Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 12-8-15 Edition

Editorials
Mind Your Own Business
Can A Devil Fool A Muslim?
The Trump Mystery
W e continue to be “amazed” at the number of marginal- ized Americans who appear so mesmerized by one of their current front-running Republican presidential candi-
dates, Donald Trump, we’re referring to.
Indeed, Hispanics, Muslims, “Black Lives Matter” sup-
porters, people with disabilities, women, and minimum wage earners appear to all have been targets of insensitive remarks made by America’s most recent reborn Archie Bunker-running for president of the United States. In spite of Trumps brash behavior and xenophobic comments, the very groups he has shown little to no sensitivity to, seem still to appear to support him. Is this a dream, or have we all gone mad? Go figure!
Obviously, too many voters are impressed more by Trump’s “take-no-prisoners” style of behavior than they are about the substance of his message. Indeed, those Black people, Hispanics, people with disabilities, and minimum wage workers who have endorsed and or confirmed their in- tent to vote for Trump have completely ignored his disdain for them. Referred to as “cognitive dissonance” by one well- known economist, the trend is scary. All the more so be- cause we are reminded that there were Jews in Finland during the 1930’s and 1940’s who supported Hitler.
Psychologists have a term that defines people who will- ingly participate in their own marginalization or destruc- tion. It’s called “INSANITY.” However, the mystery regarding Trump’s appeal remains not only unanswered, but unbelievable.
“Here is the prime condition of success: Con- centrate your energy, thought and capital exclu- sively upon the business which you are engaged. ... Resolve to lead in it... adopt every improve- ment, have the best... and know the most about it.”
Andrew Carnegie
Empowered Greetings. In order to get where you are try- ing to go in life it is imperative that you mind your own busi- ness. When you start redirect- ing your time worrying about what your so-called competi- tors are doing, remember to mind your own business.
When you start trying to redesign your ministry to function like somebody else’s, remember what God called you to do and mind your own business.
When you start trying to accomplish and gain the pos- sessions of others, remember
There was a time when the answer to the question above, at least to devout members of The Nation of Islam and the nation of gods and earths, would have been an emphatic “not nowadays” response. But recently, if the news being de- livered to us is accurate, it seems as though tricking a Muslim into performing acts of violence is as easy for a de- monic spirit as it would be for it to trick anyone else.
The most recent example of this occurred last Wednesday afternoon when an Arab Mus- lim couple, 27-year-old Syed Rizam Farrook and 26- year-old Tashfeen Malik, shot 35 people inside of a de- velopmentally disabled center in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 and injuring 21 oth- ers.
This latest act of unpro- voked violence comes on the heels of the attacks in Paris, France, where several individ- uals, allegedly affiliated with the terrorist group ISIS, car- ried out multiple mass shoot- ings and bombings across the French capital’s landscape. And, just as it was in the wake of that bloodbath, the San Bernardino massacre is acting
to take a step back so that you can mind your own business. In order for you to rise to
be your best, you must mind your own business. In other words, stay focused on the es- sentials in your life. The cen- ter of your attraction should be on developing strategies to build you personally, so that you can grow yourself, your business or your ministry.
Here are 7 reasons why you should Mind Your Own Business (M.Y.O.B.).
Mind your own business so that you can endeavor to concentrate on perfecting your craft.
Mind your own business so that you may devote your time and efforts to activating your business or ministry po- tential.
Mind your own business so that you can make critical decisions necessary to re- cover, strengthen and succeed in today’s diverse and chal- lenging market.
as a catalyst to provoke even more widespread Islamapho- bia as people become more and more leery of all things as- sociated with Islam.
While I can’t deny the fact that a number of the atrocities that have been orchestrated in public places worldwide, seem to have involved perpetrators who claim to practice some form of the Islamic faith, I’m still not ready to brand every hajji wearing woman or man carrying a set of duiker prayer beads as a terrorist.
That is mainly because, as a Black man who has felt first- hand the sting that comes with being stereotyped by my ap- pearance, doing the same to another ethnic group would make me feel like a first-class hypocrite.
