Finding Family

I am in the process of finding my biological family. It has been weird to say the least.  It all started when I saw a random post by a woman who had recently found a biological family for an adoptee on Facebook. Thinking this might be my only opportunity to find my biological roots I asked her if she would be able to find mine and she responded that she would be.

Within a few days I had a name. I was told this was my biological mother and my biological father. I was hesitant at first. Father!? Well then that can’t be me. I had always been told no one knew my biological father because my mother was a prostitute and thereby my father was probably was one of her johns.  It was an emotional roller coaster ride.  How could that be? You mean I could actually have a real life Dad? That seemed to crazy. A part of me wanted to believe it.  I mean to go from a transactional baby to a child at least conceived in wedlock seemed miraculous.

I knew I had other siblings and it was them I really wanted to find anyway. And here was a list of names. There are some things that don’t seem to fit with the man’s memory who might be my brother. So there is a still a chance we got the wrong people. But there is some things that mesh with what I know.  I sent him a picture so he could see me.  I haven’t heard back. Who knows.  Maybe it is the Black thing, I don’t know.  I know my biological mother was White and therefore my biological father was Black. Now the records have the man listed as my father as a Negro, though none of his other children with her are looking very Black.  According the woman who found who we think is my biological mother, she is adamant that I am Sicilian. My mother told me a similar story about when I was born they asked “What is the nationality of the father?” And my adopted didn’t remember but thought she was very adamant that the father was Swedish. The fact that she was adamant about that fact makes me believe that it is probably is my biological mother.

It has been crazy though. We will see.

Gay Couple Reunite!

Okay I am not going to go on about how homosexuality is wrong because all of you know how I feel about that. I think it is dangerous and leads to the death of too many fine people who shorten their lives due to their sexual practices. Okay with that said, I am going to focus on the immigration aspect of this case.

Tim Coco and Genesio Oliveira married in 2005, among the throngs who wed after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. But for nearly three years, they lived apart — Coco in Haverhill and Oliveira in his native Brazil — because federal law does not recognize their union.

Okay so they are “married.”  Their union isn’t recognized by federal law. So what do they do? Does Oliveira give the U.S the finger and sneak in anyway? Does he falsify papers and pay a mule to get him into America? No, he does not! What does he do? Okay it is about to get crazy up in here! HE FOLLOWS THE LAW!!!! Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it! He actually follows the law?  You have got to be kidding me! Okay let me rest my heart can’t take this!

He has been granted a temporary stay in America. He has one year and he is going to use that year to gain legal residency. Oh my goodness, he is following the law again!  Will wonders never cease? He is actually going to use this opportunity to become…wait for it….A LEGAL RESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!  So you know what I say to Genesio Oliveira? WELCOME TO AMERICA!!! Thank you for playing by the rules. You spent a lot of your money to enter this country legally. The law wasn’t on your side but you found a way to work within the law to achieve your results. That is how immigration is done folks! I have nothing but respect for Genesio because he has shown my country and my people respect by working within our legal system to obtain his goal of being with his partner.  Sure we will probably be duking it out over gay marriage later on, but in the meantime, thank you Genesio for being a man of honor and treating my country with the respect it deserves.  Now how’s that for a homophobe?

Photo by: David Kamerman for The Boston Globe

Paul McCartney: Internet Hurting Young Musicians

My Aunt, Dr. Ciwa Griffiths, Ph.D

Not everyone who ages becomes a dinosaur but some do.  My aunt, Ciwa Griffiths was in her 90′s and was as computer and internet savvy as the younger generation.  She had her faculties until the day that she died. I state this to illustrate that being out of step with the times has nothing to do with one’s age.  Paul McCartney is clearly out of step with the times.

AP Photo (Jacquelyn Martin)

In an interview with CNS News Paul McCartney is saying the internet hurting young musicians because of downloading, they are not getting paid for their work. (Yeah, because we know everyone got paid their royalties before the Internet…NOT!!! What was the problem then? I guess it was the typewriter’s fault for not automatically typing out the check!)

 To act like this is some new problem and that the internet has musicians everywhere starving is such a load of nonsense. If anything the internet helps young musicians get their songs out that they wouldn’t have had an opportunity to do before. They can grow their fan base on sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.  They are able to produce their own music without the aid of a record company. It is not that the internet is hurting young musicians because young musicians have always known how to hustle. It is that the internet is hurting the record companies. Which is the real problem not the internet.

Paul is quoted by CNS News as saying: [the] Internet is “breaking down” the royalty system for young singers and has created a need for “a nice, fair system where whoever does something that’s really successful, should get paid for it.” He also said it is “unfair” for a person with a hit song who has a “young family” to support to not get paid royalties for his work.  

