Black Alliance for Education Options blast NAACP for anti-charter school positiion

Press release, CINCINNATI— Black Alliance for Education President Jacqueline Cooper released the following statement on the NAACP Board of Directors’ decision to ratify a resolution in support of a moratorium on all new charter schools. The vote took place during the organization’s fall board meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio and comes after multiple attempts, including hosting a meet and greet at the location of the board meeting to discuss the impact of the resolution on the education of Black children, were repeatedly denied.

We are absolutely stunned that the NAACP voted to put distortions, lies and outdated ideologies about charter schools above what is in the best interest of our children. It is inexplicable to me that such a storied organization, responsible for leading a powerful civil rights movement to tear down barriers for generations of Black people, would erect new ones for our children.

Not all charter schools are perfect. Just like traditional district schools, some are working very well and some are not. High-quality schools should be supported and schools that are not educating our children should be improved or closed. But with more than 700,000 students enrolled on charter campuses, we must continue supporting them just like we must continue supporting traditional district schools to make them better for our children. Banning new charter schools will only widen the achievement gap for Black children by reducing the number of high-quality options available and increasing the number of names on existing waiting lists.  Low-income and working-class Black families deserve more choice, not less.

As tragic as this decision is by the NAACP's Board of Directors, we remain committed to working with the organization in areas where we mutually agree to increase access to high-quality educational options for low-income and working-class Black families.

It is time to break the cycle once and for all of generation after generation of Black children underprepared to go to, through and beyond college to become economically independent adults.

The NAACP’s decision comes after 160 Black education and faith leaders sent a letter to the NAACP urging the organization to reconsider a moratorium and learn more about the charter schools. Black charter school families from New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington state also penned a letter to the NAACP, expressing their stance on charter schools as a critical component to student success. Their ChartersWork petition attracted more than 3,000 signatures from parents from across the country concerned about the ban on charter schools.

About the Black Alliance for Educational Options:
The Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) is a national non-profit education advocacy organization founded in 2000 by prominent Black educators, elected officials and civil rights activists. BAEO's mission is to increase access to high-quality educational options for Black children by actively supporting transformational education reform initiatives and parental choice policies that empower low-income and working-class Black families. For more information on BAEO visit http://www.baeo.org.

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Mayor Barry releases six-point plan to end youth violence

Press release, NASHVILLE, Tenn. – On Thursday, the co-chairs of the Youth Violence Summit, Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway and Criminal Court Clerk Howard Gentry, presented their findings from the five Summits to Mayor Megan Barry, along with recommended actions that the city can take to reduce youth violence.

“I appreciate the Summit Co-Chairs for helping to produce this report and putting together the recommended actions, which I will review with my team over the coming weeks,” said Mayor Barry. “We’re going to see how we can strengthen existing programs and create new ones where necessary to connect youth to hope and to opportunity.”

“I’m excited about the fact that today we are getting ready to save some lives, we are getting ready to change some lives,” said Criminal Court Clerk Gentry. “Over the past few months, we’ve had the important discussions that we needed to have; now it’s time for action, and I look forward to working with Mayor Barry to make it happen.”

“I’m committed to this cause for somewhat selfish reasons, I’m ready to retire early,” joked Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway. “I want to retire because we’ve put in place the programs and policies that are needed to put an end to youth crime and violence and make my job obsolete. We’re ready to stop talking the talk, and start walking the walk.”

The report includes a summary of the findings and lessons learned over the course of the five Summit meetings and lays out six goals, with accompanying signs of success and recommended actions, which were presented to the Mayor:

• Training & Employment - All youth have the opportunity to participate in career training and job opportunities so they can become college- and career-ready
• Meaningful Youth Engagement - All youth have opportunity to participate in quality after-school and out-of-school activities
• Health Awareness and Access - Reduce the number of youth exposed to trauma
• Restorative Justice and Diversion - Increase the number of youth allowed to remain safely in their communities while under court supervision
• Safe Environment - Youth feel safe and are safer in their homes, on the street and in school
• Education - Youth receive a high-quality education from pre-K through high school

The Summit report is available online.

 Mayor Unveils Six-Point Action Plan To Reduce Nashville Youth Violence 

By Lee Hale, WPLN - Opportunity might be the solution to rising youth violence in Nashville, says Mayor Megan Barry.

"By 2017, I want 10,000 of our youth to have an engaged opportunity that includes a paid internship," Barry told a group at the Oasis Center on Thursday afternoon.

The internships are one of the action items outlined in a new summit report — the result of five community meetings that began last December. The report was prepared by co-chairs Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk Howard Gentry and Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway.

Mayor Barry looks for youth violence solutions

 by Joey Garrison, The Tennessean, March 31, 2016 - ....... The numbers are jarring. Over the past five years, 16,955 violent incidents in Nashville involved youth.

Last year, among the country's 50 largest cities, Nashville ranked second in the highest percentage increase in homicides — from 41 in 2014 to 78 in 2015.

Of those, 55 percent of the perpetrators were 25 years old or younger, and half those killed were younger than 25.

African-American males are disproportionately involved in the crimes, according to the report, both in terms of victims and those arrested. .......The report refers to youth violence as an “epidemic” with a range of root causes: joblessness and poverty; poor educational opportunities; a lack of adult role models; barriers to re-entry for those who have been incarcerated; and a cycle of trauma and violence. (link)

I commend the Mayor 

My Comment:  I commend the mayor for recognizing and tacking this crisis. I think the report missed it in identifying root causes however. I am convinced the root causes are out of wedlock births and welfare dependency and those two causes are closely related. Welfare programs made fathers unnecessary which led to the break down of that most basic building block of society- the family. Generational welfare dependency and no fathers in the home let to a distortion of values and a decreased sense of self worth which led to hopelessness and joblessness and crime and more out of wedlock births and more hopelessness and poverty which continued the downward spiral.

We may not be able to correct the root causes and even if we as a society decided to undo the damage of the welfare state, it would take a generation to see the results. So, while we can't fix the root causes anytime soon, that does not mean we should not try to address the immediate problem.  A good mentor, be it a scout leader or coach or boss or teacher can tern lives around. A good education can get a child headed toward college rather than prison.  We have seen this numerous times in which charter schools have produced results that have had every single child in a class of Black disadvantaged kids beat the odds and get accepted to college.

Some years ago, I was working closely with very low income people at the time welfare reform was implemented.  I saw people get their first job and saw the change it made in their lives. They had to be pushed out of the welfare nest but once they discovered the rewards of earning a living their sense of self worth and well being improved. They gained pride in earning a paycheck.  It is too bad we abandoned welfare reform and backtracked.  I have also seen low income people turn their lives around and change their habits and ways of thinking in order to achieve the dream of home ownership.

I oppose programs that subsidize poverty and keep people trapped in despair and make govern dependency a way of life, but we should not just abandon the poor to hopelessness. We should just not accept that it is normal for young Black men to kill each other. I am not sure all of the six points of the mayors program will work to reduce youth crime, and I have not carefully studied the program. Even if a program sounds good on paper, if it is not implemented well, it will fail.  What is proposed may not succeed and have the desired effect, but I think it is right to try. The status quo is not acceptable.

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02/06/16 Mayor Barry Youth Violence Summit

No speaker participating in this summit explicitly identifies the youth violence problem as a Black problem, but the youth panel is all Black young people and Howard Gentry calls attention to the lyrics of rap music and how it encourages violence.  Listening to the members of the youth panel is insightful in understanding how they justify or explain youth violence.

After meeting in small group break-out sessions, the participants come back with their evaluation of the problem and suggestions.  The suggestions are for more recreational opportunities, more ways to get money or earn money, mental health care and health care, more job opportunities for youth and their parents, more involvement by young people in development of programs to serve young people, and a greater effort to connect young people to available services.

