Carter Chapel Primitive Baptist Church
by Dexter Harper
Carter Chapel Primitive Baptist Church celebrated their 41st church anniversary on Sunday evening. Their theme ‘Feed the Church Of God’ was taken from the book of Acts.
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Elder Tom Jones of Langston Memorial C.O.G.I.C. delivered God’s message.
Guest churches were Greater Mount Olive Baptist, New Covenant Missionary Baptist, Church of the Living God C.W.F.F., Holy Trinity C.O.G.I.C., New Zion Primitive Baptist - Borger, New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist, Langston Memorial C.O.G.I.C., Greater Love Temple, Mount Zion Baptist, New Zion Primitive Baptist, Shiloh Cathedral of Praise, Northside Church of Christ, Tempe of Praise, Emmanuel Church of Amarillo, Jenkins Chapel Missionary Baptist, Carter Chapel C.M.E., New Birth Fellowship, Emmanuel Temple C.O.G.I.C., Johnson Chapel A.M.E., Mount Olive Missionary Baptist, New Hope Baptist Church and St. John Baptist Church.
Agreeing with Rush Limbaugh—“The SAP” and the New Politics of Resentment
by L. Arthalia Cravin
I never thought that I would ever agree with Rush Limbaugh on anything, but we have found common ground on one thing—and that is calling a “retard” a “freakin’ retard” when the situation warrants.
If you have been following the news lately you know that Sarah Palin, who from now on I will refer to using combo-name initials “SAP.” I have added the title “The” because, according to a recent Dr. Phil Show, the use of the word “The” to refer to a person will gain popularity this year, as in how Donald Trump was called “The Donald.” The “the” was placed before his name because of his self-centered, egotistical arrogance. It fits Palin precisely. And so from now on I will refer to her by combo-name initials, along with the word “The.”
As you know, The SAP was bothered recently by Rahm Emanual’s use of the term, “retarded” to refer to disabled children. The SAP said it was politically incorrect or some such self-aggrandizing, stay in the public eye, purely politically, and self-promotional reason. Anyway, I think Rahm Emanual issued some kind of apology similar to Harry Reid after he used terms about “light-skinned Negroes.” Well, not too much later, Rush Limbaugh went on a tirade on his radio show and called Democrats a bunch of “freakin’ retards.” The press waited with bated breath to see if The SAP would call Limbaugh’s coattail for his use of the term “retard.” Well, The SAP knows who is buttering her current slice of old-stale bread, so she by-passed a chance to at least show one drop of intellectual honesty. But this is understandable coming from The SAP because one has to have some intellect to have intellectual honesty.
Opening Doors for Small Business
by The White House
Reiterating once again his commitment to small business as the engine of our economy, the President urges Congress to move forward immediately on steps to help them expand and create jobs. These proposals include using $30 billion in TARP funds to create a new Small Business Lending Fund to provide capital to community banks to increase lending to small businesses, offering a new tax credit for over one million small businesses that hire new workers or raise wages, and providing targeted support for the most innovative small businesses with the potential to export new goods and products.
The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.
In Washington, D.C., three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison.
In some states, African Americans make up to 90 percent of drug prisoners and are up to 57 times more likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes than whites.
“Jarvious Cotton’s great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation; his father was barred by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole.”—FROM THE NEW JIM CROW
“As the United States celebrates the nation’s “triumph over race” with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status—much like their grandparents before them.
In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community—and all of us—to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.”
After Super Bowl 44, Let’s Kill “Who Dat?”
by L. Arthalia Cravin
Who Dat? Who Dat? Who Dat? I’ve just about had enough of “Who Dat?” I know it’s Super Bowl time, and the N. O. Saint’s haven’t been to one in forty years, but a person can only take so much of “Who Dat?”
