Stu Thinks...

Dream Fulfilled Part II: My Graduate School Experience

2016-05-11T06:30:00.000-04:00

When I received my Bachelor's Degree from the University of South Florida four years ago, I felt like I was floating on cloud nine! I wrote an article titled "DreamFulfilled: The Necessity of Higher Education" and talked about my educational experience up to that point and expressed my sincere gratitude to the people who helped me get there. Here I am four years later, the proud new holder of a Master's Degree in Communication and Leadership from Park University. I am going to talk about my graduate school experience with the hope of inspiring people around me to pursue or continue pursuing their educational and life goals.

My journey towards a Master's Degree started in January of 2014. I took a few years off after finishing undergraduate school because I needed to devote time to taking care of some obligations for my military career. My time wearing the uniform will be coming to an end within the next five years or so and my deteriorating knee condition forced me to think about what I want to do once I retire from the Marine Corps. I wanted to make myself as marketable as possible when I make the transition from being on active duty to the civilian world and I believed completing this degree program would help with that process.

I knew I wanted to go to graduate school because that was a long term goal I set for myself when I started taking classes with Park University in 2007. That long term goal was now my new short term goal and I needed to get started before I spent too much time away from the academic world. I knew going in that this process wasn't going to be easy, but it was a process that I had to go through in order to get to my goal.

I had to study for and take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) to get into graduate school. The test itself was very difficult, but I scored well enough to be accepted. I think what helped me the most was my strong grades and credibility with Park University from my previous time with the school (2007-2010). I only took one class per semester because that's all the time I could afford to give. My obligations at home and at work were too great for me to do more than one class. I didn't want to stretch myself too thin by taking on a heavy class load and thankfully I didn't because one class at times felt like I was taking three or four.

I really enjoyed most of the classes I took, but there were some assignments/projects that really tested my patience and desire to complete the program. Anyone that has spent any time with me at all knows that academic excellence is not optional. I am not satisfied with making anything less than A's in school because I know I have the ability to do so if I put in the time and effort required. I managed to make straight A’s throughout graduate school, finishing with a 4.0 GPA. In the grand scheme of things, are employers going to ask me if I made all A's in grad school? Probably not, but just in case they do, I want my transcripts to have as many A's as possible and I was fortunate enough to achieve my goal. I've been called an over achiever more than once in my life, but I take it as a compliment and keep striving to be the best at everything I get involved in.

I feel obligated to succeed to prove that despite the obstacles life throws my way, with a combination of determination, a good work ethic, and making good decisions, I could beat the odds. Some might suggest that fear is a bad thing, but going through this program reinforced my approach to life in that I use the fear of failure as motivation. My fear of failure has driven me to be successful at everything I have attempted to do in life. I will not allow fear to stop me from doing things that can move me forward to achieve the goals I've set for myself. Simply put, I cannot afford to fail because there are too many people looking up to me and depending on me to succeed.

My fear of failure could be linked to growing up with very little money and wanting a better life for my family. I don't have fear in my heart because my parents were too critical of me, unsupportive, or routinely undermined or humiliated me in childhood. I did not experience a traumatic event at some point in my life where I performed poorly or fell apart when the pressure was on me to perform. My parents have been loving and supportive of me from the start, but they were also very demanding and ran a tight household. Part of what continues to drive me to succeed is the fact that I grew up seeing too many people struggling to earn a decent living and I decided early on in life that I needed to do something different.

With everything I have been blessed with up to this point in my life and going forward, I still have an obligation to never forget the people who are not as fortunate as I have been and extend my hand to them to assist them in achieving their goals and dreams. In the spirit of philanthropist W.E.B. Du Bois' Talented Tenth concept, I believe that leadership can arise from many levels and grassroots efforts on the part of people like myself can have a tremendous impact on the social change we want to see in communities all over the world. There are people all over the world who have suffered the most and have the least to lose that are depending on today's generation of leaders for our steadfast, dependable, and uncompromising leadership.

What's Next:

Considering one of my future goals is to become a college professor, this program presented a perfect opportunity for me to see how well prepared I am to transition from the Marine Corps to a college campus. Being a lifelong learner, I am going to continue reading as many books as I can. I have purchased many books periodically over the last couple of years, but never got the opportunity to read them because I just didn't have time. I did manage to squeeze in reading about 50 articles a day and that number will probably go up quite a bit now that I have a lot more free time on my hands.

At some point in the next five years or so, I do plan to pursue a doctoral degree, but right now I plan on taking a break from academia and enjoy spending my free time doing things I really enjoy doing. Speaking of free time, I'll be spending many, many hours on my back porch cooking meat. That's my happy place and something I really enjoy doing, so I am going to take full advantage of this time trying to perfect my craft on the grill and smoker.

My blog will be back in action after a two year hiatus. Keep your eyes open for some hard-hitting opinion pieces that will hopefully provoke thought and stimulate good dialogue amongst friends and colleagues.

Thank You:

I'd first like to thank my wife and kids for their tireless support during this process. Thank you so much for the support you provided on the many late nights, early mornings, and countless hours of sitting behind a computer reading, writing, and working on projects. I am driven to be excellent in everything I do because I am trying to set the right example for you to follow. You young ladies are the reason that failure is not an option for me. Thank you!

To my loving parents who always encouraged me, believed in me, and prayed for me, thank you. I have always tried to make my parents proud and this accomplishment is a testament to how well they raised me and the values they instilled in me.

To the Marines who have worked and currently work with me, thank you. Thank all of you for your patience, tolerance, and understanding while doing my best to set the right example for you to emulate. My hope is that you've seen me go through the process and realize you too have the ability to exceed anything I have accomplished because you guys are a lot smarter than I am. The question is, do you have the drive it takes to get you to that point and beyond? Challenge issued!

To the three people I asked to write letters of recommendation for me when I applied to graduate school; Mr. Theodore Parrish, Ms. Jennifer Simpson, and Ms. Monique Smith. I made a promise to the three of you that if you put your good name on the line for me, I would come through for you and I did. I have reached out to the three of you for mentorship and guidance along the way and words cannot express how grateful I am to have people like you in my life.

Ted, you are like the big brother I never had. The things you've accomplished in your career helped inspire me to reach for the stars and I will be forever grateful for our friendship and brotherhood. We've had some long, involved conversations about life, business, and careers and you've never guided me wrong. I don't know if you realize how many people look up to you for being such a successful person in the investment world. What impresses me the most is that you have never forgotten where we came from and always represent Folkston, Georgia with the highest level of dignity and respect. You've set the bar high my friend and I look forward to continuing to be the kind of example young people want to follow and emulate. http://parrishcapital.com/who-we-are/founders-bio/

Jennifer, we spent three of the most wonderful years of our lives together at the NROTC unit at USF. Even though you were my boss, it was our ability to work together as a team that helped us be as successful as we were. I wish you had stayed in the Corps a little bit longer because leaders like you are hard to find. Young Marines are thirsty to be around squared away Marines like yourself and I will always have very fond memories of the time we spent together as colleagues and friends.

Monique, we have been friends since middle school and I am thankful that our friendship has stood the test of circumstance, time, and distance. You set the example for me to follow and I'm sure I told you this many times before, but you continue to impress me. When you were named to the Jacksonville Business Journal's 40 Under 40 in 2014, I thought to myself, "I need to step my game up because my sister is leaving me in the dust!" I appreciate your passion for your job and for challenging me in your own way to succeed beyond our dreams.

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/feature/40-under-40-mary-smith.html

To my NJZ Family in Tampa, thank you. You guys are the finest group of professional, highly successful men and women who took me under your wings and treated me like I was a family member. Our friendship means the world to me and I'm happy to have a good set of people like you in my life.

To my Kamp-8 crew in Okinawa, thank you. Fellas, every one of you supported me during this journey and gave me the encouragement I needed to get through some tough times. Its people like you guys that makes being a Marine one of the best jobs in the world. Now I'll have a little bit more time to smash some heads in dominoes, so stand by for the beatings!

To Mrs. Marie Hill at the MCAS Futenma Education Office, thank you. I cannot tell you how many times I came into your office after finishing a class and you treated me like I was the most important customer you'd talk to that day. Your smile and telling me to keep pushing to the end really made a difference.

To Dr. Lora Cohn and Dr. Mark Noe, thank you. You two were my primary professors in the program and I really appreciate all of the guidance you've given me along the way. I learned so much from you and how to conduct business in the classroom as a true professional. I hope to continue working with you in the near future if the opportunity presents itself for me to be a part of the Park faculty.

To all of my family and friends who have supported me in one way or another, thank you as well. I'll be the first to admit that I am not the smartest, sharpest, or brightest person in the world; but what I have been blessed with is a work ethic that helps me overcome all of my natural shortcomings. I tell people all the time, if you can invest time on social media, you can certainly invest time in yourself to go to school. Hopefully something I've said here helps someone realize that their dreams are reachable and achievable.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on May 11, 2016 via Blogger.com

Vote, Vote, Vote

2014-05-20T17:38:00.000-04:00

Now more than ever, we as Americans need to be actively involved in every election and getting as many people as you know registered to vote. Off year elections usually result in lower voter turnout than presidential election years, but the 2014 election is not the election you want to skip. The mid-term election of 2010 and some of the candidates who were elected that year is a very good example of what can happen when people don’t vote in large numbers.

Voting is so important that almost every commercial you’ll see over the next six months will be a negative political ad. Thanks to the Citizen’s United and McCutcheon decisions by the Supreme Court, candidates and their big money Political Action Groups are going to flood the airways trying to convince us to vote for a candidate of their liking and tell us why we shouldn’t vote for the other candidate. These bad decisions, along with the horrible decision by the Supreme Court to lift certain restrictions from the Voting Rights Act of 1965 will do more damage to voting rights than the overt tactics of voter suppression and intimidation laws used in the Jim Crow South.

The attack on voting rights has reared its ugly head once again as we’ve seen bills being introduced and passed in states all over the country, making it harder and more difficult for people to vote. I’m not just talking about the new voter ID laws, but the subtler changes like closing the polls earlier, decreasing the amount of polling places (which lengthens the time people stand in line to vote), and shortening the number of early voting days (a direct attack on Sunday Souls to the Polls drives). People with huge chucks of money are being given free reign to influence the political process in America and basically buy their way into office, while it’s getting harder and harder for normal citizens to cast their ballots.

It is very important for each and every one of us to make sure that everyone we know, interact, and deal with are registered to vote. We have to be educated voters because the political elite and their cronies are depending on us to be low information voters. This explains why the approval rating for Congress is at an all time low, but incumbents continue to be re-elected. We have the power to hold our elected officials accountable and fire them when they aren’t doing the people’s business. It is definitely time for some of the sitting members of Congress to be given their walking papers because they are too far disconnected with the needs and desires of the people they are elected to serve.

I understand that some of you might be loyal to the Democratic Party, but really, what has the Democratic Party done for us lately? Those of you who are loyal to the Republican Party are in the same boat because more than likely, you are voting for candidates who don’t have your best interest in mind. I know this might not sit well with some of my friends on either side of the political spectrum, but it the truth. Don’t get married to a political party because then you'll start voting for the (D) or (R) that comes after a person’s name instead of voting for that person. Voting down party lines dumbs down the voter, and makes it easier to assume that a candidate is ok just because they are a Democrat or a Republican.

Forgive me for not having a lot of confidence in the Democratic Party and their failed promises during campaign season, only to see them get elected and forget about the issues of which they campaigned. The Republican Party continues to show through their legislative agenda and some of the most outrageous candidates they can find, that they do not give a damn about minorities, civil rights for the LGBT community, poor people, women’s rights to choose, non-Christian Americans, unemployed workers, or public school teachers. As one female radio talk show host asked, “have you seen the things Republicans want to stick in women?”

I’m not telling you which party to affiliate with, or who to support because I’m not in bed with either party. For the record, I am a non-Party affiliated voter. I purposely do not affiliate myself with either of the two major political parties in this country and for that, I can only vote in general elections.

My lack of trust in either of these parties to carry out the business of the nation is no reason for me or anyone else to throw in the towel and not vote. Too many people have given their lives and sacrificed a whole lot of blood and tears for every American to have the right vote in this country. To me, it is a slap in the face and an insult to those pioneers when we don’t take advantage of the power we have through our vote.

If you have not registered to vote yet, please do not wait until November to get registered. Act now and let your voice be heard through the ballot, or remain silent when the results of the election produce elected officials who care more about getting re-elected than governing. Do whatever it takes to get registered and help someone who might have trouble getting the necessary documentation to get registered to vote. Our lives are going to be affected in one way or another by the results of the upcoming elections, so be sure that your vote gets counted because each and every vote truly does matter.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on May 20, 2014 via Blogger.com

Take the Challenge With Me

2013-11-21T00:14:00.000-05:00

The recent arrest and conviction of an active member of the United States House of Representatives for cocaine possession forced me think about how flawed drug laws and their enforcement is in America. The most hypocritical part of this sad scenario is the fact that an elected official was using cocaine while at the same time supporting legislation to demand food stamp recipients submit to random drug tests in order to get benefits. This Politco article outlines what this sitting member of Congress voted to do for those Americans of are food stamp recipients. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/trey-radel-arrest-food-stamps-100138.html

There is not a doubt in my mind that if I got caught purchasing 3.5 grams of cocaine worth $250 from an undercover agent, there is no way in hell that my punishment would be a $250 fine and one year of probation, while getting to keep my job. If someone who looks like me got caught with something that looks like drug paraphernalia, the same benefit of the doubt would not be given. No favoritism or back door deals, or slaps on the wrist for the average Joe, but a sitting member of Congress gets to blame his cocaine use on alcohol abuse and keep representing the people of Florida like nothing ever happened. Imagine if you can for a moment, that your neighbor or co-worker was arrested for cocaine possession, and got to keep their job. Taking a leave of absence is unacceptable and calling a press conference after 10 pm is not what I call would accountability. His actions should force legislation that would require every elected official to submit to random drug tests because after all; they are government employees who are being paid with tax-payer dollars. If drug tests are good for food stamp and welfare recipients, they should also be good for those voting in favor of these requirements.

I am sympathetic towards people who have drug and alcohol addiction, but I have very little compassion for people like this Congressman who has spent their careers victimizing and demonizing their fellow citizen. I wonder if the Tea Party is going to cancel his membership because of his hypocrisy? I wonder if the same people on right wing talk radio and the news channel that claims to be “fair and balanced” will call for their Tea Party brother to step down like they did when a sitting Congressman sent pictures of his “package” all over the internet. Of course they won’t because all of that Tea Party, patriotic, family values, limited government, conservative mumbo jumbo rhetoric is nothing more than propoghanda.

Did he have ulterior motives when he cosponsored H.R. 1695, which would give judges more flexibility on sentencing in cases involving mandatory minimums? While I support abolishing mandatory sentencing, sitting members of Congress who are voting to change laws should not be doing so under the influence of cocaine. I’m sure there are many of you out there who know someone who has been arrested, or is currently serving time behind bars for drug possession. What kind of message does this slap on the wrist send to people currently serving time for committing similar or less harsh crimes? The statistics prove that there is a huge disparity the in sentencing laws that are harsher on crack users than cocaine users and a person’s ethnicity has everything to do with it.

