It's All Good News

Welcome, Lioness here! I imagine that you'll get sporadic updates from me, but I'll be contributing regardless...

One of my favorite things to do is edit. I always have differently colored pens (purple, green, quintessential red, pink, etc.) in my purse, because you never know when you'll need to edit something. I wish I could climb onto some billboards and fix errors... Oh, and I like COLOR! The more color in one's life, the brighter one's outlook... (Yes, I have ADD, and I'm proud of it!)

Anyway, my current post regarding good and uplifting news is that ChickAngell has graciously allowed me to edit her newest book, which should be ready for publication shortly! I'm enjoying her character development skills, and watching these characters come to life before my eyes. Of course, being an avid editor, I'm helping with that as well, where it needs a little push. I'm just completely and utterly gobsmacked ChickAngell has allowed me to take a "red pen" to one of her babies!

This is good news, in my oh-so-very humble opinion. ChickAngell has worked long and hard to produce literary works, and has found a way to do so in the competitive world of self-publishing. I am honored to be one of the first readers of her adult fiction, and soon we will most probably see some more come out of her. I just hope to continue my role as one of her most nit-picky editors and one of the people she'll continue to rely on to shove her forward! ChickAngell, you ROCK!

Welcome

So the inspiration from this blog actually came from some really negative stuff that recently took place in my community. About six weeks ago we had a police officer shot and killed in action. Then a few weeks ago another police officer was shot and killed. Our community was rocked to its core. We come from a relatively small city and violence like this is virtually unheard of. After the first incident a police friend of mine asked me to be cautious in my neighborhood because there were some people up in arms and he was concerned for us. (I live in a predominantly African American neighborhood.) I thought his concern came from the proximity of this incident to where I live.

After the second shooting I found out that I was wrong. You see, the two officers who were shot were white. The two shooters were black. What does this matter? I asked myself the same question. Even though the crimes had nothing to do with race, somehow it became a primary issue. Over the last few weeks I have found that there is a blog (The National Black Foot Soldiers for America) that was touting that our police deserved to be shot and that those black "brothas" were doing the work of the cause.

All of a sudden this article was getting passed around on Facebook and the Race debate took center stage. Some of my African American friends were very angry and had some really nasty comments made about how this incident reflected on them. One friend lamented the fact that the negative news always takes precedence to positive news and wanted to know why when a black man shoots someone it makes the whole race looks bad, but when a black man graduates college, no one talks about how it makes the black race look good.

Then another wonderful friend, Kelvin Jenkins, posted this on Facebook:

"Racism..... I hate it with a passion. We can either learn from our past or choose to be ignorant. The horrific murders of my dear friend Scott Richardson and the late Sandy Rodgers has brought out a lot of racist comments on both sides. Instead of coming together as a community some people have decided to divide us. Aiken please don't let these bastards win! One individual or a group of individuals do not represent a whole race of people. Out of respect for our HEROES let us remember their job was to protect all of us and it would be an insult to them to turn our backs on everything our police force represent. Much love to my fb family"

And with that, the concept for this blog was born. Here, I want for us as a Nation to tell the racists, the bigots, the haters that we are not all like this. I want us to celebrate our differences, shine a light on those of all ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, races, creeds and ideologies to show the great things we are doing as a Nation. I want to promote the positive. Here, the young man who is the first in his family to graduate from college will not be ignored because someone shot someone else. Here the union of two people who love one another will not be ignored because congress cannot decide what constitutes marriage. Here we will accept that the world is not black and white, but so many beautiful shades. Please, join our movement and our cause. Share your story of accomplishment. Be proud of your ethnic, religious or other background that you feel makes you unique. Tell us in your story what you have done, or others around you are doing, to make Your Nation proud!