BLACK AND PROUD IN 2010

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson


Dear Brothers and Sisters:


This is BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2010, and I freely admit to being an unrepentant Black elitist of the first and highest order.

There are some days that I'm so proud to be Black (with a capital "B" thank you); to be a Black woman of African heritage; the descendant of survivors who knew how to make a way out of no way; and made sure to make a way for me to have a way.

I am proud of the fact that each and every one of us is still standing as a repudiation to the onslaught of racism and tribulations launched (lynched?) against us over the past 400 years.

I'm Proud of us for the ground we've gained and the progress we made over these past 60 years as well; and the fact that we move forward more and more each year.

I am proud of being a Black mother who brought three beautiful Black and proud children into the world so that they could in turn bring more Black and proud children into the world and so on and so on.

I'm proud to have had two wonderful Black parents who instilled in us the necessity of being proud of who we are, and knowing and respecting out heritage and history. I am proud of a father who taught me People First, Then Things. And that Black people came before anyone. And a great grand father who defended his land against the KKK and kept it intact for his family.

I'm proud of our rich, beautiful skin tones from the patina of Ebony to the vanilla tones -- all the way through caramel, cocoa, chocolate, peanut butter, bubble gum and tawny in between. Who but us could take the genetic alterations brought about by rape and transform it into such beautiful people. We are the true transformers. (when I was a kid I used to sit and look in the mirror just loving the color of my skin and my brown eyes - totally ego tripping -- always wishing I was darker chocolate like my mother, though - my mom's gorgeous! By the way, my daddy was a fine Black man, too.)

When we Black people get together to party and play our ever soulful, groovy music, we take over the dance floor with a syncopation no choreographer could ever have planned, I feel like I'm in a privileged space.

I am proud of my African DNA. I give that birthplace only to us. (Sorry Leaky, know you made the discovery in the Oduvai Gorge, of Tanzania, but Africa belongs to the BLACK MAN & WOMAN).

I always tease my African brothers and sisters about our residual African heritage. I tell them we can't help it, and it's their fault that we've got all this rhythm in our DNA. I comes out in our pores. Our Caribbean brothers and sisters, the Latino branch of our family, our South American Brothers and sisters have likewise benefited from our Motherland's DNA. We all exude the rhythm and spirit we inherited from them. They love it. We know we're one!

I'm proud of the magic melanin that keeps us young and beautiful. Good Black don't crack - remember? The Blacker the berry the sweeter the juice. Our men are fine, we women are finer. We don't age or deteriorate, we mature. I mean, have you seen Diana Ross, or Ruby Dee, or Billy Dee Williams, or Harry Belafonte, or Sidney Portier, or my uncle (another fine Black man).

And when we sing -- regardless of whether we're singing a'capella, harmony, jazz, blues, soul, scatting, or gospel and spirituals; we ascend. When we take our African heritage out on those keyboards, drums, congas, saxophones, trumpet -- we are unparalleled.

And when we compete in sports -- we are agile and accurate, poetry in motion.

I am so proud of our beautiful little chocolate drop doll-babies. We need to understand that the term gifted and talented encompasses all our children. Our kids learn to dance in the crib! They can imitate us from day one (so make sure that what you do in front of them is positive and watch your mouth!) They are way ahead of most kids in their abilities and agility's. (My baby daughter, Adiya, could snap her fingers and say her name at 6 months). Most of our kids can read at three if we would just teach them. They are born special, precious, creative, talented and smart. They are supposed to do what they do! It's natural. All our Black kids are gifted and talented -- no exceptions. And I am the world's number one bragging parent. Ask my friends. They keep asking me how many kids I have, because it seems I must have ten -- surely three kids can't be doing that much stuff at one time (still bragging!)

We are the most creative people on the planet: our brains, our minds, our intelligence, our wit, our wisdom, often imitated, never duplicated, (usually confiscated, if you get my drift); we invent; we design, we refine. We conceive, we believe, we achieve; we be masters of rap; we make debating look like childsplay; we see through sham, debunk scam; we are family no matter where we be.

When we do our art, we make colors jump off the canvass. And when I look around at the colors and styles and shapes and sizes and accents; I just love being BLACK!!! I thank God for the privilege and the pleasure of being able to say "Only the strong survive, and we are indeed the fittest -- because no other group has endured what we have, and still stand and walk with a rhythm and a pace that says: "CAN'T TOUCH THIS!" (duh, I told you I was an elitist!)

