1. Make something and sell it.
Be more than a consumer. Be a creator. Contribute goods or services to the marketplace. Be an entrepreneur.
2. Buy something from your local entrepreneur.
Support your friendly neighborhood maker of things or provider of services. Put dollars back into your local economy by being a patron of those who create, even if they are “just kids.”
3. Advocate for more arts and design instruction in our childrens' schools.
In the post-No Child Left Behind era in the United States and its narrow focus on reading scores, math tests, and closing the “achievement gap,” the American education enterprise is sorely in need of strategies to jump-start the ability of youngsters to innovate, invent, and think entrepreneurially during their years as K-12 students. We are missing a crucial window for investing in our economy long-term through the cultivation of young peoples’ potential to learn to think across the arts, design, architecture, and information technology disciplines. The great breakthroughs of the 21st century in areas like technology, communications, product invention or urban design are likely to be made by those most familiar with practices of innovation through having been provided early opportunities to do so. Starting interdisciplinary educational studies in college is too late to begin learning to team-think and innovate. A quality art education is also a design education.
4. Save so as to fill the storehouses, then share what you have stored.
Proverbs 30:25-
Ants are creatures of little strength,
yet they store up their food in the summer;
Americans need to save money again, but money should only be saved to be put to better use later. The Bible gives us a model. Ants don’t buy on credit. They have a practice of storing up what they will need.
5. Pray for a pragmatist President.
The "United" States is full of ideologues on the political right and on the political left, pulling us apart. The problem with ideologues, whether they are conservative or liberal, is that they refuse to admit that there is more than one way to arrive at the very same destination. Or worse, they are blind to the varying routes that many others are traveling on their paths as Americans. Only God gets to say, “This is the only way…follow me. Period.” As for us humans, we are merely feeling our way through this present darkness and we need to hold one another’s hands. That’s why, in divisive times, we need a President who is a pragmatist, someone with the confidence and strength to stand in the gap between the right and the left and help to reconcile the republic.
by James Haywood Rolling, Jr.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
New Things Arisin'
I'm just learning how revealing Facebook can be. One of my friends wrote the following to one of her other friends yesterday and Facebook allowed me to view it:
___________________________________________________________
"I cannot STAND anymore of this black pride thing. He's a man - doesn't matter what color. All I care is can he do the job to the best of his ability and will he accept Jesus Christ. That's ALL I care about. I am so over all this making his family a celebrity and parading it all over the news. I am sick of black people rising up and saying that this is great for them. Well white people never held rallies to say what great things any white president did for us. This is becoming very racial, whether people say he's breaking down barriers or not. I don't like groups of people holding rallies because of their race or color. It's stupid."
___________________________________________________________
Well, let's make this personal. It is REALLY good to see a strong, Black, Christian family celebrated in the news. I grew up surrounded by families just like the Obamas, but they weren't celebrated. Instead, the news celebrated the dysfunctions in the Black community. That's all one would ever see, played out over and over again. It was easy to think that Black families made no contribution to the nation at all...now, that wasn't true, but watching the news and the absence of people from my side of the mountain on the red carpets or in the House of Representatives or in the White House, you got the impression we had little to offer, were hopelessly unpopular, and would forever be in need of a whole lot of help!
So I DO care that this highly popular, highly intelligent Christian man now holds the most powerful office in the world. It does matter. I rise up every day asking the Lord to help our new President do his job well. God knows it is no easy job to represent and serve the needs of every constituency in the nation when some of those constituencies don't like each other very much.
As for rallying behind our President, it's not the worst thing we can be doing with our time. If we can get the world parading behind America again, it means that the United States is a leading symbol again and we could all use some more of that in these hard times. No country leads just because it says so, we need to be able to look over our shoulder to see nations that actually DESIRE to follow us.
Finally, a reality check. African Americans did not invent the issue that people continue to have about our skin color. If anything was or is stupid, that's it right there. Until Blacks started to rally in recent decades to say that "Black is beautiful," Black people were portrayed as ugly, dumb, useless, dangerous, dirty, subservient, etc., you name it. So to have arrived at a day when folks of all colors and all nations are actually celebrating a strong and loving Black family as the First Family...well, I am, and we are stunned.
