Tuesday, March 12, 2024

My Sister's Journey; Ice Chips & Applesauce!

 


For those who are following my sister's journey, I have been in California since Friday, and there has been nothing but good news to report. Thank you for your prayers... 


She is talking in FULL sentences, most times coherent, sometimes not, but she is speaking, remembering, giving advice, shelling out orders, sending us home when she is tired, all of that and it is good! 


Yesterday, she passed the swallow test and had her first morsel of food since Feb 2nd. Imagine that! No liquids and no food for 38 days! She was rhet' to eat! Ice chips and applesauce are her new best friends! 


When the therapist asked her to write something, she wrote with her left hand, she is right hand dominant, so even that should have been a challenge, but she wrote, "I mean buzinezz", indicating immediately to the therapist that she purposely misspelled business. My nephew said it's an inside joke. 🀷🏾 All that matters is that she is moving toward recovery AND that she means Buzinezz' in doing it! LOL! 


We have a very long way to go but we are on our way! We now pray that she is accepted into a very rigorous and intense rehab program so that her fight for recovery can continue. I tell you, that she is still here, is a miracle! I keep telling her that. She has quite a will to live, a strong  purpose to live, or both. Either way, when she is ready and able, she will have one helluva' story to tell...


She knows that you all are praying for her, which also fuels her fighting spirit. I join her in thanking you all VERY MUCH! Please keep praying and/or sending positive affirmations. If ever it takes a village, it is in times like this. I will keep you posted...

πŸ™πŸΎπŸ™πŸΎπŸ™πŸΎ

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Happy Kwanzaa 2023!

 


In my current professional role, in the spirit of promoting inclusion, I share with my organization nostalgic information celebrating holidays across diverse communities. This is what I shared for Kwanzaa. Enjoy!


Kwanzaa is an annual celebration honoring African-American culture and heritage culminating in a communal feast, usually on December 31, the sixth day of Kwanzaa. The annual celebration of festivities is from December 26 to January 1. 

The holiday was created by Maulana Karenga following the Watts riots in 1966, which is also the year of the first celebration of Kwanzaa. Mr. Karenga, a noted figure in the historic Black Power movement during the 60’s and 70’s, based the holiday on the spirit of African harvest festival traditions from various parts of West and Southeast Africa. In response to criticism by some Christians that the day was intended to replace Christmas, he defined Kwanzaa as “a cultural holiday with inherent spiritual qualities celebrating African American and Pan-African history, values, family, community, and culture”, not a religious holiday intended to replace Christmas. Today, many African American families celebrate Kwanzaa along with Christmas and the New Year.

There are seven principles of Kwanzaa, each representing an idea or concept expressed in Swahili, one of the most widely spoken languages in Africa. The greeting for each day of Kwanzaa is Habari Gani?, which is Swahili for "How are you?"  Mr. Karenga derived the name Kwanzaa from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning "first fruits". First fruits festivals exist in Southern Africa and are celebrated in December/January with the southern solstice. It was decided to spell the holiday's name with an additional "a" so that it would have a symbolic seven letters in accordance with the seven principles.

During Kwanzaa, families display seven candles in a kinara, a seven candle candlestick holder. The red, black, and green candles are placed in strategic order. The black candle in the middle represents unity, the three green candles are placed to the right and represent earth, and the three red candles are placed to the left and represent the struggle of African Americans’ shedding of blood in struggles for freedom, civil rights, representation, and equality in America.

The kinara is placed on a mat, the Mkeka, on which other symbols are placed, the unity cup commemorating and giving thanks to African Ancestors, crops to include corn, representing the children, and gifts. On each night, one candle is lit to observe the nguzo saba, the seven principles of Kwanzaa which are as follow: 

1.    Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

2.    Kujichagulia (Self-determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.

3.    Ujima (Collective work and responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.

4.    Ujamaa (Cooperative economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

5.    Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

6.    Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

7.    Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Kwanzaa ceremonies are hosted privately with family and friends and by the larger community for all to gather and participate. Many participants decorate their homes in African art, artifacts and displays of Kente cloth, which is also used for dress for many who dress in traditional African attire for the holiday season. Ceremonies may include African drumming, exhibitions of African art, African dance, songs poetry, and African storytelling, affirmation of pledges, libation to the Ancestors, and lots and lots of traditional African or soul food.

