The Essence of Politics

Friday, August 28, 2009

My Perspective: Detroit Must Change for the Better

Detroit must change and it must change for the better. However what Mayor Dave Bing is offering might not be the best direction for us the citizens of Detroit as well as city employees. Bing has said without the deal with the unions, he will be forced to layoff 1,000 city employees starting Monday. Critical times call for mayor's 'unpopular as hell' measures and for some like me these measures are not fair for some and will hinder city services in many ways. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing will begin laying off 1,000 city workers on Monday, absent concessionary deals with municipal unions to close a $350 million budget deficit. "There are going to be layoffs -- no way around it," Bing said in an interview Wednesday, decrying the politicized decision-making of a City Hall culture that has routinely deferred action on Detroit's deepening financial crisis.

"We can no longer do this and have the city survive. Every revenue stream is down and will continue to go down in the near term. I need a reduction in salary, a reduction in benefits and a reduction in the work force," he said. The actions, starting Friday with 319 already planned layoffs, "will be as unpopular as hell." In addition to asking the city's unions for across-the-board wage cuts of 10 percent and reductions in benefits, Bing said he will ask members of City Council to mirror cuts for the city's salaried employees and accede to a 10 percent cut in their $81,312-a-year pay as well as reductions in their $614,558-per-member office budgets because "that's leadership." Bing, elected in a special election to replace the disgraced Kwame Kilpatrick, isn't pulling any punches as his administration heads for a confrontation with the city's unions, bargaining toward a Friday deadline. He likened the union tactics to those of the 1970s and '80s, accused bargainers of stonewalling and charged union leaders with "scaring the hell out of people" to score political points.

'There's going to be pain' in these tough times in the city but the truth of the matter is that while Bing is throwing punches at the unions, he isn’t doing enough to cut the salaries of many of his appointees and cabinet members. Bing still hasn’t gone as far enough to merge city departments and give back many of the perks that some city officials have such as cars and gas as well as security detail for council members that are all paid for on the backs of us the people. Also Bing himself hasn’t decreased his security down either so the whole portrait of unions as the bad guy in the city’s deficits and finances is no different than any of the previous mayoral administrations. Unions are not the ones who have allowed the city’s finances to get out of control so they can’t be the used as the scapegoat to the problems plaguing the city during these tough financial times.

"Our union leadership, because they do not want to change, have gotten people riled up," Bing said, referring to overblown fears that weekend bus service will be eliminated. "And some of our politicians have done the same thing. My question is: Where have you been? You guys have been in office for several years and you didn't see this coming? Or if you did, you did nothing about it." Bing is right many politicians in city government did nothing to fix the city’s finances but at the same time neither did Bing as a supporter of Detroit, he never spoke about the city’s political officials until his own company started to crumble under financial times and Kwame Kilpatrick political clout in the city started to dwindle. Nonetheless, we are face with tough financial decisions and it will be bloodshed in the streets of Detroit over many of the painful decisions plaguing our city.

Now in more normal times, Bing's public posture would be political suicide in a city where labor support typically means the difference between re-election and defeat. But the mayor, 66, isn't keen to seek another term should he be elected to a full term in November, as expected. Which positions him to be the agent of change Detroit has needed for decades: Here's a mayor, faced with harsh financial reality, more willing to speak plainly and take on entrenched, parasitic interests than succumb to their blunt political power. Why? Because his career doesn't depend on the outcome. "I'm not going to back off my position because I know I'm doing the right thing for the city short-term and long-term," Bing said. "There's going to be pain. All the financial maneuvering that could be done has been done by past administrations." Or has it? While Bing would want us to believe that past administrations have financially did all the maneuvering that they could, I still find it hard to believe that more can’t be financially done to make our city solvent. Also when was the last time the city of Detroit had a forensic audit of all city departments in order to figure out just where mishandling of funds have taken place.

Still without the audit, there's precious little room left to operate. The mayor and his financial team have identified nearly $40 million in savings that could push the deadline for insolvency to December or early next year from sometime in October. They include collection of between $3 million and $5 million in outstanding receivables; release of some $24 million held in escrow by DTE Energy Corp. for the "resource recovery project" affiliated with the city incinerator; and $10 million of the $15 million annual subsidy for Cobo Center because it will be transferred to a regional authority in October. But those actions, as Bing conceded, would "move the needle" forward by just a few months and only partially stanch a cash burn of roughly $1 million per month. He's aiming for deeper structural change, a slimmed-down work force, more efficient city departments, and elimination of those whose cost structures are not competitive with the private sector.

