NewView

Missed Opportunities

“A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in colour and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.”

--Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.--

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

--Abraham Lincoln--

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."

--Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.--

When history books are written about this election cycle many historians will write about how the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary made history and may have even shattered barriers. Volumes will be written about how Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s candidacies broke open barriers for African-Americans and women. I look forward to reading or even writing those volumes, but the truth is that the country has missed golden opportunities to deal with subjects and issues that are long overdue for attention. And the main reasons the opportunities have been missed are due to our cowardice and the media’s lack of back bone.

This election cycle has already presented a golden opportunity to face at least two ugly realities in our community and our country. One reality is that there is little to no diversity and courage in our media. The other is that we as a community and a country are easily manipulated by both major political parties as well as individual politicians because we punish the people that raise issues we do not want to hear when it is necessary to hear them and reward people that tell “us” what we want to hear when that is the last thing we need.

We as Americans are cowards at times because many times we do not want to face harsh realities about ourselves. The harsher the reality the less willing we are to face it and the media is more than willing to help us avoid it by telling “us” what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear. Our knee jerk reactions are used against our better judgment to manipulate our emotions to vote based on fear, prejudice, and hubris instead of wisdom, experience, and strength. Haven’t we finally learned the lessons of manipulation from our country’s decision to go into Iraq?

The number one culprit in the knee-jerk reactions derby is the media. The media is littered with too little diversity and too much cowardice. The media usually presents many faces, but only one perspective. When I say lack of diversity I am not referring just to the racial, economic, or gender make up of the media. I am referring to the lack of diversity of perspectives. The media seems to suffer from a bad case of the group think syndrome. Many times members of the media act as if they can not fathom any other perspective regardless of how legitimate it may be. It is not about who is right or wrong. The issue is whether the people need to hear different perspectives. In almost every case I think the country is always better off by being exposed to a diversity of perspectives.

The controversy surrounding the comments by Rev. Wright is a perfect example of the media’s lack of diversity of perspective. Rev. Wright is perceived as an un-American, hateful, and deeply flawed person because the media never addressed the glaring question of whether Rev. Wright’s comments accurately depicted his views or was manipulated to give a false message. The reason I call the media a coward for refusing to raise the possibility that the comments were taken out of context is that is what they normally do in a situation where there are controversial comments. The media will usually air the comments in order to stir up ratings then try to objectively place the comments within the context that they were given. Then the media will allow both sides of the debate to address the comments. Today on Meet the Press the media did that with the ad that the DNC is airing against John McCain that gives the impression that he wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years. The ad shows McCain stating that the U.S. could be in Iraq “for maybe a 100 years” but Tim Russet quickly pointed out McCain’s assertion that according to the transcripts from the town hall meeting where McCain made the comments that the comments where taken out of context. That was the correct thing to do. That was the professional thing to do. That was the informative thing to do. I do no think that was ever done for the comments by Rev. Wright. Why?

I believe the media has not extended the same objective coverage in the case of Rev. Wright because of fear of a backlash from people that will hurt their ratings. There is a war of ratings that is being waged between the three major cable news networks: MSNBC, CNN, and Fox. Fox news is on its own program. It is clear that they have bias political coverage against democrats and liberals. That is nothing new so I do not blame them for their bias coverage that was way over the top against Rev. Wright. However, MSNBC and CNN are another story. Both networks addressed the issue by having debates between the right and the left on the issue. I did not see anyone from the networks take an objective view of the comments and parse fact from fiction regarding the entire sermons and the real message. The media has instead chosen to continue to give a three to five second snippet from an hour long sermon and pretend that the misinterpreted comments are an accurate depiction of Rev. Wright’s message on that particular day. That is why the controversy is still alive and well because no one in the media has taken the time to separate the myth from the fact.

