The trouble is not treatment alone. Access matters. Insurance matters. The distance between a man and a good hospital matters. Delayed treatment and unequal care matter. So does the calendar we have quietly agreed to use, because that calendar was not necessarily drawn with us in mind.

Ask a healthy man in his forties about prostate cancer screening and you will usually get a wave of the hand. No symptoms, no problem. Blood pressure might be a little high, sure, but nothing worth making an appointment over. That prostate business belongs to older men. Retirement stuff. Something to think about after the grandkids come.

That belief is costing us.

For decades, the number fifty floated around as the unofficial starting line. It stuck because it was simple and because much of the major trial evidence involved men who were fifty or older and considered at average risk. Those studies gave doctors useful information. PSA screening can help detect cancer before it spreads and can produce a modest reduction in deaths from the disease over time. Useful information, certainly. It just was not built around the timeline Black men face.

Here is what newer evidence says, and it is worth sitting with. Research reviewed by the Prostate Cancer Foundation suggests the disease develops in Black men three to nine years earlier than it does in non Black men. Read that again. Three to nine years. Waiting until fifty simply because that is the age we have heard most often may not be arriving on time, and for some brothers it could mean arriving after the tumor received a head start nobody agreed to give it.

In 2024, the Prostate Cancer Foundation brought together primary care doctors, urologists, oncologists, researchers, specialists in health disparities, and Black patient advocates. The group reviewed nearly two thousand publications before narrowing the evidence to the studies most relevant to screening Black men. Their recommendation was clear. Black men who choose screening should consider receiving a baseline PSA test between the ages of forty and forty five, and depending on that first result and the man’s overall health, annual testing should be seriously considered.

The modeling behind the recommendation was not a shrug either. Lowering the age of the baseline PSA test from fifty or fifty five to somewhere between forty and forty five, followed by risk based screening through about age seventy, could reduce prostate cancer deaths among Black men by roughly thirty percent in relative terms without substantially increasing unnecessary diagnoses. Thirty percent. That is somebody’s father still sitting in the recliner on Thanksgiving.

That position has since received broader support. The American Urological Association’s 2026 guideline says clinicians should offer prostate cancer screening beginning between forty and forty five for people at increased risk, including men with Black ancestry, a strong family history, or certain inherited genetic variants. Not every medical organization draws the line at the exact same age. The American Cancer Society currently recommends that Black men begin the screening conversation at forty five, while the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the American Urological Association support beginning between forty and forty five. That difference should not become another excuse to wait until fifty without saying a word, because the central message is the same. Black men should be having the conversation earlier than average risk men.

Understand what this guidance actually asks of you, because the rumor mill will twist it into something scarier than it is. Nobody is saying every brother who turns forty must rush to a clinic and submit to a needle. The recommendation is built around shared decision making, which is a formal way of saying you learn what the test can and cannot tell you, talk it through with somebody who understands medicine, and then make a choice. The PSA test is a blood test and is considered the first line of screening. Some doctors may offer a digital rectal examination as an additional tool, but the physical examination is not the whole screening process and does not automatically come first. A conversation is not a procedure. It asks for a little time and perhaps a little pride.

Pride is part of what we are fighting here, if we are being honest with one another. Ask around and you will hear the same jokes in every barbershop, locker room, family cookout, and group chat. Men laughing about the glove. Men acting as though getting a blood test somehow threatens their manhood. Brothers who will let a toothache rot for a year rather than admit something feels wrong. Under the humor sits real fear, and beneath that fear sits real history.

Nobody has to explain why a Black man might look sideways at a hospital or question whether a doctor is listening to him. That distrust was earned honestly. The United States Public Health Service study in Macon County, Alabama, ran from 1932 until 1972. The Black men involved were not given informed consent, and researchers failed to offer treatment even after effective treatment became widely available. We did not imagine that history, and our families did not invent it.

Still, there is a cruel irony in allowing that memory to keep us out of the examination room now. The thing placing brothers in danger today is not a secret experiment. It is silence. It is delayed care. It is the man who never had his PSA number checked, walking around with a tumor that might have been found while it was still small, quiet, and treatable.

Look at where we stand. Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Black men in the United States, accounting for about forty four percent of expected cancer diagnoses among us, and approximately one in six Black men will receive the diagnosis during his lifetime. Our incidence rate is about sixty seven percent higher than the rate among White men, and we die from the disease at more than twice their rate.

Those numbers are not the product of biology alone. Access to screening, insurance coverage, delayed treatment, environmental conditions, trust, communication, the quality of the hospital, and whether a doctor takes a man’s concerns seriously can all influence what happens. Black men have shown comparable and sometimes better prostate cancer survival when receiving care within equal access health systems, yet research has also found that we can be less likely to receive definitive treatment. That tells us something important. The disparity is not destiny. Care matters. Timing matters. Treatment matters.

There is another trend worth naming. Advanced cases are climbing again. Nationally, diagnoses of prostate cancer that has already spread beyond the gland have been increasing across every age group, and among men younger than fifty five, distant stage diagnoses have been rising by nearly three percent per year. Younger than fifty five. The disease is not politely waiting for retirement parties. Meanwhile, the decline in prostate cancer deaths that the country celebrated during the nineteen nineties and two thousands has slowed from about three or four percent per year to roughly six tenths of one percent annually over the past decade, and researchers believe the increase in advanced diagnoses is partly connected to years when routine screening was discouraged and fewer men were tested.

What actually happens when you begin the conversation? Usually, it starts with a vial of blood. The test measures prostate specific antigen, a protein produced by the prostate, and a PSA result cannot diagnose cancer by itself. The number can rise because of cancer, but it may also increase because of an enlarged prostate, inflammation, infection, certain medical procedures, recent ejaculation, or even vigorous cycling. There is no single number that separates every healthy prostate from every cancerous one.

A baseline test between forty and forty five can do two things. It can identify an unusual result that deserves attention, and it can give your doctor an early reference point for future testing. The timing of the next test depends on your PSA level, age, family history, overall health, personal preferences, and the screening plan you develop with your doctor. It should not be reduced to one schedule for every man.

If the first PSA result comes back elevated, that still does not mean cancer. A doctor may recommend repeating the blood test after several weeks or months to confirm the result, depending on the PSA level and whether an infection, recent procedure, or another temporary factor could have affected it. If the level remains high or continues climbing, the next step might include another blood or urine test, a physical examination, an MRI, continued observation, or a biopsy. An elevated PSA does not automatically send you to an operating table, and even a prostate cancer diagnosis does not automatically mean surgery or radiation.

