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Dr. Henry Louis Gates and Soledad O’Brien Discovery My Black America

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on July 23, 2009| 7 Comments »

What do they call a Black man with a PHD?   You know and it is a shame. What’s worst is that my parents told me that as part of the obligatory “don’t get to comfortable with certain folks” talk.  Dr. Henry Louis Gates did not listen to the warning that President Obama’s election would not change America overnight.  That warning came repeatedly from Obama himself, Rev. Jackson, Rev. Sharpton and everyone who really knows what’s what. 

The whole “I can’t believe this happened on Harvard Square” thing tripped me out because Malcolm X told us that the South is everything south of Canada and he lived in the same Boston.  Bill Russell said he did not play for Boston but for the Celtics after people got so ugly when he moved into a certain neighborhood.  Can you believe that someone broke into his home and defecated in his bed then covered it with the comforter?  That was wrong; as wrong as someone who looks like us robbing Mrs. Rosa Parks in her home.  I wish she would have done like Pope John Paul II when he was shot and pointed the guy out in a spirit of forgiveness at the Million Man March.   While she is a forgiving person, the street in me would have smooth hung my Rockports in his behind.

I love me some PBS with those long projects by Ken Burns but Dr. Gates series about who is related to White people kind of tripped me out—like those Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemming family folks.  I don’t want to know so I stop my people when they start that talk or I leave the room because I see those people in the post office everyday.  We are not talking about generations removed from the drama because sharecropping (the last part of slavery) did not end until the mid 70s. In other words, there are big farms in my community that got big because the labor was free then systematically cheap.   

The USDA/Pigford case is addressing discrimination problems that grew from the county committees deciding who would farm and who would farm for someone else.  The progress in Black America that is chronicled by Dr. Gates and Soledad O’Brien might be reversed by the current generation of softer, less focus, bling-preoccupied youth. 

So the mayor of Cambridge is a sister and the president was a little rough on the police.  Rather than taking Dr. Gates class or attending his lecture, the young Black, White and Brown guys need to catch me on the tennis court after the matches for my class “How to encounter the police and live to talk about it.”  Repeat after me, “Officer, I was wrong” while remembering the event for a possible lawsuit.       

Finally, what up with Soledad’s CNN Black in America; like she discovered Black America last year. “I have found this fascinating group of people living among us called Blacks and it turns out they are different in many ways from other Americans.”  Soledad, Gates and other Harvard Blacks (who outnumber Morehouse, Spelman, Hampton and Howard in the current administration) don’t know our community as well as the Arkansas connection that came with Clinton in the 90s—Black and White.  Don’t start that “who’s blacker: Barrack or Bill” nonsense because that was answered this time last year. 

On a side note, I am really starting to think President Obama made a deal with Hillary that he would push real reform and let her have it in four year unless he was wildly successful.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Thinking about locals vs. the college community turned me to two classic film scenes. And Good Will Hunting was set in Boston. 

 Spike Lee’s School Daze: KFC —-Language Warning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNOfAFUT4xU

 Good Will Hunting Apples Scene —Language Warning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWaRulZbIEQ&feature=related

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Foil and Political Parties

Posted in politics, tagged , on July 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I just received an email about a tab on the side of aluminum foil that allows you to hold the roll during tearing.  Who knew that reading the box and thinking outside the box could be so helpful.

foil

Foil is also device in literature that allows one character to make another look better or smarter. ie. Doctor Watson to Sherlock Holmes.  On a political blog, I better leave that alone before I mention that President Obama was born in the United States and I really appreciate conservatives who are about the business of improving policy rather than pushing wild theories.  At the same time, foil is also employed when the Democrats who want to tax rich people to fund health care reform present their proposals only to have the Blue Dogs rein them into reality.

So Senator Saxby Chambliss went to the White House to meet with President Obama on healthcare recently.  I like our Georgia senators and the Blue Dogs talking about the issues before voting yes or no.  It’s thinking outside the box and we elected them to listen to all sides of the debate.

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How to do College: Real Talk

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on July 21, 2009| 2 Comments »

