Women ARE Victimized

Cyntoia Brown

There is this young woman that was the victim of sex trafficking. Cyntoia Brown was the victim of sex trafficking at 16-years old. She met a man named "Cut Throat", who pimped her out, and sold her to a man named Jim Allen. She murdered Allen, while tricking with him at his home. Having thought that he was going to shoot him, she killed him and was convicted of murder. At 16, I didn't understand much. I wasn't sexually active, but many of my high school friends were and my two best friends were being abused by their boyfriends. One of which 33 years later has become empowered and one that is still stuck in the world of abuse. This young woman got out in the worst way, but now she has to get out the worst way.

I spent four years in prison, with women who were there, because of a man. I was there, because of a man. He wasn't my man, but he is now. I had to go to prison or he lost his career. I had to go to prison, because if I didn't he could. The same people who rail roaded me, could do the same to him and he could take my place. I met my girl, Ranya, who did a similar thing with a drug case and had given herself for her man. He had already did a bid and another would mean more years than she wanted him to do. Rita went with her man and has never been home, again, since going to talk to the police. She is slated to never go home, because Rita got LIFE. LIFE stands for never, ever going home, again without clemency.

There has been a law passed that is supposed to stop Cyntoia from getting such a hefty sentence. Only the State of Tennessee has said that she has to do 51 years, before she can be allowed to come-up for parole. It's not necessarily that she will go home when she is 71-years old. She will be eligible for someone to hear her and deliberate to see IF she can go home! There is a chance that Illinois will get a kind governor who will allow for clemency or a sentence reduction. The chances of that happening are slim. Most states are regulated by their voters, and most people do not care about prisoners. Reading this story, I discovered that Cyntoia had run away from home. An enlightened voter would think, "That's what she gets for running away." Bad choices don't make for wrongful punishment". She made a bad decision, but not onto losing the bulk of her life. Especially, when she was duly abused, manipulated and taken advantage of by a man. "Cut Throat" used her for his own causes, and she was a victim of his abuse and addiction.

Women are being victimized. We are being raped and sexualized and demoralized, everyday. I even think that Sarah Huckabee is treated badly some days. We are powerful, but it seems in the world of men, and women that want to prove they are equal to men, we get the shaft. Why should a woman in a vulnerable position be punished so drastically, when the man she murdered was also committing a crime? Prostitution is a crime. When you seek not only to hire a prostitute that is a crime, but then wanting a under-aged prostitute that is another crime. There should be some leniency for the child. With so many young women being sold it's so hard to say that she's not a victim of this new wave of crime in America. Drugs were used to make her submissive, and drugs can also impair your judgement. Why can't anyone in Illinois see that she shouldn't be in prison so long? Is it because she is a woman of color? Is it, because they don't believe her? How much time is enough time for a child?

Alicia Famiano is my friend. I left her in Huron Valley where she has been for 16 years. She killed a man that was sexually assaulting her. Never having been in trouble, before, she got LIFE. Remember, LIFE means forever. You will never go home. Her son and mother comes to see her, a lot. Her son is a brilliant child that is half-Black. Famiano is Italian. She used to plant our flowers in RTP, and she did a very good job. I used to talk to her and she was very calm. She felt that if she really thought about her situation she would lose her mind. So, unless pushed to her end, does she have a tendency to explode. Kind of like her case. She once told a woman, "Look at me, I'm here for being abused and fighting back. If anyone should be going crazy it's me. I should be losing my mind." I wanted to tell her that she was in RTP and she at some point had lost her mind, but I let her have her moment. I really like Alicia.

This blog is not about Cyntoia, but about women that I know. Women that have been victimized by men that let them take the blame, because they were cowards. I had a man that told me years ago that when you are an addict, a woman is a commodity. He said that when he was broke, he could always send his woman out on the street to make money to buy drugs. God forbid she ever got tired, he said that he would punch her in the eye, "There was something about the eye", he said. Once he hit her in the eye, she was always willing to go out in the street and make his money. As a survivor of the Oakland County Jail, I know how relentless a man would be that wanted to sell you for money. At 10, I wore a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that had a man staring at me all the way down the street. Believe me, I get our worth to men. When we agree to sacrifice our freedom for love, sometimes it's not by choice. Sometimes, we are beat down to the point that we haven't a choice and that's when it gets bad.

What if we get tired, and the man has told us that it's no good. We can't just walk away. If you walk or run, I'll be right behind you. Sometimes, and this is sad, women just want a man to "act right". She'll stay, as long as he stops beating me. As long as he stops making me use so many drugs. If he, if he, if he? That's who he is and that's what you have allowed him to be. My brother beat me so bad, the first time he discovered he could and I almost killed him. To this day, my mother can't forgive me for stabbing him. When I was younger, my father used to beat her all the time. He beat her, even after he left and moved in with another woman and her children. She fought him back with all she had. As a child I saw her, and I fight back, now! I would never tolerate that from a man, but I would allow one to lie on me and send me to prison and forgive him. Both in my opinion are forms of abuse, but when is murder acceptable. For me, it never is, but at time it's a "Life or Death" situation and you are forced to make a split-decision. In your eyes, it's "do or die". When someone dies, someone has to pay? Why? If you make a bad choice, and break the law, you lose your rights; right?

