A birthday is suppose to be a celebration of your forward progression, one chapter of life ending so that another can begin. I guess that's not the case if you live in the city of Oakland. Eric Toscano turned 18 on March 13, and didn't even make it two weeks before having his young and promising life ended. Saturday night during his belated birthday party he and three other teens were the victims of a drive by shooting. The teens ages 17, 18 and 19 were all wounded by the gunfire. Toscano was a senior at Skyline High School and was member of the football team as well. He played defensive end and had been accepted to college, now all this has been taken away from not only him but his family. Some would call this a "dream deferred", I rather would call it unecessary and unacceptable.
I didn't know Eric Toscano personally, but I did attend high school with his cousin Lizet. That is why I decided to write this blog, to send my condolences out to her family in a time of mourning. Secondly I wrote this blog to as a form of activism, to address a topic that I'm honestly tired of writing about. Is anybody else fed-up with these senseless murders? Which go unsolved while the people responsible sit back and get away with stealing. Not only have they stole a young man from his family, friends and teammates, but from the city and world also.
In one of my first OaklandLocal blogs I asked the question, When will all of this stop?. I'm still waiting on this answer, just as every other citizen of this city waits as well. It was reported that crime decreased 34% last year, definately positive news in a city that dearly needs it. We still have long way to go before Oakland can be a completely positive place. This weekend's Oakland Marathon was a bright spots, and with more events like it the city could be made over. But it gonna take a lot more to help the process, more than just Mayor Dellums or Police Chief Batts talking about fighting crime on the streets. It's going to take a real effort in the hearts and minds of the citizens to fix what could be a problem for future generation of Oaklanders.
It seems to be status quo in this city, that when something like this happens nothing comes from it. Police report no leads, and don't usually make any arrests. While the community pauses for a moment of slience and then continues on with whatever else is going on. All of this needs to change as well, there needs to be more an uproar. We need to hold city officials accountable for our streets not being safe for today's youth. We always hear the same tired solutions and excuses from Mayor Dellums, more police on the streets is clearly not the answer. Especially when it crystal clear that this senseless killers have no respect or value for human life. But if someone took a person in their family away then that would look for sympathy. They would want justice, they would want something to be done. Instead they sit back and watch the news reports and listen to crying family members as they to come to grips with the reality that they'll never see their loved one again.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Everything Must Go! Golden State Warriors For Sale
In 2007 The Golden State Warriors had ever fan "Believing" as they made the NBA playoffs after an 12 year absent. There were yellow shirts and signs everywhere you looked in the Bay Area, that read " We Believe". Three years later the team is 19-51 and up for sell. Current owner Chris Cohan owed the IRS more than $160 million in back income taxes in 2007 and finally decided that its enough is enough. The team could have a new owner sooner than expected. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who owns the naming the right to Oracle Arena where the team currently plays, could step in and purchase the team. Ellison has been in a bitter battle with Cohan for the past few years, as he has tried to buy the team. Well he could finally get his wish, but what does this mean for the future of the bay area franchise?
The Warriors like the Oakland A's are originally from Philadelphia, could the both teams be on the move again in the near future? Everyone alreadys know the situation involving the A's and their potential exodus to Fremont, San Jose or wherever. I wrote a blog about a month entitled " The Future of Sports In The Bay Area", and looks like the future will be a very interesting one.
Let's hope that if Mr. Ellison does become owner of the team, he doesn't move the team out of the bay area. Last month he mention that if no deal with the Warriors even happened, he would look for another NBA team to purchase and move that team to San Jose. Oracle is a computer company and we all know that Silicon Valley is the technology captial of the California. But now seems like they wanna become the sports captial as well, San Jose is already home to the NHL's (National Hockey League) Sharks, and the minor-league baseball-affiliated of San Francisco's Giants. If they added the A's or Warriors it would definately effect the bay area economically and finanically. A lot of jobs could either be moved or lost with these teams.
The Warriors like the Oakland A's are originally from Philadelphia, could the both teams be on the move again in the near future? Everyone alreadys know the situation involving the A's and their potential exodus to Fremont, San Jose or wherever. I wrote a blog about a month entitled " The Future of Sports In The Bay Area", and looks like the future will be a very interesting one.
