Today dawning full of grace

I awoke in D.C. today. I arrived last night and fully expected to find myself here. But more importantly I awoke. I am happy about that. It appears that I may see an old friend tonight. When I was in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago I saw my old firend's son briefly.

This guy (the son) was in the same class as my daughter from pre-school to about fourth grade. Also, his parents were part of the same pan-africanist/cultural Black nationalist community that my wife and I were part of in the 70s and early 80s. As it happens, the parents split and went their separate ways. I saw the mother in San Diego this past spring. She is doing well. Her health is failing but she perseveres. I would visit the father (my old friend)  on each trip to D.C. in the early to mid-90s. But I stop calling on him because it seemed to me to increasingly be an imposition on him and his family life.

The mother told me her son was in New Orleans and suggested that I contact him on my next trip down. Brenda and I planned for the New Orleans trip for about four or five months. During this period I often thought to call the mother and tell her we were going as well as alert the son. But I did neither. Imagine my surprise when I spied him across the room in the convention hall in New Orleans.

Today, after breakfast, my co-worker and I were exiting the restaurant and paused to ask for directions when I recognized the brother walking down the hall. I called to him and he turned looking quizically for the voice summoning him. We embraced and exchanged greeings. He stated that he was trying to arrange lunch with his father and I should join them. I agreed and emailed the father to alert him to our plans.

He suggest that we meet with his father tonight at 8:00 p.m. Me and the father were fairly close associates during a very intense period of his life that saw him going through a number of personal changes. I don't know that I offered much comfort to my friend during that period because I was very judgmental in my youth. I had not experienced any doubts and felt no one else had to unless they chose to. During this time he split with the mother of the boy that is meeting with us, remarried and then split with that wife and his approximately six month old daugther to enter a different relationship. I did not look kindly on that behavior and tried to counsel him in what I considered the error of his ways.

Ideas about family and commitment mixed with our then social and political philosophy of nation building Black nationalism. Of course, there were my own values that were grounded not only in the intellecual idealism of the nationalist political philosphy but also in the traditionalist Southern values of my youth. Suffice it to say that while I judged him I didn't reject him. Even then during my most judgmental period I held to the belief in redemption.

I am please to have this opportunity for a new beginning.





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State of the race - we need rabbits to help to old turtles

I was at the State of the Black World Conference in New Orleans November 19 - 22, 2008 and hosted by the Institute of the Black World. It was interestinhg. It was good to see old friends. Now that I am over 50 yrs. and many of these guys are older than me I can really say "old friend" and mean it (smile).

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Surprised by the sunrise

I was adrift in the political season of the Presidential election and my postings refelected as much. Now with the hullabaloo over and done with we can get down to business. The real business at hand is the healing that we need to advocate for and facilitate occurring in ourselves, our relationships, our families, communities, countrys and realities.

There is so much denial, deception and disheartening despair afloat on the vibes of the uninverse it can really get to you if that is what you are tuned into. But at the same time that we are awash in the blues, there is alos light breaking over the hill, sunshine in our spirit and blessings bontifully bestowed on each of us . . . . if you are tuned into that.

The point is that much of what we experience is just what spectrum of the bandwidth we are receiving at the moment. So turn your knobs if you need to, flip your switch, push your own button and spin your dial to tune into the wide spectrum of positivity and sunshine that awaits you. Embedded in each of our reality is a gentic code that responds to our desires and our intentionality. If we focus on something it is manifest. So be careful what you wish for (even if you are wishing it doesn't happen). Even when it is raining the sun is shining.





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New Day Dawning

Well it is the morning after the morning after the morning after the 2008 Presidential election. Consistent with some hopes and expectations and in spite of many doubts and fears we hailed the election of a candidate thought improbable and fatally flawed by some while inspirational and inevitable by others. This time I feel on the side of the practical, the short-sighted blinded by the long view of past failures and  prior outcomes. Like so many the impact and influence of unexpected and unforseen circumstances demonstrated again that "man plans but Allah (God) decides." In this case, the significance of that aphorism is that without the economy tanking it is just as likely (some would say even more likely) that John McCain would have garnered the few hundred thousand votes necessary to ascend to the post of "leader of the free world," President of the United States. Stand in awe of the power of the forces of the universe and tremble!!

I contributed to the eventual outcome by working on the inside as a ballot inspector election official. This allowed me to monitor and observe the activties of the polling place workers. However, the more important significance of my presence at the polls seemed to have been as a symbol of the Obama candidacy for those who were his supporters. I was greeted warmly by the first time voters who were registering onsite. I was also host to the whispered hopes of Obama supporters, young and old, white, Black, Latino and other.

As I have heard several times, the easy part is over. Now it is time to get down to work. We will see the ebb and flow of challenges and opportunities that were primed prior to President-elect Obama's arrival. We will see the influence of factors that are latent and embedded in the national and world systems of social, political and economic institutions from times before his birth. We will also see his unique take on the world and what it should be through the coordination and conflation of the tools available to him.

It is morning again. But morning always follows night (even in the land of the midnight sun). Let us rejoice in the new dawn and soberly prepare for the new day.

