Happy New Year – 2013!

So at the beginning of the year have a plan for what you want to achieve during this year.  Doing so has kept me on the steady road of being able to seize opportunities.  Each day I try to focus just on that day’s task at hand, and not look at too much of the past, too much of the future.  Everything I want in the future will be there if I take care of today and do today like today is supposed to be done.  Then I figure one day I’ll stop and look behind me and say, ‘Hey, you know, there’ve been some good achievements along the way.‘ “
—    Ice Cube
Quoted by Charles Barkley in his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“
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On This Day In:
2022	Happy New Year — 2022!
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2021	Happy New Year — 2021!
	Facing The New Year
2020	Happy New Year — 2020!
2019	Happy New Year — 2019!
2018	Happy New Year — 2018!
2017	Happy New Year — 2017!
2016	Happy New Year — 2016!
	Remembering My Brother
2015	Happy New Year — 2015!
2014	Happy New Year – 2014!
2013	Another New Year’s Thought (In Case It Rains)
	Happy New Year – 2013!
2012	Best Wishes For 2012!
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2011	Happy New Year (2011)!!

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At Your Marks!

What I’m trying to get across, as a final thought, is that if you encourage people to venture beyond their natural environment and get them to interact with people they believe are different, they’ll find that we have a lot more in common than we think.  But silence isn’t going to get it done.  Ignoring the problem isn’t going to get it done.  Clinging to old stereotypes isn’t going to get it done.  Dialogue is the best place to start.  Hell, it’s the only place to start.
—    Charles Barkley
From his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“
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Echoes of 1%

I’ll take it even a step further.  I believe poor folks, black and white, have been virtually brainwashed to hate each other.  Not only are they going to be successful if they band together, but America is dominated by financial subcultures now.  Poor folks go their whole lives fighting each other, while small groups of people, laughing all the way to the bank, carve up the whole big pie of money.  Man, you talk about divide and conquer.  You’ve got too many people not working together, believing race is their problem when poverty and bad schools are their problem, and before you know it, there’s a small group of people who have all the money.  As long as they keep the poor people divided, those poor people are never going to be able to get a decent-size piece of the pie.
-–    Charles Barkley
From his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?”
[We are the 99%!!  Can you hear us now?   —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
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2020	Precious Life
2019	Nothing Is Too Difficult For Me
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2018	And May Never Be
2017	Don’t Forget
2016	I Was A Percentage Man
2015	It Waits Patiently
2014	Unknown
2013	Explaining Love?
2012	Echoes of 1%
2011	Salaam, Egypt!!
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Believe In Yourself

If you believe in yourself, that’s number one.  Second is you’ve got to be willing to work hard.  Nobody gives you anything; it doesn’t happen overnight.  You have to be willing to stay in the trenches and work hard.  And third is you’ve got to understand how to communicate effectively across all different levels of interaction.  You have to learn how to interpret people and understand what they want from you and what you can give to them.  And that goes into believing in yourself.  I don’t care if you’re going to sweep the streets; be the best street sweeper you can be.  If you go in there with that attitude, that I’m as good as the next guy, you may not end up being the richest guy in the world, you may not end up being the best ballplayer in the world, you may not end up being a senator from Illinois.  But you’re going to know in your mind that you are doing the best you can do based on your belief in yourself.
—    Robert Johnson
Founder of Black Entertainment Television
Quoted in:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“, written by Charles Barkley
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On This Day In:
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2021	The Silent Word
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2020	Releasing Their Fears
2019	17 Days Until The Next Government Shutdown
2018	Disciplined Models
2017	We Cannot Afford Enemies
2016	Love Is Just A State Of Mind
2015	Waiting?
2014	Big C, Little B (II)
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2013	Chasing His Dragon
	Shaped And Molded
2012	Believe In Yourself
2011	Cultural Equivalence
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The Screw-Up Gene

We all have what I call the screw-up gene in us.  In order to keep it from taking over and ruining your life, you have to surround yourself with good people.
—    Charles Barkley
From his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“
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On This Day In:
2022	Limited Knowledge And No Control
2021	Gifts
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2020	A Strength Of Science
2019	A Higher Standard
	Make Two Calls
2018	Irreplaceable Sparks
2017	Saving For April 15th
2016	First Wish
2015	Tracing Shadows
2014	One Thing
2013	More Is Less
2012	The Screw-Up Gene

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Not The Best Prediction I’ve Ever Read

