Columbia City Paper

On 12/3/2011, Art Bar hosted Post-Echo: The Audio/Visual Experiment featuring live performances from Roomdance, Forces of a Street, Cassangles, as well as visual contributions from local artists- Jason Stroud, Joel Floyd, Jessica Diaz, and Johnny Timmons. It was indeed an experience to be remembered. If you missed out, here’s some footage of the event.  For further coverage of the artists involved with this event, visit www.Post-Echo.com .

Columbia’s very own Forces of a Street release the first single from their upcoming, full-length LP, Pro Icarus- via Post-Echo (www.Post-Echo.com). Have a listen.

By Harvey Elwood Jr.

Every so often as segments of human-kind become less and less selfish, movements emerge that change and inspire thousands and then millions, towards the understanding that by working together change is possible, necessary, needed and even possible.

So as we continue to visit and communicate with family, friends and neighbors near and far during this wonderful season of holiday, we are reminded that the history of faith is founded on the idea of unselfish kindness, love and the importance of mankind working through our problems and moving forward to find and serve our better selves.

During recent time’s two significant and emerging movements – the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street have captured our attention and imagination, just as major change continues to takes place around the world. Governments not willing to change are now challenged by people “no longer taken in by petty artificial distractions” – willing to take their fight for job’s, justice and equality to the streets.

One movement has already changed the political landscape, while the other continues to define itself working to remove big bank corporate money and foreign multi-national interest out of politics and government.

These groups are people for the most part that are hurting and tired of the status quo, which seems frozen in its ability to fix the numerous problems we face as a nation.

With all the big money, bribes, hidden political investments and ramped corruption, it’s hard to know who’s really behind all the ineptitude – “but at least the American people are starting to pay attention”

But in a state that ranks 45^th at the bottom of this country, in education, public health, poverty, and families most in need, it’s no wonder that most Carolinians have not joined either movement in force. It maybe we just don’t know who to blame for problems that seem irreversible.  “But one thing for sure, we’ve stopped blaming each other and that’s a good thing”

The time spent by politicians with lobbyist, media consultants, private corporation sponsored lunches, dinners, trips and getting the rest of us to hate one another, would be better time spent forming real task forces that fix the problems the American people hired them for.

As we mark the 2012^th anniversary of the birth of Christ, perhaps now would be a good time to reflect on what many understand as the mission of his life, as explained in the gospels, regarding our national condition, how we treat, respect and look out for all our neighbors and how His life of activism and involvement changed to course of the world and our thinking.

And so as we continue to share in this season of giving, having just awoken from a long sleep of non – active involvement; just maybe we’ll begin and in many cases continue to wake each day and ask ourselves how much better we make the world for ourselves and those we might happen to meet along the way, as an unselfish personal assignment of service to others that is truly Christ-like.

â–  Harvey Elwood, Jr. of Orangeburg, – is a Semi-retired educator and host of “New Perspectives” a weekly public affairs and information show aired on WSSB 90.3FM. 

Delusion and denial do not make sound opinion 

By Will Moredock

America’s greatest economic divide remains the gulf between the wealth of black families and white families. Between 1983 and 2007, that racial wealth gap more than quadrupled, according to a recent study from Brandeis University.

At the bottom of the economic pyramid, at least 25 percent of black families in 2007 possessed no financial assets whatever to see themselves through the economic storm. And that storm struck in 2008.

Today, the Great Recession is taking a toll on most American families, but the higher up the income scale you live, the less you are likely to feel it. The children of affluence receive the fruits of their ancestors’ opportunities and good fortune. They use it to educate themselves, to start businesses, to invest. It is a simple and inarguable fact that wealth perpetuates wealth. It is also a fact that poverty begets poverty. Anyone who knows American history understands the wealth gap between black and white.

Slaves were brought here early in the country’s history to build the wealth of white people. They were not allowed to own or accumulate wealth. After Emancipation, white legislatures passed laws to keep black people removed from the wealth, power and opportunity that whites considered their birthright. During the Great Depression, government policies shut blacks out of home ownership. State and local laws segregated blacks into neighborhoods where home values did not increase as rapidly as in white neighborhoods. Blacks lacked the wealth to assist their children in making the down payment on a new home. As blacks have inched into the middle class in recent years, most of their wealth – for those who have been able to accumulate any – has been tied up in their homes. With the collapse of the housing market since 2008, that wealth has been slashed – along with the chance for black parents to help their children or pass a legacy to them.

   I was reminded of this sad history recently as I reread my colleague Jack Hunter’s City Paper column from September 28, 2011. There Jack describes working for his father’s electrical contracting company for a number of years as a young man. “I did this off-and-on throughout high school and for a solid eight-year stretch later in life,” he tells us.

Jack is a good writer with some interesting ideas. I have invited him to speak to my opinion writing class at the College of Charleston and always found his insights useful. But like most white people, Jack’s world view has a serious blind spot – himself.

Jack fails to see that he is not just part of a larger society, but part of the flow of history. He is not the self-made creature he would have you believe. He hates labor unions and social safety nets, but like most conservatives he doesn’t need them. Jack worked for his father and his family was his safety net.

I do not fault him for this. I have turned to my family for help at a critical time. That’s what families are for. But some families are able to help more than others. Some are not able to help at all. Jack has the comfort and security of knowing that if things do not work out in his new career as a right wing spinmeister, he will never have to sleep on the street; he will never want for a meal.

Another point in Jack’s column that needs to be debunked: He writes of his father, “…nobody ever gave him anything. He earned every bit of it.”

Jack, maybe your father started out poor, but he also started out white. From the day he was born, Jack’s father had an enormous advantage which many in this state never had. His white skin opened doors not available to many people.

White skin offers many advantages, but – sadly – it does not guarantee any degree of empathy and self-awareness. Most white people still believe that they are the authors of their own opportunities and good fortune, that they owe nothing to anyone else. They desperately, violently reject any suggestion that their wealth and privilege are – at least to some degree – the result of centuries of brutal laws and public policy.

Conservatives think that their world view is some god-given truth. Indeed, many will thump the Bible and read chapter and verse to show why they enjoy some special status or privilege. Others cite  Burke or Buckley. I believe the primary determinant of a person’s philosophy of life can usually be found in his bank statement. In the South, it can also be determined by his skin color.

Denial – whether of global climate change or history – may be good politics, but it does not make good policy. It’s wisdom I hope my friend Jack will gain with age.

Columbia’s very own Post-Echo takes center stage on December 3rd at Art Bar in the Vista for  Post-Echo: The Audio/Visual Experiment.  Featuring musical performances from Roomdance, Forces of a Street, Cassangles, and DJ Bobby Sweatt- the event is also showcasing assorted forms of visual art from members of the Post-Echo label (including the paintings of Joel Floyd aka MouthsandTongue) as well as other talented local artists, including Jason Stroud and Jessica Diaz.

Wait.  What exactly is Post-Echo?  Look no further.  Go here.

www.Post-Echo.com