Ananda Lewis: A call to fight breast cancer

Ananda Lewis’ wakeup name

For us Gen Xers, Ananda Lewis was one of many faces of our era. An MTV VJ, she was a star determine within the heart of the Eighties and 90s media universe. She was later recognized with breast most cancers, which is a analysis that too usually proves deadly for Black girls. Lewis, nevertheless, very publicly rejected mammograms and different actions related to coping with or stopping breast most cancers. Nevertheless, she made a really public about-face, and strongly advocated that girls, particularly Black girls, get checked instantly and infrequently for breast most cancers. Lewis lately died at age 52 from the illness, however not with out issuing that wake-up name loud and clear—sisters, get checked.

No Kings assertion

On a day when this nation might have cowered in worry on the rise of a wanna-be king and the navy parade he threw for himself and his birthday, 12.1 million folks protested in a stand for democracy. That day (June 14) is being referred to as the biggest nationwide protest in U.S. historical past. And there are quite a lot of completely different angles to take when discussing it. However simply the truth that 12.1 million voices selected to talk out in unison towards threats to democracy, civil liberties, due course of, and so on., is encouraging.

Shout out to Morris Brown School

For individuals who don’t know, Job Corps is an entity that hundreds of younger folks flip to for a second likelihood at making a life for themselves. These younger folks, who for varied causes discovered themselves going through serial unemployment, incarceration and/or homelessness, selected to spend money on themselves and their futures. And the Job Corps has turned across the lives of tens of hundreds. However being on model, the present federal administration defunded and closed scores of Job Corps facilities nationally; facilities that home, feed and prepare folks. That transfer left untold numbers of children searching for the prospect to change into productive residents, out on the streets, with neither “pot nor window,” as my dad used to say. 

Enter the Atlanta HBCU, Morris Brown School. MBC’s president, Dr. Kevin James—who as soon as taught at Job Corps—is personally inviting displaced college students to use and discover a new tutorial house on the historic HBCU, giving these younger folks a automobile to proceed their journeys.

Ignorance is killing us

There’s no getting round it: “We the Folks” have gotten to get smarter. There was an precise “debate” on-line about whether or not or not Harriet Tubman actually existed. We depend on the U.S. authorities to outline “terrorism” for us when the KKK has been round for 160 years and continues to be listed as a tax-exempt spiritual group. Mainstream media isn’t any higher, refusing to label a “terrorist” that Trump-supporting, police-impersonating dude who assassinated a Minnesota senator and their partner. A whole federal division was created (Dept. of Govt. Effectivity) to “root out rampant waste.” 

However one in every of its members, Sahil Lavingia, stated, “I personally was fairly shocked, truly, at how environment friendly the federal government was,” mainly revealing DOGE’s whole mission was a Ponzi scheme. Lavingia was then instantly fired. And a NY choose lately ordered a full hand recount of 2024 ballots, which had ZERO votes for Kamala Harris in 4 out of 5 cities in predominantly Democratic-voting Rockland County (an impossibility, suggesting folks who worry our votes taking excessive measures to dam our votes… but, a few of us nonetheless argue voting doesn’t matter). We will complain about devious issues others are doing, but when we’re not getting civically smarter, the forces of injustice have already received.

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