Many men with slow growing, low risk disease are managed through active surveillance, meaning the cancer is monitored carefully with PSA tests, examinations, imaging, and sometimes repeat biopsies, with treatment beginning if testing shows the disease is changing. Active surveillance is not ignoring cancer. It is a medical plan designed to protect a man from unnecessary treatment and its possible urinary, bowel, and sexual side effects while still watching the disease closely. Knowledge does not obligate you to choose one treatment. It removes the blindfold and gives you choices.

Family history sharpens every part of this discussion. If your father, brother, or son had prostate cancer, especially at a younger age, your own risk may be higher, and certain inherited genetic variants, including changes involving BRCA1, BRCA2, and genes connected to Lynch syndrome, can also raise concern. The Prostate Cancer Foundation says Black men with a strong family history or known high risk genetic variants should consider annual PSA screening as early as forty.

That means the first step may not happen in a clinic. It might begin with calling your uncle. Ask your mother what her brothers were diagnosed with. Ask why your grandfather kept going back and forth to the hospital. Ask whether the relative everybody said died of old age had cancer nobody wanted to name. A lot of us grew up in homes where sickness was handled behind a closed bedroom door. Adults lowered their voices. Children were told not to worry. Nobody said the diagnosis out loud, and now some grown men are walking around without half of their own medical history. Go get it. Write it down. Bring it to your next appointment.

Let us also be plain about the message, because it can be distorted in either direction. This is not a warning that every Black man at forty is a ticking clock. Most men in their early forties do not have prostate cancer. Fear does not save lives, and it often makes people avoid doctors even harder. The evidence says something quieter and more practical. Our risk can arrive earlier, so our questions should arrive earlier too. The conversation belongs somewhere between forty and forty five, not after symptoms appear, and it belongs in the same discussion as blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, colon health, and everything else a grown man has to manage.

Bring it up at the next physical. Bring it up with your barber, your pastor, your line brothers, your coworkers, and the men in your fantasy league. Say the words prostate cancer out loud at the dinner table so your sons hear them and grow up understanding that taking care of their bodies is not embarrassing. It is simply part of being an adult. The people who love you would rather sit through an awkward five minute conversation now than sit through a funeral later, and they mean it.

Forty is not too young for the conversation. It might be exactly on time.

Staff Writer; Mark Brooks

This brother writes about faith, money, brotherhood, and the real work of being a man from one day to the next… He keeps it plain, with his attention on home, community, and helping brothers do a little better…

Contact him at MarkB@ThyBlackMan.com.

It is important to note that when we talk here of the beauty, music, magic and miracle of Blackness, we are using a synonym for our Africanness. For Black is a colloquial term for the color, culture and consciousness that speaks to our being African. And being African is actively appreciating and honoring our unique and equally valid and valuable way of being human in the world. It is the self-defining and particular cultural way we live our lives and open ourselves up to love; dance and do music; practice our faith traditions; cherish and challenge our children; fiercely fight for freedom; constantly seek justice; delight in doing good and walk gently in peace, but with dignified defiance in the practice of resistance.

For Blackness is not only an identity, but also a duty defined by that identity. Indeed, we are a soul people in radically evil oppression and righteous and relentless struggle to end it. Our identity, then, is also one born in struggle, a dignity-affirming, live-enhancing, world-preserving liberation struggle. Therefore, in the 1960s, we raised up the reaffirmation of the beauty of our humanity and Africanness in the declarations “Black is Beautiful” and “I’m Black and I’m Proud.” And we defiantly put forth the prophecy and pursued the promise and practice of freedom with the battlecry “Liberation Is Coming From A Black Thing.”

At the heart and center of the music, magic and miracle of our Blackness is this rich and generative notion and reality of soul. And we use the term in at least five basic ways: as a spiritual concept; a defining Black character trait and spirit; a category of cultural distinctiveness; an expression of the beauty and depthfulness of our being and becoming; and a measure and standard of African excellence. In the Sixties, I defined soul as an inner sense of ourselves defined by creativity, sensitivity and impulse. This speaks to our capacity to conceive and create magic and miracle, beauty and meaning in the midst of ugliness and meaninglessness, and to develop and defend free space in the midst of unfreedom. It speaks also to our depth of feeling, a sensitivity to others, to beauty and good, but also to human suffering and a will to end it. And the notion of soul speaks also to a creative and sensitive impulse also called improvisation. But I want to keep the word impulse which suggests a spontaneous urge and natural inclination to act in beautiful, creative and sensitive ways in art, love and life in general.

In other words, soul is an internal creative capacity, a centering and sustaining spirit and inner strength that undergirds our resilience and resourcefulness, our adaptive vitality and human durability in the face of the most radical evil, injustice and oppression. It is in this context that we recognize the Divine presence in and with us as our ancestors taught. And in the depth of our appreciation of the unbreakable spirit within us, we give it a spiritual interpretation. Thus, when we look back over all we encountered and overcame and rejoiced in it, we are amazed at the miracles and magic we’ve made and yet giving due honor to the Divine in us and with us, as the ancestors taught. This is the message and meaning of Sis. Clara Ward’s instructive sacred praise song, called gospel, “How I Got Over.” She says and sings, and we wonder with her: “My soul looks back and wonders how I got over.” And she thinks and thanks the Divine.

But soul is also and above all in its most definitive, distinctive and inclusive sense a cultural concept. It speaks not only to the depth of our spirituality, but is a defining Black character trait and spirit which undergirds, infuses and informs our being and constant becoming. We are again a soul people, soul men and women, soul sisters and brothers. We call our food – soul food, our music – soul music, our Sunday forums on life and struggle – Soul Sessions, and we designate as soulful our preaching, teaching and talking good. And Curtis Mayfield assures us that no matter what happens “We got soul and everybody knows, it’s all right.”

Thus, we see soul not only as defining us, our music and way of life, but as a distinctiveness of peoplehood and personhood. It is one of the characteristics that makes us distinct without needing to claim superiority. It is this special distinction of peoplehood and culture that we treasure greatly and defend against the imitations of our lives and the appropriations of our culture by others in exploitative and insensitive ways.