I hope these youth summits produce some good results, but I think a good starting point would be a recognition that the Black community is dysfunctional and that the youth violence problem is primarily a Black problem and that the welfare state has created a culture that destroyed the Black family and created an environment of hopelessness and dependency on government. I believe that the product of youth violence is a function of out-of-wedlock births and welfare dependency more than any other cause. Of course, changing course would require a change in national policy and a recognition that single parenthood is a cause of the problem.  Even if there was a recognition of the problem it would take a decade to see changes and as a community we need to take actions that can have some immediate impacts. 

Sometimes, I think we as a community make the problem worse when we create a victim mentality among Black citizens.  When we imply that the reason more Black students get in-school suspension is because of discrimination rather than acknowledge that Black children engage in activity to deserve in school suspension at a higher rate, we create people who walk around with a chip on their shoulder and feel like victims.  When we lament the high unemployment rate among Blacks without acknowledging the lack of skills among many Blacks that make them unemployable, we are not doing them a favor. A good place to start in dealing with the youth violence problem or other Black problems would be by telling the truth. Telling the truth will not get anyone any votes however.

Here is an excerpt from a Tennessean article that describes the youth violence problem in Nashville:

Of the 75 criminal homicides last year, 20 of the victims were teenagers or younger — the highest number of youth deaths to hit Nashville in the past decade. Three of them were infants who died as the result of abuse.
Of the slain teens, 15 were male. All but four were African-American. The youngest was a 14-year-old girl.

I hope community leaders, especially Black middle class people, Black businessmen, and Black clergy will take part in these summits and engage in trying to reduce youth violence. We know that charter schools have produced whole classes of students where the teen girls do not become pregnant and the boys do not go to reform school. We should try to determine why that is the case and see what lessons can be learned from the charter school experiences. Maybe if young fatherless Black men had strong mentors, they would be less likely to become killers. I hope something good can come out of these summits and the attention being giving to the problem of youth violence.

Below is an announcement of the upcoming third summit to occur in the Antioch community.  Follow the link to RSVP.
From Metro.gov:

2/20/2016 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM 
Youth Violence Summit - Reclaiming Young Adults
Details: Community leaders and experts will gather to identify barriers that may be limiting the success of youth ages 19 to 25 who have either experienced violence or are ex-offenders attempting to start a new path in life. Experts will include law enforcement, mentors, educators at the high school and post-secondary level, career development agencies, parents and individuals in this age range who can discuss the challenges they face.

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When the truth is offensive nothing changes

We can't address the problem of inner city (Black) poverty if we will not admit the problem. The problem is not lack of jobs or discrimination that will not give African Americans a chance, but is the sick culture of crime, dependency, and values that make it OK for single girls to become mothers at age 15.

Paul Ryan recently got chastised by the Congressional Black Caucus for this remark:

 There is a "tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value of work."

Representative Barbara Lee of California, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, called Ryan's remarks a "thinly veiled racial attack." "Let's be clear, when Mr. Ryan says 'inner city,' when he says, 'culture,' these are simply code words for what he really means: 'black'," Lee said in a statement. (link) 

Well, yes, "inner city" generally does mean Black community. I think Ryan knew that when he said it. Instead of Ryan sticking by his guns he backtracked and said he was "was inarticulate." "I was not implicating the culture of one community, but of society as a whole," he said. "We have allowed our society to isolate or quarantine the poor rather than integrate people into our communities. The predictable result has been multi-generational poverty and little opportunity."

If we are so afraid of offending people, if we can not tell the truth, we are not going to address the root cause of "inner city" poverty. In the inner city, a young man has a better chance of going to prison than to college.  Children drop out of school barely able to read and write.  Many are unemployed because they are unemployable.  They have no skills, are not dependable, have no work ethic and an attitude. There are communities of blocks and blocks of public housing units where almost no one works and  there are no fathers.  Generations of children grow up with no role models of intact nuclear families where the parents go to work every day. In a lot of the inner city, the "baby daddy" comes and visits about the time the welfare check is delivered and this is normal.  By thirteen the young men are in juvenile and by15 the young girls are pregnant.  The highest aspiration of many young girls is to get pregnant so they can qualify for a public housing unit of their own and move out of momma's apartment. "Inner city" poverty is caused by pathological degenerate behavior. The cure for inner city poverty is for Blacks to start "acting white." There, I said it. That is what Paul Ryan should have said.

I know it is not easy to change a culture. Welfare reform was a start and progress was being made but that experiment was abandoned.  I am not for neglecting the problems of poverty. I think we should have an anti-poverty program that encourages work and families.  We should phase out public housing as we know it all together.  We should encourage and promote charter schools and school choice.  We should resurrect the concept of enterprise zones. We should think outside the box. Maybe we should pay children a bonus if they reach age 18 and have never been pregnant or in trouble with the law.  I am for doing something about poverty, but finding remarks that tell the truth "highly offensive" and the truth teller backing down from the remarks is going to ensure that we dance around the edges of the problem of inner city poverty and fail to address it.

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From "I have a dream," to the nighmare of Black in America

The historic March on Washington of fifty years ago has been commemorated this month by a memorial march on Washington,  numerous interviews with elderly civil rights leaders reminiscing, lengthy  newspaper stories, and the analysis of the importance of the event by academics, pundits, and politicians in interviews, in forums and on panels.

While many expressed the opinion that there is still work to do and lamented that Blacks had not made more progress in achieving equality, many couched there arguments about the lack of Black progress in terms of "economic justice," and a failure of society to do enough.  Some said, America had not lived up to the dream.  It was sometimes subtle, but the thrust of the analysis was that the reason Black Americans had not made more progress is that they are still oppressed. There was a message that lack of equal outcomes is proof that  society is still racist.

Since 1963, official school segregation has disappeared and discrimination in public accommodations has ended and voting rights have been guaranteed. There are no more "Whites Only" lunch counter, or Black and White water fountains or restrooms, yet  in some ways Black Americans have been losing ground since 1963 despite law after law, million spend on anti-poverty programs and school busing and preferential hiring practices and school admission policies and quotas.

• In 1963, Black unemployment was at 10 percent; it is now at 13 percent. Of course this is deceptive because to be counted as unemployed one has to be actively looking for work. Fewer Blacks are in the work force today than in 1963.
• In 1963 while Black unemployment was 10%, White unemployment was only 5%. Today, while Black unemployment is 13%, White unemployment is only 7%. The gap has hardly changed.
• Since 1963, the wealth gap between Black and Whites has actually increased. 
• The Black poverty rate in1963 was 48% and by 2000 had fallen to 22%, but now has climbed back to 28%.
• Despite the end of official school segregation, Black school children are almost as segregated as they were in 1963. 74% attend "intensely segregated (90 to 100% non-white)" schools.
• The marriage gap between Blacks and Whites have widened. More whites marry than Blacks and the gap is larger than in 1963.
• 52% of Black children are living in single-parent homes, compared with 20% percent of White children. This gap is larger than in 1963.
• The incarceration rate of Black men is more than six times higher than that of White men,  larger than the gap in 1960.
• In the early 1960's 23% of Black children were born out of wedlock, now it is 73%.

There are more and more statistics that could make the point. Black children, especially Black boys, are expelled from school or get in-school suspension more often than White children. Black youth are incarcerated at a much higher rate than White children. There is a large gap between Black home ownership and White home ownership. Black on Black crime is much greater than in 1963.

