Smarter Than Wall Street: My Family's Revolution

"What we need is awareness, we can't get careless."

~ "Fight the Power," Public Enemy

There's so much that yours truly could write about -- the sit-ins on Wall Street (About time! When is Public Enemy going to show up and bust out with "Fight the Power"?), the racist bake sale held by the U.C. Berkeley College Republicans that no one in the Republican party has seen fit to disown, the execution of Troy Davis, the passing of Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai, and the brother from Stanford Law School who is suggesting that single black professional women just give up the ghost and go get a white guy, or any guy for that matter, other than a black man.

The Wall Street sit-ins call to me because they dovetail with something my family is embarking on: Our own revolution. Starting next Saturday.

As I wrote in my previous post, the ill effects of this recession have touched my family like they have most families in America: unemployment, underemployment, wage cuts, foreclosures, underwater mortgages, you name it. What my husband, Black Man Not Blogging, and I realized is that if we as a family don't get smarter and share what we know, we're always going to be at the mercy of Wall Street -- unscrupulous corporations, greedy banks, and the politicians who enable them. Who knew that the person with the biggest cojones to take on Wall Street would be someone who doesn't even have cojones -- Elizabeth Warren?

But try as Elizabeth Warren might, Wall Street ain't gonna change for the better, so we have to. We as a family have to be smarter about money, investing, finances, and preparing our children for educations and careers so that we aren't ignorant to what Wall Street would have for us. If we as a family and as a nation had been smarter than Wall Street, we would not be in this mess.

So my husband, Black Man Not Blogging (BMNB), and I decided that we would hold a series of family meetings in which we as a family share what we know and increase awareness so that the next generation will indeed be smarter than Wall Street. The goals or hopes I have for myself and my family -- and by "my family" I mean the generations behind me -- are 1) Financial literacy; 2) Having a career, not just a job; 3) Preparing the children for either college or a vocation by age 18; 4) Home ownership; and 5) Multiple streams of income. I believe that if your finances and your career are in order, you have the peace to enjoy your family and other pursuits. When your money's funny, your landlord is in default on the home you're renting, and your job is, well, a job, those problems produce stress that affects your ability to enjoy the other parts of your life, IMHO.

So we decided to call our little series of meetings "Something to Think About," and they will be centered around those five goals/hopes. We'll be talking about credit, budgeting, investing, entrepreneurship, education stewardship, finding the career you want, and a whole host of things. The idea is not for BMNB and I to talk at our family, but for our family to come together and share what we know, especially our mistakes, and raise questions about what we don't and find the answers together. Much of what we will talk about are the basics that seemed to have gone out the window or were never discussed from generation to generation, like not buying more house than you can afford (and don't let the lender or the realtor tell you what you can afford), or that retirement is a three-legged stool that rests on pensions/401(k)'s, Social Security, and investments, and not on any one source of income. We're also going to talk about starting a sou-sou, since that topic remains the most highly viewed blog post on this blog. Who knew?

Most importantly, we're simply going to talk and become aware. I would expect, as with most revolutions, that not everyone in the family will be down with what we're doing. I expect that on some Saturdays it will be just me and BMNB. That's okay, though. BMNB and I will be able to go to our graves knowing that we tried to plant the seed in their minds, that we discharged our duty. I for one do not want to go to my grave having created generations of renters who increase the wealth of those who already have.

Like Public Enemy said, what we need is awareness; we can't get careless. Again.

Fight the power, y'all. And while you're at it, support Elizabeth Warren for U.S. Senate. She's the only one looking out for the rest of us.

Georgia and Troy Davis on My Mind

Troy Anthony Davis, convicted of shooting an off-duty police officer, will be executed tomorrow in Georgia at 7 pm.

His case has become a cause highlighting the problems with the death penalty. Seven of nine key witnesses who testified to his detriment have recanted their stories, no DNA evidence linked him to the crime, and no weapon was found despite the fact that shell casings from the murder matched shell casings from an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted. The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution for the purposes of having a federal court judge hear the matter, and the judge did not believe the witnesses who recanted. There appears to be a maelstrom of doubt.

Today, the Georgia Pardons Board has denied Davis clemency, and Georgia's governor has no power to grant it. Efforts to get the Chatham District Attorney Larry Chisholm to stop the execution appear to be to no avail, as Chisholm states he has no power to withdraw a death warrant. It looks like Davis' execution will proceed.

I'm not in favor of the death penalty, but I'm not fond of cop killers, either. That said, I would rather let a guilty man live than execute an innocent one. It's not like we don't have time to figure this thing out or stop the gears if there is this much reasonable doubt. The problem is the standard of review for Davis' case is that he would have had to have shown with clear and convincing evidence that no jury would have convicted him had they had the new evidence before them. Why should we require clear and convincing evidence NOT to execute someone when we only require guilt beyond a reasonable doubt TO execute someone? Why don't we require clear and convincing evidence to execute someone in the first place?

I've signed the petition to stop Davis' execution, posted it on my Facebook page, sent emails. Even if Davis is executed, that doesn't mean that the issues of the procedural hurdles and the Georgia governor's inability to grant clemency should die with him. No matter what happens, perhaps the way forward is to get rid of the death penalty altogether or reform how we convict people and sentence them to death. Maybe the way to start is to boycott those states that have executed people whose convictions leave room for reasonable doubt. I hate to say it, but maybe folks of conscience need to stop spending money in Georgia until it reforms its criminal justice system.

I pray for a just resolution and mercy for Troy Davis. I pray for courage for those who have the power to stop this execution, if they exist.