Take the Challenge:

Will you stand with me and reach out to these young people by sending them this letter along with one of following three books for them to read? 1. This Isis Paper; The Keys to the Colors by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing. 2. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Melissa Alexander. 3. Letters to an Incarcerated Brother by Hill Harper. As they return to society, they need to know we have not given up on them and we want them to be productive members of society and our community. I have drafted an example of a short letter intended for young men and women who are currently incarcerated. Feel free to copy or modify it as you see fit.

“Dear Young Brother or Sister,

You might not know who I am and I might not know who you are, but I want you to know that there are people out here who still love and care about your physical and mental health while you are incarcerated. Not all of us have given up on you and when the time comes for you to make the transition back to life outside the walls of jail or prison, I hope and pray that something you read in one of these books will encourage you to help another brother or sister avoid going down the wrong path. This Isis Paper; The Keys to the Colors by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Melissa Alexander, or Letters to an Incarcerated Brother by Hill Harper are examples of books filled with educational information that will force you to think about some of the following things:

1. Why respecting your fellow man is important.

2. Breaks down the system of racism, white supremacy.

3. Explores the hidden meanings of terminology and symbols.

4. Helps you understand who are you as an African American?

5. Why the system wants you to remain incarcerated.

Please accept this book as a seed from me to you and I pray that you will allow the words to inspire you to be a better man or woman, better husbands and wives to your spouse, and better parents to your children. I have no doubt that this book will be a blessing to your mind, body, & soul.

God Bless,

Your Name”

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on November 21, 2013 via Blogger.com

Need Scholarship Money?

2013-08-05T11:09:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I decided to apply for graduate school and during the process, I quickly realized the cost per credit hour for each class is somewhat higher than undergraduate classes. Fortunately for me, the Military Tuition Assistance Program covered 100% of the cost for my two undergraduate degrees, up to $4,500 per year. The program will also cover up to $250 per credit hour for graduate level classes, up to $4,500 per year.

At the university I chose to attend for graduate school, tuition per credit hour for undergraduate students is $350 per credit hour (approx $1,050 per class) for regular students and $240 per credit hours for Active Duty Military students. Tuition per credit hour for graduate students is $480 per credit hour (approx $1,440 per class) for regular students and $385 per credit hour for Active Duty Military students.

That leaves about $135 per credit hour I will need to pay out of pocket, but there are a number of scholarships that are accessible to people just like me that could offset these costs!

I am going to share some information about scholarship opportunities that are available to people all over the world. These scholarships are out there, but no one is going to knock on our doors and ask if we would like to have one. There are a number of companies and organizations that have donated monies for academic scholarships but unfortunately, a great deal of this money is being returned because of a lack of interest or applications.

Most scholarships require written essays, letters of recommendation, and copies of your transcripts (either high school or college). Others are need-based scholarships, where you are required to provide proof of income. Some of the applications can be filled out totally online, while others ask you to mail in the application. Some of the scholarships target specific degree seeking students, while others are based on gender, ethnicity, or religious affiliation.

I slept on a lot of these scholarship opportunities during my undergraduate studies because I had the Military Tuition Assistance Program. When my $4,500 yearly allocation dried up, I was applying for scholarships left and right. For every 20 scholarships I applied for, 18 or 19 went to other students.

I would not be honest if I told you that discouragement did not creep into my spirit from time and time, but I kept applying. I did get tired of writing essays and asking people to write letters of recommendation on my behalf, but I kept applying. You are going to have to read through a lot of material and sift through scholarships that are not applicable to your particular situation. Time, effort, patience, and persistence are mandatory in this endeavor.

Regardless to how many scholarships you do not win, keep applying!

Please pass this information on to your family members, nieces, nephews, and friends with college-aged children. For those of you without a college-aged child at home, share this with someone who does. If you have children, take the initiative to get them involved and invested in their own futures. There is no need for money to be returned to donating companies because we fail to apply.

If you are a college student or getting ready to become one, you already know how useful additional money can be. Below are a few links to many websites where scholarship information can be found.

*If clicking on the link doesn't work, copy and paste the URL in your web browser.

FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)

http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

Finaid: The Smart Students Guide to Financial Aid & Scholarships

www.finaid.org/

College Scholarships.org

http://www.collegescholarships.org

Student Inventors Scholarships

www.invent.org/collegiate/

Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation

http://www.coca-colascholarsfoundation.org/applicants/#programs

Ron Brown Scholar Program

http://www.ronbrown.org/Apply/EligibilityRequirements.aspx

United Negro College Fund

http://www.uncf.org/sections/ForStudents/SS_Scholarships/scholarships.asp

SIT Study Abroad Scholarships

http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/scholarships.htm

Hispanic Scholarship Fund

http://www.hispanicfund.org/scholarships/

Ronald McDonald House Charities U.S. Scholarships

http://rmhc.org/what-we-do/rmhc-u-s-scholarships/

Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship Award

http://www.jackierobinson.org/apply/general-applicants.php

The Sallie Mae Fund Search for Scholarships

http://www.thesalliemaefund.org/smfnew/sections/search.html

Alpha Kappa Alpha Educational Advancement Foundation

http://www.akaeaf.org/undergraduate_scholarships.htm#

American Geosciences Institute

http://www.agiweb.org/scholarships/

American Physical Society Minority Scholarship

http://www.aps.org/programs/minorities/honors/scholarship/

Elks National Foundation Most Valuable Student Competition

http://www.elks.org/enf/scholars/mvs.cfm

National Association of Colored Women’s Club, Hallie Q. Brown Scholarship

http://www.nacwc.org/programs/scholarships.html

National Black Nurses Association Scholarship Program

http://www.nbna.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74&Itemid=133

Thurgood Marshall College Fund

http://www.thurgoodmarshallfund.net/scholarship/about-scholarships-program

Xerox Scholarships for Students

http://www.xerox.com/jobs/minority-scholarships/enus.html

National Assoc. Of Black Journalists Scholarships

http://members.nabj.org/scholarshipintro.html

Microsoft Scholarship Program

www.Microsoft.Com/College/Scholarships/Minority.Asp

The American Political Science Association

http://www.apsanet.org/content_3115.cfm

Guaranteed Scholarships

www.guaranteed-scholarships.com/

Jacki Tuckfield Memorial Graduate Business Scholarship

www.jackituckfield.org/

Burger King Scholarship Program

http://www.scholarships360.org/2013-burger-king-scholars-program/

Siemens Westinghouse Competition

http://www.siemens-foundation.org/en/merit_scholarship.htm

GE Funds LULAC Scholarship Program

http://lulac.org/programs/education/scholarships/

Union Sponsored Scholarships And Aid

http://www.unionplus.org/college-education-financing/union-plus-scholarship

SIT Study Abroad and SIT Graduate Institute

http://www.sit.edu/sit_index.htm

Graduate Fellowships For Minorities Nationwide

http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/costs-and-funding/fellowships

Rhodes Scholarships At Oxford

www.rhodesscholar.org/info.html

The Roothbert Scholarship Fund

http://www.roothbertfund.org/scholarships.php#fund

Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps

http://www.nrotc.navy.mil/scholarships.aspx

Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Scholarship Program

http://www.nrotc.navy.mil/MSI.aspx

Frederick C. Branch Marine Corps Leadership Scholarship

http://www.nrotc.navy.mil/fcb.aspx

Army Reserve Officer Training Corps

http://www.goarmy.com/rotc/scholarships.html

Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps

http://www.afrotc.com/scholarships/high-school/overview/

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on August 5, 2013 via Blogger.com

How Soon We Forget

2013-05-06T09:30:00.001-04:00

When the word radicals and terrorists are mentioned, what is your first thought?

Since the horrific events of 9/11, people of a certain skin tone or religious preference have been stereotyped, profiled, harassed, and pre-judged as being anti-American or terrorist. No one has the ability to identify a terrorist by simply looking at a picture, or based off the spelling of his or her name.

People who behave or believe this way have a phobia against Islam or Muslims, more commonly known as Islamophobia. Islamophobia is prejudice against, hatred towards, or having an irrational fear of Muslims or Islam. We have seen and heard a lot of anti-Islamic talk in the media after the bombing at the Boston Marathon.

Instead of trying to understand and respect other religions, the conservative voices on the radio and television immediately start name-calling, placing labels and demonizing others for choosing to worship the God of their choice. I don’t understand how anyone could group all people of the Islamic faith into one general category, or try to make them out to be a monolithic people.

Some of our fellow Americans either have short memories, or practice a selective style of remembering historical events in relation to present day events when they start making a case to demagogue a religion different than their own.

Just because a person proclaims to be associated with a religion does not mean that they represent the entire faith. For the record, all Muslims are not terrorists and all terrorists are not Muslims.

If we were to use the very conservative approach to analyzing terrorists, every American should be scared to death of young white men. The numbers don’t lie when it comes to who has historically committed acts of terror on American soil against fellow Americans.

The criminal profile of most perpetrators in mass shootings and serial killers has historically been young white men, but there is not a call by the conservative media to stereotype, profile, or harass them. When a non-Arabic person or a person who isn’t a Muslim commits an act of terror, they are called lone wolves, or crazed individuals.

A Feburary 27, 2013 article by Mother Jones, “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America” there have been 62 mass shootings in the last 30 years. A whopping 44 of the terrorist were white males. With that being said, it would be careless and ignorant to stereotype white men the same way people of Arab decent, or Muslims have been treated. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map

A wonderful piece of journalism by Soledad O’Brien shined light on this subject in the documentary, “Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door.” The story was based off of a very controversial court case in Rutherford County, Murfreesboro, TN. The nasty court battle was in response to an attempt to block a group of Muslims who wanted to build a huge Mosque in the county.

A majority of the people interviewed claimed that the Muslims who wanted to build the mosque are of the same religion as the people who flew the planes into the building. How soon did they forget that they were of the same religion of the people who enslaved, murdered, and lynched hundreds of thousands of Native Americans and African slaves? I’m sure they forgot about the people who bombed the 16^th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, or burned crosses to intimidate or terrorize fellow Americans.

One of hip hops brightest artists; Jasiri X produced a masterful song about Islamophobia called Wandering Strangers. The video can be viewed by clicking the link below. At a hearing on Muslim Radicalization held by Rep. Peter King a few years ago, you can clearly hear the hatred in the voices of the people screaming, “Go Back Home” and “Muhammad was a terrorist” amongst other nasty and vile obscenities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8v1Du790HM

How soon we forget the Catholic Church and its long and disturbing history of child molestation, but priests and bishops are often times given a pass or moved to another state where they continue to prey on young, innocent people who do not have the ability to defend themselves against these monsters.

How soon we forget who the terrorist was in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting, or who the terrorist was that shot-up an Arizona Congresswoman’s town hall meeting, or who the terrorist was in the Sikh Temple shooting in Wisconsin, or who the terrorist was in the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre, or who blew up the building in Oklahoma City.

Radical, religious extremists are all over the world and are bad for humanity. They use religion to justify bigotry and violence against other people. Child molesters, rapists, murderers, and the people hoarding weapons and ammunition in their basements are the people we should really be concerned with. Don’t forget who the real criminals are and the people we definitely have to keep our eyes on.

“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people being oppressed, and loving the people doing the oppressing.” Malcolm X

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on May 6, 2013 via Blogger.com

Is Christopher Dorner, Larry Davis Reincarnated?

2013-02-20T04:48:00.000-05:00

When I first heard the news about former LAPD police officer Christopher Dorner, another name immediately came to mind; Larry Davis. 19 year old Larry Davis, who later changed his name to Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was a former police informant, small time drug dealer and aspiring rapper who went to war with the NYPD in 1986 after a controversial and highly disputed shootout in his sister’s apartment.

Davis claimed the police illegally barged their way into his sister’s apartment and without asking any questions, began firing at him despite the fact that young children were in the apartment. Davis fired back and escaped by jumping some 25 ft to the ground. During the shootout, Davis shot six police officers and was a fugitive of the law for almost 20 days.

Davis eventually surrendered peacefully, but not to the NYPD. He gave himself up to the FBI out of fear of being murdered by the blood thirsty, racist, corrupt, and revenge seeking NYPD. He expressed great concern that the police were out to get him and told several relatives that if he was caught in the streets, the police were going to shoot him. He vowed to shoot them first.

Davis and his lawyers successfully argued that he was the target of corrupt police officers, who had the reputation for being hostile and brutal towards Blacks and Hispanics in the New York area. To many, Larry Davis was a man standing up against the authorities and understood his need to protect himself against the police. A lot of Bronx residents thought Davis was doing something brave and his acquittal sent a message to the community that white officers were not going to continue to shoot down young Black people without a proper response.

He was acquitted on several accounts of attempted murder and aggravated assault, but was convicted on weapons charges and sentenced to 5-15 years. While already serving time, Davis was convicted of another murder and sentenced to serve an additional 25 years to life.

The interesting thing about the Larry Davis saga was the media coverage of the events that transpired between himself and the police. Without knowing all of the facts, both the television and print media had already labeled Davis as public enemy number one. They depicted Davis as a savage killer, who was armed and dangerous.

Unlike Davis, Christopher Dorner’s past was not as shady as his east coast counterpart. He was a 33 year old, former Naval Officer who was dismissed from the LAPD in 2008 for lying during a hearing in which he claimed a fellow police officer physically abused an inmate. In his lengthy manifesto, Dorner claimed he was the victim of a corrupt police force who turned against him for being a whistle blower.

Also unlike Davis, Dorner’s rage was against the LAPD and he specifically targeted police officers and their family members to seek revenge for his firing from the force. The killing spree he went on is inexcusable, especially for a man who knows the difference between good and evil, right from wrong, just from unjust. His well written manifesto proves that he was a smart individual, but there is no justification for his violent actions.

Dorner was clearly a man who had lost faith in the same system he spent his adult life protecting and violated everything good he learned during his time in the military and on the police force. Restoring his good name was the central theme for his manifesto, but his violent pursuit of justice will tarnish his name forever because of all the innocent people who were affected by his decision to take on the LAPD by himself.

While I adamantly disagree with his actions, I cannot completely dismiss the allegations made in the manifesto. Like the NYPD, the LAPD is notorious for their harsh and brutal treatment of Blacks and Hispanics. This fact is not arguable or debatable. There was no intention on Dorner’s part to be captured alive and the LAPD had all intentions on honoring his request, as witnessed in the moments of the final confrontation.

No matter how much of an image makeover the LAPD has tried to do over the last 20 years, some of the same bad apples are still on the force. Why would some of the officers captured nearly beating the life out of Rodney King be in leadership positions in the department today? A better question would be why those jokers did not go to jail?

