Late 911: Save Haiti

So I’m sitting in my room listening to Public Enemy’s 1990 album Fear of A Black Planet. The volume on my laptop is as high is it can go so I can drown out the sounds of the girls yelling in the hall and find peace. It is Monday the 18th and I pick up Friday’s paper that I’ve been meaning to read. The headline: “You will not be forsaken” sits somewhat elevated on top of the graphic picture of a young girl with her long bony hands thrust up into the air in desperation. She stands their, still, letting all of the pain, grief, and wonder concentrate inside her veins as she opens her arms up to the sky and lets out a chilling “Why?” as she stands in the midst of broken concrete, wood, and who knows what all else. The culprit, a massive earthquake. The price, over 50,000...in people.
I remember checking my Yahoo after class earlier this week and seeing the pictures of the Haitian people and the many headlines about the earthquake but I refused to click on them. I couldn’t bring myself to look at those pictures. I couldn’t find enough muscle in my body to be able to stomach looking into the eyes of the victims of this tragedy. I couldn’t but I’m glad everyone else wasn’t like me. Coincidence or irony or whatever you want to call it its Martin Luther King Jr. Day and it is now that I decide to read the paper about the earthquake in Haiti and as I’m reading it track 3 of my favorite Public Enemy cd comes on, 911 is a Joke. As I read I hear Flavor Flave’s distinct voice and up beat rap “911 is a fake life saver. A get up, a get get down 911 is jokin your town. A get up a get get down late 911 wears the late crown.” And I think he can’t be more right. It takes my back to a couple years ago to Hurricane Katrina when 911/the government/Fema/ and all other lackadaisical aid plaid the biggest joke of all: pretending that they were going to do everything to help the people in New Orleans as soon as possible. That cracks me up still, but there is no smile on my face. Now the world again stands amazed at the power nature has and is reminded of how fast and how drastically nature can change the lives of so many people. Sorry police, no jokes this time, real aid is needed as was before but time 100.
Obama has pledged $100 million, Wyclef Jean has a fund going, and so do various other groups. We must help out in any way we can. I know we are all college students and we’re struggling, but anything is better than nothing. Even if its just helping to raise awareness about this catastrophe that is still aid. Don’t have the mind set that ‘I don’t have to do anything now, there are a lot of people helping out. My little donation won’t make that much of a difference.’ because there are probably hundreds of other people thinking the same thing. If everyone thought like that nothing would ever happen. In the motto of Gloria Richardson and Malcolm X’s direct action civil rights group ACT, I ask of you to do just that and act.

How you can help in Pittsburgh:
WorldVision is sending pallets of relief materials and medical supplies. Donations can be made at www.donate.wordlvision.org
Brother’s Brother Foundation- Haiti by visiting www.brotherbrother.org
Functional Literacy of Haiti at www.flmhaiti.org
Unicef by calling 18004UNICEF or going to www.unicefusa.org/haitiquake
The International Rescue Committee is deploying an emergency response team to Haiti. Visit www.theirc.org

Darah Patterson

Blackline Presents: Woman & Man of the Year

If you know a friend or fellow student who is accomplishing great things (stellar GPA, amazing community service, major successes, etc) NOMINATE him or her for Blackline's Woman/Man of the Year! (Or, nominate yourself :-) )

Here are the rules:
1. The nominee must be a junior or senior to qualify with at least a 3.0 GPA.
2. The nominee must be an active member of at least two campus organizations.
3. The nominee must be willing to attend an interview during the week of January 17th, 2010-January 24th, 2010.

Email blackline.bas@gmail.com with "Nominee" in the subject heading. In the email list the nominee's name, email address, and a few sentences on why your nominee should be Blackline's Woman or Man of the year. Deadline for nominations is midnight on January 15, 2010.

**Each nominee will be featured in the next issue of Blackline. The winners will receive a spread in the magazine as well as an award at our release party on February 11, 2010.

Love & Lines,
Blackline

Hair for the Holidays: Transitioning Hair Care

“Ahhhhhhh…(whimper)….ok, ok, just a little bit more, only a little bit.” “Just fan your head; you got to let that sh** marinate!”
The first person talking above: me.
The second: my older sister.

