BLACK HISTORY MONTH: BLACK MIGRATION, BOTH SLAVE AND FREE

	Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture An early 19th-century print of slaves in Brazil, from “In Motion.”

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By FELICIA R. LEE

Published: February 2, 2005

Correction Appended

The extraordinary range of African-American migrations – from the earliest Africans who arrived to the recent movement of blacks back to the South – is the focus of a new Web site and an exhibition of recent research that could redefine African-American history, said scholars involved with the project, which was announced yesterday at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. “In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience,” a three-year project that cost $2.4 million, is probably the largest single documentation of the migrations of all people of African ancestry in North America, said Howard Dodson, director of the center, part of the New York Public Library.

	California State Library Miners during the gold rush.

The exhibition at the Schomburg Center’s Exhibition Hall, which opened yesterday, showcases many of the images, maps and music assembled for the project. But the project’s 16,500 pages of essays, books, articles and manuscripts, as well as 8,300 illustrations and 60 maps are also available on the center’s Web site (schomburgcenter.org) and could encourage a national conversation on the very definition of African-American, Mr. Dodson, a historian, said in an interview.

“This is a huge story,” Mr. Dodson said. “This will serve as a catalyst for the continued re-thinking of who the African-American community is. For the first time, here’s a project that explores the extraordinary diversity of the African-American community. This is organized around 13 migrations, 2 of them involuntary: the domestic slave trade and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.”

Broadening the examination of migration beyond the slave trade means “you come away with some very different perspectives,” Mr. Dodson said. Twice as many sub-Saharan Africans – about one million – have migrated to the United States in the last 30 years as during the entire era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, project organizers said.

The project is chock full of illuminating facts. It shows that in recent years, twice as many African-Americans have moved from the North to the South as from the South to other regions. From 1995 to 2000 approximately 680,000 African-Americans moved to the South and 330,000 left, for a net gain of 350,000.

And for the first time, all the elements of the African diaspora – natives of Africa, Americans whose ancestors were enslaved Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Central and South Americans of African descent, as well as Europeans with African or Afro-Caribbean roots – can be found in the United States.

This has happened in only the last 15 years and is prompting a far broader view of the term African-American, said Sylviane Diouf, a historian who served as the content manager for the project.

In addition to the Web site and the exhibition, the project includes a book, “In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience,” released by National Geographic last month, and a Black History Month education kit, with lesson plans and a bibliography.

“It’s really a new interpretation of African-American history,” Ms. Diouf said. “We’re seeing the centrality of migration in the African-American experience. What we’re seeing now with the new immigration from Haiti, the Caribbean and Africa is a new diversity, people coming with their languages, their culture, their food.”

Quintard Taylor, a professor of American history at Washington University in Seattle, who explored 400 years of migration in what is now the Western United States, said the project’s Web site alone opened up new possibilities.

“Now you have a potential audience of millions,” said Mr. Taylor, whose research showed that some of the first settlers of places like San Antonio, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Tucson were people of African ancestry.

Beyond that, he said, most people know only bits and pieces of the story of the African diaspora. Now they can make the connections.

“The central theme of finding political freedom and economic opportunity was as strong for those who ventured to Los Angeles from central Mexico in 1750, as for those who came to New York from Jamaica or the South in 1950,” Mr. Taylor said in an e-mail message.

The project’s scholars represent a range of mostly American universities, including the University of Chicago, Columbia and the University of Delaware. They were commissioned by the Schomburg, and most expanded on research that had already yielded scholarly material.

The money for the project, Mr. Dodson said, came in part from a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency, through the efforts of the Congressional Black Caucus and Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York.

The research topics included the movements of blacks out of the United States to places like Liberia, Trinidad, Canada, Haiti and Mexico; the 19th-century migration north of both free and enslaved blacks; the migration of blacks in the West and even the journeys of runaway slaves. Some said their findings were surprising or at least tweaked conventional theories.

	Heidi Schumann for The New York Times Harry Belafonte at the exhibition “In Motion” at the Schomburg Center

Loren Schweninger, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, said his research on runaways showed that many more fled to other parts of the South than made it North. Of the 50,000 or more slaves who ran away each year, perhaps only 2,000 made it North; it was just too difficult, for one reason. “And that tells you a lot about slavery,” he said.

James O. Horton, a professor of American studies and history at George Washington University who explored migration to the North in the 19th century, found that inner cities were once far more racially integrated than now. Lacking public transportation, people in the same industries lived in the same areas and many blacks lived near their white employers, even wealthy ones.

Harry Belafonte, whose parents immigrated from Jamaica, said at a news conference at the Schomburg yesterday that the project would dispel myths.

“I was born colored, after that Negro, then black and now we’ve settled on African-American,” the 77-year-old singer said. “No other group has taken a century just to learn what to call ourselves and what others should call us. We will use this Web site not only to be more prideful, but to allow the rest of the world to understand what they’ve done to us and what they’ve done with us.”

Correction: February 4, 2005, Friday:An article in The Arts on Wednesday about a new exhibition on African-American migration at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in Harlem, misstated the affiliation of Prof. Quintard Taylor, who discussed the center’s Web site. He teaches at the University of Washington. (Washington University is in St. Louis.)

(Article courtesyof The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com )

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CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK; ‘BLACK’ COMES IN MANY SHADINGS:  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEFDC173FF930A2575BC0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

HARLEM PAS DE DEUX

Vincent Laforet for The New York Times

Attending to a patron at BBraxton, a stylish men’s salon.

By TRYMAINE LEE

Published: February 17, 2008

THE boy pressed his face to the window of the men’s salon, his breath fogging the glass. He stood there, on a wintry day, staring at the sharply dressed men swathed in hot towels.

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Hawking umbrellas near the Apollo Theater.

After a few minutes he walked in, his tattered sneakers squeaking on the gleaming hardwood.

“He asked what we did here,” said Tony Van Putten, who owns the year-old jewel of a shop, called BBraxton, at Fifth Avenue and 116th Street in Harlem. “And when I told him that we cut hair, he gave me this look. And he asked if it was O.K. if he could get his hair cut here, too.”

The boy seemed more accustomed to the streets than to a place like BBraxton, Mr. Van Putten said, but inside the shop he saw men who were black like him although they were wearing slacks and sweaters and shoes that shined as if they’d been dipped in pomade. Twice. The boy’s eyes seemed to ask: Am I good enough to be in a place like this?

For the past decade, Harlem has been gentrifying rapidly. But while affluent white professionals are the visible symbol of that change here and everywhere else, the fact is that often the well-off arrivals, like the patrons at BBraxton, are black.

Gentrification in any color makes similar impacts — rising rents, high-end merchants, displacement, home renovations — but black gentrification has an emotional texture far different from the archetypal kind, both for residents and for newcomers. This is particularly true in Harlem, the historic capital of black America.

Some local residents, like the boy peering through the window, are a bit uncomfortable with the well-off set but aspire to join it. Others resent the incursions on their turf and feel that the newcomers, like other affluent professionals, are interested mostly in maintaining property values and their comfortable lifestyles.

The black arrivals, in turn, may feel a special duty as blacks to help Harlem and its people, or they may feel ill-treated or wrongly labeled by them, or they may feel guilty knowing that others of their own race are in need — and often standing right outside the polished doors of their new brownstones.

The truth is elusive and ethereal, with opinions based on a mere glance, a perception, a nuance. But given the blistering pace of Harlem gentrification — the average sale price of an apartment in the last quarter of 2007 was 93 percent higher than in the same period of 2006 — the black-black issue is both very real and very complex.

“There are black people here in Harlem who share physical residence,” said Howard Dodson, general director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the major repository in Harlem of books and other artifacts of African-American cultural life. “But saying ‘a community’ is another thing. The question is: Can community be built across these racial and class lines in the new Harlem, in this new reality?”

‘A Lot of Anger’

A few months after 9/11, Leah Abraham, a 47-year-old woman of Eritrean and Ethiopian descent, along with her Italian-born husband, Nino Settepani, opened a bustling cafe and bakery called Settepani at Malcolm X Boulevard and 120th Street. They had purchased two vacant storefronts in 1999, broken down the dividing wall and pumped about $1 million into the business.

“The morning we opened, I had a sign on the door saying that we would open at 9 o’clock,” Ms. Abraham said as she sat at a little square table across from the glass dessert counter in her shop one afternoon last fall. “About 8:30 I realized there was a line of people outside. So I came out and I said: ‘You know, you have to wait. I’ve been working on this for a year and I want it to be perfect when I open these doors.’ ”

Then her eyes widened as she recalled the moment, the remnants of an accent rolling easily off her tongue. “A woman standing on line looked at me and put her hand on her hip and she said, ‘Well, we’ve been waiting for you for 30 years,’ ” Ms. Abraham said. “So I had to open the doors.”

Longtime residents appreciate not just the pastries at Settepani, but also its other amenities, like not having to pass their money under a pane of bulletproof glass. For all the local warmth, however, there have been chilly moments.

“I have found more hostility over the last couple years,” Ms. Abraham said. “There is a lot of anger.” People have come into the shop and kicked furniture and chastised customers for patronizing the shop, she said; last summer, one man stood outside shouting, “This is my neighborhood.”

The anger has dismayed Ms. Abraham, who moved to Harlem from Westchester about a year ago. “I feel like I have done something very positive,” she said, “but I also feel that the biggest sacrifice is made by us. We put a lot of money into this place.

Vincent Laforet for The New York Times

“I have found more hostility over the last couple years,” said Leah Abraham, a proprietor of Settepani, a Harlem cafe and bakery.

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

As construction booms, apartment prices have nearly doubled in a year.

“We are not investors,” Ms. Abraham continued. “We came in, and I’m putting my face at the door every single day.”

Noting that the shop had been robbed twice, she said: “I have had a gun pointed to my head. I have really committed to this neighborhood. I moved here. It’s a whole different commitment when you buy and you fix and you rent or if you come and you live in it.”

A Tradition of Amity

Black entrepreneurs like Ms. Abraham may encounter hostility, but in the opinion of Kevin McGruder, a Harlemite who is a co-owner of Harlemade, a Harlem-centric gift shop on Malcolm X Boulevard, black residents are generally more accepting of the black newcomers than of white ones.

“People focus on the white people and that’s more the fear,” Mr. McGruder said. “There is a feeling that a black person, even if he or she is upper-income, many or most will be able to identify with things that are happening in Harlem. Some of them are only a generation removed from where other people in Harlem are.”

Warner Johnson, a 45-year-old Internet entrepreneur who recently started a Web site called Fabsearch.com that gathers travel articles from high-end fashion magazines, suggests that tradition also helps to smooth black-on-black relations.

“You always had people that had means and people that didn’t have means in Harlem,” Mr. Johnson said. “If you were black back in the day and had money, there was nowhere else you could live. So we never looked at that as something of a dividing point.”

Mr. Johnson, who moved to Harlem in 1993 (“when police helicopters were still flying outside of my window”), also says Harlem’s role as the nation’s black capital helps ease black-black tensions. “Being a culture mecca,” he said, “supersedes all the notions of the affluence component.”

Some observers, however, argue that today’s black newcomers to Harlem are seen as much different from their predecessors.

“There was some kind of turning point where black people coming back could be seen as a revitalizing force in the community,” said Monique M. Taylor, a visiting sociologist at Al Quds University in Jerusalem and the author of a gentrification study called “Harlem: Between Heaven and Hell.” “Then, they got mixed in with white gentrifiers.”

