The J-Spot

     "I remember everything." said Chris Stephens, during an interview late in August. "I remember meeting you in Memphis, Tennessee. We both worked at Kroger and I was stocking the dairy section. You came up to me with some lettuce in your hands and asked me if I trained at Kang Rhee's Pasa Ryu Kung Fu center."      That was more than ten years ago.      Since early last month, I have had the privilege of working on Chris's biography: A Bounty Hunter's Guide to Success , due out in early January. That much I can remember, but don't ask me too many details; that's why my computer has a save button. If someone were to ask me what I was doing ten years ago, the blank my mind drew would have been evident through my stare and a sarcastic remark would've raced to fill in the void.      A super sharp memory is one of the gifts that some kids with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) are born with. Though Christop...

     Over eight years ago, with the election of Obama as our U.S. President, came the hope that racism would finally be abolished and that we could move on as a free and equal country. Yet, with every year come new challenges to our psyches and our vocabularies. Words like 'Sex Identification' and 'Transgender' make us question, all over again, our holistic view of people as equals in our communities. Back, fifteen years ago, when something was 'gay', it was simply an oddity. Now, calling something 'gay' can inadvertently upset a friend or neighbor. With the growing acceptability of LGBT existence (due to its wider prevalence and greater understanding) came the growing unacceptability of common words from our past. Are these words important to us? Of course not.      People should have the right to be and express whatever and whoever they believe they are, and shouldn't have to be subject to ridicule or injustice. In my experience, I have often wor...