The Good Rev Wright, Good or Bad?
Current mood: animated

.. ..

There has been quite a fury recently concerning some admittedly controversial statements made by Senator Obama's (former) pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Yet, if we look at Rev. Wright's statements in full context, they are nothing more than a man speaking truth to power. Rather than acknowledge the truth about the dark past of America, and in some instances the present, we are quick to charge anyone who removes the veil of our history, as being racist and/or anti-American. African American religious leaders have historically combined sociology, theology and politics. In some instances, it has been done to inspire change, and in other instances, to inspire awareness. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a prime example. Yet, he was considered an agent of change and is celebrated for his courage and involvement in the Civil Rights movement through non-violent means. Why now is Rev. Wright viewed differently and even vilified? Is it because Dr. King was more eloquent in his speech than Rev. Wright. No! The answer can only lie in the fact that Rev. Wright is the pastor of an African American presidential hopeful who has seemingly wooed white America by running a campaign that has made every effort to transcend racial divisiveness. In other words, if Senator Obama is removed from the equation, how interested is America in the veracity or inflammatory nature of the comments made by Rev. Wright? In all fairness, the comments of Rev. Wright deserve a closer analysis in order to determine whether they are in fact racist and anti-American. But is the media engaging in nothing more than sensationalism in an effort to diminish Senator Obama's cross cultural appeal? One of the primary comments criticized by the media is that Senator Obama knows what it means to be a black man in an America controlled by rich, white people. Does the malfeasance lie in the fact that Senator Obama grew up as a black man in America or that America is controlled by rich, white people? Certainly it cannot be the former. It is irrefutable that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are rich, white men in control of economic, social and political policy in America. The question then becomes, is it racist or anti-American to say that Ameica is controlled by rich, white people or is this a truth spoken to power? Another comment which is more shocking than anything else is Rev. Wright's announcement that Senator Clinton can never know what it means to be a black man in America, and, she has never been called the "n" word. Yet, whether we are speaking of Hillary Clinton or any other white person of privilege in this nation, the fact remains they can never know what it has meant, or what it means, to be a black man in America. Neither can they know how deeply hurtful it is to be called the "n" word or worse yet to be treated as a member of the "n" class. Unfortunately, as progressive as we would like to consider ourselves, racism is alive and well in our society. We have made strives but we still have a long road ahead. Interestingly, although Bill Clinton has been spoken of as the first black president of the United States, Rev. Wright said Bill Clinton did to black people what he did to Monica Lewinski, "he was riding dirty." In other words, Bill Clinton had an intimate relationship with a mesmerized young woman with no intention of treating her with dignity or respect. The impact of the three strikes laws on the African American community and funding of prisons to the detriment of education and healthcare is analogous. A close look at any state budget in this country will reveal that the majority of state resources are directed toward prisons to the detriment of education and other necessary state programs. Many states are experiencing critical budget crisis but they will not compromise where the prison systems are concerned. In the past five years alone, states have faced a combined $200 billion in budget gaps. Meanwhile, prisons continue to consume a larger portion of the state budget pie--$35 billion annually in 1999, up from $17 billion in 1990--rendering them a bigger target for budget cutters. From 1985 to 2000, prison budgets grew at six times the rate of higher education budgets. If imprisoned, the Black man provides jobs and economic opportunities for the white underclass. The three strikes law and mandatory sentencing is a good way of ensuring the prison system stays in business and correctional officers employed. Another example is Bill Clinton's welfare reform which eliminated Aid to Families With Dependent Children and forced women into low paying jobs with no consideration for child care. Thus, a new category of the working poor. Yes, Bill Clinton has a relationship with African Americans but has he really treated us with dignity and respect? Finally, Rev. Wright spoke of the lies of the American government. According to Rev. Wright, the American government lied about the connection of Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein; the connection of 9/11 to Operation Iraqi Freedom; and, weapons of mass destruction. Ironically, the goal of the democratic party is to unseat the current administration because of these very lies and the detriment they have caused to our economy and standing in the world. The remaining Bush supporters are among the rare few who choose to think otherwise. They (Sean Hannity) are also believed to be the originators of this controversy. Once again, the American public is being duped. Unfortunately, Senator Obama is receiving the brunt of it all. He is now being charged as being associated with a racist and anti-American minister by white Americans and lacking allegiance by African American ministers. There has been no focus on John McCain's spiritual advisors or the Reverend Billy Graham who was heard on tape speaking against the Jewish people to former president Richard Nixon. Hopefully, Americans will look beyond the rhetoric and analyze Senator Obama's capacity to be president based upon his record and ideological perspectives about the issues that really matter to this country.

..

<!-- END NEWS ARTICLE --><!-- END NEWS ARTICLE -->

Currently listening : The Cool By Lupe Fiasco Release date: 2007-12-18

2:00 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Unleashed.............. Again!!!!
Current mood: knighted

Once again, the shadows part, and the Assassin Stands before you again, Bigger Guns More Clips, and lots of AC (it's gonna be a Long HOT Summer people!) I've been doing alot of self searching, growing, and advancing.  I live in the City of Angels people, and unfortunately, the Angels left my city long ago. I have new targets, i'll examine old ones, but one way or another alot of people out there, EVEN SOME ON MY LIST!, will feel the pain on the Assasins Bullet,. Strap In, the Ride begins Soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Currently listening : Late Orchestration Release date: 2006-07-28

10:19 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Truth and More truth!

I begin this new installment  by apologizing in advance for the incomplete nature of the subject matter being presented. I seek only to give brief examples and not go too in depth into slavery or racism, but more so to discuss why we were once the victims of this and other Americans still hold onto the idea of race. I correlate this stubborn inability to let go with the very way in which slavery and racism became a part of this nation. Explaining the difference between the institution's past, present and future will hopefully help us to understand how to fight it and overcome it, as it remains alive, not just in visible places like Jena, Louisiana, but all over the world as well. We are only given a glimpse of racism when looking at black and brown issues of inequality in America. Prejudice continues to flourish globally for a variety of reasons. But to further explain how racism, which is the institutionalized belief and law-backed ideology of racial superiority, came to outlast the very condition of slavery from which most people see it originate from, we must go back to the beginning. We must go back before the times of our own empire and subsequent Corporate Republic.

Slavery originated long before what we come to read about ever so quickly in the under-funded classrooms across America. It was already an established reality by the time the Hammurabi Code of Mesopotamia (approx. 1800 BC) was created. The Code's principles related to the relief of debt, enslavement to facilitate compensation, and for the framework of a postwar societies caste system. But even before the Code and most certainly after the glory of Mesopotamia had subsided, it continued to manifest itself differently, but always with the same economic principle. Although present day conflicts are far removed from ancient times, the people themselves as well as their resources are still commonly seen as spoils of war. Phillip II of Macedon, who was Alexander the Great's father, received 20,000 women and countless young boys as tribute for his conquest of the ancient empire of Scythia. Instead of destroying the kingdom itself though he left Ateus, it's ruler in charge, and continued the slave trade to re-build the empire whose resources his son would then use to conquer a large part of the Asiatic world.

But the word "slave" actually originates from the Latin word "slav," which described the people from the Slavic regions that were conquered and sold into bondage. It was these Eastern Europeans who were sacrificed on the altar of industry that were bought and sold to serve the Empires of Old. Whether it was in the Barbarian Kingdoms of Europe who reigned after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Near Eastern Arab Lords or what was known then as the Imperium Romanus (Byzantine Empire), they toiled and were deprived of their lands, labor, and women for the pleasure of the strongest military forces of that era. And since it was the Latin and Arabic tongues that most of Europe and subsequently all of its colonies in the Americas adopted their language from, that created this synonymous concept of "slavs" being known as "slaves."

During this example, I have to point out how the American version of slavery sought not only to redefine the institution, but achieved that by separating people from their history. I can remember as a teenager having had several arguments with people who most of them being white, claimed that since Africans sold their own people into slavery it wasn't really as much the fault of the enslaver. While this is an understandable reaction to the guilt and the striving towards escapism from the actions of ones ancestors, it doesn't lift the burden from their colonial masters. This nation and others still benefit from that and will continue to for years to come. It doesn't make the purveyors of such malice, hatred, and deceit guilty of any less of a crime. As if me holding someone down while you rape them makes you any less guilty of what you did. I may have made your cold-blooded goal easier to attain, but I don't carry any blame for you, I carry my own blame for myself rather than a part of yours for you. We must all carry our responsibility to whatever end... in full tow. And yet if I am, but the servant of your will then I am only doing my masters bidding in the crime and yet I share in none of the glory, and devour only the scraps from the table. It is also important to point out that the definition of slavery by other Africans was completely different from the stripping of all humanity and conversion into physical property of people by Europeans.

