It Has Been a Long Time….

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Now on to the reading.

Yup it has been a minute. There has been a ton load going on but I thank God that I am in a place to be able to take my views and place it here. So let me get started on a few views.

Boy did the President fire up everyone with his comments at the National Prayer Breakfast. Yup, that is the way to fire ’em up!!!! Compare ISIS to the Crusades. I read the text of his speech and I do understand where he is coming from in his comparison. We Christians tend to get nervous when the faith is put on blast like that but can we take a larger look at the situation at hand? (This is the part of the conversation where I am speaking to people with a functioning brain; one that is not spouting off stuff they heard on TV, the radio or some fringe piece on Facebook.) From a foreign policy stand point, what can the US do? I mean we are already leading a coalition in pinpoint airstrikes on known ISIS hangouts. But bombing can only do so much. The turning point I believe has happened with the Jordanian fighter pilot was burned alive, in a cage on live TV. Not only has that angered the people of Jordan, ISIS is now being isolated by most of the clerics, even the “off the reservation” ones. We, the US, are going to be able to help get rid of ISIS but it is going to take the people of the region; fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, to take back their sacred doctrine. Islam could be at the edge of a cliff, setting up for a fall that it can never recover from. It is worth watching how the people react and how things go. But as Americans, we won’t. We will do what we normally do and debate about trivial things like if restaurant workers should wash their hands or not.

Some personal thoughts. 2015 has brought my household to a very interesting place. Being in corporate America, I thank God every day for my job. It gets tough to continue to work at a company that easily throw people’s’ jobs away. Yet I am still here. I am starting to really see that maybe, just maybe, becoming a free agent may be the best thing for my family. I mean, in my 19 years, I have lost, read that, lost salary. Due to cuts and lack of raises, I now get paid like someone 5 years on the job instead of 19. This has thrown me for a loop. So in the midst of my confusion, I lay all this down to the Lord to guide my steps. This year is going to be exciting and big. I just have to have the stomach, faith and testicular fortitude to trust God in what direction He takes me. More on this later.

This is just my .02 cents. Have a great week.

The 19 August 2014 Episode of “All I Can Do is Shake My Head” The Ferguson Edition

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Now on to the reading.

I know it has been a minute since I have done any writing and I admit a lot has gone on with me. I have stayed mostly quiet on social media, just observing and listening. This situation in Ferguson has brought on much prayer and thought. So, I thought it would be a good idea for me to share those thoughts here. (I will wonder about that after I publish this…)

My take here is from a personal level only. I am very angry at the situation in Ferguson, MO. Just like I was upset and the untimely choking out of Eric Gardner in NYC and the other unarmed brothers who have died from the hand of the police. For my Caucasian brothers and sisters, I really want you to understand this. There is a history, a track record, a running tally of these incidents over the past 50-100 years. My father made it a point to teach me how to speak and act around police officers during stops. My grandfather spoke of friends of his that went missing after traffic stops and never to be found. In the eyes of the black community, the police can be construed as another gang. The simple solution is this, when mistakes like this are made, some one needs to be arrested and tried. But it goes deeper…

My son in laws are in their early 20s. Shacora, my oldest daughter, is currently in the police academy. I also have a grandson. I worry about my daughters’ husbands because they could be the next Mike Brown. I worry about my oldest because she has to make the decision in the heat of the moment, the moment of truth if you will, to use deadly force. I worry about my grandson and what he will face. Then to top it off, I am not exempt either. The wrong officers, the women in my family could be widows. The wrong situation, we are without our daughter. All because of years of institutionalized hate and fear. Yes I said it, fear.

