He Said, She Said ... Bringing Others Up

" Today's word is ANOTHER. You are successful but have you helped someone else up the ladder with you? Is there someone you could mentor? Find time to help another ... "

~Leslie Tramuel

Destroy & Rebuild

Alright here we are … As many of you may know {because you care} I’ve seriously given consideration to deleting my Facebook account. Conversations directly & indirectly related to it’s destruction have caused me to have a discussion, albeit with myself, valid exploration.

I tried to ask myself why without offense but naturally I viewed this as an attack & had to defend my position.

Likes & {Dis}Likes in the same breath

I like the fact that social media presents an opportunity for personal & business relationships. I dislike the fact that social media presents an opportunity for personal & business relationships.

Of Likes

Twitter, Facebook, WordPress & the count(ed) number of networking tools that I use have my attention, but not because of some addiction {crack is whack} but because they provide value. I’m able to stay in contact with work friends as we move into different roles & drop a dime on em’ when they call out sick but update their status with “Having fun at the beach! bea(ot)ches!” It also enables discovery, I’ve found many interesting sites that challenge me & inspire my own creativity. I’ve also met very interesting people with whom I’ve been able to engage in mentally stimulating conversations & very silly & fun conversations.

Of {Dis}Likes

In trying to build a network I was guilty of friend hoarding {in the beginning} accepting every request from old classmate(s), every request from local promoter(s), every request for business page(s) There was no way for me to be engaged with so many. I’m pretty introverted & never really post to Facebook that often, however the apps I use provide constant access to my time line so I’m able to see what others are posting … I’ll just say I’d rather be a good “friend” to a few than dis-connected from so many.

Save Deletion | Destroy & Rebuild

Destroy: Transitive and intransitive verb to ruin something or make something useless.

Rebuild: ¹To work to restore something that has been weakened, damaged or ruined ²To make major alterations or improvements to something.

My plan is to destroy & rebuild … this is how I will continue to use Social Media & Facebook:

To have fun, To “Hip” others - make aware of and influence by the thoughts and ideas based on social, economic and cultural background, For Empowerment, To share news & post information for events, To meet other folk with brains, {I is intelligent too} … Hopefully this will spark a thought, a thought will spark a conversation, a conversation will spark a debate, a debate will spark some fun. Slingshot engaged.

Harm None,

Mr.TramueL is the only person to ever ace a Rorschach Test.

Resist vs. Don’t Resist

Resist: "You got to Love God enough to resist what isn’t of God. Resist means to say something about it. To say No. To stand without compromising yourself, without compromising your integrity. To Love God enough means to be God’s friend, to be like a child. To go to battle as a warrior! Heart battle. Out of love, never out of pride."

Don’t Resist: "To wait and see. To never answer an unwise person, to never try to bring correction on a hurt, tormented, or angry fellow, peer, stranger, co-worker. It means to stay and do your best, even to give your other cheek…ouch! All with the expectation of letting the matter where it is, no where your pride want to go. Guts to be humble and recognize that we all are humans, the Supernatural is God in us…if we let Him."

Always inspiring ...

This post was taken from Peeling the orange's Blog on Wordpress ... one of my new favorites!

Photo Credit: "God-Ego" by Fred Eerdekens

Smooth Criminal

Water cooler talk:  The Weather, The Weekend, Father’s Day, Beautiful Women, Children, The Lottery …

Them: “Money can’t make you happy”

Me: “I just want the chance to prove that theory wrong.” I’m just playing, unless I win.

The conversation progresses past my need to be witty, I was trying to hide the fact that I haven’t acquired a taste for this person.

Them: “What would you do with all of that money?”

Me: “Educate myself, travel, take care of my family & do God’s work.”

Deep bows, I’m sorry but I wanted to pull them in. The reason I may have not acquired a taste for this person is because of a recent conversation about “safety” “hood terms” “myths” & “stereotypes.”

*1…2…3…Break* I’m fitna’ {ATL shawty!} get in trouble because I’ve been labeled as “aggressive” {not their word but the best way to describe it} by someone I “Four Letter Word Beginning In L and Ending In E” this is someone who’s approval I desperately seek but seem to vex with some of my observations.