Children are purposely included in Kwanzaa ceremonies to teach them to value, give respect and gratitude to and for their ancestors. It is a special time for friends and family to gather and give thanks, exchange gifts, and share feasts. Traditionally, gifts to be exchanged during Kwanzaa were to be handmade, not commercially purchased. Over the years, however, it has become commonplace that gifts are deliberately purchased from or produced by vendors of African descent. 

In 1997, United States Post Office issued the first stamp commemorating the holiday. In that same year, President Bill Clinton gave the first presidential declaration marking the holiday. Several presidents have since acknowledged the holiday.

Kwanzaa is a very festive and joyous time for cultural and historical reflection by African American and Pan African communities worldwide. Kwanzaa is also celebrated in the United Kingdom, Jamaica, France, Canada, Brazil, and certain provinces in Canada. Festivities culminate with a large feast on December 31, the sixth day of Kwanzaa.

Thank you for reading this information compiled from various souces. Please share with someone else who may not know and be sure to check your local social media or newspaper listings for a Kwanzaa celebration near you!

Happy Kwanzaa 2023!

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Be Reminded: Check On Your Peeps!



I'm sharing piece that I wrote 3 years ago upon becoming aware of the passing of a friend. I think it's important for us to be reminded To check on our peeps

                  ******
Today I called to check on a Friend who has been on my mind. For months, it has been my intent to call her. She has been quite sad for a very long time. Of course it was magnified in this time of COVID. Shame on me for not following my instinct. Good intentions don't change the result or the impact... 

I had left her a jovial, "shame on me for not calling sooner" message in her voicemail telling her to call me back. So when the phone rang just a few minutes later, I didn't even let her speak. Happy to hear from her, I went right into laughing and apologizing for not being in touch. When I heard a male voice, I assumed she had changed her number or it was her son telling me again that I was calling his Mom on his phone... I've done that before. It was the latter. It was her son. When I took a breath, giving him an opportunity to speak, he said "you don't know..." My heart dropped because I knew what was next... 

My Friend passed on August 9, 2020. Incredibly her husband passed ten days later, both from heart failure. They leave to mourn their loss, 3 sons (ages 34, 30 & 24). I was not prepared to hear this news. It knocked me off my feet. 

Life is so short and oh so unpredictable. Constantly I am telling folks to check on one another, mostly stressing the elderly. But we must check on all of our friends and family; the elderly, sickly, sad, lonely AND even those we ASSume happy. We never know what another is dealing with and should first assume that hearing from us, knowing that someone thought enough to call and say hello, will brighten their day. 

My Friend is gone. I am not sure when last we spoke. It has been quite a while. I know that after one of our last conversations, I sent flowers to cheer her day and asked a few other of our law school friends to reach out as well. We may have spoken a time or two since then but it has been far too long. Certainly not since the pandemic... I will miss her. 

We were both "senior", I prefer "seasoned", women when we started law school together. Her poor sons. They are devastated. Of course I will be deliberate in checking on them and of course I offered that they can reach out to me if ever they need anything or just need to talk. I lost my Mom at 26 so I share their pain. But both parents? Too sad... 

Ironically, just yesterday, I accidentally sent a text message to a cousin asking her to "call me" and then immediately let her know I had messaged the wrong "Linda". Her reply was something to affect, "OMG! I was wondering who died"... We must ALL do better at reaching out. 

Check on your peeps folks!!!  It means a lot...

~ Miss Higgi 
October 25, 2020
 


 

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Breast Cancer Awareness


Having lost my Mother to breast cancer almost 40 years ago (1987) at the tender age of 26, she was only 45, and still there is no cure despite zillions of dollars being raised, I am numb to wearing pink and joining the annual October breast cancer frenzy. I am admittedly a cynic who believes in a capitalistic society, there is no money and less interest, in a cure...

No matter, breast cancer is real and Black Women are disproportionately affected. Recently, I even lost a Black male friend to breast cancer. Like it or not, it is real and poses a serious threat to the Black community. 