The truth of the matter is that a terrorist (one who uses terror as a means of coercion) can come in any shape, size, color or religious denomina- tion. From the Dylann Roof’s of the world, who find enjoyment in shooting up Black churches, and psy- chopaths like Robert Dear, who targeted an abortion clinic because he believed that it was his Christian duty to
Mind your own business so that you can create prof- itable partnerships or collab- orations that will help you navigate and find relevant re- sources or ideas to sustain your business or ministry.
Mind your own business so that you can dedicate time to praying to God, seeking God and hearing the voice of God for guidance and direc- tion in your personal, busi- ness or ministry pursuits.
Mind your own business because what you spend your energy on is what you ener- gize.
Mind your own business because now, more than ever, is the time to energize and maximize the power of your own business.
Remember, don’t be too busy meddling in somebody else’s business to mind your own business.
Connect with me to gain more insight on developing strategies to grow your busi- ness. Website: successcoach- towomen.com or Facebook: Selphenia Nichols Success Coach To Women or on Twitter: queenofsuccess1 or on Instagram: Selphenia.
Call or text to request Selphenia to be a keynote speaker or trainer at your next event 813-956-0185.
protect babies, to the Chicago gangbangers who murdered 9- year-old Tyshawn Lee and the guy in Tampa who took the life of a 78-year-old grand- mother for her $30 EBT card, all of these people are guilty of making our lives terrifying. Does it really matter if some of these murderers prayed five times a day or if they prayed at all?
Our real battle is against in- sanity and ignorance, two things that never go well to- gether under any circum- stance.
In the grand scale of things, targeting the members of any one religious ideology comes off as a huge waste of time. Es- pecially when you consider that, behind every barbaric in- cident, there’s a dark force controlling the chaos.
Whether you know it by Lucifer, Iblis, Satan or Shatan, or simply consider it the purest source of negative energy, its influence on mankind is often our ultimate undoing. And, contrary to popular belief, the biggest trick that this presence (often referred to as “The Devil”) ever played wasn’t convincing us that it didn’t exist, it was fooling us into actually believ- ing that eliminating each other would solve all of our prob- lems.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bulletin Pub- lishing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityonice@yahoo.com.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5
Gun Violence: America’s A Unenviable Leadership
n obviously exhausted President Barack Obama peered
wearily into a CBS news camera and faced a nonplussed nation. What he would say in the next few minutes was nei- ther new nor earth shaking. If anything, it was gut-sickening when the world heard the most powerful man on earth admit, “We (Americans) have a pattern now of mass shoot- ings in this country that has no parallel anywhere in the world.”
But words don’t fly without numbers. So, let us reword President Obama’s statement to read, “We Americans have a pattern of mass shootings in this country that equals a list of more than 355 places and thousands of innocent Ameri- cans.”
But perhaps, our President’s words would have been even more compelling had he added names where massacres oc- curred... little out-of-the-way places like Roseburg, Oregon (10 dead, 9 wounded), Bamburg, South Carolina (4 injured) or big cities like Baltimore (1 dead, 5 injured), Philadelphia (4 injured), Washington, D. C. (5 injured), Jacksonville (1 dead, 3 injured), Fort Myers (1 dead, 5 injured), and here re- cently San Bernardino (14 dead, at least 12 injured).
Is Hollywood at last being out-done? Should the show- downs of Gunsmoke and the Tommy-guns of The Godfather be silenced in embarrassment for having not measured up to the slew of drive-by murders and indiscriminate killings that make America the most violent nation on the face of the earth?
And still, the NRA continues to embrace the buying of AR15’s (for sports purposes, of course). President Obama has fought a good fight. But he forgets that the violence that haunts our land goes all the way back to the assassination of Lincoln then marches forward to encompass the Kennedy brothers, M. L. King, and Malcolm X among many.
For every grain of sand on American beaches is a com- mensurate drop of blood. Perhaps, it’s time to own up to our heritage. Once we do so, then we may be ready to drop our guns.