Virginia Union University (VUU) and I/Me Thus Far: I am Glad I Did Not Send That E-Mail

I am a Morehouse College Alumnus (a "maroon and white tiger"); my blood is maroon, and my sweat is white. But I have taught at VUU since 1969, and I have developed a deep love for Virginia Union. There is at least one book about my four decades at VUU.
Virginia Union is a major asset to the Richmond community, and it deserves a lot more support than it gets from the Richmond community. It deserves a lot more support than it gets from its prominent alumni--especially its most prominent alumnus Governor/Mayor L. Douglas Wilder.
However, like any institution, Union Has its faults and its positive and negative critics. When I criticize, I aim to be a positive critic.
One of the impromptu speaking assignment options for my speech classes at Union is "VUU and I Thus Far."
Every now and then, I start the session off talking about my almost 40 years at Union.
Since my wife teaches at VUU, Union is our livelihood. Only a fool would want to do anything to hurt her/his livelyhood. A lot of negative things have been said about me over the last 39+ years at Union, and some of them are/were true. But only liars or fools (or some combination thereof) have said that I was not forthright or that I was incompetent. I tell everyone what I think, and "I'm 'bout half smart."
ONLY A FOOL WOULD WANT TO HURT THE INSTITUTION THAT IS HIS LIVELIHOOD.
Last May, a senior administrator at VUU said in the presence of my wife that some faculty members seemed angry and demoralized.
I gave serious thought to sending a sarcastic E-mail entitled "You Mean We Are Not a Happy Camp? I Wonder Why?
In view of recent happenings at VUU, I am very glad I did not.
Sometimes procrastination has its rewards. I may write more about my perspectives on VUU later.

Drop the Suits Brother Mayor

Open Letter to Brother Mayor Dwight C. Jones:
Dear Brother Dwight,
Please tell Mayor L. Douglas Wilder's high priced team of lawyers to go away, and drop the appeals Mr. Wilder made to the Virginia State Supreme Court.

Mr. Wilder's first appeal was over the Richmond Circuit Court's ruling that Mr. Wilder cannot hire and fire city employees who report to City Council. Everywhere in the free world where there are executive and legislative branches of government, the legislative branch hires and fires employees who report to it.

Mr. Wilder exploited ambiguity in and half baked changes to the City Charter to make a power play. Please clarify the City Charter, and call off the costly and wrong headed litigation.

Mr. Wilder's second appeal was over the Circuit Court's ruling that he could not evict the Richmond School Board from City Hall. While Mr. Wilder claimed this would save the City money, he ignored repeated requests from City Council to document this claim. I strongly suspect that Mr. Wilder just wanted the School Board's offices for himself.

Mr. Wilder had a golden opportunity to unite the city; he blew it. You too have a golden opportunity to move us forward. I am confident that you are going to make positive change.

If I can help in any way, please let me know.

Your Brother,
Preston M. Yancy

Liberals Will Never Be Satisfied

A hypocritical, self-styled conservative blog (that will remain nameless on my blog) that is published on Richmond Virginia Blogs attacked liberals. It then proceded to do what it accused liberals of doing. It accused ("crazy") liberals of sour grapes in 2000 and 2004.
Then it showed a lot of sour grapes by accusing President Elect Barack Obama of "buying" the election. RIGHT!!! He raised record amounts of money from a broad base of supporters.
DID PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH BUY THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION IN 2000?
The self-styled conservative tactic of demonizing the liberal label will no longer work. Political labels are relative and temporary. Reactionary, conservative, liberal, radical. One moves from one category to another as times and circumstances change.
I AM A LIBERAL!!! I have been labeled a conservative, and I have sarcastically refered to myself as a conservative, but I have never seriously abandoned the liberal tradition. Liberals pursue justice for those who have been born. As the late Lt. Gov. Henry Howell said: "Liberals believe in life after birth."
And we will never be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
We will be satisfied in a perfect world, and that will never happen."

No Commitment from Pig

Am I the only one who is irritated by the cliche: "When you eat ham and eggs, you know the chicken made a contribution, but the pig made a real commitment."
The hen did not contribute; she laid eggs; because, that is what hens do. The pig did not commit. It was slaughtered and butchered!
Or maybe I'm too literal minded?

