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I don't know if it's animal magnetism but I don't put up with rude behavior regardless of gender.😁 Patent & trademark it.😁 Homies call to conduct business & the wifey or kids roll up & start a whole conversation in the background. N8gglet doesn't have enough sense to shut them down. So, I help him out by hanging up. Call me back. My folks..anybody around me knows not to start bumping their gums if they see I'm on a call. Wait your turn to talk to me.😁 I almost dropped outta school in the 2nd grade. Teacher tried to make me participate in recess along with the other kids. I told her azz I don't play.🤣 I've been a grown azz man ever since I was a little boy.😁😎

I had not considered there may be gender component to doing this. I’ve known so many women, over so many years that post so much personal information on social, that I have long since given up even commenting about the activity to them. That behavior will not change anytime soon, as social media creates all types of incentives for people to share as much as possible about themselves. It’s one of the reasons I deleted my original Facebook account. But going back to the point of this conversation 🙂 I’ve considered the fact that something that I, or someone else, has written here could be taken out of context and come back to bite me in the real worl. I’m not anonymous, because it takes some effort to do it, and I’m too lazy to maintain anonymity. @Mel Hopkins I might stop short of the word “love.” but if you consider the fact that AALBC.com is almost 30 years old with the boatload of content and there’s increasingly less competition from other website, AALBC really should rank high in search be referenced by aggregators. But I still feel that Google search has done more harm to the web than it has to benefit it. I think AI will do even more harm so much more that it poses and existential threat to the WWW we know today. I’m not confident what we get in return will be better than what we have today.

An abridged digest of this famous speech. ### What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? by Frederick Douglass Delivered at Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852. Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me, quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a Fourth-of-July oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect Gage of the Hall, can free me from embarrassment. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable—and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. That I am here today is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the Fourth of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, is what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now seventy-six years old. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. ... Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very moment... Can hardly wait for the fireworks tonight.

So you have probably noticed I don't just slap any ole thing up in the forum. I recently searched for my name +journalist, and there I was splashed at the top of the Google results for my writing on aalbc. Although I have my own website, when Muckrack, the journalism aggregation website, found me -Mel Hopkins's Profile | Medium, Substack, Ebony Journalist | Muck Rack, again, it was all my popular comments from AALBC. When I write book reviews on AALBC, they become AALBC famous on the net. I've been thinking about writing excerpts from the time I flew the friendly skies - and if I were most folks, I'd probably post on Patreon and Substack - but I'm not, I'm going to post about my crazy escapades on AALBC and maybe Patreon too - but I betcha the most views will come from AALBC. Thank you, @Troy In short, Claude AI had a lot to say about AALBC. But here's a snippet: "In other words, AALBC's forum is functioning as a consensus-building document for who you are as a writer and thinker — and AI search is now reading that document alongside Google." Aside: @Pioneer1 and @ProfD y'all were genius to remain anonymous 💓

@aka Contrarian ...I did drop the ball on those noteworthy events. 😁 Tony Brown was smooth as silk on his Journal show. Mother Khadijah Farrakhan was married to Minister Louis Farrakhan for 72 years. The word is that she was a strong matriarchal figure. Stay busy having fun with AI & being able to travel by simply closing your eyes. That's exactly why you're still here with us.🤗😎

@richardmurray I think you would be who could best fufill my request to print Frederick Douglass' famous 4th of July speech. I never tire of reading it. Its message is as timely today, as it was when he first delivered it.

@ProfD you really sound like an interesting person. A genuine, bona fide, cool dude who is his own man. 👍

Sista @Mel Hopkins it's always great to have your presence in the proverbial coffeeshop. @aka Contrarian (Cynique) has been on an AI tear lately. She's jet-setting through pics.🤣😎

I’m talking about women across the board in general all ages including our age but as they get older than us not so much. I remember years ago I was out to dinner with a group of people in Brooklyn next to me was a writer who is very well known now and her face was buried in her phone and I asked what she was doing. She said she was on Twitter. I asked her what that was and she explained you you just read the posts when you’re bored and need something to do; I was like “you mean as in right now.” she understood what I was saying and put her phone away. Today, if I’m with someone one-on-one, I will wave my hand between their face and the screen if I think they’re devoting too much time to it rather than our conversation. Younger women tend to be in their screen while watching TV. I was at a comedy show recently, and the person was in their screen during a comedy show. I just never seen guys do this. It’s always women. Now, of course, I’m not saying all women do this and I’m not saying guys who never do it. I’m just saying that the vast majority of the times I’m observing it it’s women not men. Well, you have that animal, magnetism, women, love, and men envy.

