daddyBstrong

2010-09-10T01:20:00.007-05:00

A New Day

To Mac's cherished readers and fellow bloggers:

While living life to it's fullest, Mac always had an optimistic view for tomorrow. "Tomorrow is a new day" he said so often. Since his passing, we've come to the blog from time to time to re-read a post or two and share a bit more about Mac. You kindred bloggers and fans have provided wonderful encouragement and support to continue his blog. Individually and here on the blog, you've often expressed your wishes to read more of Mac's works.

You've also loved how Mac wove those nuggets of truth in his sidebar: "Change to Believe in"..."Good Lookin' Out"..."Speaking Truth to Power"...and "A Change is Gonna Come" These little gems underscore his overarching theme of truth and justice as reflected in his body of work both as a blogger/author and community activist. Here's a song that sums up his mission and legacy for me -- and one of his favorites: Solomon Burke's "None of us are free".

And now here's the good news ~

Mac's family has enthusiastically decided to carry his legacy forward with this blog. Together they will continue daddyBstrong's themes which were "not about the Daddy" but rather "About you: your boos, your fam, your hood, your country...your hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow." And of course they'll add their own unique voices -- building on Mac's legacy and doing him proud. I know you'll be back to welcome them to the blogosphere and spread the good word.

In the meantime, I'll say goodbye and express my deep gratitude and affection for all of you who have held Mac's Minneapolis family in your hearts and offered your love, prayers and support as this gentle and brilliant man passed on to his eternal reward. Here's my favorite poem from Mac. It captures how very ALIVE this dear man was to his bones and soul cells -don't you agree?

We do sing with you, Mac. Forever in our hearts.

Sing with me

I am one with the earth,

wind and sky.

I'm a towering, thunderous waterfall.

I roar when hurling through mist

and diving down to complete myself below,

smiling while flowing

in and out of liquid semi-circles

naturally. Free.

Sing with me.

Rest in Peace, Macarthur Walton

2009-12-22T10:27:00.002-06:00

It is with profound sadness we inform MacDaddy's cherished fellow bloggers and followers, that the Daddy has passed on in the most peaceful manner at home surrounded by family and friends. We'll be adding more about our dear Mac but for now, leave you with a poem he wrote that summed up exactly how he lived and embraced his life fully since his cancer diagnosis five years ago.

JUST ONE MORE DAY

Tomorrow morn

Lord,
Let me live and know life for one more day
Just one more day

Let me wake to hurried neighbors revving cars
Racing to a closed-in office, chasing a rising sun
And sip smoking hot, black. fresh-brewed
from a Mickey's Diner cup
Reading the Star-Tribune, tasting buttered toast still warm

Tomorrow noon

Let me lunch on green salad, fresh fruit, green tea
with knowing companions
Plucking seedless, blue grapes from thick vines
Swapping warm smiles, tall tales and a joke or two

Tomorrow eve,

Let me dine on french bread, beef brisket, chilled wine
and a soft face
Nurturing hopes and dreams of a sweeter tomorrow
Grateful for your warm love and generosity in hearing me pray

Lord,
Let me life and know life for one more day
Just one more day

HAVE YOU HEARD OF BROWNSUGATOO?

2009-12-11T13:34:00.008-06:00

Listen up. The Daddy got a question for you: Have you heard

Brownsugatoo? She's a black woman and spoken word poet with a lot to say and a bitter-sweet way of saying it. Sometimes harsh, at other times gentle, she still sometimes express in voice so tough it makes you want to sing the Black Panther anthem, "The revolution has come, it's time to pick up the gun." At other times, it makes you want to cry, in the powerful yet gentle voice of Nina Simone:

"I love you, Porgy.
Don't let him take me.
Don't let him handle me with his hot hands.
If you can keep me, I want to stay here.
Safe and forever. I got my man."

INHUMANE: STOP THE VIOLENCE AGAINST GIRLS, AGAINST WOMEN

INHUMANE

Today, Inhumane tugged at me,
Spoke to me,
And tore me to the core:
“Teenage girl gang raped outside
A Richmond high school ‘door’.”

The tears stung
My face was numb.
Emotions just clawed at each other.
‘Cause what I physically WANTED to do -
Was dumb.

So I wrote “release”…

“Dumb bastards!”
I screamed.
“That was somebody’s daughter!”

Guess it was a day too late,
For y’all to be taught
That she is a Queen.

“Dumb bastards!”
I screamed.
“You were SOMEBODY'S son!”

You could have been-

NO, it IS too late.

A throne for you?

There is none.

Copyright 2009
C. Thomas
a.k.a. brownsugatou

SUPERBOWL WINNING COACH CALLS THE NCAA OUT FOR ITS DISCRIMINATION

2009-12-08T10:42:00.006-06:00

“We talked about him growing up and having that side – that Christian background – but really getting to the NFL and feeling like he was his own person...“When he kind of described that to me and the fact that he needed to get back closer to the Lord, that’s when I said, ‘I’m going to stay involved in this. I’m going to help you."
--Tony Dungy

listen up. Tony Dungy, one of the Daddy's heroes, works to keep men out of prison. The work of one of clients on Sunday shows that the may be on the way with helping another one. On Sunday, Michael Vick, with whom Dungy is working personally, scored a running touchdown and passed for another one before retiring with a bruised hand. You may recall that, while playing for the Atlanta Falcons, Vick was engaged in dogfighting and was convicted and served his term for two years. This was the first time Vick had been back to Atlanta to play. Here's a good story about it.

Super Bowl-Winning Coach Called the Small Number of Head Coaches
in Major College Football "Disgraceful."

Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy called the dearth of
minority head coaches in major college football "disgraceful."

Dungy became the first black coach to win a Super Bowl in 2007 with the
Indianapolis Colts. Now an analyst with NBC's pregame show, Dungy said
on the program Sunday night that minority coaches believe they have
more opportunity for advancement in the pros than in college.

Of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision coaches this season, just nine are
minorities – and only Miami's Randy Shannon is at a BCS school. Seven
of the 32 coaches in the NFL are black, including Bills interim coach
Perry Fewell.

Asked whether the situation in the college game represents
institutionalized racism, Dungy said, "The numbers would tell you that
it is."

After the 2006 season, Dungy recommended then-Vikings defensive
coordinator Mike Tomlin for the head coaching position at a BCS school.
Tomlin didn't get an interview. A month later, the Steelers hired him
as their head coach, and within two years he led them to a Super Bowl
win.

"That's the difference between the NCAA and the NFL right now," Dungy
said.

Dungy met last month with NCAA officials and has offered his help on
the issue. He called on school presidents to reverse the trend.

"They've got to step up and say, 'We're going to do the right thing.
We're going to hire qualified people. We're going to hire the best man
for the job regardless of what boosters or anyone else has to say.'"

Do you think the NCAA discriminates against black coaches?

NINA SIMONE: "I LOVE YOU, PORGY"

2009-12-06T00:37:00.009-06:00

Listen up: A friend emailed a brotha saying Luther Vanddross's song to his father was his favorite and asked "Who is your favorite?" I told him mine was Nina Simone's rendition of " I love you, Porgy."

Here are the words to the song:

I loves you, Porgy,
Don' let him take me,
Don' let him handle me an' drive me mad.
If you kin keep me,
I wants to stay here wid you forever,
An' I'd be glad.

I loves you, Porgy,
Don' let him take me
Don' let him handle me
With his hot han'
If you kin keep me
I wants to stay here wid you forever.
I got my man.

What's your favorite song?

"I AIN'T GON STUDY WAR NO MO'"

2009-12-05T11:19:00.010-06:00

Listen up. In keeping with some of my
reader's wishes, who say they're suffering from "post-election fatigue," I'm not writing about the election or the sorry state of the American economy. But I'm writing about American society, especially about the unnecessary and painful violence in our communities.

So the daddy is thinking...I'm just thinking... just thinking... about Malcolm x, who said that on this day, from this day forward, on this earth, we declare that we have a right to fight for our freedom "by any means necessary." Minister Malcolm died from a hail of bullets from members of the Nation of Islam, the organization he helped create, leaving behind a wife and two children and the hopes of millions of African Americans.

I'm just thinking...just thinking...about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who died from a violent gunshot as he stood out on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King said we must meet the power of violence as an organized people of love, as a nonviolent people, as a non-violent nation. He said we must have "the strength to love." And though the corporate media won't acknowledge it, he spent the last year of his life not talking about little white girls and little black boys holding hands and singing we shall overcome but focusing on war and poverty, reminding us that our government's preoccupation with war not only killed people abroad; it diverted much-needed resources to end poverty at home.

Dr. King, an activist/intellectual, perhaps the most eloquent orator of any generation, a minister who could quote Shakespeare as easily as a passage from the bible, made it plain when he paraphrased an old religious hymn and said, "I don't know about you, but I ain't gon study war no mo."

I'm just thinking...just thinking... about the millions of lesser-known Americans
in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis and Atlanta who die every day from a hail of gunfire from gangbangers who are famous for missing their targets and killing innocent citizens, including children.

Okay, African Americans, I want to ask you something:

As a people who were enslaved and brutalized for centuries by others, shouldn't you be peaceful toward each other? Whether inside the home or out on the street, shouldn't another brother or sister be the last person you raise a hand or squeeze a trigger finger to harm? And if you must raise a hand or pull a trigger, shouldn't the only possible justification for doing so be to defend yourself as an individual or to defend your country against attacks?

Okay, Americans of all ethnic, political or religious persuasions, I want to ask you something: As members of a nation that took this country by committing genocide against nations of Indians (the first Americans), as members of a nation that enslaved an entire group of people (Africans), as members of nation that spends much of its budget on either fighting wars or preparing for wars, as members of a nation with 47 million people without healthcare, with infrastructure so bad that you're afraid to drive across some bridges, shouldn't you be so angry, so... obsessed with forcing your elected officials to turn away from bloody wars and turn to the righteous quest of supporting you that you're willing to organize other Americans to march on Washington D.C. this summer and camp out there until your elected officials-- yes, Barack Obama-- pass laws to bail out working people, to insure them, to employ them, to rebuild America?

I'm just thinking...just thinking...about rising each morning with the sun, sipping a cup of java, paraphrasing an old spiritual and saying like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I don't know about you, but I ain't gon study war no mo."

Can you say "I ain't gon study VIOLENCE no mo." Can you live it?

LETTER #3: PREZ:" REMEMBER THE WORDS OF GENERAL PATTON?

2009-12-04T06:04:00.009-06:00

Yo, Prez!

Can a brotha from another mother undercover from a former lover still call you Prez"

Listen Prez: The Daddy knows you're from Chicago. He knows you probably remember it, when Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, two leaders of the militant Black Panther Party, were killed-- no, assassinated-- as they lay at home in their sleep.

On September 8, 2008, I wrote you (Did you get it? Let's call it letter number, yesterday's letter as letter about your decision on Afghanistan as letter #3, and this one as letter #3} about leadership and General Patton's thoughts on it. The similarity between General Patton and Fred Hampton is that both fought unapologetically for what they believed in.In case you didn't get letter #1, I'm posting it again. I believe it is more appropriate for you now than at any other time.

Dear Prez Obama: Remember the words of General Patton

"The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is high you bounce when you hit bottom."
--General S. Patton Jr.
"Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men."
-- George S. Patton Jr.

Dear Prez Obama:

Can a brotha call you Prez?

Listen, Prez, a brotha knows you are busy; so he'll keep it short and sweet. Yes, he knows you have big challenges ahead: the worst economy since the depression; two wars, one of which is getting worse by the minute (Afghanistan); high unemployment; over 47 million without healthcare. But guess what else a brotha knows? He knows:

1. Big challenges create an opportunity to be a great president; and you don't want to be a good president but a great president, not for your ego but for the American people;
2. You will be a president of tremendous courage, intellect and leadership;
3. You will have the support of not only the American people but the world;
4. Given your humble upbringing and experience as a community organizer, you will continue to possess the right instincts and mindset in approaching all pressing issues: Thinking first and foremost, how will your decision affect the majority of Americans; and

Yo, Prez, you will lead us out of this economic crisis, get the economy on the right track, bring us closer to universal healthca re, return our brave daughters and sons home from Iraq and improve the care once they get here. And history will record that you were one of our more successful presidents. Just remember the immortal words of General Patton:

"In planning any operation, it is vital to remember and constantly repeat to oneself two things:

1. In war, nothing is impossible provided you use audacity.

2. Do not take counsel of your fears.’"
--------------------------------------------------

Prez, did you make WHAT YOU BELIEVE is the right decision on Afghanistan? Did you make this decision calculating that it would give you the best chance of re-elected in 2012? Was it political decision made to appease some on in the Republican party or was it a decision based in your heart about what's best for the American people, the ones who are against this war? Are you truly listening to the generals in the armed forces today or learning wisdom from those in the past. The Daddy's suggestion? Read his most famous speech (Somewhere in Europe, June 5th, 1944) and a few books of General Patton.

With audacity,

The Daddy

LETTER #2: PRESIDENT OBAMA YOU LET US DOWN, BUT THE PEN OF REDEMPTION IS STILL IN YOUR HAND

2009-11-27T11:25:00.018-06:00

Dear Prez:

Can a brotha still call you Prez?

Listen, Prez. I was out at a coffee shop and heard some white boys sipping coffee and talking. What they said made sense. They said they voted for you, because they saw you as a man of peace. To them, that meant you were going to bring our brave soldiers home from Iraq and wind down our adventure in Afghanistan. Instead, they said, you have slowed down the exit from Iraq and is now planning to add about 34,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, a land of dusty roads and high, featuring winding roads with the bones of fighters on the side of them.

Listen, Prez: I know you have already done some great things while in office. Diplomatically, you have changed foreign leaders attitude toward the United States. For 8 years they believed that the U.S. was nothing but a bully that chose to go it alone in dealing with foreign conflicts. Now, they see in you a chance to go back to diplomacy in dealing with a challenging world. Domestically, you signed a bill that will give women a better chance of suing employers for discrimination against women. You hired men and women who were fired from the Justice Department by Karl Rove and his merry mob of Bush thugs. You signed a bill that will regulate the tobacco industry, making it nearly impossible for the tobacco industry to maket cigarettes to our kids. You passed sweeping credit card reform legislation aimed at limiting abusive and deceptive credit card practices. You provided 1. 25 billion to black farmers to settle their claim of discrimination against them by the U.S. agricultural department which had gone on for years.

But you know what, Prez? All these important changes can't erase the fact that you have now chosen to further place American soldiers in a quagmire with no end in sight, no exit known, no clear goals to justify staying there and with a government so corrupt that the president's own brother is a drug dealer.

Listen, Prez: You shown great leadership in many areas of civic life. It's time for you to show leadership in one more area: move America away from the imperialistic tendency to engage in unwinnable wars. You can begin by pulling our troops out of Afghanistan. Yes, leave a contingency of troops to train Afghanistan soldiers to defend themselves (say 5,000), but bring our brave but tired soldiers home. Use the funding saved by bringing these soldiers and equipment home to shore up the argument for paying for healthcare reform with public option.

Prez: The guys at the coffee shop spoke critically of you. They say you let them down. But redemption is still in your hands. All you have to do is use that pen to write a memo to bring our sons and daughters home from Afghanistan.

Do the right thing.

Blessings,

The Daddy

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

2009-11-26T12:34:00.006-06:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR ON THIS THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY?

2009-11-25T18:51:00.008-06:00

"We can renew our nation the same way that we have in the many years since Lincoln's first Thanksgiving: by coming together to overcome adversity."
-- President Barack Obama
"After Obama gives his turkey pardon on Wednesday, the pardoned bird (rumored to actually be two birds) will fly first class to California to head up the Disney Thanksgiving Day Parade. They will then live at Big Thunder Ranch in Frontierland at Disneyland in Anaheim, California."
--HULIQ.com

Listen up. Today, the Daddy is feeling the Progressive Report and its list of things to be which to be thankful. So the Daddy is posting this list as a starter to get you thinking, to get you to answer this one question: "What are you thankful for on this Thanksgiving weekend?"

THANKSGIVING

27 Reasons To Give Thanks

We're thankful President Obama is thinking long and hard about committing more troops and money to Afghanistan.

We're thankful President Bush feels liberated now.

We're (not) thankful Dick Cheney has elected to move from his undisclosed location to the media spotlight.

We're thankful Al Franken has gone from playing self-help guru Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live to helping rape victims receive justice from their employers.

We're thankful for the healing power of beer.

We're thankful there are some on the right who think Glenn Beck is "incoherent," "mindless," "erratic," "bizarre," and "harmful to the conservative movement."

We're thankful for long hikes on the Appalachian Trail.

We're thankful Michael Steele understands that he can't "do policy" and that no one has any reason to trust his "words or actions."

We're (not) thankful for "birthers," "deathers," "tenthers," or "tea baggers."

We're (not) thankful conservatives believe they love America so much that they can root for our President to fail and for our nation to lose out on hosting the Olympics.

We're thankful NFL players refused to "bend over and grab the ankles" for Rush Limbaugh.

We're thankful six companies have resigned from the Chamber of Commerce due to its denial of climate change science.

We're thankful Falcon "Balloon boy" Heene wasn't actually in the balloon.

We're thankful Lt. Dan Choi and Lt. Col Victor Fehrenbach bravely spoke out against Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

We're thankful Shep Smith doesn't always drink the Fox News kool-aid.

We're thankful more than 80 companies refused to lend their sponsorship to Glenn Beck's hateful rants.

We're thankful there are progressive organizations in D.C. lobbying for a two-state solution in the Middle East.

We're (not) thankful for the filibuster.

We're thankful that more than 20,000 of you stood up to Bill O'Reilly's harassment machine and called for impeachment hearings against torture advocate Jay Bybee.

We're thankful that Iran's authoritarian rulers live in fear of their own population.

We're thankful we'll no longer have to listen to nativist rhetoric on CNN and global warming skepticism on ABC News.

We're (not) thankful for bailed out CEOs who think they're doing "God's work" by doling out billions in bonuses.

We're thankful for the legacy of the Liberal Lion.

We're thankful Bill O'Reilly won't be following us home for Thanksgiving.

We're thankful a "wise Latina" sits on the Supreme Court.

We're thankful our boss helped rescue imprisoned American journalists in North Korea.

We're thankful for our readers and the support you give us.

So what are you thankful for on this Thanksgiving?

HOW MUCH LONGER WILL WE TOLERATE SAVAGE HOMOPHOBIA IN OUR COMMUNITY?

2009-11-23T11:14:00.012-06:00

Listen up. Today, The Daddy is feeling a post he saw at The Intersection of Madness and Reality, run by Rippa, one of the best bloggers out there. It's about the fact that many of us turn a blind eye to the discrimination and actual assaults on gay people. The article isn't asking that we embrace homosexuality, join hands, and go singing in the rain with gay people. It simply asks that we recognize that we should treat them with civility and respect like everyone else. Check it out.

* Note the photo of a make-shift memorial for Lawrence King, a gay 15 year old teenager who was murdered at E.O. Green School in Oxnard, California. King was killed in class by a fellow student on February 12, 2009.

How Much Longer Will We Tolerate
Savage Homophobia in Our Community?
By Seattle Slim

Look, let me premise this by saying that I don't agree with homosexuality. Yes, I said it. And I don't care if anyone agrees with me or not on that. It is just a sexual preference, and I think people, straight and gay, put way too much stock into who people ultimately choose to screw.

Because of that, I am patently against homophobia and the attack on this poor child, 9th grader Jayron Martin, is nothing short of savage. He was threatened with an ass kicking by some bully punks for being gay. He went to his school leadership for help and they turned their backs on him (Click here for more info).

While I may not agree with homosexuality, they are fellow human beings. I'm a Christian and I know full and damned well that we are supposed to treat others the way we want to be treated. I also know that the Bible clearly states that God loves us all, even the people we as humans don't believe are worthy of His love. Thank God it's not up to us, and it's up to Him.

I sure as hell wouldn't want to be beaten for being straight, or being in an interracial relationship with a white guy. Even though I don't agree, I don't think, nay, I know it's wrong as hell to attack people for their sexual preferences, specifically for being homosexual. That's not alright.

Just this April, Carl Joseph Walker committed suicide because kids taunted him by calling him gay. No one even knows if he was gay or not, he was just different, and that was enough to start the gay taunts. Sadly, he was not the first suicide, nor the last, due to sickening homophobia.

Young black boys have this screwed up idea of masculinity because the fathers aren't in the home, or the fathers don't give a shit. That's bad in and of itself, and harmful to them, but if you add homophobia, you've got a toxic cocktail of disdain and hatred.

We need to stop turning blind eyes to this form of sexual harassment; this homophobia. Had the Horace Mann Leadership Charter School not turned a blind eye to homophobic taunting and teasing, Carl Joseph Walker might still be alive today. Jayron could've been killed, but of course, he's gay so his life must be expendable, right?

