Thank You

It's hard to lose all of your shit and not question yourself and your existence. For the last 365 days I have thought long and hard about whether anything makes sense. I had what I like to call the "Katrina Grand Slam". I lost a loved one, my pets, my jeep, all of my possessions and my family got separated. It's amazing that I could have went to every single event for any type of loss and sat in the victim's section. I tried to find the remedy to turn the corner on my depression and feeling of low self worth. Nothing seem to do it. Then the "anniversary" came along. Between yesterday and today I have had about 50 phone calls, emails and text messages from co-workers, ex-coworkers, colleagues, friends, ex girlfriends, ex supervisors, and even some people that just read my blog from time to time. They were all worried about me and trying to see if I was ok. Some of them were people I haven't spoken with in months.

You know......

After all the stuff I experienced and lost...

My people reminded me that I ain't such a bad dude after all.

Thank You

Ray Goes Off Again

If you want to read exactly what Mayor Nagin said about The World Trade Center you can click here to read it.

I don't want anyone that normally reads this blog to get alarmed..

I am about to defend Ray Nagin....sort of.....

He shouldn't have said what he said about the "hole in the ground". That was wrong and insensitive because so many people died that day. However, I do understand the point he was trying to make. It's been 5 years since 9/11 and lots of people that were affected have yet to recover. They also haven't broken ground on any of the new plans that were made for that spot.
So why does everyone think New Orleans is supposed to look like a paradise by now? Everyone knows he wasn't trying to put down anything to do with 9/11. It's just the only thing in recent American history he could compare Katrina to. If Nagin would have paused a minute and thought about it, I think he would have said something like this.

"Look, I know we don't have a clear plan in place yet but does has nothing to do with receiving money to clean up things. That would have to be done anyway. Secondly, it's pretty hard to get certain things done because the population has been displaced to the point where we don't know the location of half of the property owners. Third, where have all you assholes been to show that we haven't got the money to do everything we need and put some pressure on the feds? You ought to be giving credit to the local citizens for making this place look half way clean because no one in Washington has sent the calvary in to help."

The question that I want someone to answer is this....Am I not a damn American? My grandfather fought in the Pacific in WWII. My dad went to Vietnam. I know for a fact that three people within blocks of the house where I grew up have died in Iraq and a guy I went to high school with has also. All of my family and friends pay taxes. Why are the people with the money taking their sweet ass time with the funding? Afterall, the feds built the levees that messed up everything anyway. We are not looking for a handout, we are looking for the government to correct their mistake just like the people in New York were looking for after the FEDS let those bastards get on the plane and crash them into the towers. As an American citizen, I have had to sit back and listen to hundreds of people discuss the faith of my city like it is no more than a pimple on the ass of American society. Some of these people have insulted our culture, our personality, our intelligence, and our families and it's been ok to do because we are just the poor coon asses sitting by the bayou. Now, our crazy mayor gets baited into making one inappropriate comment out of emotion about the mighty New York City and all of sudden everyone from New Orleans is in the Taliban.

God Bless America!!!

A Lesson From Tiger

I’ve never been a big golf fan. Mostly because in my youth I viewed it as an elitist sport that no one from my neighborhood could afford to play. Then came Tiger Woods. Every time he is playing on the weekend I watch the tournament. I don’t watch for the golf though. I watch for the message in the story. I watch for the legacy of black fathers put on display at it’s best. I watch because even though I am just a working class brother, I totally understand Tiger’s sense of responsibility. Any black man with any admiration and respect for his daddy should watch and take pride in it too. See, every single weekend in front of millions of people around the world Tiger Woods shows his love for his daddy by the way he carries himself. Earl Woods spent years with his son practicing how to hit golf balls but during that time he also got him prepared to deal with the fact that whatever he accomplished on the course could be wiped out if he didn’t conduct himself in the right way. He had to make sure that he was such a man of character that people in country clubs that wouldn’t let his daddy take him to practice as a child would have no choice but to accept him and marvel at his ability. That’s what a man like that can give you. That’s what my daddy gave me. Honestly, there aren’t too many guys from my neighborhood that could deal with the different types of people I deal with on a day to day basis. Now I know it’s a partnership between parents and I am not trying to minimize what mama does. Most mamas do everything. I give all the love and respect to mom but I have to take time and give daddy his props. Black daddies hardly ever get all the butt kissing they deserve. They were interviewing Tiger Sunday between holes during the tournament and he said something that was very true. He said that everything his daddy said turned out to be right even if he didn’t think so when he said it. There are no truer words than that. For a father/son relationship there are three stages. The first stage is when you are a little boy and think everything he does or says is the greatest thing in the world. There’s almost a superhero quality to your daddy. The second stage is your teens and early 20’s when you just want him to leave you alone and look the other way so you can get into some things you shouldn’t. This is the time your daddy usually thinks something is wrong with you. Hopefully, if things go right you can get to the third stage which is when all the stuff he says starts to happen and fall into place. Dad goes back to being a genius and you both have a respect for one another as men. If you can give your son that then you should feel pretty good as a man. Here’s to all the brothers out there that have that connection.

