Zat You Santa Claus

from the Granada Hills (pardon the expression) Charter School :)
My pro-union background prejudice aside for charter's-it looks like a great place.

Gifts I'm preparin'
For some Christmas sharin'
But I pause because
Hangin' my stockin'
I can hear a knockin'
'Zat you, Santa Claus
Sure is dark out
Not the slighest spark out
Pardon my clackin' jaws
Uh, who there
Who is it
Uh, stoppin' for a visit
'Zat you, Santa Claus
Are you bringin' a present for me
Something pleasantly pleasant for me
That's what I've been waitin' for
Would you mind slippin' it under the door
Four winds are howlin'
Or maybe that be growlin'
My legs feel like straws
Oh my, my, me, my
Kindly would you reply
'Zat you, Santa Claus
Yeah
Oh hangin' my stockin'
I can hear a knockin'
'Zat you, Santa Claus
Yeah, say now
Hey there, who is it
Stoppin' for a visit
'Zat you, Santa Claus
Whoa there Santa you gave me a scare
Now stop teasin' 'cause I know you're there
We don't believe in no goblins today
But I can't explain why I'm shakin' this way
Well I see old Santa in the keyhole
I'll give to the cause
One peek and I'll try there
Uh-oh there's an eye there
'Zat you, Santa Claus
Please, please
I pity my knees
Say that's you Santa Claus
That's him alright

Christmas Night In Harlem

The Armstrong audio combined with images of Harlem from Google images hosted from Life Magazine Three different events are highlighted:

from 1938 scenes from photographer Hansel Mieth, from 1953 a Harlem Globetrotter game photographed by J. R. Eyerman, and from 1945 Adam Clayton Powell Jr.'s marriage to Hazel Scott, photographed by Sam Shere

lyrics (changed from the original racist ones)

Every gal strutting with her beau
Through the streets covered white with snow
Happy smiles everywhere you go
Christmas night in Harlem
People all feeling mighty good
In that good old neighborhood
Here and now be it understood
Christmas night in Harlem
Oh, Everyone is gonna sit up
Until after three
Everyone be all lit up
Like a Christmas tree
Come on now every Jane and Joe
Greet your sweet underneath the mistletoe
With a kiss and a hi-de-ho
Christmas night in Harlem
Instrumental Break
Everyone is gonna sit up
Until after three
Everyone be all lit up
Like a Christmas tree
Come on now every Jane and Joe
Greet your sweet neath the mistletoe
With a kiss and a hi-de-ho
Christmas night in Harlem

Cool Yule

From Coney Island to The Sunset Strip
Somebody's gonna make a happy trip
Tonight, while the moon is bright
He's gonna have a bag of crazy toys
To give the groanies of the boys and girls
So dig, Santa comes on big
He'll come a callin' when the snows the most
When all you cats are sleepin' warm as toast
And you gonna flip when Old Saint Nick
Takes a lick on the peppermint stick
He'll come a flyin' from a higher place
And fill the stocking by the fire place
So you'll, have a yule that's cool
-Instrumental Jazz Break-
Yeah, from Coney Island to The Sunset Strip
Somebody's gonna make a happy trip
Tonight, while the moon is bright
He's gonna have a bag of crazy toys
To give the groanies of the boys and girls
So dig, Santa comes on big
He'll come a callin' when the snows the most
When all you cats are sleepin' warm as toast
And you gonna flip when the Old Saint Nick
Takes a lick on the peppernint stick
He'll come a flyin' from a higher place
And fill the stocking by the fire place
So you'll, have a yule that's cool
Have a yule that's cool
Yeah, cool yule

Hold The Fort

To continue with the "struggles" theme initiated with the Hofstra conference I found an old slide show I had done that highlighted some of labor's heroes. We could sure use some of them now. Many of the images come from the better world heroes site
The inspiring Hold The Fort lyrics, here sung by Joe Uehelin from Classic Labor Songs

We meet today in freedom's cause
And raise our voices high.
We'll join our hands in union strong
to battle or to die.
CHORUS:
Hold the fort for we are coming.
Union men be strong.
Side by side we battle onward.
Victory will come.
(Repeat after each verse)
See our numbers still increasing.
Hear the bugles blow.
By our union, we shall triumph
Over every foe.
Fierce and long the battle rages,
But we shall not fear.
Help will come whenever needed.
Cheer, my comrades, cheer.