The changes over the last two decades have deepened black-black tensions. Today, Ms. Taylor said, skeptical residents often wonder: “Can I believe what you say when you say, ‘I’m here to help you, brother’? Or are you simply making the rent higher?”

Dr. Dodson, of the Schomburg Center, summed up the new, wary assessment of black newcomers another way: “They did not come here to slum.”

The Property That Got Away

A signature New York emotion, real estate envy, may be another source of local ill feeling.

On a recent tour of some prized Harlem brownstones, Willie Kathryn Suggs, owner of a local real estate firm that bears her name, said that in the 1970s and ’80s such properties went for a fraction of today’s prices.

Back then, the city took over many crumbling buildings abandoned by slumlords, and eventually it became the biggest landowner in Harlem. In the early ’90s, the Dinkins administration set up a lottery to sell the properties to Harlemites at below-market prices, but many residents simply didn’t seize the opportunity. Now that housing in Harlem is too costly for most residents, Ms. Suggs said, there is much regret.

“It’s about blacks who own and blacks who don’t own,” she said. “Their grandparents were smart enough to own their house, and the grandchildren lost it for whatever reason. The blacks whose parents owned and left are not happy.

“A lot of them don’t like being told that they blew it,” Ms. Suggs went on. “Now what you hear are a whole bunch of should’ve, would’ve, could’ves.”

Among others, like Evette Rolack, a 48-year-old security guard, the sore feelings have less to do with regret than with paying their dues during the hard years.

“We’ve been here for a long time and have struggled with drugs and crime, for good schools,” said Ms. Rolack, who remembers when Harlem had few banks or supermarkets, and crack cocaine was king. “Now, I feel like we have a lot of people coming into the community who don’t come with anything to help those of us who have been here through it all.”

Ms. Rolack also bristled about the attitude she senses in some of the newcomers. “It’s the way they act,” she said. “Like, don’t touch me, like they are so much better than me. But really, it’s like, I’m black and you’re black.”

Spikes on the Wall

Sometimes black-black relations come down to turf. Just ask Paula Sheppard, 43, product manager for a women’s clothing catalog. She was born and raised in St. Nicholas Houses, a public project on the neighborhood’s western flank, but she suspects that local residents, misled by her middle-class lifestyle, do not know she’s a homegrown Harlemite.

When Ms. Sheppard and her family moved to a white limestone house on a corner lot surrounded by a four-foot concrete wall, she also inherited a bunch of young guys who, she said, used the wall as their hangout. They would leave the litter of their idle time — liquor bottles, trash — along her family’s property.

In the beginning, Ms. Sheppard asked them just to keep the noise down and clean up, and she donated a trash can for their convenience. When that didn’t work, she began installing spikes on the wall to discourage sitting. But then, halfway through the project, someone pried the spikes from the wall. Workmen eventually finished the job, but the young loiterers simply got more creative, she said, and used tape and cardboard to make cushions to put on top of the spikes.

Last summer, Ms. Sheppard marched to the corner and confronted the young men.

“The leader of the group said, ‘We have always sat here and’ — in other words, you just got here,” she said. “I’ve been here almost all of my life, but he saw me as an outsider. He was staking his claim because he lived across the street.”

Sound of the Drummers

In its traditions and the names of its streets and its parks, Harlem is so filled with homage to African-American heroes that, said Sheila Bridges, a local interior designer, “I always joke that you have to know your black history to know your way around Harlem.”

But Ms. Bridges does not take this history lightly.

“I always want that to be a part of where I live,” she said. “My concern is that the people who are coming here and the developers that got breaks for buying real estate here, in addition to those who moved here because the D train is an express, don’t care so much about the history. That is part of what contributes to people feeling the way they do about this.”

Last summer, a mild drama unfolded over these African and African-American themes. The cast included traditional African drummers who for decades have been playing on Sunday afternoons in Mount Morris Park, in the heart of Harlem, and some new residents of the renovated brownstones and condominiums that surround the park. The drumming often persists into the night, and some neighbors — largely whites but also a few blacks — complained that it was an annoyance and a violation of noise ordinances. Claims of racism and cultural insensitivity followed.

“If you set up 20 people playing drums in front of your window from 1 o’clock to 10 o’clock, you would want it to stop,” said one complainer, a black resident who declined to give his name because of the delicacy of the matter. “And all those people pushing this thing to make it a cultural thing instead of a noise abatement thing, they are playing into the race-baiting and the newcomer versus the old-timer issue.”

For a time, the drummers moved to a hill in the center of the 20-acre greenspace, which is also known as Marcus Garvey Park, but the steps there proved troublesome for many elderly drummers and spectators. So the drummers returned to the edges of the park, nearer to the brownstones and to the complaints.

•

When Kim Martin-Shah, a 31-year-old stay-at-home mom, looks out from her plush Harlem condominium apartment, she sees a world that saddens her. She sees black mothers struggling to feed their children while she and her husband, who works for Merrill Lynch, and their 22-month-old son, Ameer, live the American Dream.

Ms. Martin-Shah said that she, too, has been shunned by the new black bourgeoisie in Harlem, who have mistaken her for a longtime resident, perhaps, she said, because of the way she dresses on weekend play dates and story time at the library, in her “Timberlands and a North Face bubble jacket and big gold hoop earrings.”

“Gentrification is definitely not just a black-white thing,” she said. “It’s an economic thing.”

Still, she is hardly unaware of her racial kinship with the less fortunate outside her window.

“I don’t think I have done anything wrong, nor do I feel I am responsible for the dire situation many of my neighbors are in,” Ms. Martin-Shah said. But she added, “These are my people, even though I might not relate to some of their financial woes.”

Past Coverage

• DISPATCHES; Home, Semisweet Home (February 10, 2008)
• Office Tower to Rise in Harlem for Baseball’s TV Network (January 31, 2008)
• $7 Billion Columbia Expansion Gets Green Light (December 20, 2007)
• At Raucous Hearing, City Panel Approves Columbia’s Plan for Expansion in Harlem (November 27, 2007)

(Article courtesy of The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com )

BUSH WARMLY RECEIVED IN TANZANIA

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 18, 2008

Filed at 2:42 p.m. ETARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) — President Bush was swept up in an outpouring of affection Monday in Tanzania’s rural north, where tens of thousands lined the road to see him, one woman burst into a dance of joy just from a hug and fierce-looking Maasai warriors leapt and chanted in his honor.

Midway through a trek through five African nations that have benefited from U.S. largesse, Bush spent the day in Mount Kilamanjaro’s massive shadow to reinforce the strides being made with his malaria program. During stops at both a rural health complex and on a gleaming factory floor, Bush showcased real-life benefits of the U.S.-led fight against the mosquito-borne disease that kills a million young children each year in impoverished tropical countries.

The president launched a five-year, $1.2 billion plan in 2005 to cut malaria deaths in half in the hardest-hit countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. It leverages private sector support to provide indoor spraying, cutting-edge drugs and vouchers for a 75 percent discount off the purchase of insecticide-treated bed nets. Congress so far has put $425 million into the plan and Bush says it has reached 25 million people in two years.

Vouchers for 2 million nets have been handed out in Tanzania alone. And Bush announced Monday that the U.S. — in partnership with the country’s government, the World Bank and the U.N.-sponsored Global Fund — will start within six months distributing another 5.2 million nets here for free. That’s enough, he said, to cover every Tanzanian child between ages one and five.

”The power to save lives comes with the moral obligation to use it,” he said in an open-air pavilion at the Meru District Hospital. ”This is a practical way to help save lives.”

The visit to this striking region near the Kenyan border took Bush from scrubby plains into lush foothills covered with banana trees and coffee farms and back to wide-open spaces dotted with cactus. Over all loomed Kilamanjaro, the tip of its dramatic snow-capped peak shrouded in clouds for all but the start of the day. Though the area is extremely poor, it also — with its proximity to the mountain’s climbing trails and famed game parks — is a cradle of African tourism.

Talk of Sen. Barack Obama, whose Kenyan father has made his U.S. presidential campaign a subject of intense fascination here, also followed Bush to Arusha. Three black-and-white ”Obama 08” signs were spotted in onlookers’ hands along the road — a reminder not only of the Democrats’ chance to take the White House from Bush’s Republican Party but that the president’s administration is nearing an end.

But the region’s effusive demonstration of thanks for the U.S. drive to improve African lives dominated the day.

As Bush’s motorcade sped back and forth across the region, people lined almost the entire route several deep just to watch him pass. On one stretch, locals had even strewn flowers in the road.

The president landed at the airport to a performance of Maasai women dancers. An even more flamboyant scene greeted him later at the Emusoi Center, a school for Maasai girls.

First, a group of young students in brilliant pink and blue sarongs chanted about U.S. scholarships that — as they sang in unison — give them”the power to choose instead of being forced to marry.” Many of the girls live at the school because their deeply rooted pastoral culture generally shuns modernity and integration. ”Look at us, listen to our voices,” they sang. ”We are the Maasai girls with a chance for education.”

Bush also sat down there among older women, in traditional Maasai dress of colorful wraps, close-cropped hair, large white disks around their necks, white headbands, and large dangly earrings — people who were learning to read on wooden benches under a tent.

Capping his visit was a gravity-defying performance of Maasai morani, or warriors, many nearing seven feet tall and two wearing feathered headdresses that signify the tribe’s rite of passage of lion-hunting. Clad in red blankets, brandishing thin spears and with red ochre face paint, the men made full-throated chanting sounds, sprang high in the air and slammed their feet back into the dust.

Bush briefly attempted to bounce and sway and mimic their graceful but powerful undulations. He quickly gave up, laughing and embracing the smiling men. As a keepsake, the president spent about $60 in Tanzanian shillings at a makeshift shop in the schoolyard on a wooden spear in the shape of a lithe Maasai woman.

In Meru District Hospital nestled among tropical hills, which treats 1,300 malaria cases a month, Bush visited with women in traditional-print dresses and headscarves waiting on bed net vouchers or help for their young children.

The president and his wife, Laura, handed out several U.S.-funded nets, getting some grateful hugs in return. One woman embraced Bush repeatedly, shimmying and raising her hands in a little victory celebration as he walked away. Others erupted in a ”yi-yi-yi-yi” singsong of approval — like when he ventured a couple of words in Swahili.

At the A to Z Textile Mills, Bush strolled among machines that turn insecticide-soaked, time-release Japanese pellets into yarn, and watched it being woven into nets that are inspected and folded. The president mugged for cameras by ducking under one net as an employee examined it for holes.

At midday, the president and first lady stopped at a luxury safari lodge to have lunch with their niece, Ellie LeBlond, the daughter of Bush’s sister, Doro Koch. She is spending several months doing humanitarian work in the area.

(Article courtesy of The New York Times;  http://www.nytimes.com )

RELATED LINKS:

BUSH DEFENDS U.S. RECORD ON DARFUR: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7245002.stm

PROTECTING DARFUR’S WOMEN FROM RAPE

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 18, 2008

Filed at 2:09 p.m. ETKALMA, Sudan (AP) — U.N. peacekeepers in armored vehicles and pickup trucks whizzed into this refugee camp. A dozen women came to meet them, bringing their donkeys, water rations and homemade axes.

It was time for one of the refugees’ most perilous tasks: collecting firewood.

Countless refugee women have been assaulted or raped, mostly by Arab janjaweed militiamen, after leaving the relative safety of their camps to gather wood in the open wilderness of Sudan’s Darfur region. Most men don’t even leave the camps because they risk being killed.