The notion and expression of soul in our music or our lives in general also speaks of the depthfulness and beauty of our Blackness as both being and becoming, ever striving to come into the constantly expanding fullness of ourselves. I speak here of a centering and sustaining soulfulness as expressive beauty, a meaningful and moving beauty, revealing and reaffirming, eloquent, artistic and evocative, sensitive and suggestive of the good. And this soulful expressiveness can be shared with or without words or sounds or even symbols. It can reveal itself in the music we make in loving close or simply be naturally embodied in the goodness and sacredness of ourselves, as sites of witness and wonder.

When I talk of the centering and sustaining beauty of soul, it is to speak not only of what is aesthetically pleasing to our senses, but also what is ethically pleasing to our sense of the good. And thus, the beauty and Blackness of our soul and ultimately ourselves must always be demonstrated and reaffirmed in the goodness we do, share in righteous and relentless struggle for and achieve in the world. In this sense, soul is also ultimately a standard and measure of our excellence in every sense of the word.

Written by Dr. Maulana Karenga

Official website; https://www.maulanakarenga.org/

Prudent statesmanship on the world stage requires setting clear ends and then working backward to calibrate the appropriate means — diplomatic, economic, military or otherwise — to achieve those ends. Because of his dealmaking background, Trump — despite all his foreign policy successes — was always uniquely vulnerable to confusion of means and ends, prioritizing a deal itself above any end that a deal might be meant to secure.

That is how we got to this troubling week in U.S. foreign policy — namely, the deeply flawed new “memorandum of understanding” between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which represents the single greatest subsumption of noble ends into politically convenient means in at least a decade of American diplomacy.

The Iran appeasement, primarily negotiated and championed by Vice President JD Vance but ultimately bearing Trump’s signature, raises at least two crucial questions. First, can Americans somehow believe that Iran will uphold its commitments, given its history of deceiving and lying at every turn? Second, what does this mean for Trump’s legacy and successor plans, as it pertains to the Middle East and 2028 presidential hopefuls?

We shouldn’t mince words on the first issue. To place trust in Iran’s fanatical Islamist leadership is not merely naive — it’s delusional. For decades, Iran’s apocalyptic Shiite theocracy has demonstrated a consistent pattern of deception and hostility, undermining any notion that it can be a reliable partner in Western diplomacy. The history of Iranian negotiations is littered with broken promises, yet the administration — with Vance as its most prominent salesman — somehow argues this time will be different. There is zero reason for thinking that will be the case. The mullahs are still in charge, after all. As Roger Daltrey of the Who famously said in the hit 1971 song “Won’t Get Fooled Again”: “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.”

This current MOU looks shockingly similar to former President Barack Obama’s catastrophic 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — a deal that Trump, shortly before withdrawing the United States from the pact in 2018, correctly excoriated as the “worst deal ever negotiated.” Under the guise of diplomacy, the plan said nary a word about Tehran’s formidable ballistic missile arsenal, allowed Iran to continue its nuclear ambitions, and provided the regime with a windfall — or, more accurately, literal pallets — of cash to fund its regional terror proxies.

What exactly is different with the current deal? The mind reels. The new MOU, with its quixotic presuppositions, risks repeating all those same grave mistakes. At its outset earlier this year, Operation Epic Fury had four reasonably clear goals: a truly free Strait of Hormuz, an end to Iran’s funding of its sprawling terror proxy network, an end to Iran’s ballistic missile threat, and a final resolution of the nuclear issue. The current agreement fails to achieve a single one of those American goals.

The Iranian regime, long guided by the sharia doctrine of taqiyya, has always viewed negotiations with Western powers as a strategic tool to buy time while advancing its nuclear capabilities, exporting jihad and sowing discord across the region. To imagine that Iran will suddenly embrace a spirit of good-faith cooperation is simply preposterous. No one actually believes that — including Trump’s own CIA director, John Ratcliffe.

We should also consider how this appeasement affects Trump’s Middle East legacy and, looking toward 2028, possible successor plans. Up until the April 8 ceasefire, Trump evinced a life’s work of consistent toughness toward the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism — a regime whose revolutionaries’ very first action, in 1979, was to storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran and commence a 444-day hostage crisis. To cap off the fiery and effective Epic Fury on such a limp note, without a single American goal having been achieved, is to jeopardize that legacy.

What is the point, after all, of winning the war but losing the peace? On Wednesday, Trump celebrated the signing of the MOU at a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at Versailles. The profound symbolism of having that particular dinner at that particular location, intimately associated as it is with tragically flawed peace accords, cannot be ignored.

It seems, then, that Trump is placing a high-stakes wager on his Middle East legacy on his credulous vice president. As Trump said at the G7 summit earlier this week in France: “If (the Iran deal) works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD.” Perhaps Trump meant that comment in jest — but perhaps he didn’t. The buck stops with the commander in chief, but maybe this has also been a trial run for Vance as he gears up for a likely 2028 run. If so, it has not been a particularly impressive one. No intellectually honest person can deny that Iran comes out the big winner from yet another futile exercise in kicking the nuclear (and missile) can down the road.

Throughout this ordeal, many Iran hawks have asked, “Where is Marco Rubio?” Rubio, like Ratcliffe and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, allegedly lobbied Trump against the deal. Perhaps the answer, in a possibility raised by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, is that Rubio is deliberately missing in action: He is letting Vance “take the fall” if (when) the deal inevitably implodes. If Trump cares about preserving his legacy on the world stage, then, ironically, his best remaining hope may well be for Rubio to clean up this mess.

Written by Josh Hammer

Official website; https://x.com/josh_hammer

Questlove’s new HBO documentary on the band arrived at the right moment. Younger listeners may know “September” from movies, weddings, commercials, and stadium speakers, but old school music lovers know there is a whole world behind that one chorus. Maurice White was not just chasing hits. Brother had vision. He wanted music to lift people out of heaviness, even while telling the truth about love, sorrow, joy, faith, and survival.

Down South, Earth, Wind & Fire never sounded like background music. Those records lived in the yard while somebody grilled. They rode through car speakers with the windows down. They played while aunties laughed in the kitchen, cousins danced too close to the furniture, and uncles tried to remind everybody they still had footwork. Great music becomes part of the house. Their catalog did that.

“Shining Star” still walks in with shoulders back. Right from the first groove, it feels like confidence being poured into the room. Not cheap bragging. Not loud emptiness. Real confidence. The kind a person needs after life has tried to make him feel small.

Maurice White understood encouragement did not have to sound weak. He placed it inside funk, horns, bass, and a vocal attack that made the message stand firm. When the band says a person can shine, it does not sound like a greeting card. It sounds like commandment.

