Monday, July 09, 2007

Afternoon Edition - 7/9/07

Chi-town Take Out
It was a scene right out of an action-adventure movie. A van being driven along a busy downtown Chicago street allegedly jumped the curb, running head-long into Cosi restaurant. Before creating the not-so-drive-thru window, the driver is said to have run down a pedestrian who was ambling along the sidewalk; both the pedestrian and a passenger in the van are said to be in critical condition, while two other passengers in the van are injured, but not critically. No citations have been issued as yet.

Burying the Living?
Today the NAACP held a funeral service for the N-Word during their 98th Annual Convention in Detroit, Michigan. The N-Word’s coffin will have an official burial site and tombstone, taking a hopeful step at obliterating the use of the word by both hate mongers and African Americans alike. "Today we're not just burying the N-word, we're taking it out of our spirit," Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said. "We gather burying all the things that go with the N-word. We have to bury the 'pimps' and the 'hos' that go with it." In the eternal words of Ned Flanders of The Simpsons fame, “Obie-Kablie!”

July 25; Commonwealth Constitution Day
Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States, created their own constitution and had it ratified on July 25, 1952. Since then, the island has an official holiday to celebrate Commonwealth Constitution Day. Puerto Rico presently celebrates ALL U.S. holidays along with several of our very own, including: Three Kings Day (Jan. 6); Birthday of Eugenio Maria de Hostos (Jan. 11); Emancipation Day – Puerto Rico abolished slavery in 1873 (Mar. 22); Birthday of Dr. Jose Celso Barbosa (Jul. 27); Discovery of Puerto Rico (Nov. 19); Christmas Eve – Noche Buena (Dec. 24); New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31). In all, Puerto Rico has a healthy slew of holidays.

On Blast
How important do you believe the symbolic funeral for the N-Word was today? What impact (if any) do you believe it will have?

Keep passin’ the open windows…

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ni--er WHO?
Ni--er WHAT?

--Joe Camel

Mr. Jones said...

To be honest, I think at best this is an effort in futility. The NAACP is no longer relevant and is doing everything in it can to remain at the forefront of the black struggle.

This is an organization that badly wants to leave its west Baltimore campus for the 'greener pastures' of SE DC. They can't afford to move so relocation plans are 'on hold'. meanwhile, the city of Baltimore is preparing a package that would move the organization from its current location to a much more prominent waterfront location. They better take that and be happy. lol.

Funerals are expensive now. They need to save all the money they can.

iii said...

Burying the past moving on to the future. I thinkthat it will take a constant effort from everyone not to usethe "N-word" anymore. It's tiime for self-responsibility to kick in.

Darius T. Williams said...

The N-word funeral wasn't all that - I have strong feelings against it. Um...so, you're just a regular um, Anderson Cooper now, huh?

Unknown said...

That's Cocoa Cooper, Mr. Williams... LOL

SGL Café.com said...

No they didn't bury the N word. Was that a real casket? I agree with Mr. Jones, how much money did the waste on this [futile publicity stunt]?

For whatever reasons, right or wrong, insanity or not, the little word didn't go into the ground.

And it's time we moved past 'semantics'; the world has much bigger fish to fry.

Anonymous said...

It's a symbolic gesture to ending the N word and all of the denigrating words that many black people use against each other. Futile to some and uplifting to others. Hopefully, there are more black people that will see it as a positive gesture.

yet another black guy said...

good luck with that. i've been trying to bury the N-word for like 20 something years now. why 'we' use derogatory terms 'with love' is a mystery to me. the chains are as strong as ever...

@GaryTylone said...

Atleast it was an effort at something. However, those that needed to see that probably knew nothing about the funeral.