Happy Sad Anniversary, New Orleans

From start to miserable finish, it was a disaster of major proportions, a category 5 hurricane, the likes of which had rarely been seen in this country. We were watching this thing on television, seeing it roil its' way toward the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, all the while the president did nothing, nor did FEMA, the office which should have had it's finger on this problem from the very beginning. Instead, all we got was "Brownie", Michael Brown, a man who had no experience whatsoever in the running of an agency of the magnitude of FEMA. In fact, this man was working for a horse organization before coming to FEMA. and for the most part did not have too much experience doing anything else, see his wiki. Now we have Michael "Skull & Crossbones" Chertoff, he of the high, girlish voice, who has done nothing during his tenure with FEMA. And get this, he's being considered for office of attorney general, in place of Alberto "Schultzie" Gonzales! Insult to injury, salt on the wound.

When I think about Katrina it feels somewhat akin to thinking about slavery, almost like what I call an ache gene, one with pictures I don't want to look at because they hurt so bad, historical pictures burned and seared in the soul, images your mind bounces off of because you just can't bear to look at them. Today, August 29, 2007, marks the two year anniversary of hurricane Katrina, a force of nature which devastated New Orleans and Mississippi, tearing apart the lives of the folks who lived there. Many of them poor black folks. George Bush went to New Orleans for the anniversary. From here on out, as of today, I simply refuse to call that man president, because he is not and never was. Since the vote was not properly counted, was not allowed to be properly counted, then the man is not president. Why did he visit New Orleans if he didn't have any money? If he wasn't going to help the people with some form of true recovery? Possibly he came to welcome the "immigrants" who over flow the city, looking for the jobs which should go to the people of the community who remain. Those jobs and any training belongs to those who rightfully lived in New Orleans, and who should have been brought back to take over the task of rebuilding the community, but no, "immigrants" were allowed in instead, and it is they who are now repopulating some of the communities.

George Bush visited, and once again, nothing will be done for the survivors of katrina. Like the war in Iraq, Bush is leaving this mess for the next administration to clean up, only if they are republicans New Orleans will never come back with their help. They will have to make it on their own, as this is what the republicans believe in, states making it on their own, without the help of the feds. Without the help of a republican led government. It doesn't matter if he does say he came to bring help, once he comes back to Washington that promise will all but be forgotten as he turns his attention to getting $50 billion more for that war of his.

The day is over now, so Bush has either slunk, or will slink, back to that hell hole he has made of the White House, having freaked everything else up. These are the last days of "Chuckie" Rove, architect of the greatest messed up eight years of a creep in the people's house, having rode in on a moral majority, and riding out on a moral morass. Happy anniversary, New Orleans, please try to wait it out until we vote those pigs out, then we'll begin the process of making it right.

Why The MSM Knows We Hate Them

Once again the main stream media has deliberately come out with a quote from someone from one of the democratic candidates associates, more to point, one of their wives, which was totally wrong and used as a weapon at one of the other candidates and her husband. Michelle Obama gave a speech in which she talked about having your house in order. That is the part of the quote the msm used, out of context, without playing or even speaking the rest of the quote, making it seem as if Obama was pointing fingers at Clinton for her husband and his infidelity(s).
The quote is as follows from Media Matters;

Indeed, as Media Matters has noted, after stating, "Our view is that if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House," Michelle Obama continued: "[S]o we've adjusted our schedules to make sure that our girls are first, so while he's [Barack Obama] traveling around, I do day trips" in order to be "home before bedtime." Marc Ambinder, associate editor of The Atlantic, wrote that one "recurring theme of her stump speech" is "the hard choices she and Sen. Obama have had to make about their work/family balance." The Obama campaign has since denied that Michelle Obama was attacking Clinton in her remarks.

If you click on Media Matters you will be taken to their site for what counts. Why do the republicans think they can be trusted about anything when they can't be trusted not to try and cheat the country into another lame and tired ass excuse of an administration? Their policies have not done the country any good, and as is seen with what's being done with the toy manufacturing industry in China, along with the dog food and any other poisoned items exported from that country to our shores, they don't really care about their constituents at all. As a matter of fact, don't you ever wonder who really hates America?

Stop Snitchin' Cartoon; Do We Have A Problem Here?

This cartoon, was done by this cartoonist,

but you can also read his take on it here. Now, I agree that he could have done much better to have left some stuff out of the cartoon and he would have gotten a different reaction. I happen to agree with the basis of his cartoon editorial, but, as you know, we as black folks don't like having our dirty laundry aired. I sometimes disagree with this tact because every now and then it takes whites meddling in our business to make us either get it right or begin the process of tackling the problem in the first place.

