Allen Greenspan
September 16th 2007
This speaks for itself…
Archive for the ‘Necessary Posts’ Category
Mahogany Alert - Young Women Tortured in WV
September 12th 2007
It seems like only certain bits of information make it into the eyes of the media. That is why I appreciate small sites and blogs because I find out about information that you don’t normally see on the local or cable news stations. All you hear about is one story and they beat it into the ground. When Vick’s dog fighting case broke it was major, Lohan getting drunk equals front page news, lady shoots her husband in the back and she ends up on Oprah…
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So where is the uproar over Megan Williams?
This is a horrible hate crime that just hit the news. A young black women was tortured by 6 people in West Virginia, all of them white. They sexually assaulted her, tied her up, and kept her locked in a small house for days. This is very sad. Pray for the young women as she is still in the hospital.
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At least my man Roland Martin is asking the same question…where is the outrage when stuff like this happens? (link here)
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AP story on Megan Williams…here
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But whatever the reason, Carmen Williams wants people to know what happened to her daughter. She agreed to talk to a reporter from her daughter’s room at Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital.
She said a man and a woman — who Megan Williams thought were her friends — took her to the house of Frankie Lee Brewster in Pecks Mill, Logan County.
Megan Williams was held in the house for about a week, police said.
According to criminal complaints filed against six people in this case, she was beaten, stabbed, choked, sexually assaulted and threatened with death.
The details are even more horrible. According to the complaints, she was forced to eat dog and rat feces and to lick up blood. She was made to lick parts of Brewster’s body, under the threat of death. Her hair was pulled out. She was made to drink from the toilet. She was sexually assaulted while hot water was poured on her body, and while a man held a knife to her.
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Update: Suspects will not be tried for hatecrimes because other state charges carry stiffer sentences…(here)
911 Reasons to Reflect on Life and Feel Blessed
September 11th 2007
In the summer of 2001 I worked out in New York (Westchester County) about 1 hour away from Manhattan. It was probably the worst internship that I ever had but living in New York was worth the experience. Evey weekend I spent at least one day in the city…went to Queens and saw Shea Stadium, went to a Yankee game, fell asleep on the Phantom of the Opera, visited the churches, museums, Times Square, but there is one thing everyone asks me about that I do not remember.
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Did you go to the Twin Towers?
Honestly, I don’t know. I remember walking past them but at that time it wasn’t a big deal. Wouldn’t that be a blessing if it still wasn’t a big deal. Wouldn’t it be nice If it was just another tourist attraction and people still had offices there.
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Today, I put aside how I feel about the “results” of 9/11 and just reflect. I’m alive, breathing, kids are healthy, wife loves me, I get a check from work every other Thursday, and a roof over my head. Yesterday I ended up not being able to see the first 3 quarters of the ‘Nati because of a blown tire and a bootleg Tivo trippin’. I was hot, steam out the side of the ears hot, but it is a blessing that I get a chance to go through adversity…as hard as it can be sometime, I’m still here to talk about it.
Jena 6 - must watch video
August 31st 2007
This video is from early July but it is a well put together piece that covers the topic well. You need to watch this.
The Jena 6
August 29th 2007
I just became aware of the Jena 6 through an email from a frat brother. They are 6 young black men in Jena, LA each accused of attempted murder. I can fill you in with the backstory but I posted an article (link and story below) that goes through everything. This is essential reading! Also I have put in the video from NBC news on July 31st.
It’s still about race in Jena, La.
July 18, 2007 5:02 p.m. PT
AMY GOODMAN
SYNDICATED COLUMNISTLast week in Detroit, the NAACP held a mock funeral for the N-word. But a chilling case in Louisiana shows us how far we have to go to bury racism. This story begins in the small, central Louisiana town of Jena. Last September, a black high school student requested the school’s permission to sit beneath a broad, leafy tree in the hot schoolyard. Until then, only white students sat there.
The next morning, three nooses were hanging from the tree. The black students responded en masse. Justin Purvis, the kid who first sat under the tree, told filmmaker Jacquie Soohen: “They said, ‘Y’all want to go stand under the tree?’ We said, ‘Yeah.’ They said, ‘If you go, I’ll go. If you go, I’ll go.’ One person went, the next person went, everybody else just went.”
Then the police and the district attorney showed up. Substitute teacher Michelle Rogers recounts: “District Attorney Reed Walters proceeded to tell those kids that ‘I could end your lives with the stroke of a pen.’ ”
It wouldn’t happen for a few more months, but that is exactly what the district attorney is trying to do.
Jena, a community of 4,000, is about 85 percent white. While the black community gathered at a church to respond, others didn’t see the significance. Soohen interviewed Jena town librarian Barbara Murphy, who reflected: “The nooses? I don’t even know why they were there, what they were supposed to mean. There’s pranks all the time, of one type or another, going on. And it just didn’t seem to be racist to me.” Tensions rose.
Robert Bailey, a black student, was beaten up at a white party. Then, a few nights later, Robert and two others were threatened by a white man with a sawed-off shotgun, at a convenience store. They wrestled the gun away and fled. Robert’s mother, Caseptla Bailey, said: “I know they were in fear of their lives. They were afraid that this man was going to shoot them, you know, especially in the back, running away from the scene.”
The next day, Dec. 4, 2006, a fight broke out at the school. A white student was injured, taken to the hospital and released. Robert Bailey and five other black students were charged … with second-degree attempted murder. They each faced 100 years in prison. The black community was reeling.
Independent journalist Jordan Flaherty was the first to break the story nationally. He explained: “I’m sure it was a serious fight, and I’m sure it deserved real discipline within the school system, but he (the white student) was out later that day. He was smiling. He was with friends … it was a serious school problem that came on the heels of a long series of other events … as soon as black students were involved, that’s when the hammer came down.”
The African American community began to call them the Jena Six. The first to be tried was Mychal Bell, 17 years old and a talented football player, looking forward to a university scholarship. Bell was offered a plea deal, but refused. His father, Marcus Jones, took a few minutes off from work to talk to me: “Here in LaSalle Parish, whenever a black man is offered a plea bargain, he is innocent. That’s a dead giveaway here in the South.”
Right before the trial, the charges of attempted second-degree murder were lowered to aggravated battery, which under Louisiana law requires a dangerous weapon. The weapon? Tennis shoes.
Mychal Bell was convicted by an all-white jury. His court-appointed defense attorney called no witnesses. Bell will be sentenced on July 31, facing a possible 22 years. The remaining five teens, several of whom were jailed for months, unable to make bail, still face attempted second-degree murder charges and a hundred years each in prison.
Flaherty, who grew up in New Orleans, sums up the case of the Jena Six: “I don’t think there is anyone around that would doubt that if this had been a fight between black students or a fight of white students beating up a black student, you would never be seeing this. It’s completely about race. It’s completely about two systems of justice.”
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco gained national prominence during Hurricane Katrina. There’s another hurricane that’s devastating the lives of her constituents: racism. The families of the Jena Six are asking her to intervene. The district attorney says he can end the boys’ lives with his pen. But Blanco’s pen is mightier. She should wield it, now, for justice for the Jena Six.
Here are additional articles:
Wilmington Journal
ABC News article on banning “Jena 6″ shirts
If you want to sign the online petition you will find the link below:
Online Petition for the Jena 6
Color of Change Petition for the Jena 6
Sign both petitions and spread the word!
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