E-NOTES: WHEN THE NEWS IS NOT ENOUGH. THE BLOG OF E. ETHELBERT MILLER
Thursday, November 19, 2009
THE NEW WORLD ISN'T LIKE NEW YORK: The view from Washington, D.C.
They give the Washington Examiner away free in front of some of the Metro stations each morning. Some things you can't even give away and some things you shouldn't keep. The editorial in yesterday's newspaper demanded that President Obama stop bowing and apologizing. I took this as an interesting historical advice for a black man. How many movies did we bow but not break?
Thank God, for Sidney Poitier. So there was President Obama bowing when he greeted the Japanese Emperor Akihito -has our Prez no shame? In the Washington Examiner I read words that must have come from a"white" paper written by a bureaucrat in the State Department:
It simply ought not be necessary to instruct an American chief executive - even one so inexperienced in foreign affairs as Obama was when he took the oath of office - that we do not bow to foreign monarchs. We declared our independence from a monarch. As Thomas Paine put it, "In America, the law is king." And the law is made by representatives chosen by the true sovereign, the people. A bow is far more than a diplomatic expression of respect; it is a sign of submission and acceptance of the authority of the monarch.
Hold the above thought in your mind and let me turn the page of the Washington Examiner to William Kristol's commentary. Kristol outlines what conservatives want. He writes:
We conservatives want American soldiers to win wars, American interests to prevail and American principles to flourish. We want the bad guys to lose.
For many years the bad guys were people of colored. For many years the people of colored did the bowing. The world was white and things had a certain colonial order. People knew their place. We all lived lives of submission. Now the 21st Century is here and people of color around the world are on the move. Power will have to be shared if we are to tackled global problems.
President Obama's election has resulted in the colorization of American foreign policy. When I was standing in the lobby of the State Department (more than a month ago) I shook my head in amazement at all the old white men going in and out of the building. Here were the policy makers. White women had made some gains but people of color were either guards or secretaries. How often do we discuss American foreign policy and talk about the factor of race?
The US president is a person who looks like other people in the world. He might have different values and beliefs but he has something in common with - the other.
We are finally beginning to respect other countries in the world- especially their culture. Bowing sometimes is not an act of submission but instead an embrace that recognizes the God or human force in others. It's a way of being welcomed into a family, so that sharing can take place. The bow is an acknowledgement that one is a guest. In some cultures one removes one's shoes before entering a home. Is this a sign of submission? Entering a room without doing so is an act of arrogance and aggression. How often did we see American soldiers in the early days of wars failing to pass Culture 001?
Conservative America wants to be John Wayne or either Ronald Reagan forever. They want to kick butt and win wars. Ass kicking should always be swift. There is no time even to ask folks if they want their ass kicked. Just Do It! A Nike slogan that can perhaps explain the world that needs to be changed. What do we need to do? Apologize? Not really. We need to confess to ourselves that the world has changed and we have to learn new Rodney King habits. Yes, can't we all get along? Listen to the "King" - a symbolic "black" monarch who witnessed a riot. There is no way we can proceed into the future with an Empire State of Mind. Toss the Yankee caps?
Jay-Z meet the emperor of Japan. Bend it like Obama.
They give the Washington Examiner away free in front of some of the Metro stations each morning. Some things you can't even give away and some things you shouldn't keep. The editorial in yesterday's newspaper demanded that President Obama stop bowing and apologizing. I took this as an interesting historical advice for a black man. How many movies did we bow but not break?
Thank God, for Sidney Poitier. So there was President Obama bowing when he greeted the Japanese Emperor Akihito -has our Prez no shame? In the Washington Examiner I read words that must have come from a"white" paper written by a bureaucrat in the State Department:
It simply ought not be necessary to instruct an American chief executive - even one so inexperienced in foreign affairs as Obama was when he took the oath of office - that we do not bow to foreign monarchs. We declared our independence from a monarch. As Thomas Paine put it, "In America, the law is king." And the law is made by representatives chosen by the true sovereign, the people. A bow is far more than a diplomatic expression of respect; it is a sign of submission and acceptance of the authority of the monarch.
Hold the above thought in your mind and let me turn the page of the Washington Examiner to William Kristol's commentary. Kristol outlines what conservatives want. He writes:
We conservatives want American soldiers to win wars, American interests to prevail and American principles to flourish. We want the bad guys to lose.
For many years the bad guys were people of colored. For many years the people of colored did the bowing. The world was white and things had a certain colonial order. People knew their place. We all lived lives of submission. Now the 21st Century is here and people of color around the world are on the move. Power will have to be shared if we are to tackled global problems.
President Obama's election has resulted in the colorization of American foreign policy. When I was standing in the lobby of the State Department (more than a month ago) I shook my head in amazement at all the old white men going in and out of the building. Here were the policy makers. White women had made some gains but people of color were either guards or secretaries. How often do we discuss American foreign policy and talk about the factor of race?
