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NOTEBOOK
The Systems Formula for Child Rearing
We often hear the words, AToday=s young folk are so different,@ usually followed by descriptions of negative attitudes and behaviors.  Many elders have given up on young people. Do we resign ourselves and accept this as the new reality?
I=m afraid we=ve become spectators to our own lives.  Chart our family and community practices from Africa to present.  They, too, are different. While the dominant culture perceives events as isolated, unrelated occurrences, we must know they are related.   Dr. Asa Hilliard offers guidance to parents on the importance of socialization in his book The Maroon Within Us.
African cultures revered children and involved them in daily life.  Africans believed the infant to be a returning ancestor, hence the reverence and they realized that the infant would grow up to become caretakers of the village.   You may not believe in reincarnation, but nurturing those who will lead your community and world makes sense today.   Rituals, rites of passages, time spent with elders and family duties groomed African children for responsible adulthood.  What can we do today?
Our role as parents has not changed.   The job is more difficult now because the village has been replaced. If we accept as valid the African proverb AIt takes a village to raise a child@ and if we can=t identify the village, do we resign ourselves to being unable to raise our children or do we re-create the village?
From conversations with individuals who work effectively with youth and my own experiences, young people respond positively to respect, individual attention and recognition of their ability.  Adults who listen to them, assist in clarifying their purpose and involve them in real-life problem- solving, gain their trust and respect.
The question, AWhat can we do today?@ is probably similar to the one that was answered with, AA journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.@   Each one of us can apply the systems formula – input plus process equals output – to rearing or relating to children.
If we bake a cake and it turns out hard, we know to make adjustments in ingredients, the temperature of the oven or the length of time it baked.  If a plant dies, we know that the growing conditions were not adequate – the soil or the amount of light and water. 
While Arecipes@ and  Ahow to grow tags@ don=t come with children, social scientists have validated human needs.  They align with values of African social systems which we credit for our ability to not only survive but thrive in spite of slavery and oppression.  The input for child rearing would include spending time, involving the child in family activities, listening, communicating, instilling values, recognizing and developing talents/skills.  A commitment to yielding a good product requires a commitment to make adjustments.  The formula works if you work it.
Since this is the last month of summer vacation, I suggest a project for parents of children five years and over.  Plan with your child a family calendar of activities for the upcoming school year.  Be sure to include activities that develop any interest that you=ve noticed in the child. 
 Teach your child the art of brainstorming and negotiation as the process begins as a wish list and becomes the to-do list after surviving work, school schedules and other commitments and subjected to a values inspection.
Parents and children each take an activity and research what=s needed to make it happen.  Reports can be made and input added at family meetings.  Weekly family meetings are a great way to connect if the dinner table is no longer the gathering place.  Time and length of meetings can be set according to the family=s schedule.  Children learn research, planning and reporting skills in a real-life family situation.  They are involved and their opinions are being heard. 
A project for non-parents is to select one or two children and each time you encounter them; inquire about their day, their likes and dislikes, ask their opinions, acknowledge them for accomplishments – get to know them. 
Monitoring the output and making needed adjustments will move parent and child  from the spectator stands onto the courts and they will be in the process of transforming their lives and re-creating the village.
Next time we=ll look at ways to enjoy after-school hours.  E-mail comments, questions to parentsnotebook@yahoo.com.

Be Safe Out There
By Erma Williams
For the most part, life is full of second chances.  We needn=t worry if we have not yet engaged in daring activities like skydiving or bungee-jumping because, more than likely, there=s always tomorrow.  The same cannot be said about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).  It doesn=t matter whether the disease is treatable or nontreatable; once you have been infected, your life will never be the same.  In some instances, tomorrow never comes.  In those instances that it does, it isn=t the same as yesterday. 
Both domestically and abroad, sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise.  The July 3rd issue of The New York Times reports that AAIDS is the fourth leading cause of death in the world….[a]lmost 12 million young people now have H.I.V., and an additional 6,000 young adults become infected everyday.@  Even more startling is that many people are unaware themselves of being infected.  This is largely because they are not clear on the causes, effects, and symptoms of STDs.  If this is true of you or someone you know, read ahead and pass along the info.
HIV/AIDS is arguably the most dangerous epidemic of all time.  HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is the virus that causes AIDS, and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is the incurable disease.  This terrifying twosome puzzles doctors and researchers alike because they attack without warning.  Slowly but surely, the virus weakens the body=s immune system and makes it less possible for infected persons to fight off other infections and diseases.  People with HIV are diagnosed as having AIDS when CD4 cells (immune cells) fall below 200, or if the cells develop any of the conditions associated with HIV infection.  These conditions include a number of  Aopportunistic@ infections and cancers, as well as brain and nervous system disorders.  Symptoms vary from person to person; in fact, some people have none.  However, you can be affected for years without having symptoms. Generally speaking, common symptoms include:
? swollen glands in the neck, armpit    or groin
? continued fever or night sweats
? weight loss of more than 10 pounds    which is not due to dieting or
   increased physical activity
? heavy, continual dry cough that is    not from smoking or that has lasted    too long to be a cold or flu
? increasing shortness of breath
? continuing bouts of diarrhea
? thrush, a thick whitish coating on    the tongue or in the throat, which    may be accompanied by a sore throat
? recurring vaginal yeast infections
? unexplained skin rashes like psoriasis                
 or seborrhea
? herpes infections that last longer than 
  usual

