The Good Ol' Days...

It has been a while since I posted. It got very busy during my hiatus, and I found new employment. Nonetheless, I will try to start posting more frequently on Monday Moment With Kyle.

Today I wanna write about this mythical time called “THE GOOD OL’ DAYS.” I’m sure you’ve heard people speak nostalgically of halcyon days gone by, of when life was simple and perfect. The streets were so clean, you could walk on them bare feet…Gold poured from the skies…the races got along…it was just so much better back then.

For whom??

I usually get a great laugh when I watch the crew on Morning Joe, and Joe Scarborough waxes poetic about the Reagan years. It’s gotten to the point where it is simply comical. If you forget the propaganda machine and look at the facts, Ronald Reagan did more to harm the Republican Party than anyone. He also wasn’t as popular as many are led to believe.

What has happened over the years is that an image was created of him. An image of a strong president who told Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down these walls.”

In this country, where 6 major media conglomerates control the narrative, image is everything.

Image is displayed on our television shows…about whom the news chooses to cover…on whom the media chooses to glorify and demonize; and sadly many people take this as fact.

The good ol’ days weren’t really that good, because it is a creation…an image.

The good ol’ days are now!

Until next time…

On Hiatus This Week...

Monday Moment With Kyle is on hiatus this week.

Enjoy the presidential debate, Monday Night Football and Game 7 of the NLCS.

Until next Monday...

Gospel Music...

My grandmother regularly played gospel music when I was growing up in Newark, New Jersey. As a matter of fact, she wouldn't allow secular music to be played in the house on Sundays. Thus we all grew up listening to any number of gospel greats.

When I became a musician, I refused to listen to gospel. REFUSED IT, REFUSED IT, REFUSED IT!

To me it sounded like these people were screaming and hollering and making unnecessary noise. Nonetheless, I listened to the church choir religiously at Greater Welcome Baptist Church.

I preferred MoTown and jazz...those songs were exciting. More important, these songs caused an almost reflex action in your body that made you want to move.

Last night, I visited the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, NY to see a concert billed as the King's Men Tour, featuring Kirk Franklin, Donnie McClurkin, Marvin Sapp and Israel Houghton.

It was outstanding!

For a person not too keen on gospel, I was amazed at the musicianship and craft displayed by everyone on the stage. For a short moment, I got chills while listening to Sapp sing, "Never Would've Made It."

Simply amazing...and simply astonished that gospel music had changed. This ain't your grandparent's gospel.

This music is challenging, moving, inspiring, motivating and more. Better still, they give recognition to God. After hearing this music, there is no doubt that there is some force that anoints these musicians which such a gift...AND it made me re-think my skills as a musician.

I am humbled by their skill and I have a long way to go. This makes me feel good, because that means there is so much more to learn musically...I intend to learn it.

As stated at the King's Men Tour concert: May the rest of my life be the best days of my life.

Here's to learning and growing!!

Until next Monday....

Tyler Perry

What is with the hate toward Tyler Perry?

This past weekend I noticed several tweets from somewhat reputable people who poked fun at Mr. Perry and his upcoming role as a detective in Alex Cross. It seems that these people take offense to his movies and the Madea character that he created.

By all means, it is fine to criticize and artist and his/her work. But some of these attacks toward Tyler Perry are personal. Some have questioned his talent, business acumen and even his masculinity.

Nonetheless, Mr. Perry has a loyal audience who attends his plays and movies, and simply enjoys the entertainment and positive message that is often presented.

I must admit I didn’t like Tyler Perry productions when I first observed them. I thought they were “low-class.” However, one spring I went to visit relatives in the south and we did dinner and a movie. The movie we saw together, as a family, was a Tyler Perry film. We laughed and laughed and just had a good time.

It was about family…nobody was trying to make sociological discovery or a political statement.

This gets lost in these comments about Tyler Perry.

Additionally, he has taken from his enormous fortune to give back to the community. Not only is he hiring black performers on a regular basis, but also he contributes to society financially…probably more so than any of those people who complain and spread their negativity about the man.

Critics will always be there…but so will supporters. And I for one support Mr. Tyler Perry and applaud him

Until next Monday…

Living Life As It Is...

