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Who says the NBA is all about basketball and nothing more? True, the NBA is one of the world’s most watched and financially successful spectator sports, but before one makes the assumption that the NBA is just a bunch of guys getting paid millions to outscore and outplay each other, one should hear this out: The NBA cares about people too.

Surprised? A lot of people are when they hear that the NBA has been doing outreach programs to promote basketball, particularly to youth. But it is not just the youngsters that the NBA is focused on. Basketball Without Borders, NBA’s philanthropic project, aims to promote friendship and diversity by teaming up young aspiring players from all over the world, regardless of race and creed, to compete with other teams.

Aside from basketball, other programs bannered by Basketball Without Borders instill leadership skills, character development, and healthy living with high regards to HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. All over the world, Basketball Without Borders have created 26 places where families can do things as families.

Inaugurated in 2001, Basketball Without Borders has produced not only top-notched players across the globe, but individuals molded with values and a strong sense of love for family.

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I just finished reading a book called “Being in Balance” by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. It was a lovely book with lovely thoughts reworked from the great healers such as James Allen. Actually it was lovely up until page 63 where Dr. Dyer stepped into his moral duty as a modern age guru feeling compelled to equate the US and its citizens with terrorists.

This was a sad use of his power and even sadder for the many who will read his words and become angrier at the US. Will his words put people in balance or will his opinions make them more fearful of the US, perhaps, creating even more hatred towards his own country?

He did the very thing he told his readers not to do, so Dr. Dyer negated his own philosophy. I suggest the Dr. read James Allen again and refresh his memory. What the world needs is healers who sooth, not incite.

The point here is not whether his opinion is valid or not, after all, we have been having pro and anti war arguments for many years. The point is whether expressing such a radical thought will keep anyone in balance. It certainly threw me out of balance and if Dr. doesn’t care about keeping everyone in balance, but only those who agree with his political views, than he is not a healer but another citizen using his fame to impose his political opinion. Then what’s the difference between him and leftist Hollywood stars, who, by the way, also throw me out of balance?
And if he is not who he claims to be, than who is he?

Dr. Dyer’s book was an early release on QVC, the all-American shopping network, as a “toady’s’ special”, thus, selling in the thousands. Why would any of their buyers allow a book like this that blatantly equates Americans with terrorists to become their darling? To my knowledge, there are not any QVC shoppers who blow up weddings and behead contractors, unless, Dr. Dyer knows of some.

As someone involved with the healing arts and metaphysics, I am constantly dealing with the world of new age gurus that fell so out of balance that they incite hatred around the world. Imagine if they had said something good about the millions helped by the US, thus, soothing many fears and helping to bring an end to the war. I am convinced that well-meaning men such as Dr. Dyer and the peace movement have caused more war than they realize. I am sure when they leave this planet, they will see how they also played a part in this death dance.

My dear friend is a Muslim woman who has fled from the bonds of slavery; I hear the tears of the torment she has suffered since birth. I hear her cries of gratitude to the US. Why do I hear it and the Dyers of the world do not? Do they choose to turn a deaf ear?

Dr. Dyer, you carefully put the word terrorist in parenthesis as if they are a fabrication of America’s imagination. Dr. Dyer, I am a victim of 9/11. I will not go into detail, but I will tell you that the planes hitting the towers were not flown by people in parenthesis, they were flown by terrorists. The sound of death was not in parenthesis either; the men and women jumping out of the towers were not falling on parenthesis but on a dry cement New York City street.

This story is one of great sadness and I do not expect men and women of ‘peace” living in affluence to understand this.
What I ask is men and women of peace to pray and not to incite. Did we not learn that this never works? Why not even one guru ever condemned the acts of the terrorists? Why when Dr. Dyer writes about terrorists he puts the word in parenthesis but he so courageous in attacking his own countrymen? But then again what is any American (including QVC shoppers) going to do to him?

Dr Dyer, you are saying that it is the so-called Law of Attraction that causes our problems. You claim that it is our fault that the Muslim terrorists attack us. Then why don’t you explain how that law functioned when the Muslims began to exterminate Christian populations about 800 years prior to the conception of America?

Mr. Dryer, America did not start a war; this war has been going on
for 1400 years. A base statement that you made in your book shows not only your own hatred unveiled but also your ignorance of world religion and politics. I pray that you put away your hate and trade it in for love, than you will, perhaps, be able to rise to the healer you claim to be. Let’s hope it is in this lifetime, so you don’t have to do this again.

