Why?

Being African-American myself, I ask the question, "Why can't some black people get along with each other?"
Our ancestors came from Africa with nothing, suffer racial treatment, and fought for our right to be free.
Now that we are somewhat free, we want to kill each other, steal from each, and gossip about each other.
We are also teaching our children to do the same, but they are worser than we are.
If you look at them a certain way or step on their shoes by mistake, they want to mess with you.
Why people?

Langston Hughes' Mother to Son

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Motivators

R. Eli Bremer, 2008 U.S. Olympic Team, Modern Pentathlete.

When I was four years old, I met an Olympian for the first time. He sat next to me on an airplane and talked to me for two hours about the Olympics and what it meant to him. That athlete planted a dream in me that changed my life.

Now, 25 years later, that dream is fulfilled. But only partially-I qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games by winning the gold medal in the modern pentathlon at last summer's Pan American Games. A lifetime of sacrifice, hard work and discipline paid off with the opportunity to compete in the greatest sporting event on the planet. Seeing the United States flag raised over all others and hearing my national anthem played was a moment I will never forget.

But there was another moment the day I made the Olympic Team that stands even stronger in my mind. Running is the final event in the pentathlon, and I am one of the fastest pentathlon runners in the world. Before running started, I already had a lead, giving me a virtual lock on the gold medal and a berth on the U.S. Olympic Team. As I bent down to tie my shoe at the starting line, it struck me that what was about to happen was not about me, it was about all the other people who got me there. From my wife to my parents, coaches and financial supporters, to the athlete I met as a four-year old, they all had selflessly paid a heavy price for me to be standing here. And as I stood alone on the starting line half a world away, I realized that they were all there with me, cheering for me and excited as I was for what was about to happen. It was one humbling and exhilarating experience of my life.