Febuary Lovers: Mr & Mrs. Loving

Welcome to episode 1 of the February Lovers of 2012.

Have you ever seen a couple she beautiful, him handsome walking down the street, nothing about them is truly particularity different other than they are a interracial couple, maybe one is Caucasian & the other Black, maybe they are Asian & Black; whatever they ethnicity it's the love that shines through. You yourself (like me) maybe involved with a interracial relationship, I am a product of an interracial relationship, I like many of you have the right to these relationships due to those who came before us and fought for those rights.

Let’s be real the mixing of races here in America has not always been for love, or by choice. Many times it was the way to survive to make sure you progeny got a better life than you did, sometimes it was due to rape.

There are instances however that show us that it does happen for love, that there are people who would willingly stand up and fight for their heart’s true desire, and such is the case of Mr and Mrs, Loving. the couple from Virginia fled to Washington DC to get married due to the law on the books in Virginia which prevented the intermarrying of Caucasian and Blacks, this law called the “Racial Integrity Act” made it a criminal offence to knowingly have sex with another race, & a federal offence to marry another race. 

Arrested, tried and found guilty in Virgina they were sentenced to 1 year in jail or a suspended sentence if they left the state for 25 years; they took the suspended sentence and fled to DC, there they met with lawyers from the ACLU and on November 6, 1965, filed a lawsuit against the state of Virginia for violation of the 14th Amendment. As noted by the fact that you and I can date, have sex with and marry whomever we wish (I’m not discussing the LGBT community at the moment) you can tell they won.

On January 22, 1965  the case went before the Virginia Supreme Court, the judges upheld the Virginia Law.  The people who actually helped the ACLU team were the churches, the Presbyterian Church, then UU Association, & the Roman Catholic Church stepped into say

"laws which prohibit, inhibit or hamper marriage or cohabitation between persons because of different races, religions, or national origins should be nullified or repealed."^{[ (wikipedia/loving v Virginia)}

Prior to the Loving case, there were a few others that challenged the law including Pace v Alabama, Perez v Sharp, each laid the groundwork which allowed the Loving case to proceed to the Supreme Court; on June 12, 1967 the court ruled in favour of the Lovings with this statement: 

“Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State”

Despite the ruling, many of these laws remained on the books although un~ enforceable until Alabama repealed the law in 2000.

Yes you read that right, until 2000.  Now I didn’t mean to give you a history lesson, but every time I look at my partner, every time I look at my siblings & my Grandmere (or her pictures, since she has passed) I see the descendants of interracial love, and I am grateful everyday for these people.

Now to make this story even more personal, my favourite place to be during high school was the library, I volunteered there during my free periods and during my senior year when I only had homeroom & 1 other class, I was there all the time. My school librarian, one of the coolest women I knew and was very into discussing Black history with me, her name was Ms. Loving, as in the granddaughter of Mr & Mrs. Loving. When I saw the movie and went to school that Monday, she laughed when I walked in and said yes she had seen the show, she gave a talk during Black History Month and brought along family pictures, and shared those with us.
Talk about touching history, this is the story of a love that took on a state and went to bat for all those who couldn’t, This was a love that lasted until Mr Richard Loving preceded his wife into death in June 1975, and she later passed on May 2, 2008

Officially Loving Day is the day the courts overturned the rule, June 12th, but every Valentine’s Day, when my partners & I are enjoying this day for Lovers I always stop to light a candle for the ones who helped to make this love possible.

Even if your aren’t in an interracial romance, can you please light a candle today for all the lovers past and present who are in need of passion, comfort, Love and romance.

**If your in NYC they have a display of pictures from the Loving family, intimate portraits, why not take a look and see. Link is above with their names.**

Be Blessed, be happy, Be Love

Paranormal Telly: Lost Girl

OhhhhhhhhhhhMyyyyyFriggin Goddess I didn't know this show existed. How did I live without this show in my life??

I'm in love with this show. Sweet blessed Goddess, they even have the Morrigan. I'm talking about Lost Girl on Syfy, it began on a Canadian site called ShowCase (i'm so mad at all my Canadian friends right now for not telling me about this show, you guys suck). 

I haven't even finished watching the first episode and I can't wait for the next one, and it better be AWESOME. Thankfully like all the other shows I have ever talked about they have used 'new' actors, who don't have too big a name and are extremely convincing in their characters. I mean extremely, i could totally picture anyone one of them as Fae. The graphics aren't too shabby either, actually really enjoy them!!

Ok so let's get the show's synopisis from their own words:

There is something for everyone, the eye candy for men and women is very delightful, the mythological lore so far has been on point, the battle for your hands of power or the right ot choose your 'house" is also on point. To tell the truth some of it kinda reminds me of Merry Gentry series by Laurell K Hamilton, just without the Princess part, although the story arc could lead there you never know and she doesn't know she's Fae, she also has a human sidekick,

Kenzie, Bo's human

If this show ever gets cancelled *crosses fingers that doesn't happen anytime soon* I'm sure Mrs Hamilton will have a host of people to pick from who could capture her characters. 

