Sabre rattling with Iran

If you haven’t noticed, Iran comes up just as often as Iraq. Of all the problems that is complicating some notion of success in Iraq, Bush and the peanut gallery have decided that Iran’s interference (which is not spelled out, just like the weapons of mass destruction) is a primary role in preventing Iraq from standing on their feet.

Iraq has stated on multiple occasions that they want a dialogue with Iran. So if we are there to help the Iraqis and the Iraqi government thinks it is wise for them to talk to their neighbor, then why has Bush authorized killing Iranian officials who are found in Iraq? The main problem is that focusing attention on Iran is the only way Bush can justify keeping a military presence in the region. Just so we are clear, we are trying to either start or maintain a so-called war in Afghanistan (which you never hear about), Iraq, and Iran. This is idiocy at its finest.

For more on this topic, read this article.

Stay up fam,

Categories:
Iran
So-called war on terror

Education reform pt 1: Context

What’s up fam,

My heart is heavy. Recently, the board of Detroit Public Schools announced plans to close 52 schools by next year. Their rationale for this decision was in part to have school capacity reflect the rapid decline of school enrollment due to the growing exodus of families either moving to different cities or sending their kids to charter schools (or using a family member’s address to enroll in another district). I have had enough! Our school system as a whole is not where it needs to be and I am tired of hearing about how we need to reform our schools without policies in place to inform those discussions.

So I went online and I googled school reform report and I came across a report entitled, Tough Choices or Tough Times, created by the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. (All subsequent quotes are from the executive summary of this report that I can’t link to because it is in pdf format)

We often hear about how we are living in a global economy and how our kids need to work hard but the way that we run our schools don’t reflect this new paradigm. But before we get into the proposals put forth, we should first understand one of Garlin’s themes for 2007; context.

The first commission released a report in 1990 that discussed how a worldwide market was developing in low-skill labor and that the work requiring these skills would end up in the countries where the price of low labor was the lowest. As a result, the commission pointed out that the United States could go one of two directions; “it could first try to compete in the low skills market and experience declining wages over time or it could try to compete in the worldwide market for high-value-added products and services. Aiming for the latter would require us to benchmark our curriculum to international standards, ensuring our children were competitive for jobs requiring advanced skills.”

Fast forward 15 years and we find ourselves in a situation where countries like India and China can offer large numbers of highly educated people willing to work for low wages. The report adds,

“Whereas for most of the 20th century the United States could take pride in having the best-educated workforce in the world, that is no longer true. Over the past 30 years, one country after another has surpassed us in the proportion of their entering workforce with the equivalent of a high school diploma. Thirty years ago, the United States could lay claim to having 30% of the world’s college students. Today that proportion has fallen to 14% and is continuing to fall.”

What I really hate is that even now, our industrialized schooling models largely corral our kids toward getting a “good job” after matriculating through high school and possibly college. What’s worse is that if we don’t make drastic changes, more and more students will find that the doors they thought education could open, will be closed. This is being aggravated by the flattening of the world economy. The report points out that

“Every day, more and more of the work that people do ends up in a digitized form. From X-rays used for medical diagnostic purposes, to songs, movies, architectural drawings, technical papers, and novels, that work is saved on a hard disk and transmitted instantly over the Internet to someone near or far who makes use of it in an endless variety of ways. Because this is so, a swiftly rising number of American workers at every skill level are in direct competition with workers in every corner of the globe.”

But here in America, we are led to believe that influxes of Mexican immigrants are taking away domestic jobs. And while corporations pull the wool over our eyes, they are outsourcing work to places like China and India. In other words, someone doesn’t have to live in the U.S. to compete for your job.

Next time, we will delve into the recommendations of the report.

Stay up fam,

Categories:
Education Reform

Rev. Al Sharpton might be running for President

On blackelectorate.com today, I read an article that discussed Rev. Al Sharpton’s threatening to run for President of the United States if Democratic candidates do not “commit to focusing attention on civil rights issues.” Strategically, does it make sense for Rev. Al Sharpton to play that role in the 2008 election cycle? Why or why not?

And please do not confuse this question with whether or not you like or dislike Rev. Sharpton.

Stay up fam,

Categories:
Politics
Al Sharpton

A Girl Like Me, and 3 Ways that we can Change Kids’ Images of Themselves

I was sent a video today that really bothered and inspired me. A high school student in New York made a documentary called A Girl Like Me (see below, linked here) that brings the question of our children’s images of race are affected at a young age.

This is reminiscent of the famous Doll Test that was part of the Brown v. Board of Education case against segregation.

How do we reverse this? There has to be a way to let Black children know that Black is good and not bad. But how? Since the idea of “white being better than Black” is learned/taught like everything else that a child absorbs, we have to think about what we are doing specifically to get Black boys and girls to think like this.

