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Vol. 12 Issue 11…Dedicated to the Dialogue on
Race…March 15, 2009
Venue for an Artist
Hunger
By Leslie Powell
They go to bed hungry more often than not,
Their parents make do with whatever they've got.
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich can be a treat,
For hungry children roaming the street,
Digging in garbage cans, looking for food,
Feeling alone and in a depressed mood.
Hungry at night, they can't get a good rest.
The next day at
school, they can't do their best.
There's a problem
here in the
And in
We must support relief efforts and community food banks.
Helping starving children will be enough thanks.
We must band together, one and all
To end world hunger,
wherever it calls!
About
Me: Leslie Powell is an award winning poet who writes about national and
world issues and spirituality. Leslie invites poets and others to join her in
taking personal responsibility for creating a climate of tolerance and world
peace. For more on this talented poet and causes on which she writes, visit http://peacepoem.sitesvp.com.
Fred Shuttlesworth
Born
Freddie Lee Robinson on March 18, 1922 in
Shuttlesworth was Membership
Chairman of the
Locally funded, ACMHR used
litigation and direct action to pursue its goals of equal rights and
integration. ACMHR sued the City of
On December 25, 1956, sixteen
sticks of dynamite exploded under Shuttlesworth's bedroom window, heavily
damaging the residence; Shuttlesworth somehow escaped unhurt. As Shuttlesworth
emerged from the wreckage, a police officer, who also belonged to the Ku Klux
Klan, told him, "If I were you I'd get out of town as quick as I
could." Shuttlesworth replied, "I wasn't saved to run."
The following day Shuttlesworth
led a group that integrated
In 1957 Shuttlesworth, along with
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Rev.
T.J. Jemison, Rev. C.K. Steele, Rev. A.L.Davis and Bayard Rustin, founded the
Southern Leadership Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration,
later renamed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The
organization adopted the motto, "Not one hair of one head of one person
should be harmed," to underscore its commitment to nonviolence. Despite
his combative, blunt-spoken and headstrong demeanor, which frequently
antagonized his colleagues and opponents, Shuttlesworth embraced the
nonviolence philosophy. However, he was not shy in asking King to take a more
active role in leading the fight against segregation and warning that history
would not look kindly on those who gave "flowery speeches" but did
not act on them.
Personally fearless, even as
other committed activists were scared off or mystified by his willingness to
accept the risk of death, Shuttlesworth vowed to "kill segregation or be
killed by it." In 1957, when Shuttlesworth and his wife attempted to
enroll their children in an all-white public school in
Having alienated some members of
his congregation by devoting as much time as he did to the civil rights
movement, at the expense of weddings, funerals and other ordinary church
functions, Shuttlesworth moved to
Shuttlesworth participated in the sit-ins against segregated lunch counters in
1960 and took part in the Freedom Rides in 1961. In 1963, Shuttlesworth began a
campaign to desegregate through mass demonstrations-what he called
"Project C" (Confrontation). One of the 1963 demonstrations resulted
in Shuttlesworth's conviction of parading without a permit from the City
Commission. On appeals the case reached the US Supreme Court. In its 1969
decision in Shuttlesworth v.
Determined to force the city's
authorities and business leaders to recalculate the cost of segregation, he was
helped immeasurably by
In 1966, Shuttlesworth organized
the Greater New Light Baptist Church and founded the Shuttlesworth Housing
Foundation (1988) to assist families who might otherwise be unable to buy their
own homes. Named President of the SCLC in August, 2004, he resigned later in
the year, complaining that "deceit, mistrust and a lack of spiritual
discipline and truth have eaten at the core of this once-hallowed
organization."
In January 2006, Shuttlesworth
announced his retirement from the ministry. He delivered his final sermon on
March 19, 2006 at the Greater New Light Baptist Church. He and his second wife,
Sephira, moved to downtown
Father of four and pastor to many, he was the subject of a 1999 biography by
Andrew M. Manis, A Fire you Can't Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of
Birmingham's Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. On July 16, 2008, the
By John Burl Smith
The present international
financial meltdown was precipitated by many things, but vertical integration
exacerbated and amplified the range and breath of the damage. Deregulation of
the financial industry allowed vertical integration to run amok. Banks,
brokerage houses and insurance companies engaging in unrestrained acquisitions
and mergers grew to where they are viewed as "too big to be allowed to
fail."
A vertically integrated business
is one in which all stages of production, from acquisition to retail, are
controlled by one company. An example is the oil industry, which finds and
develops the wells, pumps and transports the oil then refines and sells various
oil products. For oil, that may work well but such dominance in some industries
can be disastrous.
Case in point is food production,
a very vital market, where vertical integration has run amok. This intrusion is
seen as an even greater threat to world stability and survival than in
financial matters. Concern over the predatory behavior of corporations that
dominate agriculture and their attempts to corner the entire food chain from
seeds to sales represent the next worldwide crisis. The Pesticide Action
Network (PAN), a network of over 600 non-governmental organizations,
institutions and individuals in over 90 countries, believes that the control of
the manufacture and sales of agrichemical in the hands of a few large
multinational corporations (MNCs) -- Syngenta, Bayer, Monsanto, BASF, Dow and
DuPont which control 85 percent of the pesticide market, valued at $30 billion
-- place the world's food supply at risk.
