Mel Hopkins

Da Button Pusha, message is outstanding... "don't let anyone outside you, define you" BAM! Exactly, how I raised my daughters! No one gets a vote on who they choose to be. Not even me. They came through me but they are not me... and I don't know what plans they made with The CREATOR before they arrived here in on earth. I told my daughters I was/am their guardrail. (not their" third rail" as a myspace friend once said) I listened to their dreams and helped them stay in that lane. I (along with the village) helped to protect them so they could realize their dreams... My daughters had me and the rest of our family - but not all of our daughters are so lucky. We need more women such as Da Button Pusha to drop science that will reach our daughters wherever they are - and help them find their voice and place in the world...without the "world" trying to mold them into their warped sense of what a woman "should be".

Where do I sign up! Seriously my coding skills are limited to basic html -and I even have to use crib notes - but I would promote the heck out it of it once it's up!

Heard on the local news last night : A 20-something year-old Black man here in Metro Atlanta won about 400-thousand dollars in the Georgia lottery. He was shot to death in an apparent home invasion on Wednesday night. His sister was in the house at the time but unharmed. The moral of this tale : Dreams do come true but when it does it's probably best to leave your neighborhood.

When Black Enterprise did a feature article on my digital marketing efforts to sell my book; I thought it would lead to a lot of book sales... I didn't but what I got was an influx of email asking me "HOW do you do this..." It frustrated me at first; but today I have a database of people who were willing shared their email addresses with me for no other reason than to ask a question. Followers on social media are cool - but there's no middlewo/man between me and my email addresses.

I'm doing the same, albeit slowly. I deleted my facebook account. Now I'm managing 3 twitter accounts, 1 linkedin account and 1 About.Me account. I'm refocusing my attention on my blogs and websites (In fact, I reactivated one because I realized that it is on my author page here at AALBC) and I will soon consolidate all of those to one location once I figure out how. My logic is this: if the site isn't connected with my revenue - I don't need it or the attention. I support this site for two reasons because it supports me and Troy. All those in my social network have my contact information and I have theirs - so why do I need the middleman? Ok off to read the article.

Yes, I do - and I really like signing it with disqus for the very reasons you mentioned. Most times I don't think to check back to the site I've commented on - but when I use my disqus account I see who responded to me. I also had it for my blogger sites too - but for some reason it is no longer there. I just logged into my account and I see that I did respond to an aalbc.com blog – through my disqus account. Geez! I’m all over the place with accounts… I have to get this under control. I wish I had one account – one sign in! Now, that would be perfect!

Wait! I can log in here through Disqus?

Key words: Government, "persons" i.e., corporations. Those are who will profit especially big pharma. Individuals will still pay taxes, corporations will not. In contrast, It is illegal in 26 states to grow marijuana for commercial use. Whereas if I wanted to smoke a cigarette I could grow tobacco in my backyard. Some farmers are subsidized not grow tobacco and others grow and make a nice living . By the way; it is reported sugar kills more people in more ways than tobacco ever could. Every leading cause of death is directly or indirectly caused by over consumption of added sugar... and while some people say "moderation" reports indicate an average american diet contains 156 lbs of sugar per year... 29 lbs is sucrose. A 2000 calorie diet is only supposed to contain 8 teaspoons of sugar - unfortunately food manufacturers add a lot of sugar to everything just to make their foods palatable and it is that sugar that is making us sick. EXCEPT the difference with sugar consumption is it personal. Sort of like NIMBY, unlike secondhand smoke where our personal choice is removed. Maybe since sugar consumption doesn't interfere with another's personal space most people don't care. Former Mayor Bloomberg, however, understood the effect of overdosing on sugar.He worried about his constituents even at the risk of pissing off big business. He understood the toll it takes on the quality of life and even cognition. Yes look at the studies and you will see sugar is making us not only fat but retarded. Once I realized how toxic sugar is in the doses we are ingesting Bloomberg's law seemed to be one of the smartest things we can do to save ourselves - even if it is from ourselves!

