Before the Drama

Starting from junior high school, I was on my own. My parents weren’t invested in my education or doings. They were too busy worrying about their beer supply. They were too busy arguing and taking those arguments to another level. It takes more than food and housing to be a parent. But yet, the food always warmed my heart.

With the food I was fed, I felt that love I craved from my parents but never got. My parents couldn’t give me anything of material worth, but the food was enough. The food could have replaced the emptiness that I was feeling if my parents weren’t arguing and taking things to another level. I still remember the taste of my favorite dishes such as hamburgers and pork shoulder. There sure wasn’t anyone who could hold up to my mother’s cooking.

When I moved out, my mom would always lure me back to her home to eat. Food was rebuilding my relationship with my parents. But I don’t have that anymore. I don’t have the special birthday dinner which was the dish of my choosing. I always looked forward to Thanksgiving. But I don’t have that anymore. For the first time in my life, I don’t have a home to go to for the holidays, not even a girlfriend’s house. This saddens me.

But I digress. The person I know who is going to have a hard time this holiday season is my little sister. I’m going to try my best to make it special for her. She’s all I got. I ask you all to pray for her. I hope you all see this and hold your loved ones tight. Be grateful for them. Thank God for them because some aren’t as lucky. Have a great holiday season, brothers and sisters. Stay strong. Keep it pushing. Peace be on to you. God bless!

It was all good more than a decade ago...

My younger brother and I were two peas in a pod. We hung out together outside. We played together outside. We played video games together. We played card games together. Since our parents weren’t invested in our lives, all we had was each other. I comforted him when my father fought my mom. I took him places to get his mind off the drama at home. Most of my youth, I was with him. I led by example by doing well in school. I lectured him on how education was his way out.

Once our sister grew up, I thought my brother would step up as I did for him. I thought he would led by example. Just before I went away to college, I started to see him fall apart. He went into high school with girls on his mind, not looking for a way out. He wouldn’t spend time with his sister. He would always kick her out of his room. He started to do horrible in school. My parents would call me to get me to talk to him about his academics and disrespectful behavior at home.

It got to the point where I said what I thought I would never say. I told him, “I’m not going waste my breath with you if you’re not even going to try.” I was sick of talking to him about his disregard for himself and others. I was sick of telling him how he was heading towards the road of our father. He was sick of me lecturing him. I learned that you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. I proceeded to tell him, “There are other young people out there who aren’t going to waste my breath, my time.” I didn’t close the door fully on him though. I told him, “When you’re ready to be helped, when you’re ready to hear me speak, I will always be here for you.”

My brother thought life was easy. He thought he could just get a job, move out and provide for himself. He told me this. In what seemed like a final appeal without his asking, I tried to explain how it wasn’t that simple. That appeal just fell on deaf ears.

He didn’t finish high school when he only had a few classes left. He lives with my father. He is unemployed. He lies to and steals from family members. Barely anyone would talk to him, let alone trust him. He got in trouble with the Law a few times over silliness on his part. My sister, who has her own issues, thinks he’s a joke. How can you comfort someone when you don’t even have your own stuff together and refuse to do so?

Sometimes I wonder what made him be this way. Sometimes I wonder why he refuses to better himself despite facing the realities of his current home life. Why doesn’t he want to be a positive example for his sister in her time of need? Why does when it seem like there is light in the lamp, it ends up being my eyes playing tricks on me? I cry when I ponder these things.

It hurts me that we rarely talk now. It hurts me that he chooses to suffer on the side of the road rather than take a ride in my car to empowerment. It’s not too late for him. He’s only 19. I still have hope for him. I still pray for him. If there’s one thing I learned these past few years, it is that for some, experience is the best teacher. I pray that the Lord brings my brother his rude awakening. I pray that the Lord shows him the way off the side of the road.

I believe in him. The banner for this blog was created by him. I see promise in my brother. The fire is in him, deep in him. I’ve seen it. He’s a very smart kid. He could be more successful than I ever will be. But I think he isn’t sure that is possible. If there is one thing he can be sure of, it is that I will be there for him when he wants to make a positive change.

