I Am Assata Shakur!
by Alberta Parish
I am Assata Shakur. I am a reflection of the woman who represents the liberation of all people who are being oppressed in any country through repressive government policies and laws imposed upon them. I am an instrument for change, who want to see all people in the United States and abroad free of any government policy and law designed to rob citizens of individual rights, freedom and property. Even though Assata Shakur and me are years apart in our age and I am not affiliated with any known political or religious organizations, I still believe that people should be free from government persecution due to their political or religious beliefs. According to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2013, all persons living as citizens or legal residents in the United States who are “suspected” of having associations with known terrorist organizations like the Taliban or Al-Qaeda can be denounced as an enemy combatant and detained indefinitely without trial. Even if there is mere suspicion that any persons may have participated in or planned a terrorist attack upon the United States can he be detained indefinitely without the right of habeas corpus, which requires a person to be brought before a judge and jury.
The National Defense Authorization Act does very little to protect any persons living in the United States from indefinite detention on mere suspicion of terrorist activities, real or imagined. Under the NDAA, the definition of a terrorist has been expanded to include any persons who merely express views that oppose the policies of the United States Government as they relate to the ‘War on Terror’, gun control legislation, or constitutional rights violations.
The Homeland Security Act created the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2002 for the sole purpose of preventing terrorist attacks within the United States.
The USA Patriot Act of 2001 expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, which enlarged the number of activities to which the Patriot Act’s expanded law enforcement powers can be applied.
The etymology for the word terrorism derives from the Latin terrorem, which means “great fear, dread”; terrere ”fill with fear, frighten”.
Based on the etymology of the word terrorism, who has caused more fear and dread in the lives of people of color and poor people in the years before and after the formation of the United States of America in 1776 when the original thirteen American colonies announced its independence as a sovereign nation from the British Empire? The United States Government.
Even after the United States Declaration of Independence was created and finally ratified on July 4, 1776 declaring the famous passage, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, human slavery and the mass genocide of Africans continued. If the drafters of the Declaration of Independence really believed that what they had written applied to all men, they would have abolished the enslavement of Africans in 1776. However, human trafficking and slavery was abolished within these United States in 1865, which was a few years short of a hundred years after the Declaration of Independence was declared.
Under current national security provisions as well as new hate crime laws, the definition of a terrorist has been expanded to include any citizen or legal resident living in the United States who may express opinions opposing government policies such as gun control or senseless drone attacks. A person who is affiliated with a religious organization can be declared as a suspected terrorist if he/she promotes and preaches religious beliefs pertaining to biblical End Times prophecy. Even if you promote speech denouncing government policies, which restrict freedom of expression, counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies can use your speech to justify why you may be a potential threat to the security of the United States. Do you still believe your thoughts are safe now?
This is why after forty years, the United States Government has declared Assata Shakur a domestic terrorist, because the definition of domestic terrorism has been redefined and also expanded to include our revolutionary grandparents like Assata Shakur and other political activists like her. The U.S. Government is in the process of rounding up all opposition to its repressive policies, because it wants the least amount of resistance in the event that martial law is declared across this country. Our troops may be marching down a street near you if they haven’t already done so!
Assata Shakur, the aunt of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur, became a political activist during the 1960s declaring why she demanded true freedom and equal rights for all oppressed people of color and poor people then living within the United States at a time when African Americans and poor people were being systematically oppressed and persecuted under what they perceived to be racist and fascist policies imposed on them by the United States Government. Military tanks rolled down the streets in many African American communities. Military troops carrying AK-47s aimed at adults and teenagers alike were common place in black communities during the 1950s through 1970s.
Today, the threat of indefinite detention based on mere suspicion of terrorist activities or affiliations to known terrorists hangs like a dark cloud over most American-born citizens as well as immigrants who are now U.S. citizens. I’ve never had an AK-47 aimed at me during my lifetime, but I can’t guarantee that it won’t ever happen to me. The National Defense Authorization Act now guarantees our indefinite detention based on mere suspicion that you may be a suspected terrorist if you even oppose the unjust arrest, prosecution, persecution and murder of political activists such as Assata Shakur, accused of a crime that she did not commit, even as her own life hung in the balance back in 1973.
COINTELPRO, an FBI program established in the 1960′s, had moved against all political opposition in the United States including the Black Panther Party. Its sole purpose was to destroy the Black Liberation Movement and discredit all political activists in the United States. COINTELPRO had targeted leaders such as Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and other future potential leaders within the Black Panther Party. COINTELPRO with the help of local law enforcement officials gave false and misleading stories to the mainstream media accusing Assata Shakur and other political activists of crimes they did not commit. Assata and other Black Panther members were falsely declared armed and dangerous, which led to activists being murdered by police. COINTELPRO systematically persecuted political activists neutralizing many, and destroying the credibility and lives of Black Panther members and their associates with regular false arrests and imprisonment.
In 1977, Assata Shakur was wrongly convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper and unfairly sentenced to life in prison, plus 33 years by an all-white jury. While in an all-male prison, she feared for her life where she was beaten and kept in solitary confinement. Then in 1979, some of her fellow comrades helped her to escape from prison.
