Even if things change by tomorrow, the verdict is in…the leaders of the Gary Indiana School system from top to bottom are inept.
Enough of th excuses. To not have the high school football coaches INTERVIEWED 3 weeks before the first games are played is unacceptable. Especially if the decision was made to actually interview basketball coaches before the football coaches. Plain and simple. This is a leadership issue. The haters are all out there (Crown Point, Hobart, Merriville, Valpo citizens alike) licking their chops. Your giving them the meat to feed there contempt of all things Gary with your lack of leadership on something that really should not be that difficult.
The real sad part about this is that it’s the kids that are being HURT by this more then anything else. If sports is an outlet, Gary’s youth need more of it, not less opportunity to participate in it. This is exactly what this has caused, a lessened opportunity for Gary youth to participate in something that will keep them out of streets! And lets face it, Gary high school football needs as much practice as it can get.
It’s bad enough this debacle has caused the loss of one of Gary’s prized coaches, John Boyd of West Side. It’ll be even worse when one of those potential West Side/Lew Wallace or Roosevelt students gets into some negative situations during times in which they’d normally be in practice.
Things are going a wire. All of these deaths of relatively young black American celebrity men . Gerald Levert, Sean Levert, Bernie Mac, MICHAEL JACKSON, now Steve McNair.
Regardless of what Mike wanted, these were all black men. Falling dead either in their prime or in the prime of their careers. This needs to be addressed within the black blog community as well as withing the community themselves. It’s just not happening to the “gang bangers”. It’s happening to Regular Brotha’s and the so regular brotha’s (celebrities).
I think we all know Hillary Clinton by now. And you Sarah Palin, are no Hillary Clinton!
Talk about someone who is not a quitter. Clinton didn’t quit during the primaries, called Obama a BUNCH of names, and still got Secretary of State! Now that’s Chutzpah! We know she can hang with the big boys!
Something that Saray Palin would NEVER know nothing about. Fact of the matter is, she is a fake. I don’t see how women could ever look up to her as a role model. The very thing that she relies on so much when asked questions about her “experience” , she quits at (as Governor of Alaska)?
And she says she’s going to continue to fight for America? I know one thing. Republican, Democrat or Independent… Americans don’t like quitters!
She has shown that she can’t take the heat… She went from small town Mayor (of Wasilla) to governing a reletively smallish state government… and couldn’t handle it.
Mark Sanford got caught cheating on his wife. Used taxpayer dollars to get busy with his Latina in Argentina. Paid the money back after getting caught. Told the world, after this, that his Latina in Argentina is his soul mate…but that he’d “TRY” to fall back in love with his wife. AND HE STILL HASN’T QUIT! Now that’s pimpin player!
John Ensign Bangs his next door neighbor/good friend/staff employees wife! For about six months:
“Senator Ensign’s conduct and relentless pursuit of my wife led to our dismissal in April of 2008,” Hampton’s letter says. “I would like to say he stopped his heinous conduct and pursuit upon our leaving but . . . his actions did not subside until August of 2008.”
Sanford (Liar). Ensign & Sanford (Cheaters) Now Palin (Quitter). Boy you Republican voters sure know how to pick em’. Your a train wreck of a party right now. The Detroit Lions of the political world. The pimple on the arse of the Elephant that is your logo.
The three adjectives in the parentheses best explain what you fools really represent. The truth has finally reared it’s head.
You lied to the country about weapons of mass destruction to please your business constituents/interests in getting us into a war (Iraq). AND you lie to your constituents in telling them that your hiking the Appalachian Trail while your really “gettin busy” in Argentina with a skank. On the taxpayers dime…
You cheat on your women and family, though you claimed that your values are better then others. You even bang your best friends wife (see Ensign). You even got strait game in saying that your side chick is really your “soul mate” and your wife is, well someone that you’ll TRY to fall back in love with. Real pimpin player…
And worst, you quit when the going gets ruff. Cut and run. Remember that… (See article below)
I’ve tried it recently. I don’t like it. It’s like a gimmick blog. The 145 word limit reduces the experience to “blog sound biting”. Not my cup of tea. And the follower/following thing blows too. Essentially, it seems to be perfect for a celebrity. They can “tweet” there every thoughts and whereabouts to the loser fans that follow them.
