Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

On my father’s side my family fought against each other in the American Civil War. Protecting ideals, a way of life, family and one’s community was on the forefront of their minds and hearts. With such a burgeoning nation, Americans were beginning to live far from the original thirteen colonies. Their was expansion to the west towards the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and south towards the Floridian panhandle. Life was quite differentiated across different swaths of the United States. In the north, the yankees were focused on growing trade and communication with the world, expanding the military and  beginning to more seriously address the sin of slavery. Slavery was a topic of discussion gaining popular ground. In the south, life was much more tranquil. Plantation owners controlled huge parcels of farm land and developed their crops for sale in America and beyond its shores. Their farm lands were worked by human beings who were owned and directed to work for their masters...

What is to be said and done to a people bereft of land and opportunity? Historically despised by many. Bottom of the barrel. Off-scouring. Fighters. Pushed around. What is to be said of a small people whom are typified as barbarians, rock throwers, harbingers of terrorism, rebel-rousers, aggressors, non-conformists, hijackers, an implacable people? Palestina. Palestine.  There are always two sides to a coin. In Gaza, what amounts to a high-tech security prison, nutritional and caloric intake is reduced purposefully for the whole population. This means that there is not enough healthy food apportioned to each Palestinian to grow strong, ruddy and vibrant. Neurological and physical health is dealt a heavy blow. According to established water authorities within Gaza, ninety percent of the potable drinking water is contaminated and not fit for drinking. Infrastructure that deals with water safety and its distribution was bombed out long ago and peters forward. The wo...

The concept of servant leadership is an ideal. It trumps selflessness and sands down profit-seeking motives to the degree that the concept is exercised in our unique heart and minds. An inspiring way to act is certainly done by putting others first before oneself, yet in actuality this reality is not rampant across the land.  How can we make it an ever increasing reality in our country? What short and long-term value can people find in being of great service to others?  How does our culture help or disregard raising kids with a focus on serving the community creatively? The cultures in which we are brought up and eventually help sustain sees it as a foreign concept. Many of us live in a reality where we must work five to six days a week to make ends meet. There is no time for idealistic dreams when we are struggling to pay the rent or put food on the table. It would be quite a luxury it seems to have a lifestyle of service. Even people who are committed to se...

(updated 12/22/15) How do we go about creating and sustaining awareness? How does a person… a community…foster a ripple effect of social responsibility? How shall I be an agent of positive disruption in my community? Why not? Life is short and the days fly by. The Boss (Springsteen) said that we can’t start something if we are always worried about our own world falling apart. He is right! No time to sit idly by or ‘wallow in the mire.’ No longer content to hang back, it is always the time to put the shoulder to the plow for others, especially those who are needy, disadvantaged or forgotten.  It is a new day. There are diamonds where people see them not and there is apathy where all seems well.  The land is ripe for positive disruption. It is time to band together. I story dance a new song You must also Releasing thought and feeling Channelling hope and pain Making amends where it is needed Doing the right thing first Banding together c...

My children, my personal goals, the community projects I strive to bring up to speed and the students I work with fill my mind and heart.  U nless I am writing or driving,  sitting on my derriere is something I am not a big fan of. It is hard  for me to sit still and watch meaningless 'entertainment' on television. I don’t own a TV on purpose. Yet, every once in a while there IS something good on TV. i don't know how the Lords of Television manage, but they actually got something worthwhile on the airwaves. R ecently, I managed to get the gist of what appears to be a show with a great purpose,  Pitbulls and Parolees  on Animal Planet’s network.  ‘Short story long,’ it is about a woman who has taken it upon herself to rehabilitate pit bulls with pit bulls. That is to say, actual dogs who have been maltreated, neglected or abused with ex-convicts looking for a second opportunity to empower themselves. Tia Torres leads the pack as a master dog tr...

edited 11/18/15 ;) My graduate degree is in Special Education, my bachelor’s degree is in Political Science.  As an entrepreneur educator, delivering practical, natural solutions that empowers a student or group of students is in my best interest as a performance-based teacher. Amongst other things, this means creating or putting forth natural, rapid and practical interventions that not only address topical, surface concerns, but reach the crux of the matter. This strategy is the lifeblood of my coaching work. Why so? Well, delivering stellar results in breathtaking speed is what good business is all about. As I go about in completing my business plan to start my first non-profit organization called ‘Just Life Skills,’ I have outlined my mission statement in such way that it transcends my work as a clinical educator and allows for a plentitude of projects which I have in mind to be fomented and funded. These include my work with children and adults on the autism spectru...

