“Madam C.J. Walker wasn’t just a force for African Americans. She pioneered global black activism” @KeishaBlain https://timeline.com/madame-cj-walker-history-50d6d7090076
Tag: Activist
Listening at the Crossroads
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/crossroads/#like-245712
THEDAILYPOST
Apr 26, 2016
DAILY PROMPT
Crossroads
Sometimes we are the Crossroads for a person in need. The Crossroads between Life and Death. Health and sickness. Not on brag on myself but it is only God in me. Here is what I mean. Last year a pregnant African co-worker was being bullied by a supervisor. It hurt me to see her crying. I immediately called our Union Rep from Downtown and continued to make a hue and outcry to Shop Stewards plus Human Resources. I was outraged at the inhumane treatment she received. Sad to say the abuse came from certain white female supervisors. You’d think another woman would be compassionate. Not so.
This young lady could have been my daughter carrying my grand-daughter so I had to act. I could have kept my mouth shut but to me being a Christian calls for action. It requires that you stand up for those who for whatever reason cannot stand up for themselves. Plus I gave her my cell number so she could call or text me. I got the other women in the locker room to raise their voices also. Things began to turn around.
Activism is like fire shut up in my bones! My voice will not be silenced! I just can’t leave it alone and I will not leave the battlefield until I see results.
Good News: My African co-worker had a healthy baby girl early April 2016.
Listen
On one of my earlier vacations this year I went to a museum where one of the guards struck up a conversation with me. I too am a museum guard so we had something in common. Feeling at ease this gentleman told me he was 81 years old and still working. He took out his wallet showing me a photo of him as a young man. Then he began to speak of his beloved wife who had passed away about five years before. They had planned their retirement together but the cruelty of death took his dreams away. I did ask him if he had children which he does. Adult children. They encourage him to find someone else but as he said to me that someone else would not be her. The way he lovingly described her touched my heart. Having never been married I could not judge. It was not my place to judge but to listen. Work keeps him alive but he really wants to be reunited with his soul-mate/Life partner. In a way I understood him because my parents were married for 40 years when my Dad died, three years later my Mom joined him. That was their destiny to be reunited once again in Paradise. Sometimes the best thing we can do for people is listen and try to understand, to put yourself in their place. Their feelings are more valid than our opinions.
Compassion
Recently I came to work early as usual and found one of my male co-workers sitting outside the locker room crying. Another co-worker was trying to comfort him. Frightened that maybe he was sick or needed medical help I asked if I should get help. My co-worker assured me No so I too rub our tearful co-worker’s back and gave words of encouragement. I came to find out later that the poor man has colon cancer and that his father had committed suicide. Whoa! Dear Lord! Immediately I began to pray for him and confided in a few trusted co-workers who believe in pray and who would keep an eye on him. Basically Don’t want him to follow his father’s path.
When at the Crossroads we are at the foot of the Cross
I don’t know why but many times God has put me in the pathway of people at a crossroads. Different races, religions, faiths, ethnicities. Personally even though I was born and raised as a Christian I feel no obligation to force my beliefs on other people. God does the saving. One God. Many Pathways. God created humans. Humans created religions and often barriers but I believe the Lord wants us to be open to all who need us.
My parents were not particularly religious. They were not church goers however I remember the many times I saw my Mom help a neighbor in need, the lady next door who had just lost her husband, kind words & deeds. My Dad who reached out to many family members who needed his help. In return when we needed help neighbors just came over. We did not even have to ask.
When that the God calls me home I want to hear him say, “Well done thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Gabriel Hardeman Delegation – Feels Like Fire
Occupy Until I Return — The 6% and the 99% Join Forces
Occupy Until I Return – Part Two
Occupy till I return. The word occupy here means not merely to possess, or to take up space as it often does in our language, but to improve, and in the instance of activism to use our talents, gifts and abilities to advance and expand the opportunities, rights, and freedoms for those who may not have a voice or are under oppression. As we Occupy we Redeem the only the time but people worldwide who are victims of tyranny and domination. Our efforts are instrumental in changing their lives from victims to Victory. So Jesus commands his disciples to improve their talents; to make the most of them; to increase their capability of doing good, and to do it until he comes to call us hence, by death, to meet him. See 1 Corinthians 12:7; Eph 4:7. (http://bible.cc/luke/19-13.htm)
Activism Progress Update: well latest news is that the major subject of debate in the NYS Assembly is the OPWDD 6% proposed cut. As I see it if they’re still debating then there is still a chance to restore the money for Stephen Palmer and all special needs people. Also I’m writing articles for Advocate’s Voice newsletter published by QCDD and I’m joining forces with Occupy Wall Street, Occupy the Hood and Occupy Together. I know I used to disparage the Occupy Movement but now I feel they are more organized and have better direction & focus. Plus I need my fellow Occupiers. We all need them. Let’s all safely and peacefully practice the principles of Civil Disobedience.
