http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernice-king-martin-luther-king-love-justice-white-house/
Monthly Archives: January 2017
Yoga: The New Evil???
The fate of Dmitry Ugay will be decided in a Russian court of law next week. His crime? He is a yoga teacher. By day he is a computer programmer, and in his spare time he teaches yoga classes. In October, Ugay was invited to give a talk and demonstration of yoga, the philosophy behind it, and the benefits at a festival in St. Petersburg. About 40 minutes into his talk/demonstration, he was grabbed by police, put into a car and taken to the police station without being informed of the charges against him. At the police station, Ugay was told to sign a blank sheet of paper, which he refused to do. Eventually he was released, still without being informed of the charges against him. Two months later he was informed that he is charged with “illegal missionary activity”. Allegedly, three witnesses, two of whom were not at the…
View original post 816 more words
Oil and Gas Lease to Auction 840 Acres Near Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Important insights. Hugs
Oil and Gas Lease to Auction 840 Acres Near Chaco Culture National Historical Park
There is a real push for oil and gas development in and near our national lands. One such effort is underway with new vigor in New Mexico, near the Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
The auction is set for Jan. 25th at 9 a.m.
Land spanning from Rio Arriba and Sandoval counties.
The lease has been challenged and delayed with opposition 3 times. There are real fears of adverse effects on the nearby communities.
“That’s the purpose and reason for fighting it all along,” former Torreon council member Daniel Tso said of drilling’s risk to local residents. “They are opposed to it.”
The Bureau of Land Management, or BLM for short, launched a community outreach effort to receive input from the community. Tribal members raised objections to the lease over concerns for sacred land and worries…
View original post 126 more words
Defining Black Lives Matter – Part 3
Is Black Lives Matter a Racist, Anti-Cop Movement?
“Black Lives Matter.” People of all colors march together chanting it. Law enforcement officers have marched with protesters who support it. Yet, it’s accused by some, including politicians and former chiefs of police, of being “racist” and “anti-cop.” Why?
In looking for answers to that question, maybe this post should be sub-titled how Black Lives Matter is re-defined by opponents because that seems to be the root of the re-defining.
A piece written by Riley Lewis on The Odyssey Online articulates the misunderstanding that people have about Black Lives Matter, and how it comes about because of those who claim support for Blue Lives Matter.
“The defensive nature that surrounds the use of blue lives matter is troubling. This situation doesn’t have to be a duality; either black lives matter or blue lives matter. The lives of cops are just as valuable…
View original post 2,121 more words
Social Self-Defense: Calling all Warriors of the Light
Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr
12 Historic Facts About Martin Luther King Jr.
IMAGE CREDIT:
GETTY
Monday, January 16, marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the federal date of recognition for one of the most important figures in the civil rights movement. Signed by President Reagan in 1983, the holiday marked the culmination of efforts that started just four days after King’s assassination in 1968, when Representative John Conyers of Michigan began 15 years of introducing and reintroducing a bill to establish the holiday. (Stevie Wonder joined the chorus of Americans backing Conyers’ efforts; in 1980 he wrote the song “Happy Birthday” to help create a groundswell of support.)
While it would be impossible to encompass everything King accomplished in a mere list, we’ve compiled a few intriguing facts that may pique your interest in finding out more about the man who helped unite a divided nation.
1. MARTIN LUTHER KING WAS NOT HIS GIVEN NAME.
One of the most recognizable proper names of the 20th century wasn’t actually what was on the birth certificate. The future civil rights leader was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, named after his father Michael King. When the younger King was 5 years old, his father decided to change both their names after learning more about 16th century theologian Martin Luther, who was one of the key figures of the Protestant Reformation. Inspired by that battle, Michael King soon began referring to himself and his son as Martin Luther King.
2. HE WAS A DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY.
Using the prefix “doctor” to refer to King has become a reflex, but not everyone is aware of the origin of King’s Ph.D. He attended Boston University and graduated in 1955 with a doctorate in systematic theology. King also had a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Morehouse College and a Bachelor of Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary.
3. HE TOOK 30 TRIPS TO JAIL.
Dr. King leading a march from Selma, Alabama to its capital, Montgomery, in March 1965. Getty
A powerful voice for an ignored and suppressed minority, opponents tried to silence King the old-fashioned way: incarceration. In the 12 years he spent as the recognized leader of the civil rights movement, King was arrested and jailed 30 times. Rather than brood, King used the unsolicited downtime to further his cause. Jailed in Birmingham for eight days in 1963, he penned “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” a long treatise responding to the oppression supported by white religious leaders in the South.