The Role Of Women In WWII

Above was the PowerPoint that Charles Jordan created to accompany his history rap. I converted it to a movie and did my best to match the audio from his performance on a prior post. The lyrics:

Now here’s a little story
I got to tell
About the fight against the Axis
You know so well
It started way back
In history
Against Germany, Japan,
And don’t forget Italy
Now everyone was needed
Cause the whole world was at war.
Triumph over evil
Is what we’re fighting for.
But in nineteen hundred
And forty one
Women couldn’t fight
Couldn’t fire a gun
Still they did there part
For victory,
Working full time
In the factory.
Now we know about Rosie
And the job she did
But the role of women
History has hid
We don’t read about in textbooks
We don’t talk about in class
How the women of this country
Helped us kick some ______
But when the war was over
And victory enjoyed
The women of the factory
Were quickly unemployed.
With no more things to rivet
And no more guns to make
We told the women of the factory
Go home and learn to bake”
But the women weren’t having it
They flat out just said no
They liked it in the factory
Liked making their own dough.
The women of the factory
Together they stood tall
Equal rights and equal pay
It soon became their call.
No longer only housewives
Tending to the crib
The women of the factory
Gave rise to Women’s lib.

Hold On Union Boys

a youtube movie I found in keeping with the struggle thread of he previous two posts
info on movie:
During ww2,tha Almanac Singers and the Union Boys recorded political protest songs.Pictured are Josh White,Pete Seeger,Tom Glazer,Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Burl Ives, Alan Lomax. This from CD221 at http://mcproductions.shawbiz.ca

December 6, 2008: WWII And Women's Rights

Charles Jordan, a Hofstra student in Dr. Singer's program, did a great rap about the struggle for women's' rights in the World War II era. Here are the lyrics:

Now here’s a little story
I got to tell
About the fight against the Axis
You know so well
It started way back
In history
Against Germany, Japan,
And don’t forget Italy
Now everyone was needed
Cause the whole world was at war.
Triumph over evil
Is what we’re fighting for.
But in nineteen hundred
And forty one
Women couldn’t fight
Couldn’t fire a gun
Still they did there part
For victory,
Working full time
In the factory.
Now we know about Rosie
And the job she did
But the role of women
History has hid
We don’t read about in textbooks
We don’t talk about in class
How the women of this country
Helped us kick some ______
But when the war was over
And victory enjoyed
The women of the factory
Were quickly unemployed.
With no more things to rivet
And no more guns to make
We told the women of the factory
Go home and learn to bake”
But the women weren’t having it
They flat out just said no
They liked it in the factory
Liked making their own dough.
The women of the factory
Together they stood tall
Equal rights and equal pay
It soon became their call.
No longer only housewives
Tending to the crib
The women of the factory
Gave rise to Women’s lib.

December 6, 2008: Hofstra's NTN Social Studies And English Teacher's Conference

I took some pictures of some of the student made exhibits. The general theme was freedom struggles. Many of the classes focused on the newsboy strike featured in the excellent film "Newsies." Newsies can really be utilized as a starting off point for tech integration projects. Here are links to Newsie clips and Newsie project ideas I posted on another blog
Seize The Day
Carrying The Banner
The King Of New York
I used the song "The World Will Know" as a soundtrack for the slide show images.
The lyrics:

JACK:
Pulitzer and Hearst
They think we're nothin'
Are we nothin'?
NEWSIES:
No!
JACK:
Pulitzer and Hearst
They think they got us
Do they got us?
NEWSIES:
No!
JACK:
Even though we ain't got hats or badges
We're a union just by saying so
And the world will know!
What's it gonna take to stop the wagons?
Are we ready?
NEWSIES:
Yeah!
JACK:
What's it gonna take to stop the scabbers?
Can we do it?
NEWSIES:
Yeah!
JACK:
We'll do what we gotta do
Until we break the will of mighty Bill and Joe
NEWSIES:
And the World will know
And the Journal too
Mister Hearst and Pulitzer
Have we got news for you
Now the world will hear
What we got to say
We been hawkin' headlines
But we're makin' 'em today
And our ranks will grow
CRUTCHY:
And we'll kick their rear
NEWSIES:
And the world will know
That we been here
JACK:
When the circulation bell starts ringin'
Will we hear it?
NEWSIES:
No!
JACK:
What if the Delanceys come out swingin'
Will we hear it?
NEWSIES:
No!
When you got a hundred voices singin'
Who can hear a lousy whistle blow?
And the world will know
That this ain't no game
That we got a ton of rotten fruit and perfect aim
So they gave their word
But it ain't worth beans
Now they're gonna see
What "stop the presses" really means
And the day has come
And the time is now
And the fear is gone
BOOTS:
And our name is mud
NEWSIES:
And the strike is on
BOOTS:
And I can't stand blood
NEWSIES:
And the world will –
JACK:
Pulitzer may own the World but he don't own us!
NEWSIES:
Pulitzer may own the World but he don't own us!
JACK:
Pulitzer may crack the whip but he won't whip us!
NEWSIES:
Pulitzer may crack the whip but he won't whip us!
And the world will know
And the world will learn
And the world will wonder how we made the tables turn
And the world will see
That we had to choose
That the things we do today will be tomorrow's news
And the old will fall
And the young stand tall
And the time is now
And the winds will blow
And our ranks will grow and grow and grow and so
The world will feel the fire
And finally know!

Information on the conference from Dr. Alan Singer:

NTN Dec 6 Hofstra Social Studies and English Teachers Conference Sponsored by the New Teachers Network and the School of Education and Allied Human Services
Saturday, December 6, 2008, 8:30 AM- 2 PM Hagedorn Hall, Hofstra University School of Education, Health and Human Services Middle School Museum of American Freedom Struggles, Friday December 5, 2008 The theme for this year’s middle school student created museum is freedom struggles in United States history. What a more fitting
time than after this year’s presidential election. Student exhibits and presentations can include all aspects of United States history from the American revolution, through abolitionists, Black resistance to slavery, 19th and 20th century women’s rights advocates, the labor movement in the 19th and 20th century, different immigrant rights advocates, the 20th century African American civil rights movement, Ethnic and Religious minorities, workers and gays, and union, and anti-war movements, or other freedom struggles that have expanded democracy and liberty in the United States.
The Museum will be in Hagedorn Hall on Friday December 5, 2008 from 10 AM until 2 PM.

The Real McCoy: Michelle Obama

This is a pdf version of the previous post since the text may be hard to read in the movie format

Michelle Obama - Upload a Document to Scribd

The Real McCoy: Michelle Obama

from 10/07/08 pseudo-intellectualism
The essence of a real American woman, with a real history, is not Sarah Palin. It's Michelle Obama. From the washington post an excerpt:

A Family Tree Rooted In American Soil, By Shailagh Murray, 10/1/08, GEORGETOWN, S.C. The old plantation where Michelle Obama's great-great-grandfather lived is tucked behind the tire stores and veterinary clinics of U.S. Highway 521. But its history and grounds have been meticulously preserved, down to the dikes that once controlled the flow of water into its expansive rice fields.
Not much is known about Jim Robinson, however, including how or when he came to Friendfield, as the property is still called. But records show he was born around 1850 and lived, at least until the Civil War, as a slave. His family believes that he remained a Friendfield worker all his life and that he was buried at the place, in an unmarked grave.
Until she reconnected with relatives here in January on a campaign trip, Obama did not know much about her ancestry, or even that Friendfield existed. As she was growing up in Chicago, her parents did not talk about the family's history, and the young Michelle Robinson didn't ask many questions.
But if her husband is elected president in November, he will not be the only one in the family making history. While Barack Obama's provenance -- his black Kenyan father, white Kansas-born mother and Hawaiian childhood -- has been celebrated as a uniquely American example of multicultural identity, Michelle Obama's family history -- from slavery to Reconstruction to the Great Migration north -- connects her to the essence of the African American experience.

