On The Sunny Side of the Street

On The Sunny Side of the Street

Review: South of the Border

Review: South of the Border

Black Bird Press Review

From: Nefertitti Jackmon
Sent: Wed, July 21, 2010 8:30:02 AM
Subject: Oliver Stone's SOUTH OF THE BORDER

I had an opportunity to view South of the Border this past Monday. It discusses the socialist movement that is sweeping Latin America. I was not surprised by any of the information that I saw in the film, but I was further empowered. My father (Marvin X) has been sharing with me (and others) much of what was shown in the film. What it did reveal to me is that revolutionary change is possible even within my lifetime. It is not an idealistic dream of some people from the '60's. The seeds of change have been sown, they are growing and they can either blossom or be destroyed. Our knowledge and our understanding of our role in this world will either fuel this growth or kill the potential for positive change fueled by THE PEOPLE.

What you will note in the documentary is that the countries that embraced changed were empowered by the masses of the people. There are many who are upset over what has occurred in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and Cuba, but this is the ruling minority. The minority who for years have controlled the wealth; they are afraid that their wealth and their way of living will diminish. This is true all over the world, even in the United States. Yesterday I heard a U.S. Senator discussing his lack of satisfaction with Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. He said that he is afraid of the change that is taking place in this country (he was speaking specifically in terms of the changes in the process of how the Senators agreed on her nomination) but to me it was symbolic of the overall fear that the wealthy/ruling minority fear will occur if Obama is bold enough to fulfill some of his campaign rhetoric.

The Latin leaders even challenged Barak Obama to show his solidarity with the people. They suggested that there were merely three conditions that must be met to show that he's concerned/unified with the people:

1) Pull out of the wars in the Middle East
2) Gosh, I'm so old and I forgot the second one, it was good
3) Invite Hugo Chavez to the U.S. (they all laughed)

So just two, and when I heard what they said, I felt that if he would follow through on those he would be worthy of the Nobel Prize which he has already been awarded.

The challenge is for us to encourage our brothers and sisters in African and Caribbean nations to look to the few strong leaders in Latin America who are charting a new destiny for their people. They have their own unique form of democracy, socialism and capitalism. Think out of the box, there's more than one way to get things done.

Go see the film and make your own informed decision.

To the Bolivarian Revolution!


Peace and Blessings,

Nefertitti

---

To: despierte@gmail.com
Subject: Oliver Stone's SOUTH OF THE BORDER opens Friday 7/23 in HOUSTON
From: despierte@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:39:51 -0700

Greetings! Now that you were able to watch Oliver Stone's "SOUTH OF THE BORDER", please help us spread the important information in this film to a larger audience! Please forward the information below to your networks. THANK YOU!!

**PLEASE FORWARD**

Oliver Stone’s new documentary SOUTH OF THE BORDER

Opens Friday July 23rd in HOUSTON!

"I LOVED THIS DOCUMENTARY!" - Bill Maher

“PROVOCATIVE...Oliver Stone’s celebration of the leftward tilt of South American politics comes as a cheerful surprise.”

- Stephen Holden, The New York Times

"An EYE-OPENING DOCUMENTARY...captures South America in a paradigm shift, wrenching itself free of centuries of colonial control."

- Owen Gleiberman, EW.com

“COULD BE OLIVER STONE'S MOST IMPORTANT FILM.”

-Robert Naiman, Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy on Huffington Post

"Oscar-winning director STRIKES ONCE AGAIN into the political heart of darkness"
- Laura Emerick, Chicago Sun-Times

Synopsis: There’s a revolution underway in South America, but most of the world doesn’t know it. Oliver Stone sets out on a road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media’s misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents. In casual conversations with Presidents Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner (Argentina), as well as her husband and ex-President Nėstor Kirchner, Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), and Raúl Castro (Cuba), Stone gains unprecedented access and sheds new light upon the exciting transformations in the region.