I wonder how many of you so-called Christians or good ole church people would do the same for one of your own sisters or brothers who was unfairly accused of crimes he or she did not commit, unfairly sentenced to life in prison where he/she was being systematically threatened and tortured due to his/her religious beliefs and affiliations? Many of you will be too busy gossiping and destroying your sister’s or brother’s character while he/she literally rots behind bars. In fact, many of you so-called Christians or church people would rather see your sister or brother unjustly enslaved in a state or federal prison before you lift a finger to help him/her escape to freedom.
After fleeing the United States and gaining political asylum in Cuba, she has gone unharmed by the Cuban government and has lived as a free woman for 33 years. Now, the FBI has placed Assata Shakur on the Most Wanted Terrorists list on the 40th anniversary of her freedom from slavery.
On Thursday, May 2, 2013, FBI Special Agent Aaron Ford had announced that Assata Shakur is now on the Most Wanted Terrorist list, and there is a $2 million dollar reward for her capture. FBI Special Agent Ford claims that “openly and freely in Cuba, she continues to maintain and promote her terrorist ideology. She provides anti-U.S. Government speeches espousing the Black Liberation Army message of revolution and terrorism.”
“Joanne Chesimard is a domestic terrorist who murdered a law enforcement officer, execution style,” announced Aaron Ford on Thursday.
As a former Black Panther member, Assata Shakur espoused political opposition to U.S. policies, which deprived predominantly people of color and poor people living within the United States of individual liberties and the right to live freely absent government persecution due to their political beliefs. Assata espoused the right to decent education for African Americans, the right to decent housing, an end to police brutality against black people, an end to the use of deadly force and violence carried out by racist government agencies that oppress people of color and poor people throughout the United States, and an end to all unjust wars especially the war in Vietnam that were perpetuated by the United States Government in order to oppress other people of color around the world.
In her own words that she’d written in a letter to Pope John Paul II in 1998, Assata Shakur stated that she has advocated and still advocates “revolutionary changes in the structure and in the principles that govern the United States.”
Assata wrote, “I advocate self-determination for my people, and for all oppressed people inside the United States. I advocate an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism, and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty,” said Assata Shakur.
If all of the above constitutes as terrorist ideology, then many people including famous people living in the United States currently fall under the category of a domestic terrorist. This means that terrorism as defined by the United States Government has eradicated the First Amendment to the Constitution, which states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The right to be informed of the nature and cause of an accusation, the right to confront witnesses, the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, the right to a fair and speedy trial by an impartial jury, the right to not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law was denied to Assata Shakur, a black revolutionary woman who denounced all government oppression of people of color and poor people living here within the United States of America.
Because she represented revolutionary changes and she opposed government oppression of all people of color and poor people, Assata Shakur and the Black Panther Party became a target by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
One night, Assata along with two other people were stopped in a motor vehicle by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973 where she was shot twice – once in the back – as her hands were held up and was left on the ground to die. However, she didn’t die. Instead, Assata was taken to a hospital where she was threatened and tortured. The shooting in 1973 by state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike is an eerie reminder of what happened during the shooting involving the Boston bombing suspects.
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, two Chechen brothers who immigrated from Russia with their parents to the United States a decade ago, were accused by the FBI of setting off two explosives at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. The official narrative by the FBI and mainstream media is a fabricated account painting Tamerlan and his younger brother, Dzhokhar as domestic terrorists when, in reality, others were the true culprits behind those bombings at the Boston Marathon.
According to a Russian newspaper source, Tamerlan Tsarnaev had attended a CIA-sponsored program in 2012. While visiting with his parents in Dagestan, Tamerlan had attended the CIA-sponsored program at the Jamestown Foundation. He was in Dagestan for six months, according to Russian sources. If Tamerlan was placed on the government watch list as a suspected terrorist after being investigated by both FBI and CIA officials in 2011, then why did he attend a CIA program in 2012?
The FBI and local law enforcement officers also fabricated stories about Assata Shakur, and, as a result, her life was immediately put in jeopardy, which is why New Jersey state troopers started shooting at Assata and other passengers inside the motor vehicle. In her own words, Assata has professed her complete innocence for the past forty years, and has claimed that it was she who was victimized by the New Jersey judicial system and state police, which took the life of one of her friends who was in the vehicle with her.
Harriet Tubman said, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
Born a slave, Harriet Tubman later became an abolitionist and Union army spy during the American Civil War (1861-1865). She is an immortal being, because she played an intricate role in the abolition of institutionalized slavery during her lifetime. After a hundred years, we still remember Harriet Tubman, a black revolutionary woman born a slave but died a free woman in 1913.
Today, I remember Assata Shakur born a free woman on July 16, 1947 (only a few days short of Independence Day), but was later enslaved by a racist political system and forced to flee the United States in order to save her life and continue the struggle for the liberation of all oppressed peoples around the globe from a tyrannical ruling class who has used warfare, public policies, unjust laws, racial segregation, institutionalized slavery, and religious ideologies to keep much of humanity imprisoned/enslaved whether spiritually, psychologically, and/or physically.
Today, the struggle for total liberation against government oppression continues even as the constitutional principles, which have governed this nation ever since the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution was first created in 1789 and ratified in 1791 is under attack by Big Brother government.
