Driving in Trinidad and Tobago is barbaric and inhumane...

As a recent visitor "Trini" expat, to the beautiful isle of my birth, I relished and delighted in the utopia of tropical warmth, bounteous every greens in flora and fauna, the tempting warm soothing beaches, the varieties of cuisine so tasteful and succulent, the wonders of new enterprise, in the rich architecture in commercial buildings and new  residential  designs and the splendor of culture, colorful in peopling of every creed and race... and  I experienced the lunacy of driving in Trinidad and Tobago.

The body count of road fatalities and the incidents of mindless, savage, traffic accidents are horrific and shocking.  I quickly came to my senses as I weighed in on my options.   If choices were presented to reside in Trinidad or continue living as an American citizen, in Maryland, USA,  I would,  in the blink of an eye, choose the latter.

My conclusion .... No Way!!. could I live in a society, that allows drivers to rampantly kill, and there not be quick and responsive justice.. I have grown accustomed to a civilized society where rules are mandated and driver education and awareness are stringently enforced for the safety and security of all road travelers.

In the States, numerous motor vehicle incidents and accidents occur.  There are horrible deaths from vehicular tragedies.  There are unfortunate incidents  that rank under the titles "road rage" "over policing" "vehicular manslaughter".  But arbitrary and indiscriminate endangerment of the public on the roadways, highways, and city provenances are just not as out of control, as it seems to be on the roads of  Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidad is 143 km (89 mi) from North to South and 61 km (38 mi) from East to West. Tobago lies 31 km (19 mi) northeast of Trinidad and has a length of 42 km (26 mi) Northeast to Southwest, and an average width of 12 km (7.5 mi) Northwest to Southeast. Sixteen small islands are found off the coasts.

http://www.caribsurf.net/trinbago/factstrinbago.html.Facts about Trinidad and TobagoBy third world standards, Trinidad is among the smaller islands.  Travel between local towns by car is within an average of a 5 mile radius.  One could travel from North to South, barring traffic, at  45 miles per hour, in less than two hours.

The ordeal of a day in traffic between Diego Martin North to Aranguez, approximately 7 miles at 3p on a Friday afternoon, was both my traffic in Trinidad hell-baptism by fire, and my personal epiphany.  I knew that after almost 3 1/2 hours, of stop and go, around the Lady Young Road shortcut, with two lane driving becoming road tests in driver maneuvers at passing and swerving, creating four lanes using the  roads' outskirts and inside lanes as thoroughfare,   and dodging the disaster of an oncoming vehicle overtaking with the potential impact of a headon crash, before intercepting the regular traffic to regain control;  that the craft of driving in Trinidad was not a feat that I was capable of handling.

The headline news on the daily newspapers have been plagued with fatalities as though this is the common norm.  "Road Carnage", the headline for 6 road deaths in less than 6 hours over the first week end of November 2013.

The carnage began at 1 a.m. yesterday with the death of 21-year-old Andrew Edwards in Guapo.According to reports, Edward was driving his vehicle, PBU 671, in an easterly direction along Southern Main Road, Guapo, when he was struck head-on by an oncoming vehicle near a sawmill. Ten minutes later, the first of two double road fatalities was recorded.According to police reports, around 1.10 a.m., William was driving his Mazda, PBS 5694, west along Western Main Road when he was given a “bad drive” near International School in Westmoorings.William lost control of his car, which struck a Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) pipeline, flipped and plunged into the Diego Martin river.The car landed upside-down in the swollen river.The cousins were trapped inside.


Less than an hour after the death of the cousins, another road fatality was recorded, this time in Central Trinidad.According to reports, around 2 a.m., Sookhan, of Manahambre Road, Princes Town, was struck by a vehicle on the southbound carriage-way in the vicinity of Chaguanas.Sookhan was standing at the roadside after he exited his vehicle which was in the centre highway median after being involved in an accident.Anoop Gajadhar, who was a passenger in Sookhan’s car, said he (Sookhan) had just gotten off the phone with his mother.Sookhan called to tell his mother he was involved in an accident but was safe.He was standing at the roadside when he was struck by a black van, The van did not stop.Sookhan died at the scene.


