Trumpet Newsmagazine January 2013 Issue by Trumpet Newsmagazine

CONTENTS | JANUARY 2013

FEATURES

32 CHRIS HEDGES: The Man, His Mission, His Message 44

CANCER IN MY STILETTOS

Avery Sunshine

Bottom 47

SECOND AMENDMENT ABUSED

The CROSS and the LYNCHING TREE

DEPARTMENTS 06

From the Publisher

WRIGHTINGS: REBIRTH

10 12

Reading Is Fundamental THE MESSAGE from the Executive Editor “The Most Hopeful Time of the Year!”

GLOBAL NOTES The Jeremiah A. Wright Institute for the Black World

What’s The Difference Between Charity and Justice?

Why Mass Incarceration Defines Us As A Society

SOUND ADVICE

42 50

It’s National Thyroid Awareness Month

Ask the Dentist

PHENOMENAL LIVING 47

13 IS Your Lucky Number

Etiquette Essentials

Tea With Rae: Wellness for the Mind, Body, and Spirit “Moving Beyond It!”

Restart

SOUNDING ON 62

Sounding On

REAR VIEW 69

The Unsilenced Voice of a ‘Long-Distance Revolutionary’

PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF Jeri L. Wright EXECUTIVE EDITOR Dr. L. Bernard Jakes MANAGING EDITOR Rhoda McKinney-Jones COLUMNISTS Colleen Birchett, Ph.D., Erika Bracey, Marjorie Clark, Patryce Denson, Jazmin Hall, Dr. L. Bernard Jakes, Rev. Rae Lewis-Thornton, Terry Mason, M.D., Natasha L. Robinson, Esq., Dr. Susan K. Smith, Brenda Taylor, D.M.D., Rev. Reginald W. Williams, Jr., Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Chris Hedges, John Green, Nakia Green, Jeri Wright ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Nakia Green DIGITAL SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR Michelle Anderson-Metcalfe CREATIVE DIRECTOR Quincy B. Banks, Graphix by Dzine THE JEREMIAH WRIGHT INSTITUTE OF THE BLACK WORLD PHOTOS Property Compliments of Tiffany Black DR. JAMES CONEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PHOTO Tom Zuback, Photographer FOUNDER Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: TRUMPET NEWSMAGAZINE 939 W. North Avenue, Chicago, IL 60642 Nakia Green, Associate Publisher 312.646.2144 | info@thetrumpetmag.com www.thetrumpetmag.com Contents may NOT be printed or duplicated without prior written permission from Trumpet Newsmagazine.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

REBIRTH OF A LEGACY In my life, rebirths occur every day, especially over these last five years. As life changed drastically at the end of 2007 and throughout 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, I leaned on God to hold on to my sanity in keeping all my faith and trust in God! REBIRTH was and is a daily way of life. I clung to the faith knowing that God would keep God’s promises. Throughout each month this year, I will tell parts of my story as we walk through this journey of rebirthing a portion of a legacy most thought would never rise again. For this moment, however, we will focus on the rebirth of a dream God gave me to keep Trumpet Newsmagazine alive. Because this rebirth could not have happened without the love and faithful family God blessed me with, I have to thank God for all God has done and is doing! Because of God’s faithfulness towards me, God has blessed me with the angel who made this rebirth come to fruition, Nakia Green. Once God gave her a vision, we then began to work on rebirthing this tool that has endless possibilities. I now honor the memory of my grandparents, and the legacy birthed from the pastorate that was my father’s life for 36 years. I am honored to have a team who embraces all we do, the mission and vision of this publication! Without you, our subscribers, however, this would be all for naught. I thank God for you, and for your prodding and pleading and constant asking for the return of Trumpet. Expect to watch us grow and grow along with us each month as we rebirth this publication with a new twist. Hold us accountable to the standard of excellence you know we are capable of. Keep us in the midst of your prayers, positive thoughts and energy. Visit us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. We look forward to each day of this New year! Happy New You! Lovingly yours,

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WRIGHTINGS

REBIRTH Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. Pastor Emeritus As the Trumpet Newsmagazine comes back to life in an

is you are now reading, the Trumpet Newsmagazine in electronic form.

electronic form, I give thanks to God for the vision, the

I salute her as the Trumpet is reborn and I look

enthusiasm and the determination of my daughter,

forward to an exciting time as we stick to the vision of being a socially-conscious magazine that speaks

Jeri Wright. Just as the old print magazine was beginning

to the people of God and for the people of God in every area of life that God gives us.

to catch on nationally and internationally, print media all

The old print form of the Trumpet Newsmagazine

over this world fell on hard times.

came to the end of its season. My pastoral ministry came to the end of its season, and four-and-a half

I shared with Jeri how bleak the

years after retirement my twenty-year history of leading African and African Diasporic study tours

situation looked as major news organs like the Chicago Sun-

also came to the end of its season!

Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post and even

I have been leading study tours to North Africa, to Kemet, to Ethiopia, to West Africa (Sierra Leone,

the Wall Street Journal looked at the possibility of going

Senegal, Cote dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin), to Southern Africa (Lesotho and Zimbabwe) and to

electronic and ceasing their print operations. Nationally

South Africa.) for many years. That season came to an end this year and I gave thanks to God for the

known organs like Time and Newsweek started shutting down their print operations and moving to electronic publications.

many, many memories and once-in-a-lifetime experiences which that season provided. In July of 2012, I shared with our Ghanaian friends

The old Trumpet Newsmagazine went out of business as our supporters and advertisers came to

and those who traveled with me to Ghana, Togo and Benin that the July study tour would be my last West

have less and less faith in print magazines and print publications. Jeri saw the "handwriting on the wall,"

African study tour. In August of this year, I shared with those who traveled with me to Brazil that I

however, and adopted the "can-do" attitude of "every delay is not a defeat!"

would no longer be leading study tours to that country either.

Her conversations in partnership with Nakia Green,

When I got back to the States, my oldest daughter,

me (and a host of other writers, journalists, editors and producers of blogs) have eventuated into what it

Janet Marie, asked me what did it feel like to be leading my last study tour and to know that that

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WRIGHTINGS

season had come to an end. I shared with her that my explaining that reality to the West African travelers was a teary experience. I cried as I shared with the travelers that I would not be leading those study tours anymore. That "season finale" was made even more emotional by the fact of my cousin, the Reverend Dr. Dennis Wiley and his son, Joshua, being on the study tour with me. By the time the August study tour (the Brazil tour) rolled around, my emotions had calmed down and my mind had adjusted to the reality that my season of leading study tours had come to an end. Although I did not cry when sharing with the travelers who went on the study tour with me to Brazil, I told Janet that it was a very difficult reality that I faced because the words of Dr. Frederick G. Sampson came back to haunt me. Janet asked me what those words were. I explained to her that I visited with Dr. Sampson the same month that my father died. My father died on July 4th of 2001 and I visited Dr. Sampson at the end of July. Dr. Sampson was in hospice himself at that time. We spent a delightful afternoon sharing memories and going back over thirty years of our relationship. It was awesome being in the presence of such a giant and knowing that the season of his ministry was coming to an end! As we shared, he said to me that there were two things about me that he had admired for many, many years. He said the first thing he admired was that I had preaching abilities that caused his daughter, Freda, to "go to church through the week!" He said he

only time his daughter would go to church on a weekday. He said she would not even come to hear him on a weekday! We had a good laugh about that. The next thing Dr. Sampson said to me was quite a compliment, but it was also a question that brought me up short. He said to me that he had always admired my consistency when it came to Africa. I asked him what he meant and he said that for many African Americans, Africa had been a "fad." It simply meant wearing some Kente cloth, extending the study of people of African descent during the month of February from famous Americans like Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth to the inclusion of one or two famous Africans, such as, Nelson Mandela or Kwame Nkrumah. He said that "fad" also included growing long naturals and putting on dashikis. For me, however, he said I was consistent in my commitment to the people of Africa, the cultures of Africa, the music of Africa and the connection between Africans on the Continent and Africans in the Diaspora. Before I could thank him for that compliment, which really made me feel good, he "brought me up short" by asking me, "Have you replicated yourself?" I asked him what he meant and he said, "Have you trained someone to take over the reins of this ministry when you retire and when you no longer lead study tours. Have you produced some young clergy who are just as committed to Africa and the study of African peoples as you are?"

could tell when I was in town because that was the

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WRIGHTINGS

I smiled at Dr. Sampson, but my heart sank because the answer to that question was, "No!" As I

I am excited as I watch Janet and Jeri read the works of Gayraud Wilmore (Black Religion and Black

explained to the persons traveling with me to Brazil how that would be my last study tour, Dr. Sampson's

Radicalism), L.H. Whelchel (The History and Heritage of the African American Church: A Way

question came back to haunt me. One of the tour guides in Ghana had asked me the same thing in

Out of No Way), Cheikh Anta Diop (The Cultural Unity of Africa), William Leo Hansberry (Pillars in

July, "Who will take over for you, Rev? Who will lead the study tours now?"

Ethiopian History), Abdias Nascimento (Africans in Brazil), Michelle Gonzalez (Afro-Cuban Theology),

Having no answer for that question left a gaping hole in my heart and I shared that with my oldest

James Cone (The Cross and the Lynching Tree), Dwight Hopkins (Another World is Possible), Allan

daughter. Janet then floored me by saying to me, "Daddy? Will you teach me?"

Boesak's works, and the writings of countless authors with whom I have lived and whose works I have used

I asked her what she meant and she said, "Will you

for many, many years.

teach me all that you do on those study tours? Will you teach me all of the facts that you cover as you

Janet has already talked with Pastor Moss who institutionalized the African/African Diasporan study

connect the dots between Africans in the Bible, Africans on the Continent and Africans in the

tours as a part of the ongoing ministry of Trinity United Church of Christ six years ago, and Dr. Moss

Diaspora? Can you train me to lead the study tours in the future?"

is excited about the new leadership, the new season and the rebirth of this ministry as Janet and Jeri

The end of my season, the "death" of that phase of

prepare to lead their first study tour in 2013.

my ministry was experiencing a rebirth right in my living room!

One Friday many years ago, on a hill outside of the City of Jerusalem when Jesus of Nazareth bowed his

With her question, her request and her desire to take

head in death, those who loved him thought that was the end of the story. God showed them;

the baton from my hand and to run on with a crucial aspect of my forty-year ministry was the answer to a

however, that rebirth was and is always possible. What we look at what we think is a period at the end

prayer. It was God showing me "rebirth" in a phase of my ministry that has meant an awful lot to me.

of a sentence, God continues to amaze us by showing us how what we thought was a period turns

Janet shared with her sister closest to her in age (her

out to be a comma in God's grammar. God's rebirth brings to life again that which we love and

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Siamese twin sister,â&#x20AC;? Jeri) our conversation and Jeri volunteered to team up with Janet in learning all of

those whom we loved.

the material that I had presented in study tours over the past twenty years. Our training began in

God has pulled off another rebirth with the Trumpet Newsmagazine and with the Africa/African Diasporan

September, and we are now busily studying together, working together and making sure that the "rebirth"

study tours. I praise God for allowing me to live long enough to see this rebirth and I invite you to

of this phase of my ministry is healthy and whole!

become a part of this ministry in the years that lie ahead.

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WRIGHTINGS

Reading Is Fundamental Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. For the thirty-six years that I served as the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, I tried my best to get our members (young and old) interested in reading. I tried to encourage our high school students, our college students and our graduate school students to read beyond what their course requirements asked of them. For me, reading was and is fundamental because reading was the foundation upon which my academic and intellectual life was built. My grandmother taught me to read before I went to kindergarten. My father made me read every day so that I could learn something new every day. Reading what the teachers assigned in elementary, Junior High and High School was not enough for my dad. He knew what the education the public schools were giving me would only “mis-educate” me. My father was a student of Carter G. Woodson! He, therefore wanted me to read everything he could get into my hands about our history, our culture, our poetry, our plays, our novels and our religion. I grew up knowing that reading was not only fundamental. Reading was also the foundation upon which I would build my future. I also grew up hearing the old adage about how to hide something from Black folk (put it in a book!).

Henrik Clark and Cheikh Anta Diop. I now find myself in retirement making that plea once again! I am challenging every reader of the Trumpet Newsmagazine to read a minimum of one book a month throughout this New Year that God has given us. In order to know the beautiful, rich and exciting history and legacy of the faith we share, I am urging you to pick up a copy of L. H. Whelchel's book, The History and Heritage of the African American Church: A Way Out of No Way. Make that your book for January. (I am going to suggest a new book each month this year!) You can download Whelchel;s book onto your iPad or your Kindle; but I prefer the paper copy. I love to write in the margins of a book, underline passages, highlight passages and raise questions (with myself and with the author) on each page of the books I read. You will be challenged by Dr. Whelchel’s book. In fact, I would go so far as to say you will be changed by his book. L. H. Whelchel gives us a broad and sweeping in-depth analysis and narrative about our religious tradition, our faith or, indeed, "our story." The story of our faith starts in Africa and that is where Whelchel's book starts.

As a result I was determined to do everything I could to make sure that those who were in my care (while I was a pastor) were not guilty of not knowing their history and dooming themselves to repeat it!

When I was a student at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, for six years, Dr. Martin Marty was my primary professor in Church History. I raised questions with him constantly about his starting point for telling the Christian story. (Dr. Marty is the premier church historian in the United States!)

When I was a pastor, I urged our members to read. I urged them to read giants in African American History like Carter G. Woodson, William Leo Hansberry, John

The problem I was having for six years, however, was that I had read in my father’s library when I was a teenager. (Reading is Fundamental). I had read the

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WRIGHTINGS works of Carter G Woodson, J.A. Rogers, William Leo Hansberry and Frank Snowden. What I had read that was written by African and African American authors was very different from what Dr. Marty was writing and well known for; and I kept asking him, “When are you going to write about the African origins of our faith; and the contributions of the Black Church to the story of Christianity in this country?” His constant response to me was that he was waiting for black scholars to do that. He did not want to seem patronizing. (Dr. Marty is white.) Dr. Marty is also the professor who was the driving force (or the inspiration) for the birth of the Trinity Trumpet in 1982! Dr. Marty used to ask why it was that most churches had worship services and church bulletins that made it seem like the congregation and the worshippers were living in a make-believe world that had nothing to do with the world that was waiting on the congregants each Sunday after the benediction. He would dare us to bring him a church bulletin that did not just talk about the bake sales, the Girl Scout cookie sales, the Pastor’s anniversary, a choir concert and other “churchy” topics. He would challenge us (in 1969-1975) to bring him a church bulletin that talked about the fight against Apartheid, Divestment from banks doing business with the racist government in South Africa; or any other social issue that serious and committed Christians should be addressing. That focus of social justice (both arms of the cross) gave birth to our church’s magazine 31 years ago. Dr. Marty, however, would not touch the African origins of our faith and that left me frustrated and ambivalent about this great giant who wrote so well and lectured so engagingly. In February of 2009, Ramah and I had dinner with Dr. Marty and as we were leaving his home, he grinned as he handed me his 2008 publication – a book which did what I had been pushing back in 1969! Dr. Marty’s The Christian World: A Global History starts the story of Christianity in Africa. While grinning, Dr. Marty

said, “Here! This is in tribute to you, Homer Ashby, McKinley Young and all the Black Divinity School students who kept pushing me to get the story straight!” L.H. Whelchel pushes back beyond where Dr. Marty started. Whelchel shows the Kemetic (Egyptian) foundation for the faith of the people of Israel! Whelchel has done a tremendous job and he needs to be “must reading” for any student of church history in general and Black Church history in particular. I encourage you to come to grips with Whelchel's scholarship, to be nurtured by it, to grow by it, and I urge you to pass the eye-opening contents on to your children and grandchildren this month. Do not wait until Black History Month to learn something new about your history, your heritage, your faith and your forebears. Start today. Learn something new each day! Make a promise to yourself to read at least one book about who we are each month in this New Year that God has given us. Spend some time each day reading! The Trumpet is dedicated to hold in tandem and in tension the two arms of the cross. The vertical arm symbolizes our relationship with God. The horizontal arm symbolizes our relationship with each other. Reading will help you help us to realize the goal of the Trumpet as a publication dedicated to social justice (the horizontal arm of the cross). Reading will deepen your understanding about the world in which we as people of faith live. Reading will also cause you to engage in critical thinking and raise questions about what it is God is calling us to do in “this present age” as people who are “called by His name!” Reading will become the foundation upon which you can help build our future. I am counting on you. God is counting on you! Our children are counting on you. Our future depends on it!