Most authority figures in schools could give a damn less about young black boys and girls, but they apparently throw "different" kids to the wolves without batting an eye. And don't think these beast won't come after you or your kids if you so much as get on their reactionary radar. These same beasts are from the same animal species that killed Derrion Albert, taunted Carl Joseph Walker and attacked a Haitian woman and her son in the Dunbar Village rape back in 2007.

If we don't stand up for youths and adults like Jayron, whether or not we agree with their lifestyle or sexual preference, not a soul will stand up for us when these feral ass kids turn on us.

Jayron should've been protected. He should've never been attacked. His story is a litmus test for all of us and we should be paying attention. How many more black boys and girls will have to be chased, beaten or driven to suicide before we do something?

USING BIBLE QUOTES TO PRAY PRESIDENT OBAMA DIES, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

2009-11-22T11:07:00.012-06:00

Listen up. This morning, The Daddy is having feelings which seem to fluctuate between anger and sadness. It's about what appears to be an increase in slogans which speak to President Obama-- our president, America's president!-- being dead. These slogans can be found on bumper stickers, mugs, even teddy bears. What's more, the slogans come from biblical quotes.

The slogans actually talk of President Obama dying or hoping he dies real soon. But here's the question that keeps turning in The Daddy's head: how can the mind of a fellow American be so twisted that he or she would want their own president dead?

Trying to wrap my arm around this question, I came across this interesting article in Think Progress by journalist Amanda Terkel that talks about this phenomenon. Check it out:

Using Bible Quotes to Pray That Obama's 'Days be Few'
by Amanda Terkel
November 20, 2009

A new slogan is making its way onto t-shirts and even teddy bears: 'Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8,' which reads, 'Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

The newest far-right craze is an anti-Obama slogan that is making its way onto t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, and even teddy bears: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8,” which reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” The meme is also taking off on Twitter, with conservatives calling it “hilarious.” Commentators have noted that it’s unclear whether the intent is to hope for an end to Obama’s time in office — or an end to his life. But a look at the lines in the rest of the psalm hint at the latter:

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labor.
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

Diana Butler Bass at Beliefnet explains that Psalm 109 is one of the “imprecatory” prayers, “a lament in the form of petition to destroy one’s enemies.” While perhaps intended to be a joke, she notes that the psalm actually “entreats God to destroy the president”:

It is the personal prayer of an individual, someone who has been dealt an injustice by another–and usually more powerful–person. The words of Psalm 109 are those of deep agony, the longings of a victim for retribution and justice. This psalm is considered one of the most difficult of all the psalms–full of violent images of vengeance and death.

Quite a few of the “Pray for Obama” items are being sold at CafePress.com, although many of them have been taken off of the site (here’s a cached version of some of them). Cafe Press representative Margene H. told ThinkProgress that while the site took down some of the “Pray for Obama” items today, it is now in the process of reinstating them:

We initially pulled the Psalm 109:8 content from our products today because broader media dialog indicated that these designs potentially suggested violence towards the president. Based on current public discourse and further review of the actual content, we have determined that it is fair political commentary and we are in the process of reinstating this merchandise. As with all of our content, these designs will continue to be reviewed and if at any time their meaning is construed as advocating violence we will revisit our decision.
On Tuesday, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow spoke with “Patience With God” author Frank Schaeffer, who said that while the psalm was “frightening” in a secular context, it’s even “more threatening” in a biblical context.
Can you believe there are Americans who actually want to see their president dead?

WALTER MOSLEY, ONE OF AMERICA'S GREATEST WRITERS

2009-11-20T09:46:00.008-06:00

"You could tell by some people’s homes that they came to L.A. to live their dreams. Home is not a place to dream. At home you had to like your father did and your mother. Home meant that everybody already knew what you could do and if you did anything different, they’d laugh you right down into a hole. Festered in it, after a while, you either accepted your hole or you got out of it. There were all kinds of ways out. You could get married, get drunk, get next to somebody’s wife. You could take a shotgun and eat it for a midnight snack. Or you could move to California. In California, they wouldn’t laugh at you or anybody. In California, the sun shone for three hundred days in the year. In California, you could work until you dropped. And when you got up, there was another job for you. --Walter Mosley, From Black Betty, page 31

Listen up. A brotha received an email last night. It said that I was a very good writer and asked what writers do I read the most. I said James Baldwin and Walter Mosley. She said she never heard of him. After telling her he wrote the book that turned into the film "Devil in a blue dress," I sent this bio of Mosley to him. Those of you who haven't heard of him or read one of his books, The Daddy recommends that you write a note to yourself to buy one of his books as a gift to yourself for Christmas.

You'll love the writing of a guy who transformed himself from programmer to mystery writer, professor at New York University, and one of America's greatest writers. Here's the bio I sent to my friend:

The author Walter Mosley was born in 1952 Los Angeles, California. He attended Goddard College and Johnson State College, and has been a computer programmer. He is currently a professor of English at New York University.

Walter Mosley's mystery novels have often been compared to those of Raymond Chandler, mainly because they share vivid settings on the seamy side of Los Angeles in the middle decades of the century, a less-than-rosy view of human nature, and tough but noble main characters in Philip Marlowe and Ezekiel Rawlins.

There's another similarity: like Chandler, Mosley wields elegant, economical prose to create unforgettable characters. Chief among them is series protagonist Easy Rawlins. In many ways Rawlins is a kind of black Everyman, reflecting the great migration from the South in mid-century. He grew up in Houston, fought in World War II and works hard for a better life in Los Angeles, keenly aware of the boundaries imposed upon him by racism. But Easy is no stereotype; endlessly complex, he continues to surprise and reward readers. Chandler once wrote that the best mysteries are those you would read even if the last chapter were torn out; Easy Rawlins is a character who would make you do just that. Rawlins is not a private eye; he makes his living at everything from real estate to janitorial work. He's a sometime fixer, drawn into mysteries, often against his will, because some friend or connection needs his help.

Like many other Black detective/mystery authors (witness Chester Himes), Mosley novels use the side-kick accessory to blunt the dark side of the protagonist's character. Beginning in the early 1940s, the Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins novels use this most effectively with Easy and his sometimes buddy, Mouse.

In the course of five novels, he's lost a wife and daughter and gained a couple of adopted children, made tidy sums of money and lost them, drunk a lot of whisky and given it up, fought despair and anger and, provisionally at least, won. The sixth published novel is the first Mosley wrote, the first in the series, the first not set in the Watts section of LA, though it is strengthened by reading it after the first published.

Devil In A Blue Dress (1990), published to critical acclaim and nominated for an Edgar, established him as a mystery writer of the first rank. When President Bill Clinton cited Mosley as one of his favorite writers in 1992, it brought Mosley even wider media attention - making the remainder of the first three, A Red Death (1991) and White Butterfly (1992), very popular. Black Betty (1964) made the New York Times best-seller list, and the 1995 movie version of Devil in a Blue Dress, starring Denzel Washington as Easy, was well-reviewed, although it was, for some perverse reason, a box office washout. His fifth, A Yellow Little Dog (1996) made the New York Times best-seller list too. With his sixth Easy Rawlins novel, Gone Fishin' (1997), Mosley chose an African American publisher, Black Classic Press instead of his usual W.W.Norton. A seventh Easy Rawlins novel, Bad Boy Bobby Brown, is due in 1998 or 1999.

Mosley's non-"Easy" books are quite good. RL's Dream, based in part on the life of blues legend Robert (Leroy) Johnson. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (1997) suggests a new introspective detective series with its remarkable protagonist Socrates Fortlow. HBO created a movie out of it starring Laurence Fishburn as Fortlow. His first science fiction novel, Blue Light, is Walter Moseley's current release and the prelude to a trilogy.

I was introduced to Walter Mosley's books during the early 90s nearly simultaneously by my wife, a mystery writer friend, and President William Clinton. In all of his six (soon to be seven) "Easy" novels, Mosley uses period detail and slang to create authentic settings and characters, especially the earnest, complex Rawlins, who continually is faced with personal, social, and moral dilemmas. They are fast page turners laced with drugs, desire and death. Inside and outside the genre, Walter Mosley is an American writer of our times.

What books are you buying to read over the holidays?

THE REBELLIOUS SIXTIES? YES, I REMEMBER

2009-11-17T04:12:00.006-06:00

Listen up. As an African American, a student of American history and a person who sometimes entertains the illusion that he is a writer, The Daddy had been trying to write this book for a long time. It weaves a historic yet personal tale about the excitement and the dangers of the turbulent sixties. It shares a personal story, or stories, about this period as a learning experience which helped shape who we, the children of the sixties, are today and the values we try to inculcate in our children.

The poems in section II are personal. The heroes discussed in section III are primarily political. But the signature poem in the second part of Section III is intensely personal, involving two college student's deep, undeniable love, painful, unforgettable loss, and bitter-sweet memories that neither time,maturity, or subsequent affairs could erase from the heart. Ultimately, it was these intensely personal memories set in the midst of the civil rights, black power, and anti-war movements and my attempt to recall them honestly that took this book so long to write.

The Daddy prays that you will click on the Lulu.com logo on the sidebar and purchase the book. He hopes you will appreciate it. Those who have said that they were impressed with its honesty and its ability to take them back to the sixties and early seventies, when they were in college.

One of those who read the book was Verna Monson, one of the two editors of the book and child of the sixties herself. This is what she wrote:

"Mac Walton's The Rebellious Sixties? Yes, I Remember is part-memoir, and part-tribute to the civil rights movement that intertwines themes of racism, sexism, poverty, homelessness, violence, and war. Walton's poems span several decades -- recalling the Atlanta of his childhood, of anti-war rallies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, of the homeless in Minneapolis, and of encountering the hollow transformation of friends through the decades following the civil rights movement. Walton weaves poetry of clashing values and personal upheaval with poetic portraits in tribute to heroic men and women of the civil rights movement. The Rebellious Sixties evokes a time of hope and change, passion and loss. Walton confronts the rawness of racism, hatred, and violence faced by African Americans thrust into a society unprepared for change."

This book was written in memory of Emmitt Till, a 14 year old black manchild whose brutal and tragic death sparked increased protest and the end of apartheid in the southern part of the United States of America.

Blessings,

The Daddy

EUGENE ROBINSON SAYS, "BRING THEM HOME, MR. PRESIDENT"

2009-11-14T16:46:00.001-06:00

EUGENE ROBINSON SAYS, "BRING THEM HOME, MR. PRESIDENT"

Listen up. The Daddy already knows that some of you don't want to talk about war. But some things we just have to face. Remember: these soldiers are ours. That means we can't celebrate and remember them on one day out of the year. We must honor and celebrate them by doing everything we can to get them out of Afghanistan.

In Truthdig, Eugene Robinson, Editor of the Washington Post and Pulitzer-Prize winner for journalism, just wrote a brilliant piece. Even if you don't read it all, read some of it. You'll still get a lot out of it. Our soldiers are involved; an so is our integrity as a nation:
Check it out:

by Eugene Robinson Posted on Nov 12, 2009

The most dreadful burden of the presidency—the power to send men and women to die for their country—seems to weigh heavily on Barack Obama these days. He went to Dover Air Force Base to salute the coffins of fallen troops. He gave a moving speech at the memorial service for victims of last week’s killings at Fort Hood. On Veterans Day, after the traditional wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery, he took an unscheduled walk among the rows of marble headstones in Section 60, where many of the dead from our two ongoing wars are buried.

As he decides whether to escalate the war in Afghanistan, Obama should keep these images in mind. Geopolitical calculation has human consequences. Sending more troops will mean more coffins arriving at Dover, more funerals at Arlington, more stress and hardship for military families. It would be wrong to demand such sacrifice in the absence of military goals that are clear, achievable and worthwhile.

And what goals in Afghanistan remotely satisfy those criteria?

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, recently sent two classified cables to officials in Washington expressing what the newspaper described as “deep concerns” about sending more troops now.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, chosen by Obama to lead U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has asked for perhaps 40,000 additional troops to carry out a counterinsurgency campaign. Armchair Napoleons in Washington, comfortably ensconced in their book-lined offices, insist that Obama must “listen to the generals.” But Eikenberry was a four-star general until Obama named him ambassador earlier this year. He commanded U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2006-07. He as well needs to be heard.

n what were described as sharply worded cables, Eikenberry reportedly expressed serious doubts about the willingness of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to tackle the corruption and mismanagement that have made his government so unpopular and ineffectual—and that have allowed the Taliban to effectively regain control of much of the country.

Karzai, you will recall, committed what observers described as widespread, blatant election fraud in “winning” a new term in office. In many parts of Afghanistan, the Karzai government is seen as so weak and corrupt that the Taliban has been able to move in as a lesser-of-two-evils alternative.

It is axiomatic that a successful counterinsurgency program requires a partnership with a reliable, legitimate government. If the Karzai regime is not such a partner, the goal that McChrystal would be pursuing with those extra 40,000 troops would not be achievable.

Obama is also reported to be considering scenarios in which he would send roughly 30,000 extra troops, somehow persuading our unwilling NATO allies to make up the difference, or send about 20,000 troops and modify the McChrystal plan, opting instead for a “hybrid” strategy that’s part counterinsurgency, part counterterrorism. I’m skeptical that either of these options sets goals that are achievable, and I’m certain that neither sets goals that are clear.

Following his visits to Dover, Fort Hood and Arlington Cemetery, Obama should focus the attention of the White House and the Pentagon on a question that too often is overlooked: What troops?

Our all-volunteer armed forces have been at war for eight years with no end in sight, serving tours of duty of up to 15 months in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Many units have been called to serve multiple tours. By contrast, most Vietnam War veterans served a single one-year tour.

Fighting two big simultaneous wars with our armed forces stretched so thin has put enormous emotional, psychological and economic stress on military families. The suicide rate in the armed forces has climbed steadily, as has the incidence of stress disorders among veterans. The Pentagon is adept at shuttling its people around and has worked out how to provide the 40,000 troops McChrystal wants. But any new deployment would come at a heavy cost—a human cost—far beyond the billions of dollars required to train, equip, transport and maintain the units being sent.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.

A VETERAN'S DAY PRAYER

2009-11-11T10:45:00.004-06:00

On this Veteran's Day, a Prayer for Peace

"But fame is theirs - and future days
On pillar'd brass shall tell their praise;
Shall tell - when cold neglect is dead -
"These for their country fought and bled."
~Philip Freneau

Today, this Veteran's day, the daddy is praying for the end of war in Iraq, the end of our presence in Afghanistan (except to leave a small group of soldiers to train and support Afghanistan troops), for closer monitoring and enforcement of laws against those who assault our women in uniform, and for greater funding and less red tape to help soldiers who come home maimed and traumatized mentally, physically, and spiritually.

A Veteran's Day Prayer
by Rev. Scott Elliott

Good and loving God we are gathered here today on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It is the traditional day for Veteran’s Day and our thoughts are of the women and men who have served our nation in times of war and truce. We stand before you grateful for the dedication of these heros who have lived and died, suffered and cried and stood with pride on ship, battlefield and parade ground.

We ask that these women and men experience your healing and comforting presence for the wounds they have known and still know, for the losses they have endured and always will endure. We also ask that your healing and comforting presence be experienced by the families and loved ones who have suffered with them and who have had to endure living without them.

We especially ask that your presence be experienced by the veterans of tomorrow, those soldiers and sailors who are in harm’s way today. Please, gracious God, guide them to safety, guide them to justice and righteousness in even the toughest of conditions. Bring them home to their families and loved ones. Comfort those families and loved ones, and teach us how we might help them with their troubles and be your compassionate presence to them as they experience anxiousness, anguish and the loneliness and pain that comes with the knowns and unknowns of war.

Finally, God, for veterans, for all who are in the service, for America, for the world, we pray for peace. Lead the leaders of the world to the day when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; [to a day when] nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa 2:4).

We long for your peace, for your shalom.

In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

PRESIDENT OBAMA TAKING OVER THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN: GOOD LUCK WITH THAT

2009-11-10T07:31:00.008-06:00

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.

We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
--President Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation, January 17, 1961

"...this system of waste and private profit from public funds...which, when you think about it, is what these wars, the stock market and health care all have in common."
--U.S. officer quoted in Truthdig, November 9

Listen up. The Prez has decided to provide his General McChristal the troops he wants to "win the war in Afghanistan," although he didn't define to the Daddy's satisfaction what the hell winning would look like in a country with few Al Queda people there, with a dusty, mountainous country, with a complex tribal system which acts as its own government, with a lucrative drug economy (heroin), and a government corrupt to the bone.

Whatever winning means to McChrystal and his horde of leaders on the ground, what it will mean to us back here are four things:

1. The war in Afghanistan is the Prez's war now. No longer can he blame it on his predecessor. Sure, Bush made the blunder of getting us there with only about 12,000 troops to train Afghanistan army and to look for Osama Ben Laden, who, it was believed, was still in the area trying to escape to Pakistan. But Bush never cared about Afghanistan. His sights were on Iraq.
2. In making the decision to send additional soldiers to Afghanistan, The Prez is making a long-term commitment of 10 years or more. We'll be there a long time.
3. With this long-term commitment will come increased numbers of U.S. casualties, increased funding to run this war, funding the U. S. no longer has, and a significant lowering of The Prez's popularity. No, this low popularity will have nothing to do with race but policy, which is just as it should be. It's a poor decision of historic proportion; and, as Americans soldiers's death rise and this drawn-out war rages with few improvements, he will deserve all the criticism he gets.

Welcome to the real world, Prez. This real world consists of the one you inherited and the one you have made. Good Luck with that.

Do you feel The Prez's decision to send a significant number of troops to Afghanistan, raising our level there to as much as 100,000 is a good idea?

“Afghan soldiers leave the KMTC grossly unqualified,” this lieutenant, who remains on active duty, said. “American mentors do what they can to try and fix these problems, but their efforts are blocked by pressure from higher, both in Afghan and American chains of command, to pump out as many soldiers as fast as possible.”Afghan soldiers are sent from the Kabul Military Training Center directly to active-duty ANA units. The units always have American trainers, know as a “mentoring team,” attached to them. The rapid increase in ANA soldiers has outstripped the ability of the American military to provide trained mentoring teams. The teams, normally comprised of members of the Army Special Forces, are now formed by plucking American soldiers, more or less at random, from units all over Afghanistan.“This is how my entire team was selected during the middle of my tour: a random group of people from all over Kabul—Air Force, Navy, Army, active-duty and National Guard—pulled from their previous assignments, thrown together and expected to do a job that none of us were trained in any meaningful way to do,” the officer said. “We are expected, by virtue of time-in-grade and membership in the U.S. military, to be able to train a foreign force in military operations, an extremely irresponsible policy that is ethnocentric at its core and which assumes some sort of natural superiority in which an untrained American soldier has everything to teach the Afghans, but nothing to learn.”“You’re lucky enough if you had any mentorship training at all, something the Army provides in a limited capacity at pre-mobilization training at Fort Riley, but having none is the norm,” he said. “Soldiers who receive their pre-mobilization training at Fort Bragg learn absolutely nothing about mentoring foreign forces aside from being given a booklet on the subject, and yet soldiers who go through Bragg before being shipped to Afghanistan are just as likely to be assigned to mentoring teams as anyone else.”The differences between the Afghan military structure and the American military structure are substantial. The ANA handles logistics differently. Its rank structure is not the same. Its administration uses different military terms. It rarely works with the aid of computers or basic technology. The cultural divide leaves most trainers, who do not speak Dari, struggling to figure out how things work in the ANA.“The majority of my time spent as a mentor involved trying to understand what the Afghans were doing and how they were expected to do it, and only then could I even begin to advise anyone on the problems they were facing,” this officer said. “In other words, American military advisers aren’t immediately helpful to Afghans. There is a major learning curve involved that is sometimes never overcome. Some advisers play a pivotal role, but many have little or no effect as mentors.”

IAVA AND THE PLIGHT OF WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

2009-11-09T07:15:00.006-06:00

Listen up. One of the veterans The Daddy trusts on military issues is Paul Rieckhoff Executive Director & Founder Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). When this duede lays it down, you can take it to the bank. And speaks in a common language, so his members and his readers know immediately where he's coming from. As the commercial song I heard yesterday says, "When it's real, you know it's real." A few days ago, Rieckhoff emailed me and others andtalked about the plight of women in the military. It's a short piece, but check it out. Note that he said IAVA is issuing a "groundbreaking" on the plight of women in the military:

Dear Mac,

If you blinked, you might have missed it.

With the media still covering Michael Jackson's death, and the circus surrounding reality TV stars Jon and Kate Gosselin, you might have missed an important story that broke this week.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, released a stunning new report detailing significant barriers faced by many female veterans when accessing VA care. Some of the crucial findings include:

Privacy standards for women veterans at VA facilities aren't being met.
Comprehensive primary care is still not available for women veterans at all hospitals and clinics.
The VA still has shortages of qualified women's health and mental health care providers.

