The Essence of Politics

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

From Hoping to Believing to Empowering

Good (Morning/Afternoon/Evening)!

I am thankful to stand here before you today because I am a part of the “New Generation of Leadership” that our nation not only needs but wants.

I am here today because of a Generation of Warriors who hoped for a better future and because of a Generation that believed a better future was possible. I am standing here today as that Generation that is empowered by the hopes and beliefs of those Generations that came before us but we are encouraged and empowered by what those Generations installed in us in the form of hoping and believing.

We as a nation have come far as we have went from a nation of hoping to a nation of believing and through believing we have started empowering this Generation which I am a part of to not only hope but to believe that the future is brighter than ever.

We cannot stand here and think that through hoping that the future will simply be better because hope can only get us so far. It is when we mix that hope with believing that our future will be better and we can really start to see the change that we have needed and wanted for so long.

However it is now that we start to see that through hoping and believing that we are starting to empower others to hope and believe that our future will be better than ever. We are empowering a “New Generation of Leadership”, in which I am a part of, to take hold of this nation’s future like never before.

With so much at stake from our nation’s economic security to our nation’s standing in the world, the odds of us bouncing back might seem gloomy and dark. However we have faced worst and have been able to manage dark days before in order to see glorious triumph days of magnificent heights.

Our nation has managed to deal with slavery, a revolutionary war, a civil war, two World Wars, the Great Depression, Jim Crow, terrorist attacks but none as powerful & memorable as September 11, and natural disasters but none as deadly & terrible as Hurricane Katrina but through it all our hopes never wavered and our beliefs only got stronger as our nation’s “Beckon of Hope” got brighter and the “American Dream” strengthened.

We have never seen anything more glorious and more powerful than this great nation but through it all, we have empowered not only our own citizens to believe that their hopes and dreams could be attainable but we have empowered other nations and their citizens to believe their hopes and dreams were possible.

We have truly become a nation that has gone from hoping to believing to empowering and that is why I am standing here before you today delivering this message that we are empowered by our grandparents’ generation of hope and our parents’ generation of believing to succeed by any means necessary.

Our time is now because we have become not only empowered but inspired to make life a whole lot better for the Generations to follow us which will not be called the Generations of Hope or Believing like our grandparents or parents but instead they will be called the Generations of “Reclaiming the American Dream” or “The New American Dream”.

This is what we are faced with in this nation and this is why we are stronger as a nation because we have went from hoping to believing to empowering. Our nation can believe that our future will be different because of the decisions we make today and the actions that we take today. It is clear that our time for real change lies within each one of us and not in merely the words of our bureaucrats or charismatic leaders.

We have come too far to look back on our past. I’m not telling us to forget our past but don’t allow our past to become our future because just look at our present and how our past has hindered our present standing in some ways and has improved our present standing in other ways.

We cannot continue to sit here and talk about our past in a way that we hold a grudge toward where we have come from but instead we have to learn from our past in order to make sure that the past missteps and shortcomings that have damaged our present and perhaps have put our future in limbo will not occur again.

Our nation is better than what we found it as and that is why we must all work to leave it better than how we found it. This is not only our right but it is the right thing to do. Our nation is ours because others paved the way to create this great nation that is full of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and we have to live up to those values as well as the American values of patriotism, loving our nation through good and bad, and service.

We are a nation of service where we serve to not only make the hopes of others come true but where we serve to make the beliefs of others a reality thus showing that through service we can empower others to want to serve this great nation of ours.

This is what our nation was built on and this is why our nation will continue to grow and prosper. We cannot allow our nation to falter and we cannot allow it to stay stigma or dogma in the past practices of yesterday but we must re-write and repave our nation’s history as well as install a “New Generation of Leadership” that has the ideas that will “Put this Country’s People First” in the hopes that in turn it will “Put this Country First” so that we are back on track to reclaiming the “American Dream” and make it not only real again but whole again.

This is where we are at and this is why we are going to see brighter days. We are going to see days filled with prosperity.

Days filled with change.

Days filled with liberty.

Days filled with equality.

Days filled with hope.

Days filled with believing.

Days filled with the epitome of happiness.


This is what our nation can be filled with and this is what our Generation is challenged with making it as. We all have to play a role in shaping this nation in that image of tranquility and peace. We all have to play a role in shaping this nation in that image of love and happiness.

America this is our time. This is our moment to prove to not only ourselves but to the world that we are that “Shining Light” on top of the Hill. We are that “Beckon of Hope” and we all know what we can do with hope. We can move mountains with a little bit of hope but we can part rivers, seas and oceans when we combine that hope with believing. Now that is truly a powerful combination.

Hoping and Believing is the type of combination that can only empower, inspire and encourage others to want to not just be great but to be greater than anyone ever expected them to be.

That is the type of attitude that we must have for our nation. We must want our “Great” nation to be “Greater” than we ever expected it to be. We have to want our nation to be something more than we expected it to be and that is the type of attitude that will help us make this country “Greater” than it has ever been.

This is not the type of attitude we have in this great nation right now but this is the type of attitude we can get by not only hoping and believing but empowering others to hope and believe that our nation’s time to shine higher than ever is not just now but right now.

This is the “Audacity of Hope” that was written about. This is the “Power of Believing” that was talked about. And this is the “Tenacity of Empowering” that we can and will achieve as we rebuild America into its greatest image ever.

This is our time.

This is our moment.

This is our moment to change America.

This is our time to hope.

This is our time to believe.

This is our time to empower.

Our time is not now but right now.


Are you ready to help lead this country into the new future? Are you ready to put your country first? Are you ready to make the lives of your fellow neighbors easier right alone with making your life easier? Are you ready to not only hope and believe again but to empower as well?

WE are ready to lead this nation.

WE are ready to put our country first.

WE are ready to make our lives and our neighbors lives easier.

WE are ready to hope.

WE are ready to believe.

WE are ready to empower.

WE are ready to hope and believe in order to empower.

WE are ready to make America greater than ever before.


This is where we can be and this is where we want to go. America this is our time and this is our moment. This is our “Beckon of Hope” that we are starting to see shine brighter than ever.

This is our “Audacity Hope!”

This is our “Power of Believing!”

This is our “Tenacity of Empowering!”


WE have truly gone from Hoping to Believing to Empowering! That is what we have done and this is the future we are paving for ourselves.

So continue to hope, continue to believe and continue to empower others to hope and believe so that we can make our nation “Greater” than it has ever been.

Early Vote in Ohio


The last day to register is October 6, and you can vote early starting September 30. Visit http://oh.barackobama.com for more info. If you are in a state where you can early vote than vote early in order to avoid long lines on Tuesday, November 4 because you never know what might come on November 4. So make sure you vote early and get it out the vote. Make your vote count early so you can volunteer or a political campaign on November 4 and you can help get the vote out on election day because that is crucial to any election day campaign.

DISSING COUSINS: OBAMA, CHENEY, BUSH RELATED--By HASANI GITTENS

October 17, 2007

Who says Barack Obama doesn't have what it takes to be president? Turns out, he's a distant cousin of both Dick Cheney and George Bush.

The vice president's wife, Lynne Cheney, announced her discovery yesterday while hawking her new book, "Blue Skies, No Fences," on MSNBC.

When asked if she would support Hillary Rodham Clinton because she is a woman, Lynne Cheney said, "I have to admit to a certain bias here . . . Dick and Barack Obama are eighth cousins."

Mrs. Cheney said that it was "an amazing American story that one ancestor . . . could be responsible down the family line for lives that have taken such different and varied paths."

Then asked if she supported Obama she quickly said, "No."

Obama's camp made light of the family ties. "Every family has a black sheep," said spokeswoman Jen Psaki, with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

The Chicago Sun-Times revealed the genealogical link in early September, claiming that the shared ancestors were Mareen and Susannah Duvall, 17th century immigrants from France.

The newspaper, however, claimed that the senator from Illinois and the vice president were 11th cousins.

The Duvalls are Obama's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, and Cheney's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, the paper said.

George W. Bush and Obama, meanwhile, are 10th cousins once removed - linked through a 17th century Massachusetts couple, Samuel Hinckley and Sarah Soole, according to the Sun-Times.

hasani.gittens@nypost.com

Register to Vote in Michigan by October 6


Go to http://www.VoteForChange.com to register in Michigan by October 6! Simply put if you stay in Michigan I want you to register to vote but overall I want all Americans, all across this great nation to register to vote by October 6 so you can vote this year’s Presidential, local and state election on November 4 or before than if you vote by absentee ballot. Also don’t just register by October 6 and simply just vote in this year’s election but vote in every local, state and national election. Vote every year and every time there’s an election. Vote it’s not only your right but it’s the right thing to do.

Students Register to Vote in Michigan


College students should register to vote in Michigan. Go to http://MI.barackobama.com/M... College Students all across America need to vote like college students in Michigan are registering to vote for the first time or are re-registering in the state. College students need to turn out in large numbers because we are the future of America and our voice is needed in every election—local, state and national elections.

Strong Ad


This is a John McCain ad talking about McCain being strong enough lead America and Obama being too weak to be America’s 44th President.

"Same Path" Ad


In "Same Path" Senator Obama tells America he knows we can steer ourselves out of this crisis, but not by driving down the very same path and how that's what this election's all about. On the air. The reality is that Obama is right but isn’t that what every election is about. Changing the course or path we are currently or staying on the same path. Something to think about.

VoteForChange.com: Ashton and Demi


Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore want you to get registered to vote! Even if you think you're registered, visit http://www.VoteForChange.com to check. It seems the celebrity status that McCain has labeled Obama with is true as more celebrities are doing commercial ads telling people to register to vote and make sure they are registered by going to the Vote For Change website. Obama is doing a wonderful job with his get out the vote effort but I just want all these celebrities to take more stances on political and social issues besides just doing election time or every 4 years. We need our celebrities taking more of an active role in social issues that plague both America and the world. That is truly change that we need right here, right now.

Alaska's Political Circus Ad


Another ad by the McCain campaign talking about the political circus in Alaska that has erupted since the announcement of Governor Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate. It is clear that Alaska has never gotten this much media or political attention until now. It’s a shame that most states in the United States don’t get the media exposure it deserves because we have some beautiful places in the United States that our media needs to highlight and capture so that more tourists will want to visit all 50 of states.