There is no way a woman hanging out with me would have time to be scrolling & watching videos on her phone. She would be too busy talking to &/or listening to me.😁 Admittedly, I don't like younger women so that probably helps too. If a seasoned woman exhibited that type of behavior...she wouldn't be a passenger in my truck.🤣😎

Well sista @Mel Hopkins ...you must be a better writer or more substantive than myself. I just sit in this proverbial AALBC armchair giving my opinions about everything. 🤣😎

That is a sweeping claim, but where is the evidence? First, Barack Obama did not “fail to win an Illinois seat by focusing on the Black vote.” He was already an elected Illinois state senator when, in 2000, he unsuccessfully challenged longtime incumbent Congressman Bobby Rush in the Democratic primary for Illinois’s First Congressional District. Losing one primary to an entrenched incumbent is not proof that Obama lacked political or legislative ability. I moved to Illinois in 2002, so I did not merely read about Illinois politics after the fact. I was an Illinois voter. Second, saying that Obama later won by “splitting the Black and white vote” and obtaining support from wealthy donors is not a serious analysis of the 2008 campaign. As a marketing communications strategist, I had the opportunity to study the “Yes We Can” and “Change We Can Believe In” campaigns closely. The first campaign was a masterclass in architecting a social movement. Reducing Obama’s campaign to speeches, commercials, wealthy donors, and appearances misses the central innovation: it built a decentralized civic movement in which millions of ordinary people became organizers, fundraisers, community leaders, and co-authors of the campaign’s meaning. (Obama's Lost Army) Successful candidates build coalitions. Obama assembled a multiracial electorate, attracted major donors, and developed an unusually broad small-donor fundraising operation. That is called campaigning. It is not evidence that he somehow “undid” Hillary Clinton’s rightful possession of the nomination. No candidate possessed the nomination by right. The nomination belonged to the candidate who won the delegate contest. Now to the allegation that Obama was “woeful as a legislator” and that the laws associated with him were “poor” and “dysfunctional.” Presidents do not personally make laws. Congress drafts and passes bills. Presidents may establish policy priorities, propose legislation, negotiate with lawmakers, advocate for bills, veto them, or sign them into law. Therefore, name the specific legislation you are criticizing and quantify its allegedly woeful results. During Obama’s years in the Illinois Senate, he worked on legislation requiring the recording of interrogations in capital cases and the collection of racial data from traffic stops. In the U.S. Senate, his work included federal-spending transparency and bipartisan efforts to secure nuclear and conventional weapons. As president, he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restored workers’ ability to challenge continuing pay discrimination when they receive discriminatory compensation. He also signed the Affordable Care Act. You may dislike the ACA or object to particular provisions, but “I dislike it” is not evidence that the law was dysfunctional. Measurable outcomes are available for examination. According to the Obama White House’s 2016 assessment of progress in the African-American community, approximately three million uninsured, nonelderly Black adults gained health coverage after Affordable Care Act enrollment began. The report also documented 700,000 fewer Black Americans living in poverty in 2015, 400,000 fewer Black children living in poverty, historically high Black high-school graduation rates, declining incarceration rates, and 62 lifetime federal judicial appointments of African Americans. Yes, the administration itself issued that report, and its conclusions should be checked against the underlying federal data. Nor should every favorable development during an administration automatically be credited to one president or one piece of legislation. But the report still provides actual claims, measurements, and outcomes that can be investigated. That is considerably more substantive than simply declaring that Obama was “woeful” and that his laws were “dysfunctional.” I also personally obtained healthcare benefits through the Affordable Care Act, as did millions of other Americans. You cannot erase the people who benefited from a law merely by declaring the entire law a failure. And if Mayor Zohran Mamdani can be as consequential for New York City as President Obama was for the United States, then New York may be well positioned to preserve its standing as one of the world’s leading cities. There are legitimate criticisms to make of Obama’s presidency. There were compromises, policy failures, implementation problems, and unfulfilled promises. But “he gave good speeches and made terrible laws” is not an analysis. It is an unsupported opinion. So which specific bills produced the “woeful results” you claim? Which provisions were defective? What measurable damage did they cause? What evidence connects that damage to the legislation? Name the law. Identify the defective provision. Quantify the harm. If you cannot identify the law, explain the defect and provide factual evidence of the result, please do not tag me merely to repeat a political impression. I do not have time to debate accusations that their author refuses to substantiate.

