The DISH
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Vol. 11 Issue 7…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…February 15, 2008
Apology
By Tina K
How do I tell you I'm sorry -
With a gesture, a look, a touch?
How is it I never realized
I hurt you so very
much?
I do not ask forgiveness,
A comfort I'll never deserve.
I merely want to let you know,
But I cannot find the
nerve.
To finally confront you, face-to-face,
To look you in the eye,
To face your wrath, your apathy -
Too terrified to try.
You called me selfish, I turned away,
I festered and I fled;
Cutting and wounding and lashing out,
Just to see if you
bled.
Betraying and deceiving you,
I surely had no right
To snatch away such a precious gem;
A dark thief in the
night.
Four years and forever passed
To bring us to this day,
When I present these simple words
I never thought to
say.
The time has come, it's long past due,
To put aside my fear;
Would this confession torture you,
Or have you longed to
hear?
To hear those two forbidden words,
To vanquish all the pain,
To understand my dearest wish:
To know you once
again.
The years aged me remarkably,
Though they have not made me wise;
I do know I erred irrevocably -
For that I apologize.
Economic Stimulus Act
of 2008
On Wednesday, George W. Bush signed into law HR5140, the bipartisan fiscal
stimulus bill designed to stave off recession or minimize any potential
economic downturn. In addition to putting money in the hands of consumers, the
bill provides tax breaks to spur business investments and assistance for
homeowners caught in the mortgage mess.
Under the approximately $170 billion package, most taxpayers will receive a
rebate. According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), checks will begin
going out in May for between $300 and $1,200 or more depending on adjusted
gross income, filing status and number of children. Single taxpayers earning
less than $75,000 will receive a $600 rebate check; couples earning less than
$150,000 will receive checks for $1,200. And, for each child, singles and
couples will receive an additional $300. For rebate check purposes, the head of
household filing status is treated as single. The rebate phases out at higher
income levels-- incomes of $87,000 for individuals and $174,000 for couples.
Unlike the previous stimulus bill, even those who did not pay taxes will
receive at least $300, if they received at least $3,000 in income from
earnings, a job or self-employment, Social Security and/or veterans' disability
benefits. To receive a rebate check, you must file a 2007 tax return, even
though you owed no taxes. For more on the stimulus package, visit www.irs.gov.
William S.
Scarborough (1852-1926)
Born February 16, 1852 in Macon, Georgia to a free black father and an enslaved
multiracial mother, William Saunders Scarborough learned to read and write with
the aid of his white neighbors and a free black family in Macon. He learned
carpentry and shoe making. Scarborough received his secondary education in
Macon's Lewis High School. Scarborough was emancipated during the Civil War and
entered Atlanta University in 1869. Scarborough completed his degree at Oberlin
College, graduating with honors in the classics.
Scarborough returned to Lewis High School to teach classical language. After
arsonists set fire to the high school in 1876 and the Macon fire department let
it burn to the ground, Scarborough moved to South Carolina (SC). He found the
racial environment there "even worse than Georgia."
He briefly held the position of principal of Payne Institute in Cokesburg, SC,
before returning to Oberlin, where he earned his MA degree (1876) in Hebrew and
Hellenistic Greek. In 1877, Scarborough became chair of the ancient languages
department at Wilberforce University in Ohio.
A consummate academic, to help his students Scarborough wrote a textbook, First Lessons in Greek. The book
was published in 1881 and eventually became widely used in colleges and
universities throughout the nation, including Yale University. Scarborough
published a second book, Birds of
Aristophanes in 1886.
Scarborough broke race and class barriers during a period in US history marked
by Jim Crow segregation. In the 1880s, he joined the Modern Language
Association (MLA) and the American Philological Association (APA), two
scholarly organizations dominated by white men. Fluent in a number of classical
languages, and the author of many published papers on a range of topics,
Scarborough became a world-respected scholar.
In 1896, he became the first prominent scholar to challenge Booker T.
Washington's vision for industrial education. He argued, through his
influential articles, that blacks, like whites, were capable of succeeding with
a liberal arts education.
Active in the Ohio Republican Party, Scarborough successfully lobbied for
legislation to prohibit legal segregation in Ohio's schools. As president of
Ohio's Afro-American League, he worked for legislation that banned the
operation of Jim Crow railroad cars in the state.
In 1908, Scarborough became
President of Wilberforce University, a position he held for twelve years.
During his tenure, he wrote and published numerous articles on linguistics and
he spoke out on race relations. Despite his academic successes, Scarborough
endured many insults and financial problems, including being disinvited from
the APA's meeting in Baltimore in 1909; the Hotel Belvedere's manager refused
to serve dinner "where a member of your race is present." Someone
else read his paper.
