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Focus On Empowerment can be heard every Thursday at 1pm Eastern.
Log Onto: www.blogtalkradio.com/globalcarole Listen LIVE or Download Anytime At This Blog Post. Each broadcast can be replayed immediately following the show. ======================== Life does not always turn out the way we want it to, and circumstances can change in a split second. I learned that first hand when a week of joyous high school graduation celebrations for my boy and girl twins turned tragic when my 17-year-old son was killed in a single car accident in a quiet Boston neighborhood in the middle of the night. That single event in 1997 changed my life forever and permanently altered the lives of my family and those who knew Mikey. ​ It caused me to start Student Safety Month in 1998, the commemoration to raise awareness by keeping young people safe while driving, celebrating or socializing with friends and family. This year in tribute to Student Safety Month and the 21st Anniversary of my son's accidental death, today's radio program features, "21 Ways To Recover From Adversity In Bite-Size Nuggets." Listen, take notes and share widely as you count your blessings for the gift of life and our connection to each other in good and bad times.
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Focus On Empowerment can be heard every Thursday at 1pm Eastern.
Log Onto: www.blogtalkradio.com/globalcarole Listen LIVE or Download Anytime At This Blog Post. Each broadcast can be replayed immediately following the show. ======================== Today we pay tribute to the young warriors graduating from schools across the world. In America, we’re at the height of graduation ceremonies from elementary, middle and high schools, colleges, universities, trade schools and military programs. It’s a time of great celebration for the young and not so young who have worked hard, persevered and finished their coursework. We salute their achievements! Let the parties begin. However, let’s also do our level best to keep our graduates safe and protected from harm’s way. As a parent of three children, I have experienced the transition from graduation festivities to an unexpected tragedy. I’ll share my story of losing a child in the midst of a graduation season and what it’s like to survive the death of a child. We’ll also give you the latest news on our exciting new coaching academy and how you can invest in yourself by hiring the right personal coach. No matter what your occupation or business, coaching can improve your productivity and help move you to a new level of achievement and success.
Today marks the 19th Anniversary of my son’s tragic death. Mickarl D. Thomas, Jr (Mikey) was 17 years old and had just graduated with his twin sister, Michelle, from Milton High School here in Massachusetts. The world was his. He would have started Morehouse College on a full academic scholarship that fall, but it was not meant to be. In the early morning of June 14, 1997 the world that I knew ended and my “new normal” began. He died at a party hosted by family friends after drinking alcohol and going for a joy ride in a friend’s fancy sports car. All by himself, unbeknownst to anyone at the party. He was young, impulsive, carefree and happy to be alive. Suddenly he lost control of the car, smashed into a neighbor’s stone retaining wall and died within minutes. My joy, happiness and memories of his graduation and the party I had thrown at my own house days earlier had turned to misery and the worst pain I had ever felt in my entire life. Gone was his chance of graduating from Morehouse and entering law school to become a lawyer like his Uncle Wilson. Gone was the chance for me to see him married with children of his own. Gone was the loving relationship he had with his twin sister, older sister, father, stepmother, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends and so many more who loved Mikey. It is PAINFUL to lose a child. At any age. For any reason. And it is in that spirit that I reach out to the parents of the Orlando Massacre. I know their pain. Different circumstances but the same pain. My son was straight. Many of the Orlando victims were gay. But it’s the SAME PAIN. The funerals that are being planned this week remind me of the cemetery plot, casket and burial arrangements I had to make in the midst of family celebrations held just one week earlier. We know what happened at the Pulse Nightclub on Saturday June 11, 2016. Over 300 mostly young adults, both gay and straight hanging out in then club for Latin Night during Gay Pride Month. And in the midst of their laughter and dancing lurked an angry, twisted young American who decided to mark the evening with brutality, slaughter and violence. Some 49 killed. Some 53 wounded. And mothers, fathers, siblings, other family members and friends now making the same funeral arrangements I made some 19 years ago. Last year it was Emanuel AME Church, my sister church in Charleston, South Carolina. Same pain and suffering. And pick a country anywhere in the world from Syria to France To Kenya. The parental pain of burying a child who never comes home is the same. Shortly after my son’s death, I started a commemorative month called STUDENT SAFETY MONTH to honor my son and call attention to the importance of keeping young people safe, alive and protected. I invite you to visit the webpage and download the FREE KIT that will educate, inform and inspire you to action. Here’s the link: http://www.tellcarole.com/student-safety-month.html To young people of all races, ethnicities, ages. Gay, straight or trans. Regardless of where you live. I pray for your safety and hope that you may live a long, rich and fulfilling life. And to the mothers, fathers and family members of the Orlando victims..including Christina Grimmie, the young YouTube celebrity gunned down in Orlando days before the Massacre … May God comfort and keep you in the long days and nights ahead. Feel free to call me at 508 947-5755 or email me at [email protected] if you ever want a shoulder to lean on. Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this sad occasion in our nation’s history. And may the joy, laughter and spirit of my son live in our hearts forever. -Carole Copeland Thomas Mikey's Mom 6/18/2015 When The Answers Just Don’t Come. Why Tragedy Strikes Us In Such A Cruel MannerRead Now
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June is always a hard month for me and my family. The tragic accidental death of my son, Mickarl D. Thomas, Jr. on June 14, 1997 still leaves a void in my heart too painful for many to understand. His death was the result of a single occupant fatal car accident after drinking at a party, days after graduating from high school with his twin sister. That was 18 years ago, but the memories are still vivid in my mind.