Poor ol jive ass country nigga Pioneer Sho wish I could become a pimp so I could beat up womem and sell crack on da street. I ain't makin nothin from slappin my ol lady around. But at least I still got my secret peep hole in the ladies room where I can jack off while watchin dem Afrikan women pee.

Unfortunately, too many Black people get way too comfortable around non-Black people. While most Black people will not end up a Nolan Wells, one unalived Black person hanging out with non-Black folks is too many. IMO, this young man's parents did him a disservice if they allowed him to feel that comfortable around non-Black folks. I see it a lot among middle-class & up Black folks who either live in mixed neighborhoods &/or send their kids to private schools & whatnot. It is even worse with interracial couples. Those Black parents allow their children to hang out with & have sleepovers with their non-Black associates & family members. There is no telling how many racists & anti-Black family members that Black man or woman has married into & take their mixed race kids around. Bad enough non-Black people cannot make potato salad or cook greens or fried chicken. 🤣 Add in the fact that some of those non-Black folks like to eat weird foods & hunt all types of animals & engage in reckless activities for fun. In the words of Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Black folks have no friends especially when it comes to non-Black people. Every now & then, we'll be reminded of it.😎

Umbrarchist is the dude who talks about the twin towers, accounting, depreciation & planned obsolescence.😁😎

I respect your position but know that your contributions to the forum are not a waste of time. I look forward to reading your posts. Every birthday, your personal holiday, is a milestone to celebrate. We're thankful that you're still on this side of glory. Please do not take offense that I'm unwilling to accept your resignation.🤣😎

...and that is cool too. You never know, take enough shots you will eventually score.

True and it does not take genius level intelligence gain power if you are willing to be violent enough. What stops you from gaining power is not a lack of intelligence it is a lack of compassion.

@aka Contrarian ....you already know @Pioneer1 will clap back.😁 As boxing trainers & referees say...protect yourself at all times.🤣😎

Looks like @aka Contrarian took a page from your book, er, movie idea & used AI to flip the script.🤣 Again, you two going back & forth is worth the price of admission from where I sit.😁😎

.....and that's what counts.

If YOU were looking at what he was and where his night was headed, YOU would guzzle down two drinks too! And that would be just a start....lol.

Too bad Black folks didn't buy those clinics. Yep. The former baseball player made a fortune with that Pizza! Pizza! sh8t.🤣 That's what happens when people spend money on garbage instead of investing in the future. 😎

What does "Atleast" spell? And your grammar leaves a lot to be desired.

POTUS OJ is not hiding the fact that his agenda is to 1) promote white nationalism & 2) discourage non-white unity & 3) enrich himself, family & friends. Scott Turner, Secretary of Housing & Urban Development is the sole Black cabinet membet of the current administration. Maybe POTUS OJ will call some Black folks to attend America's 250th celebration this upcoming weekend. 😁😎

So wait, did you provide a prompt that had you put his hand on his thigh like that @aka Contrarian or did the AI do that on itself? I was at a cookout over the weekend and someone was playing a song that I really liked, and I asked who it was and a guy sitting across from me said it was him that he created the song using an AI! I was like that could be a hit man. Then the Sista next to me was like oh you should hear this song (below) and Sista on the other side also knew the saw and was like yo that Song really touched her. Another AI song! Now I’ve heard many people say that AI music isn’t any good and that they can tell the difference. Well, one thing I know for sure is that I can’t tell the difference and that for a lot of people they could care less. I mean the cheering in the background sounds fake, but this has been fake for the past 50 years or longer. Sure, the music is derivative… Sounds like Beyoncé, but what music isn’t derivative? When AI starts doing something that’s completely novel the money will flow right out of musicians hands into the hands of be already super wealthy. Musicians will be covering AI generated music.

