I FORGOT TO MENTION...

THAT YOU SHOULD FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @LONEBOHO...

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS, ALTHOUGH I FEEL A BIT OF BLOG COMIN' ON...

STOP and FRISK-Why I'm All For It!

Enough is Enough! I'm a Black woman living in New York City and I'm tired of reading the same sad news: more unnecessary death attributed to gun violence. Let me also say this: I am proud of the NYPD. Some of them are very good friends of mine and every day they risk life and limb, mostly while you and I are safely locked away in the comforts of our homes, to protect us from those who would seek to do us harm.

Over the weekend there were multiple shootings all over the city most of them in notoriously bad neighborhoods-a few occurred at the Labor Day parade. Ironically, another incident occurred at the parade where a Black city councilman was allegedly roughed up by cops for walking in a frozen zone and one of the staffers punched a police captain in the face.

According to Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio, "...police may have looked at Jumaane, who is young...with dreadlocks, and not believed he is a Council member."

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries commented further that the incident was "further evidence of the siege mentality the NYPD has unleashed against black men in New York City."

Siege mentality! Really? Isn't the city "under siege" when residents don't (or can't) leave their homes for fear of catching a stray bullet from the gun of some young, cowardly fools who have nothing better to do with their lives but destroy others? These cowards are the first to run after their "tough deed" rather than take onus for their crime, like a true "bad man" would do. Yes, these are the same morons who, should they ever get stopped by police, or eventually caught and arrested-blame the system, blame racism, or their most likely target; the NYPD. They blame everyone but themselves.

Jeffries' statement is ironic. Sadly, if it wasn't for those "bad apples," (like the criminals who showed up at the parade with their illegal guns, or perhaps someone who would punch a police captain in the face) who ruin it for law-abiding citizens like myself, or law-makers like Jumaane Williams some of us wouldn't have to worry about being stopped and frisked at all because we wouldn't fit the profile.

Enough is enough. Racism is the disease yes, but there are certainly other symptoms. When do we address those?

Where do these shootings occur? Hardly on the Upper West or Upper East Side! There is a serious crisis in poor, Black and Latino communities with drugs, guns and gangs.

I accept the controversy this issue raises but I'm fine with that because I'm sick of opening the paper to find another gun related death or where the victim and the perpetrator are Black-usually from the same neighborhood. It adds insult to injury when you happen to belong to the race of the alleged perpetrators as if there weren't enough things a young Black woman has to worry about.

Let the NYPD continue to stop and frisk-if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Do not misunderstand me: I'm not saying there isn’t a racist cop out there who can and will abuse his or her power-but unfortunately that’s another case of those "bad apples." I suffer with the bad apples syndrome as well and it's exhausting to keep trying to prove your one of the "good ones."

So maybe one of those talking heads decrying the Stop and Frisk system can explain to me how a policy in place to prevent crime is to blame for what is actually going on in the streets among young Blacks and Latinos today? How can the NYPD stop crime in high crime areas where the very population they are trying to protect also happens to be the community of the perpetrators? Why do we blame racism for this fact: more "brothers" shoot "brothers" than any other race?

I conclude with this: I have the right to take a walk, sit on my stoop, jump up at a Labor Day parade in New York City without risking my life, but I won’t until there is an end to all of this gun violence.

Charm City Circulatin Correction...

My beloved has informed me that I made two critical errors: 1) Whenever we are in Baltimore it rains frequently...I cannot say that it rains ALL THE TIME...

2) Charm City Circulator has more than two routes. We only experienced two...

Happy now?????

Anyway...as much as I hate criticism from my boo-he was right and so I owe him a debt of gratitude. Also, he's given me an opportunity to post some pics...

Charm City Circulatin'

Charm City, aka Baltimore, Maryland. My boyfriend and I decided to take this trip because we had been here before on a day trip and we were impressed by the charm of the inner harbor. Also, I didn’t get any crab when I was there the first time so I had to come back. It would also be an awesome place to take an inexpensive vacation. It was nice not having to leave the country and we certainly learned a lot about Baltimore’s place in American history. Come back with me as I re-visit Baltimore, Maryland: famous for much more than dungeoness and back fin crab. It is the birthplace of popular shows like Homicide, Life on the Streets (We actually visited the location of the precinct and the Waterfront Bar in Fells Point that Detectives Munch and Bayliss bought) and the Wire (we were advised against taking pictures and field trips to that part of town) and it is the birth place of such jazz/ragtime legends as Eubie Blake and Billie Holiday. This charming sea-board city definitely deserves its moniker.

