a subset of derek

(from brewedfreshdaily.com)
snip

Two teachers, two situations

There’s quite a contrast between Sandy Piderit’s post and Mary Beth Matthew’s on the school year ahead.

/snip

Big difference between the haves (Case Western Reserve U.) and the have nots (Cleveland Municipal School District). One has a billion-plus dollar endowment, the other is begging from already strapped middle-class homeowners.
Surely, there’s blame to be placed in Columbus, that goes without saying and people from the other urban and many rural districts will agree…but there is blame that needs to go to 601 Lakeside Avenue. The schools are still on the backburner just like when the mayor didn’t run them. Oh, and by the way, do you recall voting to give power of the schools to the mayor?

I have an interest in race and racial relations well, because life as a person of color in America almost guarantees that it is encountered at some point in daily life. As the father of a biracial son, I think a lot about what race means now and what it will mean later. Farai Chideya’s book, The Color of Our Future is a great book that looks at the future of race relations. While I am nowhere near as good at my Gen-X sister, Ms. Chideya, I wrote a little paper myself about how I see interracial relationships. Understanding interracial relationships is crucial to understanding race relations in America…and, to understanding ourselves and who and how we love.

For those of you who have Word, Wordperfect or OpenOffice, click here to read it in .doc format.

ABSTRACT
In America’s racially-charged world view, interracial relationships draw many reactions that run the gamut of human feeling. This paper will include a brief history of interracial relationships, why black-white interracial relationships are a special case and how military desegregation, educational desegregation and the elimination of legal barriers to interracial marriage facilitated the rise of black-white interracial pairings.
This paper will explore reasons for opposition to interracial unions such as attitudes of people from other races and from within their own race. These arguments will be exposed as racist in origin and motivation.

Come on people. Stop the hate. I think that all of the venom directed at the men’s Olympic basketball team is just a bunch of hot air. First of all, why would you send a team over there with no centers? Look at the roster people. The only people listed as centers are Carlos Boozer and Tim Duncan. Don’t get me wrong, both of these cats can ball but center is neither of their best position. They are 4’s, good 4’s but 4’s nonetheless. The olympic team doesn’t really have an answer for China’s Yao Ming.

This team also only has 3 guards…and Lebron James (who, while a great player, is still looking for his ideal position), Iverson (17 points with a broken thumb on the shooting hand?! This guy is all heart, I have no time for anyone that thinks anything else.) and Marbury are both point guards. Dewayne Wade, who stepped up for the Heat big time this year, is more like a shooting guard. Which leaves the US team with :

3 guards, 8 forwards and a guard/forward (LeBron).

I don’t care who cancelled. They could have (and should have) offered invitations based on fulfilling a need (“we need a center than can bang with people like, say, Brad Miller”) instead of selling jerseys (or worse, an image). This is the fault of those who selected the team.

It just shows…good players does not the best team make. The Lakers taught us that.

Here’s an article by none other than Ted Turner (yes, that Ted Turner) about the failings of the FCC in specific and Washington, in general’s failing to protect independent media.

Since getting jerked by AOL/TimeWarner, I don’t blame him for speaking out. He does bring up a point about American business. No one is taking risks. I respect Ted for that…in the same way, I respect Vince McMahon, owner of the WWE. When the XFL failed ( no one gave it a fair shot, not even NBC ), he didn’t roll up into a ball and cry. He kept plugging away with his life and thinking about more calculated risks to take. (key word: calculated)

The world is lesser without Rick James. I couldn’t help but go to his site http://www.rickjames.com and see what was going on. I stumbled across this quote:

Truely a sad day for America, First Ronald Reagan, now Rick.

Clearly the terrorists are winning.

Ummm….yeah. The terrorists? Nah, sounds like Alzheimer’s (Reagan) and hard living(James) to me.

Rick had a lot of medical issues which I didn’t know until he died. You have to take your hat off to him for rocking until the end. The fact that he made it this long is a blessing. He meshed rock and funk in a way no one has, with the exception of Prince. He should make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

RIP Rick…