However, it did seem to have a great purpose for the Iranian episode that went on last week. It’s definitely got a future for those types of situations. I’m sure the government of China will ban it. It takes less then 145 words for a Chinese citizen to tell the world that living in China Suuucks…
West Side Alumni Chris Hunter was signed by the Knicks after having a stellar season in the NBA D-League with Fort Wayne. He is the first player from Northwest Indiana to play in the NBA since Glenn Robinson.
There’s no coincidence that both hail from G.I.. Though that area (or region as they call it) continues to cheat Gary youth by harrassing them and their teams in the Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament, Chris Hunter is Gary’s shining example of how to just “jump over” those road blocks.
He did it at West Side, leading them to a State Championship and he did it here, overcoming being relegated to supporting cast status during his playing days at Michigan and playing in Poland as well as the D-League.
Look for West Side’s Xavior Jones to make it there as well as Brandon Dawson and Dejaun Marrero of Lew Wallace and Bowman Academy. Goes to show you that playing in in the Northwest Indiana Conference preps kids for the D-1 as well as the NBA.
No other “region” conference can say this. Keep making excuses to avoid playing Gary schools. And keep hurting your players chances of getting better opportunities.
I went to the 15th Annual Woman’s Empowerment event in Raleigh yesterday. I’ve lived here for 8 years and this is the first time I’ve gone. I went with my wife and two daughters.
I guess the motivation for me going was more related to my older daughter being 17 and about to leave the nest and go to college, along with the fact the event advertised a “Mens Lounge” for men who attended the event. I’m sentimental in that I look forward to doing things with my oldest knowing it is the last time I could do them with her before she “spreads her wings and fly away”…
O.K.. Yes, I was also there to critique the event.
I had made comments in the past questioning just “how empowering” the event was, making assumptions that it was more of a concert with vendors doting the hallways of the event hocking wears and flea market type goods. I had heard of the “workshops” marketed on the local black radio stations so I assumed they were a intergral part of the event . I figured this was a great opportunity to see if I was off base and just how plain ignorant my past assumptions could have been.
Well… to me, the event was just alright. A concert with SOME workshops, but more of a concert with a flea market. It clearly and rightfully was not catered to me (a man, a black man at that) but having been” raised” (more on that in another post) the past 18 years by three members of the opposite sex, I’d like to say that I can relate to issues and events targeted toward black women better then most would think. I really believe I have a say with respects to the event because I live in a house with three black women (well two and one up and coming), so something that talks about empowering them (which I don’t mind) has got my attention.
The event was, to me, a jumbled mess really. The guest speaker (Mary J. Blige) apparently did not connect with the women in attendance in the stadium. Well maybe not all of them. While “hanging” in the “so called” mens lounge, I met these three other brothers, one who told me that his wife had commented to him earlier that Mary J was not inspiring at all to her. She was unprepared and really was just there to make a buck.
At the end of the event, my wife and two daughters essentially echoed her sentiments about Mary J. They also commented on the so called “question and answer” session with Mary J, which they said was just a total mess.
My wife said that she did attend a couple of good workshops, one in particular was about fibroids. She said the workshops were uncomfortable because you could barely hear the speaker due to the fact the workshops were in open spaces adjacent to the arena. The noise from the performances really conflicted with the presentation.
From my vantage point, it seemed to be more of a festival for black women then an empowerment event. The stadium stayed packed. The only time the hall ways of the RBC were crowded was in between acts when attendees made their way to the concession stands or the bathroom. I think the event would benefit from being held in the new Raleigh Convention Center as opposed to the RBC Center.
In the convention center, they can section off the workshop rooms so they are more intimate and there is no interference of noise from the performances. I’ve took part a couple of “Black Expo” events in convention centers as an entrepreneur and I believe this type of setting is better served for this event then in the RBC.
The acts at the event was kinda cheesy. Or at least the mens acts (other then Raheem DeVaughn) were. My wife said “I guess this is what black women has reduced themselves to as far as what they consider entertaining”. My older daughter basically said the same. Mim’s, Bobby Valentino, and Pleasure P (?) of Pretty Ricky were all garbage as far as I’m concerned. Valentino is more of a rap record “hook” singer then an established artist. AND WHY THE HELL WAS HE WEARING SAGGING ASS PANTS THAT CONTINUALLY SHOWED HIS UNDERWEAR at an event meant to empower women? To de-power ( OR deflower some of the groupies) them into continuing to make bad choices in men? If anything, I suspect it reinforced in quite a bit of the women attendees minds that this is the type of black man that’s attractive, one who has no respect for himself and perpetuates the thug life look.
