There are times when I have difficullty going on the internet. I have one computer in my house and amongst my eight children I also have six grandchildren. On any give day, my oldest children visit me with along with the grandkids. I always treasure their visits to my home. I would rather play with my grandkids while their parents are either playing on the internet or just talking to me. Although, late at night; there are only two of us at home - myself and my youngest daughter Miriah who will be a senior in high school.

This morning we had a younger gentlemen from the district who visited our office in Muscle Shoals. Perhaps it would be about more important details about the FSS Implementation in Montgomery or about the future of our jobs? The district decided to pay this gentlemen an EAS salary to hold up our mail operation on "Celebrating Diversity."

I completely agree that we should celebrate diversity. But as my online friend from Colorado wrote to me "we should celebrate unity instead of diversity." Fortunately, racism is not a problem where I work but I am certain it may be a problem in other offices. I am the most senior employee in my office and I have no problem dishing out a plate of common sense to an uneducated co-worker that gives me trouble. Having a young man who could possibly be 30 years old, if that; talking about that subject was hard to swallow.

I grew up in Birmingham Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s. Racism was a very volatile reality back then. Two incidents stand out in my mind from my childhood. When I 12 years old, the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed. One of those victims was a girl named Denise McNair whom I went to school with. Her mother, Maxine, was a first grade teacher at City Elementary.  If Denise were alive, she would be my age now and perhaps writing blogs on a website or e-mails to her children. That church was bombed by savages who thought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was going to hold a meeting there. I never met any of those civil rights people back then nor did Denise. I was just a 12 year old girl dreaming about boys, listening to 45 records and watching black-and-white TV shows in the living room. I was just a normal girl. I believe Denise was the same way.

The other incident happened when I was in 10th grade attending Ramsay High School in 1967. I went to cheerleader tryouts and made it to the finals for the squad. A member of RHS PTA was watching and told the cheerleading coach that a black girl on the cheerleading squad would be inappropriate. The school district administration backed this PTA troublemaker. My heart was broken into a million pieces. But God works in mysterious ways and many of the school's faculty started petitions and persuaded the administration to allow me on the squad. I was the first black cheerleader at Ramsay High School.

I don't believe racism is as overt as it used to be, but there are more subtle forms of racism. If you are talking to someone from a different ethnic background - don't talk about eating at the same ethnic restaurant matching their background. "Gosh, Helen, I ate at Joe's Diner and, baby, they have some good chitterlings." First of all, give me a nice juicy pink steak over those smelly greasy chitterlings anyday! Secondly, I have picked up on your vibe that you view me differently. I have also been told by customers that I speak proper and articulate for a black women. Subtle, but insulting. I suppose I should say "fo' shizzle, my vizzle."

The only stereotypical aspect of my being is my huge black booty which has been a long struggle to get rid of after giving birth to eight children. God has a reason for creating us the way we are.

With my background, it became very easy to become a steward and fight for other people's rights. There is an old Bob Marley song with a powerful chorus in the lyric:

Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight!

Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!

Hello to all of postal sisters and brothers on here. I am a rural carrier in Alabama with 30 years of experience of being a "postal service on wheels" to my dear customers in Muscle Shoals Alabama. I am told by my co-workers that with 30 years of driving and delivering under my belt that I should retire - but I think I will pass that opportunity for now. I have 8 children and seven of them have graduated from high school. My youngest daughter will be a senior this year.

You may consider me an outsider on this site, but I really love my job. Don't get me wrong, my family is more important, but I truly like working as a rural carrier. After working 30 years as a rural carrier, my customers are like my second family.

I felt the exact pain that some of you did on here on here after the last mail count. My route was effected paywise and I know that there are God blessed people working on that matter. I don't believe that Donnie Pitts is one of those folks - but we have wonderful representatives like Robert Picklesimer from Texas and Tom Frost from Ohio and Larry Franks from Alabama who have actually flown to L'Efant Plaza on their own dime (no NRLCA money involved - it was out of their own pocket) to defend us on our last mail count.

I was an NRLCA steward and past president for almost 20 years before I resigned for personal reasons. There are many unsung heroes in the NRLCA. On this site, I want to say a big thank you to PostalTexan and all of the information she provides on www.ruralinfo.net 

Love is life and life is love.  Love is the only kind of fire which is never covered by insurance.