The Weekly Dream: Lifestyle Changes

Next to Christmas and my birthday, New Year’s is easily one of my favorite times of year. It is something about new beginnings and second chances that is particularly exciting. New Year’s resolutions was something I took very seriously. Everyday after Christmas, i wound hound everyone I came in contact with, asking them what was their New Year’s resolution for the next year, what did they hope to achieve. I received a variety of answers, from people who did not make them to those who did. However, my grandmother always give me the same, interesting answer every year. She would say, “Why wait until next year? Tomorrow is not promised, be a better person today.” As a child I never understood what she meant, but this year I think I finally understand.

Next to Christmas and my birthday, New Year’s is easily one of my favorite times of year. It is something about new beginnings and second chances that is particularly exciting. New Year’s resolutions was something I took very seriously. Everyday after Christmas, i wound hound everyone I came in contact with, asking them what was their New Year’s resolution for the next year, what did they hope to achieve. I received a variety of answers, from people who did not make them to those who did. However, my grandmother always give me the same, interesting answer every year. She would say, “Why wait until next year? Tomorrow is not promised, be a better person today.” As a child I never understood what she meant, but this year I think I finally understand.

The Present is a gift…

There is nothing especially magical about this ordained time. The practice of making New Year’s Resolutions is really a preliminary step to what we should be doing all year. Every day is a new beginning, a chance to bury yesterday’s failures and regrets and an opportunity to make things right. The spirit of New Year’s should be 24/7. Yet, how people approach this special time might be telling about the quality of life they currently enjoy.

Why is it that some people obtain their goals by year’s end, while the vast majority of individuals are beaten before they even begin? I believe the secret lies in the aims.

A Change is Gonna Come

Where most people fail in their aims is that they do not make lifestyle changes, they try to compartmentalize their change. Most people promise to lose weight, exercise three times a week, give up smoking or foul language. These are all admirable objectives, but they fail to understand the power of habits and their relationship to lifestyle. A lifestyle permeates every area of your life. It is a guiding principle that orders your action, words, and deeds. A lifestyle change is the difference between religion and spirituality. This goal and this objectives is so important that you allow it to reorganize every aspect of your daily existence. And the truth is, most of our resolutions are not daring enough. There is not enough at stake.

How can we turn the tide? First, we need to find out the truth about ourselves. There is a distinct difference between truth and facts. Facts tell you where you are now, but the truth reveals who you really are and what you are capable of. Something can be a fact, but it is not necessarily the truth, until we except it as so. Thus, the very first thing is to find out the truth about yourself. What motivates you? What are your principles and believes about yourself? Aligning your objectives with your core is extremely powerful. Once you know the truth about yourself, it cannot help but to make you free.

Second, we need to get angry. Anger is an extremely potent motivator, but in the hands of most individuals, it is just wasted energy. If we could begin to channel our anger and frustration into effective action, we would see some tangible results in our lives. Anger automatically brings a sense of urgency along with it that is always essential to undergo any change. We need to become angry with the status quo to the point we want to do something about it. If you do not like something, do something about it. Uproot those false truths that have become your reality and do not rest until you have conquered them. They are the habits that are keeping you from your destiny.

Third, after we have done some self-reflection, and we know what needs to go, we need strategies. Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-oriented). This will determine your level of dedication to the process. Once your goal has all the SMART characteristics, enlist a partner to hold you accountable. Your chances of success increase 50% when you get an outside party involved.

Lastly, be patient with yourself and the process. Change does not happen overnight, it comes by making consistent decisions and exposing ourselves to environments consistent with those decisions. Once you make the decision, stay the course with vigilance.

Parting Words

2006 is a year I feel will open new doors and possibilities for abundance and prosperity for all of us. Yet, you do not have to wait for the ball to drop in Time Square to begin to prepare for your destiny. The ability to implement positive change within is essential to fulfilling our purpose. Tomorrow truly is not promised, and the fact that we are all here today is a blessing in and of itself. Yet, who is to say we will be here to see this year’s end or the next. Thus, instead of constantly living in anticipation of the next big thing, appreciate the now.

With that said, I would like to wish everyone who reads this a happy and prosperous New Year. Whether I know you or not, you have been a tremendous blessing to by being apart of this initiative for positive change. Just taking the time out to read these articles every week means a great deal. We at the Weekly Dream and at www.theSuperSpade.com appreciate you more than you could ever know. God bless.

Carpe Diem 2006

Truth and Peace,
Steven M DeVougas

Can Money Buy Life?

The Associated Press has an interesting story on why there currently exists no HIV vaccine (http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051226/NEWS07/512260307/1009). The article says:

“Private-sector efforts amount to just $100 million annually. This is mainly due to the lack of incentives for the private sector to invest in an AIDS vaccine – the science is difficult, and the developing countries that need a vaccine most are least able to pay.”

There are some who say HIV/AIDS is a manufactured disease; a biological weapon, if you will. Whether that is true or not, it is a sad moment in humanity’s history when one needs financial incentives to work towards eradicating a disease that exterminates millions annually. The selfishness and greed of man is perhaps the world’s mot amazing phenomenon.

What can we do? The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (https://www.iavi.org/), mentioned in the article, is working on this problem in spite of the drug companies’ reluctance. Donations to this group are examples of grassroots dollars at work. I encourage you all to consider such organizations when deciding how to become a part of these efforts.

–
Garlin Gilchrist II
http://www.TheSuperSpade.com

Sent via Windows Mobile 5.0

Colin’s Convenient Complicity

Sometimes I like Colin Powell, sometimes I don’t. On the one hand, I respect his educational and military backgrounds. On the other hand, I do not respect how he told the U.N. what he now believes were lies about Iraq’s phantom weapons of mass destruction. He’s doing a similar dance on G.W.’s illegal spying, and talked about it Christmas Day.

I have concluded that it must be hard to be a politician. That’s because all the politicians I observer and/or deal with never seem to make honest, direct statements. Take this quote from Powell:

“My own judgment is that it didn’t seem to me, anyway, that it would have been that hard to go get the warrants…And even in the case of an emergency, you go and do it. The law provides for that…for reasons that the president has discussed and the attorney general has spoken to, they chose not to do it that way…I see absolutely nothing wrong with the president authorizing these kinds of actions.”

My humble interpretation of the above is that Powell knows what went down is wrong and illegal, but he thinks it falls under the umbrella of Presidential prerogative. The reason that this thinking is both crazy AND dangerous is because of the consistent dishonesty of this administration. Such lies have included (but are not limited to):

- Involvement in the CIA Leak
- Number of Iraqis killed during our invasion/occupation
- Claim of no prior knowledge of New Orleans’ levee system being weak (such as this one)

Let’s get stupid about this: if a man lies to you repeatedly, do you trust anything about them: words, [displayed] emotions, intentions/motives? NO!!! Why on earth would anyone think that G.W. has any good intentions with this spying? Why would anyone trust his judgement that has been wrong on so many things before? That is just ridiculous.

The “keep us safe” line has been used too often to fool anyone with sense. We can refer to the country’s leadership as “The Crew who Cried Wolf.” How many times will we fall for it? Colin Powell keeps falling for it, but I do not think many good people will do so for much longer.

G.W. himself said “…fool me once, you ain’t gonna fool me again.“

Merry [War on] Christmas

Merry Christmas from The SuperSpade.

It is terrible when people are involved in conflict(s) during the holidays. This is true in both personal (i.e. arguing couples) and political (i.e. warring nations) relationships. And the more conflict, the more difficult the season. Some would lead you to believe that the U.S. is involved in not one, but two wars this holiday: the “War on Terror,” and the “War on Christmas.” Let’s explain these wars are as real as Santa Claus.
I think the stance of this blog with respect to the “War on Terror” is quite clear, so time this holiday will not be spent beating that dead animal. However, the “War on Christmas” is much more interesting.

In the “War on Terror,” we are “fighting” our “terrorist enemies.” Who is the enemy in the “War on Christmas?” If we break it down the same way we do the “War on Terror,” then that means that the “enemy” is people who celebrate Christmas??? I think I have it backwards. FoxNews and Bill O’Reilly’s “War on Christmas” is against those who don’t celebrate Christmas (think “War on Terror,” in reverse). They are disgusted that Wal-Mart greeters say “Happy Holidays.” That means that Wal-Mart is part of the army against Christmas.

Who cares what someone at Wal-Mart, or any store, or anyplace else says to you during this season? I’m Black, but I’m not going to turn my nose up and be offended if someone does not say Happy Kwanzaa to me. I’m not Jewish, but I’m not going to turn my nose up and be offended if someone says Happy Hanukkah to me. I am Christian, but I’m not going to turn my nose up and be offended if someone says Happy Holidays to me.

The problem with O’Reilly and The Fundies is that they equate being religious with being stupid and ignorant. It’s stupid to get offended because someone wishes you well during the latter part of the year. It’s ignorant to pretend like everyone celebrates Christmas. What is even more stupid, ignorant, and hypocritical is that I suspect these individuals are not against what Christmas has essentially become: a month-long shopping spree culminating in a feast. Fundies who study the Word closely and want to follow it exactly (which is what Fundamentalism is by definition) would have more to argue on if they said that Christmas has been corrupted from it’s original intent: to celebrate the Birth of Christ. I guess they can’t say that, since the same corporate cronies commercializing Christmas are paying the bills at Fox News and at most mega churches in this country. I suggest that they stop acting like fundamentalists and actually be them. Don’t go to the mall and buy crap for people you pretend you love. Don’t put [pagan] blown glass ornaments on your [pagan] Christmas trees and overeat. Get all the animals together and sit in the barn burning candles and myrrh. That would be a “real” Christmas. That would be victory. That would be “Mission Accomplished” in the “War on Christmas.” But that obviously can’t happen. So instead, let’s make Jesus the underdog in the war on Christmas. He needs us to cheer for Him, or we may lose the “War on Christmas.” Maybe Jesus is an underdog in The Holy Bible: Fundie Edition. In my translation, that ain’t the case.

Let’s just say that everyone immediately stopped saying “Merry Christmas.” What would be the problem? Would there be no Christmas? Is the existence of the holiday dependent upon these two words? Would Christ’s birth be retroactively edited out of history? I think the answer to all of these questions is NO!!!

I pose these questions as ammunition for anyone who is confronted by Christmas Warmongers. Ask them exactly what victory looks like in this “war.” Ask them what defeat looks like in this “war.” When they are not able to answer, tell the the following:

Happy Holidays from The SuperSpade.

Careless with Colored Conflicts

I was not aware of the $50 million that was supposed to go to the Darfur region that was cut from the Defense bill this past week. The unfortunate reality is that this is not surprising in the least bit. From the article:

“It is extraordinary that Congress, having described the killing in Darfur as “genocide,” should find it impossible to come up with $50 million to try to prevent it — this in a bill totaling $453 billion.”

It sickens me how “paralyzed” the U.S. is when dealing with conflicts in and among African Nations. We are so bold when the charge is “bringing democracy to the Middle East.” I digress. It can’t be because Americans are not interested in Black conflict. After all, G.W. is not a racist.

1984

The Oakland Tribune wants people to send them your used “1984″ books. “1984” is a book by George Orwell that essentially predicts that one day there will be no such thing as privacy. Unfortunately, that day may have already come.

I already sent my copy. I would love for every politician to read it. But realistically, can I expect them to read this book when they didn’t even read the Patriot Act before signing it in 2001?

Did You Ever get the Feeling you were Being Watched?

Boing Boing has a way to test wheter your email is being watched by the government. I suggest trying this, but you probably already know the answer to the question (1984 anyone)?

Muslim-mosque-ophobia

Since I don’t know where to begin, I will just point you to the ridiculousness: G.W. is spying on individuals off the strength of them being Muslim and nothing more. They were looking for increased radiation levels?!?!?! I thought racial profiling didn’t exist? Oh, I get it, this is religious profiling, which is totally different and definitely legal.

Why the US don’t want Dems in charge

Ok ummm Joseph Phillips (the sailor from the Cosby Show) has lost his mind. I will break down two excerpts of his article where he explained why Americans don’t want the Democrats in charge.

