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opinions
A Plague Has Swept Across America
by Deborah Springer Suttlar
September 13, 2025
America is in absolute peril, and this plague of hatred has only highlighted the hypocritical pronouncement of “Make America Great Again.” This slogan has proven to be a fallacy of epic proportions.
When greatness is measured by economic success in which targeted citizens are subjected to cruelty, racism, discrimination, gender bias, partisan political attacks, and blatant acts of a bullying president, there is no greatness. What do some Americans really value other than wealth and themselves? It is guns, flags, a song, and their whiteness.
This country has long praised its own greatness, but what is it really? Throughout history America has maintained racist (slavery/Segregation/Jim Crow, Deportations) legislation and an immoral agenda (white privilege) based on hatred of others. The response or lack of response to the race-based deportations, racist attacks against Black culture, injustices to equal access to opportunity for non-white people, is a reminder of the real history of America. The history they want to hide. However, you cannot hide what you do “in plain sight.” The gerrymandering in Texas and Missouri is proof of their racist agenda against Black people. We are subjected to a country which has implemented laws to ensure “no access for representation” for Black and Brown people who do not vote Republican. The plague is here, and Americans are infected. A country which places “In God We Trust “on their currency, but no love in their hearts. There is no evidence of godly people defending those who are being oppressed. Truth and justice are illusive right now. The Bible is being misinterpreted and used as a weapon to promote hate. What kind of people do that? Not great ones. Racist deceptive people do that.
We are under unstable leadership, subjected to conspiracy theories, cheaters, and heretical religious beliefs which have produced racist fools. People hired as officials of the law wear masks to commit injustices and are violating human rights and civil rights. The current administration is concealing facts, spreading misinformation, and appointing untrustworthy officials. We know what greatness truly looks like. What we are witnessing is far from greatness, it is racist madness. It is also a spirit of darkness.
A plague has swept across America, and it will take a Savior to destroy it.
Psalm 84:10 I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God then to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
African Proverb: He who has done evil expects evil.
Deborah Springer Suttlar is a community activist and longtime supporter of public schools.
opinions
EDUCATIONAL EMERGENCY: 10th Week- 95thGeneral Assembly
By Joy C. Springer
September 13, 2025
EDUCATIONAL EMERGENCY CONTINUES …… September 12, 2025
Several legislative interim committees continued their work this week by examining key issues facing our state. On Tuesday, the Joint Performance Review Committee met to discuss citizen concerns regarding the proposed Franklin County Prison. Their complaints were as follows:
1)It is improper for Arkansas taxpayers to be burdened with supporting the salaries of two leaders of the Department of
Corrections. Note: Records show the Secretary of Corrections and Joe Proferia, whatever he is doing, each are making over
$200,000 respectively (over $425,000.00)
2)It is improper use of taxpayer funds to pay a consultant for a task while simultaneously having an unqualified state agency
perform the same task.
3)Expending taxpayer funds on a capital project without funding for
4) Failing to conduct proper due diligence on real property for its purchase is irresponsible and improper.
5)Failure to secure community input prior to the purchase of the land.
You will recall that the purpose of the Joint Performance Review Committee makes random and periodic performance reviews of specific governmental programs and agencies; conducts investigations into specific problem areas of the administration of state government as may be brought to the attention of the committee; refers specific problems regarding the operation of state government to appropriate interim committees of the General Assembly for continuing study; conducts hearings on
citizen complaints and views regarding the operation of state government; servesserves as a forum for citizens to air their complaints and suggestions regarding the operation of state government; reviews the expenditures of the various agencies, departments, and programs of state government to assure that they are being administered in accordance with legislative intent and are being administered in such manner as to provide the taxpayers with the greatest service at the lowest reasonable cost; and makes reports and recommendations to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Legislative Council as the committee deems necessary or appropriate to promote more effective and efficient operation of state government. (A.C.A. 10-3-902).
In summary, the committee heard testimony from the Chairman of the Board of Prison that there is a need for additional beds to the tune of 3,000 to address overcrowding and to be prepared for the increased incarceration in the stated because of the “Protect Arkansas Act.”
There are currently over 21,000 prisoners in the state of Arkansas of which over 2,000 remain in county jails.