With this in mind, we need to be careful what we say and do. Here are 3 Ways that we can Change Kids’ Images of Themselves:

1. Be careful how we talk with, talk about, and acknowledge Black people
This means cleaning up our intra-racial dialogue. This means being careful about how we say things when criticizing one another (why do we have to say “you are a sorry excuse for a Black man” and not “sorry excuse for a man). This means no longer saying n!gga/n!gger to one another or anyone else, especially around children [of any race]. I would bet that even if a kid did not know what the word meant, they would know it was bad.

2. Watch what we watch, Listen to what we are listening to
Pay attention to subliminal messages in our media. Look for things that are being “said without being said.” For example, take TV shows like MTV’s The Real World. The majority of [straight] Black male characters on that show over the years have had non-Black girlfriends. The majority of the Black female characters on that show have been highly temperamental and standoff-ish. They did not outright say that “Black men want any woman that is not Black,” or “Black women are impossible to get along with.” The thing is, they did not have to say it. Take BET as another example, with their insistence on pushing music videos that push ignorant interpretations of Black masculinity and hyper-sexualized interpretations of Black femininity. They are telling you that this is what Black folks are. Kids aren’t stupid, and if they see a bunch of [Black] men smacking around Black women on TV, they are going to start wondering whether something is wrong with Black women. If the media that you consume is pushing this garbage, STOP CONSUMING IT!

3. Educate young people by talking about why you love your people
I am not talking about educating through school, which of course is necessary. I am talking about educating by talking with kids. When was the last time you, Black man/father, told your Black son/daughter or any other Black child why you love Black women or Black people? Black woman/mother, when was the last time you told your Black son/daughter or any other Black child why you love Black men or Black people? We spend so much time telling kids negative stuff: don’t do this, don’t touch that, don’t go here. Why not spend some time telling them what to do: do love your people.

Any other ideas?

News coverage and a brief interview with the filmmaker are available here.

One Love. One II.

Categories
Black Issues

Should the Congressional Black Caucus accept non-Black people?

I read an article today about Stephen Cohen, a white Democratic congressman from Tennessee, who gave up trying to join the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) because they would not let him in.

I have always been in favor of groups that are all-something: all-female, all-Black Male, etc. I will use a quote from Malcolm X to show why:

There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity…. We
cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among
ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first
proven acceptable to ourselves.

I believe that this thinking applies to other groups beyond Black people as well. Because the Caucus is a private entity, I think that they should be able to do what they please in terms of membership. More importantly, I also think that Rep. Cohen can serve and support the interests of his Black constituents in many ways; this is only one.

Do you see it as a problem for the CBC to not have non-Black members?

One Love. One II.

Categories
Congressional Black Caucus
Black Issues
Politics

What the Democratic State of the Union Response Lacked

I think that the Democratic response was a decent speech. I think Jim Webb is setting himself up to be somebody’s Vice Presidential candidate next year, but who knows. I do believe that the speech lacked two key things:

1. Katrina Response
I will kick this horse until my foot falls off. This was a tremendous opportunity to talk about what needs to be done and what will be done. This was a great opportunity to differentiate the Democrats and the Republicans on this issue. This was a prime opportunity to help out poor people who are on the bottom end of the “two americas” rhetoric. Sadly, this did not happen. This hurts the Democrats ability to be able to say that they care about poor people [and Black people for that matter].

2. The Post-100 Hours Democratic Agenda
Democrats could have used this as a stage to lay out to everyone what their next steps will be to follow up their successful execution of their “100 Hours” plan. What are the priorities now? Will they turn towards foreign policy thru diplomacy? Impeachment? Health care? This would have been a chance to keep the attention on actions.

One Love. One II.

Categories:
Politics
State of the Union
Democrats
Hurricane Katrina

Democratic Response to the 2007 State of the Union

Newly-elected Senator Jim Webb from Virginia gave the official Democratic Response to the State of the Union last night. I’d like to break down what he said here.

First, a slight omission: Bush did not give Katrina one sentence; Webb gave it gave it one phrase. I guess that is better than nothing, but it still sucks.

It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President’s message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and health care for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.

This was a good opening statement, and I agree with all of it it except for the last phrase, which doesn’t make any sense. To say that the Democrats hope “that this administration is serious about…addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans” is not needed because it is clear that this is not a priority. It would have made more sense to phrase this part as a challenge followed by a Democratic plan for the Gulf Coast.

The fact that Webb said “it would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President’s message, nor would it be useful” is good because it says “we don’t want to argue, we want to act.” I pray that that is more than just rhetoric.

When one looks at the health of our economy, it’s almost as if we are living in two different countries…In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy – that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today.