Empty Words Ad


This is another ad by the John McCain campaign but it is a negative ad that is saying Barack Obama promises nothing but empty words to the American people. It is clear that this election is about to turn for the worse in terms of negative ads.

Rein Ad


This is the latest John McCain campaign ad and it shows former President Bill Clinton praising McCain. It is an interesting ad.

Why Name Recognition Will Make Coleman Young A Winner by Akindele Akinyemi


Here we go again. The disease that is killing voters in the City of Detroit.

Name recognition.

This time we have Coleman A. Young II, the current state representative in District 4. He has decided to run for Mayor of the City of Detroit.

Hell, I cannot even blame him. I mean, his father, the late Coleman A. Young, ran the city for 20 years.

But once again we cross this disease called name recognition. While I think Dave Bing would be a good choice for Detroit I am confident that Coleman Young will win the seat because of name recognition.

My question is why are people in Detroit even thinking about electing him as Mayor? What type of executive experience does he have to qualify him to run a city?

It all stem back to adult illiteracy. With the Black middle class moving out of the City of Detroit, a failing economy, a public school district that is $400 million in the hole and neighbors stripping houses like cars I can see why Rep. Young would jump into the race.

To carry on his father's legacy. Who would not do a honorable thing. But Detroit right now do not need anything honorable. The city needs action. With a broken Black caucus in Lansing I cannot even fathom who Rep. Young would run for office.

If he is not for regionalization, privatizing city services and bringing in more educational options for our families then he is another obstruction to progress. What is his plan for keeping families in Detroit who live in unsafe areas and paying astronomical property taxes? We need more than just a Subway answer to tackle this crisis.

Hey, at least when he wins the Mayoral election District 4 will be an open seat again. He will win because those senior citizens will elect him to keep them in the past about what his father did when he ran Detroit. I am not confident that Rep. Young will reach out to our out-county neighbors for regional cooperation. The reason? His followers will remind him how racist White people are in Oakland and Macomb Counties. They will remind him how the Republicans have decimated Detroit and how we need to hold on to the city jewels.

Rita Jordan for State Representative in 2010 in District 4....that is all folks.

Other websites to check out with Akindele:
http://www.michiganminorityreport.com/
http://www.indianaminorityreport.com/
http://www.whoisakindele.info/
http://www.onenetwork.bravehost.com/
http://www.brotherakindele.com/
http://www.blackconservative.net/
http://www.onechoicepac.com/
www.myspace.com/akindele
www.blackplanet.com/akindele
www.nationalcenter.org/bios/P21Speakers_Akinyemi.html

"Anger Gives Me Focus..Makes Me Stronger..Keeps Me Sharp"

Monday, September 29, 2008

Top Obama Surrogate Votes NO on Bailout Bill

As Barack Obama went on the campaign trial, 94 rank and file profile Democrats voted "No" on the proposal bailout bill that Obama supported along with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, House Banking and Finance Chair Barney Frank and Senate Banking and Finance Chair Chris Dodd. Obama said he would support the bill but he couldn't even persuade the House Judicial Chair John Conyers to support it yet along the National Co-Chair of his campaign Jesse Jackson Jr. to support the bill. This is truly a new wrinkle to the bailout proposal that failed. While I support Congressman Jackson's decision, I wonder why couldn't the Democrats get their own party members to support the bill and I wonder why Barack Obama couldn't get one of his top surrogates to support the bailout bill that had his amendments included in it.

Congressman Jackson's Vote on the Bailout Bill
Yesterday at 3:12pm
JACKSON VOTES "NO" ON FLAWED BAILOUT BILL
Releases Statement: It's a Band-Aid Not A Cure, Does Little for Main Street,
The American People deserve a fair deal, not a quick deal.

"Today, I voted NO on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, a $700 billion earmark for Wall Street. Although this bill is a tremendous improvement over the legislation proposed by the Bush Administration last week, it still falls short of what is needed to shore up the economy, protect taxpayers and promote economic growth. We have gone from Roosevelt's New Deal, to Reagan's Raw Deal, to Bush's Quick Deal. The American People are demanding a Fair Deal and on November 4th will elect Fair Dealers.

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Chairman Barney Frank and Chairman Chris Dodd should be commended for their efforts to improve the seriously flawed bailout proposed by the Bush Administration. I am confident that Democrats will continue working to fix and improve the dismal fiscal situation created by the laissez faire policies of President Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress.

"This bill is simply a band aid not a cure for the financial crisis, and it does little for the hard-working Americans who will pay for it. It does not go far enough in addressing the systemic and terminal problems of our financial system. It further privatizes profits and socializes the losses. This crisis started because of the home mortgage market, yet this legislation merely suggests that the Treasury Secretary implement a plan to mitigate foreclosures and to encourage servicers of mortgages to modify loans. There is no explicit directive to actively restructure mortgages. Furthermore, the bill does not allow bankruptcy judges to restructure troubled mortgages.

"To heal the systemic problems in our financial system we need to treat the cause, not only the symptoms. Congress needs to pass and the president needs to sign into law the following provisions: 1) a second stimulus to help those squeezed by the financial crisis; 2) a substantial investment in infrastructure which could jump start the economy while creating jobs, and; 3) a program that helps keep taxpayers in their homes. This bill does not contain provisions that explicitly help borrowers restructure their mortgages. Buying 'trash (bad mortgages) for cash ($700 billion bailout)' may not cure our financial system, since it was these bad mortgages that engineered this market collapse," said Jackson.

Register in Michigan by October 6th


The voter registration deadline is October 6th.
Featuring Senator Barack Obama, Senator Joe Biden, Senator Carl Levin, Sean Astin, George Lopez, Adam Brody, Will.i.am, Tatyana Ali, Congressman John Conyers, Rachael Leigh Cook, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Ishmael Ahmed, Governor Jennifer Granholm, Michael Murphy, Michigan State Senator Mark Schauer, and Former Governor Jim Blanchard.

America--Our Beckon of Hope Is Brighter than Ever

America! Oh how do I love thee!

I come before you today America with a message that is not of partisanship or bi-partisanship but I bring you a message of Patriotism and Americanism.

We are all Americans—some black, some white, and some brown but we are all Americans.

We are all Americans—some young and some old but we are all Americans.

We are all Americans—some educated and some uneducated but we are all Americans.

We are all Americans—some speak only English and some who speak English as well as other languages but we are all Americans.

America our beckon of hope has never been better because today is the day that we fight back against the differences that we have plagued us and have kept us divided. We are all Americans and as Americans we must realize that our differences are only temporary but our patriotism is forever.

America, our whole life is about hope, perseverance, determination and the willingness to fight as well as the neighborliness to lend a helping hand to a fellow American in need as well as our power to forgive our neighbor for their sins. Today is the day when the shadows of racism, sexism, bigotry and discriminatory practices finally end because we the people of this great nation cannot and will not tolerate the past practices of our ancestors but we look for a higher guiding light to bring us to the “Future America and the World” that we seek to rejoice and marvel in.

America we are at the moment of clarity when we have realized that our beckon of hope is brighter than ever and our moment of certainty has never been as powerful as it is now. Today is our day America. We must seize the day as one when our hopes turned into us believing and our believing turned into us empowering. Today is the day when we meet with brothers and sisters all across this great nation and demand more from not only our nations’ leaders but our local and state leaders as well as our world leaders.

Today is the day when we stand with the rest of the world and demand more for the people of not only our own nation but the rest of the world. Today is the day that we begin to rebuild America and the world in the image that we the people of this great nation along with the rest of the people in this world believe it should be shaped in.

A world where senseless violence is weeded out and diplomacy is always the first, second and third option by all means. A world where poverty is wiped out and homelessness both at home and abroad is the main agenda of every nation’s government. A world where America is looked at as not a foe but an ally that is willing to lend a help as well as accept assistance from the rest of the world in order to maintain peace throughout the world.

America our time is now to show the rest of the world just how powerful and how mighty America is not only with our military but with our diplomacy, our intellect, and most of all our service to the world. America our time to show that we are leaders has never been much clearer than it is now because we must take the bold stances that other nations will not take in fighting against global warming, poverty, war, dictatorships, weapons of mass destruction, HIV/AIDS, terrorism, malaria, genocides, and most of all making sure that nuclear weapons stay out of the hands of dangerous groups and people.

America our moment is now. Our moment to show the world that we are willing to take the lead on issues that will keep stability and peace in the world is now. Our beckon of hope, prosperity, liberty and justice for all has never shined brighter.

America we are ready to take on the challenges in this 21st century and we can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch as the rest of the world looks for help but we must use our diplomatic power of influence to be the help the rest of the world needs. We must reach out to not only our allies and strengthen those lines of communications between our friends and us but we must reach out to quote on quote enemies and figure out why we are even enemies and look to build new lines of communications with them so perhaps they will one day become our ally.

These are just a few of the things that we as a nation face abroad but our challenges abroad are just a part of what America faces overall. For years, we as Americans have had to focus on our challenges abroad while at the same time leaving some of our challenges at home in limbo. However our time to focus on America both home and abroad is not just now but right now.

We are facing many challenges at home from home foreclosures, to a climbing jobless rate, mounting healthcare bills, soaring crime rates, and an American infrastructure that is slowly but surely crumbling with each breath we take. Well our time to change all of this is now. Our time to rebuild America’s image at home is now. The Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave and the birthplace of Equality are just a small piece of the American Dream that we all as Americans share.

America we are gathered here today to focus on not our differences but our similarities. We are gathered here today to not highlight why we are pro-choice or pro-life but we are here to find common ground to solve the issue of infant mortality rates. We are here to not only discuss the state of our education system and whether public schools are better than private or charter schools but we are here to come to a common ground on how we can ensure all of America’s children not only obtain a world class education but they are receiving some of our best and brightest learning practices and techniques that man can offer.

We are gathered here today not to simply talk about race relations in America but to find common ground on how we can fight against police brutality, the inaccuracies in our justice system and the inaccuracies in our prison systems. We are here today to not only re-write the pages of history but to re-write the pages of our democracy in order put government back on the side of the people.

America we must not only find a way but we have to find a way to have a more open dialogue on issues that separate us and begin to at least find a medium to either agree to disagree or find a better understanding of each other’s backgrounds, our hardships and our strife’s in order to understand each other’s perspective on life. America we are the world’s melting pot but we must be the world’s melting pot legally not illegally.