Whether people want to believe it or not, there is a Christopher Dorner waiting to happen in every city, in every state in America. He should be the poster child for why people should not be allowed to legally obtain as many weapons as they want to. When he purchased his cache of guns and ammunition, he was a law abiding citizen. He was a time bomb waiting to explode and unfortunately, innocent civilians and a couple of police officers were killed. Not to mention the thousands of southern California residents who were on pins and needles during the search for Dorner.

What ties Larry Davis to Christopher Dorner is the way the media reported each story before having any physical evidence. I watched a couple of documentaries about Larry Davis, to include “The Larry Davis Story: A Routine Typical Hit” and the television series American Gangster which featured Larry Davis’ story.

The rush by the media to label Davis a ruthless killer and armed vigilante was front and center on every news station and in most of the print media in the greater New York area. Ironically, there was a completely different reaction from the people in the communities who had been harassed and terrorized by the NYPD.

People in the community gave Davis the benefit of the doubt and were happy to know that someone finally gave the police a taste of their own medicine. At the end of the day, a jury of Davis’ peers determined that Davis shot the police officers in self-defense.

In analyzing the media coverage of the Christopher Dorner case, it was scarily similar to the coverage Davis received. It’s like the media reports whatever the police tell them and in a rush to be the first to report “breaking news” they present a one sided story to the public as if it were gospel.

People in communities all over the country appreciate the hard working, decent cops who perform their jobs in an honorable and professional manner. On the other hand, people are sick and tired of the cops who abuse their authority. For every cop killed by Christopher Dorner, there are countless incidents in which police officers have shot and killed unarmed Black males.

Remember these names: Amadou Diallo (New York-1999), Patrick Dorismond (New York-2000), Ousane Zongo (New York-2003), Orlando Barlow (Las Vegas-2003), Timothy Stansbury Jr. (Brooklyn-2004), Ronald Madison and James Brissette (New Orleans-2005), Aaron Campbell (Portland-2005), Sean Bell (Queens-2006), Oscar Grant (Oakland-2009), Victor Steen (Pensacola-2009), Steven Eugene Washington (Los Angeles-2010), Alonzo Ashley (Denver-2011), Wendall Allen (New Orleans-2012), and Ramarley Graham (Bronx-2012).

Here are a few examples of these senseless killings within the last year you might faintly hear about on the local or national news for a few days and then the stories fades away as if nothing ever happened.

“Protests in Houston after police shoot unarmed man in wheelchair”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/25/protests-houston-police-shoot-unarmed-man-wheelchair

“Chicago Council approves settlement for unarmed man shot by officer”

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/18203457-418/council-approves-settlement-for-unarmed-man-shot-by-officer.html

“Pasadena Trayvon Martin: Police shoot unarmed black teenager Kendrec McDade, then blame death on person who called 911”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120330/pasadena-trayvon-martin-police-shoot-unarmed-black-teen-kendrec-mcdade

“Another Car Shot Up and Unarmed Black Victims Killed, This Time by Cleveland Police Officers”

http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2012/12/another-car-shot-up-and-unarmed-black-victims-killed-this-time-by-cleveland-police-officers/

To some people, police officers are the only bulwark between civilization and an army of evil criminals, even as the police tortures innocent victims to admit to crimes committed by other police officers. Without question, our communities need law enforcement officials to serve and protect the citizens, but we do not need police officers being the judge, jury, and executioner. We need to recognize that authority figures are capable of wrongdoing as well and every criminal suspect is not the monster they are portrayed to be by the media or law enforcement agencies.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on February 20, 2013 via Blogger.com

Gun Violence Isn’t a 21st Century Phenomenon

2013-01-13T07:08:00.002-05:00

The spokesman for the National Rifle Association tried desperately to make the case for solving the nations gun problems by suggesting that more people should arm themselves. His actual words were, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Really? That has to be one of the most idiotic suggestions I’ve ever heard! He blamed video games, movies and music videos for exposing children to a violent culture while totally dismissing guns as the common denominator.

I wonder whom he blamed for all of the gun violence in our country prior to the existence of movies, music videos and video games. I wonder whom he blames for the gun violence in the days preceding the Civil War, during Reconstruction, or the Jim Crow South? It couldn't have been hip-hop music videos, or video games because they didn’t exist.

I seriously doubt that the NRA spokesman would have been on the side of slave abolitionists, the Deacons for Defense, or the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. These were groups of people who rightfully armed themselves against the corrupt lawmakers of their generation, but they were demonized as being radicals and troublemakers for simply trying to protect their families, homes, and communities from the terrorism of white supremacy. In fact, the 1967 Mulford Act in California was a law specifically put in place to disarm the Black Panthers.

Sadly, death by way of shooting is not some new concept that somehow exploded in the 21^st century. People get amnesia and forget that gun violence is in the very fabric of the existence of this country. Some of the most influential people in American history have died as a result of gun violence.

Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, and Medgar Evers were all victims of gun violence. Like them, there are hundreds of thousands of other Americans who have died by way of a gunshot on the streets of America, outside the lines of a battlefield.

The gun was and still is used for personal protection, but it is also used as a tool to instill fear in people and to control potentially dangerous situations.

After every mass shooting in America there is a short period of time when people are shocked, or in disbelief that the lives of innocent people were taken by an insane individual who should not have had access to weapons. Predictably, gun rights advocates are fearful that the government is going to knock on their doors and tell them to hand over their stash of guns and ammunition. The idea that the 2^nd Amendment is being gutted is a flat out lie from the pit of the propaganda machines at the Fox News Channel and conservative talk radio.

We keep hearing these people quote the passage of the 2nd Amendment that says, “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” but rarely do they include the introductory clause: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state." The key phrase being "well regulated," not a few paranoid, deranged, and obviously crazy individuals free to stockpile as many weapons as they can because they believe in some out of this world conspiracy theory. Remember how well this way of thinking worked out for David Koresh?

The 2^nd Amendment does not specify or clearly state what is defined as arms and people have their own idea of the intent of the law. Ironically over the course of the last couple of years, these same 2^nd Amendment advocates have been the very people who have completely ignored another Constitutional Amendment, the 15^th.

The15th Amendment is as plainly written as the 2^nd Amendment, but some lawmakers have found a different set of rules when it comes to voting. Voter identification laws go against the very spirit of the 15^th Amendment because it specifically says, 1. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” 2. “The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

At various times in the country’s history, “appropriate legislation” in some states meant that only a select few individuals were granted their Constitutional right to vote. Absurd voting laws prevented people from voting based on the very items listed in article one of the amendment.

Laws without enforcement are nothing more than ink on a piece of paper. Like many other laws of the land, passage means very little to people who believe they are superior to, or above the law. Forgive me if I don’t have faith in the legislators claiming to be fed up and are once again making empty promises to actually get something done.

How in one breath can a politician say that assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and armor piercing ammunition is protected by one amendment, yet in the same breath ignore the other amendment and mandate that a person must have a special identification to cast a ballot?

It is absolutely baffling that legislators all over the country are doing everything they can to make casting a vote more difficult than buying a gun. In other words, an American citizens’ right to bear arms is more important than another American citizens’ right to vote. If there was ever an assault on a Constitutional Amendment, it is the 15^th that we should really be worried about. It should be easier to vote in America than to purchase a firearm, but the opposite is true.

This speaks to the very problem our nation has with the amount of people losing their lives to gun violence. Regardless if the death is a homicide or suicide, too many people are dying as a result of a round leaving the barrel of a gun.

Two personal friends of mine were killed in 2012 in gun related incidents involving someone in their immediate family. I also lost a fellow Marine to a self-inflicted gun shot wound to the head. There are a countless number of people in cities all over the country that are dying on a daily basis because of gun violence.

I firmly believe that the solution to this violence begins with R-E-S-P-E-C-T for ourselves and our fellow man; regardless of race, gender, religion, or socio-economic status. This should be the goal of people on either side of the gun control debate.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on January 14, 2013 via Blogger.com

Embarrassing Post-Election Reactions

2012-11-20T21:19:00.001-05:00

Thankfully the election of 2012 is finally over. Not only did President Obama win the popular vote, but he also won the Electoral College by a significant margin. To the surprise of the online conspiracy theorists living in fantasyland, the earth did not fall off its axis, and the sun and moon continued to function as regularly scheduled.

The President won despite the scare tactics employed by most conservatives on talk radio and the not so fair and balanced coverage by a particular cable news channel. The fear mongering and billions of dollars in negative campaign ads were not enough to convince the majority of Americans to vote for the other candidate.

History will prove that the election of 2012 was a repudiation of the radical conservative agenda.

Excuses, Excuses

The embarrassing post-election reactions from some people who chose not to vote for the President are not surprising by any stretch of the imagination. We saw a level of ugliness after the 2008 election and those same hate filled people feel even more embolden to do and say the foulest things about the President of the United States. It is okay for people to disagree with the President on policy issues, but it is not okay for people to keep trying to discredit the man as a legitimate American, or categorize him as a socialist, communist, Muslim who hates the country.

The excuses for why the other candidate loss or why the President won have already began to be nauseating. The post-election comedy show commenced shortly after it was obvious that President Obama had enough electoral votes to secure his second term in office. It is laughable to see and hear conservative prognosticators twisting and turning poll numbers, continually trying to figure out how in the world the man they have so much disdain for could be re-elected.

The GOP is blaming the loss on the liberal media, African Americans, Hispanics, young people, single women, homosexuals, voter fraud, and free stuff. It is everybody’s fault but the guy who lost the election.

The GOP can continue to make excuses for their loss and ignore the fact that their idiotic and reckless policies are the reason people did not vote for their candidate. Rational thinking people did not buy into the conservative narrative of doom and gloom politics.

More than Just the Economy

The other candidate and his advisors could not possibly expect to win by just telling people how bad of a job his opponent has done and how bad the economy is without offering any plausible solutions. The one question he was never able to answer during the entire campaign was “how?”

For instance, how was he going to create 12 million jobs, but in the same breath say that government does not create jobs?

The answer certainly is not more tax breaks for the “job creators” because we have seen over the last twelve or so years how that theory has worked for us. The trickle never has and never will make it down from the top.

As it turned out, the economy was not the only issues Americans cared about. When a person takes hard lined, unpopular stances on so many social issues, how could expect the same people he demonized throughout the election to vote for him?

Voters did not know where he stood on so many issues because his position seemed to change with the direction of the blowing wind. Maybe it was those secretly recorded 47% percent remarks to a group of wealthy campaign donors. Maybe it was his willingness to defund PBS and Planned Parenthood, but no mention of cutting off foreign aid to countries we consider to be our “allies.” Maybe it was his open stance against abortion rights for women and wanting to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Maybe it was his desire to preserve tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while middle-class and poor Americans pay a higher tax rate than he does. Maybe it was his bullish/war-mongering stance in foreign relation matters, but when the opportunity to defend the country presented itself, he avoided the draft while other Americans were thrown in prison for doing the same.

Maybe it was his suggestion that students should just borrow money from their parents to go to college. Maybe it was his immigration reform strategy that encouraged illegal immigrants to self-deport back to their native countries.

To throw gasoline on an already burning campaign, conservative candidates all over the country were offering their uninformed and unpopular opinions on abortion rights, recklessly throwing around allegations of socialism and class warfare, and continuing these wild conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of the President’s birth certificate and college transcripts.

Traditional America?

One of talking points in the post election coverage that keeps coming up in among the conservative talkers has something to do with Traditional America. The demographic shift taking place in America in which Caucasian men are losing control and power of the electorate is happening right in front of our eyes. This fact scares the hell out of the establishment. Take a moment and analyze whom these sentiments are coming from. It is no surprise what kind of America they want to see.

“Take our country back” or “Traditional America,” has nothing to do with smaller government or American values. They are talking about taking us back to a traditional America when Caucasians were perceived to be superior to all other ethnicities.

The traditional America when African Americans had to sit on the back of the bus. The traditional America when African American men were hung from trees and castrated for looking at Caucasian women. The traditional America when Civil Rights activists were killed for trying to help citizens register to vote in the South.

The traditional America when people of different ethnicities were forced to drink from separate water fountains because of the color of their skin. The traditional America when students were forced to attend separate, but “equal” schools.

No thank you!

This so called traditional American may have been good for some, but the same cannot be said for all Americans. Going back to those days is not going to happen and we all need to persist that America keeps marching forward. Whether people want to deal with it or not, those events are in the fiber of American history. The dog whistle and covert terminology being recklessly thrown around by politicians and media personalities should not be overlooked.

What Free Stuff?

One of the most insulting things I have heard in the post-election coverage is the notion that people voted for President Obama because they want free stuff. Really, free stuff? Where is this free stuff and when should those of us who voted for the President expect to receive these items in the mail?

Seniors, veterans, and disabled Americans who receive benefits do not want free stuff regardless of what the talking heads in the conservative media want you to believe. Free stuff is what slave owners and their descendants received as a result of never paying a cent to the slaves who built the very foundation of this nation.

Think about it. Rich people are the beneficiaries of more free stuff than they have room to receive. They collect handouts in the form of tax loopholes and off shore money shelters that middle-class and poor people do not receive. The CEOs of large American companies choose to send jobs overseas, or lay off thousands of workers at a time in spite of making record profits over the last couple of years. These people care about making as much money as they can, while paying their employees as little as possible, period Greed is the only rational explanation for their actions.

The only free stuff people wanted from this election was the right to vote without standing in line for eight hours, or without being harassed, intimidated, and threatened by some watch group challenging the legitimacy of their vote.

Secession Insanity

The secession advocates and revolution promoters are just as disgusting as the people behind the birther movement. The country would be a better place minus the individuals who are acting like young children who throw temper tantrums when they cannot have their way.

Do not tell us in one voice that you love this country more than I do and then in the same voice say you are going to leave when your candidate loses an election. This secession insanity is not just whining; it is illogical, unpatriotic, anti-American, ahistorical, and willfully ignorant.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on November 21, 2012 via Blogger.com

It Takes Two

2012-08-27T10:22:00.001-04:00

During my recent ten plus hour flight to Okinawa, Japan with my three daughters and our tiny Chihuahua named Chip, I flipped through one of my favorite books, The Isis Papers from time to time. I figured this long flight would be a good time to reflect and evaluate how my wife and I are raising our daughters. The focal point of chapters 20, 21, and 22 discussed parenting skills and the challenges of raising African American children. Dr. Welsing discusses in detail the frantic need for more two-parent households in the African American community.

Little did I know, my first ten or so days in Okinawa alone with the kids would challenge me physically and mentally in ways that I could have never imagined. There are so many tasks to be accomplished every day in order to get the initial set-up process completed. The level of exhaustion I felt at the end of each day made me question how single parents do it day in and day out. I cannot imagine doing all the things my children need alone for a sustained period of time and still give them the amount of love and care they need.

When no one else is around to help take care of those daily responsibilities, one has to find the inner-strength to simply put a check in the box. This doesn’t allow much time for personal reflection, compassion, or sympathy. Accomplishing the mission at hand becomes more of a priority than does the emotional, psychological, and physiological needs of the children. The scale is tilted to one side and the children’s developmental needs are often left unfulfilled.

