Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

Returning Home for Healing
In case you missed it, the November 16, 2005 issue of Our Time Press is must reading for parents.  Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary’s ‘s work on Post- traumatic Slave Syndrome and the reprint of a 1998 lecture by Professor Amos Wilson combine as a commanding call to African-Americans.   Dr. Leary makes clear the case for the effect of emotional trauma inflicted during slavery that continues in various behaviors today.   She calls on us to,  “Let the healing begin.” In his lecture, Professor Wilson cautions that without a good concept to guide behavior, we’re always reacting to what other people are doing.   He counsels that our consciousness creates our world, thereby giving us responsibility and power in the matter.  “If we transform ourselves, they (whites) will be transformed automatically.”
The transformation of a nation begins in the homes of its people is the Parent’s Notebook slogan.  The work with parents is totally geared toward shifting the focus from being a victim and power struggles to discovering and unleashing potential in us and our children.    We engage parents in transforming themselves in order to transform their family.  In a safe space, free of competitiveness and demoralizing attitudes, parents are accepted, acknowledged and appreciated, creating space for them to nurture their children.  And most significantly, in this era of outsourcing responsibility and power, we’re reinstating home as the major influence in the lives of children.
Shifting our consciousness regarding home we discover an exciting living lab.  The slower days of summer are a good time for a makeover. There are key elements for the transformation.   Self-esteem is the fundamental one.
Dr. Leary’s work clearly illustrates the damage wreaked on the African American’s sense of self-worth.  The good news is the self is still intact – it’s just a matter of removing the debris that has accumulated over time.  The bad news is that too often we can’t summon the courage to acknowledge we’re affected.  We’re caught up in this culture’s looking good syndrome.  Incidents of emotionally damaging acts are not addressed within our families or in organizations.
Physical, sexual or verbal abuse can no longer be rationalized, justified or ignored.  Making statements that blame, shame, label or ridicule children indicates the presence of debris.  It is a behavior that contributes to the dismal statistics on our young people. The logical place to start is within the smallest unit, the home. We can no longer send emotionally damaged children into a world that we say is dominated by a powerful enemy.
Boosting self-esteem involves listening and acknowledging feelings.  If emotions can be faced and accepted, they move on, otherwise ,they become baggage – preventing total self-expression.  If we can confront and accept our fears and hurts, we create space for our children to do the same.  Don’t brush off upsets.  Listen, asking questions in order to understand the feelings and the child’s point of view.  What happened is not as important as what your child feels about what happened.
Show respect to children as you would to an adult, saying “please”, “thank you”, “excuse me”.  Find things to compliment quick and often.  Understand that adults and young people make mistakes.  Say “I’m sorry” when the mistake is yours.  Honor the unique abilities and personalities of each child. Don’t compare them to anyone else, not even a sibling.   Let them know it’s all right to be different.   Encourage them to pursue what they’re good at, not what you wish they were good at.
Organizing a home that boosts self-esteem would also include assigning responsibilities in maintaining the home commonly referred to and avoided as chores.  Chores teach responsibility for one’s environment and experience in doing a task well.  Of course, acknowledgements of the performance is necessary.  If it’s appreciated, the child gets that s/he is a worthwhile contributor, otherwise, it’s slave labor.
In Home Works! parents discover their children’s innate intelligences and organize compatible tasks and activities at home and in the community that further develops them.  The parent becomes the primary advocate for the child’s self-expression, an area our schools with its standardized assessments fail miserably.  As we take responsibility for unleashing our children’s greatness, we honor the ancestors and take charge of our destiny.  For info on multiple intelligences in laymen terms, e-mail the parentsnotebook@yahoo.com or call 718-783-4432.

(Brooklyn, NY -June 26, 2006) –  the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office saluted the late Andrew W. Cooper, founder and publisher of the award-winning Brooklyn-based Black newspaper The City  Sun, with a proclamation of Andrew Wells Cooper Memorial Day in Brooklyn USA  on June 22 during a reception for the Andrew W. Cooper Young Journalists in  Training (YJIT) Program at St. Francis College.
The Andrew W. Cooper Young Journalists In Training (YJIT)  Program, scheduled to be formally launched during the 2006-2007 academic year as  a credited program at St. Francis College, offers diverse groups of students  academic training, opportunities for internships and access to media decision-makers as they explore careers in journalism. YJIT honors Cooper’s legacy by  encouraging young people to confront social injustice through journalism in the  style of The City Sun, whose motto  was “Speaking Truth to Power.” In 1977, Mr. Cooper also  fo unded      Trans Urban News  Service (TNS), which focused on training   Hispanic, Asian and   female journalists as well as others underrepresented in the mainstream media. Andrea  Andrews, daughter of Cooper, with her mother Jocelyn Cooper, his widow,  established YJIT with St. Francis College.
