10 years of celebrating Manchester

I participated in the 10 gathering of people of African descent and other residents of Manchester on August 7th. It has been a long road and hasn't really gotten any easier and in some ways present administrative challenges that become more ingrained each year. But it is a community treasure and personal delight to see people dancing, talking, smiling and hanging out in the park moving to the soundtrack flowing from the stage.

When I moved to Manchester in 1992 after living in Chicago for over 30 years my friends and associates would often ask me how I managed to remain in Manchester. I told them then what I would tell you now if you asked, "we create community wherever we go." It is much like the title of my friend Roy Morrison's book, "we build the road as we travel." In many ways the annual African/Caribbean Celebration is a wide path on the my journey to community in Manchester, NH.

From my earliest days in New Hampshire I recognized that a major challenge then, and continuing even till today, for people of African descent was/is social isolation and cultural alienation. In 1992 there were limited to opportunities to gather in public places for anyone in Manchester and those few that did exist (Christmas parade, St. Patrick's Day parade, etc.) were usually not welcoming for people of African descent. Shortly after arriving, at the behest and in agreement and collaboration with my wife, we began to host activities like the annual Kwanzaa event, annual Black History Month film series, and other activities that served as platforms for community members to meet and share their experiences. The activities began to put little nicks in the armor of social isolation. Part of the significance of the experiences that we hosted was the cultural content. It served to address the cultural alienation experienced when you live in a world where the rituals, ceremonies, images and practices are all foreign to you. This feeling of invisibility was countered through programs that provided cultural affirmation by reflecting cultures from across the African continent.


This year was one of the biggest and best events so far. Of course, each year for the last ten years we have felt or been told the same. Well, we celebrate the fellowship and look forward to the next time in Manchester, NH.




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Ending the new beginning

I guess it was about six to eight months ago that I claimed I was going to be good and post on a regular basis. Unfortunately and not unentirely unexpectedly I remain a "slogger" instead of a blogger. Some many things happen so fast that it seems almost a waste of time to take the time to document what is happening in my life and what I think about what is happening in the life of others.

However, I think of my blog often and fondly. For me blogging does not serve a commercial purpose. So it is, by my definition of life, a toy. Being a toy and having toys and even playing with toys is not a bad thing even though they have that connotation in terms of adults in American society. Being able to take a break and enter the world of toys and imagining is a powerful skill, ability, and power to have. In fact being able to play with toys opens a door into an inner world that is akin to being in trance. During this period we are hypersensitive to suggestions.

Trance can work both ways just like dreams. If you enter a trance, either self-induced or induced by others, you view your imagined environment as real. During this period you assume the trappings and behaviors of your imagined world. What does the brain know? If we turn of the internal critic, the mental 'governor' then the brain accepts the mental manifestations provided it and in turn expresses them physically. This thought has a number of parts to it. It connects to stories of people who exhibit physical infirmaties when adopting different personalities. It connets with the behavior of our dream self and the impact that our waking self has on it. It relates to our waking self and the impact our dream self can have on it. It relates to religious estatic possession, demonic possession and daydreaming. All this from toys.

This brings the mind the impact of contemporary videos and wii-electronic environment interfaces, and such. What does it do to us and our chilcren to not have a stick that we can mentally transform into a horse or a cardboard box that we can transform into a house? Toys can be useful. Money is not the end all and be all. Saying that reminds me of the maxim that those who feel that way usually don't have any and won't be getting any. But I think the wisdom of the Native American Cree proverb ('only when the last tree has been cut, the last buffalo hunted, the last fish has been caught will the White man realize you can't eat money) is the last word on that. but it doesn't let any of us off because "the White man" in this proverb is a metaphor for the culture of consumption that many of us partake in.



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One World, One Aim, One Destiny

"If inner-city blacks are experiencing the greatest problems of joblessness, it is a more extreme form of economic marginality that has affected most Americans since 1980. .... solutions to problems of economic marginality in this country including those that stem from changes in the global economy; can go a long way toward addressing the problems of inner-city joblessness, especially if the application of resources includes wise targeting to the groups most in need of help. Discussions that emphasize common solutions to commonly shared problems promote a sense of unity, regardless of the different degrees of severity to which these problems afflict certain groups. Such messages bring races together, not apart, and are especially important during periods of racial tension. In comparison with the rhetoric highlighting racial divisions, however, messages promoting interracial unity have been infrequent and are generally ignored by the media." William Julius Wilson, (1997). When Work Disappears. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.


