One day, when I was a freshman in high school,I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, 'Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd.' I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on. As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him... He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye. As I handed him his glasses, I said, 'Those guys are jerks.' They really should get lives. ' He looked at me and said, 'Hey thanks!' There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.. He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends He said yes. We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him. Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, 'Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday! ' He just laughed and handed me half the books. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.. When we were seniors we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor and I was going for business on a football scholarship.. Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him. Boy, sometimes I was jealous! Today was one of those days. I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, 'Hey, big guy, you'll be great!' He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. ' Thanks,' he said. As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began 'Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends.... I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story.' I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. 'Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable..' I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize it's depth. Never underestimate the power of your actions.. With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse. God puts us all in each others lives to impact one another in some way. Look for God in others. You now have two choices, you can : 1) Pass this on to your friends or 2) Delete it and act like it didn't touch your heart. As you can see, I took choice number 1. 'Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.' There is no beginning or end.. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. It's National Friendship Week. Show your friends how much you care. Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
I Can't Do It Alone
I have found the answer to my threat of failure it is "Relationships". Building strong relationships is key in this life. Whether they are personal, intimate, family or buisness relationships is the key to building your future. I have found that I have been in grave error to think that I could do it by myself and I didn't need the help of anyone. We are not an island and we need companionship from a friend or opposite sex, but we need alliances. If I keep this in mind I believe that my future business arrangements will be longer lasting, more secure and profitable business. In the relationship with the opposite sex be kind, gentle and remember that this is a walk in the park and not a 100 yard dash .Take your time and enjoy the scenery, smell the roses and watch the kids play. Build up the people who you work with , the alliance you make build them up, forgive them of their mistakes and wrongs. Here is a story that I got in an email today. I hope it fits..
Swiftness in Business vs Endurance
Napoleon Hill ,
Chapter 1. Introduction .
I have read several chapters in the book and have been very impressed and thankful for the guidance given. The first chapter made me reflect on past achievement and failures. I have had many opportunities to succeed greatly in life but do to my bad judgment and decisions I am busted again. G_d I hate the thought of failing again. I have been blessed to meet some people on my journey through life that have been key to past success however short lived. One was man named Irv who mentored me in real estate investing ion Miami. With no money just the desire I purchased two homes. I was well on my way to five and I am sure a much greater success ahead. I came across a home that I would have bought and sold the same hour with a forty thousand dollar profit but because I didn't want to pay someone fifteen thousand I lost that deal . Later by someone else I was sued for failure to fulfill a contract because of my failure to replace ten windows promptly. The reason for not acting promptly is I was trying to say money by looking for the better deal than just going out and purchasing. I accept the fault . These two failures ended my success as a real estate investor. Later perhaps a couple of years down the road I owned a small trucking company and got angry one day and fired my driver and went bankruptcy and lost my homestead. I now don't even remember today what was angry about. But I can remember but I do remember earning sixty dollars an hour gross pay, twenty four hours a day every day whether I worked or not. Boy I hate my failures as a decision maker. The last venture I had lasted only 8 months before sabotaged it. I was a party planner of sorts with an average income of fifty- seven hundreds dollars a week. Again to my regret I was not able to control my anger and again fired my employees. I hope I have learned that there is a marriage between employer and employee and that compromises have to be made in that relationship, that is if you are in it for the long ride.I have the desire and will to succeed I just don’t know how to endure. Dr. Hill says that age is of no factor in success. So despite my age there is time left for my creating enduring success. You know like the bible says "The race is not to the swift but to those who endure." I am swift but not enduring and I recognize that I have a major problem. I have been married several times . Will I ever learn? Perhaps the answer is I start the business and let someone else run it. Perhaps there is an correction that I can use for my perfection in business. Please if you have the answer or have experienced this phenomenon and have found a solution please leave a comment.
Chapter 1. Introduction .