America we must protect our borders and ports because our border and port security both to the east and west is essential to not only the protection of our families when it comes to the products that come in from our trade partners but our borders to the north and particularly to our south are important to providing safety to our jobs in this country as well as securing our economic wealth in most cases.

We must find a common ground on our borders and the illegal immigration issue because we don’t want to separate parents from kids who were born in this country but we have rules and laws that must be abided by all our citizens in this great nation so we can’t continue to allow the law to be broken. We must draft or redraft laws that allow those parents to stay if they pass our immigration policies and pay a substantial fine or fee for each day that they were illegally in this country.

We must keep American jobs for the American people and we have to seek, prosecute and fine any business in America that is hiring illegal immigrants because we can’t allow these illegal practices to break the bank of the American economy. America the stakes have never been higher in this country when our children are at risk from lead based toys made in China and our food is at risk from chemicals that could cause harm to many of our friends, neighbors and family members.

America we cannot simply ignore all of these issues but we must fight to find solutions these issues that are in the best interest of the American people and tell our government to act now to solve these problems. We must tell our government to act on the side of the people and we must truly start putting our country first. That cannot be just a slogan but it must be the actions of our elected officials.

America we need change and that cannot just be words but it must be the actions of our elected officials that bring about this change.

America the stakes have never been higher and riskier with our economic future at risk each day we don’t act to change the policies of the housing industry or our trade practices. We must act now to start looking out for the people and start making sure that America home made products and produce are the priority of our local, state and national leaders.

We must act now America in order to protect our national interests by securing our borders and working to ensure that English is the national language spoken by all our citizens that want to enjoy in America’s rich and historic history. However America, we must do more to compete in the world and that’s why we as American’s must encourage our youth to learn another language so that they can compete with the likes of children from other countries who come here in pursuit of the “American Dream.”

What we must understand as Americans is that many children across the world speak at least two languages with English being one of them along with their national heritage language. Therefore is it a must that our world class education must consist of our nation’s children learning another language starting in the 3rd or 4th grade and having it carry on with them until college.

America we cannot allow our children’s future to be nullified in the old educational practices of yesterday but we must look to the future for new innovative educational practices that will not only enable our children to compete globally but will make America the greatest nation in the world when it comes to education.

America our problems are grave but our willingness to re-write our problems and make them our strengths is the way of the American people. We have to start thinking about rebuilding America’s infrastructure particularly our neighborhoods in the inner cities. Many of our inner cities look like wastelands and that is no way for a country full of wealth and prosperity to allow its people to live.

Therefore we must find a way to tear down abandoned homes and replace them with new lavish & luxurious homes that are not only affordable to the middle class but are affordable to the poor and rich as well. We must find a way to not only build condos in our inner city downtowns but we must make those condos affordable to both the poor and middle class.

Don’t get we wrong, the poor, middle and rich classes each have to take a sense of responsibility in taking care of these properties because that is the only way these places will grow in value.

America we have to stop treating our poor like they are inferior and helpless but we must build our poor up to be our middle class and our middle class to be our rich class and our rich class to be the even richer class. America this is the Dream, we haven’t fulfilled and have left unanswered for many American’s.

America our poor and middle class need our help more than ever and those are the ones that don’t just need a helping hand but they need training to find adequate jobs that will help them meet their needs in terms of paying their rent, car note, health bills and other bills.

We must rebuild our inner cities by rebuilding our parks and recreation centers so that people will want to move back to the homes and places of living we have provided and raise families that in turn will create a tax base for inner cities where shops, stores and businesses will want to come to and set up shop. We must rebuild our inner cities by re-paving city streets and make sure they are safe to drive on and by making sure there is adequate lighting on city streets so that those communities are safe day and night from predators and those who prey on the good folks of our nation.

America we must rebuild America’s infrastructure by paving our roads and highways so that the potholes that destroy so many of our cars no longer exist. We have to stop spending money on our roads and highways summer after summer to make sure our roads are perfectly fixed & paved evenly. However we must find a better way to pave our roads and highways as well as our streets so that we shouldn’t be re-paving the same problem every year or two years. We need to invest in better technology and techniques to provide a better road paving mechanism in our nation.

America we must rebuild America’s infrastructure by investing in rebuilding and remodeling America’s bridges so that each bridge in America is where it needs to be in terms of being functionally superior for us as American’s to walk, drive or jog on. We must look to make America safer and this is just one step toward it.

One of the way’s we can make America safer besides protecting our borders and ports & rebuilding our infrastructure is by making sure we put enough police and firefighters on the streets of our cities and towns. We need to provide our citizens with the same type of protection that our nation’s leaders are provided and that’s why our police and firefighters need to not only have the same type of training of our nation’s FBI but some of our military agencies and other defense department agencies.

The safety of our nation’s citizens is our top priority and that is what we need now more than ever. America we have much to change and far to go but trust me, we can do it as a nation united rather than a nation divided. America we might disagree on which issue is the most important but we do agree that we have tons of issues we need to address.

America we have tons of health issues we need to address from cancer to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases to heart attacks and birth defects as well as many other health issues. However America, be assured that every American will be ensured with the best health care coverage that our nation can provide. America please be asssured that we will fight against insurance companies who try to cut costs to you the citizens of America on drugs that your doctors recommend for you to take because they are the best on the market and have proven to save lives.

America our nation’s health insurance companies cannot be playing Russian roulette with the lives of so many American’s. That is something we cannot and will not tolerate. Health Insurance companies should not be in the business of saving money but they should be in the business of saving lives. That is why this is not only our time but this is our moment right here, right now America.

America we can’t allow big business or big corporations to override the rule of the people and the needs of the people. America our beckon of hope has never been brighter and that is why we are gathered here today to address all the issues that plague us both abroad and at home.

We are gathered here today as Americans to help in the glory of America’s future and the prosperity of America’s Beckon of Hope as we not only RECLAIM the AMERICAN DREAM but make it a reality.

America this is Our Moment!

America this is Our Time!

America the time for Change is not NOW but Right NOW!

America we are the Change we want to see both home and abroad!

America we are ready to not only Change the world but to Change America for good!

America our BECKON of HOPE is Brighter than ever!

America, the America Dream will be within reach of all Americans!

America we have to stop hoping and start believing and empowering!

America we must not only empower our fellow Americans with the can do and will do spirit & attitude but we must empower the world with the same spirit & attitude!

America we are READY!

WE are READY to LEAD!

WE are READY to SERVE!

WE are READY to PUT OUR COUNTRY FIRST!

WE are the FUTURE OF AMERICA AND THE WORLD!

Thank you America! God Bless you!

DUMBOCRACY—Dumb It Down For the People


"Dumb It Down" viral music video from THE COOL album by Lupe Fiasco—www.lupefiasco.com
I would like to take this opportunity to tell my fellow Americans thank you for succeeding where no other generation or society of people has ever gone before. This is truly historical shameful times in America and we the American people have succeeded where no one else would ever want to go as this nation takes a settled Republic and dismantled its form of government by turning this democracy into something that looks a lot more like Dumbocracy—and then has had the audacity to wonder why the world thinks we’re crazy.

The answer to that question is not a simple one but the reality is that many people have been trying to figure out why Americans do not react to what this nation is doing in the world today, both at home and abroad. While the answer might be much simpler than many of us imagined but initially it appeared that Americans were either just asleep or were willfully blind to all that is and was being done in our name. While it appears very much that the American population is behaving like a herd of dumb animals, slavishly following orders from a certifiable “leader’ who has no qualifications, no leadership skills and no accompanying track record that could ever have justified the failures of President George W. Bush in the office that he now occupies. The reality is that the Bush’s cabinet has been filled with equally unqualified people who collectively have no experience in military matters, or in the administration of anything meaningful or real. Therefore why does this nation credit this spoiled offspring from a truly criminal family, this AWOL coward who ran away on 9/11 instead of doing anything at all to interrupt the attacks of that day? Why has Bush not yet explained himself to the nation or the world for his hide & seek tactics that started on 9/11 but continued during Hurricane Katrina as he just flew over the damage on his way to his ranch in Texas rather than land in New Orleans and really survey the damage done to the Gulf Coast region?

So now as President Bush asks for a $700 billion dollar bailout and tells us that if this bailout doesn’t take place it could pose grave damages for America’s economy. President Bush and others spoke about the grave dangers of what could happen without this bailout the stock market and the American economy could fail and result in some of the largest market loses in America’s history. Low and behold when the House was set to take a vote on the bailout, the stock market begin to fall and at the end of the day, the American stock market closed nearly 800 points down as the House of Representatives voted “NO” to the bailout proposal otherwise known as the Financial Market Bill. Thus with all that said, many intelligent American people who have disagreed with Bush the last 8 years and his policies including the war in Iraq, now all of sudden agree with President Bush and his proposed bailout plan that was modified by both Republicans and Democrats. How can so many intelligent American people now all of sudden agree with President Bush Plan A plan on the economy that is similar to the Plan A plans that he gave us in regards to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since when do as the American people only go with Plan A and not have a Plan B, C, D, or E on the table or at least an emergency plan on the table just in case something happens.

It seems as if we the American people are simply being hoodwinked and bamboozled by President and the rest of our political officials with simply scare tactic after scare tactic that is filled with language of if we don’t do this, it would lead to economic doom. What type of economic doom are we talking about? Has anyone explained that in terms that we the American people would under? The answer to that is no. President Bush gave a prime time speech that was suppose to tell us the American people why this bailout is necessary and what the grave dangers of not passing this bailout could mean to our economic future. In the mid nineteen-thirties Sinclair Lewis wrote "It Can't Happen Here" and in that novel he concluded: " where in all history has there ever been a people so ripe for a dictatorship as ours!" Even today the U.S. Senate cannot bring itself to apologize to the victims of lynching - 4,743 people killed (illegally) between 1882 and 1968," and we call ourselves a civilized nation! Well to be entirely fair to the members of the U.S. Senate, they did pass legislation apologizing for slavery but not all the lynching practices and deaths that came about from the practices of slavery. We the people of the Untied States of America have taken a dire situation and intensified the risks, destroyed the impediments that might have slowed the rise of anarchy, and all the while we have remained deaf, dumb, and blind to what we are creating—WHY?

