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  • Politics Is Like Hiring A Hitman
    by Scott Woods inPolitical on2020-08-13

    For me, politics is like hiring a hitman. I have values and things I care about. I care enough about them to at least bother voting for 5 minutes every year for one issue or another. And because I care at least that much, I vote for people who align with the ability to realize the things I care about.

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  • Punching Above Our Weight
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-07-24

    I believe our vote is the punctuation of our voice. Without that resounding exclamation mark, I believe our voices are just incoherent noise.

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  • BLACK PROGRESS AMIDST SOCIAL CHAOS
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-06-16

    Recent events have raised the profile of historical injustice and inequities here in the USA. The entire world has taken note of the fact that BLACK LIVES MATTER.   We invite all of our friends to engage in actions that result in the greatest movement for change in our history. It is imperative that we take advantage of this opportunity to affect a positive change by ACTING IN OUR SELF-INTERESTS.

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  • Living in a Black No-Man's Land
    by Roger Madison Jr. inOur Community on2019-10-28

    There are many narratives that define the Black experience in America in this 2nd decade of the 21st century. Our striving over the centuries of our sojourn in this nation is a tapestry of every human experience -- oppression, enslavement, forced assimilation, dehumanization, exclusion, segregation, isolation, struggle, perseverance, achievement, excellence, celebration, mourning, despair, progress, setbacks, lynching, assassination, genocide, terror, self-hatred, low esteem, pride,...

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  • Fighting Racism
    by Scott Woods inOur Community on2018-10-25

    I had a boss who was racist. Not an outright bigot, of course; her toolbox was more subtle than most. We bumped heads a lot over inconsequential things. She frequently couldn’t keep my name out her mouth. Lot of gaslighting. You know…2018 style. I tried a lot of ways to combat or navigate her issues. None of them worked, and that’s saying a lot because I’m really good at fighting racism. But at the end of the day – every day – she was my boss, I had to deal with her, and that was that. Finally I...

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Remember the Dragging Death in Texas?

It was ten years ago today that James Byrd Jr. was dragged to his death by three white men in a pick-up truck in Jasper, Texas. It was a racial hate crime. Byrd was reportedly picked up by the men and then beaten, chained by his ankles to a pickup and dragged three miles to his death.

CONVICTED:

John William "Bill" King , 33, of Jasper. An ex-con and white supremacist who was 23 when James Byrd Jr. was killed, King was convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to death. Awaiting execution.

Lawrence Russell Brewer Jr . , 41, of Sulphur Springs. An ex-con and white supremacist who met King in prison. Both joined the Ku Klux Klan and covered their bodies with racist tattoos. The trial for Brewer, 31 at the time of the murder, was moved to Bryan, where he was sentenced to death after being found guilty of capital murder. Awaiting execution.

Shawn Allen Berry , 33, of Jasper. Berry was a 23-year-old movie theater manager when the slaying took place, Berry attended high school with King and was the driver of the truck that dragged Byrd. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life. He is segregated from the rest of the general prison population and will be eligible for parole at age 63.