In 1921, US President Warren G. Harding appointed him to a post in the
Department of Agriculture, which he held until Harding's death. William
Saunders Scarborough died in 1926. (Sources: www.nathanielturner.com,
www.ur.umich.edu, and www.aaregistry.com)
On Super Delegates!
By Dot
As the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination between Senators
Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama tightens, we learn more about superdelegates,
which are current or former elected officeholders and party officials.
Superdelegates are seated at the party's convention based solely on their
status. As such, they are not bound by the wishes of the voters of their
respective states and can cast ballots at the convention for the presidential
nominee based solely on their personal preference.
The Republican Party also has party officials that serve as delegates that are
not chosen by voters during primaries and caucuses. But, they are not generally
referred to as superdelegates. Moreover, when it comes to contending for the
Republican nomination, the process does not appear as contentious as the one in
the Democratic Party. Perhaps, it has to do with the base of the Republican Party,
which is made up of white Christian conservatives. The base of the Democratic
Party is black Americans.
For the 2008 Democratic Convention, there are 796 superdelegates, approximately
one-fifth of the total number of delegates. If no candidate has locked up a
majority of the delegates prior to the convention, then superdelegates will
play a pivotal role in selecting the party's nominee. Given the party's
history, this whole superdelegates thing is reminiscent of the three-fifths
compromise, which has historically been used to devalue black human capital.
Dispute Resolution
with Extreme Prejudice
On Thursday, February 7, 2008, Charles "Cookie" Thornton left a
goodbye note to his family and friends. It said, "The truth will win in
the end."
Within hours of leaving the cryptic message on his bed, Thornton was dead.
According to press reports, a disgruntled Thornton got into his old ambulance
and drove to City Hall, the source of his problems, at least from his
perspective. Armed with a gun, his perspective was the one that mattered.
Thornton had a dispute that had plagued his livelihood for years in Kirkwood,
Missouri. A black man, he believed racism prevented his business from
prospering; he faulted Kirkwood's mayor and other officials. Before police
killed him, he killed five and injured two more, including Mayor Mike Swoboda.
The victims of Thornton's dispute resolution were remembered by townspeople as
kind and giving, all longtime public servants. Yet, Thornton, 52, who was
remembered by friends and family as outgoing and friendly, a standout high
school athlete, full of joy, had grown increasing angry with city officials.
Thornton expected his main business, pouring asphalt and laying concrete, would
do well. When the lucrative contracts he had anticipated did not materialize,
he faulted city officials. Instead of a reliable income stream, he amassed
thousands of dollars in fines for illegally parking construction equipment and
operating without business permits.
At city meetings, Thornton did not mince words in recounting the racist
mistreatment he received. In 2006, he was removed from city council meetings
for making vulgar comments about city officials. Thornton filed a federal
lawsuit against the city for removing him from these meetings. A federal judge
dismissed his case. In addition, Thornton was scheduled to go on trial later
this year for his role in an altercation that resulted from one of his
demonstrations against the city.
While Thornton's troubles are a matter of public record, no one thought he
would resort to such violence. Apparently, Thornton saw no other way to resolve
the dispute. Moreover, given his goodbye note, he made no apology for his
action, believing truth was on his side. He left apologies for those he left
behind.
Australia's Apology
"A stiff apology is a second
insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been
wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt."
Gilbert K. Chesterton
The year 2008 marks the 200th anniversary of the end of the legal
importation of slaves to the United States. During the Trans-Atlantic slave
trade, millions of Africans were uprooted from their native lands and enslaved
in the Americas. Hundreds of thousands died in transit. The US played a pivotal
role in this dark period in the history of mankind and the subsequent crimes
against humanity. Yet, it has refused to apologize to the descendants of
slavery.
Fast forward to the new millennium and the new Australian government of Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd! On February
13, 2008, the first item of business for the Australian Parliament was an
apology for the past mistreatment of the country's Aboriginal minority. Much
like the US mistreatment of Native Americans and Africans slaves, thousands of
Aboriginals died from disease, warfare and dispossession in the years following
European settlement of Australia. And, much like the political
disenfranchisement of slave descendants, Aborigines were not allowed to vote in
national elections until 1962.
In part, parliament's apology is aimed at the so-called Stolen Generation,
which has extensively lobbied for the action. According to a 1997 landmark
report, which recommended a national apology, "between one in every three
and one in every 10 Aboriginal children were taken from their homes and
families in the last century until the policy was formally abandoned in
1969." Through this policy of assimilation, tens of thousands of Aborigines
were robbed of their language, culture and heritage, leaving psychological, as
well as socioeconomic and political scars.
