The Piney Woods School: @100

People of color have historically traversed a very unique path out of necessity and often had to grasp education by any limited means at their disposal. In Brewton, Alabama, Founder James Dooley established the Southern Normal School (which is now closed) for this purpose in 1911. While many debate the reasons for her closure, it’s always better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Accordingly, one flagship of preparatory distinction remains in Mississippi, the noteworthy Piney Woods Country Life School: http://www.pineywoods.org/

The Piney Woods School didn’t perish due to the standard plagues that beset her peers. Instead, Dr. Laurence Jones as Founder selflessly told her story on the “This Is Your Life Program” and established a 700K endowment that had grown to approximately 7M when he passed away! Her Facebook fan page states a mission to which many have obviously remained loyal since she still survives:

The Piney Woods School recognizes that throughout the United States there are students, especially African-American students, who have the capability to make their lives extraordinary through excellence in education and development of moral and ethical attitudes, but do not have the opportunity to do so for financial or other reasons.

Piney Woods mission is to provide that excellence in education within a Christian community through creation of an exceptional academic model which supports the tenet that all students can learn, develop a strong work ethic, and lead extraordinary lives through academic achievement and responsible citizenship.

At The Piney Woods School we are changing the world, one student at a time. We are preparing tomorrow’s leaders who are:

Educationally Astute
Morally Responsible
Civically Equipped
Technologically Proficient
Globally Perceptive
…and Full of Faith and Compassion

Long live this valiant educational endeavor and her champions.

Humor: You Got The Hookup?

A Unique Plight

One of the rights of passage that working blacks must endure is the freebie expected by those they know.  Yes, “kin and friends” alike believe they’re entitled to have access to use you 24-7  just because they share commonality of origin.

If you’re a doctor, there’s that cousin needing the cure for lung cancer and will hold you liable when they smoked cigarettes like a chimney for 40 years (accordingly, why doctors don’t treat relatives).  If you’re a lawyer, June Bug must be free although he clearly doesn’t have an alibi, smells like a “pound of sess” and by the way, where’d he get that new 50-inch plasma because he ain’t worked since Tupac rapped a capella?  You’re barbering?  Mookie really needs a free haircut and can pay you ASAP after La Amistad returns from Freetown.

Being neither of the the distinguished pros above, I instead recall from my real estate days those who REFUSED to acquire a home by following the straight and narrow way:

1. Get PRE-APPROVED
2. FIND a House
3. COMPLETE Paperwork
4. CLOSE!

…but instead wanted to travel the “hook-up highway” without lifting a finger of their own to access publicly available information (like their local Department of Revenue, Trulia.com or Zillow.com) given to them that only leads to their empowerment and ability to buy more than a storage shed at Home Depot.

Moral of the Story: There is no such thing as something for nothing.

Personal Accountability

The two aforementioned words are among the best things left in the United States of America when combined into one phrase. For instance, you can still undertake purchasing a home or defending yourself in court if you understand the pros and cons. Realizing I needed dental work and in stark contrast to the “something for nothing” hypothetical situations described above, I approached a dental professional who’s done excellent work for 25-30 years. For the clueless, here’s how I got the help I needed:

1. I went to his office.
2. After assessment, I inquired about the costs of the required procedures.
3. I went to my appointment when scheduled.
4. I paid him for the fine work that he did (and yes, my grill is tight).

Although he was a relative I didn’t pepper him with the following stereotypical scenarios:

1. State “You got the hook-up, holler if you hear me!”
2. Ask for FREE dental work since I didn’t have insurance.
3. Ask for extended time to pay my bill.
4. “Poor mouth” him because I don’t floss daily and need to go back now!

So, if you’re LF3 (Leaning on Family and Friends for Freebies), why not step into the AM and take a referral for professional help? If you’re tired of such foolishness, here’s some snappy comebacks for folks always bugging you just because they can:

Your computers broken?  Dude, you should’ve bought a Dell.

You want to buy a house? Contact a licensed agent, there’s plenty on the web!

You need an emergency loan and promise to pay it back THIS time? Man, my pockets are still hurting from your last pillaging. Where’s my money and where’s my mama’s money?

Somebody out there feels me because they’ve had “the touch” put on them by someone they care about.  Share your blues here but don’t ignore those pseudo-911 calls from Mookie because he’ll call Big Mama and you KNOW she don’t need to be bothered with her high blood pressure and all…  Wait a minute, is that Jerome on TV? Can he still get Steelers tickets?  Holler atcha’ boy for me, then!!!

