Anthony Dean-Harris

I'm writing this while sitting in a coffee shop in the West End of Atlanta. There are a lot of things that are typically uncharacteristic in this sentence. First of all, I don't usually leave the house since my unemployment, but I resigned myself to the fact that I had to get back to the city once again and do so I have. I'm happy with my decision and I'll say why later. The other reason weird thing about that sentence is that there is apparently a coffee shop in the West End of Atlanta. It's not exactly something that you hear about all that often. Gentrification is happening across this shabby corner of the city, but it's happening in a weird sort of way. Friends have been warning me about the coming of the white folk who will pounce upon this region so close to downtown and desperate for fixer-uppers and yet I'm sitting in this coffee shop and I'm seeing an interesting cross section of Negros. The blipster, the faux thug, the new buppie, the o...

Embedded video from CNN Video This story has been sitting on my heart for a while now. I just never could figure out how to approach it. I still don't, really. My parents used the belt on me. They kept me in line. They spoke at all the right times and the used the belt at all the right times. I adhered to good Christian values. I adhered to values of honor. From there, I got my work ethic, my love of people and systems, my analytical mind, and my writing ability (because when you are sat down a lot for lessons and lectures, you tend to notice narrative structure). I was raised well and I've said often that I would raise my children the same way my parents raised me (which is something I don't hear a lot of people say about their parents). God blessed me with my parents and the rest of my family. I know this more and more everyday, especially when I keep reading about desperate families across this nation who feel they have no options. Maybe we can blame Maury Povi...

I was speaking with a friend who works at a bookstore. He mentioned to me that business was doing unexpectedly better than the store's projections. While some stores are doing all they can to preempt a lackluster fourth quarter, I can't help but think these efforts may be for naught. People are spending less, that's just a given. Still, Drake Bennett of the Boston Globe has an article about what a 21st Century depression would look like . It's an excellent read and from the look of it, most of the criteria he notes are happening already. At least I know for certain that I'm a recent college graduate living in the room over the garage. That sentence alone jostled me. But what really made sense to me in the article was Bennett noting that in economic downturn, cheap escapism is key. I have addressed this before as it relates to alcohol when the bottom was first beginning to fall out. But with my book schilling friend noting the increase in sales, media may...

Watch CBS Videos Online President-elect Obama did 60 Minutes last night and America was watching . While I enjoyed watching the interview, something sort of stuck with me about it: then Sen. Obama's crappy apartment. There's an optimistic side at looking at this or a darker, more suspect side to it. It depends on where you stand in the Obama camp. One could believe the then Sen. Obama was (and still is) an extremely down to earth person who lives simply and doesn't need for many possessions. It's a happy thought and I like thinking this is so. Yet, from time to time, I get a little paranoid about my government. The Obamas live in a grand home in a good neighborhood in Chicago. It's probably good for a family and shows the life of a guy who has accomplished much politically and as an author of two bestselling books. The fact that he has a DC apartment so bad his staffers scoff at it could show that he is a simple man who knows he's not raising a family in ...

I've covered this topic before , but I'd like to mention it again as a refresher. When one looks at the current landscape of media, specifically television and film, it's easy to see the appeal to the common man is rather... lacking. With a nation touting the return of the middle class, its art certainly does not reflect it. All of the major networks feature programming that focus on the exceptional. ABC has its exceptional doctors , its exceptional lawyers , and its nimble celebrities. NBC and CBS are more grounded with their legions of police procedurals. NBC even has a show that focuses on what happens when the ordinary becomes extraordinary . Still, this week, the box office reflected that it appeals to when the extraordinary is more ordinary . Our cultural landscape is seriously coming into question. Some time ago, I wondered if peasant literature had run its course . Yet we see now an intermingling of these notions. In doing so, we come back to the universal...

I'm not sure if it's me getting older and recognizing these things now or if this is just how information is spread in this internet era, but I didn't know there was an opposition radio response. I knew every Saturday, there was a presidential radio address. I didn't know the other side had one. I figure as many people heed it as those who listen to the opposition State of the Union address. Actually, less than that. Who listens to the radio? That's why this is sort of important. There are many who have said that President-elect Obama must work the same way President Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression in the face of our economic crisis. Obama lacks the experience FDR did before reaching office. Obama got into the Senate and immediately started running for president. FDR was at least governor of New York. Still, both of these men know how to reach the people. FDR started his fireside chats over the radio as governor and continued them thr...

With talk of America's economic situation saturating all media and probably most of your own personal concerns, it probably doesn't help that I'm going to talk about it again now. Well, I'm doing that anyway. I have talked about this before , but I feel I may need to mention this again. The trend in America for some time reinforced the idea that people don't like paying for things. Pardon me for being the kind of writer who will tell you the painfully obvious in more paragraphs than necessary. The thing is, we really don't like paying for things. Credit has instilled the idea that things can be paid for later. It birthed the phenomenon of living outside of our means. The internet certainly didn't help matters, especially with the introduction of broadband. Now the independent record store has to fight with free media , economic policy has to work with an "up is down" philosophy , purists are holding to principles that don't exist , an...