A Time to Kill

It is true that the law is simply a reflection of our own prejudices.

 In the 1996 movie “A Time to Kill” Samuel L. Jackson stars as the father of a young girl that is brutally raped by two white men in Canton, Mississippi. Enraged, and noting that others were recently acquitted of the same crime in a nearby town, Jackson obtains an assault rifle and kills the two men himself before they can be tried. He enlists a local attorney to defend him, played by Matthew McConaughey, and resists the advice of the local NAACP to hire their own high powered attorneys for his defense.

In 1846 the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney wrote for the majority in the Dred Scott case that Blacks “Had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”. There are few places where this was truer than Mississippi. It was a foregone conclusion that Jackson’s character would die for killing two white men in Mississippi. It did not matter what had happened to his daughter. She had no rights that a white man was bound to respect, and neither did he. If the Ku Klux Klan did not get him, the courts would.

One reason that Jackson’s character (Carl Lee Hailey) wanted McConaughey’s character (Jake Brigance) to defend him was because they had known each other for many years and although they considered themselves friends, they were admittedly not close. However, Jake had a daughter that was the same age as Carl’s.

As one would expect, the case created racial tension in the community. There were demonstrations and riots. The governor called up the National Guard to quell the riots. The KKK tried to bomb Jake’s home and eventually burned it down. They killed his secretary’s husband and attacked his assistant, (Sandra Bullock) tying her to a tree and leaving her to die (she was rescued).

The prosecutor, played by Kevin Spacey, demanded the death penalty and seemed destined to get it from an all-white jury until Jake’s climactic closing statement before the jury. The courtroom was packed with Black and white spectators. The streets outside the courthouse were filled as well with people anxiously awaiting the outcome of the trial. The National Guard was also there to maintain the fragile peace. After apologizing to the jury for his own failings and asking the jury not to hold them against his client, he told them he wanted to tell them a story. Then he said,

“Close your eyes, listen to me…listen to yourselves.

This is a story about a little girl, walking home from the grocery store on a sunny afternoon. Suddenly a truck races up, two men jump out and grab her. They drag her into a nearby field. They tie her up. They rip her clothes from her body…They climb on. First one and then the other. Raping her. Shattering everything precious and pure…with a vicious thrust…in a fog of drunken breath and sweat.

When they’re done, after they’ve killed her tiny womb, murdered any chance for her to bear children, to have life beyond her own, they use her for target practice. So they start throwing full beer cans at her. They throw them so hard, that it tears the flesh all the way to her bones.

Then they urinate on her.

Now comes the hanging. They have a rope. They tie a noose. Imagine the noose coiling tight around her neck…and a sudden blinding jerk, she’s pulled into the air, and her legs go kicking…they don’t find the ground. The hanging branch…isn’t strong enough. It snaps, and she falls. Back to the earth. So they pick her up, throw her in the back of the truck, drive out to Foggy Creek Bridge, and pitch her over the edge. She drops some 30 feet, down to the creek bottom below.

Can you see her?

Her raped, beaten, broken body…soaked in their urine.

Soaked in their semen.

Soaked in her blood.

Left to die.

Can you see her?

I want you to picture…that little girl…

Now…imagine…she’s white.”

That all-white jury in Mississippi acquitted Carl Lee Hailey, a Black man of killing two white men.

Why?

Because in their hearts, they knew that if someone had abused a white child in the same way that Carl Lee’s child had been abused, killing the people that did it would be justifiable homicide.

An incredible amount of attention has been placed on recent cases of young Black men being killed by police officers and pseudo law enforcement individuals hiding behind ridiculous “stand your ground” laws. This is not news. It has been the status quo in America for hundreds of years.

The third chapter and the third verse of the book of Ecclesiastes says, “A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.”

“The law is simply a reflection of our own prejudices”.

Until the day arrives when America has overcome its racial prejudices, the “time to kill” America’s Black men with impunity will not end.

An American High School in Cleveland

It was Henry David Thoreau that said “No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails…” Perhaps it should be said no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its schools, its best schools and its worst. For the past 30 years I have lived in Montgomery County, Maryland. Our schools are considered by most to be among the best in the United States. For 17 years I worked in the Prince George's County, Maryland Schools, considered by most to be among the worst in Maryland. Using the Thoreau test, I was well qualified to render an opinion about the State of Maryland, but maybe not America.

But then I spent a year as an educational consultant in Cleveland Ohio.

