Tag: pandemic

There is concern that Black and Hispanic communities, already disproportionately served by smartphone technology, that pending acquisition of TracFone by Verizon being delayed into late 2021 by the FCC and CPUC regulators could jeopardize benefits for low-income people.

Wanda Sabir presents a thoughtful journey considering the effects of the pandemic on our reality, and experiencing through memorial art, theatre, healing arts and poetry the beauty, trauma, wisdom, fight and survival of Black wom(b)en holding the possibilities of the future.

Ever closer to providing high quality and comprehensive healthcare available to every person, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation endorses Medicare for All Act of 2021 introduced by U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell.

Baba Jahahara never fails to offer up the beauty of humanity in community with his garden of loved ones transitioning, revolutions building, justice promising, freedom awaiting, movement posturing, humans imagining and congratulating outstanding achievements acknowledged. We feel the love.

The experience of the COVID-19 global pandemic has brought grueling challenges of anxiety, fear, pain, suffering and grief. It has also presented the necessity for accessibility equity across the nations in unity to honor the human right to affordable, high quality health care to prevent future pain of a crushing pandemic such as we are experiencing worldwide.

San Francisco falls critically short of safe drinking water accessibility for homeless people, which according to the 2019 Point in Time Count, there would need to be an additional 36 permanent water points in District 6 alone to meet the international minimum standard for water access established by the United Nations, made even more critical during a pandemic.

Again, the People rise to defend their humanity. Alabama continues to be the epicenter of the relentless drive of a collective energy and voice to reclaim the People’s rights as reality – the spotlight presently shining on the fight for workers’ right to unionize at the behemoth Amazon, and beyond.

When you’ve got the tail of the snake in your hand, it’s going to try to bite. And that’s just what GEO Group and BOP did when SF Bay View editor in chief Keith “Malik” Washington told the truth to protect the safety of his people and his community – using his First Amendment right and commitment to integrity. Commitment to integrity and rights are not where BOP or GEO Group like to play, as they have demonstrated.

LaTroya Hester, without judgement or solicitation, honors the skepticism and lack of trust for many Black and Brown people about receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. Here, she provides opportunities for people to dive deeper into the process and people who created the vaccines, a number of whom are Black people who played important leading roles. At the very least, more in-depth information is available.

The limits of capitalism have been reached and the persistent, maniacal grab of the capitalist monster is causing fissures in the structure, like drops of water on the rock over time, and at the 50-year mark of relentless resistance to profits over people, the people are rising to take back what has been stolen.

Unconscionable, inhumane, violently genocidal is the reality this story by Victoria Law for Truthout informs with reports by women incarcerated at FMC Carswell about what clearly is deliberate indifference to deadly conditions putting residents’ lives in danger, validating the consideration so stated: ‘If they can’t take care of us, release us.’

Love, creativity and determination direct renewed and expanded energy into communities hit hardest by ongoing calamity avalanches like Bay View Hunters Point. The leadership baton at Mission Neighborhood Centers is passing from retiring Santiago “Sam” Ruiz to new non-profit veteran Richard M. Ybarra.

With stories so deeply compelling and told at great risk of retaliation, another of our caged community members describes the deliberate indifference to the safety of prisoners during COVID-19 in CSP-Solano prison, with no protocol, no common sense, no humanity, no recourse. Taxpayer dollars support this shame.

Shameful history may be repeating itself where again the city of San Francisco and a developer are moving forward with a housing redevelopment project, during a pandemic, without respectfully hearing the voices of those who have been residents for decades and who likely will be adversely impacted.

Emerging through the other side of the first month of 2021, Baba Jahahara Amen-RA Alkerbulan-Ma’at honors those transitioning to the realm of the Ancestors while bringing us into February and all that is to be appreciated, learned and embraced as the path of the movement demands. Revolutionary Love and Reparations Now!

Obviously conflicted about what to do when to ensure the desired outcome for his political career, Gov. Newsom continues to embrace political gain rather than do the right thing during trauma and death in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. By refusing to mass release prisoners from California’s overcrowded prisons, he provides safety and wellbeing for no one, the people, all of the people, he promised to serve.

HOPE is the thread that tenaciously weaves its way through the chaos and darkness to infuse we humans with connection, courage and creativity to walk the storm and greet the buds emerging from twigs in spring. HOPE is the validation of our humanity.

At the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC), any sentence is a death sentence in the COVID-19 conundrum. COVID-free for 7-8 months, State Correctional Institute Frackville opened gates wide for intake of COVID-positive-tested prisoners and, federal funding. The only medical remedy? – drink water – verified contaminated water.

From behind the walls of the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, prisoners’ voices are calling supporters to action to make demands and expose mental torture, deliberate indifference, dehumanization and inhumane abuse by their corrupt captors – amid, compounded and weaponized by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The power of Keith LaMar’s authenticity expands to pure joy as he shares his journey on death row in Ohio with his exploration of love, solidarity and hope through jazz music, relentless push to prevail in his innocence, honoring the fundamental power of the people and the power in walking a journey together.