Anderson@Large

Everything Must Change

Seven years ago, I launched my blog. Today, marks a new beginning as I focus on the development of the Cost of Freedom App, a location-based web app that will provide voters with concise information on how to apply for a voter ID.

Marketing guru Seth Goldin recently observed that if you don't adapt to the post-industrial economy, “never mind the race to the top, you'll be racing to the bottom.” Goldin added:

Instead of waiting around for someone to tell you that you matter, take your career into your own hands. In other words, don't wait for someone else to pick you and pick yourself! If you have a book, you don't need a publisher to approve you, you can publish it yourself. It's no longer about waiting for some big corporation to choose you. We've arrived at an age where you choose yourself.

Sadly, today also marks the death of the “Matriarch of the Blues,” Etta James, whose truth-telling helped me get through many nights.

I will miss Ms. Etta's motherly advice. May she, at last, rest in peace.

Have You Voted Yet?

I have been nominated for the Women’s Media Center’s 2011 Social Media Award. WMC reports the votes “are rolling in.”

Please cast your vote and help determine the winner. If you have already voted, please share the link with your friends and ask them to vote for me. The poll closes TODAY at 5 p.m.

Thanks for your support! I also want to thank you letting me be myself (again).

Have You Voted Yet?

I’m part of the 99 percent.

Now that I have your attention :-), I hope you will “just take five” and vote for me for the 2011 Women’s Media Center Social Media Award.

Thank you.

Vote for Me

All souls to the poll. Voting is open for the 2011 Women’s Media Center Social Media Award.

As a founding member of the Election Protection Coalition, I would warn voters to “be careful how they vote” because stuff happens. For this election, you have the right to stuff the ballot box because I’m “built out of stuff like that.”

So please vote for me. And then tell your friends to tell their friends to “do it, do it.”

It's My Anniversary

Six years ago today, I published my first blog post. I published it on the fly at Harvard, where I was attending a conference, Blogging, Journalism & Credibility: Battleground and Common Ground.

I did not own a laptop in 2005 so I had to practically beg a staffer to let me use her computer. I'm audacious but I was not going to show up at an invitation-only event without having published a single blog post.

Three laptops and nearly 1,500 posts later, I'm still passionate about blogging.

But passion doesn't pay the bills. And you know “ain't nothing going on but the rent.”

If you value this independent source of news and information and fact-based commentary, show me some love on my anniversary and make a donation.

To paraphrase Gwen Guthrie, a fly girl like me needs an iPad. Thank you for your support!

Long Island Iced Tea Summit

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the news conference during which President Barack Obama said a Cambridge police officer had “acted stupidly” in arresting his friend, Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The ensuing uproar led to the infamous “beer summit.”

Fast forward to, well, yesterday and another racially-charged incident is playing out on cable TV and dominating the headlines.

The White House provided a readout of Obama’s call with Shirley Sherrod:

The President reached Ms. Sherrod by telephone at about 12:35. They spoke for seven minutes.

The President expressed to Ms. Sherrod his regret about the events of the last several days. He emphasized that Secretary Vilsack was sincere in his apology yesterday, and in his work to rid USDA of discrimination.

The President told Ms. Sherrod that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need, and he hopes that she will do so.

An invitation to the White House is not in the offing so I would like to propose a Long Island Iced Tea summit.

With race relations worsening, we all could use a drink (or two).

Stacked Deck of Race Cards

As the “teachable moments” stack up, the national conversation on race remains on hold.

During his media briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs apologized to Shirley Sherrod on behalf of the Obama administration.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack copped a mea culpa.

Vilsack apologized and offered Sherrod a “unique” position.

Sherrod told NBC’s Meredith Vieira she is not inclined to return. However, she would like to meet with President Obama:

I’d like to talk about the experiences of people like me, at the grassroots level. Let me help him a little bit.

The media circus will eventually move on. But the media will pitch its tent in Baltimore in October, when the NAACP National Board of Directors meets to adopt the resolutions passed at its 101st annual convention.

So the Tea Party resolution will be fresh on voters’ minds as they head to the polls.

Sherrod has slammed the NAACP. She said the civil rights organization is “the reason why this happened. They got into a fight with the Tea Party, and all of this came out as a result of that.”

Andrew Breitbart, who posted the edited video, agrees:

I feel bad that they made this about her. You do see that she mentions a transformation and I’m sympathetic that they went after her and not the NAACP…For the NAACP to conspicuously play the race card for political purposes is wrong, and the goal was to show that here’s evidence of racist behavior.

And as Etta James observed, “If you gonna play cards, baby, well, you have to deal sometimes.”

The NAACP overplayed its hand. It now has to deal with it.

Stacked Deck by Etta James