[imc-st.louis] [Fwd: Will You Stand in Solidarity?]

Tue Nov 13 09:44:06 PST 2007

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Will You Stand in Solidarity?
From:    "Tina Richards" <tina at grassrootsamerica4us.org>
Date:    Tue, November 13, 2007 9:34 am
To:      westbywest at riseup.net
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Grassroots America, A Non Profit
November 13, 2007
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Greetings!

Will
You Stand in Solidarity?

This weekend is a weekend for
justice. On November 16, 2007 Al Sharpton will lead a march regarding the
Jena 6. The Hip Hop Caucus, Grassroots America and other groups will be
hosting
a
concert (see press release below) to join our movements of peace AND
social justice.
There is just
one problem. Not one peace organization
has put forth a single dollar to help make this event happen.  Not one!

Several weeks ago I called Rev.
Yearwood to discuss the pain of Deonte' Rawlings family. A family that
lost their 14 year old son to street violence. Not the violence of drugs
or gangs, but the violence from two off-duty police officers who felt they
were
above the law when they shot him in the back of the head after a brutal
beating. I called him to discuss the nooses showing up around campuses
across the country.   I called him to discuss the war on our streets.

During the Vietnam war, I was little girl fighting my own
war.  When we first moved from a suburb
in Denver to a ghetto in Los Angeles, my parents often called the
police for help.  I remember at the age
of five waiting for the police to show up while a child bled to death outside
my bedroom window.  The police showed up
five hours after we called them. Why? Because when the police
asked if it was gang related and my mom said, "I don't know?"  she signed
his death
warrant. Or when a friend of mine took some PCP his
brother gave him and he climbed up a telephone pole, nude.  The police
felt it was
easier to shoot him
down then talk him down.  He fell to his
death at my feet.

In the late '60's and early '70's, I would go to peace
marches and wondered why no one marched in our streets to stop the war I
lived
with every day.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. attempted to join our movements
of peace AND social justice. He was assassinated
before this struggle came to be. We are
at a time in our history with a Supreme Court striking down laws that
sought to
end Jim Crow, a war being waged against a people with a culture different
then
our own, racist being called to train in Iraq to ready for the "impending
race
war at home," and Blackwater training our police force on our streets now.

If we do not stand in solidarity now, to show we fight the
same fight for justice, for Iraqi's, our troops, and our youth here at
home, we
will miss an opportunity that may not happen again.

Our youth will be at the event on Saturday. When I am on the stage
speaking of standing
together and joining our movements, please do not let them be empty words.
If your
organization joins the words of peace
and justice together, do not let them remain just words. Take action.

The civil rights organizations and churches have scraped
together donations to get us this far, but there will be no lights if we as a
peace movement do not step up and put forth donations.  Literally. We have
raised
money for the sound system, travel for musicians,
port-a-potties, flyers and a hundred other items, but we have no money for
our
lights. We are short $5,000.  When
everyone is standing in the dark, will you be there to shine the light to
show
your solidarity?

Please go to http://grassrootsamerica4us.org/Donations.html
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001vPKb3vOS-OQFC7oOyDHyYTtDjhmTOLtNg0TZ7PZWyhQ_FRkGFGK-129Ls6seAWGTgPo64jW0bLeJkrn4EbN0XtSxzgVDRHsZfidhCE2a-RaopKSWDNZ7rXyz8xrvLeAJVfE9wIj3otdcqWPvIf5j6w==]for
an
immediate paypal donation and mark "Hip Hop Caucus" or email Liz Havstaed
at Liz at HiphopCaucus.org
[mailto:Liz at HiphopCaucus.org]and let her know
your check is on the way. Mail checks to the following address:

Hip Hop Caucus

1112 16 street NW, STE 600

Washington DC, 20036
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Enough is Enough! Stop Hate Crimes and Police
Brutality

Youth Rally and Concert at the Washington Monument,
Sylvan Theater

15th and Independence Ave.

Saturday, November 17th

12 noon until ??? (Your donation can help us shine the light)

Following the energy of the recent youth mobilization in
Jena, Louisiana, victims and family members of victims of police brutality
and
hate crimes, as well as national and grassroots organizations are
organizing a
rally and concert at the Washington Monumentto mobilize youth against hate
crimes,
police brutality, and community violence. The program will bring together
young leaders, artists, activists and Members of Congress from the
African-American, Latino, Arab-American and White communities to build
solidarity for ongoing efforts to end violence in urban communities and to
respond to the recent wave of hate crimes against people of color.

Starting with the murder of Sean Bell in New Yorklate last
year, to the mass mobilization for the Jena 6, to the kidnapping, rape and
torture of Megan Williams in West Virginia, to the ruling that sided with the
Juvenile  Boot Camp Guards who killed Martin Lee Anderson in Florida, to
the nooses appearing on University of Maryland's campus, at the Tupac
Shakurcenter, and throughout the country, to most recently the murder of 14
year-old DeOnte Rawlings in Washington, DCby an off duty police officer
- as a community we say "Enough is Enough!" on November 17th.

There will be live performances from Hip Hop artists, plus
DC Go-Go bands performing live include Backyard, ABM, TCB, Familiar Faces,
Uncalled 4 Experience, Mambo Sauce, What Band. The event will be hosted
by Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. Invited speakers include Members of
Congress, family of DeOnte Rawlings and Sean Bell, community leaders and
national figures.

November 17thEndorsing Organizations: Hip Hop Caucus, Cease Fire: Don't
Smoke the
Brothers and the Sisters, Peaceoholics, Conference of Minority Transportation
Officials, E.G.O.S., National Congress of Black Women, ROOT, Inc., the
Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, Grassroots America, October 22
Coalition,
members of the Congressional Black Caucus,
October 22 Coalition, People's Media Center, Latino Media Collective, and
the Black Leadership Forum including - 100 Black Men of America, Blacks in
Government, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Constituency for Africa,
IMPACT, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, The Links, Inc.,
NAACP, NAACPLegal Defense and Educational Fund, National Association for
Equal
Opportunity in Higher Ed, National Bar Association, National Black Caucus of
Local Elected Officials, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, National
Black Justice Coalition, National Black Law Students Association, National
Black Police Association, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation,
National Conference of Black Mayors, National Council of Negro Women,
National
Forum for Black Public Administrators, National Black MBA Association,
National
Minority Supplier Development Council, National Newspaper Publishers
Association, National Urban League, OIC of America, Operation HOPE, Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and transAfrica
Forum.

For more information
contact Tina Richards (573) 247-8059 or email at
Tina at GrassrootsAmerica4us.org.
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"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so
odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't
even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the
gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and
you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people
who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the
machine will be prevented from working at all!" - Mario Savio
Tina Richards
Grassroots America, A Non Profit

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