And as I became increasingly more independent of thought, a couple of other things also began to come into focus. First, contrary to our national values, the only mature and productive form of competition is to compete against the person that you were the day before. And secondly, I learned that the only true road to perfect happiness and fulfillment is to dedicate your life to becoming your own hero.
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That’s the knowledge that I would like to pass along to my brothers and sisters in the hood. Because our failure to understand those two very fundamental facts are not only the source of most of our misery, but to 99% of all of our problems in general. We rightly complain that we’re deprived of a level playing field, so why not dedicate ourselves to the acquisition of knowledge to equalize that situation? We should make knowledge the new "soul." The very same brilliance that went into making a Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, and Areatha Franklin, can be redirected toward Math, Science, and technology - and by the way, that's the message that people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West should be preaching, instead of helping to elect Republicans by attacking our first Black president.
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So yes, I’m a hood rat, and I never let myself forget it. But I’m a hood rat with the understanding that the White man's water is no wetter than our own, and his knowledge is no more knowledgeable. In addition, since every experience in life is a source of knowledge, the experience of overcoming the adversity that we’ve endured as hood rats makes us more, rather than less. It's that very knowledge that Obama is killing them with in Washington as we speak. They could probably handle him if he was dealing with them using the knowledge that he pick up at Harvard, because they went there too, but he's whipping their natural asses with a source of knowledge that they know absolutely nothing about - the knowledge he obtained trying to survive as a Black man in America. That's a knowledge that's unique to us.
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Thus, the bottom line is this - with very few exceptions, we cannot depend on others to help us, Black or White. We're engaged in a class war, and it's everybody for themselves, so we've got to combine the unique knowledge that we've gained in the hood, with the education and wisdom that we MUST obtain thereafter, to become the masters of our own fate.  In short, KNOWLEDGE, is the key to our survival. PERIOD.
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Think about that.

*

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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WHITNEY HOUSTON - HOMEWARD BOUND

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

WHITNEY HOUSTON

 

HOMEWARD BOUND
*

Open your arms, dear Lord,
on this sacred day,
for your battered young angel
is well on her way.

She carried out your mission,
and now that she's done,
she's on her way home,
for the rest that she's won.
*
Celebrated, honored,
then criticized at times, 
as she carried out your mission
to open our eyes.
Born to suffer,
this great lady of song,
to deliver your message
of how life can go wrong.

"I’m every woman -
it’s all in me,"
A message to victims,
too challenged to see.

*
Then,
Like nothing we’d ever seen before,
She made her departure
for Heaven’s door.
With the rich and the famous
all gathered around,
her chariot arrived,
and she was homeward bound.

*
Dressed like a princess,
all in white;
Her beauty aglow
on this sacred night.
Young and vibrant,
All sickness now gone;
No more
Suffering or pain,
As she rose to move on.
*

Her chariot was swift,
with six
beautiful white horses,
and
the thunder roared
as her chariot departed.
With one final glance
at the ones that she loved,
she was whisked
through the clouds
to her new home above.

*

We’ll miss

her warm smile,

in our own selfish way,

but you’re sweet baby girl

will be back home today.

*

Thank you, Whitney

And We'll Always Love You

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Blakey and the Boys

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Blakey And The Boys
(A Personal Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers) 

Blakey and the boys,
They could really bring the house down,

Blakey and the boys,
They could make you swing and sway.

Blakey and the boys,
Smokers from a different era,

Blakey and the boys,
Only they could play their way.

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Freddie, shorter, Curtis, and  Cedar Walton,
Jymie Merritt thumpin' his bass and steppin’,
Blakey and the boys could really swing.
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Blakey and the boys,
They could really bring the house down.

Blakey and the boys,
The brothers sure could play.

Blakey and the boys,
They brought 'Along Came Betty.'

Blakey and the boys,
Nothin' like 'em 'round today.
.
Morgan, Benny Golson, and Bobby Timmons,
And Blakey with his sweet stix a swingin’,
Blakey and the boys, could do their thing.
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR - BLACK MOSES

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: 

A MAN WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

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A SLAVE'S PRAYER
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 I was stole from Eden, an innocent soul,
crossed seas and centuries, chained and cold;
My mother was raped and beaten to death,
my daddy was sold, and my sister is kept.
How they praise God and brag dat they free,
and sing songs about freedom, 'din look upon me?
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I was chained to 'dis land, 'dis "Land of the free,"
by people with a God, who sho must can't see.
But a change is a comin', Tho I won't no mo be,
but when it get here, Dear Lord,
please let my soul see.
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THE JOURNEY
 