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New day in old way

I was listening to a couple of African-American political commentators when the first pundit said that the world would be disappointed if Obama was elected and did not push for social justice and equitable treatment or at least the liberals. The pundit-2 noted that no one expects Obama to be a Black Power advocate and champion the cause of Black people. The first pundit responded that social justice and equitable treatment was not a "Black people" issue but one of fairness. The reality is that Black people are at the bottom of the barrel using just about any social indicator that you can choose.

The significance of this exchange is that it speaks to the fundamental contradiction that we each face when we attempt to excel in a world that is based on "riba" or something for nothing. If we can not get past the need to conform to the existing dictates of society we end up with new caretakers for the same old house. This is old house needs more than a new coat of paint. It needs more than putting up new siding. But recognizing that requires us to suspend our belief in the righteousness of the existing order. It means that if we are down and don't deserve to be we need to get up. But if we are where we are suppose to be then we can lay down and feel content. The idea that Obama is not either willing or able to challenge the existing inequity and bias in society is a sad commentary for the future.





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The magic in the mundane

 We look at a world where the assmuption is that the world variables that affect our material existence is understood well enough to manage it in a way that will allow us to head off catastrophes. But do we? I mean do we really?

We have seen the narrow definitions of what is an what is not held by European societies prove themselves wrong and usher in a new orthodoxy. The latest shake up in the financial markets does not bring us new knowledge rather it subjects us to a chastening that is a recurring theme. The golbalization of the twenty-first century is no grander than that of the seventeenth century (or was it the eighteenth?). The most well remembered depression that occurred in the 1930s is considered by some to have been outshone by the one in the late 1800s. But neither the pattern of the past which incorporates the point of existence that we are currently experiences or the repeated repetitions within the various aspects of our life that demand reciprocity and create it in ways that are devastating enough to shake the desire for something for nothing.

Science is showing the limits of taking without giving, consuming without producing, and getting something while trying to give nothing. Global warming is an example of dumping product into the environment poisoning the air, water and body of living creatures.

Now the financial arena is wreaking its own havoc on those who would take and take without giving back. 

Human health is experiencing all kinds of problems with cancers of all kind on the rise, endocrine disruptors, precocious puberty, etc., etc., etc.

Then ther are all kinds of problems affecting animal health with disappearing bees, disappearing frogs, deformities and frailties that are evidence of threats to the non-human animal world.

Each of these situation are representative of the spiritual era many of us, not excluding myself, are experiencing.

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Looking for a friend

We are faced with a mirror that reflects our intent, interests and motivations when we look at the current financial situation in the U.S. and internationally. One point that many people point to (including me) is the role of the institutions and the business culture in promoting an attitude of exploitative entitlement. An example of an investigation into the depths and the breadth of this financial crisis is this radio episode.

What we see is partly a spiritual reckoning that expresses the tendency to seek balance. Mathematicians call it "regression to the mean." In ancient it was called "maat." In the Judeo-Chrisitan tradition it is called the "golden rule," i.e., do unto others as you would have them do unto you or want for your brother what you want for yourself. This tendency that is expressed by the universe as reciprocity is also seen in human affairs in the economics arena as market corrections or the boom and bust of the business cycle.

Fundamentally we lose sight of the exploitation factor that is a central and integral part of the capitalist system. The edge that capitalism provides over other economic systems is to carve off a piece of others efforts for your self. It is based on the idea that we should get something for nothing. The same fiction that allows us to treat corporations as natural people with all the associated rights and privileges also justifies the role of capital as a commodity when lent. This neo-credit has been looked down upon and objected to in religious traditions across time and space. We find that in the Jewish tradition only non-Jews were exploited by charging interest. It was forbidden to charge interest from other Jews. Islam has maintained its prohibition against "riba."

The current financial crisis shows that the international capitalist monetary system has lost sight of the old hustler's adage: use don't abuse.





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Bailout - Welfare for the Rich

As I write this the negotiations for the bailout of American financial institutions is in full swing. There are pressures on both sides of the negotiating table. The negotiators are the legislative and the executive branches of the U.S. government. This same debate is being played out on the streets and around the dinner tables (well maybe not the dinner table) of America. The debate is around who should be saved: Wall Street or Main Street?

The argument is usually couched in terms of "who is to blame" or "who is worthy of assistance." It is slightly amusing that both sides take to their corners and hunker down for the fight . . . potentially to the death.

I am on the side of little guy in this fight. But really the arena for the fight is not a square ring but a round colliseum. However that does not stop comments such as:

"I’m not opposed to a reduced interest/payment but am opposed to interest free or automatic principle write off. While I agree we are all in this mess together, I don’t agree the consumer should be given a free ride because they didn’t read the contracts “small print” or took on more debt than they could pay. "

This comment came from a supposedly industry professional who is president of a credit union in Tallahassee,. Florida. What I interpret his comments to mean is that the people are broke not the financial system. This person apparently feels that the mighty American financial system is being brought to its needs because Granny is delinquent with mortgage payments or Junior has defaulted. His remedy is no help for the individual holders of bad paper.

But his veiw point is a sort of moral hysterical blindness. it does not reflect the ongoing conversation and commentary about the basic failures of the financial system. The underlying problem of toxic financial instrument contagion has to some degree grown from the financial practice designed to address just this type of problem. Financial derivatives are pieces of paper that represent bets on finanacial performance of other financial instruments that are bundled financial consumer debt products that are then sold off in pieces. So what we have is the dumping of a group of mortgages with varying creditworthiness into a bucket, stirring them together into a slurry and ladling out the resulting mix as securities backed by the slurry.

