Saturday Open Thread | Native American Chiefs |Geronimo

geronimo_smallGeronimo was born in southern Arizona, present-day Clifton, and given the name Goyathlay, meaning “one who yawns.”  The Mexicans later gave him the name Geronimo, which is Spanish for Jerome.  After his mother, wife and children were massacred by Mexicans in 1858, he joined in the raids of Cochise, Victorio, and other Apache leaders against Mexican and American settlers.  He did not inherit his status as chief, having risen to leadership through the ranks.

Geronimo was chief of the southern Chiricahua tribe of Apache Indians.*  In 1876, when the Chiricahua reservation was dismantled by the U.S. government and the Apaches were relocated to the dry San Carlos reservation in New Mexico, Geronimo led his followers into Mexico.  He established hideaways for his followers in the Sierra Madre Mountains.  The camps were well concealed to avert capture.

From this secure base, Geronimo began a decade of sporadic forays against white settlements alternating with periodic surrender, then peaceful farming on the San Carlos reservation.  Once while on the warpath in March 1886, he surrendered to General George Crook, who imposed a “treaty” that would have relocated the Chiricahua to Florida, but Geronimo escaped with his band two days later.  In September of that year, he and his force surrendered to General Nelson A. Miles, Crook’s replacement.

In March 1905, Geronimo was invited to President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural  parade; he and five real Indian chiefs, who wore full headgear and painted  faces, rode horses down Pennsylvania Avenue. The intent, one newspaper stated,  was to show Americans “that they have buried the hatchet forever.”

After the parade, Geronimo met with Roosevelt in what the New York  Tribune reported was a “pathetic appeal” to allow him to return to Arizona.  “Take the ropes from our hands,” Geronimo begged, with tears “running down his  bullet-scarred cheeks.” Through an interpreter, Roosevelt told Geronimo that the  Indian had a “bad heart.”  “You killed many of my people; you burned  villages…and were not good Indians.”  The president would have to wait a  while “and see how you and your people act” on their reservation.

Geronimo Quote: “I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.”

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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74 Responses to Saturday Open Thread | Native American Chiefs |Geronimo

  1. dreamer says:

    I also have enjoyed the series. My four year old grandson Moonshadow, is part Pima/Shoshone.
    Thank You!!!

    • YVW! I’m so happy you’ve enjoyed the series. We will most definitely be visiting Native American culture again. I love learning about their way of life and music. I may not understand the words to the music but I recognize prayer/ worship when I hear it. My soul connects with it.

      Here is something for your grandson, Moonshadow. Blessings!

    • Ametia says:

      Hello, dreamer. Welcome to 3 Chics. So glad that you enjoyed the series. Come back and visit anytime. We appreciate your comments.

  2. rikyrah says:

    Obamacare: New fight, old tactics
    Opponents of the healthcare law are following in the footsteps of Southern segregationists half a century ago.

    By Nelson Lichtenstein

    September 8, 2013

    Last month, Americans took pride in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Unfortunately, we are also revisiting a far darker episode in our history, a civil rights-era conflict that tells us much about the hurdles facing President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, the most ambitious piece of social legislation enacted in almost half a century.

    That episode was the “massive resistance,” a policy pushed by a phalanx of Southern white politicians, journalists and local worthies who organized in the 1950s and early ’60s when the courts, the federal government and the civil rights movement pressed for desegregation of public schools and the end of Jim Crow racism in American life. Rather than consent to the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, which ordered an end to segregation in public schools, Southern governors and legislatures declared that they would refuse to implement the law and, if necessary, close schools. Their policy would later extend to efforts to shut down pools, parks and other public facilities that courts had ordered integrated.

    In Congress, the Southern delegation stood firm against federal action in support of civil rights. Across the South billboards went up: “Impeach Earl Warren,” the chief justice who presided over the court’s 9-0 decision in the landmark 1954 case.

    Today, the Republican opponents of Obamacare, and especially those hailing from the old Confederacy, have dusted off just about every tactic and ruse once deployed by Southern segregationists. House Republicans have taken 40 votes to repeal Obamacare. But the real battle over the fate of the law will take place at the state and local level.

