It's Halloween 2012 and Cascade Patch has a "question of the day" for all readers (religious and non-religious; Christian and other faiths): Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? Today we not only want you to take our poll, we also want to ask that you tell us why you voted the way you did in our "Comments" section. Thank you for sharing your view today on Cascade Patch!

  Jennifer Jones, a southwest Atlanta native, entrepreneur and a consultant to non-profit organizations in both Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., will begin blogging for Cascade Patch next week. When she is not outlining plans for fundraising events or preparing proposals for partnerships and funding opportunities, Jones is slicing and dicing in the kitchen for friends and family.  Experimenting with colors, textures, tastes and aromas of foods channels her sensual creative expression. Her love for understanding people and what drives them in life by understanding why and how they eat is a passion…

I thought we learned our lesson after Lesane Parish Crooks, 25, was murdered in 1996. And I was sure we had learned our lesson after the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Christopher George Wallace just a year later. But, the beat—and the killings—go on. This weekend, a Valdosta radio DJ was shot to death and his killer remains on the loose, according to WALB TV in Valdosta and other regional news reports. Stephon Edgerton, known as Juan Gatti on radio station V96, was gunned down just outside the door of the studio where he was working the night shift, according to WALB (I do not know the race …

Dr. Nana Kwaku Opare and Ama Thandiwe Opare, co-owners of Opare Integrative Health Care (OIHC) located near Cascade Road and Research Center Drive near The Home Depot, are set to begin blogging for Cascade Patch this week. Opare Integrative Health Care provides integrated traditional Chinese medicine, osteopathic manual medicine, nutritional medicine, and standard allopathic medicine. Programs and services offered include Healthy Gourmet living foods classes, Conscious Vegan nutrition program, supervised juice fasting, Hatha yoga, and therapeutic massage.  The Opare’s recognize the power of …

A quote carved in stone on the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington will be changed after the inscription was criticized for not accurately reflecting the civil rights leader's words, according to a report on HuffingtonPost.com. The inscription currently reads: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness." The phrase is chiseled into one side of a massive block of granite that includes King's likeness emerging from the stone. It became a point of controversy after the memorial opened in August. A spokesman for the U.S Department of the Interior said Friday that …

  Ooooh. I'm going to catch it for saying this. But it's O.K.; I don't always align with the popular, liberal view. African-Americans in southwest Atlanta need to get more involved in the city's public schools system. I covered the public comment portion of the Atlanta School Board meeting Monday evening and saw a crowd that was about 80 percent white in a district that is currently 78 percent black, according to the latest Georgia Department of Education enrollment data. Before anyone "goes off" on me, hear this: Someone with the Twitter handle "jboogie52000" posted —in my Cover It Live …

Not every Atlantan was able to attend the 20th Annual Trumpet Awards at the downtown Hyatt or the various events leading up to the big night. However, almost every Atlantan, who wants to, can watch the event on television this coming April. The Trumpet Awards airs 8 p.m. Sun., April 8, on TV One. The Trumpet Awards program was created to celebrate and honor African-American achievement in diverse fields. Southwest Atlanta resident Xernona Clayton is the Founder, President and CEO of the Trumpet Awards Foundation, Inc. and Creator and Executive Producer of the Foundation’s Trumpet Awards. …

Cascade United Methodist Church recently announced new service times in its email newsletter. According to the notice, the church will begin Sunday services at 7:30, 9 and 11:30 a.m. beginning Jan. 8, 2012. In addition, the church is planning Watch Night services at 7 and 10 p.m. Sat., Dec. 31, and a 9 a.m. service on New Year's Day. For more information about the services and new times, call the church at 404-691-5770 or visit our Cascade United Methodist Church listing for website and contact information.

Born in Atlanta, Kupenda Auset (Joette Harland Crosby) is a writer, producer, and scholar concerned with the nexus between art and social consciousness. This fascination has fueled her exploration, passion, and engagement in creative forms such as poetry, essays, journalism, events, and promotion of the arts. Starting next week, Auset will begin blogging for Cascade Patch. Her affinity with arts, academia, and community has landed her on radio, television, and in print with appearances on WAGA Fox 5’s Good Day Atlanta and 91.9FM WCLK, and with recognition from the Atlanta Journal & …

Everyone has special holiday memories and traditions that take us back to days long gone. So, we want to set aside this space for your holiday members. We are looking for pictures, poems, traditions, Santa memories, your first Kwanza and more. And from all of us at Cascade Patch, we hope you are having a wonderful holiday season and are making lots of happy memories this year, too.

