The Government Wants It & They Take It

Amid claims by the conservative right that the federal government is getting too big, and has too much power. The federal government did something that proves just how big and powerful it really is. There is no greater show of hubris, and potency than to do something totally ridiculous just because you can.

A few weeks ago, with no notice, the U.S. government intercepted Mary Grice’s tax refunds from both the IRS and the state of Maryland. Grice had no idea that Uncle Sam had seized her money until some days later, when she got a letter saying that her refund had gone to satisfy an old debt to the government, an extremely old debt.

In 1960 when Grice was 4, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them.

Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family in 1977. But they have no idea who. After 37 years of silence, and four years after Sadie Grice died, the ghoulish government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary’s money, rather than her surviving siblings’, is a mystery and a shame.

Across the nation, hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are expecting refunds this month are getting letters like the one Grice got instead. Informing them that because of a debt they never knew about, often a debt incurred by their parents, the government has confiscated their check. The move is as unscrupulous as it is disgraceful.

The Treasury Department has intercepted $1.9 billion in tax refunds already this year. $75 million of it is debt delinquent for more than 10 years, said Jeffrey Schramek, assistant commissioner of the department’s debt management service. The aggressive effort to collect old debts started three years ago, the result of a single sentence hidden within the farm bill lifting the 10-year statute of limitations on old debts to Uncle Sam.

No one seems eager to take credit for reopening all these long-closed cases. A Social Security spokeswoman says the agency didn’t seek the change, ask Treasury. Treasury says it wasn’t us, try Congress. Congressional staffers say the request probably came from the bureaucracy. But they are the bureaucracy.

The only explanation the government provides for suddenly going after decades-old debts comes from Social Security spokeswoman Dorothy Clark: 

“We have an obligation to current and future Social Security beneficiaries to attempt to recoup money that people received when it was not due.”

Since the drive to collect on very old debts began in 2011, the Treasury Department has collected $424 million in debts that were more than 10 years old. Those debts were owed to many federal agencies, but the one that has many Americans howling this tax season is the Social Security Administration, which has found 400,000 taxpayers who collectively owe $714 million on debts more than 10 years old. The agency expects to have begun proceedings against all of those people by this summer.

“It was a shock,” said Grice, 58. “What incenses me is the way they went about this. They gave me no notice, they can’t prove that I received any overpayment, and they use intimidation tactics, threatening to report this to the credit bureaus.”

Grice filed suit against the Social Security Administration in federal court in Greenbelt this week, alleging that the government violated her right to due process by holding her responsible for a $2,996 debt supposedly incurred under her father’s Social Security number.

Social Security officials told Grice that six people, Grice, her four siblings and her father’s first wife, whom she never knew, had received benefits under her father’s account. The government doesn’t look into exactly who got the overpayment, they engage in a "fishing policy" to seek compensation from the oldest sibling and work down through the family until the debt is paid.

On its website The Federal Trade Commission advises Americans that “family members typically are not obligated to pay the debts of a deceased relative from their own assets.” But Social Security officials say that if children indirectly received assistance from public dollars paid to a parent, the children’s money can be taken, no matter how long ago any overpayment occurred.

“While we are responsible for collecting delinquent debts owed to taxpayers, we understand the importance of ensuring that debtors are treated fairly,” Treasury’s Schramek said in a statement. He said Treasury requires that debtors be given due process.

Social Security spokeswoman Clark, who declined to discuss Grice’s or any other case, even with the taxpayer’s permission, said the agency is “sensitive to concerns about our attempts to arrange repayment of overpayments.” She said that before taking any money, Social Security makes “multiple attempts to contact debtors via the U.S. Mail and by phone.”

But Grice, who works for the Food and Drug Administration and lives in Takoma Park, in the same apartment she’s resided in since 1984, never got any notice about a debt.

Social Security officials told her they had sent their notice to her post office box in Roxboro, N.C. Grice rented that box from 1977 to 1979 and never since. And Social Security has Grice’s current address: Every year, it sends her a statement about her benefits.

“Their record-keeping seems to be very spotty,” she said.

Treasury officials say that before they will take someone’s refund, the agency owed the money must certify the debt, meaning there must be evidence of the overpayment. But Social Security officials told Grice they had no records explaining the debt.

