Torture and U.S.

The Bush Administration took us down the road to torture in a fast car and now various people associated with the previous Administration are defending the speeding. Obama is backing us away from torture, or at the very least water boarding and attempting to steer the country back down the road to the moral high ground. These moves I applaud, but I do have some cognitive dissonance going on.

If my son, best friend, my best friends wife or child were being held hostage or in some way had their life threatened and I had a person with knowledge that I thought could save my best friends life, torture would be an option for me. There would be no hesitation on my part. It's like the me being against the death penalty, unless the person killed my mom.

Theoretically policy should not be made by the people who have a personal stake in the outcome, a classic conflict of interest. But the reality is I'm against torture in general, but if they were holding my mom, I'd break out a blowtorch.

What the F__k?

Black men and College

Intrepidyoungman is finishing up the 9th grade and has three more years before he leaves home and goes off to college. This gives me pause on a few levels. I remember being in my mothers house, walking to school and dreaming of college myself. I remember going off to college, studying, not studying, hanging out; things that seem at once so far away and so close. I remember my son's birth, him so small and fragile. Now he stands almost eye to eye with me, lean and muscular, sensing his impending manhood.

In three years he will leave for college, but the world he steps into is vastly different from the one I stepped into at his age. The competition is much much more fierce. Whereas I was able to get into an elite university with less than a 4.0 and good, not great SAT scores, that is almost unheard of now. I read of young folks being rejected with near perfect SAT scores and 4.2 GPAs. On top of that schools are much more expensive, topping $40,000 a year; some kids graduate with over $150,000 in debt and then weigh the prospect of graduate school.

I feel a special responsibility to prepare my son well for the simple fact that he is a nascent black man and there is a limited supply of black men going off to college. One of the imperatives of African American families and African American organizations, I feel, is to send young black men off to college. To the extent we wish to survive as a race this seems to me a must.

The Salon

The last week has turned out fairly well. Intrepidblackwoman is back in the house (toilet seats are down again) and the place has that womanly energy again. I was never a believer in that sort of thing, but, hey, there is a difference. The presence of a woman just makes men act differently (this can be a good and a bad thing, but in Intrepidyoungman and my case its a good thing).

This past Sunday we kicked off The Salon. Every second Sunday we are hosting a group of folks to chat about a topic and eat up our food. Sunday's topic was "What is the Green Economy." The discussion was cool, we talked about the tension between just branding old jobs green (i.e. is a sanitation worker a Green worker?) and actually creating new jobs, methods of production that reduce the carbon footprint.

There were some hot side discussions about commercial rap music (the stuff you actually hear on the radio) and of course no group of black folks can get together without talking about "the struggle," in some way. It was all terribly good and I'm looking forward to the next Salon. The topic is, "The utility of marriage."

Like Magic

My son and I had a great weekend, Intrepidblackwoman (his stepmom) is out of town, so it meant we could leave all the toilet seats up all over the house and walk around scratching at will. On Saturday we ate out for lunch and had some good conversations in between him texting. He did share something that disturbed me though, that he did not want to get married---more on that in another post soon. Other than that, the topics ranged from literature to the economy. Later that night we went to see the play Antebellum, which we both recommend. I have never seen a play as intricate or a play covering the subject matter. Those in the Washington DC area would be well served by checking it out.

On Sunday Intrepidyoungman cranked out his homework, cleaned his room, the downstairs bathroom washed his clothes, then went and hung out with a friend.

I felt like Pat Riley coaching the Lakers when Magic played for them, all he really did was throw out the ball, no coaching needed.

Of Black Men and Commitment

In the District of Columbia approximately 50% of African American boys graduates from high school of these young men approximately 30% go on to college and then a third of those young men graduate withing six years. The statistics are similar in other states which then leads to a dearth of African American boys in college. In some schools the ratio is up to seven black girls for every one black boy.

Into this steps an organization I volunteer with, College Tribe, a mentoring organization, African American men mentoring African boys. For the last two years I've been in charge of recruiting and managing the men that mentor the boys. This has turned out to be an exercise in herding cats. The issue is the difference between theory and practice. Everyone understands the importance of the issues we face, but the actual practice of showing up when you are supposed to is a different thing.

What I've learned over the last two years is that the men who come with a lot of rhetoric about the plight of black people are the ones who cancel at the last minute. For these men, the theory is the thing, not the practice. Some of the men are just really busy, with businesses to run and a host of other activities. These men treat their mentoring appointments like business appointments, something they can cancel, reschedule and re-arrange.

My challenge is to weed out the committed men from the theoretical men. In general the quiet serious men are the one's I need. The strong quiet type wins again.

Of Capitalism and Greed

Capitalism's fatal flaw is its ultimate building block--greed. The goal of Capitalism is for the Capitalist to make as much money as possible. Capitalism goal is not to create meaningful employment for people, nor is it to educate or care for the sick. Capitalism purpose is to serve Capital. The very concept of a "Free Market," demands that individuals be free to set up whatever arrangement are best to produce wealth.

Capitalism inherently pits individual interest versus the national interest. The individual wants to make as much money as possible which causes tensions with large parts of society. What else would explain the existence of the minimum wage. If there was no minimum wage, wages would drop all across the country, as businesses moved to maximize profits.

Look at our many product safety regulations, seat belts as an example. Car manufacturers fought seat belts tooth and nail because they felt it hurt profits (well they phrased it as the additional costs having a negative effect on the consumer). Think of the various food safety regulations, building codes, and inspections. These are all things put in place to temper greed.

Financial regulations work the same way, to temper greed and protect the public. Why does the FDIC and other bank regulators exist? Because we (the non capitalists) cannot leave the capitalist to their own devices--at least not completely.

No doubt there will be new financial regulation in the wake of the worldwide
recession (depression?). But I just know the big law firms are waiting for the new legislation with bated breath, waiting to find ways around it and inform their clients. The next financial catastrophe is really a matter of time. Greed will win again.