A Reflection from Denise Brown for our Dear Friend, Lila Cook!

Lila and I worked together for 31 years with the State. For a while we worked at DOR(Dept. of Revenue) and at night at SCDOT. I can remember at times when we were at Park Street as we called it, G-8, later they started calling us the warehouse. Anyway, Lila and I were single parents, which meant other things got taken care of before us. We tried to look good and we liked our heels. Well we wore ours so much that the plastic (cause some of mine were manmade) started peeling off and the nail started showing. Oftentimes we would slide across the office. Well one of our other friends and co-worker whom I think I’ll call her Evelyn or Evelena would laugh and comment with “ya’ll ain’t slid in a while”. We got through that as years past.

At DOR, it was doing tax time that we and some of the birthday gang worked there. This particular time they called themselves re-evaluating our pay, they were suppose to put it in your checking account, well when they finished we could check what was in your account. Lila called hers and wasn’t sure of what she heard so she called the number and told me to listen to see if I had heard the same thing, I listened and I told her, “yep you heard right”. They had deposit about 20cent in her account. We had a big laugh.

I, like Lila tried to work at DOT at night. I think I lasted for 2 months. When 10:00 came, it was time to go, I was so glad. I hurt, so when overtime came open upstairs I told Ms. Margaret, I would be doing overtime. When overtime was done, I decided not to go back. Lila said, “you looked so pitiful, everything ain’t for everyone”. Boy was she right.

The time she brought Ketara a sweater for Christmas. It was a Christmas sweater with birds on it like hers and we said we hope she wasn’t gonna make her wear it. she said yes she was. She brought a blouse and let me tell you ,she and I had different taste in clothes. She said “How you like my blouse? I told her it looked good on her and she said “I can get you one like it.” I told her I valued our friendship too much. That was ok.

I could go on and on but on Thursday,September 1, I was standing in my kitchen and God saw fit to show me something. I responded with “you mean Lila is gonna leave me like Till?” “I’m gonna be going on break by myself? Till was her friend, my parents knew his people. We called him Till, Lila called him Rudy. At lunchtime I called her and told her I needed her to pray for Rochelle, she went on an interview. She told me she had talked to Mr. Paul. I said you gonna give up the part-time job, she said she wasn’t saying all of that. She called me back to let me know she had talked to him and she would be on leave for a while. That night around about 11:40 a neighbor knocked on my door. She said Ms. Cook called, I said Lila? All she said was Ms. Cook called and gave me a cell phone number. It was Lila’s sister. I called and she said Lila was gone.

Lila was my banker, my psychiatric, my break buddy, my lunch partner, my clock, my friend. I will forever remember all the good times we had. My girl was on the one.

Denise Brown

Walk For Life – October 1, 2011

Saturday, October 1, 2011, was Columbia’s Breast Cancer Walk For Life.  Thousands of people attended to their time for a worthy cause.  In attendance were survivors, loved ones of survivors, loved ones left alone because of the loss, supporters and all others who care about their lives and others who are trying to go on living with theirs.  All of us know someone personally who had a bout with cancer or succumbed to it.  If you can’t contribute to a cure, then pray for a cure.  October is Breast Cancer Month.  Let’s find something in pink to wear.  BTW, real men are not afraid of wearing pink!

The Five Heartbeats - Heart Is A House For Love

This is some old school music. They got it together in time. Eddie Cain can sang!

We Thirst For You – CeCe Winans Live

Let Go, Let God - Dewayne Woods

Diversity In The Fiduciary



Front Row: Associate Justices; Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Back Row: Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan

 From the Associated Press - President Barack Obama is moving at a historic pace to try to diversify the nation's federal judiciary: Nearly three of every four people he has gotten confirmed to the federal bench are women or minorities. He is the first president who hasn't selected a majority of white males for lifetime judgeships.  Of the 98 Obama nominees confirmed to date, the administration says 21 percent are African-American, 11 percent are Hispanic, 7 percent are Asian-American and almost half — 47 percent — are women. By comparison, of the 322 judges confirmed during George W. Bush's presidency, 18 percent were minorities and 22 percent were female. Of the 372 judges confirmed during Clinton's terms, 25 percent were minorities and 29 percent were women. In these figures, some judges fit into more than one category.  The president won Senate confirmation of the first Latina to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor. And with the confirmation of Justice Elena Kagan, he increased the number of women on the high court to three for the first time.  Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court in 1967, and Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman to be elevated to the nation's highest court in 1981.  "The more diverse the courts, the more confidence people have in our judicial system," said Nan Aron of the liberal Alliance for Justice. "Having a diverse judiciary also enriches the decision-making process."  Obama also has doubled the number of Asian-Americans sitting on the federal bench, including adding Denny Chin to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York as the only active Asian federal appeals court judge. There currently are 14 Asian-American federal judges on the 810-judge roster.  Having said this, there are still some narrow-minded critics who refuse to accept the fact that these minorities are more than qualified to deserve these positions.  Then again, some of these same people think we vote for people of color running for public office just because they are people of color.  We accept the fact that hatred causes people to be this blind.

We Stood United, 9/11/01



The Crashes



WTC In Ruins



The Pentagon

Sunday, 9/11/11, the country celebrated the 10^th anniversary of the terrorists attacks in New York, Arlington, VA, and in Pennsylvania.  These cowards hijacked four planes full of innocent people and crashed them into the World Trading Center, the twin towers, and the Pentagon. One intended flight did not reach its destination; the White House.  The brave passengers of Flight 93 overpowered the hijackers and caused the plane to crash near a strip mine in rural Shanksville, PA.  I gave this refresher because these are the most memorable circumstances that united this country and rallied all of us Americans to come to each other’s aid.  We all stood side by side standing behind our President to take revenge on these terrorists groups and show them the full might of American power.  We held this unity as long as we could, at least for 5 years.  But, this unity started unraveling during the next Presidential election campaign.  And after the first Black President was elected in the United States, we thought that this would be a change in our way of thinking and acting towards all Americans.  Instead, it caused a polarization that affected not only the people but our governing body.  Wall Street collapsed, Detroit was failing, Banks were going bankrupt, the job market was shrinking, foreclosures were increasing and the country was involved in too many wars.  With this kind of mess, why would anyone want to be President anyway?  Unemployment was rising and it seemed all that the government wanted to do was think about partisan politics and forget about the people that elected them.  The Republican Party’s ideological firebrands are still determined to destroy President Obama and make him a one-term President by any means necessary.  All of which will be done at the expense of the majority of the American people.  They are even voting against policies that they had once supported such as the payroll tax.  They have become pure obstructionists and its not helping the country.  There is a lot of intense resentment and resistance toward this President.  You might believe that it’s a policy difference but I don’t.  If you don’t even support your own policies what is that you really don’t like?  The Democrats are not any better, they half-heartedly support the President and roll over like whipped pets.  The Tea Party is the most vocal and radical group since the John Birch Society.  There are still questions regarding these people that I just don’t understand.  The Founding Fathers created the separation of powers to keep government in check.  But eventually even conflict must give way to productive choices but what we are seeing is a realignment of parties on both sides seeking a majority to overthrow their rivals permanently.  At this level of childish grab-assing, we are seeing the disunity of a great people while showing how broken the system really is.  Our politicians are not representing the people they are representing the large corporations that are contributing to their campaigns.