We have so much to be proud of this Black History Month; and so many who have done so much to pave the way for us to be here: Cinque, Carter G. Woodson, Booker T. Washington, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Langston Hughes, Toussaint L'Overture, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamde Azikewe, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Sekou Toure, Frederick Douglass, Madame C. J. Walker, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Percy E. Sutton, George Washington Carver, Shirley Chisolm, Denmark Vesey, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, Lena Horne, Billie Holliday, and of course President Barack Hussein Obama, and beautiful First Lady Michelle!!!

I could keep going on; but there are also those unsung s/heroes in our neighborhood, family, schools, churches who have kept on keeping on despite it all -- who may not have made headlines, but definitely made a difference. I am ever amazed at the organizations and programs our brothers and sisters formulate in order to help their people. If we linked up and coordinated with each other locally and nationally, we would be in the forefront of resolving our own problems, setting our own standards, developing our own economic base, starting and sustaining our education systems, and becoming genuine Blacks, not imitations of others concepts of who we should be (that was diplomatically put, wasn't it? I'm not anti other races, I'm just pro-us! To that end, though, I am definitely anti-racism).

So celebrate our local heroes, and community leaders who are trying to make a difference (not just TV and video celebs). And make sure you celebrate yourselves and teach your children to do the same. The education, the love and the support we give ourselves and each other must be based on the highest and best "we" that we can be.

Our heritage is so rich, if we could bottle it and sell it we'd all be billionaires! Now that would take care of the reparations issue, wouldn't it?

So HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATE! CELEBRATE! CELEBRATE!
Stay blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK (and Proud)

Gloria Dulan-Wilson Is a veteran New York City Journalist who is new to the bullet. Her experiences, perspective & sense of history are an invaluable combination. "check out my blog:" www.gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com

Lady BlahBlah

by CHARLES M. BLOW


I have often accused Sarah Palin of having more fight than strategy in her. But I must concede that her decision to become a contributor to Fox News is a shrewd one. Touché, Barracuda.

Here’s why:

1. She’s made for television.

She’s telegenic. She’s never speechless. She has a gift for talking a lot while saying nothing. And, she has one of the best poker faces in the game — smiling and winking while bobbing and weaving, spouting all manner of nonsense to conceal when she’s nonplussed.

2. There’s no better fit than Fox.

It’s a friendly forum in which to hone her sound bites, learn to parry tough questions and answer easy ones, and to bone up on, well, pretty much everything. Sure, she’ll flub some facts, and she’ll take a drubbing for it. But beating up on her often backfires. The more she takes a punch and cheerfully recovers, the stronger she appears.

And, if she decides to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, and all indications are that she will, this perch will give her another leg up on her Republican rivals. She continues to command the spotlight while they dance in the dark.

3. The timing is impeccable.

There is now a bubbling discontent on the right and, in particular, among whites, which is aimed at President Obama.

According to an analysis of New York Times and CBS News polls, Obama has the lowest approval rating among whites at the end of his first year in office than any president in the 30 years that The Times and CBS News have collected such data. And the gap between Obama and the others is significant, ranging from 10 to 36 percentage points.

Furthermore, a Quinnipiac University poll, released on Wednesday, found that most whites think that Obama’s first year as president has been mainly a failure. A plurality of whites even said that Obama has been a worse president than George W. Bush.

If indeed being Negro-lite made Obama palatable to white voters, as Senator Harry Reid was spanked for saying, that charm has worn off. Whites are now fuming at him.

Palin’s chipper visage, baseless certitude, utter obliviousness and unwavering belief in her own destiny make her an ideal vessel for this mounting white discontent. It’s perfect: blind faith meets blinding frustration. For an image of what this looks like, simply recall her rallies from the previous election.

(For the record, according to the Nielsen Company, more than 95 percent of the viewers of the Fox News Channel are white.)

This move could put Palin in a much better position to become the Republican nominee. The race for the nomination may not be given to the slick or to the strong, but to this fame monster who seems to have the stamina to endure until the end.


Once again the bullet is proud to present New York Times Columnist & nationally known commentator Charles M. Blow with several hundred words of blistering political commentary: "I invite you to visit my blog By The Numbers, join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, or e-mail me at chblow@nytimes.com."

