it's going down...

As an educator, and resident of the Bayou State, I have to say that I've been amazed by some of the things that I've seen and heard. Having recently made it through a year of furlough, four years of no merit raises, rising insurance, etc., I sometimes find myself at a loss of words for the experience that I've had thus far. Thankfully, someone else has the words...

“As Louisiana struggles to escape the bottom of nearly every metric of human need, we deserve only the best efforts of our elected leaders," said Ann Silverberg Williamson, director of the Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations, a BCBL founding member. "We have to ask if implausible and potentially disastrous political theatrics like this meet that high standard."

Political Theater a Poor Choice for Louisiana in Fiscal Crisis

It Has to be Said...Again

Poop on Pat Robertson, and all of his ilk. That is all.

Well, Coming Back

It took a minute, but I'm getting back on it.

Treat Em Right - Chubb Rock

Post Election Darwin Award Winners

Ahhh...

Smell the mediocrity....

2 dead in argument after Alabama-LSU game

The F Word

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Now playing: Cannibal OX - The F-Word
via FoxyTunes
After buying this car in September of 2004, and being slapped by the results of the '04 election, I put the two stickers above on my bumper. I can now retire them both (and yes, I shoulda retired that Kerry Edward deal a long time ago).

Now let's not be naive. All of this talk about what awaits the President Elect, Barack Hussein Obama, is really about what awaits us all. Barack Obama, while a cool dude that digs Hip Hop, is not magic. And his election is not manna from heaven. It is however a significant moment, not just for Americans of African descent, but for all progressive people worldwide (IMHO) - as well as a catalyst for the civil discourse and activism that needs to happen in this country, in a major way. After all, it's a government of the people, by the people, for the people, not a government led around like a child on a tether. In short, we gotta get involved.

If cementing this historic moment, bringing America to earnestly bear and face the injustices borne upon the indigenous peoples of this land, and those that were brought to it, and honoring the lives lost to make November 4, 2008 a reality, then we can't sit around waiting for 'ish to happen. Apathy and willfull ignorance are not cute. And after 8 years of people bitchin' and bemoanin' G Dub, and by extension all Republicans, you'd think that people would be out getting their New Millenial Hustle on. But I've heard a few folks talking about what Obama needs to do for the people. To which I say, "Ask Not!"Get up off of your culo and haga algo! Do it for yourself, for your folks on lock, and those that have passed on.

While I'm an admitted cynic, and conspiracy theorist, I respect a concerted show of force. SNCC and the SCLC did it, The Black Panthers did it, and the American people did it to the tune of 349 Electoral votes; which translates to over 63 million votes. What Lil' Wayne know about A-millie?

So keep participating. If you really want this country to be the one that every émigré or immigrant (forced or otherwise) believes it can/should be, raise hell, raise consciousness, raise kids, and let your (freak) flag fly. I know that it doesn't seem like it at times (Kathryn Johnston, Sean Bell, Latasha Harlins, etc.) but we are all one nation under the influence of the possibility of something better. But you gotta be willing to go and get it. Let's get it.

First Loser

First Loser

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Reading Is Fundamental...Yezzzurrr

It's Been A Long Time (A.K.A. Dispatches From Redneckia)

Or How I Came to Believe in America

I got up early this morning (5 O'Clock to be exact), voted shortly after 6, came back home, chopped it up with the wife, and went work. I got to campus around 7:40am and saw a line of students, and the university prezi, waiting to vote. And now....

Damn! Right? I mean, this is crazy. In preparing the above graphic, the Electoral Votes rolled over into oblivion, and now a U.S. President of definitive African descent will be inaugurated in January of 2009. And as I type this, 338 Electoral Votes and counting.....Someone wake up Ronnie Raygun, and show him what a real mandate looks like.

BARACK OBAMA MAKES HISTORY 11:11 pm

Precincts Reporting: 65%

	Name	Votes	Vote %	Electoral votes
	Obama	45,623,830	51	338
	McCain	42,512,171	48	129

This is indeed my J.F.K. moment. I will never forget this moment. I will never forget Louisiana, and I will never forget the realization that America could potentially live up to it's expectation.
I've never had a reason to consider my pride in this country. As the grandson of a Korean War vet, the son of ex-military man, and the direct relative of a victim in what is considered the last mass lynching in America, I am beginning to be proud of America - in the truest sense.

I'm a brown man with blue-state tendencies, in a red state, and I imagine that after the shock wears off, this area will be abuzz.



Excuse me, my President Elect is on television. I'll finish this later.

pea©e

drék

What it Look Like?

Will wonders never cease to amaze?

I know that it's been a while since I've written, but I've been a little preoccupied. And since I've definitely been doing more than that, I haven't been able to get comfortable yet. Louisiana, not unlike Georgia, is still very much The South. While there are some areas, and individuals, that have upped the multi-culti, metropolitan quotient, there are still the mud-bogging, uncomfortable-staring individuals that just aren't use to certain people. But those folks seem to be far and few between.

So imagine my surprise, as I luxuriated in my summer break and stumlbed across this a week ago on CNN. A(n) (alleged) hate crime in Denham Springs, Louisiana? After the Jena 6 debacle? That doesn't sound right. But alas, it's real. And I'll be damned if I didn't hear about another incident here in Ruston, LA via KTVE, NBC10. This latest incident involves a young single mother that relocated to Ruston after her fiancee was killed in New Orleans, and weathering Katrina. For her trouble, she came home to find a noose swinging on her front porch last Friday.

The story is still pretty fresh, as the news just reported it today, so shades of Tawana Brawley have yet to emerge. And the Denham Springs deal hasn't been resolved as of yet either.

I honestly don't know what's worse. The fact that this possibly happened in an areas still reeling from Katrina's aftermath, and in a time this country is being redefined via the current presidential race, or that the young mother in Denham Springs appears to refer to herself as "colored" (I'm hoping that I misheard that).

Now, I'm not naive. As I said before, this is The South: big trucks, deer hunting, fried food, and 5foot Confederate flags flying behind speeding Ford 150's that bump the new Kanye West. It's a strange land - America and The South. It's a land where Barack Obama can get overwhelming support, but so many things on the ground level are still segregated. It's even more telling, for what it's worth, that one of the offenders in the Denham Springs case cited a desire to do harm to the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States.

These are the times that try both men's and women's souls. And while I don't want to put a lot on it, but I believe that these incidents not only represent things as they've always been, but a sign of things to come. The Boot Camp Clik said that Headz Ain't Redee, and maybe, just maybe they were right.

The true American Crisis concerns how to get people to acknowledge differences and discuss them with an even temper, and open mind. Misspoken or not, people are bitter, and scared, anxious, ignorant (most often willfully), and drunk. The real revolution is upon us. And yet again, notions of freedom and democracy will be tested. If we can export this things to other countries; countries that haven't explicitly asked that we deliver them, then surely we can give them to ourselves.