We would be remiss to point out though that ever since the beginning of humanity, people have always found methods of defining themselves so as to consolidate power in order to live in a state of perpetually declared and reinforced superiority. Not necessarily just in their eyes. But more importantly, to the people they conquered who were forced to help construct the nation of the victorious party. One must realize that all people who have been held in bondage by their conquerors because of their so called race, nationality, religion or supposed lack thereof were actually instrumental in building the foundation of every aspect of that culture, the scientific advancements, political framework, and economic pillars. Impossible to overlook also is the workforce that suffered to build the beautiful structures by which these civilizations are often remembered best for. The subjugated masses were not only the tool for their masters in building, but also in populating and fighting for the preservation of the very entity, be it an Empire or a Nation, that coincidentally reduced them to the form of servitude and that redefined their place in the world. A nation in other words is and has not been defined just by its citizens, but also very much so by its slaves. The purpose of this text though is not to delve so much into the complete history of slavery, but to see how racism was formed in modern times to justify it for an economic purpose and how the inability to face these facts that created the particular circumstances of continued discrimination we see it today.

After all, it was Hebrews in Egypt who burned their skin even darker laboring in the hellfire of midday on the outskirts of the deserts following the orders of the Master Masons to make the wonders of the world that have stood the test of time we see today. Whereas the influence of Moors in Spain is undoubted as their dark hair and even their language is a mixture of Common Latin, with noticeable Arabic influences, they were not affected as a people the way they forcefully catechized the Indigenous population. The Native people of South and Central America not only mined their master's gold and silver for centuries, but also built their cities and temples over their own old structures. But an even more critical acknowledgement is how they still carry on the traditions of their Spanish conquerors today. These include, but are not limited too, aspects of their music, food, and racial bias. I think it would also do a great disservice to anyone who has ever studied religion to point out that without so called Latino people, Christianity, wouldn't have half the followers that it does today. We have carried the word of Christ who we are told from youth died horribly to save our souls into the 21st century. That itself is a structure that has lasted and will last longer than just about any building created in the middle ages or before that. And Mother Africa has always suffered in being the breadbasket for all of the people who have invaded her. From ancient times, fast forwarding not only to be sacrificed to the slave trade in what would become the United States where they built many monuments including the White House. But also under the laissez-faire mercantile aspect of primitive capitalism where they were the basis for the entire Caribbean and New World mainland economic boom that provided the rise of these countries and more specifically the institutions that still govern them today. The blueprint was set for corporate control battling to dominate government as the Church once did, but with much more effectiveness this time around. In short, it is the global Slave trade that was to be the major contributor if not the shining example of the Capital that was required and presented to found Capitalism.

(For people who always ask me for books to read, Capitalism & Slavery by Eric Williams 1944.)

These colonies and their former fatherlands owed a majority of their fortunes and the build up of their Mercantile industry to slave labor. As a matter of fact it created what was considered the "Golden Age" during the rule of Elizabeth I in England. At first it was done under the guise of needing to save the souls of the Africans, but later it became evident that plain avarice was the gospel of slave traders and their noble sovereigns.

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/history-slavery.htm (This here is by no means a complete understanding of even modern slavery, but in the beginning where it discusses the two faced nature of the Crown in its dealings, it is a suitable accurate necessity for this argument.)

This rather broad topic was the reason I wrote "Industrial Revolution" almost four years ago. It was meant to accredit our people's unwilling, but unforgettable contribution to that. We bankrolled it over the course of hundreds of years of brutal treatment and downplayed contributions. Paid not just for the expansion of England, but also all European nations through genocide. The Natives sacrificed their land, unwillingly, just as others had before them. All this was perpetrated, so that a tired and war-torn Europe could give birth to a new Nation here. This country was then born in violence and plunder and so when it matured it took on the image that its forefathers across the seas had created her in -- and like many abused children instead of growing up to resent and separate itself from the actions of its parents, it grew to associate the negative behavior and displays of raw power and violence, as trademarks of what a nation needed for strength and invulnerability.

However I must recognize the 100th US Congress for passing an amendment in 1988, which gave credit to the Iroquois Confederacy for providing fundamental ideas upon which our US government created it's Republic. (Poverty of Philosophy on Vol. 1 mentions this briefly.)

The Eastern European slavs were the basis for a word, which the word that has coiled itself like a serpent around the neck of racism like an old school rope chain 1000 years before the first slave ship "Jesus of Lubeck" dubbed "The Good Ship Jesus" first left Africa with slaves bound for Europe and the new world. When looking at South America, Africa, and the Caribbean, one has only to examine the nations conquerors to know why these Indigenous people speak Spanish and Portuguese or why these African people here speak those languages and French was as well as a derivative of English mixed with their own native languages such as in Jamaica. I was having a discussion with a fellow Revolutionary who had no idea that his Jamaican brothers once all spoke Spanish. Its insane to actually read the history that the island of Jamaica was once full of African, Spanish-speaking slaves who were then conquered by the English after the failed attack on the island of Hispaniola... Imagine if history had seen that invasion proceed and the English hold the Hispaniola, leaving the Spanish with Jamaica. Imagine Jamaicans speaking Spanish and Dominicans speaking English... It's okay to laugh here.

Slavery was redefined as not the condition of a person due to war or the bounty of conquest, but rather a genetic hierarchy and the idea of racial inferiority and hegemony was created, to cement it all together. However it was not something that began in America although they ran with it, but a formulated idea that began after the fall of Grenada in early 1492. This completed the European Spanish "Reconquista" militarily, but it was the beginning of their racist government policy. What followed was what would set up the early excuses for different branches of races to be given different rights. The Spaniards enslaved or expelled the Black Muslim Moors and required the excuse for enslavement by race and religion to rebuild the nation. They then instituted the "Alhambra decree," which expelled all the Jews from Spain and also forced Muslims to convert to Roman Catholicism or face execution. This gave way to Spain's own "limpieza de la sangre" or "purification of the blood" philosophy. This historical truth is of course contrary to Pope Benedict XVI's fantasy-land claim that Christian's never held forced conversions. Besides this I invite him to also read the history of South America and come to terms with the fact that all people have used the issue of religion as well as race to subjugate a people, and certainly Christianity does not escape this category. It is for this reason that I have always stated that to name any movement that deals with Immigrant Rights in the South West "La Reconquista" is pure idiocy. It is a reflection of the beginning of white European's definition of racism. We should not emulate it in any spirit, but learn how it came to create our condition today.

To understand how all this translates into the Modern Race problems of today one has to first understand how the U.S. justified slavery in many different ways. It was not only the inability of America to co-exist with the complete hypocrisy that the slave trade was to its proclaimed Christian Values and Democracy. The US was faced with the chilling reality of the necessity to support the beginnings of a Capitalist Empire and assert its control of the region through conquest. Indian Wars, Mexican American War, Spanish American War, Banana Wars, were a necessity for its expansion and stability due to the nature of the type of Republican (the corporate state not the party) prototype, which is quite frankly the living embodiment of terrorism. Terrorism is after all, organized violence with a political and or economic purpose. It should be noted that many of the founding fathers were students of history, as most Masons are. They designed a system where they knew the truth, but purposefully denied it to the average white American racist not out of nature, but out of ignorance. The men with power in this nation who always understood the contributions of Africans and Indigenous people crafted these lies about racial inferiority and the need to purify the soul from pagan religion as the ultimate excuse for free labor, resources and land. There is something intrinsically two-faced and despicable about the difference in what they knew of the world and what they were willing to convince with their lack of argument against in the nation. As masons, all of them knew not only the history of Europe, but of Africa and therefore this is not an indictment of secret societies, but much more of men in government who were cowards in the face of true desire. If they had just coldly (or rather truthfully) said to the Africans and Natives, we wanted your land and labor and we have the force with which to take it, then after slavery was abolished the racial prejudice would have been slowly phased out, but it lingered so brutally because of the excuses made for modern enslavement. The notion that humanity had superior races and had subspecies of people that were primitive compared to others was thus carried over from Europe to America. Thomas Jefferson was one of the few Founding Fathers who (in the Virginia Papers) argued for the possible assimilation of the Native American and yet saw the African as savages and untamable.

