Following in the footsteps of “The Last Dance,” FOCO has released limited edition bobbleheads of Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. Take a look at the bobbleheads below and buy them on FOCO’s website.
Show Me Chicago previews, reviews and expresses opinions on what’s happening in Chicago from Blockbuster Theater, to what’s new in dining, arts, and the neighborhoods.
I flipped on the radio and caught an interview in progress featuring a college student-athlete whose workout included jogging. The man noted that he was 19, rather tall at six feet four inches with long arms, and in a self-deprecating way stated that to some he might appear intimidating. His diction was perfect and there was no discernible regional accent. He sounded extremely confident and then the mystique collapsed when I heard the words, “And then there was George Floyd…and I understood that my jogging routine could lead to my death.” That’s when this listener realized that the athlete was BLACK living in an America that might consider the young man as a threat.
Those words, “And then there was George Floyd,” stuck with me throughout the rest of my day. As someone who ran track when I was younger, I never ever worried that I might lose my life when I went out and jogged – part of my training. Then I couldn’t help but hear in my head other names.
“And then there was Eric Garner.”
“And then there was Sandra Bland.”
“And then there was Ahmaud Arbery.”
“And then there was Breonna Taylor.”
“And then there was Tamir Rice.”
‘And then there was Philando Castile.”
“And then there was Michael Brown.”
“And then there was Rodney King?”
And I was absolutely certain that I had missed a number of other names. But those names floated through my mind that day along with a question. Why hadn’t there been a similar reaction towards all of those deaths? Rodney King’s name did spark the riots of L.A. in 1992 and in a number of other American cities, but the reaction didn’t encompass some 200 cities and towns worldwide like Floyd’s passing.
Perhaps the reason for “la difference” was due in part to the marvel of cell phone technology and social media that allowed the world to witness an execution either LIVE (an oxymoron) or via the replay of a video recording that was so egregious that no one, no matter what their creed or religion or political affiliation could not accept.
So to Darnella Frazier, the 17–year–old who filmed and posted the incident and now suffers harassment and threats of bodily harm that have forced her at times to hide from the world, I thank you.
What this young lady did was monumental… and this blog deals with people who GO DO GOOD. It’s ironic that Darnella had to present to the world something SO BAD to GO DO GOOD, but that’s what she did while trying to convince a man whose knee was choking the life out of George Floyd – to stop it.
That’s a lot to expect from a 17-year-old but then so was what a 14-year-old by the name of Emmet Till did for CIVIL RIGHTS in the U.S. of A.
Enjoy Juneteenth (the 19th of June) – a day that celebrates the emancipation of Americans at one time owned by other Americans. But it’s clear that we as a people have a long way to go before the fear of being BLACK no longer is a nightmare one must contend with when merely going for a jog.
William Natale is an Emmy-award-winning TV producer/director and author of “1968 – A Story As Relevant Today As It Was Then,” (a tale that takes place in Chicago based in part on a true story). Natale served as the director and associate producer for “Water Pressures,” featuring HBO ENTOURAGE star Adrian Grenier, shot on location in India and various cities in the U.S. “Water Pressures,” was broadcast on over 224 PBS stations. Natale was the Chairman of the Broadcast Promotional Marketing Executives (BPME now known as Promax). Natale served as the Marketing & Promotion Director for NBC5 Chicago and the VP/Director of Corporate Communications for WTTW. He also has experience in the education field as the Executive Director for both the downtown and Lombard campuses of the IL Media Schools (vocational colleges that teach broadcast media arts). He also served as the Executive Producer for the Internet Streaming Corporation and WATCH312.com – working with talented individuals such as Candace Jordan (aka Candid Candace). Natale is a native Chicagoan and proud father of three adult children, two daughters and a son.
Show Me Chicago previews, reviews and expresses opinions on what’s happening in Chicago from Blockbuster Theater, to what’s new in dining, arts, and the neighborhoods.
