[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 33...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race...
> ********************************************************
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...Pre-Requiem...By John M. Swails
> 2. Hood Notes...Ghetto Tax
> 3. Bit of History...St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955)
> 4. Disgruntled
> 5. The Value of a Life...By John Burl Smith
> 6. News You Use...Modern Philanthropy
> 7. Mailbox
> ********************************
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> Pre-Requiem
> By John M Swails
>
>
>
> There's a slow sort of dying going on
> like when a dog stops drinking available water
> or doing any of the many things
> he or she aught to do to maintain;
> almost as if the brain has decided to dismiss life,
> and suicide is unconsciously entertained
> like a shortcut to a quick reward.
>
>
>
> No.. not as blunt or obvious
> but the end result remains the same.
> Too many brothers, fathers, sisters and mothers,
> have given up the right to think in exchange
> for the comfort of a financial plantation,
> submitting to the gospel of the media's dogma
> and offering up their rights…three by two by one
> till none think for themselves
> and the fences' boundaries slowly close in.
>
>
>
> But they… no, we, are numb to this
> blinded by artificial success;
> we fail to recognize our dependency.
> And with voices successfully squelched,
> we are led to the slaughter –
> incarcerated son…raped and devalued daughter.
> Fathers first to be removed
> with the art of deception, depression and greed,
> leaving mothers to depend on others for their needs,
> and government offerings hide secret agendas
> but having invited the viper in
> her guard is easily subdued and removed,
> leaving her offspring as easy prey for their venom.
>
>
>
> This poison begins in main stream education,
> removing any indication
> that Black culture's contributions towards society exist.
> Inventions reassigned or just as easily dismissed,
> removing pride of ancestry to be replaced by low self-esteem
> and bleak prospects for any piece of the "American Dream,"
> seeds killed before plants ever get a chance to form.
> Dreams shattered almost before they're ever born.
> And with no past to stand on, what does one's future hold?
> And with no one to guide them, when will the truth be told?
>
>
>
> There's a slow sort of dying going on
> like when a dog stops drinking available water
> or doing any of the many things
> he or she ought to do to maintain,
> almost as if the brain has decided to dismiss life,
> but the saddest part of all is the antidote of truth
> has been in our mouth all the time.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hood Notes
> Ghetto Tax
>
>
>
> We always knew it! Now, the Brookings Institution study, Poverty,
> Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower Income Families, has
> verified that the urban poor pay more for everything from financial
> services to fuel.
>
>
>
> The study found the urban poor pay more for their mortgages, car loans,
> basic financial services, groceries and insurance. It pointed to "real
> differences in the cost of doing business in poor areas, predatory
> financial practices and consumer ignorance" to explain some disparities.
> Whatever the cause, the higher cost is a tax, which raises the cost of
> living and lowers the quality of life for already poor families.
>
>
>
> The Brookings Institution called on government, philanthropic
> organizations, and business leaders to pursue market and regulatory
> initiatives to help lower income families get ahead by bringing down the
> inflated prices they pay for basic necessities. For more about the ghetto
> tax, methods used in this study and antidotal information, see
> http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20060718_povop.htm
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> St. Katharine Drexel (1858- 1955)
>
>
>
> The basis for true altruism is an empathic feeling or desire to give to or
> service others without any consideration of receiving anything in return.
>
>
>
> The second daughter of well known Philadelphia banker and philanthropist
> Francis Anthony Drexel (1826-1893) and first wife, Hannah Jane Langstroth,
> Katharine Mary Drexel was born November 26, 1858. One month later her
> mother passed away. Along with elder sister Elizabeth, Katherine was sent
> to live with an uncle, Anthony J. Drexel (founder of the Philadelphia
> Institute of Technology, later renamed Drexel University). A few years
> later he married Emma Bouvier (the great-grand aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier
> Kennedy Onassis) and brought the girls back to live with him. A younger
> sister, Louise, was born in 1863; thus completing the circle of love for
> the sisters.
