Electronic Village

Obama Speech in Berlin, 'A World That Stands as One'

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0000

"A World That Stands as One"
July 24th, 2008
Berlin, Germany

Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.

That is why I'm here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.

Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.

On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.

This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.

The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.

And that's when the airlift began - when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.

But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city's mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. "There is only one possibility," he said. "For us to stand together united until this battle is won...The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty...People of the world, look at Berlin!"
People of the world - look at Berlin!

Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.

Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security.

Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.

People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.

Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall - a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope - walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.

The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers - dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.
Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.

In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.

In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth - that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe.

Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more - not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.

That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.
The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid.

So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.

That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the moment when our nations - and all nations - must summon that spirit anew.

This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.

This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.

This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.

This is the moment when every nation in Europe must have the chance to choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday. In this century, we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century - in this city of all cities - we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent.

This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. Together, we must forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful protections for our people and our planet. This is the moment for trade that is free and fair for all.

This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.

This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all nations - including my own - will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as one.
And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust - not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?
Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?
People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived - at great cost and great sacrifice - to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom - indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us - what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America's shores - is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.

These are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. These aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of these aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of these aspirations that all free people - everywhere - became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of these aspirations that a new generation - our generation - must make our mark on the world.

People of Berlin - and people of the world - the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.

Barack Obama made me proud to be an American today. How long as it been since we've seen citizens in foreign countries waving American flags when an American poltician was in their homeland?

John McCain is a noble man, however, he is going to lose this election by a landslide when it is all said and done.

What did you think about the speech? or the Obama world tour?

Justice for Megan Williams

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:30:00 +0000

The wheels of justice continue to grind away at the sub-humans that kidnapped, tortured and raped Megan Williams last year.

Here is where we stand in the criminal cases on the perps in this case:

Bobby Brewster pleaded guilty last week to second-degree sexual assault, malicious assault and conspiracy to commit kidnapping or holding hostage. Brewster's sentences will run one after the other, putting him in jail for at least 13 years and possibly up to 40 years.

Frankie Brewster, 49, was sentenced in March to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree sexual assault. When he sentenced her, Perry said he took her prior conviction on voluntary manslaughter into consideration. Brewster also must register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

Danny J. Combs, faces charges in the case. Combs, who is charged with kidnapping, first-degree sexual assault and conspiracy, will go to trial in September.

Karen Burton, the only person charged with a hate crime in the case, was sentenced in March to 10 years on that charge and 2 to 10 years each on two assault charges.

George Messer and Alisha Burton each pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count of assault during the commission of a felony. Each faces up to 10 years in prison.

Linnie Burton Jr. pleaded guilty to battery June 9 as part of a deal approved by Williams. Burton was given a six-month suspended jail sentence and placed on one year of supervised probation.

Hopefully Megan Williams is moving towards the hopes and dreams in her life. I'm glad to see that the criminal justice system is working well in West Virginia!

Online Activism for LaVena Johnson Gaining Momentum

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:30:00 +0000

Momentum is building in our efforts to gain Justice for LaVena Johnson!

The love and persistence of her family in the three years since LaVena was killed has been remarkable. The online activism of Philip Barron of Wave Flux, Shakesville has been equally remarkable. In fact, it was Bro. Barron's LaVena Johnson Petition that created the first call to action as he collected 12,000 signatures to be delivered to the Armed Services Committee.

'Original Villager' Danielle Vyas created an online petition calling on Congress and the President to re-open her case. She plans to close out her online petition when it reaches 3000 signatures. Currently, 1837 signatures have been collected. Have you signed it yet?

The brothers and sisters from Color of Change created the newest petition calling for answers in this case directed to Congressman Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Gabriel Rey-Goodlatte and his crew at Color of Change are well-known for their work on Jena Six. It is a good sign that they are on board with this fight to re-open LaVena Johnson's case.

LaVena's family conducted an interview on Amy Goodman’s radio and television show Democracy Now! I encourage all villagers to check out video coverage of the story.

You can help the momentum. I encourage you to contact your representatives directly on behalf of Justice for LaVena Johnson. This additional step may make all the difference.

I'm interested in hearing your take on the efforts to re-open the LaVena Johnson case. What say u?

