The Cultural Health News Blog

This blog's mission is to improve Cultural Health, by raising Cultural Literacy and reducing Cultural Poisoning. With respect to Cultural Literacy, I am focused on Classical African Civilization. With respect to Cultural Poisoning, I will help you understand how to Detect it, Correct it, and most importantly, how to prevent little children from catching it. This site is for Americans in general and African Americans in particular. Video: Politics to Physical Health

Friday, July 31, 2009

The first Health Care Town Hall Meeting - President goes to the people

After Gates/Crowley we need to start over. The meeting was a most remarkably inclusive discussion of issues from single payer to, education and wellness incentives. The new American Health Care will begin a revolution in health care. (Video)

This first thing I noticed was that their was no scripted questions. The people got to ask what ever they wanted to ask. Wow, what a breath of fresh air. I want a pure single payer system like Briton. However, the president says that is not where he is leading us. I believe we will end up with a mixed health care system with for profit medicine and single payer (Gov't Option) as the new American Health Care system.

The good news is that in this public discussion the public is learning something about the nuts and bolts of the broken system that exist and the working systems in other economically developed nations. They are coming to understand that we already have both a single payer system and a private system. The question before us is what will be the new goals, rules and mix as we move forward to bending the cost curve down.

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What if Black Cops Did Not Support Sgt. Crowley

What if these Black cops Did not support Sgt. Crowley, his goose would be cooked, that is what. This shines a whole new light on Black and White Cop interactions on the job.

There are two things that I take away from this. One calling a person you do not know, an overt racists, can be an error. A person can simply suffer from latent Cultural Poisoning that may only show up under certain circumstances.

I worked with European Americans in New York for years good folks of good character who one day make an off color remark in my presence. Do I call this person a racist and throw the baby out with the bathwater. No, I identify the remark/action for what it is a symptom of Cultural poisoning. I help my colleague cure this particular symptom and move forward with a more Culturally Healthy co-worker.

Now with a cop it is a different level of public safety threat. My co-worker is not likely to destroy my health,or kill me because of his/her Cultural Poisoning. It is a violation of your trust as a cop to support illegal actions on the part of fellow cops.

I am not an expert but this guy is lying like a rug. First he is not in a position to support Crowley's attack because as he admits he was not their when Crowley entered the home and therefor does not have all the facts.

Is he committing Cultural Treason because he is frightened of his co-workers and may need protection from the community. Or is this his normal state of Cultural Poisoning and existence on the job, Time will tell. What we need is a trial to set the legal record straight.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

After Beer, Crowley Says We Agree to Disagree

It is interesting to note that after the Beer meeting with the President Dr. Gates did not have a press conference and Officer Crowley did. (Video)

If I were Crowley I would have a press conference too flanked by my union, my lawyer and a PR person. Crowley's job and his life have been turned upside down due to his poor judgment and in my opinion Cultural Poisoning.

I think he knows or has had the risk explained to him. Dr. Gates may decide not to get mad, just get even. Cowley could be sued for false arrest, assault, falsifying official documents and illegal imprisonment of a law abiding citizen.

He talked about looking forward to a follow up meeting with Dr. Gates, one on one, to listen to each other. Has Obama pulled off another one of his miracles. If they calm down and think about it these two men stand to make a lot of money if they can agree to agree.

Dr. Gates like many African American (AA)was put at great health risk by this attack. Imagine if he at 57 with health problems walking with a cane had a hart attack or was other wise injured. If he was an average Joe like me he would have been injured and probably still in jail. What would the average Joe do for medical insurance after such an attack.

Dr. Victor Vega pointed out to me that Dr. Gates is probably suffering from Post Traumatic Gates Syndrome(PTGS). In Cultural Health terminology this is and AA who as a result of Cultural Poisoning does not believe he is subject to the same treatment as the majority of ethnic group. Often these individuals identify more with another biological ethnic group then their own. I know the risk when I leave the safety of my home. If an AA does not fully understand the cultural reality he/she lives in, and then is suddenly confronted with this reality this shock is what Dr. Vega refers to as PTGS. This can send an individual into a remarkable shock somewhere between anger, disbelief, fear and rage.