If the dead of all those wars we entered into—to "Make the World Safe for Democracy"—were to be heard on this subject the chorus would be deafeningly opposed to our present course of action. Yet the public in its bubble world of profits and power continues on the one sure path that will bring death and ruination to all the Outlaws say they represent. These men and women who died in our wars would not applaud what has been done with the sacrifice they did not really choose to make. In WWII 50 million died, for this? In the two wars that have been going on now, there are officially over 1700 dead, and there have been over a hundred-thousand exposed to Depleted Uranium and the malignancy of that disease that continues to kill long after the guns have been silenced: this affects not only the GI's but their families as well—yet the public is still not concerned enough to demand real answers from those who got us into this situation.

How many more must die before we begin to scream ENOUGH? What's the magic number here 2,000, 10,000 - 20,000 dead? Who decides what that weighty number will be, who will stand against this injustice, not just for our dead but also for all the people that have been maimed or displaced or killed because of our belligerence? Why is it so hard for Americans to understand that the people we kill for the OUTLAWS all have families, dreams and would have had futures, had we not slaughtered them, too! Why do we seemingly not want to know who is responsible for pulling the strings on our homegrown Outlaws—the thugs who sign the orders - then lie about the facts of what they have done and continue to do hourly? One reason that seems to hold a lot of sway is that Congress no longer makes our laws; they’ve sold that privilege to the highest bidders. Just take a look at whose funding their political campaigns and take a look at who has benefitted the most from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Government of the United States of America is now of, by and for the Corporations. These are the same corporations, the Corporatocracy, to whom the people of the USA have bequeathed a literal and legal eternal life, while at the same time allowing their own corporate "best interests" to over-ride the needs and interests of the very citizens who made all that largess possible. All the terms of any agreements that the workers for such companies signed on for—are now subject to nullification at the whim of the corporations. The retirement funds, the health-care, and the long-term interests of those who made the profits happen, now represent nothing but "excessive costs" to the corporations that are failing on all fronts, because they have destroyed any incentive for anyone besides the upper-level managers to profit from their existence. Is this the American Dream or just simply corporate greed and the buyout of our political officials who are elected by the people to serve the people but have served corporations and big business time after time?

However it gets worse people? Americans gave the newly minted outlaw corporations the legal right to exist—now those corporations have not further need for the working Americans, because now they have foreign markets to buy their outsourced products, so the public here is overripe to become nothing more than a wage-enslaved herd of animals to be directed and controlled by what suits the corporations—at each and every turn in their corporate schedule for hegemony. This corporate greed and corruption has run amuck for years and it is clear that we the American people have lost our will to not only speak out but to fight. We have no leadership, no voice, no warrior or any soldier for that matter willing to put their life on the line to fight for the issues that matter to us because they all sell out the American people for the all mighty dollar. The list of leaders both locally and nationally, who have taken up just causes on behalf of the people, that have sold out the message for the price of the almighty dollar or better yet have sold out the people and the message for their own self interests. Therefore we the American people seem to have lost our voice, our will to fight and our might to stand for a cause greater than our own.

The reality is that the the answers to the above questions are not pretty, but it goes something like this. War is GREAT for business and it's especially good for stockholders, people with jobs at those corporations who hold the SECRET no-bid contracts, and for insiders. Normally Wars are good for the initiating country for the profits that are generated by that action. In this case, since the jobs have been outsourced, down to and including the manufacturing of American Flags in China—this nation has actually lost millions of jobs because of the war, and its demands upon our outsourced corporate legions whose profits have never been greater. All this while the public was told to "just go shopping" because President Bush didn’t want our economy to fail and didn’t want the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to cause panic to the American people in the sense that many of us probably would have stayed at home rather than go to work or school or anywhere for that matter because of fear of what else was going to happen in the days following 9/11. It is clear that the best interests of the American people has been lost the last 8 years but the demise of the intelligent, working, fighting middle class of America started long before President Bush took office.

Perhaps it is understandable if the above is the real reason why so many refuse to "know" what's going on—this could explain many things. For instance if the above is true, then it would definitely be understandable that many would indeed fear for the loss of their jobs, or the loss of the income generated in their 401K's, or their stock portfolios – “IF” they were to publicly demand accountability from those who created 9/11 and then started these wars to cover-up their crimes. No wonder all the little lambs chose silence over protest: that is what the "smart-money" always does! However we the American people complain day and day out about what is going on but we never put our own selves on the line to fight the greed and corruption that is taking place in America. We the American people can’t simply forgo all that previous movements before us have fought for and give in to our own self interest which is the greed of money and comfort living we are accustomed to. We the American people must look to our past and fight like the civil rights movement, the feminist movements, the Abolitionists’ movements and anti-war movements of the past have done to get the change they wanted to see in the world. We the American people must relive those moments in order to save our future generations from the trouble that our current government and political officials have gotten us into along with the big corporations and lobbyists groups of America.

Therefore I want to thank you the American people for allowing this to happen because it took a lot of guts, determination and perseverance to turn this democracy on its head, and to learn to worship Outlaws while we are killing everything that we have always professed to "believe in." Welcome to the Dumbocracy of the New United States of the Corporatocracy. We have created a prison of the mind that will destroy any rational thoughts we ever had of being human. Maybe, we have become nothing more than pod people without the capacity for critical thought. We have abdicated all that we would each have brought to being viable beings, opting instead to live as footnotes in the margins of the lives of faceless, soulless corporations. In the final analysis we are destroying all that makes each of us valuable—to ourselves or to others.

Think about it—do you really want to be the excuse given for the USA to continue to live as the world's sole Dumbocracy? Break the Silence - NOW! I know I am asking too much of us as Americans but I don’t believe that we no longer have a will. While some might believe that we no longer have a strength of spirit, I believe our spirit has just been asleep for some years and now like the sleeping Giant, it has awakened. No longer can we live in fear and I don’t believe that we care the Dumbocracy that many of our government officials want us to believe we are and that many big corporate executives on Wall Street want us to be in order for them to continue to dominate America’s message in terms of shows on television and programming not only on television but on the radio. Some people believe that many Americans don’t fear their jobs but whether we as Americans just don’t care about the issues that don’t concern us so that’s why we don’t have a will to fight. I just don’t believe that is true and I believe that we the people do care about retaliation from our job if we speak out against them or an issue that our employer doesn’t want us to voice our opinions about.

I don’t believe that we the people have a loss of interest and of strength of will but instead we just have not received any real reason to fight greater than now. The writing is on the wall and we the American people have seen the light. We have seen just how our own media has tried to dumb down so many of the issues that should matter and how our “Free Press” is no longer free but it is more so costly to any and everyone who has spoken out against our political officials yet alone wrote about them. We the American people have seen how our elected officials have tried to dumb down the real issues by telling us lies and using scare tactics that in the past has struck far in the hearts of many us but as we see it now, those types of lies and scare tactics don’t strike fear in our lives any more but it excites us and gives us the energy we have needed to fight when sometimes we might not want to fight after a long day of perhaps being defeated. We the American people are sick and tired of being sick and tired and that’s why we are not going to allow these same elected leaders to lead us down a path of even further destruction because we know that their mistaken opinions and distortion of the facts will not make it all better for the everyday Americans that make this country what it is. We the people used to elect these leaders because we had faith in them but our faith has been lost in our elected officials particularly those who have been in D.C. during nothing for the American people but only wasting time making their pockets fatter.

While some would like for us the American people to continue to cop out and merely become lemmings following the piper piping the same old worn out tunes, same promises which are rarely or never kept than they are mistaken who the American people have been, will be and are. We, the American people will not and cannot stand by and be silent but we are now ready to break this silence. This is what I believe will happen in order to fight back against this mass transit of “Dumb It Down for the People”, better known as Dumbocracy. We the American people will break our silence and we will no longer be a silent revolution and movement but we will be a revolution that is aimed at changing the corrupt politicians in our government, ruled by money, not by their constituencies. This moment has not passed us by unless we believe it has because we the people are fed up with the status quo and this is the time for the real revolution that will change us, America, for the better. We do have the guts to do it and we must believe now more than ever that our time is now. Therefore for those of us who really want this type of change, this revolution and this movement have to speak out, must speak out, have to fight and must of all have to fight in order to bring the “Future of America and the World” that we want to see in these moments of uncertainty and when more than ever clarity is needed, we must not waver, we must not buckle at the obstacles that are in front of us because we are facing just what other men and women have met.

This is cannot continue to be a Dumbocracy and we cannot continue to allow us as a people to allow us to be dumb down any longer. Our Time is Now! Our Moment is Now! Our Movement is Now! And our Moment of Clarity is not just now but Right Now!

Reference:
Dumbocracy—The Silence Of Americans
http://www.rense.com/general66/dumb.htm

Vote No Bailout.org

Barack Obama: "Stay Calm" Solutions on the Economy


Barack Obama urged calm as he called for a bi-partisan effort to pass a rescue bill for our nation's faltering economy. Spoken in Westminster, CO September 29th, 2008. The American people has remained calm and we will continue to be calm Senator Obama but tell Wall Street and the big executives as well as the foreign investors to remain calm. I have never heard a call for so much bi-partisanship in my life. Senator Obama and the Democratic Party should have had more support for the bailout on their side because nearly 40% of Democrats voted against the bailout so why did such a large number vote “NO”. Senator Obama tell DC to remain calm because the American people are rejoicing and are happy to that the rescue bill did not pass. We know our national faltering economy has been bad for quite some time but we have managed through worst and we have survived worst. Until you tell your own party to stay calm and the investors on Wall Street than I don’t see a rescue plan being passed unless it doesn’t use taxpayer dollars.

Barack Obama: We Can't Afford to Gamble


Barack Obama spoke about our economy and how we can't afford to gamble on our future in Westminster CO September 29, 2008. You’re right Senator Obama we can’t afford to game on our future but at the same time, we can’t afford to allow the Wall Street to get bailed out when Main Street hasn’t gotten bad out and Main street will continue to suffer even after Wall Street gets bailed out. We need a better solution than the one that was being offered by the Bush administration and the Democratic Party. Senator Obama and McCain should have came up with a better plan than the plan that the Bush administration offered.

Clean Coal Colorado


This is a John McCain ad that about clean coal that is hitting the radio airwaves in Colorado.

