Electronic Village Milestone: 700 Posts!

Recently, a reporter asked me if I would be willing to go to jail as a result of my work as a blogger. My answer was 'No'. I consider my blog to be a hobby at this point. I don't consider a hobby worthy of prison time.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I realized this weekend that our Electronic Village just passed the 700-post milestone. We began on this blogging journey about 550 days ago on January 13, 2007. Can a hobby survive the 700-post milestone?

We have talked about our blogging milestones in the past:

• 100 posts (May 2007)
• 200 posts (Sep 2007)
• 1-year anniversary (Jan 2008)
• 500 posts (Mar 2008)

Sometimes it is difficult to keep up this blog. Part of my problem may be that I'm now operating two other blogs, BDPA in the News and BDPA Foundation. Also, I support a number of other blogging efforts to grow the influence of Black bloggers in the afrosphere via groups like The AfroSpear and a new Facebook group.

Villagers, you honor me by taking time from your day to read our blog, either in person or via RSS feed. I suspect that our blog is reaching a point where I need to make a decision about continuing the hobby or trying to take this to the next level.

I am very interested in hearing from villagers on what they would like to see from this blog.

What would you like to see more? What would you like to see less? What were your original reasons for becoming a villager?

This is an open thread for your comments, critique and suggestions. We want to improve this blog and we need your feedback to do so. What say u?

Sunday Inspirations: Prayer for Flood-Filled Days

Prayer for Flood-filled Days
by Rabbi Paul J. Kipnes

Our God and God of our fathers and mothers,
The flood waters came, wreaking havoc upon our cities, our homes,
our rescue workers, our sense of security, And we turn to You for comfort and support.

Help us to differentiate between floods of destruction and down-pouring of Your love and comfort.

We know that waters can destroy.
In a world decimated many times before, having been submerged in waters from the Florida hurricanes, the Asian tsunami, and ... each of Biblical proportions, we remember the destructive abilities of these flood waters.

Recalling now that the world, though filled with Your Glory,
is not equal to Your flawlessness,
we strive desperately, sometimes without success,
to move beyond the impulse to blame You.
Keep us far from apocalyptic thoughts,
for we know that You ask us to care for each other,
an awesome responsibility.

We also know that we can seek You in the waters. We recall Your Loving Hand, guiding us in our infancy:

From a barren rock, You brought forth water to quench our thirst,

In the midst of a journey through the wilderness, You showed Miriam a myriad of wells which healed our parched throats, You guided us through Yam Suf, the Red Sea, moving us past destruction toward new life and new beginnings.

Through Your love, we found our way.

Be with us now, during these deluged days.

Draw us close to those harmed by these waters, hearing their
cries, responding to their needs.

Lead us to support those who will fix the cities,
care for the displaced, who bring healing to those suffering.

Though our attention spans seem so short, may we
be slow to forget those who were in danger.

Please bring a warm wind and hot sun from the heavenly realms to help dry up the flood waters.

And may we all embrace at least one lesson spoken aloud by so many who -- facing the floods -- rushed to pack up their valuables:

That memories of love and of time spent with family and friends are priceless, holy and sacred.
This can never be taken away.

As we rush to meet the challenge of living in this
imperfect world of ours, May we slow down enough to cherish those who are truly valuable -- holy -- to us.

Blessed are You, O God, who differentiates between the truly Valuable and everything else.

Road Kill T-Shirt Sells Racist Anti-Obama T-Shirts

Drumbeats from Black Political Thought showed us that racist feelings in our nation continue to run strong. Check out these racist t-shirts being sold on 'Road Kill T-Shirts' website.


Difficult to argue that racism isn't alive and well when you see folks selling t-shirts that show KKK members chasing presidential candidate Barack Obama or feature swinging nooses.

Road Kill T-Shirts tried to distance themselves from the racist t-shirts on their website. “We recently hired a freelancer to create designs and post them on our site,” wrote Mike from Road Kill T-Shirts. “We have teams of them and, unfortunately, these were put up in the last couple of days without approval. While the site can be edgy…I can guarantee you this is not the type of stuff we approve of.”

Villagers, we need to keep our eyes on the look-out for this type of racist nonsense over the next five months. When we see it ... we must call it ... and it must be stopped. That is my thought. What say u?