I think Dr. Gates did not have a press conference because he has a decision to make about his Cultural Health and how best to protect the health of the other members of his ethnic group and the general public safety. Filing a suit is the most direct route to preventing this danger to health and safety. A more risky, but possibly more fruitful Cultural Health strategy might be, some type of mutual apology, joint documentary on concrete ways to improve public Safety with pin hole camera badges for cops, and new health care reform that includes psychological cultural poisoning testing and dialog training for citizens.

How will Dr. Gates decide? In large part I think it will depend on Crowley's ability to mitigate his Cultural Poisoning either for the right reasons or because of understanding his risk.

How do you think Dr. Gates will decide?

Obama Public Safety Beer Summit Results - Vote

Would you have a beer with this cop? I would not, but then again I would not be elected President either. The question is, what will having a beer result in regarding public safety improvements?

Dialog is better then digging in, But I do not see how this can have a good result. Gates says Crowley is a rogue cop and Crowley says he will not apologize for what I consider, assault, false arrest and unlawful imprisonment by a Culturally Poisoned cop.

Some in my community say the President drinking beer with rogue cops is like giving a green light to cops who abuse the power we have lent them. They say we must get beyond beer and fear, and switch the police green light on disrespect for public safety, to a yellow or red light. See my article on some solutions.

Just when you thought things were not culturally complicated enough it turns out that Gates and Crowley my be cousins. Check out this LA Times story

Poll Results: How would you vote?

1. Gates Crowley mutually apologize, shake hands incident is ended

2. Gates Crowley positions remain the same incident continues.

3. Other Explain.

What do you think will happen tonight at the Presidents house? I hope he don't come out in handcuffs. +[;-)

Sunday, July 26, 2009

President Improves the Nation's Cultural Literacy Regarding Level 3 Attacks on AA's

The President and Dr. Gates have had the Testicular fortitude to shine light on Level 3 Attacks on African Americans and Latino's in America. Now the question is, can the Nation understand the difference between level 1, 2 and 3 police attacks on American citizens and gather the courage to put a stop to them once and for all? (Video)

By now, if you are alive in America, you have seen the story of the Rogue Cop Crowley's attack on the AA Dr. Gates in his home (or whatever version you saw). If you missed the story here is a short video update.

The objective of this article is to raise Cultural Literacy regarding how many African Americans view the relationship of police to their communities and what can be done to improve it.

Historically Police/African American relationships suffer a legacy of America's original sin. Originally part of the Policeman's job was to attack and capture enslaved Africans that have escaped the enslaver. Fast forwarding to the present, some laws and practices have changed and the advent of African American police officers and positive policing in AA Communities is a relatively new idea, that is unfortunately still plagued with rogue cops and attacks on the AA/LA community.

There are three levels of attacks as I understand it.

Level One: Deadly Force Attacks e.g. law abiding AA citizen shot 40 times in the doorway of his home in New York city. Video Example, AA murdered by police captured on cellphone video Click Here

Level Two: Physical Beating Attacks e.g. Rodney King beating, Video Example: Cop attacks AA ambulance and hart attack patient Click Here

Level Three: Abuse of Power Attacks, (unjustified Culturally poisoned verbal abuse, harassment, and/or unlawful imprisonment.) e.g. the Crowley attack on Dr. Gates. "Profiling" is part of level three police attacks but it is only the tip of the iceberg. The process of what happens during a level 3 (typically invisible police attack) and how to prevent it is the real issue.

What is the issue in the Gates incident? We don't have all the facts to make an informed judgment regarding this particular incident. If no police activity went unrecorded we would have the facts.

What is the Solution:

The new incoming head of the NAACP advocates that AA's arm themselves with cell phone video camera's capture all police interaction with citizens in the community automatically as a matter of habit. I would add my recommendations as follows, all police, in addition to police car and interrogation camera's, should be required to wear pin hole badge cameras (gun shot, loud voice and elevated hart/pulse rate activated). A special FBI unit should be set up to hunt down rogue cops. Any officer of the court caught doing a crime should get twice the time.

Badges must be prominently displayed. Any cop asked by a citizen for his/her name and badge #, and fails to immediately give it should result in automatic termination. Police officers are servants of the people not the other way around. We must control the thin line between criminals and cops if we are to remain free.