The rationale is that even though some mortgages in the bucket may default their are enough sound mortgages to absorb that shock and continue producing revenue for the mortgage backed securities. Another feature that was supposed to immunize the market from the negative impact of securities default was that by selling the slurry in slices to many holders no one takes the full brunt or impact of a default. The smartest people in the room weren't so smart after all unless the wit was their ability to benefit from the sale of the securities and avoid the impact of owning them.

How can this guy who claims to be a financial industry professional dump on individual mortgagees as being irresponsible for buying a financial instrument, a home mortgage, without understanding the arcane financial minutiae that accompanies mortgage contract closings? Regular people are not financial professionals. If it were so easy the real estate attorney field would be much smaller. Never mind that, how about the financial professionals who admit that they did not understand how the financial derivative securities worked when they bought them and don't fully understand their impact now.Governments around the world are concerned about how there securities will affect their national economies. So what about them? Are they and their behavior or lack of knowledge just as objectionable as the consumer looking for a free ride because they didn't read the fine print?

The fundamental problem is the basis of capitalism and European culture. The problem is one of greed. Exploitation or getting over, getting something for nothing is the root of the problem. Unless we are willing to pull up this glorification and identification of exploitation as the highest good by the root we will continue to be revisited by this fundamentally spiritual problem. Without reciprocity as the watch word and the highest expression of "the good" and what it means to be human the boom/bust cycle will continue until the the end. There is a theory that the world started with a big bang and I theorize that the financial world may end with a big bust.





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Next best thing

Next on list of things to do is to decide what world we want. After making this decision we must take action to manifest our intention and desires. As we stumble forward we find that there are signs which can inform our decisions and signals that can direct our actions. However, we must be receptive to the counsel that is provided.

This time of year we are experiencing the change of the climatic season. Summer is ending and autumn is approaching. These same set of circumstances are reflected in other aspects of our lives also. The seasonal cycle reflects a virtuous cycle that is part of the divine design which all life follows. The process of birth (spring), growth (summer), decline (autumn) and death (winter) is reflected in all aspects of nature (nature includes humanity). This reminds me of the oft repeated saying that "everything natural is not good." This virtuous cycle exists outside of the value judgments that humanity labels experiences based on their subjective benefit or loss.

This same virtuous cycle was pointed out to me by a colleague who had worked for a short while as president of a national organization. After his short tenure he stated that he had observed that organizations of major stature is only willing to hire a person of African descent when the group is on the decline. After hearing this I began to pay attention to the fortunes of organizations with major budgets that hire Black folk. In many instances his observation seems to hold true. In fact, the prospect of Barack Obama as president of the U.S. is in line with this particular viewpoint. Even the rationale that the Obama campaign and Obama supporters use is consistent with this viewpoint. We have to ask ourselves would if Obama would have been a serious consideration before the country found itself in shambles.

But what does either observation mean? What about the suggestion that it is only when circumstances are dire to hopeless does people of African descent get a chance? In some ways it is consistent with the overall observation that there is a divine cycle that repeats itself on various levels. There have been ascendant groups on the stage of history throughout time. There is what we know and some that we don't know. We have heard about the generally known empires chronicled in European history: Roman, Greek and the appropriated Egyptian empires (as opposed to Kemetic civilization). Then there are the lesser known west African empires of Ghana, Songhay, and Timbuktu among others. The Asian empires of Genghis Khan or the Chinese dynasties. All these have had their time on the world stage. This means to me that there will be a period of growth which will inevitably be followed by decline. The European experience of ruling the world seems to be in decline both socially and materially as the social and material technology has reached their limits.

From the ashes of one era will rise a new experience. But what will it be? Regardless who wins the presidential election we will be faced with institutional arrangements that tie the hands and tax the limits of the American experiment and the European experience. But as Mutubaraka said in the film Sankofa, "when the snake eats the frog he eats what is in the belly of the frog." This is a somber reflection for those of us living in the belly of the beast. The embededness of people of African descent in American society is part of a smaller cycle within the larger cycle of the American experience which is a smaller part of the even larger European experience. We should be looking for the next best thing.





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Mental pressure and psychic duress

Unfortunately, with the new found appellation of "slogger," I feel pushed to peck out a message just to keep faith with my commitment to "blog" by establishing a blog. I don't plan to spend much time blogging about blogging. But I do want to pierce the psychic veil that covers my understanding and darkens the insight that flows from unobstructed reflection.

i think that age changes how we think and what we think. My prime hope is to grow in knowledge and power through opening myself to the cosmic flow of intention and the divine purpose of life. That is not spookism or fundamentalism or even apostasy (of course I wouldn't think so since it is my idea). But we often do not notice whether we are on the path or not during our younger years. It is only when we near the path that we look over our shoulder to trace the steps that brings us where we are. Sometimes we wonder how the heck we got where we are and where does it portend to lead.

Embedded in this wandering and meandering reflection is the sense that even when we find that which seems most senseless there is a mote, an iota, a speck of purpose. Today, I want to point to, at the time seemingly inane, comments made by politicos and pundits that were intended to press the advantage for their personal purposes. I was recently emailed a link to the Daly show where there were clips played of Republican operatives being hypocrites.

