They talk like this...

2008-03-08T06:31:00.001-08:00

A lot of people were angry at Bill Cosby when he made these remarks but I agree with him. People, we need to hold ourselves to a much higher standard in LIFE!

"They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk:

Why you ain't,

Where you is,

What he drive,

Where he stay,

Where he work,

Who you be...

And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.

And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it's important to speak English

Except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor

With that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.

In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living. People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.

The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.

These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what??

And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.

Where were you when he was 2?

Where were you when he was 12??

Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol??

And where is the father?? Or who is his father?

People putting their clothes on backward:

Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?!

People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something?

Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up?

Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?

What part of Africa did this come from??

We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa.

With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the e Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem.

We have got to take the neighborhood back.

People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' -- or men or whatever you call them now.

We have millionaire football players who cannot read.

We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We, as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us.

We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer."

I Hate Rap Music

2006-08-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

This summer has really taught me to absolutely positively hate rap music. I never liked it before but I hate it more than ever now.

I am the lighting director for the Play Murder What's next that has run for two separate months this year in New Castle DE. It played the entire month of March and more recently every weekend in July. Here's the thing. I live in Darby PA and the plays ran in DE 35 miles away. Performances were on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Now for my wife and I to drive the 35 miles to New Castle 3 times on the weekend would have been very tough on us. And with the cost of gas these days it was a bit pricey as well. So a friend of my wife invited us to stay weekends at her home a block from the church where the performances were held. This was ideal or so we thought.

I am so thankful for the friend letting us room at her place. However, the room in the friend’s house where my wife and I slept faced the street in an apartment complex formerly called Hampton Green II. I don't recall the name it was recently changed to. Anyway there is a constant flow of traffic on the main street in this apartment complex. The traffic is caused because of the amount of drugs that are sold on this street. All night long and into the wee hours of the morning the traffic does not stop. So we have cars riding up and down the street with rap music blaring. To add to that there are neighbors (if you can really call them that) who feel it is their appointed duty to keep everyone abreast of the latest rap trash on CD. And they play this trash very loudly. On several occasions my wife and I have called the New Castle County Police complaining of the loud music that sometimes plays until 2 or 3 in the morning. Sometime the police come and tell them to shut it off and sometimes they don’t.

I have to be at the church on Saturday mornings for prayer at 5:30 AM as part of a Servant Leadership Training Program. Imagine being kept awake until 2 or 3 AM when you have to be at church at 5.

To take this even further, the lyrics of this music are so foul and disgusting that it rocks my senses. I hate it. I have a theory that this music will do one of two things to the people who listen to it. It will make you dumb and stupid or keep you dumb and stupid. I find no redeeming qualities in this music at all except that it lines the pockets of music companies and producers with millions of dollars from poor dumb ghetto kids who should be somewhere reading a book. Anyone who listens to the stuff I hear playing can't possibly subject themselves to months and years of exposure without becoming morally inept. Bill Cosby was right. This music is one of the reasons for the dumbing down of American youth. I hate rap music. Not just because it keeps me awake at night and wakes me up with a headache. I hate it also because of what it is doing to our already decaying society and our over indulgent youth.

And finally, here is a tip for those of you who are looking for a great product to invest in over the next 25 to 30 years. Hearing aids. The decibels pumped out by some of the audio systems in the cars that ride up next to you at red lights and stops signs are deafening. You know the ones that make you feel like you have experienced an earthquake. The kids that ride in these cars will lose their ability to hear over the next 25 to 30 years. Hearing aid companies are it friends. Invest heavily.