Early next week, the mayor expects to receive a finalized report from his "crisis turnaround team," headed by, among others, Denise Ilitch and Freman Hendrix, a former deputy mayor. Bing declined to discuss specifics, but the report is expected to call for consolidation of some city departments, elimination of others and outsourcing of specific services. Yes outsourcing of city services that for some time has been tried in other areas of Detroit such as Detroit Public Schools and we all know that outsourcing school services has resulted in thief and worst service than the in house service the district was giving. Two clear examples of bad outsourcing in the DPS was with food service and technological repairs which have resulted in the school district dwelling out big money to private entities that deliver shady and piss poor service for students.

I do agree that Detroit entitlement 'is gone' but that doesn’t mean that the city of Detroit should be looking to privatize services by outsourcing them to other regions or entities throughout the state or out of state if people in the city of Detroit can do the job. Still the recommendations are expected to target Detroit's public lighting department; public works; recreation; and the city's planning and development department, which could be merged with the quasi-public Detroit Economic Growth Corp. "There's got to be consolidation," Bing said. "There's got to be elimination. There's got to be outsourcing. There are people who think we're supposed to be job providers. We're service providers. Our people need to understand that entitlement is gone." Easier said than done, Mr. Mayor. The reaction to the coming reckoning of Detroit's public sector -- including its beleaguered public schools -- is likely to be longer, louder and more politicized than it's already been. The biggest weapons Bing and Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, have are the realities of their financial tailspins and what they mean for access to capital from lenders and the bond market. "There's proof that we're in a financial crisis, that we've got a cash-flow problem, that we have a structural problem," Bing said. "It's got to be dealt with. If we keep doing what we've been doing ... time is not our ally. "We won't get any outside help. And we need it, desperately. The rating agencies, if we continue to operate the city as it has been, they're not going to help us. The lending institutions that we need to go and borrow money from on a short term basis (are) not going to continue to be supportive of us. And then ... you can't borrow money."

As if to buttress his point, Moody's Investors Service this week downgraded the city's credit rating one notch deeper into "junk" territory, citing Detroit's growing deficit and the region's continued economic woes. In January, Standard and Poor's downgraded the city's credit rating to junk status for the first time in recent years. "If the two largest corporations in the world" -- General Motors and Chrysler -- "can go bankrupt, what makes us think that can't happen to us? They had to change," the mayor said. "We have no choice." Detroit has to change but not until elected officials like Bing do everything they can to give back some of the perks as an elected official before asking unions and city residents to accept many changes that Bing is pushing for. Right now as it stands, city services are not good or average but they are piss poor. The quality of life in the city of Detroit is getting worse and the recent unemployment rate of 28.9% makes it all the more tougher for Detroit residents to accept changes that could make city services worse and the quality of life in the city two to three times worst than it is now.

Detroit has to change though but for Mayor Dave Bing to sit up and act like his plan is the best way for Detroit to change for the better than it needs to be clear that Bing is no different than previous administrations who have use bully tactics with the unions and who have privatized or gave away city services and entities to others all the while, the city of Detroit’s residents see their quality of life get worse and worse. While none of this is Bing’s fault, it should be clear that this rests on Bing’s shoulders now because he is mayor but his proposes and ideas so far, seem more like the status quo whether than actually ushering a change of direction in the city of Detroit that the city needs. Detroit needs to change but not by laying off the least of city employees while keeping the fat cats of city employees in their jobs.

If Bing wants to be a change agent as he thinks he is than he needs to not just ask his appointees to take a 10% pay cut but he needs to lay some of them off or bring their salaries down to some of the employees levels that you are laying off from unions. The path of union layoffs and concessions by the unions is not nothing new because this is the same solution to balancing the city’s budget deficit two years ago and previous years before that. Now as the city of Detroit faces another budget deficit with a new mayor, the laying off of union employees and concessions by unions are considered the way to go while those in high profile city government continue to get paid 3 figure salaries all on the backs of us the people who continue to get the short end of the stick in the type of service we receive from the city and quality of life we are getting in the city.

Detroit must change for the better and it all begins with us the residents of Detroit along with the unions standing up to political bullying by our city’s politicians and those who think by privatizing jobs it will make the city’s services better. Detroit must change for the better because our public safety continues to get worse, our water rates continue to grow and the taxes in the city continue to grow while the American Dream gets farther and farther ways from nearly all Detroiters. Detroit’s high unemployment rate is all the more reason why we can’t continue to see city jobs get lost thus adding to our high unemployment while our government continues to keep the city people in positions that haven’t shown they have the answers to solving the city’s finances yet alone the quality of service of city government than any other.

