Black Radio Finally Being Heard...

How Black Radio Found Its Voice
By Chandra R. Thomas/Atlanta

copyright by r2c2h2
W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio will be on this list soon thanks to the support of listeners like you!!!

Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly dominate America's talk radio while white liberal voices are mere squeaks on the airwaves. But now syndicated black radio hosts like Tom Joyner, Bev Smith, Michael Baisden and Warren Ballentine and other African-American radio personalities are not only increasingly audible to a wider audience but visible and influential as well. Says April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks (AURN): "My phone has been ringing off the hook with Fox News and MSNBC wanting interviews with me. Black radio has always been here, covering the important issues from a black perspective, but it wasn't until Barack Obama, emerged as the first black man to prove himself to be a viable presidential candidate that the mainstream media wanted to hear what we had to say. It's another example of how his candidacy has broken the mold."

Indeed, the contest between Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination has provided black radio with several center stage moments. "When you need the black vote you deal with black radio, and that's what happening," says Ronald Walters, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland at College Park.

After the Iowa primary, for example, Hillary Clinton seemed to give President Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed civil rights legislation into law, more credit for progress than Martin Luther King Jr.'s "dream" — a perceived stand-in for Obama's "hope." When that drew negative attention among black voters, Bill Clinton made the rounds defending his wife's statements on more than three syndicated black talk radio programs in one day. "Ironically, the use of black radio by the Clinton campaign has been in giving Bill Clinton airtime to denounce Obama," says Richard Prince, an online media commentator. "During South Carolina this had the reverse effect: turning African Americans against the Clintons."

The critical role of African-American voters during this election cycle has compelled both the Clinton and Obama campaigns to turn to influential black syndicated radio hosts, such as Bev Smith (whose show on AURN claims to reach 25 million listeners) and Tom Joyner (whose Dallas-based syndicated program says it has 8 million listeners every week), in an effort to spread their campaign message. It also helps them with damage control in the aftermath of negative mainstream media coverage, such as the backlash from controversial statements made by Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"For the first time the candidates are using black radio in a significant way — they used to make their black radio rounds during the week leading up to the November election and that was it," says Joyner, a 36-year radio veteran. "The only time that ever came close was when Jesse [Jackson] ran in 1984. This election is forcing the candidates to reach out to the black community and talk about issues that matter to us. We hope that this continues with future elections."

Joyner, by many accounts, is considered an urban industry pioneer. His decision in 1996 to hire former Black Entertainment Television host Tavis Smiley to provide daily political commentary on The Tom Joyner Morning Show was pivotal in raising political activism and awareness among blacks via the airwaves. His endeavors, which continued to gain momentum with both Bill Clinton administrations and the campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry, have extended this election season to include a free hotline for voters to report poll site irregularities. (Joyner will testify in front of Congress this week on the subject.)

"We [black radio hosts] have an opportunity to be griots, the front person that people turn to and listen to, just like black radio was in the '60s," says Smith, host of the nation's only syndicated African-American nightly talk radio show. She says, "We [in black radio] have been here covering the issues that matter to the black community for many years, but the mainstream media did not come to us. With the emergence of Barack Obama we have been vindicated. His candidacy has put the issue of race into the 21st century much in the same way that it was in the 20th century."

The fact that most black radio hosts, including Ballentine, Baisden and Smith, disproportionately endorse Obama over Clinton, is not surprising, but some industry analysts, including Atlanta-based urban radio consultant Harry Lyles, warn that the practice could potentially become problematic in the long run. "Black radio hosts need to be careful; he's running for President of the United States, not President of black America," says Lyles, who has spent more than 25 years on-air and behind the scenes in radio. "They need to stimulate interest and intelligent discussion about the election, not just cheer on Barack Obama. Being a cheerleader can be very dangerous."

Many black radio hosts say for the time being they're content with enjoying the renewed interest in the political process sparked by the closely contested Democratic race — a trend they hope will continue. "It's the greatest," adds Joyner. "I just hope it lasts; I've been wanting to see people this engaged for years."

The Honorable Sis. Cynthia McKinney Delivers Moving Earth Day Speech @ Cal State Northridge...

Hello all! I was invited to deliver an Earth Day message to the students at Cal State Northridge. I hope you enjoy my remarks:


Cynthia McKinney

Earth Day Celebration

California State University, Northridge

April 15, 2008


I would like to thank the students at Cal State University, Northridge for inviting me to speak on campus today. I have just returned from an exciting trip to Mexico City and I'd like to share some of my observations with you this afternoon.



First of all, it is important to note and ask the question why is it that the corporate press are not even touching the events playing out right now in the capital city of our neighbor to the south and their importance to us? Had I not actually been there myself, I would be hard pressed to convince any audience that events of this magnitude were actually taking place anywhere in the world, let alone in a country as important and close to us as Mexico.



A quick review of today's press shows us that we are currently being titillated by news of sex tapes featuring Marilyn Monroe and another such tape featuring an unnamed British Royal. The top of the news hour greets us with information of an intemperate statement made by a former television executive about a current Presidential candidate; video is plentiful of the contorted Presidential theatrics around the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Beijing. We were treated today to the visual of the Pope descending from the Alitalia jet. But, while we have more television stations that feed us 24-hour news, we are less informed. We have more and more political pundits feeding us, what Fred Hampton described as "explanations that don't explain, answers that don't answer, and conclusions that don't conclude."



CNN even tells us in a feature story who suffers as a result of a choice made by our policy makers to emphasize ethanol as a preferred method of weaning a hulking, overfed economy off its petroleum-based consumption habit. But they forgot the other half of that equation: who's winning? And it's the "who's winning" part that is just about always the key piece of information, that could guide us, especially when the choices of our elected leadership diverge from the core values of the voters who elected them.



And yet, as we speak, the Mexican Senate Chamber has been occupied. The massive rally held today has probably just ended, and some of the opposition Members of the Mexican Congress are inside the building on the dais and have announced a hunger strike. Days ago, one of the leading papers in Mexico City had a photo of the Chamber of Deputies of the Mexican Congress with an unfurled banner covering the Speaker's Rostrum, proclaiming the Chamber "Closed." The banner was hung by elected Members of the Mexican Congress who constitute the Frente Amplio Progresista that has dared to draw a line in the sand against U.S.-inspired legislation just introduced to allow foreign corporate ownership of PEMEX, Mexico's state-owned oil company.



