RED BUTTON CREAMER--DELIGHT IN EVERY BITE! WHISKEY IS JUST SUNSHINE HELD TOGETHER WITH WATER! INTELLECTUAL WARFARE. THE HEAD & THE HEART. "THE STRONGEST MEN ARE THOSE WHO CARE!" --DOVE. "INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE." --MLK. REDEMPTION, MOVIE ABOUT THE FOUNDER OF THE WORLDWIDE CRIP GANG, RIVALS TO THE BLOODS, SERVING A LIFE SENTENCE, IN SAN QUENTIN PRISON, FORMERLY SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR TAKING THE LIVES OF FOUR PEOPLE; HOWEVER, DUE TO VIOLATION OF HIS CIVIL RIGHTS, AND THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFIRNIA, COMMUNTING HIS SENTENCE TO LIFE IN PRISON, RATHER THAN DEATH, DUE TO HIS "LAUDABLE" CONTRIBUTIONS, THROUGH HIS CHILDREN'S BOOKS: (1) GANGS & ABUSE OF POWER; (2) GANGS & SELF-ESTEEM; AND (3) GANGS & YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, WINNING HIM A "NOBEL PEACE PRIZE" FOR HIS EFFORTS TO STOP KIDS FROM GOING INTO GANGS, AND CREATING THE ATMOSHPERE BETWEEB THE "CRIPS & THE BLOODS", MANY WHOM WERE RELATED, BUT DUE TO THE NEIGHBORHOODS THEY LIVED IN AND WHERE THE BOUNDARIES OF THE GANGS WERE, THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO SEE COUSINS AND OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS FOR A LONG TIME! GREAT MOVIE! INSPIRING AND SOMETHING, THAT NEEDS TO BE REVISITED IN OUR BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS TODAY, CHICAGO, BLACK ON BLACK KILLINGS, WITH THE BOTTOM LINE BEING SURVIVAL IN THE INNER CITIES, ENDED UP BEING GENOCIDE OF YOUR OWN RACE, VIOLENCE, AS A MEANS OF OUTWARD EXPRESSION OF SELF-HATRED, TAKING OUT THE RAGE ON OTHERS, AS A MEANS OF ERADICATION OF THE SELF-HATE, TAKING ON AND BELIEVING IN THE STEREOTYPES OF YOUNG BLACK MALES, SEEN AS PRON TO VIOLENCE, SEX, GOING AGAINST THEIR OWN RACE . . . BLACK ON BLACK VIOLENCE, WHITE ON BLACK VIOLENCE NEEDS TO STOP! TENS OF THOUSANDS OF LIVES HAVE BEEN WASTED ON THE STREETS, GANG BANGERS ARE SCARED ALL THE TIME, USE THEIR OWN RULES, BU THEY CAN CHOOSE TO LIVE BY DIFFERENT RULES! JAMIE FOX, PLAYS, STANLEY "TOOKIE" WILLIAMS, FOUNDER OF THE CRIPS, WHO SAID, "I WANT TO STOOP THIS MADNESS, USING CHILDREN'S BOOKS TO KEEP KIDS OUT OF PRISON, SAVE KIDS, RIGHT WRONGS, AND REACH OUT! NELSON MANDELA'S WIFE, CAME TO VISIT WILLIAMS IN PRISON, AFTER HIS BOOKS MADE IT TO, AFRICA AND FRANCE, I BELIEVE, WITH A SWISS DIPLOMAT BEING THE ONE TO NOMINATE "TOOKIE" ON DEATH ROW, FOR THE DISTINGUISHED AWARD OF THE PEACE PRIZE, FOR HIS WORK--MANDELA'S WIFE, SAID, THAT THE VILLAGES IN AFRICA ARE THE SAME AS THE NEIGHBORHOODS IN AMERICA, SO THE BOOKS WERE DOING MUCH GOOD! SONG: "I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY, DON'T KNOW BIOLOGY, BUT THIS MUCH IS TRUE, THAT IF YOU LOVE ME, WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD THIS WILL BE!" WE CAN DO THIS AMERICA, CHICAGO, LA, NEW YORK, AFRICA, WORLD! MAKE PEACE HAPPEN!

