GET YOU A BEVERLY

Get you a Beverly…

A “Beverly” is someone in your life that will give it to you straight, no chaser. A “Beverly” will let you know when you’re being a plumb fool and a “Beverly” won’t let you keep having children by a manipulating jack ass! A “Beverly” will pray over your life and make sure you don’t continue to make the same mistakes.

The “Beverly” in my life happened to be my Mother Beverly.

Because of Beverly's words of wisdom I was able to walk away from a situation that could have had me in a similar situation as Amina, Tara and Peter the Great Manipulator. Only difference was, my guy wasn’t a married man.  One of the best pieces of advice Beverly gave was: “Don’t have no more babies by him.” Those words saved me from a whole heap of heartache. Don’t get me wrong, I love my baby-daddy aka my son’s father, he’s a wonderful Dad, but having multiple children with him wouldn’t have been healthy for my heart or my mind during that time in our lives. And since, prison isn’t on my list of goals, the better option for us was to co-parent.

I say all that to say: If Tara Wallace had a “Beverly” in her life, we wouldn’t be witnessing this hot mess love triangle unfold on national television. Beverly would have been told her to stop that stupid shit. I hardly ever discuss Tara negatively, and people often wonder why, since I usually go in hard on other Love & Hip Hop cast members. Truth is, I love me some Tara Wallace and we have history with one another. Tara and I worked together on a stage play and although we’re not besties, we are kindred spirits. She has a charming personality, much like myself. She is sweet and funny and she loves her boys. What can I say, I love nice, funny people.

Tara Wallace and I backstage at our stage play.

I try not to get all “judgie” because I know first-hand that love will make you do some crazy things (In my Deborah Cox voice). My college roommate’s grandmother once told me that love will make you stick your head up a pig’s ass! 

At 18 years old, I didn’t understand that analogy, but after living a little, loving a lot and experiencing heartache for myself; I fully understand what she meant. And what we are witnessing ladies and gentleman is 2 women with their heads up a pig’s ass! We’ve all played some kind of fool before; many of you still are, and many of us were just lucky enough to have a “Beverly” in our life to speak some sense into us and get us out of the situation in the nick of time. Peter is a great manipulator, and I’m sure his words and actions towards both women have them believing all kinds of shit. Even the smartest woman has fallen victim to a man’s empty promises. I was once like Amina singing and writing sad love songs. I  was hoping and praying that my heart felt songs would change my situation. I too, was like Tara thinking that my love was powerful enough to change the heart of a man that wanted to have his cake, pies, cookies and the whole damn buffet. The whole situation is just crazy! I’m not justifying the actions of Tara, Amina or Peter, nor am I here to judge them, but what I’m saying is: I understand.

Thank God for my Beverly! You better get you one! 

THE FLINT I KNOW

With tear filled eyes I write this blog, in hopes that it will penetrate someone’s soul with love. I am writing from a place of love and passion, so I entitle this: THE FLINT I KNOW.

Before the #FlintWaterCrisis, Flint was just a town full of hardworking, resilient and proud folk. And guess what? When the #FlintWaterCrisis hashtag is no longer a trending topic and the Kardashians do something like save a bumble bee, Flint will still be a town full of hardworking, resilient and proud folk.

The Flint I know is more than a statistic stating how General Motors screwed us. The Flint I know is filled with my friends and their parents who were “shop” workers or retired “shop” workers and proud of it. The Flint I know is more than a violent city. The Flint I know is filled with extremely, talented folks trying to make a difference in their community and the world-at-large. The Flint I know is not full of despair. The Flint I know is full of hope. The Flint I know is not all about slow singing and flower bringing. The Flint I know is full of energy from that party DJ’d by Hype. 

Photo Courtesy of Anthony "Hype" Carter via Facebook 

The Flint I know is not unhealthy and lazy. The Flint I know is full of CRIM trainers and CRIM runners.

Photo Credit: Flint Crim Foundation 

The Flint I know is not tacky. The Flint I know is styled by Fannie Lucille and Tiffany Cole, and is as fashionable as a New York runway. 

The Flint I know is not starved by the lack of adequate grocery stores. The Flint I know is fed by Woods, the Flint Farmer’s Market, Big Al, Beverly, The Red Wagon and Vehicle City Tacos.

The Flint I know is not filled with losers. The Flint I know breeds Champions like Mateen, Charlie and Mo, Claressa Shields, The Dirrell brothers, Mark Ingram and so many more. 

The Flint I know isn’t going to back down like some punk. The Flint I know changed history with sit-down strikes and birthed unions! 

Photo Credit: www.workers.org 

The Flint I know is not filled with teen pregnancies. The Flint I know was filled with teen parties hosted by Foxy productions, DonQuay, Stacey Williams, DJ Scribble, and the General; at venues like the Genesee Towers, Northwest Bowling Alley, The Genesis, Haskell, and Berston. 