I agree, I think all people should get paid for their work.  And I think we have come up with a way. Ever hear of Itunes Paul? People pay a company 99 cents or whatever, download the music and then the artist can get paid that way through his record label. Now granted royalties are only 9 cents on a dollar anyway. But that 9 cents can add up.  This way the consumer is only paying for the songs they want without buying filler.

Next, I don’t know about you but I get hit up by young people selling me their cds on the streets all the time when I am up in Hollywood. They burn it on their computer, do the artwork themselves, label it and sell it-all of it 100% profit.  So say it cost 3 dollars to produce and they are selling it for between 5 and 10 dollars, they are getting more than the 9 cents royalty they would be entitled to under the law.  It makes more sense for them to do it themselves.

 Please stop pretending you care about the “young musicians” Paul when you, yourself admit to putting people out of work as songwriters when you and the Beatles were making music.

 “What used to happen before we came on the scene was people used to have writers,” said McCartney.  “So, someone like Elvis would have people writing his stuff for him, [Jerry] Leiber and [Mike] Stoller, people like that. We kind of upset the boat a little bit because we came along and we were writing our own stuff, so we put a lot of those guys out of work, which was okay for us, not so good for them.

 Obviously you weren’t looking out for their “young families” that were starving because you were writing your own music.  But hey it is okay for you to the buck the trend in your youth but it is not okay for the youth to do it today. The young people today are putting you out of work and that is what really is at the root of all this. It is not that the royalties are not being paid, because trust me these young musicians are getting paid! It is that they are not doing the “old-fashioned” way. They are doing it their way!

 http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/66962

Charlie Minn Comes to LACC

Charlie Minn made his debut at LACC last night during the Legal Association’s weekly meeting. He was there to talk about his new film chronicling the 1990 murders at the La Cruces Bowling Alley that left 4 dead and 3 others wounded.  Of the four that died, three of them were children. One was two, one was six and was a teenage girl.

Charlie talks about the profound effect the crime had on him while watching a re-enactment on Unsolved Mysteries starring Robert Stack. He was horrified at the brutality of the crime because children were involved. To execute children takes a special kind of monster in my opinion.

Charlie was originally a sportscaster who turned filmmaker.  He shared that a pro athlete he knows in the course of his work as a sportscaster has been primarily responsible for getting the film made.  Not your typical fundraising venue, definitely.  Charlie has been working to promote this film nonstop since the beginning of the year. After its premiere  on May 14, 2010 at the Beverly Center he will go to Western New Mexico and debut it there.

Alongside of him, working on distribution is Stephen Silvestrini, who was integral in getting the word out about this important documentary.  (Sorry the picture is so dark, didn’t seem so dark on my camera.)  Both Charlie and Stephen have been working tirelessly to promote this picture. Stephen and our own Andrea Bari seemed to hit it off instantly (maybe it is that shared Italian ancestry they have going)  and Andrea was nice enough to tell them about my blogging and internet skills! What a sweetie! So we will see what will come of that.

Charlie spoke with passion about the crime  and wanting to get justice for those involve but you could sense that he would rather be behind the camera than doing public speaking. However, he was knowledgeable about the crime and answered all our questions.  Charlie appeared on an episode of  “America’s Most Wanted” about six weeks back and John Walsh gave him credit for reinvigorating interest in the 20 year old murder mystery.

The trailer was quite powerful and I believe it is a movie not to be missed. The actual victims were instrumental in the entire process. Charlie said they were hesitant at first but when they saw that he genuinely wanted to help them catch the murderers they came on board. If you want to see the trailer go to http://www. bowlingmassacre.com

It is playing at the Beverly Center 13 for a week during the following times:  5:30pm, 7:45pm and 10:05pm. With all the junk we are willing to pay ten bucks for, we should give our support to this very important documentary that is truly an independent endeavor and a creation of passion for justice.  Charlie had no connection to the case, yet he felt compelled to see it solved-that kind of determination deserves to be rewarded. Of course the greatest reward that could come from this film is someone comes forth and identifies the still unknown killers and the remaining survivors are able to get the justice they so richly deserve.

Excerpt from LA Times Review:

Minn has done a creditable job recounting the details of this heinous event and probing its haunting aftermath.

