You are important. I’m important, too!

When I was in my teens, I would close my bedroom door, crank up the old record player with my favorite Elton John album and sing “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” at the top of my lungs. Holding a brush like a microphone, I would belt out the song like I had written it myself.  For almost four and a half minutes, I sang, cooed, and performed the song as a female Elton John. Then, I sat down in a chair in my room to be interviewed by an imaginary Johnny Carson.  Once the interview was over, I put on another song and bellowed that tune. Mind you, this was years before Karaoke.

The most important aspect of the imaginary scenes wasn’t the talent I presumed myself to have, but the interview. All I wanted to do was to be interviewed by Johnny Carson-that would be Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, or David Letterman today.

As I grew into adulthood, I longed to be famous. Since I had no talent, I hitched myself to a Southern rock band that toured around the state and found myself a husband. He didn’t perform in the band, but ran sound and lights, so I went everywhere he did and felt important.

I continued this quest for importance throughout my divorce, the birth of my babies, another failed long-term relationship, and years of just getting by. All the while, never developing any talents, never making headlines, and of course, never being interviewed by a famous talk show host.

A most recent endeavor to gain importance is that I have started a nonprofit agency that teaches adults computer competencies, among other workforce skills. Three days ago, I was reading a book on how to write a good nonprofit newsletter, when I came across these words: Everyone wants to feel important.

Upon the reading of those five words, my life flashed before my eyes. They explained why I had been at it all my life- the quest for wanting things I could never have, the quest for talents I didn’t possess, the quest for importance. And that’s when it stopped. I saw my life the way it is.

I saw that I am important to my

• Children: they depend on me for almost everything
• Dogs: especially this cold winter
• Co-workers: the work I do is used to gain dollars
• Local grocery store: the food I buy pays salaries
• Parents: they have memories of my pre-Karaoke performances
• Church: I volunteer, tithe, and attend
• Local mall: shopping is one of my hobbies

OK, so I’m sure you get now. I won’t bore you with the remainder of the many reasons I am important. The important thing is that I know it now. My quest is officially over. From this moment on, I leave the talk show interviews to the Kardashians and Snookies of this world. I will no longer fret over talents I don’t have, or albums I didn’t make. I will remember that in my little part of the world, in my own little way, I am important to those who are important to me.

What about you? Have you realized your importance in your world?

“For you created my intermost being: you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made: your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139: 14-15

New Year, New Love

Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her. Genesis 29:20

In those days, a man had to serve the father of the woman he wanted to marry. In Jacob’s case, he served seven years before he could ask for Rachel’s hand in marriage. Yet, we are told that it seemed like only a few days because he loved her so much.

How often does serving our loved ones seem like the love Jacob had for Rachel? Many times, making dinner for our husband or breakfast for our kids can seem like drudgery. Taking care of those we love is often done repetively, carelessly, and without emotion. We grow weary of working so hard, often with little reward or appreciation.

Our culture is consumed with service to others. We are constantly told we should make a difference in our communities and the world around us. Granted, it is good to volunteer and change things, but are we openly caring for the stranger on the street more than our own families and households?

And what about our service to God? We who love Him want to serve Him and carry out His will. Unfortunately, we often perform our service as an act of duty, rather than love. Does God want us to perform chores for Him, or would He rather us be in love with Him, serving Him and others with compassion and grace.

In this new year, I am challenged to love as Jacob did- to serve my family and my Savior with zeal and enthusiasm. Though my service to them may last fewer than or more than seven years,  may I be so in love with them that it seems like only days. What about you? Who do you need to love to serve?

Things I learned in college: Part I

I graduated on Saturday with a Bachelor of Science in Speech Communication and Theater/Emphasis in Mass Comm and Minor in Nonprofit Leadership and Management. Here are ten things I learned that I will never forget:

1. Not everyone sees things the way I do.
2. There can be more than one way to do something right.
3. The good classes are not the easy ones.
4. The good professors are not the easy ones.
5. Things I do affect other people.
6. Grades are not the only things that matter.
7. Grades do matter.
8. It’s OK to take breaks.
9. If you want answers, you have to ask questions.
10. Hard work gets rewarded…sometimes.

