Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

by  Stanley Kinard
The educational system in New York City has always played a major part in mayoral elections. This year is no different, in light of the recent changes to the Department of Education, the results of this mayoral election holds great implications for our children. So, in the same way that the UFT is demanding an increase in teachers’ salaries, Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence (BNYEE) is a demanding a Black History curriculum in our schools as our primary issue.
Both candidates have made education a focus of their campaigns, yet neither have addressed the Black community’s call for Black History in our schools. Our issue is just as important as teacher salaries or class size. It is one that we must be uncompromising about. Contrary to the polls, Freddy Ferrer can win the race for mayor if he secures 80% of the Black vote.  Thus far, many Black people are withholding support for Freddy because of his statement that the murder of Amadou Diallo was not a crime. Freddy is going to have to flip-flop one more time if he wants to win, and he needs the Black vote to win this election. I would also demand that Ferrer advocate that Black and Latino Studies be taught throughout the curriculum and make this a part of his education agenda. Black political leaders consistently fail to make this issue a part of the campaign debate. Subsequently, Freddy Ferrer nor Mike Bloomberg are not compelled to speak on this or any substantive issue. However, as Freddy makes his way through the many pulpits and community centers in our neighborhoods, we must pose the following questions to him wherever he goes:
1) What is your plan to address Black Male Unemployment?
2) Will you make the teaching of Black History in schools a focus of your education agenda?
3)Do you still feel that the murder of Amadou Diallo was not a crime?
If Freddy can give a favorable response to these questions then we should defeat Mike Bloomberg and make Freddy Ferrer the first Latino Mayor of New York.
I would be remiss if I did not address the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and the issues that have been brought to the forefront due to the response, or lack thereof, by the government. Rebellion or Revolution is the title of a book written by Harold Cruse. It addressed the state of the Black Liberation Movement in the late 1960’s and how we should move forward. In light of Katrina, we must raise this question again. The devastating results of Katrina was a classic example of benign neglect. The failed economy and compromised levees were there before the hurricane struck. The poverty and environmental racism was there before Katrina struck. The same benign neglect that exists throughout the Black Belt South exists throughout New York City, where over 50% of Black males are unemployed and 60% of our youth drop out of school. At this point, we have no exit strategy to escape this Katrina reality. We do not have to wait for a storm to hit us, Katrina began when we were enslaved and brought to America.  In education, so many Black youth are wading in the water trying to get through an educational system that refuses to teach them their history and subjects them to high-stakes culturally insensitive tests.
Education activist groups like BNYEE and ICOPE are putting out a call for unity around the principle of education as a human right. The content, philosophy and control of education can no longer be defined by corporate America. We must also demand as reparations all of the resources necessary to implement a Black Cultural Curriculum in all of our schools.
BNYEE will also be working with the Million More Movement and organizing communities to host Black Solidarity Day education forums throughout New York City. BYNEE is requesting that we embrace the original tenets of Black Solidarity Day-No Work, No School and Spending Money with Black-owned Businesses Only. We must take this historic opportunity to teach our children and others of the history of enslaved Africans and of the glorious history that has been stripped from us.
Our freedom, liberation and empowerment is dependent upon us being properly educated. It all begins with our history.   The liberation of Black folks is contingent upon us knowing and embracing our history and culture.

By Akosua Kathryn Albritton
Keeping It Real And Human
Who could imagine that devices like DVDs, the Xbox and handheld PCs would revolutionize how we entertain ourselves and produce work.  The DVD puts the viewer in control of what scenes of a movie are watched as well as meet the director and actors of the movie backstage.  The Xbox turns a home into a veritable nightclub.  A person need only hook a Xbox to a television and guests may sing to karaoke, watch photos synchronized to music or play games.  Handheld PCs expand the limits of the virtual office.  An executive can make last-minute changes to a multimedia presentation or access a search engine on the Internet to verify the accuracy of a statement.  When all the work is done the device is slipped into the inside jacket pocket.