*Blue 21, Blue 21, Hut, Hut, Hut* I’m not an activist, but I am aware of my environment and the effect that it has on me, you, us. Today I coin the phrase “Observationalist” – To make aware and influence by the thoughts and ideas based on social, economic and cultural background. Now … Hip somebody else.

Of Safety, Hood Terms, Myths & Stereotypes

In an effort to not be “that guy” the person with whom I haven’t acquired a taste for tried to assimilate and associate with the masses by speaking negatively of & on what folk perceive as poor neighborhoods. Having lived in most of the neighborhoods in question I felt it was only right to be “that guy” and educate. “They either don’t show, don’t know or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.”

“Those neighborhoods” … yeah they care about property values too. Yeah they care about their community too, yeah they care about empowerment too, yeah they care about opportunities for youth too. *Fast Forward one of their comments was about criminals, criminal activity, to which I sarcastically responded crime effects everyone and no community is immune from it, but I digress … the point in one of my teaching moments was that folk return from jail and are treated unfairly, we take away their right to vote, deny them housing and discriminate against them with regards to employment.

The wrap up: (1) What I would do with the money? Work with the city, county, Sherriff’s department to break the cycle for offenders. Develop youth programs, mentoring programs and scholarships. They gotta eat or they might hit someone over the head. God’s work? (2) Interestingly enough I told the person with whom I haven’t acquired a tatse for that they were criminals, we are all criminals, we have never gotten caught. What if you got caught smoking that ooooo weeee! you serve your time, get released but you couldn’t rent an apartment, you weren't able to vote, and you lost your dream job working the frosty machine at Wendy’s?

Man this is long! I’m freestyling ‘cause I’m at work.

Translation: 8 Weeks of training.

Translation: Google Reader ‘cause they block me from tweet’n and you know how much I love Twitter! Shout out Ms.Nikks! Shout out Buzz Can Tweet!

Oddly enough look what I found a day after the mis-education of someone I haven’t acquired a taste for "I'm a criminal and so are you"

Live Well,

Mr. "That Guy" TramueL

I Voted for the Black Guy

The day after the Municipal Elections I just so happened to need a fresh cut so I made my way to the Barbershop. I anticipated lively interchange on the typical shop talk, on Twitter I give it the hash-tag #barbershopphilosphy. This has reached the top trending spot several times. Politics, Religion, Sports and Sex (not necessarily in that order)

On Religion

The topic centered on churches in the community who are here to serve themselves and those who are here to serve the lord. The conversation also focused on serving the homeless vs creating opportunity for the homeless. ☚ But the title of this post is "I voted for the black guy" … let's move on.

On Sex

There was a guy selling Viagra pills for $25 bucks a pop ☚ No pun Intended.

On Sports

Yankees in seven. Kobe vs Lebron. The Bobcats & The Panthers. ☚This one's for North Carolina! ♬ C'mon and raise up ♬ Take your shirt off, twist it 'round yo head ♬ Spin it like a helicopter ♬ North Carolina go on and raise up!

On Politics

Okay, here is where the conversation got heated. It started with a simple question of "Did you vote?" Who knew three words could spark such a heated debate. For those of you not knowing the local mayoral race saw an African-American, Negro, Black Man (Anthony Foxx) run against a Caucasian, White Man (John Lassiter) The Governor's seat was open due to the decision by Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican, not to seek re-election. Anthony Foxx, a member of the City Council, won the election by a slim margin, becoming the first Democrat elected to lead the city since Harvey Gantt was re-elected in 1985.

Issues with the Black Community:

The debate was not really about race but it was? Huh?? "I voted for Foxx because he was student council President at West Meck." "I voted because he is a democrat." "I would have voted for him because he's black." These statement were not polled by me nor or these any of my answers. I was just an innocent observer. The one Black Republican questioned them … What was Anthony's platform? What are the issues that concern you?

Issues with the White Community:

The debate was not really about race but it was? Huh?? "Ok-now the Dems ☚ Translation(Blacks)have complete control…No one to blame but themselves from this point on." "Charlotte just screwed up and at a time when the city is going down the tubes."

I can't answer for anyone else and what is important for me may not be as important for anyone else. (But it should cause' I'm right 99.9% of the time) I voted for the black guy not because of race but because of the issues that were important to me. I have no doubt that John Lassiter was capable of running this city, the two were dead even on issues they just had different views on how to achieve them.