In August 2007 I wrote a column entitled: “Shibboleth: Honey Bunches Of Oats.” The column can be accessed at this website by clicking on “Wednesday Wisdom Archive” in the left-hand links, then reviewing the list of past columns. In my “Shibboleth” column I wondered how many people have paid close attention to the then Honey Bunches of Oats commercial that was airing on television. I wondered if I was the only person in the world who has noticed the way in which the black lady said: “Have you tried Honey Bunches of Oats?” If you saw the commercial, she was the first to appear and was wearing a white covering on her hair. What bothered me enough to fire off letters to Kraft Foods executives was what I saw as “deliberate denigration” of the black woman requiring her to pronounce “of” as “uh” so as to make her appear uneducated or illiterate. Well a Kraft Foods executive called me immediately after reading the column explaining that her articulation was her natural speech to which I then asked: “Is it to harder to say “uh Oats,” than to say “of Oats?” “Of Oats” rolls off the tongue quite effortlessly, while trying to say “Uh Oats,” is quite unnatural and requires too much effort. I then asked the “good executive” why no one else in the commercial mispronounced “of?” They agreed to review the commercial. Well the commercial changed, and given the recent economic downturn, it may have been pulled altogether.
In my “Shibboleth” column I asked this: “Have you ever heard of the term “shibboleth?” If you haven’t, turn to the Old Testament book of Judges. Judges is the seventh book in the Old Testament and appears after the book of Joshua. Now go to the 12th chapter and the 6th verse, which reads: “Then said they unto him, Say now SHIBBOLETH: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephramites forty and two thousand.” So what does “Shibboleth” and the Book of Judges have to do with “Honey Bunches of Oats?” A lot. Webster’s dictionary defines a “shibboleth” as “a password, phrase, custom, or usage that reliably distinguishes the members of one group or class from another.” If you will now re-read Judges 12:6 you will see that the person who could how pronounce the “SH” sound in the word “shibboleth” was killed on the spot. Wonder why? If you will read the rest of the story in Judges you will see that the Gileadites and the Ephramites were at war with each other. The Gileadites left over Jordan, and it just so happened that a group of escapee Ephramites wanted to go along as well. When they were confronted about their identity, the Gileadites asked if they were Ephramites, to which they responded “No, we are not.” They were then required to pronounce the word, “shibboleth.” As each one failed to pronounce the “sh” sound he was killed.
In an ideal world one would expect as much outrage over the history of how Haiti went from being the richest colony on earth to the poorest in the Western hemisphere, as there is shock and awe at the suffering on account of the recent earthquake. For reasons that we all know, a condition wrought by a sudden calamity is more attention-getting than an equally calamitous condition brought on by a slow, steady, stream of crippling events. Such is the case of Haiti.
What most of us knew about Haiti before the recent earthquake was that there was a Haitian Revolution that began in 1793, led by Toussaint L’Overture, that drove the mostly French whites out of Saint Dominque, (the then name of Haiti) resulting in the Haiti’s independence from French rule. If you are not familiar with High Plains Public Radio, may I suggest that you turn off your television now and then and listen to some of HPPR’s programming. Here in Amarillo you can listen to HPPR at 94.4 FM, or you can listen on your computer by going to High Plains Public Radio’s website and selecting programming. There is currently a NPPR program entitled “The Thomas Jefferson Hour,” in which Clay Jenkinson impersonates Thomas Jefferson in a sit-down, one-on-one interview. Jenkinson has the s scholarly credentials to back up his Jefferson impersonation that you can read on the Thomas Jefferson Hour link. A couple of weeks ago during Jenkinson’s impersonation of Jefferson, several questions were put to him about his true beliefs about slavery, and the Haitian Revolution. The questioning was no-holes-barred. One question asked Jefferson to admit that it was the Haitian Revolution that led to westward expansion of the United States resulting from the Louisiana Purchase.
The President pledges to rein the deficit, citing three specific steps to this end. He praises the Senate for restoring the pay-as-you-go law, discusses his proposal for a freeze in discretionary spending, and calls for a bipartisan Fiscal Commission to hammer out further concrete deficit reduction proposals.
I never thought that I would ever agree with Rush Limbaugh on anything, but we have found common ground on one thing—and that is calling a “retard” a “freakin’ retard” when the situation warrants.
The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid.
