Are we (America) ready toEmbrace Dark Shadows From Our Past & What is the way forward?

 Exactly one presidential term ago, America had a new tag line to accompany the celebration of a heroic decision by a fearless country, which for the first time   stepped outside its comfort zone  and elected a minority as its president.  It was our attempt to clean our conscious  and move into a  new era in the relationship between us as a nation and one  of the prominent groups in the founding of this country, its our attempt in trying to say to the world, Oh yes we have come a long way, we are grown ups and we are not afraid of our past, we are ready to embrace it and we are doing that the American way with glitter and lights , we even came up with a new  fancy political tag line , ‘Post racial ‘  the only problem is , the tag line is only glossy when printed in the pages of magazines and newspapers,  poetic only when its being used by the many radio and TV commentators, on our air waves……   in reality  there is nothing like post racial America and  the past four years have just proven that school of thought to be right.

    Every thing have a good and a bad side and I also agree that things can get worst before they get better and Obama’s election did just that , research have shown that racial intolerance have increase since then.  Discrimination against blacks have been higher in the past four years than in any recent past. 

Obama's effigy hanged,Goldsboro NC

      We know that presidential campaigns stimulates  people’s emotion, this year's presidential election did more than that, all you need to do is log into YouTube and see what people are saying about the president in terms of his race.  I want to believe in the principles of America again, I want to believe in our constitution again, I want my daughter to grow up in a country where ‘post racial’ really means something not a mere slogan…  Those of us that believe in that need to work and fight for it .

   May be  I am too much of an idealist to even notice that we are not ready yet, we have to find a way and have a nationwide open and honest conversation on how we treated the minorities amongst us and how to create a future of mutual respect for people who are different from us.  Just before I finished writing this entry , a friend of mine in North Carolina posted disturbing photograph of a hanged Obama effigy,  which  makes me feel  like I wanna puke, so much for ‘Post Racial’ politics, Wake Up America, lets vote and save the integrity of this great country…...

A whisper to my Daughter

 Dear Rahmat

     Every family have a tradition that have been passed on from generation to generation, once in a while  a generation alters this tradition to suit ‘the moment’, to the displeasure of surviving members from  the generation before. The worst of all is if a generation have to lay  a long cherished  family tradition to rest because it is not in harmony with current trends or doesn't fit in with the present or will not make sense to the next  generation. Most repetitive  traditions have something in common, either they get misinterpreted or the story behind why and how or sometimes which predecessor kicked it off gets blurred as time goes on. I Know that by now you are wondering why, I , your Baba(dad)  is addressing  you in a public sphere rather than during  our weekly intimate chit -chat . Rahmat its because I am  finding it difficult to come up with how to share this long family  tradition of story telling, especially  my grand mom’s favorite, ‘the tale of the spider who flew on borrowed wings’ .  

      From the age of 3 all children in my grandmothers care sat in a circle to listen to fables, stories, allegories and what have you from the adults in the family and the night always wraps up with my grand mother’s moral tale of the ‘flying spider’. It is a tale that she use to tell us of the dangers of being greedy,ingratitude and lack of compassionate, that story have been in my family for generations to the extent that some people in my family ‘believed’ that it is a true story.. It goes like this

       Long long long time ago, there was an animal village in a far far far away land , and the citizenry of this village are  from many different animal kingdoms, they came together and created the most thriving  village in the middle of nowhere it was a well knitted and every one knows and like their neighbors. Tigers had coffee with the sheep and her family,Lion cubs play alongside deers , the birds and the spider are friends.. Until one day everything changed. A great famine swept around the world, lakes,rivers and even some believed the ocean dried up.  There was a lot of bush fire out breaks and many kingdoms perished, many animals migrated. In this kingdom where every one get along animals shared food , help each other, they even took in some animals from other kingdoms who were running away from the fires that was burning down their settlements.

        Mother bird and father Bird decided to take a risk and fly to see what was out there, they flew for ours until mother bird who was following her husband, spotted a something that look like a small village, she signal him and he circled and landed on on the tree in the middle of this village. Mother and father bird saw a lot of food all over the place , but there was no living being, so they ate and ate and took some home. They shared it with all their neighbors especially the spider and his family since they share walls with the bird family. This continue for several weeks.

   One day spider requested that the Bird family bring him to where the food is so that he will help them bring more to help the village folks, at first they hesitated  , but spider was persistent and convincing.. The bird family gave spider some feathers and took him to the food land.

    One spider told the bird family he was sick and cannot go to the food land with them. The bird couple went by themselves and to their amazement the village look like any other village, they though they may have lost their way so they kept flying for aways and still didn't come across anything. So they decided to go home and trying again the next day. For three days they will fly for several hours without luck. So they decided to ask Spider if he have any food left over from the past, spider said ‘I am sorry I don't have any food….. 

   The next day father bird woke up a the middle of the night and he saw spider flying out of the village towards the direction of the food village.Father bird went back into his house and woke mother bird and the eight kids, they went into hiding until the morning light started streaking in, then they saw spider flying into the village quietly with a bag full of food carried on his back. The bird family rushed out and asked spider where he get the food from. He confessed that he had been going to the food village by himself and asked for forgiveness, the bird family took their feather back and spider was banished from the village for being greedy and selfish.