Clean Coal Ohio


This is a John McCain ad that about clean coal that is hitting the radio airwaves in Ohio.

Clean Coal Virginia


This is a John McCain ad that about clean coal that is hitting the radio airwaves in Virginia.

Clean Coal Pennsylvania


This is a radio ad by the John McCain about clean coal for radio airwaves in Pennsylvania.

Phonebanking 101


Obama supporters in Wisconsin talk about how easy it is to phonebank and share some handy tips. Simply put if you can help either political campaign with phone banking than get involved in do so. I don’t care who you support for this year’s Presidency but I want everyone to these things for me: 1.) Get registered to vote; 2.) Make sure you vote in this year’s election and every election; 3.) Stay involved in the political process by getting involved in political campaigns either by phone banking, emailing friends or canvassing; 4.) Hold your political officials accountable on the campaign issues they promised and on doing the right thing for the people who elected them. So get out and get involved by phone banking.

Early Vote in North Carolina


Barack and Joe ask North Carolinians to vote early, from October 16th to November 1st. Go to http://NC.BARACKOBAMA.COM for more info! However I suggest to everyone that is in a state where they can vote early than I suggest they get out and vote early in order to avoid the long lines on election day and you never know what might come up on November 4 so it is best to just get it out the way and vote as soon as you can. Early voting is not granted to all states so those states that have it are doing a favor for the people of those states so take advantage of it people of North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and other states where early voting exists.

Come to Ohio for Barack Obama


Let's win this thing for Barack Obama. This is a good video that I couldn't resist posting because it is so good.
http://oh.barackobama.com/C...
Music by Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer

Barack Obama on the Economy, McCain in Detroit, Michigan


The weekend after his first presidential debate, Barack Obama delivered a speech in front of 35,000 in Detroit, Michigan. He was joined on stage by his wife Michelle, and Joe and Jill Biden.

"Figured" Ad


This is the latest ad by the Barack Obama campaign that talks about the coal mines and energy. It is a good ad. It’s a start when it comes to talking about the issues and validates that Obama knows about the issues and working class. It really goes back to Obama's roots as a community organizer and what he has did for the people of Illinois as a State Senator and a community organizer as well as a United States Senator.

"Parachute" Ad


"Parachute" highlights how Obama is fighting to stop the practice of corporate executives giving themselves million dollar golden parachutes while leaving workers high and dry. The ad also points out McCain's own advisor, Carly Fiorina, who was fired as CEO yet left with $42 million. On the air. The ad was good except for the part about the McCain advisor. We don’t need attacks like that when he doesn’t point to the fact she was CEO of E-Bay and E-Bay is still going strong and well. So Obama let’s tell the entire truth and not simply half the truths that distort the truth. Let's stop of the negative attack ads that distort the truth and simply just talk about the issues and leave the negative attacks about one's opponent to the media and the surrogates to do.

VoteForChange.com: Your Voice is Our Future


Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys want you to be heard. Even if you think you're registered, visit http://www.VoteForChange.com to check. I agree with Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys that the future of America is in our hands. We are the voices of the future and we have to make sure we are registered to vote and that we vote not only in this year’s Presidential election but in every election. We have to make sure our political officials understand that we, you the young people of America understand the issues and we understand our future so we are going to get involved in the political process by any means necessary. Let our voices be heard and our future shiner brighter than ever.

Dear Mr. Obama: DRILL HERE DRILL NOW


Democrats recently loaded up an energy bill that will prevent developers from tapping into our oil supplies. They voted in favor of their environmental lobby groups, but in doing so, they literally voted against America!

SERIOUS commentary from a social ARISTOCRAT—By Ashford Hughes

When I tend to write a note or two, it is seriously from the heart and from my perspective. Some may view as funny as USELESS, but if i dont speak directly to my community then WHO WILL. The community in which I live today requires more than ONE SO CALLED LEADER to speak for the masses. We are a collected group of leaders who share a hope and a desire for a better black community as well as a world community.W.E.B Dubois spoke of a TALENTED TENTH. The ten percent of black american they must take lead of the betterment of the community. Whether it be social, economic or structual issues. there has to be a voice.

The voice in which i choose to invoke is political. Politics is the backbone of the American structure of life. Politics and the political system incompasses every aspect of our lives from the time we wake up until the time we fall asleep. That is why I STRESS the importance of this Presidential as well as The State elections. American is at a crossroads socially as well as economically. Our futures are at stake everytime we go or don't go to the ballot box.

For far to long we have fallen into the false belief that our votes somehow don't count or that voting is not important. This assumption is based on the YEARS AND YEARS of false promises from both political partie. From the hardships that face black america that seem to be as a result of political malpractice. It can been seen as though black america is not even the pawn in the chess game but rather the chess board, just getting moved about in a variety of directions.

I am here once again to say that that is in part do to our own shortcomings as well as our lack of knowledge of the political system. That When we as a whole begin to engage ourselves with the political realm and find out how instrumental our lives depend our the political structure that surrounds us, then we will begin our exodus from boys to men on the worls stage.

Barack Obama is part of the assention to a greater tomorrow for us as well as our youth in the very near future. Barack Obama is by no means a PERFECT candidate, nor is he the ABSOLUTE solution to the DYER ills that we know face. But Obama is a two step in the right direction, rather than i stagnit stand still such as John McCain. That is why it is imparative that we get out and vote for our FUTURE PRESIDENT. After the election the world will be changing in one way or the other. it is by far time that we begin to be players at the table rather than just sitting around looking for a game.

Enlighten yourselves, engage yourselves within the local political community. Instead of being online on downloading music or doing whatever it is you may be doing, go to www.barackobama.com, wwww.huffingtonpost.com,www.cnn.com, www.postpolitics.com, www.usatoday.com, www.washingtonpost.com, www.msnbc.com, www.cbsnews.com, www.newsweek.com, as well as many other NEWS SITES.YES news sites and get in the kno as it pertains to politics. I promise you once you get involved it will not seem boring and you will be able to network and engage with other people on a NEW LEVEL.

Get out and Vote or DON'T COMPLAIN. AND JUST TAKE LIFE HOW IT COMES TO YOU POINT BLANK. An educated mind is a WISE mind. And wisdom spawns character and insight that allows leaders to lead.

Peace and a bottle of hairgrease. Haha say that.

But seriously, peace and much love to all whom choose to follow the path less traveled

BREAKING NEWS: The Bailout Bill Fails


This just in at 1:30p.m. ET, the United States House of Representatives took up the vote for the Financial Market Bill, otherwise known as the $700 Billion Bailout Proposal and at 2:07p.m. ET, the bill that needed a simple majority of 217 votes, failed. The people of the United States of America have spoken and our Congressional leaders in the House listened a bi-partisan effort of Democrats and Republicans voting 228 to 205 to defeat the Bailout Proposal that would have used taxpayer dollars to bailout Wall Street. Although time expired for the vote at 1:51p.m., they kept the vote open in hopes that the bill would pass after pulling some Congressional leaders arms.

Now when the House went into vote, the DOW dropped 600 points only to change to around a 400 point drop overall. I believe the market tried to use a scare tactice to get Congress members to vote yes because all of sudden the market started to drop faster and faster only to stop dropping as the vote seemed to come to close. Nonetheless 140 Democrats and 65 Republicans voted yes for the Financial Market Bill to give the Yea votes 206, while 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans voted no for the Financial Market Bill to give the Nay votes 228 in which the Nay's prevailed. The House of Representatives finally listened to the American people and we the people are on the winning side.

Whoever voted in favor of this bailout bill needs to be recalled and we need to make sure that they don't get the opportunity get into office this November but if they do let's make sure we vote them out in 2010 for sure. We can't allow our political officials to not be held accountable for senseless and unkind votes such as this one. Any Congressional leader who voted yes in today's first vote should be recalled and anyone who changes their vote and votes yes in a later version of this bill that still contains using taxpaying dollars should be recalled as well. The time for change is now and we the American people need to hold our politicial officials accountable and today was only the beginning.

We the people have won a battle but the war isn't over so we must continue to flood our congressional leaders in Washington offices and in our home states to tell them to vote no on any bailout bill that contains using taxpayer dollars to bailout Wall Street when Main Street needs a bailout.

Stem Cell Response Radio Ad


This is a radio ad by the McCain campaign entitled “Stem Cell Response.” McCain many voters don’t care about stem cell research yet along know what it is but then again it is a radio ad and depending on what station it is played on, you might be able to win some votes because those who listen to it might care about stem cell research and the funding for it.

DETROIT'S GOT THE POWER: It's Time to End Separate and Unequal Education for All Detroit Students

BAMN E-MAIL - 9/29/2008

BAMN members across the country: here is a pamphlet that BAMN is now circulating to renew the fight to realize the promise of Brown v. Board of Education beginning in Michigan. The fight we are waging there has valuable lessons for how other communities can fight to end separate and unequal education in their communities.

If you live in Michigan, contact BAMN now to join the movement!
Go to the BAMN WEBSITE to download the pamphlet and watch BAMN's slideshow comparing Detroit's schools to those in the suburbs

For the first time in forty years, Detroit students and parents have the power to win equal, quality education for the young people of Detroit. Over the last five years the metropolitan Detroit area has been turning into a regional school district. Every day, tens of thousands of Detroit students get on buses to attend schools in Detroit suburbs. Students from Southfield, Oak Park and other school districts use the Detroit address of a relative or family friend, to attend Renaissance, Cass Tech and Martin Luther King High Schools and other Detroit schools. What was considered impossible—Detroit majority white suburbs seeking out and welcoming Detroit students to their districts and black parents putting their sons and daughters on busses to attend school in those suburban districts—is happening on a mass basis every day.

The regionalization of education is currently developing in an unplanned and haphazard manner. If left unplanned and uncoordinated, it will result in the creation of a whole new Jim Crow education system for Detroit youth. However, if we act, the people of Detroit could finally win the right of every Detroit student—those in DPS, those in private and public charters and those in suburban schools—to attend first-class, high-quality, integrated schools.

Detroit has the power to do what almost no other school district in this nation can do: make Brown v. Board of Education a living reality. Winning this history-making gain will require the people of Detroit to follow bold, farsighted leaders committed to building the new youth-led integrated mass civil rights movement on an independent basis.

We have the courage and the new optimism we need to try the impossible and win. We just need to get started.