Not A Day For Rhetoric

This has nothing to do with all the people who tried to help evacuees after the storm. I will always remember anyone who did anything to rescue and help. This is about all the people who are about to fake the funk in the next week leading to the anniversary. I was not going to write anything about the Katrina anniversary because I didn’t feel the need to give the event that kind of power and status. However, I went to a meeting this morning and read some things that aggravated me. After this, I will not act like Katrina is something I need to mark on my calendar every year.

I don't want to sound ungrateful or bitter with what I am about to say. We are coming up on the anniversary of Katrina in 11 days. There will be all kinds of media and leaders coming here to "celebrate" the anniversary of a naturally disaster that changed the lives of thousands of people. We live in a society today where most stories are blown out of proportion or sensationalized by the media. There has never been a story like Katrina that has actually happened inside of America so the media went crazy with it. When the media takes whole of a story like this you can rest assured that two things would happen. Conservatives will try to turn the victims into the guilty to hide their own incompetence and liberals will run down and take pictures with the victims to show their compassion.This is the reason why I am asking Governor Blanco, George Bush, Jesse Jackson, Minister Farrakhan, Al Sharpton and any other member of any organization or political group that had nothing to do with or live in New Orleans before the storm. I have to explain why I feel that way. For years I have followed the news and kept up with what's going on around the country. Before Katrina, New Orleans was a forgotten place on the map except for the few days out of the year for Mardi Gras. It was almost like we were our own country. I have witnessed some of the worst disenfranchisement in the world take place in the black community here BEFORE THE STORM. I never saw any of the people that will be here next week come around to help us out of it. What you saw in the Superdome was the end result of neglect not the beginning. As my friend Sherri once told me months before the storm, New Orleans was a city that you could drive through and visibly see racism and lack of opportunity. Then came Katrina and everybody had an opinion on why we were so poor and underprivileged. We were the poster children for public education and urban flight gone wrong. Even the beloved Lower Ninth Ward where I grew up was "the den of crime and poverty" as a Dallas newspaper described it. Then the media frenzy died down and they all disappeared again. We went back to being the crazy niggas that like to fight and dance in the street. Jesse walked everybody across the Crescent City Connection so we could vote. He should have gone to Washington D.C after that to find out where the housing money is or why some people live in houses without water. No one has been here to help us speed up the rebuilding process. No one has been here to find out why these young brothers are still killing one another. No one has been here to see why FEMA is being allowed to treat people like criminals when it was there office that messed up in the first place. Now you want to come down to sing a few songs and make a speech on August 29. Keep your speeches and your songs and help us get a good plan for the future. Help us make sure that the Corp of Engineers explain why the levees broke only on the New Orleans side of the system, fixes the problem correctly and pays for what it caused. If you can't do any of that then don't come down here for one day to get in the next Ebony magazine. Many New Orleans residents are still living the storm a year later. The last thing I think we need is a bunch of empty speechless and marches by some so-called leaders who are going to go back to their own cities on August 30 and leave us stuck. I may dog Mayor Nagin sometimes, but at least he was here. That’s the only way you are allowed to come here that day and talk trash.

Please tell me if I am wrong………….

Blogging to Keep My Job

Saying it here so I don't say it out loud...............

The restroom door is directly across the hall from me. It is shared by a few of the other agencies and doctors in this building. Some guy went in there this morning and sounded like he was bombing Lebanon. Can we get this room soundproofed? And does everyone hear me when I am in there?

In every office there is the person that wants to put a smart ass sign up for something that adults should already know. Over the newly installed kitchen sink is a sign that reads "Please wash your dishes. This ain't ya Mama's house." I know I am supposed to wash my bowl jackass.

