No Butts About It! No More!

An ode to my previous article: A New Year's Resolution to One's Life.

We have a mouth to Speak not Smoke!~

Once again, one of my passions is to pass along the message that Smoking Kills everyone you love including You!

Dana Reeves died today! How? She never even smoked!!! She is among the 1/17 women and 1/15 men that will die of lung cancer from second hand smoke. Yes not only does it kill the smoker but it also kills those people around them.

Please people we need to help each other out. My brother died of lung cancer and who knows we can be next! No I didn't stay around him much but those of us that go to restaurants that have smoking in the next aisle, those that dance the night away at clubs that have heavy smokers, and those in Europe who still thinks "Is izz zee Trend tu Samok" yes that's my French Accent for a bad habit.

Here are some very real articles on two very important people. The first one is Christopher Reeve's wife and another a very important person to the Salsa world of both shared many things in common. They died of lung cancer for never smoking!

  • We don't have to take it. Anytime someone asks you for a cig, tell them like I do, No I don't smoke and it's bad for you! Save your money and better yet, health!
  • Tell your restaurant owners, they listen. Many times their employees wish they weren't there either. What are we there to eat or to smell butts being puffed?!
  • Communication is Key. Stand up for your Right to Breath!

The following articles are courtesy of NBC 5 Chicago & SalsaWeb.Com:

Cancer Claims Life Of Christopher Reeve's Widow
Dana Reeve Survived By Teenage Son, Two Stepchildren

POSTED: 7:32 am CST March 7, 2006
UPDATED: 4:39 pm CST March 7, 2006

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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Dana Reeve, the singer-actress who married the strapping star of the "Superman" movies and then devoted herself to his care and his cause after he was paralyzed, has died of lung cancer, a year and a half after her husband. She was 44.

Although Reeve had announced her cancer diagnosis in August - to an outpouring of sympathy and support from admirers around the world -- her death seemed sudden. As recently as Jan. 12, she looked healthy and happy as she belted out Carole King's "Now and Forever" at a packed Madison Square Garden during a ceremony honoring hockey star Mark Messier, a friend.

"Unfortunately, that's what happens with this awful disease, " said Maggie Goldberg of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, where Dana Reeve had succeeded her husband as chair. "You feel good, you're responding and then the downturn."

Reeve, who lived in Pound Ridge, died Monday night at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Center in Manhattan, said foundation president Kathy Lewis.

Officials would not discuss Reeve's treatment or say when she entered the hospital. But Lewis said she visited her there on Friday, when Reeve was "tired but with her typical sense of humor and smile, always trying to make other people feel good, her characteristic personality."

"The brightest light has gone out, " said comedian Robin Williams. "We will forever celebrate her loving spirit."

Former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton described Reeve as "a model of tenacity and grace."

"Despite the adversity that she faced, Dana bravely met these challenges and was always an extremely devoted wife, mother and advocate, " they said.

Christopher and Dana Reeve married in 1992. Life changed drastically for the young show business couple three years later when Christopher Reeve suffered near-total paralysis in a horse-riding accident and almost died.

In his autobiography, "Still Me, " Reeve wrote that he suggested early on to his wife, "Maybe we should let me go." She responded, "I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you and I love you."

Those were "the words that saved my life, " Christopher Reeve said.

For his remaining nine years, Dana Reeve was her husband's constant companion and supporter during the ordeal of his rehabilitation, winning worldwide acclaim and admiration. With him, she became an activist in the search for a cure for spinal cord injuries.

"Something miraculous and wonderful happened amidst terrible tragedy, and a whole new dimension of life began to emerge, " she wrote in a 1999 book, "Care Packages: Letters to Christopher Reeve from Strangers and Other Friends." "What we had yet to discover were all the gifts that come out of sharing hardship, the hidden pleasures behind the pain."

After her husband's death, Reeve said she planned to return to acting. She had appeared on Broadway, off-Broadway and regional stages and on the TV shows "Law & Order, " "Oz, " and "All My Children" and she'd had to give up a Broadway role when she was widowed.

"I am an actress and I do have to make a living, " she said.

However, her mother died of complications from ovarian cancer and her own diagnosis came the next summer.

"I thought that after everything that she had gone through with Chris that she would have time to smell the flowers and be in the sun, " said Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif. "But apparently that was not meant to be."

From the start, Reeve expressed confidence she would beat lung cancer. And four months ago, wearing a long formal gown at a fundraising gala for the foundation, Reeve provoked wolf whistles from Williams and said she was responding well to treatment.

"I'm beating the odds and defying every statistic the doctors can throw at me, " Reeve said. "My prognosis looks better all the time."

