Book

Oh, and guess who joined us at class last night?

Martha Raddatz from ABC News. We read her book "The Long Road Home."
Discussed it, and she signed copies. I hope i wasn't too in her grill.

more on this later. it's lunchtime.

ACLU Press Conference

I swear, I never know what the day will bring.
Yesterday, I went to my internship. While parking and feeding the parking meter beast, I saw one of the station reporters doing the same. So we chatted while walking to the station. She told me she had an event to go to at noon. I asked if I could shadow her today if Boss-Lady (not her real name, but it's her name in this blog... she's cool people) didn't have anything else for me to do.

She didn't, and thought it would be valuable if I trailed R.J. for the day.
So I hung around the staion for about an hour, surfing the web, looking for whatever background information I could find on the subject...

around 11 we left. it was the funniest drive to downtown d.c. i have ever taken! 30 minutes later and a stream of expletives from the R.J., and a near accident, we parked and walked a few blocks to the ACLU office.

Up the elevator we went, where R.J. introduced me to someone from CBS News. I liked the orange plaid-ish button-down shirt he was wearing.

I noticed the dress of the press. Some were suited and booted like R.J. Others very casual. I know I love a pair of jeans and a t-shirt any given day! We were given food, and then ushered into the conference room.

R.J. was setting up the recorder, plugged it into the mult box... she was situated on the front row. I sat next to her... i was taking names from the nameplates placed in front of the participants... and this cameraman walked up to me and said

"excuse me... you're very tall...
and your hair is very tall [it was... he was not joking]...
and the cameras can't see the participants... so would you mind moving aside?"

of course i could have been offended, but what for? I am indeed tall... and my hair is indeed BIG! So I moved...

To shorten this story, the conference was with the ACLU, a member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and two relatives of one of the Jena 6. It was interesting.
It was nice. I'm glad I went.

Barack Obama and Washington D.C. Mayor, Adrian Fenty

WASHINGTON—This entry is a day late, due to tiredness and busyness both seen and unforeseen.

Monday afternoon I was at my internship when I heard my phone buzz. I had a text message from R.L., the ONE Field Coordinator for the DC/MD/VA area.

Here’s the gist of the message. I have tickets to the Obama rally tomorrow night. Let me know if you’re interested. I have to give your name to the organizers.

I was tempted to do my regular routine: “The rally will be in the evening… after a long day of classes… I’m going to be tired… Should I go?”

I gave in to the temptation, I don’t know why… But after awhile, I figured “Girl, yougon’ be tired anyway, whether you go straight home or to the Obama rally. You’re still gonna have stuff to do even if you do go home and get a little bit done. Might as well see Obama’s fine self and hear in person what the brother has to say. And besides, if you go home, all you’re gonna do is unwind before you get to work anyway!”

Self talk done, I sent a response to R.L. “Yes!” and gave her my name.

True to form, I was wasted after class, but excited about the rally. I was late like a mug, but went anyway. I figured Obama is half black, so the rally would get started half late. I’m not stereotyping. I’ve learned that there’s Latin time too. When I was in Spain, I was shocked to learn that Spaniards, at least the ones where I lived, were acquainted with CP time. Lateness brings cultures together, I suppose.

The rally was nice. I enjoyed his message… Reminded me a little of church outdoors with no seats. I saw everyone there. White, black, male, female, gay, straight, cool cats, and unapologetic nerds. Everyone was there. It was an interesting mix… Just like this country.

I wish class ended early so I could have gotten closer… but the photo of Obama with D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty was the best I could do outside of shoving and elbowing my way to the front, climbing on stage and snapping a photo in his grill. I was also not interested in getting arrested.

Speaking of arrested, the following Thursday night, after class, I found myself at another event I didn’t plan to attend. It was a panel discussing their take on this current administration and the Iraq war.

Interesting panelists were there, including a young man named Sam Provance, who was ostracized for testifying about the Abu Ghraib scandal.

There was one part of the program where one of the panelists said “If you’ve been arrested in the past week, please stand!”

A bunch of people stood, including gentlemen who looked like Viet Nam veterans, one who kept raising his fist in the air when an applaud-able point was made.

Outside of Sam Provance… who, by the way, said he’s ostracized, his wife divorced him, he’s barely making ends meet… He’s a boy-faced man, who wore plain black slacks, a black shirt and a reddish tie… Nothing about him spoke of wealth, prestige… And that is something that makes me wonder… Why does it seem that vets who serve in wars get the short end of the stick? Those who are wounded… it’s like they get a couple of claps for going, and sacrificing a limb or two, and if no limbs, maybe they sacrifice their sanity while absorbing wars horrors…

And then they come home to be treated like a red-headed step child… or even worse… a black man getting lynched in the pre-civil rights deep south.