News broke on Monday that Oluwatoyin Salau, a 19-year-old Black Lives Matter activist, was found dead in Tallahassee days after she’d tweeted about being sexually assaulted by a Black man. On Tuesday a video of a young Black woman being thrown into a Dumpster by a group of Black men went viral, and later the same day a video of a Black man hitting a Black woman in the face with a skateboard spread across tens of thousands of Twitter feeds. Just a few weeks ago, yet another viral video showed a group of Black men attacking Iyanna Dior, a Black trans woman. Meanwhile, Breonna Taylor’s murders are all still free. It’s been an exhausting time for Black women, and many have taken to social media to express their frustrations with fighting for a community that too often does not reciprocate the love and protection they give it.
Tuesday night, with spectacularly terrible timing, J. Cole dropped the surprise track “Snow on tha Bluff.” In the song, Cole talks about scrolling through the Twitter timeline of an unnamed woman. “She mad at my niggas, she mad at our ignorance, she wear her heart on her sleeve,” he raps. “She mad at the celebrities, low key I be thinkin’ she talkin’ ’bout me.” He goes on to concede, “It’s something about the queen tone that’s botherin’ me.”
Twitter immediately connected the dots, concluding that Cole had to be talking about scrolling through the timeline of Chicago rapper Noname. It’s been speculated that what triggered Cole was a since-deleted May 29 tweet from Noname: “poor black folks all over the country are putting their bodies on the line in protest for our collective safety and y’all favorite top selling rappers not even willing to put a tweet up. niggas whole discographies be about black plight and they no where to be found.”
In “Snow on tha Bluff,” which has already racked up more than two million plays on YouTube, Cole says that he’s not the intelligent man that many assume he is, and that he feels he’s not doing enough for the community. On Wednesday morning, he took to Twitter to let everyone know he’d meant every word he said. “I haven’t done a lot of reading and I don’t feel well equipped as a leader in these times,” he admitted. “But I do a lot of thinking.”
While he neither confirmed nor denied that the song was about Noname, he did mention her and encouraged people to follow her: “I love and honor her as a leader in these times,” he wrote. “She has done and is doing the reading and the listening and the learning on the path that she truly believes is the correct one for our people.”
However, in his song he’s less gracious: he frames Noname as someone born enlightened and too uppity to share her knowledge. “She strike me as somebody blessed enough to grow up in conscious environment,” he raps. “Just ’cause you woke and I’m not, that shit ain’t no reason to talk like you better than me.” The song undermines the work that Noname has been doing for the people over the past year.
On Monday, Noname participated in a livestreamed conversation with veteran rapper and activist Boots Riley, who cofounded the Coup and wrote and directed the 2018 film Sorry to Bother You. Their talk was mediated by scholar and author Khury Petersen-Smith and hosted by Haymarket Books, an independent nonprofit publisher based in Chicago. During the call, Noname explained that her radicalization began last year, when she got dragged on Twitter for tweeting something she paraphrased as “Capitalism isn’t evil; evil capitalists are evil. Capitalism is a tool.”
She’d spent a lot of time believing that Black capitalism and Black entrepreneurship were the ways to liberation for our people, so she was confused about why anyone would think otherwise. She began reading, she said, and “publicly learning.” This experience sparked her interest in starting Noname’s Book Club, to create a community where people could come together and work through radical ideas that were new to them.
Each month the book club chooses two texts written by authors of color, and Noname encourages book-club members to say “Fuck Amazon” and shop local. She says Noname’s Book Club has reached 12 cities, with one international chapter in London. The book club’s site says, “It is extremely important to us to share work we believe in with as many folks as possible.” One of its goals for this year is to raise enough money to send copies of each month’s books to prisons around the country. In August, the club will reach its first anniversary.
“Let’s have conversations in tandem to going to marches, protests, sit-ins, and whatever else we do with our physical bodies to resist,” Noname said during her conversation with Riley. “I say let’s sit in a circle and read these books together.”
Not only did Noname begin reading radical Black thought and theory, but she also began to see how this theory translated into real-life practice. Last summer she spent time working withCooperation Jackson, a co-op in Jackson, Mississippi. “Cooperatives put capital (wealth) in the service of working people, rather than making working people subservient to capital,” the co-op explains on its site.