The last of yesterday’s four fatal accidents occurred around 6.20 a.m.Dead are Amit Sooknanan, 24, and Jamie Stockin, 26.Alvin Rennie sustained two broken legs in the accident.The crash occurred along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway between the Maritime Roundabout overpass and the Suzuki showroom in Barataria.According to reports, Rennie parked his Toyota Hilux on the shoulder of the highway and was standing outside when tragedy struck.A gold-coloured Nissan Cefiro, belonging to Stockin but driven by Sooknanan, struck the rear of Rennie’s van.The van moved forward as a result of the impact and Rennie was struck. The Cefiro ended its collision course in a ditch.Sooknanan and Stockin died at the scene as a result of their injuries.Road CarnageIn a tragedy that could have been avoided, less than a  week  later on November 12 2013,   a mother is killed because improperly placed and  unsecured steel rods impales her as the rods roll off  a moving truck and crashes through the windshield into her  private vehicle. FLYING-STEEL-KILLS-WOMAN-

Road fatalities on the roads of Trinidad and Tobago have been inexcusably too much, too often and too devastating to family, friends and loved ones.  The country's 'Arrive Alive' campaign needs aggressive and vigilant policing.  In a speech given by Sharon Inglefield, President of Arrive Alive, she presents these frightening statistics:

In Trinidad &Tobago (from 2007-2011) there were 173,000 reported road traffic collisions. This equates to 34,600 collisions per annum with as many as 200 fatalities. Over 11,000 persons were reported injured. Persons aged 15 yrs – 35 yrs accounted for 45% of the fatalities. 83% of which are young males! And 43% pedestrians! Every 16.8 minutes a collision occurs on our nation’s roads! Every hour spent on our roads means there is a 25% chance of a collision and therefore a 25% chance of serious injury or fatality. For 2012 - 163 lives have been lost on our roadways – a 3% increase over last year (159 lives lost). Young people you are most vulnerable! Campaign Slogan Arrive Alive Trinidad and Tobago

Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago Arrive Alive!!!  The death tolls are climbing and it requires urgency and immediacy to take the actions to Care and Respect our lives and those of all citizens of our cherished land
The government leaders, policy makers, shareholders of Trinidad and Tobago must  be accountable to society.   Revenue streams for our big dollar intake, Tourism,  will be further diminished and corroded if our nation does not actively and vigorously impose strict consequences  and enforce rigid law  policies.

A Driver's license is not a permit to kill.  It is a responsibility to uphold civic duty and respect for everyone we share our roadways, our highways, our byways and our pathways with.

Trinidad and Tobago..... is this the pride and joy we also want to celebrate for world acclaim ??... The nation where Road Kill has become a national sport..?

With all the newest model cars, with more multiple car families, with a growing population of under 30 year olds,  we continue to have too much to revel in and spread joy.  For every one who loses a family member due to these senseless barbaric and inhumane road tragedies, we owe them not just our sympathies and comforting words, we owe them a lifetime debt which we can never repay.  We could never bring their loved ones back:  Gone too soon...!!!

The Scourge of Blackface

It seems every time someone idiotically sports blackface in the US of A, the clamor of racism is touted. The prudent and socially conscious voice their alarm and discontent. Inevitably, around Halloween every year, we get to repeat and repeal our disgust with people who arbitrarily find amusement in blackface painting. Strangely enough, most often, these people are white.

This year, celebrity Dancing with the Stars, Julianne Hough caused a major twitter and social media stir with her orange face. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/orange-new-black-star-offended-julianne-hough-blackface-article-1.1500580 There was also the pervasive obscenity of the individuals who decided to masquerade as the neighborhood watch and the hooded blackface individual with blood stained hoodie.. a sick joke on the Trayvon Martin tragedy.http://pix11.com/2013/10/30/trayvon-martin-blackface-halloween-costume-may-be-even-worse-than-these/. And yet another blackface, and this one was arsenic. A black woman, choose to have a noose around her neck, while two white friends are play acting as her captors.http://obnoxioustv.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/obnoxious-extreme-ratchet-behavior-black-woman-dresses-as-a-slave-for-halloween/. While the latter two characterizations are revolting and disgusting, and there is no apology for their obvious sickening displays, I thought about what blackface conjures up to me.

I am an unapologetically black, Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago female. We have a yearly celebration that we proudly boast as the world's greatest dance party, Carnival. Rivalled only by Brazil, the Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago features the ghouls of J'ourvert, the dawning of the days of celebration, with black faces, blue faces, red, green and all colorations of mud indiscriminately plastered over the face and body. We also are costumed in the regalia of beads, glitz and glitter, sequins and feather in ornate and flaming opulence. It is called masquerade.