“The craziest part of this whole thing is the way the government seizes a child’s money to satisfy a debt that child never even knew about,” says Robert Vogel, Grice’s attorney. “They’ll say that somebody got paid for that child’s benefit, but the child had no control over the money and there’s no way to know if the parent ever used the money for the benefit of that kid.”

Grice, the middle of five children, said neither of her surviving siblings, one older, one younger, has had any money taken by the government. When Grice asked why she had been selected to pay the debt, she was told it was because she had an income and her address popped up the correct one this time.

Grice found a lawyer willing to take her case without charge. Vogel is insensed about the constitutional violations he sees in the retroactive lifting of the 10-year limit on debt collection. “Can the government really bring back to life a case that was long dead?” the lawyer asked. “Can it really be right to seize a child’s money to satisfy a parent’s debt?”

But many other taxpayers whose refunds have been taken say they’ve been unable to contest the confiscations because of the cost, because Social Security cannot provide records detailing the original overpayment, and because the citizens,following advice from the IRS to keep financial documents for just three years, had long since trashed their own records.

In Glenarm, Illinois, Brenda and Mike Samonds have spent the past year trying to figure out how to get back the $189.10 tax refund the government seized, claiming that Mike’s mother, who died 33 years ago, had been overpaid on survivor’s benefits after Mike’s father died in, get this, 1969.

“It was never Mike’s money, it was his mother’s,” Brenda Samonds said. “The government took the money first and then they sent us the letter. We could never get one sentence from them explaining why the money was taken.” The government mailed its notice about the debt to the house Mike’s mother lived in 40 years ago.

The Social Security spokeswoman said the agency uses a private contractor to seek current addresses and is supposed to halt collections if notices are returned as undeliverable.

After hours on the phone trying and failing to get information about the debt Mike’s mother was said to owe, the Samondses gave up.

The narrative continues. After waiting on hold for two hours with Social Security last week, Ted Verbich also concluded it wasn’t worth the time or money to fight for the $172 the government intercepted last month. 

Keeping anyone waiting on the phone for two hours is nothing more than an evasive customer stall tactic design to frustrate the caller. The best offense is to hold on for dear life.

In 1977, Verbich, now 57, was in college at the University of Maryland when he took a full-time job in an accountant’s office. Because he was earning income, he knew he had to give up the survivor’s benefits his mother had received since his father died, when Verbich was 4. But his $70 monthly checks, “They helped with the car payment,” he said kept coming for a short time after he started work, and Verbich was notified in 1978 that he had to repay about $600. He did.

Thirty-six years later, with no notice, “they snatched my Maryland tax refund,” said Verbich, a federal worker who has lived at the same address in Glendale, Md,. for 30 years and regularly receives Social Security statements there. The feds insisted that he owed $172 but could provide documentation to back up the claim.

Verbich has given up on getting his refund, but he wants a receipt stating that his debt to his country is resolved.

“I’ll put in the request,” a Social Security clerk told Verbich, “but in reality, you’ll never get anything.”

Grice was also told there was little point in seeking a waiver of her debt. Collections can only be halted if the person passes two tests, Clark said: The taxpayer must prove that he “is without fault, and that repayment of the overpayment would deprive the person of income needed for ordinary living expenses.”

More than 1,200 appeals have been filed on the old cases, Clark said; taxpayers have won about 10 percent of those appeals.

The Treasury initially held the full amount of Grice’s federal and state refunds, a total of $4,462. Last week, after The Washington Post inquired about Grice’s case, the government returned the portion of her refund above the $2,996 owed on her father’s account.

But unless the feds can prove that she ever received any of the overpayment, Grice wants all of her money back.

“Look, I love a good fight, especially for principle,” she said. “My mom used to say, ‘This country is carried on the backs of the little people,’ and now I see what she meant. This is really sad.”

Sad doesn't even begin to describe it. The same government that thought nothing of bailing out big banks is scrounging for what amounts to a little more than spare change to them. It's seems as if our government has become the equivalent of a school yard bully who insists on taking your lunch money day after day just because he can. Even though he has his own.

