When The Blindfold Falls

             The following was taken from the book, "All The Women In My Family Sing."  It was written by Hope Wabuke.                   On June 16, 1944, George Stinney, a fourteen year old Black boy, was executed by the state of South Carolina for the murder of two white girls.   George was so short that he carried a Bible to use as a booster seat for the electric chair.   He was so young that the death mask would not fit his face.   He took five full minutes to die, the mask slipping off to show his eyes melting and his body convulsing.               There was no evidence that George had committed the murders.   There were no actual witnesses to the murders – in fact, George had an alibi for the whole day in question.   The “confession,” which George denied having made and which had not been recorded or...

          Which is better: The Pretty Lies of the Obama Era or the Ugly Truth of the Trump Era? This is a question I stumbled upon one day when surfing facebook.   Talk about a loaded question.    How would you answer it?   I would have to start with Donald Trump, who has lied so many times that there are actual organizations counting his false statements.   According to the Washington Post, Trump has made 8,718 false or misleading claims in 759 days. [1]   Trump isn’t the first president to lie or mislead the public, and he certainly won’t be the last.   Except U.S. Presidents have historically stopped communication on a particular subject once aware of the truth (or a new piece of information), but not Trump.     Even when faced with evidence on the contrary, he’ll stand his ground and wage his innocence and blame any misfortune on others.   When we investigate this question of lies or truth fur...

The following was taken from the book, “All The Women In My Family Sing.” It was adapted from the speech given at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2017.   It’s called, “We Are America,” by America Ferrera, who is most known for her role on ABC’s comedy, “Ugly Betty.”   It’s been a heart-wrenching time to be both a woman and an immigrant in this country.   Our dignity, our character and our rights have all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday.   But the president is not America. His cabinet is not America.   Congress is not America.   We are America.   And we are here to stay.   We march for our families and our neighbors, for the future, for the causes we claim and for the causes that claim us.   We march for the moral core of this nation, against which our new president is raging a war.   He would like us to forget the words, “Give me your tired, your poor, your h...