OCSD Badge

There is a precedent in America that women can be victimized and physically tormented without repercussion. Men rape us at alarming rates, kill us in alarming rates and abuse us, too. When we fight back, then we become the bad guy. It was the anniversary of "The Burning Bed" last week. A woman whose abusive husband refused to let her go, she burned him up, while he slept. For women, that may be the only way to get any kind of peace of mind. When a man tells you that he'll never let you go, but refuses to allow you any solace it's hard. You feel trapped and sometimes think that taking your own life is the only way to recapture who you were before them. I know that Oakland County Sheriff's Department employs abusive men. So, women of Oakland County are at risk. Then they are selling them in the jail's clinic and putting them at risk even more. They have women judges  giving them lighter sentences for their prostituting. And giving no action to women like me who don't want t be a prostitute. Beauty is painful!

I remember, Mrs. Dudley saying that the women in jail were growing. She had been working as a turn-key for 45 years. She said that at one point there was only 90 women in the Annex. Men took up more than 75% of the Annex. Now, women have not only taken over the Annex, but they have been forced to open the second floor. Laws have been changes, such as "Driving with a Suspended License" that lock women up. Shoplifting, simple assault (fighting) and minor drug offenses and uttering and publishing, have become reasons for women to be locked up. Crimes that when Mrs. Dudley first became a deputy, weren't crimes that sent women to jail. Take away women in jail for those offenses and the jails would be empty. Getting caught prostituting, gets you 90-days and is the most prominent offense that women commit in Pontiac. Women are now a commodity and the idea that they can make deputies money is key to many criminal arrest in Oakland and Wayne Counties. As a woman being targeted in this County, the police have been able to abuse their power to a degree that they put me in jail for doing nothing.

Judges rarely make choices based on what they want to do. They answer to those who helped put them in office, and if they have secrets. Someone doesn't want Cyntoia out of prison. It could be for lots of reason, but what I do know that it is unfair. Not only is she subject to abuse by a male-driven judicial system but a female, homosexual incarceration system. It's not the men in jail that are now subjecting her to sexual abuse, but female guards that insist that she has sex with other women to get by. Plus, we don't know why she left home and it could be worse than the prison system. There has to be a call for justice that includes the men of America. The women can't fight this battle alone. They have to open up a discussion about how women are done wrong, because they aren't able to protect themselves from the abuse that men have the potential to inflict. Moreover, when we ask for help, we have to be able to get that help and not be afraid or ashamed that we made a bad choice. The "Good 'ole boys Club" has got to close and the "Loving Men's Club" has to open up. I pray that a man will hear my call.

Yaktownlaisly and other stuff: SARAH

Yaktownlaisly and other stuff: SARAH: The deadly scene of Terrance Dyer death at the carelessness of Sarah Gaynor. This person was the hardest person to have to live ...  #OCJ

Ode to Vince

I’m a stranger – so are you?

We are strangers.

We aren’t friends,

You’re not my brother.

Surely, you are not my lover.

I am sure you are the sun.

Hovering in the sky.

I’m the moon.

Looming in your darkness and gloom.

But we are strangers.

You aren’t my friend,

Neither are you my brother

(Silence)

Or my lover.

Like the fruit that hangs from a tree.

The roots are hidden,

And that’s you and me.

The distance apart and deep at the heart.

Invisible and impossible to see.

The fruit and the tree.

(Silence)

Yeah, that’s you and me.

I can name in an instant the men you have been.

I can list them, honestly,

From beginning to end.

Goren and Fisk.

Bill and Carl.

Give me a minute and I bet I could name them all.

I call you my fantasy.

I call you my dream,

But I just love your acting.

So, know what I mean.

It’s like this Vincent,

You are a cloud.

You rain down your gifts,

As the words and lines begin to fall.

You drip on us like the water on the ocean.

A stellar experience in centrifugal motion.

Only to stay for as long as it last.

So, you’re a stranger.

You are not my friend.

You are not my brother.

You’re an actor,

And not my lover.

We don’t even know each other.

