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DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS?

I SURE DIDN'T TILL NOW

Death Is certain but the Bible speaks about untimely death!

Make a Personal reflection about this.........Very interesting so read until the end.......

It is Written in the Bible (Galatians 6:7): 'Be not Deceived; God is not mocked: For

Whatsoever a man sow, That shall He also reap....


Here are some Men and women Who mocked God:

John Lennon (Singer): Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, He said:

'Christianity Will end, it will disappear. I do Not have to argue about That..I am certain.

Jesus Was Okay, but his subjects were too simple. Today we are more Famous than Him' (1966).

Lennon, after Saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, Was shot six times.

Tancredo Neves (President of Brazil ): During The Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes

From his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency. Sure he got The votes, but he got sick a day

before being made President, Then he died.

Cazuza (Bi-sexual Brazilian Composer, singer and poet): During A show in Canecio ( Rio de Janeiro ),

While Smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air And said:

'God, that's for you.' He died at The age of 32 of LUNG CANCER in a horrible manner.

The man who Built the Titanic: After The construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the

Titanic would be. With An ironic tone he said: 'Not Even God can sink it!'

The Result: I think you all know what Happened to the Titanic......

Marilyn Monroe (Actress):
She Was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a Show. He Said the

Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After Hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said:

'I Don't need your Jesus'. A week later, She was found dead in her apartment dead.

Bon Scott (Singer): The Ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he Sang:

'Don't Stop me; I'm going down all the way, down the highway to Hell...

On the 19th Of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked By his own vomit.

Campinas (IN 2005): In Campinas , Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend.....

The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to

the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car:

'My Daughter, Go With God And May He Protect You.' She responded: 'Only If He (God) Travels In The Trunk,

Cause Inside Here.....It's Already Full ' Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident,

everyone had died. The car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was

intact. The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk

was a crate of eggs, none was broken.

Christine Hewitt (Jamaican Journalist and entertainer) said the Bible (Word of God) was the worst book

ever written. In June 2006 she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle......

Many more important people have forgotten that there is no other name that was given so much authority as the

name of Jesus. Many have died, but only Jesus died and rose again, and he is still alive. 'Jesus'

Jesus said: 'If you are embarrassed about me, I will also be embarrassed about you before my father....'

It only takes eight seconds to share this over the Internet. You are my 8 seconds.

Just repeat this prayer and see how God moves!!


Only he can Open those Iron Gates and set our Loved Ones FREE! Pray for them daily. Only takes 8 Seconds.


'Lord, I love you and I need you, come into my heart, and bless me, my family, my home, and my friends,

in Jesus' name. Amen.'



PS: If this were a funny joke, we share this with everyone you came in contact with. So are you going to have courage to share this? I have done my part!

Let God bless you and your family!

Peace and Love

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WHY WE MUST FIX OUR PRISONS

Inmates at a facility in California, a state that spent almost $10 billion on corrections last year

By Senator Jim Webb
published: 03/29/2009


America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation's prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous. We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives.

We need to fix the system. Doing so will require a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long and of how we address the long-term consequences of incarceration. Twenty-five years ago, I went to Japan on assignment for PARADE to write a story on that country's prison system. In 1984, Japan had a population half the size of ours and was incarcerating 40,000 sentenced offenders, compared with 580,000 in the United States. As shocking as that disparity was, the difference between the countries now is even more astounding--and profoundly disturbing. Since then, Japan's prison population has not quite doubled to 71,000, while ours has quadrupled to 2.3 million.

The United States has by far the world's highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. In addition, more than 5 million people who recently left jail remain under "correctional supervision," which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions. All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in
jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year.

Our overcrowded, ill-managed prison systems are places of violence, physical abuse, and hate, making them breeding grounds that perpetuate and magnify the same types of behavior we purport to fear. Post-incarceration re-entry programs are haphazard or, in some places, nonexistent, making it more difficult for former offenders who wish to overcome the stigma of
having done prison time and become full, contributing members of society. And, in the face of the movement toward mass incarceration, law-enforcement officials in many parts of the U.S. have been overwhelmed and unable to address a dangerous wave of organized, frequently violent gang activity,
much of it run by leaders who are based in other countries.


With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different--and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.

Over the past two decades, we have been incarcerating more and more people for nonviolent crimes and for acts that are driven by mental illness or drug dependence. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 16% of the adult inmates in American prisons and jails--which means more than 350,000 of those locked up--suffer from mental illness, and the percentage in juvenile custody is even higher. Our correctional institutions are also heavily populated by the "criminally ill," including inmates who suffer from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis.


