I must admit something – I was one of those wackos who was trying everything I could to get a freakin’ HP TouchPad. I can’t buy an iPad right now, so a $99 TouchPad for a techie like me seemed absolutely perfect. Doesn’t matter that the operating system will probably be obsolete tomorrow or the thing wouldn’t even be made anymore. I had to have it.
So it’s actually poetic justice that my jonin’ for this hardware crack coincides with the closing of my favorite bookstore chain, Borders.
Borders. Its wide expanse of books, books, magazines, books, music, coffee and books called me each time I passed anywhere near, making me yearn to pass underneath those red letters into pages and pages of heaven. Real books. Aaaah….
Aaaah, crap.
Borders is a victim of the advancement of the human invention – computers that do everything for us. For example, instead of pliers turning a knob of five or six choices, a small computerized wonder box with buttons lets us sit on our fat asses and choose from hundreds. Phone rings? I don’t have to get up and answer it. I pull it off my belt or I stop watching streaming video and talk to someone who pretty much can be a voice from any further reach of the Earth.
The worst? The thin, rectangular, digital library that is an e-reader of some sort. Gone is that day as a child when I would walk my skinny, wobbly-kneed butt to the downtown public library, check out the maximum number of books (eight), pile them into my arms and then walk back home to digest them like a brand new steak for a big ole fat kid. The smell and yellowing of old pages and the seemingly hundreds-of-years-old ink was intoxicating, yet soothing in its promotion of a simple life that only required a light, a chair and some time to read. That exercise of enjoyment has been traded in for a piece of indestructible plastic, microchips and glass that I can stick in my back pocket.
Borders’ death – and that of the modern WalMart-styled, big box bookstore – was brought on by the human yearning for something easier and more convenient. It has allowed anyone under age 30 to live without the simplest of pleasures, the turning of a page. I really doubt that The Weary Blues or The Outsider were meant for a contraption that is fueled by space aged, invisible juice via a USB port.
We weren’t meant to become a society who can’t remember a phone number, won’t write a letter and has this weird idea that a smaller world means less actual human-to-human contact. However, that is who we have become. We are slaves to the idea of convenience, but to the detriment of the simplest pleasures of life.
And for $99, I have become what I have mocked.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Money U -- Arrogance Leads College Athletics to the Toilet Bowl
$18.3 million.
That's how much each Southeastern Conference school received for being a member of a big-time college football/basketball playing conference that wins and is on television a lot.
Business is good - although morality and ethics clearly are not.
During the same meeting, conference brass decided to lower the number of football scholarships offered to high school athletes from 28 to 25. That was their way to deal with the problem of coaches offering 28 scholarships for 25 slots - called over-offering. The issue: you tell a high school kid who wants to come to your place to play a sport and go to school (probably more to play than to study) only to go back at the last minute to say, "You know, we don't really have a place for you. Wait a semester or a year and we'll call you." It's called roster management.
Sounds very professional, doesn't it?
Well, SEC football coaches, each and everyone of them including the coach of my beloved Tennessee Volunteers, said "we believe over-offering is fine and if you limit us, then we'll be at a competitive disadvantage to other conferences around the country."
So let me get this straight. The most important thing is competitive edge, not the well-being of an 18-year-old? Or, to take it even further, the ability to win, keep your coaching job and bring in millions more to schools already rich beyond belief?
Got it.
Why should I be surprised by this stance? Just this week alone we watched that saint of a coach, Jim Tressel formerly of Ohio State, "resign" from his job because this Bible-toter has basically been a liar and hypocrite, all in the sake of winning. And it wasn't the first time. He did the same kind of stuff when he was Youngstown State. This is the same guy who rigged a contest for young, i.e, high school kids, to win OSU gear. He made sure the athletes who would actually have a chance to play college football would win stuff, not the guys who scraped their own money to go to his camp just to be around him and his staff.
On top of this, after the guy "resigned," college football coaches around the country PRAISED this dude as a great guy! I guess birds of a tainted feather, crawl together...
Anyway, I say all this to say that college athletics, particularly football, has gotten waaay out of control. Money, arrogance, television money, arrogance and more money has made a crooked scam even scummier. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE watching big time college football on Saturday afternoon (when television money doesn't move games to nights or other weird days). Being at a college football game, big time or not, is just one of the most exhilarating experiences one can ever have.
But with the completely shameful excesses of the Bowl Championship Series, more and more cheating and now over-offering, I say the Justice Department needs to come in and right this ship fast. The NCAA doesn't want to fool with their cash cow. College presidents want the money and exposure and college coaches and administrative types tend to be complete hypocrites. Somebody has to do something.
