Barbara Jordan | Bsmith101's Weblog

Posts filed under: ‘Barbara Jordan‘

Celebrating women… Mrs. Dorothy Height’s passing… and women we cannot applaud …what some women won’t do…

I don’t know where you live…but here where I live it’s cold. And I do mean cold.

This morning before leaving out I made me a bowl of Cream of Wheat. Then I made sure I put on a coat.

Yes, a coat. Because… Well, because it is cold.

Though in speaking with one of my mother’s cousin’s I found out that they are having 90 degree weather in Florida. Wow…90 degree weather already. It is going to be smoldering there in Florida this coming summer if those kind of temperatures hold up.

But here it has been cold. And though I had been denying it.

I am now ready to face the hard and very cold facts…it’s cold. And I am not imagining it.

So, getting off the bus with my mind set on getting in the house and having myself a big hot bowl of steaming soup, but I decided to head in the opposite direction upon stepping off the bus instead.

Yes, my conscience was bothering me… because I haven’t blogged in a short while. So, I decided that even if I just started it tonight then I could finish it tomorrow. And that would be so much better than not getting started with this at all.

So, that is just what I am doing. Because I have so much I want to talk about… I just know that there is no way that I am going to be through before this lab closes at 11 PM tonight…and it is just about 7:30 PM now.

First, let me start by mentioning the passing of Mrs. Dorothy Height. Though I had never met her, I certainly did know of her.

Mrs. Height along with her many years of work as a Civil Rights activist, and as head of the National Council of Negro Women… she was also known for her signature hats which she always sport without fail through the years.

Ida B.Wells "stands apart as the most recognizable and effective antilynching crusader in history."

She passed on Tuesday, April 20th in Washington, DC after several weeks of illness. It is sad to hear that she suffered. But truly she exemplified all the strengths and character of the women with whom she had the great fortune and I am sure pleasure to walk Former slave who helped lead the Underground Railroad. among… such as Mary McLeon Bethune, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Betty Shabazz, Coretta Scott King, Myrlie Evers, Ida B. Wells, Shirley Chisholm, Fannie Lou Hamer, Barbara Jordan, Bernice Reagon, Bessie Coleman and so many others.

Women upon whose shoulders we their daughters and grand-

daughters now stand. And what I see in these women is a vast amount of humility and a humbleness you do not see in the spirit of people of today. When you view the video clips BELOW of Mrs. Height you will exactly what I mean.

http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/beth-mar.htm

http://hubpages.com/hub/Freedoms-Sisters–Twenty-Great-Arfrican-American-Women

http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-201_162-10003285-4.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/04/20/GA2010042001303.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g1wclP0PXt3NaBWLcwbFUjRs9bawD9F73F081

It is odd that I am writing this blogg on this topic today. I never plan these things and never have any idea where I am going when I first start. And believe me that some people have written me pointing that out to me. But I welcome your comments…good or bad…or indifferent feel free to comment or drop me a note or 2.

Since this past Sunday was Mother’s Day…you really would have thought I had planned this. But I did not.

I love celebrating women…and it has nothing to do with me being a past lesbian.

Maybe it is that my mother was a woman…my grand-mother was one…my great grand-mother was one… and all my aunts and nieces and most of my friends are one. And I think of them as being phenomenal people…and women. Clearly, Mrs. Height and all the women that I mentioned above were phenomenal women…but the women I am going to mention now are not. Some how they both fell well below the mark.

Many times while surfing over the internet looking for things…mostly to buy…I sometimes come across things or an article that sparks my saying something. And these 2 stories did just that…though one of them I saw on the Oprah Show.

But this story I came across over the internet. In reading it …it made me wonder-

“What women won’t do for a man.”

Women on Death Row - Linda Carty What this women did was insane…and she is not the first. Though if I were a Judge…she would have never been able to walk into my court with such an excuse…though I do not know exactly what her lawyer or lawyers plead for during her court trial. But if I had been the Judge it would not have been that…because what this woman did and the reason behind it was so sorted and sick …and just plain selfishness.

This woman was a grandmother…and had been a school teacher…who at the time she committed this heinous crime against a young mother…she was 42 years old.

She was not some uneducated woman out in the streets. But I guess we may all very well agree that her mind wasn’t half as good or as decent as many of those women who we so often look down upon, when we come across them.

I will not call this woman’s name…not because I fear being sued or anything. But I do not want to add to her ever becoming famous or known. I feel she should go down into the depths without fanfare or pity. She was indeed evil. Her mind was without a doubt twisted…and she did it for a man.

This is what she did…she sought out some woman who was pregnant along with a group of thugs…beat and killed…and tortured. Then she stole the woman’s infant child to pretend that the child was her’s in an attempt to fool some man…with the hopes of being able to keep him.

