Faith in Action

Too tired right now, but my full take on this is forthcoming. Stay tuned.

Pretty interesting piece on Baltimore from Aljazeera English. They do a pretty good job of presenting news from a different perspective and I’m heartened by their Code of Ethics.

Part 1 deals more with stories from Baltimore.

Part 2 talks about Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and race in America for the first 5:40. Remainder of the vid goes back to Baltimore.

Warning: This video has some language that some may find offensive.

Baltimore City Public School System
By Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, Sr.

Recent violent occurrences in our Baltimore City Public School system should finally be the wake-up call for all of us to get actively involved in the education of OUR children.

The Family and Community Engagement Policy of the Baltimore City Public School System, approved May 25, 2004, needs to be scraped. Some of the language can be retained, but this document is merely words and not a plan to really engage parents, residents, community organizations, faith based institutions and businesses.

The Baltimore City Public School System’s Office of Parent Involvement and School, Family, Community Connections is failing in its objective to promote ongoing community engagement activities in our schools. Outside agencies and individuals are not participating at truly beneficial and successful levels, in helping our schools achieve greater success. We must be careful in engaging some of these non-profits that are only involved to receive funding for their experimental project that show no real benefit for our children. Communities, contrary to the schools allegations, are not being encouraged at the level we must have them to become increasingly more involved and committed to the shred responsibility of improving our schools.

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This afternoon (Thursday, April 10, 2008) I will be joining many others at the Baltimore City Liquor Board Hearing about the four establishments that we have been targeting on a weekly basis for the past 5 months.

As you’ll remember, our work has been focused on the 5100 block of Park Heights Avenue where there are 4 [FOUR] liqour establishments in that 1 block!

Our citizen’s alliance led by Mr. Derrick Compton, Sr., is extremely diverse and focused. We have PhD’s and “No D’s” joining together to deal with this public safety issue that research has proven adversely impacts a community’s quality of life.

The Korean Merchants Association understands what is at stake. Our coalition met with them two weeks ago to hear them out. Our sources also tipped us to the fact that they have paid some residents $40 to come down to City Hall today to testify in favor of the liquor stores. These sly business owners have also been going around to the local churches with $100 dollar “offerings” for the pastors in the community.

Will pastors turn their backs on the community for a $100 dollar bill??

We’ll see. But we’re thankful for Rev. Ted Sutton (Maryland Church of God in Christ), Pastor Kevin Rogers (New Fellowship Church), Pastor Hattie Bailey (Full Gospel Fellowship Church of Deliverance) and Bishop Kevia Elliot (The Lord’s Church) for their letters of support and in the case of Rev. Sutton - we appreciate how this true man of God has walked the streets with us - something that he does anyway given his passion for “street ministry.”

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Friday was a long day, but I did get a chance to drop in on the King Commemorative March and Rally in West Baltimore. The event was put on my Wayland Baptist Church’s Community Development Corporation. Dick Gregory was the keynote speaker and he was….Dick Gregory. LOL

It was so funny watching the faces of the dignified pastors as Gregory said some off the wall stuff! You know how he mixes comedy with political commentary. One minute he’s talking about manganese and the next minute he’s talking about wishing he was back in school since all these teachers now are having sex with the students! Crazy. I got some video from the event and I’ll try to have it up later this week. In addition to speeches there was dancing, singing, and great music. An all around great event. Good job to all involved!

Last week, I was blessed to be invited to Baltimore’s School of Original Thought to speak for their Manhood Seminar. SOT is a Muslim private school that produces some of the best and brightest students in the city. I was honored that they would consider inviting me to their school to speak to their young men. We had a wonderful time of sharing and I was extremely impressed with the academic gains that these students had made at such early ages. I was told of student after student who had completed their studies at age 13 or 14 and who would be going to college in the Fall.

These boys were highly intelligent, extremely respectful, and obviously destined for greatness. The staff is doing a marvelous job of cultivating the minds, hearts, and spirits of the younger generation. I have driven by the school often over the years always wondering what goes on in there. I no longer have to wonder nor just drive by. They asked me to stop in and say “hello” whenever I would like. My family just got a little bigger.

Since this mainstream media report, the House of Delegates has voted on the bill and everyone voted in favor of it except Del. Jill Carter (D-41), Del. Michael Smigiel (R-36), Del. Richard Sossi (R-36) and Del. Donna Stifler (R-35A).

Del. Frank Conaway, Jr. (D-40) - who we initially identified as being one of the misguided African American delegates in a previous post - chose not to vote at all.

I wouldn’t have believed it if I wasn’t there to experience it myself.

The Park Heights Dry Out Coalition was making its weekly rounds yesterday in the 5100 block of Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore City.

We checked in with Slaters Grocery (5117 Park Heights Ave.) and were pleased to see that they had moved the liquor from off of the shelf where condiments, juices, and other more common household products are found. Now all of their liquor was in the refrigerators up against the wall. As we walked the aisles, the owner made sure to come from behind his bullet-proof glass and point out that he had moved the bottles of alcohol.

From there we walked next door to the Check Cashing business (5119 Park Heights Ave.). I had taken pictures of the outside of the establishment, but had never been in. This week we walked in. What ensued was a wake up call to me to what we were really dealing with.

We took immediate notice of the dank environment of this store. The smell of water damage and mildew was obvious. One of the brothers looked up and we saw what was probably the source of the problem.

We took note thinking that the Baltimore City Health Department or the Department of Housing might want to take a look at this. This has to be a violation and health hazard to customers.

We also took a closer look at his pornography advertisements.

Indeed, I had never seen a Check Cashing business that also sold porn. Isn’t there a specific zoning license to do that?

As we were inspecting the ceiling the owner came out asking who we were.

We refrained from volunteering information to the man and that’s when he threatened to call the cops. Being that the police officer for that area has made presentations to our coalition before, we welcomed the officer’s presence on the premises. When the owner saw that we weren’t fazed by his threat to call 9-1-1; he made a statement that took our interaction to the next level.

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Conservative Baltimore Sun columnist makes a living off of stating his opinion through print. Over the years I’ve agreed with him at times and disagreed at other times. In most cases there is disagreement and that pattern continues with his latest piece that I believe mischaracterizes the meaningful exchange had on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at New Life United Methodist Church around the issue of “Snitchin”, witness intimidation, and community-police partnership. In his latest piece, “Fighting the Code of Street Silence“, Kane basically states that nothing of note came out of the Stop Snitchin’ Townhall organized by Jamye Wooten, Founder of Kinetics: Faith in Motion. An interesting conclusion given the fact that Kane was not there! Highlighting the tragic case of Zach Sowers and his wife’s call for 25 Black Leaders to decry the “Stop Snitchin’” code; Kane plays to the cultural ignorance of a significant portion of his readers and perpetuates mainstream stereotypes of Black Humanity by drumming up in dramatic detail extremely violent crimes involving Black men and presents them as if they are the norm for all Black men.

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