  1. Your job is being a student.  While you might work for pocket money and experience in your field, be fully invested in learning, thinking and retaining.
  2. Don’t get caught up with the lust for silver, gold and nice things—ie. apartments and cars.  It is called delayed gratification and it’s the reason the best students across the nation often graduate with a wardrobe of one interview suit, one blue blazer, three pairs of chinos and five pairs of well-worn jeans.  It is hard for students who did not grow-up with nice things to avoid the bling of music videos during school but it is better to remain fully focused of the primary objective of education.
  3. Stay in the Dorm: many people who didn’t finish college lost focus when they moved into an apartment and stop functioning like a full-time student who works a little and became a worker who goes to college a little. Dorm life today is not like the jail cells in the old school.  Today, the dorms are like apartments with kitchens and living rooms. 
  4. From the dorm, do everything.  Since you have paid your student activity fees, do all the activities, listen to every speaker from Desmond Tutu to David Duke,  and attend every sporting event, theater play and free concert time will permit. 
  5. Network like crazy to get a comfort level with a range of people (which will help in professional life.)  Students should stay up late debating the issues of the day, attend a local church and network with locals leaders in their fields.
  6. Know your field: How can business majors not read the WSJ and I dare one to ask what is the WSJ. Can a polly sci major not name the U.S. Senators from the contiguous states?
  7. Live in the Library: While the internet has change the resources game, I was in the library, cafeteria or class from 8 to 5 five days a week.  The same dark area in the stacks section was my office and if my reading and assignments were done, I would read the AJC and the journals from my field. Study breaks were spent learned what was hot in their fields from other majors.
  8. Wine, Women and Song were key to the college experience for the big men on campus while Beer, Babes, and Beats better described my after hours campus life.  If you really love a sweetheart and want to marry her after school, can you say that she is who you want “forsaken all others” after you start making money and rolling in the new E-Class Benz.  Sisters, if dude really loves your heart and mind, will he still love you when your Coke bottle figure turns into a two liter jug. On alcohol, don’t mix the type drinks in one day.  If you are drinking beer that day, beer is the drink for that day—no spring break exceptions.  Remember the sage advice of the Irish poet: drinking the first one, sip the second one and skip the third one. If I knew this in school, I would be on the Supreme Court but you can be a lawyer if you can’t pass the bar.  (Pun intended.)
  9. Retain the information covered in class…forever.  The motto of my college national honor society (a party guy rocking a 3.6 GPA…go figure) was: I make not my mind a grave but a community of knowledge.  The credibility of some colleges is questioned when grads butch grammar constantly.  Your diploma means the information covered in your program should be in your mind years later.
  10. College is formal education, which correctly implies that a person without a college degree but with years of experience in the same field acquired the same education informally over time and should be respected for their wisdom.  For example, I once asked my students in a job training program who had more education: Michael Jackson with no college or me with three college degrees.  Of course, they wrongly said me before I explained that I studied concepts in class that Michael learned in the real world of business; places I studied, Jackson had visited; and I studied budgeting while Michael met a million dollar payroll monthly.  On the other hand, my informal education from growing up in the country told me not to think about the stuff that got Michael in trouble. 
  11. Don’t sleep on the military experience as education: How many times have we seen a local person go into the military after high school and became better educated from service experience, travel, diverse exposure and global networking than his buddies who when to college and the information went in one ear and out the other.
  12. Important Classes: English is big because professionals must write and speak well. (They need to have a class about looking and acting like a professional rather than a club thug or shake dancer…have you seen some of these young teachers lately.)  Psychology class helps in life because understand your mind and the minds of others is vital in organizational behavior and management.  Economics could be the number one class for all college students because people must grasp the difference between making money and using money.  In south Georgia, many national plant workers made great incomes for years but found themselves broke when the plant left town.  College grads or people with a few years college on the same production lines better understood wealth-building and complexities of the industry; people who saved and spent based on the market indicators they learned in Econ class. 
  13. Better Life in College: It is hard being “grown” with real world responsibilities like babies and mortgages so why not take a few years in college, the armed services or both to better understand who you are as a person and what the world has to offer.  Real talk: in the 80s at regional Georgia colleges, the Black students were sometimes the only students in the dorm on the weekend. While White and Black students from well-off families jumped in their cars to go home for jet-skis, the family business, pools, golf courses and hunting, many of the Black students found life on campus (meal plan, air-conditioning, manicured grounds) better than home.  And you live in a building with 500 members of the opposite sex while at home you sleep three deep with your little brothers who wets the bed.
  14. Planning: Life is a series of phases with this phase relating to the next phase—act deliberately.  Some people wait until they are 23 years old before making life-altering decisions.  Wise college students listen to chatty old heads who recommend getting wiser first.  While you think you know everything in your late teens, the more you learn the more you realize what you don’t know.
  15. Learn from your fellow students: True story. While attending the community college in Albany, Georgia, I told two 40-year-old men that they were foolish for coming to college in the morning after working all night at the Firestone Tire Plant.  Their incomes were higher than our PhD professors. In the student center, one of them put his huge hand on my shoulder and said, “First of all, call me foolish again and see what happens.”  I said, “sorry, man” like a little punk but I wrong and they big tire building dudes.  I was thinking “gimme three steps and you will never see me no more.” Old dude smiled and said he wanted all of us young bucks to hear this.  He said he worked to provide for his family whom he loved but he did not love his work and it wasn’t the type work an aging person should do.  He bought and paid for a modest house, saved his money and came to college so he could spend the last part of his work life helping kids through coaching the same way coaches helped him.  I said thank you for sharing that knowledge and wisdom and I would appreciate you taking that giant hand off my shoulder now.  Four months later, the closing of the Firestone plant was announced and those two gentlemen were viewed as visionaries on campus because they were ahead of the game and wise in their actions.  It is my understanding that both guys become middle school coaches a few years later.
  16. Graduate from somebody’s college ASAP: As kids, we all wanted to attend D-1 universities, a major Black college or maybe an Ivy but life is what happens after you make other plans.  Get in and out of undergrad quickly before family and other important things come. 
  17. The Audacity of Dope: Just say no to drugs; that liquor is bad enough.

All of this stuff is just my opinion and I am frequently wrong; comments and additional views that would be beneficial to the young folks in the community are more than welcomed.  Did anyone actually read all of this stuff?

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Esperanza Spalding and Mr. Tony Bennett at the White House

Posted in politics, tagged , on July 20, 2009| 1 Comment »

This president and first lady are so cool.

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HBA on Augusta’s Most Influential List

Posted in politics, tagged on July 20, 2009| 2 Comments »

Congratulations to blog contributor HBA for being Number 43 on Metro Spirit’s Most Influential List in Augusta.  You really are a community asset. 

 http://www.metrospirit.com/index.php?cat=1211101074307265&ShowArticle_ID=11011407090611343

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Blacks Who Actually Vote

Posted in politics, tagged , , , on July 20, 2009| 6 Comments »

On Meet the Press this weekend, NPR’s Michele Norris made an interesting point about Americans and the Healthcare debate.

MS. NORRIS:  But outside of the Beltway there’s an interesting data point here that people involved in the process talk about, the fact that some 90 percent of the people who voted actually have health insurance and three-quarters of them are satisfied with what they got.  And there’s different ways of looking at that.  And one way to look at that is to say that perhaps there is not the public mandate for this that would dictate this sort of rush to legislation, and that’s going to make it harder to make that point and sell that when they, when they…(unintelligible).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31982038/ns/meet_the_press/page/4/

If that stat is correct, 90 percent of actual voters have health insurance and most of them are happy with what they have.  The debate should focus more on affordability rather than universal coverage but U.C. is important to prevention costly conditions and to stop people from using the E.R. as a doctor’s office.