John McCain's Black Family

from crooksandliars and from 10/21/08 on pseudo-intellectualism

Normally, the story of John McCain's black family -- the ones who are planning to vote for Barack Obama -- might elicit some modest interest in terms of what it says about the complexity of race relations in America. But what's been even more interesting has been how John McCain has responded to the story ever since it surfaced. Initially, back when he first was doing the "Maverick" schtick in the 2000 primaries, he actually denied that the aristocratic Southerners from whom he was descended were slaveholders. But it really became impossible for McCain to deny their existence after a 2000 report in Salon in the course of which reporters showed him photographs and birth records in person and he had to concede to their existence. One account, In the South Florida Times, describes how McCain has handled the connection publicly and privately: White and black members of the McCain family have met on the plantation several times over the last 15 years, but one invited guest has been conspicuously absent: Sen. John Sidney McCain.
“Why he hasn’t come is anybody’s guess,” said Charles McCain Jr., 60, a distant cousin of John McCain who is black. “I think the best I can come up with, is that he doesn’t have time, or he has just distanced himself, or it doesn’t mean that much to him.” Other relatives are not as generous. Lillie McCain, 56, another distant cousin of John McCain who is black, said the Republican presidential nominee is trying to hide his past, and refuses to accept the family’s history. “After hearing him in 2000 claim his family never owned slaves, I sent him an email,” she recalled. “I told him no matter how much he denies it, it will not make it untrue, and he should accept this and embrace it.” She said the senator never responded to her email. In her CNN interview with Kyra Phillips, Lillie McCain discusses this further
PHILLIPS: Do you think it could make a difference with regard to diversity issues, issues of race, if John McCain did participate?
L. MCCAIN: I think it probably could. It would give him an opportunity to know us.
I e-mailed him back in 2000 to remind him of his ties to Tiak, Mississippi. I heard him say on I believe it was "Meet the Press," that his ancestors owned no slaves. Well, I certainly have carried the name McCain from the beginning of my whole life, and I've known of the ties to John McCain and tried to get him to communicate with me about that, but he has been unwilling, at least, to date.
PHILLIPS: Well he found out in 2000, to be fair to the senator there, and he did come forward and gave this quote -- "How the Tiak descendants have served their community and, by extension, to their country, is a testament to the power of family, love, compassion, and the human spirit." And then he added in the statement, "an example for all citizens."
That sure is a warm, fuzzy little sentimental quote from the senator, and the fact that it really says nothing in reality says everything we need to know about John McCain. Since the advent of the Southern Strategy under Nixon, the Republican Party has embraced its role as the Party of White Privilege. John McCain has made a modest career out of making rumbling noises toward some of the uglier aspects of this legacy within the GOP, and he's hoping that those rumbles will be enough to persuade moderate voters to back him. However, the cold realities of the history of race relations in America -- dating back to those dark eons when black women held in slavery were routinely raped and impregnated by their white owners -- still hover like a dark cloud over whites' vision of Golden Age America, the very vision that John McCain and Sarah Palin like to sell to their flocks like so much Coca-Cola. So it's perhaps not a surprise that, given the chance to banish that cloud by doing the human thing, the right thing, and embracing the black side of the McCain family, the Straight Talking Senator From Arizona chose essentially to run from them and hide. Because acknowledging them not only was too painful, but might prove too harmful to his chances of success in a political party predicated on white privilege. Moreover, this also fits what we know about his reflexive predisposition on civil-rights matters. This is, after all, the guy who voted against a Martin Luther King holiday back in 1984. Yes, as the wingnuts already note, Obama's maternal ancestors likely owned slaves, too. But then, it seems doubtful that Obama would hesitate to embrace the ancestors of those slaveowners, either. Running away from black family ties is not exactly a problem for Barack Obama. But it is for John McCain.

