The Black To Our Roots program is a Youth Leadership and Rites of Pasage program that promotes African cultural values as a means of developing positive self-identity and collective responsibility. This program was specifically designed to reduce the negative impacts of poor education and community apathy that exists in so many urban environments. This year-long program provides youth with the tools to become active participants in the unity and development of in their local communities and the global African community. The program culminates in a 3-week travel study to Africa during the summer in which students apply their learning to community service projects, while exchanging ideas with African youth.

The Black To Our Roots program targets High School youth from underserved urban communities and assists them to:

This program is a labor of love, meaning, it is challenging and will require a lot of your time and commitment. You will be expected to attend all workshops (once a week) as well as participate in regular fundraisers (at least once a month) and complete all assignments. The program will culminate in a 4-week travel study to Ghana and Ethiopia during the summer 2012 in a journey that will be life-changing and will help you to discover your true identity and potential. Remember that ‘the journey of a 1,000 miles begins with the first footstep.’ The Black To Our Roots program is a journey of self-discovery … but you must first answer the call!!!

 

PLEASE DONATE! DONATE! DONATE!

 

MY LOVE IS....

My Love is the Voice with no Words,
My Love is the Sound you never Heard.
My Love is the Touch that's not Physical,
My Love is the Feeling that's Spiritual.
My Love is the Vision which eyes can not See,
My Love is the Picture of just You and Me.
My Love is the Antidote that works slow or Quick,
My Love is the Cure for a world that's so Sick.
My Love is the Change that the Universe Longs,
My Love is the Thang that will always be Strong.
My Love is the Energy that took Human Form,
My Love is the Gift from the Stars I was Born.
My Love is the Bridge to connect Hurts to Hope,
My Love is the Comfort Zone to help you Cope,
My Love is the Yes and never a Nope,
My Love is the Action of words I never Spoke.
My Love is many things as wide as the sky is Blue,

MY LOVE IS......Simply for YOU!!!

ThirdsEyeView

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2011 AftaOurz Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

This is a topic that I had put on the shelf because I wasn't sure if I had the right words to convey what needs to be conveyed, however I see no better time then the present to express my viewpoint on this subject matter. First off let's take the two words separately and define just what they mean. Conformity, according to Wikipedia " is the process by which an individual's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are conditioned by what is conceived to be what other people might perceive." So now let's look at individuality. Individuality,is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires.

From the definitions alone we see the vast difference between the two words. Where it takes movement and action to be and individual, to conform only takes riding on the coattails of another's thoughts, beliefs and ideals. So why discuss this? Easy, we find ourselves in a time which no longer celebrates the individualistic spirit, that so many of our predecessors embodied before us. At one time it seemed like every community in the inner city had one goal for the young men and women in their area and that was for them to be leaders. However, that is no longer the case because the power machine tends to try to make us believe that it would be more beneficial for the greater good if we not only we became one, but if we all thought along the same lines, believed along the same line, all the while telling us that we have the right to be individuals and live our own lives.

That vein is thinking is a living and breathing oxymoron because how can you inundate people with the we are one talk, but say oh yeah, if you want to be yourself it's cool, but when you get with us you don't have to worry about that. We'll take care of it, you just be yourself. That's crazy. The reason we don't have the amount of leaders like in the past is the very subtle extinguishment of the individuality. It's easier to get a people to conform and go along with your program if you have them, fearful, confused, existing in a perpetual state of apathy and hopelessness. Steve Biko put it best "The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppress.

When we think of oppression many things come to mind for many people, for some only one thing comes to mind, living beneath your means and your right. See and oppressed mind is one that has succumbed to conformity because now they allow someone to not only think and make decisions for them but if they could they would let them breathe for them. One who possess the spirit of individuality knows within themselves that to allow someone to do for them what they can do for themselves is demeaning. Those who operate from this spirit look to take on responsibility and look to champion causes for themselves as well those who may not have the strength or the gumption to do for self. Malcolm, Huey, Assata, Martin, Marcus, (the list could go on forever) overstood that if they couldn't live and breathe as individuals with the divine right to think and do for themselves then life would be a very hollow existence. Some might even liken the individual to the revolutionary spirit. I don't know, you tell me how you feel about it.