A short cab ride from downtown Penn station to our hotel-the Mount Vernon Hotel and Café, conveniently located in the Mount Vernon section of Baltimore, a bit north of downtown Baltimore. We felt special to be staying in this National Historic District, especially since the area was featured in an episode of the re-runs of Homicide, Life on the Streets. (A sniper shooting occurred right in front of the Walters Art Museum, where Ray and I passed every day on one of our walks down to the harbor!) Ok. That’s the last time I mention Homicide: Life on the Streets.

So we’re walking along Charles Street, and we’re hungry so we stop into Mick O’Shea’s, an Irish pub style restaurant to whet our whistles. I had my mind set on a burger and some fries-that’s what I was in the mood for. Our waitress comes over and just as I was about to open my mouth to tell her that I needn’t look at the menu-I knew what I wanted she asked, “do you want to hear our specials?”
“Sure…”
She listed a bunch of tasty items, chief among them: mussels-actually the swordfish sounded pretty good too but-once I heard mussels, I heard nothing more. That was going to be it for me, especially since seafood is a Maryland staple.

I also ordered a Guinness, which was poured to perfection. She poured off the first bit, and then let it sit for a while before she brought it to me. Ahhhh…and then the mussels arrived (oh yeah, Ray ordered a bacon cheeseburger, I think. He said he really enjoyed it.) and I was in heaven. The bread was crusty and crispy, with a slight cheesiness to it. It was perfect for dipping into the mussel sauce, which was a tomato/white wine concoction. Usually I don’t fancy tomato based sauces, but this was just light enough and with the cheesy crusty bread it worked! Delicious.

On to the next stop…we walked down Charles Street down to the Inner Harbor. This is the reason we were in Baltimore. When Ray and I initially visited, we went to the Baltimore visitor center which is located in the harbor, gathering information about the city and what we were going to do, and we fell in love with the harbor. We took the 10 dollar all day water taxi back and forth between Fells Point and the various points of interest in the harbor until it was time to go home. We vowed to come back when we had more time to spend and here we were. One place we didn’t get a chance to visit along the route was Fort McHenry-the place where the Star Spangled Banner was written.



Fort McHenry
I will never forget what I felt as I looked out over Baltimore Harbor, imagining what Francis Scott Key saw, which moved him to write these infamous words: “O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave…”,he was a witness to the miracle that is the United States of America. This tiny nation only in it’s infancy that defeated the all powerful Britain and her imposing navy. It was a quite moving experience to walk around Fort McHenry, and to see what the flag and the anthem has meant to generations of Americans.

The picture of the 1968 summer Olympics held in Mexico City, where black athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in the black power salute and Australian Peter Norman wore a civil rights badge in support of them, was displayed at the exhibit. The athletes were banned from the games and the Australian was left off the 1972 Olympic team as a result of their disrespect. Many Americans were offended. I was conflicted. Here I am a Black American woman, who loves this country and is proud to be an American trying to reconcile the ugliness of racism and inequality with the fact that Tommie Smith and John Carlos still stood on that podium as champions of the United States of America. To me, their fists symbolized the defiance that allowed us to defeat the British. We will always overcome. As one of the exhibits mentioned, the American flag is all things to all Americans. This could be seen when every American at the Fort, Black, brown, white, Asian, man, woman and child took their hats off, placed their hands over their hearts and bowed their heads (some sang) in reverence to our National Anthem. I was truly moved to tears.

Ray did his part for his country by assisting the Rangers and other visitors load canons in preparation for the British in a reenactment of the battle of Fort McHenry.

Now, we were exhausted, it was hot as hell out there on the battlefield! Time to head back to Fells Point and grab some ice-cream and a milk-shake at Maggie Moo’s. They really take pride in preparing your ice-cream. I ordered a Cheesecake break; vanilla ice cream with strawberries, and teddy grahams. The lovely lady preparing my cone asked me if I wanted two or three scoops. “Just one please!”
She handed me a tub of the best ice-cream I’ve ever tasted, carefully smoothed out with some sort of ice-cream smoothing contraption, (she really put her all into it) which enabled the strawberries and grahams to be mixed in perfect proportions. By the time she finished with the ice-cream, it was way larger than two scoops. She had to put the ice cream in a tub, with the waffle cone stuck on top. I certainly was not mad at that! Ray got a vanilla milkshake with little chocolate bits in it-not chocolate chips, little chocolate bits. Pure bliss. Yes, we were quite content, he and I, and we sat in the square and listened to live entertainment (some dude with an electric guitar and am amp, banging out oldies) We sat there until the darkening clouds told us that perhaps we’d better get a move-on. We took the water taxi back to the inner harbor and caught the Charm City Circulator (a free shuttle (yes free!!!!) that connects downtown Baltimore with East and West, North and South. There are two routes: purple and orange. The purple runs North to South and brings us back to our hotel. The orange travels East and West, which brings me to a convenient little segue:

It rains frequently in Baltimore, it’s annoying but it stops after a while and then out comes the brilliant, blazing sun and you would never know it had rained. We expected this and so we didn't bring our umbrellas thinking we'd be someplace long enough to wait out a shower. Well, my beloved suggested that today of all days, we ride the Orange shuttle, and see where it goes. I was a bit skeptical, having noticed the darkening sky-not to mention I was hungry and I wanted to go back to the hotel and grab some grub.

Long story short: the orange route took us away from our destination (the hotel) and we had to get off. Sure enough, we are hit with a monsoon! Flood warnings are in effect! I have never experienced rain like this; and when I say experienced, I mean it. I was in it, around it, under it, through it and over it. It was a torrential downpour and I nearly drowned. All I can say is Thank God for the cleanliness of downtown Baltimore. When water came gushing out at us, and we couldn’t avoid puddles we weren’t left with grime, debris or sediment in our shoes. Finally we make our way home, dry off and get ready for a night on the town!


PowerPlant Live!

Plain and simple, the place was a bit too noisy for our tastes-maybe if I was 10 years younger it wouldn’t have bothered me, even though it did seem that whatever your pleasure this spot could accommodate There was a comedy club, a few bars, featuring live entertainment and some seemingly decent restaurants. We ordered a couple of drinks-A Long Island Iced-Tea for me, and a Heineken for Ray. His rule of thumb is to always order a beer unless he knows how the drinks are made because you can’t go wrong. He was right. My Long Island Iced-Tea was pretty weak, but hey-we weren’t in Long Island were we? Anyhooo….we finished our drinks and then we bounced! Off to Woody's rum bar aka Slaintes Irish pub in Fells Point. I really wanted to hear live music, particularly jazz but it wasn’t in the cards for me this evening. So we had a couple more watered down drinks (Ray stuck wisely with beer) and then headed across the street for some brick oven pizza.

We stepped out into the balmy night air, and wouldn’t you know it-here was my live entertainment. The sax dude was still out there jamming-and he had an audience too-a young couple winding and grinding to his tunes. Not bad.

So we head over to BOP’s, which according to Kevin Bacon should stand for “Baltimore’s Only Pizza! Perhaps he’s right. Now, I must admit that I haven’t actually tasted any other pizza in Baltimore but- one bite of this chicken feta pizza and it definitely was amore. I’m not the biggest pizza fan but this was the best pizza I’ve ever tasted. Eating our pizza on the pier while watching the waves roll in definitely enhanced the experience. It was bliss. My pizza crust was perfectly thin and crisp,chicken grilled to perfection, with fragrant basil, savory feta and smooth olive oil to round out the flavors. As I took my first bite I swear angels came down and started tap-dancing on my tastebuds! Unfortunately Ray wasn't as impressed with his pepperoni and sausage pizza- I felt for my honey, but why anyone faced with such an assortment of delicious meat, veg, cheese (even seafood!) combinations would choose plain ol’ pepperoni and sausage is beyond me. Oh well, moving right along…to our last day in Baltimore…