Back in my childhood days in Trinidad, I was a big fan of Al Jolson. Toot Toot Tootsie goodbye! Toot Toot Tootsie don't cry!.. I would tap and sing and pretend to tip my hat and cane just like I saw on TV. On our families black and white tv in the living room, we would all gather to enjoy, the Black and White Minstrels show and sing along to all the songs of the yesteryears.

Busted!! Paula Deen to the rescue! A good fit for the inside kitchen.. I surmise.

In the Caribbean, our education was steeped in academic excellence. Ingrained in our culture of pride and sophistication were the values of self worth and self esteem. Education above all else was our defining glory. Anyone, Negro as was the correct "Black" label in those days of the early sixties; West Indian style; Indian, Chinese, Syrian, Portuguese, Lebanese, the Whites were all party to academic achievements. Some were richer, we were poorer but we had all a fair chance to improve.

As a citizen of the USA since the early nineties, I have learnt the nuances of why prejudice is the rationale for even the absurdities of masquerade. In all its extremes, no one justifies the demeaning of the history of "black" people. Yet, were I to paint myself "white face" will I create the furor and uproar that "blackface" evokes? Are yellow, red, blue face sanctioned because it does not reek of racial profiling of other communities?

Many are using the "black" script to perjure society to be baited by the ridiculous. So a "black face" characterization by white America immediately conjures Racist. Even, as in Julian Houghs case, an apology is necessary for an orange face "caricature" "masquerade" because it is discriminating and "racist" .

Every year Trinidad and Tobagonians, and people who play "MAS" paint their faces black, blue, green and yellow… and it is, what it is "Masquerade"…

Pound the Alarm!!, http://youtu.be/0Zb7WO685Ko, the title song on Nicki Minaj hit record about Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago depicts all the fusions of colored faces with glamor and revelry.


There is nothing "Racist" among people who respect and treat everyone with respect

The St Theresas Class of 72 Reunion 2013 -The Recyled Teens 60s are the ...

Please click on the link below and enjoy the story of wonderful memories and treasured friendships
in celebration of :
The St Theresa's Class of 72 Reunion The Recyled Teens 60s are the new 40s

Memories in pictures of a Reunion of the Class of 1972
St Theresa's Girls Intermediate
Trinidad and Tobago
with special honorary guest

Our most endeared teacher formerly Sr. Jovita... now ever so fondly "Jo"

Most of the time a song comes to mind and these words capture what I truly treasure and hope you would too, in documenting our times together in words and pictures

And when one of us is gone, and one of us is left to carry on 

Just remembering will have to do

The memories alone will get us through

Think of all the days of me and you 

You and me against the world... from the song You and me against the world

Please enjoy my video memory of all the moments captured at our 2013 Reunion

So how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume.. Convent Girls Class of 1972 Reunion with our teacher "Jo"

So how do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume..lyrics from the song To Sir with Love

 On Tuesday October 15^th  2013 at Joseph’s Restaurant Cascade, Trinidad,  an intimate group of about 25 girls, now women in their late fifties and early sixties sang the words “To “Jo” with Love” to our beloved teacher.  

The St Theresa's Convent Girls Intermediate Class, Form 1 G from the years 1967 -1972, the Reunistas, the Recyled Teens,  as we fondly think of ourselves,  had the enormous pleasure and privilege to celebrate friendships of 46 years.  Most significantly, we came together to share an honorary thank you to our teacher, formerly Sr. Mary Jovita, now widowed and a grandmother, and ever still a teacher..

To us she is Jo. And to us, she is an indelible, unforgettable inspiration, who is an integral part of  the intimate legacy of who we are and who we have become.

As one of the new crop of local nuns to start teaching right out of the Holy Faith Convent order, she was merely 20 years old when she introduced herself to the 35 or so, new Common Entrance, form 1 G class starting secondary school at St. Theresa’s.   No more than a petite 4’6’’ and let’s just add 2 inches with the hood of the habit, for good measure, there was a curious precociousness about her.

With a rowdy bunch of misfits, there were those of us with very prestigious backgrounds.   The family names preceded them.  There were those with struggling families barely able to afford the uniform and books required to attend high school.  Some traveled from the far East, all up by Caroni, 20 miles outside of the school district, and some others did not have enough money to buy bus fare to school on a daily basis. 

