News & Views

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.

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."

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.

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.

The 2009 U.S. Conference on AIDS opened in San Francisco at the Hilton Hotel on Oct. 29. The three-day event drew leadership from around the country, highlighting the “changing tide” of leadership in the forefront of the battle against HIV. The lobby of the downtown Hilton was a sea of energy and vibrant color as African American, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander and women policymakers mingled in excited conversation.

On Thursday, Oct. 22, the noise pitched and rolled as the crowd cheered and stomped on the sunny San Francisco City Hall steps in a budget cut “Earthquake Shout-Out to the Schwarzenegger Administration.” Such high energy was surprising from 200 low income elders, disabled San Franciscans, people with mental health needs, In-Home Supportive Service workers, advocacy groups and families.

The family of a 24-year-old missing Black woman has made an appeal to federal law enforcement officials for help to bring her home safely and soon. Mitrice Richardson went missing after deputies at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station released her into a remote canyon area in the middle of the night, without her car, any money, a cell phone or other assistance.

“Doctor Luther! Doctor Luther, give it to the Honduras oligarchy hard!” Dr. Luther Castillo, who represents the National Resistance Front against the Military Coup in Honduras, brought to San Francisco the echoes of Cuba’s former President Fidel Castro on Thursday night at the Centro del Pueblo. He spoke for almost two hours with passion, conviction and a keen understanding of the savage rule of the minority oligarchic coup government in Honduras.

Prisoners of Conscience Committee Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. will be hitting Northern Cali Nov. 7-13 to talk about 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!

In the U.S, the richest country in the world, Washington is coordinating the recovery effort. In Lebanon, a tiny poor and war-torn nation, Hezbollah, a grassroots resistance movement that Washington called “terrorist,” organizes most of the reconstruction. Hezbollah receives substantial aid in this effort from Syria and especially Iran, countries Washington also calls “terrorist.”

“When arresting kids for misbehaving becomes the primary mode of discipline, some of our most vulnerable populations end up being unnecessarily criminalized at very young ages before alternatives that could lead to academic success are exhausted,” said I. India Geronimo of the ACLU Racial Justice Program and co-author of the report.

More than four years after Hurricane Katrina, I am concerned about the availability and sufficiency of affordable housing in New Orleans, where rents have risen 52 percent since the storm and 41 percent of families pay more than 50 percent of their income in rent. More than 35,000 families recently applied for 3,500 Section 8 vouchers, indicating the overwhelming demand for affordable housing.

The Afghanistan war is due for a recycling, but it may not go the way the U.S. has planned. Begun under dubious circumstances, more as a demonstration war to set the stage for the real drama of Iraq, Afghanistan has almost always been more useful as a proxy war fought by others, rather than a direct war fought by Americans.