Why I Am Now Officially An Ex-Fan of Nancy Grace

I used to be an avid viewer of the Nancy Grace show. Every night at 8pm eastern time I was tuned in. I loved her no-nonsense attitude. Too often it seems like women get taken for meek little sheep. But Nancy was different. That was until she had a set of kids. She took a nice little maternity leave because her kids were born premature. When she returned it seemed like she had lost something. She seemed softer. I'm not saying that my discontent stemmed from the birth of her children. In fact, I was happy for her. I even took the time to go to her website and look at pics of the nursery and such. I congratulated her. Her first couple of episodes were alright. And then...thats when it happened! What happen you might ask? Caylee Anthony. Every minute of the show covered the bizarre case. It went way past the standard amount of coverage I have ever seen for a missing child. After about a week of coverage it was clear to me that the childs mother had probably killed her in attempt to regain her social freedom. Nancy couldnt see it though. She pleaded for Caylees safe return. She pleaded for an entire year! The only break in coverage that I observed was for the murder of Jennifer Hudsons' family. How kind of her! Afterwhich she returned to covering the Caylee Anthony case. I was just over it. Not to sound insensitive but little kids turn up missing all the time. I dont see the good of only covering one case. A lot of mothers that actually wanted their children back home with them could have used that airtime to plead their cases and get their childs' image out to the public.
On June 29th I decided to see if Nancy was over her Caylee stage. She was! On the show she was covering the death of Michael Jackson. She had on a panel of guests. One of which was Brian Oxman, Jackson family lawyer. The show failed to mention that this man had little to no contact with Michael Jackson. He was actually the divorce lawyer for Jackson's brother Randy. Another discrepancy was the breaking news that the LAPD investigators had found 2 bags of drugs, when in actuality it was just 2 bags of evidence, not necessarily drugs. My last gripe and the straw that broke the camels back was when Nancy announced that custody of MJ's children was temporarily granted to his mother 79 year old Kathryn Jackson. Nancy could not fathom the idea that this woman who had raised 9 children would be fit to raise 3 more, simply because of her age. Obviously she does not know the strength of a black woman. For centuried families have been headed by women. In many families the woman is a grandmother. That fact does not make her any less competent to raise children. Nancy continually berated the idea. She then tried to turn her attention to the fact that Joe Jackson would also be in the home. Asking one viewer that called in if she knew of Joe's history of abuse. She claimed that since Kathryn did nothing then that she would probably not do anything to stop the abuse of her grandchildren.
I find the level of contempt in Nancy's voice extremely disgusting. She has placed judgement on the family without knowing all the facts; a huge err on the part of the former prosecutor. I can no longer even consider watching this show. I once admired her views on many issues, but I can not stand by this one. Her priorities no longer correspond to mine and because of that I am now an Ex-fan of Nancy Grace.


K.E.F.

I recent read a blog titled "Our Little Sister Died" by a young lady on the Xanga Blog Community. This post was in response to the death of Music legend Michael Jackson. I had read that a lot of black people might get upset at reading the post so I felt obligated as a black woman to take a look. I was surprised to not find anything remotely shocking in her post. It is no surprise that everyday hundreds of thousands of people are murdered, raped, and exploited. The only surprise is how desensitized we have become to such atrocities. Once upon a time the news of a child getting murdered would have sparked national outrage. After so many years of this being commonplace it now falls in with all other crimes; unfortunate but its our reality.
In this country there is a flood of information about everything. We even get flooded with some of the most horrific images. Somethings I would rather not see. Even though one could find an assortment of people that feel the same way, we still get bombarded with these images. I can think back to Sept. 11. My school had let us out early. From the moment I got home that day until way into a couple of weeks later I watched the buildings fall again and again. I saw people jumping from the buildings and fleeing for their lives. I wasn't watching because I liked what I saw but because I was grasping for some kind of understanding for all the pain and torture that day. They eventually stopped showing the footage because of the anxiety that it caused to Americans.
Im going to take a guess that anxiety is what we are being protected against. If the networks showed every murder or crime it would be proof that this place that we live in is near hell. It would also force us to have to look at our society for what it is. The truth of the matter is that many people are aware of what goes on, but they simply do not care. In the African American community there have been many unsolved crimes. These crimes never even make it to the local news. I have always found this troubling. I have personally seen the faces of mothers that know they will never see their children again; even worse the perpetrators will never be brought to justice. It is perhaps still one of the most shameful aspects of American society. Some peoples lives are worth more than others.
I was moved by the aforementioned post because I understood where the poster was coming from. I don't feel that MJ's death took away from the recognition of the worlds atrocities. After all he passed away one day this year, but these things happen year round.

