Martin The Prophet?

Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.was more than just
a civil rights and spiritual leader. He was
in my opinion a modern day prophet. Check out
the article below and let me know if you agree.





A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” --Martin Luther King

Those were the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., in his famous April 4, 1967, Riverside Church speech, 43 years ago this Easter Sunday. The speech was titled “Beyond Viet Nam: A Time to Break Silence.” It was delivered exactly one year to the day of his1968 assassination in Memphis.

The people who heard that speech recognized it as one of the most powerful speeches ever given articulating the immorality of the Viet Nam War. Some also saw that King was signing his own death warrant by exposing so forcefully the war crimes that were being committed daily in what the courageous Jesuit prophet Daniel Berrigan, who personally witnessed what was going on in the killing fields of Viet Nam, described as “an overwhelming atrocity.”

King and Berrigan were speaking out from their deeply felt sense of moral outrage and anguish over the horrible suffering of the millions of innocent, unarmed Vietnamese civilians. They both knew that women and children were the main victims of modern warfare, especially wars that utilized so indiscriminately the massive arsenal of highly lethal weapons, including one of the US Air Force’s favorites, napalm, which burned the flesh off of whatever part of the body that the flaming, jellied gasoline splashed on. Berrigan often used the phrase “The Land of the Burning Children” when he wrote and spoke about what he had seen in Viet Nam.

Both of these courageous prophets knew about the atrocities that American soldiers and Marines were ordered to commit in the name of “anti-communism.” And King saw the connections between the killing of dispensable “gooks” and “slants” on the battlefields of Southeast Asia and the oppression, impoverishment, imprisoning and lynching of “dispensable blacks” in America. Racism was alive and well in the US military and it didn’t differentiate between foreign or domestic targets.

King was being faithful to the nonviolent teachings of Jesus of Nazareth by speaking out against injustice wherever he saw it. He knew that the willingness to use the violence of racism or the violence of orchestrated poverty or the violence of militarism had the same sources: fear of “the other” and the perceived need to defend, by the use of violence if necessary, one’s own wealth and privilege, no matter how unjustly they were acquired.

King knew that the opposition to his civil rights movement - and now his outspoken anti-Viet Nam War stance - was formidable: from indifferent or frightened bystanders everywhere (whose silence gave consent to the violence) to privileged white Christian churches in the south who wanted the movement to “go slow” to cruel racists, including the Ku Klux Klan and White Citizens Councils in the south to J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI in the north. Those groups were dangerous enough, but by speaking out he was opposing entrenched systems of racism, economic oppression and militarism, each of which had the power to unleash lethal violence against any and all perceived enemies, especially those of the powerless underclass.

Tremendous fortunes are made in every war, and the Viet Nam War was no exception. Weapons manufacturers thrived, becoming more deeply entrenched as each batch of industry lobbyists and their media propaganda became more and more successful. Hundreds of billions of dollars yearly, all tax-and-spend or tax-and-borrow expenditures, were spent for weapons research and development.

Large numbers of workers were hired to work in hundreds of huge weapons factories in every legislative district in the nation, and the economy boomed -- but it boomed on tax money that then couldn’t be spent for other projects. And so the war-making and the wars were popular with the investor class, the power elite, the Pentagon, the CIA, most politicians, the defense industries and, of course, the people who needed the jobs.




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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
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

March 21st A Day Of History

March 21st is a day of historical significance.
The many events that took place were that of
civil rights issues both here and abroad. Feel
free to comment after reading the article below.



On March 21, 1960, about 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired on black protesters; the shooting drew international condemnation. (On this date in 1985, police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of Sharpeville; the reported death toll varies between 29 and 43.)

In 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.

In 1804, the French civil code, or the "Code Napoleon" as it was later called, was adopted.

In 1806, Mexican statesman Benito Juarez was born in Oaxaca.

In 1907, US Marines arrived in Honduras to protect American lives and interests in the wake of political violence.

In 1940, a new government was formed in France by Paul Reynaud, who became prime minister, succeeding Edouard Daladier.

In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan began a four-day conference in Bermuda.

In 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

In 1965, more than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

In 1972, the Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, ruled that states may not require at least a year's residency for voting eligibility.





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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
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Pot War

A pot war of sorts has started in the city
of Los Angeles. The city is trying to limit
the number of medical marijuana dispensaries
because the city says there are too many of them.
However the coalition of collectives fighting
the city says let competitiveness weed out the
numbers. So should the city limit the number of
outlets selling pot or should it let the businesses
weed out it's own numbers?





Seeking to overturn the city's medical marijuana ordinance even before it takes effect, a loose-knit coalition of Los Angeles collectives is quietly gathering signatures to force a referendum on the law.

The scrappy, largely volunteer effort faces a Monday deadline to turn in 27,425 valid signatures.

