Where am I in or Portland or some other cold, wet city?

This must be some kind of cosmic joke. We have 1 or two days of actual spring, almost summer weather and then the temp drops like 70 degrees and you feel like you’re in a refrigerator. So you wonder about the signs all around you. And you ask did you move somewhere in the middle of the night. Have you suddenly been transported somewhere you don’t belong. You ask your friends if they have seen anything funny lately? Are the numbers 503, 541, 971, and 458 going through your head? Because those are the area codes for Portland, Oregon.

Are you feeling cold and wet for no good reason at all? When the sun shines, do you find yourself thinking, there’s something wrong here. It’s because you moved to Portland. There is some kind of Portland Oregon disease sweeping America where we are all becoming cold and wet. Save yourselves, those of you who can. This may be one of the last blog entries you receive from me as all the Portlandness overwhelms me. Farewell, Milwaukee.

 

One of the 44%

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has published a front page story about the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Center for Development about the disappearance from the job market of African American men. Over the past 40 years employment levels for men 16 to 64, a group which includes me, have fallen from 73% to just barely 44%.  At the same time, incarceration rates have risen dramatically. Even for men not incarcerated, it’s not uncommon to find they are paying off tickets for disorderly conduct or other offenses.  At the same time, they we are leaving the job scene, we are actually becoming less employable.

According to the UWM study, the bottom 5 cities for black male employment were

1. Chicago 48.3%
2. Cleveland 47.7%
3. Milwaukee44.7%
4. Buffalo 43.9%
5. Detroit43.0%

The top 5 were

1. Washington 66.6%
2. Dallas 61.%
3. Boston 59.7%
4. Minneapolis 59.3%
5. Atlanta 59.0%

You will notice that those top levels of employment are nowhere near the peak level from 40 years ago.  Further, the declines in employment levels covered white, Hispanic and black men. It is a trend that mirrored the de-industrialization of northern cities.  As our jobs fled south and later to China (that giant sucking sound Ross Perot  warned  us about) we have been left with lower paid positions in the service industry.

The factory jobs that remain are largely performed by robots that do all the manual labor that our parents used to do. It’s called getting more out of workers or some fancy term like “productivity.”

As an African-American male I find this situation troubling. When I left Buffalo in 1980 it was already in decline. Although things looked better in my new home of Milwaukee, it, too was on the way down. Despite two college degrees I found it difficult to develop and sustain a satisfactory career.  In recent years I have created a new career, as a peer specialist and for the first time my income and hours worked began to rise. I guess I should feel grateful but I worry about the long term implications of the UWM study.

My nephew John has started a family in Buffalo. Will he fall victim, too? Is America prepared to ignore the skills of millions men who play by the rules and strive for a piece of the dream? Are we going to recapture those jobs that fled our shores? Can a man who creates jobs in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland understand the plight of American workers? I don’t think so, Mitt! Can a man who labelled Barack Obama “the food stamp president” identify with the issues facing low income workers? No way, Newt. Will the former publisher of racist newsletters give a damn whether black men and women drown in this economy?

Barack Obama’s future is tied to our success. We may not return to the employment levels of the 1970s overnight but that’s the only way we can create an America that is born to succeed.

Related articles

• A Shortage of Eligible Black Men (theroot.com)
• State of the Union: Proposals may do little to reduce black unemployment (thegrio.com)

Seriously, You’re the CEO and You Don’t Know Where That Billion Dollars Went?

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Standup comic Jon S. Corzine, former CEO of MF Global testified yesterday before a House Committee investigating the scandal surrounding the collapse of the company which declared bankruptcy and announced that over $1 billion in customer accounts was missing. Corzine’s testimony wold have you believe that he had no idea where any  of that money went and had no access to documents that could tell him where to find it.http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/corzines-testimony-came-with-plenty-of-caveats/ http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2011/12/08/n_mf_global_corzine_testimony.cnnmoney/ and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/jon-corzine-testimony_n_1138633.html

Corzine apologized but tiptoed and did the lowest limbo in American history to evade taking responsibility along with his millionaire friends for replacing the stolen loot. I believe that the former offices of MF Global (What a perfect name) should be cordoned off and investigated as a crime scene. Prosecutors should be empowered to investigate  any and all leads to uncover the nature of this fraud. They should have the subpena power and other means available to freeze assets, obtain documents and seek indictments.

The criminals behind this billion dollar fraud need to be serving prison time alongside Bernie Madoff while teaching literacy classes to uneducated criminals. There needs to be a new beginning to demonstrate that being soft on crime means ignoring the multimillionaire criminals and that era has passed. Otherwise, the next Corzine will tell us about tens of billions being lost without anyone being held responsible. As Vice President Biden would say, “this is a big fucking deal.”

