Monday, April 30, 2007

Busy Day For Supreme Court

It was a busy day for the supreme court as they
handed down a number of rulings today that are
interesting. check them out and feel free to offer
up a comment or two.


The Supreme Court on Monday:

Ruled that police may use deadly force to stop high-speed car chases without fear of being sued for civil rights violations.

Refused to hear the case of two Guantanamo Bay prisoners who want to challenge the legality of military commissions.

Made it easier to invalidate patents, scaling back a legal test that has fueled an era of protection for new products.

Ruled in favor of Microsoft Corp. and against AT&T in a case that restricts the reach of U.S. patents overseas.

Upheld local ordinances forcing private trash haulers to use municipal garbage facilities, even if it costs more than shipping garbage elsewhere.

Agreed to decide whether the president can order state courts to obey an international court ruling in the case of Jose Medellin, a Mexican national who is on Texas death row for killing two teenage girls.

Turned down an appeal from the government and utility industry that favored allowing extensive changes to older coal-fired power plants without having to install pollution controls.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Friday, April 27, 2007

You Can Only Say So Much !

Bad mouthing a person or his business may get you
in trouble in a California state court. This is the first
time that the high court has barred defendants in a
defamation cases from making statements in the
future. If this case reaches the U.S. Supreme court
how do you think that court will rule. Check out the
story and offer up your opinion-Peace.


In a significant development in free speech law, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that state courts may silence people who have defamed others.Ruling in the case of a 58-year-old Newport Beach woman who accused a local bar of serving tainted food and making sex videos, the high court said a judge may order Anne Lemen to stop repeating false and scurrilous statements that were found by a trial court to be defamatory.

The decision marked the first time the state high court has approved barring defendants in defamation cases from making statements in the future. Judges typically punish defamation by ordering defendants to pay damages.The dissenters in the 5-2 ruling warned that the court was authorizing a prior restraint on free speech, a legal concept rooted in English common law. "To forever gag the speaker — the remedy approved by the majority — goes beyond chilling speech," Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote.

"It freezes speech." Because violating such an order could mean fines or jail, the prospect may "deter a person from speaking at all," Kennard wrote.But the majority said a narrow order against further defamation was constitutional."An injunction issued following a trial … that does no more than prohibit the defendant from repeating the defamation is not a prior restraint and does not offend the 1st Amendment," Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote for the majority.A lawsuit by Aric Toll, who owns the Village Inn on Balboa Island with his parents, triggered the decision.

Toll said Lemen was driving his customers away by videotaping them and telling outrageous lies about his business. He said Lemen told others that he had Mafia connections and had attempted to kill her.Toll's plight elicited sympathy from some of the justices at oral arguments, a factor that probably influenced Thursday's ruling."Every ruling is affected by the facts of the case, and that is why hard cases make bad law," said Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, an expert on the state high court. "But when it comes to the burdens with respect to 1st Amendment protection, this is a pretty significant step.

"Toll, 41, said he was "very happy" about the ruling. He said he had spent about $100,000 pursuing his case against Lemen, who describes herself as a Christian evangelist and owns a home next door to Toll's business. "She is capable of a lot of damage, and she just doesn't let up," Toll said.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

You Can Only Say So Much !

Bad mouthing a person or his business may get you
in trouble in a California state court. This is the first
time that the high court has barred defendants in a
defamation cases from making statements in the
future. If this case reaches the U.S. Supreme court
how do you think that court will rule. Check out the
story and offer up your opinion-Peace.


In a significant development in free speech law, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that state courts may silence people who have defamed others.Ruling in the case of a 58-year-old Newport Beach woman who accused a local bar of serving tainted food and making sex videos, the high court said a judge may order Anne Lemen to stop repeating false and scurrilous statements that were found by a trial court to be defamatory.

The decision marked the first time the state high court has approved barring defendants in defamation cases from making statements in the future. Judges typically punish defamation by ordering defendants to pay damages.The dissenters in the 5-2 ruling warned that the court was authorizing a prior restraint on free speech, a legal concept rooted in English common law. "To forever gag the speaker — the remedy approved by the majority — goes beyond chilling speech," Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote.

"It freezes speech." Because violating such an order could mean fines or jail, the prospect may "deter a person from speaking at all," Kennard wrote.But the majority said a narrow order against further defamation was constitutional."An injunction issued following a trial … that does no more than prohibit the defendant from repeating the defamation is not a prior restraint and does not offend the 1st Amendment," Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote for the majority.A lawsuit by Aric Toll, who owns the Village Inn on Balboa Island with his parents, triggered the decision.

Toll said Lemen was driving his customers away by videotaping them and telling outrageous lies about his business. He said Lemen told others that he had Mafia connections and had attempted to kill her.Toll's plight elicited sympathy from some of the justices at oral arguments, a factor that probably influenced Thursday's ruling."Every ruling is affected by the facts of the case, and that is why hard cases make bad law," said Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelmen, an expert on the state high court. "But when it comes to the burdens with respect to 1st Amendment protection, this is a pretty significant step.

"Toll, 41, said he was "very happy" about the ruling. He said he had spent about $100,000 pursuing his case against Lemen, who describes herself as a Christian evangelist and owns a home next door to Toll's business. "She is capable of a lot of damage, and she just doesn't let up," Toll said.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Sacramento Sidestep

It's become a familar dance in Sacramento among
politicians. They call it a compromise but to me it's
the old bait and switch with a twist. Here's how it
works. The state is under the gun by the feds to
ease overcrowding by June which won't happen
under this new plan. So they quickly pass legislation
to add more beds and institute rehabilitation
programs that will take months if not years to put
into effect.

