DETROITERS DRIVE THE DIALOGUE

Can we talk?

I mean seriously talk about how to handle the really heavy stuff? I’ve been wondering for quite awhile now, if we can use this Social Media thing to really engage. Wondering if this technology thing that connects us can be used as something more than ego walls, promotional pitches or instant updates on largely irrelevant information.

Can we talk?

I’m wondering if it’s possible to divide the Network into the Social to solve the problems plaguing our society. Social as in a multi-voiced, multi generational discussion focused on articulating, illuminating and debating the solutions. Then apply them to close the fissures caused by past mistakes, and cure the ills that slowly eat us alive as we embrace the silent killers, apathy and denial.

Can we talk?

Can we “put it all in play”, with no sacred cows, no taboo topics? Can we have a “no holds barred” nationwide dialogue to find the answers? Can we determine community priorities, and then drive a plan of concerted action through an on-line portal as a networked community?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a humorless curmudgeon. I’ve got nothing against partying or a good time; life should be about fun. Nothing wrong with ego walls or self-promotion; life should be about self-gratification. But not entirely, life is also about finding a balance; doing the work, taking care of business, and taking care of each other.

That’s why we need to talk. I’ve been walking in ‘the under’ for quite awhile now and it’s a very scary place; deeper than it used to be with more power to its pull. We’ve got tons of heavy lifting to do and it will take a network to succeed, a linked chain. That’s why I’m asking, “can we talk”?

THE N-WORD DEBATE: ALL SMOKE NO FIRE

I got back to my office late on a Thursday afternoon, in a hurry. I was rushing to get downtown by 6:00 for the “Freedom Riders” traveling exhibition; opening that night at the Detroit Public Library, but wasn’t sure I could make it. A looming production deadline for my new Empowerment video series, and several after class student meetings at the school where I teach, were conspiring to rob me of the time I’d planned to devote to the “Freedom Riders”.

click above photo for more info

Just as I was reaching the decision not to attend my phone buzzed.  Answering, I immediately recognized the voice of the well regarded TV News Anchor and Host of a local show, where guests with different opinions try to verbally rip each other’s point of view to shreds. It’s a popular program with all the power packed elements: polarizing topics, semi-celebrities, put-downs, lots of noise and conflict.

“Jeff”, said the voice, “I want you to appear on my show tonight we’re taping at 10:00. We want to talk about Governor Rick Perry’s Texas camp, you know its called N----R-Head. We want to know who can use the N-word and who can’t and why, according to Sherri Shepherd, it’s OK for Whoopi Goldberg to use it but not Barbara Walters. It’s going to be a hot show,” the erudite journalist promised. “Can you make it?”

 “Who’s Sherri Shepherd” I countered, buying some time till my brain could comprehend his request. “You can check her out on You Tube. Google ‘The View’, you can see the whole thing, can you make it” my persuasive caller repeated.

I thought about my options for the evening. I could go be inspired by the stories of heroic struggles to banish a second-class status and mentality. I could skip the Exhibit to work on my video project, focused on community uplift through the application of the Empowerment Principles; or I could spend two hours to tape a ten-minute segment on the N-word.

Not enough time to talk about why the word is such a lightning rod for divisiveness. No time to discuss Willie Lynch or the Black Codes or Jim Crow or Restricted Covenants or the hundred year fight to end apartheid in the U.S.

I could go and say that NOBODY has the right to EVER use that word, but without the time to debate our sordid ethnic history I realized nothing would be heard but the shouting.

“Not this time” I replied to the show host, “but keep me in mind down the road.”

 

Tens of Thousands Lose Welfare Cash Eligibility / Big Brother Knows Best

“My name is secluded. We live in a house the size of a matchbox. 

Roaches live with us wall to wall.”  

Stevie Wonder: ‘Big Brother’ (click here for music) / Talking Book 1972

Motown Records

Can you hear it yet? It’s on the wind; a low mournful wail, sure to grow to a gale-like crescendo by December. A flat out high decibel shriek of despair and desolation as more than 40,000 people in Michigan realize the impact of a lifeline cut in two.

It’s the noise created by combining discordant elements: uncertainty-fear-dread-anger- rage- to create a scary sound; a sonic boom of a blast, as the hopes of tens of thousands of “the secluded” are simultaneously extinguished by a whirlwind induced through “Big Brother’s indifference.

Welfare kids already suffer too many lacks: stability-mobility-variety-opportunity- while welfare mothers are diminished daily by constant worry and unceasing anxiety.

Surely our Republican autocrats realize that $515 per month is a pittance which wouldn’t cover their monthly golf fees. Surely they understand that despair drives desperation, and that desperation creates chaos and causes mayhem. They’ve got to know that soon these seemingly invisible people, the poorest of the poor, will be out of options. Soon they’ll have nothing; not even roach infested houses.

‘Big Brother’ must know that people without hope have nothing to lose or live for, and that the now low wail on the wind could trigger a social tsunami, doesn’t he?

“My name is nobody. I don’t even have to do something to you. You’ll cause your own country to fall.”