Let’s get to the first excerpt where Phillips explains,

“Americans are many things. We are compassionate, industrious and brave. Americans are kind; we are good, we are also winners! Democratic political hopes in 2006 may hinge on their ability to convince Americans that Democratic leaders believe in American virtue.”

I’m sorry, but when did being good become synonymous with winning? In other words, if you win a game because you cheated that doesn’t make you good. And likewise, if you are good, you may not always win (enslavement of Black people anyone?). And the logic that I think that has probably done more harm to the world is that things are “either or”. SO what does it mean to say that Americans are winners? This must mean that there are losers right? Why are the losers never named! Why do we know every detail about every American life lost, but it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago (during the busy holidays I might add) that when Bush was asked about the number of dead Iraqis he stated, “30,000 more or less.” Imagine if he would have used “more or less” while describing American lives lost in this war. And Phillips has the nerve to write that “We are compassionate.’ Because like most people and societies, America is filled to the brim with contradictions and to not highlight these contradictions is to be a liar. Lying aside, Phillips goes on to say,

“Americans may disagree on the wisdom of this war and the manner in which it is being waged. But the idea of losing is hateful to us. The only thing more hateful is the idea of leadership that is uninterested in winning and thinks us incapable or undeserving of victory.”

The first fallacy of this quote is that losing is hateful to Americans. But when you look at your own life, you can not reject the fact that the most important life lessons you learned was when you failed and learned how to pick yourself up. When a baby is learning how to walk, you don’t pick them up every time they fall down. So if that logic makes sense, then why is losing so hateful to Americans? Its because Americans don’t want to confront our own contradictions. Policy makers are experts at pointing out the faults in other countries but when we can’t get our act like together, like we did in Hurricane Katrina, we reject the aid of Cuba because we need to act like we have it under control. And more importantly, can anyone define what victory means in Iraq? Forget the witty comments and all of that. Just someone define that for me because if the terrorists wait to attack until the coalition leaves, then do we have to go back to get the job done?

War is not a game and people are dying for reasons that change from month to month and sometimes week to week. And for any troops reading this blog, you are in my prayers and I hope you can get home as soon as possible.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

History of Human Societies

Have you ever wondered how writing was invented or how why Africans didn’t sail north to enslave Europeans, check out this book review of Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

Right now I am reading the Pulitzer prize winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. It is about the trajectories of human societies and how they were influenced by guns, germs, and steel. This book sets out to answer one question asked by a Black New Guinean; “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” Diamond takes a whirlwind tour of the world touching on every continent and every major ancient society. He is unapologetic and does not use this book to justify the oppression that has marked our world for thousands of years.

I am just over halfway done, but the first half of the book discusses food production and experimentation with crops while also dealing with animal domestication. I admit it took me a while to get through reading about plants but on a basic level, Diamond explains that it was excess food production that allowed societies to establish social hierarchies, raise armies, invent new technologies, and grow empires.

Right now I am reading about the origin and history of writing and how that influenced societies. I have often thought about why the world the way it is by incorporating food production, armies, technology, politics, religion, environment, etc and this book does an excellent job of doing just this. It is a dense read and while I found it difficult to read about plants and animals, I highly recommend this book for anyone who is a student of history and wishes to understand the evolution of human society.

I would love to get a feel for what other people are reading so if you want to let us know what you are reading, please send an e-mail to TheSuperSpade@gmail.com

Stay up fam,

Brandon

Osama Bin Laden’s niece posing for GQ

I read an article talking about Osama Bin Laden’s niece posing for GQ. As if we didn’t have enough smut clogging the gears of society, we now bring you politically charged premium smut.

Granted, Wafah Dufour can do whatever she wants but why was the article entitled, “It Isn’t Easy Being the Sexy Bin Laden.” This is asinine because we are essentially egging the terrorists on. Let’s take a bird’s eye view and think about the consequences of helping Bin Laden’s niece make it big as a sexy model in America. First and foremost, this is a tactic that reminds me of enemies (armies or otherwise) pillaging each other’s women as proof of their superiority. It doesn’t work people because these photos are just as damaging as the Abu Ghraib scandals. Because unlike America, Muslims in the Middle East region don’t try to blur the lines between political life and personal life so of course they will be enraged when they learn of that this story is getting heavy rotation.

After 9/11, we missed the chance to become a better country. It is like 9/11 caused America to hold on tighter to the things that cause us to stumble and then we try to put all of our crap in a box, wrap it up in freedom wrapping paper, and finish with a nice bow of democracy. And then we act confused when people want to return their gifts. Respect and understanding are the first rules of war and once you break those rules, it becomes extremely difficult to get on the moral high ground. We can do better than this.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

God helps those who help themselves

As I rushed in and out of department stores this week, the ringing bells of the Salvation Army volunteers made me ponder about the title of this post. In the recent budget bill, the Senate passed a $602 billion bill that cuts funds for health, education and labor programs on the same day the Senate approved two separate rounds of cuts to health care programs for the poor.
Whenever there is a drive to make cuts in the budget, there is never any debate about where the cuts will come from; social services. And I believe there is one philosophical ideal that makes these types of cuts socially acceptable; God helps those who helps themselves.

I readily admit that the previous quote sounds plausible but not only is it selfish, it is nowhere in the Bible. In fact, a national survey conducted by the Barna Research Group found that when Christians were asked if the expression ‘God helps those who help themselves’ was in the Bible’, only 38% of all Christians correctly stated that that phrase cannot be found anywhere in the Scriptures. Forty-two percent thought that this was a Biblical quotation, and 20% had no idea. So lets assume for arguments’ sake that half of the people who had no idea actually believed that the quote was in the Bible, that would mean a clear majority of Christians believes that the quote was in the Bible. But what is the big deal?

A lack of compassion will lead people to believe that those who are less fortunate must have done something wrong in order to deserve God’s lack of compassion. And perhaps more troubling is the idea that because one is financially stable, God is smiling on you and your family. When this type of flawed thinking is applied to local, state, and national policies, the poor are always demonized for not doing their part to contribute to society. The reality is that not everyone who is in financial straits can pull themselves up by their boot straps. And the people who are comfortably living the middle class life, they should know that no one in succeeds at anything by themselves. For those of you who have not read Black Wealth, White Wealth, by Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro, you will understand the huge pull that history has on people’s life choices. And like so many people of the middle class have experienced in 2005, there is not a huge barrier that separates them from those in the unemployment line.

In closing, the erroneous phrase that God who helps those who help themselves only adds to the disdain and indifference that so many middle class people show to the poor. And for all of the Bible loving people who walk past the poor without ever giving the change in their pocket, I urge them to read Leviticus 25:35-36 (NIV) which reads, “If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you. Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countrymen may continue to live among you…” And for the people who need things in black and white, consider the consequences of helping the poor and not helping the poor:

For those who bless the poor, God promises to bless them (Ps 41:1-3; 112; Prov. 14:21; 19:17, 22:9, 14:31, 28:27; Isaiah 58:6-10).

But, He promises to judge those who oppress the poor (Deut 27:19, Prov. 17:5, 21:13, 22:16, 28:27; Isaiah 10:1-4; Eze 18:12-13, 16:49).

Therefore, there are two things that would make life a whole lot better in America. How about people actually read the Bible or whatever is the religious text of their religion. And while we’re at it, why don’t we look at holding elected officials accountable for enacting policies that earn God’s disrespect.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

A *Real* Pullout?

We actually are reducing the number of troops in Iraq??? According to Donald Rumsfeld, we are.
However, don’t let the propaganda fool you. We increased the number of troops by 20,000 before the elections last week. From the article:

“The Pentagon sent an extra 20,000 troops to Iraq to bolster security during the recent elections, and Rumsfeld has previously said those 20,000 would be withdrawn in January to return U.S. force levels to a 138,000 baseline.”

Translation: this is a fake, propaganda pullout that is designed to get media spin to help increase the public’s approval of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This will likely be spun by the administration as evidence of progress. You know, less troops = more progress. To me, no troops = now we’ve come to our senses.

I don’t think we’re progressing, but I have been told by some that my level of understanding of most things is minimal at best.

As B said, its all over but the pullout.

Big [Bad] Brother

Here is an interesting article from a republican questioning G.W. and his over-your-shoulder campaign. I had to link to this because its not everyday you see conservatives questioning their fearless leader.

In my opinion, here is further proof that Bush’s domestic spying is ridiculous and illegal.

1. They spied on some 100% domestic calls
2. A judge on the FISA court, which the President bypassed illegally, resigned in protest

Are these impeachable offenses?

Impeach? Censure? I’m with Conyers

John Conyers is (D-MI)calling for the censure and possible impeachment of G.W. He is not alone. Truthout is running a story about whispers of impeachment becoming public.

Conyers is the only member of Congress to see first-hand two impeachment proceedings. He called for the impeachment of Richard Nixon one week before Watergate. He vehemently opposed the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Given these experiences, I think it is safe to say that Conyers has a pretty good notion of what it means to impeach someone, and what impeachments should look like. Therefore, when he says it’s worth looking at, I think that it’s probably legitimate. Not to mention that I think G.W. should be out anyway, but I digress.

(Maybe the other reason I like John Conyers is because he’s a member of my church and a childhood friend of my grandmother.)

2 Counts, 1 Answer

It appears that the vote recount in Detroit will not change the outcome of the November 8 election. This is indeed what I and others expected. Now that that’s settled, we can tackle real issues in the city.

Today’s Irresponsible Cuts

The Senate bill to cut $40 billion dollars out of the budget takes a third of that $40 billion from students. I’m imagining that this is how the debate went:

BushCo & Republican Majority:
“We need some money. Like $40 billion. Where are we gonna get it?”

Democratic Minority & people with brains:
“Rich people? Corporate cronies that already give gifts? Why not cash in on those relationships in a way that benefits real people?

BushCo & Republican Majority:
“You guys are stupid. Let’s rob students. That will be much easier.”

Unchecked power in our three-headed political hydra leads to ridiculous results for the lives of the citizens. This example is no different. In the bill, students will be forced to pay higher interest rates on their already increasingly expensive student loans, and banks will get less government subsidies to provide these loans [at lower rates].

This is a HUGE deal. To make this more clear, lets put things in perspective.

- The majority of students in college are there with the help of some form of financial aid
- Student Loan debt can now be used as a reason to withold social security moneys

Now, let’s get stupid about this: American busines leaders are saying that our students are not able to compete on the international stage due to the shortcomings or our educational system (e.g. a speech from Bill Gates, linked here. The government [usually] listens to big busness and rich people, so who better to listen to than the richest man in the world who runs the biggest software company in the world? If No Child Left Behind wasn’t B.S., maybe we wouldn’t have this problem). As a result, the goverment should be doing everything in its power to strengthen its public education institutions on the primary, secondary, and collegiate levels. Well, how do you strengthen a college? Not by placing barriers to entry to it!!!! If I want something to be better, I don’t cut off it’s resources. What’s is the strongest resource of any college: it’s students.

Maybe I’m crazy because there are certain things I view as untochable as far as cuts in spending go:

- Education
- Health Care
- Legal Protection

Since I feel this way, I can’t be a fan of this budget bill, which cut other social programs that help the poor, including Medicaid and Welfare.

Patriot Act: 6 More Months of the same

UPDATE: The extension is now 5 weeks.
–
The Senators are still politicians, they can’t help that. They have passed a compromise that will extend the Patriot Act in it’s present form by 6 months, with the idea that when they reconvene in January, they will iron out all the differences that divided them almost to the point of letting the Act expire on 31 Dec 2005.

Personally, I would have liked to seen this ridiculous abomination expired, dead, and gone, never to rise again. But I have high expectations. We will have to continue to watch this closely to make sure that not too much caving goes on during the next 6 months.

