Black Women

What do I know about Black Women? My mother was one. My grandmother was one. My sister is one. My nieces are. Every women in my family in the last 100 years was Black. Any further back and they were Native American and White as well as Black. Yes, the White mothers of the Slave Masters are hanging from my family tree like some other type of strange fruit. I'm sure they're wondering how they got up there, as much as I am. Their sons have placed them there for eternity.

I heard Alice Walker speaking on C-Span, Book TV from her home in Berkeley. It made me think about Black Women. My friend had talked to me about the importance of having a Black female voice involved prominently in what we were trying to do, and I had to agree. The only question I had is how we could ensure that her voice was strong and powerful and undaunted as well as fully respected without being co-opted, twisted or diminished. After all, we were Black men, and we have our own ideas.

I'm not sure that a real Black female voice can be safeguarded protected and fully respected by anyone other than another Black woman. The concept was, or seemed very foreign to me. I simply did not trust that a Black female voice, other than Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, Oprah Winfrey, Coretta Scott King, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison could/would be fully respected.

While I was imminently confident in the ability of Black women and Black men to have a dialogue, I wasn't so sure that we could share a message that could plumb our depths as well as our truths. The messages are quite different.

My mother told me that a Black woman had to be able to support her family, raise her family and also, at a moments notice, be able to lead and take on both roles (male and female) in her family in the event that the Black man was fired, arrested, killed, or decided to move along.

My mother also said that Black women knew for a fact that their lot in life was completely unlike that of White women. No Black woman ever was told, or expected anyone to take care of them after marriage. They were expected to do the "taking care of". for the dozens of Black men that proposed marriage to my mother while I was growing up, it wasn't about their love and desire to turn her into their Queen. For them, it was like marrying a cow that could not only purchase more milk than they could ever drink, but also, take care of them, support them and fulfill all of their carnal desires, while they fucked off the rest of their lives and made everyone around them miserable.

What a heavy burden Black women carry. In essence, the hopes and dreams of the entire race, as well as the food, clothing and shelter as well as the possibility of acquiring such things.

Some of the things I associate with Black women, are wisdom, love, patience, dedication, consistency, support, protection, history, education, dreams, and magic. As well as martyrdom, sacrifice and unfathomable beauty.

Black women, and their role in the world is so complete, that It's never seemed to make sense to distinguish it, from any and everything that I've ever done or achieved. Black women were my world. There was no man, there was no one, or thing else that raised and guided and supported me.

Deep down, like many Black men, I know that all I am is a wise Black woman inside a Black man trying to operate and maintain and support (as they have always done) all of the extra things that make me a man. Like most Black men, I've had to define my masculinity through what I've been told, and what I've seen, and what I thought was available for me to be once again, because there was no Black man around.

But there are plenty of Black women. I hope that in this modern age, we don't completely strip them of their magic and power.

Wystan Hugh Auden

It was the summer of '91.
Somehow I was at this babe's house in West Seattle. We had absolutely nothing in common, and it was a mystery why she wanted to hang out with me, but not as much of a mystery as to why I was hanging out with her. In any event, I was feeling very unencumbered and free, and ready to explore areas of my town I knew little about.

West Seattle, at least back in '91, was a haven for white dysfunctional boeing employees, who had escaped the trailer parks and yearned for suburban, domestic catholic tranquility, while their children yearned for designer jeans, peroxide, cocaine and hot sweaty sex with complete and total losers.

That particular night, while the babe walked around on the phone and planned the logistics for the evenings brain cell depleting festivities, I sat on the couch and scanned her environment to get a read on her situation.

My eye caught the T.V. stand and shelf below where some magazines and newspapers lay. I noticed something that seemed out of place. It was a large book of collected poetry by an author, I'd never heard of before, W.H. Auden. I lunged forward from the couch, grabbed the book, cracked it open and began to read. Within a few lines my world became the world of the poem. The poem was "On the Circuit", and it began,

Among pelagian travelers,
Lost on their lewd conceited way...

Of course, I had no idea what pelagian meant, but the whole lewd conceited thing was imminently comprehensible. One of the things I liked to do, when I was blasted out of my mind was speak as if I were a stuffy, English Professor. The absurdity of an older, Englishman, who is continually affronted by faux pas of etiquette was an inexhaustible mine of hilarity to me when I was as rude as an irish sailor.

This poem seemed to hint at someone with the sensibilities of a stuffy Englishman, yet disenchanted rather than stout. As I read deeper into this poem, I found a few other key lines that delighted me, such as:

I cannot now say where I was
The evening before last,

Unless some singular event
Should intervene to save the place,
A truly asinine remark,
A soul-bewitching face,

Or blessed encounter, full of joy,
Unscheduled on the Giesen Plan,
With, here, an addict of Tolkien,
There, a Charles Williams fan.

The poem is about being on the lecture circuit, doing poetry readings and book signings. And it seems that when he returns, the only thing he remembers are "asinine remarks" and "soul-bewitching faces" also, the poem reveals that Auden is a fan of Tolkien and Carlos Williams!

But, I couldn't help but to wonder what kind of poet writes about being on the lecture circuit? I knew my Dante's and Ben Johnson's and Virgil's (and even my Theodore Roetke's!)... and they never wrote about flying from city to city selling books...
Who was this guy?

But first, a last line from "On the Circuit" that I really dug...

Is this my milieu where I must
How grahamgreeneish!How infra dig!
Snatch from the bottle in my bag An analeptic swig?

Infra dig! what the hell did that mean? I didn't know, but months later I finished a work of poetry and short stories and I named it "ultra-dig" cause it just sounded so cool.

It turns out that Auden is not a silly bombastic poet, but one of the greatest of our age (in my and a few others humble opinion). I was so taken with this poetry that although I was drunk and ready to go tear up the town, I offered this babe $20 on the spot for the book. I wanted it badly. She said her mother had bought it for her and she had never/would never read it, and so a deal was struck, and the book was mine. Over the following months and years, there were many poems in that book that captured my heart, and resonated with my sensitivity for the rapturous fecundity that lies sublimely within all creations and events.

There was "Nocturne" which begins so majestically,

Appearing unannounced, the moon
Avoids a mountain's jagged prongs
And sweeps into the open sky
Like one who knows where she belongs.

To me, immediately, my heart:
"Adore Her, Mother, Virgin, Muse,
A Face worth watching Who can make
Or break you as Her fancy choose."

and then touches the cold reality of insignificance...

And neither of my natures can
Complain if I should be reduced
To a small functionary whose dreams
Are vast, unscrupulous, confused.

And ends in prayerful supplication..

That gushing lady, possibly,
Who brought some verses of her own,
That hang-dog who keeps coming back
For just a temporary loan;

A counter-image, anyway,
To balance with its lack of weight
My world, the private motor-car
And all the engines of the State.


There were so many great poems on love and life, that I read from that book faithfully. During lulls in my day, the poems would play over in my mind like the great Soul/R&B ballads. Over time, my indebtedness and gratitude to W.H. Auden was such that the first time I went back to New York in '96, after a 30 year absence, one of the places I went, was the former residence of W.H. Auden. I followed the directions, and just north of St. Marks off of Avenue "A" I arrived at the location. There was a plaque noting that it was the residence of W.H. Auden, but other than that, it was a completely non-descript brick building. As I looked upon the building, I was somewhat stunned that It was completely ordinary. I stood there a long time, looking at it, trying to discern something, anything that would seem to indicate that someone of greatness once resided there. I left after a while, utterly defeated in my quest to pick out some special feature. As I contemplated and attempted to reconcile the great man with the ordinary building, I realized that Auden wasn't great because of what he had, or where he lived. W.H. Auden was great because he was The quintessential 20th century poet who successfully linked the greatest aspects of the epic poet tradition, with the end of days, brought on by the creation of a multi-tiered modern society.

My favorite poem in the collection, which sounds as fresh and vital to my ear now as when I first read it, is,
"First Things First"

It speaks of longing, loneliness, companionship, nature, love, finality...

Woken, I lay in the arms of my own warmth and listened
To a storm enjoying its storminess in the winter dark
Till my ear, as it can when half-asleep or half-sober,
Set to work to unscramble that interjectory uproar,
Construing its airy vowels and watery consonants
Into a love-speech indicative of a Proper Name.

Scarcely the tongue I should have chosen, yet, as well
As harshness and clumsiness would allow, it spoke in your praise,
Kenning you a god-child of the Moon and the West Wind
With power to tame both real and imaginary monsters,
Likening your poise of being to an upland county,
Here green on purpose, there pure blue for luck.

Loud though it was, alone as it certainly found me,
It reconstructed a day of peculiar silence
When a sneeze could be heard a mile off, and had me walking
On a headland of lava beside you, the occasion as ageless
As the stare of any rose, your presence exactly
So once, so valuable, so very now.

This, moreover, at an hour when only too often
A smirking devil annoys me in beautiful English,
Predicting a world where every sacred location
Is a sand-buried site all cultured Texans do,
Misinformed and thoroughly fleeced by their guides,
And gentle hearts are extinct like Hegelian Bishops.

Grateful, I slept till a morning that would not say
How much it believed of what I said the storm had said
But quietly drew my attention to what had been done
-So many cubic metres the more in my cistern
Against a leonine summer- putting first things first:
Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.


There is no comment needed.
Greatness is it's own comment,
and the world of this poem is complete from creation to end

Thank You W.H. Auden!!
Tell Christopher Isherwood I said, "Hi!"

