Siri & The Toddler

I swear I wouldn’t have believed it if I had not just witnessed it with my own eyes. My 2 1/2 yr old just dialed my mother and texted his father on his own through Siri on my iPhone. He not only intentionally performed both acts, but he also found himself getting frustrated with Siri the same way I do when she didn’t comply with his request! I can only assume he’s learned how to do this from watching both his parents use Siri at some point over the past few months. Kids are full of surprises and parenthood is full of challenges, surprises and adventures. What I wasn’t prepared for is my technologically inclined toddler. I was worried about Tempera paint stains on the carpet, playdoh in my sinks and pacifiers hidden in my shoes. I wasn’t thinking about the little phone, tablet and computer hacker I’ve given birth to.

Yes it’s definitely a sign of the times. We are raising children in the age of social media & news travelling at the speed of sound landing at everyone’s fingertips. Without your knowledge or consent, you’re toddler like mine is proficient at navigating through Facebook. Although you haven’t taught him how, he is using tools to help him call his Nana when he discovers something new on Sesame Street. This is just where we are. Where as I am pushing for flipping pages through our favorite book and tracing letters vs. typing them. I must concede a bit to the fact that my son has given me lessons on how to use my iPad. So now starts the balancing act. Bring in the basics, slow it down a bit while still interweaving the fast paced age of twitter & education apps. Some people feel like hand written letters, taking pictures with film & playing records are a waste of time because the digital age is swallowing us up whole and there is no place for these archaic items. I beg to differ. How can you get to where you are going if you don’t know where you come from? How can you appreciate what you have if you don’t know where it comes from. I remember being appalled at the fact that some students in film school didn’t know that Bins in Final Cut Pro comes from the fact that back in the day film actually use to hang in bins organized in chronological order while editing. Most of the students had never even cut on film simply because people feel that it’s not necessary to teach because we edit digitally now and film is pretty much non-existent. But where is the respect for the craft. Where is the basic history lesson? It actually made me a little sad for these kids who only understand one element of filmmaking. In order to compete successfully in the Global arena, shouldn’t we start creating more well-rounded competitors? It’s up to those of us that remember making real mixtapes with our boom boxes, developing film in the one hour photo at Thrifty’s and using skateboards to get to school and not just for YouTube fame to bridge the gap between analog and digital!!!

Well I don’t know about you, but my little iPhone hacking toddler will be handwriting and drawing a letter to his Nana & Paw Paw this evening after he finishes his Super Why reading app game on the iPad.

Trayvon Martin could have been my son…or yours!

I just finished signing the Change.org petition to bring the murder of Trayvon Martin, Neighborhood Watch Capt. George Zimmerman to justice for approaching the teenager as he walked back to a family members house from a convenience store, and shooting against the advice of the police. George Zimmerman’s job as Neighborhood Watch Captain was to keep teenagers like Trayvon safe as they walked around the neighborhood in the evening. He followed and called police on the unarmed teenager and against the advice of the police this grown man approached and shot this 17-year-old boy who was holding a pack of skittles. From what I understand about the Neighborhood Watch program, it is not a substitute for police or meant for someone to fulfill childhood super hero vigilante dreams. It’s to empower neighbors in protecting their homes and community from criminals. They are to keep a watchful eye out and report suspicious activity immediately. I didn’t know we still lived in a world where being a 17-year-old black male child walking down the street was considered conducting suspicious behavior. And where does this man get off shooting this kid without cause and is then able to claim self-defense. Last time I checked self-defense is defending yourself from harm. This child was not on his property, he had not approached Zimmerman or attacked him…the child didn’t have a weapon on him at all.

This is just unacceptable! So now we are allowed to just go shooting random people because we fear them or suspect them of crime? Isn’t that murder? We have gangbangers running up and down neighborhoods randomly shooting kids walking down the street. We believe them to be monsters and scum of society and treat them as such, prosecuting them to the full extent of the law without thought. But Zimmerman takes a child life without cause, goes against police orders to stay away from the child and shoots him dead in the street…he goes free? Why? How? This young man could be anyone of our sons walking down the street at night minding their own business and being targeted by the color of their skin or the way they wear the clothes on their back. They are tried and convicted to death before they can open their mouth from an assumption & ignorance. This cannot be tolerated! How are we to progress as a society if we are still killing of our children based on things they cannot help. You cannot help the color of your skin. And you can’t help that someone fears or hates you because of the color of your skin. What can be helped is how we deal with those ignorant monsters! How do you know that this Zimmerman won’t do it again? We don’t know his motives for targeting this child! And what about justice for Trayvon Martin who lost his life for nothing? What about the Martin’s who lost their son, brother, grandchild, nephew, cousin and friend?

If we stand around and not do anything we are sending a message that it is okay to just take justice in your own hands and just shoot folks because you feel like it! It’s not okay! I urge you to sign this petition! I urge you to start calling Sanford, Florida mayor’s office and demand justice! I urge you to call and write to the Florida State Attorney, Norm Wolfinger who has taken over the case! This man hasn’t been investigated! It’s ridiculous! We have to protect our children! They can’t live in fear of walking down the street and being killed just because of the color of their skin! We have to do more than wear ribbons and retweet! We talk about the war on terrorism overseas while our children are being terrorized on our home turf! Stand up for your fellow Americans! Stop talking about it and be about it! We can’t expect change if we don’t make change!