There were the highly popular girls who knew each other from their former Holy Faith Convent private schools attendance.  There were the many girls who had all of the strikingly beautiful assets of face, hair, eyes and shape.  There were those who were the quiet and remained mostly to themselves. There were the rambunctious, which somehow, trouble would come seeking them… even when they were attending church services.

With an eclectic bunch of the few who were disposed to be studious, and more of us,  that were keen on being in the “in crowd”   Jo had her work cut out for her.  She must have prayed real hard, because she found all of the most innovative ways to capture our attention and encourage camaraderie, sportsmanship and friendship.

In English and English Literature, our class performed Shakepeare’s As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer’s Night Dream with theatrical aplomb and lusty characterizations.  As opposed to the teachings by the Irish nuns, our class also got to perform local plays.  One of our favorite enactments was "Tief from Tief make God laf" . We took liberties with our local dialect and spewed our sentences with every flavor of local twang.  In that play, there was more laughter from the actors’ performances, than there were from our school audiences.  We learnt Chaucer and spoke “goode olde” English prose.

Jo championed these efforts with charismatic enthusiasm and devoted conviction.

Jo, led us as Girl Guides.  We visited Tobago.  We visited Toco. We visited Fort George.  We went down de islands.  We went to Our Lady of Fatima pilgrimages.  We participated in school bazaars to make sure our school fund raising efforts were successful. 

Many of our greatest pranks played on each other were unknown to Jo, while under her and other teachers’ watchful eyes.

Jo, was our netball, volleyball, sports coach.  There seemed to be no exhaustion to her efforts to keep us virtuous and exhaustively occupied.

Jo encouraged our talents.  Our class enjoyed participating in many music festivals under the choral tutelage and stellar instructions by Jo.  In addition to classical singing, Jo was most instrumental in encouraging our local carol singing and paranging.  Because our carol singing became so popular, and the demand for our house visits became so extensive, we perhaps, became the cause of our own misfortune of losing Jo’s accompaniment in our travels.   Her outings with our caroling groups got derailed as the convent rules prevented her frolicking with us past their curfew hours.

Jo was untiring in her efforts to shepherd her very first class of secondary school age girls.  Needless to say, we must have exhausted her beyond understanding.  Yet, she never showed us indifference or even shared her own disappointments that we may not have been as serious and studious as she hoped she taught us to be. 

After we left High School our lives have taken its many separate paths. Many of us stayed in Trinidad and became successful business entrepreneurs.  Quite a few of us, left Trinidad and made new lives abroad, in London, the United States, Canada, Montreal and other far places throughout the world.  Our stories are all rich in tragedies and luxuries.  Each one of us has many facets of colorful lives that makes us all very individual and unique.  We are grandmothers now.  We are single. We are married, divorced and widowed.

Jo, also, has a new history.  She is now a widow, a grandmother, and she continues to teach.  A local private school in Port of Spain now has the jeweled prize of Jo as their steelpan and music teacher.

After four decades of separate lives, our Class of 1972 reconnected.  A fellow classmate describes our reunion as follows:

To all you beautiful ladies

What can I say!  What a wonderful Reunion of our Class of '72.  So many of you took time out from your busy schedules to be there.

To the awesome ladies who took their vacation and flew in from abroad to attend this event thank you.  I know it took lots of organizing on your part. It was definitely worth it.

To those of you who initially expressed embarrassment and apprehension to attend because you didn't immediately remember some of our classmates thank you for making the effort and coming out to face the challenge.  Hey it's been 41 years and we're getting on in age.  The memory is not what it used to be.  The idea was to re-connect and re-connect we did!  All it took was a little jog of the old memory.

To those of you who only spent one or two years with us and still came, a special thank you for knowing that we consider you one of us. It was an honour having you there.

To those of you who couldn't attend you were missed and we hope that when we do decide to meet again you will be there.

On the evening of the Reunion as part of our dedication event, we did a chorus of songs, like Chattanooga Choo Choo, Shine On Harvest Moon, Bubbles Bangles and Bright Shiny Beads all part of our Broadway repertoire,  all taught to us by our illustrious and talented teacher Jo.  We also recalled our version of  "In a Little town of San Rosita", where everyone joined in the chorus refrain, with a lilting echo of  OOO OOh after each line…and we sang the words of the best teacher student song in history  To “Jo” with Love.

