On Father’s Day weekend, President Obama reflects on his experience as a parent and discusses the challenges and necessity of being a good father.

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Today marks the ten year “anniversary” of my dad’s passing (interesting that it falls on Father’s Day). I was looking through some old photos and found this one of the two of us chillin’ in his favorite chair. I have a couple of photos like this with my boys and I hope when they look at them they’ll remember the love I have for them.

Before my dad had his first stroke, we spent a lot of time together. He’d take me to work with him during the summer, to choir rehearsals during the week and I’d always see him working in the church. I learned a lot about the value of hard work and eventually took on one of his favorite hobbies (photography). While I hated some of the sayings he used (“You got McDonald’s money”), I find myself using them with my boys. He had a definite influence on my life and I appreciate all the lessons he taught me.

I miss my dad and I wish he’d had a chance to meet his grandsons. I’m sure he’d love them as much as he loved me. It’s up to me to pass the torch and I’m going to make sure they learn some of the same lessons he taught me. That’s what it’s all about. Be it their dad or someone filling in the role, boys need a male role model. They need someone who understands the challenges they’ll face as men to prepare them for the future. My dad was tough on us and being a dad raising two boys in today’s society, the need for those life lessons that dad can teach are more important than ever.

I love my boys and it’s my job to make sure they get what they need to be successful in life. It starts with getting them a good education and understanding of who they are. It’s not an easy task, but I’m up to the challenge. I helped bring them into the world, so the least I can do is be their primary example of what a man should be.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads who know where I’m coming from.

 

But despite the lack of posts, I still get a decent amount of hits and readers are still leaving comments on some of my older posts. I’m not the most prolific writer and I don’t consider myself to be well-versed in a lot of the stuff I blog about. But there’s something about this blogging thing that keeps sucking me back into it. I’ve grown to love the black blogger community and it has allowed me to meet some amazing people. There are a lot of people out there with some strong opinions about society and the world as they see it. Those are the people who I like to showcase and support.

I’m making some changes to the blog and what I blog about. I love the current theme and focus of theotalks, but I want to remove the restraints and give myself the opportunity to be all over the place. The new theme of the site is “Random thoughts about everything and nothing”. While it may be a little vague, that’s how I want to run the site from now on.  My current theme of focusing on the black community is great, but there are so many other great bloggers out there consistently doing it. It takes time to put those posts together and right now, I’m at a different place in life.

So from here on out, expect the unexpected. As I feel moved, I’ll post about whatever is on my heart at the moment. I’ll also be showcasing some of my favorite bloggers and will work to get some of the guest writers back (you know who you are) to help a brotha out.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to start the podcast back up, but I might try my hand at video blogging. Only time will tell. Thanks to everyone who supports and reads this blog. It definitely keeps me motivated to stay at it.

God Bless.

Theo

 

In my searches I was able to find issues for Jet Magazine (1950-2005), Ebony Magazine (1950-2000) and Black Enterprise (1970-2000). While they don’t include the most current issues, it’s great that I can see what was going on before I was I born. If Google keeps this up, I can’t imagine the kind of information my kids will have access to.

This will give those in my generation and forward the ability to research our past and learn more than we’ve ever had about entertainment, politics and society, than we’ve ever had. The odds of me getting my hands on a volume 1 Jet Magazine is one to impossible. But thanks to Google, I have access to it.

We are in the Information Age and I hope everyone is ready to get on board. In 2011, I plan on increasing the number of black history books I read and I’m going to use Google Books to do this. There are a lot of good free books out there for us to read. I as I finish them I’ll blog about them here on the site.

Here’s to a New Year in books.

 

We are launching the Race and America’s Future Virtual Book Club – a six-week project we hope will promote an open, honest, and constructive conversation on the challenges and opportunities facing our changing nation.

As I have told you in earlier emails, the book club will be based around Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future, a new book I had the pleasure of writing with Stewart Kwoh and Manuel Pastor.

This week’s inaugural installment asks the question, “Are We Post-Racial Yet?” And, really, is “post-racial” something America should strive to be?

Sign up for PolicyLink emails here to keep up with the latest on race and equity in America!

We hope you’ll join us today and every Wednesday through Election Day at www.UncommonCommonGround.org to chart a positive direction for race in America.

 

I learned about the Million Father March a couple of years ago and now it’s finally my turn to participate. The Black Star Project is encouraging fathers, stepfathers, foster fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, godfathers, cousins, babies’ daddies and other significant male caregivers to take their children to school on the first-day-of-school of the 2010-2011 school year. When men are involved in the educational lives of their children, children perform better in school.

