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.  

Midterm Matters

In less than two weeks, midterm elections will take place in the United States. Thirty three US senators will be elected. All 435 members of the House of Representatives will be elected. Thirty four state Governors will be elected as well, not to mention many other local and state politicians including mayors, city councils, state senators and representatives, sheriffs, judges, school board members, and commissioners. 

Do midterm elections matter?

According to the Washington Post, more than a half billion dollars say they do. That is how much money has been spent so far by groups and corporations acting INDEPENDENTLY of the candidates on this year’s midterms. (“Corporations are people too, my friend”).

Listening to the national media, one would think that the big question is whether or not the Republicans will take the Senate from the Democrats. Since they already own the House of Representatives, this would give the Republicans control of both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. The only thing missing from the trifecta would be the White House. Theoretically, this would be terrible for the Democrats and President Obama. The Republicans would surely pass all kinds of laws to reverse and minimize everything the President has accomplished over the last six years. The Senate would change the filibuster rules because they are still pissed at Harry Reid for changing the rules so the Republicans had to do a little more than raise their hand to block most of the President’s appointments. The Senate will probably go back to the days of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, when if you wanted to block or filibuster something, you literally had to get up and talk until you collapsed from exhaustion.

Should Democrats be worried? Afraid? Panicked? Nah, relax. Breathe. If the Republicans take the Senate, they probably will pass all kinds of odiferous legislation, and the President will promptly veto it. They will not have the three fourths majority in both houses of Congress to override the vetoes, so the stuff they pass will be dead on arrival at the White House. As for the Senate changing its filibuster rules, that may be a good thing. There will be another election two years from now. Unlike this time, the thirty three seats being contested in the Senate will be in traditionally Democratic leaning states. Democratic voters will be energized by a Presidential ticket that will probably feature the first potential female President. Demographic trends clearly favor the Democrats. Their numbers are growing while the Republican Party is shrinking. The Senate will return to the Democrats.

So, do midterms really matter?

Tip O’Neil got it right when he said “All politics are local”. A half billion dollars isn’t stupid. Those Republicans on the Supreme Court aren’t stupid. When they ruled in the Citizen’s United vs. The Federal Election Commission case in January of 2010 they opened the floodgates for corporate money to buy elections in the United States on a local and national level. President Obama was appalled to the point of chastising the members of the court to their faces during his State of the Union address. 

The primary reason the Republicans have a stranglehold on the US House of Representatives is because of old fashioned gerrymandering and corporate money. Twenty nine states have Republican governors. Twenty seven states have Republican majorities in both houses of their legislatures, including every state of the former Confederate States of America. State legislatures have the power to draw the boundaries of legislative districts. Before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they could draw them any way they wanted to, and they routinely drew them to minimize the effects of minority voters. Then, the Republicans on the Supreme Court decided the Voting Rights Act wasn’t really necessary anymore, so they gutted it. As a result, many of the Republicans in the US House and state legislatures are now bullet proof. The only thing they have to fear are primary challenges from the tea party right.

Ironically, more than half a million more Americans voted for Democratic candidates vs Republican candidates for the US House of Representatives in 2012, but the Republicans won 55% of the seats.

What’s up with that?

Do midterms matter? Yes they do.

But, maybe not as much as money and the Supreme Court.  

The Servant

“He who is Great among you shall be your Servant, and whosoever shall be the Chief, shall be Servant of All”. 

The first time I heard those words I was listening to a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was describing a conversation between Jesus Christ and two of his disciples, James and John. Both of them were anticipating the day when Jesus would become King of Israel, and each of them wanted to sit on his right hand when that day came.

Dr. King’s thesis was that each of them wanted to achieve greatness, but they had a mistaken idea of what greatness really is. James and John associated “greatness” with power and glory, but Jesus gave them a new definition of greatness, and by using that definition, everybody could be great, because everybody can serve.

When I was a high school Principal one of my basic beliefs was “the best possible service to the community”. I had signs posted all over the building. I spoke of service to the community in assemblies and graduation ceremonies. I wanted each of my students to believe that they could achieve greatness not by accumulating money or intimidating others, but by serving others.

My teachers were required to have a service component built into their curriculums, regardless of what they were teaching. My athletic teams were required to have a community service project each year. I told my teachers they did not work for me, on the contrary, I worked for them. My job was to do everything I could to give them the organization, resources, environment, and motivation they needed to be the best teachers they could be. I also wanted them to believe that their students did not work for them, but that they worked for their students. I wanted to be a great principal, but because of Dr. King’s sermon, I did not pursue that by trying to accumulate power and glory. I tried to achieve it by taking care of my students and teachers better than any other principal.

Last week I attended the annual fund-raising dinner for The Training Source in Prince George’s County, Maryland. For the last 21 years The Training Source has provided community enriching, outcome proven programs, including employment training for the unemployed, employability skills training for individuals with developmental disabilities, self-improvement workshops for homeless citizens, youth leadership and technology programs for at-risk youth, and staff development training for employers. The organization has been praised by government officials on the county, state, and national level, and has established partnerships with local, regional, and national businesses.

The Executive Director of The Training Source is Evelyn “Kim” Rhim. We have been friends for more than twenty-five years. We met while working together at IBM. We had many conversations in those days about what the future might hold and what was really important. We were all very motivated and ambitious as well. I thought about those things as I sat in the audience during last week’s event. As person after person walked up to the podium to talk about the positive impact Kim’s organization had had on the community or on their family or for them individually, I became more proud of my friend. By the evening’s conclusion I realized that Kim had achieved true greatness. Despite all of the politicians and dignitaries, my friend was the greatest person in the room.

   

My grandmother passed away almost thirty years ago. My uncle was making the funeral arrangements, and probably because of the special relationship that everyone knew my grandmother and I had, he asked me to do the eulogy. My grandmother was a member of one of the largest Black churches in Birmingham. She had been a member all of her life and was known and admired by the entire church community. The eulogy that I delivered was based on the definition of greatness expressed by Dr. King. I told the congregation that my grandmother was a great woman. I told them she was not rich. She did not have five hundred people working for her. She did not lead a powerful army. She had not been elected to anything. Yet, she was a great woman. She was great because she had served. She had served every single person in that huge church. She was our family’s Chief, because she had indeed, literally and figuratively, served us all.

Dr. King concluded his sermon with this; “If you want to be great, wonderful! But recognize... that he who is greatest among you, shall be your servant.”

Amen.