Blackonomics
By Jim Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In consideration of the latest shenanigans from Congress as it pertains to the economic conditions facing most Americans these days, unemployment and underemployment being the most serious, the case for entrepreneurship is more important than ever.  For Black people especially, whose unemployment rate is double that of the national average and even as high as 50 percent in certain cities, the need for entrepreneurship cannot be denied.

Education and training, business startups, and firms that have the ability to grow and increase their number of employees are all essential factors for any group of people interested in economic empowerment.  Black folks have an urgent imperative to revert back to the days when we owned and operated not only individual businesses but also entire economic enclaves in various cities across this country.  The nostalgia we feel when we remember Black Bottom in Detroit, Hayti in Durham, Harlem in New York, Greenwood in Tulsa, and Sweet Auburn in Atlanta should provide us with the incentive, well beyond the emotional side of it, to move in that direction.

In my entrepreneurship classes, after teaching the glowing history of business ownership in this country by Black people, as well as our entrepreneurial skills and acumen even before we were brought here, I offer the following suggestion: “Make something or do something and sell it to someone.”  That’s simply what entrepreneurship is all about.  Of course, we need to heighten our presence and participation in manufacturing, distribution, and starting businesses that lend themselves to growth or “scale,” as some would say, in order to move to a point of being able to control projects, industries, and systems rather than always be at the mercy of those who do.

How do we accomplish that?  We can start by simply hiring ourselves, individually at first and then expanding to hire others.  We cannot afford to wait for the folks in Washington to provide jobs for us, nor can we sit back and think the private sector will help decrease our collective rate of unemployment.  Even if they do finally get it together in Washington and on Wall Street, hire yourself by starting some kind of business, and when things get better you will be ahead of the game.

Hire yourself by turning a hobby into a revenue stream.  Hire yourself by offering your skills to someone who needs your services.  Hire yourself by selling what you know; after all, we are in what Peter Drucker called a “Knowledge-based Society.”  Hire yourself and make your own job, and stop allowing the sweet sounding political rhetoric to lull you to sleep.

In his book, Job Shift – How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs, William Bridges writes, “The first thing we must do is to demand that our politicians have the courage to abandon the fantasy that jobs can be recovered or recreated as they once could have been.  We need to understand that there is no way we can pump out more jobs as though they were industrial products, and every time our leaders play into our old fantasy that that is possible, they do us an enormous disservice…promising more jobs is an effective electoral tactic.  Furthermore, it sounds public spirited and humane.”

Bridges also says, “The disappearance of jobs, with every passing month, is more and more a change that has already happened.  It is also a change that can be exploited by individuals and organizations that know how to do so.”  You can find more information on this subject in William Julius Wilson’s seminal work, When Work Disappears, which should be a staple in your personal libraries.

Another writer named James Brown, also known as the Godfather of Soul, put the following words of advice to music when he said, “Let’s get together and get some land; raise our food like the man; save our money like the mob; put up a factory and own the jobs.”  How are we ever going to be economically empowered if we do not own our jobs?

“Less than half of the workforce in the industrialized world will be in ‘proper’ full-time jobs in organizations by the beginning of the twenty-first century” – Charles Handy. We are already 12 years late, folks.

Whether you like it or not, jobs as we have known them are gone for good.  So even if you are not convinced of that reality, do your children a favor by encouraging them to pursue some form of entrepreneurship by hiring themselves, even as they seek jobs from someone else’s company.

U. S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) voted against the bill.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In a stunning climax, President Obama scored a last-minute victory as Congress halted income tax increases for 99 percent of Americans in a bid to keep the nation from g o i n g over the so-called “f i s c a l cliff.”

T h e deal came together near midnight Jan. 1 as the House joined the Senate in supporting the deal largely forged by Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The president, though, failed to win unanimous support from the 39-member Congressional Black Caucus for the final bill that will raise taxes for individuals making more than $400,000 a year and couples with a combined income of more than $450,000.

U.S. Rep. Robert C. “Bobby”Scott, D-Newport News, Va., refused to join the 36 Caucus members, who as their then chairman, Missouri Democrat Emanuel Cleaver put it, “reluctantly and cautiously” voted yes. Rep. Cleaver said the yes votes showed support for the deal’s agreement to protect lower-income people from tax increases, save long-term unemployment benefits for 2 million jobless and preserve Earned Income Tax Credits for the working poor. The deal also saved tax credits for college students and child care, he said.