End Police Pre-Trial, Extra Judicial Electrocutions and Executions

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:27:00 +0000

Villagers, we will join with the Afrosphere Action Coalition in a Day of Blogging for Justice focused on the extraordinary increases in taser deaths around the nation. The virtual headquarters for this online activism is a newly created blog called, "Electrocuted While Black".

We hope to raise awareness throughout the afrosphere about the inappropriate use of tasers by law enforcement officials.

The police tell us that electrocuting people in the Black community is necessary, normally harmless and in alignment with use of force policies. However, research reveals that game wardens treat 600 pound bears and half-ton mooses with greater care for their well-being than are members of the public when confronted by police officers with electrocution and execution devices in their hip pockets.

How often have you seen video of the police calling game wardens to humanely take care of lions, tigers and bears that wander into a neighborhood? Yet, the police don't have that same level of patience with Black men, blind men, women, pregnant women and children in our community.

'Shoot first, ask questions later' appears to be the operating mindset of police in North Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana, Texas, Wisconsin and elsewhere.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts on the 'pre-trial, extra-judicial electrocution and execution of Blacks'. Do you think that taser use by police is becoming the modern-day version of lynching?

Wordless Wednesday: Painted Bathroom Floor

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:25:00 +0000

John McCain Continues to Remind Me of Ronald Reagan

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Do you remember how Ronald Reagan truly began to lose it in the final years of his presidency? Tragically, it turned out that President Reagan was in early stages of Alzheimer's Disease. I think about Ronald Reagan every time that I think about John McCain becoming our president.

So, when John McCain continues to make foreign policy errors ... it concerns me.

Did you see him on ABC's Good Morning America, when he made ANOTHER geography gaffe while trying to criticize Obama's visit to Iraq. (Just last week, McCain repeatedly referred to Czechoslovakia, a country that hasn't existed since 1993.)

Asked by Diane Sawyer whether the "the situation in Afghanistan in precarious and urgent," McCain responded: "I think it's serious. . . . It's a serious situation, but there's a lot of things we need to do. We have a lot of work to do and I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border."

But as ABC's Rick Klein noted: "Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do."

I will admit that I didn't know that Iraq and Pakistan didn't share a border. However, I'm not running for POTUS on the premise that I'm the best candidate when it comes to foriegn affairs! What say u?

Blog Safari #7

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Sometimes it is difficult to comment or read all of the unique and interesting blog posts out in the afrosphere. That is why we use this 'Blog Safari' concept. I hope you enjoy these blog post referrals:

A Slant Truth - Black Voices on Barack Obama's Presidential Bid
Francis 'Hussein' Holland Blog - Tasing Has Become the Preferred Method of Lynching

The Online NewsHour - For Black Bloggers, Convention Latest in an Ongoing Fight to Be Heard

The Urban Report - Where Do Blogs Fit in the Future of Black Media?"

What About Our Daughters - Disgruntled With CNN's "Black In America"? Check Out Some New Black Voices and New Topics At Netroots Nation

Wichita NAACP Blog - Stop the Foolishness ... By Any Means Necessary

Let us know if you come across any remarkable posts that should be shared in our next Blog Safari!

New AfroSpear Member: Funky Brown Chick

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0000

The AfroSpear is a better coaltion of Black bloggers today because of recent addition of Twanna Hines. Twanna is the owner of Funky Brown Chick (BBR #97). Her blog has been up & running since June 2005.

She shared the following background on her blogging career, "In 1995 I taught people how to build websites when I worked as a computing consultant in Los Angeles. We called them 'personal homepages' and 'webjournals' then. Some of my coworkers from back in the day went on to do pretty great things in tech. (My close friend Scott was a VP at Napster during their heyday, and he later launched his own media company.)"

When asked more specifically about The AfroSpear, she wrote, "The purpose of the AfroSpear to collect & disseminate information of interest to and about the African American community. I write about sex, dating and relationships from a funky brown chick's perspective. What's the cliche -- 'You change the world by changing your piece of it.' This is my piece; I'm loving it. Sex and interpersonal relationship politics are an important part of our community."

The AfroSpear just became a more eclectic crew! I invite all villagers to visit Funky Brown Chick and let us know what you think...

