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Vol. 13 Issue
10…Dedicated to the Dialogue on
Race…March 7, 2010
Intuit's Vibe
The Revolutionary
By Alvin Aubert
He is bound to make something happen
He is not quite sure what
But he is determined!
He flits from flower to flower
He has more legs than a hive of bees
He takes everything out of them
Leaving them for
dead.
It will be a long time before anything happens.
In the meantime he plies his adversary's craft
On whomever is at hand
And is useful to him in that way.
Being bound as he is
To making something happen
Something worthy of himself
Almost anything.....
A Hellish Dichotomy
By John Burl Smith
The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America (USA) has produced some startling national and international developments in politics, finance and diplomacy. Unmistakably, right-wing Republican talking heads are engaged in a very hostile and vehement rhetorical attack that unjustly seeks to paint the President's policies as socialistic in intent and anti-capitalistic in effect. Unnoticed by most Americans, however, is their subtle effort to tie such bedrock American values as social justice, human rights and charitable giving to the influence of communist ideologues, most notably Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. This hellish dichotomy ties capitalism and consumerism to Christianity and social justice and charity to socialism.
FOX jocks Glenn Beck and Bill
O'Reilly, along with Rush Limbaugh and faith-based preachers Wiley Drake and
Steven L. Anderson, who prayed for the assassination of President Obama, have
developed this hellish juxtaposition to demonize anyone who expresses
opposition to the current self-absorbed "greed is good" culture of
Wall Street. Their diatribe has become the right's talking points which condemn
social concerns such as equalizing economic resources, narrowing the gap
between the super-rich and the middle class, guaranteeing access to healthcare
for all citizens, regulating predatory interest rates and other obscene
financial practices as the prelude to national socialism in
Beck's characterization of aid to families with dependent children, homeless assistance and help for the poor and needy as not charity but subversive techniques that will undermine capitalism and American individualism runs counter to Christian teaching. According to these FOX jocks, giving is no longer one's Christian duty and a social responsibility; they are part and parcel of the new left liberal communist "foot in the door" gambit.
A society without charity, such
as the one Beck desires, is described by the prophet Amos in Chapter 2 verses
6-7, "...I will not turn away the punishment therefore; because they sold
the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. That pant after the
dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the
meek...." Amos' warning carried real power because he was neither a
prophet nor the son of one. He was a man of humble birth, a herdsman, who God
sent to prophesy against the prevalence of luxury, vice and idolatry during the
time of Uzziah King of
Amos prayed, "Let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a
mighty stream." Hypocrites in
Just as there were false prophets during the days of Amos, there are those today who are trying to redefine the teachings of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, to serve their lust for power. Jesus taught that one should "love thy enemy, do good to them that hate you. Bless them that curse you and pray for those that despitefully use you." Yet to the contrary, pretending to be moral compasses, Glenn Beck and preachers who pray for the assassination of Mr. Obama in the name of Jesus Christ, see murder as a sign from God to justify earthly power.
If Americans follow Beck and his
ilk, as the way to salvation, they will have them standing on their heads, as
they have stood Christianity on its head. Christianity is not a convenient
political philosophy one reshapes to fit who is in the White House.
Christianity is a way of life that through faith one prays to reshape the
person living in the White House. This is indeed a time like those of Amos and
one's choices will never be clearer but standing up for Christian value as
defined by the life of Jesus Christ will never be harder. Yet, if Christians,
like Beck, can pray on Sunday and hate on Monday, what separates them from the
ungodly?
William G. Fletcher, Jr.
"Unions, at different times
in history, become instruments for much more than narrow collective bargaining
purposes. Unions can be instruments for social change and 
transformation.
We should concern ourselves less with what unions are supposed to be by law,
and more with what they need to be." (Bill Fletcher, Jr. - Dollars
& Sense, 1998)
Born on June 21, 1954, in
Fletcher's activism continued at Harvard, where he came under the influence of Dr. Ewart Guinier, chair of the African-American studies department and former secretary-treasurer of the United Public Workers, a union that was expelled from the CIO during the late 1940s amid allegations that it was Communist-led. Fletcher graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1976, with a bachelor's degree in government.
