The Travesty That Is The Trayvon Martin Case
21 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in Black In America, Family, Life, News, Politics, Violence, Youth Tags: African American, Black In America, CNN, Death, Domestic Violence, News, Racism, Shootings, W.T.H., Youth
**Deep Sigh**
I have come back to this blog spot to report some news that is tragic or stupid and in most cases, tragically stupid. But the news for the past few weeks has been a tragic travesty. I am referring to the Trayvon Martin case. Unless you have been under a rock or in a bomb shelter someplace you must have already heard about this case.
17-year-old African-American, Trayvon Martin, was shot and killed inside a gated community by a Hispanic man named George Zimmerman who was part of a neighborhood watch. Trayvon was on his way from the store and had a pack of skittles, a can of iced tea and was talking on the cellphone at the time. Trayvon was on the phone with his girlfriend and told her that some guy was watching him. I will not review the entire story because I am sure that you have heard much of it already. But I will say that the shooter STILL HAS NOT BEEN ARRESTED! Trayvon was wearing a hoodie HOWEVER please be advised that he put the hoodie up after he realized he was being watched.
The shooter, Zimmerman has said that Trayvon looked suspicious… really??? This story has inspired the Million Hoodie March for justice.
This story is sad, disturbing, and disgusting on so many levels. Is this the POST-RACIAL America we live in?
Please take a moment to review the links. The links review the Trayvon Martin case, The Million Hoodie March, and The Stand Your Ground Law.
- ABC News : Trayvon Martin Case: Timeline of Events
- CBS News : Twin Investigations Open in Trayvon Martin Case
- US News/MSNBC : Trayvon Martin’s Final Phone Call…
- FOX News : Trayvon Martin’s Alleged Attacker Not Covered Under Law…
- LA Tines : Self Defense? Trayvon Martin Was Using A Cellphone…
- CNN : Lawyer: Girl On Phone With Trayvon Martin…
- NY Daily News : Million Hoodie March Takes Union Square In Protest…
- NBC New York : Trayvon Martin’s Parents Attend NYC Million Hoodie March
- CBS New York : Million Hoodie March Held In Union Square…
- Chicago Tribune : An Invitation To Murder?
Be informed, be educated. Trayvon Martin’s family deserves justice. Trayvon did not have to die…
Skittles and Tea is NOT a weapon…
Regina
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My Imaginary Jesus – Book Review
20 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in Barna Books, Book Review, Books, Christ, Christianity, Jesus, Matt Mikalatos, Tyndale House
“My Imaginary Jesus”
Title – My Imaginary JesusAbout The Author:
Matt Mikalatos received his BA in writing from the University of California Riverside. Like many future world leaders, he began his career as a clerk at a comic book store. Having discovered that such work caused women to shun him, Matt took control of a high school classroom and taught American literature and drama (although he was best known for his riotous “study halls”). Then Matt, in an unexpected move, joined Campus Crusade for Christ. In a moment of weakness, his best friend, Krista, agreed to marry him. He and Krista were briefly expatriated by Crusade to East Asia, where they ministered for three years. Now back in the States, Matt provides leadership to the international ministries of Crusade’s northwest region. Matt has published articles in Discipleship Journal, The Wittenburg Door, Relief, and Coach’s Midnight Diner. Matt and his wife live near Portland, Oregon. They have three beautiful daughters.
You can join Matt at
http://www.facebook.com/matt.mikalatos
https://twitter.com/#!/mattmikalatos
http://mattmikalatos.com/
Happy Reading!
Regina
Please visit my other spots:
http://reginathinks.wordpress.com/
http://reginasoldschoolfridayspot.blogspot.com/
More Beauty, Less Beast – Book Review
16 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in Bible, Book Review, Books, Christian, Debra Coty, Litfuse Publicity Group, More Beauty Less Beast, Women
Title – More Beauty, Less Beast: Transforming Your Inner Ogre
Author – Debra M. Coty
With her own offbeat brand of wit and near-wisdom, inspirational humorist Debora Coty addresses heart needs of women struggling to tame that out-of-control inner beast that unexpectedly pounces, roaring and shredding, as it threatens to destroy the divinely beautiful princess hidden within. In More Beauty, Less Beast, women will find simple, practical techniques for embracing the true beauty rightfully theirs as cherished daughters of the King. Whether jaded by emotional wounds, unrealistic standards, or lack of confidence, this laugh-out-loud, girlfriend-to-girlfriend encouragement will help women transform their destructive inner beast into the exquisite beauty they were always meant to be. 
About The Author:To check out the rest of the blog tour and see what others are saying about this book go HERE.
To buy this book go HERE.