I have seen several guest commentators such as Roland Martin, Jesse Jackson, Rev. Sharpton, or Joe Madison that raised the perspective that the comments were grossly taken out of context and manipulated in order to prey upon some deeply rooted prejudices and suspicions about black folks in hopes of attacking Barack Obama. The only problem is that those commentators’ views are easily dismissed because the rest of the main stream media seem to embrace the perspective that Rev. Wright’s comments were controversial and therefore wrong, instead of manipulated, misunderstood, or misinterpreted.

However, there is still time for someone from the media to show some courage and address the comments in the context that they were given instead of the context that they have been edited.

Rage Against the Machine

Revolution is not a onetime event.
--Audre Lorde--

Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one's own person is its ultimate reward.
--Patricia Sampson--

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.
--H. L. Mencken --

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
--William H. Borah--

The revolution is being televised, but no one has taken notice of the true implications! Senator Obama has blazed this unprecedented trail with a theme of change. Maybe he should also include a theme of wake up, because the race between him and Senator Clinton has shined a light for all that are interested to see on one of the problems that our community has faced for the past two decades. It is not racism. It is not an assault on civil rights. It is the stifling of good candidates by machine politics.

Bill Clinton’s remarks in response to the question of why were he and his wife “teaming up” on Senator Obama were insulting. Instead of dealing with the flawed premise that he and his wife had “teamed up” on Senator Obama he chose to dismiss any potential victory by Senator Obama in South Carolina as just a product of black folks voting for a black man. That is insulting, especially since this former President, who had been dubbed the nation’s “first Black President,” had no problems basking in the unwavering support from the black community during his roughest times. Now we are just a bunch of racist, unthinking, monolithic people that can not see beyond color. Wow! Okay, that may be a stretch but there are still some uncomfortable implications in Bill Clinton’s remarks.

If that is not enough, it gets better. Some black folks are coming to Bill Clinton’s aid. And if you have not already guessed, it is the usual list of characters – black preachers and politicians.

I am not the type of person that thinks that all black folks should think alike or that every statement made by a public official should be interpreted the same by all black folks. I think that there may be black folks that were not insulted by Bill Clinton’s remarks. However, it is hard to see how anyone that either heard or read the remarks within the context of the question that had been posed to Bill Clinton would not be a little troubled by the implications.
Bill Clinton did not need to insult an entire community in order to defend his wife or his actions in the primary. All he needed to do was to respond to flawed premise of the question by pointing out that it is not unusual for spouses to be involved in high profile political campaigns. This is particularly true when the spouse happens to be a former President. It is hard to believe that someone as intelligent as Bill Clinton did not know how to truly defend his wife. It seems to me that he took the opportunity to paint Obama as an anomaly and a product of the black vote. I do not think that those comments were misinterpreted or accidental. I think those comments were made in a deliberate attempt to redefine Senator Obama and marginalize him. Yet, now that Bill Clinton has been called on his remarks here comes “the machine to the rescue.”

The machine playbook may have been written and perfected by the old Democratic Party, but it has been used liberally by both parties. The old playbook works in all communities. It works in all sectors of this country. And it has worked without fail within our community for the past forty years to help elect unqualified, uncaring, and unresponsive candidates whose sole priority were to serve the machine.

This playbook has been discussed in books and articles like the American Pharaoh or the articles written in the Chicago Reporter regarding how grants to African-American churches by the city of Chicago have increased as support have increased from those churches. It is an old but successful formula. Get the local politicians and preachers on your side in the African-American community and you can count on the African-American vote regardless of what the candidate’s stances are on the issues. In the case of Bill Clinton’s remarks, they can count on black preachers and politicians giving him a pass for remarks that they would have roasted a republican or non-machine politician. Does that sound familiar?

Look at how the Clintons courted the African-American vote in South Carolina. They leaned on the African-American politicians and they courted the African-American clergy. It is amazing that it did not work, even against as bright, energizing, and qualified a candidate as Barack Obama. For the first time in several generations, the people in the African-American community as well as other communities have disregarded the gatekeepers of the vote and decided for themselves. That is the revolution. Hopefully it will continue through Super Tuesday.