Detroit must change for the better because the feat of the city depends on radical innovative ideas that will protect the city from losing more of its public assets as well as city jobs to people who don’t pay taxes in the city but take the high paying jobs that could probably be done by residents in the city who have new ideas and a new perspective on how to improve city government as well as city services so the quality of life is improved. This is what we face and we must be able to deal with it. Detroit must change for the better but Bing’s is not the way to do it.

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Jay-Z - History



(Jay-Z - History)Jay-Z - History with Lyrics

LYRICS : [Chorus: Cee-lo]
Now that all the smoke is gone
(Lighter)
And the battle's finally won
(Gimme a lighter)
Victory (Lighters up) is finally ours
(Lighters up)
History, so long, so long
So long, so long

[Verse 1: Jay-Z]
In search of victory, she keeps eluding me
If only we could be together momentarily
We can make love and make history
Why won't you visit me? until she visit me
I'll be stuck with her sister, her name is defeat
She gives me agony, so much agony
She brings me so much pain, so much misery
Like missing your last shot and falling to your knees
As the crowd screams for the other team
I practice so hard for this moment, victory don't leave
I know what this means, I'm stuck in this routine
Whole new different day, same old thing
All I got is dreams, nobody else can see
Nobody else believes, nobody else but me
Where are you victory? I need you desperately
Not just for the moment, to make history

[Chorus: Cee-lo]
Now that all the smoke is gone
(Lighters)
And the battle's finally won
(Lighters)
Victory is finally ours
(Yeah)
History (yeah), so long, so long
So long, so long

[Verse 2: Jay-Z]
So now I'm flirting with death, hustling like a G
While victory wasn't watching took chances repeatedly
As a teenage boy before acne, before I got proactiv I couldn't face she
I just threw on my hoodie and headed to the street
That's where I met success, we'd live together shortly
Now success is like lust, she's good to the touch
She's good for the moment but she's never enough
Everybody's had her, she's nothing like V
But success is all I got unfortunately
But I'm burning down the block hoppin' in and out of V
But something tells me that there's much more to see
Before I get killed because I can't get robbed
So before me success and death ménage
I gotta get lost, I gotta find V
We gotta be together to make history

[Chorus: Cee-lo]
Now that all the smoke is gone
(Lighters. Up.)
And the battle's finally won
(Lighter. Up.)
Victory is finally ours
(Lighters. Up.)
History, so long, so long
So long, so long

[Verse 3: Jay-Z]
Now victory is mine, it tastes so sweet
She's my trophy wife, you're coming with me
We'll have a baby who stutters repeatedly
We'll name him history, he'll repeat after me
He's my legacy, son of my hard work
Future of my past, he'll explain who I be
Rank me amongst the greats, either 1, 2, or 3
If I ain't number one then I failed you victory
Ain't in it for the fame that dies within weeks
Ain't in it for the money, can't take it when you leave
I wanna be remembered long after you grieve
Long after I'm gone, long after I breathe
I leave all I am in the hands of history
That's my last will and testimony
This is much more than a song, it's a baby shower
I've been waiting for this hour, history you ours


[Chorus: Cee-lo (2x)]
Now that all the smoke is gone
And the battle's finally won
Victory is finally ours
History, so long, so long
So long, so long



Man in the Mirror--By Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson - Man in the mirror

I'm gonna make a change,
for once im my life
It's gonna feel real good,
gonna make a diference
Gonna make it right...

As I, turn up the collar on
my favorite winter coat
This wind is blowing my mind
I see the kids in the streets,
with not enought to eat
Who am I to be blind?
Pretending not to see their needs

A summer disregard,a broken bottle top
And a one man soul
They follow each other on the wind ya' know
'Cause they got nowhere to go
That's why I want you to know

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
(If you wanna make the world a better place)
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
(Take a look at yourself, and then make a change)
(Na na na, na na na, na na, na nah)

I've been a victim of a selfish kind of love
It's time that I realize
That there are some with no home, not a nickel to loan
Could it be really me, pretending that they're not alone?

A willow deeply scarred, somebody's broken heart
And a washed-out dream
(Washed-out dream)
They follow the pattern of the wind ya' see
'Cause they got no place to be
That's why I'm starting with me
(Starting with me!)

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
(Ooh!)
I'm asking him to change his ways
(Ooh!)
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
(If you wanna make the world a better place)
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
(Take a look at yourself, and then make a change)

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
(Ooh!)
I'm asking him to change his ways
(Change his ways - ooh!)
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make that..
(Take a look at yourself and then make that..)
CHANGE!

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
(Man in the mirror - Oh yeah!)
I'm asking him to change his ways
(Better change!)
No message could have been any clearer
(If you wanna make the world a better place)


Michael Jackson - Man in the mirror

A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cook






It's been a long time coming but a change is surely going to come in America and the World! I am the Future of America and the World and that is the message that each of us must carry with us each and every day that we wake up on Earth! I am the Future! You are the Future! We are the Future of America and the World! That is way every election is important--primaries, special elections and general! So vote every year and hold our politicians accountable. Hold our political officials accountable by writing them, calling them and making sure they attend meetings that we the people have. "The Time for Change is not Now but Right Now!"

"EmPOWERment By Any Means Necessary" should be our anthem and should be our creed as we make the positive differences in America and the world that so many people beg for and hungry for year after year! A Change is Gonna Come, A Change is Gonna Come, that's what we must say as we say "God grants us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, Courge to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference" each morning before we go about the task of making a positive change in America and the world a reality.



Born In The U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen


“When will people realize that we are Americans first and foremost, not Democrats or Liberals, not Republicans or Conservatives, not Independents or moderates. We are Americans. Stop putting a political party above America and stop putting any politican above America. America succeeds because of us the people holding our government responsible no matter the political party because the main two political parties are to blame for the condition America is in."—Hodari P.T. Brown

America with its flaws and all is a country I am proud to have been born in. America is not perfect but my love for it is perfect. That’s why all Americans must realize that we are all Americans. In fact we are Americans first and foremost. We are not Democrats or Republicans. We are Americans.

We are not Muslims, Christians or Jews. We are Americans. Too many times we recognize our differences with others rather than appreciating our similarities which are, we are Americans. We are Americans first and foremost, no matter if we were born here or moved here legally. We are all Americans, here in this country to make not only our lives better but the lives of other Americans better so future Americans can enjoy the rights and freedoms that make us all Americans.

We are all Americans. We are one party united under God. We are Americans and this is the only political party that matters. We are Americans and this is our country so let’s make sure that we make America better than how we found it so future Americans can live prosperous and joyous lives. We are Americans and must not ever forget that.

America will prosper as long we make sure we are doing our part to make it prosper and that means we can’t put any political party or politician above America. Long live America forever and long live America’s service to the world. Together, America and the world will prosper for future generations to enjoy America and the world we live in.


Lift Every Voice and Sing


This video of the ' Negro National Anthem' was originally screened at the historic African-American Church Inaugural Ball in Washington, DC on January 18th, 2009. Many of the esteemed individuals featured in this video in attendance and we presented with the ' Keepers of the Flame' award for the monumental contributions to social justice.

This version of the song was performed by the Grace Baptist Church Cathedral Choir, conducted by Derrick James. The video was produced and donated by Ascender Communications, LLC (www.ascender-c.com) at the request of The Balm In Gilead, Inc.

If I Was President--Wyclef Jean




If I was President that is the people's anthem. We all have ideas of what we can do as President and through this website, we will fulfill our deam as a people!

Somethings Gotta Give--Big Boi ft Mary J Blige



Somethings Gotta Give people and it begins today for all us to make sure that something is us. We the people are sick and tired of suffering. Where is our piece of the Dream that so many people dead for so that we all could see today. This is our time people to change America and the world so that the Next Generation has a better future than the past we inherited.

This is our call to service. This isn't about one political candidate or one political figure. This is about us as people coming together to finally leave up to our potential and achieving the great feats that those before us have achieved. This is our moment to lead our nation and our world to greater heights.

Somethings gotta give people and it starts with us the people making it happen. We have to improve our education system in America. We have to rid the world of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We have to go to the streets and lift a hand to another in order to decrease poverty in this world. We have to take a stand today and make sure that the future of America and the world is brighter than it has ever been.

Somethings Gotta Give and that is why we must "Remember Each One, Reach One and Teach One so America's future and the World's future continues to prosper."

