What a genius we lost yesterday. A true Soul Brother for the world. Rest in Peace, you are in the sun now.
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R.I.P. Richie Havens
Posted in Soul Brother Presents
Tagged memorial, music, r&b, Richie Havens, soul, video, Woodstock
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Love
Posted in Thoughts of the Soul Brother
Tagged Buddha, inspiration, life, love, message
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Thirty Seconds To Mars – Up In The Air
I like! This is a fantastic conceptual video.
Posted in Soul Brother's Music Videos
Tagged 30 Seconds to Mars, Jared Leto, music, rock, Up In The Air, video
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R.I.P.D.
My first thought: This is a “Men In Black” for dead people. I may wait for this on DVD….SMH. R.I.P.D. arrives in theatres on July 19, 2013. R.I.P.D. stars Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeff Bridges.
Posted in Soul Brother Presents
Tagged action, comedy, entertainment, film, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon, Mary Louise-Parker, Men In Black, MIB, movie, R.I.P.D., Ryan Reynolds
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Props to the Planet
Today is Earth Day!!! Yay!!
Infant Mortality Numbers Declining in the U.S.
By Cheri Cheng
According to the latest statistics presented by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the infant mortality rate within the United States has been steadily declining from 2005 to 2011. This new statistic reveals a positive turn after the infant mortality rate stay stagnant between the years of 2000 and 2005. The latest findings reported that the number of deaths in babies under one-year-old dropped from 6.87 per 1,000 infants in 2000 to 6.05 per 1,000 infants in 2011. Not only do these numbers reveal overall improvement, the CDC found that infant mortality rate declined the most in certain areas within the nation.
“We are seeing a slight narrowing in the gap, and that’s very encouraging,” the senior statistician from the National Center for Health Statistics and study author, Marian F. MacDorman stated. “But the gap is still really big.”
The researchers found that infant mortality rate dropped the most in African American mothers. Over the past seven years of this study, the death rate for African American infants dropped by 16 percent, which is a huge improvement since previous numbers revealed that infant mortality is the highest in African Americans, with African American infants dying twice as much as Caucasian infants. In terms of regional decline, the report stated that Southern states, which included Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, which have been known to have higher rates of infant mortality than other region within the country, had a decline of over 20 percent from 2005 to 2010.
The states with the recorded highest percentages of infant deaths are Mississippi, whose infant mortality rate dropped 15 percent, and Alabama. The researchers added that in the District of Columbia, which recently adapted better programs to help the poor and pregnant community, had the largest decline in numbers of infant death. In 2005, the rate of deaths was 14.05 per 1,000 births and fell to 7.86 in 2010.
The researchers of this latest report attributed the decline to the decline in premature babies. The rate of premature births soared in 2006 at 12.8 percent, but has decreased steadily since then. The report stated that of the five leading causes of infant deaths, rates declined in four of them, which were congenital malformations, short gestation periods resulting in lower birth wrights, sudden infant death syndrome and maternal complications. The last leading factor, which is unintentional injuries, actually increased slightly.
The researchers also stated that another possible contributor to the drop in rates could be the recent campaigns against scheduled deliveries that are considered to be early. Although full term pregnancies are considered to be from the range of 37 to 41 weeks, some hospitals are preventing pregnant women from opting for a delivery before 39 weeks unless there is a medical reason. These programs, which include the March of Dimes campaign, Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait, could already be educating the public on ways to keep infants healthy and avoid premature deaths.
“Its [the campaign] been going on for a few years now and I think it has had an impact. It’s maybe leading to just a little change in the culture,” MacDorman stated.
Read More Infant Mortality Numbers Declining in the U.S. : News : Counsel & Heal.
Allen Iverson, NBA icon, struggles with life after basketball
By Kent Babb
Less than an hour before the 8 p.m. tipoff, Philadelphia 76ers employees are scurrying around the Wells Fargo Center, hoping this Saturday night unfolds as planned.
It’s late March, and the team is handing out Allen Iverson bobblehead dolls. Iverson himself is scheduled to attend, a rare public appearance for the 37-year-old former NBA superstar. He’ll be introduced during a pregame ceremony and then watch the game from Sixers chief executive Adam Aron’s suite. But Iverson isn’t here yet, and a troubling rumor is passing through the arena’s arteries: Iverson has missed his flight.
“He’ll be on time,” Aron says assuredly. “That’s all that matters.”
Three years after Iverson’s last NBA game, the spotlight has shifted from his play to his flaws. His refusal back then to play by society’s rules was seen as an independent player’s quirks, part of the character and the brand, same as his cornrows and tattoos.