        Rahmat, this story have been in my family for generations, I will not be able to share it with the same  bravado my grand mom shared it with my mom and myself,even if grand mom shared it with you , you may not have the same imagination when listening to it like me and my mom did.. You will be missing the wish of being able to fly because you are born in an era where flying is not about being on a borrowed wing like the spider, but being able to do things that you want, being able to be whoever you want to be and having the choice to fly with others in an airplane or a private jets or in an individual capsule as was done recently by Felix Baumgartner

Rahmat and her Baba

  On the contrary , unlike my grand mother and my mother whose only hope for me was to take the moral in that story and figure out how to live in a small complicated world, the world they know. I have a much bigger opportunity, to day dream, hope and believe for many opportunities  to come your way . I envisioned you being the first from my lineage to go to space, fly a real airplane (instead of borrowed wings) I  envision you being the first  female  of color  Governor of  the great State of Maine or even the first female of color to lead this great country.. But all of this will be on you just like  my grand mom and mom hope that I will take the moral message   from the repetitive  story to guide and live my life . I also hope you will take this story and widened your possibilities, get education, be involved with the community that you grow in, reach out to people near and far. Be compassionate, for it doesn't matter how bad your situation may be, there will still be others you can stretch and give . Rahmat, I am human and have my  deficiency, but I am sure by now, you know I am  compassionate and fair to others, please be better than me.

  

If you chose to be  a politician, use compassion in  dealing with your constituents . Don't make money the center of your policy. 

 If you happened to be  a chef,catering or butchering, please do not throw away your left over food, there is always going to be the next door neighbor who is hungry.

  

You can also be a teacher or  school administrator,  please make sure you listen to what your students have to say and know that all your students may not have the same abilities.

  

If being  a cleaner is your choice,  do know that, YOU, and no one else have the privilege to make wherever you clean a healthy environment for all.

  

I envisioned you being a medical doctor, please treat all with fair, irrespective of how they pay you or what insurance policy  they have.

   

The ability to misuse bestowed authority and  power is always tempting, if you decide to be a law enforcement  officer,  be the most honest and upright  officer you can be.  Be humane to those that break the law irrespective of  their sexual orientation, skin color, the car they drive or political status

   Being  judge is a blessing, if that is what you calling is, please be the most fair of them all.

  Rahmat I can go on endlessly,  counting all the possibilities that is out there for you just because, you were  born in one of the greatest countries in the world, so I  hope you grow up to be a useful and grateful global citizen irrespective of which path your life or Allah takes you .

Your  loving Baba

Bonded by History Detached by Diversity

   I am a news junkie so I listen to the radio a lot , most of the time you will catch  me with the  dial  in  my car radio  firmly locked on NPR or if I am in the mood and in need to being entertain,I may be listening to the Glenn Beck show on WMPG am radio... a couple of weeks ago two news items caught me by surprised, both of them were race related in one the victim died in the second one the victim lived to tell his story. They are both victims of aggressive behavior base on their race..
  The first and the most tragic of the two is the incident involving Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, which as at now (time of writing) have the capability of setting our country on yet another race related debates or  riot, in a scale  not  seen  since the time of the OJ Simpson trial or the Rodney king riot..
     The other incident,  is a story I heard on Glenn Beck  and on his website 'The Blaze' involved a 13 year old boy who was set on fire by two  16 year old black teen boys. They doused him with gasoline and lit it and yelled 'this is what you deserved white boy'.   The kids family are traumatized, his 5 year old sister went and asked  her parent if she will be the next to be set on fire?  Violence of this nature is wrong  we need to speak against it. When are we going to treat each order with respect?
   I think its time for us to stop band aiding our race related issues, America needs to confront its race and class issues not during election campaign season, we can have something like what happened in South Africa or in Sierra Leon.. we need to heal our soul, the soul of America.........
     During the  2008  campaign season, I run into an engaging student from a local college volunteering as a foot soldier for the  Obama '08 campaign, I decided to  play  ' The devils advocate'.  the young man asked me if I was a registered voter when I answered in the affirmative, he went on to ask me if I was  ready to vote for then candidate Obama , I responded and said, first 'I am not a Democrat and why are you campaigning for  Obama any way?  The young man then shifted into his 'campaign  mood' without knowing that I was  role 'playing ', his respond,  ' When he (Obama) becomes the president, racism will end'  I asked him how voting Obama to the white house will  suddenly change something that is ingrained  into our psyche as a people , a country bonded together by history and yet detached from one another by diversity, Our country is the most diverse in the history of the world and yet we are not fully celebrating that diversity in the most positive way possible.How I wish these young man was right and that one of my heroes, the late Emperor  Haillie Selassie  of Ethiopia is wrong when in a speech at the UN, he beautifully painted the picture of what the problem of Race and Class, a speech that have more meaning today than ever, below are excepts from the Speech
         

Until the philosophy which hold one race Superior and another inferior Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned Everywhere is war, me say war That until there are no longer first class And second class citizens of any nation Until the colour of a man's skin Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes Me say war That until the basic human rights are equally Guaranteed to all, without regard to race Dis a war That until that day The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship Rule of international morality Will remain in but a fleeting illusion To be persued, but never attained Now everywhere is war, war

