tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68239112761497919222023-11-15T23:20:13.429-08:00Library ReferencesEddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-89136058901877099782011-10-19T09:04:00.000-07:002011-10-19T09:58:59.024-07:00OBSERVATIONS By Eddie Griffin<i><b>Part 1 -Young Mr. Droopy Drawers<br />
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I stopped by the neighborhood grocery store where the riff-raffs hang out. Standing in the doorway was a hood rat, notoriously known for his low sagging pants. No one in Fort Worth sagged more than Young Mr. Droopy Drawers. <br />
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But this morning he was clean, new pants and new hooded coat covering his lowers, just in time for the cooler fall temperatures. There were also older men hanging around the store, drinking coffee, and shooting the bull.<br />
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“Good morning,” I announced as I came in. <br />
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The ones just milling around seemed to recognize the goodness of the morning. They answered, "Good morning". But the kid never said a word.<br />
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OMG! I noticed. He had taken a bath. Indeed, it was a good morning, not having to smell his body odor or look at the backside of his underwear.<br />
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Since he was oblivious to my entrance, I made certain to speak again on my way out.<br />
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“Excuse me,” I said, louder than before. “I thought I said good morning to everybody when I came in.”<br />
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The old men chimed in again, “Good morning.” And, the kid smiled and returned my greeting.<br />
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“You look nice this morning,” I told him. “You’re going somewhere in life. You really look nice. You're not sagging today.”<br />
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There was a chuckle or two from the elders, but the young man thanked me. However, he retorted, “I don’t sag that much.”<br />
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I knew otherwise, but said nothing and made my exit. <br />
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REFLECTIONS: I had seen this kid grow up on the streets, since his teens. If other ‘hood rats sagged their pants, he sagged even more, down to his thighs. <br />
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To these kids, I'm nothing but the old, invisible, gray head, outside the limelight, and not worth much attention. And likewise, whenever I see them on the streets or standing outside the store, I treated them as if I were blind and deaf. <br />
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This morning, however, when seeing him for the first time, I recognized his being and respected his presence. The feeling, I could tell, was mutual.<br />
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From now on, I'll probably think of this kid as being one of my little adopted 'hood rats. Not out of disrespect to 'hood rats and riff-raffs, this is just what I call "my kids" that grow up in "my neighbor-hood".Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-54346867282975877392010-06-08T09:20:00.000-07:002010-06-08T10:34:26.153-07:00Legacy of The Fox: Gary TrapnellDear Jennifer Savage:<br /><br />My name is Eddie Griffin, author of “Breaking Men’s Minds”. I knew your father Garrett Trapnell. In fact, I knew him from prison, during the time he was writing “The Fox Is Crazy Too”. He was the man in the cell next door to me inside Marion Federal Prison.<br /><br />Trap, as we called him, gave me the opportunity to read his manuscript. I declined, because I was not into a man’s glorification of his crime life. But it only goes to show that an outlaw is worth more dead, than alive.<br /><br />While in prison, he laughed all the time. There was always a smile upon his face. Life was just a joke to him, and he kept me in stitches.<br /><br />Gary was a con artist. He pulled some of the most daring and idiotic stunts in criminal history, some of which captured national headlines. His book, “The Fox Is Crazy Too”, whould have been a story about these exciting exploits. But the one that got me the most was his airliner hijacking in New York.<br /><br />It was a time of mass exodus and air piracy, as leftist revolutionaries were fleeing the United States from the persecution by J. Edgar Hoover COINTELPRO, and seeking asylum in socialist countries like Cuba. Aircraft hijackings were very common at the time. And, those radicals who were not in exile or in prison were underground fugitives, hiding from the FBI.<br /><br />I believe we were all incensed at Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and J. Edgar Hoover for hounding UCLA professor Angela Davis, author of "Soledad Brothers" at the time. She became, to us, our Sun Goddess when they put her picture on the FBI Most Wanted poster, and plastered it in every Post Office in the country. To see, the woman with the black halo Afro, a man could only fall in love with the Mother of the Revolution. So did Gary.<br /><br />Garrett Trapnell, of all people, a white boy, hijacked an airliner, demanded $300,000 and the release of Angela Davis. He was shot in the arm, captured, and sent to prison.<br /><br />[This should not have been the last chapter of his book, because half of the story of Gary Trapnell was never told.]<br /><br />I remember asking him what he had planned to do with $300,000 and this vivacious Amazon Queen of our cause.<br /><br />"Go to a paradise isle and live happily ever after," he replied, before busting out with a big laugh.<br /><br />After he wrote the book, and got it published, he attempted a daring escape from Marion Federal Prison.<br /><br /><strong>Here is what I personally witnessed:</strong><br /><br />While sitting on the prison yard with Charles Beasley, he looked up in the air and nudged me.<br /><br />"We better get out of here," he said. "Looks like there is going to be some shooting."<br /><br />Sure enough, unfolding before my eyes, just above the horizon beyond the guard tower and the razor wire fence perimeter, came a helicopter like a dive bomber. The craft was listing erratically back and forth, headed straight for the tower.<br /><br />My first thought: I got to see this. It was the most exciting thing of the day. That was what I told Beasley.<br /><br />Then I saw Gary and another inmate strike out running toward the fence, wearing yellow windbreakers blowing in the wind. Gary had a hitch in his giddy-up.<br /><br />In the meantime, the helicopter banked left, avoiding the tower, almost flipping.<br /><br />According to latter news accounts: A woman, whom Trapnell had befriended through correspondence, hijacked a rental helicopter and took the pilot hostage, forcing him to fly to the prison in Marion, where she had planned to pluck the two inmates off the yard.<br /><br />But the plan, however, never worked out like that. Instead, the pilot struggled with the woman over the gun, while fighting to keep from losing control of the aircraft. While steering with one hand, he wrest control of the gun.<br /><br />Like a woman in total oblivious delirium, she casually announces, “Oh, that’s okay. I got another one in my purse.”<br /><br />With that said, the pilot blows her brains out the back window.<br /><br />The helicopter came short of the fence by only a few feet. The pilot got out and charged toward the tower wildly waving his arm. When the guard took notice, his first impulse was to grab his gun and take aim. The pilot made a beeline u-turn.<br /><br />By then, the alarm sounded and we were herded back into the cell blocks.<br /><br />The last we saw of Gary and his buddy, they were sprawled on the ground, surrounded by guards.<br /><br />But this was not the end of Gary Trapnell. A few months later, a 17-year old high school honor student hijacked an airliner and had it flown to Marion. She was the daughter of the deceased woman, and she demanded the release of Trapnell.<br /><br />After her capture, the court took mercy on the young lady. But Gary was confined to dungeon, and put on <em>No Human Contact </em>status, meaning that he would never see the light of day again.<br /><br />Since 1909, there have been four successive Boogey Men in the federal prison system, the first being Robert Stroud, otherwise known as the Birdman of Alcatraz, who spent over 50 years in solitary confinement, until his death on November 21, 1963.<br /><br />The second Boogey Man was Hiller “Red” Hayes, an experiential drug subject who was released from prison in the late 1950s and suffered a white-out, where he went on a kidnapping rampage in 1960. Because he kidnapped a cop and took a squad car, he was designated never to see the light of day again. He died in solitary confinement in August 1977, around the same time Gary Trapnell was taking his place.<br /><br />I remember reading where Gary died in solitary confinement of emphysema. That would mean the new Boogey Man would be Thomas Silverstein, who killed three men during his incarceration, one of whom was a prison guard at Marion.<br /><br />-End<br />Eddie Griffin<br /><a href="http://eddiegriffinbasg.blogspot.com/">http://eddiegriffinbasg.blogspot.com/</a>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-41493679954422884712010-06-02T09:36:00.000-07:002010-06-02T10:15:54.823-07:00Thief on the Left: Thief on the Right<strong><em>Part 1 – Ship on a Frozen Sea</em></strong><br /><br />By Eddie Griffin<br /><br />Wednesday, June 02, 2010<br /><br /><strong>Luke 23:38</strong> And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.<br /><br /><strong>Mark 15:27</strong> And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. <strong>28</strong> And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, “And he was numbered with the transgressors.”<br /><br /><strong>Luke 23:39</strong> And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.” <strong>40</strong> But the other answering rebuked him, saying, “Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? <strong>41</strong> And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.” <strong>42</strong> And he said unto Jesus, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” <strong>43</strong> And Jesus said unto him, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”<br /><br /><strong>THIEF ON THE LEFT</strong><br /><br />Since I was the loudest and angriest inmate among the prisoners, and since so much of my prison writings attracted outside attention, they decided to put me somewhere where I could not be seen nor heard. They put me in a refrigerated strip cell, in nothing but my civvies, and the temperature was sub-freezing.<br /><br />The prison guards had taken everything I had, all of my books, letters, and writing materials. They held me incommunicado and spread the rumor among other prisoners on the compound that I was dead. And, indeed, I was.<br /><br />Leftist revolutionary thief and bank robber confined inside a prison within a prison, the end of the line of the end of the line. Here they do not quibble about the legality of a man’s dead. Being frozen to death was just another means of getting their message across, that they did not give a damn about my body or my soul.<br /><br />For good measures, they threw a little red bible into the cell. It was the only reading material I had left of a 140-book library. They laughed at me when I demanded my law books. The warden was most happy to remind me that I was not in a position to demand anything.<br /><br />The northern gushing through the narrow slit windows brought snowflakes. It was one of the coldest winters in southern Illinois history, and I was wholly exposed.<br /><br />They had taken the mattress, but left the plastic mattress cover. With it, I wrapped my body, and the heat from my pores kept me somewhat warm. The clear plastic turned yellow over time, and slowly it turned oily black.<br /><br />They gave me running water for only 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening, along with three meals per day. But the constant cold killed my appetite. Whatever the guard slid into my tray slot, returned with him to the dumpster. I barely cast a glance his way, day in, day out. I just sat there, frozen to the icy steel bunk, staring into space and reading the little red bible. I had to keep blinking my eyes to prevent ice crystals from glazing over my pupils.<br /><br />Then I saw a mirage: A ship frozen at sea. It was like the Titanic in paradise.Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-71820747424759249412010-04-29T08:58:00.001-07:002010-04-29T08:58:47.719-07:00IMMIGRATION REFORM:AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH<br /><br />Tuesday, May 22, 2007<br /><br />I admit that I hate to look, because every time I look at the proposed Immigration Reform Bill, it goes from worse to worse the closer it comes to a compromise in the Senate.<br /><br />I received the WHITE HOUSE Fact Sheet: Fair and Secure Immigration Reform<br /><br />The concept of “fairness” is relative. What may be fair to you could be unfair to me? Let’s not turn this illusion of “fairness” into a fact. Let’s look at the Whitehouse facts, and let’s judge if it’s fair or not.<br /><br />In the life of a people, there is always a migration toward survival and human betterment. This is how I see the migration from poverty south of the border. It is a law of nature to migrate to higher ground, greener pastors, and fresher water. So, they migrate to the Land of Plenty- where there is plenty of work, plenty of food, and enough to spare.<br /><br />President George said, “I cannot tell a lie”- that was George the First, this is George the Last. Guess what he said:<br /><br />America is a welcoming nation, and the hard work and strength of our immigrants have made our Nation prosperous. Many immigrants and sons and daughters of immigrants have joined the military to help safeguard the liberty of America. Illegal immigration, however, creates an underclass of workers, afraid and vulnerable to exploitation. Current immigration law can also hinder companies from finding willing workers. The visas now available do not allow employers to fill jobs in many key sectors of our economy. Workers risk their lives in dangerous and illegal border crossings and are consigned to live their lives in the shadows. Without harming the economic security of Americans, reform of our Nation's immigration laws will create a system that is fairer, more consistent, and more compassionate. <br /><br />“America is a welcoming nation” is an unqualified statement, especially in President Bush home state of Texas, where recently the city of Farmers Branch voted overwhelmingly to deny residency to undocumented Hispanic and Latinos. No, America is not a welcoming nation if we look at Farmers Branch, Texas. Unwelcoming is an understatement. Obstinate in accommodating their neighbors is a more accurate discription. Of course, what else can you expect from Texas where the governor declared people should be allowed to carry their guns everywhere, even to church. [O Ye of little faith]<br /><br />The Whitehouse statement announced:<br /><br />Today, President Bush proposed a new temporary worker program to match willing foreign workers with willing U.S. employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs. The program would be open to new foreign workers, and to the undocumented men and women currently employed in the U.S. This new program would allow workers who currently hold jobs to come out of hiding and participate legally in America's economy while not encouraging further illegal behavior. <br /><br />President Bush also asked Congress to work with him to achieve significant immigration reform that protects the homeland by controlling the borders; serves America's economy by matching a willing worker with a willing employer; promotes compassion for unprotected workers; provides incentives for temporary workers to return to their home countries and families; protects the rights of legal immigrants while not unfairly rewarding those who came here unlawfully or hope to do so. This legislation must also meet the Nation's economic needs and live up to the promise and values of America. <br /><br />The statement goes on to say:<br /><br />President Bush does not support amnesty because individuals who violate America's laws should not be rewarded for illegal behavior and because amnesty perpetuates illegal immigration. The President proposes that the Federal Government offer temporary worker status to undocumented men and women now employed in the United States and to those in foreign countries who have been offered employment here. The workers under temporary status must pay a one-time fee to register in the program, abide by the rules, and return home after their period of work expires. There would be an opportunity for renewal. In the future, only people outside the U.S. may join the temporary worker program, and there will be an orderly system in place to address the needs of workers and companies.