I want to tell you about an American high school in Cleveland. It is not unique. In fact, when it comes to education for minority children in America’s inner cities, it is closer to the rule than the exception. The school is located minutes from beautiful downtown Cleveland. It is in a neighborhood in which the homes are marketed for $25,000 dollars or less. Many of the homes have boards in the windows although they are still occupied, and the roads in front and surrounding the school are filled with potholes.

One hundred percent of the students receive free or reduced meals, the government’s official benchmark for being really poor. All (100%) of the students are minorities. Cleveland does not have school attendance zones. Students can attend any school they want to, until it’s full. The students that attend this school are here because it is convenient to get to, they have been expelled from other schools, or they can’t get into any other school.

Ohio grades its schools in three general areas, Achievement, Gap Closing, and Graduation Rate. The schools get two grades for Graduation Rate (four and five year). For the year prior to my arrival this school received a “D” for Achievement and a grade of “F” in all of the others. The four year graduation rate was 53.4%. The five year rate was 62.7%.

At the beginning of the school year this American school had twenty four staff vacancies, seventeen vacancies at the end of the first semester, and eight at the end of the year. The school had 64 teaching positions, so on the first day of school, almost 40% of the classes had substitute teachers or no teacher at all. Imagine the effect this had on the school and classroom environment. Students that were already behind fell farther behind in core subjects and foreign languages.

This school in the heart of one of America’s major cities did not allow its Principal to appoint Department Chairs. The school district did not allocate any funds to compensate department chairs or a testing coordinator. As a result, communication was poor, subject and departmental coordination was non-existent, professional development was uninformed, record keeping was laughable, and morale was terrible.

A foreign visitor would walk away from our American school saying there was a serious lack of urgency by the staff to be where they were supposed to be. Teachers and administrators were habitually late to school. This resulted in large numbers of students in the halls due to missing teachers and locked classrooms, or because of large groups being moved to other classes due to missing substitute teachers. The persistent absences and tardiness of the staff had a direct negative impact on the morale and discipline of the students. The constant lack of supervision contributed to a culture in which the more powerful influence was exerted by the students themselves.

Student attendance averaged less than 80%. The school was able to document the fact that many enrolled students were attending other schools. Many others had dropped out, confirmed to be not returning by their parents or other responsible adults, but the school was not allowed to remove them from its enrollment. Student tardiness was rampant.

Communication efforts in the school were ineffective. Administrators, staff and students were constantly uninformed or misinformed of day to day events. The public address system functioned poorly and was inadequate for the purpose of communicating information to everyone in the building. This created an obvious, permanent safety hazard.

Our American school did not keep inventory records. There was a serious lack of knowledge relating to budget and purchasing procedures. The lack of department chairs made it very difficult for teachers to collectively assess their needs and request needed materials.

The school did not have access to a computer program or application to create a master schedule. The master schedule was not completed until the week-end before the first day of school. As a result, student schedules were incomplete and filled with errors on the first day of school. Hand written copies of the master schedule were distributed to the staff.

Expectations for student behavior was low. Disrespectful behavior by students toward themselves and adults was common. Profanity was commonly used as well. Trash and other litter was constantly in the halls. Fighting was common.

A discipline policy that outlines and defines student activity that will result in suspension did not exist. Consistency was lacking. Procedures were not in place to ensure that the staff is made aware each day of students that have been suspended or expelled. Procedures were not in place to ensure that Special Education students received manifestation hearings each time they were suspended once they reached ten total days of suspension.

To be sure, there were some very good teachers providing good classroom instruction in our “typical??” American school. But generally speaking, subject presentation failed to elaborate on critical attributes of the subject matter, failed to stress important factors, did not encompass the writing process or include reading comprehension elements, and failed to relate content to prior learning. In many cases lesson plans were either unavailable or not current. Lesson objectives were not clear and measurable or non-existent. Assessments did not consistently occur or were not evident. While there were notable exceptions, classroom environments were not conducive for teaching and learning. “Principles of Learning” were a major concern. Clear expectations, accountable talk, academic rigor, and self-management of learning were very rarely seen.

In 1896, in the case of “Plessy vs. Ferguson” The United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities. They said there was nothing wrong if they were “separate but equal”. On May 17, 1954, Thurgood Marshall convinced the court to reverse that ruling in the landmark “Brown vs, Board of Education of Topeka” case. The court decided that separate schools were “inherently unequal”.