VIEW TRAILER

• HOUSTON •

AMC STUDIO 30
2949 Dunvale Rd., Houston, TX 77063 • (713) 977-4431

Don’t miss Q&A on 7/23 after the main evening show with Luis Duno-Gottberg,

Associate Professor of Caribbean and Film Studies at Rice University

Ticket Pricing:

Adult: $9.75 - After 4:00 pm

Child: $6.75 - Age 2 - 12

Matinee: $7.75 - Before 3:55 pm

Senior: $8.75 - Age 60+

click here for more info

Organize group and get discount tickets:
- Visit: www.amcnationalsales.com
- Register on the site.
- Purchase the GOLD EXPERIENCE TICKETS bundle (tickets good on opening
weekend for film). 50 ticket minimum at $7.50 each
- Select shipping method and follow checkout instructions.
- Please take into account shipping time if you plan to see the film on
opening weekend.
Purchase Group Tickets

South of the Border will play in these theaters and more nationwide:

NOW PLAYING	NYC	Cinema Village
NOW PLAYING	Los Angeles	Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex and Laemmle’s Town Center
NOW PLAYING	Pasadena	Laemmle’s Playhouse 7
NOW PLAYING	San Francisco	Sundance Kabuki Cinema
	Berkeley	Rialto Cinemas Elmwood
	Palm Springs	Cinemas Palme d’Or
July 23	Phoenix	Harkins Valley Art
	Dallas	AMC Grand 24
	Houston	AMC Studio 30
	New Orleans	Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center
July 30	Minneapolis	Showplace ICON at The West End
	Seattle Santa Barbara	Regal Meridian 16 Plaza d'Oro
	Portland	Living Room Theaters
August 6	Salem (OR)	High Street Cinema

with more details listed at http://southoftheborderdoc.com/in-theatres/

••••••••••••

Since hitting the big screen, SOUTH OF THE BORDER has been generating some heat!

· FAIR's Peter Hart weighs in on right-wing journalists and their coverage of the film and in particular the Larry Rohter of The New York Times.

· David Corn in Mother Jones, 'Why the director's controversial new documentary, South of the Border, is generating so much heat.'

· FOX& Friends lashed out and and attacked “South of the Border,” spreading outrageous ignorance in the guise of news.

· Activists in Los Angeles mobilized to counter a protest of the film organized by the Venezuelan opposition - Anne Thompson/Indiewire and Steve Pond/The Wrap report.

Some interviews, commentaries and reviews:

· Stone on PBS', The Tavis Smiley Show

· GRIT TV's Laura Flanders interviews Oliver Stone and Tariq Ali Tom Hayden on 'Oliver Stone's Latin America'

· The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday interviews Stone.

· Naomi Campbell interviews Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez in GQ.

· Chicago Reader - "a better overview of the current political climate in Latin America than anything you’ll see on U.S. television." Review.

· Mark Weisbrot's recent Op-Ed: "Washington Still Has Problems With Democracy in Latin America."

Or, compare your knowledge about South America with some of journalism’s best…

Vote: Dumbest Mistake in a "South of the Border" Review!

Bob Marley- I Shot the Sheriff

Charles Mingus - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

Charles Mingus - Moanin'

Willie Ricks (Black Power) and Marvin X

Willie Ricks and Marvin X
TRANSFORMATION PLUS TV

WITH

www.harambeeradio.com
The TV screen is right on that page.

DALANI AAMON

Tonight's guest will be;

9:00 PM EST to 10:00 PM EST

Willie Ricks 60s Civil Rights Worker The cry for BLACK POWER was coined by one Willie Ricks aka Mukasa Dada

Who Is Mukasa Dada? 1. Civil Rights Leader, Elder, Father, Organizer, Orator 2. Field Secretary of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) 3. "The fiery orator of SNCC" - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his 1967 book, Where Do We Go From Here 4. "Willie Ricks must rank as one of those unknown heroes who captured the mood of history. In calling for Black Power, he caught the essence of the spirit, moving Black people in the United States and around the world who were poor, Black, and without power" - James Forman of SNCC 5. Popularized of the chant, "Black Power"

and

10:00 PM until

Marvin X, also known as Marvin Jackmon and El Muhajir

Talking about Oscar Grant and police brutality.

