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opinions
Wanna be dictator
Heather Cox Richardson and Wendell Griffen
August 30, 2025
This morning, President Donald J. Trump talked to reporters as he signed several executive orders in the Oval Office. Trump sat behind the Resolute Desk as he has been doing lately, seeming to put its bulk between him and the reporters. Also as he has been doing lately, he kept his left hand over the right, seemingly to hide a large bruise.
Trump was there to announce an executive order charging Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with creating “specialized units” in the National Guard that will be “specifically trained and equipped to deal with public order issues,” apparently setting them up to take on domestic law enforcement as part of Trump’s attempt to take control of Democratic-run cities.
At the press opportunity, Trump claimed that he saved Washington, D.C.—where crime was at a 30-year low before he took control of the Metropolitan Police Department and mobilized the National Guard—from such rampant crime that no one dared to wear jewelry or carry purses. “People,” he said, “are free for the first time ever.”
Although in 1989 the Supreme Court ruled that burning a flag is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment, Trump ordered the Department of Justice to prosecute anyone who burns a flag, claiming they would automatically go to prison for a year (he has no authority to make such an order). After seven European leaders rushed to the White House to stabilize the U.S. approach to Russia after Trump’s disastrous meeting with Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on August 15, Trump claimed that the seven leaders actually represented 38 countries and that they refer to Trump as “the president of Europe.”
Calling Chicago, Illinois, a “a disaster” and “a killing field,” Trump referred to Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker as “a slob.” Trump complained that Pritzker had said Trump was infringing on American freedom and called Trump a dictator. Trump went on: “A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator. I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense and a smart person. And when I see what's happening to our cities, and then you send in troops instead of being praised, they're saying you're trying to take over the Republic. These people are sick.”
This afternoon, standing flanked by leaders from business, law enforcement, faith communities, education, local communities, and politics at the Chicago waterfront near the Trump Tower there, Governor Pritzker responded to the news that Trump is planning to send troops to Chicago.
He began by saying: “I want to speak plainly about the moment that we are in and the actual crisis, not the manufactured one, that we are facing in the city and as a state and as a country. If it sounds to you like I am alarmist, that is because I am ringing an alarm, one that I hope every person listening will heed, both here in Illinois and across the country.”
He acknowledged that “[o]ver the weekend, we learned from the media that Donald Trump has been planning for quite a while now to deploy armed military personnel to the streets of Chicago. This is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against. And it’s the reason that they established a federal system with a separation of powers built on checks and balances. What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional. It is un-American.”
Pritzker noted that neither his office nor that of Chicago’s mayor had received any communications from the White House. “We found out what Donald Trump was planning the same way that all of you did. We read a story in the Washington Post. If this was really about fighting crime and making the streets safe, what possible justification could the White House have for planning such an exceptional action without any conversations or consultations with the governor, the mayor, or the police?”
“Let me answer that question,” he said. “This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city in a blue state to try and intimidate his political rivals. This is about the president of the United States and his complicit lackey Stephen Miller searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities, and end elections.
There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention. There is no insurrection.”
Pritzker noted that every major American city deals with crime, but that the rate of violent crime is actually higher in Republican-dominated states and cities than in those run by Democrats. Illinois, he said, had “hired more police and given them more funding. We banned assault weapons, ghost guns, bump stops, and high-capacity magazines” and “invested historic amounts into community violence intervention programs.” Those actions have cut violent crime down dramatically. Pritzker pointed out that “thirteen of the top twenty cities in homicide rates have Republican governors. None of these cities is Chicago. Eight of the top ten states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states is Illinois.”
If Trump were serious about combatting crime, Pritzker asked, why did he, along with congressional Republicans, cut more than $800 million in public safety and crime prevention grants? “Trump,” Pritzker said, “is defunding the police.”
Then Pritzker turned to the larger national story. “To the members of the press who are assembled here today and listening across the country,” he said, “I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story. This is not a time to fall back into the reflexive crouch that I so often see where the authoritarian creep by this administration is ignored in favor of some horse race piece on who will be helped politically by the president's actions. Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city, punish his dissidents, and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab.”
Pritzker continued: “Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, ‘Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?’ Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here. Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy.’”
The governor called out the president for his willingness to drag National Guard personnel from their homes and communities to be used as political props. They are not trained to serve as law enforcement, he said, and did not “sign up for the National Guard to fight crime.” “It is insulting to their integrity and to the extraordinary sacrifices that they make to serve in the guard, to use them as a political prop, where they could be put in situations where they will be at odds with their local communities, the ones that they seek to serve.”
Pritzker said he hoped that Trump would “reconsider this dangerous and misguided encroachment upon our state and our city's sovereignty” and that “rational voices, if there are any left inside the White House or the Pentagon, will prevail in the coming days.”
But if not, he urged Chicagoans to protest peacefully and to remember that most members of the military and the National Guard stationed in Chicago would be there unwillingly. He asked protesters to “remember that they can be court martialed, and their lives ruined, if they resist deployment.” He suggested protesters should look to members of the faith community for guidance on how to mobilize.
Then Pritzker turned to a warning. “To my fellow governors across the nation who would consider pulling your national guards from their duties at home to come into my state against the wishes of its elected representatives and its people,” he said, “cooperation and coordination between our states is vital to the fabric of our nation, and it benefits us all. Any action undercutting that and violating the sacred sovereignty of our state to cater to the ego of a dictator will be responded to.”
He went on: “The state of Illinois is ready to stand against this military deployment with every peaceful tool we have. We will see the Trump administration in court. We will use every lever in our disposal to protect the people of Illinois and their rights.”
“Finally,” he said, “to the Trump administration officials who are complicit in this scheme, to the public servants who have forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man, to any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous, we are watching, and we are taking names. This country has survived darker periods than the one that we are going through right now. And eventually, the pendulum will swing back, maybe even next year. Donald Trump has already shown himself to have little regard for the many acolytes that he has encouraged to commit crimes on his behalf. You can delay justice for a time, but history shows you cannot prevent it from finding you eventually.
“If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law. As Dr. King once said, the arc of the moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Humbly, I would add, it doesn't bend on its own. History tells us we often have to apply force needed to make sure that the arc gets where it needs to go. This is one of those times.”
Heather Cox Richardson
By Wendell Griffen
If you don’t already know it, what Richardson wrote about is that the United States has been taken over by a white supremacist idiotic sociopathic fascist and his gangster capitalist hateful pseudo-religious cult of bigots.
This is what we should be talking about.
Every day.
Everywhere.
In pool halls, beauty salons, and barber shops.
In parks and at family reunions and class reunions.
In churches, mosques, temples, and prayer meetings.
On every talk show.
In every meeting.
In civic clubs, fraternal groups, and veterans organizations.
We should be talking about how a white supremacist fascist regime is brazenly operating in real time in the nation that calls itself the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” while other elected officials, religious bigots, and gangster capitalists are enabling it, cheering, consorting with it, and falling over themselves to profit from it.
We should be talking to each other about how a white supremacist sociopath invaded and is occupying Los Angeles and Washington D.C., and how he openly plans to militarily invade and occupy Chicago, Baltimore, New York City, and other places where he doesn’t have political voting majorities and complicit politicians.
We should be talking about how that white supremacist sociopathic idiot and his morally incompetent cabinet are ordering members of the U.S. military and other federal agencies to violate their oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, including the plainly domestic enemy named Donald Trump.
We should be talking about the constitutional and moral duty every officer and enlisted member of the military, every civil servant, every elected official, every local, state, and federal official, and every public employee has to disobey unconstitutional orders by Donald Trump and his fascist lackeys.
We should be talking about how Trump's behavior is not only fascist, racist, unconstitutional, and cruel, but also maniacal.
We should be discussing the unmistakable lunacy of the U.S. Sociopathic Idiot in Chief.
We should be talking about resistance. Demonstrations. Peaceful confrontations. How to stand up, denounce, condemn, and stop what this administration is doing.
We should be reminding people that John Roberts led the Supreme Court to give Trump a blank check in 2024 when it made him absolutely immune from criminal prosecution.
We should be talking about how Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate should be caucusing to protect our democracy, are not doing so, and what we intend to do about it.
We should be talking about how the House should be drafting articles of impeachment, aren't doing so, and what we intend to do about it.
We should be talking about how Vice President J.D. Vance and Cabinet secretaries should be initiating the process set out in the Twenty Fifth Amendment to declare Donald Trump mentally disabled, aren't doing so (because they are complicit in and enable Trump’s sociopathic idiocy and unconstitutional behavior), what the Congress should be doing about it, and what we will do because of their feckless duplicity and complicity.