I do not think these statistics indicate that America is a racist country and that Black are oppressed. It is not White people that make Black children misbehave and require more suspensions, or Black men rob and murder and require more imprisonment, or make Black women have children born out of wedlock. There are pathological, self destructive behaviors in the Black community. We can't simply stop incarcerating Blacks until the ratio of Whites to Black represents their proportion of the population.  We can't mandate that Black be allowed to get home mortgages regardless of their credit worthiness. We can't require equal outcomes.

I know that there are reasons for the disparity between Blacks and Whites. Slavery and Jim Crow had an impact on the Black family and wealth creation. However, many immigrant groups have come to this country with nothing and achieved the American dream in  a generation. How long can we continue to blame Black lack of progress on slavery? Why have things not improved much, and in some cases gotten worse since 1963?

In my view, greater than the legacy of slavery or Jim Crow, the cause of the current pitiful state of Blacks in America is the welfare state and anti-poverty programs. We had a war on poverty, and poverty won. When one is given just enough that one is better off not working than working, when one is clustered in communities where there are no role models of successful people, when government policy makes the male a family liability, then people are trapped in poverty. With public housing, food stamps, Tncare, and a free cell phone, working becomes too expensive. We have had the wrong incentives in place. Our government policies have created a dependent class.

What is to be done?  For a short while, the experiment with welfare reform showed that people who had never worked could learn to work. We need to return to an aggressive policy of welfare reform. We need to greatly reduce the food stamp program and phase out public housing. Most of all, however, we need to promote education and marriage. Marriage and education are effective at reducing poverty.

It is racist to assume Blacks cannot learn. Our public schools have failed many children, but have especially failed Blacks.  There are examples across the country where Blacks are excelling. Many of those examples are in charter schools. Soulsville Charter school in Memphis is a good example. For the last two years, every high school graduate of that school got accepted into college. These are Black children from the inter city, most being raised by single moms. Instead of heading to prison, young boys in this school are headed to college. We need this model duplicated across the nation. We need to embrace what works.

There is probably nothing that would do more to advance the Black population than to encourage marriage. Of children in single parent households, 37% are poor yet only 6% of children in two-parent household are poor. There are many more Black children in single-parent households than White children. This is not the way it has to be.  The Black church should promote marriage, assistance programs than discourage intact families and reward single mothers should be changed. Instead of celebrating single mothers, we should shame them. It should not be a cause of celebration when a young single girl gets pregnant. From seat belt use, to smoking,  to ecology, attitudes have changed over time. Public disapproval of behavior can change behavior.  We need to change the public attitude about having children out of wedlock.

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Orlando Shaw, Nashville Father With 22 Children By 14 Women may get reality show

He has a lengthy criminal record. He has fathered 21 children by 14 different women. He pays no child support. The 33 -year-old is soon to become a grandfather, after his 16-year-old daughter announced she is pregnant. The state of Tennessee pays around $7,000 each month to help support Shaw’s children. He claims Hollywood is calling and he may get his own reality show.

This is disgusting. Real efforts to end poverty needs to admit that the dysfunctional Black social structure is the problem. There needs to be a recognition that the welfare state subsidizes behavior that guarantees continued poverty and crime.

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Vote for Obama because he gives a free Phone

Protester outside of Romney rally explains how Obama gives all minorities free phones and that is why they should vote for him. Cleveland Ohio, September 26, 2012.

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Every Soulsville Charter School Graduate Going to College

MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - Drums, trumpets, and diplomas. The school known for its musical prowess is now known for its academic success.

The Soulsville Charter School, which opened in 2005, held its first ever graduation Thursday night. More than fifty students walked across the stage and each one is headed to college. (link)

Follow the link and watch the video. You will not see a single white face among the students. This excellent school that is changing lives would not be legal in Nashville under the proposed diversity plan. Many in Nashville would rather condemn Black children to a life of poverty, ignorance and probably prison rather than let them get educated in a school that was less than 50% white. 

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I Got 15 Kids & 3 Babydaddys-SOMEONE'S GONNA PAY FOR ME & MY KIDS!!!

This is sad and angering. It is angering that a 37 year old women has had 15 children. It is not that people don't know what causes babies. It is not something in the water. It is sad that someone can be a single women and have 15 children and three babbydaddys and not have a sense of shame.

This is an extreme case but the attitude that "somebody needs to pay for all my children" is all too common. With 72% of all black children born out of wedlock something is seriously wrong.

Did the system fail Angel? Yes, but not in the way that Angel thinks. Society failed Angel and her 15 children when society removed the stigma from single motherhood and made single motherhood a badge of honor.

The system failed her when it created a mentality that one is not responsible for their own welfare but society is responsible.

The problem of institutional, multigenerational poverty goes on and on. Along with it is multigenerational single motherhood and irresponsible fathers and men engaging in a life of crime and spending a large part of their life in prison. For children to drop out of school, girls to have their first baby at age 16 and for boys to become criminals at a young age and to face a life of poverty and hopelessness is the expectation and the norm. We have tried welfare, and the Great Society and we had made the problem worse, not better. It seems the more we subsidize poverty the more of it we get. The more we relieve people of responsibility the more irresponsible they become.

For a short period of time, before backtracking, we experimented with welfare reform and it was showing progress. We need to double the effort to end the welfare system and we need to make it a crime to not care for your children and we need to bring back orphanages. We need to apply some tough love to the problem of poverty.

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Dear Katryna, I am so sorry that you are having financial difficulty and I wanted to respond

Dear Katryna,

I am so sorry that you are having financial difficulty and I wanted to respond to your letter. You say that Republican are cutting student aid. The way I understand it is that Republican are not cutting the amount of money being spend on student aid. The Republicans are proposing to cut $100-billion from the president's budget request and included in those cuts are cuts to student aid. During this recession so many people could not find jobs that many of them  have gone back to school so there has been an increase in demand for student aid and the Democrats proposed adding $5.7 billion to the Pell Grant program to cover the shortfall in the program.

Due to unexpected demand in the wake of the Great Recession, the Pell Grant program needs a funding fix to prevent grant cuts in 2011. So, the Democrats proposed the funding fix and the Republicans are proposing a reduction from the amount of that funding fix. The costs of the Pell Grant program have been growing at a rapid rate. More is going to be spend on Pell Grants and yet each Pell Grant recipient will get less under the Republican plan. Does that make sense to you?

Republicans are proposing to trim the maximum Pell Grant by 15 percent, or $845, from the current $5,550. Katryna, are you sure you are going to lose your student aid or just have a reduction? Now, some people who would have qualified for Pell grant under the Democrat spending level will not qualify under the Republican spending level but most will simply see a reduction in the amount of student aid. I don’t know if you will lose your student aid or not of course, but don’t jump to conclusions. The funding calculation is complicated and it is means tested so some people will qualify by virtue of qualifying for other programs and others will really lose their aid, but most will only see a reduction.

Did you know that President Obama is also proposing cut to the Pell Grant program? Obama's program cuts would end supplemental Pell Grants starting in summer 2012. Since 2009, students planning to attend summer school could apply for a second Pell Grant to pay for school year-round. Obama's proposal would do away with the year-round Pell Grant. MoveOn didn't explain that to you did they? The truth is that both Republicans and Democrats are proposing to spend more on Pell grants and both would reduce the amount of Pell grants anyone person could get, but the Republicans would cut more.

I think we have to cut a lot out of the federal budget, so no, I will not be asking Senator Corker to restore Pell grants to their former level. I am asking Corker to show courage and slash federal spending.

I know that losing your Pell Grant, if you do lose it, will be a hardship on you, but you see our nation is broke. Forty cents of every dollar the government spends is borrowed money. Our government is deeply indebted to the Chinese and others and we keep borrowing money to pay our expenses. We are much like a household that keeps taking out new loans to pay the payments on previous loans. 

