The NO SNITCHING Movement... Its Time To MOVE IT OUT!
As usual, I am on Facebook scouring my friends' pages for things to "like" and comment on. Well I come across a comment where one of my friends wants to know if she should turn in a friend that did something illegal, or if she should take the fall! Well, of course there was a mix bag of responses:
- tell her to turn him in
- u know da streets...NO TELLN!!!
- beat him senseless {LMFAO! of course that is my fave!}
- turn him in she aint married to him i bet he wouldnt do it for her
- He should MAN UP & pay the ticket and make sure it doesn't come back on her
So as I am reading all of this, I noticed comment #2 and it hits me! I'm like, are you trying to tell me you STILL believe in that wack ass NO SNITCHING movement! So of course, I was HEATED! I am so outraged that my own people would condone any of that "no snitch" mentality to still prevail in our communities. Its ignorant and its dangerous. I believe that if a person is involved in the crime and, to save their own skin, they decide to snitch on everyone else involved, that it should be punishable by CANING! LOL! Because thats some hard core snitching and should NOT BE TOLERATED! HOWEVER, if you are an innocent bystander and you are protecting your family and community by getting these people off the streets... then post haste, TURN THEM IN!
I have lost A LOT of love ones, friends, associates, etc to violent crime and the criminals weren't caught because some people thought it was "cool" not to snitch. So I am VERY passionate about snuffing out this mentality! It is a shame that our... parents, grand-parents and great grand-parents DIED to give us freedoms in this life but some of us choose to throw it all away... to KEEP IT REAL or to BE HOOD or whatever! I just feel like anytime and EVERY TIME is the right time to put it out there... WE GOT TO WAKE UP people! WAKE UP!
Anyway, below is what I told my friend about how to handle the situation and my feelings on "snitching"!
F-that, that aint snitchin, turn that MF in, he aint gonna have your back! and whoever think its snitchin, lets see YOU take one for the team! smh! that no snitchin shit is WEAK & STUPID! If you PART of the dirt, then yes, you need to get yo ass beat if you snitch, but if you innocent bystander, then its not snitchin, its protecting yourself!No dissrespect BUT if you DONT snitch you STUPID... FLATOUT! I dont care WHAT BLOCK you THINK you from but NO ONE on "the block" is gonna do you a favor, pay your bills, make you rich, etc... REAL TALK! Its REAL LIFE out here people, its NOT A GAME! If you believe in that no snitch movement, MOVE OUT! That's a CHILDS game! And the police, the government, GOD, they dont have time and wont make time for games! If your life is LIMITED to a BLOCK then best believe this world is passing you by! REAL TALK! That's the problem with the youth today, they put so much emphasis on KEEP IT REAL, they dont realize that all this glossy shit is FAKE! I am a father, a businessman and a leader, NOT A FOLLOWER, and the only way to get out of that "ghetto" mentality is to STOP following people and ideas that 1) is not making you a better person 2) not helping your family OR community and 3) is not paying your bills, feeding you or making you financially stable! When they ready to do ALL OF THAT the let's talk!
Thats what STYLEZ thinks! What do you think? All comments and viewpoints are respectfully appreciated!
A War For Your Soul - An EPIC in Black History! Watch This NOW!
This video is a MUST-SEE for all people, young & old! It is essential to understand where you have been before you can understand where you are going. And this video puts A LOT into perspective as to where our Black youth may be going if they do not wake up. Everyone needs to take heed to the message in this video and fully understand the repurcussions of their actions (and in-action). Make sure your sons, daughters, cousins, friends, whoever see this. It is a VERY POWERFUL message, is graphic, but not any worse than the videos and movies you are probably already watching on a regular basis anyway. The message is to powerful to ignore!
A War For Your Soul-regular version from Erisai Films on Vimeo.
A filmmaker and public speaker, Reggie Bullock is a vibrant voice and accomplished role model for the youth of today. On March 15, 2009, Reggie’s short film "A War For Your Soul" was independently released on the internet, and has catapulted as a “stirring, epic and inspirational” video for today’s generation”. Over 2.5 million internet viewers have watched “A War For Your Soul” in nine months. The video has garnered praise from mayors, city leaders, youth and civic organizations from Ghana, Israel, the Caribbean, U.K. and other countries for sparking dialogue in encouraging adults to play a more active role in educating children. On Oct. 14th, Popular radio host Michael Baisden said "This is a must see film".Reggie is currently active as a noted speaker, conducting speaking engagements throughout the country. For speaking engagements contact warforyoursoul.com or reggie.bullock@comcast.net This video was created to inspire young at-risk African-Americans not to fall prey to some of the problems they face in society. The "Master of Darkness" represents that abstract concept of evil that has the potential to reside in the consciousness of mankind.The use of the images of Richard Pryor and NAS, were used to show how we have publicly displayed the "N" word over the course of time. Richard Pryor, before his death, had gone on record to publicly denounce his use of the word, and the Rapper NAS ( one of the few socially conscious rappers ) intentions of wearing the jacket had nothing to do with the glorification of the word. I have enjoyed some of Pryor's masterful story telling and I have also enjoyed some of the thought provoking music from NAS.This video should not to be used to divide people (Black & White).
This video should not be used to criticize all aspects of hip-hop culture.
