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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

10% of your Money as Tithing to the Church - Spirituality

Source: www.youtube.com
http://www.siddhayatan.org/ http://www.yogeeshashram.org/ http://www.siddhalishree.com/ (blog) Some churches require that the members give 10% of their income. Some churches go as far as to request their income tax statements. God, is not a person, nor a king, and requires no money. The best donatio...
God (what people think is God) does not need your money.
Some churches require that the members give 10% of their income. Some churches go as far as to request their income tax statements. God, is not a person, nor a king, and requires no money. The best donation is from the heart as it comes from pure intention. Required donations are forced and are given hesitantly. If you'd like to give, give from your heart, but know that God (what people think is God) does not need your money.

Be aware of where the money is spent. Is your hard-working money paying off lawsuits and scandals? Be aware.
TranscriptionIs giving 10% of your money the right thing to do?
There was an old tradition in the Jain religion that if one person in the community lost his business or went bankrupt each family in the community would donate 1 'dollar' and 1 brick to that person's family. So if there are 10,000 families in the community the person would receive 10,000 dollars and 10,000 bricks so he can have a small house and start a business. That was the commitment among Jains and that is why Jains are the richest in India today.
It is unclear where the origin of tithing 10% of one's income to the church comes from. Today tithing is done in the name of God and that is the wrong thing to do.

First of all, God is not a person. He does not need your money and he will not punish you if you do not give. According to the church's teaching, we are all God's children so why would God punish his children? For churches to ask 10% of a person's income means the church wants to get rich. No wonder churches are very rich. The fact that the church requires tithing is a practice gone too far. Some churches will go as far as looking at the tax returns of its members. This makes these churches very greedy.
If someone goes to church to learn good things it is respectable to give voluntarily. Whatever amount he can give is the equal to what someone else gives. Whatever is given from the heart has meaning. It brings good karma.

What is taken by force does not bring good karma to the church.
If a church gets too greedy eventually it defaults. Money that is collected by forceful means is the wrong money. That church will never flourish. When money is given by heart that church or organization will flourish. The greedier a church gets for money that money does not serve the community but only benefits them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR2pOysfxbk
"

Biblical Patriarchs Abraham & Moses NEVER EXISTED As the Bible Portrays

Source: www.youtube.com
www.myspace.com/georgia_cowboy_guy - This is a clip from the documentary 'Bible Unearthed.' This clip is the section dealing with Abraham and Moses, also known as biblical patriarchs. They were NEVER real as the Bible speaks of, BUT they could have been based on real people, as the Bible charact...
Moses and the Exodus Dr. Clarke was quoted as saying, “We cannot separate folklore and myth from truth. Folklore is both beautiful and essential. And myth is essential to the ego of all people. But myth is not truth. Myth is based on folklore.”He observed that it is essential that people ...tell stories that make them feel good about themselves. But in doing this there is the danger of telling someone else’s story.

This is a clip from the documentary "Bible Unearthed." This clip is the section dealing with Abraham and Moses, also known as biblical patriarchs. They were NEVER real as the Bible speaks of, BUT they could have been based on real people, as the Bible characters are obviously allegorial metaphorical type figures. Sigmund Freud wrote a book before he died called "Moses and Monotheism" where he and many other more modern scholars have began to link Moses w/ the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, who is also given "historical credit" for creating monotheism, just like "Moses" is given credit for the same !!! BOTH are said to have led a famed "exodus" from Egypt, as the cult of Akhenaten and his "atenists" were expelled from the country, and everyone is familiar with the "Moses" exodus from the Bible. It is hard for religious people to take, but there was NEVER any ancient sprawling kingdom of Israel, there was an ancient Jerusalem, but certainly NOT the mythical kingdom of Israel. That phrase comes from the combination of three ancient deities, Isis - Ra, and El. The Israelites were ROYALTY in Egypt, NOT slaves. Exodus ch. 12 explains how they left Egypt with gold & silver jewelry, flocks of many animals, along with very much cattle (KJV). NO down trodden "slaves" would ever have this type of material wealth to take out of Egypt with them. This goes hand in hand with what Josephus said about them really being the invading dynasty to Egypt, that history calls the "Hyksos." There is NOT one shred of evidence that any Israeli slaves ever lived in ancient Egypt. The Bible overall is MUCH more Egyptian rooted than most people will ever realize, which also totally explains why it was an Egyptian pharaoh named Ptolemy who first collected various books and put them together, to resemble what we know today as the "collection of books" that is the Bible. (obviously all Ptolemy had were the OT books because this was around 250 B.C.) Isn't that so ironic, that Jews and Christians use the Bible, but it was NEITHER one of those groups who first put various Bible books together, it was a "Pagan" pharaoh named Ptolemy who first did that !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAbOJ_-Xfic&feature=related
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Ain't got no - I got life - Nina Simone

