9/11 - 8 years later...

Unless you're fortunate enough to be at the show at Madison Square Garden in NYC tonight, you are like me and most of the hip hop and cable-having world...we're tuned into the Jay-Z LIVE concert on Fuse right now.

The show is going down!  Hov is doing his thing.  John Mayer was rippin' the guitar solos, Pharrell is doing his collabo thing, Santigold represented...all is well for hip hop, Jigga and Roc Nation.  I think people are forgetting what this is all about:  100% of the proceeds from ticket sales and concert merchandise will go directly to the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund.

Community service is an important aspect of maintaining and sustaining our communities.  I have been a volunteer since I was young.  My parents instilled in me the importance of helping the less fortunate, to be grateful for my middle-class life, to be aware of what is going on in the world around me...and most importantly to value my time and spend it wisely.  From clothing & toy drives, to Girl Scouts, to tutoring kids in Math after-school at the Boys and Girls Club, to helping flood victims complete FEMA applications, to a runaway teen hotline, to a youth homeless shelter in Germantown, to the Northern Home for Children in Manayunk...community service gives me awesome personal satisfaction.

I have met so many like-minded people and beautiful souls through my years involved in various community service programs.  The experiences are priceless, the encounters numerous, the relationships irreplaceable.

Currently I am registered with Greater Philadelphia Cares.  This organization is involved in various programs all over Philadelphia - youth, inmate, elderly, immigration, athletics, arts & crats, etc.  Once registered they will send you a newsletter and email updates for upcoming events.  You contact the assigned project leader for the project you are interested in participating in, you show up, there - you volunteered.  It's THAT easy.  And so worth it.

Tayyib Smith, one of the founders of two.one.five magazine and the COO/founder of Little Giant Media Inc., contacted me a few weeks ago about a project he was involved with and interested in.  It's a great cause.  I wanted to use my small voice and my blogging abilities to spread the word and share with you all what is going down and how you can help out and be a part of it. 

The project is called United We Serve.



Per Tayyib, here is the plan:

The primary initiative of United We Serve is to “expand the impact of existing organizations by engaging new volunteers in their work and encourage volunteers to develop their own “do-it-yourself” projects”. In order to contribute to this initiative, video vignettes highlighting individuals and organizations that are making positive impacts in the Philadelphia region will be composed and distributed to various viral media outlets. Every day starting on September 1st and ending on the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance, an individual or organization will be highlighted. Each subject will be asked a series of three over-arching questions: 1) Why do you volunteer? 2) How has service brought about change in your life and the community? 3) How can someone get involved in your service project? This series will bring to light those that are agents of change in the Philadelphia area and inspire others to do the same in the region and throughout the country.

tayyib@215mag.com

Please contact Tayyib above if you have anything to contribute - if not your time, then your ideas, your exposure, your influence on others to expose this initiative and generate interest in community service and giving back to the communities we live in.

We elected a community organizer and very involved community servant in Barack Obama this year, folks.  It's time for everyone to do their part and get involved.  Don't talk about it, be about it.  You might be surprised at who you meet, what you know, what you learn and where you end up. 

Tales from the Twit...

So today was my 1st day @ my new job. I went to bed early, woke early, ironed my clothes, did my hair, got ready...I was well-rested and ready to go. Excited about being back to work after this BS lay-off. I planned on driving my truck the 10 blocks from my apartment to the El. From there I planned on parking and catching the train to work...no CC parking, road rage BS, traffic...back to public...quiet yet intriguing...

Of course nothing goes as planned. Nada...not in mi vida loca. Long story short, I rear-ended this chick 2 BLOCKS from the El. 2 ef'n blocks from my destination. She was making a left-hand turn @ a green light then braked all of a sudden, I braked, rear-ended her, now my POS truck really IS a POS, or more of a POS...having to call cops, and as we all know Philly cops take their sweet time...I was so ef'n pissed and all I could think of is I'm. Going. To. Be. Late. My. First. Day.

The police got their rather quickly and I ended up being only 40 mins. late for work. My new boss was very cool, very understanding (of course I called like a responsible late person and notifed her as soon as!), I have no complaints about the gig so far - especially the environment. Very cool and laid back...and guess what? I'm on the green floor. My fave color. I'll be training all this week so no clue yet what my co-workers or anything else is gonna be like yet. Plus she let us out early yet paid us for the whole day. The chick who started w/ me is Gina from South Philly. I have a feeling I'll be writing more about her in blogs to come...