Then to add to all of this, we are witnessing a hypocrisy of monumental proportions. Let me call you out. 1) All of you wrapped up in the quilt of the 2nd amendment. So it wasn’t cool when the Feds rolled onto Clive Bundy’s property but you can dig the idea of the police, acting like an armed militia, rolling in the streets. Let that happen in Highland Park neighborhood of Dallas and I bet every 2nd amendment jabroni will come out of the woodwork. 2) The current Hip Hop Nation. You bunch of fools. You bunch of minstrels. While you are dancing the proverbial jig on BET and rappin about nothing, your generation is getting gunned down in the streets. You fools didn’t learn anything from the elders. You are supposed to be the voice of the people. LOL You are nothing but a joke now and the culture is suffering. The people are suffering and have no voice. Who cares about any hip hop beef, who cares about Hip Hop wives of Atlanta, our people are dying. 3) The black church. Boy do we have a hill to climb huh….We lost the ear of the people because of years of having to trudge through hucksters, schisters and crooks in church leadership. We lost the ear of the people because while we were entertaining in the temple, the people outside suffered. Telling people how the “fire shut in your bones” made you feel, didn’t feed that hungry family next door. We lost the ear of the people when we traded the Gospel for being “Hood Superstars.” This is why when we as clergy show up to protests like this, not many are being taken seriously. The outlets that the people traditionally had have been sold off, corrupted, or just flat abandoned. So the story of the people has to be told by the ones on the outside.

So will we learn anything from Ferguson. I hate to admit it but I doubt it. Once the story gets old, it will fade. Until the next unarmed brother gets killed. Just my .02 worth…. 

The 25 June 2014 Edition of “All I Can Do is Shake My Head”

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Now on to the reading.

Ok, I have done some cursory reading about the US Senate race in Mississippi. We have a 6 term Senator, Thad Cochran vs. the Tea Party youngster Chris McDaniel. Tuesday’s runoff election was to settle who will run for the job in November. The old man was written off as a loser because he actually came in SECOND in the initial primary. The youngster was slated to finish the old timer off in the runoff. But Cochran still had some left in the tank. He took advantage of MS open primary laws and began to court the African-American vote. MS has a large population of black folk and the majority votes Democratic. In the famous, “Who would you rather have, devil you know or the devil you don’t?” move, Cochran was able to increase turn out in the runoff and pull off a huge win. The youngster didn’t concede, he cried foul. “Something is fishy with all of these liberals voting in a Republican primary.” Hmmm, interesting observation…Time to preach on this.

Mr. McDaniel this is for you. Listen good. You got beat by a lifetime politician plain and simple. You got beat by a man who knows more about the game than you ever lived. Just because you are a talk radio hack doesn’t mean you can cut it on the big stage. Plus chances are, if you would have one the primary, you would have lost in November. Nonetheless, Cochran schooled you on the rules. Fine. But your comments and actions didn’t help you. Basically Cochran invited people he knew that disliked you for general purposes, by your racially foolish rhetoric for example. You did yourself in with years of this mess and the GENERAL electorate made you pay for it earlier.

Another point, YOU COULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING!!!! I guess you don’t know history very well. Hmmm, let me inform you. This has been a common practice for years, politicians hit up the black church and black church leaders for votes, especially if the vote is tight or if a controversial piece of legislation is involved. Personally the practice is sickening to me because you should WANT my vote all of the time, not just because you need it to survive. (Yes, what Cochran did makes lunch back up in my trachea…) But you could have done it too. What this situation and your post elections comments make you either 1) not smart, 2) not observant 3) scared or unwilling to tap in a population that in the ballot box, could have provided you the numbers that you needed to win. Isn’t winning the goal???

This brings me to my final point. Lets stay with isn’t the goal winning the election? This MS electoral race has shined a very obvious point. My white republican brothers and sisters especially those you are running for office, listen. No matter how you gerrymander districts, rig rules, play games, the goal is having more votes than the other guy. As you are spewing that rhetoric that stirs up the base, you need to be careful what you say. Because you may just alienate the people you need most. The days of discounting a person for the color of their skin, their gender, their nationality or their sexuality are over. Because payback comes in many different forms, politically, financially and legally. So instead of talking from the side of your neck to gin up a base that can’t get you a win, how about debating ideas? Instead of speaking in bumper sticker speak, how about presenting coherent thoughts? Do you have any policy proposals that can benefit everyone? What problems can you solve? Keep your conservative credential spiel to yourself? I don’t care nor do I know what a conservative truly is. Bring some ideas and lets talk. Otherwise, prepare for your party in becoming that crazy uncle that the family keeps in the back room away from the kids. Just my .02 cents….