This is unacceptable. With more women serving than ever, the VA must work to ensure they receive the care they've earned. Female troops have shown incredible courage in defending our country, and are entitled to the same support and recognition as their male peers.

We want you to know IAVA is working every day to make this a reality. We're on the front lines on Capitol Hill and in the media, fighting for better care and benefits, and ensuring that women's issues are a top priority.

Next month, we're releasing a groundbreaking Issue Report on women in the military, based on extensive research and the experiences of IAVA Member Veterans. Want to be the first to read it? Sign up for mobile alerts by texting REPORT to 69866. We'll send you a text message as soon as the report launches.

Thank you for standing with us.

Sincerely,

Paul

Note: The Daddy can't wait to read this report from one of the finest military organizations out there. How about you?

PRESIDENT OBAMA, NANCY PELOSI: CONGRATS

2009-11-08T10:08:00.009-06:00

"The United States Senate must follow suit and pass its version," Obama said. "I am absolutely confident it will, and I look forward to signing comprehensive health insurance reform into law by the end of the year."
--President Obama

Listen up. The Daddy said some harsh things about The Prez. Namely, he said The Prez was not being aggressive in pushing the Public Option in getting into law healthcare reform. I said in yesterday's post:

"The Prez today. The Daddy is upset that, at the precise time he needed to be on hill, fighting for the health reform bill, he was speaking to kids at some school. The Daddy is further upset by his lackluster stance on the Public Option, saying he would prefer it but he is willing to listen to people with other ideas as well. Remember: this is the most important part of healthcare reform and the most significant way to keep Insurance costs down. Remember: Inclusion of the public option is, ultimately, the way the healthcare bill is going to be judged."

The Daddy was wrong.

First, a brotha simply assumed that the Obama administration was not involved. Now that the bill has been passed, news has been coming out that the White House has been working closely with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Second, the Obama administration seems to have learned a key lesson from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when she was trying to get a healthcare bill out of the House: House representatives are very sensitive about White House intervention or influence. They don't like to feel they are being pushed around OR told what to do. Consequently, it was a good idea for The Prez to strike a balance between strong-are, aggressive intervention (which isn't The Prez's way of doing things anyway) and consensus leadership. The Daddy is happy to say The Prez's strategy won out on this one.

This historic bill , which represents the biggest overhaul of the U.S healthcare since Medicare, which no other U. S. president has been able to get of the house since Lyndon Johnson get out of the house in the 60's, places pressure on Senate Republicans to meet its obligations and go along with democrats or resign themselves to a party that has truly been the part of NO: a party that has failed to meet its date with history and turned its head away from that history and all Americans in the process.

President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Congrats:

BARACK OBAMA,, LANGSTON HUGHES' MOTHER SAYS LIFE AIN'T BEEN NO CRYSTAL STAIR

2009-11-07T08:54:00.011-06:00

Listen up. The Daddy is feeling The Prez today. The Daddy is upset that, at the precise time he needed to be on hill, fighting for the health reform bill, he was speaking to kids at some school. The Daddy is further upset by his lackluster stance on the Public Option, saying he would prefer it but he is willing to listen to people with other ideas as well. Remember: this is the most important part of healthcare reform and the most significant way to keep Insurance costs down. Remember: Inclusion of the public option is, ultimately, the way the healthcare bill is going to be judged. And don't get a brotha started on the The Prez's stalling on his failure to change U. S military's ridiculous DADT (Don't Ask Don't Tell) policy. So what's the point? It's this:

No matter how hard, sometimes you got to fight for something or you can be indirectly influenced or even bullied (Remember Gen. McChristal's report to Obama saying if we don't get an increase in U.S. troops, we will fail in Afghanistan?) or privately (behind doors between the sheets) to falling for anything.

Well and good. But you know what? A brotha is also thinking about the tremendous weight on The Prez's shoulders: Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the immigration issue, the killing of soldier's by other soldier's at home and abroad (Remember the Lavena Johnson case?).

That being the case, The Daddy thought of a poem by Langston Hughes, a poem which reminds us that, for a black man or black woman, it doesn't matter what you do, life is going to be tough. The poem's called, Mother to Son. It's a poem The poem contains lessons The Daddy thinks would be good for all of us to remember. Check it out and check out the metaphor crystal stair:

Mother to Son
by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Can you put yourself in Obama's place and see the difficult problems and critical decisions he has to make?

ELLEN GOODMAN: WHAT OPTIONS FOR AFGHAN WOMEN?

2009-11-06T10:58:00.009-06:00

Listen up. November 11 is Veteran's Day; and, as you probably have guessed, The Daddy has been posting a series of articles related to the military, especially the war in Afghanistan to get you set for that day. Of course, a brotha is biased. He wants President Obama to get our soldiers out of Afghanistan, bring the home, except a small group to train Afghan soldiers to fight for their own country. But other progressives have their own perspectives. One of them is Ellen Goodman.

Ellen Goodman is asking, "If you pull out, what' going to happen to Afghan women?" "Who will protect them?" Ultimately, she is saying that discussions about changes in Afghanistan needs to go far beyond military matters (How many troops?). They need to include a discussion about the prospects of women, or lack thereof, that Afghan would face in a U.S. pullout. Check her out:

What Options for Afghan Women?
by Ellen Goodman

It’s been 11 years since I looked through a photo album smuggled out of Afghanistan by a brave young woman. “This is a doctor,” she said, pointing to one picture. “This is a teacher.” It was impossible to tell one woman from another under the burqas enforced by their Taliban rulers.

Back then, the world turned a cataract eye on Afghan women. Under virtual house arrest, they were barred from work, from school, from walking alone or even laughing out loud. It was arguably the greatest human rights disaster for women in history.

After 9/11, when we went after al-Qaida and the Taliban, which had hosted these terrorists, many saw collateral virtue in the liberation of Afghan women. Indeed, President George W. Bush played this moral card in his 2002 State of the Union speech when he declared to thunderous applause: “Today women are free, and are part of Afghanistan’s new government.” Mission accomplished.

Many women shed their burqas, opened schools, entered parliament. Equal rights were written into the constitution. But slowly, as America turned to the disastrous misadventure in Iraq, Afghan women’s freedoms were casually traded in like chits for power.

Now again, we’re focusing on this beleaguered country and its sham leader. The discussion is cast in military terms—more troops, less troops. Yet I keep thinking about the women who are once again pushed to the outskirts of the conversation, as if they were an add-on rather than a central factor.

Have you heard this old proverb? Whether the rock hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the rock, it’s going to be bad for the pitcher. Women are the pitcher in this story.

If we abandon the country, or even the countryside, don’t we abandon those girls who have gone to school even when risking acid thrown in their eyes? If we prop up the deeply corrupt government of President Hamid Karzai, are we just supporting warlord fundamentalists instead of Taliban fundamentalists?

The options are so chilling that even Afghan women’s groups are divided. RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, wants us out. WAW, the Women for Afghan Women, “deeply regrets having a position in favor of maintaining, even increasing troops” rather than “abandoning 15 million women and children to madmen.”

American women seem equally torn—ambivalent is far too gentle a word. The Feminist Majority, which championed Afghan women long before it was popular, has stopped short of asking for more troops. Ellie Smeal’s anger at American funding of warlords is matched by the fear that if we back out, it will create “terrible human suffering,” the return of the prison state. Ann Jones, the author of “Kabul in Winter,” confesses to agonizing about deserting Afghan women while fearing that Karzai’s henchmen and the Taliban are “brothers under the skin.” And Susannah Sirkin of Physicians for Human Rights says ruefully, “I don’t think if you ask women and girls that they would easily say their lives are better since 2001. The best you could say is that there is more cause for hope.”

We shouldn’t be surprised we have come to this pass. It happened on our watch. We barely noticed when Karzai signed a law that would have, among other things, allowed Shiite men to withhold food from wives who refused them sex. It didn’t take a rigged election to show a shallow respect for democracy. If by democracy, that is, you include half the population that is female.

Today, one-third of the students are girls. Women now get health care once denied them. Is that enough? How much are we willing to pay in lives and treasure for hope? How much are we willing to lose in moral suasion, in our own eyes and those of the world, if we abandon these women?

I find this a bleak and demoralizing set of choices. The least unbearable may be to protect the population centers while rebuilding Afghan civil society, one city, one school, one health center at a time. But this works only if we include women in a debate that has been as militarized as war itself.

Afghan women are not the “add-on,” the incidentals in this process. Women are civil society. We’ve learned all over the world that the only way to develop a stable society and economy is with the education and inclusion of women. There is no democracy without women.

So, here we go. This is our last chance. And theirs.

Ellen Goodman’s e-mail address is ellengoodman1(at)me.com.

TRUTHOUT TO CONGRESS: STOP FUNDING ENDLESS WAR

2009-11-05T10:17:00.007-06:00

"All men are timid on entering any fight. Whether it is the first or the last fight, all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood."
--General George Patton Jr., from War as I Know It (1947).

"All men are timid on entering any fight. Whether it is the first or the last fight, all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood."
--General George Patton Jr.

Listen up. The Daddy is reading up on General Patton. He's is trying to learn some things on his own so he will not feel so ignorant when he meet friends for coffee on Sunday, most of whom are Vietnam vets. But, hey, they're not just vets. They're straight-up military historians.

You know what? The Daddy feels that some of this stuff that Patton is writing about soldiers applies to civilians too. For example, when Patton says, "...all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood."

A brotha is also feeling Truthout. Truthout is another one of those online progressive magazine The Daddy checks it everyday. A few days ago, Truthout's editorial staff wrote a fascinating and piercing piece about Afghanistan. It urges congress to stop funding endless wars and the oval office to stop signing off on it. Check it out:

Truthout to Congress: Stop Funding Endless War

On the war's eighth anniversary, we urge our president, our Congress and our country to cut the military purse strings and reject an escalation of violence in Afghanistan.

Yesterday, the Senate passed $128 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This appropriation could fuel a "surge" in deployment of US troops to Afghanistan; Gen. Stanley McChrystal recommends an increase of up to 40,000 soldiers.

If the American people had voted on this latest defense spending bill, they might well have rejected the funding. Most polls find that a definitive majority of Americans oppose an escalation of combat troops in Afghanistan. A recent McClatchy survey found that only 35 percent favored sending more troops.

This widespread public skepticism is understandable, given the war's mounting fatality rate. In August, one American died in Afghanistan every 14 hours. September also took a heavy toll, and 17 US soldiers have already died in Afghanistan in October.

President Obama has lately shown well-warranted caution in preparing to deploy more US troops, and remains wary of McChrystal's calls for a quick escalation. Still, he has not wavered in his support for the war.

"If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans," the president said less than two months ago. "So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people."

In the lead-up to last year's election, we hoped that Obama's hawkish rhetoric on Afghanistan was simply a savvy campaign choice, intended to capture the votes of "moderates," who feared the prospect of a soft-on-terror commander in chief. Now we wonder whether Obama has succumbed to his own warlike words.

Though the Obama administration has rebranded the "war on terror" as "Overseas Contingency Operations" (or - to distance the name even further from its brutal reality - "OCO"), its ill-conceived mission and methods remain the same.

Truthout calls on the Obama administration and Congress to embrace a firm shift in mindset and engage in the critical thinking necessary to end the war by peaceful means.

How to prompt this transformation? Last month, Congressman Dennis Kucinich suggested a logical first step toward halting the military machine in Afghanistan: cutting its purse strings.

"If the Obama administration refuses to bring this war to an end, then Congress should use the power of the purse, granted by the Constitution, to end the war and bring our troops home," Kucinich said.

As Congress debates the much-needed health care reform legislation, Republicans argue that we cannot afford a massive new spending bill with the economy in its current condition. They neglect to mention the string of gargantuan war appropriations bills that have plagued our budget for eight years. America needs to take care of our needs at home before we continue to pour billions of dollars into an unwinnable war.

To read the rest of the story click here:

Do you feel that Afghanistan is a winnable war? If so, why? If not, why?

GEROGE MCGOVERN TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN!

2009-11-04T08:57:00.014-06:00

“I’m convinced that war is going to turn sour. I’m convinced we’re not going to prevail there.”
--former senator George McGovern.

Listen up. There's an old dude hanging out in America, in South Dakota, who The Daddy respects to the highest and views as one of his heroes. Why a hero?

1. As a veteran, he won the distinguished Flying Cross award for heroism during World War II;
2. As a legislator in the senate, he proposed bills and supported bills for working people: Increase in the minimum wage, better healthcare for working people, especially for the children and the elderly; and
3. He was the first senator to speak out against the Vietnam war on the floor of the senate. George McGovern was courageous.

Now, he's speaking out again. In Truthdig, an online progressive magazine with some of the best journalists around, McGovern gave this unsolicited advice to President Obama: Get out of Afghanistan. Check it out.

By Narda Zacchino

George McGovern has some advice for President Barack Obama: Get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.

“I’m convinced that war is going to turn sour. I’m convinced we’re not going to prevail there,” McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, said Sunday at a Truthdig event in West Los Angeles.

The former U.S. senator from South Dakota noted that “some of the best reporters over there are telling us that the Taliban are getting stronger and we’re getting weaker in the minds of the people, and that you have a corrupt government involved in drugs, involved in just plain old-fashioned stealing and corruption. It’s a lousy government, and it’s very difficult, even for a great country like [the U.S.], to make them look good. So I think we have every reason to withdraw.”

McGovern’s comments came on the heels of a New York Times report that Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, on the CIA payroll for nearly eight years, is suspected by many top American officials of being involved in that country’s lucrative and illicit opium trade. President Karzai himself drew criticism after the United Nations declared one-third of his votes in his Aug. 20 re-election to be fraudulent, forcing a runoff with Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. Karzai’s rival eventually withdrew, saying the runoff would not be any less rigged. The vote was canceled and Karzai was officially declared the winner Monday.

Against this backdrop, and with October the deadliest month yet for U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan with 55 killed, Obama has put off a decision on whether to send thousands more troops to that country as requested by the top U.S. commander there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

McGovern said Sunday he did not want to see Obama head down the path of Democrat Lyndon Johnson, for whom another quagmire, the Vietnam War, spelled the end to his presidency. The former legislator, who won the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism during World War II, noted he was the first member to oppose the Vietnam War on the floor of the Senate.

A historian, McGovern said he would remind Obama that foreign powers have been trying unsuccessfully to prevail in Afghanistan “ever since Alexander the Great. Genghis Khan even made a shot at it. The British throughout the 19th century were in there several times trying to pacify the [country] and finally gave up. The Russians were there for 11 years, 1979 until 1990, they put in 100,000 crack soldiers, 25,000 of them killed ... in Afghanistan, another 25,000 crippled or injured. And the Russian treasury went broke, and some of our best Soviet experts believe that’s what really led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

Asked how he would get out of Afghanistan if he were president, McGovern said: “I would say to the Afghan people that ‘we’ve been here for eight years, and we’ve come to the conclusion we can’t resolve your problems. You’ve got the Taliban, you may have al-Qaida, but—our soldiers have fought, died bravely—but it’s my conclusion, as president of the United States, that we can’t resolve the problems here. We’ll do what we can to help you, but we can’t do it with our military forces. As a matter of fact, while we’ve been here, the Taliban have grown stronger, and we don’t know where al-Qaida is—we think they’re in Pakistan—but having our troops in Afghanistan is not going to help that. So it’s our judgment that the best thing for us, and maybe for you, is for you to take over the handling of your own problems.”

To read the rest of the story, click here.

Should we be in Afghanistan? Should we contribute to a war with no end and no certain outcome? What do you think?

AFRICAN RESISTANCE: THE FIRST SLAVE REBELLION

2009-11-01T07:44:00.008-06:00

" Very few, if any, African-Americans accepted their status as slaves. Most, if not all, slaveowneres were completely aware of this and, in general, they lived in fear of the African-Americans under the control. Not only did slaveowners expect slaves to run away, letters and diaries give strong evidence that slaveowners (and even non-slaveowners) in the south believed that rebellion was imminent. They had lived with this fear since 1792 when the Haitian Revolution proved unambiguously that slaves were ready to revolt and could do so with a passion that was awe-inspiring. Added to this mix was the fiery rhetoric of abolitionists, both black and white. The most frightening, to the slaveowners, of these abolitionists was Henry Highland Garnet who had escaped from slavery at the age of ten. In 1843 he called for a slave strike and suggested that it escalate to a slave revolt. By this point, the south had been rocked by three slave revolts which had struck fear to the very hearts of slaveowners."
--Slave Rebellions

Listen up. Today, The Daddy is feeling all those blacks who came before him: The ones who fought bravely to carve some kind of existence in this foreign land.

Because we know so little about our history, because some of us, especially the elite or "bugee" blacks among us, are so cynical and sarcastic about the plight of blacks today, it may be convenient and comforting to rest our head on the comforting shoulders of cynicism and escapism. It may be easy to say to friends at house gatherings and parties that "Blacks don't do shit," "Black folks ain't about nothing," that Africans have done little, if anything to fight for their freedom and some land of their own to run their own lives as they saw fit. Far from it, Africans were already used to living their own lives free of white dudes like Abraham Lincoln or representatives of white colonialists giving them bibles and bible thumpers while steadily killing off our people and making deals with chiefs to take African land.

A good example of Africans trying to break free and live their own lives was the rebellion of some enslaved Africans in 1733. You see, today, November 1, is the day of the first successful African rebellion, which took place in 1733. Here, enslaved Africans on the island of St. John, which today is part of the United States Virgin Island, defeated the Danish Army and took over the island, planting their own flag.
-----



List of insurrections (partial list)
1712 New York Slave Revolt (New York City, Suppressed) 1733 St. John Slave Revolt (Saint John, Suppressed) 1739 Stono Rebellion (South Carolina, Suppressed) 1741 New York Conspiracy (New York City, Suppressed) 1760 Tacky's War (Jamaica, Suppressed) 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution (Saint-Domingue, Victorious) 1800 Gabriel Prosser (Virginia, Suppressed) 1805 Chatham Manor (Virginia, Suppressed) 1811 German Coast Uprising (Territory of Orleans, Suppressed) 1815 George Boxley (Virginia, Suppressed) 1822 Denmark Vesey (South Carolina, Suppressed) 1831 Nat Turner's rebellion (Virginia, Suppressed) 1831–1832 Baptist War (Jamaica, Suppressed) *1839 Amistad, ship rebellion* (Off the Cuban coast, Victorious) *1841 Creole, ship rebellion* (Off the Southern U.S. coast, Victorious) 1859 John Brown's Raid (Virginia, Suppressed)

GO PHILLIES, GO BLANTON!

2009-10-31T16:27:00.008-05:00

"I don't think he's ready for it on three days' rest," I think you're taking a chance on really pushing him."
--Phillies manager Charlie Manuel on why he made the decision to use Joe Blanton instead of Cliff Lee for game 4.

Joe Blanton

" I'm glad I’m not a manager. We don’t think that far in advance. We really want to win [tonight’s] Game 3. After that’s over, we’ll see who’s pitching Game 4."
--Mark Texira, first baseman for the New York Yankees.

Listen up. The bronx bombers won the game on Wednesday night. But the pitching was great by both pitchers, A. J. Burnett and the incomparable Pedro Martinez.38 and a player who has lost a few miles on his fastball, Martinez seems to have gained tons of wisdom on how to pitch. He especially acquitted himself well. He threw 87 and 88 miles an hour fastballs inside and curves and sliders outside. He kept the hitters off balance for 7 innings.

Tonight, it will be a question of whether starter Joe Blanton can keep the Yankees heavy hitters-- Texira, Rodriguez, and Posada-- off balance and therefore unable to hit the ball out of the park. Blanton started Game 4 against Tampa Bay last year and combined with four relievers on a five-hitter in a 10-2 win that gave the Phillies a 3-1 Series lead. He homered off Edwin Jackson in that game, the first Series home run by a pitcher since Oakland's Ken Holtzman in 1974. Blanton was 12-8 with a 4.05 ERA this season.

Another question is whether the bullpen will hold up. Surely, Blanton won't go t00 long. The Yankees have a history of getting to him early.

Go, Phillies!

SCOTT RITTER: "MCCHRYSTAL DOESN'T GET IT. DOES OBAMA?"

2009-10-30T08:51:00.009-05:00

"Some, including leaders of the Bush administration, were making the case that the Taliban was directly implicated in the attacks since it had provided al-Qaida with a safe haven to plan the events of 9/11. It had yet to be proved that the Taliban was a witting host, however. As a student of the region, I believed that the United States would do well to use tribal concepts of honor to isolate and disenfranchise bin Laden and his Arab outsiders from their Taliban host. If the United States, working through the offices of the Pakistani intelligence services, could convince the Taliban that its hospitality had been abused by al-Qaida-in that the murder of innocents had been committed while under its protection-then Afghan tribal custom and honor and, even more important to the fundamentalist Taliban, Islamic law, dictated that the Taliban revoke the protections and privileges afforded bin Laden and al-Qaida."
--Scott Ritter

Listen up. The Daddy has told you about Scott Ritter. When he lays it down, you can pick up and take it to the bank. Ritter is a former weapons inspector for the United Nations from 1991 to 1998.

