The Focus Magazine May 2016

The Official Magazine of Focused Radio

Helping you Honor And

Give ThanksThis November

Nov. 2015


Dec. 2015

2015’s End...BUT WE’RE JUST GETTING

STARTED!


FEB. 2016


MAY. 2016

AlwaysLove youLove youLove youMom

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We at The Focus Magazine strive to keep our readers informed, entertained and in

the know. But we would like to know what is important to you and your views on what you

read in our magazine.So as a challenge to our readers we would

love to know which issue has been your favorite so far and how you enjoy our maga-

zine.

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So please show us your love and support , can’t wait to hear from you all.

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Editor in Chief: TommyPEditor at Large: Naadir LoveArt Director: KHAR




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M Ther’s Day...Now here is a story that has all kinds of twists and turns. The makings of a great thriller novel…..

The modern story of Mother’s Day starts with a woman named Anna Jarvis.

If you think that Mother’s Day is about expressing how much you appreciate everything your mom does for you and that you should show it with a heartfelt Mother’s Day card, a bouquet of flowers, some candies or a box of chocolate and of course that special din-ner at her favorite restaurant. Then I am going to have to tell you that you are definitely NOT celebrating Mother’s Day, the way Anna Jarvis—the creator of the holiday—had intended. You have been manipulated and bamboozled by big business.

So who is Anna Jarvis? Anna Marie Jarvis (May 1, 1864- November 24, 1948) born to Granville E. Jarvis and Ann Jarvis was a social activist who worked diligently to establish Mother’s Day after her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, passed away. Anna Jarvis is considered the mother of the American Mother’s Day, so Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis should be considered its grandmother. Anna Jarvis’ mother was a community leader in Barbour County, West Virginia and had organized a series of “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” across the county. The goal was to raise money and help mothers who could not afford medicine or medical attention for their families. They also inspected bottled milk and food for contamination at a time when the federal government didn’t do this type of work.

deCLASSIFIED


Photo of Anna Jarvis

When the Civil War commenced, Ann Jarvis asked her club members to pledged neutrality in the conflict and to help soldiers from both sides take care of their families. After the war, in 1868, Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” an event that would bring together mothers from both the Confederate and Union sides to promote peace and reconciliation. Despite authorities

thinking that it would erupt into violence, it was a great success and was held for several years afterwards. This day inspired famed women’s rights activist and composer of the “The Bat-tle Hymn of the Republic” Julia Ward Howe to write the 1870 “Mother’s Day Proclamation, which called for women to take be more active in promoting peace and pacifism.

So we could say that Mother’s Day originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the bloodshed of that war, by women who had brutally lost their sons. Please read the original Moth-er’s Day Proclamation from 1870: Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”


Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the sum-mons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God. In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace. Julia Ward Howe, Boston 1870

So it is clear that the idea of a special day was originally Ann’s, which she expressed in a prayer while teaching a Sunday school class in May 1876:

“I hope and pray that someone, some-time, will found a memorial mother’s day

commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every

field of life. She is entitled to it.”



So now let’s get to the message of this prayer: A special day commemorating mothers for the matchless service that they do for humanity (their communities) in every field of life.

So now let’s get to the message of this prayer: A special day commemorating mothers for the matchless service that they do for humanity (their communities) in every field of life.

Washing clothes, cleaning the house, cooking dinner, taking the children here there and everywhere-does not fall un-der community work; it is what you do for your family, the things that you sign up for when you have a family.

Community work can mean a range of things to differ-ent people but simply put it means being involved in local or neighborhood groups or associations. It is about being a volunteer or unpaid worker; it’s about being involved in a non-profit, not-for-profit, or a charitable organization or asso-ciation. It is about doing public interest or public benefit work. So being upset after her mother’s passing in 1905, Anna made it her mission to fulfill her mom’s wish, and the idea for Moth-er’s Day was born. A day for mothers the hard working, proud and rarely celebrated women. Three years later, Anna had organized the first-ever Mother’s Day events at the school in West Virginia where her mom had been a teacher. Anna also tirelessly led a letter-writing campaign asking anyone who would listen to support Mother’s Day. She wrote thousands of letters to prominent Americans, including President Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain, asking for their support. Her efforts finally paid off in 1914, when Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day a national holiday, to be recognized on the second Sun-day in May. After this country accepted her idea, Miss Jarvis looked to other lands, and at one time it was estimated that there were forty-three foreign countries observing Mother’s Day. Anna Jarvis declared the white carnation her mother’s favorite flower, the official flower for Mother’s Day.