PLEASE SIGN AND PASS ALONG!!!

A Call To Action~ Protecting Our Babies From Themselves

Yesterday in Chardon, Ohio five sets of parents sent their children to school, today three of those sets are visiting mortuaries and the other two are praying over their children because they victims of a shooting spree in their school’s cafeteria. Yesterday, a young man went to school with a weapon instead of his books with intention to kill and terrorize his classmates. I am beyond sadden by all of this. But really just sad by all of the destruction happening every single day! What is happening to this country?

For the last few years we have seen the education system all over the united states take a deep plunge into the toilet. We have our own citizens going to school in war zones draped with bars, metal detectors, books with pages missing, teachers who would rather sleep with them than teach them and drug trafficking. Students walk halls in fear of being taunted and bullied by peers because of the way they are dressed, their sexual orientation, the color of their skin or their intelligence with Adults standing around oblivious because they are focused on how many zero’s are on their checks! Do you really believe that our children believe us when we tell them we care? We use our children’s destruction as examples for own political agendas, but when it comes down to actually fixing the problem we don’t. We are so interested in creating and stopping wars overseas to protect our borders, but what the hell is going on within the border?

Babies are shooting each other on the street because of the color they wear. Babies are humiliating babies on the internet because of sexual orientation. Babies are defending themselves with guns at school instead of their words or fists. It’s gotten out of control! This isn’t normal! It isn’t okay! And why are we letting this happen?? Why are there children going to school with holes in the roofs & bars on the windows? Why are parents receiving texts that the school they just dropped their child off at is on lockdown because of a shooting spree? Why are innocent children being targeted as apart of an initiation into a gang? Why are children being tormented via text, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace simply because they look, think or act different? Why and how has it gotten this far? There has always been teasing. There has always been a slight difference in educational standards in various communities. But this is now just ridiculous! Can really keep blaming the violent video games if we continue to buy them? Can we really blame the school district about these poor teachers if we never take the time to even meet the teachers? Can we really blame the gang members for harassing our children if we don’t even build a safe community with our neighbors? Can we really blame the kids sending harassing texts if we don’t monitor our children’s phone use? Can we really blame the kid who snaps if we don’t talk to our kids about not being rude?

I feel like at some point, we as parents have to start pointing the finger at ourselves. We have to take a stand and be heard for our children! No one can protect your kids better than you! Yes, you can’t prevent every single little incident, but I feel like our kids don’t even have a fighting chance. Kids don’t even know another option except to pick up a gun! We need to take it back to the old school. Get in touch with your children. Talk to them. You don’t have to grill them, but engage them. Let them feel you and know that you are there. Make yourself available for the great stuff and the bad stuff. Get involved! Invest in your children! Investing in your child, could save another child’s life!

American Heroes, Who Happen To Be Of Color

Saturday I took my son to the 8pm showing of Red Tails. A lot of people were very confused about seeing my toddler in the theatre for the film, and a few spoke their opinions. Okay so here is my reasoning. My son loves action films. LOVES them! My son loves planes. What a perfect way to spend the evening, by watching air planes with black heroes. Now there were some scenes where I had to close his eyes because it was a little too graphic. I also would have taken him to an earlier show as he started to get sleepy, and then getting restless. But for the most part the only sound coming out of him, was, “WHOA! WOW! COOL!” laughter and claps! He enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching him enjoy it!

When I was a kid there were no action heroes that looked like me! The hero who saved the world was usually white and male. Sometimes I could get lucky and they would be female…but always white. Not to say that there is anything wrong with that or that it was any less inspirational. It’s just that by being a black American, I know that there are Americans who were different colors and some of those people did heroic things.

I can honestly say that seeing this film made me feel 12 years old all over again! I was able to finally see an amazing film with amazing cinematic shots, vibrant action scenes, the classic heroic musical score where the good guy looked like he could have been my Papa. That could have been my Uncle Johnny up there, or my Granddad, or any of the other men I descend from who fought in World War II. More than anything, that could be my son, facing the odds and doing the right thing. My beautiful brown son could be a hero in his own way just like those fighter pilots. I wanted him to see that. I wanted him to see that there were men out there doing amazing and cool things that looked like him. I know sometimes its hard for people who are not in the minority to know what it feels like to feel like the only people you can look up to don’t look like you because you are always so use to be able to easily identify with stories, heroes, etc. Just know that it feels great when you can walk into Hallmark to buy a card for your boyfriend to express your love and there are two black people on the cover instead of two white people. Not that I don’t support white people or white people being in love, but at that time my boyfriend and I were not two white people in love! LOL! Just like I’m sure it’s hard for a black woman to give her white husband a card expressing her devotion when the there are two black people on the cover! It’s just a nice feeling. And it was a nice feeling to be able to know that when my son sees it again when he’s older and he’s playing airplanes with his friends, they’ll be fighting over who gets to be Easy or Junior or Lightening!