Please take note of the following: The annual cost to incarcerate a prisoner in Arkansas is approximately $25,000 per year. In 2023, the Legislature appropriated 75 million dollars to fund new prison beds in Arkansas. To date, the Department of Corrections (DOC) has already paid $2.95 million dollars for the land in Franklin County. The DOC did a site assessment after it had already bought the land at a cost of 2.75 million dollars. Finally, the DOC did not secure community input regarding the site for a prison prior to the
purchase of the land.
For the 2025-26 school year, the state of Arkansas has increased its per-pupil funding to $8,162 for traditional school districts, with a further increase to $8,371 planned for the 2026-27 school year.
The Educational Emergency continues…...
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
The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk
From Wendell Griffen
By Chris Hedges
Martyrs are used by messianic movements to sanctify violence. To show any mercy or understanding toward the enemy is to betray the martyr and the cause the martyr died defending.
Sep 12, 2025
The assassination of Charlie Kirk presages a new, deadly stage in the disintegration of a fractious and highly polarized United States. While toxic rhetoric and threats are lobbed across cultural divides like hand grenades, sometimes spilling over into actual violence — including the murder of Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband and the two assassination attempts against Donald Trump — Kirk’s killing is a harbinger of full-scale social disintegration.
His murder has given the movement he represented — grounded in Christian nationalism — a martyr. Martyrs are the lifeblood of violent movements. Any flinching over the use of violence, any talk of compassion or understanding, any effort to mediate or discuss, is a betrayal of the martyr and the cause the martyr died defending.
Martyrs sacralize violence. They are used to turn the moral order upside down. Depravity becomes morality. Atrocities become heroism. Crime becomes justice. Hate becomes virtue. Greed and nepotism become civic virtues. Murder becomes good. War is the final aesthetic. This is what is coming.
“We have to have steely resolve,” said conservative political strategist Steve Bannon on his show “War Room,” adding, “Charlie Kirk is a casualty of war. We are at war in this country. We are.”
“If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die,” wrote Elon Musk on X.
“The entire Right has to band together. Enough of this in-fighting bullshit. We are up against demonic forces from the pit of Hell,” wrote commentator and author Matt Walsh on X. “Put the personal squabbles aside. Now’s not the time. This is existential. A fight for our own existence and the existence of our country.”
Republican Congressman Clay Higgins wrote that he will use, "Congressional authority and every influence with big tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk..." He further states "I’m also going after their business licenses and permitting, their businesses will be blacklisted aggressively, they should be kicked from every school, and their drivers licenses should be revoked. I’m basically going to cancel with extreme prejudice these evil, sick animals who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s assassination."
Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale capitalized on Kirk’s death to advocate for a takedown of the “red-green alliance” of “Communists and Islamists” who he claims have united to destroy Western civilization. He proposes an app where citizens can upload pictures of crime and homelessness in exchange for “property-tax rebates.”
Far-right comedian Sam Hyde, who has nearly half a million followers on X, wrote in response to Trump’s announcement of Kirk's death that it is, "Time to do your fucking job and seize power… if you want to be more than a footnote in the ‘American Collapse’ section of future history books, it's now or never.” In his tweet, he tags members of the administration and private military contractors.
Conservative actor James Woods warned, “Dear leftists: we can have a conversation or a civil war. One more shot from your side and you will not get this choice again.” His tweet was reposted by almost 20,000 people, received 4.9 million views and over 96,000 likes.
These are a sample of the slew of vitriolic sentiments shared and cheered on by tens of millions of Americans.
The dispossession of the working class, 30 million who have been laid off because of deindustrialization, has engendered rage, despair, dislocation, alienation and fostered magical thinking. It has fed conspiracy theories, a lust for vengeance and a celebration of violence as a purgative for social and cultural decay.
Christian fascists — like Kirk and Trump — have astutely preyed on this despair. They stoked the embers. Kirk’s killing will set it alight.
Dissidents, artists, gays, intellectuals, the poor, the vulnerable, people of color, those who are undocumented or who do not mindlessly repeat the cant of a perverted Christian nationalism, will be condemned as human contaminants to be excised from the body politic. They will become, as in all diseased societies, sacrificial victims in the vain attempt to achieve moral renewal and recapture a lost glory and prosperity.
