San Diego Monitor News & Business Journal

SAN DIEGO MONITOR

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The San Diego Monitor

CNC Members and Friends ~ This is a reminder to join us for

“Celebrating the Life and Community Legacy of Jacquelyn R. Meshack,” This evening, Friday, December 9, 2011, 6:00 – 7:30 pm at the Jacobs Center in the Chollas View Room at 404 Euclid Avenue, San Diego CA 92114, hosted by the Coalition of Neighborhood Councils in partnership with the Jacobs Center, UAAMAC, NAACP San Diego Branch, MLK Democratic Club and BAPAC. Come honor and pay tribute to the life and legacy of our beloved “Jackie” Meshack with your remarks and remembrances on this special occasion. Please circulate to your friends, neighborhood councils and organizations.

RSVP your attendance to (619) 325-3580 or cnc@cncsandiego.org.

Thank you.

Mrs. Meshack’s viewing will be Sunday, October 11, 2011, 4:00-7:00pm at Anderson- Ragsdale Mortuary at 5050 Federal Blvd, San Diego CA 92102.

Her services will be Monday, December 12, 2011, 12 Noon at Church of Christ 2002 Granger, National City CA 91950. (619) 475-9502 The repast will be at the 38th Street Church of Christ at 567 S. 38th St, San Diego CA 92113.

For more information call (619) 262-1037.

The CNC Board of Directors & Staff

Scan to link directly to USD.com and View the S.D. Monitor online!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Del Mar Racetrack, a holiday tradition surely to delight the entire family.

Sunday-Thursday, 5:30-10:00PM; Friday and Saturday, 5:30-10:30PM Cost: $14.00 per car, up to 5 people $19.00 per vehicle, 6 or more people $49.00 per bus

Top Holiday Lighting Events in San Diego: San Diego Bay Parade of Lights Sunday, December 11 & 18, 2011 Fireworks begin at 5:30pm Light Parade begins immediately following fireworks Various locations and times of parade are: Shelter Island (start of parade) - 5:30pm Harbor Island - 6pm The Embarcadero - 6:30pm Seaport Village - 7pm Ferry Landing on Coronado - 7:30pm Parade takes approximately 1 1/2 hrs. to pass any given point http://www.sdparadeoflights.org/event_schedule.shtml Holiday of Lights - Del Mar Fair Grounds Nov. 24th through Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012 (Closed Mondays, Dec. 5 & Dec. 12.)

The largest animated drivethrough light show on the West Coast.

More than 400 twinkling, lively displays located around the

Top Neighborhood Christmas Lights Chula Vista, Christmas Circle a tradition for over 46 years.

People come from all over San Diego to see the wonderful displays. Located between First and Second Avenues, just south of H. Street and I Street. Dec. 11 through Dec.26, 5 to 10 pm. Over 55 homes decorated (FREE) EAST SAN DIEGO Arron Christmas Lane - 1523 48th Street - off Federal Blvd. & 48th St. Dec. 1 through Dec. 30, 5 to 10 pm.

LEMON GROVE, LOMITA (San Diego) 689 Meadowbrook Dr. - off Jamacha Rd., south of Lemon Grove. Dec. 6 through Jan.1, dusk to 10 pm. Many lights on home and occasionally, Santa and Mrs. Santa may be out to greet visitors.

Port of San Diego Big Bay Balloon Parade Now this sounds like a blast!

Bring your kids out and have a great time at the largest Balloon Parade in America, right here in your hometown.

When: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 Time: 10:00 a.m.

Where: Downtown San Diego Cost: $15.00 - $20.00 Route starting on California Street, ending on G & W. Habor Dr.

1838 El Pico Drive. - off Hacienda Drive Dec. 10 through Jan. 1, dusk to 10 pm. 41st year of decorating the 20-foot star over 100 ft. in the air, overlooking El Cajon Valley. Also see a 55foot long train

About UniquelySanDiego.com – your online guide highlighting the city’s multicultural news, events, attractions, communities, daily deals, and more. Want to drive more traffic to your business or store front? Upload your daily coupon specials and enter your “FREE” business listing by clicking on the “businesses” tab www.uniquelysandiego.com . Have an event you want to share? Simply submit your community event to our calendar by clicking on Event’s tab and follow the prompts - it’s “FREE”!!

LA MESA Bob’s Christmas Wonderland - 7171 Cornell Ave., La Mesa.

This residence is truly a wonderland and is open from 5 to 9 p.m. nightly through December. Visitors are asked to bring one canned food item to be donated to the Salvation Army.

Scan with Smartphone to learn more about UniquelySanDiego.com

EL CAJON Jingle Bell Hill (aka Pepper Drive Lights) - Solomon Ave./Pageen Pl. and surrounding area. Off 67 and Bradley

SAN DIEGO MONITOR

The San Diego Monitor

President Obama: It is great to be back in the state of Kansas. As many of you know, I’ve got roots here. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the Obamas of Osawatomie.

Actually, I like to say that I got my name from my father, but I got my accent – and my values – from my mother.

She was born in Wichita. Her mother grew up in Augusta.

And her father was from El Dorado. So my Kansas roots run deep.

My grandparents served during World War II — he as a soldier in Patton’s Army, she as a worker on a bomber assembly line. Together, they shared the optimism of a nation that triumphed over a Depression and fascism. They believed in an America where hard work paid off, responsibility was rewarded, and anyone could make it if they tried — no matter who you were, where you came from, or how you started out.

These values gave rise to the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known. It was here, in America, that the most productive workers and innovative companies turned out the best products on Earth, and every American shared in that pride and success — from those in executive suites to middle management to those on the factory floor. If you gave it your all, you’d take enough home to raise your family, send your kids to school, have your health care covered, and put a little away for retirement.

Today, we are still home to the world’s most productive workers and innovative companies. But for most Americans, the basic bargain that made this country great has eroded. Long before the recession hit, hard work stopped paying off for too many people. Fewer and fewer of the folks who contributed to the success of our economy actually benefitted from that success. Those at the very top grew wealthier from their incomes and investments than ever before. But everyone else struggled with costs that were growing and paychecks that weren’t – and too many families found themselves racking up more and more debt just to keep up.

For many years, credit cards and home equity loans papered over the harsh realities of this new economy. But in 2008, the house of cards collapsed. We all know the story by now: Mortgages sold to people who couldn’t afford them, or sometimes even understand them. Banks and investors allowed to keep packaging the risk and selling it off. Huge bets – and huge bonuses – made with other people’s money on the line. Regulators who were supposed to warn us about the dangers of all this, but looked the other way or didn’t have the authority to look at all.

It was wrong. It combined the breathtaking greed of a few with irresponsibility across the system. And it plunged our economy and the world into a crisis from which we are still fighting to recover. It claimed the jobs, homes, and the basic security of millions – innocent, hard-working Americans who had met their responsibilities, but were still left holding the bag.

Ever since, there has been a raging debate over the best way to restore growth and prosperity; balance and fairness. Throughout the country, it has sparked protests and political movements – from the Tea Party to the people who have been occupying the streets of New York and other cities. It’s left Washington in a near-constant state of gridlock. And it’s been the topic of heated and sometimes colorful discussion among the men and women who are running for president.

But this isn’t just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, and secure their retirement.

Now, in the midst of this debate, there are some who seem to be suffering from a kind of collective amnesia.

After all that’s happened, after the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, they want to return to the same practices that got us into this mess. In fact, they want to go back to the same policies that have stacked the deck against middle-class Americans for too many years. Their philosophy is simple: we are better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.

Well, I’m here to say they are wrong. I’m here to reaffirm my deep conviction that we are greater together than we are on our own. I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules. Those aren’t Democratic or Republican val-

RENEWED NATIONALISM The Speech of His Presidency ues; 1% values or 99% values. They’re American values, and we have to reclaim them.

You see, this isn’t the first time America has faced this choice. At the turn of the last century, when a nation of farmers was transitioning to become the world’s industrial giant, we had to decide: would we settle for a country where most of the new railroads and factories were controlled by a few giant monopolies that kept prices high and wages low? Would we allow our citizens and even our children to work ungodly hours in conditions that were unsafe and unsanitary? Would we restrict education to the privileged few? Because some people thought massive inequality and exploitation was just the price of progress.

Theodore Roosevelt disagreed. He was the Republican son of a wealthy family. He praised what the titans of industry had done to create jobs and grow the economy. He believed then what we know is true today: that the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history. It’s led to a prosperity and standard of living unmatched by the rest of the world.

But Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can. It only works when there are rules of the road to ensure that competition is fair, open, and honest. And so he busted up monopolies, forcing those companies to compete for customers with better services and better prices. And today, they still must. He fought to make sure businesses couldn’t profit by exploiting children, or selling food or medicine that wasn’t safe. And today, they still can’t.

In 1910, Teddy Roosevelt came here, to Osawatomie, and laid out his vision for what he called a New Nationalism. “Our country,” he said, “…means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy…of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him.”

For this, Roosevelt was called a radical, a socialist, even a communist. But today, we are a richer nation and a stronger democracy because of what he fought for in his last campaign: an eight hour work day and a minimum wage for women; insurance for the unemployed, the elderly, and those with disabilities; political reform and a progressive income tax.

Today, over one hundred years later, our economy has gone through another transformation. Over the last few decades, huge advances in technology have allowed businesses to do more with less, and made it easier for them to set up shop and hire workers anywhere in the world. And many of you know firsthand the painful disruptions this has caused for a lot of Americans.

Factories where people thought they would retire suddenly picked up and went overseas, where the workers were cheaper. Steel mills that needed 1,000 employees are now able to do the same work with 100, so that layoffs were too often permanent, not just a temporary part of the business cycle. These changes didn’t just affect blue-collar workers. If you were a bank teller or a phone operator or a travel agent, you saw many in your profession replaced by ATMs or the internet. Today, even higher-skilled jobs like accountants and middle management can be outsourced to countries like China and India. And if you’re someone whose job can be done cheaper by a computer or someone in another country, you don’t have a lot of leverage with your employer when it comes to asking for better wages and benefits – especially since fewer Americans today are part of a union.

Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, there’s been a certain crowd in Washington for the last few decades who respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If only we cut more regulations and cut more taxes – especially for the wealthy – our economy will grow stronger. Sure, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everyone else. And even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, they argue, that’s the price of liberty.

It’s a simple theory – one that speaks to our rugged

individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. It fits well on a bumper sticker. Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It’s never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible post-war boom of the 50s and 60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade.

Remember that in those years, in 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for the wealthy in history, and what did they get us? The slowest job growth in half a century. Massive deficits that have made it much harder to pay for the investments that built this country and provided the basic security that helped millions of Americans reach and stay in the middle class – things like education and infrastructure; science and technology; Medicare and Social Security.

