Faith in Action

Hello People,

I am writing this to convey to all of you something that I have been thinking about recently.  Freedom Ain’t free.  As I spent the day pissed off about being ripped off by AT&T, it occurred to me that my problem was minor.

 

Eddie Conway (pictured above) has been ripped off by this very criminal justice system for over 37 years.  That is a lifetime.  A lifetime absent of many of the things that we take for granted like cell phones, a cup of coffee at some corporate chain, the ability to watch the Sopranos, a hot bath, and just being able to close a door and be alone.  And while all of those things suggest privilege - well freedom ain’t really free.  We spend money on those things and more and sometimes we even see them as needs, but on a daily basis Eddie struggles to keep enough money on his phone card to keep up with the world outside the walls.  His is a hand to mouth existence and despite this Eddie has more freedom in his spirit than many of us, but it ain’t really enough freedom.

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“You can kill a revolutionary, but you can’t kill a revolution!”

Those are the words of Fred Hampton, Deputy Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, who was assassinated by an axis of evil - the Chicago Police Department, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and the FBI on December 4, 1969.

Last night, I watched The Murder of Fred Hampton, a 1971 documentary which provides rarely seen footage of Black Panther meetings, rallies, and community outreach - of course focusing on Hampton.  The film was shown at MICA’s Brown’s Center (Falvey Hall) as a part of the Fall Film Series.  The series, which takes place every Tuesday night of this month, will feature various personalities from the Black Panther Party as a part of the Black Panther Rank & File Exhibition that is taking place here in Baltimore. 

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A Jena 6 followup organizing meeting for the Baltimore area will take place this Thursday, September 27, 2007 6PM at Empowerment Temple’s Family Life Center. (1505 Eutaw Place, Baltimore, MD 21217) As we know, the work is not over yet.

Here is the agenda for Thursday’s meeting:

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As many of you know, thousands of people are gearing up for this Thursday’s (Sept. 20th) lineup of rallies/protests in Jena, Louisiana and elsewhere.  The Jena 6 movement has grown strong legs thanks to radio personality, Michael Baisdon, Rev. Al Sharpton, and thousands of grassroots activists.  Good news was realized this past Friday in the case of Mychal Bell - the first of the Jena 6 who was scheduled to be sentenced.  Bell’s last conviction was overturned citing the fact that he should never have been tried as an adult.  Be that as it may, the public should keep the pressure on until justice is served for all of the boys. 

For those of you in Baltimore who can’t make it to Jena for the rally on Thursday, there are two events that I know of which are taking place here.  See below:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2007

12Noon - 1:30PM at Coppin State University, 2500 W. North Avenue, Baltimore (in front of Parlett L. Moore Library)

7PM - 9PM at New Shiloh Baptist Church, 2100 N. Monroe Street, Baltimore

For more information about either of these events, please contact:

 Doc Cheatham at (410) 669-8683

photo source: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images

I tuned into the FIBA Championship game on Sunday partly because of my love of the game of basketball and partly because I have a friend in Argentina and I wanted to see how her team would stack up against the “almighty” U.S. team.  The game basically followed the pattern of the other games in this year’s tournament involving the U.S. - they dominated from the tip off until the ending buzzer.

NBA players like Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmello Anthony and many others who were on that team were superstars in their own right.  They can stand alone in the small category of being some of the greatest active basketball players on the planet.  In spite of this, however, they realized that they would not win the gold medal if they did not work together. 

Those who follow the game, remember when these superstars learned this lesson.  At the 2002 FIBA World Championship Games, Argentina became the first team ever to defeat a U.S. team composed of NBA players.  At the 2004 Olympic Games, Team USA was again defeated by Argentina and this time Puerto Rico took them down as well.  Team U.S.A. limped back from Greece embarrassed by their performance.  Their humiliation taught them that while the U.S. version of the sport placed emphasis on individual playing ability, the world version of the game stressed teamwork and that’s the only way to win in the Olympics.  They proved their grasp of this concept during this year’s FIBA Games and hope to win gold as well in Beijing in 2008.

Enough cannot be said, however, about the chemistry that these superstars displayed and their willingness to make individual accomplishment secondary to cooperative play and collective achievement.  It reminds me of the emphasis that the African worldview places upon the saying, “There is no ‘me’ without ‘we’.”

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Please consider lending your voice and support to the Jena 6. To learn how you can help please visit Color of Change.

“Nowhere in the annals of history has a people experienced such a long and traumatic ordeal as Africans during the Atlantic slave trade. Over the nearly four centuries of the slave - which continued until the end of the Civil War - millions of African men, women, and children were savagely torn from their homeland, herded onto ships, and dispersed all over the so-called New World. Although there is no way to compute exactly how many people perished, it has been estimated that between thirty and sixty million Africans were subjected to this horrendous triangular trade system and that only one third-if that-of those people survived…”

-Dr. John Henrik Clarke

Today marks the celebration of Juneteenth - a commemoration of the announcement of the ending of slavery in the so-called United States of America.  It took 2 1/2 years for the news of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Galveston, Texas.  Union troops arrived and made the news known to the enslaved which prompted a celebration.  Of course, the cause for the delay is still under debate, but there is no question in my mind that the functionaries of the status quo withheld the news as long as possible. 

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