The numbers of issues voters decide for people who don’t vote amazes me.  All of the good work we (Capitol Hill Democrats) did for struggling Americans during the Clinton years should have made Al Gore’s election a cakewalk.  But certain folks don’t vote; don’t vote but are busy messing up the nation. 

As they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease and who are the squeaky wheels…voters.  And who are the most squeaky wheels—those tea partiers.  They are doing it big down here and in the court of public opinion, those voices register because they are bring stats and facts to the table. 

Here is a new stat for the discussion: what is the percentage of non-voters should we give a rat’s ____ about?  (Wow, that is a rough question and it ended in a preposition.)  Some voters would say zero percent while the compassionate might say 100%.  In the barbershops in my community, people often say it is hard helping people who won’t help themselves or vote.  In the end, reasonable people are concerned on some level because the actions of everyone ultimately impact are safely and financial well-being.  The “most real” guys in my neighborhood break it down so hard as to say that the answer for assisting poor people is to limit the number of poor people…China style.

An old friend who is a conservative sister asked me about their efforts/failure to approach the Black community seven years ago—where did the time go.  I told her then what I tell her during our weekly telephone policy debates: most members of her pachyderm party don’t want people unlike them around in the same way they sometimes use private schools and home-schooling to get away from certain elements. 

Michael Steele’s efforts to attract more minorities would drive away equal numbers of members who join to get away from those he is seeking to attract.  Not so fast; conservatives in the South are comfortable in the pachyderm party without “us” in general but they need a few percentage points of BWAV (Blacks Who Actually Vote.)  These people don’t realize that the average person you see getting arrested (Black or White) on Cops doesn’t vote and BWAVs experience the worst affects of the worst elements. 

If we consider how the Right plans to take power again, the answer doesn’t involve appealing to current moderates or centrists.  Oh no.  As quiet as it is kept, the answer is to employ the politics of fear to scare non-voting Whites into a defensive posture about losing their country…. “You better start voting Right or else.”  Being a southern, I know it could work because history has a way of repeating itself.  (I was going to type “the apple don’t fall too far from the tree” but decided against it.)

For the last time (today), our community needs better/more representation on the Right…mark my word. 

 

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Pat Buchanan and an American Cultural War

Posted in politics, tagged , , , on July 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Let me be fair and honest: when Tiger Woods failed to make the cut at the British Open, my first thought was that I would support Vijay Singh because he kind of looks like me. Then I remembered that Boo Weekley attended college at ABAC in nearby Tifton and Tom Watson is going it big for us old guys. Am I am racist in some way or just backing my own, which is odd because I likely have more in common with old Boo than Tiger.

You know what might be coming over the horizon: an American cultural war.  If given the opportunity, I was taught at home and college to put myself in someone’s shoes.  Inside the boots of the average White southerner, I would imagine a vision of the future that see the loss of power and control in this country—power and control being the fuel for wealth and family security.  No groups gives up power and gold without a struggle and from the Palin crew we are starting to hear what can be consider the veiled “something old becoming new”….I better leave that at that.  If you want to hear future Palin speeches before they happen dust off southern governors and senators pre-1970s.

I think about Malcolm X saying that he had more respect for a man who tells him how he feels—even if he is wrong- than a man who smiles and lies.  I personally like Governor Palin for that reason and I starting to better appreciate Patrick Buchanan for the same reason.  Like Rev. Wright, Buchanan is an old guy and is “done” with sugarcoating how he really feels.  I love sitting and listening to those old heads go-off with that realness. 

In the “exercise in futility” category, those of us who were waiting to see the emergence of a moderate, less bitter division of the conservative movement were wasting our time.  Not only will the southern Right not move toward center, but the gloves are coming off about the possible loss of control and power.  Our community needs to be very careful; we should not put all of our proverbial eggs in one basket because the Right still runs the south and the national winds will shift in the future. 

In college, we started every research project with a review of the literature to see if what was about to me studied had been done before.  If there is a movement of Black moderates and conservatives that was created “for us, by us,” I welcome to opportunity to learn more about it because what is next from some parts of the Right might have a tone that could be best described as ugly.

While his arguments regarding affirmative action makes interesting points, Pat Buchanan is basically saying that White men should circle the wagons before they found their power and influence gone.  Again, I appreciate his realness in the American dialog.  I better get back to the British Open; Tom Watson is 4 under Par with a one stoke lead.  Georgia had a populist congressman and senator named Tom Watson back in the day and if you never heard his point of view, don’t worry because history has away of repeating itself.  For our community, if the opportunity to help a smooth conservative of color appears, we should consider it because the post-Obama era could be the return to…..you know.  We need someone in the room.

Sidenote: MSNBC and Fox News makes me appreciate Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley,  John Chancellor and Bernard Shaw.

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Saving Our Troubled Boys

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , on July 16, 2009| 5 Comments »

The headline in last Thursday’s Augusta Chronicle ‘Juvenile Crime up 23% in Richmond in the last year’ was troubling.  So much so that I teamed up with a friend who manages three Waffle House restaurants and three local organizations that work directly with at-risk and disenfranchised boys to do something about it. A press conference was held Wednesday and once again the local media were there. Our CBS and NBC affiliate, our daily newspaper and the black owned weekly newspaper were there and gave us much coverage and much love. In about 24 hours, we’ve got over 60 men who have signed up to serve as mentors for our young boys. Our goal is 250 men, by August 7th, who commit to at least one hour per week with a young man. It seems we’re well on our way. We’ve even attracted people who want to help ‘recruit’ men to get involved. I’m blown away by the response we’ve received in such a short time…

The following article was featured in today’s Augusta Chronicle. http://www.augustachronicle.com

Effort seeks mentors for young males
By Stephanie Toone | Staff Writer
Thursday, July 16, 2009

Helen Blocker-Adams met with media and community partners Wednesday about filling the void of father figures in the lives of Richmond County’s young males. // <![CDATA[//

Jackie Ricciardi/Staff
Radio host Helen Blocker-Adams (right) and Waffle House District Manager Escubar Moore (left) want men to volunteer to be mentors for young males to help combat the rise in juvenile crime in Augusta.

