DID YOU KNOW? BLACK MARRIAGE DAY

This coming Sunday is Black Marriage Day, March 22, 2009! The theme this year is First Comes Love: Guiding Our Youth to Marriage. I never heard of this until about a month ago, but I think it’s an awesome project. It started in 2001 with the passion of founder and executive director Nisa I. Muhammad. The concept is to help teens, couples, and singles create healthy relationships and healthy marriages to better the outcomes for children. “We’re creating a cultural shift in the Black community to reconsider marriage and celebrate the joy that exists in spite of the pain we often experience,” Nisa Muhammad, said.

It’s funny how much our environment has an effect on us. When you grow up seeing unhealthy relationships, you are more likely to repeat the same mistakes. Let’s get behind this celebration, do something positive with your mate. To all my single folks out there, you are not exempt from this. I want you to get out there and do something positive for yourself. That man or woman is on the way…trust me!

Go to the website blackmarriageday.com, they have some ideals of what you can do to celebrate Black Marriage Day.

LA County tries for NO CUSSING WEEK! Starts Today!

LOS ANGELES -- Pay no attention to that eerie silence in the nation's most populous county this week; it will simply be the sound of 10 million people not cussing.

At least that's the result McKay Hatch is hoping for once his campaign to clear the air is recognized by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

On Tuesday, the board is scheduled to issue a proclamation by Supervisor Michael Antonovich making the first week in March No Cussing Week.

That would mean no blue language from the Mojave desert, where it gets hot as $&# in the summer, to the Pacific Ocean, where on a winter's day it can get colder and nastier than %$#!

Not that 15-year-old Hatch expects complete compliance. When his No Cussing Club meets at South Pasadena High School on Wednesdays it's not unusual for a nonmember to throw open the door and fire off a torrent of four-letter words. He's also been the target of organized harassment by pro-cussers.

And Antonovich's county motion carries no penalties.

"But it's a good reminder for all of us, not just young people but everybody, to be respectful to one another and watch the words we use," said the supervisor's spokesman, Tony Bell.

The county isn't the first entity to try to put the lid on swearing. Hatch's hometown of South Pasadena declared itself a cuss-free zone for a week last March, and two years ago a high school in Canada threatened to suspend repeat cussers.

Hatch has lofty goals.

"Next year I want to try to get California to have a cuss-free week. And then, who knows, maybe worldwide," said the 10th grader, who believes if people treat each other with more civility they can better work together to solve bigger problems.

He said his campaign began to form about the time he hit seventh grade when he noticed his friends beginning to swear, something his family didn't allow.

He formed the No Cussing Club and invited others to join. Soon the group had a Web site, bright orange T-shirts, a hip hop theme song and inquiries from all over from people interested in joining. He estimates 20,000 people have formed similar clubs.

"It's not about forcing anyone to stop, just to bring awareness," he says of the movement. "If you can do a week without cussing, maybe you can do two weeks. And then maybe a month."