The issue of easing overcrowding now is shifted back
into the hands of the feds because the only way to
relieve overcrowding now is to release a certain amount
of inmates immediately which state leaders are afraid to
do because this looks to voters that they are soft on crime.
So either the feds accept what they've put on the table or
the state lets them tackle the overcrowding issue. Either
way the state politicians can't be blammed for any early
releases the feds may order to ease immediate overcrow-
ding because they've submitted a plan. Now thats what I
call crafty legtislation.

Facing mounting pressure from the federal courts, legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed Wednesday to spend $7.4 billion on new jail and prison beds while doing more to help inmates succeed once released. The complex deal, reached after weeks of negotiations, represents an effort to ease overcrowding in California's sprawling correctional system, where 172,000 convicts are packed into space intended for about 100,000.

The crowding crisis has become so severe that federal judges, who already control large portions of the state system, are considering whether to cap the inmate population. Hearings on that issue are set for June.The deal, which would create 53,000 beds at prisons, jails and new urban "reentry" centers, is set for a vote in the Legislature today. Contained in an urgency bill, it requires approval by two-thirds of the members in each house and would take effect immediately. The beds would be funded by lease revenue bonds, which do not require voters' approval.The bill would also break new ground by giving the governor temporary authority to transfer up to 8,000 inmates to out-of-state facilities against their will.

Schwarzenegger initiated such transfers in October to free up space and moved 350 inmates, all volunteers. But the transfers were stalled by the courts after unions challenged the governor's authority to order them.Senate Democratic leader Don Perata (D-Oakland) praised the agreement as a balanced response to the prison crisis that would reduce the state's alarming recidivism rate.

"Every negotiation requires compromise, and this agreement provides both a big increase in prison beds as well as a strong commitment to rehabilitation programs and greater oversight of the Department of Corrections," Perata said. In a statement, Schwarzenegger said that after ignoring the prison crisis for decades, California was on the verge of making history.




This Article Continues Here




Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

NAACP Moves To Halt Offensive Words In The Media

How successful will the NAACP be at halting offensive
language in the media? There have been other attempts
to halt offensive words and they all fizzled out, falling short
of their goals. So will this campaign succeed? Only time will
tell but I have my doubts since offensive words like sex is a
big seller and the best they can do is to drive it underground
where it will continue to thrive. Thats my thoughts on the
matter whats yours ?


On the heels of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network’s statement asking rappers to voluntarily refrain from using sexually and racially-offensive words in their lyrics, the NAACP on Monday also launched an initiative to end racist and sexist language, images and concepts in the media by calling for a shift in personal behavior; but the group plans to hold the industry responsible as well.

The STOP Campaign -- an initiative of the NAACP Youth & College Division -- comes in the wake of the controversy surrounding the firing of Don Imus for using racist and sexist language to disparage the Rutgers women’s basketball team. The issue also brought a much needed spotlight to rap lyrics, which has long used terms and images that demean women.

"The NAACP STOP Campaign is urgently needed to combat recent remarks and continual visual depictions that cast African Americans in a negative light," said Interim NAACP President & CEO Dennis C. Hayes. "We recognize the need for balance within the African American community in regards to what music, film, and media we deem acceptable. When it comes to establishing norms, nothing is more influential than the images and concepts delivered into our lives on a daily basis by radio, TV, film and the Internet."

The STOP Campaign targets the record and television industries, recording artists and the African American community. The campaign asks participants to:





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
\program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Can You Kill Someone Humanely ?

Is there really any efficent way to execute someone
and it remain humane? How can you ever be sure
since the victim is not available for an interview.
Up to now everything we know about humane
killing is based on theory and theory is nothing more
than an educated guess. So the way I see it there will
always be unanswered questions about the right or wrong
way to properly execute someone within the perameters
of the constitution. Ok, your turn to speak up on the matter.



Two of the three drugs used in lethal injection are not administered in a way that reliably produces painless death for inmates, leaving at least some to die of suffocation and be conscious enough to realize it, according to a new analysis of executions in California and North Carolina. Reviewing the cases of 41 inmates dating back to 1984, the researchers found that the dose of anesthesia given at the start of an execution varied widely and was often insufficient to keep an inmate unconscious.

They also concluded that the chemical intended to induce cardiac arrest did not always stop prisoners' hearts."The argument that's always been given about lethal injection is that in theory, a well-trained person could give it humanely," said Fordham University law professor Deborah Denno, who has studied lethal injection for 15 years and is a death penalty opponent. "This casts doubt on even that."The study, published today in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine, provides scientific data for a debate that has largely lacked hard evidence regarding the medical underpinnings of lethal injection.

California and 11 other states have put executions on hold, mostly because of concerns over the constitutionality of lethal injection. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown intend to recommend reforms by May 15.The study is "shedding light on a process that should have been examined a long time ago," said Michael Rushford, president of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a Sacramento advocacy group that favors the death penalty. Though he doubted many of the study's conclusions, he thought lethal injection might be too problematic to preserve.

"The real issue should be 'Is this the best way to do this?' Let's get some doctors together and say, 'If you were going to put your mother down, how would you do it?' "Execution by lethal injection was devised in 1977, after an Oklahoma state legislator who opposed capital punishment worked with the state medical examiner to seek a more humane alternative to electric chairs and firing squads. They developed a regimen of three powerful drugs: the sedative sodium thiopental, to make the inmate unconscious; the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide, to induce paralysis; and potassium chloride, to stop the heart.