PR

32 Lost Years

When Mary Virginia Jones was sentenced for murder Ronald Reagan was president, personal computer's were still in their infancy, and gas cost $1.25 a gallon. Today, after spending 32 years of her life left inside a cold, unforgiving concrete cell, "Mother Mary" as friends know her, is a free woman after students from USC's law school convinced the district attorney to reopen her case.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge agreed to exchange Jones' first-degree murder conviction without possibility of parole for a no contest plea to voluntary manslaughter with a time-served sentence."Words cannot express my gratitude to God and to my fellow man," the 74-year-old Jones said after her release from Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.

 Jones and the students of USC's Post-Conviction Justice Project, argued that Mose Willis, her abusive boyfriend, forced her to participate in the 1981 murder.

Jones, drove the men to an alley where the crime was committed, and fled the scene before the murder took place. It took four trials, including a reversal on appeal and two hung juries, to convict Jones. Willis was convicted of kidnapping, robbing and shooting two men, killing one in Los Angeles.

"I did not willingly participate in this crime," Jones said in court. "But I believe that entering a no contest plea is in my best interest to get out of custody."

Jones' daughter, Denetra Jones-Goodie, who was 17 at the time her mother was arrested testified that days before the murders, Willis "threatened not only to kill me, but to kill her and anybody else that tried to help us. He pulled a gun on me and shot at me, and my mother witnessed that."

The law students argued that if the case had been heard today and jurors got to hear expert testimony about the abuse she suffered that Jones would have never been convicted.

"Courts now allow experts to testify about the effects of being battered," Heidi Rummel, co-director of USC’s Post-Conviction Justice Project, said in a statement to Yahoo News. "Willis forced Jones at gunpoint to participate in the robbery and kidnapping she ran down the alley fully expecting him to shoot and kill her, too."

Instead she was taken into custody and forced to pay for a crime she did not commit. The price was her freedom.

PR 

Keeping The Ring

 Many of us have heard this question before. If an engagement ends, should a woman be allowed to keep the ring? I suspect that the overwhelming majority of woman will say yes. But in my opinion it depends on the circumstances. If the woman breaks off the engagement then she should give the ring back. But if the man breaks it off then he doesn't deserve to get it back. But it's not always what you do, it's how you do it.

For one New York man, ending his engagement via SMS cost him $53,000.

Louis Billittier Jr. broke off his relationship with his fiancé, Christa Clark, in 2012 by sending her a text message. When Clark asked Billittier, “Your sick doing this through a text message???,” the man replied, “Plus you get a $50,000 parting ring. Enough for a down payment on a house.”

Those words apparently sealed his fate. Although Billittier sued his former fiancé, a New York judge ruled ring was no longer a part of the marriage contract that would have normally reverted back to the purchaser, but rather a “parting gift” that Clark could keep.

 Bilittier sued Clark to get the ring back. But Judge Russell Buscaglia ruled last week that Clark was entitled to the white gold, 2.97-carat diamond ring or its fair market value. Bilittier, a restaurateur, and Clark, a nail technician, had been engaged 14 months, according to the paper. Billittier called off the wedding when Clark refused to sign a prenuptial agreement.

Although ending a relationship is never easy, perhaps this case will give others pause before breaking up in such a cold, impersonal way. 

The lesson in this story is, never give anybody anything that you wouldn't mind giving away.

PR

Pure Evil

I believe in evil, and there are some people who are evil indeed. Not just bad, not just mean. But the antithesis of wrong and the essence of strife. Such people are like demons on earth who wake up each and every day with the soul purpose of taking or ruining someone's life. Every breathe that they take confirms a chaotic existence, and every move they  make represents a quest for selfish, narcissistic fulfillment. This is the story of one such person.

A man murdered his ex-wife in the parking lot of a Fort Washington, Md., apartment complex on her birthday, Prince George's County Police said.

Officers were called to the Westwood Place Apartments on Jaywick Avenue around 1 a.m. last Wednesday and found Lester Lee Fletcher Jr., 32, and Michelle Miranda-Fletcher, 32, dead in the parking lot of apparent gunshot wounds.

Investigators believe Michelle was returning home from celebrating her 32nd birthday and found her ex-husband waiting for her when she arrived. Police say Lester drove up to her car and threatened her before shooting her multiple times. He then turned the gun on himself. The couple had a 13-year-old son. 