Remember that in those years, thanks to some of the same folks who are running Congress now, we had weak regulation and little oversight, and what did that get us?

Insurance companies that jacked up people’s premiums with impunity, and denied care to the patients who were sick. Mortgage lenders that tricked families into buying homes they couldn’t afford. A financial sector where irresponsibility and lack of basic oversight nearly destroyed our entire economy.

We simply cannot return to this brand of your-onyour-own economics if we’re serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country. We know that it doesn’t result in a strong economy. It results in an economy that invests too little in its people and its future. It doesn’t result in a prosperity that trickles down. It results in a prosperity that’s enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citizens.

Look at the statistics. In the last few decades, the average income of the top one percent has gone up by more than 250%, to $1.2 million per year. For the top one hundredth of one percent, the average income is now $27 million per year. The typical CEO who used to earn about 30 times more than his or her workers now earns 110 times more. And yet, over the last decade, the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by about six percent.

This kind of inequality – a level we haven’t seen since the Great Depression – hurts us all. When middle-class families can no longer afford to buy the goods and services that businesses are selling, it drags down the entire economy, from top to bottom. America was built on the idea of broad-based prosperity – that’s why a CEO like Henry Ford made it his mission to pay his workers enough so that they could buy the cars they made. It’s also why a recent study showed that countries with less inequality tend to have stronger and steadier economic growth over the long run.

Inequality also distorts our democracy. It gives an outsized voice to the few who can afford high-priced lobbyists and unlimited campaign contributions, and runs the risk of selling out our democracy to the highest bidder. And it leaves everyone else rightly suspicious that the system in Washington is rigged against them – that our elected representatives aren’t looking out for the interests of most Americans.

More fundamentally, this kind of gaping inequality gives lie to the promise at the very heart of America: that this is the place where you can make it if you try. We tell people that in this country, even if you’re born with nothing, hard work can get you into the middle class; and that your children will have the chance to do even better than you. That’s why immigrants from around the world flocked to our shores.

And yet, over the last few decades, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity have grown farther and farther apart, and the middle class has shrunk. A few years after World War II, a child who was born into poverty had a slightly better than 50-50 chance of becoming middle class as an adult. By 1980, that chance fell to around 40%. And if the trend of rising inequality over the last few decades continues, it’s estimated that a child born today will only have a 1 in 3 chance of making it to the middle class.

It’s heartbreaking enough that there are millions of working families in this country who are now forced to

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take their children to food banks for a decent meal. But the idea that those children might not have a chance to climb out of that situation and back into the middle class, no matter how hard they work? That’s inexcusable. It’s wrong. It flies in the face of everything we stand for.

Fortunately, that’s not a future we have to accept.

Because there’s another view about how we build a strong middle class in this country – a view that’s truer to our history; a vision that’s been embraced by people of both parties for more than two hundred years.

It’s not a view that we should somehow turn back technology or put up walls around America. It’s not a view that says we should punish profit or success or pretend that government knows how to fix all society’s problems. It’s a view that says in America, we are greater together – when everyone engages in fair play, everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share.

So what does that mean for restoring middle-class security in today’s economy?

It starts by making sure that everyone in America gets a fair shot at success. The truth is, we’ll never be able to compete with other countries when it comes to who’s best at letting their businesses pay the lowest wages or pollute as much as they want. That’s a race to the bottom that we can’t win – and shouldn’t want to win.

Those countries don’t have a strong middle-class. They don’t have our standard of living.

The race we want to win – the race we can win – is a race to the top; the race for good jobs that pay well and offer middle-class security. Businesses will create those jobs in countries with the highest-skilled, highest-educated workers; the most advanced transportation and communication; the strongest commitment to research and technology.

The world is shifting to an innovation economy. And no one does innovation better than America. No one has better colleges and universities. No one has a greater diversity of talent and ingenuity. No one’s workers or entrepreneurs are more driven or daring. The things that have always been our strengths match up perfectly with the demands of this moment.

But we need to meet the moment. We need to up our game. And we need to remember that we can only do that together.

It starts by making education a national mission – government and businesses; parents and citizens. In this economy, a higher education is the surest route to the middle class. The unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. Their income is twice as high as those who don’t have a high school diploma. We shouldn’t be laying off good teachers right now – we should be hiring them. We shouldn’t be expecting less of our schools – we should be demanding more. We shouldn’t be making it harder to afford college – we should be a country where everyone has the chance to go.

In today’s innovation economy, we also need a worldclass commitment to science, research, and the next generation of high-tech manufacturing. Our factories and their workers shouldn’t be idle. We should be giving people the chance to get new skills and training at community colleges, so they can learn to make wind turbines and semiconductors and high-powered batteries. And by the way – if we don’t have an economy built on bubbles and financial speculation, our best and brightest won’t all gravitate towards careers in banking and finance.

Because if we want an economy that’s built to last, we need more of those young people in science and engineering. This country shouldn’t be known for bad debt and phony profits. We should be known for creating and selling products all over the world that are stamped with three proud words: Made in America.

Today, manufacturers and other companies are setting up shop in places with the best infrastructure to ship their products, move their workers, and communicate with the rest of the world. That’s why the over one million construction workers who lost their jobs when the housing market collapsed shouldn’t be sitting at home with nothing to do. They should be rebuilding our roads and bridges; laying down faster railroads and broadband; modernizing our schools – all the things other countries are already doing to attract good jobs and businesses to their shores.

Yes, businesses, not government, will always be the primary generator of good jobs with incomes that lift people into the middle class and keep them there. But as a nation, we have always come together, through our Continued on page 18

My wish for the 79th Assembly District

By Brian Pollard Ok, it looks like we are off and running in next year’s elections. The race that seems to be heating up is for the 79th Assembly District,(the old 78th). There are 4 candidates to date and two we all know pretty well, Patricia Washington and Shirley Weber. I will of course vote for the person I believe is the best candidate but officially I am leaving this up to the residents of the 79th, Which one (out of the two) you vote for is your own business, however… The reasons we choose the candidate of our choice in my opinion has to be “data driven” primarily, and any other factor has to be secondary.

I can tell you I will be looking for a “track record” and based upon the track record, I will be making a decision on how effective the candidates will represent our community, the whole 79th, and how effectively they can repre-

sent us in Sacramento’s environment.

Let’s start with what the Assembly persons actually do.

The short answer is they make the laws for the State. They are the Legislative Branch of the State Government.

The state constitution separates the powers of state government into three main branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch has the authority to make laws; the executive branch, to administer laws; the judicial branch, to interpret laws and ensure that they are applied justly and equitably.

As voters and to ensure we get the best person as possible. I will ask myself what has the candidates done for our community in the past?

Have they consistently stood up for our causes, interests and have they made tough decisions based upon the community as a whole? Can they interact effectively in Sacramento? Do

they have the “bandwidth” to present arguments and win?

To me, it is less important if the candidates and I have been at odds with each other in the past, because that will always happen, but was the difference of opinion based upon sound principles and not petty? Did they have the best interest of the community at heart? Do they have good, fresh ideas? Are they overly burdened by special interests? Can they be firm fair and impartial? Will they be accessible to their constituents?

These questions will be used when I vote, and I will assess these attributes by attending forums, reading about their history within our community,(google.com), and with a few personal, consistent short conversations with each candidate and compare the answers.

I have more homework to do myself because I do not know the other two candidates that well. The 79th District roughly involves numerous communities from Lemon Grove, City Heights, College Area, Southeastern SD,(east of Euclid), parts of National City, and parts of Chula Vista, Imperial Beach so the can-

didate will need to understand numerous cultures and numerous neighborhoods….big job.

I am sure most of us have considered that both of these ladies are very qualified, love our community and they both are African American, that could pose a problem of splitting the African American Vote. They are not the only candidates in the race. Splitting our vote will undoubtedly minimize our and chances of having an African American representative that can represent all communities within the 79th. It would be nice to have both of these qualified candidates collaborate so we can have the singular best candidate. I guess we will see…..

Here’s the summary, DO YOUR HOMEWORK, and let’s not make this a personality contest, too much is at stake. Attend local civic engagement forums, research all candidates’ past performances, talk with your neighbors, and churches but make your own decisions…based upon data! Once you make your decision volunteer to help out and fight like the dickens to get your candidate elected!!!!

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SAN DIEGO MONITOR

You Can Change the District, But You Can’t Change the Mindset Everything that gets old needs tuning up from time to time. The old layout of our city needed to be changed in order to include all the new groups of people that call San Diego home.

But 40 years ago, there was no such thing as North County or East County. These areas are the only direction by which this city can grow, as we are fenced in by Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.

60 years go, Black Americans that lived in this city bragged about the fact that they all attended San Diego High School. And what a fun time it was. Then as time went on we built Lincoln High School to better accommodate our students. Then we built Morse High School. Now we’re reorganizing the district to fit the growing population. If you look at the South Bay, it’s highly populated with Hispanics. And if you go east there’s pockets of Filipinos and other minorities. What happened to Black Americans? Blacks have deemed themselves as whites; they create pockets of Blacks in other communities like the Filipinos and the Vietnamese. But it must be said that this has not benefited Blacks positively. It has created weakness, division, and virtually robbed Blacks of any economic development.

A gentleman called me a few days ago and asked, “Where is the Black business community in San Diego?” I told him it is nonexistent.

He said it has to exist because there is a Black commerce association advertising around the city. I told him maybe the churches have redefined themselves as a commerce group instead of a spiritual one. After all, they really are the largest business group in the community when you look at collections and other property. But this isn’t the true definition of commerce.

Commerce is when you make something and sell it for a profit. Commerce is providing services for sizeable pay. That’s what drives Wall Street.

Many people seem to be concerned about taxes and how those that make the big bucks in America don’t pay enough. But that’s because they produce a lot. When you make something there are deductions in prototype, employment, the cost of goods, and other costs of business.

EDITORIAL Businesses also get tax breaks in exchange for the commerce that they produce for the country and the world. It presents a bad picture when one only works for a living and wishes to compare that with the men that take the risks to produce the dollars that eventually employ many millions of people.

It is extremely important for Black Americans to pull themselves together and become productive as a group of people, as opposed to allowing the politicians to weaken their strength economically. Yes, redistricting has not benefited Black Americans. Any time Blacks spread themselves out and fail to clan together, they lose strength. The mindset of the Blacks that moved here during WWII is a different breed than those here today. Young Blacks go about their business during the week, go to church on Sunday, pray to God and expect that there will be a banner that will fall from the sky and unfurl bye and bye. I don’t know if Black Americans even understand what it takes to generate commerce in the world today.