Tragedy is hard to comprehend…whether it’s accidental or intentional. It leaves a trail of tears in the wake of surviving victims, family members and friends often left behind. The latest tragedy occurred last night when worshippers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church were simply exercising their right to attend Bible Study in the House of God. For nine of them, including the Pastor of the church, it would be their last day on earth, as they were murdered by a hateful young man bent on ending their lives for his own personal satisfaction. What do you do when the answers don’t come from such tragedies? How do you console family members and friends whose unbearable pain can be difficult to watch? What do you say when the words are too cumbersome? Today’s show will offer some responses to life’s tragedies from my personal perspective, having lived all of these years in the wake of my son’s death. 
Biographical Profile of Reverend Honorable Clementa C. Pinckney
Slain Pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina There is incomplete information as the police will only give partial details on this tragic event. On Wednesday June 17, 2015 a lone White gunman sat with members of the congregation during Bible Study before opening fire and killing nine people, including the Pastor. Pray for the families and those impacted by this terrible crime. 9 DEAD...including the Pastor The Reverend Honorable Clementa C. Pinckney. The Police Chief has now called this a HATE CRIME. The shooter was caught on Thursday June 18th in Shelby, North Carolina. He is 21 year old white supremacist Dylann Storm Roof. The gun used was given to him by his father as a birthday gift. Rev. Pinckney's Biography The Reverend Honorable Clementa C. Pinckney was born July 30, 1973 the son of Mr. John Pinckney and the late Theopia Stevenson Pinckney of Ridgeland, South Carolina. He was educated in the public schools of Jasper County. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Allen University with a degree in Business Administration. While there, Reverend Pinckney served as freshman class president, student body president, and senior class president. Ebony Magazine recognized Rev. Pinckney as one the "Top College Students in America". During his junior year, he received a Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson Summer Research Fellowship in the fields of public policy and international affairs. He received a graduate fellowship to the University of South Carolina where he earned a Master's degree in public administration. He completed a Master's of Divinity from the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. Rev. Pinckney answered the call to preach at the age of thirteen and received his first appointment to pastor at the age of eighteen. He has served the following charges: Young's Chapel-Irmo, The Port Royal Circuit, Mount Horr-Yonges Island, Presiding Elder of the Wateree District and Campbell Chapel, Bluffton. He serves as the pastor of historic Mother Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston, South Carolina. Rev. Pinckney was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1996 at the age of twenty-three. In 2000, he was elected to the State Senate at the age of twenty-seven. He is one of the youngest persons and the youngest African-American in South Carolina to be elected to the State Legislature. He represents Jasper, Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, and Hampton Counties. His committee assignments include Senate Finance, Banking and Insurance, Transportation, Medical Affairs and Corrections and Penology. Washington Post columnist, David Broder, called Rev. Pinckney a "political spirit lifter for suprisingly not becoming cynical about politics." Rev. Pinckney has served in other capacities in the state to include a college trustee and corporate board member. In May 2010, he delivered the Commencement Address for the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. He and his wife Jennifer had two children - Eliana and Malana. History of Mother Emanuel AME Church The history of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church reflects the development of religious institutions for African Americans in Charleston. Dating back to the fall of 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Richard Allen founded the Free African Society, adhering to the Doctrines of Methodism established by John Wesley. In 1816, black members of Charleston's Methodist Episcopal church withdrew over disputed burial ground, and under the leadership of Morris Brown. The Rev. Morris Brown organized a church of persons of color and sought to have it affiliated with Allen's church. Three churches arose under the Free African Society and were named the "Bethel Circuit". One of the Circuit churches was located in the suburbs of Ansonborough, Hampstead, and Cow Alley, now known as Philadelphia Alley in the French Quarters of Charleston. Emanuel's congregation grew out of the Hampstead Church, located at Reid and Hanover Streets. In 1822 the church was investigated for its involvement with a planned slave revolt. Denmark Vesey, one of the church's founders, organized a major slave uprising in Charleston. Vesey was raised in slavery in the Virgin Islands among newly imported Africans. He was the personal servant of slavetrader Captain Joseph Vesey, who settled in Charleston in 