“Going though things is a learning experience,” Diane Gordon said at a recent community meeting. Referring to herself in third person, then first, and back again, Gordon told the packed audience, “God allows you things to educate you in things. If you don't become educated, it is only your fault. It is never God's fault. It is only because you are disobedient.”

ADA Kathleen DiGiovanni has been assigned to prosecute the Kevin Parker assault case. According to William Smith, spokesperson in Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan's office, DiGiovanni is a 10-year veteran prosecutor in the Supreme Court Bureau.

As a sign of begrudging acceptance among political-types of the impending possibility of the Freedom Party gaining ballot status next Tuesday, City Hall News published a four page spread on the nascent party. Alternating between informative and laugh out loud funny, Edward-Isaac Dovere did a credible job describing the landscape from which the Freedom Party is emerging.

One statement, though, caught my attention. Dover wrote, “While almost completely outside of mainstream view, Barron has been the hero of the Amsterdam News, op-eds in the Brooklyn-based black nationalist newspaper Our Time and radio programs that he regularly phones into all over the state, like Gary Byrd's in Buffalo.”

It is a tragic, dirty little secret in New York City African American and Latino communities: young children killed while under the care of the mother's male companion. In 2008, 21 children met this fate. There were 8 in 2009. As of October 15 this year, 19 children as a result of the husbands of their mothers and the companions of the mothers. The most recent incidents took place in central Brooklyn. Grassroots advocates are silent in the face of 48 children killed in this manner during the past three years.

Several governmental entities have been grappling with this situation. Earlier this month, the City Council Committee on General Services, chaired by Annabel Palma, held a hearing on this matter. At that hearing, Councilmember Letitia James voiced her concern, calling the latest incident on Kingston Ave. “extremely troubling.” James noted “most of these children are children of color.” She has joined a campaign launched last summer to “alert women that they should be more careful and should know who is minding their baby.” The council member has “begun to notify a number of hairdressers and nail salons and places where women are located.” In addition, James said the situation “underscores the need for 24-hour daycare services in the City of New York.”

Sure as night follows day, it was bound to happen. Even Stevie Wonder could see that ballot irregularities would be placed in the Freedom Party's path. Placement on the ballot is the tool de jour employed to thwart the nascent party's goal of 50,000 votes to obtain permanent ballot status in November's general election.

In New York City's five counties, the Freedom Party is on “Line J.” As would be expected, it does not share “Line J” with any other party. In all New York State counties outside of NYC, the Freedom Party is on “Line H.” At first blush this inconsistency is questionable, at most generating a casual shrug.

In the wake of Carl Paladino's assertions before an Orthodox Jewish group that he doesn't want children “to be brainwashed into thinking homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option” and marching in the Gay Pride parade “is not the example that we should be showing our children and certainly not in our schools,” Charles Barron weighed in.

“I think Paladino is a sick, racist, homophobic loose cannon,” said the Freedom Party candidate for Governor.

The Freedom Party has been working hard to garner media attention.

Reluctantly, Errol Louis interviewed Freedom Party Campaign manager Bob Law. Mark Riley has been more open and accommodating. Barron has been a regular on Gary Byrd's shows. KISS-FM has been mum.

Our Time Press and The Amsterdam News regularly cover Freedom Party updates.

Nationally, Charles Barron was interviewed on Friday by Al Sharpton on his nationally syndicated radio show, which is a big deal.

Sharpton and Fulani played a major role in the destruction of the Freedom Party more than a decade ago. Just after Alton Maddox successfully got Sharpton acquitted of 67 charges, Fulani challenged the petitions of that incarnation of the Freedom Party, alleging she was supposed to be that party's rightful nominee for governor. This didn't make sense, since Fulani was wrapped up with Neuman and the New Alliance Party. Anyway, Sharpton endorsed Fulani for Freedom Party and spent that whole summer unsuccessfully trying to get Maddox to endorse her also. That is the reason Sharpton has been called a traitor is certain circles for all these years.

It has been almost 18 months since Senate Democrats

took the majority. During the previous 40 years under

Senate Republican domination, populist legislation was

Last Saturday's gorgeous weather beckoned. They came from Florida. Michigan. Pennsylvania. California. North Carolina. Ohio. Tennessee. Illinois. Among them were African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Whites. They were employed, underemployed, and unemployed. Children, college students, middle aged, and seniors came. Some used walking aides, others were in wheelchairs. They all gathered together with unions, the NAACP, and various progressive organizations to speak with one voice in support of jobs and education.

Earlier this week, Diane Gordon returned home from an extended staycation in an upstate woman's facility. The former 40^th A.D. Assemblywoman's staycation was courtesy of Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, who questioned plans for Gordon's hoped-for Barbie Dream House.

Gordon never got to complete the architectural specs for her Dream House, although discussions of design options were video taped. The Dream House, which was to be located outside her district, was purportedly a gift in exchange for development rights within her district.

This week, gun violence claimed a family member of community activist Tony Herbert, who has stood with countless families impacted by violence. Herbert's 23-year-old nephew, Lawrence Andre Sykes, was shot multiple times Sept. 16 in broad daylight on the street in Richmond, Virginia. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The suspects in Sykes murder are 24-year-old Rashaan Tigean Williams who surrendered to police, and 21-year-old Lamar Elias Defairia.

I don't know who locked my comments section on Ladies, Stop Giving Vajayjay to Criminals, Please!, but the act was extremely crude, distasteful, and arrogant.

I have never locked my comments section, or asked that it be locked.

Therefore, if anyone wants to comment on my latest post, you can do here, until I can get the original comments section unlocked.

No one has the right to unilaterally lock my comments section. I am deeply offended.

It is typical of male behavior, especially in the black community. The young males see adult males disrespect females -- what we say, think, and write -- and not only emulate that behavior, but take it to another level.

This week, gun violence claimed a family member of community activist Tony Herbert, who has stood with countless families impacted by violence. Herbert's 23-year-old nephew, Lawrence Andre Sykes, was shot multiple times Sept. 16 in broad daylight on the street in Richmond, Virginia. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The suspects in Sykes murder are 24-year-old Rashaan Tigean Williams who surrendered to police, and 21-year-old Lamar Elias Defairia.

In order to qualify for Race to the Top,the state senate was challenged to create, among other things, a charter school reform bill that would increase the number of charter schools in the state from 200 to more than 400. An initial bill introduced in the senate simply did that. Sen. Montgomery, Perkins, and others refused to vote for the bill until it contained meaningful reform.