Anyway, a very remarkable part of this program was a video of Vice President Chenney from 1994… Chenney was saying why they cut their losses in the first Gulf war… He also mentioned the quagmire that would result if they kept fighting in Iraq at that time…

It was almost prophetic… everything he described and said would happen if they stayed during the first gulf war… is happening NOW. We’re in the quagmire he predicted. Since he knew it would be a quagmire back then, what in the world changed and made the administration think it would be a good idea to invade Iraq in 2003?

It's a shame it's even come to this... IT'S 2007

This whole Jena 6 situation is disgusting.
Folks just need to get it together and love each other.
But this case is just another blatant and terrible reminder that there are indeed at least two sets of justice in this country. There's the white set and the black set. Then there's the rich set and the poor set. Color and class based justice...
I wonder if there's also immigrant and so-called "native born" based justice...

While watching the Tavis Smiley Show last night, guest Cornell West said something like this:
Justice is love shown in public.
If what Mr. West says is true, then the Jena 6 situation is one of the finest examples of hatred available.

We've got to do better... Especially in a nation that has a so-called belief in God. It's no wonder some don't take Christianity seriously.

Listening to Self

Worked on a story yesterday at my radio internship.
I heard it this morning on the way to the Metro!
I hooted and hollered!
I'm thankful for this opportunity.
I never thought my voice would traverse the airwaves of the D.C. Metropolitan area.

It's just one story...
:40 seconds long...

But I'm so stoked!

God willing, there will be more.

9.11

I was eating pancakes this morning, smeared with peanut butter and jam (I keep forgetting to buy syrup at the grocery store, but one monkey don't stop no show!).

Watching CNN coverage of the memorial services honoring 9.11 victims and survivors.

But there was this one story...
about twins born on 9.11.01.

The girls celebrate their 6th birthday today.

I burst into tears during that story.
It wasn't a surface cry. I wanted it to be that way, but my emotions didn't cooperate with my mind.

I haven't cried that way since 2005, when one of my little kindergarten students died unexpectedly.

Catharsis is good for the soul. Anguish needs a release.
Though I didn't know anyone who died on September 11, 2001...

The day was a turning point.

The U.S., fraught with all of its problems and a murky history in its treatment of my people, was still in theory, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

That day made me realize... while all God's children are special...

We all meet demise in one way or another... And our country is not immune to acts of hatred, whether perpetuated domestically or by those who were born on other shores.

Rodney King's words apply not just to Los Angeles residents, but to residents of this entire planet...

"Can't we all just get along?"

Coverage

(Washington DC)--Yup, this is where I'm writing this blog, but the story a classmate and I covered was actually in College Park, Maryland... Home of the University of Maryland. We were sent there to find student reaction and more information about a noose found hanging on a tree near a cultural center where several African-American organizations operate.

The noose was found on Friday. I first heard the story this morning. One student we interviewed said he was "disheartened, but not surprised."

I wish the brotha would have been surprised. That would at least say that racial tension is not a big issue.

Apparently it is.

Another reaction I didn't expect was one kid who seemed to think it wasn't that serious... maybe someone just left it there was the gist of his comments. I wasn't expecting that, but my classmate and I still had to maintain our faces. Actually, my classmate reacted to it faster than I. I had to let the comment sink in.

I agree with the director of a multicultural education center on the campus who said this can be an opportunity to educate people about "the history of racism in America."

He ain't 'neva lied.

In light of recent events transpiring in Jena, Louisiana, I think this act, whether a prank or motivated by malice and ill will is sad. It shows insensitivity and ignorance about the noose and what it means in THIS country to African Americans. If motivated by ill will, the act shows that brute hatred is still a part of our society...

What will it take to get folks to "just get along", as Rodney King said 15 years ago.

Jibberish in my mind

Dang.

I just gotta say dang. I hate it when I have all these words in my mind and only a fraction come out and the rest remain jibbered in my head.

Labor Day Weekend Proves Busy but Fulfilling for Tired Lumpy

(SILVER SPRING)—Call me a swinger if you will, but this weekend can be characterized as man heavy… at least for me. Before anyone gets the idea that I’ll have a betrothed soon, or that I'm a raging whore, let me say these man heavy liaisons were friendly, and non-professional, if you get my drift.

