HATING to the MAX

Thanks Monica Roberts for this post about Nigeria trying to pass an anti-same sex marriage bill that is so sweeping that it could pack their prisons and their closets. It even includes punishment for supporting anything gay.
Check it out and this pic of Prez Bush and his Prez buddy that just begs for a caption. Add yours.
Here's mine.

Bush: Wow! You guys are so far ahead of us on this gay thing!

Passionate Hero

Larry Kramer is an AIDS activist, writer, Academy Award nominee, and provocateur extraordinair. He is a friend of Alexandra Billings and sent her a copy of a letter he wrote to the L A Times.

I am a letter's to the editor writing fool, I've written many (all published) and had been thinking of writing one myself. Thanks to Larry Kramer lighting a fire under my butt , I will. I am sick of all this ignorance and hate. It should be called out for what it is.

In the Black community especially, where it is stemming mostly from the church, the fear and hatred is ridiculous. That will be another journal topic. Please feel free to comment.

It's a RAP

Monica Roberts' blog is a goldmind. It is a big mine with a very deep vein and OMG! you have to read fast because she writes and presents so many nuggets. Check out this one on the end of rap music.
She gives a excellent history of RAP that is in her enjoyable flowing style and it brought back a lot of memories for me. I mean, I still have a 12 inch single by the Sugar Hill Gang.
And then read her analysis of what happened to rap and how it sold it's soul.
It was thought that rap was going to be a short lived trend with a limited audience. Now being accepted and sought after in the mainstream may be it's undoing. Rap was about keeping it real and having fun. Perhaps it will find it's way back home.

Fridays with Alex

Every Friday Alexandra blogs videos. Mostly funny but not always. I love these two.

Happy Womens History Month!
Check out our future. Do you think Hillary would have signed this when she was in college?

These are wonderful and so true in my house.
So true in any house, that's the point.

Apologies

I am sure you all noticed I didn't get very far with the Black History timeline last month. Got stuck on slavery after State Delegate Hargrove of Virginia said in response to a request for an official apology, that Black Americans should, get over slavery. I was trying to figure out if that's possible, so I was doing more reading than writing. I even took a little poll for my own info.
The apology is a controversial issue.
Many Black people don't want no stinkin' apology. There is no tangible benefit, and no sincerity.
Many do feel that taking 100% responsibility for the inhumanity and suffering, and asking for forgiveness without expectation or demand would have healing power, far-reaching and profound for both sides.
Personally, I'd like an apology from my government, with no attempt to dodge responsibility, no attempt to discount or deny the pain and ingrained disease that slavery inflicted on Africans in America, their culture and their descendents. President Clinton came close once, but no cigar.

Others have received not only apologies but reparations for the wrongs inflicted on them. Germany apologized and paid restitution to survivors and descendents of it's WWII atrocities. The USA apologized and paid reparations to Japanese citizens interred in this country during WWII. I'm just saying.

Well, I suppose the Isaah Washington/Tim Hardaway/Micheal Richards, asshole rehab center, or ARC (an Alexandraism), is working fine, because the State of Virginia has passed a resolution that expresses an apology for slavery. How 'bout that.

RICHMOND, Va. (Feb. 25) - Meeting on the grounds of the former Confederate Capitol, the Virginia General Assembly voted unanimously Saturday to express "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.

The resolution says government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history."

Sponsors of the resolution say they know of no other state that has apologized for slavery, although Missouri lawmakers are considering such a measure. The resolution does not carry the weight of law but sends an important symbolic message, supporters said.

"This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution," said Delegate A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat who sponsored it in the House of Delegates.

The resolution passed the House 96-0 and cleared the 40-member Senate on a unanimous voice vote. It does not require Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's approval.

The measure also expressed regret for "the exploitation of Native Americans."
That's nice.
It's just a gesture, I know, but I am still waiting for the U.S. Congress or a U.S. President to do the same.