Hi! I'm Back...Musings from vacation

Hello Mirror On America!

I tried to go through an entire week without internet connection, but I couldn't do it. Found it by accident - I'm technologically challenged, so I had no idea you could connect to the internet through a telephone. I was playing with my niece's Blackberry, and saw the internet icon, and found myself on Mirror On America! It was so good to see this place..LOL

Well, I'm going to say that Orlando is the biggest touristy place outside of Las Vegas in America. And, boy are they scamming you, everywhere you go. Disney and Universal are getting over like fat rats, and the consumers are endless pieces of cheese.

I'd like to give a shout out to the women of Delta Sigma Theta Sororty, Inc. I can't tell you the little bursts of pride I got as I saw groups of Delta women over the past week. There's something about seeing those beautiful Black women, spanning generations, that just made me smile. Though I am not one, I come from a family of Delta women, and seeing red and white all over Orlando was terrific.


I spent the better part of this afternoon in the airport, waiting for my evening flight, having discussions with two 18 year old Black men, both family. It was interesting. The three of us, plus an elderly cousin who was knitting, surrounded by White folks. As you can already surmise, it got hilarious.

One of the young men began quoting Huey, yes, Huey. I knew what he was doing, but I played along anyway. You know that folks wanted to move, but they couldn't?

We waxed philosophical on:
Barack Obama
Ronald Reagan as the Devil
Michelle Obama
Inter-racial dating
Colin Powell vs. Condi Rice
Arab vs. European enslavement of Africans
Conspiracy theories
Malcolm vs. Martin

I was so proud of the young men, considering we know how Young Black Men are denigrated in this society. I loved my nephew's diatribe to me about forcing him to go to the 'American' Pavillion at Epcot and listen to the 25 minute flag-waving ' I love America' history lesson. Yes, I understood every word he said against it, after all, my sister and I have been the main ones giving him the ' supplemental' history books, but sometimes you don't think they're listening, and then, WHAM, you realize that they do read; they do listen. And, it made me proud. Some of our youth have their heads on straight, and we should give them credit.

When we were going to board the plane, my elderly cousin shook her head.

" You should be ashamed of yourselves...messing with those White folks like that."

But, she was smiling as we boarded the plane.

Links From Around the Sphere, August 1, 2007

Stories that have been on the 'Mirror On America' Radar

1. USA: The Beacon of Freedom? See a report on the experience of protesters in Illinois.

2. Special U.S. Inspector for Iraq, Stuart Bowen, reports problems with Reconstruction. Iraqis are not taking care of their responsibilities.

3. Finally there has been some movement on Darfur.

4. Errington Thompson has more on the investigation of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens. Also covered here on Mirror On America thanks to Rikyrah.

5. Juan Cole offers his expert analysis on the latest in Iraq. More information from the Daily Kos.

6. Our friend Pelican1 from Independents Unbound tries to make sense of the Bush Mafias idiotic policy towards the Middle East. Lord Have Mercy!

7. This is why The Democrats will need more than just the Iraq War to get into the White House. This has been the prevailing trend for the last couple of years. Even in bad times, Republicans still lead in a General election matchup with Democrats. See Post from Central Sanity.

8. The ladies over at WhatAboutOurDaughters.org are still busy. D.L. Hughley is planning to do a show in the wrong city later this month. I have a feeling that he won't be coming back to Texas after this next trip.

9. While our soldiers die and get maimed in order to buy time for some nonexistent political reconciliation to take place in Iraq, the Iraqi Parliament will be on a month-long vacation. Bush should be the one to personally notify the families of each soldier who dies in Iraq in August...and he should explain why they had to die.