Getting souls to the polls
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
Contrary to much of the negativity being spread by some traditional media sources, and blather from black Republican tokens, black American Democrats continue our relentless pursuit of the ballot box, with efforts to turn out our voters across the nation. Souls to the Polls operations are still underway: from Minnesota, to Ohio and Illinois, to Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and more.
NPR: After Sunday Service, Georgia Churches Get Souls To The Polls
The Piney Grove church is in an area that is 55 percent African-American and therefore one part of Georgia that could help Nunn win the Senate seat this November. That's if people turn out to vote.
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter joined the congregation yesterday to help rally churchgoers to the polls and work to "help make Martin Luther King's dream become a reality in our state." "We can do it, if we all work together, if we all go to vote, if we can be sure that all of our friends and relatives and neighbors go to vote, and vote early," Carter said.
Sunday voting caused some controversy in Georgia. Republicans grumbled about it giving Democrats a boost. But Flippin says it's only fair that black voters get a chance on Sundays to mobilize. "Many of our people still do not have professional jobs that they can take off or go into work late. You know, most corporations — they allow you to come late or come early on Election Day. Well, if you're working in a factory or job like that, they can't take off," says Flippin. Piney Grove worshippers loaded up on two church buses and, with a caravan of cars following, drove to the voter registration and elections office in Decatur to vote.
The spiritual home of Daddy King, and MLK Jr. continues to mobilize with “SOULS TO THE POLLS!”-
Ebenezer Votes!
In keeping with its tradition of activism, Ebenezer will do its part to ensure that every person takes advantage of their right to vote.
Ohio:
10 churches plan ‘souls to the polls’. Ministers offer vans to get out early vote
The Rev. Cedric Brock, president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, along with top officials from the NAACP and the Toledo United Labor Council, announced that 10 churches will carry “souls to the polls” on Sunday, which is the only Sunday allocated for early voting this year. Mr. Brock, pastor of Mt. Nebo Church, said the mission is totally nonpartisan. “As pastors, we don’t tell anyone how to vote,” Mr. Brock said. He said anyone seeking to campaign won’t be allowed to do so on the bus or distribute literature on the bus.
But the effort to turn out the central city vote will clearly benefit Democratic candidates and levies on the ballots, as African-American voters vote overwhelmingly in favor of both of those. Also on Friday, Nina Turner, the Democratic Secretary of State candidate, held a news conference at the Lucas County Early Vote Center, 1946 N. 13th St., to promote early voting. And later that day, the Toledo branch of the NAACP held its Freedom Fund dinner. State Rep. Alicia Reece (D., Cincinnati,), president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, spoke about what’s known as the Voter Bill of Rights movement aimed at protecting voting rights by amending the state constitution. They also highlighted the importance of getting out to vote.
Mr. Brock said many churchgoers in the black community do not have cars. He said that’s why black churches have vans. His church has four vans. “We bring them to church in the vans,” he said. “Many of our citizens ride TARTA buses.”
Maryland:
NAACP hosts Early Voting 'Souls to the Polls' march
Leonardtown, MD -- It was a first for what the organizers hope will be a regular event every two years. On Sunday the St. Mary’s County Branch of the NAACP held a “Souls to the Polls” event at Miedzinski Park on the Governmental Center grounds in Leonardtown. After food and socializing, some electioneering by candidates, a call to action by NAACP Vice President Janice Walthour and prayers from the ministers in attendance, the crowd marched over to the Early Polling place to cast their vote.
Among the attendees was a bipartisan group of candidates, including Democrats John Bohanan, Roy Dyson, John Alonzo Gaskin, Shane Mattingly, Francis “Jack” Russell and Len Zuza and Republicans Christy Kelly and Deb Rey. “I know you are here because you know the significance of voting,” Walthour said, noting the nationwide attempts to restrict the early voting gains made in many states, including Maryland.
“We believe there is power to the people,” Walthour declared, citing the organizations long-standing educational efforts on the importance of elections and advocacy of the effects of elections on the minority community. She called the rally and march the first step in the process.
The Obama Diary "
Souls to the Polls" post is chock full of tweets and graphics.
#SoulsToThePolls
Florida: Sunday events draw young black voters to the polls
This event, with food trucks, high-energy gospel music, and 10 buses lined up to take voters to the polls, was aimed at blacks ages 18-35 to instill a new tradition of early voting in off-year elections, said McRae, who estimates that 2,000 young black people at the event and in his church have voted early this year.
At the same time as McRae's event, members of the Central Florida Urban League Young Professionals were making voting early a social event. About a dozen of them met at the Hiawassee Public Library, voted and then went out to dinner together. The organization, which caters to college-educated blacks under the age of 50, started in 2006, but this was the first time they had held an early-voting event. Voting early means nothing can happen on Election Day to prevent you from voting, said Lashae Reaves, president of the group. "As young professionals, life is busy. You can't always get to the polls on Election Day," said Reaves, 30, who works in financial services.