The students, teachers, administrators, visitors, and parents of our American high school in Cleveland would say,

“Damn right”.

Advanced Placement

I recently watched an HBO documentary entitled “Little Rock Central”. The documentary was made in 2007 to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the integration of the high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1957 a federal court ordered the school to allow Black children to attend, and the results became a landmark in the history of education and civil rights in the United States. The nine children that were selected to integrate the school would become known as the “Little Rock Nine”, and their initial attempt to attend the school would be met with a display of the most vicious anger and racist-fueled vitriol that can be imagined.

Not until President Dwight Eisenhower dispatched troops from the army’s 82^nd Airborne Division to escort and protect the children were they able to enter the school. The troops would continue to protect the children the entire year, escorting them in the hallways, in the cafeteria, and on the athletic fields for the entire year.

The producers of the documentary spent the entire year on the campus. The film gives intimate portrayals of many of the students and their parents. There are candid discussions with teachers, coaches, and the school’s Principal. Community activists and politicians are featured as well. I watched the documentary once, and then less than an hour later, I sat down and watched it again. It reminded me of so many things that I had to grapple with as Principal of my school, Crossland High in Maryland, and it also made me think of what might have been.

In 2007 Little Rock Central was considered one of the best high schools in the United States. It had more than 2000 students, and almost 50% of those students were minorities. Most of the white students were from excellent neighborhoods and stable, professional families, they also drove their own cars to school. They had the means to attend private schools but they chose to attend Central instead. The school is the most famous school in the country and receives tremendous support from various sources. It has a stellar academic reputation because so many of the white students take multiple advanced placement classes and are readily accepted into many of the top colleges in America.

Most of the Black students attending Central were there because it is their neighborhood school. The majority of them are depressingly poor, live in single parent homes, and come to the school reading two or three years below grade level. Most of them ride the bus to school. Ironically, the student body President was an exception to the prevailing misery in the Black community. He is a Black student that had a profile similar to the white students. He lived in a white neighborhood, and had a stable, nuclear family. He had college educated parents, had plans to go to college himself, drove his own car to school, and took multiple advanced placement classes.

Remove the white students from the picture, and you have what I had when I walked into Crossland High.

As I watched this excellent film, the frustrations of the Principal reminded me of my own. So many of the Black students reminded me of my students, and I will never be able to forget them, including the athlete whose mother threw him out of the house, that had terrible grades because he didn’t go to class, mindlessly betting his life on a career in professional sports. Or, the sweet young girl that had taken it upon herself to take an advanced placement class, conceding that she might fail but refusing to quit. I will never forget the camera following her home as she walked through a neighborhood one would expect to see in a third world country, into her cramped home where she described the sink that didn’t work and the room she shared with her brother. Or the pride she had in the fact that her mother did not have multiple men hanging around their home. Nor will I forget the young girl with the wonderful attitude that was only fifteen but had not one, but two children, and her sister that was younger than her and teased her because she only had one baby. The camera followed her as she walked to school one day as well, casually describing a crack house as she passed it, and explaining that the kids usually stayed inside because the “crack heads were crazy”. She arrived to school late, like so many of my students did.

Little Rock’s Central High School was de-segregated in 1957, but fifty years later, it was still not integrated. Black and white students rarely mixed. If they were in the same class they sat on separate sides of the room. They separated themselves in the cafeteria. There were no Blacks on the golf team. There were very, very few Black students in advanced placement classes.

At the conclusion of my first year as Principal at Crossland we had more than 2000 students enrolled but only 7 took advanced placement courses. By the time I left nine years later we had more than 700 students taking advanced placement courses. The demographics remained the same. The socioeconomic conditions of the students remained the same. But, many other things changed.

Education without literacy is impossible. If our students came to us unable to read on grade level, we had to teach them to read, so we did.

We did not ask or try to convince our students to do what was in their academic best interests, we required them to do it. Our goal was to graduate our students “college and/or career ready”. Consequently, once our students were reading on grade level, they were required to take at least one advanced placement course.

We changed expectations for students, parents, teachers, and the community. The pursuit of excellence in behavior, attendance, academics, athletics, college applications, college acceptances, and community service became the norm.

We could not have raised our academic expectations without the framework of advanced placement. These college level courses brought their own standards, their own unbiased curriculum and exams. The teachers by design expected more, and the students expected more as well.

