Excess and Unnecessary.

I support the death penalty. I think its effective method of punishment. I don't feel that everyone can be fixed. I heard a conversation today about people who felt the death penalty was an antiquated method of our judical system and that it should instead be substituted with a possible mind-altering drug or even more rigid prison sentences. Being that I have spent a considerable amount of time in a country that celebrates its use of the death penalty,I think I hold a bias towards death. It was effective. I understand that many people were unfairly put to death, so I do believe death should be reserved for those who, when evidence provided, are absolutely guilty not those unfortunately appointed a crappy lawyer. I drew up a program I intially wanted to push towards my state legislator (of which I will not go into any details about) a few years ago but I decided against. My program had death as the last possible means of 'fixing' these criminals because they had alreayd been given an exhaustive level of oppurtunity to better there lives. Every possible hand would be extended and more importantly visible for our imprisioned citizens. All they had to was take a hand and never look back. Once the fall back into the bad ways the will be put to death. I know its hard but what can you do? Given the options available to you being positive and you still make bad decisions, you obviosuly do not want to be a positive community role model. IF you can do no good for the collective then unfortunately you are no good to the whole. Excess and Unnecessary.

Islam in the mainstream.

The red haze that surrounds Islam in the headlines of our newspapers and televisions unfortunately leave me looking for a positive representation of my belief. I spent some time looking online for ideal leaders for Islam that have reached a level of noteriety who can possible use their image to couter the image set upon us by glorious miseducating headlines of international news. I came upon mostly sports stars who do little to change the negative social stigma of Islam, some which, Rasheed Wallace for example, has a history of violence and reckless behavior which goes against everything Islam preaches. Upon further research i find that T-pain and Akon are also Muslims. These two gentlemans are prolific in the hiphop scene, they have done work with just about everybody and continue to fill our clubs and house parties with music that preach sin. In saying this, i want to establish that I am not a prude and do enjoy some of these songs but the behavior of these men make it even worse for Muslims to be recognized as a positive. Recently Akon literally picked up a kid and through him offstage, in retalition for something thrown at him, a week before he was basically dry-humping a 15 year old girl on stage. Akon sings songs about ass-shaking and getting girls drunk so you can fuck them, which is perfect pop fodder. BUt this is not Islam. T-pain has had a huge amount of success from songs promoting like "Buy you a Drank", "I'm in Love With a Stripper", and a few other empty songs. Both of these singers have been known to make songs of depth and even sweetness but the sound associated with them is the resonation of self-destruction. I wish neither had come out with the fact that the were Muslim. Muslims like Dave Chapelle and Mos Def make it point to not speak on their religion because they do not want this beautiful religion to be associated with their weaknesses as human beings. Even though I speak negatively on Akon and T-Pain, it comes from my love of music and my love a positive image of Islam. Im tired of seeing Islam slandered and I do not like the way black music is reinforcing self-destruction. Hip-hop started out being about the DJ, then it evolved to the Dj and the Lyricist, then it became just about the Lyricist now its all about the bassline and hook. Its sad to see Hip-hop waterd down to where it has been but that is a blog for another time. Anyways, off track, these guys are our role models, the last thing we need is anymore western influence on Islam. The celebrity both these guys are blessed with has the power to persuade positive Muslims onto the wrong path. Both these men are capable of positive music, Akon especially. I still bump Ghetto and Locked Up. I think in order to make bank they are sacrificing themselves and their religion. Things have changed alot...Islam in the context of America society went from barely making ripples in the media to literally flooding your eyes and ears with bloodshed and aggression. Its enough we have people killing each other in the name of Islam, we do not need people numbing their minds and poisoning their bodies as a result of fellow Muslim brothers.
We need a move in the right direction.