Mrs. Blocker-Adams, a talk show host on WNRR-AM 1230, said she was disturbed after reading in The Augusta Chronicle that juvenile crime has increased 23 percent in the past three months, compared to the same time last year. That should be a wake-up call to Augusta, she said.

“Juvenile crime is just off the Richter scale,” she told a crowd in front of the Waffle House on Gordon Highway on Wednesday. “We have to find some surrogate fathers for these young males because a lot them don’t have one.”

She and Escubar Moore, the district manager of three Augusta Waffle House restaurants, will sponsor the Back to School Men’s Drive for Kids, a campaign to recruit positive male role models for Augusta’s male youth.

By July 27, Mrs. Blocker-Adams and Mr. Moore hope to sign up 250 men to volunteer with local mentoring agencies: Dads in Action, An Ounce of Prevention and Full Circle Refuge Juvenile Justice Ministry.

Mr. Moore said men can sign up at Waffle House locations on Gordon Highway, Deans Bridge Road and Wrightsboro Road. The men are asked to give one hour a week with one of the three mentoring agencies. About 75 men had signed up to volunteer as of Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Moore said.

“I hope we blow that number away and have even more,” he said. “That 250 hours per week can make a whole lot of difference in our community.”

Devon Harris, the executive director of the Full Circle Refuge Juvenile Justice Ministry, has worked with troubled youth for several years. He said the statistics are not surprising. A positive male in the lives of some of the young men in his program could make a difference in their lives and have an impact on the community, Mr. Harris said.

“We want to think it’s somebody else’s problem or the government’s problem, but we have to plant the seed,” he said. “These young men are looking for guidance. They want someone to invest in their lives.”

Reach Stephanie Toone at (706) 823-3215 or stephanie.toone@augustachronicle.com.

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Roland Martin on MLK’s Dream and Obama’s Reality

Posted in politics, tagged , , on July 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Roland Martin

Roland Martin

Yesterday, I finally got around to read my June issue of Essence Magazine (get that subscription for your sons so they develop an opinion of women other than locker room, the corner and music videos.)

Roland S. Martin from CNN doesn’t play and his Essence column was outstanding as he outlined that President Obama’s election is not the end of MLK’s dream.

“It’s simple.  The election of a Black man to the White House is a hugh triumph.  But while we praise, worship, and wear our Obama buttons and swear we have overcome, barely more than half of our kids are graduating from high school, according to America’s Promise Alliance, the children’s advocacy organization founded by retired Gen. Colin Powell and his wife Alma.  We know that the pathway to economic equality is determined by an education, so how could Obama’s election mean Dr. King’s dream has been fulfilled when we have these sad statistics to deal with?”

“I’m not looking to pour cold water on Obama’s accomplishment.  But we desperately need a reality check to understand that with 95% of African Americans voting for Obama, going to the polls was the easy part in this effort to change America.  Now it’s time for us to get to work to achieve not just Dr. King’s dream but the American Dream.” 

I agree with Roland Martin and I have heard President Obama say the same thing.

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Liberals Targeting Democrats: Walking This Way

Posted in politics, tagged , , on July 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/26/democrats-to-target-democrats-in-10/

So I was watching this documentary about the band Aerosmith and Steven Tyler said the band got their sound just right in the middle of the disco craze—rock band in the middle of dance music waiting for America to come back to it’s musical common sense.    Tyler said that every morning he would sit on the side of his bed with his palms on his forehead and say, “Lord almighty, bless my soul. I have the right key but the wrong keyhole.”

That is how some moderates feel when we try to tell the left or the right what is going to happen next.  The GOP takes over Washington in the 90s, then the Blue Dogs pull the Democrats toward the middle which helps them take Congress back and eventually the White House (that plus, Republicans moving away from the core beliefs in their fiscal actions.)

One would think that what’s next would be a sub-section of the GOP that was somewhat moderate to counterbalance the Blue Dogs—wrong; stay the course, stiff upper lip, carry on, full steam ahead.  But, the GOP need not worry because the liberal section of the Dem Team will find a way to snatch defeat from the hands of victory.

While feeling great about the success of the 2008 elections, the liberals (not synonymous with Democrats) have decided to target Democrats they don’t like in 2010.  Look here far-left and far-right, national parties must show a certain amount of flexibility and compromise.  So, some latte-sipping cats in San Fran or Amherst decide to purge the Dem Team of some Blue Dogs in a manner similar to the GOP cleansing process. 

Knowledge is key because the Dems never would have taken the House and Senate without the Blue Dogs and the GOP needs to allow Steele to grow a moderate subsection to compete against Blue Dogs.

Like Tyler waiting for the end of disco, the moderates will see who really wants to run this big nation in a diverse and represenative way and who wants to run their mouths. Those GOP senators from Maine who consider White House proposals before voting no get my respect as do the Blue Dogs who catch heat from the left and right.   Those Dogs will likely be safe because the GOP won’t produce less-rigid candidates against them.  Dream On or Walking This Way.

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Test The Waters vs. Congressional Campaign

Posted in politics on July 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

http://www.fec.gov/pdf/candgui.pdf

Have you ever wondered why someone ran for congress when it was clear that an election spanking was imminent?  We sometimes forget that the Federal Election Commission has a process called “Test the Waters” design to explore the feasibility of running—like test driving a car.

One thing is clear: serious campaigns start with a groundswell of grassroots and local support, and must realistically determine if the voters want to toss the incumbent out. 

I think Joe Jackson is silly in the head to think he can find the next music superstars with his news music label/company but my friends from my Capitol Hill days and I have often sought the next congressional superstar (Newt, Obama, Nunn).  Not just another freshman but a person who would truly change the game and on some level address some major problems or concerns with our nation—Healthcare, teen pregnancy, education, spending, campaign finance reform.  Of course, my opportunistic crew would take credit for “the great find” with a best-selling book and a successful firm to follow. 

