Wanted: One Golden Lasso Ring

This is one of my favorite pictures of my baby cousin, Heather and me.  Yes, my hair is a hot mess and I am rockin’ my beloved Grease t-shirt, which I eventually made into a pillow!  We are proudly posing in front of the Wonder Woman mural my uncle painted on Heather’s bedroom wall.  I love how the three of us are color coordinated and actually my hair sort of resembles that of the mural version of this rock star shero.  Anyway, my uncle thought it was important for her to have a strong role model to look up to.  And wouldn’t you know it – my cousin has grown up to be her own real life Wonder Woman.  I am so proud of her!

To my surprise one day I met the real Wonder Woman. The summer after I graduated from college in 1992, I was working as a receptionist for the new sports radio station in the DC area called WTEM-AM, Sports Radio 570.  I was stunned when the door swung open and there was Lynda Carter standing before me.  Not only was I confused as to why she was at a sports radio station, but also her scent was so intoxicating I was taken aback.   It was Diana Prince in the flesh, and she was just as nice and lovely as she appeared on-screen.  We chatted for a while before she headed back to the studio for her interview about a tennis tournament she and her husband were hosting that coming weekend.  It’s rare when I am in the presence of entertainers that I get star struck, but she caught me off guard.  Secretly in my head I wanted to ask her to spin around, but how silly would have that been.

I knew at some point I wanted to blog about my encounter with Wonder Woman, and with the latest news events I was compelled to tie this memory in with the Trayvon Martin case.  I know I have been posting non-stop about Trayvon, but more than likely I will continue to do so off and on until justice is served.  With all the crazy tales coming from the George Zimmerman camp it’s becoming more and more insane to hear what’s being reported.  We want justice and the truth.  Who better to get it?  Wonder Woman.  We need her Lasso of Truth.  That special golden lasso forces her captives to obey and tell the truth.  If I could summon Diana Prince to spin into Wonder Woman, jump into her invisible plane and head to Florida with her Lasso of Truth I would do it in a heartbeat.  And in a heartbeat I bet George Zimmerman would be behind bars faster than you can sing and jam to the show’s theme song:

Still I Rise

Women’s History Month has really started off with a lot of thunder with the continuing birth control battle and all the nonsense Rush Limbaugh is spewing.  I want to uplift the spirits and celebrate womanhood.  No better way than with words from The Phenomenal Woman, Dr. Maya Angelou: Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

-Maya Angelou, 1978

Ode to Rebecca

Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) founded in 1848 is the first medical school in the world to formally educate female physicians.  One of those females was Rebecca Lee Crumpler – a Black woman.  On this date in 1864 she became the first African-American woman to receive an M.D. degree from BUSM which was originally called the New England Female Medical College.

Being the first to accomplish a major feat is monumental, for a lack of better words.  To think of women getting educated in the field of medicine in the 1800s still astounds me.  Think about it – American women were denied the right to vote until 1920!  Fifty-six years before a woman could mark ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on a ballot, a Black woman was practicing medicine in Boston.  Crumpler specialized in the care of women, children and the poor.  She accomplished another triumph in 1883 when she provided health care advice for women and their families by publishing a medical guide book called Book of Medical Discourses.  What an inspiration.  I would have definitely taken two aspirin and called her in the morning.

Refusal to Move Makes History

The act of sitting down was such a powerful statement when it came to standing up for one’s civil rights in the 1950s and ’60s.  Today I wanted to pay homage to Rosa Parks, “the mother of the freedom movement.”  She became the international icon of resistance to racial segregation when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.  You can only imagine what was going through her mind when she chose that simple act of defiance.  With all the titles and accolades she received, I would dub her the Queen of Chutzpah.

In the Spring of 1990 she visited my alma mater The University of Virgina.  In my 2nd year we were honored to have her as a guest during our Black History Month celebration.  I was more honored to have taken this photo of her.  I love the sweet expression on her face and the fact she was waving at me.  At least in my mind, I believe she was. 

Her birthday is tomorrow February 4.  If you have to take public transportation this weekend think about her.  Think of the sacrifice she made.  Don’t sit on the back of the bus.  Don’t move to the last train car.  Know that you have the freedom to sit anywhere.  Thank you Rosa Parks, thank you.