LOL! "Abuse"? <big smile> I'm just glad folks can have their weed without going to jail for it. Now, if we criminalize sugar and sugary products , we'd be better in the long run! :

Although it did get her message out, Charlo Greene's on-air resignation seems more to me than alarming and sensational but rather it was about integrity. Yes, “integrity’s 2nd meaning -" to remain whole and undivided". Maybe Greene could no longer publicly report on the opposition to "legalization of marijuana" while simultaneously presiding over Alaska Cannabis Club. No telling how many times that story came up and she found herself fronting it. Now, Troy, I do understand your position; why couldn't she quit in private. I'm a firm believer, however, that if you are proponent of cause why not use all of your resources to draw attention to it. Use whatever to be heard especially, when viral content is making ordinary people into minor celebrities. ​In hindsight, it worked. Not only did Charlo Greene raise more than $8,000 for her cause using Indiegogo, the crowdfunding platform; Alaskans voted 52-48 yesterday to legalize marijuana. So maybe we will only be in “deep doo-doo” if we continue to believe someone will recognize our deeds as long as we continue to do good work. Nope. Well, not as long as we are living in the age of "turn down for what”.

Social media, in my opinion, doesn't prove we are stupid. A lot of social networking sites, however, are putting us on a path to the land of "idiocracy". The steps we are taking are as follows: We want to remain connected to our peers and one way is through our shared beliefs. Yes, even something as simple as belief in an optical illusion of a viral video. If our peers believe something is true, many of us do our best to see the truth in it too. For example, look at religion - there's very little in any of the tenets of the three big religions that is "factual" or even can be proven - but it doesn't stop each of those three big religions from having billions of believers. Our beliefs are our fellowship. Same can be said in social media networks. Look at your "friends" , your "followers" clearly there's something that connects all of you. What ever that connection is there is a trade-off and that is the challenge with social media; we are beginning to "share belief" in the mundane to remain connected. Eventually without questioning those beliefs we will undoubtedly become mentally weak. Today's Social Media, such as facebook, doesn't serve as space to engage in critical thinking nor problem solving - it serves as a place for us to be seen. What we share there is a reflection of us. Oops! I've just proved your argument didn't I?

I found my audience on facebook and i'm actually selling my book! A few people who i have known since high school and reconnected with on facebook have actually bought and liked my novel- thanks to facebook i remembered the importance of creating and maintaining relationships that lead to sales, vendors and other viable components of a strong network. In fact, i even reconnected with Troy and enjoy watching not only his personal brand grow but aalbc.com - i don't read books by black authors unless those books are sci-fi/supernatural/fantasy/horror - therefore i had no reason to peruse the aalbc website - but when i reconnected with Troy, he was my reason. His posts on facebook cause me to visit the website - a few of my dedicated followers visit Troy - when i do. One more thing facebook allows for is to act as a test-market. People respond to content that interest them. That is one thing we can't fake. As a writer this is incredibly important. The adage is to write what you know but when you write what you know and the public responds - not only have you identified your market - you also have the much coveted mental real estate. Yes facebook is a juggernaut for a reason!

I was discussing this topic with my daughter and she reminded me that as soon as I posted a comment here I was writing for free. Sadly she is right and this is exactly why we writers find ourselves are in a quandary. Our hubris is our downfall. We believe someone wants to read/hear what we have to express and when we do communicate our thoughts it diminishes the value of our rhetoric. Imagine being thought of as such a great thinker that people are willing to line up to purchase your thoughts. This is why I spend so much time reading writers of antiquity... They don't tweet, Facebook , blog, or visit forums. I can only find their work in a book so I'm willing to pay for it.

.I was saddened by this story when I first read it. I understand the history, I understand the need to belong - but native Africans need to come home. Do you know how happy I was to learn that my maternal lineage began in Ethiopia- For years my mother told me we were blackfoot indians - and I searched and searched - and yes I did find my great great grandfather on the maternal side was from some tribe in West Virginia...but I rejoiced to learn that we were the original women ( haplogroup L3 - no markers) from Africa...It is time for Africans to reclaim our legacy...