Quote of the Day

“104″ - Tiger Woods’s new world ranking. He’s out of the top 100 for the first time since the ’90s. Elin’s doing just fine. H/T The Daily Skimm

Bad Day?

H/T The Huffington Post

Fly On!

H/T The Root

1st Black Woman to Pilot the Cool Spy Plane That Captures Intelligence for US Leaders

Merryl Tengesdal grew up in the Boogie Down Bronx and pursued her pilot dreams despite being told that human beings weren’t meant to fly.

BY: DIANA OZEMEBHOYA EROMOSELE

Posted: March 31 2015 1:14 PM

 

Lt. Col. Merryl Tengesdal, 9th Reconnaissance Wing inspector general and U-2 “Dragon Lady” pilot, in front of a U-2 plane Feb. 9, 2015, at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.  BEALE AIR FORCE BASE

In order for Navy SEAL teams to hunt down terrorists, or for foreign policy analysts to track the movement of WMDs—or to detect whether Iran is, in fact, developing a nuclear weapons program—our leaders rely on special pilots to capture that type of intelligence through the use of spy-plane cameras.

Merryl Tengesdal (that’s Lt. Col. Merryl Tengesdal to you) is the only African-American female pilot to man—or, rather, woman—the U-2 spy plane, a highly complex aircraft that captures that kind of valuable imagery.

As Women’s History Month comes to an end, Tengesdal, 43, spoke with The Root from an Air Force base in California about her journey growing up in New York City’s Boogie Down Bronx, and how she climbed the ranks in both the Navy and the Air Force to become such a distinguished spy-plane pilot.

Tengesdal said she knew pretty early on that she wanted to be an astronaut, or some sort of pilot, but she got pushback from her dad, who questioned whether human beings were even meant to fly.

“My father always said that if God wanted us to fly, he would have given us wings,” Tengesdal said. “He was not a big proponent. He didn’t think it was an idea that was suitable for me,” she explained, and especially for a black woman.

But Tengesdal was adamant about her vision and excelled in math and science. After graduating from the University of New Haven in Connecticut with a degree in electrical engineering in 1994, she enrolled in flight school and found that she was learning how to fly alongside a surprising amount of other African Americans.

“It was kind of surprising to me because there were a lot of black people there,” Tengesdal said, recalling a situation that many African Americans can relate to: when black people in a predominantly white setting magically find one another and assemble in one spot just to kick it.

“It was fun. I remember, we were in the hangar, and there was a bunch of us out there,” Tengesdal said, laughing, “and we were like, ‘OK, we have to break this up now.’”

Lt. Col. Merryl Tengesdal undergoes a full pressure-suit maintenance check by airmen from the 9th Physiological Support Squadron Feb. 9, 2015, at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.  BEALE AIR FORCE BASE

When asked how “race” has affected her training and her time in the various posts she’s held during her military career, Tengesdal explained that because she was often one of few African Americans, that always motivated her “not to mess up.”

“I didn’t want to give anyone a reason to say that I was here because I was a minority or a female,” Tengesdal said. “I didn’t want to give anyone a reason to doubt why I was there.”

Tengesdal said that it doesn’t hurt that military professionals are trained to be extremely confident and, well, a bit egotistical. Pilots and soldiers are dealing with complicated weaponry and equipment, Tengesdal said, so there is really no time for second-guessing yourself or walking around wearing your insecurities on your sleeve.

That kind of self-deprecation, she argued, can cost lives.

“That’s how our community is,” Tengesdal explained. “Typically there is a lot of ego to go around, and as a pilot, you have to be pretty confident in your abilities.” After all, in the Air Force, she and her peers are “trusted with high-volume equipment that can harm people or destroy property.”

Tengesdal said that she had little time to be concerned with how others perceived her as an African American. Rather, she was obsessed with being the best pilot she could be and with conveying her skills to her superiors and her team members, who were relying on her to complete the mission.

When people question the patriotism of blacks in the military, I think it’s kind of strange. When you look back at the Revolutionary War, black people fought for independence here. ... We’ve always been fighting for freedom.

When asked if she ever feels conflicted as an African American working in our nation’s armed forces, given the checkered relationship between black Americans and the government, Tengesdal took apart the entire premise of the question, pointing out that black Americans have been fighting for their freedoms and their rights since they were brought to these shores.

“When people question the patriotism of blacks in the military, I think it’s kind of strange,” she said. “When you look back at the Revolutionary War, black people fought for independence here. Even though we were enslaved, we still fought for what we believe in. We’ve always been fighting for freedom.”

