Category Archives: Civil Rights

Will a Militarized Police Force Facing Occupy Wall Street Lead to Another Kent State Massacre?

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[May 3d] is an ugly anniversary in American history: 42 years ago, National Guardsman opened fire on anti-Vietnam protesters at Ohio’s Kent State University, killing four students. Ten days later, Mississippi police fired on civil rights protesters taking refuge in a women’s dormitory at Jackson State University and killed two more students.

Four decades later, as police across the country deploy paramilitary tactics developed for fighting foreign terrorists on Occupy and some May Day protests, and as campus police ratchet up responses to tuition hike protests, we must ask, is this where things inevitably are headed—toward deadly confrontations between overly armed police and angered protesters, or just as likely, innocent bystanders caught in a crossfire?

[…]

The Kent and Jackson State anniversaries underscore many questions. When and where will a fatal police overreaction take place? Who will be the victim? What will be the reaction, including from politicians who helped to unduly militarize the police? 

This scenario is not an accident waiting to happen. Police use undue force all the time, where the consequence is the armed police shooter kills an unarmed victim. It has happened many times in 2012, according to statistics compiled by the government, just not yet at an Occupy or student protest.

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Austin Cline: Third Reich Christianity: Nazi Germany as Implementation of a Christian Agenda

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Hitler and the Nazis are often cited as an example of the horrible crimes which atheists have committed in the 20th century. They are only assumed to be atheists, though, because people can’t imagineChristians doing such things; in reality, Hitler explicitly appealed to Christianity on a regular basis and this was part of why he was popular. Not every Christian supported the Nazis, of course, but he was most popular with conservative Christians seeking a restoration of traditional values. . . . .

Christians may not like acknowledging that Nazi actions might have anything to do with Christianity, but Germany saw itself as a fundamentally Christian nation and millions of Christians in Germany enthusiastically endorsed Hitler and the Nazi Party in part because they saw both as embodiments of both German and Christian ideals. Conservative Christians who wanted a return to traditional values either voted for the Nazis or one of the other right-wing nationalist parties which eventually supported and merged with the Nazis.

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What Are Conservatives [i.e., Reactionaries] Trying to Conserve?

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About a month ago, Jonathan Chait published an important article in New York Magazine arguing that demographic changes in the United States will before too long spell doom to the political influence and hegemony of conservatives [i.e., reactionaries], and that conservatives [i.e., reactionaries], well aware of these changes, regard the 2012 elections as their last, best chance to reverse the course America is on. “Conservative America,” Chait writes, “will soon come to be dominated, in a semi-permanent fashion, by an ascendant Democratic coalition hostile to its outlook and interests.” The Republican [i.e., Reactionaries] Party, Chait explains, had over decades found itself increasingly confined to white voters, “especially those lacking a college degree and especially rural whites.” Meanwhile, Democrats have increased their standing among whites with graduate degrees, secular whites and racial minorities. . . .

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Catholic Church [A Renowned International Child Raping Organization] punishes California homeless over shelter director’s personal views

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Unbelievable. Another strong-armed bully tactic from the Catholic Church.

The Sacramento Bee is reporting the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento has pulled the plug on funding the Francis House homeless services agency in Sacramento. Described as “largest homeless services agencies in the Sacramento region, serving upward of 25,000 people,” the non-denominational agency has enjoyed grants as large as $10,000 from the diocese for decades.

What changed? They hired a new director in April, Rev. Faith Whitmore.

Whitmore, a United Methodist minister, took over leadership of Francis House in April after the sudden death of longtime executive director Gregory Bunker. Within her own denomination, she has been a strong advocate of same-sex marriage. In 2008, during a short period in which gay marriage was legal in California, Whitmore openly defied church law by marrying same-sex couples. She has said publicly that she supports a woman’s right to obtain an abortion.  In an interview Wednesday, she called the diocese’s decision to discontinue its support “surprising and disappointing.”

. . . It’s time for the Church to admit they are not a charity, but a political action committee[!]

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Blacks say atheists were unseen civil rights heroes

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. . . A strain of unbelief runs across African-American history, said Anthony Pinn, a Rice University professor and author of a book about African-American humanists. He points to figures like Hubert Henry Harrison, an early 20th- century activist who equated religion with slavery, and W.E.B. DuBois, founder of the NAACP, who was often critical of black churches.

“Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes— they were all critical of belief in God,” Pinn said. “They provided a foundation for nontheistic participation in social struggle.”

But they are often ignored in the narrative of American history, sacrificed to the myth that the achievements of the civil rights movement were the accomplishments of religious — mainly Christian — people. . . .

African American Atheists

Sunday’s [annual] “Day of Solidarity for Black Nonbelievers”, will include a remembrance of African-American atheists of the past, including:

James Baldwin (1924-1987), poet, playwright, civil rights activist
W.E.B DuBois (1868-1963), co-founder of the NAACP
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), playwright and journalist
Hubert Henry Harrison (1883-1927), activist, educator, writer
A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979), labor organizer
Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), journalist and historian
Richard Wright (1908-1960), novelist and author

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