Random Thoughts on a Rainy Sunday

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Now on to the reading.

“I Want My Country Back….” This is probably the most loaded, possibly offensive, possibly intellectually silly comments ever uttered. Why do I say this? As I heard someone say this, I caught them off guard by asking the question, “You want your country back from what?” The silence was equally as stunning because they acted like they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) respond. This is where parroting political talking points can lead you down a road of not only embarrassment but possibly unwanted self exposure. You want the country that allowed slavery to be legal, that legal thought that recognizing 2/3rd of a man was a great idea, legally allowed segregation in all forms of life, thought forcefully moving Native Americans off their land was a grand idea, lets throw in containment camps for Asian Americans and women not being allowed to vote to boot on the good idea list. Yet this country would accept the services of these said people to fight and die for the same country who thought that they wasn’t worthy of getting equal treatment under the light of the Constitution? Is this what we are talking about?

I could get real caddy here and go all Professor Griff but what is the point. So I will take the logical road instead. (I guess I am getting soft in my old age.) Point 1: Yup, Americans have the right to free speech. No doubt there. This right is as huge as God’s Gift of Free Will. Both allows us to be left to our own devices. So the right to free speech allows us to be subjected to some of the dumbest and offensive ideas in history. What I have come to learn in my 41 years that when people parrot ideas or political talking points, most of the time they have’t taken the time to intellectually consider what they are saying. Our spiritual lives are the same way, do we really understand what we are saying when profess to being Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, etc? Point 2: I guess having respect and taste are an option nowadays. Saying the first thing of the top of your head can be as bad has blowing your nose at the dinner table after you just ate. You are thinking that your comments make perfect sense, but you have nauseated everyone around you. Point 3: And if you truly stand by the craziness that you allowed to drip from your lips, I would like also thank you. Thank you for exposing yourself. I love you in the eyes of God, but I will be keeping a close eye on you….Just my .02 cents worth.

The Triumphant Return of “All I Can Do is Shake My Head”

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Love you Shuggy!!! Now on with it!!!!

I am going to deal with 2 subjects today. First, my quick take on Donald Sterling. This was a long time coming. The racist comments, the slumlord real estate deals, the criminal negligence of his stewardship of the LA Clippers, we can keep naming them. He had no business being a pro sports team owner. The league got it right today. Beyond all of the commentary, I put blame on the former commissioner David Stern. He was a staunch advocate of protecting the brand of the NBA. But he knew who Donald Sterling was and never pressed to getting that dealt with. Maybe the Clippers players can now play in peace. That is enough on that. SMH!!!!

My second subject is something that my pastor posted on Facebook. It is as follows: “Church planters: when you look at ministry and think it’s all about having a cool church with a rocking worship team please realize that there are LOTS of hurting & broken people out there that need you beyond Sunday morning and most of what you do no one will ever see. There are things you cannot delegate. You will have to get your hands dirty, there’s no way around it. #realtalk” When I read this I jumped up and shouted “AMEN!” So let me put my spin on this. (This is tough sledding but still…) In my experience, I stress my experience, it is not often when the pastor goes out and gets his or hers hands dirty. In my experience, it has been often the stance of the church to keep the pastor away from these activities and place them in status of neighborhood celebrity. Everything is plush, the church is constantly rolling out the red carpet every Sunday for the pastor and yet the neighborhood that the church is in is struggling. We seems to buy into the production of it all. The bigger the stage the better we think things are. Yet people are starving, homeless, cast out on the margins three doors down from the church. Power is not coming from the Word, praise and worship but from the cleverness of a “charismatic” preacher. Where and when did we become so Hollywood???

Instead of suits and robes, maybe we need to be in work clothes. Instead of all of the internal entertainment, maybe we fight the good fight out in these streets. Maybe instead of so much patting and swaying, maybe we tell someone on how Christ saved us. In my clergy/ministerial experience, I never wanted nor desired the “celebrity status”. I am a regular guy, with God-given quirky skill set and a testimony to tell. That is just my .02 cents worth…Let me know what you think….

