Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 1-25-19

Features
Brothers Share Different View On End Of Life
DWAYNE MATT
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Most people don’t want to think about their end of life. And, in many cases, they leave all of the arrangements for those left behind.
However, two brothers have set about changing the way people think. They are en- couraging citizens to make their own decisions about their lives.
Dwayne Matt and Prince Matt don’t refer to their business as a funeral home. In fact, its referred to as the New End of Life Celebra- tion, 7921 N. 40th Street.
This is their second busi- ness. The first, Zion Hill Mor- tuary, is located in St. Petersburg.
“We want to keep people free to think about their future. No one wants to talk about death or a funeral. We don’t look at it as a funeral. We look at it as a celebration of that person’s life,” Dwayne Matt, a 30-year licensed mortician said.
He said they have been in business for 25 years. He feels that people should take care of the end of their lives by making pre-arrangements.
In keeping with this idea, they offer pre-arrangement packages that they feel pre-
PRINCE MATT
planning not only means that person’s wishes will be carried out, but it relieves their loved ones from having to make those decisions.
Prince Matt is a licensed insurance agent and he han- dles the pre-needs part of the business. He said that by mak- ing pre-arrangements, it also locks in the prices of the serv- ices and merchandise.
“We offer a variety of serv- ices including cremation and international shipping. We also offer individuals and families information that they don’t usually know about,” he said.
One of those things that families don’t know pertains to life insurance policies. If a per- son is placed in a facility, they must sign over their policies to that agency.
The brothers said for most people, it’s never a good time to talk about making final arrangements. However, they feel it is far better to make arrangements while the person is healthy.
“Funerals are chaotic. We want to break the stigma of not talking about making final plans. If a person takes care of their needs early, then when the time comes, their passing can be a celebration of that per- son’s life and not the chaos that usually takes place,” they said.
‘Me Too Movement’ Founder Shares Her Story With Audience At USF
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
When the hashtag #MeToo went viral in 2017 on Twitter its creator, activist Tarana Burke, was taken by surprise.
Actress and former “Who’s the Boss?” star, Alyssa Milano used it to encourage women to share their stories of sexual assault and ha- rassment in the workplace following the alle- gations surrounding powerful Hollywood executive, Harvey Weinstein. It caught on like wildfire, prompting Burke’s friends to contact her.
They knew that almost 10 years earlier, Burke had coined the phrase on the social network MySpace to help bring empathy and awareness to victims of sexual abuse. Burke was working to launch a campaign to give the term wider exposure when she learned about Milano.
“I literally almost had a heart attack,” she said. “I panicked. I started having a full on breakdown. I’ve been working on this my whole life and the white lady is going to come and take it.”
In a discussion that mixed in some humor, Burke shared on Tuesday her story as founder of the Me Too Movement with an audience of hundreds packed into the Oval Theater at the University of South Florida’s Marshall Student Center.
While Milano helped amplify the #MeToo phrase, she has been adamant about Burke receiving proper credit, Burke said.
“If you ask Alyssa to say anything about Me Too, she’ll say, ‘Tarana started it. It’s not my movement’,” she said.
Burke experienced sexual assault as a young woman, but it wasn’t until after a young girl confided her own sexual abuse that she was motivated to found Me Too Movement at a Selma, Ala., junior high school.
The young girl’s confession revitalized Burke’s activism, she said.
“Real courage is being 12 or 13 and know- ing you deserve to be heard,” she said. “I didn’t walk in the world thinking I deserved to be heard and be seen. And this child taught me that without knowing it.”
She used MySpace to help spread the word and eventually it caught on with women and other adults who had experienced sexual abuse.
As Burke delved deeper into anti-sexual violence work, she began changing her lan- guage. It was at a women’s conference where she learned that those who had experienced the horrors of sexual abuse and sexual assault were survivors, not victims.
“That very small moment was an ‘a-ha’ mo- ment,” she said. “It made me stand up a little
Lecture moderator and USF Education Pro- fessor Deidre Cobb-Roberts poses with Me Too Movement founder, Tarana Burke.
taller, breathe a little easier.”
Survivor, Burke said, “says I endure.
There are scars to prove it. I’m still here.” Still, Burke said she’s cautioned about using the word out of context for fear that its
power could diminish.
“Just by identifying as a survivor, you don’t
realize what my life is like,” she said. “We have to build a life conducive to surviving. ‘Survivor’ lumps it all together and we don’t get to...ex- plore the complexity of survivor.”
Burke has been lauded and praised for her work, which she now carries out as a senior di- rector at nonprofit Girls for Gender Equity in her native New York City. But she’s recently received harsh criticism for her support of women who have come forward against singer R. Kelly.
Detractors say she hasn’t been vocal enough against other alleged perpetrators like Weinstein.
It’s nonsense, Burke said.
“It took 20-plus years...countless articles and exposures,” she said. “It took Black women, mostly, advocating...this issue. It took two articles to bring down Harvey Wein- stein. And it was rightfully so.”
Changing the mindset that surrounds sex- ual violence in the Black community begins with dispelling the notion that abuse only hap- pens to women, Burke said.
“There’re so many boys who grow into men who are victims of sexual violence,” she said.
There also must be more dis- cussions around the abuse of Black women at the hands of Black men, Burke said.
“We have to have these con- versations within our commu- nity,” she said. “This is about resocialization. All of us need to be resocialized. Patriarchy has us all by the throat.”
PAGE 2-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019