Insight News ::: 6.8.09

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Monty Alexander: Jamaica’s gift to world of jazz By Al McFarlane Editor-In-Chief You could call him the Barack Obama of piano. You wouldn’t get an argument from him. Instead, you’d get a calm and pensive nod, a reflective acknowledgement that

hope does matter. You would learn that Jamaican-born piano master Monty Alexander, like President Obama, lifts his gaze above the stresses of ordinary reality, and willfully peers beyond, focusing on what we can and must become.

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June 8 - June 14, 2009 • MN Metro Vol. 35 No. 23 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • www.insightnews.com

$2.5 million for Green Jobs training By Al McFarlane and B. P. Ford, The Editors Rep. Margaret Anderson Keliher (DFL-60A), Speaker of the Minnesota House last week praised

One hand giveth, the other hand taketh away.. By Al McFarlane Editor-In-Chief Transportation department officials last week Thursday discussed how to restructure job training programs in ways they said would change the rate of compensation companies receive for placing on the Job Training (OJT) trainees, and, allow a pool of trainees to be moved from company to company, from project to project without impacting the low-bid status of companies awarded contracts, while doubling the time that they spend in the OJT status from 2,000 hours to 4,000 hours.

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the work of HIRE-MN, the expansive network of community service and environmental advocacy groups that succeeded in passing a bill that directs $2.5 million for training and outreach for green jobs and infrastructure stimulus spending. Keliher said, “Showing up made the difference.” She offered a new “beatitude” in reference to Biblical blessings. “Blessed are the community organizers for they shall change the world,” she said. Keliher encouraged HIRE-MN partners to continue working in the belief that “we can grow our way to prosperity; that all must share in the promise and the opportunity; and that, like yeast, opportunity and promise must rise.” “Accountability and transparency are important,” she said. “These town hall meetings show you are willing to hold us accountable, and, you are willing to hold yourselves accountable as well.” “Our lives are being negotiated, and we are not there!” said Alex Tittle, providing background to why the HIRE-MN initiative focused on infrastructure spending. Tittle is responsible for training programs at Summit Academy Opportunities Industrialization Centers, (SAOIC) one of the partner stakeholders in HIRE MN. Phyllis Hill, representing

26th Avenue North Greenway/Bikeway Community Meeting

Monday, June 15 Agenda: Open House 5:30 - 6:30 pm Presentation 6:30 - 7 pm Community 7 - 8 pm Comments Parkway United Church of Christ Fellowship Hall 3120 Washburn Avenue North Minneapolis, MN 612-522-2982

Suluki Fardan

According to Tittle and Hill, about 7,000 jobs in infrastructure repair and renovation will be created from federal stimulus spending in Minnesota. ISAIAH, a community building advocacy agency, and Tittle reported on Federal infrastructure initiatives in Minnesota, noting the challenges and strategies to broaden the pathway to more inclusion of people of color and women in the projects that are being funded by taxpayer dollars to

help jumpstart the nation’s economy. According to Tittle and Hill, about 7,000 jobs in infrastructure repair and renovation will be created from federal stimulus spending in Minnesota. Federal and state diversity and inclusion requirements mean that almost 900

of those jobs are to be targeted for women and minority workers in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area as part of a $500 million stimulus spending project primarily through Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT.)

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Barb Crushshon

To empower community, civic and social service organizations

Urban League forged business, labor, government, partnerships Part 4 in a series of 4 A history from www.mul.org By returning to the slums and organizing its residents, the Urban League had gone back to its beginnings. The Urban League became the convener, the agent that put together the coalitions to force change while at the same time being the working partner of business, labor, government, social and civic organizations. In the years following 1968, the Minneapolis Urban League founded its own Street Academy, one of the few that exist today, and greatly expanded its employment and youth programs. To many people in the early 1970s, it seemed as though real progress was occurring. The election of Richard Nixon proved that progress was an illusion. His administration reflected those who had elected him — “the silent majority”. Those voters believed that Blacks had come too far, too fast and had to be slowed down. Despite the victories of the sixties, nearly half of all Blacks lived below the poverty line and unemployment for African Americans was at Depression levels. Racism was still alive and well. It had merely changed its form. In 1970, Whitney Young Jr,

