As Serena Williams is fined $82,000.00 for her outburst earlier this year and Tiger Woods repeatedly refuses to speak to police after wrecking his car into a fire hydrant Thanksgiving night/early Friday morning, I again ask the question, are we entitled to know each and every action and detail of these professionals lives and are we the culprits for making them bigger than life, thus the ultimate bad guy when they mess up?

So a physically battered Tiger Woods wrecks HIS car due to….??? Does the “due to” part matter? Does it matter if he is having an affair and his outraged wife was chasing him and bashing in his SUV window with (probably his) golf clubs? Shouldn’t the big picture be that he is alive, still a father, still a husband, still a son and most importantly to many, still able to keep doing what he does best, entertain the masses?

If I break the law, do you want to know? Absolutely not because to you, I am a nobody. How have we as society put these people so far up on a pedestal that human mess ups are under such public scrutiny? I do believe with some jobs you have to take the good and the bad and give up PARTS of your private life for the adoring fans but I also believe there is a line where privacy should be respected. If Tiger Woods was abused by his wife and chooses not to press charges why does he have to talk to the police?  Or if Tiger Woods did run HIS automobile in a fire hydrant, has the means to pay for the damage (and then some), it’s been determined alcohol was not a factor, why does he have to talk to the police?  Is it really about the law or is it just curiosity?

Why do so many non-news matters make headlines while real newsworthy events take a back seat? There are times when I actually feel uncomfortable and embarrassed listening to “news” stories because the information is so personal to the person under attack. If Tiger and his wife are having marital issues, so what! If we ALL stopped and reminisced on our own marital/family/personal issues and the horrifying thought of how we would feel if the details came to light, we’d be real quiet and just pray for Tiger wouldn’t we!

Holla back!

Thoughtful Thursday….

Although I don’t remember taking part in a lunchroom food fight growing up, I just can’t see it as a reason to: arrest 25 kids ranging in age 11 – 15, handcuff them, put them in a paddy wagon, take their mug shots, put them in jail, suspend them from school for 2 days and give them a misdemeanor on their record! Here’s The New York Times version of what happened at a middle-school in Chicago, IL last Thursday.

25 Chicago Students Arrested for a Middle-School Food Fight
CHICAGO — The food fight here started the way such bouts do in school lunchrooms most anywhere: an apple was tossed, a cookie turned into a torpedo, and an orange plunked someone in the head. Within minutes, dozens of middle-school students had joined in the ruckus, and spattered adults were ducking for cover.

By the end of the day, 25 of the students, ages 11 to 15, had been rounded up, arrested, taken from school and put in jail. A spokesman for the Chicago police said the charges were reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.

That was last Thursday afternoon. Now parents are questioning what seem to them like the criminalization of age-old adolescent pranks, and the lasting legal and psychological impact of the arrests.

“My children have to appear in court,” Erica Russell, the mother of two eighth-grade girls who spent eight hours in jail, said Tuesday. “They were handcuffed, slammed in a wagon, had their mug shots taken and treated like real criminals.”

“They’re all scared,” Ms. Russell said of the two dozen arrested students. “You never know how children will be impacted by that. I was all for some other kind of punishment, but not jail. Who hasn’t had a food fight?”

The students were released into the custody of their parents on Thursday night, the police said. They were also suspended for two days by the school, the Calumet middle-school campus of Perspectives Charter Schools, in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.

Diana Shulla-Cose, president and co-founder of Perspectives Charter Schools, said that an on-campus police officer had called for backup as the food fight escalated and that the resulting heavy police presence had led in turn to the large number of arrests.

Ms. Shulla-Cose described the entire episode as “unfortunate” and added, “We don’t take this lightly.”

She also said the school was working individually with the families of students who were arrested to support them through a difficult time, and through the process of getting the youths back to classes.

School officials met with parents on Tuesday to explain the events from their point of view. But some parents questioned what they saw as the random nature of the arrests.

“My daughter said someone threw an apple at her, so she retaliated,” Shirlanda Sivels said. “I said, ‘Why didn’t they grab you, too?’ She said, ‘I don’t know.’ She didn’t feel good about it, seeing her friends taken away.”

If the charges are not thrown out when the students go before a judge this month, criminal justice experts said, the accused will most likely be sentenced to community service or probation. Since they are juveniles, their records would remain confidential until adulthood — 17 under Illinois law — at which point the arrests would be expunged.

So here is my question, don’t we have more serious things to worry about than a middle-school lunchroom food fight? Maybe the goal was to psychological scare these children into being good citizens the rest of their lives. Maybe the goal was to eliminate future lunch room brawls with peas and carrots. Maybe the goal was to nip it in the bud before it turned into a “real” fight but whatever the reason, in the words of my spicy niece Kandace, “it ain’t that serious”!

What do you think? Holla back!