But one of the first steps taken by U.N. peacekeepers since they launched their mission in Darfur in January is to restore ”firewood patrols” to protect women on their forays outside Kalma, home to 90,000 refugees and one of the region’s largest camps.

The women walking out of Kalma one morning in late January were smiling and waving hellos as their leader, Khadidja Abdallah, came up to greet the peacekeepers who had come to escort them.

It was a stark contrast to nearly a year ago, in May, when an Associated Press reporter first met Khadidja. Then, the ”sheikha,” or woman chief, was cowering in a mud hut deep inside Kalma, trying to comfort seven refugee women who had been gang-raped while collecting firewood.

African Union peacekeepers in place then had halted firewood patrols because they felt powerless to stop violence. Khadidja and the woman bitterly complained that the AU force had all but given up on protecting Darfur civilians.

More than 2.5 million people have fled to camps around Darfur in the war between the Arab-dominated Khartoum government and ethnic African rebels. The government is accused of unleashing the janjaweed, who are blamed for widespread atrocities against ethnic African villagers and refugees.

The 7,000-member AU force, in place since 2004, was woefully underequipped and understaffed. The force failed to pacify Darfur, where over 200,000 people have died since fighting broke out in 2003.

The joint U.N.-African mission, known as UNAMID, that has taken its place faces some of the same problems. It is almost entirely composed of the same AU troops, with an additional 2,000 peacekeepers. It could take much of 2008 to reach its planned strength of 26,000. It still lacks the same heavy equipment and air power the AU force needed, top U.N. officials say.

But UNAMID has restored the firewood patrols at Kalma in an attempt to quickly show they can improve security in Darfur.

”Now, it’s every Monday and Thursday,” a grinning Khadidja said of the patrols.

The column of U.N. police cars, pickups and armored personnel carriers escorted the women some 6 miles into the surrounding wasteland to a place known as ”the forest,” a comparatively less arid stretch of rocky hills where thorny shrubs grow among a few baobab trees — the same area where the seven women were raped last year.

As the peacekeepers found shade in the rocks, small groups of women chopped branches and raked the ground for stray grass to use as animal fodder. A dozen or so men felt safe enough to come along and share some of the work under Darfur’s unforgiving white sun.

Cattle belonging to Arab nomads appeared from time to time in the distance, but no gunmen were seen.

”I think the fighters here know they can’t challenge us anymore,” said a U.N. officer on the patrol, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance to army regulations. ”They know that since the new mandate, we can shoot to protect civilians.”

Peacekeepers hope to spread the firewood patrols to the dozens of camps around Darfur, but have begun with Kalma because incidents of rape and violence there have been among the highest. Located only a few miles from UNAMID’s headquarters, it also allows for patrols with the UNAMID’s current, restricted means.

Even during the firewood patrol, the dangers were still clear. As the peacekeepers began heading back to Kalma in the afternoon, a convoy of government paramilitaries known as the Central Reserve Police Force, rushed by — the force is believed to be largely made up of janjaweed in uniforms.

The heavily armed men glared at the peacekeepers as their pickups sped within inches of the U.N. vehicles.

”Slow down, we really don’t want to collide with them!” an officer yelled in the U.N. patrol cars’ radios.

(Article courtesy of The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com )

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: ORGANIZATION OF BLACK AIRLINE PILOTS

Airline pilots.

If you are like most Americans, a white male comes to mind, never an image of a black woman or a black man.

 

Jim Young/Reuters

From left, Delta Air Lines pilots Tim O’Malley, Mike Greer, Steve Uvena and Patrick Gribbin on Capitol Hill in Washington last week to attend a Senate hearing on a potential merger between US Airways and Delta. (Photo courtesy of the New York Times).

But, black airline pilots do most certainly exist.  For years, black aviation history, like most black experiences in America, has been relegated to the back pages of newspapers or to footnotes in books and journals.

Consequently, many aviation buffs have no first-hand knowledge of the black contributions to aviation. These contributions do exist, however, a very small portion been formally chronicled and documented. Because of this, American aviation is often perceived as an exclusively white profession.

The OBAP was created on September 17-18, 1976 when thirty-seven of the industry’s approximately 80 black pilots convened at the O’Hare Hilton Hotel in Chicago. As a result of that meeting, The Organization of Black Airline Pilots (OBAP) was born. The beginning of OBAP was not easy:

“Years ago, Ben Thomas, a young black pilot with Eastern Airlines evaluated the state of the U.S. airline industry. By way of the landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court Case, Marlon Green had succeeded in smashing the “Color Barrier” by becoming the first black hired by a major U.S. Passenger Airline (Continental). However, the number of black pilots employed in 1976 was appallingly small. Ben was not alone in recognizing this state of affairs, but his response to the situation was special. He took it upon himself to spearhead an effort to form a permanent body to address this issue. His idea was to simply establish a representative group dedicated to advancing and enhancing the participation of blacks and other minorities in the aviation industry, especially as pilots.

From the outset OBAP has focused its greatest emphasis on preparing young people to realize a successful future and highlight the exciting potential available in aviation. To be certain of an aviation oriented group representing African-American and Minority concerns was neither new nor unique. Years earlier the Tuskegee Airmen Inc. (TAI) and Black Wings in Aviation had been formed with similar goals and both continue to be very active today. OBAP’s unique approach to the concept was to build on the progress made in the military and general aviation arenas by expanding the cause within the airline industry.

In 1982, the “Black Wings” Exhibit debuted in the National Air And Space Museum in Washington, D.C. OBAP participated with other organizations in creating a permanent tribute to African-Americans in Aviation. The continually evolving exhibit serves as an important showcase of often omitted aviation history.

In 1986, OBAP’s General Counsel Eddie Hadden (Eastern) testified before a U.S. Congressional hearing on airline industry hiring practices. Among positive effects of this forum was Congressional pressure on the industry to improve its minority recruiting performance, and the continuing scrutiny of that performance. In 1994 Ed Moon offered additional testimony before a similar session.  (OBAP)

In 1976, approximately 80 black pilots were employed by the nation’s major and commuter passenger airlines and freight carriers. By 1986 that number had risen to nearly 400, and today the total is estimated to be 674, including at least 14 black female pilots (thanks to Bessie Coleman). While the total increase is impressive on the surface, one must realize that there is a total of over 71,000 pilots working for these airlines. The struggle to expand African-American Pilot presence in the faces of unfair hiring/retention practices continues to be an uphill effort, and promises to become increasingly difficult as the generation of black pilots (hired in the 60’s) has already begun to reach mandatory retirement age. Additionally, the military, which serves as a traditional source of airline pilots, especially black pilots , is rapidly being downsized.

In recent years several important rulings in Judicial proceedings have reinforced hope that practices which abrogate and undermine the spirit of official policies will no longer be tolerated without severe penalty. In complementary actions OBAP is proud of the successful cooperative relations and joint activities that it has established with many Airlines, Government Agencies, and Private Organizations over the years to address racial inequities and other issues of mutual concern.

There are indications that these events and initiatives have begun to bear fruit. In 1986, United Airlines had fewer than 35 black pilots, today they employ over 260, including 8 African-American females. In an effort to augment the dwindling military supply of pilots, OBAP President M. Perry Jones played a key role during 1992-93 in encouraging the U.S. Congress to fund a study to evaluate the nation’s supply, demand, and production capacity for airline pilots beyond the year 2000, and the possible advantages of establishing a national aviation training facility at a historically black institution. The result of this effort was approval of a 2 year study by the National Academy of Sciences and an appointed panel. In 1988, United Parcel Service launched a brand new freight airline. From the outset they pledged to aggressively seek to set new standards in the industry relating to minority pilot representation. Today over 3.5% of their pilots are African-American. When Patrice Clarke-Washington upgraded to Captain, UPS became the only major operator to have a black female captain. In an effort to employ resources more efficiently and broaden the impact of our effort, OBAP has sought to join forces with other African-American aviation groups including Tuskegee Airmen Inc. (TAI) and Black Wings in Aviation (NAI). In 1991 and 1992 we convened joint national conventions with TAI and in 1995 we had a joint session with NAI. In an effort to inspire more black youth to become involved in aviation, OBAP played a lead role in expanding the FAA co-sponsored Aviation Career Education (ACE) camps. In 1992 OBAP participated in two of these camps, involving 41 young people. In 1994 we co-sponsored 17 of these camps providing hands-on flying experience for over 400 youth.

While progress during the relatively short lifetime of OBAP has been noteworthy, let none of us forget that the struggle began long before. In fact, the struggle began close to the dawn of American aviation, in the early 1900’s during the Bessie Coleman era. (OBAP).

Bessie “Queen Bess” Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926), was the first Black American woman to become an airplane pilot, and the first American woman to hold an international pilot’s license.

It dates back to the time when black aviators were categorically denied the right to be certified as pilots in the United States. It continued through the famous “Tuskegee Experience,” which decidedly demonstrated that African-American pilots could fly as well as any group, in combat or otherwise. It continued through the years following World War II when none of the 992 combat qualified graduates of the Tuskegee program were deemed qualified to be pilots for the nation’s major passenger airlines.

It continues today. It will continue as long as necessary.”  (OBAP)

Major James A. Ellison returns the salute of Mac Ross of Dayton, Ohio, as he passes down the line during review of the first class of Tuskegee cadets; flight line at U.S. Army Air Corps basic and advanced flying school, Tuskegee, Alabama, 1941 with Vultee BT-13 trainers in the background.

“Keep us flying. Buy War Bonds.” Color poster of a Tuskegee Airman (probably Lt. Robert W. Diez) by an unidentified artist. 1943.

Tuskeegee Airmen – Circa May 1942 to Aug 1943 Location unknown, likely Southern Italy or North Africa, in front of a
P-40.

 
US President George W. Bush presents the Congressional Gold Medal to Dr. Roscoe Brown Jr., during ceremonies honoring about 300  Tuskegee Airmen Thursday, March 29, 2007, at the U.S. Capitol. Dr. Brown, Director of the Center for Urban Education Policy and University Professor at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, commanded the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332 Fighter Group during World War II.

___________________________________________________________________________________

 CHRISTINA “THUMPER’ HOPPER:

 U.S. Air Force Capt. Christina Hopper is, to her knowledge, one of two known black female fighter pilots in the Air Force. She is also the first and only Black female F-16 Fighting Falcon instructor pilot at Luke Air Force Base (AFB) in Arizona and the first female Black F-16 pilot to fight in a war, flying about 50 missions in Iraq.

Captain Christina “Thumper” Hopper teaches men and women in the US Air Force how to fly jets. Not any old jet. The F-16 “Fighting Falcon.”

She has over 800 hours in the F-16 and is currently serving as an F-16 Instructor in the 63rd Fighter Squadron at Luke AFB, Arizona. She is married to Captain Aaron Hopper who also flies the F-16 at Luke AFB.

“Thumper” has flown more than 30 combat missions since the start of the war.  

http://www.talkingproud.us/Military022605.html 

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/09/sprj.irq.thumper/index.html

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special40/articles/1113lppilot13Z5.html

______________________________________________________________________________

Read about Air Force fighter pilot Shawna Rochelle Ng-A-Qi

LINK:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1365/is_1_33/ai_89648489/pg_1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
OBAP works to motivate black youth to become educationally prepared for life, to increase minority participation in aviation through exposure, training, mentoring, and scholarships; to encourage networking among black pilots; to increase the number of black pilots hired by airlines; and to assist the black airline pilot with special needs and concerns.OBAP’s  goals continue to evolve and expand, although sometimes complicated by a myriad of obstacles. The airline industry is in an increasing state of flux for which OBAP must adapt and plan. The deregulation turmoil that has shaken the staid, complacent majority pilot group since early 1980, has been an even greater impact upon the minority population. OBAP has worked diligently since its inception to increase the black population in the airline ranks and is determined to build an airline hiring pool which is both inclusive and expansive.

