The DISH

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Vol. 12 Issue 5…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…February 1, 2009

Intuit's Vibe

It's a New Day

By Will I Am

Tired from the fight

I've been fighting for tomorrow

All my life

Yea I woke up this morning

Feeling brand new

'Cause the dream that I've been dreaming

Has finally come true

It's a new day

It's been a long time coming

Up the mountain kept runnin'

Souls of freedom kept hummin'

Channeling Harriet Tubman

Kennedy, Lincoln, and King

We gotta maninvest in that dream

It feels like we're swimming upstream

It feels like we're stuck in between

A rock and a hard place,

We've been through the heartaches

And lived through the darkest days

If you and I made it this far,

Well then hey, we can make it all the way

And they said no we can't

And we said yes we can

Remember it's you and me together

I woke up this morning

Feeling alright

I've been fightin' for tomorrow

All my life

Yea, I woke up this morning

Feeling brand new

Cause the dream that I've been dreaming

Has finally come true

It's a new day

It's been a long time waitin'

Waiting for this moment

It's been a long time praying

Praying for this moment

We hope for this moment

And now that we own it

For life I'm gonna hold it

And I won't let it go

It's for fathers, our brothers,

Our friends who fought for freedom

Our sisters, our mothers,

Who died for us to be in this moment

Stop and cherish this moment

Stop and cherish this time

It's time for unity

For us and we
That's you and me together

I woke up this morning

Feeling brand new

'Cause the dreams that I've been dreaming

Have finally come true

Yea, I woke up this morning

Feeling alright

'Cause we weren't fighting for nothing

And the soldiers weren't fighting

For nothing

No, Martin wasn't dreaming for nothing

And Lincoln didn't change it for nothing

And children weren't crying for nothing

It's a new day

One Among Millions

By John Burl Smith

Last week Mitchell Brown, one of the earliest supporters and contributors to Obama '08 and classmate from George Washington Carver High School in Memphis, Tennessee, invited me to be one among the millions of people who came to Washington D.C. to witness the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44^th President of the United State of America. We were joined by Irvin Grice, retired high school principle from Miami, Florida and Ronald Turner, jazz musician from Los Angles, California, two other classmates. Together, we not only represented our families and communities; we were part of another giant step on a journey that began some 400 years ago. That odyssey began when the first enslaved Africans stepped from a slave ship and whose forced bondage helped build the nation that has become America.

There among millions, we were adrift in a sea of humanity, unable to see beyond the heads in front or the faces alongside and behind; the ebb and flow as the crowd moved was like the undulating waves of the ocean. Bodies were packed so tightly together as everyone pushed trying to get a closer look at the jumbo-TV screens, I was reminded of descriptions of our ancestors crammed in the holds of slave ships.

For 250 years, millions perished crossing the Middle Passage, while many that survived the voyage perished from endless toil. Still millions survived the horrors of their travails and that morning we stood as witnesses to their courage, dedication and defiance. Jammed together once more on that morning, we began another voyage across unchartered waters to an unknown destination. However, this time we were unfettered by chains and bondage. On this saga we are a people free, bound only by our willingness not to accept limitations imposed on us from without and motivated by the knowledge that we are descendants of a mighty people, who not only survived but thrived under the most inhumane conditions ever imposed by men on other humans. This time we possessed the tools to pry what is rightfully ours from the hands of those who would deny us.

Different lives crushed together on the Washington Mall; we shivered from January's icy breath but were warmed by one thought, one purpose and one goal of sharing this new happening symbolized by Barack Obama. What does it mean to give one's self to a concept, to pledge fealty without reservations and offer one's self to the vague promises of an ideal? Having been down such a road before, while others cheered, I thought of the life changing impact of such a commitment.

Dreams and dreamers require of the individual that last measure that makes a cup overflow or drain it dry of all one is capable of giving to realize fruition. It is so easy to dream of hitching one's hopes to a shooting star or ride the tail of a comet as it streaks across the heavens. It is truly tantalizing to be enthralled in the magnetism of dynamic personalities and be swept along in their wake. It was that way for me, experiencing captivating personalities and enthusiastic crowds during the 1960s when civil rights and black power stirred my soul like a religious conversion.