The Making of "Precious" pt.5

by Ishmael Reed


A book promoted by the magazine in which all of the crack addicts were black and in which one photo showed a black crack addict, a mother, fellating a John while a baby was strapped to her back even offended Brent Staples, a black member of the editorial board. That crack is a black drug, exclusively, is just another media hoax meant to entertain whites of the kind that dates to the very beginning of the American mass media.

So I wasn’t surprised that the magazine section featured a spread about “Precious” featuring Gabourey Sidibe, the 350 pound actor in the title role, on the cover certainly an act of black exploitation. However the interviewer, gossip writer Lynn Hirschberg, did perform a service by catching Lee Daniels, the “director” of Precious in a couple of exaggerations. In an effort to follow the marketing plan, the title of the article was “The Audacity of Precious,” after Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope” subtitled “Is America Ready For A Movie About An Obese Harlem Girl Raped And Impregnated By Her Abusive Father?” Lionsgate spent big bucks to advertise the movie in the Times.

During Lynn Hirschberg’s interview with Daniels, he claims that he directed Monster’s Ball, about a black woman so dimwitted that she begins a relationship with her husband’s white executioner (though as a porn movie it was superior to Co-Ed Confidential). The husband was played by Sean Puffy Combs.

Turns out that Daniels didn’t direct the film. It was directed by Marc Forster a white director. So, did Daniels direct “Precious” or is really he playing the flak catcher for this heinous project like Oprah Winfrey and Perry? When he went on the set to exercise his role as “director” did the white people who own the movie and provide the crew for this film call security? Hard to say.

He also said that he grew up in the ghetto. His aunt disputes this.
The Times has printed no less than four articles all of which have either praised Precious, or gave those who defend the movie the most lines. Two were written by A.O. Scott, who said that this movie about fictional characters was part of a “national conversation about race.” This is the problem with films like “Precious.” White critics like A.O. Scott, who hog all the criticism space as black, Hispanic, and Asian American journalists are being fired in droves, get a chance to pick and choose which cultural products that will ignite a discussion about race usually ones that show blacks as depraved individuals, individuals that are used to blame black men and in this case black women, collectively. He suggests that based upon a movie adapted from a fiction, all black males are incest violators, the kind of group libel aimed at the brothers when Gloria Steinem said that The Color Purple told the truth about black men.

Why didn’t Dexter, Paris Trout or Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out Of Carolina, begin “a national conversation,” about race? Ted Turner tried to suppress Bastard Out Of Carolina, this white incest film and only through the intervention of Anjelica Huston was the film aired. Turner pronounced it too graphic to be shown on his network CNN, which poses blacks as degenerates 24/7. In several states, Bastard has been banned from classrooms and school libraries.

Also, why doesn’t the Times open its Jim Crow Op Ed page so that a member of Precious’s target, black men, as a class, could respond to this smear, this hate crime as entertainment, this Neo Nazi porn and filth. There are hundreds of black male intellectuals (yes, black men are more than athletes, criminals and entertainers) who would take up the challenge. But the Op Ed page is only open to one black writer, consistently--Orlando Patterson--, who, like the ‘20s writer Claude McKay, is the kind of Jamaican who has nothing but contempt for African Americans.

Sapphire (Ramona Lofton), who wrote the novel Push, also has a biography like Daniel’s that shifts about. First she told Dinitia Smith of the Times (July 2, 1996) that Precious was an actual person. “She lives there,” she said, “pointing at a dowdy building over check cashing store.” Don’t you think that if such a person existed that Lionsgate wouldn’t include her in its marketing plan so ubiquitous that an ad for this film appears on my email screen when I sign in at AOL. It figures? AOL’s expert on black culture and politics is DNesh D’Souza .Their coverage of black culture is limited to black NFL and NBA athletes who get into trouble outside of strip clubs.

Part of the packaging of both the novel and the film has been to cash in the culture of recovery. Sapphire says that she was a former prostitute and a victim of incest (Lee Daniels does his pity party routine during the Times’ interview). She also said that she is a recovering lesbian. In 1986, she began to “remember things.” “An incident of violent sexual abuse “ when she was “3 or 4.” Her father, an Army Sergeant, denied her claim. He died in 1990. (Lee Daniels also “remembered” abuse by his father. I wonder what his aunt would say.)

Her “remembering things,” and being inspired by two other profitable black incest products led Alfred Knopf to give her a $500,000 advance for two books one of which, entitled “American Dreams” included a poem called “Wild Thing,” which blamed the rape of a Central Park Jogger on black boys.

