Micah Love is here!

Micah Amir Katz Love was born on December 30, 2009 at 5:28am, 6 lbs. 8 oz. Micah Amir is named for his older brother Ezra Malik, born sleeping August 30,2008, and his paternal grandfather Albert C. Love, who passed away June 28,2009. Micah means "who resembles G-d?" or "resembling G-d" in Hebrew, and Amir means "prince" in Hebrew and Arabic.

In the Great Recession, people cannot afford student loans

From The Progressive Media Project:

The government must intervene now to prevent more young people from defaulting on their student loans.

With high unemployment, few job opportunities and rising tuition rates, people cannot afford to pay for their education. Educational opportunity was supposed to be a way up and a way out for millions of poor and working-class Americans. But their education has become an albatross around their neck, as they are saddled with thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt.

According to new figures recently released by the Department of Education, 12 percent of borrowers who began repayment of their federal student loans in fiscal year 2007 have already defaulted — an increase from 9.2 percent the previous year.

Since limits on federal student loan borrowing did not keep up with the rising costs of college over the years — and the limits were only recently increased by Congress — private lending has skyrocketed.

In the 2007-2008 school year, students borrowed $19 billion in private loans, a sixfold increase over a decade earlier, according to the College Board.

During that time, the lucrative student loan market more than doubled, from $41 billion to $85 billion. Over the past decade, private loans jumped from 7 percent of all student loans to 23 percent. These private loans often have exorbitant and variable interest rates, highly punitive late fees and charges, and are based on the borrower’s credit rating rather than his or her need.

The unregulated private loan industry, much like the unscrupulous and predatory subprime mortgage market, exploits borrowers with an expensive, deceptive and unfair product.

In a 2008 study, the Boston-based National Consumer Center concluded that some private student loans are so expensive that they are destined to fail. Some of the loans have no rate ceilings, and no limit on charging additional fees.

Further, private loan companies are not required to offer deferment or forbearance options. And whereas federal loans go into default if the borrower has missed many payments, usually nine months’ worth, some private loans let the lender go after you after you miss only one payment.

Meanwhile, each year the cost of a college education increases far in excess of the rate of inflation, twice the rate of inflation, according to FinAid.org. Meanwhile, private law school tuition increased nearly three times the rate of consumer prices between 1990 and 2003. According to the College Board, the average cost of four years at a private college is $136,000, and at a public university, it is $57,000.

As a result, many students leave school with five-figure and even six-figure student debt, the equivalent of a mortgage before their career even begins.

Fortunately, the financial reform legislation just passed by the House of Representatives would ensure that all private student loans would fall under the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. And colleges would have the opportunity to counsel student borrowers on their options. A House bill that would forbid private lenders from making federally guaranteed student loans after July 1 of next year has stalled in the Senate.

As the country’s middle class vanishes before our very eyes, now is the time to deal with the student loan crisis. It’s wrong to let more people needlessly suffer under the weight of oppressive debt simply because they tried to get an education.

New York's Juvenile Prisons Are A Crime

If you can judge a society by the way it treats its children, then New York fails in a big way. In fact, the Empire State should be found guilty of child abuse and neglect.

The New York Times recently reported on the deplorable state of New York's juvenile justice system. Gov. David Paterson appointed a task force to look into the matter. A draft report prepared by the task force--a stinging indictment of the state's treatment of juveniles in state custody--comes three months after a federal investigation found constitutional violations at four facilities. The abuse was so severe, including broken bones, concussions, knocked-out teeth and other injuries, that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) threatened to take over the prison system.

The task force was assembled as a result of years of complaints, and incidents such as the death of an emotionally-disturbed 15-year-old boy after he was pinned down by prison staff. The bottom line is that New York's juvenile centers are broken, expensive, unfair and a failure.