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CASE STUDY: How to Refocus an Organization on it's Core Principles: Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation

Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation is, in essence, a process that is played out on a personal scale among millions of individual of varying religious traditions and beliefs. The basic argument centers around the ability of man to speak directly to God and to understand the word of the prophets directly from the the accumulated or canonized text, VERSUS relying on the clergy/brahmin/religious leaders to interpret convey and serve as the sole arbitrar of God's word, on Earth...

Luther believed the former over the latter, and this belief was the essence that lead to The Protestant Reformation. The impetus for Luther stating his views, was the sale of indulgences, which promised God's grace whereas following God's will, was an iffy strategy for those seeking to go heavenward.

The points of the 95 Thesis are important, because in all religions, there is an underlying process of coming to know God, follow his will, and gain entry into a place of sanctity and truth, be it in an afterworld, or in a present all-knowingness. Throughout the world, regardless of Religion or practice, the ability of individual humans to understand and know God, has been a used, abused and misused power that has, ironically, served as a major impetus for many of the world's greatest conflicts, as well as destruction of peoples, cultures, societies and histories. Luther aim was to refocus the Church on the business of instructing humans in God's will.

And now I present to you, my simplified understanding of The Protestant Reformation in 500 words or less.
Jesus was a Jew and a prophet
He preached the word of God
He had 12 apostles
He preached that by faith and following him and eating of his flesh and blood, one could come to know the Word of God, be cleansed of sin and God would forgive our sins and the believers would ascend to Heaven
Jesus was crucified for his beliefs and his word was spread by the apostles

The organized religion of Christianity and Church of Christ was founded by Peter, the first "Pope", who was one of Christ's 12 apostles

Corruption was most likely evident from the very beginning (as with any organization)
By the 10th century, the Papacy had reached his high point in corruption that continued up until the Protestant Reformation
By the 1400's it was well known that the Papacy was for sale to the highest bidder
Several families, including the Borgia's, the Medici's were in political control of the Vatican

It was not uncommon for the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops and Priests to have mistresses and children, and to indulge in sexual, financial and all manner of worldly excess
Key to Martin Luther, Indulgences were for sale
King's paid the Pope for the right to govern and rule
Bribes were paid to the Pope and the Vatican to bless any number of adventures
The Pope was in effect, the head of Europe

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany
He was supposed to become a lawyer
At age 21 he became an Augustinian monk
Although he did penance he felt that he always fell short of God's despite confessing obsessively
A conflict arose in him due to his striving to fulfill his obligation for penance and the open sale of "indulgences"
Luther searched and studied the bible to attempt to remedy these discrepancies
He found that there was no justification
What he did find in his bible study, was that it was man's faith in God and doing his word, as in the bible, which constituted true penance and also served as the basis of salvation
Luther continued to study the bible "religiously" and found a number of contradictions

On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to a church door
He wished to spark a debate within the Church that would lead to a closer alignment between the bible and the Church
He also desired that the Church work to make the word of God understandable to all men
This effort lead to The Protestant Reformation
Europe entered a period of religious upheavel

The effects of the reformation were a decentralization of religious power from Rome and a decrease in the flow of money to Rome, as well as an increase in autonomy to local churches
Church services began to be delivered in the native tongue of the populace, rather than in Latin


My favorite 10 of the 95 points in the Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences [Oct. 31, 1517]
1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.
4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as hatred of self continues; for this is the true inward repentance, and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon.
37. Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has part in all the blessings of Christ and the Church; and this is granted him by God, even without letters of pardon.
43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons;
45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need, and passes him by, and gives [his money] for pardons, purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation of God.
62. The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God.
75. To think the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a man even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the Mother of God -- this is madness.
82. To wit: "Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial."
94. Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and hell.

Lady Cab Driver: Prince's Ode To God & Mary

Great Artistic expression should be capable of being interpreted in multiple ways, and be translatable to different contexts.
Themes, although intending to be specific, should also be metaphorical. Drama, as life, contains elements of birth, death,renewal, temptation, wrath and salvation. The final few essential elements that constitute great art are the medium, the environment and a implicit or implied pedagogy and dialectic.

Prince's "Lady Cab Driver" contains all of the necessary components for great art. It is specific, yet metaphorically thematic enough to be interpreted on a multiple levels.

The "Lady" of Lady Cab Driver is clearly a muse and higher power. A facilitator, a confessor, a protector, a temptress, even Mephistopheles, but mostly a higher power, and as a woman, a mother (The Virgin Mary) and courtesan, that serves as a facilitator of sexual pleasure. As the song wends it's way through the young man's journey, Prince calls for help, confesses his sins, his fears, his temptations, and ultimately finds euphoric fulfillment and salvation.

First, from the din of pandemonium, in the midst of urban confusion and temptation, the unsaved soul calls to God, and beseeches for salvation and the interdiction of a higher power.

Taxi! Taxi!

The Vehicle of life, The Taxi, arrives, with a Lady Cab Driver as God's Angel, The Savior, The Virgin Mary and also the Seductress, Mary Magdelene to take Prince on his journey of Salvation.

Lady cab driver -- Can U take me 4 a ride?
Don't know where I'm goin' 'cuz I don't know where I've been
So just put your foot on the gas -- let's drive

Prince, lost in confusion, sexual, personal, in his direction
places his life in the hands of God and begins to confess his sins within the safe space afforded by The Cab.

Lady -- don't ask questions
Promise I'll tell U no lies
Trouble winds r blowin', I'm growin' cold
Get me outta here -- I feel I'm gonna die

Prince asks for forgiveness and protection.
He will confess, but he does not wish to lie.
He only asks for Her to listen
It is not important what he has done up until entering The Cab
for he is now in God's grace, all has been forgiven due to Prince's recognition that he must change.
The same happened to Gautama Buddha who was also a Prince.

Lady cab driver, roll up your window fast
Lately trouble winds r blowin' hard, and I don't know if I can last

Without the Lord and Shepard,
and God's protection, there can be no "safety" from life
or from sin, or from eternal damnation

Lady -- I'm so lonely
I know that's not the way 2 be
Don't want isolation, but the air it makes me cold
Drive it, baby, drive it, drive this demon out of me

Prince, having tried to satisfy himself through the chasing of desire
has only resulted in loneliness and impermanence
Prince wishes to purge himself of this directionless chasing of desire
In effect, he wants the "demon" to be cast from him so that he may follow "the way"

Take me 2 your mansion
Honey, let's go everywhere
Help me girl I'm drownin', mass confusion in my head
Will U accept my tears 2 pay the fare?

He asks to be taken to the house of the Lord
He asks for entry to Heaven
He understands that his soul is imperiled

Lady cab driver, roll up your window fast,
Lately trouble winds r blowin' hard, and I don't know if I can last
Lady cab driver-- can you take me for a ride?

He asks the Lord to join with him, protect him, guide him and be with him "everywhere"
His bitter tears serve as his payment of penance and confession.

This is 4 the cab U have 2 drive 4 no money at all
Penance, Poverty
This is 4 why I wasn't born like my brother, handsome and tall
Envy
This is 4 politicians who r bored and believe in war
Anger, Wrath
This -- Yeah, that's 4 me, that's who that 1's 4
Selfishness
This is 4 discrimination and egotists who think supreme
Pride
And this is 4 whoever taught U how 2 kiss in designer jeans
Lust
That 1's 4-- That 1's 4-- where U have 2 live
Poverty, inequity, destitution
This 1's 4 the rich, not all of 'em, just the greedy
Greed
The ones that don't know how 2 give
Gluttony
This 1's 4 Yosemite Sam and the tourists at Disneyland
Sloth

Through the spiritual union of man and woman, what was passion, turns to a religious experience, and once again, Prince is brought to God where he finds thanks for all aspects of creation and life.

And this 1-- ooh! Yeah -- That's the 1.
That's 4-- that's 4 the-- the creator of man
To God and subsuming oneself to his will.
This is 4 the sun, the moon, the stars, the tourists at Disneyland
Creation, in all it's aspects
This is 4 the ocean, the sea, the shore
The Earth
This is 4-- and that's 4 U, and that's who that 1's 4
Charity, Fidelity, Family, Love
This is 4 the women, so beautifully complex
Marriage, Mother, the Earthly Creator and the power to create life.
This 1's 4 love without sex
Spiritual love, Fraternity, Brotherhood.
This is 4 the wind that blows no matter how fast or slow
Not knowing where I'm going
Fate, Possibility, the Unknown, and Un-promised.
This galaxy's better than not having a place 2 go
And now I know (I know)
Acceptance, Longing, Wisdom & Salvation...
Then, the dynamic play of life continues, with spiritual experience, the holy ghost and the heavenly muse.

Lady cab driver
Lady cab driver
Lady cab driver
Lady cab driver
Lady cab driver
Lady cab driver

Black Men V. White Women II

Frederick Douglass (top left) Susan B. Anthony (top middle) & Elizabeth Stanton (bottom middle)

The recent battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has suddenly taken on another historical dimension. As is well known, there has never been a female, nor (admittedly) African-American as President (if you don't count Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding & Calvin Coolidge). But, the rancor and disappointment now being expressed by the female supporters, namely, the white female supporters of Hillary Clinton, reminds me of the rancor caused by the then, long-standing abolitionist movement and the budding movement for women's suffrage and women's rights.

While not talked about, one of the disappointing moments in American politics was when the white, female base of abolitionist, turned against Blacks as they become politically aware of their own struggle. As Blacks benefitted from a succession of amendments and to gain political clout, female abolitionist began to make the realization that Blacks had progressed to the point that Black men, on the surface had more rights than they did.