-       Lesley (Yaktownlaisly)

November 12, 2018

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Spotlight Women's Health: The Rh Factor

My blood is Rh negative (Rh-). I don't have any children, and my blood type is the reason why. Roughly, 85% of Americans have positive blood types. That leaves only about 15% with negative blood types. I am B-, and my father was B-, but all of my siblings took after my mother and they have positive blood types. I have four sisters. I can only assume that their blood types are all positive. At least none of them have had trouble conceiving and carrying a child to term like me. There has been very little infertility in our family. My mother, my sister and I all started our periods when we were 12. Both of them have children. My mother had me, of course, and my sister has four children. It seems that we are similar, based on heredity, because we got our periods at the same age. Except, they both had children and I did not. We know from breast cancer that women inherit their mother's health issues. That's no always true, but I believe it is true with me. My mother got pregnant every year from 1963 to 1967. Each of those siblings were born a year and about two months apart. My mother was married to my father, which made that easily accomplished, but still I ask..."Why don't I have any children?"

When I sold shoes in Gantos in 1991, my manager was named Belinda. Belinda had gotten pregnant. She was always sick and I was always having to work her shift. One morning, she called to tell me that she wouldn't be making her twelve o'clock shift. She has a negative blood type and had to get a shot and she wasn't feeling well. I hung up the phone and wondered if I would need a shot, too. I had been in the Army and discovered that I was B-. We had did a little experiment in "Life Science" class at Wilberforce, and I had discovered I was B- then, too. So, I was B- and I may need to take precautions when getting pregnant and carrying a child. I was 20 and thought that I was invincible, besides, my "Life Science" professor Dr. Ball, had told the class that most children take their blood type from their father. My sister had already had two children by now. The same sister, who started her period at 12 like me. In my mind, based on what Dr. Ball said, she had inherited our father's Rh- blood and she was having kids just fine. Today, I know she has positive blood and the only reason I didn't have a child is my blood type and that is so disheartening.

Belinda miscarried her pregnancy and did come back to work for a while. Again, I didn't know why she lost her child, but now I know why. Obviously, she didn't get her shot soon enough, and her boyfriend had positive blood. Her child had inherited his positive blood and her body expelled the "foreign" substance that had invaded her body. Belinda was about eight weeks pregnant. She didn't know had miscarried. If she was so early finding out she was pregnant, she may have thought that she was having her period and not even know she was pregnant. I believe that's what happened to me in college. I was involved with a young man my entire time in college. I met him the first week I was there and began having sex on a regular bases. I never thought I could get pregnant, because starting at around 17 years old, my periods stopped being predictable and some months I never got one at all. Many of my old friends, got pregnant, anyway. They were also careless, due to their irregular periods they didn't think they could have children either. That's not true at all. My doctor, Dr. Isaac, told me that a woman can still ovulate and not have a period. 

While in college I never really had a period but twice. In fact, I bought a bunch of pads to take with me, and didn't use very many of them. My old friends ended up stealing them with everything else they took from my dorm room, when I didn't return from spring-break. My old friend, Val, still has the microwave my father gave me. She says she keeps it in her basement. The first period I had there was the same old dry two day period. It consisted of brown matter that wasn't nearly what I had when I was 12. But pretty much what I was use to. The second was early in 1989, and it was different. It was longer and slimier and I had bad cramps in my hips and thighs. I thought it was kinda weird and that's probably why I remember it. I thought nothing of it, because I wasn't throwing up or having any kind of sickness. So, it was just a period to me. The one sign I remember, however, is I get so tired. I remember my mother asking me once. "Why are you lying around sleeping all the time. Again, I wasn't throwing up, and in my mind that meant I wasn't pregnant. It was a miscarriage, but I had another one two years later, and I feel more comfortable calling it a spontaneous abortion, because I don't know I'm pregnant. My body has murdered my child and my body hates my fetuses. It biological, cruel and gives me the feeling that I am somehow killing my children. Yes, my body is working against my unborn children in a mean and aggressive way. It's just a lot to deal with.

What happened was simple. Nothing strange about it, but the fact that it happened. I was walking down the street with a friend. Suddenly, there was a gushing feeling. It wasn't the normal flow or a drip that you can't tell if it's your body cleaning itself or your period. This is why so many women have those "mistakes" that have them tying a t-shirt around their waist until they can get cleaned up. No, this was a gushing feeling, like water being secreted from a syringe. It was very sudden and ended just as soon as it began. There wasn't another drop of blood that came from me in the up coming days. I did feel sick afterwards and went to see Dr. Isaac and explained to him what had happened. He gave me some birth control pills and asked me when did the incident occur. I don't him about four or five days ago, he said, "Well, take four of those, today, and then one a day as prescribed." I was confused, but remember, I was only 19. The only thing my mother told me about my period was, "Now, you can't be letting little boys touch on you and stuff." "Touch on me and stuff"? I think the "and stuff" part was sex. So, when he told me that, I asked him surprised, "'That' was my period?" He just nodded his head "Yes". I think that he knew what my problem was then.