We should be talking about the members of the House and Senate and the neo-Confederate governors who are cooperating with MAGA fascism, white supremacy, and bigotry by sending National Guard troops to places Trump wants them to intimidate local civilian elected officials and their populations.
We should be talking about how the Constitution of the United States is being openly violated, subverted, and disregarded by Trump and his administration, and how Trump and his lackeys have threatened federal judges for saying so in numerous court rulings.
We should be talking about the unrighteous preachers and other pseudo-religious people who are cheering, counseling, and courting Donald Trump for engaging in such lunacy, and about the cult of people who follow them.
We should be talking about this today, tomorrow, and every other day until we free ourselves from this evil regime.
No other nation will free us. No other nation will come to our aid or defense.
It’s time for “We the people…” to talk about this fascist tyranny and then get rid of it.
This is our moral and patriotic duty to one another, our national heritage, and to our posterity.
www.fierceprophetichope.blogspot.com
www.wendellgriffen.blogspot.com
Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Arkansas
pastorgriffen@newmillenniumchurch.us
CEO, Griffen Strategic Consulting, PLLC
www.griffenstrategicconsulting.com
griffenstrategicconsulting@gmail.com
Co-Chair, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
Hope fiercely. Love boldly.
Love one another. Jesus of Galilee, Palestine
We will find a way or make one. Hannibal of Carthage
Writing is how I fight. James H. Cone.
The time for pious words is over. Allan Aubrey Boesak
Justice is a verb!
https://fierceprohetichope.blogspot.com/2024/01/this-is-why-donald-trump-is-barred-from.html
opinions
The end of Civil Rights (1964–2025): An American obituary
by Dr. Edmond W. Davis | August 24, 2025
Its killers were many: A GOP-led gravediggers campaign determined to “make America great again” by undoing decades of progress; a U.S. Supreme Court that dismantled affirmative action, voting protections and reproductive rights; and state lawmakers who slashed funding for HBCUs, restricted access to the ballot and redrew districts to dilute Black voices.
Layered with punitive mandates, economic deductions and legal rollbacks, the current administration has presided over the slow suffocation of Civil Rights, lowering it into the ground while declaring victory for a vision of America rooted in exclusion. What once was a fragile but vital age of justice has become an obituary, written not in honor but in erasure.
The life and death of Civil Rights
Civil Rights in America was born with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Its parents were the sweat and sacrifice of enslaved Africans’ grandchildren, the courage of Reconstruction’s visionaries, and the martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement.
For 60 short years, Civil Rights lived among us. It gave all Americans who were not white males a taste of what full citizenship might mean. Black Americans also experienced this as they led the effort regarding this national shift. It opened doors to the ballot box, public accommodations and educational opportunities. It inspired copycat protections for women, immigrants, LGBTQ people, veterans and the disabled.
But today, in 2025, Civil Rights is dead. It was starved by court decisions, suffocated by voter suppression and stabbed in the back by a nation eager to pretend racism has been solved.
Like Reconstruction before it, Civil Rights never had the chance to mature.
The brief window of freedom
Let us remember the timeline:
1619–1865: Slavery — 246 years of chains
1865–1877: Reconstruction — 12 fragile years of progress
1878–1896: Gilded Age — white immigrants prospered, Black citizens were terrorized
1865–1964: Jim Crow/Black Codes — 99 years of state-sanctioned American apartheid
1955–1968: Civil Rights Movement — the prelude
1964–2025: Civil Rights Age — 61 years, the longest yet, but still only a sliver of America’s 406-year history
That means Black Americans have spent 346 years in slavery or Jim Crow, and just 61 years with the illusion of equal citizenship. Freedom never was the foundation — only the exception.
Who benefited?
Civil Rights was conceived for African Americans, yet its inheritance was divided among many: white women, military veterans, the disabled, LGBTQ, and other ethnic minorities (Latino/Hispanic, Asian, European, Arab).
For example, these advances sprang from the Black struggle but benefited many others:
Immigration and Nationality Act (1965)
Title IX (1972)
Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)
Some things specifically benefited Black Americans:
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
13th Amendment (1865) with the loophole of prison slavery
14th Amendment (1868)
15th Amendment (1870)
Executive Order 8802 (1941) which prohibited racial discrimination in the national defense industry
Affirmative Action (1969) Arthur Fletcher’s brainchild
“Civil Rights never was allowed to be Black America’s alone. Others claimed its benefits.”
Civil Rights never was allowed to be Black America’s alone. Others claimed its benefits, while African Americans still bear the heaviest chains of inequality and inequity. Outside of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the antilynching bill (2022), not many civil rights laws, codes, acts or bills were designed explicitly for African Americans. These laws were orchestrated to cover gender, nationality and sexual orientation.
Cause of death
Civil Rights was killed by neglect, stripped of oxygen by courts and buried under the weight of white denial.
Shelby County v. Holder (2013) gutted the Voting Rights Act
Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard (2023) killed Affirmative Action
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health (2022) revealed the fragility of all rights
States continue to underfund HBCUs by billions
Redlining still cripples Black wealth
Black maternal mortality rivals developing nations
Mass incarceration remains Jim Crow by another name
The coroner’s report is clear: Civil Rights died of state-sanctioned neglect.
A glimpse of what was possible
In death, we also must remember the brilliance of its life. Even under segregation, Black America built empires: Tulsa’s Black Wall Street, Durham’s Parrish Street, Little Rock’s 9th Street, Harlem, East Ninth Street in Junction City, Kan., and countless thriving enclaves between the 1890s and 1950s. Those communities created wealth, dignity and power that integration never delivered.
Today, Black household wealth remains a fraction of white wealth, and the American Dream for Black families feels more like a nightmare of debt, policing and disenfranchisement.
The obituary’s lesson
Reconstruction lasted 12 years. Civil Rights lived 60. Both were assassinated by the same and: America’s refusal to let Black freedom be permanent.
Civil Rights is survived by its stepchildren — women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, disability rights and immigrant rights. But its true heirs, Black Americans, are left with nothing but mourning clothes and unpaid reparations.
There’s also evidence of Civil Rights’ stepchildren causing generations of harm to Black communities. Asians, Arabs, Latinos, Africans and other ethnic groups all come to black communities and establish lucrative businesses after receiving funds to get started. Most of these other groups, to obtain funding on paper, categorized themselves as “white” to get funding, and they do. People who come to America get funded quicker than Black Americans born here.
“Reconstruction lasted 12 years. Civil Rights lived 60.”
If this is indeed the death of Civil Rights, then what follows cannot be another funeral. It must be a resurrection — not of fragile legislation, but of durable power.
Economic rights through ownership
Human rights beyond state permission
Collective rights rooted in community resilience
Civil Rights has been lowered into the ground. Yet history reminds us that even in one of America’s most preposterous chapters — when segregation itself was law — African Americans built schools, banks, businesses and entire self-sustaining ecosystems. Deprived of federal funding and bound by white-sanctioned governance, Black America still forged progress and dignity. That resilience remains our inheritance.
But let us be clear: Civil Rights in America never was solely about the human rights of African Americans. It was born from Black struggle yet rebranded for everyone else. Asians, Latinos, Arabs, Ukrainians, LGBTQ communities, and others have gained footholds through its framework, while Black equity remains underfunded, undervalued and overlooked.
The truth is painful: “Civil Rights” became a national theme only when it could be shared, diluted and made universal, but its origin was always a Black issue.
What stands before us now is not merely an obituary. It is the possibility of a rebirth — one authored unapologetically by Black America itself. Our fight lit the torch of freedom; our unity can keep it burning.
Edmond W. Davis is a social historian, speaker, collegiate professor, international journalist and former director of the Derek Olivier Research Institute. He is an expert on various historical and emotional intelligence topics. He’s globally known for his work as a researcher regarding the history of the Tuskegee Airmen and Airwomen. He’s the founder of America’s first and only National HBCU Black Wall Street Career Fest.
This article was presented by Deborah Springer Suttlar. Mrs. Suttlar is a social and community advocate, and a long-time supporter of public schools.
opinions
EDUCATIONAL EMERGENCY: 10th Week- 95thGeneral Assembly
By Joy C. Springer
August 30, 2025
EDUCATIONAL EMERGENCY CONTINUES ……
Since the end of the 2025 Regular Session of the Arkansas House of Representatives on April 16, 2025, many of us have continued to work for you to ensure that we remain focused on passing future legislation that will have a lifelong impact on the lives of Arkansans and/or persons who are currently living in the “Natural State.”
There have been various meetings of Legislative standing committees and several meetings of subcommittees of the Arkansas Legislative Council (ALC). Remember, what I have previously communicated regarding ALC. It has been an eye-0pening experience to hear from these committees. I was particularly impressed with the report of the ALC-Hospital, Medicaid & Developmental Disabilities Study Subcommittee.