The other side of the food coin
reflects that three companies -- Cargill, Archer Daniels and Bunge -- control
90 per cent of the global grain trade, while DuPont and Monsanto dominate the
global seed market. Eleven firms account for about half the world sales of
seeds, of which a quarter are genetically engineered seeds. Monsanto, based in
Those fighting domination of the
world's food chain by agrichemical and agribusiness multinational corporations
with deep pockets recognize that vertical integration has allowed more
aggressive and assertive marketing techniques, similar to what happened on Wall
Street after deregulation. The world's challenge is to find ways to oppose the
takeover of the entire food production cycle by MNCs using proprietary strains
of DNA, the sale of seeds to farmers, and the distribution and retail sales of
food products in supermarkets.
As Javier Souza Casadinho of the
Center for Studies on Appropriate Technologies in Argentina pointed out,
"'Transnational corporations are buying up companies and contracting with
food producers (farmers) which allow them to determine what is produced, how it
is produced, for whom it is produced and at what price and quality." He
went on, "Vertically integrated corporations can determine what kind of
technology is used in food production, produce the inputs (seeds) that farmers
need and facilitate genetically engineered crops. Globalization favors the
multinationals and big corporations, and as markets become dominated by these
giants, vertical integration destroys the free market by dictating profits and
what is produced. Vertical integration also restructures the production process
and leads to a mono-culture. Self-sufficient family farms and individual
livelihoods are integrated into corporations through production and market
arrangements, giving rise to increasing dependency among farmers for inputs
from the larger corporations."
"Currently, the world is watching the destruction of the genuine free
market as farmers' markets, hawker centres, and night markets -- where everyone
is on a level playing field -- are being driven out of the marketplace."
According to Rafael Mariano, the national chairperson of the Kilusang
Magbubukiding Pilipinas (KMP), a nationwide federation of Philippine
organizations of peasants, small farmers and farm workers and subsistence
fisher folk, "New strategies are needed to counter these changing power
structures. Adapting sustainable organic farming systems is necessary to stop
the dependence on trans-nationals for inputs and regain control over the seeds
and technology."
What is happening with food production is a parallel of the current worldwide
financial crisis and should give the world pause. At the peak of their power
and before the mortgage meltdown, vertical integration was great for Wall
Street, because money was plentiful and credit cheap. Those running the world's
finances refused to take serious any evidence of a coming catastrophe. The
difference between money and food is the world can survive while the financial
markets are brought back, but if a blight or terminator seed goes haywire, what
will the world eat?
Vertical integration run amok in the financial industry brought the world to
the brink of depression. Control of the world's food chain by a few
multinationals corporations in the face of a similar breakdown spells worldwide
famine and starvation. Then, there is the added concern of unforeseen and
unintended consequences (mutagenesis) GMOs may introduce. The world trusted
greedy people running its finances with disastrous results. People cannot
afford to have such a life sustaining industry as food production controlled by
a few greedy companies that are already "too big to fail."
A Slow Hand of
Help for
By John Burl
Smith
Faced with worldwide ridicule at
the knowledge that Haitian children are eating "mud cakes" to stave
off starvation, Haitian officials and the international community differ on
what is needed. Haitian officials (2-28-09) echoed the sentiments of Haitians
fighting the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) plan to
deport over 30,000 Haitian nationals back to the
The war of words cooled down slightly with the announcement that U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton would
visit
ICG's 16-page report pointed out that
Such indecision, according to the
ICG, could open the door to "spoilers," drug traffickers, corrupt
politicians, gangs and businessmen who prefer a weak government to create
problems. A similar scenario was presented in the U.S. State Department's
annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report just released. It said
"South American cocaine on illegal flights through
Then, there are students fueling
unrest, protesting a curriculum change. During Ban and
However, neither Ban nor
Monsanto's Dream Bill, HR 875 (Excerpt)
By Linn Cohen-Cole
To begin reversing GM
contamination will require ending the power biotech companies such as Monsanto
exert over our government and through that, over our food. HR 875 was
introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto.
The bill is monstrous on level after level - the power it would give to
Monsanto, the criminalization of seed banking, the prison terms and
confiscatory fines for farmers, the 24 hours GPS tracking of their animals, the
easements on their property to allow for warrantless government entry, the
stripping away of their property rights, the imposition by the filthy, greedy
industrial side of anti-farming international "industrial" standards
to independent farms - the only part of our food system that still works, the
planned elimination of farmers through all these means.
The corporations want the land, they want more intensive industrialization,
they want the end of normal animals so they can substitute patented genetically
engineered ones they own, they want the end of normal seeds and thus of seed
banking by farmers or individuals. They want control over all seeds, animals,
water, and land.
Our farmers are good stewards.
That is who is threatened by Rosa DeLauro's bill (and because of that, we all
are). At a time in this country when wise stewardship and the production of
anything real - especially good food - is what is most needed, it is our best
stewards whom Rosa DeLauro threatens, under the cruelly false name of
"food safety."