Hello and welcome to Thoughtful Thursday. It’s been a while! 

Are you going through anything today? Does it seem like as soon as one crises is over another one piggybacks it and there you are again? But maybe this is a good time for you and you are floating happily on God’s mercies! I hope so but if you are like me with little trials, medium sized tribulations and monumental troubles and you wonder when it will end or how you will make it through, first of all I recommend Jesus. He is the “be all, end all”! But as you go I have three songs I want you to get and listen to!

The first two songs are by my girl that I should have showcased weeks ago. The ever awesome Whitney Houston! She’s back and has two songs that are wonderfully inspiring and motivating. One is clearly talking about God and Him being the one to look to when nothing else works. That song is called: I Look To You. (Surprising written by our own, R. Kelley) The other is a kick in the butt we all need when we are having those “woe is me” valley experiences and it feels like we are all alone. You know when all you want to do is feel sorry for yourself. Listen to: I Didn’t Know My Own Strength! That will get you motivated to stand up straight and come to attention and know you are all that! And the third song is from Maurette Brown Clark and it is called: It Ain’t Over Until God Says It’s Over. I dare you to play this one over and over and over until it settles in your spirit and you truly know, it ain’t over until God says it’s over! My, my, my! It has ministered to my spirit too many times to count! It seems as if the DJ are locked into me and know exactly when to play it for me and straight to me! REGARDLESS of what you are going through – sickness, laid off of work, going through a divorce, children in jail, mind playing tricks on you, whatever – just know; the impossible is God’s chance to work a miracle!  It ain’t over until God says it’s over! Keep praying until your victory is won!

Here are the words to these three songs! Be blessed! Holla back!

I Look To You
As I lay me down
Heaven hear me now
After giving it my all
I’m lost without a cause

Winter’s storm has come
And darkened my sun
After all that I’ve been through
Who on earth can I turn to?

I look to you
I look to you
After all my strength is gone
In you I can be strong

I look to you
I look to you
And when melodies are gone
In you I hear a song, I look to you
About to lose my breath
There’s no more fighting left
Sinking to rise no more
Searching for that open door

And every road that I’ve taken
Led to my regret
And I don’t know if I’m going to make it
Nothing to do but lift my head
I look to you
I look to you
And when my strength is gone
In you I can be strong

I look to you
I look to you
And when melodies are gone
In you I hear a song, I look to you

My levees are broken, my walls have come
Crumbling down on me
The rain is falling, defeat is calling
I need you to set me free

Take me far away from the battle
I need you, shine on me

I look to you
I look to you
After all my strength is gone
In you I can be strong

I look to you
I look to you
And when melodies are gone
In you I hear a song, I look to you
I look to you
I look to you

I Didn’t Know My Own Strength
Lost touch with my soul
I had no where to turn, I had no where to go
Lost sight of my dream,
Thought it would be the end of me
I thought I’d never make it through
I had no hope to hold on to,
I thought I would break
I didn’t know my own strength

And I crashed down, and I tumbled, but I did not crumble
I got through all the pain
I didn’t know my own strength

Survived my darkest hour, my faith kept me alive
I picked myself back up, hold my head up high
I was not built to break
I didn’t know my own strength

Found hope in my heart,
I found the light to life, my way out the dark
Found all that I need, here inside of me
I thought I’d never find my way
I thought I’d never lift that weight
I thought I would break
I didn’t know my own strength

And I crashed down, and I tumbled, but I did not crumble
I got through all the pain
I didn’t know my own strength

Survived my darkest hour, my faith kept me alive
I picked myself back up, hold my head up high
I was not built to break
I didn’t know my own strength

There were so many times
I wondered how I’d get through the night
I thought I took all I could take
I didn’t know my own strength

And I crashed down, and I tumbled, but I did not crumble
I got through all the pain
I didn’t know my own strength

Survived my darkest hour, my faith kept me alive
I picked myself back up, hold my head up high
I was not built to break
I didn’t know my own strength

It Ain’t Over Until God Says It’s Over
I know the odds are stacked against you
And it seems there’s no way out
I know the issue seems unchangeable
And that there’s no reason to shout
But the impossible is God’s chance
To work a miracle, a miracle
So just know

It ain’t over until God says it’s over
It ain’t over until God says it’s done
It ain’t over until God says it’s over
Keep fighting until your victory is won

He never said it would be easy
But you’re a winner in the end
Jesus defeated all your enemies
Way before the fight began
But the impossible is God’s chance
To work a miracle, a miracle
So just know

When people say you can’t, remember
He can, He can
When you don’t know what to do
Please remember
He has the master plan
He will free you from your sin
And give you peace within
So hold your head up high
You’re gonna win
You’re gonna win

Keep fighting, keep praying, keep fasting
It ain’t over, no (repeat)
Keep fighting until your victory is won