This was the strongest part of the speech. It focused on the need to remember that the Middle Class is critical to the success of our nation for both economic and emotional reasons. The economic reasons are relatively obvious in terms of the amount of money that these people can spend. The emotional reasons should be relatively obvious too because this gives those who are poorer something to aspire to. Unfortunately, as Webb points out, there are people in this country who want to eradicate the Middle Class by engaging in class warfare, using the weapons of high education and health care/insurance costs to push those who are currently middle class down to a lower level of economic vitality.

With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years…they owed us – sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.

Though obvious to some, this statement cannot be repeated enough: we made the wrong choice when deciding to invade Iraq, and we are continuing to make the wrong choice by staying there. The voters made this clear in November, and the government must pay attention. The Congress must do everything within its constitutional mandate to protect us from a heavy-handed, non-thinking executive. This was not happening when everyone was a Republican. Perhaps that will change now that a different party is running the House and Senate.

The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction…an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq’s cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.

Note the words “immediate” and “short order.” These can be translated to mean “Get out, and get out now! No ’surge.’ No ’staying until we achieve [the yet-to-be-defined-state-of] victory.” This is what voters told their government in November that they wanted. The government needs to respond to the will of the people.

One Love. One II.

Categories:
Politics
State of the Union
Democrats

2007 State of the Union: A Translation

Here is my real-time analysis of G. W. Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address. This is a shortcut for anyone that did not watch the speech on TV or listen to it.

First, an omission. He did not say a word about Hurricane Katrina. That made me so upset that I nearly shed tears.

Madame Speaker…

This actually started well. Hearing this reminds me of how historic it is for Rep. Nancy Pelosi to be the Speaker of the House, the most powerful woman ever in the United States Congress. I wonder if Mr. Bush was sincere in his words to her during his opening remarks.

Decisions are hard, and courage is needed…The will to face difficult challenges…Congress has changed, but not our responsibilities…

These guarded statements are said to try and disarm his opposition within the Democratically-controlled Congress. What these statements basically mean is, “I will give lip service to working together, but expect nothing different out of me and my administration.”

3 Economic Reforms that deserve to be priorities…Balance the Federal Budget…We can do so without raising taxes…What we need is spending discipline in Washington…Earmarks…Entitlements…Commitments of Conscience…Fix Medicare and Medicaid, and save Social Security…

This was the first “meat” of the speech. He spit typical conservative banter about “fiscal responsibility,” and it is simply banter because this administration has been arguably the most fiscally irresponsible administrations in history. A key example of this irresponsibility: Iraq. The “we can do so without raising taxes” part is consistent with Bush’s insistence on cutting taxes while we are at “war,” something that has never happened before.

The stuff on “earmarks” is a joke because those will not go away any time soon since Republicans and Democrats use them all the time.

Conservatives use the term “entitlements” to deceive people. They need to do this so that they can make you feel bad about the government doing things for you. They play up this farce so that people feel bad taking things from the government that they select & elect. Funny how there was no mention of corporate entitlements in the form of war profiteering or the Bankruptcy Bill a.k.a. the worst piece of legislation since the Patriot Act (which a certain person voted for, and that really bothers me).

The future of opportunity requires that all of our citizens have affordable and available health care…For all other Americans, private health insurance provides the best option…Standard Health Insurance Tax Deduction…Changing the tax code is a vital and necessary step to making health care available to all Americans

I don’t even know why this man fronts like he wants all Americans to have health insurance. If so, he would at least put a dent in the 40+ million people who don’t. He and his friends still think it is a bad idea to realize Universal Health Care through what’s called a Single-payer system. Basically, single-payer means that only one party negotiates for the price of health insurance and services: the government. Every citizen would then have their health costs covered through what they pay in taxes. This would result in higher taxes for the citizens, but those increased costs probably would not add up to the amount that people overpay for health services every day, month, and year. The idea of trying to get everyone to go private is as ridiculous as the privatize social security plan that he had a while back (and still has). This is also consistent with the way that the “war” in Iraq has been privatized. These pro-business, anti-citizen types always think private is the answer so that they can take money away from public institutions and services.

Extending hope and opportunity in this country requires an immigration policy that is worthy of America

I won’t say much on this. I think that Bush’s guest worker idea sounds a whole lot like new school indentured servitude. For those that don’t know, this was the precursor to slavery in this country. I do not think that the parallel is coincidental.

Reduce gasoline usage by 20% in the next 10 years…

How??? His mandatory fuel standard statement was weak at best, especially in the midst of his administration and its energy policy.

Global climate change…

He can’t say global warming because that does not exist. So rather than being a flip-flopper (we know how much he hates those), he has decided to use a different term: global climate change. This is his backwards way of admitting that there is a problem. I guess a small first step is better than no step at all. Is the next step for him to watch this?

To win the war on terror, we must take the fight to the enemy…

This was the opening statement to his surprisingly long section on Iraq, Iran, and foreign policy. There was too much B.S. here to sift through. Take a look at some of our analysis to get an idea of the truth. Suffice it to say that this strategy is questionable at best.