I have read several chapters in the book and have been very impressed and thankful for the guidance given. The first chapter made me reflect on past achievement and failures. I have had many opportunities to succeed greatly in life but do to my bad judgment and decisions I am busted again. G_d I hate the thought of failing again. I have been blessed to meet some people on my journey through life that have been key to past success however short lived. One was man named Irv who mentored me in real estate investing ion Miami. With no money just the desire I purchased two homes. I was well on my way to five and I am sure a much greater success ahead. I came across a home that I would have bought and sold the same hour with a forty thousand dollar profit but because I didn't want to pay someone fifteen thousand I lost that deal . Later by someone else I was sued for failure to fulfill a contract because of my failure to replace ten windows promptly. The reason for not acting promptly is I was trying to say money by looking for the better deal than just going out and purchasing. I accept the fault . These two failures ended my success as a real estate investor. Later perhaps a couple of years down the road I owned a small trucking company and got angry one day and fired my driver and went bankruptcy and lost my homestead. I now don't even remember today what was angry about. But I can remember but I do remember earning sixty dollars an hour gross pay, twenty four hours a day every day whether I worked or not. Boy I hate my failures as a decision maker. The last venture I had lasted only 8 months before sabotaged it. I was a party planner of sorts with an average income of fifty- seven hundreds dollars a week. Again to my regret I was not able to control my anger and again fired my employees. I hope I have learned that there is a marriage between employer and employee and that compromises have to be made in that relationship, that is if you are in it for the long ride.I have the desire and will to succeed I just don’t know how to endure. Dr. Hill says that age is of no factor in success. So despite my age there is time left for my creating enduring success. You know like the bible says "The race is not to the swift but to those who endure." I am swift but not enduring and I recognize that I have a major problem. I have been married several times . Will I ever learn? Perhaps the answer is I start the business and let someone else run it. Perhaps there is an correction that I can use for my perfection in business. Please if you have the answer or have experienced this phenomenon and have found a solution please leave a comment.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Dear Mr. President
Hello Mr. President,
Thank you for your embodiment of the "Amercan Dream". You have made an impact on the world with you graciousness and intelligience. I am forever greatful for the inspiration you give. I have an questiion about your transportation, infrastructure and fuel policy for the United States. Sir, I believe that you stimulus package was the right idea. History has shown us that from the great deperssion and the building of the United States Interstate Highway system and other civil service projects of that time and after world war II that the effrts creat meanigful work. Please continue to build and provide jobs. The oil man Pickens during the election had a enregy plan that would cost 150 billion dollars over a ten year period. During the election I believe I heard you the candidate mentioned something of budgeting 15 billion dollars per year for 10 years to energy. Was I correct and if so are you still going to do that? Oil corporations have and are playing financial games with the Amercan people. With record profits exceeding each of the previous years in the billions each year. a concerted effort really needs to be donefor the economic welfare of the population. The bible says the poor will always be with us, and if you give to the poor you loan to God. God is self sufficent and needs no contributions.The depletion of the worlds fossil fuels to below the half way mark will causecatastrophic thought pattern of alarm and that alone will drive up cost to nine to twelve dollars per gallon of gas by in 20 years or less. You know that this is the time for a strong and President used the good examples givent to him by past examples. President Nixon and the CETA program, Reagan's commuication skills, Roosevelt, and Lincoln.
Sincerely.
Thank you for your embodiment of the "Amercan Dream". You have made an impact on the world with you graciousness and intelligience. I am forever greatful for the inspiration you give. I have an questiion about your transportation, infrastructure and fuel policy for the United States. Sir, I believe that you stimulus package was the right idea. History has shown us that from the great deperssion and the building of the United States Interstate Highway system and other civil service projects of that time and after world war II that the effrts creat meanigful work. Please continue to build and provide jobs. The oil man Pickens during the election had a enregy plan that would cost 150 billion dollars over a ten year period. During the election I believe I heard you the candidate mentioned something of budgeting 15 billion dollars per year for 10 years to energy. Was I correct and if so are you still going to do that? Oil corporations have and are playing financial games with the Amercan people. With record profits exceeding each of the previous years in the billions each year. a concerted effort really needs to be donefor the economic welfare of the population. The bible says the poor will always be with us, and if you give to the poor you loan to God. God is self sufficent and needs no contributions.The depletion of the worlds fossil fuels to below the half way mark will causecatastrophic thought pattern of alarm and that alone will drive up cost to nine to twelve dollars per gallon of gas by in 20 years or less. You know that this is the time for a strong and President used the good examples givent to him by past examples. President Nixon and the CETA program, Reagan's commuication skills, Roosevelt, and Lincoln.
