Who Am I? Tha-Kid JK

Think Youth welcomes Joseph Kitchen

I am happy to join the writing team of ThinkYouth.org, and hope to be as much of an informative contributor as possible. 2008 been for most of the year thus far, a decision year. Americans on a very deep and personal level are being forced to make some real decisions, and think about the real world consequences of those decisions. As the nation and the world faces these decisions, lots of times we ask ourselves ‘What made someone make that decision?’ I ask that question all the time. So, as a way to introduce myself to you all I’d like to lay out my decision making process.

I am a young African American male who was born and raised in the inner-cities of California. I have seen up close and personal what the effects of a life cycle of drugs and crime do to a family. What it does to an individual. How it rips at the very soul of a person. It is what has prompted me to dedicate my entire life thus far to education and preparing as many minority males to survive in their communities and have a hope and dream that both involves a service back to it, but a viewpoint of what else the world has to offer. It prompted my friends and I to found the National Center for Democracy (www.nationalcenterfordemocracy.org), educating young people how to advocate for their peers, and adults how to work in collaboration with young leaders. It has also sustained me in my efforts to take a hard line stance against guns, gangs, violent crime, and drugs, but at the same time advocating for stronger effective policies to get at the root of the problem.
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Republicans: The Other Environmentalists

Gary Baise was the first EPA Chief of Staff. He has worked on many cases concerning the environment. And now he (a Republican) is running for county chairman in a heavily Democratic jurisdiction. Most of his views are anti-liberal, from his stance that the County needs an “Ironclad immigration lock-down,” to his views that “Education spending should be second or third priority.”

But the one issue he “agrees” with Democrats on is the environment. This may come as a shock, but in reality he’s toting the party line. The GOP views the EPAs goal as “Restoring the balance between the environment and America.” By that they mean allowing oil drilling from the Everglades to Alaskan wildlife preserves, allowing companies to use dangerous pesticides, and a myriad of other offenses.

The Washington Post even did an article on just how many times this so called Republican environmentalist worked against the environment. In the 80s Baise defended building a highway under New York’s Upper Westside, claiming it would not destroy fish habitats, when he had knowledge it would. Gary Baise also defended farmers burning land to such an extent it caused others respiratory issues.

And this guy says the current chairman “Put to much of an emphasis on mass transit.” The current chairman, Gerry Connoly (D-At Large) pushed heavily for metro rail through Fairfax Counties downtown, which is also the Nations 12th largest business district. The current chairman has also put on hold plans to expand some of the main arteries into Tysons Corner. But Baise wants to widen the road, making the 6 lane, highspeed road even more pedestrian unfriendly.

I don’t have a problem with this guy for holding views opposite of mine. But discouraging transit use can not be called environmentalism. Nor can opposing building walkable communities near transit stops be called that. It reminds of how the Republican party are masters at calling right wrong, and wrong right. Sort of like the Patriot Act is perhaps the most unpatriotic law.

Immigrant Hatred Fuels KKK

I had previously reported on a Virginia County banning services from immigrants, and now the county seat has become a ground for the Klu Klux Klan to recruit supporters. The DC Examiner is reporting that the Klu Klux Klan LLC, of Arkansas distributed hate filled newspapers and recruitment fliers in the suburban community. Citizens on both sides of the immigration debate have condemned the move.

Any legislation that attracts hate groups should be considered racist. I wonder how much the people on the wrong side of the immigration debate are under delusion that such laws aren’t racist, and thus the appearance of the KKK rudely awakened them. But one of the leading anti-immigration groups, Help Save Manassas said “If Mexicans Without Borders protests [the KKK], we would be right alongside.” Mexicans Without Borders organized a one week boycott of anti-immigration businesses, and will hold a work stoppage in several weeks.

Election 2008 is about far more than Iraq, health care, and taxes. It will be one of weather America will continue to be a country that welcomes all ethnicities, or weather we return to a pre-1960s mindset.

Gun Ban Goes to Supreme Court

Washington, DC will be taking it’s hand gun ban to the Supreme Court according to an article in the Washington Post. The law was challenged by six gun owners in DC, who are bankrolled by a wealthy man living in exclusive Florida suburbs.

Since DC has no militia it was argued the gun law was properly reconciled with the 2nd amendment. But what was more interesting is that because DC is not a state, the 2nd amendment doesn’t apply to them. Bush and other conservatives have already stated that since DC is not a state, they should have no constitutional guarantee of representation in congress, so hopefully the conservative supreme court will uphold this same state vs. non state logic.

DC representatives also had no say-so in who was appointed to the supreme court justices and so who are they to tell DC how to write their laws. The moment DC has statehood, or full representation I’d be ready to look again at the constitutionality of their gun laws, even despite the fact that gun crime has reduced in the District since the law took place.