“Agent of Change”
Pace University Upward Bound
Brother Danny Tejada
2011-2012

Agent of Change is a class on activism. Learn what activism is with various readings from past and present activists. The class will also consist of discussions, videos, guest speakers talking about their work, writing a letter to President Obama and public speaking about the issues you care about the most. It is led by Danny Tejada, a 2005 Upward Bound graduate. His activism career started in Skidmore College after being inspired by his winning of a scholarship called Beat the Odds in high school. The following is subject to change.

October 15th
• Introductions
• Why are we in this class?
• What is Activism?
• Program Ballot (Alinsky, Saul David. Reveille for Radicals. New York: Vintage, 1989. 128. Print.)
• Homework: Bobo, Kimberley A., Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max. “The Fundamentals of Direct Action Organizing.” Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists. 3rd ed. Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks, 2001. 8-13. Print.

October 22nd
• Dressing for the crowd
• Discussion about reading
• Homework: Alinsky, Saul David. “What Is a Radical?” Reveille for Radicals. New York: Vintage, 1989. 3-23. Print.

October 29th
• The Price of Being a Radical
• Discussion about reading
• Homework: Bobo, Kimberley A., Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max. “Choosing an Issue.” Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists. 3rd ed. Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks, 2001. 22-27. Print.

November 5th
• Issues and Causes
• Exercise: Bobo, Kimberley A., Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max. “Choosing an Issue.” Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists. 3rd ed. Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks, 2001. 28. Print.
• Homework: Alinsky, Saul David. “The Program.” Reveille for Radicals. New York: Vintage, 1989. 55-63. Print.

November 12th
• Creating a Program
• Discussion about reading
• Program ideas
• Homework: Alinsky, Saul David. “A Word about Words.” Rules for Radicals: a Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals. New York: Vintage, 1989. 48-62. Print.

December 3rd
• What did we think about the words mentioned in the reading before reading?
• What do we think now?
• My experience with these words
• Homework: Alinsky, Saul David. “Communication.” Rules for Radicals: a Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals. New York: Vintage, 1989. 81-97. Print.

December 10th
• Reaching people where they are and how they like to be reached
• Discussion about reading

December 17th
• Time management
• Homework: Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and Jones Gareth. Stedman. “Bourgeois and Proletarians.” The Communist Manifesto. London: Penguin, 2002. 219-33. Print.

February 4th
• Research (Library and internet)
• Revisiting issues and causes: Occupy Wall Street, Tea Party and The Communist Manifesto.
• Homework:
-Kennedy, Robert F., and Norman MacAfee. “The Other America.” The Gospel According to RFK: Why It Matters Now. New York: Basic, 2008. 39-45. Print.
-Stiglitz, Joseph E. “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.” Vanity Fair, 6 Apr. 2011. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.

February 11th
• Modern/1st World Poverty
• “Hard times Generation Homeless Kids.” 60 Minutes – CBS News, 15 Mar. 2011. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.
• Discussion about reading
• Homework:
- Buffett, Warren E. “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.” New York Times, 14 Aug. 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.
- Cohen, Patricia. “‘Culture of Poverty’ Makes a Comeback.” New York Times, 17 Oct. 2010. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.

February 25th
• Guest Speaker
• Homework: Vargas, Jose A. “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” New York Times, 22 June 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.

March 17th
• A Country of Immigrants
• Discussion about reading
• Homework: Paul, Ron. “The Foreign Policy of the Founding Fathers.” The Revolution: a Manifesto. New York, NY: Grand Central Pub., 2009. 9-39. Print.

March 24th
• War Aboard; Suffering at Home
• Discussion about reading

March 31st
• “Seizing Justice: The Greensboro 4.” Smithsonian, 1 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.
• Homework: -A letter to the President
-Write an outline for your own letter

April 21st
• Letter writing
• Homework: Write one single spaced letter to the President

April 28th
• Peer reviews of letters
• Homework: Revise your letter

May 5th
• Hand in letters (original and revised)
• Get to know each other
• Homework: Bobo, Kimberley A., Jackie Kendall, and Steve Max. “Being a Great Public Speaker.” Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists. 3rd ed. Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks, 2001. 140-54. Print.