As such, I was not one who had been trained in activism, neither was I the son of an activist, nor did I see that happening as an economic opportunity. For me, it was like hearing my name called in a noisy room and moved in the direction of the sound. Drawn to those ideals, I had no thought of what would be asked of me or the price I would pay; I only knew I had to answer the call. Again, looking around at those on the Washington Mall on that cold windswept day, I wondered, how many were hearing the call of something greater than themselves? How many had come there hoping only to be a part of a happening but would leave consumed by a movement?

Inwardly, change can come as an explosion that drives one to frenzy, or it can be ever so subtle, imperceptible in its effect. Scanning the crowd as President Obama spoke, I saw tears gently flowing down frosted cheeks, and it was as if no one dared swipe them away. Huddled there together against the chill of that blissful day, spellbound listeners drew warmth from the good news of change President Obama preached. His words reminded me of the lessons taught in Mark Chapter 2 verses 21-22 about the folly of putting new patches on old garments and putting new wine in old bottles.

The slave master mentality that has dominated America for more than 400 years is the old garment that a new Barack Obama cannot be stitched over to hide the holes of discrimination that built this nation. Pouring the new wine of change into old bottles of conservatism and racism will not contain the demands for change which washed over America and swept Barack Obama into the White House. Abraham Lincoln in his second inaugural address quoted Mark Chapter 3 verse 25, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," a warning applicable today.

As George W. Bush fades into the chaos he fomented, we must be aware of hangers-on trying to attach themselves to or detract from this new popular leader. Social conservatives will try to keep alive the hatred, bigotry, racism, and elitism that have divided us in the past by darning the antebellum garment that has draped American society since the 3/5 Compromise was added to the US Constitution.

The challenge for those that were on the Mall and the millions that watched the ceremony at home who by vote in November accepted candidate Obama's pledge to change America is to step up now and become his foot soldiers in "Barack's Brigade" for change. We must take the field against the truculent recalcitrant obstructionists in Congress. Republicans squandered the projected surplus and emptied the US treasury giving George W. Bush whatever he asked in the name of national security. Now President Obama is asking for "butter rather than guns" with his stimulus package, but Republicans are demanding fiscal restraint now. We must not sleep as the citizens of Troy and allow a "gift horse" to deceive us, believing our adversaries have conceded because they have hidden their daggers in their tunics.

We must not abandon President Obama to fight the Republicans alone. Their obstructionism is a call to arms. One among millions, I say, if we continue to stand as tightly as we were packed together on that chilly Washington Mall and remain "Fried Up, Ready to Go" with emails, letters, telephone calls and street protests, we will tell the world and Pres. Obama "We Got Your Back!" Together, America can have a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Bit of History

Alexander Mitchell Palmer (1872-1936)

Alexander Mitchell Palmer was born on May 4, 1872. He was educated at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Palmer was appointed official stenographer of the forty-third judicial district of Pennsylvania in 1892. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1893. While practicing in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Palmer became director of several banks and public-service corporations. He also became a member of the Democratic State executive committee of Pennsylvania and was elected as a Democrat to Congress for 3 terms (3-4-09/3-3-15). He ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 1916. Palmer was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1912 and 1916, and a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1912-1920.

As a congressman, Palmer was a progressive reformer and fought for legislation that protected workers, especially women and children, in dangerous jobs. He favored establishing the League of Nations. President Woodrow Wilson offered Palmer the post of Secretary of War, but Palmer declined because he was a Quaker. Instead, he was appointed Alien Property Custodian (10-22-17) and served until he was appointed US Attorney General on March 4, 1919.

Once in power, Palmer's views on civil rights, women's suffrage and trade union rights changed dramatically. Before becoming Attorney General, Palmer had opposed some American Protective League (APL) actions. The APL participated in numerous raids and surveillance activities, primarily against those who failed to register for the draft. They also acted against immigrants of German ancestry who were suspected of sympathies for the Kaiser government, as well as the International Workers of the World (I.W.W.), anarchists and their sympathizers who were intensely opposed to the U.S. entry into World War I.

