The Black Informant

Local L.A. officials still trying to raise what should be dead

(LATimes.com) Los Angeles County supervisors today backed off threats to temporarily shut Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, opting instead to give the beleaguered facility a reprieve as it prepares for a last-chance government inspection next month.

The Board of Supervisors rejected a motion to start the process of closing the facility after its top health care officials warned that such a move could trigger a stampede of departing employees that would in turn undermine efforts to pass the federal survey.

[…]

“Good prudent management and planning is to begin the process now,” Antonovich said. “We need to have acted yesterday and we didn’t. That procrastination has resulted in substandard care and we ought to be responsible by acting today.”

But after an impassioned debate, supervisors unanimously voted for a compromise. Rejecting a closure, they asked the county’s Department of Health Services to begin negotiating with other local hospitals to take King-Harbor patients should state or federal regulators force the facility to shutter. The state announced last week it had moved to revoke the hospital’s license. (more…)

Earl Ofari Hutchinson has been on local radio for the past few days talking about how by closing the hospital, many folks will not be able to get the health care they need.

WHHHHHHAAAAAAAATTT!

His concern is that the other surrounding hospitals will become flooded with folks who would normally go to King-Harbor–nevermind the years of bad service these poor souls were getting.

Related

SHUT IT DOWN!!!
If ya’ gonna march, march for fiscal responsibility
A good example of underfunding vs. squandering

Sorry y’all, I just couldn’t…

Part of me really wanted to watch the BET music awards, but I…..I…..just can’t get past Mo’Nique’s voice (grrrr!). I was in the kitchen on my laptop and my wife was in the family room watching the show. She was kind to me by muting out the parts when Mo’Nique was at the mike. Eventually I found myself getting distracted as lil’ man was on his new keyboard upstairs. So I took the opportunity to teach him some basic listening techniques and basic chords (cuz’ that is all I know).

Came back downstairs and saw that my wife ordered Dreamgirls (This is about her 4th time seeing this film and this is my first–I am generally very slow seeing new films).

So did I miss anything?

Someone done did it

I’ve been waiting for someone to upload this video.

and this one as well…

$1M raised for Genarlow Wilson

(wneg32.com) Supporters of the Georgia man in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year old girl are willing to put up $1 million to secure his release.

According to Genarlow Wilson’s lawyer, the money should secure her clients release before a July 5th hearing.

At that hearing Georgia’s Attorney General plans to appeal a decision that threw out a 10 year felony prison sentence for Wilson.

“Consent to a bond presented to a judge. We have a good judge in this case who understands the law and the factors there. And Genarlow Wilson is a perfect candidate for bond,” B.J. Bernstein, Wilson’s attorney said at a press conference. (more…)

This whole case stinks the high heavens! Here is some additional info on this case:

From Wikipedia–

The conviction was based on an amateur video tape showing Wilson engaging in sex with a 17-year-old girl during a private party, and later receiving oral sex from from a 15-year-old girl. The video shows the 17-year-old girl on the bathroom floor, then later having sex with Wilson. She appeared sleepy or intoxicated during the sex act but did not ask Wilson to stop. Waking up naked and in a stupor the next morning, she claimed to have been raped. Investigating the alleged rape, police later found condoms and evidence of drinking, as well as the video camera, in the motel room used for the party.

A jury acquitted Wilson of raping the older girl, but convicted him of aggravated child molestation against the 15-year-old. The “aggravated” nature of the charge refers to fellatio (oral sex) rather than a mere “immoral or indecent act.” Had Wilson had intercourse with the 15-year-old and not received oral sex from her, he would have been subject to up to 12-month penalty (statutory rape), with no sex offender status, instead of the 10-year minimum term that the judge gave him. (Official Code of Georgia Annotated § 16-6-3 and 16-6-4)

Initial trial and plea deal

The 15 year old girl, who has remained unnamed in the press as a ‘victim of a sex offense’, has repeatedly stated that the act of oral sex was consensual, though she legally could not consent. The jury acquitted Wilson of the rape charge, but as the age of consent in Georgia is 16, they voted to convict him of aggravated child molestation for the oral sex incident, with the forewoman tearfully reading the verdict. Some jury members later complained they had not understood the verdict would result in a 10 year minimum sentence, plus one year on probation.

