Mandela showed the power of unearned suffering
BY JESSE JACKSON
December 10, 2013
Leaders will gather from across the world to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela this week, just as South Africans gather from across the country to say goodbye to “Madiba.”
Nelson Mandela had no financial fortune. He led no armies, won no victories on the battlefield. He was, perhaps, at his most powerful when he was not in the presidential office but in a cell at Robben Island.
Mandela, like Jesus, Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, met external prosecution with internal character, indomitable will and stoic sacrifice. Jailed for 27 years, he spent his time learning and teaching, even mastering the language of his oppressors to be able to communicate with them. He showed the power of unearned suffering and untarnished vision. He wouldn’t allow his persecutors to bring him down to their level. He knew that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth would leave all blind and toothless.
Political power can come from the support of voters. Entertainment power comes from the applause of crowds. Economic power comes from money, military power from guns. But those who serve and sacrifice for a cause greater than themselves accrue power from their honor, their example, and their inspiration. Dr. King argued that this power is available to all of us. All of us cannot be famous or well known. All of us cannot be great, but all of us can serve.
In celebrating Mandela, we focus on his willingness to forgive, but pay too little attention to those who did the persecution or what needed to be forgiven. The same is true of Dr. King. We focus on his willingness to sacrifice, but less on who forced that sacrifice.
Against apartheid, Mandela and the African National Congress had few allies in the West. Fixated on the Cold War, America and Britain appreciated the “stability” and anti-communism offered by the apartheid regime. Ronald Reagan adopted “constructive engagement” with apartheid while dismissing Mandela as a communist and adding the African National Congress to the terrorist list.
America turned, but only because Americans, and particularly African Americans, exposed and opposed the moral disgrace of constructive engagement with apartheid.
Dr. King and Nelson Mandela were both arrested in 1962. Each was aware of the other. Each saw their national struggle in an international context. Both were living under apartheid. Both were facing the same economic, political and exploitative alliances. Both were attacked as communists and terrorists. In America, Dr. King rallied a minority that was locked out. In South Africa, Mandela roused the vast majority.
The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. advanced first. We used our new strength to help end apartheid in South Africa. We had the right to vote, to petition and to protest. Harry Belafonte engaged South African artists and musicians to spread the word. TransAfrica and the Free South Africa Movement organized civil disobedience that led to jailings for over a year. Randall Robinson, Roger Wilkins, Mary Berry, Rev. Walter Fauntroy and Eleanor Holmes Norton inspired thousands to join the protests. Rep Barbara Lee, Ronald Dellums and Maxine Waters pushed the fight for sanctions in the Congress.
The union movement — led by Bill Lucy and the Coalition for Black Trade Unions, by the American Federation of State, Country and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and by the AFL/CIO — mobilized to demand change.
In 1984 and 1988, my presidential campaigns called for sanctions on South Africa as a rogue nation. At the Democratic conventions, I called our kinship with South Africa a moral disgrace, forcing Democrats finally to speak clearly. As legislators began to get arrested in front of the South African embassy, colleges and pension funds began to disinvest. Businesses felt the heat.
Finally, Congress overturned a Reagan veto and imposed sanctions. And the apartheid regime realized that the future was largely in the hands and heart of Nelson Mandela.
Nelson Mandela and Dr. King are no longer here to lead, but their example and their vision continue to show the way. Now in the U.S. and in South Africa, apartheid has been defeated, but racial exclusion is supplanted by economic disparity. We are free but not equal. There is a growing gulf in income, opportunity, education, health care and access to capital. Nelson Mandela and Dr. King led us a long way, but we have miles to go before we rest.
Keep up with Rev. Jackson and the work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition at www.rainbowpush.org.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Mandela showed the power of unearned suffering
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia deaths labeled suicide without exam
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia deaths labeled suicide without exam
Associated Press
Posted December 1, 2013 at 5:28 p.m.
The are a lot of "suicides" for certain folks who got in the way of certain "thugs with money" down in our area.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia deaths labeled suicide without exam
Associated Press
Posted December 1, 2013 at 5:28 p.m.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/dec/01/atlanta-journal-constitution-georgia-deaths-labele/
ATLANTA (AP) — A newspaper investigation has found that many deaths labeled suicides by authorities in Georgia have not undergone a full forensic examination.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed a database of nearly 175,000 state death certificates and found that more than 1,000 deaths since 2011 were labeled suicides without such examinations (http://bit.ly/18Skpwv). Officials closed the cases of nearly 40 percent of suspected suicides without autopsies or other tests, the newspaper determined.