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THE MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE EDITOR

The Most Hopeful Time of theYear! Reverend Dr. L. Bernard Jakes The fiscal calendar is riddled with dates assigned for observation and celebration. It is purposed that observers of these dates are moved to honor or exalt that which someone felt was important enough to lobby for placement on the fiscal calendar. These observances or celebrations range from honoring the legacy of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to having a good pint of green ale on St. Patrick’s Day. The one day that covers both observance and celebration is Easter Sunday. It is Easter Sunday when Christians collectively observe the resurrection of Jesus the Christ as the means by which salvation has been obtained, while subsequently celebrating the resurrection of Jesus the Christ because of the same. The observance and celebration dates on the fiscal calendar can bring both tears and cheers; it is what comes from many of the dates. In perusing the fiscal calendar of observations and celebrations, what was blatantly hidden, but in plain view was the most hopeful time of the year. If you go to a calendar you will not witness the words as penned in this column; however, it is there under a different name. The most hopeful time of the year is not gender specific. It

does not deal with religious dogma, and is not influenced by demographics or socio-economic conditions. As a matter of speaking, the most hopeful time of the year rises above the confines of barriers and grants everyone a fair opportunity to exercise in desiring for something not seen with the physical eye; yet, it is seen with the mind’s eye. The most hopeful time of the year is New Year’s Day. New Year’s Day is when you can hear a proverbial huge sigh of relief throughout the world. First, it is because the person survived the highs and lows of the previous year. Second, it is because the New Year brings with it new opportunities to conquer and cast away. Third, and this is most important, it provides persons the opportunity to hope for something better, something different, and something more substantive. The New Year makes room for a person to take the lessons of the previous year and put them into action during the New Year. The New Year is exciting because it does not have a frame of reference from which it operates. It cannot look into its past, because it does not have one. All the New Year has going is its future, and this future gives people a reason to hope. To hope is to have a strong belief in something that has not manifested. It is held up by a person’s faith and fueled by a desire to witness the manifestation of what has not occurred. Hope is why many people did not succumb to the traumatic occurrences of 2012. From the streets of Chicago, Illinois, to Aurora, Colorado, to Philadelphia,

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University of Scranton, Journal of Clinical Psychology. Published 12-13-12.

Pennsylvania, and more recently the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, many of the men and women who found themselves grieving the death of a loved one due to gun violence was still able to look beyond their current state of affairs and believe that healing would come to their family as well as this country. For the millions of Americans who were victims of men playing games with the lives of other men and women, which resulted in recession, job loss, and a record number of foreclosures, there continue to be many who are hopeful that 2013 will bring forth fruits of profits,

“Resolutions are nothing more than goals with deadlines, and hope serves as its motivator.” peace, and prosperity. There are even those who are hopeful that 2013 will be the year their interpersonal relationship with God becomes stronger. It is hope that will drive millions of people at the onset of the New Year, to maximize their potential and capitalize on past investments. The ability to hope serves as the spark needed to ignite the passionate fire burning on the inside of each hopeful individual. However, a person who does not have hope has nothing to burn. It is safe to say that the world is filled with many who are not looking forward to the New Year, because previous New Year’s proved to produce more of the same. As time progressed, the reason to hope became diminished with every negative incident. And when it seems as if life gets worse with each year, there is no reason to hope for better because better never comes. The burying of hope is a guarantee that life will never move passed an uncomfortable state of affairs because it has nowhere to go; it is buried. For the person, however, that continues to hope

passed what has been unpleasant, they enter into 2013 excited of the unseen possibilities and probabilities that lie ahead. This is often manifested in New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s resolutions receive harsh criticism from many. The criticism rests in statistics1 that half of the people who make resolutions do not stay committed to their goal. While this is an honest reason to critique, there should also be compliment attached to those who make resolutions. New Year’s resolutions are made with hope in mind. It is hope through resolution that weight loss will happen. It is hope through resolution that a person will save money. It is hope through resolution that a person becomes better organized. It is hope through resolution that concerned citizens of America will press President Obama to hear and adhere to the concerns of Black Americans, which represent a large number of the poor in this country. It is hope through resolution that concerned citizens will call upon Congress to stand up to the National Rifle Association (NRA), and legislate sensible guns laws, up to and including banning the purchasing of assault weapons, while mandating that states actively seek and prosecute straw gun purchasers to the fullest extent of the law. Resolutions are nothing more than goals with deadlines, and hope serves as its motivator. Motivated by another year, the columnist is hopeful that 2013 will usher in the success of his local congregation, as well as Trumpet Newsmagazine. Coupled with this hope is a determination to ensure that hope is not diminished by the proverbial clouds that can occur without warning, but remembering that above the clouds is the sun, and it will shine brightly when the clouds roll away. This is the hope the columnist ushers into 2013, and the hope he prays will rest within your spirit. Happy New Year to each of you! Keep hoping until it springs eternal. Enjoy and maximize the most hopeful time of the year. Shalom.

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GLOBAL NOTES

MARJORIE CLARK

extinction their own poverty. The bottom 47, could, actually, determine our futures. Ironically, the top 2% would benefit as well, albeit an alternate universe. It could be argued that it may be more profitable, if the 100% of us are better off, instead of the very few.

BOTTOM 47 WE CAN CHANGE A NATION What if the Bottom 47% had a big idea? What if the big idea was to

The end of poverty would happen through the biggest collaborative

care for others? They would provide food, healthcare, and housing for

team ever, the bottom 47. The bottom 47 would engage in global

others. What if the bottom 47% decided they would socially and

collaboration of sharing “best practices” for what really works from

economically engage…for others? Bigger still, what if the big idea was

all over the world. We would be a hub of resources for our bottom 47.

to eradicate poverty in ten years in a country called Haiti?

The young of the bottom 47 could create models and data bases that

Bigger yet, what if the big idea worked, and the bottom 47% was able to do something no public or private leader, policy maker, academy, or nation at large, including the United States, could do? What if the bottom 47 did develop the model to eradicate poverty? We could scale it to each city of the globe. We could win the Nobel Prize.

could help mitigate wasted resources. We could support and unite change-agents of nations, cities or towns for exponential leverage. The bottom 47 could mobilize media, from shantytowns in South Africa to the slums of Brazil to the west side of Chicago. People won’t just be telling stories of human misery, but for the first time, those who perhaps could least afford it on their own, collectively will impact to

According to some historians, the richest man who ever lived, King Solomon, lead the happiest kingdom ever. Why? Under his leadership, everyone was well. During his time, leaders from all over the world wanted to see for themselves how he did it. It is said that from King Solomon’s subjects to his slaves, all were treated with dignity and had more than enough. Wow! Could it be that God is trying to awaken the giant that is the bottom 47? What if, all along, it was the dregs that needed to show up just like in the Civil Rights Movement, determined, unapologetically so, completely sold out to a desired outcome. I wonder what that kind of massive resolve might accomplish on the world’s platform. Why Haiti? Why not Haiti? It’s a majestic country, rich with people who for 300 years exemplify resilience in spite of misguided governments, chronic environmental misfortunes, and what seems to be disjointed international policy.

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GLOBAL NOTES

What’s more, the very organizations that are there for relief, oftentimes serve only to be counterproductive. As stated in the introduction of Justin Podur’s Haiti’s New Dictatorship: The Coup, the Earthquake, and the UN Occupation: The ‘humanitarian market’ is a specific way for international aid agencies and foreign governments to relate to Haiti, whether it is to Haitian government or non-governmental institutions or directly with the Haitian clients of these agencies. The nature of the relationship is specified by the terms of the market, and it leaves little room for other ways to relate. Specifically, it leaves little room for a relationship of equality between sovereign citizens of two countries. In the humanitarian market, the recipient of aid, the victim, has no sovereignty and lacks any right to control where largesse is directed. In Haiti, where foreign aid and foreign governments effectively rule the country, the ideology associated with the humanitarian market is a powerful brake on

went over it with Women’s Rights, and the bottom 47% can go through it with the eradication of poverty in our sister nations, sister cities, and our hometowns. We can do it! Yes, we can move forward. These aren’t just coined words. These are words that countless people paid with their lives, so that we, now, today, may observe more clearly a unique moment in time and history where technology levels leveraging, and innovation, and liberty. Consequently, anyone can add value or change the game, including the bottom 47. The poor are beginning to recognize their resources. Their resources are in their numbers and in their unwillingness to yield to their plight. Our resources lay in our joyful resilience. The bottom 47% are taking a page from the playbook of the top 2% by “sharing best practices” and encouraging stories. As matter of fact, South African and Haitian activists are collaborating in an effort to bring awareness around issues of housing. Where would the funding come from for such an audacious plan? African Americans are the United

relations of mutual respect and reciprocity.

States leading consumer. African Americans influence fashion, music, and popular culture.

Consequently, humanitarianism becomes less

African Americans are mobile and are active technologically. African Americans are more likely

about human dignity and more about expediency. Its knee-jerk to think that all is lost in Haiti. Yes, there is short sighted policy execution. Yes, the government is in a weakened state and needs some shoring. Yes, some of the people’s capacity has dimmed a little, and yes, there are people and organizations that profit on the institutional misery of the poor. But, when has the bottom 47% backed down from a brick wall. The bottom 47% scratched under it during slavery with the underground tunnel. The bottom 47% went around it with sit-ins during the Civil Rights movement. The bottom 47%

to purchase new technology or be on the web. By 2015, Black consumerism will have purchasing power that exceeds $1.1 trillion. African Americans will have a population of over 45,000,000. At present, African Americans in the U.S. exceed populations of Argentina, Canada, and Poland, as well as 195 more countries. Thus, African Americans possess tremendous opportunity to effect change around the world as well as in our own communities.

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GLOBAL NOTES

What if a fund was designed that would collect monthly donations of 1, 2or 5 dollars? What if only

poverty and disease may be so much more achievable than what we think. Ultimately, it’s our

half of our population donated? What would be the impact? Instead, what if 10% or 4.3 million African

difference that binds us and it’s through our similarities we can maximize our leverage. I say give

Americans decided to change the world with $2.00, and it was automatically deducted per month to

the bottom 47 the challenge. Together we can eat poverty and lack for breakfast. Pardon the obvious

help a developing country change their world from the bottom up, or to perhaps change a city or

pun.

community here at home from the grassroots? We just watched “grassroots” win the presidential election!

Haitians have endured the raping of their resources and the marginalization of their capacity to determine themselves. Somehow, they end up at

“From different points of origin along the coast of Africa, did one blood spill for Black freedom.” The revenue raised would be approximately 8.6 million dollars over the course of a year that $2.00

the bottom, but one thing is for sure they do it standing up. Does this sentiment sound familiar?

given on a monthly basis would yield $103.2 million. We are less than the cost of a muffin away from

These words could almost be describing a shanty town in South Africa or an urban ghetto-town in

eradicating poverty…ourselves!

Chicago, ah yes, a tent city in Haiti.

Years ago, I remember asking my aunt one day,

May I offer a suggestion as to why start with Haiti,

what it will take to turn Haiti around? I was exhausted from listening to all of the misery. My

but first we will rediscover Haitian history perhaps you may see your own story in it. Better still, the

aunt, with regal, pragmatic sensibilities retorted “That’s easy.” To which I looked at her like she had

bottom 47% may decide that they owe it to themselves to finish the work, finish the fight for

two heads. She said, “Get everyone together and work! People have to decide to make a difference.

liberty that began on a tiny port island called Haiti where slaves dared to dream of freedom, dared to

Be open to learn and listen to the people. They will tell you where the straight line is.”

remember the smell of liberty, dared to stay seated on a bus in Alabama.

That is how possible it would be to eradicate poverty in a country like Haiti. To eradicate hunger,

Haiti is our treasure, our monument, our original Selma. Haiti stands as a testament for all Black

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people, for all people who have ever been oppressed. From different points of origin along the coast of Africa, did one blood spill for Black freedom. It echoed to the future in the form of inherited courage of the Civil Rights cause. It was all our blood that made the difference, then. It’s all our sweat that will make the difference, today. The bottom 47% three hundred years ago decided that they could care for themselves. They could raise their children free. This heritage is encoded in our DNA, the bottom 47%. Can’t you see it? It time for us to repair the breach, to erect our heritage, and monuments, and symbols, just like every other people. It’s our birthright! What if we succeeded without the top down, trickle-down humanitarianism that gets captured by bureaucracy? What if it was the bottom 47% that delivered a scalable model to the world that eradicated poverty, which returned dignity to the globe’s people? Haiti is the first and only nation to win its independence from slavery. It’s the only Black nation to go to war for its independence and win. The Africans fought just as formidably as their white brother’s just years prior for their independence in America.

“The bottom 47% three hundred years ago decided that they could care for themselves.” be the first people in modern history to experience the vitriol, the systematic erasure and rewriting of Haitian history, Black history, simply to mitigate the hope of a people. If Haiti had been recognized as a nation after its win from France, the slaves in America might have regained their capacity to hope. That was too dangerous. It was easier just to oppress Haiti through global policy initiated by

Ironically, perhaps it was the brave and valiant fight

France, ratified by the United States. Selfemancipation should have been a source of pride

for liberty that permeated the western hemisphere with its inalienable fragrance. Thus, African Haitians

and strength, instead propaganda caused the nation of Haiti to become a parody of itself. The

became inebriated with the aroma of freedom. They would fight for it or die trying. What a legacy!

source of Black historical pride became a historical footnote, lost in anecdotal folklore. Now is the time

In 1804, Haitians won their freedom. They have been paying a heavy price. Arguably, Haitians may

to get everybody together and work. We can do it...Yes we can. We are only the purchase of a muffin away.

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DR. SUSAN SMITH

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Second Amendment Abused

Why do people go into populated areas and start shooting?

There will be the usual call for gun control, and the usual protests against it, with proponents citing the

I am reeling with the news of the shooting in an

Second Amendment as the justification for people – anyone who wants to, basically – purchasing as many

elementary school in Connecticut, where it is certain at this moment that there have been “multiple fatalities,”

guns as they want. But when do the Second Amendment people wake up and smell the roses?

including children and adults. The number keeps fluctuating, but it doesn’t matter. That anyone died in

Something is horribly wrong in this country.

this manner is unconscionable.

Bob Costas got much criticism when he spoke up for gun control. He said nothing that does not make sense.

Supposedly there were two gunmen. That has not been verified as I write this, but it doesn’t matter. The one

He was not proposing that guns be disallowed entirely, but he did speak up for there to be control of the sale

alleged gunman who has been killed was wearing a bullet-proof vest, and reportedly had four weapons. A

of certain kinds of weapons, like semiautomatic guns.

witness said she heard about “100 rounds” shot.The news is just devastating.

There is never a reason to go into a school, or mall, or church, or post office and begin shooting, and there

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really is no reason for a civilian to own an automatic weapon. We are not a police state…are we? Gun

dead. Just who were these children and school officials threatening?

ownership proponents defend anyone who wants to be able to own any type of gun he or she wants, but why?

I think that no matter how bitter the thought, those who

Why is there not intelligent discussion and action going on to get semi-automatic weapons banned for sale in this

believe in gun control ought to speak up. Yes, I know the National Rifle Association (NRA) is a strong lobby with

country?

lots of power, but sooner or later the people have to speak truth to power, and the truth is…America’s gun

In the mall shooting that happened earlier this week in Oregon, the gunman had a semi-automatic weapon. A

policies are encouraging either sick or bad people to commit mass murder. A trial after the fact is not enough.

guest on the Piers Morgan program this week defended people owning semi-automatic weapons, repeating the

A trial cannot bring back a beloved family member, innocently gunned down because someone woke up on

oft-heard rationale, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” That’s true, but people with guns kill people,

the wrong side of the bed, or someone didn’t take his or her meds…It doesn’t bring the loved one back. Surely,

and in too many cases, the shootings have nothing to do with self-defense, which is why anti-gun control

gun control opponents understand the tragedy of that reality. Surely they sympathize with people whose lives

proponents say gun ownership is necessary. Having the right to bear arms does not mean you have a right to

have been ruined because someone decided to shoot a bunch of people they didn’t even know.

commit mass murder. I think of Jim Brady and Gabby Giffords, whose injuries In this, the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” the “free” and the “brave” are taking advantage of this

and changed lives we have all seen because of their name recognition, but I am also thinking of the families

constitutional right. Perhaps there ought to be a review of the Constitution, or at least a review of this

whom we do not know, families like those of the children and adults killed this morning, who have been thrown

amendment, and perhaps a new amendment ought to be made that prohibits the sale of semi-automatic

into despair. I don’t think the Second Amendment was meant to defend acts that bring that kind of despair on

weapons in this country. Perhaps that amendment ought to say that the “right to bear arms” is limited to people

innocent civilians. That amendment was made in a time when new Americans were facing a hostile England, who

owning handguns for self-defense and rifles and/or shotguns for hunting.

wanted to take them down. That’s a very different situation than what we have now.

That would allow people to own guns and disallow

I cannot imagine being a parent shocked into the reality that his or her little child is gone because someone decided he had a right to take lives. The Second Amendment does not give anyone the right to commit mass murder.

people to purchase weapons for the “mass destruction” of human life. There is no justification for what happened in Connecticut today. Children who woke up and went to school are now dead; some families’ lives have been

A candid observation …

changed forever. A principal and school psychologist are

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JERI WRIGHT

The Jeremiah A. Wright Institute for the Black World

In light of Dr. Wright’s REBIRTH article, Trumpet talked with Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, to get the history behind the institutionalization of the spiritual and cultural sojourns Dr. Wright led for two decades to Africa and different parts of the African Diaspora. In his own words, Rev. Moss gives the historical account: “As Dr. Wright was preparing for his retirement [from the pastorate], one idea was to institutionalize the

Diaspora, and one person who came to mind was Dr. Vincent Harding. Dr. Harding, many people don't know this, was the first director of what is now the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. It was then titled the Institute for the Black World, and it was Dr. Harding's vision to create an Institute bringing together scholars, youth, activists where they would not only learn about the legacy of the Freedom Movement; but they would be able to travel to places throughout the world where social justice was being

practiced, where activists were being trained. It would essentially become an Institute for specifically focusing a strong proclivity toward the African Diaspora. That vision never was completed. “Eventually, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change became more of a museum for the legacy of Dr. King versus forward-thinking, progressive, Institute symposium and lectures of training a new generation. And as I thought about the legacy of Dr. Wright, I thought it would be so appropriate to canonize the Diaspora tours in the context of an Institute, and the church would lend support to that to ensure that those travels would continue on every year, so that people would have an opportunity to not only do an educational tour, but also cultural tour mixed with activism, since most of the places that Dr. Wright has traveled, he's built these relationships not in the way that a travel agent does. Here's an opportunity for someone to visit a cultural location, a physical location and go shopping, but also with people who have been involved in the transformation of the country, the region, the Continent and in the world. “That's essentially where the Institute of the Black World came from - an unfilled vision from the late ‘60s early ‘70s to the canonization of the Institute of the Black World, headed under the leadership and vision of Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.”

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GLOBAL NOTES Dr. Moss went on to explain during a congregational meeting. “What I did was gave them the short talking points, and I explained that Dr. Vincent Harding had an Institute of the Black World. I'd like to -- in honor of Dr. Wright's work and legacy that we name Jeremiah A. Wright Institute of the Black World where the Diaspora tours can continue, the educational tours can continue, and the connection with activists, people who are practicing social justice, so that people and students of the 21st century can be deeply connected and rooted to their past. “It was in the form of a motion, so it was not arbitrary. It was just sad that what Dr. Harding wanted to do never came to fruition, and I thought it just made sense to me that Dr. Wright, in many ways, was doing exactly what Dr. Harding had envisioned the Institute to be.” Trumpet continued the conversation, discussing the vision of Dr. Wright’s daughters, Janet and Jeri, who will continue this portion of his legacy, leading the spiritual and cultural Diasporan sojourns, “With the Freedom School being developed now, our vision is, of course, to take children. Do you see there being a tie-in with the Freedom School, especially since this will be held during the summer months, the months that we'll be traveling with the Jeremiah A. Wright Institute of the Black World? Do you envision us eventually being able to take some of the children from the Freedom School?” Dr. Moss replied, “I think that's a wonderful idea, and would strongly support that. Not just the children, but the interns would be the -- out of the vision of the original Institute -- it was those students. How do you get students to be hands-on connected to social justice work, their heritage, understanding the legacy of Dr. King globally? “It was Dr. Harding's vision, what he wanted to do, because at the time he was working -- I think he was working at Spelman. I think he was teaching at Spelman at the time. I'm not sure. It might have

been at Spelman, and he never got the funding for it, but he wanted to have the interns, who were always at the Institute, have those opportunities to travel, to do the research, interviews, to write films, create plays, you know, all of this in and around, the Institute of looking at the idea of creating the beloved community. And I think that the Freedom School is such a great opportunity to have highly motivated students who are already excited about social justice, that's why they do it. The orientation for the Freedom School requires students who are deeply committed, not just I want to educate your kids for the summer, but they try to bring young people who are very serious about activism, so the training they do in Tennessee, which is really new, they bring together people who just happen to be some of the best kept secrets in our community. Where a person being trained to be an intern might have on Monday, Cornel West as a teacher. Tuesday, Dorothy Cotton who is a part of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council) and SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Council). Then on Wednesday, Talib Kweli, not to do any music, but to

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talk about the responsibility that artists have to the wider community. Then, Marian Wright Edelman. And when they release these young people, they're so excited and they just want to go to their community and serve, and I think it's perfect synergy. “I think that's the long way of saying it's perfect synergy for the Freedom School and the Institute to develop a program, maybe with a scholarship for someone who demonstrates promise, to bring them on these tours. Then over maybe ten years or so, creating the kind of funding grant that would be able to take a class, maybe all of the third graders, maybe all of those who are going to the fourth grade, and take them for seven days to one country. “Now I know that there is probably some other liability issue, and more so parenting issues, ‘I ain't letting my child go to Africa by themselves,’ but I just think it's an incredible opportunity. I think Dr. Adams did it before, and there is a group out of D.C. that raises money for Black males. There's a program for Black males, and once they graduate from high school, they take a group of 12 to 15 young men, I believe, to Senegal, and it's part of a Rites of Passage piece, and they raise money for it, and

grants. They say it's a very powerful experience, and after they've done very well in school, this is your last Rite of Passage before you go off to college, collectively as a group. “I talked with a group of one of the officers to that program and I was so impressed by those young brothers. They were something else. They really were something else. Aris White does a program -Deacon Aris White, where she has taken several students through Rooted Africans. They have funding to take them to Colombia to connect with the Afro Colombian community. So there's a lot of groups around here doing it, and the funding, I think, is out there, to support a class, a group of African children to connect with their heritage and connect with the activist community.” Trumpet looks forward to reporting on the development of the Institute. We will have more information, travel itineraries, and dates in the upcoming issues. It is our hope you will journey with us as we visit and learn from the land of our ancestors, the birth of all civilization, our Motherland, in unity with the Jeremiah A. Wright Institute for the Black World.

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REV. REGINALD WILLIAMS, JR.

What’s The Difference Between Charity and Justice? Charity and justice, while linked, are two separate entities. One need only look to the definitions of the two terms to see a difference in meaning. Below is the dictionary entry for charity from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. char·i·ty: (1) benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity; (2) a: generosity and helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering; also aid given to those in need; b: an institution engaged in relief of the poor; c: public provision for the relief of the needy; (3) a: a gift for public benevolent purposes; b: an institution (as a hospital) founded by such a gift; (4) lenient judgment of others. The English word charity traces its etymological origins through Anglo-French to the Latin caritas, meaning “Christian love.” Now compare and contrast the definition of charity with the definition of justice from the same dictionary. jus·tice: (1) a: the maintenance or administration of what is just, especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments; b: judge; c: the administration of law; especially the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity; (2) a: the quality of being just, impartial, or fair; b: (i) the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action; (ii) conformity to this principle or ideal: righteousness; c: the quality of conforming to law; (3) conformity to truth, fact, or reason: CORRECTNESS. As with charity, the etymology of justice is traced via

Anglo-French from the Latin justitia, which is derived from justus. When we view both definitions, it is clear that despite some similarities, marked differences exist. Charity, as defined, gives a sense of generosity and benevolence to a soul in need. In his book, Urban Churches, Vital Signs: Beyond Charity Toward Justice, Nile Harper says, “Charity is understood to be works of love, acts of mutual aid, the duty of Christians. . . . This perspective emphasizes personal deeds of mercy and acts of compassion within the local community.”1 Charity essentially becomes a reaction in order to supply a need based on some lack in another’s life. Charity is essential, but of itself is not adequate for meeting the person’s need or the needs of the group that person represents. In contrast, justice seeks to maintain a system of equality without partiality. That is, it seeks right treatment. Unlike charity alone, justice is not limited to reacting in order to fulfill a material need such as food. Justice seeks right systemic relationships from the get-go. That is, “Social Justice focuses on basic causes of oppression, inequity, and disenfranchisement. It seeks to change public policy and public priorities. It works to empower people to take initiatives in ways that are positive and constructive. The movement for social justice understands that oppressed people have strengths, skills, cultural assets, and the responsibility to act corporately for their own common good.”2 Where charity is reactive to specific material needs, justice is

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homeless people. However, while charity merely reacts to its environment, justice, like a thermostat, acts to change the environment. Justice seeks to adjust the social and political environment to eliminate the need for soup kitchens in the first place. Justice work—like a thermostat— places pressure on politicians and policy makers to ensure that none of God’s children are too hot from the heat of oppressive measures or too cold from the wintry chill of political and societal rejection. more proactive, working for changes in systems that create such needs. Using the example of the soup kitchen, volunteers who donate ingredients, prepare the soup, and serve the poor and homeless offer charity. Physical bodies are being nourished. It is true that stomachs knotted by hunger pangs need to be fed. Justice, however, asks why anyone is hungry in the wealthiest country in the world. Justice education exposes and seeks to address the ways in which hunger interfaces with issues such as poverty and redistribution of wealth. It uncovers and works against capitalistic manipulations in favor of the privileged that lead to the hunger of the poor. Another illustration that helps to clarify the difference between charity and justice is one that quite frequently is presented from pulpits to illustrate a social justice mission of a given church: a thermometer reacts to the circumstances around it, but a thermostat sets the temperature for the circumstances around it. The thermometer represents charity, which reacts to what is going on around it. For example, the more the economy shifts downward, the more soup kitchens will open to feed the increasing numbers of jobless and

Archbishop Dom Helder Camara (1902–1999), who founded the Banco da Providencia (a philanthropic organization which fights poverty), in Rio De Janeiro, in 1959, and served as Roman Catholic Archbishop brings both of these separate yet related themes to bear when he asks, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a Communist.”3 The archbishop’s concern is still valid even years after his death. Oppressors are comfortable with charitable organizations and individuals. Those in power generally do not mind having those in need assisted. However, when one challenges the systems that make charity necessary, problems arise. The work of justice challenges the privilege and power of those who don’t mind “throwing a few crumbs” of charity, but refuse to establish systems of equality, mutuality, reciprocity, and impartiality. Excerpted from To Serve This Present Age: Social Justice Ministries in the Black Church by Danielle L. Ayers and Reginald W. Williams Jr., copyright (c) 2013 by Judson Press. Used by permission of Judson Press, 800-4-

JUDSON, www.judsonpress.com.

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Why Mass Incarceration Defines Us As a Society Chris Hedges It is late in the afternoon in Montgomery. The banks of the Alabama River are largely deserted. Bryan Stevenson and I walk slowly up the cobblestones from the expanse of the river into the city. We pass through a small, gloomy tunnel beneath some railway tracks, climb a slight incline and stand at the head of Commerce Street, which runs into the heart of Alabama’s capital. The walk was one of the most

“Anybody they didn’t sell that day they would keep in these slave depots,” he continues. We walk past a monument to the Confederate flag as we retrace the steps taken by tens of thousands of slaves who were chained together in coffles. The coffles could include 100 or more men, women and

notorious in the antebellum South.

children, all herded by traders who carried guns and whips. Once they reached Court Square, the slaves

“This street was the most active slave-trading space

were sold. We stand in the square. A bronze fountain with a statue of the Goddess of Liberty spews jets of

in America for almost a decade,” Stevenson says. Four slave depots stood nearby. “They would bring

water in the plaza.

people off the boat. They would parade them up the street in chains. White plantation owners and local

“Montgomery was notorious for not having rules that

slave traders would get on the sidewalks. They’d watch them as they went up the street. Then they would follow behind up to the circle. And that is when they would have their slave auctions.

required slave traders to prove that the person had been formally enslaved,” Stevenson says. “You could kidnap free black people, bring them to Montgomery and sell them. They also did not have rules that restricted the purchasing of partial families.”

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We fall silent. It was here in this square—a square adorned with a historical marker celebrating the

without parole for minors. As a result, approximately 2,000 such cases in the United States may be

presence in Montgomery of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy—that men and women

reviewed. ***

fell to their knees weeping and beseeched slaveholders not to separate them from their husbands, wives or children. It was here that girls and boys screamed as their fathers or mothers were taken from

Stevenson’s effort began with detailed research: Among more than 2,000 juveniles (age 17 or younger)

them.

who had been sentenced to life in prison without parole, he and staff members at the Equal Justice

“This whole street is rich with this history,” he says.

Initiative (EJI), the nonprofit law firm he established in 1989, documented 73 involving defendants as young

“But nobody wants to talk about this slavery stuff. Nobody.” He wants to start a campaign to erect monuments to that history, on the sites of lynchings, slave auctions and slave depots. “When we start talking about it, people will be outraged. They will be provoked. They will be angry.” Stevenson expects anger because he wants to discuss the explosive rise in inmate populations, the

as 13 and 14. Children of color, he found, tended to be sentenced more harshly. “The data made clear that the criminal justice system was not protecting children, as is done in every other area of the law,” he says. So he began developing legal arguments “that these condemned children were still children.”

disproportionate use of the death penalty against people of color and the use of life sentences against

Stevenson first made those arguments before the

minors as part of a continuum running through the South’s ugly history of racial inequality, from slavery to

Supreme Court in 2009, in a case involving a 13-yearold who had been convicted in Florida of sexual

Jim Crow to lynching.

battery and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The court declined to rule in that case—but upheld

Equating the enslavement of innocents with the

Stevenson’s reasoning in a similar case it had heard the same day, Graham v. Florida, ruling that

imprisonment of convicted criminals is apt to be widely resisted, but he sees it as a natural progression of his work. Over the past quarter-century, Stevenson has become perhaps the most important advocate

sentencing a juvenile to life without parole for crimes other than murder violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

for death-row inmates in the United States. But this year, his work on behalf of incarcerated minors thrust

Last June, in two cases brought by Stevenson, the

him into the spotlight. Marshaling scientific and criminological data, he has argued for a new

court erased the exception for murder. Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs centered on

understanding of adolescents and culpability. His efforts culminated this past June in a Supreme Court

defendants who were 14 when they were arrested. Evan Miller, from Alabama, used drugs and alcohol

ruling effectively barring mandatory life sentences

late into the night with his 52-year-old neighbor

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before beating him with a baseball bat in 2003 and setting his residence on fire. Kuntrell Jackson, from

purposes of sentencing,” she added, because “juveniles have diminished culpability and greater

Arkansas, took part in a 1999 video-store robbery with two older boys, one of whom shot the clerk to death.

prospects for reform.” States are still determining how the ruling will affect

The states argued that children and adults are not so different that a mandatory sentence of life

juveniles in their prisons. “I don’t advocate that young people who kill should be shielded from

imprisonment without parole is inappropriate.

punishment. Sometimes the necessary intervention with a youth who has committed a serious crime will

Stevenson’s approach was to argue that other areas

require long-term incarceration or confinement,” Stevenson says. “However, I don’t think we can throw

of the law already recognized significant differences, noting that children’s brains and adults’ are physiologically distinct. This, he said, is why children are barred from buying alcohol, serving on juries or voting. He argued that the horrific abuse and neglect that drove many of these children to commit crimes were beyond their control. He said science, precedent and consensus among the majority of states confirmed that condemning a child to die in prison, without ever having a chance to prove that he or she had been rehabilitated, constituted cruel and unusual punishment. “It could be argued that every person is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done,” he told the court. “But what this court has said is that children are uniquely more than their worst act.” The court agreed, 5 to 4, in a landmark decision.

children away.” Sentences “should recognize that these young people will change.” *** Stevenson, 52, is soft-spoken, formal in a shirt and tie, reserved. He carries with him the cadence and eloquence of a preacher and the palpable sorrow that comes with a lifetime advocating for the condemned. He commutes to New York, where he is a professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law. In Montgomery he lives alone, spends 12, sometimes 14 hours a day working out of his office and escapes, too rarely, into music. “I have a piano, which provides some therapy,” he says. “I am mindful, most of the time, of the virtues of regular exercise. I grow citrus in pots in my backyard. That’s pretty much it.”

