I found this on YouTube and its worth a good look. Here' what was written at ckellogg05:
The personal development teacher at the 2009 Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp at Cal Performances, Shawn Nealy, talks about the class and shows examples of the campers drawings about their role models. The nationally acclaimed youth program, conceived by Alvin Ailey, founder of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and locally produced by Cal Performances, combines ballet, jazz, modern and African dance instruction with personal development and creative communication classes and field trips. The camp is tuition free and admits under-served middle school students ages 1114 from the Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond and Albany Unified School districts; the camp is located on the UC Berkeley campus.
The latest news in the Chevron / Richmond oil refinery issue is that California Attorney General Jerry Brown wants to step in and mediate the negotiations between the oil giant and the City of Richmond. In working to do this, Brown's scored a point on San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the California Governor's race.
According to the San Jose Mercury news and Contra Costa Times (yeah, I know they're merged), Brown appeared before the Richmond City Council and a "standing-room-only" crowd of 350 people, most reportedly laid off union workers from the Chevron facility, who's reconstruction effort was halted by court order in the wake of a lawsuit by environmentalists challenging the environmental impact report for the venue, costing them their jobs (I wonder if Dennis Roos was there?). The Richmond electeds passed a resolution supporting the involvement of the man who would be California's next governor (if Gavin didn't have something to say about it.)
Now, man I wish there was video of this, and I'm sure the AG does too. There's not one anywhere online and embedable as of this writing. AG Brown's running for Governor of California against San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. There's no question that a successful resolution at of the problem with Brown's involvement would be a feather in his already well-stocked political cap. Mayor Newsom's natural problem is he's the manager of one city, not a representative of the state. AG Brown can just "do his job" and score political points in the race for governor, and don't think that the crafty Brown (who would certainly chafe at my accurate description) doesn't know it.
However Chevron doesn't want the AG involved right now. I can only speculate why this is the case: they don't want to be seen as supporting AG Brown for Governor by approving his involvement and perhaps feel that his entry will be a polarizing element. But given that the Richmond City Council already gave Brown its endorsement that political train's out of the station. Additionally, , from the news, Chevron wants the current negotiations to continue as they are progressing and reportedly that's going well.
For Governor Brown, he's already scored some base hits with this issue. First, he got some face time with the Richmond City Council. Second, he got a resolution of support from them. Third, he's got the backing of the unions involved in trying to get their jobs back. Fourth, he's got a lot of media coverage from it. Fifth, he's able to tweet his efforts for his 547,000-plus followers to see on his Twitter page.
Not bad for a week's work; Gavin, ball's in your court.
It's all over the Internet: Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested by Cambridge police officer Sgt. James Crowley after trying to pry open the lock, which was already damaged, to his own Cambridge home with the help of his driver, who picked him up from a trip to China. President Obama, in a press conference on his health care initiative, chimes in by saying "the Cambridge Police acted stupidly."
President Obama's totally right. Here's why.
Professor Gates problem was that he was being "an uppity black man" against an officer who looked for "uncommon" versus "common" elements to connect with Gates - no connection, or "uncommon leads to an arrest. On the plane from Chicago to Atlanta yesterday, I was in first class on United Airlines (the luck I enjoy as the son of a former employee). There was a gentleman, white, in his 60s, who looked at the open seat next to me, and me, and kind of frowned. I didn't care. He sat in front of me.
As the drinks he had flowed he started talking loudly about President Bush and Republicans and how Nixon was right, and all that jazz which I though was funny, frankly. But - and I have this on camera - I could not help but notice how he was TRYING to connect with the man next to him, who was white, and older.
By contrast, he never tried to connect with me.
Had the man next to him been black, that would not have happened, and that's the problem. Racism in part is the assumption that you are not like me from the start just because of your skin color. If Officer Crowley had tried to calm Gates down, walked around the house and noticed photos on the walls, etc, he would have quickly picked up that it was Gates home. But because he wasn't looking for common elements or to try and calm Gates - he wanted to have power over him. He was offended that the Professor did not defer to him, and thought "He's not going to dance, so I'll teach him a lesson." So when Gates wasn't calming down and obeying orders, Crowley arrested him.
And that's the rub.
Police officers in the old days knew their neighbors and were more peace officers than military actors. Moreover, there's a common habit, 1) militaristic behavior and 2) of trying to put down someone black who's smart and assertive or just has the appearance of decency. This doesn't happen all the time, but I've been a victim of it, too. In 2006 a California Highway Patrol officer body-slammed me on his car just because I shed a tear after realizing I was going to be arrested after passing a field sobriety test and after going to the officer because a person was tailgating me so close I thought I was being followed (and I didn't say anything to contest the officer, but someone told me "I sound smart"). I'm serious.
On the other hand I personally know a lot of officers - many in the Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff's Department and yes on the California Highway Patrol - who have far more self-control and intellect of action and also said the officer who body-slammed me was "out of control". But the bottom line is police officers nationwide - mostly white, a few "of color" - are almost hard-wired to think of a black man as bad "just because", and regardless of the look or background of the person, and that's got to change.
A good friend of mine in law enforcement said the problem is "a lot of these officers they bring in who are white or not black at times, don't have experience with blacks. They may have grown up in the suburbs and then only when they become an officer do they have contact with blacks." And then it's too late.
The lack of exposure to people of color, especially those who's "made it" and don't fit age old stereotypes, is hard to shake and explains why President Obama's so important to our future. Seeing a black person in the role is what America needs to advance. America must move beyond the shackles of racism if the nation is to come together as one people and solve our economic problems - the real big issue before us.
Officer Crowley, if he's an expert in racial profiling and how not to use it, should have known that he should not have treated a distinguished Harvard professor like that, especially someone who's black and walking with a cane! Indeed, he should have known who Professor Gates was right off the bat.
Pan Am Boeing 747 San Francisco Accident 1971
-
This is a rare video of a then-new Pan Am Boeing 747 which landed at SFO
Airport with a rear center landing gear problem in 1971. What's more of an
issue...
Sarah Bäckman: Female Muscle Biceps in Japan 2012
-
Sarah Bäckman is a strong woman from Sweden, who's combination of beauty
and superwoman looks has gained her a World-wide following.
Here, Sarah's in ...
