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November 2008
Let’s hope the Obama era will change thug rappers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My son has finally hit that age in which music means just about everything. So for his 13th birthday, we bought him an iPod. He’s downloaded a dozen or so songs, and his tastes expand all genres — notably rap and rock-n-roll.
Occasionally Miles will hand over the iPod so his Old Man can hear what he’s listening to.
Of the lot, rap presents the biggest parental headache. I try desperately to listen without prejudice, prejudgment and free of the baggage that weighs the art form down. Can the ubiquitous Lil’ Wayne be that much different from the artists of my teen years? Man, it’s like comparing night to day.
If there’s a story or message behind the lyrics, it’s buried somewhere amid magnificent beats and horrific rhymes about sexual prowess, fancy cars and pronouncements of being the best in the game. Humility as a trait has left the train station. It’s been replaced by the unfettered use of the n-word and the b-word.
Much has been made of the Nov. 4 election of President-elect Barack Obama. The first African-American president of these United States takes helm at one of this country’s more disparate periods. Expectations as to how his administration will govern run high.
On the periphery, another issue has been laid at his administration’s feet, though it’s not policy matter. Some wonder whether a black man’s occupation of the White House will affect music. Force the low-rent, explicit end of hip-hop to sing anew. To clean up. To add more dollops of decency so that fewer offensive lyrics need to be bleeped out. To produce for kids an actual “clean” version of songs that are indeed non-explicit and a showcase of the genre’s brilliance. It’s an issue that’s been discussed forever and a day among black parents.
In a Nov. 18 article, the Rev. Al Sharpton shared his opinion on the subject with Greg Kot, the Chicago Tribune music critic.
“You can’t be using the ‘b’ word, the ‘n’ word, and the ‘h’ word when you have Barack Obama redefining overnight the image that black people won’t have. Here’s the greatest political victory in the history of black America, and the thug rappers can’t come near it. They will have to change or become irrelevant.”
Notice he said “thug rappers” and not all. It’s a worthy distinction. Without question, rap/hip-hop music isn’t the sole source of crass pop culture. Turn on the TV.
I hope Mr. Sharpton and like-minded individuals are on to something and that that “something” catches fire. Surely the artists of such a powerful genre of music marketed to children can find ways to express points with less raunchiness yet still maintain their street swagger.
Will they? Who knows. I, for one, would welcome a sea change, the day when a majority of the “thug rappers,” as Sharpton described them, reinvent themselves.
It’s highly unlikely Miles will turn a deaf ear to any specific type of music just because I disallow it in our crib. Besides, he’ll get plenty of exposure outside my purview.
For now, though, Lil’ Wayne has got to go.
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Black Friday — at Home Depot?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I received an e-mail the other day about Black Friday savings - from Home Depot of all places. I may be wrong, but I can’t ever recall the home fix-it retailer touting such a holiday sales gimmick.
With Christmas weeks away, relatives, friends and acquaintances have been repeating the same line: They’ll buy less, and definitely won’t charge a dime on their credit cards. That’s wise during any economy, not just one that’s near the toilet.
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New program a dirty way to treat garbage haulers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Buddy Johnson was about to step into a meeting when I reached him on his cellphone.
I wanted to talk about Gwinnett’s new waste disposal and recycling program. Johnson was scheduled to meet with his attorney to talk about that same subject — about the program, how it stinks.
In 1988, Johnson started Southern Sanitation Inc., in his words to get a piece of the American Dream. He epitomizes the small-time business owner. He works alongside 14 employees including his wife, collecting and hauling garbage for about 5,000 residential customers in unincorporated Snellville, Grayson, Lawrenceville, Lilburn and Loganville, his hometown.
“I wear many hats,” he told me. “There is no regional manager over me and all that.”
