“I’m Openly Straight!”

Crickets.  Crickets.  Crickets.

I’m not rich and famous, so who cares?

Denzel Washington is openly straight!

Again, crickets.  Crickets.  Crickets.

I bet if he announced that he was a ‘gay American’, station managers would immediately cut into President Obama’s State of the Union Address with that breaking news.  And, we the public, would be bombarded with a litany of non-information following that one little statement.

There are some things I do not want to know about celebrities.  The other day, I saw a headline stating that an NBC producer may have proof that LeBron James cheated on his wife.  I like LeBron, but he is not my friend; and his wife is not my friend either.  If he indeed cheated on her, I would like to think that she would prefer that embarrassing piece of information remained very private.

In my head, I feel like the reason why the gay community is fighting so much for equality is so that they can be treated like everyone else, well, at least like the average White man.  Don’t think they want to be treated like Mexicans or Blacks!  And in my utopia, equality means that nobody obsesses about another’s sexual identity, sexual preference or sexual orientation.  I don’t see my neighbors announcing on a daily basis what kind of sex they engage in.  Yet, it seems like every week, another gay person has to let the world know that he or she is gay.  And the thing is, most of us do not even know, much less care about these people.  Before Jason Collins came out, I had no idea who he was; and from what I’ve heard, he is not that great a player.  So you know that he will forever be remembered as the first openly gay NBA player.  No one cares that he went to Stanford and Harvard.  No one cares that he will be one of the few twin brothers that played in the NBA.  All everyone knows is what kind of sex he practices.

Prior to a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea who Michael Sam was; and just last week, actress Ellen Page came out.  Before long, people are going to insist that Queen Latifah comes out.  And I can only imagine how many people are betting to see when Ryan Seacrest will follow suit.  Of course Queen Latifah and Ryan Seacrest have never said that they are gay, but according to everyone’s gaydar, they are.  Again, I don’t have to sleep with either of them; so it is a huge non-factor for me.  However, Queen Latifah’s potential coming out will not make me love her any more or any less, neither will Ryan Seacrest’s make me anymore or any less oblivious to him. 

Maybe I’m too naïve, but I still don’t get the big deal.  People have been gay since the beginning of times.  I know that many people think that this is a new trend, but with a name like Homo erectus, do you really need any more proof?  On one hand, many in society say that they don’t care what happens in another person’s bedroom, but on the other hand, when it is revealed that an individual is gay, that individual is looked at with a queer eye.  No pun intended.

And I am not making light of how gays are treated.  I have not walked a mile in a gay person’s shoes, but I’m a Black Caribbean woman.  Trust me; I know discrimination based on color, accent and gender.  I get it.  And maybe because I cannot feign my color, gender or accent that I know if I were gay, I would still be me.  I get that some people think that too many gays flaunt their gayness; but a lot of folks in various groups flaunt their identities also.  We see it all the time.  Young white males flaunt their privileged status.  Jocks flaunt their athleticism.  Pretty girls flaunt their beauty.  And we all know Jamaicans are known to flaunt their confidence.  I have never met an educated Jamaican who does not loudly and proudly speak in that strong Jamaican English accent, proving that she can be understood without speaking like an American. 

I guess what I’m really bitching about is the fact that I’m jealous.  Society has softened.  The media have softened.  Politicians have softened.  So now is a good time to be gay in America.   Presently, nobody can say anything remotely homophobic and get away with it.  Several months ago, Alec Baldwin lost his MSNBC gig after he hurled anti-gay comments to a photographer.  But let’s face it; MSNBC was probably looking for an excuse to cancel that show.  You know if Alec Baldwin’s show was bringing in ratings and profits to the tune of Duck Dynasty, a sad apology would have sufficed.  The patriarch in Duck Dynasty was slapped with a nine day suspension after his racial and homophobic tirade.

Z-List celebrities like Ted Nugent are always in the news for saying something vilely racist about Obama, and they constantly get away with it.  I still don’t know who he is or what he is famous for; he is probably like the Kim Kardashian of the South.  What society does not realize is that these comments are not isolated incidents from what is happening in the rest of the country.  This idiot disrespecting the President and getting away with it opens the floodgates for people to gun down Black youths, for police to assault Black men in their custody, and think that it is just another ordinary day.

