Is it the Power of “Pretty” Women Or the Goodness of Mankind?

I was just cruising along in my Charger, headed to my doctor’s appointment, when my ride suddenly brought itself to a yielding halt on the interstate. I’m telling you, I almost died! I was doing my absolute best not to panic, but I couldn’t do anything to keep up with the speed of traffic. Luckily, I could steer toward the actual exit I intended to take, and I rolled down the Red Hill Drive off-ramp.

By the time I reached the cross light, my steering wheel had locked, causing a tail of traffic to accumulate behind me. OMG! I quickly geared the car into neutral, slid out of it, and attempted to push it onto the cross street to get inside the gas station parking lot — but then, the light changed. Now there was oncoming traffic zipping towards me. Yikes! I immediately flew back into the car, shut the door, hit the hazard light button, and waved my hand out the window for traffic to proceed around me. Vehicles started to change lanes to avoid hitting me and I had to remember to breathe.

As an adult with life experience, I stepped out of the car again, with my phone in-hand. I placed myself on the curb and gesture for vehicles to go around my car, sitting idol between an off-ramp and the furthest right lane across the road. My ride’s just asking to get hit.

I stood on the curb using hand signals to direct traffic around my ride when a middle-aged gentleman shouted out his window, ‘You need some help?’ ‘Yes!’ I shouted, happy that a nice person was coming to my rescue. It was only a second that I went from an independent woman, able to take care of myself to a damsel in distress, stranded on the road’s side.

Before I knew it, three men pushed my Charger into the nearby Wendy’s while I managed to pull the tightened steering wheel into a designated parking space.

I thanked the men for helping me and gave them all hugs, totally ignoring our present social distancing policy. There’s something about the warmth of touching skin that I can’t get away from. They embraced me as well for a faint moment before we parted ways. After those strangers left me and I was able to better take charge of the situation, I began to ponder . . . Would this type of kindness have happened for a man just the same? Is it because I’m a woman with long extensions in my hair, polish on my nails, and a little mascara on my eyes that I received the help of a few good men? Or is it that underneath it all, we’re all humanitarians, willing to care for one another?

It seems to me that we’re all good-natured people. Given the opportunity to safely help another person — most of us will! I like to believe in the good of others and mostly focus on that, rather than the bad. We may compete or fight with each other, but we want to be there for one another when it comes down to it. I stood at that corner, praying someone would pull over for me, and when people saw me in need, they reached out their helping hands.

6 Tips For Writing From Start To Finish

These are essential tips that you will need to know if you enjoy producing creative work. I find these ideas to be a useful motivation for completing my writing projects:

1. Complete Thought

• Use a post-it or a notepad to write down your thoughts in a complete sentence or two, so you can get back to it later.
• Do you ever sit quietly with several thoughts running through your mind? Journaling is the opportunity to document your thoughts thoroughly. Especially those that tell a story, expel intense emotion, provide resolution, or report valuable information. Jotting down innovative ideas can come in handy.
• It’s best to write something from start to finish with a motivation to make your work meaningful to more than just yourself. Don’t spend countless hours trying to come up with a thought and believe that you have writer’s block. Just write about what your thinking with as much detail as possible.

2. A Tight Plot

• Structure your writing so that you know the who, what, when, where, and how. Consider the parts of a plot: the introduction and backstory, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the conclusion.
•  If you’re not writing a story, you may be recounting the many milestones of your life or creating an autobiography. You want a theme that strengthens your high points or reveals the triumph of overcoming challenges.
• For any writing, there has to be an objective or purpose for the work. The presentation of information makes all the difference in whether it compels the readers or not.

3. Design an Outline

• Numbering or alphabetizing an outline for your creative idea is crucial to organizing your thoughts, so that others may better understand them. It can help you maintain an agenda while writing so that you have a focus point.

4. Free Write

• A free-write is the opportunity to collect your thoughts and place them into perspective.
• It’s necessary to take time to complete the free writing activity. Write until you feel that you have exhausted the point. You can always erase it later.