This is the conversation we had while I received one of my last relaxers.
After that, I decided that I never wanted another relaxer again. I relapsed once, relaxing in October 2008; I haven’t had a chemical on my head since.
Now, this is not a condescending, creamy-crack-bashing, relaxer-ranting, tsk-tsking tirade.

Transitioning to natural hair is not a walk in the park, but there’s something to be said about a willingness to embrace your chemically unaltered hair. It’s a struggle, but one that’s well worth it. The friends I have with natural hair have some of the flyest hair I’ve ever seen, straight, kinky or otherwise. For those women who decide that natural hair is for them, this is what I have learned throughout my hair’s “reversion” back to its true state.

(1) Hair wants to be loved. Do NOT treat your hair like a red-headed step-child. Be gentle with it. Combing your hair roughly like you are punishing it is not going to benefit anyone. Not you, and definitely not your strands.

(2) Moisture. Keep your tresses moisturized. More moisture equals softer and healthier hair. It’s all about CONDITIONING. I also read this in a Glamour magazine, and it is very much the truth. Whether it be deep or quickie (get your mind out of the gutter), conditioning is always a treat for your hair.

(3) Protein is important as well. If you can find a protein conditioner or treatment that will keep your hair feeling soft AND strong, bury it immediately because that is treasure! Protein and moisture combined will keep your hair from breaking at the line of demarcation, the point where your natural hair meets the relaxed hair.

(4) Begin to know your hair. When you decide to stick to transitioning, you have to be willing to work with whatever texture you have, whether it is loose curls or tightly-coiled kinks. You don’t have to compare your hair to others’. What is yours is yours, and what is theirs is theirs. Healthy hair is good hair; whatever comes out of your head, WORK IT!!

(5) Rough days. You will have them. Any time you have two DRASTICALLY different types of hair on your head, there are bound to be some styling problems. See that girl right there moving through Towers with the scarf on her head? Yeah, that’s me. There are good days and bad days. Rollersetts, braids, braidouts, twistouts, all of these styles can be god-sends. There are plenty of styling options waiting for you to discover them.

There’s so much more to say…but I think I’ve run out of space. For my transitioning ladies, stay dedicated, be bold, and have fun with it!

Dear Beyonce....Sit Down...

Before I even begin this letter let me just say that I have been a fan of yours ever since you were in Destiny's Child. I own each of your albums/DVDs and I think you are one of the greatest performers of all time. I have yet to see anyone who can sing and dance live as well as you can. That said, this is not a diss letter, this is a request: Can you please sit down???

First of all, Did you actually release "Video Phone"? Really? Did you really think you were being creative when you made a music video themed with colored guns, bright backgrounds, & camera-headed people? Did you really THINK that was okay? NO. Sit down.

"I Am...Sasha Fierce?" Are You? I thought this was supposed to be your most "personal" album to date (By the way, um...this album has been out for more than a year now. Stop puttin out singles and videos from it like it came out last month). You went and got married and then on your most "personal" album, you first release "Single Ladies"???? Okay cool...I guess you had to appeal to your fanbase (I loved the song actually), and you had to release "If I were a Boy," and "Halo." I was cool with all of this until I heard you say, "I Am Sasha Fierce is about me. It's about me opening up about things that I've never discussed before. I'm completely open which is different for me." Now, you and me both know that you are one of the most reserved celebrities on the planet, so when I heard you were going to open up I was like, "Finally!" But what did I get when I opened the disc? "Radio". "Video Phone". "Diva". Umm...I guess bragging about yourself or talking about a DJ and a video phone could be considered personable to someone who doesn't know the real definition.

