CPAC : My Story

I attended CPAC with an agenda to discover and engaged people on why conservatives have failed in their outreach efforts to attract Black Americans to the GOP, Tea Party and the Libertarian parties. My premise is straight forward I opine that wherever Black folks are in play and at risk we should be there to protect and advocate for our interests/agenda. I also opine that our presence and interaction with others will augment and enhance outcomes which serve the collective themes and interests of all parties. While I was circulating my flyer( A press release offering my services to assist in reaching out to Black Voters) I encountered some hostile and angry CPAC people. I did not have a camera crew . I was a lone Black man on a mission:-) My offer of help remains on the table.

New Era of Conservatism(c) = The Black Electorate

The New Era for Conservatism is now this is a great opportunity for the Black Electorate and the GOP. The Obama Era will come to an end and where will the Black Electorate go? What/Who will fill this void? Why not the GOP? Why not a New Era of Conservatism(c) not an abandonment of traditional values but a New Era with a new collection of conservatives with the same core values and principles! The opportunity is ripe for conservatives and the GOP to expand the equation of Conservatism. We need a new partner and alliance for America. The New Era of Conservatism(c)

Health Care for the SOUL

Of late across the country in various venues and Black households across the nation the discussion about health care is a major topic. We can expect more chatter and media coverage on this issue as we approach the presidential election in the fall. Besides the traditional concerns perculating around health care topics from insurance costs to coverage limitations there is a major blind spot in how health care policy impacts Black communities. Yet in these discussions with regard to the nation’s communities of color we have an opportunity to not just react but become proactive and design our own health care blueprints. When this topic reaches the airwaves and grapevines of discourse in Black communities instead of just another indictment on the levels of obesity in our community we need to augment this health care chatter with a focus that goes beyond our obessions with shirt and skirt sizes. We need to elevate the concern about the nation’s healthcare policies and make it specific to our collective objectives and issues. Our demands should include more mental health options for every age level in our community with program themes that focused on depression and family dysfunction. We need innovative programs that awake self esteem and self worth. We need health options that inspire, promote and cemente community values. Healthcare discussions in our communities should also encompass items on the menu that feed our minds and soul not just what is for dinner or lunch. There is more to staying healthy than mortality rates about cancer and heart diseases in our communities. We must acknowledge other items in our lives are just as toxic and lethal to our health and welfare. We need to define a menu for healtful community living. This menu does not have to be complex nor the latest gimmick or new age philosophy created by some fictional guru. It is therefore critical that we take the time to design a menu of healthy life that is not only comprehensive and balanced but at it’s core the focused is on our mental, spiritual and community centered needs. Our communities are not only unhealthy because of the items we digest but we are hungry in spirit becuase of items we don’t feed ourselves and our community. Our mental state of health is as critical as any diet. It is important that we feed our minds with good ideas and postive expereinces. One could argue that without a strong mental constitution a super healthy person without an equally progressive state of mind is a waste of good health. We need to give others compliments and share good work place outcomes. We need to affirm and reward positive behavior not just with our familes but also with friends and strangers. The content of a meaningful life is often items not on the menu. We must cultivate and harvest a loving and noturing enviorment. So in the absence of such a daily menu we must develop and create a menu of life that does focus on items which enhances our daily living as we navigate in the place called America. On an individual and collective level we must reject toxic thoughts that seek to enter inside our bodies. When we eat our daily meals we should never read negative materials nor watch negative images on the TV or the computer screens and cell phones. We should monitor emails and avoid downloading toxic and counterproductive materials from all sources including friends and associates. We should digest good music, inhale wonderful aromas, touch beautiful things and absorb the atmospheric of imagination. We should watch wonderful images and eat the splendor of the world. Our menu for life is more than just eating a happy meal but also living a life that is happy, positive and rewarding.