“I’m afraid that it is much too long to take your precious time,” he wrote. “I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers?”
4. THE FBI TRIED TO COERCE HIM INTO SUICIDE.
King’s increasing prominence and influence agitated many of his enemies, but few were more powerful than FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. For years, Hoover kept King under surveillance, worried that this subversive could sway public opinion against the bureau and fretting that King might have Communist ties. While there’s still debate about how independently Hoover’s deputy William Sullivan was acting, an anonymous letter was sent to King in 1964 accusing him of extramarital affairs and threatening to disclose his indiscretions. The only solution, the letter suggested, would be for King to exit the civil rights movement, either willingly or by taking his own life. King ignored the threat and continued his work.
5. A SINGLE SNEEZE COULD HAVE ALTERED HISTORY FOREVER.
Our collective memory of King always has an unfortunate addendum: his 1968 assassination that brought an end to his personal crusade against social injustice. But if Izola Ware Curry had her way, King’s mission would have ended 10 years earlier. At a Harlem book signing in 1958, Ware approached King and plunged a seven-inch letter opener into his chest, nearly puncturing his aorta. Surgery was needed to remove it. Had King so much as sneezed, doctors said, the wound was so close to his heart that it would have been fatal. Curry, a 42-year-old black woman, was having paranoid delusions about the NAACP that soon crystallized around King. She was committed to an institution and died in 2015.
6. HE GOT A “C” IN PUBLIC SPEAKING.
King’s promise as one of the great orators of his time was late in coming. While attending Crozer Theological Seminary between 1948 to 1951, King’s marks were diluted by C and C+ grades in two terms of public speaking.
7. HE WON A GRAMMY.
At the 13th annual Grammy Awards in 1971, a recording of King’s 1967 address, “Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam,” took home a posthumous award for Best Spoken Word recording. In 2012, his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (it was included decades later because its 1969 nomination was beaten for the Spoken Word prize by Rod McKuen’s “Lonesome Cities”).
8. HE LOVED STAR TREK.
It’s not easy to imagine King having the time or inclination to sit down and watch primetime sci-fi on television, but according to actress Nichelle Nichols, King and his family made an exception for Star Trek. In 1967, the actress met King, who told her he was a big fan and urged her to reconsider her decision to leave the show to perform on Broadway. “My family are your greatest fans,” Nichols recalled King telling her, and said he continued with, “As a matter of fact, this is the only show on television that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to watch, to stay up and watch because it’s on past their bedtime.” Nichols’ character of Lt. Uhura, he said, was important because she was a strong, professional black woman. If Nichols left, King noted, the character could be replaced by anyone, since “[Uhura] is not a black role. And it’s not a female role.” Based on their talk, Nichols decided to remain on the show for the duration of its three-season original run.
9. HE SPENT HIS WEDDING NIGHT IN A FUNERAL PARLOR.
Circa 1956. Getty.
When King married his wife, Coretta, in her father’s backyard in 1953, there was virtually no hotel in Marion, Alabama that would welcome a newlywed black couple. A friend of Coretta’s happened to be an undertaker, and invited the Kings into one of the guest rooms at his funeral parlor.
10. RONALD REAGAN WAS OPPOSED TO A KING HOLIDAY.
Despite King’s undeniable worthiness, MLK Day was not a foregone conclusion. In the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan largely ignored pleas to pass legislation making the holiday official out of the concern it would open the door for other minority groups to demand their own holidays; Senator Jesse Helms complained that the missed workday could cost the country $12 billion in lost productivity, and both were concerned about King’s possible Communist sympathies. Common sense prevailed, and the bill was signed into law on November 2, 1983. The holiday officially began being recognized in January 1986.
11. WE’LL SOON SEE HIM ON THE $5 BILL.
In 2016, the U.S. Treasury announced plans to overhaul major denominations of currency beginning in 2020. Along with Harriet Tubman adorning the $20 bill, plans call for the reverse side of the $5 Lincoln-stamped bill to commemorate “historic events that occurred at the Lincoln Memorial” including King’s famous 1963 speech..