John Legend - "If You're Out There"


If you're out there than you need to get started in helping to change America and the world. The world and America won't change until you get involved in making the changes you want to see in this world. If you're out there, than you must know that tomorrow started now and today started yesterday so you are behind in helping to the change. If you are tired of hatred, racism, poverty, war, and violence than the time to change it is now. If you want universal health care, world peace, democracy for every nation, equal rights, and happiness for all than you must get involved now to help the save world.

You must believe in the change that you want to see and you must act on making that change a reality. If you're out there than say it aloud and show the rest of America and the world that you're out here to make a real positive change in the communities we stay in. If you're out there than get involved now. I'm calling every women and men to join me as we take back our country right here, right now. If you're out there than the future started yersterday and we are already late so we have lots of work to do but I know we can do it together as one.

YES WE CAN



Yes We Can accomplish anything that we set out to do! We don't need charismatic or inspirational leaders to believe in ourselves and to take responsiblity for our own faith, we just need each other. Yes We Can build a new America and a new world if each of us would take action now to make the changes that we want to see in the world. Yes We Can control government by holding our political officials accountable for their actions by calling them out when they don't pass legislation that supports the common good of all man and by voting in every election to ensure that we have people representing the people locally, state wide, nationally and in the world.

Yes We Can be great! Yes We Can be what we want to be! Yes We Can be glorious in not only America but the world! Yes We can put action behind our worlds and change the world starting right here, right now! Yes We Can as Republicans, Democrats and Independents become one as we freely think about our fellow men and women and make decisions that will be in the best interest of all people and not one single group.

Yes We Can be the change that we want to see in the world! Yes We Can show the world that the youth are ready to lead! Yes We Can put our egos, our social economic statuses, our religions, our educational statuses and our skin color to the side for the better good of the world! Yes We Can be Greater than we have ever been and help others be Greater than they have ever be!

YES WE CAN and YES WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS IN ALL THAT WE DO! YES WE CAN, no matter what others may say, we will be glorious! YES WE WILL and YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN is what will be sung from every mountaintop, every riverbank, every household, every school yard, every factory, every sporting event, every college campus and even every place you can imagine in the world is where YES WE CAN, will be said and heard!

YES WE CAN!

Keep On Pushing - Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions


Wake Up People! No matter who is elected to any public office, we have to “Keep On Pushing” as a people to make sure they don’t leave us in a worst state than what they inherited. We as a people have to “Keep On Pushing” to make a difference in the lives of others. We have to have an “EmPOWERment By Any Means Necessary” attitude as we continue to push our agenda that we the people deserve and want better. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to bring about change in a positive way that will benefit all Americans no matter their age, their religion or skin color. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to bring about change that will improve our education system, improve our military, improve our national security, improve our healthcare system and improve our economy. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to bring about change that will leave America’s future in a better than how we found it and that will leave the world’s future in a better state than we imagined we could live it. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to make life better for our neighborhoods, our families and even our quote on quote enemies. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to inspire, to uplift and to guide those who need help spiritually, physically and mentally. We have to “Keep On Pushing ” so that our lives, our future generation’s lives and the lives of those who came before us does not die in vein.

“Keep on Pushing”

A War For Your Soul

A War For Your Soul-regular version from Erisai Films on Vimeo.


The moment has come for us as a nation of people to finally wake up and realize that our destiny and fate in society has rests on our shoulders. We cannot allow the forces of evil and darkness to drain us out. We have to continue to overcome all odds in order to make the future of our nation better and the future of future generations of Americans better. We have to continue to pray to our Lord and we have to continue to uplift each other in prayer as well as take action against those things that are trying to destroy us. We have to stand up once and for all and be the future that we want to be. Now is our time and we shall do together by any means necessary.

This video was created to inspire young African-Americans not to fall prey to some of the problems they face in society. The use of the voice "Master of Darkness" represents evil, which is where the blame of all problems should be placed, and not on any one group of people. This video should not to be used to divide people (Black & White), there are images of heroes that are white in this video, and there are images of Black & White coming together with the words of Dr. King in the background. Some of the images from the past can be unsettling, but they are used to show all Americans how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. This film is being strategically placed in school systems, churches and youth orgs around the country, in hope of helping a lost generation of kids that we as Americans have forgotten. As fellow Americans we must continue to love each other, and take that love and spread it to the rest of the world. **THIS VIDEO IS NOT FOR SALE & I AM NOT ACCEPTING DONATIONS FOR THE FILM, I ONLY WANT THE MESSAGE TO REACH AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT ANY HIDDEN POLITICAL OR FINANCIAL AGENDA.