Related articles

• Sorting through the MF Global debacle (money.cnn.com)
• Jon Corzine’s “Nien, Nien, Nien” Strategy (forbes.com)
• Corzine: No, I really didn’t know about customer-fund transfers (hotair.com)
• Guest Post: Jon Corzine, MF Global, And Unaccountability (zerohedge.com)

The Fire This Time

Cover of The Fire Next Time (HRW Library)

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

The title of this message refers to James Baldwin’s series of essays published under the title The Fire Next Time. Indeed it is time to stop waiting for someone else to bring the matches and show that we really mean business. I disappeared from Facebook for several weeks recently anticipating many moves on the increasingly intrusive site that I did not like. At the same time I sought out new people on Google Plus. Unfortunately, for different reasons, I began neglecting my blog.

I received messages from Facebook friends asking me where I had gone and asking me to return. I had ideas that had been percolating in my brain about what I wanted to say. And I wanted to pass along to the people who were reading me blogs that I agreed with from other writers. So this blog is the result of my thought process.

Especially as the election process continues to drain our brains we must respond as activists, families, neighbors and consumers. We must light the fires and I am a firestarter.

A thought about something ordinary

Image via Wikipedia

Recently I saw something ordinary in an area where bad things happen. I live in a rough neighborhood. It’s right around the corner from a fancy steak house. There are several schools in the community filled with students and staff collaborating for learning. And there’s at least one young man who is proud of himself and his daughter.

One day I had walked down to catch the bus and noticed a lot of police cars were circling the blocks searching for troublesome children. And observing this scene was a tall black man with a little gray at his temples wearing work boots and a warm outfit. And there beside him and sometimes on his back or shoulders was his daughter. That is, she felt comfortable with her father enough to be openly affectionate with him. He was warning her not to do things that might cause the police to be swarming the streets looking for her and her friends.

But he also spoke of his job. He had begun working a few days ago and you could see his pride as he talked about showing her pictures from the job. “This is what your daddy does at work.” They were both excited. The job was still brand new and he had not yet been paid. But in a neighborhood that is in a city where so many black fathers are out of work, I chose to focus on a small positive moment.

A few weeks later I saw the father and daughter at the same spot where I had originally seen them. I imagine by now he has bought groceries and shared a dream with her. There are these moments where I can see hope that I would like to multiply by the millions. Fathers, don’t go off to war. Stay home and raise these children.

Related articles

• What do you teach your son about how to be with the police? (bluemilk.wordpress.com)
• Striving for Ordinary (sonjawilliams.wordpress.com)
• No Ordinary Day (learning2hear.com)

Is there an alternative?

Years ago there was what was called a socialist bloc of countries in eastern Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. Most of those countries have now embraced capitalism. And of course, the Soviet Union disappeared altogether. It’s depressing to hear Cuban leaders talk of their economy being a basket case. I think of this because of a brief exchange I had on Facebook this week regarding the Libyan revolution. I support the right of the Libyan people to change their leaders and to overthrow  the government of Muammar Ghadaffi. Over 40 years in power is far too long for anyone.

Tonight I heard one of the leaders of the revolutionary council talking about Libyan needs including technology. At the same time the country will have access to over $100 billion in assets that will be unfrozen from accounts around the world to assist in this effort. Libya has already established markets for its oil. Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany, China and other countries have contracts to buy their oil. The US buys a tiny amount of its oil from Libya. This situation is expected to continue. At this point we have an imperialist dominated world and even the few nominally socialist countries are allowing more and more capitalist enterprises.

The question is whether the capitalists will absorb Libya. But the model of faux Pan Africanism that Ghadaffi used as his justification for clinging to power does not work. It is time for a new generation of Libyans to direct their country’s fate. Let us hope that the use the resources of their nation wisely.

A year later, things still remain in flux. Revolutions take time to transition to a functioning government. Will the trains run on time under the new government?

Related articles

• Libya, a year later: a short memory (libyaagainstsuperpowermedia.com)
• 50 dead in fresh Libyan violence (laaska.wordpress.com)
• Rescued from Libyan war, jailed in Nigeria (ogala.wordpress.com)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Hates Poor People

Logo of the . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been crusading against fraud and abuse in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, FoodShare or Wisconsin Quest. Today the  front page of the newspaper included an article by the investigative reporters which began this way

A review by the Journal Sentinel – part of a larger investigation into FoodShare fraud – found nine Facebook users in Milwaukee and about 70 altogether nationwide who posted to Facebook seeking to either buy or sell food assistance benefits illegally or help others do so. Many more friends responded, and in some cases, later posts indicated that the sales were made.

The Journal Sentinel’s review exposes another example of how easy it is to illegally sell the state-issued cards and their benefits – and how little concern those who do it have about getting caught. In April, the newspaper reported that nearly 2,000 FoodShare recipients claimed they lost their card six or more times in 2010 and requested replacements – a sign that the program is being cheated, and one that state officials say they are examining more closely.

