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Vol. 11 Issue 14…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…April 4, 2008
Bit of History
Thomas F. Blue (1870-1935)
"Let our every movement
be characterized by unity of aim, unity of purpose and unity of act; then and
not until then will the dark cloud of ignorance, superstition, and intemperance
disperse, and education, intelligence, and virtue spread over our land."
(Thomas Blue - 1888)
The son of former slaves, Thomas Blue was born in Farmville, Virginia on April
2, 1870. In 1888, Blue graduated from Hampton Normal and Agricultural
Institute. He taught school in Virginia, prior to earning a Bachelor of
Divinity degree in 1898 from Richmond Theological Seminary. Blue worked in
Richmond as secretary of the YMCA, which served Spanish-American War soldiers,
before moving to Louisville, Kentucky, where he worked in the same YMCA
capacity from 1899 to 1905.
On September 23, 1905, Blue was selected to head the Louisville Western Branch
Library, which was the first public library in the United States to serve
blacks with an exclusively black staff. The library began as three rented rooms
in a private residence on the Western side of town. In 1908, the library moved
to a dedicated building built by Andrew Carnegie. Six years later, Blue opened
the city's second Carnegie branch library for black Americans in Eastern
Louisville.
With the addition of two new branches by 1919, Blue created a "Colored
Department," the first in any public library system in the US. As head of
the department, Blue oversaw "eight assistants, two junior high schools,
15 stations and 80 classroom collections in 29 buildings -- a total of 99
centers for the circulation of books for home use in 46 buildings in Louisville
and Jefferson County."
In addition to his administrative duties, Rev. Blue created an apprentice class
for those aspiring to enter library service. His class drew students from as
far away as Houston and led to the establishment of the Hampton Library School
in Virginia. A respected leader in the civic, religious, and educational life
of the Louisville black community, Thomas Blue served the Louisville Free
Public Library from 1905 until his death in 1935. Sources www.lfpl.org/western/htms/blue.htm,
www.aaregistry.com and www.afrigeneas.com/slavedata/Blue-VA-1782.html)
Summer Peacebuilding
Program at SIT
Conflict Transformation Across
Cultures invites applications for 2008 Summer Peacebuilding Program and
Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation at the School for International
Training (SIT) Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont. The Summer
Peacebuilding Program is a rich multi-cultural learning community, where
participants from 30-35 countries develop new skills for peacebuilding.
Education takes place both in and outside the classroom as participants live
and socialize together in structured and unstructured activities. The wide
variety of regional, ethnic, and cultural background provides abundant
possibilities for participants to deepen their proficiency in intercultural
communication and peacemaking practices.
Topics of study include conflict analysis and interventions, inter-communal
dialogue, negotiation and mediation, peacebuilding and development, healing and
reconciliation, peace education, training skills, global relations, and more.
Participants include human rights workers, non-profit and NGO middle and senior
level managers, graduate students, government employees, mental health
professionals, educators, etc. The faculty is a diverse team of international
experts and active practitioners in the field of peacebuilding and conflict
transformation.
After completing the summer program, participants will engage in two semesters
of web-based distance learning, a mid-year field seminar in Rwanda, and a 1-3
month practicum. The 14-16 credits earned can be applied toward a master’s
degree in certain fields of study.
The program's application deadline is May 1, 2008. International participants
are urged to apply by April 15, especially if they need a visa. For more
information, visit www.worldlearning.org/5186.htm
or write to contactprogram@sit.edu.
Compulsory State Education
By Memphis Blue
One of the most important
learning experiences I've had in the past ten years was a self-initiated
research endeavor I embarked upon to understand the far-reaching ramifications
of compulsory/state schooling in America, its impact, origin and proponents.
More importantly, the insight I gained from this endeavor opened my eyes to
what has been called an Illiteracy Cartel in America.
This cartel derives its powers from those who stand to benefit financially and
politically from the ignorance and education malpractice, frustration, crime,
joblessness and social chaos that mis-education produce. They fly the flag of
mental health, like Dr. Frederick Goodwin, who found funding through the
National Institute of Mental Health to promote the notion of a "defective
criminal gene" in inner city children, as young as age five.
Goodwin promoted the psychiatric screening and drugging these children. He
compared inner-city youth with hyper-aggressive, hyper-sexed monkeys in the
jungle. More than likely, these inner-city youth were African Americans, who
were guinea pigs for those first experimental psychological change curricula
under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Still, the
National Education Association (NEA), in one of its reports entitled
"Education for the 70's" wrote, "children are to become objects
of experimentation." Rod Paige, secretary of education in the first term
of George W. Bush, called the NEA a terrorist organization.