Each was supposed to induce death on its own; the combination intentionally redundant. The regimen was never scientifically tested, but it was widely adopted by other states and was used first in 1982 in Texas.More than 30 states allow the death penalty; of them, all but one offer lethal injection, and most use the three-drug regimen. But acceptance of lethal injection as a humane method of execution has been waning. Inmates filed suit, arguing that it violated the constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose put all California executions on hold last year after a challenge from San Quentin death-row inmate Michael Morales.

As of Monday, 901 inmates had been executed by lethal injection in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington group that opposes capital punishment. Ohio is scheduled to execute James Filiaggi this morning.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Work Stopped On Death House

When it comes to state sanctioned death in California,
the right hand must let the left hand know whats
going on. At least thats the way the govenor wants
it. But with the state already dealing with setbacks
in its death penalty program should construction on
the death chamber have even started without the
blessings of the legislature? Weigh-in on this continuing
controversey.




Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday halted construction of a new death chamber at San Quentin State Prison, the latest setback for California's beleaguered capital punishment program.James E. Tilton, who heads the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told reporters in a conference call, "The governor has asked me to stop the project." The construction had raised alarm among legislators, who protested that they should have been consulted before the work began. Tilton said the governor "is very concerned about good communications with the Legislature. We should have done a better job of it.

"The halt will push the project back until at least July, further delaying executions, which have been at a standstill since February 2006, when a federal judge halted the execution of Michael Morales."This is a first-class fiasco," said John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee.California has 660 inmates on death row, making it the largest in the U.S.

But faced with an active lobby against the death penalty and enhanced judicial scrutiny, the state has performed only 13 executions since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977. In the latest complication, Morales, who was condemned to death for the 1981 murder of a Lodi teenager, filed a legal challenge to California's lethal injection executions. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose ruled in December that the state's procedures violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.California's protocol, like that of three dozen other states, calls for a three-drug cocktail.

The first drug, sodium thiopental, is a fast-acting barbiturate that is supposed to render the condemned inmate unconscious before the other drugs — pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the body, and potassium chloride, which causes painful cardiac arrest — are administered. The judge ruled that the way the state administered the drugs subjected death row inmates to a risk of excruciating pain. Legal challenges to lethal injection have halted executions in several other states.

Among numerous criticisms, the judge said the existing execution room — originally the gas chamber — was too dimly lighted, crowded and poorly designed to allow the execution team to effectively monitor whether inmates received enough barbiturate to deaden the pain. He also said the state failed to provide meaningful training, supervision and oversight of the execution team, allowed the improper preparation and mixing of drugs and had not reliably documented amounts of sodium thiopental taken from the prison pharmacy.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Friday, April 20, 2007

Taking The Money And Running ?

Has the Reverand Al Sharpton compromised his integrity?
He says he's been a critic of offensive language all the long.
So how come his hands are in record companies pockets
and how do you even consider honoring someone who is
responsible for marketing offensive content? Sounds and
looks like to me somebody has gotten their priorities crossed.
What do you think?


A game of tit for tat has reportedly jumped off between a major record label and Rev. Al Sharpton at the convention of his National Action Network, which is nearing the end of its four-day run at the Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan.

Sharpton was one of the most vocal critics of Don Imus for his use of the word "ho" to describe the Rutgers women's basketball team. But the reverend was quickly labeled a hypocrite for failing to show the same relentless ire toward record companies that house rappers who use the same offensive term to describe women.

Wednesday, Sharpton decided to cancel plans for his conference to honor Def Jam's Antonio "L.A." Reid, whose label distributes a number of rappers who use "ho" in their lyrics - including Ludacris (who boasts in one song that he has them in different area codes).Once word of Sharpton's decision got to Def Jam's parent company Universal Music Group, the conglomerate reportedly demanded that its $15,000 donation to Sharpton's event be returned - immediately, sources tell the New York Post.

"It's absolutely not true," said a spokesman for Universal Music Group. The rep told the Post that there are no hard feelings over Sharpton's decision to withdraw the award for Reid. "We didn't ask for [our money] back."





This Article Continues Here




Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Thursday, April 19, 2007

New Hamshire Becomes The Fourth

It looks as if another state will be permitting civil unions
for gays. This issue has already been passed in three other
states all of which are on the east coast. What are your thoughts
about this issue?


Gov. John Lynch said Thursday he will sign legislation establishing civil unions for gay couples in New Hampshire."I believe it is a matter of conscience, fairness and preventing discrimination," Lynch told The Associated Press.

New Hampshire would become the fourth state to adopt civil unions, following Connecticut, Vermont and New Jersey. Massachusetts established gay marriage.
Lynch had previously declined to take a public position on civil unions, though has supported expanding health benefits to same-sex partners of state workers. He came under fire from both sides for not weighing in _ especially after a delay last week of the Senate vote on the House-passed bill.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Childs Play !

It took a childs game to do what a world war couldn't to open
the door of opportunity for blacks. Jack Johnson, Jesse
Owens and Joe Louis had already showed the world that the
black man was by far a superior athlete in sports. So how could
baseball then the dominant entertainment game at the time
continue to deny itself the chance of showcasing the great athletic
talent that was reduced to second class venues? It took a great
visionary and person of courage like Branch Rickey to create and
forever change history and the course of African-Americans. So
always keep in mind that it was indeed a childs game that forever
opened up new opportunities for people of color.