Marvin X was born May 29, 1944 in Fowler, California, near Fresno. Marvin X is well known for his work as a poet, playwright and essayist of the BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT or BAM. He attended Merritt College along with Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. He received his BA and MA in English from San Francisco State University.

Marvin X is most well known for his work with Ed Bullins in the founding of Black House and The Black Arts/West Theatre in San Francisco. Black House served briefly as the headquarters for the Black Panther Party and as a center for performance, theatre, poetry and music.

Marvin X is a playwright in the true spirit of the BAM. His most well-known BAM play, entitled Flowers for the Trashman, deals with generational difficulties and the crisis of the Black intellectual as he deals with education in a white-controlled culture. Marvin X's other works include, The Black Bird, The Trial, Resurrection of the Dead and In the Name of Love.

He currently has the longest running African American drama in the San Francisco Bay area and Northern California, ONE DAY IN THE LIFE, a tragi-comedy of addiction and recovery. He is the founder and director of RECOVERY THEATRE.

Marvin X has continued to work as a lecturer, teacher and producer. He has taught at Fresno State University; San Francisco State University; University of California - Berkeley and San Diego; University of Nevada, Reno; Mills College, Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland. He has received writing fellowships from Columbia University and the National Endowment for the Arts and planning grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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The Murder & Legacy of Bobby Hutton

41st & Central The Movie Trailer

Hustler's Guide to the Game Called LIfe

Coming Soon from Black Bird Press

Hustler’s Guide to the Game

Called Life

Volume II, the Wisdom of Plato Negro

Marvin X

Contents

Parable of Value

Parable of Plato Negro’s Republic of North American Africans

Plato Negro’s Republic and Morality

Plato Negro’s Republic, Newark: A Case Study

Parable of Leave Me ‘Lone

Parable of a Nigguh

Parable of Slow Dance on the Killing Floor

Parable of the Demons

Parable of Solutions

Parable of Da Corner

Parable of Lord Have Mercy

Parable of Jazz

Parable of Nigguh Please!