TIMEOUT: While we're on the subject of true definitions and what not, I need you to take out a dictionary and look up the word "writer." Upon reading the definition, you should realize that you are NOT a writer. A writer/songwriter is someone who first off, WRITES their own music, the majority of their own music,or hell, contributes ALOT. You do not do any of these things. On most of the tracks you are listed LAST on the writers' credits, and it's not because everyone else's last name started with A and the writers were listed alphabetically. It's because you were the LAST to contribute and you probably only wrote an ad-lib here or there. Case and point: (Actually, I'll give you two) On your Bday album you say, "I wrote songs saying all of the things I wish Deena would have said in the film" and then you go right into the song "Listen." Okay, question. How come when "Listen" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song you weren't listed as a contributor? Oh. I know why. It's because the Academy Awards only recognizes the TOP THREE contributors on a song and you weren't one of them...meaning that...you didn't write shit. (Wait, I didn't mean to curse you out Beyonce, I was just sayin...) Point number two deals with the all too memorable "Irreplaceable." At a number of performances you said, "I wrote this song for all of my ladies!" Come on B. You know Neyo wrote that song. And you know that ONCE AGAIN you were listed LAST because you only wrote the word "baby" in the song a couple of times.

BACK TO "I Am Sasha Fierce": Despite the non-deepness of the tracks, "Ave Maria" (though it sampled) was good, "Satellites" was a modern day lullaby, "Hello" & "Ego" were fire, and "Disappear" & "Halo" (Hey, you were listed first as a writer on these two tracks) were good...but not good enough. For you to say that this album revealed things about you was a lie, Beyonce. All I found out was that you allowed that voice crack at the end of "Ego" to stay on the album because you were letting go of your "perfectionist" ways. Yawn.

Sit down.

Now, I honestly do believe that you are a hardworking woman--You are constantly performing, promoting, modeling, acting, and giving interviews which is another reason you need to take a break. Your performances are always on point but recently I've noticed that they're all very similar...I swear you've performed the Single Ladies routine one hundred too many times and you soon became aware that people were noticing. So what did you do to silence the critics? You decided to embark on a low budget production (in Vegas, ironically) and turn it into an "intimate" (Can you please ask Jay-Z to get you a dictionary this Christmas?) concert DVD called, "I Am...Yours." You rearranged a lot of the songs and---
=
TIMEOUT: For the record, if I buy a ticket to your concert, I'm all for you throwing in a diff beat here or there but umm...turning "Sweet Dreams" into a slow lullaby is not something I want to see. And if I'm spending my money to see you perform, I need to see a beautiful stage and a good amount of costume changes. Didn't you make 87 million last year? I know you can afford that.

"I Am...Yours" Continued: you were closer to the audience. For the ABC special you "opened up" by finally saying Jay Z was your husband and...that's about it. Yawn.

Sit down.

These past few years have revealed you as a non human--a calculated celebrity who does no wrong, a "good girl" who can expose her body on stage but won't utter a word about her daily thoughts. (You should just stop doing interviews. Your reserved personality makes it pointless) You've become an unattainable being who oversaturates the market and it's time for you to take a seat. It's time for you to take a break, have fun, learn some life lessons so you can have something real to write about, record a new album and release it awhile from now. How much can you grow if you never have time to live without the spotlight?
Like I said earlier, this is not a diss letter, but a mere request. The days of superficial music and craziness being mislabeled as creativity are numbered. I could go on and on about the things that you have done/not done, but until I decide to write again...I've pulled out the chair...now please...

Sit Down.


Sincerely,
A Fan

Staying Informed; jobs

This is an article I read on Yahoo. Since we are all in college trying to educate ourselves to get a job and go out into this struggling economy, maybe we should know how it is out there.

"If you still have a job, maybe Friday's numbers from the Labor Department will give you a chance to exhale.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the employment market, for the most part, has been one negative headline after another. Now, we've learned that the U.S. lost only 11,000 jobs in November, that the unemployment rate surprisingly ticked down from 10.2% the previous month to only 10%, and that for the prior two months the total of jobs lost actually wasn't as bad as initially thought.

The last time the data were so bright, if they can be called that, was in December 2007, when the economy added 120,000 jobs. Yet despite pockets of optimism on Wall Street following the latest reading, the truth is that for many workers in America, these are dark days.

As of now, more than 15 million people around the country remain out of luck. Beyond the 10% headline number in joblessness, the situation is actually worse. Factoring in people who have stopped looking for work and those in part-time positions who want a full-time job, the "underemployment" rate is 17.2%. In fairness, that was down from 17.5% in October, but it remains a daunting swath of the U.S. workforce struggling to make ends meet.

