As you all should know, last Thursday was Creative Loafing's first official Political Party. And, boy, did we get the ball rolling with people discussing how they feel about the way Charlotte does what it do. WBT's Keith Larson (seen on right in photo) made a comment about the direct relation between the performance of children in school and society and two-parent households. Basically, if you're a product of a single-parent household, which I am, then there's a greater chance you'll end up in the wrong part of the system. Now the real kicker was when he also stated that he has a young son AND is divorced. Way to drive that theory home there, Keith! Our own Tara Servatius did a great job at moderating. She ordered herself a drink from the stage and kept everyone within two minutes, well, everyone except fellow columnist John Grooms. Most impressive was Tone-X, who interjected on how most children in our school system are trained instead of educated. He used the story of a seal with a fish to illustrate his point: the seal who takes the fish is trained; the seal who is taught how to get his own fish is educated. A valid and powerful point. I don't think the forum was meant to just touch on the problems impacting Charlotte's African-American community, but every issue from poor test scores, which, as Nsenga Burton (in middle in photo) said, don't really reflect the intelligence level of the taker, but their test-taking skills (rote memorization, mainly), gun control, and the parental concerns touched home. Overall, though, I think the bar has been set for further discussions amongst the whole Charlotte community. Maybe it'll begin by neighborhood, then who knows? Maybe we could get Pat McCrory to attend and include the government in the dialogue.

Photo by Catalina Kulczar