This committee chose to address the following topic: “Building a Workforce and Social Services Integrated Service Delivery System – “One Door” Approach. Here are some important foundational facts regarding the “state” of Arkansas reported by WORKED Consulting[i]:
1) In Arkansas, 16% of people live below the poverty level, and an Additional 28% earn above the federal poverty level but less than
the cost of living in their county.
2) Labor Force participation in Arkansas is 58.4% (43rd) as compared to a rate of 62.3% nationally. 3) The unemployment rate is 3.7% in Arkansas.
4) In 2023-24, there were 32,689 students who graduated from high school in Arkansas.
5) There are an additional estimated 41, 000 underemployed workers in Arkansas.
6) In February 2025, Arkansas employers had 86,000 unfilled jobs. In September 2024, the total number of job openings was 102,000 and a job opening rate of 5.9% tied for the highest in the nation that month.
7) In June 2025 there were 52,681 unemployed workers in Arkansas.
8) There are an additional estimated 41,000 underemployed workers in Arkansas.
9) In February 2025, Arkansas employers had 86,000 unfilled jobs. In September 2024, the total number of job openings was 102,000 and a job opening rate of 6.9% tied for highest in the nation that month.
WORKED determined that there were three areas to examine to determine whether the funds being expended to the educational institutions were beneficial to the state of Arkansas. In words, what type of returns are being received by the state of Arkansas by its investment in providing various educational opportunities. The words used were:
“What type of returns are being received because of the state’s investments (dollars spent) at the various education institutions across the state of Arkansas. The direct question is: “what educational degrees being offered by the various institutions actually produce productive employees for the various job opportunities being offered by the state?”
WORKED will continue to examine Arkansas’ workforce program administration, its service delivery integration and financial integration. Does this mean that we will be limiting the various degrees being offered at the state’s educational institutions to fill the various employment opportunities in the State?
The Educational Emergency continues…
[i] . The data in this article was provided by WORKED Consulting with the objective of “Building a Workforce and Social Services Integrated Service Delivery System for the state of Arkansas and presented by Mason Bishop of WorkED Consulting.
State Representative Joy C. Springer represents District 76 in the Arkansas House of Representatives. Representative Springer previously served on the Little Rock School Board and is a long-time civil rights activist and supporter of equity in public education. She currently serves on the House Judiciary Committee and House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs committees. Additionally, she serves on the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) and the JBC Employee Benefits Division Oversight committee and as a 1st Alternate on the Legislative Joint Auditing committee.
opinions
America Deserves Trump
by Deborah Suttlar
August 16, 2025
The adage, “You reap what you sow.” appears to be true. Trump and the Republicans have eliminated services, rendered programs useless, dismissed competent scientist, fired qualified workers in government, resorted to immigration concentration camps disguised as detention facilities, invoked anti-DEI policies and the American public is silent. Does this mean that most Americans have become desensitized to the plight of the poor, those disenfranchised, the plight of immigrants and people of color because it does not affect them? Or is it because they condone it? Zora Neal Hurston said, “If you are silent about your pain, they will kill you and say you enjoyed it.”
Americans have not exhibited “greatness” or “exceptionalism.” What they have shown is the ability to continue to be “exceptionally stupid racist.” The obvious majority of White Americans have deliberately ignored Trump’s racist character. Many admire his craving for power and greed because he espouses the words, “Make America Great Again.” Now, we have the not so Supreme Court which allowed a felon to become president, and that is a non- issue for too many Americans. They have embraced perverted religion instead of being true faithful followers of the Word of God. At the same time, they have made a determined effort to mask the truth (Critical Race Theory and Woke) because it reveals their deceit, lies, prejudices and unscrupulous laws to maintain the white man’s advantage forever.
It is apparent that Americans have never honestly or fairly implemented the words of the Constitution. When you play with words, you can make them apply the way you want by invoking personal preferences and prejudices. My father once said, “White people have all the money and give us all the rules.” Even white women were not considered of equal status. This behavior from men who denied their own women equal rights. So, you can see where that leaves the rest of us. Treading through ignorance, racism and evil.
America attempted a lackluster effort to address centuries of wrongs. However, a genuine attempt has not occurred, as any progress is met with opposition. As a result, the situation persists. America did enslave, mistreat, and disenfranchise people and the beat goes on.
If we continue to remain silent and ignore Trump, then we do deserve Trump. We better “Wake up.” I will not be silent because there is an evil spirit in America right now.
James 2:26, As the body without the spirit is dead, faith without deeds is dead.
African Proverb, “The path of a liar is very short.”
Deborah Springer Suttlar is a community activist and longtime supporter of public schools.
opinions
the writer is a witness
By Starlette Thomas
August 16, 2025
Eugenic and nationalist imaginaries are retelling the same old stories of a favored “race” with God-given superiority and the church’s blessing to steal land predestined to be colonized. It’s a “Master Narrative” set, the Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and Survival of the Fittest repackaged. It is also the reason why some writers write.
We are pencil-pushing and cleaning up history. We are keying data and citing our sources of self-regard. Thank you, Toni Morrison.
We are patiently waiting for the words to come to us and holding our tongues lest we interrupt them as they gather, lining up behind our teeth. Either way, as vessels, we are trusting the process and for me, the Muse.
We are often creating while destitute of the silence, stillness, time and space it takes to pen it down. The conditions are never right to draft a vision of a future world that is truer, braver and safer for all human beings and every living thing.
We are often creating out of nothing and out of necessity—lest we succumb to the meager and insufficient words around us. We are responding to a nudge or a nagging voice, which, when heard, means, “Write that down.” AI could never!
Amiri Baraka wrote in “Technology and Ethos” in 1969:
“Nothing has to look or function the way it does. The West man’s freedom, unscientifically got at the expense of the rest of the world’s people, has allowed him to xpand his mind— spread his sensibility wherever it cdgo, & so shaped the world, & its powerful artifact-engines.”
He posits that this technology developed from a “freedom” obtained through the exploitation of others, shaping the world according to Western perspectives. Baraka advocates for a different kind of technology—one that is more humanistic, rooted in consciousness and spirituality and not dictated by power or Western ideals.
The writer is a witness. The core of bearing witness through writing lies in the act of documenting and preserving memories, acknowledging their existence, and creating a record of events, emotions, and personal truths. It allows individuals and communities to speak their truth and challenge dominant narratives.
Raised writing utensil or hand before swooping down on the keys, the writer must tell it, can’t help but spell it out. We cannot keep our side of the story to ourselves but must spill our guts and thus, the beans.
Why? “Because those who monopolize resources monopolize imagination,” Ruha Benjamin teaches us in Imagination: A Manifesto.
“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive,” Audre Lorde explained. It is the reason why when it comes to the racial imagination, I try to leave little to it.
Because sociologist Patricia Hill Collins is right when she describes stereotypes as “controlling images.” It is best we imagine ourselves for ourselves, as the “white imagination” is a dangerous place to be. Claudia Rankine also makes it clear that it is safer this way: “because white men can’t police their imagination black men are dying.”
So, I punch keys and push back on attacks on personhood. Indentations are reminders of the importance of place-making. We are all somebody: somebody’s baby, somebody’s sibling, somebody’s parent, somebody’s entire world.
Writing is also resistance. It is an act of defiance to say, “That’s not how my story goes. That’s not how I see it and that sounds nothing like me.”
Because the storymakers of colonialism and patriarchy will talk over you. The storymakers of racism and white-body supremacy will tell stories about you. They’ll put adjectives and their agendas ahead of you.
So, tell your story before they do. Be a witness and write like the future depends on you.
Starlette Thomas is the Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
opinions
A CALL TO ACTION CONCERNING U.S.-ISRAELI GENOCIDE IN GAZA
by Wendell Griffen
August 8, 2025
Over 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli assaults in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
“The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that many people reportedly continue to be killed and injured, including people seeking food along the UN convoy routes and militarized distribution points. Some 1,500 people have been reportedly killed since May,” Farhan Haq, UN deputy spokesperson, told reporters. He added that a health care worker with the Palestine Red Crescent Society was killed Sunday in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Yunus, southern Gaza. https://scheerpost.com/2025/08/05/1500-killed-while-seeking-aid-in-gaza-since-may-un/
Countless other persons are buried under the rubble of demolished churches, mosques, residential dwellings, hospitals, schools, and other structures because of Israeli attacks against Gaza. Meanwhile, the United States has repeatedly vetoed resolutions in the UN Security Council calling for an immediate bilateral ceasefire and provision of humanitarian aid to besieged and defenseless Palestinians.
