"You will find your inner calling and your life will get a positive boost. This path is irreversibly yours and only you can walk it to the end! Your destiny will accompany you all the way!" 

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Sometimes I love taking those FaceBook tests like what your sign means, favorite party buddies, what animal best represents your personality? You know, just random, fun activities when you're probably a little bored. As you can see, this is the result of one of my late-night, what the heck efforts. I concur with the results and this is my viewpoint on the subject.

Some surrender to Destiny as a fixed point that can't be altered. I am of the mind that it's a fluid, organic destination that depends on the decisions we make and the roads we travel.

There's a mind-bending but thought-provoking film, Donnie Darko (2001) that seeks to postulate the question of destiny. Well, Donnie had some coping issues and wormholes were involved but, I believe it gives pause to everyone who watches.

Presented with the outcomes of our various choices, what would we do with this foreknowledge? Would we continue down a given path or try to alter that conclusion? That's pretty much what we do when we explore our purpose and motivation to wake up every day.

Perhaps that's why we seek out fortune tellers; to give us the answers to our questions about our Destiny. If they predict good things we are elated; if doom is forecast we feel scared and apprehensive. It all boils down to what we accept as our reality. What we regard as true we give rise to and bring forth into our lives; a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

My Destiny is Freedom. I choose to put trust in that prediction because I have faith that I am free, open and ready for the adventures that lie before me.

How about you?

Why I write

What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger - Depression

Ever since Robin Williams died, I've been thinking about living the life of Depression. It really is a silent killer. You're defective; a freak if your pain exists above the neck.

What's wrong with introspection? Trying to understand who you are and what's shaped you? We're all flawed. No one is perfect. That's what our life's journey is all about. Living and growing and dealing in a world that is not kind. Sometimes the load just becomes too heavy and we can no longer bear the weight.

Depression is real. It's not about just being sad. It's a sense of being drawn under. A force that has a real power and depth that's hard to let go.

Don't judge. Don't hate. Don't fear. Just like running a marathon, it takes one step at a time. One moment at a time. One day at a time.

Pray, keep the faith, and believe there's still another moment to live.

South Dakota Right-Wingers have lost their doggone minds!

South Dakota Republican Party Votes to Impeach the President

On Saturday June 21, at the South Dakota Republican Party’s annual convention in Rapid City, delegates voted 191-176 in favor of a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Barack Obama.

According to Sioux Falls Argus Leader and Huffington Post articles, the Resolution states that President Obama has "violated his oath of office in numerous ways", specifically citing the trade of five Taliban detainees for POW Bowe Bergdahl, the much-hyped campaign promise that people would be able to keep their existing health insurance under the ACA, and the recent EPA proposal curbing emissions from coal power plants. "Therefore, be it resolved that the South Dakota Republican Party calls on our U.S. Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States," the Resolution reads.

Sponsor of the resolution, Allen Unruh of Sioux Falls, claimed he had "a thick book on impeachable offenses of the President" and called on South Dakota to "send a symbolic message that liberty shall be the law of the land." In lockstep with Tea Party ideologues, his interpretation of “liberty” appears to be people, policies and laws I agree with.

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO MOPSHELL ON MON JUN 23, 2014 AT 04:30 AM PDT.

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As I stated in my previous post - Why isn't Anybody talking About 2014?, we've seen what "repubs" do when they get power. Operating solely on hate, those 191 South Dakota delegates acted on their ultimate fantasy, destroying Barack Obama's Presidency.

Elections have consequences!

The Impeachment process would begin in the House and would only need a simple majority to pass. Then at that point would go to the Senate for their vote. This is serious business. Just the House initiating the process would essentially destroy President Obama's legacy. 

We have the power and the votes to take over the House and gain seats in the Senate.

All it takes is the will and commitment to get out and vote and register others to get out and vote in the 2014 Mid-term Elections!

Why Isn't Anybody talking about 2014?