I didn't know what had happened back then. I just knew something unusual had happened to me. I never even told the man I was with then, because I didn't even know. But in March of 1991, shortly after I left Gantos. There was a snow storm and I was living with my grandmother at the time. She had gone to stay with a friend, because the storm had knock out all the power in most of the city. The same man and I were still dating and he came over. We had sex of course, and I had gotten pregnant. The gush was his and now the there was another child, but of course it came to nothing, too. We actually stopped talking, because of this pregnancy. I had taken a home pregnancy test and it was positive. I then went to see Dr. Isaac, but he didn't want to give me a pregnancy test. He wanted to do a pelvic exam. My mother said that "Old School" doctor liked to do it that way. If they are good, which Dr. Issac was, he could tell how far along a woman is by the size of her uterus. The uterus expands immediately when a woman gets pregnant and starts making room for a fetus. It also retracts if she aborts it or has a miscarriage. I think my prior experience had him wanting to do pelvic exams versus blood or urine tests. 

This man had a child, already, with his high school sweetheart. He didn't want anymore children with anyone else. In fact, when I told him that I was pregnant, he stopped talking to me. Maybe it was to teach me a lesson, but I didn't take it that way and moved on. Who I moved on to and got pregnant by him about three months late. That I believe was my fourth pregnancy, and would determine the next 25 years of my life. His sister was a cop, which is a theme on my other blog. We were involved only for the summer, and a lot of things happened within those summer months that made my next years hell. I would get pregnant with his child and meet Patricia. With this pregnancy, I told him about the Rh factor and even asked him his blood type. He wasn't talking to me at the time and didn't say a word. Maybe he wanted our child to die. I naturally, no pun intended, miscarried. That's four in about two and a half years. I held on to this baby longer than I should. Mostly, because Dr. Isaac told me I was pregnant. He gave me a proof of pregnancy and everything. I got food stamps and a check every month. All my old friends were doing it and I wasn't ashamed, although I am now. But they had apartments and stuff. Remember, at this time I was only 21, I was very stupid back then.

Today, this is a sticking point with my enemies. They try to use a medical condition to make me a "basket case". Sure, maybe I did hang on a little longer, and that's to my heart and not my brain. I thought this man was it. He went on a few years later and married another woman. Who she and her friends tried to torture me about the child I never had. Her friend took her son's hand in Target and as I walked by whispered to him, "Say Mommy, Mommy!" The boy followed her directions, but I could hear her as I walked by in whisper pronounce, "Louder! Louder!" I laughed it off, because obviously, this Mommy's issues are an issue with her and her friend. All I can say to that is God is the equalizer. Six years later, same thing with a co-worker and I was just done. I wasn't doing being pregnant, anymore. I just shut it all down. If I wasn't having sex, then I couldn't be pregnant or think that I am. That is where I stand, today. My biggest foes, are sitting around hoping that I would go back into a tailspin and be pregnant all over, again. That is just something that can never happen at this point.

MTV had a special on homelessness and a young woman was being harassed by the police for being on the street. I remember she told the cop, "I have to get a shot. I had a miscarriage with my last baby, because of my blood. I don't want to go to jail, because I need to get my shot, or I'll lose my baby." It's been in my face this entire time. My bosses, my teachers and even MTV, but it just never clicked. I guess I believe that I would be the exception, but obviously I'm not. I keep reading in these articles and videos that it only occurs in you second pregnancy. That's not true, and your body will kill any foreign substance that is in your body, viruses, it tries to kill AIDS and fetuses, too. Some women can carry a child passed 20-weeks. Those babies have a horrible time in the wound. They can have brain damage, heart failure, anemia,still birth and death after they are born. I watched an episode of 9-1-1 on Fox and one of the EMT's on the show had a blood type that could help these children born Hemolytic.

Now, at 47, I don't know what would be better. I think losing the children I conceived in hopeless relationships was best, and I believe that's what God intentions were. I would be more messed up, if I carried a sick child, gave birth and lost it or had a child with a lifetime of troubles. In so many ways, I think God has blessed me and kept me from heartache on so many levels it is remarkable and I love him for that. I still lie in the bed sometimes and mourn the children that never made it. I think of my body as some type of gas chamber that murders my fetuses, before they even get a chance to live. It is so disheartening, the reality that your body works so well that it deprives you of one of God's greatest gifts. I don't right this to cause a panic, but a lot of what I read on the internet is wrong. I have never had an abortion, but I have miscarried a child, but not in the normal sense of the word. A woman's body will end a pregnancy due to abnormalities and deformities. I won't let anyone lessen my experience or make it any less true. I've lived this reality for 30 years, and it is my truth. With the wrong man, my body is a killing machine. How sad is that? It makes me want to cry...

Spotlight Women: Elizabeth Warren - US Senator

Senator Elizabeth Warren

I have to say that over the last two years I have found a formidable role-model. I can see who I am through the words and actions of Elizabeth Warren. Many would say, "No, you should see yourself in women like Maxine Waters!" I do see myself in Maxine Waters, too. I find that she speaks for people who look like her. She speaks for the Black woman and woman in general. What I haven't been able to see in her, thus far, is the fight for people who don't look like her. That's when you know that your caring comes from a place outside the whelm of differences and reside in a place of obscurity. Warren has a love for all who suffer and cry out in need of a leader, and she gives them exactly what they need. This blog will be a videography of her finest speeches, in my opinion. Senate hearings and stories and why they have made a profound impact on my life as an activist, advocate and leader. I want you to see Elizabeth Warren through my eyes. 