Like George Orwell’s totalitarian society in his published 1949 novel entitled 1984, which is set in a placed called Oceania (i.e. Great Britain) in which every citizen was constantly under surveillance by television and camera-like devices called telescreens, which monitored its subjects movements, statements, actions and heartbeat. These telescreens were monitored by the Thought Police who determined if a subject had committed a thought crime. Any thought that opposed Big Brother or the policies of the Inner Party (ruling class) were prosecuted as thought crimes, and were punishable by imprisonment and death.
In George Orwell’s novel, any citizen discovered to have committed a thought crime simply disappeared from society. Sometimes, after being interrogated and tortured by Inner Party law enforcement officials, they’d be released, and would return to their homes and act as though nothing ever happened. Then suddenly, these individuals would disappear again never to be heard from. In other words, they would release these alleged thought criminals only to later kill them, because they dared to have an opinion opposing Big Brother and the Inner Party’s oppressive and repressive public policies. In Orwell’s nightmarish society, Big Brother’s face appeared on huge telescreens accompanied by the phrase “Big Brother is watching you”.
This is exactly what the United States of America is today. It represents George Orwell’s vision of a Police State in which constant surveillance now monitors every person living in the United States. From your credit card transactions to your cell phones to your flat screen HD televisions, you are being monitored and programmed by Big Brother. Every time you type a statement on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, your activities and thoughts are being monitored and recorded. They monitor your videos. Your so-called private medical records are not off limits. Law enforcement don’t need your content to access your medical history. Your bank account is not off limits either. Your therapy sessions are not off limits to the government. Every aspect of our lives are under the control of Big Brother government and its policies, which serves to repress our individual rights and the freedom that you believed you had. Good luck to all of us as we could very well see the total eradication of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and even Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution within the 21st Century. Don’t even utter a word about taking up arms to prevent that from happening, because all your opinions are now being scrutinized as possible terror threats.
I AM NOT A TERRORIST!
I just wanted to clarify myself just in case this article is construed by government officials as being anti-American. I’m actually pro-American far more than those who seek to restrict and abolish my constitutional rights to exercise freedom of speech and of the press, and also to petition my government for a redress of grievances.
Assata Shakur is pro-justice, pro-peace, pro-freedom, and pro-Bill of Rights. If this makes her a domestic terrorist, then what is her accuser (i.e. United States Government) whose policies currently serve to restrict the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the personal freedoms of those who are the governed under Government? Remember, terrorism derives from the Latin root word terrorem, which means great fear and dread. Who is causing more fear and dread in our lives? Is it Assata Shakur or the U.S. Government? I can tell you now that I don’t fear Assata but I do fear certain policies of the United States Government. I’m not a terrorist for saying this. It is simply my truth.
bullet columnist Alberta Parish is best known as a take-no-prisoners Youtube commentator, you can also follow her writings on Freedom Tribune, Myspace and Twitter.
Now, All of sudden Pepsi got a Conscience!
by Zachary Husser
Lil Wayne is just a product of the Black Community not having ourselves together! We, the Black Community have sat on the sidelines as hundreds of our sons and daughters have killed one another and did absolutely nothing as a “Group of People!” In our neighborhoods, we know who the “Killers Are” and so do the police. However, nothing is done by Black Citizens because “They” don’t want to be known as a SNITCH! The Police don’t do anything because keeping “Chaos” and death in the Black Community is good for getting more officers hired and the Black Community more occupied!
It’s easy to take a pot shot at Lil Wayne because he’s ignorant and doesn’t know better in many cases. We can teach the young man history lessons so he can start to love Black Legacy as well as himself. We need Lil Wayne reclamated and used as a positive “Role Model” because hundreds of thousands of Our Young People listen to his lyrics and follow his ways. The Pen is truly mightier than the sword. Words are big guns in the telling of our story and guys like Lil Wayne are pied pipers leading our young to various ends.
Pepsi is the one to make a decision on Lil Wayne? The company that has made millions of dollars off the Rapper. Now, all of sudden Pepsi got a conscience. I know that’s not true because Pepsi and the Record producers “saw” the lyrics before the songs went public and “THEY” let the lyrics about Emmette Till go out on the airwaves. The Corporate folk don’t respect Black Legacy and all the negative Rap about our women and our situations validates what I say here. The Corporate Rappers are in the game for the “MONEY” and they will let any words go forth that hurt every ethnic group except the Jews! You and I know that based on one Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, having to change the lyrics in one of his songs. The Jews as a collective went after the Corporate Rappers and changed a lyric in a song that was already in the radio station rotation. Do YOU read me loud and clear? We can do the same, Why haven’t We???
We have bigger fish to fry and more important issues to resolve. I’m not placing the “Emmette Till” history below anything else that is very critical in our Black Legacy. However, We have to stop the hundreds of killings of Black youngsters by Black youngster right now. What are We going to do??
The Crushing of Black Legacy is a fate I don’t want to see. It’s happening right in front of our faces. We have to come together and Save Ourselves!!
We Must Save Ourselves.
Zachary Cornell Husser is a NY/NJ Community Organizer and member of the Columbia University men’s basketball teams of 1967–70. You can find him on Facebook and Twitter.
The Art of War: City Hall 2013
by Alton Maddox
All of the great political thinkers and writers agree that politics is based on warfare. Similarly, law is based on warfare. Cong. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. was a general. In associating my law practice with “trial by combat” both the New York Times and Newsday considered me a general. Blacks would later refer to me as the “attorney-at-war”.