Sixty years ago, Jackie Robinson played his first game in the Major Leagues, forever changing not just baseball but American society. When Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, he didn't just challenge segregation in baseball, he challenged segregation in American society. When he crossed the white foul line at Ebbets Field to take his position, he carried the hopes and dreams of millions of black Americans.

The integration of baseball represents a critical juncture for the national pastime and an American society on the threshold of the civil rights movement. Robinson didn't just make it possible for blacks to seek racial equality in baseball. His influence transcended baseball to all fields. He also captured the imagination of white Americans who previously had given little thought to racial discrimination.

"More even than Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, or Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement," the influential black historian Cornel West wrote, "Jackie Robinson graphically symbolized and personified the challenge to the vicious legacy and ideology of white supremacy." Most Americans see Robinson strictly as a baseball figure. But if we restrict Robinson's influence to baseball, we do a disservice to both Robinson and the civil rights movement. Robinson deserves to be studied not apart from but with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Brown v. Board of Education.

Robinson isn't just America's most important athlete, he is arguably its greatest athlete. He lettered in four sports at UCLA, winning conference honors in basketball and national recognition in football and track. Robinson is also the most heroic figure in American sports. According to Joseph Campbell, the great chronicler of myth, a hero must meet certain conditions: He must leave on a journey where he faces a series of tests and confrontations, learns through his suffering, and is ultimately redeemed.

This, in turn, leads to fulfillment. He becomes a hero by sacrificing himself for something bigger.
Robinson transformed American society. He sacrificed himself for something greater than himself. Nobody in sports ever had more at stake and no one ever suffered more. Robinson proved his mettle over and over, against beanings from opposing pitchers, savage spikings from opposing base runners, and death threats and the worst racist taunts imaginable from spectators. And yet he endured





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Still Angry About The 1936 Olympics ?

After reading the article below the question came to
me why is it that African-Americans in New York are
the targets? Surly there are other people of the world
that the Germans could be more pissed at, like the
terrorist.
Certainly they've raised more havoc in Germany than
brothers from the Bronx. Then an answer came to me
that might explain everything. The Germans are still
angry and upset about what Jesse Owens did to them
in 1936, Yeah, that's got to be it. Now tell me what you
think.


The German Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it has dismissed an instructor who told a soldier to imagine hostile blacks in New York's Bronx while firing a machine gun.
The instructor was let go under a provision that permits the immediate dismissal of personnel who violate service obligations, or whose continued service would harm the order or reputation of the military, a ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity, as is customary.

The incident, captured in footage posted on the Internet, led the Bronx borough president to call for discipline against those responsible.
Theclip shows an instructor and a soldier dressed in camouflage in a forest. The instructor tells the soldier, ''You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Monday, April 16, 2007

What Part Of The Game Is This ?

When I read the article below the song "Ball Of Conusion" by the
Temptations came to mind. In light of serious issues that need
to be dealt with in all states of this nation, mainly healthcare, now
of all places a republican lawmaker in Goergia wants to draft a
resolution calling for that state to apologize for slavery. I wonder
how eager this lawmaker will be when it comes time for us to get
paid for slavery. After reading the article below it's no wonder
that politicians make strange bedfellows.


A resolution calling for the state to apologize or express regret for slavery has sparked a blowup between the Republican and Democratic top dogs in the Senate, perhaps derailing the measure for this year. Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) on Thursday blasted Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon) for not taking an active role in supporting the resolution.

"After weeks of research and cooperative bipartisan discussion, the Senate Democrat Leader has not made a request that we pursue an apology this year," Johnson said in a statement. "If the Democrats are focused on moving this issue forward this year, our door remains open to introduce a bipartisan resolution as long as it has the support of both the Democrat and Republican leadership."

Brown said he was "aghast" about Johnson placing blame on him. "At no time has Sen. Johnson invited me to be involved in this process," he said. Over the past few weeks, Brown, who is African-American, has neither spoken in favor of or against a slavery apology, saying he personally believes lawmakers should focus on issues such as education and health care.
Brown said that early Thursday he received an e-mail from Johnson asking him to sign on to the following statement: "After weeks of research and cooperative bipartisan negotiations, the Senate Democratic Caucus and I have agreed that no apology is necessary for Georgia's role in slavery." The statement also said "such an effort, while well-intentioned, would be meaningless."

Brown responded by writing: "I do not agree to sign on to this statement. Also, I want to make it clear that the Democratic Caucus has not taken a position on a slavery apology and no one representing the Senate Democratic Caucus has been negotiating on this matter."
Brown has said he would be willing, as minority leader, to sit down and work with Johnson on an apology. But that never materialized, he said.
"I have seen a resolution – but not one that apologizes," Brown said. "I've seen one that expresses regret."





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Friday, April 13, 2007

Now Wait Just A Second !

You had to have known that this turn of events
in the recent story about the auctioning of some
papers belonging to the late Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. was headed this way. So maybe now
the halting of the sale of these papers will give
everyone involved a chance to handle this matter
without it having the air of a circus side show.
After all these were the papers of black america's
greatest hero and as he was in life so his personel
belongings should be treated with dignity.


A small collection of letters, notes and speeches once believed to belong to Martin Luther King Jr. was taken off the auction block on Thursday amid protests from the civil rights leader's family. The documents were set to be sold on Sunday at Gallery 63 on behalf of an anonymous woman said to be King's childhood friend. The woman kept the documents in a faded green folder for 40 years before trying to sell them.

