Living in the Life: The Return of COP 24/7

Its been well over a year and a few months since this forum known as CorneliusOnpoint, exited stage left in December 2009. During our four year stint at the keyboard, we covered a lot of ground, made some friends, created some haters, and took no prisoners. But what was most important to me was keeping it real and standing in what we thought was the truth. Looking back over those thousands of words and over 500 post, I personally thought I had had my say and there was very little more for me to be on point about. If memory serves me correctly, there was no boundaries, no topic off the table and above all I welcomed my readers to give me their back talk, unabashed, unedited and uncensored. Of course there are those who to this day have there point of view about our exercises in freedom of speech and there recollection may differ, but nonetheless, COP:24/7 kept bringing it then and is poised to stand in the gap once again. As I have stood by in silence with this forum, I've heard from many of you both positive and negative. Your voices, opinions and cries have stayed with me over these months, causing me to ponder my decision to shutter this forum and step away from my megaphone. However in my stillness I observed that my clarion call concerning our community, those who impact the decision within it and our responses whether real or contrived, beckon for more of my special brand of CorneliusOnpoint.  Ladies and Gentlemen, and all those who haven't decided, may I announce my return to offering you the latest updates, breaking news, commentary and "let's call it what it is" pieces that will revive our efforts to empower, entertain and inform Arkansas' GLBTQ community and beyond. I'm ready to began a new chapter and I hope that you are as well...

A 360 Overview

There has been so much that taken place since our last outing in December 2009. The world has not necessarily gone to "hell in a hand basket," but there's been some mighty interesting comings and goings taking place globally, nationally and certainly on the local scene. So, what will COP:24/7 take on this time around? Well, we've had time to put some new experiences under our belt as well as take a fresh whiff of situations that continue to have that special stench in the air that seem to always catch our attention. Furthermore, even though we applaud those "notes" and shared e-mails that circulated some news or action alerts, apparently COP:24/7 created its own niche that simply has been missed.  Even though we stop producing the weekly version, many continued to check in, post comments and surf by for anything new. Therefore this forum will play catch up and then some on topics such as:

• Arkansas' ongoing care paradox in relation to the HIV/AIDS health dilemma and other "wheel and spoke" issues including, criminalization, mental health, and current PAP access and continuing access, meanwhile asking some questions about the skeleton staffing of the Arkansas Health Departments' HIV/AIDS Section. Such as what's taking so long to find someone qualified and capable to be chosen Section Chief after Kevin Dedner's exit many months ago? Is anybody mad about it? 

• Where have all the leaders gone? It seems with each passing day current, past and possible future leaders in the GLBT community seemed to be disappearing faster than cold beer on a hot day. Many of these invaluable individuals served in various capacities with entities such as Little Rock Black Pride, Little Rock Capitol Pride, Brotha & Sistahs and other community based organizations that have been subject to turnover. Why all the haste to get to somewhere else, when this city needs all the creativity, brain power and activist it can muster? We know that its suppose to "greener in the next pasture" but is it really? Where are the next leaders in this city and what will they build from if there's no apparatus or networks in place from which to develop. Note to community: Leadership vacuum is a serious issue.

And speaking of leadership, before you lead you have to have some sense of where you are going therefore, what exactly is the agenda for the GLBTQ community? This year the defeat of a measure to deter same -sex couples from being consider suitable as foster parents was a victory, addressing the bullying issues was rewarding but where do we go from here? Does any one know?

Yes dear readers, we're back and we are ready to ask some question about what's really going on? Tell your friends that CorneliusOnpoint has returned to see just what it takes to get some of you mad about it all. Stay tuned...