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Parent's Notebook: Whose Children? Our Children!

Aminisha Black
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Black History Month 2013 closes after highlighting the achievements made by African-Americans who survived slavery and fought to achieve equal rights. While it’s necessary that our children know their history, it’s absolutely crucial that they LIVE to contribute the gift each of them brings to the world. So as the “Struggle Continues”, it must include putting an end to gun violence and saving the lives of our children.

The Children’s Defense Fund’s statistics cite 32,108 children and teens having died in gun violence in the eleven years following the Columbine High School shooting (2000-2010), averaging 2,919 children and teens or 147 classrooms of 25 children. These deaths occurred every year for 11 years and occurred in every state. During this period, New York State ranked ninth with a total of 1,192 – 940 homicides, 214 suicides and 33 gun accidents.

As with all issues within this capitalist system, debates rage without reaching the point where humans matter over profit. There’s a need for parents to take the lead in saving the lives of the next generation, and in doing so we pay the highest tribute to our ancestors who survived slavery. We owe them.

This project doesn’t require attendance at meetings, rallies, although the choice is yours. It’s just important to know that we’re going back to first base and retrieve for ourselves and our children that which was lost and remains unretrieved, appreciation and love for self and others which equals reclaiming relationships with others as our highest-held value. Today, the journey begins with every adult, parent, teacher who has concern for the children. You are urged to engage in a project of reconciliation with the people in your life, take responsibility for the choices you’ve made, especially the other parent of your child and engage in a process of forgiving those you feel have wronged you. You are then able to demonstrate genuineness and empathy with the children and adults in your life, giving them space to grow. Children are in dire straits; estranged parents – many in embittered court battles, others abandoned by one or both and some not knowing who their father is. We owe them more. We owe ourselves more.

This is the time to remember that we, each of us, are expressions of Creative Energy (whatever you choose to call it), capable of living a purposeful life with cooperative and harmonious relationships. As parents, we must model a liberated life if our children are to fulfill their potential. It will require our uprooting and replacing the habits born from a sense of powerlessness with habits that come from self-knowledge, self-love and most of all divine right. We say the steps to developing a sense of being worthwhile, loved, capable, responsible include the following:
1. Make peace with your past – This includes forgiving your parents for whatever you think they did to you, regardless of how much agreement you have from others that your sibling was the favorite.

2. Take responsibility for the relationship that produced your child and make sure your child has a relationship with both parents because children suffer when they don’t. They suffer when one parent puts the other down. The suffering may not be verbal but it’s emotional and we’ll be looking for emotional wounds among our imprisoned youth. You and your partner may not have had a purpose (other than sex) for your relationship at one time, but now you do –saving your/our child.

3. Give your child individual attention regularly. Find some pocket of time for each of your children. It may be five minutes but those few minutes sends the message, “With all my parents have to do, I am important”.
4. Acknowledge your child’s feelings. Unexpressed emotions often grow into anger and violence when left uncommunicated. Allow your child the space to speak the feelings, cry the tears even when you may not understand or agree with them. Remember that emotions are transient as long as they can be expressed. If not expressed, they may affect the child’s perception of people and things in a negative way for years to come and is quite likely the cause of the level of violence experienced today. We live in hypocrisy, anger and violence as a result of the conditioning to hide feelings.

We’ll continue with the remaining steps next time. If you’d like a copy of the exercise “Making Peace with your Past” send an e-mail to parentsnotebook@yahoo.com.

Like “Tweeting”? Look up! The Urban Birder’s in Town

Editor, Our Time Press
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Join London-based Birder and Wildlife Photographer David Lindo for Bird Walk in Prospect Park, Saturday, Feb. 23 (Photo: Darren Crain)

By Ajamu Brown
Over the past year, I have learned to appreciate the diversity of birdlife in New York City. We have it all, from the pre-historic-looking double-crested cormorant and raspy-screaming red-tailed hawk to the stunningly pretty wood duck and the red-winged blackbird to name a few. Being a young African-American interested in birds gets me a variety of responses. Most people that I talk to find this new hobby of mine curiously entertaining. Or I get asked as I did a few weeks ago, “In Brooklyn, have you seen any interesting birds besides your flying rats and sparrows?” That makes me laugh. Ironically, my enthusiasm for sighting exotic birds has increased my respect for the ubiquitous rock pigeon. According to the New York City Audubon Society, 90,000 birds are killed by flying into buildings made of glass in our city each year. Sometimes nocturnal migratory birds fly into tall-lighted buildings or fly in circles until they pass out from exhaustion. The adaptable pigeons have avoided this fate.