Source: www.youtube.com
Nina Simone performing 'Aint' got no - I got life' (Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Gal McDermot). I think this is a studio version. At the end she makes the comment 'That should be good' and a man's voice responds 'That's groovy'. This is part of the recording but I have no idea who the man is and ...
Ain't got no - I got life - Nina Simone

Ain't got no home,
ain't got no shoes
Ain't got no money,
ain't got no class
Ain't got no skirts,
ain't got no sweater
Ain't got no perfume,
ain't got no beer
Ain't got no man


Ain't got no mother,
ain't got no culture
Ain't got no friends,
ain't got no schooling
Ain't got no love,
ain't got no name
Ain't got no ticket,
ain't got no token
Ain't got no God


And What've I got? Why am I alive anyway?Yeah, what've I got? Nobody can take away, I got my hair, I got my head,I got my brains, I got my ears,I got my eyes, I got my nose,I got my mouth, I got my smile ,I got my tongue, I got my chinI got my neck, I got my boobs ,I got my heart, I got my soul,I got my back, I got my sex,I got my arms, I got my hands,I got my fingers, Got my legsI got my feet, I got my toes, I got my liver, Got my blood, I've got life , I've got my freedom, I've got the life, And I'm gonna keep it, I've got the life, And nobody's gonna take it away,I've got the life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOwuBurwzbs&feature=related
"

UFO ☆ Kepler probe finds aliens? Kepler Discoveries Hundreds of aliens supporting planets ☆

Source: www.youtube.com
☆Kepler probe finds aliens? Kepler Discoveries information hundreds of aliens supporting planets may have been found by the kepler probe in deep space. This breaking news has been released to the public. This is amazing news for the UFO beleivers. Maybe we are getting closer to the truth!
Jordan Maxwell,one scientist I don't recall who it was said made an interesting comment,that the universe is not stranger than you imagine,the universe is stranger then you can imagine.' And the point being is that you haven't learned anything until you understand how the pyramids were built,the geometrics,the harmonics,uh the well established mathamatics ,I don't see how any one can possibly say that they are well informed about the modern day world and not realize the importance of this country has played in the development of Europe and the rest of the world. I remember someone saying a long time always trust a person who's looking for truth.' never trust the one who's found it.' The point being is that real divine truth is far,far out ahead of what ever we might begin to understand.' Manly Palmer hall,one of my very good friends said in one of his lectures,Manly Palmer Hall said:

'If you can explain intelligently to an audience something about god that everyone can understand, then that proves that you don't know anything about God, because the god your pea-brain can understand can not be the one that created the universe.'

The one that created all things is far,far loftier then we have uh correct view of. I think that so many people are having problems in their lives that could be solved if they knew better how to act and how to deal with these problems.'

Remember the decision you'll make in your life is only are only good as the 'information' If you have faulty information uh then of course your decisions are going to hurt your.'

This is why the people who run our world have such things as the CIA, a central intelligence agency' because intelligence is required for every movement in your 'life' You need to know what's on the other side,you need to know where you'll going.'

it will help to know as much about the other uh significant other in your life.' um,before making decisions.So that's why i have pursued this esoteric knowledge because i believe that there is a world out there that is not in our dimension not in our domain,but that at as the ancient peoples said i think it was the knight templars who coined the phrase (as above so below)um,I believe that.' that so many things which happens to us, is because of something that's happening up there.Someone else seem to be uh in control.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6D2EuiYB_c
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John Taylor Gatto: Schooling is not Education - Part 1

