Stories of the Revolution

Whether you call it the movement or the revolution, most people I know desperately want to see a major shift in America and the world’s priorities including; pulling people out of poverty, reforming public education, ending this senseless war, helping put an end to the Darfur conflict, saving the planet, etc. Regardless of the issue, we are down for the “cause” so to speak. For those of us that share this burning desire, it is sometimes hard to understand why so many people just don’t get it.

The Weekly Dream: See You Next Week

Hello everyone,

 Due to sickness, exams and other general natural disasters, there will be no Weekly Dream this week.  However, feel free to search the archives for a review . 

Truth and Peace,

Steven M DeVougas

Does the end of the Black Family Channel signal the demise of Black TV?

The fight for Black entertainment more-positive-than-the-joke-that-is-BET is bracing itself for a serious blow. The Black Family Channel is close to being bought out. Unless something extraordinary happens, there will be two major, 24-hour “Black” channels left: TV One and [my least favorite,] BET (purposely not linking to website). What is the future of Black Entertainment?

Kilpatrick and CBC Institute Still Loves Fox News

If someone insults, consistently insults and hurts you, and does not repent/apologize/beg for forgiveness/something, you probably would not want to do busines with them.

Apparently the Congressional Black Caucus Institute (CBCI) doesn’t think this is how one conducts business. That is why they are still going ahead with these debates that they are airing with Fox News. What’s interesting is that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) itself is split on the issue.

Want to watch the Presidential Debates Online?

Did you know that it is illegal to show clips of Presidential Debates on YouTube? That’s because TV networks have exclusive rights to the video. That’s ridiculous, don’t you think? If these people are running for public office, then the things they do to campaign should be publicly available, right?

We thought so too, which is why we signed this letter to the Democratic and Republican National Committees urging them to put the debates into the public domain. It is time for us to fight for access to the media and for access to information.

Who’s fault is it that we’re fat?

This NY Times article says that it is partly the fault of the government that we have an obesity problem in the United States. Don’t be confused: this does not mean that there is no personal responsibility when it comes to your own health and diet. What it does mean is that the most effective way to make everyone more healthy is through policies that support our health! D@mn, that is another chink in the armor of the whole “politics doesn’t effect my life” ideology.

General Patraeus and Iran

The following is taken from an article at Voice of America.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq says an Iraqi group affiliated with an elite Iranian force carried out an attack last year in which five U.S. soldiers were killed near the Iraqi town of Karbala. The statement by General David Petraeus follows months of suspicion about Iranian involvement in the incident, but the general says he cannot directly connect Iranian agents to the attack.

First of all, if you can’t confirm your claims with evidence, shut up. Do I need to remind you of Colin Powell’s presentation of mobile lab cartoons and the empty vile prop? I am sick and tired of this administration being able to make claims that are passed off as facts but cannot be confirmed.

And seriously, with all of the work that General Patraeus has to do in making the “surge” successful, why are we trying to link Iran to an incident from last year? Maybe if we were more focused on rebuilding Iraq than we were trying to scrimp for reasons to invade Iran, we could bring home the troops. I’m done.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

The Iraq War: Lost

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently said that the “Iraq war is lost.” I happen to agree with him and I am shocked at how much the truth rattles Washington insiders. Nevertheless, I haven’t really taken time to consider the immediate or future implications for American foreign policy and the geopolitical balance of the Middle East. 

There will come a time when our troops come home. But lest we forget, Bush waged preemptive war in our name so once it is “over” it won’t ever be back to normal. People in Iraq, our allies and our enemies resent the arrogance of our actions in Iraq. This resentment will fester for generations to come and I pray that American leaders have the wisdom to foresee the future harm this war is causing. 

And with the loss in blood and treasure, I think we have yet to see the true costs of this war. How do you think these costs will be materialized?

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

Education in 2008!

This is the campaign being spearheaded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to make education a key priority issue in the presidential elections for 2008. With a war chest upwards of $60 million dollars, this is the largest single-issue advocacy campaign ever seen. What’s more appealing is that the campaign is not seeking to endorse a presidential candidate or even take stances on legislation. It simply wants to make sure education is a top priority on our national agenda.

Michigan’s Budget Crisis

For all of the national financial news we digest, I cannot emphasize how influential your state and local governments are in your day-to-day affairs. This is especially true when we consider that many states (unlike the federal government) require balanced budgets.

