Welcome! This free speech community journal was created so the Maple Heights African American community could share videos, photos, events, articles, posts, ideas, thoughts, and information.  We're now exclusively on Facebook, so don't forget to also check out our Facebook page.  Have a fantastic day!



Saturday, November 29, 2014

MSNBC THE LAST WORD: SHOCKING MISTAKE IN DARREN WILSON GRAND JURY

Friday, November 28, 2014

NANCY GRACE SAYS (RE: DARREN WILSON) "IT DOESN'T ADD UP"

MORE REVELATIONS ABOUT THE TAMIR RICE KILLING

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE TAMIR RICE KILLING

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

THE ROOT: 12 THINGS WHITE PEOPLE CAN DO NOW BECAUSE OF FERGUSON

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

CLEVELAND PROTESTS AGAINST POLICE KILLINGS

DISTURBING: TEAR GAS, A CHEMICAL WEAPON BANNED IN WAR, USED ON FERGUSON CITIZENS

MORE POLICE SHOOTINGS - WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON THESE SITUATIONS?

NO INDICTMENT IN FERGUSON CASE

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Monday, November 24, 2014

"OPEN CARRY": AN EXCUSE FOR OPEN SEASON ON BLACKS

Saturday, November 22, 2014

MAPLE HEIGHTS LISTED NO. 33 ON N.E. OHIO MEDIA GROUP'S TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT RANKINGS

OHIO SENATE PASSES BILL TO BAN TRAFFIC CAMS THROUGHOUT OHIO

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

FROM BLACK VOICES: FERGUSON PROTESTERS FEAR POLICE CRACKDOWN AFTER GRAND JURY DECISION

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

THE GRANDMARCH: THE TRADITIONAL UNITY DANCE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS



In 1986, the Cleveland branch of the N.A.A.C.P. accepted the awesome and unifying Grandmarch as the traditional national unity dance of African Americans. The aesthetic, proud and sophisticated Grandmarch should be performed at all African American weddings, family reunions and social events.


The Grandmarch should also be listed in Arts and Physical Education Curricula and taught in the schools and universities.


The Grandmarch is described in the best selling book “The Grandmarch Spirit of African Americans” by author Frank R. Ross, which was published in 2004.  Additionally, The Grandmarch is described in the best seller, “Soul Dancing, The Essential African American Cultural Dance Book” - author Frank R. Ross - published in 2011 by the National Dance Association.  

                                 
The traditional attire for the National African American Unity Dance consists of a black suit, white shirt, black bowtie and a length of kente cloth over the left shoulder of the man. The women are encouraged to wear white dresses or ball gowns with a length of piece of kente pinned to the upper right front of the dress.  Historically, this style of dress has been traditional at social affairs in the black community.

                               
The high school and university language arts curriculum should include these acclaimed books on their required reading lists:

Up from Slavery” by Booker T. Washington.


Black Boy” by Richard Wright.   
                
                    
 "If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world and it stands in danger of being exterminated" Dr.Carter G.Woodson, Father of Black History Month.


Frank R.Ross 
Concept founder of the National African American Unity dance and attire.
216.253.6934 

RELATED:

BLACK HISTORY FACT: HOWARD THURMAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN THEOLOGIAN AND AUTHOR, BORN ON THIS DATE IN 1899

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

OHIO STATE REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BARNES JR FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST OHIO DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ITS CHAIRMAN

Friday, November 7, 2014

BLACK HISTORY FACT: ALEXA CANADY, AFRICAN AMERICAN NEUROSURGEON BORN ON THIS DATE IN 1950

Thursday, November 6, 2014

TUESDAY WAS A WAKE UP CALL FOR A LOT OF LOCAL POLITICIANS

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Rather than blame individuals for losses at the polls, Maple Heights City Hall should have been astute enough to smell the political and economic climate.

