HOPE and VICTORY

By Allen C. Guelzo – Christian Science Monitor Gettysburg, Pa. – “I am no minister of hate,” wrote the black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in 1871. But as he watched Northerners in the years after the Civil War turn to teary-eyed embraces of their former Confederate enemies at postwar reunions and veterans’ meetings, he was appalled. “May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I forget the difference between ... those who fought to save the Republic and those who fought to destroy it.” Douglass can be forgiven a certain measure of resentment toward the Confederacy. After all, he was born a slave in Maryland, escaped as a runaway in 1838, turned to a public career as an abolitionist newspaper editor and lecturer, and sent two sons to fight in the Union Army. But he had a point that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) might have been wise to ponder before Tuesday, when he proclaimed April as Virginia’s “Confederate History Month.” Just what is it, exactly, that Governor McDonnell is p...

Growing up in the segregated South, where my neighbors, community, churches and schools were exclusively Black, to this day I am still (no pun intended) mystified how blacks were (are) intrinsically enticed by whiteness. Oh, by the away, we did have a popular grocery owned by Chinese-Americans in the our neighborhood. However, besides the white transients who entered from time-to-time to sell their wares or to toss their dead animals on our streets, or to return our parents from maid service, it would appear our exclusive physical culture of blackness was in control of their destiny. So, the unsolved mystery is how was our supposed (Black) culture penetrated so thoroughly by the patois of a white majority? How was it that little dark skinned girls preferred white dolls or our exclusively black student body preferred light skinned beauty queens, etc? The white superman or white Mickey Mouse Club were just too enticing. While legal segregation was successful for intentionally keeping peo...

First let me applaud the work of two positive social and justice pioneers. The work of Judge Greg Mathis and that of Coach Tony Dungy speaks for itself. Both men are very successful in their respective fields where Mathis has become a succcessful judge and Dungy is a retired successful major league football coach. Both are African American and both have overcome odds that are not foreign to African American men who are striving to create a life of dignity and pride for them and their love ones and for the community at large. Through the Black Prisoner Initiative, PEER, (Prisoner Empowerment, Education and Respect), Judge Mathis is working to assist young (and old) African American men rebound after being criminalized and imprisoned for their alleged mistakes in life. The Initiative pushes for another chance for these individuals that would help them to redeem their place in society and attempt to replicate the success of other African Americans who have learned to overcome in envi...

The MoneyMutual site reads: Why does Montel Williams endorse MoneyMutual? Celebrated talk show host and Daytime Emmy Award winner Montel Williams associates himself only with products that help people live better physically, spiritually, financially and emotionally. He understands that people will find themselves with difficult to pay expenses due to lack of funds or credit and agrees that a cash advance can provide the needed quick assistance and help avoid more costly fees. In times where the welfare of many is being threatened by runaway bank charges, high interest rates, high unemployment, a spirited IRS, predator credit lending companies, the cost unjust wars and general corporate greed in general. It makes since that in our desperation we become victimized by Payday loan companies that have proliferated in the last decade in both the depressed inner-city communities over the Internet. It's simple. If you're already living from paycheck to paycheck, why not s...

Looking at Faithful, my cat, I am pretty fun of him. He's been a joy and a comfort in tough times, feeling a void where no human could possibly fill. It has been also a thorn, demanding attention at the most awkward times and refusing to cooperate when life demands that I do. More or less, domesticated animals as well as those locked-up in the zoo are a pleasure to experience. Which brings me to the next point. In general, has our attachment to the animal hindered us in anyway from evolving to the next spiritual plane? BREAKING NEWS: Effort to ban cat, dog meat updated Tue March 9, 2010 CNN's Emily Chang reports on legislation in China that would ban eating dog and cat meat. (Warning: Disturbing content) CNN A few times I've watched a medium, John Edwards TV show called " Crossing Over ". It was interesting to observe how believable it is as one witnesses the interaction between the living (those still detained on earth) and love ones who have c...

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,when you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on. Don't let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes. Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along.When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)if you feel like letting go, (hold on)when you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on. Everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends.Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand.If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone. If you're on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,when you think you've had too much of this life to hang on. Well, everybody hurts sometimes, everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes.And everybody hurts sometimes. So, hold on, hold on.Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. (repeat & fade)(Everybody hurts. You are not alone. ( R.E.M. Lyr...

If there were independent media actually available to the masses of Black Atlanta, it would be possible to run candidates for office in black constituencies who placed at the center of their campaigns frank opposition to mass incarceration. Such candidates might find it relatively easy to popularize and win support for subsidized family visits for prisoners, an end to privatization of inmate health care, mandatory minimum sentences, to the prosecution and incarceration of juveniles as adults. Candidates who promise to try to roll back the wholesale and piecemeal privatization of corrections, to cease the onerous fees levied by private contractors on families and friends who call or send money to their loved ones behind bars would quickly find themselves at the head of a broad, trans-generational black civic movement the like of which has not been seen since the 1960s. The possibilities for coalitions, alliances and partnerships would abound, as churches all sizes and denominations, you...