"The papers need to be further evaluated before they go on the open market," said Gallery owner Paul Brown. A much larger collection of King documents was sold by Sotheby's New York last summer for $32 million and is now owned by Morehouse College, King's alma mater.
Gallery 63 promoted its collection as about 25 "previously unknown documents" dating from the early to mid-1960s, and estimated they would sell for as much as $400,000. The documents were neither authenticated nor appraised.

Brown said the woman said she got the papers in a debt settlement with now-defunct radio station WERD, which broadcast upstairs from King's office at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King co-founded the organization in 1957.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

We Bad Man-We Bad !

Yeah, the civil rights activist are gathered in the back
rooms today passing the champagne, patting themselves
on the back. Yeah the Frankinstein monster has been slain
this week. I feel bad for Don because I hate to see anybody
lose their job unless it's Bush. You know I often wonder,
are we becoming the same heartless race of people that we
proclaim to be our oppressors or are we exacting a revenge
on guys like Don Imus because in reality we lack the will and
backbone to really attack the real issues that dog black folks.
Homelessness, healthcare and affordable housing are the
real monsters. Black activist wait for someone else to
practically solve a problem then they start to act, or when
the media suddenly puts one of those issues into its
crosshairs then they jump into the frey. But until then
those larger issues are dragons and for the moment their
armour is much to thin and it doesn't quite feel as good as
that three-piece tailor made suit from Brooks brothers.


It took Don Imus decades to get to the pinnacle of the radio world, and about a second to utter the five syllables that would ruin him.After an eight-day media drumbeat and unrelenting pressure from activists, advertisers, a member of CBS Corp.'s own board of directors and its staff, CBS Corp. announced on Thursday afternoon that the "Imus in the Morning" radio program would cease to be broadcast "effective immediately, on a permanent basis." His MSNBC TV simulcast was canceled the day before.

The firing came after a 75-minute meeting Thursday at CBS' headquarters in New York, nicknamed "Black Rock." Civil rights and feminist leaders urged CBS President and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves and four of his executives to take a stand against Imus' sexist and racist comments. At one point during the meeting — which was described variously as "very pleasant," "emotional" and "tense and confrontational" — Moonves was asked whether he or his lieutenants had daughters. Yes, Moonves answered, he has a daughter in college. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was at the meeting, said network executives were also asked,

"What are your standards? Is referring to women as 'hos' or to Hillary Clinton as a 'bitch' or saying Venus Williams should be in National Geographic, is this your standard? And if it is, you should declare that, and if not, you have a decision to make."And when would Moonves make that decision?"Soon," he replied.Three hours later, the controversy that began April 4 when Imus called the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" had culminated with the decision to end Imus' CBS radio career. In an e-mail to CBS employees announcing the firing, Moonves reflected on how the controversy had ballooned beyond Imus and cast a spotlight on demeaning speech in general.

"One thing is for certain: This is about a lot more than Imus," the e-mail read in part. "As has been widely pointed out, Imus has been visited by presidents, senators, important authors and journalists from across the political spectrum. He has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people. In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture."For Imus, 66, it was an abrupt and unexpected end to a career that was beyond successful by any standard. His was a powerhouse radio show, generating millions of dollars in revenue, reaching nearly 3 million listeners, and in the process turning him into a very rich man.

On the air almost every day for several hours, Imus displayed a dual personality — one minute he could be a foul-mouthed crank dishing insults and the next an erudite student of history, asking politicians tough questions about their stances. He referred to Arabs as "rag heads" and took Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to task for supporting the Iraq war. Imus always survived his scrapes with the taste police after making offensive comments about Jews, gays, blacks and others. On talk radio, just about any verbal outrage can be forgiven as long as ratings, revenue and the boss' reputation aren't hurt. But this misstep was caught on TV, in the MSNBC simulcast of Imus' show, and in replays it gained a life of its own.

"Imus in the Morning" aired on about 70 stations — in Southern California, on KCAA-AM 1050 in San Bernardino. It offered a platform for politicians, pundits and authors pushing books on serious subjects. Imus managed, despite his raunchy humor and puerile sensibility, to turn the show into a kind of clubhouse for the Washington/New York politico-media elite who were comfortable with the "I-Man" and did not criticize him for his outrageous conduct.





This Article Continues Here




Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Idiots Will Be Idiots No Matter What Color !

If I as a black man had called the Rutger's womens
basketball team nappy headed hos would that had
been a racial remark, would that make me a bigot?
I think not, no it would just make me a middle-aged
idiot. And if people enjoy listening to me make an
idiot out of myself then so be it. So as much as I
hate to admit it Don Imus has the right to say what
he feels and we have the right to listen to him or not.
Why should we censor him when we won't censor our
own people for calling black women things far more
worse. Read on and please feel free to shout out your
two cents.


Defending Don Imus's on-air racial idiocy is impossible -- but defending free speech, even in the form of sick humor, ought to be considered anew in the wake of a storm of protest from censorious activists who are demanding that Imus be fired.
There is an audience out there that is hungry for the ribald and the offensive. It is an audience that will not go away and cannot be boycotted. Does labeling those listeners and the shock jocks they adore and emulate as racial dunces or "un-American," and making the shock jocks unemployable (for daring to say what they think), advance the dialogue about racism or sexism? I don't think so.