After graduation, Fletcher went
to work as a welder at the Quincy Shipyards, a division of General Dynamics, in
Fletcher joined the Greater
Boston Legal Services as a paralegal in 1982, serving as vice president of the
staff union. In 1986, Fletcher became a staff organizer with District 65 of the
United Auto Workers in
In 1990 Fletcher became
organizational secretary and administrative director of the National Postal
Mail Handlers' Union in Washington, D.C. Fired a year later following a
disagreement with the union president over contract negotiations, Fletcher took
a position as assistant education director for the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU). When John Sweeney became head of the AFL-CIO,
Fletcher became the organization's education director. As the AFL-CIO education
director, Fletcher was determined to bring issues of class, race, and gender to
the forefront of the labor movement. He oversaw the development of an
educational program--Common Sense Economics for Working Families--to facilitate
worker-based discussions about economic issues and capitalism. He promoted
labor movement discussions of race and racism, ethnicity, gender, and sexism
and homophobia. Just as he chastised the labor movement for avoiding issues of
race, he criticized black studies departments for ignoring the history of the
black workers' movement.
In June 1999, Fletcher served as assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
In that position he was in charge of the departments of education, civil and
human rights, field mobilization, safety and health, and working women. In May
of 2001 Fletcher was named vice president for international trade development
programs at the
In 2001, Fletcher was named
president of the TransAfrica Forum, an educational and lobbying organization that
works for justice for people of color throughout the world. Fletcher coined the
term DARAS, an acronym for TransAfrica's twenty-first-century agenda: debt
relief, AIDS, reparations, agricultural subsidies, and sovereignty. TransAfrica
Forum supports reparations for American descendent of African slaves and
victims of 500 years of colonialism on the African continent and elsewhere.
Fletcher is a charter member and co-chair of the anti-war coalition United for
Peace and Justice. Fletcher is the author of numerous articles, co-author of a
number of books and a sought-after speaker. He is a regular contributor to the Monthly
Review and other progressive publications, and the recipient of numerous awards.
He and his wife, Candice S. Cason, have one daughter. (Sources: www.blackcommentator.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-fletcher,
www.answers.com/topic/bill-fletcher)
Requests and Demands - Not the Same (Excerpts)
By Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Good afternoon and thank you. I am very honored to have been asked to address this conference. I want to begin by giving a very special thanks to the Creator of all things on this, the 21st birthday of my little girl. So, I hope to do her proud.
I am going to be brutally honest with you, so I ask your forgiveness in advance if my remarks unsettle you. The union movement is in a rut. Too many of the leaders of organized labor seem to have forgotten certain historical truths. Let me remind you of one such truth.
In 1857 a great leader in the
struggle for justice offered the following observations: "Let me give you
a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human
liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been
born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-
absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It
must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who
want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."
He went on to say: "This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a
physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
[Frederick Douglass]
We, in organized labor, seem to
get confused as to the difference between "requests" and
"demands". We sometimes think that they are the same. THEY ARE NOT.
Let me give you an example of requests: "Pass the jelly, please." OR,
"May we meet with you, Mr. President."
How about demands? Let me pick one out of the air: "Mr. PRESIDENT: WE WANT
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS NOW! Not tomorrow, not next week!"
A demand is straightforward. It does not equivocate. It may or may not be your
end point, but it is something in which you strongly believe and it is your
starting position. The demand guides your action. One follows through on
demands.
Let us be clear that we in the union movement made a big mistake in how we
understood the November 2008 elections. Yes, we were sick of Bush. Yes, we
realized how dangerous the McCain/Palin ticket was. After all, had McCain/Palin
won, they had not even the semblance of an economic program and as many
commentators have noted, we probably would be in a barter economy at this
point, not to mention, probably involved in a military conflict with Iran.
But we made a particular mistake. We engaged in magical thinking and wishful thinking.