May 19th
• Tejada, Danny. “Beating the Odds.” 29 Sept. 2008. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.
• Q & A on speaking
• Homework: Write a one single spaced speech on a topic important to you

June 9th
• One on one role playing recruitment
• Homework: have someone revise your speech. Rewrite it. Practice!

June 16th
• Giving speeches (dress up!)
• Students rate each other 1 to 5 on Delivery, Clarity, Mood, Content, Body language and answer the questions: what stood out the most? What could be worked on?
-Students will be emailed rating average and these comments
• Program Ballot (Alinsky, Saul David. Reveille for Radicals. New York: Vintage, 1989. 128. Print.)

Contacting Brother Danny:
DanielTejadaJr@hotmail.com
Facebook.com/AboutThePeople
Twitter.com/AboutThePeople

Have a great summer!
Stay strong. Keep it pushing.
Peace be on to you, brothers and sisters!
God Bless!

A must buy!

“Our generation cannot escape the question of our Lord: What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world of externals—airplanes, electric lights, automobiles, and color television—and lose the internal—his own soul?”

“…evil carries the seed of its own destruction.”

“Power is the ability to fulfill purpose; action that defeats purpose is weakness.”

“Without…faith, man’s highest dreams will pass silently to the dust.”

“[To distill all of our frustrations into a core bitterness and resentment] poisons the soul and scars the personality, always harming the person who harbors this feeling more than anyone else.”

“To sink in the quicksands of fatalism is both intellectually and psychologically stifling. Because freedom is part of the essence of man, the fatalist, by denying freedom, becomes a puppet, not a person.”

“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope. Only in this way shall we live without the fatigue of bitterness and the drain of resentment.”

“True peace, a calm that exceeds all description and all explanation, is peace amid storm and tranquility amid disaster.”

“Our capacity to deal creatively with shattered dreams is ultimately determined by our faith in God.”

“…it is unfair and certainly unscientific to condemn a system before we know what that system teaches and why it is wrong.”

“Destructive means cannot bring constructive ends, because the means represent the-ideal-in-the-making and the-end-in-progress. Immoral means cannot bring moral ends, for the ends are preexistent in the means.”

“We must come to see that the Christian gospel is a two-way road. On the one side, it seeks to change the souls of men and thereby unite them with God; on the other, it seeks to change the environmental conditions of men so that the soul will have a chance after it is changed.”

“We must face the shameful fact that the church is the most segregated major institution in American society, and the most segregated hour of the week is…eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.”

“God intends that all of his children shall have the basic necessities for meaningful, healthful life. Surely it is unchristian and unethical for some to wallow in the soft beds of luxury while others sink in the quicksands of poverty.”

“The instruments that yesterday were worshiped today contain cosmic death, threatening to plunge all of us into the abyss of annihilation. Man is not able to save himself or the world. Unless he is guided by God’s spirit, his new-found scientific power will become a devastating Frankenstein monster that will bring to ashes his earthy life.”

“What appears at the moment to be evil may have a purpose that our finite minds are incapable of comprehending. So in spite of the presence of evil and the doubts that lurk in our minds, we shall wish not to surrender the conviction that our God is able.”

“At times we may feel that we do not need God, but on the day when the storms of disappointment rage, the winds of disaster blow, and the tidal waves of grief beat against our lives, if we do not have a deep and patient faith our emotional lives will be ripped to shreds. There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God.”

“Only God is able. It is faith in him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism.”

“Normal fear protects us; abnormal fear paralyzes us. Normal fear motivates us to improve our individual and collective welfare; abnormal fear constantly poisons and distorts our inner lives. Our problem is not to be rid of fear but rather to harness and master it.”

“Not arms but love, understanding, and organized goodwill can cast out fear. Only disarmament, based on good faith, will make mutual trust a living reality.”

“Hatred and bitterness can never cure the diseases of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzed life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.”

“Religion endows us with the conviction that we are not alone in the vast, uncertain universe. Beneath and above that shifting sands of time, the uncertainties that darken our days, and the vicissitudes that cloud our nights is a wise and loving God.”

“The confidence that God is mindful of the individual is of tremendous value in dealing with the disease of fear, for it gives us a sense of worth, of belonging, and of at-homeness in the universe.”

