“Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?” Pedro Baez As we celebrate the 4th of July, many of us are taking stock of the nation that we live in and scratch our head at the changes. Many of the changes have been good. Civil Rights laws have been passed, so long as you can afford it, you can stay at the Waldorf Astoria, Century Plaza, you name it, it’s yours. However there are other changes that haven’t been good. Manufacturing jobs have literally vanished in the US. After school employment for teens has virtually disappeared, as have summer jobs. After school activities in the arts (music, drawing, etc.) has gone the way of wood shop, home ed, and other programs due to budget cuts. Is this the America that our forefathers fought for? The Land of budget cuts, and incarceration for our youth particularly black, brown, and poor white? I’m certain that this isn’t what George Washington foresaw when he fought the British for freedom. Nor did he see what has been a continuing problem for America, racial strife, massive unemployment, skid rows springing up in many downtown areas of the great urban landscape across America. What to do about this? First and foremost, neighborhoods must revert back to what they once were. That being a place of community where everybody knew everybody. Where adults looked out for kids and if they did something wrong, they informed the parents of those kids, and the parents thanked the adults and disciplined their kid so as not to repeat the offense. Churches must take the place of the school and offer programs that will teach the kids music, art, self-defense, citizenship, and reading comprehension. Yes reading. If you can’t read and remember what you read, you are doomed to failure. Many of the new jobs that will spring up call for just that, comprehension. Oh yes, the title of this piece. For those who don’t know, Joe DiMaggio was a great ball player. In 1941, he went on a 56 game hitting streak. Had he not been stopped in Cleveland, he would have gone on to 73 game hitting streak. However that is just part of the story. Joe DiMaggio symbolized what hard work, and determination could accomplish. In the song by Simon and Garfunkel, “Mrs. Robinson” there is a tribute by the duo to “Joltin’ Joe” “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo) What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson Joltin' Joe has left and gone away” (Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_jmDscGi7E) In essence, what Simon and Garfunkel said was Joe DiMaggio symbolized all that was great with America, and where has it all gone. I’m in search of that America myself.See More

Black & Brown-Still Strong Pedro Baez  One of the people associated with Azusa 13 is in cuffs Tuesday after the indictment. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) The recent arrests of the Azusa Street Gang shows a badly needed issue that needs to be addressed: The targeting of innocent citizens of African-American ancestry by thugs of Mexican descent. It is important to note that thankfully this is a small and I mean a very small minority of individuals who have committed these heinous acts. The strangle hold that the prison based Mexican Mafia has on neighborhoods must be broken. It is not only important to get these punks off the street, but they must also be prevented from continuing these acts of violence from the sanctity of the prison walls that confine them. These acts which are reminiscent of the atrocities committed by the La Cosa Nostra against the Irish, and nonconforming Italians and Sicilians is an affront to decent law abiding citizens of Mexican and Latin American descent. In many communities where we live side by side, there is peace, brotherhood, and trust. I urge all my brown brothers and sisters to hug a black brother or sister and apologize for the stupidity of these idiots who deserve the book being thrown at them. If we are on guard against Al Queda, the so called Mexican Mafia deserves no less. Pedro Baez is Vice President and Political Affairs Director of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, a community advocacy group that urges unity and love amongst all peoples. He is also Co-Host and Executive Producer of the “Hutchinson Report” heard on Saturdays at 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Pacific on KPFK FM 90.7 Los Angeles and streamed globally on www.kpfk.org.See More

This Wednesday, President Obama will address college students and outline how he will make some cuts on defense spending while cutting social programs and put controls on Medicare and Medicaid (MediCal in California). I can agree on cuts in defense spending. If we were to put the war on hiatus for a week, the recession would be over. Jobs would be available, and the continuing costs of killing, maiming, destroying countries would be no longer on our national agenda. I agree that we must make some cuts. However don’t cut the programs and services that we have come to rely on for being able to live. Food stamps, Head Start, college tuition aid, meals on wheels, aren’t programs that we can do without. Cut that and you will have close to 50% and possibly more on the street with no shelter, subject to death and disease that would make the Great Depression look like a walk in the park. Many of us want to be able to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. America has always been a country of doers and builders. Let us heed the call of bringing our manufacturing  jobs back home as Morris Griffin aka Big Money Griff has advocated for a long time. Cut Worker Taxes, yes. We got upset that GE paid no taxes. However we should be more upset that countries like China and India have lower worker tax rates than we do. That must be cut in order to put our people back to work. Consumers in foreign countries still appreciate “Made in the USA” on their labels. Can you imagine our foundries, factories, and workers once again operating, (with environmental safeguards in place) producing, and employing our people again? I definitely can. There needs to be a sane, and fair solution to the mess that quite frankly we created. I don’t just mean just we as Americans, but all of us on this planet, since as many now advocate we are part of a global community. House Speaker John Boehner is known to shed tears. Why isn’t he crying about the fact that his home state of Ohio has lost more jobs than Michigan? People out of work, on the street with no prospects for work should be enough to bring us all to tears.See More

