BlackPerspective.net

From the man that brought you Bowling for Columbine (about gun control) and the ever, highly controversial Fahrenheit 9/11 (on the Iraq war); we now have Sicko, Michael Moore’s latest documentary. This time Moore focuses in on the American healthcare system.

I went in expecting to see a lot on botched surgeries, infections caused in the hospital and other health service shortcomings; but the film stayed focused on healthcare coverage and access for American’s. Actually, Moore makes the point that the movie is not really even about the 45 million who don’t have coverage (though in fact it is about them too); but about the other 250 million and the lack of treatment they receive as well as the cost of treatment even with health insurance.

The movie starts by taking a look at different case of people who had to make harsh choices because of lack of health coverage, or because despite of their coverage they couldn’t afford care that they needed. For instance, an elderly couple is profiled that worked all their lives, owned a home, raised 3 kids, I think it was; and ended up having to move into the bedroom of their adult daughter because chronic health problems left them broke in a matter of a couple-a-three-years, though they had health insurance. They couldn’t even get the modest size room to themselves, the computer desk and computer had to stay in there.

Another example was a man who cut off the tips of his middle and ring fingers in a sawing accident. The hospital gave him the choice of getting the middle finger tip reattached for 60,000 or the ring finger tip reattached for 12,000. He didn’t have health insurance, so he took the cheaper of the too, and now is left with an undersized appendage.

The movie transitions to a single mother who feigns common law marriage in Canada with a friend who lives just over the boarder so that she can take advantage of the free healthcare in Canada.

If you’re like me you’ve been regaled with the stories of massive weight times in Canadian hospitals, and with stories of how Canadians rather come here to the U.S. for service. Moore’s film shows sparsely packed wait rooms, and interviews with Canadians by enlarge satisfied with their health services.

Both in Canada and in the Europe Moore tells the foreigners the cost of American service or denial of services because of indigence to capture their reactions of surprise or dismay. In France Moore mocks those that decry the notions of long periods of time off work for recovery and universal health care by feigning, with dry humor, that he thinks he’s being lied to by commies and socialist, and that he needs to find some American’s in France who will tell him the truth. He has dinner with such a group and they compare the American system to that which services them in France.
Moore also tests a British doctor’s financial well being under a system of social medicine. It is demonstrated with the new model Audi that he drives and his million dollar home that healthcare providers need not be financially destitute under such a system; but the most poignant thing was that he received bonus for such preventive and health improvement measures as getting patients to quit smoking.

The most grabbing parts of the film were saved for the end, where 9/11 rescue workers were taken to and received treatment in Cuba that they were denied in the U.S. I’ll leave all the details for you to see in the film.

With all said and done, what do we really take away from Sicko though? Those who lean hard to the left will undoubtedly see an unyielding triumph; proving the ultimate supremacy of social-medicine and universal government paid healthcare. Those who lean hard to the right (if they dare bother to see the film) would bemoan “but OHHH, what about the taxes!” – and would wine that Moore had provided no actual solutions.

To the later first - Moore doesn’t in fact provide a specific plan in this film. But that’s fine actually. Such is to be worked out at town hall meetings, at policy boards and in the halls of Congress. I think he accomplished his goal of sparking the discussion and laying out a framework of the direction that he proposes we go I; and he does a good, and as usual, humorous job of supporting his position in large part. And despite Sanjay Gupta’s false reporting, he seemed to have all his facts lined up.

On the other hand, while making a compelling case that we in America can, with our wealth can certainly do much better in providing health care to all, that is affordable at the point of purchase; he doesn’t address a basic issue of the opposing argument. What about the taxes?

I’d like to see a treatment comparing the cost of premiums, co-pays and out of pocket expense for the average working class American, versus how much is paid in taxes by an equivalent working class Canadian or Frenchman to pay for their universal healthcare; which is free to all at the point of service.

I believe healthcare for all is a laudable goal, and at least basic care and emergency services should be provided as a human right to all citizens. But I am also concerned about how we get there. There’s too much cost built into the American system with the insurance middleman and the profit motive that could be removed from the health delivery system; but I won’t get into all that here.

All in all, Sicko is another engaging documentary from Michael Moore, with his usual touch of snark and humor. Whether or not one agrees with Moore’s final conclusions, this film serves and an important voice and perspective to be added to the discourse on revamping of healthcare in the U.S. Not as dynamic as Fahrenheit 9/11, but another solid piece of work worth the time and overpriced ticket they’re charging at theatre’s these days.

