Sports v. School

Today is Parent's Night in the town which I live.
But of all the kids I tutor - none have a parent who plans to attend a single parent/teacher conference.
When the kids receive a bad grade or act up in school - these same parents blame the teachers.
"It's the teacher's job to teach my son (or daughter)" is the common reply.

But wait.
All of these kids play sports - some are good and some... not so much.
But the thing that every parent does is to make sure that every kid shows up for after school practice to raise their level of play.
All of the parents make sure that each kid shows up to summer practice to prepare for the coming year.
Each parent pays for equipment, camps and anything else their son or daughter will need to compete at their highest level.
These parents buy weights to help their children exercise and grow stronger muscles.
Each parent feels free to talk to the coaches to express their willingness to work with their son or daughter at home in an effort to help their child become better prepared and develop any weaknesses.

Why isn't their approach to school the same as their approach to sports?
These parents just don't get it.

Tipping

A few people have commented on the lack of Black people who volunteer at programs which benefit Black people.
But the simple reason is that most Blacks don't understand the value of leaving a good tip.

Do Blacks get poor service because they don't tip - or do they fail to tip because they receive poor service?
"They need to get a better job" is the common response by those who fail to tip.
But think about it: If one group of people paid you a little extra for doing what you already do, and another group didn't - who would you prefer to work for?
To whom would you respond when a request was made?
It's not really being racist, it's just a predictive judgement based on passed demographic trends.

But what does one get from being a good tipper?
If one goes to Vegas, most of the tipped employees will direct any promotional deals your way.
Free rooms, free food, free drinks, free golf and free tickets to shows (all worth more than the amount tipped) can be had by the good tippers.
It isn't the amount you spend, but the amount you tip.
(The only exception is the fool (a"Whale") who loses ridiculously large sums of money and their only compensation are perks that are worth less than they've lost. But who wants to be that guy?)
The ability to render a good tip ensures more value for less money.

Now think about who volunteers.
Most of the people are people of means.
These people feel little inclination of charging for their knowledge or skill when a deserving situation arises.
Since a lower-class person will usually meet higher-class people by doing volunteer work - their pool of connections expand beyond that of "Pookie an dem".
Since these people are inclined to help people at no cost, they are more likely to help a poor person who helps other people.
A few hours of free work by a poor person (worth what they'd make at their everyday job) could be worth a few hours of work by a highly skilled and highly paid person.
They (the poor person) would get more than they gave.
They too would receive more value for their (lack of) money.

The Peak Generation

The worst thing that can happen to a poor family is for them to suddenly be perceived as a "rich" family.
Why?
Because usually they're not prepared to keep and grow their wealth.
Because the children born into these families rarely possess the skills or knowledge that is required to replicate the level of financial and/or social success that was earned by their parents.
Because the families usually have a distorted perception of the value of their wealth.

This is why those from Old Money families dismiss those from the bourgeoisie New Money families.
It's as though the New Money families are seen as one-hit-wonders.
The Old Money families utilize their wealth to ensure the perpetuation of their family's social and economic position.
The New Money families use their wealth to validate their position in an environment that doesn't welcome them by becoming consumers of what the Old Money families produce.

I live in a town where many Blacks make a nice sum of money but few possess any real wealth.
Sure, they buy all of the niceties usually associated with wealth - but this lifestyle is short lived.
These families bring a ghetto mentality into a regional, national or global game.
These families fail to adopt the social norms of success - only dismissing them as "Acting White", "Selling Out" or "Thinking She's (He's) Miss Anne".
These families are likely to be the "Peak Generation" in regards to their family's wealth.

But what they fail to realize is that these norms were learned by the Old Money families too.
They fail to understand that the Rockefellers, Kennedys and others started out as "New Money" at one point in time.
The difference was that these families learned the tricks to passing wealth and power from one generation to the next.
No one popped out of the womb speaking in SAE, possessing manners, working long hard hours, or spending money without wasting it.
These traits were learned.

I'm in the middle of making arrangements to walk away from a family that I've mentored for the past eight years.
This family has two primary wage earners (Both work at refineries and make the standard $1ook+ yearly wage.) but this is the first time anyone in their family has owned anything.
The great-grandmother rented homes from my grandparents for years and never owned any property of her own.
The grandmother first lived in her own house after my cousin gave her one.
The children and grandchildren live off of the wages of the primary earners and remain in one of their homes or the other. (They acquired a rental home after I advised them on how to make an old home pay for itself.)
If it wasn't for my mentoring, this family would still be in the hood with grandchildren who didn't graduate from high school and great-grandchildren at reform school.

