Oklahoma…

My heart aches for Oklahoma.

For those who lost so much. 

For those who must somehow find the will to begin digging out.

Please help, if you are able -> http://nbcnews.to/1902Nh9

3 cheers for Playoff Hockey & GO BLUES!

I’m wrapping up a business trip to Washington D.C., but I just had to take a moment to congratulate my beloved Blues on making the NHLPlayoffs for the 2nd year in a row!!

I’m so damned proud.

Oh, I know that some fans are used to their teams being in the playoffs year after year…but our return to the NHL Playoffs is new enough to be extra special thrilling.

I’m going to savor the hell out of this moment!

For hockey fans this is a magical time of year…when playoff beards grow, players dig deep, and even the ugliest of goals is celebrated as if it is a thing of beauty.

Gawd, I love this game!

***logs off to investigate adding blue highlights to the ‘fro***

Afro inspections in the age of terror…

Hey y’all, I managed to get through airport security without having TSA demand to search my Afro for whateverthefuck…

…and the fact that I took note of not having someone treat my hair like some exotic contraption in need of thorough public inspection got this bitch thinking.

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

Last Monday my sister began a trip that was supposed to end in Boston.  At the airport she encountered a TSA agent who told her that they were going to have to inspect her Afro.

Pause…allow the incredible affront of that shit to marinate…continue.

Since my sister was traveling for business, she went to that calm detached place women of color know all too well…and endured a rubber glove wearing TSA agent searching through her Afro as if black women’s natural hair is some unmarked package left sitting unattended for over 15 minutes in the gate lounge. 

I found out about the Afro search via text, and I immediately felt concern over the humiliation, anger, and frustration my sister had just endured.

I also thought about a recent flight where a group of blue haired white women of a certain age went through security before me.  I remember them because they had huge hair…1980’s soap opera hair…hair teased to within an inch of its life and then sprayed as if hairspray is life support in a can. 

At the time, I thought their hair looked like cotton candy…and I enjoyed seeing them in their big hair clique as they teased and talked loud and easily moved through the security check. 

But now…after hearing about my sister’s treatment at the airport…I couldn’t stop wondering why the hell those women didn’t have some TSA agent dig into their hair. 

Hell, you could have hidden a small child in that shit!

I checked in on my sister but then became distracted by breaking news on Twitter. 

There had been an explosion in Boston…and then another.

My sister was en route to Boston, so I quickly sent her word of the breaking news and asked her to check with security in Chicago.  And it didn’t escape me that I was asking my sister to reach out to airport security as a resource less than an hour after they treated her like a freak.

C-Money’s flight was cancelled and she returned home to decompress from a tense day of travel coupled with knowing that some sort of terrorist incident was going down in a city we both called home during our college years.

It’s hard to see a place I spent years enjoying and exploring deal with violent death, bombs, and an armed lock down…just as it is hard to imagine the heartache of those who lost someone dear or the pain for those who struggle to recover.

I can’t even comprehend what it would be like to have my face and name go viral for some shit I didn’t do.

Now, tis true that having some asshole at airport security indulge in a public display of racial intolerance is a far cry from having major newspapers and a gaggle of wanna-be online investigators erroneously convict you via article and post of a horrific act of violence.

But I can’t help but think that these things feed into each other.  The notion that people of color are fair game for false accusations and humiliating scrutiny…the commonly held belief that all that this is okay and we shouldn’t complain if we didn’t do anything wrong…the big fucking lie that an apology washes it all away.

Several people were physically assaulted after the bombings…many others were threatened and taunted. 

I guess I should be glad that my sister wasn’t held under suspicion of flying to Boston while black…just like I’m pretty sure I’m expected to feel relief because I made it through security at the same damned airport without having someone demand a public fingering of my Afro.  Are they just inconsistent or does my sister have a more militant 'fro? 

Anyhoo, I’m stuck on angry disgusted that folk are physically inspecting black women’s hair or patching together bullshit to accuse innocent people of color of shit they didn’t do…while other briefly inspected folk are putting together motherfucking bombs.

Blink.

On wilting…

I’ve missed y’all!

And I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting.

As I explained in a post months ago (wince), my brother went through a patch of misery that I can’t go into any detail about.  Suffice it to say that his misery was my misery…and when he emerged from it,  I then found myself dealing with my own patch of post-misery misery.  

Blink.

Add to that an extended stretch of work-based overwhelmification, and…well, lets just say that this bitch’s Afro was wilting.

Shit, my Afro is still wilting!

Sigh.