The national debt is $14 Trillion dollars and it continues to increase at the rate of $4.11 billion per day and each citizen's share of this debt is $45,889.90. This is not sustainable. If we do not get a handle on this runaway spending, we will all lose the American dream and America will become a third world nation. I do not want to alarm you, but we can’t keep living on borrowed money for ever. Also, another problem is that the government is just creating money out of thin air. People refer to this as “printing money” although it is not really "printed money" but it is created as if it were printed and this can lead to rapid run-away inflation. So, unless the government gets a handle on spending we could see a rapid economic decline in the United States. We could see massive poverty never seen before in this nation. Painful cuts are necessary to stop spending more money than the nation can afford.

I know MoveOn wants you to feel resentment against rich people and blames our financial problems on the wealthy by saying they are not taxes enough. The wealthiest 5% of Americans pay half all taxes and the lower 50% of income earners pay no taxes. Also, job growth is created by wealthy Americans investing money. If we tax the wealthy more, we may have less job growth because we will have less investment. Higher taxes does not necessarily mean more tax collection despite what liberals will tell you. We do not have a problem in this country because we do not tax enough but because we spend too much.

Assuming you do lose your student aid, can you not qualify for student loans? If your education is a good investment, should you not be the one making the investment?

Katryna, you open your letter saying, "I never wanted a handout." Katryna, a grant is a handout. When the government gives you money and you don't have to pay it back, that is a handout. Also, Katryna you say you earned less than $4500 last year. You can't live on that. I bet you are living in subsidized public housing, getting food stamps, medicaid and you got the earned income tax credit last year. Am I right? I bet that in reality you are getting a lot of handouts. Is that not true?

Katryna, you say "I'm going to have to choose between paying rent or buying diapers." Have you thought about using cloth diapers and washing them out. People used to do that all the time. You don't have to buy diapers. You can rinse  them out in the commode and then wash them.

Katryna, I must ask you, where is your child's father? Is he paying child support? Did you have your child out of wedlock? You say you want to provide your daughter with the opportunities that your mother couldn't give you. You say nothing about your father. Your mother was a single mom, wasn't she? Did you do a really foolish thing and get pregnant without being married? I know that many do. In fact almost 70 percent of black children are born to single mothers. The disappearance of marriage in low-income communities is the major cause of child poverty in the U.S. today. Katryna, I think you should not blame your problems on Republicans but admit that your brought your problems on yourself, by your decision to have a child out of wedlock. Nevertheless, I do feel sorry for you.

Please continue to try to get out of poverty. Try to get student loans if you can't get the Pell Grant. If you do have to give up the dream of getting a nursing degree, please do not give up the dream of getting out of poverty. There is help available. Contact United Way or a good neighborhood community center to learn about job training programs and money management programs. A lot of poverty is due to poor decision making. Enroll in a life skills course and improve your life skills. Get a full time job.  Get out of the environment of public housing which creates a mindset that keeps people in poverty. And Katryna, please teach your child not to follow in your footsteps. Teach her that being a single Mom is foolish and most of the time it is a ticket to poverty.

I wish you the best.

Sincerly,
Rod

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

I never wanted a handout.

I just wanted to get my nursing degree and build the life I've dreamed of. I wanted to provide my daughter with the opportunities that my mother couldn't give me when I was growing up.

That's my dream, but I'm afraid my dream is about to die. 

Republicans are trying to cut the financial aid I rely on to pay my tuition. Last year, as a student, I couldn't find steady work and earned less than $4,500. If my financial aid is taken away from me, I won't be able to afford to get my nursing degree. 

Once again I'm going to have to choose between paying rent or buying diapers, between having heat or having enough food for my family to eat. Can you imagine the pain involved in making those choices?

Can you help save my dream? The Senate is on recess, and Senator Bob Corker is home in Tennessee. Can you call him in his district office in Nashville, and ask him to vote against any budget that makes cuts to education, health care, and Social Security, and puts corporations and millionaires above hardworking Americans like me?

Here's where to call:

Senator Bob Corker

Nashville office: 615-279-8125

Then, please report your call to MoveOn by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/call?cp_id=1545&tg=FSTN_2&dofcs=1&dofcp=615-279-8125&id=26616-15255949-7pS3m_x&t=3

I recently got a part-time job at Walmart and with that money, along with my student aid, I'm now able to cover all my expenses. I even had enough money to get new glasses for the first time in six years. I've struggled to get this far, but I finally feel like I'm going to be able to make a good life for myself and my daughter.

Please, don't let the Republicans take all this away from me. You see, the cuts they want to make aren't abstract. And they aren't limited to student aid, either. They're trying to cut job training, food aid to women and children, and more. Congress doesn't seem to understand the consequences to people like me all across the country if these programs are cut.

Can you call Senator Bob Corker, and ask him to vote against any budget that makes cuts to education, health care, and Social Security, and puts corporations and millionaires above hardworking Americans like me?

Thank you.

–Katryna Wade, Arkansas

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Black Leaders Ignore Black-on-Black Crime

By E.W. Jackson Sr., American Thinker, Oct. 5, 2009

[Excerpt] Treating poor black people as victims to be "organized" has been an abject failure. They are human beings to be educated, inspired and required to take responsibility for their own lives. The tragedy here is that Derrion was doing just that and it was working, but the malignant pathology of the ghetto spread to him on that unfortunate day and ended his promising life.

[Excerpt] ...there is a deafening silence from some of the biggest mouths in America. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Julian Bond, Louis Farrakhan and the Congressional Black Caucus see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. When Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested by a white police officer, President Barack Obama -- without any facts -- found it necessary to put in his two cents. Here in Chicago, the salient facts are abundantly clear and a heinous murder has been committed in his home town, but the president is silent. (link)

Comment: This is an excellent essay and expresses my views exactly. In addition to the tragedy of the murder of this promising young man, there is also the tragedy of code of silence within the black community that says Blacks will not "snitch" on Blacks who murder other Blacks and the tragedy of the code of silence among Black and liberal leaders who will not address the problems of the Black community unless those problems can be blamed on white racism.

Having said this however, I know that below the level of the national Black and liberal leaders there are many Black leaders and good liberals who do give of themselves to improve the life of those in the Black community. They genuinely care. I may disagree with their politics, but I never doubt their sincere concern for those they serve. They have a passion for what they do. I have known many of these people in my own community of Nashville. They tirelessly raise money, recruit clients, advocate for and provide job training programs, after school tutoring programs, money management classes and home ownership opportunities in the Black community. They operate the Boys and Girls clubs and sponsor Boy Scout Troops and little league softball teams and summer camp programs.

There are those who live in the Black Community who organize local Neighborhood Watch programs and work to improve police-community relations. They view the criminal element as the enemy not the police. They care about the problems of drug abuse and school drop-outs and crime and gangs in their neighborhood. There are many local Black ministers in my city and across America that work tireless ministering to their flock and inspiring them to be the best they can be. Unfortunately, they do not get the support they deserve and too often the recognized national leaders ignore those in the field who are working against incredible odds to change lives. I am sure that in Chicago, just like here in Nashville, there are many local Black leaders who are appalled at what they see happening in their community. It is too bad that the establishment will not support their efforts and prefers to remain silent unless it benefits their political agenda.

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Investigating the Murder of a Black Student in Chicago: Don't tattletale, the number one ruley.