Until Next Week, Willie Morrow

The San Diego Monitor

The Black Middle Class JESSE WASHINGTON, AP BALTIMORE (AP) — Growing up black in the segregated 1960s, Deborah Goldring slept two to a bed, got evicted from apartment after apartment, and watched her stepfather climb utility poles to turn their disconnected lights back on. Yet Goldring pulled herself out of poverty and earned a middle-class life — until the Great Recession.

First, Goldring’s husband fell ill, and they drained savings to pay for nursing homes before he died. Then Goldring lost her executive assistant job in the Baltimore hospital where she had worked for 17 years. The cruelest blow was a letter from the bank, intending to foreclose on her home of almost three decades.

Millions of Americans endured similar financial calamities in the recession. But for Goldring and many others in the black community, where unemployment has risen since the end of the recession, job loss has knocked them out of the middle class and back into poverty. Some even see a historic reversal of hard-won economic gains that took black people decades to achieve.

Goldring remembers her mother taping the window shades to the wall so no one could see them stealing electricity. She remembers each time she sat on the curb with her three brothers, surrounded by her family’s belongings, waiting for a new place to live. Sitting on those curbs, she promised to always pay her bills on time.

Now, after finding herself poor again, “the only word I can say is devastated,” says Goldring, 58.

“For me to live that life we were so comfortable in, we never had to worry about finances, we always had money where I can help my kids and my grandchildren — to go to calling my daughter to borrow $100 because I can’t pay a bill ...” Goldring’s voice trails off as she struggles to hold back tears.

Economists say the Great Recession lasted from 2007 to 2009. In 2004, the median net worth of white households was $134,280, compared with $13,450 for black households, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by the Economic Policy Institute. By 2009, the median net worth for white households had fallen 24 percent to $97,860; the median black net worth had fallen 83 percent to $2,170, according to the EPI. Algernon Austin, director of the EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, described the wealth gap this way: “In 2009, for every dollar of wealth the average white household had, black households only had two cents.”

Since the end of the recession, the overall unemployment rate has fallen from 9.4 to 9.1 percent, while the black unemployment rate has risen from 14.7 to 16.2 percent, according to the Department of Labor.

“I would say the recession is not over for black folks,” Austin says. He believes more black people than ever before could fall out of the middle class, because the unemployment rate for college-educated blacks recently peaked and blacks are overrepresented in state and local government jobs that are being eliminated due to massive budget shortfalls.

Maya Wiley, director of the Center for Social Inclusion, says the anti-discrimination laws passed in the 1960s took decades to translate into an increase in black economic security — and that was before the recession.

“History is going to say that the black middle class was decimated” over the past few years, Wiley says. “But we’re not done writing history.” ___ Goldring was born and raised in Baltimore, and her mother was single for much of Goldring’s childhood. At 16, she dropped out of school and went to work cleaning hotel rooms.

“That’s when I first met white people. Some of them would stay a month at the hotel. They would have all their children with them,” she remembers. “I thought, one day I’d like to hang out at a hotel.”

She didn’t know any middle-class people in her all-black neighborhood. “Where we lived, everyone struggled. We just struggled a little harder,” she says. “If the lights stayed on for a whole year, if we didn’t get put out, I thought we were doing really, really well.”

At 21, pregnant with her second child, Goldring decided to get her GED. Then she went to community college, got a degree in secretarial work, and began a career.

She met her husband in 1983. He had a steady job as a heating and air-conditioning installer, and owned a brick two-bedroom home in Morgan Park, a leafy, integrated neighborhood.

With two incomes, money was not a problem. He liked to travel. She had never been out of Maryland.

“I thought, ‘Is this how rich people live?’” Goldring remembers. “From where I was to where I ended up, it was way different.”

Her husband had been married before. As a condition of the divorce, his daughter’s name was added to the deed of the house. After Goldring’s husband died in 2007, Goldring took out a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, with a 6.5 percent interest rate, to purchase the house outright.

Everything was fine until her hospital “restructured” in 2009. Her boss, a senior vice president, was transferred to the corporate office. Executives were now sharing secretaries. A few months later, they let Goldring go.

No more family vacations. No more trips to the mall. No more filling the grocery cart.

But what Goldring misses the most is her checkbook. Her unemployment payments arrive on a debit card.

“Just being able to pull out my checkbook and pay a bill, even though there might not be much left in there,” she says. “I really miss that checkbook with my name on it.” ___ This May, black male employment fell to the lowest level since the government began keeping track in 1972.

Only 56.1 percent of black men over age 20 were working, compared with 68.3 percent of white men.

Chris Wilder, a Philadelphia journalist, lost his job in 2008 as the media industry suffered huge losses.

Unemployment benefits amounted to about one-third of his salary. Ever since they ran out, his income has been near zero, other than sporadic freelance work.

If not for a policy in his apartment co-op to assist people who lose their jobs, “I might be living with my mother,” he says.

He has felt depression and anxiety. He’s gone from a six-figure salary to having to check his balance before using his bank card. “I miss being able to go into a store and go off budget,” he says. “Now, when I go to shop for something, I have to stick to exactly what I came to get. I never have money to buy anything else.”

Wilder, 43, grew up solidly middle class, the son of a newspaper editor and a college administrator. Now the single parent of a 15-year-old, he has managed to keep his son in cleats and baseball camps, but thoughts of dying poor have crept into his mind. All of his savings are gone.

“It’s definitely harder for black people to get jobs,” Wilder says. “With the economy as bad as it is, people are hiring nephews and family friends and friends of friends. It’s hard for black people to break that cycle. We don’t own or even run the big companies.”

“It’s hard to keep jobs as well, because they’re gonna ‘last hired/first fired’ you,” he adds.

Wilder isn’t giving up on finding a job in his field, “but I should.”

“I call everyone. I send resumes. It is extremely rare that I get a call back,” he says. “When I was growing up, I never imagined there would be a time when I was out of work for three years.”

College-educated blacks fared worse than their white counterparts in the recession. In 2007, unemployment for college-educated whites was 1.8 percent; for college-educated blacks it was 2.7 percent. Now, the collegeeducated unemployment rate is 3.9 percent for whites and 7 percent for blacks.

“I’ve definitely played by the rules,” Wilder says.

He’s not desperate enough to break the law, but “I see why people become drug dealers.” ___ Horace Davis did become a drug dealer. He illustrates another dimension of the recession’s impact on blacks: While law-abiding folks are falling out of the middle class, those who got in trouble with the law are further than ever from a second chance.

After serving four years for drug trafficking, Davis walked out of prison into the middle of the recession in 2008. “I thought to myself, I’m older, I need to get a job, move on. The dope game was dead to me,” Davis says, sitting on a concrete porch in an Asheville, N.C., housing project.

In the past few decades of the “War on Drugs,” harsh sentencing laws have sent a disproportionate number of black people to prison, even though blacks are not more likely than whites to sell or use drugs, according to a 2008 report by the Sentencing Project. Today, about 280,000 African-Americans emerge from behind bars each year. They are often the last of the last to be hired.

After Davis got out, he spent months applying for dozens of jobs mopping floors or flipping burgers. He carried a letter from the state offering a $2,500 tax credit for hiring ex-offenders. He got one call back, from a chicken restaurant. “We’ll be in touch,” Davis remembers them saying. They weren’t.

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The San Diego Monitor

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The San Diego Monitor

Seven Things You Must Do To Be A Successful Entrepreneur As humans, we all go through our day-to-day lives aiming and craving for success but the truth is very few people know the real definition of success and even more few are ready to give it what it takes.

A lot of things are easier said than done and success is very renowned when it comes to this; nobody wants to be a failure, we all want to be a success but very few of us are ready to pay the price.

A lot is happening nowadays that is redefining the real meaning of an entrepreneur; people want to take the easy route and by so doing they follow the footsteps of others and pave the way for their failure.

According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary the real definition of an entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. I will be explaining some principles below which are required for the success of every entrepreneur (note the word “entrepreneur”) – these principles might not apply to everybody as far as success is concerned but the truth is you really need to follow them if you want to succeed as an entrepreneur.

1. Learn To Live by Risks If you take a look at the definition of the word “entrepreneur” one word that should shine is the word “risks”. An entrepreneur is not just an entrepreneur because he knows how to make money but because he learns to make profit by taking risks.

Take a look at all the major project there is, all the major projects that helped some of the biggest entrepreneurs make their name, all the projects that helped most of the small entrepreneurs make a living and all the projects that helped entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and one thing you will notice about all these projects is that they are a product of risk.

As an entrepreneur there is little to no assurance of you profiting from your investments; it doesn’t matter what the stats or the experts say, there is still little to no guarantee of you succeeding but you have to take the risk anyway. For example, if you take a look at the blogging and make money online field you will notice that highly successful bloggers like Darren Rowse and John Chow will tell you that blogging is easy but looking at the number of people who start blogs every year and how a “very large” percentage of them fail you will see clearly that this is not true.

The truth is, as far as building a successful busi-

ness is concerned, the result two different people will get under the same circumstance will be completely different. If Darren were to start a new blog today he will be able to build it to a successful stage as a result of the knowledge he has already acquired; this knowledge was gained by the risks he happily took and the cold hard truth is that risks are what help us build our lives and add to our success.

It doesn’t matter what you think or have been made to believe, a true entrepreneur live by risks; and when I say “live by”, I’m not just talking about taking one risk and forgetting about it, I mean you will keep on taking risks every single day of your live, you will keep on taking risks with every business you start and you will keep on taking risks with every decision you make.

Whether you like to believe this or not, we are gods if we already know the outcome of the decisions we will make; and not knowing the outcomes of our decisions is what is called risks, and this same thing is what makes us humans – you shouldn’t shy away from this, but, rather, you should focus on adapting your life to it.

2. You Must be a Man of Decision This also goes in line with the aspect of taking risks. Each major risk you take is a product of a strong decision you have to make and the weak at heart or the indecisive entrepreneur will have a hard time succeeding.

True entrepreneurs learn to make wise decisions and they always make it fast, and a great thing to know when trying to make the best decision is to know that you’re not perfect or infallible and that there always will be a failure in whatever you do – this is not to prevent you from making some decisions but, rather, be prepared for the worse.

Everything in life has advantages and disadvantages and a true entrepreneur won’t just condemn a decision because it has disadvantages. You should also be firm and stand with your decision no matter what and you should make the term “not wavering” your watchword.

3. Learn to Live by Faith One great characteristic of highly successful entrepreneurs is that they are unshakable and immovable and they don’t need external gratification to believe that what they’re doing is going to work out for them – the day you start expecting gratification from the outside in anything you do is the day you start failing, believe it or not!

The bible is a great book when it comes to faith but many people believe a lot of the characters in

the bible are some sort of special people and that the theory they hold doesn’t apply to us. If you don’t read the bible you at least read other motivational books (another characteristic of a successful entrepreneur) and one major thing you can learn from reading these books and taking a look at the lives of the most successful men history has ever produced is the power of faith.