…and Ty gave me the word ..and it helped sustain my heart. There was little sleep. Constant discomfort and uncertainty I had. Yet, I read this word and it gave me some rest. …and my sisters.. and my mother..troubled and not knowing My pain was great and I hid it. “Only be strong and of a good courage” ..and I held back my tears in the daytime. Lovingkindness fears not It holds its stance sending ripples of energy hitting and disarming hearts long since drugged numb and my body was drained constantly and it was hard for me to breathe and i felt my energy leave me I found it hard to replenish it The fountain was being tapped by 244 souls ..and Pastor Pat, now my friend and who is no Pastor,  but a father of ten and a crack head said, ‘I need your soul!’ and they all gravitated to me eventually …and then I recalled my time in church when I was a boy how the energy was drained from me I had to sit outside the congrega...

Today is Friday, November 12, 2015 ..and what happened that made you change your mind?  and how far did you go to change your heart? and what moved you to let go?  and how is it that you go to sleep?  how do you rise?  and what is it at mid-day that makes you tick?  and how do we tell each other how we feel when we walk by each other? and what makes you turn away? and what makes you not care? and what makes you check out? and what makes us check in? It was slow at first, but I held my stance and gravitation took hold.  Soft and hard polished edges a clear purpose a settled heart and a bed that is made make it easy to make new friendships when the time and space is there.  All my new friends were either sons and fathers. Soon enough I will go up to bat for my new friends. Let the chips fall where they may and may God have our back as we move cautiously forward in the eye of a peculiar hurricane. ...

Today is Tuesday, November 3, 2015 Yesterday at 7 pm est, I joined a weekly special #tweetchat on Twitter for the first time, #LeadWithGiants. It was a lot of fun. Felt like I was back in school! Being the newbie I thought I would just be a listener and occasionally chime in…well, at least that was my intention:) I found it hard to keep quiet, especially after Dan Forbes (as in Mr. #LeadWithGiants), reached out to me in such a welcoming fashion, as he does to all. His humble, outgoing attitude is replicated by the other leaders in the chat and this adds to an open, dare I say, nurturing atmosphere (teacher speak, bear with me). The topic at hand was ‘consensus,’ and everything that goes with it: finding common ground, the traits of effective leaders, the size of  teams being led, orchestrating through differing politics, titles, departments, challenges, participation by all, solution-focused mindsets and last but not least, sustaining an environment where individual tho...

Today is Monday, November 2, 2015. Am I concerned like others about the health of the charter school education culture at ‘Failure Academy’ in Fort Greene, Brooklyn?… I mean ‘Success Academy’ as they call themselves? Let me begin by venturing forward that the onus is on the educators, on the education culture and the system that stems from it to adapt and morph to the students, rather than the students to it. It is the mark of a true clinical educator to humble themselves to the ground, if it must be, in order to support the complete growth of the student. Not the students to the education system. This is how the best of us do it. This is empathy with all pistons firing. This is what it means to be ….#HotterThanFireforOthers. Yet, it appears that high-mindedness and apathy rule the day in the overly-principled halls of madness existent in the minds of the administration of these Brooklyn charter schools. This foundational truth is lost on people such as: CEO of t...

“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned.” Song of Solomon 8:7 I was born in La Jolla, California with a silver spoon in my mouth, though I have gotten to points where i had no spoons:) My late-father was a U.S. Marine and a soldiers soldier..he became a 101st Airborne Ranger, a Screaming Eagle as they call themselves. Mom is a math teacher of teachers. Dad would wake me up at 5:30 every morning to do calisthenics and run before school. He’d get me out of bed and gently walk me to the shower. He’d turn it on and leave. Of course, I would sleep standing up on leaning on the towel rack and he’d have to come back in and prompt me to go into the shower. In the middle of our run we would stop at the church and pray, then continue running. Mom is Cuban-American and was/is the family therapist for my sisters and I. She was always my strongest advocate through ...