Elected coroners, who often lack training in medicine or forensic pathology, attributed deaths to a variety of causes, including gunshot wounds, hanging, suffocation with plastic bags, helium inhalation and self-mutilation.
In 69 cases, officials said suicides were caused by drug overdoses, but never verified that with laboratory tests.
Some states require autopsies in most suicide cases, and many forensic experts say they should be performed in any death that raises suspicion.
"It really depends on the circumstances of the death," Dr. Gregory Davis, a professor of pathology at the University of Kentucky and that state's assistant medical examiner told the newspaper. But he said officials should determine whether a death is caused by infectious disease, which could indicate a health threat, or by foul play, which might signal a crime.
Georgia law says suicides must be reported to a county coroner or the state medical examiner, who has the authority to decide whether to do an autopsy.
Dr. Kris Sperry, Georgia's chief medical examiner, said he's not concerned that the lack of autopsies for many suspected suicides may leave a trace of uncertainty.
In most cases, he said, "everything surrounding the death is very clear. It is vanishingly rare that a suicide turns out to be something other than what it's portrayed as being."
In 1,068 of the 2,742 suicides reported in Georgia from 2011 through the middle of this year, the medical examiner was not informed of the deaths or chose not to do an autopsy. By comparison, only 46 homicides, about 3 percent of the 1,564 reported during the same period, went without autopsies.
Neil Sims, a funeral director in Douglas, has been the coroner in Coffee County in southern Georgia since 1984. He said he consults with law enforcement and the state medical examiner's office before deciding whether to ask for autopsies for apparent suicides. He said he looks at a variety of factors.
"It's pretty obvious, usually," Sims said.
Coroners are elected officials in 154 of Georgia's 159 counties. They oversee investigations into all kinds of deaths, including homicides, accidents, suicides and those from natural causes. In Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton counties, physicians trained in pathology serve as appointed medical examiners.
Few of the elected coroners have medical training. State law requires that they be at least 25 years old, registered to vote and a high school graduate. Each newly elected coroner must go through 40 hours of training at the state law enforcement academy and then must attend 24 hours of additional classes each year.
Georgia's state auditor has issued reports twice in the past three years questioning whether coroners routinely follow the law that requires them to notify the state medical examiner of suspicious deaths, including suicides. The auditor has suggested a law requiring coroners to report every death to the medical examiner.
In a follow-up study this year, the auditor said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which includes the state medical examiner, said "more pressing needs . have supplanted the exploration of changes to the Georgia Death Investigation Act." The agency did not elaborate.
Sperry, Georgia's chief medical examiner, said the state's coroners perform well and rigorously investigate suicides and other suspicious deaths.
Associated Press
Posted December 1, 2013 at 5:28 p.m.
The are a lot of "suicides" for certain folks who got in the way of certain "thugs with money" down in our area.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia deaths labeled suicide without exam
Associated Press
Posted December 1, 2013 at 5:28 p.m.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/dec/01/atlanta-journal-constitution-georgia-deaths-labele/
ATLANTA (AP) — A newspaper investigation has found that many deaths labeled suicides by authorities in Georgia have not undergone a full forensic examination.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed a database of nearly 175,000 state death certificates and found that more than 1,000 deaths since 2011 were labeled suicides without such examinations (http://bit.ly/18Skpwv). Officials closed the cases of nearly 40 percent of suspected suicides without autopsies or other tests, the newspaper determined.
Elected coroners, who often lack training in medicine or forensic pathology, attributed deaths to a variety of causes, including gunshot wounds, hanging, suffocation with plastic bags, helium inhalation and self-mutilation.
In 69 cases, officials said suicides were caused by drug overdoses, but never verified that with laboratory tests.
Some states require autopsies in most suicide cases, and many forensic experts say they should be performed in any death that raises suspicion.
"It really depends on the circumstances of the death," Dr. Gregory Davis, a professor of pathology at the University of Kentucky and that state's assistant medical examiner told the newspaper. But he said officials should determine whether a death is caused by infectious disease, which could indicate a health threat, or by foul play, which might signal a crime.