Ishmael Reed is an award-winning novelist, author & essayist. He was born in Tennesse & raised in Buffalo NY and is a former journalist for the Buffalo Challenger. His next book “Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media: the Return of the Nigger Breakers” will be published in the Spring by Baraka publishers of Quebec. He is the editor of Konch. He can be reached at:
ireedpub@yahoo.com

Wall Street has a lot of nerve!!!

Main Street Needs to Protest Wall Street Bonuses













by Gloria Dulan-Wilson


Generally, I make it a rule to never go to sleep with the news on. (Yes! I’m one of those people who live with TV in the background.) However, I dozed off around 4:30AM after having spent the night “fighting material” (a Lincoln University old school term for studying hard). Around 6:25 I heard something so disturbing, I was compelled to get up and write this article: Wall Street is Leading a Protest Against President Barack Obama! Today!

My subconscious said, “That can’t be possible. You’re having a nightmare. Pay no attention to that nonsense. You know they have better sense than that.” But the other side of my brain argued, “No they don’t. They’ll do anything to duck responsibility, maintain the status quo, and continue to suck off society until not even the marrow is left, while they collect their bonuses, and we collect unemployment and welfare!” With that my eyes popped open, I couldn’t sleep.

So, here I am, 6:40 in the morning, writing this piece. If this true, and it most likely is, then Main Street (the rest of America) has to protest Wall Street. Main Street needs to put Wall Street on notice that we are not going to let this nonsense go unchallenged.

Of course, it’s no accident that they chose the day of President Obama’s State of the Union Address to pull this prank. They have been trying to weasel out of their responsibility for collapsing the economy for the past two years. They’ve turned a blind eye to the plight of Main Street for decades. They had the temerity and the gall to flip Main Street Mortgages, securitizing them, and selling them, over encumbering them (I.e. loading them up with debt), while the home owners were being gouged with higher and higher prices, for lower and lower valued properties -- and at the same time dealing with an economy where increasingly lower and lower salaries were being offered for fewer and fewer jobs (with the bulk of the better paid positions being sent overseas). So eventually, and inevitably, the house of cards collapsed, literally -- along with cars, banks, insurance companies -- whole systems that were being carried by frustrated and beleaguered home owners.

When the great collapse came -- guess who was in charge of the United States of America? Bush and all his cronies. It was like having Dracula in the White House. Were they surprised that this happened? Probably not. Did they care? As long as their cash kept flowing, most definitely not. Were there prepared to -- or even interested in -- doing something to help the struggling families who suddenly found themselves without a roof over their heads? Not in the least!

Were they prepared to help the Wall Street investment firms who caused the problem, and were righteously teetering on the brink of disaster, brought on by their own greed, stupidity, avariciousness? Can you say cover up, boys and girls? Remember that taxing the poor to save the rich has been around at least as long as the Bible. It's nothing new. You can bet that when they came on TV that Sunday morning in 2008, saying to the American public that they should do absolutely nothing, but that the President (Bush) should give them billions of bail out dollars, they were not in the least bit concerned about you. You were going to foot the bill, no matter what. Foot it, but not benefit from it. They were only about covering their asses -- er, I mean assets (sorry).

These “smartest minds” as they called themselves, announced that they're planning to protest President Obama! How dare they! The smartest minds are who got us into this mess to begin with. We really need to send a signal to them. Ain’t no business as usual in Wall Street. The President, via our Attorney General, should not stop until a forensic investigation of every transaction that has negatively affected us and the US in general is conducted.

President Obama is calling for greater regulation of the financial sector, and it’s quite probably they are now feeling the heat breathing down their necks. And it’s about time. I suspect the reason we didn’t have financial literacy classes in elementary, middle, and high school, is because, armed with the appropriate information, Wall Street would have never have been able to undermine the stability of the economy. When everybody knows and understands how a system works, and has an interest and involvement in it, it’s pretty difficult to get away with what they’ve been able to get away with.

Think about it, we in New York City, live in a society where the biggest industry we have is money and investment, but I daresay, less that 12% of New Yorkers in the five boroughs of Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island, have working knowledge of Wall Street; much less ongoing investments in the mid to high end stocks, let alone municipal bonds. It’s certainly not taught in any of the 19 schools Bloomberg’s henchmen just closed. Hmmmm! When adult education courses are offered, rarely are programs offered in financial literacy or demystifying Wall Street.

