Important Words

This issue of gun violence is a serious issue. The great lie, which has been shown by many, is that nothing can be done. The truth is that some things can be done. The President's executive order is centrist and it is not extremist despite the rhetoric from the far right who cares more for guns than human life. Guns are not superior to human life. Human life has more value than a gun. Also, most Americans by polls support expanded background checks. The most promising option is a national permit-to-purchase, or PTP, policy requiring people to obtain a permit, contingent on passing a background check, before buying a firearm. In their recent review of dozens of scientific studies analyzing gun laws, Daniel W. Webster of Johns Hopkins University and Garen J. Wintemute of the University of California at Davis, concluded: “The type of firearm policy most consistently associated with curtailing the diversion of guns to criminals and for which some evidence indicates protective effects against gun violence is PTP for handguns.” In Missouri, the 2007 repeal of a PTP law was associated with a 14 percent increase in the murder rate and an increase of 16 percent in the firearm-related suicide rate. Studies that examined Connecticut’s 1995 PTP law found that it was associated with a 40 percent reduction in the state’s firearm homicide rate and a 15 percent reduction in firearm suicides. A 2006 study by Duke University’s Elizabeth Richardson Vigdor and James A. Mercy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at data from 1982 through 2002 covering 46 states and found that policies that prohibited people with a domestic-violence restraining order from owning a gun are associated with a 7 percent reduction in intimate-partner homicides. Another study, by Webster and Michigan State’s April M. Zeoli, analyzed a similar set of policies but used more fine-grain city-level data and a more robust set of controls. It concluded that such policies were associated with a 19 percent reduction in intimate-partner homicides. There should be investments in mental health programs too. The far right hypocrites claim to support mental health funding, but many of them refuse to support the government to spend money for mental health programs. The CDC should study the causes of gun violence and advance recommendations to fight back against gun violence. There should be investments to combat poverty, economic inequality, and other evils in America. Other industrialized nations don't have the extent of gun violence that America has. This should change and this should change now.

She has the right to call herself what she wants. Yet, to me I'm an African American or an black American and I'm proud of it. I am of black African descent. Whoopi has the right to stay in America. Our ancestors were in America for a long time. Likewise, I don't agree with her views on other issues, but that's another matter. Just because some black people want to identify themselves as African Americans doesn't mean that we want to promote unnecessary divisiveness. I don't worship America. I am more than what's found in America. I am part of a world community. Our ancestors didn't just built America. We also worked in liberation movements throughout the Americas and Africa. I believe in having international solidarity with the Afro-French, the Afro-Brazilians, the Afro-Caribbeans, the Black Africans, and all people of black African descent.

Certainly, the story of Saartjie Baartman should be told eloquently and with a great deal of respect. This news will certainly cause relief among some. It is one thing to disagree with Beyonce having a role in the film. People have the right to like or not like Beyonce. What can't be denied is that Beyonce can sing and she is a very talented entertainer. She should be treated with dignity and with respect just like anyone else. Me personally, another woman would be best to portray Saartjie Baartman other than Beyonce. I have no hatred of Yonce. Massive, accurate research should be done, great performances executed, and respect to the human dignity of Saartijie ought to be shown in any film about Saartijie Baartman. She or Saartijie suffered unspeakable horrors, but her spirit is still with us. Her courage was amazing and the agenda of racists will never prevail in the end. Also, another point is to be made. We all know the point and we have to go there. There should be no unnecessary tensions among people of the African Diaspora. We have to have more cooperation and discussions with each other in the Diaspora, so we can grow understanding and implement more unity which is needed for liberation.

Dating stories, involving a male using sexist views, etc., have existed all across the nation. In life, equality is important. Equality is not just a principle that we believe in and fight for. It's the universal value that refutes misogyny and any form of bigotry in the world. We are strengthened collectively when women have true liberation. Any male that uses psuedo-conscience nonsense as a tactic in trying to control women for exploitation and the promotion of a reactionary, misogynistic, and anti-freedom agenda (which ignores economic inequality, the problem of misogynoir, etc.) lacks consciousness in essence. Black women have every right to control their own bodies and to enact their own choices in their lives without control and without oppression from anyone. We don't need the repression of the human rights of black women or any black person. We need honesty, justice, and tranquility. When we defend the poor, stand up for what is right, and adhere to the liberation of those of Black African descent, then we make our ancestors proud. So, those "Hotep" individuals (who have a hated of women, especially women who disagree with them) just exploit women for their own nefarious agenda. Also, it is important to give credit to the real African scholars and heroes who stood up against European imperialism and injustice from Sister Miraim Makeba, Sister Lillian Ngoyi, and to Brother Steve Biko. Their legacies are glorious and eternal. Relationships should be voluntary without coercion. Relationships are based on mutual love not manipulation. We reject mistreating and hating others unjustly. We want freedom and that freedom can only be complete when black women have total liberation. In that sense, justice can exist for all irrespective of their sex or color. Black liberation is the goal that we adhere to. This liberation deals with tolerance, compassion, wisdom, gender equality, and black women having their human autonomy respected period.

I feel sadness. She was a very intelligent Sister who was going to be a great brain surgeon. She was going to help others and be an inspiration for future generations. Yet, she was murdered by a coward. The murderer hurt a black family and the murderer should be captured and sent to prison. Myeisha McDaniels' family always expressed a great love for Myeisha McDaniels. This is their child. This story is why gun violence must be addressed fully or comprehensively in American society. No family should experience their relative being murdered. I send prayers and condolences to the family and friends of Sister Myeisha McDaniels.
RIP Myeisha McDaniels


By Timothy