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Editorials/Columns
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You Need A Hit List
mpowered Greetings.
To achieve any measure of success in life, you need to have a hit list. Every one of you read- ing this column ought to desire to have a list. Truthfully speak- ing, you shouldn’t go another day without creating your per- sonal hit list. Don’t just make the list in your head but write it out on paper. In fact, next to each hit on your list, put an ex- pected date that you plan to per- form the hit by. Look at your hit list often to keep you focused on your target.
In everyday vernacular, we know a hit list is a list of people that someone desires to be taken out, murdered or disposed of. I’m not saying that I want you to have anyone killed or anything like that. I am saying I want you to have a list of goals, and de- sires you want to hit. In actuality
I don’t just want you to hit them, but murder them, pick them off one by one until they are all gone.
Today, I want to challenge you to create your Top 10 Hit List. Your list should consist of things you want to see, do and experience in your personal or professional life. It can include anticipated hobbies you want to undertake, travel destinations, your ultimate career, your dream car, spiritual pursuits, business endeavors, your per- sonal style or brand of clothing you’d like to wear, the house your desire, etc.
Leave evidence of your hit list by cutting out pictures that define your aspiration. You can frame and hang pictures of your hit list around your house, room, car, office work space or anywhere visible. Every time
these photos capture your eyes, it will give you a jolt of inspira- tion to pursue those things you are passionate about. Your life will move in the direction of your focus. The time you spend concentrating on the dreams you’ve framed will be the cata- lyst that will cause you to con- nect with that destiny. You will discover a depth of motivation that’s essential to move you for- ward, so you can hit your mark.
Your written hit list coupled with your framed pictures of your future will serve a source to hold you accountable for contin- uing to go for the gusto. They will give you the boost you need to drive full speed ahead and conquer your quest. As you begin to knock off items on your hit list be sure to not only cele- brate your accomplishments but reflect on lessons learned while on your journey.
Selphenia would love to work with you to accomplish your hit list. Call 813-603-0088 to get the help you need to suc- ceed. Invite Selphenia to speak, train or facilitate your next event.
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C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
9-11: Fifteen Years And The Pain Is Still Real
iroshima could have been none worse. The sinking of
the Titanic could not have been more traumatic, nor the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK. All of these events tore at our hearts. But when the Twin Towers went down, when a jet airliner smashed through the front door of the Pentagon, we were there.
We Baby Boomers and we survivors of the so-called Great Generation, we have seen a lot in our time. The genie of atomic energy was let loose on our watch. Directly after World War Two (the second “war to end all wars”), our boys and girls went scrambling over the mountains of Korea and slogging through the jungles of Vietnam.
But, nothing like what happened, yesterday, fifteen years ago in Downtown Manhattan had ever happened here at home. Was this our Golgotha? Was this our Nagasaki . . . our poetic justice?
Almost 3,000 people from over 90 nations perished on that fateful day when words like “ni---r,” “Spick,” “honkey,” “fag,” and “lesbian” lost their sting as the phrase “Ameri- cans-all” described them who plummeted like wounded wrens falling countless stories from the twisted nests of two burning silver oaks.
Meanwhile, streets turned ant-like with heroes and on- lookers who worked too feverishly to fear for their own lives. That day, even America’s enemies wept.
And where were you, that fatal day? What were you doing when a group of evil-minded school boys who had the audac- ity to believe they were God-appointed martyrs, tore the throat out of a humanity who had done them no earthly harm?
Like a mule-kick in the stomach, did it punch the breath out of you as it did us? And we shall recall this tragedy the way we recall each of our tragedies, from a Gettysburg bat- tlefield to an Orlando dance floor. We shall remember 9-11 and teach our children to remember it. And then, as always, by the grace of God, we shall return our attention to the over- whelming business of living.
Their Day Is Surely Coming
“Even as I have seen, they that plan inequity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.”
Job 4:8 from The King James Bible
t is becoming more and
more evident to me that people, particularly those at the very top who make decisions that affect the lives of millions of individuals, are absolutely clueless when it comes to the knowledge of ancient lessons like the one mentioned above. Nor do they seem aware of the Karmic teachings of Buddhism or even subscribe to a law of physics that states, “for every action there is an equal or greater opposite reaction.”