The Color Line Online

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0000

By Amy Alexander
Republished courtesy of The Nation

Readers of blogs and websites that focus on people of color will soon notice something different about their favorite online destinations: the majority of posts will be filed from Chicago and Atlanta.

That's because the professional trade organizations for ethnic journalists--the Asian American Journalists Association; the National Association of Hispanic Journalists; the Native American Journalists Association; and the oldest, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) -- are meeting jointly in Chicago beginning July 23. And that same week, a small association of ethnic minority bloggers is holding its first conference, in Atlanta.

The journalists' meeting, Unity '08, has a multimillion-dollar budget and will draw thousands of black, Latino, Native American and Asian journalists together to take part in corporate-sponsored workshops and panels designed to upgrade members' skills for the new era of digital media and to network and job search. (Disclosure: I consulted with Unity organizers on the convention's program.)

By contrast, the ethnic blogger convention, Blogging While Brown, will stay in a mid-market hotel, has a shoestring budget, no corporate sponsorship, and is likely to draw about seventy-five guests and panelists.But while the thousands of minority journalists -- many representing old media outlets--troop to conference rooms and banquets at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago under a cloud of uncertainty, their new media counterparts will hook up in Atlanta eyeing a future bright with promise.

Both gatherings are happening as the media industry is at a watershed, with the Internet creating new opportunities for independent entrepreneurs as well as big corporations, and forcing the downsizing of dozens of traditional news organizations. A consequence of all the churning and flux--one largely overlooked by the mainstream press itself in its obsessive chronicling of the shift--is that traditional news-delivery systems, while far from perfect, did provide access and influence to thousands of journalists of color. Yet the massive staff cuts at these traditional media outlets are disproportionately diminishing the ranks of journalists of color.

The American Society of Newspaper Editors reported that about 300 journalists of color lost their jobs during the past year, representing roughly 12 percent of those dismissed, while they are just 5 percent of newsroom employees. The NABJ went so far as to issue an open letter to newspaper publishers July 3 declaring, "NABJ will hold you accountable if you do not consider diversity in your hiring and, particularly, firing practices."

In this context, it is of major concern to minority journalists that the blogosphere, for all its kinetic energy and potential for progressive activism, has not produced significant numbers of high-profile nonwhite bloggers. Journalists of color look at the ascendance of the blogosphere and can't help but think, This new boss looks an awful lot like the old boss. And this situation raises some serious questions. Where will readers go for reliable, well-reported, well-documented news and information of particular relevance to people of color? Will the blogosphere accommodate the thousands of experienced journalists of color who fought for decades to gain access to mainstream newsrooms?

"The blogosphere is like the real world in many ways," says Chris Rabb, founder of Afro-Net izen.com, a blog focusing on African American news, information and activism. "Some of the same obstacles, challenges and inequalities that exist in the real world exist in the blogosphere, too." In 2004, for example, Rabb was the only blogger with a predominantly African American readership to receive credentials for the Democratic National Convention. This raised concerns among black bloggers that a cyber-hierarchy was emerging, and the nascent "A-list" blogs--The Huffington Post, DailyKos and Talking Points Memo--all seemed to reflect a white middle-class orientation. And that the DNC, by failing to credential more than one African American blogger, validated that "A-list."

Of course, there aren't supposed to be any "bosses" in cyberspace. And yes, the landscape has changed with the launch of several high-profile blogs and websites by and for people of color. I am an occasional contributor to some of them, including TheRoot.com, which is backed in part by the Washington Post Newsweek Interactive and was co-founded by Harvard Black studies professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. The independent BlackCommentator.com has also provided a forum for lively commentary by people of color. Moreover, this year's mid-July meeting of the YearlyKos Convention--now called Netroots Nation--boasts a lineup of panelists and speakers that includes dozens of Black, Latino, Asian, gay and working-class bloggers and activists.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of DailyKos, said in an e-mail interview that anyone who criticizes his site, or the blogosphere in general, on grounds of racial exclusion simply does not understand the nature of the beast. "It's an open medium. Anyone can participate, and in fact, 95 percent of the time we have no idea if a participant [at DailyKos] is white, Black, brown, female, male, gay, straight, left-handed, right-handed, or ambidextrous," Moulitsas wrote, adding that DailyKos is separate from the Netroots Nation annual gathering.