“It’s something that I do willingly alongside other people who have those same ideals, regardless of their background,” she added.

Tengesdal went on to speak about that camaraderie among pilots after she was asked about the Germanwings disaster last week, in which a German pilot is suspected of intentionally flying a commercial airliner into the French Alps, killing everyone on board. She said the story made her extremely sad, not only because so many people lost their lives but also because of the negative light cast on pilots.

“When another pilot dies—civilian or military—it’s a sad day. [I] know the training that is required [for pilots] is extensive, it’s hard. It can be mentally, physically and emotionally hard,” Tengesdal said. “There’s a lot that goes into [being] a pilot.”

No. I'm Not Getting Paid For This . . .

But I should.

Seriously, what will they think of next?

Just Like Us

This is a four minute clip of a slice of life in Baghdad.

In it we see that the Iraqis are just like us.  Doing what they can to enjoy life.

She's On Fire!

Move over world!  This kid is destined for something big!

A Second Chance

This is huge!  

       Campus Services at RocketSpace is a program that provides job training and so much more to convicted felons who are re-entering the world.

  

       Note the sea of black and brown faces in the photo. 

 

       In our efforts to make our world safer by jailing folks and throwing away the keys, we have destroyed individuals, their families, their communities, and to a large degree, our society as a whole.

       This program is an effort to right the ship, if you will.

H/T The Huffington Post

From Life in Prison to a New Life in San Francisco Tech Scene

Chrisfino Kenyatta Leal, Manager of Campus Services at RocketSpace

I'm the manager of Campus Services at RocketSpace, a technology campus in San Francisco. Along with my team, I help manage the environment and experience for tech entrepreneurs trying to create the next big thing to hit the market.

In 1994, I was sentenced to life in prison, and up until 20 months ago, I was known as inmate H10983. In some ways, my journey from a young kid living the street life to a tax-paying citizen invested in his community is a miraculous one. In other ways, it is a path taken by countless people before me, whose footsteps I followed to find freedom. It is the path of self-reflection, hard work, and hope.

Every day, men and women are released from prisons and jails across the U.S. after taking this same journey. Most incarcerated settings do not provide programs that teach relevant job skills for reentry to society. As a result, recidivism -- the rate at which people return to incarceration -- is enormous. Society blames these individuals for their failure. Had I not been fortunate enough to be a founding member of a program called The Last Mile, I too could have ended up back in prison.

Founded in 2010 by Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti, The Last Mile is a six-month business and entrepreneurship program. The goal is to provide skills needed to succeed in today's business environment and provide opportunities for paid internships within companies in their business network. They believe that having a job is the key to successful reentry and breaking the cycle of incarceration.

The program is divided into three phases: Learning about social media and the current technology and business environment; business ideas and planning; and the art of pitching a business idea. I entered the program with a great deal of excitement yet not knowing exactly what lay ahead. I had spent 17 years locked away in prison trying to understand how the world was changing around me, but The Last Mile helped bring the world to me so that I was better prepared to enter it when I got out.

In the first phase, we read books about technology, entrepreneurism, and how to utilize social media to re-create our personal brands. This was key because, at that point, had you Googled me the search results were all about the crimes I committed. TLM homework included writing posts on Quora and tweeting thoughts and ideas, all of which were uploaded by volunteers (since we didn't have Internet access). We quickly gained a huge following on social media and the world began to see the members of The Last Mile as human beings with thoughts, feelings, experiences, and perspectives. This changed everything. 

In the second phase of the program, we learned about business planning and development. We identified our passions and were taught how to use our passions to help solve a problem in the form of a business. I took everything I learned and came up with an idea for an app called Coach Potato. The other participants focused their businesses on their individual passions.

The third phase of the program focused on developing a one- and then five-minute business pitch, in which we identified potential customers, market opportunity, and a revenue plan. TLM culminates in a Demo Day, where we pitched our ideas to a live audience of VC's, entrepreneurs, media (including the likes of CNN, USA Today, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal), and our fellow incarcerated peers. After our presentations, we had a short time to speak with the audience. It was here that I was offered a job upon my release at RocketSpace, by its Founder/CEO Duncan Logan.

In 2012, California's 3-strikes law was changed by voters and I was eligible to be considered for re-sentencing and release if the judge who originally sentenced me in 1994 could be convinced that I was no longer a danger to society. In 1994, he had been certain that I deserved to be in prison for life. In his consideration of my re-sentencing, he Googled me. The search results contained my writings on Quora, blog posts, and information about The Last Mile. He was able to "hear," in my own voice, how I changed and what my thought processes were today. He mentioned in his ruling that those pieces helped to convince him that I was no longer a threat to society and if released I would not return to prison. He gave me a second chance .