Even modern religious excuses were created, not only the popular Bible belt preachers that spoke against integration and inter-racial marriage, but even smaller groups like Mormon sects of Christianity exhibited a form of pretentious racism in their gospel, which stated that as a punishment God painted certain people with darker skin cursed the savage "lamanites" (Native Americans) and that the "Mark of Cain" was placed upon blacks and that's why they were cursed, until a 1978 "revelation," which couldn't have possibly been the overwhelming national and international pressure... And while Brigham Young's racist rants in "Journal of Discourses" is not official LDS gospel, it reflects the age and the practice of most Churches at the time. This is not bigotry, or bias, these are facts. I have met many modern Christians of all sects, Protestants, Catholics, Evangelicals and Mormons who come to terms with this and cannot truly justify some of the more outlandish claims of their church, but who use their faith to try and better their lives. But in examining these facts, it is an actual part of the religion, it is something that cannot be skirted and perhaps that is why some people of that faith are very quick to not seek and have open discussions about these doctrines preached. The same way there are banks and companies, who directly benefited from the middle passage who refuse to open their old records to public view on the matter. But the most damaging of all these causes of ignorance is the Racial Science of Eugenics, which tried to prove through a fundamentally flawed discipline that their were sub human species exemplified by Indigenous people and of course the black African. But this was also applied lightly to other "races" of South Eastern Europeans, like Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, Armenians and Slavs who had to apply to be considered white and received benefits from being included in that group that others never did during the early 1900s.

It is because of these excuses and junk science that were actually accepted or at least not challenged in a manner which was formidable until 1935 when it was finally decided to be phased out of the scientific community and the forceful and secret sterilization programs of Native Americans continued into the 1970's and is still the subject of great international debate.

The destruction of the outwardly racist aspects of Eugenics also became necessary as the US descended into a propaganda war with Germany during World War 2. Racial science still found support from students of Darwin's Theory's of "Survival of the Fittest" and interpreters of "The Descent of Man" coupled with the disgraced Eugenicists eagerness to prove the superiority of the white race. The ghost of racial science still haunts the hallways of intellectual institutions through its promotion standards of achievement based on racial heredity implicated by the Bell Curve. Eventually though, the rise of Nazi Germany would show the world what a state could do in Modern times when using science to claim the superiority of one race over another. Perhaps we could have avoided this inhuman Holocaust if we had acknowledged the existence of others before it under a similar premise.

Realistically though if those people who were caged could have been connected to the glory of their past then perhaps they themselves would not have been so easily convinced of their own proposed "heathen nature", and could not have accepted it as if it were the essence of their true selves. And that goes for all enslaved people... all of those who find themselves oppressed throughout the globe. A people's identity comes not only from the color of their skin and the language they speak, but also the God they whisper their prayers to or loudly proclaim their undying loyalty to with action. There is no such thing as a white man's religion just a white European interpretation of a certain religious faith -- and all religions, no matter how the zealots who love them have to understand, have been introduced to people by conquerors.

At this point, it is necessary to acknowledge that revolutionary concepts are present in both Islam and Christianity and how both have respectively created the basis for a revolutionary path to those enslaved people who were confined to a world of ignorance which is a prison darker than any man made dungeon. Judaism, Buddhism and all other faiths have built into them a mechanism to preserve themselves even under the harsh conditions and people can always find methods to convert any faith into a weapon. But the strongest weapon that one has when it concerns fighting racism is the history of all of these religions.

Both Christianity and Judaism have strong roots in Africa -- and without Africa, Islam would not have traveled west past the borders of Arabia. Western and Eastern Europe were still ruled by tribal councils when these Nations in Africa had aided in bringing about the formulation, redefinition and governing ideas of these faiths. For example, it should be noted that Christianity reached Africa before it ever reached Europe. Although it was obviously not utilized as a siege weapon of conquest as Constantine was able to, it was an empowering idea for people who already understood the principles of this line of thought. If you read the Bible it mentions Ethiopia and Egypt (Kemet) over 250 times, where as Rome and Greece is only spoken of a handful of times. The actual Ark of the Covenant is still theorized by many historians to be kept hidden safe in Ethiopia, which should make you consider how a people who would later be depicted as savages and animals by their new masters could ever be the gatekeepers and originators of such a sacred aspect of humanity as the religions that we still live by today.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ark.html

And while it is one of three theories, it is proof of the close connection that does in fact exist with or without the Ark. In Eastern Africa during the first Millennia even leading up to the crusades, there existed sects of Christians who showed more disciplined dedication to the faith than any other followers of Christ as they use to brand their children's foreheads from birth with the symbol of a cross. (In their Gnostic Christian belief it was held that the Devil could only appear in the form of a spirit after Christ sacrificed himself to banish him from the physical realm but that Satan could still as a spirit infect and posses a person's body, and the Cross branded on the forehead from birth warded him off.)

Comparing the past to the present and future requires us to take note of how Romans and Greeks of that time did not have anywhere near the same prejudice as their future generations would. Otherwise why would so many Generals, Lords, Governors, Emperors and even Popes of African origin ever be in the service of the Empire or the faith? Strange to think that these modern day European immigrants and their neighbors who all came here in America who would adopt such an ideologically backward ideology as racism but this is a study of how that happened...

The reality of what history teaches us is that religion used to matter in the old world much more than the color of our skin. Their phenotypical differences didn't affect their marriage and or association with other people to the extent of what they preached and lived their faith to be. They simply respected their skills and abilities when they saw them, much the way America does now, because it's interests are not that of defending the nations that we come from, but rather, exploiting them through a modernized version of capitalism. Here and now they're willing to allow people who have been immersed and completely assimilated to American culture (no matter what color and sex,) from a conservative standpoint to represent the nation. But that doesn't signify that we all have equal rights in this country. (And since racism reinforces classism when you have a class of people who have the economic means to deal better with the legal system than others, one immediately points to race because it's obvious -- but the class factor has gone unmentioned until more recent times.) This phenomenon simply utilizes their skill and conveniently has the dual purpose of giving the false idea that diversity in a president's cabinet implies diversity in the nature of justice for all the nation's citizens. We are confused about our depraved condition because of the media attention given to a few artisans and millionaire modern gladiators who amuse the Empire in Coliseums. Most of our success stories walk around being 40 million dollar slaves and poster children for capitalism. Our people, need to take their patronage away from corporations who offer us meaningless material liabilities and we need not chastise them in this process but accept them open armed as our brothers and sisters. We need to make solid investments in our own infrastructure. We are a Nation within a Nation, which is what we must never forget if we strive to escape our condition, this is but a pit stop in our destiny, after all, one cannot free their mind if they have not even the slightest inclination of it's incarceration or colonization.

It was said that Jesus Christ could cast demons out of people by calling them by their name and so we must continue in that tradition. For how can someone be cured of alcoholism or drug addiction if they don't know they have a substance abuse problem? How can one be healed from cancer until they admit they have it and seek treatment, until they face that fight? We must call out racism's origins, and look behind it to see the misinformation it has been spreading to hide its true inherent master. Purposeful ignorance for financial gain is perhaps one of the most devilish concepts ever invented. Institutionalized racism is classism's greatest ally, its ground troops, for even when slavery ended the focus reverted to racism instead of the excuse for it and the capital gained from it to forge an empire.

It is because we have lost touch with our roots as a result of the colonial era genocide and global slave trade that we have not been able to connect to our past, and, to who we really are. When we mark our position in the present taking note of the past puts a trajectory on our evolution of our culture as a people. We were not just enslaved, we were brainwashed religiously, de-evolved politically and scientifically, spiritually robbed, our relationship with our women severed and our achievements lost by the rewriting of our history by our conquerors. Our greatest mistake is to fight this on only one level. We keep thinking only one thing can conquer our oppression, we think that a radical political system like Communism, or that just a religious system like Islam, a sect of Christianity or an economic system that is a farce like a free market can improve our situation collectively. And what we really end up doing is playing a game of "mercy" with one finger against an entire hand of repressive indoctrinations.

