Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Angela Vigil Interviews Ramona King on BlogTalk Radio!
I hope you had an opportunity to listen to the live interview today, Wednesday. Angela Vigil of Blog Talk Radio interviewed me for her show 12/7/11 at 4pm MT. It was a great interview. Go to the website for information to hear the replay. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thisiswhoiam We'll give it another round of discussion and introspective conversation on December 28, 2011. Get on-line and join us then. I'd love to chat with you! In the meantime...keep a story in your heart.!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Teen Pregnancy
I totally remember doing this back in highschool as a prank for a dress down day for seniors. I didn't check with the principal or any other staff member. Let's just say my math instructor was not happy and literally snatched the pillow from under my dress. Pregnancies upset the teachers who cared...they wanted our futures to be clear and parenthood made the road much tougher. Classmates simply gossiped. This young lady's ambition to learn something about teen pregnancy and find answers for the community to be supportive and resolute is remarkable.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/teen-s-fake-pregnancy-fools-school-24993410
http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/teen-s-fake-pregnancy-fools-school-24993410
Saturday, January 29, 2011
How far does a Mother go to get a better education for her children?
More on the Jailed Mom goes to jail for putting her child in a school outside her district. Supreme court has ruled that the way the schools are funded in the state of Ohio is unconstitutional. Listener believes mom's decision is an act of civil disobedience.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Mother Jailed for sending Children to School in the Wrong District?
http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/mom-jailed-for-sending-kids-to-better-school-23973624
I agree with the mom that she was singled out to be made an example. Apparently, other parents were doing the same but not questioned because that investigation didn't happen until after the accusation against this mom.
How far should a mother go to get what's best for her children. A felony charge over this that would jeopardize her ability to teach? Why aren't we dealing with why her neighborhood school is not safe for the children residing in her district? It's seems the crime lies with those officials who turned a blind eye to the unsafe conditions in this woman's district and the very one's who would pull such a harsh sentence on this woman and her future. Doesn't look like a system working to correct and remedy a problem... looks more like a system of Vindictiveness.
I agree with the mom that she was singled out to be made an example. Apparently, other parents were doing the same but not questioned because that investigation didn't happen until after the accusation against this mom.
How far should a mother go to get what's best for her children. A felony charge over this that would jeopardize her ability to teach? Why aren't we dealing with why her neighborhood school is not safe for the children residing in her district? It's seems the crime lies with those officials who turned a blind eye to the unsafe conditions in this woman's district and the very one's who would pull such a harsh sentence on this woman and her future. Doesn't look like a system working to correct and remedy a problem... looks more like a system of Vindictiveness.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Abducted Child Reunites with Family as Young Adult, AOL News
Carlina White Found Identity, but Now Has to Find Self
Jan 23, 2011 – 8:01 AM
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David Lohr
David Lohr Contributor
Snatched from a hospital as a baby, Carlina White painstakingly tracked down her real identity and was reunited with her birth family. But now that she's found her true self, she has to get used to it.
And if history is any indication, she faces a very tough road ahead.
"What could be more disturbing than discovering something that is so earth shattering to your own identity?" asked psychotherapist Nicole S. Urdang, a licensed mental health counselor in Buffalo, N.Y.
"She has all this new information that she has to integrate, and I'm sure she is feeling emotionally shell-shocked," Urdang told AOL News.
Carlina White was not yet a month old when she was kidnapped from a Harlem hospital on Aug. 4, 1987, authorities said. They say a woman posing as a nurse stole the baby, but they were unable to find any trace of the missing infant.
Unbeknownst to her family, the little girl was given the name Nejdra Nance and was raised in Bridgeport, Conn.
Children Lost and Found
Julia Xanthos, NY Daily News / Getty Images
4 photos
Previous
Next
Growing up in Bridgeport, Conn., Nejdra Nance suspected she wasn't really related to the woman she called "Mom." Finally, she found her baby picture on a missing children's website. She was born Carlina Renae White and was less than a month old when she was snatched from a New York City hospital in 1987. Now 23, she has been reunited with her birth parents. Click through for other cases.
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Children Lost and Found
Growing up in Bridgeport, Conn., Nejdra Nance suspected she wasn't really related to the woman she called "Mom." Finally, she found her baby picture on a missing children's website. She was born Carlina Renae White and was less than a month old when she was snatched from a New York City hospital in 1987. Now 23, she has been reunited with her birth parents. Click through for other cases.