Faith is having a great belief (if I may use that word) in the unseen; it is the strong belief you have in yourself and your project before you ever start it, it is the great future you see ahead of yourself and your business and it is the great power that drives every entrepreneur to success.

I see a lot of people make a great mistake and I laugh at them, I was once a believer and supporter of this great mistake they make but I learnt my lesson the hard way; that mistake is in the saying that it takes money to make money – this is total B.S and believe me, I don’t need you to believe me when it comes to this. I have read a lot of books, seen the lives of several successful entrepreneurs and applied a lot of principles to my life but one major lesson I have learnt is that it really doesn’t take money to make money. No wonder the popular author Napoleon Hill says that every single thought of man has a way of affecting the universe.

I’m not trying to say having more money can’t increase your chances of success but my point is that not having money is not an excuse for you to be a failure.

The only thing it takes to succeed is tenacity and a very strong desire to succeed. Our mind is a very powerful tool that can achieve a lot of things beyond our imaginations, even far more things that we presently have discovered, and a really wise entrepreneur will effectively use this to achieve success for himself. The truth is, in our day-to-day activities and every single decision we make we are influenced by our minds.

If you don’t believe me when it comes to this take a proper look at the lives of many of the individuals we have in the world today and you will notice that the reason a lot of them are a continuous failure is the way they are brought up; they have been greatly limited from a very young age (especially by their parents) and they have been made to believe a lot of mundane things such as it only takes hard work, going to school and getting a job to succeed in life, they no longer think beyond the cycle of going to school and getting a job and they keep on working the heck out of themselves, yet, they still can’t afford the dreams of their desire.

Your mindset needs to change and you need to transform yourself from the realm of the impossible to the realm of the possible; the truth is, nobody will help you do this. People can preach to you all they like but the decision is yours to make and the result is yours to get.

4. You Must be Ready to Improve Many entrepreneurs are brought to a piece of bread because of the thing called “ego”, they are too proud to learn from their mistakes and the funny thing is we keep on looking for excuses to make bad things look good (believe me, that is why the named pride ego).

It doesn’t matter whether you call it pride or ego, it can’t take you anywhere as an entrepreneur.

The key to real success lies in bring yourself low because only he that brings himself low will go up and he that sees himself as the ultimate is doomed already.

We are humans, we can never know all and we are so developed in such a way that we have to keep learning, no matter how old or young we are, but what matters is how you learn and how you take your learning.

There are a lot of ways to learn and improve yourself as an entrepreneur, it can be by learning from your mistakes, by learning from people who are highly successful, by learning from those who are below you and even by learning from living and non living things; there is never something called too much learning.

The truth is, we can only imagine where the world will be in the next 5-10 years and this largely explains why a lot of things that were the talk of the town in the last decades are completely irrelevant now.

Real entrepreneurs always adapt to changes and are always ready to improve, they are like an amoeba that has no shape and like a chameleon that has no color, they will always succeed wherever they are, in any business they start. Keep improving and the sky is your limit!

5. You Must Challenge the Usual I am tired of a lot of things in my life lately and one of those things is being stagnant and on the same spot for a very long time, in an attempt to make sure I move up and experience an exponential growth I took a look at some of the entrepreneurs who are finding it extremely easy to succeed nowadays and one major thing I found out about them is that they are unconventional.

It now takes being bold and completely truthful (Continued)

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The San Diego Monitor to succeed (which is exactly how it is supposed to be). The cold hard truth is this, people are already tired of you telling and giving them what they want, they now really need to hear and get what they need. A large percentage of these people will disagree with what I’m saying but what really moves people to take action nowadays is what they go against; that is why the most controversial posts get shared the most and why the most controversial products go viral and bring about success.

A lot of people are already doing what people want and this makes entrepreneurs predictable – unpredictability is a great weapon and you should always make sure people never know your next move; the only way to do this is by doing what no other person does.

Success as an entrepreneur really doesn’t exist in doing what people want you to do but in doing what you need to do. In case you want to hear what people want you to do I will give you an idea: People want you to go to school, they want you to get the best grades, they want you to get a job and work the heck out of your life and they believe that is the only way to live happily in life.

Do you really believe that is how things work?

How many people can boast of living the lives of their dreams as a result of the certificate they have?

The truth is a lot of people are unable to get a job now even with the high grades they have and a lot of those people employed are quitting their jobs without an alternative; they’re just tired of it. I’m not trying to tell you to go against what people think, after all, you are the maker of your decision.

You can decide if all you want is the mundane life people have built for you for centuries or if what you really want is achieving success your own way.

The fact is we never really can be happy doing things other people’s way; we can only be happy following our own way. And this means if you don’t believe success is as a result of going to school you should immediately drop out of school and stop living other people’s lives – I’m more than confident about this, the key to being successful now lies in being unconventional more than ever.

6. Live by the Records As human beings we all want a lot of things but we really don’t need a large percentage of the things we want. While living the entrepreneurial dream can afford you the comfort you’ve ever wanted, true entrepreneurs don’t just get things because they want it, they get things because they need it.

I recently started experiencing some significant success as far as making money online is concerned and it became really evident to me that it is

SAN DIEGO MONITOR very easy to go bankrupt as an entrepreneur than many people think. If all you see and desire is all you get then you’re on your way to total failure.

Make sure you have a record that shows you how you make money and how you spend it; at the end of every month make sure you personally do the strenuous task of calculating how much you make vs. how much you earn to see if you’re really benefiting.

Try to adjust how you live your life to better fit how much you earn as time goes on and ensure you’re not at the brink of anything that can completely destroy your entrepreneurial career; I’m still regretting a lot of my mistakes till today and one major thing I’ve realized is that prevention is indeed better than cure.

7. Never Walk Alone I can’t remember clearly where this is but I have a faint idea that there is a particular bible passage that says one will kill 1000 and two will kill 10,000. Why the great different between the two? Why is it that two doesn’t kill 2000 but 10,000?

The reality is that even God, the master and creator of all, knew the power of working together and it is one of the greatest things he respected the most; this can be further proved by the construction of the tower of Babel, the Almighty God noticed that all the people spoke one language and they have one goal of building that tower to reach the heavens – the only way he could stop them was destroy the relationship between them. I’m not trying to be a preacher here but what I’m trying to tell you is that networking is really important that even God respects it.

As long as you can join forces with other people to achieve one aim and one goal there is nothing, I mean nothing, which can stop you.

Another major mistake I see that people keep on making is not networking with the right people. I take a look a lot of blogs on the internet, a lot of businesses both online and offline and I see many people doing the most foolish thing that can ever be imagined; they are focusing on building relationships that can never work and the end result is failure and almost eternal pain for the both parties.

In case you don’t know, I will like you to know this carefully, no relationship can work if your only aim is to please the other party, believe me!

If you’re networking with me because you want to be on my good books or you want me to love you then you’re already bound to fail. Real relationship has to be mutual and both parties must benefit, the day one party starts to lack behind is the day that relationship begins to crumble.

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Reflections on PR Legend Ofield Dukes

By Alicia Evans President Emeritus The Black Public Relations Society of New York My dear friend, mentor and public relations legend Ofield Dukes, has transitioned.

As president emeritus of the Black Public Relations Society of New York, I so fondly reflect on our celebration of Mr. Dukes as captured here: http://www.weinerpublic.com/odukes.html I have so many fond memories of Mr. Dukes.

Over the years, he has shared countless stories and tips which awed me. His storytelling abilities and life lessons were inspiring. While our friendship span years, I’d often tease like a crazed fan seeing a celebrity on the red carpet, “ I am so honored to know you! Can I have your autograph?” He would simply laugh and chime, “Oh, My Dear. . .” in a voice exhalting a king’s sage wisdom to an eager protégé.

Then I’d coax and query over the years, “When are you going to write your book? There are so many of us waiting to hear your story.” And, sure enough, spring of this year, on my birthday on May 28, 2011, he shared a wonderful draft of his book with me.

I remember first meeting Mr. Dukes during the first annual BPRS convention back in the late 1990’s in Detroit, his hometown. I heard him share tales of his days as a practitioner in President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, his role during the early days with Motown, his work as co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus and so much more. I was amazed to see someone who looked like me having excelled in the world of PR where my experience in so many New York agencies had few who reflected my same hue. I so admired him and was impressed that I insisted the Black Public Relations Society of New York honor this fine professional here in the Big Apple.

Years later, I remember working with the US Conference of Mayors and having a most difficult moment while working in Denver. I stood outside this four-star Denver hotel where officials were meeting; I was crying on the phone to Mr. Dukes, my mentor, about challenges with an inaugural speech for the organization’s president while he so calmly and gently coached me through, telling me to keep my head up and maintain my decorum. He always stressed maintaining a calm temperament, to

Ofield Dukes in his Southwest Washington office. KEITH JENKINS/ The Washington Post

avoid stress and maintain one’s professionalism.

After the call, I took a deep breathe, went back into the meeting and finished the job. I thanked him for his motivation for surely I was two steps from getting on the next plane out of there.

Earlier this year, a major financial firm requested the services of Mr. Duke’s esteemed firm. Mr. Dukes politely told them that he was not available but highly recommended my PR services. Oh, what an honor to be referred by one of the legendary greats in the business.

Of the many memories I shall cherish most are Mr. Duke’s handwritten letters and cards to me. He was a strong admirer of old fashioned ‘snail mail’ letters. Oh, what excitement I would have to receive one of his letters gracing the page of fine stationery or a carefully selected greeting card. In these days of digital messaging, it was always such a joyous treat to see his handwritten letter standing out amongst the post office delivery of bills and junk mail. I joyously welcomed the arrival of his letters. I’d carefully place it to the side, saving it for later when my day slowed down and I could simply sit, relax and savior its contents.

Mr. Dukes always spoke about maintaining professionalism, integrity and being equipped with fine writing skills. Of that, I am keenly aware and most mindful as I go about the business of practicing the profession. His words now continue as I teach the next generation the art of public relations at the City College of New York. The baton he leaves adorns golden rings and gems of wisdom I will forever cherish.

I am deeply moved by his work, his spirit and the path he has widened for all in the world of public relations.

Alicia Evans President Emeritus The Black Public Relations Society

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The San Diego Monitor

Megachurch’s future uncertain after pastor Long leaves ATLANTA (AP) — When Bishop Eddie Long was accused of sexual misconduct by former church members, his congregation rallied around him and his wife stood by his side.

About a year later, the Atlanta megachurch pastor is headed for divorce and stepping away from the pulpit.

Long announced Sunday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church that he needed a break from preaching to focus on his family.