12. ONE OF KING’S VOLUNTEERS WALKED AWAY WITH A PIECE OF HISTORY.
King’s 1963 oration from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, will always be remembered as one of the most provocative public addresses ever given. George Raveling, who was 26 at the time, had volunteered to help King and his team during the event. When it was over, Raveling sheepishly asked King for the copy of the three-page speech. King handed it over without hesitation; Raveling kept it for the next 20 years before he fully understood its historical significance and removed it from the book he had been storing it in.
He’s turned down offers of up to $3.5 million, insisting that the document will remain in his family—always noting that the most famous passage, where King details his dream of a united nation, isn’t on the sheet. It was improvised.
Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to American people
Native Americans Among the Most Vulnerable if Obamacare is Repealed
Obamacare Repeal Could Slash Protections For Native Americans
A full ACA repeal could have “catastrophic consequences” for Native Americans, one health board leader said.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
A repeal of the Affordable Care Act — now in the offing in Congress — could deal a body blow to healthcare for at least 33% of all Native Americans.
The federal government promised free healthcare to tribes in treaties more than a century ago. The legislation that protects and modernizes those treaty promises was rolled into the ACA when it became law in 2010.
With the ACA on the chopping block, this legislation could vanish, tribal leaders say.
“Revoking it will have catastrophic consequences for the Indian health care system,” Jenifer LittleSun, executive director of the Southern Plains Tribal Health Board in Oklahoma, told BuzzFeed News. “This is a direct result of thousands of hours of negotiations with the federal government.”
Nine tribal health boards, the National Indian Health Board, and political groups including the National Congress of American Indians sent a letter to Congress in December, asking to preserve sections that addressed healthcare for tribes.
“Repealing these provisions and the IHCIA now would have disastrous consequences for the Indian health system,” they wrote, with urban and rural health centers losing “3rd party revenue, legal authorities, and life-saving programs.”
Of primary concern are a series of amendments to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA), rules that were bundled in with the ACA. Originally passed in 1976, the law laid out the responsibilities of the Indian Health Service, which provides healthcare to tribes. But it was revised substantially in 2010.
“It really was a ten-year effort to get the amendments done,” Myra Munson, of counsel at Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller, Monkman & Flannery, LLP in Anchorage, who worked with tribes to draft IHCIA amendments, told BuzzFeed News. “It would be an enormous waste of energy to start all over.”
On Wednesday night, Senate Republicans took the first steps towards repealing the ACA by voting for repeal plans as soon as January 27. Similar actions are expected from the House of Representatives.
“If Congress does not repeal the ACA in a surgical manner that would preserve the IHCIA reauthorization provisions, the result could be a lot of harm to the Indian health care system as it works today,” said Geoffrey Strommer, an attorney at Hobbs, Straus, Dean and Walker, LLP in Portland, who works on tribal law and healthcare, told BuzzFeed News.
The amendments to the IHCIA include rules that allow tribes to employ doctors in one state even if they were licensed in another. Another authorized IHS facilities to offer elder care and long-term care, which, “prior to the IHCIA was not a set of programs that the IHS felt that like they had to carry out,” Strommer said.
Two other sections of the ACA make extra dollars available for the chronically underfunded system: One allows tribe-run or IHS clinics to bill Medicare for broader range of services, and another requires that insurance companies or Medicaid be billed before tapping into federal appropriations.
Medicaid expansion, another possible target of the ACA repeal, has brought welcome additional funding to centers that serve Native Americans. It’s also expanded the services that are available.
“From my perspective taking away Medicaid would be devastating,” Donald Warne, chair of the Department of Public Health at North Dakota State University, told BuzzFeed News.
In North Dakota, one of the states that has expanded Medicaid, private insurance has begun to cover many services that the underfunded Indian Health Service cannot provide. If Medicaid were to go away, “We cant even do things like cancer screening or a colonoscopy,” Warne said. “Taking insurance from American Indians or any other population will kill people.
Of the IHS’s $6.2 billion budget in 2016, $807,600 came from Medicaid.
The issue has received some congressional attention: Among the amendments to the budget bill proposed Wednesday night was one sponsored by Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, that sought to protect the Native Americans enrolled in Medicaid.
“Any reduction in federal payments to the Indian health system would jeopardize the lives and well-being of American Indians and Alaska Natives, as most health care facilities that serve Native Americans are already woefully underfunded,” Udall, who is the incoming vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said in a statement. Just in New Mexico, 132,000 tribal members are enrolled in Medicaid, according to the senator’s office.