Mexican women are energized around the idea of nation. The idea of patria. I wrote my Master's Thesis on the "Idea of Nation." And to see the women, in their t-shirts and kerchiefs, so committed to their country, their nation, their identity. To them, that's Mexico's oil, natural gas, electricity, land, and water and it ought to be used by the Mexican people first and foremost for their own national development. But sadly, it's the public policy emanating from Washington, D.C. that threatens that.



But to tell that story accurately, would also require that the U.S. corporate press expose why this citizen outrage exists in the first place. And to tell that story, they would have to expose the fact of a stolen Presidential election, where a private U.S., Georgia, corporation, possibly played a role in stripping citizens of their right to vote and have their votes counted. Well, while that might sound like what happened in the United States, centering in Florida, in the U.S. 2000 Presidential election, I'm really talking about the 2006 Mexican Presidential election in which the popular candidate didn't win because all the votes weren't counted.



According to Greg Palast, the U.S. corporation involved in the Mexican move was none other than that now infamous Georgia-based company: Choicepoint. We know that in Florida, Choicepoint, then doing business as DataBase Technologies, constructed an illegal convicted felons list of some 94,000 names, many of whom were neither convicted nor felons. But if your name appeared on that list, you were stopped from voting. Greg Palast tells us that for most of the names on that list, their only crime was "Voting While Black."



Under a special "counter-terrorism" contract, the U.S. FBI obtained Mexican and Venezuelan voter files. Palast learned later in his investigation that the U.S. government had obtained, through Choicepont, voter files of all the countries that have progressive Presidents. Many Mexicans went to the polls to vote for their President, only to find that their names had been scrubbed from the voter list, and they were not allowed to vote. So now, not only in the United States, but in Mexico, too, one can show up to vote and not be sure that that vote was counted, or worse, one can show up duly registered to vote, and not even be allowed to vote.



I guess this is the way we allow our country to now export democracy.



Unlike in the United States in 2000, Mexico City was shut down for 5 months when Lopez Obrador, Mexico's Al Gore, refused to concede and instead, formed a shadow government.



The issue in the 2006 Mexican election was privatization of Mexico's oil; it is the riveting issue taking place in Mexican politics today. Teachers on strike at the same time as the Presidential elections in Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in Mexico, began their political movement as a call for increased teacher salaries and against privatization of schools. Due to heavy-handed tactics used by the government against the teachers, tens of thousands of citizens joined them and took over the central city area of that state. Today, after Mexico has added teachers and those who support teachers to its growing ranks of "political prisoners," teachers are still protesting their conditions, the reprisals taken against them for striking, and now, the teachers' union is a committed part of the national mobilization against privatization of PEMEX.



I was invited to participate in the Second Continental Workers Conference. The first meeting was held in La Paz, Bolivia. And so, people from all over Mexico and eight different countries told of their struggles, their hopes, their ideals, their values, their patriotism, their desire for peace—no more war.



Representatives from Chiapas, another one of Mexico's poorest states, told us of the indigenous struggle for land and self-determination, the low-intensity warfare waged against them, and how now they, too, count themselves a part of the national mobilization against PEMEX privatization.



While I was there, mine workers had taken over the mines, and so, could only send a handful of inspiring representatives. They are pressing for the right to unionize, denied to them by the Government. And the mine workers are a part of the solid front forming in Mexico to protect this powerful idea of nation.



I participated in one of the many rallies organized by opponents of the government's plan to offer up Mexico's patrimony to the insatiable multiple U.S. addictions. One woman removed her brigadista t-shirt and gave it to me—proud that a citizen of the United States came to stand with them.



Today's front page of La Jornada says that the women, who marched 10,000 strong on the day that I was there, have renewed their protests and civil disobedience. The threat of violence and bloodshed is very real.



Now, why should this massive social, political, and economic upheaval in Mexico, aside from its human rights implications, be important to us up here in the United States?



Because the sad truth of the matter is that, in many respects, it is our military and economic policies that are causing it. Of course, I recognize that all the way back to the practice of Manifest Destiny and the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine, U.S. policy decisions have at times sent shock waves to places outside our borders. You could say that the modern version of that is NAFTA.



In 1993, the Democratic majority in the United States Congress supported then-President Bill Clinton's push for passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The stated purpose of the legislation was to remove barriers to trade and investment that existed in North America. The propaganda had it that the objective was to lift all boats, in Canada, the United States, and Mexico through trade and investment. The result is the stripping away and transfer of Mexico's patrimony in terms of their natural and human resources. And the Mexican people are taking a stand against it. They are taking the same stand that the little people in Haiti, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Argentina have taken. With the power of the vote, the people of these countries dared to believe that they could peacefully defeat the colossus to the north. And they did.



And so, in a way, now, I guess I understand why the corporate press can't tell you and me the truth about the valiant stand for dignity that's going on in Mexico, because to truly cover the story, they'd have to uncover and point out some inconvenient truths.



One of those inconvenient truths particularly meaningful to me: There comes a time when silence is betrayal.



We, the little--and yet so powerful--people in this country have been way too silent for way too long on all the issues that mean so much.



Dr. King also said that our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.



On one of my early days in Congress, I was late for a vote. I looked up on the board and only saw green votes; I presumed that the vote was a non-controversial item on the calendar. Since I was among the last to vote, there was no time to inquire. I pressed my green button. Afterwards, I learned that the vote might have been what others would have called an "easy" yes vote, but for my conscience it was a no vote. Later that night, my heart sank as I watched the news. One man of 78 years was so angered by that vote that he threw stones. Only thing, he had a heart attack throwing stones, and died.



My heart sank. I felt personally responsible for that man's death and vowed that I would never cast what they call easy votes, again. My one vote would not have changed the outcome of the tally on the resolution. But my one vote would have been true to my values and my ideals that everyone is entitled to human rights that are to be respected.



I got into trouble often after that, because I recognized my responsibility to read the legislation, think analytically, question critically, and vote independently.



That was while I was in Congress. But now that I'm not, does that mean that the responsibility is gone? No.



