Vision Circle

Parent Information Resource Centers

The US Department of Education will sponsor a national conference for Parent Information Resource Centers in Baltimore, Maryland on June 1 and 2, 2005.

"Based on the premise that increased parental involvement is an integral part of increasing the academic achievement of children, the Parent Information and Resource Centers are another link in the network that helps families and schools work together to support excellent teaching and high standards for all students."

The Centers typically have more resources and accurate/timely information than do individual schools or school district offices. If you have friends and family in the area, please make an effort to attend. There will many useful sessions for parents to improve service delivery in schools, build networks, improve their parenting skills in support of academic achievement and more.

Advertise it like it's the fattest jam to hit the harbor since Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. I won't be able to attend, but I hope that you have the pleasure of hunting, gathering and sharing solutions.

Politicians For Sale

Since Black elected officials are for sale, and seldom come with a high price tag, why don't we buy some. I have a few dollars saved up and would like to start the bidding for an electoral bundle that includes three State Senators in states with large agribusiness/farm subsidies, 2 city mayors with populations of less than 1 million in states with defense contractors, and 3 House sub-committee members. How much would that run a fella like me?

I'm thinking that for about $50K, I could probably generate about $500,000 in "legal" benefits. It might be better for the NOI and Russell RUSH to pony up/consolidate green backs in order to buy positions on the backs of the spineless - ala Las Vegas' bitchasspolitico.com.

Teaching English Without Content

Earl links to an article written by lit professor Stanley Fish, arguing that composition students should be taught HOW to write as opposed to WHAT to write about.

One of the biggest problems that students have that I can see as both a parent and a college professor is that they don't know how to logically construct an argument using the English language. While black, brown, and poor kids of various ethnic backgrounds are hit hardest, this is an AMERICAN phenomenon.

I don't see this is as being an either-or thing. You should be able to teach content and form simultaneously. But what Fish is talking about is something a lot deeper than just giving people various models of essays. We should expect freshman comp students to be able to logically structure an argument. We shouldn't expect them to come out of that class knowing Ellison. Form should rule.

A Marching of the Minds

I'm guessing that the MMM of 2005 will not look like a march. In fact, I would imagine that the format would have to change to move away from speeches - and should take on the character of a "loosely organized" opportunity for brain-storming and action planning.

Instead of standing for eight to ten hours and listen to the usual cast of unaccountable characters, the day might allow for genuine action planning, networking and follow through. I am envisioning CIRCLES of five to nine brothers and sisters (from all over the world) speaking proactively about SOLUTIONS to two or three issues identified throughout the day - and then convening in the afternoon in larger groups - organized regionally or locally to facilitate plan implementation...table for fundraising...table for technology capacity...table for audit/fiscal management...table for PR...table for this&that,etc.

Grudgingly planning to March

There's no way in hell I can live 45 minutes away from the Million More Movement and not attend.

No. Change that.

I could easily skip it, but I imagine my kids won't see anything like this, and they should be able to experience it.

But I'll be damned if this isn't just another example of how bankrupt our national politics are.

Black Fortitude Questions Neocon Hegemony

Farrakhan is willing to say publicly what other black leaders only say privately.....,

Here's why Farrakhan is presently being given the anti-semitic bum's rush..., and why Foxman et al.., don't want a million person gathering or live televised C-SPAN coverage..,

~1hr 9minutes into the speech comes the black political bunker buster question for neocon hegemonic ambition - thanks to ConPermiso at P6 for a tizzight definition of hegemony.

~1hour 26minutes into the speech, the Minister's prophetic warning to the 30 recipients of Foxman's letter against the false allure of neocon $TD's.

~1hour 43minutes the Minister distinguishes between righteous defense of the nation and unrighteous defense of interests..,

Cruse Control

Crisis of the Negro Intellectual was a great book for a number of reasons - principal among those reasons was that it took the blinders off and named names. It also contextualized the essence of the failure - our collective inability to reconcile Washington to Dubois and Dubois to Garvey. We have failed to do this because of ideology, ego, weak study habits, intellectual laziness, cash payoffs, fear, and any of a host of human failings. To my mind, that is the epicenter of Cruse's book.

Spiritually Dead

Beyond Vietnam A Time To Break Silence This Memorial Day weekend I have been awestruck by the prophetic brilliance of this speech. It leaves no doubt whatsoever that America is now spiritually dead...,

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Cruse reviewed in NYT

A new version of The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual comes out in a bit, and the New York Times sought to revisit it. I am glad that Cruse is making the rounds again after his passing.

But while there were errors aplenty, what jumped out at me was the charge of anti-semitism. Which brings up the blacks-jews thing that our new colleague Temple3 brought up.

But Cruse reserved special venom for Jews. In ''The Crisis,'' he asserted that ''the great brainwashing of Negro radical intellectuals was not achieved by capitalism, or the capitalistic bourgeoisie, but by Jewish intellectuals in the American Communist Party.'' He also cited passages from Dostoyevsky, oddly enough, about how Jewish merchants exploited blacks in the South. When the book was published, reviewers tended to ignore its anti-Semitism. In a recent interview, Mark Naison, a professor of African-American studies at Fordham University, said he didn't think people take Cruse's analysis of black-Jewish relations ''very seriously'' today, especially not Cruse's dismissal of the role Jews played in the civil rights movement. ''It's too ahistorical and too conspiratorial to have much weight outside the sort of anti-Semitic fringe of the black intelligentsia, which is now a fringe, not mainstream,'' Naison said.

Druid Hill Sanctuary

Druid Hill Sanctuary
Originally uploaded by Unbowed.

Baltimore has some of the nicest playground courts I've ever seen in an industrial city. The Dru Hill park stays open and lit until 11:30, and it is incredibly safe. I stayed out until 10:40 or so playing O.U.T. Ended up like 1-8 or something like that.

I hadn't played playground ball in several years. Once I got kids, I realized that I could potentially shave years off my game if I just kept my knees in shape. But this is the longest layoff I've ever had in my adult life (since 1987 I've never gone more than 4 months without playing a few times a week).

Probably the thing I've got to get used to more than anything else is the dribbling. I can see why Webber would have problems with AI. Nothing worse than a cat who wants to do nothing more than dribble up and down and between, instead of either giving up the rock, or going straight to the hole.

We talk about building community across class barriers. With the exception of the barber shop, I can't think of a better place for black men off the top of my head.