Guess What?? Debora is hosting a $150 Visa Cash Card Giveaway and throwing a fun “Divine Beauty” Facebook party on 3/22!
Enter Today and Save the Date-3/22!
Smooches! Happy Reading!
Regina
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http://reginathinks.wordpress.com/
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I See You, I Hear You, I Love You
15 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Bible, Blessings, God, Love, Neighbors
When you look at me what do you see? When you look at your neighbor what do you see? Have you ever bothered to really consider the people around you? When you run into someone on the street and you say, “Hey! How are you?” do you actually really care? More often than not you do not want to hear about someones bad back, or their struggles with their landlord, or how they are having problems on the job. All you really want to hear is the perfunctory reply of, “I’m fine and you?” They probably want to hear the same from you. 
If all we are receiving from our neighbors, friends, and even family is the customary, perfunctory answers and replies, then how are we effectively communicating with one another? If we are not effectively communicating with one another than how can we show LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER as the bible tells us to do? 1 Peter 4:8 tells us “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins”. As a matter of fact, loving one another is so important to God that it is mentioned numerous times in the bible in 1 John, 1 Peter, Romans, Galatians, and in 1 Thessalonians.
I do not believe that God wants us to just look AT someone, look AROUND someone, or talk AT someone. I believe God wants us to actually SEE ONE ANOTHER, LISTEN TO ONE ANOTHER, and genuinely LOVE ONE ANOTHER. We must learn to look at someone and SEE them the way GOD SEES THEM. So lets start working on that, okay?
Soooooo, how are YOU today?
Smooches,
Regina
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Do You Know Where Your Child Is?
11 Mar 2012 5 Comments
in Birthday, Child Protective Services, Children, Chuck E Cheese, Confusion, Grandchildren, News, Texas, WTH
I heard this story last night but I was already offline, so I slept on it. But when I woke up this morning I was thinking about it because it was bothering me something terrible! The story really had me confused as hell!
I heard that a mother had left her five year old child behind at Chuck E Cheese. But the part that really bothered me was the part where the mom did not realize the child was gone until the NEXT MORNING! Now, I am confused because number one, this five year old was the Birthday Girl, it was her party. Number two, how are you packing up the car to go home and not realize that you are missing the BIRTHDAY GIRL? The mom has 10 children including the five year old birthday girl and she took 9 other children as well to the Chuck E Cheese. The mother said they all traveled in three separate cars. Hmmm, but that still does not explain how you as the parent is not sure of where your child is, especially on her birthday! 
I know mistakes happen but as a mother and grandmother I know that after a day of playing and activities, you bathe, brush teeth and prepare your child for bed. Well, at least that is how I was raised and how I raised mine. But to not know your five year old is missing until the next morning raises all types of questions. What about talking to your child asking if they enjoyed their party, finding out what about their birthday did they like the most, or some kind of dialogue before they go to bed? The child lives in the same house as you, so how do you come in and prepare yourself for bed, get in the bed, go to sleep, wake up, and then go in to prepare your child for school and realize she is not there?? This is NOT OKAY!
Now this child will remember that she got left at Chuck E Cheese. The little girl is in custody of Child Protective Services pending an investigation. Read the entire story HERE.
In another story a three year old child was left in a different Chuck E Cheese. Apparently the two parents assumed that the child was with the other parent. They both found out the child was missing a few hours later by watching the news. Still asinine but a little more understandable then the previous story. Read the entire story HERE.
I’m going to need these parent to get it together. I bet Chuck E. Cheese will start changing some rules in their organization. Even though they are not at fault, two children left behind in a week (different locations, but still…)
STOP, Right now and do a Child/Grandchild check!
Do you know where your children are? If not FIND OUT!
Children are PRECIOUS please take care of them!
Regina
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Aliens Stole My Child!
07 Mar 2012 4 Comments
in Aliens, Bodysnatchers, Breakfast, Donald Sutherland, Prayer, The Diva
Hmmmm, just sitting, thinking, and waiting for the pod aliens to return my child to me. See, sometime in the middle of the night my youngest daughter “The Diva” was replaced by a pod alien person. I have seen the movie “Invasion of the Bodysnatchers” (You know the good one, with Donald Sutherland) numerous times so I know the signs! In the middle of the night while you sleep they take and kill your body and replace it with a pod which develops into an alien you! The Diva did used to sleep … A LOT! This morning before the alien daughter went to school she made me BREAKFAST! AND she brought it to me in bed! (Hmmm, I know, suspicious right??) Mind you, it is NOT my Birthday, NOT Mother’s Day, and to my knowledge I am NOT terminally ill, therefore that means “IT’S NOT HER“. She made scrambled eggs, toast with jelly, ham, cheese grits, and home fried potatoes (REAL POTATOES that she cut and fried herself). So if any of you reading this knows my real Diva Daughter, then you know this is waaaayyyy out of character for her. Then she happily went off to school! She didn’t even eat! (Should I be concerned about poisoning???)