Cultural Caveat: Dr. (Skip) Gates is also known in some quarters of the African American community as skip the truth Gates for his skipping Classical African Civilization, Kemet (Ancient Egypt) in his African TV tour/history documentary. Gates is married to a Non-AA and considers himself 57% white (according to his DNA).

Friday, July 24, 2009

The AA Mayor of The Town That "Arrested" Dr. Gates, Wants to See the Cop and His Boss.

The African American Mayor, the ultimate boss, in the town where the rogue cop arrested Dr. Gates says "race" has been a historic factor in police interaction with African Americans and Latino Americans. She wants to see officer Crowley and his boss.

Mayor E. Denise Simmons indicates that she is not happy regarding the safety of the citizens in her town. She has launched an investigation and wants to understand what happened, how it happened and how it can be prevented in the future. The Mayor wants to see Policeman James Crowley, his boss and his boss's boss.

Talk about out of the fire, into the frying pan. Imagine that you are a rogue anti-humanist cop that has been hiding in the police force. After verbally abusing , assaulting and unlawfully imprisoning a law abiding Harvard Professor. You find that this citizen is a personal friend of the first AA President, who is also a graduate of Harvard. It dawns on you that the POTUS is a lawyer and probably knows Cambridge law better then you.

Then you go to the prosecutor, who would historically defend rogue cops and he says (I imagine) you arrested who, for what? in his home. Get the ell out of here. You think I am going to burn down my career for your stupid a$$, drop the charges, get out of my office, what are you the Joe the Plumber of cops?

A shot has been fired over the heads of out of control bad cops. The question is, what will they, and we the citizens of this forward moving country learn from this incident?

Cultural Caveat: Dr. (Skip) Gates is also known in some quarters of the African American community as skip the truth Gates for his skipping Classical African Civilization, Kemet (Ancient Egypt) in his African TV tour/history documentary. Gates is married to a Non-AA and considers himself 57% white (according to his DNA).

Thursday, July 23, 2009

President Says Cambridge Police Stupid in Gates Arrest

How stupid is it, to unjustly arrest a friend of the President of the United states of America, in his own home?

World renown Black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was tricked into arrest White cop. There are three things I would like to say about this event.

From a Cultural Health perspective Gates is known in some quarters of the AA community as skip the truth Gate for skipping over Classical African Civilization, kemet (Ancient Egypt) in his TV tour/history of Africa.

Second, this is another case where Dr. Gates's RaceDar was only partly turned on. He seemed to understand that he was being harassed by an extreme anti-humanist cop. but his RaceDar was not sufficiently functional to detect that he was in the presence of a possibly criminally insane person hiding in the police department. He is lucky he was not killed, remember the law abiding AA citizen in New York shot in his doorway some 40 times.

Third, like the President said, this should focus us on reform of police if we are all to be safe. No, racism is not dead, and the racists are not gone, there might be one standing next to you as we speak.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Micheal Jackson's Most Culturally Healthy Video - RIP

Michael Jackson's memorial service concluded this week. How well did you know his body of work? What was MJ's most Culturally Healthy song? (Video)

So what do you think, was it Thriller, Remember the Time, Billie Jean or some other work?

I was doing a series of articles entitled Egyptians/AA Yesterday and Today, when out of the blue, I remembered the time Micheal Jackson did his most Culturally Healthy Video. Did you remember the time when Mr. Jackson took a big risk and brought an ethically accurate Classical African Civilization, Kemet (ancient Egypt) back to the world stage.

Most Americans remember Hollywood's culturally poisoned representations of ancient north Africa from movies like Cleopatra and The Ten commandments with Yul Brynner playing an African King Ra Moses II (Ramesses II).

Richard Pryor who had a Cultural Rebirth after his trip to Africa, made a short Cultural Literacy piece for his TV Show that is known by relatively few Americans and citizens of the world Egypt 1909, it is a most remarkable piece for its time. Eddie Murphy also did a Culturally Healthy movie, Coming to America which, did not have Kemet as its focus as in the case of Mr. Jackson and Mr. Pryor. However, it did have a positive cultural impact worldwide.