Ours is supposed to be a nation that prides itself on free speech -- let a thousand tongues wag, we say, and the truth will be uncovered. But the censors and activists who are so readily offended by idiocy on radio have discovered still another truth: that the First Amendment does not apply to radio shock jocks. And so they want the advertisers and networks to ban the I-Man and toss him off the air. They don't want to hear from Imus, and they don't want anybody else to hear him, either. If the censors and pressure groups succeed, what will become of our culture of free speech, especially with such gabbers as Al Sharpton curiously demanding action from the FCC?





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

King Collection Auctioneer On The Move

Couldn't this matter have been resolved in a quiet
manner? Possibly, but you know what my take is
on this issue? Look you already know that it's about
the almighty dollar so this all comes down to how
much and can the King family get the papers back
for nothing. That is doubtful. They should have
quietly entered into negotiations thus keeping the
price down but then again as the article states, the
gennie was let out the bottle when the family went
public with the price paid for the larger collection
of papers. The King family has forever shot it's self
in the foot when it come to other undiscovered works
of Dr. King. I'll be keeping my eye on this story. Check
it out.


The typed words and ideas of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. again went on display Monday morning in preparation for auction, this time at a modest Atlanta auction gallery.
The small collection of letters, notes and speeches — some believed to have been written by King, some addressed to him — sat for 40 years in a faded green folder belonging to an anonymous woman who now lives in Maryland. The woman, said to be an Atlanta native and childhood friend of King's, came forward after the successful sale of a much larger collection sold by Sotheby's New York for $32 million (€23.9 million).

Since announcing the auction last week, Paul Brown, the owner of Gallery 63, said he has received hundreds of e-mails from the media and interested buyers. He has not heard from the King family, which has vowed to halt the auction.
"All I'm selling is pieces of paper," Brown said, adding that he understands that the family maintains the copyright of the contents. "These are pieces of history that belonged to this woman. I'm not interested in getting embroiled in any kind of controversy with the King family."
Isaac Newton Farris Jr., president and CEO of The King Center, said on Monday that an investigation into the matter by the King estate's intellectual property attorney is ongoing.

"This is not new territory for us," Farris said. "We're pretty versed in the law. We appreciate the woman holding onto them for the last 40 years, but ... you can't sell what's not yours."
Brown plans to auction the documents on April 15, and said he has already rejected an offer of $250,000 (€186,944) made by a bidder seeking to avoid the public sale.
"I thought I'd have to churn up publicity," he said as he placed the documents in two glass display cases. "Since the story hit, my phone hasn't stopped ringing."

The gallery's Web site, which Brown said averages a couple hundred hits a day, had 9,000 hits on Wednesday, the 39th anniversary of King's assassination.
Brown said he has spoken with the consignor on the telephone, but has not met her in person. According to Brown, the woman said she got the papers in a debt settlement with now-defunct radio station WERD, which broadcast upstairs from King's office at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King co-founded the organization in 1957.

The collection consists of "about 25 previously unknown documents," all dating from the early to mid-1960s, according to the gallery's Web site. Brown estimates they will sell for between $250,000 (€186,944) and $400,000 (€299,110) — up from his estimate last week of between $100,000 (€74,778) and $300,000 (€224,333).
The collection has not been authenticated or appraised. Brown said he based his figure on last summer's Sotheby's sale.

"The King family set the value on this when they sold that collection" and publicized the dollar amount, he said. "Prior to that, there was no established value."
Brown also said the sale may generate consignments from other people who were connected to King during the civil rights movement who may have similar documents. In June, the King family sold a large collection of King's papers to the city of Atlanta for $32 million (€23.9 million). Those documents, numbering more than 10,000, were placed with Atlanta's Morehouse College, the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner's alma mater





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Monday, April 09, 2007

Al Is The Man !

There were times when Al Sharpton put his foot in his
big mouth and tried to push his weight around but when
he was wrong he admitted it and moved on, not allowing
himself to be consumed with bitterness. Al sticks to his
guns and continues to show up and stand up for those
of us that need to be heard when the system just
won't give a brother or sister an even break. Today
I have much admiration for Reverend Al Sharpton and
even though he's toned down a bit since his early days
the brother is one of my hereos and one all us black folks
can be proud of. Check out the story below and let me
know what and how you feel about Al Sharpton.


On a rather small, anonymous stage in Harlem, in an old building a few doors down from a Laundromat and a Dunkin’ Donuts, something unexpected happens to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s sizable and nationally known persona. It shrinks accordingly.
Every Saturday morning, Mr. Sharpton opens the doors of his National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem for an “action rally.” The meetings are something more than a rally — part radio show, church service, comedy revue, civil rights demonstration, town hall meeting and fund-raising drive. The rallies are broadcast live on WLIB-AM, the city’s first black-owned radio station.

On most Saturdays, the so-called House of Justice on West 145th Street can feel as casual as the International House of Pancakes 10 blocks south. Anyone can walk in and take a seat. The words etched onto the large tinted window at the entrance, facing 145th Street, read not House of Justice or National Action Network but Diamond Gym, the storefront’s former occupant, which explains why the walls are lined with mirrors.
Yesterday, in a fast-paced 90 minutes before a crowd of fewer than 100 people, Mr. Sharpton led a drummer and a pianist through a gospel song (“Sing it like you mean it,” he sang into the microphone), criticized the federal government’s slow pace of rebuilding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and paid tribute to the sacrifices of both Jesus Christ and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He happened also to make national news, which sometimes happens at his rallies, too. He called for the firing of Don Imus, the syndicated radio host, after Mr. Imus referred on Wednesday to the students who play for the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed ho’s.”After the television cameras had left, Mr. Sharpton refocused on the nuts and bolts of his civil rights organization, signing up seven new members to the National Action Network. Then he taught an introductory class for new members.