Georgia law says suicides must be reported to a county coroner or the state medical examiner, who has the authority to decide whether to do an autopsy.
Dr. Kris Sperry, Georgia's chief medical examiner, said he's not concerned that the lack of autopsies for many suspected suicides may leave a trace of uncertainty.
In most cases, he said, "everything surrounding the death is very clear. It is vanishingly rare that a suicide turns out to be something other than what it's portrayed as being."
In 1,068 of the 2,742 suicides reported in Georgia from 2011 through the middle of this year, the medical examiner was not informed of the deaths or chose not to do an autopsy. By comparison, only 46 homicides, about 3 percent of the 1,564 reported during the same period, went without autopsies.
Neil Sims, a funeral director in Douglas, has been the coroner in Coffee County in southern Georgia since 1984. He said he consults with law enforcement and the state medical examiner's office before deciding whether to ask for autopsies for apparent suicides. He said he looks at a variety of factors.
"It's pretty obvious, usually," Sims said.
Coroners are elected officials in 154 of Georgia's 159 counties. They oversee investigations into all kinds of deaths, including homicides, accidents, suicides and those from natural causes. In Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton counties, physicians trained in pathology serve as appointed medical examiners.
Few of the elected coroners have medical training. State law requires that they be at least 25 years old, registered to vote and a high school graduate. Each newly elected coroner must go through 40 hours of training at the state law enforcement academy and then must attend 24 hours of additional classes each year.
Georgia's state auditor has issued reports twice in the past three years questioning whether coroners routinely follow the law that requires them to notify the state medical examiner of suspicious deaths, including suicides. The auditor has suggested a law requiring coroners to report every death to the medical examiner.
In a follow-up study this year, the auditor said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which includes the state medical examiner, said "more pressing needs . have supplanted the exploration of changes to the Georgia Death Investigation Act." The agency did not elaborate.
Sperry, Georgia's chief medical examiner, said the state's coroners perform well and rigorously investigate suicides and other suspicious deaths.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
[eaglewatch] Colonial Thugs Target Indigenous Women to Provoke Men
From the Eagle Watch
December 4, 2013
Colonial Thugs Target Indigenous Women to Provoke Me
As the reports pile up, it becomes more and more evident that our women,
sisters, mothers and grandmothers are being targeted and attacked by the
ruthless, corrupt agents of colonialism corporatism and imperialism.
Nothing has really changed since the days when they raped our women in
front of our men to destroy us. We are still here and they are still
using the same ole dirty tactics.
It is the same contempt for Mother Earth and All Our Relations. It is the
same fear of Nature that makes the pillagers and plunderers imagine they
can conquer Nature. And that they have every right and necessity to do
so. It's a sick and corrupt world view that drives the capitalist
economic system. It's based on a cruel hierarchy with few at the top and
many at the bottom scrambling to climb on top of each other. It is a
system that must be stopped dead in its tracks.
There is a better way and we Human Beings have the creativity and
imagination within us to find that way. It's not for one person to
dictate but for minds to come together and find solutions.
Our men are being provoked into reckless acts when it is a time for
careful planning and strategic acts.
Kittoh
http://aptn.ca/news/2013/12/
Elsipogtog woman says she suffered trauma, injuries at hands of RCMP
during arrest
03. Dec, 2013 by APTN National News
(Video shows Marie Simon’s arrest at about the 2:00 mark. Simon was
wearing a blue coat. She is seen on the ground behind the line of RCMP
officers. Video courtesy of Noel Jij)
By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
Elsipogtog First Nation community member Marie Simon said she blacked out
in the back of the RCMP paddy wagon just before her epileptic seizure.
When she regained consciousness, Simon said she was lying on the highway
with RCMP officers around her. She said her hands were still bound with
zip-ties behind her back.
“They were saying, ‘are you sure she’s alright? Are you sure she had a
seizure?’” said Simon, in a telephone interview with APTN National News.
“When I was finally able to get my head together enough to talk I said
‘look, I am epileptic.”
Simon was one of seven people arrested Monday afternoon during
demonstrations against SWN Resources Canada’s controversial shale gas
exploration work on Hwy 11 in New Brunswick. The demonstrations shut down
the highway for several hours and fires were set alight in the late
afternoon.