Personal Hygiene Help for the Fellas: Part II

Sometimes we lighten it up here at The SuperSpade. Today, we will delve into the wonderful world of hygiene help for the guys. In the first post on hygiene we touched on the importance of wet wipes, clipping hang nails, among other items. So as summer approaches and global warming makes this year the hottest ever, let’s get back to basics. This list is intended for everyone from the Scruff McGruffs to the metrosexuals. And as always, ladies please help us out if you have any suggestions.

Don Imus & The End of Controversial Voices?

This is the last time I step on this dead horse, I promise.

Media owner/critic [and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban asks interesting questions about the Imus fallout. Here's one:

Was Imus the last "media provocateur"? If most media are controlled by major corporations, who is going to be willing to put their job on the line and say something that might catch the fancy of tabloid news, and in turn upset the board of directors? Who is going to be willing to knowingly take an unpopular position and accept the accompanying risk?

This basically translates to asking if any network will have any gall to support people who say crazy and/or stupid things. Cuban mentions that he thinks Fox News would. He's right, and they have demonstrated that time and time again.

This is important to ponder when thinking about media and media reform. What level of controversy and/or offensiveness is acceptable or should be permitted? Should any?

Let's flip this and ask the same question: If [insert your "prominent" Black non-sports media personality here, but for the purposes of example I'll say] Tom Joyner said some horribly offensive things about white or Hispanic women, would you want him fired?

Let’s be careful with our double standards. We all know that they exist. The question is where/if they ever make sense.

One Love. One II.

Community colleges

As high school students prepare for graduate, their friends and family members will bombard them with the same question, “So where are you going to college?” To a large extent, I applaud the strong push for higher education but by college, most people assume college to mean a 4-year university. So when HS graduates say, “I am going to community college,” I get sick to my stomach to see the tacit disappointment register on the face of the person asking the question.

The Weekly Dream: Out of This World

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

-John 14:27

“Find heaven in yourself and God”

-Ghetto Heaven, Common

A few days before the Virginia Tech tragedy, I was having a conversation with my neighbors about the local crime in the city.  In my astonishment I asked, “Where do you have to go to get some peace?  The moon?”  To which my neighbor responded, “You better look at yourself, that is the only place you are going to find it.”  For some reason, that stuck with me.

Let’s face it, the world is crazy.  And if you did not know that before the Virginia Tech shootings, that incident right there should prove it to you.  And something we often forget is that people are hurting and lonely.  We may be hurting and lonely and do not even realize it.  So I asked myself, “Where do people find peace?”

Recap of Barack Obama’s Rally at Georgia Tech

Clarence Wardell III, PR Chair for Young Georgia for Obama, recently attended and photographed Barack Obama’s Rally at Georgia Tech University this past Saturday.

(Credit: Clarence Wardell III, 2006)

Being afraid of music

As someone who grew up in the church, I was raised on the belief that, “Spirits ride on the wings of music.” The basis of this logic is that a singer/musician has the potential to either edify or weaken your spirit and that no one is immune to these effects. The logic ends with the axiom that if we are not careful to what we listen to, we leave our spirits vulnerable to attack. (Not to mention that Lucifer was the angel responsible for worship and music)

Virginia Tech Shootings

If you haven’t heard yet, 32 people were shot dead at Virginia Tech’s campus in what is being described as the deadliest mass shooting in US history. As a person who works with college students and a recent graduate myself, this tragedy hits very close to home.

I know it’s hard to appreciate how fragile life is. As a result, tragedies like these often shock us into making sure our loved ones know they are loved. As I have stated before, the best reason is just because. This extends to calling, emailing, texting, making plans to go out, etc. with your loved ones.

I refuse to discuss the politics of the right to bear arms or the implications of the identity of the shooter or the victims. It doesn’t really matter. 33 people died today and there is a time for everything. Now is the time to mourn and reflect.

To all the family and friends of the victims, my heart goes out to you. I pray that the initial resentment and confusion will be replaced by peace, harmony and joy.

For all of my family and friends who read The SuperSpade, I love you. Each of you enrich my life and I will continue to try and do the same.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

The 2008 Olympics actually helping Darfur Conflict?

It looks like it just might. According to this NY Times article,

nongovernmental organizations and other groups appear to have scored a surprising success in an effort to link the Olympics, which the Chinese government holds very dear, to the killings in Darfur, which, until recently, Beijing had not seemed too concerned about.

Nearly any angle that is used to make headway here is worth pursuing in my mind, so this one is no different.

Don Imus and Racial Perceptions

This whole Don Imus-Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team debacle can be summed up pretty easily by the words of Imus before he ruined his career and the actions of the team since the infamous comments were made.