Senator Obama may win his party’s nomination or he may not. That is not the issue. The issue is that we the people in the African-American community and the rest of America need to choose our public officials according to the content of their character instead of who has endorsed them in order to finally break the machine. Once that is done then what started as a trickle of one good candidate may develop into a flood of new, qualified, and responsive candidates in our community and throughout the country. Bring on the revolution!!!

Jena Six

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

--Andy Warhol--

“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.”

--King Whitney Jr.--

Reflections on Jena
By
Juan R. Thomas

On Wednesday, September 19th, I board a chartered bus along with several other Chicago area residents to travel to Jena, LA to express our mutual discontent with an American criminal justice system that administers justice unfairly based upon race, class, and one’s ability to retain competent legal counsel.

This overnight trip was uncomfortable. I sat in front of a lady who asked me not to lean my seat back because she wanted more leg-room. I had numerous client calls to make and became frustrated that there was no way to charge my phone when the battery was low.
I missed an important conference call that afternoon because my cell phone battery died. 40 passengers on this bus had to share a small single-unit bathroom for more than 14 hours. We stopped in Jackson, Mississippi at 3:00am at a local church that served breakfast and we only had one hour to eat and cleanse ourselves before we had to arrive in Jena by 6:00am.

When we arrived in Jena, the town was disserted except for the tens of thousands of people that had traveled there in protest. The day was hot and muggy as we walked through downtown, to the courthouse, to the school yard, to the area where a tree once stood for “white students only.” All this made me uncomfortable.

However, as I reflect on those two days and the events that precipitated our arrival, my discomfort gives way to a sense of gratitude. My discomfort having to sit upright on a bus was nothing compared to the physical pain and agony my ancestors had to endure as they traveled to these shores in chains stacked on one another like sardines during the Middle Passage. My inconvenience being unable to use my cell phone when the battery died, is meaningless when compared to the reality that Thurgood Marshall traveled across the south without a phone, with his life in danger, searching for evidence of racial discrimination that he would later use in many of his arguments before the Supreme Court . The fact that I had to share a bathroom for a few hours on a bus pales in comparison to the fact that many African-American were denied the use of public bathrooms due to “white only” signs in the south.

When I marched with my brother and sisters in solidarity, it was hot and muggy. Unlike the marches that Dr. King and others participated in from Selma to Montgomery or here in Chicago, no one called me the “N-word”; no dogs chased me, there were no signs of hatred in the streets, no water hoses were sprayed on me by racist police officers. We marched in peace with no arrested, no fights, and no deaths.

As I reflect on Jena, I am forever thankful to those who marched, walked, fought, argued, and died for me. Because of their sacrifice, our society is not what it had been, but I am reminded that by the mere fact that we had to travel to Jena, that our society is not what it should be either.

Binary B.S.

“There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.”

--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe--

“The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.”

--Stephen Jay Gould--

“The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use - of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.”

--Robert F. Kennedy--

Okay. I am back. I needed a little break for a while but I am back now. Miss me?

Anyway, I had to write something about Mayor Daley’s response to the aldermen that requested the names of six hundred sixty-two (662) police officers that were accused of abusing citizens in more than 10 complaints from 2001 to 2006. Mayor Daley did what most people do who are not interested in dealing with ugly truths; he attempted to distort the issue by acting as if a binary situation exists when it does not. What do I mean by that? Mayor Daley did what most politicians do. He courted the vote of a powerful organization, the fraternal order of police, instead of courting a solution to the ugly problem of police brutality. He did that by trying to insinuate that all police officers must be treated as one instead of as individuals.

He reacted as if when a reporter, alderman, or regular citizen questions a few police officers it is the same as questioning all police officers. It is an old game that does a disservice to the vast majority of police officers that do their jobs professionally and to the population as a whole because it keeps the public from dealing with the ugly reality of police brutality that is perpetrated by a small minority of police officers.