Until then, expect money to finish first, ahead of ethics.
That's how much each Southeastern Conference school received for being a member of a big-time college football/basketball playing conference that wins and is on television a lot.
Business is good - although morality and ethics clearly are not.
During the same meeting, conference brass decided to lower the number of football scholarships offered to high school athletes from 28 to 25. That was their way to deal with the problem of coaches offering 28 scholarships for 25 slots - called over-offering. The issue: you tell a high school kid who wants to come to your place to play a sport and go to school (probably more to play than to study) only to go back at the last minute to say, "You know, we don't really have a place for you. Wait a semester or a year and we'll call you." It's called roster management.
Sounds very professional, doesn't it?
Well, SEC football coaches, each and everyone of them including the coach of my beloved Tennessee Volunteers, said "we believe over-offering is fine and if you limit us, then we'll be at a competitive disadvantage to other conferences around the country."
So let me get this straight. The most important thing is competitive edge, not the well-being of an 18-year-old? Or, to take it even further, the ability to win, keep your coaching job and bring in millions more to schools already rich beyond belief?
Got it.
Why should I be surprised by this stance? Just this week alone we watched that saint of a coach, Jim Tressel formerly of Ohio State, "resign" from his job because this Bible-toter has basically been a liar and hypocrite, all in the sake of winning. And it wasn't the first time. He did the same kind of stuff when he was Youngstown State. This is the same guy who rigged a contest for young, i.e, high school kids, to win OSU gear. He made sure the athletes who would actually have a chance to play college football would win stuff, not the guys who scraped their own money to go to his camp just to be around him and his staff.
On top of this, after the guy "resigned," college football coaches around the country PRAISED this dude as a great guy! I guess birds of a tainted feather, crawl together...
Anyway, I say all this to say that college athletics, particularly football, has gotten waaay out of control. Money, arrogance, television money, arrogance and more money has made a crooked scam even scummier. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE watching big time college football on Saturday afternoon (when television money doesn't move games to nights or other weird days). Being at a college football game, big time or not, is just one of the most exhilarating experiences one can ever have.
But with the completely shameful excesses of the Bowl Championship Series, more and more cheating and now over-offering, I say the Justice Department needs to come in and right this ship fast. The NCAA doesn't want to fool with their cash cow. College presidents want the money and exposure and college coaches and administrative types tend to be complete hypocrites. Somebody has to do something.
Until then, expect money to finish first, ahead of ethics.
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Myths Called Morris Brown and Knoxville Colleges
A few years ago, at the Honda Battle of the Bands here in Atlanta, at the very end of the show after some of the biggest bands stepped, played and wowed thousands, a surprise band stepped to the field.
It was the Morris Brown College Marching Band.
Most of the audience knew of Morris Brown College's recent history - loss of accreditation, an ugly financial aid scandal that brought criminal charges against the school's president Delores Cross, a big drop in students and serious and short term financial problems.
But the band, made famous in the fictional movie "Drumline", was a sign that the school was back.
Well, not really.
Unbeknownst to most in the Georgia Dome crowd, that was mainly an alumni band with few - if any - current students. The band hardly represented what was happening at the Atlanta school that isn't even officially part of the Atlanta University Center consortium anymore.
In fact, most days Morris Brown College is a ghost town. Walk across the campus today most any part of the day and you will be hard-pressed to find anyone walking its manicured lawn. Many of the stately buildings aren't even in use. Mainly because there is reportedly less than 100 students there. A student there can only major in one of two things: business management or organizational management and leadership. A combined 13 concentrations are offered. That's it.
The story is the same at Knoxville College in East Tennessee.
A short distance from the University of Tennessee's sprawling campus is the small school on a hill that produced the likes of football legend Jake Gaither, journalists George Curry, Vernon Jarrett and Ralph Wiley.
The college gallantly overlooks what used to be a outmoded and crime-ridden housing project. It has been transformed into a clean community of houses and town homes.
Unfortunately, Knoxville College hasn't undergone any transformation - one that is sorely needed.
The college has been unaccredited since 1997, after a slew of,and history of, financial problems and poor management finally forced the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to take away KC's accreditation. Enrollment plunged. One president was sued by students and faculty and eventually locked herself in her office after College brass fired her. Then the College went five years without a permanent president before Horace Judson became interim and then permanent president in 2010.
