The Young Writer's Block

Maybe It Is Me

Activism, Featured, News & Society 2 Responses »

Jul 302010

I was talking to my friend recently and he was telling about how he was stopped and racially profiled while on the way to my house. I live in a northern suburb outside of Atlanta, that is predominantly white. I have lived in this area for a while and never experienced any type of racial profiling. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen but I have never experienced it. So when he told me this I was actually kind of shocked and upset about it. Me being me, I felt the need to know the entire story and every detail. As he begins to tell me the story I start to find holes in his story. Not that the story is not true but I begin to doubt that it is a case of racial profiling. It was dark, and he has tinted windows so there is no way that the officer knew that he was black. He admitted that he was speeding so again the officer would not have been able to tell that he was black, plus he was probably stopped for speeding. Once the officer stopped him he realized and informed my friend that the light over his license plate was out. Mind you, he did not receive a ticket just a verbal warning for both the speeding and tag light. He was just so upset that he was stopped. He then became upset with me and left because I was not siding with him and pointed out the flaws in his story.

The whole point of this story is that sometimes it is not always a case of us against them or racial profiling. It may be that we did something wrong and were called on it. Now, I am not saying that racial profiling or discrimination does not occur because we all know that it does, but what I am saying is that every time we are stopped by a cop or do not get a job or promotion it may not be about race.

You have to look at yourself in the mirror and say, maybe it was something that I actually did or did not do that caused this type of reaction and not me against the world. I just do not understand how people can always blame others for their downfalls. At some point you have to realize that if all these things are happening to me then maybe it is me.

I fear that we have cried profiling for so long that when something racially motivated does happen we ignore it or don’t know how to respond to it. Stop crying wolf.

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How to stay encouraged

Entrepreneurship No Responses »

Jul 292010

Meditate… sometimes you need time alone with yourself to refocus on your goals Dream… step outside of your reality and imagine the life you want Plan… having an idea of “how” will help you “do” Laugh… don’t take things so seriously after all, this isn’t brain surgery or rocket science (unless you’re a brain surgeon
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Static Kill On The Oil Spill: Flawless Victory

Politics No Responses »

Jul 282010

Oh what you thought we were done with this oil spill business? With the oil cap in place, we have been fortunate to not see any billowing clouds of brown in the deep blue sea (unless of course BP is hiding more of that hi-resolution video). But that was just a temporary fix. And just [...]
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Popularity: 1%

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My Apologies

Reflections No Responses »

Jul 282010

To My Readers, I know that it has been several weeks since I last posted to my blog. I want to take the time out to apologize to those who were faithfully and consistently following my blog and the weekly posts. The lack of posting over the past several weeks by far was negligence on my part. In life we all have times when something, someone, or a situation demands our undivided attention. When that happens, you simply have to follow your heart and make a choice to prioritize what is more important during that specific time. Sometimes it’s simply what you feel is more important but not necessarily what should be more important. I look forward to writing and posting again to and as His Majesty’s Favorite. I hope each and every one of you will continue to drop by and read my posts. Yours Truly, His Majesty’s Favorite…
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Why Democrats Need To Embrace The Upcoming Tax Battle In Congress

News & Society, Politics No Responses »

Jul 272010

Here it comes. You’ve been waiting for it: The classic battle between Republicans and Democrats on taxes. Extending the Bush tax cuts will be the next big issue of the day, with Republicans wanting to continue the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy, and Democrats wanting to only extend them for the middle class.

This issue is not the same as it was 9 years ago when the breaks were first introduced. Obviously, 9 years of tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans did not create the best of economic situations, but it’s not that simple. You can’t tax people heavily during a recession, as that will almost undoubtedly reduce growth. On the other hand, we have sky-rocketing debt that will only be offset by raising taxes or cutting spending, the latter of which we can only do so much.

Back in 2001, Republicans only wanted to give the rich tax cuts. They knew that this was a politically unpalatable policy, so they packaged it with simultaneous middle-class tax cuts (that’s how they forced Democrats to vote in favor of them). They don’t care about the middle class, but they used them as a political pawn. The tax-cuts created a large debt, lousy job creation, and economic inequality that we hadn’t seen since before the Great Depression.

Raising taxes on the middle class is unpopular. But raising taxes on the rich is wildly popular. Democrats promised not to raise taxes on people earning less than $250,000 a year — a promise they felt they had to make in order to win. And they can’t break that promise without suffering political consequences.

As Jonathan Chait wisely notes,

“We’re down to a game of chicken. Here’s why the Democrats hold the whip hand. They can pass an extension of the middle-class Bush tax cuts through the House. If Republicans let the bill pass, then they’ve lost their leverage to extend the unpopular Bush upper-income tax cuts. If they filibuster it, then Democrats can blame them for raising taxes on middle-class Americans. It would let Democrats out of their pledge. (Hey, they tried to keep the middle-class tax cuts.) Then nothing would pass, and we’d instantly revert to Clinton-era rates across the board.

What kind of effect would that have on the deficit? A huge one:

The Democrats can’t lose. They force the Republicans to directly say they want to cut taxes for the rich and add to the deficit, but not for the middle class. If they filibuster it, the Democrats take it to the voters in November and use the new tax revenue to pay off debt.

Up until now, Republicans have said no to everything and filibustered every bill they’ve seen. It has worked. But in the upcoming tax battle, Democrats are hoping that Republicans say no just one more time, because it might be just the spark of momentum that puts the Democrats back in the game.

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North Korea Threatens US Military Over Exercises

News & Society No Responses »

Jul 262010

North Korea has said that it will “legitimately counter with powerful nuclear deterrence the largest ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean Puppet Forces.” North Korea is still upset that they are blamed for the sinking of a North Korean War ship a few months back and they aren’t big fans of the United States so even the notion of the United States and South Korea doing anything together can be seen as some type of hostile act in the eyes of North Korea.

While this is only a threat for now, I do believe that North Korea is very capable of carrying out this threat. They have already vowed to have a physical response to the drills that the U.S. and North Korea plan on starting Sunday (7/25/10). I don’t think that this is just some idle threat that should be taken lightly even though that’s probably how some of the people in power feel. We are not invulnerable and we can be touched. Never underestimate a crazy man, especially one with a large army and nuclear weapons.

The U.S. military doesn’t seem to take this threat seriously because there was ‘no sign of significant troop movement’ but how significant of a movement do you expect. If they are planning a nuclear attack or response then there is not a need for a significant amount of troop movement. This may be something that they said just to throw us off and downplay the situation though. who knows.

North Korea is a major foe with major nuclear power at its disposal. Threats like these should not be taken lightly and some type of resolution should try to be reached before this gets ugly. Or is it too late for that?

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