Wilson received the 10-year sentence following a refusal to enter into a proposed plea bargain, stating of his adamant belief that “It’s all about doing what’s right […] And what’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. And I’m just standing up for what I believe in.” His decision, as well as his continued fight to overturn his conviction also take into account that sex offenders in Georgia must register themselves and are subject to penalty laws for life, and that the law was not intended to penalize teenage partners (a fact which has since been included in updated legislation). As the law stands, Wilson would not even be able to return to his own family after an early release, as he has an 8-year-old sister and would be forbidden contact. The other young males involved (including one charged for the same oral sex acts as Wilson) accepted plea bargains with the possibility of parole; they are required to register as convicted sex offenders. Wilson had been offered, and rejected, a plea bargain for a five year sentence with the possibility of parole before the trial. After the jury had returned the guilty verdict, the prosecutor offered the same 5-year plea bargain again, and Wilson refused again. Another young man involved in the case had accepted a similar 5-year plea bargain and was paroled after two years.

And throwing him in prison for this one offense has taught him what? Don’t touch our little White girls (girl could be Black)? While I do agree that Wilson should receive some sort of penalty for doing this (she was still a minor at the time), going into the slammer (especially for 10 years) is way over the top. The state of Georgia has just created another crop of folks who lack trust in their JUSTICE system.

Pimp my baby’s daddy

(singersroom.com) 50 cent, who pays $25,000 a month in child support and household expenses, might have to get a bigger check. Shaniqua Tompkins, the mother of his 10-year-old son, says the current amount is not enough.

The parents of young Marquise Jackson are wrangling over the issue in family court in this Long Island community, where 50 Cent arrived Friday in an armored SUV equipped with a satellite dish. (more…)

The sad thing is, Fitty ain’t the only one who is getting played like this.

Breakdancing in Russia

(moscowtimes.ru) Andrei, aka B-Boy Kolyuchy, has been dancing since the mid-1980s. Back then hip-hop music and break dancing videos were accessible only to two types of people: diplomats returning from abroad and Ulitsa Arbat souvenir or currency peddlers who were in direct contact with foreign tourists.

“There were events three to four times a year back then, mostly in the Baltic states,” Andrei said. Enthusiastic Soviet teens practiced in front of lacquered wardrobes in their parents’ bedrooms and went to events that were sponsored by Pioneer organizations.

[…]

BPeople has since opened its own dancing school, and most members have day jobs: Lena is a doctor and mother of three children. Most dancers recognize that making a living on break dancing alone is not possible in Russia.

The central hangout spot was, and still is, Ulitsa Arbat.

As Pioneer organizations fizzled after perestroika, some people thought it was time to say goodbye to break dancing. “After the putsch, people got together on Arbat, had a drink in remembrance of break dancing, and buried a white glove somewhere in the neighborhood,” Lena said.

Although Lena said only about a dozen people were break dancing in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the mid-’90s, they continued to get together on the Arbat and mingled with other Old Arbat regulars. Until a local resident allowed dancers to hook up their boombox to the electrical outlet in her ground-floor apartment, one breaker would wrap his fingers with electrical tape and cut into the building’s exterior electric wires to get the music going, Lena said.

The hospitable Arbat resident was eventually featured in a 1996 break-dancing music video “Vy khoteli party? Ne vopros, nate!” (You wanted a party? No problem, here it is!) that boosted interest in the dance to a new level. Most Russian break-dancers started after they were awed by the jerky clip that featured dancers from both capitals showing off their moves to the approval of bespectacled Zora Mikhailovna. Mark of the crew AlltheMost is one of them.

“Break dancing, especially the footwork, is based on Russian folk dance,” he said, “in terms of energy and character, some of the dance’s roots are in Russia.” (more…)

I just did a quick search on YouTube for Russian breakdance videos. Yep, it’s pretty big over there. Little scared of most of what I saw, but (gulp!), its okay. Here is a half-decent sample I was able to find (I dunno, I guess the music is throwing me off).

Oh well, its your world, baby! Rock it however you wish.

“Don’t worry, Bono got us covered”: Exhibit A

Consider this as an addendum to what I wrote about yesterday (”Don’t worry, Bono got us covered“)

Press Release:

Los Angeles County Launches Unprecedented Media Campaign to Fight Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Effort Moves Beyond the Billboard to Reach African American women and Latinas, Gay and Bi-sexual Men

>And what is their way of convincing grown folks who have already made up in their minds that protection IS optional?

The campaign uses guerrilla marketing tactics such as graffiti murals, sidewalk drawings, printed drink coasters and mirror stickers in night clubs and gyms, along with traditional media such as posters and billboards.