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1948, she was the first person to graduate college in her family. Her father worked as a maintenance man at the local high school. Her mother worked at Sears in the catalog department, because her father had a heart-attack. She spent most of her childhood at the lower part of the middle class, but managed to graduate from Rutger Law School, while raising a child. She married her college sweetheart in 1970, and began doing what women do as a wife. Except she had drive, and wanted so much more. The first video I will share, is an answer from God, when she was a young mother striving to keep her job as a teacher.

She told this story, to help explain why childcare is vital to young working women. She was at a conference for Healthcare Action in 2018. She helped the women listening understand that she can understand their struggles, because she struggled, too, and won. Some people will give up, but with honest fervor and zeal, Elizabeth Warren told them the story of Abraham and the lamb in the bush. It lets me know that when God has a call on your life, there will always be an Aunt Bea, or in my case an Aunt Beverly. Someone who will answer your prayers at the very moment you need it. Every woman who knows God, has had one of these moments. It's all falling apart and then...Here comes God working his magic. Let me know Elizabeth Warren is "blessed and highly favored".

In 2016, Wells Fargo begins a tumultuous ending. The bank had been creating fake accounts to build their worth as a bank. The way it worked is that entry-level employees in the banks would create fake accounts without customers knowing. These accounts weren't used for anything, but to build the banks reputation of having more accounts than other banks and being ranked higher among those in the same industry. But, that is against the law and they were fined 185 million dollars by the Securities and Exchange Committee. There was 5,300 lower-level employees fired, the CEO John Stumpf resigned, the creator of the scam Carrie Tolstedt also stepped down. Not before Stumpf went before Senator Elizabeth Warren, and the Senate Finance Committee. Here just one of the exchanges between Stumpf and Warren.

This is actually the first time I'd seen her. This exchange appeared on my Facebook page and I asked myself, "Who is this woman, telling this White man he needs to be fired?" Because he is responsible for the sun rising that morning, and he was so self-assured that he found it relevant to answer her. Well, she saw no relevance in his response, at all, and finished him off in one "fell swoop". It was incredible, and I think her oral diction is impeccable. I strive to be so crystal clear, when I tell people who are wrong that they are just that, and explain in clear terms where they fall short. Because of that, however, I don't get many people willing to face me in a conversation, meeting or an impromptu conversation. I have facts, I have opinions, I have sarcasm and bible quotes, I have it all and am ready for you. I wished I was Elizabeth Warren, and bad men just had to sit and listen to me tell them off. That would be an ideal place for me.

In a speech that held precedent on the Senate floor, she blasted Jeff Sessions. He was Trump's nominee for Attorney General. Warren opposed his nomination, and was ready to read a letter from Coretta Scott-King wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee. At the time, it was 1968, and Sessions' was being considered for a Federal Judge Appointment. He had done and said some pretty racist things during the Civil Rights Movement. As Trump's "watch dog", she held the floor overnight to block Trump's progress. When she began to read the letter, Republican leaders cut her off and shut her down. She then went to her office, and took to Facebook "Live". She read the letter in its entirety to those of us who were watching. "She persisted", even if she didn't get to finish, she knew they were afraid of what she had to say. She had won...

I am a woman. I love a man, and one day I hope to be someone's mother. That is not everything that I am, or will be. I have hope, dreams and aspirations a part from those things. Although her first marriage failed, and she married again, in 1980. Even that is a symbol of telling us that we always don't get it right, but there is a possibility for a second chance. A woman like Elizabeth Warren shows me that it can be done. She tells her story and everyone else's story with the grace that proves that fighting isn't ever in vain. People are watching, and could learn from your experiences, lessons and understanding. I like the way she doesn't "mind her own business", and the way she minds the business of America. She tells it like it is, and with her Feminist ideas and conjecture, she is changing the face of womanhood in the world. I want to be that way. Her story is our story, her life is our life and we are all better, because she lived the life she did.