I am a liberation theologian in the religion of Jesus, an activist for peace and justice, and a faith leader who has painful knowledge about how politicians hijack the religions of Jesus and Judaism and fraudulently use religious identity to disguise white supremacy, Anglo-European paternalism, racist bigotry, discrimination, militarized authoritarianism, greed, and zionist lust for empire concerning Israel and Palestine. Now, as Allan Boesak of South Africa and I did in a jointly worded statement in February 2024 (https://fierceprohetichope.blogspot.com/2024/02/from-allan-boesak-in-south-africa-and.html), and as the world is aghast about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, I again implore prophetic people to take the following positions.
1. Deplore, denounce, and condemn United States diplomatic, economic, military, and other support to and funding for the apartheid State of Israel.
2. Call for the immediate end to all U.S. governmental aid to Israel.
3. Demand that the United States support a resolution in the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate bilateral unconditional ceasefire by all parties to the ongoing Israeli war against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, and for the safe unconditional release and return of all hostages held by Hamas and Israel.
4. Demand that funding be immediately restored to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for humanitarian assistance and welfare relief for displaced Palestinians refugees from Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
5. Demand that the United States withdraw its opposition to the Petition of the Republic of South Africa which accuses the State of Israel with genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza.
6. Demand that the United States formally recognize Palestine as an independent State, and support the admission of Palestine as a free and independent sovereign state before the United Nations.
7. Conditioned on acceptance by and cooperation from indigenous leaders from the State of Palestine, and as reparations for almost a century of Zionist-inspired and U.S. funded and outfitted white supremacist violence against Palestinians and other persons of African descent in Palestine and Gaza, demand that the United Nations establish and administer a temporary diplomatic, security, economic, and cultural presence in Palestine tasked with the following mission:
(i) Support the right of Palestinians to sovereignty, security, restoration, return to their homes, villages, and neighborhoods;
(ii) Coordinate the safe release, recovery, and return of all persons who are detained or otherwise held hostage by Hamas and Israel; and
(iii) Cooperate in demanding, procuring, and distributing reparations to the free and independent State of Palestine in an amount equal to the monetary value of all funding, weapons, munitions, other materiel support, and diplomatic support provided to Israel by the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and their allies during Israel’s more than 77-year scheme of settler colonialism, white supremacy, apartheid, mass murder, and land and mineral theft against Palestinians.
8. Demand that Israel immediately withdraw all civilian, military, and intelligence security personnel and forces from East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and Gaza, and that the United Nations supply a security force, with the advice and consent of the State of Palestine, to ensure the security of Palestine and protect Palestinians from settler and other Israeli-U.S. sponsored and subsidized violence.
9. Demand that the United States and Israel be prosecuted in the International Court of Justice for mass murder, starvation, land theft, depopulation, genocide, atrocities, unlawful detainment, and other war crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank Territories, and East Jerusalem.
As Allan Boesak has written: The wrongs we see are not just happening; they are caused to happen, and they are happening to… God’s children who are vulnerable, targeted, and excluded from human consideration. They are not happening randomly, they are deeply systemic, deliberately built into systems of oppression, domination, and dehumanization. And we must not be afraid to say it. [Allan Aubrey Boesak, Pharaohs on Both Sides of the Blood-Red Waters, (Cascade Books, 2017), page 81, italics added]
My disgust grows minute by minute as the world views live footage of starving, dismembered, unhoused, sickened, and grief-torn men, women, and children being exterminated in Gaza. I will not betray my commitment to the gospel of love and justice and be silent while the U.S. and Israel murders, maims, loots, poisons, starves, torments, and commits genocide on our Palestinian siblings.
And I am not so foolish as to believe that continuing to finance, arm, cheer, and provide diplomatic cover for Israel will produce peace, justice, and end its genocide in Gaza. When people are murdering others, it makes no sense to give them more weapons, ammunition, and money and expect them to quit their killing spree, let alone confess to being murderers.
Wendell Griffen is the author of Parables, Politics, and Prophetic Faith published by (Nurturing Faith, (2023) and
The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope (Judson Press, (2017). He is also an ordained minister and former elected judge.
www.fierceprophetichope.blogspot.com
www.wendellgriffen.blogspot.com
Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Arkansas
pastorgriffen@newmillenniumchurch.us
CEO, Griffen Strategic Consulting, PLLC
www.griffenstrategicconsulting.com
griffenstrategicconsulting@gmail.com
Co-Chair, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
opinions
I’m Getting Away from Using the Word Christian
by Rev. Dr. C.E. McAdoo
August 8, 2025
ALHAMDUILLIH - HAMDULLAM (Arabic) Haruchhasham n(Hebrew).
I’m getting away from the word Christian. I’ll get into more depth with this, but what has been going on in our Christian communities—at least in some Christian communities—has, from my perspective, bastardized the word, Christian.
Yes, I am a 44-year United Methodist pastor. Yes, I have seminary credentials and have been to a lot of schools. Yes, I have been preaching for a long time.
But I do not believe it is right for us, as Hakeem Jeffries said in his monumental speech, to pray on Sunday and then prey on Monday—and do both under the guise of being Christian. Instead, I believe we should start using the term Christ follower and being that in truth. They were first called Christians in Antioch, in Acts.
Other phrases and words have been bastardized too. Like saying "nip it in the butt" instead of the actual phrase, "nip it in the bud," or saying "on accident" instead of "by accident." Another popular one is "I could care less," when the proper version is "I couldn’t care less," or "beckon call" instead of "beck and call." The improper versions of these phrases have become ingrained in many of our lexicons, and I fear this is what is becoming of the word Christian.
Now many of the articles I write do not have a direct Christ-following component to them as they are more general, but the times in which we are living require me to make where I stand clear. I go back to the What Would Jesus Do (WWJD)movement and, in considering that and my calling as a Christ follower, I must ask myself: “What am I doing for others?” I have to consider what I’m doing for myself and what I’m doing on a daily basis. Are these things Christ would do?
I do know I am a sinner saved by grace, so I am not doing 100% of everything Christ would do. But I can, and do, just think about it. What does it mean to call myself a Christian or a Christ follower? For us as United Methodists and as United Methodist churches, it is all the aspects of grace. We believe in prevenient grace, the grace that goes before, the grace that is there before we get to it. God has already come and is already working on us and our decisions. So, we are not surprised to receive a bounty of grace, forgiveness, and affirmation.
I know this article and writing about the bastardization of the word Christian will upset some folks. But I think, with what is going on in the world today, we need to be upset about something. And some of that upset should be focused around the question: “Am I doing all that I can do to really be a Christ follower?”
This article isn’t particularly long, but I hope someone finds power in it and that it changes someone’s life.
Rev. Dr. C.E. McAdoo is a retired District Superintendent with the United Methodist Church
opinions
Freedom versus Independence
by Deborah Springer Suttlar
June 27, 2025
Juneteenth was celebrated on June 19, 2025. This was the day of celebration for the formerly enslaved to celebrate their freedom from bondage. On July 4, 2025, there will be a celebration for the enslaver’s Independence from Britain. As with the enslaved, the enslavers fought a war, but it was to become financially independent from Britain. I should also mention that the enslaved helped their enslavers fight for their independence in the Revolutionary War. As we know, with the Civil War, the Southern States were fighting against the Northern States to keep slavery for profit. While both holidays celebrate people being released, there is a difference in freedom from enslavement and Independence from “taxation without representation.” What a familiar position.
Although celebrating the 4th of July has been tradition for Black Americans, I have spoken out in recent years in respect to why we celebrate this holiday with such fervor when we had no association with it? However, I must reflect on the former reasoning that we did so because at one time we “had too.” We were following the habits and customs of our enslavers. The other reason is, it has become tradition for us as Black Americans to go along with societal traditions and celebrations because we just like to have fun.
Today, I have a different opinion on the celebration of the 4th of July. I cannot truly celebrate their independence when I know that my ancestors were suffering from brutal enslavement. In fact, it was 89 years later that our ancestors were freed from enslavement while years earlier the enslavers fought over being taxed unfairly. How hypocritical. What is even more hypocritical is that the first person to die in the fight for the enslavers Independence was Crispus Attucks, a Black man of African and Indigenous descent. It is reported that he died in the Boston Massacre as a casualty of the Revolutionary War. Ironically, he is remembered as a symbol of resistance against British rule. Ain’t that something! A Black man becomes the martyr for the enslavers/colonizers.
I would never tell any Black American not to celebrate the 4th of July. I do want us to be aware of what and why we are celebrating. It is good to celebrate any holiday in your country. However, I must remind all Americans that Juneteenth, like Independence Day, is a significant event in American history and deserves equal reverence, recognition and respect. We are God’s children too.