RIP Michael Jackson

I can still remember being 6 years old and begging my mother to stay awake so that I could finish watch The Jacksons:An American Dream. I sat captivated by the success story. This family sacrifice their lives for their success. It was inspirational. I remember feeling moved by every scene, good or bad. Well, yesterday was one of those bad scenes for the family. At 2:26pm the Jackson family lost a very important member.
I was not the biggest Michael Jackson fan, but I loved his music. His hits could always get me up and moving. I have been doing so for the part 20 hours or so now. His music could be described as magical. He changed music in ways that other artist could only hope to do in their careers. Its a shame that he will no longer be around to release more music.
I just hope that since he's gone his fans can heal. I also hope that people don't start bashing this man now that he can no longer defend himself. In the time since his passing I have seen several statuses that labeled him a perv or a creep. People are so quick to label someone because of their differences. While I am not justifying his actions, I know that there is always a background story to every case. We are all well aware of his childhood. I'm sure there were somethings that he never talked about with any reporter. The saddest part of this all is that he probably never found peace with his past.
I hope that his family can look at all the good that he has done and how his work has brought together millions of people. I hope this gives them peace because his life was not in vain. He did what he loved doing and what he was best at.

Rest in perfect peace Michael Jackson, The King of Pop


K.E.F.

Must you be so Incompetent

At my job I work with a few different departments. It never ceases to amaze me the level of incompetence some people display. We are all trying to make things go as smoothly as possible, but these idiots are constantly in the way. For instance, orientation has just started for incoming freshmen at the school. The people in charge of the orientation can not seen to come to make up their minds about what policies to enforce. The staff I work with only has the policies from last years orientation. The entire protocol is different but those assholes refuse to adapt to their own policies, confusing everyone. Its almost like an episode of Punkd. Every day that I am at work I sit waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop up. Its torture really. If there is one thing I cant stand, its having to tell some moron how to do their job. Forcing me to talk in circles like my tape recorder is stuck on repeat. There's just a few weeks left of this madness. Hopefully by next week they will have "worked out their kinks" and the entire building may be at peace once again.

K.E.F.

I Know Better Now

Every year I make a list resolutions. At the top of the list is always "get healthy". I never really thought about what I meant by get healthy. It was just the top priority. I used to start every year with promises of not eating fast food or drinking soda. As if that was enough to change the course I had set myself on. My intentions were good, but there was one small problem: I LOVE FOOD! Its not like I am addicted or anything like that, I just cannot deprive myself because after all it is just food.

Things changed for me at the beginning of 2009. I recall a specific day in which I had sat down in an office chair and struggled to get back up. When I say struggled I mean it! I was out of breath when I got up. I remember being a bit disgusted with myself. How had things gotten so bad?! There was no way I was in this predicament. I made up my mind to "get healthy" from that point on. I even defined what I meant by get healthy. I wanted to start working out at least 3 times a week, eat less calories, no fast food or soda, get more sleep, and drink more water. It may seem like a bit much to take on at the beginning of such a journey, but I feel like an immediate change benefits me.

Since I came upon that epiphany I have exercised more in these 5 months than I have in my entire life! Even better I have stuck to the resolutions I set for myself. Getting healthy for me was never about numbers but an overall improvement of the way I felt. I have even taken myself out of the danger zone for those hereditary ailments like diabetes and high blood pressure. I intend on carrying on this regimen for the rest of my life, or at least until science creates an easy way for me to do it!


Peace and GOOD HEALTH!
K.E.F.

D.O.A.

Its a trend! While I can not recall the first time I heard a track with autotune, I know that by the time I noticed a song with its sound it was already everywhere. Most of the songs were your club bangers. Certified hits that made any party jump. I definately have enjoyed my share of hits. I never gave a second thought to any artist utilizing the autotune. I don't think its a form of selling out. However Jay-Z sees it as a menace, so much so that he thinks it needs to be put to death. It seems to me that this is just a sorry excuse to start some ish in the hip hop community. Didn't this dude just end a beef not too long ago?! With the release of the Blueprint 3, Mr. Z may just be trying to attach some hype to his 2nd post retirement album. I have listened to the song many times and I just don't get what's so good about it. He shouts some people out who have been known to use autotune in the majority of their hits, but at the same time calls for the end of their careers. Jay Z may be a little out of his element when it comes to this one. He has stuck to the formula that got him where he is without giving in to current trends. Very few artist have this privilege. Especially those that build their careers on the rhymes of other, ahem, deceased rappers.I think its just plain obnoxious to call people out for utilizing a tool to help them gain their own fame and notoriety. If he is that pretentious and seeks to end others peoples careers to make himself look good, then he needs to put himself in a category of industry lame.

K.E.F

Yo!

I decided to get more proactive with blogging. I have tons of opinions on lots of things, I guess this is the place to get it out. Check it out or don't! Hopefully this will be as productive as possible.

Peace