Older ears hear something deeper now. Life can dim a brother through disappointment, bills, grief, racism, broken trust, and mistakes he wishes he could take back. Still, that record comes on and reminds him that light can return.

Young folks might hear “Shining Star” as motivation. Those of us with some miles on us hear survival wearing a good suit. Hope has rhythm here. Pride has discipline. Joy has muscle.

“That’s the Way of the World” feels like wisdom sitting on a porch after sundown. It does not rush the listener. Nothing about it sounds desperate. Smoothness carries the message, but beneath that beauty sits a hard understanding of life.

Some songs tell you everything straight. This one lets feeling breathe. The melody seems to know that sorrow and beauty often sit at the same table. That is grown music. It trusts the listener enough not to overexplain.

Maurice White gave people uplift without lying to them. The world can be cold. People can disappoint you. Dreams may not unfold the way you planned. Even then, the spirit still needs tending.

Hearing it now, I think about elders who had every reason to become bitter but chose grace instead. They had scars, yet they kept manners. They had pain, yet they kept dignity. That is the kind of wisdom this song carries.

“Reasons” belongs to the late night. Philip Bailey’s falsetto does not merely climb. It pleads, floats, aches, and reaches somewhere above ordinary singing. Plenty of vocalists can hit notes. Few can make those notes feel like confession.

Southern slow jams were never just about romance. They taught men how to sit with tenderness when pride tried to shut everything down. Many brothers who struggled to speak feelings could let a song like this speak for them.

Inside “Reasons” lives desire, confusion, longing, and vulnerability. Love is not always clean. Sometimes a man wants closeness without understanding what is driving him. Sometimes loneliness disguises itself as passion.

That is why the song still holds power. It does not make yearning simple. Bailey’s voice turns human weakness into something almost spiritual. The result is sensual, but also wounded, and that combination keeps it honest.

“Devotion” carries church in its bones without becoming a church record. That balance is part of the beauty. The harmony rises with reverence, while the rhythm keeps the body involved. Soul music has always known how to stand between sanctuary and celebration.

Black music moves across rooms better than any sound on earth. Sunday morning, Saturday night, front porch, back pew, cookout, funeral repast, and wedding reception can all meet inside one song. “Devotion” understands that crossing.

That word itself has weight. Devotion is not a mood. Devotion means staying faithful when excitement fades. It means showing up after the applause stops. It means giving your heart to something larger than appetite.

Maurice White believed music could elevate people. “Devotion” proves that belief was not decoration. He wanted the listener to move, yes, but he also wanted that soul to rise a little higher before the record ended.

“Sing a Song” sounds joyful in a way that feels almost childlike, but nobody should mistake simple reach for simple construction. Every piece is placed with care. Horns smile. Vocals bounce. Rhythm makes the whole thing feel like sunshine after rain.

Family gatherings need records like this. Children can catch the chorus. Grown folks can clap along. Elders can nod from a chair. Nobody has to study the tune before joining in. That type of welcome is part of its genius.

Singing has always helped Black people endure. Work songs, spirituals, blues, gospel, soul, and R&B all carry evidence. Our people sang through pain that should have crushed them. Sound became medicine before anybody used that language.

So “Sing a Song” is not shallow because it feels happy. Joy can be serious business. Sometimes survival sounds bright because sorrow has already had too much time at the microphone.

“Getaway” moves like somebody leaving stress behind before it steals another piece of peace. The bass line has travel in it. Drums push. Horns cut through the air. Nothing drags. Everything points forward.

Everybody needs release. Work can drain a person dry. Family pressure can sit heavy on the chest. Bad news can pile up until the mind feels crowded. This track does not complain about that feeling. It offers motion.

Funk becomes freedom here. Not freedom in some vague slogan way. Real freedom. The kind found in a ride across town, a weekend away, a dance floor, or ten minutes where nobody needs anything from you.

For a Southern man, “Getaway” sounds like open road, warm air, and a radio loud enough to push worry into the ditch. Maybe problems will still be waiting later, but for those few minutes, rhythm gives the spirit room.

“Fantasy” shows how far the band’s imagination could travel. Earth, Wind & Fire never limited themselves to ordinary love songs or basic dance cuts. They reached toward stars, symbols, ancient memory, and future light.

The track feels rich, almost cinematic. It does not rush into the room. It opens slowly, inviting the listener into a place where beauty has no shame. Dreams receive dignity here.

Our people have always needed imagination. Grandparents dreamed through uglier circumstances than many of us can comprehend. Parents dreamed while working jobs that barely respected their names. Artists dreamed while labels tried to shrink their reach.

That makes “Fantasy” more than a pretty record. It honors the inner life. A person who can still dream has not been fully conquered by the weight of this world.

“September” gets played everywhere, yet overexposure has not killed it. That says something. Many hits grow tired after too much use. This one keeps smiling. The record almost refuses to age.

Craft sits beneath all that happiness. The groove is tight. Vocals are light but never weak. Horns burst in at just the right moments. Every section knows its place, which is why the joy feels effortless.

No heavy message is required. Sometimes music simply needs to remind people that gladness is possible. In an age where anger travels fast and sorrow never seems far away, clean joy feels almost rebellious.

Down here, “September” sounds like a reunion before anybody starts fussing. Plates are full. Children are running. Somebody’s aunt is laughing too loud. For a few minutes, the whole family remembers how good life can feel.

“Boogie Wonderland” shines bright, but under that glitter sits a little ache. The Emotions help turn it into something larger than a dance record. Their voices bring urgency, beauty, and pressure to the floor.

Disco got mocked by people who did not understand what movement meant to tired communities. Working folks, Black folks, women, city folks, gay communities, and anybody carrying private trouble could find release under those lights. Dancing was not always escape. Sometimes it was survival.

Listen closely and the song says more than party. It says find a place where loneliness loosens. Find a rhythm strong enough to shake grief off your shoulders. Find a room where trouble cannot sit comfortably.

That is why “Boogie Wonderland” still works. The production sparkles, but the need inside it remains human. Folks still carry pressure. Folks still need somewhere to dance before the world hardens them.

“After the Love Has Gone” sits at the grown folks table. This is not teenage heartbreak, loud for attention and hungry for drama. Here, pain wears a clean shirt, sits quietly on the bed, and wonders how warmth left the room.

The vocals are polished, but the hurt remains plain. Restraint makes the record stronger. Nobody oversings the wound. Nobody turns grief into a circus. Each line feels controlled because the person singing is trying not to fall apart.