What we did was controversial at times. I was met with reactions from skepticism to hostility. But the results were indisputable. Our student’s scores on the Maryland state exams in math improved each year from a 15% pass rate to 76%, and in English they improved each year from 22% to 78%. From 2005 through 2011, 70% of our seniors applied to 4 year colleges, with a 90% acceptance rate.

As a result of our student’s academic achievements, our school was featured by The Washington Post, the Center for American Progress, the Heritage Foundation, The University of Pennsylvania, The State of Delaware, Forbes Magazine, The American Diploma Project, The US Department of Education, and invited to visit the White House.

I can only wonder what type of school we would have had if half of Crossland’s students were the kind of white students depicted in the Little Rock Central documentary.

   

Crime and Punishment

“You get high?” When I was in college and during my time in the Marine Corps, every time I went to a party somebody asked me that question. Believe it or not, my answer was no, which immediately made me something of an an outcast. I had never learned to smoke, and I was afraid of cocaine. I had read too much about addiction to think that I was immune to its dangers. Of course, I was not immune to women, and most of the women I was interested in used drugs recreationally as well.

It was one of my girlfriends that convinced me to try marijuana. Since it was her preferred aphrodisiac, she convinced me to go out and buy if for her as well. Today, twenty three States and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. Four States have legalized the weed for recreational use. Two more (and the District of Columbia) have legalized it for recreational use effective in 2015.

I am so glad that I was not arrested for possessing those drugs in Alabama when I was in my early twenties. If I had, I would be a convicted felon. I would have lost the right to vote. I would not have had any of the jobs that I have had, and if I was hungry I would not have been able to get food stamps. I would not have the education I have. I would have been subject to discrimination in the types of housing available to me, I would not be able to serve on a jury. My citizenship rights would have been severely restricted, just like my parents under the Jim Crow laws of the South, and my grandparents under the black codes that existed after Reconstruction, and my great grandparents under slavery.

At the end of 2012 there were more than 2 million people incarcerated in the United States. Another 5 million were on probation or parole. Of those 7 million convicted felons, 40%, or almost 3 million are Black. 

By the grace of God, I am not one of them.

It is difficult to believe, but just a little more than thirty years ago there was a little more than 300,000 people in America’s prisons. How in the hell did we get to 2 MILLION in 30 years? It all started in 1968 when Richard Nixon came up with the “Southern Strategy”. The strategy was to drive a political wedge between the Blacks and poor whites of the south. Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats had created an unbeatable coalition by bringing them together around the economic benefits of the New Deal. Amid the riots in the inner cities, assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, and the rising visibility of Black nationalists like the Black Panthers, Nixon promised “law and order”.

Nixon won easily, capitalizing on racial fears and separating many poor whites from the Democrats. He used the same strategy to get re-elected in 1972, but was undone by the Watergate scandal. Jimmy Carter, the Democrat from Georgia won the presidency in 1976 as the anti-Nixon, but 1980 would bring Ronald Reagan to the stage.

Reagan would double down on the “Southern Strategy” and kick off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. This was the same place that three civil rights workers had disappeared and had been found later buried in an earthen dam.

Reagan then had the nerve to make a speech about “states’ rights”.  He spent the rest of the campaign demonizing drug dealers, affirmative action and “welfare queens”. The Southern states were his. He would later declare the “War on Drugs”, as “crack cocaine” ironically became a household term.

Reagan’s “War on Drugs” has had a devastating effect on Black America. Almost 3 million children have parents in the prison system. Those children are adversely affected financially, socially, and psychologically. Two out of three of these imprisoned parents are non-violent offenders, many of them imprisoned on minor drug charges. The children are deprived of regular contact with their parents. Many of the children of the imprisoned are teased by other children. Often when released, the parents are barred from welfare programs such as cash assistance for the poor, food stamps, vouchers for rental housing, apartments in public housing, subsidized student loans for college, and employment licenses for many jobs. All of which perpetuates a cycle of poverty that breeds hopelessness and recidivism.

Michelle Alexander has written an excellent book about this subject entitled “The New Jim Crow”. She believes that our “war on drugs” has created a substitute for the Jim Crow system of the past. The Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder has directed the Justice Department to charge non-violent drug offenders with less severe federal crimes. He supports sentencing more people to rehab than imprisonment for crimes rooted in drug abuse and addiction. The attorney general stated in a recent speech to the American Bar Association that “too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason” and at great public expense.

I agree.

