Tag Archives: Malcolm X
FMM 2 12 2021 Outspeaking
“All advocacy is, at its core, an exercise in empathy.” ~ Samantha Power. When I was a young working mother of four young children, I did what many other nurses did who had similar responsibilities, I worked nights and weekends. It didn’t give you much of a social life, but it maximized your earning power […]
FMM 6 5 2020 Two Americas
“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” ~ Malcolm X. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” When you want to be a writer, or even an author, you aspire to create a killer first line, an opening sentence […]
FMM 5 15 2020 Surface Tension
“We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. My parents were both pacifists. My father’s brothers were also pacifists and as young men in 1939, at the start of World War II, […]
FMM 3 6 2020 Nature’s Reboot
“Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.” ~ Malcolm X. My first memory of realizing the awesomeness of nature, the truly astonishing wonder of it all was a view of the night sky from the deck of an ocean liner. I […]
FMM 11 15 19 Myth America
“Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.” ~ Alice Walker. I picture myself as being a little contrary as a child. I am probably not unique in this, perhaps all children are contrary by nature, until it is ‘socialized’ out of us and we learn to be conformists (to behave). […]
FMM 7 15 16 Power Positive
“Love’s in need of love today.”~Stevie Wonder. The father of my children was a complex man. He could argue all day on a variety of topics: sports, politics, injustice, you name it. What animated him was the history of injustice perpetrated on Africa and people of African descent world over. He was not a fan […]
FMM 7 10 15 Life at the Crossroads
“The future belongs to those who plan for it today.” Malcolm X. Today at 10 am, the Confederate flag will be coming down in South Carolina. Despite the claims to heritage and history, its most recent significance began in 1961 when it was hung as a repudiation of the Civil Rights Movement that was upsetting […]
FMM 4 3 15 What is your price?
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi I arrived in this country many years ago, a wide-eyed innocent, full of idealism and belief in the possibilities of life and humankind. Young people are wonderful, for the most part […]
Friday Morning Messages 