Vote or Die

As of this writing ,there are twenty-seven days to the presidential election. While the latest Gallop polls have Obama ahead, nothing is to be taken for granted. In light of the nightmare presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, Americans must be vigilant more then ever.Words like election protection,voter purging, and pole security should alert us to the potential of voter disenfranchisement.
In light of these realities, there is a website you should check out. Steal back your vote is an informative website that empowers voter's to avoid the potential pitfalls that might result in disenfranchisement.
For a small donation, one a can receive in comic book fashion, information that"aggressively investigates the Hanky-panky Republicans have already road-tested in the primaries to steal your vote in November."
I think it's worth checking out. Don't you?

Christian Scott: A Lion in A Hurricane

New Orleans, the birth place of Jazz, has produced, arguably, the greatest trumpet players that ever graced the history of America’s version of classical music. Such notables from the Crescent city would make a Jazz enthusiast rise from the dead: Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Wynton Marsalis, Al Hirt, and Terence Blanchard—to name just a few.
Well, New Orleans has done it again with the latest Jazz phenom : Christian Scott
I first encountered this music prodigy, reading an article in Jazz Times (September’08), about New Jazz Visionaries. Shortly afterward, I purchased Scott’s latest CD: Anthem. Listening to Anthem gave me a feeling I haven’t had listening to Jazz in a long while. The best way I can describe it, is like this— it was Miles Déjà vu.
Personally, I longed to have some Jazz figure capture the spirit of rebellion in their music like Miles Davis. I mean as far as I’m concerned, if you going to be a successful Jazz artist you’re going to have to have at least two elements: creativity and defiance.
Christian Scott captures both of these qualities brilliantly .On the Anthem CD, Scott’s trumpet blows a sound that invokes images of a young Cassius Clay, aka Muhammad Ali, speaking with poetic brilliance—truth to power— to those who back in the day, were threaten by Ali’s intelligence and manhood.
Christian Scott has given resurrection life to Jazz again. It’s Jazz with an attitude: angry, arrogant, iconoclastic, and political. Christian Scott has also shown his maverick spirit; merging Jazz with Hip-Hop; by adding a member of X-Clan, Bother J, on the final song —Anthem (post Diluvial Adaptation) — a eulogy that captures the psycho-social reality of Katrina and beyond.
I can imagine some Jazz purists would see Scott’s cross-breeding of Hip-Hop and Jazz as blasphemy—a transmogrification of sound—like they did when Miles merged psychedelic rock and Funk with Hard Bop.
However, Jazz purists need not worry; Scott has plenty on the Anthem CD for them to celebrate.
The young man has not forgotten his roots. I think you be satisfied and excited as I was to hear the swing of a young lion blowing in the power of a New Orleans hurricane.

From G's To Gallantry

Last Sunday, I was engaged in my usual, sometimes typical, lazy-day sporting event: channel surfing. During this period of relaxation, I came across a program I had been viewing since its premiere.
The program is called From G's to Gents. From G’s to Gents is a MTV reality series conceived by Jamie Foxx that pitches the idea that 14 gangsters would be willing to change their lives and become gentlemen. Hosted by Fonzworth Bentley, the self-styled gentlemen’s gentlemen of hip-hop, From G’s to Gents is in my opinion, an exemplary lesson on meeting the psychosocial needs of urban manhood.
As fate would have it, I watched the final program where the winner was chosen to become a bona fide member of Bentley’s "Gentlemen’s" club. I was beyond amazed to see transformation from such men who called themselves The Truth, Pretty Ricky, D-boy, and J Boogie.
The winner, of the right to join the "Gentlemen’s Club," was Creepa, a roughneck, who came from an unpleasant place called Miami Gardens, Fla. This young “boy from the hood,” dressed in a $1,000 suit, gave a heartfelt speech which testified of his conversion.
Creepa had been completely indoctrinated in the Fonzworth Bentley school of etiquette. Creepa was so committed to secure the title of "Gentleman," he surrendered his braids for a clean-cut look, and threw away his "gold grill,"( gold teeth ), just to show how serious he was about this achievement.

When Fonzworth announced that he was the winner (a guy named Shotta was the other finalist), Thaddeus aka Creepa broke down and cried on the shoulders of his mentor.

I must confess, I cried too.

I cried, because Fonzworth Bentley is a hero. That’s right, a hero. When the male role models of some inner city youth are: gangster’s, ballers, rappers etc, here is a man doing it the right way,making class, manners and proper parlance attractive to young men who are stereotypically not associated with such things.

I cried, because I saw the emptiness of the “gangster lifestyle” in the willingness of a small group of roughnecks willing to leave a life that brings no positive returns.

I cried, because G’s To Gents showed me that anyone can be successful if given the proper mentorship and guidance. And more than anything, inspite of the ongoing diatribe on the state of urban youth in America, mentorship is the key, in my thinking, that can stem the tide of nihilism in the ‘hood.

Finally, I cried, because From G’s To Gents should have been on BET.

In The House,
KJ

A Blast From The Past

Hey ya’ll, just in case you forgot – old school racism is back. I know many of you reading this blog will say to me “it never went away.” And I might agree with you, however there is proof that America is slowly detoxing from its lingering addiction to its favorite national narcotic: Racism.
Just when you thought we were entering the period called the post-racial era, just when you thought America was ready to sing Ku-Ba-Ya with the possible election of its first president of color- again the insidious hateful problem of our racial past resurfaces.

Somebody decided to put Barack Obama on a box of waffles and sell it(Obama Waffles).
Now, while the website claims to be an expression of humor, political satire and parody, if these individuals had any sense of American history, they would realize this is a throwback to the Jim Crow caricatures of Coons, Pica ninny and Mammy.