A Washington Times editorial:

"Voters are smarter than the politicians sometimes figure. Tuesday wasn’t a good day only for the men and women running for office under the Republican banner; it was a smashing day for lower taxes, responsible spending and government transparency as well. Ballot measures everywhere put economic policy to the ultimate test.

A stick-it-to-the-rich proposal on the ballot in Nevada would have imposed a 2 percent tax on businesses with more than $1 million in annual revenues. The money collected was to have been earmarked for public schools, but voters saw through the “for the children” ruse and realized increasing the cost of doing business by $750 million was a dumb thing to do in a stagnant economy. This big idea was thumped by a 4-to-1 margin on Tuesday.

Tennessee voters had the good judgment to amend the state constitution to forbid state and local governments from implementing an income tax. This will preserve Tennessee’s reputation as a good place to live and do business. Georgia has an income tax, so residents decided to minimize the damage politicians can do by voting 3-to-1 to cap the income-tax rate so that lawmakers will be powerless to raise it in the future.

Even blue states such as Massachusetts are warming to fiscal responsibility. Residents weary of living in a state nicknamed “Taxachusetts” repealed a law enacted last year that automatically raises the state gasoline tax every year by the inflation rate. They jettisoned a scheme to apply bottle-deposit fees to containers of water, juice, sports drinks and most other beverages.

Legislators in Maryland and Wisconsin have made raiding their state transportation funds to finance pet projects an annual rite of passage, so voters have fought back with constitutional amendments preventing a raid on fuel taxes and motor-registration fees to pad the general fund. The limitations garnered more than 80 percent of the vote.

The vote tallies were also big at the local level. In Cleveland and its suburb Maple Heights, Ohio, voters repudiated the city council’s decision to station automated highwaymen on every street corner. Ballot initiatives forbidding local officials from using revenue cameras passed by three-fourths of the vote. When the city council in St. Peters, Mo., refused to listen to constituents on the issue, the St. Charles County Council proposed a charter amendment prohibiting revenue speed cameras within the county limits — including St. Peters. It passed with 73 percent of the vote."

Until many local politicians "wake up and smell the political and economic coffee" their cities will continue to decline not just in population, but a decline in more services and more revenue.  Voters hate non-accountable, judgmental, "try to scare you to death", non transparent, bullying, money grabbing politicians; and some things are more important to voters than salary giveaways to certain government employees,  padding certain pensions, and allowing *more and more non-residents to serve as local government employees (which helps stifle local economies - there needs to be a balance).

It's time to listen to the majority of city residents and not the few!!

"Traffic cameras are automated speed traps that have sped over the public's right to due process.   The money they generate amounts to a traffic tax.    70% of the automated tickets were issued to drivers from outside the city.    Every street that has the cameras essentially becomes a toll road."



The courts have done an injustice to many cities in Ohio

by allowing unyielding non residency requirements and that's a shame.

* For residency requirements
• Local control/home rule
• Spends local tax dollars on residents/taxpayers
• Stems "middle-class" flight and provides economic stability to certain urban neighborhoods
• Provides employment for residents
• Provides racial and ethnic balance in public employment jobs
• Benefit of certain workers living in close proximity to their work station
• Benefit of staff living and working in the communities they protect and educate
• Longer commute times impact employees, congestion, and transportation infrastructure
• Money circulates within the city helping to stabilize the local economy
  • Resentment by local residents is quelled.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

PETITIONERS WIN BIG VICTORY AGAINST THE TRAFFIC CAMS IN CLEVELAND AND MAPLE HEIGHTS






-- - MORE NEWS

Arizona, Ohio, Missouri Jurisdictions Also Reject Photo Enforcement

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

ISSUE 14 REAFFIRMS THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO VOTE IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY

FROM MAPLE HEIGHTS NEWS: A LOOK AT WHERE THE MONEY IS COMING FROM RE: ISSUE 99

Saturday, November 1, 2014

MAPLE HEIGHTS RESIDENTS RALLY IN PROTEST OF TRAFFIC CAMS