Last Night Michael Blake the Director of African American and Minority Business Outreach from The White House Office of Public Engagement and some of Chicago’s Community & Political leaders held a town Hall meeting at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago’s South Side. The meeting was to focus on the most vital issues concerning the African American community of which the most crucial subject's were unemployment, violence and government programs. Some of the guest speaker’s & representatives for the Community included… Congressman Danny Davis, Cook County Board Commissioner President Toni Preckwinkle, Senators; Connie Howard & Mattie Hunter and many more.

I was there in attendance to gain a better perspective on how our president is dealing with our community issues and also to represent MFN: Multifacet Network & MFN LIVE BROADCASTING.

The beginning flow of the meeting went very well; in fact it was moderated by Matt McGill of Radio station WVON. Congressman Danny Davis (The first to speak) outlined monies that’s been earmarked in the Black community, and after Toni Preckwinkle and a few other speakers stated their case, Michael Blake took main stage and quickly noted the progress of the Obama Administration concerning African Americans. He commented on the fact that we had lost 760,000 jobs p/ month when Obama had became president and just last month (March) we created 250,000 jobs and concluded that the last 4 months had the greatest job growth since 1983.

Good Conversation entailed throughout the meeting until the end when the President’s policy in Libya was continuously brought up. Although the overall meeting featured talk about allocated monies, contracts and jobs, when Libya came up, all hell broke out. Michael Blake gave his opinion but the crowd would not let go of the issue when they were there to focus on the African American community. This foreign concern was centered on the defense budget which has been cut for the first time in presidential history.  All hell broke out because Blake was not allowed to answer the Libya questions & comments. I must mention that Michael Blake was there to represent urban Issues and he was there to take information back to the president, not about foreign policy.  As the questions continued, they turned to mostly comments as a couple of folks read commentary on the bombing of Africa (Libya) which lead to emotions running high. The meeting got a bit out of control as it got close to eight-o-clock when the meeting was to end and as many participants (whom were waiting to ask their questions) got impatient and eventually stormed towards the front of the room where Michael Blake, Matt McGill & others stood trying to gain control. At the end, it turned into a debacle of people yelling and screaming as the stage front got stormed as the meeting was called.

Through it all, I was fortunate enough to collaborate with Congressman Danny Davis and other community leaders on MFN & MFN LIVE’S Concept which was some key networking on my part.

Overall, the meeting was enjoyable and very informative thanks to Michael Blake giving out the vast amount of information to the demanding crowd and I saw other’s networking during the time we had to do so.  

Michael Blake also informed us on the “11&11 Initiative” in which in 2011 he wants to add 1 million people to his list to help him host events across the country. He also told everyone- in reference to Obama… “Stop trying to beat this man up as if he is the almighty and look at the alternatives”  and to “walk people through what is happening right now-keeping in perspective of the magnitude of the moment”.

IN RETROSPECT- Here are the Programs Michael Blake noted that Barack Obama started to aid African Americans which we can all tap into…

1.       1. The Minority Business Development Agency- MBDA @ mbda.gov

2.      2. The Mortgage for Aberrant Program: 3-6 months and your mortgage can be held /delayed payment.

3.      3. Pathways out of Poverty Program

4.      4. Small Business Lending Fund: A program lending monies to small banks to get the monies out the door to business's in the community.

5.       5. From The Cradle to the Career: A program designed to save teachers jobs.

6.       6. Race to The Top Program: 48 states out of 50 have adopted the “Race to The Top” program.                                                                                                 7.  progress.barackobama.com - Designed to show the real effects of the steps President Obama and Democrats have taken to rebuild our economy

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7.       8. And last but not least, the official website… www.whitehouse.gov/africanamericans - the first website ever to be created by a President for the African American community.

Take note of these programs and look them up & or pass them on to anyone you feel may benefit from them.

During the meeting, Michael Blake also gave all of his contact Information which included his email address & telephone number.

Michael Blake

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Phone: (202) 456-4772 

 MEETING AGURNED!