According to a newsfeed from gmail: Anthony Hervey, the African-American scholar, philosopher, and black leader, who can be seen waving his Confederate Flag in the Town Square where his Mississippi home is located, has penned another new book.
Titled; "Why I Wave The Confederate Flag," the book calls black leaders on the carpet, chastises welfare programs, and says desegregation has harmed blacks and contends white people are on a guilt trip.
How much of your time do you give to others? How much of your time do you spend making the world a better place in a non-self-serving way? There are many young people who could use the service of a mentor that has been successful or is on the right path to success. If we give of ourselves to these young people, we would be building a better future. For ways to help uplift the community you can contact your local Boys and Girls Club of America, Urban League, Public Library, United Way, Girls Scouts, and local churches. Food kitchens are usually offered by neighborhood churches and they always seek volunteers to pass out food. Do something for your community today.
GALESBURG, Illinois (AP) -- Five students will get the diplomas they were denied when cheers erupted for them at a high school graduation, and school officials said Wednesday they would review a get-tough decorum policy. Galesburg High School officials had said they would not hand over the keepsake diplomas unless they received apologies. But the stalemate over the diplomas and the media attention it attracted have taken valuable time and energy, they said. "It is time for the good of the community, the school district, the families and the students involved to move on," Superintendent Gene Denisar said in a written statement. The diplomas were withheld because the school said cheering violated a school policy aimed at restoring graduation decorum. The students still were considered graduates on paper, but they didn't have a diploma. Graduate Nadia Trent, who picked up her diploma from the school secretary Wednesday afternoon, said she's "just happy it's over." "If they would have apologized, it would have been better," said Trent. Denisar cited talks with the Illinois State Board of Education, which has said it cannot support the district's decorum policy because it makes students responsible for behavior they cannot control, in explaining the decision. The central Illinois school district about 150 miles southwest of Chicago will continue efforts to make commencement a "respectful and dignified occasion that all graduates and their families can enjoy," school board President Michael Panther said in statement. Officials did not say how they planned to review the no-cheer policy. Peoria attorney Jeffrey Green, who took the students' case at no cost, sent a letter late Tuesday threatening to sue the district if officials did not apologize and deliver the diplomas by 5 p.m. Wednesday. "They met with the families two or three times and had a chance to get this thing right," Green said. "I've been involved less than 24 hours, and now they have their diplomas, so you draw your own conclusions." Parent Pam Kelley said she was disappointed that school officials did not apologize and that her daughter, Amanda, was handed the diploma by a high school secretary, not principal Tom Chiles. "At least he could have come out and shook her hand and said congratulations," Kelley said.
Ms. Educated--I won't even waste my time. Nobody considered the joy of the family members for whom these children could very well be the first child graduating with honors. Or that they had seen the children work hard throughout the years to overcome obstacles (many of which I'm sure they faced in this school district) and were just simply proud to see them get out of there. This is a travesty and nobody can control the joy of parents at a graduation ceremony; it's preposterous. Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Had a meeting today with the prof. I'm exhausted. I never thought I'd have to explain myself so much in a million years. I don't understand how people are Athiest...there IS a God. There might be no Santa Claus but there is definitely a God. Those who are in power often forget that there are others higher and more powerful than they, even if the higher One has no given name, in their book. When struggling with the powers that be, remember that within you there is a force that cannot and will not be compromised because of their insecurities or their fear of confronting their own prejudices. Even a child knows the importance of this; my six-year-old niece told me today that she wants a book for Christmas. I feel great knowing that her spirit and love of learning have not been pulverized by the negativity she suffered from a deameaning public school teacher of color. That is reassuring. Nothing else in the world matters.
Health insurance, PCPs, low-cost prescriptions, our dignity...these are the things we take for granted in America. Today I experienced life through a poor woman's eyes. I went to a free clinic for a yearly check-up and boy, did it take forever! I had forgotten what life is like for many people who don't have affordable healthcare. I walked in, went to the reception window and all I wanted to know was if I was in the right place. I approached the reception desk, a white woman of about 55 years got up, opened the sliding glass and before I could finish my sentence said "take a number" and then slammed the glass. I was 30 minutes early for the opening of the clinic and I was number 23.
