The Plateau

Tuskegee to play Texas Southern Sept. 25th in Mobile

DP — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:40:00 GMT

Take a quick look down Tuskegee University’s 2010 football schedule on its website, and the word “cancelled” appears in big red, capital letters next to a Sept. 25^th game against Texas Southern in the Angel City Classic at Los Angeles Coliseum.

Before being “X’d” out, it would’ve been the latest in a string of select black college football games played in major cities like Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis, and would’ve been an instant diversion for fans in Southern California who are annually inundated with only USC football.

But Los Angeles’ loss might very well be Mobile, Alabama’s gain, because a deal is now imminent to play the game here … at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on that same last Saturday in September.

It could also be just the beginning of a long-standing relationship between Tuskegee and the city for the Golden Tigers to play one home game a year in Mobile.

“We recruit heavily in Mobile. There is some good talent and students down there that could benefit our school and our program,” said first-year Tuskegee Athletic Director Alvin Jackson.

“I’d like to play a game in Mobile every year. The possibilities are very good.”

Jackson has already submitted his proposal to Mobile Mayor Sam Jones and city council, and is simply awaiting a response.

He may not have to wait too long.

“We’ve already mailed (Jackson) the contract and are just waiting for him to sign and return it,” said Ladd-Peebles Stadium Board of Directors Chairman Milton Joyner.

“We’re very pleased at the way this is turning out.”

The way this is turning out might just go a long way toward washing away the bitter taste in Mobile’s mouth left by the Gulf Coast Classic … the former annual game between Alabama State University and Southern U., that had Jones and the city council fighting among themselves about whether to keep pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into a losing proposition.

Jackson’s proposal is simple, and … more importantly … doesn’t call for the city to come up with any money.

Because it is a Tuskegee “home” game the university will pocket gate receipts and pay for the team’s travel here, as well as that of the band, cheerleaders and other school officials. Tuskegee will also pay Texas Southern’s team expenses, leaving Ladd to pocket money from concessions and parking, while “S’kegee” gets the gate receipts.

Translation: There’ll be no promoters with their hands out looking for a piece of the pie.

And in Jackson’s world, it’s the ONLY way to do business.

“I was raised in Mississippi on a farm,” said the native of Como, Miss., a small town about 45 minutes south of Memphis.

“I don’t need to borrow a tractor if I can buy my own.

“The deal (with promoters) in Los Angeles just didn’t work out. I’m friends with the athletic director (Charles McClelland) at Texas Southern, so we got together to work out how we could get this done.”

Another cool sidelight to Tuskegee playing one home game a year in Mobile is that its opponent will change.

Although it competes in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC), the Golden Tigers annually schedule at least two Southwestern Athletic Conference schools.

This year’s SWAC foes are Texas Southern and Alabama State, but the possibilities are there for future games against marquee schools like Jackson State and Grambling … not to mention even further possibilities of bringing in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference bad boy Florida A&M in the future.

The door is now open for something good to happen with black college games at Ladd and Jackson is proud to be a part of it.

Said Jackson: “In years to come I’ll just look down our schedule, find what I think is an attractive game and say ‘‘Meet me in Mobile.”

Goodell's message intended for the next generation of NFL players

DP — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:27:00 GMT

The one thing I've always liked about sports is that the concept of team most always seemed to bring a group of folks together for a common goal ... to be successful as a single unit in order to win or be the best.

That's something the Minnesota Vikings should’ve really thought through more closely before signing Bret Favre.
That’s a story for another day, though.

But at the same time that team concept more times than not always ends when players take off the uniform.
That's when individuality sets in.

That's when Michael Vick runs a dog-fighting enterprise.
That's when Matt Jones gets yanked out the back seat of an SUV while he's cutting up a couple of crack rocks.
That’s when PacMan Jones makes it “rain” at a Las Vegas strip club and a bouncer ends up paralyzed from gunshot wounds.
That's when Plaxico Burress shoots himself inside a New York nightclub.
That's when Ray Lewis hangs out with his boys in Atlanta’s Buckhead community and two people his group encounters end up dead.
That's when Donte Stallworth goes out drinking, then runs over and kills a guy on the drive home.

Those things, just to name a few, are the result of one person's individual decision ... not a team's.

So when I read an idiotic story like the one written by the Miami Herald Columnist Dan Le Batard Sunday ("NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's Methods Not Working"), I cringe.

When Le Batard says Goodell's crackdown on bad behavior isn't working, it means people like him don't get the bigger picture of what the commissioner's efforts are really aimed at doing ... sending a message to future generations of players that getting into the league isn't a right just because they can run, block and tackle, but that their behavior off the field can get them sidelined permanently.

Just like it's impossible to save the current generation of 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds who're roaming the streets at night robbing, shooting and killing people, trying to get the attention of 22-, 23- and 24-year-old football players who’ve been pampered since Pee-Wee League just because they can play the game well is a lost cause.

They’ve been told by friends, coaches and even family that they are “the man” for years, so why should they believe anything different when they get to the NFL?

But the kids who should be watching what Goodell is doing are those junior high, high school and college players who aspire to be the next Jerry Rice or Adrian Peterson.

If they're paying attention to the commish's edict they just might start cleaning up their acts now, so by the time they do get to the NFL they realize that hanging out with their posse's, for instance, can get them kicked out of the league.

Or that beating up their women can get them kicked out of the league ... or that getting drunk and driving their $200,000 cars way over the speed limit can get them kicked out of the league.
Or for that matter, being stuck on themselves ... instead of keeping the team first and foremost ... can get them, well, you get the idea.

It’s way past time to get some order back into the private lives of many professional athletes.
Playing professional sports is a J-O-B in multi-million dollar corporations ... NOT a game anymore.

And the expectations of those sports company’s employees are no different than those of any other company ... be at work on time, do your job, put in a good day’s effort and … most of all … don't put the company in a bad light or bring any undue hardship on your fellow employees.

I used to work with a guy that the folks in my company nicknamed "Pockets," because he ALWAYS walked around with his hands in his pockets. Nobody wanted to work with the guy because he always made it hard on whomever he was working with.

I contend that Michael Vick put the Atlanta Falcons in a bad light and brought undue hardship on his co-workers because the team couldn’t replace him with a comparable talent … all because of his off-field actions.

I contend that Plaxico Burress put the New York Giants in a bad light and brought undue hardship on his co-workers because he couldn’t be replaced with a comparable talent … all because of his off-field actions.

What Goodell is doing is a good thing, especially for the long term good of the league.

After all … cliché or not … there is no "I" in TEAM.

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist and owner of WriteStuf Communications, LLC ... www.writestuf.com.)

Just like when you were a kid, somebody's got to be watching

DP — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:21:00 GMT

I use this space to talk about more things than just black and white issues.
But make no mistake, as a black man growing up in an America where race is interwoven into the very history of our country, how people of my race handle social and politcal issues is always something I pay close attention to.

The spotlight has always been ... and always will be ... on blacks who've made their way to positions of responsibility.
But that spotlight is shining even more intensely on us now than ever before as America gets ready to inaugurate its first-ever African American president.

If you think people ... black and white ... have scrutinized the moves of powerful black people in the past, wait til Barack Obama takes office.
You ain't seen nothing yet.

But is it fair to scrutinize only those powerful black people, or has the recent politcal reality series titled "Blacks Gone Wild" actually clouded the picture of what's really taking place in American politics?

In less than two years, black elected officials across the country have been caught red-handed doing everything from taking a paltry few thousand dollars in bribes to using millions of dollars in taxpayer's money to cover up sexual affairs.

