Business…this month’s joint for the BSN is on Pedro Martinez’ Jheri Curl. Yes, you read that right…nearly 1,000 words on a Jheri Curl. Thanks to DC for giving the folk a lil somethin called creative control.
And tonight I went and saw Angela Davis speak. Every year, I try to do something productive on the King Holiday, and this was what I did for the 0-cinco. The talk wasn’t bad, but I’m starting to get more out of hearing conservatives speak.

It gets old to hear someone say things that you already believe to be true. The trick for a leftist like me is to develop strategies to implement programs that reflect these views. I don’t know how to do that, so I go listen to these talks and hope to glean something on how to handle such business. Routinely, I’m disappointed.
See, I’m not romantic about the left of old. I appreciate the role that heroic figures like Davis played in different point in time, but their strategies are not working. What strategies will work? Hell if I know, to be honest. I’m working on it, but I have nothing but scattershot thoughts at this hour.
What I do know, though, is the utility of going to see heroes of the left speak is fading fast. There’s always lots of clapping–frequently for no good reason–and, if the speaker is black, usually a collection of good looking women. However, rarely do I hear something that makes me reevaluate my own thoughts. Perhaps that’s just something that happens when listening to my ideologues–I hold them in such high regard because I agree with them.
There’s no mental exercise in that, though. Nothing really great comes from that. I think I’m right about things, but I don’t know that I’m right. At this point, I need folks to force an expansion of how I see things, someone to take me to places my thought processes currently do not fly. While Luther and I found Alan Keyes to be nuts, we did find him to be sharp, and he did make us think some. In the end, we wound up thinking he was on some of that other other, but we did think.
Davis’ talk was cool, but it wasn’t enlightening. I won’t remember seeing her speak when I’m graying and talking to my grandchildren. I’ll put this in line with the litany of other speeches I’ve been to that had the same effect. Andre Benjamin once said that, “speeches only reaches those that already know about it,” and I’m starting to believe that’s an incomplete assessment. Speeches may reach those folks, but those people aren’t touched by those speeches. Those speeches don’t become moving experiences. To be moved, my mind must be riveted.
And hearing what I’ve heard before ain’t gonna do the trick.