>
>
>
> The family moved to a ninety-acre farm in Torresdale, outside
> Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when Katharine was twelve. The impressive
> mansion and estate named for Archangel St. Michael played an important
> role in her life. Children in a socially-prominent family, Katharine and
> her sisters were surrounded by their parents' philanthropy and influential
> Catholic clergy. Educated at home by a variety of tutors, augmented by
> summers spent helping their mother teach Sunday school to poor children,
> as well as distributing food, clothing and rent assistance twice weekly,
> the three Drexel girls were steeped in charity work. Both parents
> admonished their children to "step outside their own experience and
> exercise compassion for others."
>
>
>
> Traveling with her father in 1884, Katharine saw the disgraceful treatment
> of Native Americans. She witnessed Indians living in squalor and despair.
> An 1868 federal treaty promised Indians one teacher and one classroom for
> every 30 children of school age. After her father passed in 1885,
> Katharine and her sisters began contributing money to help Native
> Americans. Traveling to Europe, Katharine and her sisters petitioned the
> Pope for prayers and aid for Native and African-Americans in 1886. During
> her audience with Pope Leo XIII, he suggested she might undertake the work
> herself. Katharine took her vows February 12, 1891 and founded the
> Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Native and African-Americans.
>
>
>
> A living sermon, Mother Drexel petitioned Congress to provide Native
> Americans schools. Challenging racism, prejudice and bigotry, she funded,
> built, and staffed churches and schools for Native and African Americans
> in the United States (US). A major concern of Mother Drexel was the
> plight of African Americans in the South. Answering the desperate prayers
> of blacks for education in Louisiana, the woman many believe goaded the
> Catholic Church toward racial integration, Mother Katharine established
> Xavier Academy, which later became Xavier University. It was the first
> coeducational Catholic black institution of higher education in New
> Orleans and the only predominantly Black Catholic institution of higher
> learning in the US.
>
>
>
> Mother Drexel challenged biased reporting, organized a letter-writing
> campaign to support the anti-lynching bill and stood against Jim Crow
> segregation and its blatant discrimination. Believing in a common
> American citizenship regardless of race, her educational philosophy was to
> provide well-trained teachers who cared about students' mental, physical,
> and spiritual welfare as the key to social and economic improvement.
>
>
>
> A rich debutante, Mother Katharine Drexel had choices; she decided to give
> her life to God. A young socialite, the envy of many, Katharine took a vow
> of poverty to care for "the least of these," and thereby showed true
> altruism. At her passing in 1955, those who felt her presence agreed,
> "The world is a better place because she lived." More than 500 Sisters
> were teaching in 63 schools at that time. The Sisters of the Blessed
> Sacrament, has 245 members, pursuing St. Katharine's original apostolate,
> serving African and Native Americans in 21 states and Haiti.
>
>
>
> In 1987, Mother Katharine Drexel was declared "venerable" by Pope John
> Paul II. Declared blessed on November 20, 1988, she was canonized St.
> Katharine on January 27, 2000. (Sources: www.katharinedrexel.org,
> www.newadvent.org and www.xula.edu)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Disgruntled feels: Fear! In the futuristic drama V for Vendetta (2005),
> a cruel and corrupt British government skillfully uses media to spread
> fear to convince the masses that the government's actions are necessary to
> keep the public safe from terrorists. Yet, even the most notorious
> terrorist's acts, pale in comparison to what the government's leaders have
> done to gain and maintain power. The use of fear in this movie is eerily
> reminiscent of our current predicament. Fear is again being ramped up, so
> we know an election is imminent!
>
>
>
> Disgruntled wants to know: How the current cease-fire turns out is
> anybody's guess. Despite Hezbollah's claim to victory, Israel still
> occupies Lebanese territory. If the past is any guide, the killing will
> not end. Israel must be held accountable, forced to pay reparations, be
> disarmed or sanctioned by the international community for its naked
> aggression and failure to honor UN Security Council Resolutions, much like
> Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or suffer a similar fate. If not, the terrorists
> won, because state terror (aggressive warfare) will be seen as acceptable
> behavior given the flimsiest of pretexts.