YJIT includes three components, specifically training, lectures and  internships. Working in collaboration with the college’s Office of Career  Development, YJIT will connect participating students with opportunities to seek  full-time jobs in the media industry.  For more information about the Andrew W. Cooper Young Journalists in  Training Program, contact the Office of Development at St. Francis College,  (718) 489-5483.

Stanley Kinard
Summer of Political Education
The School year is now officially over and we must now focus our attention on educating our people regarding the political process that is taking place in our community. Last week, Councilman Charles Barron, a candidate for congress in the 10th Congressional District, rocked an audience of over three thousand at the graduation being held at the Boys and Girls High School’s Class of 2006.  Principal Emeritus Frank Mickens introduced Barron as the only Black- elected official that reached out to him upon his retirement after thirty-seven years of service to the New York City Department of Education. Through Barron’s support, Mickens now sits as a senior fellow and professor at Baruch College.
Councilman Barron began his speech by challenging the students to love their Blackness, and to embrace their culture. He brought the audience to their feet when he performed a rap song that he wrote in the late 80’s called the “Rapping Daddies”. This is the same enthusiastic response that Councilman Barron receives, whether he is speaking before seniors, public housing residents, homeowners or members of the Hip- Hop community.
The Charles Barron for Congress Campaign is for real. It presents a great challenge to Black Brooklyn’s “Business as Usual” political establishment. People from around the city view this campaign as a movement, and have created a buzz around town. Some of Brooklyn’s most prominent ministers, educators, artists, and civic leaders have embraced   Barron’s candidacy. They recognize the value of a powerful leader like Charles Barron in Congress. Councilman Barron distinguished himself as a first-term legislator, helping to pass four budgets, co-sponsoring progressive legislation which led to the passage of a living wage, lead paint and predatory lending bills. He has brought millions of dollars into his district, along with leading the charge that brought twenty-eight million dollars to address the crisis of Black male unemployment.
Barron has always promoted Black political empowerment through both his actions and advocacy. He is the only council member that supported a Black person as Speaker of the City Council. He also supported C. Virginia Fields for Mayor, while most of Brooklyn’s political leadership supported Gifford Miller. He currently supports Charlie King for New York State Attorney General, while most of the entrenched political leaders are supporting Andrew Cuomo for this position. Brooklyn’s Black population is the largest in New York City, and Kings is the largest Democratic county in the United States. According to Barron, “White men have too much power in all aspects of government.”
His candidacy is really about launching a movement for Black political empowerment. Mr. Barron was recently cited in the Gleaner Newspaper in Jamaica, West Indies, for being the only member of the New York City Council to submit the necessary documents that led to the co-naming of Church Avenue to Bob Marley Boulevard. According to Councilman Barron, “This was a no-brainer. Bob Marley is a world leader, revolutionary artist and one of my personal heroes.” He went on invoking Marley’s spirit in reciting a verse from “Redemption Song”: “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.
The 10th Congressional District’s campaign may be our redemption song, and allow us to finally fulfill the book. The summer of political activity must be about us freeing our minds and becoming educated about what is best for our community. Thus far, the current incumbent, Ed Towns, has refused to engage in a congressional debate. It is time to emancipate ourselves from mental and political slavery.

As a male mentor, school leadership trainer and facilitator for parenting workshops, Rodney Rahim Deas is attuned to the vast problems that Black communities in Brooklyn are facing such as a lack of access to quality health care, lack of affordable housing and gentrification, poor- performing schools, high unemployment rates and increased male imprisonment.
And like the hundreds of other concerned Brooklynites who packed the  sanctuary at Concord Baptist Church of Christ on Saturday, June 17, 2006, Deas also realized the urgency of attending the Black Brooklyn Empowerment Convention 2006.
The convention, running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., brought together clergy, parishioners, elected officials, educators, law-enforcement officers, healthcare workers, community activists and members of grassroots organizations to hear the highlights and recommendations/action plans for the policy agenda, which covered Health and Human Services, Housing and Economic Development, Education and Higher Education, Criminal Justice and Public Safety, the Judicial System, Securing Our Institutions, Civic Engagement and Voting Rights, Black Culture and Values,  and International Affairs and Immigration.