GANG CONFERENCE IN DENVER, 1996 OR 97

About a year after I joined the Utah Attorney Generals Office, I was pulled into administration, to oversee, three statewide programs, one of which was, community programs, and within that, larger penumbra of cover, there were component parts, one of which was gang violence.  I was new to the job, and so right off the get-go, I was sent to Denver, to the Embassy Suites, to attend a nationwide conference on gangs.  The morning, I arrived, I got up, and took a walk down the street, to the local park, nearby, and did my morning walk, with parents and other community members.  When I got to the conference that morning, there were large displays and posters of gang members, flashing gang signals, showing their colors, and behaving, like gangs do . . . the guy, presenting or manning the floor show, asked me, where do you think, these pictures were taken?  I don't know, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles?  No, all these pictures were taken, down the street at the local park!  I must have been walking with the parents of the gang members! 

After watching, the movie, Redemption, that juxtaposes, Crip founder, Williams, and the female journalists, who wants to write about his history with the Crips, to get the story out to people, which finally morphed into the children's books, and advocacy for children, with her own, nearing college age son, who, himself is struggling with his identity as a young black male, in today's society, toying with gangsta wrap and gang style clothing and hair, even with a hugely successful mother, beautiful home, and living in an allegedly, safe neighborhood, mom still, finds a gun in her son's drawer!  But the movie made me look back at my own two sons, their friends, some of the challenges of just being male, in general, also, toying with gangs, back, 20 years ago, a Straight Edge, gang, of, probably white power, non-smokers, non-drinkers, but also violent, prejudice and racist!, and I feel for the parents, who live in the inner cities, even the suburbs, struggling with the violence, the death, the gangs, and the challenges of raising, especially sons today!

ADD COP SHOOTINGS OF BLACK MALES, MOST OF THEM UNARMED?  HOLY SHIT!  I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE!

Add on top of that, all the cop violence against, these same young black males, and holy crap, I don't know how any parent keeps their sanity!  Oh, and by the way, the day or the night, that the teen was shot in Milwaukee, I woke up, at about, 3:00 AM, and the video, I assume, that is now being held by the Department of Justice, showed, several officers, in hot pursuit of the kid, who was running away from the cops, when he was shot in the back!  I heard the officers, say, to each other, you saw that he had a gun, yeah, he had a gun, sounding ot me, like, he was covering his ass for shooting the kid, who could have been unarmed.  I was at Sleepy Inn, that night, in room, 125, after getting back from my own, horrific night, being chased by cops, wondering if I got caught, or reached, for my lipstick, if they would shoot me and say that thought I was reaching for a gun! as a means, to just get the job, cops have been trying to do, which is kill me, for years!  After I saw, the news and the video, I believe, on Fox Opinion, because after I exhaust MSNBC, my news of choice and get bored with CNN, is turn to Fox, to see what kind of conspiracies and opinions are going around, today? 

But, I just woke up briefly to see a female, Barbie clone, reporter, named, Laura Ingell, and for some reason, my mind, took me to attorney, Laura Ingraham, and I thought, they had done to her, what they have done to me, switch-o-change-o of girls, one being nicer, more docile, more Roger Ailes like, surely fucking material, short skirt, and I was freaked out, not being that familiar with the news anchors and shows on Fox, but remembering, that, Laura Ingraham, was caught on camera, getting pissed off, in tratitional, legal diva fashion, when she could not get this or that, and ordering staff, getting more and more exasperated as the time went on . . . did they replace her, another female attorney? too hard to handle?  Anyway, I believe, I saw the footage, of the shooting, on that program, and show, in the wee hours of the morning?  By, morning, the story had changed, already, the spin control, spin zone, on MSNBC, already reported that the teen, was carrying a gun?  I don't think so?

SOMETHING "HAS" TO BE DONE!  WE NEED TO STOP THIS INSANITY NOW!  IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RASIE A CHILD, SO VILLAGE, GET YOUR THINKING CAPS ON, YOUR HEADS AND YOUR HEARTS ENGAGED, AND LET'S TAKE CARE OF THIS PROBLEM!

I Don't Know Much About History, Don't Know Much Biology, But This Much I Know Is True, That If You Love Me, What a Wonderful World This Can Be!

INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE!

KISSES!!!!

JoAnn S. Secrist, J.D., Attorney For the Outraged!  Let's Git-R-Done!