What Risk will you take to be the 'Drum-Major' of your time

  Iam always excited about January, not because of the resolution that I cant follow through with, or because its a brand new month, its simply because two of my most adore heroes  the Late  Dr Martin Luther King  a civil rights leader and Mohammed Ali,  a sportsman, activist and philanthropist,  both have their birthdays in this wonderful month. Every year i tried to be involved in something that the  two men  had in common. Since Dr King's Birthday comes is a national holiday I will share

Dr King

  This year I reflected on an audio, I stumbled upon a few days ago, it was a sermon Dr King delivered on February 4 1968 two months before his assassination titled, 'The Drum-Major Instinct' in which Dr King, compared our desire to be different and great,  to the role the  lead drummer (Drum-Major) plays in a marching band. Dr king went on to say that we can use that desire to lead and serve others instead of being selfish.   Dr King risked his life for a cause he believed will change the way things were done, he led and fueled the civil rights movement with powerful inspirational speeches quoted with biblical parodies, that led our country to make very significant changes.

Pious Ali, Judith Abdullah & Rev Kenneth Lewis

   Unfortunately the struggle for a change in health care, homelessness, workers right, education is still around  and dogging us , What are you ready to take a risk for,.  What legend do you want to leave behind after you were dead and gone? how many people are you going to inspire, support, lead or put before yourself? The time to act is now, tomorrow might be too late, get up do something in your community, reach out to some one across the globe, support a cause in your community, Town , City , Synagogue,  Church, Mosque, Temple or on the Internet.  There is a lot of marching bands all over the world waiting for you to be their  (  Drum ~Major)... Be, don't wait for the right time..  this is the right time.



Quote of the day:‎'
  "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter." ~  Martin Luther King, Jr




“You lose nothing when fighting for a cause ... In my mind the losers are those who don't have a cause they care about.” ― Mohammed Ali   

Where is your faith; Boko Haram

 Dear Boko Haram
   I  know you may not see or read this letter, but I will write it any way.  I do respect the fact that you don't want to acquire western education or in some instances you  selectively accept some aspects of western education that agree with  your interpretation of Islam and junk the ones that you don accept, that is okay too, after all you are entitle to your God or Allah giving right to chose and decide what you wan to eat , drink worship, wear, etc. because you are human.
     I also don't know if you are aware that , all the  civilized countries of the world came together and have something call 'Universal Human Rights' which  derived most of its sources from what we believe is rights giving to us by Allah, like the right to make a choice of who or what we want to worship.  I hope you are with me and know what I am trying to bring to your attention.  You see I don't need to be a clergy to point out some basic flaws in your interpretation of Islam,  what about the Surat , in which the Holy Qur'an made it clear in( Surat Kaffirun)  or Holy Qur'an Chapter 109. on how to peacefully co-exist with the 'ahalun kittab' people of the book or Jews and Christian...
  I know that you claimed to be defending yourselves, come on now, the Christians are not the ones fighting you, if you have any bone to pick, it should be with the federal government..  I hope you will come across this and at least have compassion on the poor Christians you are unleashing your TERROR on, attacking a church on Christmas day and killing innocent people may be a message to your neighbors but it is UN~ISLAMIC may Allah Guide us all. Where is your Iman?  What will you say if your fellow Nigerians who are not Muslims storm a local mosque in Ramadan during Lailatul Qadar and start shooting Innocent women and children? Shame Unto you
   Merry Christmas
      Pious Ali

December blues and the fight over Public Square, Can we share both?

   The month of December means many things to different  people, to some its the end of the year and they have to take stock of the past year and make changes, personal and professional improvements, to others its the time of  annual resolution which  doesn't  go pass the first few weeks of the next month or year.To many faith traditions and cultures it is time to celebrate and worship and give thanks to  what ever they believe in... it's also one of the most controversial times of the year as  Jews, Christians, African Americans, Buddhist, Zoroastrians , pagans  and many others in between  celebrate different religious and holidays across the world, here in the USA where we pride our selves for being the most diverse country ( in the history of the world) culturally and religiously, we are locked in a brawl over who have the right to display their faiths symbols in public square as if that will change or alter the diverse nature of this great country of ours.
       Everyone  knows that some  Americans observe Christmas as a circular holiday, but we also have others who celebrate it as a religious holiday and want it to remain as such, and there are those that don't belong to any of the two groups and are protesting the public display of Christmas images, or the mentioning of Christmas in public school songs, they want to replace that with the words 'holidays' my question is is there a way we can agree to disagree on this issues? is it possible to celebrate the diversity we have in a very solemn way as we go through this controversial month? can we live and let others live, is it possible for our schools to have two versions of every Christmas/Holiday songs, one for those that celebrate and the other for those who don't? and can our city halls have the  traditional, Christmas trees/ wreath / the menorah (Hanukkah) and the candles that represent Kwanzaa, the atheist symbols that represents the celebration of 'Yule',  will that make us all happy? Can we live and let others live.......
 