I always considered each of my cases as a “military campaign”. Money is the mother’s milk of politics, however. A “war chest” is also needed to wage war in courtrooms. During my twenty years of not being “barred” from courtrooms, no Black person ever contributed one dime to a legal defense fund. I had to personally finance each “military” campaign. I am still an attorney but the right of representation belongs to the people. Their right of representation is being abridged while they stand clueless.
Tawana Brawley is a “movement” and not a “moment”. So far, no one has come forward with the money to bankroll and wage a “military” campaign. There have been a few donors, however. A sacrificial lamb must keep this military campaign afloat. The next battlefield will be in Virginia in July 2013. Preparation, in advance, will be the key. The goal is to end “legitimate rape” in the United States. Tawana has already been raped.
Before the United States invaded Iraq, preparation started at the Pentagon with lawyers and not with generals. These lawyers had to develop the rules of engagement. Among other things, these rules world identify the tools of warfare and the combatants. The second stage of the Iraqi invasion involved language.
Both New York and the Commonwealth of Virginia are aware that no court can make a judgment against a minor unless a guardian-ad-litem has been appointed and a summons and complaint has been served on the guardian-ad-litem. Neither of these conditions happened against Tawana Brawley. Under these circumstances, the Full Faith and Credit Clause is unable to be invoked against Tawana Brawley. Virginia and New York are conspiring to bankrupt the “movement”.
New York knows two things. No lawyer will competently represent Tawana in Virginia and the Black community will not support my right to represent Tawana or anyone else especially since I have not been disbarred. Under the law, I can still be referred to as an attorney. Every leading Black and Black selected official supports injustice against Blacks.
This same course of action must be pursued for the invasion of Virginia and the defense of Tawana Brawley in July 2013. In addition to the rules of engagement, the acquisition of the necessary tools of warfare and the identity of the combatants, other concerns will arise such as communications, logistics, intelligence and terrain.
Given the myriad problems of Blacks in New York including “stop, question and frisk”, the high unemployment rate of Black men, gentrification, the misuse of education in the public schools, a policy of racial exclusion in municipal jobs and the political system of electing Blacks after whites have selected, them, every Black person in New York City should have the political consciousness to have his or her political weapon trained on City Hall in 2013.
Before Blacks in New York were emancipated in 1827, New York held a Constitutional Convention in 1821. Blacks would be forever barred from running for City Hall. ”White minority rule” would kick in when Blacks and other despised groups would become the largest voting bloc in New York. See, for example, South Africa.
Before Cong. Powell made his transition on April 4, 1972, he had penned “My Black Position Paper” consisting of 17 points and filed in the Congressional Record, Proceedings and Debates of the 89th Congress, Second Session. Afterwards, he would promote “Black Power” on Capitol Hill. This was too much for the Democratic Party.
The Freedom Party was formed in 1994 to continue the work of Cong. Powell in establishing a delivery system for Blacks in politics. Before his death, Cong. Powell sought to form the People’s Party. He recognized the limitations of the Democratic Party despite his legislative achievements in it for the benefit of all Blacks.
Black people should have felt the necessity of continuing the political mission that had been undertaken by Cong. Powell. This obligation is spelled out in Sun Tzu’s, “The Art of War” which states: ”If one is born into a prominent family that goes back for generations, it is sufficient to deeply consider the matter of obligation to one’s ancestors ….”
After Cong. Powell made his transition in 1972, he left few adherents in Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. This allowed for a takeover of this historic church by the Rockefeller family and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. By his actions, Dr. Calvin Butts would disown Cong. Powell. Butts, like most preachers, oppose “Black Power” in City Hall. ”Jewish power” or “Irish power”, on the other hand, is encouraged.
Despite the overflow crowd of leading Blacks and Black selected officials, in New York, the Freedom Party is making a valiant effort to connect ancestors like Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., Malcolm X and Cong. Powell to our present goals and our future aspirations.
By former Cong. Anthony Weiner possibly announcing that he may throw his hat in the ring, it is obviously not too late for the Freedom Party to be meeting to take over City Hall. In the meantime, leading Blacks and Black selected officials are working out deals for themselves with the Black masses as bargaining chips. They plan to maintain the status quo.
This is the way that plantation politics has worked in New York City for decades. Black people have never had a bargaining agent in politics. Slavery is defined as the absence of bargaining. Through a non-existent Black political convention, we have never even required white candidates, among others, to publicly embrace a Black agenda. Politically, Blacks are rudderless.
Too honest for the White Press and too black for much of today’s Black Press; bullet columnist Alton Maddox upsets the same people and status quo as he did as an uncompromising Defense Attorney. He is also a founding member of the Freedom Party. Please support the movement to Reinstate him. Contact him at c/o UAM P.O. BOX 35 BRONX, NY 10471
Blow’s Message to College Graduates
by Charles M. Blow
I’m scheduled to deliver the commencement address Friday at my alma mater, Grambling State University in Louisiana, so I’ve been giving quite a bit of thought to the America into which these students are graduating.
I must admit that finding hopeful, encouraging things to say has been exceedingly difficult, in part because the landscape at the moment — particularly for young adults — is so bleak.