And here is where the understandable, but no less sharp knife of division was thrust into the backs of African-Americans. The White Female leadership in the abolitionist movement, in effect turned against Blacks and stated that they would not advocate for more Black rights until they had gained their own rights, such as voting, political representation, etc. It was sad day in history when the strategy employed by the white suffragist included taking an active role in the stoppage of all Black rights.

The reality was that the struggle for Black rights had just begun. As Wendell Phillips stated in his speech, "This is the Negro's Hour". This statement became the battle cry for Negro suffrage over Women's suffrage.

The political climate in Washington D.C. in 1866:
Those that felt that Women and Negro suffrage were "both just and logical", also felt that the nation would not accept two reforms at one time; therefore the question of suffrage must be divided and the first chance be given to the Negro. “This is the Negro's hour” became the universal response to the woman's appeal. Opponents of both woman and Negro suffrage, chiefly Democrats, played at friendliness and contended that white women were far better qualified to vote than Negro men. They held that if the suffrage must be extended at this time the ballot given to educated white women would offset the illiteracy of the black man, and therefore women should be given the first chance.

Republicans charged Democrats with insincerity and a desire to embarrass the party in power. Democrats in turn charged the Republican leaders with insincerity, since they seemed determined to put aside the woman suffrage cause which they had long advocated and to substitute this newer proposition of Negro suffrage. Time proved that the diagnoses of motives made by the rival parties against each other were both correct. While in the middle, Blacks and White women cared less about the sincerity or insincerity of the politics that was being played out, as their goal was to obtain suffrage first.

On December 14 (1866), the Congress conferred the suffrage upon the Negroes of the District of Columbia. President Johnson vetoed the bill, January 5, 1867, upon the ground that the voters of the District had rejected Negro suffrage at the polls by an almost unanimous vote.[1]* On January 7 the Senate, and, on January 8, the House passed the bill over the veto.

The Congress followed this act by another, equally revelatory of Republican intentions toward Negro suffrage. On January 25, 1867, it passed a bill providing that “in the territories thereafter organized, the right to vote shall not be denied on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.” Thus the Congress had extended Negro suffrage wherever it had jurisdiction so to do. This bill became law without the President's signature. Under its provisions Nebraska was admitted to statehood after agreeing that the franchise should be allowed to Negroes. It promptly ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and thereby became an historic bone of contention, the Republicans being immediately charged by the Democrats, and by members of their own party, with “gross irregularity” in their haste to secure another Legislature to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, then pending. Whether the charge was true or false, the amendment was ratified by Nebraska, June 15, 1867.

Lost in the stuggle for suffrage, was the reality that soon after reconstruction, due to poll taxes, poll tests and threats of death and intimidation, Blacks would soon lose any hope of suffrage in almost all southern states. It was not until 1964 that Blacks in many areas of the nation were able to excercise their right to vote.

Frederick Douglass, the famous ex-slave, public speaker, politician, publisher, writer, and abolitionist,(who was the first notable Black figure to take a white wife) was dismayed by this calamitous turn of events, when White allies suddenly became enemies. He came to denounce one of the leaders of the White suffragist/Anti-Black leaders, Elizabeth Cady Stanton as being blatantly racist. Stanton was at the time, incensed about the 15th Amendment granting Blacks the right to vote over women, which in her mind placed white women on a level "classed with idiots, lunatics, and Negroes." Although she was not a "racist" per se, her choice of words reflected the impassioned push for female inclusion which pitted Blacks and Whites against one another.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was in fact, at one time, one of the leaders of the abolitionist movement. Born in Johnstown, New York in 1815, she was the daughter of a New York Supreme Court Judge, who schooled her in the study of law. She was also a relative of Gerrit Smith, an abolitionist from New York. It was in Smith's home that Stanton met a large number of escaped slaves. Through understanding of their plight, her understanding of the law, and the philosophy of Smith, Stanton rose to become a leading abolitionist, however, once she turned her focus to women's rights she made the statement,
"shall white men so amend their constitutions as to make their wives and mothers the political inferiors of unlettered and unwashed ditch-diggers, bootblacks, butchers and barbers, fresh from the slave plantations of the South?"

Frederick Douglass' response to this was,
"When women, because they are women, are hunted down through the cities of New York and New Orleans; when they are dragged from their houses and hung from lampposts; when their children are torn from their arms and their brains dashed out upon the pavement; when they are objects of insult and rage at every turn; when they are in danger of having their homes burnt down... then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot equal to our own.

Soon Frederick Douglass came to grips with the budding women's rights and suffrage movement. For once Blacks were freed, many whites were ready to move on to other topics, forcing Douglass to become adepth in speaking on suffrage issue, as a way to gain entree to a powerful block of historical Black allies (White Women).

Susan B. Anthony, who had her image on the $1 coin for a hot minute, was also a friend of Stanton and perhaps the best known face of the abolitionist and then women's suffrage movement. Anthony also tossed a copper coin onto the frayed connection between Blacks and White women by actively making public the strategy of proposing a full-scale stoppage in the acquisition of new Black rights, until White Women were brought to the level of the Negro. Following the ratification of the fifteenth amendment, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).

To be fair, to this day, as any sober being looks upon the situation, it can not be said that there is any group on this planet that has been more abused, exploited, diminished, dismissed, looked over, passed over, beaten, shoved aside, and taken fro granted, as women. Women, be they of any race, of any culture, religion, creed, or whatever other measure or class, has always been treated as below the station of any man, of that same race and class.

Also, to be fair, although it may be the case that women, as a group have suffered more than any other group, the reality is that White Women were absolutely not villified to the extent that Blacks in their state of bondage, servitude and 2nd class citizenship were. White women were able to move about freely, doors were opened, men doffed their hats, they lead philanthropic agencies, they had their own colleges, clubs, bathrooms, and a whole host of advantages that came along with their whiteness that Blacks in the 1800's dared not even dream about. the bottom line is that although white women were essentially held in servitude to white men, they were still several stations above Black men, not to mention that it was the rare occasion, if ever, that a white woman was raped nightly by a white man in the light of day, let alone the offspring of such unions sold off to the highest bidder.

Still, to pull back to a clear headed historical perspective, women absolutely can not be faulted for taking up their own reigns and fighting for their own rights, to the diminishement of all other issues, even that of Black rights. That is not to say that I excuse all of the harsh blows delivered back and forth in the struggle for Black and Women's rights. It is only to say that the mission, the purpose, the passion and the heartiness of the battle, can certainly be understood.

Below is a letter drafted by Elizabeth Stanton in response to a speech by the great Wendell Phillips in which he declared (in late winter, 1865) "this is the Negro's hour." and argued that suffragist, and women's rights activist, should back out of the discussion and allow the Negro to have his hour, rather than to halt all progress, to toss in their own issues. In the except below, racist language is in bold.

Elizabeth Stanton:The representative women of the nation have done their uttermost for the last thirty years to secure freedom for the negro, and so long as he was lowest in the scale of being we were willing to press his claims; but now, as the celestial gate to civil rights is slowly moving on its hinges, it becomes a serious question whether we had better stand aside and see “Sambo” walk into the kingdom first.

As self-preservation is the first law of nature, would it not be wiser to keep our lamps trimmed and burning, and when the Constitutional door is open, avail ourselves of the strong arm and blue uniform of the black soldier to walk in by his side, and thus make the gap so wide that no privileged class could ever again close it against the humblest citizen of the Republic? “This is the negro’s hour.” Are we sure that he, once entrenched in all his inalienable rights, may not be an added power to hold us at bay? Have not “black male citizens” been heard to say they doubted the wisdom of extending the right of Suffrage to women? Why should the African prove more just and generous than his Saxon compeers?

If the two millions of Southern black women are not to be secured in their rights of person, property,wages, and children, their emancipation is but another form of slavery. In fact, it is better to be the slave of an educated white man, than of a degraded, ignorant black one. We who know what absolute power the statute laws of most of the States give man, in all his civil, political, and social relations, do demand that in changing the status of the four millions of Africans, the women as well as the men should be secured in all the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizens. It is all very well for the privileged order to look down complacently and tell us, “this is the negro's hour; do not clog his way; do not embarrass the Republican party with any new issue; be generous and magnanimous; the negro once safe, the woman comes next.”

Now, if our prayer involved a new set of measures, or a new train of thought, it would be cruel to tax “white male citizens” with even two simple questions at a time; but the disenfranchised all make the same demand, and the same logic and justice that secures Suffrage to one class gives it to all. The struggle of the last thirty years has not been merely on the black man as such, but on the broader ground of his humanity.

In the end, although Black men were given the right to vote "first" the reality is that they were behind White Women by 98 years in securing the right to vote.

Rap Music: Vilified Poetic Dispatches from the 'Hood.

The essential argument, or proposition for discussion is, is art something to be judged? or villified? or is art something to be experienced, and so, moved and enriched? And, is art the only thing we can learn from? or can we learn from the experience of indivdual's who's lives and situations differ vastly from our own?

These are very important questions, because if art is to be judged, then it is to move a level away from the intent of the artist. Surely, in schools, in practicums, internships, fellowships, apprenticeships, to "judge" is essential. To critique the artists work, is surely an indispensible process for the Teachers, or Critics of artistic endeavors, however, once we arrive at the final finished product, that expresses, that which the artist desires to express, in the unique manner or professional manifestation of their craft, "judgement" may no longer be the proper perspective from which to view, or experience the work.