Yes, Obama was the right person to elect, but he was not a miracle maker. He is
an outstanding thinker and speaker. He was and is also someone who is very tied
into corporate
Yet in today's political situation, there is no real bi- partisanship, and not
because Obama has not tried. The Republicans have made it clear that they want
to cut his legs off. Not just cut his legs off, but hang and guillotine him at
the same time!! Think about the irrationalist attacks on him carried out by the
so- called Birther Movement, a movement claiming that President Obama is not
actually a citizen of the
Yet, Obama seems to feel more compelled to respond to that, than to pay
attention to the likes of us. And his reluctance to lead the charge on behalf
of working people is as much driven by his ties to corporate
Workers have been under attack since the early 1970s, and organized labor in
many countries-not just the
The little
THEY WON!! Not only did they win, but they won and inspired workers in
Change does not come from one person. But it also does not come from patiently
requesting change. We have to realize that elected leaders are bombarded by
various forces, and particularly forces that have far more money and other
resources than do we. This, then, goes beyond the matter of good intentions,
good speeches, and good looks. It goes to matters of power. Who has it, who
wants it, and how it is used.
So, in the face of the fact that the Obama administration has not delivered
many of the changes that we have requested, there has been both anger and
despair, but what there has been so little of, particularly from unions and
pro-worker/pro- community organizations, has been a mobilization to insist upon
our demands.
About
Me: The above excerpts are from an address made to a gathering of more
than 500 leaders from American Federation of Government Employees local unions
and councils where policy issues are discussed. The speech was delivered on
Sunday, February 21st. You can read it in its entirety at www.blackcommentator.com/365/365_aw_requests_demands.php
By John Burl Smith
The
Colleges and Universities are aggressively pursuing ways to ensure they get a
better tally in the 2010 count. Administrators and students realize counting
every student in 2010 will mean more money for tuition, grant and loan
programs. For instance,
Historically, a variety of
hurdles interfered with counting the disabled. Examples are, blind or vision
impaired do not always have access to Braille forms, people with learning
disabilities cannot always read the form and people with mental disabilities
often see it as an intrusion of privacy or safety issue, according Greg Polman
of the Chicago Lighthouse, a center for the blind and vision impaired. With an
unemployment rate of approximately 60 %, large numbers of people with disabilities
live in institutions, have a litany of mobility problems and are more sheltered
than the general population, experts say. Better counting in 2010 will bring
more revenue to cities for disabled transit users, housing, health services and
workforce development.
Motivated by the fact that only 65 % of
The disability committee's Access Living grassroots organizers will visit deaf
social clubs and other popular gathering places that most non-disabled people
are not aware exist. Four assistance centers have been set up throughout the
city so that people with disabilities can complete the census in safe and
helpful environments.
African Americans are the most severely undercounted population in the United
States (US) at 36.4 million. Ironically, Article I Section II of the US
Constitution, which covers the census also contains the 3/5 Compromise, which
authorized counting slaves as 3/5 of a white man. Article I Section II codified
undercounting black people in the
The 2000 census list the
Hispanics population as 45 million, supplanting blacks as the largest
For slave descendants, the undercount is a 3/5 Compromise constitutional
mandate that has not changed since the Founding Fathers agreed to undercount
slaves. The Census Bureau has not allocated any special programs or advertising
dollars for the black community to increase participation. Rahm Emanuel,
"the best brain in the White House," has refused to even think about
this disparity. Moving the census count into the White House has not changed
the system of counting blacks because the same people and system remain in
place.
Payday Lending
By Charlene Crowell
Before a packed audience of
publishers, representatives of the payday lending industry and the Center for
Responsible Lending debated whether this small dollar loan was helpful credit
or a debt trap. The engaging debate, part of the recent National Newspapers
Publishers Association's Mid-Winter Conference held in
The spirited dialogue drew two
distinct positions. On the one hand, the Center for Responsible Lending, a
non-partisan, nonprofit research and policy organization strongly contended
that payday loans were predatory in nature and targeted minority consumers. By
contrast, Advance America, one of the nation's largest corporate payday lenders
adamantly maintained that race had nothing to do with store locations; rather
in their view, economics alone drove site selection. Advance
Willie Green, speaking on behalf of Advance America, noted that annually 19
million people use the services of 22,000 payday stores nationwide,
representing a $4 billion enterprise. Maintaining that the average payday
customer takes out only eight loans within a 12 to 18 month period, Green
claimed a demand for the product because Americans "live paycheck to
paycheck."