“Man’s hankering after the demonic is always disturbed by his longing for the divine. As he seeks to adjust to the demands of time, he know that eternity is his ultimate habitat. When man comes to himself, he knows that evil is a foreign invader that must be driven from the native soils of his soul before he can achieve moral and spiritual dignity.”

“The idea that man expects God to do everything leads inevitably to a callous misuse of prayer. For if God does everything, man then asks him for anything, and God becomes little more than a ‘cosmic bellhop’ who is summoned for every trivial need. Or God is considered so omnipotent and man so powerless that prayer is a substitute for work and intelligence.”

“One cannot remove an evil habit by mere resolution nor by simply calling on God to do the job but only as he surrenders himself and becomes an instrument of God.”

‎”God is too courteous to break open the door, but when we open it in faith believing, a divine and human confrontation will transform our sin-ruined lives into radiant personalities.”

“The tragedy is not merely that you have such a multiplicity of denominations, but that many groups claim to possess absolute truth. Such narrow sectarianism destroys the unity of the Body of Christ. God is neither Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, nor Episcopalian. God transcends our denominations.”

“The end of life is not to be happy nor to achieve pleasure and avoid pain but to do the will of God, come what may.”

“…you may ascend to the heights of academic achievement, so that you have all knowledge, and you may boast of your great institutions of learning and the boundless extent of your degrees; but, devoid of love, all of these mean absolutely nothing.”

“The agonizing moments through which I have passed during the last few years have also drawn me closer to God.”

“…I am not yet discouraged about the future. Granted that the easygoing optimism of yesterday is impossible. Granted that we face a world crisis that leaves us standing so often amid the surging murmur of life’s restless sea. But every crisis has both its dangers and opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom. In a dark, confused world the Kingdom of God may yet reign in the hearts of men.”

Such a powerful book!

“There is little hope for us until we become tough minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance…A nation or a civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.”

“Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace.”

“The greatness of our God lies in the fact that he is both tough minded and tenderhearted.”

“[God] does not leave us alone in our agonies and struggles. He seeks us in dark places and suffers with us and for us in our tragic prodigality.”

“God combines in his nature a creative synthesis of love and justice that will lead us through life’s dark valleys and into sunlit pathways of hope and fulfillment.”

“Every true Christian is a citizen of two worlds, the world of our time and the world of eternity.”

“…most people, and Christians in particular, are thermometers that record or register the temperature of majority opinion, not thermostats that transform and regulate the temperature of society.”

“If the church of Jesus Christ is to regain once more its power, message and authentic ring, it must conform only to the demands of the gospel. The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists, who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.”

“Any Christian who blindly accepts the opinions of the majority and in fear and timidity follows a path of expediency and social approval is a mental and spiritual slave.”

“More than ever before we are today challenged by the words of yesterday, ‘Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.’”

“The Samaritan was good because he made concern for others the first law of his life.”

“Our unswerving devotion to monopolistic capitalism makes us more concerned about the economic security of the captains of industry than for the laboring men whose sweat and skills keep industry functioning.”

“The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.”

“…it is not enough to aid a wounded man on the Jericho Road; it is also important to change the conditions that make robbery possible. Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice that make philanthropy necessary.”

“Dollars posses the potential for helping wounded children of God on life’s Jericho Road, but unless those dollars are distributed by compassionate fingers they will enrich neither the giver nor the receiver.”

“…I must not ignore the wounded man on life’s Jericho Road, because he is a part of me and I am a part of him. His agony diminishes me, and his salvation enlarges me.”

“The potential beauty of human life is constantly made ugly by man’s ever-recurring song of retaliation.”

“Generations will rise and fall; men will continue to worship the god of revenge and bow before the altar of retaliation; but ever and again this noble lesson of Calvary will be a nagging reminder that only goodness can drive out evil and only love can conquer hate.”

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

“…the church must implore men to be good and well-intentioned and must extol the virtues for kindheartedness and conscientiousness….Never must the church tire of reminding men that they have a moral responsibility to be intelligent.”

“One does not need to be a profound scholar to be open minded, nor a keen academician to engage in an assiduous pursuit for truth.”

“…the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for enemies is the key to the solution for the problems of our world.”

