Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
About Edgar Albert Guest & His Poems For You Dear Children
Called "The People’s Poet"— and known as Eddie — Edgar Albert Guest was a British-born American writer whose sentimental and optimistic verses were widely read throughout North America.
My Creed
To live as gently as I can;
To be, no matter where, a man;
To take what comes of good or ill
And cling to faith and honor still;
To do my best, and let that stand
The record of my brain and hand;
And then, should failure come to me
Still work and hope for victory.
To have no secret place wherein
I stoop unseen to shame or sin;
To be the same when I'm alone
As when my every deed is known;
To live undaunted, unafraid
Of any step that I have made;
To be without pretense or sham,
Exactly what men think I am.
To leave some simple mark behind,
To keep my having lived in mind;
If enmity to aught I show,
To be an honest, generous foe,
To play my little part, nor whine
That greater honors are not mine.
This, I believe, is all I need
For my philosophy and creed.
"There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "cannot be done," and you'll do it"
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch's Lecture on Time Management
Randy Pausch -- http://www.randypausch.com/ -- is a virtual reality pioneer, human-computer interaction researcher, co-founder of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center -- http://www.etc.cmu.edu/ -- and creator of the Alice -- http://www.alice.org/ -- software project.
In September 2006, he was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer. He pursued a very aggressive cancer treatment that included major surgery and experimental chemotherapy; however in August of 2007 he was told that the cancer had metastasized to his liver and spleen. He then started palliative chemotherapy intended to extend his life as long as possible, which was then estimated to be three to six months.
In September 2006, he was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer. He pursued a very aggressive cancer treatment that included major surgery and experimental chemotherapy; however in August of 2007 he was told that the cancer had metastasized to his liver and spleen. He then started palliative chemotherapy intended to extend his life as long as possible, which was then estimated to be three to six months.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thoughtful Quotes (From an email forwarded by our family friend, Lavanya)
Of all the things I wear, my expression is the most important.
The best vitamin for making friends.... B1.
The happiness of my life depends on the quality of my thoughts.
The heaviest thing I can carry is a grudge.
One thing I can give and still keep...is my word.
The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a lifetime! It is never too late to become what I might have been.
Friends are like balloons; once you let them go, you might not get them back. Sometimes we get so busy with our own lives and problems that we may not even notice that we've let them fly away. Sometimes we just don't realize what real friendship means until it is too late. I don't want to let that happen so I'm gonna tie you to my heart so I never lose you.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
From Migrant Worker to Microsoft Role Model
The daughter of migrant workers, program manager Zoila Haro uses her success to inspire other minorities and women to pursue careers in technology.
When you’re poor and Latino and attending a school where three quarters of the student body is living in poverty, success can seem like an abstract notion, something only enjoyed by athletes or movie stars.
But when Microsoft’s Zoila Haro visited Cascade Middle School in Seattle recently,
students got to see someone who achieved success despite a background that isn’t much different from their own.
Now a program manager in MSN Platforms & Services, Haro spent her formative years shuttling between a two-bedroom adobe house in Juchipila, Mexico, and government housing in Modesto, California, where her parents labored as migrant workers. From an early age she rose at 4 a.m. to pick cherries, apricots, and peaches alongside her six brothers and sisters. Although Haro enjoyed the communal aspect of life in the work camp, her family struggled to make ends meet.
In an attempt to break the cycle of poverty, Haro’s older brothers and sister moved to the San Francisco area and took the 13-year-old with them. There, she finally got to attend a single school for the entire academic year. Enrolling at California State University, Chico, she became the first person in her family to attend college. Haro gravitated to engineering, where she excelled academically, landing internships at IBM and other companies before graduating in 2002 with a degree in computer information systems.
Nelly Lizarraga (right), a family support liaison at Cascade Middle School in Seattle, says it’s hard to find role models like Zoila Haro, whom students can identify with.
Hoping to get a job with Microsoft, she moved to Seattle the following year and found herself on the company payroll less than two months later. “It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” admitted Haro, 30. “The hardest part was moving here. Like all major decision in life, it was something I needed to think through.”
Once she started at Microsoft, Haro didn’t waste any time reaching out to others who might benefit from her experience. She takes Latino college students on tours of the Microsoft campus and served as president of the local chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. “She’s really one of our great employee advocates in terms of wanting to touch more students and encouraging them to pursue careers in technology,” said Emily McKeon, a senior diversity marketing manager at Microsoft.
Addressing more than 500 students at Cascade Middle School in October, Haro shared the story of her life and mentioned the teachers who inspired her along the way. Most influential was Commander Petty, the head of the Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp at Haro’s high school, who assured the teen – at that time, an undistinguished student – that anything was possible if she applied herself. “He really painted that picture in my mind of what I could do if I went to college,” Haro said.
She shared that same lesson with the students at Cascade, pointing out that by investing in college and professional development, they could reap rewards far greater than their friends who opt for a new car and low-wage job to pay for it.
The daughter of migrant workers, Zoila Haro, is now a program manager at Microsoft and a role model for women and minorities interested in pursuing technology careers.
Nelly Lizarraga, a family support liaison at Cascade, says it’s difficult to find role models that her students can relate to. “The students were really happy to hear that someone Latina can go from the fields to a big company,” she said. “They were really impressed that she was following her dreams.” They were also impressed, she added, that a huge corporation like Microsoft was interested in hearing what they had to say.
Given the decreasing number of students pursuing degrees in computer science or computer engineering, McKeon says it’s valuable having someone like Haro promoting the profession. “Sending people like Zoila out to be that role model for kids, showing kids that they can do anything and that computer science is a great career, really benefits Microsoft in the long run,” she said.
For her part, Haro says she’s just passing along what others did for her. “Not having members of my family who went to college … I had to rely a lot on the people around me. It was people who took me under their wing and helped me believe I can achieve greatness … that really made the difference. And that’s what I wanted to do for these students. If I can plant that same seed into their hearts … I would feel very fulfilled.”
When you’re poor and Latino and attending a school where three quarters of the student body is living in poverty, success can seem like an abstract notion, something only enjoyed by athletes or movie stars.
But when Microsoft’s Zoila Haro visited Cascade Middle School in Seattle recently,
students got to see someone who achieved success despite a background that isn’t much different from their own.
Now a program manager in MSN Platforms & Services, Haro spent her formative years shuttling between a two-bedroom adobe house in Juchipila, Mexico, and government housing in Modesto, California, where her parents labored as migrant workers. From an early age she rose at 4 a.m. to pick cherries, apricots, and peaches alongside her six brothers and sisters. Although Haro enjoyed the communal aspect of life in the work camp, her family struggled to make ends meet.
