Help Wanted…But the Obese Need Not Apply

This morning I was watching one of the morning shows and heard one of the guests say that the Cleveland Clinic would not hire you if you were a smoker. Smoking is deadly and there are several health risks associated with smoking. If you are already employed by them they will send you to smoking cessation classes. This sounded pretty good, but I started to think more about this and you start to see a trend developing. Smoking is still legal in this country so when a company can say they are not hiring smokers isn’t that in fact discriminating? In the same interview they discussed the idea of companies opting not to hire people that are overweight. So will the interview end with step on this scale?  Companies are complaining that illnesses associated with obesity are becoming more and more costly. One of my friends who is currently employed with a company that is going down for the third time is hesitant about going on interviews. She says people make immediate conclusions when they look at overweight people and it is hard to get past that barrier. Some will say well why don’t these people just lose weight? When did being overweight become a crime in this country? Obesity a true health issues, but it is not a crime. Will applications have a question asking if you were ever obese? If you have been in the past does that mean you have the potential to be overweight again? Will they ask if any members of your family are obese? If you answer yes, please explain on a separate sheet of paper. This might sound ridiculous, but we all need to think long and hard about this road we are traveling. It all starts with things we can agree could be regarded as bad, and then it could get a little more close to home.  Once we have eliminated the smokers and the obese from the job pool who is next?

Joan Kennedy, the Mother of Senator Kennedy’s Children Deserved A Salute

Over the past few days I have watched countless specials and the funeral for Senator Ted Kennedy. So many people referred to his wife Vicki as the love of his life. They said that he saved her. It was a fine tribute to his current wife, but I could not help but feel sorry for the first Mrs. Kennedy, Joan. Joan is the mother of his three children that spoke so eloquently at the service today. She is the one that stood by him after Chappequidick when many wives would have said so long. She is the one that while separated from him in 1980 still campaigned with him as he pursued the presidency. She helped him live out his dreams. She has had bouts with alcoholism and depression, but today she sat in that church, and I am sure she too felt the loss.  I know that it is customary to honor the widow, but the mother of his children deserved a mention. It would have simply been nice to have seen some love extended her way.

Ted Kennedy’s Service Was a Celebration of Life, Not a Political Rally

 There is a gospel song called May My Work Speak for Me. We each are writing our own eulogy everyday of our lives. We are given a short period here on earth and we determine how we will use that time. On funeral programs we see two dates. The day we were born and the date we take your eternal rest, but what is even more important is what did you do between the hyphens? Did you help someone besides those related to you by blood? Did you ever do a selfless act? Did you encourage someone who had lost his way? Did we live for others or did we only live for yourself? Some of these questions will be answered at our own final services, but today we saw that Ted Kennedy did a lot of living between those hyphens. It was a touching service punctuated by personal antidotes’ from family and friends. It was a day to remember a man not a day to push a political agenda. The president spoke of the man and his accomplishments, but also of the thoughtfulness he showed to everyone in his orbit. Some of the commentators on CNN questioned whether the president should have used this as an opportunity to promote universal healthcare, but the president used the opportunity to simply deliver a heartfelt eulogy not a political stump speech. I remember watching Coretta Scott King’s funeral a few years ago and it was appalling how so many speakers used the service as an opportunity to bash then President George W. Bush as he sat on the platform. It was inappropriate behavior at a solemn occasion. So today it was heartwarming to see members of the Republican party in attendance, and they felt welcome not like aliens on foreign soil. It was a celebration of a glorious life, not a perfect life, but a man who lived a full life between the hyphens.

Bishop Thomas Weeks To Wed Another Prophetess

This morning I was visiting on of my favorite websites www.theoldblackchurch.blogspot.com. I saw a story about Bishop Weeks and his upcoming nuptials. Weeks made news a couple of years ago when he got into a scuffle with his then wife Juanita Bynum or as she was called Prophetess Juanita Bynum. He initially denied he hit her but he finally admitted he did beat his wife. Now he is getting ready to marry another Prophetess. He has posted a video that is now on youtube telling the world of their upcoming nuptials. When he married Bynum a few years ago we witnessed a celebration of excess. It was so overtop that it was distasteful and now we will be witness to another ego trip filled with ridiculous pageantry. When will church people finally say enough is enough. If these women are true prophets can’t they see the future?  If  they can why would they be marrying him?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X31mtt00YWg

Four Years After Katrina and Residents Still have No Place to Call Home

 I vividly remember watching the citizens of New Orleans gathered at the Superdome begging for food and water. We saw countless scenes of people stranded on the rooftops of their homes. This just did not seem like something that could happen in our country, but it did. One particularly charming black boy that NBC brought us put it so simply “we need help.” The television anchors initially referred to the residents as “the refugees” . They weren’t refugees they were displaced citizens who sadly still don’t have homes. What happened to all the federal money? What happened to the money that poured in from the celebrity telethons? Many of the former residents have simply found new homes in other places and they know they will have to rely on their memories of home because there are no real plans to rebuild their homes. “Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, killing more than 1,600 and scattering 1.7 million people to every state. People stopped calling FEMA when they became ineligible for assistance.” * In the wake of Katrina there was a promise to rebuild the city bigger and stronger, but that was simply political rhetoric. On CNN today Ray Nagin seemed almost resigned to the fact that this situation was simply unfixable. He is now serving out the remainder of his term with an eye on a position in the private sector. This problem can not be laid at his doorstep because it is far bigger than him. The business tourist section of New Orleans is becoming vibrant again but the 9th ward and neighborhoods like that still look like the disaster hit yesterday. So for the many displaced citizens of New Orleans it is good they have found homes in other states because they no longer have a home in New Orleans. *Chicago Tribune