To live in a country as diverse as ours and to be proud of its riches & diversity but not have media that shows that is appalling to me. It’s taken 25 years for George Lucas to be able to produce a wartime action film starring black heroes! And it’s not like this was based on fictional characters, these were actual war heroes that helped this country win the war… the first war on terrorism! People were saying that audiences knew the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, there was a movie already made about them so there was no need for another because no one wanted to see another history film. But that’s where the problem lies, this wasn’t a film on a story. This wasn’t a film on the history. This was a good old-fashioned action film that had a historical element. This was a black Saving Private Ryan. Yes, it was based on fact about a war and a guy, etc. But we didn’t go to the movie to see if Spielberg stayed true to times in Nazi Belgium or if they were using proper military language. We wanted to see Tom Hanks save Pvt. Ryan. We wanted to know how he was gonna do it and see him blow up some Nazi’s in the process! We wanted an action film and we wanted a hero! And he gave us just that! But now here comes Lucas and because the story of the Tuskegee Airmen riddled with racism and bigotry we wanted the story to be laced with the N-word and black men telling the white man to shove it! Why couldn’t he just give us some action and heroes who just happen to be black? Well he did and I’m glad he did! I wish that I could have been young enough to place my poster of Lightening up on my wall next to my poster of Indiana Jones!

I’m seeing so many people talk about the story and the fact that it didn’t go into the story of each pilot enough, etc etc. Well, that’s because I think people are going into the theatre hoping for a historical drama of perseverance and pursuit. It’s not! It’s an action film. George Lucas said that he wanted to make a film that was action based where the heroes were black! He wanted to highlight American Heroes who happen to be of color!

If you’re looking for a film based on the history of the Tuskegee Airmen, don’t go see this film. If you want to be inspired by men of courage during a time of war and racism, go see this film! If you wanna see some amazing cinematic scenes and action sequences, go see this film! If you want to have some new heroes to identify with and look up to, go see this film! If you want to see some shit get blown up in a very vivid cinematic way, go see this film! If you want to prove to Hollywood executives that people want heroes NO MATTER what color, then go see this film! If you want to prove to Hollywood executives that as black people we want to see more films that aren’t riddled with heavy drama, watered down language & Tyler Perry dressed up as an old woman, go see this film! If you love war movies and love history, go see this film! There are about a thousand reasons why you should go see this film, and why you should take your kids! You should see it because we should all be reminded that Courage Has No Color!

Facetime, The Toddler and his Hero!

Dear Steve Jobs,

My son doesn’t know who you are yet because he is only two. But you are his most favorite person in the world next to his Mommy, Daddy, his stuffed Monkey & Brobee! Why? How? How could you be on my two year olds list of favortist persons dead or alive? Well, because you created his two favorite things, Mommy’s iPad and FaceTime!!! You see at any given point on any given day anyone in my FaceTime favorites may get a FaceTime call from my two year old son!! The conversation usually starts off with him being surprised to find the other person’s face come across the screen with a, “Oh, *insert person’s name here*! Hey! Was goin’ on?! What doing?! Hi!…” and then he will go on and chat. Naming his closest relatives and friends, he’ll talk about Yo Gabba Gabba & Brobee, maybe recite his ABC’s or count to 20! And he will converse for quite a long time! Now this conversation could take place while I’m in the kitchen and he is suppose to be working on his vocabulary, playing a game or watching a video… or it could happen while he’s sitting right next to me or his dad with the device on his lap! You see you have given a very gregarious, charming, talkative, expressive, social two year old a connection to those that are not in his presence or in the next room! Yes, I have received a facetime call from my son while I’m in the bathroom! Yes, yes I have! It’s kind of a step up from the notes I would slide under the door to my mom when she was in the restroom! You see Steve Jobs, it wasn’t just the techie nerd, or the highschool brat, or the overworked parent that you touched, your impact has gone beyond that! I have witness kids who can’t find a way to speak to their parents speak through your iPad to say, “I Love You, Mommy” for the first time ever! Grandparents who aren’t able to be in the room while their first child gives birth to their first child can still witness the miracle! The pain of family break up was made easier as I facetimed my son in the airport during my lay over after I left him to stay for an extended visit with his father…the first time we would ever be away from one another for such a long time! You brought soldiers closer to their families! You have taught my son how to read! You have taught my grandmother how to use social media to stay connected to her family! You have made it easier to work from home and keep the income flowing in! You sir have changed the world!! And that my dear sweet, Steve Jobs is why we all cried when we heard of your passing! That is why when my son is old enough to ask, “Mommy where did FaceTime come from?” I will be able to say, “a genius by the name of Steve Jobs, and he didnt just create a phone or a computer or tablet… he created a new way of life for you, me and everyone.” and he will probably hang a picture of you on his wall next to Barack Obama, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Walter Cronkite, Oprah, Julia Child and Michael Jackson!

xo

A Very Thankful Mommy

Jax & The Machine