Currently, working in cooperation with several airlines, government agencies, and other private organizations, OBAP has three basic programs. Their mission statement and accomplishments:

 

 

 

 

	The Aviation Career Education (ACE) Program
	The Professional Pilot Development Program (PPDP)
	The Type Rating Scholarship Program.

Highlights & Accomplishments
OBAP has had many accomplishments during its short existence. Most importantly, it has allowed black pilots, and their families from many airlines to meet, exchange ideas, fellowship, and form a camaraderie that could never have existed without its creation. Through networking, many black pilots’ applications have been helped through the processing maze that may have otherwise been doomed to obscurity.

OBAP has been able to initiate mutually beneficial contacts with CEOs, vice-presidents of flight operations, and personnel officers. Many politicians, educators, entertainers, business experts, clergy, and others have met with and assisted OBAP members. Black aviation, through OBAP, has been spotlighted in the print and broadcast media, both locally and nationally. Some examples of these features include articles in AP Press releases, BLACK ENTERPRISE, CNN News, EBONY, TONY BROWN’S JOURNAL, and local television interviews. OBAP also assisted in establishing the “BLACK WINGS” exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. which features black aviation pioneers, including some OBAP members.

OBAP has established a scholarship fund to carry out a variety of philanthropic acts. The resources are raised through fundraising activities and voluntary contributions. The proceeds are used for educational and aviation training. One special project is sending students to the summer flight academy, founded by Eastern Airline Captain Les Morris and Mr. Albert Abdool. This summer camp is two weeks of intense aviation education, discipline, and flying. The students get approximately ten hours of flying time and most of them solo.

Future Vision
OBAP does not rest upon these accomplishments. The organization continues to expand its horizon and continue to fine tune its operation to meet the challenges ahead. OBAP has a membership application on its website for all who share and will support its ideals to build a better America for everyone in the world of aviation.  (OBAP)

To learn more about OBAP, click on this link:   http://www.obap.org/default.asp

Thanks to the hardwork, perseverance, and dedication of the men and women of the OBAP, young black people can set their sights on a career in the skies.

Encourage black girls to realize their limitless possibilities in life. Educate and elevate a black girl to aim for the sky, to aim for the clouds, and SOAR!

 

 

 

RELATED LINKS:

 
Very Important Pilots, LLC

Girls With WingsGenerate LIFTFlight Training Adventure Camps

Women in Aviation International

Space Camp

NASA Camp Kennedy Space Center

UPDATE: NEWS ARTICLE: “AMERICAN AIRLINES CAPT. DAVE HARRIS, RET., TO BE HONORED FOR BLAZING THE TRAIL FOR ALL BLACK AIRLINE PILOTS“

UPDATES:

2011 OBAP CONVENTION AND CAREER FAIR EXHIBITION – AUGUST 3-5, 2011, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

 

 

OBAMA, CLINTON TAKE NOTICE OF TEXAS

 CANDIDATES TAKE NOTICE OF TEXAS

09:18 PM CST on Saturday, February 16, 2008

By Rosa Flores / 11 News

Rosa Flores’ 11 News report

In this year’s fight for the White House, the Texas vote is … well … as big as Texas.

“This year, we are in the front seat,” James Gibbons of the Houston Chronicle said.

Hundreds of Texas delegates are up for grabs – some right here in Houston.

And that has the candidates taking notice.

Obama supporters gathered Saturday to prepare for the endorsement of comedian George Lopez.

“It turns out that Senator Obama is a fan of George Lopez, and they talked and George agreed to help him do everything he could, especially here in Texas,” Lopez spokesperson Christy Haubegger said.

Primary schedule

Money trail

Candidate quiz

More Campaign ’08 coverage

And at the Sixth Street Bar and Grill on Sunday, Clinton supporters will kick of her Houston campaign.

“Ugly Betty” star America Ferrera will be there for that event.

“We are expecting a lot of supporters, and if the weather holds we might have more than we can handle, but it’s a rally and that’s what we want – enthusiastic supporters,” Hillary supporter Sylvia Garcia said.

The Houston Chronicle on Saturday announced their endorsements for Obama and McCain.

“McCain is a well-known figure. He’s a war hero. It’s kind of a no-brainer,” Gibbons said.

The Arizona Senator will be in town Sunday to pick up another endorsement – this time from former President Bush.

Even so, a group of local Mike Huckabee supporters have scheduled a meeting of their own for Sunday.

“His support here in Houston comes from grassroots that have been very active in the party for the last 20 years that came into the party with Ronald Reagan and have stayed active in the party,” supporter Dr. Steven Hotze said.

The Democratic candidates kicked off their primary campaigns in San Antonio and Austin Saturday.

(Article courtesy of the Houston Chronicle:  http://www.chron.com )

________________________________________________________________________________

They’re………………HERE.

And they’ve been bombarding and inundating us with their relentless campaign ads.

“I’m Sen. Barack Obama, blah, blah, blah………………and I approve this ad.”

“I’m Sen. Hillary Clinton, blah, blah, blah…………….and I approve this ad.”

Well, I would think that the both of you would ‘approve’ your ads since those ads are going out with your names on them.

Obama running from Latino areas of town, and then to black areas of town covering racial/ethnic bases, in Austin and San Antonio. While Clinton simply cut to the chase, and immediately went to schlep among Latino voters in El Paso.

Yep. Obama and Clinton have set up campaign offices in Houston, and even Obama’s rally at Houston’s Reliant Center is sold out. (The debate between Obama and Clinton will be on Thursday, Febraury 21, 2008, aired on both CNN and Univision, from 7:00PM to 8:30PM.)   I still consider the jury out on Obama. As for Clinton, I am still not too happy with her either. Since she wants everyone to concentrate on her ‘experience’ yeah, I’ll do that, right down to your siding with Bush taking this country into a so-called war with Iraq. Yep, let’s hear it for ‘experience’.

Yay!

The way I feel about political candidates is that I have to vote for the one who best serves my interests, and I am very hard on all political candidates. I cut none of them any slack unless they prove themselves worthy of earning my vote. I as a voter have to decide who will be the least candidate who is likely to stab me in the back and desert me after getting my vote. Black Americans have been shafted, used, abused and kicked to the side enough from candidates of every stripe, and we should no longer be taken for granted by anyone. Our votes are not to be grabbed from us, only to have the elected official forget about us and ignore our needs after getting office. And I do not want such callous treatment from any candidate—Clinton or Obama.

Anyone.

And I do not see where Obama has my best interests at heart in any way.

Where has he spoken out on the silence of rape and domestic abuse against black women in the black community? Where has he spoken up for the defense of the Newark 4? Dunbar Village? The contemptuous disregard for the victims of Genarlow Wilson? Where has he spoken out against the continued disparity in black women’s economic earning power, where black women make just 62 cents to every white man’s dollar? Where has he spoken up against the abysmal segregated-separate-but-equal sub-standard educational system in America’s inner cities? Where has he spoken out against America’s Third World poverty rate? Where has he spoken out against the (in)justice system that incarcerates black women at an alarmingly higher rate into prisons than white women? Where has he spoken out against the univestigated rapes against Native American women? Where is his outrage over the high infant mortality rate, rates that are so abominable for this so-called country that is supposed to have the highest standard of living in the world?

Where has he spoken out against thegovernment of Bashir’s Sudan and Darfur? The atrocities in Liberia? Congo? The blood diamond conflict? Kenya’s present volatile condition? Where has he spoken out for more economic business development in Africa for Africans? Economic development that encouragesthe start of local businesses, urging international development, teaching micro-finance and building cooperatives does something health care can’t accomplish, something that can lift people out of the cycle of disease, despondency, and apathy. Micro-loans that create abilities for those mired in poverty to raise themselves up out of poverty? It is not enough to concentrate on the present; to create a future, policies must be implemented to prepare Africa so that she can care for and lead her people into a new world of prosperity and continued improved better health, education and gainful livihoods.

Africa has gone through enough having to survive.

She needs to be able to thrive.

Where is Obama’s voice on the issues that matter most dearly to me? Where the hell is Clinton’s voice? Where the hell is McCain’s voice? Mike Huckabee? Ron Paul?

Where the hell are they?

No where.

Complete and utter silence.

Pretty, flowery speeches are one thing…………….putting your money (and your actions) where your mouth is, is another thing altogether different.

As far as I am concerned, Obama is just another run-of-the-mill candidate who will probably abandon black voters once he uses us to get into the White House.

It has been done before; it can and will be done again.

Won’t surprise me if he worries more and caters more to non-black’s interests more than he does black people’s.After all, we have always been the forgotten people when everyone has taken what they can from us to get where they are, and then those same people are the first to ignore us, and even become incensed when we remind them that it was our votes that put them into office as well as everyone elses’s votes.

That we exist and have the right to be respected for our humanity and needs just as much as the next American citizen.

Even the Houston Chronicle has been caught up in the frenzy, endorsing Obama, and McCain. (McCain, dont’ get me started on that man. Why on earth he is running is beyond me.) And here:

“Why Do people Have Barack Obama Fever?:  http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/politics&id=5970856 

Excerpt:

“It just may be better that he has not become flavored by setting policies, but instead he speaks principles and values,” said Obama supporter Rev. Bill Lawson.”

Principles and values are fine, but, you will in the end have to back up those principles with policies that speak to the needs of the American people. Policies on the stagnant economy, taxes, prison systems, the international global community.

Neither do I see Clinton speaking out on these issues.

“McCain is a well-known figure. He’s a war hero. It’s kind of a no-brainer,” Gibbons said. ”

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080216_tnt_texaselex.cbc0bb81.html

Wow, how original. He’s a ‘well-known figure’ so vote him. He’s a ‘war hero’, so vote for him. “It’s kind of a no-brainer’.

NO.

Sounds very no-brain-in-the-head to me. Just vote for McCain because he’s a war hero. Hell, in that case vote for all the vets since before the Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War…and the so-called Iraq War. What the hell, we could all use some more ex-military men to run this country. Yep, I sure America just couldn’t get enough of Eisenhower when he was president.

Sheesh.

That the Dems have to trot out Latino celebrites to boost their campaigns…………you two cannot speak for yourselves without having to get some comedian or actress to speak for you to convince Latinos to vote for you:

“The volunteers, who were being trained as precinct captains, strained forward in their folding chairs to listen to George Lopez, the Mexican-American comedian and actor, announce his support for Obama over a cell phone held up to a microphone.

“I’m throwing all my efforts to Senator Obama today,” said Lopez, who couldn’t make the session because of an aggravated knee. “If we want change, he’s the best candidate for change.”

“Calling on the support of Latino celebrities — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp will feature actress America Ferrera at several Texas rallies today — is the latest sign of how hard the two Democratic presidential candidates are working to court voters for Texas’ March 4 primary.”

And oh God, the ubiquitous Bill Clinton is never far behind when Hillary comes into town:

“While Obama was in Houston, former President Bill Clinton addressed a group of black American religious leaders in the Dallas area Saturday.

He never mentioned his wife’s presidential campaign but spoke of the inequalities that still exist in the world.

He was well-received by the group from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, but some worshippers said his speech wouldn’t sway their vote.