Julia Xanthos, NY Daily News / Getty Images
Julia Xanthos, NY Daily News / Getty Images
Nance eventually began to suspect something was awry and in December, the now 23-year-old woman, who lives in Georgia, found a photo of a missing baby named Carlina Renae White on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website.
Officials used DNA tests to confirm earlier this month that Nejdra is Carlina, the biological daughter of Joy White and Carl Tyson.
"We're talking about a radical reshifting of her heart, her mind and her allegiances," Urdang said. "Not the least of which is the issue of trust. Nothing in this case is black and white. It would be like thinking you were standing on terra firma and then finding out you're on quicksand."
Nance traveled to New York last weekend and met the family she had not seen in more than two decades.
Police have not named a suspect in the alleged abduction. White was raised by a woman named Ann Pettway, and police want to question her, The Associated Press reported. But she is believed to be on the run. Pettway is on probation for a conviction of attempted embezzlement in North Carolina, and corrections officials have been unable contact her about the case, the AP said. A warrant was issued for her arrest Friday for allegedly leaving the state while on probation.
Related Stories
* Carlina White Finds Her Family: What Motivates Baby Snatchers?
According to a law enforcement source, local and federal agencies are investigating the case.
"Charges will likely be brought by federal law enforcement," the source told AOL News.
Nance and her biological parents, meanwhile, must work as adults toward creating the relationship they were prevented from building when she was a child.
"Any kind of shock requires gentleness, kindness and compassion from all of those around them, but most especially from themselves, to understand that there is absolutely no appropriate reaction," Urdang said. "Any reaction is appropriate. All reactions are OK. It is also crucial for them to get every little shred of support they possibly can."
While the case is certainly bizarre, it is not unprecedented. Steven Stayner, Kimberly Mays and Shawn Hornbeck are just a few examples of similar cases in which kidnapped or switched-at-birth children were later reunited with their birth families. The result, however, tends to vary.
Steven Stayner: On Dec. 4, 1972, Steven, then 7, was abducted while on his way home from school in Merced, Calif. His kidnapper, Kenneth Parnell, sexually assaulted the child repeatedly over a period of several years. He gave Steven a new name, Dennis, and told the little boy over and over that his parents no longer wanted him. Eventually, Steven came to believe it.
When Steven was 14, Parnell decided he needed a younger boy, and kidnapped 5-year-old Timmy White in Ukiah, Calif. Wanting to save Timmy from what he had suffered, Steven escaped with the younger boy in March 1980 and went to police.
In 1981, Parnell was tried and convicted of kidnapping Steven and Timmy. He was sentenced to seven years but was paroled after serving five years. Parnell later died in prison of natural causes while serving 25 years to life in an unrelated case.
Reunited with his family, Steven reportedly had a difficult time adapting. On Sept. 16, 1989, he was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was just 24.
Roughly 10 years later, his brother, Cary Stayner, confessed to being a serial killer and was sentenced to death.
On April 1, 2010, Timmy White, who had become a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, died of a pulmonary embolism. He was 35 years old.
Kimberly Mays: She was born in November 1979 at a hospital in Wauchula, Fla., and switched at birth with Arlena Twigg, a girl who died of a heart defect at the age of 9. Ernest and Regina Twigg learned from blood tests that Arlena could not be their child. After Arlena's death, they went looking for their biological daughter, and found Kimberly.
Bob Mays, the man who had raised Kimberly as his daughter, initially granted the Twiggs visitation rights but later rescinded them. A lawsuit ensued, and in 1993, a court ruled that Mays was the girl's psychological father and that she could cut ties with the Twiggs if she wanted.
Kimberly later ran away from home and moved in with the Twiggs for a period, before bouncing between homes and a shelter for troubled youths. In 1997, at the age of 18, she married a 19-year-old named Jeremy Weeks.
In 1999, Kimberly's 21-month-old son, Devin Weeks, was taken away by Florida's Department of Children and Families, the New York Daily News reported. The state agency, citing confidentiality laws, declined to identify the reason for its action. A yearlong custody battle followed, and Kimberly was eventually reunited with her son. She has managed to stay out of the media spotlight since the court battle.
Shawn Hornbeck: On Oct. 6, 2002, 11-year-old Shawn was kidnapped while riding his bicycle near his Richwoods, Mo., home. For the next 4 1/2 years, Shawn was held by pizzeria manager Michael J. Devlin.