In 1852 Frederick Douglas delivered his famous speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? It was written 13 years prior to the Emancipation Proclamation while people of color were enslaved. He urged them to reflect on the continuous oppression of the enslaved people during the celebration of a holiday, acknowledging their freedom/independence. Today, it seems highly hypocritical that in this country, Black people along with Indigenous, Hispanics and Immigrants are being treated with such disrespect and inhumanity while once again White Americans celebrate freedom and independence. Then, at the same time removing all the previous laws and policies to correct past evils. Make America Great Again? Or is it, “Make Segregation Great Again?”
Celebrate the 4th of July if you think it is appropriate for you. Remember this country continues to revere the dead losers of the Civil War. As for me and my house, I’m still celebrating Juneteenth.
Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred. African Proverb
Deborah Springer Suttlar is a community activist and longtime supporter of public schools.
opinions
We Will Regret....................
From Wendell Griffen
August 2, 2025
We Will Regret Not Standing Up to This Venomous Cruelty
August 1, 2025
By Linda Greenhouse
Ms. Greenhouse, the recipient of a 1998 Pulitzer Prize, reported on the Supreme Court for The Times from 1978 to 2008.
“Fifteen years ago, when Arizona enacted a notorious anti-immigrant “show me your papers” law, I wrote an essay in The Times that began: “I’m glad I’ve already seen the Grand Canyon. Because I’m not going back to Arizona as long as it remains a police state, which is what the appalling anti-immigrant bill that Governor Jan Brewer signed into law last week has turned it into.”
The essay provoked a variety of reactions, most supportive but some vituperatively negative. One angry reader, noting that the newspaper identified me as teaching at Yale Law School, wrote to the school’s dean to demand that he fire me. The dean and I had a good laugh over that letter. But rather than dismiss it as the product of an eccentric crank, I realize now that I should have understood the letter as a window on the toxic brew of anti-immigrant sentiment that led a state to pass such a law.
The Obama administration challenged Arizona’s law, and after the Supreme Court invalidated most of it in 2012, the harsh anti-immigrant wave subsided. But now my letter writer and like-minded people have a friend in the White House — or friends, actually — among them, Stephen Miller. The deputy chief of staff appears to be giving President Trump his marching orders for the arrests and deportations now shredding the civic fabric of communities across the country.
I have a home in the Los Angeles area, and my recent weeks there encompassed the deployment of the Marines and the federalization of California’s National Guard. I steeled myself every morning to read the granular reporting in The Los Angeles Times of scenes that I could never have imagined just months ago: people snatched upwhile waiting at a bus stop in peaceful Pasadena; the undocumented father of three Marines taken at his landscaping job, pinned down and punched by masked federal agents before being thrown into detention. People whose quiet presence among us was tolerated for decades as they paid their taxes and raised their American children are now hunted down like animals, so fearful of even going grocery shopping that Los Angeles nonprofits have mobilized to deliver food to their doors.
I was taking an early morning walk in my neighborhood when a black S.U.V. with tinted windows slowed to a stop a half block ahead. I considered: If this is ICE coming to take someone, should I intervene? Start filming? Make sure the victims know their rights? Or just keep walking, secure in the knowledge that no one was coming for me? The car turned out to be an airport limo picking up a passenger, and I was left to ponder how bizarre it was to feel obliged to run through such a mental triage on a summer morning on an American city street.
Something beyond the raw politics of immigration lies behind the venomous cruelty on display, and I think it is this: To everyone involved, from the policymakers in Washington to the masked agents on the street, undocumented individuals are “the other” — people who not only lack legal rights as a formal matter but who stand outside the web of connection that defines human society. Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, refers to undocumented immigrants as “the gotaways,” the ones we didn’t catch.
In a lecture at Loyola University Chicago in April, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso observed that the current immigration crisis “is driven by the deeper crisis of public and social life.” He continued: “On a fundamental level, these are signs that we are losing the story of who we are as a country. This is a crisis of narrative. Are we no longer a country of immigrants? Are we no longer a country that values the dignity of the human person, individual liberties and with a healthy regard for checks and balances?”
An adaptation of Bishop Seitz’s powerful lecture was published by the Catholic magazine Commonweal, which is where I read it. Another bishop, Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino, Calif., 60 miles east of Los Angeles, took the rare step last week of informing the 1.6 million worshipers in the diocese by letter that they were excused from attending Mass if they were afraid of immigration enforcement if they came to church. The Catholic Church has distinguished itself by the moral clarity of its critique of the president’s deportation obsession.
I wish I saw the same powerful advocacy from major Jewish organizations, which I’d argue have a particular responsibility and interest in addressing this issue. Aren’t antisemitism and anti-immigrant cruelty two sides of the same coin? Both spring from viewing members of a group as “the other.” The focus of these organizations, naturally enough, is antisemitism, and the Trump administration’s exploitation of the real problem of antisemitism for its own purposes seems to have thrown some of them off-kilter.
I’ve been wondering when the moment will come when ICE will go far enough to persuade more people outside Los Angeles that it must be reined in. Maybe it will look something like the military invasion of the city’s MacArthur Park the other day, when soldiers and federal agents on horseback and in armored vehicles swept in for no obvious purpose other than to sow terror. “It’s the way a city looks before a coup,” Mayor Karen Bass, who rushed to the park, said later.
Can New Yorkers envision such a scene in Central Park? Is anywhere safe now for someone who can’t show the right papers?
People of a certain age might remember the songwriter Jimmy Webb’s weirdly compelling “MacArthur Park,” with its refrain that begins: “MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark.” Growing up in the East, I had never heard of MacArthur Park when the song hit the charts in 1968, and I wasn’t sure it was a real place. All these years later, something real is melting for sure. It is the glue that holds civil society together.”
For my part ..................................................................................................
Did you notice that Greenhouse refused to use the F word - fascism? She is not an outlier among journalists. How many times have you used that word to describe the political ideology that now dominates U.S. society?
When did you last use it?
Why do you refrain from using it? I've been trying for years to convince you to write and warn your readers about it.
Call It Fascism, Please
Surely you know that fascism is the authoritarian and nationalistic right wing political ideology and form of government characterized by intolerant or oppressive policies and practices. What more evidence do you need to know that fascism is actively working the levers of power in this country?
All three branches of the U.S. government now are driven by a fascist mindset. President Donald Trump’s vicious sociopathic behavior is typical of how fascist autocrats act. Speaker Mike Johnson's pseudo-Christian political rhetoric typifies the idea of a religious agenda that sacralizes fascist authoritarian elites.
Chief Justice John Roberts heads a right wing super-majority on the Supreme Court that officially validated fascist authoritarianism by its July 1, 2024, decision in Donald Trump v. United States. Incidentally, fascism was not mentioned even by Justice Ketanji Jackson's stirring dissenting opinion.
Instead of calling fascism out, journalists (including religious journalists) are focused on antisemitism, anti-immigration sentiment, Christian nationalism, and opposition to "wokeness," DEI, and critical studies. Although those are real problems, they do not (singly nor collectively) accurately describe the real and present threat posed by fascism. None of those issues approaches the militant political danger that fascism always poses.
As observers of human behavior and systems, we share responsibility for identifying and naming threats to love, justice, and peace. Please recognize that fascism is threatening immigrants, public health, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to combat and remedy historical oppression based on bigotry focused on racial, sexual, gender, religious, and ability differences.
Please see that fascism is what the Project 2025 agenda envisioned. Please see that fascism and its tyranny are the evils about which we must speak, write, and help people resist.
We have a moral obligation to call the cruel, greedy, ruthless, behavior and policies that are enacted and carried out by the Trump administration at the behest of its Project 2025 Heritage Foundation funders and operatives what they are - fascism.
The fact that Trump and members of Congress were elected does not prevent their policies and practices from being fascist.
Congress never created a “Department” of Governmental Efficiency” (DOGE). Trump did so by executive fiat.
Trump did not receive Congressional authorization to engage in war against Iran by bombing Iranian nuclear facilities. Trump did it unilaterally.
Neither the War Powers Act nor the U.S. Constitution grants authority to the U.S. President to unilaterally wage war against another sovereign entity, whether the entity be Iran, California, or any other state.
Trump has no constitutional power to have Homeland Security operatives to search, seize, detain, and deport anyone without due process of law.
Trump has no constitutional power to shut down congressionally established and appropriated federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education.
Yet, Congress, led by Trump sycophant House Speaker Mike Johnson, recently enacted a law that treats Trump’s presidential office as if the United States is a dictatorship, not a democratic republic.
The Supreme Court, led by the feckless Chief Justice John Roberts, has issued rulings that treat presidential power as absolute.