Never ever ever send me an email with bold print and things underlined like I don't understand what I need to do especially if I am not the one that made the mistake. Look, I am young, gifted, and black. I already know the damn procedures. If I didn't these people wouldn't have given me a fake title and a set of keys to the storage room. You just don't get that being dumb.

Today is the very last day that I let my one leg director tell strangers that I lost all of my shit in Katrina. I'm not the lab rat or the refugee quota filler. I was here before all of that. The next time she does it I am going to kick one of her crutches.

Every time someone buys a get well card for a co-worker, they pass it around the office for everyone to sign. For some reason I always get the card last. You know what happens when you get it last? Everyone else has already used all the common cliches for well wishes and now you have to think of some original corny shit that sounds stupid, or you can just sign your name and look like you didn't care as much as everyone else. The only thing I came up with today was "To a super dude"..............I wanted to punch myself in the face.

And just because I am a husky dude does not mean that I want to move every piece of furniture in the office. Mike is 100lbs bigger than me and the last time we moved a desk all he did was slide the damn chair out of the way. My name ain't Kunta.

Scaring my way to Support George

I don't consider myself to be the biggest patriot especially since I saw people in government looking like a deer in headlights while my New Orleans people were stuck down here in dirty water. I am an American though and I try my best to support the troops, pay taxes, work hard and all that good stuff. I have been following politics since I was about 10 years old. What's going on right now is something I have never seen before. From my viewpoint, George Bush sucks as a president. I honestly believe that his foreign policy of not acknowledging anyone that he considers to be a terrorist supporter has made the situation worse in the Middle East. When you ignore crazy people they tend to do something for you to acknowledge them. That's why N Korea, Syria and Iran talk so much trash all the time. Their egos are big and they want attention. Bill Clinton used to talk to Yassir Arafat all the time just so the Palestinians would feel they were being taken seriously and maintain some calm. We went to Iraq to free a country that shows it's gratitude by burning American Flags and setting bombs for the soldiers. They act like they miss Sadaam. We also let Israel bomb the hell out of Lebanon and kill hundreds of innocent people just to chase Hezbollah and I am not even sure they weakened them at all. I won't mention the price of gas, the unemployment rate and we still haven't caught Bin Laden.

Here is my problem. Every time we get to the point where most Americans can agree that he sucks, some group of Islamic extremists get caught planning to blow up airplanes or some buildings and you almost have to get behind Bush enough to at least make sure these assholes don't get to do anything here. You can't even catch a plane with toothpaste and Afro Sheen in your carry-on bag. Pretty soon we will have to travel buck naked. Al Queda and all the other wannabe groups have done more for the Republican Party in this country than anyone. Americans can agree that gas is too high. We all don't like the fact that we call certain "local" companies and end up talking to somebody in Bombay India but I would rather talk to some Indian guy about my computer all day than get blown up on a plane headed to my vacation. Bush might be stupid but I don't think he would blow me up? If none of the Democrats can show they can lower gas prices, plus kick a little ass when needed we are going to end up with another four years of the same shit.

No Sympathy for Maurice

The popular belief is that young black atheletes are signed to these big colleges and make millions for the institution while getting nothing in return. That might be true in some cases but it's very difficult for me to feel sorry for Maurice Clarette. Here is a young man that was so highly touted as a football player coming out of high school in Ohio. He had people all around him that were willing to help him out and take care of him. In many cases they did. He could have had that whole state at his feet for a few years after winning the championship. All he had to do was take a few classes in P.E. and hang out until he was old enough to hit the draft. What does this dummy do? He gets arrested, starts all kinds of trouble and tires to sue the mighty NFL to get into the draft early. It's been downhill since then. Even after he messed up and pissed off the league, he was drafted in the third round by the Denver Broncos. How did he take advantage of his second chance? He came in overweight and was drinking Grey Goose in the locker room before practice. Now he's been arrested for driving with guns, a machette, and wearing a vest like he's Tupac.

It's hard to get out the hood under normal circumstances. It takes hard work, discipline and a little luck. The best thing that could happen to you is that you can be born with the physical gifts to play a sport that rich people love enough to pay you for performing. Don't think for one minute that cats like Shaq, Lebron, or T.O. don't count their blessings and realize that they could have easily been on a job interview somewhere trying to get an entry level position or one of these corners playing life or death games like so many other brothers. They were born with the golden bodies to take an entire family out of poverty. That's why I have no remorse, sympathy or pity for the fools who don't have enough sense to take advantage of the oppurtunity that they were blessed to have. I'm sure Jesse Jackson will go down to Ohio and stand by his side talking about how all of this happen because the NFL wouldn't take him a few years ago. Hell, if every black man that wanted to get drafted went crazy there really wouldn't be any of us left on the street. All of this is happening because he's a dumb nigga who didn't take advantage of the numerous chances the man gave to him. Regular cats don't get as many chances to come up big. These fools get many and still don't get it right.