There is a quote that is often attributed to John Lennon, but I believe that it actually comes from a 1957 comic strip in Readers Digest. It posits, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”

If we were to consider this statement for a moment, we might come to realize that we plan our lives on the basis of expectations. For example, we go to school in order to get great grades. This, in turn, should aid us in getting into the best college, which should therefore lead us to the best jobs with an excellent salary, so that our social lives will improve and put us into circles where we would find a spouse and ultimately build a beautiful family and live happily ever after.

This is what most of us plan.

This is what we expect.

But life happens…and we change.

Yet, as we change, some of us cling to the ideas and notions of who we thought we were and overlook the person we’ve become. Thus we’re unable to live a life that is fulfilling and in the moment and that’s authentic.

In the way, it is important to remind yourself to always push forward and limit the longing for looking back to our expectations or for the “good old days” that never were.

There's a lot to be said about living life as it is instead of how I wish it to be.

Until next Monday...

What the World Needs Now is EMPATHY!

When Hal David died a couple of weeks ago, I found myself listening to a song he wrote with Burt Bacharach called, "What the World Needs Now is Love."

Yes, I agree, the world could always use a little more love, but what we could use a lot more of is empathy.

Just in this country alone, we find ourselves divided between red and blue states; conservatives and liberals; haves and have nots; elites and the common man. It's getting to be re-goddamn-diculous how special interest groups, politicians and the media have created narratives that have pitted people against each other. Instead of critically reflecting on issues of the day and coming together for the sake of each other; we choose to demonize each other without even considering the other person's perspective.

It's disturbing. 

I once wondered if people by nature were mean, or if they were nice. Research has shown that people are neutral...and that may be part of the problem.

Being neutral allows for one to be indifferent. If you're indifferent, you less likely to seek understanding with things which don't concern you or your interests. If you're not seeking understanding, how would you then be able to show empathy?

In other words, it is difficult to show empathy to those who can do nothing for you...but easy to love those who can.

Therefore, that unemployed welfare person needs to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. But your loved one who is struggling to make ends meet, is OK with getting a loan from you to carry them over until they're back on their feet...The union that helped your immigrant grandfather get and keep a job, while excluding African Americans was great for the working man, but the the Teacher's Unions of today is ruining your child's education.

Although we will never live in a Kumbaya World, we can do better. A great starting point would be in simply learning to LISTEN!

Until next Monday...

To Stay Home Election Day?

I recently read an article about several Black pastors who have been advising their parishioners not to vote in this year’s election.

My friends, these men and women who call themselves pastors, are not only being treasonous to our country, but they are betraying the legacy of those who risked life and limb for the right to cast a single vote AND they are demonstrating what the Bible describes as false teachers.

Although I'm staunchly behind the idea of the separation of church and state, the Black Church has a unique place in American society when it comes to social justice. Nonetheless, leadership in some congregations seems to be offended by the issue of marriage equality for people within the LGBT community. When the president stated that he supported the right for gay people to marry, many of these people decided that they would not vote for him since he supported "sin." However, they failed to realize that in these Divided States of America, marriage is a civil right with legal and financial consequences. Therefore, whom people choose to love is their business and is an issue outside the realm of religion.

Yes, religion CAN be a factor, but religion does not necessarily HAVE TO BE a factor in order to have a legal marriage in the United States.

Therefore, these pastors are out of line on several fronts in telling their members to stay home and not vote.

First, it is simply none of their business that consenting adults of legal age, in a loving relationship, choose to marry. The U.S.A, (also known as the Divided States of America), is a democracy, not a theocracy. It is a land of laws based on the Constitution...not the Bible.

Second, it would be wonderful if some of these pastors really studied and appreciated the history of the civil rights movement in this country. If they did, they would come across the name of Bayard Rustin, an openly gay man who was an influential adviser to many civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It was Rustin, who played a key role in organizing the March On Washington where Dr. King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech.

Third, do these pastors take note of some of the men who sing in their choirs? I've seen and heard more gay men singing and leading the flock in more black churches than I can count.

Lastly, it's simply time that these pastors get off their high self-righteous horses, stop the hypocrisy and get over it. People died for the right to vote, and to tell parishioners NOT to vote is foolish, hypocritical and an affront to real issues affecting the black community and this nation. This is not meek and humble/ This is ARROGANT.  It would be hard for me to imagine Jesus Christ telling people not to exercise their rights to vote with the possibility to make a world a better place for the least of these.

Until next Monday…