But Warne worries that tribes do not have the political clout to make their needs heard — federally recognized tribes only exist in 35 states. “We have to contend with the fact that there are lawmakers who are in positions of power who don’t care about American Indian issues because we’re not in their constituencies,” he said. “[In] Kentucky, home of the senate majority leader, there are no American Indians. What does Mitch McConnell care about American Indians? If you look at his voting record he doesn’t care.”
That the IHCIA amendments were piggybacked on the ACA in 2010 was an accident. Lawyers and tribes began working on amendments as early as 1999, but by the time negotiations with Congress were complete, Democrats were gearing up to push Obamacare through.
“The message was clear: it was impossible to push two major health bills. An agreement was reached to combine them into a single document,” Munson said. “We don’t believe that any of the objections that the leadership has had are really directed at Indians.”
The repeal of the Affordable Care Act will leave millions of Americans without health care. The native people are just one segment of the population. Like the native people, millions of students, people working without benefits, and the poor will end up without health insurance. The other problem is that when uninsured folks go to the emergency room for care, the cost of this treatment is absorbed by the hospital and the tax payers. Another important aspect is that if ACA is repealed without a replacement, then previous conditions will not be covered. So anything that you have been diagnosed with would not be covered going forward. This leaves many people in a hole. Families with children and the elderly will find themselves swamped with medical bills.
This would be a great time to write, call, or email your representatives. Tell them to either let the ACA alone or not to repeal it without a replacement. It is vital for our country going forward. Not having healthcare insurance will have a devastating on the lives of many families. Political party affiliation will not protect Americans as they try to avoid financial jeopardy – Republicans will be affected as easily as Democrats.
How to Truly Make America Great Again
Many people are calling for us to give Trump a chance; to not condemn him for what he said on the campaign trail, and for what he’s done since he won the election: for the Twitter rants and for the nominations he’s made, appointing people who seem both unqualified for the office assigned, and who in many cases have long espoused views in direct contradiction to the roles of the departments they have been proposed to head.
But I, and many others, cannot overlook either his words or his actions. For so many of us it is not about politics, as some have suggested; it is about what his administration brings to our country. The misogyny, the racism, the discrimination of immigrants (Muslims and others), anti-semitic views, and the general bigotry he prescribes to. We are one country, but if we descend into hating people we go against the very principles that our Founding Fathers crafted in our great constitution.
If we don’t take a stand to protect others in our country, we will lose the fundamental precepts that we were founded upon. That is why many of us are resisting Trump, his views and words go against all we believe in. To care about others and to act on that care is vital to what our democracy stands for and what the Founding Fathers dreamed of.
In reality, hate crimes have gone up since the election, synagogues are being threatened,the poor are being disparaged, the disabled are being mocked, immigrants are being threatened (the country was founded by Europeans and they killed the indigenous people which makes us great hypocrites). Immigrants are the richness that has fed America through the centuries. They brought to America their skills, dreams and hard work and are part of the reason America is great.
Yes, I realize that this isn’t what Trump says, but based upon my beliefs and others, America is still great. America gives everyone the ability to dream and work hard and move up in our society. America, because of the influence of many immigrants, is still the place that you can work to make yourself rise above where you were born in the social structure of your country of their birth. America is also the country where others care about your education, health, losses, accomplishments and ability to work for yourself and your family, The desire for our children to become more than what we are is paramount to the American dream.
America is not perfect. Hatred is a great deal of the reason why. For instance, because the Founding Fathers could not come to any type of a decision on slavery, they postponed that decision until a future generation would be able to come to a moral and ethical solution. We ended up freeing the slaves during the Civil War. Has America provided minorities equality and the same opportunities that white people have? No. The racism that stumped The Founding Fathers and that crippled the South for many years is still a problem.
As Americans, we must look at the bigotry, racism, and sexism that dwells within our hearts and souls. We need to be honest with ourselves, face it head on, and overcome the desire to blame others for what is not right in our lives. Black people, Jews, and women are not the reason you find your life lacking. They are not the reason you lost your job or don’t have health insurance, or don’t have the family you always dreamed of. But other caring Americans can help and give you support. Often, others can and would advise you, give you a hand, or just assist in ways you can determine.
America has never been perfect but we have continued to try. We haven’t tried hard enough and there are people whose lives can testify to that. Education, hard work and being honest with ourselves will take us to what we desire. By being responsible for all of our actions we negate the habit to blame others for our losses and disappointments.
