Young Voices
Exchanging ideas from the show and blogging about topics in the news from a range of perspectives.
April 12, 2007
An Ultrasound Policy for Abortion
by Rose Capozzi
For some women, the biggest decision of their lives may be whether to abort a pregnancy. The physical and mental ramifications of choosing abortion can cause a lifetime of pain, sorrow, and regret. To balance these perceived ills, the South Carolina legislature is considering a bill that would require women to view ultrasounds of their fetuses before making a final decision.
One of the biggest opponents of the measure, Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-SC) told MSNBC, "It suggests that women don't know what they're doing, that they've arrived at this decision quite lightly, and nothing could be further from the truth.”
But what if the woman is not as informed as Cobb-Hunter believes?
Knowing what stage the fetus has matured to might change the mind of a woman seeking an abortion. And if she is already informed of the fetal development and still chooses to carry out the abortion, what harm does the ultrasound do? It does not prevent abortions, it just lets women know what is at stake for their own personal convenience.
April 6, 2007
An Inconvenient Decision
by Rose Capozzi
This week, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. The Bush Administration and the EPA argued that they do not have the authority to regulate emissions, and even if they did, this was not the right time to do so. However, the court decided not to defer to the government this time, stirring up several important fundamental issues.
First, what is the role of government in protecting the environment? As Milton Friedman would say, government should ensure that one individual's freedom does not hamper another individual's freedom. In this case, my ability to drive a gas-guzzling SUV that emits tons of pollution should not prohibit you and your kids from running in the park without having an asthma attack.
The second issue is that President Bush is not the only person to be blamed. Where was the Clinton administration when they had the opportunity to put these regulations in place? The then Browner led EPA waited until the Fall 2000 elections to consider doing something about emissions, hoping that Gore would be victorious. And when he was not, they attempted (unsuccessfully) to push the issue right before Bush was inaugurated.
The last issue is that the Supreme Court usurped the power of the Congress to decide if and how car emissions should be regulated. It is unfortunate that Congress could not come to this conclusion on their own, most likely because of campaign contributions (on both sides of the aisle) from oil companies and car manufacturers. This hands off attitude has left the American people at the whim of what a handful of appointed legal academics have to say about the science of environmentalism.
April 3, 2007
Enough Pop Statistics - Just Mentor!
by Victor Marsh
“...you are better off spending your cash on a sandwich - take a child to lunch...”
Juan Williams is angry with Michael Eric Dyson, for good reason. That much comes through very clearly in his book Enough!
The book is largely written as a defense of Bill Cosby's views against Disown's mean-spirited attacks on the famous actor. Cosby and Williams adopt uncontroversial views but use some loaded language to advocate their views.
For example, while both Cosby and Williams tend to lecture poor people about buying their children expensive gym shoes - study after study have shown that poor blacks, like most poor Americans, are not wild spenders. It is America's middle class that is so gung-ho for consumer debt. So, I recommend that both Williams and Cosby cease from chastising poor blacks for being big-spenders, when proof shows that they are not.
At the end of the day, both Cosby and Williams are, with love, telling Black parents to stay engaged, and for Black children to stay in school. They are telling Black women to not get pregnant before they are married and telling hip-hop artists to be respectful. None of this is crazy, but it is also not Earth shattering.
Rather than purchase Juan Williams' book, you are better off spending your cash on a sandwich - as you take a child to lunch, mentoring the Black child that is the focus of Juan's writing. Williams wants us to take action, mentoring once a week over lunch and other activists is how to do it.
April 4, 2007
Abu Ghraib: Accountability Still Matters
by Victor Marsh
“...atrocious behavior...could have been prevented by policy.”
Torture is wrong and ineffective, but who is to blame - the people who torture, or their bosses who leave them to do just that? All are to blame, but even now, the bosses should be held accountable - even retired Rumsfeld.
Good-natured people, put in strange circumstances, can turn into monsters - says famous Stanford researcher Philip Zimbardo this week in the NY Times. Since his famous 1973 Prison Experiment, we know a lot about the conditions under which prison guards (even happy Stanford undergraduates) might become monsters.
