Thursday, January 29, 2009

Steps Toward Equality

President Barack Obama, today, on my son's 22nd birthday, just signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act! This is the first bill he has signed into law. Fitting for the future, change has come to America.

This means that black and brown women will no longer earn 67-cents for every dollar a white man earns. It means that a white woman will no longer earn 78-cents for every dollar a white man earns for doing the same job. This means a level playing field for President Obama's daughters, my daughters, and even for me. It is a cool thing.

My daughter who wants to be a photographer will be paid the same as a man doing the exact same job. My daughter who wants to be a writer will be paid the same as a man doing the exact same job. It is the law. Wow, it is a sunny day for steps toward gender equality in the workplace. Thank you Lilly Ledbetter for continuing the fight for ten years and for President Obama for signing this into law!



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp=28914055&#28914055

Ted Haggard, Oprah Interview: Haggard And Wife Discuss Gay Sex Scandal (VIDEO)

I have to say that this ticks me off! I'm so sick of all the fallen-from-grace public officials with their sexual addictions, drug addictions, porn addictions, alcohol addictions, gambling addictions, and food addictions!

Oprah's hollow Mea Culpa

The "Science" of Porn
Editor’s Note: Tonight on AC360°, don’t miss Joe Johns report on the government scientists who are accused of surfing for porn on your tax dollars


Texas Governor's Gay Sex Scandal Covered in Austin paper, the First Non-Internet Media Outlet to Report On It.


The Making of a Gay American

Thirty-four days after I was elected governor of New Jersey, I began a secret affair with an aide named Golan Cipel. It destroyed my career, ruined my marriage, and helped me discover who I really am.

GOP Senator Larry Craig arrested in 'bathroom incident'


William Bennett: the secret high-stakes gambling life of a former drug “czar”


The ones who preach and claim evangelical Christianity as their base. The ones who spout against sexual education but are out there paying prostitutes, raping women and children, or trolling for gay sex. The ones who preach against all the ills and things that give you a straight ticket to hell but are out there endangering their families through alcohol, drugs (crack, meth, cocaine, food), or whatever vice.

The Bible says we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That is true and only God can forgive sins. There is also no degree or level of sin yet it seems that these public, many Republican, all claiming Christianity figures seem to spout the most about sexual sin. This kind of stuff just boils my blood.

I'm really at the point of being sick-and-tired of the hypocrisy. The ones who preach against sex, won't have sex with their husband or wife, but are quick to done the long skirt, the stone faced look, and the stealth trips to a park, public restroom, hotel, or car to get their groove on. The ones who speak out the most against gay-marriage, LGBT rights, or the ever-present homophobia in the black community.

What would happen if all these undercover, black and white, preachers and people period, just came out to be who they are? Would that kill the "scandal" and then free them from humiliation? Would it make it easier on their families? Would all the confusing questions go away, would the wives stop having to put on the happy face like this one or the one in New Jersey and just "stand by your man?"

It is a new day, hopefully there will be change in this area also, it's about time for some real love and real accountability and real Christianity!

Ted Haggard, Oprah Interview: Haggard And Wife Discuss Gay Sex Scandal (VIDEO)

Posted using ShareThis

Like a lot of us, we've rolled our eyes at the numerous news stories of a public figure fallen-from-grace over a sexual thing whether it was paying oral sex like would-be-Alabama-Governor-candidate Charles Barkley or the latest report from CNN that our tax dollars have paid for government officials to surf the Internet for porn. Or the continuous reports, church-chat, and Internet blog entries about Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin.

The Ted Haggard story is just one in many that continues to surface and it made me wonder, what is wrong with Republicans? Or is that better what is wrong with Catholics? Or what is wrong with Evangelical Christians? Or is that what is wrong with black men? Or is that what is wrong with white men? Or is that what is wrong with, wait, there are just too many what-is-wrong-with-questions.

So then I wondered about the horrible confusion and pain that would cause someone to act in the manner of the news stories posted. I wondered about the guilt and pressure and pain thrust upon their wives for having to be silent about the ills of these men. I wondered about the double-addictions they must have to mask their pain. I wondered about the stress they endure.