But that is not the only sign that my Diva daughter has been replaced by an Alien Pod daughter! When she came home from school I told her to vacuum the living room. Instead of the customary, deep breathing, mumbling and 8 hours to 3 days to comply, SHE JUST DID IT! So as you can see there is really something going on here ……
If you don’t hear from me again that means the pod people took me too…
PRAY FOR ME….. oh, and call Donald Sutherland he will know what to do!
Regina….. or am I …
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I Trust YOUR Plan Father
07 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in Bible, Black In America, Education, Family, God, Ice Cream, Plans, Slavery
Do you believe that God is all powerful, all knowing, all seeing, and everywhere at once? Yes, I believe that God is all that. God is OMNIPOTENT. God is OMNIPRESENT. God is OMNISCIENT. We do have freedom of choice HOWEVER God already knows what we will choose. He knows His children, His creations. I know my children yet they have free choice, so if I sit a bowl of chocolate ice cream, and a bowl of fresh strawberries in front of my child, depending on which child it is, I know what she/he will choose even though they have the free will to choose either one.
God has a perfect will. He has things in mind for us, His perfect will for our lives. But He also made provision for when we deviate from the path He has chosen and when we do things our own way, of our own free will. For those times He also has a permissive will. The things we choose, that He allows or permits are part of His permissive will. 
God is all knowing so he knew about slavery. I am sure that did not surprise Him at all. I do not know if that was His plan or not but I know that it was a blight, an abomination, a travesty for ALL the races involved. (Not only Blacks were slaves, there were Jewish slaves, Indian slaves, and others). BUT I DO KNOW that God can and will use all things that are meant for evil, for the good of those who love Him. Romans 8:28 says so!
Where would I be, where would you be, if it were not for slavery? Is it so hard to fathom that God had to set things in motion on a certain path to bring about a certain outcome? Is it so hard to fathom that God knew and made provisions? Would I be in some small, impoverished village, weaving baskets, hauling water trying to feed my family? Is it too much of a stretch to think that you are where you are supposed to be? For whatever reason you are where God wants you. God knows the plan, and who are we to question it? God said in Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. When I think about slavery, I think about it in a more personal way. Without my ancestors having gone through the hell they lived through, I would not be here today living this life, going to school for a degree, online, writing/blogging about my life, able to openly and freely worship God, enjoying seeing my children educated, and prospering in a land of opportunities, and freedoms that we would not have otherwise. (**Side note** Now, that YOU have this freedom, time, space, and opportunity WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH IT?)
of course some people are STILL slave minded…. But that is a blog post for another day…
Peace & Love All!
Trust In GOD’s Plan, and do YOUR part!
Regina
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Hiding From God, Really?
01 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in Bible, Blessings, Consequences, Faith, God, Hiding, Pain, Psalms, Strength, the Rock
Are you hiding? People often hide. They hide from other people, they hide from responsibilities, they hide from their issues, they hide from themselves but most importantly and perhaps the most damaging is when they hide from God. Or, correction, when they TRY to hide from God. Since God is all seeing and all knowing, you can never really hide from God now can you?
Fear makes us do stupid things. when we make a mistake instead of running to God, who is the only one that can help us, and correct our mess, we run in the opposite direction and then we hide.
God knows all of your issues. He alone knows ALL about you. God is the only one who knows what hurts, embarrassments, pain, and insecurities you harbor in the inner most recesses of your soul. God is the only one that can heal that hurt and take away your pain, so why are you hiding?
That facade you put on for friends, co-workers, family, and the world is only a mask to hide your inner turmoil. People may look at you and think that you have it all together. They may think that you are the most solid person they know, nothing ruffles you, you are the ROCK to everyone around you. And yet late at night, when you are all alone, you feel empty, you feel despair, and you do not know what to do. You have spent so much of your life being the rock for others that you have in essence hidden yourself FROM yourself! You have no clue how to access the REAL YOU because it has been so long hidden.
Times like this is when you should run TO GOD not hide FROM GOD! Psalms 147:3 says, “He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.” In other words ONLY GOD can fix you, heal you, comfort you, restore you, or strengthen you.
It is time to stop running from Him, stop hiding from Him, and open up your heart and EMBRACE HIM!
