Wednesday, July 27, 2005

what's happening

Hi everyone... (or no one in particular)...
Just updating my blog since all the events lately have kept me from getting this done. Well, I haven't done anything since the London attacks because it happened a day or two after I last blogged on. I am so sorry to hear of these things happening because I love Europe and I visited London. I have many friends there, also. Even my daughter has a dear friend who moved back there where she was born, just this year, too. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of the UK during this trying time. There was news of two sisters from the US whose last name is Benton, (Emily and Kate), and although they are not related to me, my heart goes out to them. I am very saddened that these events are happening. I had so much I wanted to say, but now that I have the time... I am really very tired and hot and sweaty as we are suffering through a brutal heatwave, even for Washington, DC! I think it may be global warming, because even Europe had a heatwave last summer... remember? Also, when I was a kid, I don't remember it being so hot it was oppressive.
Otherwise, I just want to preach love and peace to the world. It's too much grief all around, we gotta spread love, and eliminate the hate. Hate is such a wasted emotion! PEACE!

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Being Bobby Brown

I am absolutely hooked on the tv show, Being Bobby Brown. I am a big fan of both Bobby and Whitney Houston. The show portrays them as just an average couple with average lives, the exception being they are constantly in the spotlight. Their lives are abnormal because they can not be left alone. It's frustrating to see they cannot eat or smooch nor even take a shower without someone hounding them. The problem is without the fans you have no job. I rate this show as excellent for the reality and the look inside a true classic diva/legend's lifestyle. I always thought of Whitney Houston as "untouchable" but she seems like a regular girl from around the block. Go figure.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Luther

Also, on July 1, 2005, the music world lost a legend. Luther Van Dross died at the age of 54 years old. His silky, smooth voice will be remembered forever in classics such as: Never Too Much and A house is Not A Home, among many others. Rest in peace.
This was also the date of the BET Awards, which created a little controversy (Destiny's Child's lap dance routine) and Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith's comedic efforts. In the words of Steveie Wonder, "so what the fuss"?

Independence Day

Happy Fourth of July, everyone. Well, it wasn't so happy for me in the end. You see, I had taken my daughter to a cookout/BBQ and we ended up staying long after it was over. After the fireworks, we watched television and talked and we were going to stay overnight with friends, but the noise was too much and I couldn't get any sleep so at one o'clock am, I packed up my daughter and we began to walk home. She had many balloons and other things from her 4th celebration. We didn't dare take a chance on a friend driving us since everyone had been drinking, so we walked, yes at 1 am. The shock of our lives, when a police officer, who had been trailing us, made a u-turn as we were exchanging bags (I took the stuff that she deemed heavy). The police officer, young white male of the Montgomery County police department, in Maryland (squad car #0541), asked what we were doing? ???? I thought it was obvious that we were walking... so I asked what he meant??? He said "what are you doing? Are you decorating that house?" Of course, I was most perplexed, so I answered, "What?" And he nastily said, "For the third time, what are you doing. Are you vandalising that house?" Now, I am a 40 year old African American woman, with my very young teen daughter. Neither of us has ever been arrested, nor been involved in anything illegal. We had red, white and blue balloons ( a bunch of them), we were wearing red, white and blue and all we did was LOOK at the houses as we walked by, since a lot of people were still up and out. We were only about 15 minutes from our own home. Although I had an attitude, I told him, "this is my daughter, we are coming from a 4th of July celebration and we are going home". He curtly said," have a happy 4th of July," and sped off, but not quick enough before my daughter got his license tag number ! This is a classic example of racial profiling and I am very upset about it and I don't feel "free" nor that I could honestly say I am going to actively celebrate "independence" day next year. I might be arrested for being Black in a wealthy, white negihborhood, which I happen to live in. I feel we have lost enough civil liberties without this kind of nonense. Now my child has to experience the age-old problem of racism. Perhaps she was aware of it before, but not such outright, blatant racial profiling. She has always had White friends, as have I, but this was a new one for us both. It has changed our perception a bit, and I am not sure I want to impede on her burgeoing perception of the world. We have had many problems in the past 3 1/2 years with the police, mainly, I believe, as part of the USA Patriot Act. That night, I saw my daughter's eyes change. I saw her see something she never saw before. I saw in her eyes the death of a belief. She had believed many innocent things and was happy in her inexperience. The night her mom was treated like a criminal for walking down a street we had walked thousands of times, killed my daughter's innocence. I refuse to try and resurrect it. Just recently, we saw how Oprah Winfrey was treated, (although the store was closed, they usually accommodate celebrities after hours), and other such incidents which let African Americans know we are getting 'too big for our britches'. I could name a thousand and one incidents I have experienced and/or witnessed in my lifetime and those whom I know and love. My daughter's innocence was killed, there is no way to bring it back.