Tag: virus

Embracing the journey to face his deepest fear, Antwann Johnson enters the realm of deep humanity.

The COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Act brings a breath of relief to unbearable loss, sorrow and stress.

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.’

It is notable that prisoner Steve McCain is caged in a prison still owning the name of the plantation it was built on, Eastham Plantation, meting out the same cruelty, disrespect and dehumanizing atrocities on prisoners as was perpetrated on the slaves before them, who originally cleared the land before the Civil War.

God-Mother Elizabeth Quida has grave concerns about possible negative impacts of the just passed under-the-radar Proposition 19 on vulnerable families and communities, and urges the Proposition immediately be put on hold for the benefit of further community consideration.

Feb. 1, National Freedom Day, commemorates both the passage of the 13th Amendment and the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which declares that “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,” including incarcerated human beings.

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!

“Is this the life you want?” By design of the rich white slaver writers, the Constitution with the 13th Amendment to maintain free labor – then known as slavery, now identified as corporations – was constructed intentionally to support capitalism.

People who are prisoners are fighting for their lives and dependent solely on the support and voices of families and organizers on the outside because California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation (CDCr), the Governor’s office and legislators are acting like they don’t care if they die, and by non-action appear to encourage death by COVID for prisoners.

MAAFA 2020 weaves ritual, honoring, spirit, drumbeat, heartbeat, veins and bone marrow in dance, joy, tears and love through the very essence of the fabric of African descendents in the infinite circle of rememberance with footthrob on Ocean Beach, absorbing the 401-year history, blood and pain of the Old Fort Comfort English Slave Trade – not forgetting 100 years prior, the slave trade brought by the Spanish.

Incarcerated people are vulnerable to severe illness due to COVID-19, and the pandemic is spreading rapidly in prisons, jails and detention centers because of lack of health care and adequate access to basic necessities, such as soap and disinfectant.

"We need a healthcare system that treats all workers and patients equally, and we need the state of California to make sure that all healthcare workers and patients – especially those inside correctional facilities – can be immediately tested for COVID-19." - Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers

A killer like healthcare denial or scarcity is still free to claim lives and roam our neighborhoods in spite of all kinds of laws passed in the name of justice and equality.

May our Divine Mother-Father Creator of and in All – and beloved Ancients and Ancestors from past millennia, yesteryears and, literally, yesterday – find you and (y)our extended Family healthy and staying spirited during this dangerous worldwide pandemic, global imperialist monopoly capitalist economic devastation, and ongoing European and american “white” state and vigilante terrorism. WE offer our sacred-most thoughts for the healing of our dear editor, Elder Mary Ratcliff. Get well, Mama Mary! Asé.

“I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.” – El Hajj Malik Shabazz aka Malcolm X

Dr. Kim Rhoads, MD, MS, MPH, is an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); director of the Office of Community Engagement at UCSF; and member of the COVID-19 Equity Task Forces in both San Francisco and Alameda County.

“If you do not understand white supremacy (racism) – what it is and how it works – everything else that you understand will only confuse you.” – Neely Fuller Jr. (1971)

“American prisons are death traps. They are the places with the highest rate of coronavirus infection in the world. Incarceration in the time of COVID skirts the genocidal cruelty of death by disease of the Nazis.” J. Fernandez

On April 30, 2020, at least half of the nearly 300 prisoners in my assigned cellblock (J-housing unit) here at Indiana’s Pendleton Correctional Facility refused to accept meals in protest of our treatment, or lack thereof, related to the coronavirus pandemic and it’s spreading within PCF.

I am a Harlem Native who is incarcerated, and nearing the end of my prison sentence – three more years. However, within this pandemic, I sit in a pressure cooker, Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Westchester County, where the coronavirus infection rates are among the highest. Staff and inmates are infected.