Wilkipedia put it this way: "Ritter is known for his role as a chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, and later for his criticism of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Ritter publicly argued that Iraq possessed no significant weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). He became a popular anti-war figure and talk show commentator as a result of his stance."

Now, Ritter is speaking out against our presence in Afghanistan. Every word he lays down is true, as far as The Daddy is concerned. Check him out:

Posted on Oct 29, 2009

AP / David Guttenfelder

U.S. Marines walk through the sand inside Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan’s Helmand province

By Scott Ritter

There is a curious phenomenon taking place in the American media at the moment: the lionization of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the American military commander in Afghanistan. Although he has taken a few lumps for playing politics with the White House, McChrystal has generally been sold to the American public as a “Zen warrior,” a counterinsurgency genius who, if simply left to his own devices, will be able to radically transform the ongoing debacle that is Afghanistan into a noble victory that will rank as one of the greatest political and military triumphs of modern history. McChrystal’s resume and persona (a former commander of America’s special operations forces, a tireless athlete and a scholar) have been breathlessly celebrated in several interviews and articles. Reporters depict him as an ascetic soldier who spouts words of wisdom to rival Confucius, Jesus and Muhammad.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent Gen. McChrystal to “fix” the war in Afghanistan in the way that his boss, that earlier military prophet Gen. David Petraeus, “fixed” Iraq. Whether by accident or design, McChrystal’s mission became a cause célèbre of sorts for an American media starved for good news, even if entirely fabricated, coming out of Afghanistan. One must remember that the general has accomplished little of note during his short tenure to date as the military commander in Afghanistan. His entire reputation is built around the potential to turn things around in Afghanistan. And to do this, McChrystal has said he needs time, and 40,000-plus additional American troops. There are currently around 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. McChrystal’s request would raise that number to around 110,000 troops – the same number as the Soviets had deployed in Afghanistan at the height of their failed military adventure some 20 years ago.

McChrystal, or more accurately, his staff, has authored a not-so-secret report that outlines the reasoning behind this massive increase in American military involvement in Afghanistan. Rightly noting that the American-led effort is currently failing, McChrystal argues that only a massive infusion of U.S. troops, and a corresponding “surge” of American civilians, can achieve the stability necessary to transform Afghanistan from the failed state it is today. A viable nation capable of self-government, the new Afghanistan could maintain internal security so that terrorist organizations like al-Qaida will not be able to take root, flourish and once again threaten American security from the sanctuary of a lawless land. This concept certainly looks good on paper and plays well in the editorial section. And why shouldn’t it? It touches on all the romantic notions of America as liberator and defender of the oppressed. The problem is that the assumptions made in the McChrystal report are so far removed from reality as to be ludicrous.

McChrystal operates under the illusion that American military power can provide a shield from behind which Afghanistan can remake itself into a viable modern society. He has deluded himself and others into believing that the people of Afghanistan want to be part of such a grand social experiment, and furthermore that they will tolerate the United States being in charge. The reality of Afghan history, culture and society argue otherwise. The Taliban, once a defeated entity in the months following the initial American military incursion into Afghanistan, are resurgent and growing stronger every day. The principle source of the Taliban’s popularity is the resentment of the Afghan people toward the American occupation and the corrupt proxy government of Hamid Karzai. There is nothing an additional 40,000 American troops will be able to do to change that basic equation. The Soviets tried and failed. They deployed 110,000 troops, operating on less restrictive lines of communication and logistical supply than the United States. They built an Afghan army of some 45,000 troops. They operated without the constraints of American rules of engagement. They slaughtered around a million Afghans. And they lost, for the simple reason that the people of Afghanistan did not want them, or their Afghan proxies.

To read the full article, click here:

GO PHILLIES! GO PEDRO MARTINEZ!

2009-10-29T11:12:00.008-05:00

"You've got to go out there and think you're going to get everybody out, and think you can. I definitely do that. I try not to go over the edge and rub things in and be cocky, but I definitely have confidence, there's no doubt about that." --Cliff Lee , Philly hurler who won first games of the series for the Philadelphia Phillies

Listen up. The folks in Las Vegas say the talented but over-paid New York Yankees will defeat the Philadelphia Phillies and win the 2009 world series. Well, they may, but Philly ace Cliff Lee defeated the big bad Yankees 6-1 in the first game of the series last night. Responding to a reporter's suggestion that Philly ace Lee upstaged his ace C.C. Sabathia, New York's manager Joe Girardi said, "One thing is he can't pitch every day." This was an indirect way of saying the highly-paid Yankees can't beat Lee, who may pitch game 4 of the series.

Meanwhile, the Yankees are confident that they can beat Philly's second starter Pedro Martinez, who, at age 38, has seen his fast ball slow from a blazing 95 miles hour to an 87 miles per hour crawl. But Martinez, who loves the spotlight, believes he can help his team by pinpointing his fast ball inside and throwing curves and sliders at different speeds outside to keep the bronx boys off balance and off the bases.

Listen, The Daddy admits that he hates the Yankees ownership and management, guys with deep pockets and egos the size of Mount Everest, guys who consistently buy off the best players on the market, leaving the teams in smaller markets like Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Minnesota to sulk and cry like a baby lying in a fetal position wailing for his momma.

How arrogant and egotistical are they? So arrogant and egotistical that they believe that they should be in the world series every year. So arrogant and egotistical that they believe that, if they don't win the world series each year, then the entire baseball season was a failure.

Above all else, the Yankee's deep pockets (which makes professional baseball unequal and unjust) and their unrepentant arrogance is why a brotha is hoping that Martinez will hold down the Yankees for six innings, the Phillie's relievers will quiet their bats the rest of the way, and long ball hitters Jayson Werth, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard will blast a few long ones, giving the people from the city of brotherly love a reason to hug and cheer again.

But whatever happens tonight, the Phillies have assured themselves of winning at least once and taken over the home-field advantage. And remember: in the last 2 years the Phillies are 11-1 at home in the postseason.

Go Phillies! Go Pedro Martinez!

THE WISDOM OF GEORGE CARLIN: : ON AGING, ENJOY THE RIDE. THERE IS NO RETURN TICKET

2009-10-28T09:28:00.015-05:00

Listen up. The Daddy received an email the other day from a friend. In it she said only, "Love this guy!" And just those few words reminded a brotha of how much he loved George Carlin's wit and wisdom too. So The Daddy thought he would post one of Carlin's funniest and wisest pieces. Check it out:

On Aging - Enjoy the ride.
There is no return ticket

by George Carlin

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old
is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so
excited about aging that you think in fractions.

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and
a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key..

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the
next number, or even a few ahead.

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're
gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life ! You become 21.
Even the words sound like a ceremony.YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound
like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now,
you're Just a sour-dumpling.. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the
brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and
your dreams are gone...

But! wait!! ! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30,  PUSH 40, REACH 50 and make it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a
day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT
lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there.
Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST  92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a
little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!'
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG


1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and
height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay them.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3.Keep learning.  Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,
whatever, even ham radio.. Never let the brain idle.. 'An idle mind is
the devil's workshop.' And the devil's  family name is  Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6.... The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person,
who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are
alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets,
keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,
improve it.. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips.. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next
county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity..

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the
moments that take our breath away.

And if you don't send this to at least 8 people - who cares?   But do
share this with someone. We all need to live life to its fullest each
day!!

Life's journey is not to
arrive at the grave safely
in a well preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways,
totally worn out, shouting
'..holy sh*t ....what a ride!'

Do you remember George Carlin, the funny comedian filled with so much wisdom?

GO PHILLIES!!!

2009-10-24T09:58:00.018-05:00

“Philly fans are great. Everybody complains about them being the meanest. That may be true. But, at the same time, they're great because it does get you into the game...They love their teams. I can respect that about them. They know their sports and they love their teams and they come out and support them every week, good or bad."
--Michael Strahan, former standout defensive for the New York Giants

Listen up. The Daddy is feeling the Philadelphia Phillie's, the present world champions of major league bill, the team that represents the 2009 season against the American league's representative, the New York Yankees.

The Daddy loves these guys! Why? First, they are very talented. Second, they can beat you in so many different ways. It's like, "How do you want your ass-kicking tonight? Jimmie Rollins racing around the bases, smashing into your catcher, running your team into the ground or Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth getting it over quickly with high, deep blasts into the stands?" But you wanna know the real reason a brotha is pulling for the Phillie's? Here it is:

The Daddy hates the Yankees! In fact, The Daddy hates the Yankees with a passion normally reserved for gang rapists, crooked, skirt-chasing minister and priests who play with little boys.

* The New York Yankees, with a team owner about nothing more than making money and massaging and showcasing a huge ego.

So, when a players is not playing up to what he feels is his potential, he does what manager or owner never should do: he calls him out in public, undresses him for the world to see. This is both George Steinbrenner and his son.

* The New York Yankees, a team that represents the one basic thing that's wrong with major league baseball: financial inequity. The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox simply use their ton loads of ready cash to jump over small markets team like the Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins and buy the best players on the market, leaving smaller clubs to go down swinging each year.

Unlike the rich, arrogant Yankees, the Phillie's have class. They play hard; they play smart; And rarely do you hear the owner, manager or player blast another team member or call a team player out in public. For example, when their closer Brad Lidge was struggling, tossing fastballs to players who hit em out of the park causing the Phillies to lose, both management and the players stuck by him, saying confident they were the old Brad Lidge would come back.

The Philadelphia Phillies are en experienced, talented and classy team. And so, like Moses, The Daddy is gonna climb to the highest mountaintop and then shout down to the hordes of unwashed masses below:

GO PHILLIES! GO PHILLIES! GO PHILLIES!

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: THERE IS HELP FOR YOU

2009-10-19T09:06:00.007-05:00

Listen up. The Daddy is concluding this series on domestic violence, but he is not finishing his work on this issue. From time to time, a brotha will write about this issue on this blog. It's too important to do otherwise.

Meanwhile, remember that there are resources for you, if you need help. Besides agencies in your local community, you can start by calling domestic violence hotlines. These are people trained to deal with domestic violence issues. They are very understanding and sympathetic. Here are a few:

1. If you or someone you know is feeling fearful about what's going on in your relationship, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−SAFE (7233) or TTY 1−800−787−3224.

2. If you suspect abuse in your daughter's relationship with her boyfriend, go to the National Violence Resource Center to get further information.

3. Regarding suspected abuse or violence in teen dating, check out the national teen hotline: Call the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline at 1-866-331-9474, available 24/7 (1-866-331-8453 for the hearing impaired).

Conclusion

Domestic violence is a very complex issues. It involves culture, the way men and women were raised to interact with each other. It includes politics, the fact that men have constructed laws so that they can maintain control over women. And it also involves how people in society are reared to deal with problems. Too many Americans, men especially, have been conditioned to resolve problems through conflict. Some men have worked through this issue and no subscribe to this way of resolving problems. Others steadfastly refuse to change.

Because issues surrounding domestic violence are so deeply embedded in our culture, politics and individual construct, domestic violence will be with us for a long time. That's why it's important for parents to be armed with knowledge about domestic violence, including potential teen violence. The information is there. Parents just have to make the time to use it. Hopefully, this series helped.

This series concludes with two things: The teenage bill of rights and a list of things people can do to bring greater awareness to domestic violence by Love Is Respect.org, especially during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Dating Bill of Rights

I have a right to:

Ask for a date

Refuse a date

Suggest activities

Refuse any activities, even if my date is excited about them

Have my own feelings and be able to express them

Say, "I think my friend is wrong and his actions are inappropriate"

Tell someone not to interrupt me

Have my limits and values respected

Tell my partner when I need affection

Refuse affection

Be heard

Refuse to lend money

Refuse sex any time, for any reason

Have friends and space aside from my partner

I have the responsibility to:

Determine my limits and values

Respect the limits of others

Communicate clearly and honestly

Not violate the limits of others

Ask for help when I need it

Be considerate

Check my actions and decisions to determine whether they are good or bad for me

Set high goals for myself

Some great ideas to make people aware of Domestic Violence

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and there are a ton of ways you can support the cause. We put together a list of cool things you can do this month to help spread awareness.

Put a purple ribbon up as your facebook/twitter/myspace profile pic to show your support for ending domestic violence.
Post a link on your profiles to www.loveisrespect.org to spread healthy dating awareness and let your friends know about the awesome resources we have if they ever need help.
Send anti-dating violence awareness mass texts to your friends.
Organize an anti-dating violence rally at your school.
Submit an article on teen dating violence awareness to your school newspaper.
Write a letter to get a Teen Dating Abuse curriculum in your school; Dosomething.org has great info on the steps you need to take.
Create an anti-dating violence PSA and post it to your YouTube account.
Print out our Teen Dating Bill of Rights and post it around school (with permission from school officials).
Print out our quiz cards and hand them out at local events.
Create a LOVE Mashup and send it to your friends to promote healthy dating habits.
Create a project for It’s Time to Talk Day. DoSomething.org is offering $250 Grants for your projects. Click here for more info.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Note: photo is from the blog stayteen.org

VIOLENCE: TEEN DATING

2009-10-18T08:31:00.004-05:00

Listen up. Because it's Domestic Violence Awareness Month, The Daddy has been posting articles to provide parents and teens more information and resources on this issue. The Daddy found this wonderful site on teen dating It's called "What's your relationship reality?" It provides facts about teen dating, it gives warning signs of abuse, and it advises girls to share with their friends about abuse. Don't sweep abuse under the carpet. Check it out.

DATING VIOLENCE: SOME FACTS

1 in 5 teens who have been in a serious relationship report being hit, slapped or pushed by a partner.
One-third of teen girls say they have been concerned about being physically hurt by their partner.
In an abusive relationship, one person typically uses POWER and CONTROL to gain the upper hand physically, emotionally, and/or sexually over their partner.
One-quarter of teens who have been in serious relationships say their boyfriend has tried to prevent them from spending time with friends or family.
Nearly 1 in 4 girls who have been in a relationship (23%) reported going further sexually than they wanted as a result of pressure.
Learning healthy relationship skills greatly reduces your risk of violence with other teens.

KNOW THE EARLY WARNING SIGNS

Not sure if you are in an unhealthy relationship? Take a step back and ask yourself: Does your boyfriend or girlfriend...

Pressure you to make the relationship very serious or have sex early in the relationship?
Act jealous or possessive?
Try to control where you go, what you wear, or what you do?
Text or IM you constantly?
Refuse to consider your point of view or desires?
Keep you from talking to or spending time with close friends or family?
Drink too much or use drugs and then blame the alcohol and drugs for his/her behavior?
Threaten to hurt you or themselves if you leave them?

If your boyfriend/girlfriend has said or done something that seemed like a red flag, it probably was. It could become, or may already be, abusive. Always remember: You have every right to say no! No boyfriend or girlfriend has the right to treat you with anything other than respect.

WATCH FOR FRIENDS WHO ARE BEING ABUSED

In some cases, teens feel more comfortable confiding in a friend than they would with a parent or other adult. However, it's not always easy for them to come to you. So if you suspect that they are in an abusive relationship, here are some things to consider. Does your friend...

Constantly cancel plans for reasons that don't sound true?
Always worry about making their boyfriend/girlfriend angry?
Give up things that are important?
Show signs of physical abuse, like bruises or cuts?
Have a boyfriend/girlfriend that wants them to be available all the time?
Become isolated from friends or family?

If you think a friend might be in an abusive relationship, try taking an indirect approach to help them open up. Here are some suggestions:

"You don't seem as happy as usual -- are you okay?"
"Is there anything you want to talk about?"

But if you think your friend is in serious danger, tell an adult you trust immediately. Do not try to handle the situation on your own.

For more information, check out the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline webpage at www.loveisrespect.org.

Also be sure to check out the rest of our What's Your Relationship Reality? section for information on healthy relationships.

ANOTHER GOOD RESOURCE

Another site on teen dating The Daddy found to be helpful was the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ACADA). In plain terms, it talks about how teen violence is often hidden, often has to do with the way teenagers see each other, how young boys may believe that they have the responsibility of controlling the relationship, early warning signs of abuse. There is plenty info for dealing with teen violence on this site: Check this one out.

DATING VIOLENCE

Teenagers often experience violence in dating relationships. Statistics show that one in three teenagers has experienced violence in a dating relationship. In dating violence, one partner tries to maintain power and control over the other through abuse. Dating violence crosses all racial, economic and social lines. Most victims are young women, who are also at greater risk for serious injury. Young women need a dating safety plan.

This site also contains a "Bill of Rights" for teens:

Dating Bill of Rights

I have a right to:

I have the responsibility to:

Determine my limits and values

Respect the limits of others

Communicate clearly and honestly

Not violate the limits of others

Ask for help when I need it

Be considerate

Check my actions and decisions to determine whether they are good or bad for me

Set high goals for myself

From the Domestic Violence Advocacy Program of Family Resources, Inc.

BEFORE LEARNING ABOUT VIOLENCE IN TEEN DATING, KNOW ABOUT YOUTH VIOLENCE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

2009-10-17T08:13:00.009-05:00

"I am committed to this fight. This is a national conversation. It is a sad commentary that it takes capturing a death on video to capture the attention of the country. We can use this moment to go forward together. This is a line in the sand. ... No one gets a pass."
--Arne Duncan, U.S. Education Secretary
"For the many Americans who live with the threat of violence every day, the video was a sad reminder of the harshness and cruelty that remains all too prevalent in many parts of this country. For me, it was a call to action to address, a challenge that affects the entire nation."
--Eric Holder, U. S. Attorney General

Listen up. An important topic in families that's often not discussed is youth violence, especially violence teen dating violence. The Daddy will do a post on violence by teens. But to better understand violence in teen dating, parents need to be armed with more knowledge about violence by youth in general.

Toward this end, The Daddy is going to provide some information parents need to know. It comes from the U.S. Surgeon General entitled, "Youth Violence: A Report by the Surgeon General." This report is important. It identifies certain myths about violence, including myths about African American And Latinos. It also talks about how youth get involved in violence ("Pathways to Youth Violence"), the risk of youth violence and how to protect your children ("Risk and protective factors") and how to prevent youth violence.

In addition, a brotha is going to provide additional resources about youth violence that comes from Youth Violence Prevention, a great resource on health issues. It includes resources to give you the knowledge to prevent violence.

But first, here's the info from the Surgeon General. It will be followed by info from the agency Youth Violence Prevention:

General Information

Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General
This Surgeon General's report seeks to focus on action steps that all Americans can take to help address the problem of youth violence, and continue to build a legacy of health and safety for our young people and the Nation as a whole.
Youth Violence Prevention
This website provides information on youth violence prevention from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC Program Activities Guide
This guide describes CDC’s public health activities and research to prevent youth violence.
Prevent Youth Violence
This website provides information on preventing youth violence from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth Through Violence Prevention (UNITY)
The goal of UNITY is to support cities in preventing violence before it occurs and to help sustain these efforts.
National Academic Centers of Excellence (ACEs) on Youth Violence Prevention
The Academic Centers of Excellence, or ACEs, bring together resources and experts from varied backgrounds to study youth violence issues, share solutions, and work with communities to prevent youth violence.
The Action Series
To help communities that are concerned about youth violence take action, SAMHSA supports many local initiatives. This action series is intended to further their efforts. Here are the questions that each pamphlet answers.
- Action 1: Preventing Youth Violence: Communities Take Action. – What are the core concepts in youth violence prevention? Is my community ready for a youth violence intervention? How do we create a strategic plan?
- Action 2: Getting Together: Ideas For Effective Collaborations. – What are the characteristics and types of collaborations? How do we form a collaboration and work as a team?
- Action 3: Changing Lives: The Right Program Makes A Difference. – What are the best practices and model programs in youth violence prevention? How do we select and adapt programs and ensure the appropriate mix of human and material resources for successful implementation?
- Action 4: Evaluation: Did You Do It? Did It Matter? – What are the critical building blocks of evaluation? How do we assess our collaboration and our prevention intervention?
- Action 5: Keeping It All Together: Ideas for Sustaining Your Initiative. – How do we sustain our collaboration and interventions? How do establishing effective collaborations and carefully choosing and implementing appropriate programs help lead to sustainability?

