Denise_White's Blog

    President-elect Barack Obama's historic win proves the country is driven more by hope and promise than fear. Obama has moved the nation forward, the way slavery-ending emancipation did following the civil war in the 19th century. The same way U.S. Supreme Court decisions did in the 20th century to make discrimination illegal. And now, in the 21st century, President Obama signals a new era in politics. He didn't  arrive through a civil rights lineage. He is biracial and will govern from the center, not the extreme left or right.  This time in our history has met the right man in history to move America into a promising new future.

    Its an exciting time.  

     Just because I didn't loose anyone in the carnage of the terrorist attacks I new personally, I still felt the loss of those who died then and now. I hope we never greet each anniversary with apathy. I think each of the lives lost should be honored in some way by all of us.

    Where were you the moment the hijacked planes struck the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and that field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania? Do you remember what you were doing or who you were with? All of our lives changed so dramatically that day. We haven't been the same since.

    I grieve for the families who lost their loved ones and the children forced to grow up without a father or mother. The firefighters and police officers who lost their lives trying to save people have a permanent place in my heart.

    I went to ground zero almost a year after the attacks. I'll never forget all the momentos, the pictures, the teddy bears, letters, notes -- all left by family, friends and strangers who wanted to bear witness to the horror of that day. I  left my own. A bouquet of flowers.

   I pray the next President, whomever he may be, sees September eleventh as a call to action and steadfast vigilance with an enduring  desire for securing peace.

     I love pets as much as anybody. I have a dog and cat. But I can't believe the City of St. Petersburg is actually going to spend $190,000 to build a dog park when it has a such a desperate homeless population.  Its supposed to be build underneath the downtown interstate. And get this. There are already five dog parks in the city. They cost $35,000 each.

   City officials explain this dog park is more expensive because its going up on undeveloped land. They plan to put in a parking lot, of course. And lighting, of course. Don't forget the irrigation. We wouldn't want to get any paws wet. Only two of the eight city council members voted against it.

   Perhaps the homeless will set up their tents in the dog park. Maybe they'd get better treatment.

   But whats really outrageous is how the U-S has sent a warship filled with supplies to Georgia when nothing is sent to the tens of thousands of flood victims suffering in Haiti and that country is in our hemisphere. Oh, I forgot. Haiti doesn't have oil.

     Born on the tail end of segregation, I never imagined I'd see the day an African American would get the nomination of a major political party to run for President of the United States. My late parents would be so proud. My brother, who passed away in July, read and watched everything Obama during the campaign. I know he's smiling ear to ear that history has been made.  My Aunt Mattie, who turned 94 last weekend,  told me today how grateful she is that God let her live long enough to see this day. She was born during segregation. And like so many black people during that time, she could only find work as a maid in white people's homes for  $2.50 a week, from 7 a-m to 11p-m  everyday. She got a half day off on Sunday so she could go to church. For her generation and mine Barack Obama's candidacy is a big deal.

    Whatever your political persuasion, theres no denying this historic nomination  speaks to Senator Obama's political skill, courage and accomplishment. But  it also speaks to the greatness of America. He hasn't gotten this far on the shoulders of just black people. His support also comes from a coalition of  asian, hispanic, Native American and white people who have proven, as they did during the civil rights era, that they can move beyond the limitations of racial bias. And this day is all the more meaningful because it comes on this,  the 45th anniversary of the March on Washington when Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his  'I Have a Dream' speech.

     I believe overcoming racism is a process of evolution. No one is immune. We all must work at it, and you start by not pretending it doesn't exist.    

    One America is a lofty goal. But what we've seen during this campaign season is a good start.

     Have you heard about the Amethyst Initiative. A hundred university presidents and chancellors are on a campaign to get the drinking age lowered to 18. They say the 21 year old age limit has created a culture of binge drinking by teenagers. Mothers Against Drunk Driving are against it. They say it'll lead to more deadly car accidents and heartbroken families.

      I'm hearing proponents shouting in favor of it. They like to say that if 18 year olds can serve in the military, they should be allowed to buy a drink. They have a point, but lets not throw the 'baby out with the bathtub water'. Wouldn't  we be trading one set of problems for another?

     Haven't we already seen what happens when you lower standards, when you dip expectations, when you give up or give in because its easier or more convenient.