Florida:
Clinton To Lead "Souls To The Polls" For Graham
Former President Bill Clinton will appear Sunday at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee to lead a "souls to the polls" rally for Democrat Gwen Graham.
Graham is challenging two-term Republican Congressman Steve Southerland in a 14-county North Florida district that includes areas such as Tallahassee and Panama City. Southerland, who is from Panama City, is expected to do well in the conservative western part of the district, while Graham hopes to roll up big vote totals in the east, especially in her home county of Leon, which is a Democratic stronghold.
The Clinton visit to historically black Florida A&M also will come as Democrats try to boost turnout among African-American voters. Clinton has been campaigning for Democratic candidates this year --- and is in demand where President Barack Obama is not. In the past week, Clinton has been to Arkansas, New Hampshire and Louisiana; in the coming week, he'll be in Michigan and Kentucky.
North Carolina: ‘Souls to the Polls’ event Sunday for early voting
DURHAM —
Local clergy and community members have organized a “Souls to the Polls” event Sunday in Durham, the only Sunday during the shortened early voting period this year. Election Day is Nov. 4. “Souls to the Polls” is the term used in previous years when church groups went to vote together on Sundays. The N.C. General Assembly passed legislation that changed the early voting time frame, which is today through Nov. 1 this year.
Illinois :
Community members rally to get out the vote and to vote “YES” on the Illinois Minimum Wage Increase ballot question. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).
A must read from Nia-Malika Henderson in WaPo:
Five myths about black voters
Myth No. 1: Black voters vote for candidates because they are black
Myth No. 2: Black leaders know what black voters think
Myth No. 3: Candidates who distance themselves from Obama risk losing black voters
Myth No. 4: There is a huge, ginormous, midterm drop-off among black voters
Myth No. 5: Blacks could support Republicans because they are socially conservative
These are her main points. I don't want to copy too much of it, so give it a click.
It isn't just black people fighting back for the right to vote. In Georgia, Moral Monday Georgia, New Georgia Project, and the NAACP have formed a multicultural coalition and are continuing to fight back.
Eight activists arrested during 'voter suppression' protest at the Gold Dome
With eight days left until Election Day, voting rights activists remain concerned over the status of tens of thousands of unprocessed voter registration applications that could affect Georgia's gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. The fate of those applications, which were submitted by New Georgia Project, are now in a judge's hands as the nonprofit awaits a decision.
Instead of waiting for the court's decision, dozens of activists this afternoon took their fight to Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's office. Approximately 10 people, who were delivering a letter from Moral Monday Georgia to the secretary of state's office regarding the voter registration applications, staged a sit-in protest inside his office that led to eight arrests.
We will fight for the right to vote, and keep getting souls to the polls.
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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If you’re a person of color, the man or woman who serves as prosecutor in your area could have more impact on your life than your senator or governor. The Root: Do You Know Who’s Running for District Attorney? Here’s Why You Should.
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It’s bad enough only 15 percent of us will be passing through the polling station for one of the most important elections of our time. You can imagine that barely a slice of voters know or care about the local prosecutor running for office.
And yet that position commands as much control over our daily lives as does a member of Congress.
Here’s a fun, informal survey to try. Raise your head from your smartphone and ask the person next to you in the Starbucks line: “Hey, do you know who’s running for district attorney this year?” You’ll be lucky to get a few baggy-eyed, caffeine-seeking stares.
That’s dangerously unfortunate, especially for people of color. When we run afoul of the law or unintentionally bump into it, it’s not a senator, or a governor or a foul-mouthed polarizing member of Congress who shows up in the courtroom. Instead, it’s a representative from the district or state’s attorney’s office ready to make any number of dramatically life-altering decisions about us or a family member. They are the gatekeepers to what the Sentencing Project dubs (pdf) “the largest criminal-justice system in the world.” If you are black, you are six times more likely to get trapped in it. If current trends continue then “1 of every 3 black American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can 1 of every 6 Latino males—compared to 1 of every 17 white males.”
It’s also problematic when people of color are victims of alleged crimes and the perpetrators are white, as we’ve seen in recent years. Since the shooting death of Michael Brown, doubts surround the credibility of St. Louis County State’s Attorney Robert McCullouch in his prosecution of Ferguson, Mo., Police Officer Darren Wilson, and whether he can deliver any justice in what’s being viewed as a botched grand jury probe.
Assistant state attorneys John Guy and Richard Mantei hold up Trayvon Martin’s hoodie as evidence during George Zimmerman’s trial in Seminole County circuit court June 25, 2013, in Sanford, Fla.
