Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use
Vol. 9 No. 44…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…November 3,
2006
News You Use
Hosea Still Feeds the Hungry
To rescue, restore and re-stabilize people in
crisis by providing for their physical, emotional and spiritual needs
preventing the cycle of poverty through fostering empowering enabling
self-sufficiency and building a caring community of humanity worldwide. (Mission
Statement)
That is the mission statement of Hosea Feed the
Hungry and Homeless, a program begun in 1971 by civil rights leader, organizer
for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the late Rev. Hosea Williams. According to
Rev. Williams, who died in 2000, watching a hungry man ravenously devour a fish
sandwich that he bought the man in lieu of giving him money broke his heart. In
this land of plenty, Rev. Williams knew there was much that could be done to
ease aching bellies. A man of action, he went to work on the endless task of
feeding the hungry.
Rev. Williams' family has expanded Hosea Feed the
Hungry. It provides year-round services, including rent, utility and housing
deposit assistance, distribution of clothing, furniture and toiletries, Job
Skills Training, and international relief.
The Hosea Feed the Hungry Holiday Dinners
(Thanksgiving, Christmas, MLK Day and Easter Sunday) are major events in metro
Atlanta. They feature entertainment, an array of personal care services for the
homeless, medical assistance, home deliveries to the sick and elderly, church
services, counseling, job referrals and so much more. These events are special
occasions for everyone, the hungry and homeless, volunteers and the lonely.
This Thanksgiving Day, hundreds of volunteers are needed to serve an
anticipated crowd of more than 15,000 hungry and homeless people at Turner
Stadium.
Help is always needed to feed the hungry. Become a volunteer, email Dancia at Volunteer.hfth@gmail.com. Make a donation and/or attend a fundraiser. For more information, visit http://hoseafeedthehungry.com or call (404) 755-3353 ext 309 for Yolanda Stewart.
The Election
By Jessica
They say not to
believe anything you hear
and only half of what
you see
but how long can we
ride the rods?
They try to alter our
thoughts and notions
and it doesn't take
much effort
because our shells
have been eroded.
Perhaps the
adaptation process went awry
and we are not
progressing, but regressing
with each passing
moment.
For there are more
problems
than time in which to
solve them
and Murphy's always
in the vicinity
but don't abandon the
aspirations.
Rome wasn't built in
a day
but could be
destroyed in a second
which shouldn't worry
you, but does.
We've developed
insane beliefs,
lost all respect, and
found no comfort.
We should stop the
cursory glances;
for once, take a
good, long look
and maybe we will understand.
Theodore M. Berry
(1905-2000)
Born in poverty on November 5, 1905 in Maysville, Kentucky, a small town on the
banks of the Ohio River, Theodore M. Berry, the son of a white farmer he only
met once and deaf black woman, mastered the art of oral communication. He
became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.
Berry communicated with his mother through sign language, and she could read
lips. Berry grew up carefully enunciating his words in communicating with his
mother; he mastered diction in the process. The skill served him well
throughout his life.
A poor boy, Berry sold newspapers, shined shoes, shoveled coal, delivered
laundry, shelved books in local libraries, and worked as a desk clerk at
Cincinnati's "Black" YMCA, where he roomed in high school. Writing
under the pseudonym Thomas Playfair, Berry won an essay contest for "The
Chaos Beyond" during his senior year. Submitted under his name, Berry's
original essay, "Lincoln and the Constitution," was rejected by an
all-white panel.
For winning, the senior-class valedictorian of Woodward High (1924) was forbidden
to walk in the commencement procession with a white female classmate. Berry,
the school's first black valedictorian, walked alone.
Berry worked in steel mills in Newport, Kentucky to pay tuition at the
University of Cincinnati law school. Six years after being admitted to the Ohio
Bar (1932), he was appointed the first black assistant attorney for Hamilton
County.
Berry became a pivotal civil-rights attorney for the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During WWII, he served as morale
officer for the Office of War Information under Franklin D. Roosevelt. This new
position brought about a change in his political affiliation from the
Republican to Democrat Party. After the war, Berry returned to the NAACP. In
1945, he defended three members of the Tuskegee Airmen, who had protested a
segregated officer's club in Indiana and won acquittal for two of the them. The
third was pardoned after his conviction.
From 1947 to 1961, Berry served on the NAACP Ohio Committee for Civil Rights
Legislation. He worked on equal employment and fair housing issues and was
involved with the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati. After his unsuccessful
1947 run for the Cincinnati City Council, Berry won a seat two years later,
becoming chairman of the finance committee (1953). Berry, elected vice mayor in
1955, lost his 1957 re-election bid. In 1963, he returned and created the
Community Action Commission, which attracted federal attention. President
Lyndon Johnson (1965) appointed Berry to head the Office of Economic
Opportunity's Community Action Programs that included Head Start, Jobs Corps
and Legal Services.