The hiatus leaves New Birth, which once boasted 25,000 members, at a crossroads, its reputation battered and membership dwindling. Their pasts inextricably linked for nearly a generation, both Long and his church face an uncertain future.

"A church is bigger than its pastor," said Goldie Taylor, who has attended New Birth in the past. "For too long, the New Birth family has acted as if it is smaller than its pastor. Its challenge going forward will be its ability to flip that and become a church without walls again."

For many members, Long has been the only pastor they have ever known. He became senior pastor in 1987, taking the helm of a flock of only a few hundred members. Not long after he arrived, the former Ford salesman and Honeywell executive dismissed New Birth's board of directors and took unilateral control of the church, ensuring that he would be the one to determine the date of his departure.

New Birth grew quickly under its charismatic, dynamic young leader, swelling to 8,000 members in five years. A decade later New Birth boasted 18,000 members and the church paid cash for the land and sprawling property it currently occupies in DeKalb County — including a 10,000-seat sanctuary. In addition to its Lithonia, Ga., headquarters, the church has satellites in several cities including Miami, Charlotte and Denver and television and international ministries.

Many who joined the church under Long's tenure were attracted to the prosperity gospel that he preached and practiced. It was a message that mirrored an emerging black middle class in and around Atlanta. Unlike the tradi-

tional Southern Baptist preacher, Long owned a $350,000 Bentley and private jet, lived in a $1.4 million house with six bedrooms and nine bathrooms, adorned himself with diamond jewelry and read his sermons on an iPad. Long's spiritual swagger inspired a loyal and protective congregation. In September 2010, when accusations swirled that he used his lavish lifestyle to seduce four young men into sexual relationships in exchange for cars, clothes and trips, New Birth members supported around their embattled leader, who vowed he was innocent and would fight the cases.

Long settled out of court eight months later for an undisclosed amount and has never admitted any wrongdoing. After that, some changed their opinion of him.

"Once the money was paid, it was like you're hiding something," said Donielle Marshall, who joined New Birth as a college student in 1999. "Did you lie to us? I look at him as just a common man, full of fault, but also a disgrace."

KaCey Venning said she left New Birth about a month after the allegations because she wanted a smaller church. She believes New Birth can get past its challenges "if they are able to stick together and not rally behind somebody in blind support."

"They need to focus getting back to their outreach, getting out in the community," Venning said. "If the focus is going to be around this particular person, if there's no New Birth without him ... there might be a problem."

Long's wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce last week after 21 years of marriage. The couple has three children and a fourth from Long's first mar-

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The Rev. Kenneth Samuel, who preceded Long, said the allegations hurt.

"With New Birth being as large and prevalent as it is, every church in the area has felt the impact," Samuel said. "And rightly so. I think there has to be a level of accountability. I think it's certainly possible for the church to carry on.

My prayer is for growth and progress and to become more committed to open, honest dialogue and discussion."

Marshall said the church can be healed, but also thinks Long needs to step down permanently.

"All things can be renewed, but I think he needs to leave," she said. "Why continue to lead people when you are being dishonest? It shames the church, it shames the followers, and it shames him."

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The San Diego Monitor

“REASSESSING” HERMAN CAIN

A

fter several weeks of combating the press against a 13 year sexual affair accusation with another woman, the once charismatic and hopeful White House candidate, Herman Cain has finally threw in the towel—effectively ending his presidential bid on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011.

What started out as a bold and charismatic campaign, turned out to be an unexpected downfall to his political career. Less than a week after Ginger White’s statements of Cain’s sexual affairs with her, Cain came out publicly commenting on his “reassessment” of his presidential campaign. The American public was clearly confused on his definition of “reassessment” but still it was not enough to convince his fellow supporters and the public of his continue run for president in 2012 presidential elections.

“As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign. I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt caused on me and my family. Not because we are not fighters. I am disappointed that it came to this point, that we had to make this decision.

These false and untrue allegations continue to be spinned in the media, and in the court of public opinion so as to create a cloud of doubt over me and this campaign and my family. That spin hurts. It hurts my wife. It hurts my family. It hurts me. And it hurts the American people, because you are being denied solutions to our problems.”

This was an open statement made by Herman Cain; on the same day which he announced his dropped bid for 2012 presidential elections. Even though the American people are being denied solutions to our problems, but he can’t even solve his own problems within his own family. It is sad to see him go and I was quite astonished of how far he gotten in the polls, however, sex accusations or allega-

tions is damaging to any political candidate.

Look how John Edwards fared out. He was a promising candidate, but he could not seem to pull up his pants in the Democratic primaries, when he had an extramarital affair with a mistress.

Reassessing Herman Cain, after his drop for presidential candidacy, I can safely say that he wasn’t ready to become President, but not fit to become one. In a written statement made by Newt Gingrich, after Cain’s drop of the presidential race, “Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan got our country talking about the critical issue of how to reform our tax code and he elevated the dialogue of the Republican presidential primary in the process.” He has bold charisma and charm, which every presidential candidate needs to gain attention, but he has no background in governmental affairs.

He was fit to be a governor than president of the United States. He can emphasize that running a country is like running a business, but it’s not. It’s politics.

Everyone’s opinions matters and everyone do not necessarily agree with each other; that’s why we vote. In a business there is at least one CEO, and it is operated like dictatorship where employees cannot necessarily vouch for themselves, more or less, have their opinions respected. Donald Trump is maybe a good example of this, since he also dropped out of the presidential race.

So it can best be said, that in politics there is no place for businessmen, and in business there is no place for politicians.

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Fortunately for us we live in the Information Age, a time unprecedented in history when at the click of a button, we are able to conduct extensive research on any possible subject, but with such an overabundance of valuable information, sometimes it’s overwhelming, and we have all suffered from the sheer distraction called “surfing”.

If you take a second to go check out Google, enter a search phrase of your choice, before you push enter or click to search, notice the phrases that Google suggests to you, they even include a numerical value to let know just how many other people search for the same phrase.

This gives the beginning insight to what’s considered a “market”, obviously if people are searching for them, there is a demand.

Knowing your competition in your desired market is actually the most important element of research, identifying who the major players are, avoiding going up against the big guys, finding lesser opponents to exploit and take their positions is the only way to win fairly.

Playing fair is the only way, Google will realize that something is wrong and will quickly punish those involved.

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Just Keeping It Real With Angela Harris Relationship Coversations OMNILOGUE© - “All of us communicating with each other, so that we all come to a collective understanding, so that we all work toward the same goal.” ©

Unity in the Community Who will we support as a community?

First, a little background: What is the value of Africa and Africans? The Greeks called it “Africa”, which translates, “burning souls”. It was and is called “Merita” which means “Our Beloved Land” by the ancient and living cultures of that continent, the Kemetian culture – Our Culture!)

Africa/Merita is the place of origin of humanity in many ways. The first and highest human culture of humanity, the Egyptian (Hej Ptah) culture, is African/Kemetian. The basis for our knowledge of science, mathematics, agriculture and virtually every other aspect of culture is found in ancient Kemet. Most importantly, the Ancient Kemetians gave us the basis for all philosophical systems that exist today. Every religion and philosophical system we now have is a derivative of the ancient Kemetian philosophical system, which is still a “mystery” to most of the world. The ancient Kemetians circumnavigated the globe and brought and taught peace and high values to humans, who were their descendants – their children, everywhere they found them.

“African” Americans are America’s closest descendants of Ancient Kemet. I believe that there is, therefore, an obligation for Kemetians and their descendants – the “African Americans” – to work towards the restoration of the values of Kemetic culture. This means that we African Americans are obligated to work towards the restoration of the ancient values that sustained humanity for thousands of years. Of course, we have to relearn those values first, which are not taught in any American school, church or university. They are not taught and cannot be taught by American institutions because they would require America to compensate Merita (Africa) and Africans for what has been stolen from us. America has made it clear they will not do this. They will not because America, as it is today, does not have the value system that would make this happen, and aid in the restoration of balance, harmony and peace all over the world again. So it is up to us to teach it the them.

But there is a division in our own community, our own family, our own house. Some of us are engaged in building the Omnilogue – all of us communicating with EACH OTHER. While others engage in practices that divide the community. Sooner or later we may all have to make some difficult choices. I’ll talk more about this next week.

Who will we support as a community? I’m supporting Dr. Weber for the 79th Assembly District, for the common unity of community.

Challenge me on this! This is important!

Love Your Neighbor.

CMH [We Are The World] clovis.honore@yahoo.com

Avoiding Holiday Loneliness As a single woman I too know what it is like to be alone on the holidays. I can rejoice in the fact that I may be alone, in the physical sense, but I am never lonely, because of the presence of God. Jesus said He would never leave us or forsake us, but He would be with us even until the end of time. As single women, we are called to be concerned about the things above, the things that concern God. There are too many hurting and needy people for us to be lost in our “being alone.” When I say pitifully, “Well I guess I’ll go home to myself,” my wise niece always reminds me, “Auntie you’re never alone because Jesus is at home waiting for you.” While God prepares you for that husband and those children you long for enjoy your precious time with Jesus, because when marriage and children take stage, it becomes center stage and the time you had with Jesus will seem but a memory. Be encouraged and know that if you If you have questions you would take care of things of God, He will faithfully take care of your like answered or topics discussed, things, the things that matter to you. Psalms 37:4 says, “If you please send all questions to facedelight in the Lord He will give you the desires of your heart.” book.com/connectwithangelaharJohn 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me and My word abides in you ris or email: ask what you will and it shall be given unto you.” Matthew theharrisgroup@cox.net or 6:33 says, If you seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness twitter@KeepingitealAH. your basic needs will be met. (Paraphrase mine). Then For more articles Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked www.keepingitrealwithangela whatsoever you sow, so shall you reap.” If you have sowed harris.blogspot.com love, compassion, and the like, you will reap them in your season. Psalms 1:3 says, you will yield fruit (the harvest of your desires) in its (your) season.

If what’s been said doesn’t spark a greater understanding and provide some peace during this time of being alone here are some practical ideas that single women can do and find joy in the process during this festive time of the year.

• Get together with other single friends and make a tradition of celebrating each other.

• Plan a trip with two or three or more friends. Skiing is definitely a great outlet. There are so many places you can go and enjoy being with people who love you. Single people should build a bond that allows them to become families while waiting on that family – if that is your desire.

• On the same idea as the first one with money a consideration for many during this time – have a pot luck fiesta. Find common ground with music, movies, and board games.

Trust me there is fun to be had by all!!

• Ladies of course I recommend a fabulous sleep over!! How fun!! Time to play truth or dare, tell war and victory stories, swap recipes – be young and carefree!!