POOL
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Establishment Republicans may try to reason with base but the Tea Party base wants red meat. But black conservatives mostly exist to validate white conservatives and not to convince blacks to vote Republican. CNN: Black Republican actress' racist remarks hurt GOP.
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Fox News contributor and Republican as of 2012, black actress Stacey Dash proves she really wasn't acting in the movie "Clueless." Appearing on Fox News' "Hannity" show, Dash called all black people in Louisiana government freeloaders who don't work.
Sean Hannity asked Dash: "Has voting with Obama 95% of the time and Obamacare, has that helped the minority community in Louisiana?"
"No, not at all. It still keeps them stuck. They're getting money for free. They feel worthless. They're uneducated. I mean, as long as you are that way, they can keep you under their control ..."
"They have a plantation mentality," Dash said. "As long as they give you this much money, you'll stay right there. You don't need to know too much because if you do, you might start thinking for yourself."
I think Stacey Dash needs to get out more, perhaps visit Louisiana and the rest of America and see that all blacks, myself included, certainly don't feel "worthless" under President Barack Obama's administration.
Actress Stacey Dash arrives at Fox channel's 2014 Emmy award nominee celebration on August 25, 2014, in Los Angeles.
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Eyeing the increases in tourism to the two U.S. states that have legalized recreational marijuana, Caribbean officials recently debated whether or not marijuana should be used to draw to tourists to their islands. The Grio: Should marijuana be used as a marketing tool in the Caribbean?
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At this year’s “State of the Industry” conference held on the island of St. Thomas, Caribbean tourism leaders were warned to “proceed with caution, given the significant adverse effects of cannabis smoking on health and social and occupational functioning”.
Dr. C. James Hospedales of the Caribbean Public Health Agency gave this warning during a broader discussion on medical, health and wellness tourism at the mid-September conference. In his video message to delegates during the session, Dr. Hospedales went onto to say that public health and scientific studies prove without a doubt the negative effect of marijuana smoking on physical and mental health.
“As decriminalization is considered, I must draw attention to some of the significant neurologic, cognitive, behavioral, and physical consequences of short and long-term marijuana use,” he said. “These include negative effects on short-term memory, concentration, attention span, motivation, and problem solving, and negative health effects with repeated use similar to effects seen with smoking tobacco.”
Hospedales also mentioned “an association between marijuana use and the subsequent development of mental health problems.”
Those statements were strongly disputed by Terrence Nelson, a member of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ legislature. He feels the Caribbean Tourism Organization “should adopt and adapt cannabis as a Caribbean commodity because it is true most people come to the Caribbean and they anticipate smoking weed.”
“I’m talking about working professionals, not juvenile delinquents. I’m talking about hard-working surgeons, lawyers and even politicians,” he said. We have something going on, and we need to capture it.”
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
Race in America can sometimes be explained by the illusion of negative and positive space in art; where figure-ground reversal will show a vase in the positive space and the silhouetted profile of two faces in the negative. The Danish psychologist, Edgar Rubin, used this and many other examples to...
... state as a fundamental principle: When two fields have a common border, and one is seen as figure and the other as ground, the immediate perceptual experience is characterized by a shaping effect which emerges from the common border of the fields and which operates only on one field or operates more strongly on one than on the other.
Arguments abound whether Race is an issue in the post-Obama world; one is that the very fact a black man is President is example enough that America's sordid racial past has been refuted; sort of like seeing only the figure, or only the ground. A countervailing argument is that the sheer numbers of people of color killed by the police as an example that Race is and will continue to be an issue; that would be perceiving the ground and the figure shifting back and forth.
In 1968, the short-fiction writer and poet, Henry Dumas, was shot and killed at the age of thirty-three by a white New York transit officer; in what was explained as a case of mistaken identity. Maybe not so mistaken, though; when the face in the negative space is black.
The Zebra Goes Wild Where the Sidewalk Ends
I
Neon stripes tighten my wall
where my crayon landlord hangs
from a bent nail.
My black father sits crooked
in the kitchen
drunk on Jesus’ blood turned
to cheap wine.
In his tremor he curses
the landlord who grins
from inside the rent book.
My father’s eyes are
bolls of cotton.
He sits upon the landlord’s
operating table,
the needle of the nation
sucking his soul.
II
Chains of light race over
my stricken city.
Glittering web spun by
the white widow spider.
I see this wild arena
where we are harnessed
by alien electric shadows.
Even when the sun washes
the debris
I will recall my landlord
hanging in my room
and my father moaning in
Jesus’ tomb.
In America all zebras
are in the zoo.
I hear the piston bark
and ibm spark:
let us program rabies.
the madness is foaming now.
No wild zebras roam the American plain.
The mad dogs are running.
The African zebra is gone into the dust.
I see the shadow thieves coming
and my father on the specimen table.
-- Henry Dumas
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