The Weekly Dream: Yield Not To Temptation”: Self-Control and Temptation, A Question of Character

“The Devil Made Me Do It”
-Flip Wilson

“Why is everything that’s supposed to be bad, make me feel so good?”
-Kanye West “Addiction”

Why is faithfulness so rare? Why is it so hard to do the right thing? Why is it difficult to do what we are supposed to, when we are supposed to do it? Why does it feel so good to give in to temptation? In a “do what feels good culture” where Self and instant gratification is king, I cannot help but wonder, has the world always been this way?

As I have grown older, I have realized that being responsible is not always fun, and at times, exercising self-control is even less enjoyable. Yet, impulse control is a necessary evil. Restraint is a sign of maturity. As we matriculate from infancy to adulthood, we learn the proper time, place, and behavior for numerous situations. We learn that we cannot necessarily do what we want to do. We learn of things called consequences. Truly, all law and civilization is built upon this notion of self-government. The absence of self-government on a wide scale is hedonism and anarchy.

Does Temptation Have A Purpose?

However, there are countless individuals who live daily in personal anarchy. Their inner world is in ruins because they have no rule over their thoughts, words, emotions, or actions. When I encounter these individuals, I first try to limit my dealings with them and protect myself because they are capable of doing anything. Next, I begin to wonder how did they get this way? I believe a large part of it comes from how they handled temptation. Now, I am not talking about harmless temptations, like chocolate or a favorite desert when you are dieting, but those of a graver, more insidious nature. The kind that has the potential to wreak havoc in our personal lives.

Temptation as defined by Webster is “to entice to do wrong for the promise of pleasure or gain. A test or trial.” Temptation can come from various sources: boredom, greed, curiosity, lack of vision or conviction, and/or short-sightedness.

However, the temptation itself is not evil, it is a test, and tests are amoral. Temptation is nothing but a mirror that highlights weaknesses and character flaws. Like fire, it shows what we are really like underneath, and it is our response to the test that makes the difference.

For Every Action There is A Reaction

Every religion teaches self-denial and self-control. Why? First, because temptation is a Trojan Horse. It looks harmless and appealing at first, but ultimately has tragic repercussions. Every time we give in to temptation, we nurse a weakness. It is never good to indulge a weakness because it forms a habit, and a habit grows to an addiction, and addiction to the wrong thing ultimately ends in destruction in that area.

Second, you lose a piece of yourself every time you succumb. Yielding to temptation compromises your integrity with yourself and others. How can you trust yourself to do the right thing if you constantly make the wrong decision? You sacrifice your control in the situation. You will never reach your full potential until you master the difficult, bumpy areas of your character.

What happens is that individuals who indulge in this behavior begin to justify their lack of self control, and normally with lame excuses: “Everybody else was doing it. This won’t hurt anybody. It just happened, I was in the moment. I am grown, I can do what I want to do.” Displacing blame is not maturity, it is what children do. It is a way to deal with guilt or shame. We do not exist in a vacuum. And there are no such things as victimless crimes. Our actions affect others, and the fruits of our bad decisions are often eaten by those around us.

Resistance 101: Breakin Old Habits is so hard to do…

What can we do to give us an edge in this battle for self-control? The first thing that we can do is know what we are about. You must know yourself in order to be true to yourself. Know where you are going, and what decisions are consistent with this objective. It also means that you honestly assess your problem areas and head them off. This means removing the instrument of temptation from around you. If you are a smoker, get rid of all your lighters and cigarettes. Do not frequent those environments where smoking will occur. Find other ways to deal with the situations that made you want to smoke. This will save you from having to struggle within yourself. A willingness to remove your self from those situations and people are key, because we tend to attract things that make it easier to for the weakness to survive.

Secondly, be grateful for what you have. Temptation is closely related to greed in that you have what you need, but you want more and are willing to compromise your morals to get it. The grass is not necessarily greener. Just as the desire or temptation came, if you do not do anything with it, it will leave. Do not even give the temptation your attention in the form of curiosity. Don’t feel like you are missing out, because you are not. You must walk your own path and not anyone else’s.

Thirdly, try to make doing good as attractive as doing wrong. This can be accomplished by looking at the real costs and benefits associated with each action. What is the real reward for doing the right thing? What is the worse case scenario for giving in to the temptation and is it worth it? Is this the proper reaction to this situation?

If you do fall, do not lay there. Maturity is accountability. Until you master this test, you will continue to make the same mistakes and it will hinder you from growing and moving on. Admit you have made a mistake and attack it until you master it.

Vince Lombardi said it best, “It is not whether you get knocked down, but whether you get back up that matters.”

Final thoughts

Giving in to temptation does not make you a bad person. It is the habit of nursing unhealthy and unprofitable behavior that is the problem because it begins to harden our heart and conscience. Making a choice is not a one-time thing. Everyday, we must make the choice anew to do good and not evil; to shun those things that would take us from our destiny. Consistency in thought, word, and deed is what forges our character, irregardless of who or what is around.

Every great leader had to overcome temptation before they could progress to a higher level level. They had the choice to pursue a higher calling, to seek the greater good or satisfy their own selfish desires. Temptation always precedes greatness because if you cannot master yourself, how can you ever achieve your destiny? How will you behave when the stakes are high and others are counting on you? A person without self-control is like a city without walls, with no defense from external and adverse forces.

If you are not totally committed to your course at the outset, there can be no success, only defeat. We are called to meet the challenge, rise above and persevere; that is where the reward is. Let temptation be the stage that showcases your ability to come through in the clutch. Let it demonstrate your unwavering devotion to excellence and moral uprightness. In this world, there is only one thing that you can always control, and that is yourself.

Nothing is worth your integrity and your piece of mind.

Don’t sell yourself short.

Truth and Peace,
Steven M DeVougas

Is Protesting still Relevant?

The Jack Lessenberry Show had an interesting discussion on the relevance of protests today. The debate is whether actions of civil disobedience, violence, or general disruption are as effective as they were in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. People on both sides present cases.

This is a needed discussion, that is timely in most corners of this nation, including at the University of Michigan. Do protest marches and rallys still matter? If they don’t why don’t they and what is a more effective way to bring about change?

More on the Senate’s Rejection of Patriot Act Extension

The Senate again held its ground in its rejection of extending the Patriot Act. This is another step in the right direction since their first action. This could lead to a stand-off between the Senate and the White House. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says that if the Patriot Act is suspended for just 1 day, we are vulnerable. Here is a quote from his Washington Post op-ed piece:

“Congress must act now or risk bringing terrorism prevention to a halt.”

I applaud the Senators who stood for Civil Liberties and did not buy in to the rhetoric of fear. We will see if they continue to do so.

Re-entry after Death Row

Democracy Now! has a story today, interviewing Harold Wilson, a former death row inmate that was exonerated after 17 years due to DNA evidence. I made my stance on capital punishment pretty clear here, but this story is actually a lot deeper han the death penalty.

The most interesting part of his story, in my opinion, is the way in which he was released. He said he was released with:

“…the clothes on his back, 65 cents, and a token.”
Translation: he was released with nothing, REPEAT, NOTHING!!!!! WHAT?!?!?! Why do we do innocent people this way after they have been wronged by the state? Why do we do guilty people this way after they have ‘paid their debt to society?’

This is yet another problem with the prison system in this country. For those of us familiar with the Prison-Industrial Complex, the fact that people want to do everything in their power to get as many people imprisoned as possible. What I don’t understand is why perpetuators of the complex don’t buy into re-entry programs. That actually could be a nice revenue growth opportunity for them, but I digress.

Since they don’t pay attention to prisoners (innocent or otherwise), we should. If the purpose of prison is punitive, then it would only be fair/just to restore a person after their punishment period has passed. Why is it that the system is so petty that it seeks to disenfranchise individuals beyond incarceration? By the system, I mean society in general and the government.

Society

I believe that there are certain aspects in your life that are your business. I also believe that there are certain aspects of your life in which society should be available to help you, should you so choose. In the cases of individuals exiting the criminal justice system, I feel that society has a responsibility to these people to ease their transition back into the mainstream. This means having things set up for people who just got out of jail that serve as legitimate alternatives to attitudes, lifestyles, and situations that could have contributed to their incarceration. Programs like this exist currently (an example being Detroit’s Partners For Succes Program), but they are under most peoples radar and criminally underfunded. Prison re-entry is an unfortunate reality for many Black men in this country, and instead of burying our heads in the sand and casting away these brothers [the way that others do], Black people should support these people. Help them find affordable housing. Help them with resumes. Help them find work. Help them by providing healthy friendships. All of us know individuals that are currently or at one time have been jailed. We can and must serve these people. Now, I’m not saying higher a bank robber at your brokerage firm. I am saying befriend a bank robber and communicate to that person that there are different choices available to them.

Government

Why do convicts have to jump through hoops to vote, and in some cases are no longer able to vote after their sentences are up? Why won’t companies hire ex-cons? Why are people who have been jailed not provided with concrete systems of re-enstatement? The answers to all of these questions lie in the fundamental flaw of American criminal justice. Our system is not rehabilitative, and it never has been. Don’t believe it when anyone says that. If it was, maybe Stanley Williams would be alive. Once you understand this, it starts to make sense why people are not treated equally after they have been in prison. Further, if one is already at a societal disadvantage (read: Black), and then has jail time in their past on top of that, then they are usually treated with even more contempt.

Because of this, it is up to us as a people to unite behind ALL of our people. As a responsible community member, we need to pay attention to unique needs of all indviduals within that community. I don’t consider brothers and sisters who have server prison time as community exiles. As a result, I serve them as I serve anyone else.

We don’t need a program to get the ball rolling. Start small. Fellowship with one person you know who is in jail or has been. Learn about their life and their experiences pre, during, and post prison. Building these relationship will create the foundation upon which solutions to re-entry hardhips for individuals everywhere.

Smokey Robinson on being Black

Big thanks to D. Betts for pointing to this piece of prose by Smokey Robinson on why he loves to be called Black: not a Negro, not colored, not an African American. The file is available here.

Mini battles for Women’s Rights

The other day while I was at a social event with some of my co-workers, I was about to leave early from the event when one of my co-workers proclaimed loudly (and I am paraphrasing), “He must be leaving early to go get a booty call!” Now his wife was there and I was thinking to myself, “Wow, this guy has a lot of nerve talking like that, especially in front of his wife and other women” Anyways, there was about twenty of us there and most everyone started to boo and hiss, anxious to see how I would respond to this accusation. And then I smiled politely and said, “Well actually, I don’t use that type of terminology because it is degrading to women.” The women went wild and the guys booed me down claiming that I was on “their” side.

I had couple observations about this situation. First of all, I never told anyone where I was going so how is it that we make this huge jump that this must mean a booty call? And while there was alcohol and no harm was meant, why can men get away with so many chauvinistic remarks? Then I thought about all the guys that were there laughing, who were probably thinking the same thing but didn’t have the gall to say, “Hey man, those types of jokes are not funny and they are disrespectful to women.” I get mad at men who are pre-programmed to laugh at jokes that degrade women and I get even more upset when the ones have a little sense don’t stand up for what’s right.

So here’s a little advice for guys that want to do the right thing but choose not to. Sticking up for women’s rights doesn’t make you a feminist and neither does it make you gay. Jokes that degrade women are not funny and the only require ignorance and disrespect; no wit necessary. Think about if all of those jokes were focused solely on a woman in your family, namely your mother or sister. Not too funny now is it? And if you try to exclude your family, then you are sadly mistaken because whatever woman you are degrading is someone’s sister, daughter, wife, etc. Lead a life of character and make decisions to do the right thing even when you might be the outcast. Noah was a freaking outcast and look what happened to the people who sneered at him.

And speaking out doesn’t mean you are an expert on women’s rights or that you never have disrespected women, it just means that you are a man of integrity who is willing to confront ignorance, the plague that people are afraid to be diagnosed with. When a doctor gives you a shot, it only hurts for a second, but it will help protect you for a lifetime. Be that doctor because you are always on call….

Stay up fam,

Remembering the Reason for the Season

On Christmas morning, I will be taking my nieces and nephews to do Meals on Wheels. In short, Meals on Wheels is a community service organization that serves hot meals to primarily elderly people that can’t enjoy a nice holiday meal due to either financial struggles or just not having an extended family that can take them in. I used to participate with Meals on Wheels when I was in high school and it is a very moving experience to see the joy on people’s faces when they see young people spending time away from their family to say Merry Christmas and hand them a hot meal.

I bring this up because I have had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I graduated from college, found a job, bought a car, etc. and I wanted to really pay homage to my family for sticking with me when times were rough. And the Bible talks about how your heart is where your treasure is, so I wanted to just splurge on my parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews. But one lesson that has hit me hard this year is that having a job doesn’t mean you have money. And with that, I couldn’t get everyone a gift like I wanted to and I have been really down about that. Of course, the holidays are not about material things but I got sidetracked with all the things I could buy with a regular income.

Anyways, my three beautiful sisters talked some sense into me and after we talked, I thought about my more memorable Holiday seasons and what made them so. Almost instantly, I thought about Meals on Wheels and I remembered the tears of joy from the surprises of elderly people thankful for the most basic necessities of life. And then I thought about how memorable it would be for my nieces and nephews to share in the joy of Meals on Wheels because when you do community service right before you open up your gifts, it makes you all the more grateful for the excesses you take for granted.

So if you are like me, (young, working, and broke for the holidays) just remember that “spending” your time doing community service will buy gifts that will last a lifetime. And if you have kids in your family who can only dream about that new Xbox 360 they are getting, ask their parents if you can take them out on Christmas Day to do some community service. This has been a really rough year for a lot of individuals so what better way to close it out than to do some good in your community.

Stay up fam and remember the reason for the season,

Brandon

Why The SuperSpade Exists

People use the internet for b*llsh*t. There is information available on the internet about anything imaginable. Some people use this powerful tool as a way to seek out things that can improve their lives, their spirits, their minds. Others use it to look at gossip on people they don’t know. This is evidenced by Yahoo!, who posted the top searches of 2005 today.

The reason The SuperSpade was created was to be a place for actionable information and discourse on meaningful issues that effect everyday life. We strive to be one of the spaces on the internet that will provide snippets of data that can improve your perspective on issues and allow you to approach personal, political, economical decisions from a more informed standpoint. Black people and all other people have the opportunity to use the internet as a way to gain power through knowledge. This site is one vessel of that knowledge.

If you feel we are not succeeding in this goal, please let us know by contacting us at TheSuperSpade@gmail.com.

Running from Conflict on the Horn

The BBC today has a story about the escalating conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. This story talks about how U.N. peacekeepers are leaving, more specifically, have been ordered to leave by the U.N. Security Council, by Friday. Who knew about this? Not most Americans. Instead, we are talking about Iraq.

What’s interesting is that the article says:

“On Wednesday, the UN Security Council decided to evacuate US, Canadian and European staff serving in the mission…Most of the UN peacekeepers monitoring the border following a war between the two countries that ended in 2000 are from Asian and African countries and these will stay.”

This is interesting for 2 reasons:

1. It’s funny how all the white people get to leave and the non-whites are staying. I can’t call this surprising. It would be nice is we used this as an Iraq exit strategy. Oh wait, we can’t because we pissed off the U.N. when we unilaterally invaded Iraq in the first place.

2. Why is this not considered taking an irresponsible, defeatist attitude? Aren’t we in this case pulling out of an ‘unfinished’ conflict where violence is still prevalent? Won’t the exit of U.N. peacekeepers increase the resolve of the warmongers in the region?

Maybe #2 only applies to Iraq, and not to the Horn of the Mother Continent.

Addressing Donor Fatigue

NPR has an interesting piece on avoiding donor fatigue. Perhaps donor fatigue is a phenomenon that occurs when people who give are overwhelmed with the number of outlets they can give to. Maybe this is why people had a tendency to donate trash to Katrina victims? Who knows. But this is a real issue to deal with and I appreciate NPR covering this. During this holiday season, a time when many people do service activities, take some of these things into consideration.

Al-Zarqawi captured?

G.W. said last night that one of our focuses in Iraq was security of Iraqis and Americans. According to them, the’ ‘terrorists’ must be fought and dealth with in Irqq [and Afghanistan] so they are not dealt with in America. If that is the case, then why was Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was captured and released by coalition forces?!?!?!?! He was released because he could not be identified?!?!?! Why do I get racially profiled when nobody has seen my picture, and this cat publishes videos of himself and they couldn’t tell who he was when looking him in the face?!?!?! This further proves that this invastion/occupation is total malarky.

Health Care & Role of Government

The NY Times has an interesting story on the possibility of health care for all Americans. It talks about just how close we [could be] to having universal health care. The most interesting quote from the article is:

“This isn’t communism. The changes could happen under a public health care system or one that is privately run.”

Since when did public health care equal communism?!?!?! What is so terrible about the government providing health care? Are the health care systems in nations where the government provides health care (e.g. Canada, some European nations) broken (or more broken than our privately run model)?

We are at a point now where we need to re-examine what the primary function of government should be. Many, especially friends on the right, believe that the government’s primary role is to protect the people. To them, “a proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of a person’s self-defense.” Maybe I’m crazy, but part of protecting me is protecting my health.

Think of parents. Among other things, parents protect their children. They protect their kids when the cross the street. They protect their kids when they tell them not to touch the stove when it’s on. They protect their kids when they put a hat on their head before they go outside. The first example is one of protecting safety. The last two are examples of protecting health. What is the purpose of a government (and by extensions, armed forces) that don’t protect me and/or my health? Maybe I have a maternalistic view of government and its role. I don’t think that when it comes to health care too many people would disagree with me (except HMOs and Bill Frist).

Compromise on Torture

G.W. has now reversed his stance on John McCain’s anti-torture legislation. Well, technically, he didn’t reverse his stance so much as fiddle with the language. In general, it’s decent legislation. We shall see how it works in practice.

I see this debate as ironic. Diplomacy on torture is a quintessential oxymoron. Why not try being diplomatic with detainees instead of trying to beat answers out of them!?!?!? My bad. That might actually make sense and therefore is impossible for us to do.

The President’s New Clothes

G.W. addressed the nation this Sunday during prime time to talk about Iraq. Let me summarize the speech for you:

-Our ‘clear’ mission in Iraq is threefold: Security, democracy, and reconstruction
-We are faced with 2 options: victory or defeat
-Those who oppose the President and his war and want immediate withdrawal of troops have a defeatist attitude

The million dollar question is “did this speech have any value?” I think that depends on whom you ask? Conservative hawks may be surprised that G.W. actually admitted mistakes were made leading up to this invasion/occupation. Those on the opposite side will view the pleas for war opposers and American citizens to have ‘patience,’ and that they would respect and act upon ‘positive criticism’ (whatever that is), as the punchline to a not-so-funny 3+ year long running gag.

I see the talk as a decent move politically. The President’s poll numbers have seen a slight uptick since he started admitting stuff. Even though the administration claims to not pay attention to polls, I bet the sun won’t set for a while on this stream of apologies and admissions.

That being said, I think the speech was complete and total B.S. Don’t piss on my neck and tell me it’s raining.

It kills me how both liberals and conservatives claim the media is against them. G.W. said that the terrorists do what they do, in part, because they know it will make the news. Let’s get stupid about that for one second: if someone breaks into your home and you defend youself and/or attempt to remove that person from the premises, do you do that because you want a news spot or because you want them out of you house? According to the President, we are not facing threats now because of American provocation. 9/11 in his mind was unprovoked, he said. I guess we were just innocent victims of violent extremism.

We have more than 2 options in my opinion, with 4 of them being:

1. Stay indefinitely
2. Stay for another X months/years and leave
3. Leave immediately militarily and remain diplomatically
4. Leave immediately militarily and diplomatically

Choices 1 and 2 are idiotic. Choice 3 I can stomach. Choice 4 would be ideal. Notice how none of these four fit neatly into the victory/defeat rhetorical buckets. This is a direct consequence of the many flaws inherent in this invasion/occupation. This is analogous to striving for victory in a contest with yourself to see how fast I can drive into a brick wall: you LOSE every time. The win/lose rhetoric is used here because of its simplicity. Conservatives are good at using simplicity to mask reality. Now that we are in Iraq and have been for over 1000 days, the answers and implications are no longer simple (if we would have simply said no to the invasion, then simplicity would make sense). I personally am a fan of reality rhetoric, not B.S. I guess that’s why I’m not a politician.

Another thing: since when did anyone who disagreed with illegal foreign occupations become defeatists? The BushCo has an intersting take on dissention. What’s ironic is that aren’t ‘terrorists’ in most cases dissenters who were not given a chance to voice their opinions peacefully or diplomatically and as a result resorted to violence? Why should Iraqi people, Sunni Arabs specifically, believe for one microsecond that the U.S. will value opinions that do not mirror their own? This speech further solidifies the notion that the U.S.’s version of democracy has no room for healthy, civil debate.

Everything has causality. Everything. How that causality is defined depends on the credibility of the persons presenting the case. Do I believe Bush when he says 9/11 was unprovoked? No. Do I believe Bush when he says that staying in Iraq indefinitely will help us ‘win the war on terror?’ No. Do I believe Bush when he says an immediate withdrawal is irresponsible? No. Do I believe Bush has any credibility whatsoever? No.

What do you believe?

–
Garlin Gilchrist II
http://www.thesuperspade.com

Sent via Wireless Handheld

Brokeback Mountain censorship

So last night I saw King Kong and I thought it was one of the best big budget movies this year. It felt like more of a summer blockbuster but with all of the crappy movies released this year, I suppose you have to take what you can get. Nevertheless, I really wanted to see Brokeback Mountain, the critically acclaimed movie about two gay cowboys. Unfortunately, it was only showing at one theatre in the entire state of Michigan during the week it was (at least I thought) to be released nation wide. So after seeing King Kong, I asked customer service why they were not showing Brokeback Mountain and the lady informed me that Brokeback Mountain was only released in 69 theatres nation wide, but the movie should be showing sometime in January.

I was furious because I tried to figure out why there were no more theatres willing to show the movie. I first thought of the conservative conspiracy to stifle widespread acceptance of gay people. I then thought of the careful and deliberate marketing campaign of director Ang Lee to slowly let his work seep its way into American theatres. And then I thought about how people conveniently find their religion/morals around the holidays. My point is that it is so funny how people covet the belongings of their neighbor, tell white lies, disrespect their parents (think about how many people you know who dread the thought of taking care of their parents when they are too old to take care of themselves), have extra-marital affairs; and all of these things and more are socially tolerable within the mainstream Christian faith, but once homosexuality comes up, so many people are ready to yell “Crucify him!” Last time I checked, if we assume that homosexuality is indeed a sin and God looks at all sin the same (obviously, capital punishment is a little tricky), what makes homosexuality number one on many conservative’s top ten sin list? And why can people not volunteer their time and money to help the poor but will write manifestos on how homosexuality is destroying American culture? Here’s my advice to all of the people who can’t handle a mainstream gay movie, no one is putting a gun to your head to make you see it. But if you dont’ want to judge people by their particular faults as you may see it, check out the movie because for all the 69s I know Americans are guilty of, Brokeback Mountain should have been released in more than 69 theatres,

Stay up fam,

Brandon

Bush authorized spying without warrants

Did someone change my last name to Bush this week? They must have because after the September 11 attacks, Big Brother Bush authorized secret spying on Americans and suspected terrorists without obtaining a court warrant. Let me first say how disappointed I am in the New York Times for sitting on this story for this long. Lest we forget about Judy Miller and her unreasonable coziness with advocating the Administration’s rationale for war, this spying story goes to show how much the freedom of the press is in shackles. What’s worse is that the NYT claimed that they were withholding the story because of national security concerns. This makes no sense at all because the story did not name any of the suspects that the US was spying on. Therefore, the secret warrants issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was too cumbersome for the Administration and the National Security Agency needed to circumvent the lag time of getting warrants and focus on catching terrorists.