<br /><br />Promotes compassion for unprotected workers? What is compassion- come out of hiding, pay a hefty fine, go back home, pay a hefty application fee to return to the States (at the whims of the government), and fight and kill each other at the border over few jobs and drug trade?<br /><br />Come on, Mr. President.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Eddie Griffin (BASG)Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-26920363664670236012010-04-29T08:55:00.000-07:002010-04-29T08:56:15.473-07:00Race Card Trumps IssueBy Eddie Griffin<br /> <br />Monday, November 27, 2006<br /> <br />I saw the term “race card” mentioned repeatedly some letters to the editor purportedly as a backlash to an article written by Bob Ray Sanders , entitled “Small-minded laws for a small Texas city ”. [See, “The law in Farmers Branch ”, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 11/25/2006]. This is a phrase “race card” I first heard from the lips of a North Richland Hills mayor pro tem city official, who obviously assumed I understood its nebulous meaning. Because of its current popular usage in some cultural circles, it is not so well understood in others.<br /> <br />The concept of race, I understand, but “race card” seems to suggest usage in the context of a game, as in the game of Spades. Trumps, I assume, is the blackest card in the deck. In seeing the phrase repeated in print, something dawned on me.<br /> <br />Words and phrases created by spin-doctors can change public perception of reality. The most recent example of such contrived concoction is the phrase “food insecurity”, as subversive of fact that there is hunger in America . Therefore, poor people are no longer hungry but they have little “food security”. It does not change the reality of people starving, but rather it makes reality a farce.<br /> <br />The concept of “Race Card” is new to our hearing in the African-American community. Obviously, it did not originate out of sky blue and hit everybody over the head at the same time. When I see it repeated in daily language like a secret code phrase, it reminds me of something in George Orwell about mass indoctrination. In this case, some people have been made to believe that allegations of racism are phony ploys used by a minority groups to get their way. The spin for the ploy is called “playing the race card” as if it were trumps___ which is one of the reasons such complaints of racism today are ignored without second thought or given serious consideration by some. Change “the thing” by changing “the word” that delineates it. There is no racism, in fact or reality, if it can be dismissed away by coining it as a “race card” ploy.<br /> <br />So, they accused Bob Ray Sanders of using the “race card” in his critique of Farmers Branch ’s anti-immigration ordinances. Sanders “plays the race card every time he gets a chance”, writes Dan Roe ( Fort Worth ). “He labels those who disagree with him as bigots. It makes me wonder who the bigot is”.<br /> <br />In another letter, Alexander Wolf ( Fort Worth ) writes: “Sanders has to be the ultimate racist. Any criticism leveled at someone with darker skin prompts him to toss out the race card.”<br /> <br />Note, from an African-American perspective, it looks like the letter-writers turn the table on the columnist by dismissing his legitimate criticism as a “race card” ploy. Note also, that most allegations of racism in recent times have been met with the same counter-charge: “Race Card”.<br /> <br />Note the writer Alexander Wolf mentions that the race card is used whenever “criticism (is) leveled at someone with darker skin”. As a thin-skinned 60 year-old black man, I am very sensitive to “criticism”, especially when I am asked to apologize for my honesty. I remember how Mike Wallace turned the tables on Malcolm X and radically changed public perception about the meaning of racism. Wallace also accused Malcolm X of being the “ultimate racist”, just as Wolf turns the tables on Bob Ray. Surely, everyone remembers this classic 60 Minute television interview showdown between the black militant revolutionary and the news media icon back during in the mid-1960s.<br /> <br />When Wallace accused Malcolm of being the “ultimate racist”, in the middle of the interview, Malcolm responded with this analogy:<br /> <br />“Calling a black man a racist would be like calling a Jew an anti-Semitic. It is a contradiction to call the victim the victimizer. No! Racism is uniquely white because it is predicated upon the ideology of white supremacy. It is the building of institutions and using legal, political, economic, and police powers to protect and perpetuate this supremacy.”<br /> <br />The legislation of Jim Crow ordinances was classic racism. The enforcement of Jim Crow laws was also racist, though it was the law of the land in the South, enacted by people who vehemently opposed to being characterized as prejudice. No, they were not bigots, but honest citizens creating laws to preserve the order of nature as God ordained. So also are the misguided sentiments of honest citizens in Farmers Branch with their anti-immigration sanctions. But these new ordinances do not pass the taste, feel, and touch test to be racist, according to small town standards in Texas .<br /> <br />But it is possible to have institutional racism without one self-proclaimed bigot. The institution, not necessarily the people, can be racist and the people immune by involuntary indoctrination (not inoculation). Laws and ordinances can be racist, as we have seen with Jim Crow laws. And, policies, procedures, customs, and practices that enforce these laws are also racist.<br /> <br />As for the people and the issue of bigotry___ to every man according to the purpose and intent of his own hearts, I would only add these observations, according to the words and thoughts of the letter-writers.<br /> <br />“And frankly, I’m sick and tired having someone like Sanders make accusations of ‘bigotry’, ‘mean-spiritedness’ or ‘racism’ every time someone suggests enforcing our nation’s immigration laws”, writes John Luckie (Weatherford).<br /> <br />“My proposal”, writes John Schleeter (Euless), “is to ensure that no illegal immigrants are employed anywhere…” in an all-inclusive list of industries, he suggests, “construction records of the luxury houses that many of these executives [of the listed industries] live in should be checked to ensure that no builder used illegal immigrant labor in their construction. If it was built by illegals, these structures should be torn down to prevent profiteering from illegal action.”<br /> <br />Tearing down the constructive labor a neighbor because of his national origin seems mean-spirited to me. We, in the African-American community, welcome immigrant guest workers as good, industrious, and productive neighbors, while recognizing they are only here by our invitation, allurements, enticements, incentives, and our support. Many in our community appreciate them for their good works and neighborly kindness, which is appears to be absent in the City of Farmers Branch .<br /> <br />“I suggest a 100 percent compliance audit to check for illegal immigrants at IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Dallas Semiconductor, Geico, Cingular, TD Industries and large employers that have facilities within the city limits”, suggests Schleeter, who had also suggested tearing down the mansions of these corporate executives if the hands of illegal immigrants built it. Now he would institute Gestapo-style audit checks and mass sweeps through factories of these companies.<br /> <br />Where are we headed? The new ordinance in Farmers Branch makes it illegal to hire undocumented workers. Now every Hispanic in the city will have to carry some form of identification, documentation, and other papers to prove citizenship. It reminds me of the fabled Tremont County , as described by my friend, The River John, where Negroes had to carry a “good nigger pass” to walk freely and conduct business in the community. Even more, some approving white person must have punched the pass; otherwise, upon request, any white had to authority to detain and lash Negroes labeled as “vagabonds”.<br /> <br />Farmer Branch anti-immigration laws are similar to unconstitutional vagabond laws and are subject to abuse the rights of any brown-skin Hispanic-American who is caught without ID. Whites, on the other hand, are not required to carry ID at all times as proof of citizenship. Only the select population must fear apprehension and detention, even if a legal citizen accidentally leaves his wallet at home. He is assumed “illegal” because of skin-color and absences of approved documents.<br /> <br />The new ordinance forbids landlords from renting to undocumented workers. This will hit the Hispanic real estate community hard. It denies an abode for migrant guest workers, meaning they cannot live within the city limits. Excluding guest residency within the city limits, because of their national origin, is discriminatory and racist also, inasmuch, as it undermines the economic base of the legal Hispanic and African-American communities.<br /> <br />These are our guests, here at our behest. Whites do not hold a monopoly on extending invitations to foreign friends, foreign business people, foreign dignitaries, and foreign workers. Our guest workers are a vital part of our economy. If entry into the country were as fair for those on the south of the border as those from the north or from Europe , there would be no immigration problem.<br /> <br />All that most undocumented workers want is to work and go home when the work season is over. Seasonal wages in America can sustain a Latin American family all winter. Those who stay in America are the ones who intend to become citizens. But the Farmers Branch ordinance provides no means for legitimate immigration, because it excludes access to application for persons of Latin American national origin. There is no access to legitimate citizenship without risk of apprehension and incarceration for Hispanics.<br /> <br />“ Farmers Branch residents have every right to pass these ordinances, and if Sanders doesn’t like them, who cares?” writes Della Coffman (Weatherford). “Sanders should be ashamed of what he wrote, and he owes an apology to the council”.<br /> <br />The bottom line attitude to racist bigotry is “who cares”. Who cares what others think in the outside world. Big City , America is not Small Town , Texas . Apologize for criticizing small town people for their lack of a more cosmopolitan and global worldview. Small town small-mindedness is not their fault, but the product of conditioning and a steady stream of ideology. As Malcolm X said, “It would be like the slave apologizing to the slave master for the sin of slavery.” But Coffman would shame the journalist Sanders to eat his words with humble pie.<br /> <br />“What nerve!” wrote Coffman in reaction to the journalist’s scathing criticism. The audacity to speak his mind! In the past, Negroes were repressed from speaking their peace by intimidation, which constituted suppression in Freedom of Speech. Now that we can freely express our opinion, the reaction is outrage, which is why African-Americans are still tactful when they speak. Some people cannot handle the truth.<br /> <br />“Bob Ray… You’re lucky that you were born in the United States ”, wrote Wolf, “and that you found a newspaper to print the rubbish you write”. As a black citizen who totally agrees with Sanders and who enjoys reading his “rubbish”, that makes me neither stupid, nor illiterate, nor “lucky” to be born in America. How presumptuous to think that I am!<br /> <br />I remember being told once that “if you hated Jim Crow so much, why didn’t you go to another country. Love it or leave it”, they said. Of those who did not go into political exile to Cuba or Africa, we decided to stay in the US , home of our birth, and change the system from within.<br /> <br />But Jill Bramblett (Grapevine) would patronize us with her assessment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. legacy with this: “By the way, the people who King defended were citizens. Fortunately, all of his preaching paid off for our African-Americans.”<br /> <br />Did Bramblett say, “Our African-Americans”? How possessive! The audacity to speak for African-Americans! No, “We African-Americans” are still looking for the payoff. It may have paid off for some who use the martyrdom Martin Luther King to put the race issue behind them. But a change in attitude is a long time in coming.<br /> <br />It is racist to bring false allegations upon a people because of the color of their skin, or because of their national origin. Where is the true witness for this account?<br /> <br />The letter-writer Luckie, who professes to be sick and tired of people like Sanders, also wrote: “ Farmers Branch has done the only effective thing that can be done about this problem, given that our country’s leaders do nothing to stem the flood of illegals who sneak over and trash our southern borders.”<br /> <br />Trash? In the 1950s, I remember hearing the same thing about Negroes moving into all-white communities during the era of housing desegregation. Negroes would “trash” the neighborhood, they said. But the notion was based on a common belief that all poor people are trashy by nature. Personally, however, I have found most undocumented residents to be nice, clean, courteous, industrious, and not trashy. But proof is not required when the purpose of allegation is incitement.<br /> <br />It is racist to incite people to anger and hostilities by perpetuating rumors, myths, and lies against another people because of their skin color, culture, or national origin. The word “trash” has often been used as a racist code word to denigrate another race or their economic status. Remember “poor white trash”? False allegations that incite can lead to vigilante justice.<br /> <br />And lastly, there is this lordship of “worthiness” coming from the writer Olthoff: “Unless you geniuses have changed the laws overnight, you must apply for admission into the United States , prove your worthiness to obtain citizenship and do as the law says you must.”<br /> <br />But proving “worthiness” can be a slippery subjective slope when they keep moving the goalpost. As descendants of “second class” citizens, we could never meet the high standards of “worthiness” because of the color of our skin. The code word “Second Class Citizen” was stamped on my father’s military records. Worthiness is in the jaundice eye of the beholder, which is why it is easier to gain citizenship in the United States for white-skinned Europeans and Canadians.