By D. Yobachi Boswell

The Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act (H.R.180)

It was supposed to be voted on yesterday, it got rolled over until today, though it can be postponed further; so either way, you still have time to act.

Call your Representative and Senators this morning and urge them to support this bill.

The Actual Bill

An article summerizing the bill. From the article:

Under the legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission would compile a list of companies lon the New York Stock Exchange with ties to Khartoum, prohibit them from receiving federal contracts, and make it legal to divest from such companies, removing the threat of lawsuits in the case of pension and other fund managers.

“What these bills do is to make it clear, as I think they will once they become law, that the opposition to the genocide in Sudan, to the nuclearization, the weapons nuclearization in Iran, are widespread throughout this country,” he said.

I wish the bill compelled divestment by all American intities. But this is the best were going to get for now.

Please make those 3 quick phone calls.

…Shut the Fuck Up!

ATLANTA - NAACP leaders urged public restraint Monday in judging Michael Vick before he has his day in court.

Vick has pleaded not guilty to charges of sponsoring a dogfighting operation.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070730/ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_vick_naacp

You’re not going to tell me I can’t have thoughts until a trial is over some many moons from now; that a company is supposed to absorb his bad publicity to it’s own detriment; or that I can’t see from the evidence available that even if he wasn’t involved, he had to know what was going on. Or, even if somehow he really didn’t know - what did he think was going to happen when you let two thugs live at your house for free with no jobs? Uuuhhhhhhh, they’re probably going to spend all that free time that they’re not working, doing thuggish activities at your house; and hence that he’s at the very least stupid and lacking in good judgment.

Michael Vick is completely capable of defending himself; he has all the resources at his disposal that one could possibly need. Why doesn’t the NAACP spend some time actually advancing the Black community, rather than grandstanding; running to the scene of the most high profile crime, trying to catch headlines like an ambulance chaser.

How bout you get on the ball with defending The Jena Six, whom actually need national attention and resources? You know, some regular working class-income black people, whom actually appear to be quite innocent.

Maybe do something to make yourselves relevant to somebody under 40. If you thought that’s what you were doing here, you thought wrong.

When BET (Black Entertainment Television) debuted on cable in 1980 it was a representation of the realization of a dream for Black America in the greater American culture. Now we would have a voice in the powerful television medium and an opportunity to see ourselves on TV regularly; and to see Black people presented by black people.

The network for the first decade and a half filled it’s programming with re-runs of favorite Black t.v. sit-coms, mostly from the 70s; music video shows such as Video Soul and Mid-night love that carried videos of our favorite soul singers, news programming from a Black perspective and social awareness programs such as Teen Summit.

Even when rap videos began to air not only on Video Soul but on a program created just for the genre, Rap City in 1988; there was still a balance in the content of the videos. You had a few showings per day of videos portraying gratuitously clothed and positioned women, and of those “repping” the gangsta lifestyle; yet those sorts of videos were not only a minor portion of the overall videos shown initially, but even a minor portion of the rap videos alone.

But a sea change occurred a few years into the 90’s. By 2002 Teen Summit and such youth empowerment or awareness programming was gone, as well, the news division was slashed that same year; and all together done away with in 2005.

By the time the millennium rolled around the network had become a gangsta rap paradise and a haven of sexual exploitation between the video content and the highly sexually explicit constant airings of Comic View. When Comic View wasn’t on just about the only other thing that was on was music videos, making the network practically a music video network and not a network of general black entertainment.

Bob Johnson sold the company to Viacom in 2005. Viacom is also the parent company of VH1, MTV and CBS. BET has basically become the Black Version of MTV (which ironically airs very little music programming now) - basically a television station in Black Face. BET does the same shows just with different names and Black cast, and follows the same programming format. The network aims for the lowbrow, lowest common denominator in most of it’s programming; determining that this is what the youth demographic that the network has now fully shaped itself around, wants. This all culminates with BET last year refusing to play the video for socially aware rap group Little Brother’s song “Loving It; reportedly because it was “too intelligent” for their audience - a great statement to capoff a decade of cultivating ultra-materialism; youth ignorance; gratuitous and over-sexualizing; racial and gender debasement and enforcement of the most banal Black stereotypes.

But they ain’t done yet. If you haven’t heard - drum roll please…Enter A Hot Ghetto Mess, based on the three year old website of the same name. This lastest trite offering from the BET (Bamboozled Erroneous Television) is ironic in that it’s title describes the network that will be carrying it. The website features mostly blacks with outrages hairstyles or wardrobe; which is often linked to message boards for a point and laugh/head shacking fest of the readers. BET has decided to bring it to television in video clip form, with Charlie Murphy of Chappelle Show fame hosting it.