    And, as in the 1950s in the case of civil rights, the Supreme Court has inadvertently given opponents — this time of healthcare reform — a green light. In 1955, the high court declared that desegregation should proceed with “all deliberate speed,” which integration opponents interpreted as permission to drag their feet. In 2012, when the Roberts court ruled that states could reject the large expansion of Medicaid called for in the original Affordable Care Act, virtually every Republican legislature and governor in the South did just that, spurning the chance to enroll hundreds of thousands of their residents in the new federal program.

    http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lichtenstein-civil-rights-fight-obamacare-20130908,0,3721274.story

    • Yahtc says:

      Thank you for posting this article, rikyrah.

      Also, from the article is this excerpt:

      But even more pernicious has been the actual sabotage of key provisions in the healthcare reform law. “Let me tell you what we’re doing,” bragged Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens to a crowd of fellow Republicans in August. “Everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”

      One of their methods is to try to cripple the work of “navigator” organizations and volunteers that will begin this fall. These groups and people are expected to play a crucial role in guiding the uninsured, many of whom speak languages other than English, through the sometimes complex process of signing up for the health insurance that fits their income level and family needs. Their work is vital because unless tens of millions of heretofore uninsured are signed up, the logic of universal coverage — which means that the healthy subsidize the old and sick — will be severely compromised.

      The majority of these navigators are local, civic-minded people, many of whom are health professionals, who know how transformative it will be to have a near-universal healthcare system for the episodically employed and uninsured people they come in contact with daily. Although subsidized with some federal funding, the navigators face obstacles similar to the ones that confronted the civil rights activists and voter registration volunteers of half a century ago.

      In Missouri and Ohio and throughout the South, state legislatures have tried to hamstring their work, investigating their funding and imposing new rules on what they can tell the uninsured. In Georgia, for example, Hudgens wants the navigators to pass the same licensing test as insurance agents, whose work is vastly different and who earn a commission on each policy they sell.

      All this is reminiscent of the barriers Southern voter registrars once put in the way of African Americans who wanted to vote. Some of those would-be voters, for example, had to recite from memory passages from the Constitution or explain a complex piece of legislation. Civil right workers, even those with Southern accents, were called “outside agitators.”

    • Yahtc says:

      Thank you, rikyrah, for posting this video.

      I personally think you should post it EVERY day until the 2014 midterm elections!

      I would also hope that people with other websites would also post it.

  3. rikyrah says:

    John McCain Says Obama Would Be Impeached If He Put Boots On The Ground In Syria

    John McCain is claiming that President Obama will be impeached if he puts American boots on the ground in Syria.

    They are largely against any action in Syria, and I understand their skepticism. Their experience level is Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and 4,000 dead. Now Iraq is falling back into chaos. More deaths in Iraq since 2008, so people, we have had that experience, and understandably they’re incredibly skeptical, I understand that, and I’m skeptical too. But the fact is Bashar Assad has massacred 100,000 people. The conflict is spreading. The King of Jordan can not stand. Lebanon is evolving. Iraq is now become a haven for al-Qaeda, and the violence is greater since 2008. The Russians are all in, and the Iranians are all in, and it’s an unfair fight.

    And no one wants American boots on the ground. Nor will there be American boots on the ground. Because there would be a impeachment of the president if they did that. But I understand the cynicism of the American people, but let’s look at the facts. 100,000 dead. A million children refugees. The slaughter is unbelievable. There’s a quarter of the population of Syria that are now refugees

    McCain also said that Obama has bungled this whole thing.

    Contrary to the the other members of his party who are calling for Obama to be impeached, McCain was saying that nobody wants American ground troops in Syria, and that if Obama took that step, he would be impeached.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2013/09/07/john-mccain-obama-impeached-put-boots-ground-syria.html

  4. rikyrah says:

    Athletes, Pop Stars, And Booze: The Most Creative Efforts To Promote Obamacare

    By Tara Culp-Ressler on September 4, 2013 at 4:48 pm

    This week, news broke that the Obama administration has formed its first official partnership with a professional sports team to help spread the word about the health reform law. The Baltimore Ravens will help advertise the upcoming plans in Maryland’s new state-level insurance marketplace, which will open for enrollment in a little less than a month. Maryland’s health department officials note that will be an important way to reach the people who will soon be able to benefit from Obamacare, since they estimate that 71 percent of uninsured people in the state have either watched, attended, or listened to at least one Ravens game in the past year.