Below are the Holidays in December:  2011


December 5    Ashura    (Islam) 

December 8    Bodhi Day (Buddhist)

December 8    Immaculate Conception    (Christian) 

December 21-28    Hannukah    (Jewish)

December 22    Yule    (Pagan/Wiccan)

December 25    Christmas    (Christian)

December 26  Kwanzaa (African Americans)

December 26    Zarothost Diso

Where are the voices of Reason

   Some times I wonder if we( Humankind) were created to fight each other to destruction.  We are bugged in one too many wars , Iran and Israel are heating up the tension in the Middle East theater after the IAEA issued a news release bout the current situation on Iran's nuke program.
   President Obama met with about 19 Asian Pacific leaders  in Hawaii (minus China), they discuss how to revive the world economy which is good because a lot of families are falling apart as a result of the many economic melt downs across the globe. That was a very big 'strategic' step for the world economy. Then he went to Australia and sign an agreement package which includes  'expanding' our presence in that region by sending 2500 marines in the next few years ,  the Chines don't want that many US Marines Corps  in their neighborhood so they protested. I am wondering what they will do in the next few days.  I am scare of the direction our world is taking,  scare of the unknown,  scare of what will happen to many mothers and children, am angry because there are so many people losing their jobs, homes and cannot put food on their table cannot feed their children, most of them live in shelters, they are homeless. Some  world leaders are busy threatening each other or watching  whiles women and children are are being killed in Syria and other parts of the world. I wonder how and when we will slow down or stop killing each other in the name of Religion, Politics and what have you... I still hope that someday, peace  and Love  will come ...


 Quote of the day:
"The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay."~ President Obama
'"the notion that we fear China is mistaken."~ President Obama

Moving On,:

  Exactly one year ago, this week I was preparing to go on one   of the most important journeys in my life,  a venture  that brought me to ancient places that I have read in holy books and seen on TV and movies, to places whose stories I have heard over and over since I was a kid, this journey brought me to God's 'Front Doors' I travelled to Jerusalem.   Whiles there I did blogged and took pictures and asked questions, and experience many things, but suddenly I lost the drive to blog or share all the fun and the things I saw. But this morning I have reverse that decision, I am going to blog again. Please bear with me as some of my writings will not be perfect, .. 

Sunday Nov 14th
    We left Amman and took a cab to the Allenby Bridge crossing. We were praying that its not too busy at the border as it's the weekend to the Eid.(Muslim festival)  we went through immigration and the officer took our passports and asked us to go wait. We waited  and were caught having a very deep conversation around how CHANGE can happen in our world. I think both me and my friend Daniel are idealists, after  almost 45-50 minutes, we became a bit alarmed so we went to the immigration box and asked about our passports and the officer said  ' go and wait' and he went on with his work. It took us almost 15 minutes for someone to explain to us  that they are going to hold on our passports and will give it back to us after we  board the  bus that will bring us to the other side (Israel) of the boarder . Our bus was stopped again and everyone was asked to come down, the security guys did their checks did their work and we went back to continue our Journey.
   When we get to the Israel side of the boarder , there was a long line again due to the Eid festival many people were going to visit families. We join a line that was moving a bit faster than snail pace and eventually arrived at the security check point where we were asked to run our luggage's through a scanner and walk through  the body scanner. Then we handed our passports to the officers who check it out and pass it on. This time around my friend Daniel was questioned about his passport because its old and was issued outside the US. He also have been to many countries in the Middle and far East. so we were joking that the two of us should not be traveling together because we are an odd duo. ME with almost new passport , traveling the first time to the region and Daniel with an old passport issued outside the US and with visa stamps from almost all over the region and beyond. We were thinking that they my be  thinking  'hhmm may be we are 'spies'
   I went through a lot of questions and Daniel was also questioned, eventually we were giving back our passports and said good night. Our ride back home was smooth we were stopped once when were going through the West Bank . We arrived in East Jerusalem and walked back home as we continued with our  idealists agenda on how to save the world and who we were going to collaborate With. We were like  Peace Building 'supermen' in the making.....

PEACEFUL THOUGHTS: Journey to God's Compound: Jerusalem to Jordan(Amm...

PEACEFUL THOUGHTS: Journey to God's Compound: Jerusalem to Jordan(Amm...: " I woke up feeling refreshed and energized, 'whoa' I am supposed to be tired after that long flight. I am like an athlete who is about to co..."

Journey to God's Compound: Jerusalem to Jordan(Amman and Jaresh)

 I woke up feeling refreshed and energized, 'whoa' I am supposed to be tired after that long flight. I am like an athlete who is about to compete in a 100 meter sprint, energize and ready to go. I washed,  had breakfast and started getting ready for a long drive to Amman Jordan for a visit.  Just when  I finished having my breakfast our ride came and we have to leave I was following Daniel ( my friend and  host )as we run down the  stairs. Even though my adrenalin is high my brain seems to still be half asleep from the jet lag as we drive through the streets of Jerusalem and my two friends were showing me what is what  when we came to a rest place with many tourists taking pictures of the beautiful hills whiles others were taking pictures on a 'rented' camel which I also  took a couple.. click: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83538&id=1023691597&l=1e0c647f70
  We drove for two hours  stop at only one check  point and finally arrived at  the boarder where we have to get a visa and continue our journey to Amman.  We crossed the Israeli side took a bus to the Jordanian side of the border. We answered a couple of questions and since this was the first time crossing through this point , I was photographed and my right hand thumb print was taking, after a couple of standard questions they welcomed me to Jordan and asked me to go. One of the officers asked me if I know Michael Essien ( Ghanaian international soccer star) when he saw from my passport that I was born in Ghana.