Tales from the Crypt at Halftime…

Credited to Homer Rice of Georgia Tech, the air option offense allows the quarterback to choose whether to run, pitch to a running back, or throw a forward pass to one of his three receivers on any given play. A smart and fast signal caller running the formation well can work magic against opposing defenses and rack up big points fast.

Sam, a successful married man and pillar of the community, takes his family out to eat.  There, he meets an attractive young waitress, Janie. Being a good QB, he runs the option on several plays:

1. a prolonged glance here…
2. a big tip there…
3. and a phone number scribbled on a napkin.

Dinner is served and do you want fries to go with that shake?  Yeah?  He’s going all – the – way… Touchdown!

Monday morning quarterbacks see the inevitable conclusion ahead but how many times have we gone deep on first down in spite of the ring (okay, tan line) on index fingers?  Though silent for a minute, CK (The Crypt Keeper) begs to speak, “Warning: These options have their own priorities and your soul is fair price for their American dreams.  Game over!”

Hackneyed and trite phraseology but you feel me.  Why not hit the showers early?  At least get a second read from the staff on the sidelines before the quick commit.  Have a team meeting if you must but don’t sacrifice the whole squad for the rookie.  Winners prove themselves on the field of life, not the field of dreams.

PS: I must holler at CK about stealing that line from John Kramer.

Life By Design: Clowning Around Politically

Priorities are constantly voided and resources disproportionately consumed in exchange for nothing more than empty promises and token appeasements; Manhattan Island (for $24 worth of trinkets), Trickle Down Economics (the poor will benefit… someday!) and NAFTA (it’s just a few manufacturing jobs) come readily to mind as practical jokes from gag-writer’s heaven and not jaded reality.

Like clockwork, the political realm provides excellent fodder for the complementary relationship between false priorities and unequal exchange. Every 4 – 6 years, some of the nation’s highest seats become vacant. Based upon polls and other feedback, the people seeking these chairs kiss babies and generally promise fulfillment of the sugarplum visions of their constituency: no new taxes, universal health care, a living wage for all, more conservatism for conservatives, more liberalism for liberals, so on and so forth it goes, anything to get elected. If our candidate is elected, the end result is that I feel good. You feel good. WE FEEL good, don’t we? Happy days are here again (somebody strike the chorus)!

Of course, the ugly truth is… results often vary and are highly dependent upon the compromises inherent within the political process. Our volunteer hours, campaign contributions and slavish devotion to politicos posturing on the idiot box (modern television) evaporate rather quickly in the boiling cauldron of NOW. In the political now, nothing ever seems to change, yesterday and tomorrow don’t matter and I don’t know about you but I feel voided. The talking heads  and their soporific tones drone on and Zzzzzzz… Another day wasted, gone for good to no net effect!

Dreaming is nice but waking up can be a beautiful thing, sports fans. If our children are so valuable, why don’t we pay our teachers more? Why’d that bridge fall in Minneapolis? Why aren’t there any bridge inspectors in some states? Who’s the largest holder of US debt? What about fixing social security? Who’s responsible for the recession? Why is corporate welfare encouraged while individual welfare verboten? What are the long-term ramifications of awarding H1-B Visas like lotto tickets? When are the “better” jobs coming? Man, who moved my cotton-picking cheese? And the band played on, drowning out the interrogatory chorus of the huddle masses seeking scraps over there where but for the grace of God, go I.

Fast-forwarding a year or two, we’ll find the wheels on the short bus going ’round and ’round with the advent of the next election. Same idealogical turf wars albeit sprinkled with different scenarios and actors, possibly. Well, this couch potato has no choice but to stand up and stop eating Big Macs for a minute and quote the greatest of old-school philosophers, Homey the Clown:

I DON’T THINK SO!

Homey “took no shorts” along the way to reaching “da man” and giving him a piece of his mind. So, WWHD (What Would Homey Do) now after assessing this landscape fractured by waves of bankruptcies, depleting opportunities and hard times coming just like the flu? He’d find the accountable parties, position necessary interrogatories and escalate to a clown-like frequency to get the results needed to survive. He’d tell any representative of the people not representing the people to put a sock in it or better yet, club them at the voting house come election day, El Kabong-style.

Voters are citizens with real PRIORITIES, not clowns whose future interests are to be OPTIONED away for benefit of the gilded few who gleefully watch them chase each other around the modern day version of P.T. Barnum’s Big Top, the nightly newscasts. How can you honor Homey and help yourself? Do what you do: Write/call your elected official of choice. March for your cause until your feet hurt, then march some more. Respect the rights of others while making this system better for your children in a manner consistent with your personal style. Be Homey now to help the homies later. God Bless America!

