Are You Prepared for Hurricane Weather?

Earlier in August, 2008, I published an informational post on hurricane preparedness as excerpted from The Weather Channel Hurricane Preparedness list for my readers of TheListbyKeto, my e-magazine started in 2006 after completing my MBA at University of South Florida. So I think it fitting that I republish excerpts of this guide for my blog readers as well, especially as the information herein is relevant to all residents of Florida and the South and Southwest of the US. In addition I've provided some basic severe weather definitions. As well, this weekend marks the 3rd Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina of August 29, 2005 whose effects were exacerbated by an incompetent, do-nothing government which had billions of dollars in aid overseas the day after after the Indonesia tsunami of December 26, 2004, but took 3 days to even react to Hurricane Katrina just a few thousand miles away and after President Bush's August 28, 2005 Katrina briefing on the possibility of a category 3 hurricane breaching the levies in New Orleans. Well, it will go down as one of the big failures of an administration that is synonymous with failure. But...at least the Florida Division of Emergency Management is more proactive in emergency management and allows citizens to create their own family disaster plan. Well...stay safe out there!

DEFINITIONS:
Hurricane Season (Atlantic): 1 June - 30 November
Hurricane Watch: Hurricane conditions, sustained winds greater than 73 mph, are possible in the area within 36 hours.
Hurricane Warning: A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected in the area in 24 hours or less.

Safety Before a Tropical Storm or Hurricane

Be Informed
Determine your insurance eligibility now. In addition to high winds, rain and floods are sometimes associated with hurricanes and tropical storms. However, damage caused by flooding is not usually covered in regular homeowners' insurance. The federal government insures against flood damage.

Find out more from:
Your insurance agent
National Insurance Consumer Helpline (1-800-942-4242); The Insurance Information Institute (1-800-331-9146) The National Flood Insurance Program

Learn how your town handles emergencies by contacting:
Your local American Red Cross chapter chapter or check the business listing of your white pages. Your local Emergency Management Agency (EMA)

Be Prepared
Pay attention to local weather reports. Purchase a NOAA Weather Radio and sign up for The Weather Channel's free alerts for your mobile phone or email..

Develop a Family Preparedness Plan that includes the following:
Decide where to go if at home, school, work, outdoors, or in a car when a tornado warning is issued. Update these plans every school year and as places of employment and residence change. Compile a family emergency supplies kit. Make certain everything you need is in one specific, easy-to-access location. These contents can be assembled over a five-month period on a weekly basis, and perishable items should be changed or replaced every six months. To learn more about assembling and refreshing supplies, see the American Red Cross' preparedness information.

Prepare Your Home
There are a number of cost-effective measures that be taken to strengthen the exterior and interior structural integrity of a house. Learn more:

• Preparing Your Home for Hurricanes
• Consider Hurricane Shutters
• Keep Wind and Water Out During a Hurricane

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Obama & The American Promise

Thursday night, August 28th, 2008, 45 years to the day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech at the foot of the Lincoln Monument in Wash., DC, Sen. Barack Obama gave his DNC Convention nomination speech to nearly 85,000 at the former Mile High Stadium in Denver, CO. I will always consider Mile High as the rightful name of the now Invesco Field (if you're a long-time NFL fan you know what I'm talking about).

The significance of this day cannot be understated whether you're Black, White, man or woman in this country, Dr. King was more than just a great orator; he sacrificed his life so that ALL Americans could live The Dream that he spent his whole life fighting for. And what really is the American Dream? Barack Obama's biography recounted tonight reminded us that the American dream is really simple, but worth fighting for, and that the last 8 years has robbed the little guy of his will to dream. In simplest terms, the American Dream is for fathers and mothers, husbands and wives to be able to go to work and bring enough money home to care for their family. The American Dream is for each man to be successful while caring enough to make sure that his neighbor has a helping hand in hard times. The American Dream is not, however, for 90% of the nation's wealth to be held captive in the hands of a 10% who can't relate to $4/gallon at the gas pump and frankly "don't get it".

