Help Me #BeatCancer

Tweet, update your Facebook status update, or write a blog post with the hashtag #beatcancer to be part of setting a new Guinness World Record

10.14.2010– Last year, a Guinness World Record was set by Everywhere, out of Atlanta, Georgia (raising more than $70,000) for the “Most Widespread Social Network Message” with #beatcancer. In 24 hours the one-word phrase #beatcancer set the record contributing to the 209,771 unique mentions on Twitter, Facebook and blog posts.
That’s not good enough.

This year, #beatcancer is back and supporters want to break their own record.

On October 15, 2010 at 9am PST the official #beatcancer race for a new record begins via the BlogWorld & New Media Expo.

To participate simply add the hashtag #beatcancer (all one word) to any tweet, Facebook status update or blog post. That’s it. Anyone who adds this phrase ensures that in addition to a world record, money will be donated to further the efforts of selected non-profit cancer organizations.

The hope is to spawn a worldwide online message and raise money to fight cancer. PayPal and SWAGG – a product from Firethorn, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm – will donate ($0.05)* per mention of #beatcancer on Twitter, Facebook, or blog post during the 24 hour Guinness World Record attempt. All money will be donated to the designated cancer serving non-profits, LIVESTRONG Foundation, Bright Pink and Stand Up To Cancer.

Additionally, SWAGG’s commitment to the fight against cancer continues on from here. Prior to the official product launch, consumers can pledge to download the app at www.beatcancereverywhere.com. SWAGG will then donate $1 to each designated foundation, up to $125,000 each**.

The above post is a (partial) excerpt from Everywhere Social Media

This novel is a MUST read for everyone. The author reveals the painful pleasures that a slave endures, through some of the most well-developed and memorable characters depicted in print. This isn’t a tired old story of slavery, anything but. This story is about families, friendships, love and so much more. It tells of the advantages/disadvantages and relationships the Wenches had with their masters – it tells of an idyllic resort and the summers spent there. This story enlightens the readers to a whole new world.
The author, Dolen Perkins-Valdez has mastered story-telling with this, her debut novel. I’m looking forward to more of the same from her.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

View all my reviews >>

Although Tyler Perry’s latest couple’s retreat theory adaptation was not screened for critics, who knows why the heck not, perhaps because his movies are critic-proof; but regardless of critics and certain audience members not giving this movie the chance it deserves along side the others, it is an entertaining positive portrait of upper-middle-class life, and to top that off, despite critics and nay-sayers, it still earned over $30.1M at the box office during its opening weekend.

Tyler Perry has ascended to the status of media mogul on the strength of his combination of Christian morality, slapstick comedy, and soap-operatic melodrama. In 2005, his play DIARY OF A MAD BLACK…Tyler Perry displays his strength as a media mogul while using a combination of comedy and Christian morality, in this sequel to his 2007 “Why Did I Get Married” Perry continues to provide his audience with positive portrayals of (African-American) characters and family-friendly-subject matter, this film can actually appeal to a broad audience if given a chance beyond the color structure, because the subject matter is universal, and features an engaging cast.

The synopsis of the movie is that, four Atlanta couples who have been friends since college take their (second) annual one-week therapeutic retreat getaway, this time to the Bahamas, to evaluate their marriages and improve their relationships. Terry (Tyler Perry) and Dianne (Sharon Leal) are blissfully happy – but are they really, with two little kids at home. Angela (Tasha Smith) and Marcus (Michael Jai White) fight constantly, probably because she suspects that he’s a serial cheater and she’s clearly a belligerent lush – but is there something that lays beneath the surface that isn’t known to the other or both. Patricia (Janet Jackson), the bestselling self-help author, and her husband, Gavin (Malik Yoba), appear to be happy but are obviously concealing something, other than the fact that they don’t have the picturesque marriage she portrays they neither have nor the one he claims he wants them to have. And Sheila (Jill Scott) is there with her new husband, Troy (Lamman Rucker), a decent man who’s a welcome replacement for her ex loathsome Mike (Richard T. Jones), but Troy appears to be concealing a secret he doesn’t want his spouse to share with the others. And speaking of the ex, Mike, he has the nerve to show up unexpectedly and unwelcomed. But the real melodrama begins when the couples get back to Atlanta, as Mike has an even more shocking and more disturbing secret to share with Sheila and the others. Which almost pales in comparison to the dramatic conclusion of events surrounding the other couple(s), including and especially… Ooops! lets not give this away to those who’ve not had the opportunity to see this entertaining movie.