In an attempt to break the cycle of poverty, Haro’s older brothers and sister moved to the San Francisco area and took the 13-year-old with them. There, she finally got to attend a single school for the entire academic year. Enrolling at California State University, Chico, she became the first person in her family to attend college. Haro gravitated to engineering, where she excelled academically, landing internships at IBM and other companies before graduating in 2002 with a degree in computer information systems.
Nelly Lizarraga (right), a family support liaison at Cascade Middle School in Seattle, says it’s hard to find role models like Zoila Haro, whom students can identify with.
Hoping to get a job with Microsoft, she moved to Seattle the following year and found herself on the company payroll less than two months later. “It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” admitted Haro, 30. “The hardest part was moving here. Like all major decision in life, it was something I needed to think through.”
Once she started at Microsoft, Haro didn’t waste any time reaching out to others who might benefit from her experience. She takes Latino college students on tours of the Microsoft campus and served as president of the local chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. “She’s really one of our great employee advocates in terms of wanting to touch more students and encouraging them to pursue careers in technology,” said Emily McKeon, a senior diversity marketing manager at Microsoft.
Addressing more than 500 students at Cascade Middle School in October, Haro shared the story of her life and mentioned the teachers who inspired her along the way. Most influential was Commander Petty, the head of the Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp at Haro’s high school, who assured the teen – at that time, an undistinguished student – that anything was possible if she applied herself. “He really painted that picture in my mind of what I could do if I went to college,” Haro said.
She shared that same lesson with the students at Cascade, pointing out that by investing in college and professional development, they could reap rewards far greater than their friends who opt for a new car and low-wage job to pay for it.
The daughter of migrant workers, Zoila Haro, is now a program manager at Microsoft and a role model for women and minorities interested in pursuing technology careers.
Nelly Lizarraga, a family support liaison at Cascade, says it’s difficult to find role models that her students can relate to. “The students were really happy to hear that someone Latina can go from the fields to a big company,” she said. “They were really impressed that she was following her dreams.” They were also impressed, she added, that a huge corporation like Microsoft was interested in hearing what they had to say.
Given the decreasing number of students pursuing degrees in computer science or computer engineering, McKeon says it’s valuable having someone like Haro promoting the profession. “Sending people like Zoila out to be that role model for kids, showing kids that they can do anything and that computer science is a great career, really benefits Microsoft in the long run,” she said.
For her part, Haro says she’s just passing along what others did for her. “Not having members of my family who went to college … I had to rely a lot on the people around me. It was people who took me under their wing and helped me believe I can achieve greatness … that really made the difference. And that’s what I wanted to do for these students. If I can plant that same seed into their hearts … I would feel very fulfilled.”
Congratulations...
Dear Children, Good Afternoon.
I have done LINC 4 Final Test, well. I was recommended for ESL Level (5) Five. Tomorrow we celebrate Multicultural Day at school.
I got my annual bus-pass renewed and came back home and just now we had our lunch too.
With Love, Amma - Nana
Persistence Prevails When All Else Fails
I have done LINC 4 Final Test, well. I was recommended for ESL Level (5) Five. Tomorrow we celebrate Multicultural Day at school.
I got my annual bus-pass renewed and came back home and just now we had our lunch too.
With Love, Amma - Nana
Persistence Prevails When All Else Fails
Thank you for your sincere service to us
Canada Culture & Alberta Geography
Canada was created through discussion, negotiation, and compromise. These characteristics are as important today as in the past. Canadians let people live as they wish, as long as they do not limit how others live. Canadians work hard to nourish a peaceful society in which respect for cultural differences, equality, liberty and freedom of expression is fundamental value.
Canadians want fairness and justice for themselves, their children, and their families. And most are fair and just to others, no matter who they are, or where they come from. They understand the value of cooperation. In a country as large and diverse as Canada people must be able to learn to resolve or ignore small conflicts in order to live happily and peacefully.
Women, men, children and seniors are all equally respected in Canada. Canadians may be different from each other but it is these shared values that make Canada a friendly, caring, peace-loving in which to live.
Canada is diverse in its people, its landscape, its climate, and its way of life. However Canadians do share the same important values. These values guide and influence much of our everyday life. .
( 1 ) Alberta motto : Strong and Free.
( 2 ) Alberta was named after princess Louise Caroline Alberta of Briton.
( 3 ) Alberta is home to over 3.2 million people ( 2005 ).
( 4 ) Edmonton and Calgary are the largest cities in Alberta.
( 5 ) Alberta grew when the railroad was built in 1883.
( 6 ) Early settlers were ranchers from England and the United States.
( 7 ) Alberta became a province on September 1, 1905.
( 8 ) The main rivers in Alberta are: The peace River, North and South Saskatchewan River, and Athabasca River.
( 9 ) A large mountain range ( Rocky Mountains ) is along the western border.
( 10 ) Northern Alberta is covered with forest and muskey.
( 11 ) There are 5 National Parks. Banff is the oldest National Park. Wood Buffalo National Park is the home to about 2200 Buffalo's.
( 12 ) Cold Arctic masses bring cool weather in winter.
( 13 ) Alberta has oil, natural gas, and coal. Oil was discovered at Leduc in 1947.
( 14 ) Alberta sells the oil, natural gas, and coal to other provinces and other countries.
( 15 ) There is also Sulfur, Silica, Potash, Quartz, thick salt deposits, clay and lime stone.
( 16 ) The main crop is wheat. Alberta is the second largest producer of wheat in Canada.
( 17 ) There are many diary farms, and cattle ranches.
( 18 ) Dinosaur provincial park is in the badlands. Calgary stampede has bull riding, calf roping and wagon racing.
( 19 ) Fort Saskatchewan, Leduk, Spruce Grove, St Albert are the part Edmonton Capital Region.
(20 ) Fort Mc Murray, Sherwood park are special centres.
Canadians want fairness and justice for themselves, their children, and their families. And most are fair and just to others, no matter who they are, or where they come from. They understand the value of cooperation. In a country as large and diverse as Canada people must be able to learn to resolve or ignore small conflicts in order to live happily and peacefully.
Women, men, children and seniors are all equally respected in Canada. Canadians may be different from each other but it is these shared values that make Canada a friendly, caring, peace-loving in which to live.
Canada is diverse in its people, its landscape, its climate, and its way of life. However Canadians do share the same important values. These values guide and influence much of our everyday life. .
