Hey everybody. It's good to be here today. (Hey Charlie you are making my month with all of the responses, I'll get back to you soon but in the meantime you should check LJ's response to you on the erosion of civil liberties... And oh yeah we'll see you tomorrow!)And now on to the big news!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Norwegian Nobel Committee for selecting me, of all people, for the Nobel Peace Prize. I really wasn't expecting it. This award is not simply about my administration... Sorry I confused myself with Barack Obama for a second. It happens all of the time.
I was perusing through cnn.com and I was surprised to see the following headline: Obama: Nobel Peace Prize is 'call to action' . Wow that's a pretty big deal. I immediately had this urge to visit foxnews.com and instead of resisting the temptation I decided to go for it. This is what I found: Fat City: West Virginia Town Braces for TV Show Depiction. I'm not even kidding. That was the main story. Next to it, the secondary headline (without a picture) was: Obama's Peace Prize Draws Criticism, Even From Some Liberals. I swear that is priceless.
The Definition of a hater according to Wikipedia is:
Hater(person), a person who harbors intense feelings of dislike. Often used as a slang term for such a person when the reason for the dislike is perceived as unfounded or rooted in prejudice.
I'm fairly certain that this definition absolutely positively, 100% describes FOX News. So, just in case it hasn't been stated before, I'm proclaiming right now that:
FOX News is the biggest hater television station in the history of T.V.
The good news for Obama is that according to comedian Katt Williams, it's really a compliment. See for yourself and think of Sean Hannity.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1562061092
Friday, October 9, 2009
Albizu Campos
So yesterday I wrote a posting about a stabbing in my neighborhood. The tone was possibly a little opinionated (I know that's a first for me). One of the reasons I was frustrated was that it happened on my sons birthday. So in honor of my favorite six-year old I'm writing a commentary about his namesake.
"Dad I found a website of Albizu Campos" exclaimed my five year old (he just turned six). He elaborates by explaining: "I typed my name in the computer and clicked it and than I found his website." This really could be a Google commercial. The kid was so excited that he could spell his name that he wanted to try it out. And thanks to Google he was able to get a history lesson.
After that my son Albizu went on to say: "Did you know that Don Pedro Albizu Campos was the leader of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, dedicating his life to the cause for Puerto Rican Independence? Did you know he served in the US infantry and attended the Univeristy of Vermont and eventually studied at Harvard? Did you know that one his earliest inspirations for Puerto Rican Independence was his close work with members of the IRA working towards Irish Independence?"
"Wow this Google think is more impressive than I thought." I said in response.
He continued: "Albizu was linked to an attempted assasination of Harry Truman as well as the shooting of several congressman in the fifties. He was imprisoned several times until he was finally tortured through over exposure to radiation. To this day he is a national hero of Puerto Rico."
Now that was impressive. I mean the kid just learned to spell and now he is breaking down the life work of one of Puerto Rico's most famous sons. This stuff really works!
...Alright you got me I made most of it up. He doesn't know that Albizu Campos went to Harvard or that Harvard even exists. The only part that was true was him typing his name in that no-frills search engine and recognizing the picture of his namesake on a website. To be honest I'm so impressed with that, it's hard to even contain.
I love you my little homie. Forever.
"Dad I found a website of Albizu Campos" exclaimed my five year old (he just turned six). He elaborates by explaining: "I typed my name in the computer and clicked it and than I found his website." This really could be a Google commercial. The kid was so excited that he could spell his name that he wanted to try it out. And thanks to Google he was able to get a history lesson.
After that my son Albizu went on to say: "Did you know that Don Pedro Albizu Campos was the leader of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, dedicating his life to the cause for Puerto Rican Independence? Did you know he served in the US infantry and attended the Univeristy of Vermont and eventually studied at Harvard? Did you know that one his earliest inspirations for Puerto Rican Independence was his close work with members of the IRA working towards Irish Independence?"
"Wow this Google think is more impressive than I thought." I said in response.
He continued: "Albizu was linked to an attempted assasination of Harry Truman as well as the shooting of several congressman in the fifties. He was imprisoned several times until he was finally tortured through over exposure to radiation. To this day he is a national hero of Puerto Rico."
Now that was impressive. I mean the kid just learned to spell and now he is breaking down the life work of one of Puerto Rico's most famous sons. This stuff really works!
...Alright you got me I made most of it up. He doesn't know that Albizu Campos went to Harvard or that Harvard even exists. The only part that was true was him typing his name in that no-frills search engine and recognizing the picture of his namesake on a website. To be honest I'm so impressed with that, it's hard to even contain.