Ultimately, my goal is to date MSNBC’s Tamron Hall as readers of this blog know from last year.  Joe Jackson might seem a bit off in the head but heaven only knows his stage dad attitude led to the success of the J-5.  Okay, Mike got whippings but back in the day we all did and a good percentage of kids today need to go get their own switch…share the rod…share the rod.

Before I end my quest for the ideal candidate and get a job at my cousin’s dry cleaners, I want to point out the one candidate who would have been great for Georgia or Texas: Charlie Ward Jr.   Think about it: beloved son of the Thomasville/Valdosta area, FSU Heisman Trophy winner, NBA star who was a member of the fellowship of Christian Athletes in college and was raised strong in his faith by a great father who is wildly popular in Thomasville to this day. 

Charlie Ward or someone like him should seek from the center or even right to encourage our community to be self-reliant, strong and deliberate.  Test the Water; they might be just right but if it is not in your heart, don’t waste your time, resources and energy.  Like General Colin Powell said, you must have the fire in your belly.  And I am starting to admire people like Oprah and Palin who realize that their biggest impact might be functioning without the constraints of public office. i.e. Herman Cain.

https://projectlogicga.com/2008/12/24/shoe-tossing-and-tamron-hall/

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Sotomayor and Identity Politics

Posted in politics, tagged on July 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I am getting familiar with this term “identity politics” which seems to have a negative connotation from the political right.  Would identity politics be code for suggesting that Judge Sotomayor’s nomination is about affirmative action or quotas?  Are sinister Latinas hatching a plot bent on global domination at the expense of White males?  No. 

What happens in the private sector and what happens in governmental entities are two different things because seeking a little diversity in governmental operations is a simple effort to have more voices and opinions heard.  I am learning that certain groups have little desire to have the public discussion represent a cross-section of opinions.  The power establishment will decide what is best for the whole community and you will like it.  And they wonder why Obama and Palin are so popular.

After meeting traditional qualifications, LBJ and Truman brought a down-home mentality to the Oval Office that I liked.  The same should or could be said about Sotomayor and Thomas on the Supreme Court.  At the end of the day, Thomas is more like me than Obama.  Did I just type that?  

I still won’t be comfortable until that other political party has someone in congress who looks like/and almost thinks like me.   Call that what you will.

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Media Alert: Kids Swim in Pool

Posted in politics, tagged , on July 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I needed to read or see something a little positive in the morning paper today after a summer of local drama followed by local mess following by local controversy—“can’t we all just get along.”  The answer is no and our local mess is making other community more appealing to industry and businesses.  I think that Tifton and Valdosta have drama also but their community leaders attempt to resolve issues as gentlemen and ladies first with a courtesy phone call or email rather than providing the fodder for those who love negative energy.  It is that simple. 

So, I looked at the front the of the Albany Herald today and I see kids swimming in a nice pool but not just any pool.  The facility for a swim camp conducted by local private school was the pool at HBCU Albany State University.  Cue the obligatory chant: I love my A.S…I love my A.S….I love my A.S.U.  So the private school kids are on the other side of town swimming while national drama is jumping off at a pool in Pennsylvania.

When I was those kids age, the ASU Swimming Team under legendary coach Obie O’Neal was winning Black College National Championships.  O’Neal was a classic gentleman who always carried himself well.  I might be wrong but was he a coach on the ASU football team that was undefeated, untied and unscored upon. 

Seeing those kids in that pool made me think about that Dorothy Dandridge biopic with Hallie Berry where Dandridge was singing at a Vegas hotel and put her toe in the hotel pool before a swim.  So the hotel management tells her that she was not allow to swim there and they drain the pool….because of a Black toe. 

People would be surprised by number of locals who never stepped foot on a city’s Black college campus but we must remember that all Georgians own that campus as well as UGA and Georgia Tech.  I won’t go into the whole “my folks built Georgia for free” thing but I hope those kids (Black and White) will feel a little more comfortable after a positive experience at their local university.  As a sidenote, my other college, Darton College, hosted a large basketball tournament this weekend so it is good that some locals when across town and got familiar with that school also.  Someone might graduate from D.C. in a few years after being first exposed to the campus while watching a b-ball game.

But, what about the local business that flag UGA and FSU stuff on their walls without consideration to the local economic impact of ASU’s students and faculty—get some Blue and Gold flags. To their credit, the local chamber of commerce is highlighting the benefit of ASU and DC benefit as they should because heaven knows Black college students can spend some money—delayed gratification…please…our kids stay trendy in fashion and live up in Applebees and Ruby Tuesdays.

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Pennsylvania Pool Controversy: Where you fit in

Posted in politics on July 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The Pennsylvania Pool Controversy should be examined from all angles because what is often labeled as racism could be a combination of racism and/or factors involved cultural, socioeconomic and diversity factors.  Private swim club members had issues with “certain” children groups using the pool.  While color seem to be the big issue, we should remember (real talk) that parents of all colors are “particular” about whom their children are around.

The kid who was crying on the news report seem like a nice young person but parents pick schools, churches, activities and neighborhoods all the time with the intent of protection the development of their children—of course, there are times when your kid is the one to avoid.  I think it rarely crosses some people’s minds that Blacks guard whom their kids are around; seeking to avoid rough non-Blacks, rough Blacks or those with a superiority complex.  Welcome to the New South. 

I played the uncle role while my sister and her husband were in Australia on business this week and celebrating their 20th Wedding Anniversary.  Did a Black guy from south Georgia write that statement and a better question is do non-Blacks in the South really know Blacks living like: international business, two decades of marriage.  I spent the last week in south Georgia trying to guard and monitor who my three young family members were exposed to and it was hard.  We were up at Lake Blackshear and some of the kids at the swimming area and playground seem seem seem (how can I put this delicately) seem like my brother and me as kids.  Remember, we grew up during the last part of Jim Crow so we were not soft but my sister then and her kids now.  Soft. 