Noname has done the hard work of unlearning harmful ideas that we’ve all been socialized to believe, and she’s used her platform to share what she’s learned. On June 1 she tweeted, “allegiance to capitalism is allegiance to white supremacy.” It’s hardly ludicrous for her to expect Black artists with audiences ten times as large as hers to put in the same effort.
It is not Black women’s responsibility to police their tone for the benefit of people who disagree with them. Nor is it Black women’s responsibility to treat grown men “like children” in order to educate them–language that Cole literally uses on his new track (“I would say it’s more effective to treat people like children / Understandin’ the time and love and patience that’s needed to grow”).
“Snow on tha Bluff” adds nothing of value to the current movement. It feels more like Cole venting about his inadequacies. The thing is, the resources are out there; he just hasn’t gone after them. Let Noname be an example to all of us. It’s time for everyone to shut up and do the reading, do the work, and listen to Black women–without needing to be coddled first.
Not even an hour ago, Noname gave us all something to listen to: the response track “Song 33,” produced by Madlib. If Cole doesn’t stand down after this, he’ll be proving he doesn’t even want to learn. v
MONDAY was Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s Born Day. I didn’t post a blog because I spent the ENTIRE day in deep reflection and contemplation. Since I didn’t post a blog, I know you know that the last posted homework rolled over to yesterday and subsequent days. You have had more than enough work days and a weekend to ideate and complete the same homework assignment. Your homework should be ready to be turned in. This is your last warning. Stand by to await instruction.
Intermittently over the past few days, I’ve crawled into a WonderLandHole, CurledUp, and SnuggledComfortedMyself. I AM AN ESSENTIAL WORKER. I TAKE CARE OF ME FIRST THEN I TAKE CARE OF THE PEOPLE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF MY QUEENDOM.
Rev. Dr. King was born January 15, 1929. He would have been 91 years old if he had not been assassinated on April 4, 1968. Significant controversy remains surrounding his death. In 2004, Reverend Jesse Jackson SR. stated:
The fact is there were saboteurs to disrupt the march. And within our own organization, we found a very key person who was on the government payroll. So infiltration within, saboteurs from without and the press attacks. … I will never believe that James Earl Ray had the motive, the money and the mobility to have done it himself. Our government was very involved in setting the stage for and I think the escape route for James Earl Ray.
A persons’ BORNday says a lot about them. I was born on Feb 23rd which is W.E.B. DuBois’ birthday and annual finale day for the Nation of Islam’s Saviours Day conference. Saviours’ Day is a holiday of the Nation of Islam commemorating the birth of its founder, Master Wallace Fard Muhammad (W. D. Fard), officially stated to be February 26, 1877. February 23rd is a big deal because it’s the final day and Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan always delivers a dynamic and powerful finale.
Growing up learning about Black History Month ICONS and attending NAACP event with my social butterfly, maternal grandmother, I identified that I had the same Bday as WEB. In learning more about his life and philosophies, I knew that I was the Talented Tenth he spoke of and I happily settled into my responsibility of educating and enlightening myself, building leadership skills, and fortifying my backbone.