Aborigines are about two (2) percent of Australia's population, yet there are
no Aborigines in the national parliament. Like black and Native Americans,
Aborigines represent Australia's most disadvantaged group, with higher rates of
infant mortality, unemployment and imprisonment.
An apology is long overdue, even though some Australians, especially
conservatives like those that supported the previous government under John
Howard, do not support the decision. On the other hand, Aborigines that support
the decision believe it does not go far enough, since the apology does not
include reparations.
Disgruntled feels: Deception!
US Banking and financial services routinely engage in usury. A sin during
biblical times, it should be a modern-day crime. Thanks to our do-nothing
government, these crooks use overdraft and late fees, exorbitant interest rates,
esoteric financial instruments, etc., to prey on the unsuspecting and ignorant.
With the subprime mortgage mess, there have been plenty of revelations about
the sin of making money off money. Some people think it is poetic justice; the
financials deserve hard times for their criminal deception.
Disgruntled
says: In 2005, George W. Bush lied when he said the US does not torture.
Belatedly the US is debating torture tactics, while ignoring the loss of life
and destruction of US air strikes and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. We
know torture, including waterboarding, is morally wrong and violates the Geneva
Conventions. Far more egregious than Monica Lewinsky's semen-stained dress, the
US' use of torture to acquire dubious intelligence is just one among many
reasons Bush should be impeached. Instead, Congress is conducting hearings on
baseball steroid use that happened ten years ago. Perhaps, in a decade or so,
the US will conduct a retrospective analysis of the neo-conservative vision of
US hegemony, which called for US control of the world's supply of energy, the
centerpiece of US foreign policy. No doubt, in looking back, we will wring our
collective hands and consider offering an apology to those killed, brutalized
and maimed in spreading US 'democracy.'
Disgruntled wants to know: Smarting from US-backed UN-sanctions over its nuclear energy program and a falling dollar, Iran decided it would sell its oil in currencies other than the US dollar. The Iranian oil bourse was supposed to come online this past summer; it has been pushed back several times for various reasons. In the meantime, the dollar continues to decline, as more and more countries, especially those with oil, switch to euros or a basket of currencies. The latest on the Iranian oil bourse indicated it would definitely come online in February. However, it seems to have been delayed again because of communication disruptions. Some folks believe cutting the undersea cables was a deliberate act of sabotage, rather than an accident. Did the US cut the undersea cables to prevent the Iranian oil bourse from going online in a desperate attempt to protect the dollar or is there something more sinister afoot?
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email www.alternet.org...This
Halftime Show Is Brought to You by Child Labor In Africa...By Ruthie
Ackerman...The "official tire sponsor" of Super Bowl XLII tries to
scrub its image in the face of a major human rights lawsuit. Bridgestone
Firestone North American Tire, the world's largest seller of tires, spent more
than $10 million as "official tire sponsor" of the Super Bowl
halftime show...and will likely spend that much and more to sponsor the event
in 2009. But, the entertainment and advertising images beamed into American
living rooms during the most-watched sporting event of the year stand in sharp
contrast to the harsh working conditions, child labor and exposure to toxic
chemicals at the company's rubber plantations in Liberia.
Email www.truthout.org
... Telecom Group Key Player in Immunity Battle...By Matt Renner...A think tank
with close ties to the telecommunication industry has been working with a key
Democrat in the Senate on a domestic surveillance bill that would provide
telecommunications companies with retroactive immunity for possibly violating
federal law by spying on American citizens at the behest of the Bush
administration. Third Way, a non-profit think tank that is funded and
controlled by hedge fund managers, corporate lawyers and business executives
has advised Sen. Jay Rockefeller on a domestic surveillance bill that includes
immunity for telecommunications companies with which Third Way board members
have close ties.
Email www.mediamatters.org...On the February 7 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, correspondent David Shuster, filling in for host Tucker Carlson, said, "Doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way" by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) presidential campaign. "Like Don Imus, Tucker Carlson and Chris Matthews before him, David Shuster's reprehensible comments are part of a troubling pattern that has become all too common on MSNBC broadcasts. If MSNBC was genuinely trying to tackle the problem of sexism on their airwaves, this wouldn't keep happening. Instead of constantly searching for the right response to these outbursts, MSNBC should be searching for ways to foster an environment where they don't happen in the first place. The time for apologies has passed. The time for a real commitment to change is long since overdue." --David Brock, President & CEO of Media Matters for America.