#WhiteLivesMatter? An Insight Into Racist Flyers

Today the ProJo featured a story about racist flyers proclaiming '#WhiteLivesMatter' that were distributed around East Greenwich on Grand View Road, Cora Street, Phillips Road and Lebaron Drive.  However, typical of the Journal, the coverage was rather shallow and childish, but a little sleuthing on Google reveals some more information about the group behind this move.
Apparently an uncoordinated campaign, the text is derived from a white supremacist website, American Renaissance, run by Jared Taylor and Henry Wolff out of Oakton, VA.  The website, admittedly a little more refined than the typical messes seen offered up by kooks, is a collection of barely-legible screeds, rants, and ruses that seem intent on proving the coming apocalypse for the white race.  Taylor, who has a career of bigotry dating back to the 1970's, is also connected to the Council of Conservative Citizens, which was claimed by Charleston shooter Dylann Roof as an inspiration for the carnage in South Carolina last week, as reported by Michelle Goldberg at The Nation.

Park Avenue Bridge Closed, Matiello Claims Conspiracy

The bridge over the railway line located on Park Avenue has been closed due to serious structural compromise.  Speaker Matiello has taken this as a sign that some conspiracy being afoot, tied to a pending toll bill making its way through the General Assembly.  He claims it is suspect that the bridge was able to pass inspection in September and now has suddenly become problematic.  What he forgot to mention was that the state went through a record-breaking winter that brought in loads of eroding snow and ice.  

Marriage Equality Rally

In anticipation of the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, a rally is being held at Roger Williams National Memorial Park at 5 pm on the day of the verdict.  At this point, it is unclear whether the verdict will be announced on Thursday (June 25th), Friday (June 26th), Monday (June 29th) or Tuesday (June 30).
The suit, Obergefell v. Hodges, is a combination of several cases that brings the marriage equality battle to the forefront because, unlike previous cases, it deals with whether it is Constitutional for states to refuse to acknowledge same-sex unions from other states.  The main plaintiff, James Obergefell, filed suit against the State of Ohio in 2013 when the Attorney General refused to acknowledge the license he and his husband, John Arthur, had obtained in Maryland.  Arthur died of ALS and the controversy erupted over whether the coroner would list Mr. Obergefell as the surviving spouse.

• Parties interested in further details can contact Katherine Monteiro at kmonteiro@cox.net

60 Year Of The Freedom Charter

In 1955, the South African Congress Alliance, a conglomeration of the African National Congress, the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats and the Colored People's Congress, unveiled The Freedom Charter.  Created by a democratic consensus where some 50,000 volunteers went into the country to collect demands of the people, it embodied the core principles of the South African liberation movement and placed into the international arena the goal of socio-economic liberation of the people, regardless of class or race.  It said:

We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:
that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people;
that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality;
that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities;
that only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief;
And therefore, we, the people of South Africa, black and white together equals, countrymen and brothers adopt this Freedom Charter;
And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won.
The People Shall Govern!
Every man and woman shall have the right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all bodies which make laws;
All people shall be entitled to take part in the administration of the country;
The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, colour or sex;
All bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils and authorities shall be replaced by democratic organs of self-government .
All National Groups Shall have Equal Rights!
There shall be equal status in the bodies of state, in the courts and in the schools for all national groups and races;
All people shall have equal right to use their own languages, and to develop their own folk culture and customs;
All national groups shall be protected by law against insults to their race and national pride;
The preaching and practice of national, race or colour discrimination and contempt shall be a punishable crime;
All apartheid laws and practices shall be set aside.
The People Shall Share in the Country`s Wealth!
The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people;
The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;
All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the wellbeing of the people;
All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.
The Land Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work It!
Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger;
The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;
Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land;
All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;
People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished.
All Shall be Equal Before the Law!
No-one shall be imprisoned, deported or restricted without a fair trial; No-one shall be condemned by the order of any Government official;
The courts shall be representative of all the people;
Imprisonment shall be only for serious crimes against the people, and shall aim at re-education, not vengeance;
The police force and army shall be open to all on an equal basis and shall be the helpers and protectors of the people;
All laws which discriminate on grounds of race, colour or belief shall be repealed.
All Shall Enjoy Equal Human Rights!
The law shall guarantee to all their right to speak, to organise, to meet together, to publish, to preach, to worship and to educate their children;
The privacy of the house from police raids shall be protected by law;
All shall be free to travel without restriction from countryside to town, from province to province, and from South Africa abroad;
Pass Laws, permits and all other laws restricting these freedoms shall be abolished.
There Shall be Work and Security!
All who work shall be free to form trade unions, to elect their officers and to make wage agreements with their employers;
The state shall recognise the right and duty of all to work, and to draw full unemployment benefits;
Men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for equal work;
There shall be a forty-hour working week, a national minimum wage, paid annual leave, and sick leave for all workers, and maternity leave on full pay for all working mothers;
Miners, domestic workers, farm workers and civil servants shall have the same rights as all others who work;
Child labour, compound labour, the tot system and contract labour shall be abolished.
The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall be Opened!
The government shall discover, develop and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our cultural life;
All the cultural treasures of mankind shall be open to all, by free exchange of books, ideas and contact with other lands;
The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace;
Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children; Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit;
Adult illiteracy shall be ended by a mass state education plan;
Teachers shall have all the rights of other citizens;
The colour bar in cultural life, in sport and in education shall be abolished.
There Shall be Houses, Security and Comfort!
All people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed, and to bring up their families in comfort and security;
Unused housing space to be made available to the people;
Rent and prices shall be lowered, food plentiful and no-one shall go hungry;
A preventive health scheme shall be run by the state;
Free medical care and hospitalisation shall be provided for all, with special care for mothers and young children;
Slums shall be demolished, and new suburbs built where all have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, creches and social centres;
The aged, the orphans, the disabled and the sick shall be cared for by the state;
Rest, leisure and recreation shall be the right of all:
Fenced locations and ghettoes shall be abolished, and laws which break up families shall be repealed.
There Shall be Peace and Friendship!
South Africa shall be a fully independent state which respects the rights and sovereignty of all nations;
South Africa shall strive to maintain world peace and the settlement of all international disputes by negotiation - not war;
Peace and friendship amongst all our people shall be secured by upholding the equal rights, opportunities and status of all;
The people of the protectorates Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland shall be free to decide for themselves their own future;
The right of all peoples of Africa to independence and self-government shall be recognised, and shall be the basis of close co-operation.
Let all people who love their people and their country now say, as we say here:
THESE FREEDOMS WE WILL FIGHT FOR, SIDE BY SIDE, THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES, UNTIL WE HAVE WON OUR LIBERTY

To celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the charter's unveiling, The Rhode Island People's Assembly will host a Freedom Dinner on Friday, June 26 from 6-9 pm at DARE-Direct Action for Rights and Equality, located a 340 Lockwood Street in Providence.

Rhode Island Black Heritage Opens New Exhibit

The history of African American education is on full display beginning this month until September at The John Brown House with 'Learn Your Lessons Well: Black Education in Rhode Island'.  Featuring items from both the Black Heritage archives as well as private collections, the showcase includes items related to everyday students as well as notable figures like Rudolph Fisher.  Curated by Robb Dimmick, interested parties can learn more by contacting the following:

• John Brown House: 401-273-7507
• Rhode Island Black Heritage Society: 401-421-0606

The ProJo Hates Teachers

I have had a very tumultuous relationship develop via e-mail correspondence with the Editorial Page fuehrer and Vice President of the ProJo, Edward Achorn.  There's something fundamentally wrong with the guy who is in charge of operations also being the gatekeeper of all the dissent that is fit for print.

Today was the Charter School Blitzkrieg, with a Staff Editorial at the top of the page lamenting the bill in the General Assembly that dares to refocus funding to our barely-standing public schools and away from the barely functional neoliberal nightmares.  Then, in the Letters section, there was the ingenious epistle from a reader about the glorious advances her son made at a charter school.

Mr. Achorn may live on a different planet than we great unwashed masses, but on planet earth, the results are in and the corporate charter school model is an abysmal failure.  The original notion of the charter school was an ingenious idea, a grassroots-developed educational experience for populations that had been disenfranchised by the public school system.  It borrowed its basic logic from parochial schools but shed the white privilege and religious studies.  But, as with all good things, corporate America got its hands on the idea and transformed it into a perverted doppelgänger.  

The corporate charter school is a graveyard where a child's potential goes to die.  The staffers are not licensed educators.  Discipline is often akin to a gulag.  Students in the vital range of fifth to eighth grade, the period when they decide whether to drop out or not, have their self esteem destroyed by the non-existent pedagogical model and are flushed down the school-to-prison pipeline.  But don't take my word for it, just check out the free documentary film THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH BEHIND WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, produced by a coalition of New York City students, parents, and teachers who were disgusted by the insanity.

Ultimately this latest putsch will fail, despite Mr. Achorn's efforts the teachers union is deep in the pocket of the Democratic majority and they know who butters what side of the bread.  But be warned, this is not the last battle cry of the assault on the public education system and the unionized teachers movement.

Protest Lifespan Closings June 11

On June 11, there will be a protest held at Rhode Island Hospital.  The action comes after it was announced that the medical conglomerate plans to close six treatment facilities for addiction.  This is occurring in conjunction with the proposed cuts to Medicaid made by Gov. Raimondo recently.  Rhode Island, rated as one of the most successful states in the implementation of the Afordable Care Act, has seen its Medicaid rolls expand significantly as a result of the healthcare reform.  The cuts in subsidies are expected to make a significant impact on the way low-income Rhode Islanders obtain medical treatment.  This also occurs simultaneously with a major Supreme Court decision regarding federal subsidies to the insurance exchanges created by the reforms.  In that case, the Plaintiffs argue that the federal government overstepped its authority by going into states that refused to implement the new law and creating federally-run exchanges.  If the Court were to rule in favor of the Plaintiffs, it could result in a major funding gap for those who lived without health coverage prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Parties interested in attending the protest can learn more at (https://www.facebook.com/events/785683471537590/).