It wasn’t until Northwestern freshman year that I learned my birthday falls on the Nation Of Islam’s Saviours’ Day Conference finale. A theology grad student and undergrad from Gary, IN who were roommates off campus had adopted me as their little sister. They invited me to go with them as my birthday present to Saviours’ Day to see Farrakhan speak but I refused. I wanted to do something fun on my Bday with my two college girlfriends or maybe I was dating some guy. I assumed someone would plan something fun for me. I don’t remember the particulars, but I remember laying on my pink extra-long twin bed sheets alone and bored. I remember thinking…I should have gone to Saviours’ Day to hear Farrakhan speak who I didn’t know much about. For the next three years, they invited me to Saviours’ Day and I always refused and then regretted it. Having a dead of winter birthday is challenging. I don’t remember having any fun birthday celebrations at Northwestern where its extra cold being right on Lake Michigan. Every thing and one is frozen, miserable, and cranky. Planning and then going outside to do something for my birthday is very low on totem pole and so easy to forget and dismiss. Having a winter birthday often feels like having no birthday at all. You just add a year to your age, bundle up, and keep it moving. #WinterBabyBlues #MyFirstWorldProblems
You can tell a lot about a person from their birthday. In my illustrious dating career, I have snagged some choice and interesting fish to match my personality as a premium and interesting girl. Remember, I happily settled into my role as DuBois’ Talented Tenth at an early age. I went on my first date in 8th grade. We took the bus to the movies to see Boomerage. He laughed hard at everything. I had no idea what was going on in the movie but it was obvious that he was way more knowledgeable about the sex stuff than I was. He really liked me, but I thought the whole thing was weird and I was confused on why Eddies’ toes stuck up in the bed and why that was soooo funny. After the movie, we went to the toy store in the Ford City Mall so I could buy packs of Beauty and the Beast trading cards. I was so close to completing my collection. We both knew we were a mismatch so we easily, quickly, and quietly returned to just being friends.
Having to traverse from 80th and Constance on the SouthSide to Whitney Young Magnet High School on the WestSideStrongSide #SafetyFirst, helped me mature considerably. I’ve always marched to my own beat, but I love to laugh and make others laugh. Other girls usually think I’m weird so my circle of associates was mainly the fellas. Yes, I’m one of those girls who has mostly male friends. Guys can handle my biting sarcasm and I enjoy hearing their uniquely male perspectives on life. In high school, I ended up dating not one…but two guys with January 15 birthdays.
My first January 15 BORNbaby was in my sophomore year. He was a tall, light-skinned, goofy freshman crushing on my hard. I said I mostly have a cadre of male friends, but for time-to-time, I will align with one or two females who have a similar sense of humor. We’ll kick it hard; being close for years and then something will happen (sometimes I know exactly what happened and sometimes I don’t) and that relationship will end. My “best female girlfriend” at the time would roast this freshman royally and shamelessly subtly preying and laughing at his growing affection for me. He was the first person to stick in my mind that January 15 was King’s birthday so I should never forget his birthday. He was goofy, but super sweet and you gotta admit…the kid had good taste. The most interesting things about this Hyde Park baby was that his father was a Civil Rights Attorney with the NAACP and he was the first person I knew who attended Mosque Maryam highly recommending I go. He had a car and would occasionally drive me to lunch. On Valentine’s Day, he delivered 11 pink roses to my door. Flattered by his persistent courted, I started to see him in a new light. Unbeknownst to me, he was courting me while another was chasing him. She gave him access to her jewel and he told me my kisses were too wet. We soured and he enfolded himself in her bosom. I momentarily mourned what I now had wanted yet lost. But as a student under the tutorship of the Reverend Dr. Johnnie Colemon, I ultimately concluded the universe had decided and I would continue on my solo scholarly sojourn. They were both light and tall. I saw from the bus stop as he drove her home every day as he should. I fix my posture, busied my eyes with distraction, and let the feelings wane. No harm. No foul. I get a call one day…Your boy is in JAIL! WHAT? He’s so goofy. For what bogus police racism? NO…it’s serious. He and his HP crew jacked a car and got caught. WHAT? I thanked the universe that he was not my problem and went back to studying. Different versions swirled around. He returned to school eventually but the rest did not. I was curious…yes nosey…ultimately my compassion directed me. I reached out to him to let him know I was still his friend and praying for him. Surprisingly he unburdened himself to me. Yes they had done it. Yes they were caught. But he was freed on a technicality. When arrested, he told the police his father was a lawyer but they continued to question him. Hound him and the others. When his father got to the station, his lawyer hat flipped on. The police violated his rights so they had to release him. The others not so lucky. The guilt was heavy. My compassion turned to rage. I couldn’t nor wouldn’t hold my tongue. You have a car. Why did you try to steal someone’s car? No good answer. Are you just bored? Stupid? Fucking goofy? The conversation ended that he needed to grow the fuck up and even though I’m pissed I’m still your friend you fucking idiot. He ended up marrying a different classmate and seems happily familied. Alls Well.