1783. Beginning in December 1821, Vesey began to organize a slave rebellion, but authorities were informed of the plot before it could take place. The plot created mass hysteria throughout the Carolinas and the South. Brown, suspected but never convicted of knowledge of the plot, went north to Philadelphia where he eventually became the second bishop of the AME denomination. During the Vesey controversy, the AME church was burned. Worship services continued after the church was rebuilt until 1834 when all black churches were outlawed. The congregation continued the tradition of the African church by worshipping underground until 1865 when it was formally reorganized, and the name Emanuel was adopted, meaning "God with us". The wooden two-story church that was built on the present site in 1872 was destroyed by the devastating earthquake of August 31, 1886. The present edifice was completed in 1891 under the pastorate of the Rev. L. Ruffin Nichols. The magnificent brick structure with encircling marble panels was restored, redecorated and stuccoed during the years of 1949-51 under the leadership of the Rev. Frank R. Veal. The bodies of the Rev. Nichols and his wife were exhumed and entomed in the base of the steeple so that they may forever be with the Emanuel that they helped to nurture. For more information visit the church website: www.emanuelamechurch.org  Mickarl Darius Thomas, Jr 1979 - 1997 My world changed in 1997 when my 17 year old son was tragically killed in a single occupant car crash. Six days after graduating from Milton High School on June 14, 1997. It's the reason why I started Student Safety Month in 1998.
It is my intent to provide you with enough information to make this month a meaningful opportunity for promoting student safety within your organization or community. Let me first say that the free information kit that you can download is designed to BEGIN your safety activities, or provide you with a springboard to ENHANCE the safety initiative you already have in place. The suggested activities can be launched during the summer months or throughout the rest of the year. I hope that this information kit will help you with your student safety initiative. Consider the categories and statistics for any bulletin boards you may create during the month. Include current event topics as a launching pad for lunch time or classroom discussions. Incorporate the concept in everything that you do at home, school or at work. Spread the word about Student Safety Month. If you have any questions, or would like to schedule a live presentation, please call me at (508) 947-5755.  Focus On Empowerment can be heard every Thursday at 1pm Eastern. Log Onto: www.blogtalkradio.com/globalcarole Listen LIVE or Download Anytime ======================== For some, it's Flag Day, a day to remember the rich history of the American flag. For others, it's just another work day. For me, its a day like no other in my entire life. It's the day my only son was killed in a single occupant car accident on June 14, 1997. This is Flag Day -- marking the date in 1777 when John Adams proposed the stars and stripes as the official flag of the United States. Making flags, banners, and pennants is a nearly $5 billion annual business in the U.S. Today we'll listen to the Census Bureau's profile on the American Flag. Then we'll turn our spotlight on three remarkable "slice of life" stories from StoryCorp, the national organization archiving real stories about real people around the United States. One story details the transference of anger, pain and suffering into good when a father is murdered. Another story describes the personal partnership of a couple in the classroom. The third story is an unusual love story that transcends the stereotypes. And then I will share some special stories of my late son, his twin sister and his older sister, and how the bonds of family love and connection even transcend death. This show is dedicated to the memory of my late son, Mickarl D. Thomas, Jr. Visit the Student Safety Month section at this website for more information about preventing students from drinking and driving. About Flag Day: Thursday, June 14th. This is Flag Day -- marking the date in 1777 when John Adams proposed the stars and stripes as the official flag of the United States. One of many ceremonies will be held at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. It was the sight of the flag still flying there after an overnight battle with the British in the War of 1812 that inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem, which became the words of the national anthem. Flag Day events often center around reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, written by Francis Bellamy and first recited in public in 1892 by schoolchildren at a Columbus Day ceremony. Making flags, banners, and pennants is a nearly $5 billion annual business in the U.S. ======================== Your Comments Are Welcome Below... -Carole How To Download Today's Show •Can't listen live??? No problem. •After The Broadcast...Go To www.blogtalkradio.com/globalcarole •On My Homepage Next To My Picture Click On The RSS Feed (It's orange and has RSS on it) •Select Today's Show •Download As A MPEG File For Macs or Windows Files Fro PCs •The Broadcast will play on your computer, Laptop, iPod, iPhone, or any other MP3 Listening Device |
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