A visual aide

Image

This is an awesome post for the cartographer in you!
Maps that will help you make sense of the world

my personal favorite:
Where public employees get paid

now if someone would just overlay all these maps so we can see how they are connected…

7 Layers of Division

from Greg Dragon from the Hall of the Black Dragon a site that I found through a chain of blogs (you can read the entire article here), this has been on the web for a while, and I wish I we had have seen it sooner, but here goes:

  1. Bourgie vs. Ghetto
  2. American vs. Immigrant
  3. Church vs. Cynics
  4. Racially Scarred vs. Racially Ambiguous
  5. Light vs. Dark
  6. Huey vs. Uncle Ruckus
  7. Men vs. Women

but I want to examine the ending paragraph:

So will black people ever “unify” and appear as together as our fellow minorities? I don’t think so and after seeing the 7 layers that we would have to overcome, you can understand why.

I think the author is perhaps being a bit defeatist. Anything that can be done, can be undone. Of those seven layers there are things that are not so much because of the “condition” of being black but also being black in a capitalist society that was built upon racism, not just intrinsic to the sons and daughers of slaves. Religion has its opponents everywhere, we live in a country where the rich hate the poor (which in itself could be a remnant of slavery) and men and women are always going to have differences because we are different.
But for one to believe that these divisions can be overcome is incorrect. The thing that allowed slaves to free themselves was the ability to read. Access to knowledge was the key, and this bit of knowledge has started a conversation on this site, and those that read this will hopefully look at themselves and recognize where they can improve and as each one looks inward to grow, the results will be felt outwardly. This will reach from themselves, to their family, to other people, to the community etc… remember it wasn’t that long ago when the Black community as a whole valued education, faith and hard work above and beyond everything else.

A small blurb on private school

I couldn’t have said this better myself,

Whatever you think your children need—deserve—from their school experience, assume that the parents at the nearby public housing complex want the same. No, don’t just assume it. Do something about it. Send your kids to school with their kids. Use the energy you have otherwise directed at fighting to get your daughter a slot at the competitive private school to fight for more computers at the public school. Use your connections to power and money and innovation to make your local school—the one you are now sending your child to—better. Don’t just acknowledge your liberal guilt—listen to it.

We are all in the same boat whether we recognize it or not.

10 Facts about The Affordable Health Care Act AKA “Obama Care”

Obamacare
  1. The official name for Obama Care is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” or ACA
  2. The ACA has 2 Major Goals: (1) to provide more Americans with access to affordable, quality health insurance, and  (2)  to reduce the growth in US healthcare spending.
  3. Private health insurance will not be replaced by the ACA. Medicare or Medicaid will not be replaced either.
  4. Many of the provisions of the ACA have already been enacted! The rest of the program will be implemented between 2014 and 2022.
  5. Over 100 million Americans have already benefited from many of the provisions.
  6. The plan includes provisions that prevent insurance companies from dropping you when you get sick, or if you make an honest mistake on your application.
  7. The plan includes provisions that prevent gender discrimination, regulate bad practices on the part of the for-profit health care industry, and prevents unjustified rate increases or hikes.
  8. Under the ACA, employers must cover people with pre-existing health conditions.
  9. Most Americans will have to obtain health coverage by 2014, get an exemption, or pay a fee. This is called an Individual Mandate.
  10.  Open enrollment will take place from October 1st 2013 until March 31st 2014. People can enroll in their state’s marketplace. You can find your state’s marketplace here http://obamacarefacts.com/state-health-insurance-exchange.php

 

Additional Information and details on the information provided above  can be found at http://obamacarefacts.com