Beware Brother Beware

At the time of the primaries and the lead up to the elections a similar warning could have been made to Barack about the intentions of the Clintons
The original from Louis Jordan

Hey, fellas, yes you fellas, listen to me
I got somethin' to tell you
And I want you to listen to every word
And govern yourselves accordingly
Now, you see these girls with these fine diamonds
Fine furs and fine clothes
Well, they're lookin' for a husband
And you're listening to a man who knows
They ain't foolin', and if you fool around with them
You're gonna get yourself a schoolin'
Now listen, if she saves you dough
And won't go to the show, beware
If she's easy to kiss and won't resist
Beware, I said beware
If you go for a walk
And she listens while you talk
She's tryin' to hook you
Ain't nobody lookin' she asks you to taste her cookin'
Don't do it, don't do it
And if you go for a show
And she wants to sit back in the back row
Bring her down front, bring her home down front
If you wanna go for a snack
And she wanna sit in a booth in the back
Beware, brother
And listen, if she's used to caviar and fine silk
And when you go out with her
She want a hot dog and a malted milk
She's trying to get you brother
If you're used to goin' to Carnegie hall
But when you take her out night clubbing
All she wants one meatball
You better take it easy, [Incomprehensible] take it easy
If she grabs your hand and says
"Darling, you’re such a nice man"
Beware, I’m telling you
Should I tell 'em a little more?
Tell 'em a little more? Alright
You better listen to me ’cause
I’m telling you what’s being put down
And you better be [pickin'] up on it
If her sister calls your brother
You better get further
I’m telling you, you gotta watch it
You better get on [down]
And if she’s acting kind of wild, and says
"Darling, give me a trial"
Don’t you do it, don’t be weak, don’t give it to her
And if she smiles in your face
And just melts into place
Let her melt, forget it, let her melt
Should I tell 'em a little more?
Tell 'em everything? Alright
Now listen, if she calls you on the phone, and says
"Darling, are you all alone? "
Tell her, "No, I've got two or three women with me"
Don’t pay no attention to women
Stand up for your right, be a man, be a man
Are you listening? Are you listening?
Put on that [lotto] step and listen to me
If you turn out the lights and she don’t fight
That’s the end, it’s too late now
She’s got you hooked, you might as well stick with her
Should I tell 'em a little more?
Give 'em a little more? Alright
If you get home about two
And don’t know what to do
You pull back the curtains
And the whole family’s looking at you
Get your business straight
Set the date, don’t be late, yeah
Brother, beware, beware, beware
Brother, you better beware

Chris Rock's Impressions Of Bill Clinton And Sarah Palin

from his appearance on David Letterman back in September 08....And Michael Vick is wondering, "Why am I in jail?"

My Name Is Barack Obama

from pseudo-intellectualism on 10/8/08 after McCain referred to Barack as "That One"
I adapted the classic Joe Louis knockout of Max Schmeling photo

Obama In Paris

my original adaptation of the yip harburg lyrics, with the singers' unlimited providing the audio. This was before the prank Sarkozy call to Sarah Palin
oiginally from pseudo-intellectualism on 7/27/08

Obama in Paris, groupies in blossom
All of France buckle their knees
Obama in Paris, this is a feeling
No one can ever reprise
They never knew the charm of Barack

They never met him face to face

So easily were their hearts hijacked

John should just concede the race
Till Obama in Paris,
Sarkozy be careful too
What has he done to.. Carla's heart ?