Palmer's first act was to release 10,000 aliens of German ancestry taken into custody during the war. Initially, he ignored demands by the press and congressional leaders for federal arrests and/or deportation of radical or revolutionary activists and agitators. In late April 1919, supporters of Luigi Galleani, a violent anarchist, mailed a bomb to Palmer's home which was intercepted and defused. Three months later, Palmer narrowly escaped death when Carlo Valdinoci, a Galleanist placed a bomb on Palmer's porch. The bomb went off and killed Valdinoci; Palmer was not at home.

Bolshevism in Russia convinced Palmer that Communists were planning to overthrow the US government. His suspicion was reinforced when thirty-eight bombs mailed to politicians were intercepted. Palmer recruited J. Edgar Hoover as a special assistant and they used the Espionage Act (1917) and the Sedition Act (1918) against radicals and left-wing organizations.

On September 16, 1919, a bomb concealed in a wagon rocked Wall Street. Packed with 100 pounds of dynamite and cast iron, the bomb exploded during the lunch hour. It caused extensive property damage and killed 38 people, while wounding over 400. Luigi Galleani's bomb campaign continued until most of his gang were prosecuted or deported.

Nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker," Palmer's campaign against radicalism, known as "Palmer Raids," ignited what was later called the "First Red Scare." "Palmer Raids" were a series of police roundups, warrantless wiretaps, and mass arrests of suspected leftists and radicals, during which at least 10,000 individuals were arrested. Under the 1918 Anarchist Exclusion Act, which allowed the deportation of resident aliens who were anarchists or who had advocated violence or the revolutionary overthrow of the government, 556 resident aliens were eventually deported. Fearful of extremist violence and revolution, outside of protests by some civil libertarian groups and the radical left, the American public widely supported the raids, which were not condemned until many years later.

Palmer claimed that Communist agents from Russia were planning to overthrow the American government on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution (11-7-19), over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists were arrested. Even though they found no evidence of a revolutionary plot, large numbers of these suspects were held without trial indefinitely.

Palmer's raids continued into January 1920, when another 6,000 were arrested and held without trial. Again Palmer and Hoover found no evidence of a proposed revolution, but those arrested, many were members of the I.W.W., continued to be held without trial. When Palmer announced that the communist revolution was likely to take place on May Day, mass panic took place in New York. The National Guard was mobilized, the New York City Police Department was put on 24-hour duty and five elected Socialists were expelled from the legislature.

However, the date came and went without incident, causing some to think Palmer had "cried wolf" once too often. When the May revolution failed to materialize, attitudes towards Palmer began to change and he was criticized for disregarding people's basic civil liberties. Some claimed that Palmer had devised his Red Scare to aid his bid to become the Democratic presidential candidate in 1920. Although, Palmer failed to win the nomination, he helped Al Smith (1928) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932) in their campaigns.

Falling from grace in the Democratic Party, Palmer was criticized by historian Samuel Eliot Morrison, "Hundreds of people in New England alone had been arrested with no connection to extremism of any kind. The raids yielded almost nothing in the way of arms or revolutionaries, but Palmer emerged from the episode a national hero. What made his actions so reprehensible, he was a practicing Quaker."

Albeit, over a half century later, the "War on Terror" mimicked Palmer's illegal police roundups, warrantless wiretaps, and mass arrests. Alexander Mitchell Palmer died on May 11, 1936.(Sources: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk, http://en.wikipedia.org, http://historymatters.gmu.edu, and www.lotsofessays.com)

News You Use

ABLE Press Conference

ABLE (Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment) is a multi-racial, interfaith regional coalition of congregations, unions and grassroots organizations that develops and empowers ordinary people to become leaders who effect change in their communities for the common good of all. ABLE has identified four broad areas of concern: healthcare, education, transportation and immigration in the Atlanta metropolitan region. Georgia's mortality rate is 20% higher than the national average. In more than 20 Georgia counties, there is no emergency response system.

Georgia faces a $2.2 billion budget deficit. Governor Sonny Perdue has proposed budget cuts that will eliminate $30 million in funding for the state's school nurses. School districts nationwide are asking teachers and secretaries to learn how to give insulin injections, work defibrillators and dole out medicine (Augusta Chronicle, 1/22/09).