Practicing with hangovers added to the legend. Skipping team functions and refusing to obey the league’s dress code was a man who wouldn’t be held down. And embarrassing defenders on the way to the basket, in the NBA and before that at Georgetown, was a nightly statement by the 6-foot, 165-pound guard: If a man, no matter his size, is determined enough, he can get the better of giants.
But Iverson isn’t a basketball player anymore. This is something most everyone but Iverson has accepted, and for years a question worried those closest to him: What happens when the most important part of a man’s identity, the beam supporting the other unstable matter, is no longer there?
For the past three years, as Iverson chased an NBA comeback, his marriage fell apart and much of his fortune – he earned more than $150 million in salary alone during his career – dissolved. Now, those who once ignored past signals have recognized that basketball may have been the only thing holding Iverson’s life together.
“He has hit rock bottom, and he just hasn’t accepted it yet,” says former Philadelphia teammate Roshown McLeod.
A few minutes before 8 o’clock, a black Suburban pulls into the players’ parking lot. At 7:59, the passenger door opens, and Iverson climbs out, shouting profanity. Then he notices Aron, who wraps his arms around Iverson. They walk toward the entrance, Iverson still shouting, for one more night under the lights.
“God gave him this great gift,” says Pat Croce, the former Sixers executive who selected Iverson first overall in the 1996 NBA draft. “But you knew one day, he was going to take it away.”
‘I worry about him’
Iverson stood during a divorce proceeding in Atlanta in 2012 and pulled out his pants pockets. “I don’t even have money for a cheeseburger,” he shouted toward his estranged wife, Tawanna, who then handed him $61.
The scene showed a stark side of a man who had captivated crowds, pushed boundaries, and became one of the NBA’s biggest stars. He did things his way, on his schedule, speaking honestly during news conferences and snubbing the professional sports establishment. Crowds connected with Iverson, who’d succeeded despite physical limitations and mistakes, such as a felony conviction at 18 for his role in a bowling-alley brawl in Hampton, Va., his home town.
Read More Allen Iverson, NBA icon, struggles with life after basketball – The Washington Post.
Posted in News from the Soul Brother
Tagged Allen Iverson, basketball, NBA, Pat Croce, Philadelphia 76ers, Roshown McLeod, sports, Wells Fargo Center
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Poverty in America: Millions of families too broke for bank accounts
by Bob Sullivan
Sabino Fuentes-Sanchez hid $25,000 all around his house because he didn’t trust banks. Lasonia Christon receives her Walmart salary on a pre-paid debit card. Kim James was homeless for most of the past decade in part because she had no place to save money.
There are plenty of reasons people still live all-cash lives, but the sheer number who do it might surprise you. At a time when the majority of Americans use online banking, and some even deposit checks using their cellphone cameras, roughly eight percent of America’s 115 million households don’t have a checking or savings account, according to census data compiled by the FDIC.
The numbers are far higher among minorities: More than 20 percent of African-Americans and Hispanics are essentially left out of the American banking system.
Frozen in the cash-only past, they face myriad “kick-them-while-they-are-down” situations where getting money costs money. Banks typically charge $6 to cash checks. Want to secure an apartment? Fee-based money orders are the only option. Without credit cards, they must turn to triple-digit interest rate payday loans for emergencies.
Who are the unbanked? Many are poor – 56 percent earn less than $15,000 annually.
Read More Poverty in America: Millions of families too broke for bank accounts – In Plain Sight.
soulbrotherspeaks.com 
The Fight Over Gun Control Has Revealed America’s New Civil War
By Robert Reich
The deeper message here is that rural, older, white America occupies one land; younger, urban, increasingly non-white America lives in another. And the dividing line on social issues (not just guns, but also abortion, equal marriage rights, and immigration reform) runs between the two.
Yes, I know: Plenty of people who are rural, older, and white aren’t regressives on guns, abortion, equal marriage, and immigration. And plenty who are urban, younger, and non-white are. My point is that if you want to explain what’s happening in America on these non-economic issues you have to understand what’s happening to the nation demographically — and why the demographic split is important.
Begich, Baucus, Pryor, and Heitkamp may be Democrats but they’re also from rural, older, white America. That land has disproportionate political power in the Senate, and a gerrymandered House — which may not bode well for immigration reform over the next few months, and suggests continuing battles over “state’s rights” to determine who can marry and when human life begins.
Over time, though, older, rural, white America is losing ground to a nation becoming ever younger, more urban, and increasingly non-white — a fact that threatens the former so much that it’s in full backlash against the forces of change.
Read More The Fight Over Gun Control Has Revealed America’s New Civil War | Alternet.