Imus is quoted as saying “My goal is to goad people into saying something that ruins their life.” I believe that it was Morpheus in The Matrix who said, “Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.”

TSA Makes Travelling Suck and Why we need Root Cause Analysis

I have just returned from a vacation trip to Italy, which was absolutely amazing. However, on my way back to Seattle from New York, I had a run-in with my friends from the Transportation Security Administration, and now I’m mad at a bunch of people. “President” George Bush. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. TSA Director Kip Hawley. LaGuardia Airport General Manager Warren Kroeppel. The TSA Supervisor who was working LaGuardia’s Security at 530 AM Eastern on Wednesday, 11 April 2007.

The Weekly Dream: Life Decisions

 

“The Most difficult thing to do in life is to make a decision”

“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

-James 1:8

Growing up, my father always told me that as a leader and a man, all that I could do was to make the best decision I could with the information I had.  Throughout my childhood, there was tremendous pressure to make a decision and stick to it.  Compound that with living with Garlin Gilchrist II, the most decisive person I know, I learned how to troop it out whether I was right or wrong. 

But lately, I have noticed how indecisive we are as human beings.  At first, I was a little annoyed and frustrated because dealing with indecisiveness slows down the process when time is of the essence.  Everyone can relate to the agony of having to wait for someone who cannot make up their mind. 

Education: A program to help Black boys

Thanks to a friend on facebook, I came across a New York Times article highlighting a mentoring program in Ossining, NY that focused on improving the academic performance and cultural awareness of Black boys. The district is sort of unorthodox in how it achieves racial diversity. “Its six school buildings are divided not by neighborhood but by grade level. All of the second and third graders in the Ossining Union Free School District attend the Brookside School.”

Step Your Game Up

If you cannot tell, I have a passion for relationship stuff.  Why?  Perhaps I am disturbed by the dysfunction I see every day.  Or it may be because I am disgusted with American society’s approach to love, friendships and relationships.  It could be because 90%of the disconnect between people are not that important at the end of the day.  Whatever it is, I am intrigued by the challenge of trying to make sense of it all. 

 What has been on my mind lately is how complacent people can be in their relationships.  It is disgusting.  When they are single, they go to the gym, shower regularly, make sure they are tight.  Then, once they have someone and they been together for awhile, they let their standards slip.  They stop doing those things to keep the passion alive and to keep the other person interested.  They settle into what I call the “Comfort Spiral.” 

Hearing from God: Part II

I wanted to follow up on my series, Hearing From God. In Part I of the series, we touched on how Pharaoh’s heart was hardened as God showed His glory through the plagues via Moses’ successful efforts at convincing Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.

National Security, meet the Environment

In my experiences, the only two things that get people really riled up over global warming are jobs and national security. To the latter point, Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Dick Durbin of Illinois introduced legislation that “calls for the director of national intelligence to conduct the first ever ‘national intelligence estimate’ on global warming.”

One by One: Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton decline Fox debate

Senator Clinton and Senator Obama join John Edwards in declining to participate in the debate sponsored by Fox News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. So with the top Democratic frontrunners backing out, this debate will have virtually no impact, if at all. Wouldn’t it be funny though if all the Republican Presidential candidates showed up?

Again, why is no one from the CBC not saying anything? Do they even want to sponsor a debate? Their silence is driving me crazy. 

Thanks again to Color of Change and all the other online communities that worked together to put pressure on the candidates to back down from participating in this debate.

 Stay up fam,

 Brandon Q.

The Story: Young Black Men

I listen to National Public Radio (NPR)…a lot. They have new show called The Story that is simply amazing. The aim of the story is to put the news in the context of how it affects real people not having their story filtered by the experts.

It was my pleasure to hear them feature John Rich, a Black physician and researcher that specializes in reaching out to young Black men in the inner-city.

Important updates on the Fox/CBC Institute debates

The unfolding drama of the Fox Presidential debates sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute is gaining more traction. Through it all, we at The SuperSpade will sift through the facts and get to the truth.

The Weekly Dream: Symbols and Essence

Question of the Week: Is your life filled with symbols or essence?

I am fascinated by symbols. We are surrounded by symbols. By symbols we know where to go, what to do in certain situations and alerts us to consequences based on certain actions. For instance, have you ever been to a restaurant or a gas station that did not have a sign for the men and women’s bathroom? I watched several people stand bewildered in front of two doors in a restaurant because the bathroom doors were unmarked.

Symbols also cue us as to how to interact with others in society. If you see someone dressed as a police officer, in a police car, you assume he is a police officer. It might not even occur to you that he could be an actor.