Disclaimer: This unofficial satire does not reflect scholarly or contemporary opinion, please study issues for yourself before making lasting decisions of community, domestic and global impact. Due to the irreverent nature of this commentary, subsequent editions may appear without notice. “Leadership Secrets of Homey D. Clown” is a forthcoming work from the author who will now disconnect and go to his day job.

A conversation with Skip Gates

When not debating the merits of home ownership with Cambridge’s Finest, Skip Gates also kicks it on the regular at Martha’s Vineyard.

Question: Is my inner-Du Bois showing if I’m jealous of his red tricycle?

Google to launch open-source OS!

It makes this Open Source advocate happy indeed that Chrome will be more than a browser upon which I scour the web.  Having sold laptops and desktops to pay personal bills, I share that the costs of the Operating System (OS) and Productivity Package are justifiable core components of the upsell, the perpetual game where the public is enticed to spend far more than their original intentions (and budget) allows.

Google is apparently seeking to score big in collaboration with a solid hardware manufacturer not in bed with Microsoft. If so, they’ll start with netbooks for their Chrome OS and use Google Docs for productivity (or if they’re true to the game, offer the versatility of Open Office, AbiWord, etc…). Then, who knows what could happen when word spreads? Internet Shangri-la is just around the corner at your local Wally World! It depends and as Danny Glover said in The Color Purple about messing with the mailbox, “Could be… could NOT be!”

Reality dictates that the major computer hardware manufacturers are going to continue resisting open source operating systems like the Border Patrol resists the northward bound. It doesn’t benefit them to reduce costs in an already-shrinking market although the highest margins are now with enterprise and storage. Meanwhile, they’ll probably continue shoving Windows XP out the door on their netbook offerings. Nonetheless, the dream persists: free software for all!

Life by Design: The Walk

At 43 and feeling stressed, I decided to walk. Why? It was time, the tertiary desk job had me eating like a pig and by corollary, looking like one. It was time to at least temporarily stop being an automaton, coming home with barely enough energy to eat, watch Family Guy and plop into bed only to arise the next day and hit the clock like the eyeless sheepdog from the Bugs Bunny cartoon. The Graywalker (my alter ego) was born from desiring time to think as well as to contemplate… a life by design.

Walking is my meditation: It takes about 2-3 miles for the Relaxation Response to kick in for me. I allow the ceaseless thoughts running through my head to just be and guess what?  They subside, washed away by the sound of my breath, of Ike and Mike (my feet) tapping the pavement and by the song of the birds serenading from the canopy framing the trail.  This form of meditation calms my ADD and I’m often done before I’m ready and decide to continue one more time!

Walking has restorative effects: It stimulates blood flow.  It burns calories. It is a low impact exercise (like an elliptical machine, another favorite).  It can lower blood pressure. Argument at home? Take a stroll, buddy.  Better than saying or doing something you regret in hindsight.

Walking doesn’t cost much, all things considered: tennis shoes, socks, shorts/sweatpants, shirt. Layer accordingly and just add water. Who’s for free exercise versus gym fees during this recession?

Walking is what you make it: It can be a solo or group activity. It can be done on city streets or at city, state or national parks. It can be done with a water pack on your back. It can be done before breakfast, it can be done after dinner. It can be done wearing tacky clothes straight from your local consignment shop. Don’t hate, variate!

Like all things, walking requires common sense: Walk in a good location and at a good time of day. See ambulances available? Park police swinging through to observe? Other people jogging or walking? In Yoda-speak, “Good signs these are!”  Being on the evening news just isn’t what it used to be!

Walking is a gateway to other activities like hiking or running so be sure your physician approves. Walking can also be addictive (see Relaxation Response above) and in fact, I see homeless men “keeping it moving” all day in every city! Bottom line, balance it out with your other life activities.

Finally, I’m not Ponce de Leon seeking the fountain of youth nor am I being competitive by sharing milestones, just hoping to reduce my blood pressure medication and regain some vitality. However, making a-walk-a-day an essential part of my regimen has helped me to cope with and better manage the ups and downs of this thing called life. Why not walk it out and have a little fun? Morris, take it away!

A Sunflower Native Reflects at Age 43…

I’m 6 years into a return to the deep south, rough-riding a tangential path that began with a phone call while at my job, “Roseal, your mother’s had a stroke, you need to come home if you can!” Powerful words, words that changed my life and words that change almost everyone’s. Words that make you disconnect the energy-vampires from your life, regardless of affiliation, words that make you realize what’s really important. What’s important to me at 43 is to live my life by design and not as an ongoing reactionary actor to events beyond my control from the cradle to the grave. So, although I begin this exercise as a disconnected catharsis of cave scribblings I wholeheartedly assure that the linkage of each one will provide me a little more peace. Hell, ain’t that what life’s about? Sho ’nuff!