My point is that African-Americans have been villified, condemned, judged and subject to all manner of harsh experiences throughout the diaspora. Perhaps no African-American story can stand higher, in terms of rawness and complete and total experience of transformation, as that of the African-American in America. Seeing as the European tradition of recording, writing, satirizing, editorializing, is so strong, the 500 year history of African-Americans, forms one of the richest and well documented trevails of any peoples in the world.

Which brings us to the artform of "Rap" music.

My contention, and theory is that Rap music, at its heart and soul, is the expression, the voice of the inner city, and effect of the experience of Africans in America that rivals all other forms. In "Rap" we have a complete and total voice, that if listened to and understood from 1. The heart & 2. A clinical, perspective as a dialectic of the "other" experience, it forms a full-voiced expression, of the horrors and net result, of the American tradition and experience of exclusion, disparity, racism, segregation and political impotence.

I grow tiresome of this whole condemnation of rap as anti-bitch and pro-profanity. There is no comparison between the disgusting, stomach turning, destructive, murderous result of the U.S. Constitution, which condoned and legalizing the slave trade, and the world's "worst" most profanity laden rap song. My point is this. If you have someone that has lived through a horrendous experience a the hands of a government and it's systemetized, unmitigated racist philosophy, then to describe the effects, the mentality, the psychology and the life that you live because of it... is that really something we should condemn? It's like slitting someone's throat and yelling at them for bleeding. To take it a step further, there is a long tradition of the arts as the social conscience of society. Rap music can be, and many times, is the contemporary artistic expression of the experience of African-Americans. If it isn't art, then nothing is.

Don't just take it from me, Leo Tolstoy, who died long before the creation of rap music, gives an unbiased and well-rounded definition of art, which can be changed but slightly to mirror and express my feelings about Rap as an art-form, and fully realized artistic expression.

In Chapter 15 of Leo Tolstoy's "What is Art?" which he wrote in 1896, he states:
"There is one indubitable indication distinguishing real art from its counterfeit, namely, the infectiousness of art. If a man, without exercising effort and without altering his standpoint on reading, hearing, or seeing another man's work, experiences a mental condition which unites him with that man and with other people who also partake of that work of art, then the object evoking that condition is a work of art."

And, "But most of all is the degree of infectiousness of art increased by the degree of sincerity in the artist.", " And the degree of the infectiousness of art depends on three conditions: 1. On the greater or lesser individuality of the feeling transmitted; on the greater or lesser clearness with which the feeling is transmitted; on the sincerity of the artist..."

Tolstoy goes on to say, "I have mentioned three conditions of contagiousness in art, but they may be all summed up into one, the last, sincerity, i.e., that the artist should be impelled by an inner need to express his feeling... Therefore this third condition - sincerity - is the most important of the three."


And so, let's look at the disdainful and rejected medium of "gansta rap" and look at the lyrics and what is being said and shared, to see if it meets the definition of "art".

"I Got Yo Back" by X-Raided, is a song about the rapper and his devotion to his fellow bretheren. He sings of his loyalty, to the death if necessary that he holds for his friends and close associates. If this type of death pact between those whose entire existence is live outside of the lines of legitimate society is confusion to some, then listening to these lyrics, along with lyrics of all rap, will surely help to bring such ignorance into the light of day.

The song starts out with his pledge of solidarity with his "nigga's"

(Chorus)
If you wanna get high, nigga I got a sack
If you wanna ride, my nigga I got a strap
Do or die for my true thug niggas, and that's a fact
You and I got that true love, nigga I got yo back

What X-Raided is saying to his partners, is if you want to get high, I'll get you high, if you want to do a drive by and kill someone, I got a gun. I'll die for you cause you're just like me, and I support you in whatever you do. Because you are the only one that cares about me, loves me, looks out for me, and are the one that I can trust, I have more loyalty and fidelity towards you than any law, rule or legal pronouncement in this land that don't give a fuck about us.

The question then becomes, how does one become so twisted that they think that to get someone high, to kill with them, is an appropriate way to show devotion? Aren't friends supposed to help one another to do right? How does someone get to this point that they're willing to die for another man's high and desire to kill? Listen, and the song will reveal these and more answers.

Don't nobody got your back, when you need ‘em most
I'm yellin' where the love at? But you don't hear me loc
Sometimes I think I'm goin' down, I need a life preserver
But you throw me bricks, tryna help me drown
But I survived, what other options do I have?
Can't blame it on my Mom, can't blame it on my Dad
I make my own decisions, I chose the path that I walk


What X-Raided is saying here is, "Who loves me? Who cares for me? Not society (loc), not anyone that has a real opportunity, or option, or way to excape the madness that I'm living in. All I get is ignored, Police, Jail, unemployment lines, and no, no, no, no, no. And because of that, often, I either feel that I'm drowning and dying, (while still alive), hopeless, despondent, no options, or I actually am, and at that point, I need some help. I need something to make me feel hope again, or that there is some point to this cold, heartless, optionless existence. (I need a life preserver), but instead, I'm blamed again, I'm either called, crazy, lazy, hazy (high), or that I brought the shit on myself, or that I don't qualify, or I need to go somewhere else, or I'm locked up in a mental ward, or in jail or prison, because that's the only help I can get (you throw me bricks). And I can't blame my mom or dad, they're just as fucked up as me, and they went through the same thing as me. They were no more able to help me, than I am to help my kids, or their parents were able to help them. The condition is societal, it's beyond the strength or ability of the average ghetto survivor, to escape these entrenched cycles of hopelessness (can't blame it on my mom, can't blame it on my dad). I'm the one that decided to not persevere and go to school. I'm the one that decided to get into the dope game. I'm the one that decided to join a gang. I'm the one that decided to not pay those parking tickets, or the child support, or to rob that store, or jump bail, or probation...

But me and my father never had that "man to man" talk
But there ain't no need for me to hate him
He did me a favour when he caught my mama ovulatin'
He brought me in the world, and the rest is up to me
So I'm a, do what I gotta and be all that I can be

X' is sayin' It's futile for him to hate his father, he lies blameless in the tide of forces beyond his control. Instead of hating him, he needs to thank him and his mother for bringing him into the world (aint that what humans are supposed to do?), all of the hurdles and stumbling blocks he faces, are for him to traverse, and overcome. His parents left him at the starting line, and now it's up to him to do the best he can do (which evidently, is pretty incredible, seeing as he's an incredibly talented artist, rapper, musician, and internationally known. it's truly remarkable).

Now I wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a judge
But it wasn't meant to be so now I got a grudge
I was hit with resistence, and asked for persistence,
You kept me at a distance, so fuck all you bitches
I don't need none of y'all, I'm a do it on my own
And when I'm ballin', I'm a floss in front of all y'all non-believers
You thought I couldn't win
But to my homies, my lovers, and my friends
I got ya back

Here X' is sayin, he wanted to be more, he aspired to be more (a doctor or lawyer or judge), but those roads were blocked, and he does have a chip on his shoulder, because, quite honestly, he was doomed from the gate when it came to competing for those coveted educational opportunities with kids that had ALL the advantages, security, safety, encouragement and resources to get those coveted opportunities. He tried to stay in school, but the help and support wasn't there (resistence, persistence, kept at a distance), so to hell with this system that didn't want him to begin with (racist admissions, substandard schools, disparity). He decided to do it on his own, and when he makes it, he's going to flaunt it and wave it in your faces to show you up. society had him buried before he was born, but he made it, and so, to his "homies, lovers and friends" he'll get them high, he'll drive by for them, he'll go to the death, because THAT was his family, THAT was his support, THAT is what kept him going when he felt like he was drownin'. And so without them, there wouldn't be an X-Raided, so seeing as he owes them his life, he will go to the death for them. and heaven help him that he won't be killed, but.....

When everybody got they noses up in the air
I'll be there for you, lettin' you know your nigga cares
I ain't got much to offer but you welcome to what I have
Down to ride witcha, even when the homies mad
I be down witcha; winter, spring, summer, fall
I'm ready to ride every time that my homie calls
I never stall on ya dawg, through it all, thick or thin
We went from boys to men in the same hood
So it's all good, even when you actin' like you got this bitch made
It's still on, I'm a ride when you right or wrong
Standin' strong, no matter what the situation in
And if you die, will provide for your wife and kids
That way you live, forever

This one is simple, if you've read the others, in this X' is just continuing entreaties, pledges and promises to be there for the ones that were there for him, a pledge to never say no, to never delay, to not put them off, and to be behind his friends and their family forever.

However, a nigga's never gonna let ‘cha rest in peace till we back together
Fuck restin' in peace, I'm in an up roar
What other reason does a nigga have to live for?
If you ain't ready to ride for what we believe
Then get the fuck out the game, it's time for you to leave
Cuz only niggas is willin' to put it all on the line
And ride with us when it's killin' time
I got yo back loc


This is just continuing re-statement and passion about how dedicated he is to the ones that were there for him when no one else was. They may have been wrong, but they were there. They were the only ones that cared, and they all stood together to protect what little they had. And to be a part of this, you have to be ready to (put it all on the line), when it's "killin' time"
[Chorus] x2

X-Raided mad at the world, ready to go to war
So tell me what y'all mothafuckas waitin' for?
Put on your boots, and lace ‘em up
Dawg, tell me which tree you wanna chase ‘em up
It's an organized congregation, committee of the wicked
If you ain't ready to ride, then nigga you can't kick it
So get the fuck up out the set, you high powered coward
Before your bitch ass get devoured
At any given hour my soldiers is bound to loc up
The warriors gonna ride, and all you bitches gon' choke up
But that's the only way to separate the real from the fake
Don't ask me why, bitch a bitch ...(?)
That Northern Cali kill ‘em all mentality
It ain't my fault, blame it on the criminality
I'm out to make the paper stack
And when my homie calls, hell yeah it's a conspiracy
I got his back

Summary: Now, if you have no familiarity to with the experience of the African-American, or the inner-city, then yes, I can see your disdain, confusion and desire to discard the words of X-Raided and all of the other rappers that have made it out of pure nothing and situations where the odds were completely stacked against them, but if you are at least able to listen, you can learn how they feel, why their lives are the way they are, and most of all, their triumph and passion and incredible musicality.