The cannibalization of society, a futile attempt to recreate a mythical America, will accelerate the disintegration. The intoxication of violence — many of those reacting to Kirk’s killing seemed giddy about a looming bloodbath — will feed on itself like a firestorm.
The martyr is vital to the crusade, in this case ridding America of those Trump calls the “radical left.”
Martyrs are memorialized in ceremonies and acts of remembrance to remind followers of the righteousness of the cause and the perfidy of those who are blamed for the martyr’s death. This is what Trump did when he called Kirk “a martyr for truth and freedom” in a video message on September 10, awarded Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until Sunday. It is why Kirk's casket will be flown back to Phoenix, Arizona on Air Force Two.
Kirk was a poster child for our emergent Christian Fascism. He peddled the Great Replacement Theory, which claims liberals or “globalists” allow immigrants of color into the country in order to replace whites, distorting immigration trends into conspiracy. He was Islamophobic, tweeting “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America,” and that it is “not compatible with western civilization.”
When children’s YouTuber Ms. Rachel said “Jesus says to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself,” Kirk retorted that “Satan has quoted scripture plenty” and added “by the way Ms. Rachel, you might wanna crack open that Bible of yours, in a lesser referenced part of the same part of scripture is in Leviticus 18, is that thou shall Lay with another man and be stoned to death.”
He demanded we roll back the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and disparaged civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King. He was demeaning towards Black people, “If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman...is she there because of affirmative action?” He said “prowling Blacks” are targeting white people “for fun.” He blamed Black Lives Matter for “destroying the fabric of our society."
Kirk insisted the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. He founded Professor Watchlist and School Board Watchlist to purge professors and teachers with what he called “radical leftist” agendas. He advocated televised public executions which he insisted should be mandatory viewing for children.
The idea that he championed free speech and liberty is absurd. He was an enemy of both.
Kirk, who was a cheerleader for the cult of Trump, embodied the hypermasculinity that is at the core of fascist movements. This was perhaps his primary attraction to youth, especially white men. He claimed there is “a war on men,” fetishized guns and sold Trump to his followers as a man’s man.
“There’s a lot you can call Donald Trump,” he wrote. “No one has ever called him feminine. Trump is a giant middle finger to all the screeching hall monitors that attacked young men for just existing. He’s a giant F YOU to the feminist establishment that was never challenged before he came down the golden escalator. Most of the media missed this. Young men did not.”
History has shown what comes next. It won’t be pleasant. Kirk, elevated to martyrdom, gives those seeking to extinguish our democracy the license to kill, just as Kirk was killed. It lifts what few constraints still exist to protect us from state abuse and vigilante violence. Kirk’s name and visage will be employed to accelerate the road to tyranny, which is as he would have wanted it.
Christopher Lynn Hedges (born September 18, 1956) is an American journalist, author, commentator and Presbyterian minister.
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
Photo credit (The Associated Press)
opinions
EDUCATIONAL EMERGENCY: 13th Week- 95th General Assembly
by Joy C. Springer
September 6, 2025
EDUCATIONAL EMERGENCY CONTINUES …… September 6, 2025
You will recall the case of Lakeview v. State of Arkansas in 1992. The Lake View School District, located in Phillips County, Arkansas, sued the State of Arkansas, claiming that the funding system for the public schools violated both the state’s constitution and the U.S. Constitution because the funding system was inequitable and inadequate. The Arkansas Supreme Court agreed. At that time, schools received funding from three levels of government: local, state, and federal. Because some local governments had more tax money available for spending, school districts in more affluent areas received larger local contributions. Though the state and federal contributions were designed to balance the local governments’ contributions, they often failed to do so, thus leaving some school districts with insufficient and inequitable funds. Lakeview caused the state of Arkansas, through the Arkansas Legislature, to ensure that there was an equitable allocation of resources to school districts across the state of Arkansas.
As a result of Lakeview, the Arkansas Constitution currently addresses the equitable allocation of resources for public schools, specifically in Article 14, Section 1, which mandates a "general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools" and the
duty of the state to ensure an adequate and equitable education for every child.
This constitutional requirement has been reinforced because of the Lakeview case.