>This press release also mentions the following:

“The rates of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia are all alarmingly high and rising in our community,” said Jonathan E. Fielding, MD, MPH, Public Health Director and County Health Officer. “Last year alone, nearly 18,000 cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea were recorded among African American and Latina women younger than 25 years of age in LA County. Gay and bi-sexual men represented at least 1,000 cases of syphilis in 2006.

[…]

Gay and bi-sexual men in LA County continue to face a serious problem with syphilis. In 2005, 85% of the recorded syphilis cases were among this group. Six out of 10 of those cases occurred among HIV-positive men. Untreated syphilis can have devastating health consequences, including impairment of the ability to walk, permanent vision loss, permanent hearing
loss, and brain damage. Public Health identifies patients with these health outcomes every year.
There are more than 30,000 cases of chlamydia and more than 5,000 cases of gonorrhea in women alone every year in LA County. African American and Latina women make up the largest number of those reported cases out of any other group. (source)

Listen, until we as a nation get enough courage to ask and deal with the “Why?” questions here (”Why are Gay and bi-sexual men continuing to face STDs?”, “Why is AIDS and other STDs a big problem within the Black community?”), all the posters, stickers, marches etc. will continue to serve as a emotional public response with very little (if any) results. Again, much of demographic are made up of the same folks who say they want the government out of their bedrooms while at the same time want the same government to serve as nurse when disease develops.

While encouraging folks who are sexually active to get regularly tested is a noble gesture, we must keep in mind that the same mindset is also being adopted by the target audience: Ignore the hard question(s) and maybe it will go away. Let’s face it, the bedroom has been in the public square for years now, so there is no room for adolescent responses to this issue.

Good T.V.: Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern

Turtle heart and penis mixed with blood and Saki…
The raw beating heart of a frog…
Rooster testicles…
Deer penis…

These are just some of the interesting delectables consumed by Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern. As a person who always enjoys learning about different cultures, this show is right up my alley. Either Zimmern was born with an iron stomach or his show uses a whole lot of editing.

Either way, you will certainly learn a whole lot about different cultures watching this show. Check it out!

Mayor just wants to get the job done

Courtland Milloy did an interesting piece on D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. In it he talks about how Fenty is not bowing to the pressure of having to make his appointees fully reflect the demographic of the city that he represents. I come from the school that says if I feel that a person makes the right fit in my organization (mind you, this goes beyond what is on the resume. Back in my IT days, I interviewed many people with great resumes but just did not show the potential to gel with the rest of the team) regardless of race, that person should be hired. I only wish that other mayors operated the same way as many areas with a high concentration of Black folks have been paying the price of “cultural diversity” for years. Need an example? Martin Luther King Jr. Harbor Hospital in Los Angeles.

From Milloy’s article:

“When I’m out in the community, like I was out in the Bloomingdale neighborhood last night, people don’t ask me about the race or gender of the people I appoint,” Fenty (D) told me yesterday. “Most people are telling me that they want officers walking the beat, more aggressive community policing and reductions in crime. Nine out of 10 people I meet want the schools fixed. They are not asking for one type of person for the job — the issue is getting the job done.”

[…]

Nevertheless, some of the new mayor’s moves can be downright bewildering. In a city overflowing with first-rate black lawyers, Fenty — himself a graduate of Howard law — appoints a white man and a white woman to the city’s top two legal posts — legal counsel and attorney general, the latter of whom is neither an experienced litigator or even a member of the D.C. Bar Association. Surely, I suggested to him, some of his more qualified classmates were wondering whether he’d forgotten where he came from. Howard University, after all, had once been the national center for legal action on civil rights, and the civil rights struggle is not over.

“I’m not saying that no one in the world thinks those thoughts, but maybe because I’m mayor, people will not come up and say those words to me,” Fenty said. “A lot of guys I went to Howard law school with are working on a lot of different things, and we’ve got a ton of Howard graduates in my administration, African American men in their 30s and 40s — my chief of staff among them.”

[…]

“I’m not naive,” he said. “But having grown up in the city, having seen years of a school system not working and a police department being inconsistent and the budget unbalanced, I believe that the average citizen is concerned foremost with getting the services they deserve.” (more)

Don’t worry, Bono got us covered

First, a flashback:

(sfgate.com 3/3/07)

Bono, 46, was invited to tour the Bay Area by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, to help raise awareness of local efforts to educate the public about the disease.

