Book Review

Terri Schichenmeyer  |   OW Contributor
Sep 23 2010

Author: Steven Roby and Brad Schreiber

The cheers and chants were just for you.

When the music started and you stepped onto the pretend stage, the imaginary crowd went wild.

Make-believe spotlights shone on your fingers, moving quickly as you picked a song on your air guitar—your specialty—and you were famous.

In your own head, anyway.

Terri Schichenmeyer  |   OW Contributor
Sep 16 2010

Author: Roxane Orgill, illustrated by Sean Qualls

How many songs do you know by heart?

If you counted them up, you might see that you know a lot of them. You know about rowing a boat, and the birthday song. You can sing about an old man who played “one,” an eensy weensy spider, the A-B-Cs, and you might even know the words to a few songs that you hear on the radio.

Terri Schichenmeyer  |   OW Contributor
Sep 9 2010

Author: Lori L. Tharps

You hate leaving your kids.
 
It’s not that you don’t want a break from them sometimes, because you need that for your sanity. And it’s not the pitiful way they cry, ripping your heart out, even though you know they’ll be playing 10 seconds after you’re through the door. 
 
No, you hate leaving your kids because of that nagging little voice in the back of your head. It says that nobody can care for them the way you do.
 

Terri Schichenmeyer  |   OW Contributor
Aug 26 2010

Author Mary B. Morrison

You just couldn’t stop yourself.

You knew that what you were about to do would get you into trouble. You’d never be able to talk your way out of the mess, even though you’d to try. Getting caught was a high probability, losing everything was a danger.

But you just couldn’t stop yourself.

Terri Schichenmeyer  |   OW Contributor
Aug 12 2010

Author: Travis Hunter

“And stay out of trouble.”

There they were, the oft-repeated departing instructions from parents and teachers, grandparents and big brothers. You heard those words all your life, over and over. Stay out of trouble, as if it was easy. Stay out of trouble, as if temptation wasn’t everywhere; as if anything fun ever came from being good.

As if it was possible.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.