My second January 15 BORNbaby was junior year. We met at a party. He was tall, light skinned, broad shoulders, smooth, and funny. But he lived in the far blackfight suburbs of Olympia Fields. His family ran a precious hair care business and their Luster shined bright behind the gated community of MayneGate. Dont remember ever going to his house. His Southern crew loved hanging in the city so they would drop him at my house. I fell hard seduced by the softest lips surprised that distance only increased our attraction. He challenged me with word play, confusing stories, and sophisticated tales. We talked all night and I struggled to fill the air with worth words. His kisses made me tingle. We whispered on the landline with the refrigerator as our soundtrak. He asked for more. I initially was grossed out with his mouthy suggestion but upon further consideration realized I could be open to something more. Our undoing was Baby bell phone math. My parents raged when they saw the phone bill. Long distance love would have to flourish without lengthy conversations. It did not. We did not. But we would run into each other occasionally. Him smile and easy laugh always warmed my heart. I heard you got married and had a family. Then he died. I discovered this in passing and didn’t do the research to fully verify. I don’t want to know. (I wrote this blog on Monday and couldn’t post it. I now know why. I had to confirm if Precious was passed on. I found a post from his sister who I don’t know and have never met. Apologies for posting your FB post without your permission. I pray this is okay. Let me know I you want the post deleted.)
So every January 15th, I think of King’s Birthday and his LEGACY of SERVICE.
I’m moving slow this week and hope Black Chicago is also. This is time for reflection and healing. Call the names of the ancestors. Tell the funniest signature tales. Black Chicago is on RonaLockdown. Enjoy the down time. You should be well rested. Lets start waking up. The weekend will be litAF…Juneteenth will FINALLY GET A PROPER CELEBRATION AND WE MUST HONOR OUR DADDYKINGS. STEAK AND EGGS…FRANKS RED HOT FOR ALL…I’MA DADDYS GIRL…LOVEMYDADDYCAKES!
FIREWORKS, JUNETEENTH, DADDYSDAY…ENJOY THE WEEKEND CAUSE NEXT WEEK WE GRIND ON THIS NATION BUILDING.
Today’s Chicago Renaissanve assignments (6/18/20):
What three things are you purging/cleaning today?
What three things are you planning for today?
What three things are you preparing today?
WAIT…Did I hear you say…HEY…Today’s assignments are the same as yesterday. Yes, It’s the same. Why…you ask? Well, did you do yesterday’s assignments? No…and there’s your answer. That was the pop quiz. Grade your paper and put your grades and notes in the comments below or the RCA Facebook page.
I will add this bonus assignment:
GROUP SUPPORT EFFECT: FUNDRAISING FOR PUSH BLACK
Want to join me in supporting a good cause? I’m raising money for PushBlack and your contribution will make an impact, whether you donate $5 or $500. Every little bit helps. Thank you for your support. I’ve included information about PushBlack below.
PushBlack is a nonprofit media company dedicated to raising up Black voices. We are a small team but we have an outsized impact:
We reach tens of millions of people with our BLACK NEWS & HISTORY STORIES every year.
We fight for CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM to protect our community.
And as a nonprofit, we rely on small donations from subscribers like you.
If you want new Red Cup Adventures blogs delivered hot, fresh, and directly to your email box, type your email address below and click the “create subscription” button to sign-up for my blog alerts. The list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time. Thanks! And Please…LIKE, SHARE & COMMENT!
Welcome to the “Red Cup Adventures”. Why the Red Cup Adventures? Because the red cup is the universal symbol of fun, ambassador of good times, and the perfect decorative holder for my Single Girl Summer sangria. No party is complete without a red cup. I’ve got my drink and my two step. Now subscribe to my blog below and let’s have some fun together! #LetsGo #FollowTheRedCup #SingleGirlSummer #VotedMostCreative
Show Me Chicago previews, reviews and expresses opinions on what’s happening in Chicago from Blockbuster Theater, to what’s new in dining, arts, and the neighborhoods.