Rep. Scott, though, broke with the president and the Caucus to oppose what he called an “irresponsible deal. He said the deal would pave the way for future drastic cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and other portions of the social safety net to cover the cost.

Rep. Scott, who also represents Richmond, was one of the two Caucus members who opposed the “fiscal cliff” deal. The other was outgoing Republican Rep. Allen B. West of Florida. (Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia did not vote because he left Washington on Monday to return to Atlanta in the wake of his wife Lillian’s death.)

Ironically, Rep. Scott, a liberal Democrat, ended up on the same side archconservative House majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Henrico County, who also voted no, mostly because the approved bill did not contain cuts in federal spending. In a sharply worded statement following the vote, Rep. Scott explained that he voted against the proposal “because it cut taxes and will add a staggering $3.9 trillion to our deficit (over 10 years) with no indication of how (the tax cuts) will be paid for.”

He spent the past year urging the president and House colleagues to let the Bush tax cuts expire as the best way to deal with the country’s massive deficit. He maintained that position.

“This bill,” Rep. Scott continued, “does nothing to reduce our deficit. It does, however, make the task of responsibly reducing the deficit more difficult and makes it much more likely that seniors, the disabled and our more vulnerable communities will bear the greatest burden.”

He was among 167 members of the 435-member U.S. House who opposed the agreement. The measure passed by 257 votes or 39 more than the 218 needed for a majority. Rep. Scott, Virginia’s lone Black congressman and an avid Obama supporter, was joined in opposition by nine other Virginia representatives, including Rep. Cantor. The only Virginia House vote for the deal came from Rep. Gerald Connelly, D-Fairfax. Both Virginia senators, Mark R. Warner and outgoing Jim Webb, voted for the deal that passed the 100-member upper chamber 89-8. 

Despite the overwhelming Caucus vote for the deal, Rep. Cleaver said the members continue to be concerned about an array of potentially “dangerous and detrimental” spending cuts that were delayed for two months by the deal and remain on the table as Congress prepares by February to vote on raising the federal borrowing limit. Rep. Clever said the Caucus will continue to focus on the impact that such cuts could have on “communities of color and other vulnerable populations.”

Clever concluded, the Caucus “remains committed to serving as the ‘conscience of the Congress’ and protecting vulnerable communities.”

By Dr. "Dan" Collins, Ph. D.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A familiar verse penned from the gospel writer Luke,  said the angels proclaimed at the birth of Christ “Peace on Earth good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). This powerful verse has special meaning now as the entire nation  is still reeling from the trauma of the Sandy Hook Elementary school Massacre. More than anything else the word Peace, beacons, welcomes, and comforts us at a moment in our history where there is so much turmoil and confusion. We truly need peace.

In the original Koine Greek in which that verse was written,  “Peace on Earth to people of goodwill” or “peace on earth toward men and women who have won God’s Favor” are both accurate translation of the original text. The difference may seem subtle, but the key idea is that peace is not an entitlement. Peace is the by-product of living a life rich in character. Peace according to a more complete understanding of Luke’s account, is the outgrowth of a lifestyle of compassion, cooperation, and community. Peace on an individual level is justice on a collective level.

During this holiday season where there is so much unrest, I believe that this brand of peace remedies so many problems. The hot topic of the day is the arms debate. But  we should not be fooled into thinking that the symptom is the problem. Guns are the symptom. But the culture of violence is the core problem; it’s in the movies we watch, the video games we purchase, violence is a pervasive presence in our culture. But if we borrow some wisdom from Luke the physician, we are encouraged to step into a culture of peace.

It’s a peace that can only come about if we are willing to be courageous enough to have a dialogue about the real issues. We are violent in part because we are afraid of each other, and we are afraid of each other because we don’t know each other. And we don’t know each other because we rarely take the time. Let’s receive today that angelic invitation-“Peace on Earth, to people of goodwill.”  It can transform us if we work at it.

A practical application of this peace is being able to talk about violence with our children, especially regarding an event like the Sandy Hook massacre.

Collectively our hearts were broken when we all learned of the  tragic loss of life at Sandy Hook Elementary School. We would need to invent new words to capture the depth of our outrage, grief, and sadness caused by the senseless violence that occurred.  As president Obama said, “What happened in Newtown, Connecticut could have occurred anywhere”, even right in our own neighborhoods.