“…we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”

“…we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding. At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do.”

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

“Hate is just as injurious to the person who hates…Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”

“May we solemnly realize that we shall never be true sons of our heavenly Father until we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.”

“Midnight is the house when men desperately seek to obey the eleventh commandment, ‘Thou shalt not get caught.’”

“In the terrible midnight of war, men have knocked on the door of the church to ask for bread of peace, but the church has often disappointed them.”

“…those who have gone to the church to seek the bread of economic justice have been left in the frustrating midnight of economic privation. In many instances the church has so aligned itself with the privileged classes and so defended the status quo that it has been unwilling to answer the knock at midnight.”

“Many young people who knock on the door are perplexed by the uncertainties of life, confused by daily disappointments, and disillusioned by the ambiguities of history…We must provide them with the fresh bread of hope and imbue them with the conviction that God has the power to bring good out of evil.”

“Disappointment, sorrow, and despair are born at midnight, but morning follows. ‘Weeping may endure for a night,’ says the psalmist, ‘but joy cometh in the morning.’ This faith adjourns the assemblies of hopelessness and brings new light into the dark chambers of pessimism.”

“The richer this man became materially, the poorer he became intellectually and spiritually.”

“Materialism is a weak flame that is blown out by the breath of mature thinking.”

“Without dependence on God our efforts turn to ashes and our sunrises into darkest night.”

Back in high school

If there’s one thing I learned, it is that no one should be silent. One’s story can inspire and empower a person for the better. I’ve came a long way since I’ve written this essay about six years ago. I’m proud of that. I’m even more proud of how far my family has come. I ask you to keep them in your prayers in this very important week for them. So in the spirit of my much more revealing testimony, I present to you my college essay (in it’s original form, sightly revised for a little more clarity):

The beginning of my life is kind of a blur to me. I can remember as far as five years old. I have been through a lot in my life. It all started in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. My mother and father dropped out of high school in their junior year.

My father was a stock boy at a Key Food Supermarket and my mother is on welfare. I was born when my mother was 18. Living in East Flatbush was the happier part of my life but there were bad experiences. My maternal grandmother and uncle lived right down the street. Sometimes I would go to their house to eat or play video games with my uncle.

My father used to work at a corner store that is right next to where we once lived. He used to bring candy home for me. Two years after my brother was born, we were forced out of our apartment.

After two weeks at my maternal grandfather’s house we moved to Linden Projects in East New York, Brooklyn. I was in the third grade at P.S. 306. My parents were always on my back all throughout elementary school. This made me happy because it made me feel like I was being loved and cared for.

When I went to junior high my parents just left me in the dark. In the seventh grade my grandmother died the day after I was with her and she never got to see my little sister become one. I did not go to school for about two weeks.

Before I went to Westinghouse High School, I had a crush on a girl named Candice. At one point I got jumped by a group of sixth graders. It was over me looking into one kid’s class. He did not like that. We were going to fight one on one but then all of his people came and they beat me up in front of Candice. She did not do anything. After that I did not have a crush on her and I left junior high without a word to anyone.

I came into the ninth grade with the same mindset as junior high. As a result I got a 65 in Intro to Computers. Before I entered Pace University Upward Bound in the summer of 2002, I was riding my bike across a street. I was trying to beat the light. I got hit by a car.

I was really scared and I am so lucky that I came out of that okay. In the tenth grade I realized a lot of things. I realized that high school was the real deal, and the my mother and father drank and smoked and my grandmother was the glue in my family. This is when everything in my household went downhill. My father is a violent man.

My father would hit my brother, sister and me very hard and he would hit my mother too. Sometimes I would step in to protect her and those times my father would fight me. After I helped my mother out once I was about to go to sleep when my father came and choked me while I was in bed. He told me the next time I put my hands on him he would beat me with a bat. I woke up in the morning with three scratches on my neck.

I started to win awards for my excellent grades in the tenth grade and my parents never came to the award ceremonies. I got inducted into the National Honors Society at the end of the tenth grade and my parents did not come to the induction ceremony. When I would show my parents my record card, they would not say anything at all. In my life I trust my best friends with everything. My best friends and my uncle are the only ones I talk to.