Best Practices and Effective Programs

Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention: A Sourcebook for Community Action
This publication examines the effectiveness of specific violence prevention practices in four key areas: parents and families, home visiting, social and conflict resolution skills, and mentoring. It also documents the science behind each best practice and offers a comprehensive directory of resources for more information about programs that have used these practices.
Blueprints for Violence Prevention
Blueprints for Violence Prevention is a national violence prevention initiative to identify violence prevention programs that are effective. The initiative has identified prevention and intervention programs that meet a strict scientific standard of program effectiveness.
OJJDP Model Programs Guide
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Model Programs Guide (MPG) is designed to assist practitioners and communities in implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention programs that can make a difference in the lives of children and communities. The MPG database of evidence-based programs covers the entire continuum of youth services from prevention through sanctions to reentry.
OJP Promising and Proven Programs on Youth Violence Prevention
List of promising and proven programs on youth violence prevention provided by the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
SAMHSA National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
NREPP is a searchable database of interventions for the prevention and treatment of mental and substance use disorders. The SAMHSA Model Programs have been tested in communities, schools, social service organizations, and workplaces across America; many of these model programs show a reduction in substance abuse and other related high-risk behaviors.
SAMHSA Guide to Evidence-Based Practices on the Web
The Web Guide—a component of SAMHSA's Science and Service Initiative—is a Web page to assist the public in identifying evidence-based programs and practices that can prevent and/or treat mental and substance use disorders.

Tools for Taking Action

Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP)
MAPP is a community-driven strategic planning tool for improving community health. This tool helps communities apply strategic thinking to prioritize public health issues and identify resources for addressing them.
The Community Toolbox
The Community Tool Box is the world’s largest resource for free information on essential skills for building healthy communities. It offers over 7,000 pages of practical guidance in creating change and improvement.

Statistics & Data on Youth Violence

(Printable Version)

This section provides statistics on youth violence and related topics. Information is presented in the following subsections:

Selected Recent Publications and Data Briefs
Demographic Data
Data on Youth Risk Behaviors
Youth Violence Data by Topic
Interactive Data Tools
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Tools
Raw Data/Datasets

Selected Recent Publications and Data Briefs

This subsection provides links to selected publications and briefs that include data relating to youth violence and related topics released or published within the past 12 months.

Digest of Education Statistics 2008. (PDF 9.9 MB)
Source: U.S. Department of Education.
Health, United States, 2008. (PDF 12.1 MB)
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance: United States, 2007. (PDF 1.05MB)
Source: MMWR, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PERPETRATORS: THE PROCESS, THE MOST IMPORTANT LAW

2009-10-15T14:28:00.014-05:00

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. "
- Leo Buscaglia

Listen up. The Daddy was emailed and asked about the laws related to prosecuting a domestic violent perpetrator. The Daddy has to admit he is not familiar with the laws in detail. But here's a post by eHow that gives the basic history of the definition, punishment, therapy and protection related to dealing with the domestic violence perpetrator.

Also, remember: there are different laws in different states. Some are very complex. But this piece will give you a basic idea of the process that law enforcement uses in dealing with domestic violent perpetrators and the most important law in domestic violence: Violent Against Women Act (VAWA), landmark legislation in dealing with the issue. Check it out.

Spousal Abuse Laws

By Mike Broemmel
eHow Contributing Writer

Spousal Abuse Laws

Spousal abuse or domestic violence laws are designed to serve three primary and essential purposes.

First, these statutes are created to penalize appropriately those individuals who are guilty of committing crimes of spousal abuse.

Second, spousal abuse laws include provisions designed to require an offender to participate in therapeutic programming in hopes of preventing a re-occurrence of this crime.

Finally, spousal abuse laws are drafted with a component intended to provide at least some protection to the victim from further assault by the offender.

Additional Notes from The Daddy:

The most import law is The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which was developed and passed through the hard work of Sheila Wellstone, the late wife of senator Paul Wellstone. Both died in an airplane crash in 2002, I believe. Initially passed in 1994 VAWA created the the first federal legislation acknowledging domestic violence and sexual assaults as crimes, and it provided funding resources to combat this violence.

It provided the first federal legislation to provide federal resources to for community responses to combating the violence. In 2ooo, in enhanced the foundation it created with a much-needed legal assistance program. It also expanded the domestic against women by covering dating violence and stalking.

The reauthorizes VAWA of 2oo5 took a broader approach and covered other areas of domestic violence, including the following:

developing prevention strategies to stop the violence before it starts,
protecting individuals from unfair eviction due to their status as victims of domestic violence or stalking,/LI>
creating the first federal funding stream to support rape crisis centers,
developing culturally- and linguistically-specific services for communities,
enhancing programs and services for victims with disabilities, and
broadening VAWA service provisions to include children and teens.

The development of the VAWA, the reauthorization of the act to deal more broadly with domestic violence-related issues demonstrate that the federal government recognizes how devastating the problem is to American families of all classes, ethnicities, genders, even age groups.

WHAT KIND OF DUDE BEATS UP ON A WOMAN?

2009-10-14T08:04:00.008-05:00

In a 1998 study by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, 64.8% of the 405 African Americans called viewed domestic violence as one of the most serious issues facing their community.
	In the same study, 42.9% of the 405 African American respondents said that they had strong reason to believe that a woman they knew had been physically abused by her husband or boyfriend in the past year.
	Approximately one in three African American women are abused by a husband or partner in the course of a lifetime. (Department of Justice, "The extent, nature and consequence of intimate partner violence." 2000).
	Of the women who die from domestic violence, 28% are African American. FBI supplementary homicide reports, 1976-1999).

"Every abusive relationship starts with a first offense. As someone who has worked at a women's shelter, I cannot tell you how many women, if they'd just walked away after that first incident, we wouldn't have ever had to see there. This is how people end up in abusive relationships that last for years. They forgive that first act of violence."
--Carolyn Hay, columnist for the Washington Post

Listen up. A couple of days ago, The Daddy posted a piece about domestic violence: what it is, what are the signs of abuse. Yesterday, The Daddy posted a piece that talked about the signs of abuse: How do you know you're in an abusive relationship, what are the types of abuse. Today, The Daddy may be wondering, "What kind of dude hits on a woman? What kind of dude intimidates her to get his way? What kind of dude will kill someone he loves because he is not getting the control he wants?

A brotha checked out The Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ADADV) and got him some knowledge on. In very concise form, the piece talks about what male abusers do and the characteristics of a potential abuser. Check it out:

Why Do Abusers Batter?

Domestic violence is a pattern of controlling and coercive conduct that serves to deprive victims of safety and autonomy. Perpetrators believe they are entitled to power and control over their partners and perceive all interactions within relationships through a prism of compliance or disobedience. Perpetrators use abusive tactics to reinforce their rules and maintain absolute control over their victims.

Perpetrators come from all races, religions, socioeconomic classes, areas of the world, educational levels and occupations.

They often appear charming and attentive to outsiders, and even to their partners, at first. Many perpetrators are very good at disguising their abusive behavior to appear socially acceptable. Once they develop a relationship with a partner however, they become more and more abusive.

Characteristics
Domestic violence perpetrators:

seek control of the thoughts, beliefs and conduct of their partner.
restrict all of the victim’s rights and freedoms
punish their partner for breaking their rules or challenging the perpetrator’s authority

Men who batter:

minimize the seriousness of their violence
believe they are entitled control their partner
use anger, alcohol/drug use, and stress as excuses for their abusive behaviors
blame the victim for the violence

A batterer covers up his violence by denying, minimizing, and blaming the victim. He often convinces his partner that the abuse is less serious than it is, or that it is her fault. He may tell her that "if only" she had acted differently, he wouldn't have abused her. Sometimes he will say, "You made me do it."

Victims of abuse do not cause violence. The batterer is responsible for every act of abuse committed.

Domestic violence is a learned behavior. It is learned through:

observation.
experience.
culture.
family.
community (peer group, school, etc.).

Abuse is not caused by:

mental illness.

Personality disorders, mental illness, and other problems may compound domestic violence, but the abusive behavior must be addressed separately.

genetics.
alcohol and drugs.

Many men blame their violence on the effects of drug and alcohol use. Alcohol abuse is present in about 50 percent of battering relationships. Research shows that alcohol and other drug abuse is commonly a symptom of an abusive personality, not the cause. Men often blame their intoxication for the abuse, or use it as an excuse to use violence. Regardless, it is an excuse, not a cause. Taking away the alcohol, does not stop the abuse.
Substance abuse must be treated before or in conjunction with domestic violence treatment programs.

out-of-control behavior.
anger.
stress.
behavior of the victim.
problems in the relationship.

A batterer abuses because he wants to, and thinks he has a "right" to his behavior. He may think he is superior to his partner and is entitled to use whatever means necessary to control her.

Some ways batterers deny and minimize their violence:

"I hit the wall, not her head."
"She bruises easily."
"She just fell down the steps."
"Her face got in the way of my fist."

Characteristics of a Potential Batterer
Jealousy Controlling behavior Quick involvement Unrealistic expectations Isolation of victim Blames others for his problems Blames others for his feelings Hypersensitivity Cruelty to animals or children "Playful" use of force during sex Verbal abuse Rigid sex roles Jekyll and Hyde type personality	History of past battering Threats of violence Breaking or striking objects Any force during an argument Objectification of women Tight control over finances Minimization of the violence Manipulation through guilt Extreme highs and lows Expects her to follow his orders Frightening rage Use of physical force Closed mindedness

Manipulation
Abusers often try to manipulate the "system" by:

Threatening to call Child Protective Services or the Department of Human Resources and making actual reports that his partner neglects or abuses the children.
Changing lawyers and delaying court hearings to increase his partner's financial hardship.
Telling everyone (friends, family, police, etc.) that she is "crazy" and making things up.
Using the threat of prosecution to get her to return to him.
Telling police she hit him, too.
Giving false information about the criminal justice system to confuse his partner or prevent her from acting on her own behalf.
Using children as leverage to get and control his victim.

Abusers may try to manipulate their partners, especially after a violent episode.

He may try to "win" her back in some of these ways:

Invoking sympathy from her, her family and friends.
Talking about his "difficult childhood".
Becoming overly charming, reminding her of the good times they've had.
Bringing romantic gifts, flowers, dinner.
Crying, begging for forgiveness.
Promising it will "never happen again."
Promising to get counseling, to change.

Abuse gets worse and more frequent over time

Intervention
Perpetrator Intervention Programs For Abusers

Abusers can enter voluntarily or be court ordered to Perpetrator Intervention Programs. It is important to note that there are no guarantees that he will change his violent behavior. He is the only one that can make the decision--and commitment--to change.

In Alabama, there are certification guidelines for perpetrator intervention programs. Certified programs have completed a standards review process to ensure they meet guidelines. You can contact the Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence for information on these standards, (334) 832-4842.

An intervention program should include these factors:

Victim's safety is the priority.
Meets minimum standards for weekly sessions (16 weeks).
Holds him accountable.
Curriculum addresses the root of his problem.
Makes no demand on the victim to participate.
Is open to input from the victim.

What programs teach:

Education about domestic violence.
Changing attitudes and beliefs about using violence in a relationship.
Achieving equality in relationships.
Community participation.

In the program, an abuser should become aware of his pattern of violence and learn techniques for maintaining nonviolent behavior, such as "time outs" "buddy" phone calls, support groups, relaxation techniques, and exercise.

Click here for locations and details about Alabama's Perpetrator Intervention Programs

How do you know if he is really changing?

Positive signs include:

He has stopped being violent or threatening to you or others
He acknowledges that his abusive behavior is wrong
He understands that he does not have the right to control and dominate you
You don't feel afraid when you are with him.
He does not coerce or force you to have sex.
You can express anger toward him without feeling intimidated.
He does not make you feel responsible for his anger or frustration.
He respects your opinion even if he doesn't agree with it.
He respects your right to say "no."

Am I safe while he is in the program?

For your own safety and your children's safety, watch for these signs that indicate problems while he is in the program:

Tries to find you if you've left.
Tries to get you to come back to him.
Tries to take away the children.
Stalks you.

If you feel you are in danger, contact the Alabama Domestic Violence crisis line.

Lies
Six Big Lies

If you hear your partner making these statements while he is in a treatment program for abusers, you should understand that he is lying to himself, and to you.

"I'm not the only one who needs counseling."
"I'm not as bad as a lot of other guys in there."
"As soon as I'm done with this program, I'll be cured."
"We need to stay together to work this out."
"If I weren't under so much stress, I wouldn't have such a short fuse."
"Now that I'm in this program, you have to be more understanding."

Counseling
Couples' Counseling does NOT work in violent relationships!

If you are struggling with a relationship, some people may advise you to get marriage counseling, or couples' counseling. While this can be good advice in some relationships, it is NOT good for couples where there is violence. In fact, in many cases, couples' counseling has increased the violence in the home.

Couples' counseling does not work because:

Couples' counseling places the responsibility for change on both partners.

Domestic violence is the sole responsibility of the abuser.

Couples' counseling works best when both people are truthful.

Individuals who are abusive to their partners minimize, deny and blame, and therefore are not truthful in counseling.

Couples resolve problems in counseling by talking about problems.

His abuse is not a couple problem, it is his problem. He needs to work on it in a specialized program for abusers.
A victim who is being abused in a relationship is in a dangerous position in couple's counseling. If she tells the counselor about the abuse, she is likely to suffer more abuse when she gets home. If she does not tell, nothing can be accomplished.

If you think you will benefit from joint counseling, go AFTER he successfully completes a batterer's intervention program and is no longer violent.

Red Flags Of Abuse
You may be involved with a perpetrator if any of the following "red flags" exist in the relationship:

Quick involvement- the perpetrator pushes for a commitment or major event to occur very early in the relationship.
Isolation –the perpetrator begins asking you to spend less time with your friends and family and more time with him. You end up no longer maintaining close relationships with friends or family members.
Suggestions for change- the perpetrator has lots of suggestions on how you can improve your appearance, behavior etc. You begin to make changes solely based on these suggestions.
Controlling behaviors- the perpetrator influences your decisions on hobbies, activities, dress, friends, daily routines etc. You begin to make fewer and fewer decisions without the perpetrator’s opinion or influence.
Information gathering and pop-ins – the perpetrator wants to know the specific details of your day and rarely leaves you alone when you are not with him, such as when you are at work or out with friends.
Any forms of abuse – the perpetrator may use name calling, intimidation, humiliation, shoving, pushing or other forms of abuse to get you to do whatever they want you to do.

These red flags may indicate that you are involved with a perpetrator of domestic violence. These red flags may occur early in the relationship and be explained by the perpetrator as caring or loving behaviors such as "I just check on you because I miss you" or "I just want what is best for you" or "I just want us to work on our relationship and spend more time together."

If you have concerns about your relationship or your safety please call the toll free hotline 1-800-650-6522.

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP? WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ABUSE?

2009-10-13T11:22:00.008-05:00

"Domestic violence causes far more pain than the visible marks or bruises and scars. It is devastating to be abused by someone that you love and think loves you in return. It is estimated approximately 3 million incidents of domestic violence are reported each year in the United States."
--Senator Diane Feinstein

Listen up. Yesterday, The Daddy posted a piece from the group HelpGuide.org. on abuse. It talked about what abuse is; and it made it clear that abuse of another person is about control:

"Domestic abuse, also known as spousal abuse, occurs when one person in an intimate relationship or marriage tries to dominate and control the other person. Domestic abuse that includes physical violence is called domestic violence. Domestic violence and abuse are used for one purpose and one purpose only: to gain and maintain total control over you."

This piece gets more specific. It talks about the signs of abuse. Note that the piece emphasizes that physical violence is only one form of violence and talks about other types of violence. Check it out:

Signs of an abusive relationship

There are many signs of an abusive relationship. The most telling sign is fear of your partner. If you feel like you have to walk on eggshells around your partner—constantly watching what you say and do in order to avoid a blow-up—chances are your relationship is unhealthy and abusive. Other signs that you may be in an abusive relationship include a partner who belittles you or tries to control you, and feelings of self-loathing, helplessness, and desperation.

To determine whether your relationship is abusive, answer the questions below. The more “yes” answers, the more likely it is that you’re in an abusive relationship.

SIGNS THAT YOU’RE IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP
Your Inner Thoughts and Feelings	Your Partner’s Belittling Behavior
Do you: feel afraid of your partner much of the time? avoid certain topics out of fear of angering your partner? feel that you can’t do anything right for your partner? believe that you deserve to be hurt or mistreated? wonder if you’re the one who is crazy? feel emotionally numb or helpless?	Does your partner: humiliate or yell at you? criticize you and put you down? treat you so badly that you’re embarrassed for your friends or family to see? ignore or put down your opinions or accomplishments? blame you for his own abusive behavior? see you as property or a sex object, rather than as a person?
Your Partner’s Violent Behavior or Threats	Your Partner’s Controlling Behavior
Does your partner: have a bad and unpredictable temper? hurt you, or threaten to hurt or kill you? threaten to take your children away or harm them? threaten to commit suicide if you leave? force you to have sex? destroy your belongings?	Does your partner: act excessively jealous and possessive? control where you go or what you do? keep you from seeing your friends or family? limit your access to money, the phone, or the car? constantly check up on you?

Physical violence is just one form of domestic abuse

When people think of domestic abuse, they often picture battered women who have been physically assaulted. But not all domestic abuse involves violence. Just because you’re not battered and bruised doesn’t mean you’re not being abused.

Domestic abuse takes many forms, including psychological, emotional, and sexual abuse. These types of abuse are less obvious than physical abuse, but that doesn’t mean they’re not damaging. In fact, these types of domestic abuse can be even more harmful because they are so often overlooked—even by the person being abused.

Emotional or psychological abuse

The aim of emotional or psychological abuse is to chip away at your feelings of self-worth and independence. If you’re the victim of emotional abuse, you may feel that there is no way out of the relationship, or that without your abusive partner you have nothing.

Emotional abuse includes verbal abuse such as yelling, name-calling, blaming, and shaming. Isolation, intimidation, and controlling behavior also fall under emotional abuse. Additionally, abusers who use emotional or psychological abuse often throw in threats of physical violence.

You may think that physical abuse is far worse than emotional abuse, since physical violence can send you to the hospital and leave you with scars. But, the scars of emotional abuse are very real, and they run deep. In fact, emotional abuse can be just as damaging as physical abuse—sometimes even more so. Furthermore, emotional abuse usually worsens over time, often escalating to physical battery.

Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse is common in abusive relationships. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, between one-third and one-half of all battered women are raped by their partners at least once during their relationship. Any situation in which you are forced to participate in unwanted, unsafe, or degrading sexual activity is sexual abuse.

Forced sex, even by a spouse or intimate partner with whom you also have consensual sex, is an act of aggression and violence. Furthermore, women whose partners abuse them physically and sexually are at a higher risk of being seriously injured or killed.

Economic or financial abuse

Remember, an abuser’s goal is to control you, and he will frequently use money to do so. Economic or financial abuse includes:

Rigidly controlling your finances.
Withholding money or credit cards.
Making you account for every penny you spend.
Withholding basic necessities (food, clothes, medications, shelter).

Restricting you to an allowance.
Preventing you from working or choosing your own career.
Sabotaging your job (making you miss work, calling constantly)
Stealing from you or taking your money.

It Is Still Abuse If . . .

The incidents of physical abuse seem minor when compared to those you have read about, seen on television or heard other women talk about. There isn’t a “better” or “worse” form of physical abuse; you can be severely injured as a result of being pushed, for example.
The incidents of physical abuse have only occurred one or two times in the relationship. Studies indicate that if your spouse/partner has injured you once, it is likely he will continue to physically assault you.
The physical assaults stopped when you became passive and gave up your right to express yourself as you desire, to move about freely and see others, and to make decisions. It is not a victory if you have to give up your rights as a person and a partner in exchange for not being assaulted!
There has not been any physical violence. Many women are emotionally and verbally assaulted. This can be as equally frightening and is often more confusing to try to understand.

Source: Breaking the Silence: a Handbook for Victims of Violence in Nebraska (PDF)

DEALING WITH AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP

2009-10-12T16:08:00.009-05:00

Listen up. The Daddy just got off the phone with a friend who is dealing with an abusive husband. Besides talking with her about the abuse, The Daddy emailed her info about domestic violence. This article by Helpline.org was the first one. It covers the following concerns:

Because this is domestic violence month, The Daddy suggests that you use the article below to learn more about this complex issue. For those of you who are aware of domestic violence, especially spousal abuse, use this article as The Daddy did to brush up on the issue. The Daddy will post other pieces later. Meanwhile, check this piece out.

Signs of an abusive relationship

Domestic violence and abuse can happen to anyone, yet the problem is often overlooked, excused, or denied. This is especially true when the abuse is psychological, rather than physical. Emotional abuse is often minimized, yet it can leave deep and lasting scars.

Noticing and acknowledging the warning signs and symptoms of domestic violence and abuse is the first step to ending it. No one should live in fear of the person they love. If you recognize yourself or someone you know in the following warning signs and descriptions of abuse, don’t hesitate to reach out. There is help available.

Understanding domestic violence and abuse

Domestic abuse, also known as spousal abuse, occurs when one person in an intimate relationship or marriage tries to dominate and control the other person. Domestic abuse that includes physical violence is called domestic violence.