I hate to say this ladies and gentlemen, but the more the country is willing to excuse itself of constitutionally protected rights, the more we show how effective the terrorists were in changing the American way of life. Just listen to an excerpt of Bush’s speech when he said that “he acted in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks because the United States had failed to detect communications that might have tipped it off to the plot.” Forgive my fuzzy memory but wasn’t there some Presidential Daily Briefing on August 6, 2001 that was entitled, Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US? But that aside, what is really making me mad about this war debate is Bush now insisting that if we leave, Iraq will become a headquarters for terrorists to use against the United States. Well last time I checked, there were about 1 billion Muslims in the world and while I know not all of them are terrorists, if were to assume that one half one percent were indeed radical terrorists, that gives us about 500,000 people who are spread across the entire world. And what’s more important is that if the terrorists didn’t need Iraq before 9/11 what makes the US think that the terrorists need Iraq now? This so-called war cannot be fought using conventional tactics of war. The first rule (according to my book) of war is to understand the goals and motivations of your enemy. And the US has yet to demonstrate that we understand their goals and if the government does understand, they are too stubborn to re-examine our international policies that will weaken the support that terrorists currently receive.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

The SuperSpade hits 50!!

No, we have not been around for 50 years. But we have now posted 50 times!! This is a great milestone. We appreciate all of the love and support from our readers. Please stay tuned to our site, continue to support it by reading and commenting, and send any feedback, questions, and love to TheSuperSpade@gmail.com.

Thoughts on school violence and mentoring

As I thought about my Randall Pinkett post, I thought about the aspect of Black people setting themselves up so that we don’t have to wait to get picked by those currently in power. I compared Randall to Paul Robeson and I felt really excited. And then I thought about how in Detroit there were shootings at two separate high schools within the same week. I have been into schools where there are metal detectors and I wonder how kids are supposed to hold onto their dreams when they are afraid to go to school?

I am reminded of a conference panel I sat on with Superspade Kyle Warfield that was chaired by Garlin Gilchrist II. The title of the panel was from “From Maleness to Manhood.” I can’t recant all of the details but I do remember the discussion spiraling into trying to figure out how to stop violence in the schools so young people can actually think about going to college or what business they want to start up. I forget his name right now, but one young man started to cry because in essence, he was frustrated because he didn’t feel safe going to school and he desperately wanted to just be a student. It broke my heart. I have counseled so many middle and high school students on the importance of going to college but how can you think about college when you don’t want to go to school to save your life?

Of course, many of us who are in college or working have tutored and mentored in various community service organizations which I think should continue. But something structural at the macro and micro level must give. Going back to the panel, an elderly Black man stood up and chided a father who complained that his child was not safe walking to school. The older man exploded (and I am paraphrasing), “If he isn’t safe, then you walk him to school yourself! And while you’re at it, take the other kids with you!” I never forgot this statement because I thought about how even in my own mentoring; I have felt that there were some kids whose lifestyles were just too rough for me to make an effective impact. However, the contradiction I learned about myself was that there were some kids who would just not get a certain math concept but I kept at them whether they got it or not. I then applied this same stamina to kids I thought were too rough and I thought about how kids may think I was too good for me to mentor them. But after volunteering at a Youth Home, I realized that give or take a few bad decisions; we are all pretty much the same. The only real difference is that people set me on the right path before I got old enough to really make some bad decisions.

We are living in a world where we can’t afford to not be very aggressive about developing and mentoring youth. And we all know of a couple kids who you know that within two to three years, they will probably set themselves up for a rough and tumble life. Snatch them up. Who cares if you can’t go to the center every night of the week. Go on the weekends. Just call folks and make sure kids are doing their homework. It really doesn’t take much and once you start, it will hopefully become a lifestyle that will enrich your life as much as theirs. And as my good friend Dumi pointed out, once you start a family, you will have a lot less time to mentoring so take advantage of your youth and freedom and start living your life so that once you leave this earth, your heart is empty due to the love and respect you showed others. And so I am not mistaken, love is an action that entails doing things you may not necessarily want to do. But to whom much is given much is required. And this means you don’t have a choice so snatch up some kids and make it happen.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

Senate Rejects Patriot Act Extension

An update on our Patriot Act coverage, the Senate has rejected reauthorization of the Patriot Act. This is a step in the right direction, but it reamains to be seen if this show of force by those who value civil liberties will be sustained. We should all watch closely.

N.O. Evictions can be Thwarted thru Organization

As if people in New Orleans haven’t been given enough to deal with, residents now are also faced with eviction. Why are these people victimized? Part of it has to do with weak tenant protection laws in N.O. I never understood how important tentants rights were until I was in college and saw the battles fought by the Ann Arbor Tenants Union to protect people against predatory practices of landlords.

A major problem with regards to housing in N.O. is that many public housing communities have either not been reopened or are largely inaccessable to their current/former residents. That is an issue in and of itself. Are they closed because they are unsafe? Are they closed because new people have been moved in already at 2X/3X the rent? The former is alright. The latter is unacceptable. People could be protected against the unacceptable by organizing. Unionization is a way for the “weak” to gain strength in numbers. If you are “weak” in terms of dollars, you become strong by uniting. What is more valuable to a property owner/manager? 1 person with $1 million, 10 people with $100,000, or 500 people with $20,000? If money is all that talks, this doesn’t matter to them. However, the 500 people are stronger because of the network that they create. They present an opportunity for a property owner/manager to expand far beyond the reach of the network of a single person. This power can be leveraged in negotiations for fair treatment.

My advice to New Orlean’s urban planners is to encourage, even require tenant unionization on the city-wide level, or at least demand each public development to have one. It is in the interest of the citizens to do so. And the job of the government on any level is to act in the best interests of their constituents.

New ‘Apprentice’ winner Randall Pinkett

If you haven’t heard, Randall Pinkett, 34, beat out 17 other contestants to become Donald Trump’s Apprentice. Randall has five degress from among Rutgers, Oxford, and MIT. He has created five companies and is by most people’s accounts, extremely successful with a lot more potential. And he’s Black.

And that is why I wanted to comment on the racial overtones of the season finale and the implications of Trump’s decision. I went to Black America Web to read their analysis of what happened. For starters, I was dismayed at the opening line which read, “In besting fellow finalist Rebecca Jarvis, Pinkett puts to rest the question many have asked since the show’s premier season: Would Trump ever “hire” a black apprentice?” What upset me about this comment was that for someone who doesn’t even watch the show, I knew that Randall was going to win several weeks ago, just based on his background and his performance in the tasks given to him (perfect record as a project manager and won the final mission). I think many people knew that Donald Trump had no choice but to choose Randall as the winner and I believe that many wealthy individuals like Mr. Trump don’t give a care about your skin color IF they know that based on your track record, you will help increase profits. And for my Black people, we as individuals and as a collective destroy this notion of being chosen.

Just think back to Paul Robeson (a true Superspade and alum of Rutgers like Randall, how ironic) was Phi Beta Kappa, senior honor society member and valedictorian of his senior class. Rutgers University had no choice but to make him a Phi Beta Kappa and valedictorian. And my point is that when you strive for and achieve excellence, the only person who can “choose” your destiny is you. Now keep this in perspective, Randall already has five businesses whose revenue is about to explode due to his exposure on the Apprentice so in laymen’s terms, Trump didn’t choose Randall, Randall chose Trump.

In related news, the finale was underwhelming because after hiring Randall, Trump asked Randall if he thought that he should hire Rebecca, (his opponent) as well. Randall quipped, “Mr. Trump, I firmly believe that this is ‘The Apprentice,’ that there is one and only one apprentice, and if you’re going to hire someone tonight, it should be one. “It’s not ‘The Apprenti,’ it’s ‘The Apprentice.’” The MSNBC article I read painted Randall in a horrible light by saying the “audience booed, feeling as betrayed as Rebecca must have, and as Randal jogged to the end of the stage to wave at the crowd, he was facing a group that had lost some of their respect for him; their clapping and cheering was subdued, and boos were still audible.” I should point out that Rebecca is White but aside from that, put yourself in Randall’s shoes, who loves ties? Imagine the World Series where the Red Sox and the Yankees duel to the seventh and final game, and the Yankees win by one point. Then the commissioner comes out and asks the Yankee team, “Do you guys want to split the pennant with the Red Sox?” There would be riots everywhere but the fact is, that is not fair to the team that won. And the same logic holds true for Randall Pinkett. And I readily admit that because Trump had no choice, he had to find some way to spice up the season finale’ but this was not the most clever thing he or his producers could have come up with.

Nevertheless, Randall Pinkett represents neither all or none of Black America. And he is not an anomaly. There is a sizable amount of Black men and women who have reached similar heights of success in all factors of our society. Superspades are everywhere and it is too bad that America has to wait until some television show to help break down racial stereotypes. Maybe they should start reading our blog.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

Why Conservatives should SUPPORT Choice

Abortion, and all things related to it, is arguably the most divisive subject of of our time. I personally abhore the way this debate polarizes people. By this I mean, why do you only have 2 options: pro-life or pro-choice?

Let’s dig a little deeper…

In mathematics, there is the concept of equivalence classes, which allows us to treat two different entities as essentially the same. I raise this here because “conservatives” equivalence class pro-choice to being a “baby killer.” It must be great to be conservative because it completely absolves you of that terrible thing that non-conservatives do: think (we’ll talk about that in greater detail later). Pro-choice doesn’t equate to “baby slayer” on my common sense calculator.

Thinking for a second and a half would reveal in one’s mind that pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion. It means exactly what it says: support of an individual’s (in this case a woman’s) right to CHOOSE. This means that you do not remove choices from an individual, no matter what those choices may be or how you feel about them. By this method it is quite possible to find the physical act of abortion wrong and still be pro-choice, a way that many people truly feel.

Conservatives, especially fundies, say the abortion is wrong because God says so. I guess The Holy Bible: Fundie Edition doesn’t describe how God gives people free will to make choices. Those choices could be things God may prefer (e.g. Honesty) or may not (e.g. Adultery). So why is it that these people want to take options off the table they don’t like, as if they are the ultimate decision makers? Who granted them such authority?

The basis of conservatism is individual sovereignty. They want “smaller” government. They want to reduce government intervention in your personal life. “You make your own decisions.” Well, I guess modern day conservatism has its limitations. We will stay out of your monetary decisions, but if you choose to have an abortion, you can’t: we made that decision for you. We will make you fend for yourself when it comes to health care, but should a homosexual choose to marry, you can’t: we made that decision for you. If the government making MY choices is not the definition of BIG GOVERNMENT (read: liberal ideology), I don’t know what is.

There is a difference between being pro-choice and pro-abortion. These things cannot be equivalence classed. I guess it’s difficult to attack more than one position, however, so let’s put them all in the same bucket and kick that bucket over.

So should the liberals and conservatives flip sides? I don’t know. But I do know that by definition, a conservative should support choice.

–
Garlin Gilchrist II
http://www.thesuperspade.com

Sent via Wireless Handheld

The Weekly Dream: The Gift and The Giver

“You never miss what you have until it is gone”

The holiday season is a time for giving and reflection, but for department stores, it marks the busiest time of year. Homes across America are bombarded with coupons, commercials and circulars advertising the latest gadget or must-have item. Around this time, I cannot help but reminisce about the times my brothers and I would begin to submit our Christmas lists to our parents, in priority order, right after Thanksgiving. These preliminary lists would be rewritten and revised up until Christmas Eve. And like most children on that day, we tore open the presents my mother spent all night wrapping. Saying thank you was an afterthought. Nor did we appreciate the hard work and sacrifice it took to make this day possible. It was not until we were older that my brothers and I realized that we had Christmas year round.

As Adults…

This year, we have seen an unprecedented amount of tragedy: hurricanes, tsunamis, lay-offs and just general misfortune. Yet, in the midst of this widespread calamity, we can still take those we care about for granted.

It is easy to get wrapped up in material possessions, the pursuit of nice things and ourselves. Especially in today’s society, which is driven by rampant consumerism. Shows like MTV Cribs and Pimp My Ride, where celebrities flaunt their wealth and seem to be in constant competition with one another do not make it any easier to be content with what we have. The result is that people are working for things instead of personal fulfillment.