Blessings All,
Regina
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Black History Month – Hattie McDaniel
29 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in Academy Awards, Black History, Black History Month, Black In America, Gone With The Wind, Hattie McDaniel, Octavia Spencer, Racism, The Help, Viola Davis
Well, here we are February 29, 2012 (Leap Year), and to bring an end to Black History Month it is only fitting that we discuss Ms. Hattie McDaniel. Her name has come up in MANY recent conversations due to the recent Academy award nomination that Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer received for their roles as maids in the movie “The Help“.
Hattie McDaniel was born June 10, 1895 in Wichita, Kansas to former slaves and she died in Woodland Hills, California on October 26, 1952 due to breast cancer. Hattie McDaniel was an African American woman of many talents including being an actress of film and stage, professional singer-songwriter, radio performer, and television star. Hattie is best known for her role as “Mammy” in Gone With The Wind. Ms. McDaniel was nominated for and WON a best supporting actress Academy Award for her role as “Mammy” in Gone With The Wind. Hattie McDaniel was the FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN actress to ever win an Academy Award. According to Biography.com, “Though the honor was significant, McDaniel often faced criticism from the liberal black community for acting in roles considered to further stereotypes about African-Americans“. I have NEVER watched the movie “Gone With The Wind” so I do not know Hattie from that film. However I do remember her from playing a servant in the movie “The Little Colonel” with Shirley Temple.
Sadly, Hattie had to battle racist Hollywood as well as her own Black people. Even though Hattie had won an Academy Award, Hollywood continued to develop roles which stereotyped Blacks in subservient roles and African Americans continue to fight against the system that subjugated Blacks and Hattie was stuck in the middle.
I believe that Ms. Hattie McDaniel deserves honor for her accomplishment in a racist Hollywood environment! Hattie McDaniel wanted to be buried in the Hollywood Cemetery, however even in death. America was racist and segregated and she was denied entrance to the cemetery. She was buried in Rosedale Cemetery instead.
According to Wikipedia,
In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery, who had renamed it Hollywood Forever Cemetery, wanted to right the wrong and offered to have McDaniel interred in the cemetery. Her family did not want to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Hollywood Forever Cemetery instead built a large cenotaph memorial on the lawn overlooking the lake in honor of McDaniel.
To learn more about Hattie McDaniel go HERE, HERE, and HERE!
Blessings All,
Happy Black History Month!
Regina
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Meryl Streep Donates $10,000 On Viola Davis’ Behalf
29 Feb 2012 4 Comments
in Academy Awards, Black In America, Hollywood, Meryl Streep, Oscars, Racism, Rhode Island, Viola Davis, WTH
Did you see my blog post on the Academy Awards (the Oscars)? If not read it HERE. This morning I woke to the news that Sunday’s Oscar winner for best actress Meryl Streep has donated $10,000 to a charter school in Central Falls, Rhode Island on behalf of Ms Viola Davis! Central Falls is the town in Rhode Island where Viola Davis grew up.Meryl beat out Viola for the Oscar win in the best actress category on Sunday. Viola Davis and Meryl Streep were nominated for Oscars in 2009 for the movie “Doubt”. Meryl Streep for best actress and Viola Davis for best supporting actress, neither actress won in their category. 
The Segue Institute, the charter school in Central Falls, Rhode Island, houses more than 200 students in grades sixth-eighth. According to the Washington Post, “Angelo Garcia, founder and director of the Segue Institute for Learning, says the check from Streep’s Silver Mountain Foundation for the Arts arrived Monday. A note said it was on behalf of actress Davis, who grew up in Central Falls“(Washington Post, 2012). The school has been trying to raise money to buy the building they currently occupy or to buy another location.
Of course with the recent Oscar win for Streep and loss for Davis “some people” are of course talking a lot and saying nothing! I have read many comments on face book and various other blogs and a lot of the comments are ignorant, some are funny, some are just plain stupid! People are complaining about $10K not being enough (Uh, hello… she did NOT HAVE TO donate ANYTHING!), some are still complaining about Viola not winning (OK, get over it), some are saying that Streep is trying to atone for the sin of winning over Davis (Hmmm, people voted for her to win, sooooo how is winning her sin?), some are saying that Blacks are settling for Master’s crumbs yet again (Master’s crumbs -aka – Streep’s $10,000), But I did see a few commentors who said it was a very nice gesture.
My comment is that, giving $10,000 to a struggling school was very nice and philanthropic of Meryl Streep. However I will also say that like Kunta Kente, Black folks tend to shoot themselves in the foot over a dumb self-serving principle, which only makes it harder for them to move forward and slows their progress…
Be Blessed All!
Regina
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And The People Say...