So, the kids are from diverse Charlotte and attend Montessori school (vouchers needed) with a range of kids but Uncle Me is not letting them speak to any kids who don’t look like them to avoid an elitist incident like the P.A. pool drama.  The question is whether some kids who don’t look like them will try to bring them down or if they will say something pretentious that will get them grounded up—did I mention they are kind of soft.  They say stuff like, “When will you be able to afford marriage and a new truck.”

Families work hard to insulate members from the roughness of the real world or to expose members at deliberate stages but like good bacteria, life is life and if you guard them to much the kids might be weak.  These kids today don’t have seasoning we had from growing up battling real racism and battling inside the Black.

Don’t sleep: there are people who join certain institutions to avoid people who don’t look or think like them.  I do some of that and remember being at a Little League game a few years ago when my childhood friend pardon himself for a second to yell over to his son that he should “get in where he fit in” —then he looked back at me and smiled. 

To be honest, I am confidence that people join a certain political party in the South to get away from most people of a particular race and to design public policy based on what they believe everyone should be doing—without consultation with anyone.  Let me stop beating around the bush, I am taking about the GOP and I will give them credit for one thing: they stand by their guns (literally) and have no intentions on discussing if they are, were or ever will be wrong about anything.  Let’s hope President Obama learns from the GOP’s recent past.   How in the world could the GOP act in a way that repels my sister and her family because on paper they are so conservative?  Yes, they love the vouchers and dislike the Obama tax increase but the GOP operatives techniques are questionable.

About the kids in the P.A. pool drama, they will be fine because it is better to be around people who want to be around you.  We don’t want you exposed to those type people and adults should remember the same thing.

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Michael Jackson and Robert McNamara

Posted in politics on July 7, 2009| Leave a Comment »

225px-RobertMcNamara55

Robert McNamara

While we are spending so much time on Michael Jackson this week, I wonder if the Nam Era Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara actually had as big an impact on our world.  McNamara was a whiz kid for real: Eagle Scout, Berkeley Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard B_School professor, president of Ford Motor Company. 

We are all familiar with his role in the escalation of the Vietnam Conflict but few remember that McNamara was for the father of Zero Based Budgeting.  That tripped me out in grad school; McNamara takes ZBB to the Department of Defense and Jimmy Carter takes notice and implements it in Georgia then later the federal government.

Before ZBB, agency would assume their new fiscal year amount would be a continuation of last year.  With ZBB, the budget process starts with zero.  Later, performance-based budgeting emerged and the rest is history.

Michael Jackson was the King of Pop but Robert McNamara changed the game also.  I am no expert and I might be wrong but I think Halliburton came from Vietnam and if you believe Oliver Stone JFK, RFK and MLK were assassinated by the Defense Industrial Complex because these leaders had doubts about our involvement in southeast Asia.  I don’t know but next time someone crosses us. let’s light that tail up from high in the sky and enough of this nation building, regime change stuff.  It is hard to tell struggling towns and cities they can’t get some stimulus cheese after spending like Iraq was the 51st state and Afghanistan is being the 52nd. 

I am going to miss Michael but then again I have been missing him for years.  Can we do that; can we stop the clock on someone when we choose.  The music was great and we try not to speak ill of the dead but my Michael Jackson still looks like me, my hair, my nose.  The world can have post Triller MJ. 

McNamara is gone without a elaborate function at Staples Center—maybe, Veterans Memorial Stadium would be more fitting.  Let me get this right: my oldest brother in the military during Nam to free the people in southeast Asia while our mother could not drink out of a water cooler in Georgia..could not swim in a pool and my father could not get a PHD in ag from UGA because he was Black.  Check the stats on the number of Nam combat troops who look like me….without a doubt “this land is your land, this land is my land.”

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Palin–got me off the Grill

Posted in politics, tagged , on July 3, 2009| 2 Comments »

I said I was not going to blog during the holiday weekend and need to significantly reduce the time and energy I spend on the political junkie stuff but Governor Palin made me take a break from marinating chicken. 

Let this marinate: if Palin is leaving the governorship to fully focus on connecting with the people in the lower 48 and running for president, be concerned…be very concerned.  The soon-to-be former governor and I were born in the same (as was First Lady Obama) so I kind of support her achievements on some level.  But, I thought Palin was going to study policy and issues in preparation for a presidential bid—IN ADDITION to being governor.  The first thing out of the mouths of Palin supporters will be Obama…part of a senate term…president. 

(At this point, a wiser person would stop writing and go clean the grill.) 

President Obama, the community organizer, was president or editor of the Harvard Law Review and spent much time down state in Springfield in the legislature.  Before I walk away from regular blogging altogether let me say one thing I feel in my gut: Obama and Hillary ended the primary battle last year when he said he would make her Secretary of State, push for real change and if it doesn’t work, he would gracefully admitted failure and be a one termer—greenlighting Clinton 2012. 

I have always said that stacking the deck is important and I was cool after the presidential field got down to McCain, Romney, Obama, Clinton and Huckabee.  If the economic doesn’t recover, I don’t want to see Obama beat up for four more years but Romney would be the logical one at that point because he has a strong finance and business background and Newt would be a close second.  To seriously put Palin, in the same conversation with Clinton, Obama, Gingrich and Romney is tripping if she doesn’t step her game up. 

On the other hand, she could be the next Oprah…..okay Hasselbeck.

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Obama, Denzel and Matthew

Posted in politics, tagged , , on July 1, 2009| 2 Comments »

You know how we like to call a film star by a character’s name for the rest of his life.  Matthew Broderick is Ferris Bueller to me forever. If I see him in a mall, I will say, “Ferris, what up.”  In that movie, Ferris got away with any and everything while his dumbfounded sister watched with amazement. 

Politics and policy is like than sometimes and we the public fail to understand the smooth Ferris-types of the world.  Are you Ferris, his right-seeking sister or a gullible member of the supporting cast?  Here’s a spoiler: at the end of the day more often than not, Ferris comes out smelling like a rose. 