Understanding the causes of the crisis of education gripping Detroit and its surrounding districts is key to winning. Charters and suburban public school districts are spending thousands of dollars on fancy advertising campaigns to beg Detroit students to come to their districts because they desperately need the state per-pupil allowance of $7,400 that goes with every student they recruit. In addition, poorer Detroit students bring close to $3,000 of additional federal funding with them to any school they attend.

This whole situation gives Detroit the leverage to say: "If you want our money, you must give us the same opportunities and the same quality of education that you provide your own residents. You neither have the right nor the ability to teach us if you see Detroit students as walking dollar signs or as inferior and second class."

Michigan "Schools of Choice" Act = Right of Suburban Schools to Implement the New Jim Crow
Ferndale provides a classic example of the Jim Crow system that the suburbs are creating on the basis of the Michigan "Schools of Choice Act," which gives school districts the right to pick and choose which of their schools they open to non-residents.

Ferndale has one school, Ferndale High School (FHS), which is reserved for Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge and Oak Park residents only. It is racially integrated, 60% black, 40% white, offers 20 Advanced Placement (AP) courses, five foreign languages, access to enrichment classes through the Center for Advanced Studies and the Arts, six career pathways, a broad range of electives, complete sports, music and art programs, an open campus, and no dress code. Guidance counselors and other auxiliary staff make the student to teacher/staff ratio 12 to 1.

The high school open to Detroit and other out-of-district students is Ferndale's public charter, cynically and misleadingly named University High School (UHS). Ferndale's UHS is 98% black, has only three AP offerings, next-to-no sports, music or art programs, next-to-no electives, offers only Spanish as a foreign language, requires uniforms, has a closed campus and offers only one career pathway. Because UHS has almost no auxiliary staff its student to teacher/staff ratio is 35 to 1.

UHS promises to place all prospective students in internships with the automobile companies, but in reality it places only a handful of students. Most students at UHS are receiving an education designed to place them in a low-paying technical job rather than a college classroom.

Ferndale is clearly using some of the per-pupil allocation it gets from its Detroit students to help provide an integrated, diverse, quality, college preparatory education to its own residents, while offering an inferior, segregated, largely technical education to Detroit students. Ferndale is relying on prejudice and baseless, degrading and racist stereotypes of Detroit students to act as if it is doing Detroit a big favor by allowing Detroit students to attend school in Ferndale. The truth is that Ferndale is just skimming off Detroit students' revenues to pay for Ferndale's rising education costs. This is separate and unequal. This is state-sponsored discrimination.

This is what Brown v. Board of Education declared illegal, unjust, and unfair in 1954. At a moment when America is being challenged to elect its first black president, it is unacceptable for black, Latina/o and other minority youth of Detroit to be stigmatized and offered little to no good educational opportunities in either Detroit or suburban public or charter schools.

It Is Time to Put the Needs of Students Before Prejudice
Ferndale is not alone in implementing discriminatory policies against Detroit students. Several other suburban districts are creating public charters or utilizing other policies which discriminate against Detroit students. The actions being taken by Ferndale and Detroit's other suburban neighbors flow directly from the right-wing, free-market, and pro-charter attacks on public education that began under the Engler administration, and which are now being pushed by both conservatives and liberals all across this nation.

Several of Michigan's educational funding policies, including Proposal A and other school finance/property tax reforms, were created under the misguided and often racist theory that Oakland and Macomb counties could thrive and develop even if Detroit remained poor and under-resourced. Suburban politicians and taxpayers pushed for school funding reforms that they believed would provide their communities with enough state aid to maintain their communities and school systems. Now those same funding schemes aimed at punishing Detroit and attracting new home owners and businesses to the suburbs, are creating an insoluble budget crisis for virtually every middle-class suburban and rural Michigan school district. Only the wealthiest suburban school districts—which have the ability to supplant rising education costs with private funds and which receive more than $12,000 in per pupil state aid, compared to the $7,400 allocated to many middle class districts—are able to survive the policies they pushed forward.

Every school district is looking for ways to avoid making cuts in school staff or programs. Each one is in a mad competition with each other to recruit out-of-district students to attend school in their districts. Instead of raiding Detroit, suburban school districts can improve education for their students and for Detroit students by uniting with Detroit, in a joint fight for increased and equitable funding for all school districts in Michigan, and for a rational, consolidated, unified, tri-county public school system.

Detroit Must Lead the Struggle for Metro-Detroit to Prosper
The whole social, economic and cultural rebirth of the area depends on the vitality of Detroit. No urban area can grow or prosper without a strong public education system. The economic and social future of Ferndale and all the other metro Detroit suburbs rests with the fate of Detroit. The economic and social viability of every Detroit suburb rests on making Detroit a strong and vibrant economic anchor for the whole tri-county area. All the theories which centered on creating a vast network of smaller suburban centers to grow the economy have failed to achieve anything. Everyone knows this.

If Detroiters can just recognize our strength, organize it, follow leaders who are strong rather than those who are the cynical and corrupt bidders for the charter companies or are just too scared to stand up to the right wing, then we could stop the seemingly endless rounds of attacks on our schools emanating from Lansing. Governor Granholm and other politicians recognize the central importance of Detroit to the prosperity of the whole tri-county area. These politicians are calling for a moratorium on the Cobo Hall debt.

The education of our youth is far more important to the future of the region than a convention center. Detroit had millions of dollars squandered or stolen under the state takeover. We have been forced to incur millions of dollars of new debt because of Lansing's failed policies. Granting a moratorium on the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) debt and returning the revenues we lost under the state takeover are fair and just demands we can win but only if we fight.

The massive school closings of 2007 have left whole Detroit neighborhoods with no schools. The predictable and terrible overcrowding in the high schools caused by the school closings has led to more violence, more students dropping out, less education taking place in the classroom and more student, teacher and staff demoralization and hopelessness. Detroit parents and students loyal to DPS are leaving the district because they feel that they have no other option.

The only way to break free from the vicious cycle of cuts leading to students withdrawing from the district, which in turn leads to more cuts and closures, is for Detroit to exercise its muscle and fight for our city's right to control the quality and character of education that Detroit students receive wherever they go to school. But this requires unleashing the power of Detroit students, something which only BAMN has been prepared to do, and combining that power with the power of the teachers' union and other city unions, parent and community organizations and any other forces prepared to fight for a bright future for Detroit. If we move in this direction, we can save public education in this region and defeat the imposition of second-rate charters on Detroit.

A Plan of Action to Win: It's Time to Fight Like the Old Civil Rights Movement and to Build the New Civil Rights Movement
Charter schools exist for one purpose: to make money. They must be free of public regulation and scrutiny, free to use non-certified teachers, outmoded teaching techniques, and specifically free of having a diverse student body to profit. If the elected Detroit School Board would hold public hearings on the practices of private and public, suburban and Detroit charters instead of trying to imitate their cost-saving, ridiculous, education-failing "reforms," it could gain control over the charters and in doing so stop their growth. Just holding charter schools accountable will stop large charter companies from ever entering Detroit.

Public and private charters that refuse to be accountable to Detroit and its elected School Board could be easily closed down by an old-fashioned BAM/BAMN "OPEN THEM UP OR WE WILL SHUT THEM DOWN" campaign. The aim of such a campaign would be to make both public and private charters attended by Detroit students open up to the scrutiny, regulation and control of Detroit, or else face boycotts, legal action or special legislation aimed at shutting them down.

Detroiters must take pride in the strength of our city and gain confidence from our understanding that the black communities have provided the leadership needed to win every progressive gain in this nation's history. At the same time, we cannot treat the isolation our city has been placed in for so long as a virtue. Racial segregation and isolation do not and cannot benefit Detroit. The power of the black communities is always greatest when we are fighting to end separate and unequal, to integrate every aspect of this society, and demanding to be treated as the peers and equals of everyone. When we are following Dr. King's example and building and leading an integrated civil movement fighting for freedom and equality and for the rights of all, the oppressed our power is limitless.

The whole greater Detroit area is becoming much more culturally diverse, with new, vibrant and growing Asian, Arab, Chaldean and Latina/o communities being established throughout the tri-county area. The growing strength of the Latina/o communities is completely changing the character of civil rights struggle and racial politics across this nation and in this region.

Unity of the black, Latina/o, Arab, and other immigrant communities is the key to victory. If we allow our communities to be divided by subscribing to the pervasive anti-immigrant or racial prejudices that have kept us weak and separated, all attempts to improve education for the students of the metropolitan Detroit area will fail. Together, united in a single integrated movement, we can defeat the racist response to Michigan's changing demographics. Support for educational segregation to preserve white privilege—the long-standing aim of charter school, voucher and other privatization efforts and all the attacks on affirmative action—are not only increasingly unpopular; they are politically and socially unviable. Diverse and integrated schools, which are what the vast majority of Michigan's young people of all races want to attend, are now not only possible, but represent the only solution to the crisis of public education confronting this region.

Our Immediate Tasks: End School Segregation in Ferndale and Other Suburbs
Making rational and reasonable arguments will not win the demand for consolidating the 80+ districts in the tri-county area into a unitary, public, integrated, quality school district. We have to begin this fight where we are strong. The suburbs' need for Detroit student dollars gives the students, parents, teachers and whole city of Detroit the power to win this fight. Stopping the illegal, unfair, unjust and absolutely unviable policy of placing Detroit students in segregated, separate and unequal schools is the strongest basis from which to launch our campaign.

Starting with Ferndale, and then expanding to the other districts that are exploiting the desperation of Detroit parents and students, we must demand that Ferndale and other suburban districts open all their schools to Detroit students, improve the quality of the schools currently being attended by Detroit students, and equalize the educational offerings at all their schools. We should demand that Ferndale and other suburban school districts combine their public charters and resident-only public schools into a single seamless school system, with student placement being determined by a lottery or some other fair, non-discriminatory, and equitable process. Every school will be improved if every school is integrated; and every district will integrate all their schools if the choices are either to racially and geographically integrate their schools or degrade their own district schools and go under financially.

We should urge Ferndale and other districts to do the right thing. If they resist, it is time for us to employ the tactics of Dr. King. No one would eat at a Ferndale restaurant that segregates black from white or Ferndale residents from Detroit residents, and there is no reason why we should accept such a policy when it is applied to our students. We must boycott, rally and march on any district that insists on segregating and stigmatizing Detroit students. We can end the new Jim Crow the same way we ended the old Jim Crow.

