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HER EXCELLENCY,ELLEN JOHNSON-SIRLEAF,THE PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA BE COMIN' TO TOWN
Published On 03-14-2009 , 10:35 PM
"Where’d you get that from?” is a common enough query, especially if it’s a hot piece of news circulating through the hood.
Now, when it comes to inquiring in a more sophisticated or professional way, the wording changes to “What’s your source?”
In this last scenario, one is expected to provide documentation, reliable references, and, after all of this, the acceptance just might not be forthcoming because some of the sources were third party.
But getting back to the hood – that’s where I come from and that’s where I hear it all. Not to discount the official news wires, but as my late father always said about communication, “There’s the telephone, television and then," he said, " there's tell-a-woman.”
My version of the news in the hood is if I hear it once, I’m interested. When I hear it a second time, I know there’s something to the story. When it comes to me a third time, bingo, it’s reliable.
I first got the information from local community activist Jon Brookhart who was born in Liberia. Sounded hot enough that the big-time folk in the city would have the details.
Sometimes, with a piece of information like Brookhart was telling me, details are
A telephone call to U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff’s office here in town didn’t produce the results I needed. Nope, they knew nothing.
Hm, but I know Brookhart to be a reliable source and the folks at Schiff’s office most certainly are as reliable.
Undaunted, I called the office of the Pasadena Mayor but was told there was nothing on the calendar,
Joe Hopkins, publisher of the Pasadena Journal, was the next source. Success, yes. He’d heard and knew a small detail because his wife, Ruth, is a sorority sister of the visiting dignitary, and her organization is possibly putting on a reception.
As I tell everyone, don’t discount sources in the hood. The only thing missing at this point was the when.
The final source proved my dad’s formula of ” tell-a-woman." I contacted my sister in New York who formerly served as Peace Corp Director in Liberia and is, like Brookhart, pretty much in the know and in contact with folks back on the continent and their representatives who are here in the states.
Originally I was thinking the visit would be this month, which is Women’s History Month. Well, no, the words coming from the Liberian Embassy in Washington D.C., passed on to me by my sister, are that the official visit is in April with no details just yet.
Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the President of Liberia, will, indeed, be visiting in Pasadena.
Apparently the big-time folk don’t get the news any too early, but we little folks in the hood have most definitely been trained to keep our ears to the wind.
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Comment
| | 1. | Amen for "the little folk in the hood".
Hank
- by Hank Wilfong, 03-15-2009, 9:35 AM
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