And while those incidents are truly pathetic, they aren't any worse than a white U.S. Senator using kickbacks from wealthy constituents to make lavish improvements to his home, or more recent allegations of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich selling a U.S. Senate seat.

Black, white or green ... the color that most stands out surrounding all those incidents is messy brown.

How do we stop it?
How do we make people of power ... of any color ... straighten up and fly right?

Its not that complicated.
Just take a page out of the book our parents used when they were raising us as kids ... they watched everything we did.
And if we got out of line they slapped us upside the head.

In my current position, I report daily to a man who is a former United States Marine officer.
Virtually everything he does is by the book.

And there is ONLY one book ... his.
If you miss something on one of his pages, that's your ass.
If you choose to ignore something on one of those pages, that's your ass.
If you decide to re-write something on one of those pages it better be better than what he's written or ... you got it ... that's your ass.

He's virtually always critiquing you on your job and always pushing you to do better.

Some people don't operate well in those type of environments. But being watched on how you do your job comes with the territory in certain, high-profile jobs.

And particularly today, in an economy so out of whack that virtually every dollar spent has to be spent wisely, the people others entrust to spend those bucks must ... Repeat: They MUST ... operate with a sense of urgency to do the job they were hired to do.

The word I'm hinting around at is oversight.

Someone has to be responsible for overseeing another's job.
And somebody else has to be responsible to ensure the person watching somebody else is really doing their job, too.
And somebody's got to be watching them ... and somebody watching them ... and somebody else even watching them, too.

The honor system is a beautiful thing, but it really only exists if somebody's watching to see how honorable you really are.

(Darron Patterson is President of WriteStuf Communications, LLC, and Director of Communications at the United States Sports Academy)

Maybe now we can all believe again

DP — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:17:00 GMT

Maybe now a lot of folks will finally get it.

Maybe now there's a reason to believe in hope for the entire world.
Maybe now Republicans across the country will see that nobody's fooled by them walking through disaster areas with their sleeves rolled up.
Maybe now they'll see that their "we're smarter than you" politics of days gone by is just that ... politics of days gone by.

Maybe now people will see that the color of someone's skin isn't something to be afraid of.
Maybe now it'll become clear that we're all in this together.
Maybe now we can go about the business of making this world better for everybody ... not just a privileged few.

Maybe now young folks of all races across this country will see that there really is hope, and they don't have to use a gun to solve a problem or rob someone else.
Maybe now, too, they'll see that the problem they think they have isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of the world's survival.

Maybe now we can see what it will take to return America to its rightful standing in the world as a country to be respected, not feared.
Maybe now those with blood on their hands will see that you can't send young soldiers into battle on a personal whim of controlling the world's oil.
Maybe now those responsible will also see that the young faces thousands of American families will never see again didn't have to die at all.

Maybe now we can see how long the people of the world have been waiting for America to elect a president they can talk to and not be looked down upon.
Maybe now we can all just try to care about one another.

Maybe now, with Barack Obama as a leader the world has been waiting for, we can all move on in the right direction ...

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist and President of Detroit-based WriteStuf Communications, LLC, www.writestuf.com)

Unfortunately for the very ignorant, their ballots say "White vs Black"

DP — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:30:00 GMT

So, let me get this straight ...

After watching a Sunday television news show that interviewed some Pennsylvanians, a lot of 'em will vote for a man who represents a political party that's largely responsible for the mess this country's in, rather than elect an obviously intelligent black man who has a crystal-clear plan to cure America's ills?

Hmmmmm.
Makes sense to me.

I wonder if those same people would reach out to grab a black man's hand if they were about to let go of a thin tree branch and fall a thousand feet to their death?

Now that's a question I would've asked 'em.

The sad reality this 2008 Presidential campaign has served to reveal is that this country hasn't come nearly as far as a lot of people hoped it had.

Racism is still ... and will forever be ... a major problem.
But now, instead of racism being something that a lot of Americans thought was safely hidden in their closets, Barack Obama's candidacy has brought it front and center, and it has the potential to be a big pothole on America's road to economic and global recovery.

Now hear this: Electing Obama is no longer just a dream for black people, but HAS to be the goal of every American regardless of color IF they want this country to survive.

America is on shaky ground on more than just one front.
Our military is stretched thin, our economy is in the toilet and our streets are war zones ... filled with young jobless people of all colors fighting and killing each other because they see no hope.

Don't think foreign interests across the globe aren't paying close attention either, examining every problem this country has and looking for any open door to exploit it for their own gain.

Remember this: Because of its arrogance, the United States does not have many friends ... EVEN among countries who claim they're our allies.

This country MUST elect a leader who'll choose to sit down with people around the world and repair the many bridges Republicans have successfully blown up in the last 8 years.

We can't fight everybody! We've got to pick our battles.

We shouldn't be spending $10 billion a month to fund a foreign war when the money desperately needs to be spent here!
We can't tell somebody "Ok, we're going to sit down and talk with you, BUT only under these conditions," as Republican Presidential nominee John McCain so adamantly wants to do.

THAT is not a two-sided conversation. THAT is just America ... once again ...dictating what should be talked about and how it should be talked about.

I don't know about ya'll, but I'd kinda like to hear what other countries are so chapped about.
Who knows, what they have to say might actually make some sense.
AND it might be something worth listening to ... just to see if we should change our own position.

Our ideas aren't the ONLY ideas.

My daddy, Walter Patterson, told me something once that I repeat quite often ... even if I don't always adhere to it myself.

He said: If you don't listen, you can't hear.

Make sense?
Of course it does.

America MUST listen.
It must listen to other nations to understand what their issues are.
It must listen to itself to actually hear what its saying and how others might be interpreting it.
It must listen to the majority of its people who desperately want this weak economy to get stronger.

But most of all, every American needs to listen to the Pennsylvanians who say they'll vote for a man ... even if he's not equipped to solve the country's problems ... just because he's white.

And then decide just how much damn sense that makes ...

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit and President of WriteStuf Communications, LLC www.writestuf.com)

Black folks need to stop giving people reasons to doubt us

DP — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:29:00 GMT

Everything isn't always about race.

Unfortunately, though, a lot of things in America have a lot to do with race.

Now, before you label me a racist and somebody who's always only talking about black and white issues, just remember ... I'm the guy who constantly screams for racism to be taught in schools so young black and white kids can get first-hand, educated knowledge of where it came from, what it's all about and why it's such a big part of our society.

One of the most unfortunate things associated with racism, though, is the age-old adage that you can't give us black folks a lot of power because we don't know what to do with it.

Unfortunately ... again ... it seems like it may be true.

Oh! Don't get me wrong ... people of ALL races do stupid stuff publicly all the time.

But it just seems magnified when we black folks do it.

Here in Detroit, the city's black mayor (Kwame Kilpatrick) has been using his office as a big sandbox to play games that benefit ... you guessed it ... Kwame Kilpatrick.

Kwame, a married father of 3, has been accused of banging more women than 4-time Heavyweight Champ Evander Holyfield... who has fathered at least 9 children out of wedlock and is going through a rather messy and public child support battle down in Atlanta.

Holyfield, by the way, is black.

But instead of Kilpatrick putting ALL his efforts into straightening out the shameful economic ills of a once proud city, he's treating the Detroit mayoral job like a cool gig with perks for him, his family and his friends.

He's going on trial soon for lying under oath at another trial about his reasons firing two city cops who were apparently investigating his ass for an alleged wild, stripper-strewn party at the official mayoral residence.

