Mel Hopkins

Can you tell me the significance of .png. Also why does a transparent background make a difference? I ask because I think my logo has a opaque background and it shouldn't have been.

www.tonybrownsjournal.com/blog/i-told-you-so Mr Brown seems to welcome Trump Administration and also predicted his win.

See that aalbc logo looks great! How can we get one?

This is the message bouncing around the black women "Enough is enough" social media echo chamber. A faction of black women will not support the movie : because 1- rape charges (no conviction/allegedly no remorse for passing around a woman for sex) 2- black women have no agency in the film and are used as props to support the "black macho male" narrative. https://www.thenation.com/article/the-birth-of-a-nation-is-an-epic-fail/ The latter isn't sitting well with Dr. Leslie M. Alexander who wrote the article I linked here. Her bio reads: professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University, where she specializes in 19th century Black culture and political consciousness. She teaches courses on slavery, resistance movements, and historical accuracy in film. Historians such as Professor Alexander mentioned black women, especially, Nat Turner's mom played a role in waging war against slavery to the point where she attempted to kill Nat to prevent enslavement. Unfortunately women are silent in the film (literally in the portrayal of Nat Turner's wife). Further some say Nat Turner had a "spiritual awakening" so to speak and refused to participate in the system. A holy ghost moment when someone finally stands up to the moral injustice is a powerful motif. Aside, I think that would have been a better inciting moment anyway, especially with black people claiming "stay woke" status today. Who knows, maybe this whole film is Nate Parker and Jean Celestin's $10 million attempt at absolution and we're just along for the ride. Still, I don't pay to watch slave movies so I can't claim to boycott. After the reviews, however, I have no desire to see it anyway.

I last saw you in 2010! That ain't no decade, man!!!

"In 2015, community giving in South Carolina from Walmart stores, clubs, and the Walmart Foundation totaled $30 million." @Cynique how I missed reading your contrarian views! When you and Troy mix it up we get solutions! Boycotting Walmart would absolutely be counter-productive. (I can't believe I'm writing this lol) Walmart provides employment to folks who would not otherwise have jobs, vegetables in food deserts, and they give back to the neighborhoods they operate in to empower those people who are inspired to go beyond the $10 per hour gig... http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2016/10/14/urban-league-awarded-25k-grant/91938268/ - #solutions

The more I move around the site and learn all it has to offer the more I want to petition the Library of Congress to back it up on their servers. I got one of my associates in the LOC - maybe I can try for two! (smile). Congratulations Troy! I'm so honored to be have you in my network. Speaking of Library of Congress, did you know the Librarian of Congress is a black woman, right? Carla Hayden is the 14th librarian and the first woman ever to hold the position in 214 years. Hayden is also the first person of African-American descent to hold the post. I thought of her when I read this entry because both of you are watching over our history. Thank you for all you do!

I noticed before, it had the period - I removed it and entered the correct address but when I go to the link I don't see aalbc . So you're correct something malicious is underfoot.. If you have dropbox I will share with you the screenshot - so you can see what I see.

Atlantic writers must have noticed the same thing I did... and also hat tip to @Sara because according the article slow suicide is not a thing either because mortality rates are also on the decline for black men while they are on the rise for white men... Check out the article, Black Americans are living longer.

I've played around with Shopify and I really enjoyed how easy it was to set up a storefront. The trial period was 30 days back then I see they've made it 14 days. EXCEPT they didn't have book store templates when I first tried it in 2012 or 2013!!! There were a lot of templates to choose from or if you are good at coding you could do it yourself CSS - but now - wow! It is best to prepare all your sales copy before so you can set up the shopify site in one day. This way you can really test out the sales features. You can either use your own domain name or one with the shopify extension. When I tested it out initially it was $29 plus the percentage of sales. I signed up with fetchapp to download ebooks after purchase. Since I was only selling one e-book it was free. fetchapp doesn't offer the watermark though... This book was worth the 2.99 just because it informed me of shopify's growth! I agree the book is easily 30 pages max but I feel that it has more than paid for itself already. Thanks for the heads up!

I just purchased this book via your link... 1- I wanted to experience the process. The link took me to the author's eCommerce site.. I could pay via paypal or a credit card. (Btw, the price was $2.99 not $.99) Once my purchase was complete, I could download it or put it in my dropbox. For some reason the dropbox didn't work but I was able to download the pdf. Each page is watermarked with my name and email address and a note that it is my personal copy. (How did he do that?) I can tell you one secret to making money is purchasing the book directly from the author - if more people would purchase from author and/or through an affiliate it - authors/publishers can keep more of their royalties. I plan to release my next publications directly from my website.

And college was free if you were a California resident...