I haven't checked into it, but wonder if that is why there are alcoholic suburban women and why some try to numb the pain through prescription pills. Or is the real thing that this country is so repressive sexually that we hold to the evangelical standard of virgin-when-married, only-marry-opposite-sex and demonize-everything-else and remember to only-have-sex-to-procreate. Is that really what is behind the abstinence-only education or the Planned Parenthood push for the-right-to-choose or the rise in HIV/AIDS death among heterosexual black women?

Perhaps this is all just too much before a latte!

Life is too short, just live and don't try to live up to some standard that is false. Pray, read, meditate, but in the end, be true to yourself and the people around you, that is only fair.

Monday, January 26, 2009

There Is No Question...Black IS Beautiful

Big thanks to Jack and Jill Politics for keeping it real about President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

He CHOOSES to identify as black, as do most black people who are "mixed." It has been that way since the first black person set foot on the soil of this country. It includes my Creole heritage family with the Quadroon Balls from the antebellum days in New Orleans. My Dominican Republic born foremother who was brought here to New Orleans. Her cafe' au lait granddaugther, my mother, me, my daughter, we are all black. It includes my recently buried priest cousin who on first sight looks whiter than white despite being born of two black parents.

On this topic, I agree with the post on Jack and Jill, the thing is that some white people are having a hard time with a real, brown-skinned, beautiful, accomplished, educated, wife and mother at the First Lady of this country. I said it before and I say it again, they are busting stereotypes left and right. Black people have always been every shade from vanilla to espresso. Often within the same family, skin color, hair texture, it runs the gamet with African Americans.

I think the thing with President Obama that makes some white people uncomfortable with his Africanness is that is reminds them of their ancestors unspoken sins of America's past. There are so many of "us" who are filled with plenty of "them" from many centuries ago. The biracial thing is a new phenomen to make some feel more at ease with the black, the black is there and will always be there. It is a beautiful, wonderful, thing and like the President, I love being black.

Check out the video by clicking the link below, bring the tissues, grab your husband or wife, and smile. President Obama is black, his wife is black, his daughters are black, his mother-in-law is black, and guess what, black IS beautiful!

A New Day and The Snow

Today is Chinese New Year and in honor of this, my husband went to Trader Joe's to pick up our favorite cook-at-home-Chinese. The children were happy. Our plans for the hats, red tablecloth and streamers were halted by the snow.

This evening brought the first real snow storm of the winter season. It came suddenly, even though the news casters warned of it, the school cancelled afternoon tutoring in anticipation. I kept the curtains open in our living room, the big picture window in this Cape Cod waiting to welcome the fluffy white stuff.

My clock ticked to 7:30pm and still no snow. I sent the girls up to take their showers, this would be a late dinner since their dad was still at the grocery store. Their eager chatter filled the house as my son finished studying for his Geometry exam when the doorbell rang.

There was my husband, his arms laden with bags, his head and coat covered in snow! Much anticipated and the moment came suddenly. I had just stepped away from my white-watch-vigil for a moment when the darkest dark blanketed the sky, the stillness of that first magical moonlight was louder than a heartbeat, and the entire sky was the color of cotton with coconut flakes whirling through the sky. In the distance of the upstairs bath, I could hear the girls squealing and laughing, the baby would be elated.

I prepared dinner and the girls bounded down the stairs with the cheerful smiles and loud adoration for "daddy!" accompanying with jumps into his massive arms, smothering him with kisses. They then ran from him to the windows to behold the thing they wanted the most since Christmas - the first snow. "It's snowing!!!!!!"

The announcement of the arrival of the first flakes of the predicted six-inches sent the now 5'8" youngest son double jumping down the stairs. "Yes!" In his mind he was calculating exactly how much had to fall before they cancelled school. "They said we wouldn't have school tomorrow." I admonished him to study for his Geometry exam all the same.

Dinner is over, the dishes washed and put away, the kids upstairs dreaming of a snow day. The house quiet, the stillness and freshness of new snow promises to be full of snow men, sledding, snow ball fights, and snow angels, all the things of childhood and the first storm of the season in St. Louis.

It truly will be a new day, fresh, open, promising, hopeful, anticipating...just like the first snow.

President Barack Obama

I've mused about our new president and the impact his image will have on all our sons and daughters.