Keep On Blogging

This blog is dedicated to Another Conflict Theorist and anybody else who takes the time to keep blogging.

Lately I haven’t been feeling like blogging that much. I even had a friend question whether I was just doing it as a way to voice my anger from Katrina. I have not been posting that much and I have been trying my best not to dwell on New Orleans too much. After reading the last post from Conflict Theorist I realized that I am not the only one that feels a little tired with the whole process.
Back in 2004 before the storm, MySpace and Yahoo 360, I was bored at work one day and started reading Funk Digital. I don’t even remember how I found it but I started clicking on the links section and I realized that the websites I was looking at were actually created by regular people just like who felt they had something to say. Since I always thought I could express myself pretty good I decided to start one of my own. I got hooked on it. I even got a few friends to start one of their own. I used to blog about anything and everything. Sometimes I would just put up a list of songs I was feeling at the time. Lately I have been waiting around for something that inspires me enough to write a long detailed post about something deep. I figured that was the only way for people to keep reading. I thought about it and I don’t think that’s true. When you have a blog like this you can’t judge it by comments or anything because its not part of a network of people like MySpace where you just add people randomly. This site is for me to express how I feel about what’s going on around me. I can’t worry about how many hits I have or comments because the fact is that I will never get as many as some body with pictures of celebrities or big booties. That’s the reason I am taking the hits counter down and I am going back to my old template because I love it. If you write about the world from your perspective you will find that there are thousands of people out there that share the same views you do. They might not all pull up your page and make a comment but you might inspire them to share a part of their own mind and then we can learn from one another. At the least you might get a good debate out of the deal.
I have been online in one way or another for years now and to this day I have not found a commercial site that expresses what I think as a young working/middle class black man today. The only way I found anything of substance was when the blogger phenomenon took off. It’s an unedited way for our generation to talk about all the things that mainstream media won’t publish. So with that in mind, I am about to start getting back to saying how I feel about all kinds of shit. It may only be a post about how driving through these potholes in New Orleans are like a real life video game. I hope you all keep writing too.

P.S.
Yolanda needs to write something.

Devastation Cracks Me Up!

Nagin drops plans for fireworks, comedy on Katrina anniversary

11:12 AM CDT on Thursday, August 3, 2006

WWLTV.com

Mayor Nagin has dropped plans to include a fireworks display and a comedy show as part of the memorial slated for the anniversary of Katrina.

WWL-TV

Mayor Ray Nagin

The plans, which were slammed by some critics, were simply part of a total package that Nagin said would have included somber reflection and a celebration of the cityÂ’s rebirth.

“The events came through a planning session,” he said. “This is New Orleans. We mourn funerals and at the end of the funeral we have a second line.”

Full plans for the one-year anniversary are still in the works but are scheduled to include a memorial mass and some citywide bell ringing.

I don't know why everyone down here is upset about our mayor planning a comedy show and fireworks to celebrate the worst day in most of our lives. I sit around with my friends and we laugh hysterically everyday at the thought of losing everything. Personally, when I think of my grandmother dying, my family homes being destroyed along with all my possessions, and my dog...I PISS ON MYSELF WITH LAUGHTER! Maybe I should call my sister who I haven't seen this year after the state fired her and all the other teachers like low wage immigrant workers. I might call my 87 year old grandmother who has to start over after the house her husband built for her 50 years ago was blown away so she can laugh too. Our mayor and his administration are so out of touch with the average citizen. They should have sent in the troops to remove their ass. We are in trouble.

What about the Levee Board and the Corps

Turnpike chairman out after Big Dig death

The gentleman above is Mr. Matthew Amorello. He is the former chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority. He stepped down today as the chairman before a hearing to remove him after one of the Big Dig Tunnels collapsed killing 39-year-old Milena Del Valle . I respect Mr. Amorello and the state of Massachusetts for at least attempting to show their citizens that they have their best interest at heart.
I live in Louisiana. Last year on August 29, 2005 over 1000 people died when the levees in the area collapse. 49 of those people have still not been identified. As of now, no one from the New Orleans Levee Board, the Corps of Engineers, or any member of the state or local government has stepped down or been run out of office. Our mayor even got re-elected. No one has even had a hearing locally about any officials. It's good to know that somewhere in this country their is accountability. It's just too bad that I happen to live in a place where there is none.