Absolutely, in agreement here. There's an article, however, I read on care2care that indicates there maybe disparity in medical care for African-Americans vs white Americans. So I'd throw into the mix more financial aid for medical-school eligible black students. Universal Healthcare definitely needs to go on the platform - and the states have the power to make this happen. Especially since a lot republican-controlled states refused to roll out the Expanded Medicaid program for adults living just below the poverty level. Universal Healthcare-type program is available through the Affordable Care Act but the republican-controlled states refuse to allow it.

For the last 8 years I've heard that President Obama hasn't addressed African-American Issues affecting the black community. What are the issues facing 21st century Black America? If we were to draft a legislative proposal agenda to present at the state level, what would we demand?

Pioneer, yes! This has been my reason to vote since before I left Brooklyn in the 90s... EVERYTHING happens at the local level. Thanks to the Republican party in Illinois, I saw this from the field...They put me in the game. And that game is brutal and those dudes are gangsta. I mean, drive-by gangsta too. It just so happen I was in the right place to be appointed a precinct committeemen for the Republican party..Precinct committeemen is an elected position but you can also be appointed by the State's county party chairman. I was appointed to the position in 2006 and I held until I voted for President Obama in the 2008 primary. (you cannot be a republican precinct committemen and pull a democrat ballot :heavy sigh:) In Illinois and I suspect most everywhere, as a precinct official, you are responsible for registering the people in your precinct (right there in their homes) and campaigning for the candidates you believe in..The candidates are beholden to you, (kinda). In this position you can literally stop a candidate from making it to the ballot or even to office. I made sure I did my best to make sure one millionaire didn't get on the ballot because he wanted to be involved in too many bedroom issues. But I digress. That is how much power is in the hands of the precinct committeeman at the local level. It was a great learning experience and although I'm a swing voter who votes mostly on issues - I still appreciate the Illinois Republicans for giving me that opportunity. I'm a huge advocate for voting in every single election even those off-off year elections. There are so many referendums on the local ballots that affect everything in our communities from how long judges can serve - to whether state workers can keep their pensions or have the state treasurer raid them (I voted on that one in Illinois before I left) to who sits on the school board to penny taxes that will put lights on our highways (commissioners discussed that last night in our local meeting)... I vote presidential simply because they are on the ballot when I go to vote.

YES! YES! YES!!! I hadn't noticed it until now but I usually review self-help styled books and my reviews are reviewed favorably... those who had the best reviewed-reviews of my book were fans of the genre.. thank you @Cynique for that excellent observation!

Has anyone noticed that most of our policies that regulate education, banking, crime & punishment, security, et al have not changed much since the Reagan administration? If there was a change, it made the law more corporate friendly? I don't think a Hillary Clinton administration will make broad sweeping changes. I imagine the same players will have a seat at her table. I haven't watched closely enough to see who is aligning themselves with Trump.

Critical reviews are important especially to writers who want to bring their very best to audiences. There are very few people qualified, or of those qualified, willing to review books. When I read reviews it seems that most people are writing about whether they liked or hated a book - but it doesn't go any deeper. The reviewers rarely talk about themes, motifs & symbols. They rarely talk about narrative structure (or lack thereof), arguments posed in the story or even if it was an original novel or category fiction. When I offer a review, I often talk about how the book affected me emotionally but I also do my best to include some of those elements. Call me a spoiled academic, but I expect "critical reviews" to read a little like college papers. Sadly, most aren't educated on how to write them. Too bad too, because better reviewers just might produce better books. BTW, I've never reviewed any of Dyson's books because I haven't read them.

We, as a society, don't respect elders because we are becoming increasingly ignorant. Simply put, it is ignorance that causes us not to revere our elders. When we look at the origin of the word ignorant, notice the root word ignore - from Merriam-Webster Latin ignorare, from ignarus ignorant, unknown, from in- +gnoscere, noscere to know While "ignore" is now considered "obsolete" for defining ignorance we still see it's apropos in describing our behavior towards the elderly today. Further, words like unknown and not knowing screams of our society's current status. Therefore, our disrespect and lack of appreciation of the elderly is just one of the symptoms of our society's socially-constructed hubris. Some call it "dumbing down of America” which I define as having population that is unaware of what they don't know .Unfortunately, in every scenario 'hubris' ultimately leads to failure; especially when you only possess facts but don't know how to use those facts. Knowledge is not power but use of knowledge equals wisdom. An ignorant population, however, is easy to control. So, it makes sense to hide or ignore the elderly. The elderly are usually wise. Yes, they know facts but they also know how to put those facts into use. Unfortunately many of us don't recognize information when it is put into use. We may dismiss Big Mama's or Pop-Pop's wisdom when it comes in a form of apologue. Now for some reason, those who are successful no matter what age; is always a stone's throw from someone who is way beyond the retirement age. Case-in-point, check out the board of directors on any fortune 100 company. While they may not make the day-to-day operations decisions, they're there to guide the company. Heck Sumner Redstone CBS Network chairman just stepped down from The Tiffany network (and not without a fight) and he is 92 years old!