Dispelling stereotypes of bird-watchers and accepting New York City as an urban bird-watching destination will take some time. That is why I have enlisted the help of David Lindo, a London-based Birder and Wildlife Photographer, to lead a bird walk in Prospect Park on February 23rd to help address these two issues. For newcomers, this will be a great way to explore the different varieties of feathered urban wildlife that make Brooklyn home.

My Bird-watching experience in Brooklyn
Last March while reading an article in the Scientific American by Danielle Lee called “Black & Green, the New Integration – 5 Names in Urban Ecology You Should Know,” I came across Mr. Lindo’s Web site, “The Urban Birder.” David’s Web site made me think about bird-watching as a fun, affordable activity that anyone could enjoy, and his personal story was equally compelling. Despite not having mentors as a child, David taught himself about birds at a young age in northwest London. He now has his own business leading birding tours, writing books and giving speeches around the world.

I immediately contacted David through his Web site after reading about him. To my surprise he called one afternoon from London. I told him about my budding interest in birds and about the Bed-Stuy Community Eco Project, a food and environmental justice project that I created with a local nonprofit called Divas for Social Justice from a small grant I received from the National Audubon TogetherGreen program in 2009. Although I was initially interested in promoting food justice with my fellowship, I slowly gained an appreciation for bird conservation and eventually purchased my own binoculars for the occasion. Since then, my worldview of birds and our local ecosystem has expanded. Through bird-watching, I rediscovered Prospect Park and learned that it is home to 200 species of birds. I also began to appreciate the parks history that was created by Fredrick Law Olmsted and Vaux Calvert in the mid-nineteenth century to provide a natural outdoor experience for working-class New Yorkers.

Birds, birds every day, from London, Canada and the USA
One Sunday last fall, while doing laundry at a tiny Caribbean-operated Laundromat near my home, I noticed an article with a picture of two young falcons huddled together taped above the change machine near the entrance. As the other customers were watching TV, I came closer to read the bold headlines: “City officials tag peregrine falcons living near the Bayonne Bridge.” I was happy to see this posted with pride in a Laundromat in the inner city. But it also made me think the relationship communities like mine have to nature, are often overlooked in conservation.

A few weeks later, I went on an Audubon Eco-Cruise one evening and found myself among thirty bird enthusiasts looking intently through binoculars at a peregrine falcon perched on the Bayonne Bridge as we made our way back from Jamaica Bay; it was one of the very birds I read about at the Caribbean Laundromat. As we approached the bridge the captain turned off the engine so that we could have a closer look. But as I looked around the boat there were two other people of color besides myself, and they both worked at the concession stand. In a city as diverse as New York there is still work to be done to close the eco-gap and share experiences such as these with all of its citizens.

Eco-equity
I would have loved to share the eco-tour experience with the youth in my community just to see their expressions when they saw a black skimmer or a black crowned night heron plunge headfirst into the water as they hunt for fish. But the price, $40 ticket for adults and $30 tickets for kids, in this economy is out of most working-class parents’ price range, particularly if they have more than one child. Prospect Park is an affordable way to see a black-crowned night heron, but you rarely see people of color on the bird-walking tours. Beside access, there needs to be a certain amount of environmental literacy to appreciate wildlife.

As our country becomes more racially diverse, we need more people like David Lindo giving walks in the park and sharing their experience about birdlife and nature. We also need enrichment programs to make bird-watching more attractive to communities of color. Over the past few years, funding cuts has forced the Prospect Park Audubon Center, that offers free environmental education programming, to drastically reduce its hours. To increase eco-equity, we will need not only to reverse this trend, but support nontraditional educators and grassroots community groups in their efforts to educate and green their communities. The investment (at this time) makes economic sense, too. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, “bird-watching is the fastest-growing outdoor recreation in New York and across the country, with an estimated 3.8 million bird-watchers in New York who generate $1.6 billion in eco-tourism revenue a year”. The more people are working to protect the environment and educate the public about resident birds and migratory species the more likely the appealing bird-related activities will be to the urban experience.