I care about my best friends and I thank God for bring them into my life. I do well in school because I do not want to end up like my parents. I want to live my own life. I want to have a new beginning and I believe that your college can give me that.

About to Enter Christ

I was born unbaptized on November 1st 1987. I didn’t come to know God until high school, but God was always with me. He was with me when everything went downhill after my grandmother’s death. He was with me while I grew up in an violent home with alcoholic parents. In this home, I couldn’t laugh. I couldn’t be a kid. This place was a jail to me. I had to grow up quickly to be there for my brother and sister.

God was with me while my parents didn’t pay attention to my education and doings. The odds were stacked against me. But He didn’t give up on me. In high school, I came to the Church of the Holy Redeemer seeking refuge. The power of God and the love I received here kept me coming back.

Upon graduating college, I entered a dark place in my mind. I was back at my parents’ house because the lack of health insurance prevented me from joining a public service program. Once at home, my father made me feel less of myself with his jealousy filled comments. I soon felt all of the reasons why I went away to college returning. On top of that, I was having a difficult time finding a job.

God blessed me with the current job I have now. I moved out, but I was still going deeper and deeper into a dark place. I relied on people. I craved the physical presence of anyone. I was drinking on my own to escape from the reality of being alone. I was going to leave the Holy Redeemer to find a church closer to me…at least that’s what I said to myself.

Every Sunday, I would intend on resigning from being the co-chair of the Youth Ministry. But something kept pulling me back. Something sealed my mouth. Even at that time, I felt myself losing the desire to do public service. Apathy exists all around me and is contagious.

But then, I woke up. I discovered what I was set out to do by God. I got more in touch with Him. If there is one thing I learned in the baptism classes, it is what my one of inspirations Martin Luther King said in a sermon entitled “A Tough Mind and A Tender Heart,” “[God] does not leave us alone in our agonies and struggles. He seeks us in dark places and suffers with us and for us in our tragic prodigality.”

I’m not alone. God’s with me. He has always been there for me especially when my grandmother passed away up to this point. I thank Him for keeping me strong. I thank Him for inspiring and empowering me to push on forward. I thank Him for all He’s doing for my family, for all my fellow brothers and sisters and for myself at this present time and in the future.

I pray to Him in hopes that he forgives me for my own sins; the sins I don’t know of and do know of, such as cheating on a test, committing adultery, lying, stealing and doubting Him.

One of my favorite musical artists Kanye West once said, “I’ll never get cut, I’ll never get hurt, my heart will never hurt. No pain. And in a way, God delivered that to me, because there is nothing that can hurt me the way that things have hurt me in the recent past….he put me through so much that he helped turn me into this soldier. Every day he’s turning me more and more into the soldier that he needs me to be.”

I work for Him when I work for the people. I’m His warrior in the moral war for the people, for all of my brothers and sisters. Whenever I do something for any of you, don’t thank me. I don’t want that. I want you to thank God.

I forgive those who have done me wrong, even the greatest wrong done to me, rape. I don’t hold those wrongs against the wrongdoers. I love everyone! I wish God blesses you all!

Becaming Born Again

His message must live on!

“There is a discrimination in this world and slavery and slaughter and starvation. Governments repress their people; and millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich; and wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere.”

“…we can perhaps remember…that those who live with us are our brothers; that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek—as we do—nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.”

“Our answer is to rely on youth—not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.”

“Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man.”

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.”

“Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in the battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world…those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe.”

“For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us.”

“The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American society.”

“Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny.”

“I think again back to what Camus wrote about the fact that perhaps this world is a world in which children suffer, but we can lessen the number of suffering children, and if you do not do this, then who will do this? I’d like to feel that I’d done something to lessen that suffering.”

Down before he got to shine.

“…I believe that once the active and concerned citizens of this nation organize, and build new bonds between themselves, to reassert control over our political lives—once we have done that, we will also be able to assert control over the government programs which so deeply affect our personal lives.”

“Despite all the discord and dispirit, despite all the extremists and their actions, there remains, in this country today, an enormous reservoir of hope and goodwill. Americans want to move forward; they want to better their communities, to make this country not only more livable for all Americans but a shining example for all of the world.”

