The Essence of Politics

Monday, September 29, 2008

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

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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