“If ever a pathological background might have contributed to a 14-year-old’s commission of a crime, it is here,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan, author of the

He grew up in rural Milton, Delaware, where he began his education in a “colored” school and other

court’s opinion in Miller. “Miller’s stepfather abused him; his alcoholic and drug-addicted mother

forms of discrimination, such as black and white entrances to the doctor’s and dentist’s offices,

neglected him; he had been in and out of foster care as a result; and he had tried to kill himself four times,

prevailed. But he was raised in the embrace of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and his parents

the first when he should have been in kindergarten.” Children “are constitutionally different from adults for

worked and provided an economic and emotional stability that many around him lacked. He played the

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Human Rights. The lawyers there defended inmates on death row, many of whom, Stevenson discovered, had been railroaded in flawed trials. He found his calling. He returned to the center when he graduated and became a staff attorney. He spent his first year of work sleeping on a borrowed couch. He found himself frequently in Alabama, which sentences more people to death per capita than any Along with Jackson's case, Stevenson brought Evan Miller's murder case Miller vs. Alabama to The Supreme Court. As a result of Stevenson's appeals, The Supreme Court banned sentences of life in prison without parole for juveniles.

piano during worship. His father and his sister, who is a music teacher, still live in Delaware. His brother teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. His mother died in 1999. When Stevenson was 16, his maternal grandfather was murdered in Philadelphia by four juveniles; they were convicted and sentenced to prison. Stevenson does not know what has become of them. “Losing a loved one is traumatic, painful and disorienting,” he says. But ultimately the episode, and others in which relatives or friends became crime victims, “reinforced for me the primacy of responding to the conditions of hopelessness and despair that create crime.” He attended a Christian college, Eastern University in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where he directed the gospel choir. He did not, he says, “step into a world where you were not centered around faith” until he entered Harvard Law School in 1981. The world of privilege and entitlement left him alienated, as did the study of torts and civil procedure. But in January 1983, he went to Atlanta for a month-long internship with an organization now called the Southern Center for

other state. There is no state-funded program to provide legal assistance to death-row prisoners, meaning half of the condemned were represented by

court-appointed lawyers whose compen- sation was capped at $1,000. Stevenson’s reviews of trial records convinced him that few of the condemned ever had an adequate defense. He got the conviction of one death-row inmate, Walter McMillian, overturned by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. His next case, he says, led him to establish EJI. It began with a collect call from Herbert Richardson, a death-row inmate at Holman State Prison. Richardson, a disturbed Vietnam combat veteran, had left an explosive device on the porch of an estranged girlfriend; it killed a young girl. His execution was to be held in 30 days. Stevenson, after a second phone call, filed for an emergency stay of execution, which the state rejected. “He never really got representation until we jumped in,” Stevenson says. He went to the prison on the day of the execution, which was scheduled for midnight. He found his client surrounded by a half-dozen family members,

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including the woman who had married him the week before. Richardson repeatedly asked Stevenson to

Richardson had asked the guards to play “The Old Rugged Cross” before he died. As he was strapped

make sure his wife received the American flag he would be given as a veteran.

into the electric chair and hooded, the hymn began to blare out from a cassette player. Then the warden pulled the switch.

“It was time for the visit to end,” Stevenson recalls. But the visitation officer, a female guard, was “clearly

“Do you think we should rape people who rape?”

emotionally unprepared to make these people leave.” When she insisted, Stevenson says,

Stevenson asks. “We don’t rape rapists, because we think about the person who would have to commit

Richardson’s wife grabbed her husband. “She says, ‘I’m not leaving.’ Other people don’t know what to

the rape. Should we assault people who have committed assault? We can’t imagine replicating a

do. They are holding on to him.” The guard left, but her superiors sent her back in. “She has tears running

rape or an assault and hold onto our dignity, integrity and civility. But because we think we have found a way

down her face. She looks to me and says, ‘Please, please help me.’ ”

to kill people that is civilized and decent, we are comfortable.”

He began to hum a hymn. The room went still. The family started singing the words. Stevenson went over

Stevenson made good on his promise by founding EJI, whose work has reversed the death sentences of

to the wife and said, “We’re going to have to let him go.” She did.

more than 75 inmates in Alabama. Only in the last year has he put an EJI sign on the building, he says, “because of concerns about hostility to what we do.”

He then walked with Richardson to the execution chamber. “Bryan, it has been so strange,” the condemned man said. “All day long people have been saying to me, ‘What can I do to help you?’ I got up this morning, ‘What can I get you for breakfast? What can I get you for lunch? What can I get you for dinner? Can I get you some stamps to mail your last letters? Do you

His friend Paul Farmer, the physi- cian and international health specialist (and a member of EJI’s board), says Stevenson is “running against an undercurrent of censorious opinion that we don’t face in health care. But this is his life’s work. He’s very compassionate, and he’s very tough-minded. That’s a rare combination.”

need the phone? Do you need water? Do you need coffee? How can we help you?’ More people have

Eva Ansley, who has been Stevenson’s operations manager for over 25 years, says the two most striking

said what can they do to help me in the last 14 hours of my life than they ever did” before.

things about him are his kindness and constancy of purpose. “I have never known Bryan to get off track,

“You never got the help you needed,” Stevenson told him. And he made Richardson a promise: “I will try and keep as many people out of this situation as possible.”

to lose sight of the clients we serve or to have an agenda that is about anything other than standing with people who stand alone,” she says. “After all these years, I keep expecting to see him become fed up or impatient or something with all the requests put

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GLOBAL NOTES

to him or the demands placed on him, but he never does. Never.” EJI’s office is in a building that once housed a school for whites seeking to defy integration. The building is in the same neighborhood as Montgomery’s slave depots. For Stevenson, that history matters. Mass incarceration defines us as a society, Stevenson argues, the way slavery once did. The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but imprisons a quarter of the world’s inmates. Most of those 2.3 million inmates are people of color. One out of every three black men in their 20s is in jail or prison, on probation or parole, or bound in some other way to the criminal justice system. Once again families are broken apart. Once again huge numbers of black men are disenfranchised, because of their criminal records. Once again people are locked out of the political and economic system. Once again we harbor within our midst black outcasts, pariahs. As the poet Yusef Komunyakaa said: “The cell block has

Stevenson turns frequently to the Bible. He quotes to me from the Gospel of John, where Jesus says of the woman who committed adultery: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” He tells me an elderly black woman once called him a “stone catcher.” “There is no such thing as being a Christian and not being a stone catcher,” he says. “But that is exhausting. You’re not going to catch them all. And it hurts. If it doesn’t make you sad to have to do that, then you don’t understand what it means to be engaged in an act of faith....But if you have the right relationship to it, it is less of a burden, finally, than a blessing. It makes you feel stronger. “These young kids who I have sometimes pulled close to me, there is nothing more affirming than that moment. It may not carry them as long as I want. But I feel as if my humanity is at its clearest and most vibrant.”

replaced the auction block.”

It is the system he is taking on now, not its symptoms.

In opening a discussion of American justice and

“You have to understand the institutions that are shaping and controlling people of color,” he says.

America’s racial history, Stevenson hopes to help create a common national narrative, one built finally around truth rather than on the cultivated myths of the past, that will allow blacks and whites finally to move forward. It’s an ambitious goal, but he is exceptionally persuasive. When he gave a TED talk about his work last March, he received what TED leader Chris Anderson called one of the longest and

“Is your work a ministry?” I ask. “I would not run from that description.” Reprinted with permission from the author.

loudest ovations in the conference’s history—plus pledges of $1.2 million to EJI.

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CHRIS HEDGES The Man, His Message, His Mission

Introduction by Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright , Jr. Interview by John Green

C O V E R S T O RY | C H R I S H E D G E S

Chris Hedges’ published Bio is impressive. It is incredible. It is inspiring. It tells you the story (or

Katie Cannon, W.E.B. DuBois, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, and the South African theologian, Allan

gives you a quick glimpse of a part of the story) of the fascinating journey of one of the world’s most brilliant

Boesak.

public intellectuals. That journey has taken Dr. Hedges to places most of us gathered in this room have only read about. Places most of us would never dream of going. Indeed, some places some of us would never dare to go. Places some of us can’t even locate on a map - - the Balkans, Serbia, Bosnia, Gaza,

That’s the kind of intellectual and insightful company Chris Hedges keeps. But that is not how I want to describe Chris, or introduce Chris. I want to introduce you to a man who not only has academic and experiential credentials as a journalist,

Iran, Afghanistan.

and as a prolific writer, who is at the same time a critical thinker-you don’t find that quality among too

Chris went to those places not for vacations in peace

many journalists.

time, but during wars in those countries, during combat, as a journalist covering the insanity of human inhumanity towards other humans, from the Sandinista-Somozista Conflict in Nicaragua, to the FMLN (Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacìon de Nicaragua Nacional) in El Salvador. Chris Hedges’ grasp, although he is titled and known as a Pulitzer Prize journalist, his grasp of the realities that lie underneath the political lies and the corporate controlled media hype make him a misfit as a socalled “embedded journalist.” Embedded journalists are those who are only allowed to spoon feed a gullible public disinformation and misinformation as to how our side is winning as we fight “to defend freedom and democracy across this globe.” Chris’ indescribably gargantuan intellect and his unwavering integrity have given him insights that every critically-thinking person with a love and respect for honesty need to hear or to read. One way of trying to describe him or introduce him is to say that his mind travels at warp speed in the same rarified atmosphere as Hannah Arendt and her concern for the connection between ethics and politics, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Henri Giroux, James Cone, Cornel West,

“Thomas Hedges, Chris’ Dad, was a white minister of modest privilege who showed his son, Chris, what loving all of God’s childrenwhite, Black, brown, Asianlooked like in a country where racial hatred, white supremacy, and bigotry were as commonplace as apple pie and the Fourth of July.” I want to introduce you to a man who has a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School. He is an academically-trained clergy person. But beyond the academic credentials, Chris is a minister whose

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C O V E R S T O RY | C H R I S H E D G E S personality was shaped by the integrity of his father, Reverend Thomas Hedges, who was an ordained

the story of one man (whose people hated Muslims and were killing Muslims) risking his life to see that a

Presbyterian minister and pastor, and who taught Chris by example what the perfect combination of

baby born in a Muslim home got fresh milk every day.

“head and heart” looks like on the ground. The expression “head and heart” is borrowed from Howard Thurman’s autobiography.

The enemy (the man’s people!) would set the milk out in the open and used it as target practice for any

Thomas Hedges, Chris’ Dad, was a white minister of

Muslims who came out to try to get it. And this one old guy made sure he smuggled the milk in to the

modest privilege who showed his son, Chris, what loving all of God’s children-white, Black, brown,

home where a newborn Muslim baby was (a child whom he had been taught to hate because he was

Asian-looked like in a country where racial hatred, white supremacy, and bigotry were as commonplace

born to Muslim parents). He smuggled that milk in because he cared about one helpless human life.

as apple pie and the Fourth of July. Chris’ intellect and integrity were forged in the furnace of his

And months later when Chris saw the old man the first thing the old man wanted to know was how the

father’s home, the classrooms of Colgate and Harvard, and the classroom of life, with a Merciful

little one was doing!

God touching the soul of Chris to make him a genuinely unique human being.

I want you to meet a man who does not “chill out” watching television every night and, who (if I remember what he said on that two-hour interview

I want you to meet a man, who while interviewing a soldier in the midst of combat, when the soldier

on the Author of the Month Program on C-SPAN) doesn’t even have a television in his home. He has

started crying-seeing death up close and personal will make you cry, seeing your buddies cut in half by

no blog. He has no website. But he is a public intellectual, husband, and daddy who spends three

explosive devices or machine gunfire will make you cry-if you have any shred of humanity left inside of

to four hours every night reading and writing.

you that the military has not drained out of you; and when Chris saw the soldier’s tears, he folded up his notes, put his pen away, and stopped the interview, because he was not and is not the kind of journalist to capitalize on somebody else’s pain or sensationalize something very sensitive. His allegiance in countless moments like that was to ministry and not media. I want you to meet a man who writes about risks other people take in a culture that hates and kills Muslims. I was sharing with Chris back in the Green Room (I was trying to find out where I read this, or if I just

I don’t want to introduce to you; I just want to present to you my friend and my brother, Dr. Chris Hedges. Dr. Wright’s introduction, Chris Hedges’ presentation, and the dialog between the two cultivated a desire to share Chris Hedges with our readers, as the cover story for the inaugural rebirth of Trumpet Newsmagazine (TM). We were honored to talk one-on-one with Chris, and graced to have one of Chris’ followers, a seminarian, and father of our vice president, John Green, conduct the in-depth discussion. Journey with us now as we uncover Chris Hedges: The Man, His message, His Mission.

heard him talk about it.), how I remember him telling

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We see you as a phenomenal advocate of social justice. How do you define yourself?

CHRIS HEDGES:

Can you share with us, some isolated experience that propels you and that fueled your passion for the oppressed and the poor?

As a preacher. That's how I was raised. My father

CHRIS HEDGES:

was a parish minister for 40 years. I grew up in the church. I graduated from seminary. James Baldwin

Well, I, as a white male, I grew up, I would say, with a

has a great quote. He says, "I left the pulpit to preach the Gospel." I sometimes feel that way. The core values that were instilled in me by my upbringing, and by my education, remain my core values as a writer. I look at a figure like Baldwin, and he's, of course, one of the finest writers in American history, but, fundamentally, I look at him as a preacher, and I think he looked at himself as a preacher. You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t escape, when you are raised in that environment, that kind of orientation of the world, that kind of a sensitivity (if you're raised in the right environment) to the oppressed. And, you know, I think again like Baldwin, I try and use my writing as a weapon against those forces that seek to diminish, and exploit the lives of others. So yeah, that's how I define myself.

sensitivity to the oppressed, but not an understanding of what it meant physically and emotionally to be oppressed. And, so when I finished college, six days after I finished college, I moved into a housing project, or across the street from a housing project in Boston, in Roxbury, and lived there for two and a half years, and ran a church, and that was a cataclysmic experience for me. I had never seen suffering on that scale. I did not -- I had, I think, a very vague understanding of how white supremacy works, how institutions combine forces to keep the poor poor; and not only that, but keep them physically trapped in what both Martin and Malcolm call internal colonies. It was a devastating experience for me. The street that I lived on that was in back of my manse in the church where I lived, had the highest homicide rate in the city, so it was very

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violent. This was the beginning of the crack wars. I remember going back and asking the Chaplain at

the Middle East, and the three years I was in the Balkans, that opened my eyes to who we were as a

Colgate University, where I went to college, after a couple of months of living there, I just walked into his

country, and what white supremacy is, and what the cruelty and the injustice of empire [is]. All these

office and I said, "Are we created to suffer?"

things were made viscerally real for me.

And, he said, “Is there any love that isn't?” And, I went on from there to spend almost two decades in

How do you see or how would you frame

environments: one of extreme repression as a war correspondent, but also extreme poverty-places like

reconciliation with a culture that does not see the poor or their needs as holy?

Central America, Gaza. And, I think that it took that long to uncover the blindness that I had, the

CHRIS HEDGES:

assumptions that I carried, as somebody who came out of, essentially, a class that was privileged, understanding how empire works, you know, all of these things. And, also, just physically being around people who weren’t white for that long a period of time, it breaks you down in a very kind of healthy way. I think in the end, what you understand is that when you come out of a white power structure in the United States, you are blind. You can't see, because the structure is in essence tailored towards your advancement, especially as a white male. And, you know, finally, that blindness is always with you. I can't, as close of relationships I have in places like Gaza, ultimately, I can't fully understand or even see what it means to be a Palestinian trapped in the largest open air internment camp on the planet. And, I think respecting that blindness, finally understanding that there is a divide between you and the oppressed, that no matter how hard you try, you can never cross, allows you to build relationships, real relationships with those around you. So, I think it was really that experience starting in Roxbury, and running all the way through the six years I was in Latin America, and the seven years I was in

Well reconciliation, as we saw in the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa, comes with an understanding of the truth, rather than the myth. And as long as, especially, white America is allowed to engage in the myth of who they are and what they stand for, there can be no reconciliation, because you're essentially asking them to carry out a dialogue with the oppressed that is not reality-based. I was just in Alabama, where 34% of African American males are disenfranchised from the right to vote, because of criminal records. It's just a continuation of Jim Crow. At the same time, I'm watching the rise of this neo-Confederate Movement, people dressing up, white men dressing up in Confederate uniforms and marching through Montgomery to re-enact the Inauguration of Jefferson Davis. Now, you can't have reconciliation, until white Alabamans accept: number one, that the Civil War was not about states' rights, it was slavery and what the institution of slavery was. Again, let's go back to Baldwin. He gets it. I mean, Baldwin's whole point is that racism stems from the sickness of the white

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C O V E R S T O RY | C H R I S H E D G E S community to accept who they are and what they've done. And I think Baldwin's right. So, there is no reconciliation until there is truth. And those who get up and speak truth like Jeremiah Wright, are repudiated by the wider society, because that truth challenges a mythical notion of identity and white history. The reality of the founding of this country is a really sordid affair. It was one not only orchestrated by white male slaveholders, but one which consciously, after the Revolution, disenfranchised people without property, women, Native Americans, African Americans, and created a system through the Electoral College and the Senate (senators used to be appointed), by which any kind of direct popular democracy would be impossible. Every opening in American democracy we fought for, the oppressed fought for and many, many of them paid with their lives. That truth of history which Howard Zinn writes in his magnificent book, A People's History of the United States, is the truth that white America, still to this day, and I'm even talking about white liberals who deify the Founding Fathers, have utterly failed to confront. Until they confront it there is no reconciliation, because you can't have a dialogue. There's no dialogue at that point.You don't have forces that seek the kind of atonement and the kind of forgiveness that is necessary in order to go forward.