Think of this for a second. Their investigative team found nine people in the Milwaukee area, including one who had been a child care provider until her license was revoked.

How many people are on FoodShare? The Janesville Gazette explains.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says food stamp use nationwide increased 11 percent from March of 2010 to March of this year. Wisconsin’s increase was also 11 percent with more than 800,000 people receiving assistance through the state’s FoodShare program.

According to the US Census there are 959,000 people in Milwaukee County. We can safely say that there are  more people on FoodShare in Wisconsin than the total population of the state’s largest city. Of that number, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found nine using Facebook to sell their benefits. These people were so desperate they were selling their  benefits for fifty cents on the dollar.

Among my Facebook friends the only time FoodShare has been mentioned was in response to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s early article. Hunger Task Force director Sherrie Tussler in Milwaukee wrote a scathing rebuttal to their article.says the economy may be improving, but not for everyone. Tussler explains that “many people remain unemployed and need help with food.”

Tussler said she believes the vast majority of recipients are honest and that fraud is the exception. She said state officials should focus on the few violators and avoid actions to fight fraud that would end up hurting the majority of recipients who truly qualify for the program and need it to feed their families.

“It doesn’t make sense to hurt the program because of a few people,” she said.

Tussler said that some poor recipients make the bad bargain of selling their benefits for less than they’re worth because they have to scrape together cash to pay rent or fix a car to get to work.

Individuals or families who use FoodShare in Wisconsin include people of all ages who are employed but have low incomes, are living on small or fixed incomes, have lost their jobs, or have disabilities and can’t work.

Isn’t that the real scandal? Wisconsin Public Radio News says more than 13 percent of Wisconsin residents currently receive food assistance. At a time when politicians put forward plans to create jobs, more than 1 in 10 people in our entire state need this benefit. Even that does not tell the true story of deprivation because thousands who would qualify may be denied, unaware that they qualify or feel stigmatized at the idea of asking for help.

If you doubt that FoodShare contains a stigma just do a search in Facebook using the term FoodShare or EBT card. Among other things I found a group with a stereotyped picture of a black man asking why he could not use FoodShare to buy malt liquor. Why is the newspaper with the resources to investigate real crime like corporate welfare beating the drums to tack down nine Milwaukee area people on Facebook?

Where Will Black Children Learn to Swim?

Swimming pool (Photo credit: Corrado Matteoni)

A young girl taking a break in a swimming pool, grabbing on to a rainbow-coloured styrofoam flotation device. Français : Jeune fille s'offrant une pause dans une piscine, s'accrochant à une planche de polystirène expansé aux couleurs de l'arc en ciel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

African American members of ILGWU Local 222 picket outside. (Photo credit: Kheel Center, Cornell University)

I just saw a picture on Huffington Post about the way that budget cuts have forced the closure of public swimming pools across the country. The picture was of two darling African-American children who were enjoying the experience of being in a public pool. This is something they may not be able to have much longer. Across the country swimming pools for poor, African-American and other children are being seen as a luxury as cities fight to maintain their essential services. It’s hard to make a case that the city should sacrifice dollars needed for police and fire departments in order to enable young people to do something that might save their lives someday. Why can’t they go to the YMCA?

Well I have a friend who has worked hard to ensure that children have access to swimming pools. For many years she has brought foster children to the Jewish Community Center and enjoyed their laughter. I doubt that she cared anything about the reactions of the 95% white crowds looking at her and her African-American children. I’m certain that if I looked around I could similar examples of adults taking children swimming in these private pools.

Municipal pools are as democratic as the public library and the same people who hate one probably despise the other. Those who cry out so ferociously in the name of so-called limited government. Give us tanks but please nothing that a poor person could use to learn a skill or create a job.

There was a tragic incident in Milwaukee a few years ago in which a couple of African-American children were swept up in the water at a lagoon and taken to their deaths. There were efforts to teach black children how to swim. Milwaukee is surrounded by water: Lake Michigan and three rivers beckon you during our incredibly brief summers. Last summer we also had record levels of rain which brought water to dangerous levels. Imagine  not being able to swim on a hot summer day or fearing that the water on your street would pull you from the grasp of your parents.

Where will our precious children learn to swim? I speak as the surviving brother of James who drowned in Buffalo. I also nearly drowned but was rescued by friends a few years after my brother had died. And I remembered being the one black boy in a pool of hostile white students in the 1960s. While rich people parade their multimillion dollar rings, we struggle to remain afloat. On what planet would this situation sound fair or sustainable?

Related articles

• Vietnamese schools teach swimming on… paper (lookatvietnam.com)
• Belleville Public Pool Shuts Down (fox2now.com)