It’s a fascinating time in human existence.  All because of silicon, algorithms and frequencies.  The silicon is the substance; the algorithm is the series of steps and the frequency is the air current on which it’s transmitted.  How did humans get along without them?  Much slower but, surely it was accomplished.  Someone who watches trends and cultural evolution is John Naisbitt.  Naisbitt has the knack for spotting a trend and seeing its flowering ten to twenty years in advance.  Naisbitt had his eye on Martha Stewart back in 1999.  In his book High Tech, High Touch: Technology and Our Search for Meaning, he cautions people to balance the reliance on technology with humanism*.  This columnist calls it “keeping it real and human.”  No matter the novelty or ease that technological innovation provides, it doesn’t beat the brain or the heart.  At some point, the people in the chat rooms must log off and the reporter preparing a news story has to get in the field to see the event first hand.  Keeping it real and human applies to everyone.  Below are suggestions to nurture one’s brain and heart for your ultimate innovation and evolution:
Set aside time each day to be quiet:  The knowledge and memories within are of more value than the chatter outside.  Allow yourself a minivacation from TV, radio, DVD/CD player and print media.  That quiet time allows you to process what you get from outside to be integrated with your own knowledge base.
Eat salad made with various green vegetables:  More green means more vitamins, minerals, enzymes and chlorophyll.  Greens feed the brain, the heart and total body.
Consciously take in deep breaths throughout the day:  Deep breathing brings in more oxygen into the body system.  More oxygen feeds the nervous system and the brain.  Deep breathing calms the heart.  Conscious breathing gives a moment to put the mind on the essential point-living.
Get away from the PC monitor:  Instead of the monitor, look at your co-workers or the view from the window.  Real life may bring real results to your work.
Rather than e-mail, pick up the telephone or pick up a pen to write a note:  Your voice on the telephone transmits so much information to the other person.  Also, clarification and agreement occur sooner.  A handwritten note found in the mailbox or on a desk may brighten someone’s disposition toward the sender.  After all, you did take the time to write.
Take a quiet bath:  Without radio or telephone, enjoy warm water surrounding you.  Water is a great conductor of thoughts and spoken words.  Imagine what you want to accomplish or describe your goal, then see how you are more easily able to make it occur in reality.
Spend time with your loved ones away from television, video, CD or Xbox:  Nothing is more powerful than simple contact and conversation.  Family members may be disoriented or even annoyed at first but the moments of undistracted communication shall result in clearer understanding and a connection.
Enjoy the rising and setting sun:  The earth uses energy to turn from east to west.  Take advantage of the increasing and decreasing energy of the sun’s rays.  There’s no accident that some people are “early birds” and others are “night owls.”  It’s all about whether one is fed by dawn or dusk energy.
Look people in the eye for a moment when talking:  If it’s true the eyes are the windows to the soul, then take a peek into the other person and let them peek into you.
What do these suggestions have to do with technology?  Humans produce technology.  Humans consume technology.  The quality of our thoughts impact what we make and why we make it.  The quality of our thoughts impact how we utilize technology.
* To read an interview with John Naisbitt and co-author Nana Naisbitt visit www.govtech.net/magazine/visions/feb00visions/unintended.php
Have a Web site that needs reviewing?  Know of a New Media event?  Contact me at Akosua@plans4success.com.

By Aminisha Black
Choosing Problem or Solution
Remember the saying, “You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution”?  I don’t hear that much anymore.  Instead, it seems like we’re satisfied complaining, protesting and defending positions.  Seems like we’ve become resigned to living with the problems and surrounding ourselves with folk who agree with us.   Maybe, being comfortable with the familiar, we don’t want to solve the old problems because we don’t want to go through the hassle of finding new positions and new arguments.  What if, in disputes, we actually committed to finding a solution where all parties would win? 
  Of course, that goes against the dominant culture’s orientation.  After all, we are force-fed  “either/or” along with  “them/us” reasoning from birth to death, unless we’re fortunate enough to have families that remember another way of being, where the interrelationships between humans was the highest-held value, where the “we” was sacred and there was no “them or us”.   Growing up in a home like this is what’s needed to heal the open sores produced by surviving in a culture that places its highest value on the dollar.  And don’t forget that unresolved problems create businesses.   One example: the unresolved problem of youth dropping out of school and into the criminal justice system bolsters the economy of entire towns where prisons are located.  
Speaking of schools, teachers are back, earning 15% less than their suburban counterparts without a raise in three years or a contract for the past two and one-half years. Because of our fragmentation, we listen to a mayor boast of record improvements in academic performance (an appeal to voters) without supporting the people doing the work.  This would only be tolerated in the field of human services.  Remember – Humans are dispensable in America and New York City (i.e., Iraq, New Orleans).   Now readers please, I know there are serious problems in the schools.  No, I haven’t forgotten the UFT’s strikes during Ocean-hill-Brownsville.  But I respect the individuals who chose a career of teaching our children and understand that as in all areas of life, I’m responsible and must form partnerships if I’m to be a part of the solution. 