<br /> <br />It is racist to set arbitrary standards of acceptance in immigration and keep changing conditions of entrance based on skin color, national origin, and political climate. To write and re-write laws that exclude, discriminate, and criminalize by ex post facto is a racist ploy in an attempt to perpetuate white supremacy, whether by conscious intent of the citizenry or an inadvertency in law-making. The Right of Passage in America is not a bequest by white only, a presumption Farmers Branch people may have forgotten. Soon-to-be-written federal laws may be more lenient and favorable to guest workers from Third World countries.<br /> <br />Racism is not a contrived conjured up word like “race card”. When Mike Wallace equated race hatred and bigotry with “Racism”, he attempted to camouflage its underlying ideology of white supremacy. After the confrontation with Malcolm X, African-Americans took their case to the international body of the United Nations, the only place where issue of racism could be openly and honestly discussed at the time. The US mass media was bias, manipulated, and subverted by planted stories and propaganda designed to undermine the civil rights movement. In 1964, a formal definition of the concept of Racism was penned into historic record, in order to stand the test of time. It will forever be “a system of political, social, legal, and economic powers designed and written into laws, codes, and ordinances to support and perpetuate the ideology of white supremacy.<br /> <br />Turning the table against the truth seer, most people are hoodwinked into thinking racism and bigotry as synonymous in meaning.<br /> <br />The Farmers Branch ordinance, denying housing and employment to undocumented workers, is not racist, in and of itself. After all, the rich discriminates against the poor by denying access to privileges that only wealth can afford. But the ordinances above also provide for police training to round up illegal immigrants. This sets the stage for dragnets and massive sweeps at job sites, breaking down doors and dragging illegals from their homes, humiliating them before the public, disgracing their children in school, blocking the doors to hospital emergency rooms, keeping them living on the edge of fear, detaining them at will, and deporting them back into abject poverty. This is already happening in the Arab communities, where olive-skin is reasonable cause for detention and incarceration, with governmental impunity and without any legal recourse or judicial safeguards and review___ all in the name of “terrorism”.<br /> <br />It frightens me to think about the words of Bramblett who wrote: “I hope that many other cities follow suit in tending to this massive problem”.<br /> <br />Massive, indeed, when I try to imagine what do they plan to do with 12 million illegals? The ultimate race card is genocide.Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-36335156621493694032009-05-19T11:00:00.000-07:002009-05-19T11:50:05.890-07:00The Most Dangerous Thing about Torture, Its AcceptanceBy Eddie Griffin<br /><br />Tuesday, May 19, 2009<br /><br /><strong>Black Panthers</strong> in prison protested the condition of their confinement during the Revolution. They complained to the courts that their condition of confinement amounted to <em><strong>Cruel and Unusual Punishment</strong></em>, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.<br /><br />The courts did not always see it as we saw it, and our access to the courts was limited. Having exhausted our avenues of justice in the states, we took our case to the world bodies, namely the <strong>United Nations Commission on Human Rights</strong>, <strong>World Peace Council</strong>, and <strong>Amnesty International</strong>.<br /><br />We claimed that the government’s mind control experiments conducted on us by the CIA amounted to torture.<br /><br />So began the big international debate about human rights and torture. The American public had been made to believe that the Communist Russians and Chinese used torture techniques. But that we, in the United States, were more humane. The Panthers, in turn, showed that the U.S. government adopted the same techniques and applied them on political dissents in the state, like the Panthers, Muslims, and Puerto Ricans Nationalists. The designed intent, we proved, was to “break men’s minds”.<br /><br />Hence I wrote, “<strong><a href="http://www.jpp.org/documents/forms/JPP4_2/Griffin.pdf">Breaking Men’s Minds</a></strong>”, as a dissertation of the U.S. government torture techniques, disguised as therapeutic behavior modification. The Russians were the first to see it as a propaganda opportunity. Having been condemned in the international community for human rights violation, during the 1970s, two Soviet dissidents won international acclaim. <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn">Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn</a></strong> won the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature for his prison writings: “The Gulag Archipelago” and “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”. Another Soviet dissident, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Sakharov">Andrei Sakharov </a>won 1975 Nobel Peace Prize.<br /><br /><strong>President Jimmy Carter</strong> had made a big issue about the Soviets violations of Human Rights. The Soviets retaliated with the story of political dissidents, like the Black Panthers, in U.S. prison.<br /><br />We, thus, became part of the debate in the United Nations over the definition of <em><strong>Torture</strong></em>. It is a word that describes a practice that is impossible to measure. Torture meant more than the inflicted of pain as a means of punishment. The level of pain inflicted upon a subject was determined by the level of public acceptance. Specifically, Torture was literally defined as an act that outraged public consciousness.<br /><br />Our problem was public awareness. How could the public know if we were being tortured, if the Nixon administration kept all the information secret and hidden? And besides, the public had always given the government the benefit of the doubt, believing that the American ideals were so high that we could not possibly torture anyone, let alone our fellow Americans. But the 1976 <a href="http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/cointel.htm">Church Commission</a> revealed dirty secrets about the Nixion administration of govenmental powers. <br /><br />We had to establish that <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation">Sleep Deprivation</a></em> was torture. It was the intentional act of depriving a prisoner of his sleep, until he was broken or driven insane. Prison guards would bang on the bars and tap a man’s foot, in order to wake him up, every hour on the hour.<br /><br />We protested the use of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation">deprivation chambers </a>where men were encased in a concrete and steel mausoleum, cut off from sensory input and the electro-magnetic field of the earth.<br /><br />We complained about experimental drugs being secreted into our food and water supply, valium, librium, and potassium nitrate otherwise known as "saltpetre". For our own good, they claimed, but without our permission.<br /><br />During this period of time, I did a lot of prison interviews with the outside media. My first editorial appeared in the <em>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</em>, and I was later featured on the cover of the <em>Sun Times</em> quoted as say, “I will not compromise my views.” I was in the Control Unit at that time when a Soviet reporter by the name of Ilong Andronov from <em>Literaturnaya Gazeta</em> came to interview me.<br /><br />What was <em><strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literaturnaya_Gazeta">Literaturnaya Gazeta</a></strong></em>? I asked. It was the Soviet Union’s equivalent of Time magazine.<br /><br />Because of my isolation, I only caught a whiff of the international torture debate. But I remember waiting for an opinion from the international community. Were we the victims of U.S. torture? Were we “political prisoners”?<br /><br />As I have researched past records, I see traces of the debate being reincarnated by <strong>Dick Cheney</strong>. What astonishes me most is the same argument made by the Nixon administration: If we say it is not torture, it is not torture; therefore, it is legal.<br /><br /><strong>POST NOTE:</strong><br />The U.S government fought against using the term "political prisoners" with the name of the Black Panthers, although Andrew Young admitted to the United Nations that the United States had political prisoners locked up.<br /><br />The Carter administration did consent to the use of "Prisoner of Conscious". In 1977, the World Peace Council convened at the University of Helsinki in Finland and listed about 125 names of prisoners of conscious worldwide.<br /><br />On the list was the name of Nelson Mandela (South Africa), Rafael Cancel Miranda (Puerto Rican Nationalist), Lorenzo Koemboa Irvin (Black Panther Party), Leonard Peltier (American Indian Movement), Wilmington 10, and others, including Eddie Griffin.Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-6490098517582376522009-05-01T09:19:00.000-07:002009-05-01T09:22:49.310-07:00News Report of Taser DeathTaser Death of Michael Jacobs, Jr.<br /><object id="WNVideoCanvasDEFAULTdivWNVideoCanvas" width="404" height="343"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> <param name="quality" value="high"> <param name="wmode" value="windowless"></param> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"> <param name="movie" value="http://video.cw33.com/global/video/flash/widgets/WNVideoCanvas.swf"></param> <embed src="http://video.cw33.com/global/video/flash/widgets/WNVideoCanvas.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="windowless" width="404" height="343" allowFullScreen="true" FlashVars="isShowIcon=true&affiliate=KDAF&affiliateNumber=449&backgroundAlphas=100,100,100,100&backgroundColors=212121,676767,676767,212121&backgroundRatios=0,25,130,255&backgroundRotation=270&borderAlpha=100&borderColor=212121&borderWidth=1&clipId=3669017&playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDobject&closecaptionPaneLabelText=&closePaneLabelText=&commercialHeadlinePrefix=Commercial&controlsBackgroundAlphas=100,100&controlsBackgroundColors=212121,676767&controlsBackgroundRatios=0,255&controlsBackgroundRotation=270&controlsBorderColor=212121&controlsBottomPadding=8&controlsButtonLeftBorderColor=616161&controlsButtonRightBorderColor=232323&controlsHeight=40&controlsOffFaceColor=9c9c9c&controlsOverFaceColor=ffffff&controlsSidePadding=8&defaultStyle=dark&disableTransport=false&domId=WNVideoCanvasvideo_87video_87_pnlWNVideoCanvas&emailErrorBorderColor=ae1a01&emailErrorMessageFaceColor=ae1a01&emailFormFieldAlphas=80&emailFormFieldColors=212121&emailFormFieldRatios=0&emailFormFieldRotation=90&emailInputFaceColor=9c9c9c&emailMessageLabelText=&emailPaneLabelText=&emailSentConfirmationMessage=&errorMessage=&fullScreenControlType=none&hasBevel=true&hasBorder=false&hasBottomBorder=true&hasFullScreen=true&hasLeftBorder=true&hasRightBorder=true&hasTopBorder=true&helpPage=http://www.the33tv.com/pages/videohelp&hostDomain=video.cw33.com&idKey=video_87&imgPath=http://KDAF.images.worldnow.com/images/static/video/flash/&invalidRecipientFieldMessage=&invalidSenderFieldMessage=&isAutoStart=true&isMute=&landingPage=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ethe33tv%2Ecom%2Fpages%2Fvideo%2F&loadingMessage=&offFaceColor=afaeae&overFaceColor=ffffff&overlayBackgroundAlphas=92&overlayBackgroundColors=676767&overlayBackgroundRatios=0&overlayBackgroundRotation=90&overlayOffFaceColor=9c9c9c&overlayOverFaceColor=ffffff&pauseButtonText=&playAtActualSize=0&playButtonText=&playerHeight=343&playerWidth=404&recipientEmailLabelText=&sendEmailButtonText=&senderEmailLabelText=&senderNameLabelText=&shareListItemHighlightBorderColor=767676&shareListItemOffFaceColor=afaeae&shareListItemShadowBorderColor=3c3c3c&shareListListItemOverFaceColor=afaeae&sidePadding=3&smoothingMode=auto&staticImgPath=http://KDAF.images.worldnow.com&summaryGraphicMessage=&summaryGraphicScaleStyle=stretchToFit&summaryPaneLabelText=&tabBackgroundAlphas=100,100&tabBackgroundColors=888888,383838&tabBackgroundOverAlphas=100,100&tabBackgroundOverColors=595959,212121&tabBackgroundOverRatios=0,100&tabBackgroundRatios=75,255&tabBackgroundRotation=90&tabBackgroundSelectedAlphas=100&tabBackgroundSelectedBorderAlpha=100&tabBackgroundSelectedBorderColor=595959&tabBackgroundSelectedBorderWidth=1&tabBackgroundSelectedColors=595959&tabBackgroundSelectedHasBevel=true&tabBackgroundSelectedHasBorder=false&tabBackgroundSelectedHasDropShadow=true&tabBackgroundSelectedRatios=0&tabBorderAlpha=100&tabBorderColor=212121&tabBorderWidth=1&tabFontSize=10&tabHasBevel=true&tabHasBorder=false&tabHasDropShadow=true&tabHeight=26&tabLeftBorderColor=a7a6a6&tabOffFaceColor=dcdbdb&tabOverBorderAlpha=100&tabOverBorderWidth=1&tabOverFaceColor=ffffff&tabOverHasBevel=true&tabOverHasBorder=false&tabRightBorderColor=404040&tabShadowColor=333333&topPadding=3&videoSliderBackgroundColor=828282&videoSliderKnobBackgroundAlphas=100,100&videoSliderKnobBackgroundColors=828282,828282&videoSliderKnobBackgroundRatios=0,255&videoSliderKnobBackgroundRotation=90&videoSliderKnobBorderColor=5a5a5a&videoSliderKnobOffFaceColor=444444&videoSliderKnobOverFaceColor=212121&videoSliderKnobShadowColor=5a5a5a&videoSliderLoadIndicatorColor=b2b2b2&videoSliderProgressIndicatorColor=212121&volumeSliderOffColor=5a5a5a&volumeSliderOverColor=828282&" ></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-45771057753460546922009-04-13T12:59:00.000-07:002009-04-13T14:01:19.899-07:00Christian Soldier and GladiatorBy Eddie Griffin<br /><br />April 26, 1983<br />The FBI memo read:<br /><br /><strong>At approximately 9:30 a.m. on December 9, 1982, [witness 67C], U.S. Penitentiary, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, while in the Institution’s east corridor adjacent to the entrance grille of C-Block, heard what sounded like loud moaning and screaming coming from the second floor of that unit. [Witness 67C] immediately proceeded to the second floor of C-Block and upon arrival at the stairway landing found inmate Neil Baumgarten, #20586-148, lying partially on the stairs and half-landing leading to C-2 recreation entrance door. Inmate Baumgarten was bleeding profusely from the upper portion of his body… With the assistance of two inmates, [Witness 67C] placed Baumgarten on a stretcher and he was thereafter transported to the Institution hospital.<br /><br />At approximately 9:40 a.m., Baumgarten arrived at the Institution hospital and was provided emergency treatment by physicians assistants. At the time of treatment it was estimated the Baumgarten had sustained approximately 15 puncture wounds to the upper chest, back and abdomen area. Due to the severity of Baumgarten’s condition, he was immediately transferred to Evangelical Community Hospital, Lewisburg, PA, at approximately 9:55 a.m., and was pronounced dead at approximately 10:00 a.m. …<br />The crime scene was immediately secured and Special Agents (SAs) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) responded to the Institution.