Be it October or any other month, please be proactive and be sure to get your annual mammogram. Request an accompanying ultrasound if you have a history. It is automatic in some other countries. In the interim, actively conduct self exams. Be assertive with your doctors. Educate yourself and be knowledgeable about your condition, or detection thereof. Don't shy away from getting second, or even third opinions. Be open to exploring non-traditional approaches. Tell your doctor to treat you medically as s/he would treat their own Mom. We know that Black folk are seen in the medical field as less human, and more dispensible. Unapologetically advocate for you and/or your loved ones. If she is too tired or overwhelmed, do it for her. If not you, who? Daughters, be prepared to do a role reversal. Mom will thank you later...

Most important, be a source of support to all women dealing with the reality of the disease. I have a very dear friend on this journey right now... Loan your Sis a shoulder, be her sounding board, allow her tears to flow, catch them and then build her up because despite there still being no cure, there have been advances in treatment and survival is not as elusive as it was in 1987. I am a hopeful cynic...

Be aware and take care of you...

~ Miss Higgi 

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Are We Lottery Players or Unsuspecting Crowdfunders? Follow the Money...


Full disclosure, yes, I sparingly play the lottery but even sparingly adds up, so I am owning up front that I am part of the problem...

As many of you already know, I am bothered by the whole premise of the modern lottery because "running numbers", as it was called, was a means of survival for Black and other marginalized communities. The government, as often it does when Black prosperity is being realized, decided to make it illegal, citing it organized gambling. 


Folks were incarcerated for involvement in said criminal/predatory activity, it was taken over by the states, miraculously deemed legal, renamed  "lottery", and now governments across the nation, through private entities, own and/or sanction this "illegal" activity, and make fortunes on selling other people hopes and dreams for which they will be heavily taxed if they are ever so fortunate to win what seemingly turns out to be an insignificant slice of a very large pie, as is evidenced in the photo below depicting more than an $87,000,000 dollar spread between the "estimated jackpot" and the "cash value" of the current Powerball game. Who's gaming who? To whom and where does the $87M go?  This inquiring mind wants to know...


The other thing, however, that has come to mind for me recently about the lottery, particularly the national lotteries, is the question of crowdfunding. What are we doing when we play the lottery? Who are we funding? Are we raising money for rich folks, corporations or our government, to fund whatever is their next endeavor or their next dream? Are we funding continued exploitation of us or gentry-fication of our communities? 


I dare ask the questions because it seems less and less unusual that we see these huge jackpots, built on elusive numbers that no one can seem to guess or correctly choose for weeks on end as the jackpot wildly grows right before our eyes and is posted on billboards, television and radio commercials, all over social media, especially in poor and Black spaces, fueling the deepest and most latent part of our "what if?" imagination, catching even the attention, hopes, and dollars of folks who don't usually play. Not by accident as very little is...


Huge jackpots, which used to be rare, are so often now that it raises suspicion. Follow the dollars folks. Who owns these operations and where does the money really go? $87M is not chump change.


We are told that the money from the lottery goes to fund education. So then why are our schools in such disarray? Why are teachers and tax paying parents spending money on school supplies? Why aren't our teachers better paid? Why is college tuition so unaffordable? Are students awarded scholarships? And why all the fuss about forgiving student loans? The lottery could handle wiping out that debt in a heartbeat. Instead, the lottery probably funds Sallie, last name Mae... I'm being coy with that last remark, but honestly, where does the money raised by the lottery go? 


I'm pretty sure that there's a  lottery in almost every state, and I don't know how many national lotteries exist. Powerball and Megamillions are two huge national lotteries, played three and two times weekly respectively, and if I'm not mistaken, are owned or managed by the same party or corporation. Who's minding them and the[ir] store? I seriously ask...


It is popularly believed that whatever money raised and supposedly given to schools, is removed from the school budget at the same rate received, leaving the school right where it started, inadequate funding of insufficient institutions with poorly paid teachers, a truly vicious cycle...


I don't know what actually happens with budget dollars, but somethin', somethin, just ain't right. Certainly they can stop trying to sell us that lottery dollars fund education because it's just not so, which leaves me to beg the question of crowdfunding. 


I have shared the definition of crowdfunding below. Who's following the money? Who gets the money and for what purpose? Salaries? Nebulous administrative fees? Paid to whom? Projects? Whose? Private or public entities? Who? What?