Source: www.youtube.com
In this 1991 interview, former school teacher John Taylor Gatto talks about the difference between 'schooling' through public schools and true education. What really matters? Does 'Schooling' as we know it today create whole human beings? I hope that you find this interview as inspiring and info...
Education has but one honorable purpose, one alone, everything else is a waste of time......that is to train the student to be a proper handler of power.' Dr. John Henrik Clarke.'Powerful
people never educate powerless people in what they need that they can
use to take the power away from powerful people; it's too much to
expect. If I was in power, I would not educate people in how to take my
powers away.' Dr. John Henrik ClarkeThe 10 Worst Things That happened To Black People In History.
John Taylor Gatto: Schooling is not Education - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKci3_cmlqI&feature=related
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Fidel Castro in South Africa with Nelson Mandela

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via: Giniti Harcum El Bey via Jc Thaprince:
Fidel Castro in South Africa with Nelson Mandela
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George Carlin - Saving the Planet

Source: www.youtube.com
Comedian G.Carlin on saving the planet.
George Carlin - Saving the Planet
You got people like this around you? Country is full of them now! People walking around all day long, every minute of the day — worried about EVERYTHING! Worried about the air, worried about the water, worried about the soil. Worried about insecticides, pesticides, food additives, carcinogens; worried about radon gas; worried about asbestos. Worried about saving endangered species.

Let me tell you about endangered species, all right? Saving endangered species is just one more arrogant attempt by humans to control Nature! It's arrogant meddling! It's what got us into trouble in the first place! Doesn't anybody understand that? Interfering with Nature! Over 90 percent.. over... way over 90 percent of all the species that have ever lived — EVER LIVED — on this planet are gone. Whissshht! They are extinct! We didn't kill them all.

They just... disappeared! That's what Nature does! They disappear these days at the rate of 25 a day, and I mean regardless of our behavior. Irrespective of how we act on this planet, 25 species that were here today, will be gone tomorrow! Let them go... gracefully! Leave Nature alone! Haven't we done enough?

We're so self-important. So self-important! Everybody's going to save something now. 'Save the trees; save the bees; save the whales; save those snails.' And the greatest arrogance of all, 'Save the planet.' WHAT? Are these fucking people kidding me? Save the planet? We don't even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven't learned how to care for one another, we're gonna save the fucking planet?

I'm getting tired of that shit. Tired of that shit. Tired! I'm tired of fucking Earth Day! I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists; these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don't give a shit about the planet. They don't care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don't. Not in the abstract they don't. You know what they're interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They're worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn't impress me.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are fucked. Difference. Difference! The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've been here, what? A hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles; hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors; worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages... And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet... the planet... the planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!

We're going away. Pack your shit, folks. We're going away. And we won't leave much of a trace, either. Thank God for that. Maybe a little styrofoam. Maybe. A little styrofoam. The planet will be here and we'll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.

You wanna know how the planet is doing? Ask those people at Pompeii, who are frozen into position from volcanic ash, 'How the planet's doing?' You wanna know if the planet's all right, ask those people in Mexico City or Armenia or a hundred other places buried under thousands of tons of earthquake rubble, if they feel like a threat to the planet this week. Or how about those people in Kilowaia, Hawaii, who built their homes right next to an active volcano, and then wonder why they have lava in the living room.

The planet will be here for a long, long — LONG — time after we're gone, and it will heal itself; it will cleanse itself, because that's what it does. It's a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover; the earth will be renewed; and, if it's true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new pardigm: the Earth plus plastic! The Earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth. The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old philosophical question, 'Why are we here?' 'Plastic! Assholes.'

So! So, the plastic is here, our job is done, we can be phased out now. And I think that it has already started already, don't you? I think, to be fair, the planet probably sees us as a mild threat. Something to be dealt with. And I am sure the planet will defend itself in the manner of a large organism, like a beehive or an ant colony, and muster a defense. I am sure the planet will think of something. What would you do if you were the planet trying to defend against this pesky, troublesome species? 'Let's see... What might... Hmm.. Viruses! Viruses might be good. They seem vulnerable to viruses. And, uh...viruses are tricky, always mutating and forming new strains whenever a vaccine is developed. Perhaps, this first virus could be one that compromises the immune system of these creatures. Perhaps a human immunodeficiency virus, making them vulnerable to all sorts of other diseases and infections that might come along. And maybe it could be spread sexually, making them a little reluctant to engage in the act of reproduction.'