Bono stood alongside Lee, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Allen Temple Pastor J. Alfred Smith to say he’ll be using his celebrity status to help people in the United States living with AIDS, particularly African Americans, who have contracted the disease at higher rates than other racial and ethnic groups.

[…]

Alameda County declared an AIDS state of emergency in 1999. Men account for most of the cases — 86 percent of the more than 6,800 people with the disease countywide — but the number of cases among women rose steadily from the 1990s through 2003, according to a 2005 AIDS epidemiology report from the Alameda County Public Health Department.

Of the AIDS cases in Alameda County from 1980 to 2005, African Americans accounted for 44 percent, more than any other ethnic or racial group.

Bono drew a parallel between poor countries in the developing world and low-income communities in the United States, saying both feature local communities without resources to address the challenge and individuals overwhelmed by poverty and lack of opportunity.

Dellums said a major problem was the high number of men carrying HIV who are being released from prisons.

“That can be traced back to the fact that we are sending men back into the community as bullets because they don’t know their status,” said Dellums. “Men are coming back HIV-positive.”

Bono, Dellums and Lee also called on black churches to play a stronger role in educating people about the disease and how to protect themselves, even though a number of theologians say some anti-AIDS approaches run counter to Scripture. (source)

Now let’s fast forward to a recent study conducted by the CDC. Here are some of its findings as it relates to Blacks:

The proportion of adults who first had sex before the age of 15 was highest for non-Hispanic black persons (28%) compared with Mexican American persons (14%) and non-Hispanic white persons (14%).

Only 6% of non-Hispanic black persons abstained from sex until age 21 years and older compared with Mexican American persons (17%) and non-Hispanic white persons (15%).

Click here for full report
___

Okay, from the top. Here are the disclaimers some folks tend to need.

# Yes, I understand that this study is based on a sample and does not represent all Black people.
# For the racially sensitive, yes I am aware that White people do have sex and can get AIDS as well
# No, I do not believe that all Black folks are sexual deviants.

Okay, let me get to the point here on this one. In all my years discussing the AIDS issue with other folks, I’ve noticed that people tend to fall in on of two categories: Folks who feel that dealing with the disparities within the health industry should be the main focus and folks who feel that dealing with the behaviors that result in things like AIDS or unwanted pregnancies should be the focus. For those of you who have followed this site for a while, it shouldn’t be a big surprise to you that I tend to go with the latter group. While I do believe that disparities DO exist within the health care industry, working to convince folks to make better decisions BEFORE becoming dependent on the health care system is much more effective in my view. Focusing too much on problems within the health care industry subtly tells our kids (and older folks as well) that they will inevitably make bad sexual choices and that big daddy government will be (and should be) right there to take care of them–for life! This perception amongst the unmarried sexually active only gets worse as we place most of the blame on the spread of AIDS on things like poverty, racism and classism. As we are able to get the number of AIDS cases to decline, THEN should we place a greater emphasis on the disparities within the health care system. While folks like Bono is trekking all over the world pushing the belief that AIDS can only be eradicated by heavy government intervention, notice that the words ‘personal responsibility’ tend to be invisible in his schpeel. Here is a little something that I wrote a little while ago on a similar topic.

“We must continue to teach the value of sexual self-control in our community. The reason why half of y’all may have turned your nose up after reading that last sentence is because too few of us are willing to demonstrate it. In a world that is constantly bombarding us with sexual imagery, throwing condoms at our children or telling them not to have sex until marriage is not enough. Virginity until marriage must become a cultural mandate (rite of passage) within our community” (source)

And here is something that I wrote on responsibility:

I have a much better plan, and it only has ONE point: “Stop pushing responsibility on society at large for your lack of sexual self-control.”

Yes, I am aware that there are people out there who unfortunately get this disease by blood transfusion, but those cases do not make up the majority. This is primarily a sexually-transmitted disease.

We are a culture that prides itself on “telling it like it is“, so to me this very notion is flat out ridiculous.

Note to the “…country’s leading African-American health experts, lawmakers and civil rights leaders”: Stop treating the community you claim to represent as a bunch of ignorant fools who don’t don’t know the meaning of the word responsibility (this was written in response to this article).

#

Black foster care parents needed in Florida

(miamiherald.com) Phyllis Horn says her house became a home seven years ago when she opened her large Homestead residence to her first foster son.

Since then, the mother of three adult sons has given short- and long-term shelter to 25 boys.