But every time a civil rights activist speaks up, every time the Black man on the street speaks up, every time a Black mother speaks up, we are accused of pulling the race card.  Every time Black people remark that it feels like slavery all over again, we are shot down.  No pun intended.  Black people should forget about slavery as much Jews should forget about the Holocaust.  Black people should forget about slavery as much as the Ukrainians should forget about the Holodomor.  Black people should forget about slavery as much as the Chinese should forget about the Great Chinese Famine.  Black people should forget about slavery as much as the Armenians should forget about the Ottoman Empire massacres.  Black people should forget about slavery as much as the Vietnamese people should forget about Ho Chi Min and as much as Iranians should forget about Ayatollah Khomeini.  Black people should be like 9/11 survivors and let the world know that we will never forget.

I guess it’s easier to “tolerate” gays because just about everybody has one in his circle, but not every circle has a token Black.  And it’s easier to not bash them because one ever knows for sure who is in the closet, whereas too many Blacks can’t really hide in closets.  Although it would put a smile on Martin Luther King’s face to see children of all color hanging out together in school cafeterias, it would break his heart to hear and see many of the stories that still take place in 2014.   Every time we take one step forward, some crap happens that reminds me that America has taken two steps backwards, or in the case of Florida, 200.

People like to say that they are colorblind.  I can say I’m sexual-orientation blind.  But, let’s face it; that sounds just as ridiculous.  Don’t be colorblind towards me.  See me.  But see me for who I am, not for what you perceive me to be.  People look at someone like Chris Christie, and you will never hear them say that they are weight-blind.  We look at him, and we know he LOVES to eat.  We assume he is greedy; but he is never judged on the content of his lunch kit!

With so much sympathy being lathered on gays, it is quite understandable why they are coming out in droves.  And that is all Black people want – some of that love.  We want to be seen, not as a threat, but as who we are: doctors, lawyers, architects, postal workers, public employees, executives, stay-at-home mothers, unemployed, bus drivers, students.  We are tired of an Oprah here, and a Beyoncé there.  We want to be seen in droves too. 

Honestly, I don’t care who is gay and who isn’t.  I just know that if one more person comes out, I’m gonna pull my hair out (well, just the grey ones) because perspectively speaking, a whole bunch of us have been openly Black for a long time, and nobody gives a shit!

Black Celebrities Exist to Economically Sustain the Rest of Us

NOT!!!

I was recently and briefly tagged in a facebook meme.  At the time, I didn’t pay too much attention because I really did not want to get pissed off.  I have had that debate so many times with said individual that the only thing that came to my mind was, “Still! We are doing this again”?  You know I love a good debate.  Heck!  When I’m bored, I’ll take a bad debate.  However, this was the essence of the meme – a collage with Oprah, Beyoncé, Tyler Perry and Obama with the caption that they haven’t done anything to help black people, and if others criticize them, they are called haters.

I am not a diehard fan of Oprah, Beyoncé or Tyler, but I am a huge admirer of all three, and I certainly appreciate their work.  I think that they are hardworking people who have sacrificed a lot to get where they currently are.  If I have to tell you how much I love Barrack Obama, you have not been reading any of my posts.  But, every so often, there are new friends to the blog, so allow me to indulge a little bit.  I love the man!  Not like how I love my husband, of course.  Please, his wife and I are like this (fingers intertwined).  I love him like how I love Martin Luther King.  You get the drift, right!

Before I get to the facts, let me just throw in some common sense here.  Black people make up 12% of the more than 300 million people in America.  Why anybody who wants to be successful would exclude almost 90% of people they can reach makes no economical or practical sense.

Now here are the facts:

Oprah created Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls South Africa.  Okay, the ‘haters’ might say that that doesn’t count because it is not in America, but the fact that she added South Africa to the name implies to me that she will be creating more in other countries.

In 2005, one month after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Miss Winfrey announced that she will contribute $10 million of her own money towards recovery effort.  So this was not a Visa $1,000 give away.  This was not giving Pontiac cars to everyone in the entire audience.  This was her hard earned money that she gave to a worthy cause.  I don’t know how many Black people live in New Orleans, but after seeing footage from Katrina, I’d put the number at about …. a lot!