EARLY LIFE – SUNFLOWER
I was born in LA (Lower Alabama) and lived in a tiny community on a dirt road (it just seemed like most of my folks lived on dirt roads and I accepted it as the norm without realizing the sublime societal construct undergirding this reality). Since my parents divorced when I was a toddler, my mother, sister and I lived in the home of my grandparents (to me, this was the biggest house in the world and the large fields outside provided plenty of space). Next door was my aunt and her son and daughter. Yes, these folks were the stars in my galaxy, I felt very safe amongst my family.

My mom and aunt taught school during the week and my babysitters (Cousins Ed and Lucille Steeley) whom I loved dearly since they were also cousins, lived next door, about 1/4 mile away. Aside from the regular sadness of longing for my dad (a scientist and college professor 3 hours away in Tuskegee), my early life was pastoral and full of innocent adventure. To his credit, he’d visit sometimes and I’d be caught in the rapture of the daytrip and whatever that might be: fishing, hunting, even the Battleship (seeing the USS Alabama on TV anchored a lifelong fascination with the sea).

After Linda (my first cousin) and I were dropped off at the Steeleys, she’d help Cousin Lucille all day and I couldn’t wait because I knew that we’d be on the move to the Post Office, Leroy, Chatom, Jackson, even! And if it was for a medical appointment or business, we might even go to Grove Hill (31 miles north) or… Mobile, the BIG city to the south (45 miles south down Highway 43).

During farming season, Cousin Ed and I would often go deep into The Hammock (don’t know why this part deep in Sunflower was called that), where we’d plow fields (actually, he’d drive the tractor and let me believe I was driving it) and take lunch and/or water breaks, pumping the purest water by hand from an old well like the people of old did: we’d prime the pump with water from a jug and then, commence to pumping the rickety iron handle. It’s amazing how pure and clear this underground reservoir was since I have to pay money today to get what I already freely possessed in the beginning. Damn, what’s wrong with this picture?

After a rain, I’d look forward to going back outside afterwards and using the overflowing drainage ditches to sail my homemade boats, which would consist of a leaf, pine needle, fudge-sicle stick or anything that would float downstream. I’d race along aside my creation, seeing where it would go, adapting to obstacles in flight. Sometimes, my vessel would be trapped in a cove on the edge of the road and I’d have to free it with my finger or a stick. Satisfaction was achieved if my boat would float all the way into the woods where I was forbidden to go. And then… on to the next boat!

Looking back now in a surreal sense, I realize this quaint activity was a time of first meditation, calling out to me to be like the water… flow…. cleanse… adapt… and reflect upon my dreams.

EXERCISES
1. Question to self – Why was I so happy then?
YOU WERE LIVING IN THE MOMENT AND UNDISTRACTED.

2. Next – Can that quiescent state be recaptured after concentrically layering on years like the mighty oak tree in the front yard of my childhood?
YES, WITH A LITTLE FOCUS.

3. If yes, what am I willing to do to reclaim that state of mind?
YOU’RE DOING IT NOW, YOUR CURRENT STATUS IS A NATURAL REGURGITATION OF SOCIETY’S EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL. KEEP FOLLOWING YOUR HEART.

The Red House of James Marshall Hendrix

Paying homage to Blues roots, Jimi Hendrix walked this song all the way home:

Breathing new life into Black History Month with nontraditional images!

Hard Drives Cluttered?

In times like these, computing resources need to be maximized and original functionality restored WITHOUT having to spend the big bucks for new systems. WipeDrive 5 by White Canyon Software promises to deliver just that. Here’s an excerpt from their description page: 

Erase Hard Drive Data with WipeDrive

WipeDrive has been used to erase hard drive data on over 20 million hard drives! It is approved by the Department of Defense, and it is trusted by government agencies and major corporations.

Erase Hard Drive Data to Start Over with a “Good as New” PC

If your computer is running slower than it used to, it is not because it is old! It is because your computer is cluttered with junk programs and files, or infected with a virus or spyware. Computer clutter can destroy performance, and it only takes one virus to infect and take control of your computer.

Signs that your hard drive needs to be wiped

1. Your computer is much slower than it used to be
2. It takes forever for your computer to boot up
3. You or your kids have downloaded junk files
4. You have lost control over what your computer does

Ready to Start over with a Fresh, Clean Hard Drive?

Regaining control of your computer doesn’t have to cost $200 at your local fix-it store! With WipeDrive 5, you can completely remove 100% of the information on your hard drive. Then, after reinstalling Windows, your computer will be as good as new and computer performance will be restored…