"My nerves are torn up. I feel like I'm in a safe neighborhood and here somebody was murdered in the parking lot," one resident said.

The couple filed for divorce last September. It was finalized last month. 

This narrative is all too familiar. An enraged psycho who cannot seem to let go of the past, brutalizes and kills an innocent woman who tries to move on. Order's of Protection don't work, and restraining order's are a joke, not to mention woefully ineffective. 

With that being said, I am a firm believer in a woman's right to protect herself. Especially against men who mercilessly beat and abuse them as if they are less than human. Although there are some women who have been convicted and sent to prison for defending themselves, those women are still alive.

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Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (4-12-2014)

So you think your a genius, huh?

Maybe you have a 3.2, 3.8, or even a 4.0 G.P.A.? No?! Well, me neither! But check out this kids G.P.A.

Akintunde Ahmad just sees himself as a regular 17-year-old, but the Oakland, Calif., teen has stunned everyone with his 5.0 GPA and 2100 SAT score, which have led to his acceptance at some of the country's most prestigious universities.

"Like, my whole life, people have been telling me to stay on this path and everything will fall, the cards will fall like you want them to," Akintunde told the local media proudly tipping a hat to the Oakland public school system.

Akintunde walks around with pictures documenting his astounding academic achievements saved on his smartphone, not because he wants to show off but because few believe that the teenager, who sports long locks, has actually reached such lofty heights. He says he is often judged for his appearance.

Appearance hasn't stopped schools like Yale, Brown, Columbia, Northwestern, the University of Southern California, UCLA, Howard, Chapman and more from courting the teenager, who also plays three instruments and is a great baseball player. So good in fact that Yale is talking to him about possibly joining its baseball team.

Akintunde has his heart set on either Yale or Brown and is interested in pursuing premed or prelaw.

Akintunde is living proof that often times what you get out of an education is what you put into it.

When I was his age I got accepted into two places. L.I.U. and Bentley's night club. Unfortunately neither one of those is Ivy League. Even though I had a good time, I wish I was like this kid.

A suburban New York high school teen was accepted at each of the eight elite Ivy colleges and universities.

Kwasi Enin, the son of immigrant nurses from Ghana, figured that he would hedge his bets and apply to all of the Ivy League schools. "By applying to all eight, I figured it would better the chances of getting into one," the 17-year-old senior at William Floyd High School in Mastic, N.Y., said.

The collective acceptance rate of all Ivy League schools is less than 9 percent of all applicants for the class of 2018, ranging from 5.9 percent at Harvard to 14 percent at Cornell.

In comparison Bentley's has a 100% acceptance rate if you pay $20.

"I've never seen anything like it in my 15 years as a high school counselor," Nancy Winkler, Enin’s guidance counselor. "He's going to be a leader in whatever he chooses."

Enin wants to be a physician. "I'm thinking of being a cardiologist or neurologist," Enin told the Daily News. "A doctor is a community leader, a protector, someone who people turn to ... when they need help."

It seems as if the careers of the average NBA prayer, and even some of the exceptional ones all end the same way. They "ball" out of control, go broke, and lose control. Then they end up as the obscure answer to a Jeopardy question.

But there are a select few who were smart enough not to to be has been's.

Pop quiz #1: In 1975, which newly drafted player did the Lakers trade away to acquire superstar Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? If you guessed Junior Bridgeman, you are correct. 

Pop quiz #2: As of April 2014, who is the second largest owner of Wendy's franchises in America? Once again, the correct answer is… Junior Bridgeman.

 As an NBA player, Junior Bridgeman had a moderately successful 12-year career playing for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers. To be completely honest, his NBA career was kind of unremarkable. 

Ulysses Lee "Junior" Bridgeman was born on September 17, 1953 in East Chicago, Indiana. His father was a blue collar steel mill worker – a very common job in East Chicago during the era in which Junior Bridgeman grew up. He was a member of the undefeated (29-0) 1971 East Chicago Washington High School Senators basketball team that won the Indiana state high school basketball championship. His teammates included his brother Sam, Pete Trgovich, who went on to play at UCLA; and Tim Stoddard who would become a Major League Baseball pitcher.