a@ the  'Cantaloupe'

  We drove through beautiful mountains ,small towns and villages on these part of Jordan. The people were nice and the food awesome. We spent the evening driving round the city of Amman, whose night life is just like any American or western country's city night life. Rainbow  street is littered with many shops, cafes beautiful restaurants and cocktail bars we spent about 30 minutes in a cocktail bar name Cantaloupe over looking the beautiful Amman night skyline. ... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83545&id=1023691597&l=0a46265be6

Sitting on the stars to the temple of Zeus

 We were hosted to a dinner by  Seeds of Peace DL'S and some others from  a couple of local peace and interfaith organizations,  It was a perfect networking diner for us and the locals as well. Still tired from my flight I slept like a baby at the end of the day.
  Our friend  picked us up to the Montessori School where another  friend teaches, we had breakfast and were giving a mini tour of the . School was half day because the next three days is one of Islam's holy-days. ( Eid -Al Adha) Our next stop  to visit in Amman is  Jerash : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83549&id=1023691597&l=e815faf230

   Jerash is an ancient Roman city 48 km. north of Amman.  At one point had 20-25,000 people living there it was inhabited for about 6500 years by the Romans.  I was amazed by the beauty of the ruined old city and the Zeus temple . I kept asking my self, if the Romans knew that someday, their pride will be history and people from all walk of life will come from near and far just to appreciate its beauty and wonder how it was built.. 
Quote of the Day: 
  'Our civilization is now in the transition stage between the age of warring empires and a new age of world unity and peace'.~~ John Boyd Orr

jerusalem Chronicles: My Journey and the complex Identity of God's compound

    Located between the dead  sead and the Meditarranean Sea, Jerusalem  is a 'holy City' to the three Abrahamic Faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).. It is a tourist destination for many people of various faiths from all over the world:
           Thursday : Nov 11 20 10
    My flight from Boston's Logan airport  to JFK was about half an hour which was great.  I took the  shuttle to Newark airport. The boarding and departure was on time despite the many layers of securities  at the airport for those of us traveling to Israel.  I slept a couple of hours and  wake up to have dinner after which I watched the  movie Gandhi and went back to sleep again , when I woke up we were two hours away from Ben Gurion int  airport in  Tel Aviv and my heart  started beating faster, so I am finally getting to be here , to see all the holy sites I have been reading about since I was a child and many stories  my many  friends from the region have been telling me. I was excited.. We clapped and cheered as the plane made a safe landing.  My excitement was short lived as I walked out of the plane into the beautiful warm weather of God's Country..
                                                                 
                                                           'PRIVILEGE PASSENGER'
 Friday 11.20.10
 I was the only  passenger who is Black / African Descent or you can say ( person of color) as  officially referred to in America. Those of you that I have shared my airport experiences with, know that I am a 'privilege' passenger, and it didn't take long for the Israel security officials to figure that out, an officer pointed at  me  and asked me to  step  aside for security check whiles showing me his badge.
 ' I am use to this but at least they should have wait for me to streh my legs after  10 hours flight. The first officer asked me for my passport and asked me all sort of questions from my first, last and family names to my grand parents names and my job address. Then handed my passport to another officer who asked me the same questions and also asked me if I have another passport apart from the America one when I asked why should i have another passport?, his response: ' because you were born in Ghana and some people have two passports' and handed my passport to me.
Fastfoward to the passport control 'box'  : I handed my passport to an officer in one of the kiosks and she also drilled me with the same questions in a nice way, much nicer than the guys from the plane gates. She then gave my passport to another officer who asked me to followed him which I did thinking that he was just going to do a body check and let me go since I was having an American Passport, I was wrong...... it took me more than two hours to leave the airport and according to other people, I was lucky.... 
  I went through many interviews by about six different immigration officers asking me the same questions over and over and over again., they called my friends to verified if they were expecting me. The whole process was very intimidating and stressful. The last officer that interviewed me was  a sweet lady, she was very respectful as she asked two additional questions: Are you a  Muslim and  do have  any kids, what are their names? I answered and she made a last phone call to the friend who was picking me up and asked me to go  wait for her . She came out a couple of minutes later and handed me my passport as she welcomed me to Israel.  I was picked up by  my friend Daniel and his friend. We drove to an open outdoor  market  call  Mahne Yehuda in down town Jerusalem  the market was busy Shabbat. We visited a young family for me to have diner and also see how the Shabbat  is observed. .  The street of the neighborhood the (Bak' a ) was empty as people wish each other Shabbat Shalom, its the Jewish observing of the sabbath  I have already falling in love with the city of Prophets David, Solomon and Jesus.

 Quote of the Day:
 Holy Quran chapter 7:verse 1
'Glory to ((Allah)) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque (Mecca)to the farthest Mosque(Jerusalem), whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things).

   
 

Here Comes November again and the Politicians are 'Mud-Sliding' Each other.