Thine Eyes Did See the Glory of the Coming of the Lord

If I could write a letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I would say:
Dear Dr. King, In my last letter, I told you that a man with African ancestry was a serious contender for the nomination of the Democratic party for President. On the night before you were asassinated, the last words in what may have been your greatest speech were, quoting from the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"
Well, that man, President Elect Barack Obama was nominated and elected. And your "boy", the Rev. Jesse Jackson cried. I fought back tears and "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" kept running through my mind. And I was so very sorry that you could not be here to see what you played a major role in accomplishing. I am sure that is one reason why Rev. Jackson was crying.
Thine eyes truly saw the glory of the coming of the Lord; we have come to the "promised land". However, it is full of Philistines, and it is even more hard to stay in the promised land than it is to get to the promised land.
But let's not dwell on that now; let's enjoy the moment.
Thank you doctor; rest in peace knowing your dream and prophetic vision are alive and well.

Commendation to Mayor L. Douglas Wilder

I can finally say something good about Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder. He is making a major effort to help Mayor Elect Dwight Jones with the transition. That is commendable. Thank you Doug.

Improvement on Election Day

In 2004, Ms. Carol Wolf was my only successful candidate. I also voted for the electors pledged to Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards, for Mr. Charles Nance for Mayor, for Councilman William Johnson for City Council, and for whoever ran against Rep. Eric Cantor.
This time whoever ran against Eric Cantor was my only losing candidate.
I voted for Sens. Obama's and Biden's electors, for Brother Dwight Jones for Mayor, for Councilman Chris Hilbert for reelection and Ms. Norma Murdock-Kitt for School Board.
An impressionist who used to imitate the late President Richard Nixon react to his election as President bysaying, "Well, you can't lose them all."
This time I guess I won all that could be won.

I'm Back; Did You Miss Me

I have not posted in awhile on RVA blogs. Did anyone miss me? I will be posting more often if anyone cares.
Thanks to my Virginia Union University (VUU) colleagues Margaret Duckworth and Nancy Rhodes and Nancy's husband Emory/Emery?, I had a perfect 70th birthday celebration on October 18th. My wife, Marilyn enjoyed it too.
Time passes quickly when one gets old.
Speaking of VUU, I may write about it in a future post.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Preston

Trying to get back on Richmond VA Blogs

This blog appeared on Richmond VA Blogs. But one day it was gone. I suppose it was due to inactivity. I have been trying to get back on, but I have failed so far.
I changed internet providers and my E-mail has been giving me mixed signals. And I made errors when I tried to send the link. I tried again today. If I fail this time, I will wait until 2009 to try again.
Wish me luck.

I hope I'm back

I have had computer problems, and I changes internet providers. I still getting mixed signals when I use one of my internet accounts.
I responded to a blog captioned "Liberal Are Never Satisfied.
To quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was quoting one of the Biblical prophets: "No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
Preston M. Yancy

From 1 of 5 to 4 of 5

In 2004 only one of my candidates won; four lost. I voted for Senators John Kerry's and John Edward's electors for President and Vice President, for whoever ran against Congressman Eric Cantor for the House of Representatives, for Mr. Charles Nance for Mayor, for Councilman William R. Johnson for City Council, and for Ms. Carol Wolf for School Board. Only Wolf prevailed.
This time around I voted for the electors for Senators Barack Obama and Joseph Biden for President and Vice President, for whoever ran against Congressman Eric Canter for the House, for Brother Dwight Jones for Mayor, for Councilman Chris Hilbert for City Council, and for Ms. Norma Murdock-Kitt for School Board.
As a comedian and voice impersonator whose name escapes me had President Nixon say, "Well, you can't lose them all."

I made my point, but T-D misspelled my name

Re my recent post on Mayor L. Douglas Wilder's use of a letter "Richmond Proves Buckley Right" to The RICHMOND-TIMES DISPATCH in his VISIONS NEWSLETTER:
The T-D printed my rebuttal to Raymond B. Wallace's attack on the Richmond City Council on Thur. April 10, 2008. It gave the letter an appropriate, clever caption: "Letter Blasting Council Has It All Backward." And none of my points got lost in the editing.
Richmond City Council should be praised for the restraint it has shown, or it should be criticized for not being tough enough. But it would probably need a united front to be tougher.
It is the Mayor who has been the bully and the "pistol packing" warrior declaring no more olive branches.
Hopefully, the State Supreme Court will soon resolve the critical-crucial conflicts, and the city can take it from there.