Sabbath afternoon, following choir rehearsal and a potluck at church, I decided it was too early to go home and nap. I knew I would be home for the entire evening reviewing each syllabus for all classes and plotting my reading schedule for the semester. I only ended up plugging due dates for reading material and projects in my planner. I chose to only plot my reading schedule a week or so in advance, since syllabus changes can happen.

Since I knew the evening would be spent at home, I called a friend who I arranged to meet for church last week… but I didn’t meet him… Didn’t call to say I wouldn’t meet him last week... I just didn't show. I didn’t want to not communicate with a brotha after I was a no-show, so I called to see what he was doing. I said I wanted to go to a park, and he took me to this lovely regional spot.

We’ll call this cat ‘Mando.

Cool brotha. He’s a Kappa, so I’m sure he knows “He so pretty!”

It’s always nice catching up with old friends. We met during a trip to D.C. soon after J.J. moved to Maryland. He was the one who introduced us to this Philadelphia based up and coming singer-person-phenom, whose album we thought was nice. ‘Mando wanted us to have the album, so he went to the CD shop and bought us copies of this lady you know as J-i-l-l S-c-o-t-t. Soon after, her fame made its way to the West. Maybe it was there before we made that D.C., but it’s nice to at least think we had the scoop on a talent whose renown hadn’t made it to
the Pacific yet.

Park Photos

These photos speak for themselves... Memories of an unfortunate time...

Never forget the sniper victims.

I call this the "Afro Bush." It's my tribute to my sister Lea who pointed out one Sabbath while driving by railroad tracks in the South Central Hood that the bushes lining the tracks looked like "Don King Bushes."

Here's my new 'do. they're called Kinky Twists. Had them done at a shop in the Prince Georges County Mall. It only took 7 hours. My braider kept remarking "Your hair is full!" She said this multiple times. I've been told that my hair is thick by all my hairdressers over the years... and I'm finally guessing that they were all telling the truth!

Who can resist swimming turtles? I can't. They have lots of them in the park's lake.

O.K. I don't see sundials made of plants everyday, that's why this is here. I know it's boring to you, but when was the last time you saw a plant sundial? *smile* And don't even start on the butterfly bench. I want one when I grow up!

(BOWIE, MD)—J.J. invited me to a celebration barbecue for a gentleman running for Bowie city mayor. Michael Lyles. The event was at he and his wife’s home. They both seem like nice individuals.

I carried a recorder checked out from the AV department of school, and picked up some sound bites for a story I’m writing for class. First of all, Lyles is the only one running against the incumbent. Bowie hasn’t had a black mayor yet, and if Lyles is elected, he’ll be Bowie’s first African American mayor.

In politics, I’m a little jaded, because I believe they’re all liars to some extent. That’s my natural inclination. However, upon talking to the people attending the barbecue, they all seem to have a few words in common when describing Lyles… They include “sincere,” “progressive,” and “caring.”

Lyles, in his own words even said “I’m nobody special.” He, husband, father, and hard worker, just wants the best for his community. If I lived in Bowie, I would probably vote for him. But I’d have to meet the incumbent first... for fairness sake.

(SILVER SPRING)—Talk about a blast from the past! I briefly sighted my ex-flame briefly Labor Day afternoon. That morning I spent volunteering at WAMU 88.5, the radio station for AU and a major station in the DC area. Everyone pitched their news stories that morning, and I was surprised the assignment editor asked me if I had any ideas… I had one… but it isn’t one of those breaking news types of stories. I was just curious about something… the idea was sparked from an article I read earlier in the Post… so the director told me to find out if it’s an issue. If it is, I have a story. If it isn’t then I don’t. I was supposed to volunteer four hours… I ended up being there about six hours.

When I left the station, I saw I had voicemails and missed some calls. I found out that one of my cali buddies called. And I also learned N.R. called and told me he’s in Silver Spring visiting one of his buddies. I got directions and told him I was on my way.

I thought our visit would be longer, but he had another stop to make before he had to return to the airport and back to FL. But it was so great to see him.

Funny thing… If I only consider someone a friend, why was I worried about how scruffy my clothes were? Why did I wish I wore the more flattering jeans instead of the form swallowing pants? Why did I make sure I had on lip gloss? Why did I play around with my hair several times on the way to see him?

Something to consider. It could be that I just wanted to look my best because I hadn’t seen him in about eight years.

It could be something else…

But maybe not…

I ain't even gonna lie... when running into an ex, it's always more gratifying when they see you looking FLY and now FLOWN! Hooked up and not 'Tow up from the flo' up! *chuckle*

Here's to you Sr. Goat! BAAAAAAAAAAA! (Don't ask, it's an inside joke from our college days!)