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Vol. 9 No. 52…Dedicated to the Dialogue
on Race…December 29, 2006
Say It Loud!
By John Burl Smith
"Soul is all the hard knocks,
all the punishment the black man has had... all the unfulfilled dreams that
must come true." James Brown
A fact of life for blacks - once they die, they become everyone's hero. Living
their lives, the world is oblivious to their plight and conspires to crush
them, even before they are seeds. Defying all odds, surmounting great obstacles
and surviving the hell fires of poverty, their accomplishments are compared to
those that faced fewer challenges with greater opportunities and resources.
Beginning so far back, blacks cannot see the starting line for those who are
half way around the track before they reach the starting gate. James Brown was
one such person.
Born in Barnwell, S.C. May 3, 1933, his life began in extreme poverty. His
biographies do not mention a mother or father; some do say at 5 years old, he
was sent to live with an aunt, who ran a brothel in Augusta, Georgia. On his
own from the start, running errands, hustling, soliciting soldiers for his
aunt's establishment, living on the streets, picking cotton and shining shoes,
it is not surprising the hard-life brought James Brown afoul of the law, like
most young black men in the United State (US).
Becoming the greatest showman of modern times, if not ever, did not come easy.
Brown tried boxing, then baseball, before turning to music. Fortunately, as bad
things sometimes turn out, it was in jail he found his true calling. There, he
met Bobby Byrd and joined the Gospel Starlighters. James inspired them to
change their style and become the Famous Flames. And for me, the rest is
history.
Barely, a teenager, when James Brown's first hit Please, Please, Please took the black community by
storm, do-wop was the thing. It was a time of 45 records, "sock hops"
in school and smooching at house parties on weekends. James enthralled us with Try Me, Bewildered and Lost Someone. For us back then,
if heaven was a place, Brown was the transporter. Although we loved his music,
he was still just an entertainer, that is, until the late 1960s.
Fighting against discrimination and for equality and dignity, blacks had been
searching for our identity since being kidnapped and brought to the US as
slaves. Black power lit a fire in our hearts, and James Brown "hit it on
the one," and gave us an anthem, Say
it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud. With those lyrics, he and black
power became one in our hearts. He lifted us up at a time and in ways black
leaders at the time never had. And, for a brief period between the late 1960s
until the "Good Times "of the 1980s, black pride was in vogue.
Sporting huge Afros, we were so proud, even white folks wanted to be black.
James Brown went on to make musical history on so many levels and in so many
ways. The Godfather of Soul, Soul Brother Number One, the Minister of The New
New Super Heavy Funk, Mr. Dynamite and the Hardest-Working Man in Show
Business. He had 119 singles that made the charts in the US and recorded more
than 50 albums. Every record he made from 1960-77 reached the top 100. He won
Grammys for Papa's Got A Brand New Bag (best R&B recording1965), Living In
America (best R&B vocal performance, male 1987) and for lifetime
achievement 1992. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1986.
Everyone has a James Brown impact story, this is mine. Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud!
The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is filled with holiday good cheer.
Apparently, the gifts he received exceeded his expectations. When queried for
comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro enthusiastically exclaimed, "I'm a
very, very, very lucky person!"
Francis Julius LeMoyne (1798-1879)
Born in 1798, Francis LeMoyne was the only child of Dr. John J. LeMoyne. In
1913, the family moved to their historic home in Washington County,
Pennsylvania. Francis followed his father into the practice of medicine. He
attended Washington College, where he later served as a trustee.
Concerned with civic and humanitarian matters, Dr. LeMoyne became nationally
known as an abolitionist. During that period, many men considered themselves
abolitionists; most supported a "gradual end to slavery," including
Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. Followers of William Lloyd Garrison, the
radical abolitionist, "believed in no union with slave-holders; they
declared the constitution "a league with death and a covenant with
hell," on account of its slavery compromises."
In 1824, Dr. LeMoyne founded the Western Abolition Society, which began the
Underground Railroad. His family's home often hid fugitive slaves. A long time
member of the American Missionary Association, Dr. LeMoyne ran for governor of
Pennsylvania several times on the Liberty Party ticket. At the Liberty Party's
1839 convention, James G. Birney, a former Kentucky slaveholder, was nominated
for president and Francis J. LeMoyne for vice-president.
In 1870, Dr. LeMoyne donated $20,000 to build an elementary and secondary
school for prospective teachers. He directed that the school admit "all
pupils whose conduct is orderly and whose character is creditable."