It is shocking that the state spends close to $210,000 per year to incarcerate a youth. More than 1,600 juveniles enter the system each year. In these days of budget cuts, shortfalls and economic triage, that is money that will not go to that child's education and development. What does the taxpayer, or the juvenile, for that matter, actually get for $210,000? Not much, it appears. Although the system was meant for those juveniles who are a danger to society if not themselves, there is no system to assess whether they are a risk to public safety. Over half of the children are placed in these detention centers for misdemeanor offenses such as drug possession, truancy and theft. And three-quarters of those youths who are released from custody return within three years.

Many of these children have problems that are not being addressed, including developmental disabilities, drug or alcohol addiction problems, and mental illness. But the facilities are understaffed, with only 55 psychologists and clinical social workers, and absolutely no psychiatrists that can prescribe medication. Moreover, juveniles are locked up with violent adult criminals and susceptible to physical abuse, while staff use force as a form of discipline for the most minor infractions.

Race and the criminal justice system are inseparable, and the New York system is proof of that. Blacks and Latinos are less than half of the state's juvenile population. Yet, at over 80 percent, black and Latino youth are the overwhelming majority of the occupants of its juvenile prisons. And while seventy-six percent of these children come from the New York City area, they are imprisoned upstate, far away from their families, out of reach, and accessible only through a great expense. With a median age of 16 and one-third of them reading on a third grade level, they have learned nothing in a school system that has failed them. Not surprisingly, they receive no education in these centers.

"The DOJ report makes clear what many system stakeholders have been saying for a very long time: namely, that New York's juvenile justice system is failing in its mission to nurture and care for young people in state custody," the task force said of the previous federal investigation. "The state's punitive, correctional approach has damaged the future prospects of these young people, wasted millions of taxpayer dollars, and violated the fundamental principles of positive youth development." Further, the task force concluded that New York State is endangering the public by placing thousands of children in these facilities.

The report concludes that institutionalizing youth should only be used as a last resort for small percentage of them, and to protect public safety. In those cases, the goal should be to rehabilitate them, rather than harm or harden them. Some of the recommendations made in the report include reducing the use of institutional placement; addressing the racial disparities; reinvesting in communities, expanding community-based alternatives to institutional placement; funding education and mental health treatment programs that prepare juveniles for release and reentry, and creating a system of transparency and accountability.

For those who are familiar with the dysfunction and inequities of the criminal justice system, this report should not be surprising. This author has no shortage of commentaries written on this very subject. Nevertheless, this report should shock the conscience of expert and layperson alike. In poor communities and communities of color, children are funneled through a cradle-to-prison pipeline, as the Children's Defense Fund so effectively reported in recent years. With a broken education and no employment opportunities, these children are being set up for a life behind bars. Schools are a holding pattern for prisons, and with metal detectors and armed police with the power to arrest, many urban schools resemble prisons. Society's answer is to incarcerate more and more people, and to criminalize and punish at a younger age. This tragic situation plays itself out throughout the nation, with the same results. And as the nation with the world's largest prison population, what does America have to show for it?

Gov. Paterson's task force report provides a warning not only to New York concerning its miserable juvenile justice system, but to other states as well. And in the end, they should be applauded for finding constructive solutions to a problem that should concern us all. In Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, California, Texas and everywhere else, no longer can we ignore the consequences of our inaction.

Four ways Tiger trapped himself (VIDEO)

Tiger Woods is by no means the first athlete to sleep around with women, and he certainly won't be the last. Yet, Tiger has found himself with all of his private business unraveling in the public eye, in ways that other personalities have avoided. How is it that Woods managed to get caught so red-handed, while others in the same situation do not?


To read the full story, click here.

Jewish Voices of Color Must Be Heard

Original links from BlackCommentator.com and Huffington Post

As we enter this holiday season, Jews around the world will celebrate Hanukah. And the global Jewish community is a diverse one, a multicultural and multiracial assemblage, by no means monolithic, representing millions of people throughout the world. Jews in China look like other Chinese, while Jews in India resemble other Indians, as is the case with the Igbo Jews of Nigeria and the Lemba of Southern Africa, and so on. They differ in their religious and cultural expression. For example, some may not know about glatt kosher, but still observe traditional dietary laws. And in some places only women can become a mohel (the person who performs circumcisions on baby boys).