We must conduct a Revolution on all fronts. One in the arts, music, poetry, legal work, teaching, theology, medicine, childcare & development, all forms of Media, science, math, and engineering, etc., all in order to fight centuries of purposeful ignorance. My work with youth and with gangs especially has shown me what difference there is in a child when he realizes who his ancestors were and what scientific and mathematical concepts they are the inventors and originators of. We should not run from our intelligence or our potential but seriously accept our responsibility to find the cause and to lift ourselves out of it because the forces that crushed our Rebellions in the past will not help us. While some have criticized my work in building this Army, I have dispatched all who have come looking for knowledge to a front in this war that has nothing to do with random acts of physical violence but rather and aggressive reclaiming of our history, politics, spirituality, and so forth. I was once sent on this sort of mission myself by my former teachers who passed their knowledge onto me. I while I am by no means a Master teacher or a General, I apologize that I cannot offer the expertise of such a person at this time in my life. I am just the Captain of my own unit, I do what I can for my people, (regardless of race or faith,) those who would believe in the promise of what America could be and not the broken promise of what it is now... I wish I could do more. But this is where we begin to address Racism, global racism, and the evolution of the slave trade by putting it into historical context. Continue it until we are free when I am gone.

12:44 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

What Would You Do?

What Would You Do If You Found Out That The U.S. Was Responsible For The Terror Attacks On 9-11? How Would Your Perception Of This "War On Terror" Change?

The following information is intended to clarify exactly what the real story is behind the Bush Administration's so-called "War On Terror," and to shed light on the US-Sponsored, self-inflicted and pre-agreed upon "enemy creation" that led to the attacks on September 11th, 2001. The information provided is intended as an alternative and sorely-needed point-of-view -- a point-of-view which is in direct opposition to the corporate-sponsored propaganda machine that we know as the US Media. Here are the facts:

What is the Patriot Act and how does it affect us?

The Patriot Act is emergency legislation that was hurriedly signed into law immediately following the events of 9/11/2001. It's passage has effectively nullified at least six amendments of the Bill of Rights addendum to the U.S. Constitution. As a result of this, America has become nothing short of a Police State. The Patriot Act is, in fact, a massive violation of the Constitution it purports to uphold and improve. Among other things, it mandates that judges give police search warrants when they ask for them, for any reason. In fact, judges can't deny these warrants to police, because police don't need a stated reason to ask for them.

The Bill of Rights is the cornerstone of American freedom. During the debates on the adoption of the Constitution in the 1790s, its opponents repeatedly charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the central government. Many states would not have signed the original Constitution without knowing that these amendments would be added. These amendments became known as the Bill of Rights, which Americans have cherished, protected and fought for for over 200 years.

The Patriot Act rushed through Congress and signed by President George W. Bush is a major step toward a totalitarian state in which individual liberty is crushed by the whim of police and corporate demagogues masquerading as patriots.

Read The Patriot Act here.

The Patriot Act:

Violates the First Amendment freedom of speech guarantee, the provision allowing the right to peaceably assemble, and the provision allowing the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.

Violates the Fourth Amendment guarantee of probable cause in astonishingly major and repeated ways. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution reads: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons of things to be seized." The Patriot Act, now passed and the law of the land, has revoked the necessity for probable cause, and now allows the police, at any time and for any reason, to enter and search your house. Under the act they are not required to even tell you why.

Violates the Fifth Amendment by allowing for indefinite incarceration without trial for those deemed by the Attorney General to be threats to national security. The Fifth Amendment guarantees that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, and the Patriot Act does away with due process. It even allows people to be kept in prison for life without even a trial.

Violates the Sixth Amendment guarantee of the right to a speedy and public trial. Now you may get no trial at all, ever.

Violates the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment).

Violates the 13th Amendment (punishment without conviction).

From the ACLU's objections:

* It minimizes judicial supervision of telephone and Internet surveillance by law enforcement authorities in anti-terrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigations unrelated to terrorism. (Unrelated to terrorism? WTF? That means anything. Maybe surveillance of those expressing political dissent? Ya think?)

* It expands the ability of the government to conduct secret searches in anti-terrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigations unrelated to terrorism. (Again - unrelated to terrorism? That means anything. If you disagree with the government's policies publically then this applies to you).

* It gives the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the power to designate domestic groups as terrorist organizations and block any non-citizen who belongs to them from entering the country. Under this provision the payment of membership dues is a deportable offense. (That means, among other things, that Bush and Ashcroft can decide that even obviously peaceful organizations are terrorists, and under this law, can put them in jail).

* It grants the FBI broad access to sensitive medical, financial, mental health, and educational records about individuals without having to show evidence of a crime and without a court order. (I can't help you if you don't see the danger in this).

* It could lead to large-scale investigations of American citizens for "intelligence" purposes and use of intelligence authorities to bypass probable cause requirements in criminal cases. (This could apply to anyone).

* It puts the CIA and other intelligence agencies back in the business of spying on Americans by giving the Director of Central Intelligence the authority to identify priority targets for intelligence surveillance in the United States.

* It allows searches of highly personal financial records without notice and without judicial review based on a very low standard that does not require probable cause of a crime or even relevancy to an ongoing terrorism investigation. (They can do any of this without any reason whatsoever. This is the kind of freedom fascists have always wanted - freedom to put everyone who disagrees with them in jail).

* It creates a broad new definition of "domestic terrorism" that could sweep in people who engage in acts of political protest and subject them to wiretapping and enhanced penalties. (This means they can jail anyone who disagrees with them, and keep them in jail for life without a trial).

What are the spoils of the USA's current war, the "War on Terrorism?? What's the profit motive?

The Caspian Sea region has potentially the world's largest oil reserves (6 trillion dollars worth), likely making Central Asia the next Middle East. The problem, up until now, has been access. Afghanistan occupies a strategic position between the Caspian and the markets of the Indian subcontinent and east Asia. It's prime territory for building pipelines, which is why the oil company Unocal -- as well as the U.S. government -- welcomed the Taliban's rise to power in 1996 as a promising source of "stability." And while this stability didn't materialize, people like Bush Jr. and the oil men around him have never given up on the tremendous profit possibilities that Central Asia offers.

Remember that both Bush and Vice President Cheney are wealthy oil men and that a multi-billion dollar oil pipeline across Afghanistan will be needed to bring much of that oil to market. It's already under construction. Also know that VP Cheney's former employer, the Haliburton Corporation, is not only in the pipeline construction business, but gave him a $34 million dollar severance package and rebuilt Iraq's oil infastructure after the USA bombed it in the Gulf War. Although Unocal claims to no longer have an interest in the project, it is also important to note that Zalmay Khalilzad who is the US Envoy to Aghanistan was a Unocal advisor.

Therefore a forced conflict with people they already have no regard for was the perfect vehicle to enable them to set up shop with the U.S. population's explicit approval.

As for legal grounds, the November 26th, 2001 issue of Newsweek states:

Secret Legal Document Gave Bush Wartime Powers, Including Holding Secret Tribunals

NEW YORK, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- After he signed an order allowing the use of military tribunals in terrorist cases, President George W. Bush insisted he alone should decide who goes before such a military court, his aides tell Newsweek. The tribunal document gives the government the power to try, sentence -- and even execute -- suspected foreign terrorists in secrecy, under special rules that would deny them constitutional rights and allow no chance to appeal. Bush's powers to form a military court came from a secret legal memorandum, which the U.S. Justice Department began drafting in the days after Sept.11, Newsweek has learned. The memo allows Bush to invoke his broad wartime powers, since the U.S., they concluded, was in a state of "armed conflict." Bush used the memo as the legal basis for his order to bomb Afghanistan.