Simon now has bruises on her face and her sprained left wrist is bandaged
and the swelling prevents her from fully opening her fingers. She also has
trouble keeping food down and believes it’s the result of a knee to the
stomach she received from an RCMP officer after she was arrested.
“It was traumatizing,” she said.
(Swelling apparent on Marie Simon’s face. Facebook photo courtesy of Marie
Simon)
Simon was arrested at about 1:30 p.m. local time as RCMP officers tried
push a group of demonstrators off Hwy 11.
Video from the incident shows RCMP officers surrounding a small group of
demonstrators. One of the officers shouts, “Move to the side now.”
One of the demonstrators responds, “who is pushing women? Cameras over here.”
Suddenly there is a brief scuffle as Simon is pulled through the line of
officers and pinned to the ground.
“The officer in front of me pushed me right on my chest. I said don’t
touch me that’s my chest, that’s my breast, and he went and did it again,”
said Simon. “He pulled me by my left hand…I was saying let me go, let me
go, let me go and he wouldn’t let me go. He pulled me through the line of
cops…he pulled me through and slammed me on the ground, face right on the
ground.”
Simon said she remembers having a knee pressed against her neck, another
pressed between her shoulder blades and a third dug into the bottom of her
back as officers bound her hands with zip-ties.
Then, she said she was hit again as she was being pulled up off the ground.
“I was crying, my hand was hurting, my neck was hurting, my stomach was
hurting, my ribs,” said Simon.
(Marie Simon’s bandage sprained left wrist and hand. Facebook photo
courtesy of Marie Simon)
But it was when she was sitting in the back of the paddy wagon that she
began to feel a seizure coming on. Simon said she hadn’t had a seizure for
about a year and suddenly she began to feel the familiar jolts in her
muscles.
“I told an officer and he just looked at me,” she said. “They shut the
door on me.”
Another man who had been arrested and was in the back of the wagon began
trying to calm her breathing down, said Simon.
“He was getting so mad saying, ‘she needs help, why aren’t you helping
her?’” said Simon. “That’s the last thing I remember and I woke up on the
highway, I was on the side of the road, a whole bunch of cops around me.”
Simon said paramedics were on the scene by then, but the RCMP officers
refused to free her hands so she could be put on the stretcher.
“They were hesitant,” she said.
They finally agreed to take of her zip-ties and cuff her hands in the
front so she could be taken to the hospital in nearby St. Anne, NB.
Simon said her blood pressure was extremely low and her sprained wrist was
bandaged. She was then taken to a holding cell at the Shediac, NB, RCMP
detachment, but they could only take fingerprints from her right hand
because she couldn’t fully extend the fingers on her left.
Simon said the officers would not let her call her fiance to tell him
where she was. She was only allowed to call legal aid and was advised not
to give any information to the police and was denied the pain killers
given to her by the doctor in St. Anne.
“I was sitting (in the cell) and wondering if this is where I am going to
stay. They told me they didn’t know if I was going to be released,” she
said. “I was looking at the toilet and wondering what I was supposed to do
and if I was going to see my family.”
She was eventually released at about 7:30 p.m. local time with conditions,
including staying at least one kilometre from SWN’s exploration vehicles.
Simon said she is now planning to file a complaint against the RCMP for
her treatment despite being told by an officer in the Richibucto RCMP
detachment that she needed the name of the officer who allegedly roughed
her up. Simon said the Shediac RCMP detachment told her they wouldn’t
accept the complaint and that she should file it in Richibucto.
Simon said she tried to demand the name of the officers during her arrest,
but none would give it to her and their name tags weren’t visible on their
uniforms.
Still, despite the misery, Simon would still march out onto the highway
again.
“I don’t regret it. If I didn’t have a police order not to be within a
kilometre of it, I would be there again on the front lines and I would
never regret it,” she said. “I am proud of who I am, where I come from. I
did this to defend our land, our water, our people, Aboriginal or not.”
jbarrera@aptn.ca
@JorgeBarrera
==========
http://aptn.ca/news/2013/12/
RCMP investigate complaint truck involved with SWN exploration work struck
three women
03. Dec, 2013 by APTN National News | 0 Comments
elsipogtogthismorning
(RCMP officers line up in front of SWN Resources Canada’s ‘thumper’ trucks
Monday. Photo courtesy of Angeline Purcell)
APTN National News
The New Brunswick RCMP is investigating allegations a pick-up truck
involved with SWN Resources Canada’s controversial shale gas exploration
work in New Brunswick struck three women on a highway during
demonstrations Monday.