Well, that's a poetic note. And it's a start. And I can dream, can't I? See I don't worry about the little things: bees, trees, whales, snails. I think we're part of a greater wisdom than we will ever understand. A higher order. Call it what you want. Know what I call it? The Big Electron.' The Big Electron...whoooa. Whoooa. Whoooa. It doesn't punish; it doesn't reward; it doesn't judge at all. It just is. And so are we. For a little while. Thanks for being here with me for a little while tonight! Thank you! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw&feature=player_embedded
"

Still Waters Run Deep (Long Version)

Source: www.youtube.com
old skool soul
Still Waters Run Deep (Long Version)
'EVIL' is just Live Backwards
''LOVE' is the beginning of Evolution'

GROUP:
Peace, Peace, Peace
Still Waters Run Deep
oow oow
Spoken by Levi:
Oh what peace I find
Here with your hand,
pressing close in mine
So peaceful and calm inside
Like the sea at the edge of time
And without saying one single word
The very depths of your soul can be heard
P -is for the privledge of loving
And privledge of being loved
E- FOR THEEASE iT gives the soul
And the Mind.
A- is for the ABSENCE in the search to find yourself.
C- is the Calm you feel IF U LACK WHAT U FIND.
E- is everlasting LET THIS LOVE NEVER CEASE PEACE YOUR LOVE HAS BROUGHT ME PEACE.


WALK WITH ME TAKE MY HAND
(Spoken-
Walk with me Take my hand)

Ooooh, oooh oooh Ooohh,
oooh oooh
(Still water)
Still water
Ahhh, ahhh, ahh

Never you mind if I
Don't tell strangers passing by
If I don't brag
If I don't brag or boast
Click my glass and say a toast
About my love for you
How it runs so deep and true
And yet it's so
'Cause don't you know, ohh
Still waters run deep
Still waters run deep
Still waters run deep
Still waters run deep
Ooooh


Walk with me
Take my hand
Still waters
Still water
Walk with me
Take my hand
Whoa, whoa, whoa now
Still waters run deep
Hey, hey, hey, hey


Whoa, whoa, whoa now
Still waters run deep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w-5uW2tCn4&feature=related
"

Jim Crow Museum Documentary Ferris State

Source: www.youtube.com
Jim Crow Museum Documentary Ferris State
The Past:
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. George Orwell


Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.George Santayana


'The events which transpired five thousand years ago; Five years ago or five minutes ago, have determined what will happen five minutes from now; five years From now or five thousand years from now. All history is a current event.'Dr. John Henrik Clarke


Jiddu Krishnamurti on Hope Question:
The hope that tomorrow will solve our problems prevents our seeing the absolute urgency of change. How does one deal with this?
Jiddu Krishnamurti - What do you mean by the future, what is future? If one is desperately ill, tomorrow has meaning; one may be healed by tomorrow.
So one must ask, what is this sense of future? We know the past; we live in the past, which is the opposite movement; and the past, going through the present, modifying itself, moves to that which we call the future.


First of all, are we aware that we live in the past - the past that is always modifying itself, adjusting itself, expanding and contracting itself, but still the past - past experience, past knowledge, past understanding, past delight, the pleasure which has become the past?
The future is the past, modified. So one's hope of the future is still the past moving to what one considers to be the future. The mind never moves out of the past.

The future is always the mind acting, living, thinking in the past.
What is the past? It is one's racial inheritance, one's conditioning as Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Catholic, American and so on. It is the education one has received the hurts the delights, as remembrances. That is the past. That is one's consciousness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQNQvyuGt0o
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Sister Souljah The Race Issue w/ Phil Donahue

Source: www.youtube.com
http://www.motheroftheuniverse.biz/ A Griot, A Messenger, A Teacher, A True Queen
Sister Souljah The Race Issue w/ Phil DonahueAll
of the education that I had,College public and other wise nobody every
told me that I was an African woman' nobody ever told me what the
history of Africa were.nobody ever told me that America was business and
with out business and without business you will nothing and be
nothing!...And nobody every told how to organize business so that I will
be able to develop institutions in my own community.'

So now the
sincerity ,the sincerity of all the programs,and all of the education
has to be question,indicted and convicted,because the bottom line is
that America is not,it has never tried to produce African adults who are
functional self sufficient who understand their politics,their
economics, and their relationship to the world politics.'I
think that the dice are loaded and that's what's left out of Mr.Browns
piece' see there was a period of time in this country after
reconstruction where African people owned a lot of land' owned a lot of
businesses ,and did a lot of things but what happen was' the American
government,the KKK,and other organizations organized in smashing that
afford!...