But like a faulty census that leaves out people and portrays an inaccurate picture of what is happening, the Jewish Diaspora is not counting all of its members. Part of the reason is that Jews of color are often held in suspicion, not viewed as real or authentic. The reality is that black and brown Jews always existed, and for thousands of years. Given the places where the stories in the ancient scriptures took place, what else could you expect? Yet, media images - including Charlton Heston’s portrayal of a blond-haired, blue-eyed Moses in The Ten Commandments - only serve to create confusion concerning race and Judaism.

“Jews of color have been like Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird, a bird trying to reintegrate itself into its flock, but looks so different that the flock would turn itself on the painted bird, pecking on the painted bird until it falls to the ground,” said Rabbi Capers Funnye, head rabbi of the predominantly African-American Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago. The congregation was founded in 1918 by a rabbi from Bombay, India.

Rabbi Funnye converted to Judaism, but his introduction to Judaism was through the lens of Africa. His congregation combines the usual Jewish prayers with gospel music and the beat of the drum. But that is ok, because that is what culture is all about. “Jewish practices are based on cultural adaptations, where people found themselves,” the rabbi notes. Although he is a rabbi with extensive knowledge and undeniable passion, Rabbi Funnye is asked if he is really a Jew. “For a Jew who don’t look like you, that question is offensive,” he responds.

Rabbi Funnye - who is also a member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, and the cousin of First Lady Michelle Obama - recently gave the keynote speech at a symposium on race and Judaism at Temple University. The symposium was convened by Professor Lewis Gordon of Temple’s Center for Afro-Jewish Studies, and had participation from the Institute for Jewish and Community Research and Be’chol Lashon, a San Francisco-based group which encourages ethnic, racial and cultural inclusion in the Jewish community.

The conference was refreshing in that it invited a discussion on subjects usually not covered in academia or the mainstream Jewish community. For example, there was a discussion on Rabbi Alysa Stanton, the first African-American woman ordained as a rabbi, and the first black rabbi to lead a majority white congregation. Stanton, whose congregation is in Greenville, NC, received death threats and required a police escort the day she was installed as rabbi.

Another topic of discussion was Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, that mythic symbol of black-Jewish cooperation who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King. Rabbi Heschel is a great source of pride for the Jewish community, yet he was marginalized during his life, and regarded as an oddball. Other rabbis advised him to stay away from the rabble-rouser King. And today, Heschel’s anti-racist, social justice message is defanged.

Further, there was an examination of black-Jewish relations and the civil rights coalition, and the manner in which Jews benefited from civil rights in ways blacks could not; the focus by organizations such as the ADL on issues of Jewish authenticity and Minister Louis Farrakhan, when there are genocides taking place around the world; concepts of whiteness and blackness, and the ways in which the Jewish communities have negotiated race. Participants also tackled such weighty issues as black power, and the attempts to equate it with anti-Semitism; the disproportionate representation of neoconservative Jewish voices in American political discourse, and the use of white Ashkenazi Jewish voices as the authoritative voice against affirmative action.

Included in the symposium was the inevitable discussion of Israel, and the ways in which some immigrants become “white” when they arrive in Israel, although they were not considered as such in their home countries. And of course, there is Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Rabbi Funnye, who works with the Palestinian-American community in Chicago, believes that Israel must do a better job of showing its own diversity. He also shed some light on African-American perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Black people don’t say anything because they see the Palestinians as David, and Israel as Goliath,” Funnye concluded. “They don’t want to be called anti-Semites.”

These are tough issues, to be sure, and the conversations must continue at Temple University and throughout the country and the world. A culture benefits when its diverse voices are allowed to express themselves. This is how a culture sustains itself and grows. Jews of color have much to contribute, and much to say. And they must be heard.

Focus should be on Tiger's public failures

Original link from theGrio.

On Tiger Woods' Website he said, "I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone."