Brotherly Love

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Now on to the reading.

Easter 2014 and my Facebook posting says it best: “The pause button was pressed on my day today at 10:36 AM CDT when I received the news that Kelvin Douglas Ferguson went home to glory. He was a brother and family. I am still wrapping my heart and head around all of this….More thoughts later.” I will try to unpack some of my thoughts here. Big Kev’s passing has hit me the same way that my brother Shawn King’s passing of 3 years ago. In the Charles and Odessa Coulter Sr household, I am the youngest of 3. I have 2 older sisters. Yet, I considered Big Kev and Shawn my brothers. Kelvin and I grew up in school together, played football together and against each other at rival high schools. We always stayed tight even when I went off to college and moved to Dallas. Shawn and I grew up at NC State, went to class together, played basketball, hung out, traveled, worked and laughed together. We were still tight even as we got married, moved away and went onto our next phase of life. Yet my brothers are gone.

I can’t imagine the emptiness that Kacey (Kelvin’s wife) or Tiffany (Shawn’s wife) feel. I can’t imagine the pain that Kev’s and Shawn’s mothers feel. I can’t imagine how Kev’s sisters and Shawn’s brothers feel. I would never try to compare my sadness to theirs. I do know this, Big Kev and Shawn are my brothers and I love them.

When I talked to Kelvin a couple of weeks ago, I told him this. I thank God for that. Kev was a good man, loved his wife, loved his kids and loved his family. This brother worked hard and he gave just like others before him gave to him. He loved “The Fellas” and it always felt right when all of the stars would align and we could get together. Going home will really be different now. Nevertheless, Kelvin Ferguson, you are my brother and I love you. Just my .02 cents….

It Has Been Awhile. The New Year’s Edition

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Now on to the reading.

Happy New Year’s Everyone!!!! It has been a long minute since I have flowed here in the blog medium and I apologize for the long delay. Sometimes it is best to keep your mouth shut if you don’t have much to say. Nevertheless, I am here and writing. I will try to keep the standard New Years fare to a minimum.

I will admit, 2013 was a rough year for me personally. I will spare the gore of it, but I just thank God that I made it through. I have learned a lot, and I see where I have neglected myself. This truly has to stop. That point was driven home on 18 December 2013 when I had surgery on my left knee. The hunger to be better than what I have become is truly there again. No resolution here but I have to change how I operate from now on. My approach and method has to be different. My focus has to be different. I have become pretty bored and disillusioned. I have to accept the fact that there are some things that will not change into what I want it to be. So, I have to put my head down and concentrate on me….This adjustment will be what the doctor has ordered. Anyway, thanks 2013…It was surely a learning moment. Just my .02 cents worth….

Reflections from a Hotel Room in NC

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Now on to the reading.

Once again, I am back home in NC but this trip is way different. Instead of hanging at home with my parents, laughing and catching up with my folks in the den of the house, I am in a hotel room. As many of you know, my home, my parents’ home was flooded a couple of weeks ago. My folks lost everything in the downstairs of the house, but upstairs was untouched. So they are living upstairs in the house. Mind you there is still no A/C and no hot water in the house. Plus they have to boil the well water for drinking. Thus it leaves me to my accommodations for this trip. Trust me when I say, this will not become a habit. I digress…

I have been in TX full time since 2001, and I know that every time I come home I feel more and more like a tourist. But I am still an NC kid. My love for this state runs deep, and I try to keep up with things as best as I can. The direction that the leaders of my home state is trying to take in the state is disturbing at best. I will concentrate on one aspect of these massive changes, and that is the voter ID law. Yes, I have some issues with the ID part of it, especially the idea that the student ID that was issued at one of the 16 state supported schools doesn’t qualify. That some of the board of elections officials in counties that are heavily populated by college students is trying to suppress the college vote. Even when that US Supreme Court took a stand on that in 1979. I know I am just scratching the surface of this law and of the ramifications to it. But this effects all college students in the state of NC. 16 state supported schools, which include 4 or 5 HBCUs that are state supported. Then numerous private colleges and universities. With what I am reading with this suppression of the college vote, it reminds me of 1992 at NC State.