Here are some of the facts that I’m up against rhetorically and that these students will be up against more literally.
1. Being a college graduate is becoming less exceptional. As the Pew Research Center pointed out in November, “Record shares of young adults are completing high school, going to college and finishing college.” College graduation rates are growing even more in other countries. And Anya Kamenetz noted in The Atlantic magazine in December, “During the past three decades, the United States has slipped from first among nations to 10th in the percentage of people holding a college degree, even as the job market has eroded for Americans without one.”
2. Graduates are emerging with staggering amounts of debt and entering a still-sluggish job market. This is causing them to delay major life decisions, like marriage or buying a home or even moving out of their parents’ home.
A Pew report from February 2012 found that:
“Since 2010, the share of young adults ages 18 to 24 currently employed (54 percent) has been its lowest since the government began collecting these data in 1948. And the gap in employment between the young and all working-age adults — roughly 15 percentage points — is the widest in recorded history. In addition, young adults employed full time have experienced a greater drop in weekly earnings (down 6 percent) than any other age group over the past four years.”
3. Emerging markets, like China and India, have become major competitors for exportable jobs.
4. Income inequality between top earners and the rest of America has risen. And the recovery since the Great Recession has essentially been a recovery of the rich. A recent study by Emmanuel Saez, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, found that:
“From 2009 to 2011, average real income per family grew modestly by 1.7 percent but the gains were very uneven. Top 1 percent incomes grew by 11.2 percent while bottom 99 percent incomes shrunk by 0.4 percent. Hence, the top 1 percent captured 121 percent of the income gains in the first two years of the recovery.”
This was similar to a finding by the Pew Research Center last month:
“During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7 percent of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28 percent, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93 percent dropped by 4 percent.”
5. At the same time, the cost of basic goods has soared. For example, when I graduated from college the average price of a gallon of gas was about $1 (adjusted for inflation, that would still be less than $2), and it’s currently nearing $4. Some people now have to make desperate choices: a tank of gas, a bag of groceries or a bottle of medicine.
6. Our politics have become polarized to the point of paralysis. A Pew poll last June foundthat Americans’ “values and basic beliefs are more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the past 25 years.”
What gives me hope is that despite this dire environment, young people remain more optimistic than anyone else. Some of that may simply be the intrinsic glow of youth, but I believe that with this generation, something more is afoot.
This is a generation of people who have come of age in an era of overlapping traumas — terrorism and wars and recession. They have also come of age in changing times, and are more tolerant and less punitive in their social view. They see this country, and the world, differently than we older folks do. Theirs is an America waiting to be made better, not one that is simply, and irreversibly, getting worse.
According to a CNN/ORC poll released last month, young adults (those 18 to 34) were the most likely to think that things were going well in this country.
I plan to tap into that optimism on Friday, and I hope to reflect some of it back at those beaming faces under square hats.
Dear college graduates, this is your moment and your America. Both need your vision and demand your efforts. Keep your head up and your hopes rising. Congratulations and good luck. You’ll need it, and I’ll be rooting for you. (Flip tassels.)
(This column originally appeared in the May 3, 2013 New York Times under the title “Dear College Graduates…”)
Charles M. Blow is a New York Times Columnist and nationally-known commentator: “I invite you to visit my blog By The Numbers, join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, or e-mail me at chblow@nytimes.com.”
Destiny Chooses Heroes
by Chris Stevenson
Strange days indeed. We began the day with news of a black everyman hero garnering nationwide praise for his split-second actions in the rescue of some young girls who were kidnapped, detained and tortured for well over a decade by an unassuming Hispanic school-bus driver, and close out the day with the report of a rare guilty verdict of a reasonably-attractive looking white female in a First Degree Murder case. Change you can’t depend on.
This is a day we can all learn from. Charles Ramsey proves that destiny chooses heroes, not popularity, not cosmetics, and-try as they may-not the police. Amanda and Jocelyn Berry, Georgina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, found it’s possible a black man can save them from pain and humiliation even though much of the country prefers to believe otherwise. And Jodi Arias found out she’s not Casey Anthony.
Jodi Arias found out she’s not Casey Anthony-cs
HeadLine News’ (HLN) Dr. Drew wrote a column hinting that Jodi was not normal: “Arias never understood love or how to deal with the everyday give and take of a normal relationship,” given these facts what else is there but to kill your lover? At least this is now what she is on record as doing to Travis Alexander. Arias met Alexander in Sept. of ’06, they begin a relationship, two months later she joins his Mormon religion and moves to his state (AZ). They break up in June but their sexual relationship continues. Although calling herself a saleswoman and photographer she waits tables and cleans Alexander’s home for extra cash. In May of ’08 she moves back to California and in June 9th Alexander’s body was found in the shower by friends who said he had been shot in the head, slashed and stabbed almost 30 times. The pistol is evidently a stolen 25-caliber belonging to her grandparents.