“We must reach across the false barriers that divide us from our brothers and countrymen, to seek and find peace abroad, reconciliation at home and participation in the life of our country that is the deepest desire of the American people and the truest expression of our national goals.”

“Together we can attack the problems that seem so overwhelming, and master them.”

“…we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.”

“Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of the world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”

“…violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.”

“We learn…to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but on a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.”

“Should we be forced to turn our cities into garrisons then the liberty of every citizen will be diminished. If we do not bring about lasting peace then the day may come when no one will be able to send his child to school or to take a bus without fear. We must act, therefore, not only for the sake of the Negro, but for all of us and for the nation.”

“…if we try to look through the eyes of the young slum-dweller—the Negro, and the Puerto Rican, and the Mexican American—the world is a dark and hopeless place indeed.”

“…the people of the ghetto live today with an unemployment rate far worse than the rest of the nation knew during the depth of the Great Depression.”

“…the most immediate need is for a national impact project: to put men to work, to restore possibility to the young and to give the resident of the ghetto some sense that the nation is committed to fulfillment of his hopes.”

“…let us stop thinking of the poor—the dropouts, the unemployed, those on welfare, and those who work for poverty wages—as liabilities. Let us them for what they are: valuable resources, as people whose work can be directed to all these tasks to be done within our cities, and within the nation…”

“Our great strength—moral, political, economic, and military—must be used to seek peace with justice, to secure peace without fear. For those objectives, we must construct a foreign policy that will reassure the world of our judgment and our purposes.”

“…we must recognize that peace in the world means little to us unless we can preserve it at home. We cannot continue to deny and postpone the demands of our own people, while spending billions in the name of freedom for others.”

“The richest country in the world must be able to afford to feed its hungry people. The most prosperous society on the globe must be able to save its children from death, disease and despair that result from a lack of adequate food.”

“I call on all Americans—on the medical profession, on private industry, on the farmers, on government, and on all individuals to respond to the plight of these millions who are hungry.”

“Where the central interests of the United States are not directly threatened…We should give no more assistance to a government against any internal threat than that government is capable of using itself, through its agencies and instruments. We can help them but we cannot again try to do their jobs for them.”

“…the real constructive force in the world comes not from bombs, but from imaginative ideas, warm sympathies, and a generous spirit.”

“…Shall we continue to watch as medical costs soar beyond the reach of most Americans, condemning the poor to illness and the average American to the whim of fate—or are we going to act to make decent medical care something more than a luxury of the affluent?”

“Education, jobs, community participation, an end to hunger, these are the elements of a healthy citizenry. And they must be achieved. For it is neither economical nor compassionate to care for the consequences of poverty, and ignore its roots.”

“We can create new career opportunities in rural America which will not only avoid forcing people to leave their home communities if they do not wish to, but offer help in alleviating poverty and in providing adequate community social services…”

“…when one of us prospers, all of us prosper; and when one falters, so do we all.”

“Unemployment means having nothing to do—which means nothing to do with the rest of us. To be without work, to be without use to one’s fellow citizens, is to be in truth the Invisible Man of whom Ralph Ellison wrote…”

“We often quote Lincoln’s warning that America could not survive half slave and half free. Nor can it survive while millions of our people are slaves to dependency and poverty, waiting on the favor of their fellow citizens to write them checks.”

“What we do need…is a better liberalism and a better conservatism.”

“The environment in which we live is part of us; when we degrade it, we degrade ourselves…”

What would've happened if he became President?

“I run to seek new policies—policies to close the gaps between black and white, rich and poor, young and old, in this country and around the world. I run for the presidency because I want the Democratic Party and the United States of America to stand for hope instead of despair, for reconciliation of men instead of the growing risk of world war.”

“…these are not ordinary times and this is not an ordinary election. At stake is not simply the leadership of our party or even our country—it is our right to the moral leadership on this planet.”

“If we examine the history of this conflict, we find the dismal story repeated time after time…at every crisis…we have denied that anything was wrong; sent more troops; and issued more confident communiques…we have been assured that this one last step would bring victory…the predictions and promises have failed and been forgotten, and the demand has been made again for just one more step up the ladder.”