Straightforward and deftly assembled, the film mixes archival news clips, actual crime-scene footage and reenactments of the crime itself with a host of candid, highly personal interviews with the massacre’s survivors, the victims’ families and the case’s various investigators.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/reviews/la-et-nightmare-las-cruces-story,0,4582234.story

Conservative Student is Not Welcomed in LACC’s ASO

Ah the beauty of blogging! If I can’t get anyone else to tell my story then I can always do it myself. So here it goes:

I recently applied for a Senate position with my school’s Associated Student Organization (ASO).  I was called back to interview and I got the run around.  The person who would be conducting the interview was James Butler Zatino. He is the current president of ASO and does wield considerable influence in the process.  After playing phone tag, after trying to track him down I finally get an interview.  The interview goes pretty well, with my nervousness I do fumble a little but I recover overall. He asks me if the position I wanted was not open would I be willing to accept another one. I tell him yes. So I hear back from him and he says,  these are the positions available and for me to pick one.  He tells me to come back later that day at about 1 to let him know what position I picked. I get there and he is not there.  So I leave a message telling him what position I picked.  I run into him later and let him know I want the Senator at large position and that is when it all falls apart.

I am asked straight out, what is my political position? I tell him that I am conservative and he winces as if I actually stabbed him or committed some other violent act against him.  He asks me how to conservative, so I jokingly tell him “I make Rush Limbaugh look like a flaming liberal.”  He then tells me, “Well you are going to have to represent all the students.” I tell him, “I don’t have a problem with that but though I will represent the liberal students I will not tell the conservative students who come to me that I am not going to listen to them or that their voice can’t be heard as well.” Well that doesn’t fly with him.

I was supposed to be appointed the following week. He doesn’t show up and no one can find my paper work so it is going to have to wait until the following week. Then yesterday right before I was to get appointed I get two calls. One tells me appointments are being postponed and then the other telling me they have gone with someone else.

It was then that I went to the Dean of Student Life at Los Angeles City College and filed a complaint.  I am also in the process of talking to http://www.campusreform.org about the situation. I will also be heading to my school paper to let them know what is going on.  This should not be tolerated.

The thing is I don’t have embrace liberal ideology to be able to represent the students as a whole in the Senate.  Just like they don’t have to embrace my conservative ideology.  The thing is that they want a yes man, someone will just go along for the ride and not make any waves. Well they are not going to get that in me. I can represent all students because  I will listen to all students and take the best ideas from them and run with them.  But they just want a liberal parrot.  I wasn’t going to lie or downplay my conservatism. I feel they should know exactly who they are they getting  and if this was a club on campus like the Liberal Lions or some other club that pretty much catered to only liberal minded students then that is one thing. But you can’t say you represent the student population when you clearly do not!

This is not also the first time something like this has happened to me.  I was up for an internship during August. It was a paid internship. I would be helping to recruit students and organizing events. To show my experience in organizing political events-though truth be told they were small-I told them about my work with Silent No More Awareness Campaign and the male professor on the committee who is a political science professor-laid into me. “Well we are pretty far left do you think you could promote our agenda?”  He went from “pretty far left” to “extremely left” to trying to bait me about my abortion views. He was antagonistic and all in pretty obnoxious and I was glad I wouldn’t have to be working with this man. With his hostile attitude I thought they might be staging a coup d’etat or something. The fellow student I would’ve been working with was nice,  friendly and even if he was “extremely left” he had the common decency not to display any such obnoxious and unprofessional behavior! He was definitely a class act which is more than I can say for that professor! I don’t remember his last name but his first name was Zack and I am sorry I didn’t have a chance to work with him, I think we could’ve learned a lot from each other.

Things need to change at LACC and while I don’t think I am entitled to any position, I do think  it is unfair to be offered the position and then have it withdrawn, for no other reason then they don’t like my politics.  Well you know what ASO and Professor Hateful, I don’t like yours either! And if you think you are going to get away with treating students so abominably-you got another think coming!

Professor Dena? Surely You Jest!

I was so close but it just didn’t happen. My professor wanted me to teach her last political science class and offered me twenty bucks to do. It was mostly in jest, but I did call her bluff. It didn’t happen and the poor class was so confused. But it would’ve been real fun.  Maybe next time, if I get the opportunity, I will fight a bit harder for it.  In any case I couldn’t have taught the whole class anyway because I had to pick my son up early today from school. But  it did get me thinking.  We need more conservative professors in academia. There needs to be more than one point of view coming from the professors and students.  If all the professors are liberal and all the students are liberal,  then you just get regurgitation.  You need the back and forth and opposing views to really strengthen up your own arguments and to hopefully get others to think for themselves.  As long as liberalism is the presiding point of view, others are going to have a hard time finding their place in the academic world. So they will either shut up about it or take the abuse that will be heaped on them.

One thing I will say about Professor Cole is that even if she doesn’t agree with you and we never do, she respects people’s efforts to learn and she will listen to your side if you listen to hers.  There are plenty of liberals that agree with her inside the class but she has on more than one occasion pointed to me as someone to emulate at least in terms of trying to learn the material, etc.  I find that interesting.

