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Vol. 9 No. 28…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…July
14, 2006
Venue for an Artist
Positivity
By Stevie Wonder (Featuring Aisha Morris)
Some people ask me why always on the bright side
When there’s so much going down on the other side
It’s like I live in a bubble with no trouble
And problems don’t exist
I chuckle and tell them that ain’t the case at all
It goes way back to the time when I was very small
Not in mind but size and age my papa used to say
You can always live in the positive
So I try every day to live in that way
Some people live in the what was and what they could have been
As opposed to living in what is and how much they can
And be the first to complain about nothing in life going their way
The attitude is “that there I can’t do nothing ‘bout’”
And very happy with just breathing in and out
The ones that when you say “lets go make a difference.”
They’ll say “naw, that’s okay.”
So I don’t waste time on the trip side
Cause I do know the real on the flip side
And I’m crystal clear everyday that’s why I say
When I see the morning
And the sun is smiling down upon me
I joy in the blessing
That still the ground is not above me
And for the people
That I can truly say do love me I feel ..positivity
Cause that’s what life means to me
Positivity...Cause this day did not have to be
Some ask me why am I such an optimist
When it’s more fashionable to be a pessimist
From what’s in seventy-five percent of what we read, hear and view
Well, I used to have a friend named Minnie Riperton
Who used to always say when she was living
“Like fine wine I like seeing the glass of live as half full than half empty”
I’m not saying sometimes life can’t be rough
But never to the point to me saying I’ve had enough
Long as my heartbeats I ain’t giving up
That’s why I say everyday
When people ask me as an African-American
What do I see for tomorrow in the human plan
Is it possible for all people of the world to co-exist
I say unity is only as big as our vision
And if its narrow, strive to expand beyond the horizon
But true leaders must guide us through
the ills of society that stand in our way
So if the road is to harmony, be with the call
But if its about discord, don’t take the ride at all
Cause the world vision I see is a one-we for everybody
When you see the morning
And the sun is smiling down upon you
Just joy in the blessing
That still the ground is not above you...And for the people
That you can truly say do love you, do feel
Positivity...Cause that’s what life’s meant to be
Positivity...And that’s the energy the world needs
Positivity...Cause that’s what life means to me
Positivity...Cause this day did not have to be
Comments from the
The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is enjoying his summer vacation from
school work. When pressed to do more reading and less television viewing and
video gaming, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro rhetorically opined with a whine,
"What is the point of a break, if it is not clean?
Living Above or Below the Half Mark
By John Burl Smith
Whenever George W. Bush gives one of his exuberant hubristicly positive
assessments of the economy, most economists posit, "It depends on whether
you see the glass as half full or half empty." Economists are famous for
their double handed statement, "On the one hand, profits are up, the stock
market is booming, interest rates are low, home sales are the highest ever and
consumer spending is strong so the economy seems to be doing well. While on the
other hand, economic growth is anemic, employment is in the toilet, wages are
down, the
This comparison is more than a philosophical divide. It is the existential
reality of those living in the two
Sailing under clear skies and on calm seas, those who see the world as Bush
believes, think people outside of America hate us because of our generous,
peace loving, equitable nature and not because America invades defenseless
nations, bomb and kill helpless people, take their national resources and label
anyone with the nerves to fight back a "terrorist." Those above the
half full mark live a pie-in-the-sky existence, viewing the world through
rose-tinted glasses. Bush has convinced them that it is possible to fight wars
on credit; it's great to cut taxes today and let our children pay tomorrow, as
well as debt and deficits are fine as long as one can pass the bill on to the
next generation.
However, those looking up from the bottom of the glass are drowning in the
empty promises of trickle down economic phrases like, "Rising tides lift
all boats." Treading water as fast as possible against the downward
pressure of prosperity pouring in at the top, those living below the half empty
mark try desperately to avoid the force of poverty pulling them through cracks
in the bottom of the glass. Seen from the bottom, the glass that symbolizes the
Anchored to the bottom by price increases in all basic necessities that those
below half empty need to survive such as food, rent, gas, child care and
medical bills, these Americans can hardly get their heads above water. Their
perception is not colored by the benefits of whiteness or the legacy it
affords. The half empty mark is like a glass ceiling that trapped their
fore-parents in slavery, whether physical, psychological or economic, and domed
generation after generation to a death dance with poverty. Their slice of the
American pie under Bush has gone from crust to crumb and at this point makes
Marie Antoinette's quip- Let them eat cake- sound like good advice.
