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Financially Free
hen you are fi-
nancially inde- pendent, the way money functions in your life is determined by you, not your circumstances.” Un-
known
Empowered Greetings.
Most of you will be celebrating Independence Day this week. Question is, “When will you focus on your financial I-N-D- E-P-E-N-D-E-N-C-E. The tra- ditional definition of financial independence is to possess sufficient personal wealth to live indefinitely, without hav- ing to actively work for basic necessities.
A more simple contempo- rary definition of financial in- dependence would be to have enough income to support yourself in the lifestyle you de- sire and have money left over. To be financially independent doesn’t mean that you’re rich.
It means having enough and then some. So what’s finan- cially independent for you, will be different than what it is for someone else.
Most people generally trade their time for money by working as an employee or running their own business on a day to day operation. Finan- cially independent people, however based on the tradi- tional definition live off of ac- cumulated personal wealth obtained from some means of passive income.
Passive income as defined by the Internal Revenue Serv- ice is income from rental real estate activity or trade or busi- ness activity which you do not materially participate. Exam- ples would be income from rental property, royalties from a book, patent or other intel- lectual property. Earning money from internet adver-
tisements, annuities, divi- dends and interest from in- vestments can also be viewed as passive income.
If you want to increase the possibility of obtaining finan- cial independence then work on increasing your passive in- come and investments. Also consider working on decreas- ing your expenses, as financial independence looks at how much revenue you have verses how much your spending.
Until next time, work on your financial independence. For to be financially free is a notion worth celebrating.
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C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
A Memorial For Black Soldiers At Olustee
o doubt poking a stick in the eye of state and possibly national Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy, Florida’s native daughter and Congressional Rep.
Kathy Castor continues her crusade to take down yet an- other Confederate symbol.
Confederate General Edmund Kirby whose statue still stands in Statuary Hall at the U. S. Capitol, argues Castor, should be replaced by such leaders as Bethune Cookman University’s Mary McCloud Bethune (who is Black), fem- inist, journalist-environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas (who is not Black) “and many others who have made more lasting and positive contributions to our great state,” concludes Castor.
However, (in the midst of what appears to be not only a local, but national attempt historically to do the right thing), we would like to make a suggestion whose time is way overdue. State officials should return to the battle- field of Olustee, Florida and erect on that Civil War hal- lowed ground the statue or statues of Black soldiers who fell there in defense of the American Union.
It is perhaps, the final battle of the Civil War as fought in the state of Florida. Local Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy have fought against it tooth and nail, arguing that a current Confederate soldier memorial is all that should be necessary to remember the site. We and history disagree. Scores of Black men died on that plot of land, and if the state of Florida and the United States of Amer- ica has a conscience, the statue of a Black Union soldier is an excellent way to demonstrate it.
Yes, Rep. Castor, we appreciate your initiative. But if you really want to do the right thing, remember the Black soldiers of Olustee.
One Nation, One Flag
Marc H. Morial President and CEO National Urban League
house divided against it-
self cannot stand...I do not expect the Union to be dis- solved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” – President Abra- ham Lincoln, House Divided Speech, June 1858.
During a South Carolina gu- bernatorial debate last year, when the topic of the Confeder- ate battle flag on the State Capi- tol grounds came up, Governor Nikki Haley in- sisted there was no need to re- move the flag. Eight months later, in the aftermath of last week’s racism-fueled, shooting massacre of nine innocent peo- ple at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston by a white supremacist seen in pictures posing with the same flag that flies at full-staff on statehouse grounds, Governor Haley fi- nally called the for flag’s re- moval.
I applaud Governor Haley’s swiftness and resolute- ness in calling to remove the flag—a powerful symbol and re- minder of a dark time in our shared American history—from Capitol grounds. Already,
South Carolina lawmakers have agreed in large numbers, and across the aisle, to debate the removal of the flag this sum- mer. This is an important step, but it is only a first step.
We know that our work on this pressing issue will not be done until the flag comes down. That is why the National Urban League and its South Carolina affiliates have launched the “One Nation, One Flag” cam- paign. The campaign will sup- port the efforts of South Carolina’s legislators to end public displays of the Confeder- ate flag in its state; it will advo- cate for the removal of the Confederate flag from all public spaces around our nation; and it will promote the United States flag as a symbol of unity, tolerance and justice. Our cam- paign has adopted the social media hashtag #OneNa- tionOneFlag as a companion to #TakeItDown, and we are also urging like-minded people to sign the petition for the flag’s removal at IAmEmpowered.com.
National debate and division over this flag is nothing new and it has been re-ignited in the wake of this shocking and tragic hate-crime. The flag—born from the violence of division as southern states fought to secede from the United States—was
first raised atop South Car- olina’s Capitol dome in 1962, ostensibly as commemoration of the centennial anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. But many historians agree that the flag was raised in to demon- strate South Carolina’s defiance of desegregation and the Civil Rights movement.
Still, there are those who re- vere the flag as a symbol of the unique heritage of the southern states and a symbol of the battle for states’ rights, but for many others—the flag flown as a pre- eminent symbol for slave-hold- ing states—it is a vestige of human bondage, brutal oppres- sion, racial hostility and the ide- ology and violence of white supremacy. The public sanction of any symbol of hatred and tor- ture will serve only one pur- pose: to keep our nation—our house—divided. Now is the time for reconciliation. Now is the time for the flag, and all flags that do not promote unity, to come down.
If you believe symbols of hate and division have no place in our public spaces: take action. If you believe that right now— through horrible circum- stances— we have a meaningful opportunity to make those nine lost lives matter and to unite our divided house and form that elusive “more perfect union:” take action, join our campaign. The National Urban League will not rest until the final vote is taken in South Car- olina’s statehouse. We will not rest until these vestiges of slav- ery become our nation’s past and stop dividing us in the fu- ture.
The Confederate Flag: History Or Treachery?
nly in America do we celebrate traitors. For in-
stance, if Americans who fought on the side of the British during the Revolutionary War were called trai- tors, then what does that make Americans who fought on the side of the Confederacy? They were traitors, too!
Why don’t we see Americans whose ancestors who fought on the side of the British waving and parading the British flag during Fourth of July celebrations?
In fact, the names of Benedict Arnold, John Malcolm, James Chalmers, John Butler, even William Franklin (Benjamin Franklin’s son) who were all pro-British, have all but been erased from American history books.
Yet, traitors like Robert W. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Braxton Bragg, and the battle flags they flew have re- mained often centermost not only in our history, but in our modern mythology.
Military bases are named after Confederate war he- roes; parks, streets, and mountains carry their names. Young toughs in oversized pickup trucks race through neighborhoods carrying oversized Confederate flags bolted to the sides of their vehicles. What if, instead of the Confederate Stars and Bars, it was the British Union-
Jack?
It is time, therefore, to remove the Confederate flag from places of honor. Either that,
or one day, we may wake to find the Nazi Swastika proudly raised on American soil, and because we turned a deaf ear to the argument against the Confederate flag, we will have no argument against the Swastika. Think about it.
TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A
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