Susan Wooley, Executive Director of the American School Health Association warns that "the prevalence of diabetes is increasing among children; asthma rates are up and children born with HIV are living to be school age who in the past wouldn't have lived that long. That can open up liability for the schools. It is something school districts need to consider very carefully" (ibid).

While the state has proposed cuts in critical programs, nothing is being said about revenue enhancement. According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, there are several ways we can add money to our budget: release the maximum amount legally allowable from the reserve; adopt a $1/pack cigarette tax; impose a temporary surcharge on the top income earners in Georgia; review and make transparent the tax credits and tax breaks accorded under state law.

To ensure that all voices, particularly those negatively impacted by the proposed cuts are heard, ABLE is inviting all interested parties to attend its Press Conference on the Capitol steps (Washington Street side) on Tuesday, February 3, 2009, at 10AM. At the press conference, ABLE plans to call for the following: (1) No cuts to the school nursing program (2) Funds for a statewide trauma network (3) Adoption of a $1/pack cigarette tax which will generate approximately $450 million, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. In addition, ABLE plans to deliver letters to the Governor and the Chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations and Health and Human Services Committees, and encourage all interested parties to write, fax or email their state representatives asking for their support.

For more information about Tuesday's press conference, please contact Sherita Edwards at ABLE's headquarters (678-271-7443) or Debra Greenwood at 404- 234-2478.

Hood Notes

Racial Filters May Affect Court Case Outcomes

Authors of a new study entitled "Myth of the Color-Blind Judge: An Empirical Analysis of Racial Harassment Cases" say the judicial decision-making process may not always be objective and color-blind. Robert E. Kelley of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and Pat Chew of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law suggest some clues as to how race or political affiliation can impact the judicial decision-making process. Reviewing U.S. federal court cases, they found that the race of federal judges frequently affects the outcome of cases in the area of workplace racial harassment.

For instance, African American judges, who currently represent only 11 percent of all federal court judges, rule in favor of the plaintiff nearly 46 percent of the time, more than twice as often as white judges (20.6 percent) with an overall average plaintiff success rate (22 percent).

These results were compiled from a random sample of 428 federal cases representing 40 percent of all reported workplace racial harassment cases from six federal circuits between 1981 and 2003 according to researchers.

According to Kelley, "These findings reveal that judges do not always leave race at the door when entering the courtroom. Rather, differences in their social and cultural experiences due to race can influence their interpretation of laws." African American and European American judges had similar decision-making patterns in overt cases that involved racial slurs, ruling for the plaintiff 30 and 34 percent more often, respectively, when compared to cases without racial slurs. When the cases involved more subjective issues like harassment by supervisors and co-workers, European American jurists ruled in favor of plaintiffs 81 percent more often. Chew speculates that this disparity results from the difference in how white and African American judges perceive racial harassment.

"Our data suggests it is not the workplace racial harassment in and of itself that is responsible for the dissimilarities in how judges of different races decide these cases. Neither group is inattentive to legal principles; they simply differ in their interpretation and understanding of the dispute," Chew explained.

Not surprisingly, a judge's political affiliation does impact decision-making, particularly for white judges. Democratic appointees found for the plaintiff 27.1 percent of the time, while plaintiffs who came before Republican-appointees won only 16.6 percent of the time. Political affiliation proved much less a factor than race for African American judges, with Democrat-appointed judges ruling for the plaintiff about 47 percent of the time while Republican appointees found for plaintiffs about 43 percent of the time.

These researchers believe their work makes a case for a more diverse judiciary. Chew and Kelley believe that an underlying value of the study is its demonstration of the ability of judges to more keenly appreciate the perspective of plaintiffs who come from similar racial backgrounds. "The experiences of minority judges afford them valuable knowledge, perspective and understanding of minority plaintiffs and the subtle -- rather than blatant -- forms of discrimination that can be more prevalent today. If as a country we truly believe in judicial fairness, a more diverse bench is a good place to start, as it could increase the impartiality of the judicial system and yield more equitable legal outcomes."

Politics Y2K9

Fair Pay Law

On Thursday, February 29, 2009, during a public ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President Barack Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in honor of the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 550 U.S. 618 (2007). In this employment discrimination decision, a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court held that employers are protected from lawsuits over race or gender pay discrimination if employee claims are not filed within a 180-day window of the employer decision to discriminate.