Soulful Singer John Lucien Dies

Sad news to report today. The web site of Jon Lucien has indicated that the longtime soul crooner has died at age 65. The notice indicates:

JON LUCIEN DIED ON THE MORNING OF AUGUST 18, 2007 OF RESPIRATORY FAILURE and OTHER COMPLICATIONS. JON WAS ONE THE MOST REMARKABLE MUSICIANS, SONGWRITERS and SONG INTERPRETERS THAT GRACED OUR LIVES

REST IN PEACE
JON LUCIEN - JAN 8, 1942 to AUGUST 18, 2007

Soul Tracks

Petey Greene's Washington

Petey Green was a beloved institution here in Washington from the 60's to the early 80's, who was the subject of the recent movie Talk To Me. Of course movies are never real portrayals of the subjects they depict, but I didn't know how far off the depiction of Greene would be. I didn't know that his grave went unmarked all these years. Greene passed in 1984. I'm not surprised at this turn of events, especially since Greene wasn't known outside the confines of D. C.. I'm hardly surprised though, as this is the way these things usually turn out. Read more here.

Why A Hot Ghetto Mess?

This is a wonderful story from the pages of the New York Times here, and it makes me wonder about the sister who did Hot Ghetto Mess. Mind you, I have never seen any of "the mess", and I don't want to, but it does make you wonder what that sister was thinking about when she thought it up. With so many negative stories out there about black people and the community, why couldn't she have thought up a series on the better side of black life, positive stories, such as this one where the people are actually making their lives work? There was also a story on snitching, via the Washington Post, that didn't make me necessarily understand this phenomenon any better, especially at the end of the piece. I just didn't quite understand just what he was advocating at the end of the piece, but I do laud him on the work he is currently doing. I also saw a piece on a woman who is helping inner city youths by training them to train dogs to help the disabled. The child stated that the program had saved him from going down the wrong path and that he wanted to continue the work he was doing. There are so many negative images out there in the world for our people and our youth to see, why not counteract that with some of the more positive stories that we know exist? I don't know exactly what this sister thought she was out to prove, but most of the people in her mess are not going to see themselves, get cleaned up and go straight or whatever. Most of them will probably tell their friends they were on Hot Ghetto Mess and let them know when their 15 seconds of lame will be on so they can watch.
There is also a wonder slide show from the New York Times story, here.

Dream A Little Dream...

When I was a little girl I dreamed of being many things, as all children do, a nurse, a librarian, a singer, oh, many things I suppose. In real life I finally became a social worker of all things, and I must say I was suited for it, for the most part. Children need to have dreams, to aspire to something, to show them the possibilities of what they can be, who they be. They need dreams to lead them to a larger world beyond the confines of the ones in which they may live, they need to know that there are more places to travel than they ever imagined. They need to dream of going to college, gaining more experiences, of changing the world, the one in which they live and the greater world around them. They need to know that we are counting on them to become the dreamers and leaders of tomorrow.

We as adults, need to begin encouraging our children to dream more, to see that they can change the world, and in order to do that we need to place the tools in their hands with which to do so. We need to encourage them to read more, books, periodicals, and news papers. A book in a child's hands is truly a gift. It opens up worlds where they might become almost anything they wish, from dog catcher to space explorer. I must say at this point that while I don't believe in much television for children, I am a fan of Star Trek. I watched the show in it's original run, and that show boldly went where no show had gone before. Not only was it multicultural, it had two female characters who were there for the duration of the show. One of them happened to be a black woman, Nichele Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Uhura, communications officer. Oh, there were others, I know, but they were not this ultra cool sister in space, who you thought had to have a lot of brains and command a lot of respect just to get there.

Still, I advocate putting books in the hands of our children. Not only are they a way to give children the time out to imagine and dream, they boost their vocabulary as well as other skills. A child who learns to read and has a book will always have something to do, not matter where they are. A book can always be hauled around with them, carried anywhere they go. We can always be thankful to Gene Rodenberry for including not just Nichele, but quite a few other African Americans portrayed as brilliant scientists, for including us in the dream when so few wanted us there. Dr. King had a dream, and it's time that we help our children realize the rest of his legacy, of educating them, giving them a dream to go by, and while they may never achieve the first dreams they have, one dream leads to another and another, until they finally achieve the dream they were meant to have.