I happened to vote against NAFTA, and I'm glad for that. But imagine if the all the voters in the entire United States understood that something as simple as a vote in a federal election might determine who lives and who dies in another country. Imagine, if we in the United States were as certain of the possibility of peaceful change through the vote as were the people of Haiti, Mexico—despite having their election stolen from them, Venezuela, and the rest. Then we would vote Members of Congress out of office who support Plan Colombia. We would vote Members of Congress out of office who support Plan Mexico—which like its Colombian counterpart, is the military answer to the cry of the people for dignity, self-determination, and that idea of patria. We would not vote for any political party that did not have as its agenda extending the same respect and love of life to all others as we reserve for ourselves.



And so I come to the additional meaning of Earth Day, today. I met people in Mexico City who are willing to die in this struggle—But they shouldn't have to because the United States wants their oil. Let us express our respect for the planet that sustains us by first showing love to our brothers and sisters beside us. We voters in the United States do have as much power as the voters in all those other countries. All we have to do is believe in ourselves and use it.



Finally, I'd like to recognize the role of student activists in promoting change. Of course, it was high school students who faced the water hoses and the dogs in the civil rights movement. It was the university students who faced the riot gear and the bullets in the anti-war movement. The current anti-globalization, pro-peace rallies are all organized and led by young people. Keep it up and don't ever give in.



Remember that Bobby Kennedy always said "Some men dreams of things that are and say why, I dream of things that never were and say why not."



Thank you.

Please Support Sis. Cynthia McKinney's Run For The Whitehouse By Visiting Her Official Campaign Website http://www.runcynthiarun.org

Listen To U.S. Presidential Hopeful Cynthia McKinney's Interview On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio~1-13-08

Show (Her Interview Is In The 2nd Full Hour Of Show Segment):
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/01/13/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio

Summary

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/01/we-all-be-radio-and-news-special.html

To Obama & Clinton: Use Monies For Healthcare And Not Smear Tactics & Distractions!!!

Clinton and Obama: With All Due Respect, You're Nuts!
CC: Michael Moore, Wherever You Are

.
Just before Tax Day, I watched Michael Moore's Sicko,
from a DVD that I got for free from my public library.
Among other startling revelations, he told me 18,000
folks die per year because they have no health insurance.
That divides out to 50 people per day are dying.
.
I'm one of those. I live on Social Security. I can't afford to
use the Medicare I pay for. Nor can I afford to move to
Canada, England, France or Cuba where health care is free.
_______________________
.
The day after Tax Day, I awoke with an overwhelming
realization: the two people who are promising to fix our
broken health care system in America next January, if
elected, are spending millions, billions, perhaps trillions
of dollars just to get themselves elected. All the while,
50 people per day are dying for lack of health insurance.
.
Since there's a chance I might not be around in January,
I'm going to say this now, while I still can.
________________________
.
This Presidential Campaign of 2008 will go down as the
most obscene in American history. At least, I hope no
other will ever rival it. If we look at how these Candidates
are managing their Campaign funding, how in the World
would anyone want either of them to manage our nation?
.
The Republicans figured it out. They quickly boiled down
their Candidates to One. They know they now don't have
to spend billions fighting among themselves. Why isn't
the Democratic Party as smart as the Republican Party?
.
The only smart Democrats are those who quit the race.
They took a look down the road, and saw that either they
could not, or would not, enter into this national insanity.
They, by whatever wisdom guided them, saw that the
road ahead led to a moral and ethical dilemma they chose
to have NO part of. Bless John and Elizabeth Edwards.
And all the other fine Democratic Presidential Candidates.
.
Arguments can be made for why we cannot get out of our
Other national insanity, the Iraq War, way over there. But
how can anyone justify throwing trillions down a rat hole
when it's right here at home? 50 people a day are dying
while these two dance and prance around the country,
consuming all the expensive media attention they can
drum up. Take that money and buy health insurance for
all those without, until someone is elected who can create
a true no-fee national health care system.
.
HMOs and Insurance Companies are murdering people.
But are Obama and Clinton doing anything less? 50 a day
as long as this madness continues. Stop! Cease and desist.
_____________________
.
Scribbling notes as fast as my fingers could keep up with
my brain, a solution hit me. It's so simple, and do-able in
the blink of an eye. Here it is:
.
Flip a coin. Winner becomes President, the other
becomes Vice President. This cash flow blood bath ends.
.
Send all the money saved to Insurance Companies and
HMOs to pay for health insurance and treatment for those
who cannot afford it. Instant National Health Care until
you figure out a more permanent solution after January.
.
As it is right now, the very corporations responsible for
this national obscenity are using all the money they can
throw at Clinton and Obama to buy them. What do they
expect in return? NO national health care, unless they
continue to reap obscene windfall profits from everyone
who is sick. No "socialized medicine" for America.
_____________________
.
Sicko says this all started in 1971 with Nixon, when he
put forth a plan for HMOs to profit by denying their
insurance to sick people. American capitalism at work.
.
Ronnie Rayguns made a recording played at house parties
warning about the dangers of "socialized medicine".

Hillary got creamed by "Harry and Louise" commercials
paid for by HMOs and Insurance Companies. A man who
made those TV ads was Bill Novelli, now ExDir of AARP.
.
AARP is an Insurance Company. I joined. The only thing
I ever got were letters wanting me to buy AARP Insurance.
They still come, tho I've never sent them any more money.
Novelli will fight a national health care plan tooth and nail.
.
Here's the proof: Bill Novelli's powerful AARP lobbying
machine stalked the halls of Congress to assure the worst
Prescription Drug plan ever devised was passed. Seniors
don't pay less for drugs. We pay more, if we can afford it.
__________________
.
All the while, 50 people a day die because we can't afford
insurance, or are denied it for any of a thousand excuses.
.
You can put an end to this, Obama and Clinton. Flip a coin.
Start doing what you're preaching. Take all those corporate
donations and buy health care for those who can't afford it.
Save a few American lives between now and next January.
.
Stop quarreling over things that are totally insignificant.
Start living the life you promise. Fix it. Fix it now!
.
You have it in your power to do so. You can make history
like never before. Release the American people from a
madness that'll continue to kill us into the foreseeable future.
.
Do it because you're good people. Both know - in your heart
of hearts - that what you've become embroiled in is insane.
.
One measure of insanity is someone who constantly does
the same thing, over and over, expecting a different outcome.
.
Show the World you are not nuts. Do it. Do it now, please.
________________________
.
© 04/16/08 Gene Messick.
Permission to post this any where you choose. Have fun!
________________________

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special: Barack Obama & The Hip Hop Effect On American Politics:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/02/10/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special: The State Of Black America 2008:

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/04/we-all-be-news-radio-special-state-of.html

Dr. Young Gives Food For Thought On What It's Like To Be A Civil Rights Pioneer...

