Profile

I decided I'd finally write a small bio on myself. It looks bad on my info page to have something missing, you know.

Anyway, the most important thing about me is that I'm a mom. I have two stepdaughters, a biological son, two biological daughters, and two adopted sons. In addition, I have a huge number of people who call me mom who I refer to as my second family. Family is my life, along with all of my wonderful friends, both offline and online. I wouldn't know what to do without them.

I hope to be going back to school in the fall to get my Master's Degree in History. I'm planning on specializing on African American History and African History, but I'm not sure how likely the latter is. I just have to take the GRE to get into grad school, so everyone keep their fingers crossed for me! Maybe I'll even manage to be able to teach at the college level by the time I'm done, although I'm not sure I want to push it all the way to a PhD so I can teach at the university level. We'll see how it goes, though.

When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist.

-Dom H. Camara

The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box. As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.

-Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.

-Black Elk

Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.

-Lady Bird Johnson

And as the seasons come and go, here's something you might like to know. There are fairies everywhere: under bushes, in the air, playing games just like you play, singing through their busy day. So listen, touch, and look around - in the air and on the ground. And if you watch all nature's things, you might just see a fairy's wing.

-Author Unknown

I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?

-John Lennon

[W]hen the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl.

-James Matthew Barrie

Intolerance is the most socially acceptable form of egotism, for it permits us to assume superiority without personal boasting.

-Sidney J. Harris

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

-Voltaire

I feel passionate about a lot of things, although I do have my pet causes. I'm pro-life (save when the life of the mother is at stake), although not radically so. People who bomb abortion clinics are people for whom I have no respect, and I like to see them prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

I'm also very much pro-adoption, especially for hard to place kids. I believe every child should have loving, caring parents. There are far too many without this, and that's one of the worst tragedies that there is. Children are our most precious and valuable resource, and they should be treated as such.

One of my pet peeves is prejudice. I hate when people judge others by the colour of their skin, their sexual orientation, or whatever reason. No, I don't believe, as so many do, that everyone is a racist to some extent. I think that's a generalization that is both unfair and untrue. I can understand why people feel that way, but it's simply not true. Be that as it may, racism and all the other prejudices breed hatred, and I hope someday that the ignorance that is behind them goes away and we come to a greater understanding as a species.

One of my biggest causes is regarding gangs and gang members. I have heard too often from people who would just have them all locked away, considering them all criminals, or worse, monsters. I want people to open their eyes and see that generalizing about gang members is no better and no more true than generalizing about other segments of the population. It's wrong, and I want it to stop. Unfortunately, law enforcement does this far too frequently, and that results in some very unfortunate circumstances. So I ask people to open their eyes and see the truth. I want the blinders to come off and people to understand that gang members are people too, and that they are products of a society that doesn't care about or doesn't pay attention to those in unfortunate circumstances. People bitch about how bad things are, but when it comes down to it, so few are actually willing to help things change. I want to see this change.

I'll list some websites here that I think are important. I believe in their message and I encourage people to visit them.

http://www.covenanthouse.org/

https://www.lighttounite.org/

http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/community/programs/wordstravel.htm

http://www.postpals.co.uk/

http://www.childsplaycharity.com/

http://www.colorofchange.org

http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/

Movies: Amistad, Miracle on 34th Street, Mississippi Burning, Lord of the Rings, Lost Boys, Harry Potter

Authors: Neil Gaiman, David Eddings, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen

Television Series:Battlestar Galactica (the original), Lost, American Idol

Poems: The Second Coming (William Butler Yeats), The Negro Speaks of Rivers (Langston Hughes), Still I Rise, Maya Angelou

Songs:The Wings That Fly Us Home (John Denver), Love's the Only House (Martina McBride), Gone (Kelly Clarkson), An Eagle When She Flies (Dolly Parton)

Colours: Red, black, and silver

Foods: Black olives, steak, cherries, peach flavoured anything, turkey

Drinks: Pepsi, Mountain Dew: Livewire, Iced tea, Chai Tea, Thai Iced Tea, Peach Propel, anything else peach flavoured

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