If everything unfolds as scripted, Johnson will lose his business and more than likely be bankrupt, for reasons beyond his control. In January, Gwinnett County will take over waste collection from private haulers in an attempt to streamline and standardize the handling of garbage and recyclables. Under the new plan, two firms — Advanced Disposal Services of Atlanta and Waste Pro Georgia — will serve the county’s 180,000 unincorporated residences.
Contracts for the six collection zones run through 2015. Residents will pay $20.45 per month through June, then the charge drops to $17.86. Yard waste removal will be $10 extra.
The county says standardization will stop illegal dumping, reduce the number of garbage trucks that barrel down the roads and make the removal of garbage more efficient. Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, the nonprofit agency that will run the new program, even has a slogan: “A Greener Tomorrow Begins Today.”
Perhaps. But some garbage haulers see crimson.
The change means the end of business in Gwinnett for seven hauling companies, including Southern Sanitation. For Johnson, who borrowed and used his own money to launch the business, it’s especially hard. He could end up losing the house he’s shared with his wife and two kids for 15 years.
“In the garbage business, you are constantly buying trash cans and buying trucks,” he said. “You got a three-year note on the [trash] cans. Go buy a truck and it’s a five-year note. So I got a lot of debt. Without operating, I won’t be able to pay my debt.”
Johnson tried to qualify as a county contractor, but his proposal didn’t pass scrutiny. Contract consideration required a $2 million performance bond, something he didn’t have in hand, although he said backers were lined up.
Setting such a high performance bond has led Johnson to speculate that the county wasn’t interested in doing business with bit players. “Basically, this forced the small man out of business,” he said. “No ifs, ands or buts about it. They designed this thing so that only the larger companies could compete. My employees are upset. They are mad. I’ve got one employee who has been with me since I started, and he says he’ll stay with me until the end. What’s worse is that it’s right here at the holidays.
“Ain’t that some perfect timing?”
So Johnson has secured a lawyer, who on his behalf has researched government-run garbage programs across the Southeast.
“They have me in a corner,” Johnson said before going in to meet his lawyer. “I have to fight. Something just doesn’t smell right. I don’t know how to show it or prove it, but this doesn’t pass the smell test.”
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Is renter law needed in Gwinnett?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cherokee County officials decided to hold off on a proposal that would require all renters to pay a $5 fee and subject themselves to a verification process to determine their legal status. They’ll take up the ordinance again in mid-January, commissioners decided Monday night.
The measure would also give the county the power to suspend the licenses of businesses that hire do business illegal immigrants.
In Gwinnett, both measures would probably garner strong vocal support, though not necessarily majority support, from residents. That’s what I think.
What about you?
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Job seekers can use luck in this economy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She told me her name was Lady B.
I paused.
“I have to do this all the time,” the woman said, reaching for her purse. “That’s the name on my driver’s license.” Sure enough, Lady B. it is. The Atlanta resident is a certified esthetician and cosmetologist who does freelance work, among other endeavors.
On Thursday, she was one of hundreds of clients at the state Labor Department’s one-stop employment center on Beaver Ruin Road in Norcross. The Gwinnett Career Center, which provides information in several languages, was hopping. Practically every computer terminal, table and chair was occupied. Lines at the intake desk and copy machine were constant, often several people deep. Some clients wore business attire; others donned baseball caps and jeans. All were either looking for work, gathering info about training programs or filing unemployment claims. Many appeared solemn, serious, anxious.
No doubt there’s another side to the frequent media narrative about consumers who have lived the good life, partied off their home equity, overspent and overcharged themselves into an economic malaise. It’s a script that’s a little too handy, much too generic. Folk I know had been pinching pennies and packing lunches long before the historic financial meltdown. Many share Lady B.’s mindset.
“When you’re a hustler, you do what you have to do,” she told me. “You have to do what you have to do to make it work. Many people have been struggling a long time, and they know to keep themselves calm amid all the craziness that’s going on now. People who had [high incomes], whose bottom line is not what it used to be, they are the ones who suffer more in times like these.”
