GUEST COMMENTARY

The Month of Ramadan Could Be the Answer to A Moment of Peace

By Cheryl Myrie

(Revised of 2010 Essay)What if during the month of Ramadan all Muslims across the globe observed the daily obligations that are practiced during this Islamic Holy Month. This would require the cease of all activities of war. Total Peace throughout the month is to be observed. No arguments, fighting and certainly no wars. Could this be achieved during the month of Ramadan every year? Ramadan is occurring during the solar based calendar months of July and August of this year 2012.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Arabic calendar. The calendar year began in the year 622 CE of the Christian era, when Prophet Mohammad was ordered by Allah (God) to leave the city of Medina and relocate to Mecca because of the opposition’s attacks against Prophet Mohammad and his teaching of the faith of Islam. The Arabic calendar year consist of 12 months, it’s a lunar calendar which means the months rotate. There is an ongoing discussion among today’s Muslims as to making a change from traditional guidelines on determining the new month, which is presently done by the actual sighting of the new crescent moon. The discussion continues as to whether using modern day technology to calculate the new crescent moon should be enacted.

Ramadan also is the month that Muslims all over the world fast. Fasting is more than abstaining from food; it expands or covers other aspects of daily gratifying indulgences. During the month of Ramadan, one is to abstain from eating and drinking of food and liquids, one is not to engage in sexual activities of any kind during the prescribed time of day, fasting (abstaining) takes place from dawn to sunset, one is to maintain a peaceful demeanor throughout the 30 days.

There are those who this obligation is deferred, exemptions from taken part in restraining from all these indulgences, some of which are essential to sustaining life for human beings, maybe not to the extent that some of us engage. The following are a few exemptions children who are not of adolescence age, the sick, woman who are pregnant.

If someone is not able to part take in the obligations of fasting depending on the reason, they can make up the days at another time. Or provide meals for the unfortunate.

I pray that the highest level of peace throughout the globe is achieved making the celebration, which takes place at the end of the month of Ramadan called “Eid ul Fitr (The Festival of Fast-Breaking), a highly jubilees occasion.

I original write this article in 2010. The month of Ramadan ends this year on August 19, 2012.

I am fascinated and impressed at the thought of a yearly practice, which requires such discipline. If one compared it to the one day event of Christmas or Easter Sunday I’m not sure some would get the full essences of what is required to achieve the goal. Perhaps if we compared the process involved in preparing for these one day Holy Days, a more vivid image of the type of discipline required of the Muslims who observe the Holy Month of Ramadan would be clear.

So in pasting you can say Ramadan Mubarak or Happy Ramadan.

Perhaps you will be invited to an Eid ul Fitr.

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Recognized As A Believer (07/03/12)

By Cheryl Myrie

I want to be recognized as a believer. What is a believer? The Bible speaks about knowing an individual by his or her works. Both the works of a believer and the works of the devil are being practiced openly and underground. Clearly if someone is making a conscious effort to prevent another or group of others to work on behalf of the originator of all of life, and clearly there are those who on a daily basis work hard at causing disruption wherever they are, at that time of day, and with whomever they feel is too weak to combat their heinous actions. The mere fact that they freely and willingly challenge God, his message and his believers is in itself shockingly repulsive to a believer, a peace seeker and to anyone that respects life and the living.

We should not allow the repulsiveness of the devils work nor his methods of operation affect our work for peace and justice in our community and the world. We know for sure that as a believer we are a target of those who wish to deceive and deter the actions of good hearted people.  However the work of the believers is sort out more than ever, due to a majority of people feeling the discomfort of the disruptive tactics to the system or systems that had and in some cases still regulate our society and way of life. Solutions are being sort and widely accepted by all people with the common interest of relieving unnecessary tension in our lives on a daily basis.

People from different religions are reaching out to those in need and the acceptance of kind and thoughtful offers is the results. That’s the whole point that I am trying to express, when I state that I want to be recognized as a believer. As a servant of the originator who is the most informed source of how to correct and rejuvenate life as we know it. I am not snubbing or devaluing any path that any individual or group used or was introduced to that made them a believer. Certainly gratitude and a long lasting relationship should remain with the source that brought any human being out ignorance of not recognizing and respecting there being a greater power in the universe than the ones promoted or recorded on and in the media. My prayers are to remain tapped in, hooked up or forever present in the Original Spirit of all that is giving, of all that is right and correct. And I want to thank all those believers that extended themselves on my behalf throughout my life. May your lives be continually blessed and kept in the highest regards of our maker, our sustainer. May you always be reminded that your good deeds are never in vain nor unseen.