Hillary Clinton? Chris Christie, Scott Walker? - 2016? - Who Cares?

Benghazi, Benghazi  Benghazi.

The Republicans got this mantra locked because Democrats continue to buy into this notion that anything "Repubs" say is even remotely the truth and to say anything against those lies is what, the kiss of death?

Every person in this country should have the 2014 midterm elections in their sight, on their agenda, be committed to getting out and registering voters. There are serious issues at hand:  Elections have consequences.

Voter suppression, Women's health, Minimum wage, Medicaid expansion.

If we don't hold the Senate and take over the House - 2016 is irrelevant. We've seen what "repubs" do when they get power:

Attack women's rights, pass legislation to make it more difficult to vote, support the NRA.  In essence let a faction of crazy people take over the Country. God knows the "repubs" can't reign in the Tea Party. Hell they welcomed them, thought they could control them and are now reaping the world wind. Thanks to gerrymandering and the Supreme Court, over 50 years of struggle and sacrifice have been decimated.  When is enough, enough?

This weekend, June 21st - marks the 50 year Anniversary of Freedom Summer and the murders of three courageous young men:  James Chaney, age, 21, Andrew Goodwin, age, 20 and Michael Schwerner, age, 23.

They were gunned down by the Klu Klux Klan and buried in a 15-foot earthen dam in Philadelphia, Mississippi.  It took 44 days to find their bodies. They died standing up for the right to vote. Believing in the importance of that right for our Democracy.  Their sacrifice so engaged and enraged this country that in 1964 President Lyndon Johnson signed into law The Civil Rights Act.

Today, in 2014 will we allow their deaths to have been in vain?

This is our Freedom Summer. What are we going to do with it?

Hillary Clinton? Chris Christie, Scott Walker? - 2016? Who Cares?

And again, I ask. Why isn't anybody talking about 2014?

Benghazi, Benghazi  Benghazi.

Democrats!  Please!

FOCUS!!!!!

"Takin' It to the Streets"

"Best and Worse of Times" A Retrospect:

In a myriad of ways this post is a retrospect of how my blog "Where Do We Go From Here?" dated October 13, 2009 began.  I moved to Charlotte to foster the concept of change and opportunity. In the days since, I have continued to invest both time and belief in a process our country has both celebrated and lamented - The right to vote. My volunteering in the 2008 Presidential campaign not only gave wings to my rebirth in Charlotte but also taught me the importance of grassroots organizing. Today those experiences underscore my feelings of being both blessed for that lesson of empowerment but also being angered today by the the seemingly lack of outrage by those who at once benefited from the Democratic process during that historic election but who now seem to exhibit no sense of outrage over the current onslaught of voter suppression. 

Apparently, media giant Clear Channel thinks it’s a-okay to use its billboards to intimidate voters in an effort to keep people of color from voting.

As a result of President Barack Hussein Obama's historic election in 2008 we can never declare we didn't know or understand the importance of one man's vote. To not fight for that right is unacceptable! Every citizen has to have access to the election process to make this country a democracy. Today the rights of citizens are being compromised. Voter suppression is real!! And it is this fact which leads me to a saying I've imparted to my friends and children for many years - when your civil rights are at stake you need to collectively "get real", go "old school" style, - "Take it to the Streets"!!

As a kid during the '67 riots in Detroit I witnessed the physical outcry of frustration, pain and disillusionment of people fed up with injustice in this country. Since then one essential fact has always resonated with me - race matters.  I was born Black and proud but no matter how high my level of education or success, for some I will always be looked at as "less than". This statement is an ongoing struggle not only for a race but for a country. This country.  Let's get back to that Doobie Brothers lyric "Takin' It to the Streets." At this moment, juncture, spirit in time, today, it's on!  Standing online for 2 1/2 hours to early vote during the 2012 election in Charlotte, NC, I was amazed by a story I was told about a woman who wasn't going to early vote because she believed it would give someone the opportunity to change her vote. Change it? She didn't even get the point that in 2012 she wasn't even suppose to have one.

