Bars Beat Books
Expect to see lots of stories tomorrow about a new study called Cellblocks or Classrooms. The study shows how states have spent astronomically on jails in recent years, but have not kept pace with education money. No surprise. We'd rather lock 'em up than educate 'em.

Cellblocks or Classrooms? shows that as corrections expenditures have grown, state spending on higher education has not kept pace with increased spending on prisons. Between 1985 and 2000, spending on corrections doubled or tripled in most states, while only one state doubled its higher education spending in real dollars.

Thanks to harambeejournal for passing this on.

Selling Tech To Black Folks
In a column for BusinessWeek online, via yahoo, Roger O. Crockett comments on the Blacks and Technology conferences convened by Tavis Smiley. Interesting numbers: 90% of those logging on from home are white. (Only 5% of African American small businesses have an e-commerce plan, compared to 35% of white businesses). I find their ideas for marketing to us a bit unsettling. I don't really think selling web pages to me as "homie" pages would strike the right chord. Maybe I'm just not black enough.

Starvation in Zimbabwe
The land redistribution efforts in Zimbabwe will probably end up starving thousands. Among all the things black Americans could be talking about, is this one of them? It feels like something we ought to be paying attention to. Then again, it is Africa and you know we gots issues with thinking about any nation on that continent. Anyway, it was wrong for so few to own so much of the land and it seems right to try to correct that. But to do it in a way that simply replaces one elite class with another and leaves people in peril is unconscionable. Here's a profile of President Robert Mugabe. And a short profile of Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia.

Gay Backlash in Florida
From NPR: Black Churches and Gay Rights, "some of Miami's African-American churches and civil rights activists are campaigning against a local law protecting homosexuals from discrimination." Listen here. According to one woman, part of the motivation may be some black folks need to find somebody who we can be 'better than.' People For the American Way is involved in a lawsuit about Take Back Miami's efforts to repeal the law.

A few hours north, in Orlando, the city doesn't even have the law on the books yet and churches are trying to fight it.
At last count, 6,590 pieces of correspondence had arrived at City Hall, most of them copies of the same form letter. Letters from opponents outnumber those from supporters more than 2-to-1.

If you live in Orlando, send the city commissioners a letter and change those numbers. Orlando City Hall, 400 S. Orange Ave., P.O. Box 4990, Orlando, FL , 32801. Fax: 407-246-2842. Email the mayor: ghood@ci.orlando.fl.us
It feels like Florida is slipping backwards. Perhaps a boycott, like the ongoing NAACP tourism boycott of S.C., would work here. Question is, can Florida tourism take another financial hit?

9.11.02
Naturally, there are scores of events around here scheduled to commemorate September 11. Most of them are prayer/vigil/service/mass things at churches. That's what we do when we grieve or remember heroes. But somehow, the tone of it doesn't sit well with me. The big focus seems to be lifting up any firefighters and police officers, in spite of the fact that most in my area, and probably in yours too, had nothing to do with the rescue efforts at the WTC, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. And it seems we're still stuck in this knee-jerk, superficial, patriotic fervor that accepts anything and anyone draped in red, white and blue. That's why some folks are salty that the Boss is singing American Skin (41 Shots) on his tour.
All that to ask - does anyone have any alternative ideas about a way to mark the date? I'm not looking for protests, but a way to memorialize the dead, but not fall into jingoism. I'll post any ideas I hear about (so send 'em on!).