Glad the cops caught that perverted peepin tom. I heard that ProfD had to go bail Pioneer out of jail. 🙄

None of the 4 in that photo above is actually in Trump's Administration. Like you said, Scott Turner....the head of HUD is the only Black person currently in his Administration. Funny how they pick a Black man to oversee how the housing projects and Section 8 programs are ran, lol.

Koon & the Gang is hilarious.🤣 Along with the disdain, I always get hearty chuckle out those guys & their inanity when it comes to boot-licking & selling the soap for white supremacy. Whenever I see hear those clowns, the 1st thought that comes to mind paraphrases scripture, Mark 8:36-38..."what profit a man to gain the world & lose his soul".😁 Before anyone's head explodes, yes, the resident agnostic knows the Bible too😉😎

Figured as much. Creative way to use technology especially in reimagining your late husband. Not self-indulgent at all. Have a blast with it.😎

Aren't these boot lickers still loitering around, scavenging for crumbs.

@Delano. That's funny. So "you". Actually, for me, a boring person can sometimes be an interesting challenge. "Still waters run deep," 😉

Can't speak for others, but I "think" I know you well enough to presume that you're not an alcoholic. Atleast you're not posting pictures of yourself all over the internet drinking liquor half the time.....lol.

Fam...I just stand on my block when it comes to being a no nonsense man but still a clown, er, with a sense of humor.🤣😎

@ProfD You sound like a confident brutha who doesn't need to go around "advertising" himself over the internet. You don't seem like somebody who likes to post images of himself grinning and grabbing on women in strange places....lol.

Yeah.....wait until my man finds out what she's been doing with his images, lol. She better have a good lawyer....lol.

2010 -- Wow! Another thing I noticed as I get older, besides loosing someone every five minutes ☹️ is that my perception of time has really sped up! It is hard to believe 2026 is already half over!

I don't know if I'd call it genius over just being typical men....lol Most men like to keep a low profile. Many of us have learned....whether it was from dating, working, or highschool homies....that the less personal information people know about you the less "ammunition" they have if they ever decide to come at you, lol. I'm constantly getting on the females in my family about posting all of their business on social media. Posting their pictures. Posting their activities. Posting their full name and family history. Posting their children's pictures. Posting pictures of their new house or new car. Posting from their job letting everybody know where they work. Posting themselves in their underwear. Posting themselves laying in bed with a cold. Just putting out ALL of their information. I've warned them over and over again to stop putting all of their business out in the street like that, but most of them don't listen UNTIL something happens and they end up regretting it. They act like their can't possibly be some creepy mofo sitting in a dark room eating mushy frootloops with chocolate milk and building a profile of them to be his next stalking victim. The thought of it NEVER crosses their minds. Now about that photo........... 🤔 -Seems like I saw somebody who looks JUST LIKE her....in LL Cool J's "Around The Way Girl" video....lol.

Me too, and it is actually affordable 🥰

Most politicians especially at the national level, work within the special interests of the PACs & wealthy people who finance their campaigns. Only a politician not beholden to the money that put them in office can truly work for the greater good of the people. Such a politician has not existed for a very long time since money has run national politics for several decades. Surely, some are old enough to remember former POTUS Richard Nixon raising a bunch of money back in the late 1960s/early 1970s.🤣 Look no further than the current administration. Everything it does is to rearrange the deck chairs of power & to further enrich the global elite. IMO, any issues of class & socialism are distractions to keep the masses from focusing on the bigger picture. Coordinating chaos & confusion is a part of the game. There is no desire among the global elite to redistribute wealth &/or provide a standard of living that is beneficial to every human being on the planet.😎

@richardmurray I could be wrong, but it reads like you are conflating "Democratic Socialism" with "Socialism" at least you have used the terms interchangeably in your analysis. I don't think any sitting politician is advocating for socialism. That is a good definition, but I was say more simply, "Critical Race Theory examples how race influences society and perpetuates racism. What do you think? You have a penchant for verbosity, huh? I think this leads to a TL:DR reaction from potential readers of you posts. What do you think?