Elizabeth Warren's website and social media pages:

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000817

https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethWarren/

https://twitter.com/SenWarren

https://www.instagram.com/elizabethwarrenma/

Spotlight Women: Felicia McGhee

Dr. Felicia McGhee

I graduated with Dr. McGhee in 1988. Back then, we were on two separate roads, and destinations. I was always feisty and ready to "get down". Felicia was conservative, fun and disciplined. She was in the marching band, had tons of friends and was always on the honor roll. Even then, she was an over achiever. Striving in the steps of her parents, two educators in the city of Pontiac, she tried her best to do well academically.  They had instilled in her the character and zeal to succeed and be a whoever she wanted to be, and she took it very seriously. It is their influence that helped her become the woman she is today, and that is a true testament of their commitment to education. Felicia has a Bachelor's in Communication from the University of Michigan, a Master's in Public Administration and a Doctorate of Philosophy, with a concentration in Communication and Information Science, from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Felicia's parents were not only educators in Pontiac but had become administrators in the system. They moved up from the ranks of teachers, to principals of the local high schools. They served the school district during the same years and retired together and moved to Alabama. Her mother, Essie McGhee, was the head principal at Pontiac Northern (currently the only high school in Pontiac, now known as Pontiac High), and was the first black female of a high school in Pontiac, which is now the only high school in Pontiac. Her father, Thomas McGhee, was the athletics director at the time we attended. He would later become an assistant principal at Central. Both her parents have higher degrees. Her mother, like Felicia, has a doctorate degree.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Felicia wanted to become a television news reporter.  Her first on-air job was at WQBH radio station in Detroit. While working at the radio station, she decided to take a leap of faith.  She decided she was going to move to Montgomery without a job. She went to her parents and told them that she was moving to Alabama. While there, she would pursue a non-existing news career and sell shoes, until she got her big break. Two weeks before the big move, the news director at the ABC affiliate in Montgomery called her and Felicia got her big break!  She was offered the job as a meteorologist She knew absolutely nothing about meteorology, but Felicia convinced the woman on the phone that she was able to do the job. She went to the Pontiac library and studied all about meteorology. One the first of her job as a meteorologist the reporter quit, so she became a reporter and never had to do the weather! That's where her career took off, with one of several happenstances that occurred.

 After three years she left that position, and went to Mississippi for a while to work at the ABC affiliate there, WTOK. There she worked as a morning show anchor. She realized that she was not a morning person, and didn’t like waking up at 2:30am to go to work. She then went to the ABC affiliate in Chattanooga, WTVC.  She began teaching at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1999.  She received her master's while teaching at the University of Tennessee- Chattanooga. In the midst of all of these moves and career highs and lows, she got engaged. She married and has one child, a boy named Thomas. Although, her marriage ended, she had the joy of being a mother and the life-long gift of Thomas.

When Thomas turned two, he had his immunizations for school. Shortly after getting those shots, he began having seizures. After one seizure, Thomas could not speak at all. With nothing left to do, they learned sign language in order to communicate. One day, while at school, his teacher let him out on a cold day. Despite Felicia's stark warning that her son was not to be allowed to go outside if the temperature dropped below 40 degrees.  That December, the teacher forgot about this directive and let him go outside when it was 19 degrees. As a result, Thomas had a seizure, but something extraordinary happened, when he came to he was speaking in full sentences, again. Lovingly, Felicia admits that he hasn't stopped talking since that day.

That tough tragedy is only one of three she had to endure in her lifetime. She not only had to deal with Thomas' seizures, but other life changing tragedies. In 2011, she lost her younger brother, Thomas Jr. in an automobile accident. The following year, she lost her life-long best friend, Natalie Lyon. Dealing with the grief, she began to evaluate her marriage, career and how she saw life, and she made some hard choices. Natalie is pictured in the collage below with the U of M frame. Thomas Jr. is pictured in the, "McGhee Family" collage above, photographed with Felicia, on the upper left side.

As an instructor and anchorwoman, she was always sought after for the position. Not trusting her worth, she would question her supervisor's seriousness. She hasn't paid for school since her undergraduate degree, because she always took a chance on who and what she was. Twice she was challenged to make a list of demands, and she made a list. She thought up the most astronomical demands she could think of. To get her doctoral degree she had to drive an hour and 45 minutes one way, so she asked for gas money. She wanted a three-year sabbatical with pay, so she could go to school. Also, on that list she also asked for free daycare for Thomas and a hefty bonus. She got everything, but the free daycare! She created yet another list to acquire her most recent position of department head (the first black female of an academic unit) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

This week, is Felicia's first week as head of the Communication Department at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. She has been there her entire teaching career and is excelling in her field. Since retiring from the media, she has done a documentary on the desegregation of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and plans to write a book soon. It will focus on how the media framing of Black men in shootings by the police. It's been all worth it. The chances she took, the driving an hour and forty-five minutes twice a day to school, leaving Thomas in the care of strangers at six in the morning, the guilt, the tragedy, the pain and divine circumstances.

All these things working together to create who she is, today. God has always done mighty things in her life, even when she had to make hard choices. She spends her days in the classroom, now, and not the newsroom. I think she is comfortable in both. When she makes her first appearance in the classroom, she likes to sit in the back of the room, just to see how surprised the students the students are when they find out she is the professor.

