In the last year we have seen the demise of Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey,Bill Cosby, Charlie Rose, Matt Laurer,possibly Morgan Freeman, the chick from Smallville, and now it's Roseanne Barr. Several of these people were involved in criminal behavior and this result was inevitable. Some are accused of being sexual inpropiety, human trafficking, sexual assault, and others of engaging in racist behavior in the media. The #timesup for men's behavior around sexual impropriety is long overdue, I don't know a woman who has not experienced some level of sexual misconduct from the mild to the extreme, including myself. This is a floodgate that has literally been bursting at the seams and is now coming through in a torrent and we have yet to see it subside anytime soon. 
I am glad there is now a nationwide dialogue about accountability, it is necessary and I look forward to when this conversation includes personal and public interactions with each other and our relationship with the environment. What am I concern with is, are we holding performers to a higher standard, than others includin elected officials and the media? Kevin Spacey performs as President of the United States on the show "House of Cards" he is accused of sexual misconduct in his real life with young men and is fired from the show. That is absolutely an appropriate response, in real life we have 45 occupying the seat in the White House, there are currently 23 women who have come forward accusing him of sexual misconduct. He has not been suffered one consequence, he hasn't been investigated, he hasn't been barred from certain activities involving women, he isn't referred to as a sex offender. We have Bill Cosby,  he has been accused by 18 women of rape and was recently charged. He is facing a jail sentence, as a result of own conduct, his show has been pulled from every television outlet. While 45 continues to enjoy all the luxuries as before including making money from his businesses while in office. 
Roseanne Barr wrote a tweet about Valerie Jarrett former Senior Advisor to my Pres. B calling her a mixture of the 'Islamic Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes". Her show was promptly cancelled by ABC, she has been dropped by her agency, her show pulled from Viacom and dropped by each television outlet. In 2014, Burnett and Downey produced a film of the Bible where Satan looked nearly identical to (then) President Obama. The scene was cut, there was very little controversy afterwoods and the film was released . There have been more than 5 Republicans who have described Michelle Obama as a primate including Mayor Charles Wasko, who was asked to step down but refused. Pamela Taylor was removed from her post but then was reinstated. Bill Hannity, Rush Limbaugh,and many others referred to President Obama as Jihad, to a p*ssy, to a terrorist, stupid, nazi and everything in between with no repercussions. The only person to actually be held accountable...another performer Rodner Figuero  from Univision who referred to Michelle Obama as "from the Planet of the Apes". He should have been fired but several Republicans including Mitch McConnell has disrespected the name of my Pres. B while in office and again no repercussions. 
While the move to hold accountability is important, when you hold a position of prestige especially if you are fortunate enough to have a successful television named after-yourself!!! you need to honor that position with much more self control. At the same time, performers are just that performers. We do not in any way have affect on the quality of lives. We do not determine legislation, we don't control the media, we are not lawyers, counselors or any of the above. Performers do affect the social conversation and can have the power to move a political agenda forward. Performer especially well paid ones and/or powerful must be held accountable for their behavior. Thier career and possible the careers of many others are dependent on holding a sense of decorum with their brand. We have to also be aware of those limitations and hold our highest sense of outrage to the people who's words and comments actually affect lives, countries and nations. We can't hold the tweet of a comedian and the supposed leader of the free world in the same contention. #saveamerica #roseannebarr #abccancellation #roseanneshow #roseanne #obamas #whitehouse #45istrash #45 #republicans #gop #michelleobama 

There are a disproportionate number of illness specifically harmful to black people. We are the highest in cholesterol , blood pressure, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and on and on. My family medical history is something out of horror book. It includes mental illness, kidney disease, glaucoma, diabetes, blood pressure and other life-draining maladies. Ironically, my family history does not include terrible eating habit, sedentary lifestyles or generational  poverty.

Recently, I am experiencing issues with blood pressure and joint pain and I decided before I just join the pill club I should do some research. What I discovered is that alot of our family issues was related to the endocrine system and specifically the adrenal gland. This particular gland is susceptible to stress which is throughout  my familial history and that is factor for many black families. My father grew up in colonial Jamaica and my mother during the Jim Crow south.  Whether there is the threat of financial instability, inequalities at work, hostile reactions in public, fear of walking down the street being subject to suspicion these are factors present today and even more intensely during my parent generation and beyond.