"We're getting down to the wire here," said Dan Halbert, who runs Rainforest Collective in Mar Vista and has coordinated the campaign. "It's going to be close."

Halbert's dispensary on Venice Boulevard, which opened last year, is one of hundreds that would have to close under the ordinance. That law, which will probably not be in effect until May, caps the number at 70. But it also makes an exception to allow about 128 dispensaries that registered in 2007, when the City Council adopted a moratorium, to stay open.

"They are just kind of arbitrarily drawing a line in the sand," said Halbert, who argues that the competitive business environment would eventually reduce the number on its own, leaving only the best-run collectives.

To City Council members, Halbert is just one of hundreds of opportunists out to make a quick buck. His store was among those targeted last summer by a chagrined council after neighborhood activists repeatedly complained that marijuana outlets were rapidly opening across the city despite the moratorium.

An entrepreneur who owned an adventure travel business in Phoenix, Halbert moved to Los Angeles to open his dispensary after three trips to investigate the city's vibrant weed industry. He said he never would have started the business if the city had been enforcing its ban. Now he has become a political activist trying to save his livelihood and torpedo an ordinance that the City Council has labored over for almost two years.

"Once you get $100,000 charged on credit cards, you really don't have any choice," he said. "You have a choice of bankruptcy or trying every legal avenue that you have to get your rights."

The last time a referendum qualified for the ballot, the City Council backed down on the targeted ordinance.







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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
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Remember Willie Davis

Baseball great Willie Davis has died of
what appears to be of natural causes.
We would love to hear from you baseball
fans about this former great Dodger.





Former Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Willie Davis was found dead Tuesday morning in his Burbank home, police said. He was 69.

Authorities said that a neighbor who usually brought breakfast to the former baseball star's Victory Boulevard home found Davis' body.

The case is being handled by the Los Angeles County coroner, but authorities said there was nothing to indicate foul play and that it appears that Davis died of natural causes.

Davis, an All-City athlete in several sports at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights in the late 1950s, became one of the Dodgers' early stars after the team moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958. Known for his offense, Davis played center field for the Dodgers for 13 seasons starting in 1961. He hit in a team record 31 consecutive games in 1969 and batted .305 or above three years straight in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But he also committed a World Series-record three errors in one inning against the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.





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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
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Feds Investigate L.A. Unified School District

LA Unified School District will be the first target
of a probe by U.S.Department of Education. Check out
the article below and let us know if you agree.





The federal government has targeted the Los Angeles Unified School District for its first major investigation under a reinvigorated Office for Civil Rights, The Times has learned.
The probe will focus on services to students learning English, who make up a third of the enrollment in the nation’s second-largest school system.

Federal analysts will review how English learners are identified and when they are judged fluent enough to handle regular course work. They’ll examine whether English learners have qualified, appropriately trained teachers. And they’ll look at how teachers make math and science understandable for students with limited-English skills — and how a school provides extra help for those struggling the most. Reviewers also will see if the district communicates effectively with parents in a language they understand.

The inquiry was prompted primarily by the low academic achievement of English learners; about 3 in 100 are proficient in math and English at the high school level, federal officials said. Focusing on L.A. Unified also makes sense because it has so many English learners, they said.

The Office for Civil Rights, an arm of the U.S. Department of Education, is charged with enforcing laws that protect students from discrimination on the basis of sex, race, national origin and disability status.

“This is about helping kids receive a good education, the education they deserve,” said Russlynn Ali, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights. “This is about raising the bar and closing the achievement gap.”

L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said he welcomed the probe as an outside evaluation that would help the district identify and expand successful programs.

“And if there are egregious areas of misconduct by the district I will move on it immediately,” said Cortines, who became superintendent 15 months ago.

He added that district probably ranks “above average” compared to other school systems in programs for English learners. But that’s not nearly good enough, he added.

“I don’t think we have done well in making sure our young people continue to develop both written and oral language,” he said.





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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
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Black History Month A Joke?

Why would Black History Month be such
a joke to three white teachers in a
South Los Angeles school? Check out
the article below and then get back
at us with your comments.




Three teachers at a South Los Angeles elementary school have been suspended for allegedly encouraging students to celebrate O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul during Black History Month, officials said Wednesday.

Children at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School were carrying pictures of the men at a parade Friday on the school playground, said Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry.

She said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines learned about the incident Tuesday and had the teachers, who are white, pulled from their classrooms for the duration of an investigation. The suspension is without pay for the first three days.

"The superintendent believes there are better choices," Pollard-Terry said.

Other students were carrying pictures of President Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The teachers have not been identified and could not be reached for comment.

District officials did not provide specific details about what the teachers did, saying the investigation was still ongoing.

Some community leaders aren't satisfied with the suspensions and are calling for the dismissal of the instructors, who teach first, second and fourth grades.