In trying to “keep up with the Joneses,” what is really important is lost. Like little children, we are always looking for what someone can offer us, instead of looking at the giver, and the worth of each individual. This might be acceptable in a business setting, but in our personal lives, people should not be treated as disposable. People are not things. We are more than what we do, what we wear and what we have.

Putting Gifts in Perspective

Gifts from those that care about us are reflections of their genuine feeling and concern. It is a tangible expression of emotion, absent of need and obligation. Gifts without emotion become junk. A lot of people have too much junk in their lives: relationships and pursuits that do not profit. For some reason, people form attachments to things that they have no real use for, either because they do not want anyone else to have it or they are comforted by its presence.

This holiday, root out all the junk in your life, all the relationships that bring only pain and disappointment. We know what these things are, we know who these people are. And instead of wasting energy on these things, celebrate those who make you happy, who are faithful, and always looking out for you best interest. Things are just things. These individuals are the true gifts in your life, because they give themselves.

A car cannot call and see how you are doing. A house will not comfort you when you are having a bad day. Your “bling” will not cheer you up when things get tough.

What Can I Do?

There is a practice that I think we all could benefit from, and that is C.I.A. (Consistency In Appreciation). We need to make a consistent effort to show our gratitude to our support system. The greatest enemy to love, giving, and sacrifice is ingratitude. Everyday, let those you care about know how you feel and the difference they have made in your life. This can take many different forms: a card, a letter, or a meal. Whatever you have to offer, give that in return.

You might say, “Why? So-and-so knows how I feel.” Well, you never know how long you will be able to let them know. Tomorrow is not promised, and a thank you today might be the last thank you that person may hear from you. And when they are gone, all you have left are regrets. Things you wish you had said, things you wish would have done. Do not get fixated on the gift, the Giver deserves some praise also.

Where your treasure is, your heart will be also. Make sure it is always in the right place.

The Best things in life truly are free. Happy Holidays and God Bless.

Truth and Peace,
Steven M DeVougas

Day 1K

We have been in Iraq for 1,000 days now. This is a nice, round number, one that encourages reflection. G.W. has been reflecting too, finally admitting that US stup–, intelligence was faulty. We have [at least] 30,000 Iraqi citizens dead. Let’s put that in its proper context: that’s equivalent to an overcrowded classroom being exterminated everyday for over 3 1/2 years. We have [as of today] 2,140 American soldiers killed. Again, put that into proper context: a set of parents a day.

Let’s review my last 1,000 days:

• Graduated from college with 2 degrees
• Got a job
• Started a blog
• Ran HEADS
• Started a Web Design Business
• Bought a condo

I haven’t led to the untimely death of anyone. Maybe I should be President. Then > 30K would at least be alive. Let’s pray we’re not in Iraq for another 1K days.

Men Encouraging Health Awareness

NPR had a story on the 100 Black Men of Atlanta who did a project to raise health awarness in their community. It is a good project, with the most interesting piece of it, in my opinion, being the PR campaign. They are raising awareness by having prominent black men go to various places and speak on their positive experiences of getting diagnosed and being treated for their various conditions (high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc.). The goal is that these respected me will inspire both men and women to be more conscious about their health.

I’m not saying this is a new tactic or concept, but I do think it can work and is worth a try.

…and they say any group comprised of of black men is a bad thing…

G.W. is not a racist

Ed Gordon’s roundtable talked about G.W. saying that the response to Katrina was not driven by race. Do you buy that?

There are other interesting topics debated in this session. Take note.

The Weekly Dream

We are pleased to announce the beginning of the first official SuperSpade feature this week. It is called the Weekly Dream. Thanks to Steve from Dream Investments for coming onboard to present weekly motivation, uplift, and inspiration for people to live better lives and reach their full potentiaon.

They will be available every Thursday.

House Approves Patriot Act Extension

The House has approved extensions to the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act is not one of those pieces of legislation that is just there to make Congress look like they are “earning” their pay. It is actually the most sinister act of the Bush administration. I said it. To me, this is worse than the Iraq war, worse than G.W.’s vacations, worse than his Social Security plan, worse than his “war-time” tax cuts, worse than it all.

This is arguably the largest infringement on civil liberties since the Jim Crow laws of the late 1800s. My feelings for this are too many to enumerate here, but they can be summed up quite simply and concisely.

If a piece of legislation is positive and has merit, why would we set a sunset to provisions of that legislation? This works for both sides of the argument. If the Voting Rights Act of 1965* was legitimate and indicative of how the people and the government truly felt, why did it have an expiration date? Laws are not perishable goods – well, good ones should not be. The only reason you enact something temporarily is because you do not totally agree with or like it and are pandering to some other party, or that you know it is wrong. The Voting Rights Act is in the “pandering” bucket. The Patriot Act is in the “wrong” bucket.

* Please note that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 does have certain important provisions that will need to be extended/made permanent over the next few years. However, contrary to popular opinion, even in the relatively unlikely event that those specific provisions are not extended, people will not lose their right to vote as a result. I hate when people don’t do their homework. SuperSpades cannot be ignorant.

Bush takes responsbility for bad intelligence

Ladies and gentlemen: silence please. President Bush took responsibility for taking the country for war on bad intelligence. Granted, we have been in Iraq for almost three years without hearing such candor, but it is good to hear it nonetheless. The President went on to defend the war on the grounds that Saddam Hussein was a threat to our security. Now anyone in their right mind will know that Saddam didn’t have the infrastructure to wage a prolonged war against the US, especially on our soil. And more importantly, the only reason Bush was able to invade Iraq was because his administration conned a whole lot of people into believing there was a link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. Of course we know there was no such connection and the prisoner we got that information from lied to his Egyptian captives so he could get better treatment.

But here’s the rub. Now I know Saddam was toppling him worth the deaths of over 30,000 Iraqis and over 2100 American soldiers? I think not. And if the Iraqis really wanted freedom en masse, they would have fought for it by themselves. Moreover, Iraq is really comprised of three main ethnic blocks which doesn’t align with the Western idea of every citizen finding a sense of unity under the flag.

But Bush is hoping that the Iraqi election will bring about unity in Iraq but it won’t. And I don’t say that because I want to see the Iraqis suffer but America is engaging in a cookie-cutter democracy and one size does not fit all.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

Black men and our sexuality

I read a fiercely stereotypical article by a White woman who explained why she prefers to be with Black men. After over sexualizing us like mandingo warriors, I was appalled by how comfortable this woman felt in her sexual encounters with Black men. But then I remembered a situation where a White man asked me what shoe size I wore. I said 13 and he replied, “Oh my God, that is crazy,” replete with sexual overtones. Now his feet were as big as mine, and he wore a size 12 and when I pointed out that our feet are almost the same size, he just couldn’t let up. “No man, your feet are humongous!! I have tried to find ways to not get offended but this situation was difficult because surely he didn’t mean to insult me, but when my sexuality becomes the basis on which you interact with me, I have a major problem with that.

Because what happens to many Black men is that many of us buy into the notions of Black male super sexuality to the point we become afraid of how our desires will overtake our sense of normalcy. So many times one of two things happen; we will suppress our sexuality or express it in overly chauvinistic ways. No matter the case, this will not lead to healthy relationships or marriages and will ultimately hinder other aspects of our lives. So my advice to Black men is simple, watch what you put into your soul and mind. You can’t watch Uncut everyday it comes on and claim that the videos don’t have an affect on how you interact with women. It doesn’t work like that. And secondly, do not give in to the stereotypes we are superior in bed compared to other races. Not only might this affect your performance but more importantly, your sexuality will soon become a central part of your identity and confidence.

White men love sex just as much as Black men. There are men of all races who would put you to shame and there are men of all races who you would put to shame. And lastly, learn to control your thoughts (in all matters) of sexual matters. If whenever you talk to a woman and all you can focus on during a conversation is the curvatures of her body, then you have a problem. Seek help. I used to have a problem with pornography but after talking to God and some of my friends, I realized it had a hold of me that I didn’t want to admit. But once I did admit it, I decided that I didn’t want anything having such a hold on my life and since then, I have made decisions that severely limit my access to pornography. And since then, I appreciate women and their beauty for so many things that have nothing to do with my physical attraction.

I just realized I meant to write about Black/White relationships but I went off on a tangent. Real talk is like that sometimes. Until next time,

Stay up fam,

Brandon

The Fundies

Discussion in the comments section of the post on Stanley Williams’ execution got me thinking about fundamentalism (thank you all for the support!).

Conservative Christians (I am going to start a petition to have that phrase eliminated from the hearts, minds, souls, and pysches of humanity next year) think that fighting cuts in domestic poverty programs is not a priority. Maybe one day while I am at home for Christmas and New Year’s I will read a Conservative Christian (that’s the last time I will ever say that; from now on, they are called *fundies*) Bible. Their transition must be a lot better than any I’ve ever read. I’m sure the editing is amazing. I’m sure the Gospels are much more compeling when you take out all the trash about taking care of the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised. I’m sure it reads a lot better when you kill your enemies instead of loving them.

Yeah, so that’s what I want for Christmas: The Holy Bible, Fundie Edition, with Jerry Fallwell’s signature.

Cut & Run

The hawks get upset when we demand immediate removal of US occupying forces from Iraq. They say that “cutting & running” only adds to the resolve of the “enemy.” I wonder how they feel if the “enemy” is internal?

The head of the Red Cross quit today. Note that that is 1 Red Cross resigner/domestic disaster in the 21st century (September 11 being the first). At this rate…

Could you define these two as “cutters & runners?” I think so. Let’s do a bit of comparitive analysis. The Iraq war is a failure. The response to Hurricane Katrina is a failure. The rebuilding of Iraq is a failure. The rebuilding of New Orleans is a failure. The accountability for the Iraq war is zero. The accountability for the Katrina response is zero. We did not do things in Iraq to prevent war. We did not do things in New Orleans to prevent levee damage and therefore flooding. I could go on and on and on.

Therefore, I say that Madame Marsha J. Evans is “cutting & running.” She took her $651,957 and bounced. Why doesn’t G.W. accuse her of trying to “re-write history?” Why doesn’t he say she is terrible for leaving a job “unfinished?” Why doesn’t she “stay the course” and achieve victory? Didn’t she learn that in the Navy? Oh wait, we can’t talk bad about her because the individuals that were victims of her negligence were refu-, I mean nigg-, I mean Americans?!?!?! These things happened on American soil. I guess we are far-sighted.

This is more than a double standard. It’s a Dubya Standard. And we all know what those are worth.

Money and Hybrid Vigor

B and I obviously are on the same page with this financial stuff. Here is another story about my generation, which has more debt than any generation prior. We have been talking a lot on this blog about future money (or the lack there of), and this story is cut from the same fabric. Three posts (and probably many more); thrice the importance.

The story asserts that “this is the first generation who won’t necessarily do better than their parents.” That may or may not be true. Hybrid vigor is the rule, not the exception, or at least it has been up to this point. There are very few, very possible reasons that this trend could be discontinued:

1. The offspring of the previous generation are lazy and rest on the laurels of their parents
2. The progeny of the previous generation tries something new and fails (elimination by evolution)
3. There is no next generation

How does this apply to us? Are we lazy? Are we dommed to failure and elimination? Do we even exist? Don’t know a definitive answer to these questions, except maybe the third one. But I do know that this selfish generation is on a decent looking path towards #2. The problem with instant gratification is its tunnel vision. If you are ridiculously concerned with right now, you have no concept of building on the past and preparing for the future. I am not saying that the present is unimportant, but I am saying this:

If you had a choice between feeling good now or feeling good in a year, which would you choose? If you had a choice of having money now or having money in 10 years, which would you choose?

Instant gratification is gratifying. Delayed gratification is gratifying. Pardon me for a moment, but let’s just be stupid about it. If the goal is gratification, then shouldn’t I be just as happy if I get it in 10 years? Shouldn’t I be willing to work now so that I can be happy in 10 years, even if that means I am [temporarily] less happy (NOT unhappy, less happy) right now? If that is the case, then I have no need to run up credit card debt to buy trash I can’t afford now or ever.