Michelle Green, who was sharing a table with us, nodded in agreement. She’s an east Atlanta resident who works as a technician for a firm that does laser facials. “There are jobs out there,” Green said. “It may not be exactly what you want, but there are jobs. You just have to assert yourself.”
But it’s a tough search.
In October, new jobless claims climbed to 72,627 — 75 percent higher than a year earlier, according to the state Department of Labor. The state’s unemployment rate in September was 6.5 percent, compared to a national rate of 6.1 percent. The state’s October rate has not yet been reported. It’s a competitive job market. Employers can afford to be super-picky.
Some clients at the Gwinnett Center shared the pain of their job search in a deteriorating market. They say they’d been on interviews in which dozens of people sought the same position. And if they got the offer, the salary paled when compared to prior earnings. “I am always overqualified — which means they don’t want to pay you anything,” said Lady B. “They always want to pay you something ridiculous.”
It turns out that Green and Lady B. had been waiting to be interviewed by the same skin-care representative. When the women found out they were in similar professions, they exchanged e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. Then they wished each other well.
“If it’s meant for me, I’ll get it,” surmised Lady B. “And if it’s meant for her, she’ll get it.”
As they departed, I offered up two words I’d heard counselors tell job-seekers repeatedly during my two-hour visit at the Gwinnett Center. Good luck.
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Time to pause, honor and celebrate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So you missed the annual Atlanta Veterans Day Parade as well as Tuesday’s ceremony at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center.
No worries.
In Gwinnett, we have a permanent facility that pays homage to veterans. It’s the Gwinnett Veterans Memorial Musuem, located on the first floor of the Historic Courthouse in downtown Lawrenceville.
The museum, maintained and operated by local veterans, has replicas, memorabilia, military records and uniforms from all branches of services. You’ll also learn the personal stories of some of the local servicemen and women.
The museum chronicles wars from the Civil War to present. It’s a must-see educational center, it’s free and there’s bound to be a veteran or two on hand to guide visitors through the display rooms.
So check it out.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday - Friday; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Online: http://vetmemorialmuseum-tripod.com.
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Pancreatic cancer fight worth joining
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Brittany Black’s grandfather had experienced chronic back pain for several years. Doctors treated it with cortisone shots, which only masked the pain.
One morning he came into the kitchen of his Lawrenceville home. “Look at my eyes,” he asked his family. “Do I look yellow?”
“His eyes were as yellow as they could be,” Black said. “His skin was yellowing.”
Clyde Monday was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer on Aug. 17, 2005. He underwent surgery Aug. 26 and died 10 days later.
Apparently that’s the way it is with cases of pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancerous deaths in the country. Of the nearly 40,000 Americans diagnosed this year, practically all of them will die.
Early symptoms — among them pain in the back or abdomen, nausea and weight loss — are vague and common to other ills. Pancreatic cancer is hard to diagnose because the organ hides behind other organs and can’t be felt in routine exams. Moreover, there’s no test like the mammogram for breast cancer or the PSA for prostate cancer.
It doesn’t have to be this way, Black said. She’s the founder of the Atlanta chapter of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN), one of more than 70 volunteer-run affiliates in the country. The national non-profit network, based in California, promotes the advancement of education, awareness and scientific research.
This is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. To that end, the local PanCAN chapter is to host its annual 5K run/walk Nov. 15 in Grant Park. The goal is to raise $100,000. So far, individuals and corporate donors have contributed $77,000. Atlanta will also be the site of a free all-day symposium on March 14 at the Four Seasons Hotel on 14th Street.
“Our affiliates are our eyes and ears on the ground, our voice,” said Mary-Jo Kennedy, PanCAN’s director of community outreach. “It’s not just about raising money. It’s about education, awareness and advocacy. Education is a really big part of our events.”
For Black, involvement is a way to honor the life of a man who was more of a father than a grandfather.