If that's not a dictator using his power for personal gain and the gain of corporate interests then I don't know what is. Now dig this:

Bushwatch.Net reports:

The U.S. Eyes Oil in Central Asia and Steps on Russia's Turf
THE NEW COLD WAR

WASHINGTON, D.C.: As the war winds down, the U.S. is eyeing Central Asia as a new colony. And as America projects its power across the region, it runs the risk of setting off a new cold war with Moscow. A few reasons why:

Big Oil is once again taking a hard look at prospects for building a pipeline carrying Caspian Sea oil across Afghanistan and down through Pakistan to ports on the Arabian Sea. "The large-scale projects aimed at building gas and oil pipelines linking the Caspian region with the attractive international market of the Arabian Sea may become the principal, if not the only, means to breathe a [new] life into Afghanistan," Martha Brill Olcott, a Carnegie Endowment scholar, told the Moscow paper Izvestia.

Turkmenistan, which used to be part of the Soviet Union and has huge natural gas deposits, is key to controlling the region. In late October, Turkmenistan's president, Saparmurat Niyazov, sent a letter to the UN leaders advocating construction of a pipeline bringing Turkmen gas across Afghan territory to Pakistan's Arabian Sea ports. The Far Eastern Economic Review reports Niyazov claimed the pipeline "will help rebuild this country [Afghanistan], normalize peaceful life and work of the Afghan people and also accelerate socio-economic development of the entire adjacent region."

In Moscow at the end of last month, Niyazov declared, "We could sell to foreign markets about 120 billion cubic meters of gas annually, but we can not do this due to the lack of pipelines."

Another important reason for the war in Afghanistan is for control of the opium poppies used to make most of the heroin in the world. One would think that President Bush with his 'War on Drugs/Terror' would seek to stop the manufacture of heroin in Afghanistan now that the U.S. has taken over control of the country. But instead it has been reported that the new ruling Northern Alliance is expanding substantially the growing of opium poppies and the manufacture of heroin in Afghanistan.

According to the Glasgow Herald, a United Nations survey showed that fields used for poppy production almost tripled in size in the last year, going from 5,000 to 13,000 acres. Those fields weren't bin Laden's. They were the Northern Alliance's. Could it be that the Bushes, Cheney and the CIA really are involved, as long-rumored, in heavy-duty drug trafficking all over the world?

Just food for thought...

But what about Terrorism and 9/11? Do you have facts or is this a conspiracy theory?

Understand the label "conspiracy theory" is a tactic that the media often invokes to immediately discredit voices of dissent and people who seek truth. The tactic of creating manufactured enemies for personal gain has been around for as long as there have been conflicts. Of course there's no concrete proof of a conspiracy - the media would never allow that - but rather an abundance of evidence that points to a conspiracy on behalf of US interests. Know that there's no concrete proof of the involvement of any other country either. The first thing that you must do is ask yourself, over and over again, the following question: "Who benefits?"

Does Bin Laden benefit from the response that an act of war was surely to generate? Does Saudi Arabia and/or Afghanistan? How did we know it was him immediately after the event? It's now more important then ever that we question everything and recognize propaganda when we see it.

Many of the media outlets now do little more than fan the flames of bigotry, exacerbate irrational fears or attempt to appeal to our sense of compassion - oftentimes in collaboration with some type of "Save/Heal/Help America" sales campaign. And while we all agree that a crime was committed with the WTC bombings, was this crime an act of war by another country? Assuming that this actually was a non-USA sponsored event, and assuming that Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban/Al Queda are indeed the culprits, does the act allegedly committed by him and his organization amount to an act of war by Afghanistan? If I go into another country and commit a crime am I declaring war on that country in the name of the USA? Do I have the ability politically to declare war on anyone in the name of the USA? Absolutely not. Think about it.

But let's get back to my point about manufactured enemies. Crassus did it with the slave revolt led by Sparticus against Rome. Cicero did it with Caesar by hiring thugs to cause as much disturbance as possible in Rome, all the while campaigning on a promise to end the internal strife if elected and granted extraordinary powers. Hitler did it with Reichstagg the same way. FDR did it to mask the symptoms of a sick economy struggling back from the Great Depression by entering us into WW2. Johnson did it in Vietnam to stimulate defense spending. The US government even plotted to kill americans and frame the Cubans for it in 1962 so it would have an excuse to invade Cuba (read the recently declassified Northwoods Document here and covered by ABC News). Bush Sr. did it for oil money - when OPEC failed to keep limits on oil production in the Mideast, the market was being glutted with oil pumped from underneath Iraq, which sat over roughly 1/3 of the oil reserves of the entire region. Bush Sr. wanted a war to stop that flow of oil and to keep prices (and profits) from falling any further than they already had. But like Roosevelt with Japan, he needed the "other side" to make the first move. Clinton did it to divert attention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal, first bombing Sudan and then Afghanistan for supposed chemical weapons violations. Later examination proved the Sudanese site to be an aspirin factory and the site in Afghanistan to be a mosque.

So you see, what I'm proposing is nothing new. Ask yourself - what did this current administration have to gain? Well, the unification of the country after a fraudulent election, oil profiteering to the tune of 6 trillion dollars and rapid and unchecked expansion of federal authority, for starters. Add to these facts the disturbing string of suspicious deaths related to Bush administrations past and present and the story becomes all-too-clear.

Now for the facts:

* It was widely reported that none of the names of the so-called Arab terrorists were on any of the passenger lists of any of the four planes involved in 9-11. Yet within 48 hours, the FBI and CIA somehow managed to produce the pictures and names of 19 Arabs who were supposedly the "terrorists" on the planes, even though none of their names were on any of the passenger lists. How did they know? Were they determined to be "terrorists" just because the had Arab names?

* There has been no real official FBI or CIA follow-up to the millions of dollars in stock options profits generated by the attacks. Why not? Surely additional inquiries into the money trail (not Bin Laden's) will yield surprising results.

* It was reported that the black boxes from the planes, which record conversations between the pilot and ground control, were all either destroyed or the conversations on recovered blackboxes could not be released to the general public. Why not? Black boxes are built to survive the worst plane crashes imaginable. By not releasing the black box communications and data, we can never know what really happened in the cockpit, on the aircraft and who really flew the planes. Additionally, there had to be some communication between the pilots and Air traffic Control. Yet no air traffic controller was interviewed to talk about their conversations with the pilots during the course of the "hijackings." In a news story this big, why not? So much time has passed now that it doesn't matter anymore anyway - there's been ample time to alter the audio. Indeed, many of the family members who were allowed to hear selected portions of the tapes couldn't even make out the voices of their loved ones.

* Global Hawk pilotless plane technology has existed since 1998 but is rarely discussed and could have been used in the 9-11 events. I'm only noting this because Bush himself has publically declared that the technology doesn't exist. It does, and it goes to show how the government and media's campaign of disinformation works. It is rumored that up to four planes can be flown at once utilizing this technology. How many planes were involved in 9-11? Four. And according to almost all professional commercial airline pilots, the supposed Arab "hijackers" could not have flown those planes at all, or as well as they were flown, if they only attended the flight schools that were reported in the news. Although I question the use of this technology in the attacks myself, it's worthy of discussion because of the denial of it's existence.

* Remember the story of the rental car found so conveniently at Boston airport, where two planes were hijacked, which contained, of all things, a copy of the Koran and an instructional video for how to fly commercial jets? An instructional video? I thought they went to school. Yet they can hit buildings with pinpoint accuracy? We're supposed to believe that?

* What about the "Bin Laden confession video" that was "found" an a living room VCR in Afghanistan? Do we look that stupid? I guess so. And remember the highjacker's passport found at Ground Zero? No black boxes made it, but the mighty passport survived...

* No US military planes were sent up to intercept any of the hijacked planes even though there were at least 30 minutes to an hour from the time it was known that the planes were hijacked. Much has been written about this by the alternative free press on the internet. It is standard procedure for military planes to be sent up within 10 minutes if a plane is off course and has not communicated with ground control. This is normal safety protocol because an off-course plane could potentially result in a mid-air collision. The relevant question why US military jets weren't deployed correctly under these emergency and highly-dangerous conditions? If you think Bin Laden could have done all of this sitting in some cave in Afghanistan - think again. The only people who could have pulled this one off are high-ranking officials within our own government.

Those are just a few of the most disturbing oddities.

So let's recap. None of the supposed Arab "terrorist" names were on any of the passenger flight lists and the U.S. Government, within 48 hours, showed us pictures of 19 Arab "terrorists" - even though the FBI and CIA said they had no prior information that the 911 event could happen. Live pilots in the cockpit, we find, aren't even needed to fly any of the four planes at all, as Global Hawk technology could conceivably allow for them all to be flown by a single pilot from the ground.