I love you my little homie. Forever.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Stabbing
Hey y'all, don't worry I haven't missed my deadline. The challenge is for 30 Commentaries in 30 days. So even though I'm forty minutes past midnight, I'm still on track.
So this afternoon there was a stabbing on my street. I live in the South End of Albany, NY. The victim was a young man that I've seen around. I don't know him but we have talked before. He is in critical condition right now.
Anyway it's gotten me thinking about the connections between violence and poverty. I think when it comes to inner-city violence, people often fail to look at it's source. I think generally many of us understand that violence comes from systemic problems. It's when it happens close to home (like half a football field from where your kids play) that we can't clearly see the local connections.
In Albany, we have a deplorable inner city education system. The district has simply failed at properly educating black and latino youth for the most part. Unlike, Harlem, Albany has no coherent programs that are implemented by people of color to successfully address these inadaquecies. So what we are left with is a population of young people without a good education and few legitimate employment options. Of course in situations like this, many young people resort to under-the-table incomes. These are dangerous fields because of tremendous competition.
The end result is often violence. The culprit is poverty. If you eliminate the poverty, you eliminate a good percentage of inner city violence.
I'm not saying that today's incident was a result of poverty or illegal entrepenurship, I'm not aware of enough details to make that assessment.
I do know that the majority of the violence in our community is a result of poverty and the enterprises that sprout up as a result.
If you want to see it change, than you have to be working on true community organizing under the leadership of people of color from the neighborhoods that are most affected by poverty. Otherwise, ,in some way, you are part of the problem. Capitalism works in such a way that their is not enough pie to go around. If you have a slice, that means someone else doesn't. I'm not saying give your slice away, I'm just saying use some of the energy provided by said slice to help change the distribution of pie. If that's what you do, than you are involved in the solution and than I will listen to your complaints. However if aren't really doing jack and your doing well for yourself, I don't want to hear you complain about violence in the community. I'm sorry. I'm just not the one.
So this afternoon there was a stabbing on my street. I live in the South End of Albany, NY. The victim was a young man that I've seen around. I don't know him but we have talked before. He is in critical condition right now.
Anyway it's gotten me thinking about the connections between violence and poverty. I think when it comes to inner-city violence, people often fail to look at it's source. I think generally many of us understand that violence comes from systemic problems. It's when it happens close to home (like half a football field from where your kids play) that we can't clearly see the local connections.
In Albany, we have a deplorable inner city education system. The district has simply failed at properly educating black and latino youth for the most part. Unlike, Harlem, Albany has no coherent programs that are implemented by people of color to successfully address these inadaquecies. So what we are left with is a population of young people without a good education and few legitimate employment options. Of course in situations like this, many young people resort to under-the-table incomes. These are dangerous fields because of tremendous competition.
The end result is often violence. The culprit is poverty. If you eliminate the poverty, you eliminate a good percentage of inner city violence.
I'm not saying that today's incident was a result of poverty or illegal entrepenurship, I'm not aware of enough details to make that assessment.
I do know that the majority of the violence in our community is a result of poverty and the enterprises that sprout up as a result.
If you want to see it change, than you have to be working on true community organizing under the leadership of people of color from the neighborhoods that are most affected by poverty. Otherwise, ,in some way, you are part of the problem. Capitalism works in such a way that their is not enough pie to go around. If you have a slice, that means someone else doesn't. I'm not saying give your slice away, I'm just saying use some of the energy provided by said slice to help change the distribution of pie. If that's what you do, than you are involved in the solution and than I will listen to your complaints. However if aren't really doing jack and your doing well for yourself, I don't want to hear you complain about violence in the community. I'm sorry. I'm just not the one.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Gentrification
Alright ya'll. I'm tired. No really I have droopy eyes. I'm going to make it short and sweet tonight. That's right I'm going to break down gentrification in a tiny blog entry. No not really. This is a topic that is very important to me. One that I am conflicted about. I'm going to introduce the subject tonight and ask some questions. Than I will revisit the topic again, during the challenge. Here is how Wikipedia defines gentrification: "Gentrification and urban gentrification denote the socio-economic, commercial, and demographic change in an urban area resulting from wealthier people buying housing property in a poor community."
So here are some of my questions:
Who is most responsible for gentrification left-leaning or right-leaning people?
Why are liberals and radicals involved in gentrification at all?
What are legitimate responses to gentrification?
What kind of solutions can communities implement to curb gentrification?
Those are my questions for y'all to ponder. My last thoughts for now are: Gentrification Sucks!
So here are some of my questions:
Who is most responsible for gentrification left-leaning or right-leaning people?
Why are liberals and radicals involved in gentrification at all?
What are legitimate responses to gentrification?
What kind of solutions can communities implement to curb gentrification?