In the course of his testimony, Kilpatrick was asked about the officer's allegations that they were really fired so he could not only cover up the party, but throw a big blanket over an alleged affair he was having with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.

An allegation he denied.

Oh yeah, Beatty's also black.

The all-black Detroit City Council jumped all over Kilpatrick for paying out over $8 million of city money to settle the officer's case after it learned he did it to keep hot and steamy text messages between he and Beatty secret ... including one where they even discussed the room number of a Detroit-area motel room to meet at.

But just two weeks ago, it was revealed that the FBI is ALSO investigating AT LEAST two members of that same ... all black ... city council for taking bribes in exchange for their "yes votes" on a city waste-hauling contract.

One of those council members under the fed's microscope is Monica Conyers, wife of John Conyers, who is chairman of the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee ... not just any committee, either, but THE one charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts.

How embarrassing would it be for Mr. Conyers if Mrs. Conyers is unceremoniously hauled into federal court and charged with taking a few putrid thousand dollars just ... well, just because?

Wait! There's more!

Earlier this week, one of Detroit's pre-eminent newscasters, Fanchon Stinger (guess what color she is?) was caught on tape hanging out with Rayford Jackson ... a married black man ... who is an employee of the waste hauling company in question and a primary player in the shady contract deal the city council is being investigated over.

Stinger apparently took money from the waste hauling company, too, but claims it was payment for services her private company provided and says she gave it back once all the shit hit the fan.

She'd better hope the feds don't have any tape of those services she provided.

It seems Stinger and Jackson have been allegedly carrying on a "relationship" ever since her divorce 3 years ago, even having gone so far as being photographed together many times ... including at the NAACP's Image Awards in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Do I even need to throw in Rev. Jesse Jackson ... the omnipresent Director of Operation Push?

You do know he's black, right?

Jackson's recent off-camera comments (which he thought were private) about wanting "to cut Barack Obama's nuts off because his speeches always talk down to black people" were actually overheard by, well, everybody because his microphone was still on.

Jackass!

It's one of You Tube's "most viewed" video clips this week.

And now the right reverend is tripping over himself to apologize for the remarks.

Sorry. Too late Jess. We already heard 'em.

Ya know, maybe there's something to this thing about us blacks always screwing ourselves better than anyone else ever could.

Too bad it seems to be coming true at a time when Obama ... a very intelligent black man, whom (unlike Kilpatrick) seems to have the correct head screwed on straight ... tries to become President of the United States.

Darron Pattersonis an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit and President of WriteStuf Communications, LLC (writestuf.com).

Finally, there's something to talk about ... The Obama Phenomena!

DP — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:21:00 GMT

I'm not what you'd call your regular kinda blogger.
I don't write every day just to be writing (unless, of course, you pay me ... then I become your regular kinda blogger real quick).

But, when I do blog, I blog because something gets my attention and I've got a lot to say about it.

Let's see, its been about three months since I've really felt compelled to use this space and talk about something.
And, it's not like things haven't happened that weren't worth talking about either.

Just to name a few ...

The Governor of New York got caught with a hoe and had to resign. No word yet on how many times his wife has gone upside his head by now.
The Mayor of Detroit got indicted for lying on the witness stand about about the real reason he had two cops fired (to hide the fact he was screwing his chief of staff). No word yet on how many times his wife has gone upside his head either, nor how much he's had to pay her to stay with him.
The toilet on the International Space Station went out. (Bet the folks up there wish they had a window to open.)

None of that moved me (although I did think about that toilet thing) until ... Obama.

Unless you've been at a pretty lengthy white supremacist meeting for the last few days, you now know that Barack Obama ... the U.S. Senator from Illinois ... will soon officially become the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States.

A black man.
In my lifetime.
Nominated to become President of the United States.
No shit!

As a black boy who grew up in Alabama ... during the days of church bombings, lynchings, water hoses and German Sheperds turned on black people, an Afro-sporting, dashiki wearing Jessie Jackson screaming Black Power and the Rev. Martin Luther King preaching peace ... I never thought (as a black man) I'd ever see the day America would be so starved for change that it's on the verge of electing a black president to help pull it out of the gutter.

Life has a way of coming up with its own justice, don't ya think?

Obama is a phenomenon.
He's smart, appeals to a wide scope of Americans of all races who're tired of the preferential politics Republicans have been guilty of forever and just might be the one conduit to get a lot of life-long global enemies talking to one another and ... possibly ... be willing to live and let live.

As a person who's constantly harping for racism to be taught in schools ... educating kids black and white on how it evolved, has been allowed to fester and (essentially) how to handle it ... I'm not suggesting Obama can solve all that ails this country (especially its racial issues).

But, I am saying he can give us all something we've needed for a long time ... hope and a fresh approach to solving old problems that are long overdue to be put to rest.

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit and President of WriteStuf Communications, LLC, www.writestuf.com)

Detroit Mayor's Stupidity May Help Young Folks

DP — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:22:00 GMT

There was a time when I thought the best thing that could ever happen to this arrogant, pants-sagging generation of young black kids across America was to look at a guy like Kwame Kilpatrick, who wasn't much older than them, and realize there really was hope ... without guns and drugs ... if they just put out the effort to grab it.

I mean, the young brothas and sistahs will readily tell you they'd much rather listen to the words of people like Kanye West and Fity Cent, instead of messages from folks like T.D. Jakes and Barack Obama.

So, I thought when Kilpatrick was elected Mayor of Detroit seven years ago ... at age 31 ... it was his golden opportunity to use the stage for an up-close and personal performance of how a young black man should carry himself, have respect for our young black women and represent the black race in a way much of white America thinks can't be done by someone like him.

Now we know white America may be a lot smarter than we think.

It's a sad commentary that the stupidity Kilpatrick has shown while in office with very public adulterous affairs, lies to the citizens of Detroit and shady business dealings have let a lot of people down ... himself, his family, a city that believed in him and a country that desperately needs more young, intelligent black politicians like him.

But maybe, just maybe, some good might come out of his political career unraveling right before our eyes.

Maybe ... just maybe ... instead of being yet another self-indulgent young black man who literally blew himself up, Kilpatrick will stand as a symbol for other youthful blacks to look to as one more example of what a power-drunken ego can do to you.

One thing about humans, black or white, we need continued reinforcement of what not to do before we're convinced not to do it.

Already in this country there is a shift amongst young people of all colors to get back to the foundation of what being somebody is all about.

Oh, don't get me wrong! There's still that element of youth out there who want the quick dollar, who are lazy and who want things given to them without doing any work for it.

But, just look around you ... there are a lot more, too, who know the quickest way to the cemetery and jail is to put themselves in positions to get there.

There will always be an element like that in our society ... has been since the beginning.

But there's also that other side of the coin where folks look around and say: "Man, that was pretty stupid! I ain't goin' out like that!"

The things Kilpatrick has done lately are pretty stupid. It's over for him.

He is going out like that.

And this from an intelligent, college-educated, licensed lawyer who's supposed to be so far above it.

We've all been there ... done stupid things that don't even begin to portray who we really are.

But when we did those things, we learned from them.

We didn't do them again ... and again, and again, and ... well, you get the point.

That's what young African Americans need to look at where Kwame is concerned ... how making the same dumb mistakes over and over can not only get you nowhere, but can also completely kill whatever it is you're trying to get to.

Yeah, they can feel bad for him for being so stupid and throwing so much away.

But, more importantly ... much more importantly ... they need to learn from what he did and realize they're always only a few ridiculously dumb things away from destroying everything they've worked an hoped for.

Remember what our mama's and daddy's told us when we were growing up?