In 2000, Oprah donated $10 million to A Better Chance, a group that helps provide enhanced educational opportunities for African-American youth.

She is a big supporter of the Clinton Foundation which targets the treatment of HIV and AIDS.  Although Black people make up 12% of the population, in 2010, 44% of the people afflicted by HIV were black.

Oprah is the largest contributor to Free the Children, an organization dedicated to building schools for children in developing countries.  Not too many children in developing countries are White!

I could go on and on, but this lady contributes to dozens of charities, many of which directly help Black people.  Is she going to go out and buy sneakers for Black youths in inner cities?  God, I hope not!  So if that’s the help the ‘haters’ are demanding, then they need to search elsewhere.

When Tyler Perry gave Cicely Tyson a role in Diary of a Mad Black Woman in 2005, the last time she was really seen on the big screen was in 1991, when she appeared in Fried Green Tomatoes.  Since then, she has appeared in two more of his films and has been working steadily ever since.  He is responsible for reincarnating a number of other Black actors, who had been discarded by Hollywood.

Perry contributes to the following charities: Covenant House, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Keep A Child Alive, MaleSurvior and NAACP.  The NAACP and Elton John AIDS Foundation are self-explanatory, and Keep A Child Alive’s sole mission is to protect and assist children and their families suffering from HIV and AIDS.  Again, these charities assist millions of Black people.

Tyler Perry established the Tyler Perry Studios in Southwest Atlanta, one of the blackest areas in Atlanta, as if Atlanta could be any blacker.  This 200,000 sq. foot gem employs thousands of folks.  In 2009, cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux thanked Perry for employing numerous blacks in front and behind the cameras.

And of course, every celebrity has to have to his own foundation.  The Tyler Perry Foundation empowers economically advantaged youths, seniors and families in achieving better lives.

Beyoncé also contributes to dozens of charities, the biggest one being the Survivor Foundation, an organization she co-founded to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.  Some of her charities that directly affect Black people are American Foundation for AIDS Research and Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.  Others that indirectly assist Blacks concentrate on diabetes, hunger, poverty and child abuse.

President Barrack Obama is no multi-million dollar celebrity, and he still contributes to about 16 charities like NAACP, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, CARE, Eracism Foundation, K.I.D.S., UMPS CARE and USAID, all of which have connection to HIV and AIDS and protecting disadvantaged youths or directly assisting Black people in some way shape or form.

While in office, President Obama has already accomplished so much, but these are some of the highlights:

v Passed Health Care Reform

v Passed the Stimulus

v Turned Around U.S. Auto Industry

v Kicked Banks Out of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Spending

v Passed Fair Sentencing Act

v Improved School Nutrition

v Expanded Hate Crimes Protections

v Expanded Health Coverage for Children

v Provided Payment to Wronged Minority Farmers

v Helped South Sudan Declare Independence

If anyone cannot see how these fundamentally assist Blacks, then perspectively speaking, ‘haters’ will always be haters.

Can Everybody Stop Being So Damn Politically Correct?

My son told me that one of his friends got in trouble at school, and he cannot believe that the other person did not get in trouble too.  So my son is about 4’9” and weighs about 80 pounds.  He tells me that is average.  I believe I was much smaller at that age, but nowadays kids are way bigger.  So his friend has to be about four inches shorter and probably weighs 50 pounds soaking wet.  But he is so tiny, you just want to sneak him in your pocket and take him home.  Actually you might just take him back when he opens his mouth because he doesn’t take flak from ANYONE.

Anyway some other kid called him ‘Scrawny’.  As someone who was constantly called that name growing up, I totally understand how he felt.  And even though I only appreciated being a skinny kid after I got older, that is neither here nor there.  When you are in your thirties and are finally gaining weight, you can appreciate a high metabolic rate.  However, it doesn’t matter how small or how big one starts out, unless something is medically wrong or the individual obsessively works at keeping the weight down, EVERYBODY gains weight with age.