Yes, truly this was a historic occasion in so many ways. The obvious story line is that 45 years after Dr. King's greatest speech at age 34, the first Black man was nominated as Presidential candidate of a major political party. Though of course, the 47-year-old Obama is part White also, the Eurocentric culture has assigned the Black race to anyone who has at least one drop of Black blood. It is not, however, the fact that Obama is part Black that has the nation excited. I mean, Alan Keyes didn't excite us in two elections when he received less than 1% of the Republican primary vote--did he? Rather the country loves Obama because he embodies the best of us, represents truly equal opportunity, and captures the spirit of hope, hard work, and courage that we aspire to.

Here are some of my favorite highlights of the speech--there were quite a few:

We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.

These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.

We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.

Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.

Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year?

It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.

For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.

Well it's time for them to own their failure.

It's time for us to change America. Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them.

And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.

And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength."

Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility - that's the essence of America's promise.

We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe.

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party.

So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.

Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.

Hillary & the Speech That Was More Than Just a Speech

Well, now we know that Hillary Clinton doesn't wear PUMA's as of her roof-blowing, DNC Wednesday night speech in Denver. Political pundits as well as the blogosphere were buzzing over the positively charged atmosphere and the impact of Sen. Clinton's DNC unity talk.

Hillary Clinton's speech last night was amazing, passionate & most of all REAL! She talked to Democrats and the American people, not as a politician, but as someone who had finally found a purpose, not just a career opportunity. Had she talked more like this during the primaries, she may have fared better.

Notable highlights of Hillary Clinton's DNC 2008 speech (of which there were many):

"We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines."

"No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our President."

"I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for ...all the people in this country who feel invisible?" This really is the most important question that Hillary could ever ask her supporters. The ball is now in their court. Their actions will tell the world whether they are more committed only to electing a specific woman than they are to throwing out one of the most incompetent criminal administrations in US history who they don't even share the same political platform with in the first place.

"...[Barack Obama] he'll revitalize our economy, defend the working people of America, and meet the global challenges of our time. Democrats know how to do this. As I recall, President Clinton and the Democrats did it before. And President Obama and the Democrats will do it again." This is the part that so clearly ties the successes of the recent past when the US was at relative peace with the rest of the world, we had a record budget surplus, and the economy was very healthy with the hope for a successful future with Obama at the helm of the country.

"Barack Obama will end the war in Iraq responsibly and bring our troops home - a first step to repairing our alliances around the world."

"But we don't need four more years . . . of the last eight years."

"With an [ineffective] agenda like that, it makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart." Tongue in cheek, tongue in cheek.

"My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for President."

Then she closed with the words of Harriet Tubman which she told slaves that she was conducting on the Underground Railroad..."Don't ever stop. Keep going."

"If you hear the dogs, keep going.
If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.
If they're shouting after you, keep going.
Don't ever stop. Keep going.
If you want a taste of freedom, keep going."

"But remember, before we can keep going, we have to get going by electing Barack Obama president."

"Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hang in the balance."

Why Black Men Don't Go to Church (Part 2)

Wednesday, 8/20/08 was the 2nd Annual edition of the Wide aWoke Wednesday's Live Interactive Talk Show topic "Why Black Men Don't Go to Church" as hosted by Motown Maurice, & The Combination . Motown moderated as panelists and audience debated this issue from varying view points. That's what The Combination and Wide aWoke Wednesday are all about--uniting us despite our many differing perspectives on the same topics.

As a born-again, Black, Christian male under age 30, I believe there are a couple reasons specifically why more Black men are not in church or many Black men who attend church during youth stop attending once they reach the teen years. These include relationship and hypocrisy, but wait, I'll explain.