( 1 ) Alberta motto : Strong and Free.
( 2 ) Alberta was named after princess Louise Caroline Alberta of Briton.
( 3 ) Alberta is home to over 3.2 million people ( 2005 ).
( 4 ) Edmonton and Calgary are the largest cities in Alberta.
( 5 ) Alberta grew when the railroad was built in 1883.
( 6 ) Early settlers were ranchers from England and the United States.
( 7 ) Alberta became a province on September 1, 1905.
( 8 ) The main rivers in Alberta are: The peace River, North and South Saskatchewan River, and Athabasca River.
( 9 ) A large mountain range ( Rocky Mountains ) is along the western border.
( 10 ) Northern Alberta is covered with forest and muskey.
( 11 ) There are 5 National Parks. Banff is the oldest National Park. Wood Buffalo National Park is the home to about 2200 Buffalo's.
( 12 ) Cold Arctic masses bring cool weather in winter.
( 13 ) Alberta has oil, natural gas, and coal. Oil was discovered at Leduc in 1947.
( 14 ) Alberta sells the oil, natural gas, and coal to other provinces and other countries.
( 15 ) There is also Sulfur, Silica, Potash, Quartz, thick salt deposits, clay and lime stone.
( 16 ) The main crop is wheat. Alberta is the second largest producer of wheat in Canada.
( 17 ) There are many diary farms, and cattle ranches.
( 18 ) Dinosaur provincial park is in the badlands. Calgary stampede has bull riding, calf roping and wagon racing.
( 19 ) Fort Saskatchewan, Leduk, Spruce Grove, St Albert are the part Edmonton Capital Region.
(20 ) Fort Mc Murray, Sherwood park are special centres.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Thought For The Day
Dear Children,
Life is like riding a bicycle. You don't fall off, unless you plan to stop peddling.
Courage is feeling happy and alive, and moving forward. When it's easier to feel sorry for ourselves and stay.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses. — Alphonse Karr
With Love, Amma-Naana
Life is like riding a bicycle. You don't fall off, unless you plan to stop peddling.
Courage is feeling happy and alive, and moving forward. When it's easier to feel sorry for ourselves and stay.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses. — Alphonse Karr
With Love, Amma-Naana
Sumathi Satakam for Edmonton Telugu Library - Contributed by Mr.E.Nageswar Rao
Hyderabad
March 26, 2008
Dear Somaiah garu:
Sri K. Syamasundara Rao and his wife, Damayanti, visited our house on the 19th. It was a meeting after 36 years. We were all very happy at the reunion.
I sent a copy of my English translation of Sumathi Satakam which may be useful to the Telugu children and other ACA members. Please collect it from Sri K.S. Rao and place it in the Telugu library in Edmonton.
Pl. note my new email ID.
Regards,
E. Nageswara Rao.
March 26, 2008
Dear Somaiah garu:
Sri K. Syamasundara Rao and his wife, Damayanti, visited our house on the 19th. It was a meeting after 36 years. We were all very happy at the reunion.
I sent a copy of my English translation of Sumathi Satakam which may be useful to the Telugu children and other ACA members. Please collect it from Sri K.S. Rao and place it in the Telugu library in Edmonton.
Pl. note my new email ID.
Regards,
E. Nageswara Rao.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Greetings
Dear Children, Good Morning. How are you?
March 28th is the last working day for me. We have examination on March 27th. Tomorrow i e the March 26th we have a Potluck. Today i e March 25th we 'll be completing some tests.
On March 29, 2008 we have NDP Executive meeting in the Riverbend Library Branch at 10: 00 a.m. Mr. Charan Khehra and I will meet on March 30, 2008.
And I am free from April 1st to April 27, 2008. April 28th is again reopening day of our Schools and Colleges here, in Edmonton.
More in my next e-mail, dear all.
With Love, Amma - Nana
March 28th is the last working day for me. We have examination on March 27th. Tomorrow i e the March 26th we have a Potluck. Today i e March 25th we 'll be completing some tests.
On March 29, 2008 we have NDP Executive meeting in the Riverbend Library Branch at 10: 00 a.m. Mr. Charan Khehra and I will meet on March 30, 2008.
And I am free from April 1st to April 27, 2008. April 28th is again reopening day of our Schools and Colleges here, in Edmonton.
More in my next e-mail, dear all.
With Love, Amma - Nana
Monday, March 24, 2008
ANKUR Multicultural Association
Dear Mr. Samarendra, Good Evening.
Thank you for your e-mails.
I already circulated an e-mail forwarded to me to the ACA, Edmonton on February 29th. And I shall do it again in the month of May, 2008.
I shall prepare an article on behalf you with the material you sent to me and send it to your approval before the publication in our ACA magazine "VANI - 2008".
My hearty congratulations to you, Mr. Samarendra for your Good H E A R T & S M A R T mind for starting a good organization for us, the Edmontonians to participate in it.
More in my next e-mail,
With Regards, Somayya Kasani
Dear Mr. Kasani:
Thanks for expressing interest to be a part of Ankur. Should you be interested to be a part of Ankur by being member, please talk to your neighbor Dr. Rajendra Subedi. He should have membership form. Since you are literary secretary of Andhra Cultural Association, your addition to Ankur Multicultural Association for Performing Arts will be quite useful particularly you could devote some time and do networking within or outside of Andhra Cultural Association or even for the other Associations of India. In a separate mail, I will forward a copy of the poster for the upcoming event on May 31, 2008. This time, the performers are:
Odissi Dance (from the province of Orissa). The dance will be performed by professional dancer Enakshi Das Sinha. She is coming from Windsor, Ontario (Originally she is from India).
Philippine Barangay Performing Arts Society. They will present Philippine Dance.
Trembita Folk Dance Ensemble and Nadiya Ukrainian Dance Group will present Ukrainian Dance, a vibrant dance from the country of Ukrainian.
Tabla Debut (Indian Drums). Played by two local young talents.
The total show is approx. 2 hours.
If you are willing to sell tickets, please let me know. I will send with Aparna. This will give an opportunity to get involved in the activities of Ankur, and do further networking.
Dr. Maiti
Dear Mr. Samarendra and Mr. Dushyant, Good Evening.
Canada is a country of 32 million peoples with cultural groups from all over the world. Its cultural diversity is expanding. It has a deep commitment to cultural diversity. When everyone is accepted, and respected the result is a more harmonious, more creative and a more stable society.
I am happy to know that "Ankur's prime focus would be to bring the colors of the world under a single umbrella through various artistic performances and social activities thus building up strong bridges among various ethnic groups in Edmonton."