RCMP Const. Damian Theriault said RCMP officers received a complaint from
the scene that the women had been hit by the truck.
“We received a complaint that a vehicle working in the area may have come
into contact with three people who were on the road,” said Theriault. “We
are investigating that complaint.”
Theriault said the incident did not cause any serious injuries.
Two eye-witnesses told APTN National News that demonstrators tried to stop
a white truck which was driving at a low speed on Hwy 11. The witnesses
said the truck sped up and hit one woman. A second woman ran over to the
truck and was also bumped. While a man began yelling at the driver, the
truck bumped into a third woman.
The witnesses said two of the women were taken by ambulance to hospital
with bruises.
“And all through this the (driver) was smiling away,” said one witness.
“The cops were right there and they said they didn’t see anything.”
Mi’kmaq-led demonstrations against SWN’s shale gas exploration work on
Monday shut down a section of Hwy 11 near Richibucto, NB, for “several
hours,” said Theriault. He said seven people were arrested during the day,
including five men and two women. All were released the same day with
conditions to stay at least one kilometre away from SWN’s exploration
vehicles.
Theriault said the highway was reopened by 3 a.m. local time.
Demonstrators lit tires on fire that were laid across the highway. As the
night progressed, two other fires were lit in the vicinity.
Theriault said the RCMP was also investigating the fires.
“They are under investigation and there could be charges down the road,”
he said.
SWN obtained a 14 day extension to its injunction against the
demonstrators Monday.
Theriault said the injunction also applies to journalists, who must also
stay 250 metres from the front and back of SWN’s exploration vehicles and
more than 20 m on either side.
APTN National News contacted two senior officials with SWN Resources
Canada seeking comment, but calls were not returned.
news@aptn.ca
December 4, 2013
Colonial Thugs Target Indigenous Women to Provoke Me
As the reports pile up, it becomes more and more evident that our women,
sisters, mothers and grandmothers are being targeted and attacked by the
ruthless, corrupt agents of colonialism corporatism and imperialism.
Nothing has really changed since the days when they raped our women in
front of our men to destroy us. We are still here and they are still
using the same ole dirty tactics.
It is the same contempt for Mother Earth and All Our Relations. It is the
same fear of Nature that makes the pillagers and plunderers imagine they
can conquer Nature. And that they have every right and necessity to do
so. It's a sick and corrupt world view that drives the capitalist
economic system. It's based on a cruel hierarchy with few at the top and
many at the bottom scrambling to climb on top of each other. It is a
system that must be stopped dead in its tracks.
There is a better way and we Human Beings have the creativity and
imagination within us to find that way. It's not for one person to
dictate but for minds to come together and find solutions.
Our men are being provoked into reckless acts when it is a time for
careful planning and strategic acts.
Kittoh
http://aptn.ca/news/2013/12/
Elsipogtog woman says she suffered trauma, injuries at hands of RCMP
during arrest
03. Dec, 2013 by APTN National News
(Video shows Marie Simon’s arrest at about the 2:00 mark. Simon was
wearing a blue coat. She is seen on the ground behind the line of RCMP
officers. Video courtesy of Noel Jij)
By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
Elsipogtog First Nation community member Marie Simon said she blacked out
in the back of the RCMP paddy wagon just before her epileptic seizure.
When she regained consciousness, Simon said she was lying on the highway
with RCMP officers around her. She said her hands were still bound with
zip-ties behind her back.
“They were saying, ‘are you sure she’s alright? Are you sure she had a
seizure?’” said Simon, in a telephone interview with APTN National News.
“When I was finally able to get my head together enough to talk I said
‘look, I am epileptic.”
Simon was one of seven people arrested Monday afternoon during
demonstrations against SWN Resources Canada’s controversial shale gas
exploration work on Hwy 11 in New Brunswick. The demonstrations shut down
the highway for several hours and fires were set alight in the late
afternoon.