Compulsory/State control education was a mainstay of Hitler's Germany. In fact,
Germany's philosophy had given the world its first laboratory of compulsory
schooling by 1819. In the nineteenth century, ties between Germany and the
United States were exceedingly close, a fact unknown these days because it
became embarrassing to the United States and so was removed from history books.
American scholarship during the 19th century was almost exclusively
German at its highest level. From 1814-1900, more than 50,000 young men from
prominent American families made the pilgrimage to Prussia and other parts of
Germany to study this new system of higher education. Germany's education was
the national obsession among America's political leaders, industrialists,
clergy and university people. Horace Mann's Seventh report to the Boston school
Committee of 1844 was substantially devoted to glowing praise of Germany's
accomplishments and how they should become those of the United States. America,
through racist eyes, wanted to create mentally what Hitler attempted to do
physically.
Compulsory schooling has been from the beginning a scheme of indoctrination for
the creation of a proletariat. The United States borrowed this premise from
Germany; first and most importantly is that the state is sovereign, the only
true parent of children. It purports that the biological parents are the
enemies of their offspring.
The goal here is to accomplish what no extremist group or power elite have been
able to do in the history of the world. The aim here is to control the
attitudes, viewpoints, opinions and behavior of children. It is hard to dispute
that it is possible to control the way people think, to control what they think
about and even the conclusions they reach. The notion that a government can
enforce thought control on its masses, while at the same time do some common
good, is an exhausted notion from the beginning.
James Madison, for one, voiced his opposition to the use of government to teach
children, "If congress can employ money indefinitely to the general
welfare....they may appoint teachers in every state...the powers of congress
would subvert the very foundation, the very nature of limited government
established by the people of America." School educated people are easier
to lead than ignorant people. Nazism confirms this. Why is "No Child Left
Behind" the prevailing theme in education? The one left behind becomes
your strongest adversary. A whisper in the dark saying you missed me. I will
now pour out all I know about how you tend to control or destroy people through
their children. I will tell as many inner-city youngsters that will listen and
are able to form the questions that challenge your foundation.
In war, there are losses. Lou Dobbs from CNN's "Wasted Minds"
predicted two generations of black youth will be lost from the year 2000. I'll
keep searching until I find one who can think and act for the benefit and good
of the people. School children are sad and desperate people; they recognize
they are dying but don't understand how the execution is being managed.
About
Me: A product of the public school system, Memphis Blue is an activist
from the 1970s. He attended LeMoyne-Owen College, where he majored in
education. Memphis Blue is currently teaching children the value of learning.
His goal is to teach them to be independent thinkers.
"Until Then"
By Memphis Blue
We must redefine our realities
Our practices, our policies.
Shun the ignorance that runs
Us into their pits of shi*t
Proudly singing we
shall overcome.
Show and tell
Our children's heads swell
With emptiness
You can't kill what you can't see
We run to the
light...look at me.
I remain anonymously transparent in blackness
There I'll be the light
And then, you send your nig*ers
Who follow like they do
And to this we say to you
Shoo-fly...Shoe-the-fly
I laugh myself to sleep for the peace
Consciously, I defend from within
The confines of my kind
A condition of your
meritorious manumission.
Clayton County Crisis
The Clayton County School System
serves the public educational needs of more than 52,000 predominantly black
young people. The school system is located in the same county as the
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, one of the world's busiest air
transportation facilities.
Recently, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) gave the
Clayton County School district until September 1, 2008 to achieve nine mandates
in overhauling the school system or lose its accreditation. These mandates are:
(1) Establish a governing board that is capable of fulfilling its roles and
responsibilities. (2) Remove the influence of outside groups/individuals that
are disruptive to the work of the school district. (3) Enact and commit to an
ethics policy that governs the actions and work of the board members and staff,
including appropriate steps when the policy is violated. (4) Implement a
comprehensive review of board policies. Train board members on the purpose and
expectations of policies. (5) Conduct a full, forensic audit of finances by an
independent, certified accounting firm. Take appropriate steps to address the
audit findings. (6) Conduct a comprehensive audit of student attendance
records. Take appropriate steps to ensure attendance records are accurate and
meet legal requirements. Incorrect attendance records could affect the
district's federal funding. (7) Ensure each board member is a legal resident of
the county and is eligible to hold office. (8) Hire outside consultants with
expertise in conflict resolution, governance and organizational effectiveness.
