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I made it! Today is my birthday. 83 years ago during the throes of The Great Depression, the doctor my Daddy worked for, delivered me in the bedroom of the home where I lived in Maywood, Illinois, an idyllic village where I spent a carefree childhood, surrounded by playmates, playing house, jumping rope, roller skating, playing hopscotch, getting sprayed with the garden hose, starting high school, going to football and basketball games, cheering on the teams of Proviso high school, leaving for college at the U of I., making more great friends and enjoying fun times, then completing my education at the Registry Department of the U.S. Post Office, soon getting married to a special guy, later having kids, finally buying a home, eventually burying loved ones, and at the age of 77, leaving my beloved hometown, taking up residence with a daughter in a neigboring suburb, currently grateful for being retired for 24 years, fortunate enough to have a great family support group. Am I lucky, or what? Now, I'm taking things one day at at time, hoping I can live long enough to see a woman elected president or, if not, to watch the decline of the American Empire. C'est la Vie. Thanks AALBC for allowing me to share my thoughts and historical reminiscences with you over the years, and a shout out to Troy, Chris, Pioneer, Del and Harry for stimulating my mind with your intellectual brilliance and home-spun wisdom, for familiarizing me with your technical expertise, and for giving me the benefit of your psychic gifts. Luv you guys!

I love you too Cynique. Happy birthday and may you have many more! I'm not sure what I'll do without you in this corner of the web... The book of your musings will come to fruition one day. If you don't get to see it your progeny will. Your presence here has touched many folks. Peace Your post made me think about something, but I'll share it in another conversation so that I do not to corrupt the positive spirit your message.

I agree, I saw Gabby's hair and I knew the feral children out there in social media would probably have a field day. I thought this lesson was learned four years ago... Media who give a crap about Black people would either ignore it or identify it for the stupidity it is. I guess the morons on "Black Twitter" would be happy if Gabby's hair was exactly like some little white girl, in a artificially relaxed ponytail... This is why so many Black girls avoid sports like the plague--they are too worried about messing up their hair! Black Twitter: Dissing Black women while enriching white men

No matter what the circumstances are, Twitter and trolls exist, and they are a part life in a the social media lane. The mean things said about Gaby have been released into the cyber world and have a ripple effect for all to see. And if there is a grain of truth in the ridicule, whether people voice it themselves, many secretly agree with the criticism, and chuckle under their breath. Gaby needs to learn to cope with life instead of dissolving into tears of self pity. She should use Twitter to redeem herself. One paragraph written in response to all of her critics could squelch them, because she possesses a talent that they don't! "The same fire that melts wax, makes steel hard". Enough with being a wimp! And enough of wishing that what has become an institution in our society is going to go away because it's wrong. That's not how things work. Children have to be taught to be civil and considerate because these traits don't come natural to them, It's naive to expect integrity from folks who can hide behind the hash tags and screen names. that enable them to release their inner child.

I drove from Hilton Head, NC to Tampa Fl yesterday and I learned about Gabby being ridiculed on the radio by what was described as "members of Black Twitter." I know Gabby is relatively young, but she is far from a child and has to know these comments have nothing to do with her. These people are childish and mean. They don't know Gabby. If Gabby actually burst into tears as a result of reading something on Twitter then she needs needs to stay off the platform. Gabby, noone, deserves to be treated the way she has been. The notion that this treatment is an understandable consequence of being a successful athlete is sick. Now it would be impossible for her ignore the negativity hurled her way, this is how Twitter makes money providing a platform for trolls. The rest of the media spreads the nonsense because it makes money for them too. The fact that we continue to support a business whose model is to serve as a platform to regularly demean Black women betrays collective weakness as a people.

i really love these movies and books because it really goes into details about where i came from and about my african american people who don't know this and it's sad that they don't teach kids about their culture and where they came from. -Briona Jones