On one Karl Rove being very critical of an early potential Democratic VP from West Virginia. Rove belittled his serving as mayor of Richmond, VA identifying it as only the 105th largest city in the U.S. and the person having only three years experience as governor. This was followed by a clip of Rove praising the qualifications of Palin which included her "executive" experience as a mayor and serving two years as a governor which were portrayed as strengths. Then O'Reilly was show on a clip attempting to humiliate a young 16 or 17 year or popstar (Jessica Simpson's sister I think) as a pox on American society due to her being pregnant. O'Reilly took special pains to point out that it was the girls parents who should be held responsible for her loose moral, nonethical, irresponsible behavior. This was followed with a clip of O'Reilly softpedaling Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy as a private matter not to be commented on and as not a bad thing if she and her child does not end up on the government dole.

What does this say to us? It is not like we were not aware of the contradictions that are an inherent part of politics. But please don't abandon your commonsense. Please don't forget that there are things we should remember. Please don't ignore the ideas hiding behind the curtain.





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Slogging through the blogging

I was reading something the other day (or maybe I was listening to the radio) when I came across a description of people who set up blogs and are not consceintious about posting regularly and frequently as "sloggers." I guess that means they do not meet the criteria for being considered a 'blogger' and through their slothful, irresponsible or cavalier attitude are giving the hard working blokes and wonks a bad name.

Well, tut - tut to those who feel that way. There are those of us who use blogging as a means of self-expression. We are not connected to a commercial enterprise where we are compensated by the word, post or article. So we may not have the sign of the blogger embedded in our forehead. Does that make us bad, insincere or unappreciated and unwanted? I suppose for the hardcore maybe. But I would hope that there are those similar to me who think that such an attitude is just a hissy fit.

Since last posting the world has spun wildly on its axis tilting towards the sun and circling the moon. Both domestic and international politics have given those of us who pay attention to such things quite a start. I was reading an internet article just this morning about a Pakistani legislator who justified "honor killings" as honorable and appropriate based on tradition and culture. That sounds like the rationale used by Russia to invade or maybe just annex part of Georgia. I mean afterall the part annexed was by tradition and culture as least as much if not more Russian than Georgian.

With the success of Barak Obama attacking both tradition and (Washington insider) culture and having smashing success doing it, his antagonist, John McCain, must have been reading his mail as evidenced by the Republican vice-presidential pick. A woman. A young woman. An outsider who has already done to a few good ol' boy insiders what the Right Reverend Jesse Jackson was caught suggesting he would like to do to Obama. Will it shake-up the race? Will it blunt McCain's attack against Obama as being too new and inexperienced or will Obama's camp give new life to that particular analysis by trotting it out as a weapon against the new Republican V.P.?

I am telling you the world is a ghetto of ideas and opinions. The American public are aware that the ills of the economy are beyond the borders of this country and stem from transnational corporate capital. None of the candidates are suggesting they can or want to do anything about that. But there are those who hold their breath and hope. They are doing such a good job keeping hope alive that common sense may be dead on arrival. We say what happened to the closest thing recently to Obama's mad dash to the Presidency. That was Gov. Deval Patrick's stand against the forces of evil in his triumphant battle for the Massachusetts governor's office. Those who backed him and humped to help him rise have been deflated, dejected and disappointed. The point is not that either should not do what they can or be where they can but rather we need to be a little sober about the potential benefits and impact of a Gov. Deval Patrick or a Pres. Barack Obama.

The African experience is embedded in American culture through the long twisted, sick history of human trafficking, murder and treachery we collquially refer to as "the slave trade" rather than the horrible, cruel, unimaginable grotesque and horrible experience that it was. Our souls sick and our character crippled from the degradation required of both parties in the evil enterprise of dehumanization that still resonates in the international and American political economy today. So what is the big deal? What can't a Black man represent the interests of American society just as well as a white guy? Well, the concern and doubt stems from the foul, decaying odor of white supremacy that still permates that halls of American life. We don't want to trade a White slave driver for a Black one.

But the terms of the discussion are such that we have lost the opportunity to bring wholeness and health to the conversation when we accede to the idea of race! Of course people look different from different parts of the world. Culture and tradition probably results in some people having more exposure and experience in a certain areas or with a certain thing than others. But none of that establishes a scientific basis for the spurious notion of race. Why are we holding to this idea. Me thinks it smacks of White supremacy. While there are those who get the crumbs from the masters table because they live in the big house of White supremacy and grin and shuffle their feet or dance a jig every now and then, that is not enough. We have to slowly back away from the feast laid before us and shake off the hangover that hangs over us from imbibing a little too much and lot too often from the jug of White supremacy. Like white lightening (or just about anything and eveything white that we consume) it provides a heady effect but in the long run affects our head.

This means that unless our fellow Americans can get to the point where it is O.K. that Obama is Black (or not) and that he believes that America has sinned (or not) we are not better off and possibly worse for wear regardless of the elections outcome. White supremacy is embedded in American life and European culture. It is a dominator culture that is based on power over. The economic marvels that European culture represents is based on their major technological innovations, killing machines. It is a losing game to seek to be the head man of a tribe of thieves and murderers. We have to take a look around and in the mirror. We can't do good by doing bad.