<br /><br />Institution authorities initiated a search of the A, B, C and D-Blocks of the Institution. In addition a search was conducted of the outside perimeter grounds in an attempt to locate physical evidence. The above searches failed to produce any weapon(s), articles of clothing or any suspected physical evidence. Inmates located with the living quarters at the time of the incident were secured and ultimately checked for any possible cuts, bruises, blood stains or torn clothing. All of the above met with negative results…<br /><br />During the week of December 13-17, 1982, Institution staff and Special Agents of the FBI conducted numerous interviews of inmates towards the ultimate development of cooperative witnesses…<br /><br />[Witness 67C] felt that the murder of Baumgarten occurred in retaliation for the murder of Cadillac Smith which occurred at the USP, Marion, Illinois, earlier in 1982…<br /><br />During the period from December 1982 to the present, information has been received and compiled indicating the presence of a large group of inmates with the USP, Lewisburg, which has organized into a retaliatory and murder organization. This group is comprised of Black inmates from the Washington, D.C. area and is known as the “D.C. Blacks”. A large segment of this group also has membership and/or ties with the Moorish Science Temple. Information has been received indicating that this group of inmates have banded together and have plotted the murders and attempted murders of white inmates at the USP their cause being the retaliation of the killing of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith who was purportedly murdered at the USP, Marion, Illinois, by incarcerated members of the Aryan Brotherhood (AB)…<br /><br />To support the above information, on December 11, 1982, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons transcript of a telephone conversation… indicated an imminent “war” between the AB and the D.C. Blacks at the USP, Leavenworth, and USP, Lewisburg. The “war” was in retaliation over the murder of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith.</strong><br /><br />This is a true story about the eruption of a race war in prison, and about the gladiators that fought them, how they lived and how they died. But of all the prison stories, there is none like the life and death of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith.<br /><br />Sampson, that was my image of Cadillac, because he was equally as strong, battle hardened, and roared like a lion whenever he went into combat. And, on a good day, his signature battle cry would rattle the walls and shake all the prison cages.<br /><br />No wonder, men in prison feared him, both inmate and guard. He was invincible in hand-to-hand combat.<br /><br />There was this old story about how an assailant once stabbed him in the chest, aiming for his heart. The knife folded like tin foil against an ox hide buff, muscles built by iron on the weightlifting pile. The attacker struck from behind, and when the knife wilted, he fled and sought protective custody in the arms of the nearest prison guard.<br /><br />Cadillac laughed. He always laughed in the face of his enemies. And, there were times when his psychotic laughter caused even me to quiver. To hear him laugh was not good, not good at all for somebody.<br /><br />They call prison the “belly of the beast”, not merely metaphoric, but because it churned like a caldron sitting on top of the pit fires of hell.<br /><br />I was there, at USP Leavenworth, sitting on a two-year parole date like a man holding hot gold in the palm of my hands, when the report of Cadillac's assassination came to me by the Moors, whom the FBI identified in the above memo as the “Moorish Science of America”. The federals also characterized the brothers as “DC Blacks”, with no respect for their ancient “science”. And yet, the FBI searched high and low for evidence in the stabbing death of Baumgarten, but found nothing- no weapon, no bloody clothes, and no scratches. And, whatever witnesses were left behind never saw anything actually go down.<br /><br />It was said of the Moors in prison that they could kill a man, stash the weapons where no one on earth could find them, wash their clothes and dry them, before prison officials could ever discover the body. As far as I know, the FBI had never been able to pin a murder on a Moors.<br /><br />I was made an honorary Moor, given a kufi as headgear to wear while attending secret meetings, and being briefed on everything, except the “science”.<br /><br />Few people know that most Washington, D.C. Blacks originated from Morocco during the slave trade era. They had a different African culture and traditions than the rest of the U.S. black population. To this day, they know their history and where they came from, and they never broke completely with their ancient traditions. They knew the art and science of killing, Moroccan-style. And, Cadillac was heir to the "Sword of Justice", a gleaming curve steel blade about two-feet long.<br /><br />When word came to me that the Aryan Brotherhood had assassinated Cadillac, the brothers insisted I not take part in the retaliation. After all, I was nursing a two-year parole release date, and the brothers wanted me to get back to the outside world.<br /><br />Heretofore, no man had ever gone as deep as we had gone into the system, inside the belly of the beast. And, of those that did, nobody ever came back to the outside world to tell about it. This is why the brothers watched over me like angels. They wanted someone to come up out of super-maximum security and tell their stories and warn the kids especially to not get swallowed up into the belly of the beast, like we had.<br /><br />(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSExfyWD43I&feature=related">To Be Continued</a>)Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-23814933835169177482009-03-06T08:38:00.000-08:002009-03-06T09:33:30.780-08:00School Rescue Plan<strong>TO: PARENT CAT TEAM MEMBERS</strong><br /><br />Primary Goal: 100% Parential Participation<br />Secondary Goal: 100% Graduation<br /><br />Primary Target: Middle School<br />Secondary Target: High School<br /><br />Each FWISD school has a website.<br />(See <a href="http://www.fwisd.org/schools/pages/default.aspx">http://www.fwisd.org/schools/pages/default.aspx</a> )<br /><br />To check each school academic rating and statistics, consult:<br /><a href="http://schoolguide.star-telegram.com/#">http://schoolguide.star-telegram.com/#</a><br /><br />It is agreed upon that the best point of interdiction is at the Middle School level. The High School interdiction strategy would be that of a RESCUE.<br /><br /><br />TRIMBLE TECH H.S.<br /><br /><a href="http://schoolguide.star-telegram.com/OneSchoolSearch.aspx?Campus=220905011&Grdtype=S">http://schoolguide.star-telegram.com/OneSchoolSearch.aspx?Campus=220905011&Grdtype=S</a> )<br /><br />TRIMBLE TECH website:<br /><a href="http://schools.fortworthisd.net/education/school/school.php?sectionid=122">http://schools.fortworthisd.net/education/school/school.php?sectionid=122</a><br /><br />POLYTECHNIC H.S.<br /><br /><a href="http://schoolguide.star-telegram.com/OneSchoolSearch.aspx?Campus=220905009&Grdtype=S">http://schoolguide.star-telegram.com/OneSchoolSearch.aspx?Campus=220905009&Grdtype=S</a><br /><br />POLY website: <a href="http://schools.fortworthisd.net/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=79841">http://schools.fortworthisd.net/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=79841</a><br /><br /><br /><strong>O.D. WYATT H.S.</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://schoolguide.star-telegram.com/OneSchoolSearch.aspx?Campus=220905016&Grdtype=S">http://schoolguide.star-telegram.com/OneSchoolSearch.aspx?Campus=220905016&Grdtype=S</a><br /><br /><br />O.D. Wyatt website:<br /><a href="http://schools.fortworthisd.net/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectionid=138">http://schools.fortworthisd.net/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectionid=138</a> <br /><br />DUNBAR website: <a href="http://schools.fortworthisd.net/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectionid=139">http://schools.fortworthisd.net/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectionid=139</a><br /><br /><br />Parents, Students, Project Prevail Supporters: <br /><br /><strong>TAKS Testing Week is HERE </strong><br /><br />Parents , your goal is to have your student at school every day, on time.<br /> <br />Please insist that all cell phone devices are turned off during testing, or your child's test scores are disqualified. Make sure study, rest, and nourishing meals are at the top of the list this week for your student. <br /><br />Students , make every effort to arrive at school on time, ready to begin your day; it's time to step up your game. Turn OFF all cell phone devices, and follow the instructions given by your test adnministrator. If you have a need, PLEASE let instructor know. RELAX, if you have prepared... you're ready for this. <br /><br />Project Prevail Supporters , thank you for encouraging our students! We have asked for increased participation in our school, and you are coming through for us. We need every avenue of the Dunbar community to help keep our students focused on academic success today, so they will have a brighter future tomorrow. Have you thanked a teacher today? <br /> We are preparing for... <br /><br />Excellence ... the Wildcat Way! <br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Solving the Poly Puzzle </strong><br /><a href="http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=7538">http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=7538</a><br /><br /><em>A long list of players are helping put the vaunted Eastside school back together again — but time’s running out.</em><br /><br /><br />By BETTY BRINK<br /><br />Jerry Stevenson was hurrying down the hall at Polytechnic High School, trying to slip into homeroom before the tardy bell rang, when he felt a large hand clamp down on his shoulder. <br /><br />He looked up to see the school principal towering above him.<br /><br />“Jerry, come on in the office,” Gary Braudaway said. Stevenson’s knees shook for a second. But it wasn’t fear of punishment that had set his slight freshman frame to quaking — it was stage fright. “You’re the speaker this morning,” Braudaway told him.<br />An “inspirational moment,” broadcast over the public address system each morning, is just one of the changes that Braudaway instituted when he took over as principal at the troubled high school in southeast Fort Worth in 2006. It might sound a bit corny to outsiders, but Stevenson was in awe at being the first freshman ever chosen for what has become a high-status moment for students. Stevenson’s words were personal, describing his gratitude for how the school has been “like a family” to him, he said. <br /><br />Braudaway began the tradition as a way to motivate the students, develop their leadership skills, and bind them together as a caring family. “When they hear their fellow students urging them to study hard and stay in school, it means a lot more than it does coming from me,” he said. The speaker is usually an upperclassman, sometimes a teacher, or occasionally someone from the community.<br /><br />Inspirational words of the day and making students feel part of a family might not have seemed the tactics most likely to succeed when Braudaway arrived at Poly. He faced a demoralized faculty and a hardscrabble student body, with test scores that were too low, drop-out rates that were too high, poor attendance, poorer morale, and an ongoing exodus of good teachers. The once-mighty 100-strong Poly marching band had shrunk to seven members. And most crucial, the storied school, built three-quarters of a century ago on one of the highest points on the East Side, the alma mater of some of Fort Worth’s most prominent names, was failing its students academically. Passing rates on state-mandated achievement tests were putting the school at risk of serious, perhaps fatal, sanctions.<br /><br />Two and a half years later, things have changed dramatically for the better at the high school on the hill. Attendance, scores, morale, and even alumni involvement are on the upswing. Parents are actively taking part in their kids’ education again. In a school where three-fourths of the students are listed as economically disadvantaged, every kid in a small group pulled randomly from the hall on a recent day said they intend to go to college.<br /><br />But the good news may be too little too late. The school, despite its recent progress, has been rated “academically unacceptable” by the state education agency for four years in a row. One more year at a low rating, and by law the school must either be closed permanently or completely restructured academically, perhaps even receiving a new name. This is Poly’s drop-dead year, and as this story was being edited on Tuesday, the students were taking the first of four make-or-break tests. Results for the March test on English and language arts will be available in April; that same month, students will take the final three exams in math, science, and social studies. <br /><br />Even as that happens, Fort Worth school district officials and local legislators are mounting a campaign in Austin to bore an escape hole for Poly in the state regulations — or at least to win the school a little breathing room in recognition of its better-if-not-yet-good-enough progress. And beyond the efforts of Braudaway and his staff and students, the district has begun a number of efforts, some aimed at poor-performing schools across Fort Worth, others specifically at Poly, to improve student performance and increase the schools’ chances of making the grade. None of that, of course, answers the question of how Poly was allowed to fall this far for this long before the alarm bells went off.<br /><br />But senior Davion Thornton and other students interviewed by Fort Worth Weekly are convinced they will come through. “We will make it,” Thornton said. <br /><br />For the 700 members of the Poly Alumni Association, losing the school’s name would be like wiping out their history, William Kelly said. The association president (Class of ’55) said his group is working closely with Braudaway and the district to help save the school — and not just to preserve the name or their own memories.<br />“We believe in the kids there now,” Kelly, 71, said, “and we believe in what Gary’s doing to turn the school around.” The teachers Braudaway has hired, he said, are “tireless.” The school makeup has changed dramatically since 1955, when it was totally white. Enrollment is now about 64 percent Hispanic, a third black, and 2 percent white.<br /><br />Kelly said he has seen an almost miraculous change at the school in the last two years. He and other association members have monitored the students’ progress by working closely with Braudaway and through the alumni group’s scholarship program, which gives out two $1,000 awards each year. “The reason [for the turnaround] is Gary and his faculty,” Kelly said. He believes they have revived the school’s “Poly pride” spirit, which is reflected in the progress the students are making. “It would be disastrous to the kids to take that away now,” he said. <br /><br />Over coffee at the Old South Pancake House, where the group holds monthly meetings, Kelly and fellow graduates Patsy Rochelle and Phil Crow expressed their anger at what might happen.<br /><br />“There is so much history between Poly and Fort Worth, we can’t let them change the name. It would be like the school never existed,” Rochelle said.