Don't Snitch
by Mac Dre

Man... I'm through fuckin' around
You niggaz keep on ya gon' be duckin' some rounds
I'm rushin' the mound, bitch done hit me with a pitch
He a snitch and he walk with a switch
He in a band that sing for the cops
Him and his mans, they cleanin' up shop
Undercover concert promotor
Ricky Schroder tryin' to turn somebody over
Put that E.T. finger up, you stooley
Don't tattletale, the number one ruley
You the jumpest, the boys, them people
Slipped in the game, sellin' toys to people
I avoid them people, don't ask me shit
The only law I break is in public, grip
My mouth zipped, I plead the 5th
And niggaz like you get pushed off a cliff

[Chorus] - X 2
(Don't ask me shit)
I don't tell mayne
(I don't tell)
You can send me to jail mayne
(Don't ask me shit)
I won't tell mayne
(I won't tell)
Send me to jail mayne

You can line 'em up and put twelve in a box
and find out your boy is workin' with the cops
Doin' flip-flops, the Rover rollin' over
The Tootsie Roller, scared to do a quarter
It's October and he can't be gone 'til November
So he's givin' up the gang, every damn member
Everything he remember - he's tellin'
He get out of jail free, ain't no bailin'
He's no felon, he's no misdemeanor
He got a target melon and a E.T. finger
Nigga you the cleaners tryin' to wash me
Quit peepin' at my Beamer, tryin' to watch me

[Chorus] - X 2
(Don't ask me shit)
I don't tell mayne
(I don't tell)
You can send me to jail mayne
(Don't ask me shit)
I won't tell mayne
(I won't tell)
Send me to jail mayne

Police Chief Decries 'Code of Silence'

Chicago Breaking News Center, September 30, 2009 (link)

On Tuesday, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said authorities believe at least three other teens also punched or kicked the boy.

Weis called on the community to step up and tell police what they know. "Few have come forward," he told a news conference. "We must do better."

Weis decried the "code of silence" that he said was keeping police from making more arrests. Without more cooperation, he said, there will be "more violence...and unfortunately more funerals."

He also criticized teens who witnessed the beating last Thursday and did not call police. Weis said the 911 center did not get a call about Albert until after he was brought into a nearby community center.

"You got kids with cell phones but no one called," Weis said. "It's sad more people didn't call earlier."

Commentary:
A good kid, a young Black man, is brutally beaten to death in front of a large group of other Black kids in daylight on a public street and the public will not cooperate with the police in solving the murder. There is an epidemic of Black on Black youth crime in this country. Here in Nashville, we have had 18 young people killed year-to-date, all but a couple of them African American. This is happening across the country and the Black community will not cooperate in solving the crimes. Instead, rap lyrics celebrate not snitching and you can get the "Don't snitch" ringtone for your cell phone and your "Stop snitching" tee shirts in the local clothing store.

Where is the Black leadership in decrying this "code of silence" and senseless murders? One Black Harvard professor gets arrested by a white cop and it dominates the news for days and the President intervenes with some Beer Diplomacy. Last year in Louisiana at Jena High School, six black students were arrested charged with attempted murder after a school fight in which a white student was severely beaten and suffered a concussion. Celebrities and Black leaders rallied around to defend the "Jena Six." To defend the Jena six was a cause worth getting involved in, yet we have unsolved murders of Black kids by other Black kids coast to coast and no one seems to care.

If a Black kid had been killed by a gang of white kids in a similar manner to the Chicago murder, you can bet we would be hearing from Hollywood celebrities and Oprah Winfrey and Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson and probably the President.

What are we to take from this? As long as Black kids are killing other Black kids is it OK? Are we to assume that the Black communities of America care more about showing solidarity against the police rather than cooperating with the police in stopping these senseless killings? Is life in the hood worth so little, that not being a snitch is a higher value than catching a killer. Will no one rise up and say enough is enough and that "Black Culture" has become the culture of the jungle and the thug and must be reformed? Will no one suggest that it is time to stop blaming the problems of the Black community on the oppression of the white man and see the self-destructive behaviour? Does anyone give a damn?

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That Brutal Attack on a Black Chicago Honor Student

Teens charged in brutal attack on Chicago honor student

Staff Reporter, The Daily Voice, Posted September 29, 2009 8:45

A Chicago honors student was beaten to death on Thursday as two rival gangs fought outside a community center in that city.

An amateur cell phone video posted on YouTube showed a young man being struck on the head by a young man with a long wooden board, then punched by another young man. (link)

Too many of our youth lost to gun violence

By Dwight Lewis, The Tennessean, Sunday, September 27 2009

Sometimes you just want to yell, stop it, stop it! We've got to stop it! We're losing too many of our children and teenagers to senseless deaths, senseless killings, senseless shootings.

We've got to stop it! We've got to get them to put away their guns, to value life. Too many of these children and teenagers are being shot down as if they were a deer or rabbit being hunted. We've got to stop it!

Commentary:

The above video and news story is disturbing, sickening, and frightening. To talk about bad timing, this does not bode well for Chicago being picked as the site for the 2016 Olympics. The Olympic pick however is a footnote to the tragedy of this story. I have seen news coverage of this story and feel sadness for the boy’s family. Apparently the victim in this story was a good kid and a good student and was just caught in wrong place at the wrong time. The wrong place and the wrong time was a bus stop on the way to school during the day.

What has happened to America that things like this are not so uncommon? The truth is that things like this are common, not "in America" but in the Black community. It is not just in Chicago that things like this happen. In Dwight Lewis's column above he list the eighteen homicides that have occurred this year to-date in which the victim was younger than 18. Most of the victims are Black kids murdered by other Black kids. Neither Nashville, nor Chicago is unique and unfortunately this is typical for the inner cities of America.

I have spent most of my adult life working closely with African Americans and working in the inner city. As a city councilman for eleven years, one of the neighborhoods I represented was a Black community. I also chaired the Federal Grants Review Committee of the Metro Council that had legislative oversight of Community Development issues and related topics so I had insight into what was going on in the Black community. As a previous employee of the local housing authority and in my current job as a housing counselor, I serve mostly Black clients. I have worked in the housing projects trying to provide services that lift people out of poverty. I have seen some successes. I have seen some people change their attitude and change their life, but for the most part I have seen failure.

There are lots of reasons and excuses why black poverty persist, and along with the poverty, the despair, violence and lawlessness. I don’t have the answer of how to change the Black community. I have some ideas about what brought us to this point and some thoughts about what we should be doing, but I really don’t know if any of it would make much difference. In the 90’s with Welfare reform I thought we were making a major step in the right direction. A program called HOPE VI, I thought was a small step, but a step in the right direction. I thought No Child Left Behind was perhaps another modest step in the right direction. The truth is that not much has changed. The Black community seems as hopeless and crime ridden as ever.

One of the reasons I became a “disgruntled” Republican is because my party ignored the problems of the inner city, when I felt that following up on welfare reform, we had an opportunity to make a real difference. I have been ashamed of Republican indifference. The last Republican who cared about Black people and urban problems was Jack Kemp. I wanted the party to have more Jack Kemps. As unhappy as I have been about the Republican Party’s policy of indifference I thought Republican indifference was preferable to Democratic policies that would foster further dependence. I want policies that will fundamentally change the nature of Black society and lift Blacks out of poverty, not programs that simply subsidize the poverty.

I did not expect much from President Obama that would really improve the Black community. Liberalism fosters greater dependence, which is the last thing the Black community needs. But I was hopeful that President Obama’s example of hard work, responsibility, stable intact family, and success would inspire. I was hopeful he would use the bully pulpit and his prestige to motivate change in Black America.

Instead of flying off to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago for the Olympics, I wish Obama would have gone to Chicago and pitched non-violence, lawfulness and responsibility and called attention to epidemic of youth violence that is taking its toll on the Black communities of America.

