"Shanda" by W.C. Blackmon, featuring Damira
An accessible text transcription of the video based on the song of the same name.

[Video: A montage of various subjects illustrating the topics in the song, including the despair of drug abuse. Visuals of significance will be noted.]

[Video: wide shot of a tanker ship; Text on screen: Choose your destination, create your destiny]

Audio: [Music: Damira hums]

[Video: A young woman sits on a windowsill in a pose of depression. Text on screen: Drug overdoses have killed more than a million people since 1999]

[Video: A young woman brushes a tear from her cheek.]

Damira sings:
I don't want to cry no more. 
Oh I'm so tired, tired. 
I'm so tired, I'm tired, I'm tired.
I don't want to cry no more. 
Oh I'm so tired. 
I'm so tired, I'm tired, I'm tired.

W.C. Blackmon speaks:
She knows that the road ahead of her is long. Nevertheless she continues to move forward, one step at a time.
And although her final destination is nowhere in sight, she sees it clearly in her mind.
Yet and still she can't help but remember all those times she pumped the system full of drugs.
Joint after joint, needle after needle, line after line.
And although her age and actual years have been few, she's lived the life fast and hard, which means she's accumulated way more than a fair share of physical, mental, and emotional scars.

[video: A young woman wraps a belt around her upper arm, preparing to shoot up.]

He speaks:
Then add to that the fact that for the most part her consciousness has been delinquent to God.
Real friends, she thought she had some.
In reality, she had none.
Still, in her need to see these people, her friends, she continually put her trust in them.
Until one day they took everything she had, then left her on an abandoned house floor, physically nakedly, spirtually broken, and emotionally sad.
That day she walked around in a daze.
And when she finally got up enough nerve just to pray, her body jerked her away because, to the drugs, she found that her body had fallen prey.

[Video: A young woman sits, holding her knees to her chest, despondantly. Text on screen: Drugs can have a serious negative impact on how you feel, think, act, live, or die!]

He speaks:
And over this it's worth shedding a tear, too, because Shonda really is a beautiful sister.
It's just that the dark side of the world got into her system and completely twisted her, until she became an alien amongst her own kind.
But even worse than that, a nobody in our own mind.

[Video: A young woaman sits on the floor with her back to the wall. Text on screen: Drugs has no preference of person for any race, it can lead to crime, prostitution, suicide, homicide...]

He speaks:
And now maybe some of you are sitting out there, figuring the words in this here poem don't apply to you.
But I bet if you think about it, you come up with someone who has, is, or seemingly about to go through some of the same things that Shanda  is going through.
Or maybe even worse.
And I'm not trying to burst
anyone's bubble, but the suds of putrifaction that comes from lack of understanding is not a good look.

[Video: W.C. Blackmon gives a talk, while standing behind a lectern. Text on screen: "You!" Are enough]

He speaks:
See? No longer can we stand aside while brothers and sisters are being forsook.

[Video: A young woman stands sadly while eight hands (four on the left side of the frame, and four on the right) point fingers at her.]

So instead of pointing a finger, laughing and showing no concern, saying this doesn't apply to me, we have to keep in mind that understanding plus compassion equals empathy, not sympathy.

[Video: A hand holding a marker writes, "Be the change you want to see"]

He speaks:
And this leads me back to the sister Shanda because, in the same way that a drop a water and a ray of sunshine combines to reach a buried seed and causes a sunflower to grow through the tiniest crack in the sidewalk, the light of the Most High reached into the depths of Shanda's soul and caused the Spirit to back talk.
And now, no longer is she doing drugs as a hobby.
Instead, every morn, she puts on her "Black on Black Rhyme" t-shirt and goes jogging.

[Video: A young woman wearing headphones jogs along a waterfront. Text on screen: On average, over 96,700 people die from drug overdoses in a year.]

He speaks: 
And with every long stride, she moves that needle further and further away from her veins.
And with each expansion of her lungs, she breathes out the weed smoke that used to fog her brain.
And instead of following white lines up her nose, she's now running physical, mental, and emotional circles around her foes.
But she doesn't care about that.
All that really matters to her is just one thing.
And that is making sure that she remains clean.

Damira sings:
I don't want to cry no more. 
Oh I'm so tired. 
I'm so tired, I'm tired, I'm tired.
I don't want to cry no more. 
Oh I'm so tired. 
I'm so tired, I'm tired, I'm tired.

[Video: A young couple smiles as they hang out with their young child. Text on screen: Be the change, fulfill your destiny!]

She sings:
I don't want to cry no more. 
Oh I'm so tired. 
I'm so tired, I'm tired, I'm tired.

[Video: A hand holding a marker writes, "Nothing changes if nothing changes"]

She sings:
I don't want to cry no more.

[Video: Close up of two hands on the tiller wheel of a sailboat. Text on screen: Chose your destination: create your destiny]

She sings:
Oh I'm so tired. 
I'm so tired, I'm tired, I'm tired.

W.C. Blackmon speaks:
Shanda, Shanda, Shanda (fades)

[Video: Text on screen: Author, Artist, Empowerment Presenter, Trainer
Book me at: wcblackmon.com
contact me direct at w.c@wcblackmon.com
Latest Book, "Seeds to Unfolding: Release, Freedom, Power" Available in print and audio]

[Video: Photo of W.C. Blackmon wearing a cowboy hat, smiling. Text on screen: "Shanda" by W.C. Blackmon ft. Damira]

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