ClydeStyle

Tag: Michelle Obama

  • Living With regret

    I must admit that I don’t normally watch the Oscars, but I am a fan of the industry and I absolutely love Chris Rock and Will Smith. I would like to believe that these two guys would be friends of mine if they were not famous and lived near me. We are in the same age bracket and have a lot of similar qualities.

    Now with that said, I was going to be disappointed in both men for their actions. I was also going to be embarrassed by the actions of both as an African-American male because of the stereo-types that will follow as a result of what happened. And then I wanted to write a blog and explain all the things that they did wrong. Then it dawned on me that context is everything and I was putting these two men in a category they do not belong.

    What I mean by context is that we are witnessing the results of previous interactions we don’t understand or have no full knowledge of. It’s disappointing that the interaction we saw was violent but there is much more to this situation that we may never know about. In addition, if this were just two average men (any race) and one had slapped another it would not have made the news and we wouldn’t be discussing it. Their fame made this newsworthy.

    We place people in categories, sometimes sub consciously, but in our minds we decide whether a person is good, bad, ugly, charismatic, funny or talented among other things. We develop beliefs about these people based on the categories and then expectations are set. Then we become disappointed when our heroes (in this case) do not match the consistency of our expectations. This is what is happening with all the commentary posted on social media.

    What should happen is we realize the truth about what we saw: the fact that these two humans were placed in a human scenario and both had an opportunity to do good, but failed. I truly believe if they had a do-over they could make a better decision. But above everything they proved that they are human and that they are flawed. If they were placed in the “flawed human” category from the beginning, then this interaction would not dominate the news cycle.

    Shout out to Tyler Perry, Denzel Washington and others who tried to bring healing to the situation. Believe it or not, sometimes things are allowed to happened for the purposes of seeing what others would do. God uses this tactic more often than you think. So I wondered how many people thought to pray when the incident happened? I wonder how many others were willing to do what they could to bring healing to this situation? Both Smith and Rock will have many private interactions following this incident. I wonder how many of those conversations would be with people who are trying to honor God in the moment?

    It’s sad when your own actions cause you to live with regret. Every time Will looks at his Oscar, the memory of the slap will come into focus. Every Oscar ceremony from this point on will remember the slap. How many business deals will not happen for these two because of this incident? Have they made peace with their God? Michelle Obama rightfully said that when they go low we go high. Going high requires us to process things in the highest part of our brains — and that’s our spiritual side. I pray the learning curve happens for all who are involved.

  • Yes, we really can!

    This week I decided to try something a little different and let a friend of mine take the podium. And her topic dovetails nicely with a post I am writing for next week.

    Ann Richardson is a friend (disclaimer) and a former colleague of mine from my newspaper days. She shares a lot of my views and we both think it is because we share the same birthday! Enjoy!

    And stay tuned for next Sunday’s post when I share my two cents worth with you about the great health care reform debate!

    If you’ve been watching the news lately, it’s no secret that obesity in the United States has exploded. Recent statistics say that over half of all adults in the U.S. are either overweight or obese.

    And unfortunately, obesity is becoming all too common in our children, too – disproportionately affecting minority kids (African American, Native American, and Hispanic).

    Being overweight as a kid increases the risk of developing high cholesterol, hypertension, respiratory ailments, orthopedic problems, depression, and Type 2 diabetes.

    In 2000, the total cost of obesity for children and adults in the United States was estimated to be $117 billion ($61 billion in direct medical costs).

    We need to do something – NOW – because all of this is preventable.

    I was delighted to hear that Michelle Obama has made it her own personal crusade to fight childhood obesity during her tenure as First Lady.

    Mrs. Obama has at least one ally in her fight – and he lives in Boulder, Colorado.

    I learned about Rob Nagler when I ran across an article in Sunset magazine about the nonprofit organization he founded whose goal is to make walking and biking to school a part of every kid’s daily routine.

    According to the article in Sunset, in 1969 about 88% of kids who lived within a mile of their grade schools either walked or biked to school. Today, only about 16% do.

    That’s a statistic that Nagler decided to help change – starting with his own two kids and their classmates at their Boulder, Colorado school.

    Nagler, a computer engineer, found a way to track kids who rode their bikes or walked to school by installing a solar-powered scanning device at school. The device reads an ID tag placed on a child’s backpack or bike helmet and uploads the data into an online database.

    Each child (and the school) can track their progress – and keep tabs on the “incentives” that each kid earns as he/she racks up the miles. The incentives are small, but fun – like colored plastic bracelets that denote a different level of achievement; stickers; and the ultimate in cool prizes: an iPod.

    Boltage is a very successful program. Fifteen schools in four states have installed the devices and have programs of their own.

    But don’t take my word for it: check out the scoreboard on their site.

    As of Dec. 1, 2009, the kids have:

    • Walked/biked more than 258,000 miles
    • Burned more than 9.2 million calories
    • Saved 24, 306 gallons of gasoline
    • Made 184,423 round trips between home/school
    • Saved 482,083 lbs. of carbon

    Pretty impressive!

    The kids love it.

    And they’re learning to make exercise part of their daily routine – while reaping the health benefits of an active lifestyle and doing what they can to help the environment.

    Boltage’s goal is to reach 40,000 public schools – will your school be the next one to start a program?

    If you want to start a Boltage program at your local school, click this link to the Boltage website.  If you want to read more about the Boltage story, click this link to a PDF copy of the story I read in Sunset magazine.