This will also be the first such case in 70 years to be presented to the high court, and it’s repercussions will also affect cities such as New York City that have stricter gun laws.

Democratic Leadership Council proposes “Expanding Learning Time” in schools

Today the Democratic Leadership Council, a central, private arm of the Democratic party, issued an email as part of their “State and Local Playbook,” in which they suggested that schools today do not have enough learning time, and more time needs to be added. One method is mandatory summer school for all students. These extra hours result in 1.2 extra years of school for students. Despite the obvious fact that I love my vacation, I think that this is ridiculous on a number of more factual levels.

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Disney Tries Its Hand at Urban Planning, Again

Disney has united both Democratic and Republican law makers in Anaheim, California, by trying to override their city’s decision to rezone land next to their theme park.

According to Fast Food Nation, Disney, McDonald’s, and a few other similar corporations were responsible for the creation of the squeaky clean suburbs that 52% of Americans live in. It helped them to leave the “Over crowed cities filled with people who where different then them.” Of course Disney continues to help Americans escape reality with their movies, music, and other media.

But Disney has taken their fantasy world a bit far by opposing both the city of Anaheim and a developer who wants to build some affordable housing next to Disney’s fantasy land. In order for this to occur the land would have to be rezoned. Disney feels the presence of affordable housing - and the types that occupy them - would harm their park. So the very housing that men and woman dressing up as Mickey Mouse and serving funnel cakes at their park would live in, Disney doesn’t want.
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The Destruction of America

Do conservatives realize their vision is slowly destroying America? I’m not talking about debatable issues like gay marriage - but decisions literally affecting American’s lives. For instance Bush has said “no gas tax increase“, because that would “Slow economic growth.” In 2000, gas was about $1.50/gallon, now it’s $2.50 upwards. I suppose it’s only decimal increases that harm the economy.

Of course the conservative solution to not raise the gas tax, would be too say ‘Do it privately.” Which brings up an interesting story. I live in liberal Fairfax County, across the border is conservative Loudon County. There’s a toll road that runs between both counties. The section in Fairfax is a publicly run toll road. It costs 75 cents to use it. The other section in Loudon County is a private toll road, and guess what? The private company wants to raise the toll to 4 dollars. And the conservative residents want to see the government issue a price cap. So much for that whole private business/small government theory.
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FBI: Car Vandals are Terrorists

In DC a Hummer was vandalized in a neighborhood that considers itself environmentally progressive. Most of his neighbors drive a Toyota Prius. Two men in black bashed in the cab, slashed the tires, and inscribed “FOR THE ENVIRON” into the vehicle.

The two men have still not been found. But now the FBI is getting involved and calling it eco-terrorism. I’d expect something crazy like this to come from the Bush administration. But this isn’t surprising, because any movement away from gas guzzlers would be bad for his car industry friends, and his oil interests.
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Review: Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes

I cracked open the book Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes, halfway to scoff at, another half to confirm my anti-pistol views. Little did I expect myself to be challenged.

It was a photo book, and each person in a picture gave a short answer on why they owned their weapon(s). One of my stereotypes of gun owners is white upper (middle) class people, who own guns to protect them selfs from a revolution happening in the lower echelons of society. That thought of mine was confirmed, but some other myths I had were questioned.

But some of the arguments where interesting. One person made the point of saying, that colonization would never have occurred if all people groups had owned a gun. To that I can’t deny. Another person said anyone who is anti-gun is anti civil-rights. And by this he meant the rights of American minorities. But the real change in American laws occurred when Blacks burned down the cities. We didn’t have to use guns to achieve this. And lastly one person said he used guns to put food on the table, and to that I say eat vegetarian.
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County Turns Back on Immigrants

A Virginia county has passed a law to forbid county services to illegals. As if they where doing something good, one county supervisor said “Public schools and emergency services will still be available.” My understanding is that the children going to the public schools would probably have been born on American soil, making then legal citizens.

In similar legislation in the same county, some people want to outlaw the neighborhood ice cream man, and anyone who sells from a vehicle. One citizen said “I don’t know if these people are legal or not.” And for that man I wonder when was the last time he asked a business owner weather they had committed any crimes, for which they had not come before the justice system with.

A quick description of Prince William County might help to better understand the local situation. Many Civil War battles including the battles of Bull Run were fought there, and the County still retains many of it’s southern roots. It used to be primarily rural, but is now part of the outer suburbs of Washington, DC. And lastly Latinos make up 9% of the population, and blacks 18%. After those laws had passed another supervisor said, “Finally we are taking our community back.” Considering Latinos are nowhere near the largest minority there I can only imagine what he really meant.