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China - Human Rights and American delusions

While our fearless leader George Bush is settling in for his retirement as President of the United States he is going around lecturing people to do as he says and not as he has done. We hear this loudest as people talk about China and its sweatshop human rights abuses that include denying non-Han ethnicities the right to their cultural heritage and tradition. Imagine that!

First, in terms of sweat shop economics we have only to look in the mirror as a nation to recognize the capitalist ideology that says "Greed is good" and the only good worker is an exploited worker. Isn't that the ethos of capitalism? While the Chinese factory workers are being exploited for their labor American workers are unemployed and have no access to the paltry crumbs being tossed to the Chinese workers. In fact, while the Chinese are paid a pittance for their labor, American workers are denied the opportunity to work and forced into peonage as they borrow against future earnings that they won't have and run up a debt burden on credit cards and borrow against the equity in the one (or two) assets they have. Home refinancing to pull out what little equity remains or car title loans to trade the tools required for future earnings for a crust of bread today. It is a joke to talk about slave labor in Chinese factories when the majority of Americans are indebted to whoever will extend them credit. Help! American workers have fallen into debt and they can't get out!

The capitalist owners of the factors of production are looking for the cheapest deal. They fund the Chinese capitalist labor extraction camps and hide their hand. Cheap foreign labor means no jobs in the U.S. economy but cheaper imports of consumer goods. It is stupid to think that the American economy can keep chugging along as it did for the first 20 years after World War 2 when the conditions of workers at home have been degraded to the point where they can not afford basic living needs.

Then the baloney about the Chinese repressing the identity of different ethnicities in China. What a bunch of hogwash. For those of us who have been paying attention it is clear that the United States was a forerunner in the creation of "whiteness" due to the need for suppressing the enslaved African labor force who powered its early economy. In fact, it was the melting pot idea that cleverly disguised the American cultural identity excision process. This same approach was adopted by Europeans around the world. We hear reports of the boarding schools for Native Americans in Canada. The boarding schools for the aboriginal people of Australia. American society was structured to indoctrinate all who fell under its sway to the superiority of the "White" race and the corresponding inferiority of all others based on the level of melanin content in their skin. So there were schools where the Native American was taught, taunted and trained to not be Native American. There was all of society that damned and degraded the African ancestry of the formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants and everybody else fell into a continuum from bright white to damned Black. How does Bush and his fellow ideologues (yes, I am talking about you and all the others who have internalized the white supremacist ideations or its corresponding Black inferiority degradations of American social thought and political economy) so smugly wag their finger at those who would be White? The concept of whiteness is similar to the concept of Blackness where it is more than a phenotypical feature. It is a culture, an ideology, a worldview, a manifesto that is shouted from the printed page, the electronic screen and the melanin deficient posturing of the savage beasts who have left a trail of blood and cultural destruction in their wake.

I am not pointing fingers. Externalized white supremacy through the workings of European institutions. Internalized Black inferiority through the suppression of dignity and the degradation of pride. But come on, who needs to point fingers when you know who you are!




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The effect of effete enuch endeavoring to influence events

I imagine that you were as surprised as Rev. Jesse Jackson was with the story about his comments regarding Obama's pandering to the "white vote." It should be clear that that the Obama campaign is not embedded in the struggle of communities of African descent in the U.S. and around the world. It is not an issue of a generation gap because their are apologist for the dominant societal structure who are the same age as Jessie. More to come . . . .





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Checking in on the past

There has been a long lull since my last post. The whirl wind romance with Barack Obama and the long fought challenge of Hillary Clinton and the impending clash with McCain. I have to admit that I was surprised with the outcome of the Democratic primary. Obama won. Hillary lost. There, I said it even if Hillary wouldn't. While there was some investment in my opinion, which was that Obama could not survive the White Supremacist onslaught, I am not too proud to admit when I am wrong. I was wrong about that.

However, it was interesting to see Obama wiggling to conform with the demands of the White Supremacist undertones of the primary rhetoric. Obama had to be sure that he was white enough for the whites and not be too white for the Blacks. Next up is the selection of the vice-president. So I get another chance to pontificate.

O.K. I do not think that Hillary will win the vice-presidency spot. There. Quote me.

I think that Hillary will want to vet and approve of Obama's selection. Another quote that won't be quite as easy to verify as the first but follow the money. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is probably a duck. The spiritual past of this post is the obvious. We each seek for ourselves that which is a response to our vibratory level. Possibly Obama is more than a politician and I am more than a 'hater.' But what determines that is not how we appear but rather who are what we are. This is a personal, internal, private affair. Even our actions won't necessarily reveal that. So pay attention.





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Obama bamming at the gate

I am watching Obama at the gate. He is kicking it in. I can see myself in this case where I stated initially it wouldn't happen. It is happening. I said that it wouldn't.

So, my fall back is "yeah, well the election ain't over. He probably won't win the Democratic primary. Hillary is the favorite and she is white too. Let's see him do something about that." But then the way things are going he very well might.

In that instance I am sure my response will be "Oh, well. He got the Democratic primary but he won't get the general election. McCain is going to probably win since he is a Republican and plus he is white too." But who knows. It could happen.

If if does then I will fall back into "well, he is still part of the white supremacist system that suppresses Black, Brown and Red people at home and abroad. Besides the government is all about white folk and they still hold the primary and predominant decisionmaking positions and roles in government."

