The events of Ferguson document how things must change. For generations and centuries, black people have experienced various forms of unjust, obscene oppression. Black people in Ferguson expressed legitimate outrage at police brutality, discrimination, racism, bad redlining policies, the militarization of the local police, and economic oppression. That is why people are resisting evil. The tragic death of Michael Brown is a reminder that we have a very long way to go in our struggle for real liberation. It is a necessity for mobilization and the organization of independent, grassroots, democratic, and participatory organizations who will stand up for justice. Such organizations are in existence now doing great work. Also, this issue is international, because we are an international people. We should care about what our people are going through in America, the Motherland, and other regions of the globe. Ultimately, the ending of a corrupt system and the establishment of the system of justice is needed. That also means that structures must change, unjust laws must be eliminated, innocent people must be freed from jail, and the War on Drugs must end. Many heroes like Ella Baker, Lumumba, Malcolm X, and others taught us that we need more cooperation and solidarity as one people instead of unnecessary division and selfish competition. Real social change (involving the poor and the working class. This is a struggle for freedom) must happen if we want to be free. The convicted person Dante Martin (including the rest involved) should feel shame. A person, whose name is Robert Champion, died at the hands of Martin and other people. The brutality of hazing has killed innocent human lives. Anyone involved in the hazing death of Robert Champion should be punished. Plea deals are common practices where certain evil people, like those involved in Robert Champion's death, try to not receive extensive prison sentences. At the end of the day, the dignity of innocent human life should always be respected. RIP Robert Champion. Post-Racial America is a total myth. Spike Lee spoke many truths. He made the great point about how women are working very hard, but they still suffer wage inequality. That should change. People have to face facts, face reality, and fight for real social change. The cell phones, which are recording incidents of police brutality, are valuable tools as well. Racism, xenophobia, lookism, and classism must be fought against.
One part of being free is for people to believe in real history. Many Tea Partiers have convinced many Americans that all of the Constitution’s Framers believed in a strong, activist federal government. This is a false history. Many Republicans believe in this overt historical revisionism. Not all of the Farmers believed in rejecting a strong federal government. Many of them rejected states’ rights. The Tea Partiers, Libertarians, and other Republicans have members who don’t follow real history. The truth is that progressive forces in America fought against slavery, segregation, and other injustices in America. From 1787 to 1860, slave owners opposed a strong federal government in the Constitution. Later, they constrained it with the Constitution actually condoning slavery. The Confederacy from 1861 to 1865 promoted slavery, defended states’ rights, and wanted a limited federal government. From 1866 to the 1960’s, the reactionary white racists used Jim Crow and other methods to violently suppress the constitutional rights of black people and others. From 1969 to this very day, these same neo-Confederate racists have jumped into the Republican Party heavily as a means to extend the system of white supremacy via slick code words and subterfuges. We see the wealthy elite using the powers of the government to aid the rich industrialists to operate corporations and control the economy for the interests of the oligarchy. The reactionaries are heavily anti-regulatory corporatists. There is nothing wrong with the government promoting the general welfare of society. Many people like Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, and other wanted economic development by a strong federal government. The Articles of Confederation was weak. The problem with the Constitution is that it gave concessions to slavery. There should be no compromise with oppression at all. Anti-Federalists like Patrick Henry and Georgia wanted slavery. They used the 3/5s Compromise as a means to advance their evil agenda. Thomas Jefferson rejected a strong federal government too. He rejected a federal building of canals and roads in America. The Great Depression caused President Franklin Roosevelt to enact reforms (which were opposed by the robber barons) that dealt with the regulation of the financial sector, protected union rights, and created programs to lift millions of Americans out of poverty. To this day, the reactionaries hate the New Deal. After WWII, scientific development, and investment grew. This caused the middle class to grow.
