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View From Here: On the Shoulders of Giants

David Mark Greaves
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On January 21st African-Americans  will watch Barack Hussein Obama be sworn in for a second term as President of the United States of America, a man who acknowledges that he stdid not get there on his own.  He is, as we all are, standing on the shoulders of giants.

And what has moved us from slavery to the opportunities we now enjoy has been the constant struggle of committed souls that gave everything they had to bring us here.  January is the month Harriet Tubman died, Martin Luther King Jr. was born and others whose names we will never know gave their waking hours to bring possibilities and opportunity into our lives and the question we should always ask is what have we done with their gift to us and how have we carried on their legacy?

My mother-in-law Mrs. Janie Green passed today. Janie was one of the ground-level Brooklyn organizers who carried on that centuries old legacy of struggle and brought a new political power into Bed-Stuy, moving people into action, and it’s the kind of action we need on 2013.

The jobless rate is at depression era levels, the school system is largely broken, hospitals are closing, houses are being foreclosed, children are being taken from their parents and the parents have no one to stand up for them.   We need some more Janie Greens in this world.  more folks on the ground, making waves and forcing change.  We need some troublemaking politicians with an army of voters at their backs.  In this election year we need politicians who don’t just want to get elected, but who listen to the people and have the courage to fight for their interests.

This year Brooklynites vote for a new mayor, city council seats, a district attorney, and send a new congressman to Washington to deal with the fiscal cliff, deficit ceiling dramatic comedy debate going on there.  A debate that determines how much bread you can put on the table what kind of health care you receive, what hurricane aid is coming and what your retirement will look like.

These will be elections and decisions that are influenced by organizers who give the community the voice to push and pull political leaders, focusing their attention on the problems and needs of the average voter and who remind government agencies that they are the employees of the people and it’s not the other way around.

 

It was the fighters and the marchers and the organizers who brought us here and we need to replenish those ranks if we are going to continue to move forward.

Janie W. Green Makes her Transition

Editor, Our Time Press
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December 16, 1925-January 2, 2013

Viewing & Wake
Wednesday, January 9th
2:00-8:00 pm
Bridge Street AWME Church

277 Stuyvesant Avenue, Brooklyn

Thursday January 10

Final Viewing 9-10am

Service 10am

                                                                                                                                         Bridge Street AWME Church
277 Stuyvesant Avenue, Brooklyn
followed by Interment at
Calverton National Cemetery

Janie W. Green, 87, long-time community organizer and activist, passed at approximately 6pm yesterday in Manhattan at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in the presence of family members.

Complications stemming from an acute seizure suffered on December 26 at Bishop Henry Hucles Nursing Home in Brooklyn, New York, contributed to the community leader’s death.

Two hours earlier, a near chance encounter with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as nurses wheeled Mrs. Green to an 8

th floor room overlooking the Hudson River, gave mighty resonance to Longfellow’s phrase “ships that pass in the night” and also to the title, First Lady.

 

Mrs. Green’s legacy is permanently linked to a host of extraordinary Brooklyn women, including her friends and late sister pioneers Elsie Richardson, Shirley Chisholm and living legend Alma Carroll, first ladies whose immeasurable talents and strengths undergirded Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn’s dynamic grassroots political, education action and human rights movements of forty years ago.(bg)

GUEST OPINION: Make Sure it Ends Before it Begins

David Mark Greaves
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By Theresa O’Neal

I was giving my place a special cleaning yesterday in preparation for Christmas and New Year’s and I threw the windows open to let some fresh air in as well. It was a typical Saturday before the holidays, busy washing, cooking, cleaning and I was about to run my errands. As I cleaned, my Martha Stewart-like focus was interrupted by wailing and screaming coming from outside my home. It was somewhat far away but too close to ignore. The sounds were gut-wrenching and piercing, and in an instant I grabbed my stomach. I knew that wail… it was a mother. Instinctively, I knew. I KNEW something had happened to HER child. Only a mother could howl like that. I ran to the front door and from what I could see, a half-a-block away, a commotion in front of a distant house with neighbors and family members circling and screaming. But it was her cry, “Oh God have mercy on us”, in a distinctive, West Indian voice that confirmed in me that something had happened to her child.

An ambulance, then two. A police car, then two. My son begged me not to go outside, but I couldn’t help it. I threw on my coat. We have rules in Brooklyn. You don’t run to the scene of a crime, you run from it,
because the trouble may just be starting. But it was that mother’s scream…. I stood at my corner, still trying to figure out what had happened, a half-a-block away. An older man holding a little girl’s hand walked past the situation and then in my direction. As they approached, I asked him what happened, and he replied in a thick Haitian accent, “You see! This is America! They raise their children to do anything they want! One son beat up his mother, pushed her down and then the other brother beat him to death! He is laying in the street! Jaw broken, everything! I would have done the same thing! You don’t touch your mother!”

