Heros Are Not Perfect

The other day. I was reading one of my favorite books " The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and another teacher came into the room and she said, " Why are you reading about Theodore Roosevelt." I said that Roosevelt was one of my heroes growing up and he still is. She reminded that Theodore Roosevelt was against immigrants and was an imperialist. My response was no body's perfect. I knew all of the negatives about TR long before this person ever learned them . What makes Theodore Roosevelt and for that matter President Barack Obama my heroes is because as presidents they did something, they were agents of change.
President Roosevelt offered the "Square Deal" the first attempt by a president since Abraham Lincoln to better the quality of life for all Americans. He seriously looked at the health and well-being of all Americans. President Obama is taking on the hurdle of health care reform which will change the way we live for generations to come.
President Obama is not perfect and neither was president Roosevelt but what they desire for all Americans and the actions they take have changed and will change this nation for the better.
President Roosevelt gave us safe food and drugs to consume, the national parks, a regulated business community, a second to none military and national security. President Obama is trying and I think he will succeed , health care for all, quality schools, a strong economy and an America that is not the policeman of the world but an equal player in world affairs that dose not deal the cards but is an equal player with other countries.
Neither of these men is perfect and one of the problems with politics and voting is that we often try to find the most perfect person to lead us and that perfection does not always spell success.
TR had the same vision and vigor that President Obama has, the same sense of change and the courage to follow through and he received the same criticism everything from is youth and lack of experience to his winning of the Nobel Peace Prize.
These presidents are not perfect nor do they have the divine right of a kings . The president is, simply put, a real man not a perfect machine, he will make mistakes along the way but in his heart, his belief in America , who we are and what we can become makes both of these men great and always my hero's

The Bond

The fraternity and sorority system is often put down by the people from the outside looking in because they do not know what that bond means to many of of us who were involved in that system.
The only reference the general public has for fraternities and sororities is through movies. It is either Animal House, a light comedy where the frats are either blitzed out or sadistic or Fraternity row where, they are all pretty much sadistic, racist, exclusive and any other negative stereotypes that the movie view can conjure up but there is another story of fraternity life that is rarely told in the movies or the media. It is the story of a young man who did not make friends easily and who was often put into categories that he did not belong in . It is my story and the other young men who meant a great deal to me in college who accepted me for who I was and became some of my best friends.
United by the bond of Kappa Alpha Psi we, laughed together sometimes cried but always shared what we had. I transferred from another school and the brothers of the delta delta chapter at Jackson State unconditionally took me in. Finally, I could be who I was and be that way around other people who accepted me for who I was . I was a Kappa man and that was all that mattered.
My style, thoughts and dreams were often different from theirs but we were united in the bond. To this day, I have few associates who are as accepting and supportive but these young men all of these young men were.
Fraternities are not about , drinking, womanizing and exclusion. Fraternities are about about acceptance, support and inclusion. It has been over 25 years since I have seen many of these guys but the bond we had is still strong and lifelong.
Fraternities and sororities may not be for everyone but for me they made all of the difference. Me the permanent outsider, found a home and solace with Kappa. Wherever I go whatever I do I know that Kappas worldwide are my brothers and they accept me unconditionally without reservations and I the same with them.
Here is to the men of Delta Delta chapter and the impact they had on my life then and today. I may not always wear the shirt on my back or the ring on my finger but I will always have Kappa Alpha Psi in my heart.

Education is the Thing

I am currently writing this blog from the the Education Minnesota Professional Conference taking place in Saint Paul Minnesota Thursday and Friday making it s 4 day weekend four-day weekend for teachers and students and believe me we need it. All of that aside, it came to me while walking around the exhibits that we have a pretty good thing with public education. The high school where I teach, Central High School recently had an assembly to induct alumni into the Hall of Fame.
What was unique about this was that the the inductees came from all walks of life. They were professors, lawyers and community leaders with one thing in common they graduated from our high school. One came from around the block and another from the jungles of Columbia. They all were accomplished in their fields and would be considered successful in any gathering. Lastly they were products of the public schools not just Central but the University of Minnesota as well.
This coincidence is not just the Minnesota miracle but the American miracle that allows any one regardless of their circumstances to get a quality education and go on to a life of success and security . I tell my students every day that you sit in the place where millionaires once sat, where judges and professors once sat and where artists hone their art.
Many of my former students have realized and have gone on to lucrative careers . They have become learned professionals and they all came through Central high. It is not enough to tell teachers they are doing a great job we can look around and see that but it is important that all of us know that quality schools are the foundation of our society, the corner of our American way of life and we must do all that is necessary to see that public schools always provide the best for the future.