Broderick also starred as a Union officer Colonel Robert Shaw in Glory.  I am still ticked that Denzel’s character got whipped for getting shoes.  “Ferris, why Denzel can have a pair of shoes.  That’s plain nasty.”  A guy name Keith from Albany played a freed slave in the movie; I knew him from escorting debutantes in high school.  I would have made a much better slave that curly-haired Keith but they would have been whipping me next to Denzel because I would have gotten some shoes and a coat.   Kidding aside, General Sherman hated freed slaves following his army and did not like Blacks in general. 

I just rewatched that whipping part of Glory and remembered that a Black man is the current president of these United States– only in America.  Denzel in movie after movie can have that look on this face that says, “One day.”  The rapper Jadakiss had a song with Anthony Hamilton called “Why” in which he walked around saying out loud whatever came to his mind.  That was a big mistake in my opinion because you don’t pick public fights with powerful people are you will end up with a FBI file, IRS audit or toe tag.  I was grooving to Jadakiss’s flow until I heard “Why Bush knock down the towers…Why Hallie Berry had to let _____ to get an Oscar…why Denzel had to be crooked before he took it.”  To be honest, Denzel’s Training Day Oscar was really for his collective body of film work and Russell Crowe’s performance in A Beautiful Mind was better.  Yes, I said it—the White dude got robbed like everyone in the Color Purple got robbed on Oscar night. 

Jadakiss, rappers and bloggers are free to write what they want but it is silly and wrong to think a modern American president would be involved in an attack or repulsive action.  (I said “modern” because, you know, slavery, Trail of Tears.)   In the better part of that song, Jadakiss said, “Why it’s a brother up North better than Jordan, didn’t get that break.”  I could teach a youth group for an hour off that one line…what happens to a dream deferred…

A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Do you remember when Andrew Young as an elected leader was expected to attend a traditional dress-up Civil War era ball and he decided to wear a Union uniform rather than the Grey of most attendees.  That was a classic smooth move.  While writing here, I have sought to make a smooth move by supporting the centrist idea that southerners could come together to improve opportunities for our region.  But like Ferris’s sister I was naïve because bickering and conflict is in our DNA.  Political parties and race are secondary to the mother’s milk of politics and policy—money.  My high school econ teacher told us that he read a book in grad school that traced every major historic event back to money. 

People can talk a good game but I for one will publicly state here (like anyone actually reads this stuff) that blogging or political ideas for me boils down to professional opportunities–money–who moved my cheese.  Rich fancy folks are going to be rich fancy folks and the rest of us will eat the leftovers or the crumbs if any.  Bitterly blogging or seeking the big payback is a toxic way to function in life.  Some folks are not in the game because they were not effective when the opportunity presented itself in the past—so goes life.

Last night, I was thinking about the unpleasant nature of my blog writing and for some strange reason my mind turned to Ferris Buller…Matthew Broderick…Matthew, the book in the Bible.  While I am relatively weak in my faith, I read Matthew on my cellphone Bible. 

 Mat 6:1 Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them.  Wow, talk about your timely stuff.  I really should have been more attentive in church for the last 40 years.  I even backed up and read the Beatitudes because while the Democrats are too free with the checkbook, President Barrack Obama is such good person and I hope he is successful—like I hoped the same for all U.S. presidents.  He really needs to hear more moderate/conservatism in his ear.  That could come from reasonable Republicans, moderate Democrats or surging third parties.  We will see but I plan to change my vibe….and read my cellphone more.

 Mat 6:2 When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.  Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward.     

 Mat 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. 

 Mat 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 

 

You don’t need to have all the votes to affect an election—go ask Ross Perot and Ralph Nader.  Hopefully, the sensible center will use our ability to sway elections to encourage the bitter partisans on both political ends to peacefully come to the table with constructive intentions.  I am back sounding like Ferris’s sister because if you are watching for some folks to “change” you will be awaiting a while.

 Jadakiss: Why

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIcQR66PYCg

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Status Quo

Posted in politics on June 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I am starting to feel like that guy on Tin Cup or 35 years old in the minor leagues in baseball. At some point, you need to realize that there is no future for you in a certain field and it’s time to start selling aluminum siding. Anyone want to buy some aluminum sliding?

I have seen blogger blog with various motives but I have always tried to be clear that I blogged to bounce some political or policy ideas around in hope of getting called back up to the big leagues in the form of a field position with a congressional office. Part enthusiasm and part revenge, it would have been cool to change the game for the better.

At the end of the day, status quo rules and the road to hell is paved with good intentions but if not Cain, Bogans or Blocker-Adams our community will have some representation in the other major party because political diversity is important. And I will end my stating honesty that my problem with the old boys club is that I did not get an invite.

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Real Obama Change and Black Professionals

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , on June 29, 2009| 4 Comments »

Be careful what you wish for because real problems and real solutions might cause a dramatic change in your professional and financial life.  But, good Americans want what is best for the nation—right.  President Obama is a great guy but you know he really is balancing hard solutions with the grim reality that some core supporter won’t like what needs to be done. 

Teachers give a sound effort but the public school system needs fundamental improvements.  Those improvements actually start with people having kids when they are prepared to raise properly developed, responsible children but politicians can’t say that or they will be accused of genocide or something.  So, teachers who were trained to teach subject matter find themselves as surrogate parents, social workers and role models (the same can be said about police officers.) 

What if we embrace that concept and train teachers for the roles need to be play in young lives.  I am thinking supplements similar to coaches for more men in lower graders and retired military in upper graders.  How many kids in certain areas grow up without a strong male in their lives and preacher are not doing it because people are half going to church.  One strong male in a boy’s or girl’s life could plant that positive seed and I included girls because too many are only exposed to the shady, weak guys their mothers dated—if you can call that dating.  We need male and female teachers who are firm yet fair and who can consistently get students to buy into the importance of developing their minds.  If teachers can’t do that, they should seek other employment.

