The lady in the garage with the long crinkly hair with red sleeved blazer. She is warning us of sex trafficking, human trafficking, and organ trafficking of black women, in particular. I got this video in my messenger 1,384 times (being fictitious). How many times did you receive it sis? I know you got it too. Couple this with all of the kidnapping videos…in plain sight kidnapping attempts. The lady fighting off the attempt of her daughter in a store, a collage video of kids being pulled or grabbed all caught on camera! But these aren’t as real in our psyche as the 8-year that was snatched right in front of her mom in Ft. Worth, TX walking in their own neighborhood. The door ring camera literally saving her life from a 51-year old perverted punk. All of this…

And here we are…LIVING IN FEAR.

But! Fear has no place here. Fear has no place with me. I’ll take note of all the warnings, every last one of them. But I have to caution us all of the constant sharing/re-sharing and watching of these videos. Be careful reading the comments.

ALL OF THE COMMENTS:

“This is one cruel and evil world.”

“It’s sickening.”

“Sad times we live in.”

AND ALL OF THE WARNINGS:

– Zip tie on your rear view mirror warning

– Child lock on the Uber driver doors warning

– Old lady in the dark parking lot with the perfume roller tester warning

Goodness! I left Belk last week in the middle of the day, in the parking garage imagining myself jump-kicking an old lady as she approached me with a question. I wasn’t going to ask her anything. Just step, lock, and kick.

“Lord, please don’t let me take out an old lady simply asking for help to locate her car. Amen.”

This blog is NOT to add to the list of warnings or comments. And I’m not stupid enough to act like we aren’t living in trying times. I will always be vigilant and I’ll remain that way. I have a daughter (and SON) that I’m watching closely. Truth be told these current times didn’t cause this. I was this way all along.

I got this from my mama! I’ll be 40 years old in a couple of months and as a young girl, I was never allowed to spend the night over with any of my friends. I can remember my mom explaining to me in middle school her rationale behind that decision. The ONLY house I could ‘spinnanight” over was my cousin, Demond. RIP Demond

I can recall asking my mom if I could stay over and her answer was a quick and firm, “NO.” I whined that I never got to “spinnanight” with my friends and she agreed and explained that she couldn’t control what happened at another person’s house. So I was not allowed to spend the night unless their mom would be there at all times watching us because she couldn’t risk me being ‘mistreated.’ So that was that.

That was 30 years ago. 30 years ago. Where do you think this belief came from? I don’t know but I’m sure it generated BEFORE I was born. Maybe this was a warning that came from her older sisters that raised her (my grandmother passed when my mom was just a kid). Either way, my point is this, if you think about this, such warnings have been imbedded in us all of our lives. Having to watch our kids period isn’t new.

Kidnapping didn’t just start! Sex trafficking isn’t new! Now this organ trafficking mess is new to me, but that’s not new either! What is new here (not new but what has changed over time) is our access to information. That’s it. We have more access to information than ever before. We walk around with mini computers in our pockets/purses. Even our kids have unlimited access to these mini computers.

This access is both good and it can be bad because it’s a constant feed of information all day long. There was a time when the 10:00 news was all the updates we had access to. If you missed that, you’d have to read the daily newspaper or wait for the next nightly news. But now, we see the news being played over and over again. And even from many months or even years ago. What I’ve started doing is opening up the articles and videos to check out the details many of us miss. Many of these incidences occurred were NOT recent; yet, we are passing them around as if they are.

I’m not downplaying the events of the day. But to add to the info being shared, we have and we will always have to be careful. This world didn’t just become sick…it has always been sick. Sin isn’t new, its been here since the beginning of time. The fear of what could happen to our daughters has always been a concern of every mother. Protecting them at all costs has been the job of many of us.

My “piece of steel” was purchased almost 20 years ago with one goal, to protect myself. That goal is still the same. The only difference now is I just added my kids to my goal.

Listen. There is nothing new under the sun. Take note of all of the warnings. Pray. Remain vigilant. Keep living. Pray some more. Fear has no place here.

Thanks for your attention. Remember you are your own competition.

Competition of 1