Sincerely.
Gas what a Rip - Off...
The cool thing about writing the President is that you will get a reply White House letterhead from the President of these United States of America.
So call your Congress person, Senator and the President to correct this situation... Keep our transportation fuel cost down.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm senator
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml congress
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ President
Feb 18, 2009
– Crude oil prices have fallen to new lows for this year. So you'd think gas prices would sink right along with them.
Not so.
On Thursday, for example, crude oil closed just under $34 a barrel, its lowest point for 2009. But the national average price of a gallon of gas rose to $1.95 on the same day, its peak for the year. On Friday gas went a penny higher.
To drivers once again grimacing as they tank up, it sounds like a conspiracy. But it has more to do with an energy market turned upside-down that has left gas cut off from its usual economic moorings.
The price of gas is indeed tied to oil. It's just a matter of which oil.
The benchmark for crude oil prices is West Texas Intermediate, drilled exactly where you would imagine. That's the price, set at the New York Mercantile Exchange, that you see quoted on business channels and in the morning paper.
Right now, in an unusual market trend, West Texas crude is selling for much less than inferior grades of crude from other places around the world. A severe economic downturn has left U.S. storage facilities brimming with it, sending prices for the premium crude to five-year lows.
But it is the overseas crude that goes into most of the gas made in the United States. So prices at the pump will probably keep going up no matter what happens to the benchmark price of crude oil.
"We're going definitely over $2, and I bet we'll hit $2.50 before spring," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "This is going to be an unusual year."
On the last day of 2008, gas went for $1.62 on average, according to the auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express, a company that tracks transportation data.
The recession in America has dramatically cut demand for crude oil, and inventories are piling up. So prices for West Texas crude have fallen well below what oil costs from places like the North Sea, Saudi Arabia and South America.
That foreign oil sells in some cases for $10 more per barrel — and that doesn't even include shipping.
Brent North Sea crude, which feeds some East Coast refineries — and therefore winds up at many gas pumps around America — now costs about $7 more per barrel than the West Texas crude. Deutsche Bank analysts say the trend should continue.
Historically, West Texas International crude has cost more. So nobody bothered building the necessary pipelines to carry it beyond the nearby refineries in the Midwest, parts of Texas and a handful of other places.
Now that the premium oil is suddenly very inexpensive, refiners elsewhere can't get their hands on it.
"It's so cheap," said Lynn Westphall, the senior VP of external affairs at San Antonio-based Tesoro, which owns a half dozen refineries on the West Coast and Hawaii. "But you can't just build a pipeline to everywhere. We know we can't get it."
Tesoro's refineries in North Dakota and Utah use locally drilled oil and Canadian oil, which also has been running about $10 more per barrel than West Texas crude.
So why not build more pipelines? Because investing billions of dollars over several years makes no sense when the prices could just flip a year from now to where they were before.
"How long is WTI going to be cheaper than Venezuelan oil? Than Canadian?" asked Charles T. Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. "You just don't build a pipeline like that."
At the same time, refiners have seen the same headlines as everyone else about job losses and consumer spending. They've slashed production just to avoid taking losses on gasoline no one will buy. Result: Higher gas prices.
"Why should a refiner produce more gasoline when the stuff we produce is not being used?" Drevna said.
Of course, complex explanations of the diverging price paths of West Texas crude and gas are unlikely to placate frustrated drivers. Memories of last summer's $4-plus gas have not receded.
"Drivers are being ripped off even more now than before," said Stuart Pollok, who was filling up recently at a Chevron station in downtown Los Angeles. He pointed out Exxon Mobil Corp. reeled in billions in profits last year when oil prices neared $150.
Others see the conspiracy reaching higher.
"It got really low during the elections and now it's going back up," said Christel Sayegh, a 23-year-old graphic designer in Los Angeles. "They do that every election, though, right?"
___
AP Energy Writer John Porretto reported this story from Houston. Associated Press Writers Jennifer Malloy and Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this story.
The cool thing about writing the President is that you will get a reply White House letterhead from the President of these United States of America.