Linda Nesmith, a 53-year-old Houston resident, said she’s supporting Obama because of his performance in debates, not because of racial solidarity.

“That would be like me voting for Hillary Clinton because I’m a woman,” Nesmith said.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5547802.html

Yes, the pickings are slim, but, I guess you have to take what you can get.

Talk about the lesser of two evils. Chosing between Clinton (and having to live through another horrid political die-nasty) OR having to chose Obama (who truly is not a black American), that leaves the Republicans, and I damn sure as hell am not voting for those dregs of society.

First black president, eh?

The jury is still out with me where Obama is concerned:  https://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2007/09/06/the-jury-is-still-out-on-obama/ .

Just anybody can say they are black and no one questions them, especially in the case of Obama. Well, not lately they do not question him. Yes, the Emperor’s clothes are definitely showing through loud and clear, but, not to some Americans who have simply decided  that just because Obama considers himself black still does not make him a Black American, his having an African/Kenyan father, notwithstanding.  Heck, in that case, many black Americans can call themselves Irish, English, French and Scots since thanks to slavery and absent white-abandoning-their-half-black children fathers, many black Americans owe their lighter skin shades to white men who forced un-asked for white blood into the veins of black African women during slavery, and black women during segregation.

Yep, must be nice to be able to pick-and-chose whatever race you want to be, as long as you are not a black American. We cannot chose any race or ethnic group we want to be since “Black Americans” are still pretty much not real citizens, not real humans in many other Americans eyes. But, everyone else who takes a fancy to become black, well they can just sashay up to the black store, and say they have black blood in them, and everything’s on the okey-doke.  I remember reading in the paper a while back where a White South African student applied for an African American scholarship on the basis that “he was actually from Africa” unlike other blacks who were also applying for it, black Americans who rightfully had claim to programs for disadvantaged minorities. Many people (mainly White) rallied behind this person because of his claim to “Africa”. (So much for the term “African-American”. I am sure many blacks realized the hole they have dug themselves into with this ridiculous term—African-American.) Yep, anyone can call themselves a black American, but, let one of us black Americans say we are Irish (due to slavemaster rapist blood that flows in our veins) we will be laughed out of the room. Yep, everyone can just belly up to the black food buffet and claim to have black blood and it’s okay, and not even be questioned (I guess everyone has forgotten Sen. John Kerry’s wife and her black blood claim) but, let a black person even try to claim the rapist blood that flows in our veins, and we are looked at as if we just escaped from Bellevue or Rusk. [Then again some white Americans have black blood in them. Didn’t know that did you? Yep. With all the rape-mixing that white men did to the black race via slavery/segregation, some light-skinned blacks who could pass for white, slipped into the white race as white people, married white men and women, and thus put some black blood into so-called pure white people. Also, you know all those good-looking, dark-skinned Southern Europeans (Italians, Greeks, Turks, etc.), well———lots of them have black blood in them courtesy of black-skinned Arab/Moors during the Moors conquest of Southern Europe:  Italy, Greece, Spain, Turkey.  So, those Italians who came to America and married whites, also passed some of that good black blood into the white race. With all the running and falling over themselves to escape the dreaded black blood, white people in America still ended up with black blood in their racial background. Well, what can you expect when white father has lain up with millions of black women from the last 400+ years? Pure as the driven snow white people? Ain’t gonna happen. Didn’t happen—not in the good ol’ USA.]

A black president of America.

Hmm.

We black Americans have been waiting for a black president for 200 years.

And we’re still waiting.

Sigh.

IN REMEMBRANCE, 2-17-2008

ROY SCHEIDER, ACTOR IN ‘JAWS’

By DAVE KEHR

Published: February 11, 2008

Correction Appended

Roy Scheider, a stage actor with a background in the classics who became one of the leading figures in the American film renaissance of the 1970s, died on Sunday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

Roy Scheider, right, with Richard Dreyfuss in “Jaws” (1975). Mr. Scheider played the police chief of a resort town menaced by a shark.

Related

Filmography: Roy Scheider

Everett Collection

Mr. Scheider played the lead role in Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz” (1979).

Mr. Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years, and died of complications from a staph infection, his wife, Brenda Siemer, said.

Mr. Scheider’s rangy figure, gaunt face and emotional openness made him particularly appealing in everyman roles, most famously as the agonized police chief of “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg’s 1975 breakthrough hit, about a New England resort town haunted by the knowledge that a killer shark is preying on the local beaches.

Mr. Scheider conveyed an accelerated metabolism in movies like “Klute” (1971), his first major film role, in which he played a threatening pimp to Jane Fonda’s New York call girl; and in William Friedkin’s “French Connection” (also 1971), as Buddy Russo, the slightly more restrained partner to Gene Hackman’s marauding police detective, Popeye Doyle. That role earned Mr. Scheider the first of two Oscar nominations.

Born in 1932 in Orange, N.J., Mr. Scheider earned his distinctive broken nose in the New Jersey Diamond Gloves Competition. He studied at Rutgers and at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., where he graduated as a history major with the intention of going to law school. He served three years in the United States Air Force, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. When he was discharged, he returned to Franklin and Marshall to star in a production of “Richard III.”

His professional debut was as Mercutio in a 1961 New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Romeo and Juliet.” While continuing to work onstage, he made his movie debut in “The Curse of the Living Corpse” (1964), a low-budget horror film by the prolific schlockmeister Del Tenney. “He had to bend his knees to die into a moat full of quicksand up in Connecticut,” recalled Ms. Siemer, a documentary filmmaker. “He loved to demonstrate that.”

In 1977 Mr. Scheider worked with Mr. Friedkin again in “Sorcerer,” a big-budget remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 French thriller, “The Wages of Fear,” about transporting a dangerous load of nitroglycerine in South America.

Offered a leading role in “The Deer Hunter” (1979), Mr. Scheider had to turn it down in order to fulfill his contract with Universal for a sequel to “Jaws.” (The part went to Robert De Niro.)

“Jaws 2” failed to recapture the appeal of the first film, but Mr. Scheider bounced back, accepting the principal role in Bob Fosse’s autobiographical phantasmagoria of 1979, “All That Jazz.” Equipped with Mr. Fosse’s Mephistophelean beard and manic drive, Mr. Scheider’s character, Joe Gideon, gobbled amphetamines in an attempt to stage a new Broadway show while completing the editing of a film (and pursuing a parade of alluring young women) — a monumental act of self-abuse that leads to open-heart surgery. This won Mr. Scheider an Academy Award nomination in the best actor category. (Dustin Hoffman won that year, for “Kramer vs. Kramer.”)

In 1980, Mr. Scheider returned to his first love, the stage, where his performance in a production of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” opposite Blythe Danner and Raul Julia earned him the Drama League of New York award for distinguished performance. Although he continued to be active in films, notably in Robert Benton’s “Still of the Night” (1982) and John Badham’s action spectacular “Blue Thunder” (1983), he moved from leading men to character roles, including an American spy in Fred Schepisi’s “Russia House” (1990) and a calculating Mafia don in “Romeo Is Bleeding” (1993).

One of the most memorable performances of his late career was as the sinister, wisecracking Dr. Benway in David Cronenberg’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s “Naked Lunch” (1991).

Living in Sag Harbor, Mr. Scheider continued to appear in films and lend his voice to documentaries, becoming, Ms. Siemer said, increasingly politically active. With the poet Kathy Engle, he helped to found the Hayground School in Bridgehampton, dedicated to creating an innovative, culturally diverse learning environment for local children. At the time of his death, Mr. Scheider was involved in a project to build a film studio in Florence, Italy, for a series about the history of the Renaissance.

Besides his wife, his survivors include two children, Christian Verrier Scheider and Molly Mae Scheider; a brother, Glenn Scheider of Summit, N.J.; and two grandchildren. Another daughter, Maximillia Connelly Lord, from an earlier marriage, to Cynthia Bebout, predeceased him.

Correction: February 13, 2008

An obituary on Monday about the actor
Roy Scheider erroneously included the daughter from his first marriage among his survivors. The daughter, Maximillia Connelly Lord, died in 2006. The obituary also misspelled the surname of Mr. Scheider’s wife. She is Brenda Siemer, not Seimer.

_____________________________________________________________________________

 A. D. LEWIS, ADMINSTRATOR BEHIND CONRAIL

By BARRY MEIER

Published: February 15, 2008

Arthur D. Lewis, a transportation executive whose long career spanned airplanes, buses, and, most significantly, the formation of Conrail, which consolidated many of the country’s surviving freight lines, died on Jan. 12. He was 89.The cause was congestive heart failure, said his wife, Hildegard. Word of his death was not reported in the national news media until this week.In the 1970s, Mr. Lewis played a pivotal role in determining the future of the railroad industry in the United States. As chairman of a government agency, the United States Railway Association, he was responsible for overhauling freight service in the Northeast and Midwest at a time when regional rail companies were going bankrupt. A result was Conrail, the system formally known as the Consolidated Rail Corporation.Mr. Lewis was considered an expert in salvaging bankrupt and troubled companies. At its creation in 1976, Conrail, a quasi-governmental entity made up of the assets of seven bankrupt railroads, was considered the largest corporate reorganization in American history.Mr. Lewis began his career in transportation when he joined American Airlines in 1941 as an economic research analyst in its planning department. He stayed with the airline until 1955, eventually rising to the post of vice president for planning.

That year, he was hired by Hawaiian Airlines, which was then troubled, to turn the company around as its president and chief executive. In 1964, he was hired by Eastern Airlines and eventually served as its president and chief executive.

In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Mr. Lewis to his post at the railway association. After three years with the group, he turned his attention to another struggling mode of transportation, the intercity bus industry, when he became head of its trade group, the American Bus Association.

He also helped found two airlines: Mid Pacific Airlines, which operated during the 1980s in Hawaii, and U.S. Africa Airways Inc., which operated briefly in the mid-1990s, providing service between Washington and the South African cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Lewis is survived by a son, Gregory, of Chevy Chase, Md.; a daughter, Kimberly K. Lewis Gibson, of Vienna, Va.; a sister; and five grandchildren.

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 DAVID GROH OF ‘RHODA’

CBS, via Associated Press

David Groh as Joe with Valerie Harper as his wife, Rhoda.

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Published: February 15, 2008

David Groh, who in the 1970s sitcom “Rhoda” played Joe, the groom whose wedding to the title character became one of the highest-rated events of its time, died Tuesday in Los Angeles, where he lived. He was 68.The cause was kidney cancer, said his sister-in-law Catherine Mullally.Seven episodes after “Rhoda” emerged on Sept. 9, 1974, as a spinoff of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper), who was Mary’s best friend, married Joe Gerard, who ran a wrecking company. The advance publicity was immense, and the episode, on CBS, made television history.When the couple separated in the third season and later divorced, viewers, assuming the actors were married in real life, sent letters of condolence.Mr. Groh also drew a devoted following when he played D. L. Brock in the ABC soap opera “General Hospital” from 1983 to 1985. He left the role to appear off Broadway in “Be Happy for Me,” even though he told The New York Times that his living expenses in New York actually surpassed his pay for the play. Theater was his love, he explained.

Reviewing the play, Frank Rich called Mr. Groh “completely convincing as the brash gold-chain-and-bikini-clad Lothario.”

David Lawrence Groh was born on May 21, 1939, in Brooklyn, where he attended Brooklyn Technical High School. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University, studied acting in London on a Fulbright scholarship and served in the Army in 1963 and 1964.

He appeared in the Broadway productions of “Chapter Two” in 1978 and “The Twilight of the Golds” in 1993.

