OCTOBER 2020

Vol. 26 #10 October 2020

Tampa • St. Petersburg • Clearwater • Largo • Tarpon Springs . Brandon • Bradenton • Sarasota • Lakeland Plant City

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Publishers: TAMPA BAY TAMMY & DJ CEO

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Story on page 4

Annual October Article Dear Girlfriend , I am a grandmother now. Halloween is coming upon us and I read an article you wrote about 10 years or more ago about celebrating Halloween that I would like to share with my children. They love your column and think your advice is always on point. Will you please re run it if you have it. I’m trying to handle this, Holiday Grandma.

For years, I have dealt with the issue of indulging in Halloween and whether I should give out candy or not. For years I had come to the conclusion, I would, because I enjoyed making the kids happy and I love chocolate candy too. I love receiving it and love giving it. However, it has been said that, “When you know better, you do better.” So now I don’t participate anymore.

I have always been told that Halloween was supposed to be the devil’s holiday. However, since I did not worship the devil, I resolved in my spirit that it had nothing to do with me. Thus, I dressed my 4 kids in the cutest costumes I could find (nothing scary). I bought the best candy I could afford, and I got about the business of making Halloween a positive holiday for my family. What I didn’t realize was... I was making my children and other children love the holiday. My actions helped them to grow up looking forward to dressing up, going out and partaking in the event willingly.

Indirectly, I was allowing the devil to use me. My children were comfortable with the masks and secrecy of the evening and would excitedly make plans. Thus, making them susceptible to danger every year because it’s easy for people with malicious intent to go undetected on that evening.

For years, I justified my actions, saying, “This makes my children happy, and I don’t want to disappoint them.” See, I did not want to give up our good times or good feelings, so I continued to do what was question-

ably wrong in my mind. I would say, “I am not hurting anyone.”

However, the law of physics states that, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Lately, I have not liked the reactions to some of the actions I have been a part of. So I have been checking myself on what I see as a good time.

After witnessing a sequence of personal life changing revelations, I became new and aware and I cannot justify my actions anymore. There is right and there is wrong. There is good and there is evil.

In the comedy “Dogma” starring Chris Rock, the Latin Muse makes reference to another angel saying, You are either on one side or the other. You have got to choose a side.

You cannot walk the middle line.

What side are you on?”

Sometimes the devil uses us without us even realizing it’s being done. As I’ve become older and wiser, I have begun to recognize how at different times in my life, I have been used and my so-called friends have been used too. No matter what has happened in the past, I want God, and only God, to use me.

After the death of my father, back in March 2006, we were returning home to Tampa on 75 South from Memphis. I was drained and grieving, sleeping in the back seat, when I awoke to Kirk Franklin on the radio hollering “SOLDIERS.” I immediately said out loud to my husband who was driving “I want to be a soldier.” Confused at my outburst, he responded, “What?” I repeated, “I

want to be a soldier.” Then, I hastily retracted my statement and said, “No I don’t.... because soldiers have to fight. Soldiers are fighting while others don’t even know a war is going on. The enemy comes after soldiers. I don’t want the enemy coming after me.” My husband then told me “You’re already a soldier.” Realizing in my spirit he was right, I laid back down in the back seat and cried softly.

Now, I ask God daily to guide my steps. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am still messing up every day, saying something I should not have said. But like Steve Harvey said in his BET comedy show, “He (God) ain’t through with me yet.” I am still the same old flip at the mouth, fasttalking, wanting to have a good time Tampa Bay Tammy. But I will not

celebrate Halloween in any form or fashion. So don’t take it personal if I don’t come to your Halloween or masquerade party on Halloween.

Please don’t try to change my mind and I won’t try to change yours. My revelation is mine. I am not judging you, and please don’t you judge me.

We all have to get there in our own time and seek knowledge for ourselves, so our change will be a permanent one. More importantly, so we can protect our children and our children’s children. When you know better, you must do better, because then we are judged on a whole ‘nother level. When my time in this body is gone, I want my children to be at peace not worrying about my salvation. Biblically speaking, I want my God to say “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Need Advice? Write to Dear Girlfriend at Tampabaytammy@hotmail.com N-Touch News

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You Heard It From ME A Brief History Lesson

Baby, baby, go lock the doors, let the blinds down and cut the lights out. It’s almost dark and we don’t want any of these damn fools coming around here bothering us because their main man lost. Did you stock up on grocery cause we might be indoors until this mess dies down. I can’t believe we got these grown ass people out here tearing stuff up because they believe America is dead. America is more alive than it’s ever been in the last one hundred years.