Its whiteness is to symbolize the truth, purity and broad-charity of mother love; its fragrance, her memory, and her prayers. The carnation does not drop its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so, too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never dying. When I selected this flower, I was remember-ing my mother’s bed of white pinks.— Anna Jarvis,

But when the price of carnations went up, she adopted a celluloid button as the official emblem. She personally paid to have the buttons manufactured and distrib-uted them without profit to churches, schools and other organizations.She urged sons and daughters to visit their mothers or, at the very least, to write home on Mother’s Day. “Live this day as your mother would have you live it,” Jarvis instructed in her letters. Her vision for the day was domestic — focusing on a mother’s role within the home — and highly sentimental. It was to be celebrated “in honor of the best mother who ever lived — your own.” Note she said write a letter, not buy a card. It was supposed to be personal.

But unfortunately this story does not have a happy ending. Ironically her battle had just begun, and now she was to spend the rest of her career fighting the ex-ploitation of Mother’s Day by commercial interests. She denounced confectioners, florists and other groups whom she accused of gouging the public.

Anna Jarvis tried desperately to do what she could to “own” the holiday (she copyrighted her own photos, trademarked “Mother’s Day,” and created an official Mother’s Day seal). She incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association, and laid personal claim to the second Sunday in May. But it didn’t take long before greeting card companies, florists, and other vendors started to see the dollar signs and began to cash in by figuring out ways to make money off of Mother’s Day. Still trying to protect the original intent of the holiday, Anna spent years suing companies who made profits from Mother’s Day. She even spoke out against charities that used the holiday for fundraising.

Despite her best efforts, Anna ultimately lost control over the holiday she helped create, and she so grew to despise the commercialism attached to it that she told a Reader’s Digest reporter she was “sorry she ever started Mother’s Day.” Near the end of her life, Anna even tried to abolish Mother’s Day, going door to door asking for signatures to repeal the national holiday she had worked so hard to attain.

So how does this story end you ask? No matter how hard she tried, Anna Jarvis could not stop Mother’s Day from being exploited by big business. One quick walk through just about any store in the first two weeks of May validates her concern. The National Retail Federation estimates that Americans will spend about $20 bil-lion on Mother’s Day gifts; 80% will buy greeting cards, and 66% will buy flowers.


By all accounts, Jarvis stayed true to her claim of never profiting financially from the holiday she founded. She was committed to pro-tecting the purity of Mother’s Day, and she believed money sullied that purity. It is said that Anna Jarvis didn’t trust charities’ allo-cation of funds, but she especially hated the notion that charitable causes were changing Mother’s Day into an occasion where mothers were to be pitied more than honored. “You honor them regard-less of how rich or how poor or what color or creed,” Katharine Antolini, a professor of history and gender studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College says. “That, to me, makes sense. She has some valid complaints about how her day was being used.”

Her efforts to hold on to the original meaning of the day led to her own economic hardship. Being so passionate in her determina-tion that she unfortunately ignored looming financial troubles. Her work at first to establish Mother’s Day was subsidized by a moder-ate fortune left by her mother and later by funds which she and her sister received as principal beneficiaries of the estate of their brother, Claude, president and founder of a Philadelphia taxicab company. But the funds began to diminish and her finances became a hopeless mess.While others profited from the day, Anna Jarvis did not, and she spent the later years of her life with her sister Lillie. During the last 10 years of her life, Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother’s Day, lived with her blind sister, Lillian, in a three-story redbrick house in North Philadelphia. In 1943, she began organizing a petition to overturn Mother’s Day. However, these efforts were halted when she was placed in the Marshall Square Sanitarium in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Ironically it is said that the people connected with the floral and greeting card industries paid the bills to keep her in the sanitarium. Anna Jarvis died in 1948 — blind, emaciated, broke, and surrounded by strangers.

As everyone is aware, Mother’s Day is celebrated all around the world on the second Sunday in May, Anna Jarvis, along with her particular vision of what she deemed a “holy day” rather than a holiday, is pretty much forgotten. “For the day to be popular, she no longer has to be connected to it,” Antolini says. “Now that the child has grown up, you no longer have to associate it with its mother.”