I feel blessed to have come from a religious family, with my family in Haiti being traditionally Catholic as are most folks in the Caribbean and South American cultures. Once I moved to the United States, my adoptive mother, Ruth E. Hodges, a missionary to Haiti since 1969 was a Pentecostal, so I was raised in Pentecostal and non-denominational Pentecostal churches since age 5. Because I was raised in church, church became a natural part of my life, just like eating. My Ma also sent me to private Christian schools where Christian values were further emphasized as part of the education. So in addition to getting a great education with individual attention, I learned quite a bit about the Christian faith both at school and at home where we read the Bible and prayed daily (to this day, I have read the Holy Bible 10 times cover to cover). Eventually I became born again at a meeting for Christian youth in California. Then I began to develop a relationship with Christ and church continued to be part of my lifestyle. As I grew up beyond my teen years, I began to become a more independent and became more conscious of who I was in the world, but at the same time because of my upbringing and my relationship with God, there was no way I could leave church to the side as if I had somehow outgrown it because of my education or life experiences. The key though is that I had a relationship with God, so church was the least I could do as far as feeding my soul.

When you value something, you enter into relationship with that thing or its representation. For example, I have been taught to value marriage, therefore it was not a problem for me to enter into the commitment of marriage. I believe that many men, not just Black men, who attended church in their youth, no longer attend because they were forced to attend church (by their parents), and never sought out the relationship aspect of church. For them it was a chore and an obligation, not an opportunity to become a better person. Others use the reason that there are too many hypocrites. Let me address that statement as well. There is no where in the world you will ever go where there are not hypocrites. And truth be told we are ALL hypocrites at some time. You see, the English word "hypocrite" (derived as hupokrisis in Greek) simply means someone who acts one way in one situation and a different way in another situation. It was a term used to describe actors in a theater setting who would wear tragedy masks to conceal their true identity. Therefore, if you act one way at work, another way at school, another way at sporting activities, another way at church, etc.--which we all do--then you too are technically a hypocrite. Besides which, all the hypocrites SHOULD be in church, because that is where they can get help!

For more information on Wide aWoke Wednesdays, please visit http://www.wideawoke.com/ or http://www.thecombinationtv.com/ or call 813-951-0794. Our once monthly forums are typically held the 3rd Wednesday, 7:30pm with refreshments & a Meet & Greet at 6:30pm at USF Alumni Center - Traditions Hall 4202 E. Fowler Ave. Tampa, FL 33620.

Elitism and It's Elite Standardbearers

Are you an elitist, am I an elitist? Who the heck is an elitist, and is that suddenly bad, and if so why? An elite person by definition is from "a group or class of persons enjoying superior intellectual or social or economic status." Common usage relates this term to people who enjoy the highest social standing in our society either through being born into an old money family, i.e. The Bushes, Kennedys, Rockefellers, Hiltons, Sen. John McCain, etc. As well, we think of elite as referring to someone who through mastery of a specific talent or skill set has ascended to the top of his profession and thus attained elite social status. Great examples are Michael Jordan who was not born into money, but because he became one of the best at his craft, enjoys elite status. Of course Oprah Winfrey, entrepreneur and billionaire would fit this description as well as Deion Sanders or any other "rags to riches" story. Yet another common usage of "elite" is someone who is out of touch with ordinary people.

Now, I gotta admit, I was confused as to why during the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton referred to Barack Obama as elitist due to his "bitter" comments, suggesting that he was "out of touch" because he dared to tell us what we already knew. That is that for too long, the Republican political machine has always distracted us from their failures by bringing up guns and religion just before major elections, and certain segments of our population keep falling for the same trick over and over. It's as if the Republicans have convinced folks that somehow "the other guy" is gonna take away your God and your guns. Furthermore, I was even more intrigued that John McCain, the scion of military elites and a son of privilege since birth would also try to characterize Obama as an elitist. Unfortunately, per usual the media took another Republican talking point and ran with it as if it were the Gospel of Rove.