Drug offenders, most of them passive users or minor dealers, are swamping our prisons. According to data supplied to Congress' Joint Economic Committee, those imprisoned for drug offenses rose from 10% of the inmate population to approximately 33% between 1984 and 2002. Experts estimate that this increase accounts for about half of the dramatic escalation in the total number imprisoned over that period. Yet locking up more of these offenders has done nothing to break up the power of the multibillion-dollar illegal drug trade. Nor has it
brought about a reduction in the amounts of the more dangerous drugs--such as cocaine, heroin, and
methamphetamines--that are reaching our citizens.

Justice statistics also show that 47.5% of all the drug arrests in our country in 2007 were for marijuana offenses. Additionally, nearly 60% of the people in state prisons serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity. Indeed, four out of five drug arrests were for possession of illegal substances, while only one out of five was for sales. Three-quarters of the drug offenders in our state prisons were there for nonviolent or purely drug offenses. And although experts have found little statistical difference among racial groups regarding actual drug use, African-Americans--who make up about 12% of the total U.S.
population--accounted for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of
all drug offenders sentenced to prison.

Against this backdrop of chaos and mismanagement, a dangerous form of organized and sometimes deadly gang activity has infiltrated America's towns and cities. It comes largely from our country's southern border, and much of the criminal activity centers around the movement of illegal drugs. The weapons and tactics involved are of the highest order.

The Mexican drug cartels, whose combined profits are estimated at $25 billion a year, are known to employ many elite former soldiers who were trained in some of America's most sophisticated military programs. Their brutal tactics took the lives of more than 6000 Mexicans last year alone, and the bloodshed has been spilling over the border into our own neighborhoods at a rapid pace. One terrible result is that Phoenix, Ariz., has become the kidnapping capital of the United States, with more than 370 cases in 2008. That is more incidents than in any other city in the world outside of Mexico City.


The challenge to our communities is not limited to the states that border Mexico. Mexican cartels are now reported to be running operations in some 230 American cities. Other gang activity--much of it directed from Latin America, Asia, and Europe--has permeated our country to the point that no area is immune. As one example, several thousand members of the Central American gang MS-13 now operate in northern Virginia, only a stone's throw from our nation's capital.