  There is an old believe that, every generaation preserve its values by passing it down to its young ones  both formal and informal way. Every November there is an election either to elect community, city, municipal State or National representatives and this November is not any any different. The only thing that sets this year's election apart from its predesors is that more money is spent by politicians attacking each other, than any time in the past. Instead of telling us what they will do if voted into office, they are telling us how their opponents are not good for us. And they do it by any means neccersary, through  TV,radio,newspaper, internet and of course by sending it to our homes  through the postal services.  Some of this attacks are lies, others half truths and some small part of it is true. Why cant we go back to the way things were done in the past  where election is about, what and how an individual is going to serve the people that elected them into office? is that the kind of values we want to live our young people who are learning  what this politicians are doing to each others careers through all the tools they have available?

Celebrating Aseel Asleh and Mahatma Ghandi

  October 2nd, means a lot to many people, to those of us who consider ourselves to be  part of the Seeds of peace (extended )family, we remember a young man: Ten years ago a 17 year  young Palestinian peace activist was shot by the Israeli police, as he took part in a peace protest.
  To the world, its the  birthday of Mahatma  Gandhi, the creator of the modern day peace protest. For me the  life of this  gentlemen teaches  one thing, you can never go wrong with peaceful protest , its the answer to many of the problems our world face today from Russia to Rwandan and from Brunei to Brazil all we need is  People like Aseel and Gandhi to lead and the rest of us will follow, even though they are not here with us, they both left behind blue prints of their lives for us to follow. Aseel in the form of a letter he sent to his friends  he met at  the Seeds of Peace Camp and Gandhi in the form of many of the writings he left behind and they both lived by what they believed in.  Please click here to see a video of Aseel's letter read by Peace activists from all over the world in many languages http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9T8GcuX7yA&feature=player_embedded
   And my promise to  Aseel and Gandhi is I will continue to share their stories and their philosophies to many young people  I cross paths with in my life  and I hope you will do same , lets  celebrate their lives for generations to come.

 Quote of the Day
“Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong” Gandhi

 In memory of Aseel  I change the name of this Blog from 'My Thoughts' to  'Peaceful Thoughts'

Seeking Common Ground on Race, Faith and Politics in America

 Almost a year ago  this time,the city of Portland and the Maine Civil Liberties Union were at each others neck over whether the Afghan community can turn a building into a mosque or not. the issue was settled out of court  in a very civil manner after a couple of  appearances in front of a judge .  The Portland Press Herald's web page was turn into a battle ground between supporters for and against both sides, many nasty things were said to each other and against Moslem's and immigrants.  The issue gave us an opportunity as a community to learn more about each other and get to know ourselves well and also an opportunity for the local Muslim community to  reach out to the greater Portland and Maine Communities, both sides allowed the opportunity to slipped through their fingers. Unfortunately we are facing yet another controversy at national level and the past few weeks its been getting worst and looks like our country's political leaders are going to hold on it  through the fall elections, and the local media have already started taking advantge of the situation. Today I was listening to 560 WGAN's John McDonald Show and when he opened the lines for listeners to contribute on the Ground Zero Mosque controversy, you can tell by the comments that many or most of the callers get their information through cable TV or certain radio shows. There are certain things we have to learn sooner or later one of them is that whether we agree with each ther or not, we dont have a choice if we want to stay in this country, we have to engage each other in the most civil way or we may end up destroying each other out of hate. Islam have been in this country since the days of slavery some of the Africans that were brought here were Muslims  and  Maine is also on record as having the first established mosque in the union check this out from this links .http://video.mpbn.net/video/1540819504
 http://www.upf.tv/upf06/Films/PrinceAmongSlaves/tabid/77/Default.aspx
  
   

MOVIES,MUSIC & YUMMY ICE CREAM AS DHAISY CAME TO MAINE

                   2010 Maine African Film Festival
The past week was an amazing one for me. I am on the board  and organizing committee of the Maine African film  festival and we just had our second  Annual festival. Beautiful movies were screened and the attendance was fair and I had fun at the closing party was  fill with, friends, fun and  good music all night. 

             Dinner with Dhaisy
    Just when that fun  was ending I had to transition into a new kind of fun, I was joining some community and religious leaders, and students  to have  dinner with Dhaisy Khan from New York. She was in  Portland Maine to give a lecture at the '2010 Douglas Schair Lecture on Genocide and Human Rights' and the theme of her presentation was 'MUSLIM WOMEN and the AMERICAN  EXPRESSION of ISLAM.
  Dhaisy is the Executive Director and Co-founder of the American society for Muslim Advancement(ASMA), she is also the founder of The Women Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity(WISE) and also Muslim leaders of Tomorrow. the dinner was at the Portland Harbor hotel.and the food was excellent but her personality was the icing on top of the perfect night.  There was many community members there to make her feel at home.
              