Berry returned to Cincinnati in 1969 and was appointed to City Council in 1971.
He was elected mayor in 1972 and served for four years--Cincinnati's first
black American mayor. In the 1980s and 1990s, Berry struggled to return
proportional representation to Cincinnati because he firmly believed that it
gave more power to black voters.
Theodore Berry died on October 15, 2000. A Cincinnati street and park have been
named in his honor. (Sources: www.aaregistry.com,
http://library.cincymuseum.org/aag/bio/berry.html
and www.cincinnatiblac.org)
Dumped on Skid Row
According to Los Angeles Times news reports, the
criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) into the
practice of dumping of homeless people on skid row by hospitals, police
departments and other institutions got a major break recently. Police
videotaped patients that had been discharged from a Los Angeles hospital dumped
by ambulances on skid row. Police interviewed these patients; none chose to be
left on skid row.
Police are investigating whether patients were
falsely imprisoned during their transfer and also whether the hospital violated
any laws regarding patients' treatment. Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center
officials have denied any improprieties in the handling of patients.
This is the police department's first criminal
investigation into the practice of dumping. However, the Los Angeles city
attorney's office is reviewing other dumping cases against Los Angeles area
hospitals to determine whether civil or criminal charges could be filed.
Dumping has emerged as a major political issue in
Los Angeles. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other critics say the practice of
dumping by area institutions exacerbates the ills of a district that already
has the largest concentration of homeless people in the West.
Kick the Liars Out!
By Dot
Sadly, here we are! Now, what do we do? As I connect my dots of information, here is what I believe is the dilemma confronting United States' voters in elections across the nation this November.
First, the Bush administration fabricated the
case for war, allowed the national debt to soar and attacked Iraq without a UN
resolution. Its other foreign policy blunders in prosecuting the "war on
terror" includes the use of depleted uranium and white phosphorous,
sanctioning the use of torture and suspension of habeas corpus, war
profiteering via no-bid contracting, domestic spying and warrantless
wiretapping, etc. The absence of congressional oversight on budget, war or
anything else this administration does or claims it must do to protect our
national security, including trampling on time-honored American civil liberty,
is dangerous, given the neo-conservative agenda. To top it off, the economy,
despite the Bush administration propaganda to the contrary, is not doing so
well for the vast majority of American families. Check out CNN's Lou Dobbs for
the litany of economic ills.
Second, before Bush, some countries believed we
were the good guys, even when we were not. Now, there seems near unanimity -
the United States is the international schoolyard bully. From all reports, the
US is making enemies in Iraq, rather than winning hearts and minds. A belated
willingness to change tactics on the ground to justify staying the course makes
no sense under the circumstances. The US has caused enough chaos and
devastation to prick the conscience of some Americans. No number of dead
Iraqis, US troops and civilians is too great for neo-conservatives in
satisfying their greed, lust for power and vision of US hegemony. To stay the
course would reward their manipulative lying and set us up for bigger lies just
over the horizon in Iran.
A course correction is imperative to pull the
nation from the brink of self-destruction. Changing the country's course is a
national issue, which makes this election a referendum on the Bush
administration and the GOP-led Congress. Hoping my vote is counted, I say throw
the liars out and pray what results is good for the country.
On the local in Atlanta, the cover of Creative
Loafing says it all. It features, in gross details, the Georgia gubernatorial
candidates, incumbent Sonny Perdue (R) and Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor (D), as sumo
wrestlers that look a lot alike. Hence, the conundrum for Georgia voters is can
we close our nose and vote for either of them?
Beyond the sumo wrestlers, this issue of Creative
Loafing has some interesting information on candidates in a number of local and
state-wide races. Clearly, in some of these races, the incumbents deserve the
same treatment as federal lawmakers -- kick the liars out. At the same time, it
makes no sense to simply substitute another set of liars.
Whatever you do, choose to be informed. Vote this
Tuesday because you understand the stakes in the outcome.
Making Black History
On election day this Tuesday, November 7, 2006 blacks in two southern states can make history in vastly different ways. Since no black has been elected to the US Senate from the south since Reconstruction, the odds of two winning seats are fairly low. Three blacks have served in Senate since Reconstruction -- Edward Brooke (R-MA), Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) and Barack Obama (D-IL).
Yet, on Tuesday, two black men in southern states
have excellent chances of winning and making history. In Tennessee, US
Representative Harold Ford, Jr. (D) is running to fill the seat vacated by
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R). Ford's Republican opponent is Bob
Corker, a wealthy businessman. Polls show, if blacks and other Democrats are
serious about change, Ford could prove an unexpected winner in Tennessee. That
little bit of racism that crept in Republican campaign commercials to
"scare the base" into line may backfire this time.
