Here’s a revolutionary idea: get to know your town’s teachers. They’re pretty easy to spot; chalk on their shirts, rulers in hand. They’re the ones teaching our kids how to take charge of America.
Investing in education is an investment in ourselves. Moreover, it’s an investment in our businesses, in our technology…the minds of our children will enable the prosperity of tomorrow, and our schools will either discourage or encourage their dreams.
Crime, violence, poverty…change. One block at a time, one voice at a time. Lift yours.
Once again American forces have saved the day, popping up in the Indian Ocean to body the four Somali pirates that held U.S. cargo ship captain Richard Phillips captive for five days. Now all the European countries that had been punked by the water thugs for the last couple years are rallying on the heels of America to punish the pirates.
No doubt, more blood will be shed and the already frail country of Somalia—a country that hasn’t had a solid government since 1991, no economy and watches helplessly as mafia run shipping companies dump toxic waste on it’s shores—will be further devastated by those who want to punish it instead of help it.
The pirates vilified by the media are no more than fisherman, who made a living by selling fish and seafood caught off the shore of Somalia, dubbed the Horn of Africa. Left to their own devices they banded together and created a network that manned the shores and waters. Frustrated by the dumping and the damage to their livelihoods they began to tax and hold for ransom boats that entered their territory.
Their mentality: “You not just gonna up in my hood and f*ck my land up. You got to pay!”
Does this sound familiar? … Continue Reading
The criminal justice system in America almost guarantees what Kevin Epps calls the “vicious cycle of recidivism” that keeps thousands of Americans from fulfilling any fraction of our social dream.
Rev. Yearwood’s experience working with T.I. is an incredible example of artists becoming activists and giving back to their communities. Working from the ground up, working with our neighbors to build healthier lives, pushing the system to reveal its prejudices and injustice…for activists like Yearwood and Epps, it is the work of a lifetime.
President Obama can not change the fate of our country on his own. It is up to free-thinking artists and activists everywhere to seize the opportunities we have to work with each other and realize our dreams.
The power of a real leader is to inspire the people to act. We must act together!
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