A public and blogger backlash ensued, forcing two major advertisers to pull out of this mess a couple of weeks ago before its debut on July 25th. BET’s Entertainment President Reginald Hudlin tried to justify the program as taking a “hard look” at social behavior to get people to think about behaviors. But nothing suggests this to be the true aim of the show. Not the least of which, the highering of a comedian like Charlie Murphy who’s never in his career operated in the realm of conscious examination. Further though, the fact that real social examination of issues is not what BET does in its programming philosophy. On the other hand stereotypical, racial exploitation is par for the course over the last 10 or so years. Even the title of the program feeds right into that.

Just days before BET’s hot new mess was to air, word came down from the network of a name change – changed to We Got To Do Better. That’s nice. Only problem – there’s no content change. I’ve got two sayings to respond to this deficient response by BET: “You can put lipstick on a pig, it still doesn’t make it a lady” and “a rose by any other name still smells the same”; and you know what, this stinks.

BET has been a mess for a longtime now, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to clean up anytime soon.

By: D. Yobachi Boswell

Old style southern “justice” has returned for 6 young black men in Jena Louisiana. You can read about that here.

But don’t just read. After you read and are outraged - ACT!

The following is provided courtesy of Villager at the Electronic Village; with his permission:

We continue to encourage villagers to sign the Free Jena Six online petition

However, Pursuing Holiness correctly noted that politicians focus their efforts on registered voters in their districts. So, in addition to signing the online petition, perhaps it is time for each of us to contact our Senators and our Representative. Tell them about the Jena 6 and demand that the Justice Department investigate.

For those of you living in Louisiana, contact Governor Kathleen Blanco and ask not just for the pardon, but for LaSalle DA Reed Walters and the Jena police to be investigated.

Write:
Office of the Governor
Attn: Constituent Services
P.O. Box 94004
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004

Fax: 225-342-7099
E-mail the Governor

Call:
866-366-1121
225-342-0991
225-342-7015

I posted cribbed letters you can use here

Read Villagers thoughts on the situation.

Perspective of an Outsider

I’ve always considered the Mississippi Coast my home away from home. I didn’t grow up there, but my family is from the Coast, and I spent many a summer there tip-toeing through the hot beach sand to get to the water, braving the heat of insufficiently air-conditioned homes, and sucking down succulent crawfish and crabs.

That’s why with the onslaught of Katrina bearing down via my television screen two years ago, I took it a little more personally than others not living there; not to mention I had a lot of family in the middle of it. Seeing the sturdy 1.6 mile Biloxi Bay Bridge, which I had ridden over from Ocean Springs to Biloxi numerous times, laying in the water in tattered pieces is what really brought home the power of the storm for me. Having seen and ridden over it in person and then seeing it humbled in the water; served as a great reference point for me.

U.S. 90 Bridge at Biloxi aka Biloxi Bay Bridge
Photo Via GulfCoastNews.com

On June 30th I traveled back to the Gulf Coast, for the first time since Katrina for my annual family reunion that is held around the 4th of July every year. Last year it was held outside of Mississippi for the first time, hosted by my mom in Montgomery Alabama; so I had not had opportunity to go back until now.

I arrived in Ocean Springs off I-10 a little after noon. It was a straight shot from the interstate to Highway 90, the main thoroughfare running through Ocean Springs (a small costal town of 17,000). Having not been there since before Katrina, I braced as I approached, wondering would things look spectacularly different, or would it all be easily recognizable. I made a left at the Burger King and headed up 90, and all was normal. That’s the same Burger King that had been there at least since when I was in junior high in the early 90s; when my parents let me roam the area free with cousins and we would walk through the park across 90 to get burgers and fries. Particularly memorable for me, because free reign wasn’t exactly a hallmark of my folks parentage; but vacation, particularly in the laidback, water front atmosphere that the easy summers of the Gulf Coast brings, seems to loosen things up. To this day, I’m always more relaxed just being there, that’s why I always hate to leave; but the threat of a Katrina is why I never stayed.

Apparently though, natives of the region don’t share my concern. There has been no appreciable decline in population in Ocean Springs since Katrina, according to all anecdotal information. I would say that holds true for my family members who live in Moss Point, Ocean Springs and Biloxi. Only one cousin moved away, but then she wasn’t from there. She grew up in Oakland California and Kansas City Kansas.