The True Audacity Of Hope: U.S. Presidential Hopeful Barack Hussein Obama And Civil Rights Legend Dr. Gene 'Jughead' Young

Civil Rights: One Man's Story
Arrest Inspired Life Of Activism

Richard Lake • rlake@clarionledger.com• February 3, 2008

It is the rare man who can trace the roots of every subsequent event in his life to one day, one act, one serendipitous spring morning when he was a student in the seventh grade. The first time he was arrested.

Gene Young, now 57, can do that.

"My life," he said the other day over a plate of ribs at Bully's soul food restaurant in Jackson, "hasn't been the same since."

The same spark that ignited more than 40 years ago still burns inside him. He yearns for continued progress, change. It is Black History Month, after all, and, because of everything that happened after that day in the spring of 1963, Young is a part of it.

He was 12 years old then, in 1963, when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was writing his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," the reverend wrote in that letter.

Young paid the civil rights activity not much mind. To him, life seemed OK. He played baseball. He had two sisters and seven brothers, grew up on Campbell Street in Jackson, right around the corner from Lanier High School.

Young had been tagged with the nickname "Jughead" one day while sitting in a barber's chair. As he explained it, a drunk walked by the shop, poked his head in the door, and said, "That boy got a jughead!"

It stuck, and still does to this day.

Young Jughead figured all that hoopla in Alabama would stay in Alabama. Didn't have much to do with him. He had a ballgame to attend.

Then, civil rights protesters were arrested in Jackson. This was not a new event, of course, in 1963. But it entered the 12-year-old Young's consciousness for the first time.

"Hey," one of his brothers told him that spring, "we're having a walk-out at school tomorrow." The walk-out, he explained, was to protest the latest batch of arrests.

"The school administration," said Luther Buckley, the principal at Lanier back then, "made no effort toward administering any type of punishment."

He said he and the other administrators thought good would come of it; the students could learn something by taking charge.

The police, however, were not so educationally inclined. And so it was that Young got caught up in a swarm of arrests. This sparked something inside of him. It created an activist.

Which was not surprising to the school principal. Buckley, who spent 31 years as Lanier's principal, said he'd always seen leadership qualities in Young.

After his arrest, Young spent the summer of 1963 working with the Congress of Racial Equality. He traveled to New York with them that June, the day Medgar Evers was murdered here.

"Medgar had just rubbed my head a few nights before saying how proud he was of me," Young remembered.

He continued on.

He was there, at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., when King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice," the reverend said in that speech.

A week after Young's 13th birthday that September, a Birmingham church was bombed. Four black girls were killed. It shook Young to the bone.

He did not stop, despite his newfound fear. He testified before Congress about police brutality.

As a child, he got the attention of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, the secret government spies that worked to keep segregation in place. He is listed with a dozen other Lanier students as members of the Jackson Youth Movement in commission documents.

Young, of course, did not know about this until many years later.

He went back to Lanier that fall, completed the eighth grade, and continued on with CORE the next summer, 1964, which is when he got famous.

He was staying at a Kansas City hotel. He needed a haircut. He went to the hotel's barber shop, where he was turned away.

This was July 2, 1964.

Young told his CORE friends about this. They conducted a sit-in at the barbershop.

The barber relented. Good thing, too, as President Lyndon Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 just that day.

An Associated Press photo of Young getting his hair cut the next day by a white man ran in newspapers across the nation.

Young continued on. He served as class president at Lanier. He graduated in 1968, two months after King's assassination.

He sailed through Jackson State College, now a university.

He was there on that day in 1970 when Phillip L. Gibbs and James Earl Green were killed by the police on JSU's campus.

Young calmed the crowd, some of whom were ready to riot, by using the words of King. He asked for peace and prayer.

Later on, he went to graduate school. He earned a doctorate degree in higher-education administration at the University of Connecticut.

"I knew," he explained about why he chose graduate school, "I didn't want to be in the war."

He went on to teach black studies at Bradley University in Illinois, then returned to JSU, where he taught and served for a time as the acting director of the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center.

He also married and had two children, Joy Olivia and Julius Caza. He divorced, but said he remained close to his children.

Five years ago, Julius was killed in a car accident in Colorado, and Young has not been the same since. He left JSU, and today takes care of his 82-year-old mother in the same house where he grew up.

"After my son died," said Young, "I withdrew from the whole world. Just now, I'm getting back to the point where I can function well."

Just last week, he spoke about his struggle to a group in Wisconsin who were honoring King.

"If you haven't seen Gene Young speak, you need to," said Glenda Glover, dean of JSU's college of business, who worked with Young for years.

She said it is because of people like Young that she and others of today's generation have been able to succeed as much as they have.

Both she and Young applauded an America where a black man is in serious contention for the presidency.

They are concerned, however, over abundant poverty among blacks. They are concerned that today's young people, especially young black men, do not know from where they came.

Which is why, over the plate of ribs at Bully's, Young agreed to tell his story.

To comment on this story, call Richard Lake at (601) 961-7226.

Hear The Wisdom Of Dr. Young On These Following W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Specials...

April 13, 2008~The State Of Black America Part One*

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/04/13/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special: February 18, 2007~"We Shall Overcome"-The Henry Hampton Collection (Creator of the Award Winning Eyes On The Prize Documentary)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2007/02/18/tha-artivist-presentsmaking-b

Find A Civil Rights Veteran Today!!!

http://www.crmvet.org

A 79 Year 'Young' Dr. Helen Burleson Of South Suburban Chicago Seconds Obama's "Bitter" Statement & Is Mad As Hell & Not Going To Take It Anymore!!!

To The Editor:

Though Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama said his choice of words were not the best, I agree with his first assessment. Not only am I bitter, but I am mad as hell! That does not mean I have no hope, as a matter of fact it makes me more determined to work with our new President to improve conditions in whatever way I can.