”These children make the difference between a house and a home,” Horn said.

The private foster-care agency that placed the young men with Horn hopes to find other black residents in South Miami-Dade with that kind of attitude.

Faced with a steady caseload of black children under state care and a smaller pool of qualified black families to provide homes, Kids Hope United is starting a publicity campaign to attract more people like Horn.

The agency, which serves the South Miami-Dade area, has hired a public relations firm to make pitches at community festivals and in local media. Ads also were placed at South Dade bus stops in African-American neighborhoods and will remain up for the next six months. This week, public service radio announcements started on popular oldies station Majic 103.7 FM.

Agency administrators say their primary concern is that the children are placed into a safe foster environment. Emilio Vento, a senior vice president with Kids Hope United, said cultural sensitivity is also taken into consideration.

”The children we place have gone through recent traumatic experience,” Vento said. “The environment we put them in affects everything they do. That’s why the match is extremely important.”

In Florida, black youths make up 37 percent of the foster care population. According to state figures, Kids Hope United has about 142 foster homes that provide about 385 beds. But only about 33 percent of those beds — 127 — are in African-American homes. The placement agency has 487 African-American children in its care — a difference of 360 beds. (more…)

Guess who is STILL holding up post-Katrina progress?

(

AP) NEW ORLEANS – Federal officials are still waiting for a list of streets damaged by Hurricane Katrina that qualify for federal assistance.

New Orleans has until July 31 to send the list to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Frustration among federal officials has risen since Mayor Ray Nagin, in his May 30 State of the City address, criticized FEMA. He said the city’s post-Katrina streets are in poor shape and “crumbled under the weight of tons of floodwaters. Shockingly, FEMA has de-obligated or rejected our request for these critical repairs.”

FEMA officials said they’ve been prepared in recent months to begin project assessments and to start the federal reimbursement process for street damage caused by Katrina. But they say they can’t do their assessments without direction on where damage occurred.

FEMA set up a special street assessment team in January. “What’s their excuse from January ‘07 till today?” asked agency spokesman Robert Josephson. (more…)

Related:

A plan with no money

I wonder what they say when I cut their cousins down with my weed wacker?

(nationalgeographic.com) Plants have family values, too, it seems, with new research suggesting they can recognize close relatives in order to work together.

An ability to tell family from strangers is well known in animals, allowing them to cooperate and share resources, but plants may possess similar social skills, scientists believe.

Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, report they have demonstrated for the first time that plants can recognize their kin.

This suggests that plants, though lacking cognition and memory, are capable of complex social interactions.

“Plants have this kind of hidden but complicated social life,” Dudley said.

The study found plants from the same species of beach-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less competitive when they shared soil with their siblings.

Sea rocket, a North American species, showed more vigorous root growth when planted in pots with strangers than when raised with relatives from the same maternal family, the study found.

This is an example of kin selection, a behavior common in animals in which closely related individuals take a group approach to succeeding in their environment, the researchers said. (more…)

Some of our babies in need of a good home (6/24/07)

Are you ready for a houseful of love? This delightful African American sibling group of three girls and one boy is in need of a forever family with a lot of love to give. They all have beautiful smiles and engaging personalities and take energy and excitement with them wherever they go. Akia, Kendra, and Dominique are loving and sociable young ladies. Akia enjoys roller skating, riding her bike, playing with dolls, dressing up, singing, and dancing. She describes herself as a fun person. Although she likes spending time with her family, Akia also enjoys activities with friends her age. Kendra likes riding her bike, playing hide & seek, and going on outings with her big sister. She describes herself as a girl who loves to have fun, dancing and playing. Dominique loves to jump rope, ride her bike or scooter, play with her dolls and doll house, and spend time with her siblings. All three girls participate in activities such as girl scouts and martial arts. Little brother Reshawn is handsome, loving, and outgoing. He is very active and enjoys dancing, playing basketball, and action figures. He is also into martial arts. This endearing sibling group of four gets along well, and they want to grow up together. They will thrive with energetic, active, nurturing parents ready to open their hearts and home to them. Akia, Kendra, Dominique, and Reshawn hope their new family will accept each of them unconditionally and shower them with an endless supply of love and attention. (source)

Another one of our babies is missing (6/24/07)

AMBER WRIGHT
Case Type: Lost, Injured, Missing
DOB: Mar 28, 1990
Sex: Female
Missing Date: Jun 16, 2007
Race: Black
Age Now: 17
Height: 5′7″ (170 cm)
Missing City: DETROIT
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Missing State : MI
Hair Color: Brown
Missing Country: United States
Eye Color: Brown
Case Number: NCMC1073487
Circumstances: Amber was last seen on June 16, 2007 at her home. She was last seen wearing a brown lace blouse with a gold stripe, blue jeans, and gold earrings.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Detroit Police Department (Michigan) 1-313-596-1300

It’s the weekend! Time to chill

Taken today at Laguna Beach.
The one place where a wireless signal is not required!