And now Monsanto wants its own
employee, Michael Taylor - the man who forced genetically engineered rBGH on us
(unlabeled, unaware) when the Clintons placed him over "food safety"
in the 90s - back in government, this time to act with massive police power as
a "food safety tsar" from inside the White House. HR 875 would give
him immense power over what is done on every single farm in the country and
massive police state power to wield over farmers and punishments to break them
at will.
The following quotes show Monsanto and its biotech ilk are not
"stewards" at all. Their inhuman focus on profit has led to inhuman,
insane, sickening products that require intense corruption of democracy and
science institutes and media, to foist them on country after country, which
don't want them.
It is our farmers who stand between us and this outrage which masquerades as
science, as food, as normal business, as government. And it is or farmers who
need not only protecting and but actual freeing from government intrusion,
control and harm.
Vegetarians and vegans do not identify with farmers who raise animals but what
is at stake here is critical for all of us. "First they came for the
Jews" is an apt reminder of what matters in standing with each other
because the overwhelming bureaucratic burdens, the recording over every single
thing done on a farm, the warrantless inspections, the end of farmers markets,
the criminalization of seed banking, the ten years in prison for stepping out
of line in any way, will next be applied not to animals breaking out of fence
onto a neighbors' farm, but for such things as not spraying pesticides on an
organic farm to eradicate earthworms (now listed as an invasive species) because
the government's "food safety tsar" has deemed it necessary. It is
totalitarian control (and HR 875 epitomizes it) which we stand against, and now
it is aimed with ferocity at farmers with animals. Stopping it now keeps all
farmers safe.
Rosa DeLauro and Stanley Greenburg have a great deal to account for in
attempting through a mislabeled bill with hidden intent to wipe out our farmers
and harm all of us. HR 875 gives Monsanto greater power and opens doors wider
to the following. (For complete
op-ed and more, log on to
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Monsanto-s-dream-bill-HR-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090309-337.html)
Historic Tour Riders
Early this spring, 165 citizens
from across the nation will journey into the
Many historians have acknowledged that the work and sacrifices of Dr. King and
other pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement helped pave the way for the
election of
Highlights of the historic tour
include a visit to the birthplace of Dr. King, a walk along historic "
For more information on this historic tour, including itinerary and to obtain
reservation forms, visit http://www.king-raleigh.org/events/body.cfm,
email info@king-raleigh.org or call
Bruce Lightner, MLK Committee Chairman, at (919) 834-6264.
Disgruntled wants to know:
Disgruntled
says: Sure there were suckers and even sneaks across the racial divide
that tried to game the system by buying more house than their incomes could
afford. Likewise, there were hundreds of thousands of others with decent credit
scores and sufficient incomes to purchase a home that were steered into the
subprime market by unscrupulous lenders. On Friday, the NAACP filed
class-action lawsuits in federal court charging Wells Fargo and HSBC with
forcing blacks into subprime mortgages while whites with identical
qualifications got lower rates. According to press reports, more lawsuits are
in the works against a dozen other subprime lenders. It's about time someone
sued the big banks that preyed on the black community during the housing
bubble.
Disgruntled
feels: Sick! Folks are still getting sick from eating salmonella-laced
peanut products. Documents obtained by attorneys representing roughly 15,000
plaintiffs suing British drug maker Astra-Zeneca include internal memos showing
company executives knew in 1997 that FDA-approved Seroquel caused diabetes and
major weight gain. These are just two of the numerous problems that have come
to light as a result of a lack of FDA oversight and due diligence. During the
Bush administration, the FDA, which is supposed to be a consumer watchdog,
suffered from a lack of funding and leadership. Critics have accused the agency
of lax inspections and being a dysfunctional creature of the pharmaceutical and
food industries it is supposed to regulate. People getting sick and dying
because the agency is not doing its job. Call the doctor! The FDA is a sick
puppy!
Mailbox: E-mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email www.msnbc.com
Obama bans 'downer' cows from food supply...President says current food safety
system is a 'hazard to public health' - The Obama administration on Saturday
permanently banned the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand on their
own, seeking to further minimize the chance that mad cow disease could enter
the food supply. The Agriculture Department proposed the ban last year after
the biggest beef recall in
Email www.nytimes.com ...Prison Spending Outpaces
All But Medicaid...By Solomon Moore...One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million
Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47
billion in 2008, according to a new study. Criminal correction spending is
outpacing budget growth in education, transportation and public assistance,
based on state and federal data. Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state
corrections spending, which quadrupled in the past two decades, according to
the report by the
Email www.ap.com
...She turns cameras on American hunger...By Paul Arrillaga...An
epidemiologist, folklorist and assistant professor of health policy at Drexel,
Mariana Chilton has spent the last five years conducting research on hunger.
Her assistants would park themselves in an emergency room, gathering data from
low-income mothers whenever a health crisis brought them and their children to
the hospital. They'd ask probing questions...sometimes the interviewers
provided phone numbers for assistance or shelters. It just wasn't enough. Four
years ago, she launched a "Grow Clinic" at St. Christopher's Hospital
in