In short, we are not protecting our citizens from the increasing danger of criminals who perpetrate violence and intimidation as a way of life, and we are locking up too many people who do not belong in jail. It is incumbent on our national leadership to find a way to fix our prison system. I believe that American ingenuity can discover better ways to deal with the problems of drugs and nonviolent criminal behavior while still minimizing violent
crime and large-scale gang activity. And we all deserve to live in a country made better by such changes.
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An inmate at the Ohio River Valley Juvenile Correctional Facility. Two-thirds of the nation’s juvenile inmates have at least one mental illness, according to surveys. By SOLOMON MOORE Published: August 9, 2009 FRANKLIN FURNACE, Ohio — The teenager in the padded smock sat in his solitary confinement cell here in this state’s most secure juvenile prison and screamed obscenities. The youth, Donald, a 16-year-old, his eyes glassy from lack of sleep and a daily regimen of mood stabilizers, was serving a minimum of six months for breaking and entering. Although he had received diagnoses for psychiatric illnesses, including bipolar disorder, a judge decided that Donald would get better care in the state correctional system than he could get anywhere in his county. That was two years ago. Donald’s confinement has been repeatedly extended because of his violent outbursts. This year he assaulted a guard here at the prison, the Ohio River Valley Juvenile Correctional Facility, and was charged anew, with assault. His fists and forearms are striped with scars where he gouged himself with pencils and the bones of a bird he caught and dismembered. As cash-starved states slash mental health programs in communities and schools, they are increasingly relying on the juvenile corrections system to handle a generation of young offenders with psychiatric disorders. About two-thirds of the nation’s juvenile inmates — who numbered 92,854 in 2006, down from 107,000 in 1999 — have at least one mental illness, according to surveys of youth prisons, and are more in need of therapy than punishment. “We’re seeing more and more mentally ill kids who couldn’t find community programs that were intensive enough to treat them,” said Dr. Joseph Penn, director of mental health services for the University of Texas Medical Branch Correctional Managed Care. “Jails and juvenile justice facilities are the new asylums.” At least 32 states cut their community mental health programs by an average of 5 percent this year and plan to double those budget reductions by 2010, according to a recent survey of state mental health offices. Juvenile prisons have been the caretaker of last resort for troubled children since the 1980s, but mental health experts say the system is in crisis, facing a soaring number of inmates reliant on multiple — and powerful — psychotropic drugs and a shortage of therapists. In California’s state system, one of the most violent and poorly managed juvenile systems in the country, according to federal investigators, three dozen youth offenders seriously injured themselves or attempted suicide in the last year — a sign, state juvenile justice experts say, of neglect and poor safety protocols. In Ohio, where Gov. Ted Strickland, a former prison psychologist, approved a 34 percent reduction in community-based mental health services to reduce a budget deficit, Thomas J. Stickrath, the director of the Department of Youth Services, said continuing cuts would swell his youth offender population. “I’m hearing from a lot of judges saying, ‘I’m sorry I’m sending so-and-so to you, but at least I know that he’ll get the treatment he can’t get in his community,’ ” Mr. Stickrath said. But youths are often subjected to neglect and violence in juvenile prisons, and studies show that mental illnesses can become worse there. George, 17, an inmate at Ohio River Valley, detailed his daily cocktail of psychiatric medications, including Abilify and Seroquel. In addition to having bipolar disorder, he is a sex offender and is H.I.V. positive — severe stigmas in prison. “I be getting punked,” he said, using prison slang to describe how gang youths routinely humiliate him. He blinked, and his leg shook uncontrollably. “They take my food, they hit me, they make me do things.” Demetrius, 16, another inmate there, said he had received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Officials said he has psychotic episodes and attacks other inmates. In an interview in June, he said he was receiving no mental health counseling or medications. Andrea Kruse, a spokeswoman for Mr. Stickrath, said that since July 1, he has had more than 20 counseling sessions. According to a Government Accountability Office report, in 2001, families relinquished custody of 9,000 children to juvenile justice systems so they could receive mental health services. Donald has been in and out of mental health programs since he attacked a schoolteacher at age 5. As he grew older, he became more violent until he was eventually committed to the Department of Youth Services. “I’ve begged D.Y.S. to get him into a mental facility where they’re trained to deal with people like him,” said his grandmother, who asked not to be identified because of the stigma of having a grandson who is mentally ill. “I don’t think a lockup situation is where he should be, although I don’t think he should be on the street either.” Lawsuits and federal civil rights investigations in Indiana, Maryland, Ohio and Texas have criticized juvenile corrections systems for failing to meet their obligation to prohibit cruel and unusual punishment of prisoners. Despite downsizing to about 1,650 juvenile inmates from about 10,000 youth offenders in 1996, California’s state system remains under a 2004 federal mandate to improve conditions, including mental health services — the result of a class-action lawsuit that documented the systematic physical and sexual abuse of wards. Under a plan to reduce the state juvenile inmate population, many youths who once would have been held by the state are now detained by the Los Angeles County juvenile detention system. Los Angeles County is also under a federal mandate to improve psychiatric services for juvenile inmates, especially at the six camps at its Challenger Memorial Youth Center, which holds most of the county’s medium- and high-risk offenders and most of its mentally ill ones.
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Do You Remember When?

Terrence, was born on January 31st, 1980. I purposely moved from New York State to the state of Virginia when I was four months pregnant.

I wanted to move to a better environment, where raising a son, especially a Black son, would not be hazardous to his health and well being.


I remember the day he was born just like it was yesterday. I was three weeks over due. My due date was January 10th. Well, since I needed to work as long as possible before his birth, I mentally forced myself to hold him in just long enough to get a few more paychecks.


Three more to be exact and he came 21 days later. My last day at work was Friday and I went into labor on Monday while watching the Young and the Restless.


When he was born later that day, at 11:14 p.m., I was elated and over joyed. You see, I planned to have Terrence. I used his father to get pregnant and then left town. All I wanted was a baby, not him. I was well educated, self-sufficient, and able to take care of myself and my two children. I will always remember that day, the day he was born........ Life was beautiful!

Do you remember the day your son was born?
Let's hear your story too..It will lighten your heart to share it with us.

Peace and Love Always
YaVon






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A part of me....