So the little, scrawny kid tells the other kid. “You are fat.  You are so fat that you can be a contestant on The Biggest Loser!”  He gets recess detention.  The other kid gets NOTHING!  When did it become a federal offense to call someone fat, but it is nothing to call someone else skinny?  And what kind of nonsense is this?  It is okay for one child to insult another child, but the other child cannot retaliate because he might go too far?  I imagine if a black child calls a white child ‘hunky’ or whatever slur is used in 2014, and the white child retaliates by calling him the n-word, he gets into trouble.  Look, zero tolerance should be just that: ZERO!!

The other day at the Golden Globes, Gabourey Sidibe was ridiculed for the dress that she wore.  When I was much skinnier, I NEVER wore fitted clothes.  Personally, I find fitted clothes too revealing.  I don’t like wearing tights either.  One may as well go out naked.  Now that I’m a little thicker around the waist, you won’t catch me wearing certain outfits because I’m self-conscious of my new muffin-tops.  Yes, they are smaller than the average muffin-tops, but they’re muffin-tops nonetheless.  I’m conscious of my tires.  Yes, they are bike tires, but I’m still very much aware of their existence.  So who the hell told Precious it was okay to go out in public, on the red carpet at that, in a form fitting dress when she is almost 500 pounds?

I know it’s no longer politically correct to make fun at fat people, but come on!  Look, I have fat friends (equivalent of white closeted racists saying that they have black friends); and if I had a morbidly obese friend, and she went out in public like that, and I didn’t say anything, then I just admitted to setting her up.  That girl looked a hot mess, and the fact that nobody was allowed to laugh is ridiculous.  Give me a break!  I’d laugh at me too if I looked like that at the Golden Globes.

Lately, Sherri Shepherd has been in the news for being anti-gay.  To make a long story short, she was raised in the Jehovah’s Witness ‘organization’.  In a recent interview, she said something about being raised with the impression that homosexuals are going to hell, and if someone tells her that he is gay, she will still love him, but she doesn’t believe that he was born that way.  Of course, in a few days, she had to apologize for ‘causing any hurt to anyone’.  You know when you get an apology like that, it is not really an apology.  It is just something to keep everyone off your back. 

Let me say this:  Sherri Shepherd is not someone anyone goes to for wisdom.  I like Sherri.  She is funny, and she is sweet; but she is no Einstein.  So for people to be ‘all hurt and upset’ because she said what she said is really disingenuous.  I used to watch The View, so I can talk.  I finally stopped watching it for good when Joy left.  Joy is the bomb.  She is funny; she is practical.  I just love her.  Most times she quips something, I’m saying the same thing at home.  How could I not love her?

Of course I don’t like Elizabeth.  Nobody can convince me that she believes the manure that she spews.  And if she does, then she is a bigger idiot than I gave her credit for.  The only time I appreciated Elizabeth was when she and Rosie had that awkward blowup.  That was some good TV.  I’m indifferent towards Barbara.  She is annoying, but if I was 100 years old and still relevant, I probably would be too. 

Then there is Whoopi!  Her face has this permanent look that states, “I USED TO BE BIG!  EVERY GOOD DIRECTOR HAD MY NUMBER ON SPEED DIAL! WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE?”

Sherri is allowed to have an opinion in this country.  Sherri is allowed to have a stupid opinion in this country.  Why does Sherri have to apologize for believing what she believes?  Why does Sherri have to apologize for believing what she was brainwashed into believing?  All of a sudden, nobody can say anything negative about homosexuals.  Don’t get me wrong!  I’m very much pro-gay.  I believe that we should all be allowed to live our authentic lives.  I don’t believe the nonsense about hating the sin and loving the person because, and let me make this clear, I do not believe that anybody’s life is a sin.  And I do not call it a lifestyle.  I’m not on this earth to tell somebody that who he is, his being, his very existence, is wrong.   But at the same time, I’m all for equal rights and justice.  I know it sounds cliché, but it is the truth.

In 2007, when pressure from black groups caused Don Imus to be fired, I thought it was ridiculous.  I’m making another long story short because if you don’t know about this scandal, then you’ll just have to Google it.  But in a nutshell, on his morning show, Don Imus was commenting about the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship, and he said that players from the Rutgers University women's basketball team were “rough”.  Apparently some of them had tattoos.  Then his executive producer said that they were "hardcore hos" to which Imus added "nappy-headed hos". 

