Light the White House Red, Black and Green on August 13

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:

Light the White House Red, Black and Green on August 13 to honor Black people "held to serve or labor" who built it.

I recently read how the contributions of Black people "held to serve or labor" involved in building the White House have yet to be acknowledged in a real meaningful way. Although President Obama mentioned this in his remarks during the 50th anniversary of the March from Selma to Montgomery and First Lady Obama mentioned it as well, we think something more significant is needed.

August 13, 2015, marks 95 years since the designation of the colors Red, Black and Green as symbolizing Black people. This was done as part of the Declaration of Rights of the Negro People of the World on August 13, 1920.

For years, the Empire State Building has been lit Red, Black and Green to honor Dr. King, on his birthday. Light the White House Red, Black and Green on August 13, 2015, to honor the unpaid labor.

Support Education @Donors Choose

My wife works at Madie Ives Elementary, a Title 1 school. She has signed up for Donors Choose, a site that helps teachers fund materials/projects for their classroom by allowing donors to choose what they'd like to fund, and then the materials get shipped DIRECTLY to the school.

This year, she is teaching the EFL program, which is second language instruction, and the technology in her classroom sums up to this: she has three working computers, an overhead projector and a 24" inch tube TV that works some days, doesn't the rest of the week, for all of her 18 kids.

The school was built in 1954 and has never had any sort of technology overhaul. The dream is that we'll be able to get around to funding a Mimeo Board for her classroom one day, and level the playing field for her kids with the other schools in the area that DO have Smart Boards in ALL their classrooms. But for now, we are just really hoping that we can make this project a success and get her projector fully funded!

I know that times are rough for everyone, and I also hope that you know that I wouldn't be asking this if I didn't believe in it, but even if you can't donate, do you think you could post this to your Facebook/Social Media feeds, to see if anyone out there would like to?

$1, $5, $10... every little bit counts, and up to December 14, 2013, Disney will be matching donor contributions, dollar per dollar (up to the first $100) by donors using the code DISNEY at checkout.

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/help-us-explore-our-world/1141161/?rf=link_dccontent_2013_12_teacherid_2126111&challengeid=343858

Give to her classroom by December 14 and your donation will be doubled thanks to Disney. Just enter the code DISNEY on the payment page and you'll be matched dollar for dollar!

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Support Send-A-Child to High School in Jamaica

Support Send-A-Child to High School in Jamaica ​ This campaign is raising funds on behalf of Caribbean Education Foundation, a verified nonprofit. The campaign does not necessarily reflect the views of the nonprofit or have any formal association with it. All contributions are considered unrestricted gifts and can't be specified for any particular purpose.
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - - Nelson Mandela.
Become a part of our efforts to invest in a poor child's education and help Change the World!  If our video moves you; if you agree that education is a  solid investment; that this project benefits all of us (because educated, happy, confident children really CAN change our world for the better), then please CONTRIBUTE what you can; and SHARE this Campaign with your networks!
OUR GOAL:
Our overall goal is to raise $50,000 to send 25 poor children to high school in Jamaica for 2013-2014 school year.  This Indiegogo Campaign is part of the overall fundraising effort.  Every dollar counts!  A $5 gift provides lunch for one child for one day.  A $20,000 gift funds 13 students!
WHO WE ARE:
CARIBBEAN EDUCATION FOUNDATION, INC. (CEF) is a registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization based in the United States.  We are dedicated to helping poor children receive meaningful access to quality education.  Our current mission country is Jamaica. 
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Public High Schools are NOT FREE in Jamaica!  High school starts in Grade 7. It costs at least $1,500 U.S. to send 1 child to public high school each year.  Children must pay school fees, textbooks, transportation and lunch, including the usual uniforms and school supplies!  The minimum wage is $50 U.S. per week for a 40 hour work week or $200 U.S. dollars per month. 
As you can imagine, it is practically impossible for working poor families to regularly send their children to high school.  The dismal situation is depriving an entire generation of brilliant children of meaningful access to education.
HIGH SCHOOL - A CRITICAL PROBLEM (Jamaica Education Report by the Ministry of Education)
Over 30% of urban youth and 50% of rural youth have little to no High School attendance.   Low attendance rates are due to a lack of bus fare to attend school. 50% of students are below their grade level.  By Grade 9, hundreds of thousands of students, especially boys, cannot read or write. Chronic poor attendance at all levels is the major cause of the high illiteracy rate, as well as a lack of text books to learn lessons taught. 80% of secondary graduates did not have the requisite qualification for meaningful employment or university programmes.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE?
Since its inception in April 2007, CEF has awarded over 40 student scholarships in excess of $50,000 U.S. dollars to brilliant, poor children to attend school.  Our Paul Bogle Scholarships students' pay school fees, textbooks, school supplies, transportation and lunch.  Scholarships are based on academic merit and financial need.  Scholarships are renewed each year, if the student attends school regularly and maintains good grades.
Our goal is to help 25 children go back to school in September 2013!  CEF currenlty has 18 children who need scholarship renewals, so they may return to high school in September 2013 and enter Grades 8, 9, and 10.  We have 7 new students who need to enter Grade 7. 
Take a moment to check it out on Indiegogo and also share it with your friends. All the tools are there. Get perks, make a contribution, or simply follow updates. If enough of us get behind it, we can make 'Send-A-Child to High School in Jamaica' happen!
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/send-a-child-to-high-school-in-jamaica