"As a black man or woman you're gonna have to be better than everybody else if you want to make it in this world."

They weren't lying ...

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit and President of WriteStuf Communications, LLC, a full-service literary consulting firm)

Everybody's lied before ... but when it's over, it's over!

DP — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:03:00 GMT

I've lied before.
Of course, that was all before I grew up a lot and realized how lies can hurt a whole lot of folks.

You can wipe that look off your face because ... you know ... you've lied, too.

Don't lie. You know you have!

And because you and I both know, from experience, that when we were caught in a lie ... no matter how young or old we were (and there was no way out because everybody involved knew we'd lied) ... we came clean.
There was nothing else for us to do but apologize and come clean.

Which is why I don't understand Kwame Kilpatrick or Roger Clemens.
Yeah, THAT Kwame Kilpatrick, the Mayor of Detroit. My Alpha frat brother.
And THAT Roger Clemens, one of the best pitchers of all time, and a guy who was ... I stress was ... going to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame one day.

Anybody with a pulse in this country who's heard all the stories surrounding Kwame and Clemens lately must be wondering what the hell are these guys thinking.

During a recent trial in a civil suit brought against the city by two cops who felt they were wrongly fired by the mayor, Kilpatrick testified that he'd never had an affair with his former Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty.

He also testified that one of the cops, who'd been investigating an alleged wild party at the mayoral mansion (that also allegedly involved strippers ... one of whom is now mysteriously dead) wasn't fired, but had merely been reassigned.

But once outside the courtroom, the cop's lawyer revealed to the mayor's attorneys that he had dug up text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty ... indisputable evidence that not only proved they were sleeping together, but that both were responsible for the cops losing their jobs, too.

At that, Kilpatrick hastily ordered his lawyers to settle the case with over $8 million in taxpayer's money in a settlement that included a "secret deal" to keep the text messages forever hidden.

Documentation of that secret deal is now all over the place.
Even homeless people and crackheads on the streets of Detroit have a copy of it.

But Kilpatrick and all those worthless lawyers he's paying ... including the city's attorneys, who are nothing more than his pawns ... are still saying there never was any secret deal.

My mama had a saying: "I may not be the smartest person in the world, but that don't mean I'm stupid."

Which brings me to Clemens, one of the greatest pitchers baseball has ever seen, who testified before congress a few weeks ago that he has never taken performance enhancing drugs ... that's steroids for you people who like to cut right to the chase.

The Rocket couldn't explain how his former personal trainer has solid evidence that he injected Clemens with steroids on numerous occasions.
And he also now can't explain how his picture was taken at a party thrown by admitted major league baseball steroids user Jose Canseco, who said he gave Clemens 'roids at that party.

Clemens says screw the picture ... he was never at that party!

Hmph.
Probably was some guy impersonating him. Ya know?
There's a lot of that going around these days.
People who look just like you ... exactly like you, as a matter of fact ... just walking around the streets saying they're you.

It's time for both the mayor and The Rocket to cut the bullshit.

They're caught.

It's over.

Ok, let's review...
The Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, still says no secret deal was cut with the cops ... even though he paid them off with (I reiterate, taxpayer's money) in exchange for their lawyer keeping text messages between he and Beatty out of sight ... a tiny detail he apparently forgot to tell city council before they approved the deal.

Even though I'm looking at a copy of that document (detailing a "secret deal") on my desk right now.

And MLB star pitcher Roger Clemens says (1) he's never taken steroids and (2) he was never at any party hosted by the Governor of 'Roids, Jose Canseco ... even though there's pictures to the contrary.

Hmmm.
Let's see ... his personal trainer has given investigators physical evidence that even bears Clemens' DNA on syringes used to inject him.
And despite the fact I have a copy of the picture of him at Canseco's party on my desk, too ... right next to the document of Kwame's secret deal that doesn't exist ... he still says he was not at the party.

Hold on!
Wait!
I gotta go find a mirror.
Cause if I've got stupid written on my forehead, I've gotta wash my face.

I'd advise you to do the same ...

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance writer based in Detroit and owner of WriteStuf Communications, LLC ... a full service literary consulting firm in Detroit)

What's happening to young black boys in this country is the real crime

DP — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:18:00 GMT

Too many promising young black men are either in jail, dead or will be dead soon.

That's no rumor.

It's a cold, hard fact that young blacks are dying at an astoundingly fast rate before their 20th birthdays.
And those that aren't dead yet have over-flowed the country's jail system to the point that new institutions to hold them all can't be built soon enough.

If the rest of America thinks this is just a problem in the black community, it had better think again.

There are only so many suburbs for people ... black and white ... to flee to in hope of escaping the crimes either done by desperate young men or is an off-shoot of something perpetrated by them.

Sadly, so many of these wannabe thugs are young, black and ... here's the really sad part ... uneducated.

Too many young black men who decided a long time ago that school wasn't the place for them have lost their lives or their freedom by chasing the dream of fast money and even faster living.

It's time for America to take its collective head out of the sand and fix the problem.

How do we do it?

By saving the next generations of young black men and steer them in a direction that will stop the extinction of the male species of their race.

It's time to show these young boys that it's cool to be smart.

"The tragedy starts when African-American toddlers are rarely read to or intellectually stimulated, and positive male parental figures are absent," says Michael Johnson, Director of Strategy and Business Development for McKesson Provider Technologies in Atlanta and founder of The Prodigy Project ... a grassroots community-based program designed to secure successful futures for young black men.

Johnson hopes to accomplish this feat by having compassionate, African American men help young black boys discover the power of reading, information and knowledge.

Say what?
Just read to a black kid and it'll change all this crap their generation is going through?

Amazing.
Something so simple.

I was curious. So I called Johnson to find out more.

What I found out is that he is just as sick and tired as a lot of us are of seeing our young men dress like "prisoners" with their pants sagging at the ass.
He's tired of hearing young brothers refer to women ... ALL women ... as "bitches."

And he's tired of hearing allegedly educated, successful black men like former Detroit Piston, and now New York Knicks Head Coach, Isiah Thomas say it's (quote) "okay to call a black woman a bitch, as long as it's a black man doing the talking."

You have to know Isiah to know how truly serious he is about what he said, even though he says he was "misquoted."

Don't think a lot of young black teens and pre-teens didn't take that to heart ... a lot of 'em who still look up to Isiah from his days as a Pistons "Bad Boy."

But I was so impressed with what Johnson's group is attempting to accomplish that I offered the services of my company to help him.

As a result, WriteStuf will now provide The Prodigy Project with literary consulting services and become its Midwest link, drumming up support for his efforts and organizing committed men who'd like to read to youthful black boys ages 5 to 9.

To contact Johnson directly and for more information about the Prodigy Project go to www.prodigyproject.com.

Of course, to contact WriteStuf for more information about our efforts with the project go to www.writestuf.com and click on the Contact Us page to request information on volunteering.

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning journalist based in Detroit and President of WriteStuf Communications, LLC)

Understanding and dealing with racism should be taught in schools

DP — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:58:00 GMT

My wife asked me the other day why I haven't had anything to say about what's been going on in Jena, Louisiana.

"YOU are from the south and YOU have an opinion about everything else on this earth," she said ... kind of emphatically, too, I might add.
"So how come you're one of the only folks not talking about this?"

Opinion about everything else on earth?
Well, that's going a little too far. Although I do have a lot to say about a lot of things.
But I did get her point.

What's happening in Jena ... racism raising its ugly head to come front and center stage in America yet once again ... is a bigger crime than what both the white and black kids did there to fuel the issue in the first place.