While the rank and file of Wall Street live in a home where the median income is $250,000 annually and upwards to $millions, we, the “little people” are acting as though $35,000 puts us in the middle class income bracket (well it does if both husband and wife are earning $35,000 each); but you’re struggling if it turns out that you have an over priced apartment, or if your mortgage exceeds $1200 a month, and you have children; possibly a car. You’re struggling.

I love money just as much as the next person. I'd love to be independently wealthy. But not by climbing on the backs of the rest of society to do so. And if my actions caused the severe privations currently faced with rampant foreclosures, business failures, people losing their jobs, how could I (or Wall Street) in clear consciousness, expect to receive a bonus?

Now, these same proposed Wall Street protesters who may have caused you to lose even your basic means of support, have the temerity and the gall to try to protest President Obama. Obama, who has assiduously worked to restructure the broken toy (the economy is like a broken toy that your big brother or sister gives you after he or she has ruined it, taken all the fun and life out of it, and then sits back smugly while you try to make it go, knowing all along they still have a key piece in their back pocket). These characters (oops! I almost called them cretins -- but how could the smartest guys in the room be cretins? Duh) want to protest him?

Don't you find it interesting that they didn't protest the bogus wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan? Don't you find it amazing that none of them have been sent overseas? But you can bet that they are underwriting some of the weaponry that is purchased for the war. Remember elementary economics: Guns and Butter. Guns are more important than butter. (by the reason they are asking dumb questions about how the Health Care Bill will be paid for is because they are making far more money paying for a losing war -- their return on their investment (ROI) is through the stratosphere. And when it looks as if we are moving in the direction of pulling our troops and ending the war, the pull an old photo and recording of Bin Ladin out of somewhere with some new threat, and we end up sending more troops whether we needed to or not. They'd protest ending the war, not because we don't need to be there, but because it's messing with their favorite cash cow.

So let's protest Wall Street. Let’s protest them for trying to collect bonuses for a job poorly done. Let’s protest Wall Street for lying to the public. Let’s protest Wall Street until every penny of those so-called bonuses go to underwrite New York’s economy. Let’s protest them until every one of those homes that went up in flames via mortgage backed securities (please don’t put the blame on the so-called sub prime loans -- it’s really all Wall Street, either overt or covert), get’s at least $100,000 to pay down some of their mortgage or move into a new home, after their home was foreclosed upon. Let’s protest Wall Street, and put a freeze on any and all funds over and above salaries that they are trying to sneak and give to each other, while the rest of us go twisting in the wind.

In other words: Don’t let Wall Street get away with this garbage! Tie their feet to the fire. Make them understand that we are all human beings, and deserve to be treated with honesty, integrity, respect -- i.e. humanely! And at the same time, we should demand that our education system immediately implement ongoing financial literacy education and training programs, beginning with our first graders, and continuing through college FREE of charge; as well as a remedial Adult Education Financial Literacy program for those of us who went through this system and did not receive the basics.

By the way, for those of you who think that the Wall Street protest is nothing serious, just remember these facts: Barack Obama is the first Black President in the United States; he’s taken on a system that was morally bankrupt from beginning to end. He’s catching hell in the press, not because he’s not doing a good job. In fact, check the real records. He's doing an excellent job. But Mephistopheles is in the game; Machiavelli is setting the tone for the Republicans -- because this is the way Republicans operate -- and remember who runs the mainstream media and Wall Street -- oh, yes Right Wing, conservative, Republicans.

Remember two years ago when there were seas and seas of Obama buttons because America finally woke up and found itself in the middle of a mess (once again) thanks to the Bush Administration? We once a member of the opposition party gets into office, they do their best to try to make his life and administration a living hell. They did it Clinton. They did it to Carter. They will try to do it to Obama, too. But we’re not going to sit back and let that happen this time. This time we should be astute enough to recognize their m.o. (method of operation/modus operandi) by now.

So, with that in mind, let’s not only protest Wall Street protesters, because they are part and parcel the reason we’re in the mess we’re in now; but let’s get those financial literacy classes going -- whether in the schools, or in our many churches (probably better if done in church, it may actually keep the greed factor in church if economics is taught from the standpoint of being our brothers and sisters keepers).

