Only the NRA was invited to the signing of a bill enabling anyone to carry a concealed loaded weapon with no training, no registration, no nothing.
Meanwhile, in Nashville, students, parents, and teachers protest the use of guns that killed their classmates.
And at the state capitol
The shooter at the school shot 126 rifle rounds and 26 from a handgun in 14 minute. 3 children, 3 staff murdered. This is the 38th mass shooting in 2023, and Florida’s Governor and the NRA celebrated the Constitutional Carry Act.
While searching for funding opportunities for our nonprofit, we found a grant on www.grants.gov.
A few of us read the 39-page instructions and we knew that we had to submit the proposal on http://www.sam.gov but what we did not understand is that, although our grant writer had set up our account over nine months ago, all of the other steps were not taken. First, we had not registered the company this year. Second, we had not appointed an entity administrator, which required a notarized form letter signed by the appointee, then, scanned and uploaded to this site www.fsd.gov
Ironically, the people who I communicated with from Sam.gov were all either Black, African American, or some other title of a person of color born in the U.S.A. Their names were Earline Fair Edwards, Jaylin, and his supervisor was a young lady named Lucky.
I made sure that we were on a recorded line and told each of them that this system was either rigged to be difficult to prevent a mass amount of people from accessing the grant monies or some similar scenario. It too from June 1, 2022, until August to get my address changed in this system. That is ridiculous. Ms. Edwards had to go into my account, physically, with me on the phone to affirm that the change got done.
Each conversation I had with a representative was recorded and I am so sure my frustration bled through. Then, I went to YouTube, where you can learn how to do anything, and I found this video collection that is only six months old. I suppose they got enough complaints about the site to inform people how to navigate it. The problem is that you must be computer savvy, you must register with three different sites, and you must remember what to do and where to go to do it.
First, let me say that this is the most frustrating process that I have ever encountered.
I submitted our nonprofit to Sam.gov over nine months ago. It took two months just to get our address changed in this system. Now, I am trying to submit a NEH Grant and find out that our company is not verified. I uploaded a notarized letter appointing me as the Entity Administrator but it will take up to 6 days for someone to verify it. We need another person listed in order to upload the grant documentation.
Does that person need to have a notarized letter, too?
You cannot reach anyone at your office on the phone. Your instructions are click this, click that, click the other. This system is in sore need of simplifying. It is not user-friendly in any way at all.
I just called your number and was told the wait time is 63 minutes. That is absurd.
Can someone please call me at the number below, so I can get some help with this issue.
Then, I got a message that there was no address on our letterhead, which is not true. I’m just sayin’.
Do you see our address?
This is an impossible system managed by incompetent and arrogant people. Only Mrs. Edwards gets my thumbs up. The rest of the staff is belligerent, arrogant, and not serving their citizenry. They need to learn some soft skills like customer service. I say this because Lucky hung up, after saying, “Our agents cannot stay on the phone with you. Contact your tax accountant for help.”
Then, Lucky called me back and made sure I got everything done. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
What do you think?
I’m just sayin’!
This system needs an overhaul and the people working there need customer service training.
This letter is my tribute to the veterans in my family and families around the nation. It is with deep love and appreciation that I acknowledge my father, Uriah T. Cartwright, who served in WWII in the Army as a radio dispatcher in Viareggio, Italy, for the Red Tails, also known as the Tuskegee Airmen. He was the only one in his unit to get hit just before they shipped out. He received the Purple Heart for the injury to his leg from shrapnel and the Bronze Star for heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. My father’s brothers, Garfield and Carl, served in the Navy and Army, respectively. Carl Cartwright served as a lifetime serviceman.
My mother, Charlotte Galloway Cartwright, served in WWII in the Army as a WAC in France and Belgium. She was a typist, and, after her honorable release, she was the administrative assistant to the Assistant Director of the Veterans Administration in Manhattan. Later she worked at the Naval Hospital in St. Albans, New York, processing wounded soldiers.
My husband and the father of my two children, Peter J. Serrano, served in the Army in Vietnam, where he was wounded and received a Purple Heart.
My brother, Carlton G. Cartwright served in the Air Force in Wiesbaden, Germany. Following in our Uncle Carl’s footsteps, Carlton became a professional photographer and videographer. Through his nonprofit organization, The Children’s Coalition, Carlton has produced video interviews for the Veterans’ History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center created by the United States Congress in 2000 to collect and preserve the firsthand remembrances of U.S. wartime veterans available at this link: https://www.loc.gov/search/?fa=contributor_organization:children%27s+coalition+/+va+medical+center,+west+palm+beach
People come in all sizes and shapes but nowhere on them is a label that says, “Do not trust!” ~ Dr. JC
I have been defrauded by the handyman who has worked for me and my daughter for two years. He took my money and did not pay the people he brought in to do the work. Please see the attached statement for details.
September 7, 2022
John Hardgraves was working on my tiny house, in Clarendon NC. Someone stole my refrigerator, stovetop, and dishwasher from Lowe’s in Whiteville, on August 1, 2022, three weeks after my back surgery in Wilmington, NC. John had my Lowe’s credit card that he did not return to me. I gave it to him before I went to Wilmington. There was only $9 on it.
I spent $6,981 on materials and appliances. I reported it stolen and requested a new card for me and my daughter. Later, the Whiteville Detective discovered that the goods went missing from the Lowe’s warehouse. Lowe’s refunded all of the money on my credit card. Then, I read an article about Target and Lowe’s missing millions of dollars of inventory. So, I presumed that the warehouse manager took the goods.
The new contractor ex-state trooper Richard Capps insisted that I go to Lowe’s and see what they were holding for me. Two of five items showed on hold. Lowe’s records showed that three of five appliances on hold were picked up on August 1, 2022. I was recovering in an Airbnb in Fayetteville. The refrigerator, dishwasher, and stovetop are not in the house, nor the shed located at 194 Ed Ward Road, Clarendon, NC 28432.
The stackable washer and dryer and the shower door were still at Lowe’s. Someone took the refrigerator, dishwasher, and stovetop that added up to $2000, the exact amount of John’s last unpaid invoice. My daughter, Mimi, who hired him in 2020, fired him two weeks after the appliances had been picked up without my permission or knowledge. So, his actions may have been premeditated if he took them.
I made a police report at Lowe’s and waited for the police to report who picked up the refrigerator, stovetop, and dishwasher without my permission. At the end of June, July, and August, I called Lowe’s to ask for an extension of time to hold my five appliances. I received a call back from the manager, at the end of August. He said they could keep the appliances for another month only. We did not discuss the items being held, during this conversation, because I did not know that John Hardgraves has picked three of them up on August 1st, until the new contractor Richard Capps informed me that he went to Lowe’s to see what was being held for me. At Lowe’s, Capps learned that there were only two items not five on hold.
John Hardgraves threatened to file a mechanic’s lien. He had no contract. His work was that of a 12-year-old, according to the new contractor who reworked the electrical panel, water heater, and electrical outlets, and invoiced me $817 for the labor.
They are pulling the store video at Lowe’s. I’m pressing charges because we’ve paid John Hardgraves every dime that he invoiced us for since 2020. He overcharged for removing an old house. Nothing he did was right except mowing the lawn and his old cousin did that.
John Hardgraves invoiced me once for drywall, then another time for sheetrock, which is the same thing. The new contractor and another builder both said the drywall looked like it had been done by a 12-year-old. There is still a lot of drywall work to do to make the job right.
Hardgrave’s cousin Robbie and his son Hoss were supposed to be doing the work. But the last time I was at the house when they were there, Robbie told me that he worked a 10-hour job then came to do this work on my house. John was not paying the people who did the work for him. That’s why his cousin wound up coming to do the work. In addition, John’s nephew Timothy Marlowe was paid to do the plumbing. His quote was for $5,400. I paid him half to get supplies. He never finished the work.
The electrician we hired Anthony Lewis from Fuquay Electric never finished the work we contracted him to do, either. We never paid the final invoice for $338 because he did not come to finish the work. According to him, he did not answer to John who was a handyman telling him where to put the outdoor electrical panel. So, he dropped off the job. We paid John $338 to finish the outlets, but they were never done. Also, I paid for lighting fixtures that he picked up from Lowe’s, but they are nowhere to be found. That charge is on my credit card.
Around the time he took the appliances, we asked John Hardgraves to leave the keys because I thought I lost my set. But I found them hanging on my cooler. He asked us if we were firing him then. We said no because we did not intend to fire him.