I have never criticized Joe Jackson because the reality of the matter is if that father didn't push his offspring into entertainment they probably would have ended up being factory workers in Gary, Indiana. Nobody can imagine Michael Jackson making widgets or buffing floors in a warehouse & walking back & forth to work with a lunchbox.🤣 Joe jackson, a Black man, did whatever it took to make his family rich. It worked too.😎

Finally got around to seeing the Michael Jackson movie yesterday. I enjoyed it. It brought back a lot of memories. I looked for things that I remembered seeing and hearing about him back in the 70s and 80s. I remember watching television and seeing Michael being hauled away by ambulance after his hair caught fire during a Pepsi commercial shoot. ....I also remember that Pepsi commercial, lol. And one of the things that I looked for and saw was the media showing him laying on a ambulance cot with that sparkling white glove being held up. I had little idea that the burns Michael received from that Pepsi commercial accident were so serious and left him in so much chronic pain. I though his hair just caught on fire. I wish they would have included Janet Jackson, Diana Ross, and Brooke Shields in the movie. The movie basically ends with Michael's life back in 1988 -WTF????? I sense a part 2 in the works.

I remember when Jet, Essence, and Ebony magazines were must haves. Really happy to see that they are still available and still black owned. I used to sit on the floor and study each page of Essence and Ebony. And if jJet magazine said it, it was the truth. Lol! did you know that Essence Magazine was founded by four bruthas in 1970? I didn’t. I assumed females were the creatives. oh the good ol’days! I just subscribed to Essence. Can’t wait!!! Did you know that the nations first black magazine, called FREEDOM’S JOURNAL and was published (1827-1829)? then the Negro Digest was launched in 1942 what are fondest memories of these magazines? Do your ancestors recall or have they past down memories of Freedoms Journal or Negro Digest?

New York City has erupted into an orgy of celebration, its streets swarming with crowds delirious with joy over the KNICKS ending their 53-year drought and defeating the San Antonio Spurs to become NBA champions! Congrats to them as they leave no doubt as to which was the better team by winning 4 out of 5 games to take the crown. Good job!! It's a sign of the times that victorious sports teams are generating so much enthusiasm from their followers. LIfe looms so uncertain, - is filled with such strife, due to the political and economic turmoil stifling the country, that people are desperate for things to cheer about. Anything to invest their hopes in! Here in Chicago, even our hapless white Sox, have the city excited because for the first time in 7 years, the team is playing .500 ball, even as BEAR fans can hardly wait for football to return, hoping for another thrilling season to distract us from the national conflict. Keeping up with the home teams has certainly added a little excitement to my hum drum existence. Sending the message that "good things come to those who wait," makes the KNICKS even bigger heroes. Electing a competent, respectable leader to succeed Donald Trump is certainly worth waiting for!

Unless there's a major natural disaster...... I mean on a GLOBAL CATACLYSMIC scale.....

@ProfD: What has Farrakhan done for the over-all black population? He and I are the same age and I've never known him to do anything for anybody but his bean pie brigade. For as long as I can remember, he has lived a life of leisure in a big mansion on Chicago's south side, emerging once a year to regurgitate his marathon Founder's day tirade. Even his Black Man March never developed into anything permanent. He's currently being kept alive by team of Jewish doctors who he praises in private. People like him and Thomas Sowell, Cornel West, and the late Neely Fuller have never done anything but sit around critizing Blacks, telling them what they need to do. As I say, Jews, who were among the founders of the NAACP, don't need me to defend them. Bottom line is, just WHO is it black Americans can point to as having helped them? Even Africans snub them. Obviously they need to just get on with their lives adopting the each one, teach one approach. White supremacy exists because it perpetuates itself and wards off all challengers. It is, what it is. Blacks folks are too busy chasing their tails, competing in the "blacker than thou" contests, trying to dictate to each other what constitutes authentic blackness. At my age, staying under the radar, is easy. Nobody cares what old people think. And, for me, the feeling is mutual! C'mon, baby, let's do our thing

Technology has lowered the barrier to entry in a number of areas. Journalism is one such area. Even with an abundance of disposable content, there's still outlets for good Black journalism. Nowadays, good Black journalism can be found in local publications & podcasts. Really depends on what the reader wants to know.😎