The major challenges in problem- solving are seeing another’s point of view and the need to be right, closely connected to the need to look good.   And because all parties concerned are afflicted with the same disease, the stalemate sets in and continues forever.  Notice the issue of the teachers contract has taken on a life of its own – off into the world of unions, politics and business – removed from the needs of our children.  This is an opportunity to bring it back.  Tell the mayor that it’s important that the individuals who are involved in our children’s development deserve a contract. Call 311, Fax 212-788-2460, e-mail -www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html or write:  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Hall, New York, NY 10007.
It’ll be easy for some folk to contact the mayor, and there’ll be others who hate unions, especially the UFT, have some serious gripes with administrators and/or teachers and don’t care if they ever get a contract or a raise.  I’d like to appeal to the latter group.  You obviously have experienced a problem that didn’t get resolved.  If you can single one teacher out to empathize with, make the call for that teacher.  Once you make that move, you will have stepped into the solution circle, creating a space to tackle those unresolved problems but from the position of ally rather than opponent. The next communication is with the school, defining the problem, brainstorming causes and creating action steps.
We play out the either them or us programming daily on our jobs, in our churches, in our schools, on our blocks and in our homes.  We are comfortable in our “us” group with its own hierarchy and we keep busy denouncing them. Until we change the way we are, we will continue to leave our children a legacy of unfulfilled purpose, anger, powerlessness, impoverishment and hopelessness.  And worst of all, we continue to aid in maintaining a system that has and continues to dominant, violate and control humans for dollars.  Our children deserve better.
Contact the Parent’s Notebook at parentsnotebook@yahoo.com or write to Parent’s Notebook, P.O. Box 755, Brooklyn, NY 11238.

Jeannette Foreman: In Alabama and Mississippi, there were small communities as wiped out as those in New Orleans but they weren’t being covered. Grassroots organizations got together five or six days after Katrina hit when the alarm went out, screams for help from relatives and friends and co-workers from that area saying, “help, help, help.  We have no food, no water or electricity.  We haven’t seen the Red Cross,we haven’t seen anything.”  These groups quickly convened because they were accustomed to working together and said we have to find a way to service these people. They had started working as best they could with the little churches that they could walk to because no one had transportation.   That started the process. 
Latasha Brown is the visionary who put this whole thing together and is operating as the chair of the Saving Our Selves Coalition.  The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement was one of those seven core organizations that started planning and now it’s swelled to over 120  churches and organizations, big and small. 
The way it’s structured is that the coalition put together four major distribution services, warehouses and so forth, so that they could send goods and services and people, staged from there, and then send the volunteers and the food and the necessities and the doctors out to the satellite places: churches, community centers, places where these grassroots organizations could operate and actually service the people.
So it’s been  these operations that have been so well-coordinated that it has been recognized nationally and internationally.  The four major locations are Montgomery, Mobile, Birmingham and Selma. 
From those sites, we go all up into Mississippi, the Delta, the Black Belt region, which was absolutely devastated.  We just put together a team of doctors  to go into those areas, starting from Jackson and  then into our site in Biloxi, and from there  to the Mississippi Delta, and into the small communities like Moss Point doing triage and assessments and dispensing medicine. 
This is the area where you have all the chemical plants and there are high incidences of respiratory problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and ailments of that nature.  In many cases, the chemical plants and waste disposal spilled over into the area where the people were living.  It’s an environmental issue, and a big one.  We’ve had two people die because they just had cuts on them that couldn’t be attended to and became infected from the water where sewage had spilled.
We’ve been getting wonderful responses from the BBC and from progressives all over the United States.  They recognize that this is an opportunity to strengthen the grassroots organizations because even if the Red Cross was doing a good job, it’s temporary and they are already starting to pull out, even here in Atlanta. 
We’re real proud of the whole idea that we’re working together and passing it on.  The big churches are working with the little churches.  The big organizations working with the little ones.  It’s really the way it used to be in days of old. The things that allowed us to survive this long. 

Cliff Albright is Director of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in Selma, Alabama and is coordinating the Southeast organization
 “There are a couple of coalitions going on.  I coordinate the Selma chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.  Our chapter and other organizations form a coalition called the SOS (Saving Our Selves) Coalition.  In addition to ourselves, there’s a coalition in Jackson that includes the Nation of Islam, the NAACP and others.  They are very much involved in assisting the dislocated, providing food and supplies to some of the towns surrounding the Jackson area.
