Ananda Lewis’ wakeup call
For us Gen Xers, Ananda Lewis was one of the faces of our generation. An MTV VJ, she was a celebrity figure in the center of the 1980s and 90s media universe. She was later diagnosed with breast cancer, which is a diagnosis that too often proves fatal for Black women. Lewis, however, very publicly rejected mammograms and other actions associated with dealing with or preventing breast cancer. However, she made a very public about-face, and strongly advocated that women, especially Black women, get checked immediately and often for breast cancer. Lewis recently died at age 52 from the disease, but not without issuing that wake-up call loud and clear—sisters, get checked.
No Kings statement
On a day when this country could have cowered in fear at the rise of a wanna-be king and the military parade he threw for himself and his birthday, 12.1 million people protested in a stand for democracy. That day (June 14) is being called the largest national protest in U.S. history. And there are a lot of different angles to take when discussing it. But just the fact that 12.1 million voices chose to speak out in unison against threats to democracy, civil liberties, due process, etc., is encouraging.
Shout out to Morris Brown College
For those who don’t know, Job Corps is an entity that thousands of young people turn to for a second chance at making a life for themselves. These young people, who for various reasons found themselves facing serial unemployment, incarceration and/or homelessness, chose to invest in themselves and their futures. And the Job Corps has turned around the lives of tens of thousands. But being on brand, the current federal administration defunded and closed scores of Job Corps centers nationally; centers that house, feed and train folk. That move left untold numbers of kids seeking the chance to become productive citizens, out on the streets, with neither “pot nor window,” as my dad used to say.
Enter the Atlanta HBCU, Morris Brown College. MBC’s president, Dr. Kevin James—who once taught at Job Corps—is personally inviting displaced students to apply and find a new academic home at the historic HBCU, giving these young folk a vehicle to continue their journeys.
Ignorance is killing us
There’s no getting around it: “We the People” have got to get smarter. There was an actual “debate” online about whether or not Harriet Tubman really existed. We rely on the U.S. government to define “terrorism” for us when the KKK has been around for 160 years and is still listed as a tax-exempt religious organization. Mainstream media is no better, refusing to label a “terrorist” that Trump-supporting, police-impersonating dude who assassinated a Minnesota senator and their spouse. An entire federal department was created (Dept. of Govt. Efficiency) to “root out rampant waste.”
But one of its members, Sahil Lavingia, said, “I personally was pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was,” basically revealing DOGE’s entire mission was a Ponzi scheme. Lavingia was then immediately fired. And a NY judge recently ordered a full hand recount of 2024 ballots, which had ZERO votes for Kamala Harris in four out of five towns in predominantly Democratic-voting Rockland County (an impossibility, suggesting folk who fear our votes taking extreme measures to block our votes… yet, some of us still argue voting doesn’t matter). We can complain about devious things others are doing, but if we’re not getting civically smarter, the forces of injustice have already won.