Consider that the jobless rate in the El Centro, Calif., metro area is at 30%, the worst in the nation. Shockingly, it was even uglier just a couple of months ago. Though that area is used to higher-than-average joblessness, the problem has been exacerbated by the steep falloff in the region's real estate markets.

An improvement? Yes, but a mild one that still means close to one-third of eligible workers in the area continues to wait for better days. CNNMoney.com quoted one local business owner, Jim Duggins, as saying "our economy is the worst I have ever seen it and it doesn't seem to be recovering." Duggins, who owns a construction company, has already eliminated more than 80% of his workers and has 22 left. More cuts, he indicated, could be coming.

In a much-better known American town, Detroit, the jobless rate was above 17% in September as the auto industry retrenched sharply. That's nearly double the rate of the year earlier.

How bad are things in the Motor City? Foreclosures have been rampant. You could buy a home for $6,900.

The New York Times notes that the number of workers around the country dealing with what is termed long-term unemployment, that is, the inability to find work for at least 27 weeks, has been hovering at an all-time high, tallying 5.6 million people in October. One such individual is Kathy Henry, a 39-year-old Chicago resident who lost her administrative assistant position two years ago. In the time since, she has sent applications to no fewer than 500 jobs.

"It’s a constant cycle," she told the Times. "I’ve applied everywhere, from big corporations to minute corporations, and I don't even get an e-mail back. I'm worried people see me as old and out of touch and decrepit."

There's no doubt the pain has been widespread, and it's even been evidenced in one of the most sacred traditions of childhood -- the visit from the Tooth Fairy. In March, granted that was before the stock market started its rally, WebMD said that children could expect to receive an average of $1.88 for each tooth they left under their pillow, down from $2.09 in 2008. When parents are forced to cut the payouts to their kids by two dimes and a penny, that's saying something.

President Obama and other leaders in Washington say they want to brighten the landscape that's been bleak for too long. Unfortunately, this is another problem they have to solve at the same time they're dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health care debate and the deficits. Perhaps on at least one level government can be part of the solution -- the Census Bureau appears poised to hire in the neighborhood of 1 million temporary workers to conduct its resident surveys in 2010.

The views on the future, naturally, are varied.

"I wouldn't say that we're totally out of the woods yet because the number of unemployed is still high," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told Reuters Television. "It's very, very high and it's unacceptable, and we need to continue our efforts to focus in on job creation."

John Mauldin of Millennium Wave Investments is optimistic about the longer term, but for now he's planning for a "double-dip" recession. "It's going to be a slow-growth, high-unemployment environment, I think, for quite some time. It's not going to be fun," he said in an interview with Henry Blodget.

Meanwhile, First Trust's Brian Wesbury is in the upbeat camp, arguing that for Main Street, the recovery is "already on its way."

He told Tech Ticker: "It's like the flu. You know, on the third or fourth day of the flu, you are getting better. Even though you don't feel like it." "
(yahoo.com)

...What I Am

Light lies within the
Dark crevices behind my eyes
To embrace my darkness
Is to swallow my light
My mystery illuminates my being
And makes my presence
Real
Defined
I am...

Poetic Justice

It is summer but yet the world's cold
If you are a pregnant 15-year old
She was sweet, quiet as a mouse
But when her parents found out, she was kicked out the house
Now her boyfriend's upset, furious and mad
Because he found out he's gonna be a dad
Now he's walking around the world with a frown
Then he says the baby isn't his, and then he skips town
So she turns to the church seeking what to do
But the pastor says "we don't help sinners like you"
She has so many questions and not enough answers
Bad news keeps coming, her grandma died because of cancer
Feeling abandon and no one to show her love
She turns to a life filled with drugs
Cocaine, PCP, Heroine… yeah she developed a habit
I think it is an understatement to call her an addict
She loved getting high, it would put her in a daze
She started sharing needles, so now she has AIDS
This girl would get high to laugh away her pain it would seem
But I don't find the humor at dying at 15
The doctors did their best, they did all they could do
But there was no hope, the baby died too
Now this isn't a story about Mary Ann or Suzie Q
This is about a Negro girl that looks just like you
This poem isn't made to make you mad but to make you think
This is poetic juice for your mind to drink
If you see this girl drowning, help her before she sinks...

by: Ambrose; TN