Kwame Ture on Haiti

"Don't I know you?"

I'm tired of people coming up to me talking that old "Don't I know you?" or "You look so familiar....." I would  understand this if this was Hollywood and paparazzi is all around you snapping pics with the people trying get a look at you but it's not. Most of the time you're just walking through Walmart or waiting for a table at a restaurant when some stranger wants to have a 5 minute conversation with you in hopes that they'll remember where they know you from. Where I live is small, but its not that small and you very well might not know half the people you see.

I can see if this exchange would end with me saying "Naw I don't think I know you....' but 9 times out of 10 it does now. People will begin to ask if I attended different schools I've never heard of, ask where I grew up at, my previous employment history. If that does not ring any bells than they'll resort to asking me if I know people from any of the places I mentioned. "You from St Louis? You know Pookie and Smoke?"

Now don't get me wrong, the attention I've received can be great sometimes but most times I feel awkward. I feel like I'm a unique human being and there is nobody out there like me but I'm constantly being accused of being or reminding someone of someone else. Do I have 101 clones running around? Am I not as different as I think I am? Or on the flip side, am I that awesome that people just want to know me? Is this how celebs feel about their personal space and privacy? I just want to go out and have a great time without being recognized sometimes. That old don't" I know you from somewhere" or you look familiar is becoming too familiar to me.

Children: How should we raise them??

A child should be raised to have basic values, a moral character and a genuine personality. One who tries to instill those things in a child early on will have the least amount of road to travel when it comes to adapting him/her in the social structure of the world.

How can you develop a child that has the moral fibers needed to control the pressure of sex, guns and chasing the almighty dollar? Is religion the right answer? Is trying to befriend your child and take the chance that they might not grow up respecting the role of a parent vs child a better way? What type of fear should a child have for their parent? I can say going from a child to having my own that there are many ways that can be effective but you have to be an example they can learn from.

"What I most remember was an abiding sense of comfort and security. I got plenty of mothering, not only from Pop and my brothers and sisters when they were home, but from the whole of our close-knit community." Singer and Actor Paul Robeson

I can remember the different styles of discipline each one of my parents used which I felt in a way created the balance and core structure of who I am today. I also feel that it takes a community to raise a child coupled with tough love. People who respect tough love will tell you how they learned a valuable lesson from it and how being reprimanded as a child helped them in their adult life. Raising children is not cut & dry and will always require a combination of different styles and methods but our parents and the generations before them had the right idea on how we should raise children. The further we deviate from the 'old school' way of child rearing, the worse off our children will become.