Simon now has bruises on her face and her sprained left wrist is bandaged
and the swelling prevents her from fully opening her fingers. She also has
trouble keeping food down and believes it’s the result of a knee to the
stomach she received from an RCMP officer after she was arrested.
“It was traumatizing,” she said.
(Swelling apparent on Marie Simon’s face. Facebook photo courtesy of Marie
Simon)
Simon was arrested at about 1:30 p.m. local time as RCMP officers tried
push a group of demonstrators off Hwy 11.
Video from the incident shows RCMP officers surrounding a small group of
demonstrators. One of the officers shouts, “Move to the side now.”
One of the demonstrators responds, “who is pushing women? Cameras over here.”
Suddenly there is a brief scuffle as Simon is pulled through the line of
officers and pinned to the ground.
“The officer in front of me pushed me right on my chest. I said don’t
touch me that’s my chest, that’s my breast, and he went and did it again,”
said Simon. “He pulled me by my left hand…I was saying let me go, let me
go, let me go and he wouldn’t let me go. He pulled me through the line of
cops…he pulled me through and slammed me on the ground, face right on the
ground.”
Simon said she remembers having a knee pressed against her neck, another
pressed between her shoulder blades and a third dug into the bottom of her
back as officers bound her hands with zip-ties.
Then, she said she was hit again as she was being pulled up off the ground.
“I was crying, my hand was hurting, my neck was hurting, my stomach was
hurting, my ribs,” said Simon.
(Marie Simon’s bandage sprained left wrist and hand. Facebook photo
courtesy of Marie Simon)
But it was when she was sitting in the back of the paddy wagon that she
began to feel a seizure coming on. Simon said she hadn’t had a seizure for
about a year and suddenly she began to feel the familiar jolts in her
muscles.
“I told an officer and he just looked at me,” she said. “They shut the
door on me.”
Another man who had been arrested and was in the back of the wagon began
trying to calm her breathing down, said Simon.
“He was getting so mad saying, ‘she needs help, why aren’t you helping
her?’” said Simon. “That’s the last thing I remember and I woke up on the
highway, I was on the side of the road, a whole bunch of cops around me.”
Simon said paramedics were on the scene by then, but the RCMP officers
refused to free her hands so she could be put on the stretcher.
“They were hesitant,” she said.
They finally agreed to take of her zip-ties and cuff her hands in the
front so she could be taken to the hospital in nearby St. Anne, NB.
Simon said her blood pressure was extremely low and her sprained wrist was
bandaged. She was then taken to a holding cell at the Shediac, NB, RCMP
detachment, but they could only take fingerprints from her right hand
because she couldn’t fully extend the fingers on her left.
Simon said the officers would not let her call her fiance to tell him
where she was. She was only allowed to call legal aid and was advised not
to give any information to the police and was denied the pain killers
given to her by the doctor in St. Anne.
“I was sitting (in the cell) and wondering if this is where I am going to
stay. They told me they didn’t know if I was going to be released,” she
said. “I was looking at the toilet and wondering what I was supposed to do
and if I was going to see my family.”
She was eventually released at about 7:30 p.m. local time with conditions,
including staying at least one kilometre from SWN’s exploration vehicles.
Simon said she is now planning to file a complaint against the RCMP for
her treatment despite being told by an officer in the Richibucto RCMP
detachment that she needed the name of the officer who allegedly roughed
her up. Simon said the Shediac RCMP detachment told her they wouldn’t
accept the complaint and that she should file it in Richibucto.
Simon said she tried to demand the name of the officers during her arrest,
but none would give it to her and their name tags weren’t visible on their
uniforms.
Still, despite the misery, Simon would still march out onto the highway
again.
“I don’t regret it. If I didn’t have a police order not to be within a
kilometre of it, I would be there again on the front lines and I would
never regret it,” she said. “I am proud of who I am, where I come from. I
did this to defend our land, our water, our people, Aboriginal or not.”
jbarrera@aptn.ca
@JorgeBarrera
==========
http://aptn.ca/news/2013/12/
RCMP investigate complaint truck involved with SWN exploration work struck
three women
03. Dec, 2013 by APTN National News | 0 Comments
elsipogtogthismorning
(RCMP officers line up in front of SWN Resources Canada’s ‘thumper’ trucks
Monday. Photo courtesy of Angeline Purcell)
APTN National News
The New Brunswick RCMP is investigating allegations a pick-up truck
involved with SWN Resources Canada’s controversial shale gas exploration
work in New Brunswick struck three women on a highway during
demonstrations Monday.