So call your Congress person, Senator and the President to correct this situation... Keep our transportation fuel cost down.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm senator
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml congress
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ President
So call your Congress person, Senator and the President to correct this situation... Keep our transportation fuel cost down.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm senator
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml congress
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ President
Feb 18, 2009
– Crude oil prices have fallen to new lows for this year. So you'd think gas prices would sink right along with them.
Not so.
On Thursday, for example, crude oil closed just under $34 a barrel, its lowest point for 2009. But the national average price of a gallon of gas rose to $1.95 on the same day, its peak for the year. On Friday gas went a penny higher.
To drivers once again grimacing as they tank up, it sounds like a conspiracy. But it has more to do with an energy market turned upside-down that has left gas cut off from its usual economic moorings.
The price of gas is indeed tied to oil. It's just a matter of which oil.
The benchmark for crude oil prices is West Texas Intermediate, drilled exactly where you would imagine. That's the price, set at the New York Mercantile Exchange, that you see quoted on business channels and in the morning paper.
Right now, in an unusual market trend, West Texas crude is selling for much less than inferior grades of crude from other places around the world. A severe economic downturn has left U.S. storage facilities brimming with it, sending prices for the premium crude to five-year lows.
But it is the overseas crude that goes into most of the gas made in the United States. So prices at the pump will probably keep going up no matter what happens to the benchmark price of crude oil.
"We're going definitely over $2, and I bet we'll hit $2.50 before spring," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "This is going to be an unusual year."
On the last day of 2008, gas went for $1.62 on average, according to the auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express, a company that tracks transportation data.
The recession in America has dramatically cut demand for crude oil, and inventories are piling up. So prices for West Texas crude have fallen well below what oil costs from places like the North Sea, Saudi Arabia and South America.
That foreign oil sells in some cases for $10 more per barrel — and that doesn't even include shipping.
Brent North Sea crude, which feeds some East Coast refineries — and therefore winds up at many gas pumps around America — now costs about $7 more per barrel than the West Texas crude. Deutsche Bank analysts say the trend should continue.
Historically, West Texas International crude has cost more. So nobody bothered building the necessary pipelines to carry it beyond the nearby refineries in the Midwest, parts of Texas and a handful of other places.
Now that the premium oil is suddenly very inexpensive, refiners elsewhere can't get their hands on it.
"It's so cheap," said Lynn Westphall, the senior VP of external affairs at San Antonio-based Tesoro, which owns a half dozen refineries on the West Coast and Hawaii. "But you can't just build a pipeline to everywhere. We know we can't get it."
Tesoro's refineries in North Dakota and Utah use locally drilled oil and Canadian oil, which also has been running about $10 more per barrel than West Texas crude.
So why not build more pipelines? Because investing billions of dollars over several years makes no sense when the prices could just flip a year from now to where they were before.
"How long is WTI going to be cheaper than Venezuelan oil? Than Canadian?" asked Charles T. Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. "You just don't build a pipeline like that."
At the same time, refiners have seen the same headlines as everyone else about job losses and consumer spending. They've slashed production just to avoid taking losses on gasoline no one will buy. Result: Higher gas prices.
"Why should a refiner produce more gasoline when the stuff we produce is not being used?" Drevna said.
Of course, complex explanations of the diverging price paths of West Texas crude and gas are unlikely to placate frustrated drivers. Memories of last summer's $4-plus gas have not receded.
"Drivers are being ripped off even more now than before," said Stuart Pollok, who was filling up recently at a Chevron station in downtown Los Angeles. He pointed out Exxon Mobil Corp. reeled in billions in profits last year when oil prices neared $150.
Others see the conspiracy reaching higher.
"It got really low during the elections and now it's going back up," said Christel Sayegh, a 23-year-old graphic designer in Los Angeles. "They do that every election, though, right?"
___
AP Energy Writer John Porretto reported this story from Houston. Associated Press Writers Jennifer Malloy and Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this story.
The cool thing about writing the President is that you will get a reply White House letterhead from the President of these United States of America.