As I write these words, the largest city in California, Los Angeles, is terrorized by Homeland Security agents and U.S. Marines. Undocumented immigrants are unable to live without fear. At various locations across the United States, Trump administration operatives have seized permanent residents and naturalized citizens, including parents of U.S. military personnel.
These actions are the products of fascism, not democracy. We must boldly say so.
Then we must organize and do the hard work of resisting MAGA fascism. Our resistance will require civil disobedience. That resistance will be violently mischaracterized and mistreated viewed by MAGA fascist leaders and sycophants. We must develop strategies and tactics for protecting one another from and responding to that violence.
And we must recognize and accept two other unpleasant lessons from history. No fascist regime takes and holds political power over people who love liberty and justice without resorting to violence. No fascist regime leaves power without resorting to violence to hold onto it. The January 6, 2021 insurrection demonstrated that Trump’s MAGA brand of fascism bears out these unpleasant lessons.
It is past time for people in the United States to admit that this nation is not exceptional. The U.S. is not “fascism proof.” Instead, our nation has become the latest and biggest fascist-led society in the world. We will not become better unless we admit this reality and treat it as a clear and present danger to liberty, justice, and peace.
The rest of the world recognizes, despises, and is pondering how to overcome U.S. fascism. They are also wondering when we will do so.
It’s time for us to act like we aren’t afraid to face fascism, fight it, and overcome it. Our future depends on whether we have the courage and will to do so.
Wendell Griffen is the author of Parables, Politics, and Prophetic Faith published by (Nurturing Faith, (2023) and
The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope (Judson Press, (2017). He is also an ordained minister and former elected judge.
www.fierceprophetichope.blogspot.com
www.wendellgriffen.blogspot.com
Pastor, New Millennium Church, Little Rock, Arkansas
pastorgriffen@newmillenniumchurch.us
CEO, Griffen Strategic Consulting, PLLC
www.griffenstrategicconsulting.com
griffenstrategicconsulting@gmail.com
Co-Chair, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
opinions
Is Our Measurement Within Us?
by Rev. Dr. C.E. McAdoo
August 2, 2025
ALHAMDUILLIH - HAMDULLAM (Arabic) Haruchhasham n(Hebrew).
Thank you, God! All Praise and thanks to God for all others!
Walt Disney said, “Whatever you do, do it well.” My sister, the president of the Wilson County Black History Committee, said do it well in less than an hour, and I agree with them both. I hope this article will set the stage for the expansion of our thoughts, our hope, our development, and our prosperity.
Let me ask you what I asked my kinfolk and people back home: “Have you ever wondered how to unlock your full potential?” Repeat that as you read it: “Have you ever wondered how to unlock your full potential?” As I thought about this, the key to unlocking it for me was a motivational speaker’s TOOT. The unlocking key I want to give to you in this article is 4 blips, 3 grips, 2 rips, and 3 pips. This might be new to you, so let’s go through these blips, grips, rips, and pips.
Our first blip is this: you can measure how tall a person is, but you cannot measure how high they can jump. For example, there was a ten-foot fence near my brother’s house. My friends and I went over there and sneaked in, but couldn’t get out the same way we came in. So, we all had to deal with this ten-foot fence. We were all different heights, but when he started shooting, we were all able to get over that fence!
Our second blip is: you can measure a person’s foot size, but you can’t measure how fast they can run. No matter your foot size, let the right thing or the right somebody get after you and you will be saying, “Feet, don’t fail me now!”
Our third blip: you can measure someone’s degrees, diplomas, certificates, and papers, but you cannot measure how much education a person has. Our measurement is within us.
Our fourth blip: you can measure the length of a baseball or softball bat, but you cannot measure how far you may be able to hit the ball or how many times you might strike out.
Now for grips. The first grip is: you can measure a person’s fingers, but you can’t measure how tightly they will hold on to something. The second grip: you can measure the grip of a bobby pin in a woman’s hair, but you can’t measure how good she will look unless she puts the bobby pins in the right place. The third grip: you can measure the grip and size of a suitcase, but only TSA knows what we are traveling with. (And please don’t travel with the wrong things these days.)
As for rips: you can measure the speed with which someone is ripping up and down the street, but you can’t measure how many tickets it will take before they quit ripping and running. You can rip into someone and measure that in decibels, but you cannot measure how badly that might come back to haunt you.
With pips, we start with French: tout de suite meaning immediately. Wherever you are when you read this article, I would ask you to stand up, do a full circle—maybe do the full circle twice—and repeat these words to yourself: I cannot be measured. I cannot be measured. My measurement is within me.
The other two pips: there is nothing as good as a chocolate chip, and what about Gladys Knight and the Pips?
Love,
I Am
Charlie Edward McAdoo
Dr. C.E. McAdoo is a retired district Superintendent in the United Methodist Church.
opinions
MENTAL MAINTAINING
by Dr. C.E. McAdoo
May 25, 2025
I’ve been in ministry some forty-four years, and I always jokingly tell people that when I was in the military, I was a Psychiatric Technician. I have a diploma in psychiatric procedures, and I’ve been able to experience mental disorders and understand the dynamics even as I deal with my own life. The first night I was in my unit, a young man jumped up on the roof and said he was going to kill himself. I was the new person on the block so, they gave me a hypodermic needle and told me to go up and give him a shot. OH WOW! The rest is history, he didn’t jump off the roof and I did not fall either, though I was afraid of heights.
That’s one thing about mental maintaining, no matter where we think we are in life, we can do some things we may or may not think we can do. Some of it is out of fear, anxiety, and some of it’s out of just plain old “if I don’t do this, I’m going to get killed.” I remember when we were little boys, we were at the wrong place at the wrong time and were in this man’s back yard he came out there and I think he shot up in the air the first time. I don’t know how high that fence was, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we did anything supernatural, but every one of us got over that fence!
I’ve got three areas I want to point to for this article, and the first one is:
I. Mental Maintaining - Knowing that you are a diamond in the rough, already a perfect fit to me and to you - a precious stone! Part of your mental maintaining is realizing as a perfect stone, that means no one can come in and tell you that you are imperfect! Realize that when you think about living your life as a perfect stone, you are a diamond in the rough, what a beautiful thought!
Part of this I grew up with, as did many of you, people would look at you and say, “I can see something great in you, and “you are going to be somebody!” As you grew up, even in your married life, your working life or your community life people saw in you special ‘something,’ that told them you were that diamond, as you continued trying to get the perfect fit!
Theology in the United Methodist Church, we talk about the different kinds of grace. We talk about “Perfecting Grace,” not “Justifying Grace, or “Sustaining Grace” but Perfecting Grace! We are always trying to perfect ourselves; we have not gotten there yet, and if I’m not mistaken, we won’t get there in this life. We are working our way toward that perfecting place. That’s where we are, a “diamond in the rough.” Always being smoothed out to get that perfect fit! The good part about that, it’s a two-way street. The street you live on, that’s you, you know you’re a diamond in the rough. You don’t have to wear a sign on you stating that fact. You live in such a way that people know you are not simply a rock – you are a diamond in the rough!! Life is not always easy, and a diamond is not just some rock that is used for throwing, diamonds are created through pressure! You know who you are – you are a diamond and other folks can look at how you live and know without being told - you are a diamond in the rough, on your way to perfection! Other people see how you stand out and how your life means something!
I preached a sermon recently about “The Unnamed They.” They are those we don’t know, that have complimented us, and have said good things about us in private conversations that we will never know about. That’s the other part of the two-way street, you know who you are and other people see how you carry yourself. To summarize, Number 1 is to know you are a diamond in the rough.
II. Keep a ‘Green Mindset,’ what is a ‘Green Mindset’? That is living a life like a beautiful lawn that is in need of care. That means it needs fertilizer, and what that means for our mental maintenance is, we need those things in our life that will help us to grow!
I prayerfully hope that I learn something new every day. Some days I don’t, but I want to fertilize my mind to help it be maintained more. I think I have talked about this before, how my exercise instructor has us doing different things each day, so our minds will be switching back and forth and she also wants us to push ourselves. Those things help to fertilize our brains.
Like that beautiful lawn, we also need some weed killer, otherwise there are some destructive weeds that can creep in without our noticing, such as Crabgrass, Nut grass, Poison Ivy, and Bitter-weeds. The same thing that happens to your lawn, can happen to your brain!
Some of those weeds that can get into your brain are just bad thoughts. I use to tell my kids and myself, when I get somebody on TV that’s talking bad, I just change to another channel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big TV-changer. I remember once we were talking to someone, and at that time we had HBO on our tv, and they said, “don’t you have young children?” I said yes, and they said, “don’t you know they have some X-rated pictures on HBO?” And I said yes. They responded, well aren’t you afraid your children will be watching?” And I said no, I told them not to.