The suburbs of Metropolitan Detroit are in favor of regionalizing all the valuable and/or profitable institutions of the City of Detroit, such as the DIA, the zoo and the water and sewerage department. We should demand that regionalizing, integrating and making equitable public education in Metropolitan Detroit be a prerequisite to any negotiations regarding regionalization of any more of Detroit's assets.

Detroit Students Are the Peers and Equals of Every Other Michigan Students: We Will Not Accept Being Stigmatized or Treated as Inferior
We must stop the Michigan state government and our state universities from overseeing and justifying the New Jim Crow. We must go to the regents of the various universities, including Lawrence Tech, which is involved with Ferndale's University High School, and tell them to stop promoting, stop profiting from, and stop providing the ideological basis for the development of the New Jim Crow.

The "educational policies" that these institutions claim are needed to help black Detroit students to learn—rigid, structured, limited curriculum offerings, military discipline, uniforms, overcrowded schools devoid of art, music, joy and creativity—are never advocated for white suburban students. The same opportunity to learn how to think critically, to be exposed to all kinds of different subject matter and learning techniques, and to sit in diverse and small classroom settings that these university administrators and regents seek for their own children's' education are exactly what the students of metro- Detroit need to really shine and develop. We should settle for nothing less.

Public schools in Detroit like Renaissance High School are already becoming flagship magnet schools for the metro-Detroit area. If Detroit and our suburban school districts join together and pool our resources, we can accelerate this process and offer a vast number of better and different public educational programs for all children. Together, we could create magnet fine arts, science and other specialized public schools equivalent to New York's famed Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech and the "Fame" Performing Arts public high schools. Expensive but vital special needs services and gifted and talented programs currently floundering in small financially-strapped districts would flourish in a large consolidated district. Public and private charters that pretend to be high-quality "university schools" or "educational academies" could be replaced by truly excellent and varied school choices.

Only the Youth of Detroit Can Lead This Historic Effort
The young people of Detroit must take the lead in order for us to win this bold plan of action. Detroit students and youth have been playing an important and decisive role in building the new, integrated civil rights movement. Detroit and other Michigan high school and middle school students led the organizing campaign to defend affirmative action and to realize the promise of Brown that culminated with the 50,000-person march on Washington on April 1, 2003.

In the spring of 2006, Latina/o and immigrant students throughout Michigan joined millions of other Latina/o and immigrant youth and successfully organized to defeat the anti-immigrant federal HR 4437. The mass mobilizations of 2006 placed the questions of civil rights, equality and an end to second-class treatment for Latina/o, black, Asian, Arab and other minorities back on the American political agenda. Senator Obama would not be the Democratic candidate for President, if not for the determined action of young people who believe that American society can be united by a common vision of hope, rather than hopelessly divided by racism and bigotry.

Detroit youth are now in a position to make the conclusion of Brown v. Board of Education, that separate can never be equal, into a living reality for youth in the metropolitan Detroit area, and through our example, for young people all across this nation.

If we lead, others will follow.

Young people are always at the forefront of successful civil rights struggles. Inspired by the dedication of young, black leaders, most importantly, the young Dr. Martin Luther King, young people of all races stood shoulder to shoulder, fought together, and defeated the old Jim Crow. We can beat the New Jim Crow if the young people of Detroit step forward to build and to lead the new civil rights movement. Building this movement is the only way we can assure that people of all races, the oppressed, and the poor are treated with the dignity and respect we all deserve and desire. We are living in an era in which many young people are embracing hope and rejecting cynicism.

Change that once seemed impossible now looks inevitable. It will not occur without our leadership. The time to fight and to win is now.

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
(313) 438-3748

Jay-Z - History



(Jay-Z - History)Jay-Z - History with Lyrics

LYRICS : [Chorus: Cee-lo]
Now that all the smoke is gone
(Lighter)
And the battle's finally won
(Gimme a lighter)
Victory (Lighters up) is finally ours
(Lighters up)
History, so long, so long
So long, so long

[Verse 1: Jay-Z]
In search of victory, she keeps eluding me
If only we could be together momentarily
We can make love and make history
Why won't you visit me? until she visit me
I'll be stuck with her sister, her name is defeat
She gives me agony, so much agony
She brings me so much pain, so much misery
Like missing your last shot and falling to your knees
As the crowd screams for the other team
I practice so hard for this moment, victory don't leave
I know what this means, I'm stuck in this routine
Whole new different day, same old thing
All I got is dreams, nobody else can see
Nobody else believes, nobody else but me
Where are you victory? I need you desperately
Not just for the moment, to make history

[Chorus: Cee-lo]
Now that all the smoke is gone
(Lighters)
And the battle's finally won
(Lighters)
Victory is finally ours
(Yeah)
History (yeah), so long, so long
So long, so long

[Verse 2: Jay-Z]
So now I'm flirting with death, hustling like a G
While victory wasn't watching took chances repeatedly
As a teenage boy before acne, before I got proactiv I couldn't face she
I just threw on my hoodie and headed to the street
That's where I met success, we'd live together shortly
Now success is like lust, she's good to the touch
She's good for the moment but she's never enough
Everybody's had her, she's nothing like V
But success is all I got unfortunately
But I'm burning down the block hoppin' in and out of V
But something tells me that there's much more to see
Before I get killed because I can't get robbed
So before me success and death ménage
I gotta get lost, I gotta find V
We gotta be together to make history

[Chorus: Cee-lo]
Now that all the smoke is gone
(Lighters. Up.)
And the battle's finally won
(Lighter. Up.)
Victory is finally ours
(Lighters. Up.)
History, so long, so long
So long, so long

[Verse 3: Jay-Z]
Now victory is mine, it tastes so sweet
She's my trophy wife, you're coming with me
We'll have a baby who stutters repeatedly
We'll name him history, he'll repeat after me
He's my legacy, son of my hard work
Future of my past, he'll explain who I be
Rank me amongst the greats, either 1, 2, or 3
If I ain't number one then I failed you victory
Ain't in it for the fame that dies within weeks
Ain't in it for the money, can't take it when you leave
I wanna be remembered long after you grieve
Long after I'm gone, long after I breathe
I leave all I am in the hands of history
That's my last will and testimony
This is much more than a song, it's a baby shower
I've been waiting for this hour, history you ours


[Chorus: Cee-lo (2x)]
Now that all the smoke is gone
And the battle's finally won
Victory is finally ours
History, so long, so long
So long, so long



Man in the Mirror--By Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson - Man in the mirror

I'm gonna make a change,
for once im my life
It's gonna feel real good,
gonna make a diference
Gonna make it right...

As I, turn up the collar on
my favorite winter coat
This wind is blowing my mind
I see the kids in the streets,
with not enought to eat
Who am I to be blind?
Pretending not to see their needs

A summer disregard,a broken bottle top
And a one man soul
They follow each other on the wind ya' know
'Cause they got nowhere to go
That's why I want you to know

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
(If you wanna make the world a better place)
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
(Take a look at yourself, and then make a change)
(Na na na, na na na, na na, na nah)

I've been a victim of a selfish kind of love
It's time that I realize
That there are some with no home, not a nickel to loan
Could it be really me, pretending that they're not alone?

A willow deeply scarred, somebody's broken heart
And a washed-out dream
(Washed-out dream)
They follow the pattern of the wind ya' see
'Cause they got no place to be
That's why I'm starting with me
(Starting with me!)

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
(Ooh!)
I'm asking him to change his ways
(Ooh!)
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
(If you wanna make the world a better place)
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
(Take a look at yourself, and then make a change)

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
(Ooh!)
I'm asking him to change his ways
(Change his ways - ooh!)
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make that..
(Take a look at yourself and then make that..)
CHANGE!

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
(Man in the mirror - Oh yeah!)
I'm asking him to change his ways
(Better change!)
No message could have been any clearer
(If you wanna make the world a better place)


Michael Jackson - Man in the mirror

A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cook






It's been a long time coming but a change is surely going to come in America and the World! I am the Future of America and the World and that is the message that each of us must carry with us each and every day that we wake up on Earth! I am the Future! You are the Future! We are the Future of America and the World! That is way every election is important--primaries, special elections and general! So vote every year and hold our politicians accountable. Hold our political officials accountable by writing them, calling them and making sure they attend meetings that we the people have. "The Time for Change is not Now but Right Now!"

"EmPOWERment By Any Means Necessary" should be our anthem and should be our creed as we make the positive differences in America and the world that so many people beg for and hungry for year after year! A Change is Gonna Come, A Change is Gonna Come, that's what we must say as we say "God grants us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, Courge to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference" each morning before we go about the task of making a positive change in America and the world a reality.



Born In The U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen


“When will people realize that we are Americans first and foremost, not Democrats or Liberals, not Republicans or Conservatives, not Independents or moderates. We are Americans. Stop putting a political party above America and stop putting any politican above America. America succeeds because of us the people holding our government responsible no matter the political party because the main two political parties are to blame for the condition America is in."—Hodari P.T. Brown

America with its flaws and all is a country I am proud to have been born in. America is not perfect but my love for it is perfect. That’s why all Americans must realize that we are all Americans. In fact we are Americans first and foremost. We are not Democrats or Republicans. We are Americans.

We are not Muslims, Christians or Jews. We are Americans. Too many times we recognize our differences with others rather than appreciating our similarities which are, we are Americans. We are Americans first and foremost, no matter if we were born here or moved here legally. We are all Americans, here in this country to make not only our lives better but the lives of other Americans better so future Americans can enjoy the rights and freedoms that make us all Americans.

We are all Americans. We are one party united under God. We are Americans and this is the only political party that matters. We are Americans and this is our country so let’s make sure that we make America better than how we found it so future Americans can live prosperous and joyous lives. We are Americans and must not ever forget that.

America will prosper as long we make sure we are doing our part to make it prosper and that means we can’t put any political party or politician above America. Long live America forever and long live America’s service to the world. Together, America and the world will prosper for future generations to enjoy America and the world we live in.


Lift Every Voice and Sing


This video of the ' Negro National Anthem' was originally screened at the historic African-American Church Inaugural Ball in Washington, DC on January 18th, 2009. Many of the esteemed individuals featured in this video in attendance and we presented with the ' Keepers of the Flame' award for the monumental contributions to social justice.