That leads me to think of Abu Ghraib. Former Secretary Rumsfeld was a micro-manager. He approved everything that went on in his department, and even signed-off on specific treatments for prisoners. He got a big parade and an honorable farewell at the Pentagon. General Sanchez, who oversaw Iraq's operations also managed to escape accountability. Meanwhile, lower down the chain of command, Sgt. Chip Frederick took responsibility, but admitted that he did not know why he did such horrible things.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense failed not only Iraqi prisoners, but also failed the US public. The atrocious behavior of Sgt. Frederick and his peers could have been prevented by policy. It was not. The CIA is starting the learn these lessons, but the opposition Congress has a duty to make sure the whole government does not torture ever again, but that is not enough.
Senior-level people (even those no longer in office) who enabled torture - from the Pentagon to the Justice Department - should be held accountable under law. Or at least, they should appear before an opposition Congress to explain themselves and their mistakes to the American people.
April 7, 2007
iPods All Around
by Rose Capozzi
There are two logical choices when a state is suffering from a $920 million deficit: cutback on spending or raise taxes. But some Michigan Democrats have a different solution- they want to buy an iPod for every student in the state.
When common sense tells most people to stop spending money when they are flat broke, politicians continue spending....and spending....and spending, all at the expense of the taxpayers.
April 16, 2007
Religion and National Security
by Victor Marsh
“religion education is vital for national security.”
On the TS Show last week Professor Stephen Prothero (Boston University) argued that all Americans - from our public school youngsters to national security leaders - need to know more about religion. He has written a very informative and provocative book: Religious Literacy. The book is one historical view trying to explain why we Americans, are on the one hand very religious but on the other hand very ignorant about basic religious facts. Despite its very general title, the book focuses on Christian Americans' lack of Biblical knowledge and complete ignorance about other religions.
The book has some education policy recommendations that will make many nervous about the First Amendment doctrine separating church and state. However, Prothero hit one nail completely on its head in his appearance on the show: religion education is vital for our national security.
For US national security - we need stronger education for soldiers and diplomats alike, not only on religion, but in other cultural topics too. Studies show that we must focus attention on "superhard" languages for our diplomats. We also need to train people for more team work between our soldiers and diplomats, so the government's internal squabbles are not harming our global communications.
When we talk about national security and education, cultural and historical education programs never get the same attention as math or science programs. While expending resources in the next budget, our Congress should invest in educating the human resources that actually do the work of national security.
April 17, 2007
VA Tech: A Preventable Tragedy?
by Jeremy Freed
One of the saddest revelations so far in the coverage of yesterday's horrific school shooting is that several people anticipated violence from the suspect, but despite their efforts were unable to prevent it.
The man police have named as the shooter, 23 year-old Seung-Hui Cho, was identified by classmates and professors as being severely troubled more than a year ago. His writings were so disturbing that one professor eventually contacted university officials and police, before referring him to counseling. The chairwoman of Virginia Tech's English department tutored Cho one-on-one, and repeatedly recommended counseling, but could not be sure whether he ever actually went.
The more that is revealed about these terrible events, the more questions are raised. Not least of all, what else can be done to prevent troubled young people from falling through the cracks, as this man seems to have?
April 19, 2007
Putting the Money Where Our Mouth Is
by Rose Capozzi
April 18, 2007 - President Bush speaks on Darfur during a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
Love him or hate him, President Bush has been on the forefront of the international genocide debate concerning Darfur. Bush was the first to call the mass killings "genocide", setting himself, and America for that matter, apart from the U.N. This week, Bush was prepared to give a scathing speech at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, but reluctantly agreed to tone his remarks down after a series of phone calls with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who still believes that diplomacy can stop the bloodshed.
Though the speech did not introduce new, tougher U.S. sanctions on Sudan, as orginally planned, it does demonstrate Bush's willingness to react economically, if not militarily. Bush said in his speech that, "President Bashir's [of Sudan] record has been to promise cooperation while finding new ways to subvert and obstruct the U.N.'s efforts to bring peace to his country. The time for promises is over -- President Bashir must act."
More than 200,000 people have died during these four years of human rights violations, and the U.N. still wants to talk Sudan into being a good boy. Speaking softly has failed; maybe it's time for a big stick.
April 20, 2007
After Imus: Part 2
by Jeremy Freed
“Artists should feel free to use the N-word, provided that they do so in an intelligent context, as part of a conversation about racism, black identity, and other such important issues.”