the able leader who had changed the vision of the Urban League, declared the League would continue to mount a full-scale attack on the causes of racism and poverty. Whitney Young died in a drowning accident a short time later. His death was yet another blow to the civil rights movement. Under the new leadership of Vernon Jordan, the Urban League Movement was able to continue in the direction set by Whitney Young. Jordan re-emphasized the tradition of scholarship and factfinding that had been the hallmark of the Movement. The Urban League published a new body of work on the conditions faced by African Americans. It inaugurated the annual State of Black America, which assessed the status of Blacks every year and made public policy recommendations. Vernon Jordan was able to confront the Jimmy Carter administration, which proclaimed itself attuned to African Americans, and call for a new urban policy. By the end of the 70’s, there were 116 affiliated organizations in cities across the country with combined annual budgets of nearly $100 million making it possible to serve more than a million people a year. The Minneapolis Urban League grew along with the

MDH fires Minority Health Officer: More pain in store for Minnesota’s people of color? By Al McFarlane Editor-In-Chief Minnesota last week dismissed the officer in charge of addressing disparities in health and in doing so, made it sound like all is well for the health of Black people and other people of color, and for American Indians in Minnesota. The Department pink-

Mitchell Davis slipped Mitchell Davis, who was the third director of the

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For further info: Bill Smith, Consultant, Biko Associates, 612-623-4000

The Sheraton Midtown

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Tyrese Gibson Aretta-Rie Johnson

Building effective business ties: From left to right: Kenneth Foxworth, Will Settle, Cyril Turner, Ernie Taylor, David Oguamanam, MUL Interim President/CEO, Dennis Taylor, Letty Ashworth, Mgr., Diversity Programs, Delta/NWA Airlines, Beth Graham, Mee Kue, Don Bennett and Kindra McGhee national organization. Under the leadership of Gleason Glover, who would serve as its Chief Executive for 25 years (1967-1991), the Minneapolis League achieved

national prominence. Gleason Glover was recognized throughout the Urban League Movement as an effective leader who could work across all elements of the African

Transformers Interview

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American and majority communities. He was one of the executives brought in when League

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First person comments from Conversations with Al McFarlane

Leaders explain the nature of leadership JERRY MCAFEE: Good morning, Al. I greet you all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And from the brothers and sisters on the block, What’s up? Let me put this in a scriptural context, Babington, and from one that has been critiqued and criticized for quite some time. There’s a passage in Matthew 5, that says ‘Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake”. He says rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward. Now, if I was going to preach that text, I would hang a title on it: Why are you hatin’ on me? The interesting thing about the text is this: in the first verse of Matthew, Chapter 5, it says “and when Jesus saw them.” That word saw, is ido in the

Greek language and it means to see and to perceive with understanding. What He understood is anytime you are in the business of serving people, sometimes the very people that you serve will revile you, which means to eat and to gnash upon you with their teeth. He says what you can’t afford to do is get in the dirt with them. So He says rejoice. In other words, the suggestion of the text is that because of their constant and consistent eating on you, it kind of douses your flame a bit. So He says, “Rejoice, I want to recharge you, and be exceedingly glad.” And then He says, “I want you to heighten your focus.” He says because they’re eating on you, you have a tendency to look at those who are eating on you. But in order for you to get where He needs you to be, you must

End-of-school count down

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Photos: Suluki Fardan

Rev. Jerry McAfee

elevate your focus. In the Old Testament, Nehemiah was harassed by weak men in the community who were always trying to stop Nehemiah from helping his own people. Now, what’s interesting about the story is that one was kind of related to the

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The Many Storylines of the NBA Finals

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