<br /><br />Poly’s Georgian Revival-style red brick building was designed by one of Fort Worth’s most famous architects, Joseph Pelich, who created dozens of the city’s landmark structures, including the original Casa Mañana Theatre. Poly was built in 1937 on one of the highest bluffs on the East Side, in the historic Polytechnic Heights neighborhood, with funds from President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration. It was soon dubbed the Beacon on the Hill. Its history makes it eligible to be designated a National Historic Monument. <br /><br />The historic area was first settled in 1857 by Kentuckians Arch and W. D. Hall and their brother-in-law Roger Tandy. In 1890 the men donated land for Polytechnic College, meaning a school for the industrial arts and applied sciences. The college eventually became Texas Wesleyan University. <br /><br />In the years that the class of 1955 was growing up there, the mostly blue-collar community thrived with mom-and-pop businesses like the memorable Ashburn’s Ice Cream and Burge Hardware. Burge is still there, but all that remains of the once famous ice cream store is its sign. <br /><br />In the late 1960s, the area began a long, slow decline. TWU sociology professor Sara Horsfall wrote in a paper about the area, published in 2005, that during those years racial tensions ran high as blacks moved in and whites moved out — after failing to stop the changing color of their neighborhoods by forming thinly disguised anti-black groups such as the Greater Poly Civic League. With the white exodus went most of the established businesses. But by the mid-1980s, Horsfall wrote, the blacks, many of whom had been able to buy their homes there, were also moving out, “leaving the area to low-income renters” mostly Hispanic, in houses owned by absentee landlords who did nothing to keep up the once-proud old homes. “Abandoned houses, drugs, gangs and … crime were endemic. [It was] one of the worst inner-city areas in the country,” she wrote, and one of the poorest. <br /><br />The turbulent 1960s, when public schools in Texas were being integrated, began “30 years of blight and neglect of public education on the East Side,” said Fort Worth minister and activist Kyev Tatum, a graduate of Trimble Tech High School and now its alumni association president. <br /><br />Tatum’s brother graduated from Poly in the early 1980s. Kyev, who won a football scholarship that helped him get a college degree, said his brother wasn’t so lucky. “He didn’t get the education he needed to prepare him for college, so he went to work for the county right out of high school.” Tatum calls the school district’s attitude then and now toward the kids in its inner-city, poor, and minority schools one of “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” When children realize that they are not expected to excel, they won’t, Tatum said. <br /><br />The schools and the neighborhood suffered as the city also turned its back, ignoring the deterioration and seldom enforcing the city’s housing codes. Abandoned houses and businesses became the norm. Only in the past few years has the city begun to encourage redevelopment there, but even now stores along Vaughn Boulevard are still boarded up, giving the once-thriving street an eerie war-zone look. The buildings along Rosedale Avenue that housed Ashburn’s, Mott’s, a grocery store, and several small shops in the area’s heyday have been refurbished and are waiting for tenants, but so far few have come. Still, the now-predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood seems to be making a slow comeback; houses are being restored along many streets, and crime is down dramatically, according to city statistics.<br /><br />The school has had help along the way. TWU has long taken an interest by offering scholarships to Poly students with good grades.<br /><br />The alumni association got deeply involved in the school again “about four or five years ago,” Rochelle said. Many members were retiring; with more time on their hands, they began to visit the school and found that a lot of the school’s traditions had been abandoned and that academics were suffering. Several association members attended the first meeting called by the former principal when the school hit its first “unacceptable” rating four years ago. <br /><br />“We knew we had to do what we could,” Rochelle said, and the scholarship fund was started. The group was also disturbed to learn that the students had no clue as to Poly’s illustrious history (it was state champion two years in a row in the ’50s, in baseball and basketball, for example, Crow said) or about the many grads who have contributed to the city’s history. <br /><br />Crow, a 30-year employee of KTVT/Channel 11, was operations manager and executive producer of Texas Rangers baseball for about 20 of those years. The late Jim “Hoss” Brock, the voice of the Cotton Bowl for more than a quarter of a century, was a Poly graduate. So are two former Fort Worth mayors, Hugh Parmer and Ken Barr. Former Fort Worth school board president Dr. Richard O’Neal graduated from Poly, as did Fort Worth authors Phil Vinson and Mike Nichols. (Vinson’s first book, Ink in the Blood, is a boyhood memoir of Poly in the late 1950s.) A whole slew of graduates went on from the school’s exceptional journalism department to write for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Poly also produced Kenneth Copeland, one of the nation’s most colorful, controversial, and wealthiest televangelists. <br /><br />“Ken didn’t show much of that kind of holiness when we were in high school,” Kelly said, laughing. “He liked to sing ‘Old Man River’ and ride a motorcycle.” <br /><br />A more recent graduate, Thomas Herrion, was a football star and scholar who went on to fame with the San Francisco 49ers. Then in August 2005, at the height of his football career, Herrion collapsed and died after finishing a game in Denver. The whole school mourned with his Fort Worth family. <br /><br />The three older alumni group members said they will do everything they can to save the school that laid the foundation for their own successes. “Every one of our classmates graduated from college,” Crow said. “That’s what we want for the kids there now.” <br /><br />On that recent morning when the hand landed on his shoulder, Stevenson took the mic and encouraged his schoolmates to do well on their upcoming achievement tests and said what the school meant to him. “My friends, they told me it was good,” he said later.<br /><br />“Better than good,” Braudaway said. “He was great.” <br /><br />Stevenson’s reference to being part of a family at Poly might be part of the reason the principal liked the young man’s performance. Braudaway’s philosophy at the majority-minority school is bearing fruit, the principal said. <br /><br />“Most of our kiddos’ parents are so busy trying to make ends meet that we have to be their family,” he said. “For these kids to succeed, we have to give them a sense of pride in their accomplishments, their school, and the knowledge that they are part of a family that cares for every one of them. … We get them to believe in their own possibilities.” But, he added, it takes three to five years to bring about complete change in a troubled school, and he may not have that long.<br /><br />“Poly has been on a roller coaster, up and down academically for a number of years,” said Deputy Superintendent Pat Linares, a 13-year district veteran. “Without a highly successful leader, it became a low-performing school.” <br /><br />But Poly still managed to pass the state’s earlier academic achievement tests, known as the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS. Then along came legislation in 1998 requiring the Texas Education Agency to adopt tougher standards in all subjects and imposing more stringent passing criteria in a new test known as the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS. Schools all over the state fell into a TAKS hole, including Poly.<br /><br />State data show that Poly’s test scores have risen consistently since 2003 but not enough to get it off of the state’s endangered-schools list. Part of the reason is that the state keeps adjusting the acceptable passing rate. “It’s a moving target,” a frustrated Braudaway said. Last year the school missed an acceptable rating by the margin of nine students’ test scores, out of 975 students in all. <br /><br />Thornton, the senior who is so adamant that Poly will make the grade this year, ranks fifth in his class academically and has a full scholarship to Texas A&M University next year. He will be the first in his family to go to college. Still, fifth is not good enough for his mother, he said with a smile. “She told me I could do better.” <br /><br />Not all of the students at Poly have such motivators at home. But that too is changing. Parental involvement at the school has increased dramatically since he took over, Braudaway said. The year before he came, only about 30 parents showed up at PTA meetings. His first meeting drew 75 parents, the second one 150, and more than 200 parents attended the 2008 fall open house.<br /><br />What has made the difference? “We motivate the parents [to get involved] through the kids,” he said. “And we keep them informed about what their kids are doing and what’s going on at the school. We call with good news, not just the bad. We involve the parents and the community.” Braudaway shows up at every sports game; his teachers are active in the school’s extracurricular activities, and they also work with the parents through the neighborhood churches, he said, setting up after-school tutoring sessions, for example. “Each of my teachers is a mentor,” he said. <br /><br />Braudaway, who spent 14 years as a classroom teacher, didn’t completely reconstitute the staff at Poly when he took over, but he did make sure he kept only the teachers who were dedicated to the kids. “The first thing I look for when I interview a teacher is a heart for kids,” he said. He disagreed with a suggestion that too many inexperienced teachers had led to some of Poly’s woes, as critics have charged. “Experience is important, but it’s not always what a school needs,” he said. “In a school like Poly, you also need teachers with fresh bright eyes and a ‘change-the-world’ attitude, and I have found them.” <br /><br />The students interviewed were almost worshipful in their praise of Braudaway and their teachers and coaches over the past two years. Timothy Johnson, a senior and a football player who is heading for college, said his coaches have been “great mentors” who care as much about them becoming “great young men” as about winning on the field.<br /><br />“The teachers put more effort into teaching than they did before Mr. Braudaway came,” he said. Johnson told of one teacher who, working after school as a volunteer tutor, started crying as she told her students how badly she wanted to help them pass the tests.<br /><br />“It was never like this before,” said Damian Thornton, Davion’s younger brother. “Not many seemed to care about us and the [former] principal never came out of his office.”<br /><br />Damian, a junior, said that the students will pass the TAKS because “We’ve become a part of this school now. It’s the spirit of the school that motivates us. We know we can do it.”<br /><br />Krina Rodriguez, a junior and a member of the softball team, joined the chorus of optimists. “We will pass this year, I’m sure,” she said. “School is better now — we’re ready.” <br /><br />Early in his freshman year at Poly, Damian said he wanted to leave the school because it was such a negative place. But he’s glad now that he stayed. “Kids are participating more in extracurricular activities. ... Our band is growing again.” Under band director Ronnie Sanford, band membership has grown from seven to 50.<br />Damion is a crew leader in the LINK program that uses junior and senior students to help incoming freshmen transition to high school, another Braudaway initiative. The group puts on a workshop to teach the freshmen about the school and then mentors them throughout the year.<br /><br />Braudaway and his staff also invest major effort in assuring that kids get to class. When attendance is checked and the absentees are identified, Braudaway and a crew of vice-principals and coaches call to see why each kid isn’t in school. If there isn’t a parent at home, or if there’s no good excuse for the student’s absence, “We go get ’em,” he said. <br /><br />“They actually come to our homes and knock on our doors to see why we’re not there,” Johnson said. “That makes us feel like they really care about us. We respect that.” <br /><br />During the reporter’s visit, a vice-principal popped into Braudaway’s office to report that the day’s attendance was 96 percent, about par for this school year, Braudaway said. <br /><br />What the students don’t like is all the negative publicity Poly has gotten lately. “So many things are going right, but if all you know about Poly is what you read in the paper, you only hear about the bad,” Damian said. <br /><br />Braudaway said this week that Texas A&M has deemed Poly a “priority one” school — a sort of “adopt-a-school” designation that means A&M will have recruiters on campus, provide scholarships, and encourage kids to excel. The principal said he’d been told A&M is so pleased with the performance of recent Poly graduates that the college wants more of them. <br /><br />Linares said Poly was in need of “serious changes” when Braudaway was asked by Superintendent Melody Johnson to take over the school and get it back on track. He would be the third principal to try since 2000. His job, in part, was to “change the culture of the school, build his own school culture that would give the people pride in their school again,” she said. “In that he’s done an excellent job.” <br /><br />Associate Superintendent Sherry Breed is the director of a new district initiative begun last fall that the administrators hope will make a difference at Poly and 15 other schools that are in academic trouble. It is called PEAK — Public Educators Accelerating Kids. Breed is giving Poly “extensive support” in implementing the program, she said. “I’m at Poly so often discussing the plan with the dean of instruction that I need an office there,” she joked. <br /><br />PEAK is a pilot program with money from the state and matching funds from the district that financially rewards teachers for their students’ academic growth. But Breed was quick to point out that, unlike other incentives, the program encourages collaboration between teachers, not competition, so that the whole school benefits. Pluses for the teachers include five additional days of pay per school year, more clerical support, and mentoring and master-teacher coaches for new teachers. Poly is getting even more intensive help with the addition of campus test coordinators and additional instructional support for each academic content area through teacher specialists assigned to Poly to “teach teachers,” Breed said. <br /><br />At the Fort Worth district headquarters, Linares, Breed, and other administrators sat around a conference table trying to explain to a reporter what happened to Poly, who is responsible, and what the district is doing to save one of the city’s oldest schools. <br /><br />In a worst-case scenario, the district has proposed that if the education commissioner does close the school, the district be allowed to reopen it as a gender-based academy, boys on one side, girls on the other. Melanie Henson, of the secondary leadership department, said that the coursework would be distinct for each group but that the kids would be allowed to mingle freely in the common areas during lunch and extracurricular activities.<br /><br />“There is no wiggle room in this,” said Linares. “The [education] commissioner is bound by the law as it is written. He may not want to close the school. He may want to give us more time to turn Poly around, but his hands are tied.” (Calls and e-mails to Texas Education Commissioner John Scott have not been answered.)<br />No one at the table was quite sure why the law forces a name change, unless it is to start a new culture and history at a school and remove any taint of failure, one said. None thought the idea had merit. <br /><br />The administrators laid much of the blame for Poly’s woes at the state’s doorstep. “The accountability system is very complicated,” Linares said. Test results are first tallied for all students. Then the passing rates of specific racial and economic classes are separated out. “If any one of those [groups] fails to meet the passing standard, the whole school fails,” she said. And the bar for passing is being raised five percentage points each year, which frustrates the administrators as much as it does Braudaway.