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Pondering Minds
By Austin L.
Sydnor, Jr.
I have been reading
currents events, e-mails; visiting and talking to
family, friends and co-workers; celebrating birthdays,
working, and trying to keep control of myself from day
to day. Also, I have been wondering when and how to
accomplish the issues at hand and how to be realistic
but not get too optimistic or depressed.
Living alone and
being a senior citizen, it is tough to keep the balance,
but through what I believe, for myself, this will be all
right. But on the one side, where there is no equality
no justice where I live and work and throughout the
nation and the world one remains unsettled.
People are focused
on different events: what to do after work, the weekend,
vacation, and time-off. Parents are hopefully preparing
their children for the upcoming educational year. There
is the Olympics, sports, gossip, entertainment,
relationships and the political conventions for the
Democratic and Republican parties.
Then there is the
other side, the economy is a roller coaster. The
unemployment situation is alarming. The housing problems
have a great effect on people. The educational systems
are in turmoil. The health care problems continue with
many uninsured and those not properly insured. The price
of food is increasing and people are starving. The oil
prices rise and fall, the effect the ecology and green
earth and the problems of carbon emission. What are its
effects on the present and the future generations?
Dysfunctional
banking institutions are getting bailout from the
federal government at taxpayer’s expense. CEOs are
reaping huge cash windfall, only the one percent (1%) is
benefiting. This is not only in this country but
throughout the world.
And what about this
country, the United States of America, the last
superpower declining in its wealth as well as good will.
We a nation that proclaims democracy and a democratic
process, justice for all, equal opportunity, is this
really true? To some yes, to others no, as for me,
definitely and positively NO! A lame duck
president who always says one thing and goes against our
better interest; he is no different from other
politicians but he's always crying “war on terror”
while we terrorize.
Our president (We
the People) con the nation into war and uses torture as
a means, we a nation justifying everything and anything.
Our federal government does not have to balance the
budget because the government makes money. They keep
pressing it out as our dollar decreases in value. Our
nation is oriented “top-down” rather than from “the
bottom-up.” We have burst that balloon of optimism and
are on the verge of a police state, but not only in
America, but throughout the world.
This nation has
never prized diversifying, but rather conquering the
non-white peoples of the world. First, it was Native
Americans, then blacks, Asians, and now Latinos. Our
nation lords itself over the nations of the southern
hemisphere practices, dividing and conquering. The
nation was first about race, now it's class because of
white middle class Americans. The leaders of the nation
are not committed to solving the problem either about
race-class or class-race. They want to keep people
fearful and insecure, ever ready to make war on the
weak.
The lean now is
toward class-race because of the haunting future
demographics: the report is that white American will no
longer be the majority in 2042 (then, 2050). We now have
a black candidate for president of a major party—the
Democrats. In its heart of heart, our nation may not
want to exclude but it does. A nation that is base on
Christianity should walk that walk—“love is a risk, and
there is no guarantee.” We stress the individual and
talk moral but actually our ploy is for selfish gain. We
are a nation that steps on the “little guy and gal” but
rewards the wealthy for being wealthy. In our history we
have Pearl Harbor and 11th of September
(911), a world history of jockeying for imperial power.
But we forget the innocent people who pay the price for
killing innocent people. Our nation, our government
forgets the service of the majority of men and women
(its citizens) as well as those who serve in the armed
forces and are overwhelmed by PSTD and homelessness.
Our wrongs do not
make us right. We offer congratulations on individual
achievement: I praise where praises are due, especially
for the unknown soldier who fought not for equality but
to survive from day to day. Is there an effective
solution to gaining equality? Slavery, nationhood (black
self-determination), civil rights (non-violence), black
power (any means necessary and militancy), coalition
(black and white), peace movement (Vietnam, Iraq, and
Afghanistan), feminist (woman’s struggle) and electoral
politics (mostly Democratic Party) have been tried to
gain the higher ground.
Now other sources
like the Internet and political blogs are giving a try
to counter the corporate media's propaganda machines.
Should the old (since I’m old-school) and the new
(ChickenBones: A Journal, ColorofChange.org, Move On,
and other left media movements) put their resources
together and be united to fight the injustice and build
a participating democracy with the economics of
Socialism? I ponder!
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I
Ponder
By Austin L. Sydnor, Jr.
I ponder when the old ways are learned
I ponder when the new ways are learned
I ponder when there will be freedom,
justice, and equality
I ponder when there will be an earth where
no one worries
I ponder when there will be no one afraid to die in order to live
I ponder when there will be no risk of faith
and love
I ponder when there will be no lover of
power
I ponder when a person is judged whose not
whom
I ponder when the precious gift of life is
fully accepted
I ponder when there will be no rejection
I ponder when that spiritual will be sung
“Free at last, thank God Almighty, Free at
last”
I ponder |
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The Warmth of Other Suns
The Epic Story of America's Great
Migration
By Isabel Wilkerson
Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, a
sharecropper's wife, left Mississippi
for Milwaukee in 1937, after her cousin
was falsely accused of stealing a white
man's turkeys and was almost beaten to
death. In 1945, George Swanson Starling,
a citrus picker, fled Florida for Harlem
after learning of the grove owners'
plans to give him a "necktie party" (a
lynching). Robert Joseph Pershing Foster
made his trek from Louisiana to
California in 1953, embittered by "the
absurdity that he was doing surgery for
the United States Army and couldn't
operate in his own home town." Anchored
to these three stories is Pulitzer
Prize–winning journalist Wilkerson's
magnificent, extensively researched
study of the "great migration," the
exodus of six million black Southerners
out of the terror of Jim Crow to an
"uncertain existence" in the North and
Midwest. Wilkerson deftly incorporates
sociological and historical studies into
the novelistic narratives of Gladney,
Starling, and Pershing settling in new
lands, building anew, and often finding
that they have not left racism behind.
The drama, poignancy, and romance of a
classic immigrant saga pervade this
book, hold the reader in its grasp, and
resonate long after the reading is done.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 16 August 2008
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