Django!

must see!!!!!
grab a friend, family and co-worker!

really?

old man

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in an Australian country town, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.
Later, when the nurses were going through his possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.

One nurse took her copy to Melbourne. The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas editions of magazines around the country and appearing in mags for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.

And this old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this 'anonymous' poem winging across the Internet.

Cranky Old Man

What do you see nurses? . . .. . .What do you see?
What are you thinking .. . when you're looking at me?
A cranky old man, . . . . . .not very wise,
Uncertain of habit .. . . . . . . .. with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food .. . ... . . and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice . .'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice . . .the things that you do.
And forever is losing . . . . . .. . . A sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not . . . ... lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding . . . .The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking?. .Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse .you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am . . . . .. As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, .. . . . as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten . .with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters .. . . .. . who love one another
A young boy of Sixteen . . . .. with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . .. . . a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty . . . ..my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows .. .. .that I promised to keep.
At Twenty-Five, now . . . . .I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . . And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . .. . . . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . .. With ties that should last.
At Forty, my young sons .. .have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me . . to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, .. ...Babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children . . . . My loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me . . . . My wife is now dead.
I look at the future ... . . . . I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing .. . . young of their own.
And I think of the years . . . And the love that I've known.
I'm now an old man . . . . . . .. and nature is cruel.
It's jest to make old age . . . . . . . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles .. .. . grace and vigour, depart.
There is now a stone . . . where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass . A young man still dwells,
And now and again . . . . . my battered heart swells
I remember the joys . . . . .. . I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living . . . . . . . life over again.
I think of the years, all too few . . .. gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people .. . . . .. . . open and see.
Not a cranky old man .
Look closer . . . . see .. .. . .. .... . ME!!

Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within. We will all, one day, be there, too!

With age comes wisdom ...indeed!

after the holiday feast, then a ...

2013, year of the dreams, starting today!

2012

GRAND OPENING

Cresies's Organicly Infused 

Bath & Body Products

December 23rd

1-4pm

73rd Jeffrey (across from Pearl Vision)

A Tribute to Rev. Dr. Lewis Flowers, Ph.D

honoring Rev. Dr. Lewis Flowers, Ph.D

                                         Rev. Dr. Lewis Flowers, Ph.D.
                              Vietnam War Veteran, U.S. Army 1968-70
                                           Westside Ministers Coalition

                                     March 9, 1952 - December 9, 2012                           

                                                           

REV. DR. LEWIS FLOWERS, CHAIRMAN OF THE WESTSIDE MINISTERS COALITION, DEAD AT 62

By Chinta Strausberg

Rev. Dr. Lewis Flowers, 62, former President of the Westside Ministers Coalition and chairman of the Board, passed last night at his home at 2:50 a.m. having recently been released from a hospital, Rev. Phalese Binion, president of the Westside Ministers Coalition, confirmed Sunday morning.

A Vietnam veteran, Dr. Flowers was pronounced dead at 2:50 a.m. at the West Suburban Hospital, according to his daughter, Blaire Flowers. Dr. Flowers had been in several hospitals prior to his death last night, Dr. Binion said.

The powerful Dr. Flowers, who served for more than three decades as the president of that Coalition, was known for his battles on social justice on the West Side of Chicago particularly in the Austin community where, as a spokesman for the Community Reinvestment Organizing Project (COP), demanded that Mayor Rahm Emanuel include Austin, which reportedly led in the number of foreclosures, be included in the mayor’s $15 million Foreclosure Recovery Program.

“The State of Illinois has lost a true icon,” said rev. Binion. “I just thank God he will now be able to rest but those of us who must go on and fill his shoes and pick up and carry on the work he has so tirelessly and restlessly fought for must go on. We have our work cut out for us, but we know we won’t let him down. We won’t let the people down and most of all we will not let God down. We will do it in a state of excellence and in Dr. Lewis’ memory,” Rev. Binion told this reporter.

Dr. Flowers leaves to mourn his wife, Cynthia, three sons,  Durand, Duwane and Elijah, two daughters, Lanita Joyner and Blaire Flowers, three brothers, Victor, Cornelius and Dennis, three sisters, Lorinda, Jocelyn and Aretha, nine grandchildren and one grand-child.

Funeral arrangements are as follows:
Wake 
Saturday Dec. 15th 10AM
Pleasant Ridge
116  S. Central Ave. (between Madison and Monroe)
Chicago, Il.

Repast arrangements pending.

DO NOT SEND FLOWERS to the  church, instead
send DONATIONS 
to the West Side Minister's Coaltion
www.westcoalition.org/or call

Call Linda Barker
773) 858-4453

Office
773) 261-0207

Miles To Run Before We Sleep

the credit card game

the eyes have it?

http://iammusiconline.com/ranking.php?mode=blog&message_id=6082&row_template=news_page.tpl

Bronzeville Black Genius Lecture Series

 Bronzeville Black Genius Lecture Series
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a day of hope!

coaching your dreams/

 2013  Dream Journal©

My Dreams Come True in 2013!

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Dreams Do Come True!