In the middle of my thoughts, I read B-Serious' post over on Jack and Jill Politics.com.

He said exactly what I was thinking. This changes the dialogue in America about black men, black women, potential, future, and what we tell our children. We have truly entered a new phase in this country. That is not the say the struggles are not over, we are in the middle of an economic depression and that sometimes brings out the ugliness, but for this moment in time, it brings hope. The unexpected has happened and we will ponder the possibilities.

Thanks B-Serious for reading my mind.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Thankful.Hopeful.Joyful.Purposeful.











Yesterday, I sat in a cozy living room among my Mocha Moms, Inc. sisters from the St. Louis area. We were surrounded with our children and a couple of the "Mocha Dads" who joined us for the momentous occasion that brought us there on that sunny, cold, Tuesday morning. Brunch was spread out on the counter, the children could feel the excitement in the air, and the coffee was brewing in the French Press.

And thankful, hopeful, joyful, purposeful hearts.

We listened intently and watched closely the events that happened on the mall. Thank goodness for her big screen TV. There was happy chatter as we were witnessing history and as eloquent speech tried to articulate the thoughts and feelings.

Joy at seeing history, memories of elders past, mortars blood, 40 years, 1865, 1965, years tumbled past as the oath of office was administered to Barack Hussein Obama. He will forever be known as President Obama, 44th leader of this great country.

And then the thought of the work ahead of him. Yesterday we danced, jumped, yelled, slapped hands, hugged, cried. Today we work, pick up the plow, and make America a better place.

It was a new and historic day. Forever we will be changed. Hope met Promise. Promise met Purpose. Purpose meets Action.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Full of Faith and Full of Hope

I woke up this morning so full I couldn't speak. I had the television tuned in to TVOne and there was Rev. Otis Moss III from Trinity United Church of Christ delivering a message rebroadcast from Sunday, November 9, 2008. I listened intently as he made the connection between Moses and Joshua, Dr. King and President-elect Obama. He talked about this not being a post-racial society as the pundits declared, but a post-wilderness and pre-promised land time, we have not all arrived yet. He asked the question I have been pondering since history was made on the memories of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Shirley Chisholm, and Carol Mosley Braun who trod this path before him, "Where Do We Go From Here?"

My heart beat loudly as he rang out in classic black preacher oratory the names of our Great Cloud of Witnesses. He said Fanny Lou Hammer, A. Philip Randolph, Zora Neale Hurston, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Malcom X, Harriett Tubman, Frederick Douglass and on and on. As he said each name, I felt a sense of my elders watching over this moment in time.

This did not happen by chance, this did not just happen, this 40 years after Dr. King's assassination, 40 years after my mother died, 40 years of a generation, 40 years of wilderness, the impossible became possible. Forty is a generational change number in my spiritual upbringing, 40 represents stepping over, a new time, a new possibility, a new era.

Remember and reflect, celebrate and prepare. I know my daddy is one of those witnesses, all the soldiers in the day-to-day struggle, those who were hosed, those who marched, those who stood in the face of dogs and water hoses, those who worked in the school houses and court houses, those who told the story in song and prose.

In my muse of the history happening and trying to put words to the swirling in my spirit, I couldn't get the words of the Negro National Anthem out of my head. I am not one blessed with the melodic voices of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, but in my own way, I rang out the words of this song and felt the weight of the history behind it.

Certain parts of this magnificent oracle of hope and promise and faith and purpose, stood out to me this morning as I reflected on this moment in time. I thought about the men that met their maker after a lynch mob hung them from a tree or the women who lost their virtue through the lustful fantasies of a roving owner, the children who were used as belly warmers and unequal playmates, the teachers who declared they couldn't learn, the gates to keep them out, the ever raising bar, I thought of all the different aspects of our collective history and found myself singing parts of the song with an unction foreign to my mind.

WE have made history, we are history, and we will write history, the story continues...full of faith, full of hope, full of change.

The Negro National Anthem


"Lift Every Voice and Sing"

by James Weldon Johnson

Originally written by Johnson for a presentation in celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. This was originally performed in Jacksonville, Florida, by children. The popular title for this work is:


'THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM'

Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us, Facing the rising sun of our new day begun Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee; Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand. True to our GOD, True to our native land


James Weldon Johnson June 17, 1871 - June 26, 1938

Friday, January 16, 2009

Where Will I Get My Computers Now?

