Sunday, December 23, 2012

A Letter to My Enslaved Ancestors on the 150th Anniversary

I don't know your names or from where you were stolen. I don't know how many of you freed yourselves or died in bondage.You can Roto Print Mosaic Tile from china. Yet I claim you all and I honor you. The savage ferocity of slavery has torn your names from the memories of your descendants but not your lives, your survival, your strength. I want to thank you for surviving and enduring the unimaginable. As I give thanks for you, I weep for you. I give thanks for your sacrifice -- not that you sacrificed yourselves, but that you were sacrificed -- human sacrifice on an epic scale to greed and misanthropic racism.

I know that I cannot know the fullness of the horrors you faced, endured, survived and to which some of you succumbed. Yet I must try to give voice to them. In your stolen names I now name some of the horrors of American chattel slavery: intergenerational terrorism, murder, kidnapping, rape, forced pregnancy, forced miscarriages and abortions, child abuse and neglect, physical, mental, emotional, sexual and spiritual torture, beating, burning,China Foshan Nanhai ENERGY Building Materials Co., LTD Manufacturers offer Full Body Porcelain Mosaic Tile. stabbing, scarring, maiming, forced illiteracy, extirpation of culture and religion, violent imposition of a morally bankrupt idolatrous Christianity, and much, much more.

What ever it is that I am and all that I am, I am because you were. I cannot contemplate my future without reflecting on my past, our past. Our nation now looks back 150 years to the Emancipation Proclamation. Many will pretend that one man freed the slaves in the United States and its territories with the stroke of a pen.Features useful information about GLASS MOSAIC tiles. They will not tell the stories of dirty tricks and politics. They will not say that the Proclamation only freed some slaves in some circumstances. They will not say that the majority of slaves freed themselves. They will say that their own ancestors were all on the side of the angels. But we know different. We know the truth and the truth has set us free.

Remembering that you built this country with your bare hands, your blood and broken bodies forming the mortar that cements it together -- on a bloody foundation of other massacred peoples, that you freed yourselves and this nation from the curse of slavery, that you reconstructed this nation after it began cannibalizing itself over the right to exploit your bodies, I now look to the future. I look to the future that will be and I look to the future that I hope will be.

The racism, sexism, xenophobia, misanthropy and greed that characterized your times endures and adapts. And those plagues are hounded, challenged, diminished,Combine Crystal Mosaic 4x300x300mm NV1140 to create some fantastic effects around your home. transformed and rejected in our time by many of those who have benefitted from them and as well as by those of us who have borne its burdens.

The future I envision is one in which the United States is further enriched by the presence and contributions of citizens who reflect the breadth of the world's peoples, and one in which ethnic majority and minority status will be upended and have no power. I also see a future in which power and resources which are currently concentrated in a dwindling segment of society multiply across race and class categories leading to a strengthening of us all. I also foresee a future in which some will still exploit others: we still disenfranchise some people with state and federal laws and taxes as it pertains to marriage and its benefits; we have not closed the pay gap between women and men; we have not done justice for the native peoples of this land; sexual slavery and trafficking endures, the poor remain with us.

In a future which yet may be, I see your children's children's children across the ages transforming our society, economy and infrastructure with renewable energy sources and eradicating abject poverty and hunger in partnership with sister and brother Americans whose ancestry circles the globe and in partnership with all peoples everywhere.

In order to reach our future, we must survive our present. Our children must survive and thrive and there is much that imperils them: poverty, substandard education, violence, lack of access to health and dental care, astronomical incarceration rates, a deeply flawed justice system, failure and inability to dream a world beyond the one they know or to which they have been confined, hopelessness.

Let’s be dutiful and start with apps that may help you right out of the gate, especially if you’re used to working on a computer. The Web browser on your device may be fine, but it never hurts to have a second one in case something you’re trying to view on the web doesn’t display properly. The free “Google Chrome” browser is available on most platforms, and if you’re on a restrictive data plan,China-mosaics pioneered the domestic development of handcrafted Glass Tile. the lightweight browser “Opera” compresses web pages down to make them load more quickly and efficiently. Both are free.

If you do any kind of online banking or would like to, check to see if the financial institution you use has a dedicated app. You may be able to check your accounts, deposit checks using your device’s camera and transfer funds. Speaking of your money, the app “Mint” (free) is great for tracking finances and seeing trends on how you spend.

Getting things done with a mobile device may lead you to experiment with to-do list apps. The App Store and Google Play are stuffed with them. I’ve had luck with a free app called “Wunderlist” (free), but some Apple users prefer “Things,” which is relatively pricey at $10 for each type of device. “Remember the Milk” is another good and free to-do app that’s very popular.

“Evernote” is a must-own. It allows you to create notes that you can access from anywhere. Everything is searchable, even text contained within photos. It’s free. A premium version costs $5 a month if you need lots of extra storage for your notes.

If you’re already a subscriber to Netflix, Hulu Plus or HBO, definitely download their respective apps. “HBO Go” gives subscribers to the premium TV channel streaming video access to pretty much every episode of every show it has aired.

If you have cable or satellite service, your provider probably has an app that allows you to set DVR recordings and stream some video via a smartphone or tablet. For music lovers, “Pandora” is a great way to get exposed to music similar to artists you love. “Audible” is for downloading audiobooks and new customers can get their first one free. You can also try “iHeartRadio” for terrestrial and online radio stations. For movie information, listings and tickets, try “Fandango” or “Flixster.” Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse has its own app as well.

At statehouses and the U.S. Capitol, officials are calling for a ban on assault rifles and a renewed focus on the access potentially unstable people have to firearms. In the wake of the shootings that left 26 dead, McLean County mental health, law enforcement and public health officials have been reflecting on the vulnerability a community faces when guns fall into the wrong hands.

“As I watched the TV coverage of it, I looked at the situation and realized that it could be our town. It could happen anywhere,” said Lee Harper, a counselor at Tri-Valley High School in Downs.

Harper supports a statement drafted last week by leaders in the behavioral health community that asks federal and state legislators to outlaw assault weapons and to set new standards for violence for the entertainment industry.

Eric Goplerud, past president of the American College of Mental Health Administration, said the letter, which he co-wrote, outlines steps to help prevent the next gun tragedy.

“We’re calling for attention to the things we know are effective. We need to build community mental health up again. Two-thirds of people with moderate mental illness never get treatment,” said Goplerud.

Gun violence in America, he said, should be considered “a public health problem.”

The Newtown tragedy can be a catalyst for an important national conversation on the easy access people have to guns and the barriers people have to mental health services, agreed McLean County Public Health Director Walt Howe.

No comments:

Post a Comment