"Muzikal" Interulde

This song always makes me dance, enjoy!



BTW, I first heard this on Craig Ferguson:

Obama, Education, and Economic Inequality in the Black Community

President Obama gave a great speech at the NAACP last night, but before that speech he gave an interview to Black Media where he said the following (h/t JJP):

For example, the most important issue for the African-American community, according to the President, is education. "If we close the achievement gap, then a big chunk of economic inequality in this society is diminished," he said, arguing that getting our kids up to speed involves better teachers, greater accountability, and a combination of more resources and education reform.

I agree that education is the biggest problem facing our community, it largely seems like people coming up behind me are almost proud to revel in their ignorance. I remember seeing somewhere where a young Black male couldn't READ, and he was PROUD of that. Unfortunately the "mainstream" of Black culture seems to elevate going to prison, being a thug, and disrespecting women. I do think that all Black folks need to take advantage of all of the FREE education they can, especially considering the fact that there was a time where teaching Blacks how to read and write was a crime.

With that being said, there was something very important missing from that paragraph, COST. I graduated from high school, went straight to college and had lots of scholarships (I managed to end up with only about $8,000 in loans after 4 years at an out of state school), then I took a year off and went to law school (just graduated in May, getting ready to take the Bar in a couple of weeks) and my student loan debt is now astronomical, I did have a scholarship, but it barely covered the cost of books each year, not to mention the rising cost of tuition. When I first got to the school, it was about $900 a credit hour, by the time I graduated it had risen each year to the point where it was $1060 per credit hour. I didn't work (except for the summers), so I also had to take out loans to pay for the cost of living (about $10,000 a year). Luckily I managed to avoid private loans. With that said, my student loan payments are going to end up being approximately a house payment per month. I don't want to work for a big firm, I want to work for a gov't agency or maybe a non-profit organization.

Economically, going to school isn't really helping me right now. I'm sure it will end up paying off in the long term, but I think a lot of the younger Blacks look at people like me who did do the whole school thing, and will be in mountains of debt for YEARS (unless I write a couple of best-selling books or win the lottery), and then they look at their friend "Ray Ray" who dropped out of high school and is doing some illegal activity and living in a big house in a nice neighborhood with a gas guzzling SUV with platinum rims and they wonder why should they bother going to school.

So it's not enough to simply get Black kids though high school and send them off to a community or 4 year college, we need to get the COST of education down. Lawyers and Doctors default the most on their student loans. I wasn't surprised when I first heard that. Yet we need more lawyers and doctors to go into public service. The government loan forgiveness program is nice, but we still have to pay those astronomical loan payments for 10 years before that will kick in (and I'm not sure if whatever is paid off is taxable or not, but it probably is). The Income Based Repayment program also isn't perfect, it's nice that it gets payments down for maybe 25 years, but I know for sure whatever isn't paid off there is taxable, and your loan payments will fluctuate every year which may make it more difficult to budget.

I think fixing the cost of education is right up there with health care as far as draining people. My parents didn't take out any loans for me, all of my loans are in MY name and they are MY responsibility, and the last thing I want to do is default.

Sorry for the long rant, but I hope my point got through. Again, I'm thrilled that he actually TALKS about education that was my #1 issue during the campaign, and the biggest reason why I was supporting his candidacy.

We have not reached the Promised Land

The election of Barack Hussein Obama is historical, it’s a giant step in the right direction, but it does not mean we have reached the “Promised Land.” Our work is not done. When children in rural and urban schools around the country are still not receiving the education they deserve, we have not reached the Promised Land. When the joblessness rates in this country rise with every report, we have not reached the Promised Land. When people are still being racially profiled, we have not reached the Promised Land. When people are not being treated TRULY as equals, be it for their race, gender, socioeconomic status, or sexual orientation, we have not reached the Promised Land.

I say all this, not to minimize what the election of Barack Obama means to this country, I say it so we don’t start to get complacent and think our work is done. It’s nice to think that with the election of our first African American President we have actually achieved Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream, but we have not.

So while we celebrate the inauguration of President Obama, let us not forget that our work is not done.

I strongly suggest you read the entire speech here, but I will post the most famous part:

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Barack Obama is not a “Young Man”

Barack Obama is not a “Young Man”



Let me say it again. Barack Obama is not a “young man” he is 47 (on August 4th) years old. That’s almost 50. He is a man. He needs no qualifier.


I am so tired of people talking about Senator Obama as if he were a young man in his 20s. He is a United States Senator. Let me repeat that. He is a United States Senator .


He is not some sort of “celebrity” who did “nothing” to get where he is. He was born to a mother who at one point was on food stamps to feed her children. Yes, he went to a prestigious school, but he went on SCHOLARSHIP not because he had the money and could afford for mommy and daddy to pay the tuition. He went to college on scholarships and loans. He went to law school on scholarships and loans. He JUST paid off his student loans a couple of years ago thanks to the success of his books. He was a community organizer in Chicago, in fact he moved there not knowing anyone because he felt it was his place to do something to help people. Even when he graduated near the top of his class at Harvard Law School, he chose to return to his community organizing job instead of taking some fancy job on Wall Street. He ran for office because we wanted to do more to help more people. He was unsuccessful in one election when he ran for U.S. Congress, so he does know the bitter taste of defeat.


He is by no means perfect, but to reduce him to a celebrity, and then say “he’s a good young man” is insulting and belittling. The man is a United States Senator, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for President. He may be our next president. He is not a “young man” he is not “inexperienced” he is not “uninformed” he DOES “understand” the issues and what needs to be done to put the United States back on course.


He is not “arrogant” or “presumptuous” or “cocky” or “uppity.” He is confident. Maybe he has an ego, but anyone who thinks they can and should be the President of the United States has an ego.


So stop calling him “young” because while just about anyone or anything is younger than John McCain, Barack Obama is not a “young man.”