THE CASH STUFF FOR 1-1-15

CASH IN THE APPLE 1-1-15

By Cash Michaels

HAPPY NEW YEAR – I’ll get to why I am as pleased as punch that 2014 is over, dead and done with in a moment. Needless to say, I am tremendously happy that all if us get a new beginning starting today. But hopefully we do so with hard lessons learned, so that we don’t make many of the same mistakes we made last year, or worse.

With the new year comes new opportunity, and hopefully a new attitude to approach new opportunities with. Consider last year your preparation year, the year where you put the pieces together in getting ready for the big move. Force yourself to do better, because who wants to go into a new year doing exactly the same thing you’ve been doing over and over and over again.

And there are so many areas where new beginnings could apply – business, education, training, relationships, with GOD, with family, with community…the list is endless, and so are the opportunities.

So here’s hoping that exactly one year from now, you’re able to look back on 2015 and smile, saying to yourself that it was a year where you worked, learned, sacrificed and achieved.

In that regard, I wish you and yours the very happiest of the new year.

2014 – Needless to say, given all that I’ve had to put up with healthwise, I am more than glad that 2014 is over and done with.

As you may or may not know, I had a stroke just two days after the Nov. 4^th midterm elections, affecting my left leg and arm. I joke that the size of the Republican victories that night simply overwhelmed me. But I was in serious shape. I literally couldn’t walk, and my left arm was weak. I spent five days in the hospital, and weeks at home rehabilitating.

Then, because doctors were concerned that I could easily sustain a second, and more debilitating stroke, I agreed to an invasive heart procedure to determine of I had any coronary blockages. On December 4^th, I went into the Cary hospital, where they planted me on an ice cold operating table, went up through my groin to my heart (the easiest place because you have a major blood vessel there), and two blockages were discovered.

That required for me to be immediately transferred to the Raleigh hospital, where the procedures to install two heart stents took place, and I spent three more days in the hospital, before being sent home to recuperate. That’s where I’ve been ever since. I expect to be as good as new in three weeks.

So I should be grateful that I had my personal drama at the end of the year, and that thus far, it has turned as well as it has. And I am grateful, make no mistake. I have a family, and to think of the deadly path I was taking with my health leading up to my stroke is now frightening to me. So the ending of 2014 is also the ending of a bad mentality for me…a mentality of not taking very good care of myself, and almost costing me my own life.

GOD spoke and got my attention, and I’m so glad I listened because I know that I will be a better, healthier human being in 2015, and beyond. All that I’ve outlined above for what should make for a great 2015 are the rules and steps I’ve now laid out for myself. A healthier me MUST be a BETTER me, which means this is lifelong hard work that I must commit to.

Now don’t get me wrong…2014 wasn’t a complete bummer. I finished three films I’m very proud of, and I’m looking forward to be more active businesswise than ever before, because I’m not getting any younger (indeed, I turn 59 this Saturday).

But I can’t do anything with decent health, and that’s what I’m working towards, and looking forward to this new year.

So thank you GOD, thank you family, and thank you everyone else fro all of the love and support.

And Happy New Year!

Make sure you tune in every Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. for my talk radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750 WAUG-AM, or online at www.waug-network.com. And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my blog, ‘The Cash Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).

           Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash Michaels was also honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009, and was the recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for Media Excellence in Sept. 2011.

Until next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in your life. Bye, bye.

                                                                              -30-

THE CASH STUFF FOR 12-25-14

CASH IN THE APPLE

By Cash Michaels

            MERRY CHRISTMAS – Here’s hoping that you and your family will have the most blessed Christmas there is this year. Despite all of the hoopla and fanfare, Christmas is supposed the be the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It seems like we get away from that meaning more and more each year, to the point where Christmas is becoming just about gifts and fun.

            I pray that for you and your family, Christmas is so much more, like coming together as a family, enjoying each other’s company, and vowing to come together more during the new year.

            So Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.  Affer all we’ve gone through this year, we all deserve a little jolliness, if you know what I mean.

            HAPPY KWANZAA - As always, Dec. 26^th to January 1^st are the seven days of Kwanzaa, a holiday period that is unique to the African-American community, which celebrates the seven African-based principles of hard work and fruitfulness.

Those principles are:

                                    Umoja (Unity)

                                    Kujichagulia (Self-determination)

                                    Ujima (Collective work and responsibility)

                                    Ujamaa (Cooperative economics)

                                    Nia (Purpose)

                                    Kuumba (Creativity)

                                    Imani (Faith)

Since it was founded in 1966 by Prof. Ron Karenga, Kwanzaa has exploded worldwide, reminding those of us of African heritage that, with the exception of GOD, our families and communities come first. At least that’s the way we look at it at our house. No matter, have a happy and fruitful Kwanzaa!

