(Kent, OH) –What her father the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did for nonviolent social change, the Rev. Dr. Bernice King is doing for nonviolent self-care.

My father, Basil, often implores that the Caribbean must continually remind the world that the archipelago is a diverse multicultural, multiethnic, multireligious, multiculinary, multigenre (musical), multilingual and multitalented group of destinations.

When lovers part ways to go to foreign climes, there is always a mixed bag of emotions, fears, doubts, anticipation and sorrow. The person who is leaving is looking forward to new adventures, even though the pain of leaving a loved one behind is pervasive.

Earlier this week, I received a voice mail message from a gentleman with a distinctive Barbadian accent calling from Victoria, British Columbia in Canada.

It sits innocently in the Undergraduate Humanities Programs list, alphabetically bookended by Theatre Arts and Visual Arts. Yet the University of the West Indies (UWI) Bachelor of Arts BA Theology degree is a jarring testament to the religious and ethnic discrimination that still exists in the highest institution of education in our nation, paying lip service to diversity, equity and inclusion as core values.

We’ve had more mass shootings this year than we’ve had days this year.

“He restores my soul. He leads me on paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” - Psalm 23:3-4

I’ve fought for civil rights my entire career. In fact, in honor of my late mother, Vera Pearl Arnwine, I will tell you that my actual birth was amidst a fight for justice and equality to desegregate a White Hospital that refused to service the African-Americans in the nearby community. 

The Turks and Caicos Islands is blessed with visionary hospitality leaders in government and the private sector whose combined efforts have helped to position the British Overseas Territory as one of the leading destinations in the Caribbean.

Let’s face it, there is a big difference between a bachelor and a spinster. True, they both have one thing in common, and that’s the single life, but whereas the bachelor has no wife, the spinster only has strife.

When 25-year-old Maxwell Frost of Florida takes his seat in the U.S House this month, he will be the nation’s first Gen Z member of Congress. That -- in and of itself -- is a major milestone and accomplishment. And what makes it even better is that Frost is a young Black man who won on a great platform focused on ending gun violence, addressing climate change and providing universal health care.

The holidays are a festive time but joy can suddenly be dampened by sadness at the passing of community stalwarts in our family, industry, institutions or nations.