 It is easy to begin to understand how stress has played a heavy role in my own family's health and the health of others. The challenge is there is some stress which you can avoid, how do you not drive if you need to, how can you not walk home if its only a couple of blocks, how can you screen every job to make sure its one conducive to a black employee, what if that is the college that has the specialty your looking for, what if there are no other political candidates on the ticket.

As black people we begin to swallow this as our reality and as a result we swallow the pain over and over. This is not relieve the responsibilities of blk people who make bad choices or who create havoc in their lives and others but there is a level of stress that is just being a member of this beautiful race.

There is a level of #everydayracism that we have to squash because its we can fight every battle. That lives in our system and no matter what food, or exercise or meditation we may need to do it is a daily battle to keep that coat of armor in front of us.  More than 200 years later the aftermath of America's shame still lives in our system and those from the African Diaspora from other lands  who experienced there own horror it written in their faces and many wounded, pain-riddled bodies.
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This is something we must know and make part of our understanding of our bodies, we need to be gentle and informed  when we enter that doctors office. Some of the bad choices that effect us are our own but some of the affects on our health we must not wear as shame but as deeper knowing that should  be dealt with as compassion not shame or guilt. 

November 8, 2016 which officially become the day this country returned to the Dark Ages. Never in my life, would I thought the word Trump and Presidency would ever become one. 
As the night of Tuesday November 8 unfolded, it was as if my world was losing light and then it just got dimmer and dimmer. It was completely unfathmoable, to think this country  would elect a ...reality star. This has to be one of the lowest moments in our modern country's history. He has no experience in foreign relations, no legislative experience and no political expertise. I just couldnt comprehend, how did this country with all this wealth and power choose to elect the lowest common denominator? It made absolutely no sense.  We are now into the first week of the official status of ..the new dawn of darkness. 

Many are trying to normalize, noticing he has stepped back on many mandates he shared during the Presidency.  He has decided to not be so extreme on Obamacare, Roe vs. Wade , the Muslim registry..(?)..I refuse to try to breathe. Even if he swayed from everyone of his campaign promises...he is completely incompetent for this job. How did we deny the woman with 30 years experience including as a U.S. Senator and Secretary of State for a man who created The Apprentice?

Each day I wake up hoping this is all a bad dream and then I look at the news and it all becomes too real again. How I yearn for 2008 when there was such hope and expectancy in the air. There was such anticipation of what was coming and not the fear or dread that seems to permeate the air now. You can't seem to have a civil conversation because the personal stakes are too high whether you were With Her or not.  There are moves to try to normalize what we have just experienced and I believe this is people's way to make it palatable but this election has crossed a line that can never be uncrossed. It confirmed that we dont want to change, we want what is familiar. This country was not ready to continue to move into the unknown, charter territory that has not been covered before.

These last 8 years have been accused of being the same but that is completely untrue. We have seen siesmic change, not the least an African-American family occupied the White House. We had an amazing First Lady who was the descendants of slaves and a President who's father was a citizen of Kenya. We have seen queer people openly serving in the military, people living because now pre-existing conditions are a thing of the past, gay marriage the law of the land, the Dept of Justice investigating the death of one black child. We have a Latina on the Supreme Court, we have 3 women appointed to the Supreme Court, a President who spoke about and supported the conversation of Climate Change..on and on. It was all too much for a country that only 10 years ago went to war to protect ourselves from the "Axis of Terror". People needed reassurance that we still have cowboys who can take out Indians, that we are tough on crime, tough on terror, tough on immigration..we're just tough. 
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The next four years will look like anything but progress but what the end result will be is anyone's guess. The one shining light of these days of dreariness is that we have seen a mobilizing of citizens that is unprecedented. People are speaking out loudly that this is not our normal and it is unacceptable. The hope that this is momentum will carry us into a backlash of the stagnant.