There are lots of questions that our government(s) should be asking. They should be readily able to tell us who is minding the candy store, readily able to ensure us that the current people or entities "running numbers" is legit. 


It smells like something funky is going on and we are contributing to it and/or ignoring what seems like a very visible elephant trampling about the room. This type of crowdfunding, aka lottery, can be used to do good. Enslaved Denmark Vesey bought his freedom and that of his family through a lottery system. Look it up. dylan roof did... 


There is good that can be derived from the concept or proclaimed premise of today's lottery but We The People, as concerned citizens, in the interest of good government, and protection of ourselves, need to demand an accounting of what "good" this modern day lottery is doing. I'm Just Askin' the question(s),  and so should you.


Definition:

Crowdfunding is a way to raise money for an individual or organization by collecting donations through family, friends, friends of friends, strangers, businesses, and more. By using social media, people can reach more potential donors than traditional forms of fundraising.


Ask yourself, are we crowdfunding?  For whom and for what purpose?


~ Miss Higgi Really Wants to Know...




Saturday, September 30, 2023

A Conversation To Be Had...

Recently, just the other day, I was involved in a lively discussion about politics with a racially diverse group, mostly women, all dems. We talked about how out of touch the democrats are. We agreed that they are a bunch of wusses with no backbone who don't have long-term vision or a strategic plan.


I shared with them that there are calls for Black people to sit out the vote to show the power of our vote. Let America suffer... 


One white woman was aghast, "how could Black people sit out the vote? They know, if it's going to be bad for white people, it's gonna be worse for Black people", "Don't they know that?", she pondered. 


I said to her that Black people are tired of voting for the betterment of other peoples' lives. The Asian hate crime bill, DACA for the Latino community, gay marriage and transgender rights. Meanwhile, Black Americans don't have a permanent right to vote in America. It is voted upon every 25 years. How many democratic administrations have we had that didn't address this? SMH.


Talk about being sick and tired of being sick and tired. This is what it looks like...


Americans in general are fickle and single issue voters who will vote against their own interests based on one policy. The dems are in trouble and Black people are tired of saving them.  


Quite frankly, I cannot fathom voting for christie or any of these other republican candidates as suggested by a Black Woman in another discussion. And I don't appreciate politicians flipping the party script on their voters post election no matter what side of the aisle or what their race, that's just deceptive and wrong, but something has got to be done... 


If ever there was a need for a third party, it is now. And maybe it is Black folks who will rise and make that happen. Who knows? But bruvas' who follow trump, or even the likes of chocolate dipped tim scott, cannot lead the Black delegation. They don't even get to march in our parade. They are definitely out of step with the beat of our collective community drum. They have lost their place, their timing, and their rhythm. They can't even dance. Guilty feet have got no rhythm...


What are we, Black folks, to do? I know not the answer. The burden of the load is too heavy. 


There is a conversation to be had y'all. Let's have it...

Friday, September 29, 2023

Is Dignity An Inherent Trait?


I was in a training class yesterday where a distinction was made between dignity and respect. It was suggested that the two are often confused. The instructor defined dignity as an inherent trait that we are all born with while respect has to be earned, yet, he continued, we use the terms interchangeably. 


I objected that as a descendant of a people forced into chattel slavery, kidnapped, sold, raped, torn apart from our babies and our families, tortured in unmentionable ways for more than 400 years, I cannot subscribe to any notion that people who deny others the very basics of humanity, are born with dignity. The two just don't reconcile...


Dignity is not inherent. There is not "a little good" in all of us as we tell one another to try and understand the depths of depravity of those who commit sins and unthinkable acts against others. Some of us are just pure evil and have ZERO regard for dignity, ours or that of others.


The instructor was taken aback by the comment. I'm not sure he has seriously contemplated his response, that he "considers people individually", or use of such content in his training. He is a Black man, a Morehouse Man. I am surprised he had not considered this distinction himself. I will consider that perhaps I am conflating dignity with morality, but either way, neither is an inherent trait. There is not good and honor in everyone...


What say ye'?


James Baldwin speaks:


https://www.facebook.com/reel/1241583719856549?mibextid=9drbnH