You remember the 1920’s don’t you? It was the roaring 20’s, a time when women had found their voice through the right to vote and driving their new automobiles. Women had an unprecedented freedom to work in jobs traditionally held by men and earned salaries like never before. It was a time when manufacturing alcohol for consumption was illegal, but the actual consumption of alcohol was not. Jazz music was born and being shared around the country on vinyl records and played in radio stations popping up around the world.

Black Americans were still finding their footing trying to make it in this white man’s world. A great many Blacks migrated up north to find a better life. Even though the KKK was born in 1865, right after the Emancipation Proclamation, it’s terror on Black folks extended all the way into the early 1960’s, and persisted long after the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Some Whites were just uncomfortable seeing Blacks as equal citizens and were hell bent on maintaining the status quo of slavery.

One of the ways we were kept in check is through confederate soldiers

Bay Area Fashions

being hired as police officers to keep their knees on the necks of Black Americans.

Lynching, and all that, was just par for the course. Sound familiar?

The Great Depression came in 1929 when the bottom fell out of the stock market, the roaring 20’s came to an end. As we moved into the 1930’s, more than 15 million people were unemployed and President Herbert Hoover did little if anything to quell the fears of the nation.

He thought the country just needed patience and things would get better. Sound familiar? However, true Americans said, shiittttt, I’m voting for Roosevelt, and of course FDR’s New Deal was born. It brought America back to prosperity. If we are not careful we can find ourselves reliving the antics of the 1920s.

America needs Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We have to Build Back Better the America that WE want. If you want to be part of the solution and not the problem, then do your civic duty. VOTE. The founders of the Constitution were right when they wrote, “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve their political bands to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate but equal stations to which the laws of nature and natures God entitle them a decent respect to the opinions of mankind. We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights and among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Go VOTE NOW!!!!!! some information gathered from History.com

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DEXTER LEWIS, New Director of Public Relations The Children’s Board is pleased to announce that Dexter Lewis has been promoted as the new Director of Public Relations with the Children’s Board. Dexter has been with the Children’s Board since January of 2018, most recently serving as the Public Relations Manager. Dexter has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of South Florida and is pursuing a Master’s of Public Administration Degree from the University of South Florida.

Before coming to the Children’s Board, Dexter was the Community and Youth Liaison with the Corporation to Develop Communities, working with the Safe & Sound Hillsborough Program; Hillsborough County’s Violence Prevention Collaboration. During this time he led two youth leadership councils

and brought in the title sponsor for the inaugural Violence Prevention Conference, Safe Summit ’17. Dexter worked with countless stakeholders and community members, to develop positive youth programming to invest in their well-being and educational success.

Prior to that he worked as the Director of Partnerships with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk counties. He brought community and business partners into the organization to mentor children and investors to contribute to their mission. He brought in over 200 mentor applicants in the course of a year and brought in $2000 dollars through community fundraising events.

Dexter is a Tampa native and has a heart of service. He serves on the Board of Leadership Hillsborough, was a Fellow in the 2018 New Leaders Council Institute in the Tampa Bay Chapter, and a Big Brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program at Sulphur Springs and Temple Terrace Elementary Schools for four years.Dexter is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated, Tampa Alumni Chapter.

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We’re here for you.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long-standing disparities in health care along income and racial lines.

Blacks/African Americans in some states have been stricken disproportionately by the novel coronavirus.

“Just as prevention is the key to lower cancer risk, the same holds true for lowering the risk of COVID-19—understanding how to prevent it. We have to ensure these populations are getting the necessary information to help lower their risk of the virus.”

-Dr. B. Lee Green, Vice President, Diversity, Public Relations & Strategic Communications at Moffitt Moffitt is here for the health of our patients and our community.

To learn more about how Moffitt has adapted to the pandemic to keep everyone safe, call 1-888-456-2839 or visit Moffitt.org/HereForYou.

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Raheem Morris Named Interim Head Coach for Atlanta Falcons Tampa Bay Tammy

Congratulations Raheem Morris! We are so glad to see you are still rising in the ranks with the NFL. Raheem spent 6 years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and 3 of those as Head Coach taking over after Jon Gruden. After leaving with a 10-6 season, he went to the Washington Redskins as the Defensive Back Coach and then Raheem is originally from to the Falcons as their Wide Re- Newark NJ and is a graduate of ceiver Coach and now as Inter- Hofstra University in NewYork. im Head Coach.

To God be all the glory.

Youth Football Games to Resume in Hillsborough County Parks Youth football leagues can now apply to Hillsborough County for permission to resume games and tournaments at County parks.

Football leagues already have been allowed to use County fields for non-contact practices and conditioning, but contact practices and games and tournaments have not been permitted since late March because of COVID-19 corona virus concerns. To receive permission to resume games and contact practices on County-maintained fields, each league can now submit a plan that must be approved by Hillsborough County Parks & Recreation. The plans must outline the social distancing, sanitation, scheduling, and other measures the leagues will use

to assure the safety of players, volunteers, and fans. Safety requirements include temperature checks for all players, spectators, coaches, and staff.