As I traveled up Highway 90 and back down Government, and through various neighborhoods for two days; as far as lingering damage goes, I tell you what – I couldn’t tell the damn difference. Maybe it was there and I didn’t see it, but if so that says something that one can go about there way and not notice unless someone went out of their way to show it to them.

I took a ride over to Biloxi with my cousin Joe to go see the rebuilt house of my Uncle Kitten, as we call him. Kitten’s nearing 70, and his home, only blocks removed from those casinos you saw pushed up on shore across Highway 90; sustained major damage though it remained standing. He still lives in a trailer in his own yard while he puts the final touches on the rebuilding; much of which he’s doing himself.

Across the street from his house and all down his street you can see the new fabricated homes awaiting occupancy. There are more remnant signs of destruction here, but it didn’t appear overwhelming at this point. The Highway 90 strip with all the Casino’s was as lit up in bright neon lights as 90 has ever been; and to my understanding they are just about all back up and running.

NEW ORLEANS

On Monday July 1st, Joe and I moseyed over to New Orleans; about an hour East of Ocean Springs/Biloxi on I-10. Joe grew up and went to college there. He’s lived elsewhere since, but has been back a couple times since Katrina, including as recently as November 2006.

As we entered the city by first crossing the 5 mile stretch of bridge connecting Slidell Louisiana to New Orleans over Lake Pontchartrain, the culprit of the Katrina disaster, having spilled over into New Orleans flooding the city after the storm had seemingly passed; we noticed a number of large trees sticking up out of the lake that looked as if the tops had been chopped off. This juxtaposed to brand new multi-story houses on the other side of the levy; behind the trees that had not yet recovered.

Joe was impressed that the city in large had at least cleaned up the piles of debris from the street and that it was looking significantly better since his previous trip 7 months earlier. He cautioned though that it is “not a whole lot of improvement, but improving”. He initially had come down three months after the Katrina in the fall of 2005 “It was dead the first time I went, no street lights; it looked hopeless”, Joe told me.

Well here in the summer of 2007 I found both plenty of hope juxtapose to some despairing scenes, and simmering anger. World famous Canal Street was humming with traffic, and the large grassy medians that line the middle of the city’s major thoroughfares were cast over by well groomed oaks and even imported palm trees.

But just as things look like a normal American city for a spell, you then see a house still bearing the red X mark that rescue workers used to denote that a house had been checked and whether dead bodies had been found there or not.

After making our way through downtown we headed east on Claiborne. I’ve seen great urban decay before, but nothing like a standing house with whole front ripped off of it on “Maine Street”. We headed over the Industrial Canal into the much devastated Lower 9th Ward community. And guess what, it still is devastated. The interior neighborhoods look like ghost towns. The housing lining the main street aren’t a great deal better. Gutted house after house characterizes the area, but with a depressing note - people are living on the same streets where the majority of houses are unlivable. Most of the ones that they’re living in aren’t a great deal better. In the subdivision that you often saw on television, it still looks like what you saw on television - rows and rows of devastated houses. In some cases just the cement slabs where house used to be. At one point I saw a slab with three stairs on the backside. Undoubtedly those steps once led into someone’s backyard.

All the debris is not off the streets here, but most of it. Never mind that though, most houses are gutted and in ill repair. The majority still carry the rescue worker markings. In the midst of this, you’ll see one new rebuilt home almost ready to come back online - on a block full of other houses that look like they were hit by a bomb. We turned the corner at one point and I thought wow, that house is nicely rebuilt. As we got closer we realized it was just a nice new roof. The inside of the house was still bearing the repercussions of being trounced by Lake Pontchartrain.

We also visited higher ground where water damage didn’t do as much devastation, in the Garden District an uptown. We met up with folks rebuilding on the weekends while living out of state during the week. We also visited the French Quarter and Bourbon Street that evening. I’d been to Bourbon St. before, about 7 years earlier during Essence Festival weekend. It wasn’t the same, but the strip was readily active. Not a stalwart of people, but a pretty steady stream. Then again, this was a Monday night and no festivals were in town (Essence was coming back the following weekend); though my cousin Joe didn’t feel that it was up to par for even a normal pre-storm Monday night.

Things are coming back around in Mississippi and Louisiana, for some anyway, in some places. There are still a lot yearning to go back home who don’t have the means, who’s insurance didn’t pay, and who’s president didn’t follow through on his empty promises in the weeks after the disaster.