As urbanization increases, creating urban birders means that resident birds and migratory species will be protected in bird-friendly communities for future generations.

Upcoming Bird-watching Event in Prospect Park
As I mentioned earlier, David is offering his time on February 23 from 9 AM-11:30 to lead a bird-watching tour in Prospect Park. The meeting point will be on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway, across from the Central Library. The walk will last for 1 hour and 30 minutes and will be followed by a short Q & A at the Prospect Park Boathouse. The Audubon Center has a limited supply of binoculars available free of charge, but if you have your own please bring it with you. There is a charitable contribution of $5 for hot cocoa and light snacks. This is David’s last week on tour in the U.S. so please RSVP if you’re interested. More about David can be found here: www.theurbanbirder.com. If you have any questions feel free to email me at greenstuy@gmail.com. See you in the park!
A few Urban Birding tips from David Lindo to get you started…
o Look up
o Ignore people — see buildings as cliffs and mountainsides
o Have as your mantra: “Anything can turn up anywhere at any time”
o Enjoy yourself!
For the Walk, all ages are welcome!!!

Anti-Keystone Pipeline Protest Draws 50,000 to Washington

David Mark Greaves
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Surya traveled to Washington to protest assaults on the environment. Photo: Mark Stewart

The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, carrying a sludgy-like oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada across the United States, to refining and export facilities along the Gulf Coast, would result in releasing enough carbon into the atmosphere to irrevocably change the earth’s climate, destroying species, causing vast migrations of people from new deserts, lost shorelines, water-covered island nations, a hard and bitter world for those who feast and those who suffer famine. That is why 50,000 people were in Washington last Sunday, to implore President Obama not to sign off on the project, particularly since he made Climate Change such an important part of both his Inaugural Address and the State of the Union speech.

Lifelong Westchester resident Surya made the trip with two busloads organized by Wespac, a 35-year-old peace and justice organization in Westchester County. “I went because I feel that more natural things should be used not only to create energy, but also in the food we eat. This use of carbon fuels and genetically modified organisms is nothing but capitalists’ intent on making money and endangering the planet.”

There were African-American speakers, Van Jones and Rev. Yearwood, but we weren’t represented the way we should be. I felt like the fly in a bowl of buttermilk, but that’s because we’re still dealing with the same problems our ancestors had; this whole racial misunderstanding that’s happening. There were some young black folks there. Some middle-aged, but basically we don’t have time to deal with fracking and the pipeline because we’re fighting the issues that have been affecting us all our lives.

Speaking of the Keystone Pipeline, we see it, and the move to allow hydro-fracking for natural gas in New York State, as purely “capitalistic ventures” that negatively impacts the health and environment for future generations. And while there may be detachment from the issue of the pipeline, hydrofracking, the process of injecting millions of gallons of toxic water into the Marcellus Shale area of upstate New York to fracture it and release natural gas, is as close as the kitchen faucet and as imminent as this coming spring.

Analysis: NY Senate Dem Constituents Shortchanged by “Minority” Status

Mary Alice Miller
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By Mary Alice Miller
Only in NYS could a numerical legislative majority be relegated to minority status. The 2013 NYS Senate can count an absolute majority of 33 legislators, up from 28 in 2010, due to the effective campaigning of former Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson and Michael Gianaris, Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. But a unified Democratic Caucus was doomed before it happened. After he was elected as a Democrat, Simcha Felder promptly announced he would caucus with Senate Republicans. And three years ago, Democrat Jeff Klein partnered with Senators Diane Savino, David Valesky and newcomer David Carlucci (whose campaign had benefitted from a $700,000 cash infusion from Sampson) to form the Independent Democratic Caucus. Spotting his own self-serving opportunity, Sen. Malcolm Smith decided to add a touch of diversity to the IDC. (GOP Senator Dean Skelos is Temporary President and Jeff Klein is Co-Leader of the Senate with Skelos.)
How does this “minority” status of the Senate Democratic majority harm constituents?