Effective immediately, football leagues can submit the plans for review to Parks & Recreation at PRK-Fields@HCFLGov.net. Parks officials will quickly review the plans and respond to the league with changes or approval.

County leaders decided to allow the resumption of contact practices, games, and tournaments for youth football after extensive consultation with local health officials, emergency managers, Parks & Recreation staff, and others.

Miles for Moffitt Virtual Race Saturday, Oct 24 From where ever you are N-Touch News

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Calvin Hayes met Javier Wallace when he was a football player on an athletic scholarship at Florida A&M University. The son of a Panamanian father and a Black American mother, Javier acted on a longstanding desire to go overseas when he accepted a teaching position at an American school in Panama. Knowing no Spanish on arrival, Javier used his intellectual curiosity to improve his language skills and to embrace both sides of cultural heritage. In this Tune in to episode of the HayesXChange, Javier U.S. Diplomats talks about identity and the privilege of Calvin and Kindall Hayes holding an American passport in global International Podcast spaces. Javier is a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. https://hayesxchange.com

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Go Ahead and Get your Laugh On NASA Training

When NASA was preparing for the Apollo project, they did some astronaut training on a Navajo Indian reservation.

One day, a Navajo elder and his son were herding sheep and came across the space crew. The old man, who only spoke Navajo, asked a question, which the son translated, “What are the guys in the big suits doing?”

A member of the crew said they were practicing for their trip to the moon.

The old man got really excited and asked if he could send a message to the moon with the astronauts.

Recognizing a promotional opportunity for the spin-doctors, the NASA folks found a tape recorder.

After the old man recorded his message, they asked the son to translate. He refused. So the NASA reps brought the tape to the reservation, where the rest of the tribe listened and laughed, but refused to translate the elder’s message to the moon.

Finally, NASA called in an official government translator. He reported that the moon message said: “Watch out for these guys; they’ve come to steal your land.”

The Rabbit

Steve and Sarah accidentally run over a rabbit in their car. The rabbit is badly hurt, but Sarah quickly takes out a can and sprays it. Suddenly, the rabbit gets up and gives them a wave. They watch as it hops off, still waving its paws. Steve looks at the spray can. It says: ‘Hair spray - restores life to dead hair and adds permanent wave’

The Gift

After being away on business, Tim thought it would be nice to bring his wife a little gift. "How about some perfume?" he asked the cosmetics clerk. She showed him a bottle costing $50.00. "That's a bit much," said Tim, so she returned with a smaller bottle for $30.00. "That's still quite a bit," Tim complained. Growing annoyed, the clerk brought out a tiny $15.00 bottle. "What I mean," said Tim, "is I'd like to see something really cheap."

The clerk handed him a mirror.

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Tommy and the Horse

A young guy called Tommy bought a horse from a farmer for $250 and the farmer agreed to deliver the horse to Tommy the following day.

The next day though, the farmer turned up at Tommy’s house and said, “Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the horse died.”

Tommy replied, “Well, then just give me my money back. That’s fine.”

The farmer said, “Sorry, I can’t do that. I went and spent it already.”

Tommy then said, “Okay, then, just bring me the dead horse.”

The farmer was surprised and asked Tommy, “Why? What ya gonna do with him?”

Tommy replied, “I’m going to raffle

him off.”

The farmer laughed and said, “You can’t raffle off a dead horse! Who’d buy a ticket?”

Tommy answered, “Sure I can, just watch me. I just won’t tell anybody the horse is dead.”

A month later, the farmer met up with Tommy again and asked, “What happened with that dead horse in the end. Did you raffle him off?”

Tommy said, “I sure did. I sold 500 tickets at $5 a piece.”

The farmer said, “Didn’t anyone complain?”

Tommy smiled and said, “Just the guy who won. So I gave him his $5 back.”

Shopping with Monica

A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three year old girl in her basket. As they passed the cookie section, the little girl asked for cookies and her mother told her, "No." The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss, and the mother said quietly, "Now Monica, we just have half of the aisles left to go through don't be upset. It won't be long now."

Soon, they came to the candy aisle and the little girl began to shout for candy. When told she couldn't have any, she began to cry. The mother said, "There, there, Monica, don't cry - only two more aisles to go and then

we'll be checking out." When they got to the checkout stand, the little girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon discovering there'd be no gum purchased. The mother said serenely, "Monica, we'll be through this check out stand in 5 minutes and then you can go home and have a nice nap."

The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. "I couldn't help noticing how patient you were with little Monica," he began.