Rap music is a relatively recent creation, but in the African-American, despite huge odds, they were able to create blues, gospel, rock, jazz, big-band, rap, r&b, and all manner of different art forms of dance, music, etc, etc, etc. Yes, the venacular can be confusion, but no less confusing than Shakespeare, to the uninitiated. At first, no one knows what the fuck is being said. Those that study Shakespeare, or even the bible are continually mining new truths, new meanings, new insights. The same can be done for Rap.

For me, it's not hard to listen to the pledges and love that flows from brother to brother, and to relate to that. Oftentimes, the love we have for the oppostite sex, is unsustainable, If it starts as lovers, many times it can not persist as friends. In the situations that start as friends, it's often hard to avoid becoming lovers, in essence, risking all. Such is the passionate drive of sexual attraction and reproduction. But your male friends, that you know love you without a care for you sexually, and that you have known, from when you had nothing and before you had direction, or purpose, or even knew yourself.... yeah, much of this rap is about signing the praises of that unquestioned love. One has to also factor in the high rate of single-parent households, and kids that, even if they did have a father, did not see them much. These groups of youths band together, without guidance, without supervision, desiring to be, what they see in their own 'hoods...

God Bless X-Raided and all of the brave souls and artists that have made it against all odds, kept, harbored and nurtured their dreams, and have been able to not only give us such beautiful music, but to make known the suffering and conditions of love that exist in the forgotten inner cities and ghettos of America.

The Great Moon Hoax

At this point in my life, it seems that life has a certain continuity. moment by moment, day by day, year by year, there is a smooth consistency of awareness and experience. This was not always the case. During early childhood, there were distinct experiences when it seemed that from a void of nothingness and non-existence, suddenly I was aware of being alive. At those times, I would remember other experiences of being alive, and so, over the course of time, a gradual acceptance of life took hold, and the moments of non-existence, became less and less. Although I did not know all of the particulars of life and what it was, There was a certainty that one day, such knowledge would come into my possession. It was something I took for granted.

In those early years, I had a sneaking suspicion that many if not most humans existed within the blissful non-awareness of complete non-self-consciousness, behind a cloak upon reality so dark ,so thick and so total, that it was much more foolproof and impossible of being discovered, as the Wizard of Oz's ill-conceived master control panel. It was clear from an early age that it wasn't that others "knew" the keys to the mystery of life, rather, they had no clue that what was going on, or that there was a mystery to life. For this vast majority, life was not miraculous in the least. and so bullshit like cars, television and silicone breast, held great fascination to them against the ignorance that rendered nature and life, as boring or less than. It was apparent that the average person was not conscious in any meaningful respect. And so, December 21, 1968, when I found myself once again suddenly conscious, it meant much more to me than just a walk to the store.

I will always remember December 21, 1968. It was the afternoon. My mother, brother and I got on our winter clothes, it was a snowy, slushy day in Seattle, WA. I had rubber/plastic galoshes. We marched the seemingly long 3 blocks to the "Chuck Wagon" supermarket where we bought a newspaper. When we got home, my brother stood behind me and I in front, still in my outer wear, boots and hat, and my brother held the headline in front of me, while my mother took a photo.

That photo still exists. The caption read, "OFF TO THE MOON!" Apollo 8 had just blasted off to the moon, or so they said. Many people didn't believe that there actually was a spaceship. Many, even when they saw the broadcasts from the moon, believed that the scenes were being shot on a Hollywood studio. Certainly the transmissions were such, that no strong argument could be made to prove that an actual moon journey had taken place.

My belief is that the Moon Trips, the entire early age of NASA was a very real, and somber hoax perpetrated on the American People.

Compared to discovering new life forms, alien civilizations, traveling near the speed of light and even leaving our solar system, going to the moon is the equivalent of spitting on the sidewalk from a tall building. Whereas humans escaping the solar system, to a certain death, is as far away from being accomplished as a so-called grand, unified theory.

But the hoax is, the notion that going to the moon, meant anything. It was a high tech pissing contest. the resources, the time, the money, the imagination to build it, and that the American people held in observing it, was nothing more than a sociological hoax, for absolutely nothing was accomplished by it.

It was the world's most high-budget movie, with no plot, no sub-text, and no point. Epic? yes. Metaphorical? yes. mind blowing? yes. Practical? no.

What we should do, is imagine that 200 years ago, 100,000 high tech humans landed on Earth from another planet and mixed with indigenous Earthlings. We should imagine that the reason these high tech humans came to our planet is because they had polluted, poisoned, killed, sterilized, and rendered their own planet, inhospitable for life. We should imagine that now, 200 years after these folks arrived, it is clear to us and to them, that they are well on their way towards doing to our planet, what they did to their own. And when we ask them, "Why?" they will say, "Because that's the way it is." and then we can stand like a bunch of stupid motherfuckers as they load up with evian, oxycontins a few Marvin Gaye albums and a few million IOU's and blast the off into the heavens.

It's certain that at this time, having received the answer, from the super-beings, we will realize, that we've been duped, and there's no one at the wheel... and these super-beings are really clever, and smart, but the one thing they lack, is an exit strategy from their own madness.

Imagine the horror, disbelief and disappointment that we would feel to find out that we had turned over the development of our world to these super beings, only to find out that the economic system they instilled, was not even in their control rather, was controlled by the basest of human desires, the "invisible hand", "laissez-faire", "free markets", which translates into: greed, exploitation & profit motive, with no regard for sustainability, or longevity. Imagine the shock, horror and dismay that we would feel to find out that the chemicals, compounds, technology and products that these super-beings had created for our good, was now polluting our skies, groundwater, and causing the melting of our polar caps and glaciers? and destruction of our ozone layer? and had caused a Texas sized soup of plastic to form in the middle of the Pacific? Imagine, how sad and distraught we would feel, to find out that the natural resources required to feed their various machinery, had deforested, our lands, genetically altered our food supply, lead to the extinction of thousands of life forms, and lead to poverty, disease, disadvantage, war, starvation and strife throughout the globe?

But why need we imagine this to see that the result is the same as what is going on right now? Just because we are fucking up and have no one to blame, does that mean that we are powerless to make sound, rational decisions? Does that mean we have a right to charge full-steam ahead into a brick wall?

Going to the moon, was a hoax, far beyond a Hollywood studio posing as the moon. It was a hoax of epic proportions, that duped the American people, and the world, into the belief and promise of endless resources, sagacious, wise leadership, technological limitless, and safety, security and sustainable, ever-increasing personal and societal wealth, perfection and harmony. This moon shot combined with the image and life of Einstein, as the ever-wise, super-genius, who could solve any problem, figure anything out, and also pontificate upon the moral tides and forces at play with the creation of super weapons, has lead us to believe, that 1. we can do anything 2. we can solve anything 3. if anything were really that bad, some really, really smart person would tell us, and we wouldn't use that thing. to which I say, BULLLLLLLLLLLSHIIIIIIIIIT!. All super-geniuses have a little Beaver Cleaver in them. They are cute, well-meaning, like to experiment, but ultimately, they're in over their head. And, seeing as Ward and June aint around, theirs no one to slap their little cherubic cheeks and send them off to bed.

Imagine if John F. Kennedy had said, "We will not be going to the moon. We have too many issues that we need to deal with on Earth. When the time is right, and if we take care of the issues we have here on Earth, then life will flourish on this planet ad infinitum, and when we are ready, when we have learned, when we understand, and when it makes sense, and meaning and purpose to travel through space, then we will do it. But right now, we must turn our attention towards solving basic, human issues of meaningful life, partnership with other cultures, races, religions and the world, and finding a way to regulate our economic system and what we produce, to ensure that we are making the best possible decisions for the posterity of all possible future generations...."

But JFK didn't say that. He went for the Ad captandum vulgus. He went for the Viet-Nam war, he went for the Bay of Pigs, He went for all the flashy bullshit, and pie in the sky, lets-tear-the-roof-off-this-sucker bullshit befitting the man who loved to fuck Jackie O. more than all his other bitches. The guy had style, panache, wit and a good eye for broads and the ability to turn a good phrase.

He had the advantage and prerogative to make decisions that could destroy life on Earth, because many of these technologies, were technologies that he first opened and played with. he had time, he had land, he had resources. But he also had foresight, and knew that he shouldn't have done it. But he did anyway.

It's not just the Moon. But it was a big part of it. One day, hopefully we'll look at the stars and heavens and figure out that in an existence so vast, the point isn't to try to go anywhere, but to make your house a home. And to see that anywhere, is as good as anywhere else. and so, what is to be done, is to turn inward, and to exist and persist, and to make the real decisions befitting beings of intelligence, foresight and wisdom.

Did You Know That You Were Supposed To Seek, Tame, Ride and Lose The Ox?