How does that happen? Easy. No probing questions. No real investigations into citizen complaints. No checks. No balances. No limit to the power a police officer has because everyone just takes his/her word for whatever happens on the streets; especially when it involves anyone that may have a criminal record. Can you say absolute power?! And what does it do again?

The Mayor’s assertion does not fit the numbers. According to statements made by the Mayor and other city officials in the major newspapers last week, there are approximately 13,000 police officers on the Chicago Police force. And according to the news reports the aldermen were seeking the names of 662 officers, which represent only about 5% of the police force. That means that 95% of the police officers in Chicago are not involved in the inquiry. 95%!!! How many people can say that 95% of their profession is above reproach? As a lawyer I won’t even begin to open my mouth to say something like that. Yet the Mayor wants to act as if the aldermen by asking for the names (I hope in an effort to try to get a better understanding of what needs to be done better to prevent police officers from abusing people) they have tarnished the reputation of the entire Chicago Police Force. That is ridiculous.

I agree with the Mayor that the officers should receive due process and the officers should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, that has nothing to do with learning their names. People are accused of crimes every day and have their names printed on crime blotters every day without the same benefit. Why should these officers receive any different treatment?

In addition, there is an ugly reality that most law enforcement officers enjoy a great deal of deference and latitude when it comes to their actions towards the public. I generally do not have too much of a problem with it as long as it does not endanger the public. However, when we the people do what the Mayor did and treat police officers as either all angels or all demons then we run the risk of giving too much or to little power to the police. Police officers are human beings and therefore susceptible to abusing their powers if no checks are put on them.

Self Respect

“The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.”

--Aesop--

“Respect yourself and others will respect you.”

--Confucius--

A long time ago, when I was a little kid there was a local phrase that went “quit drinking someone else’s Kool Aid.” It meant to stop buying someone else’s propaganda that they were better than you. Well, maybe it is time someone said that to the African-American community because we have been “drinking someone else’s Kool Aid” for far too long.

What am I talking (well writing) about? I am talking about how we give our power away everyday because we have been so brainwashed into believing in fairy tales, fiction, and propaganda. We must start exercising more independent thought and we must be willing to challenge old, popular, and convenient notions. I will give an example.

Over a year ago I wrote an article about how the University of Notre Dame insulted the African-American community by treating the only African-American Head Football Coach in their long and illustrious history differently than any other coach in the past several decades. Notre Dame fired Coach Willingham before he finished his first contract, even though the university had allowed the coach before Willingham, who had about the same record, to finish his contract before they fired him. As I mentioned in my previous article, it was an insult to the African-American community because it appears that Willingham received the quick hook because of the color of his skin.

Yet, after the firing we remained silent. Our community and our leaders remained silent. We remained silent as the new coach of Notre Dame came to our community without being required to explain the university’s actions. We remained silent as the university recruited several young brothers from our community without any repercussions. We remained silent as the media hyped the new coach to near mythical levels even though the new coach did not have a better record than Willingham in his first two seasons. We remained silent as the new coach of Notre Dame received a contract extension even though he had not delivered a bowl victory or a better season than Willingham. And we are silent still even though the media has started to finally shed some light on Notre Dame’s actions.

The worst part of this sad example is all we needed to have done was to have a little respect for ourselves and to have acted like it. This is an example where we did not have to hold large public protests or any protests. We did not need our “anointed” leaders to make a public stink over Willingham’s firing. We just needed to send a firm clear message by sending our football talent else where. If the big name recruits as well as the “little name” recruits from our community made it clear that Notre Dame was persona non grata then the message would have been sent loud and clear. Instead, we sent a message that our community can be insulted indirectly and we will not do anything without one of our “anointed” leaders or the media telling “us” to be outraged.

I want to be very clear. The Willingham firing by Notre Dame was not about one brother’s job. It was about opportunity. It was about fairness. It was about respect. If he was treated differently because of the color of his skin then it was a direct insult and challenge to all of “us” and it was and still is in the individual self interest of all of “us” to address this wrong. Would any school publicly announce that black folks are only good enough to help their football team win games as athletes but they are not good enough to be the team’s head coach? How was the Willingham situation that different? Yes it may have been a little more subtle but I think the message was the same.