Before his ridiculous comments, not too many people in the black community knew who Don Imus was.  Not too many people outside of the redneck community knew who Don Imus was, I’m sure.  Not too many people of average, above average or high intelligence care who Don Imus was or what he had to say.  During the controversy, I was fortunate to see those girls and let me tell you, save for one or two of them, those chicks looked real rough, and yes, a bunch of them had nappy hair.  Now to call them hos, I definitely draw the line right there because I don’t know anything about their sexuality.  And even if I did, who would I be to judge their hoish ways.  And for grown men like Don Imus and his producer to call these young ladies hos is not only unprofessional and misogynistic, but disrespectful.

But for him to lose his job for that is ridiculous.  He was making so much money that for the time that he was off the air, he was not suffering.  And in eight months he was back on air after sealing another multi-million dollar contract.  In those eight months, those girls, the protestors and the media could have accomplished so much more if they were focusing on the real problems plaguing this country!

There are 300 million people in this country.  There are 7 billion people in this world.  It is IMPOSSIBLE for all of us to agree on what we want for lunch on any given day much less agree on values.  Some people are very uptight and sensitive about EVERYTHING, then there are people like me on the opposite end of the spectrum who think that everything is fair game.  A person doesn’t have to be crass about it, but there is nothing wrong about chuckling at something that a person finds funny.  And there is nothing wrong with having completely different opinions and values about issues.

And that my friends, is why it’s all perspectively speaking.

Dear John

Dear Charmin,

If I had wanted hard, strong toilet paper, I would have bought Scott.  I like soft, cottony toilet paper for a reason.

Dear Quaker Oats,

If I had wanted a smaller box of oatmeal, I would have purchased a smaller box of oatmeal.  And don’t think that I didn’t notice you reduced the size of the box but increased the price.

Dear Telephone Directory,

I have access to www.whitepages.com.  Please stop killing the trees and filling up my mail box.  I don’t need you.  I don’t want you.  You are useless to me.

Dear Unavailable Caller,

If you are unavailable, then I’m unavailable too.  The fact that you don’t want me to know who you are, already means that you know that I don’t want to speak to you.

Dear Credit Card Company,

When I wanted credit, you denied me.  Now that I don’t need credit, you keep sending me pre-approved applications.  I’ll call you, don’t call me.

Dear Free Gift Department,

If you have a ‘free gift’ for me [redundant since a gift is already free], just send it in the mail.  I don’t need to come and hear a no-obligation, 90 minute presentation that will hold me hostage for 6 hours.

Dear Dell Computer,

If you value my business so much that you send me a thank you coupon, please don’t tell me what to purchase and how much to purchase in order to activate it.

Dear Victoria Secret,

If you don’t want me to collect my free panty, then don’t send me a coupon.  If I need a bra, I will buy a bra.

Dear JCPenney,

If I want life insurance, I will call a life insurance company.  Stop sending me an offer for a chance to win a $500 shopping spree.  Every time I call, unfortunately I’m not a lucky winner, but I’m eligible for life insurance from Stonebridge.  And you are willing to pay the first month.  Uhh…no thank you.  I’ll just take the consolation prize of a $10 gift card, thank you.

Dear Magazine Company,

I have gotten enough bags through subscriptions.  Don’t need anymore.  If you want me to come back, try bribing me with something else other than a bag.  I only have two hands.

Dear STS Tire,

I just went to you for my annual inspection.  Please don’t send me a coupon for $10 off my next inspection if it is going to expire within the year.

Dear Home Depot,

I just bought a microwave for over $300.  Chances of me buying another appliance for over $300 in the same month are very slim.  Why didn’t you give me the discount then?

Dear Sears Auto,

I just spent a couple hundred dollars to service my car.  What didn’t I do that you had to send me a $50 coupon on my next service of $300 or more?

Dear Online Store,

I just purchased an item from you.  Please advertise other items on my internet pages and not the exact same thing I just purchased.

Dear R&B singer,

I am very impatient.  If I can fit a whole sentence between two of your words, you’ve lost me with that song.

Dear TV shows,

Stop trying to convince me that naughty is the new nice.  Why did shows like Undercovers and Reed Between the Lines tank, but characters like Mary Jane Paul and Olivia Pope are glamorized for being mistresses?  (And you all know this gladiator loves her some Scandal.)