Alaska Washington Montana North Dakota Wyoming Oregon Nevada California Utah Hawaii Arizona Oklahoma Texas Louisiana Kansas Arkansas Missouri South Dakota Tennessee North Carolina South Carolina Alabama Florida Georgia Vermont
Twenty-Five states from all parts of the nation. Half of the United States of America. They have one thing in common. They’ve all seen recent upticks in new cases of the coronavirus.
Vice-president Mike Pence is the supposed leader of the nation’s coronavirus task force. In a visit to Iowa, he claimed “We did it”, meaning the country has flattened the curve and has slowed the growth of the virus.
Mike Pence is a liar!
The sad thing is we were on our way to doing that. We were getting close to maybe slowing the growth and being safe, but the current administration couldn’t wait to re-open the country. They went against all of their own medical experts recommendations. They put pressure on governors to get moving and do it quickly.
The economy was more important than saving lives. Getting re-elected was more important than saving lives.
The newest lie is that the numbers are rising because of the increase in testing. Pence has doubled down on his lies by trying to get the nation’s governors to tell echo the federal administration’s stance lies. In his call with them, Pence said:
“I would just encourage you all, as we talk about these things, to make sure and continue to explain to your citizens the magnitude of increase in testing. And that in most of the cases where we are seeing some marginal rise in number, that’s more a result of the extraordinary work you’re doing. Encourage people with the news that we are safely reopening the country.”
The numbers refute this. The numbers show Pence is lying. But naturally, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, he had to double down by denying the possibility of a second wave of the virus, while at the same time doing his sucking up bit to Donald Trump:
“Such panic is overblown. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.”
The lies shouldn’t surprise anyone. It’s nothing new. We’ve been hearing them from Trump and his flunkies for almost four years. The difference with the lies about the pandemic is it puts his supporters at risk because they’ll believe him. They’ll believe everything is back to normal. They’ll believe they can go back to the way they lived their lives before the pandemic hit the United States. They’ll believe Pence until it sends them to the hospital and their graves….and sadly, it will.
My so called friends think it’s time to edit this section. After four years, they may be right, but don’t tell them that. I’ll deny it until they die!
I can’t believe I’ve been writing this blog for four years.
It started as a health/wellness thing and over the years has morphed to include so many things that I don’t know how to describe it anymore.
I really thought this was going to be the final year of the blog but then Donald Trump came along. It looks like we’re good for four more years..God help us all!
Oh yeah…the biographical stuff. I’m not 60 anymore. The rest you can read about in the blog.
Show Me Chicago previews, reviews and expresses opinions on what’s happening in Chicago from Blockbuster Theater, to what’s new in dining, arts, and the neighborhoods.
Therapist: America, you’ve made appointments before, and left after a session or two. Are you ready now to dig in and do the work that is necessary to heal?
America: The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis was literally an eight minutes and forty-six seconds movie that all of America saw. There no longer is a dispute about the existence, and consequences of racism.
Therapist: Are you willing – as you were not previously – to take an honest look at your troubled childhood? The early years are formative, as you know, but history books have whitewashed cruel and violent racist acts in the guise of frontier grit and cowboy heroism. Then gone further by justifying the brutality and suffering built-in to the denial of full humanness to tens of thousands shackled unfortunates.
America: I’ve resisted for four centuries, denying the truth, and literally burying the massacres of millions of indigenous peoples. If I don’t make amends now, and take responsibility for the sins of the past, we’ll be replaying the past few weeks for years to come, only more deadly and divisive each time a new slogan gets scrawled on a sign.
Therapist: You say you are ready for change. Are you being coerced, or do you want to change? The task is formidable. From border to border you’ll have to reshape the current systems in place for policing the country, educating the populace, providing affordable housing and medical care? It will mean less of the pie for those who most often sing your praises.
America: To be frank, there is no other option, other than devastating violence. Stereotypes must be confronted. A level playing field must become more than a catch phrase.
Therapist: Sounds good. But how do you intend to implement the current rhetoric? For the long run, I’m assuming you recognize that it is more complicated than simply moving money around from swat team funding to community services.
