Du'aa

The link below provides good direction for Muslims observing Ramadan this month. If the link does not activate, cut and paste it to your browser. Alhamdulailah!

http://theramadanblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-to-avoid-during-ramadan.html

Money, Money, Money, Money!

The ability of the United States of America to take on more debt will increase for the following reasons:

a) We exists within a global economy, not a national economy. And for better or for worse, debt is what makes it work.

b) The U.S. dollar is the world's reserve currency -- a position we are not willing to abandon now.

c) The trees have not yet been shaken (i.e., the stock market has yet to go bananas).

d) The debts ceiling has been raised many times in the past -- this is just polytricks.

e) Push come to shove, President Obama will sign an executive order to raise the debt ceiling if Congress tries to mug his presidency with their obstinance.

Summertime in Atlantic City, NJ

Early Saturday evening in the South Inlet, cira 1977...

After checking in at home for a bathroom break and some dinner -- I'd just eaten too fast -- I dart back out of the house on my way to the Altman Field playground before my mom could remember to yell "stay in here!" First, I stop across the street at the Lighthouse Park to join the slow building crowd around Puerto Rican conga players. They are banging out some Latino rhythms as they alternate between tokes of cigarettes and sips of Budweiser.

Before long, I sneak pass the house and head across the glass strewn dirt lots along the way which had long since become overgrown with weeds knee high.

Out of earshot for my mother's call, I make my way to the corner of Pacific and New Hampshire Avenues. I am consumed with the familiar smell of fumes from Jitney exhaust breezing through the salty air.

Against the clanging of overinflated Dr. J basketballs rebounding off the too loose rims, I hear the steady lap of the ocean colliding with the rocks of the t-jetties on the little beach.

It' s just after dusk. I'm going on thirteen...and I am in-my-world.

Book Review: American Uprising

Daniel Rasmussen has written a very good book about an obscure event in early American history. The subtitle tells it best: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt.

The setting is the plantation coast of New Orleans, along the Mississippi river - today Natchez. He tells of the burgeoning sugar (cane) industry and the voracious appetite it held for the bodies and souls of African laborers. The French aristocracy had been consumed by the rapidly expanding American nation in the Louisiana Purchase. A determined federal official was appointed to oversee the assimilation of the defiant French planters into the style of governance preferred by union planners.

Amid the political volleys occupying French land holders and federal officials, including a conspiracy to undermine claims by the Spanish Crown to land in Florida and Louisiana, three men, were plotting the liberation of their people from a virulent soul-crushing bondage devoid of humanity.

The 1811 insurrection of black slaves of New Orleans -- the largest in history -- is a story that explains the deliberate attempt of African people to free themselves from slavery despite the known risks of unforgiving and brutal reprisal. Rasmussen writes a compelling account of how, despite their failure to achieve freedom, this little known slave revolt exemplifies the realities of United States expansionist history, and the many paradoxes of what we have come to recognize as the American brand: freedom, justice and equality.

Down With...

'Reality TV'
Diet soda
Blurry lines between cable programming and porn
Anti-intellectualism
Making men look stupid on commericals
Gangster rap
More than 110 channels
Executive orders as means of government
'Yo mama' jokes
Slam poetry
Rape
Cronyism in the work place
Miseducation
High fructose corn syrup
Shock commedians
child pageants
Claiming your religion is superior
Hidden bank fees
Doing it because everyone else is
Bragging about how much you spent for something
Sending manufacturing jobs over seas
Privatizing everything
Inflated college tuition
The Real Housewives
Thinking that a new contraption will motivate you to loose pounds
Cursing in public
Sexual innuendos during family tv time
Political correctness to the point where you cannot debate anything
That E-tade baby (He's not cute anymore)
Vilifying black athletes for having an opinion on topics outside their sport
Bombing people to death
Comparing black students to white students in order to make a point about education
The Kardashians
Human trafficking
Anti-development policies for Africa
Jay-Z, Snoop, and Sean Combs

Gil-Scott Heron - RIP

Re-Ron

Pieces of a Man

Messenger

Champion

Struggler

Deep

Blues man

Musician

Sane

Compassionate

Poet

Integrity

Artist

Teacher

Leader

Inspirational

Follower

Intellectual

Common man

Patriot

Spirits

Defiant

Black man

Human

Living in the bottle

Rhythmic

Literal

Women

Lonely
Musical

Men

Historian

Johannesburg!

Educator

*

*

*

Thank you, Gil-Scott Heron, for a full legacy for us to appreciate.

Teaching

I just completed my first semester teaching at Atlantic Cape Community College. It was a great transitional opportunity for me. It allowed me to stay involved in education and, working for the college only reinforced how important k-12 education is and must be.

Just as importantly, I was able to exercise my drive to be a good teacher! I look forward to another semester, and yet another opportunity to become an influential factor in the academic experience of students.

It's good to be a part of an organization with [genuinely] high expectations...