In Maryland, the black candidate is Republican
Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. His Democratic opponent is Ben Cardin. Obviously,
Steele has appealed to largely Democratic black voters. To give this capable
black man a chance, blacks will have to vote Republican. If they do so in large
numbers, history is made - Steele should win the election, provided white
Republicans are loyal party voters. In voting for Steele, the question for
blacks is, will Steele be another Clarence Thomas, who votes along the party
line and with George W. Bush? If he is a Thomas, Steele may not represent real
change, even in making history - a real conundrum. Whatever black voters decide
in these two states, history hangs in the balance.
Disgruntled
says: We all know Senator John Kerry (D-MA) flubbed the education
joke. It was all about George W. Bush, the marginal student that got the nation
mired in Iraq. With a mainstream media megaphone, the broken joke has Kerry
apologizing for criticizing the troops, when he meant to trash Bush, the dunce
that sent them to Iraq. Instead, the guy that went AWOL as a National Guard
Pilot and never saw of moment of combat rips an honorably discharged Vietnam
veteran for "dishonoring the troops." What crock! But, again, Bush
chose to be dishonest; he knew that joke was all about him.
Disgruntled wants to know: "In pursuit of counterrevolution and
in the name of freedom, U.S. forces or the U.S. supported surrogate forces
slaughtered 2,000,000 North Koreans in the three-year war; 3,000,000
Vietnamese; over 500,000 in aerial wars over Laos and Cambodia; over 1,500,00
in Angola; over 1,000,000 in Mozambique; over 500,000 in Afghanistan; 500,000
to 1,000,000 in Indonesia; 200,000 in East Timor; 100,000 in Nicaragua
(combining the Samoza and Reagan eras); over 100,000 in Guatemala (plus an
additional 40,000 disappeared); over 700,000 in Iraq; over 60,000 in El
Salvador; 30,000 in the "dirty war" of Argentina (though the
government admits to only 9,000); 35,000 in Taiwan, when the Kuomintang
military arrived from China; 20,000 in Chile; and many thousands in Haiti,
Panama, Grenada, Brazil, South Africa, Western Sahara, Zaire, Turkey, and
dozens of other countries, in what amounts to a free-market world
holocaust." (Michael Parenti, Black Shirts and the Red, 1997) The US-led
invasion and occupation of Iraq has claimed thousands of lives, insurgents, US
troops and civilians. How many more must we kill in the name of democracy and
freedom?
Disgruntled feels: Played! In the hood,
played means duped. America, you have been played! Like a fiddle, Karl Rove and
the Neo-conservatives that control the Bush administration played a gullible US
public, especially evangelicals. According to insider Tucker Carlson,
Republican elites hold the extreme religious right in high contempt. The rest
of the public is played as well. Using divide and conquer, while we squabble
over petty divisive issues, elite Republicans steal power and trash the
country.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Telephone Calls
Email www.livejournal.com
Whining Over Discontent ..By PAUL KRUGMAN ...Some conservatives whine that
people didn't complain as much about rising inequality when Bill Clinton was
president. But most people were happy with the state of the economy in the late
1990's, even though the rich were getting much richer, because the middle class
and the poor were also making substantial progress. Now... most working
Americans are losing ground.
Email PinkPearls@comcast.net The
November 7th elections have been successfully rigged in Ohio and three other
states. J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Secretary of State, who is now running for
Governor of Ohio, sent out letters to voters, presumably Democrats only, who
had any type of discrepancy between their home address, driver's license, and
the address on the voter registry. They are calling this "keeping the
rolls clean" but it is, in fact, a purge of Democratic voters. When
Democrats go to the polls will be told that their name is not registered, to
vote on a paper ballot which will then be thrown away. This loss of votes for
Democrat candidates is up in the thousands and will effectively tip the scales
in favor of NeoCon Republicans...This is the exact same thing that they did
with Katherine Harris in Florida and goes a long way to explain why George Bush
and Karl Rove are being so inexplicably confident that there will be no changes
in the Republican complexion of the House or the Senate. All of this begs the
question, when will the Republican voters rise up and declare that there have
been enough abuses in their name?
Email cfonge@comcast.net Blog House: A
worried GOP attacks the ailing, minorities...By Tim O'Brien, Star Tribune...So
was Rush Limbaugh saying that Michael J. Fox isn't a victim of Parkinson's
disease; he just plays one on TV? No, even Rush knows that Fox does have
Parkinson's. Yet that didn't stop him from claiming that Fox -- who appeared
shaky in an ad he did on behalf of Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire
McCaskill and of that state's referendum on embryonic stem cell research -- was
playing to the audience. "[T]his is really shameless of Michael J. Fox.
Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting, one of the two." Rush
may know his OxyContin and Viagra, but, according to Jonathan Cohn at TNR's The
Plank (1), ... [Limbaugh] is revealing his ignorance of Parkinson's
disease...The general consensus in the blogosphere wasn't quite outrage. Most
have come to expect this kind of blather from Dick Cheney's favorite
journalist.
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The DISH
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