RCMP Const. Damian Theriault said RCMP officers received a complaint from
the scene that the women had been hit by the truck.
“We received a complaint that a vehicle working in the area may have come
into contact with three people who were on the road,” said Theriault. “We
are investigating that complaint.”
Theriault said the incident did not cause any serious injuries.
Two eye-witnesses told APTN National News that demonstrators tried to stop
a white truck which was driving at a low speed on Hwy 11. The witnesses
said the truck sped up and hit one woman. A second woman ran over to the
truck and was also bumped. While a man began yelling at the driver, the
truck bumped into a third woman.
The witnesses said two of the women were taken by ambulance to hospital
with bruises.
“And all through this the (driver) was smiling away,” said one witness.
“The cops were right there and they said they didn’t see anything.”
Mi’kmaq-led demonstrations against SWN’s shale gas exploration work on
Monday shut down a section of Hwy 11 near Richibucto, NB, for “several
hours,” said Theriault. He said seven people were arrested during the day,
including five men and two women. All were released the same day with
conditions to stay at least one kilometre away from SWN’s exploration
vehicles.
Theriault said the highway was reopened by 3 a.m. local time.
Demonstrators lit tires on fire that were laid across the highway. As the
night progressed, two other fires were lit in the vicinity.
Theriault said the RCMP was also investigating the fires.
“They are under investigation and there could be charges down the road,”
he said.
SWN obtained a 14 day extension to its injunction against the
demonstrators Monday.
Theriault said the injunction also applies to journalists, who must also
stay 250 metres from the front and back of SWN’s exploration vehicles and
more than 20 m on either side.
APTN National News contacted two senior officials with SWN Resources
Canada seeking comment, but calls were not returned.
news@aptn.ca
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
"We'd Be Wise To Heed Pope Francis' Mission"- Jesse Jackson
We’d be wise to heed Pope Francis’ mission
BY JESSE JACKSON
December 2, 2013
Pope Francis is displaying an extraordinary style and passion that demands our attention. He addresses the needs of the poor, embraces outcasts, and loves those on the margins of society. In this recent “apostolic exhortation,” The Joy of the Gospel, the pope raises a moral challenge to both his church and the world.
Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Pope Francis calls upon people of faith to “go forth” to preach and practice their faith. “I prefer a church,” he writes, “which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy for being confined and from clinging to its own security.”
Pope Francis raises a profound moral voice against “trickle-down theories,” which put a “crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.” We have created “new idols,” he warns, in the worship of money and markets. The result is that “human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded.” We have witnessed “a globalization of indifference,” in which the poor are dehumanized and ignored, he writes.
Pope Francis’ exhortation, over 50,000 words long, deals broadly with the church, the papacy and matters of the faith. He is not a revolutionary. He states that the priesthood will remain open only to men, that the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion will continue. But he directs new focus and passion to the growing inequality between and within countries, the stark contrast between the wealth of our technology and invention and the poverty of our ethics.
In this he addresses directly the plight of today’s America. We suffer mass unemployment while the stock market hits new highs. Profits set records, but working people don’t share in the rewards. The top 5 percent pockets literally all of the rewards of growth, while the remainder struggle to stay afloat.
This extreme inequality, Pope Francis writes, is the direct product of “ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. ... A new tyranny is born” and with it widespread corruption and tax evasion among the most powerful. Money, the pope argues, “must serve, not rule.”
This is not a secondary concern, but the heart of the mission of today’s church. Pope Francis notes that just as the commandment says, “thou shalt not kill,” we must say, “thou shalt not” to an economy of “exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”
He warns of the corruption and the ethical poverty of ignoring the poor. In our politics, poverty has become literally unspeakable. Politicians talk about defending the middle class, or “middle out economics.” The poor are scorned as lazy or incompetent. Politicians vote to cut food stamp allotments, to cut unemployment insurance, even to cut back nutrition programs for impoverished mothers and infants, while they refuse to close the tax havens that allow multinational corporations and the wealthy to avoid paying taxes.