At the school of around 100 students, Judson is planning a $10 million fund-raising campaign, which will be a tough sell in East Tennessee. Many corporations and individuals have been asked to help KC many times over the years, yet many feel burned by big ideas that have turned out to be pipe dreams. Plus they may be leery of Judson, who was basically run off from his last job at Plattsburg State and the one before that at Grambling State (which subsequently had accreditation issues too).
This as buildings across campus go unused, facilities are badly in need of upgrading and a work program that was touted to help students pay for their education has hardly been a success. And they offer one degree in something called Liberal Studies.
I'm not here to put down any institution of higher learning. But without accreditation - and access to federal financial aid programs for students who need that money to pay for a pricey education - there is no way any college or university can survive, and nowhere near thrive. It's fruitless. Without accreditation, neither school can even access United Negro College Fund help.
The bottom line is this: why would anyone send a child to an institution that isn't accredited and has NO real plan to get re-accredited (re-accreditation rightfully takes several years to complete) when that child can study likely the same subjects at hundreds of other schools, including HBCUS?
HBCUs have not outlived their usefulness. They are very much needed in this nation. But we surely don't need 105 of them, especially when many of them still live on tradition instead of the reality of today's global economy. What was important in the 1960s is not high on a student's priority list in 2011. The money and student pot in this more diverse thinking world just wont allow for an institution to stand on the idea that it serves black students in a white world. That's archaic thinking.
“Some of our colleges are too focused on what they used to do and not focused enough on doing what they must do to remain competitive and produce the powerful results they need today,” said UNCF president and CEO Michael Lomax during a speech at his alma mater, Morehouse, in Feb. 2010.
For me, that means yesterday is nice, but it means nothing if you want to be credible today. And unless you can do that, then you are wasting time. You don't have the capacity to survive, much less thrive.
So there are 105 historically black colleges and universities in the United States, according to a list compiled by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
I say there should probably be at the most 103. There likely should be fewer than that. But I'll stick to 103 right now because I know of two institutions - full of tradition and, at their peak, great places of higher learning - that should shut their doors and call it a day.
They are Morris Brown College and Knoxville College.
There IS a need for quality institutions. Unfortunately, these two aren't it anymore.
It was the Morris Brown College Marching Band.
Most of the audience knew of Morris Brown College's recent history - loss of accreditation, an ugly financial aid scandal that brought criminal charges against the school's president Delores Cross, a big drop in students and serious and short term financial problems.
But the band, made famous in the fictional movie "Drumline", was a sign that the school was back.
Well, not really.
Unbeknownst to most in the Georgia Dome crowd, that was mainly an alumni band with few - if any - current students. The band hardly represented what was happening at the Atlanta school that isn't even officially part of the Atlanta University Center consortium anymore.
In fact, most days Morris Brown College is a ghost town. Walk across the campus today most any part of the day and you will be hard-pressed to find anyone walking its manicured lawn. Many of the stately buildings aren't even in use. Mainly because there is reportedly less than 100 students there. A student there can only major in one of two things: business management or organizational management and leadership. A combined 13 concentrations are offered. That's it.
The story is the same at Knoxville College in East Tennessee.
A short distance from the University of Tennessee's sprawling campus is the small school on a hill that produced the likes of football legend Jake Gaither, journalists George Curry, Vernon Jarrett and Ralph Wiley.
The college gallantly overlooks what used to be a outmoded and crime-ridden housing project. It has been transformed into a clean community of houses and town homes.
Unfortunately, Knoxville College hasn't undergone any transformation - one that is sorely needed.
The college has been unaccredited since 1997, after a slew of,and history of, financial problems and poor management finally forced the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to take away KC's accreditation. Enrollment plunged. One president was sued by students and faculty and eventually locked herself in her office after College brass fired her. Then the College went five years without a permanent president before Horace Judson became interim and then permanent president in 2010.
At the school of around 100 students, Judson is planning a $10 million fund-raising campaign, which will be a tough sell in East Tennessee. Many corporations and individuals have been asked to help KC many times over the years, yet many feel burned by big ideas that have turned out to be pipe dreams. Plus they may be leery of Judson, who was basically run off from his last job at Plattsburg State and the one before that at Grambling State (which subsequently had accreditation issues too).
This as buildings across campus go unused, facilities are badly in need of upgrading and a work program that was touted to help students pay for their education has hardly been a success. And they offer one degree in something called Liberal Studies.
I'm not here to put down any institution of higher learning. But without accreditation - and access to federal financial aid programs for students who need that money to pay for a pricey education - there is no way any college or university can survive, and nowhere near thrive. It's fruitless. Without accreditation, neither school can even access United Negro College Fund help.
The bottom line is this: why would anyone send a child to an institution that isn't accredited and has NO real plan to get re-accredited (re-accreditation rightfully takes several years to complete) when that child can study likely the same subjects at hundreds of other schools, including HBCUS?
HBCUs have not outlived their usefulness. They are very much needed in this nation. But we surely don't need 105 of them, especially when many of them still live on tradition instead of the reality of today's global economy. What was important in the 1960s is not high on a student's priority list in 2011. The money and student pot in this more diverse thinking world just wont allow for an institution to stand on the idea that it serves black students in a white world. That's archaic thinking.
“Some of our colleges are too focused on what they used to do and not focused enough on doing what they must do to remain competitive and produce the powerful results they need today,” said UNCF president and CEO Michael Lomax during a speech at his alma mater, Morehouse, in Feb. 2010.
For me, that means yesterday is nice, but it means nothing if you want to be credible today. And unless you can do that, then you are wasting time. You don't have the capacity to survive, much less thrive.
So there are 105 historically black colleges and universities in the United States, according to a list compiled by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
I say there should probably be at the most 103. There likely should be fewer than that. But I'll stick to 103 right now because I know of two institutions - full of tradition and, at their peak, great places of higher learning - that should shut their doors and call it a day.
They are Morris Brown College and Knoxville College.
There IS a need for quality institutions. Unfortunately, these two aren't it anymore.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Washington - The Negro-est Name In America...Is It Really That Great???
Washington.
How ironic that it is, according to the U.S. Census, the blackest last name in America.
According to an Associated Press story, written by Jesse Washington, Census figures find that 90 percent of the roughly 163,000 people in the U.S. with the surname Washington are black.
Who knew?
You think of D.C. (which many of us have long said stands for "Dark Country"), a city that was laid out by a black man. But at the same time, it is the center of the world's best effort to twart the development and advancement of black men, no matter where they hail from.
You may also think of the nation's first president, George Washington. He of the cherry tree and the "not telling a lie" story. But then women, especially black women, paint a vivid picture of the lying, cheating, down-low, down-on-his-luck, up-in-jail black man.
Booker T. Washington said ensuring the success of black folks requires a fervent focus on hard work. Sounds good, except that the unemployment rate for black males in 2010 was the worst among most of this nation's demographics at 17 percent. That compares to the 8.6 rate for white males.
I even point to the world of sports, which has long erroneously been called the great equal playing field. George Preston Marshall became an NFL owner in 1932 and refused to allow any blacks on his team and pushed the rest of the league to follow suit. Of course the league did, so no blacks appeared in NFL uniforms until the late 1940s because of Marshall, who owned the Washington Redskins. In fact, the Redskins stubbornly refused to sign black players well into the 60s, until the Kennedy administration threatened civil rights legal action.
So on this week of George Washington's birthday, I wonder, what's so great about this uber-black name Washington?
I dunno. Because it's ours??? Hmmmm...maybe not.
How ironic that it is, according to the U.S. Census, the blackest last name in America.
According to an Associated Press story, written by Jesse Washington, Census figures find that 90 percent of the roughly 163,000 people in the U.S. with the surname Washington are black.
Who knew?
You think of D.C. (which many of us have long said stands for "Dark Country"), a city that was laid out by a black man. But at the same time, it is the center of the world's best effort to twart the development and advancement of black men, no matter where they hail from.
You may also think of the nation's first president, George Washington. He of the cherry tree and the "not telling a lie" story. But then women, especially black women, paint a vivid picture of the lying, cheating, down-low, down-on-his-luck, up-in-jail black man.
Booker T. Washington said ensuring the success of black folks requires a fervent focus on hard work. Sounds good, except that the unemployment rate for black males in 2010 was the worst among most of this nation's demographics at 17 percent. That compares to the 8.6 rate for white males.
I even point to the world of sports, which has long erroneously been called the great equal playing field. George Preston Marshall became an NFL owner in 1932 and refused to allow any blacks on his team and pushed the rest of the league to follow suit. Of course the league did, so no blacks appeared in NFL uniforms until the late 1940s because of Marshall, who owned the Washington Redskins. In fact, the Redskins stubbornly refused to sign black players well into the 60s, until the Kennedy administration threatened civil rights legal action.
So on this week of George Washington's birthday, I wonder, what's so great about this uber-black name Washington?
I dunno. Because it's ours??? Hmmmm...maybe not.
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