I was released on July 3, 2013, and began my internship at RocketSpace on July 17th. The training in technology and business planning from TLM definitely helped me to assimilate into my job. In fact, in my position, I am responsible for providing an environment to help technology entrepreneurs thrive. TLM also taught me that if you work hard, people will recognize your value. I have been dedicating myself to the success of RocketSpace since day one and, as a result, was promoted to the Manager of Campus Services in 2014. And in my capacity as Manager, I was able to hire two other graduates of The Last Mile Program for my team, Caleb Hunter and Floyd Hall. Helping to "Pave the Road to Success" for other people coming out of incarcerated settings is one of the greatest passions of my life and with help from TLM, I hope to share my passion with the world.

This post is part of a Huffington Post What's Working series, in partnership with #cut50, co-sponsors of the recent Bipartisan Summit on Criminal Justice Reform (Washington, D.C., March 26). The Summit was part of a movement to popularize support for criminal-justice reforms while also having comprehensive discussions about the policies, replicable models and data-driven solutions needed to achieve systemic changes. The series will focus on such solutions. For more information on #cut50, read here. And to read all the posts in the series, see our What's Working coverage here.

Same Old. Same Old.

This article calls out "religious liberty" folks and reminds us that this same play book was used to foster the blatant, hood-wearing, in-your-face racism/terrorism.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/02/26/3333161/religious-liberty-racist-anti-gay/ 

Sharing the Love

Tyrese, one of the star of Fast & Furious 7, discusses his love of the UAE in this article.

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/celebrities/furious-7-star-tyrese-gibson-on-his-second-family-in-the-uae-dune-bashing-and-a-possible-furious-8

Trevor Noah: That's Racist - Tacos

This is Jon Stewart's successor.

I love this kid!

Blind Trust Project

Check this out.  It's two minutes of truth.

What's the message to you here?

What's your takeaway?

Calling All Cooks!

I avoid cooking as much as possible, but for those of you who do, here's a handy guide for splitting recipes in half.

H/T The Huffington Post

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

Here's a message we all need to hear.

The Church

I was raised Catholic.

I . . .

Went to mass every Sunday.

Helped my Mom clean the church each week.

Searched out churches to attend in college.

And I was . . .

Married in the Catholic Church.

Soon after, being the dutiful wife that I was, I followed my husband in the Charismatic Movement, and started to attend nondenominational churches as we moved from place to place while in the military.

As his military career was coming to an end, Frank decided to attend a bible seminary in Oklahoma, intent on becoming a pastor.

Now I was never too keen on that idea, and God knew I cussed way too much to be considered pastor's wife material.  So, I was relieved when it was clear that would not happen.

After this, Frank got a job in San Francisco and we settled in Sacramento, where we would spend more than twenty years.

He was knee deep into all things "church."  I realize now this was his way of fitting in the world, but it was isolating and off-putting to those of us closest to him.

This era was also wrought with some of the most painful, hurtful, spiteful times in my life that were caused, in large part, by the Christians in my world.

To say I was disillusioned would be an understatement.

So, I left the church and everyone in it.

I walked away and didn't look back.

I was angry, bitter, and resentful.

I was done with the hypocrisy of the church and the people who represented it.

Even when Ben was fighting for his life in the hospital after his horrific accident, a chaplain came by and I absolutely lit into him.  I didn't want to hear a word he had to say.

Of course, I know now how wrong that was.  This man was only trying to help, but I couldn't see past the pain that Christianity represented.

Life continued, and . . .

I was principal of a poor school.  There was several churches in the neighborhood who helped us.  One in particular was so kind and generous, and the people so warm and helpful.  On occasions, I was invited to the church to talk about an upcoming event, or to thank them for something they had already done, and I enjoyed those times.

So, every now and then, I'd attend a service there.

Then I decided it would be nice to hear a rocking' choir, so I went to a black church down the street from this one.

By the time I left Sacramento, I was attending this one on a fairly regular basis.

But . . .

I could never fully commit.  Each time I went, I had one foot in the door, and the other one headed toward the exit.

One wrong move.  One wrong thing said, one perceived slight, and I would have been outta there.

Nothing happened, so I continued down this path.

Now that I've been away from the US for three plus years, I've attended church only a handful of times, and yet I'm stronger in my faith than I've ever been in my life.

With the technological advances, I'm able to listen to podcast sermons that have been, and continue to be, rewarding and edifying.