(From Clerical Worker to Receptionist to Student to Radio/TV Personality to Producer/Editor/Screen Writer!) It’s POSSIBLE!

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SOCIAL SECURITY NOW CALLED 'FEDERAL BENEFIT PAYMENT'/ENTITLEMENT!

Have you  noticed, your Social Security check is now referred to  as a "Federal  Benefit  Payment"?

I'll be  part of the one percent to forward this.

I am forwarding it because it touches a  nerve in me, and I hope it will in you.

Please keep passing it on until everyone in  our country has read it.

The government is  now referring to our Social Security checks as a Federal  Benefit Payment.
This isnt a benefit its earned  income!
Not only did we all contribute to  Social Security but our employers did too.

It  totaled 15% of our income before taxes.
If you  averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's  close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.

If you calculate the future value of your  monthly investment in social security ($375/month,  including both
your and your employers contributions)  at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after  40 years of
working you'd have more than $1.3+  million dollars saved! This is your personal  investment.

Upon retirement, if  you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318  per year, or $3,277 per month.

Thats almost  three times more than todays average  Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according  to the
Social Security Administration (Google it -  its a fact).

And your retirement fund would last  more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age  65)!
I can only imagine how much better most  average-income people could live in retirement if our  government had
just invested our money in low-risk  interest-earning accounts.

Instead, the folks in  Washington pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie  Madoff ever did.
They took our money and used it  elsewhere. They forgot that it was OUR  money they were taking.
They didnt have a referendum  to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them.

And they didnt pay interest on the debt they  assumed.
And recently, theyve told us that the money  wont support us for very much longer.
But is it our  fault they misused our investments?

And now, to add insult to  injury, theyre calling it a benefit, as if we never  worked to earn every penny of it.
Just because  they borrowed the money, doesn't mean that our  investments were acharity!
Lets take a stand.

We have earned our right to Social Security and  Medicare.
Demand that our legislators bring some  sense into our government

Find a way to keep  Social Security and Medicare going, for the sake of that  92% of our population who need it.

Then call it  what it is:
Our Earned Retirement  Income.

99% of  people won't share this.
Will  you?

Oba William King The Poetic Storyteller

microwave Thanksgiving?

you must tend to your dreams!

what you don't know about your bank...

must see tv!

must see tv!

http://vimeo.com/3658572

romney sending your job to China?

"President Obama: Bail Out. Mitt Romney: Sell Out!"

Rev Jesse Jackson joins with workers in Freeport, Illinois to protest the closing of Sensata Technologies, a manufacturing plant where Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a major stockholder. American employees are losing their $14 per hour jobs to China, where workers are paid just .99 cents per hour. This reveals Mitt Romney's real economic plans for America. Watch it on The Media Connection at:

http://youtu.be/W1Gy8oP0Y8Q

Higher Learning Network,nfp (HLN TV) being honored!

 HLN is a nominee finalist for the

2013 SBND  Community Enterprise Achievement Award.

Thank you for accepting our invitation to be recognized for your achievements 

toward development of new legal enterprises and jobs in communities

 impacted most by the recession.

As you know, our media promotion 

Community Enterprise Achievement Gala 

will be held on 

Saturday, November 17, 2012. 

The networking and presentations will begin at

5:00 pm at Chicago South Loop Hotel.

Details to follow:

Hooray!

