NAACP

Disclaimer: The NAACP of Otero County in no way endorses the Democratic Party or the Progressive Party of Otero County, New Mexico.

The following are my notes from the Forum on Substance Abuse held by the Otero County Chapter of PDA June 25th – Ken Nicholson

The Otero County chapter of Progressive Democrats of America hosted a panel discussion on the substance abuse situation in the county. Panel members Dr. Gil Heredia, physician and chair of the Otero Libertarian Party, Sharon Hodges of the New Mexico Department of Health, and Ken Larson, Certified Peer Specialist and Recovery Mentor presented a comprehensive survey of the drug problems we are facing in Otero County to an interested audience of local activists. Al Kissling of PDA NM was the moderator.

Dr. Heredia said that the so called “War on Drugs” was having a more devastating effect on our community than the actual use of drugs. He cited the emphasis of the drug war being on law enforcement and leading to incarceration rather than treatment and rehabilitation. When those caught in the system have finished their time, they are released back into the community, still addicted, without the root of their situation being addressed. Heredia noted the high cost of incarceration versus treatment. Also, drug crimes are crimes against oneself and not directly against the community. He said that if drugs were legal, market forces would pressure dealer profits, and the supply of drugs would dwindle. One community activist added that the prison industry has lobbied for mandatory minimum sentences to the benefit of the private prison industry while removing judges’ discretion. Read the rest of this entry →

Today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. Juneteenth celebrates the freedom of over 250,000 slaves in Texas at the close of the Civil War. The holiday is now celebrated nationwide. The celebration takes its name from June 19, 1865, the day federal troops arrived in Galveston to enforce the  Emancipation Proclamation. Although the Proclamation had taken effect on January 1, 1863, it freed few, if any, slaves at that time.

News of the war’s end did not reach Texas until well after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox . Many speculate that the news was deliberately withheld so that slave owners could bring in one last crop. Others believe that the news was delayed because the messenger traveled by mule while some believe the original messenger was murdered en route. Read the rest of this entry →

Thanks to Chris Jones for submitting to naacpoc.org.

2 Voter Rights Cases, One Gripping a College Town, Stir Texas

New York Times

May 28, 2008

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Thanks to joel Hamilton for submitting to NAACPOC.ORG

Compiled by Kalonji Mwanza

AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS ARE NOT APPLYING FOR SCHOLARSHIPS:

Please pass this information on to family members, nieces, nephews,
friends with children etc We must get the word out that money is
available. If you are a college student or getting ready to become one,
you probably already know how useful additional money can be.
(If clicking on the link doesn’t work, then type in the Web site address
manually.)

1) BELL LABS FELLOWSHIPS FOR UNDER REPRESENTED MINORITIES
http://www.bell-labs.com/fellowships/CRFP/info.html

2) Student Inventors Scholarships http://www.invent.org/collegiate
http://www.invent.org/collegiate/

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Benjamin Todd Jealous

President and CEO

Benjamin Todd Jealous served as President of the Rosenberg Foundation- a private independent institution that supports advocacy efforts to make significant improvements in the lives of California’s working families and recent immigrants. He was the fourth person to hold the position since the Foundation was founded in 1935.

Mr. Jealous was Director of US Human Rights Program at Amnesty International. While there he led its efforts to pass federal legislation against prison rape, rebuild public consensus against racial profiling in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, and expose the widespread sentencing of children to life without the possibility of parole. He is the lead author of the 2004 report Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States, the release of which received coverage by major media outlets in most states and on six continents.

Formerly, Mr. Jealous served as Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)-a federation of more than 200 black community newspapers. While at the NNPA, he rebuilt its 90-year old national news service and spearheaded the creation of a proprietary software system that enabled dozens of local papers to begin publishing online. Read the rest of this entry →

Beware The Simplifiers
by Bill Moyers

Published on Sunday, May 4, 2008 by PBS.org

I once asked a reporter back from Vietnam, “Who’s telling the truth over there?” “Everyone, he said. “Everyone sees what’s happening through the lens of their own experience.” That’s how people see Jeremiah Wright. In my conversation with him on this broadcast a week ago and in his dramatic public appearances since, he revealed himself to be far more complex than the sound bites that propelled him onto the public stage. Over 2000 of you have written me about him, and your opinions vary widely. Some sting: “Jeremiah Wright is nothing more than a race-hustling, American hating radical,” one viewer wrote. A “nut case,” said another. Others were far more were sympathetic to him.

Many of you have asked for some rational explanation for Wright’s transition from reasonable conversation to shocking anger at the National Press Club. A psychologist might pull back some of the layers and see this complicated man more clearly, but I’m not a psychologist. Many black preachers I’ve known - scholarly, smart, and gentle in person - uncorked fire and brimstone in the pulpit. Of course I’ve known many white preachers like that, too.

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