And while you’re at it, get out your Obama buttons, tee shirts, posters, caps, cups, clips, pens; support OFA, and any other organizations that support President Obama, or form one of your own, locally, nationally, internationally. It’s going to be a long haul and a bumpy ride. If you think that you’ve done something by electing him -- you’re definitely right, and have a great deal to be proud of. But we now have to make sure that the agenda we helped him become elected on is implemented, and not circumvented via political expediency and yellow striped blue dogs, filibustering miscreants who are only concerned about party issues, not people issues.

Every time an election comes up, a referendum, or any measure, think "how does this affect Obama, therefore me and my family. You have to vote the same way you did when Obama was running for president. You have to line up to the polls the same way you did on November 4, 2008. You have to send a signal for all times that we are alive, large and in charge, and are using our activism and our constitutional right to vote to make sure the guy we put in office doesn't get sidelined by insidious, duplicitous activities that in the long run undermine us.

Now more than ever YES WE CAN has to be our watchword when it comes to supporting President Barack Obama. Supporting him is supporting America - black, brown, yellow; Red, white, blue.

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK

Gloria Dulan-Wilson Is a veteran New York City Journalist who is new to the bullet. Her experiences, perspective & sense of history are an invaluable combination. "check out my blog:" www.gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com

My Resume

by Dr. Waine Kong


I was born at Kingston Jubilee Hospital in Kingston on July 18, 1943. Within my first four years of life, World War II ended, my father moved back to China and my mother migrated to the United States and started another family. So, I grew up in “The Bush” (Woodlands District, St. Elizabeth) being nurtured and protected by my Granny, Mrs. Rosella McKenzie (Miss Rosie). After my fifteenth birthday, (April 3, 1959) my brother Earl and I rejoined my mother and her new family in the United States.

In the fifty years since 1959, I lived in Morristown, NJ; Indianola, Iowa; Washington, DC; Columbia, MD; Baltimore, MD; York, PA; Sacramento, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL., and Atlanta, GA. After all my roaming, I returned to Jamaica after I retired in 2008 and began to get to know my birth country for the first time!

I am currently, President of Heart Institute of the Caribbean Foundation (HICF) where I facilitate open access to cardiovascular care for people who cannot afford it. Contributions are being solicited and would be appreciated. We are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization in the United States as well as a registered NGO in Jamaica with the Registry of Companies. I love to write and give talks on a wide range of topics and to a wide range of audiences. Hopefully, my sermons and speeches, as well as the books and articles I publish will help to improve the human condition.

I have been a college professor, a hospital administrator, Director of a medical research center and, between 1986 and 2008, served as the CEO of the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) based in Atlanta. I have dedicated a great deal of my life trying to reduce the ravages of heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Dr. Elijah Saunders and I pioneered several community outreach efforts including being first to organize churches as health promotion centers starting in 1979. I developed the “Community Health Advocates” as well as the Barbershop and Beauty salon blood pressure control programs. I also coined the mantra: “Children should know their grandparents so they will become great grandparents” that was adopted by the ABC in 1998 as well as develop the “Seven Steps to Good Health.”

I received his B.A. from Simpson College (1967), an M.A. from American University (1970), my AGS in rehabilitation (1974) from the University of Maryland, and a Ph.D. from Walden University (1977) in educational psychology. I am also a lawyer. I received a JD from Dickinson School of Law in 1990 and I continue to be a member of the Georgia Bar.

Among my awards are: Chairman’s Award (American Heart Association/Howard County);Leadership in Public Health (Centers for Disease Control/CDC); Health Promotion (American Legacy Magazine); Humanitarian Service Award (Simpson College); Father of Church High Blood Pressure Programs (Maryland Association of Blood Pressure Measurement Specialists); Distinguished Research Award (International Society on Hypertension in Blacks); Leadership in Public Health (COSEHC).

I am married to Dr. Stephanie Kong, a Pediatrician who has been a managed care executive for 30 years. We are the parents of four children (Jillian, Freddie, Melanie and Aleron) and grandparents to five beautiful grandchildren (Mackenzie, Brooks, Audrey, Vincent and Kai). Our hobbies include traveling (we have visited over 100 countries), dancing, swimming, golf, dominoes, bid whist and bridge. However, as I walk through the wilderness of this world, my passion is to pursue the truth about my God, myself and my environment. "Nam et ipsa scienta potestas est."