"I just can't fathom what these teachers were thinking of except to make a mockery of African American history," said Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

L.C. "Chris" Strudwick-Turner of the Los Angeles Urban League likened the episode to a series of racially provocative incidents at UC San Diego, where a Feb. 15 off-campus party mocked Black History Month.

"These kinds of things build on each other," she said. "When something like that happens in [San Diego] and there is no immediate consequence, that emboldens others. That's why I was glad that LAUSD took them out of the classroom right away."

Pollard-Terry said Simpson, Rodman and RuPaul were included on a list of prominent African Americans approved by the school for study during Black History Month.





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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
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

One Of Many Struggles

For those of you too young to remember
the story below is one of many that took
place during the civil rights struggle.
Read it and then feel free to comment.




The Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, the Rev. R.G. Williams and three local students had already spent more than 24 hours in the city jail for trespassing at Petersburg's segregated public library, when in the early evening of Tuesday, March 8, 1960, more than 200 protesters marched.

Despite a chilling 26 degrees and snow-covered ground, the protestors marched from First Baptist Church on Harrison Street past the library and toward the courthouse.

The Rev. Milton Reid had called for a prayer vigil with 200 people on the courthouse steps. City officials ordered all floodlights, which normally illuminated the courthouse area, turned off during the 35-minute service. But protesters were prepared and had brought flashlights. Some white spectators booed from across the street, but they had no choice but to listen as Reid addressed the crowd.

"[This is] a pilgrimage of prayer to give impetus to the struggle and to encourage our ministers and students who are in prison," Reid said.

Across the courthouse were the lightened windows of the city jail, where five of those arrested on the city's new trespassing charge remained behind bars. Among those who voiced protest against the city ordinance were three local white men. "Any white or Negro citizen [...] is subject to be addressed under this law," Reid told the crowd, referring to the support from white citizens.

Then protesters unanimously adopted a resolution declaring that they will be "jailed by the thousands and while there, make plans for full integration and equal rights behind prison bars."

While the protesters were in jail, they received much support from anti-segregationists statewide. "People held prayer meetings everywhere," Ann Walker said.

Walker also remembers a couple who came from as far as New York to show support for her husband. "They said they had heard about it, a white couple," she said. "They came to our house, and they had a sleeping bag with them. They wanted to support. They said they didn't need a bed, they opened their sleeping bags and wanted to sleep under the dining room table. I told them that was alright. Len Holt [of Norfolk, field secretary of the Congress of Racial Equality] told me later he checked on the background of these people, and told me to get them out of the house because they had communist leanings. I didn't know it," Walker said, laughing.





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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
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/

Southern Cal ACLU Director Stepping Down

The lady says she's tired and after
thirty-eight years of fighting legal
battles who wouldn't be? We commend
and salute Ramona Ripston for her long
and dedicated years with the ACLU!




Ramona Ripston has never been one to back away from a fight.

As the driving force behind the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California for 38 years, she's battled police over the treatment of prisoners and the homeless. She's marched against segregation and sued for better inner-city schools. She's taken authorities to court for withholding public housing and medical care from those she believes need them most.

But with the recession taking a deep bite out of government budgets and philanthropy, Ripston has wearied of the setbacks dealt the causes she holds dear. On Tuesday, she will announce her plans to retire next year and hand off the unfinished battles to a younger successor.

"I'm very tired," the once-indefatigable liberal icon conceded in an interview, the floral bouquets from her recent 83rd birthday beginning to droop as well.

"I was very affected by the layoffs," Ripston said of the five staffers let go last year from among the 60 she had hired as executive director. "I've fired people for not doing a satisfactory job, but when you're laying off people for money reasons -- it just took a lot out of me."

Ripston said she had also been moved to step down in hopes of rejuvenating the graying landscape of liberal activism in Los Angeles, a force now driven by those who honed their social consciousness in the 1960s. The ACLU needs to attract more young talent, she said, to infuse its causes with new ideas and vigor.

Although she counts as her legacy key victories in cases alleging police abuse and getting federal court injunctions against enforcing Proposition 187, which would have denied public benefits to "suspected" illegal immigrants, Ripston laments what she sees as a recent trend of "going backwards."

California public schools were the envy of the nation when Ripston arrived in 1972, she said. "Now we're somewhere in the 40s," she said of the state's ranking.

President Obama's campaign promise to provide affordable healthcare for all citizens is one of a number of dashed expectations, she said.

"While I personally was a big Obama supporter, I have to say I've been disappointed," Ripston said. "I think he could have pushed harder on his health plan."

The ACLU of Southern California will launch a nationwide search for Ripston's successor, said Gordon Smith, communications director. Ripston will stay on as executive director until Feb. 15, 2011, he said, and remain involved with the organization in a part-time emeritus role.





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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
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
To learn more and hear
excerpts from this treasured
program,click here:
http://www.kingprogram.net/