In January 2007, Devlin kidnapped another boy, 13-year-old Ben Ownby. Police acting on a tip raided Devlin's home in Kirkwood, Mo., and found Ben -- and Shawn.
Devlin confessed to his crimes and was sentenced to three life sentences for kidnapping, child molestation and production of child pornography.
In September 2008, Shawn broke his silence about the ordeal during an interview on CBS's "48 Hours Mystery."
"I've gone through some stuff that'll send psychiatrists insane," Hornbeck told CBS correspondent Troy Roberts. "It's on a level [most people] never had to experience."
Sponsored Links
In January 2010, Shawn's stepfather, Craig Akers, said the teen, then 18, had graduated high school early and was attending college. He attributed his the young man's success to therapists, whom he said helped him ensure that the events of his kidnapping did not define his life, the "Today" show reported.
How Carlina White -- or Nejdra Nance -- ultimately adjusts to her new life is yet to be seen, but according to Urdang, a positive outcome is possible.
"The jury is still out right now and all we can say for sure is that she has got a lot of what we call, in my trade, cognitive restructuring to do," she said. "The great thing is that the human brain is fairly elastic and can accommodate new thoughts and new feelings."
Jan 23, 2011 – 8:01 AM
Text Size
Print this page|EmailShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on DiggShare on Lifestream
David Lohr
David Lohr Contributor
Snatched from a hospital as a baby, Carlina White painstakingly tracked down her real identity and was reunited with her birth family. But now that she's found her true self, she has to get used to it.
And if history is any indication, she faces a very tough road ahead.
"What could be more disturbing than discovering something that is so earth shattering to your own identity?" asked psychotherapist Nicole S. Urdang, a licensed mental health counselor in Buffalo, N.Y.
"She has all this new information that she has to integrate, and I'm sure she is feeling emotionally shell-shocked," Urdang told AOL News.
Carlina White was not yet a month old when she was kidnapped from a Harlem hospital on Aug. 4, 1987, authorities said. They say a woman posing as a nurse stole the baby, but they were unable to find any trace of the missing infant.
Unbeknownst to her family, the little girl was given the name Nejdra Nance and was raised in Bridgeport, Conn.
Children Lost and Found
Julia Xanthos, NY Daily News / Getty Images
4 photos
Previous
Next
Growing up in Bridgeport, Conn., Nejdra Nance suspected she wasn't really related to the woman she called "Mom." Finally, she found her baby picture on a missing children's website. She was born Carlina Renae White and was less than a month old when she was snatched from a New York City hospital in 1987. Now 23, she has been reunited with her birth parents. Click through for other cases.
(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,localizationConfig,entry&id=975252&pid=975251&uts=1295659411
http://www.aolcdn.com/ke/media_gallery/v1/ke_media_gallery_wrapper.swf
Children Lost and Found
Growing up in Bridgeport, Conn., Nejdra Nance suspected she wasn't really related to the woman she called "Mom." Finally, she found her baby picture on a missing children's website. She was born Carlina Renae White and was less than a month old when she was snatched from a New York City hospital in 1987. Now 23, she has been reunited with her birth parents. Click through for other cases.
Julia Xanthos, NY Daily News / Getty Images
Julia Xanthos, NY Daily News / Getty Images
Nance eventually began to suspect something was awry and in December, the now 23-year-old woman, who lives in Georgia, found a photo of a missing baby named Carlina Renae White on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website.
Officials used DNA tests to confirm earlier this month that Nejdra is Carlina, the biological daughter of Joy White and Carl Tyson.
"We're talking about a radical reshifting of her heart, her mind and her allegiances," Urdang said. "Not the least of which is the issue of trust. Nothing in this case is black and white. It would be like thinking you were standing on terra firma and then finding out you're on quicksand."
Nance traveled to New York last weekend and met the family she had not seen in more than two decades.
Police have not named a suspect in the alleged abduction. White was raised by a woman named Ann Pettway, and police want to question her, The Associated Press reported. But she is believed to be on the run. Pettway is on probation for a conviction of attempted embezzlement in North Carolina, and corrections officials have been unable contact her about the case, the AP said. A warrant was issued for her arrest Friday for allegedly leaving the state while on probation.