Many of you know that I’m co-guardian of my older autistic brother.  I’ve written about the challenges of guardianship and how taxing they can be…they are often as taxing as being a sibling is empowering…and for the last several months, trying to balance the two was all I could do.

But of course that’s not all I had to do…cause life doesn’t pause when a body is going through a ton of emotionally challenging shit.

Anyhoo, I thank y'all for your encouragement and support.

Trust that a bitch hasn’t retired or fallen off a cliff…or been in jail (thanks to a certain Trinity from Nashville for offering bail money if that was the case!)

This thing called life sure as shit is a wild ride!

Oh, and bitchitude is back.  Look for posts beginning tomorrow…

If you can drive…

I’m not a fan of car racing.  I grew up with plenty of it on the television, though.  My father was a car person…the type who unwinds on the weekend by tinkering with a car for hours.  He used to watch the big races…and it felt like they took forever, eating into prime mindless weekend television in my opinion.

I’ll also confess that I don’t know a lot about Danica Patrick…other than the fact that she drives fast, makes really bad Go Daddy ads, and is one of the few women racing cars for a living.

Anyhoo, you don’t have to be a fan of car racing or Danica Patrick to appreciate the history made over the weekend at Daytona.

Danica Patrick made history by becoming the first woman to win the pole position at Daytona.  She finished 8^th in the race.

Her 2013 Daytona performance illustrates a key progressive point – people deserve the opportunity to demonstrate their ability and go for the big win.

The You Can Play project ice hockey applies this logic to address homophobia in sport - if you can play, you can play. 

I like to expand it and think it fits rather nicely to Ms. Patrick’s historic moment.

Cause…if you can drive, you can drive.

The fight isn’t for a guaranteed win or an unfair advantage.

The fight is for a chance to race for the pole position and then the opportunity to start where you earned the right to start.

If you want to…you should have the opportunity to try.

If you can, you can.

I congratulate Ms. Patrick on a race well driven.

She could.

And she did.

Birthday time...

C-Money looks on as I meticulously remove candles
I think this was birthday #8!

Thanks so much for all the fantabulous birthday wishes!

I’m already loving 40…even though I woke up a wee bit hung over from celebrating my last night at 39 a little too hard.

Wince.

Anyhoo, many thanks to my sister C-Money for giving me my own personal Shark Week of birthday-based joy.

Best sister EVER!

Toodles.

On Rep. Leara’s gun bill and defending the Constitutional rights of Missourians…

Once again, I have the joy of watching a Missouri lawmaker’s legislative malfunction make national news.

***cue Rep. Leara and his bill to restrict the rights of legislators to legislate***

On one hand, I was dismayed to see our dirty laundry (mainly, the fact that the Republican majority in the Missouri General Assembly has less home-training than a gang of feral cats) aired out as content for people who enjoy feeling that the middle of the nation is an absolute hot mess.

But on the other hand…I’m kind of glad that Rep. Leara gave me the opportunity to go off on the epidemic of hypocrisy rampaging under the dome in Jefferson City.

Rep. Leara filed a bill that would make it a class D felony for any member of the General Assembly to propose legislation that restricts the right of an individual to bear arms, as set forth under the second amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Rep. Leara then took to the press to acknowledge that this bill is absolute bullshit filed to make the point that he’s not going to stand for anyone trying to take away Missourians Constitutional rights.

But Leara is full of it.

He is.

He and his Republican colleagues are members of an army waging relentless war on women’s Constitutional rights, with a freakish glee and dedication.

They've even gone so far as to say the reason they feel validated to restrict women’s Constitutional rights is…wait for it…to protect people.

Pause…allow to marinate…continue.

Tis like a policy-based math equation.

Constitutional right - protection of people = restrictable as hell

I happen to disagree with Rep. Leara’s definition of “people” and most of what comes out of his mouth…but I also think the best way to back fools like Leara off of is to hold them accountable for their inconsistent application of their own logic.

Rep. Leara just filed a bill containing felony penalties should any legislator attempt to legislate restrictions on Missourian’s second amendment rights.

Now’s the time to ask Rep. Leara and the rest of the conservative gaggle to stand up for the Constitutional rights of Missouri women to have UNRESTRICTED access to the full range of reproductive healthcare.

Oh, I already know that Rep. Leara will fail to file a bill applying felony penalties to lawmakers who fail to respect privacy rights.

His kind is incapable of understanding how his over-the-top defense of one amendment to the Constitution shines a glaring light on his nonexistent defense of the rest of the law of the land.

***sniff, sniff***

If you get lost on the way to the Jefferson City, a swarm of flies and the smell of fresh bullshit will guide your way...