You can read the story if you like…the LINKS are BELOW. But what kind of woman would have done such a thing?

And I think what bothered me more about this story is that there are those rallying to keep her from being executed for the insane criminal act which she committed.

I am sorry…and yes I am very much a Christian. But I have no tolerance for people who allow the devil to use them in such a vile and evil way. And by judging my her most recent picture she seems to be highly content.

We have all…I imagine…been the recipient of some vile and most evil thoughts. The kind of thoughts that came to us that were so foreign to us. It was some insane maybe even immoral act…or something that we would never imagine doing. Something that we totally rejected even the thought of it…or thoughts of it.

And yes…I too have experienced it.

I have a cousin who told me of such an incident which occurred with her. She told me that she used to be an alcoholic, and once while sitting at a table the thought came to her to get up from the table where she was sitting. She said she was told to take up a fork and begin stabbing a baby…a little infant that was nearby…and to stab it to death.

My cousin told me that at that moment is when she realized she had to stop drinking. She recognized the thought at being crazy and that it had frightened her…because the impulse to do it was so strong. And she said that she never drink again since that night.

In looking up info for this blog I came across information on Malcolm X’s grandson. The grandson who set his grand-mother on fire while she laid sleeping. Betty Shabazz suffered for nearly 2 months or more before finally succumbing to those injuries.

I have often wondered about her grandson whom she loved so much…a problem child…and perhaps is still troubled today. A child that she loved so much that she rather to have him come live with her than to see him placed some place and locked away, because no one could control him. And at the age of 12 he killed his own grand-mother.

What I have thought about on the times I have since reflected on him…was what went through his head that he would have done such a thing to someone who loved him so dearly?

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/26/nyregion/malcolm-shabazz-moved-to-center-to-serve-term.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/08/nyregion/metro-news-briefs-new-york-boy-who-killed-shabazz-has-made-two-escapes.html

It cannot be argued that some of toughest demons to resist are those which live inside of us. It is sad. But when crazy thoughts come into our minds we must with all our might resist them. A very large part of it is learning how to pray…and how to call upon the name of the Lord. It is what my cousin did. And it works…I know it for myself.

Now, on to the story I watched on Oprah last Thursday or Friday.

I had been in New York when the story broke…but like most people over time I had forgotten it. But if I thought the woman I wrote about above was evil that goes doubly for Vanessa Jackson…whom one of my brothers informed me was a member of the Church of God in Christ.

Note in the picture above…you will notice that 4 of the children look like something is wrong with them. They are different from the other children…not quite as well dressed…and if you look real closely you see that they were not as well…

Well, healthy looking…meaning not well nourished. Because they were not. That woman and her husband straved those little boys…while she, her husband and their biological children all eat well and seemed to be quite happy.

I do remember this story when it first broke…

Some neighbors called 911 because late one night they heard a noise outside their window. And when they looked out they thought they saw what looked to them like a very young child rampaging through their garbage looking for food.

That young child was the boy in the picture to the right of the woman. The little tiny boy who looks so light and fragile. He was actually 19 years old and weighed under 60 pounds. And look at her own children…some of them quite plumb… as well as, she and her husband.

I was dumbfounded when I listened to Oprah interview the brothers of that boy.

How could anyone be so heartless and so cruel?

These people called themselves ‘saved.’ They took those boys to church with them and their other children every Sunday. These people adopted those boys.

On the show the boys told how the woman would dress them in 3 or 4 sweaters under their clothes to make them appear fatter. How we gave them pancake mix to eat…and would tell them that they only had ‘x’ amount of time to eat it.

What kind of depraved people exist in this world?

Is money that important?

Vanessa Jackson and her husband, who has since died while in prison, went to church where they…I hope…were taught ‘love’…and that it is better to give than to receive. But somehow they felt that taking and cheating…and being evil and cruel was a better way.

They straved those little boys…and aided in seriously debilitating their growth, physically and mentally.

I could never love money that much. The world is filled with sick and degenerate people. I am so thankful to God that He gave me a mind to not to be 1 of them. And I hope that you aren’t either.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://msnbcmedia4.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050930/050930_malnourish_vmed_6p.widec.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9547444&usg=__NNUvgADbge3k933xbmjP_w2iniU=&h=373&w=298&sz=23&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=EwgKXTa3Gv80HM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Draymond%2Band%2Bvanessa%2Bjackson%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2HPND_enUS361%26tbs%3Disch:1

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/11/nyregion/11starve.html

My Mother’s Day started with my cousin Jean…who loves reading her name in my blogs…waking me up early. It was then followed by my son telling me to get up and get dress because he was taking me to breakfast.