Can you explain Occupy Wall Street?

people of color in marginal communities have been feeling for decades: police brutality, evictions, chronic underemployment, unemployment. It captured the imagination of the wider society, because they were white kids. The Occupy Movement exposed the bankruptcy of white liberalism, which busied itself over the past few decades in boutique activism of multiculturalism and identity politics, and forgot about the primacy of justice. And, in essence, they turned their backs, and I'm especially talking about the Democratic Party, on the poor, on the working class, on people of color, on people in marginal communities. I think that those within the Occupy Movement, and I speak in support of the Movement, have a lot of bridge-building to do. They need to go back into these communities and they need to confront what the liberal class in this country did, which is essentially abandoning the poor and the working class to this assault by corporate capitalism. The working class in this country has virtually been destroyed. The poor are living in conditions that are worse than when King marched in Selma and Memphis. I think that the Occupy Movement began to understand the way power was rigged against them, but that's something that ,of course, within marginal communities has always been understood, which is why the most astute political class in this country (and I'm speaking of African American citizens) are imprisoned at such a high incarceration rate.

CHRIS HEDGES: Occupy Wall Street is largely a white, middle-class phenomenon. The engine of it are kids who played by the rules and found out when they got out in the wider society there was no place for them. And when they dared to raise their voices against that injustice, began to feel the forces of oppression, the

I was privileged to be in the audience at your Dialogue with Dr. Jeremiah Wright and book signing of Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. You shared with us, read from a page, at the end of your talk with us. Can you elaborate on that? It was very moving and touching, and it was extremely powerful.

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C O V E R S T O RY | C H R I S H E D G E S

CHRIS HEDGES: Well, when you live in -- and this was a passage that talked about being arrested in front of GoldmanSachs. Goldman-Sachs runs the largest commodities index in the world, which means it buys up futures of rice, wheat, corn, livestock, sugar, I mean all sorts of stuff, and hoards it, so that prices rise by as much as 200% on the world market. Well, if you're a poor person in the Sudan, or Gaza, or outside of New Delhi, or anywhere around the world, in Africa, you suddenly cannot afford to feed your children, because of this mania for profit, the sickness of profit. I've covered the famine in the Sudan, in which hundreds of thousands of people died, and most of the people who die in famines are the elderly and children. I've been -- I stood above their corpses, and I tied that experience that's in the last chapter of the book to, walking and essentially sitting, non-violently, with other protestors to block the entrance of GoldmanSachs. I carried that experience with me to the doors of Goldman-Sachs, because it was this sort of suffering that they visited on the poor was, of course, viscerally real to me. I broke down. It's an extremely emotional passage for me. It doesn't matter how many times I read it because, of course, those image of dying and dead children, just begin to flash before my eyes.

Are you at liberty to talk about the National Defense Authorization Act?

CHRIS HEDGES: Yeah, this was an Act, Section 1021, and the important part of the Act for us that President Obama signed into law on December 31st, New Year's Eve. Section 1021 permits the U. S. military to, first of all, carry out domestic policing (That's overturning 200 years of law.) on American soil to seize American

citizens who are deemed to be terrorists or to support this amorphous term, associated forces, that has no legal definition, to seize them, hold them in military facilities, stripped of undue process and keep them there indefinitely. I sued the President (The case is called Hedges versus Obama.), in federal court with two great lawyers who did it all pro bono, Carl Mayer and Bruce Afran. In September of this year, we won. The judge, Katherine Forrest, declared that section of the law was unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction invalidating the law. The response of the Obama administration was quite frightening. We knew they would appeal, but they didn't just appeal. They went to the judge immediately after the ruling and asked that they be granted an Emergency Stay, meaning they wanted the law put back into effect until they could get it to the Appellate Court and have the Appellate Court hear their Appeal. The judge refused. So, that Friday night they demanded an Emergency Hearing at 9:00 a.m., on Monday morning, the next morning, or after the weekend, with the Appellate Court, asking again for an Emergency Stay from the Appellate Court, which they got, and an Emergency Appeal. We're currently in the Appeal, and they should make a decision around the first week of January. What that means, I think, is clear, and that is they're already using the law, because, otherwise, they would have just appealed it. If they are holding U.S. citizens in military facilities, and that injunction was allowed to stand they would be in Contempt of Court. My suspicion is that there are probably dual PakistaniU.S. nationals being held in places like Barlborough, because nothing else would explain that very aggressive response to that ruling. So, we're waiting to hear the Appeal, the decision of the Appellate Court. If the Appellate Court upholds Judge Forrest's ruling, it will certainly be in the

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C O V E R S T O RY | C H R I S H E D G E S

Supreme Court in a matter of weeks without questions. If they overturn the judge's ruling, we'll

And for me, Clinton was a very dark figure, because he did this very well. He spoke in that kind of “feel

appeal it, but then what happens we don't know. The Supreme Court could decide not to hear it, it could

your pain” language, and he rammed through programs that were devastating to the underclass of

languish for months before they even look at it, but that's where we are.

this country, including so-called welfare reform, which destroyed our welfare system, and 70% of the recipients under traditional welfare were children. I mean this is just appalling.

At your book signing, you spoke in some very powerful and clear terms about movements. You

NAFTA, of course was pushed through in 1994, by

talked about the eradicating of movements, the tearing down of movements and you lifted up what

Clinton. I think that the Chicago Teachers Strike was an example of the way forward, which is essentially

the teachers did in Chicago. Can you speak to the importance of movements and how do we get those

severing ourselves from the traditional or formal mechanisms of institutional power, of going out on

movements started again?

our own, and the Chicago teachers did that. They thought they'd rigged it, where you needed 70% of

CHRIS HEDGES:

the teachers to vote to allow the strike, I think it was. They thought, the ruling class, was convinced that

Well, all of the correctives, and this again goes back to Zinn, in American democracy, have come through movements. I think that the importance of the Occupy Movement, as well as the Chicago Teachers Strike, was that it illustrated how we have to go forward. The traditional labor, as well as, the Democratic Party is going to have to be challenged, if we're going to rebuild movements. So, I mean, there in Chicago, you had one of the central figures of the Democratic establishment, Rahm Emmanuel, pitted against workers. And that's

that would never happen. I think they got 90%, finally. Again, people who come out of oppressed communities understand how the system is rigged against them, because they've gotta run into the brick wall every day. This is a new experience for especially the white middle class. They'll learn, but it's a slow learning curve. Still much more to come in this one-one-one with Chris Hedges: The Man, His Message, His Mission. Look for the continuation in the next month’s issue.

extremely important, because the Democratic Party, let's say since Clinton, has managed to sell this line that they care about our interests while carrying out policies that destroy the poor and the working class.

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SOUND ADVICE

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Thyroid Awareness Month Terry Mason, M.D.

will speed up or slow down the thyroid gland. This chemical is called thyroid stimulating hormone or TSH. The thyroid-stimulating hormone is a chemical that is made by the master gland or pituitary gland, when there is a need to have the thyroid gland, become more active. When thyroid-stimulating hormone is released from the master gland into the bloodstream and finds its way to the thyroid gland, the thyroid gland responds by the release of a chemical known as thyroxine T3 and T4. Though this may sound very complicated, it is really quite simple.

The thyroid is a small butterfly shaped gland located on the upper part of the throat. It is a gland that is controlled by hormones. There are hormones that are required in order to make the thyroid function. The master gland, called the pituitary gland, is located at the base of the skull. This gland is responsible for making the chemicals or hormones, which control the thyroid gland and other endocrine glands. The pituitary gland is responsible for releasing many chemicals or hormones. Among these are ones that

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Once the 75 degrees temperature has been reached, the thermostat will signal to the furnace to turn itself off.â&#x20AC;?

Let me give you an example. In the wintertime when your apartment or home is cold, you turn your thermostat up. When you do that it sends a signal to your furnace that turns the gas on so that the flames will turn on in the furnace and create heat. The furnace comes on and takes the air from your cool apartment through what is called a heat exchanger inside the furnace. The heat exchanger is nothing more than a place where the gas burners release their heat into metal chambers. The cool air that comes from your house is then heated in this exchanger and then blown through your radiators into all of the rooms of the house. Once this happens, when the temperature of the house reaches the temperature that you have set for your thermostat, the furnace shuts off. It will stay off until the temperature drops sufficiently to require the furnace to come back on again. If you set your thermostat at 75 degrees when you come in your house and the thermostat is reading your current temperature as 68 degrees, the furnace will come on and heat the house until it reaches 75 degrees. Once the 75 degrees temperature has

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SOUND ADVICE

degrees. Once the 75 degrees temperature has been reached, the thermostat will signal to the

The condition where the thyroid gland is too active, which would mean that the heart would be beating

furnace to turn itself off.

fast and the metabolism is accelerated, we call that condition an over active thyroid gland. In the

The thyroid gland works in much the same way. When it is necessary to help raise your body

situation where the heart is beating too slow, we feel cold and tired and sluggish, we would call that an

metabolism or the way the body burns energy, it will

under active thyroid gland. There are other

speed up the metabolism. It will speed up the metabolism helping to maintain the body

symptoms like irregular periods, not able to deal with heat and cold, weight loss and gain, hair loss,

temperature and the rate that the body is using energy to match the level of thyroxine that has been

enlargement or lumps in the thyroid gland, and many other issues.

released to cause this increase. Once that level has been reached the amount of thyroxine that comes

These conditions are treated differently. These

from the thyroid gland goes down.

conditions are more commonly seen in women almost 5 times more frequently.

The body maintains its temperature and a very narrow level. The temperature of the body is usually

To find out if your thyroid gland is working properly,

up about 98.6°F. It also maintains a level of functioning within a very narrow range.

see your doctor. You can discuss the need to get the blood tests for the thyroid to check how well it is

A temperature of 3° above 98.6° would be

working. These blood tests check T-3, T-4, TSH and others. Sometimes, based on how the thyroid gland

considered a fever or indication of some kind of problem. Likewise a temperature below 98.6° would

feels, you may need an ultrasound (sound wave test to look for bumps) and sometimes a biopsy. Your

be considered a situation where the body is too cold. That condition is known as hypothermia. So

primary care doctor can do most of these things but occasionally will need to seek consultation with a

you see that the thyroid gland has a very important job to maintain this very delicate balance.

specialist called an endocrinologist. In any event, see your doctor and don’t guess, get the test!

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SOUND ADVICE

DR. BRENDA J. TAYLOR

Ask The Dentist

Beloved, Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! The holidays can be such a joyous and festive season, but with all the errands, planning and over extending ourselves our bodies can become run down and go amuck. Our dental health is of utmost importance at all times. In this particular exchange, however, I want to initiate the dialogue, emphasizing just how intricately the oral cavity is connected to the entire bodily systems. The mouth is the window of opportunity. It is the primary entrance by which most substances enter the body. Secondarily, is by inhalation, and, third, by injectable drugs. When the mouth is not healthy, essentially our entire body is not healthy. By design, the mouth is a nexus for germs. It is dark, moist and acidic, thus, the perfect environment for breeding bacteria. When we don't exercise persistent and consistent oral hygiene, Plaque, a bacteria matrix,

is left undisturbed and layers begin to form, duplicating the bacterial process. Further still, this initially soft and easily removable material, over time, hardens and calcifies, forming tartar which can only be professionally removed. It is no secret that most individuals harbor a genuine fear or phobia of Dentists. Whether it is the sound of the drill, the shots, or even in some cases, the smell, it is real and it is tangible. I want to use this opportunity to encourage all of us to embrace the fact that dental health is not an option, but a necessary mandate for our overall health. While most may not be able to afford thousands of dollars on an expensive treatment plan, we can begin by training ourselves to at least visit the Dentist twice a year at an out of pocket expense. The sudden and immediate changes to the nations Medicaid System have drastically and

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SOUND ADVICE

Our society has de-emphasized the importance of oral health care. We must therefore take charge of our oral health ourselves. Let this journey begin by purchasing a soft nylon bristle brush and an American Dental Association endorsed toothpaste. Replace your toothbrush every two months. A simple yet effective way to remember is: if you purchase in an odd month, replace every odd month. Remember, it is not how hard you brush but how often you brush. Next, let’s examine our diets and exactly what we intake daily, knowing that bacteria in the mouth replicate off of the things we ingest. An exchange of sweetened drinks and processed carbohydrates for fresh fruits and vegetables will not only affect your mouth but your waistline as well. Finally, switch to drinking water out of the faucet. Public water in most states is fluoridated and is less costly than commercialized packaged water. These simple measures can reduce plaque formation by as much as 30%. While this is not an exhaustive list, it is I hope a catalyst for forward change. In the next issues, I will further discuss the long term implications of limited access to Dental care and treatment. Feel free to send questions or comments to oralcare@thetrumpetmag.com. I will respond in the next issue, and your names will be kept confidential. dramatically affected the adult public insurance sector. In Illinois for example, as of July 1, 2012, Adult Medicaid, meaning greater than age 20, is limited to emergency care only. That being an exam, a radiograph, and an extraction.

Be Blessed and Be Healthy in this New Year! Warmest regards, Dr. Brenda J. Taylor, RDH, A,S., B.S., D.M.D.

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ERIKA BRACEY

Cancer In My Stilettos! Saturday traffic in downtown Chicago is horrific. Cars stand in linear positions, impatiently waiting for the one ahead to move. I’ve been circling the block for 20 minutes in hopes of finding a 15 minute stand so I can run into Nordstrom and return these shoes. I shouldn't of ever purchased them, because they hurt the minute I put them on, but they were absolutely stunning; tall, lean and statuesque. They were substantial and purposeful. I had them on for all of five minutes before my feet refused to take another step. They were screaming loud, "You crazy if you think I'm going to be suffocating in these all day!" Wait, I think she’s coming out. "Are you coming out?", I asked. She nodded, yes. Great! I'm going to run in and return these shoes. No shopping and no looking; in and out! As I entered the showroom floor, a pair of orange suede Jimmy Choo’s standing erect, stared right at me. I'm not going over there, because I know what’s going to happen. I'm going to put them on and walk around the store for the next hour, greeting people like I work here, hoping to gain enough commission to take them home. “Excuse me. Have you been helped?” I turned and, surprisingly, was greeted by a well-groomed man

with perfectly straight teeth. His smile was intoxicating. I respond, “Umm...just looking.” At him! He interjects, "I see you admiring the Jimmy Choo. It just arrived this morning. It’s a beautiful shoe...as you are." He's trying to sell some shoes today. Keep talkin’. “Thank you,” I kindly responded. "Well, if you need anything my name is Chaz." “Actually, Chaz, I would like to return these shoes and it won't hurt to try those on. Do you have them in an 8?”

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To which he responds, “I'm sure we do. Please have a seat, and I'll be right back.” I plopped down on

shoppers who were admiring the shoe, as I stood mentally calculating how many jars of Butter Kup I

the cushiony chair and exhaled.

would have to sell to afford them. If you don't know, Jimmy will Choo you up and have you homeless.