Saggy Pants Video for Newswriting Class

Thanksgiving Prayer

Good morning God,

Thank you for being here when I woke up today.

And thank you for listening last night, though I had little to say.

Thank you always, for this beautiful, beautiful day,

and for any blessings that come my way.

Help me today to be kind to others,

to smile, even if it’s all I do.

Help me to show compassion, forgiveness, and love to anyone who comes near me;

including my own family, who I sometimes ignore.

Help me to not think of ways to make money,

but ways to make it useful.

Help me to be strong, to live righteously, and to be different in this totally modern world.

Be a guide to me; a model for my friends and family.

Touch our hearts and show Yourself, so that we might testify of your love.

Give us the boldness to do so.

Fill us, so that Your desires become our own.

So that we fulfill Your destiny for us, and we become who You intend for us to be.

Make me a legacy.

Make my life a testimony to You.

Use me, Lord, to do mighty things for You

so that all may see

that You alone are God and worthy to be worshipped

and worthy to be praised.

So be it. Amen.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory.”  Ephesians 3: 20-21 NKJ

Review: What the Wine Sellers Buy

Susan M. West

What the Wine Sellers Buy

Performance: 3:00 pm, November 8, 2009

Ron Milner’s What the Wine Sellers Buy was undoubtedly the worst play I have seen performed at TSU.  The play dealt with the longstanding theme of drugs and prostitution, and the tempting of the young by close, older acquaintances in that young person’s life.

According to the TSU website, the play was set in the streets of Detroit in the 1950s. Someone apparently forgot to tell the director that cordless phones weren’t used in the 50s, nor did the hippie’s look of the 70s exist. Since the play was written in the 1974, one would wonder if the director, or the writer, made those mistakes.

On a larger scale, the setting was well constructed. TSU’s theatre workforce did a good job creating the look of the boarding house kitchen and Mae’s bedroom. The stage was complete with street scenes and house parties, along with the main kitchen and bedroom areas. There was a creative mix of set changes and the actors transformed well, except for the all too often stumbling or tripping over a prop.  I liked that all scenes took place without complete darkness or curtain drops in between, except that Act 1 was two hours long.  When the final scene of that act concluded, the audience had no clue whether it was intermission or if the play had ended. One audience member actually got up and asked an usher if the play was over. I waited all too anxiously for the actors to appear for their bow, but to my disappointed the play soon resumed and lasted another hour. Fortunately, the last hour was much better than the first two, and the wait for the end wasn’t unbearable.

The costumes were all too 70s in appearance. Rico, the pimp, looked like he had stepped right out of That 70s Show, with his pink leisure suit and burgundy hat.  Mae and the other girls were also dressed a couple of decades in the future for the play to have taken place in the 50s. I’m not sure if there was a make-up artist, or if the actors did their own make-up because both moms in the play looked like college students. In fact, all the actors resembled college students, so it was hard to tell how old anyone was supposed to be.

In all fairness, the actors were fine. Ashley Bishop showed signs of excellent acting skills, except for her smiles to the other actors in between her serious lines. No one stumbled, over lines anyway, and most seemed very familiar with their parts. There was, however,  a sense of separation between the actors and their performances. Though they were good, they didn’t seem to really relate to their characters.

The play dragged on and on with most characters spewing cuss word after cuss word. After a while, I wasn’t sure if the language was in the script, or just the actors adding their own flavor to the characters. The play was a collage of f-words, n-words, and p-words, most often making no statement or adding anything to the meaning of the play.