This Administration has led us into a depressive recession which has left the American people in the worst financial state since the Great Depression.

Let me itemize why I am bitter and mad as hell. First, there is this illegally declared war based on false premises. In addition to the astronomical financial cost of this war, there is the great HUMAN toll, the loss of the lives of so many of our young service people. Many thousands suffering from both mental and physical deterioration. Some of them come home looking like robots with artificial limbs to replace the good limbs that God gave them. To compound the problem they have to fight for proper diagnoses and treatments of their diseases, especially if their maladies are caused by post traumatic syndrome. How many countless innocent Iraqi women and children have either been killed or displaced? They are human beings, too. All life is valued and valuable.

The cost of the war has caused this devastating economic debacle that we are faced with where thousands of homes are being foreclosed causing a devaluation of other area properties.

Despite the fact that we are pouring tons of money into Iraq, a lot of the money is being misspent, misappropriated, misused and unaccounted for. All the while we are neglecting the American tax payer who is paying dearly for this war. Has Haliburton ever reimbursed our treasury for over billing the U. S. government? If so, why don’t the American people know about it. We need an accounting of that money because it belongs to us.

Next. there is the collapse of many financial institutions where mismanagement and greed have caused them to fail; and yet, the CEO’s who presided over this chaos leave with astounding severance pay. The employees of these companies and the investors are left holding the empty bag. Never have there been so many banks and financial institutions to fail since the Great Depression.

Employment is almost non-existing and the few jobs there are. are in the fast food industry or the service industry where workers are paid minimum wages and usually with no benefits or chances for advancement. It is painful to see some of our best jobs being out sourced with no comparable jobs replacing them. I want to buy American, but almost everything in the stores, whether they are clothing or household goods, are made outside this country. It pains me when I see to many foreign cars while American automobile manufacturers are having to suspend operations in their plants across the country.

The manufacturing industry was a route to the middle class for people without a lot of formal education. The trades provided them a good standard of living.

Now, let’s look at the failure of government oversight responsibilities to monitor industries. Their failure has caused us to import goods and services that are harmful to humans and their pets. What about the safety of our children who are exposed to excessive lead in these imported toys from China? What about the safety of our airline industry where passenger lives could be in jeopardy because of failure of oversight?

We are allowing our infrastructure to become obsolete and unsafe because we are spending billions of dollars attempting to restore and rebuild what we have destroyed in Iraq.

Many American schools are turning out test takers and not students who will not be competent enough to compete in this global economy. Education is under-funded. Many schools are outdated, filled with asbestos and ill equipped, especially in the inner cities. Many students graduate unable to comprehend basic math, science, reading and writing skills. We are lagging behind the education systems of China, Japan, India and Germany. In many of these countries the children are at least bi-lingual and many are multi-lingual. Many American children are not even proficient in their own English language.

As Shakespeare says, ….."let me count the ways……"

It is for these and many other reasons that I am bitter and mad as hell because I see the American people being short changed; and that is neither just or fair.

I must address the ridiculous statements of both presidential candidates calling Senator Obama elitist and out of touch with the people. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just that, unlike the other two, Senator Obama speaks the truth which is often hard to hear. There is no point in sugar coating the conditions in this country. That is why Senator Obama is running because he is committed to make the necessary changes to bring us back to our glory days when American people lived better than most people in the world, where America was respected and even envied by many of the world’s people who tried to model our successes. It is because Senator Obama knows from personal experience what it means not to be privileged, he is bonding with, has established rapport with, and is determined to elevate the status of ordinary people by bringing an end to this war. He will bring our troops home so they can tend to their homes and families and provide for them. Regardless of how Hillary and McCain try to spin things, thinking Americans knew exactly what he meant.

How ludicrous is it for a woman whose worth since leaving the White House is one hundred nine million dollars and a man who married a woman whose family made a fortune in beer distribution? Obviously, they have never heard the statement Abe Lincoln made along time ago, "You can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time." Initially, McCain said people who were losing their homes were irresponsible

and the government should not bail them out, all the while supporting bailing out financial institutions which were mismanaged.

Let’s all just get real and admit that we are not pleased with the way this Administration has led us down the garden path. It is time for the CHANGE THAT WE CAN BELIEVE IN WITH SENATOR BARACK OBAMA.

For Further Information: Contact: Helen L. Burleson, Doctor of Public Administration

(708)747-0919

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special: Barack Obama & The Hip Hop Effect On American Politics:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/02/10/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special: The State Of Black America 2008:

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/04/we-all-be-news-radio-special-state-of.html

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special: The State Of Black America 2008...

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio

One Full Year On The Air!!!

April 2008's Theme Is
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When: Every Sunday In April 2008
Time: 4PM-6PM Central/ 5PM-7PM Eastern

Call In: 646-652-4593
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Topic:
The State Of Black America 2008:
A Three Part Series

Copyright by r2c2h2 /Ron Herd II

After 40 Years In The Wilderness Known As The U.S. (post MLK Crucifixion), Many Of Us Behind The Black Veil Now Recognize 2008 As The Year Signifying Change For The Betterment And Upliftment Of The Souls Of Black Folks...

However, We Must Recognize That In Order To Achieve This Ultimate Goal, That We Still Have Issues That We Must Overcome And Much Work To Do...We Must In Accordance With Mutual Progress Come Together As A Community If We Are To Have True Peace On Earth And Goodwill Towards Men & Women...

And With This In Mind W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Proudly Introduces The State Of Black America 2008: A Three Part Series Which Will Air Live Every Sunday Remaining In April 2008 @ 5PM E/4PM C/3PM M/2PM P...The State Of Black America 2008 Will Discuss The Issues & Problems Facing Black Americans In The 21st Century...

