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Saturday, April 18, 2015

Asset protection in a brutal world

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Casket handle of bird in flight. RIP, Nicholas Taft Thomas. You did not die in vain.
Galatians 4:7 - "So you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are His child, God has made you also an heir."

While honeymooning in New York 35 years ago, I waited in the car for my husband while he went into a bank. On the radio was a program discussing assets. "Your greatest assets are your children," the commentator stated, and that message has stayed with me ever since.

Thinking back over the visitation services for Nicholas Taft Thomas last night, several things come to my mind.

1.  Black men are languishing in coffins and jail cells and are no longer assets to the community. When they are stolen from our midst, hope diminishes but should not be extinguished.

2. The murder of black men by police has become "entertainment" on news programs and on the Internet, but black families from which these victims come are not being justly compensated for their lost assets. Children are not being provided for by deceased fathers, and parents/grandparents in their twilight years are not being taken care of by the next generation.

3. Monetary assets spent on funerals can be maximized by purchasing a burial or insurance plan which will be needed sooner or later, so you may as well invest in one in case you are killed unexpectedly.


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The whole family and community suffer when human assets are lost.
4. You can't help the dead; only the living. Don't keep beating the drum on how someone died, but focus on providing a good life for heirs of heaven who are children of the Most High God.

5. People who use guns and Tasers for all the wrong reasons are often on power trips. The religious community needs to step up and change what is happening in our world.

6. Many people are totally ignorant of the statistics that are affecting the "American" community. Some I have talked to knew nothing about the statistics of black men being killed by police or  incarcerated in prisons. They didn't know that Nicholas Taft Thomas had died violently, or Calvon Reid had been tasered to death by police, or that a black man had been found hanging from a tree recently in Mississippi. Perhaps they don't believe it is their problem!

"All things are one. If I hurt you, I hurt myself."
--- Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

While people are concerned that our black men, our assets, are being taken because of racism or body parts trading, funeral directors are focused on providing compassion and a "good looking death package" to distraught families who have to bury their children/grandchildren at an alarmingly increasing rate. 


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Time for meeting at a funeral home for all the wrong reasons, homicide and murder, has got to stop! (Tomi Johnson with Funeral Director Willie Watkins in Atlanta, Ga.)
We must think about this and act in a positive way to save ourselves and our legacies.

For the numbers, check this out: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/20/upshot/missing-black-men.html?abt=0002&abg=1

5 comments:

  1. SP says: Thanks for sending that, Tomi. I'm honored to have a few words of mine attached to your excellent work. Keep it up, Wingcom Watchdog!

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  2. George says: The one thing I see missing from your article is the stat on black on black crime and until we as a people begin to talk about it, I don't think we can ever truly "protect our assets".
    I give to you an example, my 61 year old cousin was just beaten, raped and left for dead by a young BLACK man who she helped raise!! Until we get our own house in order, we are a lost people.

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  3. George, sorry about what happened to your cousin. Black on black crime is truly an important topic for another article. We've all got a lot of work to do, and psychological problems are at the root of many issues.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HT says: Thank you so very much... This strengthens us in this trying time that we are facing. Your post was phenomenal.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice post....Asset protection consists of methods available to protect assets from liabilities arising elsewhere. It should not be confused with limiting liability, which concerns the ability to stop or constrain liability to the asset or activity from which it arises.Bankruptcy Lawyer

    ReplyDelete

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