SONY AND THE NORTH KOREANS - So I'm really torn on this freedom of speech question. Here we are all smug and arrogant about our right to put out a movie about the assassination of a foreign leader, spoof or otherwise, but would that First Amendment right extend to a film about killing our own? You mean to tell me that the Secret Service wouldn't move on anyone who did such a thing here, or the press wouldn't have a field day tearing the very idea of such a film apart? You see all these folks in Hollywood are crying the blues, but I think this is simply a case of their rank stupidity catching up with them!

Yes, I’m talking about the North Korean government allegedly hacking into the computer of Sony Entertainment in Hollywood, wreaking havoc because Sony planned to release “The Interview”  - the silly comic fictional story of how the CIA recruits two journalists to visit North Korea and assassinate its crazy leader.

Again the film, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, is a silly spoof that has no basis in reality, and yet just the very premise of the film was enough to outrage the North Korean government so much, that it allegedly hacked the computers at Sony Entertainment, the distributors of the film, destroying sensitive data and releasing sensitive emails  with juicy tidbits bout various popular actors and producers.

Ultimately the hackers threatened that if Sony released the film on Christmas Day as planned, “9-11” style terrorist attacks at movie theaters across the nation would commence. Needless to say, the movie chains backed out first, and Sony yanked the film altogether.

Everyone from famous movie stars to the president all condemned Sony for giving in to what was essentially a terrorist threat, saying if you give in once, they will try you again and again.

I get the “don’t give in” part, though it’s clear that Sony’s attorneys told them that if something did happen at just one movie theater, the company could be sued or zillions. To have a corrupt Communist government dictate terms any American company is abhorrent. So I get that.

But I still have a problem with what was done in the first place, namely making a movie about the assassination of a sitting foreign leader, and then hiding behind freedom of speech to arrogantly get away with it, expecting that foreign government to just suffer in silence while we just laugh our way to the bank.

In this instance, we got our so-called “superiority” shoved right back in our faces. We made a movie humiliating a foreign leader, so that foreign leader humiliated us, and now we’re the ones feeling violated.

Just how dumb is that?

If this were a movie critical of the current North Korean regime, no problem. A film showing just how corrupt and evil the leadership is while its citizens scrounge for food. No problem whatsoever. How the North Korean government is eager to start a war with the United States just to prove how “mighty” it “really” is. Have at it.

All of those points are worthy of freedom of speech protections, and worthy of defending.

But instead, we get all in a lather over a dumb Seth Rogen comedy about actually killing, not a fake or fictional character, but the real leader of the North Korean government? That crosses a line we drew ourselves expecting no one to step over, and that was wrong.

Yes I get that even that nonsense should be protected as free speech, but at the end of the day, is such a dumb film even worth all of this. I say no, and Sony had the chance to fix this some time ago, and didn’t.

To be fair, Sony isn’t even an American company. The parent company is in Japan. But now it doesn’t matter, does it.

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean you get to say anything you want, anywhere and anytime you want to, without consequences.

Freedom of speech means you get to say what you want, but you must be willing and able to deal with the responsibility thereafter.

There is a big, expensive lesson here for Sony, and the rest of us. If you’re going to speak freely, make sure what you’re saying is well worth the price.

Because there will be  price.

Merry Christmas.

Make sure you tune in every Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. for my talk radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750 WAUG-AM, or online at www.waug-network.com. And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my blog, ‘The Cash Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).

           Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash Michaels was also honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009, and was the recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for Media Excellence in Sept. 2011.

Until next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in your life. Bye, bye.

                                                                              -30-

THE CASH STUFF FOR 12-18-14

CASH IN THE APPLE 12-18-14

By Cash Michaels

            MENTALITY – Question…what do butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers born in the United States all have in common?

            Answer…. they were all born here, so they’re American citizens, imbued with the Constitutional right of free speech. That means they, and anyone else who is a citizen of this great nation, are entitled to voice their considered opinions about their government – be it local or federal.

            That’s part of their citizenship, an a long as they expressed those entitled opinions in responsible ways,…well, that’s what makes a democracy.

            Police departments are legally arms of local government, thus, citizens, who provide the salaries of all government employees and officials through paying their taxes, have a say in how they are policed.

            So why are we taking valuable time and considerable ink to point these basic rules of citizenship out? Because apparently members of the Cleveland Police Department haven’t gotten the memo about exactly who works for whom around here.

            How else to explain the inexplicable Cleveland police reaction to Cleveland Browns running back Andrew Hawkins warm-up shirt calling for justice in the Tamir Rice and John Crawford police shootings.

            Tamir Rice was the 12 year-old-boy with the toy gun who was shot instantly once police drove up on him in November. Crawford was fatally shot in a Wal-mart store when police saw him with a pellet gun he had picked up to purchase.