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Obama can change America

As we to prepare to witness the historical inauguration of Barack Obama as the first Black person to become President of the United States, I feel good about it. I wish him well. I do not wish him well because I agree with his policies; I hope he is not successful in implementing some of the changes he wishes for our county. On some issues, I think we should be changing in the opposite direction of the direction Obama wants to take us. On other issues, I agree with Obama and hope he follows through on his campaign promises. In general, it is not his policies that have given me high hopes for Obama. I am not hoping he can change government policy but rather I am hopeful that he can change society.

America is still a society where most White people have it pretty good and most Black people do not. You do not have to tell me that there are successful African Americans and poor White people; of course there are. But, on average the typical Black person has it much worse in this country than the average White person.

Some will point out that any remnant of discrimination has been eliminated and opportunity, even preferential treatment, has been provided to Black Americans. For the most part I agree, and yet the divide between the races is undeniable.

If you are born white, you can have reasonable expectations of growing up to be successful. Even if you are born to parents of modest means, you probably know someone who has achieved success or someone in your family may have achieved success. If you are white it is reasonable to have high expectations. The chances are pretty good that the typical White child will grow up to be productive, and middle class and prestige and wealth are within grasp for those with exceptional abilities and those who apply themselves.

What can the black child realistically look forward to? Many find a reality in this: If you are a black girl you will be pregnant by the time you are sixteen and raise a child alone as a single mother, financially struggling your entire life. If you are a black boy it is worse. You will start getting into trouble with the law by the time you are a young teenager. You will drop out of school and you will end up spending part of your life in prison. You may be killed before you reach thirty. No one has to tell me it doesn’t have to be this way; I know it doesn’t, but the picture I have painted is the likely reality. If life turns out better, then you have beaten the odds.

Why is it like this? I suspect that the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Great Society are all responsible for the state of the Black community. We have witnessed the destruction of the family in the Black community; the family unit is the building block of society. And poverty can be a simple math equation. For example, a mother earning $20,000 a year with one child is living in poverty. However, a family with a father earning $30,000 and a mother earning $20,000 and raising one child are doing OK. Poverty is much more than a math equation though. The absence of the father in the home is more than the absence of that income. Young men need a role model and a strong disciplinarian to keep them from running wild. Young women need a stable male figure, representing strength and fortitude and demonstrating love.

Poverty is hopelessness. Poverty is a different set of values. Poverty is a state of mind. If poverty is not to be devastating, people need the support system of the family structure. Poverty and despair and immediate gratification and low expectations and self-destructive behavior have become part of the fabric of Black society.

I think that whatever success Obama may have as President, his greatest success may be that he can change Black society. I can only imagine the pride that many Blacks must be feeling as they see a Black man achieve the ultimate success in becoming the most influential and powerful person in the world. Certainly we have had other Black role models recently. The Bush administration featured Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, yet I suspect that having a Black man at the very top of the ladder can have an impact that other Blacks in lesser positions cannot have.

Due to the historical structure of society, politics and even the entertainment industry, Blacks have had few admirable role models in the publicized realm. In modern times, the Black adults that many Black kids look up to are rappers and athletes. Many of the athletes have the persona of thugs and pimps and the rappers revel in that image. I watched the movie Ray Charles the other night. I love the music of Ray Charles and really enjoyed the movie, yet Ray Charles was not an admirable person. He was a drug addict who was openly unfaithful to his wife. If you are a Black parent, is this the kind of role model you want for your kid? I know one could also say that there are plenty of Whites who would make poor role models, but it seems poor role models are abundant in the black community and people to admire are few and far between.

It seem like even the successful blacks are often crooks and thugs or tainted by scandal or associations. Here in Tennessee we had an attractive Black candidate run for Senate a few years ago named Harold Ford, Jr. There was never any serious allegation about defects in his character, yet he comes from a powerful political Black family out of Memphis that is deeply tainted by scandal and corruption. His uncle, John Ford, was a sharp-dressing, handsome, arrogant, slick politician who had numerous run-ins with the law and who had a wife but also openly had a mistress. He openly maintained two households. He was a state senator for many years and is now in prison for corruption. From Adam Clayton Powell down through the present, it seems that there is almost an expectation that Blacks who achieve political success are corrupt.

Also, many of the civil rights leaders and religious leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson seem more like demigods and shakedown artist rather than principled leaders. Certainly there are many, many good people pastoring Black churches across America and other Black leaders of stature, but the high profile Black leaders look like con artist.

My hope for America is that Blacks will aspire to look and act like Barack Obama and not the pimp on the corner, or the drug dealer, or the rapper, or the thug athlete. I hope that the image of the Obama household where a family consisting of two successful parents and two little girls living in a normal, loving, and supportive environment sinks into the psyche of every Black kid across America. I hope that Blacks see that they can achieve anything they put their mind to. I hope they learn to value education. I hope that speaking normal English and being responsible and working hard and studying and having aspirations is no longer considered “acting white.”

I hope there is never a hint of scandal on Obama. I was concerned about some of his Chicago relationships but I hope they were casual and that nothing more comes out to tie Obama to the corruptions of some of his past associates. If Obama has a girl friend on the side, I hope we never learn about it. I hope Obama is never caught taking money under the table. I hope he never shakes down contributors or is caught helping a corrupt crony get a contract or having a cheap affair with an intern.

I hope that Obama does not try to help the Black community by extending the dependency of the welfare state. That is the last thing the Black community needs. They do not need more dependency; they need self-sufficiency. Welfare reform was a step in the right direction and then it was abandoned and we backslid. For the last few years, for the most part, the problems of the Black community have been ignored. There are ways to expand opportunity without fostering dependency. The best thing Obama can do for the Black community is be a role model and use the bully pulpit to inspire Blacks to have greater aspirations and change the way they think. If Black kids want to grow up and be like Obama, that may be Obama’s most lasting legacy.

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The House of Representative Apologizes for Slavery

The House of Representatives today formally apologized to African-Americans “on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow.” (link) The resolutions says that Africans forced into slavery "were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage" and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.

If I were in the Congress, I would have went along with this resolution and mumbled an "aye", not that I think it does any good or really means much but it does no harm. The vote was by voice vote so no one in the Congress can be disproved it they say they voted for it or against it or say they simply didn’t vote. Congress is routinely passing resolution that commemorate this or that or recognize people for their accomplishments, or express a sentiment of the House on some topic, so one more resolution expressing the will of the House of Representatives will do no harm.

What does it really mean? It is an apology to “African-Americans” “on behalf of the people of the United States.” Well, African Americans are some of the “people of the United States” so African-Americans who are the descendants of slaves are included in the apology to African Americans. How logical is that?

What if you are the descendant of immigrants who were not even here during the era of slavery? What if your ancestors never owned slaves and maybe were abolitionist, or died fighting against slavery, or marched for civil rights? It doesn’t matter; Congress just apologized for slavery on your behalf.

I would like to have seen the bill expanded to include an apology for other sins against African-Americans. The Congress should have apologized for the “fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery, and Jim Crow, and the welfare enslavement, dependency and destruction of the Black community caused by the Great Society and other welfare enactments.” I could have enthusiastically supported such a resolution.

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Poor kids' teachers earn less in Metro

By JAIME SARRIO, Staff Writer, The Tennessean

Some of Nashville's hardest-to-educate students are taught by the district's least-experienced, lowest-paid teachers, an inequity education leaders have struggled for years to address.

A Tennessean analysis of teacher salaries and experience levels shows a clear pattern: The district's top earners with the most experience and education are more likely to work in schools with fewer poor and minority students.

Nashville's not alone. For years, urban districts around the country have been experimenting with hiring bonuses and performance incentives to try to level the playing field. Some cities, including Chattanooga, have made marked gains.