@Troy, After you mentioned Erica Kennedy died by her own hands; it touched me in ways that I didn't expect.I tried to find anything that would explain why. Of course, nothing can ever explain why someone takes their own life but I'm glad she made a difference while she was here. Prince, did a lot with his celebrity and his talent. He was and is a leader by example! I'm not a celebrity but I can make requests, such as Prince did, when it is within my power to do so. I will too.

I'm not trying to be contrary but anything "socially designed or demanded is constructed and thereby unnatural. But yes, what you're suggesting indicates natural law and environment demand how our families are structured. Which also may be the key to healing our pathology. For example, procreation is one of the eight biological life functions but marriage and/or child-rearing is a social construct. The human species tend to care for its young but not necessarily in a two-parent model but a community. I would have to dig up my notes but I read there are some uncontacted tribes- who still follow the hunter-gatherer model such as Cynique mentioned. Some have existed for 60,000 years untouched by the West. The hunter-gatherers as we've come to know through their artifacts existed as a community. According to some researchers, hunting-gathering depended on the environment, not necessarily the sex, but it was wholly communal. Along with men, women fished and participated in wild-game hunting when they could.(See: Alphabet vs Goddess by Leonard Shlain, MD) The environment also played a huge part in why some of us left Africa and moved out to other parts of the world but again, they left as a group. In fact, here in the present, Malcolm Gladwell, in his book “Outliers" talked about how a strong community and environment assisted new immigrants to maintain health and vitality even when money was low. Once they left their community, however, they first suffered poor health then they died. The family structure that would “win” out, if it was necessary for family to have a main structure, would be “community”. Living in close-knit communities is the one structure that allowed us to grow a “healthy” civilization for the last 3 millennia. We've been moving away from that structure and we're suffering.

"Child worship" thank you so much for this phrase @Cynique ! This is a topic within itself. Not sure when this practice started but I've fallen victim to it. I remember my girls, telling me, "if you love 'Harvard' so much, you should apply and go." That was when I realized I was about to begin the practice of what's you have labeled "Child worship." Looking back now, I can see why I fell victim. My child worship moment happened when the girls were applying to college. I didn't go to the school I wanted to go to because my mother objected. She didn't want me to go away to school. It is only now, I see I was about to repeat the practice but luckily I had raised them to think for themselves. "Generational curses" come to mind. I think @CDBurns alluded to this but solving problems may begin in the home too. Still I believe this all goes back to solving our personal problems first.

Thinking is overrated if your thinking controls you... However if you control your thinking then it is a resource, a luxury reserved for those with time and money

As I posted on Linkedin Rulers need subjects. The why I would attempt to answer is why do so many black people keep them in power. I just read when Prince did an interview with InStyle he demanded it be with a black writer... They didn't have one so a newbie, Erika Kennedy, got her big break. http://www.thefrisky.com/2009-12-03/frisky-qa-erica-kennedy-author-of-bitch-lit-novel-feminista/?utm_source=share-email&utm_medium=button

No need to replace the "nuclear family" as an ideal or standard. Simply make room for other structures. One structure doesn't fit all. I'm not interested in marriage and sorry I did it in the first place. I'm better suited as a single. But I digress. I was my daughters' custodial parent - and I co-parented with my daughters' dad. I didn't need to live in a home where a marriage wasn't conducive to everyone's well-being. Today, I have a peace of mind; my daughters are happy, healthy and successful adults. I'm still not a grandmother, but oh well. My daughters were more concerned about letters behind their name than in front of it. I say this to say - non traditional families are not the source of the downfall in society nor are non-traditional families the downfall of black people in America... According to the U.S. Census there are still more white people/families living below the poverty level in America than black people. (Not sure, however, if money will make a difference in this scenario) And single black women on average make more money today than they did as 1/2 of a nuclear family. By the way there are more single people today of any race than there are married couples, so there's that. Here's what I believe is plaguing society... Lust. Not sexual lust but lust in the real sense of the word. Most of society wants to satisfy an unmet emotional need. Many of us only want to feel pleasure. No rejection, no longing, no hurt. No one wants to experience any emotion other than "good". Even me, as I mentioned. Why should I experience the aggravation of marriage when I don't have to... I found more pleasure in backbreaking labor pains, child birth, including a caesarean section and raising my daughters to adults than having to live with and struggle with someone who was raised differently. Therefore, in an effort to become problem solvers, collectively, we need to grow a vagina. I was going to write "grow a pair" but then I realized testicles are too delicate - only vaginas can take a licking and keep on ticking. Seriously, though it takes grit, fortitude and confidence to solve our own personal problems. Then and only then can we become problem solvers to change the world. And right now we are in short supply of people who are emotionally ready and available to do it.