His television roles included recurring appearances on “Law & Order,” “Baywatch” and “Girlfriends.” His many guest-star appearances included roles on “The X-Files,” “Melrose Place,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “L.A. Law.”

His film credits included “Get Shorty” (1995) and “Victory at Entebbe” (1976), and in recent years he starred in several independent films.

Mr. Groh is survived by his wife, Kristin Andersen; his son, Spencer; his mother, Mildred Groh of the Los Angeles area; and his sister, Marilyn Mamann of the San Fernando Valley.

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 BABA AMTE, ADVOCATE FOR LEPERS

By HARESH PANDYA

Published: February 17, 2008

Baba Amte, a follower of Gandhi whose dedication to helping the lepers of India brought him the Templeton Prize and many other international awards, died on Feb. 9 at his shelter for leprosy patients in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. He was 93.

Ravi Raveendran/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Baba Amte, right, with India’s president, K. R. Narayanan.

The cause was age-related ailments, said his eldest son, Dr. Vikas Amte.

Mr. Amte, who was trained as a lawyer, turned from an early life of hunting, playing sports, driving fancy cars and writing film reviews to working with the poor of his country, but his direction was irrevocably determined by an encounter with a destitute leper. After that, he gave up his father’s huge estate and dedicated himself to the service of lepers. To the end of his life, he worked, marched and protested for better treatment for them and the rest of India’s least powerful.

Murlidhar Devidas Amte — later known by the honorific “baba” — was born on Dec. 24, 1914, in Hingaighat in Maharashtra, the eldest son of an affluent Brahmin landlord. His life was privileged, but even in his youth, Mr. Amte rebelled against injustice and discrimination on the basis of birth, caste and creed. Despite his parents’ disapproval, he often ate with servants and played with lower-caste children.

After earning a bachelor’s degree, Mr. Amte went to law school at the request of his father, who gave him a sports car with panther-skin seat covers. He graduated in 1936.

Mr. Amte was inspired by the ideas of Marx and Mao, John Ruskin and the anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin. Drawn to the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore because of his poetry and music, Mr. Amte visited Mr. Tagore at his ashram in Calcutta.

But he was definitively influenced by Gandhi’s ideals of simplicity and truth and his fight against injustice. He spent time at Gandhi’s ashram in Sevagram, took part in his movement to get the British to leave India in 1942 and organized lawyers to defend the movement’s jailed leaders. He was also arrested and imprisoned.

Seeing grim poverty in and around his father’s large estate, he gave up his lucrative law practice in his early 30s and began working with untouchable sweepers and night soil carriers. He let his hair and fingernails grow and took a vow of celibacy.

That vow ended one day when he saw Indu Ghuleshastri quietly slip away from her sister’s wedding festivities to help an elderly maid wash clothes.

“I told her parents that I was the suitable groom for her,” he said. The two married in 1946.

Besides his son Vikas and his wife, he is survived by another son, Prakash, and a daughter, Sheetal.

Mr. Amte and Indu, renamed Sadhna after their marriage, set up a labor ashram near Warora. In 1947, they were joined by a poor Brahmin family who knew something about agriculture, a shoemaker, an umbrella repairer and a few untouchable families. Mr. Amte even worked for about a year as a scavenger, carrying away baskets of human waste.

One rainy night on his way home, he saw a leper named Tulshiram lying naked by the road. Horrified by the sight of his fingerless and maggot-ridden body and fearing infection, Mr. Amte at first ran home, but he returned when his conscience got the better of him, fed the man with his own hands and gave him shelter for the short remainder of his life.

After that, Mr. Amte read voraciously about leprosy and worked at the Warora leprosy clinic. He took a course on leprosy at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine in 1949 and even let his body be used for an unsuccessful experiment in growing leprosy germs.

In 1951, he established his own commune for lepers, called Anandvan, on rocky land in Maharashtra State that was covered with scrubby vegetation and infested with scorpions and snakes. The nearest well was more than a mile away. With help from his wife, their young sons, six leprosy patients and a lame cow and a dog, he turned the barren place into a thick forest.

Later, 50 young volunteers from dozens of countries would work for three-month stints at Anandvan, which became the nerve center of Mr. Amte’s relentless crusade. His goal was to help leprosy patients become self-confident and capable of cooperative and creative leadership. By the 1950s, with a newly discovered sulfone drug for leprosy available, he began treating patients in more than 60 villages around Warora.

Despite having a back ailment later in his life, Mr. Amte took part in long protest marches for causes including environmentalism, religious tolerance, peace and justice. He was a supporter of India’s indigenous tribes and opposed the construction of a “super dam” project on one of India’s largest rivers; it eventually destroyed many villages.

To the end of his life, he emulated Gandhi in wearing homespun and living a simple life while working for village industry and the empowerment of ordinary people.

In addition to the Templeton Prize, which he won in 1990, his awards included the 1988 United Nations Human Rights Prize.

(Above articles courtesy of The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com )

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HARRY LANDIS, ONE OF LAST WWI VETERANS

Feb. 6, 2008, 6:15PM

By MITCH STACY
Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. — Harry Richard Landis, who enlisted in the Army in 1918 and was one of only two known surviving U.S. veterans of World War I, has died. He was 108.Landis, who lived at a Sun City Center nursing home, died Monday, according to Donna Riley, his caregiver for the past five years. He had recently been in the hospital with a fever and low blood pressure, she said.”He only took vitamins and eye drops, no other medication,” Riley said Wednesday. “He was 108 and a healthy man. That’s why all of this was sudden and unexpected. He was so full of life.”The remaining U.S. veteran is Frank Buckles, 107, of Charles Town, W.Va., according the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition, John Babcock of Spokane, Wash., 107, served in the Canadian army and is the last known Canadian veteran of the war.

Another World War I vet, Ohioan J. Russell Coffey, died in December at 109. The last known German World War I veteran, Erich Kaestner, died New Year’s Day at 107.

Landis trained as a U.S. Army recruit for 60 days at the end of the war and never went overseas. But the VA counts him among the 4.7 million men and woman who served during the Great War.

The last time all known U.S. veterans of a war died was Sept. 10, 1992, when Spanish-American War veteran Nathan E. Cook passed away at age 106.

In an interview with The Associated Press in April in his Sun City Center apartment, Landis recalled that his time in the Student Army Training Corps involved a lot of marching. VA records show his entry date into the service was Oct. 14, 1918.

“I don’t remember too much about it,” said Landis, who enlisted while in college in Fayette, Mo., at age 18. “We went to school in the afternoon and drilled in the morning.”

They often drilled in their street clothes.

“We got our uniforms a bit at a time. Got the whole uniform just before the war ended,” Landis said. “Fortunately, we got our great coats first. It was very cold out there.

He told reporters in earlier interviews that he spent a lot of time cleaning up a makeshift sick ward and caring for recruits sickened by an influenza pandemic.

When asked whether he had wanted to get into the fight, Landis said, “No.”

When the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918, Landis recalled a final march with his unit.

“We went down through the girls college, marching down the street. We got down to the courthouse square and there was a wall around this courthouse. We got to the wall and (the drill instructor) didn’t know what to do and we were hup, two, three, four, hup, two, three, four,” Landis said, laughing at the memory. “Finally, we jumped up on the wall and kept going until we got to the courthouse — hup, two, three, four — and he said dismissed.”

He said he and some fellow recruits piled into a car to go to the next town.

“What we did there, why we were there, I couldn’t tell you,” Landis said.

He signed up to fight the Germans again in 1941, but at age 42 was rejected as too old.

“I registered, but that’s all there was to it,” Landis said.

“I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Mr. Landis,” said LeRoy Collins Jr., executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs. “He was the last World War I-era veteran in Florida, and with his passing we say goodbye to a generation.”

Landis was born in 1899 in Marion County, Mo.

After the war, he was a manager at S.S. Kresge Co., which later became Kmart, in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Dayton, Ohio. His fondest memory was taking golf vacations with three friends and their families, a tradition that ended more than five decades ago with the death of his best friend.

“We really looked forward to getting our old foursome together and going somewhere for a couple of weeks,” Landis said. “Sadly, my favorite best friend lived until he was only 60 years old. We were like brothers. We could talk about business, serious things and we could act like a couple of kids.”

Landis retired to Florida’s warmer climate in 1988 and lived in an assisted living center with his wife of 30 years, Eleanor.

His first wife, Eunice, died after 46 years of marriage. Landis had no children. He said he enjoyed a good game of golf until his health kept him off the course.

Landis laughed when asked the secret to his longevity.

“Just keep swinging,” he said.

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 GREG VINSON, RAISED MONEY TO AID DISABLED CHILDREN

Vinson, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, had battled diabetes. He taught children to enjoy the outdoors, to eat right and to take care of their bodies. STEVE CAMPBELL: CHRONICLE FILE

Feb. 9, 2008, 8:16PM

HISD TEACHER DEDICATED LIFE TO HELPING CHILDREN

Greg Vinson , 35, raised money to aid disabled children despite his many physical problems

By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Houston science teacher Greg “Toast” Vinson, who ran the Houston Marathon to raise money for children with disabilities despite his own health problems, has died from an insulin reaction. He was 35.Vinson, a science teacher at the Houston Independent School District’s Outdoor Education Center in Trinity, lived near Lake Livingston, where he enjoyed a simple, quiet life filled with physical activity, music and photography. He didn’t own a TV.He loved science and was environmentally minded, recycling almost everything and even vermicomposting — using worms to turn organic waste into compost.Friends and family members said Vinson lived his values.

“He was just such an amazing soul that it just affected everyone,” said his brother, Eric Vinson, of Austin. “He had the purest heart, and he was so selfless in the way he gave. He always gave a whole lot more than he ever got from anyone.”

Unlimited by illness

Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was just 10 months old, Vinson also had hypothyroidism, Addison’s disease, hypertension and osteoporosis. Despite his illnesses, Vinson worked to keep himself in top physical condition, biking 4,000 miles from Virginia to Oregon one summer.He used an insulin pump while he exercised, slowing periodically to check his glucose levels.

Keeping his body in balance was a constant battle, requiring him to carefully plan when he took medication, ate, exercised and slept.

Friends started to worry Monday morning when the always-predictable Vinson didn’t show up for work.

“All it takes is a small mistake,” said longtime neighbor and fellow HISD teacher Al Bartell, who recalled finding Vinson either sick or passed out because of his diabetes on other occasions. “We’ve had several close calls.”

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, while his father served in the Navy, Vinson graduated from then-McCullough High School in The Woodlands and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Pomona College in California.

He worked a few years in Chicago before joining HISD’s Outdoor Education Center, a camp visited by thousands of HISD fifth-graders each year to learn about nature. Vinson later earned his teaching certificate at Stephen F. Austin University.

Vinson finished the Houston Marathon nine times since 1999. He took pledges for the Kerrville-based Texas Lions Camp, using the money he raised to buy computers and digital cameras for the camp that he had attended as a student and a counselor.

“His entire life was dedicated toward service,” Bartell said. “Everything he did was thoughtful.”

In 2001, Vinson was the last official finisher of the Houston Marathon, clocking in at 5 hours, 31 minutes and 55 seconds. By 2005, he had shaved more than an hour off his time.

Austin teacher Lori Davis, who worked as a camp counselor with Vinson more than a decade ago, said she will run in next year’s marathon to raise money for the Lions Camp.

“I have to do it,” she said. “I will carry on his tradition and will let his memory live on.”

