I enjoy listening to Melissa Harris-Perry’s commentaries. She is fair, thoughtful, and insightful. Her articles and lectures are also worth checking out. Harris-Perry’s self-titled weekend program debuts on MSNBC this weekend (Feb 18, 2012)—Saturdays and Sundays from 10a-12p.

Melissa Harris-Perry

Melissa Harris-Perry’s New MSNBC Weekend Show Has A Name: Melissa Harris-Perry

Click here to view the embedded video.

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TheGrio’s 100: LaNiyah Bailey, taking a stand with a children’s book about bullying

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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She was an early support of President Obama’s presidental run and continues to support him. In spite of their close relationship, she has clashed with the Obama administration on foreclosures.

TheGrio’s 100: Kamala Harris, the future of California politics

Kamala Harris

Harris Out on a Limb on Mortgage Settlement

Click here to view the embedded video.

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TheGrio’s 100: Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s first Muslim congressman

Congressman Keith Ellison

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher and astronaut, Dr. Mae Jemison has a wide range of experience in technology, engineering, and medical research. In addition to her extensive background in science, she is well-versed in African and African-American Studies, speaks fluent Russian, Japanese, and Swahili, as well as English and is trained in dance and choreography.

Dr. Mae C. Jemison, Not Limited By The Imagination of Others

Mae C. Jemison blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, September 12, 1992, the world’s first woman of color to go into space and the city of Chicago’s first astronaut in U.S. history.

The Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence (DJF)

Click here to view the embedded video.

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6 years is the time that the Madison Apprenticeship Program has been here.
15 classes have graduated.
138 students have successfully completed the program.
75% success rate of students- employed, obtaining higher education, housing

All of these statistics and numbers and all we are asking for
Only $1
That is all we need to help others get back on track and no longer be a statistic.
It’s the Power of One!
Please come and see our new location at 4518 Verona Road.
Donations can be sent to:
Madison Apprenticeship Program
P.O. Box 44842 or any Harris Bank
Madison WI 53711
Join us on Wednesday, Feb. 29 at 3pm for our fundraising celebration!
Madison Apprenticeship Program gives Allied-Dunn residents another shot at success
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It’s that time again for our annual Power of One Campaign. In a time of celebrating Black History Month, we are honored to be the first African American owned company, in the history of the City of Madison, to receive approval for the Capitol Revolving Fund Loan through Community Development Authority, CDA… As we continue to strive towards the objective of expanding our programs, we are asking you to join us in achieving this goal by donating to our annual fundraising campaign. See the attached flyer for further details and feel free to share with your family members and friends.

Our belief here at TJ’s Support Brokerage Firm, Inc. is that the smallest gesture matters. If we as a community come together, we trust that we too can make a difference.

Happy Black History Month, from our family here at TJ’s to yours,
Board of Directors: TJ’s Support Brokerage Firm
Volunteer Team: Madison Apprenticeship Program

Madison Apprenticeship Program gives Allied-Dunn residents another shot at success
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On this Martin Luther King Day morning, I wonder about the state of our nation. What is it that we’re after? Or are we so divided that the question of what “we” want has become nonsensical? Divisions of race, gender, sexual orientation, politics, religion, and so forth, have not disappeared. On one hand, division can be viewed positively as diversity, which is necessary in a successful democracy.

I heard a clip from Dr. King’s I Have a Dream speech on the radio which gave me pause. It reminded me of how each of us can and should make a difference. Yesterday, while reading through the constitution of the Universal Hagar’s Spiritual Church, it states that pastors (and ministers) should visit the sick (members and non-members) and be active in civic life. Those of us in the non-vocational ministry, i.e. we don’t get a living wage from the ministry; have a hard choice to make. The choice is stark, make a living and give the ministry its due time or reconsider why we’re in the ministry at all.

I then heard a brief clip from NAACP president Ben Jealous that stopped me cold. He pointed out that Dr. King learned the importance of social activism from his father and grandfather. Jealous emphasized that those of us born in the 1970s and 1980s were largely cut off from this tradition. We were taught that color doesn’t matter and somehow civil rights successes from the 1960s did all the work. As Rev. Al Sharpton said several week ago, civil rights/activism are still important, if for no other reason than to maintain the ground we’ve already gained.

This ministry has been given the rallying cry—2012: The Year of Wise Execution. The need to read, study, pray, fast, develop patience, meditate, and think first will always be critical to success. BUT if we never execute, how will we make the changes that are so desperately needs in our homes, schools, businesses, municipalities, city halls, county offices, state houses, federal agencies, and the three branches of government. Change comes through action (execution) which is born out of an emancipated thought-process (wisdom).

This is my year, your year, and our year. If you don’t do something now, then when will you? Many goals can’t be completely quickly. But to use that as an excuse to do nothing can no longer be accepted. Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, please do something this year. Act out the faith of the apostles. Act out the faith of Christ. Act out the faith of our righteous leaders. Act out the faith of the great men and women of history. Act out your faith, the faith that you have developed! Act out the faith that works. For we know, faith without works is dead (James 2).