So, he went and got my appliances because he had the order number and knew the people in the Lowe’s warehouse. told my daughter that he was a liar. Now, we know he’s a thief, too.
I’m exhausted from this process. I have been taken advantage of by people I paid to do a job for me. They left the house a mess. I paid Richard Capps to clean the house up and pay the electrician to repair and rearrange electrical apparatus in the amount of $1,000.
To date, this project has cost me $60,499.26. I paid John Hardgraves $6,690 from my account and $3,939 on credit cards for a total of $10,629. There is an outstanding invoice for $2,050.
My daughter was referred to John Hardgraves in 2020 by our realtor Kip Nance who sold us 9.5 acres of land without disclosing that at least 6 acres are in a flood zone. The 3.5 acres we put the house and sheds on perked. The rest of the land is in the flood zone. Kip referred only John to us. He did not give a list of professional contractors. John maintained the lawn, after the cornstalks were removed. We trusted John because we had a relationship with him. But he defrauded us in every way.
Dr. Joan Cartwright
Mimi Johnson
Clarendon, NC
Attachments:
Photos of the house before and after the new contractor cleaned up the house.
After the cleanup by the new contractor
The moral of the story is “Do not trust anyone, especially workmen who take your money and promise to do the work but hire incompetent people whom they do not pay. This is a harrowing experience. Check and double-check anyone you hire to work for you. People, today, are desperate, greedy, and deceitful. They have no respect for seniors, women, or anyone they think they can bilk for money.
Needless to say, I am making every effort to resolve this issue. Today, I spoke with a Whiteville Police Department Detective. Last night, I submitted this statement to the Columbus County District Attorney. Now, I need to file a report with Columbus County State Troopers. It’s an ordeal but must be done.
When will we have enough of white men working steadily to wage war on women, people of color, government, the economy, the environment, ecology, and the planet?
Let’s focus on:
Mississippi voter’s rights and water
Past presidents who abuse their privilege to run the country
Dumbing down of students who cannot read, write, think, or converse
Generational wealth through real estate ownership
A damaging economy that enables cheesy, greedy landlords to raise the rent and cause whole families to become homeless
Eastern wars on their own people
The right for people to live and love how and whom they please
When your foot is on my neck, you cannot run. Your system keeps you down, too. We cannot tell you how to change your system. We can only tell you what the impact of your system is on us.
When will Black and Brown people understand that they did not create systemic racism and they do not have the cure, solution, or resolution for it?
Do white people understand that it is up to them to dismantle the racism machine that their forefathers and mothers put in place to subjugate other human beings?
The incoming Biden-Harris administration reflects the diversity of Americans.
“I did my brother a grievous wrong, and I will never forgive him!” When I first read that statement years ago in Utne Magazine, I was baffled. If I did my brother wrong, wouldn’t it be me that needed forgiveness? Reading on, I saw the meaning which I think it is incredibly relevant to America today: When you’ve acted inhumanly to your fellow members of the human race, you can repent it OR you can keep insisting that THEY MUST HAVE DESERVED IT. Otherwise you, an upstanding member of society, could never have acted that way. So you have to keep piling coals of fire upon your brother’s head to justify your actions and avoid being repulsed by yourself. Today we are seeing a culmination of 400 years of misplaced blame in America. “We have to take our country back!” is a macabre example, considering that the people uttering those words descend from those who massacred millions of indigenous people that were here long before Europeans invaded. “They’re going to take our jobs and give them to the lazy Blacks!” is another common mantra. Disrespect reigns for anyone not white, such as that expressed even by someone as privileged as a member of the board of the Naval Academy Alumni Association, who unwittingly broadcast himself saying hateful slurs. As a Black woman who has learned America’s history at the pivotal places where it happened in the National Park System, I confess I sometimes feel a little smug. Because it requires an astounding lack of knowledge about our country’s history to claim that it was once “white” and a colossal level of self-deception to pretend that non-white Americans are lazy. Could it be that revulsion to their ancestors’ actions at events such as the massacre at Sand Creek force today’s racists to maintain their antipathy towards their non-white brothers and sisters? Could the need to be able to stomach or excuse the actions of their forebears propel them to claim a shallow ‘superiority?’ Because it is stomach churning: “… in late autumn of 1864, about 1,000 Cheyenne and Arapaho lived in tepees here, at the edge of what was then reservation land. Their chiefs had recently sought peace in talks with white officials and believed they would be unmolested at their isolated camp. “When hundreds of blue-clad cavalrymen suddenly appeared at dawn on November 29, a Cheyenne chief raised the Stars and Stripes above his lodge. Others in the village waved white flags. The troops replied by opening fire with carbines and cannon, killing at least 150 Indians, most of them women, children and the elderly. Before departing, the troops burned the village and mutilated the dead, carrying off body parts as trophies. . .” I need not document the industriousness of African Americans in farming, building, metalwork, defense and even saving America’s economy. and instead refer you to some of those parks that commemorate that history at the places where it happened, African American Heritage. Americans of every race and ethnicity contributed to the development of our country and can find sites in the National Park System where their contributions were pivotal to getting us where we are today. The humanity of white Americans is similarly on display. I’m not a psychologist (though I could play one on TV.) But I believe it’s important to investigate all the potential triggers that are leading our white brothers and sisters to act out in such a paroxysm of rage. A few cautions I might share from the System which protects the “natural, cultural and historic” treasures of our great Republic: A civil war is no joke, as the graves at these national parks attest, and the suffering recorded at sites such as Andersonville National Historic Site place them off my list, (although my life goal is to visit all 400-plus units in the system.) 750, 000 dead and untold numbers injured. For what purpose would the losing side want to repeat that in 2021?! I read about a tribe in Africa where, when a member has transgressed, the elders take them out into the village square. There, the villagers sing and dance around them, reminding them how good they are and that they are a vital part of the community. When the transgressor has repented, the tribe takes him back into the village. I wish we could do that for these American transgressors. Because a house divided against itself cannot stand. I’d tell them, “Your brothers and sisters who’ve been so terribly wronged don’t hold it against you. We just want to move on as humans together on a level playing field, to make real what we Americans committed to centuries ago, ‘with Liberty and Justice for all.’ ” How about it? There’s a brighter day in view and I embrace it wholeheartedly.
Thanks to Audrey Peterman of Earthwise Productions, Inc. in Fort Lauderdale for permission to repost this message.
I would like to draw your attention urgently to important issues related to the next Covid-19 vaccination. For the first time in the history of vaccination, the so-called last generation mRNA vaccines intervene directly in the genetic material of the patient and therefore alter the individual genetic material, which represents the genetic manipulation, something that was already forbidden and until then considered criminal. This intervention can be compared to genetically manipulated food, which is also highly controversial. Even if the media and politicians currently trivialize the problem and even stupidly call for a new type of vaccine to return to normality, this vaccination is problematic in terms of health, morality, and ethics, and also in terms of genetic damage that, unlike the damage caused by previous vaccines, will be irreversible and irreparable.
Dear patients, after an unprecedented mRNA vaccine, you will no longer be able to treat the vaccine symptoms in a complementary way. They will have to live with the consequences, because they can no longer be cured simply by removing toxins from the human body, just as a person with a genetic defect like Down syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, Turner syndrome, genetic cardiac arrest, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, Rett syndrome, etc.), because the genetic defect is forever!
Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg
This means clearly, if a vaccination symptom develops after an mRNA vaccination, neither I nor any other therapist can help you, because the damage caused by the vaccination will be genetically irreversible. In my opinion, these new vaccines represent a crime against humanity that has never been committed in such a big way in history. As Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, an experienced doctor, said, “In fact, this promising vaccine for the vast majority of people should be FORBIDDEN, because it is genetic manipulation!”
Dr. Anthony Fauci
The vaccine, developed and endorsed by Anthony Fauci and funded by Bill Gates, uses experimental mRNA technology. Three of the 15 human guinea pigs (20%) experienced a serious adverse event.
The year 2020 brought devastating events that shook the foundations of nations, worldwide. Aside from the political ranting of a narcissistic leader, the United States suffered catastrophic deaths due to COVID-19.
Hellish fires in California destroyed thousands of residences, leaving thousands of people homeless, and increasing the number of homeless in America.
The incoming Biden-Harris administration reflects the diversity of Americans.
Words We Speak 