Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 9-1-15 Edition

Editorials
Life Coach, Myrna Bernadette Trotman’s uplifting new book exposes 10 Principles any woman can deploy to grasp their destiny with gusto
This inspirational and motivational book will help you to reach your potential and achieve new levels of success in your life. Get these ten principles based on biblical principles and Universal Laws, deep down in your spirit and boldly go in the direction of your des- tiny:
1. Keep Your Vision in Front of you - Dare to dream big dreams and understand the principles of vision cast-
ing.
2. The events in your life
whether good or bad, work together for good - God said I know your expected end. Stay the course; don’t give up until you win.
3. Let the Universal Laws of Attraction, the Laws of Intention work for you - Ask and it will be given unto you.
4. Have a Positive Mind- set - Take control of your thoughts and attitudes. Get rid of ANTS (Automatic Negative Thoughts)
5. Use what you have in your hand - You were cre- ated with a purpose; God gave you the skills and tal- ents you need to complete
your task. Stop waiting for the right time.
6. Be intentional about your Growth- Be proactive, be intentional, build on your gifts, and continually im- prove.
7. If you build it, they will come. Be a servant first.
8. Find your Passion - it is the Fire in your belly. Be- come conscious of what lights you up. God put that Fire in your belly as a bea- con to achieve your purpose.
9. Love - it is what makes this Human experience worthwhile. Love yourself first. Love is spirit, God is spirit.
10. Business Conscious- ness - how to create a startup company and suc- ceed in marketing.
Get Your Life
Evil!
I t wasn’t one of his most popular works, but Langston Hughes’ poem “Evil” turned out to be one of the most prophetic pieces of literature anywhere in the world. It
read, “Seems like what drives me crazy/ Don’t have no effect on you, / But I’m going to keep on at/ Until it drives you crazy, too.”
We wonder if the young Virginia reporter who recently murdered two of his colleagues on camera ever came across Hughes’ poem. If so, even the title (“Evil”) might have saved his life and the lives of the ones he killed. “Seems like what drives me crazy/ Don’t have no effect on you” fits Vester Lee Flanagan like a shoe.
According to interviews from the ones who knew him, Flanagan reveled in the idea of being habitually misunder- stood and saw himself as a 21st century Christ-figure against racial discrimination. It became his by-line, this news re- porter who was known to replay Fred Sanford’s “five knuck- les across your lips” threat and who would readily threaten colleague and stranger alike with his rendition of comic Martin Lawrence’s “Angry Man” such that this media pro- fessional was thought simply to be a bully who would pick on the right person, someday. Well, the someday came, but what went around failed unfairly to come around. Instead, America is now haunted with yet another gun massacre.
Media anchors and television psychologists would love to call it a hate crime or terrorism. But, neither phrase seems to do justice to a young man whose anger was so mislabeled that it was ignored as simply another Black man blowing his top. Did they see it coming? They saw the ball, but not the explosive . . . not until the poet said, “But I’m going to keep on at it/ Until it drives them crazy, too.”
And that’s what scares us. How long must open aggression “keep on at it until it drives the rest of us crazy, too? Langston Hughes called his poem, “Evil.”
But, we call the Vester Lee Flanagan massacre “The Un- told Reality of 21st Century America.”
Let’s hear it for hard working City, County, and State workers assigned to repair street and road potholes, ruts, and cave-ins caused by recent downpours and floods,
which have left our thoroughfares looking like Alice-in- Wonderland checkerboards.
Indeed, there are so many dips and losses of asphalt paving in our streets until driving to the corner store has be- come an eternal obstacle course offset by Bob’s Barricades. No doubt, the recent outcry from some of our communities regarding the proposed increase in Tampa’s storm-water fees is understandable.
However, the problems faced with our streets earlier last month as a result of the 11 day deluge of rain was a direct re- sult of not having had an increase in the current $36 annual storm-water fee in 10 years. In addition, our readers should recall that we Black people live all over the City and County.
Indeed, one of our writers who lives in West Tampa re- counted her difficulties trying to get home during one of the recent area downpours. The reader spoke specifically about flooding on Platt Street, Rome Avenue, Armenia Avenue, Howard Avenue, Oregon Avenue, Cass Street, and Kennedy Boulevard. Most certainly, Black people must still be able to use streets to get to work, schools, and places of recreation that are not in predominately Black neighborhoods.