Support Padmore Primary Lunch Program

Padmore Primary NEEDS your donation! No gift too small or large. Padmore Primary School located in rural St. Andrew in Jamaica, has been featured in the Jamaican Observer and Gleaner newspapers recently with stories of the tenacity of teacher Joy Smith who was recently gifted with a motorized wheelchair from Jamaican business Supreme Ventures. 
The school has gone from slated for closure to students achieving a 93% average in the 2013 GSAT examinations. Led by Principal Keisha Hayle, Padmore is a great example of how much can be achieved with a little. Your gift will go towards the essentials.
http://www.gofundme.com/3gy8cs


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The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Senator Bill Nelson, Representative Frederica Wilson, and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897
Thank you for your support..

Save Miami Dade College: Support the Local Option

In the midst of the current legislative crisis, Miami Dade College has not been sitting idly by. The college has revived the local option referendum, which will secure funding for the 176,000+ students that attend our college each year.

There are two bills in the Florida House of Representatives (HB 1295) and Florida Senate (SB 1718), which would give our community the option to support local funding.

Please contact your representative and senator and ask him or her to support HB1295 or SB 1718.

Here the plan of action:

Here's the plan of action:

First find your senator or representative, http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/representatives/myrepresentative.aspx, and ask him or her to support HB 7057.

You can also make your voice be heard on Facebook and Twitter:

Florida House of Representatives on FB: https://www.facebook.com/MyFLHouse:

Florida House of Representatives on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyFLHouse: @MyFLHouse

Use the Hashtag #savemdc

Florida Senate on FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Florida-Senate/105573599475603

Florida Senate on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FloridaSenate

@FloridaSenate

Miami-Dade County Legislative Delegation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Delegation

Miami-Dade County Legislative Delegation on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dadedelegation

@DadeDelegation

Use the Hashtag #savemdc

Thank you for your support.

Marcus Garvey on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM)

The principal aim of Marcus Garvey's foundation, The Universal Negro Improvement Association, was Black upliftment through education. In his travels through North, Central, and South America, Garvey witnessed the effects on his people, who had accepted the racist meme that Black people were "lazy, ignorant, and shiftless." In his lectures, he had to remind his audiences about the great civilizations of Africa that had excelled in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM).

Seventy-three years after Garvey's death, the effects of those crippling, racist ideas have not been eradicated. Many of our young people still believe that they are genetically incapable of excelling in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM).

But Garvey knew better. Here are a few selected quotes from his writings:

"Africa was peopled with a race of cultured black men, who were masters in art, science and literature; men who were cultured and refined; men who, it was said, were like the gods. Even the great poets of old sang in beautiful sonnets of the delight it afforded the gods to be in companionship with the Ethiopians."

"This race of ours gave civilization, gave art, gave science; gave literature to the world. But it has been the way with races and nations. The one race stands out prominently in the one century or in the one age; and in another century or age it passes off the stage of action, and another race takes its place. The Negro once occupied a high position in the world, scientifically, artistically and commercially, but in the balancing of the great scale of evolution, we lost our place and someone, other than ourselves occupies the stand we once held."

"The power and sway we once held passed away, but now in the twentieth century we are about to see a return of it in the rebuilding of Africa; yes, a new civilization, a new culture, shall spring up from among our people, and the Nile shall once more flow through the land of science, of art, and of literature, wherein will live black men of the highest learning and the highest accomplishments."

"3,000 years ago black men excelled in government and were the founders and teachers of art, science and literature. The power and sway we once held passed away, but now in the twentieth century we are about to see a return of it in the rebuilding of Africa; yes, a new civilization, a new culture, shall spring up from among our people, and the Nile shall once more flow through the land of science, of art, and of literature, wherein will live black men of the highest learning and the highest accomplishments."

"No Negro, let him be American, European, West Indian or African, shall be truly respected until the race as a whole has emancipated itself, through self-achievement and progress, from universal prejudice. The Negro will have to build his own government, industry, art, science, literature and culture, before the world will stop to consider him. Until then, we are but wards of a superior race and civilization, and the outcasts of a standard social system."

The race needs workers at this time, not plagiarists, copyists and mere imitators; but men and women who are able to create, to originate and improve, and thus make an independent racial contribution to the world and civilization."

"During the last century, a mighty revolution of mind has been made in the civilized world. Its effects are gradually disclosing themselves, and gradually improving the condition of the human race. The eyes of all nations are turned on these United States, for here that great movement was commenced. Africa, like a bereaved mother, holds out her hands to America, and implores you to send back her exiled children. Does not Africa merit much at the hands of other nations? Almost 4,000 years ago, she, from the then rich store house of her genius and labor, sent out to them science, and arts and letters, laws and civilization."