I immediately began to weep. I couldn’t believe it…. Another man who passed by could only shake his head as he approached, mumbling “terrible, just terrible”. But he continued on. Christian, my 15-year-old, begged me to come back inside as the howling continued. I went in reluctantly, but I knew, in that moment, there is nothing I could do for them. I grew up in Brooklyn and there was always some domestic scenario to be leery about, or some days you would have to “mind your business” and simply call the police if it seems like it’s getting too out of control. But what else should be done?

I began to think how ironic it was that a 20-year-old young man had just killed his mother and others in Connecticut and yet again my neighbors were in peril and there were no news trucks. And everyone, just like me, went back inside to go on with our lives. I felt guilty because I felt helpless.

The police were there and what seemed to be other family members. And believe me, the scenario isn’t unfamiliar. Whatever went wrong in that family happened a long time ago. The deed was done. Or was it? Was he really dead? I still don’t know. But yet, it was still another mother’s child. A senseless tragedy. Was he on drugs? He had to be mentally ill to have assaulted his mother. What happened beforehand? Did he suffer from mental illness like Adam Lanza? Were they going to care enough to find out “why”? And talk about how WE as a society “failed him” as we did certain others? Or would the powers that be disregard him like another inner-city thug, juvenile delinquent who went down a path that was inevitable? As for the other brother who beat him, what was his fate? My God, what is next for their family?

What was also striking was the indifference I witnessed in both of the men who passed by. Maybe it was purely instinctive, for survival sake to condemn the situation and just keep it moving. But when something happens to a child any mother may grab her belly instinctively as I did, feeling the pang of a womb drop. For me, right then, there had to be something more, much more to do. But what?? Whether it was 26 in Connecticut, 433 in Chicago or just one more in Brooklyn, WE MUST react differently when it happens. Even better, we need to make sure it ends before it ever begins.

I know one thing we can do.

If you plan to gather this week with family and friends, please talk with your loved ones and ask them how they are doing. For real. Not via tweet, text or post. If possible, call, show up and tune in. Let him or her know that if they need someone to share a concern with, you are all ears.

We can make a difference by checking in with each other, especially with our young people. Beyond the requests for electronics and gift cards, try and find out what they really need. Take a break from the family dinner and do something simple like taking a walk to the corner store together for more ice and perhaps, “a dollar and a dream”. That trip to the corner store may not yield a winning lotto ticket, but hey, you never know.

Andrea Stewart-Cousins Becomes the First African-American Woman to Lead NYS Legislative Conference

Mary Alice Miller
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The NYS Senate Democratic Conference has elected Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) to lead their conference. Stewart-Cousins made history by a vote of 19-6. Senator Stewart-Cousins succeeds Senator John Sampson one week after he announced he would step down from the position. “The leadership that existed – Sen. Sampson — was really very good, really solid. He laid groundwork for us,” said Stewart-Cousins. “We have a really good opportunity to look at a new direction, to focus on a progressive agenda, whether it’s campaign finance reform, tougher gun laws, mandate relief, women’s reproductive health. All of these things we are looking at. It certainly is an opportunity. So we thought that new leadership, a vision going forward would really set the pace for what we consider to be a great opportunity to pursue and actually obtain a progressive agenda for a state.”

This is not the first time Stewart-Cousins has made history. Prior to her election to the NYS Senate, she was the first African-American woman county legislator from Yonkers. “I was very excited about being a public servant. I still am. I was excited to be a senator. And I certainly want to advance the agenda of the people of the state and the constituents that sent me here,” said Stewart-Cousins. “So, [becoming Conference Leader] was not a big objective that I had. However, as events unfolded it became clear that many of my colleagues approached me and asked me if I would consider it. I think that it was good that I did.”

Speaking of her conference, Stewart-Cousins spoke of its diversity. “We have a lot of new members. There are about 14 new members. A lot of people that were there before are no longer there,” said Stewart-Cousins. “Our conference is extremely diverse, but it is inclusive. We have members from upstate and downstate, Hispanic and black, we’ve got many more women, we have openly gay members. Everybody’s here.”

Referring obliquely of a risk of voter disenfranchisement due to the coalition between the Senate GOP and the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), Stewart-Cousins said, “The reality is we are a numerical majority; there are so many voices that should be heard. We are certainly concerned that they will be muted because of the way this construct is. We hope that we will be not only a statistical majority but a functioning majority.”
Stewart-Cousins has worked with all members of the IDC in the past, and hopes to continue to do so. “We’ve had good relationships working on various issues and I certainly will be extending a hand to Sen. Klein, hoping that he will sit and talk about the things that we can do together again. The things we are looking at — whether it’s the Dream Act, reforming stop-and-frisk, protecting our environment — I believe our conference has in common with the IDC. If we can work together again as Democrats, it would be great,” said Stewart-Cousins. “I want to begin the dialogue. I don’t know what’s going to happen in terms of any big change now and when we start [the next session]. I am certainly going to make sure that there is no obstacles to us working together. Hopefully, they will agree and we will find some common ground. Who knows? Maybe we can be Democrats just as our electorate expected us to be.”