As if it couldn't get any worse, Circuit City just announced its liquidation and 30,000 jobs lost! There goes my favorite place to purchase electronics, including that Hewlett Packard I wrote about a few weeks ago, the one that made its demise because of my daughter's Christmas break fruit-punch soda making contact with my keyboard. Where will my husband get his ever-growing collection of CD cleaners, blanks, headphones, batteries, and MP3s? It was convenient to walk into this superstore and get help from the FireDog crew, incidentally, who told me it wasn't worth sending my laptop to HP and just buy an external keyboard.

Circuit City is another casualty to the ever growing body count of the economic recession. Is there any way to compete against over $11MM people who are currently unemployed? And what about the other retailers like Dillard's, Ann Taylor, and Linen's & Things that have also put up the liquidation signs? Will the shape of American retail be changed? Even with Wal*Mart's recent announcement that they didn't make as much as they thought they would.

We are hurting, we are holding back, and we are hunkering down. Prices are lower and for the rare person who does have disposable income to blow on yet another pair of pants, the deals are out there. For the forward thinking parent, now is the time to pick up pants, jackets, sweaters, and jeans for next fall. We've been hit with record-breaking cold, even St. Louis dipped down to 1-degree the other night and this latte queen didn't budge from the house.

This is the time to reevaluate the things that are really important. It is time to freecycle, recycle, and realize that all the name brands that have been marketed to us are not enough to make us real. Life is richer not because of the purse we carry, car we drive, or jeans we wear, but because of the people in our lives, the love we share, and the reality that joy knows no price.

My favorite Circuit City will go away, I don't hang out in the Mall, and shopping is not a joy. What will I do? Where will I get my computers now? I'm not sure, but in the mean time, I will read a book, love my family, and cherish my friends. This too will pass.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Where Is The Real News?

What do we do now? It has gotten to the point when I avoid the news, I do a cursory run down of all the Internet reports courtesy of Slate, OpEdNews, Huffington Post, New York Times, and Washington Post stories. I don't read the entire story, I just don't have the stomach for it anymore in this new year. I read the headlines, I visit Jack and Jill Politics or The Root to get the real story from a non-corporate perspective. I turned off MSNBC (still love Rachel Maddow) and CNN (even though there are a few there I like). Perhaps it is burnout from the endless news or the fact that only a few stories get reported. Thinking Rod Blagojevich, Burris, Madoff,etc.

Take Nancy Grace. I could skip her show. I don't watch it. Every evening last December when I would finally have a moment to myself and decide to catch up on a little mindless television, I would flip through the channels and there she would be with her false outrage over little Caylee Anthony. Now don't get me wrong, any crime to any child is horrendous and even more so if it is committed by the mother, but come on Nancy. Little white girls are not the only ones news worthy, there are missing black women, brown women, black and brown children. Don't believe me? Check out the tremendous efforts of What About Our Daughters to bring these stories to the forefront. And then where was her outrage over the obvious police killing of Oscar Grant? And the fact that the Oakland BART is notorious for killing black men? Where is the outrage?

Mainstream, corporate media just tries to instill fear and get people riled up. They tried with President-elect Obama but guess what, Barack Hussein Obama will be taking the oath of office on Tuesday, January 20th anyway. People turned to the Internet, blogs, online magazines, citizen reporting, and other avenues to get the word out, find out the real deal, and make decisions. The same thing is happening, slowly, with the real truth of the bailout, the Bush years, and the depression we find ourselves navigating in 2009.

No, I decided that there is too much living and not enough time to get sucked into the corporate media news thing. I read the highlights this past week and even this morning, I want to be aware of what is happening out there, but I'm smart enough to draw my own conclusions, I don't need a pundit for that. Even my Sunday morning routine is different now. I caught David Gregory this past Sunday on Meet the Press, he is no Tim Russert, God rest his soul. I'm a little tired of Bill Cosby and Dr. Alvin Poussant and their talks about lower-income black people. I work with at-risk black teens and most of them are studying hard and just need access. I'll feel better about what he says when he also talks to upper income white people about their responsibility to open the doors of opportunity. That's for another article. Anyway, I just couldn't watch him this past Sunday, January 11th, and turned it off.