Too many politicians devote their energy to raising funds from the affluent and protecting their interests. They seek careers and fortunes, not public service. Pope Francis sees this as moral corruption, and calls for “more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people and the lives of the poor.”
At the same time, Pope Francis issues a stern warning to the complacent. Without justice, there can be no peace. Building up police and armaments offers no answer. Peace will come only when there is hope, and a committed effort to provide opportunity and justice to those who are locked out or pressed down.
Economic populism is not foreign to the Catholic Church and has been articulated by previous popes. But Francis’ clear words and bold style make his message compelling. This is an authentic, world-changing gospel of good news. This is a return to the original gospel that Jesus taught. It seeks not pity for the poor but their emancipation. Churches cannot be silent in the face of growing inequality and desperation. People of faith must “go forth” and be willing to be “bruised, hurting and dirty” in the cause of justice. This is a charge all of us, whatever our faith, should take to heart.
Keep up with Rev. Jackson and the work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition at www.rainbowpush.org.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Thugs With Money Part 2
Thugs with Money Part 2
You see the thing about thugs with money is they think that guns, and intimidation with whatever high tech toys they can find is the answer to solving their problems to fulfill their need for greed. They never ask God or The Creator what they should do because only their plans count. They don't care what God or The Creator wants. And their own Bible tells them that this is evil and God will not honor their plans. And no matter how many of them are involved, God or The Creator will eventually allow the evil one to attack them. They make up excuses and have false prophets who control people by giving them false info that has nothing to do with the REAL Jesus that they are supposed to be following. But the very fact that they use the methods that they use shows that they really serve the evil one.
You see the thing about thugs with money is they think that guns, and intimidation with whatever high tech toys they can find is the answer to solving their problems to fulfill their need for greed. They never ask God or The Creator what they should do because only their plans count. They don't care what God or The Creator wants. And their own Bible tells them that this is evil and God will not honor their plans. And no matter how many of them are involved, God or The Creator will eventually allow the evil one to attack them. They make up excuses and have false prophets who control people by giving them false info that has nothing to do with the REAL Jesus that they are supposed to be following. But the very fact that they use the methods that they use shows that they really serve the evil one.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Thugs With Money
Thugs With Money
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"When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane.
They came last night to mess with our farm and possibly our vehicles. The dogs caught them. Just as I was about to go search the woods for their sent out thug, they sent a plane low over us to see if they could distract the situation. They are very high tech and very low morals. Today they have sent their planes diving over our property. Since we are people living in peace and not bothering anyone, this can only mean they have a deeper purpose. There is big money behind this and they are paying folks to continue to harass us for a purpose of money and control. It's about expansion of certain bombing ranges and the land becoming more valuable very soon. They want everyone out who is not part of their group. They are also very upset at the fact that we are REAL spiritual people and their little deception of using the Christian faith to promote a false Jesus for political gain means they don't want real spiritual people to be heard. No matter what your spiritual beliefs are, I respect them. But they don't. They don't want anyone to know that the real Jesus would never act like they act or do what they do.
The reason they want to spread a fake Jesus is to deceive people into believing one or two issues like gay marriage and abortion is all their is to Jesus. When there is so much more because it is all about loving one and other and caring for one and other. And they REAL Jesus never saw your race or how poor you were or what country you were from. He saw your heart. But their are hearts are dark and evil and they want to cover that up with two issues to throw sand in the eyes of people so they won't see that they should be helping the poor and caring for the handicapped, widows, orphans and stop hurting and hating people. Don't let them fool you. I do not accept their gift of hate, and murderous attitudes. My life is filled with love. And they can keep their hate.
Watch out Indigenous and all people. They want to enslave you all to their greedy murderous ways. Reject them and their culture of hate.
"When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane.
When evil people call you evil, you know that you are a good person.
When lairs call you a liar, you know that you are truthful.
Know who you are and don't let others tell you who you are." - Dave Kitchen
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Cherokee Nation Selling New Cultural Blanket
Cherokee Nation Selling New Cultural Blanket
http://www.powwows.com/2013/11/19/cherokee-nation-selling-new-cultural-pendleton-blanket/
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1470013_10151774336007896_168206624_n.jpg
http://www.powwows.com/2013/11/19/cherokee-nation-selling-new-cultural-pendleton-blanket/
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1470013_10151774336007896_168206624_n.jpg
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