Shalom (Peace), I'm Shirley!
A "Drum Major for Justice" that's who I am and I don't have a desire to be anything else. Is it easy? Of Course not, maybe if I was White. So, I don't focus on things I cannot change. My mother told me that if you don't stand for something you will fall for anything. I intend to stand not as someone else but as myself and with my whole heart. When we watched TV for a long time there were no faces that looked like me. Fortunately, the world shifted and there was a little change, suddenly people looked like me on TV, in the Movies, and at places I shopped. Then there's now, Trump was elected and progress put on the brakes. To a screeching halt. It is great to be an old Soldier because you see we don't die, we multiply. We don't fade away until we take a stand and fight to the last breath. That's where I am fighting till my last Breath....Can you hear the drums beating that is the sound of my heart, fight, fight, even beyond the dawning light. Know that no one woman is an army but women are the multiplication vehicle of the earth. No man is born until she carries him into this world. So, Man if you don't have a Vagina, keep your opinion about my production rights to yourself. We cannot allow a segment of Society without a Vagina to determine what we do with our bodies. That's insane. Believe me I am not insane, "just pissed off".


Where it all started
It started for me when I learned to read and reading allowed me to travel to places I had never been before and during that time I could not go because I was reading while Black. I could only imagine what it would be like to sit in the "First Class" section of an Airplane heading to places that called to me in my books. Since that time, I have been all over Europe, been to France, Italy, Holland, and where my Military Dependent Passport would let me go.
But the South was still the South. Even when there was no sign saying, "whites only", there was a feeling, a sense that you weren't welcome. People still followed you in the store like you were there to steal something, the Police were not there to "Protect and Serve" your community but to hold you hostage behind an invisible wall where you could not see over or climb your way out.
Still, you can buy houses but they can be beyond reach of most every day working folk. The Land we were promised, 40 acres and a Mule rode off into the sunset on a broken mule.
We have been propelled back in time and Democracy is becoming a dream. Freedom is becoming just a word. Humanity for the African American is still a sought-after prize.
Where will it end or will it end in my lifetime. Only the Shadows of Democracy know.