    Maryland may be the first state to partner with a sports team (the Obamacare administration did attempt to pursue a national partnership with the NFL, but the league declined after massive conservative outcry). However, it hardly provides the only example of a creative strategy to educate people about the health reform law. With Obamacare’s open enrollment period fast approaching, here are other innovative efforts currently being used to publicize it:

    http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/09/04/2572281/creative-obamacare-promotion/

  5. rikyrah says:

    New York Magazine Changes Mayor Bloomberg’s ‘Racist’ Quote
    Hunter Walker
    7:25 PM EDT, Saturday September 7, 2013

    New York Magazine on Saturday edited a quote that appeared in an interview with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in which he seemed to accuse Bill de Blasio, the Democratic frontrunner in the race to succeed him, of being a “racist.”

    In the interview, Bloomberg described de Blasio’s campaign as “class-warfare and racist.”When questioned about his use of the word “racist” by New York Magazine writer Chris Smith, Bloomberg immediately said, “Well, no, no,” according to the latest version published by the magazine. Those three words were not included in the original version.

    An editor’s note was added to the story to explain the change.

    “The mayor’s office asked us to amend the remarks to add an interjection that was inaudible in our audiotape of the interview, which was conducted over speakerphone. In our view the added words do not alter the meaning of the exchange as reflected in the published interview,” the note said.

    http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/new-york-magazine-makes-change-to-mayor-bloombergs

  6. rikyrah says:

    Without Medicaid Expansion, Over 40 Percent Of The Poorest Americans Won’t Get Any Health Insurance

    By Sy Mukherjee on September 6, 2013 at 11:14 am

    In the states refusing to accept Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, approximately 42 percent of the Americans living below the Federal Poverty Line (FPL) — i.e., people making less than $11,170 per year — won’t be able to take advantage of any of the health law’s new coverage options for the poor, according to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund.

    The health law originally had two avenues to ensure that poor Americans can afford health coverage. It required every state to expand Medicaid coverage to all Americans making up to 133 percent FPL, or slightly under $15,000 per year for an individual. And it offered government subsidies to people making up to 399 percent FPL to help them buy insurance in Obamacare’s statewide insurance marketplaces. The law didn’t extend any government subsidies to the poorest Americans living below the poverty level, reasoning that these people would be eligible for an expanded Medicaid pool and therefore wouldn’t need them.

    But the Supreme Court ruled the Medicaid expansion optional last summer, leaving it up to the states to decide whether or not to participate in it. That means if poor Americans live in states that refuse to expand Medicaid, they won’t be able to take advantage of the expanded public program or receive subsidies to buy insurance on the Obamacare marketplace.

    Most GOP-led states home to lawmakers hostile to health reform have refused to go along with the optional expansion, despite the fact that the federal government will pay for the vast majority of it. Numerous studies have shown that states that don’t expand Medicaid are losing out on billions of dollars in federal funding and denying health benefits to about two-thirds of the poor Americans who were originally expected to gain Medicaid coverage under the law. Nonetheless, 21 states have explicitly refused to expand their programs while five still remain undecided:

    http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/09/06/2581411/medicaid-expansion-40-percent-options/

  7. rikyrah says:

    Without Warning, 57,000 Virginians Could Have Their Voter Registrations Cancelled

    By Scott Keyes on September 5, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    With two months until Virginians decide which of two polar opposites — Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli — will be their next governor, tens of thousands of voters could be removed from the rolls in a statewide purge.

    Approximately 57,000 Virginians have been flagged as being registered in another state, and counties are removing some from the voter rolls without any notice or opportunity to rebut the claim. Before conservatives lose their marbles that this is clear and irrefutable evidence of voter fraud, it’s worthwhile to consider how voter registration works. Each state maintains its own roll rather than a nationwide system. When Joe America, who had been registered in Richmond, moves to Philadelphia and registers there, he’s not required to cancel his Virginia registration before enrolling in Pennsylvania. The process for removing registrations of people who have moved elsewhere varies from state to state, but generally involves periodic comparisons of lists between states to flag and remove people like Joe America who have moved elsewhere.