Anyways, I was just rather bummed and after twitting the drama, going through training, thinking about time-consuming insurance calls, stressing about raised premiums, questioning my karma, not-so-looking-forward to a camping trip this weekend w/ fam that we've been planning since last year...I went outside and sat outside City Hall. I refreshed my Twitter screen on my phone and read back through @ replies people had left me all day...and just random comments I saw some of my buddies posting.

Wayno119@titi_215 Itll be ight that shit can be replaced

CHANLOO@titi_215 keep ur head up mama

Manetane@titi_215 you aight?

brothafrmanotha@titi_215 aw damn, for real? hope you're OK.

therealhop@titi_215 are you ok?

livefromphilly@titi_215 Well, that's wack but I hope the actual work part if your first day is great :)

And I thought to myself - some/most of these people I have never even met! Not face-to-face, hung out w/ one-on-one...but we all connected somehow through someone on-line somewhere. And that's gangsta.

RT @uncleo "Remember when u think u have it bad & the world seems 2 b crashing down on u, someone else would love 2 have ur problems."

And when I saw that, I HAD to RT. How true. Here I am bummed about a POS truck and I have a job! This recession is insane and these few months off of work have been HELL for me. I cannot imagine what it is doing to the people who have families to support! Obama is doing his thing though, I have faith...it will get better. It damn sure can't get any worse. For all of us.

Then I saw this:

RT @215tayyib @MrSonnyJames @Tahero @EssoDubble @titi_215 @Niki_Noche @whu @questlove- http://bit.ly/GA5D3






The same @215tayyib I have been trying to run into only since the @TanyaMorgan listening party (which he wasn't there, but he better be at their show @ Johnny & Brenda's on July 13th, per @mfmusic, whom I saw at The Roots Picnic!!) This among many other things made me smile today when I needed it most. I am remembering all the good times I had seeing The Roots, remembering why I chose and why I love this City in the 1st place... "Obstacles can be a form of liberation...Difficulties are required for success." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Oh yeah ~ and "Wayne's World" is coming soon...y'all not ready for me & @wayno119's collabo...his tat game is vicious and we're documenting it all. Start to finish. Words and flics...I'll announce via Twitter when Part I is ready. xoxo @wayno119 for letting me be a part of this...Goonies for life.

Feds charge 3 N.Y. men in election bias attacks

They're accused of hunting down black people to beat up and yelling insults.

AP Associated Press
updated 8:29 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 7, 2009

NEW YORK - Three white New Yorkers, riled by Barack Obama's victory, spent election night hunting down black people to beat up and yelling insults about the president-elect, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The men beat a Liberian immigrant teen, pushed a black man to the ground and drove their car over a white man they thought was black, according to the indictment unsealed in Brooklyn.

Ralph Nicoletti, 18, Michael Contreras, 18, and Brian Carranza, 21, were arrested early Wednesday. They were to be arraigned later in the day on charges of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights.

A fourth defendant was expected to separately plead guilty to unspecified charges, according to law enforcement officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the plea deal had not been made public.

The names of the defendants' attorneys were not immediately on record, according to prosecutors.

Makeshift clubhouse

Before the rampage on Nov. 4, the teens had gathered at a makeshift clubhouse in the New York borough of Staten Island where they monitored the election results on the Internet.

"Shortly after learning of Barack Obama's victory, (they) decided to find African-Americans to assault in retaliation for an African-American winning the election," prosecutors said in court papers.

Nicoletti drove the group to a black neighborhood, where they stopped a teenage immigrant from Liberia and beat him with a metal pipe and retractable police baton. They later pushed a black man to the ground, demanded a Hispanic man tell them how he voted and "yelled profanities about Obama as they drove past an election night gathering of African-Americans at a hair salon," the court papers said. Finally, the defendants used their car to run over a white man they mistakenly believed was black, the papers said. The victim was in a coma for several days but survived.

Nicoletti was part of a vigilante crew whose "primary purpose is to defend its members in inter-neighborhood disputes, some of which have resulted in significant violence," the indictment said.
Prosecutors had previously charged two of the defendants with assault as a hate crime and weapon possession while the FBI investigated the civil rights case.

If convicted of the federal charges, they face up to 10 years in prison.

Is it really 2009? Some people are stuck in the past and won't ever have a future! Barack Obama gets sworn in on 1.20.09, history has been made. By a black man. YES we CAN, YES we DID! Hope for change and change for hope...My President is BLACK, my country is red, white and blue, if you're a racist and a biggot - fuck you, fuck you and FUCK YOU!!!