In the 12th century, Ch'an painted ten pictures illustrating the search for an Ox, an allegory for the search of our true nature. The practice which precipitates the freeing of oneself from their base desires has been understood as occurring in a series of stages. The Ox-herding pictures are a beautifully poetic illustration of the stages. In Reality, we have the Ox, but we must turn inward to see it, to tame and calm it, so that we may then rest with ourselves, turn inward and be free from the wild inattentiveness of the Ox within.


Seeking the Ox

In the pasture of this world,
I endlessly push aside the tall
grasses in search of the bull.
Following unnamed rivers, lost
upon the interpenetrating paths
of distant mountains ...
My strength failing and my vitality
exhausted, I cannot find the bull.
I only hear the locusts chirring
through the forest at night.

Finding the Tracks

Discovering the Footprints
Along the riverbank under the trees ...
I discover footprints!
Even under the fragrant grass I see
his prints.
Deep in remote mountains they are found.
These traces no more can be hidden
than one's nose, looking heavenward.

First Glimpse of the Ox

I hear the song of the nightingale.
The sun is warm, the wind is mild,
willows are green along the shore.
Here no bull can hide!
What artist can draw that massive
head, those majestic horns?

Catching the Ox

I seize him with a terrific
struggle. His great will and
power are inexhaustable.
He charges to the high plateau
far above the cloud-mists ...
Or in an impenetrable ravine
he stands.

Taming the Ox

The whip and rope are necessary.
Else he might stray off down
some dusty road.
Being well trained, he becomes
naturally gentle.
Then unfettered he obeys his master.

Riding the Ox Home

Mounting the bull ...
slowly I return homeward.
The voice of my flute intones
throughout the evening.
Measuring with hand-beats the
pulsating harmony ...
I direct the endless rhythm.
Whoever hears this melody will
join me.

Ox Forgotten, Self Alone

Astride the bull, I reach home.
I am serene. The bull too can rest.
The dawn has come. In blissful repose,
Within my thatched dwelling I have
abandoned the whip and rope.

Both Ox and Self Forgotten

Whip, rope, person, and bull ...
all merge in No-Thing.
This heaven is so vast no message
can stain it.
How may a snowflake exist in a
raging fire?
Here are the footprints of the
patriarchs.

Return to the Source

Too many steps have been taken
returning to the root and the source.
Better to have been blind and deaf
from the beginning!
Dwelling in one's true abode,
unconcerned with that without ...
The river flows tranquilly on
and the flowers are reIn the World.

Entering the Marketplace with Open Hands

Barefooted and naked of breast ...
I mingle with the people of the world.
My clothes are ragged and dust-laden,
and I am ever blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life;
Now, before me ...
the dead trees become alive.

Having Kids...

I had to escort this young lady from the release section of the jail to the cab awaiting out in front of the clock tower. I waited in the room usually reserved for inmates being processed for release. She finally came through and signed for her money, her raggedy-ass, knock off designer bag, fake gold chain and fake gold earrings. then, the deputy buzzed us through the final exit point to fresh air and sunshine.

When this young lady, "Mary" came through, she remembered me from the time I saw her a few weeks back to evaluate her state of mind and she was out of it. Alert and Oriented, able to answer questions, she knew the date, who she was, where she was, why she was but she was weird, tweaked out, brain damaged and gave the impression of someone that was floating above and inconvenienced by having to listen to, and answer questions emanating from earth bound beings. In essence, she "passed" the test of grave disability. During the course of the interview, she kept standing and grabbing her chest and breathing deeply. The young worker with me asked her if she needed to see a doctor. I can see why he said it, but it was clear that her movements were an after-effect of Intravenous crystal meth. When I asked her what she did for a living, candidly and without pretense, she stated that she was a prostitute. I almost felt like the only reason I asked the question was to see if she was going to lie. And when she answered, it was seemingly with the same awareness that it was a "test" of honesty. When I asked her if she used condoms, she said, "Sometimes". Then I suggested that she call her mother from the office phone, which is something I rarely do, however, seeing as she was a native Espanol speaker, and her English wasn't that great, I wanted to see how she communicated in her native tongue. Even though I only understand about 10% of 1st grade level Spanish, I can tell a normal conversation in any language, by the clarity, fluidity, inflection, pronunciation, manner of thought and contemplation, as well as non-language factors of affect, pace, tone, etc. She sounded much clearer on the phone. From what I was able to make out, her mother asked her how she was doing, she talked about God, she asked about her kids and some other people. She did not hesitate, stutter, get emotional, argue, etc. As I suspected, (and the other workers hadn't factored into their assessments) she presented much better in a language she had an understanding of.

After seeing her, I requested that the psychiatrist increase her medications. Why? Well, two days previous to the days interview,, the young worker and a skilled worker saw the inmate and reported that that she was laughing inappropriately, non-responsive and talking to herself. My explanation for the discrepancy between her behavior two days ago and the day I saw her had 4 factors. 1. She was in court when she was doing worse. Court is a high stress situation and even normal people sound like babbling idiots when they get in front of a judge. 2. The worker that observed her in court, has a tendency to, well, not over-estimate the mental health symptoms, rather, to over-estimate the response needed to deal with it. 3. The worker that interviewed the client at the jail two days ago, is inexperienced, so his ability to provide firm boundaries and structure to the interview, is definitely nascent, thus, the inmate showed many more psychotic symptoms, and was less well directed to demonstrate her highest possible level of functioning. 4. The medications that she was taking were minimally effective, yet effective enough such that "Mary" was having a "good" day, they were sufficient, but not sufficient enough if she was having a bad day. So I asked the doctor to increase her meds, so that we could increase the number of "good" days and possibly reveal a higher baseline.

Now, as we were buzzed through the small antechamber to the final stop before her release, she was looking at me and laughing, while also putting the pieces together about what was happening, why I was there, and where she was going. By the time we got her possessions and were walking out to the cab she understood everything that was going on. I asked her a few questions about if she wanted treatment, if she would stay for the entire stay, if she was interested in getting her kids back, if she could stay with her family when she finished treatment, and her answers were leaning towards socially appropriate responses in all phases. I was not convinced that she was now on her way to a happy, healthy, and successful life. But, the fact is, whether junkie-whore, or ceo, we can only live life one moment at a time.

Everything that has been said about this young lady has so far been inconsequential to what I found "special" about her, for this young lady, at the tender age of 24, had 5 babies in foster care. This brings me to the point of this discussion. Humans seeming ability to care for children, has nothing to do with whether they can actually have them. I used to marvel at how many dope fiends, whores and addicts were able to seemingly have baby after baby, yet, now that I see the large number of doped out whores, I have seen with my own eyes, that anecdotally, it's a relatively small percentage of junkie-whores that remain viable for pregnancy. The vast majority can not have children. The ones that do, tend to be very young, and their fertility is facilitated by stints in Jail and prison whereby the petite sentences serve as a respite from the drugs, disease, lack of nutrition and stress that normally would keep these cadre of doped out whores from being able to get pregnant. It's my guess that a large percentage of the ones that can get pregnant, get pregnant within 30 days of release from jail.

In "nature" certain events prevent human females from getting pregnant. 1. Lack of nutrition (if you don't get a period, it severely decreases the chance of pregnancy) 2. Most women can not get pregnant while breast feeding 3. In nature, most males will not mate with females that are near death, or appear to be so. Generally, it is seen as a sexual turn-off, however, when the so-called "man" is just as blitzed and zombie-like in appearance, the mitigating factors (apparently) are not substantial enough to stem the tide of semen receiving opportunities. 4. A doped out, near-death, sickened, mentally ill female, usually is incapable of caring sufficiently for her offspring, and thus, in many cases, the infant will perish. Any tribesman or woman, knowing that this offspring is from such a diseased, pathetic female, would more than likely allow the child to perish, especially if that female is struggling to provide for her own children. No doubt, if this sickened female had given birth to, and killed more than a few children, social taboos would probably dictate that she be killed, or in the least, ostracized from the general group. As you can see, currently sociological factors have resulted in society rushing in to support, nurture and even encourage the junkie-whore to have wave after wave, and litter after litter of offspring that neither she, the biological father, nor society wants, or needs.

And so, this is not to pass a value judgement upon junkie-whores. Sure I could call them "substance addicted individuals engaged in illicit sexual transactions" but it means exactly the same thing. I'm sure all of these value neutral terms are not being used in the tenement, low-rent, rent by the hour fleabag copulation rooms, back alleys, car seats and open fields where said whores are being inseminated. I'll admit, I have a certain amount of disdain for the overall trend and phenomenon of brain dead males and females "having kids", but amazingly, when I'm talking to the junkie whore face to face, I really do care, I am compassionate, empathetic, caring, polite, helpful, friendly... and it's not hard at all to be. I am a human, and so are they. If I had to deal with this individual more than the few system contacts that I am well compensated for, then perhaps I would be robbed of my ability to focus on the singular purpose of the sparse interactions, but, such is not the case.

In any event, "having kids" in the year 2008, is a very strange process that has seemingly lead to some rather preposterous outcomes.

Today, the women that would be the good mothers, are waiting longer and longer to have children, and increasingly, waiting until they are no longer viable, or, until their viability as mothers has diminished substantially. At the same time, these women look at other responsible mothers who have taken the plunge, and exalted them, as if they were saints and goddesses. The thing about it is, that having life, is a continuation of something that was going on long before we were created, and will go on long after we are gone, in some form, in some way, somewhere, and if not, the struggle to assemble viable life, as it was created on this planet 3.5 billion years ago, will continually wrestle to find embodiment.

