November 25, 2009
Page A 4
O pinion
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Our Lost Jobs and Wealth
th e m illio n s w ho lo st th e ir
Staying
homes. H om eow nership is the
w ay to build personal
marketable in quickest
wealth. Now, with so many Af
m ericans having fore
the workplace rican-A
closed on their hom es, the fi
nancial health o f our
J udge G reg M athis
com m unity is in jeo p
The current recession
ardy.
has certain ly taken its
We are being told
toll on everyone. From
the econom y is get
la rg e c o rp o ra tio n s to
ting better but that the
sm all businesses to fami
lies, m ost o f us can fairly say econom ic growth o f Am erica
that, in som e way, we have suf will be irrevocably changed.
fered a financial loss. But A fri Businesses will be m ore con
can-A m ericans, more than any servative when expanding so
other group, are disproportion th a t they d o n ’t o v e re x te n d
ately affected by the econom ic them selves. N ew jo b s will be
dow nturn. We are losing jobs created at slow er rates than in
at faster rates and, as a result, recent years. K now ing this, it
is imperative that the American
our net w ealth is decreasing.
A m id reports o f an im prov governm ent m akes a com m it
ing econom y, m any are still m ent to re-train those w orkers
w orried about their financial w hose industries have been
futures. America m ust continue dram atically reduced.
H igh-paying jobs in m anu
to support its citizens so that
they m ay withstand this dow n facturing are few and far be
turn and not com e out worse tw een; this is the inform ation
age and our citizens need to
for the wear.
The national unem ploym ent be ready to w ork in it. For our
r a te is c u r r e n tly h o v e rin g econom y to stay vibrant, gov
around 10 percent. For African- ern m en t sp o n so red train in g
A m ericans, that num ber is ju st program s for dow nsized em
over 15 percent and, in some ployees m ust be implemented.
A dditionally, w e m ust work
states, Illinois for example, its
over 18 percent. For black teens, to keep technology jo b s here
the num ber is astronom ically in A m erica. Any com pany re
ceiving governm en t support
high: nearly 41 percent.
To be fair, unem p lo y m en t or contracts m ust be required
rates have alw ays been higher to hire A m erican workers. If
in the A frican-A m erican com there are not enough skilled
munity than they are in the gen workers to fill the jobs, we must
eral population. But the reces ensure that people are trained.
sion has increased the unem Lastly, special monitored home
ploym ent - and w ealth - gap loan program s for individuals
betw een blacks and non-blacks who foreclosed on their homes
because key industries, such as during the recession should be
autom otive and manufacturing, created.
T aking these steps w ould
have scaled back considerably.
It used to be that a black worker ensure that all Am ericans are
could secure a stable jo b in one able to transition into this new
o f these blue-collar industries and different w orkforce and
and w ork their w ay into the begin to rebuild their lives. As
middle class. T hat day is long an ad d e d b e n e fit, A fric an -
A m erican w orkers w ould be
gone.
To com pound matters, preda able to get the skills they need
to ry le n d in g p r a c tic e s th a t to stay m arketable in the w ork
locked m any hom eowners into place w hile being allow ed a
high in terest rate loans w ith fresh start on the road to per
b a llo o n in g p a y m e n ts w e re sonal w ealth.
Greg Mathis is a retired
prevalent in A frican-A m erican
com m unities. W hen the hous M ichigan D istrict Court
ing crisis reached its dram atic judge and syndicated televi
peak, blacks stood out am ong sion show judge.
by
Television Ruins Kids
by
D onald K aul
The war in Af
g h a n ista n isn 't
going w ell. The
econom ic recov
ery isn't produc
in g m an y new
jobs. The banks that pushed the
nation to the brink o f a 1930s-
style Depression with their reck
less ways-having sucked up bil
lions o f taxpayer dollars in res
cue money-are resuming those
re c k le ss w ay s. T h e re isn 't
enough swine flu vaccine to go
around.
And now for some bad news:
N ielsen, the com pany that
clocks television viewing in this
country, has found that children
between the ages o f two and five
are watching an average o f 25
hours o f television each week.
That's three-and-a-half hours
a day, Sundays included.
If you don't find that disturb
ing, please go back to your Twit
tering Facebook or whatever it
is that you use to keep track o f
the latest Hollywood marital cri
sis. Sorry to have bothered you.
From its very inception-and I
was there, so I know-television
has been hailed as a great edu
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to . their profession that borders
on the heroic.
B e c a u se th e T V -w atch in g
doesn't stop after the kids get to
school. If anything it increases
an d is a u g m e n te d b y v id e o
gam es, com puters, m agic tele
phones etc. It's not a flood o f
distractions, it's a tsunami.