Oh, puleeze. Journalism is journalism. There should be no difference between black journalists and any other ones. The truth is the truth, facts are facts, objectivity is the gold standard. Ideally, jouralism fufills its role of shining the light in dark places in order to expose and report events. (Fox News epitomizes the violation of journalistic principles and, imo, we don't need black counterparts of it.) Actually, there's no such thing as an official black point of view anymore because Blacks have diversified their politics and are found on both sides of the political spectrum. There's no guarantee that exclusively black oriented news outlets won't be inaccurate and misleading and sponsor-controlled. Op-ed is the designated domaine for people who want to air grievances and promote their point of view and you dont't have to be a journalist to utilize it. Admittedly, however, the Fourth Estate, like all of Society's other traditional institutions, has strayed from its principles, and the news media has become compromised, and lost much of its credibility with everybody, not just Blacks. I confess to gravitating toward any source that reinforces my moderate middle of the road beliefs so I check out the racially-mixed, bi-partisan panel groups on CNN and MSNBC and - dare I say it, snap shots on - FaceBook, that provide a digest of political reels featuring pod casters and pundits and outraged celebrities ranting against Trumpism. And, because I've become so fed-up with the futility of it all, - with "the- more-things-change-the-more-they-become-the-same" vibe that is permeating the country, I still faithfully watch Bill Maher. I like, in addition to having an interesting cross section of guests, his hilarious MAD MAGAZINE approach to current events, reducing everything to sly humor, deflating and chastising the Far Left, and ridiculing the dumb-ass MAGA crowd. He's a true iconoclast.

Brotha Troy, that has long been a knock against us as a collective. Strangely, it has survived for much too long. I do admit that it so convenient as I have used it on countless occasions to force home a point. Honestly, as much as I hate to admit it, but I barely read. Sure, I read snippets here and there. In this fast-paced, I have become a browser whereas I was once a fierce reader. Yet, there is a blanket exception to this rule because brrothas in the joint READ! Inside reading is fundamental. Inside, if you wants news, you have to read about it because, of all places, televised news is blase. News rarely affects prisoners so more time is spent watching sports and videos. When I was in the pen in Atlanta the first time, there were guys there that had well-stocked libraries in their cells. My crime partner and I were among the youngest there, and I was forever reading as I was hardly without a book or a magazine. The old heads noticed this and they would bring me books to the dining room where I worked. I had my own table where I read. Guys that were old enough at the time to be my father, supplied me with a mind-boggling array of books----all serious literature. I recall sitting at my table reading Freud. The next day, an old white convict gave me a book about Carl Jung. Reading the ART of War got me editions of books by Clausewitz and Otto Von Bismarck and Machiavelli. It was truly like guys would walk past my table to see what I was reading,and then they would bring me something even more in depth. And now, I barely pick up a book. That's sad. Now, we want info on the go, so we fall for fake news or second hand news or worse yet no news. Trying to keep up is so time=consuming that if you don't hear through the grapevine, it didn't happen. I conclude with an admission. Of all the things I get down on myself about is the fact that I never stopped to teach a close friend how to read. Damn, we were in prison for ten years together and I never taught him to read. I wrote all his letters for him, but I could have taught him to read. I was once chastised by another friend who told me that I was wrong for not teaching this guy this read, but I was too busy writing my books. I was so convinced that I was writing the next best novel that I was so caught up that I never taught my friend to read. It wasn't that I never thought about it. I did. I even planned to write stories about him to use to teach him to read. The sad thing, Brotha Troy, is that I knew what to do becaause on an earlier stretch in the joint, I was at a prison where they wanted to teach inmates to read, but they knew they just couldn't put anyone in charge so it was decided to use the Muslim community to spearhead the program. They knew how well respected Muslims were in the joint so they taught us so we could teach the rest of the population who didn't read. They knew the guys would trust us. We were taught what was called The Laubach Method and this is the text we taught from. I had no excuse. Just think, I blew the chance to give someone the gift of reading. Wow......I don't think I will ever live that down, but I have made up my mind. I am going to find him one day and apologize. The man was my cellmate for 10 long years and I never taught him to read, and I pray to God that I am never so selfish again in my life.