• There are many shelters, all over with families, and ladies, single women with children, whom you could adopt (This is for free: You don’t adopt just for the season but on a continual basis for the reason). What a time, if you’re Christian, to give a real gift to the birthday BOY. (When you’ve done for the least of these you’ve done for Me.) • Just as you single ladies are alone there are widows alone - what a time for generational fellowship!!

• Visiting and spending time with seniors in convalescent centers are a great way to really be blessing.

• Don’t despise your singleness. Enjoy the happiness of family and friends in your life.

If you celebrate them when it comes time to celebrate you, you’ve got a fan club excited for your time - whatever that time is.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event (your marriage, your children, etc) under heaven.” So while you have this awesome time to bask in the love of the Lord and enjoy the intimacy truly only a single woman sold out for Jesus can experience, make the most of your time with God and allow Him to fill you up completely. So whether you are in jail, rehabilitation, a shelter, or an apartment, the eyes of the Lord are on you and He’s waiting for you to stretch out your arms and allow Him to love you as no one else can love you. Be blessed.

This dish from the hot internet talk show Keeping it real with Angela Harris: This week we discussed with men what they look for in a woman: Here was the consensus – First and foremost the general consensus was they look for a woman who takes care of herself, a confident woman, a woman with a life of her own, a woman who is sexy without being trampy (by whose definition?), peep this – she doesn’t hop in bed too quickly (what’s too quickly?), a woman who does little things to show she care, and she is her man’s wingman (His biggest cheerleader.) The ladies said they look for men who are not threatened by the strength and success of the woman, a man who is willing to give as well as receive, a man who is a provider and a protector – bottom line a man who comes along with an ability and an attitude to take care of her, and one other trait women said they looked for is a man who understands that intimacy doesn’t begin or end in the bedroom. Both said they wanted a mate who would communicate and not expect the other to read their mind. Catch hot internet talk Monday-Friday 11AM to 12NOON PST Keeping it real with Angela Harris on kepxradio.com.

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Moving the San Diego Monitor into the electronic age is a move toward helping our readers stay in touch with what Black people are doing throughout America. Send an to email virgiej2001@aol.com to be added to the weekly email edition of the paper. Or you may contact our office at (619) 668-1007.

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FASTING … THE WHY BEHIND IT …

By Lady Topaz Historical records tell us that fasting has been used for health recovery for thousands of years. Hippocrates, Socrates, and Plato all recommended fasting for health recovery. The Bible tells us that Moses and Jesus fasted for 40 days for spiritual renewal. Mahatma Gandhi fasted for 21 days to promote respect and compassion between people with different religions.

For much of human history, fasting has been guided by intuition and spiritual purpose.

Today, our understanding of human physiology confirms the powerful healing effects of fasting.

Fasting is a powerful, therapeutic, process that can help people recover from mild to severe health conditions. Some of the most common ones are high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, chronic headaches, inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), irritable bowel syndrome, adult onset diabetes, heart disease, degenerative arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, eczema, acne, uterine fibroids, benign tumors, and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Fasting provides a period of concentrated physiological rest during which time the body can devote its’ self-healing mechanisms to repairing and strengthening damaged organs.

The process of fasting also allows the body to cleanse cells of accumulated toxins and waste products.

Fasting gives the digestive tract time to completely rest and strengthen its mucosal lining. A healthy intestinal mucosal lining is necessary for preventing the leakage of incompletely digested proteins into the bloodstream, thereby offering protection against autoimmune conditions. A healthy digestive tract also helps to protect the blood and inner organs against a variety of environmental and metabolic toxins.

A fast that is appropriate for your situation will allow for you to experience some or all of the following: More energy Healthier skin

Healthier teeth and gums Better quality sleep A clean and healthy cardiovascular system A decrease in anxiety and tension Dramatic reduction or complete elimination of aches and pains in muscles and joints Decrease or elimination of headaches Stabilization of blood pressure Stronger and more efficient digestion Stabilization of bowel movements Loss of excess weight Elimination of stored toxins Improvement with a wide variety of chronic degenerative health conditions, including autoimmune disorders It is important to understand that the detoxifying and healing processes that occur during a fast are also active when a person is consuming food. A fast can be helpful for people whose conditions are not improving as quickly as they would like, or for people who have health conditions that require a concentrated period of healing to resolve. It is also important to understand that the most important part of a fast is how a person lives after the fast. Fasting can provide a clean and revitalized foundation upon which you can build and maintain a strong and well-conditioned body by consistently making healthy food and lifestyle choices.

What follows are answers to commonly asked questions about fasting: Q. HOW DO I KNOW IF I NEED TO FAST? A: The answer to this question depends on your health status and goals. For many people, adopting an unprocessed, whole food diet, engaging in a sensible exercise program, acquiring restful sleep, and living in a relatively unpolluted environment will provide the necessary conditions to recover and maintain vibrant health. If a person is having a difficult time making necessary dietary and lifestyle changes, fasting can be a powerful way of accelerating health recovery. Fasting can also reset the sensitivity of the nervous system, providing an effective way of overcoming dependencies on caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, other recreational drugs, salt, sugar, and other stimulants. After fasting, many people marvel at how sweet romaine lettuce is, how refreshing Continued on page 21

MIDDLECLASS Continued from page 6 “Nobody wants black felons in their businesses,” says Davis, 26.

A2003 University of Chicago study by Devah Pager sent young white and black “testers” to apply for real low-wage jobs. Some of the testers were randomly assigned felony convictions. The study found that whites with felonies were slightly more likely to get callbacks than black applicants without criminal records.

“The penalty of a criminal record is more disabling for black job seekers than whites,” Pager and other researchers wrote in a follow-up study in 2009.

Davis says he learned skills in prison: “How to cook, clean, horticulture, janitorial. I can do it. I’ve been trained. Tile, carpentry, mortar, edging and trimming, all that. I can operate a backhoe, a roller. Any opportunity to do something that would show my talents, I’d do it. It would be my ticket out the streets.

“I just need someone to give me that chance. A nice construction job, anything. I would hold onto that until I die.”

Some economists say the real black unemployment rate is as high as 25 or 30 percent, because government figures don’t count “discouraged” workers who have stopped looking for jobs and dropped out of the labor force.

Davis now falls into that category — partly due to societal forces and partly, he knows, because of his own bad decisions.

Recently, police said they caught Davis with a halfounce of marijuana. His trial date is approaching. As a habitual felon, he could get a 10-year sentence. ___ Some see a bitter irony in soaring black unemployment and the decline of the black middle class on the watch of the first black president.

“I thought Barack Obama could have provided some way out. But he lacks backbone,” Princeton professor Cornel West told truthdig.com recently.

He said Obama had sold out the poor and become “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats ... I don’t think in good conscience I could tell anybody to vote for Obama.”

Yet many jobless blacks do not blame their plight on the president.

“I have no problem with Obama when I look at what the alternatives are,” Wilder says.

Goldring doesn’t think Obama is doing a bad job either. “The unemployment situation is not the best, but I don’t think it has a lot to do with him,” she says.

“Fixing this economy, it’s going to take time.

Wiley, the Center for Social Inclusion director, says Obama should be applauded for several initiatives that have helped the black middle class, such as programs to modify certain mortgages and prevent foreclosure due to

The San Diego Monitor job loss.

She would have liked Obama to aggressively counter the suggestion that first black president would be showing favoritism if he specifically helped black people.

“It’s the right thing to do for the nation,” she says.

“Black people are a huge segment of the population, they’re especially hard-hit, and the country cannot recover if the black community — as well as the white community and others — does not recover.” ___ Black homeownership hit an all-time high in 2004, with 50 percent of African-Americans owning their homes, according to census data.

Today, the black homeownership rate is 45 percent, compared with 74 percent for whites. Nearly 8 percent of African-Americans who bought homes from 20052008 have lost them to foreclosure, compared with 4.5 percent of whites, according to an estimate by the Center for Responsible Lending.

Goldring remembers that when she got the foreclosure notice from the bank, “I bawled.”

Her son, Chris Fredericks, says she was “vulnerable, more than I have ever seen her, but she still kept moving.”

He was incredulous that his mother was in such a position. “At any point, you can slip back. It’s just the way the economy is going,” he says. “Once you get into a spiral, there’s no telling how far down you could go.”

One day, at a counseling session on how to prevent foreclosure, Goldring learned about a new Maryland program that offered help to people who were behind on their mortgages due to layoffs or medical bills.

She thought it was too good to be true. It wasn’t.

The Emergency Mortgage Assistance program, financed by federal money, offered a zero-interest loan of up to $50,000. The money would pay off up to a year of back mortgage payments, plus up to two years of regular payments. All Goldring had to do was pay 31 percent of her current gross income, or the full mortgage payment if she got a new job close to her original salary.

And so on a sweltering June day, Goldring stood before a podium in her freshly mulched back yard, flanked by a congressman, the mayor, the lieutenant governor, and other officials. The sound of chirping birds filled the air. Cameras rolled as the dignitaries told Goldring’s story, using her as an example to spread word of the Emergency Mortgage Program to other struggling homeowners.

“I want to thank you for your courage,” said the lieutenant governor, Anthony Brown.

“I know you did everything right,” Brown said.

“You worked hard, you saved diligently, but challenges never overtaking our will sometimes overtake our wallets.”

Goldring stood in front of the microphone and exhaled.

“After this,” she said, “the only good thing would be to be employed, once again.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press

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The Holidays….

Well it is that time of the year, for some it is a happy time full of expectation, vigor with friends and family, for others a dark and depressive time that they can’t wait until it’s over. I normally don’t write about the holidays because of the sensitivity for most part however; this year is very special to me. For the first time I too will not be celebrating with some of my family members as I have lost my father and brother in a span of two years.

Some say, I should be at an all time low but I beg to differ. I knew the day that I was born I had an expiration date on my life. Do I know what day, of course not!

Does that change that the two people that I love are gone, nope. But it does change the way that I will do things this year as the Holidays progress instead of running away like I normally do this time I will engulf myself with people.

Most churches have some type of Christmas production and or feeding programs for the Holidays. I remember when I was away at college; the dorms always fed the students and gave away gifts that were necessary for the student life. So this year I am taking into account that I still Have ME! Yes, I may have lost some people along the way, I might not be where I thought I would be by now, I might not receive any gifts from anybody else but I still Got Me and that is something to be thankful for. I have a second chance to go out there and meet some new people, make some new relationships and create some long lasting friendships.

If you don’t have much money the 99 cent stores offer some great deals that can get you all ready for the Holidays. I remember as a college student we didn’t have much money so we took wrapping paper and outlined a tree for a make-shift Christmas tree. We purchased stockings, lights, and balls that we hung in the ceilings. All of the gifts were purchased at the 99 cent store and they weren’t bad gifts either (lotions, make up, bubble bath, glasses, and jewelry). If broke students can make it happen for the Holidays than so can you. Remember Christmas is not about the gifts that you give and receive but the Giver of all gifts. I started this year by purchasing gifts for MYSELF, yes indeed. I am even going to wrap them, why not, I deserve it and so do you. Cheer up this Holiday Season and remember You are Alive!