Only a month after the President's re-election - by an overwhelming majority of the American people - 51% to be exact! - Chief Justice John Robert's conservative led Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by striking down Section 4 which required preclearance for states and jurisdictions, mostly in the former Confederate States, that historically used voter suppression tactics to prevent minorities from participating in the voting process. Under Section 4 these states were required to submit any voter law changes to the Justice Department prior to enacting them. Within hours of this atrocity, the same states that committed these discriminatory practices couldn't wait to pass extreme voter id legislation. If, according to Chief Justice Roberts, the need no longer exists to require these offending states to get pre-approval for any voting law changes, why the rush to return to Jim Crow days? New voter id requirements (what was wrong with the id we used in all the previous elections?) Oh that's right - Obama. Less days available for early voting. (What's that got to do with so-called voter fraud?) Oh that's right - Obama.

In North Carolina, where I live, Republican Governor Pat McCrory signed into law the nation's most restrictive and draconian voting law - voter id, cutbacks to early voting, an end to same-day registration and the repeal of public funding of judicial elections and many more harsh and unnecessary anti-voting measures. That legislation passed a month after the Supreme Court ruling. The Republican majority House and Senate have accomplished and set the model for the national Republican Party strategy. Prevent minorities, people of color and the disenfranchised from voting.

With the overwhelming voter turnout in both the 2008 and 2012 elections, the Republicans know with the shrinking majority of the white vote and their extreme right wing mindset of exclusion and lack of any policies that the majority of the country wants, their time is done. So, what the heck, if you can't win elections fair and square - cheat! 

We, the people, have got to stand up and push back against this fear and hatred. Too many great souls fought and died for equally and justice for ALL.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  It's time to start "Takin' It to the Streets!"

What's Presidential?

I'm a news watching, political junkie and Rachel Maddow is my hero. But, after the Wednesday night debates, I refuse to read another word or watch another news program. I can't believe that we as a country have sunk to the level where we celebrate lies and deception. I watched a little red faced man, who doesn't even deserve to stand on the same stage as President Obama, conduct himself in the rudest rant filled with lies performance I've ever seen in a presidential debate. I'm not saying he needed to say please and thank you after every remark but I do expect a man who wants to represent my country and represent The United States of America on the world stage to show some class and decency. Sure, the whole spectacle was done to whip up "the base". They loved it! I'm not surprised, look at the type of people "the base" represents. Divisive, bigoted people who want to "take their country back".

Looking at presidents throughout our history - Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Obama - it's plain to see that Mittens is in no way, shape or form representative of the character of a President. He started out as a moderate but has sold his soul to the "tea party" who went around calling themselves "tea baggers" (really, do you know what that means?) Anyway, we've built a great country through the contributions of all walks of our society. We abolished slavery, women fought and won the right to vote, The Civil Rights Act, Roe v Wade. These "tea partyers or baggers, whatever, have been dismantling layer by layer the fabric of our society since coopting the Republican Party. The likes of Todd Akin, Rick Perry, and Rand Paul would love to see slavery brought back. Women, forget about it, barefoot and pregnant since there will be no birth control, the right to our own bodies, and anyone who believes in "legitimate rape" should be institutionalized.

In a world of ever increasing technology and immediacy, we've actually gotten dumber. We have at our finger tips access to a body of knowledge we've never had before but what do we do with it? Play games, ignore people as we walk down the street with eyes glued to a screen, texting about nothing. We've become rude, obnoxious, hateful and uncaring about the truth. I know sometimes the truth can be difficult to discern, but come on! Facts are facts and saying lies over and over doesn't make them true.

I just needed to get this out of my head because I'm becoming increasing saddened and frightened for the future of this country.  Not in my lifetime have we been this divided, angry and disillusioned. My Sands Kym posted on her Facebook page, "I really hope that by the time my three year olds become adults that there is not so much hate in this country". To that comment I say - Amen.