I am happy to attend it's Annual General Body Meeting today and I would like to be a part of this organization soon, taking it's membership. Presently I am working as a literary secretary of Andhra Cultural Association, Edmonton.
With Regards, Somayya Kasani
Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.- Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Thank you for your e-mails.
I already circulated an e-mail forwarded to me to the ACA, Edmonton on February 29th. And I shall do it again in the month of May, 2008.
I shall prepare an article on behalf you with the material you sent to me and send it to your approval before the publication in our ACA magazine "VANI - 2008".
My hearty congratulations to you, Mr. Samarendra for your Good H E A R T & S M A R T mind for starting a good organization for us, the Edmontonians to participate in it.
More in my next e-mail,
With Regards, Somayya Kasani
Dear Mr. Kasani:
Thanks for expressing interest to be a part of Ankur. Should you be interested to be a part of Ankur by being member, please talk to your neighbor Dr. Rajendra Subedi. He should have membership form. Since you are literary secretary of Andhra Cultural Association, your addition to Ankur Multicultural Association for Performing Arts will be quite useful particularly you could devote some time and do networking within or outside of Andhra Cultural Association or even for the other Associations of India. In a separate mail, I will forward a copy of the poster for the upcoming event on May 31, 2008. This time, the performers are:
Odissi Dance (from the province of Orissa). The dance will be performed by professional dancer Enakshi Das Sinha. She is coming from Windsor, Ontario (Originally she is from India).
Philippine Barangay Performing Arts Society. They will present Philippine Dance.
Trembita Folk Dance Ensemble and Nadiya Ukrainian Dance Group will present Ukrainian Dance, a vibrant dance from the country of Ukrainian.
Tabla Debut (Indian Drums). Played by two local young talents.
The total show is approx. 2 hours.
If you are willing to sell tickets, please let me know. I will send with Aparna. This will give an opportunity to get involved in the activities of Ankur, and do further networking.
Dr. Maiti
Dear Mr. Samarendra and Mr. Dushyant, Good Evening.
Canada is a country of 32 million peoples with cultural groups from all over the world. Its cultural diversity is expanding. It has a deep commitment to cultural diversity. When everyone is accepted, and respected the result is a more harmonious, more creative and a more stable society.
I am happy to know that "Ankur's prime focus would be to bring the colors of the world under a single umbrella through various artistic performances and social activities thus building up strong bridges among various ethnic groups in Edmonton."
I am happy to attend it's Annual General Body Meeting today and I would like to be a part of this organization soon, taking it's membership. Presently I am working as a literary secretary of Andhra Cultural Association, Edmonton.
With Regards, Somayya Kasani
Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.- Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Sunday, March 23, 2008
It's Hope!
Hope is a waking dream. What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life. In all pleasures hope is a considerable part.
American author Norman Vincent Peale states,
“Have you ever stopped to wonder what it is that keeps you going from one day to another?
American author Norman Vincent Peale states,
“Have you ever stopped to wonder what it is that keeps you going from one day to another?
What lies behind your ability to fight your way through periods of discouragement or depression?
What makes you believe that sooner or later bad times will get better?
It’s a little, four-letter word that has enormous power in it. Power to bring failures back to success. Power to bring sick back to health. Power to bring the weak back to strength. It’s hope."
Let us consult not our fears but our hopes and dreams. Let us think not about our frustrations, but about our unfulfilled potential. Let us Concern ourselves not with what we tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for us to do. A man's wisdom is judged by his hope.
What makes you believe that sooner or later bad times will get better?
It’s a little, four-letter word that has enormous power in it. Power to bring failures back to success. Power to bring sick back to health. Power to bring the weak back to strength. It’s hope."
Let us consult not our fears but our hopes and dreams. Let us think not about our frustrations, but about our unfulfilled potential. Let us Concern ourselves not with what we tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for us to do. A man's wisdom is judged by his hope.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Barack Obama’s Speech on Race : From The New York Times
The following is the text as prepared for delivery of Senator Barack Obama’s speech on race in Philadelphia, as provided by his presidential campaign. This is an excerpt from "The New York Times".
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
A Song On Telangana - Lyric Writer: Ande Sree
జయజయహే తెలంగాణ జననీ జయకేతనం
ముక్కోటి గొంతుకలు ఒక్కటైన చేతనం జయ…
తరతరాల చరితగల తల్లీ నీరాజనం తర…
పది జిల్లల నీ పిల్లలు ప్రణమిల్లిన శుభతరుణం
జై తెలంగాణ జై జై తెలంగాణ జై…
పోతనదీ పురిటిగడ్డ రుద్రమదీ వీరగడ్డ
గండర గండడు కొమురం భీముడేలే బిడ్డ
కాకతీయ కళాప్రభల కాంతిరేఖ రామప్ప
గోలుకొండ నవాబుల గొప్పవెలుగె చార్మినార్ జై…
జానపదా జనజీవన జావళీలు జాలువార
కవిగాయక వైతాళిక కళలా మంజీరాలు
జాతిని జాగృతపరచే గీతాలా జనజాతర
అనునిత్యం నీ గానం అమ్మ నీవె మాప్రాణం జై…
సిరివెలుగులు విరజిమ్మే సింగరేణి బంగారం
అణువణువున ఖనిజాలే నీ తనువుకు సింగారం
సహజమైన వనసంపద సక్కనైన పూవులపొద
సిరులుపండె సారమున్న మాగాణియె కద నీ ఎద జై…
గోదావరి కృష్ణమ్మలు మన బీళ్ళకు మళ్ళాలి
పచ్చని మాగాణాల్లో పసిడి సిరులు పండాలి
సుఖశాంతుల తెలంగాణ సుభిక్షంగ ఉండాలె
స్వరాష్ట్రమై తెలంగాణ స్వర్ణయుగం కావాలి జై…
ముక్కోటి గొంతుకలు ఒక్కటైన చేతనం జయ…
తరతరాల చరితగల తల్లీ నీరాజనం తర…
పది జిల్లల నీ పిల్లలు ప్రణమిల్లిన శుభతరుణం
జై తెలంగాణ జై జై తెలంగాణ జై…
పోతనదీ పురిటిగడ్డ రుద్రమదీ వీరగడ్డ
గండర గండడు కొమురం భీముడేలే బిడ్డ
కాకతీయ కళాప్రభల కాంతిరేఖ రామప్ప
గోలుకొండ నవాబుల గొప్పవెలుగె చార్మినార్ జై…
జానపదా జనజీవన జావళీలు జాలువార
కవిగాయక వైతాళిక కళలా మంజీరాలు
జాతిని జాగృతపరచే గీతాలా జనజాతర
అనునిత్యం నీ గానం అమ్మ నీవె మాప్రాణం జై…
సిరివెలుగులు విరజిమ్మే సింగరేణి బంగారం
అణువణువున ఖనిజాలే నీ తనువుకు సింగారం
సహజమైన వనసంపద సక్కనైన పూవులపొద
సిరులుపండె సారమున్న మాగాణియె కద నీ ఎద జై…
గోదావరి కృష్ణమ్మలు మన బీళ్ళకు మళ్ళాలి
పచ్చని మాగాణాల్లో పసిడి సిరులు పండాలి
సుఖశాంతుల తెలంగాణ సుభిక్షంగ ఉండాలె
స్వరాష్ట్రమై తెలంగాణ స్వర్ణయుగం కావాలి జై…
Wish you a Happy Holi!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Can a Quote Inspire Us?