I realize that there are children reared in single-parent households who go on to be highly educated, productive members of society; however, they are in the minority. Like a strong majority of people I know and respect, I am adamantly opposed to child-parents, i.e. teenagers becoming parents to children when they are still children themselves.

According to Dr. Francis C. Welsing, author of The Isis Papers, children born to child-parents will experience the following. “They will experience being inadequately housed, clothed and fed. They will experience abandonment to welfare systems and foster homes. They subsequently will experience failure to achieve academically, and then fail to perform adequately on scholastic achievement tests. Because of their frustration from being stressed and inadequately cared for, they will fail to attend school. Eventually they will drop out of school. Many Black children and youth will become involved with drugs-either to medicate often unrecognized major depression, or to sell drugs to solve their own or their family’s financial difficulties.” Pg. 252.

Upon first glance, I took exception to some of what she said, but when I re-read and re-evaluated this paragraph, it was clear to me that she was absolutely correct. Certainly there are adults who grew up in two-parent homes that fall into the above stated conditions, but without question the slope is steeper for children of child-parents and single-parent homes. The numerous obstacles children born to child-parents must overcome make their plight to breaking the cycle of poverty and dependency nearly impossible.

I have the utmost respect for single parents who are working hard to ensure that their children have everything children of two-parent homes have, but it is obvious that it takes two parents to provide the loving, healthy, stable, and consistent environment children so desperately need. Immature, unstable, and overwhelmed child-parents cannot provide their children with the tools they need to become independent adults because they themselves have not figured out or found out whom they are at this stage in their lives.

I found myself as the parent to four young daughters by the youthful age of 23 and quickly realized that the fate of my family’s future was in the hands of a young man who was just beginning to find himself. I was immature, selfish, impatient, harsh, and way too overbearing. I was not a good listener and had a zero defect mentality when it came to disciplining my kids.

Six years into my young Marine Corps career, I had been married for four years, had four young daughters, and was stressed beyond belief. Simply said, I was not even ready for one child let alone four. The responsibilities that fell upon my shoulders were a load that would have been much too heavy to bear without the help of my wife.

We did our best to provide more than just the basic needs for our children, but that came with a lot of bumps and bruises that could have been avoided had we been more mature adults. As challenging as it has been raising a family, it has been as equally rewarding to see the growth and development, not only in our children, but also in the two of us as parents.

I am convinced now more than ever that it takes two parents to provide all of the things children need in their journey towards adulthood. There has to be a greater emphasis placed on the need for more two-parent homes and an outcry to greatly reduce the number of children being raised by single and child-parents.

Our society as a whole will receive better-equipped young adult to lead the country into the next generation if these points are advocated for. We desperately need more mature adults as parents versus the extreme number of single and child-parents who have proven over a long period of time that they simply do not possess the tools necessary to raising productive, successful, independent, and healthy children.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on August 27, 2012 via Blogger.com

Capitalizing off Crime: Part 2

2012-06-20T10:13:00.002-04:00

Do you remember the last time you’ve heard conversation or discussion about the budget for the Department of Corrections in the state in which you reside? Neither can I, but on a daily basis educators are being laid off due to budget cuts. States are claiming to be doing everything they can to save money, but ironically, funding for jails and prisons is rarely a part of these money saving ventures.

The American solution of building more prisons and incarcerating more people than any other civilized nation in the world is not deterring people from committing crime. When analyzing capitalizing off crime, it makes perfect sense why certain laws exist. Follow the money trail that leads from a corporation to the politician who is “Tough on Crime”. This tough talk sounds good on paper, but in reality, public safety is not the motivating factor in keeping criminals off the street. Follow the money.

Without a doubt, the War on Drugs has been a massive failure and private for-profit prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group, and Community Education Centers are making billions of dollars each year due to this failed war and close ties to politicians on both sides of the political spectrum.

The Len Bias Affect: Len Bias is probably known as the greatest basketball player to never play professional basketball. Bias played basketball at the University of Maryland and was selected as the 1986 ACC player of the year, an All-American and the 2^nd overall pick of the 1986 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. Two days after the draft, on June 19, 1986, Bias died from a drug induced overdose.

In a 2003 study by the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, African American and White people represented similar proportions of all those sent to prison in the state in 1986, but by 1999, 47% of all African American prison admissions in Maryland were for drug offenses, compared with 21% for Whites. While only making up 28% of the state’s general population, 68% of all people arrested for drug offenses in Maryland were African American.

Bias’ death sparked a round of legislation that completely changed the prison landscape in America. The amount of non-violent offenders is what has driven the prison population through the roof. Not only did the introduction of crack in the 1980’s spark an era of getting high as fast as possible for as little as possible, but it also ignited the get rich as fast as you can mentality in the minds of young people and business people alike. That mentality has worked out miserably for the young people who are on the streets selling a drug that is killing their fellow man and worked out wonderful for the business people who decided to invest in for-profit prisons.

In Maryland from 1986-1999, the African American rate of drug prison admissions per 100,000 citizens grew eight times the rate of the White drug prison admissions and represented 96% of the new youth prison admissions for drug offenses. This phenomenon was not isolated to one state, and quickly spread across the entire nation. The movement toward increased incarceration and the racial disparity that exists in sentencing practices has gotten to the point of horrendous proportions for African Americans. The winner in the end is the prison industrial complex.

Does it make sense that African Americans serve nearly as much time in prison for a drug offense (57 months) as Whites do for a violent crime (58.8 months)? Does it make sense that more than 80% of crack cocaine defendants are African American, while about two-thirds of crack cocaine users are White or Hispanic? Or that the average sentence for a crack cocaine offense (119 months) was more than three years greater than for powder cocaine (78 months)?

Does it make sense that African Americans and Hispanics are the largest contributor to the prison population on the local, state and federal level considering the demographic make-up of this country? How is it possible for African American men to only make up about 6% of the population, yet make up over 40% of the prison population? Are African Americans committing crime three or four times the rate of White Americans, or is there an underlying systemic problem when it comes to harsh sentencing practices and the ethnicity of the individual convicted of a crime?

It would not be fair to blame Len Bias’ death for the knee jerk reaction by politicians on both sides of the aisle, which resulted in laws that have had a powerful, damaging, and racially disparate effect on the African American community. Bias’ death is a reminder of what can happen when self-serving media personalities, politicians and business people combine to fix a problem. Democrats try to out rough Republicans by being “tough on crime” and as a result, helped to create a system that has nearly disenfranchised an entire generation of people.

Meaningful reforms to the Len Bias drug legacy have been few and far between and the problem of the prison industrial complex will most likely continue to get worse if we do not help young people realize that they are being used like pawns in the chess game of wealthy private prison companies and their political flunkies.

Money is obviously the driving force behind the political apparatus that seeks to ensure that Public-Private Partnerships are not losing money due to a lack of criminals to fill their jail cells. Rather than spending money building, expanding, and upgrading prison facilities, I would prefer that our tax dollars be spent building, expanding, and upgrading schools for our students and teachers. An investment of our tax dollars into programs that will help keep kids occupied and off the streets will help prevent them from becoming inmate number 426957.

What can you do? If you have a loved one or know anyone currently serving time in prison, I encourage you to purchase one of the following books and send it to them immediately:

The Isis Papers: Keys to the Colors by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Ask them to accept one or both of these books as a seed offering and remind them that you are praying that the words in these books will inspire them to become better humans and productive members in our society upon their release. I have no doubt that these books will be a blessing to their collective minds, bodies, & souls.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on June 20, 2012 via Blogger.com

Capitalizing off Crime: Disgust for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP's)

2012-05-30T12:48:00.000-04:00

The prison industrial complex is a 100 giga-billion dollar business. It is troublesome to know young people are still making decisions to get themselves locked up. Then they relegate themselves to second class citizenship because the cloud of living as an ex-convict follows them around long after they have been released.

Statistics show that prison is a likely destination for people who drop out of high school, or do not have a college degree or technical certification. I have been very outspoken in opposition to PPP's in rural areas that rely heavily on an inmate population of young men who look like me. White-collar criminals continue to get away with running the economy into the ground without fear of prosecution because police spend too much time making the easy arrests. The easy arrests I am speaking of are the average street corner drug dealers. These young men do not control the boats or airplanes that bring drugs into this country, but they are certainly considered to be the face of the so called “War on Drugs.”

PPP's need warm bodies to fill those cells to keep the money in the pockets of the executives who running the prison. It is like they have a neon "VACANCY" sign flashing, encouraging young people to keep dropping out of school, keep selling drugs in their own communities, keep robbing, stealing, and killing each other because there are plenty of beds available.

Although the criminal justice system in undoubtedly flawed, it is not the systems fault when young brothers get arrested while standing on the corner with a pocket full of dope. It is not the systems fault when young brothers are sporting a new outfit every week, spending thousands of dollars on platinum teeth, and riding around in custom cars with 28” rims; with no job.

For some, trouble is easier to stay out of than for others, but the bottom line is that we have to start taking responsibility for our own actions and stop putting ourselves in situations that police and the prison industry can take advantage. These people are literally getting rich off a system that is in place for the purpose of correction, hence the name, the Department of Corrections. Not the Department of Rehabilitation or the Department of Get Right once a person is locked up.

In July 2010, Congress changed a 25-year-old law that has subjected tens of thousands of African Americans to long prison terms for crack cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient sentences to those, mainly Whites, caught with the powder form of the drug.

During his presidential campaign, then Senator Obama said, "the wide gap in sentencing cannot be justified and should be eliminated.” The new measure changes a 1986 law, enacted at a time when crack cocaine use was rampant and considered a particularly violent drug (See the death of basketball star Len Bias). Under the old law, a person convicted of crack cocaine possession got the same mandatory prison sentence as someone with 100 times the same amount of powder cocaine.

Five grams of crack equaled a five-year mandatory sentence and 50 grams of crack equaled a 10-year mandatory sentence for first time offenders in comparison to five years mandatory for 500 grams of cocaine.

The new law also eliminates the five-year mandatory minimum sentences for first-time offenders possessing crack, the first time since the Nixon administration that a President has repealed a mandatory minimum sentence requirement. However; it does not apply retroactively and the people incarcerated under the old law cannot get a re-trial, or a reduced sentence.

Big Business:

Corrections Corporations of America, the nation’s largest privately owned prisons owns more than 65 facilities with up to 90,000 beds in 19 states. This company making millions of dollars from humans being incarcerated can be found on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CXW. Their stock is currently trading at $26.22 a share, bringing in approximately $1 billion in revenue last year.

In the Reason Foundation and Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation Policy Brief of Policy Study No. 381, the state of California spends about $47,000 a year for each prisoner, which is over 50 percent higher than the national average. A table of the top 10 state correctional systems and costs can be found in this same study that makes me wonder what our legislators are doing with our tax dollars.

PPP’s would like us to believe that they are saving states millions of dollars by offering states like California the option to send some of their inmates to lower-cost facilities out of state. Industry experts have determined that there are not enough beds in other states to absorb the amount of prisoners California needs to transfer. The state would need to transfer their prisoners in increments that would “allow time for private corrections management firms to finance, design, and build new prison capacity-either through new prisons or expansions of existing facilitates out of state-to accommodate the additional inmates.”

Let that sink in for a moment and think about what that statement means in the grand scheme of things.

While education budgets in most states are being slashed, I wonder if the Department of Corrections budgets are being reduced at the same rate. How much does your state spend per student (K-12) in comparison with the amount of money they spend per inmate?

There is a perfectly good explanation why these private prison companies are continuing to expand their facilities all over the country. MONEY! Industry lobbyists continue to draft legislation for our elected officials to ensure mandatory sentence bills are passed into law. Connect the dots and do some critical thinking when the next young man receives a 10-year mandatory sentence for trafficking a small amount of crack, or is sent back to prison for an extended period for a minor parole violation.

We have the power to put these companies out of business by simply staying out of their prisons, which sounds good in theory and can be accomplished if we put our collective minds to criminal prevention. Communities want and so desperately need citizens who have respect for their fellow man, are self-reliant, and those who will be assets to the community instead of dragging it down.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on May 30, 2012 via Blogger.com

Dream Fulfilled: The Necessity of Higher Education

2012-05-02T13:55:00.000-04:00

What is a dream? Is it the mental activity, usually in the form of an imagined series of events, occurring during certain phases of sleep? Yes, but that is the scientific definition. The dream I’m talking about is the cherished hope a person carries within their soul, or the ambition a person has to be in a better state of mind or better position in life. Everyone has aspirations to achieve certain goals, but dreaming and praying alone won’t get us anywhere. Action and effort are two key ingredients that are required in order to make those desires come to fruition.

My dream of attending college after graduating high school was put on hold for a few reasons.

1. My parents simply could not afford it. The “borrow money from your parents to get an education” suggestion recently made by a politician was not an option for me. With the small amount of money my parents made, I was happy to have a place to stay, clean clothes, and plenty of food to eat. A lot of kids do not have the luxuries we so often take for granted and despite the political rhetoric out there, hunger and poverty are real in America.

2. I was tired of going to school and wanted a break from the classroom, or so I thought. I knew I wanted to be a Marine since I was about 10 or 11 years old, so joining the Corps was the perfect escape from small town Georgia. Thank God my mother did not kill my dream by telling me that the military was no place for a black man. I have actually heard parents tell their children that nonsense and it drives me crazy. The Marine Corps has provided opportunities for me that I would have never been able to tap into had I not joined. The leadership traits and principles I have learned since I joined have helped me to become a better man and a good citizen.

I would say that the decision to join the enlisted ranks did not turn out too bad for me. The awesome senior Marines who raised me and the stellar Marines I’ve worked with, in combination with my drive and determination are the reasons I am a Master Sergeant of Marines today. No one told me that the Marine Corps sends students to college on ROTC scholarships, pays full tuition, and presents them with the opportunity to earn a commission as a Marine Officer. I’m talking about a chance to lead the Corps most prized possession, the enlisted Marine.

After eleven years of service, I had no college classes on my resume because I was always too busy to start taking classes and then I met Master Gunnery Sergeant (ret.) Robert “Bob” Organo. Bob was entering his 29^th year of service and working on completing his Master’s degree. He asked me what I was going to do once my days in the Corps were over. When I couldn’t answer his question, he encouraged me to enroll in college because we are all going to have to take the uniform off one day and you need to have more than 20 or 30 years of experience to put on your resume.

I knew I needed to set short-term (Associates Degree), mid-term (Bachelor Degree), and long-term goals (Masters & Doctoral Degrees) for myself. Once I took my first college class and got over the fear factor of being a student again, I remembered that I was smart and had the ability to be an outstanding student. My short-term goal was achieved in 2010 when I finished my Associates Degree from Park University. On Saturday, May 5^th, my mid-term goal will also be achieved when I receive my Bachelor Degree, with honors from the University of South Florida.

As a parent to school aged kids, I had the opportunity to practice what I had been preaching to my children. I expect my kids to make A’s in every class and they know I am not satisfied when they make a B and C’s or D’s is not acceptable in our house. I had to set the standards high for myself if I expected them to follow my lead. The goal of making all A’s in college was my way showing them that it can be done.