So call your Congress person, Senator and the President to correct this situation... Keep our transportation fuel cost down.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm senator
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml congress
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ President
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Master Minds
This is the first lesson plan that I have done. I found out that when the student was ready the teacher would apper. Thnk you Mike for showing up on tim because now I am ready.The First Law of Thermodynamics States that energy is neither created not destroyed. Sexual Transmutaion the transition of low energy to higher energy vibrations.The Brain - A shortwave radio that we are all born with. Creative imagination recieving signals, Subconscious sending signals. The 6th Sense - In this relationship we can open using our creative imagination to recieve electical impulses from the Universe and be in contact with the wisdom that answers the questions of the inhabitants of that Universe. We can pose question to the Universe and recieve the answers in electrical impulses from the people who have the answers to these questions through their experience and the known science of the past and future. We can be given the answers through electronic vibrations transmitted to us.. All the thoughts that have ever been thought are in the Universe waiting for strong enough vibrations to be sent so that they can be sent to the person in need of the information. All of Thomas Edisons thoughts. All ofAbraham Lincoln's thoughts are available to the person whose thoughts, emotions and subconcious have high enough vibrations. Using auto suggestion to program our subconcious to send out signals contiousley to a prescribed end. Having faith and keeping our thoughts on the seven positive thoughts that increas our thoughts electrical vibrations such as desire, sex, love, faith, hope,romance and enthusiasm and creative imagination open and receptive. The "State of Mind" controls. Can we picture or see in our minds eye an entire film of what we want to happen, to see it clearly and feel the emotion. Or do we see only the negative ending. Visualize daily the entire scene in a three minute period feeling the emotions that go along with it. Act with surety and good feeling from a postive scene with a positive outcome sending out strong positive vibrations. Let us move not in fear but in hope. Do not accept unsolicited critisicm that changes our thoughts of ourselves, or what we wear, do, or think. Do not be self conscious, nervous or timid. Have and maintain good posture, be self assured and let your voice reflect your self assurance. Make a decision also be charming and have confidence in your thoughts and demand respect for you ideas, Who can say you are wrong when creative imagination will always be right. In Robing Williams' movie the "Dead Poet Society" had a signature phrase. What was the phrase, latin Carpe Diem "Seize the Day" . If you don't remember research it and remember it. Eat well, exerxcise. and be confindent in the good habits you form for a long life and healthy livng.
Color of change .org
Dear Friend,
A new report in The Nation[1] documents what many have claimed for years--for some Black New Orleanians the threat of being killed by White vigilantes in Katrina's aftermath became a bigger threat than the storm itself.
After the storm, White vigilantes roamed Algiers Point shooting and, according to their own accounts, killing Black men at will--with no threat of a police response. For the last three years, the shootings and the police force's role in them have been an open secret to many New Orleanians. To date, no one has been charged with a crime and law enforcement officials have refused to investigate.
The report is helpful, but given Lousiana's horrible record on protecting its Black citizens, justice will only come if we demand it.
I've joined ColorOfChange in calling on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, and the U.S. Department of Justice--to conduct a full investigation of these crimes and any police cover-up. Will you join me? It takes only a moment:
http://www.colorofchange.org/nation/?id=1993-808872
In the two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the media created a climate of fear with trumped-up stories of Black lawlessness. Meanwhile an armed group of White vigilantes took over the Algiers Point neighborhood in New Orleans and mercilessly hunted down Black people. "It was great!" said one vigilante. "It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it."
The Nation's article tells the story of Donnell Herrington, Marcel Alexander, and Chris Collins--a group of friends who were attacked by shotgun-wielding White men as they entered Algiers Point on September 1, 2005. As they tried to escape, Herrington recalls, their attackers shouted, "Get him! Get that nigger!" He managed to get away. Alexander and Collins were told that they would be allowed to live on the condition that they told other Black folks not to come to Algiers Point. Herrington, shot in the neck, barely survived.
And there's the story of Henry Glover, who didn't survive after being shot by an unknown assailant.[2] Glover's brother flagged down a stranger for help, and the two men brought Glover to a police station. But instead of receiving aid, they were beaten by officers while Henry Glover bled to death in the back seat of the stranger's car. A police officer drove off in the car soon afterward. Both Glover's body and the car were found burnt to cinders a week later. It took DNA analysis to identify the body.