A crisis like the one we are addressing causes enormous confusion and chaos for children and parents alike. When children are assaulted and killed in a school, many conflicting emotions are stirred up; children may feel:

• Frightened-about their own well-being
• Confused-about death, especially about children their own ages dying in school.
• Unsafe-some may feel that they will be attacked in school, despite the promises by adults.
• Vulnerable-If they are attacked, there may be no-one who could protect them

For  example, an extreme reaction could  be “school phobia”, that is,  your child  not wanting to go to school at all out of fear that they would be gunned down too.

As  parent your role is crucial in helping your child cope with this situation. Affinity’s approach is the LEARN Model  (© 2012) of responding to violence:

L – Listen rather than lecture.  Follow the content your child gives you to avoid overloading them with “too much information”

E – Encourage your child’s emotional expression about the crisis.

A – Accept and expect a range of feelings your child might share.

R – Recognize and redirect useless emotions (i.e., panic, worry, rage and despair) toward the healing emotions such as empathy, compassion and hopefulness……..etc.

N – Nurture your child through the crisis with re-assuring words and gentle affection.

Reach out to “DR Dan” at www.drdancollins.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Dr. Dan Collins is vice president of Behavioral Health at Affinity Health & Medical Systems.

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Audience members joyfully respond at Richmond’s Emancipation Proclamation celebration service Jan. 1, marking the150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s issuance of the freedom document. PHOTO: Jerome Reid/Richmond Free Press

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

 (TriceEdneyWire.com) - The church rocked to the sounds of gospel music, and people danced in the aisles at the freedom celebration on New Year’s Day. 

The event: Richmond’s worship service to mark the 150th anniversary of the President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation — the landmark Civil War edict he issued Jan. 1, 1863, freeing slaves in Virginia and nine other rebel Southern states fighting to uphold human bondage. Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy, whose un-American mission was to preserve slavery and destroy the United States.

“When I see what God has done for us, when I think of where we were and where we are, I know that God is still working miracles,” Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, also a Baptist minister, told the nearly 700 people who packed Fifth Baptist Church in the West End.

The service was the only area event — and the largest in Virginia — to mark the proclamation that paved the way for full abolition two years later with the passage of the 13th Amendment and also opened the door for the enlistment of 180,000 Black soldiers who were pivotal in the Union victory over the Confederacy and slavery.

In welcoming participants, the Rev. Earl M. Brown, pastor of Fifth Baptist, held up a recent edition of the Richmond Free Press in which the newspaper devoted a full page to feature the full text of the Emancipation Proclamation. Rev. Brown said the newspaper’s editor/publisher, Raymond H. Boone, had provided hundreds of copies, “particularly for the young people” in attendance.

The minister urged participants to take copies to share with their children and grandchildren, citing the newspaper’s inclusion of photos of President Lincoln and the great abolitionist advocate Frederick Douglass. In the same edition, the Free Press also recognized Dr. W. L. Ransome, the late founder of the annual proclamation worship service and civil rights advocating pastor of First Baptist Church of South Richmond, of which the mayor is now the senior pastor.

Mayor Jones was among a handful of elected officials who attended the three-hour service hosted by the Baptist Ministers’ Conference of Richmond and Vicinity to mark the great occasion. This was the 74th service since the annual program began in 1940. Others included Richmond Delegates Betsy B. Carr and Jennifer McClellan, Richmond state Sen. Henry L. Marsh III and Henrico County Supervisor Tyrone E. Nelson, also pastor of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Jackson Ward.

Sen. Marsh told the audience, “I teared up” in thinking back to the horrors that people endured before slave auction blocks were completely dismantled — begun by the proclamation. “This is just a tidbit of what African-Americans went through,” Sen. Marsh said.

He said that the state commission he chairs, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission, planned to host events over the next two years to celebrate the proclamation and also is seeking to establish a Richmond monument to the great document. In a city of stone markers “to the generals who lost, it is time we do something to celebrate those who won.”

The power of faith from slavery to modern times was a major theme at the service, including the remarks of the main speaker, Dr. Leonard N. Smith, senior minister of Mount Zion Baptist Church of Arlington and past president of the Virginia Baptist State Convention, the state’s oldest organization of black churches. Citing verses from the Book of Isaiah, he said that God had been there through the “dark times then” and is there in the “dark times now” as too many suffer from unemployment, violence and poverty.

The event also included a performance of excerpts from a cantata, “Changed My Name,” in which a choir and actors recalled the brutality of the slave auctions where people for generations were bought and sold.