Police found evidence linking Arias and some sex footage on his camera. She was actually on her way to Utah to to have a fling with another man she had just met, but she made a detour to Alexander’s home for the last time. An astute Grand Jury indicts her on First Degree Murder on her birthday 6/9/08. Her mannerisms after that would force even the most hardened pro-white juror to rule against her from that point. Most glaring is the changes of stories; initially she tells the media during jailhouse interviews that two masked intruders attacked her and Alexander, in August of 2010 she changes it to self-defense as a result of physical abuse. Now Alexander is supposed to be this evil woman-beater. What a dipstick. No overthinking or over-analyzation needed for this one folks. If I’m on that jury, I’m measuring her for the chair. The hero in the Arias drama is the jury, they had their problems, and lost a few, but they kept level-heads on a no-brainer case (no easy task nowadays) and voted unanimously.
The Castro Brothers L-toR Onil, Ariel, and Pedro- photo Cleveland Police Department-cs
On the other hand, the actions of Ramsey the night before in Cleveland made a huge difference in saving 3 women and one child. In spite of his hearing and responding to Amanda’s screams for help, representatives of the Cleveland Police Department are on a program of gradual revisionist history and began broadcasting she was the only hero the next evening. Me personally I find it hard to ignore a guy who sees a girl trying to get out of the house, he walks up to a porch, kicks the door down with the help of a woman named Angel Cordero, and sets her free and calls 911. Yet another news source The Smoking Gun have dug into Ramsey’s history and found some domestic violence incidents, and jail times for the same offenses. Cleveland police have a lot of balls too for trying to omit Ramsey as a hero. The Smoking Gun needs to make themselves useful and find out how Cleveland police failed to effectively follow-up on several calls from neighbors who say they contacted police in connection with reports of seeing naked women crawling in the backyard of a home with dog leashes being led around by three men-most likely Ariel Castro, Pedro Castro and Onil Castro-with the CPD arriving, but never having went inside. TSG also needs to look into why only Ariel is charged with a crime, and not his two brothers?
People on Facebook were upset by the CPD-snub of Ramsey, but I told them a lot of people still don’t understand how the nation’s police sets race policy for civilians. They literally tell you who to like and who not to like, who’s a hero and who’s not a hero. In cities or towns where there is some racial harmony between blacks and whites, police will step in and have dozens of ways to be racially divisive. They take much of this upon themselves. Racial harmony scares many of these urban cops more than crime does. Brother Ramsey said the “right thing” in public about giving the girls the reward money, but he still deserves a reward also. The Cleveland police refuse to wrap their minds around a hero who looks like most of the blacks they are trained to arrest.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV & Follow his Blogtalkradio interviews on 36OOseconds. Respond to him on the link below.
Why Atheism Is So Important?
by Alberta Parish and Blackson
Atheism is the non-belief in the gods. As a former Christian who once believed in Jesus and practiced belief in the Christian gods, I became an atheist in 2011 when I had an awakening to the reality of a non-existent Jesus, the central figure in Christianity, and also discovered that the New Testament was invented by an ancient Roman elite family known as the Pisos.
Atheism is really an ancient reality that persisted as early as ancient Kemet, and its foundation can be found alongside early religious systems. There was a pharaoh named Akhenaten who demanded that his people worship one god, and he was the father of monotheism in ancient Egypt. Unlike the non-historical Moses, Akhenaten was an actual person that regarded himself as the living image of Aten, which was considered Egypt’s sun deity. Looking at Egypt’s own history, we can try to rationalize why it was so important for Akhenaten to convince people of the one god concept to the point in which he murdered people for their anti-monotheistic beliefs or opinions. In this first major form of a theocratic government, Akhenaten primarily murdered people for having their own beliefs and cultural practices and allowing his guards to murder citizens. This action by Akhenaten was an irrational decision based upon a belief system in a supernatural deity that could not be proven to exist.
Under this ancient theocracy, crimes against humanity were committed, and those who perpetuated these crimes never could prove that their god was a reality and not just an illusion of reality. Based upon this ancient religious system in Kemet, a religious person would never have seen the irrationality of their crimes committed in the name of Aten or Ra. And in this madness, it would take an atheist or group of atheists to point out the irrational behavior perpetuated based upon a belief in a singular deity and the practices associated with that belief system against those who would not accept the one god concept.
The religious mindset in ancient Kemet was the status quo that allowed the irrational executions to take place. If you are the status quo of society, then you would have never seen anything wrong with putting people to death based on an idea that you could not physically prove. What is wrong with this early form of a theocratic government is that the ruler in charge and the society that he rules; that society has no way of validating or verifying that this god in the sky ordered Akhenaten to order the guards to kill these people who were considered enemies of the one god concept. If you could not see the rational plea of an irrational behavior of a society that puts people to death based upon a fairytale belief, then you much like the society had a theocratic religious mindset, and even today this mindset persists in our culture.
Theocracy is a form of government ruled by a single person listening to unverifiable voices to make decisions affecting the citizenry in his society. A perfect example of this is someone telling me, “Alberta, I heard a voice from heaven and this voice said, It told me to tell you to put a billion dollars in my bank account.” Even though Alberta has no way of verifying this voice, she could be put to death if she disobeys. This is what a theocratic society looks like.
Although this is a very simple concept, people that are usually Christians or claim to be spiritual; this concept will fly right over their heads and/or they will see nothing wrong with the voice going to one person being the authority. This is reality for most religious people, because their bible as well as other religious texts claims that biblical characters have heard voices and have been anointed as holy prophets of a god. What is the etymology of anointed? The original Latin word for anointed was inunguere, which meant “to smear”, and therefore, the original meaning of this word had nothing to do with spirituality.