I'm hopeful for the day of real, investigative journalism, the likes my father enjoyed, until then, it will be the blogs and independent newspapers like the the St. Louis American and St. Louis Beacon. Looking for real news.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

No Laptop, No Words?

It is cold outside this Saturday morning, just the time to snuggle up with my latte, my blanket, and my laptop. Oh, wait, there isn't a laptop!

My husband asked me this morning if I heard the message from Circuit City. "No, what message?" I asked him with dread in my heart, knowing the answer.

"They had to send it off."

"Ugh." I poured myself another Mexican coffee and pondered what I would do.

I have been taking my turn on the new family computer, selfishly suggesting the kids go play Connect 4 so I can get some writing time. I'm not sure what I am going to do especially since my laptop was only three months old.

One thing I have done since the Christmas break laptop disaster is to warn every writer who has the habit of writing with their laptop on their lap. I just told my friend Gretchen's sister Jennifer to not do it when I saw her at the New Year's Eve dinner. She is the mom of a four-year-old and let's face it, those little ones are quick, especially when it seems there is a coffee, soda, or even water near the precious devices.

The good thing about not having my laptop is that it forces me away from my dining room office and into the kids' domain of our family room. I've watched more Disney channel, Nick, Jr., and Cartoon Network than I care to mention while I've been hanging out in their spot.

The bad thing is that I can't escape to Kaldi's and write in peace.

I will definitely get the extended warranty next time. I am also hoping and praying for a miracle that the damage is covered but something tells me I will be shelling out $300. Perhaps this will be the time to get that MacBook I've been craving like a vanilla latte. No laptop, no words, no way!

Friday, January 2, 2009

How Long?

Great article I received from my cousin.

Date: Thursday, December 11, 2008, 10:30 AM

Dr. Manis Image
Dr. Manis

When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it?

Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?

Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."

Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.

We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps.

But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.

But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that schoolchildren from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."

Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can -once and for all- get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?

How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?

I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?

How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?

Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan:

First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.

Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.

Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome."


Andrew Manis is author of Macon Black and White and serves on the steering committee of Macon's Center for Racial Understanding.

It takes a Village to protect our President!!!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The new year is stretched out before me like the blank pages of my journal, waiting to be filled with hopes and dreams, thoughts and promises, loves and purpose. I am always energized and excited when the clock makes the tick from one year to the next. This year promises to be very different.

I can't wait for the changes that will come with the inauguration of the nation's first black president. I am already energized by the community activism that has taken off since we, the people, elected Barack Hussein Obama as our 44th President! I love to see the crayola box of Americans come together to help and support each other.

My hope is that even though we will be faced with challenges, in part because of the bumbling of the last administration, that we will come together to climb that mountain. No one needs a mega-mansion and there won't be a moving van following the hearse when we take our last breath, so I hope to see moves away from the ultra-materialism that defined the last era. I want to see more micro-giving, recycling, free-cycling, vintage and thrift and repurposing of clothes, furniture, and appliances. I want to see more bicycling, walking, and carpooling.

2009 also holds out challenges personally and nationally. Personally, I will send my last child off to school in the fall. I am also the new chapter president for Mocha Moms, Inc. here in St. Louis. I've been touched on the shoulder to run for school board, and of course, I intend to keep writing.

Nationally I see us redefining this nation into a more multi-cultural acceptance of each other. I am jumping up and down to see a black woman as the first lady. I can't wait for the stereotypes of black women to be shattered like the new year's eve champaign glasses. There is a ray of light to see an authentic wife, mother, scholar, and professional woman as the real woman we black women have always been.

The economic mess of the last year will still have the recovery in this year and the next. I expect people to come together to help each other. We are in this together and even though there will be more layoffs, there is the promise of new green jobs and rethinking what is our country's purpose. Make something, build something, produce, that is what I hope to see in 2009.

I think my final hope for the year is that we take a collective breath and enjoy the many blessings we have around us. I want to embrace my loved ones and thank God for their contribution to my life. I want to walk and look at the beautiful trees, feel the ray of sunshine, and admire the humanity. Perhaps we will be more decent to each other and know that life is the most precious gift.

Happy New Year, come take the journey!