“If the government’s troops will not or cannot carry the fight for their cities, we cannot ourselves destroy [the cities]. That kind of salvation is not an act we can presume to perform for them. For we must ask our government—we must ask ourselves: where does such logic end?”

“What we must ask ourselves is whether we have a right to bring so much destruction to another land without clear and convincing evidence that this is what its people want. But that is precisely the evidence we do not have. What they want is peace, not dominated by any outside forces.”

“…it is long past time to ask: what is this war doing to us? Of course it is costing us money…but that is the smallest price we pay. The cost is in our young men, the tens of thousands of their lives cut off forever. The cost is in our world position—in neutrals and allies alike, every day more baffled by and estranged from a policy they cannot understand.”

“If young boys and girls are so filled with despair when they are going to high school and feel that their lives are so hopeless and that nobody’s going to care for them, nobody’s going to be involved with them, nobody’s going to bother with them, that they either hang themselves, shoot themselves, or kill themselves—I don’t think that’s acceptable…I think we can do much, much better.”

“If we believe that we as Americans are bound together by a common concern for each other, than an urgent national priority is upon us. We must began to end the disgrace of this other America. And this is one of the great tasks of leadership for us, as individuals and citizens this year.”

“But even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task. It is to confront the poverty of satisfaction, purpose, and dignity that inflicts us all. Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things.”

“Those who now call for an end to dissent…seem not to understand what this country is all about. For debate and dissent are the very heart of the American process. We have followed the wisdom of Greece: ‘All things are to be examined and brought into question. There is no set limit to thought.’”

“…our happiness will come not from goods we have, but from the good we do together.”

“…the work we must do is not for the benefit of any one of our peoples: It is work we must do for all Americans.”

“All [disadvantaged] Americans are joined by the bond of injustice—and all these Americans must be freed by a strong, determined national effort—not an effort which merely swells our budget with programs which will not free these Americans—but an effort which will provide jobs, not welfare doles; decent homes, not slums standing on the foundation of federal indifference.”

“All of us, from the wealthiest and most powerful of men, to the weakest and hungriest of children, share one precious possession: the name ‘American.’”

“We have assumed that more federal funds are the only answer to our problems. I believe the time has come for the leadership of America to put its trust in the hands of the people—and to meet the great domestic challenges of our time with programs shaped and run by the citizens themselves.”

“The loss of participation is a loss which affects all of us…”

“Together, we can make this a nation where young people do not seek the false peace of drugs. Together, we can make this a nation where old people are not shunted off; where, regardless of the color of his skin or the place of birth of his father, ever citizen will have an equal chance at dignity and decency.”

“We have been stripped of goals and values and direction, as we move aimlessly and rather futilely from crisis to crisis and danger to danger. And the record shows that kind of approach will not only not solve problems, it will only deepen them.”

“This is a time to create, not destroy. This is a time for men to work out of a sense of decency, not bitterness. This is a time to begin again…”

“It is time to begin rebuilding the Grand Alliance—to repair the bonds of trust and confidence of those historic allies whose friendship has been the basis of our own security so many times in the past.”

“It is time to recall ourselves to our true responsibilities in the world: to recognize that we cannot sit frozen in indifference while everyday, 10,000 fellow human beings starve elsewhere in the world; that it is a monstrous disproportion that we should buy eight million new cars a year while most of the world goes without shoes.”

‎”[César Chávez's] message says that dignity is not something awarded coldly in a welfare office. This message says that dignity is something a man attains with his mind, with the labor of his body, with his belief in himself. It is not something you buy in a supermarket.”

“…this country must insure that Mexican Americans do not have to bleed for a living. I want to see an America where Mexican Americans produce featherweight champions of the world, but also space engineers, doctors of letters, great novelists, fine composers and Nobel Prize winners.”

“America should allow them to be anything which their talent and intelligence can make them. If America fails these young people, if through indifference or callousness they are denied jobs, opportunities, or education, then the American dream will have failed. I do not believe America will fail. Together we can build an America that can give these children the open door to the future. That is why I am here.”

“Together we can make ourselves a nation that spends more on books than on bombs, more on hospitals than the terrible tools of war, more on decent houses than military aircraft.”

“…I am on the side of those who are not afraid to admit past mistakes…”