According to Mitch Carr of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the Biloxi Bay Bridge will have two lanes open by November of this year, and will be fully functional by Spring of next year; with 6 lanes and dual-use walking and biking paths as well.

By: D. Yobachi Boswell

Publishers Note: Below is an open letter from Michael Moore to CNN regarding their false accusations of Moore “fudging” facts in Sicko. See this post for background on that initial battle.

Saturday, July 14th, 2007
An Open Letter to CNN from Michael Moore

Dear CNN,

Well, the week is over — and still no apology, no retraction, no correction of your glaring mistakes.

I bet you thought my dust-up with Wolf Blitzer was just a cool ratings coup, that you really wouldn’t have to correct the false statements you made about “Sicko.” I bet you thought I was just going to go quietly away.

Think again. I’m about to become your worst nightmare. ‘Cause I ain’t ever going away. Not until you set the record straight, and apologize to your viewers. “The Most Trusted Name in News?” I think it’s safe to say you can retire that slogan.

You have an occasional segment called “Keeping Them Honest.” But who keeps you honest? After what the public saw with your report on “Sicko,” and how many inaccuracies that report contained, how can anyone believe anything you say on your network? In the old days, before the Internet, you could get away with it. Your victims had no way to set the record straight, to show the viewers how you had misrepresented the truth. But now, we can post the truth — and back it up with evidence and facts — on the web, for all to see. And boy, judging from the mail both you and I have been receiving, the evidence I have posted on my site about your “Sicko” piece has led millions now to question your honesty.

I won’t waste your time rehashing your errors. You know what they are. What I want to do is help you come clean. Admit you were wrong. What is the shame in that? We all make mistakes. I know it’s hard to admit it when you’ve screwed up, but it’s also liberating and cathartic. It not only makes you a better person, it helps prevent you from screwing up again. Imagine how many people will be drawn to a network that says, “We made a mistake. We’re human. We’re sorry. We will make mistakes in the future — but we will always correct them so that you know you can trust us.” Now, how hard would that really be?

Read here for the rest of the letter

CNN finally reponds, and Moore Gloats

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
CNN Throws in Towel, Admits to Two Errors, and States That All ‘Sicko’ Facts Are True to Their Source (or something like that)… Moore Realizes All This is Huge Distraction and Then Spends More Precious Time Thanking Paris Hilton for Seeing ‘Sicko’… Meanwhile, More than 300 Americans Die Because They Had No Health Insurance During the 8-Day Gupta-Moore War…

Friends,

The mighty CNN, in a lengthy and sad online defense of their woe-begotten ‘Sicko’ story of last Monday, has admitted that they did indeed fudge at least two of the facts in their coverage of my film and have apologized for it:

Read here for the rest of the letter

Aother publishers note: I went to see Sicko this past weekend, and should have a review up no later than this time next week.

A couple says their vacation was ruined when an RV park owner told them they weren’t welcome after discovering their 2-year-old foster son had the HIV virus.

Last week, Dick and Silvia Glover went to the Wales West RV Park in Silver Hill, Ala., with their foster son Caleb. When the boy was banned from using the pool and showers, the Glovers said they were offered an uncomfortable and painful choice: They could either keep Caleb out of the water or leave.
blackvoices.aol.com/black_news/headlines_features/canvas_news_articles/_a/hiv-positive-toddler/20070709074509990001

I responded to this article elsewhere and decided to make my response a post:

Getting Aids the way this guy said, and claiming we don’t know the risk, is BS. Do you know those statements are not just reminiscent, but almost word for word the same ones being made 25 years ago do to the Aids hysteria of the early years?

Coincidentally I’ve been watching this documentary recently called The Age of Aids, (which I stringently recommend to everyone. You don’t even have to buy it like I did, you can watch it online) and you can see in there where people said that shit in the earlier 80s, and this fool still doesn’t know how aids is transmitted.

It’s amazing that this stuff still goes on. You’d think the days of Ryan White and the Ray brothers were over, with all the knowledge of Aids we have now and having lived with it for so long; but obviously they’re not. Maybe somebody should send that dumb fuck Ryan’s book.

A relevant clip from the Age of Aids:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/view/5.html?as=1&c=1wm
You can skip to the 6 minute mark if you want to hear about Ryan, the Ray brothers and Dwayne Mowery.

If you keep watching past that part, listening for how your boy, now Chief Justice Roberts, played a role in furthering the hysteria.