However, you only have to go to “Professor at  LACC LACks Civility” on here to see that not all professors at my school show that kind of fairness. And I have never been blasted by her for my conservative views, she just doesn’t agree with them.  That’s fine with me.  Heck it makes it more fun to me to have someone to debate with.  That being said what would’ve happened if I had taught that class today? You know there would’ve been at least one student who would’ve reported it.  Even if she would’ve stayed in the class the whole time with me.  I also feel at some point my conservative views would’ve come out and that would’ve been the biggest problem.  Because I would’ve been “teaching” conservativism.  So I would be a uncredentialed teacher teaching a point of view that is not considered part of the accepted curriculum.  It is one thing to spout ideas from the student’s desk, it is quite another to do so as a teacher. I wonder what would’ve been the outcome. Maybe nothing,  but maybe there would’ve been a firestorm, you can never tell in these kind of situations.

In any case I was this close (puts index and thumb really close together but not touching) to teaching a political class at LACC.  Professor Dena Leichnitz, has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Shed A Tear This Christmas

Shed a tear this Christmas.

But don’t wipe it from your eye.

Shed a tear this Christmas .

For someone shall die.

As you open your presents.

Someone is opening their wrists.

Suicidal tendencies.

Is bound to be on someone’s Christmas list.

Dena Leichnitz 12/1987

I wrote that poem when I was seventeen years old. That is just the beginning of the poem. I was a very morbid girl and suicide was a constant companion for me. At six I overdosed on my meds because I was curious what would happen. At fourteen I overdosed again, but this time it was a deliberate suicide attempt. I did so because I had just lost my father to a drunk driver a month earlier. I know better than anyone that teens attempt and commit suicide for many reasons, one of them being-abortion.

“A troubling 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that teen suicide rates are on the rise. According to the study, there was an 18% increase in teen suicides in 2004—the largest single-year increase in the past 15 years—and the upward trend continued in the next year.”

The Elliott Institute, who is the premier organization dealing with post abortion trauma,  cited the above study in their newsletter. Another study this time done by John Hopkins found that middle aged women are also killing themselves at a much higher rate than in previous years.

“Experts and parents are concerned about this upswing in youth suicides, and many are also troubled by the results of a recent Johns Hopkins University study that found a 4% annual increase in suicides among Caucasian women age 40 to 64. The findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.^2″

So why are teens and middle aged women killing themselves? While there are many factors in why one decides to kill themselves, one that is often overlooked is a previous abortion. Many times the people in the life of the teen or the women don’t even know she has undergone one. So they have no way of helping her cope. This is not merely conjecture, the Elliott Institute has clearly demonstrated a link between abortion and suicide over the years in various studies. According to them, there is a 65% higher rate of clinical depression after an abortion and of those a majority of them suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And we all know that the holidays have a way of making people depressed anyway, especially with Christmas being about a birth of a child. Remember Mary is a mother that did everything she could to save the life of her child, who was being hunted by a madman. That is a sharp contrast to today’s mantra, “kill the inconvenient!” If there was ever an “inconvenient child” it was our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Thank God Mary thought more of Him then she did of herself or we would all be up the creek without a paddle.

Try as they might, the feminists can’t change human nature. Mothers will always be bonded to their children from the beginning. Not after birth, not when they are infants or toddlers but they bond when they are in the womb. They will never be able to get rid of the grief that comes from losing a part of you. They will never be able to wipe out the innate longing to be a mother and hold your child in your arms. Propaganda won’t do it, legislation won’t do it, nothing ever will and as a result millions of women will continue to suffer.

How many women and teenage girls have to die before we start caring about the real costs of abortion and less about the nonexistent benefits? How many children have to be slaughtered for choice before we speak out and say no more! How many of our daughters have to hang themselves from a tree with a teddy bear because they were unable to go on without their child? So just remember when you are opening your presents someone is opening their wrist. Remember the broken hearted this Christmas season. Their lives might depend on you.

Black Outreach for Smart Girl Politics

Black Outreach Coordinator for Smart Girl Politics

There is a growing conservative women’s movement and at the forefront of it is a very grassroots organization called Smart Girl Politics. Dena Leichnitz (ME!!!!) has been named as the Black Outreach Coordinator for Smart Girl Politics.

You can find them on the Ning network and already they have over two hundred members, they even have a smaller offshoot called Smart Guys Politics. They also have 14 other groups to join under their umbrella site.  It is a great network with great women and definitely something every conservative woman needs to check out.

Don’t forget to also check out my Ning network  as well. It is a place where Black conservatives and their supporters can come and share their experience, strength and hope with each other.  You can also follow me on Twitter. See you guys around cyberspace.

A Black Conservative Digest