It is like the old observation that first you deny it. Then if you can't deny it, acknowledge it but deny that it is significant. Then if it becomes undeniably significant, claim you was on board all along just trying to keep it real. (smile)

It is surprising to me that he is doing as well as he is. But then we see that Black folk have uncritically accepted him as a native son (including me as well). Some whites (especially young ones) have jumped on the bandwagon. But I cannot deny that the president of the university where I work was an early adopter along with several other white people at the school. It will be interestings to see how it all works out. I am still waiting for the votes to be counted.



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New Day Coming - Part 1

I talked with a cousin who lives in the old country, Alabama. I asked her who she had voted for in the Alabama Super Tuesday primary election. She surprised me when she said that she had voted for Hillary. I thought to inquire as to her reason.

"You are not on the Obama bandwagon?," I asked. She began to tell me that she was suspicious of Obama for reasons that appeared to be unclear to her. She said that there was something about the way he looked that she didn't trust. She claimed to not like Hillary either. However, the Clinton record of accomplishment during Bill's administration was enough to coax her vote.

I didn't want her to be defensive so I said I would call her later for the chance to talk about it some more. She agreed. I hung up





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Super duper life and times

Super Bowl Sunday is upon us and Super Tuesday is only days away.

Living in New England, in general, and New Hampshire, in particular, is an interesting especially during this time. The ongoing blood feud between Boston and New York makes the stakes higher and the sideshow even more interesting. The New York Giants and the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl are almost a mirror image of the Senator from New York and the Senator from Illinois who will crawl into the ring to begin the gladiator games that is the Democratic primary this political season.

The choices between the contestants are strangely reversed in a funny sort of way. The New York Giants are clearly the underdog while the Senator from New York is the frontrunner even as her prime advesary, the Senator from Illinois, is gaining ground. The New England Patriots have so dominated the field with no losses this season and three of the last four Super Bowl rings on their fingers the game is theirs to lose. The Senator from Illinois is a first term Senator whose national resume was a rousing, consensus-oriented speech at the last Democratic convention is in a place where the election is his to win.

The analysis of the Super Bowl game is much clearer than the Democratic Primary. The New England Patriots have the edge based on their season record and their legacy of victory. The New York Giants are upstarts who would pull off a major upset if they were able to snatch victory from the jaws of almost certain defeat.

The Democratic primary offers a much more complex analytical exercise. First, the candidates are very close on issues, very close. There are minor differences and they are so close that these differences have to be played up as the distinctions that distinguishes them from each other. But in large measure when compared to the opposition party and its candidates they are distinctions that don't make a difference. Which brings us to the next point. Since the last two elections have been carried by Republicans, which of the last two Democratic primary candidates are the Republicans more likely to vote for, a white woman or a black man?

The gender issue is still an issue among both men and women, white, black and other (Native American, Latino, Hispanic, Asian, etc.). Will the rancher in Wyoming, the farmer in Oklahoma, the red neck in Alabama and Juan Valdez in the Southwest pull the tab for a female presidential candidate? While we would like to think that we live in more enlightened times, do we really? The other variable in this multivariate analysis is the "Clinton" factor. The presence of the former two-term president and the specter of his playing a Svengali role to the women who suffered his well known and long standing sexual dalliances takes the Hilary presidential prospect down a few notches. I mean if he could convince her to stay (even after her "I am not a stand by your man kind of woman" comment on national t.v. when asked what would she do if it proved out that Bill was screwing around) after humiliating her in public what does that say about his influence over her. I guess just as importantly if it was not due to Bill's influence that she stayed what does it say about her blind ambition? If neither scenario are the motivation for her staying and she was just a woman in a relationship with a man who broke the social contract like so other couples what does it say about the other aspects of their relationship that is like so many other couples which takes us back to the possibility of undue influence?

Gender aside, what about race? Will race matter when the voting booth curtain is drawn and we stand face to face with the punch card, little pencil with the blank circles waiting to be filled with the traces of black led rubbed roughly enough across white paper to leave a mark, or the switch that will send a trickle of current executing the decision regarding who will be the next leader of the "free world?" Can the Idaho farmer, the newly minted Mexican citizen or his cousin was born in the U.S.A. or the miner scratching coals from the Kentucky hillside and coughing up black mucus or even the ivy league educated hedge fund manager whose sphincter tightens just a little every time he passes a Black man who returns his glance without looking awayvote for he that once was physically subjugated and never quite fully psychically elevated to an equal as their choice for supreme leader? We would like to think we live in more enlightened times. Do we really?

There are those progressives (read neo-liberals and Black utopians) who would want to live their dreams of hope for a better future where men (and women) are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character through the Obama presidency. But even that would be largely still-born due to the political wrangling that is Washington and the machinations of the political process if an Obama presidency tried to be something other than the same old Washington crap warmed over and served on a sliver tongued platter. The bureaucrats would resent the implication that they are in some way tainted by the very process through which progress is achieved and without drawing on existing stocks of goodwill, expertise and access he would be cutting a path through a thicket that regrew each time he pulled his arm back to chop. In other words, progressives of all stripe would find that they, like Obama's Black proponents, could only have what they ask for by foregoing what they want. If he is to be effective, he has to play the game and ergo the death of the new republic and business as unusual will lie still-born. If he demands that there be light in dark places of standard political practice and shine the light of a new way for a new day the little gnomes that make the magic that greases the wheels of Washington will scurry away. He will be left with four years of attempting to tear down tradition and fighting institutional inertia.