Frankly—and I don't use this word lightly—it's a miracle. God is up to something special here.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
- Isaiah 43:19
With love always,
James
___________________________________________________________
"I cannot STAND anymore of this black pride thing. He's a man - doesn't matter what color. All I care is can he do the job to the best of his ability and will he accept Jesus Christ. That's ALL I care about. I am so over all this making his family a celebrity and parading it all over the news. I am sick of black people rising up and saying that this is great for them. Well white people never held rallies to say what great things any white president did for us. This is becoming very racial, whether people say he's breaking down barriers or not. I don't like groups of people holding rallies because of their race or color. It's stupid."
__________________________
Well, let's make this personal. It is REALLY good to see a strong, Black, Christian family celebrated in the news. I grew up surrounded by families just like the Obamas, but they weren't celebrated. Instead, the news celebrated the dysfunctions in the Black community. That's all one would ever see, played out over and over again. It was easy to think that Black families made no contribution to the nation at all...now, that wasn't true, but watching the news and the absence of people from my side of the mountain on the red carpets or in the House of Representatives or in the White House, you got the impression we had little to offer, were hopelessly unpopular, and would forever be in need of a whole lot of help!
So I DO care that this highly popular, highly intelligent Christian man now holds the most powerful office in the world. It does matter. I rise up every day asking the Lord to help our new President do his job well. God knows it is no easy job to represent and serve the needs of every constituency in the nation when some of those constituencies don't like each other very much.
As for rallying behind our President, it's not the worst thing we can be doing with our time. If we can get the world parading behind America again, it means that the United States is a leading symbol again and we could all use some more of that in these hard times. No country leads just because it says so, we need to be able to look over our shoulder to see nations that actually DESIRE to follow us.
Finally, a reality check. African Americans did not invent the issue that people continue to have about our skin color. If anything was or is stupid, that's it right there. Until Blacks started to rally in recent decades to say that "Black is beautiful," Black people were portrayed as ugly, dumb, useless, dangerous, dirty, subservient, etc., you name it. So to have arrived at a day when folks of all colors and all nations are actually celebrating a strong and loving Black family as the First Family...well, I am, and we are stunned.
Frankly—and I don't use this word lightly—it's a miracle. God is up to something special here.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
- Isaiah 43:19
With love always,
James
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Community Organizing and the True Birth of a Nation
September 6, 2008
Near the conclusion of the 2008 Republican National Convention, the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, and the new Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, were shamefully over the top in their attack on the credibility of Senator Barack Obama’s service as a community organizer. Giuliani started his rant on the meaninglessness of service as a community organizer as it appears on Obama’s resume by sneering, “I don't even know what that is.” Palin had the audacity to disparage the resume of Senator Obama in comparison with her own as she declared, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”
Palin, Giuliani and the speechwriters of the GOP thus display an ignorance of the history of our own United States that is breathtaking. The United States as we now know it would not exist if it weren’t for the responsibilities shouldered by selfless community organizers and activists:
• The United States won its independence from the British Empire because of the service of community organizers. Paul Revere made his midnight ride to alert and organize the community! Community organizers in each colony were responsible for pulling together the groups of untrained local militia that were the first soldiers in the American Revolutionary War. To unite these widespread and loosely connected communities of local militia, George Washington was appointed as commander-in-chief by the Continental Congress in order to better organize their fighting efforts.
• The practice of slavery was defeated on American soil in large part because of the community organizing work of the early abolitionists.
• Women gained the right to vote in the United States because of the community organizing efforts of the leaders of the women’s suffrage movement.
• The community organizers in charitable organizations like the Children’s Aid Society led the fight for child labor laws in the United States, and also originated innovations in child protection and welfare such as the first parent-teacher associations, the first free school lunch programs, the first free dental clinics for children, the first day schools for disabled children, the first kindergarten in the United States, and the first foster homes.
• The Civil Rights Movement of the United States was a nonviolent movement of community organizers who were willing to shed their blood and sacrifice their lives so that every citizen of our nation might be recognized as having the same rights by law regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.