Dear Judge Mathis,

You know I love you, but stop saying “should have went” instead of “should have gone”.

Dear Educated People on TV,

Stop saying between you and I.  Actually, stop saying ‘any preposition’ followed by you and I.  It drives me CRAZY!

Dear Manufacturer,

How do you manage to time my product to break immediately after the warranty has expired?  Do you work with the NSA or something?  I’m not mad at you; I just need help finding my camera charger.

Dear TV Reporter,

Stop using certain adjectives to sway your audience’s emotions.  If a disturbed 14 year old shoots up a school, that still doesn’t make him a gunman.

Dear Local News Station,

Stop telling me that I can now get my news any time I want just because you now have a 4:00 news hour.  What if I want to get my news at 10:06 am or 8:11 pm, can you deliver?  You are not CNN.  You cannot give me 24 hour news on demand.  Speaking of which…….

Dear CNN,

When you first came on the scene, you acted like you were going to give fresh news 24/7.  When I have watched you in the past, you just kept broadcasting the same 15 minutes worth of news over and over for a couple of hours. 

Dear MSNBC and Fox News,

Not because you don’t broadcast the same news for hours like CNN makes you any different.  Using different anchors’ spin on the same crap doesn’t help either.

Dear Media,

Stop trying to portray Philip Seymour Hoffman as an angel.  I get that he is a beloved actor that died tragically and suddenly.  “He has been sober for over 20 years.  He took one celebratory drink in 2012 which lead to him experimenting with heroin in 2013.  Afraid that the snorting would escalate to IV use, he checked himself into rehab for 10 days.”  He was thoroughly admired by many, but he made a terrible judgment call.  Please let it go.  You are beginning to make him appear like every church girl that gets pregnant out of wedlock, “It only happened one time.”

Perspectively Speaking,

Myra Francis

Maybe it’s Me, But Life is Way More Serious than Death

LeVar Burton just became one of the latest celebrities to apologize for something that he genuinely meant.  Here’s the backstory:  Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead from an apparent heroin overdose over the weekend.  I was shocked when I heard the news.  He is was such a great actor.  His talent will definitely be missed.  I was also shocked that he was so young.  He and I were kids around the same time.  When I thought he was about 55, I was being generous, so imagine my shock when I learned that he was only 46.  And he was truly a gifted actor because I never fingered him to be a druggie!

Obviously when news hit Hollywood, everyone was just as shocked, and LeVar Burton was clearly one of them.  He tweeted, “Damn, #PSH was SO talented! However, if Y’all should find me dead with a needle in my arm, in my underwear… please put my pants on!”  I have a sick humor, therefore I thought that was hilarious.  Not funny ha ha, but funny like ‘yeah me too’.  I mean who doesn’t take a shower and every now and then says to herself, “I hope I don’t slip in this bath, hit my head and die, and then I’m found by some stranger with all my groceries opened to the public.”

Well, I guess some of LeVar Burton’s fans, sorry twitter followers thought that it was way too soon.  I feel weird calling him LeVar because I don’t really know him like that.  And Mr. Burton seems so stiff.  Maybe I’ll call him Kunta Kinte.  Okay, maybe not!  I guess I could research how many followers he had prior to the comment and how many he currently has, but at this point who cares?  First of all, many of these people have not seen him since Roots.  He is also famous for Reading Rainbow and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but that’s it.  I don’t get these fans.  They insist on knowing everything about these celebrities.  They think they know them, but as soon as these beloved celebrities say anything off, they are thrown to the curb.  I hope this is not how these fans treat their real live friends and family.   