The Cool and the Uncool

Someone once asked me the definition of cool. I said my definition of cool is some who is not affected.
What I mean by that is in America, we often follow the crowd and pay little attention to our own path. Trends lead the nation and many people follow them because they think they are cool.
When I lived in Washington DC in the 1980s Reggae was all the rage. I knew people who spent every night at the Saba Club on Connecticut Avenue. Many of these people bought all of the albums and even went so far as to grow dreadlocks. Most of these people failed the cool test and passed the affected test.
What are these tests you might ask? I will start with the affected test. Upon questioning these people about Reggae and It's roots most of them knew nothing about it. The only person who actually knew Reggae's roots and spiritual meaning was M.L. Johnson, she was from Omaha, Nebraska but she had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica and had developed a fondness for the music and culture of the island. M.L. failed the affected test but she passed the cool test . She marched to her own drummer and did not care who knew it. The rest passed the affected test.
You pass the affected test if you a. follow the crowd and b. have no idea of what direction that you are going in . The cool lead the way. Do you think Charlie Parker cared what other people thought about his sound. Someone asked him once why did he play anchors aweigh right in the middle of one of his pieces. He said with a straight face "you did'nt see the sailor come into the room. Do you think Andy Warhol cared that some of the critics did not like his conception of Marilyn Monroe. No. He said art is anything you can get away with. The cool set the trends and the uncool follow.
I come in contact we both types during the course of a day and realized that the world needs both and one can help the other learn and love this great world that we live in. So be uncool or cool but be something.

Nobody leaves here without singing the blues.

The other day, I was watching the movie "Cadillac Records" and something came over me, we live in a blue world and the blues is our oxygen. Listening to Muddy Waters and Little Walter brought home. In the words of Leroi Jones ( Amiri Baraka ) we are blues people. Whether we like it or not the lifeblood of every American is the blues.
The blues accounts our struggles and triumphs and tells us that today is not so good but tomorrow may be worst next week on the other hand may be alright.
Traditionally thought of as the music of Black America ( and it is) but it is also the music of the people who make this country good and bad. The blues was born of the sweat and toil of all Americans and Black America lent it's voice.
If the blues is the mother of all America, jazz is the father. I listen to the blues at work, at play, when I work out or just sit. I don't use drugs except for the blues, it is my high and my low. The blues keeps me company, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, KoKo Taylor and Little Walter are my house guests and accompany me to the gym . They make my workout smooth and ease the pain make me peddle faster and lift harder.
Buddy Guy is my muse along with Etta James and B.B. King.
Anyone who seeks inspiration should go no further than the nearest juke joint. Some hip hop artists are inspired by the blues and the good ones understand why. Hip hop is just the continuance of the blues, an expansion of the story. Hip hop is blues with an attitude and a business manager. Most great blues men from Leadbelly on have died with nothing more than the clothes on their backs . Some made it big but most met the fate of most blues men shot or stabbed over bad dice.
With all of that, the blues is still my anthem and always will be. In the words of Albert Collins, "Nobody Leaves Here without Singing the Blues." I think he meant nobody leaves life without singing the blues.

Chill Out

When someone rants and raves about how uncomfortable they are when people are speaking a language other English around them, I say "chill out" with a capital C.
The other day I listened to someone who got into a big argument with someone who felt in this person's words made them "very uncomfortable" about about three people were speaking Spanish to each other. That is so rude is one of the utterances that came out of this person's mouth followed by an experience that this person had before where they felt uncomfortable when other people felt comfort in speaking their own language.I have heard this before. In a class I was taking once, a woman felt comfortable in saying that she felt uncomfortable when Latino men spoke Spanish around her because she felt they were planning to do something to her.
I say again, "chill out" people speak other languages because they feel comfortable speaking in that language for a variety of reasons: It may be their first language and their speaking ability is better, they speak it with others because it gives the speakers a sense of comradery that other get by talking shop, jive or any of the things we talk about to create a circle of friends.
I am sure that people who speak languages other than English also feel uncomfortable in America especially Spanish and Arabic speakers but I rarely hear them rant about being uncomfortable around all of the English speakers.
Chill out and learn that this is not our world, we just live in it and whatever others choose to speak, so be it . It is easy to be the ugly American, we have been doing it for decades . Chill out, calm down and enjoy the ride.

Email You Fail

What happened to to the good old reliable email of years past. You know what I am talking about, when email was email.
I can remember opening my first email account with yahoo 9 years ago and it became my door to a new world, a world that I rarely visited,the world of cyberspace. It really was like going to a new world literally. The same day that I opened my email account was also the day that I got my first cell phone through Sprint. I was beginning my adventure through cyberspace.
That aside, what has happened to the email that I knew and trusted, I remember it well, you sent email, you received email and that was it. Things have changed quite a bit since 1999 when I first began email.
Today email is sometimes more of a hindrance than a help. Each day I get over 100 unsolicited emails . Some are just junk mail trying to sell you a good or a service others are just plain annoying.
For instance, how many times am I going to get an email from someone in Nigeria who wants me to help them withdraw thousands of dollars in frozen assets and they would be more than willing to split the money with me.
Are these Nigerian con-men stupid or do they think everyone else in the world is dumber than them. Either way, I wish they would stop wasting every one's time and realize that we in America have all heard of the pigeon drop .
If that were all I had to deal with in the email category it would be fine but every cheap scam and product is hawked on email. Everything from online degrees to timeshares and everything in-between.
Email used to be a nice refuge in the Cyber world from the conventionality of the real world. Now it's just the infomercial from hell that you meet every time you check your email. I remember when AOL would beckon to me, "you've got mail" and there were only a few messages in your box and they were from people you knew, not some Nigerian con-man who want a favor.