I do not believe in anarchy. My calling is to Occupy within the system. The current structure of government is not going to disappear, however we must make our elected officials accountable and hold them responsible. We must make our voices heard by going to City Council Meetings, Town Hall Meetings, engaging our New York State assemblymen in Albany, marching, protesting, rallying and boycotting. I still believe in the power of the vote and the power of the purse. They go hand in hand. Resistance but peaceful resistance.
God Calls Everyone but Some don’t answer. Many including those in the church look at Stephen as somebody who needs to be fixed but it’s not Stephen who has the problem it is the temporarily abled. By saying Stephen needs to be cured, fixed or healed imply that he is defective. No that insulting attitude needs to be fixed. That type of bigotry needs to be cast aside. No more warehousing of the developmentally disabled and people with special needs!! Defenders of the Faith need to defend “the least of these” — those who are vulnerable in our society, and that includes the disabled, children, our persecuted LGBT sisters and brothers, the elderly, abused women and Veterans. No more domestic violence or sexual abuse against women and girls. No more Willowbrooks, No more special needs/developmentally disabled kids/adults hidden away in attics or basements. No more brutal murders and suicides like Matthew Shepherd, Branden Teena & Tyler Clementi.
We who claim to follow Jesus and his principles must speak out and make a stand for justice, for what is right and honorable. We have the power to put an end to evil and injustice. Activism knows no age limitations or religious barriers. Look at the example of our young sister Malala Yousafzai who risked her life to get an education not just for herself but for all girls and young women in Pakistan. Those who are called can no longer hide inside their storefront churches or within mansion edifices. The world needs us now more than ever!
Ecclesiastes 9:11
King James Version (KJV)
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.
The Time is now! The Doors are opening! Let’s us march onto Victory! The Battle is not over and Triumph is on the Way!!
Please also take the time to read Occupy until I return Part I published October 14, 2011.
Donations and Freewill offerings can be made directly to my PayPal account deborah.palmer280@gmail.com. Thank you and God Bless.
We are the 6%!!!
We Are the 6%!!
Who Will Stand for You?
I felt extremely empowered at the March 15th Rally against the 6% budget cuts yet at the same time I’m profoundly sad, a little frightened and very worried that we live in a society and a culture that can shun and throw away disabled people like my brother Stephen, the poor, the working class, yet celebrate the rich, wealthy and moronic celebrities. How is it in America, my country that I love and served in the Military (U.S. Army) to protect, has become a place where the poor and disabled have to fight for the basic dignities of life, whereas the Koch Brothers, Mayor Bloomberg, Rockefellers, Bushes, Rupert Murdoch, and the 1% are automatically entitled to not only the basics but even the small luxuries that should be available to all Americans. Disability Rights and Activism is also part of the Gospel of Inclusion. We refuse to go back to the days when developmentally and physically disabled children and adults were hidden away in attics or cast into torture chamber institutions never to be seen or heard from. Let’s view disability in a different light as being differently abled, not less than but a person with unique and special abilities.
It’s a crying shame the way we’ve devalued people with disabilities! We should have an allegiance to our most vulnerable populations, especially the disabled. It’s scary to see things moving backwards. I don’t want to see my brother Stephen warehoused in some institution. Willowbrook was a living nightmare for developmentally disabled people and a true disgrace. However each of us has to stand up and fight. Me, Stephen and four van loads of his fellow residents went up to Albany on Tuesday in all that pouring rain to face off our elected officials. I’m doing my part to make sure the disabled are not cast aside like garbage on the trash heap. We need more alternative Voices. We all must speak up. The Rally more than proved that for me. We must not be lulled into apathy and compliancy by fear or the right wing media. We need to return to the civil disobedience of Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks.
One of my girlfriends from the Bronx informed me that I made the 11pm Channel 7 Eyewitness news and on the local Bronx Cable station. I believe that God hears the cries of his children especially the disabled and he will turn Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s heart towards us and restore the 6% budget cuts. Faith without works is dead. We have to make our government accountable to our most vulnerable citizens and for all Americans. Protest. March. Advocate. Be an Activist. Indifference equals death to our basic rights and freedoms. Be the Solution and make it So!!
Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 