What's in the ground on race, ethnicity?

Some say Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s speech a few weeks ago might – or should – jumpstart a national conversation on race. In Charlotte, a conversation was already in the works.

Mecklenburg Ministries, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee and Community Building Initiative have been organizing to help the public examine issues that may be divisive in our community and discuss how to strengthen relationships. The dialogues were prompted by the rancor that occurred when a new Mecklenburg County sheriff was being selected.

“What’s in the Ground”, the first in a series of community dialogues on race and ethnicity and how to respond to each other, will be held Tuesday from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of First Presbyterian Church, 2000 West Trade St.

Confirmed panelists include Dr. Claude Alexander of The Park Ministries, Dr. Mary John Dye of Hawthorne Lane United Methodist; Rabbi Murray Ezring of Temple Israel; Reverend Jay Leach of Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte; Reverend Frank Ramos of Forest Hills United Methodist Church) and Dr. Dwayne Walker of Little Rock AME Zion. The moderator is Katie Crowe of First Presbyterian.

The sponsors want to hear from the faith community, government officials, business and nonprofit leaders, educators, the media and individual residents. What's your take on the issue?

4,000 dead: A view from Iraq

Pundits can wax eloquent about the horror of war and those who fight and die honorably in battle. But its the military men and women who do the fighting who tell the story best.
Lt. Sean Walsh who is in Iraq wrote a compelling piece for Time magazine last week.

It began: “The passing of the 4,000th service member in Iraq is a tragic milestone and a testament to the cost of this war, but for those of us who live and fight in Iraq, we measure that cost in smaller, but much more personal numbers. For me those numbers are 8, the number of friends and classmates killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 3, the number of soldiers from my unit killed in this deployment. I'm 25, yet I've received more notifications for funerals than invitations to weddings.”

It ended: “For the vast majority of Americans who don't have a loved one overseas, the only number they have to attempt to grasp the Iraq War is 4,000. I would ask that when you see that number, try to remember that it is made up of over 1 million smaller numbers; that every one of the 1 million service members who have fought in Iraq has his or her own personal numbers. Over 1 million 8's and 3's. When you are evaluating the price of the war, weighing potential rewards versus cost in blood and treasure, I would ask you to consider what is worth the lives of three of your loved ones? Or eight? Or more? It would be a tragedy for my 8 and 3 to have died without us being able to complete our mission, but it maybe even more tragic for 8 and 3 to become anything higher.”

Thoughtful and thought-provoking. To read the entire article, go to: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1725642,00.html

Hillary in Bosnia, differently remembered

The folks at Barelypolitical.com now bring us the actual alternate-universe true film version of Hillary's visit to Tuzla:

McCrory takes the lead

Today's update of Public Policy Polling's weekly Republican tracking poll:

"After falling into a tie last week with Fred Smith in the Republican race for Governor, Pat McCrory is back on top, according to the newest survey from Public Policy Polling. McCrory is at 27% in the poll, followed by Smith at 24%. Bill Graham (8%), Bob Orr (7%), and Elbie Powers (1%) are further back.

A key difference for McCrory between this week and last is that he has taken the lead over Smith in the Triangle, 29-26. Besides Charlotte, that is the only area of the state where McCrory leads, and it comes on the heels of pretty intensive TV advertising in the market over the last few weeks."

The full poll results and PPP's analysis can be found here.

Have you seen McCrory's ads? What do you think of them?

The latest poll in North Carolina . . .

. . . shows Barack Obama expanding his lead here over Sen. Hillary Clinton. The poll, released today by a Raleigh group called Public Policy Polling, says Obama leads Clinton now 55 - 34. This is apparently a rebound from his numbers on March 17, a low point for the campaign, just prior to his speech on race and his pastor in Philadelphia. PPP attributes the stronger showing to both his Philadelphia speech and his one on the war delivered in Fayetteville.

In other races, the poll has Richard Moore closing the gap with Beverly Perdue in the governor's race, and in the U.S. Senate primary race Kay Hagen leads Jim Neal 19 - 9, with 61 percent of the voters still undecided.

The complete poll can be downloaded in a pdf format here.

Did Obama's Philadelphia and Fayetteville speeches change your mind about his candidacy? Just click the 'comments' link below to continue the conversation.

Yes, reporters make mistakes....

Former Observer sports writer Joe Posnanski, now writing for the Kansas City Star, wanted to make his readers feel just a little bit better about their screw-ups so he wrote about three of his in a blog. Here’s one about his work at the Observer.

It’s lengthy, but worth the journey to the end:

Screw-up 1: Magic Johnson.

I was 20 years old and had just started at The Charlotte Observer - it might have been my first day as an intern, in fact - when an assistant sports editor named David Scott said to me: “Magic Johnson is supposed to be coming to Belk to sign autographs; find out what time he’s coming.”
Belk is a department store in Charlotte and throughout the South - sort of a Sunbelt Macy’s or Dillard’s or whatever - and a huge, huge advertiser in the Observer. This will become important later.