Metro Nashville has been slower to address the issue, said state officials, partly because of a historically tense relationship with the teachers union. Now the district faces state intervention because of consistently low standardized test scores for poor, black and foreign-language-speaking students. (link)

Commentary

Teachers Unions Stand in the Way of Educational Improvement

Nashville it a great city in which to live. We have a diverse economy, great parks system, and numerous universities and colleges. We have grown rapidly, but for the most part responsibly. We are big enough to have almost anything one would want but still small enough to feel like one unified city. We have a mild climate and are centrally located in a beautiful part of the country. Our downtown is booming and the city has a vibrancy and energy about it. The music scene and arts community give Nashville its own distinctive flavor. What Nashville does not have is good public education, not that it is uniformly bad. We have some schools that are excellent but we also have some absolutely terrible schools. Our school system is considered a failing system and will be taken over by the state.

The above article looks at an aspect of the problems with Metro schools. It is very well written with lots of examination of data and figures. The writer does a good job of explaining the complexity of the problem. The title sums up the story: The worse performing schools have the lowest salaried teachers. If you have an interest in the Nashville schools and missed this story, I urge you to click the above link. If you are not connected to Nashville, you may want to read it anyway, because more than likely the same situation, maybe to a lesser degree, exists in your community.

The following except from the story is very telling:

“Until this year, Metro could not offer bonus incentives for teachers in high-poverty schools because it violated the rules of the teacher contract, and the district and union couldn't agree how to do it. Now, a state law that takes effect this school year requires every district to offer incentives, and Metro will pay $4,000 to teachers willing to teach hard-to-staff subjects like math
and special education in a high-need school.”

No doubt there are various reason why poor students perform poorly. Poor students may not have had parents who read to them. They may not have good role models. They may not have parents who encouraged, disciplined, and motivated them. They may not have books and computers in the home. Everything is not equal. That being given, however, does not mean we should further handicap poor students by giving them the least experienced and lowest paid teachers.

The MNEA (Metro Nashville Education Association), like teachers' unions across America, has fought every meaningful education reform, every opportunity they had to do so. Incentive pay is common in the private sector; shift workers get shift differential pay. Jobs in high demand, demand higher salaries. Yet, the teachers unions have fought incentive pay at every opportunity. Teachers in math and science need to be paid more than teachers of literature. It is a harder course of study, and the private sector competition is higher for people with those skills.

The new bonus incentive plan mentioned above is a step in the right direction but does not go nearly far enough. Any teacher teaching in a high-needs school should earn more than a teacher teaching in the middle class suburbs. In my view, those teachers serving in majority black, inner city schools should get combat pay. There should be a special designation and specialized training and considerably higher pay for teachers who will devote themselves to serving the students that no one wants to serve.

It is time for the teachers' unions to stop being the obstacle to improvements in education, and it is time to bring the logic of economic incentives to the field of education.

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Senator Obama's Father's Day Speech

Above is the video and below is the text of Senator Obama's Father's day speech delivered to the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago.

Good morning.

It’s good to be home on this Father’s Day with my girls, and it’s an honor to spend some time with all of you today in the house of our Lord. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus closes by saying, “Whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.” [Matthew 7: 24-25]

Here at Apostolic, you are blessed to worship in a house that has been founded on the rock of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. But it is also built on another rock, another foundation — and that rock is Bishop Arthur Brazier. In 48 years, he has built this congregation from just a few hundred to more than 20,000 strong — a congregation that, because of his leadership, has braved the fierce winds and heavy rains of violence and poverty; joblessness and hopelessness. Because of his work and his ministry, there are more graduates and fewer gang members in the neighborhoods surrounding this church. There are more homes and fewer homeless. There is more community and less chaos because Bishop Brazier continued the march for justice that he began by Dr. King’s side all those years ago. He is the reason this house has stood tall for half a century. And on this Father’s Day, it must make him proud to know that the man now charged with keeping its foundation strong is his son and your new pastor, Reverend Byron Brazier.

Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it.

But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing — missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.

You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.

How many times in the last year has this city lost a child at the hands of another child? How many times have our hearts stopped in the middle of the night with the sound of a gunshot or a siren? How many teenagers have we seen hanging around on street corners when they should be sitting in a classroom? How many are sitting in prison when they should be working, or at least looking for a job? How many in this generation are we willing to lose to poverty or violence or addiction? How many?

Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Yes, we need more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the classroom, and more after-school programs for our children. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities.

But we also need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child — it’s the courage to raise one.

We need to help all the mothers out there who are raising these kids by themselves; the mothers who drop them off at school, go to work, pick up them up in the afternoon, work another shift, get dinner, make lunches, pay the bills, fix the house, and all the other things it takes both parents to do. So many of these women are doing a heroic job, but they need support. They need another parent. Their children need another parent. That’s what keeps their foundation strong. It’s what keeps the foundation of our country strong.

I know what it means to have an absent father, although my circumstances weren’t as tough as they are for many young people today. Even though my father left us when I was 2 years old, and I only knew him from the letters he wrote and the stories that my family told, I was luckier than most. I grew up in Hawaii, and had two wonderful grandparents from Kansas who poured everything they had into helping my mother raise my sister and me — who worked with her to teach us about love and respect and the obligations we have to one another. I screwed up more often than I should’ve, but I got plenty of second chances. And even though we didn’t have a lot of money, scholarships gave me the opportunity to go to some of the best schools in the country. A lot of kids don’t get these chances today. There is no margin for error in their lives. So my own story is different in that way.

Still, I know the toll that being a single parent took on my mother — how she struggled at times to the pay bills; to give us the things that other kids had; to play all the roles that both parents are supposed to play. And I know the toll it took on me. So I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle — that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father to my girls; that if I could give them anything, I would give them that rock — that foundation — on which to build their lives. And that would be the greatest gift I could offer.

I say this knowing that I have been an imperfect father — knowing that I have made mistakes and will continue to make more; wishing that I could be home for my girls and my wife more than I am right now. I say this knowing all of these things because even as we are imperfect, even as we face difficult circumstances, there are still certain lessons we must strive to live and learn as fathers — whether we are black or white; rich or poor; from the South Side or the wealthiest suburb. The first is setting an example of excellence for our children — because if we want to set high expectations for them, we’ve got to set high expectations for ourselves. It’s great if you have a job; it’s even better if you have a college degree. It’s a wonderful thing if you are married and living in a home with your children, but don’t just sit in the house and watch “Sports Center” all weekend long. That’s why so many children are growing up in front of the television. As fathers and parents, we’ve got to spend more time with them, and help them with their homework, and replace the video game or the remote control with a book once in awhile. That’s how we build that foundation.

We know that education is everything to our children’s future. We know that they will no longer just compete for good jobs with children from Indiana, but children from India and China and all over the world. We know the work and the studying and the level of education that requires. You know, sometimes I’ll go to an eighth-grade graduation and there’s all that pomp and circumstance and gowns and flowers. And I think to myself, it’s just eighth grade. To really compete, they need to graduate high school, and then they need to graduate college, and they probably need a graduate degree, too. An eighth-grade education doesn’t cut it today. Let’s give them a handshake and tell them to get their butts back in the library!

It’s up to us — as fathers and parents — to instill this ethic of excellence in our children. It’s up to us to say to our daughters, don’t ever let images on TV tell you what you are worth, because I expect you to dream without limit and reach for those goals. It’s up to us to tell our sons, those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we give glory to achievement, self-respect and hard work. It’s up to us to set these high expectations. And that means meeting those expectations ourselves. That means setting examples of excellence in our own lives.