Midnight Basketball Won't Keep Brothers From Fouling Out

The city of New Orleans is about to restart the midnight basketball program for young men ages 17-21. This is an effort to reduce the number of young kids on the streets and replace their guns with basketballs. The mayor, city council, and other community leaders believe that this will be a big step in reducing the amount of young men wandering around with nothing to do.
I have been trying my best to be an optimist these days. I am sure that this new program will go a long way to helping a few kids have something to do at night. However, we had midnight basketball before and there was no reduction in crime. The program will serve 180 kids. If you subtract them from the hundreds that have no direction, you will reduce crime by about .00005%. The reason why is simple. Crime and drug abuse is so much a part of the inner city that programs like midnight basketball and nights out against crime have no effect on the overall condition of the areas where most of the crime is happening. In New Orleans, drugs and crime are popular occupations. Many families are clothed and fed based on this revenue stream. That means it's a cultural thing. The kids and adults in this sub-culture are so out of touch that they are not going to play in this league. Most of them won't even know about it. The starting age for the league is 17-21. As a community, we are losing our children from the ages of 4-12. We all know the causes so I won't get into that. I do think there is a better way to fight crime then playing basketball. Instead of spending money on basketball for young adults, we should be trying to establish the following things to effectively reduce crime.

1. Equal education opportunities for inner city youth - This includes infrastructure and teachers. Suburban school districts recruit all the qualified teachers because they can offer more money and a better environment.
2. Mentoring programs for young men ages 5-10 - Because if they get to their teens without anyone that cares about them it's really too late.
3. Alternative education programs with an emphasis on job training. - Why are we still teaching our kids like everyone is going to go to college? Let some of these young brothers learn welding or construction in high school and give him a tool to earn a living.
4. Early childhood development programs for the kids and their mothers.- If mama can't read then the baby won't either.
5. Recreational programs for all neighborhoods- It can't cost that much to make sure that every park is at least clean and the grass is cut.

Of course, I am no expert. There are people who have way more education than me making these decisions. They are probably more qualified than I am. The only thing I have to go on is living in the same community for 32 years and watching it slowly turn into a place with little emphasis on youth development, education or family values. I have watched all that neglect morph into what we have today. If that counts for anything then I guess I am qualified. I hope the league does well. I might even go to a game or two. I just hope that my beloved city leaders have something else in mind to change some of the things going on down here other than basketball and the National Guard.

Just Ice--Going Way Back

I still know all the words.......For all the pioneers I'm going way back. Who wanna battle?

Salt and Pepa on Soul Train

Taking It In

You know those days when you go outside on your front porch, drink some kool-aid and watch the hood do what it do. That's what I have been feeling like the past few weeks. I'm just sitting up and watching things happen. I don't have enough to say to write a whole blog about any of it. Sure, I see it happening. I seen George Bush trying to fool the NAACP with that wack ass speech. I saw it get so hot in the country that if a hurricane would have hit the gulf right now it would have been a category 8. I see Israel kicking Lebanese ass and the U.S can't say anything because they did the same thing in Iraq. Terrorists are worse than Be Be Kids. They don't die, they multiply. I even seen where there are several other cities looking to bring in National Guard troops since New Orleans did it. Apparently, we are not the only crazy negroes in the country. We still haven't seen Mayor Nagin or Bishop Morton anywhere in the hood but at least they finally picked up the damn cars. In the middle of all of that I got to see some of my family and some old friends. I also got to go to the spot and overpay for drinks then I danced with someone who was probably unattractive but everyone looks the same after the fifth boilermaker. Some things are getting back to normal. All I need now is a BBQ grill and football season. There are only a few things that I need to address.

The fact that my co-worker won't speak to me because I refused to put 7.00 in an envelope to pay for a going away gift for a person that I don't even know. When I leave a job, the only I need to take with me is my check and vacation pay. Seven dollars should have been the total from everybody.