See what I’m saying, I’m telling my brain not to, I won’t look at them, I’m making that choice and it’s the same thing with our brain. Then, like that lawn, we have to make sure we don’t let those weeds get up there, we just have to say, I’m not going to fool with them.
Then, the other thing about mental maintaining is the whole idea of good maintenance. I know younger people who read this article won’t appreciate this (and I’m not trying to debate my Virtual Assistant) but, the old lawnmower had those curved blades, and the curved blades cut the grass to grow! The lawn mowers we have now are circular and they cut the grass flat. Even though the lawn mowers today allow the grass to grow, the old push mower cut the grass in such a direction that it grew better than it grows now!
You’ve got to maintain that mower, you’ve got to cut the grass timely, you’ve got to cut it precisely. Timely and precisely means you can cut it at the wrong time, and you can cut it too low. You can also cut it so high that it’s already up so much, that it won’t get much more growth to it. The Lord has blessed me in the last four or five years, that I have been able to have my neighbor cut our grass. I ask him to cut our grass so that is stays beautiful all of Holy Week. My Brother-in-law’s lawn stays beautiful all year long, he just knows how to do that.
Lastly, what I want to say about the whole idea of maintaining our lawn, is that we have to trim our grass! Even the best maintained mental stability can have some little places that need to be trimmed…..no matter how good we think we are. I’ll go back once again to some articles I used at St. Paul’s School of Theology that helped me believe that the human condition starts at 0% up to 100% and not from 100% down to 0 %.
We do have some people, …..God bless you, but I’m just not one of those who say, “O My! Mr. so & so, or Mrs. so & so, I just could not believe they did this or that.” ALL of us have the capacity to do something that is wrong! When I look at life from a 0% up, that means we all start as a “Sinner saved from Grace!” So, if I understand that dynamic, we are all subject to do something wrong at sometimes in our lives so, that means we need some trimming! Just like a beautiful lawn, it can be green and it can be cut well, however, if it’s not trimmed, if we do not use the weed-eater properly, it still will not be where it needs to be. Our lives are the same way, if we have all this going for us, but leave some stuff that needs to be trimmed, then we are not where we need to be.
So, when we think about “Mental Maintaining,” remember: Number I. You need to know you are a Diamond in the rough, Number II. You need to have a Green Mind-set to grow, and now I want to talk about:
Number III. Have Open Ears, Open Eyes and, an Open Heart! AMEN!! Open your ears to hear, open your eyes to see and open your heart to take in. One thing that helps me, and I would say theologically, the illustration that comes to mind is of the closed fist. Remember with the closed fist, you’ve got the thumb pointing at someone, but there are four fingers pointing right back at you! So, always remember that openness goes both ways when it comes to mental maintaining.
In my forty-four years of ministry and the ten years I dealt with the government, I’ve dealt with some people in which we have had some “knock-down, drag-out conversations.” I’ve appreciated those, because I wanted to be open enough to hear where they came from, and I wanted to also have the heart to know I was not going to change them on the spot and may not change them even in a lifetime.
I’ve had church members who, when I went in, I may not have been who they thought they wanted to be their pastor, and when I left, I may not have been who they thought they wanted to be their pastor.
All I’m trying to say as I end my article is, there is a certain mental maintenance that can only be cultivated by openness. I say that in two typical words, we’ve got to cultivate openness. I’m not ready for some stuff people throw at me, I just have to say, hey, I don’t know if I’m in for that! We’ve got so many issues out here, I don’t want to get too political, but some folks say, “I don’t want to deal with that.” Well, try to cultivate yourself to get some openness to it. Even at the end of the openness, you don’t have to agree, you just have to be able to say, I’ve let you say your thoughts and you’ve let me say my thoughts.
Once again, let me repeat, to have “Mental Maintenance” is, to know you are a diamond in the rough, keep a green mind-set and have openness.
Love,
I Am
Charlie Edward McAdoo
Rev. Dr. C.E. McAdoo is a retired District Superintendent with the United Methodist Church.
opinions
A CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY MISNOMER “OUR CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE”
By Rev. Dr. C.E. McAdoo
May 17, 2025
The above statement is part of and will be a giant set-back for the vitality of the life of our country. We say it and don’t realize what we are saying when we say, “Our children are our future.” Mentally, we don’t know what we are saying when we say that. Let me break this down theologically. When Jesus came into the world as a child, he came as a present to us; that’s what we celebrate at Christmas!
When we think about every child being born into the world, that’s a present to the world. I don’t want this to be an article that has a lot of strong theological emphasis on it, but when you think about it, the whole growth pattern and theologically what the Bible says, that when a child is born, we need to cry. When we pass, we need to celebrate, because when the children are born, they will come into a world where they need to be prepared, even as young folks, for all they will have to deal with. I don’t try to correct folks, but when people say the children are our future, I say, “O, but I believe that’s a mis-statement, they are our present.” What that means to me is that the word children can be interchanged with the word youth or young people.
This old adage is focusing our children and young folks in a negative way, because we forget how much they have to offer us now. When I thought about that, I have about five or six things I want to talk about: how our young people, how our children, and how our young couples can add to the life of who we are!
I worked with a Bishop once who said she always tried not to put older adults and younger adults together in a discussion group. The younger adults would always defer to the older folks. Maybe the older people were not thinking in the way the younger folks felt was correct, but the young folks would not correct them at all. Unfortunately, that cut off some vitality the young people may have had to offer! What do our Young Folks offer us? Our young people are our community builders. Praise the Lord, in many of our communities, we may or may not think our young people are doing this or that.
Even the colleges now are looking at the students who are coming in to become college students. They are asking them, “How much community service have you done?” I was blessed to be at a church when I pastored St. Andrew United Methodist Church, where we had young people that would come out to serve food to people for the evening meal. Then, they would receive a letter from us telling them how many community hours they had served. That builds community! In the church where we went, not only did the young people serve, but we also encouraged them to also eat with the community. I want to insert a part of the story here: There was a large church here in Little Rock that wanted to feed the homeless. They had everything set up and had all this food ready, and--nobody came! So, they partnered with our church to have an evening meal for the community. It was a whole different concept, we not only encouraged the young people to serve the people who came to the meal, we also encouraged them to eat with those being served. We asked them to sit at different tables, at one table they may have been sitting with someone that was homeless. Then, at another table they may be sitting with a working family that was dealing with a lot of heavy stuff. I’m just saying, our young people can be community builders. As they are serving in this environment, that gives them an understanding of what community is all about! So, to build our community we really need our young people to get involved and be in touch with what goes on in our communities.
The second way our young people can be involved is in a “clean air concept.” A lot of our young people understand and want our grounds to be clean, they believe in green spaces! The third thing I briefly touched on that has to do with community building is, our young people are able to volunteer for community issues, such as homelessness, and literacy. Some of our young people have volunteered one-on-one to teach folks how to read. Those of us who can read may not appreciate the value of knowing how to read. I always tell the story of my daddy, who could not read. I mention to my wife even now that my father would not be able to function in our society today. He would have to have a lot of help, because you have to be able to read to do almost anything. I used to say, how could my daddy go anywhere, because you have to be able to read the road signs. You wouldn’t know the difference between north, west, east or south. Think of something that simple. For someone who could not read it’s almost like being isolated on an island with all the water around you and not knowing which way to go! They would not know the difference between north, south, east or west. However, they would know on what side the sun came up and on what side the sun went down.
Once again, as the young folks in communities volunteer to teach the illiterate how to read, they would now know what the words, north, south, east and west mean, as well as other words that would give them dignity and a more independent and productive life! Even as bad as people say our communities are, our young people are trying to make an impact on the gangs and those kinds of things that are going on. The other thing I believe our young people can help us with is early investment models. I am blessed to work with the students at Southwest High School here in Little Rock. At one time it was McClellan High School, and they partnered with a bank and had their young people open their own bank accounts and learn about the stock market. I’m not sure of the proper word, but I think it is the “Historical Stock Chart” that has charted the stock market since 1926. It shows how your money grows. You put your money in the stock market with all its ups and downs, but it does grow. These young people find out early how all of that works. Financial literacy and financial pass on; so if you find out how it works, you ‘pass it on.’ You pass it on to your friends, or your family and that’s another way the young people can help us!
Lastly, the young people can pass on to us their international understanding. I will lift up, I believe, the primary school in the state of Arkansas that has this international understanding. There may be other schools, specifically in the north west that have something similar. I was blessed to have a “Civil Rights Pilgrimage Group” in Little Rock. Part of their pilgrimage was to visit Central High School. (I am very familiar with Central High. Two of my children graduated from there, and I consider the principal, Nancy Rousseau to be a friend.) There are 42 different languages being spoken at Central High School, but English is the principal language of instruction. Just think on that for a moment: 42 different languages.