The second installment of Oprah's Imus-inspired town hall aired Tuesday, and gave the hip-hop community a chance to respond to allegations that their art was responsible for the ousted shock jock's comments, and the denigration of African-American women in our society and culture. Unfortunately, it yielded very little in the way of useful resolution. While all agreed that there was a problem, and that hip-hop played some role in it, none went quite so far as to propose what might be done to solve it. While never stated outright, threats of censorship hung heavy in the air, the logical conclusion to much of the non-hip-hop camp's criticisms. But what a slippery slope that is. In the end, the forum became more of a shouting match, with hurt feelings and bruised egos on all sides.
Had Jabari Asim been there, it might have played out differently.
In his discussion with Tavis on Wednesday evening, the author and columnist brought a new light to the conversation with his thoughts on “The N Word,” who can say it, and who should not. Artists, he concluded, should feel free to use the word, provided, he implied, that they do so in an intelligent context, as part of a conversation about racism, black identity, and other such important issues. August Wilson, Richard Pryor, and Lenny Bruce were his examples of artists who used the word in such a manner. Nelly's name, somewhat conspicuously, never came up.
The dangers of censorship, when placed in the context of artists such as those, not least in Bruce's case, are lessons hard learned.
Despite Asim's hesitance to discuss hip-hop outright, or what kinds of compromises might be required to change its course, his parting words were extremely encouraging.
“We had conversations like this during slavery. Just two Black men saying, 'What if we could be free? What if we could effect emancipation?' And we had other African Americans say, 'Come on, that's not a possibility. We've been slaves a long time. Our children are growing up slaves. They're accustomed to being slaves.' But still, we challenged that notion and we eventually became free. I think that our language still retains residues of our enslavement, and we have to continue to resist them."
These conversations continue, as ever, and we are fortunate to have Asim's voice contributing to them.
April 26, 2007
Hip-Hop's Glass Ceiling
by Victor Marsh
“I wonder - if Mr. Simmons were a woman, would he have so many excuses...?”
Oprah's town hall was timely, yet disappointing. In her expert panel of hip-hop executives, many must have noticed that it was an all male panel. Could Hip-Hop be suffering from its own glass ceiling? It sure seems so. Russell Simmons and others gave lots of excuses for bad-mouthing women, and tried to scare people about censorship. I wonder - if Mr. Simmons were a woman, would he have so many excuses, or would he be more like the sisters from Spelman College?
Like Nas though, I believe that the end is near for hip-hop as we know it today. There will always be silly songs that are necessary for clubs to keep us dancing, but the woman-hating is old and unnecessary. Growing in popularity, artists such as Little Brother, and fusion tag-teams such as Gnarls Barkley seem to be the future.
The problem of misogyny in hip-hop can be solved in three ways. Hip-hop could become revolutionized by new underground artists, it could be made obsolete by a whole new genre. Or, we could press Simmons and others to ensure that more women are in charge of those key music marketing decisions, where men gather to decide who will be the next American Rapper.
April 29, 2007
War Games
by Rose Capozzi
“Neither the President nor the Democrats will get their way entirely, so it is time for everyone to play nice and find a real solution. ”
Republicans are not the only ones in Washington, DC waging a war. The Democrats have been pursuing a publicity war over the direction the U.S. should take in Iraq—wasting time and resources to advance their political party before the 2008 presidential elections.
President Bush has vowed to veto any emergency spending bill that puts a timeline in place for troop withdrawal out of Iraq. Still, without the votes to overturn the veto, the Democrats have insisted on passing legislation in the House and Senate that is ridden with millions of dollars in pork, and a firm “Surrender Date” that is bound to leave the Middle East in even more turmoil.
It is time for the political game to come to an end and for the Democrats to start compromising with the Republicans over the direction of the war. Neither the President nor the Democrats will get their way entirely, so it is time for everyone to play nice and find a real solution. After all, the deadline the Democrats really care about is November 2008.
April 30, 2007
The Serial Killer Next Door
by Rose Capozzi
To snitch or not to snitch... that is the question Cam'ron addressed in an interview with 60 Minutes last week. With the Virginia Tech Massacre fresh in everyone's mind, he replied to Anderson Cooper, "If I knew the serial killer was living next door to me? I wouldn't call and tell anybody on him, but I would probably move." Though Cam'ron has since apologized for his comment, it begs the question- is societal justice worth an individual person's price?