By a certain age, the title alone can sting. Love does not always end through betrayal or shouting. Sometimes neglect does the damage. Sometimes pride builds the wall. Sometimes silence finishes what anger started.

That is why the ballad still lands. It respects loss. It understands regret. It gives dignity to the person standing in the ruins, asking how something beautiful slipped away.

“Let’s Groove” proved Earth, Wind & Fire could step into a new era without sounding lost. The early eighties brought different textures, cleaner drums, and electronic flavor, but the band kept its identity.

Many classic acts struggled when music changed around them. Chasing trends can make legends look unsure. Here, adaptation felt natural. The groove changed clothes, yet the spirit remained familiar.

This record knows exactly what it came to do. It wants bodies moving, faces brightening, and worries stepping aside. No confusion. No heavy explanation. Just polished joy with seasoned musicianship underneath.

Play it now and somebody will move. Maybe slower than before. Maybe with one hand protecting a knee. Still, that groove will find the body. Time passes, but real rhythm remembers us.

Earth, Wind & Fire still hit hard because the music was never thin. Maurice White built something with body, soul, discipline, imagination, and faith. His vision honored Black musical depth while reaching the whole world.

Black Music Month gives us a reason to say that plainly. Our sound built more than entertainment. It carried history, prayer, pleasure, rebellion, tenderness, and genius. This band placed all of that inside records people could dance to.

Questlove’s documentary may bring fresh attention, and that is good. Younger listeners deserve context. They deserve to know there was a vision behind the horns, robes, symbols, falsettos, bass lines, and celestial stage designs.

Old school R&B lovers already knew. We heard it when those records came through speakers at cookouts, skating rinks, living rooms, and long rides home. Some groups made hits. Earth, Wind & Fire made memory move.

All these years later, their songs still rise because they were built with care. They still shine because the light was real. They still hit hard because joy, pain, faith, romance, and rhythm were never separated. Maurice White understood that music could lift a people without leaving the body behind. That gift remains, and the fire has not gone out.

Staff Writer; Jamar Jackson

This brother has a passion for poetry and music. One may contact him at; JJackson@ThyBlackMan.com.

I am descended from slaves and from the men who owned and abused them. The men who denied them their God-given right to freedom. My family was enslaved by the Blands of Virginia. Richard Bland was the famous one. He was a patriot before there was a country. He told the king and Parliament that a shackle chafes a man no matter how well you polish it. His young cousin Thomas Jefferson asked him to bring a bill to make it easier to free the enslaved. Bland did it. He was denounced as an enemy of his country. Then he went home and kept his thirty. He died still holding them.

That is my inheritance. My grandmother, Mamie Bland Todd, is the griot of our family. She carries two hundred years of it. Her great-grandfather Frederick was the only enslaved man named in his owner’s will, and the will was written to protect him. The man who owned Frederick was his own brother. That is how close the blood runs. Thomas Jefferson is my cousin. He wrote that all men are created equal. Robert E. Lee is my cousin too. He took up arms to keep my other ancestors in chains. I carry the blood of the man who argued for freedom and the blood of those he would not free. I resent his cruelty. I pray my children show his courage against the men who would be kings. That is the duality of this nation.

So I know something about awkward ground.
The Hermitage is beautiful. A thousand acres. A white mansion. Gardens. The tombs of the seventh president and his wife. It is also a graveyard. More than three hundred men, women, and children were enslaved there. Archaeologists are still finding their graves. The land was Native land first. He signed the Indian Removal Act. He set the Trail of Tears in motion. Settlers’ bones are in that ground. The bones of the enslaved. The ground is sacred for what is buried in it. It is stained for the same reason.
And we are going to sing on it.

Jackson owned the people there. He fathered no children, white or Black. Betty cooked for him, as her mother had before her. Her son Alfred was born on that land and lived there longer than any man. After freedom came he stayed. They put “Faithful Servant” on his stone. But once a white man told him slavery had its comforts, and Alfred asked him, “How would you like to be a slave?” The man had no answer.

For a while that felt like trespass. Who brings a celebration into a wound? Black music was not made in spite of that ground. It was made on it. The field holler. The spiritual. The work song that timed a hoe. People who were called property made them, and the songs said they were not. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” was a map to freedom. They sang it where the men who owned them could hear.

Juneteenth is the right day for it. Freedom came late, two and a half years after it was declared, to people who had been free in the eyes of God the whole time. The day does not pretend the delay away. It celebrates anyway.

So I will go. I will stand where Jackson stood, and where the people he enslaved stood. I will not soften either truth. I will say their names if they let me.

We are more curious now than ever about how we are joined. I have a cousin who descends from the people who owned mine. We are kin. The country is like that.
Nothing feeds the American need for unity and hope like the music made by enslaved people and their children. It is the truest thing this country has made. And we are still singing it.

So this Juneteenth, on sacred and stained ground, we will sing. And we will remember the oldest truth Mamie Bland Todd ever taught me: our people were always free.

And — oddly, ironically, and even somewhat poetically — it happens to be the same lesson her own slaveholding forebear, Richard, helped teach both his young cousin Thomas and King George.

Freedom is inherent. It belongs to us from the beginning.

Written by Ben Jealous

Official website; https://twitter.com/BenJealous

Instead of another press release criticizing the unlawful actions of certain states, the NAACP would launch a campaign focused on an area in which those states are highly concerned — money, sports, and the talent that the two bring to a state.

The Ruling That Started All of This

The case at issue was Louisiana v. Callais. In April, the Supreme Court’s six-justice conservative majority found that a congressional map drawn up by the legislature to create two majority-black districts for two members of Congress constituted an illegal racial gerrymander. Essentially, the lines were drawn to aid in the creation of districts in which Black voters would have a majority and thus real representation in Congress. But according to the court, that was discriminatory.

Justice Elena Kagan in a scathing dissent noted that her colleagues’ decision effectively renders Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act — the part that protected the interests of minority voters when maps were gerrymandered to silence their votes — into oblivion. This was the core part of the Act that had been used since 1982 to challenge prejudiced mapmaking all over the country. The decision of the six justices was going to allow states for the first time in decades to redraw the lines of their congressional districts without much fear of being challenged in court.

States like Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina began redrawing districts within months. Mississippi and Texas followed suit. The maps showed a marked decline in the number of majority-black congressional districts for black voters.