The mother replied, "I'm Monica my little girl's name is Becky"

The Adoption A husband and wife who works for the circus goes to an adoption agency looking to adopt a child, but the social workers there raise doubts about their suitability.

So the couple produce photos of their 50-foot motor home, which is clean and well maintained and equipped with a beautiful nursery.

The social workers are satisfied by this but then raise concerns about the kind of education a child would receive while in the couple’s care.

The husband puts their mind at ease, saying, “We’ve arranged for a full-

time tutor who will teach the child all the usual subjects along with French, Mandarin, and computer skills.”

Next though, the social workers express concern about a child being raised in a circus environment.

This time the wife explains, “Our nanny is a certified expert in pediatric care, welfare, and diet.”

The social workers are finally satisfied and ask the couple, “What age child are you hoping to adopt?”

The husband says, “It doesn’t really matter, as long as the kid fits in the cannon.”

Son’s Letter

A father was walking past his son’s bedroom one day and happened to look in.

He was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up off the floor. Then he saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to ‘Dad.’ Fearing the worst, he opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter. It said: Dear Dad, It is with great regret and sadness that I’m writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you.

I have been finding real passion with Susie and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercing, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am.

But it’s not only the passion. Dad she’s pregnant.

Don’t worry though, Susie said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.

Susie has also opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn’t really hurt anyone. We’ll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy.

In the meantime, we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so that Susie can get better. She deserves it.

Don’t worry Dad. I’m 15 and I know how to take care of myself.

Someday I’m sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.

Love, Your son Tim. P.S. Dad, none of the above is true.

I’m over at Jimmy’s house.

I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than a lousy report card …

That’s in my desk drawer.

I love you.

Keep On Laughing...Laughter Heals!

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3 Ways To Keep Babies Safe and Healthy Parents are flooded with advice from the moment they tell friends and family they are expecting a baby. There are opinions and tips on diapers and doulas, nursing and nannies, bedtimes and baby food.

Something parents don’t often hear from others: Accidental drowning, unsafe infant sleep and abusive head trauma are the top causes of preventable deaths for babies and young children in the Tampa Bay area.

These deaths are 100% preventable.

Three tips that can save a child’s life: 1) Close supervision is the best protection from accidental drowning. Most children who drown in a nearby pond or pool were last seen inside the house, and parents thought the children were napping or playing inside. Install door alarms that alert you when your child goes outside your home, and designate a “water watcher” who pays close attention while children are near water.

2) The safest way for babies to sleep is Alone, on their Backs in a Crib. Infants are 40 times more likely to die in an adult bed than in a crib. Place your baby’s crib or a bassinet in your room while they are an infant. It offers the same benefits of bonding without the risks.

3) Shaking a baby – even once – can be fatal. Surprisingly, parents are most often responsible for abusive head trauma. They don’t mean to hurt the child, but they don’t know how to cope with a stressful situation. It’s okay to step away when overwhelmed or frustrated by a crying baby. Place the infant safely on their back in the crib and step out of the room to regroup.

Even one preventable child death is too many. Parents, grandparents, caregivers, family and friends can prevent an accidental death.

Learn more about these life-saving tips at PreventNeedlessDeaths.com.

Hillsborough County Soliciting Input on How to Best Help Low-to-Moderate-Income Residents

1409 W. Thonotosassa Rd. Plant City, Fl. 33566

(813) 719-6605

Moore

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Before you decide, ask us to send you written information about our qualifications and experience.

Barbara J. Pittman

Law Offices of Barbara J. Pittman, P.A.

(813)269-9706 Fax (813)960-0601

Cypress Point Office Park 10012 N. Dale Mabry Suite 211 Tampa, Florida 33618 • • • •

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The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisement.

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Hillsborough County is asking residents for input on the biggest needs they face regarding housing and economic and community development.

Hillsborough County receives funding each year from the federal government to invest in low-to-moderate income communities.

The County is asking residents to complete an anonymous survey about their priorities when it comes to housing, economic development, and community development. County leaders will use the input when

developing plans for how to allocate the federal funding to best address those needs.

Residents can participate in the short online survey at publicinput. com/HCHousing. To take the survey in Spanish, visit publicinput. com/HCHousingEspanol. Residents without online access can participate in the survey by texting “hchousing’’ to 73224 for an English-language survey or “hchousingespanol’’ to the same number for a Spanish-language survey.

The Law Office of Patricia Dawson, P.A. Former Hillsborough County Prosecutor-Deputy Chief

• Criminal (813) Defense • Family Law • Personal Injury

386-5730

1211 N. WestshoreBlvd. Suite 307 Tampa, Florida 33607 The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisement.

Before you decide, ask us to send you written information about our qualifications and experience.

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