This version of the song was performed by the Grace Baptist Church Cathedral Choir, conducted by Derrick James. The video was produced and donated by Ascender Communications, LLC (www.ascender-c.com) at the request of The Balm In Gilead, Inc.

If I Was President--Wyclef Jean




If I was President that is the people's anthem. We all have ideas of what we can do as President and through this website, we will fulfill our deam as a people!

Somethings Gotta Give--Big Boi ft Mary J Blige



Somethings Gotta Give people and it begins today for all us to make sure that something is us. We the people are sick and tired of suffering. Where is our piece of the Dream that so many people dead for so that we all could see today. This is our time people to change America and the world so that the Next Generation has a better future than the past we inherited.

This is our call to service. This isn't about one political candidate or one political figure. This is about us as people coming together to finally leave up to our potential and achieving the great feats that those before us have achieved. This is our moment to lead our nation and our world to greater heights.

Somethings gotta give people and it starts with us the people making it happen. We have to improve our education system in America. We have to rid the world of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We have to go to the streets and lift a hand to another in order to decrease poverty in this world. We have to take a stand today and make sure that the future of America and the world is brighter than it has ever been.

Somethings Gotta Give and that is why we must "Remember Each One, Reach One and Teach One so America's future and the World's future continues to prosper."

John Legend - "If You're Out There"


If you're out there than you need to get started in helping to change America and the world. The world and America won't change until you get involved in making the changes you want to see in this world. If you're out there, than you must know that tomorrow started now and today started yesterday so you are behind in helping to the change. If you are tired of hatred, racism, poverty, war, and violence than the time to change it is now. If you want universal health care, world peace, democracy for every nation, equal rights, and happiness for all than you must get involved now to help the save world.

You must believe in the change that you want to see and you must act on making that change a reality. If you're out there than say it aloud and show the rest of America and the world that you're out here to make a real positive change in the communities we stay in. If you're out there than get involved now. I'm calling every women and men to join me as we take back our country right here, right now. If you're out there than the future started yersterday and we are already late so we have lots of work to do but I know we can do it together as one.

YES WE CAN



Yes We Can accomplish anything that we set out to do! We don't need charismatic or inspirational leaders to believe in ourselves and to take responsiblity for our own faith, we just need each other. Yes We Can build a new America and a new world if each of us would take action now to make the changes that we want to see in the world. Yes We Can control government by holding our political officials accountable for their actions by calling them out when they don't pass legislation that supports the common good of all man and by voting in every election to ensure that we have people representing the people locally, state wide, nationally and in the world.

Yes We Can be great! Yes We Can be what we want to be! Yes We Can be glorious in not only America but the world! Yes We can put action behind our worlds and change the world starting right here, right now! Yes We Can as Republicans, Democrats and Independents become one as we freely think about our fellow men and women and make decisions that will be in the best interest of all people and not one single group.

Yes We Can be the change that we want to see in the world! Yes We Can show the world that the youth are ready to lead! Yes We Can put our egos, our social economic statuses, our religions, our educational statuses and our skin color to the side for the better good of the world! Yes We Can be Greater than we have ever been and help others be Greater than they have ever be!

YES WE CAN and YES WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS IN ALL THAT WE DO! YES WE CAN, no matter what others may say, we will be glorious! YES WE WILL and YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!

YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN is what will be sung from every mountaintop, every riverbank, every household, every school yard, every factory, every sporting event, every college campus and even every place you can imagine in the world is where YES WE CAN, will be said and heard!

YES WE CAN!

Keep On Pushing - Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions


Wake Up People! No matter who is elected to any public office, we have to “Keep On Pushing” as a people to make sure they don’t leave us in a worst state than what they inherited. We as a people have to “Keep On Pushing” to make a difference in the lives of others. We have to have an “EmPOWERment By Any Means Necessary” attitude as we continue to push our agenda that we the people deserve and want better. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to bring about change in a positive way that will benefit all Americans no matter their age, their religion or skin color. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to bring about change that will improve our education system, improve our military, improve our national security, improve our healthcare system and improve our economy. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to bring about change that will leave America’s future in a better than how we found it and that will leave the world’s future in a better state than we imagined we could live it. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to make life better for our neighborhoods, our families and even our quote on quote enemies. We have to “Keep On Pushing” to inspire, to uplift and to guide those who need help spiritually, physically and mentally. We have to “Keep On Pushing ” so that our lives, our future generation’s lives and the lives of those who came before us does not die in vein.

“Keep on Pushing”

A War For Your Soul

A War For Your Soul-regular version from Erisai Films on Vimeo.


The moment has come for us as a nation of people to finally wake up and realize that our destiny and fate in society has rests on our shoulders. We cannot allow the forces of evil and darkness to drain us out. We have to continue to overcome all odds in order to make the future of our nation better and the future of future generations of Americans better. We have to continue to pray to our Lord and we have to continue to uplift each other in prayer as well as take action against those things that are trying to destroy us. We have to stand up once and for all and be the future that we want to be. Now is our time and we shall do together by any means necessary.

This video was created to inspire young African-Americans not to fall prey to some of the problems they face in society. The use of the voice "Master of Darkness" represents evil, which is where the blame of all problems should be placed, and not on any one group of people. This video should not to be used to divide people (Black & White), there are images of heroes that are white in this video, and there are images of Black & White coming together with the words of Dr. King in the background. Some of the images from the past can be unsettling, but they are used to show all Americans how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. This film is being strategically placed in school systems, churches and youth orgs around the country, in hope of helping a lost generation of kids that we as Americans have forgotten. As fellow Americans we must continue to love each other, and take that love and spread it to the rest of the world. **THIS VIDEO IS NOT FOR SALE & I AM NOT ACCEPTING DONATIONS FOR THE FILM, I ONLY WANT THE MESSAGE TO REACH AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT ANY HIDDEN POLITICAL OR FINANCIAL AGENDA.

Sitting On the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding



"The time for sitting is over! The time for action is now! The time for hope without action is hopeless! The time for change without a positive attitude is a change that we can't believe in! We need change that is positive of helping all people! Our time for action is now, our time for hope is now, our time for change is now and our time to believe that we can do whatever we set our minds to is not now but right now!"

STAR SPANGLED BANNER


The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming;
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?


On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
'Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
From the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!


O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land,
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just.
And this be our motto— "In God is our trust; "
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

Black President



Our Time is not now but Right Now! Our Time has finally come to change the world not now but Right Now! If you don't believe that we can change the world than watch as we do it by changing your mind into believing in us and what we can do! This is OUR TIME RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!

FIGHT THE POWER



We got to FIGHT THE POWER! We can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch injustices take place. We can no longer sit by and allow our right to vote to become unexercised. We must FIGHT THE POWER for our past, present and future! We can no longer allow our rights to be oppressed and our voice to become drained by the powers at be. We must FIGHT THE POWER and show that we have a lot to say that needs to be heard by the mainstream media. We must FIGHT THE POWER and live up to our potential as dynamic, unbelievable and phenomenal people.


We must not believe the hype but we must become the hype. We are not Harriett Tubman, Marcus Garvey, MLK, Malcolm X, Booker T. Washington, Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B. DuBois, the Black Panther Party, SNCC, or any other activists but we are the fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, uncles, aunties, and relatives of those who came before us to pave the way for us to FIGHT THE POWER! We are not next Generation of leaders who will not be honored and praised until they die but that’s the fight we accept. We are not fighting the power for glory or fame but we are fighting the power for just causes that most men and women will not understand until years or decades later.


We are fighting for our sisters and brothers in Darfur, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, China and Mexico. We are speaking for those who are poor and have no food or water. We are fighting for those who are sick and dying. We are fighting for universal healthcare across the world and human rights for all people. We are fighting for rich and poor! We must FIGHT THE POWER no matter how hard and tough the road may be. We must FIGHT THE POWER for a better today and an even greater tomorrow!


FIGHT THE POWER!

PEOPLE GET READY


“People Get Ready” our time is coming! We have come too far to turn back now. Our train is coming and it is coming in waves. “People Get Ready”, we don’t need a ticket but we need faith and the Lord will help guide us as we take back America and the world. “People Get Ready” our moment is now and we are ready to see the change we want in America and the world. All we got to do is have faith, hope and prosperity. “People Get Ready” to face your fears. “People Get Ready” to face your demons and the challenges of yesterday because today and tomorrow we will conquer & be victorious. “People Get Ready” a change is coming and our actions will make sure that change is a real positive change that lasts forever.


“People Get Ready” because we have had enough of just talking but now is our time to show action. “People Get Ready” to take back America and the world. “People Get Ready” to take back our communities and to make our streets safer and schools better. “People Get Ready” to make all our dreams come true. “People Get Ready” to see a better present for everyone and a better future for future generations. “People Get Ready” to live up to your potential and to help others live up to their own potential. “People Get Ready” to move past hatred, bigotry, racism and sexism. “People Get Ready” to fulfill the dreams of those who came before us and those who will come after us.


“People Get Ready” as we make our actions speak louder than our words. “People Get Ready” to make words mean something again as we put action to back up our rhetoric. “People Get Ready” as we embark on a new journey that will re-write America’s history as well as the world’s history. “People Get Ready” as we make the lives of others better and the lives of future generations better. “People Get Ready” because all we need is faith, hope and action to make this world a better place. “People Get Ready” to make a difference. “People Get Ready” to fulfill the American dream. “People Get Ready" to live out the American Dream as our founding fathers wanted us to live it. “People Get Ready” because our time is now, our moment is now and our moment in time to change America & the world is not now but right now. “People Get Ready” because a change is coming!


Alicia]
(Let me tell you now)
People get ready, there's a train comin'
You don't need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin'
You don't need no ticket, you just thank the lord

[Lyfe]
People get ready, for a train to Jordan
Picking up passengers coast to coast
Faith is the key, open the doors and board them
There's hope for all among those loved the most

[Alicia]
There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all man kind just to save his own (believe me now)
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
For there's no hiding place against the kingdoms throne

[Alicia & Lyfe]
So people get ready there's a train coming
You don't need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels humming,
You don't need no ticket, you just thank the lord


“PEOPLE GET READY!”

God Bless the U.S.A. by Lee Greenwood


Lee Greenwood-god bless the U.S.A