from the nytimes, Maureen Dowd

It could have been a French movie.
Passing acquaintances collide in a moment of transcendent passion. They look at each other shyly and touch tenderly during their Paris cinq à sept, exchange some existential thoughts under exquisite chandeliers, and — tant pis — go their separate ways.
Sarko, back to Carla Bruni. Obama, forward to Gordon Brown. A Man and a Man. All it needed was a lush score and Claude Lelouch.
Even for Sarkozy the American, who loves everything in our culture from Sylvester Stallone to Gloria Gaynor, it was a wild gush over a new Washington crush.
Sarko is right and Barack is left. One had a Jewish grandfather, the other a Muslim one. The French president is a frenetic bumper car; the Illinois senator is, as he said of the king of Jordan’s Mercedes 600, “a smooth ride.”
But the son of a Hungarian, who picked a lock to break into the French ruling class, embraced a fellow outsider and child of an immigrant who had also busted into the political aristocracy with a foreign-sounding name.
After 200,000 people thronged to see Obama at the Victory Column in Berlin, christening him “Redeemer” and “Savior,” it turned out Sarko was also Obamarized, as the Germans were calling the mesmerizing effect.
“You must want a cigarette after that,” I teased the candidate after the amorous joint press conference, as he flew from Paris to London for the finale of his grand tour.
“I think we could work well together,” he said of Sarko, smiling broadly.
He did not get to meet his fan, Carla Bruni. “She wasn’t there,” he said. “Which I think disappointed all my staff. That was the only thing they were really interested in.”
He admitted showing “extraordinarily poor judgment” in leaving Paris after only a few hours. Watching Paris recede from behind the frosted glass of his limo was “a pretty good metaphor” for how constricted his life has become, he said, compared with his student days tramping around Europe with “a feeling of complete freedom.”
“But the flip side is that I deeply enjoy the work,” he said, “so it’s a trade-off.”
How do you go back to the Iowa farm after you’ve seen Paree?
“One of the values of this trip for me was to remind me of what this campaign should be about,” he said. “It’s so easy to get sucked into day-to-day, tit-for-tat thinking, finding some clever retort for whatever comment your opponent made. And then I think I’m not doing my job, which should be to raise up some big important issues.”
I asked how his “Citizen of the World” tour will go down in Steubenville, Ohio.
“There will probably be some backlash,” he said. “I’m a big believer that if something’s good then there’s a bad to it, and vice versa. We had a good week. That always inspires the press to knock me down a peg.”
He thinks most people recognize that “there is a concrete advantage to not only foreign leaders, but foreign populations liking the American president, because it makes it easier for Sarkozy to send troops into Afghanistan if his voting base likes the United States.”
How does he like the McCain camp mocking him as “The One”?
“Even if you start believing your own hype, which I rarely do, things’ll turn on you pretty quick anyway,” he said. “I have a fairly steady temperament that has at times been interpreted as, ‘Oh, he’s sort of too cool.’ But it’s not real.”
Obama kept his cool through a week where he was treated as a cross between the Dalai Lama and Johnny Depp.
A private prayer he left in the holy Western Wall in Jerusalem was snatched out by a student at a Jewish seminary and published in a local newspaper. In Berlin, the tabloid Bild sent an attractive blonde reporter to stalk Obama at the Ritz-Carlton gym as he exercised with his body man, Reggie Love. She then wrote a tell-all, enthusing, “I’m getting hot, and not from the workout,” and concluding, “What a man.”
Obama marveled: “I’m just realizing what I’ve got to become accustomed to. The fact that I was played like that at the gym. Do you remember ‘The Color of Money’ with Paul Newman? And Forest Whitaker is sort of sitting there, acting like he doesn’t know how to play pool. And then he hustles the hustler. She hustled us. We walk into the gym. She’s already on the treadmill. She looks like just an ordinary German girl. She smiles and sort of waves, shyly, but doesn’t go out of her way to say anything. As I’m walking out, she says: ‘Oh, can I have a picture? I’m a big fan.’ Reggie takes the picture.”
I ask him if he found it a bit creepy that she described his T-shirt as smelling like “fabric softener with spring scent.”
He looked nonplused: “Did she describe what my T-shirt smelled like?”
Being a Citizen of the World has its downsides.

American Prayer

from dave stewart
originally from pseudo-intellectualism back on 8/8/08 after the Democratic Convention

This is my American Prayer
This is the time to finish what you started
And this is no time to dream
This is the room
We can turn off the dark tonight
Maybe then we might see
American Prayer
American Prayer
And this is the ground
That keeps our feet from getting wet
And this is the sky over our head
And what you see depends on where you stand
And how you jump will tell you where you're gonna land
American Prayer
American Prayer
My oh my
Couldn't get much higher
Lets not kick out the darkness
Make the lights brighter
And these are the hands
What are we gonna build with them?
This is the church you can't see
Give me your tired, your poor and huddled masses
You know they're yearning to breathe free
This is my American Prayer
American Prayer
American Prayer
When you get to the top of the mountain
Will you tell me what you see
If you get to the top of the mountain
Remember me

celebrities, in order of appearance:

Dave Stewart
Forest Whitaker
Amy Keys
Macy Gray
Jason Alexander
Colbie Caillat
Whoopi Goldberg
Joss Stone
Buju Banton
Ann Marie Calhoun
Barry Manilow
Linda Perry
Cyndi Lauper
Sergio Mendes
Herbie Hancock
Mike Bradford
Margaret Cho
Speech
Joan Baez
Daedelus
Pamela Anderson
Peter & Gordon
Sierra Swan
Nadirah X
Perez Hilton
Barack Obama

Negro Americans In The American Revolution

Negro Americans Revolution

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Crispus Attucks: Classics Illustrated

Crispus Attucks

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

Signed Sealed Delivered, I'm Yours

The original inspiration for Obama's theme song. Stevie Wonder on THE DICK CAVETT SHOW. August 11, 1970.