Dear Children, Good Morning.
Inspirational quotes can change our thinking. Quotes can inspire us, they can remind us of our goals, and they can be a positive influence to our day.
People don't need to keep a book of quotes, we only need to find that one quote that is appropriate for our situation. That one quote that will inspire us or remind us to live life to the fullest.
An example of two quotes that did just that for Catherine Pulsifer, one of the authors of "A Simple Life - Inspirational quotes and more" :
1. For many years she kept the following quote at her desk:
"What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it."
That quote reminded her not to spend her day thinking negative thoughts or waste her time or energy in complaining or wishing to be somewhere else. It reminded her to enjoy her day, to be all that she could be as once the day was over she would never have it back. .
2. Whe she was working on a project that requires a lot of time and patience. Some days she felt frustrated with her progress. She felt like she will never finish. So the following quote gave her inspiration while working on her project:
"persistence prevails when all else fails"
So let us find a quote that inspires us, and let us keep it in a place where we can see it, and live each day to the fullest!
Put your favorite quotation in your email signature. Add quotations to greeting cards you send to friends and family. Inspirational or humorous quotations can be great mood lifters. Quotations are a great addition to essays, speeches, brochures or any type of presentation. People who journal can use quotations to help mark a moment or as a starting point when exploring an issue. Quotes can help keep us on track when the going gets rough.
Have a Nice Day,
Amma-Naana
Inspirational quotes can change our thinking. Quotes can inspire us, they can remind us of our goals, and they can be a positive influence to our day.
People don't need to keep a book of quotes, we only need to find that one quote that is appropriate for our situation. That one quote that will inspire us or remind us to live life to the fullest.
An example of two quotes that did just that for Catherine Pulsifer, one of the authors of "A Simple Life - Inspirational quotes and more" :
1. For many years she kept the following quote at her desk:
"What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it."
That quote reminded her not to spend her day thinking negative thoughts or waste her time or energy in complaining or wishing to be somewhere else. It reminded her to enjoy her day, to be all that she could be as once the day was over she would never have it back. .
2. Whe she was working on a project that requires a lot of time and patience. Some days she felt frustrated with her progress. She felt like she will never finish. So the following quote gave her inspiration while working on her project:
"persistence prevails when all else fails"
So let us find a quote that inspires us, and let us keep it in a place where we can see it, and live each day to the fullest!
Put your favorite quotation in your email signature. Add quotations to greeting cards you send to friends and family. Inspirational or humorous quotations can be great mood lifters. Quotations are a great addition to essays, speeches, brochures or any type of presentation. People who journal can use quotations to help mark a moment or as a starting point when exploring an issue. Quotes can help keep us on track when the going gets rough.
Have a Nice Day,
Amma-Naana
Thursday, March 20, 2008
It's Spring Again
Dear Children, Good Morning.
There is probably no day greeted with greater joy and anticipation than the first day of spring.
With Love, Amma - Nana
"Brilliant sunshine hint of rain
Tells me that it’s spring again,
Opening flowers, budding tree
Children’s voices raised in glee
Everywhere there’s singing heard,
Early joggers streaming by
Breeze producing lazy sigh
Wake from sleeping, look outside
Bees among the flowers roam
Deeply breathing morning air
Taking seat in garden chair,
Clouds now promise morning rain;
Happy day, its spring again. "
Seasons are not astronomical phenomena; they are climatological phenomena. Or seasons aren't about the sun in the sky; they're about the weather on Earth. They are defined by temperature. Winter is the coldest part of the year, summer the warmest, and spring and fall the periods in-between.
The first day of each season, according to average temperature:
Spring: March 5 ; Summer: June 4
Fall: September 4 ; Winter: December 4
There is probably no day greeted with greater joy and anticipation than the first day of spring.
With Love, Amma - Nana
"Brilliant sunshine hint of rain
Tells me that it’s spring again,
Opening flowers, budding tree
Children’s voices raised in glee
Everywhere there’s singing heard,
Early joggers streaming by
Breeze producing lazy sigh
Wake from sleeping, look outside
Bees among the flowers roam
Deeply breathing morning air
Taking seat in garden chair,
Clouds now promise morning rain;
Happy day, its spring again. "
Seasons are not astronomical phenomena; they are climatological phenomena. Or seasons aren't about the sun in the sky; they're about the weather on Earth. They are defined by temperature. Winter is the coldest part of the year, summer the warmest, and spring and fall the periods in-between.
The first day of each season, according to average temperature:
Spring: March 5 ; Summer: June 4
Fall: September 4 ; Winter: December 4
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Have a Nice Day
Dear Children,
Long-term planning is not about making long-term decisions, it is about understanding the future consequences of today's decisions.
Silence is one of the great arts of conversation. There is not only an art, but has eloquence in it.Silence is more musical than any song.
Success doesn't happen In a day, it happens daily. Success requires learning, changing, and growing.
Life is about relationships. It is through relationships that we achieve a sense of worth and happiness.
Have a Nice Day,
Amma-Naana
Long-term planning is not about making long-term decisions, it is about understanding the future consequences of today's decisions.
Silence is one of the great arts of conversation. There is not only an art, but has eloquence in it.Silence is more musical than any song.
Success doesn't happen In a day, it happens daily. Success requires learning, changing, and growing.
Life is about relationships. It is through relationships that we achieve a sense of worth and happiness.
Have a Nice Day,
Amma-Naana
Greetings from Somayya Kasani : Thanks for the NDP Membership
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Bohdan Harasymiw, Good Evening. How are you?