I also want to point out that I am in no way suggesting that all people or even most people from Notre Dame are racists or feel that way. If most people from Notre Dame are like the people I know from Notre Dame, I am certain they are not racists. However, they are not the people that needed to have been sent a message. The people that influenced the Willingham firings should have and still need to be sent a message. It is called R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

The situation at Notre Dame was only one of many examples of how our actions or lack there of actually help our oppressors to continue to oppress “us.” How can we ever expect to build power if we allow others to do whatever they want to us and not only do we allow it we even help them? How can we ever expect respect from others when clearly we do not respect ourselves? The truth is we can not and we should not.

We must respect ourselves. We must start to define ourselves. We must start to think for ourselves. And we must start drinking our own Kool Aid.

Passion: the Fruit for Greatness

“Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.”

--Denis Diderot--

“Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.”

--Georg Wilhelm--

“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.”

--Oprah Winfrey--

What is your definition of success? In my opinion a person is successful when they are able to pursue their passion everyday while being able to maintain a standard of living that they find acceptable. What does that mean? I guess the best way to explain it is by stating that a person is a success when they get paid to do the thing or things that they love to do. However, in my humble estimation most people, including me right now, do not lead successful lives because they trade in success for the pursuit of material things.

Passion is the seed to the tree of greatness. That is not just a meaningless saying. It is the truth. However, it seems that today there are too many young brothers and sisters that do not have a passion for anything other than being a consumer. I do not believe that most people do not have a passion. No. I think the opposite. I think most people do have a passion, but most people sometime in their life choose, either consciously or unconsciously, to pursuit safe goals like getting a job and acquiring material possessions rather than explore their passions.

Passion is the engine that drives creativity, ingenuity, and determination. Passion inspires. It motivates. It challenges. It pushes people to new levels, new heights, and new horizons. Passion is the first step, the last step, and all the steps in between on the path to greatness. That is why it is nearly impossible to travel the road to greatness or even to success without the companion of passion.

The problem for many young brothers and sisters is that society does very little to encourage people to seek out and explore their passions. Instead of being given an invitation to explore ourselves we are saturated with images of consumerism. Instead of being compelled to greatness, we are enticed into debt, we are molded into consuming whatever is convenient for companies, and we are lobotomized into wanting whatever we are toward to crave. We are presented the options to trade in our passion (regardless of whether we know what it is yet) for stuff. Most of us have been trained to ignore our passion in order to pursue stuff. Maybe it is time we sought a different training program.

There it is. That is my view. Although I present it as a simple choice, it isn’t. It is a very difficult decision. Be a risk taker and pursue your passion or settle for stuff. A person can pursue how to craft a career that expresses their own personal statement to the world or they can settle for a job and stuff. It is all about choice.

I will ask the question again, what is your definition of success?

Pearls of Wisdom

“To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.”

--Anatole France--

“You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’"

--George Bernard Shaw--

“I do not want to die... until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown.”

--Kathe Kollwitz--

The month of May is almost over, which means June is right around the corner. June usually means graduations. I can remember my eight grade and high school graduations. I can also remember thinking I knew so much about life, although I knew very little. I wish I knew then what I know now. Well, I am going to use the next three articles after this one to share a little of what I know now with the young brothers and sisters out there.

My advice can be summed up in three short sentences. Find your passion and make it a part of your life. Education is a tool that is to be used for a life time. And failure is a lesson not a stigma.

I am not asserting that my three little jewels of wisdom are the keys to success for every young man or woman. I am not asserting that I have figured out life and therefore am the world’s greatest authority on life. I am not asserting that because I am well beyond my teen years that I can not learn anything from young brothers and sisters. I can only state that my advice comes from many years of observing habits of people, including mine, that have lead to success and failure.