So its not that we haven't owned land and have not organized
business ,Its that,If you are African in America' or in latin America'
or in the Caribbean ' or in the continent' you will be hostage !...

NO
MATTER WHAT YOU DO! because they do not want us to survive and become
self sufficient.' And you can say no' but you haven't lived this life'
you haven't lived this life!..(Phil Donahue)quotes Senator Bradley' We can't get there unless we go together'I have a terrible feeling that behind me are some people who do not agree.'Sister
Souljah : Senator Bradley of the all white United states senate' said
we can't get there unless we are go there together' 'sorry' none of us
are where he is!... that's number 1. number 2. you're making a moral
appeal to a country that does not have a moral conscious!...

The
question becomes: THAT WHEN WHITE PEOPLE FEEL SERIOUS AND ANGRY AND
UPSET ABOUT ABORTION' THEY COME OUT IN THE THOUSANDS ' UP TO THE
MILLIONS TO SAY THIS IS WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT ABORTION!..WHERE
IS THE WHITE OUT CRY AGAINST WHITE RACISM' THAT MURDERED AFRICAN PEOPLE
ALL AROUND THIS ENTIRE GLOBE? ITS DOESN'T EXIST!...SO WHO ARE THESE
WHITE GOOD PEOPLE?... I WANT TO MEET THEM!...I WANT TO SEE THEM!...

Cornell West: I know but sista I know,but that might be all we can get'

Sister
Souljah: and guess what,I don't work with all I can get!...what I work
with is what I have,listen' You have to have some confidence in the
power of African people amongst ourselves: To establish a foundation


(Cornell West) We have'

Sister Souljah:No!... we have utter chaos in our cities and you got to say that!..

Cornell West) there's no black institutions?Sister Souljah: you may have a programCornell West: black church?

Sister
Souljah: we've built a lot of institutions and those institutions and
those institution have not be effective!... the majority of millions of
African youth in this country are dying mentally dying spiritually,dying
emotionally ,dying academically,and you may have a program,Mr.brown may
have a program,but what we got to talk about is a American government
that trapped millions of African people who don't go to your
program,don't go to Browns,program!..

Millions of African people not
only here but all around the world' and if we're not honest enough to
say: WHO ARE OUR FRIENDS!... WHO ARE OUT ENEMIES!.. TO KNOW WHAT A
FRIEND IS,TO KNOW WHAT A ENEMY IS!...WE WILL CONSTANTLY BE TRYING TO GET
INTO PEOPLES PARTIES TO SHAKE OUR BUTTS WITH THEM! TO GET THEM TO LIKE
US!.. AND THAT'S NOT THE QUESTION' THE QUESTION IS WHAT CAN WE BUILD
AMONST OURSELVES TO SECURE OURSELVES AMONST OURSELVES SO THAT WE WILL BE
ABLE TO SURVIVE INTO THE FUTURE.

I love to know that if I walk out
in Washington DC tonight' some black kid in Washington DC is blowing off
another black kids head for a pair of sneakers because the institutions
that we're talking about' not the things that we hold up and say this
is one example!...

The institution that we're talking about: ARE NOT
SAVING THE MIND OF THOSE AFRICAN CHILDREN!..YOU HER NONE OF THESE NEGROS
SAVED ME!...NONE OF THESE NEGROS SAVED ME!.

LISTEN: YOU KNOW WHO SAVED
ME? A MAN NAME JOHN DESANE,IN ENGLEWOOD NJ WHO TOLD ME WHO I WAS,WHO
SHOWED ME MY HISTORY,WHO TOLD ME WHO MY ENEMIES WERE,WHO LET ME KNOW
THAT THIS WAS NOT A EASY WORLD,WHO LET ME KNOW THAT THIS WAS A COLD
ENVIRONMENT,HE'S NOT A PART OF WITH DILLY DALLY' WITH THE MINDS OF
AFRICAN CHILDREN AND LETTING THEM KNOW WHAT THE REAL SITUATION IS IN
AMERICA!...

rap musician; activist; writerPersonal InformationBorn
Lisa Williamson in 1964 in the Bronx, NY; daughter of a truck driver
and a homemaker; married, 1994; children: a son.Education: Attended
Rutgers University.CareerAnti-apartheid activist, early 1980s;
co-founded and administered African Youth Survival Camp, Enfield, NC;
performed and recorded with rap group Public Enemy, c. 1990-91; signed
with Epic Records and released album 360 Degrees of Power, 1992;
published book No Disrespect, 1995.