Hence, the 19 Arab "hijackers" weren't necessary at all, although I don't dispute their involvement. But by the U.S. Government refusing to publically release any of the pilot-to-ground control communications from the (allegedly destroyed) blackboxes in the aircraft, it effectively blacks out any conversation from the "hijacked" airline pilots possibly telling the control tower that the flight controls of their planes had been taken over.

Other important major benefactors of the "War on Terror" are the war industrialists/defense contractors. George Bush, Jr.'s father is/was one of the main players in one of the largest investment firms profiting from defense companies in the World: the Carlyle Group. This is an example of nepotism at it's finest, as the Bush family stands to make a tremendous amount of money from his involvement with the Carlyle Corporation and the awarding of defense contracts. The Bin Ladens and the Bushes have been doing business together for many years. How interesting.

And finally, probably one of the biggest giveaways that Bin Laden is not the main "Mastermind" behind 9-11 is the fact that since 9-11, there have been NO additional "terrorist" acts perpetrated against, or in, the US or Europe. Not one bullet has been fired on U.S. soil. Not one bomb exploded.

So here we have this "master terrorist," Osama Bin Laden, who supposedly committed the biggest terrorist act ever on U.S. soil and yet he has not been able to commit even a small terrorist act against his "enemy" - the U.S. - since 9-11. Afghanistan has been bombed viciously and thousands of innocent, defenseless Afghani men, women and children have been killed by American forces, as have Bin Laden's Al Queda forces, but the "enemy terrorist" is not fighting back? Huh?

We are told constantly by the U.S. Government that Bin Laden has thousands of "sleeper operatives" just waiting in the wings to commit terrorist acts in the U.S. and Europe. Where are they? Now he disappears, all the while costing the American taxpayers billions of dollars. Pentagon officials have said several times they may never be able to find Bin Laden. Hmm... I guess any country supposedly harboring him now is ripe for U.S. state-sponsored terrorism. If the capture of Bin Laden really was the true objective, wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to have offered a one billion dollar reward for him and his cronies and not send any military force to Afghanistan? Was the loss of life of thousands of innocent Afghani civilians, along with Taliban and American military personnel really necessary?

It has been reported that the U.S. had plans to invade Afghanistan and oust the Taliban months before 9-11. Can you say Oil?

Is the USA supposed to be the World's Police, or is it enough that we pick and choose our fights as long as we are sincere about helping the people of that region?

Ask yourself, are we supposed to be the world's police? Are we supposed to consistently murder and be murdered for other people's concerns? Who does the fighting, and who always dies? Surely not the children of lawmakers and politicians. They always elude conflict, just as Bush Jr. did with the help of his father. Order and read the Book FORTUNATE SON: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President, second edition here for additional uncut info on our supposed Commander-In-Chief. By they way, who says we're sincere? The corporate-sponsored, propaganda-spewing media? Since when have we ever "helped" anybody with nothing to gain ourselves? Think!

Are you partisan, and would you really have preferred Al Gore as president? His wife was the one who began explicitly censoring hiphop. Doesn't the Democratic Party have the same amount of self-interests as Republicans?

Aside from the fact that Al Gore won the election, understand that this is bigger than Hip-Hop. How many people and/or companies in popular media now would openly entertain a message like mine given the current political climate generated by THIS administration?

There are many, many people out there who feel as I do, who are tired of the propaganda and constant media bombardment and lack of any news and/or entertainment of substance. Look at the superficial state of hip-hop now. Where are all of the major labels who claim to be for the people? For the street? Down with the real? Who claim that change in hip-hop is needed? Wasn't it Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam, who recently brought up this very fact at a major hip-hop conference? Well? Pitiful. Remember that people buy what is glorified and given to them. Instead of progressive acts that people are hungering for we now have constant negativity. Look at the countless references to ecstacy in popular music as an example. Amerikkka's new manufactured genocide drug of choice. Where are the lyrical standards enforcers now?

Now of course I know the Democratic Party has it's evils, I'm not disputing that in the least. But it is definitely the lessor of the two evils, as it doesn't have such a severe record of systematic exclusion and racist bias. Both Bushes, John Ashcroft, David Duke, Ralph Reed, Pat Buchannan, Orrin Hatch, Dick Armey, Ward Connerly, Bill O'Reilly, Shawn Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and a host of others are all Republicans, remember. And let us not forget the Supreme Court nomination implications.

If what you say is true, what would the end result be, and why would anyone risk the many things that could go wrong with such courses of action? There?d be nothing left to rule!

There would be everything left to rule with a subservient, docile population good for nothing but consumerism. Again, ask yourself who really has gained as a result of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. A climate of fear and the constant media reminders of a "terror threat" keep us blindly backing anything the government wants to do. All we need now is bar codes on our foreheads.

Call me unpatriotic if you like, but that would be a blind assumption. Know that it is more unpatriotic to not question the government and it's actions, especially when our rights are being violated and so many people are adversely affected by what it does. Understand that when our government acts like this, THE WHOLE WORLD LOSES.

The first casualty of war is the truth.

1:47 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

I Return..........

10:59 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Gentrification, Parts 6,7,8, and 9

Valentine's family came to Venice in 1917 — no mean feat, considering they were African-American, and many Southern California communities had restrictive racial covenants prohibiting black buyers from moving in. In those days, Venice was a resort town separate from Los Angeles, the creation of Abbot Kinney, an asthmatic, insomniac real estate developer who wanted his stretch of coastline to resemble Italy. Valentine's grandfather managed not only to buy a humble house in Venice, but to operate a successful cement business, laying the "walk streets" — the sidewalks that serve as de facto streets — for which the neighborhood is famous.

Nonprofit fund-raiser Linda Lucks lives on one of those walk streets, the type that guides pedestrians to the ocean. Lucks has noticed the fences too, chalking them up to a "fortress mentality" among the newcomers. The Venice that Lucks moved into in 1970 resembled Greenwich Village, with artistic inhabitants and bohemian ways. The community now shows up in celebrity magazines, as home to actress Julia Roberts.

"I'm not a real estate expert, but it seemed like [the market] would go up and plateau, up and plateau," Lucks said. "But the last six years it's been out of control — crazy, in terms of the inflated values. The people who have come moved here to make money, as opposed to wanting to stay here. It's changed the dynamic of the community. And, obviously, people can't even afford to rent here."

Lucks said she still sees Venice as a "wonderful, creative community." Yet with each passing year, she has a greater difficulty finding neighbors to participate in the annual garden tour, which gives ticket buyers a chance to see the landscaping and interiors of 30 Venice homes. Lucks wondered if some of the more recent buyers simply don't trust having an outsider come in and look around.

"I don't have a problem with a tradeoff," she said. "I just don't want to ruin a sense of community, and walling ourselves off would separate us from each other. And that's not what the Venice I love represents."

Venice resident Shep Stern has been taking on the tall-fence critics, saying he and his neighbors have every right to a sense of privacy and security — and a buffer against drunks, drug addicts and prostitutes. Stern, who bought a house on a walk street in 1984 for less than $250,000, said he too is trying to protect the neighborhood's character, by preserving its "live and let live" ethos and disregarding rigid aesthetic codes.

Stern described the changes in Venice as positive, saying "gorgeous new homes" had replaced decades-old eyesores. Because home prices have reached seven figures, speculators have moved on to less expensive places, he added.

"There's always that element everywhere you go — people buying real estate and flipping it," Stern said. "Now it's too expensive to do that [in Venice], and so you have people actually moving in. Yes, they're young. Yes, they're moneyed. But they want to be in this neighborhood. It's not because they're sensing an opportunity."

No fence sitter: Venice resident Jataun Valentine despises the barriers erected by her affluent neighbors.

Echo Park's Commuter Taggers

Economically, ethnically and visually, Echo Park is a world away from the city's coastal communities. While Manhattan Beach has stunning ocean views and Venice has walk streets to the beach, Echo Park has hills — not to mention a whole lot of mattresses and shopping carts dumped on the side of the road. While Manhattan Beach is nearly 90 percent white, Echo Park is an eclectic ethnic mix — Mexicans, Central Americans, Filipinos, Chinese, Anglos. What both communities have in common, at least for now, is a greater influx of money than ever before.

