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Vol. 9 No. 33…Dedicated
to the Dialogue on Race…August 18, 2006
Intuit’s Vibe
Pre-Requiem
By John M Swails
There’s a slow sort
of dying going on
like when a dog stops
drinking available water
or doing any of the
many things
he or she aught to do
to maintain;
almost as if the
brain has decided to dismiss life,
and suicide is
unconsciously entertained
like a shortcut to a
quick reward.
No.. not as blunt or
obvious
but the end result
remains the same.
Too many brothers,
fathers, sisters and mothers,
have given up the
right to think in exchange
for the comfort of a
financial plantation,
submitting to the
gospel of the media’s dogma
and offering up their
rights…three by two by one
till none think for
themselves
and the fences’
boundaries slowly close in.
But they… no, we, are
numb to this
blinded by artificial
success;
we fail to recognize
our dependency.
And with voices
successfully squelched,
we are led to the
slaughter –
incarcerated
son…raped and devalued daughter.
Fathers first to be
removed
with the art of
deception, depression and greed,
leaving mothers to
depend on others for their needs,
and government
offerings hide secret agendas
but having invited
the viper in
her guard is easily
subdued and removed,
leaving her offspring
as easy prey for their venom.
This poison begins in
main stream education,
removing any
indication
that Black culture’s
contributions towards society exist.
Inventions reassigned
or just as easily dismissed,
removing pride of
ancestry to be replaced by low self-esteem
and bleak prospects
for any piece of the “American Dream,”
seeds killed before
plants ever get a chance to form.
Dreams shattered
almost before they’re ever born.
And with no past to
stand on, what does one’s future hold?
And with no one to
guide them, when will the truth be told?
There’s a slow sort
of dying going on
like when a dog stops
drinking available water
or doing any of the
many things
he or she aught to do
to maintain,
almost as if the
brain has decided to dismiss life,
but the saddest part
of all is the antidote of truth
has been in our mouth all the time.
Ghetto Tax
We always knew it! Now, the Brookings Institution study, Poverty,
The study found the urban poor pay more for their mortgages, car loans, basic
financial services, groceries and insurance. It pointed to "real
differences in the cost of doing business in poor areas, predatory financial
practices and consumer ignorance" to explain some disparities. Whatever
the cause, the higher cost is a tax, which raises the cost of living and lowers
the quality of life for already poor families.
The Brookings Institution called on government, philanthropic organizations,
and business leaders to pursue market and regulatory initiatives to help lower
income families get ahead by bringing down the inflated prices they pay for
basic necessities. For more about the ghetto tax, methods used in this study
and antidotal information, see http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20060718_povop.htm
St. Katharine Drexel
(1858- 1955)
The basis for true altruism is an empathic feeling or desire to give to or
service others without any consideration of receiving anything in return.
The second daughter of well known
The family moved to a ninety-acre farm in
Torresdale, outside
Traveling with her father in 1884, Katharine saw
the disgraceful treatment of Native Americans. She witnessed Indians living in
squalor and despair. An 1868 federal treaty promised Indians one teacher and
one classroom for every 30 children of school age. After her father passed in
1885, Katharine and her sisters began contributing money to help Native
Americans. Traveling to
A living sermon, Mother Drexel petitioned Congress
to provide Native Americans schools. Challenging racism, prejudice and bigotry,
she funded, built, and staffed churches and schools for Native and African
Americans in the United States (US). A major concern of Mother Drexel was the
plight of African Americans in the South. Answering the desperate prayers of
blacks for education in
Mother Drexel challenged biased reporting,
organized a letter-writing campaign to support the anti-lynching bill and stood
against Jim Crow segregation and its blatant discrimination. Believing in a
common American citizenship regardless of race, her educational philosophy was
to provide well-trained teachers who cared about students' mental, physical,
and spiritual welfare as the key to social and economic improvement.
A rich debutante, Mother Katharine Drexel had
choices; she decided to give her life to God. A young socialite, the envy of
many, Katharine took a vow of poverty to care for "the least of
these," and thereby showed true altruism. At her passing in 1955, those
who felt her presence agreed, "The world is a better place because she
lived." More than 500 Sisters were teaching in 63 schools at that time.
The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, has 245 members, pursuing St. Katharine's
original apostolate, serving African and Native Americans in 21 states and
In 1987, Mother Katharine Drexel was declared
"venerable" by Pope John Paul II. Declared blessed on November 20,
1988, she was canonized St. Katharine on January 27, 2000. (Sources: www.katharinedrexel.org, www.newadvent.org and www.xula.edu)
Disgruntled feels: Fear!
In the futuristic drama V for Vendetta (2005), a cruel and corrupt British
government skillfully uses media to spread fear to convince the masses that the
government's actions are necessary to keep the public safe from terrorists.
