Blackground

Controversial Proposition 8 Overturned

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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?

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.

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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…

Relationships & Religion

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.

December 1st

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There are some things in life that I’m afraid of; spiders, being homeless, my dentist but not HIV/AIDS. Some time after my mom found out about my preferences, we had a lengthy discussion about grandchildren, health issues and my safety. She told that she was afraid for me, afraid to have to bury her only child. That was the one thing you would never be able to handle and made me promise to be smart about the choices I make in life. That was six years ago and I still uphold that promise and get tested every six months (every April and October). For me, the best way to stay safe is to be educated and that’s why I’m not afraid of HIV and AIDS. Not if I can only do the same thing about spiders.

Rosa Louise Parks (1913-2005)

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Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913–October 24, 2005)
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Rosa Parks Being Arrested After Refusing to Give Up Her Seat