To briefly recap:
*Black kids ask Jena High School principal if they, too, can sit under a tree that has customarily been where only white students sat in the past.
*Principal says yes.
*Black kids sit under tree.
*White kids hang nooses from tree the next day.
*Trio of them admit hanging nooses as prank and are suspended from school for three days.
*Group of black kids later have chance encounter off campus with one of the perpetrators.
*Fight ensues (Note: Black kids say they were provoked because white kid called them "niggers").
*White kid beaten badly. Goes to emergency room. Released three hours later.
*Six black kids arrested. Charged with attempted 2nd degree murder (Say what?).
*Five later released. One ... Mychal Bell ... remains in custody for 10 months with no bond, charged as an adult because he was identified as person who was most violent during the attack.
*America's black community outraged.
*50,000 people, all dressed in black, descend on Jena (pop. 2,971) for protest march.
*Days later, charges against Bell reduced. He is released on bond.

I haven't had anything to say about Jena up to this point for a lot of reasons.
Particularly because I am from the south, I did grow up around serious racial hatred in Alabama where some people even lost their lives and ... quite frankly ... because Jena invoked so much disgust and anger inside me that I literally wanted to grab somebody by the throat myself.

My daddy taught me a long time ago, that when you get that angry about something ... as I am about Jena ... you need to take your ass somewhere and sit down before you or somebody else gets hurt.

But, my wife was right.
What folks like nationally syndicated radio host Michael Baisden, Rev. Al Sharpton and other African Americans did to send a peaceful but powerful message to people in Jena was something that had to be talked about.

Typically, some white American's whom I'm truly convinced do want racism to go away always either say there is no racism in this country anymore or (and I love this one) it's a lot better than it used to be.

News flash!:
Not only does racism still exist in America ... and is thriving in places like Jena ... but I'm not quite so sure this country's handling it any better than it did in the 60's.

Nothing .... Repeat: N-O-T-H-I-N-G ... will ever change where racism is concerned in this country until the entire dynamics of the racial phenomena America was built on becomes so important to society that it's actually taught in our schools.

I heard a white man in Jena being interviewed on television who said:
"There's no racial tension in Jena. White people and black people here get along just fine."

I'm sure he did an in-depth survey of all the blacks in Jena before reaching that conclusion, too.

Let me translate what the gentleman was really saying, as it was meant when said this same way in the 60's: "Our black folks here know their place."

And, sadly, too many black people in rural Southern towns like Jena do indeed know their places because the racists who run those towns still run them the way they want to ...hidden from the public eye and oblivious to changes that have taken place in other, larger cities.

From elementary school to college ... from Jena to Chicago ... racism needs to be adroitly taught and intelligently discussed as a structured class to help both blacks and whites understand where it came from and why it has survived for all these years.

It's also important that it be taught now more than ever as several other diverse cultures migrate into our society, and are themselves targets for racial hatred that had previously been between just blacks and whites.

Instead of burying our heads in the sand, Americans must come to grips with the fact that racism is part of this country's history and ... sadly ... part of its future, too.

It ain't going nowhere.

Teaching kids about it and how to deal with it isn't a bad thing ... it's a smart thing.

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit and President of WriteStuf Communications, LLC ... www.writestuf.com)

Welcome to the "World of WriteStuf!"

DP — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:36:00 GMT

When I was little boy, my daddy ... Walter Patterson ... would always take me and my moma Willie Mae out riding in the car on Sunday afternoons.

It didn't seem to matter to daddy where the hell we were riding to, just as long as we were out with the windows rolled down, many times smelling the God-awful air of the paper mill OR even better the aromatic scents from the meat packing company.

Regardless of the smell, as I sat in the back seat I would always read EVERYTHING I saw ... OUT LOUD!

Billboards, stop signs, license plates, clouds (clouds?), names on buildings ... if it had letters or a shape, I read it.

Until, that is, daddy would yell: "SHUT UP BOY! SIT YOUR ASS DOWN AND SHUT UP!

He was a gentle man, Walter Patterson.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is this ... I've ALWAYS had this thing for words.
I've always been able to spell my ass off ... although I DID lose a 4th grade spelling bee to a girl name Carolyn Dees.

I hate her right now ... wherever she is.

But the point is, losing that spelling bee really made me what I am right now ... a words guy.

So, after many years of airplanes, rental cars, football and baseball stadiums, basketball games, press boxes, covering all kinds of news and sports stories as a reporter ... and a healthy, continued hatred for Carolyn Dees, I might add ... I give you my life-long dream:

WriteStuf Communications, LLC.

I won't bore you with details about the company.
If you're reading this blog, you've already gone to the website and no doubt have read about what it is we do at WriteStuf.

But whenever you read this blog or contract with our company for work, you won't be bored AT ALL.

Take a minute and go back through some of my recent posts here, then e-mail me and tell me if you were bored.

In the future, you'll be reading about all kinds of things in this space ...

*How Fred Goldman has made O.J. completely lose his mind and run up in a hotel room with gun drawn like he's in a damn gunfight at the OK Corral. What a jackass!;

*How people like Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and the rest of that Hollywood crew need to visit places like Harlem, South Central L.A., or Cass Corridor in Detroit to get a glimpse of life in the real world;

*How, generally, you can just walk out your front door any day and a story is there just waiting to be told.

I hope you enjoy reading me.
I enjoy writing for you.

Oh! One more thing...
If you previously subscribed to this blog, you must "re-subscribe" now because its external URL link has changed to blog.writestuf.com.
Don't forget to pass on our link (www.writestuf.com) to anybody and everybody you know, because there's no tellin' what WriteStuf can do ...

Later...
dp

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist and President of WriteStuf Communications, LLC in Detroit ... www.writestuf.com)

Beating Notre Dame changes nothing ... Michigan needs change to regain respect

DP — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:01:00 GMT

When Michigan lost 34-32 at home to defending 1-AA champion Appalachian State in the first week of the season, people were shocked all over America.

"They just weren't ready!" shouted UM fans.
"They'll win next week and get back on track!" was the rallying cry.

But when they got the snot beat out of 'em at home again a week later ... this time 39-7 by an Oregon team that could've put up five more touchdowns if it had wanted to ... it might have been the best thing to have happened to the Wolverines' program in years.

Forget the fact they shut out a Notre Dame team last week that's so pitiful even Touchdown Jesus is saying Hail Mary's down in South Bend, there is still no confusion about the Wolverines.

There is no misunderstanding...
Michigan needs a makeover ... from the coaching staff to the players it recruits!

For too long UM's football program has flirted with death, only to be revived by excuses on the operating table at the last second.

Getting run out of the 2004 Rose Bowl by eventual national champ Southern Cal was "no shame. USC was just a better team."

Losing to Texas in the same game the next year was explained as simply being too much Vince Young, who has done what he did against Michigan then to everybody he's played in the pros since.

Being beaten by a clearly inferior Nebraska team in the Alamo Bowl 11 months later was labeled "a fluke."

And then, last January, getting slammed 32-18 by USC in the Rose Bowl again was only because UM had a "let down" after losing the Big Ten title to Ohio State and wasn't playing Florida for the national championship.

At the time, at least a couple of those excuses might've seemed legitimate.

But not now.

After the royal ass kicking by Oregon, it was clear as glass that UM's arrogance in resisting change had finally caught up with it.

If ancient and even more decrepit Penn State Coach Joe Paterno could send his coaches to Texas before last season to study the "spread offense" Young made famous, UM and coach Lloyd Carr can surely just as easily swallow their "We are Michigan... The Victors ... Champions of the West" pride now and ask for help, too.