Thus, the need to have residents share the burden of the cost of upgrading our storm-water system and repairing our streets is not only necessary for many, but must be equal for
allT. herefore, we cannot afford a “pay-as-I-use” attitude when referring to government. Else, citizens on fixed in- comes or who live in poor neighborhoods would be dispro- portionately charged for many services including police protection and (yes, you guessed it) street upkeep.
How often we engage in road travel or trips to other states with a rich history of Black contributions and achievements. Yet, we sel- dom realize or learn about the history within our grasp. Hundreds of historic sites, buildings, markers, shrines, and monuments located throughout America lend testimony to the role Blacks played in the growth and de- velopment of America.
Some states have 25 or more historic sites worth vis- iting while others have fewer sites.
We had the opportunity to visit the Delmarva area re- cently and to tour some of Maryland’s historic land- marks just off U. S. Route 50, which immersed us in the experience of slavery, es- cape, freedom and hope of our ancestors. Some of the sites are as follows: Henson Memorial Plaque, State House in Annapolis, Mary- land honors the memory of Matthew Henson, the first man to reach the North Pole with Admiral Robert E. Peary in 1909.
Henson was born in Nanjemoy, Charles County Maryland in 1866, was or- phaned at the age of 11 years, and spent his life as a mer- chant marine and explorer. Henson’s plaque, which hangs in the State House, joins a plaque for Martin Luther King, Jr., a por- trait of Frederick Dou- glass, a bust of Harriett Tubman and a tree planted to honor Dr. Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr.
The Kunta Kinte-Alex
Haley Memorial, City Dock, Annapolis, honors the place where Alex Haley’s (Roots author and journal- ist) African ancestor, Kunta-Kinte arrived on a slave ship along with hun- dreds of other slaves. A sculpture of Haley seated with three children at his feet as if listening to Haley telling a story is located there.
Further along Route 50 are the Frederick Dou- glass and Harriett Tub- man birthplaces, along with numerous other historic plantations, slave cabins, school buildings, houses, and churches.
Frederick Douglass’s
birthplace is located 50 miles from Annapolis in Talbot County approximately 12 miles from Easton, Mary- land in a place called Tucka- hoe, off the Tuckahoe River. Douglass was born and raised in his grandmother’s cabin, called “Aunt Bette’s Lot” on the Aaron An- thony Plantation.
A marker off the side of a bridge named in Douglass’ honor is actually six miles from the site of the planta- tion. Douglass escaped slavery and became a famous merchant marine, abolition- ist, orator, and politician. Other Talbot County sites in- clude the Trappe Mary- land Historic District, which was home to an equal number of slaves and free Blacks during the Civil War
and was pro-Union, and Unionville, a town founded by free Blacks and named in honor of Blacks who fought in the Union Army during the Civil War. Numerous plantation houses, historic Black churches and schools are also located throughout the county
Harriett Tubman was born on a plantation in Dorchester County, several miles from Cambridge, Maryland. A roadside marker surrounded by va- cant land and woods that is largely unchanged since Harriett’s birth in 1820 designates the place where Tubman was born. Called the “Moses of her people,” Tubman escaped from abu- sive treatment as a slave and helped the rest of her family and more than 300 other slaves to escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad.
Excavation of the site to locate the remains of the cabin in which Tubman was born is taking place along with attempts to have the site designated a Na- tional Historic site. Other noted sites include Patty Cannon’s House (a white woman who stole slaves then resold them, hiding them in her home), Spocott Plan- tation, Dale’s Right Plan- tation, and several historic houses, schools, and churches.
Visiting these sites gives you such a great sense of connectivity to our heritage and our ancestors and the strength, courage, hope and perseverance they must have had to endure, overcome, and achieve.
Trust me, you will return reborn, renewed, and revital- ized and thankful for your blessings to live in today’s world with all of its faults... Harrambee!
Four Historic Landmarks Of Black America
Share Cost Of Stormwater And Streets Equally
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5