Copyrighted Image BY R2C2H2 Tha Artivist Welcome to Cuz'n Donna's Kitchen where down home southern fried wit and corn meal battered mother nurture sense is all mixed, stewed and cooked in a big hot boiling ole' pot on a big black coal burning stove known as Da Truth to not only make food for thought, but also for the soul...Cuz'n Donna, with her dead on observations, tried and true wisdom and timeless messages, is the Black woman version of Mark Twain…Please look out for more installments of Cuz'n Donna's Kitchen comin' to yall from the Magnolia State ya heard...
Last Friday night I rode the team bus with the North Panola Cougars to Coldwater for a tournament that they were hosting. I had clearance with high school principal Lucinda Carter, who also o.k'd it for my five grandsons to ride as well. I had all three of my grown children's boys, ranging from two years to 11 years old. I sat through the girls game just fine, having placed them all on the first seat of the bleachers, to keep an eye on them and take good quality action shots from courtside. They were never out of my sight. As I sat there, I began to talk with a police officer from Coldwater. We were laughing and talking all through the first game, as if we had known each other for a while. Approximately five minutes into the boys game, an altercation on the home side, stopped the game briefly, as security and cops rushed to see what was going on. No blows were exchanged, just loud yelling. So, about five maybe ten minutes later decided to walk downstairs where I had seen all parties involved taken. I went down a winding corridor and followed the continuing shouting matches. I stood about 25 feet from where they had stopped; in a public hallway, and not behind closed doors. As I turned to leave , a plain clothes cop with a badge around his neck, a uniformed cop, and Coldwater high school principal, came running up behind me screaming at me, saying"Give us that film, or better still give us your cameras. had an action shot camera on my shoulder and a small digital, that I took the two snapshots with.Since they were getting bent out of shape, I offered to delete them rather than give up equipment that wasn't mine.The principal saw me delete one. That wasn't good enough, they still wanted both cameras. The plain clothes guy and I were playing tug-o-war with the digital, so I eventually let go. I didn't want to feed their ferocity.
They kicked me out of the game after getting both cameras, and I asked if I could go upstairs to get my camera bag. "You're not going any where!'' I asked if I could go get my grandsons, and another big NO! The cop who was standing courtside intervened and offered to go get the boys for me. He had been playing with them and some of their hard headedness was funny to him."A kid's gonna be a kid," he said. When he came back we were escorted out the back door, never to return again. The good cop didn't speak up in our defense, but his kindness before this matter, overshadowed that. He walked us to the bus. I was telling him that my First Amendment rights were being violated, and he nodded in agreement. We had to sit on that cold bus. Luckily my niece left before the game was over and took us back to Como. I came home and called Ruoert Howell of the Panolian to inform him of the night's events. He made a phone call or two and Coldwater police chief had to bring them both back that same night. They even took my press pad, and searched my equipment bag and took my note pad. How ignorant is that? Well, I'm not gonna take this lying down. If they had just only taken the cameras, I could eventually get past that, but they were messing with flesh of my flesh. No one knew where I was, and if something had happened to one of them I could have very easily been charged with child endangerment. I'm glad it never made it that far. The game may be over, but they haven't heard the last of me yet. My neighbors can vouch for me when I say that I am used to fighting my own battles, by myself.The principal has brought the negative publicity on himself and the cops who assisted him in humiliating me. While I was being lead out the back door like Kunta Kinte', I asked why I had to go out the back . No one answered.
Peace Y"all!
Cuz'n Donna
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