You Think What?

Damon Weaver is a student reporter at the Katherine E. Cunningham Elementary School in Canal Point, Palm Beach County, Florida.

You may have seen Damon’s interview of Vice-President-elect Joe Biden during a campaign visit to Palm Beach County last fall. Now Damon wants an interview with President-elect Barack Obama. Watch this video request:
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If you fit the following description you may be eligible to receive free money, not just regular welfare for the citizens but the corporate kind of welfare that usually means cash and a whole lot of it from the government: (more…)

We’ve been hearing about the expected “October Surprise”. Some voters are waiting anxiously for an announcement from the lead terrorist bin Laden or a special unexpected declaration from either major party. YouThinkWhat has its own surprise from contributor MARDU:

OPTIMISM ?  October, 2008

Before I beg your indulgence in my opinions, let me stipulate that regardless of any particular outcome of earthly events, I don’t for an instant believe that it matters in a cosmic sense. To me It is just our little drama.

I feel the need to review, and the presentation of my random thoughts can be disorganized. I’m not the best writer since Vonnegut, or Jefferson, so I struggle to organize.

We are fewer than 3 weeks out from without doubt the most critical election in my lifetime, and I recognize that all have been important in their contexts. We began the process, one is hard pressed to remember when but,I suppose December 2000 is an arguable choice. It is improbable that one can synopsize the intervening period.

As a nation we are so different today than we were then. Events have certainly stacked up.

Our circumstances could hardly have been more altered. WWII was a time of severe societal upheaval.
I was there for that one, and I feel that this time is far more severe.

Mostly, I believe, because of the underlying alteration of our direction as a culture that preceded the successful tampering with a national election.

We had stopped caring about our similarities and focused too much energy on our differences. In doing this we lost sight of our government, which had basically gone into hiding, (more…)

The trial date for the matter of Tonye Allen and Ann Brown has been set in Toronto Ontario Canada for Wednesday, November 21, 2007. (more…)

Another landmark historic event took place on Friday, November 16 2007. There’s a new U.S. Attorney General in D.C. His name is Michael Mukasey and though he was only sworn in a week ago with his ceremonial swearing-in taking place at the Department of Justice this week the National Action Network, Southern Leadership Conference along with radio talk show hosts Warren Ballentine, Tom Joyner, Michael Baisden, Al Sharpton, Steve Harvey and members of the Nation of Islam came to the nation’s capital to present to the new AG the expected agenda during the next few months of his short time in office. Thousands of marchers dissatisfied with the inequality of the American justice system arrived to demonstrate their outrage.

The purpose of the march is to remind the AG he is expected to be accountable to the people. He is expected to protect and defend against hate crimes. The march will also send the message the national black community will no longer stand for the obvious message of disrespect that is sent when nooses are hung for the purpose of intimidation.

Cases such as Genarlow Wilson’s and Mychal Bell and the Jena 6 are indicative of justice system that is determined to be excessively punitive, unreasonably and unequal.

Pay attention Attorney General Michael Mukasey. The people demand you be responsible for enforcing the laws and ensuring their is balance in our justice system.

Everyone is familiar with the statement, “America has become a very litigious society.” Not many people are acknowledging the fact we have become a very punitive society as well.

As a result of the quest for vengeance the courts with our citizen blessing seek to punish excessively anyone who breaks the law.

Daily we read of law enforcement officers, security guards gone wild, enforcing those who are caught committing the most trivial of infractions. Often those who are arrested and jailed are the people who have little or no access to proper legal representation at trial.

That is why it is our responsibility as citizens to become educated about the laws in our areas. That is why we must educate our children as to the consequences of their actions, youthful indiscretions included, so that we can save our youth.

Remember the children are our most precious resource. Without the children we have no future. We must do all we can to save our young people. We think it is in the best interest of our future as a nation to provide financial support for the work of organizations like the Baisden Foundation-Unequal Justice Fund to provide competent attorneys to represent those who are the recipients of American injustice. Enough is indeed enough!

In the last article we stated facts about prisons in America today and who makes up the population. Mostly the imprisoned person is uneducated, black and male.