However there is one thing that I am certain, the bell is ringing loudly for the end of individuality because the more they tell you to be yourself, the come and strip what little rights we have left, at the same time saying "It's for national security" Are they protecting us from an enemy that doesn't exist? Or are they the spook that sits behind the door ready to pounce when the time is right? I'll end this post with a quote from our esteemed elder and ancestor Dr. John Henrik Clarke and you tell me what you think.

"Powerful people never educate powerless people in what they need that they can use to take the power away from powerful people; it's too much to expect. If I was in power, I would not educate people in how to take my powers away."

Dr. John Henrik Clarke

 

 

Love is you, peace is you, light is you!

I dwell in a place where peace lives and illuminates.

I sought to be in a place of peace and comfort for so long and after arriving there it feels so good.

I take all things in knowing that the God in me will continue to pursue dreams and goals daily even when adversity hits.

It is at those times when the God in me can really shine and you will see my light.

Thankful for time and the knowing that has developed in me.

 

 

 

So many people ask me "What is LOVE?" I find that such a challenging question to answer sometimes, especially when dealing with the ideas that we have been programmed to believe that LOVE is.

 

LOVE is none of those things, but everything that we are. Confusing, I know.

 

Once upon a time, I used to think that LOVE was reserved for "special" people. Family & significant others that entered our lives, and on occassion we would extend IT to our friends. Thinking back upon those days now, it's almost as if there was this special club that you had to be a part of in order to be LOVED.

 

When you think about it, you are programmed to LOVE your family. That's something that we are taught through our conditioning here on this planet. This is why so many people who are not "close" to their families sometimes have such a hard time breaking free, because they have been taught that they MUST LOVE them.

 

The reality of LOVE is far different from that special, romantic, reserved, sentimentality that we believe IT to be. LOVE is synonymous with SOURCE (or what you may call GOD) in that neither of THEM can contradict themselves. They simply are in and of everything. They are our very makeup - our divinity, our DNA, or breath. LOVE IS. IT needs nothing to hold it up as IT stands on it's own. The challenge we now face is the rememberance of IT's divinity. Through remembering the TRUTH of LOVE, we in turn remember ourselves and are then, and only then, able to expand upon IT's energy field. We begin to overstand that LOVE is not for a "special" group, but for us all. IT is not something to be expressed from time to time, but in every step we take....every breath we breath.

 

Our minds often complicate things that are so very simple, and when simplicity is offered to us - because we are so used to dealing in complications- our minds have problems digesting it. You cannot explain something so simple to anyone that wants or thinks it to be more and so there is no complicated answer, like so many desire....simply a knowing, an overstanding....a joy...a rememberance. If I had to sum up in one sentence what LOVE is, I could and easily...Now whether or not this will make sense to you now is another story, however, upon your journey I promise you - one day it will all make sense.

 

LOVE IS YOU.

 

No one is without LOVE, as everyone IS LOVE - even when they have forgotten.

 

Namaste.

the truth about happiness

happiness is not a state of being.
happiness is an emotion. emotions are fleeting as they are connected to our thoughts and most thoughts are generated by and for ego. therefore making "happiness" just another ploy of the system. a false sense of wellness. a false sense of being. do not seek happiness. for happiness is not designed to be permanent.
we should pursue peace & oneness with our essence. thereby achieving peace and oneness with all things that Be.
from that will come joy, love and bliss. all of which are unshakable once truly reached.

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Mumia Abu Jamal
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1100 Pike Street Huntington, Pa. 16654-1112

Loving deeply is not merely about loving someone else.

Loving deeply is about loving yourself as deeply as you love others.

If you cannot love yourself, then your temple and every aspect of you

cannot receive love. Your DNA knows real love. Your DNA responds

to real love. Your DNA absorbs every thought, word and deed,

thereby evolving you to a higher height or thrusting you

to the depths of inner turmoil. Give to your DNA what

it needs to evolve & ascend.

 

Love deeply the inner you, the core of your being

Love deeply the outer you, the shell of your existence

Love deeply the mental you, the seat of your knowing

Love deeply the intellectual you, the house of knowledge

Love deeply the emotional you, the garden of joy

Love deeply all the things that make up you

Because it is through loving you first that all

the love you shower upon another becomes true