Listen...

and if the song doesn't stir you, nothing will at this moment in life. It's a good song. Great? Well, play it in 10 years and let me know what it stirs and we'll both know. A song must transcend in order to do that. Listen is an anthem. It speaks to the soul of a woman. That transcends race ( a social construct), but can a man sing it and make your heart weep? Can he feel it in the equivalent of a womb? The depths of his being....hmmm, not sure. Ask Louis Armstrong how it's done. He knew. As Stevie Wonder. He knows. Ask Carole King for that matter because most of us know what it's like to wonder "Will you still love me tomorrow".

I've been married since I was 24 and I used to ask that question of others and need the answer. Not so much anymore. I will still love me tomorrow. Good enough.

I ask all this because it's Oscar night and I'm feeling some joy...and some discontent. Joy because baby we are representing. People of color are all over those ballots. I know Forest will win. I know Jennifer Hudson would be a great choice as well...but I won't be dissappointed if she doesn't.

She did a good job. Check the emphasis on that word "Good". Follow me, folks. She earned the right to be in the category...but handing us awards because you know ( you being Hollywood) that it's long overdue won't correct "The Color Purple". People really believe Whoopie got an award for that. They think Denzel got one for Malcom X. No kids, they SHOULD have...but they did not. And not because the other films were so great that they were up against. There is politics in Hollywood, like everywhere else.

We saw it at the Grammy's. The Dixie Chicks made a good cd. There are some really GREAT songs on it. But did they eclipse Mary J.??? Um no! The truth is they deserved that award YEARS ago...but politics got in the way, so Grammy said, "My bad, let me fix that and we're all good". It was transparent and they accepted. They had to or they really wouldn't ever work in that town again and truth be told, they ain't working in Nashville again so they need Hollywood. Not dumb girls. You do what you have to do.

On 9/11, I could barely speak. For me, that's saying something. I mean it. At first, I thought the tower was a local building in my city where I had friends and family working at that hour. I sat stunned, glued to the set. Then, I woke my husband and he said, "It's a clear day. That's no accident" and we watched the 2nd plane hit. My initial reaction was shock, then it was, "Wow, what a perfect set up." The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Someone understood that. Believe that. We won't find that out until this generation is long gone much in the way that JFK's reports won't be released until 2070. By then, the fervor to discover the truth will have died with 2 generations. But, I digress.

I was supposed to leave on a flight to Disneyworld to meet 20 online mommy group friends. We had been planning that meeting since we all found out we were pregnant with our first children and formed our group. We were together for years. Bonds created. We traveled the world to meet each other. We loved each other. We became family...and then, I spoke. I spoke the truth, but far too soon. I knew 9/11 was going to be a pre-cursor to vengence. In the name of the father, they say. How many people must write of that before people understand that it gets us no where? The name of the father, the sins of the father. Papa was a rolling stone. GoOD. That's his deal. Let him have it, I say. Bush should have left it alone and looked in every hen house, outhouse, cat house and cave for Bin Laden, had a coke and a smile and shut the fuck up. I can say that. I'm already checked at the airport twice through security. I'm on the subversive's list. The lesson, Ice T said, "Freedom of speech, just watch what you say".

I said what I had to say to 'My friends' about the trumped up war and charges. You can't liberate a free people. You cannot bring peace with a gun and bombs. If I walked across the street to my neighbors house and tried to liberate his wallet ( oil), he would be well within his rights to liberate my ass straight to Val Halla. You cannot come into a man's home and try to man handle him because you don't like how he is living. Now, I didn't like Saddam. I know he was a brutal dictator. We just love to say that. But we got our own now don't we? Has he killed less people than Saddam? Do the averages. Calc the numbers in years. He's well on his way and if we didn't have term limits, trust that we would see shackles come back in fashion. He's no Christian. He's a politician and they have no religion. You need a soul first. Politicians check that at the door. I told my friends that I would say prayers for their friends and family ( and mine) that were going to fight, but I would never ever support this bullshit war because it had no basis in reality. They kept changing the definition on us and people bought that bs. Liberate? WMDs? Huh, what? WHAT about 9/11? What about Bin Laden? If it's yellow cake you are looking for, North Korea wasn't hiding theirs. We didn't liberate them and they are still living in 1954 thinking they whooped our asses in the war. Mind control is no joke. They still believe we are their enemy--well we are, let's not lie--but they believe it because their government told them so and they bought it. I stopped buying what our government was selling when I was 15. Trickle down means we get to keep getting richer and if some spills over and trickles down to you, you can keep it. I mean, minimum wage hasn't been increased in 25 years to match the way we live. People still making $7 an hour, yeah..but they USED to have benefits with that. Ok..yeah, this is another post. I can feel my blood pressure rising. Let me go back to light and fluffy like we like it because we can't handle the truth Ruth. So nice and easy like Tina. It's all good. *winks*

I say this because we haven't said enough. Dreamgirls opened in barely any theaters. The marketing was horseshit. The posters, horseshit. You have the day's top money makers and they couldn't do a damn thing to stand against it. I say couldn't because one of them is playing the Dixie Chicks game. She can't say anything. Her career is too ripe for her to take any stands. She needs cross over appeal. Steppin Fetchit. BUT, that door is open. It's been paved now. The next one can say, "take your nomination and shove it up your ass". They can say, recognize the results that IN SPITE of you, we made a product that sold and we rose to the occasion. They can say, "FIne, don't market it...I have money. I'll do it myself...but I want a percent of the total earnings from now until the end of time". Own the masters boo...and I mean that figuratively and literally. The musicians can feel me.

Some day, someone will step up and walk that stage to accept an award for Best Picture and Best Direction and their face will look remarkably like mine. I say this, because I have no doubt that it will be mine. Believe that! I do! Crash. Transcend. Listen!