I received Alberta NDP Membership Card from your office, Edmonton. Thank you for offering me the membership and making me part of a progressive organization in our province.
With Regards,
Somayya Kasani
"We must be the change, we wish to see in the world - Gandhi"
I received Alberta NDP Membership Card from your office, Edmonton. Thank you for offering me the membership and making me part of a progressive organization in our province.
With Regards,
Somayya Kasani
"We must be the change, we wish to see in the world - Gandhi"
Thanks to our teacher for conducting classes in a creative way
(1) To use infinitive in a sentence, in different positions is a good job, our teacher, Kamalah gave us this morning.
(2) To go to a potluck party is a new concept for me here, in Edmonton.
(3) Potluck party is a good concept to mix with people and to share our feelings.
(4) The LINC is a nice course for new comers to Canada to know new traditions of the country and to learn the language as well.
(5) The teachers working in the LINC are the most dedicated people, ready to serve the newcomers with a great zeal.
(6) I am successfully completing two sessions, here in Metro by April 28, 2008. I don’t know how to thank my teachers and the other staff members for their sincere service for us.
(7) The management is asking us every time our feedback to improve their service to us. But we don’t know what to suggest them, for our further development.
(8) We are very thankful to the management who brought the guest speakers for our classroom to make us learn the systems helpful for us in our real life in Canada.
(9) Once we join the LINC and complete it successfully, I am sure, that we will become real Canadians. To exercise our rights and carry on our responsibilities is a sincere job of every Canadian, I believe.
(10) Our teacher asked me to write only 10 sentences using infinitives. I hope I have done this, now. Thanks to our teacher, Kamalah for inventing new situations to make us learn the language and traditions of Canada.
(2) To go to a potluck party is a new concept for me here, in Edmonton.
(3) Potluck party is a good concept to mix with people and to share our feelings.
(4) The LINC is a nice course for new comers to Canada to know new traditions of the country and to learn the language as well.
(5) The teachers working in the LINC are the most dedicated people, ready to serve the newcomers with a great zeal.
(6) I am successfully completing two sessions, here in Metro by April 28, 2008. I don’t know how to thank my teachers and the other staff members for their sincere service for us.
(7) The management is asking us every time our feedback to improve their service to us. But we don’t know what to suggest them, for our further development.
(8) We are very thankful to the management who brought the guest speakers for our classroom to make us learn the systems helpful for us in our real life in Canada.
(9) Once we join the LINC and complete it successfully, I am sure, that we will become real Canadians. To exercise our rights and carry on our responsibilities is a sincere job of every Canadian, I believe.
(10) Our teacher asked me to write only 10 sentences using infinitives. I hope I have done this, now. Thanks to our teacher, Kamalah for inventing new situations to make us learn the language and traditions of Canada.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Question to God
A man is praying to God. "Lord," he prays, "I would like to ask you a question."
The Lord responds, "No problem. Go ahead."
"Lord, is it true that a million years to you is but a second?"
"Yes, that is true."
"Well, then, what is a million dollars to you?"
"A million dollars to me is but a penny."
"Ah, then Lord," says the man, "may I have a penny?"
"Sure," says the Lord. "Just a second."
The Lord responds, "No problem. Go ahead."
"Lord, is it true that a million years to you is but a second?"
"Yes, that is true."
"Well, then, what is a million dollars to you?"
"A million dollars to me is but a penny."
"Ah, then Lord," says the man, "may I have a penny?"
"Sure," says the Lord. "Just a second."
Monday, March 17, 2008
People & Kinds - From My Reading
Dear Children,
People can be divided into three groups: Those who make things happen, Those who watch things happen, And those who wonder what's happening.
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
Men are divided into two groups -- those who love and build and those who hate and destroy.
People can be divided into two classes: those who go ahead and do something, and those who sit still and inquire, 'Why wasn't it done the other way?
There are two kinds of people: those with open minds and those with closed minds, and never the two shall meet.
There are three kinds of people in the world, the wills, the won'ts, and the can'ts. The first accomplish everything; the second oppose everything, the third fail in everything.
With Love,
Amma-Naana
People can be divided into three groups: Those who make things happen, Those who watch things happen, And those who wonder what's happening.
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
Men are divided into two groups -- those who love and build and those who hate and destroy.
People can be divided into two classes: those who go ahead and do something, and those who sit still and inquire, 'Why wasn't it done the other way?
There are two kinds of people: those with open minds and those with closed minds, and never the two shall meet.
There are three kinds of people in the world, the wills, the won'ts, and the can'ts. The first accomplish everything; the second oppose everything, the third fail in everything.
With Love,
Amma-Naana
Sunday, March 16, 2008
A Few Verses by Mother Theresa
Dear Children,
Here are a few verses by Mother Theresa.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good, anyway.
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them, anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed, anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank ,anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,they may be jealous; Be happy, anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got, anyway.
With Love, Amma-Naana
Here are a few verses by Mother Theresa.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good, anyway.
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them, anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed, anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank ,anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,they may be jealous; Be happy, anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got, anyway.
With Love, Amma-Naana
వయసుతో పని ఏముంది?
ఏ వయసుకా ముచ్చట అన్నారు పెద్దలు. అంటే ఏ వయసుకైనా ముచ్చట్లు ఉంటాయన్నది అందరూ ఒప్పుకుంటున్న విషయం అన్నమాట. మరి ఆ ముచ్చట్లు ఎలా ఉండాలి?
చిన్న వయసువాళ్ళకైతే ఆటలు, పాటలు, అల్లరి. మధ్య వయస్కులకు ఆటలు, పాటలు, కబుర్లు. వృద్ధులకు కూడా ఆటలుంటాయి, పాటలుంటాయి, వాటితోపాటు వారు తలచుకుంటే అనేక రకాలైన ముచ్చట్లుంటాయి.
వయసుకు తగ్గ ముచ్చట్లు అనేది ఉద్యోగం-సద్యోగాలకీ, పెళ్ళి పేరంటాలకీ సంబంధించినవని మన పెద్దోళ్ళ భావన. ఖాళీగా తిరగకుండా త్వరగా సంపాదనపరుడవైతే జీవితంలో త్వరగా స్థిరపడతావు, తద్వారా సరైన వయసులో వివాహం అవుతుందనేది దీని వెనుక ఉన్న నిగూఢమైన అర్ధం. ఆ రెంటి వరకైతే అది బాగానే ఉంది. ఐతే ముచ్చట్లకు వయసనేది ఉండదని ఉండదు. ముచ్చట్లు అంటే కేవలం కాలక్షేపం కబుర్లని అర్ధం కాదు. రిటైరైపోయాం కాబట్టి మాకింక పనేమీ లేదు అనుకొకూడదనీ, ఏదో ఒక సరదా అయిన పని చేస్తూ ఉంటే టైము పాస్ అవుతుందనీ తెలుసుకోవాలి.