Domestic violence and abuse are used for one purpose and one purpose only: to gain and maintain total control over you. An abuser doesn’t “play fair.” Abusers use fear, guilt, shame, and intimidation to wear you down and keep you under their thumb. Your abuser may also threaten you, hurt you, or hurt those around you.

Domestic violence and abuse do not discriminate. It happens among heterosexual couples and in same-sex partnerships. It occurs within all age ranges, ethnic backgrounds, and financial levels. And while women are more commonly victimized, men are also abused—especially verbally and emotionally.

Recognizing abuse is the first step to getting help

Domestic abuse often escalates from threats and verbal abuse to physical violence and even murder. And while physical injury may be the most obvious danger, the emotional and psychological consequences of domestic abuse are also severe. No one deserves this kind of pain—and your first step to breaking free is recognizing that your situation is abusive. Once you acknowledge the reality of the abusive situation, then you can get the help you need.

You don’t have to live in fear

If you are afraid for your safety or have been beaten by your partner:

Dial 911 or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-787-3224.
Read Help for Abused and Battered Women: Domestic Violence Shelters, Support, and Protection

To read the other parts in the article, click here:

RAMONE, A HOMELESS KID THE DADDY CAN'T FORGET

2009-10-11T10:07:00.017-05:00

"People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope; as old as your despair. In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer and courage, so long are you young. "
--General Douglas MacArthur

Listen up. The Daddy received lots of accolades for his work with youth and gangs. But like many counselors and therapists, he thinks about those he was unable to help, those now hiding out on the streets, languishing in prisons or dead.

One such kid was Ramone. He hung out on the streets, he begged for money, he ate out of garbage bins, he broke into garages, and he robbed people. He came from a home where he was sexually abused by his step-father. Though warm with a refrigerator filled with food, home was the last place he wanted to go. Though he liked The Daddy, his counselor, Ramone seemed unable to shake the demons of his past, unable to go back to a world that valued materialism over human beings, hypocritical parenting and perverted pleasure over love. The last time The Daddy saw him he looked old. This inability to shake his demons and living on the street must have taken its toll.

After receiving a call from him (He said he just wanted to talk, but I think he just wanted to know if a brotha was still around in case he needed him), The Daddy sat in a coffee shop and wrote this first draft of a poem:

I’m a Bat/You an Insect -for Ramone
by Mac Walton

i hide out in daylight.
i pounce hard after dark from
a backseat on a subway, from a trashbin in a backyard.

2

i cling upside down to a ceiling in a dark cave.
i fly out to greet you after work.
your dog won’t bark welcome home.
your mom won't say goodbye at church.

3

Wednesday, you said, “Go to welfare.
It’s just around the corner.”

Thursday, You said, “You smell like garbage!”
In front of girlfriend Lynne.

Friday, You said, “Go away” after
whispering beneath your collar:
“Illegal aliens. Get a job.
Earn your own dollar.”

“got two, lady: taking out garbage;
feeding a lady friend.”

4

Now , my ceiling trembles.
my cave walls vibrate.
high heels tap concrete.
heavy coins jingle three houses up the street.

5

i’m a bat. you an insect.
Nostradamus pegged my life.
i’m a bat. you an insect.
i’m your last anti-Christ.

CYNTHIA TUCKER: DON'T ASK DON'T TELLL WILL BE RELEGATED TO THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY

2009-10-10T10:31:00.010-05:00

"With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s frustrating that the military still enforces a policy that punishes brave men and women who want to put their lives on the line for their country. But the tide is turning. Don’t ask, don’t tell will be abolished, assigned to the dust bin of history alongside “colored” water fountains and waiting rooms."
--Cynthia Tucker

Listen up. When Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and columnist Cynthia Tucker tells you something, you can take it to the bank. It's true. She has proven it many times. For example, to the dismay of many blacks, she revealed how the children of the late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were bickering over the control of the family finances. Want more? To the outright hatred of some younger blacks, she blasted black gang culture: how it promotes misogyny, sexism, and violence, and is contributing to the destruction of black communities.

Now, the sistah is laying it down about the military's decrepit and dishonest President Clinton policy called Don't Ask Don't Tell. She says that even higher ups in the Pentagon are beginning to turn against it and, like "colored only" hotels and water fountains of U. S. southern apartheid, it will be relegated to the dustbin of history. Check it out.

The Pentagon’s transformation on gay soldiers

5:00 pm October 9, 2009, by ctucker

It hasn’t been that long ago — about 16 1/2 years — since Bill Clinton’s relationship with the Pentagon was permanently warped by his efforts to keep a campaign pledge to allow gay men and women to serve openly in the United States Armed Forces. The outcry from the military and its supporters was such that you’d have thought Clinton had promised to make Hillary a four-star general.

Looking back on all that, it’s nothing short of remarkable that the current issue of Joint Force Quarterly, a scholarly publication put out by the Pentagon, includes an essay that calls for ending the ban on allowing gays to serve openly. In fact, the essay, written by Air Force Col. Om Prakash, who currently works in the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, won the 2009 Secretary of Defense National Security Essay Competition.

That doesn’t mean every military officer supports his point of view. Indeed, inclusion of the essay in a Pentagon publication is hardly a stirring endorsement of gay soldiers by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Nor does it suggest that the discriminatory and destructive “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy can be dropped without controversy. Already, certain mossbacks are gearing up for another tirade against gay soldiers, despite Prakash’s conclusion that dropping the ban wouldn’t have a negative effect on combat readiness.

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, has already prepared her talking points. “Society may have changed but the need for good order and discipline has not changed,” said Donnelly, who opposed allowing gays to serve openly in 1993. (Donnelly’s think tank is private; it is not affiliated with the Pentagon.)

But inclusion of the essay in a journal with a Pentagon imprimatur does show that top military officers no longer view the subject of gay soldiers, serving openly, as a non-starter. The battle for full equality for gays and lesbians has come a long way in a relatively short period of time, even in the nation’s most tradition-bound institution.

To read the rest of story click here.

ALL AMERICANS SHOULD BE PROUD PRESIDENT OBAMA WON THIS AWARD:

2009-10-09T15:50:00.005-05:00

"To my mind, the most important aspect of the Nobel Awards is that they bring home to the masses of the peoples of all nations, a realization of their common interests. They carry to those who have no direct contact with science the international spirit."
--Irving Langmuir
"I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize," he said. "I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century."
--President Obama

Listen up. Today, President Obama won the Nobel Prize. Though, even to him, he said he recognized that the award was not so much about his personal achievement but the leadership his administration has provided in helping to deal with some of the difficult issues in the world, such as nuclear non-proliferation, climate change, and getting people of different faiths and ethnicities to learn to live with each other.

Some who object say it's too soon. He hasn't done much. Check it: Mother Theresa didn't end the war between Israelis and Palestinians. She fed a bunch of children. She got an award. Dr. King didn't end racism in the United States. He provided leadership that ended apartheid in the American South. But he got nowhere in the North. He got the award. The point is: sometimes you don't get an award for a great achievement but for your leadership to achieve certain ends. For Mother Theresa, it was to end poverty. For Dr. King, it was to end poverty and injustice.

Some who object (Republicans) say President Obama hasn't done anything significant at home. Well, just off the top of my head, I remember that President Obama achieved the following:

* He changed the law to make it easier for women to file lawsuits against companies that refuse to provide equal pay for women who do the same work as men. This is the Equal Pay Act, the first law he signed.

* He provided a set of laws to provide greater protection for Americans against bands and other credit card companies. *He placed people with integrity in his administration, some of them fired by Karl Rove, foot soldier for Bush.

*He paid black farmers who were denied loans and cheated out of money for decades by the U.S. Agriculture Department.

*He lifted the Bush administration's 2001 ban on using government funding for stem cell research. The order ends the ban on federal funds for research using newly created embryonic stem cell lines.

*And here's something you want here about from the press: He has inspired many young children to study and to believe that they can get be someody important-- something other than a gangbanger or basketball player.

* And he is tried to bring healthcare reform to a country with many, if not most, politicians who are owned by insurance, hospital and drug companies. This is amazing. Most presidents who tried failed. President Bush knew he was too incurious and too insensitive to working class people to every try. And he's gotten farther than other president so far. So to say President Obama has made no achievements domestically shows not only a lack of knowledge of the presidents acccomplishments domestically; it also minimizes the significant importance of thos problems he solved or is trying to solve.

Beyond domestic accomplishments, the real accomplishments of President Obama was to set a new approach in dealing with world affairs. Even before he became president, President Obama began to provide leadership on difficult issues from a non-dominating, diplomatic framework. Obviously, world leaders were impressed.

What made President Obama's diplomatic approach stand out, of course, was the shoot first-cowoy, warmongeriing approach of the previous U.S. administration. World leaders welcomed this new American leader with such a cool and calm demeanor in a time of war and turbulence.

All Americans should be proud that President Obama won this award. It demonstrates that the world is beginning to respect American leadership again.

OCTOBER IS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE MONTH

2009-10-08T10:04:00.005-05:00

"Abusers exploit, lie, insult, demean, ignore (the "silent treatment"), manipulate, and control...There are many ways to abuse. To love too much is to abuse. It is tantamount to treating someone as an extension, an object, or an instrument of gratification. To be over-protective, not to respect privacy, to be brutally honest, with a sadistic sense of humour, or consistently tactless - is to abuse...To expect too much, to denigrate, to ignore - are all modes of abuse. There is physical abuse, verbal abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse. The list is long. Most abusers abuse surreptitiously. They are "stealth abusers". You have to actually live with one in order to witness the abuse." from "What is abuse" by Sam Vaknin.

Listen up. The Daddy knows that some of you have heard that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But it's also Domestic Violence Month. Both are important. We need to learn more about both. Toward that end, The Daddy received permission from fungkeblackchik to print this excellent article on how domestic violence hurts not only the intended victim but families and communities. Thank you, sister.

On top of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, it is also Domestic Violence Awareness month. I’m sure some people may have known/or know someone who was/is a victim of domestic violence or maybe a victim themselves. The story you’re about to read is about a friend of mine, who I’ll call “Tricia”.

“My mother always told me that no man should ever lay his hands on a woman. My father always told me that any man who hit a woman was one of the biggest cowards to walk the face of the earth. So you’d think I would expect more out of a relationship?

Wrong.

My story is the typical love gone wrong. Sure he seemed like the perfect man. I didn’t want for anything and never had to ask for anything. I loved his family and his family took me in as one of their own. After our 2nd year of dating, we moved in with each other and talks of marriage was always a subject of conversation.

Literally, that night I didn’t know what hit me. Out of the blew, square to the right side of my face, his fist landed.

It was a normal night at home. I cooked dinner and we sat down as usual and ate together. For some reason I could see tension in his face and his usual tone was now monotone. I got up and gathered up the plates and started washing the dishes. As I was washing the dishes, I asked him what was wrong, once again.

“Nothing!”, he snapped back at me.

As I had my back turned to him, he approached me from behind and handed me my cell phone. He pulled up the address book and questioned why did I have my ex-boyfriend’s phone number in it. I explained to him that occasionally we still talk, because we still have a lot of friends in common.

That’s when he hit me.

All I remember was a dish dropping on the floor. He told me I had no reason in talking to him. In between tears I reassured him there was nothing going on. I couldn’t believe what happened. I was in shock. All over my phonebook.

He left the kitchen and went to bedroom and shut the door.

I was now a victim. My life flashed before my eyes. I could either stay or leave. It doesn’t take much for me to fear for my life and I picked leaving. The next day after he left for work, I packed my belongings and left.

He has not heard from me since.”

~Tricia

No one wants to become a statistic but occasionally it may happen to someone. Tricia became a statistic when her once loving boyfriend decided to lay his hands on her. Unlike a lot of women, Tricia didn’t give second chances. She knew after he hit her that she had to leave. Even though he begged and pleaded, she knew that she didn’t want to take any chances.

Below are some statistics in regards to violence against women:

On the average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends every day.¹
92% of women say that reducing domestic violence and sexual assault should be at the top of any formal efforts taken on behalf of women today.²
1 out of 3 women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.³
1 in 5 female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner. Abused girls are significantly more likely to get involved in other risky behaviors. They are 4 to 6 times more likely to get pregnant and 8 to 9 times more likely to have tried to commit suicide.³
1 in 3 teens report knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, slapped, choked or physically hurt by his/her partner.⁴
As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy. ⁵
Violence against women costs companies $72.8 million annually due to lost productivity.⁶
Ninety-four percent of the offenders in murder-suicides were male.⁷
Seventy-four percent of all murder-suicides involved an intimate partner(spouse, common-law spouse, ex-spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend). Of these, 96 percent were females killed by their intimate partners.⁷
Most murder-suicides with three or more victims involved a “family annihilator” — a subcategory of intimate partner murder-suicide.Family annihilators are murderers who kill not only their wives/girlfriends and children, but often other family members as well,before killing themselves.⁷
Seventy-five percent of murder-suicides occurred in the home.⁷

Thankfully there are women out there who realize that they don’t have to become a perpetual victim. They realize their own value and potential. For those women out there who continue to allow the abuse happen to them, you can only pray for them and offer them your support.

If you know of anyone who is being abused, pass on this number to them or make the call yourself:

1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
1-800-787-3224 (TTY)

The National Domestic Violence Hotline answers more than 19,500 calls per month from victims, survivors, friends and family members, law enforcement personnel, domestic violence advocates and the general public. Hotline advocates provide support and assistance to anyone involved in a domestic violence situation, including those in same-sex relationships, male survivors, those with disabilities and immigrant victims of domestic violence. All calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline are anonymous and confidential.

1. Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001, February 2003.
2. Progress & Perils: New Agenda for Women, Center for the Advancement of Women. June 2003.
3. Silverman, Jay G., Raj, Anita, and Clements, Karen. “Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Associated Substance Use, Unhealthy Weight Control, Sexual Risk Behavior, Pregnancy, and Suicidality.” Pediatrics, August 2004.
4. Teenage Research Unlimited. Findings from study commissioned by Liz Claiborne Inc. to investigate the level of and attitudes towards dating abuse among American teenagers aged 13 to 18 [online] 2005 Feb [cited 2006 Mar 20]. Available from: URL: www.loveisnotabuse.com/statistics_abuseandteens.htm
5. Gazmararian JA, Petersen R, Spitz AM, Goodwin MM, Saltzman LE, Marks JS. “Violence and reproductive health; current knowledge and future research directions.” Maternal and Child Health Journal 2000; 4(2):79-84.
6. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. 2003. Center for disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Atlanta, GA/
7. Violence Policy Center (VPC), American Roulette: Murder-Suicide in the United States, April 2006.

THE DADDY'S MORNING INSPIRATION: THE CREATION BY JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

2009-10-05T03:51:00.012-05:00

"I will not allow one prejudiced person or one million or one hundred million to blight my life. I will not let prejuce or any ot its attendant humiliations and injusticesbear me down to spiritual defeat. My inner life is mine, and I shall defend and maintain its integrity against all the powers of hell."
--James Weldon Johnson

Today, this Monday morning, the Daddy is feeling down. He's moving slowly and not even the extra strong cup of Juan Valdez's java he made has given him a lift.

When The Daddy is feeling low and feels he needs a spark, some inspiration, he resists the temptation to go out and by some good steet drugs and reads something inspirational, someone like "The Creation" by James Weldon Johnson.

Author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, civil rights activists, Johnson was multi-talented in life and art. He wrote "Lift Every Voice and Sing, " considered the black national anthem. He was also one of the first African-American professors at New York University. He was also a professor of literature at Fisk University.This piece is taken from "God's Trombone," a book of black sermons.

"The Creation"

And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I'm lonely -
I'll make me a world.

And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That's good!

Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
And God rolled the light around in his hands
Until he made the sun;
And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said: That's good!

Then God himself stepped down -
And the sun was on his right hand,
And the moon was on his left;
The stars were clustered about his head,
And the earth was under his feet.
And God walked, and where he trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.

Then he stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And he spat out the seven seas -
He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed -
He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled -
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.

Top Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.

Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And he said: Bring forth! Bring forth!
And quicker than God could drop his hand,
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said: That's good!

Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at his sun,
And he looked at his moon,
And he looked at his little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said: I'm lonely still.

Then God sat down -
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep, wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I'll make me a man!

Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in his own image;

Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.

------------

Primary Writings of James Weldon Johnson:

1. The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, 1912.
2. (Translator) Fernando Periquet, Goyescas; or, The Rival Lovers (opera libretto), 1915.
Fifty Years and Other Poems , 1917
3. (Editor) The Book of American Negro Poetry , 1922
4. (Editor) The Book of American Negro Spirituals , 1925
5. (Editor) The Second Book of Negro Spirituals , 1926
6. God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (poetry), 1927
7. Black Manhattan (nonfiction) 1930
8. Along This Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson, 1933
9. Contributed articles and poems to the Chicago Defender, Times-Union, New York Age, New York Times, Pittsburgh Courier, Savannah Tribune, The Century, The Crisis, The Nation, The Independent, Harper's, The Bookman, Forum, and Scholastic.

FROM THE REBELLIOUS SIXTIES? YES, I REMEMBER: TWO POEMS

2009-10-02T19:41:00.008-05:00

The Daddy grew up in the South. He lived in projects and old houses in essentially black neighborhoods in the inner-cities.

When he was about ten, he lived about a block from a hospital. Blacks in the neighborhood didn't trust the doctors, nurses and staff who worked there and only went there in the event of an emergency. The women said they were "fixed;" their "tubes were tied" so they couldn't have children again. The men said they weren't given proper care, and they treated rudely. However, the older men, drunks, and addicts would sit on benches just off the front entrance, drinking cheap liquor, nodding, or sleeping.

The Daddy thought about this hospital which was in his neighborhood but was no part of the neighborhood-- this hospital which, except for a few janitors and cleaning ladies, was staffed totally by white people at the time. He thought about the older black men occupying benches below administrative offices peopled by young white males (No blacks, no females) who were literally climbing up escalators of success. Then he wrote this poem entitled "where i live."

where i live

1
where i live
vicious dogs bark loudly at
smiling couples strolling past then
crawl meekly back under the house when
alpha owner buses home at the end of day.

2
where i live
homeless men with stomachs empty and coats rain-soaked
medicate aching backs, stained teeth and tired bones
with swigs of red Gallos straight from a dirt-stained box while
averting eyes from Gradys, which won't help unless
they drink themselves a minute closer to death.

3
where i live
phrases like "quality care" and "community health" flow like
red Gallos from empty suits high up escalators as
neighbors just below sit on weather-beaten benches
averting their eyes from Gradys, retreating into
Gallo boxes, lifting their heads to an ever darkening sky but
seeing nothing in particular.

YOU CAN'T KILL A REVOLUTION; YOU CAN ONLY KILL A MAN!

"Shoot, you cowards! You can't kill a revolution. You're only going to kill a man!"
--Che Guevara, Bolivian revolutionary

The Daddy's new book, The Sixties? Yes, I Remember, was written in memory of Emmitt Till, the 14 year old black boy from Chicago, Illinois. While visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, Till allegedly whistled at a white woman in a grocery store. Later that evening, he was pulled out of his bed, beaten to death, and his body was thrown in the Tallahatchie River.

This act angered Americans, white and black, and galvanized the country. Many blacks who had refused to register to vote out of fear, now registered in droves. American had had enough.

IN MEMORY OF EMMITT TILL,
ANOTHER MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND
CUT DOWN MUCH TOO SOON

Black male, curious youth
Galvanizer of a movement to reclaim humanity
Sometimes, when I walk along the banks of the Mississippi
I hear your hands push above the water, makng waves still

I see your muscled black right arm
Jump out of water, soar above the fog
Clinch your right hands tightly and
Thrust it high into the sun
(But only for a second) then
Descend just as quickly back into the hole
From which you came, making waves still

Above the hole
I see the wind gather steam, spin in circles then
Skip across the water and circle the shore as if to say:

"I'll never let you forget."

CAN YOU SING THE BLUES? DO YOU OWN YOUR DUES?

2009-09-30T08:19:00.014-05:00

"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art." -- Charlie Parker

"Blues means what milk does to a baby. Blues is what the spirit is to the minister. We sing the blues because our hearts have been hurt, our souls have been disturbed." --Alberta Hunter

Listen up. In my younger days when I was hanging around college campuses entertaining the illusion I was really getting something out of studying economists like Milton Friedman and psychologists like
Freud and Horney, I spent a lot of time with music students. They were studying classical music at the University of Minnesota and other schools in and around the twin cities.

And I began to figure out a pattern: that whereas they could talk all evening about classical music, they knew next to nothing about blues and jazz, America's two great gifts to the rest of the world, in my opinion. So The Daddy got to asking questions about the lack of a jazz programs as a part of the musical schools around the city and why nobody talks about jazz, blues or gospel. Their basic answer was a shrug saying that's the way it has been for a long time or something to that effect.

So The Daddy went into a basement bar, had a few cold ones, and pondered all the lost opportunities for these music students to know some great American music and musicians. And he wrote this poem, Can you sing the blues? Do you own your dues?