Now, what is spirituality? In the ancient world, the term spirituality was insignificant and non-existent, and only became current in Christian terminology. Therefore, spirituality, the anointing and monotheism/polytheism are all dangerous, because people have been killed based upon these non-existent and insignificant concepts.
Wherever these concepts have appeared in society, mass murder and mayhem followed. Not only in the ancient world, but in modern times. Sharia Law is a perfect example of religious terrorism; and is no different than Akhenaten’s forced belief system in one god, which was followed by the death penalty for all those who did not share his religious beliefs. His beliefs could only be verified by the voices in his head by only him.
The imagined insights, the voices, the premonitions and so-called prophetic words could only be verified by Akhenaten just like today when preachers claim to have prophetic visions of the future that could only be verified by them alone. Tarot card readers, psychic readers, palm readers and dream interpreters are much like megachurch ministers and televangelists all claiming to have access to a god in which no one around them have also witnessed.
The story of atheism with ancient Babylon will be the next chapter in this great story of why atheism is so important for the development and progression of society. If we continue to go down the path of religion and spirituality, then I’m afraid we will not survive as a species on this planet. Until next time.
bullet columnist Alberta Parish is best known as a take-no-prisoners Youtube commentator, you can also follow her writings on Freedom Tribune, Myspace and Twitter.
The Outer Harbor Land Site and Fair Compromise
by Pat Freeman
White Men on Top: Black Women on the Bottom
by Alton H. Maddox, Jr.
Nothing surprises me in Georgia. In the late 1960′s, I was asked to leave the University of Georgia Law School because I threatened to whip a white law student’s “ass”. He used “nigger” to describe a plaintiff in a civil action. Over one hundred fifty white law student burn-rushed the dean’s office. I was the third Black law student in the school’s history. The rest is history.
About three weeks ago, I was in Georgia. A newscast was aired about an interracial couple in Greene County, Georgia living under the same roof. She had a white son. White law enforcement officials made a warrantless, pre-dawn raid on the white woman’s home. The interracial couple was in bed without clothing. It is obviously a crime in Georgia for a Black man to be in bed with a white woman who has a son living under the same roof. Nudity did not help.
They were hauled into squad cars naked. At the police station, they were put in separate holding pens naked. These law enforcement agents withheld clothing from them until after they were “booked”. This couple had already been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment for a crime that they never perpetrated.
I landed in Georgia again this past Sunday. The next morning, I saw a news report about the high school in Wilcox County, Georgia barring interracial proms. This is one hundred fifty years after the 1963 Emancipation Proclamation and forty-six years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia giving a green light to interracial marriage in the United States.
Fifty-nine years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education allowing for integrated education, the state of Georgia is still permitting counties to ban Blacks and Latinos from attending proms and homecoming dances with whites. While there may be interracial marriages now in the Old Confederacy, states’ rights still governs interracial courtships. Slave codes are still in effect.
This was the clincher. Quanasha Wallace was voted homecoming queen of Wilcox County High School. Nonetheless, she was banned from the homecoming dance because she is Black. Moreover, a biracial student was also denied admission to the homecoming dance under the “one drop” rule. Race matters.
White men are bent on having their cake and eating it too. They view all women as property. Black men can get second-picks on Black women but “Miss Ann” belongs to the white man exclusively. Over four hundred years in North America, this has been the legal norm and tradition. Any Black man or woman who has the temerity to complain about this double standard could get the rope. Tawana Brawley has been sent to debtor’s prison for militating against “legitimate rape”.
More than fifty years ago, I was barred from all classrooms at the University of Georgia Law School. Today, I have been “barred” from all courtrooms in New York. My only “crime” in each state was speaking out against the defamation of my race. The more things change the more they remain the same. All leading Blacks and Black selected officials know to keep their noses clean. Where are they now?
Only the United African Movement took the lead in defending Tawana Brawley even though “legitimate rape” is a race question. United African Movement also took the lead in defending the “Central Park 7″ even though it was a carbon copy of the Scottsboro Boys case. UAM’s fingerprints are all over New York.
Join UAM on this Wednesday, May 1, at 7:00 p.m. at Brooklyn Christian Center, 1061 Atlantic Avenue (bet. Classon and Franklin) in Brooklyn. Take the “C” train to Franklin Ave. The keynote speaker will be Min. Conrad Tillard. UAM will honor Tawana and Glenda Brawley in Paterson, NJ on Mother’s Day 2013. Even though they were not required to do so, they have stood up courageously for all Black women. Most Black women, on the other hand, have gone into hiding. Tawana has a court date in Virginia on July 23, 2013.
Too honest for the White Press and too black for much of today’s Black Press; bullet columnist Alton Maddox upsets the same people and status quo as he did as an uncompromising Defense Attorney. He is also a founding member of the Freedom Party. Please support the movement to Reinstate him. Contact him at c/o UAM P.O. BOX 35 BRONX, NY 10471
The Politics of the Political Right have become the Politics of Paranoia.
Charles M. Blow
Out-of-control federal government. An immediate and immense Muslim threat. Gun grabbing, national registries and eventual mass confiscations. Tyranny.
The politics of the political right have become the politics of paranoia.