The Education committees remain tasked with ensuring that there is an equitable allocation of resources to all districts across the state of Arkansas. In other words, these committees are tasked ensuring that there is “educational adequacy across the state. Educational adequacy refers to the provision of sufficient financial resources and various other resources to a school district or educational system to enable all students to achieve a defined standard of success, such as meeting state proficiency standards or having the necessary skills for future education and employment. It is about ensuring every student receives the resources they need to be successful, rather than just providing equal resources to everyone. The key here is to ensure the “equitable allocation of resources.”
This past week, members of the Senate and House Education committees met to receive reports from Secretary Oliva (Secretary of the Department of Education) and to hear from members of the CEO and Executive Director of the Friendship Aspire Charter schools across the state of Arkansas. The meeting with Friendship was held in Pine Bluff, Arkansas while the other was held at Big MAC on the State Capitol grounds. The Chairs and other members of the Senate and Education Committees met to receive information and recommendations regarding educational adequacy in Arkansas.
Below is the presentation by Secretary Oliva. You may decide whether there is progress being made based upon the current assessment know as ATLAS:
The work of the Education Committees continues as well as the state’s Educational Emergency!
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
Do We Remember?
by Dr. C.E. McAdoo
September 5, 2025
ALHAMDUILLIH - HAMDULLAM (Arabic) Haruchhasham n(Hebrew).
Hello, hello, hello to all my schoolmates.
For those of you reading this article, you know we were all in school at one time—and across the country, school has started once again. This article is about Black schools, inspired by a desire to celebrate and remember their legacy.
Many of us need to be more aware of the history we experienced growing up. As a Baby Boomer, I am deeply interested in restoring and preserving the rich history of the Black schools that shaped us. I hope you will read this article and perhaps share it with friends who may also be interested.
In Arkansas, public schools were segregated until 1956 and, in some cases, much longer. The last high school to integrate was Magnolia High School, where full integration did not occur until the 1980s.
I hear the voice of Emmett Till calling from his grave.
Greetings to all African Americans in Arkansas and those who have since moved elsewhere. Thirty-four years ago, I believed that an association of “Black High Schools” would be an important organization for this state. That vision was sparked by the burning of a Rosenwald school in Sherrill.
In the spring of 1989, my son was asked to paint a sign in front of Pine Bluff Merill High School. Though no longer in use as a school, it was, to my knowledge, the oldest standing high school on its original plot of land in Arkansas.
I vaguely remember negotiations with the Pine Bluff School Board about its future. Tragically, in July 1987, the school burned, leaving only a small portion salvageable.
At first, I thought of it as just another fire. But soon after, a blaze consumed the Rosenwald school in Sherrill. That’s when the reality of loss—both of schools and of history—truly hit me.
• How many of our former Black high schools are still standing?
• How many are being used for more than just storage?
• How many are remembered for their cultural and historical importance?
Post-integration, our schools were deemed “not good enough” for White students. But the truth is, these schools held generations of memories, triumphs, and legacies:
• Basketball, football, and track meets.
• Plays, speeches, and school fairs.
• Teachers and leaders who shaped our lives.
To let all of that fade into obscurity is, I believe, a cultural tragedy. When we fail to preserve our own history for our children and grandchildren—so they can see and feel where they came from—we lose part of ourselves.
But it is not too late.
We still have the 1963–1964 Arkansas Directory, listing 116 Black high schools (the last year they were identified as such). Many people across Arkansas remember schools not even included on that list. Together, we have the opportunity to form the Arkansas Association of Former Black High Schools with these goals:
1. Identify every Black high school that ever existed in Arkansas.
2. Assist former students in writing a history of each identified school.
3. Mark the sites where schools once stood, even if the buildings are gone.
4. Develop a statewide roster of alumni from these schools.
5. Publish the histories and ensure copies are available in high schools, public libraries, and college libraries across Arkansas.
6. Plan regular gatherings to honor these schools and their alumni.
7. Establish a permanent historical site in each county to house memorabilia.
Now, thirty-four years later, I must apologize to my elders for taking so long to begin this work. This endeavor will take years of commitment and collaboration, but anything worth doing must start somewhere.
I will provide the first version of information on Black schools in Arkansas before integration. If you are interested in reviving and preserving this vital history, please contact me. Together, we can make sure these schools are never forgotten.
Rev. Dr. C.E. McAdoo conciselr@gmail.com
(501) 779-0649
Rev. Dr. C.E. McAdoo is a retired District Superintendent with the United Methodist Church.
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
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
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
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
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.