This past Sunday when I went to church I noticed that the church was participating in a program this holiday season to identify children in the community that have parents in prison. The church will then purchase and deliver Christmas gifts to those children.

 I plan to participate.

The Supremes

Lately, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the Supremes… Not Diana, Mary and Flo, but Alito, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, and Roberts. Especially Roberts. I know that there are nine of them, but these five are the ones that have been constantly creeping into my thoughts. These are the REPUBLICAN judges, appointed by Republican presidents. They are the Red States of the Supreme Court. Some are redder than others. Scalia, Thomas, and Alito might as well be Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina. Democrats have no chance there. Kennedy could be Georgia, a Democrat can dream there. Roberts is Virginia, the big maybe.

The Supremes recently agreed to hear a case called “King v. Burwell”. If you haven’t heard about it, you will. The case is the latest Republican challenge to the Affordable Care Act, and it has the potential to destroy it. It takes four votes for the Supremes to agree to take a case. We will never know how many voted to take this one, but there is no doubt that at least four of the names mentioned above voted in the affirmative.

Basically, the case comes down to this. The Affordable Care Act is designed to make insurance available for everyone. This is done by making Federal Income tax subsidies available to people that can’t afford the policies that are sold on the individual state insurance exchanges or markets that are set up on-line. So, if you can't afford it, the federal government gives you money to help you pay for it. Because of these subsidies, no one has to pay more than 8% of their income for health insurance. Since everyone can now afford to buy health insurance, the government can assess a penalty to those that refuse to buy. This maximizes participation and keeps prices down.

One section of the law states that if a state refuses to set up its own insurance marketplace the federal government can set one up for them. Twenty nine states with Republican governors refused to set up insurance exchanges. So the people in those states use the federal exchange.

Another section of the law makes the subsidies available to people that buy insurance from an exchange “established by the state”. It makes no mention of an exchange established by the federal government if the state refused to do it.

That’s what “King v. Burwell” is all about. The plaintiff is saying that the people in those 29 states can’t receive any assistance to buy health insurance because their state’s exchange was established by the federal government and not “the state”.

Close your mouth. Don’t laugh. The Republicans already have four votes. They only need one more.

John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America is the wild card. He will be the decider. He will decide if the 10 million people that have insurance now, (that did not have it before the ACA was implemented), and the millions more that will sign up for it in the coming months will have it taken from them. Virginia was once the capital state of the Confederacy, but Virginia also elected the nation’s first Black governor, and gave its Electoral College votes to Barack Obama, twice. Virginia can be persuaded to do the right thing. This is the second time the Affordable Care Act has had a major challenge in the Supreme Court. It was John Roberts that cast the deciding vote to save the law then. Will he have the courage to do the right thing again?

During his confirmation hearing Roberts was asked if he would be influenced by his ideological persuasions while serving on the court. He replied that he would simply “call balls and strikes”. I doubt if any umpire has ever faced the kind of pressure he is about to face. The intensity of the hatred of President Obama and all he has accomplished by many people in our country defies description. The power and influence at their disposal is formidable. All of it will be focused on one man. He alone will be able to give them the ultimate victory or a final defeat.

Imagine being the umpire at Yankee Stadium. It is the seventh game of the World Series, bottom of the ninth inning. The Yankees are losing 2 to 1. The bases are loaded. The count is 3 balls, 2 strikes, and Derek Jeter, the beloved Yankee captain is batting. The entire city of New York is screaming. People all over the world are watching with bated breath.

Here’s the pitch… It’s high and outside, but is it a ball…..or a strike?

The Equalizer

When I was growing up in Alabama the United Negro College Fund had an ad that ran on Black radio stations constantly. The ad depicted a courtroom scene in which a white woman was sentenced to jail for the “crime” of teaching “colored” children to read. That was once a reality in the southern states, and it is important to ask the question “why?” Why did white people feel it was important for Black people to be illiterate? Why did they feel so strongly about it that they would codify it and were willing to put other white people in jail for violating that code?

H.L. Mencken has been quoted as saying “You will never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people”. Perhaps we should listen to "Deep Throat" of "Watergate" fame and “follow the money”. 

According to the New York Times, there are more uninsured Americans living in the former Confederate states than anywhere else in the country. They also suffer from the most poverty, and they also have the lowest levels of education. Ironically, these same people are literally a voting bloc for the Republican Party, and the most vociferous opponents of the Affordable Care Act. Again, it is really important to ask the question “Why?”