Most importantly, the former
payday store owner alleged that those who criticize the industry "haven't
done their homework."
However, in a presentation by Keith Corbett, executive vice-president for the
Center for Responsible Lending, stated that the APR for a typical two-week loan
spanned 391 to 521 percent, adding that the ability to repay a loan is not a
factor in the industry's approval process, borrowers only needed to present
personal identification, a checking account, and income from a job or
governmental benefits. Agreeing with earlier remarks to publishers by the Rev.
Jesse Jackson, Corbett characterized payday lenders as "back-door
lending" while the industry entered the "front door" of banks to
borrow funds, calling for reforms in both industries.
Citing the contrasting percentages between percent of population and percent of loan transactions, Corbett said he saw a strong connection between the industry locating in primarily minority communities while Green maintained that store locations were based on economics and not race. Terming payday loans as a "debt trap" that strips wealth from communities of color, Corbett quoted Dan Feehan, CEO of Cash America as saying, "And, the theory in the business is you've got to get that customer in, work to turn him into a repetitive customer, long-term customer, because that's really where the profitability is."
Corbett additionally cited a recent Advance America Prospectus, published data that documents how 90 percent of payday loans go to borrowers with five or more loans, while only two percent of loans go to borrowers who take out their loan, pay it off in two weeks, and do not need to borrow again.
Quantifying the effects of payday
lending in the nation's most populous state,
Similar findings were shared for
Corbett also noted two other startling trends: (1) Payday borrowers are twice
as likely to default on credit cards or file for bankruptcy; (2) 25 to 50
percent of borrowers will default in the first 12 months.
When questioned by Robert Bogle, publisher of the Philadelphia Tribune, as to
what the annual percentage rate of a payday loan was, Green responded by citing
a $15 fee per $100 over a two-week period. Despite repeated attempts to learn
from the industry its average APR, as well as other publishers seeking to learn
the cost of rollover fees when loans could not be fully paid, Green continued
to cite the two-week fee.
Through the work of CRL and other advocates, consumer protection efforts have
led 15 states and the
In 2002 and reaffirmed in 2005, the NAACP passed a national resolution against
predatory loans with triple digit interest rates. At the organization's 100th
Annual Convention in 2009, Ben Jealous, NAACP president said, "The top
rate in share cropping was 40 percent. The top rate at some of the wildcat
payday lenders can go up to 1,000. And at the corporate ones, it's a little
over 400. For the military, they're restricted to 36 percent. So it's either as
bad as loan sharing or ten times worse than share cropping; but either way, it
shall not stand much longer."
Disgruntled says: In 2002, Atlanta Police
Officer Raymond Bunn shot 18-year old Corey Ward, who was driving an SUV that
had struck the officer. The single shot fired at the 18-year-old's head was
fatal. Bunn resigned from Atlanta Police in 2004. He was indicted for murder in
2005. This week Fulton County Judge Henry Newkirk ruled the former police
officer fired in self-defense. The judge supposedly based his decision on a
2006 law that allows a judge to rule on a self-defense claim before the case is
taken to trial and a jury. Ward's family and friends are upset and have called
for the District Attorney to appeal the judge's ruling. In a separate news
event, the owner of an abused dog was found guilty of felony animal cruelty and
could face years in prison and a fine. Juxtapose these two news stories and it
becomes obvious that a white man can kill a black child and receive no
punishment, but woe unto you for attempting to kill a dog, which is more valued
than a black man in
Disgruntled feels: Trapped! The
government says there is no inflation, but your dollars buy less at the grocery
stores and gas pumps. In fact, nearly everything you purchase has risen in
price or shrunk in size at the same price, i.e., smaller quantity, over the
past year. It is enough to make you wonder whether or not you exist in some
parallel universe. Adding fodder to that idea, few full-time job offers were
extended over the last month and nearly forty thousand more workers joined the
ranks of the unemployed, but the unemployment rate, according to government
number crunchers, remained unchanged at 9.7 percent. Stock prices rose on the
better than expected labor market report. It is enough to make you want to
throw up; only you cannot afford to lose a meal. To top off this week of
"good" news, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in much the same vein as she
declared impeaching George W. Bush would never come before the House, said the
single payer health insurance option is off the table, GOP Senator Jim Bunning
of Kentucky ended his unemployment insurance extension blockade and President Obama
visited Georgia, where he touted funding for two nuclear power plants, even
though technologically we are unable to dispose of the radioactive active
waste. I do not know about you, but I feel downright trapped in a madhouse!