Obrycki’s
A little expensive but, in my opinion definitely worth it! I’m glad that I ate at this famed establishment before they close their doors forever this November. What I gathered from our waiter John, was that the place was becoming too expensive to run not only in terms of cost but also manpower. They have some sort of deal where they will be working out of Cheesecake factory or something. Unfortunate. Now. Back to me and my crab experience. I came back to Maryland to redeem the horrible crab experience I had the first time around. I had never eaten a steamed crab before so John was kind enough to show me how. Literally. He said since I was a newbie he’d start me off with two large steamed dungeoness crabs. When they came, he bibbed me up and brought me a mallet. Next, his fingers were all up in my crab breaking off the pieces I shouldn’t eat, showing me where the good lump crab meat was, and how to discard the lungs. Then he showed me the “mustard” of the crab. I could eat it or not. Some people like the taste of it, but a long time ago somebody told me that the “mustard” was crab feces. So…no. I would not be eating it. I was grateful for the lesson, and finally ready to tackle my next crab all on my own. Ray looked on like a proud papa-watching me in all my pounding glory: I wacked and cracked, and shellacked the shiznit out of the shell. I broke the crab open and dug my fingers in like a pro. I got so into it that I began to just bite the legs sucking the succulent Obrycki salt, pepper and butter seasoning off the shell. It was a simply delicate, but seriously savory seasoning. I looked over at Ray, who by now had finished eating his fish and chips and was looking a bit bored and slightly annoyed.
“What?”
He claimed he was looking around the restaurant at people who had ordered way more crabs than I, and they were already finished. He wanted to know why I had to take 2 hours to eat 2 crabs. I looked at the “leavings” of the other customers and noticed that they left more of the crab behind than I did. So there! If it weren’t for the fact that we were the only two people left in the restaurant and the waiters were not “discreetly” packing up and stacking tables all around us, I might still be sitting there sucking the meat out of those tasty crab legs.
Meanwhile…Ray decided to order some dessert to “keep him company.” Much to my chagrin, he ordered my least favorite food item: bread pudding. However when John brought it over to the table and dropped the plate in front of Ray , I was enticed by the scent of brown sugar and cinnamon; also the pudding was sitting on some type of sauce-I think it was a custard. Nevertheless, I had to taste it. Oh my!!!!! There go the angels on my taste-buds again this time they’re breaking! Again, this is the best bread pudding I’ve tasted, and I’ve never been a fan of bread pudding. The cinnamon and sugar gave the bread a sweet crust and the raisins were warm and juicy and they added just the right amount of “tart” to the ensemble. Oh sorry- I’m finally done with my crabs. I must say the whole Obrycki’s was a great experience-what would have been nicer was if our waiter, John had thanked us for his tip. I found that a bit rude….

Ciao to Charm City
A pretty melancholy morning. I did not want to get out of the hotel bed. Solemnly we packed up our things and went down for one last breakfast at the hotel’s café. I don’t even remember what I ate. We came back up to the room, reminisced about the good times, Maggie Moos, and how we would miss the harbor and late night BOP’s. I began to cry…(Just kidding; I didn’t cry.) We headed back down to the lobby with our luggage to check out; the most devastating part of any vacation.

We walked a short block to the shuttle bus. This was the last trip we’d take on the Charm City Circulator and it was taking us back to back to where our beautiful escape had begun. How quickly it seemed to come to an end. Ray and I waited in silence (there was nothing left to say) and when I saw that big white shuttle bus with the big purple swoosh on the side pull up, ready to take us back to reality, I truly did want to cry. We climbed aboard and took our ride to the final stop: Penn Station where we sat and waited for Amtrack train number 84 to take us home…

We know we’ll be back.

*Things I want to mention:
Thanks to the hotel staff at Mount Vernon Hotel and Café. They were very friendly and accommodating.

Places to visit:
Reginald Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History-a must see for anyone who is interested in the Black History of Baltimore. I didn’t realize how much Baltimore has given to us in terms of Black culture, leadership and intellect…

Eubie Blake National Jazz Center and Cultural Institute: It’s also an after-school arts instruction center. One of the leading composers of Ragtime music, his musical Shuffle Along was one of the first Broadway musicals to be written by African Americans. His musical also featured a young chorus girl named Josephine Baker who went on to gain notoriety in France as an acclaimed dancer and singer.

Thanks for everything Baltimore.

Charm City Circulatin'

Charm City Circulatin'

The Debt Ceiling Crisis

s a self-described political junkie, I would be remiss not to comment on the current fiasco concerning the debt ceiling. Lately, politics has become ugly. Debate no longer seem to be about how to repair the serious problems this country faces, but rather a war has turned into a zero sum game.

Enough is enough! We have less than a week now before the country goes into default and I’ve just learned that some grassroots conservative organizations, as well as an influential fiscal conservative group are hell bent on defeating Speaker Boehner’s plan to reduce the nation’s debt.  These are people in his own party!  This behavior is despicable. Let me be clear:  I’m no economist. I am simply an American who loves her country. I am concerned for the welfare of this nation. Is it not alarming to those same people who claim that their “rights” as “Americans” are being trampled on? Do they not see that we are losing our credibility as a democracy around the world? It is infuriating that our nation’s “leaders,” I use the term loosely- seem hell bent on derailing the political process rather than work alongside one another to restore our confidence in it.  I write these words for my own edification about the debt crisis. I pray that the dysfunctional demagogues in Congress, democrats and republicans alike will consider us-the employee, the tax payer, the elderly, the citizen- ultimately we average Americans who will suffer greatly if an agreement is not made.

