2014 End Year Wrap Up In News, Pop Culture and Current Affairs, With An Awards Type Twist

Another year is ending and it's time for my second list of the year. Not many repeats but plenty of newbies. It appears ignorance continues to be as big of an epidemic as Ebola was.

Repeat:

OJ/Zimmerman award: Oscar Pistorius. You got off scot free. My advice: run with your artificial legs and hide.
Violent NFL player: (tie) Ray Rice and Suh. Ray, Ray, Ray. C'mon man, worry more about behaving than having to defend yourself when things go south. Suh, this goes double for you.

Dirty Butt award: The Kardashians. As much money as you ladies have, you all could put on some clothes.

Unjust award: The U.S. Justice System. You will continue to receive this award until matters improve. People have had enough of this unjust violence and killing.

Network that needs to be canceled: VH-1. The awful programming and TV movies continues. You are not a quality network at all when Hit The Floor is arguably your best show.

Newbies:

Corporate rant: Krispy Kreme doughnuts. When you all have a special, you need to staff and plan properly. I work in a packaging environment and your sluggish work ethic would not be tolerated. Perhaps you need the motivational manager from Target to come in and put some fire in you all.

Fake out award: Josh Shaw. C'mon man I know you're just a young man. But you should have learned how not to lie long ago, like kindergarten.

Troubled athlete: Jameis Winston. You're down to your last strike. Go ahead and go pro before you taint yourself further

Television rant: One Hour Premieres/Finales. This breeds an attitude of laziness and lack of creativity. I know you're required to produce x amount of shows/series. A two parter should neither be the premiere or finale. Cliffhangers have long been played out also.

Ratchet behavior: black weddings. Please, my people, try not to keep hungry guests waiting at the reception. And have everything organized. Here's a suggestion: ensure that the ceremony and the reception are at the same venue or close by.

Show Me The Money: Todd Gurley. You were on your way to the Heisman. The only honorable thing you did was being honest about breaking the rules.

Restaurant rant: TGI Fridays. Your endless apps promotion is like false advertising. You should make it more clear that it's one appetizer per person per visit.

Questionable behavior: these new names for children. It's like parents are being too creative. Some of the names are even hard for the adults to spell. Follow the KISS principle and stop trying to make children bigger targets for bullies.

School rants: excessive teacher workdays and awards days. I don't care what anyone says, the students are out of school now more than they ever have been. And all these excessive awards shows is doing is giving them an extra sense of entitlement.

Cell phone rant: Alltel to AT&T. You guys have NOT handled these merger well at all. You all better pray that I am not contacting the FCC in a few weeks.

Arrogant athlete: Brad Keslowski. You win one championship and you think you're the best in the game. Sit down somewhere and get back in line.

Overpriced accessory : athletic watches (Garmin, Fitbit, etc). How about RunKeeper, or one of the many other smartphone apps out for free and give me that $200?

Government issue: Roads in South Carolina and North Carolina. They haven't been properly maintained in over five years and people's vehicles are being destroyed. I suffered three flat tires over a weekend, unacceptable!

Ignorant outspoken one: Elizabeth Lauten. You should know you can't come after the President's children.

The what the what: Malaysian plane sonars. Ok this is two missing planes in a year's time. Get it together please!

Happy New Year and continue to live a life that will keep you off of lists like these

Standing Your Ground Is Brutal and Possible

I definitely can't breathe right now and it's more than just the continuous unjust murders of Black men by crooked law enforcement officers. It is the way it is being handled, the fallout and the fact that I have yet to see any effective action or plan to finally corral this madness.

Many people of all walks of life are sick and tired of either hearing about , seeing it or all the above.

I noted some possible solutions in my article I wrote when Troy Davis was unjustly executed a few years ago. The U.S. Justice System and law enforcement alike should be looked at more seriously as this is a dangerous pattern. I mean, really what will it take for this to come to a head? Will a person of great wealth and prominence have to be murdered first?

One thing is for sure, this type of thing has been going on for decades and even centuries. Sure things have improved but some things remain the same. Certain people have too much authority and abuse it.  They are power hungry and get an emotional high from flaunting their position. That should come as very little of a surprise to many.

However, here are some more points and observations I have made over the past few days.

1. One of the biggest problems here is the same things keep happening because the right people aren't doing the proper things to prevent it. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. Rioting and looting are violent, protests are often too peaceful, and boycotts are typically ineffective. There needs to be some proactive NOT reactive solutions made. We cannot complain and such after the fact. Action starts now before something tragic can happen again.

2. Although this problem appears geared towards blacks against crooked police and the justice system, keep this in mind. There are ignorant, violent and corrupt shells of humans in every profession. Good and evil always coexist. They make it bad for the ones that are good and actually serve and protect. Also, this transcends race, class, religious or political affiliation. It is an AMERICAN problem. That being said, we cannot get anything done until we have UNITY among like minded, positive people. History has proven that this is doable. We simply have to organize as a country and come to a consensus that this is a nationwide problem, like a virus.

3. History can be changed and made. It also repeats itself because of the aforementioned insanity going on. We fail to see where we are ineffective; therefore bad cops continue to murder whom they want, and the justice system is still broken.

4. Going back to unity, we need to agree that this violence is enough. No one wants to bury their loved ones, especially for unjust purposes. Change never comes easily and often takes time. However now is the moment for baby steps and for all of us to discover common, middle ground.

The streets can once again be safe, and stand your ground laws can mean something. You just have to be proactive in your approach to the powers that be, and have as many movers, shakers and heavy hitters as possible. Refuse to take no for an answer until we reach a point of greater peace. Then perhaps in 2015 or in a few more years, we can breathe a sigh of hope and relief again.

These are my thoughts and I am entitled to them. I wanted to think outside of the box because that seems to be most effective right now. We are trying to end a growing, ongoing problem. Therefore, we must do things out of our comfort zone that we have never did before. Our forefathers and ancestors did it to improve our generation. It is our turn now. Basically, be history or make history.

I gladly welcome all feedback and thoughts.