Send your congrats to Zelda and staff 

info@HigherLearningNetwork.org

Marva Pitchford Jolly Memorial

Marva Pitchford Jolly Edition                      October 30th,   2012      N'Spirational Conversations (c) This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Master Ceramics Artist/Professor Marva Pitchford-Jolly    ______________________________________________________________ N'Spiration and N'Formation  HLN APP is now available! Download FREE! https://market.android.com/details?id=org.HLN&feature=search_result ___________________________________________________________________________ N'Spirational Conversations My dearest First cousin Marva Pitchford Jolly has made her transition to the Masters Ceramic Garden of Eden on last Monday!   She left in her sleep! How sweet is that? I want to be just like her when I grow up!  No pain, no worries, no nothing. Just sleep and restful sleep as her spirit descends unto the ethers/heavens of the Ceramic Highway of Love! Marva loved what she did so much, she shared her gift with others. After a career in health, she decided it was time to do something different, something she loved to do as a child.  Play in the dirt! Really? Yes really!  I love it! Against all odds (concerned family members included) she began her new career playing in the mud, which became her passion. She got so good at it, she began a career and taught all over the globe, including but not limited to Liberia, her second home, where her brother Charles Pitchford is an Ambassador! The art community is her extended family. She was in the midst of preparing for the 25th Annual Showcase of   Saphires and Crystals, an organization which she co-founded with Felica Grant-Preston. I remember the days of old when she shared her art work at the Hyde Park  Art Fair and she would give us pieces, telling us that one day we wouldn't  be able to afford them, so get them inexpensive while we could. True to her word as well as her work, Michigan Avenue Galleries in Chicago  and all over the world (including the continent of Africa)   swooped up her art work and pieces have become collector's items, in the homes of the affluent  and serious collectors.   (Glad I still have my private pieces from her private collection! Thanks cuz!) Collecting loved ones at family gatherings was her specialty as well. Since most of the matriarchs of the Pitchford family have passed on, Marva was like the Big Mama (without the Big Body!) of the family. I always looked forward to having traditional  holiday  dinners at her place with our beloved Ernestine! (Who could also throw down!) Traditional in the word, but never in the sense of food. Black beans, black eyed peas, cous-cous and baked sweet potatoes were just a few of my favorites!   Marva could cook!  Truly a Southern Girl with a Northern Flair!  (Now you know that's where I got that intro for my bio!) Marva and I both knew people who knew us individually, but didn't know we were cousins. I met a young lady at the Catalyst Ranch here in Chicago some years ago where I was the Keynote Speaker for a women's business networking event where my Champaign, CheeseCake and Conversations Seminar was featured.  One of the attendees, Shuli Eshelle, is a Chicago Film Maker. During the course of our conversation, I discovered that she knew Marva and had filmed a documentary (MudPeoples) on our family farm down in  Crenshaw Mississipp.  Small world! Shuli and I became friends and when Marva showed up at Shuli's birthday party, we just laughed and had a good time.  The last time I saw Marva was up on Devon Ave. Shopping.  I would run into her from time to time, and even made it by the house for family occasions.   My only regret is that I forgot to call her on her birthday this year September 11th!   I forgave myself, knowing that she knows where  my heart is! (You know we can sometimes be a little hard on ourselves!) It gave me much comfort when my sister Vivian told me that Marva would always, always ask about me when there was an impromtu family gathering that I had missed. Marva is a Master @ what she does, and I love her spirit! She taught me so much, just by being who she is. I remember a family dinner when we were just sitting around shooting the breeze with all the family, and the conversation was around The Course in Miracles (A MUST READ!) and it got a little heated between my sister and I. Marva in her Master Matriarchial way simply used one of the MasterMinding principles on us, calming us down, keeping us focused! It's just the little things is life that are so very important and dear to your spirit! It's never about what you have or don't have, how much money or things you've  acquired, but how you've made a difference with the life you've been given. I remember a friend cracked a ceramic piece Marva had given me and I snapped! Their reply was “it's just a piece of pottery!”  NO!  It's not! It's part of my   Marva Jolly Collection! You can't buy that in a store! Only at private events or in galleries!   Even more important, it was a gift from  her heart to mine! It was made from the mud, to a family mud member. Hence, mudpeoples! I am still working on getting over the attachment to things. You know we can't take it with us right? It's a process! It's a journey! Transition is a journey we all must travel. Thank you cousin Marva for sharing your journey with me! I'll always cherish our times together!  Marva Pitchford Jolly, family Matriarch, Chicago History Maker, retired Chicago State University, world traveler, sisterfriend, Aunt to many, Master Ceramics Instructor,  and loved by all who knew her and her art!   R.I.P.   Memorial Sat. Nov. 3rd 11am - Visitation 12 Noon Memorial Service Kenny Brothers Funeral Home 3600 W. 95th Street Marva in Black and White! Classic!  At Chicago State, doing what she does best! Create!             P.S. If you want to make your life better, make someone else's life better! Share this newsletter and maybe save a life! (info@HigherLearningNetwork.org for FREE Subscripton to WEEKLY N'Spiration & NFormation!) Stay on purpose! Stay empowered! Stay tuned to higher learning! Shelomith Yisrael aka Zelda Robinson www.HigherLearningNetwork.org www.ZeldaSpeaks.com www.InspirationalConversations.com http://inspirationalconversations.blogspot.com/   sponsored by   www.ITEX.net Stop paying CASH! BARTER instead! Karen.Kelly@itex.net                                                      ON THE AIR!   Sunday's Midnight Channel 19! If you miss it, you can always catch it online! www.YouTube.com/HigherLearningTVShow                           Community Calendar website of the week! marva jolly www.chocolatecity.cc/2011/06/18/djini-a-collection-of-african-pottery-antique-and-contemporary/   http://inspirationalconversations.blogspot.com/     Please sign our new Facebook page! www.facebook.com/HlnTvShow This newsletter is provided to you by: Higher Learning Network,NFP P.O. Box 11513 Chicago, Il. 60611 (312) 409-6619 Higher Learning Network is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. You may make a donation using our secure site Please choose a project you'd like to make a difference in: Publishing Project (Teaching youth how to publish poetry, journals, etc) Who knows, you may be donating to the next Langston Hughes, Michael Eric Dyson, Tupac, etc. Youth Media Training Supplies (Blank SONY DVD Mini Cam Tapes, Blank DVDs USB Ports, Misc. Training Supplies, lunch for kids, etc.) Radio Tours (Gas for Van to pick up youth, CTA Bus Passes for kids to attend classes, tours of Radio/TV Stations, etc.   E-mail us at: HigherLearningNw@yahoo.com or info@higherlearningnetwork.org Website: www.HigherLearningNetwork.org Visit us: www.facebook.com/people/TvshowHln www.facebook.com/ZeldaSpeaks www.linkedin.com/in/zeldaspeaks