You would have to believe that if they bought into even a portion of any one of these principles that they would re- frain from engaging in half of their nefarious deeds. But, since most of these corporate and governmental “shot- callers” seem willing to sacri- fice everything at the altar of greed and power, it comes as no surprise that self-preserva- tion and individual gain, at the expense of whoever gets in the way, are the only rules they deem worthy of abiding.
All of this occurred to me when I ran across a story last weekend about a company, by
the name of Energy Transfer, that is building an oil pipeline that stretches from the oil fields of North Dakota to a dis- tribution center in Illinois. A multi-billion dollar project that, according to the members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, threatens to destroy Na- tive American burial sites and has the potential to pollute the drinking water of their Indian Reservation.
Of course, since corpora- tions typically care little about collateral damage when there's an opportunity to fill their pockets, the concerns of the Natives fell on deaf ears. And, unfortunately, this lack of em- pathy resulted in a violent clash between those protesting the construction of the pipeline and the armed security hired to protect the company's interest.
During the ordeal the pro- testers wound up on the short end of a vicious attack where the security guards used dogs to maul and pepper spray to blind the people (including a pregnant woman and a young boy according to one report) who were simply taking a stand for something they deem sa- cred. The saddest part of this scenario being that, when it was all said and done, the bloodshed had zero impact on the owners of Energy Transfer who stated that they remain
committed to completing the construction of the pipeline.
The thing that bothers me the most about what's going on in North Dakota, on top of the fact that it stands as just the latest incident of the U. S. gov- ernment, once again, breaking its treaty with the indigenous people, is that it reminds me of the plight of the residents of West Tampa and Tampa Heights. The blatant disregard for the quality of life of impov- erished people for the sake of so-called progress is remark- ably similar.
In both cases the residents of a community are being dis- placed and having their rights infringed upon by corporations motivated solely by profit. And, in each case, the governments (local and federal) seem to have sided with the invading forces.
While these types of lop- sided arrangements appear to be the norm right now, some- thing tells me that this won't al- ways be the situation. Sooner than later, the “haves,” who've been living off the blood of the “have-nots,” will find them- selves sitting at tables that have been turned on them.
And, on that day, they will desperately try to make amends with those who they've wronged. But, at that point, begging for forgiveness will be futile because for those who once lived at the bottom, and who will finally have the upper hand, the tears will have come far too late.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. You can TEXT C.B., II, at (+18133080849).
The Group Who Hailed Hitler
onald Trump’s wooing of Black America and the catas-
trophe it most certainly will bring reminds us of an- other situation at another time when the fox was welcomed into the henhouse and by the time they realized the error of their ways, nearly all of the hens had been lost. But they were German hens . . . not hens at all, but German Jews.
And the fox was not a fox, but a wolf who called himself Adolf Hitler. And somehow, someone had convinced a group of German Jews that Hitler-wolf-anti-Semite was a hound whose bark was worse than his bite. So, in order not to be left out of the German political scene of the 1920s, 30s, and early 40s, a group of German Jews formed The Association of Ger- man National Jews.
Years later, in an article entitled “Trump in Florida and the German Jews Who Voted for Hitler,” Bradly Burston wrote, “Any Jew who votes for Donald Trump, is voting for an anti-Semite. So, the next time he asks you to raise your right hand, America, just say ‘Never Again!’”
But what if the hand he asks to be raised is Black?
For, who is to say we have all learned our lessons, those
of us who believe the fox would never be so bold as to knock on our doors? We, who have sur- vived slavery, Jim Crow citizenship and other catastrophes, when a wolf–in-sheep’s clothing courts our vote with a question, “What the Hell do you have to lose?” how might we answer?
Unless we intend to relive the horror of Jews in Nazi Germany, our answer to Trump better be “If we go with you, Mr. Pied Piper, we’ll have Hell to gain. So, regardless of some Black preachers who mysteriously sing your song, we say to you what Jewish survivors said to Hitler, “NEVER AGAIN!”And we add a parting note from the Black Community: “NOT THIS TIME!”
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5
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