NAN's Rev. Al Sharpton and Activists to meet with Jeff Sessions Tuesday, March 7, 2017

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson
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Hello All:

Just received this information two seconds ago and thought you should be aware that Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders and activists will be meeting with Jeff Sessions, the ersatz Attorney General on Tuesday, March 7.

Rev. Al Sharpton - NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK

Given the track record of the T-rump appointee, I think we should all make it known that we are supporting the committee in their efforts to send a clear message that the rights of Black Americans will not be compromised or violated under the current regime - and that we are prepared to back them should it continue to be placed on the sacrificial alter of political pandering.

I would also like to recommend that the latest effort to legalize open carry of guns in the streets and cities of this nation be rescinded. 

We will of course be monitoring the meeting and the results, and forward any updates to you as soon as they are available.

REV. SHARPTON ALONG WITH OTHER CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS TO MEET WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS ON TUES MARCH 7 IN WASHINGTON, DC

Rev. Sharpton along with Civil Rights Organization Leaders to Meet To Discuss Key Issues Impacting Civil Rights 

Monday, March 6, 2017 (New York, NY)—Civil Rights leader and National Action Network (NAN) President and founder Rev. Al Sharpton will meet with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 along with other leading civil rights group principals.

Attending the meeting along with Rev. Al Sharpton will be Marc Morial, CEO of the National Urban League, Wade Henderson, President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Melanie L. Campbell, President and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable Public Policy Network, Sherilynn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Kristen Clarke, President of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Among the issues that will be discussed are the DOJ and the Voter ID law currently in the courts in Texas. Last week, the DOJ announced it will withdraw from the position that Texas lawmakers purposefully discriminated against voters of color by passing the nation’s strictest voter identification law in 2011. The laws were found to be discriminatory in the previous administration under President Barack Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch. 

Attorney General Sessions has supported the gutting of the Voting Rights Act., and Rev. Sharpton and NAN will state that voting rights should not be in any way compromised. They will also discuss criminal justice reform and specific issues that are before Congress, including the federal indictment of the policeman that killed Walter Scott by shooting him in the back, and the status of the investigation of the Eric Garner chokehold case. The National Action Network will make clear that the Justice Department must move forward in exploring both instances and take a firm stance on other issues of discrimination as well.

NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

STAND WITH NAN

STAY BLESSED & 

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

Gloria 

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EVENT ALERT: NACA AND NUL IN PHILLY AT CONVENTION CENTER JULY 25-29

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Well after a rousing keynote speech by Marc Marial President of the 103 year old venerable National Urban League (NUL), there can be no doubt in any one's mind that they are in Philly to take care of business.  The next three days will be jammed with activities and workshops that will leave the participants reeling.  But they appear to be up to it, as evidenced by the applause he received during his keynote speech - themed on the basis that Philadelphia has been the Black music capital for decades.  He used excerpts from famous songs to depict the thrust of the organization over the next year; and ended by saying that the murder of young Black males will not be tolerated; nor will the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court (I call them the subprime court) go unchallenged.

If you are in or around the East Coast - or if you're on the moon - it makes sense that you take this opportunity come and support this organization that has stood for jobs, quality of life, education, training and civil/human rights of Black people for over 100 years; and they've not slowed down since their inception.  For more information, log on to www.nul.com.

Simultaneously, and coincidentally, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, more popularly known as NACA is also at the Philadelphia Convention Center for a 5 day stint to help make renters into home owners; and help save those homeowners who were victims of predatory lenders from foreclosure; or overly high monthly mortgage payments.

Having just left New York City where they worked with thousands of New York families, NACA is doing an East Coast sweep to try and shore up those families that are still struggling to make ends meet, maintain their families, keep a roof over their heads; or own a quality home in a good neighborhood without it costing them half their souls.  Bruce Marks, who founded the organization 25 years ago is a hands on activist as well as the genesis behind the world's best mortgage package.  In addition to no down payment, no closing costs; not predicated on your credit scores, the mortgage is always 1% below the current prevailing mortgage rate.  It also offers buy-down opportunities, so you can practically reduce your interest rate to 0.   Because they deal with more than 80 banks, those facing foreclosure also have the advantage of getting same day solutions, often seeing mortgage reductions of between $500  to $1,000 or more per month!

It seems to me that there is some sort of synchronicity here - having both organizations in the same place - the Philadelphia Convention Center - at the same time.  There would, to me, appear to be opportunity for cross pollination - there are bound to be those among the Urban League who would like to own their own homes, but don't have the down payment or closing costs (yet) to do so.  Why wouldn't they take advantage of the proximity and spend some time in a FREE NACA workshop?  And concomitantly there are bound to be some NACA participants who would benefit from the job fair that the National Urban League is presenting at the Philadelphia Convention Center; why not bring resumes and avail yourselves of the opportunity.

Both organizations are national in scope, so regardless of where you're from, there is relevance and applicability in both arenas.

Let's hope the particpants and conveners both see the wisdom in this and make avenues for synchronicity to work for both of them.

The Philadelphia Convention Center is conveniently located in downtown Philadelphia on Arch Street between 11th and 12th Streets and can be reached either by subway or bus.

If you do attend both events, you will come out the winner.  Look forward to seeing you there.

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson



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Rep-ugh-blican dominated Supreme (?) Court Takes a Strike at Black People's Voting Rights - Why Are you surprised?