“Out of Bounds”: The NAACP’s Answer

The NAACP responded to the court’s ruling two weeks later with the launch of “Out of Bounds” campaign. Simply stated, the campaign asks that if a state is taking away the political power of Black people, then Black athletes should not help build the wealth of that same state through college athletics.

“Out of Bounds” started with a simple observation from NAACP President, Derrick Johnson. He said Black athletes have built up some of the country’s most profitable college sports programs. The revenue from these programs are pouring into the coffers of the states that are simultaneously stripping away the voting power of their Black citizens. Johnson’s message was clear — until something changes, Black athletes should take their money elsewhere.

The campaign asks Black student-athletes, recruits, alumni and fans to take their support away from public universities in the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. These are the states where almost every school on the list is a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the most profitable college sports operation in the country.

Why Sports? Why Now?

Nothing else has moved fast enough and lawsuits can take years to be heard in a court of law. Elections are held months away. Protests bring attention for a moment and then typically fade away within a matter of days or weeks, without forcing any changes within the state’s legislative bodies. Money, on the other hand, brings a response by morning.

D.L. Hughley recently explained why a boycott would be effective in bringing attention to this cause. He said that if the top athletes in the country stopped going to Tennessee and Louisiana then the university presidents, ESPN executives, and local chambers of commerce would be making phone calls in a short amount of time. The economic pressure of a serious boycott is one of the few things that will prompt action in a short amount of time and that is why this approach is effective than protests alone.

Some notable boycotts in the past have yielded similar results. The NFL moved the 1993 Super Bowl from Arizona after the state refused to recognize a federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. day. The NCAA similarly moved several championship events from North Carolina after the state passed the anti-LGBTQ bathroom bill. Both states later reversed the laws in question. The important thing to note here is that the playbook works when institutions have much to lose.

The Congressional Black Caucus Adds Pressure

But the NAACP wasn’t alone in its response to the illegal redistricting. The Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter the day before the “Out of Bounds” campaign launched to the commissioners of the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast conference, and to the president of the NCAA, Charlie Baker.

In a strongly worded message, the Congressional Black Caucus expressed its absolute outrage that the redistricting happening in member states, is being condemned by conference leaders. Unless conference leaders across the country publicly denounce the unconstitutional actions taking place in the states where their member schools reside, the CBC vowed to oppose the SCORE Act currently making its way through Congress. The SCORE Act would allow college athletes to sign contracts with anyone, standardizing athlete rights across the country. Conference leaders would be loathe to see the SCORE Act taken down. Holding that bill hostage was a very serious threat.

The CBC stated in their letter that all institutions who profit from the talent of Black athletes have a responsibility to stand with the Black community when their fundamental rights are being attacked. The silence from the conferences and from the NCAA will not be interpreted as neutrality, but rather, as a choice.

What This Actually Means for the SEC

Black athletes make up a substantial majority of rosters on top teams in both SEC football and basketball. A serious boycott of recruitment to these programs could therefore affect depth charts and scholarship classes within one or two seasons. These changes would affect how a team would fare in comparison to other schools in terms of rankings. Programs that rely so heavily on their ability to land the very best young talents from Georgia, Alabama, and Florida would quickly feel the effect of a boycott.

The counter from some governors such as South Carolina’s was immediate. They claimed that the athletes should not be used as political pawns. The NAACP had framed the campaign in a way that anticipated this response however. Instead of arguing over whether athletes should be used for politics, the question was whether they would choose to be used for their politics or someone else’s.

What’s Actually at Stake

This is not really about football. It’s about what happens to a community that has lost its voice in politics and has turned to find another lever to pull.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law after peaceful marchers were beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama while attempting to exercise their right to vote. The law was put into place because the courts and Congress realized that without federal protection, the voting rights of African Americans would be taken away state by state.

That is what is happening today — only instead of fire hoses and beatings, maps and legal briefs are being used to deny citizens their right to vote. Being angry about this is appropriate. The NAACP’s response says: don’t just stay angry — make the anger count. If the institutions won’t protect your vote, make them feel what your absence look like.

Associate Editor; Stanley G. Buford

Feel free to connect with this brother via Twitter; Stanley G. and also facebook; http://www.facebook.com/sgbuford.

Also his email addy is; StanleyG@ThyBlackMan.com.

Challenges are a part of life. There is no escaping them, no matter how much we would like to. Therefore, since we all face the challenges of life, what then makes the difference between those who do well in spite of them and those who stumble? I am sure there are a myriad of responses but when you boil it all down this one response plays a big if not an enormous part and it is called preparation!

To be prepared simply means you are willing and able to do something or you are ready to deal with something. In other words, is your physical, spiritual, emotional and mental state in a suitable place to be able to cope with whatever life throws your way?

Preparation – when you define this word compared to its earlier form of prepare or prepared, it implies the work or planning involved in making something or somebody ready, in putting something together in advance and a state of readiness. Within this definition is the key as to why so many miss the mark when challenges arise. It is referred to as work and work by its definition is purposeful effort. It is the transfer of energy from one thing to another. In short, it is expended effort and it is hard!

Now imagine expending energy and effort in planning for something you can’t see or imagine yet! It can make the perceived work seem all that much more difficult and hard. However, the key here is perception and perception is the process of using our senses to acquire information about our surrounding environment or situation. Perception is an attitude or understanding based on what is observed or thought about.

There it is – I believe we have uncovered the issue – it all lies in our attitude! When we feel that something may be too difficult, we may try to avoid it and since our discussion of preparation involves the unknown it is easier to simply ignore preparation altogether. None of us knows exactly what tomorrow will bring or if there will even be a tomorrow for us, but that shouldn’t excuse us from planning and working through the thoughts of what could be. On the other hand, many of us do like to dream of a better life and the things we want so we will at times try to work toward those ends. Yet, what is the disconnect between the two?

One can seem negative and one can seem positive but if we only have one without the other we become lopsided. I am not advocating a totally pessimistic or absolute optimistic viewpoint. I guess you might say I reside a little more on the realistic scale. Still when I look at a glass of water, I would say it’s half full rather than half empty. This concept goes beyond that kind of thinking. It should make us dig deeper and realize that if we take a look at both what our dreams are and what information our surrounding environment is providing us we should be able to apply ourselves in such a way as to accomplish both our dream and the preparation necessary to face the challenges of the unknown.