Related Stories
* Carlina White Finds Her Family: What Motivates Baby Snatchers?
According to a law enforcement source, local and federal agencies are investigating the case.
"Charges will likely be brought by federal law enforcement," the source told AOL News.
Nance and her biological parents, meanwhile, must work as adults toward creating the relationship they were prevented from building when she was a child.
"Any kind of shock requires gentleness, kindness and compassion from all of those around them, but most especially from themselves, to understand that there is absolutely no appropriate reaction," Urdang said. "Any reaction is appropriate. All reactions are OK. It is also crucial for them to get every little shred of support they possibly can."
While the case is certainly bizarre, it is not unprecedented. Steven Stayner, Kimberly Mays and Shawn Hornbeck are just a few examples of similar cases in which kidnapped or switched-at-birth children were later reunited with their birth families. The result, however, tends to vary.
Steven Stayner: On Dec. 4, 1972, Steven, then 7, was abducted while on his way home from school in Merced, Calif. His kidnapper, Kenneth Parnell, sexually assaulted the child repeatedly over a period of several years. He gave Steven a new name, Dennis, and told the little boy over and over that his parents no longer wanted him. Eventually, Steven came to believe it.
When Steven was 14, Parnell decided he needed a younger boy, and kidnapped 5-year-old Timmy White in Ukiah, Calif. Wanting to save Timmy from what he had suffered, Steven escaped with the younger boy in March 1980 and went to police.
In 1981, Parnell was tried and convicted of kidnapping Steven and Timmy. He was sentenced to seven years but was paroled after serving five years. Parnell later died in prison of natural causes while serving 25 years to life in an unrelated case.
Reunited with his family, Steven reportedly had a difficult time adapting. On Sept. 16, 1989, he was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was just 24.
Roughly 10 years later, his brother, Cary Stayner, confessed to being a serial killer and was sentenced to death.
On April 1, 2010, Timmy White, who had become a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, died of a pulmonary embolism. He was 35 years old.
Kimberly Mays: She was born in November 1979 at a hospital in Wauchula, Fla., and switched at birth with Arlena Twigg, a girl who died of a heart defect at the age of 9. Ernest and Regina Twigg learned from blood tests that Arlena could not be their child. After Arlena's death, they went looking for their biological daughter, and found Kimberly.
Bob Mays, the man who had raised Kimberly as his daughter, initially granted the Twiggs visitation rights but later rescinded them. A lawsuit ensued, and in 1993, a court ruled that Mays was the girl's psychological father and that she could cut ties with the Twiggs if she wanted.
Kimberly later ran away from home and moved in with the Twiggs for a period, before bouncing between homes and a shelter for troubled youths. In 1997, at the age of 18, she married a 19-year-old named Jeremy Weeks.
In 1999, Kimberly's 21-month-old son, Devin Weeks, was taken away by Florida's Department of Children and Families, the New York Daily News reported. The state agency, citing confidentiality laws, declined to identify the reason for its action. A yearlong custody battle followed, and Kimberly was eventually reunited with her son. She has managed to stay out of the media spotlight since the court battle.
Shawn Hornbeck: On Oct. 6, 2002, 11-year-old Shawn was kidnapped while riding his bicycle near his Richwoods, Mo., home. For the next 4 1/2 years, Shawn was held by pizzeria manager Michael J. Devlin.
In January 2007, Devlin kidnapped another boy, 13-year-old Ben Ownby. Police acting on a tip raided Devlin's home in Kirkwood, Mo., and found Ben -- and Shawn.
Devlin confessed to his crimes and was sentenced to three life sentences for kidnapping, child molestation and production of child pornography.
In September 2008, Shawn broke his silence about the ordeal during an interview on CBS's "48 Hours Mystery."
"I've gone through some stuff that'll send psychiatrists insane," Hornbeck told CBS correspondent Troy Roberts. "It's on a level [most people] never had to experience."
Sponsored Links
In January 2010, Shawn's stepfather, Craig Akers, said the teen, then 18, had graduated high school early and was attending college. He attributed his the young man's success to therapists, whom he said helped him ensure that the events of his kidnapping did not define his life, the "Today" show reported.
How Carlina White -- or Nejdra Nance -- ultimately adjusts to her new life is yet to be seen, but according to Urdang, a positive outcome is possible.
