New Political Times in Late February 2022.

 

There are many stories that many people don't know about Althea Gibson. She would often play basketball in her neighborhood. Also, Gibson played pool, hopscotch, jump rope, stickball, bowling, and roller skating very well. Hubert Eaton from North Carolina supported her career too. Sugar Ray Robinson (the greatest pound for pound boxer in world history) was a friend and mentor to Althea Gibson. They greeted each other in London before Wimbledon. Sugar Ray Robinson and his wife were friends of the Gibson family. Sugar Ray Robinson told Althea that she would need to be coached by experts to excel in her sport of tennis. Gibson agreed and followed the advice of trained coaches. Johnson lived in Virginia and Eaton lived in North Carolina. Rhonda Smith was mentor to her too. Althea Gibson was the first African American to be elected as the Associated Press's Women Athlete of the Year in 1957. She repeated the honor again in 1958. After Althea Gibson's tickertape parade in her honor, she told the crowd at the Waldorf Astoria, "I can't describe the joy in my heart. God grant that I wear this crown with dignity and humility."

In Canada, Justin Trudeau (and his Liberal government) is invoking the Emergencies Act to end the far-right siege of Ottawa and their border blockades. Downtown Ottawa and Parliament Hill are at siege by these extremists and their "Freedom Convoy." The Emergencies Act was created in 1988 as a successor to the War Measures Act. This Act gives the federal government in Canada to take measure not appropriate in normal times. The reactionaries want to eliminate all public health measures as it relates to combatting COVID-19. These hypocrites forget that government regulation is commonplace to prevent poisons in foods to making sure that fraud is opposed. There is no vice in legitimate government regulation. The problems of monopoly, hatred of minorities, and anti-science misinformation are the opposite of true freedom that far right people omit. Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec, and Manitoba announced recently that they are reopening quickly. They want to end the use of vaccination passports on March 1, 2022. While, it is important to oppose far right blockades, we have to be careful to maintain our civil liberties despite some wanting to justify anti-democratic acts on the basis of "emergency powers."

Joe Manchin says that he is a West Virginian Democrats, but he forgets that most West Virginians oppose his moderate agenda. He believes in the myth that bipartisanship will solve our problems. We don't want half measures and silliness. We want full investments for universal health care, living wage, full voting rights protections, environmental justice, racial justice, reparations (for African Americans), etc. The recent Supreme Court decisions have violated the Voting Rights Act. John Lewis wrote the For the People Act before he died, but Manchin refuses to oppose the filibuster to make the For the People Act to be legal federally. Manchin even opposed the Bill Back Better Act that promotes maternal leave aid, aid to the poor, and investments to build up the social infrastructure of our society. It is a shame that Joe Manchin receives millions from the coal industry, but he refuses to advocate for progressive solutions for all Americans. Only a cruel person would oppose the commonsense policy of the Child Tax Credit.

The U.S. has closed its embassy in Kjiv. It moved remaining diplomats to western Ukraine. The reason is that there fears that Russia may invade Ukraine very soon. The diplomatic personnel are being moved to the western Ukranian city of Lviv. Recently, President Biden and Putin had a phone talk about this crisis in Europe. Vladimir Putin has radically escalated the amount of military forces at the Ukrainian border. Rational people desire a peaceful solution to this dangerous crisis. Blinken said that he executed these measures to promote safety. American officials continue to call on all Americans to leave Ukraine, but some Americans refuse to leave the country. NATO forces are near Ukraine too. Russia has surrounded Ukraine on three sides.

Days ago was the Birthday of Sister Danai Gurira, and she is 44 years old. She is a famous actress and playwright. Grinnell, Iowa is the place of her birth. Her parents came from Zimbabwe. She is the youngest of four siblings. Later, Gurira lived in Harare, Zimbabwe (the country's capital) after the country gained independence. She graduated from high school at Dominican Convent High School. Danai returned to America to study at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology was a great accomplishment in her life. Gurira earned a Master of Fine Arts in acting from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. A lot of people don't know that she is a great teacher of playwriting and acting in Liberia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Gurira performed in a production of the famous Ntozake Shange play of "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf." Danai knows all of the skills in acting pertaining to movies and theater comprehensively. She loved theater. She wrote many plays and acted in plays. She wrote the play Familiar. It opened in the Yale Repertory Theater. By 2015, Lupita Nyong'o starred in Gurira's play of Eclipsed. She was in many films like The Visitor in 2007, Black Panther in 2018, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. Gurira promotes the arts in Zimbabwe, supports women's equality, and fights against HIV/AIDS. She can speak the four languages of French, Shona, basic Xhosa, and English. She is a Christian and loves to stay physically fit via Pilates and cross training She has a role in the upcoming movie of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022. In the future, she plans on portraying Shirley Chisholm in a future film. I wish Sister Danai Gurira more Blessings.

By Timothy