Detroit Schools: Hope needed badly

Amid a flood of controversy, the Detroit Public School Board voted to approve a “realignment” plan to close 34 schools by the end of this year. This is a true turning point in the history of Detroit. The reality is that enrollment has declined all over the district along with horrible mismanagement (administrative and financial) at the central office. There is enough blame to go around but cities can not be sustained without a sustainable tax base. This is best achieved when families live in the same city where their kids go to school.

Unfortunately, previous boards have been privy to the deep financial problems of the district but instead of making tough decisions, chose instead to punt. Now we are in a situation of literal “slash and burn.” This decision will be the first of many for Detroit that highlight how times have changed and that responsibility and accountability most come from the leadership and citizenry alike. God willing, we will make make Detroit Public Schools better and make this city better.

Stay up fam,

Brandon

Obama beats Clinton

It seems that Sen. Clinton’s camp wants Sen. Obama to keep his day of glory minimized to one day. When Sen. Clinton released her first quarter fundraising numbers, she originally did not reveal the breakdown between primary and general election funds. But given the ground breaking news of Sen. Obama’s announcing that he only raised $1 million dollars less than Sen. Clinton, her hand was forced.
SUre enough, it appears that Sen. Obama’s funds raised for the primaries surpassed those of Sen. Obama. Here’s an excerpt from an ABC article, 

ABC News has learned that the $23.5 million Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., raised for his presidential campaign for use in the primaries is more than that raised by the Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Of the $26 million Clinton has raised in the first quarter of 2007 for her presidential campaign, approximately $20 million is to be used in the primaries and caucuses, sources told ABC News.

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

Senator Obama raises $25 million

Put your money where your mouth is America! That’s exactly what 100,000 some odd people  did when they helped Senator Barack Obama raise $25 million dollars for his Presidential campaign, $23.5 of which can be used in the primary campaign. (For the interests of full disclosure, I did donate to Sen. Obama’s Presidential Campaign)

Iranian hostage crisis

In CNN today, it was reported that Iraq is pressing the U.S. to release the 5 Iranian officials it seized in Iraq in January. The timing is critical because if you have been watching the news, 15 British sailors are in Iranian custody after being accused of trespassing into Iranian waters.

Of course, Bush could only be quiet for so long.

“President Bush was asked by a reporter in Washington on Tuesday whether the United States would be willing to give up the five Iranians to help obtain release of the Britons.”

“I support the Blair government’s attempts to solve this issue peacefully. So we’re in close consultation with the British government,” he responded. “I also strongly support the prime minister’s declaration that there should be no quid pro quos when it comes to the hostages.”

For clarity, Bush was saying that the U.S. won’t release the Iranian officials in exchange for Iran releasing the British sailors. My fear is that this conflict over the British sailors will be twisted around to serve as a launching pad for starting war with Iran.

 

Keeping you informed,

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.

White Victimization

I was on Salon.com today and they had a piece talking about how conservative CNN commentator Glenn Beck feels that he “can’t win” because he is “American[],” “white,” “Christian,” and “conservative.” In case you misunderstood him, Beck went on to say, “I mean, I was talking about it with my family yesterday. I said, ‘I’m tired of being the least popular person in the world.’”  Now I trust that most readers of this site, (regardless of background) think that this type of language is inflammatory, repulsive and disrespectful. I would agree.

Eco-Apartheid

There was an article in Blackelectorate today entitled, “Whole Life Times: Eco Apartheid.” In it, author Van Jones goes through the history of the environmental movement in America across three major stages, conservation, regulation, and investment. For each stage, Jones points out the very homogeneous (almost exclusively White) make up of the environmental movement and the clear benefits of broadening that tent.

Action: Put pressure on the Congressional Black Caucus Institute

What’s up fam,

In lieu of the outrage caused by the agreement reached between the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News to host 2 Presidential debates, I want to direct your attention to a petition being collected by the good folks at Color of Change. The SuperSpade has signed on to the petition as we help to fulfill our mission to helping solve offline problems with online solutions.

The petition reads,

It is wrong for Black leaders to legitimize FOX — a network that calls Black churches a cult, implies that Senator Barack Obama is a terrorist, and uses the solemn occasion of Coretta Scott King’s funeral to call Black leaders “racist.”

The Congressional Black Caucus Institute must end their partnership with FOX, and presidential candidates should reject the FOX debate in favor of the CBC Institute’s CNN debate.

If you agree, click this link to make your voice heard.

Thank you,

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.