The point is, that for the individual, non-junkie-whore, or junkie-john/sex addict, to make the leap to being a responsible parent, only requires that one be responsible, and get pregnant, for everything that follows, will happen as a matter of course, as necessity, love and responsibility dictate. It's truly, not a big deal, and at the same time, the biggest deal possible to humans, in that it embodies, our entire existence. If and when, if ever human life is extinguish, all of the life, that has previously passed in the shadows of time, will be meaningless, unless and until such time, if ever, another life-form comes along and digging through the terrestrial layers of earth, fragments of our culture and existence are unearthed. Then, and only then, will we be, in a vague, oblique manner, significant, or meaningful again. Barring that, life on Earth now, for all it's wonders and glory, is still nothing more than a waiting game for some meaning, or purpose that can serve as an explanation, for the seeming progressive refinement (in some sense) of humanity.

For me, it can not be argued that evolution, not only has survival as a point of reference, but there seems to be, something that we are evolving towards. In all of the randomness and entropy, the complexity of dna based organisms runs afoul of any attempt to justify blind evolution as the sole cause. As has been said, the wave particle dilemma isn't so much of a "real" dilemma for the wave/particle, rather, only for us. Clearly, the world does not need us to understand it, in order to exist or persist, however, the lesson is clear. The structure, and meaning, of even inanimate "stuff" represents a complexity far beyond comprehension, and yet, comprehension, is ever able to come to grips with the understanding of this structure, leading me to believe, that a possible culmination of life is to be the life based expression, of existence.

You see, it is my contention that in declaring man as God, upon the establishment of the Christian faith was far too premature, yet, a prognostication, for if we are able one day to voice, discuss, explain, predict, and comprehend existence in it's full complexity, then we will have "evolved" to the point of being a (as mentioned above) a life-based representation of not only that which is living, but that which is not. At this point, our ability to create technologies capable of utilizing our creativity and knowledge of the universe, will result in possibilities that will literally turn reality upon it's ear. It will not be too much to assume, that at that point, the ability to create, new forms of reality will not be beyond our capability, but this can only happen, if we can persist and survive and move along this course of seeming purposeful, ordered, "striving-towards" evolution.

All of this is to say, that one of the problems we must deal with, is not only the junkie-whore, but finding and creating purposeful life for every human, regardless of whether they are addicted to drugs, or have sex for money, or not. For life, and how it is lived, and the choices we make about life, will determine, whether or not we can, or will exist in the future. And so, as I walk this junkie-whore out to the cab, waiting to take her to her mental health/substance abuse program, I have no idea if she will get pregnant again, or have more kids, but I do know, that if she does have a kid, someone, will be obligated to take care of it. And every kid she has, or anyone else has, takes a little bit more, and a little bit more, out of life.

It's plain to see that the best way to reduce our "carbon footprint" and pressure upon this Earth, is to have less children. And the best way to increase the quality of life, is to plow more resources into taking care of those children that are born, in the beginning of of their lives. And the best way to increase our chances as a species, is to educate those children in such a way, that they understand all that they need to know, to pass on the wisdom they've learned, to the next generation.

And I thought all of this, in the time it took her to get her knock-off handbag, fake gold chain and earrings, and get into the van, and pull off into the distance.

All-Earth Anime Round-up

TIIIIIIMAAAAAAA!!!! TIMA! TIMA!.... TIIIIIIMAAAAAAAAAAA~!!!!!

Sorry, I just had to get that out of the way... Anime? you may wonder how that fits into the stream of things between the impassioned, boorish social commentary, the black power perspective and spiritual philosophizing... well, Anime is a strange thing. cartoons allow us to create completely new worlds, and Anime, is the high art of animation, so it's interesting to see what folks have done with it. Let me tell you, there is some really good shit out there. Stuff that really will blow your mind and make you think and put you in a creative head space.

To me, it seems that Anime, the good stuff anyway is overinterpretated. Mainly, western folks look at japanese anime and then try to read into it, like they're in English Class deconstructing The Canterbury Tales and looking at all the allusions and reasons and rationales and hidden political and social pokes and prods. Anime in Japan is a form of entertainment that, as stated above, allows the writers and creator to be free of the rational world in constructing their storylines.

I find it amusing to read interviews of great anime legends, such as Osamu Tezuka and Katsuhiro Otomo, and all of the concrete questions that are being asked about plot and intent, and then the technical questions about how it was done, financed, etc, etc, etc. They totally miss the point. Interpreting good anime is like interpreting a dream. To interview the creator in an attempt to ascertain concrete meaning is to miss. Would it make sense to ask such questions of yourself about the "production" of your own dreams?

Below is some of the best anime and anime that is universally accepted as the best, as well as the anime that I have found to be outstanding.

1. METROPOLIS: I'm going to give this one high marks, just because it ends like all movies should end, with the destruction of the entire world. But, in an amazing twist of absurdity, as the world is coming to an end, inexplicably, yet, so apropos, "I can't stop loving you" by Ray Charles comes blasting from every direction. You can't hear the sounds of buildings crashing, people talking, nothing, just Ray Charles singin' his black ass off. This movie starts slow and then slowly hooks you. When the cute little robot girl makes her appearance, it really finds it's groove. There's the jealous kid with the gun. The evil scientist, the arrogant blue blood leader of the world, the boy and detective family member and the cyborg assistant. But the heart of this movie revolves around this strange love affair between a boy and the cute robot girl. Unbeknownst to anyone, save one, the girl was actually created to take over and destroy the world, which she attempts to do. If not for love, she would have succeeded. The visuals are absolutely amazing. The art deco inspired design, is great, but as in all great anime's, you probably have to watch it 3-4 times just to get to the end, but once you do, it all comes together beautifully.
Rating: 5 out of 5

2. STEAMBOY: This is some crazy shit. The movie is like, 2 hours long, but the last hour and 10 minutes is the final climax. It seems to be about to end for fuckin' ever, and they pull out all the stops, and then more, and more, and more. it's completely off the hook. But, only in anime could you get away with some shit like this. I mean, it's a cartoon, why not continually pull out stops? what's stopping you? certainly not the director or writers. It's a technically astute film. the sets, incredible, the concept, astounding. it's essentially a long chase sequence, and a world changing piece of technology that everyone wants, and it pits a father, against his son, who is then pit against his son (Steamboy). there's a rich white girl, Victorian England, and just beautiful animation and hollering throughout.
Rating: 5 out of 5

3. TOKYO GODFATHERS: This story is about a transsexual, a runaway girl, and an older alcoholic x-bike shop owner, who are all homeless, have banded together and find themselves with a baby to take care of in the dead of winter. They search for the kids parents. They seemingly find the kids parents, but in the search, they all have to re-visit their past, ala "A Christmas Carol" style, and the parents story, is much more than it seems. It features some unpredictable, but believable plot twists, and by the end of the log journey, you have really come to love the characters. I have to admit, I didn't think it would happen, but the ending of this movie, made me cry. It was beautiful, and a real cliffhanger.
Rating: 5 out of 5

4. AKIRA: This movie has a Japanese motorcycle gang in post-apocalyptic Japan. The cause of the nuclear disaster is unknown, but the opening scene gives away some vital clues. The weirdness is so creative and weird, that it makes you wonder why this corny, bullshit motorcycle gang element was even included. There are some strange telepathic mutants, who can bend and control reality. A revolutionary underground network, that is in over it's head, and the character "Akira" who was the cause of the Apocalypse, due to the power of his mind. The twist is that one of the motorcycle punks, has the ability to go toe to toe with Akira. The movie has some real creepy and creative scenes that are totally weird. Ultimately, the corny parts of this movie, drag the entire exercise into the toilet.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5, but with a few scenes that make it a must see.

5. MEMORIES: Three short movies. The first is a mix between "Alien" "Blade Runner" "2001" and "Solaris". It's damn good. all the "mind/what's real" bullshit that every good sci-fi movie has. The second movie, is totally weird. This guy takes a pill that turns him into a toxic, lethal plume of death. The last one, is about a future society, 1984-type, that just shoots bombs off to an unknown enemy. The story makes little sense, and follows the mother, father and son. It's wierd. All three of them, are like a n Anime, "Creepshow", a good movie to watch when you're bedridden and already starting to come unglued.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5

6. APPLESEED: A great futuristic, save the world from destruction by the all-knowing computer type of movie. The heroes are brave, foolish, good looking, and incapable of being killed. half the population are "bioroids" that can not reproduce, the rest are humans. "mya" controls the entire city, and these geriatric motherfuckers that float around, make all the major decisions. The heroine's mother, developed the code for the bioroids, and also has the key to destroy and save them. The final sequence is off the hook, as 12 unstoppable machines march to the center of town to destroy a vat of lethal virus. Of course, with half a second left, the world is saves, and it's all good.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5, but it's mindless.

7. PAPRIKA: A dreaming machine begins to suck people into coma's. somewhat reminiscent of "The Cell" with J-Lo. It has the same weirdness as Akira, but much more of it. A great surreal world. But whereas most movies that have two worlds where characters pop back and forth, this one actually is as amazing in it's "real" world as in it's dream one. It's damn near R-rated, and definitely not for kids.
Rating 3.5 out of 5.

8. FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN: This one is very similar to Appleseed. The monsters are better, scarier, and the final sequences, more exciting. Makes you think a bit harder, but overall, just as good. No more, no less.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5, but it's mindless.

9. GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES: I'm putting this one down here, cause it's horrible. The movie is essentially 2 hours of watching 2 kids die of starvation. Nothing good happens to them. It's depressing and fucked up. Don't get it. There's not a single ray of sunshine in this one. BUT, the overall story is on the suffering of war, the death and destruction, the struggle for life, the end of every relationship and joy that drives humans to move and to love and enjoy. In our current world, we are all given license to moan and gripe and be wounded for losses, be they of individuals, jobs, relationships. But in this movie, the losses are so total, that there is no room to moan and be wounded. There is only time to struggle with all of ones might to keep up with the pace of survival. To acquire food, to stay warm, to deal with the unforeseen and to improvise. This movie is just about a couple of kids thrust into an existence of survival. A survival that based upon their love, dedication and need to preserve the last thing that means anything to them in their life. They are supported by the idea that their father will one day return, but by the end, this is quashed too. When folks think about Japan and war, one thinks of the atrocities against the Chinese, The alliance with the Germans, Pearls Harbor, the Bataan Death March, the firebombing of the major cities, the dropping of 2 nuclear bombs, surrender and the miraculous return to glory. This film holds the lense tightly on the suffering of the Japanese people, and their most vulnerable citizens, children. For that, I have to give this film high ratings. It must represent something that was deep in the national consciousness, and had to be expressed, but it certainly doesn't qualify in my mind as "entertainment" it's something else entirely, and as such, it demonstrates the vast range and capability of anime, as exemplified in the other great anime sci-fi mentioned above.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

10. NAUSICAA, VALLEY OF THE WIND: This one is pretty creative. good battles, good story, strange creatures, good scenes. But, it's for kids. It's too corny and cutesy for any real Black man to enjoy, but the kids got off on it. It's a lot like the old Speed Racer, or Marine Boy (that I can't seem to find anywhere).
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 for kids, 1 out of 5 for adults.

As a final note, I think it would be a shame for anyone that considered themselves to be a movie lover, and film afficianado to get through life without at least a short sojourn into the realm of anime. If nothing else, it will add to your understanding and experience of movies, what they are, what they can be, and what they can convey.

White Outrage At SDSU For Audacious Drug Etiquette Faux Paux In Arrest Of Whites

There are some seriously pissed off folks at San Diego University right now. They had absolutely no idea that they could be arrested for drug dealing. Even now, I have nary a doubt that many of them are just now beginning to realize that for whatever reason, they are have, against all odds, been arrested for crimes usually reserved exclusively for Blacks.

Read the following article, and you'll see the following points that I had emphasized in yesterday's blog.
1. Affluent Neighborhoods, Cars and Vehicles are virtual drug use free pass areas to the point that folks within these neighborhoods are completely in the dark about the current catastrophe going on in Black communities for the last 30 years. Affluent KNOW, that drugs are illegal, but the point is, rich, affluent folks have been virtually immune from drug charges as long as they remain in their communities and do not deal with inner city Blacks in the acquisition of drugs.

Danielle Patterson, a sophomore sorority member, said she was awake cramming for finals when agents raided an apartment behind her building. She said, "I never thought something like that would happen here," she said. "To think they think drugs are such a big issue here, it's ridiculous."

2. What this whole incident exposes, and will continue to expose, is that affluent folks have absolutely no compassion for what has been happening to Blacks. The unspoken assumption has been that Blacks who have been given outrageous sentences for drug possession are deserving of such sentences, not because they are bad people, but because they are Black, and ample warning has been given to the Black community, that any trifling with drugs can result in a life sentence. Affluent folks have NOT been included in this. And so, in a sense, they feel that they have every right to be outraged and blindsided by this recent turn of events. In fact, they probably have legal grounds with which to challenge the arrests, seeing as it's common knowledge that the police have no business busting rich whites in academic sanctuaries for any crime. Believe it, the calls for leniency have just begun, and before this thing is over, every last affluent kid involved in this, will be seen as a martyr. Hell, we may even have the beginnings of a new religion.

Some students and parents complained that the bust was heavy-handed. Parents joined students at a campus rally Wednesday calling for more drug-abuse treatment instead of tougher enforcement. "This heavy hand coming down is not going to change drug use on campus," said Gretchen Burns-Bergman, whose son is a month away from graduating. "There's not going to be a shortage of drugs on campus."


3. Affluent Universities and Colleges are complicit in creating the drug use free zones on Campuses across the country. The understanding with affluent folks is that the colleges will protect and safeguard their children's futures. Part of this strategy is to turn a blind eye towards rampant alcohol use, sexual assaults, and drug use and sales, as well as cheating, writing bad checks, etc. Because colleges have been establishehd to safeguard affluent folks through the difficult transition from young adulthood, to movers and shakers. What many Blacks understand is that if you are accepted, not only are you given the tools necessary to succeed in life, but you will be treated with kid gloves until the day of your graduation. Every effort will be made, to make sure that you dodge all the hazards to make it to the promised land. I'm in shock that this eden has been invaded. Someone seriously messed up, and I will not be surprised if some cops lose their jobs over this.

Campus police started the probe a year ago after the cocaine overdose death of a freshman sorority member, but they soon called in federal agents to provide fresh faces on campus and supply the money needed to make drug buys. That was a major departure from the arms'-length relationship that has existed between colleges and police since the 1960s. For decades, police in many communities have largely turned a blind eye to drugs on campus. Yet the invitation to federal authorities was unusual because it involved an open-ended investigation that didn't involve a violent crime. "In general, universities are pretty jealous of their prerogatives and are uneasy about welcoming outside authorities onto campus," said Todd Gitlin, a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University, a former student radical and a leading authority on the '60s counterculture. "There's a real reluctance at universities to call on outside police." University President Stephen Weber defended the decision to bring federal authorities onto campus.

4. These affluent kids and parents feel utterly betrayed by the University for abiding by the law. The reason is that of course, affluent folks should be protected from the harsh realities that Blacks and other minorities face on a daily basis. If I was affluent and got caught up in this mess, or I was a affluent parent and got caught up in this mess, I'd be mad too. The fact that the drug sales were so out in the open, on campus and no effort whatsoever to hide or disguise what was going on, shows that these affluent young men were absolutely not concerned with arrest in the least. Why should they be? they attend classes on one of hundreds of affluent free drug use zones across this country.

The day after the drug sweep landed members of three fraternities in jail and led to the suspension of six frats, investigators revealed how easy it was to penetrate the university's drug culture."They never gave any thought that we could be doing an operation there," said Eileen Zeidler, a spokeswoman for the DEA office in San Diego. At least 75 people arrested during the five-month sting were San Diego State students, and 13 of them were from seven fraternities. All together, there were 128 arrests, 61 on Tuesday. Theta Chi had the highest number of students arrested, with five.Undercover agents who posed as college students to bust more than 100 suspected drug dealers at San Diego State University never had to crack a book to gain acceptance on campus. All it took was cash. The federal agents went to one or two parties but never actually went to class or lived in the dorms. Instead, they merely arranged meetings with suspected dealers and asked about buying cocaine, Ecstasy, methamphetamine, marijuana and other drugs, authorities said Wednesday. "All it took was saying, `Hey, I go to State, can you hook me up?'" said San Diego County prosecutor Damon Mosler. "And then it was off to the races."

5. It appears that so much hype about anti-drug propoganda has seeped across this nation on it's War on Drugs, some of the SDSU administration had no idea that they were breaking drug etiquette by calling in the big dogs. Even today, after more arrests were made, the SDSU administration stated the following:

"Some have asked what we think this publicity has done for SDSU's reputation. I have told them I am proud of the action taken by SDSU to proactively address this serious threat to our students," Weber said in a statement Wednesday. "As a parent I would want my son or daughter to attend a university committed to providing the safest possible environment."

All I have to say is that there are probably at least 25,000 affluent drug dealers on college campuses and fraternities across this nation that are furiously flushing thousands of dollars worth of product down the toilet at this very minute. I'm sure a few are having blowout sales, but mark my words, this bust is a an anomaly. Although at least 50 affluent boys and girls could be arrested on every affluent campus a day for breaking federal drug use, possession or sales policy, it will never become a trend. In fact, if the police had truly used the same strategy that they used in the Black community, they would have had at least 1,000 arrests, because in the city they focus on small time dealers, but mostly, the focus on the small time buyers. I guarantee you, nary a single buyer was busted in this. Is it discriminatory that they didn't focus on buyers like they do in the hood? absolutely, but what it shows is that they truly do understand the problem. For had they busted buyers, they would have invariably been exactly the same as the buyers in the hood (more or less). They would in many instances be the kids that came from broken homes, who were outcasts, who had histories of abuse, sexual and physical. who were going through tough transitions, losses, deaths of loved ones, family discord, break-ups or had underlying mental health issues like depression, bi-polar disorder, dyslexia, etc. So they didn't focus on the buyers... But the point is, they don't give the same consideration when it comes to the hood. If these dope dealers had a hundred thousand dollars worth of dope, then it was because that's how much dope they needed and how much they were movin'. that's a lot of buyers. If you figure the average sale was an eighth, then that's at least 5,500 sales and 5,500 users, and that's just the marijuana. That doesn't count the mushrooms, meth, ecstacy, cocaine.... Believe me, this bust could have been a whole lot uglier.

All quotes in this story were from the following story: "FEDS PENETRATED DRUG CULTURE EASILY AT SAN DIEGO STATE"
By Allison Hoffman, Associated Press Writer, Wednesday, May 7, 2008