    Clearly, given the decentralized 50-voter-roll system we currently have, there’s a need for the lists to be periodically cleaned up. But there are a number of issues that make Virginia’s current purge of up to 57,000 voters problematic.

    First and foremost, as multiple county registrars explained to ThinkProgress, voters whose registrations are being cancelled aren’t being given any advance notice. Rather than being mailed a warning letter asking if they still live in Virginia, they are being sent notices that their registration has been cancelled effective immediately. If the cancellation is in error, the letter says to contact the registrar and get it worked out. It’s not measure twice, cut once. It’s cut first and be ready with tape for the mistakes.

    Second, according to at least one voter’s experience, the list contains some serious errors. One Accomack County voter, writing on the blog Blue Virginia under the pseudonym rodentrancher, detailed her experience having her registration wrongly cancelled. Though she’d lived and registered in South Carolina in 2009, she had moved to Virginia last year and re-registered there. Even so, her file was flagged as a duplicate and she received a letter last week informing her that her registration was cancelled. If she hadn’t seen the letter, or had the foresight to call the county registrar who sent her a new registration form, she would have been effectively disenfranchised from the November election.

    The list of 57,000 duplicate registrations was given by the state Board of Elections to county registrars in August. “We were told by the state board that this is a legitimate list and we should process them accordingly,” Patricia White, General Registrar of Accomack County, told ThinkProgress. Still, as Don Palmer, Secretary of the Virginia Board of Elections, emailed, “the final decision is up to each of the 133 local registrars based on voter history and activity.” Palmer was appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) in 2011.

    Some county registrars are going over the list with a fine-tooth comb in an effort to prevent errors. “We’re not taking the list at face value,” Gary Scott, Deputy Registrar of Fairfax County, told ThinkProgress.

    http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/09/05/2576661/virginia-voter-purge/

  8. rikyrah says:

    Black leaders may ask some mayoral hopefuls to bow out
    By Travis Andersen and Andrew Ryan
    | Globe Staff

    September 05, 2013

    The race for mayor in Boston intensified on Wednesday night as dozens of leaders and activists from the city’s African-American communities met behind closed doors and considered asking some candidates of color to abandon their campaigns and rally behind the remaining hopefuls.

    Kevin C. Peterson, who helped spearhead the gathering at the Second African Meeting House of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, described the meeting as “pretty heated up” in an update outside the building halfway through the nearly four-hour session.

    “There is some concerted interest in asking two or three of the minority candidates to step out of the race and endorse one or two” other candidates of color, said Peterson, who directs the New Democracy Coalition and who is a longtime friend and active supporter of candidate Charlotte Golar Richie.

    One option that was discussed, Peterson said, was asking the six candidates of color to meet and identify three hopefuls who would step aside. Those three candidates would then be urged to each endorse two candidates of color, he said.
    Related

    However, organizers made no public statement after the meeting on that plan or any other to possibly whittle down the number of minority candidates.

    In fact, Mel King, a longtime activist and former mayoral candidate who was described by multiple attendees as a lead organizer of the meeting, denied afterward that any such plan was discussed.

    Organizers said much of the meeting was also devoted to identifying the issues relevant to people of color that they would like the candidates to address.

    http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/09/04/african-american-leaders-meet-discuss-mayor-race-weigh-call-some-candidates-bow-out/WctBGdQtoXgpn9NeFBIESP/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw

  9. rikyrah says:

    Colorado Proves Housing The Homeless Is Cheaper Than Leaving Them On The Streets

    By Scott Keyes on September 5, 2013 at 4:42 pm

    In Colorado, a former prison that was recently converted to a homeless shelter is not only doing right by those on the streets, it’s doing right by taxpayers as well.

    The Fort Lyon Correctional Facility in southeastern Colorado had housed prisoners until 2011, when it was closed because of budget cuts. In the two years since, it has laid dormant while lawmakers debated what to do with the building.