These are only a few of the stories of Black folks who were accosted in Algiers Point, and you can read more in The Nation. But unless you speak out, we may never learn the full extent of the violence. Journalists have encountered a wall of silence on the part of the authorities. The coroner had to be sued to turn over autopsy records. When he finally complied, the records were incomplete, with files on several suspicious deaths suddenly empty. The New Orleans police and the District Attorney repeatedly refused to talk to journalists about Algiers Point. And according to The Nation journalist A.C. Thompson, "the city has in nearly every case refused to investigate or prosecute people for assaults and murders committed in the wake of the storm."
The Nation article is important, but it's just a start. For more than three years now, these racist criminals have by their own admission gotten away with murder while officials in New Orleans have systematically evaded any kind of accountability. We have to demand it.
Please join me in calling on state and federal officials to investigate these brutal attacks and the conduct of Orleans Parish law enforcement agencies, and please ask your friends and family to do the same.
http://www.colorofchange.org/nation/?id=1993-808872
Thanks.
------
1. "Katrina's Hidden Race War," The Nation, 12-18-2008http://www.colorofchange.org/link/?id=1993-808872&cat=nation&link=1
2. "Body of Evidence," The Nation, 12-18-2008http://www.colorofchange.org/link/?id=1993-808872&cat=nation&link=2
A new report in The Nation[1] documents what many have claimed for years--for some Black New Orleanians the threat of being killed by White vigilantes in Katrina's aftermath became a bigger threat than the storm itself.
After the storm, White vigilantes roamed Algiers Point shooting and, according to their own accounts, killing Black men at will--with no threat of a police response. For the last three years, the shootings and the police force's role in them have been an open secret to many New Orleanians. To date, no one has been charged with a crime and law enforcement officials have refused to investigate.
The report is helpful, but given Lousiana's horrible record on protecting its Black citizens, justice will only come if we demand it.
I've joined ColorOfChange in calling on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, and the U.S. Department of Justice--to conduct a full investigation of these crimes and any police cover-up. Will you join me? It takes only a moment:
http://www.colorofchange.org/nation/?id=1993-808872
In the two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the media created a climate of fear with trumped-up stories of Black lawlessness. Meanwhile an armed group of White vigilantes took over the Algiers Point neighborhood in New Orleans and mercilessly hunted down Black people. "It was great!" said one vigilante. "It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it."
The Nation's article tells the story of Donnell Herrington, Marcel Alexander, and Chris Collins--a group of friends who were attacked by shotgun-wielding White men as they entered Algiers Point on September 1, 2005. As they tried to escape, Herrington recalls, their attackers shouted, "Get him! Get that nigger!" He managed to get away. Alexander and Collins were told that they would be allowed to live on the condition that they told other Black folks not to come to Algiers Point. Herrington, shot in the neck, barely survived.
And there's the story of Henry Glover, who didn't survive after being shot by an unknown assailant.[2] Glover's brother flagged down a stranger for help, and the two men brought Glover to a police station. But instead of receiving aid, they were beaten by officers while Henry Glover bled to death in the back seat of the stranger's car. A police officer drove off in the car soon afterward. Both Glover's body and the car were found burnt to cinders a week later. It took DNA analysis to identify the body.
These are only a few of the stories of Black folks who were accosted in Algiers Point, and you can read more in The Nation. But unless you speak out, we may never learn the full extent of the violence. Journalists have encountered a wall of silence on the part of the authorities. The coroner had to be sued to turn over autopsy records. When he finally complied, the records were incomplete, with files on several suspicious deaths suddenly empty. The New Orleans police and the District Attorney repeatedly refused to talk to journalists about Algiers Point. And according to The Nation journalist A.C. Thompson, "the city has in nearly every case refused to investigate or prosecute people for assaults and murders committed in the wake of the storm."
The Nation article is important, but it's just a start. For more than three years now, these racist criminals have by their own admission gotten away with murder while officials in New Orleans have systematically evaded any kind of accountability. We have to demand it.
Please join me in calling on state and federal officials to investigate these brutal attacks and the conduct of Orleans Parish law enforcement agencies, and please ask your friends and family to do the same.
http://www.colorofchange.org/nation/?id=1993-808872
Thanks.
------
1. "Katrina's Hidden Race War," The Nation, 12-18-2008http://www.colorofchange.org/link/?id=1993-808872&cat=nation&link=1
2. "Body of Evidence," The Nation, 12-18-2008http://www.colorofchange.org/link/?id=1993-808872&cat=nation&link=2
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