The problem isn't that they make enough money to buy anything they'd want (just not everything they'd want) - but that they require constant nurturing in order for them to maintain any quality of life.
I'm tired of the advice given to children being disproved by their parents making up for their long hours at work by buying everything the kids desire without the kids having to have done well in anything or showing any effort.
(Why try when you'll get everything you want anyway?)
When the children mess up or get into trouble, the parents blame the teachers, the kid's friends or society in general.

The amount of material goods bought blinds them to the fact that they are just ghetto with a good job.
When told that they need to up their game, they just point to all of their nice possessions as validation of their way of thinking.
They can't understand that no one else is going to compensate for their children's shortcomings - in fact, society will punish these children worse.
When their children end up back in the hood - they will be too soft to be down, but too under-prepared to be up.
These children will be like Al Bundy talking about what he (they) used to be and what they used to have.
But these children can't see it because they are blinded by the shower of luxury items regardless of their performance.

Yes, I preach sustainability and generational wealth.
I preach teaching children to do for self and learning to overcome bad situations.
I preach building on the accomplishments of prior generations instead of having each subsequent generation reinventing the wheel.
Why?
Because these families shouldn't be the Peak Generation. These families should be the Foundational Generation.
These families should be investing in their children's children's well being - not in that of Ralph Lauren and Phil Knight.

Wow !

BMW quit Formula 1 racing to focus on green technology and this is what they've come up with.
The Vision reaches a top speed of 155 mph, goes from 0-62 in 4.8 seconds and gets an astounding 62.2 mph (Made possible, in large part, by the recapturing of heat (energy) that is usually lost as exhaust in most other vehicles.).
Since the reason behind the existence of Formula 1 racing was to develop and show off each manufacturer's designs and technologies, it seems that BMW has learned a thing or two about a thing or two.

I don't know...
I think I'd like a little more protection (and privacy) than the full sized window offers - but that is a nice looking gas sipping machine.

Faith

But from where does faith come?
What is it's practical application?
Does everyone have the ability to possess faith?

What is the difference between someone who fails and someone who succeeds?
Or really; What is the difference between someone who settles for a loss and someone who strives to make things better - even though both start out in the same hopeless situation?
Does one individual possess faith where the other does not?
Why can some people see beyond the immediate problem to the distant answer?
IMO - Racism doesn't hold segments of society back - a lack of faith does.

I live in an area that is 49% Black and 49% white - but racism is still cited as the cause of most of the town's social ills.
For generations, undereducated workers could make $130k yr at any of the many local refineries.
Our city government is run equally by Blacks and whites in all of the positions of real power.
Our school board is mostly Black and the superintendent makes $435k yr in a city of 113.000 people.
The city has two "Black" high schools and one white high school.
More money is spent per student at the Black high schools.
The housing is priced at one of the lowest rates in the country and the cost of living is embarrassing low.
Yet still - most Black families only enjoy one generation (if at all) of living outside of one of the many crime infested areas.
Even when the resources are available and visible power can be seen to be equally shared - one's race is often cited as the reason someone gets fired from their job, doesn't go on to college, or when one fails to better their life.
What I'm asking is - Are the people so used to being members of the lower class that they accept being lower class as their default position in life?
Do they see "lower class" as being the primary aspect of retaining their Blackness?
The most often stated reason for me doing 'aight and them suffering is that I must be smart.

But I'm not smart - I just passed the teats.
My father worked at an ad agency after his stint in the Air Force.
He died when I was a little over one year old but my mother kept his art studio fairly intact.
Some of my earliest memories are of me drawing with the tools of his trade.
But the thing is - I'm no artist.
I wouldn't draw things as I saw them in life - instead I would draw things the way my father had. (I would copy his studies of eyes, mouths, hands, etc. that I had found in one of his old sketch books.)
But since one of the first I.Q. tests given to a child is the Draw A Man test, I was deemed to be one of the smart kids.