  CIVIL RIGHT AND DIVERSITY DAY  - AUGUSTA MAINE
   As if that was not enough, I had an appointment with a high school in Augusta, the capital city of Maine. Monday was the Civil right and diversity day organize by the Civil Right Team  at CORNY High School in Augusta Maine, and I was to do a  two presentations on being a Muslim in America (Islam 101)and one on being an immigrant...  I was greeted by a group of smiling students and was ushered into the 'food' room where there is anything from bagel to munchkins and of course coffee, tea and some juice to go with. I was treated like a local ' champion' with one student waiting to attend all my needs. it felt good so much that i text one of my friends in Portland and said I was moving to Augusta.
            My presentation went well I was impressed by the students' engagement through all three sessions.  Most of the  questions  were  interesting, some were silly but genuine,a lot were   honest  questions from young high school students who  wanted to learn about my beliefs and  where I was coming from. I  had lunch and some yummy Ice cream and was praying that I don't fall asleep driving back to Portland.
                               DHAISY' S LECTURE WAS FANTASTIC
  I walk into the Hannaford hall at the University of Southern Maine the room was full like all the past annual Douglas M. Schair Memorial Lecture on Genocide and Human Rights, people were eager to hear what she has to say. She delivered a powerful lecture , answered many question to the satisfaction of the audience. Once again Maine have demonstrated that it is possible for us to co-exist and lean from each other. Thanks to the Hudson Foundation and the Scahair family for making this lecture  possible, for more info on some of the wonderful things they do in our great State please visit them at    
   www.http://hudsonfoundationmaine.org

  Quote of the day:
'There is only one country in the world in which Muslims are FREE and it is the  USA' .....Dhaisy Khan

 
 

IF I HAD COFFEE WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA IN PORTLAND MAINE.......

 Dear President Obama,
  Welcome to Portland Maine, by the time you read this, your plane is already left the shores of this beautiful Northern New England City, but I will go ahead and  read  from what was on the list of our coffee social (meeting) that never happened,  first and foremost I will share with you what is going on in Portland or Maine for that matter .  The Catholic Dioces in Portland made a big head line last week when they informed a local non profit (Preable street)  that not only to refund the  money they(Catholic Church) have giving them to help the homeless, but they will not fund the organization's projects  any more, Because the non profit supported gay marriage  movement during the last general elections and that makes me wonder where lies the compassion that religious organizations preach if they will chose politics over humanity . Then on the political front I was at a rally a few days before congress passed the 'Obamacare' bill that you are here to promote and every one at the rally ws angry and protesting against an insurance company that was increasing its premium.
   Mr president, YOU will have been impressed by the young people in my youth group, I will send you their pictures, last Thursday we volunteered at an event in Freeport to raise money for the YMCA and on Friday we also volunteered here in Portland at another Fundraiser to support a Pro-Bono legal NGO 'Immigrant Legal advocacy Project' (ILAP)that helps local immigrants with their immigration paper works for free or small fee and on Sat we went to the soup kitchen in the morning and then did another project in the afternoon, you see how busy I keep the youth around here? Oh there is another movement here in Portland that was planning to meet you with placards, they want comprehensive Immigration reforms and another want to make sure that the local legal residents can vote during local elections(What do you think about that) I will not tell any one what your opinion is, since it would have been between the two of us.
      Mr President yesterday I was hoping we were going to meet so I wrote it on my face book and ask my Face Book friends to give me questions that I can pass it on to you , guess what ? about 21 people responded, some of them really thought I was going to have coffee with you and   pass on some of the questions they wanted me to ask you. Two of them are from my motherland Ghana, and the rest are my friends here in Portland, I am going to cut and past this face book questions so that you can read it over coffee in the white house during the Easter festivities..  Below are some of the questions my friends wanted me to ask you, Mr President :
 

Maine Jtn, Kylie Turner and 2 others like this.

Ivy Nana Amoah Boyd

Hmmmmmmmm? good one.

Yesterday at 6:51am ·

Lisa Savage

Mr. Obama, why do you keep bombing civilians?

Yesterday at 6:54am ·

Panji Anoff

are u a wolf in sheeps clothing??

Yesterday at 6:57am ·

Sarah Demarest

I'd tell him that I'm sorry we thought a single man could change the entire fate of our nation and ask him what we can do to help. (:

Yesterday at 7:03am ·

Deborah Lynch Riddell

I agree with Sarah

Yesterday at 8:08am ·

Pauline Tuyisenge

ask him to come up with a good program that will show every child in USA the importance of having a college degree

Yesterday at 8:48am ·

Lisa Veleff Day

I think you need to ask him if I can join you! :)

Yesterday at 10:03am ·

Christina Bechstein

Follow your heart Pious, you will (or would, I hope will!) know exactly what to ask.

Yesterday at 10:50am ·

Dawn Miller

Why have you been dishonest? Why have you re-instated the Patriot Act, how come you have not brought our troops home, why are you still recieving funding from corporations and putting their agenda in place, rather than what you said you would do?

Yesterday at 11:22am ·

Simone Van Der Loo

how do you like your coffee...?

Yesterday at 11:50am ·

Anne Dalton

I ditto Deb and Sarah.....

Yesterday at 12:03pm ·

Blak Kofe

does he remember me from our brief encounter in Ghana???will he support my NGO for maternal health?the margaret djanie memorial foundation.

Yesterday at 12:24pm ·

Badr Sharif

Keep pressuring Israel. And don't listen to AIPAC.

Yesterday at 12:43pm ·

Sara Rahman

if i were to meet him, amidst all the political conversations, i'd ask him if he likes lobster, and if so...if he'd like me to score him some at boat prices.
i guess what i am saying is i would keep it real...be real.