Parable of Helen Thomas

Parable of Parental Partiality

Parable of the Gaza Concentration Camp

Parable of the Wannabe Actor, Part II

Parable of Women without Men

Parable of Trinkets and Gadgets

Parable of the Man who could Write

Parable of the Man Who Talked to No One

Parable of the Man Who Fell

Parable of the Negro as Terrorist

Parable of the White Woman

Parable of the Dying White Man

Parable of the Tour

Parable of the Mike

Parable of the Reader’s Theatre

Parable of Stormy Weather

Parable of Ancestor Coretta Scott King

Parable of the Religious Haters

Parable of the Poet

Parable of the Oakland Pigs

Parable of Walter Riley

Parable of Oakland’s Day of Absence

Parable of I am Oscar Grant

Parable of Oakland at the Precipice

Parable of the Angel

Parable of Living in the Last Days

Parable of the San Francisco Negro

Parable of the Death and Resurrection of a City

Parable of the Spider

Parable of July 4, 1910

Parable of a beautiful day in the Bay

Parable of a City Traumatized

Parable of Oakland Police Riot

Parable of the Father who lost two Sons

Parable of I Shot the Sheriff

Parable of the Wannabe Actor

Parable of the Letter

Parable of the Moment

Fable of the horse, cow and bull

Parable of Prayer

Parable of the Death Angel

Parable of Pain

Parable of Malcolm’s Killer

Parable of the Immigrant

Parable of Bitch Led Nigguhs

Parable of the Neo-Haitian Revolution

Parable of the Butt Kickers

Parable of the Penguin

Parable of the Catholic Church

Parable of the Poetic Victory

Parable of how to stop killing in the Pan African hood

Platonic Negro Dialogue on the Poetic Mission

Parable of Woman Stoned to Death

Parable of Bobby Seale’s 73^rd Birthday

Parable of Mythology of Pussy and Dick Hits Mississippi

Parable of Mythology of Pussy and Dick Hits Howard University

Parable of Mythology of Pussy and Dick at Howard University, Final Notes

Parable to the Common People of Oakland

Parable of a Pan African Love

Parable of Harlem’s Celebration of Amiri Baraka’s 75th

Parable of Nisa Ra on Mythology of Pussy

Parable of Plato Negro’s Great Grandfather

Parable of Fahizah Alim

Parable of You Don’t Know Me!

Parable of Mythology as Hottest Book in Oakland

Black Bird Press, 2010

1222 Dwight Way

Berkeley Ca 94702

300 pages

$100.00

Order now, pre-publication discount less 40%

Wisdom of Plato Negro in San Francisco Theatre Festival

Sunday, August 8, The Academy of Da Corner Reader's Theatre will perform parables from the Wisdom of Plato Negro at the San Francisco Theatre Festival, Yebra Buena Center, 3rd and Mission, downtown San Francisco. Performers include Rashidah Sabreen, music, Raynetta Rayzetta, choreography/dance, Paradise, reader, Talibah, reader, Valarie Harvey, reader,

Mechelle LaChaux, reader/singer.

Marvin X Calls for Black Arts West Theatre Festival

Marvin X Calls Black Arts West Theatre Festival
Marvin X, godfather of the West Coast Black Arts Movement, is calling a Black Arts West Theatre Festival in honor of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre founders Stanley E. Williams and Quentin Easter, also in honor of Margo Norman, who transitioned recently. Margo performed in the plays of Ed Bullins shortly before he hooked up with Marvin X to establish Black Arts West Theatre in San Francisco's Fillmore District.

Before Black Arts West came on the scene, there was Aldridge Players West, with Adam David Miller, et al. After Black Arts West, there was John Doyle's Grassroots theatre and Michael Cattlett's theatre.

And then came the Lorraine Hansberry. In 1972, Marvin X established Black Educational Theatre in the Fillmore, and in the late 90s, Recovery Theatre in the Tenderloin and throughout the Bay and Northern California. His play One Day in the Life is the longest running play in the history of North American Africans in Northern California. It ran from the late 90s into the new millennium.

Other theatres came and went, and few were able to survive on the meager budgets grant agencies doled out. The Lorraine Hansberry was the exception, partly because of their non-political stance as per the cultural revolution. But when they produced a performance of Marvin X's One Day in the Life, they transcended the apolitical. They'd also produced a work on the Black Panther Party, along with their signature work of August Wilson.

No matter the politics of Stanley and Quentin, and for that matter August Wilson, Marvin X considers them comrades in the arts. Any black artist with an iota of consciousness is all right with me. Actually, I appreciate artists period! Of course I appreciate revolutionary arts even more. But any black artists must have some degree of radical consciousness since he must confront and submit himself to the art of Western mythology.

Even the Lorraine Hansberry theatre brothers told Marvin X, "Marvin, the Black bourgeoisie would like to support you, but they cannot accept your language, if you could only alter your language they will support you." But when Marvin X submitted to the black bourgeoisie request, they did not accept his B script. Even Quentin Easter cried, "Marvin, you have taken all the chocolate out the milk!"

Marvin recalls one night at the Lorraine Hansberry: "The theatre was packed to overflow. Actually, when Stanley came he said, oh, no, this is a fire hazzard! People were seated on the stage."

Usually, I would go into the audience during my monologue, but not this night, the audience was seated onstage for lack of seats. They were from recovery programs from throughout the Bay Area. The Theatre District was horrified when all these recovering addicts took intermission on Sutter Street in the midst of the theatre district.