    Gov. John Hickenlooper’s (D) office proposed a novel idea: turn the prison into a homeless shelter to help house needy people in the area. Bent County, which contains Fort Lyon, is one of the poorest areas in Colorado, with a poverty rate over more than 20 percent, 8 percentage points higher than the state.

    Earlier this year, state lawmakers appropriated $3.9 million to re-open Fort Lyon as a homeless shelter, which will ultimately house 200 people, many of whom are veterans.

    Though conservatives may balk at the price tag, Next City, an urban-focused media outlet, makes an excellent point: even setting aside factors like dignity and humane treatment, it’s actually cheaper for taxpayers to give homeless people housing at Fort Lyon than to leave them on the streets.

    http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/09/05/2579451/colorado-homeless-shelter/

  10. rikyrah says:

    Fewer Young Americans Are Using Drugs — But An Increasing Number Of Older Americans Are

    By Sy Mukherjee on September 5, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    The rate of illicit drug use among young Americans aged 12 to 17 dropped by nearly 20 percent in the past decade, from 11.6 percent to 9.5 percent, according to new data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). But at the same time, substantially greater numbers of Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 started using controlled substances.

    In 2002, about 3.5 percent of people aged 50 to 54 were using illegal drugs. Now, that number has more than doubled to 7.2 percent. Those aged 55 to 59 have seen an even greater increase, with more than triple the percentage (6.6 percent) using drugs in 2012 than the 1.9 percent that were doing so 10 years ago:

    http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/09/05/2576581/drug-youth-older/

    • Yahtc says:

      Also from the article:

      CVS to take drastic measures such as cutting off prescription privileges for doctors who are found to prescribe too many pain pills.

      Some doctors are becoming drug dealers!

  11. Ametia says:

    Ed Asner: Hollywood Silent on Syria Because They ‘Don’t Want to Feel Anti-Black’
    by Josh Feldman | 11:25 am, September 7th, 2013

    WHERE WAS ED ASNER WHEN THE TEA PARTY CALLED PBO EVERYTHING, BUT A CHILD OF GOD?

    With the current run-up to war in Syria, you may very well ask where Hollywood is. After all, a lot of celebrities were very vocal about war during the Bush administration. So where are they now? Well, many have apparently OD’d on political correctness. Ed Asner, Hollywood actor and longtime liberal activist, admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that Hollywood doesn’t want to appear “anti-black” in opposing President Obama.

    Both Asner and former M*A*S*H star Mike Farrell have personally been very outspoken about Syria, with Farrell calling Obama’s plan of limited military action as “a potential war crime.” As far as Asner’s concerned, though, it’s far too late for Hollywood to jump in. He said, “This country will either bomb the hell out of Syria or not before Hollywood gets off its ass.”

    Asner also attributed “unsuccessful efforts” to protest Iraq to Hollywood’s more recent complacency, before revealing the big underlying reason Hollywood wants no part of criticizing Obama’s Syria plan.

    Another reason some Hollywood progressives have been reticent to speak out against war in Syria, according to Asner, is fear of being called racist.

    “A lot of people don’t want to feel anti-black by being opposed to Obama,” he said.

    He also told THR that too many people who voted for Obama (himself among them) have “lost hope,” and at this point in his presidency, “‘Who gives a shit?’ is essentially the bottom line.”

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/ed-asner-hollywood-silent-on-syria-because-they-dont-want-to-feel-anti-black/

  12. aquagranny911 says:

    Excellent series this week, Chicas! I want to add a few more things about Geronimo. He was really destined to be a spiritual leader, not a war chief. Both his mother & grandmother were healers & he learned a lot from them. He was respected as a visionary & a dreamer before he ever became a fierce warrior.

    The slaughter of his family by Mexican raiders while he was away on a trading mission made him angry, vengeful & bitter against Mexicans. He turned those feelings against the Anglo settlers & US Army because they supported the Mexicans & tried to stop his raids into Mexico. Mexicans & Apaches had a history of fighting among themselves long before the whites came even though they often traded with each other & sometimes inter-married. It was a complex relationship.

    I find Geronimo a complex & fascinating person. I learned a whole ton of stuff about him while helping my Grandson do a research paper for AZ history.

    • Ametia says:

      Sup, AG? Thanks for adding you two Pesos.