Ask yourself this. Are you truly celebrating your mother or are you being taken in by Big Business? How can you tell? Do you feel good at the end of Mother’s Day or are you stressed and thinking about the money you spent? Try this - show your mother that you care all year long, surprise her with little gifts like when you were a child. Trust me she remembers the bouquet of dandelions and those pictures you drew. Love is about beautiful memories not expensive gifts. Go hug your mom. If she is not close by, give her a call, write her a letter. In this age of technology it is time for us to get personal.

LOVE YOU MOM!





In case you have not had the privilege, let us introduce you. Diane Speaks was an airline stew-ardess traveling all over the world. But unfortu-nately after 9/11, the airline industry went a lit-tle crazy. So being a very astute business person Ms. Speaks had a Plan B and She’s International Boutique was born in 2006 in Salem, VA. Having been a stewardess, she is able to purchase beau-tiful merchandise from all over the world such as Paris, Rome and Madagascar. After 10 years in Salem Ms. Speaks had the amazing opportunity to expand She’s International Boutique and has recently relocated her business to 108 Market Street SE in Downtown Roanoke, VA.

Diane SpeaksFounder and Owner



Spring into Beauty: 5 Beauty tips to prepare for Spring!

By Lee Marie

It’s time to give those makeup bags and brushes a Spring Cleaning and be fitted for your Spring foundation.

Tough your bottles may not be empty, but everything in your makeup bag has an expiration date. Over time bacteria collects in your favorite mascara, foundation, eyeliner, etc. which may lead to nasty outbreaks and other disturbing skin irritations. To avoid these unwanted

issues, here are a few SPRING CLEANING tips to help you get fabulous and fresh!!1. I know it’s your ABSOLUTE fave, but if you bought that mascara more than two months ago- TOSS IT! I know the “three pump” rule before applying is just habit, but what you don’t realize is- the more you pump the mascara wand into the tube, the more bacteria and germs infest your product resulting in stale mascara. Unfortunately there’s no way to preserve it, JUST

REPLACE IT!2. The brushes are the key to keeping your eye shadows POPPING and full of colour and your

foundation FRSH just in time for SPRING! If you struggle with separation anxiety, I am PLEASED to tell you that you can save money and continue to build a friendship with your FOUNDATION

for up to one year and eye pigments for up to two years by: sanitizing the outside of your colour palettes and loose pigments regularly, give your makeup brushes a good bath, and don’t forget to moisturize the hairs of your clean brushes with a drop of almond oil (you can find in

your local healthy food coop and drug store).3. Just like mascara, the pumping action required to retrieve the product from the bottle acts as a vehicle for bacteria and germs to enter the product. Dating the best liquid eye liner for

more than three months may show the following side effects: sties, breakouts, skin irritations, and eye infections.

4. Used most often, yet easiest to clean and preserve! Fill a small spray bottle with 91% Iso-propyl Alcohol and your favorite all natural oil. Twist your lipstick all the way up while holding a paper towel behind the colour bullet, spray the mixer on the product, and leave to dry for five minutes (for daily cleaning remove the surface layer of product with a sanitizing wipe).

Following these steps will not only keep your lipstick from spoiling, but it will aid in preserving the lifespan for up to one year.

5. Now you MUST be certain that you have the right shade of foundation as the seasons change. Visit your preferred makeup counter or consultant to ensure your FOUNDATION sets

the right tone!Purchasing quality product is the key to any makeup bag but a CLEAN and HEALTHY collection is even more important. Just like when cleaning your HOME, your everyday BEAUTY routines require just as much ATTENTION! For more SPRING BEAUTY tips ‘text MBLM to 90210 (no

additional fee. Standard text messaging rates apply with you services provider).


INTERVIEW WITH NUBIAN KRUZERS UNITED

AT


Nubian Kruzers United

Interview by Lee Marie

On Saturday April 30th, 2016 I had the pleasure to speak with Chuck Crenshaw - Rider Name: SUGA Bear “Showing U Gods Authority” who is co-founder of Nubian Kruzers United and Jesse Smith aka JB “Just Because” who started the Roanoke, VA chapter.

