You're Entitled To Be Wrong

To know is science, to think you know is ignorance

About the Author

AngeliaLevy.Portrait.YETBW
Angelia Levy, YETBW Writer/Manager

JUST THE FACTS

I am a federal employee who works for the federal judiciary. I have a B.A. in Communications from the University of Pittsburgh (PA) and a M.A. in Communications (Interactive/Multimedia Journalism) from American University (Washington, DC). I’m married and I have a teen-aged son. I’m originally from Pittsburgh, PA, but have been living in Silver Spring, MD (outside DC) for over fifteen years. You can also find me on social media via Twitter and LinkedIn.

HOW WOULD I DESCRIBE MYSELF?

I’m not sure that I can describe myself as succinctly as I would like in punchy paragraphs, so here’s a list instead:

  • I get cranky when people spout their opinion and have done practically zero research to solidify their thoughts. If you’re going to own your opinion, you need to back it up.
  • I’m a registered Democrat, but mainly by default because I’m not an enthusiastic party member.
  • I lack patience. I wish I could do something about it but it’s part of my genetic make-up that simply can’t be corrected.
  • I’m not very feminine or lady-like. I recognize that I am a woman, but I’m not wrapped up in all the accoutrements that come with being a woman, though at times I can be vain about my hair and get worked up about facial blemishes.
  • I enjoy writing, editing and research a lot. I’m the type of person who wordsmiths and does grammar checks on everything. I contact websites when I spot errors. I once went in a store to let them know that their sign was incorrect because they used a noun instead of a verb. I am a strong believer in clarity. I do not like fuzzy information.
  • The NFL used to be my favorite professional sport to watch. I would start suffering NFL withdrawal symptoms usually after the wild-card games. Nowadays, I’m no longer a fan, basically an irregular and subdued viewer due to cynicism in regards to how the league and most of its fans treat its athletes, especially those who are African-American.
  • I laugh at high-brow and low-brow humor; my weakness is really stupid puns & jokes.
  • I’m not the most positive person; have tried to work on this over the years but my track record in this endeavor sucks. Luckily my husband is there to help counterbalance my moments of realism (aka gloom and doom).
  • I’m a cold-weather girl. I love the fall and winter seasons. DC is as far south as I want to live.
  •  I actually don’t get worked up about use of the ‘bitch’ word. I don’t think that the term is gender-specific since men can definitely fall into this category as well. There are worse things to be called – it really depends on who is doing the name-calling.

FAVORITE QUOTES AND PASSAGES

  • “To know is science; to think you know is ignorance” – Hippocrates
  • “I do not follow trails of candy. I am the candy.” – Shonda Rhimes
  •  “Sometimes you just have to roll the potato” – Mickey Rourke, actor
  • “Don’t stay where you’re tolerated, go where you’re celebrated.” – Anonymous
  • “Stand still. The trees ahead and bush beside you are not lost.” – Albert Einstein
  • “Fear lulls our mind to sleep. Turns us into cowards as well.” – Grandmother from Persepolis
  • “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” – Hunter S. Thompson
  • “So what if he is mediocre? There are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they? We can’t have all Brandeises, Cardozos, and Frankfurters and stuff like that there” – Nebraska Republican Senator Roman Hruska in 1970 responding to criticism that President Nixon’s first U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge G. Harold Carswell (who was later rejected by the Senate) was a mediocre judge.
  • “If you have expensive tastes you gotta be prepared for expensive losses.” – Charlie Sheen, actor
  • “Out of the huts of history’s shame. I rise. Up from a past that’s rooted in pain. I rise. I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear. I rise. Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear.I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.” – Maya Angelou from ‘Still I Rise’
  • “Along with all of the other rising inequalities we’ve become so familiar with — in income, in wealth, in access to politicians — we confront now a fundamental inequality of accountability. We can have a just society whose guiding ethos is accountability and punishment, where both black kids dealing weed in Harlem and investment bankers peddling fraudulent securities on Wall Street are forced to pay for their crimes, or we can have a just society whose guiding ethos is forgiveness and second chances, one in which both Wall Street banks and foreclosed households are bailed out, in which both inside traders and street felons are allowed to rejoin polite society with the full privileges of citizenship intact. But we cannot have a just society that applies the principle of accountability to the powerless and the principle of forgiveness to the powerful. This is the America in which we currently reside.” – Chris Hayes, MSNBC Analyst
  • “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t really matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live – a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ speech which was delivered in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 – the day before he was assassinated.

FAVORITE BOOKS

FAVORITE MOVIES

MUSIC TASTES

My music interests all over the place. I don’t have a favorite musical artist because my music changes from day-to-day depending on my mood. It can be pop, r&b, old-style blues, Cuban, alternative, light FM, rap, hip hop, blue grass, electronic dance/dubstep, old gospel/spirituals, classical, country, gregorian, soundscape and much more. However, I do draw the line at Mexican Polka.