>
>
>
> Disgruntled wants to know: Unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council
> (1967) following the Six Day War and reaffirmed by UN Security Council
> Resolution 338, which was adopted after the Yom Kippur War (1973), UN
> Security Council Resolution 242 calls on Israel to withdraw from
> territories occupied in these conflicts. It has not. Does George W. Bush
> know about 242?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The Value of Life
> By John Burl Smith
>
>
>
> Mother Katharine Drexel's canonization speaks volumes about the value of
> her beautiful life and the miraculous spirit that endures. Strangely
> enough, I encountered St. Katharine last year by accident. My creative
> writing mentor at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis TN, Mrs. Margaret
> Danner, a Harlem Renaissance poet, always said "write about what you
> know!" Consequently, my technique for developing characters for my new
> novel Archangel: A Hip Hop Vision of Love and the Battle of Good vs Evil
> was to talk with people I knew. A friend who attended St Emma Military
> Academy told me of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and St Katharine
> Drexel.
>
>
>
> It was truly amazing to learn that someone that possessed such love and
> devotion walked among us. Even more amazing, there seems to have never
> been a moment that she regretted her decision. There are those who say
> there are no truly selfless or altruistic acts. They say Mother Katharine
> did what she did to get salvation, so she got something, but salvation is
> not guaranteed. However, what is of value here is the thousands of lives
> touched by her love and generosity. Individuals, as well as families,
> were lifted out of poverty or at least put on the road to a better life.
>
>
>
> My friend, a father and successful businessman, made this value judgement.
> "Were it not for the time I spent there, which gave me time to begin
> straightening out my life, my life probably would have ended years ago."
>
>
>
> In 1893 Louise Drexel, had become the wife of Colonel Edward Morrell.
> They purchased Belmead Plantation at Rock Castle, Virginia. Encouraged by,
> Mother Katharine, the adjacent plantation at Mount Pleasant was purchased
> also and the Morrells deeded both properties to the Sisters of the Blessed
> Sacrament. St. Emma, named for Louise's mother, and St. Francis de Sales
> (named for their father) opened in 1895.
>
>
>
> St. Emma's academy offered standard military training and discipline. Its
> curriculum consisted of cannery, farming, equipment repair, engineering,
> accounting and management. St. Katharine constructed the largest trade
> school in the south which offered technical and mechanical training at St.
> Emma in 1933. While St. Francis de Sales, the only Catholic school for
> black women in Virginia had membership in the Southern Association of
> Colleges and Secondary Schools, its courses consisted of homemaking,
> needlework, sewing, lace-making, laundering, nursing and marketing. It
> also had a championship basketball team and nationally acclaimed choir.
>
>
>
> Both were boarding schools for young black and Native Americans. Both
> institutions were pre-eminent among the 100 plus historically black
> boarding schools that flourished between the Civil War and the Civil
> Rights era. These schools enrolled more than 20,000 and graduated more
> than 10,000. St. Katharine spent her entire $20 million trust inheritance
> on her mission of educating the "poor and oppressed" among African and
> Native Americans in the US.
>
>
>
> St. Emma Military Academy and St. Francis de Sales High School, like St.
> Katharine, represent America's devaluation of the less well off.
> Historically, little value or importance is given groups like the Sisters
> of the Blessed Sacrament and institutions which served victims of slavery
> and racial exclusion. Nevertheless, St. Emma's and St. Francis' 78 year
> existence and the more than 20,000 lives they touched assure them a place
> in history. The more than 1,100 known alumni have continued to hold
> joint reunions and support projects like the post-Katrina rebuilding of
> Xavier University in New Orleans. The real value of St. Katharine's life
> is that her love, through the people she touched, continues to change the
> world for the better. www.imdiversity.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> News You Use
> Modern Philanthropy
>
>
>
> Unlike the charitable giving that defined the life of St. Katharine,
> modern philanthropy is generally associated with foundations rather than
> individuals. Created by endowments from wealthy individuals, these
> organizations are tasked with doing good works and most do, but more often
> than not, they shield the wealthiest estates from taxation.
