© Written - January 5th - 8:46 am to - 10:14 am Edited - April 10th, 2017 - 10:10 pm to 10:12 pm Infamous I remember when I was in my 8th grade drama class with Mrs. Vickie Edwards at Keiser Junior High School. One day, Mrs. Edwards introduced the word infamous to us. I'd never heard that word before. As soon as she defined it, the first thing that I thought about was my mother. Not that that was my impression of her. But, the way some media portrayed her would give the impression to some people that they would see her as infamous. I feel like during that period for me, one of those things was like "yo Mama" jokes on steroids. Do you know those yo mama jokes? When classmates, school mates and peers will talk to each other saying your mama and then adding to it. Except in my case, my peers at least appeared neutral. But the media portrayed my mother, other widows, Nelson, and some others around me, taking over or creating a narrative about people I know and they probably didn't and then that narrative gets communicated and spread out to a lot of people, many who also don't know them. So, the media is creating a narrative without community reflection. So, the media is also influencing some people who believe that the media is gospel. And, I didn't have any way or understanding of how to express my thoughts and feelings as a son, step son, and friend to some who were mentioned. But, I did take it in over the years. And the media is so powerful, that I have a vague brief memory, after reading something about my mother in the local newspaper. I actually thought that, maybe, that's true? But my thought was somewhat fleeting, but did cross my mind. My relationship with and understanding of my mother and others, soon made a strong case that the article was wrong. So, my thought was fleeting.