By: D. Yobachi Boswell

Let me preface this piece by saying the following. I am not a member of the Michael Moore Love Fest Club. I do not walk lock in step with his positions, I do not think he’s all wonderful, I don’t think he’s the great white hope to the black man; and while where I like how he often rightly illuminates problems, I often don’t agree with his conclusions or solutions.

However, I do think he makes interesting and entertaining films, which he does in a very engaging manner; about important subjects that I like seeing examined. His style is confrontational and sarcastic, and while I don’t think that should be the only form of documentary making, I think it is one viable way to go; and I think that Moore has a perspective worth hearing. He could tone down the grandstanding and self-promotion though.

Going back to before Fahrenheit 9/11 people claimed that Moore is dishonest and that his film making plays loose and fast with the facts. I certainly think Moore plays up facts that support his position, while not shining too bright a light on those that don’t – and while that might not be the most academic way of arguing it certainly is normal for one to make their own argument and not the oppositions. But I don’t see where he lies or “fudges” as it is often termed.

This charge has come up again with his new release, Sicko, about the American healthcare industry. On Monday July 9th, Moore appeared on the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Before Moore was interviewed, CNN ran what it calls a Fact Check piece by medical doctor and CNN medical reporter Sanjay Gupta. Gupta confirms some of Moore’s facts, has clips of some people praising more and others detracting, and then parses on other facts.

He then concludes the piece saying that Moore “fudges” in Sicko, but didn’t give any examples; and then seconds latter the piece ends. That’s horrible reporting and horrible academics. You don’t essentially call somebody a lair and then just end the report. If you make a claim, especially a factual claim and or a negative claim against someone; good, basic academics demands that you support your claim.

Read transcript of Gupta’s piece here; you’ll have to scroll about half way down until you see his name.

In neither his pre-recorded news piece, nor in the live television debate, that Gupta had more than a day to prepare for; did he provided one “fudged” fact. All he did was quibble over the use of one source versus the other, but he couldn’t impeach any of the numbers or sources that Moore used. You know, sources such as the United States government and the United Nations.

Transcript of Moore/Gupta debate on Larry King

In one case Moore used a United Nations number and Gupta used a World Health Organization number. How is the WHO’s number more credible than the UN’s number; especially when they’re only 21 dollars or just over 10 percent apart; making the exact same point no matter which one you use. And Moore chose the HIGHER number when his purpose was to show how low Cuba’s per capita spending is on healthcare as compared to the United States.

From Moore’s website: “…This is confirmed by the United Nations Human Development Report, 2006. Yup, Cuba spends $251 per person on health care. (hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/indicators/52.html). As Gupta points out, the World Health Organization does calculate Cuba’s per capita health expenditure at $229 per person. We chose to use the UN numbers, a minor difference…”

Read the rest of Moore’s rebuttal to Gupta’s fact checking piece

I haven’t seen Sicko yet. I’ll be checking it out this weekend and probably reviewing it next week. Maybe I’ll check out FahrenHype 9/11 and see if they can finally provide me with some actual lies to back up the claim.

In other cinematic news: y’all need to be checking for this piece of black cinema Talk To Me

By: D. Yobachi Boswell

Of particular interest to people in the Georgia area.

Here’s a message I receieved through CODEPINK about the US Air Force’s attemptents to remove Mr. Yearwood from his service do to his expressed views on the war in Iraq. While it is understood that a person in uniform cannot criticize the President, they are not too stripped of all freedom of speech.

I don’t have a fully developed opinion on this particular case, I’ll just provide you all with the information so that you may decide for yourself:

CODEPINK’s Message
Call to Action
What: Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is facing discharge from the United States Air Force Reserve Individual Reserve as he is being charged that his behavior is “inconsistent with the interest of national security.”

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. intends to hold a candle light vigil at Martin Luther King’s tomb in Atlanta, GA on the evening before he returns to Washington DC. Time to be determined.

When: July 12, 2007, 12:00 Noon Rally

Where: Warner Robbins (100 miles south of Atlanta), GA Hwy 129 & Martin Luther King Blvd.

Why: To stand in solidarity with Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. as he faces his United States Air Force separation hearing.

For more information contact Tina Richards at 573.247.8059 or visit HipHopCaucus.org
Please take a moment to read Rev. Yearwood’s Open Letter to America below and join CODEPINK in our support of this advocate for peace.

Thanks and see you there!

An Open Letter to America: “Now is the time for us to stand up and stand together”
By Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.

My Fellow Americans:

For Future Generations,

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.