I will discuss each concept in an article that is dedicated to that subject over the next three weeks. I have no illusions that my advice will dramatically change the lives of millions of young brothers and sisters. However, I am hoping to maybe inspire someone to look beyond what is in front of them and expand the options that they think are available to them. If I knew then what I know now, that is what would have happened to me.

Have Faith

“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20 (New International Version)

--Jesus--

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”

--J. R. R. Tolkien--

Happy New Year! I hope everyone that reads this article had a happy, safe, and fun New Year’s celebration. Last year a good number of my thoughts that were put to paper were critical of something or someone. Well I would like to start the New Year by writing about something positive. This article is about faith.

This article is not about religion. It is about advice. We need more faith in our schools, our work, and lives. We need faith in our futures. If I had the honor of speaking to a group of young brothers and sisters about life and what to do to put themselves in the best position to be successful, the first thing I would tell them was to have faith. I would tell them that in order to achieve something in life they must first have a dream and second they must believe in their ability to achieve that dream. I know that sounds overly simplistic, but sometimes the seemingly simplest truths are the most profound.

I used to teach school before I became a lawyer. When I taught in a junior high school in the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago, I had a unique opportunity to interact with pre-teenage and teenage children. I noticed that the children that tended to go onto become successful people years after they graduated tended to have faith in their ability to achieve their goals. I don’t think that was an accident. I think it was directly related.

The truth is that if you believe that you can achieve something then you will act like it. I think the number one reason that too many people get caught up in circumstances that lead to crime, poverty, and despair is due to lack of faith in their future. Why would a brother that feels that he must protect his reputation today hold back from doing something that will land him in jail tomorrow when he does not value tomorrow? Why would a brother or sister delay instant gratification to invest in a future that they do not believe in? The truth is they probably will not.

I am a firm believer that life is a journey. And there are many steps along that journey. Those steps can lead to success, satisfaction, and even happiness. But in order for the average person to get there they must over come many obstacles along the way. That is where faith comes in.

Last weekend I went to see the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. I enjoyed it. The movie was inspiring. It was uplifting. And it was a great example of how a person’s faith in their ability to succeed can lead them past nearly any obstacle that life will throw in their way.

Faith is the vision that gets a person to keep going up the hill when what they are looking for is on the other side. Faith is the energy in your muscles to go the next mile when you were certain that you were too tired to finish the previous block. Faith provides that window in the future for someone that is toiling in the garden today to see, smell, and taste the fruits of their labor tomorrow. If creativity, hard work, and dedication are the components of the engine to success, then faith is its fuel. Maybe we need just a little more faith in our community.

We Need Some New Plays

“If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?”

--Harry Shearer--

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

--Malcolm X--

“Power never takes a back step - only in the face of more power.”

--Malcolm X--

There is more than one way to skin a cat but if you listen to our leaders you would think differently. This article is not about skinning cats, thank goodness. It is about how our community must start and continue to think outside the box to break down barriers and create opportunity for our community. Community success is built one individual at a time as long as those individuals understand the importance of staying connected to their community. Barriers can be broken down from the outside, the inside, or from any side.

Sometimes it seems that our leaders tend to get stuck on one strategy to address issues in our community. Every other day it seems that we are told to either vote based on party loyalty to make sure the government gives us opportunity or to get ready to march to force someone to give us opportunity. I think we need some other options.

I want to be clear. I think it is important to vote. Although, I think we as a community should get away from voting along party lines and start getting used to voting strictly along our interests and we should make up our own minds regarding our individual and collective interests without somebody telling us. I also think that we should exercise our first amendment right of free speech and protest unjust actions by the government or private companies or people when appropriate. But, I think we are way over due for a few new plays to be put into our playbook of providing more opportunity for our community in this country.