DRONE ALERT

DRONE ALERT Our country spends billions of dollars on the purchase of weapons and hi tech security devices under the premise of national defense and the protection and safety of the home land. Retired generals leave our arm forces to peddle their services to defense contractors in the weapons industry. America not only arms itself but our nation is also the number one arms dealer and weapons supplier in the world. We have more weapons of mass destruction than any other nation on the globe. America is indeed a profitable merchant in the market of warfare products. Last week this escalation in military purchases and devices have now come to the our homeland not to protect us from our external foes but to assist and augment the armory of our local police departments. The Federal Aviation Administration loosened the restrictions on local police departments usage of surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles also commonly know as DRONES. Our nation’s high court the Supreme Court has even ruled that warrantless surveillance by manned aircraft is not unconstitutional nor violates the 4th Amendment of our federal constitution. In far to many powerful public and private circles there are focused advocates of introducing the military into our urban cities and venues. We now face the specter of entire cities being profiled by the usage of military designed DRONES. Local municipalities already burden by fiscal deficits and lousy revenues are actually spending hugh outlays of their budgets in the purchase of these hi tech anti- freedom profile driven devices. Yet where is the outrage from our public officials, activist groups and even police unions over these invasive surveillance and anti privacy domestic military machines in our nation’s urban airspace?? One of the real dark potentials of these DRONES is not only it’s ugly invasion and violation of privacy rights but these DRONES also have the capacity to be lethal and deadly. The applications and operational features of DRONES are truly unimaginable. The growing militarization of our local law enforcement departments is not to be embraced by fictional claims of terrorism and excessive urban crimes . We must reject and defeat the myths about crime and anarchy in our urban cities. We must defuse and deflate the notions that our urban cities are cesspools of violence and crime. The proliferation of the myth of crime and the profiling of entire bandwidths of people based upon their hue and types of clothing is dangerous. Such a public policy creates a fertile soil for the introduction of military devices like DRONES into our domestic venues. DRONES are part of the arsenal of gadgets and devices which destroy the freedoms of all Americans. We must reject all kinds of devices and gadgets which at the end of the day are WMD’s on American Soil.

WAY NOW

The evolution of America in the post industrial era has created for Black Americans a new cultural mantra. No longer are we viewed as a civil rights group or a minority collective in search of parity and equality. Black Americans are no longer the most significant minority group in the nation. Our destiny is ours and ours alone no one is going to rescue or take us to the promise land.

Into this new reality it is imperative that we develop and articulate a new modern theme which defines our present day mantra, agenda, agency and our course of action. I propose our new Black Ethos be defined as "Way Now". Instead of leveraging our history as a people who created civil rights in America or the nation's premier minority group we must now evolve beyond this legacy.

This cultural paradigm shift of course requires a lot of work and consciousness. It is more than just another intellectual exercise and political construct but a living and real time pursuit for the community at large. The 'Way Now" ethos is more than a shorthand drive by renaissance platform but a living real time manifesto and series of living principles which understands and acknowledges the reality of the moment for Black Americans living in a post industrial nation in the year 2014 It is a reality that recognizes our present day standing in America.

 A nation which continues as a society to not only marginalize Black folks but continues to wage a civil war against us. Into this real time reality it demands that Black folks take complete control of our destiny and status not as segregationists and isolationists but as a collective of progressive and pragmatic people with a agenda driven by social and cultural utilitarian themes and objectives.

Under the umbrella of a culture and society which adopts 'Way Now" it means that we must heal our wounds and repair the shortcomings which plague our community that prevents us from reaching and attaining our individual and collective goals as a community. 'Way Now" requires a new paradigm which begins before the birth of our children to the end years of seniors.

We must charter a course which designs a blueprint for every member of our community from those fractured by decadence and decay to those who sparkle with genius and productivity. "Way Now" requires a respect for honesty and recognition of reality. It does not tolerate excuses, denial, avoidance, deflection and failure. It embraces the future not the past. It cultivates innovation not the endorsement of historical alliances from our historical past. "Way Now" means we shape our future today and proceed accordingly.

We are the architects for the solutions and ideas which advance the community. "Way Now" is the living template for the future of Black America.

Police - Community Partnership Project

Background:

In Detroit as well as other urban venues the relationship between the police and the community is fractured and disjointed for a multitude of reasons ranging from allegations of police brutality to acute levels of mistrust of police by large segments in the community. Quite often police are not viewed as public servants but as mercenaries with an agenda to arrest and harass rather than protect and serve.

Given this disconnect many interests have tried to bridge the gap between the police and community through a variety of outreach programs from gun buybacks to neighborhood watch programs. Many of these programs have value many are hollow photo op efforts.