I’ve admired Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York for a long time. He is a self made man, doesn’t need what some have termed the “second toughest job in the world.” However with the latest flap coming from newly appointed NYC School Superintendant Cathy Black, my admiration has ended. My hometown has the largest public school district in the US. The schools are choking with an overflow of students. Rather than to look to add space, this cocktail girl wants to close ten schools which have performed well, and jam the students into all ready over crowded facilities. Although this isn’t funny it reminds me of a line from the “Honeymooners” when Alice said to Ralph, “Ralph you’re trying to put two pounds of baloney in a one pound bag.” Is it any wonder that this Bloomberg gal pal was vehemently opposed by educators, scholars, and most important by large segments of the community whose kids must attend the schools she now controls. Here are the schools slated for closure: Brooklyn: -Paul Robeson High School -Metropolitan Corporate Academy High School; Bronx: -School for Community Research and Learning -Urban Assembly Academy for History and Citizenship for Young Men -New Day Academy -Monroe Academy for Business/Law High School Manhattan: -Academy of Environmental Science Secondary High School -IS 195 -KAPPA II -Academy of Collaborative Education These schools are located by the way in predominately Black & Puerto Rican neighborhoods. Now comes word, ten more schools are slated are closure. Like the GOP dominated House and Tea Party folk, the message is loud and clear: CUT! Cathy Black has got to go!See More

Pedro Baez SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Amy, my uncle is Mohamed Abdel Quddoos. He’s a leading opposition protester. He’s now head of the Freedom Committee at the Press Syndicate, and he has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood himself. And, Amy, he’s been protesting for years. There’s been a growing movement here in Egypt of protests, of people trying to voice their dissent. But they have been harshly clamped down on. And what we typically used to see was people like my uncle and other opposition voices speaking in Tahrir on the steps of the Press Syndicate, but they would be about a dozen and then surrounded by hundreds of police, and it would be quickly shut down. They would be arrested. They would be driven out into the middle of the desert and left there, without their wallet or phone, to find their way back, which is a common tactic by the police—completely shut down. And for years, my uncle was—his standard attire, he would leave the building wearing a suit, holding a megaphone and a flag of Egypt in his hand, and he would go into the streets. And this was—I saw him yesterday in the square. He was there with his megaphone and flag and his suit all crumpled because he had spent the night in Tahrir. And I sat down next to him, and I said, "How are you feeling now?" And he was overwhelmed with emotion. He said, "This is a dream come true." And he pointed over to where the Press Syndicate is, and he said, "You remember when I used to stand on the steps of that Press Syndicate to protest? I would stand alone. Now look at everyone. They’re all here with me." And he went on to say how this was not his uprising, it was not his revolt. He said this was done by young people. And he’s the one who called it "the revolution of the Facebook generation." He said there’s been—he said, "Tunis was the catalyst and the spark, but it’s been building for so many years." And he said there’s three similarities between Egypt and Tunis that he saw. He said this was organized through Facebook and was a leaderless movement—that’s one. He said the president will fall; of that, he is sure—that’s two. And three, he says the army supports the people and won’t harm them; of that, he is sure, too.Transcript from Monday’s “Democracy Now,” hosted by Amy Goodman. Report  given by Senior Producer  Sharif Abdel Kouddous. In the blink of an eye, the world has seen Tunisia fall and Egypt getting ready to tumble as well. As some are suggesting, is this the beginning of a global revolution? In the opinion of this writer, no. What we are seeing is years of unemployment, graft, wheeling and dealing going on in the Arab world for decades starting to unwind. Discontent has been brewing in Egypt for a long time before the recession took fold.Poverty, unemployment, misery, and despair have been a way of life in Egypt for years. Since the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952, Egypt has been promising its citizens better days are coming. They have yet to materialize.For the most part as Sharif has reported, young people in Cairo make up the bulk of the uprising, as it was Iran, as it was in Mexico City in 1968. Cairo, the capital of Egypt once its jewel is now its squalor.  Ghettos in Egypt make US ghettos look like splendor. People have said under Farouk, conditions were better. The good life, promised by Gamal Nasser hasn’t been realized. Now the people want change. Neighboring countries are all wondering:WILL WE BE NEXT?Both the so-called moderate and despotic regimes are trembling at the thought of the rebellion spreading into their countries and toppling them.Israel has to be concerned. There could be an avalanche of refugees attempting to enter the country to escape the ensuing chaos. Saturday, when Earl Ofari Hutchinson and I spoke with Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), he agreed that actions taken by Mubarak strongly resembled those taken by Fulgencio Batista prior to his overthrow by Fidel Castro.“Unbelievable. That’s the first thing my wife said to me, in that once again we are in the business of supporting bastards that are the enemies of democracies by saying that they are our bastards. There is no question that we are behind the curve in having the Egyptian people to believe that the money that we send over there annually is for them. The corruption that exists over there, there is a thinking that Batista who controlled the army the way Mubarak does. He couldn’t overcome the people who were supporting  the new Castro army.”As of this writing there appears to be a lessening of tensions and perhaps the dream of the Egyptian people will be realized:True democracy where equality isn’t for just the privileged few.See More