అందుకు కొన్ని ఉదాహరణలు కూడా ఇప్పుడు చూద్దాం.
కాటో అనే వ్యక్తి 80 సంవత్సరాల వయసులో గ్రీకు భాషను నేర్చుకోవడం ప్రారంభించాడు. అంతే కాదు అందులో ప్రజ్ఞావంతుడు కూడా అయ్యాడు.
81 సంవత్సరాల వయసులో బెంజమిన్ ఫ్రాంక్లిన్ కుదిర్చిన ఒప్పందం కారణంగానే అమెరికా సమ్యుక్త రాష్ట్రాల రాజ్యాంగం అమలులోకి వచ్చింది.
లియో టాల్స్టాయ్ తన 82వ ఏట "ఐ కెనాట్ బీ సైలెంట్" అనే గ్రంధం రాశాడు.
ఒకనాటి ఇంగ్లండ్ ప్రధాన మంత్రి చర్చిల్ తన 82వ ఏట "ఏ హిస్టరి ఆఫ్ దీ ఇంగ్లీష్ స్పీకింగ్ పీపుల్" అనే పుస్తకాన్ని రాశాడు.
అలాగే సొమర్సెట్ మాం అనే రచయిత కూడా 84 ఏళ్ళ అయసులో "పాయింట్స్ ఆఫ్ వ్యూ" అనే గ్రంధం రచించాడు.
ఆఫ్రికాకు చెందిన 89 సంవత్సరాల వయసుగల ఆల్బర్ట్ స్కీవిట్జర్ ఒక ఆసుపత్రి సారధ్యాన్ని చేపట్టాడు.
మనందరికీ తెలిసిన జార్జ్ బెర్నార్డ్ షా 93వ ఏట ఫార్ఫెచ్చ్డ్ ఫేబుల్స్ అనే నాటకాన్ని రచించాడు.
94 సంవత్సరాల బెర్ట్రాండ్ రస్సల్ అంతర్జాతీయ శాంతి ప్రయత్నాలలో చురుగ్గా పాల్గొనేవాడు.
100 సంవత్సరాల వయసుగల మోసెస్ వర్ణ చిత్రాలు గీస్తూ ఉండేది.
112 సంవత్సరాల ఫిజిసావా ఓపెన్ యూనివర్సిటీలో చేరి చదువు కొనసాగించింది.
ఇప్పుడు నమ్ముతారా ఏ వయసుకైనా ముచ్చట్లు ఉంటాయని. అందుకే వయసు మీద పడిపోయిందని దిగులుపడిపోకుండ ఏదో ఒక వ్యాపకం పెట్టుకుంటే మనసుకి ఉల్లాసంగా ఉంటుందీ, ఆరోగ్యం కూడా బాగుంటుంది.
చిన్న వయసువాళ్ళకైతే ఆటలు, పాటలు, అల్లరి. మధ్య వయస్కులకు ఆటలు, పాటలు, కబుర్లు. వృద్ధులకు కూడా ఆటలుంటాయి, పాటలుంటాయి, వాటితోపాటు వారు తలచుకుంటే అనేక రకాలైన ముచ్చట్లుంటాయి.
వయసుకు తగ్గ ముచ్చట్లు అనేది ఉద్యోగం-సద్యోగాలకీ, పెళ్ళి పేరంటాలకీ సంబంధించినవని మన పెద్దోళ్ళ భావన. ఖాళీగా తిరగకుండా త్వరగా సంపాదనపరుడవైతే జీవితంలో త్వరగా స్థిరపడతావు, తద్వారా సరైన వయసులో వివాహం అవుతుందనేది దీని వెనుక ఉన్న నిగూఢమైన అర్ధం. ఆ రెంటి వరకైతే అది బాగానే ఉంది. ఐతే ముచ్చట్లకు వయసనేది ఉండదని ఉండదు. ముచ్చట్లు అంటే కేవలం కాలక్షేపం కబుర్లని అర్ధం కాదు. రిటైరైపోయాం కాబట్టి మాకింక పనేమీ లేదు అనుకొకూడదనీ, ఏదో ఒక సరదా అయిన పని చేస్తూ ఉంటే టైము పాస్ అవుతుందనీ తెలుసుకోవాలి.
అందుకు కొన్ని ఉదాహరణలు కూడా ఇప్పుడు చూద్దాం.
కాటో అనే వ్యక్తి 80 సంవత్సరాల వయసులో గ్రీకు భాషను నేర్చుకోవడం ప్రారంభించాడు. అంతే కాదు అందులో ప్రజ్ఞావంతుడు కూడా అయ్యాడు.
81 సంవత్సరాల వయసులో బెంజమిన్ ఫ్రాంక్లిన్ కుదిర్చిన ఒప్పందం కారణంగానే అమెరికా సమ్యుక్త రాష్ట్రాల రాజ్యాంగం అమలులోకి వచ్చింది.
లియో టాల్స్టాయ్ తన 82వ ఏట "ఐ కెనాట్ బీ సైలెంట్" అనే గ్రంధం రాశాడు.
ఒకనాటి ఇంగ్లండ్ ప్రధాన మంత్రి చర్చిల్ తన 82వ ఏట "ఏ హిస్టరి ఆఫ్ దీ ఇంగ్లీష్ స్పీకింగ్ పీపుల్" అనే పుస్తకాన్ని రాశాడు.
అలాగే సొమర్సెట్ మాం అనే రచయిత కూడా 84 ఏళ్ళ అయసులో "పాయింట్స్ ఆఫ్ వ్యూ" అనే గ్రంధం రచించాడు.
ఆఫ్రికాకు చెందిన 89 సంవత్సరాల వయసుగల ఆల్బర్ట్ స్కీవిట్జర్ ఒక ఆసుపత్రి సారధ్యాన్ని చేపట్టాడు.
మనందరికీ తెలిసిన జార్జ్ బెర్నార్డ్ షా 93వ ఏట ఫార్ఫెచ్చ్డ్ ఫేబుల్స్ అనే నాటకాన్ని రచించాడు.
94 సంవత్సరాల బెర్ట్రాండ్ రస్సల్ అంతర్జాతీయ శాంతి ప్రయత్నాలలో చురుగ్గా పాల్గొనేవాడు.