Not an easy choice. The dynamic is why Bill Clinton called it a fairy tale. He was shouted down by those who would want to be sprinkled with pixie dust and kiss the frog of White supremacy and emerge from the head of Hera fully grown. Obama has fashioned himself as a new political David going up against the Goliath of the corrupt or at least corporatist Clinton legacy. While Bill raised issues that are real that many others do not want to face or to remember by playing the race card in South Carolina, Hillary's main political pivot point is still that she is a political Collosolus standing astride her husband's two-terms of experience and her own expertise. But pulling the curtain on the voting booth will be much like pulling the covers over our heads at night when we are overcome with fear of the things lurking in the dark, in the corner, under our bed. For many Hillary represents the worst of those fears for others Obama embodies them.

Choices, choices. I am rooting for the Giants.

The morning after South Carolina

Politicos woke up a little hung over with the dregs of celebration from Obama's victory in South Carolina. The counter-intuitive outcome that punished Bill Clinton's racialized attack dog role in the Hillary campaign was fueled by recognition and response to the continuing significance of race in America.

Obama has an embedded constituency that supports him because of what he is not where he stands on the issues. The big three in the Democratic primary are very close and the top two appear to be twins on the issues. However the embeddedness that provides Obama his base, while not necessarily or even ordinarily a bad thing, is ignored, denied and rejected in his public persona and campaign speeches except for a nod and wink when appealing to prurient interests before predominantly Black audiences. We are who we are and that defines us though may not determine who we will be.

The South Carolina outcome is in part a rejection or response to the rabid, understated, implied, coded, down and dirty appeal to fear of a Black man that Bill Clinton used to promote his wife's candidacy. It is not clear that Obama was viewed in the election as "a presidential candidate" rather than as a "Black presidential candidate." What does this say about the articulated dream of Obama as a gestalt for the American consciousness that view their interests as the same across race, class and gender lines? I think it says that when America looks at the blot on the page they may see different things by different people but none are colorblind and they all recognize that it is a "black" blot.

That is not necessarily bad. But ignoring that reality is to ignore reality.

Inching up on empowerment

I spent the morning talking with a friend on strategies for economic empowerment that can lead to economic development. One of the issues in the conversation was the old canard of what comes first saving money or spending it. Now while it may sound obvious to you when stated that way it is not always as clearly identified or addressed in real life.

We seemed to focus on the role of percevied reality and the internal emotional imaginings that movitate our actions and define our behavior. A major contradiction (possibly) or condition (definitely) that we rubbed up against was the idea of whether the purpose of economic activity was to generate consumables or to create assets. Now this again may sound obvious to the casual observer. But should we throw all of our actual and ideological energy into the efficiency basket or does it have a false bottom through which inevitably falls effectiveness? Again, can we be effective if we are not being efficient and lose the access to the additional output, income and accumulative opportunity?

The discussion gave me the opportunity to pause and reflect on the many initiatives that were started and withered on the vine from lack of sustenance (sometimes financial, sometimes emotional, all the time spiritual) and dried up and died from limited interest. One of the things that I noted was my attempts to revise each plan to respond to the factors that seemed to contribute most to the previous failure. The learnings were important but I think I might have been missing out on the understandings. While I was able to observe and include or remove elements of the plans that seem to contribute to failure or limit success, I don't think I really understood what was going on.

Thinking about my reflections on the observations I had made regarding past efforts to foster and develop an approach that would both empower and enchant the participants I now realize that what I thought was a mathematical formula for engaging self-interest to establish enduring involvement was really a cry for spiritual guidance from souls wandering in a thicket of barren promises. The idea that having defines humanity, that money gives meaning, that economics equals insight into the souls of wo/men is the fiction that covers the page of most of our lives. Our friend Weber talked about how this notion was tied up into theoretical propostions that had material correlates in the logic of capitalism tells part of the story. Sombart's connection of the cultural practices of Jews and the economic outcomes of every day life contains another hint of the truth of the matter. We are all today like the drunk who dropped his key upon exiting his vehicle and went down the street to look for it under the street lamp because there is more light there.

The current cultural and intellectual world we currently live in is dark and there are spiritual values we have lost that we cannot find by going to where the money is. The mere thought that accumulation might not be the motivation of our actions is often derided as backward and non-modern. It is thought that poverty exists through a lack of ability or unwillingness to innovate and to sacrifice while holding to oneself the benefits of our effort in order to accumulate. We need capital to compete in a capitalist society but what if the society is spiritually bancrupt? You can't get there from here.

Ideas about european cluture, the African experience and "mainstream" American culture

While engaging in a dialog with a friend whose political instincts and social world view I respect an interesting thing happened. Now, it turns out that we were communicating by email. We were talking about the implications of the Barack O'Bama campaign. My buddy invited a few other people that were friends of his to engage in the discussion.

In response to my maybe cynical, definitely intended to be insightful and less than enthusiastic analysis of the campaign and the impact of a O'Bama presidency, one of the friends jumped in just as they had been invited to do.

