Given the brilliance and dedication of our public servants, the failure of significant academic gains to materialize, in spite of billions spent on education, can only be the devil’s work. And if you are a black man, the devil must, indeed, be working overtime.

You’re too good to go to jail! ” is my latest message to the Hood. It accompanies the community conclusion that the correctional system is ” the White man’s jail. ”

Community policing done my way focuses on culture change within individuals and sub-groups ( families; friendships; neighborhoods, etc. ). A thousand police officers in the Hood means nothing compared to the presence of more self-love in the Hood. Self-love is community policing in its highest form. Self-loving communities don’t need the National Guard marching in. But until Black men become more self-loving, government will increasely send heavily armed officers and even troops to stop this destructive behavior from spreading.

When talking to brothers enslaved by convict consciousness I remind them their actions often deliver them to the same ” White man’s jail ” they dislike so much. I take liberty very seriously. Consequently, doing things which deprive me of liberty aren’t high on my To-Do list. The ” crime ” often examined in my Crime Isn’t a Civil Right presentation is lack of self-love in all its forms.

Author Ralph Ellison once wrote a racial revelation called, ” Invisible Man. ” As one of millions who’ve lived that title I can say being one is an ungodly waste of talent.Our invisibility is a function of choice, in this instance the choices of other people and their low opinions. This imposed invisibility is also very selective.

Less than two weeks ago, while speaking on a panel for Fox News Strategy Room, actress Shery Lee Ralph and I spoke on the incredible silence draped over the issue of HIV and AIDS in America. The reality of AIDS, especially in the black community, is clear but not heard.

The question of which political party will address this issue becomes irrelevant, because of the virulent nature of this deadly virus. Despite President Bush’s unpopular presidency for eight years, the President directed $500 million dollars in federal spending towards HIV-AIDS relief and research, more than any U.S. President in history. Previously during the President Reagan years, the level of knowledge on HIV was minimal in comparison with the medical knowledge of today.