Darfur…Fight AIDS on the continent of Africa…Dikembe Mutumbo…

He really mentioned Darfur? That’s a surprise. Too bad he didn’t refer to it as a genocide. Again, I guess a small step is better than no step at all.

It is sad, but the “fighting AIDS in Africa” phrase is being rendered absolutely meaningless. It gets paid so much lip service that people forget that there are actually humans living on the continent of Africa who exist for reasons other than making someone feel good being a philanthropist.

One Love. One II.

Categories
Politics
Foreign Policy
State of the Union
Taxes
Darfur
So-called “War on Terror”

Katrina never mentioned in The State of the Union

I have a long play-by-play analysis of the State of the Union speech that I will put up shortly, but my initial reaction to the speech sums up my overall impression of it:

THIS BASTARD DID NOT MAKE ONE MENTION OF THE GREATEST DOMESTIC CRISIS TO EVER OCCUR ON AMERICAN SOIL: HURRICANE KATRINA!!!!

I guess Kanye was right. I never liked G. W. Bush, but I for damn sure cannot stand him now. He talked all this noise about helping people, and about helping Iraqis, and about helping Africans. Why no talk about helping “AMERICANS?”

This is disgusting. I dare someone to defend his purposeful exclusion of Hurricane Katrina in a speech on domestic policy.

Any presidential hopeful that does not call out and talk about how terrible this is will not get my vote in 2008. Period.

4 Traits of My Ideal President[ial Candidate]

There are a whole lot of people who have said that they are running for President in 2008. While d@mn near all of them would be better than the current occupant of said office, this “choice” leads me to wonder: what would the perfect president/presidential candidate look like? Before I weigh in on a specific candidate, I think that this is an important question to think about, and I would encourage all voters to do the same (we’re all voters, right?). I want to take a look at what makes an ideal candidate to me.

1. A Leader that is a Servant
2. A Thinker and a Doer
3. A person of Integrity
4. A Populist

First, Presidents must be leaders. Sure, that is obvious, if you have a simplistic definition of a leader as “the person ‘in charge.’” To me a leader is really a servant. They serve their constituents, the people that they are “in charge” of, the people who put them in that leadership position. They meet the needs of people and organizations. They solve problems. They put forth a concerted, honest effort to make things better. My ideal candidate would subscribe to the servant definition of leadership. They would not see leadership as a title, but as a responsibility. They would not see leadership as an opportunity to exert power, but as an opportunity to induce positive change. They would not see leadership as work, but as service.

(The question then is, who would this servant be serving? In the context of the President of the United States, this person should be serving the citizens of the US. The modern-day election process has made this…complicated. Elections cost money, and most of the time elected officials end up serving the people that pay them money during their campaigns, and them alone. This problem is only solved by taking the money out of politics and returning elections to the voters, but I digress.)

Secondly, Presidents must be both thinkers and doers. Effective Presidents cannot be one or the other, but must be both. The current holder of the office represents the antithesis of thoughtful action. For example, Herbert Hoover was a thinker and Richard Nixon was a doer. They were both failures as Presidents, Hoover due to his impractical yet unwaivering belief in the Efficiency Movement and its theories, Nixon due to his short-sighted and dishonest decision to do just about anything to stay get re-elected. An example of a thinker and a doer is Franklin Roosevelt, who [was by no means perfect but] rethought this country’s economic landscape and laid the foundation for what we now call the Middle Class. My ideal candidate would create through thoughtful action. They would understand the implications and nuances of any actions that they take, and determine how to deal with them before acting. They would be proactive, not reactive. They would consider and consult with all stakeholders in any action that they take.

(One could argue that this is not much of a test because even Nixon thought about what he was doing before he did it. The truth is, this can only apply to leaders that can be trusted, which is the next part of this ideal leader.)

Third, and most important, Presidents must have integrity. Not only do they need to be trusted by the people of this country, but they need to be trusted by everyone throughout the world. They need to be consistent but not bull-headed. They need to be fair but not weak. They need to be conscientious but not indecisive. The difference between someone who has true integrity and someone who is simply a loyalist is that everyone trusts the person with integrity. Those that agree and those that disagree with a person with integrity both know that they will be told the truth, and they also know that a lesser person would likely not be straight with them if they were not on the same side. Nowhere is this more true than in foreign policy, where American distrust is something that far too many nations have in common across the globe. I go back to consistency as part of the integrity of a leader because people have to be able to trust you to do the right thing no matter the situation’s degree of difficulty. My ideal candidate would be trustworthy in the eyes of all Americans and citizens of the planet. They would see the truth as a non-negotiable necessity and not a sliding scale. They would see full-disclosure and transparency as a tool of a functioning democracy and not an enemy to their plans. They would see honesty, especially when it is uncomfortable, as a sign of strength and not of weakness.