At 6'5″ Bridgeman played guard and forward during college at the University of Louisville, where he was also a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. After obtaining his bachelor's degree, Junior Bridgeman was drafted with the 8th overall pick in the first round of the 1975 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, and, as mentioned, was then immediately traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Kareem Abdul-Jabber 

In his 12-year NBA career (10 with Milwaukee, two with the Clippers), Bridgeman was mostly a sixth man. For nine consecutive seasons he averaged double figures in scoring. He holds the Milwaukee franchise record for number of games played at 711, though he only started in 105 of those games.

Bridgeman was a good basketball player, solid and steady. His professional career lasted from 1975 to 1987, in the era just before players were paid crazy amounts of money. Players like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson made the bulk of their money from endorsement deals, but still made a lot of money in the NBA – close to $100 million for Jordan. Bridgeman never saw anywhere close to that kind of money during his NBA days. His peak salary was $350,000 from the Clippers in 1985.

Unlike most athletes, Junior was quick to realize that his window of time in the NBA would be relatively short. At some point the paychecks would stop coming in and he would need to find a new source of steady income. So, on a whim, Junior decided to purchase a franchise of his favorite fast food restaurant:Wendy's. While other NBA players hung out during the off season doing God knows what, Bridgeman was working in local Wendy's learning his burgeoning business from every angle and building a foundation for the rest of his and his family's lives. By the time his playing days were over, Junior owned three Wendy's.

After nearly 25 years in business, Bridgeman Foods INC operates more than 160 Wendy's and more than 120 Chili's franchises in America today.

 Bridgeman employs over 11,000 people and has annual revenues in excess of $530 million dollars. Possibly looking to follow Junior's lead, current NBA player Chauncey Billups recently invested money into some Wendy's franchises. Junior is the second largest Wendy's franchise owner in the world and frequently listed as one of the most admired business leaders in America. His personal net worth today tops $400 million. That's just $250 million shy of Michael Jordan. That's also $380 million MORE than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's current net worth of $20 million.

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She Left The Kids In The Car

As a parent and as a father there is nothing that I wouldn't do for my children. NOTHING. There is no conceivable limit to what I am willing to do. Right, wrong or indifferent. It is only by the grace of God that I have never been in that position. But things happen. As a matter of fact, life happens, and if the years haven't thrown you a curve ball ball yet. Just live a little longer. Unless you happen to an impregnable, impenetrable person who manages to live life untouched by its ups and downs. In that case, you are living in denial, and denial does not solve problems. It just intensifies them. With that being said, many of you will read this story, and quickly quip, "I would never do that!"

 I happen to be a former member of the "I would never do that" club, and I am not 100% ashamed to say that I've probably done many of the things that I said I would not do. Not because it was necessary but out of necessity. When you've gone through a storm you understand the difference. 

So as you read this and look at the picture at the bottom of this page, ask yourself what this mother must have been feeling.

 A Phoenix woman who was arrested after leaving her two kids in a hot vehicle during a job interview is fighting to clear her name in court, with the support of a New Jersey woman who has raised more than $91,000 to help her effort.

Unemployed and on food stamps, Shanesha Taylor went to the job interview last month at a Scottsdale insurance company.

The 35-year-old wasn't able to find a sitter, so she left her 2-year-old son and 6-month old baby in her Dodge Durango with the key still in the ignition and the windows rolled down an inch.

A witness found the infant crying hysterically and sweating profusely as temperatures inside the SUV exceeded 100 degrees.

Taylor was arrested after returning to the vehicle, and her tearful mugshot later caught the attention of 24-year-old Amanda Bishop of New Jersey.

Bishop said she was inspired to set up a fundraising web page for Taylor because she could relate to growing up in a family that doesn't have a lot of money.

"I had a mother and family in general who struggled raising us and had to rely on other resources to provide for us and sometimes made not the greatest choices," Bishop said.

Taylor pleaded not guilty Monday at her arraignment.

Prosecutors point out that her actions put the safety of her children in danger.

According to court documents, Scottsdale firefighters found the vehicle's windows rolled down only an inch and no running air conditioning to keep the children cool.

The baby was described as wearing a short-sleeve shirt over a long-sleeve shirt, as well as a blanket. Taylor arrived back at the vehicle more than an hour after her interview time, the documents said.