The US president is a person who looks like other people in the world. He might have different values and beliefs but he has something in common with - the other.
We are finally beginning to respect other countries in the world- especially their culture. Bowing sometimes is not an act of submission but instead an embrace that recognizes the God or human force in others. It's a way of being welcomed into a family, so that sharing can take place. The bow is an acknowledgement that one is a guest. In some cultures one removes one's shoes before entering a home. Is this a sign of submission? Entering a room without doing so is an act of arrogance and aggression. How often did we see American soldiers in the early days of wars failing to pass Culture 001?
Conservative America wants to be John Wayne or either Ronald Reagan forever. They want to kick butt and win wars. Ass kicking should always be swift. There is no time even to ask folks if they want their ass kicked. Just Do It! A Nike slogan that can perhaps explain the world that needs to be changed. What do we need to do? Apologize? Not really. We need to confess to ourselves that the world has changed and we have to learn new Rodney King habits. Yes, can't we all get along? Listen to the "King" - a symbolic "black" monarch who witnessed a riot. There is no way we can proceed into the future with an Empire State of Mind. Toss the Yankee caps?
Jay-Z meet the emperor of Japan. Bend it like Obama.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
NYERE NEWS:Basketball season begins today for Widener University. It marks the beginning of my son's coaching career.
Nyere Miller
Assistant Men's Basketball Coach
Widener University
Nyere Miller, after a distinguished four-year career, is in his first year as an assistant coach for the Pride.
Miller was a major reason why Widener won three Commonwealth Conference titles and competed in the NCAA Tournament all four years. He finished second in school history with 257 steals and holds two of the top three single-season marks, including a team record 92 in 2007-08.
A tremendous leader and great teammate, his guidance as a captain was one of the major reasons why he was named MVP of the 2008 conference tournament.
Camille T. Dungy's new anthology is out.
BLACK NATURE: FOUR CENTURIES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN NATURE POETRY
The book is published by The University of Georgia Press.
Let's have some GREEN READINGS around the country in celebration.
Time to return to the land. It's easier to love a tree these days, but sometimes I find myself still too young to go steady.
Here are words from Camille's introduction:
I bought nature guides and learned to identify leafless trees in winter. I walked daily and charted the calendar by the cyclical progress of leaves and buds and blossoms. I fell for flowers. Noting the crowning of the crocus and the budding of the forsythia, I became aware of how they foretold the swift onset of spring. I started writing about the landscape where I lived, and began to pay more attention to what I remembered about the then-semi-rural Southern California landscape of my earlier years.
In her anthology Camille reprinted my poem "I Am Black and the Trees Are Green."
so you point
and say the woods are beautiful
like men standing on shores
of Africa enjoying the sun on their skin
the white sand touching the water blue
the new slaves as invisible as conversation
THE HOUSE OF ZU
The other day I got a surprise phone call from Ahmos Zu-Bolton's daughter. Boy, did we have a conversation filled with laughter. Daughter Zu was calling to tell me that she had discovered a lot of items belonging to her father. HooDoo magazines, love letters and some of my correspondence to that wonderful trickster of a poet. I still maintain that Ahmos Zu-Bolton was an innovator and a person ahead of his time. It would be shameful for future literary scholars to overlook his contribution to African American literature. It was fun telling Daughter Zu about her daddy. I could tell she was using a cell phone and looking for a cord. When I think about those adventures during the 1970s with Ahmos they seem more folklore than memory. How often did we mistake a woman for a Muse? Why did our poems now and then slap us in the back of our heads? I can still see Zu driving his white van with no heat in the winter. He looks over at me and says - N- when are you going to learn how to drive? Zu laughs - we both knew our way around this planet - it's the others we wanted to explore. From slavery to space. D.C. was just a moment in time. Zu now somewhere making plans for the next HooDoo Festival. All the Renegade Ghosts Rise.
Note from poet Lenard Moore:November 16, 2009
Hi, Ethelbert!
I thought you might appreciate reading my jazz haiku, which
is featured today on the following Mann Library website
at Cornell University:
A different haiku of mine will be featured each day of this month.
I hope you're still writing haiku. Thank you very much.
Have a great week and take care--
Brotherly,
Lenard
SPACE IS THE PLACE:
A Space Inside will host a multi-genre open mic event on Wednesday, November 18 at 7 p.m. at Riverby Books on Capitol Hill.
Readers will include a few series alums, new writers from the neighborhood, and established voices from the DC region. Come to share your own work or just to listen to a diverse set of literary voices. All genres are welcomed--fiction, poetry, nonfiction, drama.
No reading will be held in December because of the host's travel schedule, but events will return to regular schedule in January 2010 for a Fifth Anniversary Party, followed by the amazing fiction of Kate Blackwell in February.
Rounding out its fourth year, A Space Inside provides a space where developing writers, lesser known voices, and the work better-known writers create between books can be heard. Monthly readings alternate between poetry and prose, but all readers are DC-based writers. All readings, which are free and open to the public, are hosted by Riverby Books with a reception following. Questions should be directed to series organizer Monica F. Jacobe at monicafjacobe@usa.net.