Topics Include But Are Not Limited To The Following:
Prison Industry Complex
The Public Education System
HIV/AIDS Crisis In Our Community
Teen Pregnancy
Hurricane Katrina & FEMA Aftermath
Healthy Eating And Living
The "Just Us" System
The Environment
The Economy
Homophobia
Crime
Poverty
The Black Image In Popular Culture And Media
The Black Church
The Black Family Unit
Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis
How To Build Up Your Credit Rating
Barack Obama


Our Aim Is To Spend More Time Creating Solutions Than Worrying About The Problems...This Is A Town Hall Style Meeting Where Everyone Is Invited To Share Their Input And Insight...If You Don't Want To Call In But Still Would Like To Participate Please E-mail Us Your Questions And Comments To r2c2h2@gmail.com

Listen To The Actual Shows Live Online At The Following Links:

April 13, 2008~The State Of Black America Part One*

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/04/13/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

*(Show already in archives and available for listens/downloads)

April 20, 2008~The State Of Black America Part Two

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/04/20/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

Featured Guests: 2008 U.S. Presidential Hopeful The Honorable Sis. Cynthia McKinney, Prisoners' Rights Advocate & Activist Bro. Terry McMoore, Author & Cultural Activist Shamontiel Vaughn, Cultural Activist & Entrepreneur Bro. Larry Batchlor, Neo-Soul Sensation Nyasha Shani

April 27, 2008~The State Of Black America Part Three

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/04/27/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

Copyright by r2c2h2/Ron Herd II


And Lest We Forget...

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special~Eyewitness To The Crucifixion: The Last Days Of MLK:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/04/07/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio-1

****
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W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Reps Black History 365 Days A Year!!!
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/02/we-all-be-news-radio-reps-black-history_29.html

Celebrate Black History And Love All Day Every Day With Works By Tha Artivist:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/02/celebrate-black-history-and-love-all.html

Check Out The 2007 R2C2H2 Winter Newsletter:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/11/2007-r2c2h2-winter-newsletter.html

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(note: r2c2h2 copyright not part of actual shirt and design)

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The Honorable Cynthia McKinney On MLK, The War In Iraq & Global Working Class Struggle & Solidarity

Hello all! Yesterday was not only the 40th Anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it was also the anniversary of the murder of Casey Sheehan. Cindy shared the pain of her memory with us as we stand with working people across the Americas who are defending their right to work in dignity, and to maintain ownership of their countries' natural resources, and their objection to US wars. We are hoping that the next Continental Congress of Workers will take place in our country. Please visit www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com for more information. Here are my remarks:

Cynthia McKinney
Segundo Encuentro Continental de los Trabajadores
Mexico City, Mexico
April 4, 2008


Brothers and Sisters in the Movement

I am happy to be here in Mexico City where the people all over Latin America are on the move:

On the move for justice, self-determination, and peace.

I love that you have created a Power to the People movement with your votes that is stronger than the mightiest military force on the planet!

With the power of your vote you have taken your countries back.

Now, all we have to do is to count all the votes in the United States and Mexico!

In the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, an estimated six million people went to the polls and voted, but their votes weren't counted.

In 2000, and again in 2004, Democrats helped to install Republicans into power rather than fight for the victory that the voters had given them.

As a result of this kind of collusion, the Democratic majority in our Congress has failed to impeach Bush. They have failed to institute a livable wage, stop the multiple wars the U.S. is fighting right now, and they have failed to protect human rights anywhere in the world, including even at home.

That's why I left the Democratic Party.

I refused to become complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, spying on the American people, and ripping our Bill of Rights to shreds.

And so I declared my independence from the U.S. leadership that gave us tax cuts for the wealthy and a country 53 trillion dollars in debt and Hurricane Katrina.

To my brothers and sisters at this Conference and in the United States, I say:

Hands off Haiti!

Hands off Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Argentina now making a claim for the Falklands!

Hands off Venezuela and Ecuador!

No to Plan Mexico; No to Plan Colombia! Hands off Pemex!

And finally, it was on this date, 40 years ago, that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered.

We now know that Dr. King was murdered as part of a conspiracy that included his own government. Hatched in the bowels of the Pentagon, where so many other regime change operations have been hatched, the government of the United States launched regime change at home on Black America. We blacks in the United States have long known the pain and the consequences of having authentic leadership snatched from us; of having someone else pick our leaders before we pick them ourselves.

I am proud to join this international movement for self-determination; for justice and for peace. Despite today's difficulties, we must never let our dream be deferred. We in the U.S. gain inspiration from your successes here so we can carry the struggle to every nook and cranny of the United States.

Que vivan los pueblos de america!

Please Support Sis. Cynthia McKinney's Run For The Whitehouse By Visiting Her Official Campaign Website http://www.runcynthiarun.org

Listen To U.S. Presidential Hopeful Cynthia McKinney's Interview On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio~1-13-08

Show (Her Interview Is The 2nd Full Hour Of Show Segment):
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/01/13/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio

Summary

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/01/we-all-be-radio-and-news-special.html

McCain Doesn't Care About Black People???

Sen. John McCain's MLK Holiday Vote Apology Speech @ The National Civil Rights Museum In Memphis April 4, 2008




During much of the country’s racial tumult of the 1960s, McCain was in Vietnam, including 5½ years in a prison cell having little contact with the outside world.
Photo: John Shinkle

Arizona Blacks: Where's McCain?
By: Jonathan Martin
April 8, 2008

Oscar Tillman heads the Phoenix area branch of the NAACP and is a former statewide president of the group. He has been a leader of Arizona’s small, tight-knit African-American community for decades.

So it comes as something of a surprise to learn the name of one person, over all those years, with whom he has never spoken. It is the state’s senior senator better known these days as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

John McCain, said Tillman, “has pretty well zero relationship with the African-American community that I know of.”

“I don’t recall him ever attending any function with the NAACP,” Tillman added. “Each year we send them an invitation [to an annual banquet], and each year they say no.”

Interviews with black civic and business leaders in Arizona found no one who suggested that McCain holds racial animus. And McCain can point to some warm personal and political associations with blacks, some of whom cited his responsiveness to their concerns when they approached him on official business.

But the widespread perception of activists in the state’s traditional civil rights organizations and the African-American press is that McCain has consistently treated them with indifference.

He had few if any important relationships with these usually Democratic-leaning institutional pillars. The main reason, say leaders of these groups, was that McCain never demonstrated much interest in building them.

“In a word, none,” said Ron Busby, president of the Greater Phoenix Black Chamber of Commerce, when asked to describe the senator’s relationship with Arizona’s African-American community.

In the 10 years that the organization, which represents about 300 black-owned businesses, has been in existence, Busby said McCain has never been to any of its events.

Busy, who owns a large janitorial services firm that cleans businesses, hospitals and the home of the Arizona Cardinals, said his organization is not a traditionally liberal black group.