I know w hat you're going to
say: I've heard it before. I'm ex
? Television, after it gets kids
hooked, teaches them that life is
all about having things, buying
things.
%
something. Mainly sold som e
thing.
I don't envy the task o f pri
mary school teachers. By the time
they get the kids in kindergar
te n , th e little u rc h in s h av e
watched alm ost 4,000 hours o f
television. Into these dam aged
brains the teachers are expected
to implant a love o f reading, sci
ence, and math.
The fact that they succeed as
often as they do is a testament
to their skill and a com m itm ent
aggerating the toxic nature o f tele
vision. After all, much o f what
those two-to-five-year-olds are
w atching is "educational televi
sion." It teaches kids the alpha
bet and things like that.
Right. I forgot about "educa
tional television," the biggest
oxym oron this side o f "military
intelligence." It doesn't take 4,000
hours to teach kids the alphabet.
W ere you p aying atten tio n
w hen I told you that content is
secondary? Attention span go
Pray Out Loud
B ay M ortgage
•
cational medium, an unparalleled
teacher. And so it is.
It teaches you to w atch televi
sion.
That's it, the whole thing. Con
tent is secondary.
It turns viewers, and particu
larly young viewers, into bovine
creatures w ho sit slack-jaw ed
before a TV set, waiting to be
e n te rta in e d , am u sed o r so ld
Content is secondary
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Certain fees and restrictions may apply.
M . L inda J aram illo
Praying out loud w as
not w hat we did as fam
ily. We prayed quietly,
assured that G od w ould
h ea r us b ec au se our
noise w as not needed to acti
vate G o d ’s listening. However,
as tim e h a s g o n e o n , I ’v e
learned that prayer is not just
for G o d ’s hearing; it is for our
ears as well.
S o I w rite to a p p e a l fo r
p ray e rs— p ray ers in w h atev er
w ay y o u do th at. We m u st
by
p ray from th e Q u ran ,
the Torah, the B ible, or
use o u r o w n sp iritu al
p ra c tic e th a t in clu d es
n o n e o f th ese, b u t w e
m ust p ray o u t loud so
o th e rs can hear.
We p ra y fo r o u r b ro th e rs
a n d s i s t e r s in F o r t H o o d ,
Texas. We p ray for th o se w ho
lo st th eir liv es and th e ir loved
o n e s an d th o se w h o are r e
co v erin g from injuries. In ad
d itio n , I ask fo r p ray e rs for
M u slim b ro th e rs an d sisters
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ing the way o f your short-term
memory, is it? Content, with one
exception, is virtually irrelevant
to television's im pact-and that
exception is advertising. Televi
sion, after it gets kids hooked,
teaches them that life is all about
having things, buying things. It
trains children to be consumers
and a good jo b it does.
Thus we live in a society where
the needs o f workers always take
second place to the desires o f
consum ers, w hich is the w ay
corporate America likes it. We
buy, therefore w e are.
So ingrained is this attitude in
our society that com m ercials,
once thought to be an irritating
necessity w e put up with to get
"free" content, have achieved
parity with programming in our
viewing habits.
The New York Times asked a
senior executive at a media-buy
ing firm in N ew York w hy this
was the case. He expressed no
surprise. "Television has always
been like that," he said.
"It's still a passive activity."
So is death.
a c ro ss th e co u n try , b ec au se
th eir w orld w as tu rn ed upside
do w n as w ell.
M ajor Nidal M alik Hasan is a
military psychiatrist accused o f
killing 13 people and wounding
42 others; it is a tragedy beyond
imagination. We do not know
w hat was going on in his mind
— w hat kind o f traum a lingers
deep in his own psyche. Since
2 0 0 1, Hasan had been telling his
family that he wanted to get out
o f the military because he could
not bear to fight and kill others
o f his faith, but he was unsuc
cessful in achieving that goal.
We do know that his family had
been taunted and harassed after
the terrorist attacks o f Septem
ber 11, simply because o f their
Muslim faith.
We do know that Fort H ood is
the largest military deploym ent
center for personnel heading into
war zones. We do know that they
are highly trained in the use o f
weapons to engage in warfare.
We do know that a person must
de-humanize the “enem y” is in
order to carry out the task. We
do teach our military personnel
to kill people. Then we wonder
why we are seeing the enormous
impact on their emotional health.
We m ust p ray o u t loud to
dem and that our m ilitary sys
tems provide em otional support
for those returning; our nation
should provide em otional sup
port at the sam e level that we
provide training for w arfare.
M. Linda Jaramillo Is execu
tive minister o f Justice Minis
tries fo r the United Church o f
Christ
i