If you didn't know any better you would think that the "elitist" candidate is Obama. But let's look at the facts. At the very least, John McCain owns 8 mansions, the least expensive being valued at $847K and the most expensive being valued over $4M. Some estimate that he actually owns 10 homes including one for his daughter, Meghan McCain. Further, John McCain says he doesn't know how many houses he owns. No wonder he thinks the "economy is fundamentally strong." Talk about being out of touch! So who is the elitist who flies around in his wife's private plane because, "in AZ the only way to get around the state is by small private plane"? Well that's John McCain. Who along with his wife are worth about $100 million? Oh yeah, that's John McCain. Further, it is John McCain's wife Cindy McCain whose beer distributorship has $300M/yr in sales. Of course, the one who's cruised his whole life based on his father and grandfather being Admirals in the US Navy? That's John McCain. He graduated at the bottom of his class (895/899), but his elite connectections allowed him to get into Fighter Pilot school after Annapolis. You would think you'd only want your smartest people as fighter pilots wouldn't you? But as George W. Bush demonstrated, you can be a C student, dumb as rocks, and as long as your family is well connected (George H. W. Bush was Dir of CIA, VPOTUS, heir to old money oil fortune of Prescott Bush) you can sail through life earning nothing on your own, but being granted privileges on the basis of your family tree. That "my friends" as John McCain would say, is affirmative action for the rich.

Meanwhile, let's contrast Barack Obama's life? He actually looks like the face of 21st century America, as Bob Cesca duly notes. He was born to a white mother and Kenyan father who left them at a young age after which his mother had to subsist on foodstamps, raised by his white grandmother in Kansas, he worked hard in highschool in Hawaii and earned the opportunity because of his excellent grades to attend Harvard for undergrad, then Columbia Law School. So whose story is more like one of us? Black AND White parents? Foodstamps to Presidential candidate? Has lived in the same middle class neighborhood forever (despite having written 2 bestselling books about his life)? The answer should be obvious.

When elite comes to mind of course we're told it's Obama who's elite despite all of my previous statements describing John McCain's inherited wealth and Barack Obama's rags to riches story. The media must think we're stupid, but that's ok because no one ever calls them out on making up the facts.

To Marry or Not to Marry, That Is THE Question

One of my good friends, the founder of a local networking website for young professionals, wrote an advice column this week and posed several questions to her readers regarding marriage and soliciting advice on whether she should take the plunge or not. In response I replied back to her on some life lessons which I have learned just in this 4 months of marriage. They may seem to be common sense, but apparently not considering the high rate of divorce in our modern society.

a) You can never really realize your ultimate purpose in life until you have the responsibility of taking care of someone else--and I'm not talking about a little sister or a sick parent--and marriage provides that sense of ultimate responsibility. Now you are no longer out just for yourself, but you represent your mate and family and vice versa.

b) Further more, marriage establishes [lifelong] commitment. "I'm in this for the long haul, I'm a real grownup now, I'm not going to take the easy way out (live-in and leave) just b/c every day is not peaches & cream." Don't expect marriage to be all jokes and romance ALL THE TIME b/c that is not reality, that's Hollywood/fantasyland. However, a marriage SHOULD be happy--I mean you could be miserable all by yourself right?

c) Finally, you never really "know" someone until you live with them 24 hrs/day (besides work & church of course). That's why people say, "Now that I'm married everything's changed." No nothing actually changed, both of you are the same persons (character doesn't change) as when you were dating, you both just moved from the dating stage to marriage stage, and reality has set in. Just remember though that opposites attract, and that is where friction is introduced into a relationship. If you both thought alike and acted alike in every way, then marriages would all be perfect and stable & no one would ever argue or disagree or certainly even divorce. Part of being a grown up though is assessing your relationship--if you both love each other, and want a relationship to work then you both will do the things that ensure it works. And oh yeah, forget about all that "molding" crap. Women love to think that they can change their man AFTER the fact, once they are married. He is who he is due to a variety of factors including social environment, family upbringing & any traumatic experiences that he may have survived. All these things mold a man's character long before you meet him, and he will NOT change to whatever it is you think he should be unless HE sees the need & WANTS to do so.