<br /><br />Other factors that the schools have no control over include a requirement in the federal No Child Left Behind law — an initiative of the George W. Bush administration — that special-education students be mainstreamed into the classrooms of their age group and take the tests alongside them; their scores become part of the overall pass/fail rate. <br /><br />When the reporter commented that such a system seemed designed for failure, the room exploded into laughter. “You said it — we didn’t,” Linares said. <br /><br />“We welcome accountability,” Linares said. “We just want a more fair system, one that recognizes the growth of a school [like Poly] and isn’t based solely on a pass/fail system.”<br /><br />All of the administrators had high praise for Braudaway’s efforts at Poly. “He has done a good job at hiring the right kind of people,” said chief academic officer Michael Sorum, who has been with the district since 2005. “But all that goes out the door when a school reaches that magic number five. … We want some flexibility. We have done the research. There are cases where one student can turn a cell ‘red’ and the whole school fails.”<br /><br />Fort Worth legislator Marc Veasey has filed a bill this year to give local school administrators some of that flexibility. Supported by State Rep. Lon Burnam, whose district includes the Poly attendance zone, the bill would prohibit the state from changing Poly’s name and would extend the time that a school has to pass the TAKS as long as the school raises its scores each year, as Poly has been doing.<br /><br />In late February, State Sen. Florence Shapiro, chair of the senate education committee, and Rep. Rob Eisseler introduced legislation that addresses the fairness and flexibility issue. If passed, it will replace the state’s current school accountability system based on annual standardized testing with one based on charting individual students’ progress over time. The problem for Poly and most of the low-performing schools is that even if it becomes law, the measure won’t be implemented until 2011. <br /><br />Fort Worth school officials, including Johnson and Linares, have been making regular trips to Austin to lobby for Veasey’s bill, and members of the Poly alumni group have sent letters and e-mails urging their legislators to support it. <br /><br />But the 800-pound elephant is still in the room: Why did the district wait so long to take drastic action on Poly?<br /><br />Breed said that five years ago the district’s emphasis was already on Poly and other troubled schools, but not the funding. “We didn’t have the money for intensive intervention programs.” Now they do, she said. Extra money is now available from the state, such as the matching funds for PEAK. <br /><br />And under President Barack Obama’s stimulus package (providing Gov. Rick Perry doesn’t turn the money down), “We will get $29 million for Title 1 [low-income] schools and about $20 million for IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] over the next four years,” district communications director Barbara Griffith said.<br /><br />Chuck Boyd, an assistant superintendent, pointed out that five years ago, “the accountability environment was different. … As that environment has changed, we adapted.” And some of the adaptations worked. Poly became academically acceptable in a number of categories, such as math, he said. But that wasn’t enough.<br /><br />That is why Sorum wants the testing system to focus on improvement — to take into consideration a school’s rising test scores even if it doesn’t make it to the arbitrary passing grade. <br /><br />In a move that might make civil libertarians nervous, the district has also established a database where teachers can enter academic information on each child. “We can accurately identify the students who are struggling, focus on a kid’s weakness, and get them the right kind of help, often with teachers who can immediately intervene at their school,” Sorum said.<br /><br />There is also a web site called Parents at a Glance, where parents can go to see what their children were taught that day. “When the kid comes home and is asked ‘What did you learn in school today?’ and says ‘Nothing,’ the parent can say, ‘Well, what about Harriet Tubman?’ ” Sorum said.<br /><br />The administrators said the district has responded to the needs of minority students in part by adding novels at each age level that represent the kids’ cultures. Breed said there is now a “very diverse” selection of literature after “kids came in and told us what makes teaching more interesting.” <br /><br />And a new anti-drop-out program called Project Prevail has just been unveiled that is designed to pull the whole community together to keep kids in school. It enlists businesses, parents, churches, students, area colleges, and social service organizations in an “It takes a village to save a child” approach. (This is about the third such program initiated by the district in recent years. The others were highly touted, only to disappear from the radar screen never to be heard from again.)<br /><br />All of the programs seem innovative and progressive, designed to bring long- needed reform to a system that one former district administrator called “teaching 21st-century kids in 19th-century schools.” She wasn’t talking about the age of the buildings. <br /><br />Around the district, observers are watching the Poly drama with interest.<br /><br />“There’s been some interesting strategy on Poly to get it to work,” said schools trustee Juan Rangel, referring to some of the same programs the administrators had outlined. Neither Christene Moss, whose district includes Poly, nor any other school board member returned the Weekly’s calls about Poly.<br /><br />Rangel said that Poly was declining during the years when the district was going through the turmoil of changing superintendents — Thomas Tocco left under fire, and the district was under the temporary watch of Joe Ross for about a year, until the current superintendent, Melody Johnson, was hired. <br /><br />The school just fell through the cracks, the trustee said. “No one was paying attention.” Several principals and vice principals rotated through Poly during that time. “School kids and teachers need principal consistency,” he said. <br /><br />“Look at Paschal [in his district]. … The principal has been there seven years, time to build a team of people who get the kids graduated,” Rangel said. Paschal, like Poly, has a high percentage of minority and low-income students. But it also has a significant number of upper-middle-class white students. Still, Rangel said he’s convinced that Braudaway can do what Paschal has done, “if he’s given the time.”<br />Poly’s woes have also spilled over into the lap of Trimble Tech, another Fort Worth high school that once had similar problems.<br /><br />Eddie Griffin, president of Trimble Tech’s PTA and a mentor to minority kids, said Poly could be turned around quickly if it uses the model of Tech, the only high school in the city that allows open enrollment.<br /><br />Trimble Tech started as a technical-vocational school to teach trades to kids who weren’t considered college-bound. Up until 1996, Griffin said, it was “low-performing, low-scoring” academically because academics were often sacrificed for the technical programs, which had also been neglected. Machines and equipment needed to train kids were “antiquated or broken,” and there were no computers, he said. Griffin, whose kids went to Tech and whose grandkids are now students there, complained to Tocco about the neglect. Tocco responded by pulling together a 100-member team of parents, educators, and business representatives, including Griffin, and they were given the job of coming up with a plan to turn the school around.<br /><br />They did. A curriculum was developed that improved the school’s academic performance because it was geared toward the knowledge needed by the kids who were pursuing technical careers, whether they were going on to college or not. College-related courses were expanded. Computers were put in every classroom, and state-of-the art machines were installed to train kids for mechanical jobs. The business reps developed curricula that would allow certification in technical fields so that a student was job-ready as soon as he or she graduated. <br /><br />“We didn’t intend for these kids to not strive for college, but we did recognize that the majority of the district’s students are from low-income families. With good jobs, many are now able to work their way through college,” Griffin said. The plan was built around the needs of the students, with flexible hours for those who had jobs and programs for older students who had dropped out and come back, he said. Drop-out and teen pregnancy rates have since gone down.<br /><br />Within one year of the plan’s implementation, the school’s test scores rose dramatically. “We have had 14 straight years of acceptable or above,” Griffin said, “and two years of exemplary or above.” He gives high marks to former principal Sue Guthrie for the school’s success.<br /><br />Once a school that few wanted to attend, Tech now has more applicants than it can accept. Its success has even caused board members T. A. Sims and Moss, both of whom represent low-performing schools, to charge that Tech is causing a “brain drain” at their schools, contributing to those schools’ low test scores. The two have raised such a stink about it that the board recently voted to require applicants to Tech to be approved by administrators at the district, rather than the campus, level. The change was opposed by board members Rangel and Carlos Vasquez. <br /><br />The new plan is causing outrage among Tech students, parents, and alumni, who have banded together under the leadership of Kyev Tatum to file a civil rights lawsuit to block the change. <br /><br />Griffin is outraged at Moss and Sims. “Instead of knocking a success story, why don’t they copy it?” he asked. “It’s a plan that could save Poly.” <br /><br />POST NOTE:<br /><br /><strong>There may be hope after all for venerable Polytechnic High School </strong><br />to survive even if for some reason it fails to pass all of the state’s academic achievement tests this year. (See today’s cover story "<strong><a href="http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=7538">Solving the Poly Puzzle</a></strong>".) Debbie Ratcliffe, director of communications for the state board of education said in an email, sent too late for publication in the print copy, that while the law is inflexible regarding the closing or restructuring of a school that fails the test five years in a row, the commissioner of education does have the power to impose sanctions then stay that decision for a limited period. "Sometimes when a school has been making progress but it’s not quite enough to reach the acceptable level, the commissioner has assigned alternative management and then essentially stayed that sanction for a year to give the school one more year to improve. During that year, the school still has to complete a lot of required improvement activities," Ratcliffe wrote. If the "improvement activities" seen over the past two and a half years at Poly are any indication, it would seem that the Poly students and staff are up to the task.<br /><br /><strong>2010 Leadership Class</strong><br /><br />Dear LFW member,<br /><br />It is time to encourage leaders you know to apply for the 2010<br />Leadership Class! <br /><br />The application information is on the website at www.leadershipfortworth.org<br /><br /><br />Deadline is April 17, so start<br />the process now--<br /><br />We count on your support so that we continue to have outstanding<br />classes. Thank you so much!<br /><br />Harriet<br /><br />This email was sent to danna.joseph@fwisd.org.<br /><br /><br />Date: Thursday, March 5, 2009, 10:43 AM<br /><br /><a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/6294436.html">Legislators may make TAKS a thing of the past</a><br /><br />Measures to be filed on Thursday would change the way state measures schools' progress<br /><br />By GARY SCHARRER<br /><br />AUSTIN — The much-maligned, high-stakes TAKS test would be eliminated, and more emphasis put on preparing high school students for college or a job, under legislation intended to dramatically change the way education progress is measured in Texas.<br /><br />“We have counted on testing and testing only. And it’s caused a lot of angst in the schools,” Senate Public Education Chair Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said Wednesday about the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.<br /><br />“We’ll still test, but we’re using other variables to give us the results that we need.”<br /><br />Shapiro and House Public Education Chair Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, plan to file the school accountability legislation on Thursday. The changes — which would start in the 2011-12 school year — aim to gradually elevate Texas into the top 10 states when it comes to preparing students for college or equipping them with workforce skills.<br /><br />Texas ranked 46th in the country last year in the Scholastic Assessment Test scores and last among all states in the percentage of adult population with a high school diploma.<br /><br />“We want a high school diploma to mean something,” Eissler said.<br />Graduates entering the skilled workforce will be certified and those heading to college will be better prepared to avoid the need for remediation, he said.<br />More than 40 percent of Texas high school graduates were not college-ready in at least one subject area, according to a recent study by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.<br /><br />“Right now we focus on the TAKS test performance and what does that mean for college, or what does that mean for a career? Nothing,” Eissler said.<br /><br /><strong>Focus on success</strong><br />Many parents and teachers have complained for years that educators are forced to teach to the TAKS test and it doesn’t do enough to prepare students from elementary school to high school for success after graduation.<br /><br />“All of the foibles, all of the fallacies in the system here just became glaring,” Shapiro said.<br /><br />Local school officials have been anxiously awaiting the details of the new school rating plan, which could change how their campuses are branded to the public.<br /><br />Alief school board President Sarah Winkler, who is president-elect of the Texas Association of School Boards, said she is hopeful the new system will give schools credit for noticeably improving student test scores.<br /><br />“Even if your children are performing below level, if they improve more than a year’s worth during a school year, you ought to get credit,” Winkler said. “The goal in the end is for the student to be successful.”<br /><br /><strong>Two types of diploma</strong><br />The new legislation would mean students in grades three, five, eight and 11 would not have to pass TAKS exams to be promoted to the next grade level.<br /><br />“It’s hard on the younger ones to have the high stakes,” Winkler said. “Parents do not like it. I can tell you that.”<br /><br />The legislative proposal contemplates a “Texas diploma” for college-bound students and a “standard diploma” for those seeking skilled workforce training and a related career. The standard diploma would require three years of English and one year of algebra.<br /><br />“This diploma will be in a field that says you are certified and are skilled workforce ready,” Shapiro said.<br /><br />Students would be measured by individual improvement instead of a single test score. Existing “exemplary” “recognized” and “acceptable” ratings for schools and school districts will be eliminated and replaced by an “accreditation tier” focused on individual student achievement based on readiness for college or career.<br /><br />High school, middle school and elementary school campuses also can earn distinctions for excellence in a variety of areas, such as growth in student achievement, workforce readiness, second language learning, fine arts and physical fitness.