STDs, also known as STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections), increase your chances of developing HIV/AIDS because, among other things, they raise the amount of HIV in the semen and vaginal fluids of people infected with HIV.  STDs can be passed from one person to another through vaginal, anal or oral intercourse.  They can also be passed through sharing needles for injection of drugs, steroids, vitamins, body piercing or tattoos.  There are many STDs.  Besides HIV/AIDS, the most common ones are chlamydia, herpes, HPV, gonorrhea, syphilis, and hepatitis B.

1.  Chlamydia:
-The fastest-growing STD in the U.S.
-Most people with chlamydia don=t       have symptoms
-Possible symptoms include an unusual
 genital discharge, pain and burns
 during urination
-Treated and cured with antibiotics

-Can cause sterility in both men and       women if not treated

2. Herpes:
-Can be passed through kissing,
 intimate touching and unprotected sex
-Symptoms include an itching or

Progressive & Regressive taxes describe tax tables, not a political opinion.  They are mathematical functions.   In a progressive tax, the more you earn, the higher your tax rate. In a regressive tax, the less you earn, the higher your tax rate. The classic progressive tax is income tax. The classic regressive tax is sales tax.
Combined with this tax  theory and these examples, a great deal can be deduced about economics and politics. Because most people are involved in preparing their progressive federal income taxes, it is fairly well understood.   And because most people are not involved in calculating their regressive taxes, they are fairly poorly understood.   So we will concentrate on explaining regressive taxes, and how the two combine to make up our system, and most systems of taxation.
All known functioning systems of taxation have a balance of progressive and regressive taxes.   This idea is almost never debated, the debates are over where the balance point should be, how much burden should be on the Arich@, and how much burden on the Amiddle@ and Apoor@.  In a progressive tax, the more you earn, the higher your tax rate. In a regressive tax, the less you earn, the higher your tax rate. Progressive taxes soak the rich, regressive taxes soak the poor.  
An example of why sales tax is regressive.  
Let=s imagine two frugal traveling salesmen.   They each have to buy a new car every four years to keep up appearances, and they need reliable transportation. (One guy makes 20K, the other 300K). Run the numbers on the RATE of total income each pays on 5% sales tax.   Poor Boy buys a $20,000 car pays $1000 or 5.0% of his income. Rich Boy buys a $60,000 car pays $3000 or 1.0% of his income. Poor Boy has 5 times the tax bite, or rate of tax on a car.   Rich Boy hardly feels sales taxes.   Then run the numbers on a $30 pair of Levi=s, and the tax-rate discrepancy triples.   Sales tax is NOT a flat tax.
Let=s look at other examples of regressive taxes and fees. Most per-unit taxes are regressive.   For example, in real estate, a $1,000/yr per lot assessment fee is not uncommon in some areas (for things like fire and sewer, etc). That=s a fair chunk for a $200,000 home, hardly nothing for a $2,000,000 home in the same assessment district.  
Complications
These have a moral or arguable aspect.   Groceries, drugs and some necessities are rarely taxed for moral reasons because of a compounding problem found with the truly poor that has to do with disposable income. That is a family that earns less than $25,000, has almost none.   They may be forced to spend say, 25% of their income on groceries, no choice.  A family earning $100K hardly feels the grocery bill in comparison. This is because even a family that earns say $50,000 has potentially $25,000 disposable if they chose to live as cheaply as the $25K family. This could be funneled into tax shelters. And Rich Boy often chooses to spend most of his money in ways that avoid sales taxes, such as on his gardener, nanny, pool cleaner, chauffeur, accountant, lawyer, and other labor-based services, as well as his European vacation and any investments. Poor Boy has no such choice, his income must go to taxable consumer goods.   These complications amplify the Apure@ qualities of regressive taxation theory.
Follow the money. Why should the rich pay more? Some say, for the same reason John Dillinger robbed banks: because that=s where the money is.   There is some logic to that, the richest 2% control in the ballpark of 40% of the private wealth in the USA.   Others say, Abecause they can afford it.@ Others who complain about progressive taxes say it=s because people want Arevenge on the rich@, or it=s Aclass envy@.   Or they say, AWhy should the successful people be penalized?@ That is an interesting take on reality.
But there is one argument that is not often seen, the Afollow the money@, or follow the tax money argument. Simply put, it says you get what you pay for.   It says that if you eat a gourmet meal, you have purchased an entirely different meal (not just more of it) than for a McDonald=s Happy Meal.  
We claim that progressive taxes buy Rich Boy toys, regressive taxes buy Poor Boy toys.   We say fair is fair.   To test this idea, we follow the tax money.   Progressive taxes (such as income taxes) pay mostly for Rich Boy toys: Desert Storm, Cold War, gunboat diplomacy, the Fed=s infinite labor pool (WANTED: unemployment) and any related poverty, NAFTA, GATT, free trade agreements, interstate freeways, national parks, FBI, CIA, a hot-shot standing military, etc.   And regressive taxes (mostly local sales taxes and fees) go for Poor Boy toys: local roads, hospitals, schools, local parks, libraries, cops, city/county councils, fire fighting, etc. If Atoys@ sound too flippant, feel free to swap with a term that rings true for you, such as Atools of the trade@, or Aeconomic infrastructures.@
Perhaps taxes are like any other transaction,bundled. When you buy a set of tires or a meal at a restaurant, you are paying for employee theft, drunk employees, security, air-conditioning, accountants, and stupid business moves, etc. that you may disapprove of.  All are bundled into the cost of doing business and it=s not on your invoice.  There is no free lunch.   Some say that the American meal is the best meal in the world.   If you have eaten of it, pay your debts, and don=t try and sneak out the back door.  
The tricky balance of money and power.