Brothers, please stop coming to your wife/girlfriend's job to hang out while she is trying to work. The young sister that works security in this building gets a three hour visit from her husband every damn day. He parks his Chevy truck right in the fire lane and they hang out like it's the lakefront. She needs to be focused on her responsibilities which must be talking on the phone and watching DVD's on her portable player in the lobby all day, not talking with him outside. At least her aunt and her friends come and sit inside to feel the air conditioner. What makes you want to hang out at your wife's job anyway? Unless she works at Club Rumpshaker and you get free drinks as long as she is dancing its no fun at all.

Listen, if you know someone that's been a crackhead for a long time, they are probably going to stay one unless they get some serious help. Now, if you marry the person without getting them some help, don't call me and tell me how wonderful things are going and then turn around 6 months later crying about how it all fell apart. You know I will be there for ya and everything but this is getting ridiculous. You can't marry someone that's been high since the 8th grade, give them a FEMA check and expect them to stay clean. You might as well just buy him an IV machine from the hospital and make it easier for him. Stop calling me.

Other than that I am chillin. I can't wait for something really exciting to happen. A good evacuation would be nice. Then there is always the day Tupac decides to come back from Cuba or Chuck D starts the revolution for real and punches Flava Flav right in the face. Until then, I'm sitting here browsing clips on Youtube and enjoying a sip of cognac.

Iwas reading this story on BlackAmericaweb.com today. You can click here to read it. It's all about how much money was squandered by Homeland Security after the storm. I went to every local TV news website looking for this story and couldn't find it. Conversely, when the story first came out about the locals using the money on a drink or two it was all over. I think I feel comfortable enough now to make the following statement. Although all news media has a slant against black people. There is no city in the country who's media takes more pride in making black people look bad than the city of New Orleans. It's like Bill O'Reilly is the executive producer at every station.

Rakim on YouTube

The most addictive site ever!

Stay Away Essence

For the first time the Essence festival was held outside of New Orleans last week. Houston had the honor of hosting the event this year thanks to the hurricane that starts with a K. From all the reports I heard, the fest just wasn't as good as it usually is. That's probably because New Orleans stays wide open until sunrise so there are hundreds of parties to go along with the concert that last all night. You can literally party until it's time to hit the airport when the festival is here. The locals here believe that this is one of the reasons that they will come back for good once the Superdome is back up and running. Because of what happened and the fact that they don't want to appear to be abandoning the city, I expect them to be back at least for next year. Personally, I hope the Essence Fest never comes back. If the Bayou Classic didn't have two teams from Louisiana, I wish they wouldn't come back either. Maybe they could play in Shreveport. I will be happy to explain why.

Since Hurricane Katrina, no one has really cared about the black community of New Orleans. The state hasn't done anything and neither has the city. If Essence wants to do something for the black citizens of New Orleans it will tell the state that it is not coming back until a detailed rebuilding plan is in place. This is a city that will have an NFL game in September but doesn't plan to open a fully functional public hospital until 2011. Somebody has to show the political and business community that you can't treat us like second-class citizens and then expect us to come and save you financially because we like to party past 2 AM. Susan Taylor needs to call mayor Nagin and tell him they are moving to another city unless someone acknowledges the need for better conditions and does something about it. Losing Essence money won't hurt the black community of New Orleans. We can't get any lower than we are right now. It's not like they were going to devote any of that revenue to rebuilding the city. The majority of that money ends up going to the state anyway. The city makes most of its money on parking tickets and towing brother's cars and that money will be used to cut the grass and prune the flower beds on St. Charles St.. Plus, French Quarter businesses treat us like crap every other day except for Essence Fest and Bayou Classic. Even on those weekends they jack all the prices up.

The funniest thing about the state of Louisiana is that they depend on tourist coming to New Orleans to marvel in all the food, art and music that blacks created yet they don't really care how they are living. Our own people don't need to take part in that.

Stay away Essence and make a statement!

The Good Side

Just to show I am not a melancholy dude….There are things guaranteed to put me in a good mood…..