These are young folks, high school students, all living together and working with one another. Isn’t that beautiful? Then this whole age of trying to get rid of “DEI”, and realizing that diversity is going to be everywhere. And the earlier that diversity starts, the more people will understand. Once again, I say theologically, Genesis 1:27, we all are made in the image of God, and so that’s the other piece of why I bring in the international piece, to say, because of Genesis 1:27, and because we are all made in the image of God, that means we are headed toward a reality where we will all know one another better.
I will conclude this article with that - who can do that better than the young people in our different communities?
Love,
I Am
Charlie Edward McAdoo
Dr. McAdoo is a retired district superintendent in the United Methodist Church
opinions
EDUCATIONAL EMERGENCY: 13th Week- 95th General Assembly
by Joy C. Springer
April 11, 2025
EDUCATIONAL EMERGENCY CONTINUES …… April 11, 2025
Today marks the end of Week 13 of the 2025 Regular Session of the Arkansas House of
Representatives. A group of us remain focused on passing legislation that will have a lasting impact on the lives of Arkansans. It is anticipated that the session will adjourn on April 16, 2025.
This week, the Arkansas House of Representatives passed FB1685, a bill designed to
eliminate the state’s 0.125% sales tax on groceries, effective January 1, 2026. This
effort continues our work to reduce the tax burden on Arkansas families. In addition,
HB1312, amending public school funding to provide an increase of 5% in per pupil
funding, raising the per pupil amount being paid to $8162.00 for the 2025-26 school
year. This amount includes the cost of health insurance. For the 2026-27 school
year, the per pupil amount is set at $8,037, with the $333.00 for insurance costs
being paid directly for the Employee Benefits Division. The House also adopted
House Joint Resolution 1018 (HJR 1018), a proposed constitutional amendment entitled “The Citizens Only Voting Amendment.” This proposed amendment, if adopted by the Senate, will appear on the November 2026 ballot. It proposes that
only United States citizens who meet voter qualifications may vote in state and local elections. I have repeatedly asked the question why do we need to pass such a Resolution when it is already a part of the state’s law, i.e., the Arkansas Constitution. The Arkansas Constitution states the following:
Qualifications for electors:
(a) except as otherwise provided by this Constitution, any
person may vote in an election in the state who is
1) a citizen of the United States
2) a resident of the state of Arkansas
3) at least eighteen (18) years of age; and
4) lawfully registered to vote in the election.
(b) Valid identification
No data presented that there were citizens in the state of Arkansas who did not meet these qualifications.
A number of additional bills also passed the House including House Bill 1732
(HB1732) that increases the income tax deduction for teachers purchasing
classroom supplies from $500 to $1000. House Bill 1485 creates a new sales
and use tax exemption for organizations supporting veterans’ facilities. House
Bill 1922(HB1922) establishes an income tax credit for companies that relocate
their corporate headquarters to Arkansas, a further step to enhance our state’s
economic competitiveness. Finally, the proposed Revenue Stabilization Act (RSA)
for the 2025-2026 Fiscal Year was distributed to members on Friday. This document
outlines our state’s spending priorities. You may view the document using the link below:
https://arkansashouse.org/assets/uploads/2025/04/20250411093155-fy2026-rsa-sb637-hb2003pdf.pdf
Public School Funding remains at the top of the list as it should be with an allocation of approximately 2.5 billion dollars (2,484,597,398). In addition, the General Education Fund is approximately 76 million dollars (75,752,342). Further review indicates that
the Division of Corrections, including the medical contract and the Division of Community Corrections funding totals approximately $562,000,000. I now ask you to contrast these figures. Our budget Chair communicated that the average annual pay for an inmate in Arkansas is $44,659 per year while we only propose to pay $8162 per year for each public-school student. You tell me!!
The Educational Emergency continues…
State Representative Joy C. Springer represents District 76 in the Arkansas House of Representatives. Representative Springer previously served on the Little Rock School Board and is a long-time civil rights activist and supporter of equity in public education. She currently serves on the House Judiciary Committee and House Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs committees. Additionally, she serves on the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) and the JBC Employee Benefits Division Oversight committee and as a 1st Alternate on the Legislative Joint Auditing committee.
About Us
Why we must create our own narratives
Perception is reality. How we are viewed and what is said about us matters. It is abundantly clear that here in Arkansas, we as African-Americans don't control many, if any, statewide media groups. On any given day, COUNT the number of positive stories reported by print and television stations KATV, KARK/KLRT-FOX-TV, and KTHV, about African Americans in Arkansas.
In Arkansas, with the exception of KTHV, the media groups and their ownerships are conservative and often often distort people of color and specifically, BLACK families. As black consumers of the news, "that's the part we miss." How on the "regular" we are portrayed by white media groups and their local news stations and print media.
A study from the University of Illinois concluded that at best media outlets (a) promoted racially biased portrayals and myths that pathologize black families and idealize white families with respect to poverty and crime (b) play a dangerous role in spreading debunked stereotypes about black families and (c) at worst, amplify those inaccurate depictions for political and financial gain. We've all seen that type of behavior before.
When media outlets examined in the study reported stories about poor families, they chose to feature black families in their coverage 59 percent of the time, even though only 27 percent of families living below the poverty line are black.
Similarly, in coverage of welfare, 60 percent of families portrayed were black, even though only 42 percent of families receiving welfare are black.
Finally, the article addresses the real-life consequences of the continued distortion of black life by the media. "When the news media constantly associates black people with crime, it increases racial stereotypes among viewers, leading the public including liberal and conservative Arkansan's to disproportionately favor punitive criminal justice policies." As a collateral damage piece, when the poor are depicted as overwhelmingly black, it leads the public to support heavier restrictions on welfare because of a perception that undeserving black people benefit from it. Backers of corporate and right-wing policies gain when the news media blames black families for social conditions, while their own role in destabilizing society remains invisible.
This online publication exists to counter the narrative that constantly depicts African Americans as "less than." It exists to balance the negative view of African American life that is constantly depicted in the local news and information outlets in this state. We are so much more than the lip-service paid to us by those that control the news cycle. It's not about the reporting of the news, it's about the process of manufacturing the news. There is a saying that goes something like this. "If you control the messenger, then you control the message." Let's take some of that control back. As African Americans in Arkansas, let us create our own narratives. Most importantly, let us report and talk about the real issues.................. with our own voices,.... and our own opinions.
meet our contributors
opinion
opinion
opinion
Deborah Suttlar
Deborah is a longtime Community and Civil Rights Activist. Her column appears in the Opinion Section.
Click the link below to read read Deborah Suttlar's column.
https://talkblackarkansas.com/opinion
opinion
opinion
opinion
The Honorable Wendell Griffen
Judge Griffen will comment on the law and its impact on Black Arkansans. He will also discuss and legal and social issues on a state and national level impacting Black Arkansans and Black Americans.
Click the link below to read Judge Griffens column.
Finance
opinion
Religion
Gaining generational wealth is the key to Black economic family wealth and security. We will share strategies from the Association of African American Financial Advisors to help you and your family get there. We will inform you about managing your finances so that you can start your path to financial freedom.
Religion
Religion
Rev. C.E. McAdoo
Rev. McAdoo is a retired District Superintendent with the United Methodist Church. He will provide a weekly column on Religion and Black Arkansas.
Click the link below to read Rev. McAdoo's column.
https://talkblackarkansas.com/opinion .
At the State Capitol
State Representative Joy C. Springer
State Representative Joy Springer is a veteran school an civil rights advocate for African-American children and their families. She will provide a weekly column on state legislative and educational concerns affecting African -Americans .
Click the link below to read Representative Springer's column.
Medicine and health
This weekly column features a listing of top African-American doctors in Arkansas, and their areas of expertise. We will try to connect you with physicians who understand your physical, cultural and mental health needs. One study suggests that African American male patients who meet with black physicians often ask to receive more preventive services than patients who met with nonblack physicians. This study also suggested that black doctors are more likely to provide a comfortable settings to black patients, perhaps because of shared experiences or backgrounds. The study concluded that increasing the amount of black physicians could lead to a 19 percent reduction in the black-white male cardiovascular mortality gap and an 8 percent decline in the black-white male life expectancy gap.
Education
Who to call
Who to call
This weekly column will focus on educational happenings in the state including news from local school districts and the Arkansas Department of Education.
Who to call
Who to call
Who to call
People always have "who to contact questions." Whether it is a local city government office or a state government office, we will try to steer you in the right direction.