Hello everyone, I had to laugh today when I heard about the school in California that decided that they would change their menu to feature fried chicken, cornbread, and watermelon for black history month. They said that since the term soul food was derived from the idea of the slaves eating their master's scraps to nourish their souls, that they would celebrate the idea. How ignorant and racist is that? I guess they forgot to add collard greens and chitterlings. Some people are so ridiculous. What do you think about this? Racism is still as prominent as ever and sadly some people will never change. I feel sorry for the black students who are being subjected to this foolishness. This month let us remember those both blacks and whites who gave their lives for civil rights and who fought for all of us to be treated as equals. Let's also remember Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin who was gunned down for being black in the wrong place also Shawn Bell, and Oscar Grant, James Byrd who was drug to death in Jasper Texas and many others who were killed because of color of their skin. Remember the whites who also perished in the name of equality such as Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodmen. Let us pause for a moment to reflect on the memory of these fallen victims. Consider what if anything you can do to make a change. I will leave you with these words of wisdom from Charles Schwab: A man who trims himself to suit everybody will soon whittle himself away." The person you have to account to is you. You should never try to mold yourself to meet anyone else's desires, or views. Attempting to please everyone in your life will only cause internal conflict, a sure formula for failure. As well, you may easily find yourself working on their dreams and not your own. As you work to achieve your goals, some people will criticize you. Their criticism, however, may be no more than jealousy. You may well find that even members of your own family will question your intentions or try and dissuade you from continuing on. This also applies to friends that may be more envious than supportive. It is difficult to accept their criticism and the long and short of it is this: do not let anyone stop you, influence you, or degrade your vision a new life, career, or education. Don't let someone else's opinions stop you. Rather than focusing your energy on trying to become what other people want, decide on who you want to become. Only you can live your life - you do not live someone else's life, so why should someone attempt to make you do so? And, you do not advance your desires if you constantly focus on what you see other people have including those big fancy houses, or those high paying jobs. And, what you see on TV or in the movies about celebrity mansions doesn't translate into action for you to advance your own strategy. The real problem is to focus your energy where it counts. That specific energy should not be wasted on daydreaming or wishing that your wants will somehow appear out of the blue. It is also far too easy to find excuses to do something else with your available time especially when you run into a rough patch, or, using your available time to do household chores that can wait or are not critical. If you have a partner or spouse, you desperately need them to buy into your need to use the majority of your time to keep your momentum going towards the accomplishment of your own dream. And, this is not the time to give away your energy and time to extraneous demands made on you by friends and relatives. It is really easy to give in to others who do not help advance your goals. It is not that you are being stingy or selfish; you are being focused on the real necessity of going forward because not to makes it much too easy to quit altogether. In the process of achieving what you want, there are sacrifices you will have to make. I know this will not sit well with your desire to enjoy those relaxing times you have had in the past, or those trips, or those evenings in front of the TV watching a fantastic movie but sacrifice now will pay huge dividends in the future. After all, you are working for the future satisfaction of accomplishing a very important goal but you must be aware that a lot of people quit far too early into their action plan because they see other things to do that are enjoyable right now. You don't choose the day you enter the world and you don't chose the day you leave. It's what you do in between that makes all the difference." Anita Septimus. As always have a blessed and prosperous day and always keep God first in your life.