(No caveat to this one, other than the obvious one that says it is difficult to find a politician you can trust.)

These first three traits are indeed pretty broad, and I think pretty easy to agree on.

The fourth and final trait my ideal president[ial candidate] would embody is a belief in populism, which means that they believe that people, not entities, should run this nation. They believe that power and influence should be driven by people and what they want, not money and what it can buy. They listen to everyone and are willing to make decisions that will help those that need it most. They are not afraid to ask themselves or other people to sacrifice to benefit another human being. They are empathetic to people’s needs and able to articulate those needs and ways to address them. My ideal candidate empower people by making their voices matter, for real.

That’s my leader. What embodies your ideal candidate?

One Love. One II.

Categories
Politics
Voting

The Weekly Dream: The Land Of Make Believe

Question of the Week: How Can you use your imagination more?

As a child, I loved watching Mr. Rogers. My favorite part of the show is when he would go to the land of Make-Believe, with the hand puppets and all. It was a place where anything was possible. But it did not stop at Mr. Rogers; I spent much of my childhood in a fantasy world. Rather than watch television, I opted for books on fairy and folk tales from different cultures. I loved stories, to believe that anything was possible and nothing was too absurd.

But something strange happened. The older I got, the less I used my imagination. Until one day, I found myself exiled from the Land of Make Believe.

The Peter Pan Syndrome

The rise of the Information Age, Reality TV and All-Access technology has ruined our imagination. There is nothing that cannot be known about anything, at any moment of the day. Let’s face it, there is not much wonderment left in the modern world. What is even sadder is that no one seems to care.

I believe that this is because we have forgotten what an imagination is for. Furthermore, in this fast paced world there is no time for Make Believe. We have all been exiled to the Land of Grown-ups.

What is an imagination for? Well, to me it is to explore not only your creativity but also what is in your subconscious. For all of our knowledge, very little is known about the subconscious mind. But we do know this, it is always on, soaking up everything we are exposed to. Too often our subconscious is only active at night, in our dream state, but day dreaming and imagining can be a powerful way to approach problems if we bring it under the discipline of our conscious.

Free Your Mind

What happens is that your conscious mind is constantly laboring under constraints imposed upon it from the outside world. We are always jumping from what is possible to what is not possible and back again. As such, we tend to get boxed in. Using our imagination opens up a world of possibilities and offers fresh eyes to the situation. Spend more time imagining things, absurd things, silly things in order to shake the shackles from your mind. Give yourself a little mental release; because quite frankly, reality can get a little drab. Remember to dream big, if you remember to dream at all. However, as Rudyard Kipling said, “You must dream, but not make dreams your master.”

I don’t know about you, but I am and forever will be a dreamer. And who knows, maybe I can win my citizenship back to the land of Make-Believe.

Truth and Peace,
Steven M DeVougas

Categories:
The Weekly Dream

Collective Action and The Talented Tenth

“I love black people, but I hate niggas”
-Chris Rock

Right now, I am watching the Colts receive the AFC Championship trophy. However, one of the major things the commentators kept bringing up was that this is the first time that two African-American coaches will be in the Super Bowl. Before they would bring up the games, the win, their intelligence as coaches-race was the primary focus, as this was a milestone for all African Americans. And it was. However, it got me to thinking: “Will African Americans ever stop being considered as a collective, homogenous group and is this necessarily a bad thing?” Just as we are quick to appropriate the good, what about the bad or less than spectacular aspects of our community?

I have long been of the opinion that there are two characters in African-American society, African-Americans and Niggers. And the gulf between the two is growing so wide that soon we will not be able to hide behind skin color anymore, and it will come down to economics, which is what race has been a red herring for all along. But I digress. African Americans are known to complain that niggers make the rest of the race look bad and are holding us back by their ignorance (read: Bill Cosby). And Niggers say that African Americans are too uppity, self-righteous and tame. As such, there is no small amount of animosity between these two sub-groups in African American society. And this concerns me deeply.

First, to answer my own question, I believe that African Americans will never stop being considered a homogenous group in America and as such, the actions of the few will forever reflect on the majority. We do not have the luxury of Caucasians, who do not concern themselves with hillbillies in the Appalachians. Unlike them, we have African-Americans and Niggers often sitting at the same table, in the same family. So, for those individuals who wish it would not happen, and think it should not occur anymore where we are viewed as a collective, do not hold your breath, it aint gonna happen (my thoughts as to why is another post in and of itself). We are so mixed together that we can hardly tell the difference between the two. We still unconsciously view ourselves as a collective.

However, here is a little insight that Bill Cosby and others of the Black intelligentsia might not understand. In fact, it is borderline heretical, as a member of the progressive African-American constituency: African-Americans need Niggers and Niggers need African-Americans. It is the yin and yang of racial politics. God creates duality for a purpose. In every African-American, there is a part of him willing to “burn this so and so down” if he feels like he is being disrespected, and it goes past being assertive. And it goes the other way also.

