Leaving that place I call home...

Its official, Windows based computers suck... Well, Macs suck too... COMPUTERS suck!!! Just as I was gettin ready to type this blog up, I got he hella evil blue screen of death and distruction...

Okay, so today was pretty uneventful. I haven't read anything about WW3 in a few days though. But when I read somethin today, it had somethin to do with Condi sayin that Iran and Syria are evil, while Isreal was all good for throwing thousands of tons of bombs on Northern and Central Lebanon for somethin that a crew of folks from Southern Lebanon did. Then she had the nerve to say, "It's between Isreal and Hizbollah", like the US doesn't a crap-load of arms and money to Isreal.

I am going back to Tennessee tomorrow. I am excited, but scared all at the same time. I have to leave the woman I love for another whole year, yet again. I hope this year works out hella different. The excitement comes from really being able to buckle down in my SGA duties. I know we are going to have a good year this year.

Urban survival is gonna be the shit...

I hope to go camping next week...

I am gonna miss SIMBA, that sucks ass...

Brief Updates from the Last 2 Weeks

Well, I will start with DC. I went there for the Campus Progress National Student Media Conference and had a blast. I was able to take Charity with me, and she did a great job selling her ideas for a newspaper to the people over there, and we won a grant for the Fisk Forum. Three cheers for that. They were extremely impressed with the vision of the paper and the entire organization is ready to move forward with a positive relationship for growth.

All the while that we were down there, the Isreal/Lebanon situation gained steam and escelated. It actually happened quite rapidly, and I will tell you, that it scares the shit out of me. Well, actually, I can't say it really scares me. I know that this government is capable of sanctioning some pretty screwed up plots. The way these people talk about regime changes and getting governments and people out of power is quite disgusting. Especially when measured against the totalitarian tendencies of this country's administration. There is a bumbling idiot of a president, who is semiliterate and is backed up by a man who represents the dictionary definition of a facist. I don't know the neocons ultimate goal, but they seem to be well on their way to facilitating the beginning of a new world war. And, big surprise, this one is about imperialism too... The games and plots that are carried out on the backs of innocent people stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time is shameful. Truly shameful.

So, all that week, I was meeting people from different parts of the country who were doing different things politically and on campuses, and it really gave me a lot of hope. I say it gave me hope and confidence because of all the people who were talking about doing this or doing that, I know that I had the experience doing this and doing that. My goal this year is to build on my experience though. Even though I probably will not have anything as star-studded as a Vote or Die rally, I will be able to involve my schoolmates in different things that will be equally as impactful. I am really looking forward to that too.

After I got back from DC, I spent last week working with Campaign Against Violence stuff. That is extremely rewarding work, and it is going to be very impactful in the very near future. I can feel it all coming together. The impact of the work brings everyone on the team together even more, which makes our work that much more impactful. It is a cycle that just continues to lend itself to growth and empowerment.

The weekend that just passed was cool too. I had the chance to take my daughter to Chicago, which worked out great. Even if we did spend entirely too much time shuttling people around, it was a good experience for Jhazmyne and I to spend a lot of time together. She is definetly going to be a child of the movement. I am doing everything that I can to include her in everthing that I do. She is going to be dangerously sharp. :)

Now I must turn my attention, sadly, away from the CAV. But luckily, it is toward another passion of mine. SGA 2006-07, here I come!!!

Eroding Free Speech?

Flying to Philadelphia this morning, I was taken aback while reading an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Let the record reflect that that is not an isolated incident by the way. Nevertheless, I was reading and thinking about the erosion of free speech in this nation. Ever since the founding of the nation, one of the few things that has somewhat survived the test of time is the right of free speech. Now through much effort by star and bar crazed citizens who hate any sentiments that might criticize the country or its leaders, these freedoms are being rolled back.

