"Criticism is the death gargle of a nonachiever." The person who wrote this quote recognized that critical people are those who have failed to reach their own goals. They want to destroy your attempts to achieve. Rather than working on their own challenges, they spend time pointing out your alleged flaws. Your real challenge should be to focus on where you are going. Refuse to allow critical people to stop you in the pursuit of your goals.

Everything you have done is not wrong. Recognize that you have done some things right. Sir Winston Churchill, the early 1900s British politician, left us with many powerful words that can encourage us while we are moving forward. Churchill recognized that there are evil motives in some people. He was quick to vocalize his concerns about the menace of Adolf Hitler's Germany. Churchill repeated his warnings and as a result was appointed as prime minister in 1939. He was not merely being critical but presented facts. There is a time for releasing facts and information.

Churchill said, "the greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes." Don't allow critics to put you in bondage. Everything you have done is not wrong. Discover the good things you are doing and keep moving forward. Let the critics be the nonachievers. You be the achiever you were meant to be!

Is the fight against same-sex marriage primarily one fought between religious groups and the gay community? Are there any issues that a secular society should consider in this fight? We have found at least eight negative sociological outcomes that could occur if same-sex marriage is legalized.

The first impact would most likely affect the number of marriages in the United States. Fewer people would see marriage as the ultimate covenant between two people. The proof of this lies in the state of Massachusetts where only 43 percent of same-sex couples who cohabitate have utilized the state law which grants them marriage rights. Heterosexual couples in Massachusetts are more likely to marry (91 percent) but the degree to which same-sex couples marry devalues the commitment for all couples and the number is likely to decrease. In the Netherlands, only 12 percent of gay couples have chosen marriage; this low number is consistent with other countries that have legalized same-sex marriages.

The quality of preparation determines the quality of your future assignment! Successful people have normally spent years preparing for their greatest accomplishments. They were willing to invest time, finances and lots of hard work into their dreams. Great athletes didn't give up when they were tired or injured. Physicians spent lots of long, sleepless nights studying and walking the corridors of hospitals. Many successful businessmen invested and then lost the investments. Yet, these people got up and tried again.

Times of stress, tiredness and loss are merely lessons that every successful person must walk through. Learning to see the preparation process in each difficult moment helps you better understand your assignment. You are not where you will be in the future. You are in your time of preparation.

Strive for quality rather than a quick fix. Keep getting up when you feel you have fallen down and are injured. Keep walking forward; don't retreat. Keep believing for restoration of any loss in your life. Before you know it, you will have moved into your future assignment. You were willing to prepare, and now you'll be known for the quality of your assignment!

If Lady Liberty could cry, she would be weeping now. Among her many burdens would be the abuse of democracy and our constitution’s first principles on many fronts.  Her most recent wound might be that D.C. residents are being shut out of the decision-making process. This week, the D.C. City Council introduced a same-sex marriage bill that would allow homosexual marriages to be performed in the nation’s capital. The 10 co-sponsors of the bill announced via interviews and media statements that they would not allow the people of the District of Columbia to vote on this landmark decision.

With an issue as controversial as same-sex marriage, one would think that the voice of the people should be heard. The Rev. Henry Gaston, president of the Missionary Baptist Conference of Washington, D.C. made the following statement after the council meeting: “In the name of advancing one group’s civil rights, the city council is abridging my community’s right to vote. Anyone familiar with the historic civil rights movement knows that ‘the right to vote’ not ‘the right to marry’ was the gold standard of civil rights privileges.”

The plight of the poor has been a major bone of contention in the health care debate for months now. The morality of various approaches has also been hotly debated from all sides of the political universe. A recent statement I made at the National Press Club regarding abortion and what I called “a form of genocide” within the black community, has sparked a great deal of controversy among clergy. In fact, I have been labeled by some African-Americans as unconcerned about the needs of the poor.