The bottom line is that if you find someone that you care strongly about, and you have the confidence that they hold you in the same regard with love, respect, honesty (and you've prayed and KNOW that God sent you to each other) then by all means marriage should definitely be a consideration. I did, and my life is richer for it b/c I found someone I wanted to share my hopes, my dreams & my life with for the long run. When Shirre & I met, I just wanted to date her, and that was all. I wasn't thinking about the future or anything. But as we began to go out and spend more time, I just realized that we were so perfect for each other, and we get each other so much that it's like we've known each other for years instead of just since June 2007. Then I realized that I didn't really want anyone else but her. Once we figured out what we both wanted which only took a few weeks, then we decided to try this thing and see if it worked, and it has. No drama, no BS, just grown-ups being real with each other. Which is a quality so lacking these days as guys and ladies get caught up in being playas and playing "the game" and don't know how to move on to the next level of a relationship.

Remember there are no perfect people, (that's what alot of folks lose sight of). However, if God sent you two to each other then you are perfect for each other. There was once an anecdote that I heard about a tennis coach who had a prized pupil who he thought could be a champion. The athlete however, had some weaknesses which could end up costing him matches. The coach made this fellow successful by focusing not on his weaknesses, but by emphasizing his strengths to the point that they far outweighed any weaknesses. The moral is...Focus less on the imperfections and focus more on yours and his strengths; take care on doing the things that please each other, and you too can live happily [ever after].

Abortion & The One-Issue Party

Today I read this Huffington Post article about how the Republican party keeps successfully using the abortion issue (as well as gay rights, guns, affirmative action aka "Stop those Blacks from taking our jobs.") election after election, and the American public is complicit in letting them get away with it.

It is quite disingenuous that the Republican party has nothing to offer over 90% of us but continuous war(s), an increasing $500B federal debt and counting, an economic climate resulting in some of the largest corporate layoffs in history, taxes that take more and more out of the little guy's pockets, conspiring with big insurance, health management and big oil to severely limit our choices for competitive alternatives (in Florida for ex, the insurance industry is famous for buying the Republican lawmakers so that pro-consumer laws are not passed in the state), deregulating the financial industry to such a point that it's players feel no shame about a record number of home foreclosures, under-performing schools, supporting our troops in the form of giving them 3-5 consecutive tours of duty without adequate R&R with family, and the list goes on and on.

Has anyone ever considered that in all the years that Republicans have held the White House & even in the years that Republicans have controlled Congress, abortions have NEVER been reduced? (Since 1980, Republicans have been President 20 out of the last 28 years). It's more rhetoric over substance, and as long as the American voters continue to let one party hold one or two issues over us while screwing us on every other issue we care about, then all we have is our own ignorance to blame (refusing to see the truth). The greatest example I can cite is the 2004 election fraud. We KNEW that George Bush was a sorry President made possible by his father having stacked the Supreme Court. But instead of going with the guy who was smarter, had a more accomplished record, a REAL war hero with command experience (not someone who dressed up and posed by fighter planes like GW), we collectively (especially Christians) chose to be hoodwinked and distracted from those issues most important to us by the Gay Marriage amendments which were introduced state by state by the Republican party for this exact reason. Our resulting disenfranchisement has continued until this day.

I certainly don't condone abortion except in cases where the mother's life is in danger or in extreme cases of health-related complications. As an example, I once had a neighbor named "Mary". Mary was physically limited due to several chronic illnesses & health conditions which she had suffered with her entire life. She and her husband tried for a child, and the Drs. warned her that she was literally risking her life if she tried to birth a child. Well of course they went ahead anyway, and now her quality of life has deteriorated in such a way that I'm not sure how she makes it from day to day. Additionally, Mary's child is severely handicapped as well. Mary herself is to all intents walking dead. In this case, clearly I believe that Mary did the wrong thing by having a child. This situation I cite only as an exception, and it is an exception nonetheless.

The bottom line, though is that we as voters must educate ourselves and find out our local and national candidates platforms and whether they just spout this rhetoric at election time when it counts the most (politically) and whether this matches up with their track record when it really counts (morally). Ask yourself, how is it that we can claim to care so much about a baby before it is born (I myself am pro-life), but yet we stop caring about that baby after birth (the farce of No Child Left Behind which guarantees that schools in better neighborhoods will continue to get state funding while the failing schools in predominately poor neighborhoods who actually NEED the financial assistance will not receive such, no cost-effective health coverage for millions of youth, etc).