In Echo Park, a neighborhood of Los Angeles just west of Dodger Stadium, the signs of newly arriving affluence are different from those in Manhattan Beach, but no less subtle. Duplexes that once were the color of washed-out Silly Putty now have edgy color schemes, like metallic gray or even black. Homes that once had dried-out lawn now sport drought-tolerant landscaping, like sage and fountain grass. Hipsters are everywhere, sitting outdoors at one of the neighborhood's three new coffeehouses or stopping off at the avatar of neighborhood coolness, American Apparel. But while Manhattan Beach can be identified by its oversize minimansions, Echo Park is currently marked by homes that stand curiously empty.

The line is six deep on a Thursday morning at Chango, the coffeehouse that stands at the corner of Echo Park and Morton avenues. Two years have passed since the opening of the café, one of nine businesses that occupy the ground floor of a brick apartment building. In 1993, the storefronts served as a crucial backdrop for Mi Vida Loca, the Allison Anders movie that cemented Echo Park in the minds of Angelenos as the epicenter of Latino gang life. These days, Anders can be seen having her eyebrows done at an upscale salon at the other end of the building. Thirteen years after Mi Vida Loca, the same building appeared in the background of a commercial for Ambien, the sleeping pill.

Walk 30 paces from Chango — toward a staircase known as the Delta Street steps — and you will find a 1911 bungalow on Delta Street, sitting at one corner of a huge vacant lot. The lot used to be called Chicken Corner, largely because the man who used to live in the bungalow, 68-year-old maintenance worker Salvador Macias, housed chickens, rabbits and even the occasional goat. Macias loves animals. When he wasn't working at the nearby convalescent hospital or raising three children, he went to rodeos and even brought horses to the lot on weekends.

"He's always liked the outdoors, the ranch life," said Macias' son, Joe Macias. "Back in Mexico, he had access to all of that stuff. He was a Mexican cowboy."

Macias moved to Long Beach from the house on Delta Street last year, after the new owner decided to replace it, the lot and the nearby convalescent home with 36 townhomes — each of which is expected to fetch $400,000 and up. Had he lived in an apartment, Macias would have been eligible under rent-control laws to receive $8,550, since he is both a senior citizen and disabled. But because he rented a single-family house, he and his family are ineligible for relocation assistance.

Still, the old Macias house is not the only house that stands vacant. So do six other residential buildings within a block. One is at the top of the Delta Street steps, a clapboard shack so dingy it looks like it could have housed Jed Clampett. One is a 1912 apartment house, where each of the four apartments have been gutted and cleaned out. Perhaps most astonishing, a 16-unit apartment building —directly across from the Macias house — stands completely empty of tenants.

While some buildings will be demolished and replaced with townhouses, others are being cleaned out so that landlords can charge much higher rents without disobeying the city's rent-stabilization ordinance. Although the law prohibits landlords from hiking rents by more than 4 percent annually when an apartment is occupied, that law is suspended once a unit goes vacant. At that point, landlords can legally double or triple the rent, as long as they paid the minimum relocation expense to the household they ushered out the door.

What does it mean to have such a massive out-migration? For one thing, the number of schoolchildren has plummeted. At Logan Street Elementary School, a campus three blocks away from the Chango coffeehouse, enrollment has dropped from nearly 1,300 children in 2001 to 928 this year. Reyes, who represents neighborhoods just south of Echo Park, said he is already thinking that some of the new campuses being built by the Los Angeles Unified School District might have to become housing, if there are no longer enough students to attend them.

The economic displacement doesn't mean Echo Park no longer has gang graffiti. But it does mean that on the border between Echo Park and Silver Lake, many of the gang members who spray their tags on the cinder-block walls of Mohawk Street and Scott Avenue don't actually live in the neighborhood. And that's one of the strangest products of gentrification: commuter taggers. Gang graffiti, an act of marking territory, is being carried out by taggers who have been priced out of that very territory.

"You wonder why they keep coming back," said LAPD Officer Sam Salazar, who serves as one of the department's community liaisons, or senior lead officers. "They don't live there no more, but they think, 'Hey, that's our old hood.' That's the only thing I can think of."



In Echo Park, the nearest source of help for a struggling tenant can be found at Inquilinos Unidos, a nonprofit group that operates in a dingy upstairs office just east of MacArthur Park. On a typical Wednesday, the group will field questions from 40 or 50 anxious tenants, some needing help in securing repairs, others facing the threat of eviction. On a recent August afternoon, 51-year-old Abel Munguia had asked a counselor at Inquilinos Unidos what he should do about his home in Highland Park. Only a day earlier, a real estate agent called him to tell him the house he rents on Avenue 52 had been purchased — and that he needed to leave.

Munguia, a truck driver who came to Los Angeles from El Salvador in 1977, had moved into his rental house only a year earlier, trying to outrun the rising rent at another, nearby apartment. Because he lived in a single-family house, the counselor told him there was nothing he could do but look for another place while he awaits the 30-day notice.

A 17-year resident of Highland Park, Munguia has noticed the increasingly Anglo buyers who were willing to pay $500,000 for a house in his neighborhood. "The monthly payment is $3,000 and up," he said. "Three thousand dollars for one family is a lot of money, I think. These people must have really good jobs."

Asked how he and his wife would find an apartment to rent for less than $1,250 a month within 30 days, Munguia could not answer. "We might go to San Bernardino," he said. "I hear it's cheaper."

Because Munguia's family is renting a single-family house, his departure will not register on the city's list of statistics regarding the disappearance of rent-controlled units. Indeed, city officials have been struggling to identify the scale of the housing shortage, in large part because of a history of poor record keeping. The housing department's Web site shows an increase in L.A.'s rent-controlled apartments over the past five years, from nearly 463,000 to more than 626,000 currently.

Such an increase is mathematically impossible, however. Because rent control applies only to buildings that existed before October 1978, not newly constructed complexes, the number of rent-regulated apartments has nowhere to go but down. Although housing officials say that more aggressive inspections turned up a greater number of rent-controlled units, the city's housing inventory has been a constantly moving target — one that makes it nearly impossible to know if the city is winning or losing the battle for reasonable rents.

Meanwhile, renters who can no longer afford much of Los Angeles have been moving steadily outward, trying South Gate, Florence and East Los Angeles, said Aníbal Valdez-Ortega, one of the tenant organizers at Inquilinos Unidos. What those families frequently do not know, however, is that they have moved just beyond the neighborhoods where rent control exists. Some think they have moved to Watts or South-Central, sections of Los Angeles, only to learn they actually live in Florence or Firestone — unincorporated sections of Los Angeles County where rent control no longer applies, Valdez-Ortega said.

They find a place for $800, then a month later they get a letter saying it's not $800 anymore, it's $1,200," he said. "And the only protection they have is a 60-day notice for rent increases, 30 days for evictions."



South L.A.'s Westside Refugees

Perhaps gentrification isn't a storm system at all. Maybe it's more like the 100-year flood that accompanies the storm, washing over the economic barriers that are erected around a neighborhood. The greater the level of poverty, the higher the flood wall to keep gentrification from washing in. The Los Angeles Times wrote as early as 1971 about the arrival of middle-class residents to Echo Park, a community recognized even then as struggling and low income. But the transformation didn't take hold, and the neighborhood found itself coping with more serious poverty and crime a decade later. The economic waves lapped even higher in Echo Park in the late 1980s, as the succeeding real estate boom took hold. But the financial floodwaters didn't truly wash over the barriers until after 2000, when the spillover from Silver Lake arrived.

If gentrification is indeed a flood, then the highest levees in the city have been erected around South Los Angeles. The barriers are thicker and stronger for many reasons — poverty, racism, high crime rates, a reputation in the media and public that, to put it mildly, discourages investment. Yet the surge in real estate values has been knocking down barrier after barrier. White and multiracial middle-class home buyers who might never have looked south of the Santa Monica Freeway have taken the leap, discovering nice neighbors, clean streets and a killer housing stock — Craftsman bungalows from the 1910s and charming Spanish homes from the 1920s.