The operating budget allocated to each senator for their capitol and district office spaces as well as staff and constituent services has decreased from about $500,000 down to $350-400,000. As a result, Senate Democrats have had to cut staff hours which undermines the ability to provide constituent services. The mailings budget has been cut to $32,000 which interferes with constituent communications for districts averaging 311,000 people.

In addition, usually the Senate Majority Conference receives 64% of that budget, while the Minority Conference gets 33%.

But this legislative cycle, the Senate GOP/IDC coalition formally allocated 29% to the Senate Democrats, while they receive 71%. State law required 29% for the “Minority” Conference. So, while Senate Democratic Conference receives 29% to be split among 28 legislators, the IDC’s legal designation of ‘Minority” Conference allows it to also receive 29% which split among the five breakaway IDC members plus Simcha Felder.

In absolute dollars, the rules change plus Gov. Cuomo’s austerity measure to eliminate member items means the Senate Democratic Caucus had to cut needy programs that serve their constituents. For instance, Senate Democrats can no longer fund a church food pantry that serves 1,000 people.

More importantly, new procedural rules enacted in the dead of night require that any progressive bill can come to a floor vote only if it is supported by 2 or 3 Republicans, which is impossible.

The irony is the brazenness of IDC Conference Leader Jeff Klein as well as Diane Savino and Malcolm Smith who has recently acquired the title of Chair of the IDC. All three represent districts comprised of people of color (mostly African American and Caribbean) and majority Democratic registered voters. They all ran unopposed in their districts as Democrats in last year’s primary elections and are now caucusing with Republicans who among other things have refused to pass the state health exchange under the American Affordable Health Care Act (ObamaCare), costing NYS millions in federal dollars.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Rebukes NRA’s Wayne LaPierre Insult against South Brooklyn

Mary Alice Miller
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By Mary Alice Miller
Congressman Jeffries is demanding an apology from Wayne LaPierre, President of the National Rifle Association. “There is reality, and then there is Wayne’s World. In Wayne’s World, facts apparently don’t matter,” said Jeffries in response to an op-ed penned by LaPierre that depicted Coney Island and Sea Gate as a “hellish world” in which “looters ran wild” during the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

“The reality is that in the week after Superstorm Sandy hit,” Jeffries said, “crime went down.” In a letter to LaPierre, Jeffries wrote: “The facts that you have disregarded, either out of ignorance or with malicious intent, tell a very different story. The overwhelming majority of residents demonstrated the grace and resilience we have come to expect from New Yorkers during times of crisis.”

LaPierre’s op-ed stated, “After Hurricane Sandy, we saw a hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in South Brooklyn. There was no food, water or electricity. And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not get home at all.”
The op-ed, which appeared last week on the conservative Web site The Daily Caller, received 1,300 comments.

In defense of his district, Rep. Jeffries called LaPierre’s characterization of neighborhoods on the Coney Island Peninsula “brazenly unsubstantiated”. Rep. Jeffries spent countless hours on the ground in Coney Island and Sea Gate the morning after Superstorm Sandy struck and throughout that week. “Nothing about [LaPierre’s] characterization of lawlessness rings true,” said Jeffries. “The people of Coney Island and all across the neighborhood are resilient, hardworking, caring and dedicated to making a comeback.”

“The people I represent are hardworking Americans struggling to recover from the devastation wreaked by Superstorm Sandy,” said Rep. Jeffries in a letter to LaPierre. “Your insulting manifesto served only to add insult to the significant injury my constituents continue to experience.”

Rep. Jeffries urged LaPierre to issue a formal apology to the residents of South Brooklyn for his “insensitive and factually inaccurate statements”. Jeffries extended an invitation to LaPierre to “witness the devastation firsthand and meet patriotic American citizens you have chosen to insult”.

In a sign of serendipity, LaPierre’s op-ed came as New York State and federal courts are bracing for a wave of lawsuits from citizens who were falsely arrested for looting during the days after the storm knocked out electricity and washed out stores.

Donald Franks, a married father of three, was caught in a police sweep as he was returning from charging his cell phone. He was held on $100,000 bail until a grand jury voted not to indict. Franks is one of at least a half-dozen people who state they were falsely arrested for allegedly looting and plan to sue.

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