Linnie Frank Bailey

"Selfish" is a dirty word for most of us. The dictionary defines selfish as: "devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others."

The women I know wouldn't fit this definition and most aim to stay far away from...

The road to U.C. Berkeley was not an easy one for Moreno Valley's Jamal Samuel. It included 4:15 am treks along the barren landscape of the former March Air Force base to catch the first of two buses that would get him to Riverside's North High School.

Unbeknownst to...

One evening a few years ago, I received a frantic phone call from a friend. She was sitting in her driveway guarding her son's video gaming systems. They were on the front curb next to the family's trash cans.

"Please come get them!" she begged me. It seemed her...

Sometimes I wish I could talk to the parents I had as a kid and ask them to explain their rationale for some of their parenting decisions back then. Dad is gone. Mom is still around, but today she's just a sweet little old lady who dotes on her grandchildren....

Perplexing verdicts, such as from the Casey Anthony case, are a frequent occurrence for Americans, Angelenos included. We accept that they are just part of our judicial system and hope that one day justice will be served. Black Los Angeles has a long history of surprising verdicts. Some led to...

There is a dearth of historical stories on black life in Southern California. Those that do exist focus on entertainment, crime, or sports. But looking back, one might wonder -- what was every day life like for black Angelenos thirty or forty years ago? Where, and how, did they live,...

So you won't be spending seven days and six nights in a tropical paradise this summer? Your kids probably won't see Mickey and you'll be lucky if you get ten miles out of town. Maybe you have lost your job and are spending all of your free time looking for...

The smoke was thick at the Forum during a recent Prince concert. At least in the section I was sitting in with my twelve-year-old, who kept asking, "Mom, what is that strange smell?"

"Shut up and enjoy the concert!" I wanted to say, but instead I would fan her...

Like many adult children, I sometimes look back at my mother and lament over all of her child-rearing 'mistakes.' (Not as much now that I have children of my own.) Nevertheless, I must give her credit for making my brother and I respect her -- particularly her time.

She is...

Every Easter at church I see small girls dressed in brightly colored dresses with matching Easter bonnets. Sometimes, their moms also have on an equally colorful dress and hat. Not as much as in the past though. Few of us 'dress up' to go to church anymore, unless we are...

"I'm the only one left. They're all gone."

An elderly relative is telling me of the recent death of her 91-year-old sister. I listen as she fondly describes growing up with four siblings and the emptiness she feels now that they aren't around anymore.

I am confused because...

"The wheel of history turned at a blinding pace."
Obama speaking on the fall of Mubarak, February 11, 2011

I know my children get tired of hearing me say this: "You are living through historic times!"

I'm sure other generations have felt this way. I've heard my...

I received my first cigarettes around the time I got my first iron, stove, and refrigerator. This was the sixties, and the appliances were toys. The cigarettes were candy.

Looking back, I don't know what bothers me the most these days. The fact that I was being prepared for...

SOUL singing is not about vocal range, or hitting and holding the notes.

SOUL singing is a stirring, emotional, 'dripping wet' rendition of a song.

SOUL singing not only makes listeners testify... it can make them leave their woman (or man), empty their bank account, and do things...

"So Dad, did you boil the chicken first, or bake it with the pasta?"

I am trying to pick my Dad's brain for his infamous Chicken-Spaghetti recipe.

"Did you use tomato sauce, tomato paste, or both, Dad?"

He just smiles at me. He doesn't remember the recipe....

Time for OFA to be scrapped. At least as it currently exists.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was after all of our kick-butt, grassroots groups -- part of the 'social network' MYBO (mybarackobama.com) -- were morphed into the boring, unorganized, OFA (Organizing for America).

Some of...

Put Kaine somewhere in the Administration, and put a WOMAN over the currently ineffective DNC.

Not a Hollywood actress; not a Silicon Valley tech guru; not an East-coast fundraiser; not a news pundit or anchor.

Not sure who's left... but here are the Quals:

• A woman from 'main street.' Someone...

I keep running into people I know at my town's local homeless shelter. I go there to serve and I come away feeling I myself have been served with a healthy dose of reality, humbleness, and grace.

This isn't the hard-core shelter for the chronically homeless and addicted. (Not...

Geez! What's a guy to do?

Obama is facing more anger, more distrust, and more hostility than just about any other President in recent history, if we are to believe the media.

Here's the bottom line -- we wanted change and we got it!

Barack Obama has...

"...We don't differentiate between them and us. It's just us!"
President Barack Obama, September 10, 2010

For Democrats desperately in search of a message for 2010 elections and beyond, here it is: Are we going to succumb to a party which has no qualms about dividing Americans for political...