Renamed LeMoyne Normal and Commercial School in his honor, the school
originally began in 1862. Lucinda Humphrey, a nurse and American Missionary
Association member, "opened the Lincoln School for Negroes, an elementary
school for freedmen and runaway slaves to Camp Shiloh soon after the occupation
of Memphis by federal troops." Moved to Memphis in 1863, the school was
destroyed by fire in the race riots, which followed the withdrawal of federal
troops in 1866. Lincoln Chapel, as the school was then known, was rebuilt and
reopened in 1867; it was beset by financial problems. Dr. LeMoyne's bequeath
saved the school, which became a four-year college in 1934. LeMoyne College
merged with Owen College in 1968.
In addition, Dr. LeMoyne constructed the first crematory in the United States.
He was also instrumental in founding the Washington Female Seminary. Dr.
LeMoyne died in 1879. (Sources: www.washcochamber.com,
www.tnstate.edu/library/digital/lemoyne.htm
and www.loc.edu/welcome/history.htm)
No Not Another Bubble Test For Me!
By Ronald A. Mac
Arthur
Not too long ago in
our not so distant past,
There existed
something we worshiped,
something that seemed
to last,
Everyone seemed to
have it,
It wasn't just for
the coveted few!
People were ecstatic
and teachers got their do!
You see the thing we
worshiped then was knowledge,
And we knew it was
fleeting!
However, little did
we know
that this entire
process does today
appear to have
disappeared or at least sleeping.
Learning is a
process, complicated at best.
Please! Oh please, President Bush
give those
standardized tests a rest!
Learning to test, is
not learning at its best!
Instead 70% of the
time is not devoted to the rest!
With this process in place, we can be happy
Every 12th grade
student
will have to make it
snappy.
You see believe it or not,
it appears that the
more we test,
All we have done is
turned our students into better test takers
and we have robbed
them of an education.
Therefore, as you can
plainly see,
all we have done with
our millions of bucks
has turned a few
heads
and paid for some
rich guy's truck
Education has
suffered, students the most
Learning is not centered on learning
rather it is centered
on the bubble.
About Me: College lecturer and communication specialist, Ronald A. Mac Arthur speaks five languages and does contract work with the intelligence agencies of several countries.
Education Funding Gap
Funding Gaps 2006 is the Education Trust's (http://www2.edtrust.org)
annual report on funding gaps among districts within states. Released last
week, this year's report includes, for the first time, data and analysis on
federal Title I funds and funding choices made at the school district level.
Surprisingly, the report shows Title I funds widen rather than narrowed the
education funding gaps that separate wealthy states from poor states. In addition,
it found funding choices made at the state and local school district levels
enhance funding to schools serving higher concentrations of affluent and white
students at the expense of schools that serve low-income and students of color.
According to Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, "The report
paints a painful picture of how funding choices made at every level shortchange
low-income students of color. And while fairer funding systems will not alone
redress all of the inequities in our education system, getting the funding
right will begin to make real our national aspiration of a fair shot for every
child"
Key findings include the fact that the allocation formula for Title I funds (a
40% adjustment factor) tends to reward wealthy states and shortchange poorer
ones. Perversely, instead of providing relatively more help to poor children,
Title I provides less. If we interchange poor with "black," then the
report shows the 3/5 Compromise is alive and well and dictating how federal,
state and local funds are allocated among black and white people.
For more on educational funding gaps and recommendation for closing them, see http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/.
None Left Unpunished
Beginning July 1 through the last day of classes for the 2005-2006 school year,
the DeKalb County School System reported a total 110,901 disciplinary
incidences. The predominantly black county school system had an enrollment of
100,556. DeKalb's 110 percent disciplinary rate should raise alarm bells.
DeKalb disciplinary offenses reported are
extensive; they range from violations of alcohol laws to trespassing.
Twenty-one of the 23 categories of offenses, including arson, battery, fighting,
robbery, theft, etc., accounted for slightly less than eighteen percent of the
total offenses (19,803). Disorderly conduct (38,058) and a category called
"Other Discipline Incident" (53,040) accounted for more than 82
percent of total DeKalb offenses.
By definition, these are categories where the
most "normative" judgment comes into play. Disorderly Conduct is
defined as "Any act that substantially disrupts the orderly conduct of a
school function, substantially disrupts the orderly learning environment, or
poses a threat to the health, safety, and/or welfare of students, staff, or
others." An "Other Discipline Incident" is "Any other
discipline incident for which a student is administered corporal punishment,
in-school or out-of-school suspension, expelled, suspended from riding the bus,
assigned to an alternative school, referred to court or juvenile system
authorities, or removed from class at the teacher's request."
These are the categories under which an
eight-year-old telling a classmate he will shoot him with his non-existent
BB-gun ends in an out-of- school suspension. Rather than an opportunity to
educate children about the meaning of such words in our post 9-11 world, the
honor roll student with perfect attendance, in this case my grandson, is
"suspended from school for making a terrorist threat."
Even before 9-11, the DeKalb County School System
seemed to practice a stringent disciplinary policy. Now, it has gone overboard.