5. The Character Arcs

• A character arc will assist with character development. The arc is appropriate for the main character or the characters that are mostly affected by the actions of the plot. The arc shows a change in the character(s) and their situation over the storyline.

6. An Effective Ending

• The best endings are surprising and unexpected. Most importantly, you want the person reading the story to enjoy the conclusion and feel like the characters received what they deserved.
• An ending some times reiterates the theme or it’s like a final thought (as Jerry Springer would call it). An effective ending can reveal the overall message clearly or cleverly.

Short stories are an excellent practice exercise for preparing to write longhand. You can always add more short scenes and backstory to your short work to make it into an intense novel. If you desire to be a creative author, no matter what anyone tells you, keep producing literature! Creative work is subjective, so you will find people who don’t like your work and others who praise it. However, the quality of your writing isn’t subjective. So be diligent to carry it through from drafts to revisions.

Reasons We Need To Be Reminded That Black Lives Matter

Memorial Day is a holiday paying homage to the ones before us who’ve contributed to this world. It could be a family member who was a teacher and taught many people, a father, a grandmother, a man of honor and duty. This is a day we’re supposed to be respecting the lives of others and remembering all the good times we had and the opportunities made possible because of these people.

On Monday, May 25th, of 2020 Memorial Day, the disparity of black men was relieved. George Floyd was the 46-year-old man, who was killed by Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer on a day where families honored the memory of their loved ones.

Racism is blatant — still in the year 2020

Luckily, the former Minneapolis police officer seen in a video with his knee on George Floyd’s neck has been arrested and faces charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. As of Friday, May 29th, 2020, an investigation of these charges is underway.

Black Men, Police, & Violence

Of course, everybody’s life matters. Black lives matter wasn’t a statement to belittle the lives of others. When people say all lives matter, they often ignore the fact that black men are murdered more often than any other people.

I have been guilty of placing my life ahead of others. My Life Matters is the name of one of my earlier blogs. The blog wasn’t even speaking for all women, it declared the importance of my own life. On the other hand I was also a service member for this country. Bottom line — we’re all important! The fact is that black men are murdered by the police more than any other people.

Where would this world be without black men and the culture (which most people think is their own)?

When I speak about black men I’d like to be non-biased to genuinely consider the pilot of a black male.

Since the beginning of being black in America, the black male has had to fight for his life and the opportunity to live and be free. I feel like many of these men are probably triggered, threatened, and hated by authorities. It seems to me, if I were a black male, it would be a question of life or death when dealing with the police.

We’ve all seen police abuse and kill a black man on camera. Many times the officers aren’t even penalized for it. (Let me stop preaching to the choir, we’ve all seen it.) I suppose this is why Amy Cooper, visiting New York’s Central Park, thought the “African American Man” (as she called him) would be frightened if she called the police on him and reported that he was threatening her life.

I do believe this man began recording Cooper because she was getting aggravated by him demanding her to put a leash on her dog. The woman didn’t put a leash on her dog, and she drug it along by its collar as she approached the black man. The park rules, however, requires all dogs be leashed during their visit.

I bet Cooper thought this black man would fear for his life. It reminded me of the movie Rosewood when the white woman said that a black man raped her and caused the white men to go on a lynching rampage through the community.

My mother calls the tragedy with Floyd a modern-day lynching. Instead of tying a noose around his neck, he used his knee. The police may not have punished Amy Cooper, but once the video went viral, her job surely did. It proves that times are gradually changing because Cooper was fired from Franklin Templeton.

Years ago, there was a video circulating Facebook of a black male wearing a red Trump (MAGA) baseball cap on his head while yelling at the police, giving them a hard time. The black male driver videoed his entire interaction with the officers as he argued with them. Most of the black people I know on Facebook commented on his Trump hat as the greater disappointment in this situation, rather than the fact that he’s yelling at the police. I mean, I can’t even remember why they pulled him over because the backlash from him toward the police was what made the video clickbait in the first place.