The DNC has also stepped up its outreach efforts to blogs and websites run by people of color. It issued more than a dozen credentials to ethnic bloggers for this year's convention, according to spokesman Damon Jones--although those credentials were granted after some Black bloggers, including Wayne Hicks of Electronic Village and Pam Spaulding of PamsHouseBlend.com, wrote highly critical posts about having been excluded from the first round.

In economic terms, the entrepreneurial, run-it-from-your-garage nature of the blogosphere limits the likelihood that many people of color can devote themselves full time to building a site or blog. The business model of blogs-- small staffs, modest digs, no- or low-pay contributors--shuts out those who don't have the financial resources to allow them to survive by blogging alone. "How many of us can afford to sleep on someone's couch and survive on Cheetos for five years while you're working on your blog, building it up?" asks Rabb of Afro-Netizen.

Compounding that cold-hard-cash reality, at least for journalists of color who've made careers in traditional media, is sometimes an unfamiliarity, or even discomfort, with the pungent advocacy that characterizes much of the blogosphere. The professional identities of black journalists like myself developed under the strictures of "objective" journalism, though we also learned from experience how to cover news that mattered to historically underrepresented communities.

The NABJ, the largest professional trade group for journalists of color, was founded in 1975, in large part because of the desire to protect black journalists within the industry--by providing technical training and guidance on surviving the politics of predominantly white news organizations. Yet the NABJ and the two other leading ethnic professional groups, for Latino and Asian journalists, have so far been powerless to protect their members from the rampant downsizing taking place in the news business--or to help them crack the emerging hierarchy of blogs.

Nonetheless, bloggers of color--many of whom are not journalists--are getting busy building their sites, often beneath the radar. Historians will mark 2008 as the year a presidential candidate, Barack Obama, capitalized on the vast reach of the Internet to build a powerful fundraising and information network into his campaign. Yet progressives who have been enthralled with Obama's Internet presence should know that it is rooted not just in the algorithms, e-mail lists or social networking framework of Facebook, DailyKos or TPM; it grows also from a community of independent black, women and Latino bloggers who have quietly built a parallel activist universe.

Gina McCauley, a 32-year-old Austin lawyer who organized the Blogging While Brown conference, cites some of the same motivations that led to the founding of the NABJ: a need to protect and secure its members within the larger industry. She conceived the conference last year, "after a lot of black bloggers I know complained that they weren't included in some other big blog conventions." How could that be, I asked, if the freewheeling, open-source nature of the Internet is supposed to be inherently inclusive? "Well, some folks that I know said that they felt shut out of the YearlyKos conference, and even the BlogHer meeting," McCauley said, referring to the previous incarnation of Netroots Nation and to a smaller blog community built around women, which held its first conference three years ago.

"So I thought, Well, the solution to that is simple: we need to hold our own conference," she said.

Her blog, WhatAboutOurDaughters.com, is about a year old, yet in the spring of last year it kicked up a world of trouble for at least one major corporation, the Viacom-owned cable network Black Entertainment Television. The formerly black-owned network had planned to launch a half-hour program called Hot Ghetto Mess, based on a website founded by a black woman lawyer in Washington. McCauley objected to the program's depictions of "ghetto culture" (inner-city blacks sporting gold-tooth "grills," drinking malt liquor, engaging in criminal activities) and urged readers of her blog to contact the program's corporate sponsors. Before the program even aired, the network and its advertisers were besieged by complaints. The name was swiftly changed to We Got to Do Better (the slogan of the original HotGhettoMess.com website), the premiere date was delayed and ultimately the show was canceled.

McCauley said she hadn't intended to use her blog as a cultural cudgel; she started it in April 2007 out of a desire to reach other people who share her concerns over what she sees as mistreatment of women in general, and of Black women in particular.

"I had been involved in community activism since high school, and by the time I finished my undergraduate studies, I was burned out," McCauley said by phone from Austin. "I'm not from the old school civil rights-industrial complex, and it seemed to me that the Internet was a good fit."