In 1992, I was a sophomore at NC State. In those days, NC State could have been classified as the largest HBCU in NC. We had more African-American students than any of the HBCUs in the state. Anyway, 1992 was important because the African-American students on campus saw issues and wanted them addressed. Issues such as NC State Public Safety officers putting up “WANTED” posters of African-American males on campus to help fight crime, the low number of African-American tenured faculty, the racist reporting of Technician (NC State student newspaper), the lack of representation at the college radio station, funding cuts at the African American Cultural Center. The list was very long. We wanted answers. Also at that time, football players at UNC started a movement to address issues with the African-American Cultural Center that was being built at UNC. The movement at UNC grew to also address other racially tinged issues on campus. NC State’s National Pan-Hellenic Council held a town hall meeting with all students of color and invited the folk from UNC to the meeting. Now black students at both schools were united to get the many issues addressed at both schools. The power of united activism. All of this happened at a time where the students and the Hip Hop Nation truly exercised its voice.

With 3 paragraphs written, this brings me to the concentration of my feelings on all of this.  With everything that is going on in our community, there is a couple of voices that are notably absent. First I want to address the voice of the Black Church. I would like to thank those clergy who have been instrumental in the fight during the Moral Monday protests in NC. These brothers and sisters of all ethnicities are standing for the rights of those who are the least of these. But where is the rest of us? With the history of social justice that the Black Church has stood for, where is the rest of us? Back at our churches, patting and swaying? Back out our churches entertaining ourselves? Back at our churches celebrating another year of having our “ghetto superstar” as our pastor? It is ridiculous to see our kids fighting for their basic right to vote and we sit by. It is amazing that we aren’t pushing for an ecuemenical attack of this foolishness from the brothers and sisters of the faith. The time where we ned to be in the forefront, we cower down and hide. Bottom line is this. Church as usual WILL NOT CUT IT. The church has to become a church of action, not a church of silly “programs”, silly services and silly dialogue. We have to be at the center of the fight and at the table for the battle of our rights. More on this in a later blog.

The second voice that is missing is that of the Hip Hop Nation. Back in 1992, this was the heyday of Hip Hop’s embrace of its blackness. The message of not only who we are as a people, who we need to be and the true love of ourselves helped propel a movement of change on campuses all over the country. Now, that energy is not there from the Hip Hop Nation. The elder voices have been muted in place of some of the most ignorant music in a generation. Mainstream Hip Hop has become loaded with industry minstrals who are hoping to cash in. How could you figure a Lil Wayne, Kanye West, 2 Chainz, Gucci Mane or anyone of these jabroins to speak on the fight of keeping the right to vote  when they can barely provide an intellectual thought in their music or they are an attention diva? These current stable of clowns have the power of the mic but they ain’t saying nothing. Their music doesn’t move the crowd, doesn’t move the club, and certainly doesn’t move a generation. All it does move is people to think how they look and how they speak is the in thing to do. All the while, basic rights are being taken away without a fight.

I truly believe that this current generation of kids would be on the front lines in this fight if they truly understood what was at stake and understand what investment they have in the game. They have only us from Gen X and older to provide the info. Yet the tools that many of us mid 30’s-early 40’s folk had, is not available to our current warriors. It is way past time to educate and get our kids up to speed. Everyone has skin in this game….It is high time that we act like it and be about our business. 50 years since MLK spoke about having a dream…It is still a dream and the fight continues. Just my .02 cents worth…..

Special Comment-The Verdict

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Now on to my special comment.

Well the verdict is in and even as disappointed and angry as I am, I am not surprised. This is par for the course. We talk about justice but I am here to ask, where is the justice for a man of color in this country? Where was the justice for all of the brothers who were lynched, where was the justice for Emmitt Till, where was the justice for all of the brothers killed by the police? Where was the justice for those brothers killed by the hand of another man of color? We found Bin Laden but we can’t find the killers of Tupac and Biggie? Now, where is the justice for Trayvon? Look at the math, we know who killed him, we have the murder weapon, we have testimony (much of it confusing mind you) and yet the man who killed him can go home. Yet the fact remains, Trayvon was killed by a man who he had NEVER met. He was killed walking back to his Dad’s house from the store. I just think how many times I went to the store as a teenager. That could have been me.