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By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

All I have to say is that in May of 2012 I said the Supreme Court injustices should have term limits.  I made the case that most were political appointees - and even after that regime is out of office, they still continue to do their dirty work - witness the Presidential selection between Al Gore and George Bush, where it was clear that criminal acts had transpired in Florida, yet the Supreme Court put Bush in office anyway.

And let's not forget the little matter of (in)Justice Roger B. Taney, who, in the Dred Scott decision, said that a Black man had no rights that a white man was bound to respect.   That was back in the 1800s! These turkeys have been trying to find a way to put Black people back on the plantation for quite some time now.  However, what they didn't count on is the fact that in the 21st Century, we don't play that.   

The Voting Rights Act was Lyndon Baines Johnson's greatest accomplishment.  These red necks who were members of the solid citizens of the solid south (and no doubt first cousins to Paula Deen), got pissed off, left the Democratic Party and invaded the Rep-ugh-blican Party in order to punish them (and us).  They packed the Supreme(?) Court with (in)justices during the Bush error (uh, era) and really smacked us in the face when Justice Thurgood Marshall had to step down because of health reasons, and they gave us his exact opposite under very public and controversial hearing - Uncle Thomas Clarence (do you wonder what that guy sees when he looks in the mirror in the mornings?)

These are excerpts from an article that appeared in READER SUPPORTED NEWS, MAY 2012:

"Let us remember the lesson of Bush v. Gore: once the Supreme Court veers, it is all but impossible to get it back on track. We should have thus learned that our Supreme Court can and likely has or will gut and destroy our nation. But in Citizens United the Court (5/9 thereof) upended nearly a century of prior actions -- no "stare` decisis" for those 5. It backtracks when it's "reached" by interests other than the parties of record in a case."

"Citizens United is the best Supreme Court ruling money could buy. The justices will not prosper while sitting, but think they will ever go wanting for something down retirement road? Or their families or however else money can be funneled to them? Now just imagine a President Romney nominating either one or two new justices to the court. This is one of the most frightening possible futures in American history. One or two more Scalias or Thomases and Citizens United will seem tame by comparison to the bizarre rulings capable of coming out of that potential court. For the sake of this country's future as a Republic and a Democracy of and for the people (minus Citizens United), President Obama must be reelected in November."

 "All it takes to stop the Senate is to threaten a filibuster, without even having to filibuster. What can you do to put the brakes on a deranged and extremist Supreme Court? Pass a Constitutional Amendment? The SC Justices are virtual kings, with minimal checks upon their increasingly fascist behavior. With a stroke of the pen, these people could overturn the Health Care Act, passed by both houses of Congress and supported by the President. How come just five people can so easily stop the work of the other two branches of our government? They can just swoop in, with no Constitutional authority whatsoever, and select the President. "Get over it!" Scalia said. The Supreme Court is the weak link in our so-called democracy. I think two of them ought to be impeached (Roberts and Thomas), and I think the Republican Party needs to be crushed for the next several elections."

And a last (but not least) warning to those of you who may be vacillating about the petition: "Thomas Jefferson warned the people in 1816 about the SCROTUS (uh, SCOTUS). "To consider the Judges as the ultimate arbitraters of all Constitutional questions (IS) a very DANGEROUS doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the dispotism of an OLIGARCHY". People this country is in deep trouble!!"
 
I recently wrote an article, which appeared in Our Times Press (Brooklyn, NY), in reference to the rather odd decisions being handed down by the rep-ugh-blican-dominated Supreme Court, and the fact that they don't have term limits. Not only that, it's truly interesting and ironic that the Supreme Court allows corporations to donate to political campaigns, but non-profit organizations are not only not allowed to contribute, they are not allowed to endorse or advertise in the behalf of the President, or other candidates! Fearful of losing their funding, organizations have been stymied - walking on eggs. They are being bullied into science, under the guise of ethical practices, exacted against them via the most unethical means possible - the threat of punitiv, pseudo legal reprisals leveled against them. Americans are being held hostage by the very people who were supposed to be the protectors of their rights and liberties. What then does one need to do in order to be liberated from this tyranny? Frankly, the petition should have included a demand for term limits on the Supreme Court Justices, starting with the current incumbents - no more that 12 years for any one term.

Interestingly enough, no one has come up with the idea of occupying the Supreme Court; but perhaps this is the time to take them off the sacred cow list, since it is evident that they don't hold Americans' lives and wellbeing sacred or important. In the interim, if you want to prevent big corporations from disenfranchising you and your neighbors, sign the petition, and pass it on.

As with everything else here, we have to maintain vigilence.  It hasn't changed.  We have to vote in every election like our lives depended on it, because, as you can well see, they do.  These people mean us no good.  And it's been evident down through the ages.  The only way we get justice is when we stand up, together, united, and wrest it from their cold vampirish hands.   They are counting on there being no more Thurgood Marshalls among us.  They are betting on being able to get away with this scott free.  They are assuming that we don't have the intelligence, the unity and the professional representation to make them back down and reverse this decision.

I'm betting that we not only do have what it takes and who we need, that there are a lot more people who are not necessarily African American, but who are American citizens, who are just as outraged as we are, who are likewise looking to make sure they go this far, and no further.  
what benefit is a Supreme Court if it's a tool for the oppressor?  

It is time for good men and women of consciousness in Congress and in the communities they purport to represent, call for TERM LIMITS for the Supreme(?) Court, immediately, if not sooner.  They may well be the albatroses who push our country into fascism.  

Now that you  know, What will you do?

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson