Blackground

Controversial Proposition 8 Overturned

Thursday, August 5th, 2010
by Tony

A federal judge in San Francisco decided today that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, striking down Proposition 8, the voter approved ballot measure that banned same-sex unions. LA TIMES

Too Little, Too Late?

Monday, May 24th, 2010
by Tony

I was coming back from a recent outing of indulgence of fried chicken and general fat-assness, and on the way home while waiting on the bus something caught my eye. Standing on the corner of 79th & Jeffery, there’s this little women’s clothing store and on the door was this posting.

My first thought was “Was this too little too late?” I mean completely understand the reasoning behind people taking a stand and trying to make their community a safer and better place. In most neighborhoods within the southside of Chicago, the corner convienence store is anything but a convienence. It’s the local hang out for the pushers, dealers, hypes, crackheads, drunks and the homeless. But is it fair to say that the proprietors are the cause for the downfall on the urban neighborhood? What I get from this window posting is that without the corner store, there wouldn’t be any urban decay and I know that’s not right…

Safe & Happy Summer…

Sunday, September 14th, 2008
by Tony

I came across this link on Digg earlier today and felt compelled to share…

Google Link

Missing Posts

Tuesday, September 12th, 2006
by Tony

Been debating on whether or not to post this due to my mixed emotions about the subject matter and because I really don’t think I make any valid points. Essentially this is an excerpt from an IM conversaton I had the yesterday night regarding the lack of 9/11 posts on my site.

Them: Hey, why haven’t you posted anything on 9-11.
Tony: I’m not good with things like that.
Them: What do you mean?
Them: You haven’t posted anything on attacks in the past
Them: don’t you think its time you should?
Tony: dude, slow up for minute.
Tony: I dont like to celebrate death. I don’t think its a health thing to do.
Tony: *healthy*
Them: How did you come to that conclusion?
Tony: If we focus to much on death, how can we live?
Them: So you don’t acknowledge the attacks?
Tony: Of course I do, thats not the point I was trying to make. I can’t begin to explain the feeling of numbness on that day. Shit I still feel that way now.
Them: so why haven’t you wrote about?
Tony: I’ve try, but I just can’t find the words

Relationships & Religion

Monday, August 28th, 2006
by Tony

So for the past few days I’ve been hanging out with this really cool individual (Don’t read too much into it, just friends… for now). And like with most new friendships/relationships/acquintances hopefully there are a sreies a conversations about each other, your pasts, your futures and various other topics. While communication is always a good start to meeting someone new, when the topic of religion comes about I tend to avoid it.

This past weekend was no exception, for I had invited my new friend to accompany me to my Frat brother’s book release/signing party. Over the sounds of some neo soul/ new-bohemian cd played we talked about various plans for this upcoming Sunday and he asked (paraphrasing of course) ‘What church do you go to?’ ‘I don’t’ I replied and from there I could have predicted the next words out his mouth. As a non-Christian, I’ve been in this scenerio plenty of times where it seems that I have to defend my faith as to why I don’t attend church. Oddly enough since I’ve live in Chicago the question frequently asked isn’t “What is you faith?” but “Where to you church?”

I guess I should stop with the misnomers in my post titles since this isn’t a post about ‘Relationships & Religion’ but rather ‘Relationships with Religion.’ As a child, religion wasn’t never pushed onto me, being that my mother was Muslim and my father was Born Again (don’t ask me how that happened). My dad didn’t want to step on anything that my mom was teach me but he wanted to make sure that I did get a Christmas. And as I grew older my mom became less strict on following the Islamic faith and bought me gold chains and feed me bacon. I never really felt tied to either extreme and in the end my parents told that I should follow my own path and see what faith speaks to me.

So from that point, I’ve never felt the need to justify or defend what I chose to believe in… I do believe in God and I put my faith in Him. I accept that we may not agree on the same beliefs, but I’ve learned that tolerance can go a long way.