Speak Out!

According to research conducted by the National Education Association, the ranks of male teachers are dwindling:

…over the last two decades, the ratio of males to females in teaching has steadily declined. The number of male teachers now stands at a 40-year low. The percentage of male teachers in elementary schools has fallen regularly since 1981 - that year, it reached an all-time high of 18 percent. Today, a scant 9 percent of elementary school teachers are men.

A USA Today opinion piece highlights a few quirky and humorous resolutions for the New Year, including:

In '08, I resolve to... ... not mention the words 'Iran' and 'World War III' in the same sentence. — President Bush ... stop at the next rest area. — Astronaut Lisa Nowak ... buy, uh, or, uh, a world atlas. — Geography-challenged Lauren Caitlin Upton, Miss South Carolina Teen ... let my old memorabilia stay in Las Vegas. — O.J. Simpson ...

A Washington Post article addresses some of the issues being debated by Black evangelicals in considering candidates in the upcoming presidential race. Many who supported and voted for Bush in 2004 are now torn between the two major parties:

In the 2004 election, there was evidence that an appeal aimed at those differences could work.

In a USA Today commentary, entitled "Blacks' protests lack unity of purpose," the writer comments on the state of the modern-day civil rights movement:

Unlike the past campaigns led by Martin Luther King Jr., today's leaders forget that there is as much a need for cohesion and transparency as for justice. It is a shame that at a time when civil rights are eroding and blacks are willing to mobilize, this opportunity might be squandered because of protest overkill and frayed lead

Despite the hoopla this past weekend around Oprah's support of Sen. Obama, a Pew Research Center study offers some interesting data on the influence of endorsements on the majority of voters:

When compared with several other celebrities and public figures, Winfrey is more influential than most, ranking on a par with Bill Gates and slightly behind Alan Greenspan.

In his commentary “Betrayal of the Civil Rights Struggle,” Walter Williams, a professor of economics at George Mason University, asks, “What happened?” He was referencing the level of violence in today’s schools:

Philadelphia had 14 schools labeled as "persistently dangerous" and Baltimore had six.

Sen.

Recently, demonstrators planned a rally at the Justice Department to protest the government's handling of hate crimes.

The release of the Cosby-Poussaint book, Come on People, has renewed the debate on just who/what is to blame for the problems plaguing Black communities. Some feel that the book does more harm than good:

This is hardly the call to action that can inspire and motivate underachieving blacks to improve their lives.

A recent Pew Research Center Economic Mobility of Black and White Families survey indicates that Blacks today are less upbeat about their economic prospects than previous generations.

The survey also finds blacks less upbeat about the state of black progress now than at any time since 1983. Looking backward, just one-in-five blacks say things are better for blacks now than they were five years ago.