Common Knowledge

It is Time to Make a Life Style Change

"It's not that some people have willpower and some don't.  It's that some people are ready to change and others are not."

                                                              James Gordon, M.D.

     "They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

                                                                 Andy Warhol 

         The Chicago Defender announced an initiative in the African-American Community to get Black folks to lose weight.  The objective of this initiative is to educate and motivate people in the African-American Community to lose a collective weight of one million pounds.  Roland S. Martin, the executive editor of the Chicago Defender, wrote a very informative and persuasive article for why African-Americans in the Chicagoland area should take part in this initiative.  I guess I will have to throw my two cents in on why this initiative should go beyond the objective to get our people to lose weight.  It should try to get our people to change our life styles so that not only will we lose weight, we will keep it off and lead healthier, more active lives.

         Our community has one of the highest rates of obesity in the country.  According to the American Obesity Association's ("AOA") website thirty nine point nine (39.9%) percent of African-Americans are considered obese. This figure is higher than Mexican-Americans (34.4%) and Americans of predominantly European descent (28.7%); although all three groups have experienced a significant increase in obesity rates over the past ten years.  These numbers include nearly thirty percent of African-American women between the ages of 12 and 19 that are obese, which is alarming.  I want to be clear.  I am not talking about just overweight.  According to the AOA a person is obese if their Body Mass Index ("BMI") is over 30.  You can go to their website at www.obesity.org to calculate your BMI.  A person is just overweight if their BMI is between 25 and 29.9.    I do not want to lead people to think that the BMI system is the only system to determine whether you are overweight.  People that have a high percentage of muscle mass may have higher BMIs that are not overweight, but that is not the norm.  According to AOA nearly seventy percent of African-Americans are overweight, which is different from obese. 

         There may be people out there that may ask what is the big deal about obesity.  As a matter of fact there are a few organizations that have attempted to play down the significance of obesity.  Well, according to the AOA, obesity increases a person's chances of suffering from type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and high blood pressure.  Do those conditions sound familiar to our community?  How many of us have mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, and cousins that suffer or have died from at least one of those diseases?  Diabetes and heart disease are in the top ten leading causes of death of African-Americans.  However, unlike many of the other leading causes of death for African-Americans, diabetes and heart disease may be preventable by leading a more active healthier life that will shrink our waistlines.

         The one million pound weight loss initiative should be the beginning of a change in attitude in our community that must lead to a change in life style in our community.  How many of us drive nearly every where we go?  How often do many of us walk to the store or the dry cleaners or the barber shop or the bank or the sports bar or the library?  How many of us park in the farthest parking space when we go to the mall or to run errands at places that are too far to walk?  How many?  If I had to bet for or against whether the majority of us walk to do our errands or to go to work or to do our daily activities, I would bet against it. 

         We must incorporate more physical activity into our daily lives.  As most people reach adulthood and gain more responsibilities we tend to get away from regular physical activities that we may have taken part in when we were younger.  It is this decline in physical activity that can be dangerous since it can and will lead to weight gain if we do not have any replacement activity.  That is why we need to include some physical activity in our daily routines so that we have a chance to burn off some of the calories that we take in every day.  Let's face it.  We live in American; the home of super sizes, fast food and convenient processed food.  There are way to many opportunities to take in a huge amount of calories everyday.  Is it really realistic to expect the majority of us to stick to a strict diet or workout regimen?  Judging by the numbers in our community and in this country, I would say no.  That is why we need to change our way of thinking and start to incorporate more physical activity in our lives along with better eating habits.  Each one of us needs to find whatever physical activity that works best in our daily routines.  If it is walking than we need to walk more.  If it is bicycling than we need to bicycle more.  If it is rollerblading than we need to roller blade more.  And if it is a strict workout routine than that is great too.  Like Nike we must just do it.

                Now I am sure anyone that have seen my picture of my website or anyone that knows me may think that I have a lot of nerve writing this article, but that is not true.  Yes.  I am slim.  Yes.  I have been lucky to have a high metabolism for most of my life.  However, even I have a higher BMI than I should.  And even I have gained weight over the years.  I only weighed one hundred and fifty nine pounds five years ago and now I am up to about one hundred and eighty-five pounds.  My BMI is 25, which is right on the edge of overweight so I will make a deal with every one that reads this article.  I promise to work to change my life style.  I will cut out fried foods, unhealthy fat, and processed foods.  I will also limit driving to work to no more than twice and week and I will take public transportation to work that requires me to walk at least a mile and one half round trip to the train station.  Will you join me in a change in life style?