"Shape Up or Ship Out" II

I am only semi computer literate, so please bear with me.
SAVE RICHMOND http://saverichmond.com/?=482 argues and presents documentation that the improved SOL scores in the Richmond Public Schools (RPS) are due to the fact that the poor performers are being forced out. SAVE RICHMOND and its sources point to high out of school suspensions and dropout rates.
This is bad if poor performers are being discriminated against for out of school suspensions. If poor performers are being suspended for things good performers get away with, this is intolerable.
However, after thirty-nine years as an educator, it is clear to me that there is a strong correlation between behavior and performance.
If out of school suspensions are meted out on an even handed basis, we have a different set of issues.
This brings to mind an old, politically incorrect sexist (But it illustrates a point.) "joke." The man drives the woman to a remote spot and says: "If you are not here for what I am here for, you are going to be here when I am gone."
Students and parents need to understand that the schools will be there when those students who are not there for what the schools are there for are gone.
The issue is certainly complex. Too much emphasis is placed on the SOLS. There should be alternatives to out of school suspensions. And most importantly, "Good communities make good schools." I will write in detail on this at a later date.
Those who want to learn or who understand the importance must be protected. Those who would interfere with the teaching and learning process should "shape up or ship out."

"Shape Up or Ship Out"

Raymond B. Wallace, Jr., Wilder Attack City Council

On March 29, 2008, The Richmond TIMES-DISPATCH published a letter from Raymond B. Wallace, Jr. Entitled "Richmond Proves Buckley Right," Mr. Wallace's letter was an illogical, inaccurate, and irrational attack on the Richmond City Council.
The letter's caption and Wallace's preface reflect his pathetically absurd effort to relate a statement by the late William F. Buckley, Jr. to City Council and Richmond. Buckley said he would prefer to be governed by the first 2000 people in the Boston phone directory than the Harvard University faculty.
Buckley's--highly debatable--point was that a random collection of "common" folk would govern better than "liberal" academics. But for some odd, peculiar, strange reason that reminds Wallace of Richmond City Council. How many liberal academics are on Council?
Three days later, on April 1, 2008, Mayor L. Douglas Wilder's VISIONS NEWSLETTER captioned "Notwithstanding Obstructionists, Richmond Moves Forward" quoted some of Wallace's nonsense:
"With one Council member generating gaseous platitudes calling a City official "crook," another playing nasty turf politics with a popularly-elected Mayor, a third continuing to excuse and blindly supporting the mediocrity of Richmond’s Public Schools at ridiculous cost, a repetitive majority refusing to give the Mayor his appointees, followed by their spending tens of thousands of City dollars in gotcha legal battles, Richmond citizens have been ill served."
Wallace has bought the Mayor's con game that the Mayor is the devoted public servant and the City Council is obstructionist. Not really, Mr. Wallace!
Let us move past Walace's criticism of three unnamed members of Council to his attack on a Council majority. A majority of Council has not refused "to give the Mayor his appointees." Rather, Council refused to confirm one nominee on the basis of his qualifications and his controversial behavior. And Council approved a subsequent nominee without opposition.
Why does Wallace and others think City Council should be a rubber stamp?
"Gotcha legal battles?!?" Hardly. Council filed one lawsuit and joined the Richmond Public Schools in a second. Council bent over backwards to accommodate the Mayor. It agreed to expand his powers. It used the only weapon it had after he declared the power to hire and fire its employees, advertised their positions and fired the one who did not reapply for her job.
City Council is hardly perfect. But now that Richmond has an executive branch of government and a legislative branch, City Council stands head and shoulders above the Mayor in credibility, ethics, integrity and professionalism.
That explains why the Mayor increased his public relations staff by thirty percent. He needs to search out the Wallaces of Richmond and try to project them as a majority.

"Dear Dr. King"