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THE MAN

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The United States of America has honored only four men in history by declaring the day of their birth a national day of celebration - Jesus Christ of Nazareth, widely accepted as the father of all mankind; President George Washington, the father of this nation; Christopher Columbus, the man credited with discovering the Americas; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose forebears were brought to these shores in chains.
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That says a lot about this humble Black man.  In spite of the fact that Dr. King began his life burdened by the inherent disadvantages of being blessed with Black skin in a Jim Crow environment, his words, his intellect, and his deeds so inspired the heart and soul of humanity that America saw fit to set aside a day for this nation - this world - to thank God that he was allowed to walk among us. His was a soul with such strength that it served to lift the rest of mankind to a higher level of  humanity. That's not only a testament to one Black man's ability to pull himself up from the dust of his humble beginnings, it's also a testament to the capacity of his people to meet the test of greatness.
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When one considers that even today some are engaged in a raging controversy over the intellectual capacity of the African American people, it only further emphasizes Dr. King s stature in this society, which speaks with flawless eloquence to the boundless potential of the African American intellect.
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Admitted to Morehouse College at 15 years of age and a Nobel Peace Prize winner by age 34, Dr. King rose to become one of the most honored men in this country's history. By his untimely death at age 39, it was clear that his was to be one of those rare voices that would speak to all men, for all time. Long after the bones of his detractors have turned to dust, this unassuming young man's name will continue to reverberate throughout the ages.
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That was the legacy of Martin Luther King. Through his moral strength and tenacity he demonstrated to America that the Black man was much more than merely a beast of burden, and through his intellect, and his ability to personify all of black America, he inspired the world to embrace his cause. Thus, the legacy of Martin Luther King - like the man himself - stands as a monument to the depth and breadth of the African American culture.
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Too often we focus on the most negative aspects of the African American, while we totally ignore the great strides that are being made by the vast majority of Black people. We pay special attention to the relatively few violent Black criminals, while we ignore the millions of Black law abiding citizens; we focus on the undereducated in the Black community, while we turn a blind eye to the hordes of African American students and professionals who are flooding our colleges and universities; we've become experts on those African Americans who are a burden on our society, while we remain blissfully ignorant of the multitude of African American doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists, laborers, musicians, writers, architects, homemakers - and yes, now a president - who contribute their unique talents to making this a better world.
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These are the people - the people who Martin cherished - who we truly honor in any tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King.  Because as we honor Martin and Malcolm, and all of the other nameless Black heroes who have struggled, and in many cases given their lives to move our people forward, we cannot help but honor ourselves.  That is the true meaning of Martin's legacy.
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In any tribute to Dr. King, we also celebrate a new culture - a culture conceived in pain, delivered into turmoil, and baptized in a sea of deprivation. We celebrate a culture that is only now in the Spring of its development, yet, a culture that has managed to combine the wisdom, strength, and spirituality of its African origins, with the sophistication, knowledge, and creative intellect of its new found home.
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So on this day, let us also gaze upon the mountain top - inspired by the knowledge that our reach no longer exceed our grasp.  Let us dedicate our lives to leaving the world a little better than we found it. And while we take a furtive look back - let it not be in anger, but with resolve, and a sense of pride at what we've overcome. And during this time, let us take at least one moment to thank God that Martin, this humble and spiritual Black man, was allowed to walk among us.
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And finally, let us take a moment to listen to our hearts, as they quietly murmur, free at last!--every man, woman and child. Free at last!--from the sandy beaches of California to the shores of Maine.  Free At Last!--from America’s shores to the tiniest village in Zimbabwe. THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, WE'RE FREE AT LAST!

"WAKE, MY CHILD, AND BEHOLD . . . "

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I NOW STAND FIRM

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I now stand firm. My conviction of the power of knowledge is the platform upon which my podium rests. I stand firm, strong, and now free. Free of anger. Free of self-delusion. Free of the folly of empty vanity, and free of the pernicious bane of meaningless pride without substance.

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I stand free to look upon the eyes of other men, reflecting dignity over sorrow, and accomplishment over pain; I stand with a burning passion, fueled by the very flame that forged ancestral shackles,with a deep sense of pride and a pride that flows deep.

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I now stand erect. The steel that once degraded my father, that chained him in bondage to this bitter Earth, now reinforce my character, making me more, rather than less; and the blood and sweat that once drenched his brow, now rage with resolve and a sense of purpose within my burning breast.

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I now stand as a new being - neither simply African, nor simply American, but a hybrid forced to transcend the sum of my parts; no longer simply African, since being torn away from the African motherland to suffer and toil in the fields of America, and more than simply American, after being forced to be more than simply American just to survive within the bowels of this prosperous land.

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Thus, I stand now armed - armed with the wisdom of deprivation, the courage of my conviction, and a deep conviction of my courage; and fortified - with the confidence of a survivor, the empowerment of knowledge, and a ravishing hunger for greatness.

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I now stand the product of love, struggle, and sacrifice; a witness to man's inhumanity to man, and a monument to the hopes and dreams of a million slaves.

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I now stand embraced by my creator, as God now smiles upon my people.

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Yes, I Now Stand Firm.

Firm, Black, and Free.



 

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I've Known Bullshit: A Political Commentary (Reprise)

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

I've Known Bullshit

In
Every newspaper, every nook,
I see blatant bullshit wherever I look.
Prolific bullshit, 
pro and con,
Man deceiving man, 
like human pawns.
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We
Bullshit our children 
whenever we can
On the role of government, 
and the sojourn of man;
We bullshit the people 
regarding their lot,
While failing to address 
the conservative plot.
And now I hear even Santa's a myth,
So even my mother got caught up in this.
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So,
My threshold for Bullshit is extremely low,
I sense him wherever he hides;
While Langston Hughes has known his rivers,
I've known Bullshit in every disguise:
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I've 
Known bullshit lovers of innocent women,
Who fades with a piece a ass,
I've known bullshit preachers who loved the Lord,
But not nearly as much as your cash;
I've known bullshit politicians, 
who "Just want to help" 
Right up til they get your vote,
Then after reciting their bullshit oath
can't wait to start cuttin' your throat.
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Yes,
Bullshit's a stalker who seems to haunt me;
I see him wherever I go--
On the street, in the store,
In the eyes of my lover,
Though I try to deny that it's so.
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I used to 
Simply shut my eyes, 
so I wouldn't see him no more,
But my ears betrayed me and--
Knock, Knock, Knock--
"It's Bullshit. Open the door!"
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So
I came up with a plan to take a stand, and 
Confront Bullshit wherever he hides;
Like the terrorist he is, you must weed him out,
By confronting him where he resides.
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I learned
That shit will be shit because shit is shit's nature,
So it's really not Bullshit's fault;
It's the fault of the people for embracing ignorance,
For the enemy of Bullshit is thought.

Only you, can take care of you.

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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