Sitting On the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding



"The time for sitting is over! The time for action is now! The time for hope without action is hopeless! The time for change without a positive attitude is a change that we can't believe in! We need change that is positive of helping all people! Our time for action is now, our time for hope is now, our time for change is now and our time to believe that we can do whatever we set our minds to is not now but right now!"

STAR SPANGLED BANNER


The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming;
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?


On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
'Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!


O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land,
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just.
And this be our motto— "In God is our trust; "
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

Black President



Our Time is not now but Right Now! Our Time has finally come to change the world not now but Right Now! If you don't believe that we can change the world than watch as we do it by changing your mind into believing in us and what we can do! This is OUR TIME RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!

FIGHT THE POWER



We got to FIGHT THE POWER! We can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch injustices take place. We can no longer sit by and allow our right to vote to become unexercised. We must FIGHT THE POWER for our past, present and future! We can no longer allow our rights to be oppressed and our voice to become drained by the powers at be. We must FIGHT THE POWER and show that we have a lot to say that needs to be heard by the mainstream media. We must FIGHT THE POWER and live up to our potential as dynamic, unbelievable and phenomenal people.


We must not believe the hype but we must become the hype. We are not Harriett Tubman, Marcus Garvey, MLK, Malcolm X, Booker T. Washington, Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B. DuBois, the Black Panther Party, SNCC, or any other activists but we are the fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, uncles, aunties, and relatives of those who came before us to pave the way for us to FIGHT THE POWER! We are not next Generation of leaders who will not be honored and praised until they die but that’s the fight we accept. We are not fighting the power for glory or fame but we are fighting the power for just causes that most men and women will not understand until years or decades later.


We are fighting for our sisters and brothers in Darfur, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, China and Mexico. We are speaking for those who are poor and have no food or water. We are fighting for those who are sick and dying. We are fighting for universal healthcare across the world and human rights for all people. We are fighting for rich and poor! We must FIGHT THE POWER no matter how hard and tough the road may be. We must FIGHT THE POWER for a better today and an even greater tomorrow!


FIGHT THE POWER!

PEOPLE GET READY


“People Get Ready” our time is coming! We have come too far to turn back now. Our train is coming and it is coming in waves. “People Get Ready”, we don’t need a ticket but we need faith and the Lord will help guide us as we take back America and the world. “People Get Ready” our moment is now and we are ready to see the change we want in America and the world. All we got to do is have faith, hope and prosperity. “People Get Ready” to face your fears. “People Get Ready” to face your demons and the challenges of yesterday because today and tomorrow we will conquer & be victorious. “People Get Ready” a change is coming and our actions will make sure that change is a real positive change that lasts forever.


“People Get Ready” because we have had enough of just talking but now is our time to show action. “People Get Ready” to take back America and the world. “People Get Ready” to take back our communities and to make our streets safer and schools better. “People Get Ready” to make all our dreams come true. “People Get Ready” to see a better present for everyone and a better future for future generations. “People Get Ready” to live up to your potential and to help others live up to their own potential. “People Get Ready” to move past hatred, bigotry, racism and sexism. “People Get Ready” to fulfill the dreams of those who came before us and those who will come after us.


“People Get Ready” as we make our actions speak louder than our words. “People Get Ready” to make words mean something again as we put action to back up our rhetoric. “People Get Ready” as we embark on a new journey that will re-write America’s history as well as the world’s history. “People Get Ready” as we make the lives of others better and the lives of future generations better. “People Get Ready” because all we need is faith, hope and action to make this world a better place. “People Get Ready” to make a difference. “People Get Ready” to fulfill the American dream. “People Get Ready" to live out the American Dream as our founding fathers wanted us to live it. “People Get Ready” because our time is now, our moment is now and our moment in time to change America & the world is not now but right now. “People Get Ready” because a change is coming!


Alicia]
(Let me tell you now)
People get ready, there's a train comin'
You don't need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin'
You don't need no ticket, you just thank the lord

[Lyfe]
People get ready, for a train to Jordan
Picking up passengers coast to coast
Faith is the key, open the doors and board them
There's hope for all among those loved the most

[Alicia]
There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all man kind just to save his own (believe me now)
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
For there's no hiding place against the kingdoms throne

[Alicia & Lyfe]
So people get ready there's a train coming
You don't need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels humming,
You don't need no ticket, you just thank the lord


“PEOPLE GET READY!”

God Bless the U.S.A. by Lee Greenwood


Lee Greenwood-god bless the U.S.A