Those are my questions for y'all to ponder. My last thoughts for now are: Gentrification Sucks!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Dead Peasants
How many of you out there have seen Michael Moore's new film, Capitalism: A Love Story? It is pretty decent and as usual maddening. I say maddening because as most of you know, Moore always shows you scenes that literally make you want to scream in rage. Well I learned something new. I learned about "Dead Peasant Insurance". If you haven't seen the film, you are probably wondering what I'm talking about. I'm talking about Corporate-Owned Life Insurance policies. I'm not going to recite all of the details of said insurance. You can just go to Wikipedia like I did. If you don't have the patience for that I'll give you a brief synopsis. Back in the day companies began taking out life insurance policies on their key personnel or executives. The idea was that if one of these individuals were to suddenly die, the company would be at a loss and should be able to insure themselves from such an accident. Later on, companies began to take out insurance policies on non-key employees, AKA "Peasants". They could do this without an employee's knowledge until 2006. The Winn Dixie chain took out 36,000 of these policies and they became referred to as "Dead Peasant Policies" in internal memos between the chain and it's insurer.
To get a clearer picture let's call you Billy Bob Doe and it's the year 2005. You work at Bank of America as a teller. Than you die. Your whole family is sad. "I miss Billy Bob" is the general sentiment at your funeral. Now the fam is having a hard time because they counted on you to bring home the Tofu. Your funeral costs a few bucks and the whole family is in a big hole, after all you didn't take out a life insurance policy. So your wife and kids are actually in debt for tens of thousands of dollars while simultaneously coping with the loss of you. Whose going to bring little Eloise Bob and Alloisius Bob to their soccer games, now that mom (Maria Bob) has to work two jobs? In the meantime an insurance company is in the process of cutting a check for say $1,000,000 to give to Bank of America to compensate them for your loss. And the best part is your family will never know.
Since 2006 companies have been required to get permission from the employee before taking out a policy. Imagine filling out a bunch of papers for your employment and you don't realize you are signing permission to allow your employer to take out an insurance policy in your name, that your family will never get money for. And according to Houston-based attorney Michael Myers (not from SNL or Halloween), businesses often skip that step altogether. In the movie Capitalism, Michael Moore points out that individuals without health insurance die on average, 3-5 years earlier than those that are insured. So if you are a company like Wal-Mart that has over 1.5 million employees, it's in your best interest not to offer health coverage to your employees because they will die sooner and you will get paid more money.
How on earth did I not know about this? Tell me people. I know I shouldn't be surprised, after all our economic system has never cared about the average Billy Bob Doe, and has always done every sneaky underhanded trick in the book to squeeze a dollar from the lifeblood of every Billy and Maria they can find. It just amazes me that with all of the so-called "progress" this country has made, that companies can actually reach a new low in this millennium.
To get a clearer picture let's call you Billy Bob Doe and it's the year 2005. You work at Bank of America as a teller. Than you die. Your whole family is sad. "I miss Billy Bob" is the general sentiment at your funeral. Now the fam is having a hard time because they counted on you to bring home the Tofu. Your funeral costs a few bucks and the whole family is in a big hole, after all you didn't take out a life insurance policy. So your wife and kids are actually in debt for tens of thousands of dollars while simultaneously coping with the loss of you. Whose going to bring little Eloise Bob and Alloisius Bob to their soccer games, now that mom (Maria Bob) has to work two jobs? In the meantime an insurance company is in the process of cutting a check for say $1,000,000 to give to Bank of America to compensate them for your loss. And the best part is your family will never know.
Since 2006 companies have been required to get permission from the employee before taking out a policy. Imagine filling out a bunch of papers for your employment and you don't realize you are signing permission to allow your employer to take out an insurance policy in your name, that your family will never get money for. And according to Houston-based attorney Michael Myers (not from SNL or Halloween), businesses often skip that step altogether. In the movie Capitalism, Michael Moore points out that individuals without health insurance die on average, 3-5 years earlier than those that are insured. So if you are a company like Wal-Mart that has over 1.5 million employees, it's in your best interest not to offer health coverage to your employees because they will die sooner and you will get paid more money.
How on earth did I not know about this? Tell me people. I know I shouldn't be surprised, after all our economic system has never cared about the average Billy Bob Doe, and has always done every sneaky underhanded trick in the book to squeeze a dollar from the lifeblood of every Billy and Maria they can find. It just amazes me that with all of the so-called "progress" this country has made, that companies can actually reach a new low in this millennium.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
mackenzie phillips
OK so I figure since I wrote about Roman Polanski yesterday, I might as well keep going and write about Mackenzie Phillips... If you don't know the story, Mackenzie Phillips was involved in a sexual relationship with her father, John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas. It began as an assault on her fathers part and evolved into a consensual adult relationship. California Dreamin' will never sound quite the same. Actually I guess this is another case of a priveleged well off man never being held accountable. He died in 2001. It is a really sad and disturbing story. Clearly Mackenzie didn't have a healthy childhood. She was thrown into the world of Hollywood at a really young age and also addicted to drugs at a really young age. I hope by revealing this aweful chapter of her life she can find a way to move forward and heal.