"The hope of the Black race lies in our new blood -- the New Negro -- who is already rising to the heights of nationhood. He is the man of the future. By science, art, history, politics, industry and religion, he will rise above his environments and in another hundred years shall have laid the pillars of the greatest civilization the world ever saw."

"Every student of Political Science, every student of Economics knows, that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation. That the race can only be saved through political independence. Take away industry from a race; take away political freedom from a race, and you have a group of slaves."

"It is the commercial and financial power of the United States of America that makes her the greatest banker in the world. Hence it is advisable for the Negro to get power of every kind. POWER in education, science, industry, politics and higher government."

Garvey, Amy J., ed. The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. Dover: The Majority Press, 1986. Print.

"When I undertook the responsibility of projecting big commercial corporations the same Negroes used the force of government to smash me. They could not understand that the future, which is part of today, calls for the preparation of the race to meet scientific competition whether on the battlefield, in the laboratory or other walks of life"

Clarke, John H., ed. Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1974. Print.

Let's remind our children each day about the work of Marcus Garvey, a visionary leader and educator, who appreciated the value of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) and urged his people to excel in these disciplines.

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The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of  Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

Enemy of the State: "Armed and Dangerous"

What I Learned From...Children

When I first learned that I was going to be a father, to say that I was overwhelmed would be an understatement.

I was still in graduate school at the University of Miami and trying to learn the skills that I would need to become a writer and teacher. So when my wife presented me with a pair of baby booties as a hint, I was determined to provide my children with the best environment in which they could grow to become healthy, creative individuals who would be able to provide for themselves and to share their talents within our community. They would be our gift to the future.

So far, I think my wife and I have done a good job. My children have grown to become three remarkable individuals whom I love dearly and I am proud to be their father. As I have taught them, they, in turn, have taught me many things at different times in their lives and mine. And as they have grown older, the lessons that they have been teaching me have now solidified into character.

From my eldest, I have learned to continue living and loving intensely. The elder has reminded me that no matter how much “wisdom” there may be in the world, the experience of life is your own and sometimes you have to “feel the rain on your skin.” And from my youngest, I have learned that life should be lived with integrity, for he is in many ways a noble young man.

Of course, I could list many more “life lessons’ that they have taught me, but my most poignant memory about what children have taught me has nothing to do with my children. And I think it has stuck with me because it strikes at my twin vocation as a writer/teacher and my protective role as a father.

A few years ago, I was hired by TigerTail Productions to be a part of the Poets-in-the-Schools program of Dade County Public Schools. Along with Adrian Castro and Jeffrey Knapp, we became known as the “Bicycle Poets.” On warm, sunny South Florida mornings when eager students would be sitting out on the lawn or playground of their elementary school, we’d ride in on our bicycles *fanfare and applause* to listen to the children read their poems. Then, we’d conduct mini-workshops and we’d teach the kids how to write poems. After a week or so, depending on the school, we’d collect the poems and publish a chapbook so that each student could have a copy of a poem s/he had written.

As we saw it, working for the program was easy because in most of the schools, especially in affluent neighborhoods, the kids were highly motivated and loved to express themselves. For many of them, learning was fun.

Jeffrey, Adrian, and I did this for many years—sometimes as a trio, sometimes singly. The incident that stands out in my mind was when I went alone into one of our so-called underserved schools in Miami. I was excited about visiting the school because I’ve always liked working in schools with predominantly black and brown children. Many of the kids in these schools need role models to show them that it is possible to have a career and that they don’t have to accept whatever circumstances they are in as the determinants of their futures.

The day before I went, I called the principal and the homeroom teacher to make sure everything was ready. I prepared my handouts and practiced all of my exercises that had worked in many other schools. I was ready. I was excited. I was pumped.

However, when I got to the school and began the exercises, none of the kids responded. Apparently they had been told by the teacher that they needed to "behave themselves" and I later learned that this teacher ran “a tight ship.”

The workshop was a disaster. And this went on for three hours for three consecutive days. The children wanted to learn, wanted to share, wanted to express themselves because that’s how children are--they want to be recognized. But they were in a stifling environment and they barely responded to anything. I also did not want to undermine their teacher’s authority because as I was told, I wouldn't be there to clean up whatever "mess" I'd created. It was one of the most disheartening experiences that I’ve ever had as a writer and teacher. And as a father, I was enraged at my inability to protect the children from a teacher who was killing the creativity of the children in her care.

Fifteen years later and I’m still angry. Yet I took away many lessons form that incident. I learned that children are naturally giving and spontaneous and if we are not willing to accept some of the “wild energy” of our children and if we continue to treat our schools as warehouses, then we should be prepared to accept the death of their imagination. We should also be prepared when they seek to get the recognition that they crave in self-destructive ways. What’s even worse is these dead zones are in schools where the children will need their creativity to grow beyond the often dire circumstances in which they find themselves. For many of them, learning is never fun.

It was a hard lesson for me. But it also toughened my resolve to foster the creativity and individuality of my children and to become the best father, writer, and teacher I could be.

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This is part of a group write project @ Middle Zone Musings: What I Learned from…Children.