<br /><br />Student testing “will cover more than minimum skills,” Eissler said. Tests will be given in each grade level in an effort to get “an instant growth indicator,” Eissler said, measuring a student’s academic improvement from one year to the next.<br />Reporter Ericka Mellon contributed to this report.<br /><br />gscharrer@express-news.net<br /> <br /><br /><strong>Your One-Stop Site for Surviving a Lay-Off in Tarrant County </strong><br /> <br />Being laid off can be a traumatic experience, even if you knew what was coming. This website will alert you to upcoming events and help guide you through the maze of government programs and assistance you might be eligible to receive. <br /> <br />You'll find pages with info about everything from Hot Jobs, Job Fairs and Job Readiness Workshops, to assistance for filing for Unemployment Insurance or Community Resources for assistance while you search. <br /> <br />Just click on the site map in the Navigation pane to your left to find the topic you are interested in.<br /> <br /> <br />For updates on job seeking tips, unique videos clips, and other issues of interest to the job seeker in Tarrant County, connect to our blog and sign up as a follower to receive notification of all updates at:<br /> <br /><strong><a href="http://survivingalay-offintarrantcounty.blogspot.com/">http://survivingalay-offintarrantcounty.blogspot.com/</a></strong><br /> <br /> <br />To receive alerts about hot jobs, upcoming workshops and job fairs and other upcoming events, become a fan at our Facebook site: <br /> <br /><strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/wall.php?id=50168141926#/pages/Surviving-a-Lay-Off-in-Tarrant-County/50168141926">http://www.facebook.com/wall.php?id=50168141926#/pages/Surviving-a-Lay-Off-in-Tarrant-County/50168141926</a></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://survivingalay-offintarrantcounty.blogspot.com/"></a>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-59633336549826049182009-01-07T12:34:00.000-08:002009-01-07T12:37:51.165-08:00I'm Wishing On A Star<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/g2zqz4zmjlI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/g2zqz4zmjlI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />I was only wishing that I would ever leave prison alive. But I remember the first night, out of the hole, like no other night before, wishing upon a the first star that I had seen in six years. I lay in the grass on my back in El Reno Federal Prison yard, looking up at the moon and the stars in the night sky, never to take life for granted again.<br /><br />I saw heaven. I had come out of hell alive. That hell was the notorious Control Unit inside Marion Federal Prison, max-six security living death chamber. I had gone further than any other prisoner in deprivation. I was held incommunicado by the U.S. government.<br /><br />For fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes in the evening, I had running water… water to drink and flush the commode. I had no clothes except my BVDs… no mattress to sleep on… and windows wide open during the coldest winter in the state of Illinois. My face was on the cover of the Sun-Times, in big bold letters: “I will not compromise my views”.<br /><br />Before I was released, all the revolutionaries had renounced the use of violence to achieve political gain. Rafael Cancel Miranda took it like a bitter pill. President Jimmy Carter was ordering the release of select U.S. political prisoners.<br /><br />Each day, the guard would bring me my three’s. I had stopped eating… couldn’t eat, really. I was frozen to the steel bunk hanging off the wall. But I would always manage the strength to ask the guard for a cigarette. That’s when I saw a big man cry.<br /><br />Warden Fenton had me dragged to his office. I couldn’t help but laugh. He was looking at a ghost, the smart-ass inmate who delivered him, the warden, an ultimatum from the Marion Brothers.<br /><br />Goosh! That pissed his goat!<br /><br />But now he was releasing me, by President’s orders, transferred to another prison… somewhere in red neck country Oklahoma.<br /><br />It was the first time I had smelled victory against the government. For the first time, I saw women and minority guards. We were tired of butting heads against an all-white, club welding, prison guard force. The new guards were scattered about the El Reno prison campus.<br /><br />Some took time out to thank me, others I had to break in like rookies. We had gone on a prison hunger strike to demand more minority officers. Since I was the propagandist, it was designed as a media ploy.<br /><br />Prisoners strikes to hire more federal prison guards.<br /><br />It sounded good enough to make the hunger strike 100% successful. And, it happened on Bicentennial Celebration day, July 4, 1976, America’s 200th birthday. The Marion Brothers went on hunger strike. The prison was shut down.<br /><br />The second demand was the real point of the strike: Stop using mind control experiments on politically conscious prisoners. The media bit and we went live internationally.<br /><br />Fenton looked at me and smiled. “Griffin, I’m taking you out of here and transferring you to El Reno. We don’t want to see or hear from you again.”<br /><br />And, then he said something queer. “And, I don’t believe that you are a criminal, either.” I gushed into tears.<br /><br />I had gone from prison to solitary to a solitary within a solitary, to padded cell, and finally a strip cell, my refrigerated morgue cell. In my final hours, I could see a ship frozen at sea. My eyeballs were glazing over with a sheet of ice. And, all I could see was a ship on the frozen sea. That’s when they unlocked the doors and released me.<br /><br />The first night in El Reno I look up at the moon and stars and realized that there was a God who answered prayers.<br /><br />I think about that night, as I spent hours upon hours in El Reno’s music room, catching upon on music from 1970s that I had never heard. And, “Wishing Upon a Star” was one I played over and over again, wanting to go home, into the seventh year of my incarceration.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/g2zqz4zmjlI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/g2zqz4zmjlI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />A female prison guard strode into my world and I was no spellbound, having not even seen a female for six years. My life became a battle of urges, and I became more tiger than panther.Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-90073912354745474072008-12-22T13:38:00.000-08:002008-12-22T13:39:07.017-08:00I'm Wishing On A Star<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5DqwPci_XuI&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5DqwPci_XuI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-38785128618868858652008-10-29T10:24:00.000-07:002008-10-29T10:25:17.874-07:00yanni-meditation<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/78V2Ckg11I8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/78V2Ckg11I8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-12236020460458244982008-10-29T09:38:00.000-07:002008-10-29T09:39:20.442-07:00Yanni - Out Of Silence<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FcQAE-o3nTg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FcQAE-o3nTg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><br />Yanni - Out Of Silence<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/edNUrmgVoA8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/edNUrmgVoA8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-59638631786178783472008-10-13T07:38:00.000-07:002008-10-13T08:01:42.650-07:00Yanni - At the Acropolis<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QYW63J648i0&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QYW63J648i0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />This epitomizes my bio-rhythm... my body language and the music in my head... my energy... crashing barriers to death... to death.<br /><br /><strong>Yanni – Nostalgia</strong><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AwwZscFoi-A&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AwwZscFoi-A&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-88614277207969994122008-09-29T07:05:00.001-07:002008-09-29T07:05:49.484-07:00Ain’t No Stopping Us Now<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ITSF3jUnpY8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ITSF3jUnpY8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />It's so On.Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-76347689490618795832008-09-24T07:19:00.001-07:002008-09-24T07:19:44.379-07:00Keep Your Head to the Sky<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d9udxtTe6yk&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d9udxtTe6yk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-20186877543694621702008-09-10T08:22:00.000-07:002008-09-12T08:40:23.190-07:00In Memory of the Last Love of My Life<strong>Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992)</strong><br /><br />You Beat Me to the Punch<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QkqVRaQSHjU&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QkqVRaQSHjU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Your Old Standby<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RAHbOfYEyzY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RAHbOfYEyzY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />The One Who Really Loves You<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bvFv4PlAO7Q&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bvFv4PlAO7Q&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />What Love Has Joined Together<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eXc9OfgiuXM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eXc9OfgiuXM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Laughing Boy<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sWvitKJH_IY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sWvitKJH_IY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Old Love<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/k3rfFPKIV60&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/k3rfFPKIV60&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Operator<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NYc9KikY8jc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NYc9KikY8jc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Two Lovers<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NmICa5hzIG0&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NmICa5hzIG0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />When I'm Gone<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zMrhtEcO4IQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zMrhtEcO4IQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />My Guy<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8twqlk8zcCc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8twqlk8zcCc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-49693384140831833482008-08-25T08:05:00.000-07:002008-08-26T12:50:46.741-07:00Dream Merchant<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q0bASlpio7o&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q0bASlpio7o&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />What fault would you find of the Dream Merchant, seller of dreams and hopes? Tell it to a man who spent 12 hard years in maximum security where men never come home.<br /><br />Lord, I came home, but she was not there any more, and neither was the fragrance of her memory was left behind.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/z1XNAbtrCpE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/z1XNAbtrCpE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-69528897978413923502008-07-29T07:18:00.000-07:002008-07-29T12:31:21.971-07:00Another Tribute to Phyllis HymanFrom Eddie Griffin<br /><br />I Don’t Want to Loose You<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/R90F1-ldhWY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/R90F1-ldhWY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />[<a href="http://eddiegriffinbiblestudy.blogspot.com/2008/07/posthumous-voice.html">Previous</a>]<br /><br />Did I ever tell you the story about how I fell in love with a female prison guard, whose brother, also worked inside the same prison?<br /><br />It is one thing for a black inmate to fall in love with a white female prison guard. But it is another thing when her brother worked in the prison’s food department and, on the sideline, organized Klan meetings with his buddies who also worked inside the prison.<br /><br />Falling in love again, after 18 months in the prison dungeon known as the Control Unit, I found it humanizing, insofar as my senses and sensibilities returned to me in a passionate way.<br /><br />When I first saw Debbie, striding across the prison compound, golden hair blowing loosely in the wind, in her gray uniform, and black jacket boots, the iceman melted, by the radiance of her beauty. The angry, notorious rebel in me came out like an evil spirit cast to the winds. My heart ached with secret desire.<br /><br />I had not seen nor spoken to a woman in over six years. I was a Spartan, a eunuch, gladiator, and fierce warrior in the toughest penitentiary in the country. My life always flashed before my eyes. And, my vision of death in hand-to-hand combat was thwarted over and over again only by the grace of God.<br /><br />But I was not prepared to die from heartbreak. So, began one of the most interesting experiences of my life.<br /><br />[To be continued]<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UjdWnINISTo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UjdWnINISTo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zYuUNVAYs1Q&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zYuUNVAYs1Q&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><strong>Phyllis Hyman</strong> (July 6, 1949 - June 30, 1995)<br />Died by suicide because of lonliness... but I will always rememberEddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-14673497592382250212008-06-12T11:50:00.001-07:002008-06-12T11:50:35.690-07:00IMAGINATIONby - Earth, Wind, and Fire<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tLD4BKmFdzI&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tLD4BKmFdzI&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-42662314754274941242008-05-27T13:24:00.000-07:002008-05-27T13:25:20.773-07:00Be My Girlby the Dramatics<br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pfSZHqzhshY&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pfSZHqzhshY&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-8337734686506239182008-05-02T13:16:00.000-07:002008-05-02T13:17:32.428-07:00Atlantic Starr<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JUweAV4O3ek&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JUweAV4O3ek&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-34282964106052037592008-04-22T13:26:00.001-07:002008-04-22T13:26:50.188-07:00Confession of an Underground Think Tank StrategistBy Eddie Griffin<br /><br />Tuesday, April 22, 2008<br /><br />I thought to share some of the strategies we used in the revolution back in the 1970s at a time I was a member of an underground prison think tank. Each strategy had an appropriate name, such as: The Scatter Gun Strategy, which consisted of hitting multiple political targets at once, firing from single scatter gun position; and The Overkill Strategy, which consisted of targeting an objective beyond the “kill point”.<br /><br />Conventional Frontal Assault upon a political target met force-for-force, pound-for-pound. Going up against a prison administration was fruitless and in vain. An institution can best be attacked by undermining its support structure. But how could you convince a bunch of knuckleheaded inmates of the foolishness of fighting on prison guard in hand-to-hand combat and riots? Still, some of these guys would rather fight than eat, both prisoners and guards.