America must realize that while we are great, we each need to love our fellow citizens despite their religion, color, gender, education level, and socio-economic place in our society. Only then we can rise together to fulfill our dreams and to make America the best it can possibly be.
Honoring Harriet Tubman
National Historic Park Honoring Harriet Tubman May Soon Become a Reality
Harriet Tubman’s residence near Auburn, New York is now closer than ever to becoming an official national historic park, the Associated Press reports.
According to New York state senator Charles Schumer, the Department of the Interior has finalized a land transfer agreement that allows for the National Park Service to create the park. Now, all the Harriet Tubman National Historic Park needs to become a reality is approval from the secretary of the interior. (Congress approved legislation to create the park in December 2014, along with a similar park near Tubman’s birthplace on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.)
In 1859, the famed Underground Railroad conductor moved to the Auburn area—then home to a strong abolitionist community—after New York senator William Seward offered to sell her his home. Tubman lived there with her parents, and in 1896, purchased 25 acres of adjoining land to build a housing community for elderly African-Americans, eventually called the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged. In 1903, Tubman deeded the home to a local church, the Thompson Memorial AME Zion Church, on the condition that they manage the home.
The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park will include several properties, Syracuse.com reports. The land transfer deal approved by the Department of the Interior allows for the Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. and AME Zion Church to sell its ownership of the church and the Home for the Aged Rectory to the federal government. Meanwhile, Tubman’s former home, the Home for the Aged, and a historic barn will be jointly run by the National Park Service and Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. through a preservation easement.
“As a New Yorker and an American, I’m deeply proud to see Tubman Park finally become a reality,” Schumer said in a statement quoted by Syracuse.com. “The Tubman Historic Park in Auburn will be a magnet for visitors that will tell the amazing story of Harriet Tubman’s life, an extraordinary American, and her story deserves to be shared with our children and grandchildren. This park will serve that solemn purpose and preserve her legacy for countless generations to come.”
I Like To Think of Harriet Tubman
by Susan Griffin
I like to think of Harriet Tubman.
Harriet Tubman who carried a revolver,
who had a scar on her head from a rock through
by a slave-master (because she
talked back), and who
had a ransom on her head
of thousands of dollars and who
was never caught, and who
had no use for the law
when the law was wrong,
who defied the law, I like
to think of her.
I like to think of her especially
when I think of the problem of
feeding children.
The legal answer
to the problem of feeding children
is ten free lunches every month,
being equal, in the child’s real life,
to eating lunch every other day.
Monday, but not Tuesday.
I like to think of the President
eating lunch Monday, but not
Tuesday.
And when I think of the President
and the law, and the problem of
feeding children, I like to
think of Harriet Tubman
and her revolver.
And then sometimes
I think of the President
and other men,
men who practice the law,
who revere the law,
who make the law,
who enforce the law
who live behind
and operate through
and feed themselves
at the expense of
starving children
because of the law,
men who sit in paneled offices
and think about vacations
and tell women
whose care it is
to feed children
not to be hysterical
not to be hysterical as in the word
hysterikos, the greek for
womb suffering,
not to suffer in their wombs,
not to care,
not to bother the men
because they want to think
of other things
and do not want
to take the women seriously.
I want them
to take women seriously
I want them to think about Harriet Tubman,
and remember,
remember she was beat by a white man
and she lived
and she lived to redress her grievances
and she lived in swamps
and wore the clothes of a man
bringing hundreds of fugitives from
slavery, and was never caught,
and led an army,
and won a battle,
and defied the laws
because the laws were wrong, I want men
to take us seriously.
I am tired of wanting them to think
about right and wrong.
I want them to fear.
I want them to feel fear now
as I have felt suffering in the womb, and
I want them
to know
that there is always a time
there is always a time to make right
what is wrong,
there is always a time
for retribution
and that time
is beginning.
The African American and their his/herstory with Missionaries.
.
Ways to Oppose Trump
NINE WAYS TO OPPOSE DONALD TRUMP
While we have been dealing with Trump’s election, some great ideas on how to oppose/resist Trump have been delivered. I hope you will select a way to resist that fits you and your life. Not all of us can do everything but most of us can pick one or two ways to resist.
The American Civil Liberties Union, working for all Americans
Using the law to protect Muslims, blacks, the disabled, Women, the poor, the victimized and the targets of hate crimes.
By the way, the war on women never ended
Non-violent protesting and marches are very effective.
Work to end racism
Our actions matter
idealisticrebel 