According to too many of them, the country is collapsing, and the government is not to be trusted. The circle of safety is contracting. You must arm yourselves to defend your own.
It is no wonder, then, that in this environment, a Washington Post/Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday found that while 47 percent of Americans were angry or disappointed that new gun control legislation in the Senate (including the enormously popular background-checks provision) had failed to pass, 39 percent were very happy or relieved. Fifty-one percent of Republicans had those sentiments, compared with 22 percent of Democrats.
This underscores just how frightened of the government far-right Republicans are.
A Quinnipiac University poll this month found that 91 percent of Americans (including 88 percent of Republicans) said that they supported background checks for all gun buyers. But that same poll found that 61 percent of Republicans worried that if there were background checks for all gun purchases, the government would use that information in the future to confiscate legally owned guns.
Furthermore, a January Pew Research Center report found that for the first time since the question was asked in 1995, most Americans now believe that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms.
According to the report:
“The growing view that the federal government threatens personal rights and freedoms has been led by conservative Republicans. Currently 76 percent of conservative Republicans say that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms and 54 percent describe the government as a ‘major’ threat.”
The report continued:
“By comparison, there has been little change in opinions among Democrats; 38 percent say the government poses a threat to personal rights and freedoms and just 16 percent view it as a major threat.”
Incidentally, 62 percent of those who had a gun in their home thought the government posed a threat, as opposed to 45 percent of those without a gun in the home.
In January, the right-wing Web site World Net Daily, writing about a poll the site conducted with the consulting firm Wenzel Strategies, bemoaned:
“The seeds of a tyrannical government are present in the United States, with a citizenry happy with a heavily armed law enforcement presence and a disbelief that their government could do anything that would make them want to revolt, according to a new poll.” The poll revealed “widespread belief” that the Second Amendment “really is for self-protection and hunting, not for ‘fighting back against a tyrannical government.’”
Fritz Wenzel of the consulting firm is quoted as saying that the poll’s finding “demonstrates the downside of more than 230 years of government stability. This survey shows it is hard for many Americans to think of a situation in which their government would need to be overthrown. Of course, the last time there was a serious fight for the future of the federal government, in the Civil War, Washington won.”
And that’s just the tip of it. Last month, Glenn Beck described the makeup of what he believed was the coming “New World Order.” It did not bode well for America.
“I think you might even have some Nazi influence in the United States, unfortunately, because we’ve had it before. And it will happen there and there, I think,” Beck said, placing dots over the Northwest and the Northeast on a map.
Discussing the Muslim Brotherhood’s “influence,” Beck said:
“I think there’s going to be a slight influence in South America and Mexico and in the United States. I think it is going to be more significant than anyone imagines, and I believe that you are also then going to be co-ruled by a thug-ocracy of this part of the world. And I think it’s going to be, at least in our case, I think it’s going to be China. China will be the balance of our power. They will use Muslim, um, Islam as the real enforcers that they will then help us and whoever is in power in our country. We will be ruled by an American, but it will be a technocrat that will answer to China. And, they will stomp things out and use Islam as much as they have to, to get rid of anyone who’s standing up, I think.”
O-kay.
And Beck delivered this prattle in a suit jacket, not a straitjacket.
This is the constant stream of desperate drivel that has fostered a climate of fear on the far right that makes common-sense consensus nearly impossible.
(This column originally appeared in the April 24, 2013 New York Times under the title “Politics of Paranoia”)
Charles M. Blow is a New York Times Columnist and nationally-known commentator: “I invite you to visit my blog By The Numbers, join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, or e-mail me at chblow@nytimes.com.”
Current NBA Player Jason Collins, a ten (10) year plus veteran in the NBA wars, admits he’s Gay
in an interview with Sports Illustrated. How about that and what do you think about the announcement coming today?
by Zachary Husser
I’m happy for anyone who makes an announcement about something they’ve hidden for decades if it makes them feel better or free! Just weeks ago, Earvin Johnson III, the son of Earvin “Magic” Johnson, made a public announcement declaring his sexuality. The Younger Johnson let the “World” know he was Gay and proud of it. The Young Johnson was 21 years old, but Jason Collins is about to be 34 years old. I mention both announcement to put things in prospective for all of you and myself. Additionally, Earvin Johnson, Jr. is not a “Public Figure,” but Jason Collins is.
Well, I don’t believe the NBA is so “Tolerant” because we’re dealing with the Good Old White Boys Club and based on previous ways the owners have dealt with any diversity, I don’t believe any Team in the NBA is going to sign Jason Collins to another contract. I believe Jason just ended his career in the NBA, but we’ll see if I’m correct or wrong when the 20013-20014 NBA Season starts. Will Jason Collins be on a NBA roster? The signing of another contract to a NBA Team will tell All of Us about the NBA Diversity claim that Commissioner Stern made! I can’t wait to see the answer, but I do salute Jason Collins for being Brave. However, it doesn’t matter to me if he made an announcement or not. I say everyone’s sexuality choices are their business and I have absolutely nothing to do with that personal business! What do YOU think??
In the Interest of Diversity in Our Lives.
Zachary Cornell Husser is a NY/NJ Community Organizer and member of the Columbia University men’s basketball teams of 1967–70. You can find him on Facebook and Twitter.