I was so disappointed in myself when I made my first B in college. The first thing I thought about was breaking the news to my kids that I fell short of the goal I set for myself. I am not satisfied making B’s because if I would have applied myself a little bit more, I could have made an A in that class. Note I said made an A, not received an A because a teacher can’t give a student a grade; they earn what they get.

Setting high academic standards for your children is not unrealistic because they will perform if parents hold their feet to the fire. I am not going to sell myself short and not going to allow my kids to get by thinking that it’s OK not to make good grades. Colleges and Universities are getting harder and harder to get into, and having a transcript full of C’s & D’s does not look good, whether they are a good athlete or not.

I won’t let my kids’ teacher tell them that it’s OK to make B’s and C’s if that’s the best they can do. That’s a slick way of telling you that your kid isn’t smart enough to make A’s. Now I know every child won’t make all A’s, but there is nothing wrong with putting those expectations out there. As parents, we have to be involved and concerned with our kids’ education. Even if you don’t know how to do the stuff they are doing, at least sit down with them and try to figure it out together, or go to the teacher and let them know that your child needs additional assistance.

Malcolm X once said, “Education is the passport to our future.” Opportunity flows from education and hardship flows from the lack of education. A lack of education limits the amount of options we have to earn a living in this country. Globalization has changed the game, and the work force requires that we have a stronger educational background than ever before. A college degree does not guarantee you a good paying job, but it makes you a more marketable person. Think about it this way. If people with college degrees cannot get good jobs, how in the world is a high school diploma or dropping out of school even an option?

I encourage parents not to be dream killers. Listen to your kids and figure out what it is that they want to be when they grow up. Tap into their potential and embolden them to reach for the stars. The next generation of leaders is living in our homes right now and it is our responsibility as parents to ensure that our kids are part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Being a full time husband and father, a full time Marine, and a full time student at the same time has not been easy, but it is absolutely necessary. Seeking a higher education does not make me a “snob” or do me any good if I do not share what I have learned with someone else. I am one of the Talented Tenth W.E.B. Du Bois spoke about in the early 1900s. I will never forget where I came from and continue working hard to be a leader in my community by educating myself, writing politically conscious material and being directly involved in social change.

Thank You:
The first thank you goes to Marine Corps Tuition Assistance Program and the Post 9-11 G.I. Bill for covering all of my tuition costs. To MGySgt (ret.) Robert “Bob” Organo, thank you for inspiring me to get out of my comfort zone and helping to re-shape my life and career. To the staff at the NROTC Unit at the University of South Florida, I thank all of you for your patience, tolerance, and understanding while doing my best to set the example for our students to emulate. To all of my family and friends who have supported me in one way or another, thank you to you as well. Finally, to my loving wife and our four beautiful daughters. Thank you so much for the support you provided during this ride of late nights, early mornings, and countless hours of me sitting in the office studying. You ladies are the reason that failure was not an option for me.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on May 2, 2012 via Blogger.com

Why Trayvon Martin’s Death Should Matter to You

2012-03-22T09:30:00.000-04:00

All of the facts in the tragic case of Trayvon Martin have yet to come to the surface, but there are two important facts we do know. 1. Trayvon Martin is dead and 2. George Zimmerman admitted to killing a defenseless young man. What upsets me and most rational people the most is how the case has been handled by the Sanford Police Department. Here is one of many questions presented in this piece for thought: How do you allow a person to walk away from a killing by simply claiming self-defense after admitting to shooting an unarmed teenager? Self-defense after he tells the 9-1-1 operator that Trayvon is running? Seriously? It’s easy for Zimmerman to claim self-defense when Trayvon cannot repudiate the assertion because he is dead.

Hypothetically speaking, imagine a scenario in which you have a lion and a hunter. The hunter does everything he can to agitate the lion, chases him down and forces the lion to defend himself. Once the lion reacts to the hunter’s aggression, the hunter then pulls out a gun, and kills the lion in “self-defense.” The lion isn’t around to tell his side of the story and the myth of lion’s violent nature against humans continues to grow. I’ll let you decide who the lion is and who the hunter is in this hypothetical scenario.

Anyone bold enough to talk about George Zimmerman and his rights to be presumed innocent until proven guilty needs to remember something very important. Trayvon Martin did not get the opportunity to prove that walking down a sidewalk, wearing a hoodie in a gated community, while being Black, IS LEGAL. As a matter of fact, he did not need to prove anything to a stranger who followed him through the neighborhood. Parents normally teach their children not to talk to strangers and what authority did this self-appointed neighborhood watch guy have over Trayvon or anyone else walking around that community? What would you do if you were walking home and were being followed by an aggressive stranger, who could potentially be a pedophile, kidnapper, or murderer? Running away from a situation like this is the natural thing for a child to do.

What are the parents of young African Americans supposed to tell their children when unfortunate situations like this happen? Are they supposed to tell them that in addition to being extra careful when dealing with the police, you now must be extra careful when any random person wants to stop you and ask you questions? Better yet, maybe parents should tell their children if a stranger starts chasing you for no reason at all, do not run or try to defend yourself; just lay down and allow that person to be the judge, jury, and executioner of your life. If you try to defend yourself they will kill you, claim self-defense and be allowed to go free. It’s hard to think race isn't an issue here because if the shoes were on the other foot and Trayvon shot and killed Zimmerman, and was standing there with a gun when the police arrived, the odds of him being arrested or shot immediately are pretty damn good.

I read a great book about a year ago called Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 written by Paul Ortiz. As soon as I heard the sad news about the killing of young Trayvon Martin, I immediately pulled this book off the shelf. Chapter 3 of the book particularly stands out to me because it discusses how African Americans had to fight racial terrorism during this timeframe, yet 100 years later the same type of vigilante injustice that was practiced back then is still happening today.

There were so many cases mentioned in Emancipation Betrayed that are eerily similar to this one. Here are two excerpts from the book that helps me understand how the justice system in Florida works from a historical standpoint and why Trayvon’s death matters to me.

“A hack driver was gunned down by white youths on a Jacksonville sidewalk after he failed to move out of their way quickly enough. Another Black driver told James White, a newspaperman, that he owed him additional cab fare. White shot the driver through the head, killing him instantly. Jacksonville police rescued White from a group of African Americans who gathered-allegedly-to lynch him. An all-white jury excused the crime, noting that the assailant was depressed and had been drinking heavily for several days.”

Ortiz went on to say that “the lynching of black men in segregated Florida was frequently extolled as a civic virtue.” At times it is hard explaining to non-African Americans why situations like the killing of young Trayvon Martin will cause people to react the way they have reacted. It is hard to explain, but as W.E.B. Du Bois notably spoke of an often fluttered around, unasked question in The Souls of Black Folks, “How does it feel to be born a problem? It is hard to explain to people who do not believe, or will not except the fact that racism is still alive and thriving in America in 2012.

How can I help someone understand how it feels to be followed, stopped, and frisked by police who profile African American males while driving down the street without committing a traffic violation? How can I help someone understand why an African American female is stopped by police and told that she looked “suspicious” because she has dreadlocks? How can I help someone understand how it feels to be stared at in a retail store, stereotyped, marginalized, or scrutinized for no other reason than the “suspicious” color of my skin? How can I help someone understand how it feels when I walk into an elevator with a woman while wearing my Marine service uniform and instead of her saying “thank you for your service to our country,” she turns her head, moves closer to the door, and clutches her purse as if I was going to rob her? I must have looked suspicious to her because I am a scary looking, 5’11, 195 pound, bald, dark skinned, African American male.

The questions presented above are real and happen to African Americans every day. There is an entire generation of Americans who have been misled into thinking that racism is in the past, but sadly, it is very much so in the present. This is not a political issue and I do not want to hear the cliché, talking point concerning Black on Black crime, because people from all ethnic backgrounds kill one another every day. This is about doing the right thing for a young man and his family.

The killing of Trayvon Martin is very similar to the thousands of African Americans who have been unjustly killed in this country simply because of the color of their skin. The historical information presented in Emancipation Betrayed and books about America’s violent past are not written to stir the “race pot.” They are written so that we know and understand the events of the past and hopefully we will recognize current and future events that fit the mold of atrocities that were upheld under the law to protect people of all colors who are denied the common rights of a citizen of this nation.

Your child or maybe even a person that looks just like me could be the next Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, or Emmett Till. This is why the killing of Trayvon Martin should matter to you.

Shalom from a concerned African American citizen

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on March 22, 2012 via Blogger.com

History Matters in Politics

2012-02-23T14:37:00.001-05:00

Almost a year ago I wrote an editorial entitled, “Black History can’t Be Taught in 28 Days” that specifically discussed the absence of African Americans in American History textbooks. Families cannot afford to sit around and wait for the schools to teach their children about African American History. Parents must teach them the truth at home and not rely on the one or two factoids the media tries to cram into the shortest month of the year.

I learned about most of the people in the previously mentioned editorial during my undergraduate studies, which sparked my interest in learning everything I could learn about the contributions of African Americans to this country. Studying a different version of history has been extremely helpful with my understanding of how politics shaped our past and how they are affecting the future of American society.

I encourage everybody I interact with to turn the television off and pick up a book that will teach them something about African American people. I am not suggesting that we do not need some form of entertainment, but we do not need to be spending too much of our time watching music videos and investing quality time watching people make a fool of themselves by starring on a reality TV show. In no way am I knocking those shows, but there are more productive ways of investing our time, specifically reading material that will stimulate your mind.

It took a while to figure out that reading was not my problem. It was reading material that did not interest me is what turned me off to books. Once I started reading books written by African American authors, or books about the struggles and accomplishments of African Americans, reading became a hobby. The more I read, the more informed I feel about issues from the past and how they relate to issues in the present and the future.

Reading a wide variety of subjects has helped me develop into a critical thinker and on a consistent basis I check the facts before forming an opinion. We have the responsibility to do a better job of verifying the information we read and hear. That means critically thinking about everything we hear from teachers, preachers, and especially politicians, thus challenging the information being presented to us as facts.

History has a strange way of repeating itself and it seems as though many of our elected officials want to “take the country back” to a time when the words of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights was exclusively for one group of Americans. Think back to the days after the Civil War when Black Codes existed. African Americans had limited mobility and were kept from asserting their political and legal rights.

Disenfranchisement laws were put in place so that the establishment would not be in violation of the 15th Amendment. Gerrymandering, poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses were put in place to keep African American men from voting. Newly proposed voter identification laws are being presented today that look awfully similar to legislation of the past that attempted to silence the voice of minorities in this country.

Newly freed men were forced into contracted jobs because private companies would not hire African Americans, which led to the system of sharecropping. Public sector unions and the government played a vital role in the employment of thousands of African Americans when private companies would not hire people of color. To see unions and collective bargaining rights under attack by a political party in today’s society is another step in the wrong direction; a direction that looks all too familiar to African Americans.

The longer we stay in the dark and are not educated about the political system and our elected officials, the legislators will keep beating us over the head with some of these outrageous policies that keep getting shoved down our throats. I.E. mandatory drug tests for recipients of welfare and food stamps but not for everyone on the states payroll to include themselves. Not paying attention to politics gets the terminator elected as the governor of California and gets a man implicated in the largest Medicare fraud cases in U.S. history elected as the governor of Florida.

Citizens, we must be heavily involved with politics on the local level first because that is where our vote can actually count and can be felt immediately, unlike the presidential race that is decided by an outdated Electoral College system that needs to be abolished. The election of local and state officials is even more important to us because those elections are decided by us, the people.

Being an educated voter empowers us to hold our elected officials accountable. I encourage you not to get married to a political party because you will start voting for the (D) or (R) that comes after a person’s name instead of voting for that person. What has the Democratic Party done for African American people lately? The answer is not that the Republican Party only care about rich White people, and I certainly do not buy into the argument about picking the lesser of two evils.

I know that may not sit well with some people who have voted for one party their entire lives, but voting down a strict party line dumbs down the voter; it makes it easier to assume that a candidate is certified because they are a Democrat or a Republican. Voting strict party lines is just as dangerous as not voting.

In the early 1900s Robert Vann, editor of the Pittsburg Courier once famously said, “Turn Lincoln’s Picture on the Wall.” At the time, he was questioning African Americans blind loyalty to “ole Honest Abe Lincoln” and the Republican Party. This was the beginning of African Americans shifting their support from the Republican Party, to supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt, The New Deal, and the Democratic Party. During this time, the Republicans took the African American vote for granted, the same way the Democratic Party is taking the African American vote for granted today.

I am not promoting any candidate or suggesting that one party is superior to the other because the two political parties in control of our government are responsible for the mess America is in. I personally feel more empowered and comfortable with myself as a No Party Affiliation voter. I only want to be classified as an informed voter and I will conclude by saying; the left needs the right and the right needs the left. Try not using your left hand for a month and see how effective your right hand will be.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on February 23, 2012 via Blogger.com

BCS, College Bowl System is About Money, Not Student Athletes

2012-01-05T08:56:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love college football during the regular season and absolutely hate college football when the post-season comes around. The BCS and the college bowl system make my stomach churn for a number of reasons.

Corporations Have Completely Taken Over Post-season Play:

Each time I hear the name of a corporation in front of a bowl game, I am convinced even more that the people in control of this ridiculous system care more about making money than they do about the student athletes. Example #1- Bowl representatives justify picking School A over School B to play in their game because School A’s fans will travel, and sell its allocated amount of tickets and School B won’t. Example #2- Some of the companies sponsoring these bowl games are virtual no names until bowl season rolls around and then we are bombarded with their commercials.

Chik-Fil-A and Outback Steakhouse (even though red meat is restricted from my diet) are two of my favorite places to eat and I do not personally have a problem with TicketCity, TaxSlayer.com, Bell Helicopter, Franklin American Mortgage, GoDaddy.com, BBVA Compass, Little Caesars, Famous Idaho Potatoes, Northrop Grumman, Gildan, R+L Carriers, or the San Diego County Credit Union. These companies may provide products and services beneficial to society in general, but corporations combined with college athletics are totally wrong. The only thing these companies should do to promote themselves is stand in line to hire these student athletes when their playing days are over.

Awarding Mediocrity:

30 bowl games are way too many for even a college football fanatic like me. A team that has a 6-6 record has no business playing in the post season what so ever. It reminds me of today’s version of little league sports, when everybody gets awarded for participating. Other than the teams and their fans, nobody wants to see 6-6 teams like Ohio State, Florida, Arizona State, Purdue, Iowa State, Illinois, Mississippi State, Wake Forest, Texas A&M, or Northwestern play in a meaningless bowl game.

A Playoff Makes Sense:

The BCS method for determining the national championship is the worst system in all of sports. College football does not need mathematicians, gurus, computers, or some complicated formula to determine which teams get a shot at playing for the national championship. A playoff system works well at every level of college football accept at the major college football level because playing in a bowl and the money involved is more important to some people than doing what is right by the student athletes. Major college basketball, baseball and hockey have playoff systems that work extremely well. With the exception of the college basketball selection process, very seldom do people complain about which teams make the playoffs and which teams don’t.

