Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Currency of Attitude the Blueprint to Everything

The currency of attitude can alter the very essence of life...It exists within all of us..An attitude is unlimited power ...An attitude can elevate above poverty, ignorance and the barriers of failure, negativity and despair...

The Blueprint to navigate the menu of life begins with the ingredient of ATTITUDE

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Uncle Toms and other Pathologies in Post Slavery America

Of late in the terrain of social commentary there has been a resurgence of the topic of internal racial themes within Black America. One of the themes has been the discussion of class and Black personalities like the Uncle Tom aka the modern day Black Apologist.

Any candid discourse and examination of race within the Black community must be viewed from the platform of minority and majority themes. Black americans are a distinct cultural minority collective in a white nation that suffered through one of America's domestic holocausts.

The legacy of white supremacy in America has been lethal it stings and wounds even in the post racial era of an Obama tenure in the white house. The pathology of racism not only is lethal for those who are victimized by it but this evil also causes damages to those who authored white privilege and white supremacy.

For the Black folks who are stained and contaminated with white racism it produces a number of outcomes and side effects from hopelessness, anger,despair, militancy and the like. The drama of personalities like the Uncle Tom are not new in the Black community.

One of the incarnations of a community subject to the pathology of white racism in our nation is the character of an Uncle Tom a person whose self esteem is only measured by his acceptance and validation from whites. Despite the conventional themes about the negative portrayal of Uncle Toms. In our history the Uncle Tom was not always a terrible figure people ignore how talented they were in navigating and leveraging their race status during the plantation era and the post slavery era in America.

These personalities in very oppressive situations produced effective outcomes from elevated employment opportunities on the plantation to creative tatics in avoiding and deflecting the wrath from racist whites. The Uncle Tom was a living excercise a role model in how to managed the lethal system of slavery while creating effective strategies to excell in this inhumane and oppressive paradigm.

Yet some Uncle Toms were/are tragic personalities but they would not exist unless there was white supremacy and the pathology of white privilege in America. The intra cultural clash that exists in many Black communities, families, fraternities, organizations, churches and related groups are linked to the institution of slavery in America. This evil complex altered and influenced the very essence of family and social life in America for Black folks. All the words, studies, classes, novels, lectures will never be able to comprehend or give a full measure to the impact of this holocaust on Black Americans.

Black self worth and community values and mores still suffer from the disease of slavery.It is not an excuse or a plea of victimhood to understand and recognize this truth. Black victimhood, class envy, petty jealousy, twisted rage and even some degree of Black crime, parenting, goal shaping, psychosis all of these relations and conditions have origins in the creation of a America that viewed Black folks as inferior beings not worthy of basic humanity.

The saga of the Black Uncle Tom shares a shelf life with White racism in our nation it is a pathological scar, obstacle and part of the cultural dna that still wounds and inflicts to many even in the post racial era of America....

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The End of the City in America

The fate of cities across America is fragile many cities are on the edge of insolvency and bankruptcy. The states in which these cities are incorporated in are also facing severe fiscal problems and budgetary shortcomings. It is prudent therefore to have a discussion on a number of issues from regionalism to quality of living in face of these severe financial realities confronting american cities.

Many of these cities because of these dire financial distress provide less services to their residents from fewer police and fire department services to street lights being shuttered to EMS response times being extended and certain calls being ignored completely. The spectrum of a complete shutdown of city services is no longer a script in a science fiction novel but a real time reality for public employees in our cities.

Some residents in city neighborhoods are locking themselves and families in barricaded homes. The very idea of state national guards taking over law enforcement duties in many bankrupted cities across the nation is real and on the agenda of many city planners and state legislatures. The EFM legislation currently unfolding in Lansing many have argued is a blueprint for the takeover of Detroit .

With this new downsized urban centers there has been an increase in vigilante groups, religious cults and people hibernating within their homes only coming out in the day time and rushing to return to home before the night comes to fill the air. When there is despair in the city air it fosters and cultivates paranoia, urban myths, and fear.

In the face of this devolution of american cities across the country it is imperative that strategies and ideas must be developed to confront the end of cities. This examination of cities and life in this new economic and social, political reality however dos not have to be a negative or crisis proposition. Life can be come renewed and reenergize if we have the courage to design a new urban frontier.

Regionalized cities which are the consolidation of other failed cities could create a platform of better services, improved schools and better over all quality of life in the neighborhood that are arteries of life in our urban locations. People simply are no longer loyal to cities and are more interested in their quality of life.

What is driving people living in the new world order is the right to live quality life styles and living conditions that empower good food, safe streets, fresh air, beautiful surroundings, people who want to love life instead of battling decay and decadence.

The equation for a new city maybe the complete destruction and collapse of the old city and its borders and boundaries. People want their lives to be purposeful and meaningful, they don't care who or what government agency is picking up the trash, policing the streets and where the water and lights come from. People want service that work and make their lives more livable.

Designing a new city begins with the objective and desires of those living in the old city and those living outside the city. It may even require that cities no longer be called cities but renamed and redefined as Urban Regions with one police department, one school district, one water board, one energy company, one health department, one park and recreation department...one.....one.....one...