Educational Excellence

Happy Monday again!

Yes, I said it, and I know there are a lot of folks appreciating the simple fact that it is Monday … and their eyes are open. Of course, I know that there are others who haven’t found much joy in their lives this morning, yet . . . I hope you do.

Happy belated Birthday to Mr. Jerome Tucker of Washington, DC. His “Back Door Productions” business has been one that I’ve admired over the years since Ms. Elecia James, former student from White Plains, NY, introduced us via “cyber space”. I have even had the pleasure of being on his radio program that is aired every Friday afternoon from 1pm -4pm EST. It is called “Third Eye Open”.

Do you have the desire to keep your dreams alive?!? Sometimes, it gets tough. In today’s world, it is even tougher. There are so many competing elements, so to speak, not to mention the plethora of “haters” and “naysayers”. So, as a popular group once sang, “Keep Your Head to the Sky”! I had the pleasure of meeting up with a long time friend whom I met during my scooter/motorcycle days here in the FTL at MotorSports of Fort Lauderdale, Ms. Natasha Carriles. Those of you who know me also know that Natasha has been like a daughter to me … thank you. We met Saturday afternoon for a short time before she had to be at work, and I had just left yoga class at LA Fitness in the Cypress Creek Station area. It was great! We “caught up”, hugged up and bid each other a fond adieu … until we meet again.

What’s most important for me nowadays is to keep my dreams alive. Now, I don’t have anything “undreamable”, but more like world peace, respect for one another’s cultures, folkways and mores … as long as they are not hurting anyone … and reaching out to others in their times of need. Yesterday, I spent some time on the phone with another good friend, Rafael Ventura Rosa, as I spun some of my ideas on building Educational Excellence this year. We had worked in community organizing on different projects together and have remained good friends since then! I shared some more of my “dreams” for EE with him. I decided to start a “Go Fund Me” campaign for Educational Excellence, as he and others had once suggested to me before. “I have a dream . . .”

During “60 Mintues” last night, which is one of my favorite broadcast journalism programs, I was hit hard by two disturbing “stories” for me. One was the “comedy show” put on by Speaker Boehner and Speaker McCullough, both of the Republican Party leadership!! Listening to their answers to Scott Pelley’s questions was like listening to a child “spin” his story on how, though there are cookie crumbs all around his mouth, he didn’t see any cookies in his Mom’s kitchen!! Upon realizing their skilled craft of “lying through their teeth”, Pelley changed his questioning technique to get them to say just “yes” or “no”!! It was funny as they BOTH squirmed amidst their lies and disrespectful attitudes towards the POTUS as well as what he represents!! It really slammed me when Pelley asked them why they wouldn’t “be caught being seen with the President”, which is part of their partisan “party politics, at the White House for a visit or two. Boehner answered: “Oh, I have been over to the White House a few times …” with the greatest insincerity I’ve seen in him yet, other than when he sat behind the POTUS during his “State of the Union” address last week, trying NOT to show any support for his speech unless absolutely necessary. And this, too, can be seen by other “world leaders” as both GOP representatives tried to blame their own practice of partisan politics on the POTUS himself!! Believe it … or not!

The saddest story was the one about the young black boy who was shot by a Cleveland, OH police officer (white) last year which occurred within SECONDS … not minutes … of their arrival to the playground where the boy sat playing with a toy gun after neighbors had called police to say that they saw someone with a gun, probably a toy, in the park near them. The Cleveland officer who shot the kid had been “turned down” by another police department for being considered unstable (which he proved by killing this kid). Then, the Cleveland PD hired him!! The African American Chief of Police looked like a marionette trying to answer questions which were clearly aimed at exposing the already well know racial divide between the Cleveland PD and the communities they are supposed to serve. Interviews of “black men and women” displayed the on-going chasm between the two as well as the national charge that there has been a great amount of distrust implanted in the “black community’s mind”, so to speak after so many horrifying and unspeakable events involving the Cleveland Police Department.

So, in case you were thinking about abandoning any of your “dreams” because haters yell louder than supporters, tune in to that quiet voice inside … the loving one … the one who knows you better than anyone else! Be well, be loving and caring to one another … and to yourselves!

Peace,

John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence
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