You Get What You Pay For

“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.”
--Diogenes Laertius--

“America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.”
--Evan Esar--

“Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.”
--James A. Garfield--

Last Friday State Senator Meeks announced that he would not run for the Governor of Illinois as a third party candidate because his issues regarding the Governor’s commitment to improving education have been satisfied. He also said that he wants to wait until the debates to allow the Governor an opportunity to answer some of the tough questions regarding any plan to improve education in Illinois. As I mentioned in an earlier article, I think that Senator Meeks’s actions are a needed first step to move away from our community’s unquestioned allegiance to a political party and more towards an issues centered voting pattern. Now I must say that I am hopeful that the Governor will include in his education improvement plan at least a framework of how he will use any additional resources that may be appropriated for public schools in Illinois.

Everyone from the state assembly to the Oprah show has talked about the disparity between the well funded school districts and the under funded school districts. There is even a good amount of information regarding how the reliance on property taxes to help fund education has lead to huge disparities in educational funding throughout Illinois and throughout the country. It is, or at least it should be, well known that states that rely on property taxes to fund education are really setting up a system of have and have nots where children are penalized for being born into less wealthy school districts. That issue has been discussed and although there needs to be more discussion on that topic so that people will become more aware of the dangers that property tax based educational funding systems pose to the healthy development of minds within the state of Illinois that is not what I would like to focus on. I want to hear what will be done with the money once it has been appropriated.

I understand that as a State Senator, Senator Meeks’s job is not to tell a school board how to do its job. That is the job of a mayor or a governor. However, the issues that public education faces are not entirely about funding. No one wants to talk about how some of the old presumptions must be challenged. What presumptions am I talking about?

First we must move beyond the “cherry picking” model of measuring how well a school serves its community. There are too many schools that are praised based on drawing in the best minds to their school and then acting as if it is the school that should receive the credit for the highly motivated and high achieving student body when in fact the students were already high achievers when they started at the school. There is nothing wrong with bringing the best minds together. However, we are presently living in a global market where we can no longer isolate ourselves. Therefore we must put together school systems that are designed to educate the masses not quarantine them while we educate the few. Second, we need to deal with some of the incongruities of our state’s and our country’s commitment to education. What do I mean? Well how can we say we value education, but we don’t pay educators? Do you really think it is a coincidence that many high performing students tend to gravitate towards medicine, engineering and law? I don’t. Those are the higher paying fields. Maybe if we paid our teachers more, we could require more of them. In addition, we must think of a way to tap other career areas for a new source vibrant, energetic, and creative recruits. These ideas will take money, but they are worth pursuing.

Thank You Momma

"Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same."

                                        --Pearl Buck--

"The most important thing that she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one."

                                                 --Jill Churchill--

"The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific and torturous."

                                                 --Anna Quindlen--

         Happy mother's Day to all the mothers out there.  It is a well known fact of how important a mother is to her children. I know everybody has talked about how much influence mothers have on their children.  People have talked about how much their mother have meant to them.  Well, I guess I will add my own mother story.

         First, though, I want to add a little food for thought.  Have you really thought about how important your parents really are to you and the entire human race?  Think about it.  Whatever situation you are in right now is the direct result of decisions that have been made by everyone in your bloodline from eve all the way down to you.  What am I talking about?  Let me explain.  Your life is shaped by the results of your decisions.  Well, your decisions are shaped by how you see life and your views on life are directly shaped by your parents.  We learn so many things from our parents.  Many of the lessons that we learn we don't even realize unless and until we really think about it.  I learned a great many lessons from my mother. 

         The first and most important thing my mother taught me was I am somebody special.  Yeah.  I know everybody says that about their mother.  I am not talking about how a mother makes you feel like the most important person in the world, which is a good thing.  My mother convinced me at a very young age that I had a future.  She convinced me that I should be optimistic about my future, which was important because I grew up in some rough neighborhoods where there were plenty of opportunities to screw up my life.  I am certain that if I did not expect much out of life I would have taken up a few of those opportunities to follow a path to failure and despair.  My mother also taught me the value of work.  She taught me how to never give up, even in the face of difficult times.  She taught me toughness.  Yeah.  I said it.  The toughness I am talking about is not the physical in your face type of toughness.  I learned that from my father and my uncles, but that is an article for another day.  She taught me the when life gives you a lemon make some lemonade, start your own lemonade stand, then corner the market on home made lemonade type of toughness.  She taught other lessons to, but the best part of her instruction to me was she did it without even realizing it.  I learned more lessons from my mother by following her example than I did by following any sermons she may have given me.

         Who is my mother?  She is a southern transplant from southern Arkansas that came of age on the southside of Chicago.  She is a good woman that was not perfect, because she made many mistakes.  She wasn't perfect, which to me makes her even more amazing.  You expect perfect from perfection.  You expect great from a person who appears to embody greatness.  My mother is none of those things.  She is just my momma.  And all she did was raise seven children by herself after my father died.  All she did was provide for a family of eight without a college degree or a verifiable work history, since all of her verifiable work experience died along with my father.  All she did was teach two knuckle headed boys and five strong willed girls how to reach for a better tomorrow while staying out of trouble today in some rough neighborhoods in Chicago.  She did this without looking for applause.  She did this without taking a "bow."  She did this without feeling sorry for herself.  And what is the craziest thing of all . . .she would do it all again if given a chance.

         I have been blessed with two beautiful daughters and due to some mistakes in my own life I was a single father for many years.  The responsibility and energy required to help raise two children sometimes seemed more than I could handle.  It was during those times that I asked my mother "how did you do it?"  She would just smile.  Five years ago I was blessed again to find a wonderful woman that has helped me with my children while still giving me plenty of love, encouragement, and at times direction.  I also hit the trifecta because I was also blessed enough to get a wonderful mother-in-law too.  But at the end of the day I guess I must credit those blessings to my mother since another lesson that my momma taught me was how to recognize, appreciate, court, and keep a good, strong, African-American woman.  Momma.  I know I don't say it enough, but thank you for forty years of love and direction.  I love you very much.

Your Loving Son

Bart E. Beals

Is it about Ruth, Steriods or the Media?

“The way to procure insults is to submit to them: a man meets with no more respect than he exacts.”
---William Hazlitt---

Okay. I guess I will make it two weeks in a row of deviating from my usual format. I am sorry, but I could not resist weighing in on the whole Barry Bonds issue. The man does deserve some respect for his accomplishments. People can not reasonably assert that steroids got him all those home runs during his career or even most of his career home runs.

Why is Barry Bonds receiving such a vitriolic reception in almost every ballpark that he visits except his own? Of course I have my theory. No. It does not involve race. Yes. It does involve the media.

I think Barry Bonds has been treated in such a harsh manner for two reasons: (1) the canonization of Babe Ruth by the media, and (2) the demonization of Barry Bonds by the media.

Babe Ruth was baseball’s first mega star. He was larger than life. He was exciting. He was baseball. He was loved by the sports media, especially in New York. And now he is arguably the greatest legend in baseball. Yet, I think it was the infatuation by the sports media that added to his stardom. Yes, he still holds what appears to be an unbreakable career slugging percentage record of .690. Yes, he was hitting over thirty home runs a season when the typical good player was barely hitting more than ten a season. Yes, in addition to his many batting accomplishments he also was one of the most dominating pitchers in Major League Baseball from 1915 through 1918. These things are all true, but there were also things that were true that the media did not talk about and rarely talk about today.

The media rarely talks about the “short porch” in right field in Yankee Stadium that gave left handed power hitters an advantage like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Roger Maris. The media acknowledges that because of segregation, something Ruth did not control, Babe Ruth as well as players of his day never faced all of the best baseball players. However, the sports media almost never talk about how that affected the quality of pitching and defense in Major League Baseball during that time. The bottom line is that Ruth’s accomplishments more than any other baseball legend tends to be viewed through rose colored glasses because they have traditionally been written that way by the media.

After Ruth retired the old-time baseball establishment set him on nearly an unreachable pedestal as the undisputed greatest legend of baseball. And anyone that has challenged any of his records has been met with criticism and some cases even scorn. Everyone knows about how Hank Aaron was treated when he was getting close to breaking Ruth’s record, but few people may know how Roger Maris was treated during the summer of 1961 when he broke Ruth’s single season home run record. Maris was a Midwesterner in New York that refused to cuddle up to the sports media and they hated him for that. Hmm. That sounds vaguely familiar. During the summer of 1961 the media tried to pit Maris against his teammate Mickey Mantle and then later tried to act as if Maris’s record was less credible than Ruth’s because Maris played in a longer season (Maris played in a 162 game season, whereas Ruth had played in a 154 game season).

For the record I want to get something straight. I am not a Barry Bonds Fan. I am not even a Giants fan. Born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, I am a second generation Chicago White Sox fan. I am not writing about Barry Bonds to defend him regarding the steroids allegations. I will leave that to be determined in a court of law. But I must admit that Barry Bonds has received a hatchet job by the sporting media for years. Why? I suspect in large part because he has never tried to court the media’s favor. The main difference now is that the sports media has a legitimate weapon to use against Bonds. When Barry Bonds was routinely hitting over thirty home runs and over a .300 batting average for years (actually for nearly a decade), it was pretty difficult for the sports media to poke too many holes in his game. Now that the whole steroids mania has hit and Barry Bonds’s name is on the list of accused users, the sports media and Bonds haters have all the ammo they need to go for the kill.