I've gotten over the resentment and hostility toward the church folks back in Sac. The older I get, the more I realize that for the most part, people are doing the best they can.  I don't believe that most people wake up to do others harm.  Mostly it happens out of ignorance or good intentions gone bad.

This may be a naive way of thinking, but it is the mindset I choose to have.

So my journey has gone from the ritualistic canons of the Catholic Church, to the bombastic blowhards of the Charismatic Movement, to the peaceful, fulfilling contentment of my current state.

And now . . .

I can say with confidence, I'm truly experiencing a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Trying to Right a Wrong

This article is about the lead prosecutor in a death penalty case, where the accused was found guilty and spent decades on death row.

New evidence lead to the defendant's release from prison in 2014.

The prosecutor is taking a stand in this man's defense now, trying to make sure he is compensated for time served.  Of course, this begs the question of how do you determine what a life is worth?

Two quotes that stand out:

“Glenn Ford deserves every penny owed to him under the compensation statute. This case is another example of the arbitrariness of the death penalty. I now realize, all too painfully, that as a young 33-year-old prosecutor, I was not capable of making a decision that could have led to the killing of another human being.”  A.M. STROUD

How totally wrong was I.
I speak only for me and no one else.
I apologize to Glenn Ford for all the misery I have caused him and his family.
I apologize to the family of Mr. Rozeman for giving them the false hope of some closure.
I apologize to the members of the jury for not having all of the story that should have been disclosed to them.

I apologize to the court in not having been more diligent in my duty to ensure that proper disclosures of any exculpatory evidence had been provided to the defense.


http://www.shreveporttimes.com/longform/opinion/readers/2015/03/20/lead-prosecutor-offers-apology-in-the-case-of-exonerated-death-row-inmate-glenn-ford/25049063/

Remember Tower Records?

I used to love shopping there.  Before iTunes, it was state-of-the-art because it was the only place you could listen to music before you bought it.

I also loved the eclectic folks who worked there, from the real old lady who wore hot pants year round, to the flaming gay guy who provided the best customer service.

Anyway, Colin Hanks, Tom's son, who was raised in Sacramento, remembers it too and has made a tribute documentary that premiered at SXSW recently.

This article about the movie is from Rolling Stones.

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/the-rise-and-fall-of-tower-records-colin-hanks-on-his-tribute-doc-20150327?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=032715_16&utm_medium=email&ea=ZmF5ZXNoYXJwZUBnbWFpbC5jb20=

Words of Wisdom

Priceless.

H/T Forrest

Great App For Finding Kids' Books

"We Read Too!" is an app that is a wonderful resource for finding books from authors of color featuring characters of color.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/we-read-too/id908782619?mt=8

Read on!

Designing Better Schools

Ben shared this article on the state of education today and the many ways we're trying to use technology to address the social and political reasons for it's current state of affairs.

It's a long read, but quite interesting and worth the time.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/education-technology-gates-erickson/

Three favorite quotes are below:

But one laptop per child can’t lift communities out of poverty, because technology is not an alternative to wealth redistribution from the top 1 percent to the bottom 99. There is a disconnect between what we imagine technology and education can do, and what they actually do.

The fact is, education is not a design problem with a technical solution. It is nothing like building a spaceship. It is a social and political project that the neoliberal imagination insists on innovating out of existence. The most significant challenges faced today in education are not natural obstacles to be overcome by increasing productivity — they are man-made struggles over how resources are allocated.

When people of color are taught to accept uncritically texts and histories that reinforce their marginalized position in society, they easily learn never to question their position.

Another Dirty Old Man

Woody Allen represents the scum of the earth.

If any other man was in a relationship with his step-daughter, we would all scream FOUL.

Woody Allen does it and he's a creative genius, so he gets a pass?

He's a . . .

NASTY.

DIRTY.

LOWDOWN.

SCOUNDREL.

No amount of work/films/art can make up for his despicable behavior.

And let's not even talk about the very real accusations that he molested another daughter when she just a tike.

It makes me absolutely livid that this man is celebrated.

(Here's the link to the article that started me down this ranting path.
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/26/its_worse_than_just_woody_allen_middle_age_men_younger_women_and_the_true_horror_in_mariel_hemingways_new_disclosures/?source=newsletter)

You can rest assured that I stopped watching his movies, which I always thought were mediocre at best anyway, years ago.

Of course, if he were the only one, that would be bad enough, but he represents so many old, nasty men in powerful positions who use their power to pick up young, impressionable girls.  And they are either too naive to understand what is happening, or they'll looking for an easy way up the ladder.

Either way, if "Faye's Justice" ruled the land, in this case, Woody Allen be hanging by his balls from a marquee in Times Square.