Perhaps one needs to check out the Museum of Racist Memorabilia to get a sense of the history of anti-Black images.

Why, you might ask, do I persist in bring up a subject that many think we have overcome because we have the first African American Presidential candidate?
Because I have learned from my Jewish Brethren who live by the motto: “Never Forget.”

Or as George Santayana said it: “Those Who Cannot Remember the Past are condemned to repeat it.”

Pigs in A Blanket

When the campaign manager for presidential candidate John McCain, Rick Davis, said this election would not be about issues but about personalities – you knew where McCain’s campaign strategy was headed.



It would be about character assassination and the good old Republican playbook of “distract and attack.”

That's what’s happening in the Lipstick on the Pig controversy. Again, the Republicans think the American people are stupid. And maybe the Republicans are betting Americans will be, when they vote in November. However, I hope not! It is clear that if the focus is on the issues that concern Americans—the Republicans would loose hands down.

But if you work to disqualify Obama by derision and charge him with playing the race and gender card – you might cause him to fight defensively and not offensively—changing the main focus of his campaign: Change.

Further investigation reveals John McCain used this same folksy metaphor when he criticized Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on health care.

Someone once wrote: “The secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures.”
In other words shift the focus. I believe with the Lipstick on the Pig—that’s what the Republicans intend to do.

Beware; the worse is yet to come.

Here We Go Again

Just when you thought Election 2008 couldn’t get more dramatic, here comes something that I feel might affect the election outcome, depending on the resolution. It’s not the budget deficit; it’s not the war, or the economy or the emergence of hockey mom Sarah Palin on the Republican vice- presidential ticket. It’s none of the above.

It’s a mess that has been haunting race relations in this country for 13 years: OJ Simpson. Just when you thought this country was ready for change (McCain’s or Obama’s), the memory of the most racially divisive trial in the history of American jurisprudence comes back to test the American psyche on what I call America’s lingering terminal disease: Racism.

As I write, jury selection begins at the Clarke County Regional Center in Las Vegas. Simpson charged with armed robbery and kidnapping, faces possible life imprisonment. Judge Jackie Glass says to the prospective jurors: “IF YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO PUNISH Mr. Simpson for what happened in 1995, this is not the case for you.”
Yeah right! Finding jurors who were not affected by the Trial of the Century, is like trying to find a man who was not aroused while watching the Halle Berry love scene in Monster’s Ball,( I’m not counting those men on medication).

Don't get me wrong—I think Simpson had something to do with the murder in 1995, and he was stupid to try to retrieve trophies in “Sin City.” But Simpson regardless of his contemptuous character represents a conversation that America needs to have about race.

Even if Simpson is convicted this time – racial acrimony is not going away.

Judge Glass says the third Simpson trial will last about five weeks.Beyond
five weeks from now another closing argument will be given, not to a jury in Las Vegas, but to a jury of voters who will decide the fate of the nation.

Time will tell if the verdicts in both trials will heal the sickness America refuses to confront.

Obama, E:60

The presidential election is less than sixty days. Americans will decide a new political destiny for our nation. As it relates to Barack Obama, this election could make American history, if he’s elected the first president of African descent.

Having imagined the amazing possiblies Obama’s election would bring, not just for African-Americans, but for all America- I’m going to act as his political strategist and outline what he has to do in the next sixty days to seal the deal and win over a nation that is desperately in need of leadership.

1. Keep associating McCain with Bush. Just like the Republicans keep pounding on the “inexperience mantra” as relates to Obama, Obama has to keep in the minds of Americans that McCain is another version of President George Bush. Senator McCain voted 90% of the time with George Bush. It’s the George Bush administration that is responsible for high gas prices, astronomical rates of foreclosures and high unemployment rates. Tell the truth that both the economy and foreign policy have been horribly mismanaged by the Republicans and John McCain means more the same. Keep sticking McCain with Bush like starch on rice.
2. Exhibit Pastoral leadership not Pit-bull Aggression. The Republican game plan was revealed by both vice presidential nominee, Gov. Sarah Palin, and McCain campaign manager, Rick Davis: engage in character assignation and the politics of fear, and avoid the issues. Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention spoke more about Obama than issues relevant to Americans. Furthermore, Rick Davis was quoted as saying “this election would be decided, not on the issues, but on the voters’ views of the candidates’ personalities.” This tells you that the Republicans will use the usual scare tactics to transmogrify the character of Obama. What Obama has to do is maintain the high road. He and his campaign team most avoid at all costs the belittling, dehumanizing ways used by anyone who is afraid and unsure of themselves and short on substance. When people are hurting, they need a pastor and not a pit bull. If America sees the heart of a caring shepherd in the character of Obama, in contrast to the bombastic ways of the Republicans- this will work in his favor.
3. The Bubba Vote. This is shorthand for white, working class voters who often live in rural areas. Obama has to win them over and sell them on the glaring reality that their interests are united with all Americans. He has to attack the notion of the reality of underlying racism that former House Majority leader Dick Armey spoke about. Armey was quoted as saying,” There are an awful lot of people in America… who simply are not emotionally prepared to vote for a black man.” How does Obama transcend underlying racism? Identify with the hurts and pains of small town America and trumpet patriotic values.
4. Grass roots Mobilization. This is Obama’s strong suit, and it has to be intensified: Voter registration, Election Day watch dogs to guard against voting irregularities, campaign advertising on every level.
Election 2008 must be played like a John Coltrane song on Blue note records (you dig the Obama jazz button?). Like poet Sterling Brown wrote, “the strong man keep on com’in,’ that’s what its going to take- a lot of resiliency and fight if Obama is to win the presidency.
In The House,
KJ