The Myth of Camelot Will Be Buried with Ted Kennedy

Today on Hardball Chris Matthews started speculating on what Kennedy of this generation would be next to enter the political arena. Matthews like many of his generation has waxed poetic about the days of Camelot. How the three handsome Kennedy brothers led the charmed lives of the politically connected. They all had beautiful wives and adorable children. They were picture perfect, but what America saw was a carefully woven myth. They thrived an age when television had only three channels and after midnight the National anthem would be played indicating television was off until the next morning. They did not live in 24/7 era. There is nothing a politician can do that will not end up on youtube  before the end of the day. It is impossible to create a myth in the 21^st century. There are simply too many people in too many places dedicated to exposing it. So on Saturday when Senator Kennedy is laid to rest he along with the myth will be buried.

A Salute to the “In Spite of Generation” as They Celebrate Their 65th High School Reunion

Last July I visited some of my family in Memphis, Tennessee. My aunt who is in her eighties told me this fall she would be attending her high school reunion. She proudly said it was their 65th high school reunion. Her class was the Booker T. Washington High School class of 1944. Some in her class went on to finish college and graduate studies. Others lived productive lives as skilled laborers, but they all were determined to make it. They were all sons and daughters of a segregated south. Their opportunities were limited but their dreams were limitless. I have often heard veteran journalist Tom Brokaw talk of the World War II veterans as the Greatest Generation. It made me analyze the contributions that this all black class of 1944 made and I would have to call them the “in spite of generation.” This was a generation of young people raised in the south where segregation was the law. Their parents saved their pennies to send their children to college as they attempted to help their children secure a future that alluded them. So they will get together this coming October and celebrate another reunion, but I too celebrate them for what they were able to accomplish 65 years ago when the American Dream was not yet available to all Americans.

Ted Kennedy’s Death is Sad, but it is Not Tragic

 Yesterday we learned of the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. He battled brain cancer valiantly, but in the end he died from the disease. It is very sad when anyone loses a love one. Kennedy was loved by his family and also by the broader American family, but I was struck by the fact that some of the commentators referred to his death as “tragic” . Kennedy experienced more than his share of tragedy: the violent death of his three brothers, two of his children had cancer and the untimely death of his beloved nephew. All of these things could be labeled tragic, but the senator lived a rich and blessed life. He was a skilled legislator with a heart for the under-represented and the under-served. He had the opportunity to see all of his children become adults. He lived to be an old man and so many people will not have this privilege. So let us not say the Kennedy family is experiencing another tragedy, it is the opposite. They had their beloved husband, father and uncle for 78 years and that is a blessing that should be celebrated.

GOP Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins Yearns for “Great White Hope”

“U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins offered encouragement to conservatives at a town hall forum that the Republican Party would embrace a “great white hope” capable of thwarting the political agenda endorsed by Democrats who control Congress and President Barack Obama. Jenkins, a Topeka Republican in her first term in Congress, shared thoughts about the GOP’s political future during an Aug. 19 forum at Fisher Community Center in the northeast Kansas community of Hiawatha.”* A Jenkins spokeswoman has offered the obligatory apology for her poor word choice. This is typical of the Republican Party say it, get it out there and then apologize.  “The phrase “great white hope” is frequently tied to racist attitudes permeating the United States when heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson fought in the early 1900s. Reaction to the first black man to reign as champion was intense enough to build support for a campaign to find a white fighter capable of reclaiming the title from Johnson.”* Politicians live and die by the things that they say and a phrase like the great white hope has real meaning and the crowd that she spoke to understood the message that she wished to convey. It was no accident.

(The Topeka Capital-Journal)

President Obama Owes Ted Kennedy a Debt of Gratitude

Last year when President Obama was running for president Senator Ted Kennedy came out early, and strong for the then Senator from Illinois. I remember watching him give his support and I like so many others knew this was big.  He angered Senator Clinton because she felt that he would have endorsed her, but he chose to go with the candidate that trumpeted change. He called for a new generation of leadership. He was a strong voice in the party and his endorsement added legitimacy to the Obama candidacy. Kennedy made one of his last speaking appearances at the Democratic convention.  His voice was not as strong but his commitment to the party and his love of country could not be shaken. Kennedy was a friend as well as an advocate for the less fortunate. He was a child of privilege who chose to help the least of them. His life truly reflected Luke 12:48 “ For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required…”