Ridiculous Layoff:

A three, four, and potentially five week layoff makes this system even more absurd. Imagine this; if we had five weeks between the end of the NFL season and the Super Bowl? Or if the top two teams in each conference played in the Super Bowl after the end of the NFL regular season and likewise in the NBA? Or if the number one and two ranked teams in college basketball or college baseball played for the national championship when the regular season ended?

These few reasons exemplify just how messed up the major college football system is. The student athletes who are bringing in millions of dollars to these universities have no say in a system that only benefits the rich and powerful.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on January 5, 2012 via Blogger.com

Remember what happened on that day…

2011-12-13T16:03:00.000-05:00

A couple of memorable events took place on Saturday, December 10, 2011. When the time is right, our memory banks will be relied on to recall what took place on that day and perhaps we will begin to question how information is presented to us in the news.

The first and most important reason I will remember that day is because my beautiful, sweet, loving, caring and wonderful mother celebrated her 57^th birthday! I want to ensure my mom is healthy enough to stay around for around for another 57 or so years, so I presented her with a membership to a fitness club, which turned out to be “The best gift a son could give a mother for her birthday!”

That day will also be remembered for a couple of significant events that took place in the sports world.

Baylor University quarterback Robert Griffin III won the 77^th Heisman Memorial Trophy as the Most Outstanding College Football Player in 2011. It was encouraging to watch the underdog win the big one for a change. Griffin presented himself in a manner that any parent would be proud of. The type of child parents prays for.

The new face of Baylor University will hopefully erase the negativity of scandals involving a basketball player who was murdered by his teammate, and a coach who was fired for trying to portray his murdered player as a drug dealer. We will remember that day because in his acceptance of the Heisman Trophy, Griffin displayed the characteristics more young men should strive to emulate.

We will also remember that day for the fight that broke out between basketball players from Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati near the end of regulation. Just when we thought the skirmish on the court was bad enough, the press conference afterwards was even worse. This fight was about a war of words that eventually turned into a physical confrontation, which exhibited how immature these young men were in handling the situation.

As I watched the coverage of the altercation, my immediate thoughts took me back to the 2004 brawl between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons and how much negative media attention it attracted. It then occurred to me that there is an obvious double standard in relation to how fighting in different sports is covered.

For example, fighting during a hockey game is applauded and the players are celebrated for their toughness and physicality. Once the fight has ended, the players are sent to the penalty box for a short period of time and if the fight was “good enough” it might be nominated as the top play of the day.

The game is not ended; and the players aren’t ejected, suspended, or fined in most cases. There is a mentality floating around in the atmosphere that somehow justifies fighting in hockey and demonizes fighting in other sports, with baseball being the other sport where bench clearing brawls are OK.

A hockey player was quoted in an article I was reading by saying, "It was great to see Tom and Garth step up and fight. They set the tone and let them know that isn't going to happen all game. We expect the same battle on Sunday."

The writer of the article then proceeds to praise the players who got into two separate fights, one second apart.

“Both tough guys dropped the gloves on back-to-back face-offs.” I am willing to bet that the writer covering this hockey game was one of the main critics who came out blasting the basketball players for their actions on the court.

This rhetoric sounds very similar to the equally ignorant and childish statement from an Xavier player made during the post-fight press conference.

“We’re not going to sit there and get our face beat in by somebody like Yancy Gates. We won't let that happen.”

The media coverage of the Xavier-Cincinnati fight is flat out hypocritical, but the actions of the players played right into the hands of the social stigmas related to violence within the African American community. The actions of players from both teams were a check in the box for the people who continue to push the negative young black male stereotype.

Remember what happened on that day because the next time you see a bench clearing brawl break out in another sport, pay attention to how the brawl is covered by the media. Think about how the fight at the end of the Xavier-Cincinnati basketball game was covered and how fighting in other sports is justified.

I am willing to bet that the terminology associated with the people in those fights won’t include the words ‘gangstas’ or ‘thugs’ or ‘street brawl’. Think about it and remember where you heard it first.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on December 13, 2011 via Blogger.com

Mainstream Media Overlooks Death of a Civil Rights Giant

2011-12-11T20:51:00.004-05:00

Several famous people died during the month of October 2011. I watched in frustration at the amount of media coverage a few individuals received and was baffled by the lack of coverage in the case of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. The gentleman, who did more for the American people than he is given credit for, passed away at the age of 89. Rev. Shuttlesworth died on the same day as former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and in the same manner in which his work during the Civil Rights Movement was overshadowed by the more popular Dr. Martin Luther King, his death was overshadowed again by a more popular public figure.

Birmingham, Alabama had a long history of white superiority and was a hotbed for violence against African American people. Rev. Shuttlesworth was jailed more than 30 times, survived a Christmas Day bombing of his home, endured multiple beatings and was the victim of an infamous 1963 encounter with the fire hose which left him with chest injuries. He was known for his aggressive face-off with Bull Conner and was described by some as a local militant. Rev. Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) mass-organized local African Americans in an effort to defeat white supremacy, segregation, and worked hard to build an inclusive, grassroots movement in Birmingham that bridged deep seated class divisions.

Unlike Dr. King, Rev. Shuttlesworth took an aggressive approach to the fight for equality. He was different than many of the other southern preachers during the movement and was not willing to conform to the dehumanizing system of segregation, vowing not to turn the other cheek. The group Rev. Shuttlesworth led shared his belief that non-violence was an action, but certainly not a way of life. He was able to connect with poor people because he came from the same social class of people he was determined to help. ACMHR joined forces with the Southern Conference Education Fund (SCEF), a group of radical whites that caused the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to question the pastor and his possible ties to the Communist Party. Shuttlesworth believed in listening to the concerns of the people, which was the main reason he had the largest working poor membership of any city’s civil rights organization.

Steve Jobs died after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. The internet was buzzing with articles, tributes and moments of silence to honor Jobs. News channels all over the globe diverted from their regularly scheduled programming to talk about the life and impact of one of the most influential business people we’ve seen in a long time. Jobs inspired people as a designer and creator of hardware and software, to develop their own products and businesses. In one way or another, his products have impacted our lives and his gadgets will be beneficial to society as a whole, but the coverage of his death was a bit too much for me. I was surprised that his death dominated the news cycle for five or six straight days.

Longtime Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis unexpectedly died at 82 years of age. All of the major sports networks provided wall to wall coverage once the news of Davis’ death was confirmed. Hopefully Davis won’t solely be remembered as the owner of the team who coined the phrase, “Just Win Baby,” but will be remembered as a rebel, an innovator and an advocate for minorities and women. Davis took a chance on people when no one else would and after everyone else had given up on them. He hired the league’s first Hispanic coach, Tom Flores and hired Art Shell to coach the Raiders in 1989, making Shell the first African American NFL coach in the modern era. Davis also hired the first female CEO in the NFL, Amy Trask, in 1997. His unwavering commitment to African American and other minority athletes in the 1960’s was unprecedented considering the racial atmosphere of the nation during that time.

Indy Car driver Dan Wheldon was killed in a fiery accident during a race in Las Vegas. News of his death spread quickly throughout the sports world for several days on radio and television. The death of a young athlete in the prime of their career is without a doubt going to be a front page story. Ironically, Wheldon’s death came on the same day in history that abolitionist John Brown conducted his raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

John Brown delivered a speech to the court at his trial that made me think about the people participating in the Occupy Movements all over the world. In defending his case for trying to help put an end to slavery, Brown famously said, “Had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends--either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class--and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.”

Arguably the most controversial death in October 2011 was that of Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi. There are several different accounts of how he was killed and who was responsible for killing him. One of the possible benefits of his death is bringing a sense of closure to the families of the people who were killed when Pan-Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. It is going to be interesting to see what happens in the fight to control the oil fields that contain the Libyan sweet crude oil companies are clamoring to gain access to. Thankfully no American servicemen were lost during this engagement and with any luck the powers that be will restore peace to the northern African nation that has been at war since early this year.

Gadaffi’s death is already being politicized during the presidential campaign, with some people giving credit to President Obama for deciding to participate in NATO’s campaign without putting troops on the ground to take down the longtime Libyan leader. Meanwhile, critics of the President have taken their normal “anti-everything President Obama does” stance and will continue to use the American intervention in Libya against him during the general election. Most people still do not understand why America was involved in another country’s conflict in the first place, but the first word that comes to mind is OIL. At the end of the day, Gadaffi is dead, and in light of the excessive media coverage of the Libyan conflict, we still don’t know how to spell his name. Perhaps by the end of the Republican primary season, the candidates will realize that Libya is on the continent of Africa; “no pun intended.”

It would have been nice to have seen the reporting of Shuttlesworth’s death on the cover of every newspaper and the lead story on every news channel. Sadly, the coverage of his death was minuscule to say the least. African American radio talk show hosts paid their respects to Rev. Shuttlesworth and other than a few articles here or there, his name was barely mentioned on the scroll slowly rolling across the bottom of our television screens. A man who sacrificed so much for people he did not know should be remembered for his never-ending dedication for racial equality and justice for all people. Thankfully there were people like Fred Shuttlesworth and other unsung heroes who stood on the front lines, willingly putting themselves in harms-way for a cause that meant more to them than their own lives.

Originally published by Steve Maynor Jr. on December 11, 2011 via Blogger.com

Genocide, vengeance and the remarkable testimony of forgiveness

2011-12-10T23:48:00.000-05:00

The term genocide is a specific term that refers to violent crimes committed against a group of people with the intention of destroying the very existence of the group. While taking a closer look and analyzing the definition of the term, I wonder how much hate a person would need in their hearts to want to wipe out an entire group of people. More importantly, why would anyone believe they had the authority to actually do something that seems like such a far-fetched idea?

I approached 20 random people walking around a college campus and asked them to tell me the first thing that came to their minds when they heard the term genocide. 19 of the 20 people surveyed said the Holocaust, or the mass killing of Jews in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Remarkably, only one person answered the question by mentioning the genocide in Rwanda during the 1990’s. The Holocaust indeed was a horrific period of time for Jewish people in Europe. Approximately six million people were murdered and thousands more were displaced because of thesadistic behavior of another group of humans over a span of about twelve years.

In Rwanda over a period of just 100 days, approximately 800,000 people were killed. When you do the math, that equates to nearly 8,000 people dying every day. This travesty is one of the worst humanitarian crises the world has ever seen. The problem is that the genocides in the African nations of Rwanda, and Sudanhave not gotten the international attention they deserved.

Last week I was fortunate enough to hear two young ladies from the Akilah Institute for Women in Kigali, Rwanda speak about the genocide that decimated their country. It was hard for me to hold back tears as they told stories of their childhood, living in exile for a number of years, and not knowing if they would live to see the next minute or not. Generations of families were murdered in some of the most vicious manners one could imagine, and thousands of children were left without a blood relative to turn to. I’m talking about children who lost parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and were left to fend for themselves.

According to a Human Rights Council report, “The Rwandan genocide resulted from the conscious choice of the elite to promote hatred and fear to keep itself in power. This small, privileged group first set the majority against the minority to counter a growing political opposition within Rwanda. Then, faced with Tutsi dominated RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) success on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, these few power holders transformed the strategy of ethnic division into genocide. They believed that the extermination campaign would reinstate the solidarity of the Hutu under their leadership and help them win the war, or at least improve their chances of negotiating a favorable peace. They seized control of the state and used its authority to carry out the massacre.”

Why?is a question I continue to ask myselfwhen atrocities like this occur. What could a minority group of people do so bad that would make the majority group of people want to exterminate them? I’m talking about people who bleed the same red blood as they do. Apparently Hutu extremists were so angry that they tried to literally wipe out all of the Tutsi’s. Not only did the Hutu’s murder and brutally rape women, they also killed other Hutu’s who were opposed to the murders of thousands of their fellow countrymen.

Remarkably, these two young women survived by the grace of God and are now focused on doing everything they can to rebuild their country. These young women are totally committed to being educated so they can serve as mentors and be an influential part of the lives of young Rwandan children. Envision walking 40 minutes to get to the bus stop and then riding the bus for an additional 50 minutes to get to school. Now imagine sitting in class all day, going to work after class, and then taking the almost two hour trip back home at night.NoellaAbijuru spoke about how determined she was to be educated, because she understood that without an education she would not be able to be a productive citizen in the new Rwanda.

I was blown away by their desire to succeed in life, but what was even more impressive about these two young ladies was the fact that they have totally forgiven the people responsible for murdering hundreds of thousands of Rwandan citizens. In the case of Abijuru, the man who killed her father now lives next door to her mother. She stated that neither she nor her mother has any ill feelings towards the gentleman and they are doing everything they can to make him apart of their family.“Do not compare your present to your past, or you will never be able to move on to your future,” said Abijuru on several occasions.

The government in Rwanda is doing everything they can to ensure children know exactly what happened during the genocide. Learning and understanding the history of what took place in their country will provide healing and closure for a generation of children that had to start with a blank pallet. Likewise, I believe that American children need to be taught all aspects of the history of this country and not just the feathery versions often passed along in school textbooks. We have to be weary and critical of historians understanding of his-story. After all, one person’s version of present day events can and will be told from a totally different perspective by someone else.

In the meantime, to a growing number of Americans, it seems as though politicians are doing everything they can to keep the American people divided and fighting amongst one another. As a proud member of the “No Party Affiliation” group of Americans, I have had enough of the partisan political games, and the back and forth shenanigans of both the Democratic and Republican Parties. I can only hope that the American people will stand tall and join together to try and unite as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.

It may be easy for some Americans in our technologically advanced society to dismiss or demonize the transformation taking place in Rwanda. I just want to remind those same critics that America at one point in time was a nation at war with itself in a fight to abolish or maintain the enslavement of other human beings. What is happening in Rwanda is truly a remarkable testimony of forgiveness and perseverance. The Hutu and the Tutsi are working together as one group of Rwandan’s. The people have realized that vengeance would only lead to more killing and senseless deaths. The ultimate reconciliation project is underway in Rwanda because the citizens have decided to live together in peace as one nation of people. They have seen firsthand the results of livingin a divided country.

Originally published by the Charlton County Herald on October 4, 2011 http://www.charltoncountyherald.com/articles/2011/10/05/opinion/editorials/doc4e8b212017ccc257436358.txt

A bandage on a massive wound

2011-12-10T23:43:00.000-05:00

The election of 2010 will go down in history as one of the most important elections in the history of this country. Voter turnout was down and the theme of the election cycle was jobs, and balancing the budgets of the federal and various state governments. It's been almost four months since the majority party has been in office and it didn't take long for the realintentions of the newly elected politicians to come to the surface.

It's apparent that the real agenda had absolutely nothing to do with jobs, or balancing the budget. The real goal was all about power and doing everything possible to ensure President Obama doesn't get re-elected in 2012.All of the talk about too much government, taking the country back and fiscal responsibility ironically didn't begin until after the election of 2008. I don't remember hearing any of this talk during the previous years of government expansion and out of control spending.