Barack can bring people together.  It won’t be enough to get him elected president of the United States, but it would sure be something.  Personally, I don’t think America will ever have a black president.  The racial divide runs too deep.  But Barack will be a good test if he does run for the Oval Office.  If America can’t find him qualified and appealing enough to elect, that would tell you just about everything you need to know.  But I don’t want to limit the focus — and our perception of him — to that one question.
Instead of asking what Barack Obama can become, we should ask ourselves what we can do to become more like Barack Obama.
—    Charles Barkley
From his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?” (2005©)
[I guess Sir Charles should stick to sports commentary and stay away from political predictions.  Still, I predicted the same thing in 2008 and I was wrong too.   —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
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2020	Careful About Myth Telling
2019	My Irish Diet
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2018	Feeling Both
2017	Just Start
2016	Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall
2015	Restraint At The Inn
2014	To Not Discovering
2013	I Have Less To Say
2012	Not The Best Prediction I’ve Ever Read

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Made Any Assumptions Lately?

The second thing, I believe, is that we tend to make assumptions about people who aren’t in our crowd that aren’t accurate.  For example, most poor people are not on welfare;  they work.  I think that most poor people would agree that the best social program is a job, and that work is a lot better than welfare.  Many, many poor people are the most anticrime people you can imagine, because they’re the people most likely to be victimized by it.
—    Former President Bill Clinton
Quoted in:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“, written by:  Charles Barkley
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On This Day In:
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2017	Feeling Small Standing In Front Of My Shelves
2016	Show Willing
2015	If He Only Knew…
2014	Dared To Love
2013	Strong Kung-Fu
2012	Two Tribes
2011	Made Any Assumptions Lately?

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Still And Too Often

Too often fear has been used to keep us apart.  It’s the fear of the unknown.  That’s what segregation created and built up over time.  We spent so much time hating each other that we never stopped to realize that most black people and white people just want the same things in life.
Now that we’re no longer legally separated by race, we’re separated by money.  So we still don’t live together;  we still don’t get to see the best qualities we each have to offer.
—    Charles Barkley
From his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“
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On This Day In:
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2020	The Importance You Can Have
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2019	A Lifestyle
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2018	The Children Are Our Future
2017	And Three
2016	Nine Parts Mystery
2015	Little Or No Common Ground
2014	Just Between Me
2013	Beyond The Strings
2012	Saving The Union
2011	Still And Too Often

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Just That Simple

It’s just that simple.  You go to work.  You always go to work.
—    Samuel L. Jackson
From:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?”  by Charles Barkley
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Take Responsibility

At some point we know we have to take responsibility.  Nobody is forcing parents to not look after their children.
Obviously, in some situations, there is a lot of poverty.  And it’s a lot more difficult.  But our grandparents were poorer than that and they looked after their children.  Poverty didn’t strip our ancestors of their sense of responsibility.
—    Senator Barack Obama
Quoted by:   Charles Barkley
From his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man“
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Read A Book

…It’s not ‘acting white’ to read a book.  This whole attitude of anti-intellectualism in our communities is one of the most damaging things that we can do to our young people.  No other culture I’m aware of does this:  tell you it is to your advantage not to be smart.  It doesn’t make any sense.
—    Senator Barack Obama
From the book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“,
Written by:  Charles Barkley
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A Key To Effectiveness

One of the keys for a black leader to be effective is that white people can’t be afraid of him.  White people have all the money and power, and if they’re going to help black people, if they’re going to listen to their complaints, they have to be approached in a nonthreatening way.
—    Charles Barkley
From his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“
[From the preface to his interview with then Senator Barack Obama]
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Got Knowledge?

Another of the things that I’ve realized from traveling around the world and playing all over the place is:  The only way to make a difference is to be informed.  You have to be informed.  You have to have knowledge.  You have to have an education.  You have to realize how important it is to be able to read and write, develop your mind, to be able to articulate your ideas and communicate with anyone.
—    Tiger Woods
Quoted in:   “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“
Written by:  Charles Barkley
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Let Us Start

I know people will disagree whenever race is a topic, but that’s part of the point.  We shouldn’t be so scared to disagree or to argue that we just avoid something that everybody knows is so destructive.  I want to try and start a dialogue.  I want to sit down with people and have open, positive discussions about race and how they feel about where we’re going, what’s good, what’s bad, what smart people ought to be thinking.
—    Charles Barkley
From his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“
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Little By Little

I’ve said a million times that racism is the biggest cancer of my lifetime.  There’s not a chance in the world I can eliminate it or solve it.  But I can’t sit around and say nothing.  I can, because of my position in life, try to start a more public discussion of race and how prejudice just kills us all little by little.
—    Charles Barkley
From his book:  “Who’s Afraid Of A Large Black Man?“
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