Now, here is the million dollar question: “How do we help each other as members of this collective ethnic group?”

I will not lie; I was supremely frustrated with certain aspects of the African American community. And my frustration culminated in a heated discussion with Garlin. At that point, I was ready to turn my back on the Niggers, and like Noah, focus on saving my own family from the impending doom and finality of the decimation of the middle-class and the haves v. have-nots. We knew all too well the threat of some segments of our ethnic community being a permanent underclass in America. And we could not understand why more people did not see it and why we seemed powerless to stop it.

Even in my own family, I could not understand how some of my family members chose not to follow my example. I tried in vain to encourage various cousins to go to school and consolidate the gains of my aunts and uncles so that we could make that power play to prosperity.

But on the other end, when I would speak with middle to upper class blacks and listened to their characterization of those perceived as Niggers, I was not satisfied either. It was a characterization that lacked compassion and understanding. Only then could I understand why we cannot come to the table and collaborate. Somewhere down the line, we received a distorted view of one another.

So, I pose the question, what is our place in this mess? How do we help our brothers and sisters who are characterized as Niggers and how can they help us, since they are here for a reason? I don’t have the answer. I have not even figured out how to get those who are not like myself to listen to me. But I do know that I have to check my self-righteousness, ego, and frustration at the door. I do know that I need them and they need me, and I will always go back to the ‘hood, whether they want me there or not. And no matter how high a barrier my education and professional achievement erects between us, I will be there. No matter how some of us glorify the Thug Life and our impoverished backgrounds as a badge of honor, and others of us who believe money entitles us to special treatment. We need each other. Why? Because at one point, in American society, we all were Niggers. Whether we like it or not, we have and probably always will be treated as a collective group in America. But only now, do we have the benefit to refer to ourselves as African Americans.

The Consigliere

P.S. For more commentary, go to this link.

Categories:
Black Issues

Senator Barack Obama is running for President!!!

Senator Barack Obama announced his intentions to file presidential exploratory committee and said he would talk announce more details on February 10th. This means that for all intents and purposes, the Senator will be running. I am excited about this campaign because if win or lose, we may be able to realize a paradigm shift for thinking about race, class, and opportunity. I hope that the ensuing debates over his running will spark substantive debate over his proposed policies.

And a note to my Black people:
1) Please don’t decide you like or dislike the Senator because of his identity
2) This is a critical time that we really start to collectively stamp out the crab bucket mentality
3) White people liking Senator Obama does not mean that he is a sell out
4) Read his books, study his voting record, go to his website, and be conscious of what sources are informing your opinion of him
5) Senator Obama is not the leader or spokesperson for all Black people and be critical of people that paint him in this light
6) Pray for the Senator and his family
7) Senator Obama will make mistakes. He is human and therefore fallible. Don’t hold him to unrealistic expectations

Stay up fam,

Categories:
Senator Barack Obama
politics

The SuperSpade Interview on Radio Nation with Dr. Laura Flanders

Family,

Here is the audio (1 min 51 sec, wav file) from my brief interview on Radio Nation with Dr. Laura Flanders this past Saturday night while I was in Memphis, TN at the Free Press National Conference on Media Reform. I used this time to describe what the mission and vision of The SuperSpade is to a broad audience.

This gathering was one of the most inspiring and energizing assemblies that I have ever attended. I will reflect more on the conference, who I met, and what I learned a bit later. The SuperSpade was very well received.

I am back in Seattle for all of one day before I go to Detroit for a few days this week.

Happy MLK Day everyone. Use this as a day of learning and not of laziness.

One Love. One II.

Categories:
SuperSpade
Speech
Radio Interview

The SuperSpade live on Air America Radio

Right now, resident SuperSpade Garlin, will be on Air America Radio at the National Conference on Media Reform. This show is being streamed live right now and you can listen right now at www.airamerica.com, then click on listen.

We will continue to reach out to the people and invite them to the family. And if at all possible, we will try to bring you a recording of Garlin’s segment. Good work G,

Stay up fam,

Categories:
Radio interview
Garlin

The Weekly Dream: One Day We’ll All Be Free

Not strong, only aggressive
Not free, we only licensed
Not compassionate, only polite, now who’s the nicest?
Not good, just Well-Behaved
Chasing after death so we can call ourselves brave
Still living like mental slaves

-Black Star, Thieves in the Night

“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph”
-Exodus 1:8

Question of the Week: Are you free and in what way? What are you willing to give to protect your freedom?

The Martin Luther King holiday is right around the corner. What does that really mean? For most people I know, the King holiday means a day to catch up on things around the house and an extra day off of work. For a while, my observance of the King Holiday was sacrificed at the altar of my own procrastination. At some point, I began to wonder whether the holiday had lost its significance, especially for people of my generation and younger.