The Nubian Kruzers were hosting a community event which was aptly called COMMUNITY BLESSING as everything was free to the members of the community. The Nubian Kruzers United emphasized that the free event which ran from Noon – 4pm at Wilmont Park in Roanoke was simply their way to give back to the community.

SUGA Bear explained that he had been riding motorcycles since he was 9 years old. While in the military he started out with Astro Riders in Newport News. Then after a few years as a lone rider he finally decid-ed to start his own club with the help of his friend. JB was quick to express his gratitude to his mentor saying that it was SUGA Bear who got him into riding bikes. It is very touching to see men bond for a pos-itive common goal. Presently they are 14 Chapters strong and growing with chapters in North Carolina, Baton Rouge and New Orleans Louisiana, Arkansas, Virginia and Texas just to name a few places.

Their colors are about all about Africa, beautifully done and truly celebrating our culture. You must them to really appreciate the thought and workmanship that went into them.

Nubian Kruzers United focus on fighting the stereotype that most people have on biker clubs and their main purpose is to give young people a positive image and to build a community of strong African American men better known as Kings.

An example of some of the charitable work that they do is: In Baton Rouge, they give out 5,000 toys every Christmas in the different project communities. They have given $60,000 to Battered Women’s Association.

They may have many chapters and they may be in different cities and states but they are one group that work together to ensure the success of each other’s projects.





The Quick Draw Art Battle

Royale with Cheese

Interview by Lee Marie


Art Battle anyone? This is what happened at the Aurora Artisan in Roanoke, VA, the

evening of Friday May 6, 2016.

We spoke with Scott “Toobz” Noel the host and founder of the Quick Draw Art Battle with Cheese. He explained how he hap-pened onto an art battle when he was in

Atlanta, GA. He was impressed by the mix-ture of hip hop, old school, new school and loved the edginess of the concept where it was set up like a boxing match yet it was all about expressing the art. Having said

all this, the next step was how to bring this type of venue to Roanoke. So after a few

tries, here we are.


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Every year on June 14th, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day (WBDD). The event, established in 2004, serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products, and to thank blood donors for their voluntary, life-supporting gifts

of blood.

To recognize our donors on this special day, we will be giving all participating donors a limited edition lapel pin to thank them for their life-saving gift. In addition, if a donor brings a new or lapsed donor to donate at a community donor center on World Blood Donor Day, they will both receive a

limited edition hoodie.

#BeTheGivingType



Memorial Day – What is it?Memorial Day is an American holiday that is observed on the last Monday of May. It is designated as a time to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. It was originally known as Decoration Day and originated a few years after the Civil War but did not become an official federal holiday until 1971.

EARLY OBSERVANCES OF MEMORIAL DAYThe Civil War had claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history. This led to the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries. By the late 1860s Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to the countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

Take a moment to reflect:Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance (otherwise known as a moment of silence) takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.

Although it is officially unclear where this tradition started as numerous different communities had independently started their own memorial gatherings, several cities claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, including Columbus, Mississippi; Macon, Georgia; Richmond, Virginia; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; and Carbondale, Illinois.

But in 1966 the federal government under the direction of President Lyndon B. Johnson, declared Water-loo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Why? Because Waterloo had first celebrated the day on May 30, 1868 and was chosen because it had hosted annual, community-wide events where the businesses closed and the residents had decorated the graves of their fallen soldiers with flowers and flags.

DECORATION DAYOn May 5, 1868, by proclamation of General John A. Logan leader of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle. The 1868 celebration was inspired by local observances that had taken place in various locations in the three years since the end of the Civil War. Many Northern states held similar commemorative events making it an annual tradition that by 1890 each state had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. But in the south, many Southern states continued to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I.


On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery. Today, Memorial Day is celebrated at Arlington National Cemetery with a ceremony in which a small American flag is placed on each grave. It is customary for the president or vice president to give a speech honoring the contributions of the dead and to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. More than 5,000 people attend the ceremony annually.

Decoration Day originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War but when the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict known as World War 1, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars.

The current name “MEMORIAL DAY” for this day did not come into use until after World War II. Decoration Day and then Memorial Day used to be held on May 30, regardless of the day of the week, on which it fell. In 1968, the Uniform Holidays Bill was passed as part of a move to use federal holidays to create three-day weekends. This meant that that, from 1971, Memorial Day holiday has been officially observed on the last Monday in May.


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