Councilman Albert Vann (Democrat, 36th District) moderated the daylong event in between keynote speeches and special singing selections.  Dr. Dexter McKenzie, Devina Bailey and George Mitchell were the first presenters who addressed Health & Human Services. One of the startling facts they pointed out is  that heart disease, cancer and AIDS cause the most deaths  among Brooklyns residents. The death rates for all causes were higher in the borough than in New York City as a whole, particularly for AIDS, diabetes and homicide. Among their recommendations for countering the issues of health and human services, they listed creating an insurance co-op for small businesses and individuals to enable the purchase of group health insurance at affordable rates, focusing special attention on HIV/AIDS education and prevention, and creating activities to reinforce healthy habits.
Peter Williams and Dr. Lois Blades-Rosado discussed Housing and Economic Development. The consensus of their committee’s findings with regard to housing was that Black Brooklyn’s commercial corridors are vital hubs of economic activity. They also found that most properties on commercial strips are owned by absentee landlords with little interest in investing in revitalization, and many commercial properties are in poor condition, underdeveloped and underutilized. Williams and Blades-Rosado pointed out that many of the Black businesses in Brooklyn suffer because they don’t have enough capital to sustain themselves, have poor management and customer service, and are overcrowded with barbershops, beauty salons and nail salons. With adequate funding, training, and direction, they are optimistic.
“Clearly, we have the opportunity to create our own destiny,” Williams said. “We want to make sure we can be economically self- sufficient.”
Blades-Rosado echoed Williams’ comments, adding: “We need to teach our youth that they can create legal jobs and they can work for themselves. We need to be power brokers.”
Williams and Blades-Rosado’s committee came up with several action plans, including promoting and marketing businesses, increasing Black ownership of commercial real estate    and creating merchants associations, business improvement districts and local chambers of commerce, among some ways to giving Black Brooklynites more economic power and commercial  control.
Dr. Lester Young  and Dean Richard Jones presented the Education and Higher Education cluster, noting that 60 percent of Black Brooklyn’s middle school population live in communities where the achievement rate ranges from 42 percent to a low of only 11 percent at the established standard and that 42 percent of Black Brooklyn’s high school ninth- graders don’t make it to their senior year in the traditional four-year time frame.
Young said the committee asked themselves, “How can students be doing unsatisfactory and the teachers get all satisfactory ratings?” To this, he answered: “Our students are smart and talented. It’s the school’s responsibility to bring this out.”
He also addressed accountability and governance. “We can’t wait for the scores to come out,” Young announced. “We have to have an accountability structure to ourselves and in the schools. We need a system that corrects the problem when it occurs – not after the fact.”
The committee recommended creating a school climate that assists students of African decent to identify with learning, in general, and school, in particular, by consistently pointing to the students’ academic potential and the rich history of Black accomplishment as well as helping teachers understand the importance of establishing close personal relationships with their students and creating after-school and summer programs that include Rites of Passage programs, talents and interests, career development, and sports.
Senator Velmanette Montgomery (18th District) later approached the podium with a hardy welcome. “I’m so happy to see the sanctuary filled with people who care about what’s going on now and for the future. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? We want to be your partners. We want you to be our partners. Together, we can do anything.”
As the first keynote speaker for the convention, Karen Boykin Towns,  president of the Brooklyn Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said “With the smarts and access to opportunity that we have today ,there is no reason  why we can’t work and turn things around for our community. We must put aside individual differences. Our collective voices must be heard. Let’s get our house in order today.”
Although he wasn’t scheduled  to speak, Minister Kevin Muhammad was invited to say a few words – which were welcomed by the audience as they clapped and beckoned him to step to the microphone. In his brief but powerful message, Muhammad first spoke to the women: “You must rise up in the reverence of our morality because nation’s come out of your womb,” said Muhammad, the New York Representative of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the minister of  Muhammad Mosque No. 7 in Harlem. Pointing out how important it is that the Black youth know all about their people’s past, Muhammad insisted that, “We must teach slavery in the public school system. We know about everybody else’s suffering.”
The presentation of the clusters continued with Dr. Zulema Blair, Dr. Divine Pryor,and Eddie Ellis addressing Criminal Justice and Public Safety. “Every time we send one of our Black men to prison, you send your tax dollars and your human capital,” said Pryor, who is formerly incarcerated and serves as the executive director of NuVisions. “There has been a massive buildup of incarcerations over the last 30 years. Our young people are being prepared to go to prison.” Pryor also pointed out that Black men coming home from prison haven’t been prepared to reenter society.