Vesla Mae Weaver, a political scientist, has put forth her a logical deduction. In her recently completed dissertation Weaver examines policy history, public opinion and media. Weaver suggests understanding the role these entities have played and continue to play in the alteration of the American justice system will also make clear how race has been an important part of U.S. social policy. She postulates there is a strong connection between the movement for civil rights and the development of punitive criminal justice

This is the reason why we have changed over to being less forgiving toward those who violate any of “the rules”. Our current policy for imprisonment keeps alive the the longstanding racist American tradition of sublimating social meanings that have always been associated with being black. Race is one component in explaining why the U.S. numbers for persons confined to penal institutions is so exceptional among democratic industrial nations.

The turn toward being a more punitive society represents a political response to the success of the civil rights movement. Weaver calls the process “frontlash”. Those who are in opposition of the revolutionary changes brought about because of the civil rights movement have sought to regain and in many cases have succeeded in regaining the dominance by bringing to the public more frequently a new issue.

It makes sense that instead of poring energy and resources into fighting a battle that clearly had already been lost segregationists such as the late Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the former Republican Senate majority leader Trent Lott, even President Reagan and G.H.W. Bush, chose to move attention to a asocial issue that concerns everyone irrespective of race. It’s an allegedly race neutral matter. The best example of the effectiveness of this new strategy is the presidential campaign of the late George Wallace, former governor of Alabama, staunch segregationist whose war on crime campaign gained support in the Midwest sectors of the U.S.. In fact crime has become a staple platform for presidential candidates ever since.

Though Weaver’s argument is speculative there is astrong correlation between the general public attitude on the subject of race and welfare. Both have in the past 30 years become linked. In the American mind race is associated with welfare as is race associated with crime.

Despite the fact drug use has declined along with other crime statistics antidrug campaigns with the attendant restrictive laws and arrests have increased with blacks more than 5 times as likely to be arrested and jailed.

Young whites use drugs more frequently than young blacks. But our society has elected to criminalize underclass teens to save middle-class teens from the so-called threat of a drug epidemic. The price of street drugs has declined as the number of arrests have increased.

Continued next post

As we stated previously we are overjoyed about the news of the release of Genarlow Wilson. We see the nightmare ending for the entire Wilson family as well as Wilson himself. We wish them all better days in the future. We are grateful for them. We appreciate the diligence of some civil rights leaders and attorneys who worked for Wilson’s release after spending more than 2 years in prison for what should have always been classified under Georgia law as a misdemeanor.

However, as we write this article, in this moment, we know there are many thousands of families having the same or similar reality as they battle the justice system to secure the release of their youthful loved one who have been wrongfully imprisoned. Whether you are black, white, young, old, male, female, rich or poor everyone is affected by our society’s determination to be vindictive for even minor breaches of the law, any law or rule. Some portions of the population are impinged upon more than others.

During the past weekend a fund raiser event was held in Atlanta sponsored by the Baisden Foundation in conjunction with the National Bar Association. As you may know the Baisden Foundation is the result of the efforts made by radio personality and tv talk show host Michael Baisden who helped to organize the successful March on Jena Louisiana in support of the Jena 6. (more…)

This solemn holiday, originally known as Armistice Day, officially declared by President Woodrow Wilson one year after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the peace treaty which brought World War I to an end, was to be a day in which Americans would reflect “with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…” The idea for the observance was to stop business affairs for two minutes beginning at 11 A.M. — the hour the treaty had been signed. Parades and public gatherings would also make the day distinctive.However, nearly ninety years after the first Veterans’ Day observances were held we find the day marked with special sales events for everything from furniture to clothing, Ipods and cars. There is no two minutes of silence as the wheels of commerce turn. Many employers do not even give the day as a company holiday. If it were not for the fact this year the date comes on Sunday a goodly amount of Americans would not have the day off. (more…)

How do you know you’ve really achieved star status?

Just ask Star Jones of Court TV. Jones has had to take the time to clarify what seems to us a very simple matter of non-performance of a contractual agreement on the part of some pretty sleazy individuals. (more…)