I had one of those mothers who believed in passive parenting.
No, not that she was passive and failed to discipline us.
In fact, I think whooping us was one of the few joys in her life.
My mother wasn't one of those active parents who would check homework and make sure that the lessons were learned.
But do to the forced assimilation of her tribe as a child, my mother was a huge fan of: the proper conjugation of verbs, using proper tense, anything on PBS, and kids using proper etiquette.
I think I saw every episode of Sesame Street aired until I started pre-school.

When I was three, our town received funding for a head start program that was intended to help minority kids learn what was usually not taught in the home.
This program reinforced the lessons that my mom did bother to teach.
Since most of the children had siblings at the nearby school who were reading I See Sam books - we three and four years olds would read those same books
Since the second I.Q. test given to children is usually some sort of reading test, I passed that test too.

As I wrote earlier, I would often get nosebleeds during the dry and hot days that were common in my California desert town.
The teachers would cut my recess short and send me to the library.
I'd read National Geographic (good photographs and interesting stories), JAMA (to look for a reason behind my nosebleeds) and work ahead on my classwork.
Since the third grade I.Q. test is really the testing one's likelihood of assimilation into mainstream culture, I accidental acquired the knowledge that would help me to do very well on the tests.
In the third grade, I was officially diagnosed with "Gifted-ism".

When one is diagnosed with this malady, one is usually segregated from other children and put into special classrooms. (Or put two to a class in districts that believe in tokenism.)
The classes are generally filled with strange little children who find pleasure in making others feel inferior. (Which is actually fun because I liked the competition.)
One's teachers and parents are often ill equipped to deal with these precocious rug rats and generally let them run wild and excuse any bad behavior as them "expressing themselves".
The parents of these children often form support groups to arrange play dates. (Which were actually pretty fun. Since I lived in the hood at the time, this was my first exposure to better living. And if one happens to be a Black kid that is not picking on one of the better off white kids, so much the better - these parents kind of adopt you and take you on outings that you would probably miss in your daily life.)

Since I lived in a liberal town with more than adequate funding, the MGM (Mentally Gifted Minors) and GATE programs enabled us to take college classes from the seventh grade forward.
(Okay, actually it was one three hour class one night a week each lasting for one semester that was given at the local university.)
In taking these classes, we were given mentors and I.D. cards that allowed access to all of the university's facilities.
Why am I telling all this?
Because I'm not gifted. My I.Q. was acquired through exposure to subjects starting at an early age.
If I, a kid originally from the hood and with very few resources within the family, could develop marketable skills... anyone can.

But what my passed experiences taught me was that any problem can be solved and any obstacle overcome.
I didn't have parents who could help me with my classwork - instead, they assumed that I was smart enough to figure everything out and do everything on my own.
I was a stepson to a drug using, country raised, military disciplined man who had no problem beating us in his drug induced rages.
I was the son to a mother who would leave home for three to four months at a time or take us to live in motels or at the homes of her friends. (Once even at the Salvation Army.)
But what makes some believe that things can be better and drives them to make this so?

What I'm asking is; even where there should be no faith - what makes faith possible?
Is faith learned?

Don't Think - Just Play

Damn... Michigan v. N.D. was actually a good game.
Maybe the loss by the Irish will be the first of many and will open the door for a non-BCS team in one or more of the BCS bowls.

1 Florida looked good against Troy? Who?
2 Texas spanked Wyoming? The Cowboys?
3 USC started a true freshman and still beat the highly vaunted OHIO STATE Buckeyes. A real football program.
4 Alabama beat Florida International? Many Florida schools have great traditions - but Florida International?
5 OK State lost to Houston? Houston? They haven't been a contender for a major title since Clyde Drexler was in the Bayou City.

I was worried but the freshman USC quarterback looked best when he wasn't thinking about his plays, but when he was just playing.
From Mater Dei to SC? The kid was born to be the Trojan's quarterback,
Two wins down and eleven to go.

Why Do We Believe What We Believe ?

Most people accept that a year is 365 days - but a year isn't 365 days. Well... not exactly 365 days.

Many people dismiss faith as superstition - but in reality, it may just be an approximation.

Ivory soap claims to be "Pure" even though it is only 99.44% so.

Gold and other metals can have a variance of 99.9%-99.99% to be considered the same.

Even simple equations (that many regard as a universal fact) break down at the quantum level.

And the value of Pi is just a very accurate approximation that works most of the time under most conditions.

So is faith just a belief in tendencies and not absolutes?

Why Do We Believe What We Believe ?

Because we have to.
No, not that we are forced to believe in a certain way, but that we must believe in a certain way in order for our society to function.

A doctor must fully believe in our medical system, or it's long term goals, in order to administer questionable treatments.
The system becomes more important than a doctor's own opinion and ensures the survival of that system.
Side effects to certain treatments?
"No problem, the long term goals of such a protocol will outweigh any negative effects on a relative few individuals", a doctor might say.
Without this thinking, a doctor would be more apt to become stressed.
A doctor would actually have to think before administering any treatment. (But this thinking would limit the "efficiency" of the system and retard it's growth.)
A doctor needs to believe that he is right.


Religious beliefs (as they are applied today) are required to ensure that large groups of people approach problems from the same perspective and seek the same outcomes.
Having the ability to blame a higher power for the negative outcome of one's choices also frees conscious individuals to get on with their day-to-day lives.
(Too much reflection on one's sins would lead to guilt, depression and then surrender.)
Religion is the ultimate tool to inspire or oppress people because it's dictates are not to be questioned.
It's rules are final.

Government is another belief system that requires the participation of it's subjects in order to function.
The governed must believe that theirs is the only good, righteous and valid system.
This belief demonizes any enemy and and validates itself in order to justify any atrocities.
This system's strength is in it's ability to bring more believers to it's cause and to destroy anyone who seeks to reign in it's growth.

Our monetary system is another construct that is reliant upon men to feed it's hunger.
Back in the day, people would barter.
I'd kill a cow for you to eat if you built my house.
But this system fell out of favor because there was no real way in which to quantify the value of one's labor.
A cow for a house may have been a good bargain for either man - but not so for a fish.
How many fish is a cow worth?
Money became a tool for measuring the value of one's work - that's all.
Since gold was somewhat rare (You couldn't just dig up money to pay your bills), didn't rust and was easily shaped to reflect a measurable amount - it became the favored metal in striking coins.

After we left the gold standard, faith became the standard.
It requires faith to believe that a piece of paper accurately measures the worth of your work.
It requires even more faith to believe that a few 1's and 0's can do the same.
The market (and our economy) didn't crash because people lost any real wealth - they crashed because people lost faith in the way we measure wealth.

But what happens now?
Do we believe that the system that has brought us this far is flawed?
Or do we blame Osama Bin Laden, illegal immigrants, BET, or Barrack Obama for our country's problems?
People who were taught that their system was right and just are the one's who seem the most stressed.
Those on the outside never relied on the system to justify their well being.

The whole Tea Party reaction is just the result of a few people who imagined that the Constitution only applied to their group.
Their reaction is just a disbelief in the fact that much of what they were taught was (is) wrong.
That they are not special or chosen by God to rule the world.
That other people are just as good as themselves.
They are just in shock that "Niggers", "Wetbacks" and "Faggots" are getting what they thought belonged solely to them.
They are just reacting as would a person suddenly waking from a dream.

But these beliefs are required for any capitalist society to function as a whole.
When these systems function properly we have a very small group of the "haves" and a very large group of the "have nots".
These systems keep people driving in their lane at the right speed and in the right direction.
These systems help us to engage other people and accept our fate.
These systems enable us to feel connected in our common dream.

Without these systems - we would see our nakedness.
We would become jaded and un-trusting.
Our society would crumble and everyman would be responsible for his own well being.

Our Current School Daze Grade; "F"

The whole movie was a battle between the high yella' Wannabees and the darker nappy Jiggaboos - but two scenes can sum up the whole movie.
The scene in Kentucky Fried Chicken when the "militant" Dap is told by a drunk Sam Jackson and his crew "..You'll always be nigga's",
and the final scene extolling all of those fighting to "Wake Up!".
Really... is any of this shit working?
Or are we fighting to be in the starting five while the other team keeps scoring points?

Personally, I get a "D" for my efforts.
My intentions were misguided and my assumptions way off base.
The discussion shouldn't be over who is more down with the cause,
but who actually has proven and workable answers.
So far, only a few can claim to be working in that direction - everyone else is just talking shit.