      • aquagranny911 says:

        De Nada & not much. I’m just so grateful for blogs that are not Syria and/or Obama bashing 24/7. I know what I think & I trust my Prez to do the best thing in an impossible situation.

        I’m getting ready to celebrate my 7th decade on this earth come Wednesday. The familia has a big Par-Tay planned & I expect to enjoy myself!

    • Xena says:

      @aquagranny. That is very interesting and informative. Thanks for sharing it.

      • aquagranny911 says:

        I think I learned more than the Kiddo. I found it all very interesting because my AZ history book from the old days sure left out a lot of stuff, lol!

    • Thank you, AG!

      • aquagranny911 says:

        Hola! I hope you forgive me for just being such a lurker instead of commenting much but you all seem to say nearly everything I might say so I just don’t comment. I think you might get bored if you just got “Ole” & “Brava” from me constantly. But I do love your blog!

  13. CarolMaeWY says:

    Thanks so much for your series on the Native Americans. I’ve enjoyed it o much.

    • Ametia says:

      Glad you enjoyed it, CarolMae. And thanks so much for all your contributions too!

    • Thank you CarolMae for sharing your comments about the Black Hills and inspiring me to go visit. I hope I get to see and experience all the goodness of this sacred place.

      • CarolMaeWY says:

        Thanks. Beware the tourist traps though. ;) I’ve never seen so many billboards around Rapid City. Go for the scenery and of course Mt. Rushmore. We’ve stayed alway from the Crazy Horse Monument because it is controversial. Crazy Horse family disagrees with it. He would never allow his picture taken and they think this is wrong to make an image of him. They don’t like the way is hand is outreached and pointing either. In their culture you don’t point at people. Another sad story. :'(

        • CarolMae,

          I didn’t post about Crazy Horse because I read he didn’t want his picture taken. I ran across a drawing someone made of him but decided not to use it. Crazy Horse was a true warrior for the Lakota people in helping to defeat Custer in the Battle of Little Big Horn! Custer got routed!

    • Ametia says:

      @CarolMae. When my husband I visited Mount Rushmore last year, they advertised the Crazy Horse Light show.

      It would begin once it got dark. We waited until dark to see the exhibit. It was a total disappointment.

      They just shone rays of light for a few minutes, and presto! it was over. It was a sham, and we paid for it. It’s just an exploitive sham to make $$.

      As usual , folks LOVE MONEY & USE PEOPLE.

  14. Yahtc says:

    Here is a link to a great poetry reading site. Here M. Ayodele Heath reads (performs) African American poets’ works in a series called “28 Days of Poetry”.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/ayospeaks/videos

    In addition he reads his own poetry at this same site.

  15. Ametia says:

    Where Were You When They Stole Detroit’s Democracy?
    By: Black Liberal BoomerSep. 7th, 2013

    If it happens here, it certainly won’t end here. The threat to Detroit’s democracy is a threat to everyone who values their right to vote, but especially to those whose vote is their only avenue toward effective representation in government. Not everyone can start a Super PAC. In fact most of us can’t. For most of us, the vote is our best way to let the powers-that-be know what we think, what we want, and to let them know that we will hold them accountable if they don’t act appropriately. Take away that vote, and you’re left with Gov. Rick Snyder’s America.

    Down here on the ground in Detroit, it has never been unusual as a part of random conversation you might have with a neighbor , friend, or perhaps even somebody you met at a bar, to wind up discussing the topic of what ‘they’ had planned for our city. What’s next for Detroit, who will be determining what’s next – and who won’t – has been a constant topic that I have heard off and on throughout the city in more than a few social circles pretty much ever since I moved here nearly 20 years ago. There has always been that underlying sense that somewhere there was a plan brewing to steal Detroit back from Detroiters. It was only a matter of time before ‘they’ took our city from ‘us’ unless ‘we’ put up one hell of a fight. Not many would say out loud that they feared a conspiracy, but that feeling was there nevertheless. The feeling that someone or something is coming, and whoever/whatever it is isn’t interested in making life better for us.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2013/09/07/stole-detroits-democracy.html

  16. Ametia says:

    The masses who need HEALTH CARE are going to be in for a RUDE awakening, if they don’t stop listening to the the pie-faces on tv and lnstead listen and read about who and what’s going to HELP them.