Between 1994 and 2008, we were active members of Providence Missionary Baptist Church (Rev. Gerald Durley) in Atlanta where I faithfully served the pastor and the congregation on the Deacon Board while my wife served on the Board of Trustees. We know the Lord. A little time in The Son saved me from being burned. A lot of kneeling keeps us in good standing because he who kneels before God, can stand up to anyone.

Bullet Columnist Basil Waine Kong has written several pieces for this journal and especially likes to expound on his favorite subject: his beloved Jamaica. He is a former Atlien (resident of Atlanta GA), and was the CEO of the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) for 22 years before his retirement in 2008 to return to Jamaica. This article is reprinted with his permission from his blogsite; Coming in From the Cold... Bob Marley

Pam Africa on the Supreme Court ruling against Mumia

reprint from the SF Bay View Newspaper
Thursday Jan 21st, 2010

On Tuesday, Jan. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal and granted the Philadelphia DA’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Basically, the Supreme Court went against the lower federal circuit court’s 2001 and 2008 rulings, which granted a new sentencing phase jury trial if the death penalty was to be reinstated in Jamal’s case. Now the case goes back down to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, who will decide whether they will re-impose the death penalty without the jury trial.




















Pam Africa on the Supreme Court ruling against Mumia
by Minister of Information JR

Pam Africa, chairwoman of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, was a key organizer of the large demonstration outside the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals when Mumia’s case was heard there on May 17, 2007. Now the Supreme Court has ordered the case back to that court.

On Tuesday, Jan. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal and granted the Philadelphia DA’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Basically, the Supreme Court went against the lower federal circuit court’s 2001 and 2008 rulings, which granted a new sentencing phase jury trial if the death penalty was to be reinstated in Jamal’s case. Now the case goes back down to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, who will decide whether they will re-impose the death penalty without the jury trial.

In a recent interview with the Block Report, Mumia spoke about the Spisak case, in which the death penalty has since been reinstated for the white supremacist murderer Frank Spisak. The question is how this will affect Mumia’s case since they both dealt with the Mills issue, which addresses confusing jury instructions.

We are now at the highest level of Code Red in the case of Mumia Abu Jamal. The people must come to this tireless souljah’s defense.

I interviewed Pam Africa, the chairwoman of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, about the direction of the “Free Mumia” movement at this critical time …




























M.O.I. JR: Now that we have this information on how the Supreme Court wants to move on Mumia’s case, how is the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal moving? And what do they need from the people?

Pam Africa: One thing that people need to understand is that this is a very crucial time. What we’re doing today, we’re having a press conference in front of the District Attorney’s Office here in Philadelphia.

This is the first Black DA in the city of Philadelphia. His name is Seth Williams, who ran on the platform that when he became district attorney, he would execute Mumia. That’s why we’re having the demonstration there, because it eventually will end up in the hands of the district attorney.

The district attorney are the ones that are applying for this death sentence on Mumia. I know that they are battling Mills (the case concerning jury instructions) and everything else, but people must stay focused. The time is very short in dealing with the case of Mumia.

People must organize around the world. There are two petitions that are happening: One is by a group of people over in Germany with Mumia’s attorney, Robert Bryan, calling on President Obama to get involved in the case and get Mumia a new case, because he never had a trial, really.

But we’re calling on the attorney general. When I say we, I’m saying there are several groups and organizations that is spearheaded by the New York (Free Mumia Abu-Jamal) Coalition that is calling on the attorney general, because what we’re pointing out is that Mumia cannot get any fairness whatsoever.

Brewing right here is another example of what it is we’re talking about. Mumia cannot get any fairness in this court system, so we’re calling on the U.S. attorney general to do a civil rights investigation into this case, because Mumia’s civil rights from the beginning to the end, and our civil rights as citizens of this United States who have pointed out the evidence very clearly (are threatened). That nobody can get around: Mumia is innocent. He is factually innocent.

And what we’re asking people to do is to sign both of the petitions on behalf of Mumia. The one that the attorney is putting out there, because when he petitions and all, Obama, Obama’s next move is that he has to go to the U.S. attorney general. And when he comes to the U.S. attorney general, he will fully know that our last person who signed the petition for the civil rights investigation was Skip Gates, who sat down and had a beer after he was beat up by the police, you know, at the White House. I’m saying, he signed the petition. We have people that are right in the ear of Obama and the attorney general.

And I want to point out very clearly, we have no hope whatsoever in the system. Our faith, Mumia’s faith, is in the people. Will the people rise up and do what is right? Shaka Sankofa is dead because the people didn’t consistently stay on top of these people when they did wrong.