Cam'ron's initial reaction came from his apprehension toward the establishment, specifically the police, and the need for survival in the inner city. "Where I come from, once word gets out that you've cooperated with the police, that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence."
Though Cam'ron's understanding of the rules governing the setting of his childhood may be right, the problem is that when a criminal, such as a gang member or terrorist, is not turned in for his or her criminal behavior, all of society has to pay for it. At the same time, when the police can not guarantee the safety of people willing to come forth and help bring justice to cities laden with crime, the problem seems to be with the establishment, not with the hip hop community's strict anti-tattling policy.
April 3, 2007
Stop Voting Your Age
by Victor Marsh
“...ask the Congressional Black Caucus...what have you done for me lately?”
Tired of the same old Black leadership? Eddie Glaude sure is - he argues on the show that young Black leaders must come to the fore to boot out their elders with fresh new ideas. In short, as our host summarized, everyday people “are the leaders they've been looking for” and should start asserting themselves.
Everyday leaders - people who mentor a single-parent's child, and volunteer at their local church - are all the kind of new leadership we need in America's communities.
But we seem to be stuck with a crop of people who deal more with political machines than they do with their own communities. For example, we should all be asking the Congressional Black Caucus a Janet Jackson question: what have you done for me lately?
One demand-side step we can take to move everyday-leaders into opportunities for even broader impact is to focus our local election votes on promoting new leaders. By the time someone has become a Congresswoman, she has probably already served on your local school board and other smaller roles. So maybe we should never vote for a new school board candidate over 35, just to make sure that new ideas keep circulating.
April 3, 2007
NAACP Should Model AARP
by Victor Marsh
When you turn 55 and look in your mailbox, you fill find more than birthday cards. The AARP will send you a magazine - whether you asked for it or not. They want you. They want to represent you, and will give you lots of free stuff until you finally relent - and add your name to a very powerful lobbying force in Washington DC.
What if every Black person got a free issue of the NAACP's Crisis magazine when they turn 17, a full year before they start voting and become full citizens in our democracy? I think it would help the organization add more youth to its voice.
The NAACP is different than the AARP - it has 2,000 local chapters rather than depending purely on masses of individuals. While the chapters do quite a lot for their local communities, it is time for the head office keep looking for ways to connect to individuals, not just chapter organizations.
April 3, 2007
Dems Flex Foreign Policy Muscle
by Victor Marsh
“We best promote democracy when we demonstrate democracy.”
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are getting bolder and bolder, and the White House is right to be nervous. The Democratic duo may end up getting everything they want.
This week Harry Reid, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, upped the ante, saying that if the White House does not accept some deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, he will make moves to cut off funding for the Iraq War entirely. His position today would have been unthinkable just a few months ago, as he and other Democrats initially backed away from a full cut-off of funds. The Democrats wanted to avoid being accused of 'not supporting the troops.'
Also this week, Speaker of the House Nancy Peolsi traveled to Syria to meet its leaders. Her symbolic message is that even if the US President refuses to talk to some countries, this does not mean that she will follow his lead. She is asserting a role for the House of Representatives in foreign policy, something unthinkable just a few months ago.
President Bush said, rightly, that Pelosi’s trip would send “mixed signals.”
A good thing may come out of all this – citizens of the Muslim world, if they hear a mixed message from America’s leaders, will be forced to differentiate even more between American leaders and American people.
Both Democrats are making foreign policy very complicated to implement, but both these leaders are also making America all the more attractive, making steps towards changing “hearts and minds” in favor of our country. We best promote democracy when we demonstrate democracy.
April 30, 2007
Critical Mass
by Jeremy Freed
Last Friday, while the world's superpowers continued to drag their feet in the fight against global warming, ordinary citizens in towns and cities around the world went for a bike ride. Critical Mass rides, as they are known, are gatherings of cyclists, usually on the last Friday of every month, who ride en masse through city centers, raising awareness of the bicycle as a legitimate mode of transportation on normally car-clogged streets. The rides, of which there are hundreds in North American cities alone, vary from a handful of riders in some places, to thousands at infamously well-attended gatherings in Manhattan and San Francisco.