Wilson made an observation regarding public policy, public media and public perceptions that is both profound and commonplace. The role of racial rhetoric (grounded in White Supremacist ideology) in the political economy of America, the West is oft cited, well-known and axiomatic except for those who are most impoverished by its its effect. The power of dreams in the minds of those with the least to lose and the most to gain can be counter-productive and their role counter-intuitive. The assertion that racism has been the fulcrum used by the rich (which some might think includes people like Oprah Winfrey and the two Michaels - Jackson and Jordan) and the wealthy (which is clearly mostly male and virtually all White - - - in America) to keep the poor (both Black and White) in their place is both bold and pedestrian. Who can deny it, disprove it or debate it?


Many historians point to one hundred years before the hallowed American revolution for freedom and justice in 1776 to Bacon's Rebellion in colonial Virginia in 1676 as the trigger for the institution of chattel slavery for people of African descent in America. Prior to Bacon's Rebellion both Whites and Blacks were subjected to indentured servitude where they would give their labor for a prescribed number of years before being released to live as free (though often impoverished) men and women. However, the response to Black and White indentured servants joining together in an uprising against landowners triggered the faithful decision to divide and conquer the poor by relegating Blacks to chattel slaves and Whites to wage slaves. The unequal treatment of Blacks and Whites was evident in the 1640 decision resulting from Bacon's Rebellion where three indentured servants ran away. When recaptured the two Whites had their term of service extended a few years. The Black indentured servant, named John Punch, was sentenced to 'serve his master or his assigns for the time of his natural life.'


We see a distinction made in law that came to be a part of the cultural consciousness of America. Though you may be opressed and downtrodden, if you were of European descent you are viewed as having more rights than someone of African descent. Enshrined in law this became enshrined in the general consciousness of both Blacks and Whites. Then the wheels of social replication began to turn with Blacks relegated to lower status jobs, positions and places in society and the economy. This reinforced the role and place of both Blacks and Whites to the point where we have fallen into a trance and unthinkingly mimic our prescribed roles. However, this form of subjection and dominance was based on greed and the need to fuel the economic base with labor. Now with globalization the impact of this attitude has hit both those on the bottom of the political economy as well as those in the middle. With cheap foreign labor satisfying the need for production the White middle class is shrinking.

For American society this has resulted in the declining significance of race; not because Blacks are doing relatively better but because no-elite Whites are doing increasingly worse.







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Leaking the essence of energy

As the information regarding the Gulf Coast oil spill continues to leak out, it becomes increasingly likely that the U.S. energy policy is going to take a hit. With the ideas presented by the Obama administration regarding expansion of offshore drilling seeping into the progressive public's consciousness there was sure to be big-time support. Now it seems that the newly minted policy will be dead on arrival.



The absence of moral suasion as an aspect of the decisionmaking process for generation of energy results in amoral decisions that kill, maim and hurt the environment and individuals.




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Better Living Through Science

In reading the Tuesday, March 2, 2010 edition of the USA Today on page 3A there was an article titled "Weedkiller alters frogs in research." This article chronicles the impact of a commonly used herbicide on the natural environment. The presence of this chemical, atrazine, is identified as the cause of sex/gender confusion and changes among frogs.

The result of exposure to atrazine at levels commonly found in tap water is reported to have caused male frogs to experience sexual dysfunction. This included male frogs to have testosterone and sperm levels so low that they were unable to produce. It also caused male frogs to change gender to female with some able to breed and lay eggs.

This is 'deep' because it created a physiological change in the biology of the frog. While frogs are much less complex than humans in their biology, we see changes in human physiology that mimics similar disruptions. While not identified in the article the culprit was most probably "endocrine disruptor" that are estrogen mimickers.

What does this mean? There have been reports of chlororganic compounds in the environment from both plastics and insecticides and herbicides. These chemicals disrupt the human (as well as other lifeforms as evidenced by the frog study) endocrine system by mimicking estrogen. Evidence of this has been attributed to precocious puberty in males and females by a fringe element of the medical community.

Can we take the chance of making an error where we neglect to take action until the problem is indisputable. Because that does not help us prevent a problem. In fact, it ensures the presence of a problem. This is exactly the reigning scientific paradigm in the U.S. because the chemical, atrazine, has already been banned in Europe.

We are a crazy drug crazed people whether we like it or not.





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