“Yes, Jesus loves me.” ~ the last song she sang. I remember singing that in my church choir when I was a child.

Can’t stop singing it and thinking of Whitney.

Friends and family are remembering her as well:

 Heartbroken and in tears”….Mariah Carey begins her tweet on the
loss of her friend (and entertainment rival), Whitney Houston.
 The Twitterverse is full of tributes.
 A top source from the Grammy’s is saying tomorrow night’s Grammy
Awards Show will have major changes for tributes to  Whitney – this
person speculating Jennifer Hudson would be a great choice for
something special.
Hudson has said how thrilled she was when Whitney presented her with a
Grammy.  She has said Whitney was a major influence on her.
The President and CEO of the Recording Acadamy (Grammy’s)  reminds us
Whitney won six of the awards, was in the spotlight for three decades,
and he sends his sympathies to family, friends and fans

RIP Whitney

With word coming in about Whitney Houston’s tragic death – there  is a
struggle to find out how she died, yet respect her memory.
At last report, her body was still in the room on the fourth floor of
the Beverly Hilton Hotel
Reports conflict about who found her – one says it was her bodyguard,
sadly ironic.
Whitney Houston’s fight with drugs went on for years.  But Reverend Al
Sharpton makes a good point on CNN when he makes a plea
that we remember the music, and the fact that Whitney came from a
family steeped in the church and the gospel.
Sharpton is in L.A. and says people are walking around at pre-Grammy
night parties in a stupor.
He plans to offer a special, national prayer at a church service tomorrow.
Sharpton says God gave Whitney her voice and she shared it with the
world.  Amen to that.

I’m 3 for 3 now. No surprise Gingrich beat Romney in South Carolina – and it was a BEATING 41% to 27%. ‘Nice Newt’ showed up for his victory speech, at first, complimented all his GOP rivals. But then – went after President Obama, and asked everybody to go to his web site to give him some money.
He says he doesn’t have the money of “some” candidates but that ideas and people can defeat big money . Of course he attacked the elites in Washington and in the news media. There was more – that we’ve heard before – and that we’ll no doubt hear again. Two debates in Florida next week.
As for the other candidates: Ron Paul came in last place in South Carolina but you’d never know it. He gave a barn burner speech on all his favorite issues – we’ve got to get rid of the Federal Reserve System – go back to money based on gold and silver, we’ve got to get our military out of foreign countries and bring them home and let them spend money here, government’s got to get out of health care, housing education, because it just makes them more expensive….blah blah blah He says he is a man on a mission, with a message and the way to get it across is with delegates – so, Paul’s in the race to stay.
Then Mitt – he congratulated Gingrich, then went on to attack the President, went on to call himself successful, went on to say he’s going to go on.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat in Florida.

He can REALLY SING – Who KNEW? President Obama was at a fundraiser at the Apollo Theatre and gave the people their money’s worth. He sang a bit of Al Green with Al was in the audience.

I played this again and again – he is just too cool.

Courtesy of the White House

The First Lady of the United States: many call her FLOTUS or MO (her twitter handle) or the beautiful wife of the President.  Happy Birthday to the first wife, mother and all around great lady!

The nation knew somebody really different was headed for the White House when Michelle Obama walked onto the stage the night her husband was nominated for President. She was smashing – in red and black.  No doubt about a first class fashionista – with DANGLING EARRINGS! And she’s gone on, as First Lady, making Best Dressed Lists and all the best magazine covers. And she mixes it up: Calvin Klein, Isabel Toledo, Narcisco Rodriguez – and then maybe something from the GAP or J. Crew. She keeps it fun and funky and we love it!

 Happy Birthday to Michelle Obama – the woman who has it all – and even more!

I’ll never forget the day we took this picture.  I had to spend an entire day with Ali for some story. The average person would be excited; not me. In fact, I was a bit bummed. (crazy, I know.) You have to understand I was a HUGE George Foreman fan. So I thought I was somehow betraying George (ha!) Well – the more time I spent with the Ali – the more I fell for him and by the end of the day – I was in love (as you can see from the size of my smile.)  

 Muhammad Ali is 70 years old today. And the champ still has a mind that can ‘”loat like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Although suffering from Parkinson’s disease, he still talks about getting back in the gym. But the brutal blows in the ring have left Ali physically fragile. But he’s still remarkable, he was able to help negotiate the recent release from Iran of three American hikers, who stumbled into trouble, and Iranian prison, on a day of recreation.

There was a huge birthday party for Ali over the weekend at the Muhammad Ali Center, in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Hundreds cheered the sight of the champ, who raised his hand in greeting, as he stood on a balcony.  There will be more parties – including one at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, next month.