Taxes are also used to tune the economy.  One of the main functions of taxation is to balance the flow of money between the employer and the employee. This keeps the money from accumulating on one end or the other and crashing the economy or altering the basic structure of democratic capitalism as we know it.   For example, many people argue that in the late 1970=s the employees had too much power and money.   Their wages were outpacing inflation and they were paying off their debt with little dollars.     And that now in the 1990=s via the great redistribution of wealth caused by cutting taxes for the wealthiest in half, and Afiring the unions@, some argue that the employers have too much power and money.   History will tell. What is tricky in this balance is that the power follows the money and the money follows the power.   So when the economic scale starts to tip, it tends to accelerate.   It=s very sensitive.
Taxes are also used in other ways to direct the economy. For example, if the government feels that a certain direction is in the national interest, tax shelters may be opened in that direction.   This could be of benefit to compensate for the market=s well known shortsightedness and directionlessness caused by its preoccupation with short-term gains. (Ten years is not a long time.)
Beware of the so-called tax cut. The tax cut is a funny way of managing a household.   It=s like deciding that you are spending too much money, so you ask your boss for a wage cut.   Perhaps the best way to stop spending too much money is to stop spending too much money.   What an idea!   Fix or cut the wasteful programs.   Sometimes a tax cut is not really a tax cut.   That=s because there is no free lunch.   If a needed program is blindly defunded, then the money has to come from somewhere. Often if it=s a federal program that is defunded, the slack is taken up by local (largely regressive) taxes.
What we have is not a tax cut, but a tax shift, from the Rich Boys debt onto the Poor Boy=s shoulders. In 1996 a federal across-the-board Atax cut@ was popular in certain circles.   Here is how cutting progressive (income) taxes might have affected you: If you made 36K, Dole’s 15% Acut@ takes $320/year less from you.   But if local sales taxes edge up 1% to make up, you just lost money.   Beware of the free lunch. While most Rich Boys don=t want the Poor Boys to shoulder their debts, keep in mind that for many of the very Rich Boys, that’s part of their job.   That’s just simple economics.

