Faith in Action

With support from Africa Action, I sent Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) a note about Senate Bill 2166, a bill concerned with canceling Africa’s odious and crippling debt. Here’s his response:

Dear Mr. Brown:

Thank you for contacting me regarding your support for providing debt relief to poor, developing nations that have borrowed from the United States , other creditor governments, and international financial institutions.

I share your concern for highly indebted countries that are in desperate economic straits and unable to repay loans and honor other financial obligations. These nations must often commit large portions of their national budgets to servicing debt at the expense of human development and social programs. Senator Robert Casey, Jr. (D-PA) introduced S. 2166, the Jubilee Act, on October 16, 2007. The bill would cancel debt of eligible developing countries and would establish a framework for creditor transparency and responsible lending. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, of which I am a member.

While many countries have already paid off the principle debt , they continue to pay heavy interest. I share your belief that debt relief for impoverished nations will provide resources for desperately needed development initiatives and human services. Without the burden of debt, countries can better focus their efforts toward economic develo pment and poverty reduction .

Again, thank you for sharing your views. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance to you on this or any other matter.

I liked the dialogue that occured from last Friday’s open forum so let’s try it again.

Click “comments” above and let me know what’s on your mind!

Sports, politics, religion, community, international news, etc?

I’ve never done this before, but hey - it’s Friday.  Let’s try something new. 

What do you want to talk about? 

What’s important to you? 

What’s the issue that everyone is missing? 

Politics? Religion? World Affairs? Local Happenings? 

CLICK “COMMENTS” AND LET ‘ER RIP! 

I sent a letter to the editor of The Afro about rape allegations against Detective William Welch who is accused and has been indicted for raping a 16 year old girl inside the Southeastern Police District Station House. 

Click here to read it.

Dear Congressman Elijah Cummings,

I appreciate your response to my email about the unrest in the Middle East and the military offensive Israel is waging against Lebanon, however, as I shared with a member of your staff earlier today, I strongly disagree with you.

You reference in your email UN Security Council Resolution 1559, but you make no mention of UN Security Council Resolution 242 which calls for the “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict and termination of all claims or states of belligerency”. Resolution 242, which predates 1559, makes clear that Israel has been in violation of international law for 37 years. Israel has been illegally occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for close to 4 decades!

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I sent the following letter to my U.S. Representatives (Sarbanes, Mikulski, and Cummings)

Dear Congressman Cummings,

First let me thank you for your valued leadership. As my representative, I follow your political activities closely and most times your activity matches my desire on various issues.
I write you today because, like many, I am deeply concerned about the Middle East crisis in Lebanon/Israel. I grieve for the civilians who have been murdered and victimized by this crisis and of course, my prayer is for peace.

However, I am also concerned with the disproportionate amount of destruction that Israel is pouring upon Lebanon. Hezbollah militants have no where near the fire power that Israel’s full military has. The number of civilian casualties in Lebanon is increasing far more rapidly than the civilian casualties in Israel.

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June 8, 2006

Mr. Victor Starr
Program Director
WERQ 92Q Jams
1705 Whitehead Road
Baltimore, MD 21207

Dear Mr. Starr,

I appreciate your timely and thoughtful response to my May 2 letter. In addition, I am glad that you agree with me that the “Big Phat Wire” segment was inappropriate.

As it pertains to the “give it up on the first date” question, I still believe that this question is an inappropriate one as well. I believe that asking adults if they would “give it up on the first date” might negatively influence a youth to think that it’s ok to do such. Then on the flip side your station brings people on the air like Debra Hickman from Sisters Together and Reaching (STAR) to talk about HIV/AIDS. I view this as potentially confusing to young impressionable minds.

Me turning off the radio won’t do anything to protect the young people from conflicting messages that add more confusion to the already complex society that they’re encountering.

I doubt if we’ll ever come to a point of agreement on this issue, but I have been encouraged to become a more aggressive media justice advocate. I know now what the FCC defines as obscene, profane, and indecent broadcasts. I am also becoming increasingly aware of how lack of non-White media ownership and payola is impacting what stations like WERQ is broadcasting.

While the music industry and radio broadcast companies are used to older people challenging artists’ lyrics and stereotypes, I believe there is an ever increasing percentage of younger listeners like me who are a part of the hip hop generation that are sick of how corporate influence is perverting our sacred genre of music.

I’ll be joining with other young advocates who refuse to continue to dance to the tunes of our own demise. No matter what Lil John, Busta Rhymes, Ying Yang Twins, Shawnna, major media conglomerates, or their corporate sponsors say – I know African people are better than this.

I’m sure at some point our paths will cross again. I appreciate the dialogue.

Respectfully,

Minister Heber Brown, III

May 2, 2006

Mr. Victor Starr
Program Director
WERQ 92Q Jams
1705 Whitehead Road
Baltimore, MD 21207

Dear Mr. Starr,

While riding to work this morning, I was flipping through the channels and landed on 92.3FM. At the time, an interview or prank phone call of some sort was playing. A woman and a man were arguing about a paternity test and describing explicit sexual acts. There was an onslaught of profanity covered by the traditional “beeps” that do little in masking what was said. The time was about 8:45AM.

It was appalling to me to hear such vulgar discussions first thing in the morning on the city’s most popular morning show. As I was driving, I was passing school aged children at bus stops with headphones in their ears and I kept thinking about what if these children are listening to these vivid descriptions of oral sex and profanity?

In a city that was ranked with the fifth highest annual AIDS rate of any major metropolitan area in the country, I know for a fact that our city is suffering from an HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Baltimore City Council commissioned a report of this problem and in 2002 they, along with the Mayor, issued a STATE OF EMERGENCY because of the “pervasive impact of the epidemic in the city.” Speaking of the “face” of HIV/AIDS in Baltimore, Dr. William Blattner, Chair of the Baltimore City Commission on HIV/AIDS, warned in a 2005 Interim Report that, “youth in high-risk African American neighborhoods have a sense of hopelessness that translates into behaviors that continue to fuel new infections.”

While I appreciate the community outreach activities that WERQ engages in on a fairly regular basis, I also believe that public relations events do not give the station a license to broadcast material that is detrimental to the health, safety, and wellbeing of listeners and particularly our youth.

I would advise WERQ 92.3FM to reevaluate its ethical standards as it relates to the irresponsible discussion and broadcast of sexually explicit information over its airwaves. Broadcasting profanity laced arguments about oral sex and asking if people will “give it up on the first date” during the Wednesday morning dating interviews is not acceptable. Perhaps that type of mature content would be better served during the middle of the day (after morning rush hour and before mid-afternoon) when most school children should be in school.

I appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Minister Heber Brown, III