Dropping In

Hey world. I know I have been M.I.A this past month or so and I would like to apologize. A lot has been going on with The Providence Packers Youth Football program. We are finally getting the kids on the field of play. After 2 years of struggling, begging and fighting to get this program to a viable state, my partner (Wayne Blackmon) and I can finally take a moment to smell the roses. Our 2008 2nd Annual Golf Classic was a booming success. We would like to thank all of the participants who showed us love this year. We also want to mention a few people who were instrumental in our tournament success. Thank you to the following people for their help and support. Bear in mind these names are not in any particular order:

Earl Nichols, Tom Leasca, Prince Reid (Amtrak), Camille's Roman Garden, Chris Gasbarros Liquors, Joe Brooks (Essex), Jennifer Hendrick (Exeter Country Club), Pink Women (URI), B.O.N.D (URI), Meagan and a multitude of others. If I forgot to include your name, please charge that to my mind and not my heart as we appreciate each and every one of you.

To all of the golfers who attended, thank you very much for your support and we hope to see you again next year.

Before closing, I would just like to send out our condolences to the families and friends of two of our American icons. Mr. Bernie Mac and Mr. Issac Hayes. There will be a large void left in the world with the passing of these two great men. They were shining examples of the greatness that can be achieved with hard work and determination. I for one will miss them greatly.

Now that our kids will be taking the field, our work is just beginning. I intend to update and keep current our website so please visit from time to time and see what we are doing. I will try to keep more current with this page as time begins to permit but until then.

Peace and Blessings

Rick V

Just Popping In

Been real busy getting the youth football program in full swing. The 2008 season is upon us and there is so much to do. We anticipate 250 kids this year and hopefully, a trip to the Pop Warner Finals in Orlando Fla. so wish us luck. If you get the chance, visit us for stats and updates at our website:

http://www.freewebs.com/providencepackers/

We are a federally recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization so please feel free to hit the Donations button to your left and make a tax deductable donation to the program. Everything we do is for the youth and we appreciate your support

Now on to something I am very proud to announce. Amber Campbell, the sister of a very good friend of mine (Brian Jones) http://cbi5thgear.blogspot.com/ has qualified and is a member of the 2008 Olympic Track and Field team. She throws the hammer and we are all proud of her. I know she has worked very hard and i am glad the hard work paid off. Please check out her blogpage for info and updates. We really need more positive role models like her in these trying times. You can find her at http://ambercampbellthrows.blogspot.com/. The lady is fierce so lens her your support.

Well, gotta go as there is work to be done. I have not forsaken you and I will be returning with more food for the brain and soul soon but right now, it is all about the kids.

Amber Campbell in 2008. We got you!!!

Peace and Blessing

Is George Bush Afraid of Water ?

Yo. Sorry I have been MIA. Youth football is starting to kick in and there is so much that needs to be done. The Providence Packers will be on the field in 2008. Stay tuned for updates. In the meantime, come on and take a little ride with me.

I was watching the BET Awards show last night and a statement was made that really got me to think. We (U.S.) have been the victims of some major flooding all across the country. Back when New Orleans was devastated by the floods, I often heard my counterparts state that anyone who lives in a state that much below sea level was not to bright and they deserved whatever they got so I did a little research. Although New Orleans is 8 feet below sea level, Death valley California is 282 ft below sea level. There are 23 states at sea level leaving 27 states above sea level ranging from 1 ft, the Potomac river in Washington D.C. to 3.250 ft above being the Arkansas River. I guess we should all just leave the country if we were to follow the thought process of my counterparts. Even though it is appalling that even now, nothing much has been done to correct the situation in New Orleans, it is equally bad that there is nothing currently being done in Iowa, Missouri and other flood ravaged states. We are supposed to be the most powerful nation on the planet and we consistently ignore the plight of our fellow Americans while we spend trillions of dollars abroad trying to fix other nations problems. I am not saying that we should not help out other countries, I am just a firm believer that charity begins at home.

Thru this whole dilemma, I feel great being able to bring one thing to light. Brother Kanye West once made this statement on national TV at an awards show that based on President Bushes slow response to the plight in New Orleans, he did not give a damn about black people. Well, from what I see, he has not made much of an impact and his response time has been equally as slow now in the mid-western regions.

I have concluded that President Bush's issue is not that he doe not like or care about black people,

" He just doesn't care or give a damn about WET people".

I think this is evident by his dry sense of humor, his dry delivery of speeches, his dry hairdo. If these people were flooded in oil, George Will would be there with the quickness scraping them off with a squeegee.

What a difference a day makes. Keep your head up and your feet dry.

Peace and Blessings

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

OPEC sells oil for $136.00 a barrel.

OPEC nations buy Canadian and U.S. grain at $7.00 a bushel.

Solution: Sell grain for $136.00 a bushel.

Can't buy it? Tough! Eat your oil!

Peace and blessings

"Bo Knows Music" Why Did We Not Know A Legendary and Historical Icon Passed

It is with deep regret I would like to acknowledge the death of Tim Russert. Known as one of the news medias shining stars of the decade. Alright, that being said,

Why has my television, radio, newspaper been inundated with stories about this gentleman. OK, he reported the news and that is important but there are millions of people doing it. Some better, some worse but why did I not get bombarded with the news of the death of Luther Vandross, Gerald Levert, James Brown, people who changed the face of history as we know it. To go a little deeper, Bo Diddley. I am sure there were whispers in the media but it blew thru quickly like a March wind. This gentleman set a standard of music for generation after generation, black and white, they all took a little piece of Bo. They all stole what "Bo Knows". Well, even though the media did not feel it was important an issue to bombard us with, I do so buckle up the seat belts and let's take a ride and find out exactly what "Bo Knows".