May I suggest Carr call West Virginia Coach Rich Rodriguez and schedule a visit to see how the Mountaineers operate the spread and what kind of athletes they recruit to run it.

How 'bout even checking with Rutgers (Rutgers!?!) to see how they run their offense?
Nawww.
Not Michigan. They'd never admit they're out of step with college football reality.

But UM desperately has the need for speed.

It doesn't have athletes fast enough to simulate the spread in practice, so they damn sure can't defend it in a game.

But, at least now the Wolverines are exposed.
And that's a good thing, too, because they're going to have to scrap both their offensive and defensive philosophies next season (its too late to do it this year) to get in step with the times, or they face several more embarrassments in the future.

Sadly, depending on who's talking, that metamorphosis has to begin with the coaching staff.
And as nice a guy as Lloyd Carr is, it's time for a change in Ann Arbor.

In baseball, when your infield is making a bunch of errors and the runs against you are piling up, more times than not managers change their pitcher ... if for no other reason just to get a different look and give their team a jolt of confidence.

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance writer based in Detroit)

Posse's Gone Wild: The Saga of Michael Vick

DP — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:48:00 GMT

Ok, all you wanna be gangstas who think you're above the law because you can shoot a basketball, run fast with a football or hit a baseball very far ... listen up!

When you finally make it big in professional sports do you ...
Still want to have an entourage of your boys following you around everywhere you go?
Still want to run with guys from the old hood ... guys you might've outgrown a long time ago?

Do ya still want a posse of your very own?

If the answer to any one of those is yes, do me a favor ...
Call Michael Vick first.

Vick, the Atlanta Falcon's quarterback and one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, is looking at serving at least 9 months of a probable one-year jail sentence after his three co-defendants in an interstate dogfighting ring coped guilty pleas with federal prosecutors and turned state's evidence against him.

He just found out ... first hand ... what it means when people say if you lay down with dogs, you're bound to get fleas.

Yes, pun intended.

This whole thing is so stupid and dumb, Vick deserves to have fun poked at his silly ass at every turn!
And if the story wasn't so sad, it would be funny.

But, it's not.
It's a terrible indictment of what happens to too many of our young athletes, black and white, who don't know how to let go of their old ways once they finally make it out of the hood.

Vick's boys started flipping like pancakes once the feds threw serious jail time in their faces if they didn't cooperate and give him up.

They have apparently told authorities that Vick is the money man behind the operation. Vick is the one they all work for.
Vick is, the man.

You see, there is one thing folks like Mike ... high profile people whether they be star athletes or wealthy businessmen ... don't understand about the way law enforcement people operate:
It doesn't do them much good to chase down small-time thugs. They squeeze those idiots to get to the big cheese.

It is never, ever their intention ... particularly the feds ... to go after anybody but the lead dog, so to speak.

In this case, that dog was Vick.

He was doomed from the time he first signed his name on the dotted line to buy the Virginia house where the illegal dogfighting ring was headquartered.

And when the house was raided by authorities during a drug investigation, that's when the story about Bad Newz Kennels ... owned by Vick ... started to unravel.

He originally told investigators his cousin lived in the house and he didn't know what was going on there.

But he must've thought the feds had just fallen off the back of a police cruiser yesterday.
He forgot they do this stuff for a living ... try to determine who is a criminal and who isn't, that is.

Telling them you own a quarter of a million dollar piece of property, but you have no idea what's going on with it is like throwing blood in the middle of a gang of sharks.

They start circling for the kill.

Vick denying knowledge of anything that was going on at the house was like turning a 50,000 watt spotlight on himself.
Now, he is not only looking at significant jail time, but an equally harsh and long suspension by the NFL for violating its personal code of conduct policy once he gets out.

It could very well be at least two years before we ever see Michael Vick in a football uniform again ...
if ever at all.

Vick did this all to himself.
But he can also thank his boys, his trusted posse, for a lot of it, too.

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit)

Vick is why I stopped writing sports in the first place!

DP — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:11:00 GMT

I don't write about sports much in this space.

Not because I can't.
Writing about sports is how I won two Associated Press awards for "Best Story of the Year" during my days as a sportswriter at daily newspapers, and how I've made most of the money in my lifetime.

But, I stopped writing about sports a few years ago when I realized there's just far too much more stuff going on in the world than who beat whom in a game, which ... in the grand scheme of things ... means nothing to whether the sun comes up tomorrow for a majority of people.

This past week, though, has brought my "sports brain" out of retirement ...

I now have a question:
What the hell is wrong with Michael Vick???

I mean, this guy is one of the highest paid athletes in the world, arguably one of the top quarterbacks in professional football (clearly, though, the most dangerous and versatile) and would get a lot of votes for Mayor of Atlanta tomorrow if he chose to run.

So, why then (I ask again) would Michael Vick risk everything that is right in his life by (allegedly) sponsoring an illegal dog-fighting enterprise ... something that the vast majority of society throughout the world looks at about as despicably as it views child abuse?

I have the answer.

Lemme just get right to the point ...
Vick, and other athletes, wanna be athletes or just overall dumb-ass people ignorant to or devoid of caring about "the law" want to be... The Man.

The Man!
What an overworked, under understood phrase.

Its been used by people who say they can't find work ("The Man is keeping me down!"), people caught breaking the law ("The Man is the reason I'm in jail!"), women who admire a guy's good looks or his prowess in other arenas ("HE is The Man!") or to describe a powerful person who runs things ("George Bush is The Man!").

Ok, I just threw Bush in for sport, but you get my point.

So, with ALL Mike Vick has going on, he still has to be The Man, which is why the feds indictment handed down last week says he runs "Bad Newz Kennels" ... a dog-fighting operation based at a house he owned (he sold it when the investigation broke) in Virginia that operated across state lines.

If the evidence the feds have collected prove true ... especially in light of what just happened in the Duke Lacrosse case, where high-profile athletes were vigorously accused, but the case poorly researched up front by prosecutors ... Vick (The Man) is in a world of trouble.

I remember a guy I knew who tried to be The Man once in my hometown of Mobile, Alabama, a few years ago.

He'd just settled with the city for something like $1.3 million on a case where his car was struck by that of a municipal worker's that ran a red light.

The guy's first installment payment from the city was $333,000.
I saw the check myself.

Well, he cashed it, drove a short distance to Florida the same day and bought three kilos of cocaine.

The cops arrested him as soon as he got in his car to drive back to Alabama.

My question then, as it still is now, was ... why?
Why if you have just been awarded over a million dollars, and just received over $300,000 ... in your hand ... did you need to risk it all by buying three keys of coke?

If he couldn't smoke that much, and I doubt he could've or he'd have been like that mule in the elevator on "Animal House" for sure, why did he need to buy that much?

To give away?
To sell?
But, he'd just become a millionaire.

Oh! I know!
I got it!!!
He was trying to be The Man ... which hopefully he became soon after his silly ass was sentenced to 5 to 10 by a judge who no doubt thought he was just as big an idiot as I'm sure you do, too.

Humph ...
Must be something about being The Man.
Must be a hell of a feeling.
A hell of a rush.
I gotta try it one day. Not dealing drugs, but just being The Man.

How else can you explain a jackass who'd just become a millionaire (with money you know a city hated to give up) thinking he could use it to buy drugs?
And not just buy drugs, but buy a LOT of drugs!!!

A-N-D, how else can you explain Michael Vick?
A guy at the top of his profession popularity-wise, and still in the prime of his life, running an interstate dog-fighting ring.
A felony with a capital "F."