Tookie Williams, when they executed him, when they murdered him in cold-blood when the movement was moving, it should’ve continued to move that way. There are magnificent things that are happening in California around the death penalty, but everybody must unite together and move as one up against this government for the sake of Brotha (Troy) Davis, for the sake of all the brothas that’s on death row right now.

Again there is Academics for Mumia, who are at Princeton University, who is having a meeting pulling academics together, and we’re asking the academics to sign both of these petitions while they educate people. I’m telling you people, we are not without the evidence. If you go to the website at Journalists for Mumia, if you go into the Bay View, you will find all of the evidence that you need to bring the system down to its knees.

Once again, do not be duped by time; time is running out. And I know that when this next step is made, as I understand, things might be like six months and then it will go to the DA. The time might be a little bit off, but we don’t have much time. It’s time for them people to get into them churches, make them ministers get up, make these politicians get up, you know, make the people rise up, as they did in 1999, when we did Millions for Mumia. The time is now for organizing, organizing with all of the strength that you have.

And I just want to thank people like the Partisan Defense Committee, Labor for Mumia, the Mobilization for Mumia, Millions for Mumia. These people have stayed steadfast, and if I haven’t mentioned the names of other people, there is a lot of individuals – JR and the Bay View – for keeping this issue up front in the people’s eye.

The time is now for organizing, organizing with all of the strength that you have. People must pull together to abolish the death penalty. Save this brotha who has been on the front lines, from deathrow, on every issue of social justice that there is.

And I will be down (in the Bay) on Feb. 18. I’ll be in California, from the 18th to the 23rd. I’m coming down there for the brotha of the San Francisco 8 (Francisco Torres’) hearing. I’m coming down there for Brotha JR’s hearing, and I wish I could be in LA when they bring this murderous cop (who murdered) Oscar Grant there, but I’m going to be pushing for people to get there – everybody who can.

This death sentence that was handed out to this brotha; we can’t allow it, people. And I’m saying y’all have been an example to all of the people around the world of resistance (of what can be done) when people be consistent at what they do. Y’all have had something done here when y’all had that murderous monster arrested. It must continue. This dude must sit on deathrow. That is where he needs to sit with all of the other people. And let people fight to get his behind off of deathrow.

You know, it can’t be enough said: People must pull together. You must abolish the death penalty because it is wrong, all the way across the board. We must support JR and all of the brothas and sistas that was arrested. This is what Mumia is pushing for; this is what we’re pushing for.

When we come to California, we’ll be having more information about Mumia. The movement is moving real fast, so please while you are organizing for everything, tell people that they must get into the streets in order to save this brotha who has been on the front lines, from deathrow, on every issue of social justice that there is.

Email POCC Minister of Information JR, Bay View associate editor, at blockreportradio [at] gmail.com and visit http://www.blockreportradio.com &
http://freemumia.com

Seek First to Understand

by Brenda Lee



It’s important to understand why a loved one won’t have contact with you. Understand the group’s dynamics and how the group thinks as one mind. This means that you must research the group thoroughly and try to understand why your friend/relative wants to believe in this group’s mission/utopia/idealistic endeavor. What are the payoffs/downsides? What vulnerabilities does the group manifest? What doubt is your loved one secretly fostering—is he/she tired of the endless and non-climactic routine, the eternal carrot, the hypocrisy, the financial outlay, the disassociation from loved ones?

There is a common component in all relationships which Dr. Stephen R. Covey, cites as a good habit #5 in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It is: Seek First to Understand , Then to be Understood. Seeking first to understand can pay huge dividends in all relationships.

A caution, however, based upon my own personal observations: While you are researching your loved one’s high-control group, be careful that they do not indoctrinate you! Keep yourself grounded by reading books about thought/mind control and having your own support network. Remember that most people fall prey to cults because of some emotional need that isn’t being fulfilled. Think about it—what stronger emotional need do you have right now than to have your loved one back in your arms? Are you vulnerable at this time? You bet you are!

Lee is a regular bullet columnist who has appeared as a regular on the TV documentary The Secret Lives of Women "Cults" segments. She has written several pieces in our starting rotation but her first essay for the bullet was on Mothers Day "An Author's Reflection on Mothers Day..." She overcame her mother's (mis)using religion like a scalpel in a power-mad effort to break her will, only to write a powerful book of revelation and triumph.