But more than this, Dr. William H. Grier was in the house. For those who don't know, Dr. William H. Grier is the co-author of Black Rage, the classic psychological study of North American Africans in the 60s. One of his sons is David Allen Grier, but his son Geoffery was playing the role of Black Panther c0-founder Huey P. Newton in my play One Day in the Life.

In truth, Geoffery was never able to match the psychopathic personality of Huey Hewton. Even though Geoffery had been a Crack fiend with me in San Francisco's Tenderloin District, he found it difficult to match the psychopathology of Huey Newton.

But Dr. Grier, being the psychiatrist he was, asked me how I was feeling before the play began.
I responded with a statement that didn't hardly satisfy the doctor. He told his son Geoferry, "I don't know what's wrong with Marvin. He has Mayor Willie Brown introducing his play. He has a packed house. He has a Jaguar car packed outside, yet he's singing the blues."

Dr. Grier, it's called Divine Discontent. In ghetto language, it's called an ungrateful bastard.

No matter, let us put together a Black Arts West Theatre Festival in honor of Stanley Williams, Quentin Easter and Margo Norman, now ancestors in the Black Theatre Movement. Of course, we can never forget Nora Vaughn and her Berkeley Black Repertory Group Theatre.
--Marvin X
7,11,10

Marvin X in SF Theatre Festival

Marvin X in SF Theatre Festival
Marvin X will perform at the San Francisco Theatre Festival, Sunday, August, 8tl, at the Yerba Buena Center, 4th and Mission Streets, San Francisco. Marvin X will performs readings from his book The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables. He will be accompanied by Rashidah Sabreen on guitar, choreography by Raynetta Razetta, Linda Johnson, and readings by Paradise, Hunia, Ayo Dele Nzingha and Marvin X.

Stop War on Iran

Take Action Now!

• Sign the Petition - http://www.stopwaro niran.org/ petition. shtml
• Make an Emergency Donation to help with organizing expenses - http://stopwaronira n.org/donate. shtml
• Link to us - http://stopwaronira n.org/link. html

July 1, 2010

PROVOCATIONS AND WAR THREATS AGAINST IRAN:
IS WAR IMMINENT?

In the final two weeks of June we have seen a number of serious developments in the Middle East involving the United States, Israel, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. While almost completely ignored by the U.S. mainstream press, there is considerable alarm around the world and especially in the Middle East. Some of these developments are unprecedented and could denote a sharp escalation in the U.S./NATO and Israeli campaign against Iran, or even all-out war.

Anti-war and progressive people and organizations should note the following:

* On June 18, a U.S. naval carrier group, reportedly accompanied by at least one Israeli vessel, passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea and toward the Persian Gulf. The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Force, , included and aircraft carrier, guided missile cruiser, Aegis-class destroyers and the German frigate GGS Hessen.

*According to Iran's Fars New Agency, the Israeli Air Force recently unloaded military equipment at a Saudi Arabia base near the city of Tabuk.. Even more ominously, the Saudi's are reported to have realigned their missile defense system to allow for an air corridor for Israeli planes in the event of a war with Iran.

* U.S. forces stationed in the Central Asian country of Azerbaijan have massed along the Iran/Azerbaijani border. The U.S. forces, which are part of the so-called war on terror, are supposed to be supporting the war in Afghanistan. Iranian revolutionary guards have called in tanks and anti-aircraft units to the area in what amounts to a war alert.

* On July 1, President Barack Obama signed an agreement negotiated in the U.N Security Council stepping up sanctions on Iran and its economy. However, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) publicly worried that China may undercut the sanctions.

* On June 28, Iran announced that it would not challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza at this time. An Iranian flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid and flying the Red Crescent, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross, was en route to Gaza accompanied by Iranian naval vessels. The expedition reportedly had the diplomatic support of both Russia and Turkey.