Yesterday at 1:36pm ·

Jonathan Bergman

...does he watch Saturday Night Live?

Yesterday at 4:55pm ·

Sara Brobst

I don't know what I would ask, but I would tell him "thank you" for potentially creating such a traffic mess in Parkside that I get to leave work at 1pm:)

Yesterday at 6:35pm ·

Nickie Avery

I would ask him how, in the real world, our government (while it might be one of the better government systems in the world) might actually focus on fixing issues vs. getting re-elected or "beating other side". Represent, Pious!

Yesterday at 9:53pm ·

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DUDE WHERE IS MY RELIGION

  The recent news reports from Nigeria about the killing of more than a hundred women and children makes me wonder how in the name of God can people be killing each other especially women and children.  I  believe that God will frown on any religious person irrespective of his faith, that will be going around and cutting innocent women and their children. Acts like this makes me wanna question the genuineness of what they claimed is behind or the reason for the killings.  In this case they claimed its a counter attack to a previous killing against people of  their 'religion' , 'faith', 'cult' or what ever it is that they claimed to be representing, for I am a Muslim and they are not representing my Faith.
    From all indication all is not lost yet , there a few fearless Muslim from all over the world who re not scared to say it Loud and clear. A Muslim sheikh in the UK Sheikh Muhammed Tahir UL-Qudri, just passed a 600 page taqwa  to condemned  all sort of killing(terror) including  innocent children and their mothers, I wish there is a way to meet with the leaders of all this people from across the world I will look at them on the face and say ' Dude where is my Religion'
 

SWASTIKA IN A 'BELOVED COMMUNITY'

 Three days ago I received an email from a coleague wit an attachment , which is a news release(statement) from the 'Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine' regarding vandalism at a Jewish cemetery .  Further reading into the attachment made me sick, because it is about a spraying of the 'Swastika signed on the tombstone of Jewish graves. My first reaction was , 'Oh my God , who in their right sense will  go to the final resting place of someone they don't know, or have not even heard of before and commit such act of vandalism'   I know the answer, I know the kind of people who will do that , we encounter them everyday in different part of the world.The grave is the final resting place for all who chose to be buried in that manner. Desecration of graves is the ultimate  act of cowardice, desecration of a Jewish grave with the Swastika is violation of their, basic dignity with something that symbolizes hate, intolerance and bigotry. This is a continuation of many incidents that have been commited by cowards to a community that this cowards seem to HATE. There was a similar incident at a Jewish synagogue last year, and a couple of years ago someone violated the sanctity of a prayer place by throwing a pig head through the window of a mosque.
    Why don't this cowards come out in the open? We have  what I believed to be a 'Beloved Community' yes it may not be a very perfect one, yet we respect ,tolerate and accept each other. But this few incidents have giving me a reason to believe that we need to work more especially with our young once and hopefully some day we will have that dream 'Beloved Community' that we all wish. And I wish  the Police luck in finding who this cowards are, so the can face trial.
 

LIFE LESSONS FOR '2010' FROM AN ICE SKATING 6 YR OLD - 'IT'S OKAY TO FALL'

  First I want to thank you all for taking your time to read my entries despite the many grammatical errors and my non formal way of writing.  I have a 10 hour job working with youth age 5-18 at a neighborhood center in Portland Maine.   during this winter break we did something different with each group we went to the movies with one group to see Alvin and the chipmonks, we had a non-formal hot chcolate social with another and today we went Ice skating with the  youngest group, an elementary and some middle school kids. I was late so my supervisor went with the kids and I took the bus to caught up with them. By the time I got there they were already skating so I went and collected a pair of skating shoes ,put them on and just when I was ready to go every one was asked to go  on a break so the arena can be cleaned that was when My heart beat went fast and I look at my supervisor on the face and said I don't know how to skate and he said, 'we should have had this conversation before coming here'.( I am in trouble). I said I think I can  help. when the arena was cleared he went back in with the kids and asked me to wait for two others who were in the bathroom.
   Now there is this  6 year old that doesn't know how to skate lets call her 'N'.  When N came out of the bathroom, I was standing there contemplating if I should  go into the ice rink or just wait, she walked up to me and look at me and said , 'Pious can you hold my hand so we can skate ?' I responded and said 'am, eem I am waiting here ' N said, no come with me I am scare,

                                              ME: I am scared too
                                              N:Scared of what you are an adult ( her trust in me)
                                              ME: I don't know how to skate, I am scared I might fall
 N look at me with a smile on her face and  said 'Its okay to fall Pious'. with that at the back of her mind she entere the rink and started skating she fell and fell but kept getting up and continued skating despite her imperfection. At the end of the day when I asked her how was her day she said' My body hurt but I had fun' I on the other hand let my fear of falling stopped me from having fun that afternoon and as we were walking in the snow back to the center I kept hearing her little voice saying to me, 'its okay to fall Pious' .... and I said to myself yes its okay to fall N.
  As the year comes to an end and we are entering into another  year and a decade,   Happy New Year to you and your loved ones and please remember that 'its okay to fall'...

Quote of the day:

“It's not how many times you fall that matters, it's how many time you get back up