To the contrary, it would seem tailor-made for the kind of appeals that many Republicans say the party should be making to break the Democratic Party’s historic lock on the black vote the very type of line-crossing politics at which McCain has excelled in other contexts.

“We have African-Americans that are typically affluent, have moved here from other portions of the country, and have our views that are more conservative, at least from a national perspective,” Busby said.
The choice McCain faced in Arizona is familiar to Republican politicians in many states: how much effort to invest in political base-touching with constituencies that they know will vote strongly Democratic under any scenario?

In Arizona, civil rights activists say they get a far more responsive hearing from the state’s junior senator, Republican Jon Kyl.

“I deal with Sen. Kyl’s office,” said Tillman. “Sen. Kyl will get on the phone and call you.”

But some Arizona blacks tell a different story, saying McCain has been talking to and helping them for years. Some of these individuals were contacted independently. Others were identified to Politico after McCain allies were told of this story.

“He tries to build liaisons and build relationships across all lines, and he’s been very effective at it,” said Art Mobley, a longtime broadcaster in Phoenix who has known McCain for more than two decades.

Trying to get the first black-owned radio station on the air in 1992, Mobley ran into resistance from the Arizona National Guard, which claimed the signal would cause interference problems.

McCain stepped in, he said, and helped get KMJK on the air.

As for the criticism of some African-American leaders, Mobley said they are grumbling over not being sufficiently courted in ways that some blacks have come to expect as a ritual.

“They expect, unfortunately, symbolic gestures from politicians across the board,” Mobley said. “People need to look at substantive policies.”

Even so, symbolism can prove important in presidential campaigns. This could be especially true if McCain finds himself in a general election contest against Democrat Barack Obama, a campaign in which Obama’s precedent-shattering status would virtually guarantee racial issues a prominent role.

McCain’s discomfort with this kind of touchstone politics underscores a central part of his political persona: He has great difficulty feigning interest in subjects in which he lacks genuine personal interest.
Civil rights organizations are hardly unique in this respect. Whatever the constituency or issue, if McCain doesn’t care deeply about it, his feelings tend to be obvious over time.

Further, McCain spent most of his formative years removed from the racial conflicts that played such a central role in the lives of many people in his generation.

He attended prep school and college at overwhelmingly white institutions before entering the military, one of the few integrated professions in the 1950s. And during much of the country’s racial tumult of the 1960s, McCain was in Vietnam, including 5½ years in a prison cell having little contact with the outside world.



Raising a family, flying jets, trying to stay alive and then crafting a post-POW naval career with grievous war wounds, he simply was not immersed in the great themes of the civil rights era.

McCain touched on his own history with one of his state’s most racially charged issues whether to honor Martin Luther King Jr. with a holiday in a speech last week marking the 40th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s assassination.

He offered deep praise for King’s achievements and acknowledged that he had been mistaken in at first opposing a holiday.

“I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona,” McCain said before a heavily black crowd outside the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, drawing cheers after his initial confession had been jeered.

But McCain’s efforts to honor King have not been matched over the years with any attempt to establish connections with black leaders, some say.

“As far as I’ve seen, he has no relationship with the African-American community in Arizona,” said Cloves Campbell Jr., publisher of the Arizona Informant and a Democratic state representative from Phoenix.
“He’s never been to the paper,” said Campbell. “We’ve called to get interviews, but there has never been any response. I’ve never talked to him.”

Founded in 1971 by Campbell’s father, also once a state legislator, the Informant is a weekly that serves the 4 percent of the state’s population that is African-American.

“We’ve had conversations with Kyl several times; we even had [former Rep.] J.D. Hayworth in the office,” said the younger Campbell.

Nor has McCain ever been to his church, Campbell said. Tanner Chapel A.M.E. is the oldest African-American congregation in the state and is located in downtown Phoenix.

“I’ve seen Barack Obama more times in person in my life than I’ve ever seen John McCain,” said Campbell, 46, who backs the Illinois senator.

And should New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton edge out Obama for the nomination, Campbell said, it will be very much in McCain’s interest to mend fences.

“You’re going to see a lot of unhappy black people looking for alternatives,” he noted. “The time is right to start talking to people just in case that does happen.”

McCain’s campaign said that the senator has every intention of competing for the black voter, even against Obama.

“The campaign’s outreach efforts are ongoing, and John McCain is proud of his support in the African-American community,” said spokesman Tucker Bounds. “Whether Sen. McCain is advocating a strong national defense, a revitalized economy or more flexibility in education, he is going to find a receptive audience with African-American voters.”

To underscore his desire to do well in a community that traditionally overwhelmingly supports Democrats, McCain will take a high-profile tour of places such as Alabama’s Black Belt and the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles later this month.

Wes Gullett, a white former McCain staffer in Arizona who is now a top state backer of his old boss, chalked up the animus to mere politics.

“They’re passionately for Barack Obama, a lot of them, so they don’t want to be talking nice about John because it doesn’t help their cause,” he said.

Gullett said McCain worked hard early in his tenure to reach out to Arizona blacks and especially pastors.

But many have passed away since then, he noted, and state politics have grown more partisan.
Still, McCain retains some voices of support in the black faith community.

“He’s fantastic,” said Bishop Henry Barnwell, former pastor of Phoenix’s First New Life Baptist Church, of McCain, noting that the senator had been to his church over the years.

“He’s been very instrumental in assisting us in a number of ways,” said Barnwell, citing McCain’s efforts with congregants stationed at Luke Air Force Base in nearby Glendale.

Now retired, Barnwell served his church for some 40 years and said McCain was a vital ally in his effort to bring the King holiday to Arizona. Mobley, also a mover behind honoring King, similarly praised McCain for his help on the holiday, which the state finally recognized in 1992.

McCain was also friendly with the Rev. Dr. George Brooks Sr., an iconic figure in black Arizona who, as head of the Phoenix-area NAACP and a Presbyterian pastor, led the effort to bring Head Start to the state in the 1960s.

“John McCain is a family friend,” said Brooks’ son, George Brooks Jr. “He and my father had an excellent relationship.”

Yvonne Hunter, a black lobbyist in Phoenix who declined to reveal her partisan leanings, offered an assessment of McCain’s failure to court some black institutions.