Our efforts in Selma are focused on the Mississippi Gulf Coast area, Biloxi, Gulfport, Moss Point.
We have a point person in Mobile, Alabama who coordinates the warehouse.  We’ll stock up there and send out supplies that we receive.  We get food and supplies to communities that have not received a lot of attention.  Even though you may see a lot of reporters, FEMA and a National Guard presence in some of these communities, you still have our folks, poor black communities, who were still not getting attention. And that’s where we focused our efforts.  Wherever we go in those communities we try to find whoever it is who was already doing things, usually a church or community organizations, and we hook up with those activists and build a network.  We talk to them first to find the drop-off points.. 
In addition to food and supplies, we also assist with shelters.  We have two shelters here in Selma, one that was an immediate temporary shelter and one that was a long-term facility, a nursing home that’s been converted by a church.  It’s well-suited for long term housing needs. 
We have another shelter in Montgomery and another in Birmingham. 
In addition to the food and shelter, we’ve tried to move into the medical services.  Setting up medical clinics.  We did one last Saturday in Escatawpa, Mississippi, which is a small town between Moss Point and Pascagula.  That was with a local nurse and doctors and medics from Veterans for Peace who we’ve coordinated with.  They came in and did screening and assessing the situation and providing care when possible.  That’s going to be ongoing for about two weeks in Pascagula, Escatawpa and Long Beach.  We plan to go to each place at least twice with this moving clinic.  Again, that’s because even though there was a National Guard medical unit in the area, they were not getting to those areas.  There was a Red Cross medical unit that would pop up, but it was spotty. You never knew where it was going to be. In fact, one of the main complaints that the black community has had is that we don’t know where these services were going to be.  They change from day-to-day.  By the time we find out and start to line up, that’s when the line is cut off. We’ve heard this in a couple of locations, so our point was to have something stationary within walking distance of those without a whole lot of means.  Every day something new comes up and we just try to meet the increasing need.
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement has chapters in Selma, Jackson, Mississippi, Atlanta, Birmingham and we’ve got people in other parts of Mississippi and Louisiana.  What’s being built is a coalition of coalitions.  By having chapters in all of these areas, our organization is able to play the role of bridge and provide continuity.  We’re able to communicate through our own organizational networks.  Most of the original work came through nonprofit organizations.  For example, in the Alabama coalition we’ve got the Community Empowerment Project which is out of Mobile, and the Alabama Coalition on Black Civic Participation.  But once you get into the affected communities, it’s usually the churches we’re working with.
During the week we’re coordinating for resources, getting money and supplies, trying to build up the infrastructure that’s necessary, like a warehouse, transportation and things of that nature.  We receive trucks and direct them to where the need is.  There are people who are watching the news, want to get involved, but have no idea about where to send aid.  For example, there was a church in Annapolis, Maryland that collected supplies and we were able to direct them as to where to drop it off.  We’re able to connect the dots. 
(The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Brooklyn Chapter has already sent a couple of truckloads.)
Please make mention of the fact that this is a long-term process.   We’ve already seen signs that the goodwill that was out there immediately after the hurricane is starting to dry up.  For example we contacted Wal-Mart to get some prescriptions filled because they had been doing free prescriptions. and the local store said, “it’s been four weeks, they should have gotten everything taken care of by now.” A lot of these special programs, exceptions and things people have been advertising and publicizing in the early days are drying up quickly.  Especially when the national attention leaves, you’ve got the same local folks who have been discriminating against our folks before the hurricane, are going back to their regular ways.  So it’s very important that people be aware of that and not get disaster-fatigue.
Long-term needs are housing and medical health issues.  Medical is a critical thing because you’re talking about folks who were sick to begin with.  Communities in Mississippi and Louisiana that were already referred to as “cancer alley,” because of the presence of all the chemical and oil facilities down there.  So when we do these medical clinics, not all of the health issues are directly related to the hurricane. In addition to the serious rashes from the water, a large number of the needs that people are expressing at these clinics are chronic illnesses; diabetes, cancer, asthma, all these illnesses they had before the hurricane are still with them.  So the challenge is how do we meet these needs when the pharmacy they used to go to is no longer there.  When the money they used to have to get their medicine is no longer there.  This is not to mention the new health issues that are going to come out of this.  The respiratory problems, people are still living in houses that have mold and somewhere down the line we’re going to see new respiratory issues.  Housing and health and a living income are going to be long-term problems.