Yet, even the most notorious terrorist's acts, pale in comparison to what the
government's leaders have done to gain and maintain power. The use of fear in
this movie is eerily reminiscent of our current predicament. Fear is again
being ramped up, so we know an election is imminent!
Disgruntled wants to know: How the
current cease-fire turns out is anybody's guess. Despite Hezbollah's claim to
victory,
Disgruntled wants to know: Unanimously
adopted by the UN Security Council (1967) following the Six Day War and
reaffirmed by UN Security Council Resolution 338, which was adopted after the
Yom Kippur War (1973), UN Security Council Resolution 242 calls on
By John Burl Smith
Mother Katharine Drexel's canonization speaks
volumes about the value of her beautiful life and the miraculous spirit that
endures. Strangely enough, I encountered St. Katharine last year by accident.
My creative writing mentor at
It was truly amazing to learn that someone that
possessed such love and devotion walked among us. Even more amazing, there
seems to have never been a moment that she regretted her decision. There are
those who say there are no truly selfless or altruistic acts. They say Mother
Katharine did what she did to get salvation, so she got something, but
salvation is not guaranteed. However, what is of value here is the thousands of
lives touched by her love and generosity. Individuals, as well as families,
were lifted out of poverty or at least put on the road to a better life.
My friend, a father and successful businessman,
made this value judgment. "Were it not for the time I spent there, which
gave me time to begin straightening out my life, my life probably would have
ended years ago."
In 1893 Louise Drexel, had become the wife of
Colonel Edward Morrell. They purchased Belmead Plantation at
St. Emma's academy offered standard military
training and discipline. Its curriculum consisted of cannery, farming,
equipment repair, engineering, accounting and management. St. Katharine
constructed the largest trade school in the south which offered technical and
mechanical training at St. Emma in 1933. While St. Francis de Sales, the only
Catholic school for black women in
Both were boarding schools for young black and
Native Americans. Both institutions were pre-eminent among the 100 plus
historically black boarding schools that flourished between the Civil War and
the Civil Rights era. These schools enrolled more than 20,000 and graduated
more than 10,000. St. Katharine spent her entire $20 million trust inheritance
on her mission of educating the "poor and oppressed" among African
and Native Americans in the
St. Emma Military Academy and St. Francis de
Modern Philanthropy
Unlike the charitable giving that defined the
life of St. Katharine, modern philanthropy is generally associated with
foundations rather than individuals. Created by endowments from wealthy
individuals, these organizations are tasked with doing good works and most do,
but more often than not, they shield the wealthiest estates from taxation.
The recent endowment by Warren E. Buffett,
chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and one of the world's wealthiest men, to
the Gates Foundation sets a dollar record for such giving. And, it makes the
Gates Foundation one of the world’s richest. With his $31 billion gift, Buffett
will sit on the Gates Foundation board of trustees. In addition to his gift to
the Gates Foundation, Buffett will donate billions more to foundations run by
his children.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his wife,
Melinda, the richest couple in the world, "believe every life has equal
value." With that as their driving principle, the couple created the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 "to help reduce inequities in the
To achieve its stated goal of reducing worldwide
inequities, the foundation made stopping AIDS its top priority. Bill and
Melinda Gates are participants in the International AIDS Conference 2006 held
in
In debates on the efficacy of repealing the
estate tax, the Gates and Buffett have supported efforts to maintain this
important source of federal revenue, which can be used to reduce US inequities.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Phone Calls
Email www.truthout.org Hoping for Fear...By Paul
Krugman...The story of the latest terror plot makes the Bush administration's
fecklessness and cynicism on terrorism clearer than ever. Just two days after
9/11, I learned from congressional staffers that Republicans on Capitol Hill
were already exploiting the atrocity, trying to use it to push through tax cuts
for corporations and the wealthy...from the very beginning, the Bush
administration and its allies in Congress saw the terrorist threat not as a
problem to be solved, but as a political opportunity to be exploited.
Email commonsense@comcast.com A
Distant Mirror...By Thomas Frank...By now, even the most dedicated "values
voter" is aware that an orgy of plunder and predation grinds merrily on in
the capital, yet if polls are to be believed, the Democrats can persuade almost
nobody to switch their vote on that basis. That's because, while they have many
nice slogans on the subject, Democrats offer no larger theory of corruption, no
way to help voters understand what is essentially Republican about the pillage
currently being visited on our national government.
Email news@uruknet.biz Today is the 61st
anniversary of the dropping of an Atomic Bomb on the city of
Email www.nytimes.com
The Rise of the Super-Rich...By Teresa Tritch...While the wealthiest Americans
are reaping the benefits of the Bush administration's economic policies, the
rest of the nation is being left behind. The gap between rich and poor is
unfortunately an old story. It is the stuff of parables and literature. It is a
force in social history and political economy, from electoral campaigns to
reform movements and revolutions. But in the
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