The Flint I know was better than the NBA playoffs. The Flint I know had double headers at the I.M.A. that would put the NBA All-Star weekend to shame. 

I.M.A. Sports Arena 

The Flint I know was better than the Oscars Red Carpet Pre-Show. The Flint I know hosted proms at the University Center and that walk around the circle had you feeling like you were about to accept an award. 

Photo Credit: Bill Bamberger

The Flint I know doesn’t lack faith, churches, or church leaders. The Flint I know has some of the best preachers and community leaders this side of heaven including: The late Bishop Floyd, Pastor Kenneth Stewart, Urundi Knox, Rev. Alfred Harris, Rev. Kim D. Yarber, Rev. Lewis Randolph, Rev. Flowers and the list goes on...

Photo Credit: mlive.com 

The Flint I know will not accept your arsenic. The Flint I know will not go down without an all-out fight. The Flint I know is the toughest town around since 1855!

The Flint I know is “The Valley”

The Flint I know is The Courtland

The Flint I know is Atwood

The Flint I know is Angelos

The Flint I know is Beans & Leaves

The Flint I know is Meijer on Pierson Road

The Flint I know is Kessel’s on Pierson Road

The Flint I know is CLC

The Flint I know is the Beavers, JB’s and the Palm Tree

The Flint I know is Autoworld

The Flint I know is family

What's the Flint that you know? 

LIFE... Insurance

LIFE Insurance…

Remember the theme song from the commercials for the board game LIFE?  It went something like this: “Get lucky in the game of LIFE, marry your honey, and go someplace sunny! Get Lucky in the game of LIFE!”  I always thought that was such a cool theme song. The game in itself was pretty cool and fun too. With one lucky spin you could get married or become a doctor. One of the taglines from the game’s creators even state: “Whatever you choose, you never know what ups and downs you'll encounter along the way.” That statement alone is truer than true, because in life we’re going to have many ups, like the joys of giving birth or graduating high school, to the downs of losing a job, or experiencing a loved one’s death.

In the board game of LIFE, they like to keep it fun for the kids, so death isn’t a strong theme in the family fun game, but in the real game of actual life, death is inevitable. The question is: Will you be prepared when your final spin lands on DEATH? I’m not referring to if you’ll be spiritually or mentally prepared, that’s more of a personal thing. However, it does concern me if you are financially prepared to handle the expenses of death once that day arrives. Do you have life insurance? Or will your death place a burden on your family, where they have to beg, borrow, steal or create a GoFundMe campaign on your behalf?

Life insurance is essential to life and death. Many people are uneducated about the costs and benefits of investing in life insurance. First let me explain the costs associated with having a funeral. According to http://funeral-tips.com/, the average North American Traditional funeral ranges between $7,000 and $10,000. However this range may be higher or lower depending on where you live, but please note that the costs, no matter the location, are not lower than $3,000. Some of the fees for burial include the following: funeral director’s services, casket, embalming, using the funeral home for service or transporting the body to a church or other location, gravesite, grave digger, burial container to hold the grave, headstone, etc. From my own personal experience, from having to bury my mother, my sister and I even had to purchase new undergarments, including a slip in order for her to be placed in the casket. It was in the funeral home’s policy that mandated that she have new ones. So, trust me when I say death is expensive and the little things add up. The programs cost, adding pictures cost, hiring a musician to play at the service cost, having the preacher give a eulogy cost, opening and closing at the service cost. Did I mention that the hearse and limousine cost? Everything costs! Funerals are not cheap! In the event that your loved one passes on, your heart is already heavy and your thoughts are all over the place, you don’t want to have to pack on more misery by adding “How will I pay for this?” to the load. Many people front for Facebook, Instgram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc…, like they have money by flaunting bands, wearing the latest designer or even going on fancy trips, but when you die your family is selling fish dinners, having a party or starting a GoFundMe account to lay you to rest. Meanwhile, they’re losing sleep.

We save money for everything except death!

But all of this can be avoided by investing in Life Insurance. You can get life insurance coverage for as little as $4.00 to $30.00 per month. That’s a small price to pay per month considering all the things we spend our money on. I mean we spend our money on eyebrows and bundles for Pete’s sake! You might think you're making the right decisions, but spend your money wisely on your life's path or it could become your family’s road to ruin. Think of purchasing life insurance as sacrificing one lunch per month, or not going out for a night on the town one weekend a month. Life insurance is actually cheaper than going to the movies. You can insure your life up to $250,000 and since the average funeral is approximately $7,000 that means that your family will have money to spare in the event of your death. Therefore, I encourage you today to buy a Life Insurance policy. If you’re not sure where to start, try the following places: banks, credit unions, local funeral homes, or car insurance agencies. Get covered and insure your life and family today!