Her sister, Chynna Phillips from the world famous trio Wilson Phillips and current Christian Singer has some advice for Mackenzie:
"Get the Lord on board".
Her brother Tamerlane follower of Indian Guru Nityananda has some advice for all of us:
"My family is and always will be a decrepit bowl of dog urine compared to Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. That is how great Nityananda is. Worship Nityananda, not the Phillips family. Nityananda can protect you,"
Maybe her family isn't the best source of support...
Her sister, Chynna Phillips from the world famous trio Wilson Phillips and current Christian Singer has some advice for Mackenzie:
"Get the Lord on board".
Her brother Tamerlane follower of Indian Guru Nityananda has some advice for all of us:
"My family is and always will be a decrepit bowl of dog urine compared to Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. That is how great Nityananda is. Worship Nityananda, not the Phillips family. Nityananda can protect you,"
Maybe her family isn't the best source of support...
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Roman Polanski
Well well well. I'm just going to get right into this. What the hell is the deal with all of these entertainers treating Roman Polanski like a helpless victim? So many people have been like "poor Roman". I'm sorry are you fucking kidding me? Seriously? I am not going to even write the words that Polanski is guilty of. All we need to know is that there is not a single person I've read (including Roman himself) that denies he did it. So what pray tell is the reason why he is being treated like a fucking victim? I find it mind boggling. Sorry y'all I usually try not to swear but what the fuck?
It does bring up several important questions for me. As most of you know I do not believe in prisons. And simultaneously I believe in accountability. What I truly believe in is restorative justice. In the case of Roman Polanski, his victim wants him to be left alone. She is removed enough from the situation to make a rational decision. I certainly respect that. It doesn't make Polanski a victim but maybe in the end he shouldn't be locked up. That doesn't mean we have to act outraged by his current treatment. But the point is what can we do in these kinds of situations? To be honest I don't know and don't feel qualified to respond. I believe people like Polanski must be held accountable and at the same time I don't think we have a justice system that can hand out justice in a just manner. In the meantime, victims don't have many choices. And this brings up one of the most important questions we as radicals and revolutionaries need to answer. What kind of justice system would we like to see?
I mentioned a while back, before Polanski was arrested, that he and Michael Vick were treated quite differently. I surmised that if Polanski was black he would be seen as much more evil. I still believe that. But I don't want to lose sight of the primary issue at hand in this situation. As Leslie Morgan Steiner writes in her article published on CNN.com, the only important question is: "How do we as a society prevent violence against women, and minimize suffering of women who've already been victimized?"
I do not claim to have the answer, but we as men have a very obvious starting point: confronting the sexism that exists within ourselves. I know I have a lot of work to do. Or as my mother(RIP) would probably say: "You've got a long way to go kid". That's very true. Today is a great day to keep working...
It does bring up several important questions for me. As most of you know I do not believe in prisons. And simultaneously I believe in accountability. What I truly believe in is restorative justice. In the case of Roman Polanski, his victim wants him to be left alone. She is removed enough from the situation to make a rational decision. I certainly respect that. It doesn't make Polanski a victim but maybe in the end he shouldn't be locked up. That doesn't mean we have to act outraged by his current treatment. But the point is what can we do in these kinds of situations? To be honest I don't know and don't feel qualified to respond. I believe people like Polanski must be held accountable and at the same time I don't think we have a justice system that can hand out justice in a just manner. In the meantime, victims don't have many choices. And this brings up one of the most important questions we as radicals and revolutionaries need to answer. What kind of justice system would we like to see?
I mentioned a while back, before Polanski was arrested, that he and Michael Vick were treated quite differently. I surmised that if Polanski was black he would be seen as much more evil. I still believe that. But I don't want to lose sight of the primary issue at hand in this situation. As Leslie Morgan Steiner writes in her article published on CNN.com, the only important question is: "How do we as a society prevent violence against women, and minimize suffering of women who've already been victimized?"
I do not claim to have the answer, but we as men have a very obvious starting point: confronting the sexism that exists within ourselves. I know I have a lot of work to do. Or as my mother(RIP) would probably say: "You've got a long way to go kid". That's very true. Today is a great day to keep working...
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