What’s more dangerous? Terrorism, Violent extremism, Me-ism? I think I have a definitive answer to that one.

The Blueprint

More on Stanley Williams.

I am categorically opposed to the death penalty. Period. Everyone has their various reasons for supporting or opposing it; mine is simple: injustice is not corrected with injustice. You can retaliate against wrong with wrong, but you can not correct it in that manner.

This of course doesn’t make sense in our hedonistic, instant-gratification-obsessed society. The quick-fix/temporary satisfaction solution to punishing a murderer is to kill them. That way, you get another “killer off the street.” This makes us feel safe for about 2 seconds, then the cycle repeats itself the next time danger or the thought of danger presents itself (sounds kind of like “the ‘war’ on terror,” where we shampoo terrorists: get scared, kill, repeat. But I digress…). That’s about as logical as cheating on someone because they cheated on you. That makes you more of a scumbag than the initiator of the infidelities. The problem that people don’t realize that until much later. Well this is one that can be realized now because I am saying it and you are reading it.

With all of that out of the way, we will now list reasons why Stan Will should be a prison privatization infomercial and not a dead man.

- He was convicted.
(Not sure if he was guilty or not, but for the sake of argument let’s say he is)

- He was locked away from society, where he theoretically could do no harm.

- He had a change of heart, realizing that certain things he did were wrong (starting a gang. Inciting others to do hurtful things). Notice that the murders he was convicted of are NOT a part of this bullet since he maintains his innocence.

- He acted on the aforementioned change of heart, by writing his books and becoming an outspoken ANTI-gang activist that led individuals to end the wars he helped begin.

If I ran SQ, I would have this guy be my spokesperson. I would parade him around to any and every town/city/state/country/planet looking to imprison anyone. I would say, “we took in this killer and made him a (Nobel) peacemaker! We will make ‘productive’ citizens of your captives!” that would work for everyone because Stan wouldn’t die, satisfying the anti-capital punishnent crowd, and the jailers would get more mon- I mean jailees (I apologize for that prison industrial complex moment).

Stanley Williams is a SuperSpade. He is a great leader who went from a negative direction to a positive one. He has inspired far more than he has misguided. He elevated his mind and his actions. We all strive to do just that.

They can’t kill him. SuperSpades never die.

–
Garlin Gilchrist II
http://www.thesuperspade.com

Sent via Wireless Handheld

Made in China

Today I was reading an article in the Washington Post about how China has surpassed the United States as the world’s top exporter of laptop computers, mobile phones and other information and communications technology devices in 2004, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said on Monday. It was interesting to see how the scant amount of commentary about this topic, especially given the harsh climate of the American job market. Already, Bill Ford and other leading US firms are wrapping themselves with the US flag and making the plea that the best way to support America (and by extension, the troops) is to buy American. What’s so ironic however, is that

One major factor promoting China’s rapid growth is its fixed currency (the yuan), which allows China to keep its currency relatively lower than the US, thereby making China’s goods cheaper than the US. The other advantage that China has is America’s gluttony. Just how do you think Bush was able to pass tax cuts year after year while we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan? The Bush administration has tax cuts as its centerpiece of picking up the economy but as we run up more and more debt, guess who is buying up this debt? You guessed it, China. So if China suddenly decided that they didn’t want to buy American debt for some set of geo-political reasons, the interest rates in America would go through the roof. And my political folks will know what I mean when I say, “It’s the economy stupid.” And besides the fact that China has more than one-fifth of the world’s population, I should point out that China is a communist country? Don’t you think it’s funny how the wealthy communist countries are never referred to as communist but poorer countries are? But I guarantee you that if China and the US were having serious disagreements that might lead to war, the communist refrain would be deafening.

But I digress. The main point of today’s blog is to highlight that if we are living in a knowledge based economy that is fueled by technology, then the Chinese leading the world in information/computer technology is a sign that the US has been comfortable for too long and when we can’t beat a country on purely economic terms, the military might will be soon to follow. I believe Samuel Huntington wrote a book talking about the clash of civilizations. I am not suggesting that the Chinese and the US are posturing themselves for war but Thomas Friedman talked about how we are living in a flat society, which means that advances in technology have made the world a more level playing field. So whatever country takes the lead in technology (patents, faster computer chips, etc.) will have a comparative advantage that will make international relations a bit more nuanced than times of old. America’s economy is stuffed like you were after Thanksgiving, but unless get on Kanye’s workout plan, we will see the Chinese use their new found wealth to invest in their military and create a middle class that will want the excesses of American culture. In the long term, different countries will take sides and we will witness a clash none like the world has ever seen.

Stay up fam,

Death Wish

Stanley Williams will be executed @ 12.01 AM PST, 13 Dec 2005. The Governator refused clemency. More to come on the myriad of reasons why this is the wrong decision…

Love and life: Making it work pt. I

Anyone reading this blog who is in their twenties or thirties can attest to the difficulties of trying to maneuver through life and make relationships work. On the life side, many people in this stage of life are trying to negotiate undergrad, graduate school, starting careers, and relocating to different locations. Couple this with the fact with that many people look to get married by the time they are thirty give or take a couple years. So how are people supposed to make love and life work?

Many of us know people who have been in beautiful relationships that ended up not working out due to reasons often related to location. Whether it’s going to grad school in another state or taking a new job, long distance relationships are soon becoming (if not already) a required hurdle before two people jump the broom. So here is my advice to men.

For the guys who are in relationships and find themselves approaching a critical life/love juncture, you have to first and foremost open up your mouth and let your woman know what you want!! This should go without saying but many of us have difficulty expressing our emotions so if it is really hard, talk it out with a woman in your family and get some advice.

Aside from that, too many guys, (myself included) have these defined goals of what they think should be in place before they get married. I will use myself as an example. I think that my spiritual walk and my financials have to be tight before I propose. In my mind, these goals will provide a solid foundation for a fruitful marriage and I will remain resolute in this thinking regardless of how “ready” my companion may be otherwise.

This thinking is flawed because depending on how stubborn you are; you may lose a good thing by trying to make everything perfect. When a woman knows that you are down for the long haul, she will ride for you til the end. So if you find yourself thinking about changing up your plans, ( e.g. not getting caught up with getting married at a certain age or not obsessing over your salary) then that might mean you are finally on your way on becoming marriage ready. Because in case you forgot, marriage is all about compromising and many married men will tell you that you will end up giving in the most. So if you can’t compromise in the pre-marriage phase, what makes you think you are going to be Mr. Understanding when you do get married?

Additionally, before you propose you should think about why you want to do it. I came up with two reasons why a man shouldn’t propose. The first is desperation. Implicit in this mistake is getting married to fill in a missing piece by a certain time. Because as my good friend Garlin put it, “you don’t have to do anything right now.” Take a second and let it sink in. So if you have finished grad school, working, and feeling pressure from anyone (your girl or your family) for you to settle down and you are not ready yet, just know you don’t have to do it right now. Of course, I don’t mean wait until you are 60 years old but nevertheless, don’t live your live according to externalized expectations.

A similar but related problem is that of obligation. This is the thinking like, “Well, her parents like me and my parents like her so I guess we should just get married.” Marriage is not something you do just because there is nothing better to do. And just because your family likes your girl, it doesn’t mean that she is the one. There are a lot of women that will make your mother proud and may receive her approval. But so freakin’ what!!! Your mother won’t be getting married to this girl so try to avoid getting married to make your family proud. And lastly, try proposing because you want to spend the rest of your life with someone and not because you haven’t found any one better “yet”.

All in all, keep your goals in mind and strive for them but don’t become a slave to them such that you never find fulfillment and happiness. And when love comes around, don’t put it on your task list but cherish it and be open to the changes that a new relationship may provide. More advice to come,

Stay up fam,

The definition of propaganda

Some definitions, adapted from truthout.

–Propaganda is Ultimate Weapon of Mass Distraction and Deception and Command and Control and Manipulation and Influence and Persuasion, in the History of Mankind.

–Propaganda is the most powerful and effective mode of communication for a message. It can be good, bad, or indifferent. Propaganda is both the mother and father of everything you hear from the gossip and rumor of the hearsay grapevine–to faith and belief dogma–to doctrine and principle.

–See no Propaganda! Speak no Propaganda! Hear no Propaganda! The persuasion and influence of propaganda works best when it is invisible or subtle, and drummed into one’s head over time, and via tradition.

–The most effective propaganda worms its way into our consciousness, leaving intact the perception that we have reached our opinions and made our choices independently.

–Propaganda is the sell that sold you something, that you never perceived as a pitch at any time along the way, when you bought into it. It is something that slowly happens to you without your awareness. Slow but sure.

–Silent influence, control, and persuasion that can and does promote any product OR service OR issue OR philosophy to the mindset of the masses. Where word of mouth about anything starts and spreads.

–Anything that makes you believe, or have faith in something, where there no facts to support it, is bad propaganda. . .IE religion and politics.

–Propaganda is a special and unique form of FEAR; used to sell, seal, and deliver a notion to exist in the mind as a representation (as of something comprehended), or as a formulation (as of a plan). Or, just something designed to change someone’s mind and point of view. Propaganda is a slight or indirect pointing out of something, especially of a way or means to an end.

The Best Examples of where Propaganda is needed and used:
–By the ELITE (the haves) exerting their influence and control over the masses (the have-nots).
–By every RELIGION. The main tool used by the elite to exert this influence and control over the masses.
–In POLITICS. Another tool used by the elite to exert their influence and control over the interests of the masses in the nation state.
–By CORPORATIONS. The elite’s tool for transacting commerce with the masses in the nation state.

Propaganda is so invasive, most people don’t even know it exists, nor how it influences them.

Beware! It’s everywhere.

The questions are:

How can we define propaganda?
How can we use it to our own advantages?
How can we defend ourselves from damaging propaganda?

Purposefully Pedalling Propaganda

From truthout, the proper way to push propaganda.

The following is a great list on how to convince people of whatever you want them to believe. Perhaps we can employ this on positive messages instead of the war in Iraq and other stupidity…

1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion.
2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.
a. It must issue all the propaganda directives.
b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale.
c. It must oversee other agencies’ activities which have propaganda consequences
3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action.
4. Propaganda must affect the enemy’s policy and action.
a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence
b. By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions
c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself
d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity
5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign
6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.
7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.
8. The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.
9. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored.
10. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy’s prestige or lends support to the propagandist’s own objective.
11. Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects.
12. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.
13. Propaganda must be carefully timed.
a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda.
b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment
c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness
14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.
a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses
b. They must be capable of being easily learned
c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations
d. They must be boomerang-proof
15. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events.
16. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.
a. Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat
b. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and which cannot be reduced by people themselves.
17. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration.
a. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated
18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.
19. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.

Richard Pryor Moves On

Richard Pryor passed on today. We can cosider him a SuperSpade in the comedic industry. SuperSpades of all genres are respected here.

Debt Security

The New York Times has a story talking about how Student Debt is now Collectible by Social Security.

Since the overwhelming majority of college graduates leave school with both a diploma and debt, something must be done. This can possibly add to the litany of reasons for individuals to be more proactive in the acquisition of funds for education. This can be done in a few ways, three of which I will list here:

1. Work (part/full-time or work-study) during school
2. Actively and continuously pursue scholarship and grant monies
3. INVEST

B posted about how other government/corporate safety nets are disappearing like Michael Jackson’s melanin, and this is another example. The notion of future uncertainty can often inspire immediate action. If you don’t incur debt, you don’t have to repay debt. That way, maybe the little bit of Social Security or corporate sponsored pension that may/may not exist will not be vulnerable. Think of it as a G.W. style pre-emptive defensive maneuver.

Democracy Tools

PBS.org has a youth-oriented section called NOW. In the NOW section, they have what they call Democracy Tools. The SuperSpade is about actionable data, and they have some interesting links here about effective volunteering and how to contact your congressional representatives. Take a look at those sections and others.

The end of pensions as we know it?

The end of pensions as we know it?