A year ago I didn't even know that a free clinic existed. I had the highest coverage from a notable HMO and was able to visit the doctor as many times as I was sick without even thinking twice. Healthcare was not a concern for me; all I had to do was flash a card and I'd be seen in less than 30 minutes wherever I went. Today, I stayed in a clinic for 3.5 hours before I was seen by an intern. Nobody answered questions, I was just a number and everything seemed to refer back to that one number, 23. When I was called forward to explain why I was worthy of their service, I was told that new patients are being screened because there were less doctors available and new patients were only being seen if their situations were important.
A one-year checkup is not important in free-clinic logic but a nurse had been listening in and approached me after I walked away to wait on the receptionist to confirm with the doctor to see whether I was eligible (I call it worthy) to be seen. The nurse was a young 30-something woman who is working on her Ph.D. After our initial interview she found out that I, too, am a doctoral student. Her brow raised of course and the condescending, spell-out-each-word-as-if-I-have-no-sense talk that she had been giving me changed to more "normal" free-flowing conversation. I guess I was no longer "really poor" but just "a needy student" so I was not quite like the other people in the room. After she gave me my informed consent and interview session for my paid participation in the study (I earned a whopping $20 for filling out 40-mins worth of paperwork. Cool way to make money while you wait, huh?), she returned to her post behind the glass window. Soon, I was treated with utmost respect by everyone behind her glass window. One nurse who did my initial patient screening even commented on how "impressed" she is that I am doing this work. Everybody, including the nasty receptionist, began to speak to me with respect and asking me questions about the book I had been holding in my hand and about my areas of interest. So I guess education does make all the difference, even if you're a poor graduate student who sits in a free clinic, having to validate your need to maintain good health just like everyone else.
A number of my students have lived their entire lives without health insurance. Besides being humiliated by slamming glass windows, condescending stares, and long waiting hours, there is the fear of not being seen at all after waiting three full hours. After my experience today, I could not conceive of how it must feel for people who have to spend their entire lives going to free clinics and waiting. I spent more time just waiting than anything else. For me, this is temporary poverty, since grad school only lasts for a few years. I have the option of quitting school and going forth to maintain an upper-middle-class lifestyle. So this temporary humiliation, for me, is endurable. But what about those for whom this reality is permanent? How must they feel each time they approach the glass window to ask a question? I am sure that some people who could use the service of the free clinic probably do not even take advantage of it. Just imagine having to work 2-3 jobs and sitting in a clinic just waiting. It's no wonder that people who live on or below the poverty line are in poor health.
The services offered at the free clinic are thanks to doctors who volunteer their time but there must be more that the government can do to help those who are truly in need feel more validated and less inferior when they attempt to get good healthcare. That's part of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, isn't it.? That's just my two cents.
I went to a dance recital last night and I saw the children perform this song. I thought it was a great way to make a political statement through dance. The lyrics are so powerful! The song is written and sung by Pink as an open letter to President George Bush. I wonder if he ever heard it and I wonder what he said when he did. I know if it were addressed to me it would've made me feel mighty ashamed of myself, how about you?
Dear Mr. President, Come take a walk with me. Let's pretend we're just two people and You're not better than me. I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.
What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street? Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep? What do you feel when you look in the mirror? Are you proud?
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry? How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye? How do you walk with your head held high? Can you even look me in the eye And tell me why?
Dear Mr. President, Were you a lonely boy? Are you a lonely boy? Are you a lonely boy? How can you say No child is left behind? We're not dumb and we're not blind. They're all sitting in your cells While you pave the road to hell.
What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away? And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay? I can only imagine what the first lady has to say You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.
How do you sleep while the rest of us cry? How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye? How do you walk with your head held high? Can you even look me in the eye?
Let me tell you 'bout hard work Minimum wage with a baby on the way Let me tell you 'bout hard work Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away Let me tell you 'bout hard work Building a bed out of a cardboard box Let me tell you 'bout hard work Hard work Hard work You don't know nothing 'bout hard work Hard work Hard work Oh
How do you sleep at night? How do you walk with your head held high? Dear Mr. President, You'd never take a walk with me. Would you?