When people started calling LeVar Burton insensitive and whatnot, he replied with this “Not cool is shooting up when you got kids…”  Arm…..I’m going to have to go with LeVar Burton on this one.  I totally agree.  This 46 year old in the prime of his life had three young kids.  What the hell is he doing engaging in something so irresponsible and life-threatening?  ‘Fans’ berated LeVar Burton for not understanding addiction.  Come on!  This man presented Reading Rainbow for nearly a quarter of a century.  He is very intelligent.  He gets it.  How can Philip Seymour Hoffman NOT get addiction?  That’s what I want to know.  First off, if I’m going to say he has a sickness then I’m going to say that everyone else has a sickness too.  If I’m going to cut him some slack on his addiction, then I’ll have to do the same for everyone.  It was quite preventable.  Yeah!!  Just don’t try it.  It’s quite simple.  If I see my friends getting their fingers cut off when they chop them with a butcher knife, do you think I’m going to try it too and hope that it doesn’t happen to me?  Of course alcoholism is a sickness, of course drug addiction is a sickness.  So are sex addiction and food addiction.  But the point is, if I know that there is a possibility that I might be addicted to heroin if I try it, then maybe I’ll just NOT try it.  Then maybe I won’t get addicted.  And maybe I won’t have to choose between getting high on a Sunday afternoon or hanging out with my children for the next 20 years.

Ultimately, LeVar Burton tweeted this:  “I apologize for being insensitive regarding the death of PSH. No excuses, it was wrong! May he rest in Peace!”  How else is Philip Seymour Hoffman going to rest?  He forfeited his right to ever move again.  If Philip Seymour Hoffman didn’t care about his own life when he was alive, why are people insisting that LeVar Burton care about it when he is dead?  And like I said, Hoffman was one of my favorite actors to watch because I always enjoy watching someone lose himself in a character.  That is what great acting is about to me.  Transforming yourself so thoroughly that you become that person 100%.

Hoffman is dead now, and nothing can change that.  But here’s where my sympathies lie:  for his girlfriend who has to raise these kids without their father; for his children who have to live without a father and the knowledge of how he died; for the rest of his family and friends who will forever mourn his death; and as much as I found that joke funny, I am sorry that Hoffman had so many demons that he never found the strength to quit heroin once and for all.  But here’s what I’m not sorry for - never ever refusing to see the humor in anything, because perspectively speaking, who says that there is nothing funny about death?

Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That!

Okay you knew that in time I was going to blog about something that has been griping me.  Well, now is the time, so don’t even go there.

Occasionally, I see people on facebook informing their friends that they do not play games, hence they should refrain from sending them requests.  I acknowledge that it can be a tad bit annoying.  However, there is an easy way to combat it – block the requests, block the friends, email the friends to let them know.  There is really no need to post it on your status, and there certainly is no need to call your friends out in your status.  Two wrongs don’t make a right, and your rudeness is not going to solve the problem.  First of all, not everyone knows that there is a ‘request all’ button that goes to ALL friends.  Then, not everyone realizes that the ‘next’ button is being pressed.  And lastly, not everyone has time to pick out the friends that don’t want any requests.

But, let’s face it, it’s a bit disingenuous to say, “I don’t have time to play games” when you are already on facebook.  In light of the fact that you are on facebook and posting a status like that, it shows that you have time.  In addition, if you can change your status every day, you have time.  If you are finding pictures daily to post on your page, you have time.  I get it that you don’t like playing games, and you don’t want to play games, but please don’t act like it’s because you are so busy.

Then there are the people who say that they don’t watch TV, yet they know every celebrity by name and scandal.  Look, I get it: there are 1,440 minutes in a day, and we each choose how we want to spend them.  But don’t tell me that you only watch PBS, Discovery and British soccer, then I find out that not only do you know who Bruce Jenner is, but you know how much Honey Boo Boo’s mom weighs.  I don’t like reality TV either, but I enjoyed watching PBS The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as much as I enjoy watching The Haves and the Have Nots every single Tuesday.  It’s TV; it’s okay for it to be entertaining.  Just don’t judge others for what they watch.  If we all watched the same thing, then there would be no need for thousands of channels. [Okay, there really is NO need for thousands of channels.]  And PS:  if you are laid up in bed reading Harlequin romances, you are no more cultured than anyone who watches soap opera.

And what about those folks who insist that their children not be on facebook.  Gimme a break!  If there was something like facebook when I was a child, I’d be all over it.  Thanks, now I just had a flashback of the days when I was stuck in the house alone with nowhere to go, no one to talk to and nothing to do!  Just great!!!  Nobody is saying that children have to be on facebook or idling on their electronic devices 24/7, but come on, it’s really not that serious, if they are being monitored.

Oh, oh, those people who never have time to call their friends and family because they are always so pressed for time, just give me a break and don’t flatter yourself, because perspectively speaking, everybody is busy.