Next Monday, my oldest son starts his first day of kindergarten and I’m planning to be there for him on his first day of school. The role of the traditional dad has expanded and fathers are a lot more active in the lives of their children. Sure you have your deadbeat dads out there, but I’ve seen a difference since my son was born. I’ve seen dads at the doctor, the daycare and have even seen dads changing diapers in the restroom.

Kids these days have a lot to deal with in school and I’m sure it helps to know they have the support of their father (or male role model). So whatever grade they’re in, take a little time out of your day to take them to school. And when they come home, talk about their day and get involved. It makes a difference and shows them how much you care.

For more information visit blackstarproject.org.

 

an online resource for building, managing, and researching professional reputation, using community-contributed, professional reviews.Unvarnished reviews help you get the inside scoop on other business professionals, providing candid assessments of coworkers, potential hires, business partners, and more.

By contributing Unvarnished reviews, you can share your knowledge of other professionals, giving credit where credit is due, and valuable feedback where needed.

Lastly, your own Unvarnished profile, which you may create yourself or claim one that has been created for you, helps you take control of and build your own professional reputation. Get recognition for your accomplishments and actively manage your career growth.

So basically you can leave comments about someone (good or bad) in a public forum. It’s like having your resume online for all to see and ridicule. The site is currently in beta, so you have to sign up using Facebook Connect and they will put you on a waiting list of people who’ve already signed up. I put my name in for an invitation because I want to know what you all think about me. This is social networking at its best and it will be interesting to see how they plan on managing the site once everything opens up.

PS > If you are reading this and are currently a member of the site, please send me an invite so I can bypass the waiting process. Thanks!

 

The Red Cross also has a text message option and so far has raised over $4 million in mobile donations. To donate to the Red Cross via your mobile phone, text the word “Haiti” to the number 90999. A donation of $10.oo will be charged to your mobile phone bill.

Local Dallas radio host Tom Joyner said in this morning’s show that he and his team have plans to fly to Port-au-Prince to set up an internet cafe for Haitian citizens to contact family in America. In a post at blackamericaweb.com, they list some other things we can do to help out.

I shouldn’t be surprised at the global response to help a country in need, but I would like to end this post with a message from the Villager titled “Haiti Earthquake: Will America Care Next Week?”. Haiti has always been a country in need and I hope America will not forget them or others who need a helping hand.

 

It’s hard to believe it’s already 2010. But we’re here and there are still new things in store for this blog. When I started blogging, the main goal was to share information and hopefully open up dialogue on issues that affect the black community. I think I did that in some way this year, but it wasn’t to the extent that I’d done in previous years.

The goal for this year is to continue on the track of keeping the site informative. I plan on opening it up to others who are interested in sharing their point of view with the readers of this site. There are some talented, well-written people out there and I want to showcase them and get some real discussions going.

Late in the year, when I got swamped with projects for work, I fell off the blogging scene for a couple of weeks. Blogging can be a daunting task and coming up with things to write about can be time consuming (especially when it isn’t one of my strengths). So this year, I’m going to solicit your help. If you or someone you know are interested in blogging, but don’t want to manage their own site, email me at info @ theotalks.net. I’m always in need of someone to write and it usually turns out to be a win-win situation for both parties.

This year, I also want to focus more on minority small businesses. In these turbulent economic times, a lot of people are turning to owning their own business. I think that’s great, so I decided to start a list of some of my favorite small businesses. I’ll be highlighting small business owners throughout the year, so contact me if you’re interested in participating.

Finally, here are some websites that you need to keep an eye on for 2010. I’ll be blogging a lot about them and hope to be visible on most of them as time permits. Check them out when you get the chance:

• Liberate Magazine
• Tech Relations Firm
• Dallas South News
• Barter My Biz

Have a Happy New Year and God Bless!

 

Bill Cosby is not new to saying things black people don’t always want to hear. I wrote a review about his book “Come On People” when it was published and I thought he hit on some pretty important topics. While I may not have agreed with everything he had to say, I do see where he is coming from. Being a comedian in a time when people weren’t always fond of black people, I’m sure Dr. Cosby has experienced some things we can never imagine. He’s opened the doors for a lot of actors and for that alone, his street cred in my opinion is pretty high. I applaud him for his efforts and it’ll be interesting to see how the CD is received.

I will embed the stream on my site or you can go directly to his UsreamTV site where you can chat with others who are watching.

http://www.ustream.tv/billcosby