Bo manages to create for herself a buffer zone and has some pretty powerful friends backing her, she still thinks too much like a human though & in the Fae world that will eventually come back and 1)haunt her because someone close will pay for her ignorance or 2) she'll end up dying. 
Can I say I'm in love with a siren? I wish they would cover his story a little more, 

I'm not too fond of the emphasis of Dark Fae/Light Fae as if the names actually show the inherit character of the Sidhe or even their magic abilities. Seelie/Unseelie either way the Fae aren't exactly friendly to humans and the ones that are, really aren't on the top of the totem pole, you can't get something for nothing & I hope like heck Bo learns that soon. She has people paying prices to keep her safe & she doesn't even seem to understand that or recognize the sacrifice, eventually she will have to learn & when she does?? That episode is going to be EPIC. 

I love the sensuality of the show & how Bo gets her feed on, she's a very lucky succubus. 
ok now back to the show!!! It shows on Mondays at 10pm on Syfy.

All images are found on Bing.com, Copyright belongs to Lost Girl show from Showcase & Syfy

Book Review: Dark Legend

Book Title: Dark Legend

Author: Christine Feehan

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 394

Cost; $ 7.99

How I Got it:  my personal library

Description:

He woke deep within the ground, and the first sensation he felt was hunger. An overwhelming hunger for blood that demanded satisfaction. But as he hunted the dark streets of Paris for prey, a voice called to him, soothing, calming, giving him the strength to control his craving.

Francesca Del Ponce was a healer, a woman who radiated goodness as powerfully as the sun did light. But surely his obsession with her would turn him as his twin brother had turned, leaving the world with two monsters instead of one. ---- from Amazon.com

My take on the book:
Out of all the books I have read so far in the series, I love Francesca the most. Unlike the other female characters who were matched young & are fledglings compared to their men, she has managed to stay hidden for over a thousand years & created a wonderful life for herself. She learned & cultivated her healing talents, she studied science & figured out a way to make herself almost human, in fact she accomplished something no other Carpathian had been able to do, walk in the sun. From the beginning of the book I was in love with her character & her mate coming to her when she needed him the most was totally awesome. I enjoyed reading about a truly (slightly lonely but still loving her life) independent Carpathian female who made such a huge impact in her own way.

Gabriel is learning all about the new world he has woken up in & luckily for him the first person he meets & the first to offer him aide is Francesca, his mate. He is the legendary half of the vampire hunter twins, who had for centuries were believed to have been destroyed. Some of his methods to keep his lifemate with him, I would call him out on for believing he has the right to do some of them, but when you consider the alternative you can see why he does it, although they border on this side of being chauvinistic.

There are only a few moments in the story where I felt like shaking her, in particular her reoccuring sense of guilt over not being able to love someone who wasn't her mate. I understand why she felt that way, but uhmmm it's been a while honey get over it. I enjoyed the added twist to the story in particular Lucian's story; I look forward to reading about Lucian, & hopefully Skyler will get her own book soon as well.

I give the overall novel 4/5
I also give it 5/5 for steamy & sensual love scenes

That's another one off the TBR List. How are y'all doing on your lists?
Be Blessed

In My Mailbox (1)

In My Mailbox is hosted by the Story Siren, it's a weekly check in of books you have purchased or received in your mailbox (or email) for the last week. It can be anything you are looking forward to reading.

I have been making it my mission these last few weeks, now that I have settled into my home to complete my collections of books. Some of which are books i loved when I was a teenager but never had the extra space to dedicate to just books.  I recently got the inspiration to increase my bookshelf space & while I do that I wish to have books to go on the new arriving shelves.  With that vein in mind I have been bookswapping over at the Paperbackswap website & collecting books to my collection.This week has been an awesome haul of books for FREE!!!

First things I got this week were:

Grandmother Time & To Ride a Silver Broomstick. I had these books in my collection years ago, but since I couldn't keep too many on hand I got rid of these to make space for others. I got these back because I wanted to have them back in my collections again & I now have the space for it.  I even got the silver book in the original kick ass cover.

I also received: Magical Household by Scott Cunningham, I also had this years ago, but I wasn't ready to embrace Cottage Witchery yet, so I never used it and passed it on. Recently I felt the need to get books that embraced my "new" since my path is ever evolving I decided to get that one as well.

I now have to add these into the TBR pile, whoo it just keeps growing and growing.
What did you get in your mailbox this week?? Share in the comments
Love and light

Imbolc Blessings

May the Goddess Bless You on this day. 

May Brigid bless the house wherein you dwell. 

 Bless every fireside, every wall and door.

 Bless every heart that beats beneath its roof. 

Bless every hand that toils to bring it joy. 

Bless every foot that walks its portals through. 

May Brigid bless the house that shelters you.

Image here

Honored and revered by the Christians of Ireland as "Mary of the Gael" here is a link about her and her traditonal prayers. The Poem above is taken from the comment section of the blog linked.