We must understand, before we condemn.

For the sake of discussion, let’s say that you were white, unemployed, with three children still in middle and high school. You’re married, but your spouse is making $12.00 an hour with no benefits. You live in a trailer in Alabama and neither of you went to college. You are both in your late 40’s, and both of you smoke. Your child that’s in middle school has constant strep throat and one of your high school kids has asthma. None of your kids have ever been to a dentist. You lost your health insurance when you lost your job and you struggle to pay your bills.

Now, what if I walked up to your trailer and told you I was going to sell you some insurance that would cover the following;

·         Doctor visits, prescriptions, home health services, and hospice care.

·         Visits to the emergency room, and the ambulance to take you there.

·         Hospital care, including doctors, nurses, laboratory and other tests, medications, room and board, surgeries and transplants. Even nursing home care.

·         Laboratory services, including preventive stuff like breast cancer screenings and prostate exams.

·         Maternity and new born care, including labor, delivery, and post-delivery.

·         Diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of mental health and substance abuse issues.

·         Physical or occupational therapy, including speech therapy, as well as cardiac or pulmonary rehab.

·         Pediatric care for children, including well-child visits and vaccines and immunizations. Dental and vision care as well, including corrective lenses every year.

·         Preventive care, such as physicals, immunizations, and cancer screenings, and care for chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes.

In addition to all of that stuff, you can’t be denied if you are already sick, and there is no limit on how much the insurance will pay.

Your first response would probably be “that sounds pretty good but I can’t afford it”. But then I would say, “Oh but yes you can! Because the government is only going to ask you to pay what you can afford, and they will pay the rest!”

What would you do then? And why would you do it?

Would you say “Sign me up right now!” because nothing is more important than the well-being of your family?

 Or, would you say, “Take your insurance and shove it!” 

I believe that it was once a crime in the South to educate Black people because the ruling class realized it would be impossible to subjugate any educated group of people in a democracy. Education gives an individual the power to think and reason. It gives them the literacy to be able to inform, motivate, organize, and lead others.

It is amazing to me that the Republican politicians have convinced the lower income whites in the South to act and to vote against their own interests.

Education always has been, and always will be a key element in solving most of our nation’s problems. Unfortunately, for the people of the South, it is in the best interests of the politicians to keep things just the way they are.

As for the people, the poor people that need it most, education, the great equalizer, will continue to be out of reach.  

 The Republicans are probably saying, “We will never lose an election, underestimating the intelligence of the people in the South”.

They could be right.

Just Show Up

I divorced my parents when I was eighteen years old. There was no big issue, fight, or misunderstanding. I was just done. I did not harbor any anger or thirst for revenge or retribution. I was just done with them. I decided to go my own way. I would live my life and allow them to live theirs. 

When I graduated from high school I was offered a scholarship to play football in college. When I turned it down and joined the Marine Corps most of the people I knew thought I had lost my mind. My parents and girlfriend were particularly perturbed, but there was a reason I did not want to play football anymore that I did not share with any of them.

My father was a Holiness minister. One of the first bible verses I was taught was the first verse of the first chapter of Psalms, “Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful”. My father interpreted that as meaning it was sinful to attend or participate in sports. Since I started playing Little League baseball in fourth grade, I officially became a sinner at the age of nine. My father did not forbid me to play, but he made it clear that he would not be there to watch. The boycott would continue during my high school years. Not one football or basketball game did my parents see me play. Not one track meet did they attend. The coup de grace was when my parents refused to attend my Senior Night football game, when parents escorted their sons onto the field. I guess showing up for that wasn’t worth going to hell either.

When I thought about four more years of football in college, free education be damned, but I just didn’t want to do it without the support of my family.

I did my basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. The place is famous for being the place where twelve weeks of Hell produces “The Few… The Proud… The Marines.” Those were easily the most physically and mentally demanding twelve weeks of my life. I graduated in the top ten percent of my platoon and was promoted to Private First Class. Graduation day was a spectacle. The entire battalion was on the parade deck doing close order drills, there were also bands and speeches. When we were dismissed for the last time there was about thirty seconds of pandemonium. People from the grandstand rushed out to the parade deck. There were yells, screams, hugs and kisses. Parents, wives, friends, and girlfriends were everywhere. I just stood there for a moment and watched everyone else, and then I walked back to the barracks, alone. I was eighteen, and I was a man.