America: Again, it’s back to the origin of racism and understanding how the very concept of ‘policing’ was put in place. When the connection is made between slave masters controlling property to police controlling people, then the shift to Serve and Protect becomes a eureka moment. So called “systemic racism” is a description of people wielding power in their own interests. The people behind the controls must have their attitudes reconfigured; stereotypes must be exposed.
Therapist: All well and good, but let me ask again, what is the plan for measurable progress going forward?
America: That is a good question, because marching around with a BLM sign and shaking your fist in the air means little when the dust settles. You can’t go home afterward and be smug about a couple of hours in the street. There is sludge decades old to be dredged.
Therapist: Yes, well said… and?
America: And… here are some specific actions that companies can put in place forthwith. Commit to recruiting more diverse representation on staff, the board, and advisory councils to increase representation by at least 25% by 2022. Amend by-laws to recommit as an organization to practice anti-racism. Implement mandatory courses on implicit biases for all staff. Evaluate programs with a diversity and inclusion lens and make improvements.
Therapist: Sounds very much like ‘corporate-speak.’ If this is your message to the African-American populace I doubt very much it will be sufficient, or even heard.
America: The intention is to single out the people who comprise the institutions. A ‘system’ consists of people who populate and run it. By opening dialogues, the goal is to dismantle stereotypes about race, change attitudes and ultimately, behavior. There would not have been a knee on the neck of George Floyd if the cop pressing down saw him as a fellow human being rather than a black guy whose life did not matter.
Therapist: All good so far. Same time next week… and every week for years to come? Let’s see if you show up and do the work.
In the course of a long business career I held many titles familiar to the corporate world. But as I quickly learned the lofty nameplates no longer apply when your career comes to a close and you move from the corner office to a corner of the den. The challenge was to stay vital and active rather than idling on the sidelines. I had to create a new foundation upon which to build life’s purpose and joy.
I stopped adding up my stock portfolio as a measure of my net worth and developed a healthy self esteem independent of applause from others.
I am the co-author of The In-Sourcing Handbook: Where and How to Find the Happiness You Deserve, a practical guide and instruction manual offering hands-on exercises to help guide readers to experience the transformative shift from simply tolerating life to celebrating life. I also am the author of 73, a popular collection of short stories about America’s growing senior population running the gamut of emotions as they struggle to resist becoming irrelevant in a youth-oriented society.
Show Me Chicago previews, reviews and expresses opinions on what’s happening in Chicago from Blockbuster Theater, to what’s new in dining, arts, and the neighborhoods.
Geillis is a one-year-old, very handleable and sweet matriarch of a female Syrian hamster looking for a loving guardian.
Geillis appreciates attention from her people, enjoys lots of different foods and treats including unsalted peanuts in the shell, and tiny squares of tofu, flax seeds, spinning on her wheel and flying saucer and exploring her surroundings.
Syrian hamsters live alone in their habitats so it’s important to give her daily attention, and a lot of love.
In captivity, hamsters can run two to five miles in a 24-hour period, and they can store up to one ton of food in their cheeks in a lifetime. It’s fun to watch them hoard food. And, despite how chubby Geillis is, she really loves running on her wheel.
Her adoption fee of $20 benefits the Friends of Petraits Rescue and includes her carrying case.
If you need an entire hamster habitat, 20-gallon long aquarium with lid, paper bedding, food, exercise wheel, hidey castle, flying saucer and water bottle – everything you need including the hamster – the whole package is available for $100.
To meet and possibly adopt Geillis please contact [email protected].
She is being fostered in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.
Show Me Chicago previews, reviews and expresses opinions on what’s happening in Chicago from Blockbuster Theater, to what’s new in dining, arts, and the neighborhoods.
Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox players have taken to Twitter to join other MLB players in the “when and where” movement asking Major League Baseball to tell them when the season is going to take place and where it will be played. Negotiations between the two sides have not gone well, leaving a season in doubt.
Show Me Chicago previews, reviews and expresses opinions on what’s happening in Chicago from Blockbuster Theater, to what’s new in dining, arts, and the neighborhoods.