Life's Work'I'm inclined
to remind people of the things they'd most like to forget,' writes
Sister Souljah in her 1995 memoir No Disrespect. The uncompromising
views of this young 'raptivist' began to make mainstream news when she
was publicly criticized by then-candidate Bill Clinton during his 1992
presidential bid.

Though she complained that the remarks Clinton
attacked were taken out of context, Souljah has also underscored
repeatedly that she has little concern for the views of white
politicians or the mainstream media. And while she has been portrayed as
a loose cannon and a demagogue, her considerable education and
articulate manner have won her more sympathetic listeners than her
critics might have imagined possible.Sister Souljah was born
Lisa Williamson in 1964 and raised along with her siblings in the Bronx,
New York, by her mother.

Her father's epilepsy had brought about the
end of his job as a truck driver. 'My mother and father were divorced
real early,' she explained in an extensive Playboy interview with Robert
Scheer. 'So I ended up in the projects with my mother. I've lived in a
lot of places. The only thing that stays the same thematically
in all the places I've lived is that I was always either a welfare
recipient or lived in [federally subsidized] housing.

I was always
connected to government programs.' As she points out in her book, this
connection was fraught with indignity; she claims that such 'services
were designed to make us feel inferior.'No Disrespect describes
the projects as 'an endless maze in which a wrong turn could result in a
little bleeding, a `casual rape,' a critical beatdown, or even death.'
Living in this 'war zone,' surrounded by 'tall brown buildings,
unofficial garbage dumps, no parks, roaches, rats, and mice,' she and
other members of her community were forced to learn survival skills. A
detour to Englewood, New Jersey, with a beau of her mother's exposed her
to a cleaner environment that was nonetheless still poisoned by
segregation and black self-hatred. Even so, young Lisa remained
religious and focused, learning to cook, looking after her siblings, and
doing her schoolwork. 'I was articulate and prepared in math,
science, reading, sport, and play,' she writes.

'After all, this is what
I had promised God I would do.'Despite her studiousness, she notes
that 'what we were taught was ridiculous' insofar as it ignored the
history and achievements of black people since antiquity.

'No
teacher gave black children any reason to take pride in their color, in
their origins, in their past,' she points out. Redressing this wrong has
been a major preoccupation of Lisa Williamson, both before and after
she became Sister Souljah.

'I try to tell young people not to look
for leaders but to try to identify the qualities in themselves--to
develop the talents and skills that they have--so they don't become
dependent on somebody else's talents and skills,' she declared to
Playboy's Scheer. At the same time, she praised the work of numerous
black leaders, particularly activist Malcolm X, politician Adam Clayton
Powell, Jr., and especially nineteenth-century anti-slavery firebrand
Harriet Tubman, whom she deemed 'the strongest person in the history of
African people in this country.'

Souljah also said of Tubman, 'She was
an activist. She took action. She was a soldier. She was a warrior.' Tubman's unyielding efforts to free her people have clearly influenced Souljah's own self-conception.During
high school Williamson attended Cornell University's summer advanced
placement program; she later traveled to Spain for a stint at the
University of Salamanca.

She pursued history and African studies at
Rutgers University, forging her fierce rhetorical style in editorial
pieces for the school's student newspaper and in speeches at political
rallies. In particular, she lent her voice to the struggle against the
racist apartheid system in South Africa. The acts of civil disobedience
in which she participated led to periodic arrests. Yet such activism
only brought home the necessity of addressing the obstacles faced by
blacks in America.

During an anti-apartheid march through Newark,
New Jersey, Souljah told Rolling Stone, she had an epiphany: 'I'm
marching through with hundreds of other kids,' she recalled, 'and we're
going: `Free South Africa! Free South Africa!' And it felt like about
5000 bricks dropped on my head.

I said: `Oh, shit. These people can't free South Africa--they haven't even freed themselves!''