Disgruntled
wants to know: Up to your eyeballs in debt and living from paycheck to
paycheck, you join the ranks of the unemployed, because the company you worked
for wanted to improve its bottom line and give more bonuses to those at the
top. Or, your job gets outsourced for similar reasons. Whatever the reason, you
are without the income that fed the illusion of a middle class existence. The
unemployment check you get every week is not enough to met half of your
obligations, so you must make some hard choices, i.e., you either eat and pay
the rent or pay those credit card bills. Most folks jettison the unsecured
credit card debt and other recurring monthly discretionary items, such as
multiple cell phones, cable, eating out and other sources of family
entertainment that requires money. Now that you have pared down your middle
class lifestyle and can still barely survive, even with food stamps and help
from family, friends and your church, your credit score takes a nosedive. At
this point, you cannot get a payday loan, so you hardly care that no bank would
consider extending you credit. Unfortunately, no one will give you a job
either, because your credit sucks. Questions over this issue abound. In
particular, do credit scores say anything useful about the work habits of a
prospective employee and should employers use them to deny job applicants
gainful employment?
Mailbox: E-Mails,
Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email www.playahata.com...Three
Los Angeles elementary school teachers accused of giving children portraits of
O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul to carry in a Black History Month parade
have been removed from their classrooms, a school district spokeswoman said
Wednesday. Children from other classes at the school displayed photos of more appropriate
black role models, such as Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman and President Barack
Obama,
Email www.ap.com Texas judge says death penalty
unconstitutional...By Juana Lozano...A judge in the Texas county that sends
more inmates to death row than any other in the nation is answering a torrent
of high-profile criticism after he declared the death penalty unconstitutional.
Judge Kevin Fine said during a court hearing Friday he is not legislating from
the bench and there is no precedent to guide him in resolving the issues raised
by defense attorneys in a pre-trial motion in a capital murder case. Fine has
been heavily criticized since he ruled in a pre-trial motion in a capital
murder case that the death penalty was unconstitutional. The district attorney,
as well as the
Email dipierro@mindspring.com ...Subject:
Re: The DISH Vol. 13 No 9... Thanks for your post dedicated to
Email www.huffingtonpost.com ...Profiting From Recession, Payday Lenders Spend Big To Fight Regulation...By Keith Epstein...Lobbyists are working to exempt companies that make short-term cash loans from proposed new federal regulations and policing. In state capitals around the country, payday companies have been fighting some 100 pieces of legislation aimed at safeguarding borrowers from high interest rates and from falling into excessive debt. Last year, as the U.S. House drew up a financial reform bill, some lawmakers who were courted by the companies and received campaign contributions from them helped crush amendments seeking to restrict payday practices, a review by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found. The failed amendments would have capped payday interest rates - which reach triple digits on an annualized basis -- and would have limited the number of loans a lender could make to a customer. Working largely behind the scenes, the industry ended up dividing the Democratic majority on the 71-member House Financial Services Committee. Over the last decade, lenders specializing in short-term loans, along with company executives and others associated with them, have spent millions of dollars to win influence in Congress. Lobbyists swayed not only conservative, free-market-minded "Blue Dogs" but liberals from poorer, urban districts where payday lenders are often most active. At least one of the liberals threatened to vote with Republicans against the financial reform bill if it restricted payday lenders. 'The payday lenders have done a lot of work,' House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said in an interview. 'They've been very good at cultivating Democrats and minorities.'