1. Being Called Daddy: Nothing can beat the feeling of hearing that when you get home. It makes the potlucks and buying the candy all worthwhile.
2. Teaching Trainings at Work: I love doing this because it means that I know something so well that other people are willing to pay for me to show them how to do it. That’s the ultimate for egomaniacs. It’s always fun to look smart.
3. Watching little black children play: If you are driving pass a school during your lunch break, stop and watch the kids at recess. It will instantly put you in a good mood. They look so carefree and at peace. You wish you could find a way to keep that look on their faces until the time they have to be grown up and deal with serious things.
4. Nighttime on the Lakefront: There is something very peaceful about sitting on the lakefront at night watching the waves roll. You can do this all by yourself and be at peace. The best time of the year to is autumn. The wind is blowing and there are no mosquitoes. This ritual is heightened if you have a medium Orange 190 daiquiri with a shot of Everclear. I am going to make someone homesick.
5. My grandfather’s stories: He’s not here anymore but because he told me so many funny things about life there are times I am sitting around daydreaming and suddenly burst out in laughter. I’m sure it wasn’t all that fun to live through Jim Crow, World War 2, segregation, and Hurricane Betsy but he sure had a good time. That’s the funniest person I have ever known.
6. Sanford and Son: “Ester I didn’t put no stain on y’all family. Your family was stained when I met y’all. That old ugly stain. Even Ajax couldn’t get that stain off!” Who could be in a bad mood when laughing at that?
7. College Football: The second most favorite thing of mine that I use to totally drown out everything else going on in the world. It’s a known fact that I don’t leave the house on Saturdays between September and January unless it’s to go by my dad and watch a game with him.
8. Professional wrestling: Laugh if you want but there are times when a good wrestling tape will keep me from really tripping. It’s the only thing since I was 4 years old that has never gotten serious enough to require allot of thought.
9. A good pot of gumbo: I prefer mines with lots of File but some people make it different ways. By the way, anybody that tells you they made a pot of gumbo in less than 3 hours does not know what they are doing and you shouldn’t eat it. You can’t boil gumbo. It takes time for all the parts to come together slowly and create a beautiful mixture of spices and flavor. Mama if you read this I need a pot.
10. Going crabbing: This is the first year that I can remember that I won’t take a trip to St. Bernard Parish for a crabbing trip. I don’t know if we could even drive that far right now since the storm. The sun beams down on you all day. Your clothes get all muddy and you might even slip and end up in the water once or twice. I could do it everyday. It’s the ultimate family bonding experience.

My Bad Side

I have been doing a lot of complaining lately due to the condition of where I live. I know there are folks that think I am always upset about something but that is not true. In my post Katrina world I am more aggravated than usual. Most of the time I am in a joking mood. There are only a few things that can upset me. Because I have nothing else to talk about, here is the list.

1. People who call me Clifford instead of Clifton: If you want to kill a conversation with me, call me Clifford and I will tune you out. My name is Clifton Harris III and the only thing I will accept in place of that is Cliff for short. Clifford is not my name.
2. When Someone wants to tell me what they would have done differently: These are the people who want to tell you that you hired the wrong guy, bought the wrong car or took the wrong route to get somewhere. Don’t you hate it when someone comes to your house and tells you things like “You could have gotten a bigger TV at this store” or “I would have painted this room blue”? Get your own house and put whatever you want to in there. Leave mine alone. There are only two people that can do this without irking me and that’s Bernadine and Clifton.
3. People who brag on success but never seem to do anything for anyone else: I am dedicating this one to my grandfather because I know for a fact that people showing up empty handed to a family function and then bragging for hours about money really pissed him off.
4. People who follow me too close when I am driving: I am paranoid of getting rear ended in an accident. Why people do this in traffic is something I just don’t get. My boy Cedric will hit his brakes in the middle of the block just to scare the jackass behind him into backing off a little.
5. When someone doesn’t have a job but has a better car than I do: You can call this hating if you want but I don’t understand it.
6. Kids who try to talk to me like an adult: When I was a child we were not allowed to speak to adults about certain things even if we were the topic of conversation. This is why our kids now are cursing out teachers in the second grade.
7. The Potluck People at Work: Besides major holidays, there is no reason to plan a meal full of dishes from people who can’t cook or don’t look that sanitary. Some people always want to plan these things and then have the nerve to ask everybody to give money plus a dish. If you want to have a dinner once a month, spend your 40.00 on that big ass ham to feed these vultures. Ever since the time at my old job when one of my co-workers brought the green peas still in the can, I have no place for this tradition in my life.
   
8. The Candy Sellers at Work: I’m all for helping your kids school but I am starting to think that some of these people are selling candy for their own profit around here. I remember selling those nasty ass candy bars only once a year. My daddy would give me 20.00, I would pick the little cheap toy out of the catalog and that was it. Some of these ladies sell candy every single day. What is this school trying to buy? From now on I need to see invoices. School lets out in June and they are still pushing candy in July.
   