The media only briefly talked about how the other star players that have been accused of taking steroids like Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Sammy Sosa, and even Rafael Palmeiro, who tested positive for steroids, were never and have yet to ever be treated with same amount of venom in visiting ballparks as Barry Bonds. Yeah. I know what some of you folks are saying. None of those guys are close to breaking Ruth’s home run record. Well my response is that is exactly the point!!! Of all of the stars from the “steroids era,” or any era, Barry Bonds is still head and shoulders above the rest of them, with the exception of only two players. Isn’t that worth some respect? Can anyone truthfully say, assuming Bonds did take steroids from 1998-2002, that Bonds still would not have reached over six hundred home runs or even six hundred fifty? Does those accomplishments by themselves at least merit more respect by fans and the league?

At the end of the day, Bonds will continue to be booed and treated with contempt. Maybe he deserves it. Maybe he doesn’t. But ask yourself this question: is Bonds being primarily booed for using steroids or for having a bad image or being a flawed athlete and person with exceptional talent who is currently knocking on the door of the greatest legend of the game? If it is either of the latter two then there are worse crimes.

United 93

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
Mahatma Gandhi

This week I am going to deviate from my usual format. I saw United 93 yesterday and I feel a need to write about it. United 93 is a good movie. I thought it was tastefully presented and it did not deviate too far from known facts. If you are looking for a documentary, don’t go to see this movie. If are looking for a story about what happen on flight United 93, then I recommend seeing this movie. I am not saying that the movie is a completely accurate depiction of what happen on flight United 93 on September 11, 2001. The movie did seem to fill in some scenes that were not in the 911 report. Those filled in scenes did make sense and did seem to be plausible. As I said earlier, it is a good story, but make sure you are ready to see it.

First I must state that I am not a knee jerk pseudo patriot that wears a flag on my shirt or my car but does not keep the values of this country in my heart. I am also not someone that has been accused of being a particularly sensitive person. And I am not sure that I am qualified to weigh in on the appropriateness of the making and distributing of this film since I am blessed enough not to have lost a loved one on that flight. With all that said, I must admit that watching United 93 left me with several emotions.

During the movie I moved from a feeling of curiosity to empathy to anger. I was curious about how United 93 would be presented. I heard the different opinions about the appropriateness of the timing of the making of the movie so I wanted to see it for myself. I didn’t realize how many emotions the movie would evoke from me. I knew it would be a heavy movie. I knew that the people that were on board United 93 died. I knew the movie was not going to be some feel good action movie. However, I did not know that the movie would touch a part of my humanity. The fact that I lived through September 11, 2001 in the District of Columbia and it was being replayed on the big screen did not bother me. I did not have any flashbacks of the anxiety that I felt as I heard the fighter planes (at least I assumed they were fighter planes) fly over head every fifteen minutes on September 11, 2001. I did not relive the rage of seeing the twin towers collapse in my mind. What affected me the most about this movie were the little all important personal details that were tossed off during the small talk in the movie by the actors that were playing real people that died on United 93.

I was struck by the realness of the people that were being portrayed. I was touched by the realization that the movie was about a real tragedy visited upon real people, not unlike myself and my family, that have loved ones that are still dealing with their loss. Sometimes when you hear about tragic stories it is easy to feel bad for a second and forget that these stories involve real people. Sometimes it is so easy just to see the names on the evening news or in the newspapers and forget that those names represent real people with real families and loved ones. Sometimes it is so easy to forget that those names represent people who had their own life stories and that those stories were cut short. I saw actors portraying real people talking about their children, their parents, their spouses, their brothers and sisters. I saw actors portraying real people that got onto a flight expecting to go to the west coast. They were talking about all the things they were looking forward to doing once they reached their destinations. I saw a movie where actors portrayed people like me, like my mother, like my brother, like my sisters, like my children, like my wife, like my mother-in-law, like my father-in-law, like my sisters-in-law, like my uncles, like my aunts, and like my cousins. I have seen movies that depicted tragedies or lost battles that occurred in real life, but never had I gone to a movie where the tragedy was so close in time. I am not sure when it hit me, but some time during the movie it hit me that that could have been me or someone I love being portrayed on that screen. The actors and actresses played real living breathing people that had families, that had friends, that had plans, that had dreams, that had regrets, that had been born, and now are no longer with us.

During the movie I must admit that I felt a sense of anger that grew into a need for revenge. My wife and I took a little walk after the movie to let out feelings that the movie evoked. During our walk I thought about how anger blinds the human race sometimes. I thought about how it is that very blindness that can push us to do things that are horrific. It can send us down a path that devalues the lives of the people that we hate. It is along that path that we eventually devalue of ourselves. I thought about how the human emotions of anger and hatred can strip us of our own humanity if we are not careful. Once we allow ourselves to lose touch with our humanity that is when pain is spread out to the masses. United 93 is a good movie. It tells a story. Before you go to see the movie make certain that you are ready to experience it.