MLK

This was meant to be posted yesterday, but unfortunately the day got away from me... MLK day, my thoughts:

Today we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. . Today we celebrate freedom. Real freedom. There are no propaganda ads with American flags waving in the dusty wind, with little black kids and white kids hugging one another and people wearing colored pins. You cannot package this kind of freedom with corny slogans or push people into believing in it with fear... we are living a dream of freedom. Tonight as I sit in an apartment complex occupied by older white people, Armenians, a homosexual couple and a couple of brown people sprinkled in... I am living that freedom. Working for women who make more than their male counterparts, we are living that dream. What would Harriet Tubman say if she were watching the South Carolina debates tonight?? What would Dr. King's official statement be in regards to Bob Johnson's statement bashing Barack Obama? What would he say about Barack?? What would he say to Barack??

Dr. King marched on Washington DC forty years ago where hundreds of white American settlers fought for their freedom a hundred years before... it took nearly 100 years to shake down the capital and stand this country on it's ears. It has only taken us forty years to do it again. I am blessed to be apart of this right now. To have the freedoms I have and continue to keep those freedoms that were handed down to me. The freedom I have now is not my own, it belongs to The Freedom Riders, The Little Rock Nine, The Black Panthers, Frederick Douglass, The Conductors of the Underground Railroad, The Abolitionist. My freedom is running for President... I own that! I own being able to choose a woman or a black man for MY PRESIDENT!! I own keeping my right to work just as hard and make just as much as my male counterparts! I own keeping my right to be proud of who I am and share my culture with others! I own keeping Dr. King's dream alive within me and sharing it with everyone I can.

That speech... I Have A Dream... its a beautifully written speech. It was spoken with passion, love, frustration and hope. Dr. King had hope. He had no proof that it would ever be different, but he hoped it would be. He hoped with his heart and his soul, and then he acted on that hope and the people followed. That speech would have only been a bunch of words on a page without his action. I love my freedoms! I am thankfully that someone thought that much of my future without knowing me to make it possible for me to choose where I could go to school, and not have my race dictate that for me. I don't know what I'm feeling, why I feel the way I do... but the excitement is overwhelming. Something is happening in this country. Something is happening in our community. We are no longer stagnant and I'm grateful. Black, white, brown... we are moving in a cohesive unit and the love is overwhelming.

Today we thank Dr. King for leading us into freedom with hopes and dreams and a plan to make them a reality. Today we should thank one another for maintaining the reality. One Love!

xo
Brooke

Open Letter to Bob Johnson

Dear Mr. Johnson,

I am appalled and embarrassed by your unnecessary verbal assault on Barack Obama and his campaign. Your statement was wrong and irresponsible. You abused the platform you were given by the Clinton campaign by being petty. Not only was comparison historically inaccurate, but as a black man who is the face of the ONLY Black network on television it was disgusting to watch you pull another Black man down!!

And although the media has built you up into a position of leadership and representation of the community, I am here to say that most of us within the community have never and will never view you as anykind of leader or representative of us! Most of us view you as a foolish, spine less, ridiculous puppet who won't tie his shoes without being told by viacom and any other money holders. You are a slave to the market and a sell out!

The next time you think about opening your mouth, would you mind using the pea size brain between your ears first and do something you and our President rarely does, think!!

Thanks!
Brooke Abbott

Nannie

I just finished Lackawanna Blues for about the 20th time... for those of you who have never seen it.... RENT IT!!! I grew up in a way like, Ruben, with a giant extended cast and characters of family and friends who helped raise me into the person I have become. And in the middle of all of those people, I was blessed with a Nannie!!! Roberta Charity Boleman Paul was Nannie. She was not our great grandmother, but she was great grandmother's sister who had a hand in raising her, her children and their children... I wish that my children would have known her!! Being loved by her was like being next to a crackling fire in the middle of a Chicago snow storm. She got into your soul and warmed you up!! Though she never had children of her own, Nannie was a mother through and through... she was giving, non-judgemental, even tempered, nurturing, full of love for all. There will never be another like her in my life... She is who I aspire to be as a woman, a mother, a worker, a christian, a human...

I'm watching this movie and laughing and crying all over again... praying that every person has or will have the chance to be blessed with a Nannie! That person who changed your life! That person you cannot imagine what your life would have been like without them in it... that person who saved you so many times... most of the time when you didn't know it. That undying inspiration to love and live with every bone in your body...

God bless you Nannie!!! I miss you so much!!! I hold on to your hugs and the sound of your voice, it keeps me warm on many cold days!!! I was blessed to have been loved by you and to have been taught by you! I thank God for sharing you with me!!!
Bye Bye Darlin', love you!! I love you too much! Too much!!!