* Yesterday, June 30, Ali Akbar Salehi, the Islamic Republic's vice president and director of the nuclear program, announced that Iran has produced another 37 pounds of uranium enriched to 20 percent. Iran has a right to do this under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which it signed (and the Israelis have not signed). Iran maintains that their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Significantly, the 20 percent level is far below the level needed to produce a nuclear weapon.

* There has been speculation that if the U.S. and NATO attempt to inspect Iranian ships in order to enforce the new sanctions, the resulting confrontation may lead to war.

* Among the world leaders who have issued strong warnings about U.S. intentions is Fidel Castro, who certainly knows what it is like to have your country threatened with military attack, including with nuclear weapons. In his published Reflections on June 27, he stressed the importance of the Cuban people, and progressives everywhere to be prepared to respond, even to the most horrendous catastrophe, which could be the outcome of a U.S.-Israeli war against Iran: "What would be [the worst] is to suddenly be made aware of news of serious events, without having heard any news whatsoever beforehand about such possibilities, thereby falling into confusion and panic...."

Much analysis is no doubt necessary to determine the seriousness of the above developments. It should be remembered, that almost all large military operations in this era require months, if not years, of meticulous planning. The fact that the Pentagon has not chosen to reveal their plans to the mainstream media does not mean that such plans do not exist. However, the most immediate task of anti-war and anti-imperialists around the world is to to respond quickly to these provocations emanating from Washington and prepare to resist any and all attempts to make war on Iran.

Take Action Now!

• Sign the Petition - http://www.stopwaro niran.org/ petition. shtml
• Make an Emergency Donation to help with organizing expenses - http://stopwaronira n.org/donate. shtml
• Link to us - http://stopwaronira n.org/link. html

More on Oscar Grant

More on Oscar Grant

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JUNE 30^TH, 2010

Contact: Tony Coleman, Rachel Jackson

(510) 225-4083 or info@oaklandforjustice.org

OAKLAND ORGANIZERS DEFEND RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE AFTER MEHSERLE VERDICT

WHO: Oakland General Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant

WHAT: Press Conference

WHEN: Thursday, July 1st, 11:00 AM

WHERE: 14th & Broadway, Oakland (at the flag poles in Frank Ogawa Plaza )

As the Mehserle murder trial verdict draws near, Oakland community organizers fear that the Mayor and Oakland Police Department’s contradictory actions will hinder the exercise of First Amendment rights. Officials claim to support free speech, while video of heavily armed officers – marching in military formation, swinging batons on peaceful mock-protesters, and preparing pepper spray, tear gas, and tanks – sends the opposite message: that protestors will be brutalized, for the “crime” of protesting police brutality.

Despite this intimidation, the Oakland Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant and all victims of police abuse, supports the call for a community gathering at the intersection of 14th Street and Broadway in Oakland , 6pm, the day the verdict is announced.

Tony Coleman of OneFam raises key questions, “After years of cuts to youth services, now the City can pay for PSA’s and pay outreach workers to say that Oakland officials love young people? Where was funding or action against police abuse last year, when Dellums told protesters he ‘was too busy,’ to comment on the shooting of Oscar Grant? And why are gang-prevention officers high on the list of officers to be cut from the OPD? This is hypocrisy, and it’s way too little, way too late.”

“The police are out of control in California and beyond, from Seattle to Detroit to New York , and it’s past time for Obama to step up,” says Rachel Jackson of the New Years Movement for Justice. “Despite the hype, there are no ‘outside agitators’ when a problem is nationwide. The ‘outsiders’ are officers who don’t live in cities they patrol, would never send their children to Oakland schools, and believe the solution to crime is to pack prisons with non-violent offenders.”

Hannibal Shakur from the Laney Black Student Union drives the point home: “I get targeted by the police regularly, including for the ‘crime’ of documenting police abuse on video. It’s offensive and condescending to imply that young black men need ‘outsiders’ to tell us how to respond to racism.”