And the words were heartfelt,  as the room full of beaming, beautiful, and exquisitely charming girls in their late 50s and early 60s sang their hearts out in unison…to

“A friend who taught us right from wrong and weak from strong

That’s a lot to learn, What can we give you in return

If you wanted the moon, we would try to write across the sky in letters

That would soar a thousand feet high

To “Jo”  with Love”

Needless to say, this is just a new beginning to our future.   The Reunistas, the Recyled Teens, The Form 1G St Theresa’s Class of 1972 continue to revel in the memories and cherish our treasured friendships.

Thank you Jo for sharing your light, your love, your rich humanity and your blessedness in each of the manylives you have touched.  We love you ever more.

My Tobago trip, too Short, too Sweet, and the Toilet on the Seas

Store Bay Tobago... those lovely boats to Buccoo Reef and The Nylon Pool Oct2213 gcw

So far the St Theresa Intermediate Class of 72 Reunion in Trinidad and Tobago has been the vacation of a lifetime of memories.. there is so much to be told, and mere words are not enough to describe.

But, the trip to Tobago, aboard the Spirit inter island cruise ship from Port of Spain is the lasting memory that I will archive with highest record.

One of the best deals anywhere in the world, a 3 hour cruise from Port of Spain to Tobago at a mere $50 TT dollars or the equivalent of $8 US.  With my niece Lisa, buddy Rod, and me, we embarked on our excursion aboard the Spirit Cruise Line of Trinidad and Tobago.  Luckily, and because I wanted to savor the many hours of Tobago for one day, we purchased airline tickets for our return trip.  Again, another wonder of Caribbean bests,  a $24 US Caribbean Airlines flight, 20 mins travel between the islands.  Travel times were as late as 10:30 pm.  I imagined a full day of Tobago activities.

We boarded the Spirit 10:30a and set sail.  With the local cuisine on board, I couldn't wait.  I had to have bake and salt fish buljol with coffee.  There was even a movie playing, Godzilla or something.  The first hour I remember the beauty of the waters and was delightedly struck by the island inlets that seemed to be so close by.

Lisa, reminded me to take a pill for motion sickness as I was suggesting that we should go upfront to the bow of the boat to look at the view.  Somewhere at the point where Lisa was drawing a map on her Samsung Note pad of the route that the boat was taking, to indicate that we were near Macqueripe, my personal Godzilla encounter began.

With an unsteady walk I headed to the closest ladies toilet. There was a lady barfing in the sink. In that stall I began my agony in the garden with every element of body fluid finding passage from mouth and backside in simultaneous symphony.

I did manuevres between sitting on the stool to bending over with my face as close to the toilet water all in one movement.   I then somehow thankfully found the trash bin would work better as the vomit holder, while the toilet bowl captured the remains of the bake and buljol.

I prayed louder than I have ever prayed in years.  All my denials of faith and worship became loud screaming confessions.  I was bawling without shame... Lord  Lord help meh.!!!..  all my lost family members names were called on... Mammy, Daddy, Didi,  Michael, Brian,,, ah go dead!!! my body was wreaking in cold sweat, chills, heat all at the same time.  At some point I wanted to just lie prostrate on that floor and pray to wake up feeling somewhat relieved.

Thanks to some mental vanity.... I just couldn't see me arriving in Tobago, smelling and looking like shit with a smile of faint welcome.

Then with the help of some lovely attendant, and my niece Lisa, I emerged from my vaporous dungeon as the boat docked.  Two hours after.

I was still light headed and I barely remember the taxi driver who took us to Store Bay.  But I felt he was looking at me in the back seat and praying that his taxi was not going to be part of my exit strategy for any remnants of sea sickness.

Store Bay was the answer.. After getting up enough energy to get into that beautiful calming soothing and refreshingly healing salt water... I began to breathe life again.  Did you think that I was going to be enthusiastic, when the Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool tour guide came along and suggested a boat ride????  My absolute biggest missed opportunity.  I begged him please don't ask.

With as many pictures that I have taken to capture moments of my visit to Trinidad and Tobago... would you believe, there are only 4....pics of my Robinson Crusoe Isle of Tobago visit in over 20 years.

No worries... I am not Cruise ship material... I know for sure.  For my Tobago,  I have the undulating memory ....steeped in the Toilet on the Seas.

feeling better after ginger beer at Kariwak Village Restaurant

Conversations with the Inner Voices...Conflict and Confirmation

#alexgrey  painting for interpretation and discussion... for me its the constellation of worlds encircling the vortex of the mind

Having and being

Stripped from the uniform of having,  it becomes very clear that what does matter are  not things.  In the absence of finances,  things, possessions, there is charity.  Confusingly, charity is not  the experience of begging and receiving..   In charity there is largesse, there is abundance, there is patience and there is kindness.