Have you ever seen a video, featuring a black man terrified of the police, throwing his hands into sight, apologizing, and making excuses when pulled over by one? An excellent example of that happened recently with a twenty-one-year-old black male named Tye Anders in Midland, Texas, who hid behind the support of his ninety-year-old grandmother. No this isn’t the first or only time this has happened, of course.90-year-old grandma tries to defuse tense confrontation between police and her grandson

When police stopped a Texas man for an alleged traffic violation, the confrontation turned tense, videos of the…www.cnn.com

The aftermath of police brutality has everyone whipping out their phones, recording their interactions with the police and exposing it on social media.

Another incident of police brutality happened in my hometown of San Leandro at the local Walmart. The police shot thirty-three year old Steven Taylor after he brought a baseball bat into the store. The Guardian article states that the young man was suffering from mental illness, but with continuous murder of so many black men due to violence it’s not a wonder why he may have been distressed in the first place.

Out of all the black men I personally know, I don’t even want them communicating with the police. I’m afraid they’re going to get hurt. I’m worried about what either party might say or do. The relationship between police and black men needs modification. Police brutality needs to stop. It’s the responsibility of these law enforcement departments to find a way to reconnect with the community rather than being the ammunition against it.

Other Minorities & The Police

People with power will protect it by trying to maintain the social hierarchy structure in our society. Whites overpower people of color, men overpower women, wealthy overpower poor. Yes, there is often intersectionality in between, but this is the cut and dry version of the power structure.

It seems to me that the one with the most power dominates the other. The police are scared of minorities and, first, they protect themselves. Then they back up whatever decision they’ve made, and we’re supposed to accept it as a just solution.

An example of this happened to me in a relationship with a man. After a heated argument with a boyfriend, the police demanded that I go to a homeless shelter, for my safety, while my boyfriend was able to remain at my apartment. Can you believe it? He was able to stay at my place.

When I lived in New Mexico, I dropped out of a master’s program because I couldn’t stand to hear these married, old white women talk to the class about domestic violence. Dr. Wanda Jorome emotionally spat out racial statistics, targeting Hispanic women as victims of abuse. The Spanish women in the classroom were quiet, but I spoke up. Many women pursuing a family or love relationship are abused, women of all colors and socioeconomic backgrounds. Why point out racial groups of people and make us feel so unloved?

Racism is systematic! Believe that! There is a psychology behind it, a psych that makes us want to hate ourselves and accept our social status in this society. These are the ways we’re made to feel inferior.

“It’s like a vicious cycle called fight to live. No matter how hard you try, it’s a day you got to die” — “Krazy” by Tupac Shaker, Machiavelli.

Rioting, Misguided Hate & Self-Destruction

My brothers and sisters, destroying our own communities isn’t the way to get justice! Throwing a fit and being destructive is also a pattern in the black community. We’re endangering our own communities. Stop looting and rioting. We need to respect each other and our homes. What are we teaching the children of tomorrow? This isn’t the way. Acknowledging the injustice is a start, but I think we should get ahead of it.

How? How do we get ahead of it?

Some people might tell you to find a better community of people to be apart of as if we can just change who we are. Many people will go as far as they can in a world full of prejudice until they’re discriminated against, and all eyes are on them for being who they really were in the first place.

Some believe they can play this game by being “good,” which won’t happen to them. I think there’s a whole lot of truth to that. Not behaving like we’re expected, not exaggerating the stereotypical micro aggressions that warp our society could potentially aid us in staying alive.

What does one do with the anger from all of the injustice placed upon us? The wrong thing to do, which we’ve been doing is to take it out on each other. We harm each other, trying to survive. Black on black crime, hate of our own kind, domestic violence, killing over money or drugs will lead to the demise of our people — like going extinct.

It’s best to live with a sense of purpose and have an intense oneness as a people. We’ll need to learn to stick together versus competing or hating each other so “they” can no longer minimize “us”.

Love Our People, Motivate Change And Practice Non-Violence!