9. E-Mails with code letters in them: Is there a book with all these abbreviations so I can know what’s going on? I get emails at work without one real word in them. How do you respond to " Hi Cliff, this is Joe from LMTC. We need to get the DVE from the OBT report and compare that with the MID. " I always just respond with "OK".
10. Anyone who thinks Tupac is dead: When the statue of limitation is over for faking your own death he is coming back from Cuba and it’s on.

Interesting Reading

Commentary: Democrats Deserve the Blame for Failing Our Inner City Schools – and Our Kids

Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2006
By: Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com

In late April, Wade Henderson, the executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, made the mistake of trying to portray Baltimore’s wreck of a public school system as a partisan, Democrats vs. Republicans issue.

He later recanted. Wise choice.

But before he did, Henderson told a room full of black folks at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University that Maryland’s Republican governor was trying to take over Baltimore schools. Then he told them about how teachers in predominantly-white Baltimore County schools are better than those in predominantly-black Baltimore schools and about disparities in the availability of advanced placement courses between the two systems.

Here’s what Henderson failed to mention: schools in Baltimore County and in Baltimore are run by Democrats. Maryland’s legislature, which funds both systems, has been a Democratic body for decades.

Any failures of Baltimore’s school system -- which, according to a Manhattan Institute study, graduates only 48 percent of its students and only 39 percent of its black male students -- have to be blamed on the political party that’s run the system for years.

That would be Democrats.

In the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Black Power movement in the United States, there is no clearer indication of black power’s failure than in urban school systems like Baltimore’s that are run by Democrats. Washington, D. C. schools are some of the worst in the country. Democrats run D.C.

In the Manhattan Institute study, Baltimore’s graduation rate was 91st of the country’s 100 largest school systems. But Detroit’s -- another city run by Democrats -- was 98th. In both Baltimore and Detroit, most of those Democrats are black who are supposed to be exercising black power to improve conditions for black folks.

Instead, today’s black Democrats in places like Baltimore and Detroit seem to have their lips permanently sutured to the rump of the Democratic Party jackass. If there is a clash between, say, the Democrats’ commitment to teachers’ unions and educational improvement for black folks, Democrats will choose teachers’ unions.

Black Democrats seem powerless to stop them.

I’ll use as Exhibit A Baltimore’s KIPP Ujima Village Academy, a fifth-through-eighth grade school that sits in a poor, predominantly black section of northwest Baltimore. On recent state assessment tests, these “poor black kids” Democrats claim to have so much affection for rocked it, totally blitzing their counterparts in predominantly white, affluent areas of the state.

Nearly 92 percent of KIPP’s sixth-graders scored at advanced or proficient levels in reading on the Maryland School Assessments. They beat 24 of 25 schools in Baltimore County and 15 of 19 schools in ritzy Howard County, just south of Baltimore.

In math, just over 89 percent of KIPP’s sixth-graders scored at advanced or proficient levels, beating 23 of 25 Baltimore County schools and 12 of 19 Howard County schools. One hundred percent of KIPP’s seventh and eighth graders scored at advanced or proficient in math, beating ALL schools in Baltimore County and Howard County.

Now don’t go thinking Baltimore’s Democrats can take credit for the fantastic KIPP achievement. KIPP is a charter school. Charter schools are public schools which don’t have to operate under the constraints of regular public schools. In some cases, teachers’ unions might dictate those constraints.

Maryland -- with the Democratic-dominated legislature whose Democratic legislators claim they are committed to good education for black kids -- didn’t pass a law allowing charter schools to be established until 2003. The main hamstring was opposition from teachers’ unions. Black folks committed to true black political power would have called the Democrats on their slobbering servility to teachers’ unions long ago.

Instead, we get black politicians who play the blacker-than-thou card on the matter of charter schools. Remember what happened to Dave Bing several years ago?

Bing is a former National Basketball Association All-Star who now owns an automobile supply company in Detroit. He teamed with a white businessman named Robert Thompson, who wanted to donate $200 million to the city of Detroit to establish charter schools. Two things happened.

A black member of Detroit’s city council gave Bing a “Sambo” award and called him a sell-out.

Detroit’s political leaders turned down Thompson’s offer.

In places like Baltimore, Detroit and Washington, D.C., black Democrats have failed to deliver when it comes to educating poor black kids. They seem to have forgotten what Stokely Carmichael meant when he shouted “Black Power!” 40 years ago in Greenwood, Miss.

Or maybe they never knew.

He could have written this about New Orleans and it would have been the same exact thing. I hate to say that I am glad it's just not us but I am.