August 17, 1887-June 10, 1940
Founder, Universal Negro Improvement Association
Marcus Moziah Garvey was born August 17, 1887 in St. Ann=s Bay,  Jamaica, to Marcus and Sarah Garvey. His father was a stonemason and the family did some subsistence farming. After leaving school at 14, he served as a printer=s apprentice in his godfather=s business. When he was 16 he moved to Kingston, where his political interests were sparked in the Jamaican anticolonial and nationalist movement. He then moved to Costa Rica in search of work, and traveled through Central America and Europe until he settled in England in 1913. There he worked for Dusé Mohammed Ali on the successful Pan-African journal Africa Times and Orient Review.
In 1914, Garvey returned to Jamaica. On July 20, he began the UNIA in Kingston. Admittedly influenced by Booker T. Washington and his autobiographical Up From Slavery, Garvey wanted to create an industrial training school, much like Tuskegee. Garvey envisioned an organization dedicated to racial upliftment, one that would Aembrace the purpose of all black humanity.@ Disappointed with his limited success, Garvey went to New York on March 23, 1916, planning to raise funds and lecture throughout the country. After delivering speeches around Canada and the United States, he came to Harlem in 1917, where he became known for his street speeches. The UNIA was incorporated in July 1918 and based its new headquarters, Liberty Hall, in Harlem.
The massive migration of black southerners to northern cities, triggered by the industrial demands of World War I, energized black urban life and stimulated racial consciousness, providing a vital outlet for the growth of Garvey=s organization. At the same time, black participation in World War I, the war Ato make the world safe for democracy@ enticed black political aspirations. Wartime hopes, however, were quickly eclipsed by the racial violence and lynchings that followed in the summer of 1919, underscoring the incongruity of America=s democratic ideals and the determination of whites to maintain white supremacy.
Garvey=s ideas particularly resonated with African-Americans during the postwar period. At the core of Garvey=s program was an emphasis on black economic self-reliance, black people=s rights to political self-determination, and the founding of a black nation on the continent of Africa. Garvey=s charismatic style, and the magnificent UNIA parades of uniformed corps of UNIA Black Cross nurses, legions, and other divisions, celebrated blackness and racial pride. Garvey urged black people to take control of their destiny: AThere shall be no solution to this race problem until you yourselves strike the blow for liberty.@
The UNIA movement won broad support in New York=s black community, and Garvey quickly gained national and international prominence. Within a year, UNIA chapters were created throughout the United States, and in Central and South America, the West Indies, West Africa, England, and Canada. The UNIA created the Negro Factories Corporation in 1918, which supported the development of black-owned businesses, including a black doll factory, which employed more than a thousand African Americans. The UNIA also began publishing the Negro World Weekly, which became the most widely distributed African diasporic publication.
Perhaps the largest endeavor of the UNIA was the Black Star Line, a steamship enterprise intended to provide a means for African-Americans to return to Africa while also enabling black people around the Atlantic to exchange goods and services. The company=s three ships (one called the SS Frederick Douglass) were owned and operated by black people and made travel and trade possible between their United States, Caribbean, Central American, and African stops. The economically independent Black Star Line was a symbol of pride for blacks and seemed to attract more members to the UNIA.
In August 1920,  25,000 people attended the first UNIA convention in New York=s Madison Square Garden. There, Garvey was elected president-general of the organization, and the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World was written. Members of the convention outlined the formal organization and leadership, calling for a commissioner of each chapter area. The document demanded that black schoolchildren should be taught African history. The convention produced an anthemCthe Universal Ethiopian AnthemCand red, black, and green became the colors of African peoples. Around this time, a UNIA leader was sent to Liberia to develop further Garvey=s idea for a colony there.

As a result of large financial obligations and managerial errors, the Black Star Line failed in 1921 and ended operations. Constant criticism from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) (most visibly from member W. E. B. DuBois) and U.S. government opposition took its toll on the UNIA. Early in 1922, Garvey was indicted on mail fraud charges regarding the Black Star Line=s stock sale. He was convicted and given a maximum prison sentence of five years by Judge Julian Mack, also an NAACP member. In 1925, Garvey lost his appeal and entered the Atlanta federal penitentiary.
Garvey=s second wife, Amy Jacques Garvey, led a national campaign for Garvey=s release. During this time, she also edited and published two volumes of his speeches and writings titled Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (1923 and 1925). The petition drive succeeded in winning Garvey=s release in 1927. He was immediately deported to Jamaica and barred from entering the United States again. In Jamaica, Garvey held two more UNIA conventions. He also started two publications: Black Man, a monthly magazine, and the New Jamaican. But controlling and leading the different international branches from Jamaica proved difficult. A core group in the United States, continued to support Garvey; they published the Negro World into the 1930s. Garvey, however, turned to Jamaican politics. He lost a race for a colonial legislative council seat in 1930. He did, however, sit on the municipal council of Jamaica=s capital.
Garvey moved to London in 1935. For the next few years, he held annual conventions in Canada and continued to publish Black Man.
After suffering a second stroke on June 10, 1940, Garvey died, having fathered two sons with Amy Jacques Garvey, Marcus Jr., and Julius. Since his death, his leadership and significance continued to be influential and was recognized around the world. In the United States, Garveyism was central to the development of black consciousness and pride at the core of the 20th-century freedom movement. The Jamaican Rastafarian movement and the United States Nation of Islam both grew out of and have been influenced by the UNIA. Jamaica named Garvey its first national hero. 
Marcus Garvey was only 53 years old when he died.  At its peak, the UNIA had a membership of upwards of 4 million people.