I live in a very white town. Blacks make up 5% of my neighborhood. Today someone invited me to a town fair and while I'm very much a non-fair-going city gal, I decided to take in some of this very white town's festivities. I arrived in time to see a number of fire brigades floating down the street where a parade was taking place. Blasting from the speakers was the song "Proud to be an American," and as I rattled my brain to figure out where I had heard the song before (oh, yeah, 9/11, American Idol?), I looked around to see the proud faces of this America in which I will have to live for the next 4-5 years. The on-lookers, my neighbors that I had never seen, who hardly even realized I was standing there, were primarily white. I felt like I was at a redneck Republican convention. All around me were long beards, flush red cheeks, construction boots and Birkenstocks, and an all too familiar obnoxious smell of Marlboros all around. (Where's Derrick the WHADAFXUP guy when you need him? ).There is a grey cloud over this town and I swear it's thanks to cigarettes. But I digress. The only diversity I saw in my limited line of vision was in the colors red, white, and blue and some orange that the attendees and the participants of this parade wore. No sign of diversity in this town. Then I wondered why the heck someone would invite me to this kind of function. I felt like a stranger in a world that seemed all too familiar to everyone else who was there. They were clapping and cheering and jumping to catch the candy that the paraders threw out and all I could think about was how vastly different this America is from the America I have known for 13 years. Then suddenly, black man rode by on his makeshift float. He is running for town judge. I thought "Oh maybe it isn't so white after all!" But I was standing within earshot of a couple in their late sixties. The woman exlaimed in a most condescending and surprised tone "town judge?" as if to say "how dare he! Does he not see what town this is? Apparently not. This is America!
People here seemed to have no care in the world. I saw some soldiers walk by and I immediately thought of the soldiers in Iraq. The 18 year olds who had no choice but to enlist in the army after high school, the fathers who have never seen their newborn daughter or son because they were deployed too soon, the mothers who had to walk away from their children to serve...I thought of them. And then my attention was called back to the scene. It was time for the bed and bath tub race. People decorated beds and bath tubs and dragged them down the street as a form of entertainment. This is when I zoomed out again because I couldn't help but think of the victims of Katrina who were still displaced. Those who still have no bed nor a decent bath in which to take a shower. This is America...the America I live in. Then it was time for the wave. A young girl volunteered to run along the side of the street as the "wave director." This was all new to me; I'd never seen it. The young girl took her white-socked feet out of her Adidas slippers and the commentator said "your mom is going to kill you for running in those socks." She shrugged as if to say "so what, I have plenty more where this comes from." And again, I had an out of body experience--I started thinking of the many children who hide their feet when they change their shoes in order to hide the holes in their socks. But she shrugged. She took it for granted. This is America...the America in which I reside. It's definitely a different world from my own. And now I know why I was invited to the fair. The people who teach me and other teachers in my program are from this world. They would never understand what I mean when I speak on behalf of the child who does not have the things they have because to them being middle class, Republican, and monolithic is American. This is the America that controls my future...and I will probably never understand it or live in that America but I'm glad I got to see the other side. Am I proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free? I have to think about that for a while but first, I need to understand what the word free means because with what I saw today, freedom comes at the expense of the other America; the one in which I've lived and worked for 13 years. But I definitely won't forget the men and women who died and gave that right to me. But I doubt Lee Greenwood was talking about the same men and women that gave my rights to me. Not to take anything away from the troops. I am the only sister of a soldier. But let's talk about the two Americas and the two kinds of people who gave their lives for freedom because someone seems to have forgotten 1619 and before...that's my two cents.
People who don't know when they were emancipated, and if they were emancipated, are never going to be emancipated--Lerone Bennett
Our young people deserve a future and I consider it the mandate of my ancestors to be part of the struggle to insure that they have one.--Assata Shakur(1998)
Excuses are futile when you have goals--Ms Educated
Touch the sky and tell it to reach for heaven--Ms. Educated
If all you've learned, at the end of the day, is what you've heard in a classroom, then you've limited your learning to all someone else knows! Read, research, reclaim your right to know--Ms. Educated
"Students are perfectly capable, you just have to demand their best. Initially, they might fight you, but once they discover that you are as determined as they are, they appreciate the fact that you won't give up on them."--Leroy Lovelace
I am not my hair, I am not this skin, I am not your expectations--India.Arie
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent--Eleanor Roosevelt
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”--Marianne Williamson
"To be good is not enough if your dream is to be great"
Your dream ignites a flame, your passion keeps it burning--Ms. Educated
I strive to make changes on the educational spectrum so that those who have been disempowered for too long can feel and become empowered. My journey is long and hard but without struggle there can be no progress (thanks F.D.)