Many miss the experience of the gifts of charity, because there are so many things that fill their lives with emptiness

Giving is therefore the Gift:  

On Giving Kahlil Gibran

You give but little when you give of your possessions.It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?And what is fear of need but need itself?Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

Relationship

Before the game of blaming begins, the most painful hurt is the acceptance of self inflicted injury.  

The abject lust for another is a curse that many who have had the bad relationship exercise are afraid to admit. In the act of consenting to be subjected to the person who is neither thoughtful,  nor caring,   you wish you could take back all the emotions, all the exchanges, all the lip locking, body sweating, acrobatic arching moments that were for your personal enjoyment and not a shared experience

Faced with your reflection in the mirror of emotional grief, you forgive.   Hurt takes its good ole time and healing takes forever.

Tyler Perry  in the play MadeaGoesToJail  eloquently advises:

This is what I've learned in all these years on this earth. If somebody wants to walk out of your life, let them go. Especially if you know you've done everything you can do. If you've sat around and been the best man or the best woman you can be and they still want to go, let them go. Whatever they're running after, in a minute they'll see what they had, but by then it's gonna be too late.Some people come into your life for a lifetime. Some come for a season. You've got to know which is which. And you're always gonna mess up when you mix seasonal people up with lifetime expectations.

Religion 

After the murderous assault of terrorists, and lives have been claimed, what form of deity, one wonders,  could contaminate minds to act without humanity.  But then again, all of what worship has become was wagered in killings from time immemorial.

Commercialized religion is rampant in all spheres of religious practices.  The Bible a book created by men, is used as a mouthpiece for fear mongering.  In reality, the religious truths of all the denominations have constructed their particular sacred theologies to ensure that worshippers practice their stated tenets.

Sacred intimacy is not a popular convention.  It is better to have a public pulpit to minister from.  It is better to build monuments, and create boards, and craft philosophies and speak the Word, and chant,  and have flamboyant demonstrations of spirit filled enactments to secure faith followers.

In moments of solitude, the awe of understanding is divine miracle.  In Spiritual Madness, The necessity of meeting God in the Darkness by Caroline Myss ,  she describes many aspects of mystical divinity:

• The true reason we invite God into our lives
• Why spiritual intimacy can lead to chaos in our personal world
• Four questions crucial to your spiritual direction that therapists never ask
• How mystical experience translates into everyday life in our time
• The truth about spiritual powers such as clairvoyance, healing, and bi-locating
• A way to end spiritual confusion with a simple, honest prayer
• Many self-teaching exercises and practices for daily life

Spiritual Madness is a unique and daring session that reaches to the borderland of spiritual experience,where the inner mysteries of the divine are fully opened in the outer world of career and family.

Sexuality

Being normal is so inclusive that even the gender bending in sexuality is now the de facto.  The years of childhood are shrinking way too rapidly.  The influences that define gender orientation, sexual orientation, pre adolescence or adolescence are now crunched into what seems like prehistoric formative years.

To all the young people struggling with issues of  self here is a sane point of view from Janelle Monáe:

"When I started my music career, I was a maid. I used to clean houses. My mother was a proud janitor. My stepfather, who raised me like his very own, worked at the post office and my father was a trashman. They all wore uniforms and that’s why I stand here today, in my black and white, and I wear my uniform to honor them.This is a reminder that I have work to do. I have people to uplift. I have people to inspire. And today, I wear my uniform proudly as a Cover Girl. I want to be clear, young girls, I didn’t have to change who I was to become a Cover Girl. I didn’t have to become perfect because I’ve learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness.Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable".

Inner Voice

Every single moment, someone in this vast universe is experiencing some life changing thoughts.  Typically, my thoughts versus your thought becomes a contest of how much and what I can do or say that make mine more compelling than yours.

The inner voice that is constantly asking questions and seeking answers is a reflection of pains and gains.  Yet it also is a celebration of being.

“Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the after-world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, laboring humanity would perish.”― James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

Remembering 911: How the Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration came to be

In the reflection of the lights that shine in the replacement columns of the World Trade Center,  let us  honor the courage of those who were the ultimate sacrifice...  gcw 91113

On September 11 2001, I was a full time caregiver to my mother and was administering her ritual tube feeding.  She was in her final stages of advanced diabetes.   While attending to my Mom, I heard the explosion sounds coming from the television in the adjoining room.  My brother sounded the alarm, "Terrorists have attacked the US!".  The World Trade center has been hit by an airplane!!! 

And in that moment of utter dismay, I watched as the second plane gorged its way into the second building and exploded.

With millions, I saw President George Bush quickly ushered from the kindergarten classroom in Florida.   All the news channels were simultaneously showing the doomed airplane hijackings.  The World Trade Center buildings were imploding and crumbling to the ground.   Pictures of the Pentagon showed the fuselage of an airplane with its protruding tail crashed into its exterior walls. Billowing flames were the lasting vestiges of carnage left on a Pennsylvania field, from the plane intended for Washington, DC.  

In its most obtuse development, the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) came to be, because of the pillage of terror in the aftermath of 911.  While there are the many who have been the TSAs most vocal challengers and much of the scrutiny and invasive practices of safe travel measures are reviled, the conception and the coordination of efforts to create the TSA were bristled in the ebbs of calamity.  The wellspring of national and international safety in travel were created out of doom.

On the heels of the epic disaster of 911, it was mandated that all airport employees throughout the United States would be federal government employees. With the professional services contract awarded to NCS Pearson to perform this exhaustive undertaking, the largest mobile human resource staffing organization was formed.  I was one of the selected staffing consultants hired to be part of the mobile team to secure the new federal hires for the US airports.

In an extraordinary effort by teams of dedicated and patriotic workers, who were committed to duty and national pride, I share a snapshot of the preliminary makings of the agency we fondly love to hate:  The Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration.

  

With teams of over 2000 human resource staffing specialists assigned to each coast, we traveled as an army of civilians to sites closest to each airport facility from the northernmost to the southernmost States of the United States of America.  

With statutory mandates for new federal hires to be completed within a 12 month time frame, massive populations of federal job seekers were attracted to hiring events held in major cities and towns.

The organization and administrative undertakings were monumental.   

Teams of staffing specialists were on duty from the earliest morning hours to the latest early morning hours., scouring over paperwork, inputting and sending data between contact leaders and government representatives.  

Our assignments entailed interviewing applicants for screeners, baggage handlers, airport managers, federal security directors, just to name a few.

After the screening applicants were selected and the rudiments of federal employment practices were initiated, there were finger printing actions, background checks, drug testing paperwork to be completed and  filed.   There were contingency offers of federal employment to successful candidates that required demand processing.

Among the most compelling moments of the interview processes were the exhibitions of patriotic  passion, and the overwhelming responses to civic duty by many of the applicants.  

At the New York City hiring site, held at the Grand Marriott Hotel in Mid Town Manhattan, the atmosphere was filled with electrical synergy.  Thousands thronged the 16^th floor Marriott, which was turned into the largest mobile office of staffers, reviewers, and administrators, to submit their applications for federal employment.  Successful interviewees were graduated to become federal employees.  The final step of the hiring process was the official federal government swearing in ceremonies.

With every swearing in ceremony occasion,  when the Pledge of Allegiance was spoken, with right hand raised and left hand on the chest,  most every one in the room could feel the gravity of emotion that resonated with the words that were spoken:

I pledge Allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,one nation under God, indivisible,with Liberty and Justice for all.

 Throughout the experience of the hiring of the federal employees for the USA airports, friendships developed, strangers became family and unity prevailed. 

Twelve years since 911, many of the human resource staffing specialists for the Transportation Security Administration have continued their lives in various disciplines and corporate forums. Although separated in our individual lives, we will always have this common bond.

  

Out of the ashes of 911 the most endearing triumphs were the heroic champions of goodwill that reverberated throughout the streets of New York City, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and the whole world.  In their most cataclysmic moment, the rescuers, the medics, the defenders and the civilians of the city of New York, and the thousands of those whose loss we mourn, became the nation’s heroes.  Theirs are the stories forever inked in history that will remain indelibly carved in our hearts and in the minds of all who remember 911.

In the midst of the aggravation of searches and screening at airport terminals, I gratefully remember all the colleagues who shared in the TSA staffing journey.  In the reflection of the lights that shine in the replacement columns of the World Trade Center,  let us  honor the courage of those who were the ultimate sacrifice. 

Respectfully and thankfully,  the Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration is the uncomfortable reminder, that our safety will never be comprised, and our freedom will not be sacrificed.