It is very difficult for parents, particularly mothers that have children incarcerated. Often times, I have mothers tell me that they feel as though a part of them is serving time as well. I know from my own experience, this is true. Especially, if the child is at a young age at the time of the incarceration. It is though someone has hit you right in the gut. Your child is taken away and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Your child's life is no longer in your control, but, that of strangers and these strangers view the inmate as a number, not a human being. We as parents understand that our children have committed crimes and have to pay their due to society, so to speak. But, that does not take away the hurt, pain and embarrassment we feel. Some parents have severe bouts of guilt feelings, constantly blaming themselves for their children actions, without any warranted reason.
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America Has Lost a Generation of Black Boys

There is no longer a need for dire predictions, hand-wringing, or apprehension about losing a generation of Black Boys. It is too late. In education, employment, economics, incarceration, health, housing, and parenting, we have lost a generation of Young Black Men.

The question that remains is will we lose the next two or three generations, or possibly every generation of Black boys hereafter to the streets, negative media, gangs, drugs, poor education, unemployment, father absence, crime, violence and death.Most young Black men in the United States don’t graduate from high school. Only 35% of Black male students graduated from high school in Chicago and only 26% in New York City, according to a 2006 report by The Schott Foundation for Public Education. Only a few Black boys who finish high school actually attend college, and of those few Black boys who enter college, nationally, only 22% of them finish college.Young Black male students have the worst grades, the lowest test scores, and the highest dropout rates of all students in the country. When these young Black men don’t succeed in school, they are much more likely to succeed in the nation’s criminal justice and penitentiary system. And it was discovered recently that even when a young Black man graduates from a U.S. college, there is a good chance that he is from Africa, the Caribbean or Europe, and not the United States.Black men in prison in America have become as American as apple pie.There are more Black men in prisons and jails in the United States (about 1.1 million) than there are Black men incarcerated in the rest of the world combined. This criminalization process now starts in elementary schools with Black male children as young as six and seven years old being arrested in staggering numbers according to a 2005 report, Education on Lockdown by the Advancement Project.The rest of the world is watching and following the lead of America. Other countries including England, Canada, Jamaica, Brazil and South Africa are adopting American social policies that encourage the incarceration and destruction of young Black men. This is leading to a world-wide catastrophe. But still, there is no adequate response from the American or global Black community.Worst of all is the passivity, neglect and disengagement of the Black community concerning the future of our Black boys. We do little while the future lives of Black boys are being destroyed in record numbers. The schools that Black boys attend prepare them with skills that will make them obsolete before, and if, they graduate. In a strange and perverse way, the Black community, itself, has started to wage a kind of war against young Black men and has become part of this destructive process.Who are young Black women going to marry? Who is going to build and maintain the economies of Black communities? Who is going to anchor strong families in the Black community? Who will young Black boys emulate as they grow into men? Where is the outrage of the Black community at the destruction of its Black boys? Where are the plans and the supportive actions to change this? Is this the beginning of the end of the Black people in America?The list of those who have failed young Black men includes our government, our foundations, our schools, our media, our Black churches, our Black leaders, and even our parents. Ironically, experts say that the solutions to the problems of young Black men are simple and relatively inexpensive, but they may not be easy, practical or popular. It is not that we lack solutions as much as it is that we lack the will to implement these solutions to save Black boys. It seems that government is willing to pay billions of dollars to lock up young Black men, rather than the millions it would take to prepare them to become viable contributors and valued members of our society.Please consider these simple goals that can lead to solutions for fixing the problems of young Black menShort term1) Teach all Black boys to read at grade level by the third grade and to embrace education2) Provide positive role models for Black boys3) Create a stable home environment for Black boys that includes contact with their fathers4) Ensure that Black boys have a strong spiritual base5) Control the negative media influences on Black boys6) Teach Black boys to respect all girls and womenLong term1) Invest as much money in educating Black boys as in locking up Black men2) Help connect Black boys to a positive vision of themselves in the future3) Create high expectations and help Black boys live into those high expectations4) Build a positive peer culture for Black boys5) Teach Black boys self-discipline, culture and history6) Teach Black boys and the communities in which they live to embrace education and life-long learningMore Facts* 37.7% of Black men in the United States are not working (2006 Joint Economic Committee Study chaired by Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY))* 58% of Black boys in the United States do not graduate from high school (2006 Report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education)* Almost 70% of Black children are born into female, single parent households (2000 Census Report)* About 1 million Black men in the United States are in prison (U.S. Justice Department)Truth hurts…This entry was originally posted on Friday, April 13th, 2007 at 10:09 am and is filed under Welcome to the Black Parent Movement!!Peace and LoveYaVon BestBest3Concepts
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