It’s all about the union

(denverpost.com) Skepticism is the only appropriate response to news that the Denver Public Schools will hold principals and teachers more accountable for low student attendance.

The problem of high truancy rates in Denver is not new (I first wrote about it in 1988) and was generally tolerated as long as it didn’t adversely affect teachers and administrators.

Now that there are at least some funding implications to declining enrollment and low attendance rates, a new round of promises is being made to address the problem. Principals and even teachers supposedly will be held responsible for reducing truancy. Exactly how this is to be done is a little unclear.

One principal has had some success boosting attendance by offering pizza and popcorn parties to classes with low attendance rates. (Given the fact that one of the city’s high schools has about a third of its students missing every day, the district might want to buy a couple of pizza parlors and plant its own corn field.)

The dirty little secret is there is no real incentive for administrators and teachers to suddenly get all worked up about poor attendance. There is a well-established system in place in which the answer to every educational problem is the appropriation of more money. Consider recent history. Every time the Denver school district found itself cash-strapped because enrollment had declined or the teachers union had negotiated a new wage increase, the voters approved more money. The school district may be failing a big chunk of its students, but it is emphatically not failing its teachers or administrators.

This arrangement is not limited to Denver. The teachers union is doing quite well nearly everywhere. Even when it suffers a setback, it turns out to be a victory. Just last week, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of Washington state to require public employee unions to get permission from non-union members to deduct dues for political purposes. The teachers union had been routinely ignoring this requirement and instead offering non- members a once-a-year opt-out option from the collection of political dues. (more…)

>>Following up to the last comment I bolded, it is a known fact that in MANY instances teacher unions also impose a dues requirement (or whatever they call it) for non-union members. I told a school employee about this a while ago and although she was able to remove that option from her paycheck, she was still required to contribute the money elsewhere. So much for looking out for the teacher.< <

So while offering pizza and popcorn may get the kids back in class, what foods will it take for them to concentrate and learn? I pose this question here because as I bolded above, many voters (that's you) seem to loose interest in this issue after hearing about such gimmicks to get kids back in school.

The teacher unions have this down to a science: Every year or so they will release a series of sad commercials that talk about how more funding is needed to by you (the taxpayers) in order to do their job. For television commercials, children with sad faces will oftentimes star in these campaigns will tell you something like "Please help! Don't let us down" (Translation: "How dare you not vote for (gulp!) the kids"). And each year voters who will oftentimes not take the time to read or understand all the particulars of the latest tax hike for local schools will simply vote "Yes" while saying to themselves "Hey, it's for 'better' education. How wrong could I be'. Because most taxpayers simply do not care to attend local school board meetings or watch them on television, unions have a fool proof system scam that operates right under our noses.

The reason why you will not hear most politicians or community activists make something like financial accountability an issue is simply because they can get much more mileage propping up little kids for short and very emotional attention spans. Hey, this is something that has worked for years ---ask the politicians in your area. And most folks fall for it every time.

>>>Before I continue continue here, I am fully aware that there are at least some of you out there who are public school teachers and see the game unions have been playing with the general taxpaying public (for the record, I do make a distinction between teachers and unions–they are NOT one in the same). I am also aware that your job security is also tied into what you can or cannot say on the record about this destructive cycle.< <<

Here is a little factoid that I have mentioned on this site many times in the past, but not in this amount of detail.

This is a study conducted by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

The data again show that urban public school teachers are more likely than either urban households or the general public to send their children to private schools. Across the states, 12.2 percent of all families (urban, rural, and suburban) send their children to private schools —a figure that roughly corresponds to perennial and well-known data on the proportion of U.S. children enrolled in private schools. But urban public school teachers send their children to private schools at a rate of 21.5 percent, nearly double the national rate of private-school attendance. Urban public school teachers are also more likely to send their children to private school than are urban families in general
(21.5 vs. 17.5 percent).