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
Rev. George H. Latimer-Knight
Written January 16, 2012 at age 30

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According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Private LaVena Lynn Johnson killed herself on July 19, 2005, eight days before her twentieth birthday. Exactly how did she end her life? She punched herself in the face hard enough to blacken her eyes, break her nose, and knock her front teeth loose. She douched with an acid solution after mutilating her genital area. She poured a combustible liquid on herself and set it afire. She then shot herself in the head. Despite this massive self-inflicted trauma, she somehow managed to drag her then fully clothed body into the tent of a KBR contractor, leaving a trail of blood along the way and set the tent ablaze in a failed attempt to cover up her crimes against herself.

If this story sounds plausible to you, you may have missed your calling as an officer in the U.S. Army, because Army officers, speaking with a straight face, would have you believe that such a thing is not only possible, but actually happened.

In reality, LaVena Johnson was raped, beaten, and murdered by someone on a military base in Balad, Iraq, and the Army doesn’t want you to know about it. Army officers most especially didn’t want her parents to know about it, so they concocted the suicide story, informing them that their daughter had shot herself in the head in her barracks.

When LaVena’s body was returned to her parents, however, her father, Dr. John Johnson, immediately noticed that her nose was broken and her lip was torn. He was surprised to discover that her gloves were glued to her hands (as it turns out, to hide burns). As a former military man himself, he also recognized that the exit wound from the bullet could not possibly have come from the weapon the military claimed LaVena used to kill herself. He knew then that the Army was lying to him, that his daughter had been murdered. He made these discoveries three years ago. Today, the Army is still lying to him, and to us.

LaVena Johnson enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating from a Missouri high school because she believed it was right to serve her country. She loved America, was very patriotic, and she thought joining the military was the best way to express that patriotism. Although her mother had assumed that her daughter, a violinist and honor student, would go straight to college, LaVena had made other plans. After her death, her company commander described her as having been “clearly happy” during her time in the Service. She enjoyed her job, took pride in it, and cared about the U.S. Army.

Unfortunately, the Army did not care about her. In fact, the disdain and contempt in which the Army held – and continues to hold – her seems to have no bounds. Her father stated last year in an interview given for a Missouri television station that the U.S. Army “turned on her” after her murder. I differ with Dr. Johnson on only one point: the U.S. Army never did give a damn about his daughter.

In a heart-wrenching interview conducted last month with LaVena’s parents, her mother, Linda Johnson, describes the members of the military responsible for this cover-up as “lying demons.”After filing a FOIA request for release of a CD-ROM contained in LaVena’s file but withheld from the family for over two years, and under added pressure from a congressman, the Army finally gave the Johnsons the CD. On it they found horrific photographs from the autopsy that clearly showed the extent of their daughter’s injuries. It proved that the original black and white photos of LaVena’s body originally sent to them had been doctored. Also on the disk were damning sketches of the crime scene that gave her parents further information contradicting the Army’s statements.

One wonders whether LaVena would have enlisted in the Army if she had known that Veterans Administration statistics show that one third of the women who serve in the military are victims of sexual assault by a fellow soldier. Or if she had known about an emerging pattern of “suicides” of women soldiers who were also victims of sexual assault.

According to the Department of Defense FY07 Report on Sexual Assault in the Military,
“The Army remains committed to thoroughly investigate and take appropriate action in all unrestricted reports of sexual assault,” and the Department of Defense “continues its commitment to eradicate sexual assault in the military services.”

Military leaders have no real interest in stopping sexual assaults. If they did, LaVena Johnson’s rape and murder would be included in their statistics. But they would rather not admit that these crimes occur if they don’t have to. So, if the victim is dead, all the better. Just report that death as a suicide.

LaVena Johnson was awarded a posthumous promotion to Private First Class, a bone thrown to her family, no doubt. But her spirit cries out for justice. Please call your representatives in Congress and demand action on her case. The telephone number for the U.S. Capitol switchboard is 202/224-3121. Please help her parents to obtain a proper investigation of their daughter’s death. The major media have ignored LaVena’s story, and without a vociferous public demand for action the government will continue to stonewall.

LaVena Johnson was raped and murdered. Do not let the military sweep this under the rug.

August 4, 2008

Elizabeth Higgs [send her mail] is a wife and mother living in Covington, Louisiana.

Copyright © 2008 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

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I can agree with the fundamental premise of why he’s a Conservative Democrat. One the one hand people should pick themselves up, work hard, and fight for success. On the other hand, society has an obligation to help those who can’t help themselves and the working poor. This is where my political thoughts generally led me. There has to be a demand for both personal responsibility and community responsibility.