Plane Ideas© has created a threshold project paradigm that takes the relationship between the community and the police into a deeper organic partnership. We have developed an interactive project that has our volunteers making individual house calls to every household in the city to provide them with information and opportunities to assist the police. Our volunteers deliver to the household detailed crime web based crime incident reports tailored to the various zip codes. We distribute information on crime prevention, safety, surveillance, witness, recruitment efforts on behalf of the police department.

We have created a paradigm which implements and interactive exchange and dialogue between the citizens and the police department. We believe our approach will be the cutting edge template for police and the community relations and a national model for community policing in the new postindustrial urban era.




Goal: To reduce crime and increase safety in Detroit by the operation of this interactive community based partnership model that incorporates a volunteer infused distribution and interactive exchange portal between the police and the community.


Capsule Description: A volunteered based partnership with DPD wherein the project volunteer’s home visit and door knock protocols permit the real time interaction with every precinct resident and provide every household with core information on the DPD services from victim assistance programs, crime prevention ,safety ,materials, crime incident data to specific information on police officers in their neighborhood/precincts.


Objectives:
1. Connect directly with residents households on DPD duties, services, and activities of the department
2. Develop a data base of residents that will interact with police on safety, crime prevention, and related police activities
3. Provide residents with DPD materials and contact information
4. Recruit residents in crime indicatives, Intel, rewards, information, gang related activities, property crime fences
5. Foster respect and trust between residents & DPD
6. Connect local precinct rank & file to residents in tract
7. Provide residents with latest web based crime data on incidents of crimes in their neighborhood.
8. Provide residents with most wanted list of suspects, to missing people alerts, crime trends in neighbor
9. Provide residents information on traffic tickets, fines, towing costs and related neighborhood ordinances
10. Seek from resident’s feedback to solutions to combat crime and to enhance public safety in the city.


Volunteers:
The criteria for the composition of the volunteers will be determined by DPD and Project Manager. Focus on seniors and no residency requirement. We accept all who seek to make a difference.

Implementation:
Detroit Police Citizen Representatives aka DPCR are a corps of volunteers who after workshop training engaged in a door to door contact and informational /material drop exchange within the community.

1. Volunteers undergo a training workshop sessions on how to meet-greet- leave materials-document visit. Workshop sessions include DPD trainers, pledge taking, and assignment of official shirt/jacket.

2. Designate canvassing areas based upon DPD precincts alignments.



Costs/Budget: TBD
1. Grants
2. Sponsorships



Evaluation: TBD



MISC: -Synergy with other non-profits-Platform for other projects






Presentation Prepared by PLANE IDEAS©
Greg Thrasher
Project Manager

Value & Valued

As a public activist, I am often contacted to offer my advice on a number of issues both private and public. I really enjoy being an activist when I received a call from a parent seeking to secure my counsel and insights on parenting ideas, especially when the focus is their children. In our post industrial world that is fixated and obsessed with gadgets, fast food, drive by experiences the role of parenting in our post industrial world now more than ever before is the central factor in the evolution of our nation especially when the focus surrounds Black families.

Tragically in our nation the public the image of Black youth, especially our males, is very negative. Our nation ‘s canvass does not paint a portrait of the Black community as a place of serenity nor bliss. Quite often the whispers and depictions of the Black community is framed in dysfunction, decay and hopelessness. When the focus is on our youth especially our Black males the landscape is painted with portrayals of fear, anger and anguish. There are a number of reasons for this unfortunate narrative of Black youth. Many of the reasons have historical roots, others are just nasty ugly stereotypes.

So into this world of dispair and hopelessness we must create a place and a space where we can reach out to another . Please then share with another my discovery excercise.

When I decide to connect with another especially a child I ask then what is their favorite color? When we walk together tell then I am going to give them a gift as part of their walking gear. During our trek we talk, talk, talk and then we engaged in more talk. Often at the end of our hike in the park I tell them now I am going to give you a gift. I give them a pocket size hand mirror in their favorite color. I tell them to keep it with them 24/7.

I then instructed them to look at the mirror and spend a whole 60 seconds staring at the most important, significant, wonderful, awesome, sweet, gentle, good, beautiful, interesting, brilliant, unforgettable, remarkable and the greatest living creation in the world.