“It gives him an energy that helps him and keeps him propelling along,” said Michael A. Hardy, a lawyer, longtime friend of Mr. Sharpton’s and the host of the radio show and rally. “It is the tent that holds everyone in the movement, whether you’re high profile and a celebrity, or a no-profile but important.” It is here on Saturdays that Mr. Sharpton pleads for donations for his network (“I need some more hundreds,” he told the audience recently) and wades through unglamorous organizational housekeeping.

Mr. Sharpton has been holding Saturday rallies broadcast on the radio since 1991, when he founded the National Action Network. Some of those in the audience are network members who have been going to the rallies for years. They remember the auditorium of Public School 175, where the rallies were first held. They remember the speech the Rev. Jesse Jackson gave years ago, when he dubbed the network’s headquarters the House of Justice. And they remember the Saturday, in July 2002, when Michael Jackson depicted Thomas D. Mottola, a record company executive, as the devil.





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Friday, April 06, 2007

Coach Eddie Robinson

No college football coach has sent more players to the
NFL than Coach Eddie Robinson. That's a fete that
should stand for a very long time. But the man also
stood for civil rights. Read the article below and feel
free to offer up your comments on this college football
legend.


Eddie Robinson, the record-setting coach who turned Grambling State University into a nationally recognized football power, ushered more than 200 players into the National Football League and largely realized his vision of transforming the Louisiana school into the Notre Dame of historically black colleges, has died. He was 88. Robinson, who for nearly two decades held college football's record for most victories, died Tuesday night at Northern Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston, La., the university announced.

The cause of death was not specified, but he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.Starting in 1941 at age 22, Robinson coached at Grambling for 57 seasons. He had a career mark of 408-165-15 when he was forced to retire in 1997.His nearly six-decade tenure at Grambling spanned dramatic social change. Robinson navigated his teams through Jim Crow laws in the 1940s and the civil rights movement, and his career ended after the fall of the Soviet Union, the rise of the AIDS epidemic and the beginning of the Internet boom. His 408 wins stood as the most by a football coach at any collegiate level until November 2003, when John Gagliardi topped Robinson by notching his 409th victory for St. John's, a Division III school in Minnesota.

Robinson recorded his 324th career win when his team defeated Prairie View A&M on Oct. 5, 1985. That victory allowed him to surpass Alabama's Paul "Bear" Bryant to become college football's winningest coach"There is no question that Eddie Robinson was a figure that was larger than life for most African American young men of that era," said University of Washington Coach Tyrone Willingham, one of five black head coaches in Division IA during the 2006 college football season. "At that time, Grambling was The Program and Eddie Robinson was The Man…. He stood for all the right things."At the peak of his power, Robinson proudly paraded his Tiger teams around the country on "barnstorming" tours, a Deep South version of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football team.

The school hired a public relations man to orchestrate a national publicity campaign as Grambling scheduled games against other historically black schools in venues that included Yankee Stadium, the Rose Bowl and the Los Angeles Coliseum.Robinson's effect on college football was profound. His Grambling teams won nine National Black College championships and 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles and had only eight losing seasons. In 1949, Grambling star Paul "Tank" Younger joined the Los Angeles Rams, becoming the first player from a historically black college to sign with an NFL team.

Four former players — Buck Buchanan, Willis Davis, Willie Brown and Charlie Joiner — are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.At one point in the early 1970s, there were 43 former Grambling players in NFL training camps.On Jan. 31, 1988, with Robinson seated in the stands at San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium, former Grambling star quarterback Doug Williams led the Washington Redskins to a win over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII. Williams, the first African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl, threw four touchdown passes and was named the game's most valuable player."For the Grambling family, this is a very emotional time," Williams said Wednesday. "But I'm thinking about Eddie Robinson the man, not in today-time, but in the day and what he meant to me and to so many people."





This Article Continues Here





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Bloggers Are Journalist Too !

I would think that if a person gathers information and
reports on events by publishing it in a media outlet
such as the Internet then that person is a journalist. The
U.S. Attorney didn't see it that way and so a blogger spent
seven and a half months locked away in a federal prison.
Also since this was a federal case the California sheild law
did not apply. So should there be a similar shield law on
the federal books? Read the article below and feel free to
offer up your opinion.


A videographer who spent 7 1/2 months in prison for refusing to turn over footage of a San Francisco street demonstration to a federal grand jury was released from custody Tuesday after striking a deal with prosecutors to publish his outtakes on the Web.Under the agreement, Josh Wolf, 24, will not have to testify or identify people shown in the video. The U.S. attorney is investigating the wounding of a police officer, who was struck in the head with a pipe during the demonstration, as well as an alleged attempt to set fire to a police car.

The video footage Wolf released Tuesday morning on his website, http://www.joshwolf.net/ , did not show either incident.On Tuesday afternoon, Wolf was released after spending 226 days at the federal prison in Dublin, about 30 miles east of San Francisco. He served a longer term than any journalist in U.S. history has served for refusing to reveal unpublished material or sources."I feel really good, a bit overwhelmed," he said in an interview via cellphone, as he drove to a news conference in San Francisco. "The pace of life is so slow in prison, I feel like a kid from the country coming to the city, even though I live here.