You are capable of enjoying yourself this Holiday season remember you are not alone.

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SPEECH

Continued from page 3 government, to help create the conditions where both workers and businesses can succeed. Historically, that hasn’t been a partisan idea. Franklin Roosevelt worked with Democrats and Republicans to give veterans of World War II, including my grandfather, the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, a proud son of Kansas, who started the interstate highway system and doubled-down on science and research to stay ahead of the Soviets.

Of course, those productive investments cost money.

And so we’ve also paid for these investments by asking everyone to do their fair share. If we had unlimited resources, no one would ever have to pay any taxes and we’d never have to cut any spending. But we don’t have unlimited resources. And so we have to set priorities. If we want a strong middle class, then our tax code must reflect our values. We have to make choices.

Today that choice is very clear. To reduce our deficit, I’ve already signed nearly $1 trillion of spending cuts into law, and proposed trillions more – including reforms that would lower the cost of Medicare and Medicaid.

But in order to actually close the deficit and get our fiscal house in order, we have to decide what our priorities are. Most immediately, we need to extend a payroll tax cut that’s set to expire at the end of this month. If we don’t do that, 160 million Americans will see their taxes go up by an average of $1,000, and it would badly weaken our recovery.

But in the long term, we have to rethink our tax system more fundamentally. We have to ask ourselves: Do we want to make the investments we need in things like education, and research, and high-tech manufacturing? Or do we want to keep in place the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans in our country? Because we can’t afford to do both. That’s not politics. That’s just math.

So far, most of the Republicans in Washington have refused, under any circumstances, to ask the wealthiest Americans to go the same tax rates they were paying when Bill Clinton was president.

Now, keep in mind, when President Clinton first proposed these tax increases, folks in Congress predicted they would kill jobs and lead to another recession. Instead, our economy created nearly 23 million jobs and we eliminated the deficit. Today, the wealthiest Americans are paying the lowest taxes in over half a century. This isn’t like in the early 50s, when the top tax rate was over 90%, or even the early 80s, when it was about 70%. Under President Clinton, the top rate was only about 39%. Today, thanks to loopholes and shelters, a quarter of all millionaires now pay lower tax rates than millions of middle-class households. Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1%. One percent.

This is the height of unfairness. It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay a higher tax rate than somebody pulling in $50 million. It is wrong for Warren Buffett’s secretary to pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. And he agrees with me. So do most Americans – Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.

And I know that many of our wealthiest citizens would agree to contribute a little more if it meant reducing the deficit and strengthening the economy that made their success possible.

This isn’t about class warfare. This is about the nation’s welfare. It’s about making choices that benefit not just the people who’ve done fantastically well over the last few decades, but that benefits the middle class, and those fighting to get to the middle class, and the economy as a whole.

Finally, a strong middle class can only exist in an economy where everyone plays by the same rules, from Wall Street to Main Street. As infuriating as it was for all of us, we rescued our major banks from collapse, not only because a full blown financial meltdown would have sent us into a second Depression, but because we need a strong, healthy financial sector in this country.

But part of the deal was that we would not go back to business as usual. That’s why last year we put in place new rules of the road that refocus the financial sector on this core purpose: getting capital to the entrepreneurs with the best ideas, and financing to millions of families who want to buy a home or send their kids to college.

We’re not all the way there yet, and the banks are fighting us every inch of the way. But already, some of these reforms are being implemented. If you’re a big bank or risky financial institution, you’ll have to write out a “living will” that details exactly how you’ll pay the bills if you fail, so that taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street’s mistakes. There are also limits on the size of banks and new abilities for regulators to dismantle a firm that goes under. The new law bans banks from making risky bets with their customers’ deposits, and takes away big bonuses and paydays from failed CEOs, while giving shareholders a say on executive salaries.

All that is being put in place as we speak. Now, unless you’re a financial institution whose business model is built on breaking the law, cheating consumers, or making risky bets that could damage the entire economy, you have nothing to fear from these new rules. My grandmother worked as a banker for most of her life, and I know that the vast majority of bankers and financial service professionals want to do right by their customers. They want to have rules in place that don’t put them at a disadvantage for doing the right thing. And yet, Republicans in Congress are already fighting as hard as they can to make sure these rules aren’t enforced.

I’ll give you one example. For the first time in history, the reform we passed puts in place a consumer watchdog who is charged with protecting everyday Americans from being taken advantage of by mortgage lenders, payday lenders or debt collectors. The man we nominated for the post, Richard Cordray, is a former Attorney General of Ohio who has the support of most Attorneys General, both Democrat and Republican, throughout the country.

But the Republicans in the Senate refuse to let him do his job. Why? Does anyone here think the problem that led to our financial crisis was too much oversight of mortgage lenders or debt collectors? Of course not. Every day we go without a consumer watchdog in place is another day when a student, or a senior citizen, or member of our Armed Forces could be tricked into a loan they can’t afford – something that happens all the time. Financial

SAN DIEGO MONITOR institutions have plenty of lobbyists looking out for their interests. Consumers deserve to have someone whose job it is to look out for them. I intend to make sure they do, and I will veto any effort to delay, defund, or dismantle the new rules we put in place.

We shouldn’t be weakening oversight and accountability. We should be strengthening them. Here’s another example. Too often, we’ve seen Wall Street firms violating major anti-fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there’s no price for being a repeat offender. No more.

I’ll be calling for legislation that makes these penalties count – so that firms don’t see punishment for breaking the law as just the price of doing business.

The fact is, this crisis has left a deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street. And major banks that were rescued by the taxpayers have an obligation to go the extra mile in helping to close that deficit. At minimum, they should be remedying past mortgage abuses that led to the financial crisis, and working to keep responsible homeowners in their home. We’re going to keep pushing them to provide more time for unemployed homeowners to look for work without having to worry about immediately losing their house. The big banks should increase access to refinancing opportunities to borrowers who have yet to benefit from historically low interest rates. And they should recognize that precisely because these steps are in the interest of middle-class families and the broader economy, they will also be in the banks’ own long-term financial interest.

Investing in things like education that give everybody a chance to succeed. A tax code that makes sure everybody pays their fair share. And laws that make sure everybody follows the rules. That’s what will transform our economy. That’s what will grow our middle class again. In the end, rebuilding this economy based on fair play, a fair shot, and a fair share will require all of us to see the stake we have in each other’s success. And it will require all of us to take some responsibility to that success.

It will require parents to get more involved in their children’s education, students to study harder, and some workers to start studying all over again. It will require greater responsibility from homeowners to not take out mortgages they can’t afford, and remember that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

It will require those of us in public service to make government more efficient, effective, and responsive to people’s needs. That’s why we’re cutting programs we don’t need, to pay for those we do. That’s why we’ve made hundreds of regulatory reforms that will save businesses billions of dollars. That’s why we’re not just throwing money at education, but challenging schools to come up with the most innovative reforms and the best results.

And it will require American business leaders to understand that their obligations don’t just end with their shareholders. Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel put it best: “There’s another obligation I feel personally,” he said, “given that everything I’ve achieved in my career and a lot of what Intel has achieved…were made possible by a climate of democracy, an economic climate and investment climate provided by…the United States.”

This broader obligation can take different forms. At a time when the cost of hiring workers in China is rising rapidly, it should mean more CEOs deciding that it’s time to bring jobs back to the United States – not just because it’s good for business, but because it’s good for the country that made their business and their personal success possible.

I think about the Big Three Auto companies who, during recent negotiations, agreed to create more jobs and cars in America; who decided to give bonuses, not just to their executives, but to all their employees – so that everyone was invested in the company’s success.

I think about a company based in Warroad, Minnesota called Marvin Windows and Doors. During the recession, Marvin’s competitors closed dozens of plants and let go hundreds of workers. But Marvin didn’t lay off a single one of their four thousand or so employees. In fact, they’ve only laid off workers once in over a hundred years. Mr. Marvin’s grandfather even kept his eight employees during the Depression.

When times get tough, the workers agree to give up some perks and pay, and so do the owners. As one owner said, “You can’t grow if you’re cutting your lifeblood – and that’s the skills and experience your workforce delivers.”

For the CEO, it’s about the community: “These are people we went to school with,” he said. “We go to church with them. We see them in the same restaurant. Indeed, a lot of us have married local girls and boys. We could be anywhere. But we are in Warroad.”

That’s how America was built. That’s why we’re the greatest nation on Earth. That’s what our greatest companies understand. Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest. It’s been about building a nation where we’re all better off. We pull together, we pitch in, and we do our part, believing that hard work will pay off; that responsibility will be rewarded; and that our children will inherit a nation where those values live on.

And it is that belief that rallied thousands of Americans to Osawatomie – maybe even some of your ancestors – on a rain-soaked day more than a century ago. By train, by wagon, on buggy, bicycle, and foot, they came to hear the vision of a man who loved this country, and was determined to perfect it.

“We are all Americans,” Teddy Roosevelt told them that day. “Our common interests are as broad as the continent.” In the final years of his life, Roosevelt took that same message all across this country, from tiny Osawatomie to the heart of New York City, believing that no matter where he went, or who he was talking to, all would benefit from a country in which everyone gets a fair chance.

Well into our third century as a nation, we have grown and changed in many ways since Roosevelt’s time. The world is faster. The playing field is larger. The challenges are more complex.

But what hasn’t changed – what can never change – are the values that got us this far. We still have a stake in each other’s success. We still believe that this should be a place where you can make it if you try. And we still believe, in the words of the man who called for a New Nationalism all those years ago, “The fundamental rule in our national life – the rule which underlies all others – is that, on the whole, and in the long run, we shall go up or down together.”

I believe America is on its way up. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

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Jonathan Harris, Columnist December 10, 2011 - There were a couple of false alarms (fans screaming to the top of their lungs thinking they had arrived only to be told they were still on their way) but then it happened. The all 14-year-old quartet took their place at the record signing table and the pandemonium that previously came in spurts was unleashed at full blast. Fans screaming their names. Who? Mindless Behavior. Which member? Well take your pick, there’s Princeton, Prodigy, Ray Ray and Roc Royal. The hour and a half wait (the boys had been delayed on their way down from Los Angeles) seemed to have had no effect on the crowd once the group arrived.

Amidst the screaming and requests for hugs, autographs and pictures the boys remained very calm and collected. Clearly having a great time they signed copies of their new, and first, album #1 Girl (released in September). While the majority of their fans were tween girls, CDs and poster were signed for boys and girls as young as six years old. This went on for nearly two hours.