     We're not only in a prolonged battle against underage drinking, but drugs too. Do we legalize them, not just pot, but all drugs because of the culture of rampant drug use. And while we're at it, lets just do away with laws period since so many people break them.  I'm sure we can trust  people to be responsible without the yoke of government sanction around their necks. Yeah, right.

   The drinking age was 18 back in the seventies. It was raised to 21 after so many alcohol related accidents. Since 1982 the number of kids killed in crashes by drunk driving teens fell 63 percent.

   Haven't we learned anything?

     Have you been swept up by the Phelps Phenomenon?  He carries the hopes and aspirations of so many Americans with every olympic sized stroke. What I love about him the most besides his awesome athletic ability and astounding precision  is how he carries himself with such dignity and honor. I know adulation is a slippery slope. Many athletes have disappointed us in the past when it was discovered steroids or other drugs gave them an unfair edge, but that would make us jaded and we might miss an authentic hero.

    There are bloggers debating whether Phelps'  accomplishments are more impressive than the four gold medals won by Jesse Owens in 1936 in Berlin, nine gold medals won by Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi in track and field, Eric Heiden's achievement in speedskating in 1980, or the seven golds won by record setting swimmer Mark Spitz, to name a few.

  It doesn't  matter really. Theres room at the top.  Phelps is quoted as saying, "I swim, I don't think about it."

    So heres to Michael Phelps, the real deal.

Another case of hoarding has turned up in Tampa Bay.  It could just be media attention, but  it seems as if theres been more cases like this cropping up.

 This time 35 dogs, 7 kittens and 50 goats were seized in a home littered in filth, feces and junk piled so high you could barely walk inside. The homeowners  may have been breeding animals too. We know they had offered Boston Terriers for sale. Either way their operation is proof something went horribly wrong.

Hoarding is an obsessive compulsive disorder.  People who are under its influence usually pile up books, mail, clothes, containers etc.. Its rare for hoarders to stockpile dogs, cats or goats.

You may wonder why don't they just clean up and organize all that stuff, but hoarders can't really see the problem themselves or else they probably wouldn't be in that predicament. Its a medical issue that can be genetic, and if the person suffers from depression it only makes the disorder worse.

There are support groups and treatment available. If you're drowning under a sea of stuff go to this website: www.ocfoundation.org/hoarding/.

     Thanks so much for the condolences and expressions of faith.  I'm writing now because I am back at work. My brother, Larry, passed away July 6 of lung cancer. I was there with him until the end. He left this world in my embrace.

     I'm grateful the station allowed me to take a leave of absence to spend time caring for him during his last months. It's a journey I will carry with me the rest of my life.

    We spent the time remembering our childhood. We laughed about Mister Kellum, wondered why he had a humpback, wished we had some of the candy he sold in his ramshackle store. We remembered how Larry loved to play with his chemistry set, catch crabs with his friends then take them back to the neighborhood where mom or Miss Pearl would cook them up. We laughed about  the homemade wine he made and hid in the attic. I asked how he learned winemaking at such a tender age. He said 'Worldbook Encyclopedia, of course'. My brother always did love to read.

   We remembered how he loved to go with my son on field trips when Matt was three. All the kids called him Uncle Larry. At six-four, he was gangly like Big Bird and full of the same kind of generous spirit and heart with a smile that stretched ear to ear.

  I know he would want me to tell people not to smoke. Lung cancer is a vicious, painful disease that knows no mercy. Ninety five percent of its victims are smokers. Cigarettes cut your life short. Larry was only 57.

  A couple of days before he died Larry suddenly said to me, "Hey. I want you to be the first to know. I feel perfect today".

  He is perfect now. Flying free. 

      I've been missing on air for almost three weeks now and will be absent again starting next week. I've been in Dallas, Texas at the bedside of my brother, Larry. He has stage four lung cancer that has spread to his adrenal gland. The doctors have stopped chemotherapy and radiation. They were doing more harm than good. Larry is now in God's hands and Hospice care. I am taking family leave to be with him. He is the last member of my immediate family. 

  Seventeen years ago I lost my mother to breast cancer and my father to lung cancer ten years earlier.  All three of them smoked cigarettes for years. My brother's oncologist says 95 percent of lung cancer cases are from smoking.