The comic relief was the “wino” scenes in the streets. The first time it was very funny, but by the third time I saw the scene repeated, and heard the p-word spouted excessively, I began to feel offended as a woman. I actually wondered if Milner was a misogynist. I felt this way a number of times, especially being introduced to Mae’s mom, who was portrayed as self absorbed and uncaring for no apparent reason. Personally, I think the writer had no perception of what it must be like to be a single mom raising three girls. “Not there for Mae?” I hardly believe mom was not there for Mae, when looking at her room, one could plainly see Mae had been well cared for. One must not forget Mae was a teenager, and teenage girls are almost never satisfied with parental, especially mom’s, care.

Milner obviously had little idea of what it takes for a good male role model, too. Though he tried with the deacon character, (Melvin, I think), he made him seem distant and casual. Police were corrupt, dads were absent, and Rico was a drug dealing pimp. True, some of this was necessary for the theme of the play, but there was a lingering feeling of little hope of Steve ever  rising above his circumstances, even though he eventually came to his senses. The male characters  had mixed ideas of right and wrong, and there was no one to really show Steve how to make it.

The play depicted the “same ole” theme of a poor boy in the projects tempted by his surroundings as he struggles to rise above them. Only in this play, Steve’s circumstances rambled on through too many repetitious scenes, too many f-words and n-words, and not enough substance to make the play meaningful. Even the metaphor of “what the wine sellers buy” didn’t get captured in a sense that would make it memorable or important. Too bad, too, it was clever.

I was disappointed and rolled my eyes more than once, as I sat through three hours of something I could have watched on TV, minus the bad language. TSU plays are usually rich in history or present strong statements of African American struggles in a world that often fights against them. There was no strong statement in What the Wine Sellers Buy except, “why”. Why did Marc Payne choose this one and why didn’t anyone stop him?

My First Attempt at a Political Cartoon

300 Days in Office

P.S. Please excuse the spelling mistakes. I’ll do it over one day.

Confusion Links Language and Text Messaging

The digital language of SMS (short or silent messaging service), otherwise known as texting, may be damaging the language skills of young people, many teachers believe.

Digital shorthand has evolved into over 6000 terms and acronyms transferred over cyberspace between 82 million people. Texting, chatting, and internet shorthand may be confusing the actual English language with a new code of verbiage.  

“Yes, I’m seeing a lot of this in my first and second year students,” states Samantha Morgan-Curtis, associate professor of TSU’s Language, Literature, and Philosophy.

Along with “texting” being substituted for English in course assignments, Morgan-Curtis is noticing problems with article usage, syntax, and the development of ideas; issues that are more common with English Language Learners. Spelling is also a concern.

The National Council of Teachers for English has recognized that problems exist in the relationships between traditional writing forms and the new digital content.

“Some digital texts share common forms and common purposes: the online newspaper, for example, is similar in many ways to its print-based counterpart,” states the NCTE position paper. “At the same time, digital texts possess characteristics that are unique to the digital medium, challenging our ideas about what texts are and how they work.”

Not everyone sees a problem with the language of texting. David Crystal, a British linguist, believes it actually helps young people to be better communicators. He compares the lingo to the graphics, symbols, and abbreviations that have interlaced language throughout history. Crystal says in order to leave letters out; one has to know they are there.

Maybe then, the responsibility lies with teachers to correct diligently and grade accordingly when students confuse the text. Something Morgan-Curtis does quite well.

“Add this to the list of forms of communication we need to be teaching now,” states Christopher Dawson, ZDNet blogger and fan of classroom technology. “After all, students find little difficulty in switching between colloquial speech with their friends and more adult-oriented (and often grammatically-correct) speech when addressing adults.  There is no reason that students can’t learn to make this same distinction between SMS-speak and the real English language.”

No Kidding!

Insight:

imminent, approaching, impending, on the way, coming, just around the corner, near, close, about to happen, within reach

Microsoft Word 2007: Thesaurus: English (United States)

Revised: TSU Reform Begins With Students

Tennessee State University should require first-time freshmen to submit an essay and three letters of recommendation as a way of attracting a more serious student.

Several TSU students are frustrated with the less than serious student that often disrupts the classroom and wastes valuable time. Enforcing higher admissions standards would help to eliminate the need to coddle idle students and give the university a boost in reputation.