Anyway, I had absolutely no idea how to find out what time Magic Johnson was coming. I believe it took David about two hours to explain the basic concept to me (“This is a phone … these buttons here can be pressed in a certain order that will cause a phone at Belk to ring …”). I nervously called Belk, talked to some woman who had absolutely no idea who Magic Johnson was or why I would be calling to bother her. After numerous, “Let me put you on hold” exchanges, I somehow extracted the nugget of information that Magic Johnson would be at Belk at 3 p.m.

“Magic Johnson will be at Belk at 3 p.m.,” I called across the room. I was quite proud of myself.

“Write me a note about it,” David said.

So, I took out a piece of paper - this is absolutely true - and wrote, “Magic Johnson will be at Belk at 3 p.m.” and handed it to him. David said, “What is this?” I said, “You said write you a note.” I’m pretty sure David thought I was being a smart ass. He did not know at that moment - could not know - the depths of my incompetence. This will become important later too.

“What am I going to do with this? No, you need to write me a NOTE, you know, the kind I can put in the paper.”

Oh. OK. A note. Sure. Yeah, I knew that. Well, hell, I’d read newspapers before. I knew how to write a note. Sort of. I mean, how hard could it be? I sat down at the computer and wrote something like this:

“Magic Johnson, last year’s NBA most valuable player, will appear at Belk today at 3 p.m. to sign autographs. Johnson, who is known for his fancy passing and winning personality, will sign autographs on a first-come, first-serve basis. Johnson, who led Michigan State to the NCAA Championship in 1979 and has since led the Lakers to three NBA championships, is known for his fancy passing and winning personalities. He will sign autographs," as long as he can," according to a spokesperson for Belk. The autographs will be signed on a first-come, first serve basis.”

When I sent this to David, I thought I saw his head shake slightly, but I didn’t think anything of it. He was no doubt at this point trying to figure out how to have that, “Maybe you should try another business, like something in the lawn-mowing field,” speech. In any case, he accepted the note, let me go home, it was a Friday night, and I think I had plans.

Saturday morning, 6 a.m., the phone rings. I was still living at home at the time, so my mother - not especially happy about the 6 a.m. call - handed me the phone. She said something like, “It’s your boss.” I did not even know I had a boss. I answered, and this was Gary Schwab, the sports editor of the Observer. I had not, as far as I can remember, ever spoken to Gary before. To me, now, this would be like, oh, I don’t know, working as an iPod salesman in an Apple Store in Des Moines and getting a 6 a.m. call from Steve Jobs.

“Where did you get that information about Magic Johnson?” was the first thing I remember hearing. Funny thing is, I didn’t think Gary sounded angry. Not at first. Just curious. I was so young and naive then, my first reaction was that this was just a normal call - maybe the sports editor always called young reporters at 6 a.m. to follow up on notes.

Me: Um, well, I called Belk.
Gary: You called Belk? You sure.
Me: Well, yeah.
Gary: And you talked to someone there.
Me: Um, yeah, a few people actually. I had to keep getting transferred and …
Gary: OK, I’m going to ask you an important question now. OK? What exactly did they say? I mean exactly.
Me: Well, they said that Magic Johnson …
Gary: OK …Me: That he would be there signing autographs …
Gary: Right, fine.
Me: at 3 o’clock.

And then there was a long pause on the other side. Or maybe I’m just remembering the long pause for dramatic effect. Then Gary asked me the most sickening question I’ve ever been asked, a two-word question that even now makes me shake. He asked me: “What day?”
What day? … What day? … That was a pretty good question. In retrospect - I thought as I sat on my bed and watched my entire journalism career flush down the toilet before it had even begun - this would have been a worthwhile question to ask of the anonymous Belk person.

The conversation was a touch one-sided after this:
Me: Um, I guess I didn’t ask that.
Gary: So why did you write that he was going to be there today?
Me: Well, I kind of assumed …
Gary: Because he’s not going to be there today. He’s going to be there Wednesday.
Me: Oh, um, Wednesday ….
Gary: And this is very bad because Belk is our biggest advertiser, and we need to know how to handle this.
Me: OK, well, uh
Gary: And we really cannot afford to make mistakes like these. Mistakes like these destroy newspapers.
Me: Um …Gary: Especially when dealing with the newspaper’s largest advertiser.
Me: Um, right and…
Gary: Meet me at Belk.
He hung up then. At least I think he did. I know at some point, I was listening to a dial tone for a while.

So … I threw on a T-shirt, jeans, and rushed to Belk as quickly as my Pontiac T-1000 would go, which was not especially fast. When I got there, I saw David, I saw Gary, I saw someone else (this would be the managing editor) and all of them wearing suits. I suddenly sensed that I might have been a tad underdressed for this screw-up. Well, that’s the problem with screw-ups … you never know what to wear.