Turns out he was of European ancestry and he began to talk about how as a high school teacher many young black males were not resilient and were dropping out of school The also noted that "mainstream" society didn't understand what Black folks problem was because after all they had been given 40 years of affirmative action. So, why can't they get their shit together. He noted that neither he or anyone he knew were the beneficiaries of slavery or the segregated past that emerged post-Reconstruction (of course I am paraphrasing him).

I was flabbergasted, astounded and surprised by his response and by the fact that my buddy considers him his buddy. I said something to that effect in an email that I sent to everyone since the statement in contention was sent to everyone. The point is that he was making my point and not realizing it.

It reminds me of an incident which happened about 15 or so years ago while my oldest child was in high school. An incident occurred at her school where a young man of African descent had been called a n****r by another student of European descent. The Black student responded to the psychological insult to his spirit with a physical insult upside the white students head. The Black kid was expelled from school. When the mother protested to the assistant principal she was told that the school had a zero tolerance policy for physical violence and her soon would "just have to get used to" this particular insult and others that might come his way. I was asked to intervene as an advocate for the parent and child.

I arranged a meeting with the high school principal, the parent and a couple other people from the community. The assistant principal whose behavior is in question was not available. However, in talking with the Principal I suggested that one reason students of African descent become violent is because they feel they are in a hostile environment at the school. That many Black kids report that when say something about objectionable behavior their concerns are often ignored and they are told that the were misinterpreting the situation and were overly sensitive about their issue of concern and were wrong about the intentions or motivations of the person who displayed the behavior they were complaining about. After this I reported that the parent on whose behalf we were meeting was concerned that the assistant principal had told her that her son would have to live with being called names that were offensive to him.

The principal's response was that he knew the assistant principal personally and he was sure that the assistant principal did not mean what we were suggesting he said. In fact, the principal expressed doubt that the events occurred as the parent related them or that the assistant principal made the statement attributed to him by the parent.

I was incensed. I was livid. I was enraged. But I was cool. The principal was engaging in the same behavior that I had suggested the students of African descent were subjected to at the school It was not an object lesson for the principal because he was convinced that he was right and the parent was mistaken in her characterization of events.

When I saw the response of my buddies friend in the email. I felt similar to that day in the principal's office. It was a sense of hopelessness at one level. How can you expect someone to commit social suicide by acknowledging their privilege and the structural aspects of society that favors them and handicaps another. Then to beat the band, my buddy chirps in with several examples of individual achievement to butress this friends argument that the system is fine and if any one is not making they must carry the individual responsibility.

I recognize that there are two ways of seeing the world and actually even more ways to be in the world. it just seems like they don't.

Reflections on the reflections in the mirror

I am feeling the fuzziness of the lack of focus that comes with finding the future has become your present. Nice thoughts about doing something, anything, is marked off by the idea and the inaction that follows. It is part of understanding that our time on this plane is measured in memories and defined by our deeds. But the deeds that really matter are the ones that organically emerge from the moment. They are the ones we remember and which serve as a well of inspiration and motivation. But then what about the day to day stuff?

Well, we live in a youth obsessed culture that does not value what the older, slower, more deliberate, definitely increasingly discursive style of elders that used to be called wisdom but now seems increasing ly to be consider a disability. What are we looking for in our life, from our past or for our future? I am wondering.

The day after Jan. 11, 2008

I have stumbled upon a situation where there is what I can only describe as a spiritual intransigence. I recognize it because I have and do experience it in my own life. There are times when we feel a certain way, either happy or sad, and it is not based on material conditions or the terms of our circumstance and situation. We can be happy while surrounded by situations that others (and possibly you yourself) would consider bleak. Then there are those persons and the times when each of us may feel depressed, deserted and dejected in the face of prosperity and plenty (whether physical, emotional or spiritual). But what do we do when the view does not coincide with jconcrete conditions or a particular reality of the situation.

A 16 oz. glass with 8 oz. of water in it is only that. But we each make value judgements concerning whether it is half-empty or half-full. Based on the value judgement we release a torrent of emotional responses that manifest as physical sensations, attitudes and obeservations.

I am talking with someone who is only willing to see the "lack" in their life. When asked about all the abundance they respond "yes, but what about what's missing." It is difficult to let go of the desire to decide the life choices of others. We think we know best or at least better and if only they would do what we think it would be so good for them. Their not doing it (whatever we might think "it" might happen to be) then locks us into their frame of reference and perspective.

I think for each of us we must face and fight or at least a personal "jihad" against the demons of evil that wait in the shadows of our minds for a chance to pounce and persecute us. The weapons that we use in this battle can be love and healing, no, must be love and healing. An important step is to heal ourselves so that our whole, healthy life can be an example to those we wish to reach out to. We reach out through love. We reach our through caring. But caring must be expansive enough to except ourselves and the other just as we both are.

the day after in New Hampshire

It is funny how so many of the New Hampshire residents of European descent are shocked, astounded, amazed and aghast at the Democratic primary outcome. The time for the new hope for hope has come. But what does that mean?

It means that there are those who would have it be what they wish without taking into account how it is. I respect all the candidates for the effort they put forward. But the psychic cost and the spiritual challenge that each must face is beyond the reach of an opinion poll. We all know that no one knows what goes on behind the curtain.