The day after she was elected Conference Leader, Stewart-Cousins had a meeting with Gov. Cuomo. “I brought colleagues with me. We had an open discussion. We talked about the state of the state and his legislative priorities. Coincidentally, many of his priorities are ours as well,” said Stewart Cousins. “It was a conversation about Democrats being in a position to create the agenda and make it happen. I think he wants to make sure it gets done. We want to make sure it gets done.”

“None of us understands how this new coalition is going to work,” she added cautiously. “We are proceeding optimistically and with the idea that at the end of the day the people’s business – which is what we are all for – will get done.”

Acknowledging that many people have strong feelings about the Senate GOP/IDC coalition, Stewart-Cousins said, “The fact of the matter is when voters go to the polls and expect that they are voting for someone in a certain party, they have every right to think that the person that they have voted for will actually confer and adhere to the policies and objectives of the party.”

Stewart-Cousins assured that the Senate Democratic Conference is interested in making sure that a progressive agenda is passed.

But she warned that if the IDC proposes a watered-down version of progressive legislation to appease the Senate GOP, “No one would be happy about that. We understand that there will be votes that are needed.”
Stewart-Cousins wants to begin the conversation with the IDC “because the reality is things that the governor wants passed and many of the things that are important to New Yorkers, have to have the votes of the Democrats. That is very clear to everyone. We will proceed with the objective of getting these things done. I certainly will not be an impediment to doing the bills that would make New York a better place. Hopefully, the IDC will be a part of what we will be doing.”

“I would hope we are able to do it together,” said Stewart-Cousins. “I would love to do it in a way that is less complex and function as a Democratic conference, but I think that as long as we keep focusing on getting the things that our residents expect to have done for them, we will be fine.”

The Parent's Notebook

David Mark Greaves
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Parents to the Front of the Antiviolence Movement
The Newtown massacre has ignited another round of conversations about gun control, the response by the NRA adding fuel to the aimless fire. While there has been a heightened reaction to the Newtown incident, news of other killings send a signal that something more is sorely needed. Facing the fact that gun ownership is widespread and uncontrolled and the victims of gun violence include males, females, children of all races, translates into “our lives and the lives of our children are at risk.”

Places of worship, movies, playgrounds and schools are examples of violated places. People are floored by the audacity of the actions of some that leaves multiple innocent people and even toddlers injured or killed. I’m sure these irresponsible individuals who have displayed a lack of respect for human life had a reason for their actions. I’m sure the gangbangers who shot a toddler in a playground have a justification for why they had to open fire on the rival gang in that setting and at that time. Their justification will not satisfy our standards by any means, but it led the aggressor to action.

This land was obtained through battles fought with the indigenous people, also known as Native Americans. After the acquisition and claiming America as its own, violence has shifted to other countries under the label of war. It is not unlikely that a child in middle school could see reports of murder, rape and assaults on the news, then go to school where the culture may be one of dominance and bullying. They may be challenged by more of the same bullying on their way home, in playgrounds and on their block. We have yet to include rappers they may hear bragging of violent acts they have committed. Let’s not leave out the movies and video games that consume the time of many adolescents.

While the discussions around gun violence focuses on gun control and psychiatric treatment, there is a danger of extending and strengthening the dependency on politicians and mental health practitioners who too often prescribe medications that produce violent side effects. Are we then in a hopeless situation? The answer is no – we are in a situation that challenges us as parents to make home a place where children know they are loved and accepted and they can share any and everything with their parents.

As parents, we must take a stand on the issue of violence period. Our children are internalizing these messages and as a result developing a tolerance for violence that ultimately threatens their lives. We must consider a radical change of how we view and rationalize the many forms of violence and pass it on to our offspring. We must replace the violence-oriented rituals and routines our children are engaged in daily with activities that teach acceptance and appreciation of self and others and values that promote acceptance, team-building and community. Peace in the world must begin with peace in the home and that begins with adults finding peace within themselves, which requires introspection. As an adult, I discovered the emotional impact when (at the age of five) my mother refused to take me to church with her because my hair wasn’t combed. I screamed and my father frantically tried unsuccessfully to comb my hair. While the memory of the incident faded, the emotional impact –the feeling of not being good enough – I later discovered had led to the choices in relationships and the absence of feeling competent in spite of a resume impressive to employers but not to me. The interpretation I made at the age of five left its emotional imprint that lasted for years. While parents can’t control interpretations, we can create a safe space where children can communicate their feelings, where they can share their feelings and not be brushed aside, where adults do not go on the defensive. Our children, more than ever, need and deserve a safe space to voice and clear their fears and upsets to lessen the chances of them becoming a killer or being killed.

An assignment for adults: Find an adult and share an incident from childhood that was upsetting. Explore and share your feelings at the time and look for similar feelings that have surfaced over the years. This is the first step in the 21-day Umoja Project and the beginning of a powerful remedy for ending violence. For more info e-mail: parentsnotebook@yahoo.com.l

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