She left Rutgers before graduating, partly due to her increasing
involvement in the administration of a North Carolina camp for homeless
kids she'd helped establish with funds earned from rap benefit shows.It
was as a lecturer that she captured the attention of rapper Chuck D.,
of the groundbreaking rap group Public Enemy.

In 1991 Williamson
appeared on a Public Enemy album, at which time she adopted her stage
name, a combination of 'soul' and the word for God in both Hebrew and
Rastafarianism. Sounded out, it suggests 'soldier.' Souljah's own album,
360 Degrees of Power, was released in 1992. 'Rap music is powerful
because it puts people in leadership who would not ordinarily be allowed
to speak, rap, rhyme, sing or say anything,' she insisted to Scheer in
Playboy.

'It puts an array of stories and experiences on the
market--some funny and some painful.' She added that the music
had enraptured her since childhood: 'It was going on at house parties
and on street corners when I was a kid. Back then you had [hip-hop
pioneers] the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, the Furious Five-- and
we controlled it.'Most of the commentary in mainstream
periodicals about 360 Degrees addressed it not as music but as a
showcase of Souljah's viewpoint. 'The album--a call for black unity and
empowerment, stressing education and economic self-sufficiency--has its
fair share of positive messages,' opined Rolling Stone's Kim Neely. 'But
[Souljah's] seeming inability to see whites as individuals and her
tendency toward sweeping generalizations--the most patently ridiculous
of these, found on a track called 'Brainteasers and Doubtbusters,'
being that white feminists are lesbians--is a major chink in her
generally on-the-mark commentary.'

Scheer, who expressed admiration for
his subject's straightforwardness, admitted that he 'found her album
loud, intimidating and not completely comprehensible.' Newsweek,
meanwhile, attacked Souljah's 'messianic rhetoric.'Of course, the
reason such publications noticed Sister Souljah at all had less to do
with curiosity about rap or black politics than with the fact that her
words had been criticized by Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party's
nominee for president. It was largely believed that Clinton--perhaps
opportunistically--took issue with a remark made by Souljah at a meeting
of the Reverend Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition in order to appeal to
white voters. Clinton complained that Souljah, a guest of the
Coalition's Leadership Summit, had advocated violence against whites.

'She
told the Washington Post ... `If black people kill black people every
day, why not take a week and kill white people?'' Clinton proclaimed in a
speech excerpted in Newsweek. 'If you took the words `white' and
`black' and reversed them, you might think [former Ku Klux Klan member
and ultraconservative Louisiana political hopeful] David Duke made that
speech.'

If Clinton thought Souljah would be an easy target, however, he
would soon find otherwise. 'I do not advocate the murdering of
anybody,' Souljah told the Los Angeles Times. 'Not white people. Not
black people.

That charge is absolutely ridiculous. Mr. Clinton
took my comments completely out of context. In the quote he referred to I
was speaking in the mindset of a gang member.

'When pressed about
his attack on her, Clinton insisted, as Newsweek reported, that he was
simply calling 'for an end to division.' Ultimately, however, the mixed
signals of an electoral season ensured that this bitter exchange would
never be transformed into any kind of fruitful dialogue. Souljah went on
to label Clinton--in keeping with the innuendo put forth by his
Republican opposition-- 'a hypocritical, draft-dodging, pot-smoking
womanizer,' as the Los Angeles Times reported. She furthermore
charged him with 'using me as a political football, the Democratic
version of Willie Horton,' referring to Republican ads during the 1988
campaign that used a furloughed black felon as a symbol for liberal
leniency.

During this blitz of publicity, Souljah was asked
variations on the same question: did she hate whites? It was her refusal
to let whites off the hook and espouse the 'common ground' themes
beloved by Jackson that allowed the mainstream press to paint her as a
racist demagogue. Yet it was only in a few interviews--notably the one
with Scheer--that she was allowed to express her opinions in any detail.
'I don't think any white person who is not constructively fighting
against injustice should sleep easy on any given night,' she insisted.
'You should have fear and guilt and remorse about creating a world
that's so destructive to people of color.

And if you don't it means you
don't value the lives of people who have not emerged from your culture.' She also expressed pessimism about the possibility of peaceful co-existence and positive political change.