Let's hope that if Mr. Ellison does become owner of the team, he doesn't move the team out of the bay area. Last month he mention that if no deal with the Warriors even happened, he would look for another NBA team to purchase and move that team to San Jose. Oracle is a computer company and we all know that Silicon Valley is the technology captial of the California. But now seems like they wanna become the sports captial as well, San Jose is already home to the NHL's (National Hockey League) Sharks, and the minor-league baseball-affiliated of San Francisco's Giants. If they added the A's or Warriors it would definately effect the bay area economically and finanically. A lot of jobs could either be moved or lost with these teams.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Bay Area's Poetry " Olympic Trials" Begin Tonight In Oakland
This week hundreds of young poets, ages 13 to 19, are preparing to compete in what some would consider the Bay Area’s version of Olympic trials for poetry.
The 14th Annual Teen Poetry Slam kicks-off on tonight, March 12 at 7pm, with a preliminary round at Pro Arts Gallery in downtown Oakland (99 Kahns Alley, Frank Ogawa Plaza).
San Francisco and Berkeley will also host preliminary rounds in coming days, narrowing the field of competitors and making things very entertaining.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Teen Poetry Slam, here's how it works.
There are three rounds: preliminaries, semi-finals and the grand slam finals. In the prelims, participants present one poem of their own work. Four to five judges “score” the poems on a scale of one to 10. Each poet gets three minutes to recite his or her poem. Running over this time leads to penalties. There can be up to 20 poets per round. Before the competition, they draw numbers to find when they take the stage.
All three rounds follow this basic format, though the semi-finals and finals change slightly. These rounds require the poets to bring with them two poets instead of one, as there two rounds of competition. The finals serve two major purposes: naming the Teen Poetry Slam Champion and creating a team to represent the Bay Area in Brave New Voices, the international poetry slam. Brave New Voices takes place this year in Los Angeles.
“ I'd have to say, in the Youth Speaks world, the Brave New Voices Festival is the Olympic Games," said Dennis Kim, Youth Speaks’ artistic development director. "It's international. It's the culmination of our program year and it's the most-recognized youth spoken word event in the world.
"The Teen Poetry Slam, on the other hand, although it is the first Teen Slam of its kind, has regional corollaries, like the Louder Than a Bomb slam in Chicago," he continued. "The Teen Poetry Slam is more like the Pan-American games, the Asia games or the Olympic trials. But still not of the scale of the Olympics, where the best in the world will converge. “
Lauren Whitehead, the slam’s coordinator, compared the preparation and scoring for the event to the Olympics.
"Each poet that performs gets scored by a panel of judges on a scale of one to 10, including decimal points," she said. "And the person with the highest scores at the end is the winner. But it's also similar in the way that young people generally spend all year getting ready to perform. They go to workshops, spend hours and hours practicing. They have coaches and teammates and it's really an athletic preparation for something that's not a sport.”
Speaking from personal experience as a competitor in the slam (2007 semi-finalist and finalist), I would agree that preparation for the slam is very much like what Olympic athletes go through. It takes months to perfect the written aspect as well as the performance aspect. A lot of that time is spent in front of a mirror or with peers getting all the feedback you can to make your work the best it can possible be.
The road to this year's Grand Slam Finals is ready to be traveled. These young poets have their eyes on the prize. They're representing their cities, schools and families but, most importantly, they represent the voices of the future. They’re the face of the next generation of thinkers, who want nothing more to be heard. Please lend them your ears, tickets sell out fast.
The 14th Annual Teen Poetry Slam kicks-off on tonight, March 12 at 7pm, with a preliminary round at Pro Arts Gallery in downtown Oakland (99 Kahns Alley, Frank Ogawa Plaza).
San Francisco and Berkeley will also host preliminary rounds in coming days, narrowing the field of competitors and making things very entertaining.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Teen Poetry Slam, here's how it works.
There are three rounds: preliminaries, semi-finals and the grand slam finals. In the prelims, participants present one poem of their own work. Four to five judges “score” the poems on a scale of one to 10. Each poet gets three minutes to recite his or her poem. Running over this time leads to penalties. There can be up to 20 poets per round. Before the competition, they draw numbers to find when they take the stage.
All three rounds follow this basic format, though the semi-finals and finals change slightly. These rounds require the poets to bring with them two poets instead of one, as there two rounds of competition. The finals serve two major purposes: naming the Teen Poetry Slam Champion and creating a team to represent the Bay Area in Brave New Voices, the international poetry slam. Brave New Voices takes place this year in Los Angeles.