Former BellSouth Georgia President Ron Frieson has invested time, money and sweat equity into our community. But, like so many before him, he is closing one of his businesses—Wine Styles on Cascade—on Dec. 31st because so few people supported his enterprise. You all know the spiel by now: Go to another other neighbhorhood—white, Asian, Latino, East Indian—and you see thriving businesses owned by people who live there. Drive through the business districts of most African-American neighborhoods and you see boarded up storefronts, vacant lots, blight. Why? Cascade Patch put Frieson on the spot …

Leslye Joy Allen a fourth generation native of Atlanta, will begin blogging for Cascade Patch later this month. A historian and educator, Allen holds Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in History from Agnes Scott College and Georgia State University, respectively. She is also a charter member of Agnes Scott College’s Alpha-Theta-Psi chapter of Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society and is a former Coca-Cola Foundation Museum Fellow at the Atlanta History Center. She currently is a doctoral student in the History department at Georgia State University. She specializes in twentieth …

Just watching a presentation of a Nobel Peace Prize is to witness a moving moment in our world's constant struggle for peace. But this year's award is especially notable. On the world stage in Oslo Saturday, three women were presented the $1.5 million prize: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian women's rights campaigner Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman, a female icon of the protest movement in Yemen. So, this was a big year for women fighting oppression, sexual violence and abuse around the world. However, for the many African-Americans not knowledgeable of African history (and…

Bobby Flournoy, a wine connoisseur and Southwest Atlanta resident for over 10 years, will begin blogging for Cascade Patch later this month. Flournoy, co-owner of B&L Brands, a wine, beer and spirits company based in southwest Atlanta, first gained wine experience while paying for his college education with work in restaurants and bars. But the wine lover really began to dive into the great wines of the world when he moved to Atlanta and worked for the Buckhead Life and The Fifth Group Restaurants. After a visit to a beautiful vineyard in Penedes, Spain in 2001, Flournoy changed careers from …

Everybody loves a parade and Mayor Kasim Reed and Atlanta City Council officials are preparing for a big one this Saturday in the heart of southwest Atlanta. The 21st Annual Southwest Cascade/Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Merchants Christmas Parade begins with formation at 11 a.m. in the parking lot of the Kroger at 3425 Cascade Rd., just east of I-285. The parade march launches promptly at 11:30 a.m., leaves the Kroger lot, heads north on Cascade Road and concludes at Providence Missionary Baptist Church, 2295 Benjamin E. Mays Dr. As in previous years, the 21st parade will feature area high …

I watched my first full episode of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” last night. (Actually, was that a rerun? All I know is Kim had a big baby shower with her new baby daddy and two husbands got in a fight over who was the baddest mah fah). Why was it my first? Well, first, I have no time for anything besides CNN (O.K. that and my stack of "Bewitched" reruns). But, more than that, I don’t have to turn on the television to see real housewives of Atlanta. I grew up around real black Atlanta homemakers and I know some today. And, though I don’t fault the women on the show (a reality show is a …

Southwest Atlanta Omegas are joining their fraternity brothers around the world this week in celebrating the founding of the organization on Nov. 17, 1911, on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. At Murrell's restaurant and banquet hall on Martin Luther King Thursday, members of the Atlanta Metro Chapter of Omega Psi Phi, Inc., celebrated the occasion with a luncheon and fraternal fellowship. The chapter will cap off a week of celebrating this Saturday with a Centennial Gala featuring Morris Day and The Time at the Hyatt Regency on Peachtree. The Omegas—also known as "Ques"— …

Cascade Heights native Kwanza Fisher—one of President Obama's 2011 Champions of Change Youth Entrepreneurs—will begin blogging for Cascade Patch later this month. Fisher, who speaks Mandarin Chinese and has a B. A. in East Asian Studies from Wellesley College, will blog on many topics but she is an expert on urban education and the achievement gap. A 2005 graduate of North Atlanta High School, Fisher is already an established community organizer and founder of Neighborhood Mathematica, a math education initiative for youth in the Atlanta area.  For more on Fisher, see her profile in the "…

Cascade Patch is pleased to report that southwest Atlanta is well-represented in the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists. At Saturday's monthly meeting at WSB-TV, 1601 W. Peachtree St., Cascade Patch took an informal poll of the 50-plus  attendees and found more than a third were greater southwest Atlanta residents. The theme of the meeting? The slate for 2012-2014 Board of Directors positions. Our community is well-represented at that level, too. On this year's slate is current president Tenisha Bell, a Camp Creek/Cliftondale area resident in the Westlake High School community. Other …

The Cascade Applebee’s—along with Applebee's across the metro area—is again offering a free meal to military veterans and active-duty service members for Veteran's Day. Vets and active-duty members can choose from seven entree items including the 7 oz. House Sirloin Steak and the restaurant's Oriental Chicken Salad . Last year, tne national chain served 1,024,000 million free meals to military veterans and active military members. According to a recent story on The Military Wallet, Applebee's and other companies offering discounts today probably will require some form of military ID—including…