Your obedient servant,
Rev. George H. Latimer-Knight

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Another element that should be thrown in is the voter ID laws pushback across the country. The GOP is the sole backer of these strict voter ID laws. Maine, to their credit, voted down their new stricter voter ID laws. And Ohio voters presented enough signatures to halt their stricter GOP backed laws. Ohio will vote on them in November 2012.

All three movements—the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, and the stricter voter ID laws—will converge in 2012. All three are asking for more fairness. The Tea Party feels the government shouldn’t reward lazy citizens with a social safety net. The Occupy Wall Street movement argues for the fat-cats to give their fair share. The Occupy Our Homes movement says housing is a human right. The voter ID laws pushback points out that these new stricter laws disproportionally affect minorities, students, the elderly, and those on the lower economic scale.

Somehow we have to find a way to find the convergence of these movements. We need to find a way to uphold a set of principles that push these three movements toward each other. American politics has become so polarized that little can get done. We need more moderate voices—we need more moderate principles.

Let me give you some brief examples of what I mean. The Tea Party must come to see that all people being carrying by the social safety net aren’t lazy and shiftless. The Occupy Wall Street movement must come to see that regardless of how corporate America is regulated, wealth cannot be governmentally redistributed from the 1% to the 99%. If you gave every American, at say age 25, a check for one million dollars, we know a number of folks would still end up broke. The Occupy Our Homes movement must accept that society can help the less fortunate but must let those who are able and refuse to change to fail. The voter ID law pushback must find a way to acknowledge the right’s general premise and continue to aciculate better ways to enforce their concerns.

Somehow we must find the middle ground. The more I look at these social-political issues the more I discover my own political views. I believe I’m sort of a centrist progressive with somewhat socially conservative views. I will have to study this area more to figure this out.

Your obedient servant,
Rev. George H. Latimer-Knight

Sources
http://www.theroot.com/views/ows-and-tea-party-rallies
http://www.minnpost.com/ericblack/2011/11/11/33095/tea_party_study_whats_really_behind_the_movement
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/13/holder-to-push-against-voter-id-laws/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/1/democrats-push-back-against-voter-id-laws/?page=all

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We will follow this story for one reason…to show the youth the destructive nature of low-level thinking. Here you have a young man who toiled with his football craft from high school through college. Here you have a 26 years old black man who is currently signed under a three year contract with a total salary of $3,970,000 (yearly average of $1,323,333) and a $1,350,000 signing bonus ($450,000 yearly). His previous contracts with the Dallas Cowboys totaled, with bonuses, a whopping $5,484,000.

So Sam Hurd, with all his resources, money, prestige, and fame has apparently chosen to become a drug lord. How awful! I’m writing this article for the benefit of our young people. Money isn’t everything. Sam Hurd had money. Fame isn’t the ultimate. Sam Hurd had fame. What everybody needs is a solid moral compass, a liberal arts education, and sound financial training. A moral compass to guide us through the many choices life will inevitably present us with. A liberal arts education provides us with grounding in the great books, history, languages including English, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, political science, psychology, religious studies, science, and theater. A sound financial training teaches us about how to obtain sustainable wealth, investments, real estate, savings strategies, etc.

Father Hurley taught us to think for ourselves. A lack of thinking is why Sam Hurd is in the position he’s in today. He just didn’t think. I don’t have to tear the young man down. I won’t call him names or castigate him. He just didn’t think. If he was a thinking man, he would’ve realized a millionaire black athlete wasn’t going to get away with a crime like this. If he was a thinking man, he would’ve gotten into a legal business and/or found a top-tier investment hawk to multiply his millions. If he was only a thinking man!

Saints and friends I feel the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit led me to write this. Please start thinking. Think, think, and think again. Think about the consequences of your actions. Be positive. See the blessings and opportunities you have been given and take advantage of them. God bless you. Peace & Love to all!

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
Rev. George H. Latimer-Knight
Written, Friday, December 16, 2011

Sources:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/53133905-77/nfl-hurd-players-respect.html.csp
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-400_162-57344219/source-hurd-provided-drugs-to-other-nfl-players/
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/984904-arrest-of-bears-hurd-likely-to-spell-end-of-jerry-angelos-tenure-as-gm
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/chicago-bears/sam-hurd/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts

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Various religious views of homosexuality notwithstanding, I think all thinking men and women can agree that being gay isn’t be illegal. Murdering, harassing, and browbeating the LGBT community cannot be tolerated. I for one was impressed with the United States’ stand. It’s something all of us should be proud of.

Your obedient servant,
Rev. George H. Latimer-Knight

Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/clintons-geneva-accord-gay-rights-are-human-rights/2011/03/04/gIQAPUipcO_blog.html
http://news.advocate.com/post/13844217337/watch-the-speech-youve-been-waiting-for
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/12/06/hillary-clinton-demands-equal-rights-for-lgbt-people-the-world-over-video/

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