Let Freedom Ring

The change for me came when I researched the history and heard accounts from my elders of what it was really like back then. When it became real to me as to how much Dr. King and others in that era had to give up just so we can exercise our basic human rights, I felt that at the very least, I could take a few hours out of my day to pay homage to one of the greatest leaders in American History.

But recently, Dr. King has come to represent something more to me, something I did not associate with him explicitly in all my years of hearing about Dr. King, and that was freedom. Freedom is defined as “the absence of hindrance, restraint, confinement, repression and subjection to an arbitrary power.”

Now, there are varying levels of freedom and different kinds of freedom. In society, we sacrifice some of our personal autonomy in order to reap the benefits that come with security. Dr. King and others heroes of that era cast away their own personal security by courageously speaking the truth about America and its “Animal Farm” notion of equality. However, speaking truth is insufficient; the truth must be seen in action to possess true freedom.

Looking at the state of race relations in America and the state of my own community, I often wonder if I am selfless enough to put my life on the line, give up time I could spend with my family and friends, in order to fight for the rights of others? That is the challenge and call to leadership. That is the challenge posed to us by the legacy of Dr. King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers and others. As soon as you begin to live the truth, security goes out the window. You become a target. But if we do not protect the truth and freedom, who will?

Lest We Forget

In Exodus, the children of Israel were enslaved in the land of Egypt. Many years earlier, their ancestor Joseph saved the country from one of the worse famines in early recorded history. Joseph was a national hero and as a reward, pharaoh allowed Joseph’s people to live in the land. However, as time passed, it says that there was a pharaoh that did not know Joseph. He did not really forget, but the significance of what Joseph had done lost meaning as time passed. As a result, the pharaoh enslaved the same people who had saved his nation so many years earlier. And apparently, as the Israelites lived in slavery, they adopted a slave mentality, learning to love their chains instead of freedom. Thus, they had to go to the wilderness in order to learn to be free again.

What about us? Are we free? Or have we allowed ourselves to be enslaved by internal and external forces? The greatest crime is to forget the legacy of those who went before us and live our lives in a way that makes their sacrifices null and void.

To combat this, we can start by doing something to honor the legacy of the man with a dream.

Truth and Peace,
Steven M. DeVougas

Categories:
MLK
The Weekly Dream

In Bush’s speech, nothing changed but Iran

Originally, I was going to post a detailed analysis of Bush’s speech from last night but my analysis was in line with what most political and military experts described as, “More of the same.” However, one marked difference is Bush’s change of tone with respect to his stance toward Iran and Syria.

In a major speech concerning Iraq given in March of 2006, Bush said,

“Some of the most powerful IEDs we are seeing in Iraq today includes components that came from Iran. Our director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, told the Congress Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti- coalition attacks by providing Shi’a militia with the capabilities to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq. Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran. Such actions, along with Iran’s support for terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, are increasingly isolating Iran. And America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats.”

This excerpt is important in what was not said. Bush does not explain how his administration would help isolate Iran and more importantly, he makes no threat if Iran continues to support terrorism.

Now pay attention to the shift in tone in Bush’s speech on Iraq from last night, January 10th, 2007;

“Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.”

Here is how the logic breaks down,
1. We must succeed in Iraq
2. Succeeding in Iraq requires defending its territorial integrity
3. Iran and Syria are compromising Iraq’s territorial integrity
4. Therefore, we must seek out and destroy networks within Iran and Syria to defend Iraq’s territorial integrity

And not without irony, the same day as Bush’s speech, US forces stormed a building in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil and seized six people said to be Iranians, prompting a diplomatic incident. The building that was raided was an Iranian consulate. This may not seem like real news but I am convinced the United States will continue to push and probe Iran with similar incidents until Iran responds. And if Iran even coughs in response to any U.S. provocation (no matter how small), the neoconservatives will waste no time selling the Iranian response as an act of war and worthy of an overwhelming military counter attack.

These are sobering times we live in. My hunch is that this won’t be the last “surge” we will see deployed to the Iraqi region. What’s more scary is that I feel that our “surge” isn’t really intended for Iraq.

God please grant us wisdom and discernment.

Stay up fam,
Stay up fam,.

Categories:
Iran
Bush Administration

The SuperSpade at The National Conference for Media Reform

Happy New Year family. I pray that everyone had a blessed and safe holiday season and is refreshed and energized for a prosperous and positive new year.

My year is starting off excitingly, in part because I will be attending a conference this weekend hosted by freepress called The National Conference for Media Reform. You may remember me mentioning this before when I shared my essay on the importance of media reform.