But rather than paying attention to aspects of Tiger Woods' life that should remain purely personal, people should instead focus on his failings as a public figure. As an athlete, Woods has excelled and assumed a preeminent leadership role. But as a black athlete who owes a great debt to those giants who came before him, Woods falls short.

There is a long tradition of prominent African-American athletes who have spoken out on social issues and political causes, sometimes even risking their careers and lives in the process. They view themselves as an integral part of the community, and they give back to the community that produced them.

Consider giants such as Paul Robeson, who spoke out against racism and fascism, and was a trade union and peace activist. Senator Joseph McCarthy singled out Robeson for his political activities by in the 1950s, and his passport was confiscated for eight years.

Muhammad Ali refused to fight in Vietnam because his religious beliefs as a Muslim wouldn't allow it. As a result, he was arrested and stripped of his championship title, and his boxing license was suspended. NBA legend Bill Russell was a vocal civil rights advocate who participated in the 1963 March on Washington, and challenged racism in the NBA. Tennis trailblazer Arthur Ashe was arrested for protesting against South African apartheid and the treatment of Haitian refugees.

And today, NBA star Tracy McGrady is a human rights activist who is helping to improve the lives of children in the Darfuri refugee camps, the victims of genocide in the Sudan.

Meanwhile, there has been no word from Tiger on issues of racism and social injustice, even when he is the target of racist attacks. Woods didn't mind when Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman said on the air that young players should "lynch him in a back alley." And in 1997, fellow golfer Fuzzy Zoeller called Tiger "that little boy", and suggested that Woods should not have fried chicken or collard greens at the Master's Club Champion's Dinner. Zoeller apologized for the remark. Three days later, Woods issued a written response, calling Zoeller a "jokester" who likely did not mean to offend.

Woods has an organization, the Tiger Woods Foundation, which, according to its website, "is giving youth the skills to lay their own groundwork for the future." The foundation says it has helped more than ten million children. Woods' foundation has a questionable five-year deal with the oil company Chevron, which is the title sponsor of his annual fundraising golf tournament. The target of numerous lawsuits, Chevron has been accused of committing human rights abuses around the world, contaminating the Amazon rainforest, and supporting brutal military regimes in Nigeria and Burma (Myanmar).

And as sports writer David Zirin reported on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show, Tiger Woods refuses to denounce the prevalence of sex slavery and slave labor in Dubai, a resort city known as the Disneyland of the Persian Gulf. A sparkling city of excess built by slave labor from the Indian subcontinent, the Philippines and Africa, Dubai is the home of Tiger Woods' $100 million golf course and resort.

If a descendant of slaves will not speak out against slavery - including slave labor from which he might benefit - what will it take for him to open his mouth?

For the nation's first billion-dollar athlete, perhaps the paper is just too good to pass up. Some people in the spotlight believe that when the money is rolling in, you should not make waves otherwise you might threaten those corporate endorsements and sponsorships. Ultimately, there are far more important things, including your reputation in the community, your sense of social responsibility, your character and integrity, and even your soul.

Tiger Woods should be commended for his athletic prowess and commercial success. However, he did not make it to the top of the ladder by himself. He stands on the shoulders of those black athletes who demonstrated their heroism by taking a stand off the field, off the court and off the course. Tiger's wealth and prominence demand that he do more. Remember, for those who forget from whence they came, that ladder of success also goes down.

The Surge We Need At Home

Original link from BlackCommentator.com.

Sometimes, messes are so big that you just can’t fix them. The best thing to do is to leave it alone, and walk away, before you make things worse.

Afghanistan is one of those big messes. President Obama’s decision to claim ownership of the war in Afghanistan—by sending 30,000 more troops to fight the unwinnable war—is an example of misplaced priorities and misguided advice. As the White House parrots the Bush administration by launching a surge in Afghanistan, there is a domestic crisis that requires our attention. And this crisis is a far greater threat to national security than any foreign terrorists, real or imagined. A surge is needed, to be sure, but it is needed here at home.