Healthcare professionals (doctors, administrators, nurses) should stop defending their wallets and realize that big changes are need in their field.  The health care debate should include their input as much as the government and insurance companies but like teachers the first thing out of their mouth is don’t reduce their incomes.  It alls comes down to cost effective performance and results

We often forget about the avenue into the Black middle class provided by the military.  The armed services gave many a son and daughter of the South the opportunity to secure their financial futures and see the world.  We need to hear from them more about what works and doesn’t work with the Pentagon’s use of defense contractors and when nation-building and regime change crosses the line.  We care about people in Iraq and Afghanistan but should not forget about Idaho and Alabama public works projects.  With net base education and distance learning, down time in the war zone might be a good time to earn degrees and credentials for post-military careers in law enforcement and teaching.  Little Johnny won’t “bow-up” so fast on a no-nonsense teacher with combat experience and the girls in the community could learn a lot from a vet who is deliberate in her actions and fully-focus.  Luckily, these troops to teachers and troops to cops programs currently exist and should be expanded.

I am confident fair people will accept changes or “corrections” for the common good in the same matter that people in the auto-making and banking industries were forced to grasp rough realities.  As President Obama has repeatedly stated, now it is time for the hard part to being.

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Come On People: the Cosby Book

Posted in politics, tagged , , on June 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

As we consider the next steps in improving the community, the book Come On People by Dr. Bill Cosby and Dr. Alvin Poussaint is a must read. Here are my highlights from this firm and real book.

cosby

Come On People: Notes

p. 36             Although few acknowledge it-who would?- the doctrine of white supremacy has sunk deeply into the minds of too many Americans, black people included.  It has slithered its way into the psyches of poor black youth with low self-esteem, who equate academic success with whiteness.  And if success is “white” then are we saying that to “act black” is to fail?

p. 103 Dr. George McKenna Now when we underachieve, we compare ourselves to some other underachievers and celebrate being the best of the pitiful.  And that, ladies and gentleman, is a definition of insanity.  When you create an alternative reality and believe that where you are is normal, you’re insane.

We see a lot of alternative reality in Compton, kids who pride themselves on saying, “I will walk like this.  It won’t get me anywhere, but I’m a big man in a mall square and I will kill my fellow brothers over land I neither lease, own, rent or pay taxes on, and call in my turf.”

p. 108-109 We are all worried sick about the high school drop-out rate of greater than 50 percent in many of our cities- with higher rates for black males than females.  In Baltimore, for example, about 75 percent of black males do not graduate from high school.

As a result of such stupid decision, our jails overflow with your black male high school dropouts.  A year of college at a state school costs the state about ten thousand dollars; a year in jail costs about twenty-five thousand dollars.

p. 110 We have to copy the methods of successful schools in low-income black communities.  Positive examples exist in cities around the country.  It is not enough simply to add tougher courses or more homework.  Schools succeed best when the entire “school culture” is changed to support success instead of failure.

Education reformers report that the core components of effective schools are: a sense of purpose, clear standards, high expectations of all, a belief that all students can be educated, safe and orderly environments, strong partnership with parents and caregivers, and a commitment to solving problems.

p. 195 FACE THE FACTS HEAD-ON   Here are some unfortunate facts: Black youths are six times more likely to die from homicide than white youths and seven times more likely to commit a homicide.  During the last thirty years, close to 50 percent of the homicides in the United States have been committed by black people, mostly black men, and 94 percent of the victims of black killers were black.  Is this crazy or what?  Homicide, in fact, is the leading cause of death among black males between the ages of fifteen and twenty-nine and has been of decades.

p. 211 In 1954, the year of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, about ninety-eight thousand African-Americans were in prison.  Today, there are nearly ten times as many black people in prison.  According to the Sentencing Project, 32 percent of the black men born today will go to prison at some point on their lifetime.  In 2005, 4.7 percent of all black men were in prison, compared to 1.9 percent of Hispanic males and .7 percent of white males.

p. 218 Charles Ramsey, former chief of police in Washington D.C.    Let me just give you a picture of some of the issues that we’re confronted with.  First of all, let me start by saying that we’ve got more decent kids than we have bad kids.

The fact often gets overshadowed because we focus on the negative, and rightfully so, because we do have a serious problem out here.   But we have to continue to support those youngsters who are trying to do the right thing.  We also have the reality that we have a significant population of young people that is totally lost.

p. 224 TAKE ANY LEGITMATE JOB       Parents and caregivers, have you heard a kid say, “Well, I can either flip burgers or go out here and make real money selling drugs”?  When you hear that, do you stop that child and say, “Wait a minute, fool.  You don’t flip burgers for the rest of your life.  You flip them to become the manager of the place.  You flip burgers to move from manager to owner of the damn franchise”?

You have to say this to your kids more than once.  So do their teachers.  If the kids give you lip, ask them to identify a middle-aged, home-owning drug-dealing grandpa with a family that loves him.  That will keep them quiet-and busy.

Please remind your young people that there is no shame in hard work.  All work is honorable and makes a contribution to society whether that work is as a janitor or an astronaut.  An unpleasant job usually leads to a better job as young people develop working skills that are useful on any job, including the ability to work with others and be punctual.  The unemployment rate for black people is twice that of white people- this has to change.

The truth is that if we all showed more respect to blue-collar workers, there would be less rejection of so-called menial jobs by our youth.  If there was less rejection, kids would see that one job leads to another as the worker gains experience and basic workplace skills such as cooperating with others, taking orders, and keeping regular work hours.  By not giving up hope and persevering against the odds, many succeed.

p. 226 The high cost of childhood poverty is tragic.  It is estimated that children who grow up poor cost the country five hundred billion dollars a year.  Poor people do not contribute sufficiently to the economy, and the health and criminal costs that grow out of poverty are enormous.  Experts argue that we can counter poverty levels by extending the earned income tax credit to more low-income workers.   But don’t overlook the word earned.  If you don’t earn it, you don’t get it.  Our children are in great need, and we cannot afford to squander any opportunities.

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