            Apparently Cleveland Police Benevolent Association President Jeff Follmer feels that both of these cases display his fellow officers in defensible actions, because after seeing Hawkins warm-up shirt on television, Officer Follmer fired off a nasty statement bashing Hawkins for being a know-nothing athlete, and demanding that the Cleveland Browns issue an apology.

            “It’s pretty pathetic when athletes think they know the law,” said an irate Ofc. Follmer. “They should stick to what they know best on the field. The Cleveland police protect and serve the Browns stadium and the Browns organization owes us an apology.”

You see stuff like this just doesn’t get under my skin, it boils there.

I get that the Cleveland cops, especially in the aftermath of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner shocking grand jury decisions, are not pleased with having their own dirty laundry being brought out into open, and certainly don’t like two recent police shootings involving their own thrown back in their faces.

Do they have the right to complain? Yes. As much as I’d like to tell them to shut up and just do their jobs…without shooting any unarmed people…it would be hard to deny them that freedom.

But what they don’t have the right to do is denigrate citizens who have a legitimate care and concern about the state of policing in their community. What Andrew Hawkins called for was done in a meaningful and thoughtful way, with a level of dignity that can only be admired.

To demean him as just a dumb jock that doesn’t know the law, and then demand an apology from Hawkins owners to show him and the world that is really boss around here, is pretty pathetic in and of itself.

The Cleveland Browns, in their response, took the high road.

"We have great respect for the Cleveland Police Department and the work that they do to protect and serve our city. We also respect our players' rights to project their support and bring awareness to issues that are important to them if done so in a responsible manner," the Browns said in a worthy retort to the brass and senseless police statement.

Please note that there is no apology included.

And then there’s Hawkins himself, who responded to the Cleveland demand by eloquently saying that, “A call for justice shouldn’t warrant an apology.” Hawkins added that he felt for the families of police victims, and he had concerns about the safety of his own two-year-old son when he grows up.

"I utterly respect and appreciate every police officer that protects and serves all of us with honesty and integrity. (It) wasn't a stance against every police officer or every police department. It was a stance against wrong individuals doing wrong thing,” Hawkins said.

What this, and the senseless reaction to LeBron James and other NBA players wearing their “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts in honor of the last words of NYC police chokehold victim Eric Garner, reveals is a blatant hostility towards black people period. To tell professional athletes that their only mission in life is to perform when they’re told to, collect their checks, but otherwise shutup and don’t worry about the world around them unless given permission to do so, is just flat out condescending as all getout.

And to tell the organizations who hire professional athletes that they need to apologize for them, or even punish them for exercising their freedom of speech AT ALL, is diabolical at the least.

“If you won’t apologize when demanded, we get your massas to make you do it!”

Kind of makes you wonder just how these cops see the average black citizen in the street, you know, the ones without the multi-million dollar contracts.

But the police aren’t alone in the damn foolishness file.

Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera tore it with me two years ago when he openly blamed 15 year-old Trayvon Martin with his own death in wearing a hoodie the night he was fatally shot by George Zimmermann.

Rivera was forced to apologize for that by his own outraged son. But now Geraldo has done it again, getting on Fox News, saying that LeBron James should not have worn a T-shirt saying “I Can’t Breathe,” but rather, “Be a Better Father.” Rivera said that “I Can’t Breathe” spoke to victimhood, whereas “Be a Better Father” spoke to encouraging the black community to overcome fatherless families which lead to crime and despair.

Rivera’s point to similar to former NYC Mayor Rudolph Guliani’s – if blacks didn’t commit so much crime, we wouldn’t need so many white police officers in black communities.

First of all, police officers killing unarmed black men repeatedly has nothing to do with black fatherhood, or the lack of it. No one in the conservative Tea Party has any darn sense. Does that give the police the right to start killing them needlessly?

But the power of the anti-police brutality movement has forced the powers that be to come back with the only weapon they feel they have, namely smearing an entire community. Never mind that the policies of these people relating to no jobs, illegal drugs and guns and poor education have plenty to do with the black crime rate.

The long and short of all of this is that the respect that we are due is respect we are going to have to fight for. We have no choice.

I hope we’re ready going into a new year.

Make sure you tune in every Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. for my talk radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750 WAUG-AM, or online at www.waug-network.com. And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my blog, ‘The Cash Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).

           Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash Michaels was also honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009, and was the recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for Media Excellence in Sept. 2011.

Until next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in your life. Bye, bye.

                                                                              -30-

THE CASH STUFF FOR 12-11-14

CASH IN THE APPLE 12-11-14

By Cash Michaels

            ERIC GARNER – So now the pattern is clear.

            In the aftermath of the Eric Garner chokehold non-decision in Staten Island last week, it seems that there can be no question that there is much work to be done when it comes to holding rogue police officers who shoot unarmed black people to death accountable for their actions.