Regardless of the Mehserle verdict, police violence must stop. At this historical moment, the Oakland Assembly urges us to look to each other for healing and solutions to community problems. The Oakland Assembly for Justice will facilitate a youth-focused program to express and process emotions our on the day of the verdict, in a space where our voices will be heard.

RALLY * OPEN MIC * SPOKEN WORD * YOUTH SPEAK OUT!

Day of the Verdict – Community Gathering – 14th & Broadway, 6pm

The Oakland General Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant is a grassroots coalition of concerned citizens working with statewide partners to stop the epidemic of police abuse. For more information, see www.oaklandforjustice.org.

From: "Brooks, Desley" <DBrooks@oaklandnet.com>
Date: June 30, 2010 1:07:02 PM PDT
To: "Brooks, Desley" <DBrooks@oaklandnet.com>
Subject: Press Release from the Black Electeds and Clergy of the East Bay.

Contact: Desley Brooks (510) 238-7006

Keith Carson (510) 272-6695

For Immediate Release

Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay’s statement regarding Upcoming Oscar Grant Verdict

An Open Letter to the Community:

Within the next couple of days and/or weeks there will be a verdict in the Oscar Grant case. This case has struck a nerve in Oakland and around the world. In anticipation of the verdict the Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay wanted to share some information with our community.

Representatives of our organization have been monitoring this case since Oscar Grant was senselessly murdered by Johannes Mehserle on January 1, 2009. We demanded that a reluctant District Attorney file criminal proceedings against Mehserle; we helped to organize community pressure on BART to bring about organizational change and implementation of polices and procedures to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again; we have attended all of the court proceedings; and most importantly we have demanded justice for Oscar Grant, his family and everyone that Oscar represents – because we all could be Oscar Grant.

A community needs to know that its leadership will stand to protect their interests. While we are hopeful that our Justice System will be just; we are mindful of incidences where it has failed us. When the system failed us in the Rodney King case, the Justice Department stepped in to ensure that the Community’s interests were protected. We, the Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay, stand prepared to call upon all State and Federal agencies to seek any and all recourse if an unjust verdict is rendered in this case.

We know that emotions may run high depending on the outcome of Johannes Mehserle’s criminal proceedings. The current State Court proceedings are just one step on the road to justice for Oscar Grant. As such, we are asking that you work with us to shut down anyone who would engage in destructive behavior in our community. We are also asking that you work with us as we continue to demand justice for Oscar. We have been assured that the Justice Department is monitoring the Mehserle case.

Martin Luther King said that peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice. In the same vein as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Rodney King, and many others we will receive JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT.

The struggle continues,

Hon. Desley Brooks

Hon. Keith Carson

Minister Keith Muhammad

Rev. Dr. Harold R. Mayberry

Rev. Zachary Carey

Hon. Darleen Brooks

Hon. Kathy Neal

Hon. Marlon McWilson

Bishop Keith Clark

Rev. Dr. Kevin Barnes

Hon. Darryl Moore

Hon. Alice Spearman

Partial listing

Desley Brooks

Oakland City Council Member, District 6

City Hall

1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, 2nd Floor

Oakland, CA 94612

(510) 238-7006 (office)

(510) 986-2650 (facsimile)

dbrooks@oaklandnet.com

Keep Making A Difference -- Pay It Forward!

Parable of Oakland Police Riot

Parable of Oakland Police Riot


The Oakland Police are planning to riot. This is the community consensus based on conversations at the crossroads. They shall be waiting for the crowd to gather in front of City Hall after the verdict is announced in the Oscar Grant murder trial. The consensus among the people is that the BART police officer shall not be found guilty of murder. The prosecution has been weak as water, with no real effort to convince the jury Oscar Grant was murdered in cold blood last New Year's day.

Oakland police have been planning for weeks how they will handle the expected protests. They have been training in riot control, the old condemned North County jail has been prepared to handle protesters. Even the jail above City Hall has been made ready. All downtown businesses have been told to close early on Thursday and don't leave cars parked in the downtown area.

