Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 10-27-15 Edition

Editorials
Do You Need Change?
“When you are through changing, you are through.”
~Bruce Barton
Empowered Greetings.
Do you need change? I am not talking about change for a $50, $20 or a $10 bill. I want to know do you need change for your life?
Stop right now and take a moment to reflect on your life’s journey. Are you doing what you thought you would be doing at this age? Or... do you need change? Are you living the life you thought you would be living by now? Or... do you need change?
Are you sick in your body? Do you take medi-
cine when you wake up and when you lay down? Are you taking medicine, just to make it through the day? If so, then you need change. You need a physical change.
Is your mind tired and confused? Have you lost your peace and sense of di- rection? Are you lost, wan- dering and wondering, “Why can’t I seem to get it together?” Then you need change. You need a mental change.
If you don’t have two nickels to rub together to make a dime and you have more bills than you money. Then you need change. You need a financial change.
Do you feel exhausted, depleted or are you experi- encing a loss of hope? Do
you question, “Is there a God and does he care for me?” Well, you need change. You need a spiri- tual change.
No matter who you are or where you are in life, nine times out of ten you need change. Change is in- evitable. When you begin to embrace change and be em- powered to change, then your life will change for the better.
Change what you put into life and you will change what you get out of life. Until next column, be em- powered to change.
Selphenia is available to speak at your next event or come out and train on a range of SUC- CESS topics. Call or text 813-956-0185 for more info. Stay connected to Selphenia through so- cial media: visit her website: successcoach- towomen.com or on twitter @queenofsuc- cess1 or Facebook: Selphenia Nichols or on Instagram: Selphenia.
self due to whatever cir- cumstances she was dealt in life, but to knowingly lead her offspring down the same path of self-degrada- tion for profit is about as pathetic as it gets.
The only thought that kept running through my mind as I watched her daughters, ages 19-24, also being interviewed was, “I wonder how their father or fathers are feeling right now?”
Having to hear about their girl-babies being turned out on the stroll by their own mother had to leave baseball sized knots inside of their stomachs. And the worse part for them, I imagine, came when it sunk in how much of a difference they could have made had they de- cided to stick around.
As troubling as Ms. Powell’s story is, it should be a cautionary tale for any man living as an absentee father or who freely spreads his seed without regard for the soil in which it’s planted. Anyone can sow a crop, but without a dedi- cated farmer and proper cultivation, nothing good ever happens for the har- vest that grows.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bulletin Publishing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityonice@yahoo.com
When A Father Is Not Around
A Middle East Cross-Examination
U nder sharp and lengthy cross-examination for per- haps the biggest policy debacle of the age, an indi- vidual who would endure yet another sustained accusation of having been a false prophet and unreliable leader was brought before a powerful committee of some of the world’s most important political leaders. As the person-of-the-hour entered a temple room where there was standing room only, not one person cheered al-
though every eye was on the subject of the morning. Scribes scrambled for their seats as the committee chairman cleared his throat and brought the event to order. Yet, in his welcome, he left no doubt that in his mind the one who sat before him was guilty of the lowest regard and, unlike previous meetings where no guilt had been found, would this time be brought to justice in the
eyes of all who attended the session.
So, the kangaroo court commenced. For more than 8
hours it dragged on, beginning with the accused’s hum- ble matter-of-fact, “I came here because I said I would.” Everything but the kitchen sink was upended and
thrown at the accused, to no avail. But that was not the point (a word that the chairman continuously used). The point was the person and the fact that once more, the powers-that-be got a chance to take that person down. And when the meeting finally was done, scrolls were rolled up and seats were emptied; no negative verdict was found, nor was it presumed to have been so. For, the reason of the circus was the circus itself.
By the way, perhaps, you think we’re talking about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s interview by members of the Benghazi Committee. Not so. This time, we’re referring to an individual from Nazareth whose grilling before Pharisees and Sadducees seemed some- how to remind us of a person who was also being grilled about another place that happened, by the way, to have been in the Middle East.
I recently came across a very interesting story out of Kentucky. Apparently, a woman by the name of Ka- trina Powell has come forward to expose her role in a scandal involving strip- pers and escorts who were, allegedly, used to entice young athletes to commit to playing basketball for the University of Louisville.
According to Powell, an admitted escort and exotic dancer, a person employed by the university called upon her on numerous oc- casions to provide potential recruits with women who would cater to their every need, including those of a sexual variety, during the parties that she organized and hosted. Her accusa- tions, that are backed up by phone records, bank re- ceipts and eyewitnesses, are so explosive that they threaten to destroy the school’s prominent hoops program.
What caught my atten- tion about this case wasn’t the scandal it enveloped. In truth I could care less about the University of Louisville and its salacious recruiting
practices.
It didn’t even concern me
that a prestigious school of higher learning would lower itself to partnering with a street walker to obtain a competitive edge because, as NBA legend Jalen Rose put it, “recruits expect to get laid on their visits. It’s part of the process.” No, what stood out to me the most about the entire episode was that Powell used her own daughters as part of her business model.
During an interview with ESPN, Powell explained how her three daughters would accompany her to perform strip shows for re- cruits on a regular basis. And, on occasion, she ad- mitted that it wasn’t un- common for her to instruct her girls to provide special “private favors” to certain recruits or players upon re- quest, usually for an extra $100.
The fact that this woman thought it was okay to, es- sentially, pimp out her own kids was, to me, both sad and amazing. I mean it’s one thing for her to choose that kind of lifestyle for her-
A Blacks And Gun Control
t the rate young Black men are killing each other,
you’d never believe 72 percent of Black Americans believe that gun control is more important than gun rights. However, the Black community’s challenge is how to keep so many guns out of our children’s hands. An- other challenge is how do we keep our children from using guns to kill each other and to victimize their own communities?
Perhaps, we should recall the fact that 91 percent of Black gun-shot victims in America between 2009 and 2013 were killed by other Blacks, a trend characteristic of most ethnic groups. Therefore, any Black Lives Matter campaign should include all forms of violent deaths in our communities. Each year, nearly 10,000 Black Amer- icans are killed by other Black Americans. Such numbers exceed those of American military troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
No doubt, these figures are fueling the recent support of many gun control groups for the Black Lives Matter movement. Traditionally, Black people have viewed “gun control” as a means to disarm the Black community and to leave Black people vulnerable to racist attacks.
However, the majority of Blacks now realize the im- pact of allowing people with poor anger management skills or mental illnesses to have access to guns. Let’s make our voices heard, loud and clear, regarding our support of gun-control and the future of our existence as a people.
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015