The store was bustling with people. Women sashaying back and forth in overpriced stilettos as

I allowed my eyes to move past the shoe and slowly

their mates sat patiently waiting for them to make the final cut. Chaz walked towards me peeling the

up to my face. I had to do a double take. Although I have viewed myself in the mirror several times over

top off of the box. “I did have an 8.” He gestures at my foot, asking, “May I?”

the past two years, it was something different about this moment. I held my own gaze just long enough

Now he needs to quit. I don't see one salesperson

to see something beautiful. My eyes began to moisten as I stared at the girl on the other side of the

manually putting anyone's shoe on for them, but I

mirror...me. I locked eyes with my reflection as my

“I released her eyes and silently said thank you, because two years prior I didn't think I would live to see my 40th birthday that I began planning when I was 35.” love a man who's shiver-less. He gently slipped my shoe off and unwrapped the Jimmy Choo. As he

life became so transparent. I wondered could the passersby see into the depths of my soul that had

placed it on my foot, I felt like Dorothy from the Wiz, ready to go home. I was speechless. He stepped to

been deeply rooted in pain, resentment, bad choices, disease and abandonment, but now had

the side as I balanced myself on these five and a half inch stilettos. My legs were lean, calfs protruding,

been replaced with love, self-worth, and survivorship.

and buttocks just right. All eyes were on me. The shoe was timeless; classic, yet funky, sexy, yet

I released her eyes and silently said thank you, because two years prior I didn't think I would live to

confident, a beauty waiting to be unveiled. Towering five additional inches, I glided over to the

see my 40th birthday that I began planning when I was 35. My friends and I were going to paint the

floor model mirror,only as Naomi Campbell would do, and struck a slight pose as if I was on the runway

town red, but that plan quickly shattered to pieces when I heard the dirt being thrown on my casket, in

at fashion week in Paris, giving paparazzi photo opts. There were side conversations from other

my mind, that is. I made something a reality that had

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“Today, I invite you into my garden to hear this story. It's a story of a woman that took a seed and sowed it into her own life and from that harvest was able to sow seeds in other breast cancer fighters and survivors and advocates lives.” not yet happened. But this, this was happening! The black burn that once tattooed my left breast had faded into my caramel complexion, leaving only a faint indication that death was once upon me. The

tolerable. The surgical scars have healed enough to be distant memories, and the flexibility of my arm is slowly returning. I became a fighter overnight, a survivor within 6 months, and now a warrior. I survived! I persevered! I overcame! What? Cancer? Well, if you have ever had cancer you know that its roots go far deeper than just being an over active cell sometimes gifted through genetics, but oftentimes self-inflicted seeds that have planted themselves deep in our souls and broken spirits. I watered the roots that allowed cancer to become alive in me so much so that it spun out of control. I had to dig up the root in order to plant new seeds. Today, I invite you into my garden to hear this story. It's a story of a woman that took a seed and sowed it into her own life and from that harvest was able to sow seeds in other breast cancer fighters and survivors and advocates lives. A story of one woman's cancer journey and how she overcame it. A story of how a sisterhood similar to a sorority that was divinely constructed, assimilated and serves as a safe haven for cancer patients. A story of how I took a bead and turned it into a symbol of hope for women and men around the county. This is my story as only I can tell it standing in my stilettos! Erika Bracey epitomizes phenomenal living! You have just read the introduction to her yet to be released journey through cancer in her first book entitled: Cancer In My Stilettos! Look for this BestSeller in May 2013.

stabbing pains that resembled miniature heart attacks from the affects of radiation are now

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JAZMIN HALL

13 IS Your Lucky Number! 13 Tips to Reaching Your Weight Loss Goal in 2013 Millions of Americans will choose weight loss as their New Year’s resolution. Unfortunately, a great number of those individuals won’t stick to that pledge past the first few months of the New Year. If you are serious about making a complete lifestyle change, hopefully, these 13 weight loss tips can help you meet your goals and make 2013 your IT year:

Stay hydrated

Water is extremely important, not only to any diet plan, but also to life. Water makes up about 60% of the human body, 70% of the brain and more than 80% of our blood. The average human must replace about 2.4 liters of water each day. The best way to do this is to try to drink 8 glasses of water a day, or by dividing your body weight in half and drinking that in ounces (i.e., 160 lbs = 80 oz of water). Drinks filled with copious amounts of sugars and carbs should be cut from your diet. Beverages such as sodas, sports drinks, coffee drinks, alcohol and juices (even those labeled ‘natural’) are loaded with calories. Try other choices such as sparkling water or herbal teas instead. The majority of the, time when we feel we are hungry, our body is just trying to tell us we are dehydrated. So, save the wasted calories and drink a glass of water before placing anything into your mouth.

Write down your goal

Learn to limit yourself

Before beginning any serious commitment, you should first visualize the changes you are attempting to make. Figure out your goals and exactly what you’re going to do to reach them. Writing them down and going over them can help you, tremendously, with sticking to your resolution. Type up a contract, sign it, and put it someplace where you would have to see it everyday. The refrigerator, for example, would be a perfect place, considering that is where we have most of our downfalls.

One of the main mistakes many people make with a weight loss plan is attempting to go “cold turkey.” Completely eliminating something from your life can sometimes make you crave it more. Don’t waste your time beating yourself up for slip-ups, instead use that as motivation. If you can honestly stick to being “clean” five days out of the week, then you can afford to cheat. The key is to not go overboard. Limit your weakness to twice a week. Once you are comfortable, try limiting your original limit.

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Moving is key

The key to weight loss, with the help of exercise, is by moving in some way everyday. Your routine does not have to be grueling to get results. Running five miles, when you’re not physically prepared, will do you more harm than good. 30-60 minutes of aerobic or resistance training, three to four times a week, is a safe and effective way to start.

Control portions

Every weight loss plan should include both diet and exercise. Although they are both extremely important and neither should be attempted without the other, researchers have stated that nutrition consumes a larger percentage in weight loss. Portion control is a great way to actually know what and how much you are consuming. Use smaller plates and mentally divide them. One half of the plate should contain vegetables. Cut the other side of the plate in half with ¼ consisting of carbohydrates and ¼ protein.

Keep a journal

You cannot know how to change, if you do not know your issue. That is why documentation is so important. Keeping a journal should be considered like homework. It should be completed daily to see exactly where your problem areas lie. A good journal should consist of food, including the amount of calories consumed, what you eat and drink, and how much of it you consume, as well as any physical activity.

Have mini goals

Setting small weekly changes is a simple way to help you reach your big goal. Example: Week 1: Drink more water Week 2: Take the stairs to work Week 3: Try cooking a vegetarian meal

Use technology

Our lives are focused so heavily on the use of technology, and weight loss is not excluded from that. We are on our phones, tablets, and computers for the majority of the day. Why not use them during your weight loss journey? Here are a few of the highest- rated free apps developed to help you lose weight:

· · · ·

Fooducate Nutrition Scanner My Fitness Pal Easy Weight Loss Tips Gym Goal

Eat in more

Preparing your own meals allows you to be in control of exactly what you are consuming. If you must eat out, make healthier choices. Restaurants tend to pack more calories into meals that are often hidden from the consumer. Salads prepared at restaurants can also be loaded with fats. Be careful with certain toppings and salad dressings, even those considered “low fat.”

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You are not alone

Eliminate stress

Weight loss is not easy and it can be even harder when going through that process alone. Many individuals treat weight loss as a secret, when actually having someone to talk to during the process helps take off more pressure and stress. Having a support system can have lots of benefits, whether it’s a weekly meeting you attend with individuals going through the same experience, or just a few family members and close friends.

Your body responds to all types of anxiety, triggering reactions such as weight gain. As stress continues, the levels of cortisol (known as the “stress hormone”) increase. These tell your body to replenish energy, and, ultimately, make you very hungry and crave for comfort foods. Tackling your stress issues can be a breakthrough to your weight loss problem. Yoga and Pilates classes are great ways to relax, deal with stress, and get a great workout.

Be patient and realistic

Studies show people who have quit their weight loss plan did so because they failed to see results. You did not gain those extra pounds in 2 weeks, therefore, it will take the same amount of time, if not more, to lose it. It has been proven, losing weight at a slow pace is interrelated with maintaining weight loss. Focus your attention on other things, be patient and positive, and you might find this journey is a lot easier than you expected.

Try something new

Many programs are not effective, mainly because the individual became bored. You should occasionally switch your workouts, so that you and your body don’t get tired of the same routine. Be creative while attempting something you like to do. Try activities you don’t always get to participate in, such as swimming, going out to a dance club, or skating.

PHENOMENAL LIVING

PATRYCE DENSON

Etiquette Essentials As the holiday season approaches occasions for business and social gatherings naturally increase. Whether the invitation is for a Black-tie benefit, an evening with family, or a soiree with friends, here are a few Etiquette Essentials™ that, if practiced, will ensure your dining skills are impeccable and social graces impressive!

Etiquette Essentials™ ~ The Place setting Etiquette Essentials™ Tip 1: Eat to your left, drink to your right. Any food dish to your left is yours, and any glass to your right is yours. The above diagram illustrates a very formal individual place setting. When dining, start with the utensil that is farthest from your plate first, and then work your way in, using one utensil per course. When a 5-course meal is served, the salad fork is on your outermost left, followed by your dinner fork. Your soup spoon is on your outermost right, followed by salad knife and dinner knife. Your dessert spoon and fork are above your plate or brought out with dessert. Once used, your utensils, including the handles, must not touch the table again. Always rest forks, knives, and spoons on the side of your plate or in the bowl. If you remember to work from the outside in, you'll be fine.

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Etiquette Essentialsâ&#x201E;˘ ~ The Napkin Etiquette Essentialsâ&#x201E;˘ Tip 2: The napkin has five uses and is the most important item at your place setting. It starts the meal, ends the meal, wipes your mouth, catches crumbs and acts as a shield. In a restaurant: As soon as you are seated, remove the napkin from your place setting, completely unfolded if it is a paper or small luncheon napkin or in half, lengthwise, if it is a cloth or large dinner napkin, and place it in your lap with the open edge facing you. Do not shake or pop it open. At some very formal restaurants, the waiter may do this for the diners, but it is not inappropriate to place your own napkin in your lap, even when this is the case. The napkin rests on your lap until the end of the meal. Don't clean the cutlery or wipe your face with the napkin. NEVER use it to wipe your nose!

If you excuse yourself from the table, loosely fold the napkin and place it to the left or right of your plate. Do not refold your napkin or wad it on the table. Placing your napkin on the seat of your chair is a nono. At the end of the meal, leave the napkin semi-folded at the left side of the place setting. It should not be crumpled or twisted or folded or left on the chair. At a private dinner party: The meal begins when the host or hostess unfolds his or her napkin. This is your signal to do the same. The napkin rests on your lap until the end of the meal. The host signals the end of the meal by placing his or her napkin on the table. Once the meal is over, you too should place your napkin neatly on the table to the left of your dinner plate. (Do not refold your napkin or wad it on the plate.)

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Etiquette Essentials™ ~ The Meal Etiquette Essentials™ Tip 3: When to Start Eating . . . In a restaurant: If there are eight or less people at your table, wait until everyone is served before starting to eat. At a buffet, tables may be set up for 8 or 10 people. Wait until half the table has returned before starting to eat. At a private dinner party: When your host or hostess picks up their fork to eat, then you may eat. Do not start before this unless the host or hostess insists that you start eating. Food is served from the left. Dishes are removed from the right. At the start of the meal diners initially pass food to the right for the convenience of all dinner guests. Do not stretch across the table, or other guests, to reach food or condiments. If another diner asks for the salt or pepper, pass both together, even if a table mate asks for only one of them. This is so dinner guests won't have to search for orphaned shakers. Set any passed item directly on the table instead of passing hand-to-hand.

“Do not push your dishes away from you or stack them for the waiter when you are finished. Leave plates and glasses where they are.”

Never intercept a pass. Snagging a roll out of the breadbasket or taking a shake of salt when it is en route to someone else is a no-no. Always use serving utensils to serve yourself, not your personal silverware.

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Etiquette Essentialsâ&#x201E;˘ Table Manners Do your best to mingle and make light conversation with everyone. Talk about pleasant, positive things at the table. Keep elbows off the table. Keep your left hand in your lap unless you are using it. Do not talk with your mouth full. Chew with your mouth closed. Cut only enough food for the next mouthful (cut no more than two bites of food at a time). Eat in small bites and slowly. Don't blow on your food to cool it off. If it is too hot to eat, simply wait until it cools. Turn off your cell phone or switch it to silent or vibrate mode before sitting down to eat, and leave it, and any wireless ear devices, in your pocket or purse. It is impolite to monitor and answer a phone during dinner. If you must make or take a call, excuse yourself from the table and step outside of the restaurant. Do not use a toothpick or apply makeup at the table. Patryce Denson is the Founder of Denson Etiquette Group, a Chicago-based etiquette, social protocol and life-skills consulting firm dedicated to developing outstanding leadership skills and social graces in children, teens and young adults.

Say "Excuse me," or "I'll be right back," before leaving the table. Do not say that you are going to the restroom. Whenever a woman leaves the table or returns to sit, all men seated with her should stand up. Do not push your dishes away from you or stack them for the waiter when you are finished. Leave plates and glasses where they are.

www.densonetiquette.com patryce@densonetiquette.com 312-622-2437

After a formal dinner party, a thank you note should always be sent to the hostess within 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7 days of the event.

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Tea With Rae: Wellness for the MIND, BODY and SPIRIT Moving Beyond It! Rae Lewis-Thornton I know you didn't think about it when you were doing "It," but it's too late for regrets. It can’t be undone, no matter how hard you may try. All you can really do is keep moving until you are beyond “It.” Truth be told, the moment you were done doing “It” that thing was over. Yet, some of us got stuck in the "It" and can't see our way out of the emotions connected to the “It.” That’s why it still fills like you are deep in “It.” Yes, you are really out of "It.” Pinch yourself right this moment. See, you are no longer there. You are right here reading this article in the Trumpet. Yet, still the memory of being in "It" has taken on a life of its own. All the pain of it, the madness in it and the unhappiness that "It" caused has taken center stage. The spirit of "It" has taken you hostage; it continues to have an impact as if you were knee deep in it. So you keep saying that you want to move beyond “It,” but you seem to find yourself right back there. Some of us physically, others emotionally and mentally. As you move into 2013, you must free yourself from “It.” Nothing should have this much power over you. I

know, I know, you’re saying, “How can I do that? I’ve been trying, woman!” Foremost, being honest with yourself about “It” should be your first step. The Bible says the truth will set you free. Take some time and reflect. Let's just take a moment now. Think about it this way. For some of us, as we were moving in the "It," we were going in one direction and believed that path was right based on everything you knew to be true at the time. Whether it was a relationship, a friendship, a job and even that shopping spree when you maxed out your credit cards. You knew that you knew and you kept moving in “It.” Now, for some of us, midstream we started to feel uncomfortable. We started to second guess the "It," but we thought we were too far in to change the course. I mean, you did need shoes to go with that dress you already couldn't afford. I mean, he did make you feel good when he wasn't making you feel bad. I mean, who wants to be alone? I mean, your buddy is fun when she’s not putting you down.

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curl. The "It" felt good! Yet over time, I started to see "It" for what it was, but my desire to have my toes curl influenced me to accept “It.” Those nights I cried my eyes out because “It” was somewhere getting high on crack-cocaine didn't matter because when "It" returned, oh my God, my toes curled, yet again. However, when my toes began to burn from the raising heat, I knew that the rubber had met the road and if I didn’t take a different direction, I would lose myself. As I reflect in honesty, I can truly say that it does not matter which course I took in the beginning and I can stop beating myself up. What really matters is that I now know that there is a different path that I can take and did. The more I reflect on that journey, the better I can see with clarity. I know that I am better off than I was yesterday because I know something about myself that I learned in the “It.” For sure, I am stronger than I thought I was. Walking away totally from “It” made me see myself differently. I confirmed that all my hard work in therapy had paid off. I not only knew better, I had begun to do better. I had begun to put love of self over and above the need to be loved. Now let’s be honest, some of you thought the "It" was exciting as hell. I mean, be HONEST with yourself. “It” was the best endorphin boost of your life. That is, until that hell began to get hot and the heat and only the heat made you see “It” for what it really is. Let me tell you one of my truths. I remember that man who made my toes curl. My God, he made my toes

Yes, reflect in honesty, rather than stay mad, frustrated, disappointed, angry, and bitter. All those things fuel even more brokenness and keep us bound to the “It.” In honest reflection we accept our culpability and learn something about ourselves and “It.” With this knowledge, we are in a better position to move beyond “It.”

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RESTART Terry Mason, M.D.

