You Think What?

Moved: Stand Your Ground: Click Here

In the matter of the murder of Trayvon Martin…

Moved: Stand Your Ground: Click Here

 Mounting pressure in the Trayvon Martin tragedy has succeeded in bringing forth the following result:

Just moments ago the federal  Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI announced they will be investigating the murder of Miami Gardens teenager by a neighborhood watch volunteer.

The department announced late Monday it has begun an investigation into the fatal shooting death of an unarmed black teen, Trayvon Martin, in Sanford, Florida by a self appointed neighborhood watch captain. (more…)

The following video is one African American intellectual’s take on the murder of seventeen year-old Trayvon Martin of Miami, Florida. Reports of his February 26, 2012 murder, while completely unarmed, is making headlines around the world. His confessed shooter has not been charged or arrested due to a technicality in the law called “stand your ground”. ( Read more about the so-called “stand your ground law” in a future post.)
(more…)

You may be, like our staff at YouThinkWhat, wondering just what it is Sandra Fluke actually said to cause the fat windbag guy on the radio to call her out of her name.

According to Charlie Spiering of the Washington Examiner.com this is the text of Sandra Fluke’s opening statement, given when she testified before a House Democratic panel in support of the HHS contraception mandate.

My name is Sandra Fluke, and I’m a third-year student at Georgetown Law School. I’m also a past-president of Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice or LSRJ. And I’d like to acknowledge my fellow LSRJ members and allies and all of the student activists with us and thank them so much for being here today.

(Applause)

We, as Georgetown LSRJ, are here today because we’re so grateful that this regulation implements the non-partisan medical advice of the Institute of Medicine.

I attend a Jesuit law school that does not provide contraceptive coverage in its student health plan. And just as we students have faced financial, emotional, and medical burdens as a result, employees at religiously-affiliated hospitals and institutions and universities across the country have suffered similar burdens.

We are all grateful for the new regulation that will meet the critical health care needs of so many women. (more…)

Fine Line Productions-East, a Washington, D.C. video production house, founder, Ron Minor, was fortunate to find a kidney to replace the one that had gone bad. (more…)

Late last month, April 2011, the American public was informed of a last minute amendment tacked on to the federal legislation known as the James Zadroga bill. It’s a legislative act providing funds for health care  of the 911 responders who sustained injury while they worked, sacrificed and even died, at New York City’s World Trade Center as well as supplying money for surviving members of their families. It is a law enacted to help those like the man for whom the bill was named. It was intended to be a way We, the people, remember and reward the people who bravely helped during the tragic collective events we remember as September 11, 2001. It was a date that changed our world forever.

It took nine years to get the law passed to provide treatment for the responders who survive and who are experiencing devastating health issues as a result of breathing toxic fumes at the site of the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings, number 1, 2 and 7. The emergency medical technicians, police and fire personnel inhaled the dusty debris while cleaning up the mess, searching for colleagues and saving lives of those injured and recovering the dead in the rubble.

Unfortunately the man for whom the bill is named died of respiratory disorders during 2006. James Zadroga was a New York City police officer, in fact he is the first NYPD officer whose illness and subsequent death has been attributed to his participation in rescue and recovery operations in the rubble of the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks. Zadroga was the first whose death was attributed to his contact with toxic chemicals at the site of the deadly attack of September 11th 2001.

We learned last month there is a caveat that comes with the bill passed last December during the so called “lame duck” session of the United States Congress. Prior to passage of the bill  congressional representative from Florida’s 6th District  Cliff Stearns suggested an astounding last minute amendment:

Thank you Mr. Chairman.  This basically I’ll give it in one sentence.  Before a person is certified as eligible for the program, the Secretary of Health and Human Services has to confirm with the appropriate federal agency that that person is not a terrorist.  So it’s a simple straightforward amendment.” REP. CLIFF STEARNS, R-FL (5/25/2010)

and received support  from HENRY WAXMAN, a Democrat from Fornicalia

I think it makes a lot of sense, and I’m willing to support it.  All those in favor of the Stearns amendment, say ‘aye’.REP. HENRY WAXMAN, D-CA(5/25/2010)