OPD Chief Bates says he wants peace but is prepared for war. Mayor Dellums concurs. The religious leaders, aka Pharaoh's magicians, are in league with the police to keeps the masses calm.

Yet the consensus among the people is that, if anything, it shall be a police inspired riot, instigated by agent provocateurs, Cointelpro agents and undercover police. The police want a riot so they can justify not getting laid off, having their budget cut and forced to contribute to their retirement fund. A good riot will make them eligible for Federal funds such as gang abatement monies and other grants from criminal justice and Homeland security.

So the OPD is ready to whup heads and slaughter demonstrators after they are instigated by agent provocateurs.

As far as we're concerned, justice for Oscar Grant was granted by Louvelle Mixon. Dr. Fritz Pointer said Mixon's shootout with the OPD allowed the Oakland masses to enjoy an "obscene pride" after years of police abuse under the color of law.

We are against all violence except in self defense. When the police stop acting like an occupying army and understand they work for the people and not the reverse, perhaps then, and only then, shall there be real peace in the hood.

The Supreme Court's decision to allow Americans to defend themselves with guns must be understood by reading the subtext: let them niggers keep killing each other, so long as they don't cross the line into the white community. If they cross the line, we're ready for them.

We know who sells guns to the brothers and sisters in the hood, and we know who allows the dope in. We cannot disassociate guns and drugs from politicians and developers who are eager to gentrify ghetto neighborhoods with buppies , yuppies and puppies. They will employ such tactics as gang abatement and eminent domain to ethnically cleanse the hood for the pseudo liberal black and white bourgeoisie.

A friend attended a gang abatement meeting full of whites. He wondered aloud where are the guys who are targets of gang abatement? Four of them were in jail and two others are home owners who must now stay one hundred blocks from their homes.

We cannot view this problem solely in a local context, but it must be seen within the wider context of the global wars against the poor in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere. Through the tribal chiefs, America paid insurgents in Iraq to lay down their arms--that was the real surge, not the phony surge of General Patraeus, that was essentially the ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods in Baghdad, separating the Sunnia from the Shia by in numerous checkpoints, along with forcing four million internally and externally displaced refugees. In the most restive Anbar Province, Sunni insurgents were paid to lay down their arms and join the security patrols in their neighborhoods. This is the reason for the dramatic decrease in violence.

They are employing the same tactic in Afghanistan. The plan is to pay the Taliban billions to lay down their arms and pledge allegiance to the corrupt Karzai who is hardly the president of a nation but the Mayor of Kabul, the Capital. The Taliban shall be given jobs, housing and education.

Isn't this fantastic! Jobs, housing and education! Why not try this tactic in the hoods of America, specifically in Oakland, Mayor Ron Dellums, OPD Chief Bates, Attorney General Holder, President Barack Hussein Obama. But oh, no, you rather pay the Taliban because they are a threat to your national security, although there is more violence in the hoods of America annually than the combined violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Is not the violence in the hoods of America a threat to national security? Children can't go to school, men and women can't go to work and come home safely, worshippers can't attend church, the elderly are prisoners in their homes in the day and night. Where is the national security?

It is costing you one million dollars per soldier per year to occupy Afghanistan, yet you have not reported the killing of one Al Queda soldier on the soil of Afghanistan. And then you say you must stay in Afghanistant until you improve the army who is so illiterate they are too retarded to defend themselves, yet these are the people who ran out Alexander the Great, the Monguls, the British, the Russians, and soon they will run your asses out. Yet you tell us you must occupy their land until they are literate enough to defend themselves?

I rest my case. Let us pray for peace in the streets of Oakland, a valiant city, home of the Western Pullman Porters, home of the Black Panthers. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
--Marvin X
Academy of Da Corner
14th and Broadway
6/29/10
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
www.parablesandfablesofmarvinx.blogspot.com

The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/fables
Black Bird Press, 2010
311 pages
$100.00

Black Bird Press
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