It is now near the end of the season of gluttony. I defined this season, as beginning with Thanksgiving day and concluding with the day after New Year's. I call it this because during that time we have all of the more's. More parties, more food, more drinking, and just more celebrating. It's as though we know immediately after the first of the year we will somehow need to repent for our sins. It is because of this that we psychologically prepare ourselves for the New Year resolutions. These resolutions are complete with our pronouncements of atonement for our wrongdoings and we will begin a course of austerity with regard to eating, drinking, and partying for the months to come. On a parallel track to this activity, as I continued my work in my practice some years ago trying to understand what was causing men to have an inability to get and maintain an erection, there were a few things that became very clear. What became clear

was that there was a definitive relationship between impotence, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity. A major link was food. As we looked at common issues to the reported causes of death such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer, there are some common themes. What is clear is that the aforementioned items are other things that are recorded on death certificates. The real causes of death, however, that is those things that cause the heart attack, strokes, diabetes, etc., are really three things:

1. Diet and exercise

2. Cigarette smoking 3. Alcohol

These three things are the true or real causes of death. Diabetes is a diet related disease. Heart disease is a diet related disease. Many cancers are diet related diseases. In conversations about this with Prince Asiel Ben Israel approximately 9 years ago, he opened the soul vegetarian restaurant for a community conversation to be held on restructuring the diet. The focus of the conversation at that time was to ask all Chicagoans and subsequently residents of Cook County to abstain from eating meat or animal protein for the remainder 30 days or so of the month of January. An emphasis was placed on meat consumption because of the meat intake that was present in our Western diet. It is also the singular source of dietary cholesterol. Since dietary cholesterol plays a role in diseases of the blood vessels, particularly those in the heart and on the brain, it was decided that this would be a logical place to start. This seems like a logical place to start a discussion about restarting for our health. Thus, restart for your health in the month of January is an opportunity for you to take stock of all of the things you have been doing particularly during

PHENOMENAL LIVING the season of gluttony. The restart program gives you an opportunity to learn from experts the different parts of how the body works, how food affects it, and how you can empower yourself to do a better job in protecting yourself from these ill effects. Restart also provides an opportunity for the community to get together and understand that we are not alone. There are many of us who are struggling with the same problem and collectively we have more strength than we do individually. It became clear that as we began to approach the discussion regarding disparities there was something more that was needed. The disparities discussion centers around why African Americans in particular have higher death rates from cancer, more diabetes, more strokes, and more heart attacks than our non-Black counterparts. One of the first things discussed in the restart program is not just that we have problems. The broader discussion is about why. This is important because if you feel as though you're a hopeless victim then you have no way to think you have any way out of your circumstance. By providing information that shows there are federal policies at work that have guided the access, affordability, availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, safe communities, and real estate lending practices, all of which have a bearing on your ability to thrive. In addition we will be remiss not to discuss the role of the vestiges of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on our current situation. This conversation is often painful and a desire not to have this discussion is preferred. This is a serious mistake. At the core of the transAtlantic slave trade are the foundations for why we have racial and ethnic disparities not just among blacks but all people not of color. The transatlantic slave trade represents among the most horrific injustices of man perpetrated by another man. These injustices which led to segregation, inequality in education, inequality in housing, inequality in access

to health facilities, and a psychosocial framework that set up the intellectual construct for self-hate. Once these things are discussed, a new paradigm emerges. That paradigm shows the persons of African descent have demonstrated over several hundred years an amazing resiliency despite our circumstances. So you can see that the restart is more than just talking about food and exercise at a physical level. It is also about restarting our minds from a mental and spiritual point of view. It is my belief that the mental and spiritual restarts are perhaps more important than the physical restart. We've all been inundated with information about what we should eat, when we should eat it, how we should eat it. That information alone has not provided us with what we need to significantly change our health outcomes as a group. It is also pointed out that policy is also at the center of why certain people are allowed to be promulgated throughout America. We have used movies like Unnatural Causes, and Ink, to raise the question as to the role of our federal policies on the food supplies for all Americans and indeed the world. During the month of January, and parts of the month of February, we cover material about cooking, growing our own foods, how our bodies work, how to quit smoking, the role of exercise, and how to use preservative free techniques such as canning and dehydration. This year's focus will be on processed foods particularly carbohydrates. We would show the relationship to these foods and diabetes, obesity, heart disease. The real aim is to show you that these diseases are not separate but all part of the family of problems caused by imbalances in our foods that create these issues. To find out where we will hold the 2013 information sessions and Restart Program, email me at columnists@thetrumpetmag.com.

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AVERY

SUNSHINE The Godmother of Underground Soul by Nakia Green

F E AT U R E | AV E RY S U N S H I N E

Often times we see performers who have all the right moves and they hit all the right notes, the low ones as

suddenly. Prior to the release of her record overseas, her partner told her of the necessity to come up with

well as the high ones. The outfits are stunning, the bodies are perfect, and the hair is flawless. It is very

a name. Without any hesitation, Avery blurted out “Avery Sunshine!” She shared with me, “I just

seldom you see a person’s soul and very being from the moment they grace you with their presence and

blurted it out, and it stuck. I know that's so strange. I feel like I don't remember having any thought about

begin to open their mouth. This was my experience with the dynamic, Ms. Avery Sunshine. I saw her in

it before that moment. Maybe I did, but it just works you know!”

Chicago at The Callahan Foundation annual concert. I was invited by my extended family, so I thought it would be a good chance to hang out with them. Little did I know, I would experience one of the best performers I have ever seen! I fell in love with her and with her music, so much so that I even tried to sneak backstage! Having an opportunity to have her in the inaugural issue is a true testament to real music and artists. She is obviously a deep well of faith, love, humility, and grace. She is Avery Sunshine! As God would have it, my sister in the faith immediately granted an interview upon request. Excited and nervous and very grateful all at once, I began to ponder questions to ask and topics to discuss. When the telephone interview takes place,

And does it ever! Since appearing on the national scene and making an indelible impact on our hearts with her first hit, “Ugly Part of Me,” an authentic love ballad that highlights the downs of love relationships and how sometimes the worst of us overshadows our best intentions at love, Avery has truly brought sunshine to our lives. Yet, Avery, as most artists who seem to come out of nowhere, has been true to her craft and her calling. A “church baby,” Avery attributes the honing of her gift to the church, which serves as her spiritual and musical foundation. Since childhood, each choir rehearsal, each solo and lead, and every opportunity to direct her choir brought her closer and closer to what she would be doing: minister to others by way of song. “I had no idea it

Avery Sunshine is preparing for travel. In fact, in the midst of getting her hair cut, she comes on the line lovingly apologizing and explaining she is multitasking, trying to get it all in as she has a flight to catch and several other things to do before she can leave for the airport, including pack! During my interview with Avery, I shared with her that my Godmother penned Sunshine as my nickname. Excited, Avery responded that her stage name came

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F E AT U R E | AV E RY S U N S H I N E was shaping me and preparing me to do what I do. I never thought of myself as an artist, but funny enough that is what you do on Sunday mornings,” Avery shares. “Either during praise and worship or directing the choir it really goes hand in hand, so absolutely I believe that part of the church is what affected me most and influenced me most.” Avery’s existence as a continually evolving artist is best summarized in her own words. When asked, “Who is Avery Sunshine?”, she eloquently states, “I am a self-proclaimed therapist.” Her fans would agree, for through Avery’s music, an internal inventory is taken, as the listener is guided by Avery in addressing what ails us and how music heals us

of the matter is, we all got stuff! The load is lighter when we are sharing it. If you try to pick up a car by yourself you can't do it, but if you get someone else to pick it up with you, you have a better chance. You think, “Hey we can do this!” I've been through divorce and other things in life. Things don’t seem as bad because you see that someone else has been through it so I can get through it too! I just want to encourage people to talk and to get it out.” While using her music to provide a method in which needed conversations start in an effort to strengthen relationships, Avery is also aware of the social ills that pervade our society. Avery lists gun violence as one main issue that has affected our society and it has

“At some point you have to release it and say, ‘God, it is what it is.’ How can we learn and grow from it? How can we honor his memory? We can honor his memory by making people aware.” from our infirmities. When I asked Avery to expound upon her belief that she is a self-proclaimed therapist, Avery stated, “I say that because I feel like when we talk about our issues that is therapy. People say you need to go and talk about it with someone and sit on a couch, and I think that's necessary, but to me the quickest thing to do sometimes is to call your ‘homie’ and say listen this is what I'm going through, what do you have going on to help? It relieves some of that stress or the feeling that you are by yourself. I feel like that a lot of us are afraid to do that, especially church folks. We don't want to talk about what were going through with the fear of people thinking that we're not saved or we are not Christian enough. The truth

impacted her family on a personal level. Four years ago, her nephew was murdered at twenty years of age, outside of Philadelphia. This was a senseless killing and even now, it still affects Avery’s life and the life of her family. “There is so much about it. I am still so conflicted about it,” Avery admits. “It still feels so recent. It's been four years, but we haven't found the young man that killed him.” Avery shares with me her process in living past this traumatic moment. “At some point you have to release it and say, ‘God, it is what it is.’ How can we learn and grow from it? How can we honor his memory? We can honor his memory by making people aware.” Avery posits that awareness of what affects our community is the first step in honoring our communities. The lives lost are more than just names, they are the

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F E AT U R E | AV E RY S U N S H I N E

living souls of the village. When one is affected, all are affected and, as Avery reminds us, it is our responsibility to ensure that these lives lost are not lost in vain. Furthermore, it is our responsibility to ensure that we do our best to make sure these precious lives are not lost in the first place. This New Year is the best opportunity for us to be our best selves. Avery advises us to think of the New Year in an introspective way. She comments, “There is a rebirth or a renewal every day. There is not a time that I can think of, other than divorce, clearly, but I am finding that the older I get it is something that is ongoing every day! Every day there is a chance for renewal, or you die. A renewal could be with a relationship, a renewal with your job, etc. When people say, ‘It is always something,’ I look at it the

other way. It is always a renewal! Maybe there is something that causes that renewal. Just when you think everything is settled down something else will happen that will cause you to renew.” It is with this renewed dedication to be our best selves that Avery leaves us, contemplating how we can each be responsible in our own calling. Avery Sunshine has clearly embraced how she is to make a difference in the lives of those with whom she comes in contact. The onus is on us to make sure that, as Avery demonstrates through her mission and her music, we are intentional in the sharing of our gifts, for our blessings are never meant for us alone, but for the betterment of somebody else. It is with that understanding that we proceed on into the New Year, reminded and renewed of our responsibility not only to be better, but to do better!

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SOUNDING ON

NATASHA L. ROBINSON

Change and Consistency Happy New Year! Happy Inaugural Year to the Trumpet Newsmagazine TM Online! I am simply delighted to be one of the columnists for this legacy-making magazine! For decades, the Trumpet has been the leader in assembling a united clarion call to our society and the inhabitants therein. That call has been to be accountable to each other and to be stewards over that with which we have been entrusted: our lives, our resources, our world, and, most importantly, each other. The Trumpet has been the instrument in speaking truth to power and encouraging us to engage in a lifelong pursuit of excellence in every facet of life. The Trumpet has called us to be intentional in reaching new goals, learning new information, and helping our brothers and sisters live life and that more abundantly.

After much prayer and reflection, I have decided to call this column “Sounding On.” It is a deviation from the term “sounding off,” which has traditionally meant to “speak one’s opinion without fear or hesitation.” When analytically digesting this definition, I found it to be a paradox. If one is making a sound, expressing his or her opinion without fear or hesitation, then doing it in an “off” position seems to make that sound unheard or unexpressed. It’s a voice that, in my opinion, is silenced. When juxtaposing this discovery with the platform in which this column would be featured, the Trumpet, I found it even more meaningful that we, the collective body of souls, keep our voices “on.” As a trumpet has been used, historically, to signal or relay important facts or instruction, so should we sound on, not sound off, on the honest dialogue that needs to occur in our world

Although the Trumpet has changed its visual

about our world. There is no time for “pussy footing”

appearance, it has not changed its substance. The

around relevant issues. Far too long have we been

original intent of our magazine remains the same. It is

marginalized as our voices were hushed by our

interesting that the old adage rings true: “the more

oppressors as they shushed us in voting booths,

things change, the more they stay the same.” While

government, education, health care, equal rights, the

we have a new virtual Trumpet, many characteristics

legal system, housing, and, dare I say, religion. The

of the magazine you have come to love will remain.

trumpet has been the instrument that carries the

We will still provide information that will encourage us

highest register in the brass family, which is to say it is

to live better, to do better, and to love more

the instrument that has the highest range of a note or

completely! We will still talk about the relevant issues

pitch. So it is apropos that we sound on, speaking

that pervade our lives and that affect us all.

truth to power and to continue to use our voice as a

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SOUNDING ON

signal to the world that we are truly the change we’ve

Family, I don’t have a direct answer for that

been seeking and long-lasting change begins with

question. What I am sounding on is this…I choose

us! Let’s continue to SOUND ON!

to let my joy reign supreme in my life. Most of us

In this inaugural column, I am sounding on about change and consistency. With this New Year comes

know joy is that something that comes from the inside that is not dictated or defined by the outside.

“Can I Keep the physical and emotional weight off?” both change and consistency. Life has many changes

Joy is never based on circumstance; it stays the tide

and yet within the changes, the paradox of

despite the hurling rain or the windstorms of our

consistency is evident. This New Year is full of bright

lives. It remains visible despite what we fail to see. It

promise and hope, a desire of things to be better, an

is, as my parents have always said to me, what the

expectancy of newness. At the same time, life brings

world didn’t give and the world can’t take away. Joy

a consistent uncertainty within all of us: Will this be

is always abounding and remains the constant

my year? Will I find a new job? Can I keep the physical

amidst change. I am by no means suggesting that

and emotional weight off? Will my family be reunited?

happiness is not needed. I am stating that while

Will I find my soulmate? Can I really go back to

happiness can come and go, joy has the innate

school? How can I live on what I make? Will I be a

ability of always remaining.

good parent? Will my illness ever have a cure? How can I keep my children safe? What is my life’s purpose?

So I say to you, Happy New Year! Happy New You! May you possess all of the joy your heart can hold! And when newness and consistency intersect in

The paradox of the New Year is that while there is

your life, sometimes causing you angst and

evidence of newness, consistency also appears as we

discomfort, may joy be the stabilizer that reminds

know that seasons of life will never change. We

you that everything is in Divine order.

cannot evade death of a loved one, loss of an income, the aging of our parents and ourselves, and other events that will find us at the appointed time. So then the question becomes: “What can we be

Your partner in sound, Natasha

happy about in this season of newness?”

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James Cone’s The CROSS and the LYNCHING TREE Dr. Colleen Birchett

THE ARTS

the first African American President of the United States, Barak Obama. It has been a decade that brought several death penalty executions under unprecedented public scrutiny. These executions included 36 year-old Cameron Todd Willingham, who, on February 17, 2004, was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas. He was killed by the State of Texas for allegedly setting fire to a building that killed his three daughters. However, well before the execution, forensic evidence had been presented that proved the house

Moreover, on a quarterly basis, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has been collecting and publishing death penalty statistics. The December 2012 report notes that, since 1976, nation-wide, 1289 Death Row inmates have been executed. Fortyfour percent were African Americans. The same report shows 42% of current Death Row inmates being African Americans. This is true, even though African Americans comprise only around 13% of the United States population. Moreover, the data had shown a

fire was not due to arson. Officials were made aware of the new report,

pattern for previously Confederate states when compared to those who

but would not stay the execution. Just four years earlier, on December

had remained with the Union, during the Civil War. Data from the Death

7, 2000, in a lesser known case, the State of Texas had also executed

Penalty Information Center show that African Americans have

James Cone’s latest book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, rolled

Claude Jones, in spite of DNA evidence that had proven that the

comprised 71% of the executions in those states, compared to 23% for

fresh off the presses, just after a decade that, in some ways, marked a

one microscopic segment of hair used to link him to a murder was not

states that were not members of the Confederacy. Currently, Blacks are

critical juncture for dealing with racism in African American history.

his. Later in the decade, on September 9, 2011, the State of

also 46% of Death Row inmates in previously Confederate states

To understand the significance of Cone’s masterpiece, one needs to

Georgia executed Troy Davis even though the forensic analysis on the

compared to 37% in other states. Again, this is true even though Black

consider that it was released in an era of growing concerns over

ballistics traces allegedly tying him to the murder proved unreliable.

people are only around 13% of the overall U.S. population. Such reports

whether the criminal justice system had conspired to both endanger and remove the citizenship rights of African Americans – concerns that grew regardless of the election of

These cases were not anomalies. Since 2,000, the Innocence Project has used DNA analysis to exonerate 234 Death Row inmates, of whom

have led to questions as to whether the death penalty executions are, in actuality, state-sponsored and legalized lynchings.

80% (187) were African Americans.