As the signing concluded and the boys prepared to leave the record store, I found myself lost in a crowd of girls, chasing them to their back door exit. After which, the surprisingly still energetic boys and I sat down for the interview.

JH: What does it feel like to have the fans come out and support you like this?

Princeton: It feels really cool. We work really hard every day so it just feels good to see the fans and to hang out with them. There’s no pressure like performing, it’s just us having fun, seeing the fans.

Roc Royal: It actually feels like we’re working hard. To see all the fans come out. It feels like we’re having a big mindless party.

JH: How was Mindless Behavior formed?

Princeton: Our manager Keisha Gamble created the group. It was actually an audition process and from there we just worked every day since

we were 11 years old.

JH: Since you were 11? How old are all of you right now?

Princeton: We’re all 14.

JH: What are your singing & dancing influences?

Roc Royal: For all of us it’s Michael Jackson Prodigy, Roc Royal, Ray Ray: Definitely.

Prodigy: Also Chris Brown and Usher.

Ray Ray: I would add Drake and Kanye West.

Princeton: I also like a lot of rock bands I’m getting into Marilyn Manson, Lenny Kravitz and Kurt Kobain.

JH: Girls seem to be a prominent theme in your music, what kind of girls are you all looking for?

Ray Ray: Just a very confident girl, a girl that’s a leader. My dream girl is Nicki Minaj.

Prodigy: A girl that is confident and just being herself and not caring what anyone else thinks about it.

Roc Royal: My girl has to be confident. She has to have good credit. And she’s got to believe in herself.

Princeton: I just like a girl that loves to have fun. Just loves to really, really have fun.

JH: Where do you all see Mindless Behavior and yourselves in 5 years?

Princeton: As a group we see ourselves acting, still together, branching out into other stuff like art and fashion. Me and Ray Ray are actually doing artwork for our Valentine’s Day single.

JH: So still together just doing other things?

Prodigy: Yes and on tour, doing arenas!

JH: Mindless Behavior has actually been on tour with some pretty big name artists like Janet Jackson and Justin Bieber, what was that like?

What was it like touring with Janet Jackson?

Princeton: That was just fun. Really, really cool. It was mostly east coast. It’s very cold right now on the east coast.

Prodigy: Yesterday was cold in LA. We actually brought snow to LA yesterday on the set of our new video (Christmas With My Girl). We actually had real snow and snow fights and everything.

Roc Royal: Oh yeah! We had a snow fight right – okay here’s the story…

Kenneth (their manager): You guys got lit up!

Roc Royal: They say action right? Big, big ice cube just hit my face. I look over and Kenneth’s over there just jumping up and down laughing.

JH: Do you guys have a favorite song that’s on the new CD? Princeton: I like Girls Talkin’ ‘Bout, I like the dance vibe, I just love it all.

Roc Royal: I like Gone and Hook It Up Ray Ray: I like Future and I like Gone Prodigy: I like Girls Talkin’ ‘Bout, Gone and I Love You JH: They actually told me you have school tomorrow. How do you balance school with this kind of career?

Roc Royal: Good thing we’re home schooled!

We still do work we just don’t go to regular school so we can take our work with us on tour.

JH: What are your favorite subjects in school?

Ray Ray: I love math and science.

Prodigy: Science Roc Royal: History Princeton: I usually say I like English but I’m really creative I like the electives; I like the drama classes and all that. Just the classes that really allow me to express myself, I like those types of classes.

JH: Roc Royal, you enjoy animals, what is your favorite animal?

Roc Royal: I can’t choose. I like all of them. I like every single animal.

JH: If you could choose any animal in the world, what would it be?

Roc Royal: It depends. To be honest my favorite animal is a pit-bull. I have four.

JH: What would your advice be for young people pursuing their dreams?

Roc Royal: Just have a great work ethic Ray Ray: Just be confident, be yourself and don’t let anyone break you down.

Prodigy: And you gotta’ stay mindless with it!

JH: Where did that name (Mindless Behavior) come from?

Princeton: Our manager Keisha Gamble created it about a year before we were in the group.

At first we didn’t know what it meant just like other people but it just means being yourself and being free.

Overall I found all of the members of Mindless Behavior to be great kids. Well-mannered, mature, energetic and very focused but still fun and relaxed during the interview. They were also fantastic to their fans, appearing genuinely excited at the opportunity to meet each one of them. As for their new album, each of the 13 tracks is catchy and easy to listen to (free of profanity and overt sexual references that are on many Hot 100 albums). If their current momentum is any indication, then they are headed for nothing but continued success.

Mindless Behavior can next be seen at a record signing at the Mall of America on December 11, 2011.

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TOPAZ Continued from page 16 apples are, and how wonderfully delicious baked potatoes are – without sour cream and butter! Many of us have been eating rich, salty, and sweetened foods for so long that we are unaware of how good foods taste in their natural, unprocessed states.

Some people choose to fast in the absence of overt symptoms of disease, knowing that a period of complete physiological rest can allow the body to rejuvenate itself from the toxins that build up in our tissues despite our efforts to live healthfully.

Q. HOW LONG SHOULD I FAST FOR? A. If you choose to fast to recover from acute illness, you can fast until you feel well enough to eat again. In the case of a chronic health challenge, the length of the fast is determined by the progress of the fast. The healing processes that take place during a fast are predictable. Blood levels of cholesterol and uric acid tend to elevate during a fast, a result of the body stirring up stores of undesirable materials and expelling them into the circulation to be eliminated from the body. Shortly after the fast, these levels tend to be lower than they were before the fast, indicating a cleaner system.

ESR, a marker for inflammation, tends to decrease during the course of a fast. As a part of the detoxification process, some people experience vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, skin rashes, and other uncomfortable symptoms.

Fasting under the supervision of a health care professional who is trained to distinguish healing responses from harmful processes can be helpful in allowing a person to “ride out” uncomfortable symptoms of detoxification.

It is not uncommon for people to experience significant improvement in their health from fasting between 3 and 30 days. The idea is to fast as briefly as possible, but as long as is necessary to allow the body to restore health.

Q. Can anyone fast?

A. There are a handful of exceptional circumstances in which it is not advisable to fast.

SAN DIEGO MONITOR A small portion of the population has an inborn error of metabolism whereby they lack an enzyme that is needed to process fatty acids.

Since fatty acids are needed as an alternate source of energy during a fast, it would not be safe for such a person to pursue a fast of significant duration. This disorder can be recognized early in the fasting process by a trained observer.

Intake of certain medications, certain liver and kidney disorders, states of extreme weakness or malnutrition, pregnancy, and certain types and stages of cancer are other examples of conditions that are not conducive to fasting.

Q. Can fasting cure specific conditions?

A: It is important to keep in mind that fasting is not a cure for specific health challenges.

Rather, it is an opportunity to give the body a prolonged period of rest to do what it does best – heal and restore itself. The same healing mechanisms that are at work during a fast are also at work while a person is eating. The difference is that during a fast, all of the body’s resources are channeled towards its self-healing and restorative mechanisms.

Conditions that tend to respond favorably to fasting and dietary modification include high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, chronic headaches, inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), irritable bowel syndrome, adult onset diabetes, heart disease, degenerative arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, eczema, acne, uterine fibroids, benign tumors, and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Q. How much weight will I lose if I fast?

A. On average, a typical faster loses approximately one pound per day during a water-only fast. Initially, the loss may approach two or even three pounds per day for the first few days if the person is retaining significant sodium and water. This can decrease to approximately half a pound per day in the later stages of a fast.

From day two onward, the body begins utilizing fatty tissues for energy, thereby conserving as much muscle tissue as possible, a mechanism called protein sparing.

Q. What is the difference between water fasting and juice fasting?

A. During a water fast, only water is Continued on page 22

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A proposal package with further details may be obtained by visiting www.neighborhoodhouse.org and clicking on the “Request for Proposal” link at the bottom of the Home page or contacting the NHA Procurement Department at (858) 715-2642 x 183.

Page 21

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Page 22 - November 19, 2011

TOPAZ Continued from page 21 consumed. During a juice fast, any variety of fruit and vegetable juices are consumed.

People detoxify and heal more quickly with a water fast than with a juice fast. This is because during a water fast your digestive passageway and organs are able to rest completely, allowing for all of your energy to be used for cleansing and repair of damaged tissues.

With a juice fast or a cleansing diet of fruits and vegetables, your body must use energy to digest nutrients, leaving less available energy for detoxification and healing. When a person’s health condition is related to a weak or damaged digestive system, recovery may depend on fully resting the digestive passageway and organs through water fasting.

Another significant difference is that more fat tissue is burned during a water fast, as

your body must rely exclusively on fat reserves to supply its energy needs after the first 1-3 days of water fasting. Your body stores the bulk of incoming toxins in your fat reserves. As these reserves are burned for energy during a fast, any stored toxins will be released into your circulation, to be eliminated through various eliminative channels like your urine and respiratory tract. This mechanism of detoxification also occurs with juice fasting, but at a slower pace.

All of this considered, both types of fasting can be used with effectiveness, depending on your circumstances and goals. If your situation and goals include wanting or needing to make significant gains in your health in a short period of time, water fasting may be the best route. If a person has a long history of taking extremely toxic drugs like certain chemotherapeutic agents, an intense period of detoxification through water fasting can cause damage to the kidneys. In this type of circumstance,

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juice fasting or a simple diet of organic vegetables and fruits may be the best first step to recovery.

Finally, a water fast is most effective when you are able to get a lot of physical and emotional rest. If your life circumstances do not allow this, juice fasting is a better choice.

Q. Won’t my metabolism slow down during and after the fast, causing me to gain back more weight over the long haul?

A. Metabolic rate fluctuates according to our moment-to-moment physiological needs.

When we are active, our metabolic rate speeds up. When we sleep, our metabolic rate slows down. In the same way, when we fast, our metabolic rate slows down because our physiological needs are lower than they are when we are consuming food and going about our regular activities. When a fast is broken and a person returns to eating and more activity, her metabolic rate increases to match her increasing physiological needs.

What does change during a fast is our digestive and assimilative capacity. Fasting provides an opportunity for our digestive organs to heal and make more efficient use of the nutrients in the foods that we consume. Weight gain or loss is always a simple function of how many calories we take in versus how many we expend. If your primary goal is to be at a healthful weight for your unique disposition, the optimal approach is usually to combine an unprocessed, whole food diet with a regular aerobic exercise and strength-training program.

Here is to your EXCELLENT health! And, keeping the pounds down during the season! ;-) *********************** For additional information on healthy, holistic, nutritional supplements that will assist you with your healthy lifestyle visit Topaz’s website at: www.sherrytheus.isagenix.com or e-mail her with your thoughts and/or inquiries at topazstjames@gmail.com.

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