Peace and Blessings

Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday June 2, 2008 after months of ill health. He was 79. Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton.
Diddley appreciated the honors he received, "but it didn't put no figures in my checkbook."
"If you ain't got no money, ain't nobody calls you honey," he quipped.

The name Bo Diddley came from other youngsters when he was growing up in Chicago, he said in a 1999 interview. "I don't know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name," he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow.

His first single, "Bo Diddley," introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as "shave and a haircut, two bits." The B side, "I'm a Man," with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard.
The company that issued his early songs was Chess-Checkers records, the storied Chicago-based labels that also recorded Chuck Berry and other stars.

Howard Kramer, assistant curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, said in 2006 that Diddley's Chess recordings "stand among the best singular recordings of the 20th century."
Diddley's other major songs included, "Say Man," "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," "Shave and a Haircut," "Uncle John," "Who Do You Love?" and "The Mule."
Diddley's influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic. Buddy Holly borrowed the bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp rhythm for his song "Not Fade Away." The Rolling Stones' bluesy remake of that Holly song gave them their first chart single in the United States, in 1964. The following year, another British band, the Yardbirds, had a Top 20 hit in the U.S. with their version of "I'm a Man."

Diddley was also one of the pioneers of the electric guitar, adding reverb and tremelo effects. He even rigged some of his guitars himself. "He treats it like it was a drum, very rhythmic," E. Michael Harrington, professor of music theory and composition at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., said in 2006. Many other artists, including the Who, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello copied aspects of Diddley's style.

Growing up, Diddley said he had no musical idols, and he wasn't entirely pleased that others drew on his innovations.

"I don't like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it," he said. "I don't have any idols I copied after."

"They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there," he said.
Despite his success, Diddley claimed he only received a small portion of the money he made during his career. Partly as a result, he continued to tour and record music until his stroke. Between tours, he made his home near Gainesville in north Florida.

"Seventy ain't nothing but a damn number," he told The Associated Press in 1999. "I'm writing and creating new stuff and putting together new different things. Trying to stay out there and roll with the punches. I ain't quit yet."
Diddley, like other artists of his generations, was paid a flat fee for his recordings and said he received no royalty payments on record sales. He also said he was never paid for many of his performances. "I am owed. I've never got paid," he said. "A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun."

In the early 1950s, Diddley said, disc jockeys called his type of music, "Jungle Music." It was Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed who is credited with inventing the term "rock 'n' roll."
Diddley said Freed was talking about him, when he introduced him, saying, "Here is a man with an original sound, who is going to rock and roll you right out of your seat."
Diddley won attention from a new generation in 1989 when he took part in the "Bo Knows" ad campaign for Nike, built around football and baseball star Bo Jackson. Commenting on Jackson's guitar skills, Diddley turned to the camera and said, "He don't know Diddley."
"I never could figure out what it had to do with shoes, but it worked," Diddley said. "I got into a lot of new front rooms on the tube."

Born as Ellas Bates on Dec. 30, 1928, in McComb, Miss., Diddley was later adopted by his mother's cousin and took on the name Ellis McDaniel, which his wife always called him.
When he was 5, his family moved to Chicago, where he learned the violin at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He learned guitar at 10 and entertained passers-by on street corners.
By his early teens, Diddley was playing Chicago's Maxwell Street.

"I came out of school and made something out of myself. I am known all over the globe, all over the world. There are guys who have done a lot of things that don't have the same impact that I had," he said.

"It Takes A Village To Raise A Child"

It is no surprise that for “social decline” to exist there must be a level of prenatal buffoon development in every community. Every leader that has dared to unset this agenda in the last 40 years has either been assassinated or financially defanged. It is no mystery to the end result of this agenda when you look at the effects of low black birth rates to high black incarcerations and social impotence.

Almost forty years ago this was a no issue. Consider that the black community’s drug problem began the instance black soldiers were denied drug treatment returning from Vietnam that was readily available to their white counterparts. Heroin and later Crack cocaine became the epidemic of the black community after Vietnam had long been over with. This single event help create the effects that linger until today with our young folks.

At the end of the year when you or I file for our tax return, we will never be asked per a question for a tax break, “Have you helped any one get off dope”. It is not in the drug industry, law enforcement, or social pandering organization’s best interest for “Us the People” to help ourselves and each other.

The penal system has become a big money business and we as a people seem to be investing more of our time and value in that than into the stock market, banking etc. There needs to be a major revamp in our government system yes but we also need to take responsibility for our own actions and say enough is enough. You and I know every person incarcerated will tell you they are honest and did not do it and I am sure there are those in there with whom that story rings true, but I venture to say that is a small minority.

We have to adjust our thinking and the teaching of our young. We need to get to them at an early age and instill some of the old morals and values we were taught growing up.

“I come from a single parent household” was never an excuse back then because your whole neighborhood was your parent. If you did something wrong down the street, you might get scolded or slapped several times before you arrived home and then mom or dad was waiting to finish the job.

The old saying “It takes a whole village to raise a child” rings so true and we need that now more than ever, so hey, slap a child ( just kidding) but if you see a youth doing something that could affect him or herself in a negative way, take the time and try to sit and explain that they have other options.

Let’s be the village and raise our children. I know I am trying, will you help me out. I would love to have you along.

Peace, Love and Blessings