Giuliani, Palin, McCain, and the speechwriters of the GOP all need a refresher course in basic American history. Giuliani and Palin also need to pick up their nearest Bible as soon as possible. Because as far as having responsibilities is concerned, the responsibility of a community organizer is the greatest responsibility of all, a responsibility understood only by those willing to follow the greatest commandment of all—Christ’s commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
James Haywood Rolling, Jr.
Near the conclusion of the 2008 Republican National Convention, the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, and the new Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, were shamefully over the top in their attack on the credibility of Senator Barack Obama’s service as a community organizer. Giuliani started his rant on the meaninglessness of service as a community organizer as it appears on Obama’s resume by sneering, “I don't even know what that is.” Palin had the audacity to disparage the resume of Senator Obama in comparison with her own as she declared, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”
Palin, Giuliani and the speechwriters of the GOP thus display an ignorance of the history of our own United States that is breathtaking. The United States as we now know it would not exist if it weren’t for the responsibilities shouldered by selfless community organizers and activists:
• The United States won its independence from the British Empire because of the service of community organizers. Paul Revere made his midnight ride to alert and organize the community! Community organizers in each colony were responsible for pulling together the groups of untrained local militia that were the first soldiers in the American Revolutionary War. To unite these widespread and loosely connected communities of local militia, George Washington was appointed as commander-in-chief by the Continental Congress in order to better organize their fighting efforts.
• The practice of slavery was defeated on American soil in large part because of the community organizing work of the early abolitionists.
• Women gained the right to vote in the United States because of the community organizing efforts of the leaders of the women’s suffrage movement.
• The community organizers in charitable organizations like the Children’s Aid Society led the fight for child labor laws in the United States, and also originated innovations in child protection and welfare such as the first parent-teacher associations, the first free school lunch programs, the first free dental clinics for children, the first day schools for disabled children, the first kindergarten in the United States, and the first foster homes.
• The Civil Rights Movement of the United States was a nonviolent movement of community organizers who were willing to shed their blood and sacrifice their lives so that every citizen of our nation might be recognized as having the same rights by law regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.
Giuliani, Palin, McCain, and the speechwriters of the GOP all need a refresher course in basic American history. Giuliani and Palin also need to pick up their nearest Bible as soon as possible. Because as far as having responsibilities is concerned, the responsibility of a community organizer is the greatest responsibility of all, a responsibility understood only by those willing to follow the greatest commandment of all—Christ’s commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
James Haywood Rolling, Jr.
Moving Past Wright, Moving Toward Change
Originally posted: May 6, 2008
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck wrote an article posted on CNN.com recently arguing that "the timing of Obama's move away from Wright is odd."
Well, borrowing from one of Beck's catchphrases, here's what you need to know: A man's faith is between that man and our Lord. A spiritual mentor introduces a man or woman to the Word of God and leads a younger Christian in how to pray, how to persevere, and the like. Nothing more. Commentators like Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity must stop pretending that human beings are paper cutouts shaped by one another's hands. It takes the Lord to shape a character. Furthermore, each of us is capable of listening to another person on the things that make sense and filtering out the rest. We do it all the time. I listen to Glenn Beck on the radio a lot these days even though I disagree with 95% of what he says. But the 5% of what he says that resonates with me has value and I have to honor that 5%.
Now is the time to move beyond the divisiveness that says that you are on this side and I am on this side, and therefore you are entirely wrong and I am entirely right. If you are still playing by those rules, you've got it all wrong.
I'm already moving toward a change of heart and mind and politics. I'm listening even to those I don't entirely agree with. Are you?
James Haywood Rolling, Jr.
You Can’t Have It Both Ways
Originally posted: May 3, 2008
Senator Obama’s detractors cannot in one breath lambaste Jeremiah Wright as a person of questionable character while out of the other side of their mouths citing Wright as a credible judge of Senator Obama’s character as a politician...or, more to the point, as the soon-to-be-elected President of the United States. You absolutely cannot have it both ways.
James Haywood Rolling, Jr.
Senator Obama’s detractors cannot in one breath lambaste Jeremiah Wright as a person of questionable character while out of the other side of their mouths citing Wright as a credible judge of Senator Obama’s character as a politician...or, more to the point, as the soon-to-be-elected President of the United States. You absolutely cannot have it both ways.
James Haywood Rolling, Jr.
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