Strikingly, urban public school teacher households earning less than $42,000 a year (approximately the median national income) send their children to private school at a rate of 14.9 percent, a rate 4.6 percentage points higher than the private-school enrollment rate of all families at similar income levels (10.3 percent). Simply put, as income decreases, a
greater percentage of urban public school teachers choose private schools. Perhaps that’s not surprising: especially among relatively low-income families, urban teachers are unusually well educated and especially apt to
value education. Still, it’s noteworthy that, even when the financial sacrifice required for private education is greater, urban public school teachers still choose private schools for their children at higher rates than urban families with similar incomes. (click here to read the full report)

Time to wake up!

Related

Congressional Black Caucus on school vouchers (BlackInformant.com document)

Wal-Mart hatred

The other day I saw an episode of Showtime’s popular show “BS”. This particular episode took a closer look at all the fuss from certain folks in our society that have a deep hatred for Wal-Mart. While this show has its share of tongue in cheek humor, it does a pretty good job bringing attention to the pure crap behind many of the topics that we as a society deem important.

What really got me with this particular episode was a part where a young couple who were anti-Wal-mart activists who sold t-shirts expressing their point of view. The one shirt that really got me fired up featured a depiction of a smiley face dressed in a baseball cap with a few missing teeth. The other image was of a big smiley face surrounded by a bunch of smaller smiley faces. One of the creators of this shirt said that this was supposed to be a “Mamma with her many kids in tow”. The headline of this shirt said something to the effect that these are what your typical Wal-mart shoppers look like. Penn Jillette (one of the hosts of this show) apparently had enough as he launched into a full rant of expletives over this couple.

This reminded me of situation a few years ago my wife and I experienced in the Denver, CO area.

We were out looking for apartments and stumbled across one that was really caught our attention. From the ad in our apartment guide it was only a few years old and most important, it was within a short walking distance from Wal-mart. After turning a couple of short corners we pulled into the “Welcome home” parking spot of this apartment complex and walked right into the main office where we were met by a very friendly representative. After seeing some of the pictures of the units in the lobby, we decided to actually see a few of the available units. With kids in tow we loaded onto the golf cart that had shinny gold rims (I can still see them in my mind) and took off. As the representative was telling us about the area, the tone of his voice slowly turned bitter as he talked about how he despised the fact that a Wal-mart was nearby. He said that he did not like the store because “…that is the place where all the undesirables shop” (You know how you ‘thought’ you heard somebody say something but you just was not 100% sure? For me that is when I give my wife a look that tells her that if he said what I think he said, I’m ’bout to go off—She has saved me from several misunderstandings ) . Unfortunately, my ears were not deceiving me because this same individual who earlier was inviting us to his church had just insulted my wife and I without knowing it. The vibe that I was getting from the property was telling me that many of the folks that lived in the complex was White (the high rent also suggested this) while the surrounding area was a mixture of lower class Hispanics, Whites and some Blacks. Needless to say we did not need to see any more available units.

I think what really annoys me to no end is how many within the anti-Wal-mart crowd have no problem insulting the folks they claim to speak for: the poor and the middle class. While many of these activist are bellyaching about the need for unions and higher pay, Wal-mart stores all across the nation (and world for that matter) have no problem finding shoppers and folks who want to work for them.

But they know better.

The City Council in South Side Chicago recently blocked Wal-Mart from moving in, fearing it would put small retailers out of business. Wal-Mart responded by opening a store just outside city limits in Evergreen Park. (Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said in a speech a few days ago that 25,000 people applied for 325 jobs at that store.) (source)

Go to just about any Wal-mart store on just about any day of the week and you see folks of just about all races and most economic levels do what we all do: shop for the best prices that fit our budget. While many of these activists have been pounding the pavement for these “poor, misinformed” souls who work for Wal-mart, I have yet to see or hear of any of THEIR favorite stores like Gelsons or Whole Foods opening up shop in a mostly low-income area while selling food and products at affordable prices. And while other grocery do have a presence in these areas, many cannot compete with Wal-mart on price partly because of union demands (dues and bureaucratic guidelines) that places certain limits on price flexibility. You can make fun of the blue vest and the elderly (and sometimes peculiar) greeters all you want, but a job is a job. If you do not like Wal-mart, don’t shop there. In the meantime, leave all of us “undesirables” alone.