Can you sing the blues?
Do you own your dues?
by Mac Walton

(1)

I've eyed you,
chubby-faced and knock-kneed
pulling up weeds in your back-yard
garden.

(2)

I've lauded you,
white dress rustling above
lily-white thighs, skipping through
a misty, white rain.

Then you felt no pain.

(3)

I’ve asked you,
bent fingers sliding across
Mozart, Paulenc and European
time.

(4)

A Shubert Sonata
could charm a snake, tis true.
But first and forever--
can you sing the blues?

Do you own your dues?

MICHAEL VICK AND THE BATTLE AGAINST DOGFIGHTING

2009-09-27T08:51:00.014-05:00

“Michael Vick admits that what he did to dogs was cruel and barbaric, but now that he has served his time, he wants to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. He has pledged to make a long-term commitment to participate in our community-based outreach programs to steer inner-city youth away from dogfighting. At events with Michael in Atlanta and Chicago, we’ve seen him deliver a powerful message against animal cruelty. Like so many other major American cities, Philadelphia has a serious dogfighting problem, and groups like the Pennsylvania SPCA have excellent programs to combat dogfighting locally. We have not had any discussions with the Philadelphia Eagles and the team did not consult animal welfare groups about its decision, but we look forward to working together to combat the dogfighting problem in Philadelphia and nationwide.“
--Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of The Humane Society

Listen up. Today is the day that former dogfighting sponsor but now Philadelphia Eagles quarterback is able to play professional football in two years. Yes, he did his two years. Yes, it was a good thing for the Eagles to work with NFL head Goodell to give Vick a second chance. Yes, he is working with the Humane Society and talking to young kids using himself as a cautionary tale against dogfighting. Yes, he seems sincere. Like his play on the field, whether any of his efforts will turn out to be effective is anybody's guess. But none of this is the point. The real point is that dogfighting continues to be a lucrative enterprise and a tragic scourge on this country; and it is especially popular among urban youth.

According to a recent New York Times editorial, the federal government has just busted up an eight-state 400 dogfighting ring. It said the participants included a teacher and a Little League coach. It estimates that there are 40,000 such rings that offer dogfighting for rich bettors.

But here are a couple of good things The Daddy sees happening as a result of Vick's crime and subsequent work against dogfighting:

*The federal government has used Vick's case to pick up its work against dogfighting. According to the New York Times, they've been able to tighten laws in 6 states. And arrests are up.

* Since participating dogfighting has become increasingly the thing to do for urban youth, the Humane Society's use of Vick as a cautionary tale against dogfighting makes a lot of sense. They say his speeches to youth around Philadelphia against dogfighting appears to be effective. They say he is working not only with the Humane Society but with influential leaders like Pennsylvania's Governor Rendell, the mayor of Philadelphia and the NAACP.

But the utilization of Vick must be matched with a committed law enforcement campaign to tighten laws against dogfighting throughout the country. Tightening laws in six states is just a drop in the bucket when dogfighting is occuring all over the country. The real deal is this: if law enforcement does not tighten the laws and increase arrests against the sponsors of dogfighting, then all Vick's talk to youth engaged in dogfighting will ultimately mean very little.

So The Daddy wishes Vick successful as an Philadelphia Eagle; and he hopes he continues to parlay that success into an ongoing, committed and successful effort in getting the youth to understand the bestiality of breeding dogs to fight only to kill them later, when they get injured.

Do you think Vick could be helpful in steering youth away from dogfighting?

DO YOU KNOW BAYARD RUSTIN? HE FOUGHT FOR YOU

2009-09-23T10:28:00.016-05:00

"When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dgnity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him."
--Bayard Rustin

"Bigotry's birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human beings."
--Bayard Rustin

From The Rebellious Sixties? Yes, I Remember:

A master strategist and tireless activist, you may be best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, on of the largest nonviolent protest ever held in the United States. You brought Gandhi's protest techniques to the American civil rights movement. You helped make Martin Luther King Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence.

Ok, Bayard. We know the deal.
You were not just a pacifist but
Dr. King's number one man during
The Montgomery bus boycott and the March on Washington.

And we know the rest: that
The same "leaders" of the people you got to the march
Turned their backs on you because you were openly gay.
Yes, you were principled.
But what a price to pay.

Have you heard of Bayard Rustin?
_________________________

Books & Articles about Bayard Rustin

Anderson, Jervis. Bayard Rustin: Troubles I’ve Seen. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1997.

Collins, Elliott. Bayard Rustin: A Civil Rights Biography. Ph.d dissertation, Program in American Studies, New York University, 2000.

D’Emilio, John. “Lost Prophet.” New York: The Free Press, 2003.

D’Emilio, John. “Homophobia and the Trajectory of Postwar American Radicalism: the Case of Bayard Rustin.” Radical History Review (1995) 62: 80-103.

D’Emilio, John. “Bayard Rustin, Civil Rights Strategist.” The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, Summer 1999.

Haskins, James. Bayard Rustin: Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 1997.

Levine, Daniel. Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2000.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG BY NINA SIMONE?

2009-09-20T13:28:00.007-05:00

"My skin is Black/ My arms are long/
My hair is wooly/
My back is strong/
Strong enough to take the pain/
Afflicted again and again/
What do they call me?"

Listen up. When The Daddy was doing research for his latest book, he learned that singer/social activist Nina Simone was very active in the civil rights movement. She did quite a few concerts and benefits on behalf of civil rights organizations. This is not to mention the numerous consciousness raising songs she wrote and performed that made African Americans feel so proud. In The Rebellious Sixties? Yes, I Remember, The Daddy wrote:

When you shouted "Mississippi Goddamn,"
When you caroled "To be young, gifted and black,"
You didn't sing songs, you sang anthems.

You put a spell on us.

What is your favorite song by Nina Simone?

AFGHANISTAN: WHERE EMPIRES GO TO DIE

2009-09-18T23:19:00.005-05:00

Listen up. The Daddy knows that listening to the news these days is depressing. He knows that reading about Afghanistan is probably the last thing you want to do. But we already have 68,000 of our brave soldiers there with General Patreus and other so-called experts wanting up to 100,000. This is not to mention the wasted financial resources that could be used to provide universal healthcare and jobs at home. The Daddy came across yet another fascinating piece on Afghanistan from Truthout. It's worth the read.

Afghanistan: Where Empires Go to Die Thursday 17 September 2009
by: Dahr Jamail

On September 7 the Swedish aid agency Swedish Committee for Afghanistan reported that the previous week US soldiers raided one of its hospitals. According to the director of the aid agency, Anders Fange, troops stormed through both the men's and women's wards, where they frantically searched for wounded Taliban fighters.

Soldiers demanded that hospital administrators inform the military of any incoming patients who might be insurgents, after which the military would then decide if said patients would be admitted or not. Fange called the incident "not only a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict, but also a clear breach of the civil-military agreement" between nongovernmental organizations and international forces.

Fange said that US troops broke down doors and tied up visitors and hospital staff.

Impeding operations at medical facilities in Afghanistan directly violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids attacks on emergency vehicles and the obstruction of medical operations during wartime.

Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a public affairs officer for the US Navy, confirmed the raid, and told The Associated Press, "Complaints like this are rare."

Despite Sidenstricker's claim that "complaints like this" are rare in Afghanistan, they are, in fact, common. Just as they are in Iraq, the other occupation. A desperate conventional military, when losing a guerilla war, tends to toss international law out the window. Yet even more so when the entire occupation itself is a violation of international law.

Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild and also a Truthout contributor, is very clear about the overall illegality of the invasion and ongoing occupation of Afghanistan by the United States.

"The UN Charter is a treaty ratified by the United States and thus part of US law," Cohn, who is also a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and recently co-authored the book "Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent" said, "Under the charter, a country can use armed force against another country only in self-defense or when the Security Council approves. Neither of those conditions was met before the United States invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban did not attack us on 9/11. Nineteen men - 15 from Saudi Arabia - did, and there was no imminent threat that Afghanistan would attack the US or another UN member country. The council did not authorize the United States or any other country to use military force against Afghanistan. The US war in Afghanistan is illegal."

Thus, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, along with the ongoing slaughter of Afghan civilians and raiding hospitals, are in violation of international law as well as the US Constitution.

And of course the same applies for Iraq.

Let us recall November 8, 2004, when the US military launched its siege of Fallujah. The first thing done by the US military was to invade and occupy Fallujah General Hospital. Then, too, like this recent incident in Afghanistan, doctors, patients and visitors alike had their hands tied and they were laid on the ground, oftentimes face down, and held at gunpoint.

During my first four trips to Iraq, I commonly encountered hospital staff who reported US military raids on their facilities. US soldiers regularly entered hospitals to search for wounded resistance fighters.

Doctors from Fallujah General Hospital, as well as others who worked in clinics throughout the city during both US sieges of Fallujah in 2004, reported that US Marines obstructed their services and that US snipers intentionally targeted their clinics and ambulances.

"The Marines have said they didn't close the hospital, but essentially they did," Dr. Abdulla, an orthopedic surgeon at Fallujah General Hospital who spoke on condition of using a different name, told Truthout in May 2004 of his experiences in the hospital. "They closed the bridge which connects us to the city [and] closed our road ... the area in front of our hospital was full of their soldiers and vehicles."

He added that this prevented countless patients who desperately needed medical care from receiving medical care. "Who knows how many of them died that we could have saved," said Dr. Abdulla. He also blamed the military for shooting at civilian ambulances, as well as shooting near the clinic at which he worked. "Some days we couldn't leave, or even go near the door because of the snipers," he said, "They were shooting at the front door of the clinic!"

Dr. Abdulla also said that US snipers shot and killed one of the ambulance drivers of the clinic where he worked during the fighting.

Dr. Ahmed, who also asked that only his first name be used because he feared US military reprisals, said, "The Americans shot out the lights in the front of our hospital. They prevented doctors from reaching the emergency unit at the hospital, and we quickly began to run out of supplies and much-needed medications." He also stated that several times Marines kept the physicians in the residence building, thereby intentionally prohibiting them from entering the hospital to treat patients.

"All the time they came in, searched rooms and wandered around," said Dr. Ahmed, while explaining how US troops often entered the hospital in order to search for resistance fighters. Both he and Dr. Abdulla said the US troops never offered any medicine or supplies to assist the hospital when they carried out their incursions. Describing a situation that has occurred in other hospitals, he added, "Most of our patients left the hospital because they were afraid."

Dr. Abdulla said that one of their ambulance drivers was shot and killed by US snipers while he was attempting to collect the wounded near another clinic inside the city.

"The major problem we found were the American snipers," said Dr. Rashid, who worked at another clinic in the Jumaria Quarter of Falluja. "We saw them on top of the buildings near the mayor's office."

Dr. Rashid told of another incident in which a US sniper shot an ambulance driver in the leg. The ambulance driver survived, but a man who came to his rescue was shot by a US sniper and died on the operating table after Dr. Rashid and others had worked to save him. "He was a volunteer working on the ambulance to help collect the wounded," Dr. Rashid said sadly.

During Truthout's visit to the hospital in May 2004, two ambulances in the parking lot sat with bullet holes in their windshields, while others had bullet holes in their back doors and sides.

"I remember once we sent an ambulance to evacuate a family that was bombed by an aircraft," said Dr. Abdulla while continuing to speak about the US snipers, "The ambulance was sniped - one of the family died, and three were injured by the firing."

Neither Dr. Abdulla nor Dr. Rashid said they knew of any medical aid being provided to their hospital or clinics by the US military. On this topic, Dr. Rashid said flatly, "They send only bombs, not medicine."

Chuwader General Hospital in Sadr City also reported similar findings to Truthout, as did other hospitals throughout Baghdad.

Dr. Abdul Ali, the ex-chief surgeon at Al-Noman Hospital, admitted that US soldiers had come to the hospital asking for information about resistance fighters. To this he said, "My policy is not to give my patients to the Americans. I deny information for the sake of the patient."

During an interview in April 2004, he admitted this intrusion occurred fairly regularly and interfered with patients receiving medical treatment. He noted, "Ten days ago this happened - this occurred after people began to come in from Fallujah, even though most of them were children, women and elderly."

A doctor at Al-Kerkh Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, shared a similar experience of the problem that appears to be rampant throughout much of the country: "We hear of Americans removing wounded Iraqis from hospitals. They are always coming here and asking us if we have injured fighters."

Speaking about the US military raid of the hospital in Afghanistan, UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said he was not aware of the details of the particular incident, but that international law requires the military to avoid operations in medical facilities.

"The rules are that medical facilities are not combat areas. It's unacceptable for a medical facility to become an area of active combat operations," he said. "The only exception to that under the Geneva Conventions is if a risk is being posed to people."

"There is the Hippocratic oath," Fange added, "If anyone is wounded, sick or in need of treatment ... if they are a human being, then they are received and treated as they should be by international law."

These are all indications of a US Empire in decline. Another recent sign of US desperation in Afghanistan was the bombing of two fuel tanker trucks that the Taliban had captured from NATO. US warplanes bombed the vehicles, from which impoverished local villagers were taking free gas, incinerating as many as 150 civilians, according to reports from villagers.

The United States Empire is following a long line of empires and conquerors that have met their end in Afghanistan. The Median and Persian Empires, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, Turks, Mongols, British and Soviets all met the end of their ambitions in Afghanistan.

And today, the US Empire is on the fast track of its demise. A recent article by Tom Englehardt provides us more key indicators of this:

In 2002 there were 5,200 US soldiers in Afghanistan. By December of this year, there will be 68,000.
Compared to the same period in 2008, Taliban attacks on coalition forces using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) has risen 114 percent.
Compared to the same period in 2008, coalition deaths from IED attacks have increased sixfold.
Overall Taliban attacks on coalition forces in the first five months of 2009, compared to the same period last year, have increased 59 percent.

Genghis Khan could not hold onto Afghanistan.

Neither will the United States, particularly when in its desperation to continue its illegal occupation, it tosses aside international law, along with its own Constitution.

WHERE MEN WIN GLORY: A NEW BOOK ABOUT PAT TILLMAN

2009-09-17T10:37:00.013-05:00

Listen up. The Daddy has spoken of Pat Tillman many times as a genuine hero. This is a guy who left professional football and a big financial contract to fight for his country. He was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. The great essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke of the mindset of such men as Tillman,

"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think....you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

In Where Men Win Glory, journalist Jon Krakauer tells about the circumstances around his death and the Bush administration's attempt to coverup of the entire thing. Alternet's reporter Sarah Seltzer wrote about it. Check it out:

Inside Pat Tillman life, and the Bush Administration's coverup of his death by Sarah Seltzer

Journalist Jon Krakauer is obsessed with people who make unfathomable choices, from a young man wandering in the wilderness in Into the Wild to climbers attempting Everest in Into Thin Air to polygamists hearing a call to violence in Under the Banner of Heaven. The subject of Krakauer's new book Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman is one of these. As we all know, Pat Tillman left the NFL in 2002 to enlist in the army, inspired to do his part in the service of a president he distrusted and later, a war he doubted. When Tillman was killed by friendly fire, the army and government engaged in a cover-up to turn him into a martyred hero. In this book, Krakauer exposes each step of the deception with persistent detail.

If Where Men Win Glory is less immediately gripping, less fluid and tense, than Krakauer's previous books, this is partly because the story he's telling is known, and painful. But the theme of our government's failure colliding with a young man's sense of duty has a relevance and moral immediacy that's hard to shake off.

Ultimately, Where Men Win Glory leaves you, as does Into the Wild, with a sense of futility and anger over the death of a young man that you knew was coming all along. While Krakauer levels his most scathing insults at the Bush administration and portrays the army chain of command as a bureaucratic, cover-your-ass nightmare, in this book the fog of war is the real culprit. As Krakauer told the Wall Street Journal, "There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It's mostly about random pointless death and misery. And that's what [Tillman's] death tells us. It reminds me that the good aren't rewarded, there's no such thing as karma." War, Krakauer writes, creates a climate that leads panicked men to gun down their brothers in cold blood at a staggeringly high rate in all recorded conflicts, and a climate that obscures mistakes and misdeeds (as is the case not just with friendly fire, but with crimes like sexual assault and the death of LaVena Johnson. It's a climate that leads commanders to make decisions from behind desks (as happened on the day Tillman died) that those on the ground deem unsafe but are powerless to disobey.

Krakauer begins with an account of that day. It begins with Tillman's lieutenant, David Uthlaut, begging his superiors not to split up his unit or have them travel in the daytime--both huge risks--but being denied both requests in order to conform to a pre-ordained timetable. Timetables, Krakauer notes disdainfully, were a particular obsession of Donald Rumsfields', enabling him to check off boxes on his war on terror.

After the first chapter, Where Men Win Glory backtracks, alternating the story of Tillman's early life and NFL career with the history of Afghanistan and the conflicts it has endured, creating a sense of dread as readers know what will happen when the two threads converge. Tillman's personality, enigmatic though it was, becomes clearer here: a young man who struggled to channel his existential angst and occasional aggression into constant self-improvement, who was never content being comfortable and continually pushed himself, running marathons and triathlons in the football off-season, taking death-defying cliff-dives, reading and discussing philosophy over drinks, and writing diary entries after bad football games exhorting himself to do better. Consumed with notions of honor, risk and service, this larger-than-life man was also a family rock and a devoted husband to his young wife Marie, the bright-burning center of an extremely close-knit group of friends and relatives. Even the picture of Tillman on the book's back jacket--long haired, intense with a slightly mischievous look in his eyes--is worth a look, so different is it from the military portrait of Tillman used by the press.

At the same time as he illuminates this character, Krakauer sets the political stage for Tillman's death and its cover-up, describing the brutal Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the role of the CIA and the mujahideen, the forming and re-forming alliances that led to the Taliban giving Osama Bin Laden safe haven. On our side, he mentions the disastrous Florida recount, getting in a jab at Scalia and Bush v. Gore, urgent memos about Bin Laden ignored by the Bush administration, and the "selling" and spinning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many readers will be aware of this history, but juxtaposing it with a life that will be ended by its trajectory creates a fresh sense of urgency and disbelief.

Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the book is its extensive excerpting from Tillman's diaries, granted to Krakauer by his widow Marie, and stories about his time deployed overseas, where he read The Odyssey and "Self-Reliance," and was shocked by the youth and immaturity of his co-enlistees. Tillman expresses his doubt about the Iraq War from its onset: "It may be very soon that Nub [his brother Kevin] & I will be called upon to take part in something I see no clear purpose for... I believe we have little or no justification other than our imperial whim," he wrote. On another occasion, he calls Bush a "cowboy."

To read the rest of the story, click here.

JIMMIE CARTER: THE HOSTILITY AGAINST PRESIDENT OBAMA IS ABOUT RACISM

2009-09-16T07:27:00.013-05:00

Listen up. Want to hear the truth about what's really behind the hostility against President Obama? The character in one of Jack Nicholson's movie shouted "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" Can you?

Can you accept the fact that much, if not most, of the birthers and 9-12 marchers' attempt to de-legitimize President Obama is because they either cannot or will not accept a black man as the president of the United States?

Why not? Because deep down in their unconscious sits the notion that a black man is not a former top student and editor of their law review. He is not a teacher of constitutional law at the University of Chicago for over a decade. He is not a man "of the people" who served admirably in the Illinois senate. No, he is a no-working criminal, an overactive sexual being helping the black woman, another overactive sexual being and veritable sex factory, pump babies out of projects like water out of a faucet...He is a walking phallic symbol lying in wait like a tiger in high grass to prey on his loyal wife or-- heaven forbid!-- deflower their lily-white precious daughter.

This racist white notion resides in not all but many white Americans; and, though Obama's ascendency to the presidency may have helped a few of them to begin to see the black man as more than other, it has yet to do much to change the deeply-held racist feelings of most of them. Though careful with this words, President Carter said as much.

President Carter: Remember him? He's the one who, while president, said he occassionally "lusted in his heart" after women. And we laughed at him, didn't we?

He's the one who told us that we need to begin a comprehensive program to conserve energy so as to become less dependent on foreign oil, which is giving out anyway. We called the peanut farmer negative, didn't we?

He's the one who went to Israel, came back and wrote a book about the Israeli government's oppressive and maltreatment of the Palestinians, arguing that there will never be peace in the Middle East until we straighten that situation out. The American Jewish lobby and our mainstream media (the ones who even had the guts to report on it) raked him over the coals, didn't they? But we know now that, after more than 20 years out of office, after years years of building houses, feeding people, protecting people from dieseases like malaria and fairly judging elections all over the world, President Carter is a religious man who speaks truth, a man of integrity, a kind of quiet sense of digniy, a man who is not afraid to say what needs to be said, regardless of the costs.

President Obama and racism

Now, President Carter speaks truth again, saying much of the hostility against Presdent Obama is about racism:

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man. I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that share the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans."
And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply."