And as they say “the ayes have it”, allowing the passage of the law with the following amendment in place as reported by reputable news outlets around the nation:

Under the new 9/11 health bill, responders and Ground Zero workers seeking benefits will receive a letter, notifying them that ‘the Act also requires the World Trade Center Program Administrator to determine whether a World Trade Center responder or survivor is on the terrorist watch list prior to his or her enrollment or certification.’ “

We, the people,have knowledge of this most recent added insult to grave injury amendment to a bill intended to help those who were courageous to expose themselves to toxic chemicals and disease when the rest of us were left standing about trying to figure out just what had happened.

The law has been passed. Many of us are feeling helpless. That is why the staff of YouThinkWhat believes the best way for us be helping the individuals and their families who have been damaged by this bad law is to support the efforts of the organizers of an event that will be taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 9, 10, 11, 2011 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the September 11th 2001 attacks, also known as 911,  by commending and raising money to assist the 911 responders.

The event is called 911Remembrance. We’ll have more details  in an upcoming post.

Too bad 44 year-old Jamie C. (J.C.) France, the grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France, the son of Grand-Am founder Jim France; and cousin of Brian France chairman and CEO of NASCAR,  can’t turn back the hands of time to follow the example set by 12 year-old  race car driver, Gray Gaulding. Gaulding has amassed $20K in race winnings so far this year 2010, along with 10 first place wins out of a total of thirty starts.

According to his very supportive parents, the family relocated from Virginia to North Carolina to fuel his racing desires, Gray Gaulding began racing motor bikes at age three. (more…)

We could not escape all this talk in the United States of nuclear weaponry because of the commemoration of the use of the atomic bombs dropped on civilians in Japan in 1945.

We found an  interesting video piece created in 2003 by the  artist  Isao Hashimoto of Japan. We are sure you will be surprised, as were we, to see the number of devices detonated since 1945 up to and including 1998; that’s more than ten years ago. How many more bombs have been tested since 1998? What are our world leaders arming us against?

(more…)

Earlier this month June 2010, Miracles Global Inc, a non-profit organization and its founder Jeffrey C. Jones, a recent Phi Beta Kappa and highest honors graduate of Rutgers University in New Jersey, celebrated the student achievements at the Camden Leadership, Education, and Partnership (LEAP) Academy University Charter School.

LEAP, established in 1997 in partnership with Rutgers University, is a Preschool–12 public charter school in Camden, New Jersey that is dedicated to creating opportunities and improving conditions for the children and families of the city.  (more…)

Who will cry for the little boy?
*By Antwone Fisher

who will cry for the little boy?
Lost and all alone.
Who will cry for the little boy?
Abandoned without his own?

Who will cry for the little boy?
He cried himself to sleep.
Who will cry for the little boy?
He never had for keeps.

Who will cry for the little boy?
He walked the burning sand
Who will cry for the little boy?
The boy inside the man.

Who will cry for the little boy?
Who knows well hurt and pain
Who will cry for the little boy?
He died again and again.

Who will cry for the little boy?
A good boy he tried to be
Who will cry for the little boy?
Who cries inside of me

*Antwone Fisher is an acclaimed best selling author, poet, producer and screenwriter. Fisher is also a survivor of child abuse.

April is the month of springtime renewal. It is also the time when we celebrate the earth and make commitments to saving our planet and preserving it for the next generation of humans, plants and other animals on the land, in the sea and in the air.

April is also  Child Abuse Awareness Month. As we are working to preserve our planet,  wouldn’t it be wonderful to develop humans who are kind and loving to other humans? Wouldn’t it be great if the parents who are nurturing the young ones insure they provide protection and love to help the children develop into well adjusted balanced, caring adults by confronting their own issues of past incidents of abuse? (more…)