Pryor’s committee came up with several recommendations to deal with these concerns such as monitoring police officers and prosecution practices of Brooklyn’s District Attorney by Black-elected officials and advocates, the development of risk assessment tools that determine the public safety risk of everyone returning to the community from prison, and conducting community and legislative hearings to address legal, legislative and regulatory obstacles to resettle successfully.
The Judicial System cluster was presented by Paul Wooten, Esq. and Dr. Esmeralda Simmons, who both stressed the overwhelming disparity of Black judges in New York. Of the 60 members appointed by the governor to the New York State Court of Claims, only one is Black. There are only two Black Brooklyn Criminal Court judges of the 14 on the bench. The New York State Court of Appeals has eight statewide appointments by the governor and only one is Black. Among the recommendations to add more Blacks to the bench, the committee offered to actively oppose the merit selection or appointive selection of judges, publicize judicial delegates at the earliest opportunity, allow judicial candidates to address the judicial convention and advocate at the earliest opportunity,  create two days for the judicial conventions with meetings in the evening so that delegates could make the conventions.
Simmons offered a word of advice to lawyers looking to become judges: “Start practicing in the court you want to be a judge in.”
By the conclusion of the convention, all nine clusters were reviewed and ratified with plans for a postconvention meeting. Deas was glad that he attended. So was Naquan A.H. Muhammad. “Anytime we can pull people together for cultural issues is always a wonderful thing,” says Muhammad, CEO and president of Black Men Who Care, Inc. “But we need to start to bring a solution to reach the people who weren’t at the conference because these people are mostly affected by the issues.”

“We Have the Opportunity to Create Our Own Destiny” – Peter Williams
By Feona Sharhran Huff
As a male mentor, school leadership trainer and facilitator for parenting workshops, Rodney Rahim Deas is attuned to the vast problems that Black communities in Brooklyn are facing such as a lack of access to quality health care, lack of affordable housing and gentrification, poor- performing schools, high unemployment rates and increased male imprisonment.
And like the hundreds of other concerned Brooklynites who packed the  sanctuary at Concord Baptist Church of Christ on Saturday, June 17, 2006, Deas also realized the urgency of attending the Black Brooklyn Empowerment Convention 2006.
The convention, running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., brought together clergy, parishioners, elected officials, educators, law-enforcement officers, healthcare workers, community activists and members of grassroots organizations to hear the highlights and recommendations/action plans for the policy agenda, which covered Health and Human Services, Housing and Economic Development, Education and Higher Education, Criminal Justice and Public Safety, the Judicial System, Securing Our Institutions, Civic Engagement and Voting Rights, Black Culture and Values,  and International Affairs and Immigration.
Councilman Albert Vann (Democrat, 36th District) moderated the daylong event in between keynote speeches and special singing selections.  Dr. Dexter McKenzie, Devina Bailey and George Mitchell were the first presenters who addressed Health & Human Services. One of the startling facts they pointed out is  that heart disease, cancer and AIDS cause the most deaths  among Brooklyns residents. The death rates for all causes were higher in the borough than in New York City as a whole, particularly for AIDS, diabetes and homicide. Among their recommendations for countering the issues of health and human services, they listed creating an insurance co-op for small businesses and individuals to enable the purchase of group health insurance at affordable rates, focusing special attention on HIV/AIDS education and prevention, and creating activities to reinforce healthy habits.
Peter Williams and Dr. Lois Blades-Rosado discussed Housing and Economic Development. The consensus of their committee’s findings with regard to housing was that Black Brooklyn’s commercial corridors are vital hubs of economic activity. They also found that most properties on commercial strips are owned by absentee landlords with little interest in investing in revitalization, and many commercial properties are in poor condition, underdeveloped and underutilized. Williams and Blades-Rosado pointed out that many of the Black businesses in Brooklyn suffer because they don’t have enough capital to sustain themselves, have poor management and customer service, and are overcrowded with barbershops, beauty salons and nail salons. With adequate funding, training, and direction, they are optimistic.
“Clearly, we have the opportunity to create our own destiny,” Williams said. “We want to make sure we can be economically self- sufficient.”
Blades-Rosado echoed Williams’ comments, adding: “We need to teach our youth that they can create legal jobs and they can work for themselves. We need to be power brokers.”