While there, I will share with you all the experience and what I learn. I am looking forward to having a lot of fun and gaining a lot of knowledge. I may record & share some of the sessions, and, if I get some good ones, I’ll take & share pictures too.

One Love. One II.

Categories:
Media

The SuperSpade in the news…

What’s up fam!!! I wish everyone a Happy New Year and a year of growth and fulfillment. My year started off great as I was able to participate in a press conference with the Change America Now Campaign. The Change America Now Campaign is a national effort to pass the economic elements of the 100 hour plan as outlined by the Democratic leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The proposed legislation would increase of the minimum wage, lift the prohibition on Medicare negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for lower prescription drug prices as part of the Part D prescription drug plan, cut the interest rate on student loans in half to make college more affordable and end tax breaks for big oil companies and invest new resources into alternative sources of energy.

I was asked to discuss the why Congress should cut the student loan interest rates in half. And for those of you who think legislation doesn’t touch you personally, cutting student loan interest rates in half would save the average college student $5,600. We must take the necessary steps to make college more affordable.

Now if I was smart like Garlin, I would have recorded my remarks. However, I was quoted in some newspapers and I wanted to share them with my Superspade family.

1.5.07 Groups Back Congressional Action read more
As the 110th Congress convened Thursday under Democratic control, a coalition of organizations said in Lansing they were calling on their members to help get passed an agenda that included an increase in the minimum wage and cuts in the interest rate charged for student loans.

1.5.07 Michigan Coalition Nudges Congress read more
A Michigan coalition has embraced the new congressional Democratic Party agenda to hike the minimum wage, reduce the cost of college loans and allow more competition in setting prescription drug prices. Michigan Citizen Action (MCA) wants all of that done in the first 100 hours of the new session in Washington.

1.5.07 Michigan Groups Push Bills in New Congress read more
The democratically controlled Congress should boost the federal minimum wage, reduce by 50 percent the interest on college student loans, and give the Medicaid system the authority to bargain with major drug companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.

Stay up fam,

Categories:
Higher Education
Politics

The Weekly Dream: Cruel Intentions

Question of the Week: What is your New Year’s Resolution?

Happy New Year! I hope everyone rung in 2007 safely. I, for one, am full of optimism and anticipation as to what the next 12 months will bring. As always, I began by writing my New Year’s Resolutions and asking others to share their own. And as always, I am surprised by the amount of people who still do not make New Year’s Resolutions. We all know the statistics, most people who make them have broken them by February. Does this mean that resolutions are pointless? Au contrare!

Resolutions Remixed

In truth, most people do not make resolutions, they make New Year’s Intentions. A resolution is a formal expression of will. Intent is more of a thought or sentiment. The difference? Deliberateness. Most people are not deliberate enough to birth intent into resolve. As Jesus said, “The Spirit is willing, but the Flesh is weak.” However, I am confident we can OVERCOME our human frailty and have what we DESIRE in 2007.

What Do You Know?

First thing’s first. We need a course of action in order to achieve our goals. However, what do you know about the process you need to get from Point A to Point B? As Jesus so eloquently stated, “Who undertakes a work without first counting the cost?” We need to look at ourselves and be honest with ourselves as what we are really willing to give. If you know you do not get out of bed before noon, then do not plan on early morning workouts. I love bread and pasta, so I know the Atkins diet is not in my future for 2007. You must shape the process to conform to your lifestyle constraints. There is no shame in baby steps.

Strategize

Next, we must take what we have learned about the process and put together a plan. This plan should be more definite, but it should possess some flexibility. For example, losing weight is not a resolution. A better way to state this is saying you will lose weight by drinking more water or not eating fast food. This is not a full plan, but you get the idea.

Make sure you write your plan complete with the reason why you are doing what you are doing. Capturing your motivation is key, so on those tough days, you can get back on track.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Also of the utmost importance, is to make sure you put your beautiful resolution in a visible place, so you can see it everyday. Do not let a day pass where you have not looked at it at least once, preferably at the beginning of the day. You must meditate on it day and night until it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Furthermore, this will enable you to track your progress. If you are off track, then you know where you went wrong and how to get back on track. Monitor yourself, it is a constant feedback system in order to achieve your goals.

Lastly

This year is a fresh start, so treat it as such. Predictions simply serve as a baseline for planning. So do not be dismayed by getting off tracked. However, you make a grave error by not having a theme for the year. We must become more accountable for our time and other resources. Let us never again let another year pass and we do not know what we accomplished and what we learned. As always, I wish all of you truth, because it sets you free and peace, so that you are missing nothing.

If there is anyway we can help you, either through allowing you to share your resolutions and plan and, from time to time, your progress, feel free to do so. Studies show that goals are 90% more likely to be accomplished when you are accountable to someone else. So let us be your life coach .

Here’s to an excellent 2007!

Truth and Peace,
Steven M DeVougas

Categories:
The Weekly Dream