Challenges are God’s way of proving us and developing us. It is the tool He uses to help perfect our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual states. He may even allow the sacrifice of one area to help sharpen another area. It is also the way He separates out the sincere from the insincere. Another way of saying this would be that it is the way He identifies the wise from the foolish. The Bible has a lot to say about both topics of wisdom and foolishness and the impression I am left with from scripture is that God prefers that we pursue wisdom. Moreover, an essential part of wisdom is in being prepared. Sure, we may not know when the next stock market crash will occur but through observation of our surrounding environment, it would seem wise for us to have a few dollars tucked away to provide for our physical being. Additionally, we may not know when the next scandal will break, so again through observation of our surrounding environment, it would seem wise not to invest our emotional state in the newest political star but rather to build up the emotional bank accounts of those closest to us like family and friends.

I would even go so far as to say that given careful observation of our world wide environment that it would be wise to ensure that we have our spiritual house in order should God decide He’s had enough of sin, corruption, green and the filth of mankind. I know our attitudes may need adjustments in order for us to be prepared for the what if scenarios but simply ask those who have prepared in advance for either success or disaster and determine if they were sorry they expended the energy to prepare? I believe in either case you will get an answer of it was well worth it because for success it simply heightened it and made it sweeter while for disasters it made its blow a little bit softer.

I would encourage you today to show yourself wise by following one simple concept – preparation. It will take some thought, some diligence to look for answers, to gather resources or change your environment but in the end, you could find that it was about time and it helped you face the inevitable!

Staff Writer; Rick S.

One may contact this man of God at: RS@ThyBlackMan.com.

NFL teams don’t usually keep four quarterbacks on their active roster so it is likely that either Dillon Gabriel or Taylen Green will not be on the active roster for the 2026 Cleveland Browns. Gabriel was a rookie QB last season who was taken ahead of Shedeur Sanders by the Browns during their 2025 NFL Draft class. While Gabriel threw seven touchdowns and only two interceptions during his rookie season, the Browns also only won one game out of the six he started in 2025, making him unlikely to be the starting QB for them in 2026. Taylen Green is a physically gifted rookie QB taken by the Browns in the sixth round. He is considered a raw long-term project that will not likely much if any game action on an NFL field during the 2026 regular season. This means that two former college star QBs, Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders will battle all summer to be the starting QB for the Browns when the season starts.

Deshaun Watson was once considered the long-term starting quarterback for the Houston Texans several years ago. A three-time Pro Bowl selection as an All Star, he led the Texans offense to the playoffs twice in his Houston career. Then, in 2021 things changed for the Texans and Watson forever. He was sued and accused by more than two dozen female massage therapists of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. He missed the entire 2021 NFL season and was eventually traded to the Cleveland Browns in one of the biggest trades in NFL history and also received a record-breaking contract. However, Watson hasn’t regained his Pro Bowl form since joining the Browns.

His opposition for the starting QB position for the Cleveland Browns is Shedeur Sanders. The son of NFL legend Deion Sanders, Shedeur made a name for himself in college playing for his father at both Jackson State, an HBCU, and Colorado as a productive QB. His drop to the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft was arguably the biggest story of the entire 2025 NFL Draft due to his talent being considered greater than that of a mid-round pick but NFL teams seemed concerned by some aspects of Shedeur’s persona and the celebrity spotlight that accompanied him at college due to his father. His dad’s recent public comments about the Browns don’t help fight that perception as many have viewed Shedeur Sanders having a media magnet similar to another former college star QB Tim Tebow. For reasons that have nothing to do with football both Watson and Sanders are known by even some casual sports fans and now will compete to get more spotlight as the Browns starting quarterback for 2026.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

It’s true that Bix Beiderbecke, king of the cornet, was gone at 28, Charlie Parker at 34, Dinah Washington at 39, John Coltrane at 40. Billie Holiday made it to 44 — not young, but an age that should have been before her time.

Some musicians, classical and rock, as well as jazz, reach especially advanced ages. The music stimulates their mind, connects them with others and lowers stress. Importantly, performing is also a physical workout. Watch the virtuosi sweat.

Tony Bennett passed at 96, having sung only 23 months earlier (with Lady Gaga). Though the performances were billed as “One Last Time,” Bennett seemed in fine form.

The early deaths were usually tied to addictions. Biedernecke was an alcoholic. Washington was cut down by abuse of prescription drugs. Parker, Coltrane and Holiday suffered multiple addictions.

How did Walter Theodore Rollins escape? Born in Harlem, Rollins took some wrong turns. At 21, he helped rob a tobacco store and did time in jail. And he got hooked on heroin. But at around age 24, Rollins put himself into the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, and broke the habit.

Also called the Lexington Narcotic Farm, the facility was both a prison and hospital for addicts. Numerous musicians and artists passed through. Relapses were common, but Rollins was not among them.

From then on, Rollins committed himself to staying sober and healthy, spiritually and physically. He got into yoga and meditation, which he practiced religiously. Many a recovering alcoholic know their power.

It is a falsehood, as Rollins demonstrated, that getting high feeds creativity. A year after leaving “Lexington,” as musicians called the hospital, Rollins recorded his seminal album, “Saxophone Colossus.” From there he built his legacy as an improvisational genius.

Rollins was not alone among other jazz greats who lived well into their 90s. They include Eubie Blake (96), Marian McPartland and Benny Carter (95), Lionel Hampton and Bucky Pizzarelli (94).

The list of rock musicians perishing in their 20s and 30s from drug abuse is voluminous: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse all died at 27. Sid Vicious didn’t make it past 21. But Mick Jagger still performs at 82.

Let’s not overstate the extent to which mind-altering substances spur creativity by relaxing the brain and freeing up associations. Researchers find that novel thoughts do not necessarily lead to good art.

I recall attending a memorial service for Horace Silver, the master of hard bop, who had died at the respectably ripe age of 85. The son of a Cape Verdean immigrant, Silver started life with scoliosis among other physical burdens. But he used those challenges to pursue a life dedicated to family, spirit and healthy eating. He had cut down touring to spend more time with his wife and son. It’s all there in his autobiography, “Let’s Get to the Nitty Gritty.”

When the service ended, young jazz musicians filled the church with Silver’s gospel-flavored, Brazilian-inspired sounds. (Steely Dan borrowed heavily from Silver for their opening of “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.”)

Like Rollins, Silver lacked nothing in creativity and didn’t regard self-destruction as the price for producing original sounds. Starting in 1959, Rollins “disappeared” for a while to work on his art. He would practice for hours on New York’s Williamsburg Bridge.