‘An amazing person’

Vinson dedicated most of his life to helping kids. He taught them to enjoy the outdoors, to eat right and to take care of their bodies, friends said.”He just had a light within him,” Davis said. “The world is now missing an amazing person.”

Vinson died Feb. 2.

He is survived by his parents, Lance and Marilyn Vinson; brother Eric Vinson; and his 4-year-old nephew, Jack Vinson. He’s also survived by his grandfather, Harrie Whitney; his uncle Mark Vinson; and his aunt and uncle, Anne and Richard Willhardt.

Memorial services will be planned later at both the Outdoor Education Center in Trinity and at the Texas Lion’s Camp in Kerrville. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be sent to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation or to the Texas Lions Camp.

Anyone who would like to be contacted with details for those services should e-mail Eric Vinson at austinev00@gmail.com.

jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com

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 GORDON MCKAY, NASA RESEARCHER

Gordon McKay was attending a NASA meeting in Baltimore when he collapsed on Friday. Family photo

Feb. 12, 2008, 12:42AM
NASA SCIENTIST STUDIED MOON, PLANETS

By RUTH RENDON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Gordon Alan McKay, who spent his life researching the origins of the moon and planets as a planetary scientist for NASA, has died. He was 62.McKay was attending a NASA meeting in Baltimore when he collapsed Friday. His brother, David McKay, said he had been in good health, making his death unexpected.McKay’s interest in the moon began while working for his doctorate in geology at the University of Oregon, where he studied the newly returned lunar samples collected by Apollo astronauts. His work earned him a fellowship with NASA and later a job at Johnson Space Center.At JSC, McKay set up an experimental petrology lab where he researched rocks and looked at how the elements within the rocks were distributed, said David McKay, who also works for NASA.

“Gordon became interested in space because of my interest in space, plus while working on the lunar rocks,” David McKay said.

Gordon McKay was the division chief in charge of research for the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science.

His research centered on how the core of the moon and planets formed. He worked for NASA for nearly 30 years.

McKay also served on the City Council in the late 1990s for the Clear Lake-area community of El Lago, where he resided. He also was active for many years with the Seabrook Sailing Club and enjoyed sailing on Clear Lake and Galveston Bay.

McKay was known as the gadget person in his family because of his collection of electronics and computers.

“The last time I was at his house, he had six remotes on his coffee table,” David McKay said. His brother, he said, also collected albums and enjoyed listening to the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones.

Gordon McKay was born Sept. 26, 1945, in Titusville, Pa., to Donald and 

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RAYMOND JACOBS, LAST IWO JIMA FLAG RAISER

Raymond Jacobs identifies himself in a 1945 photo taken atop Mount Suribachi on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. Rich Pedroncelli: ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE

Feb. 4, 2008, 11:54PM

Associated Press

Raymond Jacobs, believed to be the last surviving member of the group of Marines photographed during the original U.S. flag-raising on Iwo Jima during World War II, has died at age 82.Jacobs died Jan. 29 of natural causes at a Redding, Calif., hospital, his daughter, Nancy Jacobs, said.Jacobs spent his later years trying to prove that he was the radio operator photographed looking up at an American flag as it was being raised by other Marines on Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945.

Newspaper accounts from the time show he was on the mountain during the initial raising of a smaller American flag, though he had returned to his unit by the time the more famous AP photograph was taken of a second flag-raising later the same day.

The radioman’s face isn’t fully visible in the photograph taken of the first flag-raising by Lou Lowery, a photographer for Leatherneck magazine, leading some veterans to question Jacobs’ claim. However, other negatives from the same roll of film show the radioman is Jacobs, said retired Col. Walt Ford, editor of Leatherneck.

Annette Amerman, a historian with the Marine Corps History Division, said in an e-mailed statement “there are many that believe” Jacobs was the radioman. “However, there are no official records produced at the time that can prove or refute Mr. Jacobs’ location.”

Jacobs was honorably discharged in 1946. He was called up during the Korean conflict in 1951 before retiring as a sergeant, his daughter said.

Jacobs retired in 1992 from KTVU-TV in Oakland, Calif., where he worked 34 years as a reporter, anchor and news director.

(Above articles courtesy of the Houston Chronicle:  http://www.chron.com )

LA BELLA SHAWNA DENISE HAWK, 1972-1993

La Bella Shawna Denise Hawk (1972-1993)

Here’s the story of Shawna’s Life and of her death.

Warning: Some of the details of her death may be gruesome and unsettling to some people, especially young children visiting this website. Here’s her story:

Many would remember Shawna Denise Hawk as a murder victim of Henry Louis Wallace, but few remember her as a very beautiful, smart and virtuous young woman. She was the second child and only daughter of Dee Sumpter and Walter Hawk II. She grew up to become a very beautiful, sweet, gentle, shy, saintly young woman with so much to offer. She and her beautiful mother are very tight with each other, for Shawna share her mother’s petite stature, very smooth skin, and very sparkling bright eyes. The ladies have a lot in common.

Miss Shawna wanted to be a paralegal. She also want to have a child as well. Her ambitions were cut short by someone she knew and trust. His name is the nortorious serial killer Henry Louis Wallace. He was once her boss at Taco Bell in East Charlotte, where she worked. He betrayed her trust and kindness by killing her,then have the audacity to attend her funeral like nothing ever happened. Then several months later, Mr. Wallace came upon Ms. Sumpter and said to her how much he missed her and that he was “sorry” to hear about her death. He behaved in a “gentlemanly” manner but unbeknownest to her, that man has a very evil side that he reveal to his victims when they are alone. A month after Shawna’s death and funeral, she and her best friend who was also Shawna’s godmother started a victims’ rights support group known as Mothers of Murdered Offspring.

Here’s the following from HLW: A Calmity Waiting to Happen…………….

Read the rest of Stephanie’s post in honor of Shawna at this link:
http://httpjournalsaolcomjenjer6steph.blogspot.com/

FROM THE ARCHIVES: JESSE JACKSON AND THE 1988 CAMPAIGN FOR THE PRESIDENCY

April 5, 1988

OP-ED COLUMN: THEY MISLED THE VOTERS ON JACKSON

By CHARLES V. HAMILTON

In the wake of the frenzy after the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Michigan victory, we should all calm down as the normal process of the candidates’ competition for votes goes forward. That process is unduly beset by the intervention of a host of other players – political pundits in and out of the media, and pollsters – who are scurrying around analyzing this, interpreting that, projecting, assuming and concluding all over the place.

These so-called experts tend to create a political picture that might well be at variance with what is actually happening between the candidates and voters.

What counts, of course, is who the voters choose in the primaries, caucuses and conventions. But the constant attention to ”what does Jesse Jackson want?” – when all along he has been saying what he wants and apparently winning the agreement of very many voters – is distracting. Why not ask those who voted for him what they want and let their answers be sufficient for the time being?

The focus on Mr. Jackson’s ”lack of experience” in government is obviously an important concern. But why do we behave as if the experience factor becomes important only when pundits raise it? Can we really assume that Mr. Jackson’s sizeable number of supporters in the electorate have been unaware of his resume?

Why is it necessary to sit around talking endlessly about Mr. Jackson’s ”electability” when he is steadily going forward, working within the system and gaining impressive results – indeed, acting like he is electable?

Clearly, it is the voters’ experience with other leaders over the years -not that of the pundits – that is the crucial factor as they think about which candidate to support. Why do we seem to assume they have not considered his experience and electability?

To sum up, why must we stress speculative, hypothetical worlds, when there is in fact a dynamic, legitimate process going on before our very eyes?

If we want to make sure that all the candidates, Mr. Jackson included, flesh out definitive positions on the issues, fine. But then let’s listen as the voters continue to pose hard questions. Let’s not let the pundits do our thinking for us. Let’s not presume the answers, and by no means should we presume ”unelectability,” ”Jackson is too liberal” – in other words, how the voters will respond. There is a place for that: the election booth.

I understand the temptation to speculate, and I certainly appreciate the fascination and attraction of political prospecting. But if we really want to make the relationship between the candidates and voters as unencumbered as possible, why not do so by riveting primarily on what the contenders are saying, probing them more if necessary, and on what the voters understand and do?

Early on, the pundits saw Mr. Jackson’s candidacy as laudable but symbolic; then the voters began to make it increasingly credible.

Then the pundits began to focus on ”what does Jesse want?” The voters have given their answer: the Presidency.

Then the pundits zeroed in on whether a black could win enough white votes to be elected; never mind that in every state thus far Mr. Jackson has been dramatically improving upon the support that white voters gave him when he sought the Democratic nomination in 1984.

Something has been going on in the lives and minds of those whites to cause this impressive increase in support. How do we know where it might lead? The pundits have been caught often enough with their polls and paradigms down for them to exercise much more caution in their seemingly certain conclusions.

Why not ignore this essentially unproductive, unsophisticated, premature speculation?

In the long run, this would better serve the voters and the political process and contribute to more interesting – indeed, significant – commentary on the historic importance of the Jackson phenomenon.

Mr. Jackson has already created enough dynamism and healthy innovation in the political process to cause the pundits to be a lot more humble about what the people want and will do, and where this nation is going.

Charles V. Hamilton is professor of government at Columbia University.(Article courtesy of The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com )

RELATED LINKS:

https://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/ghosts-of-1984/

IS PBS STILL RELEVANT?

IS PBS STILL NECESSARY?

By CHARLES McGRATH

Published: February 17, 2008

Correction Appended

FOR the eighth straight year the Bush administration has ritually proposed taking a hefty whack out of the federal subsidy for public broadcasting. The cuts would in effect slice in half the money that public television and public radio get from the government. If we follow the usual script, this means it’s time for upset listeners and viewers to rally to the cause, as they have in the past, and browbeat Congress into restoring the budget.

Jon Krause

 

Related

Videos: Monty Python French Chef Friday Night Smackdown Nova Keeping Up Appearances
Related Sites: Morning Edition All Things Considered Antiques Roadshow The NewsHour Nature The War NBC Nightly News Planet Earth The Tudors America’s Ballroom Challenge Car Talk A Prarie Home Companion Studio 360 This American Life

Every year, though, it gets a little harder to muster the necessary outrage, and now and then a heretical thought presents itself: What if the glory days of public television — the days of “Monty Python,” “Upstairs Downstairs,” “The French Chef” — are past recapturing? Lately the audience for public TV has been shrinking even faster than the audience for the commercial networks. The average PBS show on prime time now scores about a 1.4 Nielsen rating, or roughly what the wrestling show “Friday Night Smackdown” gets.

On the other side of the ledger the audience for public radio has been growing: there are more than 30 million listeners now, compared to just 2 million in 1980. “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” NPR’s morning and evening news programs, are the second and fourth most listened to shows in the country. Go figure. Who would have guessed 40 years ago, when public broadcasting came into being, that the antique medium, the one supposedly on its way out, would prove to be the greater success and the one more technically nimble. You can even download NPR broadcasts onto your iPod.

Radio benefits of course from being a smaller target, and from attracting fewer political enemies. In public television especially it used to be axiomatic that attacks on the budget were retaliation for perceived liberal bias. Newt Gingrich was quite upfront about punishing PBS when he began his budgetary onslaught back in 1995. By now, though, that war ought to be over. These days the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is run by Republicans, and a few years ago, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who was then chairman of PBS, wasn’t the least bit shy about trying to arm-wrestle stations into running a program whose host was Paul Gigot, editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page. Unless you count occasional outbursts of hand-wringing earnestness on the part of Bill Moyers or David Brancaccio on “Now,” it’s hard now to see anything resembling liberal excess on PBS, if there ever was such a thing.