Black people fought for civil rights too. The nation grew and prospered for the rich and some in the middle class. Yet, black people, the poor, etc. still suffered in the 1950’s and the 1960’s via racial oppression and economic injustices. Racial segregation was fought against by the civil rights movement. Many leaders in that movement wanted the federal government to abolish segregation not only in the South, but nationwide. Jim Crow existed in Missouri and Kansas not just in Mississippi or Alabama. Leaders like Ella Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, etc. wanted liberation for black people. Democratic President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were forced by real activists to allow the federal government to act against segregation in the South. Freedom is never willingly given to the oppressed by the oppressor. If we want freedom, then we have to sacrifice and fight for freedom. Reactionaries involved states’ rights as a means to support Jim Crow and resist the federal government’s actions of abolishing it. This is similar to the states’ rights support of southern white political figures like Patrick Henry and George Mason. The white backlash against federal activism against segregation caused Dixiecrats to go into the Republican Party. The Republican Party became more reactionary by the 1960s while the Democrats accepted more black voters and other minorities during the same time period. William F. Buckley back in 1957 wanted the South to continue segregation. Barry Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act too. Richard Nixon, Reagan, and others used the Southern Strategy as a means to outline coded languages to gain votes from southern whites. Today, we see the same anti-regulatory business interests allied with the Tea Party too. They want cuts to taxes, eliminations of regulations, and cutting social programs that have helped the poor. They refuse to expand health care services and even food stamps to people. So, the reactionaries have racial resentment and resistance to even legitimate government regulations (like those to protect the environment and handle Wall Street corrupt). So, the neo-Confederate ideologies of states’ rights (when states used policies to harm the rights of black people historically) and free market fundamentalism don’t work. That is why I believe in economic justice and social justice.
I love track and field a great deal. I love the long jump, hurdles, other races, and sprinting too. Sprinting is an excellent form of exercise. It is one of the greatest exercises for a person to build up the human body. It can build up a lean, muscular body shape. Sprinting can simultaneously improve a person’s aerobic and anaerobic cardiovascular capacities as well. Sprinting as Harmer et al. have proven (in a 3 session per week routine) can improve maximal sprint peak power, it can lengthen time to exhaustion at maximal sprint-exertion, lower blood pressure, and increase incremental VO2 peak during exertion in people. Sprinting can create a better heart, a better lung, improved circulation, better cognition, and improved metabolism. The optimal hormonal environment can come about with sprinting as well. There is an all-out sprint or moving the body in the fastest possible speed for a certain distance and high intensity training (that is about creating alternating bursts of very intense activity with intervals of rest). There is tons of research to show that repeated sprint training is a form of conditioning that can produce significant fat loss (and it occurs in an amazingly small amount of training time). A 2010 study found that 6 sprint sessions of six 30 second all out cycle sprints with 4 minutes rest over 2 weeks led to a leaner waist by 3 cm. and a much great use of fat for fuel. Also, sprint training can build muscle and increase the size plus strength of powerful, fast twitch fibers. Studies show how sprinting enhances protein synthesis pathway by as much as 230 percent. The right nutrition and recovery will lead into muscle building, which causes a person to look leaner and run faster. It can increase the amount of glycogen stored in the muscle by as high as 20 percent. It can improve endurance capacity, maximal oxygen uptake, etc. A number of studies show any time you alternate intense bursts of EXERCISE with rest periods; you will improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar tolerance. This is partly because sprints decrease chronic inflammation and partly because the cells must adapt to more efficiently produce energy to keep you going. For example, a 2006 review showed that protocols that are more anaerobic in nature, as sprints are, produce higher EPOC than steady-state training because the trained muscle cells must restore physiological factors in the cells. This translates into a lot of extra energy expenditure to help get you lean. Sprint training decreases inflammation in the brain, and improves cognition plus brain volume. It can save time and build confidence too.
The revolutionaries of the Caribbean wanted freedom. The black slaves wanting freedom were the revolutionaries that influenced revolutionary movements worldwide. The slave revolts for liberation existed long before the American Revolution and the French Revolution existed. People deserved human rights, equality, and justice. Human beings wanted to resist slave owning tyrants. That is that our Brothers and our Sisters centuries ago used escape, self-defense, sabotage, civil disobedience, and other methods to combat imperialism, slavery, and colonialism. The Maroons were heroic people who wanted freedom. Haiti experienced a very successful slave rebellion. Toussaint Louverture was one leader who fought for liberation in Haiti. He fought the French, the Spanish, and the British for the liberation of Haiti. He was caught by the French and died in prison. Later, Dessalines and Henri Christophe united forces as a means to defeat the French. Haiti was a black Republic by 1804. Abolition movements in the Americas including the Caribbean grew as well. After the Caribbean increasingly ended slavert, there was still economic oppression by Western forces including puppet regimes. Even today, economic inequality is a serious problem worldwide not just in the Caribbean. So, we are still fighting many of the same battles of yesteryear. During this time in the 21st century, we will not give up. Our ancestors fought and died, so their posterity could live in a better world, dream more dreams, and exist in an era where freedoms would be more abundant than when they lived. We live today. It is our hopes, our destinies, and our aspirations which are all linked with the goals of the human race in general. No one can stop the truth and justice is a legitimate aim to fight for.
By Timothy
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