Neither he nor the Alabama dumb-ass needed the money.
Neither one surely needed the aggravation of jail time.
And neither one hardly needed to be branded a mindless idiot, who thumbed his nose at all the positive things going on in their lives just to be ... lets all say it now ... The Man.

Yeah, it all brings it back in perspective for me.

I'd much rather write about world hunger, or how to get everybody in America health insurance than write about athletes who just don't get it like Michael Vick or this clown of an NBA referee, Tim Donaghy, who was just indicted last week too for fixing games to pay off his gambling debts.

Writing about things that make sense just makes sense.

(Darron Patterson is a two-time award-winning freelance writer based in Detroit)

Only Black People Can Fix Black People

DP — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 17:52:00 GMT

I was sitting at my kitchen table having a conversation with my oldest son Wednesday evening.

He's gotten himself into a little bit of legal trouble that's gonna take more than a notion for him to get out of.

But the trouble he's gotten himself into didn't disturb me nearly as much as the logic he's using to get himself out ... that the legal system is far too overworked in dealing with murders and drug dealers to worry about somebody with a small-time case like his.

I was speechless, but it hit home how just about all these 20-something young black men in the streets think these days.

And that's the really sad part ... that instead of thinking about how not to get strung out in the legal system, their entire train of thought is how to beat it once they do.

As a parent, your first inclination is to ask: What the hell did I do wrong when he was growing up?

But the reality of it is that our young black men and (lately) a big majority of our young black women, too have done this to themselves.

Too many of 'em have succumbed to the portraits painted by gangsta rap stars who glorify quick money, big butt women and raw sex.
As a result, our young black men have turned their attention from the classrooms to the bedrooms, and ignited an explosion of newborns into a society of "kid parents" who can't hardly take care of themselves ... much less a child with constant needs.

The jails are overcrowded and funeral homes are overworked with a plethora of teenage funerals fueled by drive-by shootings and needless killings as a result of the only industry our young men think offer them steady employment ... drugs.

If there were a rash of young black men being gunned down daily by white guys on the streets of America, the black community would be standing on its ear ... running from their house, to your house, to the state house to the White House screaming for answers and somebody's head to roll.

But, instead, the black community has sat back and thrown up our hands ... saying there's nothing we can do.

I don't have the answer.
If I did, I'd win the Pulitzer Prize ... hands down.

But I do know what has to happen ... black people have to fix black people.
It's the only way.

And its going to take each one of us ... from the preachers to the dealers ... to take a hard look at ourselves and determine if we're doing our individual part to continue the legacy of the proud black race we are.

Until then, nothing will happen.
Until then America will continue to sit back and watch us destroy ourselves.
Until then, there will be no hope.

Until then, young black men will sit at kitchen tables all over the country and continually make their parents think: What did we do wrong?

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance writer based in Detroit)

Paris has turned America into a disgusting version of "Fantasy Island"

DP — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:50:00 GMT

I don't think I've ever been more disgusted or ashamed to be an American than I was Tuesday watching Paris Hilton leave the Los Angeles County Jail to a sea of flash bulbs as if she were some conquering hero just returned from helping save the world.

Disgusted and ashamed aren't even strong enough words, to tell you the truth.
Sad and angry is how I really felt.

Sad because a 20-something year old millionaire heiress, who just finished a less than two-week stay in isolation at a county jail is treated with more respect than men and women who've been in jail for years, wrongly accused of crimes they never committed.

Angry because in Georgia right now an 18-year-old black teenager sits serving a 10 year sentence for having consensual oral sex with a white girl two years ago when they were both underage.
His sentence was just overturned a few weeks ago by Georgia's appellate court, ruling the punishment was too harsh and didn't fit the crime.
Nevertheless, he still sits behind bars because the prosecutor who put him there refuses to let him out, filing motion after motion to keep him in jail until he can take the case before the state's supreme court.

The mother of the girl he had sex with says he should be let out, the public's sentiment is the same and the appellate court has even ruled that he be freed.
All this is happening in a state that has a long and well-documented history of inequality when it comes to justice for blacks vs. whites.

Still, there's not one paparazzi camped outside the jail where this kid is.

Probably because they were all in L.A. trying to get a picture of a spoiled little rich girl, who spent less than a month in jail because she was too stupid not to drive while already on probation for another stupid driving offense months earlier.

What does this tell you about the country we live in?

Ok ... let's go to the scorecard and weigh the two:
Black teenager still in jail for having sex although a court says he should be free vs. rich little white girl who has served less than two weeks in a county jail.

Hmmmmm. Which story seems more deserving and compelling of endless media coverage to you?

It's really no contest. BUT it shines a rather bright light on exactly the kind of fantasy world this country embraces.

There are kids dying daily thousands of miles from here in a foreign country most all of them never thought they'd ever set foot in.
There are homeless people on the streets with not an ounce of hope for the future.
There's countless medical issues killing people every day. And some, if not all, of those issues could be wiped out by a few strokes of a pen on legislation by the jackasses in Washington ... putting the wheels of research in motion to find cures.

But you turned on any TV channel Tuesday and what did you see?
Paris Hilton and her crap-for-parents mommy and daddy, mugging for the cameras as they drove away from jail in a top-of-the-line SUV, headed to a million dollar mansion to no doubt bask in glory that their ordeal was finally over.

Disgusting.
Completely and utterly disgusting.

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit)

Is America stressed out?

DP — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:33:00 GMT

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Good morning, The Plateau Psychiatry Clinic. This is the receptionist.

"Yes, good morning. I'd like to schedule an appointment. Do you take walk-ins?"

Yes mam, we do. When would you like to see the doctor?

"Right away. I need help, please."

Can you come in at 9:30 this morning?

"Sure I'll be there."

                                                                    ***

Hi, welcome to Plateau Psychiatry. The Doctor will see you now...

                                                                     ***

"Good morning doctor."
Good morning, mam. Please lie down here ... on the couch. What can I do for you today?

"Well, I'm worried, doc. Really worried. I don't think all the vital parts of my brain are working correctly.
"I'm tense, irritable, my patience is short, sometimes I wonder if its even worth carrying on.
"I have a tendency toward violence ... random violence ... from time to time, and I'm just generally in a bad mood much of the time."

Hmmmm. I see.
By the way ... I didn't get your name.

"Oh, its America ... America The Beautiful. Some of my friends call me Honey, as in Land of Milk and Honey.  At least, that's what they used to call me."

So, America, when did all this start?
When did you start to feel the way you're feeling now?

"Well, its been going on for a while now. I can't really pinpoint just exactly when things started changing. Maybe it was around the time parents stopped parenting kids because they didn't know how to parent.
"Maybe it was around the time we started having babies raise babies ... without having the understanding it took to be a parent.
"Maybe it was around the time my economy went so bad that people couldn't make the kind of money they needed to support themselves.
"That led a lot of people to revolt. They started stealing and turning to crime to make a quick dollar because they didn't see any advantages to working for a few dollars an hour.
"Maybe it was when all kinds of people ... in high offices ... started allowing big drugs to come into me. And then young people decided that instead of going to school, they could make lots of money by selling the drugs on the street.

"Just yesterday, doc, one of my people went on a college campus and shot 33 other people to death.
"They hadn't done anything to him. He didn't even know most of 'em.
"I'm scared. Really scared about what's happening to me."

Hmmmmm. I see.
Did you ever try to fight back?
You know, try to jump-start your economy? Try to take back your streets?