Williams and Blades-Rosado’s committee came up with several action plans, including promoting and marketing businesses, increasing Black ownership of commercial real estate    and creating merchants associations, business improvement districts and local chambers of commerce, among some ways to giving Black Brooklynites more economic power and commercial  control.
Dr. Lester Young  and Dean Richard Jones presented the Education and Higher Education cluster, noting that 60 percent of Black Brooklyn’s middle school population live in communities where the achievement rate ranges from 42 percent to a low of only 11 percent at the established standard and that 42 percent of Black Brooklyn’s high school ninth- graders don’t make it to their senior year in the traditional four-year time frame.
Young said the committee asked themselves, “How can students be doing unsatisfactory and the teachers get all satisfactory ratings?” To this, he answered: “Our students are smart and talented. It’s the school’s responsibility to bring this out.”
He also addressed accountability and governance. “We can’t wait for the scores to come out,” Young announced. “We have to have an accountability structure to ourselves and in the schools. We need a system that corrects the problem when it occurs – not after the fact.”
The committee recommended creating a school climate that assists students of African decent to identify with learning, in general, and school, in particular, by consistently pointing to the students’ academic potential and the rich history of Black accomplishment as well as helping teachers understand the importance of establishing close personal relationships with their students and creating after-school and summer programs that include Rites of Passage programs, talents and interests, career development, and sports.
Senator Velmanette Montgomery (18th District) later approached the podium with a hardy welcome. “I’m so happy to see the sanctuary filled with people who care about what’s going on now and for the future. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? We want to be your partners. We want you to be our partners. Together, we can do anything.”
As the first keynote speaker for the convention, Karen Boykin Towns,  president of the Brooklyn Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said “With the smarts and access to opportunity that we have today ,there is no reason  why we can’t work and turn things around for our community. We must put aside individual differences. Our collective voices must be heard. Let’s get our house in order today.”
Although he wasn’t scheduled  to speak, Minister Kevin Muhammad was invited to say a few words – which were welcomed by the audience as they clapped and beckoned him to step to the microphone. In his brief but powerful message, Muhammad first spoke to the women: “You must rise up in the reverence of our morality because nation’s come out of your womb,” said Muhammad, the New York Representative of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the minister of  Muhammad Mosque No. 7 in Harlem. Pointing out how important it is that the Black youth know all about their people’s past, Muhammad insisted that, “We must teach slavery in the public school system. We know about everybody else’s suffering.”
The presentation of the clusters continued with Dr. Zulema Blair, Dr. Divine Pryor,and Eddie Ellis addressing Criminal Justice and Public Safety. “Every time we send one of our Black men to prison, you send your tax dollars and your human capital,” said Pryor, who is formerly incarcerated and serves as the executive director of NuVisions. “There has been a massive buildup of incarcerations over the last 30 years. Our young people are being prepared to go to prison.” Pryor also pointed out that Black men coming home from prison haven’t been prepared to reenter society.
Pryor’s committee came up with several recommendations to deal with these concerns such as monitoring police officers and prosecution practices of Brooklyn’s District Attorney by Black-elected officials and advocates, the development of risk assessment tools that determine the public safety risk of everyone returning to the community from prison, and conducting community and legislative hearings to address legal, legislative and regulatory obstacles to resettle successfully.
The Judicial System cluster was presented by Paul Wooten, Esq. and Dr. Esmeralda Simmons, who both stressed the overwhelming disparity of Black judges in New York. Of the 60 members appointed by the governor to the New York State Court of Claims, only one is Black. There are only two Black Brooklyn Criminal Court judges of the 14 on the bench. The New York State Court of Appeals has eight statewide appointments by the governor and only one is Black. Among the recommendations to add more Blacks to the bench, the committee offered to actively oppose the merit selection or appointive selection of judges, publicize judicial delegates at the earliest opportunity, allow judicial candidates to address the judicial convention and advocate at the earliest opportunity,  create two days for the judicial conventions with meetings in the evening so that delegates could make the conventions.
Simmons offered a word of advice to lawyers looking to become judges: “Start practicing in the court you want to be a judge in.”
By the conclusion of the convention, all nine clusters were reviewed and ratified with plans for a postconvention meeting. Deas was glad that he attended. So was Naquan A.H. Muhammad. “Anytime we can pull people together for cultural issues is always a wonderful thing,” says Muhammad, CEO and president of Black Men Who Care, Inc. “But we need to start to bring a solution to reach the people who weren’t at the conference because these people are mostly affected by the issues.”