At about the same time, Reeve taped a PBS show, "The New Medicine, " about how doctors are paying more attention to a patient's cultural values and lifestyle as part of treatment. In her introduction to the program, Reeve said, "It has become clear to me that high-tech medicine, with all its wonders, often leaves out that all-important human touch."

PBS said Tuesday that the show will be broadcast as scheduled March 29.

Survivors include the Reeves' 13-year-old son, Will; two grown stepchildren, Matthew and Alexandra; her father, Charles Morosini; and two sisters.

Goldberg said Will was "in the loving care of family and friends" and that his mother had arranged for his future.

The foundation said no plans for a funeral have been announced.
Ray Barretto Lost to Second-Hand Smoke
Died of Lung Cancer... but never smoked. Breathed in smoke from smokers at nightclubs... Read on...

Ray Barretto Passed Away, Fri Feb 17, 2006

The Lost of Another Great Latin Music Giant... - Reprint permission from DJ Henry Knowles
New York, NY- Feb 17, 2006- Family spokesperson George Rivera announced this morning that Ray Barretto died at the Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J. at 5 a.m. Wife, Annette Rivera (Brandy) who had been a constant by his side since he was taken to the hospital late last month was taken home to rest. We will get more information from the family later. Click Here for Story...

For nearly 40 years, conguero and bandleader Ray Barretto has been one of the leading forces in Latin jazz. His hard, compelling playing style has graced the recordings of saxophonists Gene Ammons, Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, and guitarists Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell.

Born April 29, 1929, in Brooklyn-New York, Barretto is one of the most prolific and influential Latin percussionists in the history of modern jazz. With a musical heritage as deeply rooted in the bebop jam sessions held in Harlem during the late-'40s as in his Puerto Rican ancestry, Barretto has spent over four decades refining the integration of Afro-Caribbean rhythms with the improvisational elements of jazz. Coincidentally, it was the tune “Manteca” recorded by Gillespie with Chano Pozo on percussion that drove Barretto to music. And it was a version of that same tune that became Barretto’s first recording with Red Garland.

Few artists have been as successful over the years at fusing these two genres as Barretto, an undisputed master of this style. A pioneer of the salsa movement, Barretto achieved international superstardom and released nearly two dozen albums with the Fania label from the late-'60s until salsa's popularity peaked in the mid-1980's.

More about Ray Barretto
Ray Barretto a.k.a. Hard Hands... a Puerto Rican jazz musician, widely credited as the godfather of Latin jazz. He is also the first Hispanic to record a Latin song which became a "hit" in the American Billboard Charts.

Barretto's parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico in the early 1920s, looking for a better life. He was raised in Spanish Harlem and at a very young age was influenced by his mother's love of music and by the jazz music of musicians such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie.

In 1946, when Barretto was 17 years old, he joined the Army. While stationed in Germany, Barretto met Belgium vibist Fats Sadi, who was working there. However, it was when he heard Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca" with Cuban percussionist, Chano Pozo, that he realized his true calling in life.

In 1949, when Barretto returned home from the service, he started to visit clubs and participated in jam sessions, where he perfected his conga playing. On one occasion Charlie Parker heard Barretto play and invited him to play in his band. Later, he was asked to play for Jose Curbelo and Tito Puente, for whom he played for four years. Barretto developed a unique style of playing the conga and soon he was sought by other jazz band leaders. Latin percussionists started to appear in jazz groups with frequency as a consequence of Barretto's musical influence.

In 1960, Barretto was a house musician for the Prestige, Blue Note, and Riverside labels. New York had become the center of Latin music in the United States and a style called "Charanga" was the Latin music craze of the time.

In 1961, Barretto recorded his first hit, "El Watusi", the first Latin song to enter the Billboard charts. In 1967, he joined the Fania record label where he recorded "Acid", an experiment joining rhythm and blues with Latin music.

Barretto played the conga in recording sessions for the Rolling Stones and the Bee Gees. In 1975 he was nominated for a Grammy Award for the song "Barretto". From 1976 to 1978, Barretto recorded three records for Atlantic Records, including "La Cuna", and was nominated for a Grammy for "Barretto Live...Tomorrow". In 1979, he produced a salsa record for Fania, titled "Ricanstruction", which was named 1980 "Best Album" by Latin N.Y. Magazine, with Barretto crowned as Conga Player of the Year.

In 1990, Barretto finally won a Grammy for the song "Ritmo en el Corazon" (Rhythm in the Heart), which featured the vocals of Celia Cruz. In 1999, Barretto was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.

Barretto lived in New York and was an active musical producer, as well as the leader of a touring band which has embarked in tours of the United States, Europe, Israel and Latin America. Barreto passed away 17 February 2006 at the Hackensack University Hospital of multiple health complications.

R.I.P.

Baretto and Dana Reeves

Posted: 1:37 a.m. EST March 8, 2006 by Anne Meesriyong