Monthly Archives: November 2009

Supervisors Nate Miley and Keith Carson have restored my faith in Black elected officials. The leverage that public officials have just before contract award is enormous. Nate Miley and Keith Carson by their actions have established a method of enforcing contractor goals that can create economic parity in the Black community.

When the Cook County Sheriff’s Department arrives to evict Cabrini Green resident Lenise Forrest and her family Tuesday morning, they will be confronted and prevented from doing so by residents and supporters from around the city. Lenise Forrest has been a resident of Cabrini Green for 19 years. The message and goals of the new Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign are summarized as “while the rich get bailed out, we will not allow the poor to be put out.”

They shot my grandson three times – two times in his back. That must have turned him around. Then they shot him in his face just above his right eye. That was the cause of death, according to the Coroner’s Office. So we know one thing: They shot him in the back first. How was he threatening the police if he was running from them? That’s what I want to know.

On Friday, Nov. 13, the London Guardian reported a "Huge rise in birth defects in Fallujah," Iraq. I sent the news to KPFA Radio 94.1FM Weekend News anchor Anthony Fest, along with contact info for Bob Nichols, San Francisco Bay View newspaper correspondent and winner of a 2004 Project Censored Award for his reporting on the U.S. military's use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq and consequent radiation poisoning.

Tonight is a night of rejoicing in San Francisco’s Black heartland, Bayview Hunters Point. After more than a decade of fighting the land-grabbing Lennar cabal – Florida-based mega-homebuilder Lennar and its sponsors, Mayor Gavin Newsom, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, richest member of the U.S. Senate Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband, Lennar partner Richard Blum – we the people of the poorest neighborhood in filthy rich Frisco finally won one.

Experiencing this enlightened age of “autism” is remarkable after having parented three autistic boys over the past 21 years. Now that autism spectrum diagnoses are estimated in one out of 100 births, all I need do is mention the word and many nod knowingly, yet physically recoil. Don’t speak about our children in hushed tones with downcast eyes or, even worse, avoid our presence altogether. Don’t worry about interacting with our children; get over your discomfort and come to see us.

U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas. Hutchinson, of Oakland, California, is currently being confined at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, after being arrested. Her son was placed into a county foster care system.

'Operation Small Axe' takes a raw and unflinching look at life under police terrorism in Oakland through the stories of Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon. Now that the trial of killer cop Johannes Mehserle has been moved out of Oakland to LA, 'Operation Small Axe' is also ona move. MOI JR says, 'We will bring the resistance to LA, starting on Saturday, Dec. 12, 6:30 p.m., at the Kaos Network, 4343 Leimert Blvd, Los Angeles' for a screening and political education class. Spread the word.

The Fox News cable channel crew has discovered a new all-purpose Black boogey-man to rile latent racial animosity in America: Mumia Abu-Jamal, the internationally acclaimed death row journalist. Abu-Jamal is now a regular reference in the weapons of mass deception arsenal employed by Fox and its friends to demonize their enemies de jour.

Deja Bryson is a terrific Sparkle in the first staged production of the classic hit movie ‘Sparkle’ playing now at the historic Black Rep, 3201 Adeline St. in Berkeley. The Nov. 28 Saturday matinee is a fundraiser for the Bay View! Call (510) 652-2120, mention the Bay View and get a discount.

POOR Press will be releasing its new books and introducing their authors at a benefit – “Talk-Story Circle on Land, Migration, Occupation and Resistance” – at Galleria de la Raza, 2857 24th St. at Bryant in San Francisco, this Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 6 p.m. Enjoy good food, DJ, performance and scholarship for $5-$15 or whatever you can spare.

Because of charter schools grounded in the massive privatization movement that's rapidly engulfing New Orleans "public" schools, we see the deliberate "disappearing" of Black music being taught in schools. One of the leaders of the movement to restore the New Orleans music education system, Derrick Tabb, has been nominated to win the CNN "Hero's Award."

Love has everything to do with it, and “Precious” shows us that where there is love, there is no intent to harm or cause pain. Precious’ life was the antithesis of love; how many children and adults confuse pain for love until they learn better?

Lack of health insurance might have led or contributed to nearly 17,000 deaths among hospitalized children in the United States in the span of less than two decades, according to research led by the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center looking at the impact of insurance on the number of preventable deaths and the potential for saved lives among sick children in the United States.

While investigators probe for a motive behind the mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas Thursday, in which an army psychiatrist is suspected of killing 13 people, military personnel at the base are in shock as the incident “brings the war home.” “Fort Hood is pretty much a ghost town right now,” said Specialist Michael Kern, an active duty veteran of the Iraq war.

After two years of researching paraplegic street musicians, I found out that Staff Benda Bilili of Kinshasa, Congo, released their album and were invited to perform at the annual WOMEX Festival – World Music Expo. WOMEX has moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, which is also home to my sister, Pamela Juhl, and the Copenhagen Voice, which she founded. Yes, both my sister and I are journalists for the people!

The historic city of Rome is known for breathtaking sights from the Vatican to the Coliseum and beyond. However, there are little known areas not far from the historic routes frequented by tourists, areas where large numbers of refugees from a number of African countries reside in poverty but with dignity.

Saint Calogero, an African priest, is the patron saint of the Sicilian town of Agrigento. But in the 21st century, African refugees who traverse the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean Sea find Calogero’s city, indeed the entire country, unwelcoming, even hostile to them.

POCC Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. will be hitting Northern Cali Nov. 7-13 for the 40th anniversary of the assassination of his father, Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and Defense Captain Mark Clark. Come out to support Chairman Fred, Block Report Radio and the SF Bay View - 7 events in 7 days, in Oakland, Sonoma, Stanford, Pleasant Hill, Santa Cruz, San Francisco.

Americans await the decision President Obama will make relative to Gen. McCrystal’s proposal to send more troops to Afghanistan. Obama and McCrystal are locked in a test of power that will have monumental effects on America for decades to come. There are definite indications that Obama does not favor sending more troops, but the general may have cleverly maneuvered Mr. Obama into a no-win situation.