Jeani DiCarlo is an actress/writer/producer. She authored books, screenplays and produced and wrote a documentary about Abraham Lincoln “The Wounded Warrior”. Jeani is a founder of RebelLight Communications, a multi-media company based in LA.

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What the President Can Do to Improve His Low Ratings

Being President of the United States can be a lonely job even though you are surrounded by office staffers and the public. The pay is low for the responsibility, the pressure is intense, the public is sometimes not happy about what you do. Even the Congress can turn against you at a critical time.

Having been raised in a political family I’m an expert on poll revival. Here are some suggestions that will bounce George Bush right back where he wants to be in the polls:

1. Take a very long vacation but don’t’ go to your ranch where that “woman with the dead son” will pester you. Don’t go to that ranch where Vice President Cheney shot the attorney either. Rumors will start that you are drinking and having an affair with that lady down there. No, go to David Letterman’s ranch up in Montana. He won’t be using it before June. You might have to agree to appear on his show to get him to let you stay there for a couple of months. Agree! Agree! When the time comes to appear on his show, give REGRETS.

2. Visit the Daily Show and joke with Jon Stewart. Give only frivolous answers if he asks you a serious question. Watch out! He is very smart and might trick you into giving a serious answer. Don’t do it! Whatever you do, don’t have your staff brief you before the show. Instead take Laura with you as a surprise. Everybody just loves Laura. You will have a warm welcome by the Daily Show audience of right wingers. You need all the help you can get.

3. Have your secretary print up letters asking for the resignation of each of your staff and cabinet members. After you receive the resignations tell everyone that the letters were distributed by mistake. However, say that you are accepting most all of them because the reasons were so good. Keep a few staff members to show your good faith. Make sure that Rose and McClelland are not two of them. Well, okay. Keep your friend Rose but appoint him to head of the newly formed Department of Little Know Affairs. Tell him not to smirk.

4. Hire a consultant to feed the media with a story How Scott McClelland Tried to Destroy the Presidentcy by Being Rude to the Media and Acting Stupid. Ask Scott to apologize. Appoint him to “Ping Pong Director” of Camp David as a reward. That way you will be able to keep and eye on him. Say that to the press. Point out his experience in managing ping pong tournaments.

5. Make General H. Norman Schwarzkopf Secretary of Defense. If you don’t know who he is, ask your Daddy. Also do research at http://www.usdreams.com/Schwarzkopf.html. He will fix Iraq in about four to six months. You will look like a genius for appointing him.

6. Place Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on your White House Staff of Advisors. Say that Affairs of State are so important that you must have her by your side. No! Don’t say that. The liberals will kill you. Say, “The Office of Secretary of State is temporarily being moved to the White House for better correlation.” Folks like Condoleeza, so let them see her more often.

7. Appoint a committee to investigate how the White House was deceived in thinking that the Congress would allow giving our ports to the Arabs. This should be a long investigation, the committee only meeting on the fifth Tuesdays of February. The committee should be dissolved because of lack of interest next year sometime: preferably August when the members of Congress are out water skiing.

8. Report that Osama Bin Laden has gone into retirement and is no longer a threat to the United States. Say that he wants to spend the rest of his days in medication in Mecca in one of the buildings his family built there. Say that the CIA just about had him by his robes, but the outside robe was cleverly designed to come off freeing Bin Laden to walk through the gates of Mecca where the “infidel” CIA agents were not permitted to follow.

9. You already know that Vice President Cheney is not going to run for the presidency but say this, “If Vice President Cheney decides to run for President of this Republic, I may not be able to give him my undivided support.” This will not only sound “presidential” it will make you look like you know what a republic is. It will make the public think that you have not approved of some of Vice President Cheney’s actions. They will think you agree with them!

10. Have your daughters get married in a duel wedding in the White House. No, don’t have them marry each other! We are not trying to appeal to the Gay Community are we? Find one a Democratic Party man and one an Independent Party man to marry. Make sure they didn’t go to an Ivory League school. Get one from out here at Idaho State and one from Purdue University. Invite me to perform the wedding.

Don’t forget your alternative not to look so healthy.

Play the role that the job is making you ill.

Have your doctor give a report like “The President needs a rest from the grueling tasks he has had to face in this troubled world.”

This will allow you a second vacation while gaining sympathy at the same time.

Happy Poles, Mr. President!

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He is Executive Representative of IWS sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He also sells TopFlight flagpoles. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.aaaflagpoles.com

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