The accidental-activist trajectory of McCauley's blog is in contrast to some other projects run by people of color, including ColorOfChange.org and Afro-Netizen, which were formed to encourage activism and provide information for marginalized groups. ColorOfChange, headed by former MoveOn co-director James Rucker, last year accomplished another successful Internet-based action. After members of the Congressional Black Caucus announced plans for the Fox News Network to broadcast a debate sponsored by the CBC, it was deluged with calls and letters from ColorOfChange members. John Edwards withdrew his earlier decision to take part in the debate, followed by Hillary Clinton and Obama. The result: Fox was ditched, and the CBC got schooled by a quick-response, decentralized Internet campaign. Sweeter still: the "A-list" of progressive blogs also learned a valuable lesson, says Rucker, who is black.

"The 'big blogs' had made note of the Fox/CBC situation; they saw the problem...that Fox was malevolent toward blacks. But only after they saw us making a case around the racial aspect did they also say, Yeah, you know this is horrible," Rucker told me. After ColorOfChange posted a petition, it was picked up by other black bloggers, followed by DailyKos and others. "There was a certain kind of bridge-building that happened," which was encouraging, Rucker said. An indication, perhaps, that the blogosphere is capable of making adjustments on race and gender coverage more quickly and profoundly than traditional news organizations.

ColorOfChange, formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, works with the AfroS pear, a loose collection of blogs and websites that enable readers to take part in online petition drives and e-mail blasts and that set up alert networks. Blogs affiliated with AfroSpear have drawn mainstream coverage to race-related stories that had escaped the attention of the mainstream press, including the Jena Six case in Louisiana and the mishandling of a rape case at a public housing complex, Dunbar Village, in Florida, in which a black single mother was gang-raped by local teens.

Afro-Netizen's Rabb is pragmatic about the emerging hierarchy in the blogosphere. Although some blogs and websites--DailyKos, Huffington Post, TPM--might be viewed as constituting an A-list, bloggers of color are now in a position to redefine the nature of that hierarchy, says Rabb. Critical mass alone, the growing number of bloggers of color, however, cannot force the blog hierarchy to open to nonwhites. "This is more about power dynamics than proportionality," Rabb wrote in an e-mail. "One-third of all movie-goers in this country are Black and yet African-Americans have no real power in Hollywood. Either there is a commitment to leveraging institutional power and individual behavior around involving people of color in politically compatible ways online, or bloggers of color must develop well-resourced entities that do for these communities what predominantly white ones have not," says Rabb. "I suspect the ideal situation is insisting on both."

The NABJ, meanwhile, is still awaiting a response from its open letter to the newspaper industry, and journalists of color are observing the changes around them warily. Gina McCauley told me she wishes that at least a few "traditional" journalists had signed up for Blogging While Brown: "I know a lot of bloggers like to complain about the so-called MSM, and at first I did too," she said. "But I know we have a lot to learn from journalists, about journalistic principles.... I think we have things to teach them, and that they have things to teach us, too." McCauley says that next year, she hopes to see many, many more journalists sign up for her conference. The odds are good that she will.

Baron Pike Joins Other Black Men, Women and Children Victimized by Taser-Happy Cops

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:00:00 +0000

We often discuss improper use of tasers by police. However, I must admit that this story went under the radar for me until reported by Tony Brown, Francis Holland and Howard Witt. Here is Howard's article:

At 1:28 p.m. last Jan. 17, Baron "Scooter" Pikes was a healthy 21-year-old man. By 2:07 p.m., he was dead.

What happened in the 39 minutes in between--during which Pikes was handcuffed by local police and shocked nine times with a Taser device, while reportedly pleading for mercy--is now spawning fears of a political cover-up in this backwoods Louisiana lumber town infamous for backroom dealings.

Even more ominously, because Pikes was Black and the officer who repeatedly Tasered him is white, racial tensions over the case are mounting in a place that's just 40 miles from Jena, La. Jena is the site of the racially explosive prosecution of six Black teenagers charged with beating a white youth that last year triggered one of the largest American civil rights demonstrations in decades. And in a bizarre coincidence, Pikes turns out to have been a first cousin of Mychal Bell, the lead defendant in the Jena 6 case.

No novelist could have invented Winnfield, a place so steeped in corruption that they built a local museum to try to sanitize it all.

You can read the rest of the article here.

I am tired of reading these stories about Black men, blind men, women, pregnant women and children irresponsibly tased by the police.

I've taken time to document and understand the use of force continuum to better understand when tasers are supposed to be used. Yet, I see no excuse for the homicidal behavior of police officers in Winnfield LA or Charlotte NC.