“It’s a wise idea.” said Jasmine Anderson, president of the centennial sophomore class of 2012. “Requiring an essay and recommendation letters would be very helpful in attracting more serious students. It would help raise standards.”

According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, in order to distinguish one applicant from the other, a large number of highly ranked institutions across the country require an essay. Interestingly, it reports that only 14 out of 90 HBCUs surveyed applied the same procedure.   

Letters of recommendation are means of communication that give admissions officers reliable perceptions into students’ characters, personalities, and skills.

“These letters are an important way for admissions officials to gain insight into a student’s personal strengths, weaknesses, and accomplishments,” states an article published by the College Foundation of North Carolina.

Admission requirements for TSU are lower than four other local universities. According to the university’s website, incoming freshmen are required to have accumulated a GPA of 2.25 in high school with an ACT score of 19.

The University of Memphis, which does not list a GPA minimum, bases its requirements on an Admissions Index. The Memphis college yielded a 41.9% graduation rate from first-time freshmen during the 2002-2008 period.

“The admission of first-time freshmen is selective based on the calculated index, and also includes an evaluation of the required high school curriculum completed,” states the university’s admissions webpage. “In some cases, recommendations are also considered.”

Increasing academic requirements for TSU may attract more serious-minded college students, thus improving retention and graduation rates. TSU could add the requirements without changing its policy on GPA or ACT scores.

Requiring an essay and recommendation letters from teachers or employers will not only offer insight to the admissions officers, but cause the potential student to evaluate his/her reasoning for attending a four-year institution. The student might also be enticed to appraise his/her work ethics, study habits, and personal values.

“I teach a mixture of students,” says Coreen Jackson, assistant professor of Communications at TSU. “Some of them are serious, and some are not.” The “mixed” classroom is all too common across disciplines at TSU.

Adding a written essay and reference requirements does not seem that it would be too much trouble to implement, but trying to get that information from TSU Admissions was practically impossible. A recent phone call to that department resulted in numerous conversations with people who indicated they could not answer the question, which ultimately led to a voice-mail message and no call back.

Others do not think it is a good idea. Julie Roberts, academic coordinator for TSU’s College of Business, thinks adding requirements might entice out-going high school students to attend community colleges instead. Some believe that increasing admission requirements might dispute the historical mission of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

“Admissions reform wouldn’t work for schools like TSU because that’s their purpose,” says Jonathan Adair, a psychology master’s student at TSU. “They are around to give students a second chance.”

A thorough search of the mission and purposes of TSU, as well as HBCUs, gives no indication that they exist to benefit the non-motivated, low-producing student. According to several sources, HBCUs were established to serve the African-American community. The federal Housing and Urban Development grants HBCUs money to assist in the economic development and revitalization of their communities.

TSU’s own statement of purpose emphasizes quality instruction, applied research, and community service. These are not the characteristics of lackadaisical, party-minded, young students.

“Tennessee State University expresses its commitment to students’ overall development by promoting life-long learning, scholarly inquiry, and a commitment of service to others,” states the TSU 2007 Fact Book. “Programs and services are geared toward promoting and nurturing students’ growth and development as persons who are liberally educated, appreciate cultural diversity, and embody a sense of civic and social responsibility.”

According to TBR’s latest statistical information, TSU ranks the lowest in university enrollment, and the only one to decline. Additionally, TSU ranks the lowest in retention and is the second lowest in graduation rates.

Starting from the bottom of the TSU pyramid (the high school admissions process), might be the simplest, most efficient way to begin reforming the image of TSU. A simple essay to cause an incoming student to consider his/her reasons for college admission, along with three adult references defending his/her character, might grant the admissions department a little extra work, but may prove a mighty step towards the incarnation of reform.

“If you want to make a change, why wouldn’t you rise to the occasion?” Anderson adds. “TSU is up for reaccreditation in 2010. Our reputation and the value of our degree is at stake. This is a large scale issue that affects everyone.”