From the same article quoted earlier:

Democrats have a valid point in arguing that the middle-class family is stressed. But they will not win new votes by reaffirming their old stereotype as the anti-business party or by telling people who are barely scrapping by not to shop at Wal-Mart. A mother with a minimum-wage job is not going to pay $7.99 for a shirt for her second-grader when she can buy the same shirt for $3 at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is not the best employer in America, and it may well be one factor contributing to the demise of small-downtown America. But the problems of the middle-class, the working poor and the uninsured are far deeper than Wal-Mart’s employment policies.

Wal-Mart claims it saves the average family shopping at its stores $2,300 a year. Biden, Bayh, Richardson and Vilsack need to get off the bus and do the math. If 127 million people each week feel Wal-Mart makes their life better, how many of them will run to the polls to support a candidate who shakes his fist at their beloved Supercenter? (source)

Quintin E. Primo III: Real estate guru

(blackenterprise.com) On a flight from Chicago to New York, Quintin E. Primo III glances out his window and peers down at the skyscrapers that make up Manhattan’s world-renowned skyline. As the plane soars over the majestic towers of steel, concrete, and glass, Primo is filled with anticipation that soon he’ll be a major player there — and he probably will be.

This is a bold prediction, but Primo has made some bold moves to make it possible. By 2004, the Harvard Business School grad had already proven his industry mettle by building Capri Capital Advisors, a Chicago-based real estate investment management firm, into a $7 billion entity. The company, which Primo founded in 1992 with childhood friend Daryl J. Carter, was the largest black-owned business of its kind in the nation. But then Primo did the unthinkable. In March, he sold his firm’s mortgage banking unit — with a loan portfolio of $5 billion — to CharterMac, a $19 billion real estate finance company, and in return received millions in cash and access to CharterMac’s resources. (more…)

Awww, come one! Black Cubans just don’t know how good they have it

More info you will not hear Castro sympathizers (especially the Black ones) mention.
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(miamiherald.com) HAVANA — Six-foot-two, brown skinned and with semi-curly hair, Denny walked confidently into a government warehouse for a recent job interview. Sitting across from the white manager, he rattled off his qualifications: high school diploma, courses in tourism, hard worker.

They weren’t good enough: He needed his white brother-in-law to vouch for him, Denny recalled.

“Black people tend to do everything bad here,” the manager said.

After Fidel Castro’s revolution triumphed in 1959, he declared that Cuba would be a raceless society, banned separate facilities for blacks and whites and launched a string of free education and health programs for the poor — most of them blacks.

Many blacks people still support Castro, saying that without him they would still be peons in the sugar cane fields. One black Cuban diplomat said he had no hope of an education, and his grandmother no medical care for her glaucoma, until the revolution came along.

[…]

In recent years, a new attitude has been emerging quietly, almost secretly, among Afro-Cubans on what it means to be black in a communist system that maintains ‘‘No hay racismo aquí” — there’s no racism here — and tends to brand those who raise the issue of race as enemies of the revolution.

“The absence of the debate on the racial problem already threatens . . . the revolution’s social project,” wrote Esteban Morales Domínguez, a University of Havana professor who is black, in one of his several little-known papers on race since 2005.

In another paper, he noted that “much of the research that has been done on the subject in general has been put away in drawers, endlessly waiting to be published.” Black filmmaker Rigoberto López also broached the sensitive topic in a TV appearance in December, saying that while the revolution had brought about structural changes toward racial equality, “its results do not allow us to affirm that its goals have been achieved in all their dimensions.”

[…]

Castro’s own Communist Party and government fall short on the race front. Only four recognizably black faces sit on the party’s 21- member Political Bureau, and only two sit on the government’s top body, the 39- member Council of Minis- ters.

[…]

And yet, black faces populate Cuba’s political prisons. Some of the nation’s best known dissidents are black. They include independent librarian Omar Pernét Hernández, mason Orlando Zapata Tamayo and physician Oscar Elias Biscét. The latter was sentenced to 27 years for, among other things, organizing a seminar on Martin Luther King’s non–violent forms of protest.

[…]

Television programs overwhelmingly show most blacks in menial jobs, and Cubans, like other Latin Americans, still use a cutting expression for a black they admire: El es negro, pero . . . ” — He is black, but . . .

(more…)

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This is part of a wonderful series produced by the Miami Herald entitled “A Rising Voice: Afro-Latin Americans”. This series also includes short slide presentations complete with audio covering the African diaspora throughout Latin America. Take the time to check it out as you will find this very informative.

On a side note, the photography is probably the best that I have seen covering this topic.