Scanning the PBS lineup, in fact, it’s hard to detect much of a bias toward anything at all, except possibly mustiness. Except for “Antiques Roadshow,” all the prime-time stalwarts — “The NewsHour,” “Nova,” “Nature,” “Masterpiece” — are into their third or fourth decade, and they look it. Every now and then a one-off like “The War,” Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s World War II documentary, the most-watched PBS series in 10 years, comes along and makes a huge splash. The broadcast of the first episode was watched by some 7.3 million people, or about as many as tune in to the “NBC Nightly News.” But such projects are few and far between, and they’re so overwhelming and time-consuming that for many people they mostly serve as lengthy advertisements for the boxed DVD set, which you can view at your own convenience and your own pace.

More typical prime-time fare — if you watch WNET, Channel 13, in New York, anyway — is the weekly rerun of “Keeping Up Appearances,” a BBC sitcom about class snobbery that was old 10 years ago. With her permed hair, dowdy clothes and fluty accent, the main character, Hyacinth, is practically a parody of a certain strain in public broadcasting: the one that puts on airs and wants to pretend to singularity.

Forty years ago it really was different. There were only three networks, and none of them were known for challenging or high-minded programming. Indeed, public broadcasting came into being out of collective despair over what had become of the airwaves. Cable has changed all that. There are not only countless more channels to chose from now, but many offer the kind of stuff that in the past you could see only on public TV, and in at least some instances they do it better.

The stunning (and stunningly expensive) BBC documentary “Planet Earth,” for example, which in the old days would have been a natural for PBS, was instead broadcast on the Discovery Channel, which could presumably better afford it. The Showtime series “The Tudors” is just the kind of thing — only better produced and with more nudity — that used to make “Masterpiece Theater” (now simply “Masterpiece”), once the flagship of PBS, so unmissable. Now it’s so strapped for cash that it has pretty much settled into an all-Jane Austen format.

If you’re the sort of traditional PBS viewer who likes extended news broadcasts, say, or cooking shows, old movies and shows about animals gnawing each other on the veld, cable now offers channels devoted just to your interest. Cable is a little like the Internet in that respect: it siphons off the die-hards. Public television, meanwhile, more and more resembles everything else on TV. Since corporate sponsors were allowed to extend their “credit” announcements to 30 seconds, commercials in all but name have been a regular feature on public television, and that’s not to mention pledge programs, the fund-raising equivalent of water-boarding.

In a needy bid for viewers, public television imitates just as much as it’s imitated, putting on pop knockoffs like “America’s Ballroom Challenge.” Even though a number of surveys suggest that a large segment of the viewing population still wants the best of what public television has to offer, there isn’t as much of that as there used to be, and when it is on, it often gets lost amid all the dreck.

Considering how much it costs to create new topnotch programming, the best solution to public television’s woes is the one that will probably never happen: more money, not less. Here too public radio has an edge, because giving listeners what they want doesn’t cost nearly as much. NPR has benefited, moreover, from a huge bequest from the estate of Joan Kroc, widow of the longtime McDonald’s chairman, and you could argue that it has spent its money more wisely than PBS, spiffing up existing shows rather than trying to come up with new ones. Listeners complained mightily when Bob Edwards was booted as host of “Morning Edition” in 2004, a month before his 57th birthday, but the change invigorated the show and ratings are up. (Jim Lehrer, 73, has been with “NewsHour” since 1975, so long that some of his early viewers are now in assisted living.)

But by far the greatest advantage of public radio is that, by not trolling after ratings, it has managed to stay distinctive: it does what nothing else on radio does and sticks to its core: news and public affairs and the oddball weekly show like “Car Talk” and “A Prairie Home Companion.” At the same time, public radio thrives, in a way that public TV does not, from internal competition: in addition to NPR, the old standby, there is the newer, hipper PRI (Public Radio International), importer of the invaluable BBC World Service news program and distributor of innovative shows like “Studio 360 With Kurt Andersen” and “This American Life,” which NPR did not fight for.

Where would we be without this stuff, gathered so conveniently at the low end of the FM dial? How would we fill those otherwise empty hours when we’re held hostage in our cars? At its best public television adds a little grace note to our lives, but public radio fills a void.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 16, 2008
An article in some copies of the Arts & Leisure section this weekend about the state of public broadcasting misspells the surname of a host whose show is distributed by Public Radio International. He is Kurt Andersen, not Anderson.

(Article courtesy of The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com )_______________________________________________________________ 

FROM 2005:

PUBLIC BROADCASTING TARGETED BY HOUSE

The goal is to kill all funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting within two years, by 2007:

A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government’s financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children’s educational programs as “Sesame Street,” “Reading Rainbow,” “Arthur” and “Postcards From Buster.”

In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which passes federal funds to public broadcasters — starting with a 25 percent reduction in CPB’s budget for next year, from $400 million to $300 million.

In all, the cuts would represent the most drastic cutback of public broadcasting since Congress created the nonprofit CPB in 1967. The CPB funds are particularly important for small TV and radio stations and account for about 15 percent of the public broadcasting industry’s total revenue.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902283.html

HOUSE REJECTS BUSH’S PLAN TO CUT PUBLIC BROADCASTING:

JULY 17, 2007:   In a 357-72 vote this evening, the House “rejected President Bush’s plan to eliminate the $420 million federal subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”  

Corporation for Public Broadcasting: During his tenure, former CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson “moved to address what he contend[ed was] the left-leaning lineup of news programs at PBS by advocating the addition of new shows with a conservative outlook.” He “failed to strike a proper balance by infusing politics into so many decisions at CPB” and by “in essence, allowing the White House to help direct plans of the CPB.” According to Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, this extreme politicization was “unprecedented.” [National Public Radio, 6/20/05]

(Keep in mind that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is NOT PBS. The CPB has become a dumping ground of neo-conservative Bush-worshipping syncophants who have in the last 3 years  almost destroyed PBS and the programs that are aired on PBS. The CPB has become staunchly right-wing in its handling of PBS.)

 I for one cannot understand why Bush wants to cuts federal funding to a station that gives this country some of the best programming found on television: “Sesame Street”, “Nova”, P.O.V.”, “Frontline”, “American Masters”, “Independant Lens”, “The Lehrer News Report”, “Charlie Rose”, “The Tavis Smiley Show”,  “Nature”, and Austin City Limits”, just to name a few.    

I mean just $420 million, less money that is spent in an entire week from the so-called War in Iraq! A war that I and many citizens were against, but, our pleas fell on deaf ears, and now this country is entangled in an unprovoked war in Iraq with another one looming on the horizon in Iran if Bush has his way before he leaves office.

 A drop in the bucket compared to all the money spent on the military complex (anyone remember $8,000 for a damn hammer?) and big business welfare-subsidies that the federal government gives up with nary a squeek or a scream out of the feds:  Haliburton, auto industry (anyone remember when the U.S. government did a bailout on Lee Iaccocca’s auto company Chrsyler?), oil industries, pharmaceutical companies…and especially the insurance industry.

But, something like PBS that enriches many people’s lives, unlike the dreck found on regular television…those enlightening programs like “Jerry Springer”, “American Idol”, Desparate Housewives”, or “Survivor”, Bush is more than willing to slash very much needed funding for PBS.

And why the hell does C-Span, which is funded by cable monopolies, gets to broadcast the Senate AND House sessions, instead of PBS!? The passing of legislation that affects us all should not be held captive on some cable station, but, instead, should be available on a publically funded system such as PBS.

Sheesh. 

Obviously education and information are enemies in the eyes of President Shrub. More dumbed-down drivel for the citizens. Bread-and-circuses, gladiator entertainment, mind-numbing drug-inducing swill for the masses.

What can you expect from  a man who gave this country the Patriot Act, wireless tapping of citizen’s telephones, Homeland Security (which translates into “Homeland Prison” for all U.S. citizens.)

And with the hellish deficit that Bush and his imps have run up, I would think that a measly $420 million to PBS would not be too much to ask of this….this….man.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a private corporation funded by the American people.

We fund it. WE ought to get what we paid for and what we want from PBS television, and WE should  get the credit for doing our part when we donate money to PBS, especially when pledge time comes around.  One thing I can say about PBS, many parents and adults without children do not have to worry about what comes across the screen from PBS, unlike the garbage that is put out by the main broadcasters (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and especially what is put out by cable stations.

What can we do?

Call, e-mail, write, or fax the Chariman of the Appropriations Committee,  Jerry Lewis, and tell him how you feel about this.

Here’s the list of the other members of this committee, with links to their sites for contact information.

Call, write, e-mail or fax your Congressperson and Senator. Here is a link to those who represent you:

REPRESENTATIVES BY NAME: http://www.house.gov/house/MemNameSearch.shtml

SENATORS OF THE 110TH CONGRESS, BY NAME:   http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

For those of you planning on voting, contact Senators Obama, Clinton and McCain, and alert them to this travesty.

HERE’S MY LETTER:

Dear Congressman Jerry Lewis:

“President Bush plans to veto more funding to Public Broadcasting Service and National Public radio. He plans to veto $420 million in funding.

“As you know Public Broadcasting has given America the most un-biased excellent programming on television. Cutting funding to NPR and PBS would be a death-knell to such wonderful programs such as “Sesame Street”, “Nova”, “Frontline”, and American Masters”, “P.O.V.”, “Independant Lens”, “The Lehrer News Report”, “Charlie Rose”, “The Tavis Smiley Show”,  to name just a few. I grew up watching the highly entertaining, enlightening and thoroughly educational programs that PBS had to offer.  I learned more of the world around me, and developed an open mind in exploring the cultures, languages, and many people that live in this world. I developed a love of knowledge, a love of reading, and I developed the ability of critical thinking that was imparted by PBS and NPR.

“Public television and public radio have been positive creative forces in the lives of millions of American citizens.

“Regular broadcast television gives very little in the way of ‘quality television’, and this severe cutting of funding to PBS and to NPR would deal a fiscal blow to these quality broadcast mediums.

“Congressman Lewis, I ask that you seriously consider this veto of President Bush and vote with those of Congress to override President Bush’s veto to slash $420 million from public broadcasting.

“The nation has been given so much from PBS and NPR. Taking ANY funding from public broadcasting would not only be a shame, it would be an unforgivable crime. Please do not allow this budget loss. PBS is and should remain a ‘hands-off’ format of television—non-partisan, neither Republican, neither Democrat, neither left, neither right, neither liberal, neither conservative—-but a television system for all Americans. PBS should not be held hostage by the President of the United States, any political interest nor of anyone. PBS is a station for all Americans. Public broadcasting does not take sides. Public broadcasting only seeks to give the very best of television this country has ever had.

It is only right that the American government continue funding to PBS and NPR if only because of the excellent programing that PBS and NPR continue to offer that helps young people excel and broaden their young growing minds.

“Please give of PBS and NPR the public funding that it so richly deserves for all it has done for this country.

“Thank you so much for your attention in this very important matter.”

Sincerely,

Ann”

Oh, and when those PBS pledge drives come around, please don’t hesitate to give a donation.

Pledging. Yes, it is water-boarding torture at its best, but, in the end, it is worth it.

Is PBS still necessary? Is PBS still relevant?

I certainly think so.

There is an old saying:  “You get what you pay for.”

I’d rather give some of my hard earned money to Public Broadcasting. At least this is money that I can be guaranteed that it is going towards the best educational programs money can buy not just for children—but also for adults.