Like a fool I went and stayed too long
Now I'm wondering if your loves still strong
Oo baby, here I am, signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours
Then that time I went and said goodbye
Now I'm back and not ashamed to cry
Oo baby, here I am, signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours
Here I am baby
Oh, you've got the future in your hand
(signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)
Here I am baby,
Oh, you've got the future in your hand
(signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours)
Ive done a lot of foolish things
That I really didn't mean
Hey, hey, yea, yea, didn't I, oh baby
Seen a lot of things in this old world
When I touched them they did nothing, girl
Oo baby, here I am, signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours, oh I'm yours
Oo-wee babe you set my soul on fire
That's why I know you are my only desire
Oo baby, here I am, signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours
Here I am baby
Oh, you've got the future in your hand
(signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)
Here I am baby,
Oh, you've got the future in your hand
(signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours)
Ive done a lot of foolish things
That I really didn't mean
I could be a broken man but here I am
With your future, got your future babe (here I am baby)
Here I am baby (signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)
Here I am baby, (here I am baby)
Here I am baby (signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)
Here I am baby, (here I am baby)
Here I am baby (signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)

A 1953 Video Featuring Jackie Ormes

from the jackie ormes book site

Jackie Ormes

Voted one of the top ten books of 2008 in the Village Voice The audio comes from an npr broadcast of 7/31/08

It's 1937, and young Torchy Brown is about to board a train that will whisk her away from her small, Southern town to the Big Apple. Suddenly, a sign with two arrows catches her eye. One arrow points to the colored section of the train. The other arrow points to the white section. She jumps back, contemplating what she should do. Torchy, who's black, clever and mischievous, decides to pretend she can't read — and boards the whites-only car.
Scenes like that were splashed regularly across the comics pages of the Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper read from coast to coast. The cartoonist behind the playful, often politically charged comics: Jackie Ormes.
Ormes, who died in 1985, was the first black woman to have a career as a cartoonist. She produced comic strips for the Courier from the 1930s to the 1950s, tackling subjects such as politics, foreign policy, racism and even environmental justice. Torchy Brown was one of Ormes' most beloved characters. She was smart. She was classy. And she frequently rebelled against the prescribed social order.
Torchy also differed greatly from the usual depictions of blacks prior to the civil rights movement.
Nationally syndicated black cartoonist Barbara Brandon-Croft says that Ormes' characters and stories were real — at a time when blacks were typically portrayed in a derogatory fashion.
"Black women were always fat," she says. "Had bandannas on their heads, you know. Had large lips. Were always porters. We were servants. Think of Gone With The Wind, you know. We didn't speak clear English."
The characters of Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger — another Ormes comic — ran counter to that stereotype. Ginger was an attractive, college-educated woman, drawn in a pinup-girl style. Her younger sister, Patty-Jo, was sharp and opinionated.
Nancy Goldstein, author of the new book,Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist, emphasizes that Ormes did a service to the black community by creating role models with her characters.
Readers saw that if Ginger could graduate from college and if Torchy could challenge the era's racist status quo, they were capable of doing the same.
Ormes "was giving voice to what was in the hearts and minds of so many people: [the desire] to move forward and make progress," says Goldstein.
While Ormes was an inspiration for people in her time, today she is largely forgotten, save by older readers and black cartoonists.
But people like Goldstein and Brandon-Croft are trying to preserve her memory. They see that Ormes' cartoons present a realistic slice of history from a rarely heard perspective, one that should not be lost.