First envisioned as an expression of solidarity among hardcore urban cyclists, in recent years they have attracted a more diverse crowd, and become as much about the potential of bikes to combat global climate change as anything. Lately, isolated but well-publicized conflicts between a few overly militant riders and motorists have presented the Critical Mass phenomenon as an us-and-them fight, with cyclists and drivers squaring off for control of urban centers. This is unfortunate, as It undermines the larger, more important message that the rides carry: Regular people can do something good for themselves and the planet by riding a bike every now and then instead of driving. As we move into the bike friendly month of May, and the crisis of global warming wieghs ever-heavier on our collective conscience, bicycling stands out as one small thing most people can do to affect major change.
April 24, 2007
VA Tech, Gun Control, and America's Shame
by Jeremy Freed
As the nation continues to mourn for the victims of the massacre at Virginia Tech, some initial steps were taken yesterday to prevent such a tragedy from repeating itself. At a meeting of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, ideas were discussed for improving the way campuses spread information in emergencies, as well as the manner in which universities deal with troubled students like Seung Hui Cho. This is only the first part of what will be an ongoing discussion, and it is likely that some positive changes will be made in both areas as a result.
Important as these things are, however, they are really only half of the issue. The other half is gun control, and it looks unlikely, but typical, that any serious reforms will be made there.
In an opinion column last week, Howard Fineman, Newsweek's Chief Political Correspondent painted a grim picture of gun policy reform in the Democrat-controlled legislative branch. Consulting various Democratic policy wonks, Fineman suggested that the chances of serious legislation reform in the near future are “absolutely zero.” Indeed, given the sway of the gun-toting Southern and Western states in deciding the next election, it's easy to see why the Democrats will be unlikely to rock the boat.
One voice of reason in this debate comes from former Reagan press secretary and gun control lobbyist Jim Brady, who is advocating legislation to help prevent the mentally ill from buying guns. This is a very good start, and the bill appears likely to pass, but the fact that such a law is only now being examined speaks to the unfortunate fact that Americans, in large numbers, choose to remain in denial about the destructive role of handguns in our society.
Handguns need to be harder to obtain. Keeping them out of the reach of the mentally ill makes sense, but why stop there? How many more killings must we witness before real, lasting measures are created to change the ease with which guns are bought in our country? The answer is a disgraceful one: It could be a while.
April 16, 2007
Look Out Fitty, Here Comes Oprah: After Imus, Part 1
by Jeremy Freed
Wednesday's program will feature Jabari Asim, author of The N Word, a new book about that most American of epithets, subtitled Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why. The book's launch, and the discussion it will incite could not be more perfectly timed, arriving as they do amid the still-raging debate over Don Imus' infamous remarks towards the Rutgers women's basketball team earlier this month. This is hardly a new debate, or one that rages quietly once the evidence is on YouTube, as Michael Richards can attest, but it seems that this time we might see some real changes take place as a result.
Evidence for this appeared today as Oprah lent her voice to the conversation with a special town hall episode titled After Imus: Now What? The conversation included input from Al Sharpton, Maya Angelou, and Bruce Gordon, among others, and focused on the frequently less-than-nice treatment of African American women in pop culture in general, and hip-hop culture in particular.
Imus, it was concluded, is not the villain in this case. Reprehensible as his words were, the fact that he considered it acceptable to utter them was the fault of Nelly, his ilk, and the music industry bigwigs who profit from them. It's a wide and tangled web, as one might imagine, but as the calls for sweeping change rang through the studio and out across daytime TV land, there were no doubt more than a few record execs shifting in their Ferragamos.
But does hip-hop culture really teach us to be disrespectful of women? Some would say no, but it's hardly a “fictionalized form of cultural expression” either. To be fair, no one expects Snoop Dogg to change his ways, or Master P to clean up his vocabulary, but as the music of choice for young people in America, and many more around the world, hip-hop has a few accountability issues to address.
Like baseball and the sitcom, hip-hop is an important American cultural institution, and whether we like it or not, it is one of the things that defines us as a nation. As usual, Oprah has a pretty good point: Maybe it's time we all took some responsibility for the messages it sends.
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