As
her critics gleefully pointed out, Souljah's album dropped off the
charts despite the rush of publicity from the Clinton affair. Indeed,
the album failed to ignite the imagination of the record- buying public,
no doubt partly due to its unflinching political content. 'I'm
an attractive young woman,' Souljah mused to Scheer.

'If I wanted to
make money, I could just put on a miniskirt and a tube top, shake my
ass, put out a video, and I'm straight. It's so easy to make money in
America off sex, drugs, and violence.' Noting that she 'had these
options,' she declared, 'My goal was to distribute a message that I
thought was essential for African people--a message that would tell them
what was going on, why it was going on and how they could, as
individuals, form a powerful collective.

That was my objective. Clearly,
I'm satisfied.' She further suggested that her record company was only
lukewarm in its support.Sister Souljah ultimately faded from the
national spotlight; Clinton was elected president, and the march of
hardcore 'gansta' rap continued apace, despite heavy criticism from
politicians. Yet Souljah was far from idle, continuing to travel and
speak to youngsters. She married and had a child before writing her
book; these experiences had a powerful effect on her worldview. 'It has
me more dedicated,' she told Jet. 'I already had a value for life and
now I have an even deeper value for life. I think once a woman carries
life in her womb she starts to really understand how precious the life
of each person is.' At the same time, she became even more critical of
her own upbringing and of ghetto parenting in general.

'Parents had a
habit of trying to raise their children off of slogans, like `do the
right thing' or `be a good boy,'' she asserted, insisting that 'young
girls need womanhood training and young men need manhood training.'No
Disrespect met with decidedly mixed reviews.

Many critics attacked what
they saw as Souljah's constant sermonizing, and indeed, the book
contains numerous episodes in which what seem like political manifestos
spring fully formed from Souljah's lips. Considering that many of her
quotes in interviews sound the same way, these may be accurate
representations. Be that as it may, those reviewers who disliked the
book found its protagonist strident and took exception to many of her
views. Karu P. Daniels of the Source, however, may have spoken for much
of the hip hop community when he lauded Souljah's 'candid and
provocative new memoir' for its honesty and clarity.

'She's speaking the language of the ghetto, and with that, no one can walk away from this read feeling isolated and alienated.'It
was apparently to combat feelings of isolation, in fact, that Souljah
undertook her work, and her productivity as both an author and a mother
seem to have dovetailed:

'Mothers, to me, are the narrators of
your life,' she noted in Jet. 'They either tell you a good story or a
bad story or a balanced story.' Telling the story of her
experiences--regardless of anyone else's idea of balance-- has certainly
been a consistent theme in her life. 'Remember,' she urges at the
conclusion of her book, 'No one will save us but ourselves. Neither God
nor white people will do so.' The key, as she told Jet, is self-respect:
'You just have to see yourself as a very powerful person, a very
important human being.'No disrespect'In fact, if you
asked any of the black people in the projects or the suburbs if they
loved themselves, they would automatically say 'Of course! Yeah! That's
right! Hell yeah!' But people who love themselves do not allow
themselves to be abused by others. I discovered, at a very young age,
that neither black people in the projects nor in the suburbs truly loved
themselves, because in varying degrees they were all cooperative
victims of abuse.

I decided early on that I would not ever cooperate or
suffer silently while being abused. Never would I allow anyone or group
of people to dominate and trounce my spirit and soul. This attitude and
determination would follow me forever.''Racism is a disease. It
affects whites as well as blacks. It may even be a kind of mental
illness. But the effect on black people is greater because we are the
victims of it. The effect on whites is severe because it deforms their
thinking and gives them a distorted picture of the world. But because
the economics of racism is inarguably in their favor, most whites learn
to live with it, even to deny it.But we cannot do so. Racism
has turned our communities into war zones where we are dying every day.
It is black-on-black hate, created by racism and white supremacy, that
is killing us. Black people killing black people. Can African
male-female relationships survive in America? Not if black-on-black
love is dead. Not if we are still too scared to admit there is a
problem while our families fall apart. Not if our young men continue to
refer to young women as 'bitches,' or our young women refer to young
men as 'motherfuckers,' or all of us refer to each other as 'niggas.'
It is a sad measure of our profound contempt for each other and of our
thoroughgoing self-loathing that we continue to persist in this ugly
practice.'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIpOe9MqAfI
"

Black and Missing but Not Forgotten