Are you ready to take him seriously and listen now? Can you handle the truth?

AFGHANISTAN: WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING?

2009-09-15T10:00:00.009-05:00

"It's almost as if there is something about that hard-edged Central Asian country that deranges its occupiers." --Conn Hallinan

Listen up. The Daddy is still trying to make sense of why we are in Afghanistan, putting our brave but poorly civilian-led soldiers at increased risk and waisting resources that can never be returned. A brotha just came across a very interesting article at "Foreign Policy Focus," and written by Conn Hallinan, a columnist at the Institute for Policy Studies (Iwww.ips-dc.org). It provides some clues about the thinking behind Obama's top advisors. Check it out:

Afghanistan: What are these people thinking?

One of the oddest -- indeed, surreal -- encounters around the war in Afghanistan has to be a telephone call this past July 27. On one end of the line was historian Stanley Karnow, author of Vietnam: A History. On the other, State Department special envoy Richard Holbrooke and the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal. The question: How can Washington avoid the kind of defeat it suffered in Southeast Asia 40 years ago?

Karnow did not divulge what he said to the two men, but he told Associated Press that the "lesson" of Vietnam "was that we shouldn't have been there," and that, while "Obama and everybody else seems to want to be in Afghanistan," he, Karnow, was opposed to the war.

It is hardly surprising that Washington should see parallels to the Vietnam debacle. The enemy is elusive enemy. The local population is neutral, if not hostile. And the governing regime is corrupt with virtually no support outside of the nation's capital.

But in many ways Afghanistan is worse than Vietnam. So, it is increasingly hard to fathom why a seemingly intelligent American administration seems determined to hitch itself to this disaster in the making. It is almost as if there is something about that hard-edged Central Asian country that deranges its occupiers.

Delusion #1

In his address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Obama characterized Afghanistan as "a war of necessity" against international terrorism. But the reality is that the Taliban is a polyglot collection of conflicting political currents whose goals are local, not universal jihad.

"The insurgency is far from monolithic," says Anand Gopal, a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor based in Afghanistan. "There are shadowy, kohl-eyed mullahs and head-bobbing religious students, of course, but there are also erudite university students, poor illiterate farmers, and veteran anti-Soviet commanders. The movement is a mélange of nationalists, Islamists, and bandits...made up of competing commanders and differing ideologies and strategies who nonetheless agree on one essential goal: kicking out the foreigners."

Taliban spokesman Yousef Ahmadi told Gopal, "We are fighting to free our country from foreign domination," adding, "Even the Americans once waged an insurgency to free their country."

Besides the Taliban, there are at least two other insurgent groups. Hizb-I-Islam is led by former U.S. ally Gulbuddin Hekmatyer. The Haqqani group, meanwhile, has close ties to al-Qaeda.

The White House's rationale of "international terrorism" parallels the Southeast Asian tragedy. The U.S. characterized Vietnam as part of an international Communist conspiracy, while the conflict was essentially a homegrown war of national liberation.

Delusion #2

One casualty of Vietnam was the doctrine of counterinsurgency, the theory that an asymmetrical war against guerrillas can be won by capturing the "hearts and minds" of the people. Of course "hearts and minds" was a pipe dream, obliterated by massive civilian casualties, the widespread use of defoliants, and the creation of "strategic hamlets" that had more in common with concentration camps than villages.

In Vietnam's aftermath, "counterinsurgency" fell out of favor, to be replaced by the "Powell Doctrine" of relying on massive firepower to win wars. With that strategy the United States crushed the Iraqi army in the first Gulf War. Even though the doctrine was downsized for the invasion of Iraq a decade later, it was still at the heart of the attack.

However, within weeks of taking Baghdad, U.S. soldiers were besieged by an insurgency that wasn't in the lesson plan. Ambushes and roadside bombs took a steady toll on U.S. and British troops, and aggressive countermeasures predictably turned the population against the occupation.

After four years of getting hammered by insurgents, the Pentagon rediscovered counterinsurgency, and its prophet was General David Petraeus, now commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia. "Hearts and minds" was dusted off, and the watchwords became "clear, hold, and build." Troops were to hang out with the locals, dig wells, construct schools, and measure success not by body counts of the enemy, but by the "security" of the civilian population.

This theory impelled the Obama administration to "surge" 21,000 troops into Afghanistan, and to consider adding another 20,000 in the near future. The idea is that a surge will reduce the violence, as a similar surge of 30,000 troops had done in Iraq.

For the rest of the story, click here:

WE'RE HEADED FOR ANOTHER VIETNAM IN AFGHANISTAN

2009-09-12T11:41:00.016-05:00

Listen up. Talk to three different people, and they'll give you three different reasons as to why we're in Afghanistan: to deny a haven to Al Queda; or to build a political structure so the people will no longer need to support themselves by opium and have its own democratic and government institutions; or to defend the human rights and honor of women.

First, Al Queda is already free to move around in many countries, especially between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It can readily use different roads to slip in and out of Afghanistan at will.

Second, the people of Afghanistan already have their own unique political structure via its tribal system and see no need for another.

Third, if concern for women is our chief reason for being there, why are we not in Darfur where our own governmental officials and emissaries (including General Colin Powell), have already admitted the government is practicing genocide and is using the daily rape of women as a weapon?

The real deal

What we Americans don't want to concede is that our war in Afghanistan is turning into another Vietnam at the same time that the situation in Pakistan is becoming more critical. We're steadily increasing the number of American troops and becoming bogged down in a land far away from home. Increasingly, we're occupying a land of a people whom we don't know and who don't want us there. Like Vietnam, not only do we not know its people; we don't know their language or even how to pronounce their names. Like Vietnam, we not only don't know the terrain; the terrain itself (in this case, the mountainous terrain) is so difficult to negotiate that our enemy can utilize it to hold off our troops indefinitely.

Some real journalism

Ready to cut through the CNN/MSNBC nonsense and get to some real journalism?

Robert Sheer, a superb, independent journalist, wrote an excellent story about our war there for a progressive online magazine called Truthdig. Now, The Daddy knows this is not the most exciting subject to read on a weekend, but given the fact that Americans are dying there in increasingly higher numbers, don't you think the read is worth it?

Here's the article:

Obama's Quagmire Looks a Lot like Vietnam

By Robert Scheer, Truthdig. Posted September 11, 2009.

The way he's headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency.

True, he doesn't seem a bit like Lyndon Johnson, but the way he's headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency. LBJ also had a progressive agenda in mind, beginning with his war on poverty, but it was soon overwhelmed by the cost and divisiveness engendered by a meaningless, and seemingly endless, war in Vietnam.

Meaningless is the right term for the Afghanistan war, too, because our bloody attempt to conquer this foreign land has nothing to do with its stated purpose of enhancing our national security. Just as the government of Vietnam was never a puppet of communist China or the Soviet Union, the Taliban is not a surrogate for al Qaeda. Involved in both instances was an American intrusion into a civil war whose passions and parameters we never fully have grasped and will always fail to control militarily.

The Vietnamese communists were not an extension of an inevitably hostile, unified international communist enemy, as evidenced by the fact that communist Vietnam and communist China are both our close trading partners today. Nor should the Taliban be considered simply an extension of a Mideast-based al Qaeda movement, whose operatives the United States recruited in the first place to go to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets.

Those recruits included Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9-11 attack, and financier Osama bin Laden, who met in Afghanistan as part of a force that Ronald Reagan glorified as "freedom fighters." As blowback from that bizarre, mismanaged CIA intervention, the Taliban came to power and formed a temporary alliance with the better-financed foreign Arab fighters still on the scene.

There is no serious evidence that the Taliban instigated the 9-11 attacks or even knew about them in advance. Taliban members were not agents of al Qaeda; on the contrary, the only three governments that financed and diplomatically recognized the Taliban - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan - all were targets of bin Laden's group.

To insist that the Taliban be vanquished militarily as a prerequisite for thwarting al Qaeda is a denial of the international fluidity of that terrorist movement. Al Qaeda, according to U.S. intelligence sources, has operated effectively in countries as disparate as Somalia, Indonesia, England and Pakistan, to name just a few. What is required to stymie such a movement is effective police and intelligence work, as opposed to deploying vast conventional military forces in the hope of finding, or creating, a conventional war to win. This last wan hope is what the effort in Afghanistan - in the last two months at its most costly point in terms of American deaths - is all about: marshaling enormous firepower to fight shadows.

The Taliban is a traditional guerrilla force that can easily elude conventional armies. Once again the generals on the ground are insisting that a desperate situation can be turned around if only more troops are committed, as Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal did in a report leaked this week. Even with U.S. forces being increased to 68,000 as part of an 110,000-strong allied army, the general states, "The situation in Afghanistan is serious." In the same sentence, however, he goes on to say that "success is achievable."

Fortunately, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is given to some somber doubts on this point, arguing that the size of the U.S. force breeds its own discontents: "I have expressed some concerns in the past about the size of the American footprint, the size of the foreign military footprint in Afghanistan," he said. "And, clearly, I want to address those issues. And we will have to look at the availability of forces, we'll have to look at costs."

I write the word fortunately because just such wisdom on the part of Robert McNamara, another defense secretary, during the buildup to Vietnam would have led him to oppose rather than abet what he ruefully admitted decades after the fact was a disastrous waste of life and treasure: 59,000 Americans dead, along with 3.4 million Indochinese, mostly innocent civilians.

I was reporting from Vietnam when that buildup began, and then as now there was an optimism not supported by the facts on the ground. Then as now there were references to elections and supporting local politicians to win the hearts and minds of people we were bombing. Then as now the local leaders on our side turned out to be hopelessly corrupt, a condition easily exploited by those we term the enemy.

Those who favor an escalation of the Afghanistan war ought to own up to its likely costs. If 110,000 troops have failed, will we need the half million committed at one point to Vietnam, which had a far less intractable terrain? And can you have that increase in forces without reinstituting the draft?

It is time for Democrats to remember that it was their party that brought America its most disastrous overseas adventure and to act forthrightly to pull their chosen president back from the abyss before it is too late.

This article originally appeared on TruthDig.

911

2009-09-11T07:32:00.007-05:00

May they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength. - Judges 5:31

Timeline of Hijacking

7:58 a.m. - United Airlines Flight 175 departs Boston for Los Angeles, carrying 56 passengers, two pilots, and seven flight attendants. The Boeing 767 is hijacked after takeoff and diverted to New York.

7:59 a.m. - American Airlines Flight 11 departs Boston for Los Angeles, carrying 81 passengers, two pilots, and nine flight attendants. This Boeing 767 is also hijacked and diverted to New York.

8:01 a.m. - United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 carrying 38 passengers, two pilots, and five flight attendants, leaves Newark, N.J., for San Francisco.

8:10 a.m. - American Airlines Flight 77 departs Washington's Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles, carrying 58 passengers, two pilots, and four flight attendants. The Boeing 757 is hijacked after takeoff.

8:46 a.m. - American Flight 11 from Boston crashes into the North Tower at the World Trade Center.

9:03 a.m. - United Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the South Tower at the World Trade Center. - U.S. Federal Aviation Administration shuts down all New York area airports.

9:21 a.m. - Bridges and tunnels leading into New York City are closed.

9:25 a.m. - All domestic flights are grounded by U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

9:45 a.m. - American Flight 77 crashes into The Pentagon.

10:05 a.m. - The South Tower at the World Trade Center collapses.

10:05 a.m. - The White House is evacuated.

10:10 a.m. - A large section of one side of The Pentagon collapses.

10:10 a.m. - United Flight 93 crashes in a wooded area in Pennsylvania, after passengers confront hijackers.

10:28 a.m. - The North Tower at the World Trade Center collapses.

A GREAT POET WAS BORN ON THIS DAY, GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON

2009-09-10T03:03:00.014-05:00

"The heart of a woman falls back with the night,
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars,
While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars."
--Georgia Douglas Johnson

Listen up. September 10 is the date that poet and producer Georgia Douglas Johnson. Daughter of a wealthy Englishman, Johnson was born in Marietta, GA. She attended Atlanta University, studied music at Oberlin college in Ohio.

In 1903, Douglas, her husband-- Henry Johnson-- and two sons moved to Washington D.C. where her home became the site of a weekly gathering of young black writers and artists. It became known as the "S Street Salon," a place for writers came to showcase their new work. These young and ambitious authors included Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, MaryP. Burrill, and Angelina Weld Grimke among others.

Despite working full time, Johnson remained involved with produced literary works, maintained a column for more than 20 weekly newspapers, edited books, wrote 40 plays and more than 39 songs. And she continued to write very good poetry. As a writer, she was perhaps best know for her poem, "I Want to Die While You Love Me," which was read at her funeral. She died in May of 1966.
*******************************************************

I want to die while you love me

I want to die while you love me,
While yet you hold me fair,
While laughter lies upon my lips
And lights are in my hair.
I want to die while you love me,
And bear to that still bed
Your kisses turbulent, unspent,
To warm me when I'm dead.
I want to die while you love me
Oh, who would care to live
Till love has nothing more to ask
And nothing more to give!
I want to die while you love me
And never, never see
The glory of this perfect day
Grow dim or cease to be.: Georgia Douglas Johnson

FREDDIE KING, A BLUES MASTER, PART I &II

2009-09-08T13:37:00.008-05:00

Listen up. The Daddy was so focused on getting his book published that he forgot to mention that September 3rd is the birthday of Freddie King, one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time.The Daddy wrote a piece on him before. Check it out.

Freddie King, a Blues Master, Part I

The Daddy is thinking about Freddie King today: how he was influenced by Texas guitarists like T Bone Walker and Lightning Hopkins, about his influence on top guitarists in Chicago like Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Magic Sam, and, later, on guitarists in Europe like Jeff Beck, Keith Richards and Eric Clapton, and how, ironically, he never lost influence with black audience, providing a connection between blues and R&B. In part I, the daddy will provide a brief biography of King.

In Part II, he will make some points about the blues master that perhaps you didn’t know. Here’s a brief biography of King.

Biography

King was born Frederick Christian in Gilmer, Texas on September 3, 1934. His mother was Ella May King, his father J.T Christian. His mother and her brother, who both played the guitar, began teaching Freddie to play at the age of six. He liked and imitated the music of Lightnin Sam Hopkins and saxophonist Louis Jordan.

He moved with his family from Texas to the Southside of Chicago in 1950. There, at age 16 he used to sneak in to local clubs, where he heard blues music performed by the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, T-Bone Walker, Elmore James, and Sonny Boy Williamson. Howlin Wolf took him under his wing (or paw), and Freddie also began jamming with Muddy Waters’ sidemen, who included Eddie Taylor, Jimmy Rogers, Robert Lockwood Jr. and Little Walter.

By 1952 he had married a Texas girl, Jessie Burnett. He gigged at night and worked days in a steel mill. He got occasional work as a sideman on recording sessions. Two bands that he played with during this period were the Sonny Cooper Band, and Early Payton’s Blues Cats. He formed the first band of his own, the Every Hour Blues Boys, with guitarist Jimmy Lee Robinson and drummer Sonny Scott.

In 1953 he made some recordings for Parrot. In 1956 he recorded “Country Boy”, a duet with Margaret Whitfield, and “That’s What You Think”, an uptempo blues. This was for a local label, El-Bee. Robert Lockwood Jr. appeared as a sideman on guitar.

In 1959 he met Sonny Thompson, a pianist who worked for the King/Federal label. In 1960, he himself signed with that label; while there he often shared songwriting credits, and participated in marathon recording sessions, with Thompson. On August 26, 1960, he recorded “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” and “Hide Away”, which were to become to of his most popular tunes. His debut release for the label was “You’ve Got To Love Her with Feeling”. His second release on King/Federal was “I Love the Woman”. “Hide Away” was used as the B side for this disk; that tune, a 12-bar mid-tempo shuffle in E with an infectious theme in the head section, and a memorable stop-time break that featured some robust-sounding work on the bass strings, was destined to become one of his signature numbers. It was an adaptation of a tune by Hound Dog Taylor. It was named “Hide Away” after a popular bar in Chicago. Strictly an instrumental — guitar with rhythm section — it delighted everyone by crossing over and reaching #29 on the pop chart. It was later covered by Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey, and likely a majority of the bar blues bands on Planet Earth.

After the success of “Hide Away”, the label, which was presided over by one Syd Nathan, got Freddie and Sonny Thompson to work on making more instrumentals. This they did, producing over 30 of them during the next five years. The following is a partial list: “The Stumble,” “Low Tide,” “Wash Out,” “Sidetracked”, “San-Ho-Zay,” “Heads Up,” “Onion Rings,” and “The Sad Nite Owl”. Freddie became popular with a young white audience, and his playing was a major influence on the upcoming breed of rock guitarists. During this period he was touring frequently along with the big R&B acts of the day such as Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, James Brown. His band included his brother Benny Turner on bass; and Tyrone Davis, who would later become known in his own right, was the driver and valet.

On the personal side, Freddie was fond, perhaps overly fond, of the night life. His official website refers to him “Gambling til dawn in the backroom of Mike’s cleaners.” His wife, now with six children, decided to move back to Texas. Once there, she called Syd Nathan and demanded that he send her some of the royalty money due to her husband. To his credit, he sent her two thousand dollars, with which she made the down payment on a house. Realizing that the family was definitely not coming back to Chicago, Freddie, in the spring of 1963, moved back to Texas.

To read the full biography, see last.fm

Freddie King, Blues Master, Part II

"Freddie King was one of the kingpins of modern blues guitar. Along with Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, and Magic Sam, King spearheaded Chicago's modern blues movement in the early '60s and helped set the stage for the blues-rock boom of the late '60s. His influence helped preserve a legacy characterized by searing, aggressive guitar solos and the welding of blues and rock into one cohesive sound. "
--All About Jazz
“The lord sure enough put you here to play the blues.”
--Howlin Wolf to Freddie King

As mentioned in the biography, Freddie King was born in Gilmer, Texas, on September 3, 1934. Although he learned quite a bit from his mother and others who played guitar in the area like fellow Texan Lighning Hopkins, he matured as a guitarist in Chicago. In 1949, he moved to Chicago. At the age of 16, he began sneaking into clubs and hanging out with musicians. Soon, he was hanging out and jamming with the likes of Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James and others.

Howlin Wolf took him under his wings and taught him how to survive on the streets of Chicago. Between Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters and his sidemen (Eddie Taylor, Little Walter, Robert Lockwood Jr.) King found a protective inner circle. This inner circle helped him to mature not only as a musician but to make the transition from the rural South to a Northern metropolis.

Not long after that, he was working as a sidemen for different groups that recorded at Chess Records under the direction of Willie Dixon. He recorded a few songs for Parrot and then moved on to Federal, Cotillion, Shelter and other labels.

King’s approach

Unlike B.B. King’s single note playing with a flat pick, King employed a more “down home” approach, using his thumb and fingers. According to his official website, it was Eddie Taylor who taught Freddie King how to play using a metal index finger pick and a plastic thumb pick, as opposed to a regular flat pick. It was a Texas style of playing that would influence players across the Ocean like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck.

Lightning Red, another Texan and guitarist, further explained King’s guitar approach:

"If you listen to just about any contemporary blues guitarist (including myself), you'll hear a lot of Freddie King. Listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Pride And Joy" when it first goes to the fifth chord turnaround. That descending G-E-D-B-A-G-E, etc. run is classic Freddie King. As well as are countless vibrato moves throughout his music. Eric Clapton cites Freddie King as a primary influence. This Texas legend is probably responsible for Mr. Clapton's perfection of the slowhand technique in which the vibrato sound is accomplished by moving the string across the fret board in an easy flow.

In my opinion, Freddie was one of the first blues players to really feel the funk, to put a lot of syncopation into his artistry. He was a major influence on just about every second generation blues guitarist, and I highly recommend you sit down with a complete collection of his music and go to work. Because his 335 did not have a stop-tailpiece as did B.B.'s, Freddie used longer and/or a fairly heavy gauge of strings which contributed to his slowhand vibrato technique."

Changing music

King seemed to always be popular on the chitlin circuit (black community), but some say labels went to ridiculous levels to market him to whites. One label had him doing a surfing album. Some critics say labels went too far in marketing King to young white audiences as well. Others say these more rock-tinged recordings with pianist Leon Russell and, later, Clapton on his RSO label was more or less a reflection of the music business at that time. They say blacks were turning away from blues and toward R&B. They say Freddie King knew what white listeners wanted and he turned up the volume on his amp and guitar to give it to them. Regardless, most agree that his recordings for the Cotillion label in 1968 ("My feeling for the blues" and "Freddie King is a blues master") were two of his best.

The blues master lives on

After more than 30 years, Freddie King is still remembered fondly. In 1993, Texas governor Anne Richards declared September 3 as Freddie King Day. A few of his best songs can seen on YouTube. And the Freddie King Blues Fest continues to be held every year in Dallas. Clearly, Texas still loves one of her favorite sons.