Trayvon’s Dad was living in a very nice part of town, going after his piece of the American dream and what did it get him. His son dead. What do we have to do as Black men to be worth more than the $2.75 of skin, blood, muscle and bones that we were created with? I mean my God, even President Obama can’t even get any respect of being Commander in Chief. Yes he was Trayvon, he is Trayvon by the way.

On the real, there are many brothers who are doing it right, providing for their families, improving themselves and teaching their kids how to be strong upstanding people. My grandson, Lord’s willing, will be here in November and I will be teaching him these same things. How to operate as a man of color in this world. My Dad and Grandfather taught me these things and I was taught from a different even more dangerous era. My grandson will know the history and will get the truth. He needs to know, for his survival.

This is what it is about. Survival. Survival in a society at best we are tolerated, at worse feared and hated. How do we effectively teach our kids when our own society doesn’t respect us beyond being someone’s entertainment. We are supposed to be a Christian nation, yet we deem it acceptable to marginalize and discount people outside of the so called mainstream. Christian puhleaze…..God forbid the story line of being a beacon of freedom. Trayvon was exercising his freedom to walk home from the store and got killed doing it.

Am I cynical about all this, you betcha. Because I have sorely been reminded of what I am worth to a society and a country that I would give my life for. I will probably be more coherent after I get my emotions out of my system so there will be more to this. I was Trayvon, I am Trayvon. Just my .02 cents.

4th of July Thoughts

Y’all know I can get started without giving my lil girl a plug. Please take a read of my oldest’s blog at http://maige23.wordpress.com/. Great inspirational reading from a young lady who brings it everyday. Now on to the reading.

Well folks, it looks like another country decided to take the 4th of July as an act of independence. Egypt, the largest country in the Middle East, for the most part has had enough of the leaders the were democratically elected almost a year ago during the Arab Spring. The gentleman who was elected advertised that he was going to be a leader of the people and that everyone would be welcome and represented at the table. Hmmm, it looks like what was advertised and what happened were two different things. In his actions to make sure his causes and his people were taken care of, he lost the trust of the people on the streets. It got so bad that the military stepped in. The military leadership felt that the will of the people was not being addressed, forewarned the President of such, President blew them off, no President is no longer President. All by way of the military involvement. Lets say things are real in Egypt.

Without going into the nuts and bolts on how no bueno it is for the military to be the “people’s eraser” after a bad vote, I want to highlight a couple of things. When we as people living in a democratic republic, it is important that you treat the voting process as a very solemn and serious event. This age that we are in of treating politicians like rock stars or cheering for these jabronis like our favorite football team puts our country at grave risk. Why? Because we end up electing people who have no business in leadership. Look at our current situation know. Where is the will of the people being addressed? Folk want secure jobs, money in their pocket, good affordable health care, opportunity to make a better life for their families and themselves. Yet our leaders are so sidetracked in making political points and keeping themselves elected. What is the difference on what the former leadership of Egypt did and what is going on in our federal, state and local governments?

I say all that to say this. I am tired of the political process in its current form. Especially after the SCOTUS decided to water down the Voting Rights Act. Here comes the Voter ID laws, I guess will have to eventually pay a poll tax and pass a test for voting qualifications. Maybe I will need to own a bit of land to make sure I can vote. Some will argue that is necessary to protect the sanctity of the vote. On the surface, it looks like making sure that there is only a certain subset of people that can vote. On the surface, it looks like making sure another person of color will never be in leadership again. On the surface, it looks like an attempt to keep the same type of people in leadership. On the surface, it looks like a power grab from the Mubarak and Morsi administrations in Egypt. Funny thing, those boys got put out and jailed. They didn’t have the luxury of being voted out. I truly believe that our country is watching in Egypt were we could be. Our country is changing demographically and philosophically. We are granted the freedom for this. Supposedly. Just my .02 cents worth.