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, Verizon recently announced that they were replacing their pension plan with a 401(K) Plan. With GM also announcing changes to their health care benefits, we are witnessing the gradual but certain decline of pensions as we know it. Therefore, your retirement will be whatever you want it to be….literally. In other words, the amount that you have to retire with will depend on how much you contribute to your 401(K) or what ever retirement instrument your employer utilizes.

So let’s start with the fact that most people coming of age will be switching careers four to six times. This means that you won’t be at any one job for the majority of your life (where pensions serve as incentives for employees to stay at one firm) and even if you were do that, you probably still won’t look forward to a nice pension.

Moreover, our generation will be leading longer lives which in turn demands more money to cover living expenses. As a result, our generation will have to be a lot more intuitive to various financial tools because retirement is way more important than rubbing your toes in the sand and sipping a fruity drink with a mini-umbrella. For anyone who plans on having children, a thoughtful retirement plan will allow you to help pay for your kids college in part or in full. And for anyone who has student loans, you know that if Mom and Dad could have taken care of the finances, life would be a lot easier. Aside from college, how about leaving a little nest egg for the kids once you pass away? Just think about having to work well into your sixties, seventies, and eighties? Now if your parents do this and they are happy then fine, more power to them. But there is a big difference between wanting to work and having to work. Strive for the former, I beg of you!

So I have a couple things that I think could help make your quality of life better.

1) Whenever possible, start investing in your firm’s 401(K) because most companies will match up to 6% of your salary for this. Also, most companies will allow you to rollover your retirement accounts from your old job but be sure to see if your new company will be as generous with the benefits.

2) You can’t invest anything unless you live below your means. As a recent addition to corporate America, I can say that this is difficult to do, but by no means is it impossible. Most financial advisors will tell you to strive to invest 5-10% of your salary. And as my good friend Garlin advised me, your ultimate goal is to have the revenues from your investments be such that they cover all of your basic living expenses. (Rent, mortgage, car note, insurance, etc.)

3) Mutual funds. Mutual funds. Mutual Funds. Did I forget to mention mutual funds? I say that because for the long term, investing in a mutual fund for say 15-25 years will likely be a profitable investment. I say likely because the stock market is not certain. But at least with mutual funds, your money is pooled with other peoples (to minimize the risk) and invested in a portfolio and it works to your advantage to keep your money in there for an extended number of years. Some mutual funds let you start investing with $50!!

4) Start a relationship with a financial advisor so you can get some sound advice about where you are at financially and what steps you need to take to get to the next level.

For the record, I am not a financial advisor and this advice is my opinion. Therefore it should not be taken as professional advice. Having said that, we will have more financial tips in the future because a lot of people say that money doesn’t solve people’s problems but that’s a bunch of crap! We should not be obsessed with money but when used properly, money will allow you to do a lot of things you want to do while lending a helping hand as well.

Stay up fam,

All over but the pullout

All over but the pullout

I keep writing about the war because it has struck a nerve ever since the Bush administration pulled the ultimate switch-aroo; going from 9/11 to going into Afghanistan (which I supported) to invading Iraq. It makes no sense to me. And how/why are we having tax cuts when are fighting a war? This is asinine. But nevertheless, I read a good article in the Washington Post that basically predicted Bush would have to start pulling out of Iraq by next spring or else give Democrats the club they would then use to bludgeon the Republicans in 2006 Congressional midterm elections. I predicted in earlier posts that the media will help present a rosy picture of Iraq on top of being the microphone for Iraqi leaders pleading for the Americans to leave. This two-fold effect will allow the administration to claim when they pull out, “We have achieved victory in Iraq and we are humble enough to acquiesce to the Iraqi government’s request that we leave them so they can govern their own country.”

The article explained the political reality of why Bush will pull out in order to save face and save the Republican party from certain defeat next year. The logic is simple, if the troops stay Bush and Republicans lose. If the troops begin to leave, then the Democrats are forced to follow the President, the same way they did when they voted to authorize the war. And we all know followers are losers in American politics, which is part of the reason Kerry could not explain how he voted for and against the war.

But my heart goes out to the Iraqis. I heard John McCain on Meet The Press discuss quite gleefully, how the Iraqis are starting to die in battle so therefore, the President’s strategy is working. (As Iraqis stand up we stand down) But why do Iraqis have to die if it was the American coalition that initiated the violence? How is it the deaths of Iraqi soldiers turn into a positive situation? Call me a pacifist but an American life is no better/worse than that of an Iraqi. And maybe, just maybe if we valued life more than money and power, we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.

Stay up fam,

Paying for what you Believe

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Military College Recruiting yesterday. The issue, described in the articles, centers on law schools and other colleges being required to give Military recruiters the same prominence and support as private employers if they accept Federal Aid. This sounds like nothing new. We see similar things happening with No Child Left Behind.

There is no such thing as free ANYTHING, especially not money, extra especially not FEDERAL money. One day, people will understand that. Until then, expect the ignorant to be continually fleeced, but I digress from this until some future post.

What is interesting about the college recruitment case is the argument that schools are using to argue against this practice. Part of what they are arguing that since the military has its “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy, it is at odds with the college’s practice of not discriminating against openly gay students. They don’t want to be associated directly with the military because of this as it gives the impression that they are compromising on their position of support for openly gay men and women.

That is total B.S. News Hour with Jim Lehrer sums that up with one line, taken from the audio of the hearing, which I will now paraphrase:

“If they have such a problem, why are they accepting the money?”

This is the age-old question that can be applied to many of life’s situations, including but not limited to:

“If you believe in unionization, why do you shop at Wal-Mart?”
“If you can’t stand him, why do you let him buy you dinner?”

There is sacrifice involved with believing in something. Can instant-gratification-driven consumer culture thwart our desire to actually ACT on principle? The colleges obviously are not able to do this; the money is too important. Can we do it individually? We can’t expect change to happen on that level until it happens on a personal level.

Turnout turns into Victory

The Detroit News ran this story today entitled “Unlikely voters pick Kilpatrick,” which described the Mayor’s effectiveness in mobilizing “uncommon” voters. To be clear, an “uncommon” voter is defined here as one how has never or has rarely voted in the past (excluding 1st time voters).

The story drives home an important point for all those who are interested in the electoral process: inspiring action will lead to victory, whereas inspiring apathy leads to defeat. An example used in the story is a middle-aged, unemployed, “uncommon” voter. This man should have been chomping at the bit to vote for the challenger, but instead he cast his ballot in favor of the incumbent. Why? I say it’s because he was inspired enough to say that I want to give this guy another chance, and not willing to take his chances on not voting (remaining “uncommon”) and letting other citizens decide who his Mayor would be.

All candidates care about mobilizing their “base,” their core of supporters who back them no matter what. Truly effective campaigning, however, is about reaching far beyond that to form relationships with what this article terms “unlikely voters.” It’s easy to get people excited about something or someone they are already excited about. The challenged is inciting that same passion in the otherwise uninterested.

As I’ve stated in this blog before, I support the Mayor in his second term. I applaud the efforts by his team to mobilize Detroiters to vote. I see the recount as an activity that will solidify the already certified victory. I am encouraged through conversations with the Mayor that he will not be on our list next year to be the incumbent people vote against.

Voting for an Update

This post and the Third Parties and Independents WatchBlog got me thinking critically about voting. True, it doesn’t take much to get me thinking about politics, but this is kind of interesting.

Every election, there is at least one candidate running as the ‘reform’ candidate. This is the individual who wishes to be the antithesis to of the status quo. Most of the time these attempts are one part admirable, one part arguable. When choosing between X number of people, none of whom you trust, does it matter which one poisons your kool-aid?

Now, I may have (partially) disproved the point of this point just now. Let’s call that intellectual responsibility and due diligence. But I think it is an interesting concept worth debating. What if everybody that was so pissed off about everything that happens everywhere staged civic revolution? Sounds like something the ‘activists’ may want to consider. It could be attractive and effective since it is not partisan at all. It is a vote for an update.

How you choose which non-incumbent to vote for would be up to you. The only commitment would be to vote against the incumbent. Everybody could win, in theory, because any way you slice it, “a change gon’ come.” (Thank you Sam Cook)

Not sayin’ I’m all in for this strategy, but I think it may be worth discussing. I think I know of a group at Michigan that could determine if the idea has legitimacy or not. Big ups HEADS.

–
Garlin Gilchrist II
http://www.thesuperspade.com

Sent via Wireless Handheld

 

How Information Economics Divides us Digitally

Since when is providing a common good a bad thing? I think good goes bad when good is free/low-cost/easily accessible.

A story in the Washington Post (linked here from the Talking Points Memo blog) talks about how BellSouth got a change of heart soon after they heard that New Orleans was thinking of free, municipal wireless internet access. They were going to donate one of their buildings to the city, but now they will charge for it instead. Well, after all, if people aren’t paying for internet access, then they have oodles of money laying around to male building lease payments to BellSouth in the for of increased taxes. Not to mention that taxes will be even more astronomical given that the N.O. Tax base is below that of the population at the summit of Mt. Everest. Quite empathetic indeed.

All that good, I mean bad stuff aside, let’s think of another reason that a large corporation would not want a bunch of poor folk to have free internet access. If they saw that they could receive BETTER service for FREE, they may NEVER come back! They definitely cannot have that, seeing as how they make the bulk of their revenue is by fleecing poor people at high volumes. Let’s also do what we can to thwart this effort because internet access = information access = people who are no longer ignorant. And it is hard to make money off of informed people.

I describe this in the above terms to call out the digital divide from a slightly different angle. Information economics tells us that there is value in information asymmetry. The idea is that if parties are on the same footing information-wise, they are less able or likely to take advantage of each other. The digital divide is an interesting example of this theory at work because it deals with the value of information both intrinsically and extrinsically. Withholding the intrinsic value that comes with knowledge and access to knowledge from people allows entities like BellSouth and others to extract extrinsic (in this case, monetary) value.

How is this combated? The only way to defeat those who wish to have you maintain your ignorance is to elevate yourself out of that ignorance. I pray that officials in New Orleans press on despite corporate intimidation tactics, and take this small step towards bring poor people to the right side of the digital divide.

–
Garlin Gilchrist II
http://www.thesuperspade.com

Sent via Wireless Handheld

Statistics of Black-White divide revisited

I read an interesting article entitled, Equality elusive for black Americans. What I really hated about this and other articles is that it was riddled with statistics that showed how Blacks have a ways to go to catch up to Whites. Why does it seem like any Black statistic won’t be published unless the corresponding White statistic be published along side it? And before I am mistaken, let me say that I believe in race based statistics but I get the feeling that White is the standard for success because so many times I have heard Black statistics defined as narrowing or expanding the Black-White (fill in the blank) divide. As a Black man, I don’t want Black success to be measured by White success and vice versa. And I don’t want White people to have a lesser quality of life so Black statistics will look better. For me, I just think it’s more important to see if Black folks are doing better (however defined) then they were yesterday and if that is not where White people are, then who cares?

Stay up fam,

Troops may be reduced in 06′

I just read a headline in the Detroit Free Press entitled, Bush Aide: Troop Reduction May Come in ‘06. I guess the spin never stops huh? How many times have we heard the troops “may” come home? This is one of the most outrageous and disrespectful things I have ever heard. The opening quote was, The United States may be ready to reduce troops in Iraq next year if Iraqis continue making progress at the current rate, President Bush’s national security adviser said Sunday. Did anyone catch the word “may”? Almost every other week I read about how the troops may stay in Iraq for up to ten years. So in other words basically, the troops may come home next year or end up staying for ten years, we are just crossing our fingers to see what the Iraqis MAY do. This is not a strategy Mr. President!!!! If a certain strategy solely depends on what someone else does, then it is not a strategy. Right now we are stuck in Iraq and I predict that we will hear more forceful calls from the Iraqi interim government for us to withdrawal, at which point, the US can save face and say, they didn’t want us there so we respected their wishes. One reason Bush has brought up recently for why we should stay is because he says the terrorists want to use Iraq as an operations base to launch attacks against the US. But if the terrorists didn’t need Iraq to attack us on 9/11, then why would they need it now?

Stay up fam,