I join with African American Political Pundit in saying, "We are not against taser use as an alternative to deadly force. We are however against taser abuse by rogue cops who consider the taser an apartheid electrocution whip of the 21st century."

I suspect that you will hear more and more about taser abuse from other bloggers in the afrosphere. What say u?

Who is Whining Now Phil Gramm?

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, a top adviser to John McCain, resigned from McCain’s presidential campaign after he was criticized recently for saying, "We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in ‘decline’ despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy."

How the mighty have fallen!

Gramm was a presidential candidate a few election cycles ago. He was the key economic advisor to McCain. Of course, the guy is still an executive with UBS Investment Bank, so he won't be missing any meals.

The odd thing is that Gramm was simply repeating much of what McCain has been saying about the economy over the past few weeks. Check out the following video to see what I mean:

Doesn't it sound like Phil Gramm, John McCain and George Bush all think that high gas prices, high food prices, low stock market prices, increasing unemployement and other economic problems that we are experiencing are simply 'psychological'? Do they truly think that the problems are all in our heads?

Anyhow, I'm glad that Phil Gramm is now out of politics. Next we need to get George Bush and John McCain into the retirement home as well! What say u?

Sunday Inspirations: Nelson Mandela

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Nelson Mandela turned 90 this weekend. He is one of the most remarkable people in the history of the world. He retired from public life back in 2004, however continues working to make poverty history.

Anyhow, we have talked about Mandela before. I remain inspired by his example and thought he would make a good subject for my weekly Sunday Inspiration meme.

It appears that Janus was inspired as well:

I encourage all villagers to sign Mandela's birthday card!

Justice For Darfur, Sudan President Bashir Accused of Genocide

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:00:00 +0000

There is so much going on in the world today. It is difficult to keep up. Did you see that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) accused Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and requested his indictment. I was glad to see someone being held accountable for the atrocities taking place in Darfur.

The prosecutor's request for an indictment sent shockwaves throughout the world. The Sudanese government stated that the ICC prosecutor's request for indictment on genocide charges was a "declaration of war". The UN responded by pulling non-essential staff from the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission.

The ICC's prosecutor's request for the indictment of Bashir is a major development in the international process seeking accountability for the horrific crimes in Darfur. Of course, the process is more difficult for the ICC because Bashir doesn't recognize their authority ... a position that is in harmony with George Bush.

Is it too much to hope that Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, would lead UN Security Council efforts to enforce the arrest warrants issued by the ICC for Sudanese government minister, Ahmad Harun, and Janjawid militia leader, Ali Kushayb? Both men were charged with war crimes similar to those brought against Bashir and continue to remain at large.

This past April, Amnesty International ramped up efforts to achieve accountability by co-founding the global “Justice for Darfur” coalition. The coalition has sent tens of thousands of messages to world leaders, asking them to pressure Sudan to hand over suspected war criminals to the ICC for prosecution.

We need these world leaders, including Secretary Condie Rice, to get more peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur to protect the citizens from a government accused of systematic genecide.

What say u?

Al Gore's Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Al Gore made a visionary call for action, "Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years."

I encourage all villagers to view his speech for yourself:

I've never been a great fan of Al Gore. However, when you're right ... you're right. Al Gore is right when he points out that our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of high gas prices, economic downturn and the war in Iraq. America borrows money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet.

We need a new paradigm. We need to take control of our own economic and environmental future. What say u about Gore's challenge?

Send Karl Rove to Jail

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:59:00 +0000

It is time for all chickens to come home to roost. It is time for Karl Rove to pay a price for his cynical and criminal arrogance. Villagers, we have a unique opportunity right now to send Karl Rove to jail, but only if we take immediate action.

Drumbeats from Robert Greenwald encourage us to pressure the 40 members of the House Judiciary Committee, make them hold Rove in contempt and send him to jail. We've never had such a direct opportunity to hold Rove accountable. No, this is not enough punishment for his years and years of crimes, but it's a huge start, and will send a very clear message to the entire Bush administration.

Take a moment to check out this video that explains the issues surrounding Rove's failure to testify before Congress, and why Rove should be held in contempt and sent to jail:

Finally, I encourage all villagers to sign the petition asking the House Judiciary Committee to hold Rove in contempt.