I have to laugh when I think of how much he bragged about his pretty face – it was and still is beautiful. Every time I see him I now, I give him a big smile. But it’s much more that makes him a legend – he’s known for his love of people, generosity and kindness outside the ring, and killer instincts inside the ropes.

He’s fought the good fight, finished a brilliant career, and kept his faith in God and fellow humans.  Today – the world celebrates a birthday for a champ, The Champ, in every sense of the word.

“I have a dream today…” They are THE words we remember today as we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But, as songs, and plays, speeches, art exhibits, and volunteer good-works of every kind go on across the nation in King’s honor, stop and think a moment:  we may have a great gospel singer to thank for the most memorable parts of King’s famous speech at the March on Washington. On the hot summer day in 1963, the end of the famous protest was at hand, and about a quarter of a million people  listened to the final speaker, Dr. King, as he delivered a prepared text of eloquence and beauty on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, to the crowd on the Mall. Gospel great, Mahalia Jackson, was in the crowd. She cried out: “Tell them about the dream, Martin!’.  And King left the prepared text behind, and began to deliver his vision of a world where people of every creed and color could enjoy all rights equally – and join hands to sing the old spiritual words: “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.” There were other organizers of that March on Washington.  But we don’t think of them.  There were other speakers at that March on Washington.  But their words don’t ring down through history as do King’s. He was a Baptist preacher and he spoke his vision from the pulpit to the world.   He was a Christian, but took his inspiration from Ghandi for the non-violent creed he believed in and practiced.  He was gently critical of Malcolm X, who believed violence was justified in the drive for racial equality and wanted nothing to do with the white man.  It is said the two met only once, for about a minute, on the steps of the Capitol, where both had come to hear  debate on the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which passed. He was a husband and father of four children. Born and raised in the Deep South where the laws of segregation were designed to block him, a young black man, from every significant opportunity, as well as restaurants, drinking fountains and the like. But he was born to a spiritual and accomplished family and he did not disappoint.  His grandfather and father had been pastors at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and King followed in their footsteps.  But the path he took was different.  His mission, equal rights for all Americans, led him to jail, over and over again, to beatings, to attacks on his home, to water cannon and police dogs and the Nobel Peace Prize.  He had a PhD from Boston University and a college degree from Morehouse, a predominantly black college in Atlanta that’s one of the nation’s premiere institutions.  He wrote five books and countless articles .He knew history.  And he made history. The Civil War supposedly had brought an end to slavery for black Americans in the United States. But, 100 years later, Martin Luther King Junior saw so much work left to do.  And he did it.   As a husband, and a father of four, Dr. King had a future he wanted for the world, and for his own family. In Birmingham – King and other leaders met  with the violence of billy clubs, angry officers, snarling dogs, beatings and arrests. The scenes were televised, shocked the nation, and made King much more famous.  He sent the world his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and began helping to plan the March on Washington.  That’s where he would stand, at the Lincoln Memorial, to make his famous speech.

King has his own monument now, not far from where he spoke on that famous day.  He stands, arms crossed, looking outward, 30 feet tall, so tall visitors can gather below in his shadow, in a kind of spiritual embrace.  The smooth granite statue emerges from more rough hewn rock.  The sculptor’s theme was that King would seem that “stone of hope”   from “a mountain of despair” – ideas taken from The Dream speech.

Quotes from King surround the complex. One of them will be changed. Sculptor and architect shortened King’s comparison of himself to a ‘Drum Major for Justice”.  Critics point out that in the full quote, King was trying to tell people that if they insisted on praising him as a drum major – they must know he was doing it for the right things, not to show off.  He was not insisting on the title for himself. For many of us, the words he spoke the night before he died move the most.  “I have been to the mountaintop, I may not get there with you, but we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” The next day, on a balcony in Memphis, an assassin’s bullet took his life but not his legacy. He was in Memphis to help with a protest movement.  Which brings us to another quote from MLK:  ”Life’s most persistent question is – what are you going to do for others?” Today – this national holiday, is a national day of service and if you’re looking for a project, check MLKDay.gov.  You’ll find plenty there, courtesy of the Obama White House. The first black American president and family clapped, sang and swayed to Amazing Grace to honor King during a visit to Zion Baptist Church in D.C. yesterday.  And King family and friends were at the memorial laying a wreath – they’ll be back today.

Today’s the day we sing Stevie Wonder’s version of ‘Happy Birthday’, composed to push for the national holiday we have now.  It has its own unique melody – for The Dreamer and the dream millions hope and work to make more real with each new day.