The movie is enjoyable, it was not as predictable as part 1 or as so many other sequels and movies are, there are indeed some twist and turns not anticipated in this one. Although audiences will doubled over with laughter, they will indeed appreciate the dramatic intensity from the characters & storyline as well.

Once President Obama signs the new health care bill into law on Tuesday 23 March 2010, most Americans will see some immediate changes.

However, other changes, including mandated coverage for all U.S. residents, will take years to take effect. 

To see which benefits will start immediately and which will begin in 2014  Click here for an interactive guide.

Amelia Boynton Robinson was the first woman black or white to run for Congress from the state of Alabama, winning 10 percent of the vote at a time when only 5 percent of registered voters were African-American. Then, on what became known as "Bloody Sunday", she was brutally beaten and left for dead by Alabama state troopers as she and other African-Americans tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge to march on Montgomery.  Read more:  BLACK TREASURE

Additional note, This remarkable woman is still alive at age 99 years.

Reading Angelia Jolie’s call for action (in a Newsweek editorial) to the situation in Sudan,  gave me pause for thought.  And although Jolie has some valid points including, “Holding perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable is the best way to ensure justice today and peace in the future.” I wondered who do WE, the American people get to hold accountable for its current and continued catastrophes?

Hopefully Jolie isn’t implying that President Obama should wage yet a third war against Sudan.  As there has been quite enough unnecessary bloodshed to last all mankind a lifetime.   Though American citizens seem to think we are the saviors to each and every war torn nation,  it is quite apparent the U.S. didn’t learn very much from the Vietnam war, practically the need to value American lives as much as some seem to think the U.S. should value the lives of Foreign countries – tragically other nations  don’t seem to be duty-bound  nor compelled to save our U.S. Troops that are still being sacrificed in Iraq and Afghanistan; yet we (America) are suppose to feel obligated to do so for others.  America by no means needs to become involved in yet another war in an effort to save yet another country unwilling or inapt to fight its own battles.  Simply put, we don’t need more slain U.S. Troops,  more American widows/widowers,  nor do we need more American orphans.

Appreciate that (we) Americans are not heartless human beings and as incredibly disturbing as the situation in Darfur may be,  it needs to be understood that the situation here in the United States of America is incredibly disturbing as well, and if we don’t get help soon – we may very well become another third world country whose seeking the help Darfur supporters are demanding from us now.

A reader replied to Jolie’s editorial with: “…we are and should be the President’s first priority.  He is the President of the United States and serves the American people first.”   That in and of itself is a truth far too many seem to forget; and that is what should be inscribed on U.S. Currency, as a reminder to everyone who has forgotten which country the President of the United States presides over.  “… I will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  Just wondering when the United States will take precedence over all others.

While Jolie is calling for action from the White House, just wondering if, General Martin Luther Agway the Nigerian military officer and commander of the combined United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur still believes what he said, a week before he was scheduled to leave Darfur? When he declared that the genocide in Darfur was over.  “…people trying to resolve issues over water and land at a local level. But real war as such, I think we are over that.”

In Jolie’s Newsweek editorial, she offers recommendations to improve the U.N. Security Council’s responsiveness, ‘while urging the United States to make clear its willingness to act on its own if necessary’.  Some may take issue with the latter of her suggestion.  If the U.S. chooses to stand alone, they could very well be setting themselves up for isolation and destruction.  You can not retain allies (in or outside the UN) if you refuse to maintain alliances with them.  With that said…

As we continue to save the world, Jolie as well as others that support (all)causes abroad, may wish to keep in mind, that at some point the United States will have to consider taking care of the United States and the citizens that reside on U.S. soil.

Detroit’s Ruins

a dead homeless man encased in ice (in photo above)

Clearly we can’t solve the world’s problems in a single blog post or a 30-minute episode as they did in television’s yester-year, nor can it be done in the first year tenure of a Presidency, so until the next episode, lets just continue to make an effort…