We Made it We Survived...

Most blogs start off explaining what the blog is about...telling you more about the blogger...blah, blah, blah...if you stay tuned you will soon know exactly whi I am.....

Today's Song- "We Made it" Hezekiah Walker & Love Fellowship Choir
We Survived can take on sooo many meanings today...hell just to make it another day in a 9th grade class makes you a surviver. Its a bit crazy how you can tell when issues arise in your students life just by observing their emotional ups and downs. How you can have a good kid that makes a complete turnaround and turns into a rude, defiant, nigtmare in a matter of weeks. Something has happened to that kid. But what? In 9th grade kids are trying sooo hard to establish there identity and sometimes for them establishing that identity means challenging the teacher to establish themselves as "hard." Their own versions of survival. I have been blessed with my grandmothers gift of having teens willing to open up to me just because they know I will listen and talk to them straight. But there is always one or two that doesn't work on that you have to show they can either buck your authority and lose or open up and take a crack at winning...we will see how thispays out...

Today we surviced also related to my current journey in helping plan the ButchVoices conference in Oakland which will go down in august. BV is an organization which main goal is To provide education, community support, positive visibility, and cultural activities to all self identified Butches, Studs, Aggressives, their allies, and the general public. You can visit them at http://www.butchvoices.com/. As we go forward in planning the conference amidst the California battle over Prop. 8, there are so many issues at work that we must address at this conference. The STUD/BUTCH/AGGRESSIVE culture is one that is so often misunderstood. We stand to go a great distance in breaking down stereotypes and barriers. Some of which are not even levied against us by the public but by our own partners and peers. But we still stand tall in our community. We are counselors, and pastors, community activists, lawyers, filmakers...People have tried to silence us, people have tried to tel us we don't belong but we are still here supporting our community. We will get together and we wil learn more about ourselves how we can go further and IMPROVE our communtity. We Will Survive.....