How do we organize communities to be a part of the rebuilding process.  You’ve got a new Diaspora that’s been created.  How do we organize these communities, whether they are in New York or in Iowa or in Arkansas.  How do we organize folks so that they stay connected to their communities and have some kind of say in these contracts that are being given out left and right.
We don’t just want to be a relief agency.  We want to help folks be organized wherever they are so that they can have a say in the communities that they eventually want to go back to.
Trying to stay in touch with people has been complicated by a turf battle with the Red Cross because they do not like to share information.  So part of our demands is the right to access information about where our people are.  So we’ve put out the call, if you are an evacuee or are related to one, please contact us so that we have your information and we can build a Survivor’s Council as some are beginning to call it, build a network of folks so that we can disseminate information.  We have a Web manager and somebody else who deals with databases, but down here everyone is doing multiple roles, we’re trying to build infrastructure and driving to locations and doing hands-on things on a regular basis so if we could have someone else who was distant from the day-to-day operations who could handle that, it would be a big help.
Checks may be made to SOS Coaltion and mailed to:
S.O.S. Coalition
925 B. Peachtree Street, N.W.
Suite 307
Atlanta, Georgia 30312
or Visit the Web site:  www.sosafterkatrina.org and send a secure donation online.

New Yorkers do not need to look to New Orleans to see the shame of a nation.  They can see the shame of the state right here in central Brooklyn.  The state has decided to close Saint Mary’s Hospital.  In zip codes that rank lowest or highest, whichever indicates the most negative condition of poverty or health, they’re closing a major health care facility. 
In Brooklyn, the largest borough in the premier city of the state, there is a stunning indifference and inevitability to the death and suffering this closing will cause.  “Allowing St. Mary’s to close with absolutely no plan in place to provide vital services to the community, is a mind-boggling failure on the state’s part,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. “When poor people get sick or even die because they can’t see a doctor, we don’t call it neglect or genocide, but it is immoral to shutter another health care facility in central Brooklyn.”
Pick the disease and central Brooklyn can claim a higher percentage than most other areas in the country.  The New York City Department of Health defines central Brooklyn as Ground Zero for NYC’s HIV epidemic of African-Americans, women, and children. Brooklyn has the third largest AIDS population in the US following Manhattan and Los Angeles  Brooklyn has more people who have been diagnosed with AIDS (32,937) than forty-five states, and more children (705) than forty-seven. Four times as many people die of diabetes in the largely black area of central Brooklyn as on the predominantly white Upper East Side of Manhattan.  If you want markers for the kind of stress people are under, look at the single-dose self-medication lined up on the shelves behind the register of the neighborhood corner stores. 
We asked Pastor James Reddick  who’s been a chaplin at St. Mary’s for 13, years what the local Assemblyman Thomas Boyland had done.  Previously in a meeting we attended, he had been very upbeat about the situation, talking importantly about meetings with the governor and Speaker.  “To be very frank, blunt and to the point, nothing,” said the chaplin.  “Nothing was done. Nothing.  With all of the talk, with all of the fist-raising, with all of the hullabaloo, nothing was done.  All of the meetings, all of the rallies they attended, they did nothing.  It is shocking to know that a whole community would be sold out for the dollar”.It is unbelievable, continued the chaplin, “that people’s lives, not only patients but employees who have been there 30-40 years, could be just turned out.” 
Pastor Reddick feels it isn’t that the hospital could not be saved.  He places the blame on lust for the dollar.  “As you know, real estate in New York is super prime, so you can imagine how much money is involved, in a square city block.As far as others are concerned, “The real estate itself is worth much more than the lives of the people in the community and the employees. 
This can be done because the area is poor and predominantly black.  If anybody needs a hospital, it would be people in that area.  I have insurance and I can go anywhere.  But these folks depend on subsidized care.  The hospital is not a moneymaker.  It’s a service.  These other hospitals can’t absorb it.
We’ve contacted Assemblyman Boyland’s office, but the person answering said they have not issued a statement on the closing.  We’ve called the assemblyman several times about St. Mary’s but he has never returned a phone call. Reddick says the actual closing date has been extended from October 3rd to the 14th.   People in central Brooklyn will be sicker, suffer more and die younger because of this action.  And evidently, the only thing people in power can do is stand around and wring their hands.  If only Sonny Carson was here.  Sonny would know what to do.  DG