This video should not be used to allow the rest of society to escape from their responsibility, to help with financial & academic support. If used properly, this video will allow our youth to see some of the horrific conditions that their ancestors fought through and some of the horrific conditions they face today.An extensive commentary about the film can be seen at warforyoursoul.com**THIS VIDEO IS NOT FOR SALE & I AM NOT ACCEPTING DONATIONS FOR THE FILM, I ONLY WANT THE MESSAGE TO REACH AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT ANY HIDDEN POLITICAL OR FINANCIAL AGENDA.Contacts:
warforyoursoul.com
reggie.bullock@comcast.net
facebook.com/reggie.bullock
twitter.com/ReggieBullock
Little Known Moment In Black History - Henrietta Lacks, Unwitting Heroine of Modern Medical Science
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On Feb. 1, 1951, Henrietta Lacks--mother of five, native of rural southern Virginia, resident of the Turner Station neighborhood in Dundalk--went to Johns Hopkins Hospital with a worrisome symptom: spotting on her underwear. She was quickly diagnosed with cervical cancer. Eight months later, despite surgery and radiation treatment, the Sparrows Point shipyard worker's wife died at age 31 as she lay in the hospital's segregated ward for blacks.Not all of Henrietta Lacks died that October morning, though. She unwittingly left behind a piece of herself that still lives today.
While she was in Hopkins' care, researchers took a fragment of Lacks' tumor and sliced it into little cubes, which they bathed in nutrients and placed in an incubator. The cells, dubbed "HeLa" for Henrietta Lacks, multiplied as no other cells outside the human body had before, doubling their numbers daily. Their dogged growth spawned a breakthrough in cell research; never before could investigators reliably experiment on such cell cultures because they would weaken and die before meaningful results could be obtained. On the day of Henrietta's death, the head of Hopkins' tissue-culture research lab, Dr. George Gey, went before TV cameras, held up a tube of HeLa cells, and announced that a new age of medical research had begun--one that, someday, could produce a cure for cancer.
When he discovered HeLa could survive even shipping via U.S. mail, Gey sent his prize culture to colleagues around the country. They allowed HeLa to grow a little, and then sent some to their colleagues. Demand quickly rose, so the cells were put into mass production and traveled around the globe--even into space, on an unmanned satellite to determine whether human tissues could survive zero gravity.
In the half-century since Henrietta Lacks' death, her tumor cells--whose combined mass is probably much larger than Lacks was when she was alive--have continually been used for research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and countless other scientific pursuits. Dr. Jonas Salk used HeLa to help develop his polio vaccine in the early '50s. The cells are so hardy that they took over other tissue cultures, researchers discovered in the 1970s, leading to reforms in how such cultures are handled. In the biomedical world, HeLa cells are as famous as lab rats and petri dishes.
Yet Henrietta Lacks herself remains shrouded in obscurity. Gey, of course, knew HeLa's origins, but he believed confidentiality was paramount--so for years, Henrietta's family didn't know her cells still lived, much less how important they had become. After Gey died in 1970, the secret came out. But it was not until 1975, when a scientifically savvy fellow dinner-party guest asked family members if they were related to the mother of the HeLa cell, that Lacks' descendants came to understand her critical role in medical research.
The concept was mind-blowing--in a sense, it seemed to Lacks' family, she was being kept alive in the service of science. "It just kills me," says Henrietta's daughter, Deborah Lacks-Pullum, now 52 and still living in Baltimore, "to know my mother's cells are all over the world."
In the 27 years since the Lacks family serendipitously learned of Henrietta's unwitting contribution, little has been done to honor her. "Henrietta Lacks Day" is celebrated in Turner Station each year on Feb. 1. In 1996, prompted by Atlanta's Morehouse College, that city's mayor proclaimed Oct. 11 Henrietta Lacks Day. The following year, Congress passed a resolution in her memory sponsored by Rep. Robert Ehrlich (R-Md.), whose 2nd District includes Turner Station, and the British Broadcasting Corp. produced a documentary on her remarkable story. Beyond that, however, virtually nothing has been done to celebrate Lacks' contribution--not even by Hopkins, which gained immeasurable prestige from Gey's work with her cells.
Lacks-Pullum is bitter about this. "We never knew they took her cells, and people done got filthy rich [from HeLa-based research], but we don't get a dime," she says. The family can't afford a reputable lawyer to press its case for some financial stake in the work. She says she has appealed to Hopkins for help, and "all they do is pat me on my shoulder and put me out the door."
Hopkins spokesperson Gary Stephenson is quick to point out that Hopkins never sold HeLa, so it didn't make money from Henrietta's contribution. Still, he says, "there are people here who would like something done, and I'm hoping that at some point something will be done in a formal way to note her very, very important contribution."
Lacks-Pullum shares those hopes, but she is pessimistic. "Hopkins," she says, "they don't care."
Lost in the acrimony over ethical and financial issues stemming from Henrietta Lacks' cells, though, is Henrietta Lacks herself. A descendant of slaves and slaveholders, she grew up farming the same land on which her forebears toiled--and that her relatives still farm today. As part of an aspiring black middle class with rural roots, she left her childhood home to join a migration to Baltimore, where Bethlehem Steel was eager to hire hard workers from the country. She was in the midst of realizing an American dream when her life was cut short. And her cells helped realize society's larger dreams for health and knowledge. As such, she's been called a hero, a martyr, even a saint. But during her life, as Ehrlich said to his colleagues in Congress, Henrietta Lacks "was known as pleasant and smiling, and always willing the lend a helping hand." That she did, in more ways than she ever knew.
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Email Van Smith
I found this story to be quite interesting and very extraordinary! I think this is something that everyone should know about, but it is another great moment in Black History as well. Please share this with your family and friends. Let's make everyday, a great moment in Black History!
Would you like to share your Little Known Moment In Black History, please feel free to pass it along to stylez@askwilliestylez.com!
Little known moments in Black History - Red Lobster & Olive Garden
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