Dear United States Government, What Next My Vagina?!!

Dear United States Government,

You may be in control of a lot of things, but my mind and my vagina you cannot control.

Well hopefully you can’t, :-/ I know how powerful you are and I fear that these two things you are trying to get your hands on…Next I think the government will try to control when you urinate!

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Well to me it is quite ridiculous that in the land of the free the government not only wants to control how many babies a woman can have but they also want to make paternity testing mandatory at the time of a child’s birth in order to get a birth certificate with the father’s name on it. (Read the Mandated Paternity Testing Bill proposed by Senator Reginald Tate -D Memphis, TN)

The government has said that women are having too many babies that they can’t afford to take care of…but then on the other hand the government wants to limit birth control pills. They want to do away with abortion completely and I think next they will mandate in-home surveillance cameras to see who is having sex with who in hopes that they can make women account for their sex partners and have the fathers of babies out-of-wedlock on film so they can force them to take care of the children.

It disturbs me that the government wants to have so much control over citizens, I’m scared of what they will propose next.

And this may sound wrong or rude or whatever but how  can a person be free to be gay but not be free to take a damn birth control pill. I say pop em’ to you see otherwise, a pill a day keeps unwanted babies away… I am in no way against homosexuals and their rights but hell if a person has the right to marry a person of the same sex shouldn’t a person have a say so over if they want to have an abortion?? (the war against Planned Parenthood read , read , read ) If a person has the right to have unprotected sex should not also have the right to take birth control pills or control whether they give birth to a child. That’s like saying it is okay to get sloppy drunk but you cannot, I repeat you cannot call a cab to take you home, go ahead and drive….smh

The government frustrates me….

It is getting very critical….I’m almost scared to use public bathrooms. Aside from many of them being disgusting I think the government may be collecting samples

Black Mondays

Black Mondays

The sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

                                                      

A year after the death of the beloved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the same city where he held protest for equality, injustice was still brewing. But the people of Memphis held steadfast to the dream of Dr. King and decided that they would not be moved. They would stand up for equality and the dream would live on.

In 1969 in the city of Memphis, TN over half the students in the school system were black, so why was the school board all white?

Even after the NAACP got involved the school board that represented a majority of black students remained all white.  The black community’s dismay with the lack of black representation on the school board led to what came to be known as Black Mondays. The participating students and teachers knew that the boycotts were risky and some were torn about a potential outcome,  but they were adamant on seeing a change.  The school boycott campaign began in the fall of 1969 and continued for approximately 5 Mondays.  The first Black Monday took place October 13, 1969 and over sixty thousand black students participated in the boycott by being absent from school that day. Each Monday that followed black students and teachers boycotted by not showing up to teach or attend school.  The current mayor of Memphis, Dr. Willie Herenton, who was then a principal, was the only principal to ally with the Black Mondays protest and walk out of school.

Black Mondays led to other boycotts including those of black employees of St. Francis Hospital, black city workers staying home from work and a boycott of downtown businesses.  The Black Monday Boycotts drew much attention and finally in November of 1969 the boycotts were called to an end by a coalition of black organizations when the Board of Education filed a lawsuit against some parties involved citing contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The lawsuit was dropped, but the point of Black Mondays had been made. The school system receives state and federal funding based on student attendance and with over half the students in the system participating in Black Monday each Monday the impact was hard hitting.

Black Mondays resulted in the addition of two black non-voting members to the Memphis School board and indeed paved the way for future black school board members.  Currently the Memphis City School Board of Commissioners is majority African American. (Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners)

Link from The Commercial Appeal Black Mondays Signaled a New Day  written by Wendi C. Thomas

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February 28, 2009 at 2pm The Benjamin Hooks Central Library  in Memphis, TN will be hosting a discussion panel to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Black Monday. The panel will include Maxine Smith, Dr. Vasco Smith and Dr. Miriam DeCosta-Willis, all civil rights activists who will share their memories of the historical boycotts.

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