God dammit, black woman need to all see the documentary “Diary of a Tired Black Man!
Jennifer Hudson was good, but after seeing all of the garbage that came on before her, it was sort of a let down that she was on stage for a mere 15 minutes (or so it seemed). Then BAM, it was over.
Like I said, a move to the convention center and less focus on entertainment and more on the workshops would be a good move for the event. Of course, the question is, will the event sell out without the primary focus being placed on the entertainment?
Something tells me the answer is NO! I guess Tom Joyner knows what he’s doing when he labels his events ” A Party with a Purpose”. You know we’ll come out to snap our fingers… Black Women are no different the Black Men in this area.
However, I did run into this young woman who resides in Va. and has a pretty good website/blog ( I checked it out this morning). It’s cleverspeaks.com… check her out. She has some important things to say about our plight from the vantage point of a smart black female.
P.E. said you “Can’t Trust It!” I guess this is how slug Republicans feel after their “Chairman in Blackface” (or so they thought) has shown “his real color”.
Michael Steele has been making comments that Republicans thought their “Leader in Blackface” surely would not be making when they elected him Chair of the RNC.
After back tracking on his comments about Rush Limbaugh being more of an entertainer then legitimate Republican leader, lets see if Steele does the same about his comments about being “Pro Choice” that has rattled the “religious nut” base of the Republican Party.
I’ve “felt” (not listened to, but felt what Chuck D was saying in) “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” by Public Enemy. You sir (Mr. Steele) are no Chuck D, indeed…
Yes. I’m making assumptions. I believe what I write next applies to not everyone who was affected by Madoff’s pure example of what the stock market truly is (a giant ponzi scheme), but at least 60% of them.
The ill gotten gains of many have been taken in the Madoff debacle in a commensurate manner in which they were so called earned.
This hard working former business owner crap is just that, crap. A bird’s eye view of how exactly the owner of the pest control company in the article was able to lose $750,000 to Madoff after enjoying returns of 10% to 12% over the 15 years of his retirement, is provided by coming to an understanding of the capitalists use of cheap labor.
Odds are that none of the employees that this guy employed over the time he ran his business were able to retire with his company. Let alone, have enough disposable income to invest in the stock market as this guy probably did. Why you ask?
Because this owner was more then likely reaping the benefits of the Republican Ideology of cheap labor.
When you hear the mantra of low cost, cheap labor mentioned in the media, it undoubtedly is coming out of the mouth of a Republican. The criticizing of the pensions that millions of Americans have earned and are receiving is another example of the protectors of American Business (Republicans) ideology that provides a contrast to what happened to the owner of the pest control companies example of the Republican retirement plan.
Long have these types championed the approach of the Pest Control owner as the example of a “better” pension plan (investing in the stock market) then the traditional American retirement pension.
WE ARE NOT CHINESE. WE ARE NOT INDIAN. WE ARE NOT MEXICANS! The fact that these emerging countries are emerging because of their vast quantities of “cheap labor” is no reason for Americans to want to mimick them.
The facts of the matter is that essentially, the underclass of past American workers have in fact lived similar lives of those in these countries who are now fueling their countries growth.
NONE OF THOSE COUNTRIES HAVE A MIDDLE CLASS. In fact, I believe when it’s all said and done, this will be the most remarkable thing written about the USA’s democracy; It has been the only form of ISM (Capitalism, Socialism, etc…) that created a viable middle class.
You can’t have a viable middle class with cheap labor being the mantra of your social ideology. Organized labor brought forth a viable middle class. The US Business structure did not do this on it’s own. Without the advent of organized labor, American companies would have continued to look like the pest control owners company; keep labor costs low, so that the owner could amass enough personal wealth over the time he or she owns the company, so that they could ultimately lose $750,000 to a bloke like Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme, or in the biggest ponzi scheme of them all, the New York Stock Exchange.
So what these people have to pick up a broom and work after years of living posh retirement lifestyles off the backs of thousands upon thousands of Americans that were paid cheap labor rates during the heyday of these types of companies. Those very workers that Pest Control Owner Guy made his money off of during his younger years have had to continue to work “pushing a broom” during the 15 years that Pest Control Owner Guy was living the good life.