"All along Wolf had insisted that the video did not contain anything that would be relevant to the investigation, but he also said he had a constitutional right as a journalist not to cooperate with authorities and become "an arm of law enforcement." Several media advocacy groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, supported his stance and called for his release. The U.S. attorney argued that Wolf was not a journalist and did not have that right.In November, with his appeals exhausted, Wolf agreed to release the video as long as he did not have to testify.

But the U.S. attorney wanted his testimony, he said.On Feb. 12, Wolf was interviewed by the syndicated left-of-center radio program Democracy Now and said he received hundreds of letters of support. The next day, U.S. District Judge William Alsup referred the case to a magistrate for mediation. On Monday, Wolf and the government came to the current agreement.





This Article Continues Here




Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Supreme Court To Bush-Take That !

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for an
aggressive battle to begin fighting greenhouse
gases. Read the article below, your comments are
welcomed.


The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for a more aggressive attack by government on global warming, which could include the first national rules to limit carbon dioxide emissions from new cars, trucks and power plants.In a 5-4 decision, the high court rebuked the Bush administration and ruled that so-called greenhouse gases — like carbon dioxide — were air pollutants subject to federal regulation.

President Bush and his aides, allied with automakers, argued that federal officials did not have the power to set mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The court's ruling knocked down a legal barrier that kept California and other states from requiring reduced carbon emissions by new vehicles starting in 2009. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the decision and said he was "very encouraged. "Under the Clean Air Act, California won the right to adopt its own regulations limiting emissions by new vehicles, but only if the Environmental Protection Agency issued a waiver saying the state's rules complied with the law.

No waiver has been issued. Schwarzenegger said he expected the EPA "to move quickly now in granting our request for a waiver, which will allow California and [the] other states that have adopted our standards to set tougher vehicle emissions levels."Auto industry lawyers have sued in federal court in Fresno, arguing that California's emissions rules conflicted with the Clean Air Act. The case was put on hold, awaiting the Supreme Court decision issued Monday."We think this is the end of the automakers' case," said David Bookbinder, a Sierra Club lawyer.

Scientists have linked the rise in greenhouse gas emissions to a steady and potentially catastrophic increase in air temperatures. The administration maintained that the gases were not air pollutants as defined by the Clean Air Act.The measure, passed in the 1970s, targeted specific pollutants, such as lead. In its ruling, the Supreme Court agreed that global warming represented a different kind of air pollution problem. Gases such as carbon dioxide, once released into the atmosphere, "act like a ceiling of a greenhouse, trapping solar energy and retarding the escape of reflected heat," the court said.

The majority opinion, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, said that under the Clean Air Act, the EPA was required to regulate the emission of "any air pollutant" that was likely "to endanger public health or welfare."He said the word "welfare" was defined broadly to include "effects on the climate and weather."In scolding the EPA for not moving to regulate greenhouse gases, he said the emissions fit well within the law's definition of air pollutants and that the agency had "the statutory authority to regulate the emission of such gases from new motor vehicles."



This Article Continues Here:





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Monday, April 02, 2007

American Churches Rally Against Slavery !

Slavery still exist in the world and even though
evangelical Christians are divided on issues such
as global warming they are comming together to rid
the world of slavery. Slavery today is used to pay off
debts that have endless balances. However the buying
and selling of humans still goes on as it did 200 years
ago. Read on and offer us your opinion on this dehuman-
izing practice.


U.S. evangelical Christians are divided on global warming, the minimum wage and other issues, but they are united behind a new campaign to end modern slavery around the world.
Following a trail blazed two centuries ago, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and Focus on the Family, two U.S. evangelical groups whose leaders have disagreed over other issues, are both supporting a campaign against bonded labor, human trafficking and military recruitment of children.

The campaign, "The Amazing Change," was set up by the makers of "Amazing Grace," a movie about the efforts of William Wilberforce, himself an evangelical, to end British participation in the slave trade 200 years ago.
"We are carrying forward the banner of evangelical concern for human rights," said Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Activists say it is crucial to highlight an issue that many people are unaware of.

"Most people you ask don't know that there are slaves today," said Pamela Livingston, vice president of the Washington-based International Justice Mission, a Christian-based organization that campaigns to free slaves overseas with a network of lawyers and social workers.
Its work has led to the freeing of 78 slaves from a south Asian brick kiln where they were forced to labor to work off unpayable debts. From 2004 to 2006, the efforts of its staff in Thailand led to the rescue of 129 trafficking victims in Malaysia and Thailand. During the same period in Cambodia, 183 victims of trafficking were released.

HISTORY
Evangelicals, a term that refers mostly to Protestants who place emphasis on personal conversion, draw on a tradition of Christian opposition to slavery in the U.S. South -- although many white evangelicals were subsequent opponents of the 1960s civil rights movement to grant equality to blacks.
Recently, the U.S. evangelical movement has disagreed over issues such as whether to campaign to reduce reliance on fossil fuels to reduce global warming.

Cizik said the National Association of Evangelicals' fights against slavery and climate change both stemmed from Christian compassion for the poor, who are seen as suffering most from increased droughts and food shortages.
By contrast, Focus on the Family, which has urged people to watch "Amazing Grace" and support the related campaign, has been wary of climate change action, seeing it as a distraction from efforts to end abortion and block gay rights.




This Article Continues Here:





Get your copy of the award winning King:
"From Atlanta to the Mountain top
It's the 3-Hour Docudrama that
tells the story of the Civil Rights
movement and the life of its
Drum Major for Peace,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/