<br /><br />I was not one for violence, and neither was I a coward. What we had to do, I suggested, was to outsmart them? It is a work of art. That was how and why Eddie Griffin stayed in hot water in prison. They called me troublemaker. The riots, I knew, they could crush, easily. But the Overkill was designed to wipe them out before they knew what hit them. Our target was the warden. This issue was R-E-S-P-E-C-T… respect for our rights as human beings. The warden thought that Respect was too much to give. There it is. That is the picture.<br /><br />So we plotted to carry out a prison hunger strike to coincide the national Bicentennial Celebration on July 4, 1976. For the sake of posterity, it would be our date in infamy. Wherever in the archives of Bicentennial newspapers, there will be a little story about the hunger strike at Marion Federal Prison. It took two years to plot, which meant holding the ranks together until D-Day, and this in a prison that averaged a killing per month.<br /><br />It was insane. Instead of killing each other out of frustration, prisoners should take their hostilities out on their captors, namely the prison administration. But instead of head-to-head, we would attack indirectly. The idea was: To go straight for the US government and watch the “Trickle-Down Effect” from Washington, D.C. Rattle Washington and watch the warden jump.<br /><br />Maybe the brothers could get some prison policy changes, like some hiring minority prison guards to supplement an all-white prison force. We needed “eyes” to refer the fight between guards and inmates. We were losing in the fight to defend our humanity.<br /><br />And so, the Overkill Strategy comprised of sending grievances to Washington, through the slow appellant process, and to the United Nations, above and beyond the warden’s authority. The Overkill Strategy consisted of multiple attacks, with the Bicentennial hunger strike being the clincher.<br /><br />The other means of attack consisted of creating a paper-jam in the grievance filing process, and consuming incalculable hours of government legal scholars’ time. We made a pact: File long drawn-out complaints, a minimum of 25 pages each. About 20 prisoners pledged to file on daily complaints, 25 pages or more per clip, knowing beforehand that the warden and his staff would rubber stamp our redress petition “DENIED”.<br /><br />We then appealed up the pyramid, to the appellate level, at a 50-page clip, to be DENIED again, on up the line to Washington, this time at about 100 pages per 20 inmates. Like day-in and day-out clockwork, the grievance poured out, until the system was jammed.<br /><br />At the time, I had unlimited access to a class of law student at Southern Illinois University Law School, just outside the prison. To break the logjam, the courts and Congress instituted the “Informal Resolution” formula to put one more step in the process before we could go to courts. It was designed for prison officials and inmates to settle their problems at the institutional level, informally.<br /><br />Our objective was not so much a resolution, but to generation tons and tons of paperwork. Therefore, most of the complaints were duds that covered for the real legal complaint that would make its way to court. While the warden was busy rubber-stamping prisoners’ complaints, some good cases sneaked through the cracks and got the court.<br /><br />There, we had them again. This time in court, against the formidable People’s Law Office in Chicago, and at least a dozen outstanding and zealous civil rights lawyers.<br /><br />Okay, I admit, Eddie Griffin was one of those trouble-making masterminds that wardens liked to keep out of circulation. Per capita, prisoners like us cost the government millions per day. Incarceration was not supposed to be so cheap. And, legitimate grievances can be even costlier. My estimated cost was at least a million dollars per day.<br /><br />The warden’s budget was headed for a new ceiling. Beside legal woes, he now had to the media. “We will be trying our best to hire more colored prison guards,” I remembered hearing him say on the news. Inmates fell out on the floor laughing… the very thought of a black prison guard wearing federal grays.<br /><br />What about the overwhelming display of force used to suppress the July 4th hunger strike, the warden was on the defense against the media. And, the media came back, again, and again, until the warden barred them. There was a security threat.<br /><br />By Day 10 of the hunger strike, the prison was surrounded by protesters. “The Indians have surrounded the prison. Lock down! What?!<br /><br />Among the throng of protesters carrying placards and chanting: FREE THE MARION BROTHERS, there were a group of Native Americans supporting Leonard Peltier, an American Indian Movement prison, and a contingent of Puerto Ricans and Latinos protesting the 25-year incarceration of Rafael Miranda. Hundreds of people, they said. But I never saw a one. They blacked out the TV news.<br /><br />I was the Marion Brother who wrote the petition and hand-delivered it to the warden on the morning of the hunger strike. He turned red, as red as any Redman I had ever seen, and I imagined smoke coming off the top of his cranium.<br /><br />That was it: The Scatter Gun Strategy in a nutshell, and I was the sacrificial lamb. The prison administration was fighting on multiple fronts, in the courts, in the media, and against outside protesters, carrying signs and shouting slogans. It got worse… worse for the warden and worse for me.<br /><br />Now the Congress got into the act with an investigation, just around the time the United Nations began looking into human rights violations around the world, particularly in the Soviet Union and South Africa.<br /><br />Warden Fenny had his hands full with inquiries. He literally said as much, when he deposited me into the safe keepings of solitary strip cell, refrigerated by the open winter skies. I was put on “No-Human-Contact” status, known as boogey men in the federal prison system, but not before I spoke to a Russian reporter named Ilong Andronov of Literaturnaya Gazeta. In all of the interviews I had done, as a kind of spokesman for the prison reform movement, the media had always allowed the warden word, but not with the Russian.<br /><br />The Literaturnaya Gazeta was the Soviet’s equivalent of Time magazine. Now the warden had an international controversy on his hand. US prisoners on a hunger strike against an oppressive all-white prison regime, staffed with a crew of doctors working in secret on mind control techniques, with CIA and undercover FBI agents involved behind the scene. The US media broke the allegation open when Dr. Edgar Schein, esteemed MIT pioneer in brainwashing research admitted to the behavioral research.<br /><br />All of these developments exceeded my wildest dream. It started out as a power struggle between prisoners and prison officials over humane treatment. But the strategy was Overkill.<br /><br />As a reward, I was released from the dungeon and transferred to another prison, where I discovered Klan organizing among prison guards. But that’s a different story for another day and an altogether different strategy.Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-70112140260942139582008-04-09T09:56:00.001-07:002008-04-09T10:14:51.247-07:00A Right to ChooseBy Eddie Griffin<br /><br />Wednesday, April 09, 2008<br /><br />A recent survey of elementary school girls revealed that the majority wanted to be mothers, but they did not want husbands.<br /><br />What!?<br /><br />That was my initial reaction until I realized something about young pre-pubic girls. Isn’t this the age group that still hates boys and still believes in Santa Claus? Of course, they want babies, as in baby doll, while fanaticizing the real thing.<br /><br />What are we teaching our kids in school? It’s certainly not sex education. And, it is a question of what age should we start. We certainly can’t teach toddlers who are still discovering themselves.<br /><br />Little girls may imagine they can have a baby like the Virgin Mary. But later in life, they will discover that it takes a male and female to procreate.<br /><br />Some people are troubled by the fact that God knew Jeremiah before he was born, before he was conceived in the womb, and that his purpose in life was predetermined (as set before him to be a prophet to nations). People have an issue with the question: When does life really begin? Does life begin when God breath into man the breath of life and man became a living soul? Or, did life begin when God said, “Let us make man after our own image”?<br /><br />I believe life begins in the mind of God.<br /><br />In order for a woman to conceive, she must have a man. This is a biological fact of life. It takes both male and female to procreate, but God plays a part in the conception. Bringing life into the world is a divine miracle. Who can deny this truth?<br /><br />The problem arises when God is not part of the baby-making process, during the engagement of sex. Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, the bible says. But young men and young woman do not aspire to marry as much nowadays, as in ages past. They want the sex, but not the commitment. They want the sex, but not the baby.<br /><br />What choice does a pregnant mother out-of-wedlock has? She can either have the baby, along with the responsibility and whatever shame that comes with it. Or, she can terminate her pregnancy? This is her choice, her conscious, a matter between her and God.<br /><br />What about the sperm donor, the young man? Is not the baby the product of both? Are the two (male and female) not One? Of course, they are not One, except in holy matrimony. Otherwise, it’s mama's baby and daddy’s maybe. But if it is the dad for sure, then the male sex partner must have a word in the termination of a pregnancy. This should not be a unilateral decision to be made by the mother-to-be alone.<br /><br />That a woman has a right to do with her body as she so wishes, who doesn’t have suc a natural right? We have the right to blow our brains out, but is that the best choice? Some people have two choices: Good or Bad. Some people have no choices, because they are "bought with a price" by the blood of Christ.<br /><br />Making good choices that strength the institution of family as the basic unit of our society requires that we teach that marriage is an "honorable thing", something to wish for, something to hope for, something to prepare for. Too many single and divorced mothers, along with shiftless, irresponsible fathers teach, by example, the worse lessons about life and marriage, making it something to dread and avoid.<br /><br />Children’s first role models are their parents. But today, parents are not teaching the right lessons. The schools are teaching the wrong lessons. And, most churches are teaching nothing.Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6823911276149791922.post-32975001740057444652008-04-04T13:16:00.000-07:002008-04-04T13:39:29.269-07:00Republican Consultant Bryan Eppstein:<em>Mindless Boy Wonder and His Crystal Ball Politics</em><br /><br /><strong>Bryan Eppstein</strong> got out on a limb yesterday, speaking at a Republican forum. He predicted that if both Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were not on the ticket, John McCain would win in November.<br /><br /><strong>Bryan Eppstein</strong>, <em>The Eppstein Group</em>, is widely recognized as one of the best political minds on either side of the aisle in Texas. The Fort Worth consultant has concentrated on the Legislature and run hundreds of campaigns for House and Senate candidates, winning far more than he's lost… His methods are sometimes controversial - and he's not shy about picking a fight. Some Republicans don't like the idea that he doesn't necessarily despise all Democrats as a matter of habit... The Eppstein Group's award-winning resume includes a second-place Pollie from the American Association of Political Consultants last year for a direct mail effort for Michael Burgess in his U.S. House race in 2002.<br /><br />Republicans usually pay thousands of dollars for Bryan Eppstein’s political advice, according to the Fort Worth <em>Star-Telegram</em>, “<a href="http://startelegram.typepad.com/politex/2008/04/eppstein-predic.html">Eppstein predicts Clinton/Obama ticket</a>”.<br /><br />In addressing the monthly meeting of the Republican Forum at the Petroleum Club in downtown Fort Worth on Thursday, Eppstein said:<br /><br />“Hillary is appealing to the older Democrat faction. Barack Obama is appealing to the younger faction… If they don’t hold that together, then I’ll go out on a limb: Republicans will win. John McCain will be the next president... They cannot hold their party together unless they have that ticket.”<br /><br />Alas, here is a case of Crystal Ball politics put to open shame. Is this strategy or prophecy?<br /><br />Eppstein speaks to his fellow Republicans like an angel of doom, bringing glad tidings for the Democrats. Is he advising the Democrats what they must do the win the Whitehouse? Or, is he painting a doomsday scenario for his clients? Or, is he forewarning of what must be done to stop the Democrats?<br /><br />The Republican Party has more than a crystal ball reason to fear the upcoming November elections. But, it is Mr. Eppstein’s job to see that his clients win. So, why does he speak with such inevitable certitude of an Obama-Clinton ticket? Is he suggesting that McCain cannot beat such a ticket? Is he suggesting to his clients that the Republicans throw in the towel if an Obama-Clinton ticket emerges?<br /><br /> “A lot of people will say the race at the top of the ticket in this upcoming election will be the presidential race,” Eppstein said. “Well that’s not really true. The race that’s at the top of the ticket will be the straight ticket option... I see a lot of people voting but I don’t see a lot of them voting straight ticket, because I think voters, Democrat and Republican voters, have kind of lost their sense of confidence in the two parties."<br /><br />Well said by the doomsday prophet: Only the mindless masses will vote a straight Democratic ticket, but the discerner will pick and choose carefully. Herein is the only hope for some of his clients. Can they survive the impending Democratic tsunami?<br /><br />“We’re not going to lose the majority in the Texas House. We’re not going to lose the majority in the Texas Senate. But those majorities could continue to shrink,” Eppstein said.<br /><br />He noted there are a few tough races in the state senate, including one in Tarrant County. Eppstein is representing State Sen. Kim Brimer of Fort Worth in his re-election bid against former Fort Worth City Councilwoman Wendy Davis.<br /><br />Eppstein is like gasoline to his clients, a man with a crystal ball standing in the light of day... hot as a firecracker genuis... too ready to blow.<br /><br />For example: In trying to keep candidate Wendy Davis off the ballot through some petty technical violation, the strategy backfired and created a formidable foe for Eppstein client Kim Brimer. The incumbent good ole country boy's day in the legislature might just be coming to a crystal ball end.<br /><br /><strong>Voting in the March 4 primaries for Texas Senate District 10</strong><br /><br />Republicans 33,500 for <strong>Ken Brimer</strong><br />Democratic 62,500 for <strong>Wendy Davis</strong><br /><br />Total Tarrant County Republican Votes: <a href="http://www.tarrantcounty.com/evote/lib/evote/2008/03042008/results/rep_cumulative.pdf">100,000</a><br />Total Tarrant County Democratic Votes: <a href="http://www.tarrantcounty.com/evote/lib/evote/2008/03042008/results/dem_cumulative.pdf">200,000</a>Eddie G. Griffinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13283895629656619113noreply@blogger.com0