Tusgekee Airmen Inaugural Invitation

from the nytimes 12/9/08

When the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black force of elite pilots, emerged from combat in World War II, they faced as much discrimination as they had before the war. It was not until six decades later that their valor was recognized and they received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can give.
Now, the roughly 330 pilots and members of the ground crew who are left from about 16,000 who served are receiving another honor that has surpassed their dreams: They are being invited to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama as the country’s first black president.
“I didn’t believe I’d live long enough to see something like this,” said Lt. Col. Charles A. Lane Jr., 83, of Omaha, a retired Tuskegee fighter pilot who flew missions over Italy.
“I would love to be there, I would love to be able to see it with my own eyes,” he said, chuckling on the phone as he heard about the invitation. But, he said, he had a “physical limitation” and was not sure he would be able to attend.
Thousands of people who participated in the fight for civil rights over several decades helped pave the way for Mr. Obama’s triumph. But the Tuskegee Airmen have a special place in history. Their bravery during the war — on behalf of a country that actively discriminated against them — helped persuade President Harry S. Truman to desegregate the military in 1948.
“The election of Barack Obama was like a culmination of a struggle that we were going through, wanting to be pilots,” said William M. Wheeler, 85, a retired Tuskegee combat fighter pilot who lives in Hempstead, N.Y. He tried to become a commercial pilot after the war but was offered a job cleaning planes instead.
Mr. Obama has acknowledged his debt to the airmen, issuing a statement in 2007, when they received the Congressional Gold Medal. It said in part: “My career in public service was made possible by the path heroes like the Tuskegee Airmen trail-blazed.”
The invitation to his swearing-in was extended Tuesday by Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
Howard Gantman, staff director for the committee, said of the decision to invite them: “They served honorably on behalf of our country, helped fight the battle to overcome racial barriers and because of the historic nature of this election, we thought they deserved to be there.”
Tickets to the Jan. 20 inauguration are the most sought-after commodity, with more than 1.5 million people expected in Washington. Of the 240,000 tickets, the airmen would have seats among the 30,000 on the terrace below the podium, along with former members of Congress and others.
For logistical reasons, the actual invitation ended up with Robert D. Rose, a retired Air Force captain in Bellevue, Neb., who was not a Tuskegee airman but is the first vice president of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., an association of the original airmen and their supporters.
The onus is on the association to extend the invitation to the airmen, who must respond by Dec. 19. Each can bring one guest. The tickets are not transferable, so if an airman cannot make it, he cannot give his ticket away.
“We’ll have a lot of happy fellows and ladies,” said Mr. Rose, who predicted that many would try to attend.
He said that before the invitation was made Tuesday, he had already been trying to get word to higher ups that the airmen would like to be invited. “I thought if the name ‘Tuskegee’ surfaced at a high enough level, someone would recognize it and it would make sense to invite them,” he said.
There is no firm handle on how many are still alive. More than 300 came forward in March 2007 to collect their bronze replicas of the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony at the Capitol. The actual Gold Medal itself was given to the Smithsonian Institution.
In all, 994 pilots and about 15,000 ground personnel collectively known as the Tuskegee Airmen were trained at the segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama from 1942 to 1946.
About 119 pilots and 211 ground personnel are still alive, according to Tuskegee Airmen Inc. They are in their 80s and 90s, many are frail, and it is unclear how many will be able to make the trip to Washington. And those who make it will face various challenges: they will most likely have to walk some distance, the weather could be harsh, the crowds will be huge and accommodations are scarce.
Still, these are some of the airmen who flew more than 150,000 sorties over Europe and North Africa during World War II, escorting Allied bombers and destroying hundreds of enemy aircraft. Some were taken prisoner. And most faced fierce discrimination during and after the war.
“Even the Nazis asked why they would fight for a country that treated them unfairly,” President Bush said in awarding the medals.
Mr. Rose, of the airmen’s association, said he saw a direct connection between the Tuskegee experience and Mr. Obama’s election.
“The Tuskegee Airmen preceded Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, and if they hadn’t helped generate a climate of tolerance by integration of the military, we might not have progressed through the civil rights era,” he said. ”We would have seen a different civil rights movement, if we would have seen one at all.

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