“I volunteer, really, to give hope to families,” said Black, a Midtown resident who works in commercial real estate. “This organization can walk you through the steps you need to take care of your loved one. I’ve seen the changes that have been made in Atlanta. People come up to me with tears in their eyes to say, ‘Thanks.’ If I save one person, it totally makes it worthwhile.”
For more information about the Pancreatic Cancer Network, visit www.pancan.org. To pre-register for the “Purple Stride Atlanta Walk,” go to http://pancan.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=284819.
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The ultimate U.S. racial barrier has been broken
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Robert Sample of Norcross made history just like President-elect Barack Obama.
He voted for the first time in his life.
“Last Thursday was the first time I voted,” the 63-year-old Army veteran said. “I looked at [Obama’s] character, listened to what he had to say, and I went and voted. Everything he said made sense to me. I have never heard any candidate talk like that. It’s not about color. It’s about what you are going to do when you are in there.”
How true.
President-elect Barack Obama has broken the ultimate U.S. racial barrier with his defeat of Republican John McCain. He has pledged to be a president for all America and rightly so.
Clear challenges are ahead. We still are mired in two wars. The economy remains in the tank. The free-market system needs life support.
Time to hunker down.
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The Big Day has arrived
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Finally, it’s here. Nov. 4. Election Day.
Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain are making last-ditch, pit-stop appearances in must-have states. Political pundits - conservative, moderates and liberals - are getting their final two cents in before the polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning.
And we all are waiting to see who will be the next president of the United States.
Are you on edge?
Or simply taking things in stride?
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Group pride in a member’s success
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nathaniel Brown has never voted for a Republican. It’s a track record that will continue Tuesday when the retired civil rights activist gingerly makes his way to the ballot booth. A stroke and heart attack have slowed the Norcross resident. His health, he jokes, will prove handy come Nov. 4.
“I won’t have to wait,” he said, chuckling.
Brown experienced first-hand the segregation and inequality that many of us have only read about. As a school-bus driver, he drove a “relay bus” that ferried the Norcross-area’s black students to Duluth. There, they’d catch another bus that took them to an all-black school.
In the mid-1960s, he helped lead a successful, violence-free effort to integrate the county’s public schools. The Ku Klux Klan held a rally in Norcross’ downtown Thrasher Park to protest the start of the school year.
It’s history that’s as fresh in the 77-year-old’s mind as the current presidential bid that pits Sen. Barack Obama against Sen. John McCain. For Brown, the thought of a black man possibly occupying the West Wing is something he never thought he might see.
“My generation,” he said. “We’re almost extinct.”
In America, race is everything. To that end, much has been made of the overwhelming support blacks have given the Obama candidacy. Some political pundits have attributed the support to skin tone and skin tone only.
How insulting. They know full well the support runs deeper than that, that it’s greater than the candidate’s melanin. Concerns about the economy and dwindling retirement funds are on everybody’s minds, regardless of color.
Besides, blacks typically vote Democrat. Democrat John Kerry nabbed 88 percent of the black vote in the 2004 presidential race. In the November 2000 presidential contest, Democrat Al Gore received 90 percent of the black vote nationally.
Still, there’s a ring of truth to the notion that familiarity and likeness hold political sway. At the very least, they are factors that can open the door, make folk listen, even if they vote otherwise. Everybody likes “one of their own.”
Mitt Romney, the 2008 Republican presidential hopeful, spent millions of his own money, but he benefited greatly from donors of the Mormon church, especially in Utah. When John F. Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic president of the United States, practitioners of the faith felt, generally, that they had arrived. That they had become part of the political process. That they had broken the barrier.
It would be no different with Obama, should he succeed.
“I guess it would be one of the most historical things that I have ever seen,” Brown said. “Most of my kids have gone and voted. They keep saying, ‘Daddy, why don’t you go vote?’ But I told them, this year, I won’t have to wait in the back of a line.
“I have the advantage.”
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