Woody Allen once said, “Eighty per cent of life is just showing up”.

My mother and father passed away many years ago. If they were still alive I would not be writing these words today. I would not be doing it because I would not want to hurt them. I believe they did what they did because of their religious beliefs, and not because they wanted to hurt me.

Many years would pass before I would be able to even try to understand what happened to me as a child. I hope that someone will read this and realize what their simple presence can mean to their child.

When I was a Principal I kept that in mind when my students would ask me to attend their concerts, plays, dance performances, football, basketball, volleyball, and soccer games, swim meets, science fairs, and golf tournaments. I knew how important it was for them to have someone there, because I knew how important it was to me.

The most important thing a man can do for his child is to show up. Every day. Be there to listen, to comfort, to encourage, to reassure. Be there just in case. Be there to laugh, to clean a nose, to dry a tear. Be there to protect. Be there to give them a standing ovation.

Your child may not remember every time you were there, but they will not forget the time they needed you and you didn’t show up.

Baby Daddy

The best job I ever had was teaching middle school Language Arts in a predominantly Black school in Maryland. The reasons were many. I had a safe, professional environment to work in, and co-workers that I liked and respected. I had a wonderful Principal that gave me the support and autonomy that fueled my confidence and creativity. Most importantly, I had incredible relationships with my students and their parents. This was from 1999 to 2001, before “No Child Left Behind”. We did have standardized tests, (we called them “Functional Exams”) that were designed to ensure that students had the basic skills that would be required in high school, but they did not have the severe consequences for failure that today’s exams carry. 

My classes had three primary objectives. I expected my students to become better readers, writers, and listeners. The curriculum was my suggested path, but my creativity was my secret to reaching my students.

My students had the same homework assignment every day for the entire year. The assignment was written on the chalkboard and remained there for all to see for the entire year. My students were required to write an essay in a notebook explaining what they had learned that day. I made it clear to them and their parents that homework was 40% of their grade. They could not pass the class if they did not do it, and it would be hard for them to fail if they did. One day of each week was dedicated to students standing before the class and reading homework essays. The students would be graded on how well they read their essays and on how well they listened to others read.

The school did not have a computerized grading system so I bought one. I explained to my students that instead of me “giving” them a grade, they would actually “earn” their grade. The computer was going to do the math, and EVERY grade would count. Daily accountability was a foreign concept for my students, but one they would embrace quickly and benefit from in the future.

I checked each of my student’s grades every two weeks. I called the parent of every student that had a grade less than “C”. I would explain the reason the student was doing poorly, explain the grading system, and very quickly earn the respect, cooperation and loyalty of the parent. Usually, the problem was homework, and once the parent understood the assignment and its overall impact, it would cease to be a problem.

The power of relativity is vastly underrated when it comes to education. When I had to teach my students poetry, I knew that they would learn more by studying the words of Curtis Mayfield than Robert Frost, so we studied Curtis Mayfield. When we studied drama I let them write their own plays. I also would have a drama production for the entire school, with each student required to perform some role either onstage, backstage, or promotional.

I realized that some of my students were better readers than others, so to make sure that they could comprehend the assigned reading material, I would read critical passages to the class regularly. It seemed as if they enjoyed that as much as anything we did.

Most of my students were very successful in my classes. They passed the functional exams at a rate that exceeded 90%. They would often laugh about them when they were over, saying “we do that stuff every day”. I was very proud of them, and I felt a sense of accomplishment and self-worth that I will always cherish. One of my traditions was to have my students do meaningful work until the last minute of the last day of school. When the bell rang and they were dismissed, I would hug each of them before they left the classroom for the last time. When they were all gone I would sit at my desk and think about how much each of them had grown, how much each of them meant to me. I would think of their parents as well, and how they had trusted me to challenge their children to be better students and better people. 

That was the best job I ever had.

The first time my Principal approached me about being a Principal I told him I was not interested. I remember telling him that the reason I felt the way I did was because I got to fall in love 150 times every year. However, he was not a man that was easily dissuaded. He made me a member of the school’s “leadership team”, a group of teachers that he met with weekly to discuss the issues he was dealing with as a Principal. He had us create portfolios of our accomplishments, and lectured us about the importance of trained leaders in the field of education.

His winning argument for me was when he told me that he understood how my 150 kids were important to me every year, but if I was a Principal, I could have a similar impact on 1500 kids a year.