Yes, the national debt is out of control and measures need to be put in place to cut spending;however, that debt didn't pile up in two years and it will take some time before it’sunder control.Taking away collective bargaining rights, privatizing public sector jobs,or closing schools won’t solve the debt problem. Politicians don’t really expect us to believe that public sector jobs helped create budget deficits, or that selling public sector jobs to private companies is going to solve budget problems do they? Anybody with common sense can see the massive amount of hypocrisy in that argument. That’s like putting a bandage on a gigantic gunshot wound.

Massive layoffs might save states a few dollars in the short term, but the number of unemployed people in the state will increase, and the debt will still be out of control. After all, people thought they were voting for candidates that were going to create jobs and grow the economy.The newly elected officials were supposed to go to the state capitals and Washington D.C. toget America back on track by putting people back to work. Instead of jobs being created, jobs were the first things on the chopping block. I can’t believe voters actually bought off on this stuff.

The people in the mid-west didn’t think their newly elected officials would immediately introduce legislation that would threaten their job. In hindsight, voters voted against their own best interest for the sake of change, but it's not the change they thought they were going to get.If the elected officials determined to get rid of collective bargaining abided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was adopted by the United Nations in 1948, Americans wouldn’t have to protest for the same rights guaranteed to them by this document. That idea might be too far fetched because we have a tendency in this country to pick and chose parts of documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to justify an absurd amount of injustices inflicted on our own citizens.

CEO’s are getting multi million dollar bonuses after running companies into the ground and white-collar criminals are robbing taxpayer’s blind, but go unpunished while hard working Americans are left carrying the weight of their bad business decisions. Since when did public sector employees become the enemy? The people who work to provide services to others in the community aren’t looking for handouts, nor are they freeloaders. I call them friends of mine and consider them to be great Americans. Teachers are already underpaid for the amount of work they do, and with the closing of schools and cutting of school budgets, they are now going to be expected to do more work for the same measly salary.

If schools are closed the size of classrooms will increase, and the quality of education will decrease. Teachers will get burnt out and students without a quality education will likely end up in prison, a place where budgets seem to be untouchable. In the grand scheme of things it seems as though a system is being put in place for people to have fewer options. Limited options will lead to an increase in crimes, which will lead to time in the prison, which will lead to voting rights being taken away. Call me skeptical, but that’s the way I see things shaping up.

The nightmare that is the privatization of the prison industry is exactly how the rest of society will function if collective bargaining rights are taken away and public sector jobs are privatized. The quality of service will go down the drain because the only thing private companies care about is making as much money as they can while paying their employees as little as possiblewith minimal benefits. Private companies should make a profit, but not at the expense of shabby service and not paying their employees a fair wage.

What doesn’t make sense to meis how a company that’s in the moneymaking business going to helpfixbudget deficiencies. Companies have mastered the art of tax exemptions so they certainly won't pay their fair share of taxes because of all the loopholes in the tax system. Go ahead and get ready to start seeing company logos on the side of school buses and public buildings because that's exactly what's going to happen if we privatize everything. I can see it now, "The Charlton County Courthouse Presented by Said Named Bank."

African-Americans in particular have seen first hand what can happen when private companies and the super rich are allowed to dictate politics. All we need to do is take a look at the nadirof American race relations between the late 19^th and mid-20^th century. Emancipation Betrayed by Paul Ortiz providesexamples of the political tactics usedin post-slavery Florida in the late 1890’s that are very similar to the tactics being used in the mid-west today. History has a funny way of repeating itself, but you have to read and look beyond the surface to uncover the hidden truth behind some political decisions.

These are the types of things that can happen when people don't vote, or vote for a candidate without knowing their corporate connections. The policies being put in place are skewed by whoever contributes large amounts of money to campaign funds and the politicians that have their own business interests in mind.Politicians like thiswill allow the rich to keep getting richer, while working-class Americans struggle to put food on the table to feed their families.

Originally published by the Charlton County Herald on March 29, 2011 http://www.charltoncountyherald.com/articles/2011/03/30/opinion/editorials/doc4d91e1af51916048687479.txt

I think he missed my point

2011-12-10T23:38:00.000-05:00

Although I would have loved to respond earlier to Mr. Frank Miller’s comments concerning the editorial, Just Answer These Questions, I was busy training, screening, and evaluating young officer candidates who have the desire to be leaders of Marines. Each summer, a small group of individuals decide to spend six weeks of their summer vacation trying to become the next generation of Marine Officers at Officer Candidates School, Marine Corps Base, Quantico, VA.

For each of the last three summer training cycles, I have had the opportunity to be a part of developing these young candidates.

Mr. Miller, is correct about one thing. I did volunteer to wear the uniform and fight the nation’s battles, but by no means does that indicate that I do not have the ability to think outside of the box. All citizens have the right to think critically when decisions are being made about possibly sending young men and women into foreign countries to engage in combat operations.

Wearing the uniform for the last 15 years gives me the right to think critically about these kinds of decisions. Marines who served as mentors to me, peers who I have worked along with, and young Marines I personally trained have lost their lives proudly fighting for this country. Anyone with an open mind can tell that there is a big difference between fighting our nation’s battles and being the social police of the world.

The critique in the aforementioned editorial was aimed at the individuals who think it is the American military’s job to be the social police of the world. The people I have a problem with are the sideliners who have never worn the uniform, and somehow dodged serving the country who think going to war is as easy as turning on and off a video game. Actual lives are at stake when these critical decisions are made, that is why I am concerned.

During a recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery this summer, I could not help but think about the sheer number of people buried there and asked myself why? I also wondered if these deaths could have been avoided in any way. Yes is the conclusion I came up with, but I guess fate is why so many people lost their lives fighting in wars that could have been avoided.

Here is a simple analogy. Think about the fans in the bleachers who think they know more about football than the head coach. Better yet think about a coach who has never played a down of organized football, or has any coaching experience calling plays for a football team. How much sense does that make?

It bothers me even more to hear commentators who have never strapped on a set of shoulder pads, never played in a competitive basketball game, or swung a baseball bat sit back and provide“expert” analysis of the game. We do not accept those tactics concerning sports, so why should it be any different when it comes to politicians making decisions that have life and death consequences?

Your “another line of employment” suggestion was immature, insulting, and typical of people who do not understand what Marines do on a daily basis. Yes, I chose to be a part of one of the finest organizations the world has ever seen, but being a Marine does not mean I don’t have an opinion or a right to question decisions being made that could cost me my life. One of the most important things the Corps has taught me is to be a thinker and not just a follower. Even the most junior Marines are leaders in one aspect or another, which makes our way of doing business unique from our sister services. If Marines aren’t allowed to think critically, lives could be lost because their leader was too afraid to be a forward thinker.

Mr. Miller, you may want to do some homework and some serious rethinking concerning your pre-existing beliefs about the present state of Israel. Anybody with common sense knows that the land Israel occupies existed well prior to 1948. Have you ever asked yourself why the Palestinians are still pissed off more than 60 years later? Have you ever thought about why they are still willing to fight over land that was arguably taken from them? Probably not. I would venture to say that you probably still believe that Christopher Columbus discovered America because that is the feel good story fed to children through the education system. The same one sided version of history that leads people to believe that Native Americans and African slaves were barbarians and savages who were rescued from themselves by the adventurous Europeans. The same story that forgot to mention how barbaric the Europeans were as they traveled around the world colonizing territories that didn’t belong to them, and then categorizing themselves as explorers and exhibitionists.

Sir, please do not attempt to marginalize, or question my understanding of history and do not challenge how much homework I’ve done prior to presenting the material in my editorials. You should think more like Michael J. Wise from St. George who has an appreciation for a point of view different than what he will see on the local news, or in the mainstream media. I always have encouraged everyone to think critically when reading books, watching the news, or listening to talk radio.

You totally missed the point in Just Answer These Questions because of your pre-existing set of beliefs. Do not be a “ditto head” and believe everything you hear on Fox News, or conservative talk radio. A story can be told from many points of view, and I try to analyze the facts from a common sense approach prior to offering my opinion. If that is what you call a pre-existing set of beliefs, you are the one that needs to take the blinders off and open your eyes to the way the world really operates.

Originally published by the Charlton County Herald on August 30, 2011 http://www.charltoncountyherald.com/articles/2011/08/31/opinion/editorials/doc4e5d0fe555a0f025754982.txt

Just answer these questions

2011-12-10T23:34:00.000-05:00

Conflicts in the Middle East have existed since the days prior to Jesus walking the streets of Jerusalem. The problems in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and other countries in the region are just that, their problems. Middle Eastern people don't want intervention by the United Nations, the United States or any other foreign nation.

Our allies in the Arab world are committing worse deeds against their people, but we pick and choose which leaders to demonize. The media will do everything they can to make the leaders America does not like look as bad as possible. Do not be fooled into thinking our involvement worldwide has anything to do with protecting innocent citizens we are calling rebels. This has everything to do with helping our European friends fight for the oil all of us so heavily rely on.

A blind eye is often turned to injustices occurring in nations that do not have natural resources to offer the rest of the world, but all bets are off when oil is on the table. The hypocrisy is laughable when people try to justify American intervention in foreign affairs that have nothing at all to do with the security and protection of American citizens. Don’t get it twisted or believe the hype; it is all about money and power.

Some Americans want to be the social police of the world and tell other countries how to govern themselves. We have so much of our own trash littering the streets that we cannot clean up because foreign interests seem to have taken priority over the needs of the American people. Note: The trash in this implication is not the dead urban thug kind of trash that radio talk show host Neal Boortz wants to see littering the streets of Atlanta.

If being the social police means sending service members to fight in wars, so be it as long as the people making these decisions are not doing the fighting. Anybody that wants to go help the rebels in Libya, or are so concerned about protecting Israel and any other American ally, don’t just talk about it, be about it. I encourage people with that mindset to feel free to get from behind their desks and microphones, strap their boots on and get to work.

Several questions have been going through my mind that I have not been able to put my finger on as of yet. For instance:

What foreign nation helped America during the nadir when Black men were being lynched, hung, and slaughtered for looking at White women, or registering to vote? Who helped America when Eugene “Bull” Connor was terrorizing Black people in the streets of Alabama? Where was the aid from other countries when the Klan was bombing churches, schools, and killing innocent Americans in the South? Which country came to the rescue when civil rights activists were murdered in cold blood while organizing people to stand up for their human rights?

The common sense answer, generally speaking, is that Americans solve our own internal problems. The common sense answer may not be as simple as we think it is, but here are a few more questions.

Where was the United Nations when European countries were taking over free and independent African and Asian countries? Where was the international concern when civil wars broke out in the Congo, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Rwanda, or Tunisia? I am still trying to understand how it is okay for the governments in Bahrain or Syria to kill their own innocent citizens and for Israel continuing to bomb the Palestinians without any ramifications? Meanwhile, Cuba is still under sanctions for exactly what reason?

In the spirit of the upcoming election season, here are a few questions I want to ask the current presidential candidates with these rules in place for answering questions. 1. Answers cannot include a word about President Obama. 2. Answers need to be in specific terms and not just the generic campaign jargon. 3. Answers will contain no negative comments or pointing out the other candidate’s shortcomings. I want to hear more about you and your record on the issues, not how bad you think the other person is.

Here we go.

What does Libya, protesting same-sex marriage, installing strict voter identification laws, or requiring citizens in need of government assistance to submit to drug tests have to do with creating jobs? What are you going to do to pay down the trillions of dollars of debt that accumulated over the last decade, not just in the last three years? How many times has the debt ceiling been raised over the last 30 years without contention? How are government subsidies for low income Americans any different from corporate welfare benefits/tax loopholes to industries making record profits? The current tax system is broken, how are you going to fix it? How do you feel about placing limits on campaign funds from individuals and private companies?

Those questions may seem far-fetched and I surely would not expect to get straight answers, but the American people are tired of the political stunts and games. What we want from our elected officials is more results, and less television appearances. Politicians could make life easier for all of us if they would just answer the questions and tell us exactly where they stand on the issues instead of talking in coded language that allows them to play on both sides of an issue.

Originally published by the Charlton County Herald on July 12, 2011 http://www.charltoncountyherald.com/articles/2011/07/13/opinion/editorials/doc4e1c449d0add2643945579.txt

Hometown success story: Tyrone Q. Edwards

2011-12-10T23:30:00.000-05:00

The decision to join the military after graduating from high school is a difficult choice for any young man or woman. Discipline, leadership, camaraderie, esprit de corps, and initiative are a few examples of benefits young people will gain while serving the nation. For Command Sergeant Major (CSM) Tyrone Edwards, the U.S. Army was the branch of service that caught his attention and his decision to join turned out to be one of the best decisions he ever made.

The benefits associated with joining the armed forces are limitless, but the days of using Uncle Sam as a backup plan are over. Entrance requirements aren’t expected to be lowered anytime soon and only the best and brightest can make it through basic training. Those fortunate enough to make it through boot camp soon learn that wearing the uniform daily is one of the toughest and most unappreciated jobs in the world.

The outstanding accomplishments of servicemen and women are often not reported, but bad news is guaranteed to make the front page. The nightly news does not have time to cover the good deeds taking place around the world because they spend too much time discussing crooked preachers, corrupt politicians, murderers, thieves, and sexual predators.

Here is some good news. CSM Tyrone Edwards, a Folkston native and 1989 graduate of Charlton County High School is a real life American hero. Edwards has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration from Troy State University and is a few semester hours away from earning his Master’s Degree in Human Resources Management from Columbia Southern University. He owns three homes in three different states and has amassed a net worth of three quarters of a million dollars in assets. He and his wife Thalassa also own a telecommunications/energy plug business (www.5LYNX.net/tntedwards).

He has been in the Army for nearly 22 years and managed to assemble quite an impressive record. CSM Edwards has spent time in Baumholder, Germany; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Yongsan, Korea; Atlanta, Georgia; Balad, Iraq; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and Fort Knox Kentucky. His primary duty as a personnel administration specialist has provided him the opportunity to serve in Special Forces Group, Medical Command, Psychological Operations Battalion, Atlanta Recruiting Battalion, Airborne Soldier Support Group, Military Mail Terminal Command, Airborne Sustainment Brigade, Fitness Training Company, and his current position as the Command Sergeant Major of one of five Reception Battalions in the Army Armor Brigade, Fort Knox, Kentucky.

CSM Edwards’ personal awards include four Meritorious Service Medals, six Army Accommodation Medals, seven Army Achievement Medals, two National Defense Service Medals, one Korean Defense Service Medal, one Iraq Campaign Medal with combat star, two Global War on Terrorism Medals, three Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbons, one Army Service Ribbon, three Over Seas Service Ribbons, the Recruiter Gold Badge with three Sapphires, the Gold Recruiter Ring, the prestigious Glen E. Morrell Medallion, a Parachutist badge the Senior Parachutist Badge and the Master Parachutist Badge, Venezuelan Foreign Jump Wings and the Centurion Jump wings for completing more than 100 jumps.