Gary sent me off into the men’s department to wait while the Observer people met with Belk officials to figure out exactly how to deal with the Magic Johnson crisis. I may have gotten a few of the smaller details of this event wrong, but I remember one thing very, very clearly. I was standing there, leaning against a table with khaki pants piled on it (the sign said $19.99, which I thought was pricy) and I had this powerful thought, a thought that at that moment seemed profound to me, a motto for growing up. I wrote it down on the back of a business card that I still have somewhere. It went like this:“When I used to screw up, it mean that I put milk on top of the eggs when bagging groceries. Now when I screw up, people from all over Charlotte mindlessly come to Belk looking for Magic Johnson.”

After what seemed like roughly 30 days in solitary confinement, Gary came over, put his hand on my shoulder and said: “OK, well, here’s the deal. You obviously messed up here. I can’t make you do this. But here’s what I want you to do: I want you to stand in front of Belk this afternoon, and when you see someone who is coming to see Magic Johnson explain to them that there was a mistake in the paper and that you apologize and that Magic will be here on Wednesday.”

Maybe it was a test. Maybe it was a concession they had made to the Belk people. Maybe Gary saw it as an opportunity to teach a young kid a lesson. I don’t know. All I do know is that afternoon, I stood in front of Belk and stopped people, told them that I had screwed up, that Magic wasn’t coming, that I obviously wasn’t cut out for this newspaper business, that I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life now, that I was thinking about radio but I didn’t think I had a good radio voice … and so on. Some were very angry. Some were understanding. Some ended up trying to make ME feel better. It was humiliating, of course. And cathartic. I never made that mistake again. I learned that with reporting comes responsibility. And I found a nice polo shirt on sale.”

Interested in the rest of Posnanski's screw-ups? Go to http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/03/20/from-the-notebook-three-screw-ups/

Advice from Mike: Don't imitate

Speaking of hoops, the “king” had something to say on the subject to ESPN.The Magazine recently.

Not college hoops. Michael Jordan waxed wise to the NBA and its players about trying to invent the next MJ or Magic or Bird.

“One thing to learn from me is everything I’ve ever done has been me, not something that someone calculated me to be. It goes to my upbringing, my parents...

“Too many of the league’s decisions are based on the bottom line. People pick up on that. You can’t be afraid to fail. The stars you have now might not live up to the icon of a Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, but maybe they will create an image that delivers an impact for you 10, 15 years from now.

“All I know is – for the league and its players – don’t try to duplicate something that has been done before. Do it your own way, and see where it goes. It might not hit the way you want it to. You may not make as much money as you want to. But there’s value in remaining true to yourself.”

Mike, the businessman, could be talking about more than basketball.

Teachers to talk back about jobs

Gov. Mike Easley’s launch Monday of the 2008 Teacher Working Conditions Survey gives educators an opportunity to once again tell state leaders what’s hampering them in the classroom and what can help them help students succeed academically.

In announcing the survey, the governor said: “When teachers in North Carolina speak, we listen. Since 2002 when the first survey was administered, we have used their feedback to shape statewide education policies and improve schools across the state. With more than 20 other states now adopting this initiative, North Carolina is leading the nation in education innovation.”

True. But teacher working conditions remain a big problem in North Carolina. In survey results released last year, 40 percent or more said class size and school leadership were issues. In high-poverty, academically struggling schools even more teachers point to those and other concerns.

Educators can complete the survey at http://www.ncteachingconditions.org/ through April 21. Parents, teachers and community members can log on too, and track the response rates of schools across the state. Final survey results will be posted on the Web site after May 15.

So what do you think about teacher work conditions in North Carolina? How about in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools? Teachers, parents and others, tell us what you think.

Heels lose to Western Kentucky! Academically ...

Way to go, Hilltoppers! Let’s hear it for Western Kentucky! Its men’s basketball team has won the NCAA tournament ... academically, speaking, that is.

A study released Monday has put the gleaming college sports machines that power March Madness in an alternate spotlight. It focuses on the 64 schools’ graduation rates, which prove that having a big name in hoops doesn’t mean you have a great follow-through. There are troubling gaps between black and white players, and the biggest winners on the court don’t always come out on top in the classroom.

Here’s what the Associated Press reported:

“If the Final Four were determined academically, it would be Western Kentucky (100 percent graduation success), Butler (92 percent), Notre Dame (91 percent) and Purdue (91 percent). Xavier, a No. 3 seed, was close behind with a 90 percent success rate.North Carolina was the only school among the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA men’s tournament to graduate at least 50 percent of its players. Eighty-six percent of UNC Tar Heels’ players earned diplomas during a six-year period. The other top seeds were far worse: 45 percent at Kansas and 40 percent at UCLA and Memphis. The study was conducted by Richard Lapchick, head of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

Lapchick’s primary concern was the disparity between black and white players. Thirty-three schools graduated at least 70 percent of their white men’s basketball players; only 19 graduated that many black players. At least 50 percent of white players earned degrees at 45 schools, but black athletes had that much success at only 36 schools.”

What about it? Are priorities out of whack? What’s an acceptable six-year graduation rate for a college athletic team? Should a school with a poor academic success record get a bid to the prestigious NCAA tourney?