In order for us to move beyond the stagnation in strategy we need to reevaluate our mental approach to issues. We must move away from the 1960ish rhetoric and start to deal with today’s realities. We are no longer dealing with the in your face institutional discrimination that existed prior to the civil rights movement. We are facing a more nuanced form of discrimination where barriers to our success exist but where certain individuals deny their existence. We also must face our worst enemy: our own laziness, bad attitudes and/or bad habits. We must start challenging ourselves to be the best. We also need to start speaking and thinking along individual self interests so that we as individuals and as a community will start to look at the big picture instead of being bamboozled into selling out for cheap.

I will give an example: the Notre Dame Football program. Yes, here we go again. Notre Dame appeared to fire Tyrone Willingham two years ago solely or in part based on the color of his skin. This means that there are some in the power structure of Notre Dame that think that it is okay for black folks to score touchdowns or prevent touchdowns on the field, but not to be the head coach and teach players how to score or prevent touchdowns. That is a direct slap in the face to our community, because Mr. Willingham was not fired just for being himself. He was fired because he shared a similar phenotype as most folks in our community. And we have let Notre Dame get away with it. This is a perfect example where there is no need to go to court, stage a protest or vote for a democrat to change this situation. Our community needs to understand our individual interests.

The black football recruits of today are more than welcome at Notre Dame as long as they are players, but not if they want to become the head coach someday. That is an example of a barrier to success. Mr. Willingham cracked it. The hundreds of top African-American college football recruits have the power to eradicate it!!! It is in every black high school and college player’s interest to force major colleges to respect them and treat them equally starting with Notre Dame because the seeds they sow today will bear fruit for their opportunity for tomorrow. If we as individuals and as a community turned our backs on Notre Dame until they made amends for the disrespect they showed our community in handling Tyrone Willingham, then that would go a long way towards changing the blatant discrimination in coaching opportunities in NCAA division I football, where there are only three black head coaches out of about a hundred programs. That is just one example. We need to start creating others.

Responsibility: I am my brother's keeper

                                            "What I dream of is an art of balance."

                                                           --Henri Matisse--

                                                "Virtue is a product of habit."

                                                              --Unknown--

         Last Friday I read an article that was written by Michael E. Dyson that once again criticized Bill Cosby for "his infamous remarks on the 50Th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education."  On the 50Th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education Bill Cosby issued a stinging criticism of some of the bad habits that people in our community engage in that put us at a disadvantage.  Mr. Dyson as well as a bunch of African-American liberals quickly jumped on Bill Cosby for his remarks.  Mr. Dyson wrote a book and recently an article that was printed last Friday where he once again criticized Bill Cosby.  In the article Mr. Dyson asserted that Bill Cosby exhibits a convenient blind eye to the societal causes of poverty while instead choosing to only focus on the individual actions of poor folks.  According to Dyson Bill Cosby's message is that it is poor people's fault that they are poor and no one else.  The fundamental disagreement between Bill Cosby and Michael Dyson is an example of two extreme views in our community.  The problem with those extreme views is that both conveniently ignore truths about our community.  The first truth is that the majority of our community is not poor.  The other truth is that poverty in our community is about responsibility. 

         What am I talking about?  Both sides of the "how can we help lift up the poor in our community debate" ignore responsibility.  On one side there are the traditional liberals who seem to repeat the old tired mantra that it is not poor people's fault that they are poor and on the other side there is the newer convenient conservatives that espouse that poor people need to quit playing the victim role and accept responsibility for their own stupid decisions.  Well, I hate to sound like a flip flopper but both sides have some merit.

         Both sides assert that someone needs to take responsibility for the consequences of bad decisions that result in hundreds of thousands of African-Americans living in poverty.  The difference between the two sides is who they believe should shoulder the responsibility.  Liberals think that American society is to blame and must therefore find the silver bullet to free the African-Americans that are trapped in the cycle of poverty in this country.  Conservatives believe that poor folks are to blame for their own bad decisions and therefore must individually resolve to become more discipline, harder working, and better educated.  Well the truth is that they are both correct.  Our priorities are reflected in our decisions regardless whether it is on an individual or collective level. 