For some reason the students just assume that the class will be taught by an older white male.   Some are surprised that she is a black woman. They are also surprised that she is a middle-aged woman, who doesn't look middle aged, but exudes the knowledge and abilities of a person much older. In high school she exuded the same wealth. Her students are blessed to have a seasoned newswoman to lead them towards their own goals and aspirations. Every lesson that she has learned she can give to them. She can show them how success isn't just what you do, but how deep your faith and words can carry you. This is the truth of a real teacher. Use everything in you, to make you who you want to be.

You can catch up Felicia on her Facebook page:

 https://www.facebook.com/fmhilt13

Or view her professional profile at:

https://www.utc.edu/communication/profiles/bxd718.php

Student success story:
https://youtu.be/llZXPks6A44

Spotlight Women: Brenda Carter

Brenda Carter

Brenda Carter is running for State Representative in the #29 District that includes Pontiac, Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, Auburn Hills and Orchard Lake Village. She has a vision for our state that includes, clean water, smooth roads and a better quality of life for the citizens that live here. She has been involved with our city politics for seven years, as a member of the Pontiac School Board. As President, she has work feverishly to solidify the growth of our children's education. She has won numerous awards, while serving our city. They include, Michigan Chronicle of Women's Excellence, Michigan Chronicle Women of Excellence and Centro Multicultural La Familia Community Advocacy. Her husband,Randy Carter is President Pro-Tem of the Pontiac City Council, as Councilman of District #4. Together, they work civilly and tirelessly to help shape the health, well-being and re-birth of Pontiac.

Brenda and Randy Carter

In September of 2017, Mrs. Carter, accompanied by her husband, took 11 middle school children from Pontiac's school system to Japan. As part of the "Sister City" program in Pontiac, eight young girls and three young men, went to Kuatzu, Shiga, Japan. These students were a part of the International Technology Academy. While there, they attended school and became part of the school system of Japan. They lived with a host family, mingled with their students and learned about their way of life. It was an honorable event. The children prepared for an entire year for their trek across the globe. Mrs. Carter became very good friends with their parents. It was necessary, because she would be taking the children half-way around the world. The parents had to know her and trust her to protect their children, while they were so far away. Along with nine chaperones, they introduced the children to a world outside their city. Many of them had never been out of Michigan before. Still, they learned the culture, language and etiquette of Japan. It was mandatory for the trip, and while in Japan went before delegates and spoke to them in Japanese.

During this time, Mrs. Carter met a very special young woman,Lefferny Chipert She is a student at Pontiac Middle School. Intrigued by the young woman's dark skin and gorgeous hair, she asked her what country she had originally lived in before coming to America. Lefferny explained that she is Micronesian. It is a small island off the coast of Hawaii. Lefferny intelligence, manners and zeal to learn led Mrs. Carter to begin mentoring her, and taking a deeper interest into her education and development as a young woman. Their kinship is a testament of her commitment to the children in Pontiac, and cultivating their greatest potential. It's her hope that those children who had the privilege to go to Japan, remember her fondly in their life journey. Joyfully, she wants them to give back to the next generation. Mrs. Carter is a huge advocate of giving back to the next generation. "It is what we do today that will have a ripple effect on the next generation of students". Giving back is key to productivity in politics.

Mrs. Carter has a Bachelor's from  Spring Arbor College and a Master's in Public Administration from Oakland University. She is also a UAW skilled machinist. She plans to use the tools she learned, while in school to win the seat in the Michigan House of Representatives. Her dedication to the lives of not only the children, but the people of the #29 District is real. She has worked hard over the last seven years, along with her husband to build a place of economic security in the city. Together they have been an intricate part of Pontiac's growth and revitalization. She will be leaving the school board this year, but promises to always be involved with the children of our city. Besides, her husband has several projects that he is involved in to keep her busy with the city. His Annual Baldwin Clean-up, landfill and recycling efforts are ongoing in the city. New Mount Moriah is lucky to have her as a member, and she could lend her abilities to their administrations, if the election doesn't find her in the Michigan House of Representatives.

As a single mother, she has a son, before she married her husband, 20 years ago. He has four children of his own, and she is now a grandmother. She spends any free time in her life with her grandchildren. She feels, however that the children of Pontiac are her surrogate family. If she doesn't win in November, she has no worries, because she will keep up the good works she has done in the city all along. Participating in all the functions held in the city. Playing baseball, participating in the Democratic Conventions, being involved in political conferences and mixing with some of the heavy-weights in politics in Michigan and Washington D.C. Along with the politic affiliations she has in Pontiac, with the youth and regeneration efforts. No matter what happens, Brenda Carter is a gem for the city to adore. 