He emerged three years later with an album called “The Bridge.” And as a bonus, he had 64 years left to make more music. Rollins knew that great artists didn’t have to die young.

Written by Froma Harrop

Official website; https://twitter.com/FromaHarrop

Loser: The American People

Americans were unhappy prior to the Israeli-US War on Iran. They had witnessed unbelievable chaos, confusion, distrust, alienation and divisiveness within the nation. Still, they viewed their nation as a friendly nation and not a bully.

After the war started, sitting in their cars paying almost double for gas to go shopping for significantly increased groceries did not make them any happier. Americans’ confidence in their government, other institutions, and the economy is at an all-time low. For many Americans they look around and no longer see the nation of their youth.

Winner: The Current Occupant of the Oval Office

The current occupant of the Oval Office has no principals. No beliefs, dogma, tenets nor allegiances beyond his self-preservation and well-being. He does have an insatiable desire for attention. The greater the attention, the happier he is. The Israeli-US War on Iran placed him front and center on the world stage. He gave the performance for the ages, at least in his mind.

Loser: The Epstein Files

It took a war, the Israeli-US War on Iran, to remove the Epstein Files as front-page news. The war did what the Department of Juveniles was unable to do. Whatever hope of justice the victims had is probably now just blowing in the wind.

Winner: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been unsuccessful in prodding earlier US presidents to attack Iran. However, the current occupant of the Oval Office decided that the first duty of the American government is to protect the citizens of Israel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is not interested in anything less than the complete destruction of the nation of Iran. The only thing which might prevent all-out war is the price of oil reaching levels so high that American and other consumers finally tell Netanyahu ”enough is enough.”

Loser: State of Israel

At the close of the Second World War, people around the world were confronted with images, horrific and shocking images, of the dead bodies of Jews, six million of them. They had been systematically and barbarically murdered during what became known as the Holocaust. The images were unbelievable but unfortunately so very real. Images that showed the depths of the brutality, inhumanity, savagery, hatred and just pure evil that men and women were capable of doing to other men, women and children.

Those images and the ugly history behind the images, compelled governments and people around the world to justify the survivors of the Holocaust and Jews throughout the world have their own nation. To have a place in which they could sit under their own fig tree and not be afraid.

Fast forward roughly 80 years after the State of Israel was established. People throughout the world have been horrified and shocked at the images coming out of Gaza and Lebanon of men, women and children experiencing a present-day holocaust. Have those images as well as the Israeli and US War on Iran served to eradicate the support the State of Israel had been given unconditionally?

Winner: Iran

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. We have oil and you have needs. Iran was forced to take on Israel and the US. Two against one. Iran suffered damage but, in the end, not only did it remain standing it came out of the war stronger than before. David had once again beaten an evil two-headed Goliath. Many inside and outside of Iran are compelled to ask if Israel and the US have nuclear weapons, why shouldn’t Iran? Iranian government hardliners are now stronger and have increased their control of Iranian society.

Loser: The Moral Authority of the US

The current occupant of the Oval Office in one of his many late-night rants stated that if Iran did not surrender to the demands of Israel and the US that he was prepared to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age. Iran dismissed his paper tiger threats. In the end, billions of people and governments throughout the world saw that it was the moral authority of the US that sadly had been ushered back to the Stone Age. A moral authority which had taken decades to establish now wiped away overnight. It might take forever for the US to be viewed as having moral authority by nations and people throughout the world .

Winner: MAGA

The political philosophy of the MAGA movement is quite simple. There is none. It stands for nothing other than being opposed to everything. It feeds on chaos, confusion, division, contempt, pain and suffering of others. It is a movement made up of unhappy, angry people. Their satisfaction is spreading their misery to others.

The Israeli-US War on Iran with its chaos, confusion, destruction, pain, suffering and death was sweet music to the MAGA faithful.

Winner: Islamic and Arabic Militancy

The Israeli-US attacks in the Middle East have killed thousands of men, women and children. For each father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, uncle and aunt killed conceivably there will be three, four, five or more who feel compelled, feel a duty to seek revenge. If nothing else, the Israeli-US attacks in the Middle East will serve to ensure that there will be a new generation of Islamic and Arab soldiers, warriors and martyrs.

Winner: China

Even before the Israeli-US War on Iran, the current Oval Office occupant’s obsession with trade wars, nations around the world began to see China as a more favorable and reliable trade partner than the US. They also see it as more stable and mature. The Israeli-US War on Iran has only served to cement those notions.

China, a once pariah nation, is now viewed as the reasonable, responsible adult in the room. As for the pariah nation designation, the US and Israel have replaced China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Winner: European Nations

Longtime European allies were caught off guard by the attack on Iran. They had not been consulted prior to the attack. Over the last year and a half the current occupant of the Oval Office berated and mocked longtime European allies of the US over tariffs and other issues. When the current occupant of the Oval Office realized his war was not turning out how he thought he reached out in desperation to longtime European allies. The same longtime European allies he had earlier mocked and berated. Longtime European allies decided to let motor mouth handle his problem all by himself.

Since the Second World War, European nations looked to and relied on the US for their security concerns. Distrustful of the US, European nations are now moving away and developing their own security arrangements. Europe will emerge stronger with greater solidarity, independence and confidence.

No Decision: Arab Nations

Arab nations closest in proximity to Iran have viewed Iran worryingly. The US did not confer with these nations prior to launching its attack with Israel against Iran. It also was not able to protect those nations from attacks from Iran. The war may compel Arab nations to rethink their strategic relationships.

It also remains to be seen if the citizens of those Arab nations are willing to support governments that sided with Israel and the US against a fellow Islamic and Arab nation.

No Decision: Democratic Members of Congress

Democratic Congressional members and candidates should be in a state of rapture unable to wait until their blue tsunami sweeps Republicans from control of the House of Representatives and the US Senate. But the Democrats being Democrats will probably find a way to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. Beyond being against the current occupant in the Oval Office what if anything do Democrats stand for?

No Decision: Republican Members of Congress

It would be understandable if Republican Congressional members and candidates would be out looking for boxes to move their belongings from their more spacious offices to those set aside for minority party members. But not so fast. They are highly successful in hoodwinking and bamboozling voters. In 2024, Republicans were able to convince enough voters that immigrants and transgender people were the number one threats to their life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Will Republicans invent a new mythical monster or monsters to feed voters and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

Staff Writer; Al Alatunji

Question or comment regarding this article? Feel free to send a message to: Alatunji@ThyBlackMan.com.