>
>
>
> The recent endowment by Warren E. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
> Inc. and one of the world's wealthiest men, to the Gates Foundation sets a
> dollar record for such giving. And, it makes the Gates Foundation one of
> the world's richest. With his $31 billion gift, Buffett will sit on the
> Gates Foundation board of trustees. In addition to his gift to the Gates
> Foundation, Buffett will donate billions more to foundations run by his
> children.
>
>
>
> Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, the richest couple in
> the world, "believe every life has equal value." With that as their
> driving principle, the couple created the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
> in 2000 "to help reduce inequities in the United States and around the
> world. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Bill, Melinda, and William
> H. Gates Sr. co-chair the foundation.
>
>
>
> To achieve its stated goal of reducing worldwide inequities, the
> foundation made stopping AIDS its top priority. Bill and Melinda Gates
> are participants in the International AIDS Conference 2006 held in
> Toronto, Canada (August 13-18). The couple delivered a tag-team keynote
> address, highlighting their call to serve, progress on developing methods
> to prevent HIV transmission and better treatment options for HIV/AIDS
> victims.
>
>
>
> In debates on the efficacy of repealing the estate tax, the Gates and
> Buffett have supported efforts to maintain this important source of
> federal revenue, which can be used to reduce US inequities.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Phone Calls
>
>
>
> Email www.truthout.org Hoping for Fear...By Paul Krugman...The story of
> the latest terror plot makes the Bush administration's fecklessness and
> cynicism on terrorism clearer than ever. Just two days after 9/11, I
> learned from congressional staffers that Republicans on Capitol Hill were
> already exploiting the atrocity, trying to use it to push through tax cuts
> for corporations and the wealthy...from the very beginning, the Bush
> administration and its allies in Congress saw the terrorist threat not as
> a problem to be solved, but as a political opportunity to be exploited.
>
>
>
> Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] A Distant Mirror...By Thomas Frank...By now,
> even the most dedicated "values voter" is aware that an orgy of plunder
> and predation grinds merrily on in the capital, yet if polls are to be
> believed, the Democrats can persuade almost nobody to switch their vote on
> that basis. That's because, while they have many nice slogans on the
> subject, Democrats offer no larger theory of corruption, no way to help
> voters understand what is essentially Republican about the pillage
> currently being visited on our national government.
>
>
>
> Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Today is the 61st anniversary of the dropping of
> an Atomic Bomb on the city of Hiroshima (Aug. 6). The first act of global,
> state terrorism. (The second three days later on Nagasaki, the city with
> the largest Christian population in Japan.) Today, a new kind of nuclear
> war is being fought-- as harbinger to the next kind of nuclear war, which
> will be fought tomorrow. The suppressed story about the Iraq War is the
> use by the U.S. of depleted uranium weaponry. The cut to the chase: the
> U.S. littered Iraq with between 315 and 350 tons of depleted uranium
> during Operation Desert Storm. Five times as much was used during the 2003
> invasion. Every shell shot from an Abrams tank contains 10 pounds of DU.
> The result: all of Iraq is now littered with radioactive dust from DU...
>
>
>
> Email www.nytimes.com The Rise of the Super-Rich...By Teresa
> Tritch...While the wealthiest Americans are reaping the benefits of the
> Bush administration's economic policies, the rest of the nation is being
> left behind. The gap between rich and poor is unfortunately an old story.
> It is the stuff of parables and literature. It is a force in social
> history and political economy, from electoral campaigns to reform
> movements and revolutions. But in the United States today, there's a new
> twist to the familiar plot. Income inequality used to be about rich versus
> poor, but now it's increasingly a matter of the ultra-rich and everyone
> else. The curious effect of the new divide is an economy that appears to
> be charging ahead, until you realize that most of the people in it are
> being left in the dust. President Bush has yet to acknowledge the true
> state of affairs, though it's at the root of his failure to convince
> Americans that the good times are rolling. The president's lack of
> attention may be misplaced optimism, or it could be political strategy.
> Acknowledging what's happening would mean having to rethink his policies,
> not exactly his strong suit.
>
>
>
>
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