You can learn more about Brenda, her election and school board presidency by clicking the links below:

https://www.facebook.com/brenda.carter.50

https://www.facebook.com/BCforRep/

http://www.brendajcarter.com/index.html

https://www.pontiac.k12.mi.us/domain/36

https://youtu.be/VmTEq-WmXeI

Spotlight Women: Vickie Brent-Touray

Vickie Brent-Touray

Vickie Brent-Touray is my friend. I met her in 1980 at Bagley School. It was cold outside and I thought, "Who is this girl with a skirt on? I know her legs cold". We stood in the cold talking. It was me, my cousin Annie and their friend Joyce. I remember, I know, because God knew back then that she would become a part of my life, forever. Just like I remember the day I met my man in 1978, I know that she means more to me than just a passing friendship. From the playground of grade school, to the cornfields of Wilberforce, Ohio, her friendship is valued by me. When I explained what I would be doing with my creation, the blog and social media, she messaged me "Awesome". No Vickie, you are awesome and your dedication to your family, friends, community and God are priceless.

As a young child, Vickie was sanctified. That means "set-aside", and those are the words that describe her best. She is a trailblazer that is carving her own niche in Pontiac's cultural community. Vickie is a graduate of Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, with a Bachelor's of Science in Psychology. That small town is just southeast of Dayton. After a brief stay in Ohio, she came home to Pontiac, and began her career as a teacher. After the recession, many of the Pontiac educators were laid-off. That didn't stop Vickie, she decided to further her education at Wayne State University. She received her Her Master's in Education from Wayne State's School of Education. While attending Wayne, she met her husband of 13 years, Famara Touray. Originally from Gambia, a country on the West coast of Africa that sits on the Atlantic Ocean. He is a Mandiga, a tribe that is where Kunta Kinte, of Alex Haley: Roots, ancestors originated. They have two beautiful daughters.

Vickie and her husband, Famara

When we ran into one another after 10 years, it was no shock that she had married a man from Africa. Vickie had always been in touch with her African heritage and always liked the darkest one in the bunch. When only 21, she did a mission to Kenya. While there, she helped Somalian refugees learn basic survival skills. Things like digging a latrine, building a chicken coupe and how to keep a clean water supply. She said they were washing themselves, cooking and watering their animals in the same waterhole. This had led to an occurrence of bacterial infections and cholera. She remembers a goat that she had made a pet that was tied outside her window. On her last night in the village of Garissa, the natives treated them to a feast. She told the host that the meat was tasty and asked what type of meat it was, and he had replied, "Goat". Vickie looked over to where her friend had been tied, and he was gone! After six weeks of a vegetarian diet, her friend was a welcoming alternative.

She made the migration to the South, Atlanta, with the movement like other Michiganders. She taught in the Atlanta School District for four years. She won their "Teacher of The Year Award" in 2012. Feeling a growing need to perform and write, she left Atlanta to come home and follow her dreams. She and Farmara opened a store called Touray Family Enterprise. Her husband had sold African garb as a child with his uncle. She said that she believes that he always knew that he would work with his family in their own business. In African communities, family is everything and the children call the people in the tribes "aunty" and "uncle" out of respect. He plans to go back, taking Michigan residents on tours of his homeland. They have a shop full of styles that come from the continent and various other goods, such as Shea butter, incense and body oils and fragrances. Like Famara's dream, Vickie and their children work along side him selling their merchandise and teaching the community about African customs and traditions.

At the end of Kwanzaa every year, the Touray's have a celebration. It is free to the public and the community comes and take part in the celebration. They make traditional African dishes, children recite poems, African dancers perform, tutorials on wearing Africa's head-dressings and garb, vendors come out selling a variety of goods and much, much more! She works tirelessly in the community volunteering her time and energy to good causes, like the Pontiac Library. She has a quarterly poet review that she holds in Pontiac. Her Wonder Woman events, is a place where women can gather and express their feelings of empowerment, freedom and a place to relax and seek the comfort of other women. Her Yaktown Poet Review, features young and seasoned talented writer and poet laureates. Granny J, is a character she created to entertain children. People from the community can come out and recite poems, music, raps and skits that the have create themselves. 

Finally, Vickie's masterpiece in literature. Her self-published novel "A Piece of My Mind". A book of poetry that she wrote about growing up a Black woman in our America. The moves and vibes that makes her unique and powerful. One of my favorites, "For Nostalgia Sake", tells of her family and being raised in a home, during the boom of the 70's and 80's, when GM employed the majority of people in Pontiac. I've witness her give moving spoken word from her work, and stand on her feet and tell a story. It is always exhilarating, captivating and moving. It's a joy for me, to see my friend, her husband and children present to watch her work. She's one of those people in my life that when we meet, in two years, ten years or twenty years, we pick up right where we left off. That day on the playground, I met a forever friend. And when I see her "handling" her family, her businesses and her community and life. I just can't help but smile and say, "That's my friend". 

Click on the links to view Vickie's pages:

https://www.facebook.com/WWBCEspressoShot/

https://www.facebook.com/TourayFamilyEnterprises/

https://www.facebook.com/VBTouray/

https://www.facebook.com/yaktownpoets/