What say u?

Old School Friday: Randy Crawford

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:51:00 +0000

This week the theme for Old School Friday meme is 'Break Up Songs'. Do any of y'all remember Randy Crawford? She was a remarkable talent back in the early 1980s. The first song is technically in support of the week's theme. The second song is one of my all-time favorites. Enjoy them both!

'One Day I'll Fly Away'

'Street Life'

Still No Respect from Dog the Bounty Hunter Sponsors

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:45:00 +0000

A&E Network is actually one of my favorite locations on television. There are a number of syndicated shows and original programming from that network that I enjoy watching. So, I am very disappointed at the decision of the network to bring back a self-proclaimed racist, Duane 'Dog' Chapman back on the air. Last month I joined many others in a Day of Blogging for Media Respect to protest this decision. A&E Network did not budge on their decision to bring back Chapman's show.

The next step is simple. Identify the A&E Network advertisers who support this show. We will alert the broader public about those Dog-sponsors. After all, sponsoring Duane Chapman's show is a sign that these companies have little or no respect for their African American customers. Duane Chapman should not be able to profit for his racially-motivated vitriol and hatred [see video].

You can read the press release from the Afrosphere Action Coalition here.

Gov't Report Seeks Truth for LaVena Johnson's Family

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Drumbeats from Philip Barron tell us that the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee issued a report titled, 'Misleading Information from the Battlefield: The Tillman and Lynch Episodes'. The main subjects of the report are Patrick Tillman (former NFL football player killed by friendly fire) and Jessica Lynch (captured POW). LaVena's case is mentioned in Section IX: Other Cases Brought to the Committee's Attention:

"The Committee’s majority staff was also contacted by the family and friends of Private First Class LaVena Johnson, a weapons supply manager from Florissant, Missouri, who died, family members say, in a suspicious non-combat incident near Balad, Iraq, on July 19, 2005. According to news reports, the Army ruled the death a suicide, and a medical examiner concurred with this finding. But Private Johnson’s family believes Army investigators ignored physical evidence inconsistent with a finding of suicide. They also believe that the Army has additional information about the circumstances of Private Johnson’s death that it has not shared with the family.

While the names of these soldiers are not as well-known as Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch, their sacrifices were just as great and their families are just as deserving of the truth."

Now is the time for all villagers to urge further Congressional action.

You do so by contacting both of your US Senators and your member in the House of Respresentatives. You ask them for renewed and transparent investigations into the LaVena Johnson death.

5-Day Suspension for Darryl Turner's Taser-Killing Cop

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:01:00 +0000

We reported to you earlier that the Charlotte District Attorney refused to press charges against Officer Jerry Dawson for his deadly use of a taser gun on 17-year old Darryl Turner. Turner died after being tased for 37 seconds with 50,000 volts of electricity.

The Charlotte Police Department issued their ruling on the shooting today. While Dawson will keep his job, authorities say the prolonged use of the Taser was not justified and the officer will have to get additional training to use the Taser guns. He has also been suspended for five days.

Punishment for killing a 17-year old boy in Charlotte NC is getting a week's vacation. Does it seem right to you?

Time for Some Campaignin'

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Wordless Wednesday: King of the Jungle

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:13:00 +0000

Justice for LaVena Johnson * We Must Contact Congress!

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:58:00 +0000

The 3-year anniversary of LaVena Johnson's murder occurs this week. LaVena was only 19-years old when she died in Iraq on July 19, 2005. The Army first ruled her cause of death as self-inflicted, non-combat wounds that were not from a suicide.

That first ruling made sense as the bullet wound to her head did not match her M-16 and was on the wrong side of her head for someone that was right handed. Her additional injuries included a broken nose, a busted lip that covered two loose teeth and acid burns to her genital region (perhaps to cover-up DNA evidence from a rape?).

A few days later the Army changed the official cause of death to 'suicide'. You can see the full story here.

Danielle Vyas launched a new petition, Justice for LaVena Johnson is addressed to both houses of Congress and President Bush. The count is up to 607 with a goal of 1,000 signatures.