If I could write a letter to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I would say:
Dear Dr. King:
Even though we were (Morehouse College) brothers, you did not know me. We were at the same places on five or six occassions, but I do not think we were introduced or shook hands.
My brother took a picture of you on the third time we were at the same place, and you graciously posed and smiled. That was after my commencement program at Morehouse in 1959. I have that picture in my aging scrapbook.
Your brother, A. D., and I were classmates, so he might remember me. You and your mentor, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, were my heroes.
The first time we were at the same place was in Sale Hall Chapel at Morehouse in the mid 1950s. You were briefing a small group of clergymen on the state of the bus boycott in Montgomery. A few of us slipped into the chapel and sat in the back. I think this was the first time I heard you talk about Sister Pollard. Sister Pollard was rather old, and she insisted on walking during the boycott. They began to worry about her and try to get her to ride in the car pool. She was determined to walk. "Aren't you tired," they asked. She replied, "my feets is tired, but my soul is rested."
The second time we were at the same place was at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. It was during academic year 1956-57. You were still pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and you and "Daddy" King exchanged pulpits every year. He was preaching at Dexter Avenue and you were preaching at Ebeneezer.
You preached on WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE HIS ONLY SOUL. You told us how the Democrats had offered you $25,000 to endorse Gov. Adlai Stevenson for president in 1956. And you talked about how the Republicans had offered you $75,000 to endorse President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
You made us laugh when you talked about how you pondered how far that $75,000 would go towards educating all the children you planned to have, but you said you had to turn it down for fear you would gain the world and lose your soul.
Third, you were my commencement speaker 1n 1959. You thrilled us with the charge to remain awake through the social revolution that was taking place.
Finally, you spoke in Richmond, Virginia on the campus of Virginia Union University shortly after the four little girls were killed in the Birmingham, Alabama church bombing. You asked who killed those beautiful children. You indicted the usual suspects, but you did not let us off the hook. You said all of us who had not done enough to pursue justice had to share the guilt.
We have missed you since your death, but you have continued to inspire us. In their book THE MILITANT BLACK WRITER IN THE UNITED STATES AND AFRICA, Stephen Henderson and Mercer Cook said you were a prophet and a poet. You were. Aspects of your poetic dream have come true. The sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveholders routinely sit down at the table of brotherhood all over the South today.
We now have a national holiday to celebrate your birthday, but that was a compromise. Instead of the January 15th, it is the third Monday so we can have a long weekend. I think you would have mixed emotions about the holiday and the "Make Your Dreams Come True" sales, but it validates you philosophy.
Considerable progress has been made in politics; we are slowly moving towards judging people on their merits. We made history in Virginia by electing an African American, who pushed for honoring your birthday, as the first black governor of any state. We have elected a growing number of brothers and sisters to offices at every level. A brother with African ancestry is a serious candidate for president.
We still have a long way to go. The plight of the have nots may be even worse than when you were alive. We have major problems, especially in the areas of war and peace. But, I will not go into details, and you must rest in peace. You did all you could to push us towards the "Promised Land." It is now up to us. Thank you for your valiant efforts. We will never forget you.
Preston M. Yancy

Thanks to the Four of You--Especially Jason--Sorry Scott

My first post drew nine comments from four people. Thank you all for your thoughts and for new perspectives I had not considered. They are Scott, Jason Kenney, Paul Hammond and RVA FOODIE (Jason Guard).
Special thanks to Jason Kenney (J'S WORLD) for responding on his blog, welcoming me to "blogdom," and saying I make sense (sometimes if not this time).
Scott seems to be a champion of compliance with The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and he seems to think I can and should do something about getting compliance by the Richmond Public Schools. Paul Hammond does not think too much of the ADA. Frankly, I have not given it much thought.
But, I see Mayor L. Douglas Wilder has frozen the funds--for ADA compliance--in the continuing "war" between Wilder and the RPS. Sorry Scott, but Mr. Wilder put us on notice to expect no more olive branches. Let me know what you think I can and should do, and I will respond.
pmy

Allow comments RIVER CITY RAPIDS and SAVE RICHMOND

First Jon Baliles of RIVER CITY RAPIDS called for the defeat of George Braxton as Chair of the Richmond City School Board. Don Harrison of SAVE RICHMOND piggy-backed on Baliles' effort. Neither blog allows comment. That is interesting since Harrison was critical of the School Board; because, the public could not speak at the meeting.
Paul Hammond of THE LOST ART OF THE CITY poked fun at Baliles and Harrison, and I took a shot at both Mr. Baliles and Mr. Harrison on Hammond's blog. Harrison replied to me on his blog, but I cannot respond to him on his blog.
BUT THAT IS THE MAIN REASON I GOT A BLOG!
I called Baliles and Harrison apologists for Mayor L. Douglas Wilder. Harrison says that is "absolute horse hockey," and he cited several blogs in which he criticized/opposed Wilder. My main gripe with Baliles' "bill of particulars" against Braxton--which Harrison embraced--was the one that read "the perpetual stalling and playing chicken with the moving of the RPS [Richmond Public Schools] offices."
The insistence that the RPS offices be moved was an unfunded mandate by a person who had no authority to issue that decree. The School Board should be applauded for "out Wildering" Wilder on that matter. On this issue criticizing the Board constitutes being a Wilder apologist.
Mr. Harrison, you may respond on my blog. Will I ever be able to on yours?
Preston M. Yancy