Of course, the domestic crisis of which I speak is the nation itself. Simply put, America is a mess. Unemployment is over 10 percent, while the effective unemployment rate—which also includes the underemployed—is more like 19.2 percent. In the first three quarters of 2009, there were more than 2.6 million foreclosure filings, with a projected total of 3.2-3.4 million property foreclosures for the year. In the "land of plenty", 40 percent of the food supply is wasted, one in eight people uses food stamps, as does one in four children. About half of American children, and 90 percent of black children, will live in a household that depends on food stamps at some point before they turn 20. And 63 percent of teachers buy food for hungry students with their own money. Is this the most we can expect from the world’s greatest superpower?

Meanwhile, we are told the economy is recovering because Wall Street has recovered. Wall Street never had it so good, as the banks bask in the glow of their TARP-bailout, corporate-welfare recipient status. As the titans of finance are rewarded for their greed, failure, and demolition of the U.S. economy, the upward redistribution of wealth continues in this country. Those who have the most are getting more and more. A consumer-based economy ceases to function as such when the consumers are jobless, penniless, homeless, and hungry. It doesn’t take an expert or professional commentator to realize that something is fundamentally wrong with this nation’s economic system, and that the public will not sustain more of this suffering without some repercussions. For further information on the nature of the repercussions we can expect, you only need to consult history.

Surely, the Obama team is smart enough to know this. After all, they have fancy degrees and extensive book learning. But it would seem that the advisors who are misguiding the President on the economy are as useless—or perhaps as harmful—as his advisors on Afghanistan. Just look at his economic team. Larry Summers is Director of the White House's National Economic Council. In his old job as president of Harvard, Summers ignored warnings not to put so much of the university’s money into the stock market. As a result, the world’s largest university endowment lost $1.8 billion. And this man is the President’s economic czar?

Or take a look at Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, who failed to pay Medicare and Social Security payroll taxes for four years. Geithner, according to one observer, “should never have been appointed to anything. He's been wrong about just about everything for 15 years.” As head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Geithner oversaw the bailout of AIG. Further, he has been criticized for giving away tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to counterparties that contracted with AIG—a cash transfer amounting to one hundred cents on the dollar, to be exact. Geithner was a part of the problem in helping create the financial crisis and failing to protect the taxpayers from vultures. Now, calls for his resignation are coming from both sides of the aisle.

This is what happens when the so-called “best and brightest”—corporate pinheads with no real-world sensibilities, no moral compass, and no connection to the lives of everyday people— are given more power in government than they deserve. President Lyndon Johnson relied on Robert McNamara, a number-crunching technocrat from Ford Motor Company, to run the Vietnam War like a business. That war was unwinnable, if anyone really wins in war, and McNamara came to know it. But he continued to crunch the numbers to please his President, like any good technocrat. Who cares if in the end, 58,000 Americans and 2 million Vietnamese lost their lives, in addition to hundreds of thousands of casualties, right?

Waging a senseless, immoral and unwinnable war, Johnson cost himself a great presidency. Dr. Martin Luther King called out Johnson on the Vietnam War and was derided by many for doing so, but history proved King right. History has judged McNamara a sorry excuse for a person. And Johnson was unable to accomplish his Great Society anti-poverty programs because the war sucked up all of the resources. And that was when the American empire was far ahead of the competition.

Today, we have a basket case of a nation, and a president who was elected as an agent of change. Yet, the Democrats have become the party of Wall Street. The administration prefers to manage its predecessor’s messes abroad rather than walk away from them. But most importantly, the people don’t have an appetite for war. The only war that concerns them now is the war that has been waged against working people for years, by a predatory economic regime of wage suppression, deregulation and corporate plunder. Today, we see the fiercest battles in this war since the Great Depression.

Obama needs a surge of resources here in the U.S. to help everyday people. He should take a page from F.D.R., or several chapters if he must, and adapt it to twenty-first century sensibilities. F.D.R. saved the people from capitalism, if he didn’t save capitalism from itself. Now is the time to save the people once again.