Real estate agent Adam Janeiro has spent years catering to the multiethnic, largely well-heeled home buyers who want to buy, restore and live in the historic houses in and around West Adams, a section of South Los Angeles that takes in Arlington Heights, Halldale and other neighborhoods. In short, Janeiro is sowing the seeds of gentrification, by showing newcomers from Philadelphia and West L.A. alike what those neighborhoods have to offer. As middle-class money keeps pressing south, so the levees begin to crack and crumble — Exposition Boulevard, King Boulevard, Coliseum Drive, places where a three-bedroom house can run for $550,000, even with all the talk of underinvestment. "Slauson is where people stop in their tracks," Janeiro said. "They say, 'Don't take me any further south. It's fine to drive around with you, Adam, but turn the car around.' "

Buyers from out of state are far more open to the idea of South Los Angeles than those who grew up here, Janeiro explained. But even Angelenos who grew up on the Westside and can no longer afford it are beginning to acquaint themselves with names like Magnolia Square, Canterbury Knolls and Vermont Square.

"There are these places that are just off the map. People don't know they exist, they don't know where they are, and they can't imagine living there," Janeiro explained. "And it takes a movement, a shift, something to happen to delineate that [place]. Every day that Maginot Line is getting pushed farther south. For a lot of people, it's only pushed as far south as Exposition. For now, Jefferson Park has become that place."

Even with the real estate market showing serious signs of softening, Janeiro believes the changes will be lasting in Jefferson Park, a neighborhood whose western flank runs along Crenshaw Boulevard, the cultural center of African-American Los Angeles. In Jefferson Park, where Janeiro lives, buyers were intrigued by the "esprit de corps" of the neighborhood — the block clubs, the civic groups, the progressive parties. Now, the buying pool has moved beyond the pioneers and the immigrants to a group he calls "mixed-ethnic, liberal-democrat, social-justice urbanists."

"As the neighborhood became more multiethnic, it became more comfortable for people to consider as a destination," Janeiro said. "There are people that are trailblazers, who don't care if no one in the surrounding four blocks looks like them. And then there are people who don't want Westchester or West Covina, but feel a little more comfortable if one person in 10 looks like them. They want multiethnic, not something that's monolithic one way or another."

One buyer ushered into South Los Angeles by Janeiro was Patricia Diefenderfer, a planner for the city of Los Angeles who has devoted much of her energies to preparing neighborhoods to accommodate more housing. Priced out of Echo Park, the neighborhood where she rented for the past five years, Diefenderfer bought a bungalow for less than $400,000 on 49th Street near Normandie Avenue, in a section of the city known as Vermont Square.

Diefenderfer is happy with the neighborhood, especially the 1913 library that is only a few blocks away. But she longs for a greater selection of businesses on Normandie, beyond the liquor stores, auto-body shops and storefront churches. "I'm not just talking about chichi stuff, like coffee, although that would be nice," she said. "Basically, I would just love to be able to step out my door and have that be a destination, walk out my door and buy a few groceries, have coffee, find something to eat, go to the dry cleaners — what neighborhoods have always been like, and what I believe should be like."

Diefenderfer said she knows what would happen if she got the businesses she craves. Her neighborhood would have become a different place, with fewer working-class families and more affluent ones. Diefenderfer speaks sadly as she acknowledges this, saying it's almost as if Los Angeles is designed to deny lower-income families decent stores and anything approaching urban street life.

"To have those things, in this city, you have to be privileged. That is how I feel. And that's one of the very unfortunate things about this city," Diefenderfer said. "The other unfortunate thing is that neighborhoods like South L.A. have... all the right ingredients, and yet somehow, [the amenities] are just not there. And when they get there, the same people will not be there living in it and appreciating it. And I don't know why that is."

You'd have thought an entire block of Crenshaw Boulevard was having a party on a recent bright June morning, when basketball star turned entrepreneur Earvin "Magic" Johnson unveiled his latest development project in South Los Angeles — a Starbucks outlet carved out of an old bowling alley and coffee shop. A van driven by KJLH-FM blasted the Gap Band's "Early in the Morning" out of its considerable speakers, while a line of customers 50 deep snaked out of the Starbucks into the parking lot.

Some were eager to get an iced whipped-coffee drink, the kind that is more dessert than coffee. Others clutched basketballs and eagerly waited for a seated Johnson to sign them. The event reinforced a truism long understood by the city's political leaders: Residents across South Los Angeles are starving for swankier businesses, from coffeehouses to sit-down restaurants.

When Villaraigosa distributed opinion surveys to neighborhood councils last year, the panels in South Los Angeles identified the need for new amenities as their No. 1 policy priority, narrowly ahead of public safety, which tops the polls in many other neighborhoods. The Starbucks at Crenshaw and 37th Street began to satisfy that need, part of a new shopping center that houses a handful of new businesses — Washington Mutual, Big 5, Verizon. "You have all this new development happening in our community, and what that means is jobs for our young people," Johnson said. "What that means is, now we have options to spend our disposable income. What that means is, property values go up."

Or to put it another way, Johnson and his many political allies are looking for something akin to gentrification — an influx of investment that will transform the neighborhood. Or maybe they are already achieving it. After all, Los Angeles city councilmen Herb Wesson and Bernard Parks both want to bring higher-density, for-sale housing to Crenshaw. Parks has been particularly adamant about bringing in market-rate homes — not a spate of rent-subsidized complexes — to expand opportunities for first-time homebuyers.

Wesson and Parks plan on linking the development of new condos to the opening, possibly as soon as 2010, of a light-rail line down Exposition Boulevard. Janeiro, the real estate agent, is equally excited, saying Westside rail riders won't be able to ignore the beautiful neighborhoods of South Los Angeles as they pass through on their way to downtown. But here comes that nagging question: If the neighborhood improves that much, will the people who live there now be able to afford to stay?

Standing on the sidelines of the Starbucks opening was Steven Anderson, a social worker employed by the nearby Goodwill store on Crenshaw. He was clearly impressed by the event, and the arrival of the new businesses. But he said his own neighborhood, at Normandie Avenue and Adams Boulevard near USC, is seeing its own positive changes.

"Middle-class people are moving in, which is a good thing," he said. "They're more community involved. There's more people walking at night. And people feel more comfortable going to the parks. The parks are just overwhelmed now because more people are playing in them."

Perhaps Anderson is experiencing the sweet spot for gentrification — when things slowly start to get better, but haven't gotten out of control. To live in a neighborhood that is showing promise, making itself better — planting trees, fixing up houses, maybe even building a rail line — can be exciting. But in Los Angeles, at the turn of the 21st century, you can't freeze that moment in time. Whatever appears today could soon be gone, washed away by the deluge.

2:16 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Gentrification City parts 3 And 4 and 5
Current mood: awake

In Boyle Heights, community activists have already responded to the construction of a new police station, hospital and light-rail line by demanding that the city make sure residents aren't forced out. In downtown San Pedro, where residents complained for years that no serious businesses would invest there, the construction of 1,000 new condominium units is being greeted anxiously by some who fear that the character of the community is about to change. In South Los Angeles, residents near Crenshaw Boulevard and 43rd Street have greeted proposals for new investment with a flurry of lawn signs: "Save Leimert Park."

With so many contradictory demands, it's hard not to ask: Can't the city's civic elites — its policymakers and its politicians, community groups and business leaders — just make up their minds? After all, they want to boost the city's rate of home ownership, but not necessarily at the expense of rental units. They want neighborhoods to improve, then blanch when those communities improve too quickly, making it economically prohibitive to stay. They spend years voicing anxiety about middle-class flight, then they are shocked to discover that a reverse migration might displace the working poor.

Ten years ago, neighborhood advocates in L.A.'s Pico-Union district complained about overcrowded classrooms. Now, a new generation of advocates is voicing alarm over the decline in enrollment, as families are forced into less expensive neighborhoods. Even more ironically, these advocates have directed some of their ire at the Los Angeles Unified School District, which eradicated hundreds of affordable apartments in its march to build new classrooms.

The problem is, neighborhoods in large cities tend to go in only two directions: up or down. And no one wants to see a neighborhood decline. But once the faucet of financial investment is turned on, and a neighborhood manages to attract a critical mass of buyers and businesses, it can be almost impossible to turn that faucet off. Until the next recession, that is. With Southern California home sales for July dropping by double digits, has that day finally arrived?