With its 110 percent disciplinary rate, DeKalb practices "leave no child
unpunished." And, in so doing, this predominantly black school system
exacerbates the already negative impact this society's pattern of
discrimination has on poor and black children.
Disgruntled
says: My mother used to say,
"If you can't say something nice, don't open your mouth." Now that
former President Gerald Ford has passed on, there is a rush to say something
nice, even to the point of making the defining act of his political life - the
pardoning of Richard Nixon - a noble one. Mother's admonition did not mean lie
to speak. Ford did not save the country by pardoning Nixon. With thousands
languishing in prisons across this nation, Ford's pardon reinforced the
founding principle that "some are more equal than others" in our
peculiar democracy, and it preserved the fault-lines that separate the rich and
poor.
Disgruntled wants to know: There was a
time when blacks saw each other as extensions of one family. In our ghettoes,
the children running around were ours to love, protect and educate. Education
played an important role in bettering conditions for the whole community. Those
fortunate enough to "make it" felt deeply obligated to give back. We
seemed to have lost that sense of community as family and the need to give
back. Moreover, those in positions to give back seem to have turned their
backs, and like any good capitalist, extend a helping hand to the less
fortunate when it entails a tax break. Where is W.E.B. DuBois' talented ten
percent?
Disgruntled feels:
Skeptical! Recent polls show that Barack Obama has reached "rock
star" status among potential Democratic Party presidential contenders. The
media coverage he is receiving is incredibly positive. He is amassing
tremendous name recognition. Call me skeptical, but I believe his star will
fall like a rock in a deep pond, if Obama actually entered the presidential
race. And that favorable press will cease to exist. The media will find some
dirt to stifle his candidacy and mar his public appeal. Call me skeptical, but
I don't think this country is ready for a non-white president.
On Discipline!
By Dot
As a grandmother of four, I understand the importance of discipline,
particularly in an educational setting. It is difficult enough to impart knowledge
under the best of circumstances. Unruly students exacerbate the situation. I
agree that some action should be taken when students are disruptive.
Back in the day, when I was in elementary school, disruptive students wore
dunce hats, stood in the corner or took a time out in the corridor. The really
bad acts, like fighting, cursing, etc., were rewarded with several whacks of
the principal's paddle. There were few repeat offenders.
In high school, disruptive behavior meant extra
homework or a note to your parents setting up a counseling session. The really
bad actors received in-school suspension. Few, if any, students were suspended
from school. It was understood that out-of-school suspensions were tantamount
to unearned vacations, rewards for bad behavior.
Back then, my schools were all-black - students and faculty. Little black boys and girls were treated like gifts from God, our hope for the future. Now, in our "integrated" schools, where the student bodies are predominantly black, whether the faculty and administrators are black or white, little black children are treated like criminals. The situation in many urban areas across this country has gotten so bad, that public schools act as holding pens for the criminal justice system. This is something more than mere discipline.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email jewish_from_brooklyn@yahoo.com
"These Sunnis and Shiites have lived in peace for thousands of years, but
as soon as Americans show up with their 'Israeli Advisors,' and 70,000
mercenaries, then Iraq turns into hell. Today's bomb on Shiite market wasn't
some Sunni farmer, janitor, college professor, truck driver, etc., this bomb
was Israeli. Picture a rural Mississippi town of 8,000, that sits on a giant
oil field, and suddenly 500 New York Zionists show up. They elect a new
sheriff, and buy the newspaper. Mysteriously the Presbyterian Church's annual
bazaar is hit by a massive bomb, and a note is found saying the local Catholic
church did it. During Sunday services at the Catholic church, a bomb kills
fifty. Next you have the town leaders being assassinated by people 'posing' as
police. High school teachers kidnapped, and found with their throats slit in a
field. In the meantime the Zionist newspaper screams 'Religious war'. The
town's leaders are dead, and people start selling and leaving. Guess who will
be buying up the land and bringing in the oil rigs." (Source: http://judicial-inc.biz/fo.rty_three_dead_in_baghdad_atta.htm)
Email www.alien-earth.org The prison population in Georgia is exploding like never before. It has reached more than 53,000. The number of inmates in Georgia has hovered in recent years in the 50,000 range, roughly 99 to 100% of the systems capacity. Today, the system is almost 7% over capacity. About 23,000 new inmates enter the prison system every year, and some 18,000 are released--a net gain of about 5,000 inmates per year. Georgia's prison system is the fifth-largest in the nation, requiring about $1 billion a year in the state budget to operate. Several factors have contributed to the growth in the prison system since 1996, including stricter sentencing laws and tougher parole board policies. However, two fairly recent phenomena helped fuel this year's spike in the prison population. Methamphetamine use and the accompanying lawlessness packed Georgia prisons.
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