(9) Appoint a permanent superintendent with the experience to lead the
district.
The school district's attorney, Glenn Brock, who was hired in December, has
recommended that all nine school board members resign to help the district
retain its accreditation. According to news reports, angry parents and others
support Brock's recommendation. One board member that did not reside in the
district has already been removed; three others have announced plans to resign.
The board hired a search firm to help find an interim school superintendent to
guide the district in meeting the nine SACS mandates. However, the top two
candidates for the position withdrew their names from consideration. According
to Dick Greene, the consultant leading the superintendent search, "This
process has been sabotaged by people affiliated with the district and the outside
influence of SACS and the state. They made irresponsible and unethical comments
and the process was damaged. Clayton County will not get better if they
continue with processes like this."
While the school board struggles with the politics of saving the school
system's accreditation, the students and the community suffer.
On Blue, Goodwin and Breggin
By Dot
Until Memphis Blue shared his
provocative essay with The DISH, I had not heard of Dr. Frederick Goodwin, a
distinguished professor at George Washington University. At the time of his
controversial remarks comparing inner-city youth to monkeys in a jungle, Dr.
Goodwin was the US government's highest ranking psychiatrist. More importantly,
Dr. Goodwin's jungle comparison was a small part of a government sponsored
proposal "aimed at identifying and treating children with presumed genetic
and biological 'vulnerabilities' that might make them prone to violence in
later years," according to Dr. Peter Breggin.
In his extensive research work at the Center for the Study of Psychiatry and
Psychology, Dr. Breggin has exposed a number of federal programs, such as the
one initiated by Dr. Goodwin. Breggin's work, which is outlined in his essay -
Campaigns Against Racist Federal Programs - began in the 1970s. While Dr.
Goodwin's remarks created a brief media storm and public apology in the 1990s,
Dr. Breggin's work documents other comments by highly respected scientists
receiving government funding or attempting to secure it that are equally or
more offensive. In this regard, Dr. Breggin's work reads like science fiction
concocted from the imagination of cinematic mad scientists that perform
lobotomies, insert electrodes in brains and use mind-altering drugs on certain
humans or treat them as bulls that require castration, all under the pretext of
controlling violent behavior and/or limiting their reproductive capability as
ways to improve society.
In concluding his essay, which first appeared in the Journal of African
American Men (1995/96), Dr. Breggin asked, "Why would the government
pervert the concept of public health? The violence initiative was timed with
the election year to distract voters from larger political factors impinging on
the inner city, such as poverty, unemployment, inadequate or absent health
care, the unavailability of housing, the decay of the schools, and racism. It
supported the growing political tendency to blame poverty, crime and other
social phenomena on individuals and their families rather than on public
policy, economics, and broader social issues, such as racism. It is time to
unambiguously condemn all pseudo-scientific research that distracts America
from its fundamental social and economic problems, including racism."
In conclusion, he wrote, "I am white and Jewish. It feels like a special
honor to work in close association with African Americans on behalf of human
liberty and mutual respect. As I look back on the fight against the first and
second violence initiatives, it strikes me that the victories would not have
been won without the vigorous participation of African Americans. Often the
dominant white society seems indifferent to the various psychiatric abuses,
whether they affected blacks or the entire society. For example, I had little
success in opposing the return of lobotomy until its effects on the blacks
aroused their concerns. Right now the drugging of children in general escalates
in America, with millions of school-boys and girls on Ritalin and other psychiatric
medications. Yet it is only among blacks that I have found any concerted
ethical or spiritual outrage over the medical diagnosing and drugging of
America's children. It is ironic indeed that the black community remains a
bulwark of ethics, social conscience, and empathy for children within the very
society that so oppresses it."
Disgruntled feels:
Traumatized! In March, Newsweek magazine published an article on children in
Iraq. The five year-old kindergarten students in this particular article
exhibited aggressive behavior, which is understandable given their environment.
Born at the beginning of shock and awe in 2003, these young people have been
traumatized by this conflict. Childhood is far from normal in a war zone. Even
in the relative safety and security of Baghdad's "green zone," which
is the heavily fortified area of the capital city where the US is building the
world's largest embassy complex, violence is a daily fact of life; there is no
escaping the death and destruction. We, here in the US, insulated as we are so
far from the battlefield, tend to forget, ignore and/or underestimate the havoc
that our soldiers and insurgents wreck on the lives of the civilians in an
occupied country. Those least able to protect or defend themselves are the ones
most harmed; these are the traumatized children of Iraq.
