On Voting:
In about one month most of us will have primaries scheduled for our states gubernatorial and congressional candidates. It’s widely understood that in urban precincts whichever Democratic candidate wins the primary is usually a shoe-in for the general election so the primary becomes the real election. I hope that everyody that is 18 or older is tuned in to the frequency since all of our futures are tied into who we allow to legislate for us. With PIDDY as busy as he is trying to make child support payments he hasn’t had the time to run around in a ‘Vote or Die’ t-shirt to remind us of our civic responibility. The stakes are high party people, so please don’t sleep this September.
Here’s a quick little exercise that I hope will get you in the mood for September. MISS AHMAD from GLAMAZON LIFE sent me an e-mail informing me that she had nominated me for the 2006 Black Weblog Awards. That’s a flattering compliment to me since the DALLASPENN.COM site has only been live on the internets since August 29, 2005. All the archived posts that precede that date come from my weekly e-mail blasts that I still send out on occasion. If you like the programming that this website generates I would kindly ask you to click the link here and nominate this site for as many categories as you choose. Please don’t embarrass us and nominate us for categories that we don’t fit in. You don’t have to fill out every single line on the form either, but try to get as many as possible. Once the form is submitted it can’t be amended. Winning a Black Weblog Award would be an honor to all the people that work hard to bring this site to fruition on a daily basis and it would look nice hanging on the wall next to my G.E.D.
ON DYING:
I have never been too resolute on any topic that I was willing to die for my belief. The folks I read about in the Congo that are so desperate to experience a democratic government that they are willing to die for it receive my hardbody award. Over two centuries of European intervention have created borders and boundaries throughout Africa that are responsible for the continent’s struggle today for solidarity and sovereignity. I am not saying that Europe started the fire, they just brought the can of oil instead of the bucket of water. I salute the Congolese for their belief that a democracy is something worth dying for.
The one thing in life we are guaranteed to do as some point will be to die. None of us are too sure how we’ll accomplish the task and most of us don’t think too hard about it. We try to do the things that we think will provide us with at least another afternoon of sunshine and smiles. Dying is sad when it’s a friend or a loved one because of the finality. No more drinking binges or bank robberies or sex with the family pets. That is why I want to ask you to run outside now and take off your shoes and walk in the grass somewhere. Put that feeling into your mind. At some point down the road we will be destitute or returned to the bonds of slavery, but if you remember that moment of walking through the grass with your bare feet then you won’t feel too bad about dying.
Peace to the Middle East.
It’s funny how every other place in the world goes crazy over voting and we wear it as fashion and then won’t even do it. Hell look at Mexico right now. I imagine if we had done that over the Gore debacle.
^Amadeo, good point about our neighbors to the south. We Americans have mastered the art of superficiality. Full of sound and fury, yet signifying nothing.
yaay for voting!
i predict california to remain a republican state which will hopefully lead to the first truly bipartisan party…or at least that’s what those damn republicans keep telling me when they try to get my vote!
and more importantly yaay for Dallas Penn getting a Black Weblog Award!
“It’s funny how every other place in the world goes crazy over voting and we wear it as fashion”
^Whats worse is that many come here and still maintain the idea that voting is a privilege. Just look at the slogans Hispanics used during their recent protests: Today we March, Tomorrow we Vote. Its a shame we need gimmicks to encourage people to vote. Ya’ll know Diddy used proceeds from those t-shirt sells to help pay his legal fees. Are we that far removed from the Civil Rights era that we no longer value our vote???
Oh and big up to the site for finally posting an AKeys pic without saying anything mean. I heart you all. That right there gets you a vote on the Black Weblog Awards in possibly the Best Original Content category. Keep up the great work.
power to the blog kingdom….if we band together, nothin can stop us.
lieberman lost, much do to bloggers.
power in numbers. PEACE dallas.
Nice words from all and some clever captioning. I think Mr. Keys looks great.
You got a dozen nominations from me, which means I kept it legal, restrained. Thanks also for introducing me to a lot of other nice blogs this past 50 weeks.
See?! You had my vote in 4 categories but you had to go and stick Mariah Scarey’s Photoshopped ass in there…As if she could tell a chad from a Chad. Nicely written column!
As a show of “hardbody-ism” I’d like to see a celebrity stand up and lead a protest against the diamond industry; save some baby arms this year.