100 సంవత్సరాల వయసుగల మోసెస్ వర్ణ చిత్రాలు గీస్తూ ఉండేది.
112 సంవత్సరాల ఫిజిసావా ఓపెన్ యూనివర్సిటీలో చేరి చదువు కొనసాగించింది.
ఇప్పుడు నమ్ముతారా ఏ వయసుకైనా ముచ్చట్లు ఉంటాయని. అందుకే వయసు మీద పడిపోయిందని దిగులుపడిపోకుండ ఏదో ఒక వ్యాపకం పెట్టుకుంటే మనసుకి ఉల్లాసంగా ఉంటుందీ, ఆరోగ్యం కూడా బాగుంటుంది.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Celebrating the Life of Laxmidevipet Peddanana
Dear Chinnakonda, and Peddakonda Good Morning.
Suseela Athamma, Somanarsamma Athamma called us this morning. They are all gathered today at Peddamma's home in Laxmidevipet. Today they are celebrating the LIFE of Laxmidevipet Peddanana. It is his THIRD Anniversary.
Baghlingampally Peddamma, Jansi Akka, Anand Annaiah and children came from Hyderabad. Annayya & Rani Vodina received these phone calls and connected us. We are very happy about it.
More in our next e-mail,
With Love, Amma - Nana
"Love is stronger than death even though it can't stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can't separate people from love. It can't take away our memories either. In the end, life is stronger than death.”
Suseela Athamma, Somanarsamma Athamma called us this morning. They are all gathered today at Peddamma's home in Laxmidevipet. Today they are celebrating the LIFE of Laxmidevipet Peddanana. It is his THIRD Anniversary.
Baghlingampally Peddamma, Jansi Akka, Anand Annaiah and children came from Hyderabad. Annayya & Rani Vodina received these phone calls and connected us. We are very happy about it.
More in our next e-mail,
With Love, Amma - Nana
"Love is stronger than death even though it can't stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can't separate people from love. It can't take away our memories either. In the end, life is stronger than death.”
Thank You, For your kind representation for Traffic Lights and Bus Shelter : Somayya Kasani
March 15, 2008
Somayya Kasani
Dear Mr. Charles A Stolte, Manager of Edmonton Transit & Dear Mr Don Iveson, Councillor, Ward 5
Reference 75593693 - ET Dated: March 10, 2008
Sub: Request for Traffic Lights and Bus Shelter to be installed at 23 Avenue/ Magrath Road
Thank you very much for your prompt positive response to my letter of request. I am also very thankful to our beloved Ward 5 Councillor Mr. Don Iveson for his kind, prompt representation.
We are also happy to know that a traffic signal is planned for the intersection of 23Avenue / Magrath Road as part of the 23 Avenue Road Widening Project. And the work is expected to be completed by September 2008. Thank you.
Somayya Kasani
Dear Mr. Charles A Stolte, Manager of Edmonton Transit & Dear Mr Don Iveson, Councillor, Ward 5
Reference 75593693 - ET Dated: March 10, 2008
Sub: Request for Traffic Lights and Bus Shelter to be installed at 23 Avenue/ Magrath Road
Thank you very much for your prompt positive response to my letter of request. I am also very thankful to our beloved Ward 5 Councillor Mr. Don Iveson for his kind, prompt representation.
We are also happy to know that a traffic signal is planned for the intersection of 23Avenue / Magrath Road as part of the 23 Avenue Road Widening Project. And the work is expected to be completed by September 2008. Thank you.
Best Wishes For a Happy PATRICK’S DAY!
Somayya Kasani
# 72 120 Magrath Road NW
Edmonton, Alberta T6R 0C6
Friday, March 14, 2008
Progressive realization of a worthy goal : Brian Tracy
Dear Children, Good Morning.
Happiness has been defined as the progressive realization of a worthy goal. People can be happy when they are working step by step towards something that is really important to them...
Life is like a combination of lock, only with more numbers. If we turn to the right numbers in the right sequence, the lock will be open for us.
It is not a miracle, nor it depends on luck. If necessity is the mother of invention, then pain seems to be the father of learning.
To move a head, we have to both learn and unlearn a few things. We are locked in a place at our current level of knowledge and skill. We can go no further with what we know now. Our future largely depends on what we learn and practice from this moment onward.
Thought by thought, action by action we will learn how to make our life a masterpiece. We will learn how to create something truly beautiful out of our efforts.
With Love, Amma - Nana
Happiness has been defined as the progressive realization of a worthy goal. People can be happy when they are working step by step towards something that is really important to them...
Life is like a combination of lock, only with more numbers. If we turn to the right numbers in the right sequence, the lock will be open for us.
It is not a miracle, nor it depends on luck. If necessity is the mother of invention, then pain seems to be the father of learning.
To move a head, we have to both learn and unlearn a few things. We are locked in a place at our current level of knowledge and skill. We can go no further with what we know now. Our future largely depends on what we learn and practice from this moment onward.
Thought by thought, action by action we will learn how to make our life a masterpiece. We will learn how to create something truly beautiful out of our efforts.
With Love, Amma - Nana
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Thought For The Day
Dear Children,
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
రోజూ తాను చేస్తున్న పనితో సంతృప్తి పొందినవాడే గొప్ప ధనవంతుడు. ఎన్నడూ నిరాశ చెందనివాడే నిజమైన సాహసి.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
రోజూ తాను చేస్తున్న పనితో సంతృప్తి పొందినవాడే గొప్ప ధనవంతుడు. ఎన్నడూ నిరాశ చెందనివాడే నిజమైన సాహసి.
The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow. We wish you all the best.
With Love,
Amma-Naana
Pranav Mellacheruvu's Interview with Ajay Kasani
Hey Ajay Uncle,
Thank you very much for the picture. Even with your friends we worked something out!. I have a copy of the Interview that I am turning in. On that I got A marks or highest marks. Thanks for helping me get to these marks and get to know a little better.
Regards,
Pranav Mellacheruvu
Thank you very much for the picture. Even with your friends we worked something out!. I have a copy of the Interview that I am turning in. On that I got A marks or highest marks. Thanks for helping me get to these marks and get to know a little better.
Regards,
Pranav Mellacheruvu
Hello Pranav
Attached is my photo.
Thank you very much for your interview with me. Best regards to your dear parents and sister.
Ajay
Attached is my photo.
Thank you very much for your interview with me. Best regards to your dear parents and sister.
Ajay
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