“ I'd have to say, in the Youth Speaks world, the Brave New Voices Festival is the Olympic Games," said Dennis Kim, Youth Speaks’ artistic development director. "It's international. It's the culmination of our program year and it's the most-recognized youth spoken word event in the world.
"The Teen Poetry Slam, on the other hand, although it is the first Teen Slam of its kind, has regional corollaries, like the Louder Than a Bomb slam in Chicago," he continued. "The Teen Poetry Slam is more like the Pan-American games, the Asia games or the Olympic trials. But still not of the scale of the Olympics, where the best in the world will converge. “
Lauren Whitehead, the slam’s coordinator, compared the preparation and scoring for the event to the Olympics.
"Each poet that performs gets scored by a panel of judges on a scale of one to 10, including decimal points," she said. "And the person with the highest scores at the end is the winner. But it's also similar in the way that young people generally spend all year getting ready to perform. They go to workshops, spend hours and hours practicing. They have coaches and teammates and it's really an athletic preparation for something that's not a sport.”
Speaking from personal experience as a competitor in the slam (2007 semi-finalist and finalist), I would agree that preparation for the slam is very much like what Olympic athletes go through. It takes months to perfect the written aspect as well as the performance aspect. A lot of that time is spent in front of a mirror or with peers getting all the feedback you can to make your work the best it can possible be.
The road to this year's Grand Slam Finals is ready to be traveled. These young poets have their eyes on the prize. They're representing their cities, schools and families but, most importantly, they represent the voices of the future. They’re the face of the next generation of thinkers, who want nothing more to be heard. Please lend them your ears, tickets sell out fast.
R.I.P. Kamilah Russell, Murder Knows Nothing Of Age
Last weekend four people were killed in separate incidents in the city, which is nothing new though it has to be the most violent weekend to date this year. But there was murder this week that is so heartbreaking and horrific that it hurts to write this blog at the moment. 19 year old Oakland mother Tiffany Lopez killed her two year old daughter on Wednesday. Ironically the mother is three months pregnant, and also has a seven month daughter as well. I first heard the story while watching the news on Wednesday and was immediately struck by the pain the father was displaying. The reason behind the mother's senseless actions, she was "fustrated" with her daughter. Now I don't have any children currently, and dream of the day when I do welcome my first child into this world. But I understand from watching my grandmother raise me and my five siblings, that it can be a very difficult and a sometimes fustrating task. That doesn't mean that you take the life of a child that you held inside of you for nine months, simply because you couldn't deal with the pressures of parenthood. It doesn't help at all that this mother had already faced child abuse charges in San Mateo country. Her family had even reported her to Child Protective Services, and still she was able to fall thru the cracks. Which happens to many that are apart of the "system".
I've lived in this city for 21 years of my life, and have seen friends and a few family members fall victim to senseless killings. But this is truly disturbing to know that murder seems to not give a damn about age, it takes who it wants no matter where that person is in there life. This little girl was only two years old, from the reading the article in the Tribune she loved watching Dora The Explorer and the color pink. She also liked accompanying her father Joseph Russell Jr. on errands. That exactly what he was doing on the last day he got to see his daughter alive. He spoke words in the news interview that really struck a cord with me, "It's making me die deep inside that my daughter is gone, "... that she'll never grow up to be a young woman,"
But did her mother think of that same thought, with all her "fustration" that her daughter would never grow up to be a young woman? Probably not but its these kind of thoughts that I wish people would stop on consider before taking a life whether with a gun, or with their bare hands. Think about the life of the person your about to take, think about the dreams they might have from themselves. The contributions they could make on this world if you didn't take their very precious life. I've said it before on several occasions, there really does seem to be a lack of respect for human life in this city. The senseless murders need to stop, as beautiful as Oakland is none in the right mind would want to raise a family here and that depressing. Oakland is so rich in history, but it seems like that history is being buried with ever resident that is killed due to a homicide. I asked the question before and will continue to ask it, When will it all stop? It must stop, needs to stop or there won't be a Oakland to left
.