The second thing we need to do as fathers is pass along the value of empathy to our children. Not sympathy, but empathy — the ability to stand in somebody else’s shoes; to look at the world through their eyes. Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in “us,” that we forget about our obligations to one another. There’s a culture in our society that says remembering these obligations is somehow soft — that we can’t show weakness, and so therefore we can’t show kindness. But our young boys and girls see that. They see when you are ignoring or mistreating your wife. They see when you are inconsiderate at home; or when you are distant; or when you are thinking only of yourself. And so it’s no surprise when we see that behavior in our schools or on our streets. That’s why we pass on the values of empathy and kindness to our children by living them. We need to show our kids that you’re not strong by putting other people down — you’re strong by lifting them up. That’s our responsibility as fathers.

And by the way — it’s a responsibility that also extends to Washington. Because if fathers are doing their part; if they’re taking our responsibilities seriously to be there for their children, and set high expectations for them, and instill in them a sense of excellence and empathy, then our government should meet them halfway. We should be making it easier for fathers who make responsible choices and harder for those who avoid them.

We should get rid of the financial penalties we impose on married couples right now, and start making sure that every dime of child support goes directly to helping children instead of some bureaucrat. We should reward fathers who pay that child support with job training and job opportunities and a larger Earned Income Tax Credit that can help them pay the bills. We should expand programs where registered nurses visit expectant and new mothers and help them learn how to care for themselves before the baby is born and what to do after — programs that have helped increase father involvement, women’s employment and children’s readiness for school. We should help these new families care for their children by expanding maternity and paternity leave, and we should guarantee every worker more paid sick leave so they can stay home to take care of their child without losing their income.

We should take all of these steps to build a strong foundation for our children. But we should also know that even if we do; even if we meet our obligations as fathers and parents; even if Washington does its part, too, we will still face difficult challenges in our lives. There will still be days of struggle and heartache. The rains will still come and the winds will still blow. And that is why the final lesson we must learn as fathers is also the greatest gift we can pass on to our children — and that is the gift of hope. I’m not talking about an idle hope that’s little more than blind optimism or willful ignorance of the problems we face. I’m talking about hope as that spirit inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better is waiting for us if we’re willing to work for it and fight for it. If we are willing to believe.

I was answering questions at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin the other day and a young man raised his hand, and I figured he’d ask about college tuition or energy or maybe the war in Iraq. But instead he looked at me very seriously and he asked, “What does life mean to you?” Now, I have to admit that I wasn’t quite prepared for that one. I think I stammered for a little bit, but then I stopped and gave it some thought, and I said this: When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me — how do I make my way in the world, and how do I become successful and how do I get the things that I want. But now, my life revolves around my two little girls. And what I think about is what kind of world I’m leaving them. Are they living in a country where there’s a huge gap between a few who are wealthy and a whole bunch of people who are struggling every day? Are they living in a country that is still divided by race? A country where, because they’re girls, they don’t have as much opportunity as boys do? Are they living in a country where we are hated around the world because we don’t cooperate effectively with other nations? Are they living a world that is in grave danger because of what we’ve done to its climate? And what I’ve realized is that life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children — all of our children — a better world.

Even if it’s difficult. Even if the work seems great. Even if we don’t get very far in our lifetime. That is our ultimate responsibility as fathers and parents. We try. We hope. We do what we can to build our house upon the sturdiest rock. And when the winds come, and the rains fall, and they beat upon that house, we keep faith that our Father will be there to guide us, and watch over us, and protect us, and lead His children through the darkest of storms into light of a better day. That is my prayer for all of us on this Father’s Day, and that is my hope for this country in the years ahead. May God bless you and your children. Thank you.

Commentary: This is a great speech. I wish every man could hear it. I am equally as critical of White men who abandon their children as I am of Black men, but it is fitting that this speech was delivered to a Black audience where the destruction of the family and the resulting social problems are so severe. I could quibble with his specific prescriptions for government action. Some of his proposals I think are on target, but others I disagree with. His recognition of the problem however is important and long overdue. Also, it is important to recognize that there is a roll for government in addressing the problem.

Since this was a Father's Day speech I am not going to criticise him for not addressing the roll of mothers. Maybe next Mother's Day, he will tell single mothers that it is equally irresponsible to bring children into the world without a father in that child's life. Maybe he will say that there is no excuse for having multiple children by different men. Being a single mother is not something that just happens. Black women must also share the blame for the destruction of the Black family and the state of Black society.

I differ with Senator Obama on several important issues and am not supporting him for President, but if elected I hope he will aggressively pursue an agenda to address Black poverty and the state of the Black family. For too long we as a nation have simply ignored this problem. It is time to do something about it. Recognizing there is a problem is a place to start.

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Obama's Father's Day Speech

Barrack Obama’s Father's Day speech was a breath of fresh air. The state of the Black family is such an incredibly sensitive matter, only a Black person can raise the issue. People tiptoe around the issue when discussing urban policy or anti-poverty initiatives. There is an assumption when talking of Black crime rates, or Black poverty, or Black homeownership rates, or Black school dropout rates that the disparity simply must be due to discrimination. It is considered impolite to point out that Blacks commit more crime, and have poorer credit ratings, and voluntarily drop out of school. To point these things out is considered “blaming the victim” if not downright racist. Political correctness keeps us from talking honestly about the problem of Black poverty.

For most of my adult life I have worked with poor people, and for the last 15 years or so, I have worked as a housing counselor. As a housing counselor, part of what I do is work with low-income people seeking homeownership. I help clients clean up their credit and improve their money management skills, allowing them to become qualified to get a mortgage. I have counseled hundreds of clients. Most of them have been Black, single mothers.

Unfortunately, as I have discovered, having children out of wedlock is the norm in the Black community. More Black children are born to single mothers than to intact families. Black, single mothers do not seem to expect to be married or receive child support. I have counseled women who themselves became single mothers at age 16. While in my counseling program, I have had these same mothers come to me and tell me their own 16-year-old daughter is now pregnant.

It is my conclusion that the primary reason for Black poverty is the self-destructive behavior of Blacks; the single most destructive behavior, in my estimation, is having children out of wedlock. Young boys are less likely to get into trouble and young girls are less likely to get pregnant when there is a father in the home. Also, poverty is a function of income. A family consisting of a household of a mother earning $20,000 a year and a father earning $20,000 and with two children can get by OK; a family consisting of a single mother earning $20,000 with two children is poor.

The legacy of slavery and Jim Crow certainly contributed to the state of the Black family, but the modern culprit is the legacy of the liberal welfare state. Welfare made fathers irrelevant. When mothers could get food stamps, public housing, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children if there was no father in the home, we destroyed the Black family and enslaved Blacks to institutional poverty. In The War on Poverty, poverty won. Welfare changed Black society for the worse.

Welfare reform was certainly an important development and a step in the direction of correcting the mistakes of the past. Unfortunately, it did not go far enough. Since the initial reform there has been backsliding and retreat on this front. Welfare reform alone, however, will not change the Black culture, nor will it change it rapidly. It will take time and a willingness to face the problem. Cultural norms and the way people think do not change overnight.

To make meaningful progress in ending Black poverty, there must be a change in the values of the Black community. I don’t pretend to know how to do this, but a place to start is for Black leaders to admit there is a serious problem within the culture and values of Black society. Blaming society for all of the problems of the Black community relieves the individual of personal responsibility. Black ministers need to challenge their parishioners to end self-destructive behavior. Black men should be shamed for abandoning their children. Single motherhood should not be celebrated. An out of wedlock birth needs to be viewed as a tragedy.

If elected President, Obama may very well end up like other Democrats, advancing the welfare state and keeping Blacks enslaved in poverty and dependency. But from what I read of his Father’s Day speech, he is saying exactly what needs to be said. One speech will not make much difference, but maybe the tide is turning. With a Black leader of Obama’s stature, maybe Black society can reform itself, and Blacks can change these aspects of their culture and join the mainstream of society.

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