"I am pleased with our progress, but I am not satisfied," he said.
We are honored to receive the 'E' For Excellence award from Maryannville. Maryannville is a popular blog created by Mary Ann. Mary Ann traveled from border-to-border and coast-to-coast before settling in a town with zip code 'E-I-E-I-O'. I met Mary Ann during the Blogging-To-Fame contest two years ago. She is a powerhouse blogger. As such, it meant alot when she shared this award with us.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) reminding himself to invite Sen. Arlen Specter to the next breakfast meeting with President Barack Obama.
"To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent."
"The issue is not whether or not the taser can be used in a high percentage of cases to reduce death or physical trauma to officers and civilians alike. The issue is whether or not it's OK to kill the rest through ignorance and rationalization just because it's a small percentage ... The successes aren't the problem - the failures are. They're being told that tasers are non-lethal, so they blast away until people can't move. They're killing people by accident."
e local mall.
I must admit that I hadn't heard of this building until I saw this photo ... and I live in Ohio! This monument is the world's largest basket, and it's also the seven-story corporate headquarters of the Longaberger Basket Company.
Villagers will note that we reported on the disgusting video of Erie police officer James Cousins last week. Our interest was piqued by his reference to taser abuse. However, the inhumane way in which he talks about the mother of a slain Black man in his town brought on the wrath of the NAACP.Dear Wayne,What say u?
I have an update on the Erie police scandal that I wrote to you about yesterday.
James Cousins II, the officer caught on the YouTube video making fun of a homicide victim and his grief-stricken mother, has been suspended for 10 days without pay. And he's been ordered to complete alcohol counseling.
It's a slap on the wrist. And it's not enough.
To add insult to injury, the Erie police department issued a badly written, typo-filled letter of apology to the victim's mother. And there has not yet been an apology from the mayor or police chief.
But, the good news is that the pressure that you, the NAACP, and thousandsof other NAACP supporters put on the mayor of Erie, Pennsylvania is working. The officer's punishment for his inappropriate and shocking behavior has been increased. And we won't let up until the mayor orders an independent investigation into the practices and policies of the Erie police department -- a department with a history of racial bias and discrimination.
We've also requested that Attorney General Holder ask the Department of Justice to conduct a thorough investigation into the pattern and practices of the Erie Police Department.
I know that like me, you are committed to seeing justice done in this case. But more than this single case, together we must work towards highlighting the unfair and biased policing in our communities.
The NAACP is committed to ending racial profiling and curbing police brutality and other forms of unequal justice for African Americans and Latinos.
Thank you for standing with us,
Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP
Villagers, have you noticed the continued taser murders of Black children, men and women by police officers around the nation?
Depends on how you define younger. As a child I was cerebral, anxious, aQ2. Name a famous historical figure, living or deceased, you would like to meet and tell us why.nd a bibliophile. As an adolescent I was somewhat introverted, still anxious, uncomfortable in most social settings, and I read much less than I did as a child. In my 20s I went through a rebellious phase (I rebelled against systems and philosophies of authority, not against individual people and not in my behavior). I became more extroverted but still felt uncomfortable in social situations. I also drank a lot, which probably helped make me extroverted. Today I'm more comfortable in social situations, still enjoy the odd drink, and am reading again, though not as frequently or consistently as I'd like.
I would like to have met an African who had been ripped away from their homeland and forced into bonded servitude anywhere in the New World. I would like to have heard first-hand about the consequences of enslavement on the mind, body, and spirit of the African. I would have liked to know how s/he coped with the daily abuse and humiliation, how they felt about the people who controlled every aspect of their lives, and the hope, dreams, and aspirations they had had for themselves and their descendants before they were enslaved and what became of those plans after they found themselves in bondage.Q3. Name a person in your community who is relatively unknown to the rest of the world, who you believe is significant in some way, and that you would like the rest of the world to know more about.
There's a guy who's been running an English-language school in my neighborhood for about 20 or so years now. Who knows how many immigrants have passed through this school, and how can you measure the impact this school has had on people's lives.
Visit or live in India. Write a memoir.Q5. Describe your first experience on the Internet?
I remember using computers before there was Windows. Windows were introduced at my college in my freshman year. One day we went from the black screen with the orange text and the cursor that was a blinking underscore. The next day, we had windows, with icons, spinning hourglasses, and arrow-shaped pointers. I used the internet a lot for usenet groups, which had all sorts of information.Q6. Tell us about your current blogging career and how you got into it.
A friend of mine suggested I create a blog, because I was always ranting and raving about politics, social commentary, etc., basically stuff that bothered the hell out of me. I would also forward newspaper articles with my two cents attached, or respond to articles other people sent out with a running commentary. The blog was great for me: I was a natural. I wrote about everything: politics, race, social criticism, responses to current events, whatever. It was cathartic too, to get all that stuff out of my head.Q7. Who are the two bloggers you read the most and why? Include their links and tell us why we should subscribe to their feeds.
Despite being a blog writer, I'm not a dedicated blog reader. I guess I'm just not big on commitment. I read news and opinion articles online and the odd blog, but I'm not a dedicated reader of any one site. One of my favorite sites, however, is Unique Muslimah, written by a young Muslim woman. She's a great writer, very insightful, spiritual, and soulful. Her posts are intimate yet pure. As a modern, Westernized male, I find her perspective enlightening and her writing uplifting. Another favorite blog is Racialicious, a blog collective run by an Asian woman. Racialilcious, as the name implies, examines at contemporary race relations, including the way race and racialized images are portrayed in the dominant culture.Q8. Where are you taking your blog over the next 2-3 years?
I'm in a bit of flux right now as I'm finding my interests going in different directions. I'm torn between keeping my blog general or "specializing" in something like race/racism or religion. But my interests are too broad and I do enjoy voicing my thoughts on a variety of topics. In the end, I'll probably stay general. Most importantly, I'll be happy simply to continue writing. I'm afraid that I'm burning out...Q9. What is your 'killer post' over the past year ... the post you are most proud of?
Man, this is like asking a parent which of his kids he loves the most. As I said alreaQ10. What is your 'biggest noise post' over the past year ... the one that you took the most heat over from your readers?dy, I've written on a lot of topics so some posts are great in the context of what they cover, but other posts might be better because of how they're written. I have to confess that I often return to reread some of my older posts. I also have to confess that I think I've gotten better as a writer so I like most my more recent posts more than some of my previous ones. So I'm going to have to pass on that one ... I'm proud of all my posts.
Every post I've ever written on race/racism and hate crimes draws a lot of heat, mostly from overt racists and other ignorant people. I wrote a series of posts in response to Dr. Watson's thinly veiled reference to Black/African people's intelligence deficiency, and that brought a LOT of bigots out of the woodworks. The same thing happened in response to a series of posts I wrote in response to the beating death of Luis Ramirez, a Mexican migrant in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. But by far the most controversial post that had NOTHING to do with race or hate crimes was one I wrote about foodies.
For some reason, this one really rubbed people the wrong way. I basically argued that people who can afford to treat food and eating as a hobby—i.e., foodies—are over-privileged and out of touch with the reality that most of the world's population does not have the luxury of choosing when, let alone what, they will eat. It seemed people were upset that I would refer to foodies—who self-identify as such—as an affluent clique. After all, most of my detractors argued, foodies are simply people who enjoy food. All types of food. To which I say, everyone enjoys food. Some people just don't have the luxury to make a hobby out of it.
The lesson I learned is that affluent, over-privileged people don't like to be accused of being affluent, over-privileged, and out of touch.