I've lived in this city for 21 years of my life, and have seen friends and a few family members fall victim to senseless killings. But this is truly disturbing to know that murder seems to not give a damn about age, it takes who it wants no matter where that person is in there life. This little girl was only two years old, from the reading the article in the Tribune she loved watching Dora The Explorer and the color pink. She also liked accompanying her father Joseph Russell Jr. on errands. That exactly what he was doing on the last day he got to see his daughter alive. He spoke words in the news interview that really struck a cord with me, "It's making me die deep inside that my daughter is gone, "... that she'll never grow up to be a young woman,"
But did her mother think of that same thought, with all her "fustration" that her daughter would never grow up to be a young woman? Probably not but its these kind of thoughts that I wish people would stop on consider before taking a life whether with a gun, or with their bare hands. Think about the life of the person your about to take, think about the dreams they might have from themselves. The contributions they could make on this world if you didn't take their very precious life. I've said it before on several occasions, there really does seem to be a lack of respect for human life in this city. The senseless murders need to stop, as beautiful as Oakland is none in the right mind would want to raise a family here and that depressing. Oakland is so rich in history, but it seems like that history is being buried with ever resident that is killed due to a homicide. I asked the question before and will continue to ask it, When will it all stop? It must stop, needs to stop or there won't be a Oakland to left
.
Will There Even Be Schools In Oakland Ten Years From Now?
Every year it seems like another Oakland school ends up on the chopping block. At the end of ever school year there's at least three or four school that are mentioned to headed toward being on what I called the "Endangered School List". Two years ago my alma mater Life Academy High School of Health and Bioscience, engaged in a battle with the OUSD over relocation due to the original site not being disaster safe. Eventually the school was moved to where Calvin Simmons Middle School use to be (Calvin Simmons was closed a few years prior). Now there's news this week that an elementary school in my neighorhood could be closed, due to the school board not renewing their contract. It simply depressing that this seems to be a recurring issue for the city, in a time where education seemed to be the only thing we had. Now they want to take that away from children, it forces to me to ask the question. Will there even be schools in Oakland ten years from now?
Cox Academy is an charter school literally right across the street from where I live currently. Every morning I watch parents taking their children to school, and then watch those same parent bringing them home in the afternoon. Many of these kids are to young to understand what's going on, but if they could understand what I think it would truly their hearts. The school has 530 students and has only been in existence for five years. Before that it was Cox Elementary, my brother attended the school briefly before they changed was made, several other members of my family including my uncle and cousins attend the school back in the day.
In an Oakland Tribune article wrote by Katy Murphy, it said that the charter school had unachieved when it came to federal test scores. Despite a 78 point increase on the state's 1,000-point Academic Performance Index last year. I'm truly sick of everything have to do with the state test scores and their expectations. How do they expect these children to meet their ridiculous standards when the state itself doesn't nothing to give them the resources they need. With Govenator cutting and taking money from education, how does closing schools help the situation?
In a city that is overflowing with violence, and struggling with unemployment. What will these children have to look forward to in the future? OUSD should be trying to do more to help keep these children off the streets and doing something positive and productive. Instead they close schools thinking that they saving money, which might be true but we all know those millions of dollars saved won't go into anything important. How do you tell a child "Stay in School", when they don't have school to actually attend?
Cox Academy is an charter school literally right across the street from where I live currently. Every morning I watch parents taking their children to school, and then watch those same parent bringing them home in the afternoon. Many of these kids are to young to understand what's going on, but if they could understand what I think it would truly their hearts. The school has 530 students and has only been in existence for five years. Before that it was Cox Elementary, my brother attended the school briefly before they changed was made, several other members of my family including my uncle and cousins attend the school back in the day.
In an Oakland Tribune article wrote by Katy Murphy, it said that the charter school had unachieved when it came to federal test scores. Despite a 78 point increase on the state's 1,000-point Academic Performance Index last year. I'm truly sick of everything have to do with the state test scores and their expectations. How do they expect these children to meet their ridiculous standards when the state itself doesn't nothing to give them the resources they need. With Govenator cutting and taking money from education, how does closing schools help the situation?
In a city that is overflowing with violence, and struggling with unemployment. What will these children have to look forward to in the future? OUSD should be trying to do more to help keep these children off the streets and doing something positive and productive. Instead they close schools thinking that they saving money, which might be true but we all know those millions of dollars saved won't go into anything important. How do you tell a child "Stay in School", when they don't have school to actually attend?
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