Riverby Books is located at 417 East Capitol Street, SE, just north of Eastern Market and four blocks east of the U.S. Capitol. A seller of used and rare books, they are open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and can be reached at (202) 543-4342. Please call for directions, if needed.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Quote of the Day:
A further area of study ought to deal with the mind-set of McCain's former campaign aides who continue to criticize Palin for not turning out to be the mute puppet they had so hoped she would be. That she went rogue I have no doubt - but this was only after they went stupid and helped pick here in the first place.
- Richard Cohen, The Washington Post, 11/17/09
A further area of study ought to deal with the mind-set of McCain's former campaign aides who continue to criticize Palin for not turning out to be the mute puppet they had so hoped she would be. That she went rogue I have no doubt - but this was only after they went stupid and helped pick here in the first place.
- Richard Cohen, The Washington Post, 11/17/09
THE PALIN WATCH: God, Todd and Odd.
Here is a comment by reporter Ana Marie Cox in today's Washington Post:
I cannot claim to have completely read "Going Rogue" - I had to skim the last 150 pages (or more than one-third). I only got the thing into my hands late Monday afternoon with a deadline of early evening. It's terrible, I know, but if I didn't read it all, neither can Sarah Palin claim to have completely written it.
The above is an example of why too many roofs leak. Palin doesn't write and Cox doesn't read. Things keep going downhill and we call it progress. Who placed the bag over America's head and told us to scream Palin? This is what happens when a nation ODs on reality shows.
Fascism always appears with make-up. Be careful with those "Oba Mao" imported shirts.
AFTER BROOKLYN THE BRONX COULD BE NEXT:
The Center for Black Literature, the Center for Women's Development, the Male Development and Empowerment Center at Medgar Evers College
INVITE YOU TO HEAR THE WORKS OF E. Ethelbert Miller and Asha Bandele.
Friday, November 20th (BERT DAY!)
6PM - 8PM
President's Conference Center
(Room 1008)
Medgar Evers College, CUNY
1650 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY.
The Center for Black Literature, the Center for Women's Development, the Male Development and Empowerment Center at Medgar Evers College
INVITE YOU TO HEAR THE WORKS OF E. Ethelbert Miller and Asha Bandele.
Friday, November 20th (BERT DAY!)
6PM - 8PM
President's Conference Center
(Room 1008)
Medgar Evers College, CUNY
1650 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY.
LANGUAGE WORK:
It appears it's time for writers to do the essential "language work" that is needed to improve the quality of life. We should begin to reintroduce words back into our daily conversations. Here are a couple of words and terms we just need to mention over and over until it becomes another Starbucks on a corner.
1. The Beloved Community
2. Pan-Africanism
3. Nonviolence
4. Utopia
In many lectures I refer back to King and his belief in the Beloved Community. This is the only way we can have a successful world built around diversity and tolerance.
Pan-Africanism should replace the concept of Black diaspora. Geez- since the birth of the Internet we should be able to get everyone on the same Website if not the same boat. Can you imagine Marcus Garvey with a laptop? Instead of a Black Star Line let's think of a new web design for the race.
Nonviolence should first begin with our language. Everyday my ears are raped on public transportation. Our adults and children have reduced beautiful black speech down to a form of text message gibberish with an odor and a bad sound. I often close my ears to (h)ear.
Utopia. Yeah -baby. I'm out of here. Water on the Moon and Utopia on the mind. Can't we begin to imagine a high-tech new society? Give me a Brave New World without the soma or the Palin pill that turns even a good Republican mind to mush. Can't we do better? Should we outsource our dreams? I prefer blue rather than a lighter shade of pale.
It appears it's time for writers to do the essential "language work" that is needed to improve the quality of life. We should begin to reintroduce words back into our daily conversations. Here are a couple of words and terms we just need to mention over and over until it becomes another Starbucks on a corner.
1. The Beloved Community
2. Pan-Africanism
3. Nonviolence
4. Utopia
In many lectures I refer back to King and his belief in the Beloved Community. This is the only way we can have a successful world built around diversity and tolerance.
Pan-Africanism should replace the concept of Black diaspora. Geez- since the birth of the Internet we should be able to get everyone on the same Website if not the same boat. Can you imagine Marcus Garvey with a laptop? Instead of a Black Star Line let's think of a new web design for the race.
Nonviolence should first begin with our language. Everyday my ears are raped on public transportation. Our adults and children have reduced beautiful black speech down to a form of text message gibberish with an odor and a bad sound. I often close my ears to (h)ear.
Utopia. Yeah -baby. I'm out of here. Water on the Moon and Utopia on the mind. Can't we begin to imagine a high-tech new society? Give me a Brave New World without the soma or the Palin pill that turns even a good Republican mind to mush. Can't we do better? Should we outsource our dreams? I prefer blue rather than a lighter shade of pale.