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6/7/2012

Poverty is growing and maintaining its presence in the black community. There have been many opinions as to the cause of this ever lingering destructive condition in the black community in particularly in the United States. I hear the question being ask why black women and black girls are disproportionately victims of poverty. I have been thinking over this same reality. I read the comments of author Ralph Banks of the book entitled Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone. The one that stood out the must was that black women are not benefiting from their continued struggle to uplift and support the black man. And my answer to that statement is we have not benefited on as greater level as our support has been in lifting the black man up. I remember Lena Horn said, “A white man could take a black woman anywhere”. That comment from Mrs. Horn whom faced some of the worse kind of discrimination during her life, however the scale in which Mrs. Horn became out dated on a Tuesday in the month of November 2008. That was the day the gauge of measure was made evident that a black man could and shall take a black woman along with giving her, the title of First Lady, to the White House in a much different role than Jefferson gave to Sally Hemings.   Has there been a trickledown effect? I know that it has only been three years, seven months and three days from the date of my writing this essay. Trickle according to Encarte Dictionary you know the one so conveniently programed on your computer with the Microsoft Word software. Encarte defines Trickle as “to flow slowly in a thin stream or in drops, or cause something to do this”. Let’s go with “the cause something to do this” has the accomplishment of a black man being voted into the White House for the first time in the history of the United States, cause a stream of black men to take and follow suit and establish heights in his home, in his community, in his place of work, in his city and in his state with his children and wife or significant other by his side. Or has their priors, become an impediment for too many of our husbands, our brothers and our sons? I don’t want anyone to think I am using the race card and because I am addressing my community of people who decided to marry within their race because I am not by any means taking that position. I am taking an observation of a particular demographic group, which is a common practice of many research or survey projects. Priors should not be an impediment. How can I make such a statement? Because in a land where slavery was legal and Jim Crow was law a black man became president of that land called the United States of America. And my prayers are that the adjustment of the gauge made in 2008 applies to all seeking to improve the living conditions of the American people.

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Would Diminishing Nuptials Hurt The Future of Black Families?

Written by T. Duffy

If a recent assessment of a segment of the white population shows marriage could eventually become a second thought, I wonder why they didn’t say where the rest of us would fit into the scheme of things. I don’t know if these findings were true, a way of informing whites who could be concerned about their changing social status, or just someone voicing an opinion. But they like others have been marrying across racial lines for decades, so issues like this should usually include everyone. Since I’ve taken an interest in this, I wondered if there was a reason I should direct this to blacks [African Americans]. The answer was easy; although I felt blacks who’s still hanging onto a fragile strand of their heritage could be more of a skeptic. Of course there wouldn’t be any need to believe this, if that dedication was uniformly certain amongst a greater percentage of blacks. But since much has changed regarding who we marry, we can believe some blacks may still have a reason to approach marriage with caution as others may bicker from within, because of many outward perspectives. Regardless who one choose to marry, the most determined could believe it’s generally a means to an end.

Anyway I’ve committed a couple of times, even believing marriage was first envisioned to be a way of monitoring a society and then adapted to become a sacred bind. Whenever I say something like this, I must usually follow by saying I’m still a person committed to believing in something supreme, although I often question the rhetoric of man who usually fail to follow spiritual laws or for that matter any laws. So it’s almost natural to voice my opinion in matters like this, because I understand the content of religion is to have a firm devotion to avoid sin. On the other hand I also realize marriage being affixed to that belief that union would seem to be a definite way to oversee our dos, don’ts for less maybe. Being aware that in other areas of the world there are different ways people are joined together and also knowing the penalties most face for wrong doings or openly renouncing those methods, I could be right. So should I not wonder why men and women here never face a more severe penalty for copulating out of that union? I guess because it occurs in this country the circumstances could end up constitutionally forgivable, so this is where my conflict with religion varies for me. Adding that yarn to the scenario, I also understand until some serious testimony rises to really prove different, I have no choice but to recognize the basic premise for why we must follow the sacraments leading to marriage. Oddly enough the most notable reason again is to avoid sin, so children shouldn’t be born out of wedlock; although that virtue is flawed, wide spread and dates generations. So the ball of doubt still continues to bounce nearer my court, because there’s also little doubt some of us wasn’t growing in the womb even during the ceremony.

Nevertheless even with the failure of most marriages, I still believe blacks should be concerned especially for those likely in the future and not use the shortcomings of other relationships to deny impending chances to beat the odds, to suddenly change drastically. If my intent was to use this to show marriage in a different way, they may appreciate knowing the most logical reason is how it creates order within lives and communities, which can also help to develop children whose lives have similar order and direction, compared to the contrary of families and children whose lives may remain broken. However I also realize there are deeper circumstances to overcome. Since marriage is usually the choice of the female sometimes choosing first to live together, we must unfortunately expect with some modesty consider the situations of black women with children who may have narrow chances, besides those who preference single motherhood. Since both could be seen as an impasse, a third quandary could also grow amongst professional women or younger women who are preparing themselves for specific vocations with no future responsibilities other than to themselves. Putting emotions aside, suppose some choose to weigh feeling and financial sovereignty and then choose to narrow its importance using past articles and surveys put on view over the years comparing the education and accomplishments of them and black men. This could encourage younger women to follow since recent criticisms today say’s similar things about young black men. Regardless, I feel this could stifle the chance to believe any data would be forthcoming that would indicate these men have improved significantly. Of course that’s my speculation not fact. But it wouldn’t be speculation to believe some may have doubts, because black men still aren’t generally recognized to be equal or capable of potentially becoming better earners with [recognized] being the key word that often indicate some weakness. Closing I must again consider my beliefs besides contributions of blunders in this area, so I would be the last person to offer solutions that would bring people together. But even remembering how marriage of people helped to improve our ability to limit and sometimes remove many negative labels cast upon the community, besides addressing many conditions before they got out of hand. I also realize marriage as other relationships have always been difficult for us to get hold of or prolong. Why I couldn’t say with any certainty, so maybe that should be another story. What I can say with conviction is there are sometimes reasons of self-interest some may be reluctant to commit. But a more profound rationale even with some confusion could exist in those who have more sincere reasons to commit, but still are apprehensive. Oddly enough a common reality regarding any marriage is it has always been a means of chance followed by trial and errors.