I had not realized or focused on how many Black students live in single parent homes until I became a high school Principal. The majority of my students did. The census bureau puts the number at 55% nationally. The American Community Survey puts the number at 70%. Reality is surely higher in some places, lower in others. Regardless, I will never forget the countless women that I have met with for reasons good and bad that were grappling with issues that would have been difficult for two parents, and damned near impossible for one.

So many times I have heard Black mothers look hopelessly in my eyes and simply say, “I just don’t know what to do”. So many times I have heard them say, “Can you help me?” I have seen anger, frustration, disappointment, confusion, shock and dismay. I have known mothers that have wanted and expected me to discipline, educate, and help to feed their children. Mothers that wanted me to help their children go to college, cut them some slack, or get them out of jail. I have had mothers that wanted me to pray with them, hold them, and dry their tears. 

There were so many mothers that wanted me to be their baby’s daddy.

It might be possible to do that for 150, but not 1500.

Curtis Mayfield once said, “I ain’t gonna point no fingers, and I don’t want nobody to point no fingers”. But the number of Black children in America living in poverty without the financial, emotional, and parental support of BOTH parents is a travesty and a tragedy. Married or not, every human being has a moral responsibility to take care of the children they bring into this world.

I understand why all of those mothers wanted their Principal to love, discipline, nurture, and support their children, but those things are in the job description for a father, not a Principal.        

Republicans and Ole Miss Football

When I was growing up in Alabama during the 1960’s and 1970’s you had to be a Democrat to get elected to anything. The Democratic primary was the equivalent to election itself. I remember my mother telling me that most Black people had once favored the Republicans because Abraham Lincoln was a Republican and he had freed the slaves, but most had switched over to the Democrats because Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt had done so much to help Blacks during the Great Depression. Later, as I learned more about the Civil War, it became obvious why all of the southern states were one party (Democrat) states. They had literally left the union and fought the bloodiest war in American history in reaction to the election of the Republican, Abraham Lincoln.

Ironically, the former Confederate states are still, for all practical purposes, one party states. However, today it is the Republican Party that rules. What happened?

When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he knew what the political ramifications would be. He was a Democrat from Texas, and had grown up poor in Eastern Texas. He said that signing that bill would hand the South to the Republicans for generations to come, and when it came to politics, LBJ was usually right. Race has always been the third rail of Southern politics. The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act of 1965 cemented the allegiance of African Americans to the Democratic Party, and served as a catalyst for the exodus of Southern whites to the ranks of the Republicans.

This past weekend I watched an incredible college football game between the 3^rd ranked Auburn Tigers, and the 4^th ranked Ole Miss Rebels. I have been an Auburn fan my entire life, and graduated from the school in 1976. I love Auburn, and watch every game they play with an intensity that most people simply can’t comprehend. I have seen Auburn play Ole Miss countless times, but this game was unique. It has been a very long time since Ole Miss was this good. For many years they were simply unable to compete in the highly competitive Southeastern Conference.

Ole Miss had a very difficult time hiring the best coaches because the best coaches knew they would have a very difficult time recruiting the better players that happened to be Black. For many years, Ole Miss fans were known for waving confederate battle flags at their games. Their mascot was “Colonel Reb”, a caricature of an old confederate soldier. Since 1983 the University has distanced itself from Confederate symbols. They banned their faculty from having the stuff in their offices. In 2003 they even got rid of their “Colonel Reb” mascot. 

While watching Auburn play on the Ole Miss campus this weekend I did not see a single Confederate flag. No “Colonel Reb” either. What I did see were Blacks and Whites sitting together in the stands bonded by a common desire to see their boys beat Auburn. I saw an excellent Ole Miss football coach, with an integrated staff, directing a predominantly African American team of world class athletes considered to be one of the best college football teams in the nation.

I don’t know why the people that run the University of Mississippi decided to rid themselves of their divisive, insulting, and racist symbols and activities. Perhaps they realized that the state’s flagship university was responsible for educating ALL of Mississippi’s people. Perhaps they were moved by a word or a song on a random Sunday morning. Perhaps they were just tired of losing, but for some reason, they decided to do the right thing, and on this past Saturday night, it was a beautiful thing to see.

All Republicans are not racists, and everybody at Ole Miss are not racists either. But today, a racist would be more comfortable at a Republican Tea Party rally than an Ole Miss football game.

If the Republicans are smart, they will do what Ole Miss did.