"The jury is still out right now and all we can say for sure is that she has got a lot of what we call, in my trade, cognitive restructuring to do," she said. "The great thing is that the human brain is fairly elastic and can accommodate new thoughts and new feelings."
Monday, June 1, 2009
A Maternal Dreamer Blog from Lisa Gill, Albuquerque's Award Winning Poet
Listed on the www.Dukecityfix.com - Go to Lisa's Blog Posts
A BROWN PAPER SACK WITH AN ORANGE AND A ROADTRIP
• Posted by lisa gill on May 16, 2009 at 2:30am
• Add as Friend View lisa gill's blog
I’ve been thinking about the love artists have for craft – making art in a recession is a beloved act -- and in the last two days I have had a chance to be witness to a good dose of that fist sized organ that beats inside anyone who dedicates her life to the kick of the creative. Thursday I saw Ramona King’s one woman show (which is still running—through this Sunday). It’s titled “Maternal Dreamer #2: Living the Dream,” though if I had my druthers I’d call it “Welcome to the World I Learned to Love Early.” Ramona is a consummate storyteller, able in a quick posture change and with a deft facial expression to become a young boy, a cousin’s husband, a grandmother, herself as a young girl. Here, in a well integrated, balanced, and coherent story, we travel through time and bear witness to her lineage--never does the world hold so much hope as rising from the despair of a child’s innocence. This show is transcendent—a beautiful tribute to loving life. An orange in a child’s sack lunch, a cellophane window in cardboard doll house, choir recital, a conversation with a father in the back of the car… and a mother going out to the store while her children play up the road and down the road for as many years as it takes to salvage the story and reunite with truth. Ramona’s show had me leaning forward in my seat, hanging my own hopes for living well on her words. If you catch the show, you catch a glimpse of great generosity, what we all also hear every time she hosts Spoken Word Hour on KUNM.
A BROWN PAPER SACK WITH AN ORANGE AND A ROADTRIP
• Posted by lisa gill on May 16, 2009 at 2:30am
• Add as Friend View lisa gill's blog
I’ve been thinking about the love artists have for craft – making art in a recession is a beloved act -- and in the last two days I have had a chance to be witness to a good dose of that fist sized organ that beats inside anyone who dedicates her life to the kick of the creative. Thursday I saw Ramona King’s one woman show (which is still running—through this Sunday). It’s titled “Maternal Dreamer #2: Living the Dream,” though if I had my druthers I’d call it “Welcome to the World I Learned to Love Early.” Ramona is a consummate storyteller, able in a quick posture change and with a deft facial expression to become a young boy, a cousin’s husband, a grandmother, herself as a young girl. Here, in a well integrated, balanced, and coherent story, we travel through time and bear witness to her lineage--never does the world hold so much hope as rising from the despair of a child’s innocence. This show is transcendent—a beautiful tribute to loving life. An orange in a child’s sack lunch, a cellophane window in cardboard doll house, choir recital, a conversation with a father in the back of the car… and a mother going out to the store while her children play up the road and down the road for as many years as it takes to salvage the story and reunite with truth. Ramona’s show had me leaning forward in my seat, hanging my own hopes for living well on her words. If you catch the show, you catch a glimpse of great generosity, what we all also hear every time she hosts Spoken Word Hour on KUNM.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
New Mexico Well Woman Events in Albuquerque
Wellwoman 2009: A Celebration of National Women's Health Week, a
project for the Governor's Women's Health Advisory Council. It
includes information about the April 25th Health Fair at National
Hispanic Cultural Center, as well as our plans to celebrate National
Women's Health Week May 10-16th and the teen girls' poetry prizes.
The site is: http://nmwellwoman.wordpress.com
Lisa Gill
Coordinator NM Wellwoman 2009
A project for the Governor's Women's Health Advisory Council
http://nmwellwoman.com or see events at http://nmwellwoman.wordpress.com
lisannegill@gmail.com
220-7013
project for the Governor's Women's Health Advisory Council. It
includes information about the April 25th Health Fair at National
Hispanic Cultural Center, as well as our plans to celebrate National
Women's Health Week May 10-16th and the teen girls' poetry prizes.
The site is: http://nmwellwoman.wordpress.com
Lisa Gill
Coordinator NM Wellwoman 2009
A project for the Governor's Women's Health Advisory Council
http://nmwellwoman.com or see events at http://nmwellwoman.wordpress.com
lisannegill@gmail.com
220-7013
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