Villagers, I encourage you to do more than just sign the online petition. The only people that can make this right are the members of Congress. What About Our Daughters blog provides some excellent advice that I share with you: You and I need to reach out to both of our U.S. Senators and our House of Representatives member:

Go to the website of all three congressional representative
Click on constituent services and have them open a case for you.
Fill out a privacy release form giving permission for your congressional representative to make inquiries on your behalf.

Villagers, make the inquiry to all three of your elected congressional representatives! When you make your official request for assistance, you should give some background of the LaVena Johnson story.

Tell them that you are concerned about LaVena. You may also want to ask about allegations that a disproportionate number of servicewomen who are raped and subsequently murdered are being classified as having committed suicide. If these allegations are true, you want to know. If these allegations are false, you want to know. If they don't know whether the allegations are true or false, you want to know why they don't know.

I pledge to contact each of my three congressional represenatives (Sherrod Brown, George Voinovich and Jean Schmidt)!

Will you join me in making this pledge to support LaVena Johnson and her family?

Arte y Pico Award

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:45:00 +0000

A Slant Truth, Hagar's Daughters and Regina's Family Seasons presented 'The Arte y Pico Award' to the Electronic Village. It humbles me to know that this blog is seen in such a positive light by such powerful sisters as Regina and Hagar's Daughters!

Regina noted that our blog "...is definitely doing great things in and for the community."

Hagar's Daughter wrote, "Villager blends the seriousness of the day with inspirational stories, political cartoons, and musical interludes on Old School Friday."

We will do our best on the Electronic Village to continue uplifting the African American community with our blog commentary over the coming weeks and months.

Rules of the Arte y Pico Award:

You have to pick 5 blogs that deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language

Each awardee has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

Each award winner should provide a link to the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

Here are five (5) blogs that I think show Creativity, Fabulous Design, Interesting Material or Contribute to the blogging community:

Black Women Vote - Let me warn you! This blog is not for the faint of heart. SheCodes comes hard and she comes correct in her strategic approach to Sister power. Her weekly podcasts and her ability to play chess while most of us are playing checkers is something that is quite remarkable. Her blog should be on the RSS-feed for any female villager!

Blogging While Brown Conference - This blog is contributing in a major way to the blogging community. Visit this blog created by Gina McCauley to learn more about the first international conference for bloggers of color. I will be there! I hope you can make it on July 25-27, 2008 in Atlanta, GA.

MartyBLOGS - Martin Lindsey is the creator of this blog. Marty is one of the first bloggers that I met when I came into the afrosphere. I have watched him evolve his blog over the past year so that it reflects his 'actionist' world view. He summarizes his blogging style as follows: "Handle business, take care of things, then move on."

Now That's What I'm Talking About - Theo Johnson operates this blog. Theo is another blogger that I met when I first entered the blogging game. Not only does he have an interesting blog, Theo is also a regular podcaster. It is for those reasons that I encourage villagers to check out this creative blog and blogger!

Roots of Humanity - This is a blog that strives to uplift the quantity and quality of information flowing to the blogging community about human rights abuses around the world, especially in Darfur and Tibet. Danielle Vyas, Eddie Griffin and Purple Zoe provide the creative energy behind this blog..

I encourage all villagers to check out these creative blogs. Let me know what you think about my five selections. What say u?

We Need $2,500...

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:00:00 +0000

BDPA Foundation provides Jesse Bemley Scholarships to the top five teams at the national high school computer competition (HSCC) event held at the annual BDPA Technology Conference each year.

We want to provide the Bemley Scholarship to the 6th place team this year at the national competition in Atlanta, GA on August 6-9, 2008.

This is the challenge given to us by high school senior Monique Jones. Monique’s Charlotte HSCC team came in 6th place last year at the competition in Washington DC last year. She wrote, “In 2007, a new policy was opened. Instead of scholarship going to the top three high scoring chapters, they would be awarded to the top five. That year we came in 6th place, just 30 points short of scholarships for the whole team.”

Is it time to reward the 6th place team? That choice is yours to make. If we can raise $2,500 in this campaign … we will do so!

The next step is yours...

Obama New Yorker Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Villager) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:15:00 +0000

The Obama campaign issued the following statement: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

I recall that the editor of Golf Magazine was fired when he allowed a cover photo of a noose. I hope that the editor of The New Yorker and any other idiot that thought this cover was a good idea is fired as well.

What say u?