Now I may be in error, but as best I can remember Mr. Jackson was the first major entertainer to successfully produce a major work regarding the historicity of Classical African Civilization (CAC) designed to improve Cultural Literacy in the world's mass market .

Mr. Jackson is known to be a curious person, always asking questions. I wonder what is the back story regarding Mr. Jackson's Cultural Literacy regarding CAC. Did he consult with African Scholars on the video. How did this all come about.

How was your Cultural Literacy. How well did you know Mr. Jackson's work?

Did you get the answer right? (No cheating, before you read the article)

Connect to the Newsvine Poll Click Here

Egyptians/AA Yesterday and Today 2 of 2

We know that the Classical Africans in their majority were Black because they said so and because the science, melanin dosage tests, confirm it. However, is it not remarkable that all we need is to observer the natural cultural performance of our youth from graffiti to hip hop and some basic Cultural Literacy to make our own confirmation.

When I was young in New York City, I remember when African American youth started writing/drawing on walls. It was a new remarkable somewhat cryptic artistic formation on walls that was hard to get off. Everyone in the community connected but the uninitiated did not have a clue. At the time I made no Legacy links to Classical African Civilization, Kemet (Ancient Egypt).

Legacy Links that come to us in our ancestral memory and can be seen automatically transmitted to our children. And so today we see them like their ancestors wrote in stone so that there words would last forever, writing in cyberspace (blogging) so that their young words will last forever.

Speaking of blogging and social nets like myspace, and facebook and twitter. Do a twitter search on #bwb (Blogging While Black). From graffiti to twitti we are remarkable beings, that are so connected when we take the time to be quiet and listen to the timeless vibrations around us.

Egyptians/AA Yesterday and Today 1 of 2

It is interesting to make the visual link between the people of Classical African Civilization and their descendants today that can be found in America.

We know that the Classical Africans in their majority were Black because they said so and because the science, melanin dosage tests, confirm it. However, is it not remarkable that all we need are our eyes and some basic Cultural Literacy to make our own confirmation.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

The Meaning of the 4th of July for the African American

Every American, especially African Americans, should know the July 5, 1852 Frederick Dougless speech, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro". From a Cultural Health perspective it is a basic American Cultural Literacy requirement. (Video)

...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

I grew up in the Queens, of New York City that Eddie Murphy made famous. I could walk out my front door and see Manhattan. Today I have to drive somewhere to see the fireworks like I did yesterday with my youngest son and his girl friend. But back then everyone where I lived just came outside and looked up, over to the city, to see the 4th of July fire works.

Fire works are pretty, romantic and fun for many. What is not to like about America's birth day? As I grew in Cultural Literacy, I finally heard the famous word's of Mr. Dougless and for the first time I said to myself. Self, the 4th of July was not "Independence" Day for all Americans. This was a shock to my system, as this reality for AA was not thought in school. Like most African Americans, I learned over the years to roll with the cultural punches on the Red, White and barbecue day.

After watching the Williams Wimbledon final and playing some tennis on the local courts (with a guy who brought his own personal portable, on wheels, automatic tennis ball machine to practice with) I went to the traditional family barbecue. We talked about current events, New American Health Care, Micheal Jackson, and what do you mean Palin quit?

Yes, the 4th of 2009 is different from the 4th of 1852. An AA President and a guy with his own personal tennis robot underline that reality. I think AA's are prouder of the Nation on this 4th, more so then any in my memory. However, we must not forget the reality and contributions of our ancestors and the Cultural Health work that remains.

You will note I have made a Cultural Health correction to the title of the Speech. Here is a link to the full text of the speech. It is interesting to hear, but more powerful to read personally.

Here is the most famous passage of the 1852 speech and maybe the most famous of all of our ancestor Douglass' speeches.

...What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour...

Williams Sisters Take Wimbledon by Storm

Serena wins the 2009 final and they both win the doubles championship (Video)

Here is what Serena had to say about her win

Everyone I know watched the show, (simi's and final)what a way to go. It demonstrates to us elders, what you can accomplish when you get in the gym and stay focused.

For the full story Black Tennis Pro's