"Everything is focused on the mother and understandably so. It seems to be a very compelling human interest story," County Attorney Bill Montgomery said at a recent news conference. "But I'm equally concerned and compelled about the circumstances those two children were in."

Montgomery said it's too soon to determine if Taylor will receive a prison term or face losing custody of her children. Her offenses could amount to a sentence ranging from probation to seven years in prison, prosecutors said.

Neither Taylor nor her court-appointed attorney has responded to requests for comment.

Bishop established the fundraising site on YouCaring.com with the goal of raising $9,000. She was flabbergasted when the site reached the goal in four days and then exceeded it by tens of thousands of dollars.

The site also has received more than a thousand comments, some of which accuse Bishop and other supporters of endorsing child abuse. Bishop said Taylor should not be condemned for one bad decision.

"She could have been at a bar or at a club and leaving her children in the car," Bishop said. "Here's a woman who is an example of someone who is trying. She is trying to better her situation and doing what she can to provide for her children."

Is Miss Taylor guilty of bad judgement? Undoubtedly. Does she deserve to be punished? Maybe. But does her mistake make her an unfit mother? No, just a desperate one trying to survive.

PR

Locked Up For Lyrics

Even though the vast majority of gangster rap songs are nothing more than ridiculous narratives based on imagination, law endorsement has begun to take these violent boasts seriously. As case after case of "when keeping it real goes wrong" begins to emerge we must ask ourselves if free speech is really free.

This week the Supreme Court of New Jersey is scheduled to hear final arguments in State v. Skinner, a case that could have a far-reaching impact on the criminal justice system.

The case reflects an alarming new trend in which lyrics by amateur rappers are used against them as evidence in criminal prosecutions. There are no finger prints, no witnesses, no murder weapons, and the music is used as proof of a confession.

Vonte Skinner, an admitted drug dealer and wannabe rapper, was arrested after a 2005 shooting and was found guilty in 2008 of attempted murder. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, largely on the basis of rap lyrics composed prior to the 2005 incident.

Here's a sample from the 13 pages of lyrics in question, which were found by police in his girlfriend's car and used as evidence of Skinner's motive and tendency toward violence:

Yo, look in my eyes see death comin' quick.
Look in my palms, you can see what I'm gunnin' with.
I play no games when it comes to this war shit.
If death was a jacket, you would see how the floor fits.
Crackin' your chest when I show you how the force spits,

Mak'in your mother wish she should have had an abortion.

 Skinner's conviction was overturned in 2012 by an appellate court that said the lyrics should not have been admitted as evidence. Now the Supreme Court of New Jersey will give it's final review.

But regardless of the outcome in New Jersey, this prosecutorial tactic has gained momentum elsewhere. The Supreme Court of Nevada ruled last summer that rap lyrics can be allowed as evidence.

What we are now seeing is creative work by prosecutors to send black and brown males to prison who are also alleged criminals. Such use of song lyrics often prejudices juries by stereotyping the accused person as the personification of the character or caricature within the lyrics. Thus making the fiction seem as if it is fact. 

As with the New Jersey case, the most extreme examples of this legal tactic rely solely on the lyrics, which are usually unassociated with the alleged crime, as the linchpin that proves guilt and sends the defendant to prison.

Let's be clear: Any defendant who is proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt with sound evidence is a criminal and should receive punishment. Yet rap lyrics are not credible witnesses. 

So the next time you decide to get on the mic and spit a hot 16 about how many people you've killed.......allegedly. Just remember that your words can and will be used against you in a court of law.

PR

Jessie Jackson Jr.....Thrown In The Hole.