            What has bothered me greatly is hearing police representatives argue that Eric Garner did not die of a chokehold, but rather because he was obese and had asthma.

            Folks, if Eric Garner ran from the police, fell down and died of a heart attack, then yes, you could make that argument. But the NY medical examiner made it conclusive – Garner died because of throat compression, with his poor health being a contributing factor.

            In other words, cutting off his air certainly contributed to his death. He was alive and well with asthma and being obese.

            I’m also in shock at what NY Congressman Peter King said, stating that Garner was not telling the truth when he cried out that he couldn’t breathe as four to five police officers wrestled him to the ground.

            “He could talk. If he could talk, he could breathe,” Rep. King coldly told CNN.

            So much for any sympathy from Rep. King.

            The fact of the matter is we have learned valuable lessons from Ferguson, Mo. and Staten Island, NY, where the prosecutor in both cases moved heaven and earth to make sure that accused police officers got more than the benefit of a doubt. Those are apparently the rules now.  Even with a videotape of the actual event, the police will be given a free meal ticket when it comes to killing unarmed black men, who are deemed so dangerous – as in the cases of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown – that not killing them in any confrontation is not an option.

            Just ask Tamir Rice, the 12 year-old boy who was shot to death by Cleveland police because he was playing with a toy gun in the park. The cop who shot him didn’t give Tamir two seconds to drop his toy weapon.

            Make no mistake…we need good police officers. They are the difference between a safe society and a lawless one.

            But we cannot live in a society where those sworn to uphold the law, and conveniently above the law when they do wrong. That sends a very dangerous message that could spell very bad news for all concerned.

            Very bad.

            ATHLETES – Last week, Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose caused a minor fuss when he wore a black t-shirt with the words, “I can’t breathe” on it, referring to the last words of NY police chokehold victim Eric Garner. Last Monday, Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James wore a similar t-shirt in warmups before their game in Brooklyn against the Nets, joined by several nets players. And some NFL players also have been seen wearing t-shirts and athletic shoes with the same moniker.

            All of this follows of the heels of five players for the St. Louis Rams who came out for a game with their hands up, paying tribute to the alleged last actions of Michael Brown before he was shot to death by Ofc. Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo.

            The police union there immediately went after the Rams players, complaining that they disrespected police officers, and challenged both the NFL and the St. Louis Rams organization to make then apologize.

            The NFL said no. The Rams listened to the cop’s beef, but the players weren’t forced to do anything.

`           Funny how professional athletes are seemingly denied their First Amendment rights to express their feelings about issues they care about, or at the very least are expected to ask permission first. Mind you, let there be another school shooting or some other national tragedy, and there would be no questions asked when player took a moment to display unity with the community. But let it be something that folks at large would rather forget, and the pitchforks come out big time.

            I salute those professional athletes who took the time and made the effort to support their community in the wake of two terrible grand jury decisions. They apparently realize that the victims could have very easily been family members or friends.

            The bottomline is these players are American citizens. It’s about time that they are treated as such.

            HEART OK – Last week, for the second month in a row, I saw the business-end of a hospital. As you know, I had a stroke to my left leg and arm in November, and am still recovering from that.

Last week, as a result of an examination of my heart, and to make sure that I would not have any follow-up strokes, I went in for a heart catherization, and ultimately a heart operation that saw not one, but two stents installed in my coronary arteries to relieve blockages and increase blood flow.

Doing prevented the likelihood of heart attack or further strokes.

As a result, I am now obligated to continue my strict diet and medication regimen, which means, if all goes well, I live longer, and better.

So I’m OK. Getting plenty of rest, and continuing my exercise and rehab regimen for my left leg. I expect to be up walking normally by mid-January, and will even attend my first Christmas party next week.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…thank you to all of you who have called or have written me with messages of encouragement and upliftment. Each and every one has had special meaning for me, because in each and every case, one person took the time to care about my welfare.

That’s one person taking time to share humanity with another, the epitome of why GOD created us in the first place.

So I’m fine, doing all of the things that I need to do in order to live better, and I certainly intend on doing that.

Apparently it will take much more than a stroke and two heart operations to keep me down…and that’s just the way I like it.

 Make sure you tune in every Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. for my talk radio show, ''Make It Happen'' on Power 750 WAUG-AM, or online at www.waug-network.com. And read more about my thoughts and opinions exclusively at my blog, ‘The Cash Roc” (http://thecashroc.blogspot.com/2011/01/cash-roc-begins.html).

           Cash in the Apple - honored as the Best Column Writing of 2006 by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Columnist Cash Michaels was also honored by the NNPA for Best Feature Story Journalist of 2009, and was the recipient of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP’s President’s Award for Media Excellence in Sept. 2011.

Until next week, keep a smile on your face, GOD in your heart, and The Carolinian in your life. Bye, bye.

                                                                              -30-