Take the case of University of Wisconsin lecturer Kevin Barrett, who theorizes that the Bush Administration planned the attacks on the twin World Trade Center Towers on 9/11. This is some very disturbing information, and I for one agree with him but that isn’t the point of this blog. The point is, that no fewer than three major Wisconsin politicians have stepped up and condemned this man for speaking what he sees as the truth. State Rep. Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater), U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.) and Governor Jim Doyle think that his right to freedom of speech should be suspended and removed from the classrooms of one of the leading Universities in this nation.

That kind of development alarms me when I think of the type of environment that the academy should be. There must be room in the academy for differing points of view, discussion, and even all out argument. Furthermore, I am alarmed that Governor Jim Doyle, who is running against Mark Green in the 2006 Governor’s election, would echo the sentiments of his political nemesis. It really takes me back to 2004 when John Kerry showed that he did not have the balls to attack the Bush Presidency on the points that were strongest for Kerry, and instead tried to echo the sentiments of George W., and consequently lost the election.

Is there anyone defending free speech on the highest levels of government in the state of Wisconsin? I haven’t heard anything from Senator Feingold, so I will wait and see how he ways in on it. There is serious discussion about firing this man over his theory (which I subscribe to by the way), which would be one of the biggest crimes against free speech in the last 48 hours (Black men are denied free speech on a daily, by being systematically excluded from the institutions of power in the country). I mean, I understand disagreement, but these men seem to be looking at the situation backwards, constitutionally speaking. Wasn’t it Patrick Henry who said, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will die defending your right to say it.”? I just don’t see anyone standing up for the right to say things, controversial as they may be, anymore. We shall see what happens, but in the meantime, I’m not going to shut my mouth nor am I going to silence my pen (keyboard)!

Racial Matters

It's been a long time since I have written a blog entry, but here it goes anyways. There are a ton of developments that have taken place in my life, but I will blog on those later today or even tomorrow. Rignt now, it is very important for me to get some thoughts out about the state of the race relations conversation in this country, and my feelings about coming from a recent workshop on race relations, and erasing racism.

At the Midwest Social Forum today (July 8, 2006), I was able to sit in on a workshop entitled "Anti-Racist Organizing I: Power Analysis". I came into it really unclear about the type of conversation that we were going to have, because quite honestly, as long as I have been organizing and involved with the social service industry (first as a client and now as an organizer looking at the beast from the outside) I have never been engaged in a really progressive conversation about race, the effects of institutional racism and the causes of poverty in the United States with a large group of white people.

The conversation answering the question while in smaller groups, "Why are people poor?" We were able to communicate among our small group quite effectively, and I felt really engaged in the conversation... comfortable. Equally abstract ideas like capitalism, power balance, mis-education and exploitation were thrown out. These were things that educated people who knew the dynamics of class stratification and division could latch onto for answers.

Then the question changed, and we were related a scenario that was meant to obviously stir up sentiments of a black woman, probably young, at a grocery store, with numerous children, and paying for a large amount of groceries with a Qwest (food stamp) card and asked to put ourselves in the shoes of "another person other than ourselves" and then asked the question, "What do other people say about why THIS woman is poor?"

I was discomforted by the ease with which these "progressive" white people could "detach" themselves from their conscience and speak so elegently about the feelings of "other" people. It really said to me that even the "best intentioned", most "well meaning" of white folks are fundamentally socialized to feel the same way. That in and of itself is not the problem. The problem is that these same people are living in a state of constant denail that they have these deep rooted feelings. It is not something that they should be blamed for, we have all been socialized or mis-socialized in one way or another and we need to break that conditioning. De-socialization can never start unless we recognize the problem within ourselves. That is not whats happening to a large degree in these "progressive" circles however.

When white people - progressive, conservative, liberal or any other political ideology - can begin to do self-analysis, institutional racism will never cease. Even institutional racism within the structures of every political/grassroots/economic/educational institution.

I'm new to blogspot...

...but I have blogged a few times somewhere else. So what I am gonna do is post some of my previous blogs from the last couple weeks onto this blog. Enjoy, see you soon.