I'll admitt it. I have a hard time feeling sorry for former U.S. Representative "Messy Jessie" Jackson Jr.. Yes he's in jail, and yes his life, his career and his legacy are all ruined. But I still have a hard time dealing with his betrayal. I could climb up on a soap box and talk about how he betrayed the public trust, lied, cheated, and used public money for his own selfish gain. But it's much deeper than that. As much as I've tried to shake my proclivity for taking pride in the achievements of all African-Americans as if they are my own. I cannot. This feeling is almost visceral and deeply rooted in the African-American struggle to beat the odds. The reason I've tried to fight the urge to live vicariously through people like Jackson Jr. is because I feel their falls almost as much as I feel their triumph, and the disappointment is becoming all too common. The saddest part is, I don't think he realized that his mistakes have just as much of an impact as his accomplishments. The admiration that many of us had for a man of his stature has quickly turned into contempt. So excuse me if I didn't shed a tear when I heard about Jackson Jr. being thrown into solitary confinement. Although I believe that such treatment is far too harsh and inhumane for any human being to be forced to endur, many men with names that are far less recognizable are placed in solitary confinement some where in America each and every day, and nobody blinks an eye. African-American men and women who are in the system who have become a prized commodity in the prison industrial complex not because the were rich and had a desire to be richer. But because many of them had less than nothing, and wanted something to eat.

Jackson Jr. has been moved from a federal prison in North Carolina to a minimum-security prison camp in Montgomery, Ala., a month after finishing his 5 day stint in "the hole".

The 49-year-old former Chicago congressman had been advising other inmates in North Carolina about their rights in prison, according to an anonymous source, who said a guard took exception to Jackson's counseling, and decided to punish the longtime South Side politician.

A hearing was held, the source said, and Jackson was cleared of any wrongdoing and asked for a transfer to another prison.

The source said family members were concerned about Jackson’s welfare after the incident and went to visit him in prison.

It took about a month for the transfer to go through, the source said, and Jackson was moved to the prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.

A federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said Saturday she could not comment on an inmate’s move. But the Bureau of Prisons’ website now lists Jackson as an inmate at the Montgomery facility, and family members including his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, brother Jonathan Jackson and sister Santita Jackson confirmed that Saturday.

Jackson is serving a 21/2 -year sentence after pleading guilty to illegally using campaign money. He entered prison last October and is due to be released on Dec. 31, 2015, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

The prison camp in Montgomery was where Jackson initially asked to be sent after his conviction.

“I want to make it a little inconvenient for everybody to get to me,” he said, through tears, at his sentencing last year. 

If only every other inmate in America had the power to dictate the details of their incarceration.

PR

A 2 Year Old, An 11 Year Old, And A Gun......

In yet another disturbing case of gun violence that somehow has not made national news, an 11-year-old girl was killed by a 2 year-old in Philadelphia on Saturday. The children were left unsupervised with a gun in the room.

The children were playing in a bedroom when the toddler pointed the cocked handgun at his sister Jamara Stevens and pulled the trigger, hitting her in the arm around 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

The bullet traveled through the little girls chest and struck her heart, police said. She was taken to a hospital but unfortunately she was pronounced dead.  The little boy was found with a burn and traces of gun powder on his arm.

Tiffany Goldwire was at home with her four children, ages 14, 11, 7 and 2, according to reports.

Police believe her boyfriend came over and brought the gun, which was left with the children in the room when she went to the bathroom.

So far no charges have been filed. But they should be. In fact the decision should not be whether this child's mother should face charges. But how many charges she should face.

I am almost tempted out of habit to site this story as an example of why America needs tougher gun control laws. But that would be ridiculous. I have always been perplexed, and confused by the fact that no one seems to state the obvious. The vast majority of all of the gun violence in America is not caused by people who have purchased guns legally. Especially those incidences that occur in urban areas. It is virtually impossible to find one gang member in Chicago who has a gun license. To talk about tougher gun control as and end to all of the gun violence in the United States is a terrific sound bite. But the concept is not based in reality. Unless we choose to ignore the senseless deaths of Black and Brown people in the inner cities. Many of whom are killed by weapons that were not purchased from a gun shop but from the basement of a bodega at 5 in the morning. The real tragedy always has and always will be the failure to acknowledge the truth.

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Living In The Future

Those of us who are visionaries are not content with the present, so we plan, plot, implement, and execute to make our visions come to fruition. It is a busy, sometimes restless task driven both by our desire for more, and a yearning to succeed. But sometimes our desire to create a better future can distract us from the present, which at the best of times can provide a refreshing escape. But at the worst of times can cause us to lose focus. We must make a concentrated effort to keep our feet firmly planted in the "now" some that we can get to where we're going. This is my affirmation, and for those of you who are wondering. 

Yes, I do have the nerve and the faith to call myself a visionary!

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                   WE MUST