What is the Plan in Your Community?

 

Want to change social and economic injustices?  Then you need a plan of action.

Shaun King’s commentary  for Black America Web this morning emphasizes how a “blind loyalty” gets people nowhere.  However, a plan of action gets you results. In case you missed this less than 10 minute audio, here is the link for you to listen, share, and move to action:

Shaun King Talks Policy Ideas

Harriett Tubman, Booker T. Washington, and President Barack Obama were successful because they all had a plan of action!!  Likewise,  Adolph Hitler, the Koch Brothers and the Tea Party also had a plan of action!  With technological advances AND boots on the ground, you can plan, educate, empower and implement a customized plan of action with best practices, for the Top 5-10 (depending on manpower/volunteers) issues that cause Blacks, Browns, Native Americans, the working poor, functionally disabled, mentally challenged and other citizens who simply want equity. This can be done in each community across the country.

Harriett Tubman, the Pullman Porters, residents of Black Wallstreet (in Tulsa), Muhammad Ali, Dick Gregory, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Shirley Chisholm, Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Maynard Jackson, Colin Kaepernick, Oprah Winfrey, The Freedom Riders, and the Native American Code Talkers (to name a few) did not wait for a leader to emerge.  They knew Superman was not coming.  They all stepped up to do what they could to make a difference. So can you!!  Each of us can use our skills and talents to help a current organization, or start your own.  No cause is too small.  Jesus also had a plan. And, He trained twelve.

You do not have to be a rocket scientist, have a degree, or a title. If you can figure out how to go on vacation and navigate in a city or country that you have never visited, surely you can figure out how to make a difference in your neighborhood, church, or non-profit.  Or, start your own group.

As my dearly departed Godmother, Rev. Willie Taplin Barrow use to say, “If you are not at the table when plans are made, you are on the menu.”

Above: Rev. Willie Taplin Barrow (Dec. 7, 1924 – March 12, 2015).

It is time to stop talking about how bad things are. It is time to do something about it!! It is time to stop saying, “they ought to” or “the church ought to”.  Who are they?  Who is the the Church?  When is the last time you volunteered or worked on a community service project (in person or online)?

Gandhi famously said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.“

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,

“Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

 

What is Really Going On At Rikers and in Our Courts?

There are too many stories about Black, brown and poor people being arrested unjustly and sent to prisons.  More of these people than the system wants us to know about are not only innocent, but are being held for years without a trial.  Some of the most egregious are being investigated  Sean King in his report tomorrow on The Tom Joyner Morning Show (KISS 104.1FM in Atlanta).

If you miss the report Monday morning, you can find it at BlackAmericaWeb.com

Also, Related is a story CBS Sunday Morning did on the fact that there really is not “equal justice under the law” as is claimed in America.  They reported on a broken system whereby court appointed attorneys rarely, if ever, have a chance to investigate cases or meet their clients before the trial date. Then they encourage their clients to take a plea and serve time despite their innocence and no evidence being presented.  Yale law school Professor Stephen Bright calls it the “Meet ’em and plead ’em” defense.

From Cordele, Georgia to New Orleans, Louisiana and in numerous courts across the U.S. this is the norm.  In one Louisiana city where there is only one attorney who represents all who cannot afford an attorney.  In some towns like Cordele, Georgia, the accused go before the judge in groups of 10 or more. Often the public defender does not even know what each client looks like.  Yet, one by one, each person in the group pleads guilty and accepts the sentence regardless of the sentence length since they cannot afford to pay for an attorney.

Then, many of them lose their job, home and children.  Well, when Shanna Shackelford was accused of arson after a rental home she own caught on fire less than a year after she increased the insurance coverage, her public defender told her to plead guilty and take the 25 year sentence.  Her court appointed attorney did not help her.  So about two years later, and after much frustration, Shackelford was able to get help.  An investigation that took two weeks revealed it was an electrical fire, not arson. Well, she had served two years in jail, lost her home and everything.  Then it took theee years to get her record cleared so she could get a job. See the full story at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/unequal-justice-under-the-law/

This proves the color of justice is green.

Is this acceptable in the “land of the free, home of the brave”…or “with liberty and justice for all”?