Lilly Ledbetter argued that she did not become aware of the pay discrepancy until near the end of her 19-year career at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company plant in Gadsden, Alabama. Supporters of the law believe it is unrealistic to expect employees to be aware of the salaries of co-workers, particularly in workplaces where such discussions are frowned on by management. Keeping the Supreme Court ruling in place rewards companies that are able to keep pay discrimination secret for more than six months. Opponents of the law, including the previous administration and congressional Republicans, argue that it is a boon to trial lawyers and guts the statute of limitations.

Despite the Republican opposition, the measure passed by veto-proof majorities in both Houses of Congress. In signing the measure, President Obama cited US Census Bureau statistics that show women receive about 78 cents for every dollar that men get for doing equivalent jobs. According to President Obama, "Equal pay is by no means just a women's issue; it's a family issue. And in this economy, when so many folks are already working harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford is losing part of each month's paycheck to simple and plain discrimination."

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act amends the 1964 Civil Rights Act such that each new discriminatory paycheck extends the statute of limitations an additional 180 days. The new law also applies to discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, disability and age.

Disgruntled says: The US is a vocal proponent of democracy; it is great when it comes to touting democratic virtues, even going to war on the pretext of extending democracy to citizens of other countries. Yet, citizens in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., do not have a voting representative in Congress. A measure under consideration again that has been opposed by Republicans would give one House vote to the District. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is a non-voting House member; the District has no representation, voting or non-voting, in the Senate. Citizens of the District pay taxes, like those in the remainder of the country. To deny them a vote in Congress is taxation without representation. It is time the country extends the blessings of democracy to its citizens in the nation's capital, before demanding it for citizens of other nations.

Disgruntled wants to know: The US death toll in Afghanistan and Iraq stand at more than 4800, which exceeds the death toll from the September 11 terrorist attack. Thousands more have been wounded and an untold number of innocent men, women and children in these countries have killed, scarred for life and displaced as a result of US naked aggression. Many of us voted for Barack Obama because he promised to end the war in Iraq. We certainly hope he keeps that promise. In looking back on how we foolishly launched a war against a country that had done nothing to incur our righteous wrath, one has to wonder, has the 'war on terror' really made the US more secure? Has it been worth the blood and treasure? More importantly, what were the real motives of the Bush administration and what did the nation gain in igniting this conflagration? These are all questions that should be a part of the war's post mortem.

Disgruntled feels: Obstruction! The US installed a new leader with the inauguration on January 20 of Barack Obama. According to the Chinese Zodiac, January 26 ushered in the year of the Ox. We generally think of oxen as stubborn, yet individuals born in this year possess other admirable qualities, including being hardworking, detail-and goal-oriented leaders. Perhaps, there is some comfort one can take away from this being a new day for this nation and the world and the Year of the Ox. Collectively, we can achieve the changes promised by this new president by stubbornly refusing to allow Republicans that deal in obstructionism to stand in the path of progress unscathed. Let us be like Ox in our resolve that obstruction comes with a heavy price.

Blah! Blah!

On Rush Limbaugh!

Last week Republican talking head Rush Limbaugh presented what he called the "Limbaugh-Obama Stimulus Package." He proposed some $480 billions for infrastructure and $400 billion in tax cuts. First, Limbaugh's name was not on the ballot in November, so nothing gives him the right to dictate policy.

Republicans have force-fed tax cuts on the American people for a decade or more, and only succeeded in producing the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of this nation. If those tax cuts had worked, the nation would not be experiencing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Next, if Rush Limbaugh was so bad and his editorials were so great, we would be saying President John McCain. Limbaugh is all mouth and does not have the nerve to put his popularity on the line by running for elective office. Barack Obama did and he beat Limbaugh and McCain, while reducing Republicans to a whimper.

Voters in America spoke out loud and clear about who they wanted to run America. They gave President Obama a resounding victory. If Limbaugh wants to run the country, he should put his gloves on and get in the ring. Until then, Limbaugh is just hot air. Blah, blah Rush Limbaugh!