   I'd just like to say to smokers please quit, and if you don't,  be sure to check yourself regulary and don't ignore the warning signs.  Don't be in denial. If you have a dry cough run to your doctor and check it out.  My brother had such a cough for a year before his diagnosis.

  Cancer is  brutal. Its slow and agonizing. I bear witness to such suffering -- for the third time.

    A protege of Karl Rove, the architect of President Bush's election and re-election campaign, is reportedly going to help John McCain.  Tim Griffin is an expert at opposition research ( like a good private eye) who digs up dirt on the competition. Griffin would work at the Republican National Committee. That way McCain could say he had nothing to do with the swift-boating of Obama thats surely in the works.

    Contrast that news with this. McCain's chief media advisor, Mark McKinnon, is keeping his promise to step down if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee. McKinnon has said he likes Obama and doesn't want to work against him.

  Politics sure makes for strange bedfellows.

     Historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta is graduating its first white valedictorian.  22 year old Joshua Packwood from Kansas City, Missouri will address his classmates this month as the first scholar in the 141-year history of a school dedicated to educating black men. 

     Packwood could have gone to an Ivy League College, but he chose Morehouse and Morehouse chose him. He's graduating with a 4.0 in economics and will join the prestigious banking firm Goldman Sachs in New York City. 

    The racial divide doesn't feel quite as wide today. Perhaps, as Barack Obama is fond of saying, we can be one America.  

Did you see this little gem. Microsoft  is going to spend 280 million to build a research and development center in Beijing, China. Too bad thats not being done in the states, so those American made products could be sold to China and elsewhere around the world. Its just more jobs going out the front door.

The candidates aren't talking much about sending American jobs overseas and outsourcing right now. It deserves a bigger place in the conversation.

But  its not going to happen in the present climate as the media and pundits get caught up dissecting perceived racial voting in the primaries, or whether Clinton should stay in or get out, or  why Obama hasn't closed the deal given his higher delegate count.

Heres hoping all three candidates can get back to the issues -- and stay there.

And heres hoping reporters will ask the questions that need answers.

 I don't know about you, but I'm cutting back. I find myself organizing my errands so I can get the most gas mileage for the buck. I think about saving all the time. A coworker joked today that he'd lend me a couple of bucks for gas since I'm holding a nickle so tight it would make a buffalo holler. I told him to double that, if  he didn't mind, since gas is almost four bucks a gallon.

My husband, who is already carpooling to work in St. Pete, was checking out the bus schedule the other day to see if he could ride the bus from Tampa. But Tampa's bus schedule is so  lousy it wouldn't make sense. Right now when we need reliable  mass transportation more than ever, Hartline (which is now called Hart) is no help.

I've thought seriously about riding my bicycle to work. I'd have to go over a bridge, but the higher gas prices rise the less daunting the prospect of using pedal power.

    The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld lethal injection. Florida is one of three states that uses this form of deadly punishment. Now that the moratorium is over executions will resume. 

   There are 388 prisoners on death row. Governor Crist has asked for a list to see who among the worst in this lot should die first.  Mark Dean Schwab, who raped and murdered an 11 year old boy in Florida, was supposed to die last November.

   Justice delayed is justice denied.

   Perhaps Mr. Schwab, who had no mercy for Junny Rios-Martinez, should go first.

      Teaching a teenager to drive is a wonderful and scary thing. My daughter is now officially on the road. I'm not too worried. She's a good driver. Its everybody else out there driving next to her I'm more worried about. I still can't get used to being at this point in our lives so soon. I could have sworn I  laced up her white hightop shoes and played patty cake just yesterday. Today she can wear my high heel shoes and would rather play 'finding a sale at Nordstrom'.

     As a parent you have to put more slack in the rope as you ease them gingerly into young adulthood. I am, but I'm still holding on tight as I try to guide her in the right direction. Too much slack and children can hurt  themselves and someone else.

   Theres too much evidence of that. Teenage girls ganging up to beat up another teenager and videotape it to post on Youtube. Teenage car thieves striking any given night or day. Gun toting teens, who should be preparing for exams or the SAT, are instead robbing and hurting the weakest amoung us.

  Perhaps somebody in their lives let go too soon.