Edwards can be described as a Soldier, who is dedicated and committed to excellence. His fast rise through the ranks is a direct result of his sharp demeanor, professional attitude, and aggressive leadership style. Edwards was named the 2002 New Recruiter of the Year as well as the 2003 and 2004 Recruiter of the Year. All of the awards and citations Edwards has received during his career is a testament to his drive and determination to succeed.

“There was a time in my younger life when I could have chosen the easy road of selling drugs or hustling for money, but I think God for giving me the wisdom to look past the glamour of making quick money. I had to observe my surroundings and what I saw was not one successful retired drug dealer,” Edwards told me during an interview.

When asked if he had any advice for the young people back home, Edwards said, “The one bit of advice that I could give to the youth of Folkston is always plan and then set those plans into motion, because a plan is not a plan unless you execute it. Don’t let the surrounding decide who you become, but become someone who can make decisions about your own destiny.”

Not only is he a tremendous soldier, but Edwards is a good human being. The community is thankful that Edwards is representing his wife, five children, family, friends, and hometown in the positive manner that he has up to this point and in the future. Folkston, Georgia is proud of CSM Tyrone Edwards and salutes him for all that he does for this country!

Originally published by the Charlton County Herald on June 14, 2011 http://www.charltoncountyherald.com/articles/2011/06/19/opinion/editorials/doc4df789e980e7f518758093.txt

Playing the blame game

2011-12-10T23:26:00.000-05:00

The political rhetoric over the last couple of years has escalated to the point of blatant disrespect, personal attacks, and constant finger pointing when it comes to the President of the United States, one of the most respected office’s in the world. Accusations are tossed around without thought and facts are becoming harder and harder to find. You would have to carry a flour sifter to filter out all the garbage floating around about the President from all sides of the political spectrum, from all races, and from all religions. I call it, the blame game.

Regardless of the stance the President takes in regards to resolving the budget crisis, civil wars in other nations, global warming, same sex marriage, etc. there is a group of people out there that will purposely disagree with him for the sake of disagreeing with him. They’ll take the opposite viewpoint just to have something to criticize him about, whether they actually agree with him or not.

He's going to be classified as either a villain, or a softy by those people determined to see him fail. Since the day he was elected President, those who seek to destroy him have boldly announced their willingness to see the country fail before they allow our President to succeed. The false claims about his citizenship, his religion, and his love for America would not be happening if his name was Mike Johnson and looked like all the previous Presidents that came before him.

I’ve heard him referred to as a Socialist, a Communist, and a Marxist. I’m still trying to figure out how people manage to classify him in so many different ways, but can’t explain anything about any of these theories. The next time you hear a person accuse the President of falling into one of these classifications, take a minute and ask them what that particular theory means. You’ll be stunned that most people are just repeating what they heard someone else say and have no idea what these theories mean.

I’ve also never met a person that was a Muslim and a Christian at the same time. Since he came on the national stage, there have been speculations, rumors and myths about his religious affiliation, as if that’s any of our business. First, he was a Muslim because he has the same middle name as the former Iraqi leader and his father is from Kenya. Then, he was a radical Christian because he attended a predominately Black church in Chicago pastored by a controversial preacher. Next thing you know, he’ll be accused of being Buddhist, Atheist, or the Antichrist.

Motivated reasoning explains why this topic continues to come up from time to time. There is an attempt to associate him with being a Muslim in order to play on the emotions of weak-minded people who think that all Muslims hate America, or that Islam is a religion of violence. “Christians” have probably killed more people in this country than Muslims have, so that deflates that argument. The other attempt to associate him with black radicalism is like reading a script from the old playbook. The mainstream media has always wanted to portray anyone who speaks strongly about social justice, or black pride to be radical and un-American. Remember what they said about Dr. King when he was pounding the pavement during the Civil Rights Movement?

I wonder what Hannity or Limbaugh would talk about if they didn’t have the President to belittle, berate, criticize and scold on a daily basis. These guys make their living complaining about the President and offer nothing in terms of an alternative plan, or solutions to any problem. I tried listening to Hannity on the radio the other day while I was stuck in traffic, but after about five minutes I realized that he was repeating the same negative garbage from three or four years ago. It’s like he’s obsessed with the President. Fox News continually goes out of the way to make the President look bad, or link him to events he had nothing to do with. i. e. trying to make a parallel between a suicide incident on a college campus that the President was visiting that day. Spinning a story like that really goes overboard and is one more reason why I stopped watching that channel. That place is like a trampoline or launching pad for anybody who wants to get in on the blame the President game.

Take for instance, blaming the President for the $14 trillion national debt. At the end of the 2008 fiscal year, the debt was around $10 trillion. So when I hear this argument, the first thing I do is basic mathematics, 14-10= 4. You don’t go from a surplus at the beginning of the century to $14 trillion in just two years. Certainly the rate at which the debt has increased since he took office has gone up, but to pin the entire debt monster on him is ridiculous. There are people in both the Democratic and Republican Parties that have been sitting in Congress since the debt started spiraling out of control, so if we’re looking for anyone to hold accountable, it’s them.

The blame the President game continues in the area of rising gasoline prices. I recently read in an article that the governor of a southern state accused the President of wanting gas prices to go up in order to make alternative sources of fuel more competitive and to reduce pollution. Another misinformed celebrity recently said that the President should just go to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and tell them to lower the price of oil! If it were that easy, I wonder why that didn’t work for the last five Presidents of the United States? Answer: because OPEC doesn’t set crude oil prices.

Movements on the three major international petroleum exchanges; the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the International Petroleum Exchange in London (IPE) and the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX) set the price of crude oil, not OPEC. Want to blame someone for paying almost $4 for a gallon of gas; blame the speculators, not the President.

This seems like a long episode from the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. The earthquake in Japan; blame the President. The tornadoes in the south; blame the President. The nails in your front tire; blame the President. The washing machine stopped working; blame the President. Drive thru cashier messes up your order; blame the President. Failed the final exam; blame the President.

Granted, not everyone is going to agree with the President on some of his political or social policies. The bottom line is that the President can’t make everyone happy. One man alone can’t possibly be responsible for all the bad things happening all over the world. We all have the right to criticize and disagree with the President, but doing so in a respectful manner is the honorable thing to do. At the end of the day he’s still the Commander in Chief, proudly representing the United States all over the world.

Originally published by the Charlton County Herald on April 26, 2011 http://www.charltoncountyherald.com/articles/2011/04/27/opinion/editorials/doc4db6dcb66de27446624481.txt

Hometown success story: Theodore Parrish, CFA

2011-12-10T23:21:00.000-05:00

The next time you are browsing through the stations on your TV searching for something good to watch, scroll down the dial to CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, PBS, or Fox Business Channel and you might see a familiar face talking stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and all things related to the world of Wall St. with the big boys. You can also see his face when you log on to www.henssler.com, as well as his weekly appearance as a financial expert on Fox 5’s Good Day Atlanta. You can hear his voice as the co-host of “Money Talks” every Sunday morning from 10 to 11 am on Talk 920 WGKA Atlanta, GA.

That familiar face and voice is Folkston native Theodore Parrish.

Parrish has become a major player in the financial world and has been interviewed extensively by some of the most respected publications on the market. His name can be seen in Black Enterprise Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, Bloomberg Markets, Standard & Poor’s, and many other mainstream publications and websites.

He’s employed by the Henssler Financial Group and currently serves as the Principal and Director of Investments, as well as the Co-Portfolio Manager of the Henssler Equity Fund. Henssler, located in Kennesaw, GA is one of the largest independent financial planning and wealth management firms in Atlanta with assets under advisement of more than $1.25 billion.

In 2009 Parrish was recognized on the FIVE STAR Best in Client Satisfaction Wealth Managers list in Atlanta Magazine and named to Georgia Trend’s “40 Under 40.” This list represents 40 high-achieving Georgians under the age of 40 who are influencing the state’s future in business, government, education, the arts, and charitable organizations.

His Alma Mater of Kennesaw State University recently named Parrish to the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, where he serves on the Real Estate and Audit committees. Prior to this, Parrish has also served as head of the Projected Costs subcommittee for the Kennesaw State University Football Exploratory Committee and is a major fundraiser for athletic programs at the school.

"I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve with such a professional and entrepreneurial board. I look forward to helping develop the Foundation's vision that will move Kennesaw forward in their continued tradition of enhancing higher education for students, faculty and staff" said Parrish.

His financial knowledge is in high demand as he’s sought out on a regular basis to conduct investment seminars for the firm and serves as a guest speaker for both investment and student groups. At least twice a semester Parrish speaks to both undergraduate and graduate level students in the business college about applying theoretical financial models to actual financial markets.

So what makes Parrish different from any other kid that grew up in Folkston? How did he go from small town kid to being one of the hottest names in the financial world? Did he grow up with more advantages than any other kid in the neighborhood? Where did his drive for success come from?

Those questions are rhetorical in nature and are presented to suggest that no matter how good or bad a person has it growing up, or where they are from, success can be achieved through hard work and dedication. Some people use a variety of excuses to validate their position in life. Whether it’s the condition of the neighborhood they grew up in, the absence of one or both parents at home, or believing that the system is set up against them. There are obvious flaws in the legal justice system that can’t be denied or debated. We can fight the injustices in the system with a change in behavior; a change in mindset; a change in habits; and a change in the way we choose to conduct business.

Families and communities all over the country need young Black men to contribute to society more than we can imagine. Think about how big of a financial mess the prison industry would be in if young Black men didn’t give them their business. Private prisons in specific thrive off of rural towns like Folkston, with the promise of bringing jobs and tax revenue to the community, but at the expense of young Black men. Please young people, do everything you can to stop putting money into the pockets of the prison executives. Prison doesn’t give anybody street credibility, or make you tougher than the next person. As a matter of fact, prison takes away far more than it could ever give and robs a man of something he will never be able to get back; TIME.

The societal crutches and cultural conditioning that exists in our communities has to be broken at some point. If we doesn’t like the path our parents or siblings took, we can choose a different path that will take us down the road to success. We don’t have to settle for selling drugs, living in poverty, living in single parent homes, or relying on the government to help the community. There is no doubt that the next generation can be better than the generation before us. The elders have paved the way with blood, sweat and tears and it’s our job to continue paving the road for the generations that will follow us. We can do better for ourselves, no doubt about it.

If Ted Parrish, a 1991 graduate of Charlton County High School can step out of the vicious circle that can be found in rural towns and metropolitan cities, so can any young man or woman. Keep making us proud Ted. Thanks for representing your family, friends, and hometown in the positive manner that you have up to this point and in the future. I salute you my brother!

Originally published by the Charlton County Herald on March 22, 2011 http://www.charltoncountyherald.com/articles/2011/03/23/opinion/editorials/doc4d88b96807192082010505.txt

Black history can't be taught in 28 days

2011-12-10T23:16:00.000-05:00

Each year the month of February comes around and nationally we celebrate Black History Month. The shortest month of the year was chosen to honor the History of Black people in America, and from March to January little seems to be mentioned about the accomplishments of Black people in this country. The history of any people can’t be taught in that short amount of time, so why would Black History be any different?

Here is a breakdown of the month of February in a nutshell. February 2011 has four Saturdays and four Sundays. Take away one more day to celebrate Valentine’s Day, and another for those who chose to observe Presidents’ Day. That leaves 18 school days to try and teach a rich history that can’t be taught in 18 months, let alone 18 days. Now that’s what you call marginalization.

Aside from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, Black History is conveniently put in the closet until next February and then pulled back out like winter clothes that have been packed and stored away in a closet. I’m not talking about the same McDonalds Black History tidbits we see year after year, I’m talking about real Black History.

The necessity for Black History to be recognized separately makes me question American History as it’s being taught in grade school and institutions of higher learning all over the country. It should be very troubling to us all that Black Americans have been left out, or vaguely mentioned in traditional American History. There is no disputing the contributions people of color made to help build this country, yet HIS-STORY conveniently leaves out some very important facts.

The real facts have been laid out in slave narratives and biographies of Black Americans that aren’t household names. We’ve all heard the amazing stories of Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Tubman, but it amazes me that I never heard about the narratives of other female slaves, or Freemen until I took an African American History Class in college.

I do remember being taught some one sided stories of people like John Brown, Nat Turner, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali, but I can’t recall ever hearing about David Walker’s Appeal, the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dread Scott Case, the Ft. Pillow Massacre involving Nathan Bedford Forrest (a Klansman the state of Mississippi is currently proposing to honor with a license plate), or the courageous story of Henry “Box” Brown.

Also not included in those lessons was any mention of The Civil Rights Bill of 1866, The Compromise of 1877, disenfranchisement laws that were put in place to keep black men from voting, Nixon vs. Herndon, or the case of The Scottsboro Boys. I wonder why the murders of Medgar Evans, Emmitt Till, Wharlest Jackson and countless other Blacks during the Civil Rights Movement never made it into the chapters we covered.

The era of Jim Crow was breezed through pretty quickly, as if that period of time was as simple as the segregation of Blacks and Whites. Along with slavery, the days of Jim Crow still baffle me to this day because slavery was abolished with the signing of the 13^th Amendment (not with Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation like so many people have been falsely led to believe). I can’t comprehend how anyone could justify why Black Americans were chained, beaten, lynched and forced to work without being paid. I will never understand the ideology that Black Americans weren’t born with the same God given rights White Americans were born with. Why was it such a big deal for Black Americans to sit at the back of the bus, or drink from a separate water fountain as a White American?

And these people had the nerve to claim that they were God-fearing Christians. How dare they use the word of God like that. If these people were Christians, I would have hated to see what things might have been like had they not been Christians.

If my memory of American History serves me correctly, the people that fought in the war to end slavery, The Civil War, were not Muslims, right? So the people that want to scold and berate Muslims might want to take a look at the actions of the forefathers they like to quote so often.

Every Black History Month I ask my children what they learned in school that day about Black History and each day I heard the same answer. They either learned nothing, or were taught an erroneous story that was meant to demonize great Black men and women. I.E. a couple of years ago a teacher told my daughter that Dr. King was non-violent and Malcolm X was violent. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

A statement like that can harm the legacy of both men because it insinuates that the Civil Rights Movement was Martin vs. Malcolm and I needed to make sure she knew the facts about both men.

Therefore I referred her to several books about the movement and advised her to come up with her own conclusion. I understood fully that the ball is in my court to teach my children about the true history of Black people in America and expose them to some facts they might never hear in a classroom setting.

My challenge to all of you is to do the same. Talk to your kids about the importance of Black History, which requires parents to do some research and a lot of reading. Don’t be afraid to take this head on because you can learn along with your children some very important historical facts. You’ll also be able to explain some things to them that might be a little bit over their heads.

I want to give a special thanks to Dr. Eric Duke at the University of South Florida for inspiring me to read, explore and appreciate the fact that Black History can’t be taught in 28 days. My mind has been stimulated and hopefully your thought process will be ignited as well.

Originally published by the Charlton County Herald on February 23, 2011 http://www.charltoncountyherald.com/articles/2011/02/23/opinion/editorials/doc4d63fc7060927940865698.txt