What I know about the debt ceiling crisis thus far:

The federal government has surpassed the amount of money we can borrow (14.3 billion dollars). If we don’t get our financial house in order by August 3, when the bills are due, we risk going into default. The government is mandated to pay federal salaries, Medicare and social security, tax refunds, as well as the interest it already owes on outstanding debts. If congress can’t get it together and a  deal is not reached as to whether or not we can borrow more money after the August 2^nd deadline, spending will have to be reduced to the amount of revenue that the government already has to avoid more debt.  This could mean suspended investments, or redeeming securities in accounts like Civil Service retirement, which could bring us closer to default. (www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june11/debtceiling_05-16.html)

The debate over the debt-ceiling is not new. Policy makers have raised the limit in the past. In fact, it’s been raised 74 times. The first time it was enacted was during World War 1 in order to issue bonds.

The Plan

If only there was one! Instead we have partisan bickering and a refusal to compromise.

At the time of writing conservative lawmakers expressed skepticism that Boehner could come up with more cuts. He has just warned his caucus to get their “asses” in line.

His two step plan is a 10 year cap on discretionary spending to save $1.2 trillion over 10 years and to raise the debt limit by 1 trillion an amount that is expected to last until next year. His plan makes spending cuts larger than any debt ceiling increase and would implement spending caps to restrain future spending, thereby advancing the cause of a balanced budget amendment. Reid’s plan would cut $2.2 trillion from the budget $500 billion dollars less than advertised. Also his plan would avoid another debt ceiling argument before 2013, while Boehner’s requires us to revisit the issue again in 2012-with a hike in the ceiling contingent upon tax cuts. (http://www.advisorone.com/2011/07/27/cbo-boehner-reid-debt-plans-fall-short-of-promised)

Obama criticized Boehner’s plan-claiming that it is too short term and could spark the downgrade of US debt. He also said there should be a balanced approach, which forces wealthy Americans to contribute, not a ‘cuts only” approach.

Boehner blasted Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan  for engaging in a “spending binge” and pushing tax increases that will destroy jobs,” he claimed it was  a blueprint for a blank check for more uncontrolled spending that would undermine the economy. (cnn.com)

Currently, both plans fall short of savings they both have promised, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Revisions to Boehner’s plan would bring a total of $917 billion in savings over 10 years, an increase of $65 billion over the initial version. With the revisions, Boehner’s proposal which calls for a $900 billion increase in the debt ceiling-now meets his pledge to match any debt ceiling hike with dollar for dollar spending cuts. Senate Democrats said that this plan has no chance of passing the Senate-and the top Republicans have called the Senate Democratic plan a “non-starter.”(http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/28/conservative-groups-making-final-push-todefeat Boehner plan.

How Is the Crisis Affecting us now? What about After August 3?

The Daily News has reported that the economy has already started to hurt because of the stalled debt ceiling talks. Investors are wary and stocks are dipping.  A downgrade of the debt-and even worse, a default would likely undermine investors faith in the security of U.S. debt and this would force interest rates to soar even higher, which could hamper an already limping economic recovery. We have already seen the dollar decline.  In Canada, the American dollar is sub par to the Canadian.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/07/25/2011-07-(25_stocks_slip_as_debt_ceiling_deal_hangs_in_balance_and_threat_of_us_default_looms.html)

Apart from the governments mandated obligations, the cost of capital will go up, which means most of us (the middle class who will be most affected by the debt plan as it stands right now) will have less purchasing power.  Food prices have already gone up and it will only get worse. It will affect people with mortgages, or car loans. They could get badly hurt. Interest rate increases are a huge concern for people in commercial real-estate. So, in other words it doesn’t look good. And worst case scenario-what if we were to end up like Greece?  Morning Call’s commercial investment guy reported that at three out of every four lunches he attends people are talking about the debt ceiling. I can do him one better. At my job, everyone is talking about it.

The American people don’t want to hear their elected representatives talk about how much they care about this country and want to do the right thing and then do nothing. It’s time for them to put egos and partisan politics aside. It’s time to compromise. Let’s talk about that word for a moment. Compromise has become synonymous with treason in Congress these days. The infuriating aspect of this crisis is this divisiveness in Washington. It seems these days that people go to Congress to look for a fight. They have this macho desire to prove how tough they are. This is not the fist time legislators have disagreed about economic policy-it won’t be the last. What does seem unprecedented though is the deliberate, malicious nature of the debt talks. There seems to be a willingness to derail honest efforts to reach an agreement that will SAVE OUR ECONOMY.

In conclusion, my plea is a simple yet urgent one: Washington-please put politics aside and come up with a balanced-meaning everybody shares the cost-not just wealthy Americans, and not just the middle class. We need a balanced debt plan for the sake of the economic future of this great nation. As for the dysfunction that represents Washington these days, here is a chance to redeem itself-the world is watching.