At Last Minute, Live Earth to Visit DC

In a series events, from the National Mall being booked, to global warming nay sayers in Congress, Gore decided to move his Live Earth concert, from Washington, DC, to New York. But just in time the Native Americans came to the rescue, and are allowing the concert to be performed on the front plaza of the American Indian Musuem.

We won’t have any big names unless country music is your cup of tea, but Al Gore will be giving the opening speech, which is good enough for me to show up. So for all you readers in the Baltimore/DC area, you can come out to hear Al Gore, watch some global warming videos, and get some live music. And it’s free. The event is at 7/7/7 at 10:30-9:30 at the welcome plaza of the American Indian Museum.

The highs of being a candidate.

On Wednesday, June 27th, I was informed that, on the previous night, I had gotten a call from a fellow Cedar Creek district resident here in Bath County. She had seen my name in the paper as a candidate for the Board of Supervisors, and, as a potential future constituent, wanted to hear my view on the major issues affecting Bath County. I was very pleasantly surprised. If I am elected Supervisor, I realize and gleefully embrace the fact that I will be working for the people of my district.

It is for that very reason that I have spent the past couple of months asking people from all over my district what their concerns are, while encouraging them to familiarize themselves with my personal views by way of questioning. I have encouraged a great number of people to call me at any time if they had a concern about the direction of the county, or a question about my opinions on issues or my vision for the future of our local government. Much to my dismay, nobody who I’ve talked to really gave me any indications of which issues they cared about most, or seemed especially interested in hearing my thoughts.

So, on Wednesday, when I was informed of the call, I realized that there was someone out there who cares so greatly about Bath County that they would call one of their district’s Supervisorial candidates in hopes of educating themselves in preparation for November 6th. On Wednesday, as soon as I had the chance, I returned her call. She thanked me for doing so, and we began what would be an almost 20-minute discussion of local issues.

She and I talked about education, board unity, wind power, land use regulations, and county revenue. Of course, as you may imagine, we also discussed the fact that I am 17 years old. She asked if I had fully taken into consideration how much time is truly involved in being a supervisor, asked how I planned to juggle the position and my imminent college education simultaneously, and asked why on earth a 17-year-old would aspire to something as aggravating and time-consuming as a seat on the Board of Supervisors. I answered her questions honestly, to the best of my ability, and listened carefully to her concerns.

The end result was a conversation that I felt was very productive. I tried my best to convey to her that I, while young, have a firm grasp on the issues affecting Bath County, reinforced by what I consider to be strong convictions. It is for those reasons that I feel as though I should be taken every bit as seriously as my two much older opponents by residents of the Cedar Creek district when the time comes for them to examine their choices.

I may have been successful. The woman with whom I spoke on the phone praised my “positive outlook,” and expressed great “appreciation” of my answers to her questions, particularly those regarding land use regulations. At the very end of the conversation, I was ecstatic to hear her say, “I will definitely support you.”

I’ve talked to a number of Supervisors, both past and present, and all listed for me the already discussed drawbacks: Extreme time consumption and constant disapproval from somebody, somewhere, all the time, with the only financial incentive for putting up with it all being Bath County’s paltry $4,800 per year Supervisorial stipend. After a little bit of prying, however, I have gotten them all to reveal to me that there are things about the job that are truly enjoyable, such as the gratitude received from Bath County citizens when you act in accordance with their best interests.

I imagine that would be a great feeling, but I don’t see how it could be any greater than the feeling I got when, by merely speaking my mind to a Cedar Creek resident, I seemingly managed to earn her respect, as well as her support. It doesn’t get much better than that.

CALL THE ARKANSAS ACLU

After a incident which involved a dirty cop named Joey Williams. The Arkansas American Civil Liberties Union has not made a press release about this incident. Call 501-374-2660 there will be an answering machine saying you have reached the ACLU please leave a message then complain why they have not acted. Send them an e-mail address and phone # too.

–koko

Freedom of Housing

The Berkeley city council has banned the following list of activities, smoking near buildings in commercial areas, lying on the sidewalk, public urination and defecation, drinking in public, possessing a shopping cart and shouting in public. This is all in an effort to get rid of the estimated 800 homeless in Berkley, California.

So now owning a shopping cart is illegal? I guess all those kids with toy shopping carts need to take them to the dumpster. And also if your child has wandered off in the public park, and you’re shouting his name, that too would be illegal. And then no more protests that involve protesters laying on the ground.

And this all ties back to the fact that conservatives decry people who say “we should live more compact life styles, by occupying condos or apartments.” I hear these people decrying new urbanism, and a general move to more density as limiting housing choices. Someone should be able to live on a 1 acre lot if they want to, and another person should be able to live on the street if they want too. Let’s not limit housing choices.