         The truth is that any society that puts more resources in building weapons or in building prisons or in building armies or in crafting punishments for crimes instead of building schools that educate as oppose to segregate the good standardize test takers from the bad will have to deal with the consequences of those decisions.  The truth is that any society that is content to pay in excess of over thirty thousand dollars a year to keep someone in prison for years, decades, and even in some cases a lifetime, instead of investing half of that money in education, entrepreneurial, and job training programs will have to deal with the consequences of their decisions.  And those consequences tend to be reflected in the unemployment rate, which are also reflected in the crime rate.

         The same is true on the individual level.  The truth is that any one that chooses to blow off an education that was freely given to them will have to face the consequences of their decision.  Anyone that chooses to become sexually active while still in high school without properly protecting their bodies and their futures will have to face the consequences.  Parents that say they value education but do not create and maintain a home environment that is conducive for academic success will have to face the consequences.  The truth is that anyone that did not try to get their education and therefore was trapped in low paying jobs and then chose to sell drugs or break the law in order to make more money must deal with the consequences of their actions.  Those consequences are reflected in the miserable existence of poverty where people must face shorter life expectancies due to lack of nutrition, health care, and an abundance of stress and violence.

         No one wants to talk about the reality that certain habits put people in position to be successful and certain habits put people in position to fail.  There are very few habits that will guarantee failure or success, but there are a great many that will greatly weigh the odds for or against a person's success.  These are the habits that build the pathologies to either success or failure.  In the case of people that are trapped in the cycle of poverty there is usually a common pathology that leads to bad decisions that lead to bad results that lead right back to poverty.

         This leads to some harsh "truths" that must be confronted in order for the people in our community that are living in poverty to move beyond their circumstances.  First, tackling poverty in our community is going to be a long and difficult journey.  And like any journey regardless of how long or how short, it always begins with a first step.  Well, the first step in this battle is absolutely the most difficult.  That step is confronting head on the pathology that keeps too many of "us" in poverty.  None of us regardless of our socio-economic backgrounds can move beyond our socio-economic reality without first reexamining our mentality.   You are some place in your head well before you are some place in society.

          Bill Cosby was right about a few things.  First we can no longer accept certain mentalities that lead to certain behavior in our community regardless of our socio-economic status.  We can not accept the pathology that leads to the bad decisions that leads to the bad results that trap people in the depressing, suffocating, deadly reality of poverty and all the drama that comes with that reality.  (I agree with some of the spirit of his criticisms, but not with how he conveyed his message.)

           The second harsh reality is that regardless what our "leaders" promise, the entitlements that our government have given out for decades will not continue forever, therefore everyone of "us" that can be self sufficient must become self sufficient.  The third harsh reality that must be faced is that life is not fair.  What do I mean by that?  What I mean is that if a person is born poor and is therefore disadvantaged then they must be taught to be ready to work twice or three times as hard as the next person if that is what it takes to get ahead.  No one in this world will ever give you anything.  This includes your congressman, your mayor, your alderman, your governor, your president, and even your preacher!  It may not be fair.  It may not be right, but it is what it is.  Success breeds success.  There is no substitute.  And if someone is not willing to give the effort necessary to be successful then they should be content with whatever life style that their efforts have afforded them. 

          The last harsh reality that anyone of "us" that are poor must face is regardless of how many debates that are waged by people who are not poor, by people who were never poor, by people that have never known poverty, at the end of the day the only people that must deal with the harsh realities of poverty are the poor.  Poor people don't debate about the causes of poverty.  They are interested in solutions.  It is not an academic topic for intellectual discussion for them.  It is a reality; a reality that many would like to change.  Therefore, regardless of who is at fault for their being poor what matters the most is that they are poor and something must be done about it. 

          The first step of any journey begins with that person's resolve to go the distance.  Let's all take that first step by first challenging the individual pathologies that maintain the cycle of poverty.  Maybe while all of us examine ourselves, we can also take that step to tackle our societal priorities.