Drip Drop... Flint Water Crisis

"Drip drop, drip drippity drop..."

Note: Just know that as I write this, I'm not angry: I'm mad as hell and I'll ride for my city til the day that I die!!!

When you hear the catchy tune, and lyrics of the song "Drip Drop", made popular by Jamal Lyon's fictional character on Fox's hit series "Empire", one of two things come to mind, either dancing or water. In this post, we're going to discuss the latter. When you hear the words drip drop, immediately water comes to mind. Water is known by it's molecular makeup of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen (H2O). Water is a fluid essential for maintaining human life and the basis of all living things, so when you think of water, you think of purity, clarity and cleanliness. 

However, when the residents of Flint, Michigan, aka Flintstones, think of water, thoughts of anxiety, fear and anger comes to mind. Residents are anxious because they are not sure when this water issue will be resolved. Governor Rick Snyder drug his feet before he decided to declare a state of emergency. Ironically, He had a much quicker response when he decided to continue to allow the residents of Flint to drink and bathe in lead infested water. 

Anxious-They are anxious because month after month they are sent a high ass water bill for unclean and unsafe water and faced with a dilemma to pay it or not pay it. If they choose not to pay it, they risk being penalized with late fees and re-connection of service fees. Simple tasks like turning on a faucet to pour a drink, or splashing your face when you awake in the morning, is quite a daunting one if you live in the city of Flint. Something as simple as bathing, cooking or hydrating is like a life altering risk.

Fearful- Flintstones are fearful of the possibility of being poisoned from the high levels of lead in the water, due to old pipes and an outdated infrastructure. An infrastructure that should have been replaced years ago. But instead of replacing the system, the powers that be just thought they'd push it to the side, in hopes that it would somehow just go away. But the fear continues to grow when medical doctors are reporting that your child could suffer from brain issues due to the high concentration of lead. As if going to the doctor wasn't a fearful event already, but then you add this to this water debacle into the equation.

Angry- The people of Flint are angry because, when the shit hit the fan, the, message was loud and clear, that their lives were not valuable. As long as the government could save some money, then so be it. They were like screw your health! Angered because their skin is breaking out and they are getting sick. Angry because their water is looking like 3rd world country water, in a very developed 1st world United States.

Actual Water of Flint Resident, R. Ferguson. Photo credit: Facebook photo of R. Ferguson

 Flintstones are angry because someone's children and helpless grandparents were and are being poisoned, while the powers that be turned a blind eye. Angry because at the onset of all of this, so many people were aware, people who had the power to change it and didn't. 

This isn't Flint's first battle and it certainly will not be her last. Flint is a tough girl and will get through this hydrated, refreshed and reigning supreme. Flint is going to fight for her basic right of having clean water. Justice will be served on Flint's behalf. It is my sincere hope that Governor Rick Snyder is found guilty of knowingly poisoning men, women, children and elderly. I hope the next drip, drop he hears comes from a raggedy infrastructure, in a filthy sink, in a  nasty cell.

CONSISTENCY

Today’s word of the day is: CONSISTENCY!

In today’s world, consistency has seemingly been swallowed up by instant gratification. Instead of sticking to things or working things out, we have fallen victim to giving up or moving on to something else without a second thought. Without even trying we are on to the next.

In relationships we seek that Cliff and Clair type of love. It’s ideal. But we don’t put in the work. We don’t communicate. We’re not consistent in showing our appreciation for one another. We’re not consistent in our words or deeds. Instead of calling each other we text. Instead of getting to know each other through the good, bad and the ugly, we get an urge to go left right at the corner of semi-good. When things start to look bad, we’re completely out of dodge, and we don’t even get close to ugly because we’re not too fond of pretty.

Every year we’re perpetually trying to lose 10, 15 and 20 lbs. We sign up for our year membership at the gym, declaring that this year we’re going to stick to Kanye’s Workout Plan. We start off with an exercise routine and schedule, but then that becomes too much of a hassle. We’re not seeing results fast enough so we resort to a quick fix, like a waist trainer or some magical tea to do the trick. When all we have to do is stay the course.

We say we want to save money, but we stay in the mall. We’re not setting financial goals. So instead of seeing gains all we see is losses.

We say we want to be great. We say we want to be successful. We say we want results. We say all these things verbally. We tweet about it. Boast on our statuses about it. We even repost memes about it. But what are we actually doing about it?

Let us move forward into 2016 with consistency. Let our daily agenda be to stay the course. Let us not do something once or twice and expect success. Let the motto for 2016 be: Consistency and without a shadow of a doubt I’m sure we’ll see the sweet fruit of our labor bring forth nothing short of success!