Disgruntled
wants to know: On Monday, Alphonso Jackson, Secretary of the Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced his resignation, effective
April 18th. While neither the Bush administration nor Jackson
mentioned the ethics investigations or criticisms from members of Congress
directed at the housing secretary, Jackson is under investigation for some
contracts awarded to cronies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Jackson claims
he is tendering his resignation at this time in order to focus on personal and
family matters. According to a statement issued by George W. Bush,
"Jackson made significant progress in transforming public housing,
revitalizing and modernizing the Federal Housing Administration, increasing
affordable housing, rebuilding the Gulf Coast, decreasing homelessness and
increasing minority homeownership." Jackson is credited with a tremendous
number of accomplishments; some are exaggerated, especially rebuilding the Gulf
Coast and increasing affordable housing. Will Jackson be the Bush
administration's fall guy for the subprime mortgage mess, which is certain to
decrease minority homeownership and increase homelessness?
Disgruntled
says: Medical experts not intimately affiliated with big pharma caution
prescribing powerful drugs to children. As a group, they tend to think we do
not know enough about the long run implications to the individual and society.
Ironically, this has not stopped the medical profession from prescribing drugs
to more and more children. And, every time a young person goes berserk and
kills others and himself, usually it is a male, whether on a secondary school
or college campus, prescription drugs played a role. The fact that these young
people were on some kind of mind-altering drug regime is mentioned by the media
superficially; there are no follow-up stories or in-depth examinations to place
the role these drugs play in facilitating violent and suicidal behaviors in
proper perspective. In this regard, it seems this is one more subject that is
taboo for mainstream media. Big pharma has bought their silence, much like the
doctors pushing these drugs. The entire collusive operation - doctors-big
pharma-mainstream media - does the public a grave disservice. But, the truth
will not remain hidden - chickens come home to roost.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Phone Calls
Email jrswriter@comcast.net Dear Dot and
John...Your insightful publication (Vol. 11 No 13) was right on time with its
analysis of the deliberate destruction of the AmeriKKKan education industry and
its recent transformation into a dummy or zombie creating machine. When you
couple that with the rise of the prison industrial complex and the deliberate
trashing of the US economy, you can plainly see what the ruling elites have in
store for us. The masses are being conditioned to become dummied down convicts,
wage slaves, debt peons or cannon fodder for perpetual imperialist wars. I
especially enjoyed the piece on Fannie Jackson Coppin because I attended
Cheyney State College from 1965-1969 during the early stages of the Black
consciousness movement and I am an active alum. During those years at Cheyney,
I discovered our history and a purpose. In these trying times where are the
blacks who have a passion for our people's redemption? Why are there so few
"race" men and women today? Where is the zeal for education and
transformation that was the noble mission which offered a counterweight to the
degradation and dehumanization of our sojourn in this wilderness? Where are the
Fannie Jackson Coppins of our time? Where are the O. V Catos and Leslie Pinkney
Hills of this generation? Hopefully, there are many like them out there; we
just aren't aware of them. Keep up the great work. The struggle intensifies!
Email www.ajc.com - A group of children ages 8 to 10
apparently were mad at their teacher because she had scolded one of them for
standing on a chair, authorities say. That led the third-graders, as many as
nine boys and girls, to plot an attack on the teacher at Center Elementary
School in south Georgia. Police Chief Tony Tanner said the students apparently
planned to knock the teacher unconscious with a glass paperweight, bind her
with handcuffs and duct tape and then stab her with a broken steak knife. The
purported target teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities,
including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends
and parents said.
Email www.sanluisobispo.com UCC calls for
nationwide race discussion...By Christopher Wills...The United Church of
Christ, the parent denomination of Barack Obama's church, announced Thursday
that it will begin a conversation on racial issues beginning next month in
response to sermons by Obama's pastor that were critical of the U.S. Leaders of
Obama's church, Trinity United Church of Christ, meanwhile, asked reporters for
respect, saying threats and a media onslaught are disrupting worship at the
South Side church. The church has increased security in response to threatening
telephone calls, letters and e-mails, they said. At a news conference, the
United Church of Christ's national leadership said the furor over comments by
the Rev. Jeremiah Wright demonstrated the complexity of racial issues in the
country and the need for churches nationwide to talk about them.