“In terms or priorities, it’s just not there,” said Hunter. “But then the majority of African-Americans in Phoenix and Arizona are Democrats.”

Even for McCain allies, the prospect of their friend facing a black candidate this fall has them torn.

After a long pause, Barnwell said he’d support McCain in a matchup against Obama. But Mobley, who has been to McCain’s home and knows his family, said he was unsure.

“I’ve always been supportive of John, but I haven’t made up my mind,” said Mobley, an independent.

© 2007 Capitol News Company, LLC

It Was All A Dream: Tigers' Connection To 68...

Shots Heard Round The World

Tha Artivist Reports…


I Like Most Of Memphis And Tiger Nation Was Religiously Glued To My T.V. Sets Watching The University of Memphis or like we old school fans still call them Memphis State Tigers rip and run their way to a national title long in the making….I thought that the Tigers have finally brokened the curses of great Memphis Teams past, teams where players as talented and skilled as Keith Lee, Larry Finch, Elliot Perry and certainly Anfernee Penny Hardaway were denied the glory earned by them to the John Woodens, Bill Waltons, Ben Howlands and the UCLAs; Bob Huggins', Nick Van Excels and the Cincinnatis; Denny Crums, Pervis Ellisons and Louisvilles of the world…This was the year that the have nots will certainly have and that GOD will finally Bless The Child That Got His Own…

However this was not to be…With only 2.1 seconds left in regulation Kansas Sniper Mario Chalmers Delivered A Fatal Shot To The Heart Of Tiger Nation Which Ricocheted 'Round The World… Like The JFK Zapruder film this is going to be replayed for many years to come on Youtube and ESPN Classic…Probably the most important and devastating shot in recent NCAA Div. 1 Men's Basketball Championship History, it unmercifully ripped the scab off a wound that was only beginning to heal properly…

The loss literally deflated many in Memphis and all those in Tiger Nation like a punctured basketball…It felt as though all of us was declawed without even being given anesthetic or a reason why...How could Memphis have a 9 point lead with 2:12 minutes to go and all of a sudden have one of the greatest collapses in sports history??? Memphis' collapse was in a lot of ways comparable to Major League Baseball's NY Mets losing their lead in the standings late and playing themselves out of the playoffs and as division champs last season because in both cases conventional logic was defied or suspended...How could a team that have been hitting their free throws with amazing clarity and consistency throughout the tournament all of a sudden go 1 for 5 with arguably their best free throw shooters (First Team All American Chris Douglas Roberts and freshmen phenom Derrick Rose) on the line in the closing moments of regulation??? By not closing the deal the Tigers left the door open for a bleeding and dying Kansas to play the role of Lazarus, resurrecting themselves from Hoosiers Purgatory to Net Cutters' Heaven…

The 2007-2008 Memphis Tigers was a team destined for greatness…Nobody won more games and nobody was ever more under appreciated while doing so…They were always the underdogs for most of the tournament being dismissed by most of the so called college basketball experts and pundits for their lack of free throw etiquette although they lost only one game all season, was ranked number one for many consecutive weeks, and have beaten quality teams such as Georgetown, UCLA, USC and Gonzaga…

Memphis never got the attention or respect for being a perennial powerhouse in college basketball…Until this year…Albeit begrudgingly so…And only because they forced the issue by winning more games than anyone in history…Calipari was The Wizard Of The Bluff City, a master magician who held the city and many in basketball country spellbound by the majesty and artistry of his team which seemed to be blessed abundantly by the Basketball Gods, a hoops version of Achilles…And like Achilles their one weakness would be their undoing…The Tigers' weakness was of course free throw shooting…

When I saw the final score 75-68 something came across my mind as quick as lightning…They weren't suppose to win this year…Another thing cemented this when I kept on hearing the commentator said the Tigers' dream wasn't fulfilled, their dream wasn't realized…Then I immediately realized the power of those words as well as the significance of the Tigers scoring 68 points…

40 years ago on April 4, 1968 the nation lost a Real Dreamer on the Lorraine Hotel Balcony in Memphis, Tn…40 years later his dream has yet to be realized…In a way this was karmic justice not against the Tigers team, but against the City of Memphis…It was inspiring to see a city known for its stifling segregation to come together, Black and White, rally around a team composed of young Black men working together instead of killing each other for a goal which was worthwhile…In the City of Good Abode where one of the worst deeds in American History was done, this was indeed a very powerful statement…

However, Memphis has a long way to go in terms of how it treats its citizens of color which represents the majority of the city…40 years later the sanitation workers that Dr. King fought and died for still do not have a pension fund…"Minority" businesses only represent less than 1% of the total annual revenue in the city…Yes we have a Black Mayor, but we also have Black students dropping out at astonishing rates and one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world…Memphis will soon be home to the world's largest private prison, is already the STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) Capitol of the United States and owner of one of the worst crime rates in the country…

Frederick Douglass once said "it is easier to raise strong children than it is to repair broken men"…Unfortunately many of the children are already broken before they get started…Working with schools I have met kids who could not read or write proficiently at 16, 17 and 18 years of age…I have met kids who were 14 and 15 with two kids and one on the way and who can barely read and write…How in the hell can you expect them to fill out a job application when they can't spell their own name???

By them having kids before they are truly ready, they are raising another generation mired in crime and poverty, 1 out of 9 African American males aged 20-34 are currently locked up or down in the U.S. prison industry complex…The state of Louisiana which has the highest incarceration rate than any place in the world spends more money to lock up Black kids ($500,000 per individual) than to educate them (only $5,000 per individual)…Black folks represent almost half of the U.S. prison population and yet we are only 12% of the general population…In New York City, 50% of African American males aged 18-64 are currently unemployed…

Nationally only 50% of African Americans graduate from high school, in Detroit a dismal 24. 9 %, Baltimore a stunning 34% and places like L.A. and NYC it's 45%...These places have a sizable African American population…Our collective futures are being undermined by institutional racism as well as by our own inaction and indifference concerning matters of survival…

So I write "Yes The Dream Was Not Fulfilled" yesterday nor has it been in the 40 years since MLK's untimely homegoing…But it is up to you and I to take control of the game and lead the ball up the court and to score the winning shot…Are you game???

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special~Eye-Witness To A Crucifixion: The Last Days Of MLK:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/04/07/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio-1