"Yeah, I've tried some things ... upping the minimum wage, tried to get my manufacturers to put out quality products to compete with other countries not even half as big as me. Stuff like that.
"But, every time I did, there was always something that turned things sour again.
"There would be movies glorifying guns and violence.
"There'd be music glorifying sex, and drugs and cars and more violence.
"Video games. Prison-type clothing.
"It was too much for me to overcome, so I tried hiring somebody to run things ... a President of all my states.
"But, he's just made it worse.
"He's out fighting wars all over the world, instead of taking care of my needs.
"A couple of years ago he almost let an entire city of my people drown and didn't raise a finger to help 'em til it was too late. Some folks said it was because they were mostly black, but he said it wasn't that at all."

Did you believe him?

"I don't know what I believe anymore when he talks.
"He's taking care of all his rich friends, while my middle class is going down the toilet.
"Hell! I don't even know if I even have a middle class anymore!
"Haven't seen it in a while.

"Doc, I am so worried that I won't be able to survive that I just don't know what to do."
"You've got to help me."

Well, you really do have a big, big problem, America.
But, its not hopeless.
It can be fixed.

The one big thing you've got to do is never, ever give up.
If you give up, what the hell would your people do?
When you were built, years and years ago, you were made by people who had hope.
People who had vision. People who wanted something out of life.

There are still a lot of those kinds of people inside you.
BUT its going to take YOU to find them.
Its going to take YOU to prove to them that staying with you and riding this crisis out is going to be worth it in the end.

You've got to get rid of the jackass you've got managing things now ... that president of yours, what's his name?

"Bush. Gregory Bush or Harry Bush. I don't even remember his name."

Ok, well whatever his name is, you've got to get rid of him and get somebody who knows how to manage your needs!
You ain't dead!
Far from it!
YOU have just got to get up off your sorry ass and start fighting for all the people inside you who have been there with you through thick and thin.
Take your streets back! Get back to being yourself!
Cut the bullshit!

"You're right, doc.
"Its on me and nobody else.
"I'm going to do it. I've got to do it.
"I have no choice.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. I feel better about myself already.
"Ok, I'm outta here, doc."

America...
"Yeah, doc."

One more thing...
"Yeah..."

Don't forget to stop at the front desk on your way out...
That'll be $450 for the session...

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit)

The rappers have spoken: There's different degrees of "hoe-dom"

DP — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:50:00 GMT

Ok, this is what I've been waiting for.

Ever since radio host Don Imus stuck his foot down his throat and all the way out the back of his ass with his "nappy headed hoes" comment that got him fired by CBS, I've been waiting for a response from the rap community.

After all, it's now the gangsta rapppers who are getting blasted for being the pre-eminent purveyors of words like hoes, niggas, bitches and snitches in the first place.

So, I think it was only fitting that we at least held our judgment on the rappers until we heard from their president ... the "one" person who holds the highest "rapper office" ... the "one" person articulate enough to profoundly and intelligently discuss the issues Imus so unintentionally put before us ... the "one" person we know who can put this firestorm in perspective and explain the rapper's position ....

Snoop Dogg.

"It's a completely different scenario," said Snoop, during a phone interview with MTV from a hotel room at an undisclosed location in L.A.
"(Rappers) are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports.
"We're talking about hoe's that's in the hood that ain't doing shit, that's trying to get a nigga for his money. These are two separate things.
"First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls.
"We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them muthafuckas say we in the same league as him."

Ok. Very well put, Snoop.
And so glad you took time out from your busy schedule this week of being sentenced to five years probation for transporting weed and gun possession to set us straight. (@##$%)

I feel soooooo much better now.
Makes sense to me.
Doesn't it make sense to you?

Apparently, according to President Snoop, there are different degrees of hoe-dom.
AND the hoes rappers are talking about KNOW who they are.

Lets go to the score card.
You can call black women "hoes" as long as:
1. You're black and know how to differentiate between the one's doing shit and those in the hood not doing shit.
(Note: Snoop didn't qualify whether the ones in the hood not doing shit really want to get out and do shit.)
2. You're not an old-ass white man.
3. You don't work for MSNBC.
4. You're a rapper and these songs come from your mind and soul.

I'm good now.
We can all go back to work now and realize that everything is finally in perspective.

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit)

Imus might just be what the doctor ordered

DP — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:40:00 GMT

I was hoping it wouldn't happen, but somebody at my job ... somebody white ... asked me yesterday what I thought about syndicated radio host Don Imus' racist "nappy headed hoes" comments directed at the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

I was hoping it didn't happen, because ever since I heard about it there's been this raging forest fire burning in my stomach that the only way I knew how to control was to say nothing.

Unlike the day Martin Luther King was shot and killed in Memphis, when black guys in my high school roamed campus looking for anybody white to beat up, I'm not upset at all white people for the actions of one asshole.
But, I still ain't happy.

And, like I told the woman who asked me what I thought, I grew in the south during a time when Birmingham Alabama Police Chief Eugene "Bull" Conner routinely called for German Shepherds and fireman's water hoses to be turned on black people.
And, for what?
All because they were protesting their very public and racist treatment by Birmingham city officials and white business owners in the town.

That was the 60's.
THIS is the year 2007 and you've still got folks like Imus who think its funny to use not only words that demean, but hurt black people to our core.

I got into this argument with my wife about the whole situation because I believe the flippant use of the words "hoes," "bitches" and "niggas" commonly thrown around by gangsta rappers ... demeaning women and men of their own race ... has made fools like Imus think its acceptable for anybody to say 'em.

My wife thought I was making excuses for what he did, when I was merely pointing out the fact that if those words weren't so widely used in hip-hop music, they wouldn't be so widely used by jackasses like Imus ... both black and white.

There's a guy at my job ... a white guy ... who used to think it was cool to always act and speak with a semi-black dialect.
He'd always act like he was trying to be ... for lack of a better term ... a blue-eyed, soul brother.
I'd always ask him why he talked like that when speaking to me, but he always blew it off.

One day, though, he went too far and ... in what I'm sure he thought was a funny thing to do ... called one of the only four black men in this building a derogatory, racist name.
Us four complained to management, and the guy was immediately called on the carpet by human resources, put on probation for an extended period of time, reprimanded and written up for the entire episode.

He still has his job, but he has drastically changed.
He rarely ... if ever ... speaks to any of us black men anymore.
He also speaks like a regular person and not some jive street hustler trying to be cool.

He learned his lesson.

Imus still has his job, although Monday he begins a two-week suspension imposed by MSNBC, and says he's learned his, too.
One of the problems I have with him still being employed is if the network thought what he did was ethically wrong, as they've said it was, how come he wasn't fired?
If the company I work for thought what the guy here did was ethically wrong, how come he's still employed?

Just today, two of the Imus' biggest advertisers ... Staples and Proctor & Gamble ... jumped overboard and dropped their affiliation with the show, a move that might be just the tip of the iceberg as MSNBC tries to put out the fire his mouth started.

And NBC's Al Roker, one of the country's most well-recognized African American morning show personalities, has called for Imus' resignation (http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/10/116906.aspx).

Going on Rev. Al Sharpton's show to say I'm sorry was a good move.
But not the answer.
Meeting with the Rutgers basketball team is going to be a good move.
But not the answer.

America needs people like Don Imus to keep sticking their foot in their mouth's until it understands that racism is still and will always be a problem.
I've long advocated that a class on racism be taught in schools, from elementary to college, to get everybody on the same page as to what its all about, how it started and how to deal with it.

And deal with it we must, because it's not going away.
In the end, Imus might be the best thing that's happened to race relations in America in a long time.

He might just be the dose of medicine we need to start healing anew.

(Darron Patterson is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Detroit)