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THE ARTS

This idea is made more plausible when one considers that there are

Obama. Forty-seven percent of hate crimes were reactions to the victim’s

parallels between the death penalty executions and lynching. For

race. Of these racial hatred crimes, 70% were due to hatred of African

example, Tuskegee Institute’s archive data reflects that, between

Americans. Part of the environment surrounding Cone’s new book is the

1882 and 1968, there were 4,743 lynchings in the United States.

reaction to Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, which

African Americans comprised 73% of

has also raised questions about the

“That God could ‘make a way out of no way’ in Jesus’ cross was truly absurd to the intellect, yet profoundly real in the souls of black folk.” them. However, Black people comprised 86% of the lynchings in

“War on Drugs” which she describes as a disguised effort to re-install Jim

states that had once joined the Confederacy compared to 37% for

Crow -- the system that once blocked African Americans from

states that had not.

living as first class citizens. Her book systematically and meticulously

Holding this data as a backdrop, the significance of Cone’s book becomes even more apparent if the FBI annual hate crime reports are taken into consideration. Now at 6,628 for 2010, the number of hate crimes seems to have risen and fallen slightly, along with the election and re-election of President Barak

Cone must have been aware as he compiled this most recent book. As one opens the pages of The Cross and the Lynching Tree, one “tunes in” as Dr. James Cone takes, for the reader, his now well-known position as theologian/prophet and priest. With great care and systematic logic, Cone guides the reader in answering the central questions of the book: How have African Americans, in spite of great suffering and ambiguity, been able to maintain hope, rather than drown in sorrow and despair? What has the cross had to do with it? To answer these questions, he focuses on the image of the crucifixion, placed beside the image of the lynching tree, at the well-known center of African American spiritual experience. He says,

documents the over-representation of African American males in the criminal justice system, achieved through mass incarcerations and the reinstallation of a racialized caste system. Collectively, all of the above data project a collage human suffering, suffering with which James

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“That God could ‘make a way out of no way’ in Jesus’ cross was truly absurd to the intellect, yet profoundly real in the souls of black folk. Enslaved blacks who first heard the gospel message seized on the power of the cross. Christ crucified manifested God’s loving and liberating presence in the contradictions of black life – that transcendent presence in the lives of black Christians that empowered them to

THE ARTS

believe that ultimately, in God’s eschatological future,

cross as he moved toward his murder on the lynching tree. Cone

Rights era. In exploring the speeches and songs of that era, he

they would not be defeated by the ‘troubles of this

said, “The Cross places God in the

again places the cross beside the lynching tree, using it to probe some

world’, no matter how great and painful their

midst of crucified people, in the midst of people who are

of the most heinous assassinations and murders of the era.

suffering.” (2).

hung, shot, burned and tortured. Seeing himself as a

In the fourth chapter, he goes more

“Until we can see the cross and the lynching tree

man crucified like Jesus, Isaiah Fountain (January 23,

deeply into how major Black literary figures dealt with the imagery of the

together, until we can identify Christ with a

1920), insisted that he be ‘executed wearing a purple

cross and how they connected it to the lynching tree, and to hope. In so

‘recrucified’ black body hanging from a lunching

robe and crown, to analogize his innocence to that of

doing, he illustrates how this pairing of the cross and the lynching tree

tree, there can be no genuine understanding of

Jesus Christ.’” (26). In the second chapter, he raises and

brings hope because it images Jesus in the midst of painful experiences

Christian identity in America and no deliverance from the

addresses questions having to do with why famous theologians of

of oppression among Black people. He says,

brutal legacy of slavery and white supremacy.” (xv)

European ancestry were so ambivalent about connecting the

“It is one thing to think about

The first chapter begins with an

cross of Jesus Christ with the lynching tree. In fact, he questions

the cross as a theological concept or as a magical

overview of lynching itself, exploring its terrorism and lawlessness. He

why the lynching tree almost never appeared in their sermons or

talisman of salvation and quite another to connect

then focuses on African American reactions to the environment that

theological treatises. In contrast, he illustrates how famous African

Calvary with the lynching tree in the American experience.

lynching had produced, by gathering in the churches and in the

American literary figures such as James Baldwin, James Weldon

To speak of the Black Christ in the land lighted by the

juke joints. He looks first to the songs. He systematically uncovers

Johson and Langston Hughes did make these connections. In the third

burning crosses of the Ku Klux Klan challenged the

the presence of hope in spirituals such as “Nobody Knows The

chapter, he explores the ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King identifying

imagination of black artists. Du Bois led the way, inspiring

Trouble I See” and “Must Jesus Bear The Cross Alone?” and in the Blues.

the same themes of hope in the midst of the violence of the Civil

other artists and writers to speak movingly about the

He tells stories of how people Isaiah Fountain, on January 23, 1920, found

Rights Era. He focuses on how these same spirituals of the era of slavery

cross, lynching, and burning black bodies.” (108).

hope in the image of Jesus on the

were re-contextualized for the Civil

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THE ARTS

Another unique feature of this book is the fifth chapter that focuses on

margins of the Gospel. His book illustrates a central role of the cross

Luther King in the historical context of the rising Black Power Movement.

the vantage points of women, as they connect their experiences to

and the resurrection in the liberation of Black people. He says,

He is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church,

the cross and the lynching tree. In this chapter, he also discusses the

“The gospel of Jesus is not a rational concept to be explained in

and author of twelve books and over 150 articles. The Huffington Post

Womanist theologies of Jacqueline Grant, Delores Williams, JoAnne

a theory of salvation, but a story about God’s presence in Jesus’

editors said, “One of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, Cone

Terrell and others who explore themes of imposed women’s

solidarity with the oppressed, which led to his death on the cross. What

forces us to look hard at suffering, oppression and ultimately,

suffering resulting from their being forced into surrogacy roles. A

is redemptive is the faith that God snatches victory out of defeat, life

redemption.”

highlight of this fifth chapter is the discussion of women who were

out of death and hope out of despair as revealed it the biblical

Dr. Colleen Birchett, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English in the

lynched – a topic that is too often ignored in other treatments of the

and black proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection.” (150).

City Universities of New York. She is the author of Family Ties:

Within the context of the local

Restoring Unity in the African American Family, contributing

What is also significant about The Cross and the Lynching Tree is that

church, this book can become a challenging Bible study for Lent,

editor of eleven (11) books, columnist for Trumpet

it stands in stark contrast to Eurocentric scholarship which now

Black History Month, or Church school electives at any time of the

Newsmagazine, and previous editor of church school publications:

focuses on premises such as: • Jesus was executed as a

year. Cone includes a wide variety of references to music, photography

Inteen, Young Adult Today, Real World Christians, and Lean on Me.

collections, film, literature and the Bible that can be used as audio

She has earned a Bachelor of Science in English Literature and

with it. • The Empty Tomb is a fiction; • Jesus was not raised bodily from the dead;

visual aids. Many of these are available through YouTube, NetFlix

Secondary Education from Wayne State University, a Bachelor of

and MP3 downloads. The book itself can be ordered through

Science in Journalism and a Ph.D. in Instructional Design from the

• While Jesus was likely crucified, the accounts of it in

bookstores.

University of Michigan, and an M.Div. in Theology from Union

Dr. James Cone is the Charles Augustus Briggs Distinguished

Theological Seminary.

subject of lynching.

public nuisance; his being the Son of God had nothing to do

the Bible are merely fiction. In stark contrast to the above scholarship, Cone does not ignore

Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary. His

the resurrection. Nor does he move the cross of Christ and the

publication, Black Theology and Black Power, was released one year

resurrection from the center to the

after the assassination of Dr. Martin

Purchase the book The Cross and the Lynching Tree http://www.maryknollsocietymall.org/ description.cfm? ISBN=978-1-57075-937-6

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REAR VIEW

The Unsilenced Voice of a ‘Long-Distance Revolutionary’ Chris Hedges I am sitting in the visiting area of the SCI Mahanoy prison in Frackville, Pa., on a rainy, cold Friday morning with Mumia Abu-Jamal, America’s most famous political prisoner and one of its few authentic revolutionaries. He is hunched forward on the gray plastic table, his dreadlocks cascading down the sides of his face, in a room that looks like a high school cafeteria. He is talking intently about the nature of empire, which he is currently reading voraciously about, and effective forms of resistance to tyranny throughout history. Small children, visiting their fathers or brothers, race around the floor, wail or clamber on the plastic chairs. Abu-Jamal, like the other prisoners in the room, is wearing a brown jumpsuit bearing the letters DOC—for Department of Corrections. Abu-Jamal was transferred in January to the general prison population after nearly 30 years in solitary confinement on death row and was permitted physical contact with his wife, children and other visitors for the first time in three decades. He had been sentenced to death in 1982 for the Dec. 9, 1981, killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. His sentence was recently amended to life without parole. The misconduct of the judge, flagrant irregularities in his trial and tainted evidence have been criticized by numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International.

Abu-Jamal, who was a young activist in the Black Panthers and later one of the most important radical journalists in Philadelphia, a city that a few decades

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REAR VIEW

earlier produced I.F. Stone, has long been the bête noire of the state. The FBI opened a file on him when

one inmate in the Pennsylvania correction system, the state simply banned recorded access to all its inmates.

he was 15, when he started working with the local chapter of the Black Panthers. He was suspended

The ban is nicknamed “the Mumia rule.” “I was punished for communicating,” Abu-Jamal says.

from his Philadelphia high school when he campaigned to rename the school for Malcolm X and

Cornel West says in the film: “The state is very clever in terms of keeping track, especially [of] the

distributed “black revolutionary student power” literature.

courageous and visionary ones, the ones that are long-distance runners. You can keep track of them,

Stephen Vittoria’s new film documentary about AbuJamal, “Long Distance Revolutionary,” rather than

absorb ’em, dilute ’em, or outright kill ’em—you don’t have to worry about opposition to ’em.”

revisit the case, chronicles his importance and life as an American journalist, radical and intellectual under

“If you tell them the truth about the operation of our power this is what happens to you,” he goes on. “Like

the harsh realities of Pennsylvania’s death row. AbuJamal has published seven books in prison, including

Jesus on the cross. This is what happens to you.”

his searing and best-selling “Live From Death Row.” The film features the voices of Cornel West, James Cone, Dick Gregory, Angela Davis, Alice Walker and others. It opens in theaters Feb. 1, starting in New York City. In the film Gregory says that Abu-Jamal has single-handedly brought “dignity to the whole death row.”

During my four-and-a-half-hour conversation with Abu-Jamal I was not permitted a pencil or paper. I wrote down his quotes after I left the prison. My time with him mirrors the wider pattern of a society where the poor and the destitute are rendered invisible and voiceless. The breadth of his reading, which along with his

The late historian Manning Marable says in the film: “The voice of black journalism in the struggle for the liberation of African-American people has always proved to be decisive throughout black history. When you listen to Mumia Abu-Jamal you hear the echoes of David Walker, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and the sisters and brothers who kept the faith with struggle, who kept the faith with resistance.”

writing and 3,000 radio broadcasts has kept his mind and soul intact, is staggering. His own books are banned in the prison. In conversation he swings easily from detailed discussions of the Opium Wars between 1839 and 1860 to the Black Panthers to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to the series of legislative betrayals of the poor and people of color by Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. He cites books by Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Huey P. Newton, Assata Shakur, Eric Foner, Gore Vidal,

The authorities, as they did before he was convicted, have attempted to silence him in prison. Pennsylvania

Cornel West, Howard Zinn, James Cone and Dave Zirin. He talks about Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser,

banned all recorded interviews with Abu-Jamal after 1996. In response to protests over the singling out of

“Cinque,” Harriet Tubman, Charles Deslondes, Denmark Vesey and Sojourner Truth. He is reading

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“They know how many cars Jay-Z has” “Masters of War” by Clara Nieto, “How the World Works” by Noam Chomsky, “The Face of Imperialism” by Michael Parenti and “Now and Then” by Gil Scott-Heron. He wonders, as I do, what shape the collapse of empire will take. And he despairs of the political unconsciousness among many incoming prisoners, some young enough to be his children. “When I first got out in the yard and I heard groups of men talking about how Sarah was going to marry Jim or how Frank had betrayed Susan, I thought, ‘Damn, these cats all know each other and their families. That’s odd,’ ” he says. “But after a few minutes I realized they were talking about soap operas. Television in prison is the great pacifier. They love ‘Basketball Wives’ because it is ‘T and A’ with women of color. They know how many cars Jay-Z has. But they don’t know their own history. They don’t understand how they got here. They don’t know what is being done to them. I tell them they have to read and they say, ‘Man, I don’t do books.’ And that is just how the empire wants it. You can’t fight power if you don’t understand it. And you can’t understand it if you don’t experience it and then dissect it.” Abu-Jamal’s venom is reserved for politicians such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, whom he correctly excoriates for speaking in the language of traditional liberalism while ruthlessly disempowering the poor and the working class on behalf of their corporate patrons. And he has little time for the liberals who

“It was Clinton that made possible the explosion of the prison-industrial complex,” he says, speaking of the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill. He looks around the visiting area at the 30-odd prisoners with their families. “Most of these people wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Bill Clinton,” he says of the other inmates. “He and Barack Obama haven’t done anything for poor people but lock them up. And if our first AfricanAmerican president isn’t going to halt the growth of the prison-industrial complex, no president after him is going to do it. This prison system is here to stay. The poor and the destitute feed it. It is the empire’s solution to the economic crisis. Those who are powerless, who have no access to diminishing resources, get locked away. And the prison business is booming. It is one of the few growth industries left. It used to be that towns didn’t want prisons. Now these poor rural communities beg for them. You look down the list of the names of the guards and see two or three with the same last names. This is because fathers, brothers, spouses, work here together. These small towns don’t have anything else.” The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world—742 adults per 100,000. There are some 2.2 million adults incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails. About 5 million are on probation or parole. Seventy percent of the inmates are nonwhite.

support them.

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The Omnibus Crime Bill, pushed through the Senate with the help of Joe Biden, appropriated $30 billion to

FBI while he slept on Dec. 4, 1969. He calls Hampton, who was 21 when he was killed, “one of the bright

expand the nation’s prison program. It gave $10.8 billion in federal matching funds to local governments

lights.” Abu-Jamal chokes up and his eyes glisten with tears. “Fred … ,” he says as his voice trails off.

to hire 100,000 new police officers over five years. It provided $10 billion for the construction of new federal

“It used to be that a politician promised jobs, a chicken in every pot,” Abu-Jamal says. “But in our new national

prisons. It expanded the number of federal crimes to which the death penalty applied from two to 58. It

security state they promise law and order. They get elected by saying they will be tough on crime and by

eliminated an existing statute that prohibited the

calling for the death penalty. Death sells. Fear sells.

“The empire desperately needed a new face, a black face, to seduce the public. This is the role of Barack Obama.” execution of mentally incapacitated defendants. It instituted the three-strikes proposal that mandates life

What was a crime by the state in the 1960s is now legal. The state can wiretap, eavesdrop, listen to phone calls

sentences for anyone convicted of three “violent” felonies. It ordered states to track sex offenders. It

and break into homes. And there is nothing we can do about it. The mass incarceration and the mass

permitted children as young as 13 to be tried as adults. It set up special courts to deport noncitizens alleged to

repression impact every community to make people afraid and compliant.”

be “engaged in terrorist activity” and authorized the use of secret evidence. The prison population during the Clinton presidency jumped from 1.4 million to 2 million. The United States has spent $300 billion since 1980 on the prison system.

“In this place, a dark temple of fear, an altar of political ambition, death is a campaign poster, a stepping-stone to public office … ,” Abu-Jamal has written. “In this space and time, in this dark hour, how many of us are not on death row?”

Abu-Jamal talks in the interview about being a Black Panther and the use of violence as a form of political resistance throughout history. He speaks of visiting the Chicago apartment where Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was shot to death by Chicago police and the

“The brutality of the empire was exposed under George W. Bush,” he says to me. “The empire desperately needed a new face, a black face, to seduce the public. This is the role of Barack Obama. He is the black face of empire. He was pitched to us during the

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most recent presidential campaign by Bill Clinton, the same Clinton who gave us NAFTA in 1994 and abolished good-paying manufacturing jobs for millions of workers. The same Clinton who locked us up. Clinton and Obama represent the politics of betrayal at the heart of the corporatist machinery. And they have fooled a lot of people, especially black people. During slavery, and even post-Reconstruction, there were always a few black people who served the system. The role of these black servants to white power was to teach passivity in the face of repression. This is why Obama is president. Nothing has changed.”

the continuity that modern systems of oppression have with older systems of oppression. “We would not be who we are as African-Americans of this date were it not for the Reverend, the Prophet, Nat Turner—who brilliantly merged the religious with the political,” Abu-Jamal says in the film. “Who didn’t just talk about the world to come but fought to transform the world that is. You know, he is honored and revered today—not because he could quote the Bible well, he could do that, but because he worked in the fields of life to get the slave master off of his neck, off of all of our necks.”

It is only by stepping outside the system, by carrying out acts of civil disobedience, by defying both of the

On the far side of the visiting area are vending

major political parties, that we have any hope of resisting the rise of an oligarchic and totalitarian

machines that dispense White Castle hamburgers, soda, candy and Tastykake cupcakes. We drop in the

corporate system that will finally enslave us all. AbuJamal sees hope in the Occupy movement, largely

prepaid tokens—no money is allowed inside the prison —and the fast food is dumped in the vent. To Abu-

because white middle-class youths are beginning to experience the cruelty of capitalism and state

Jamal, forced to eat prison food, it is a treat, especially the Hershey’s bar. He watches as a boy darts past him

repression that has long been visited on the poor. But, he adds, we must recover our past. We must connect

toward his father.

ourselves to the revolutionaries, radicals and prophets who fought injustice before us. We must defy the

“I didn’t see children for 30 years on death row,” he says softly. “It is a delight to see them here. They are

historical amnesia the corporate state seeks to cement into our consciousness. His book “Faith of Our Fathers:

what is most precious, what the struggle is finally about.”

An Examination of the Spiritual Life of African and African-American People” sets out to do precisely this,

Reprint with permisison from author

to recover a past intellectual and spiritual life for African-Americans that is trivialized, ignored or censored by the dominant culture. He is worried that the mindless diversions of popular culture and the assault by corporate power on education are keeping many from grasping not only what is happening but

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