Although history has shown that each time those below half empty thought they
were being thrown a life line, the rope turned into a noose that left them
hanging by a thread. Despite being deceived by whites, politicians, the
government and preachers who told them "pray and your cup will runneth
over," their half empty view has not given them cause to quit. Like the
Palestinians, our faith in life and our will to survive have outlasted tyrants
before and will carry us across
Last week (7-1-06), our family welcomed Tahlia Chace into the world. We renewed
our pledge to give her a more hopeful future than the one that greeted us!
Disgruntled
wants to know: According to recent news reports, General Motors (GM)
plans to reduce it workforce by one-quarter. This bad news came on the heels of
other reports that show a decline in the growth of US manufacturing and a
jobless recovery in the technology sector. These reports show a decline in the
jobs that traditionally support the
Disgruntled feels: Insecure! The world is at war, and nothing is safe or sacred from terrorists on all sides of this global conflict.
Disgruntled says: In the real world, speculation is rife that the Bush administration's illegal spying operations have amassed a treasure trove of dirt on its friends and enemies. This could explain why members of Congress are acting strange and doing things like colluding with the White House to write legislation to make its illegal acts retroactively legal.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006)
"The
modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral
philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for
selfishness." "People of privilege will always risk their complete
destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage."
"One of my greatest pleasures in my writing has come from the thought that
perhaps my work might annoy someone of comfortably pretentious position. Then
comes the realization that such people rarely read."
(Galbraith quotes www.quotationspage.com )
Born October 15, 1908 on a small farm in Iona Station,
Galbraith received his B.S. degree from the
After teaching intermittently at Harvard (1934-1939), Galbraith taught at
Although he served as a president of the American Economic Association (1972),
Galbraith rejected neo-classical economic analysis as being divorced from
reality. He believed factors, such as advertising, the separation between
corporate ownership and management, oligopoly, and the influence of government
and military spending had been largely neglected by most economists in their
analysis of economic conditions. Moreover, as a Keynesian, Galbraith believed
the government had an important role to play in stabilizing the economy and
promoting full employment by stimulating spending and investment with
adjustments in interest and tax rates and deficit financing.
An adviser to President John F. Kennedy, Galbraith was appointed as
A prolific writer, Galbraith wrote numerous books and articles. His major works
include American Capitalism: The Concept
of Countervailing Power (1952), The
Affluent Society (1958), which is believed to have greatly
influenced the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations' "war
on poverty," The New Industrial
State (1967) and Economics
and the Public Purpose (1973).
On retiring from Harvard in 1975, Galbraith continued to write, travel and
speak before large audiences. In the 1980s, Galbraith's popularity waned as public
discourse increasingly centered around the pro-market, small-government,
anti-regulation and low-tax orthodoxies which came to prominence with the Nixon
presidency.
In A Short History of Financial Euphoria
(1990), he traced financial bubbles over several centuries, and cautioned that
what currently seemed to be "the next great thing" may not be that
great and may have quite irrational factors promoting it. A common factor in
all financial bubbles has been easy access to borrowed money for speculation.
Galbraith received two Presidential Medals of Freedom awarded in 1946 and 2000.
He also received the Padma Vibhushan,
Yohannes Sharriff and Aqiyl Thomas, the team that brought you the
groundbreaking spoken word play The Block and the first World Party in
On this Sunday (July 23, 2006) at
Remember, the documentary at the Apache Café,
Real Nightmare Scenario
On
That is a question folks are asking all across this country. Middle class and
low income families are hurting. They certainly do not have confidence in the
positive economic scenario being painted by the Bush administration. When
everybody you know knows somebody that is either out of work, working part-time
because they cannot find full-time employment, working on a low-wage job or
working off the books, the economy is not in great shape. For the Bush
administration to continue saying otherwise suggests there is a disconnect
between conditions on the ground and the economic data published by the
government.
The real economy is in dire straits for a large segment of the
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Telephone Calls
Email www.sfgate.com Bush used the East Room of
the White House Tuesday to tout the administration's midyear budget forecast.
Bush credited his signature tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 for an anticipated 30
percent drop in the deficit to $296 billion. The revenue burst, while welcome,
masks a dangerous longer-term picture, the analysts said. "I think you
should buy yourself a very small brownie, light a candle and blow it out,"
said former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holz-Eakin. "This
is tiny compared to the big problem, and it's on the wrong side of the budget.
The big problem is on the spending side, and there is a question of just how
permanent this will be."
Email http://monthlyreview.org Excerpt
from Bill Moyer's speech delivered at
Email www.washingtonpost.com - U.S. Losing
Its Middle Class Neighborhoods...By Blaine Harden...From 1970 to 2000, Metro
Areas Showed Widening Gap Between Rich, Poor Sections..Middle-class
neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing
ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of
the middle class itself. In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both
on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by
income, according to a Brookings Institution study.
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