    I’m DONE with the ignorant.

  17. Ametia says:

    Published on Sep 7, 2013
    In his weekly address, President Obama makes the case for limited and targeted military action to hold the Assad regime accountable for its violation of international norms prohibiting the use of chemical weapons.

  18. Ametia says:

    GERONIMO! Good Morning, Everyone. :-) Great series this week, SG2. Thanks so much.

  19. Yahtc says:

    Leis H. Michaus, Harlem bookseller:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_H_Michaux

    Michaux stimulated a generation of students, intellectuals, writers and artists. He called his bookstore “House of Common Sense and the Home of Proper Propaganda”.

    The store became an important reading room of the Civil Rights Movement.

    While Izzy Young’s Folk Center further south in Greenwich Village became a hang-out during the folk revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the rising Bob Dylan, the Memorial Bookstore up in Harlem was a rare place for black people and scholars and anyone interested in literature by, or about,African Americans, Africans Carribbeans and South Americans.

    In the early 1960s folk and popular music, and the civil rights movement, where inter-related, overlapping and “inspiring the growth and creativity of each other” as historians Izzerman and Kazin write Michaux’s bookstore had over 200,000 texts and was the nation’s largest on its subject.

    Everyone, white and black, was encouraged to begin home libraries and those who were short of money were allowed to sit down and read.

  20. Yahtc says:

    Interview from the past with Lois Mailou Jones on Good Morning America:

  21. Drudge’s Race-Baiting Is Only Getting Worse

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/09/06/drudges-race-baiting-is-only-getting-worse/195762

    A new study from The New Republic determined that the Drudge Report’s use of race-baiting headlines has soared in the last five years, a fact that lends context to the recent flood of conservative media amplifying random, interracial crimes and baselessly assigning them a racial motive.

    Matt Drudge’s conservative website Drudge Report is infamous for its obsessive coverage of alleged black-on-white crime and race-baiting headlines. But it’s only getting worse, according to a new analysis by The New Republic. The magazine analyzed Drudge’s use of race-related terms in headlines after 2008 — the year President Obama established himself as a national figure with his first presidential campaign — with Drudge headlines before 2008, and the results are striking. According to the analysis, since 2008, Drudge headlines:
    ◾Referencing “racism” have more than tripled
    ◾With the term “racist” have nearly doubled
    ◾Containing “black” and “crime” have quadrupled, and
    ◾Have included the n-word eight times, a slur not found in Drudge headlines before 2008.

    Notably, the analysis highlighted that Drudge often altered headlines to inject a racial component when the original source contained none. This method of race-baiting has spilled over into the broader media. Recently, conservative outlets have seized upon local crime stories and baselessly assigned them racial motives when no such evidence existed. This spate of reckless race-baiting has been repeatedly accompanied by inapt comparisons to the killing of Trayvon Martin, an attempt to highlight a supposed double standard among civil rights leaders and media figures.

    When a video of three teenage students beating up another student on a Florida school bus surfaced in early August, local media reported that the attack was in retaliation for the victim notifying school officials that the three teens tried to sell him drugs. But because the perpetrators happened to be black and the victim white, conservative media broke into a chorus of race-baiting, complaining that civil rights leaders hadn’t spoken about the assault. Fox News bragged about its insertion of race into the crime, highlighting that it was the only network to bring race “to the forefront” on the story.

    When three teens — two black, one white — allegedly shot and killed an Australian college student last month because they were “bored,” law enforcement officials emphasized there was no evidence “to indicate that the killing of Christopher Lane was related to either his race or to his nationality.”

    Undeterred by facts, right-wing media again repeatedly manufactured a racial motive. Fox argued that the murder was “likely motivated by race” and even criticized other media outlets for “ignoring the race issue” in the crime. Drudge featured photographs of the two black suspects, neglecting to include the photo of their alleged white accomplice.

    • Yahtc says:

      Well, we know where things are headed if we remain silent!

      We must speak up, stand up, march and insist that we be HEARD!

      Power to the people!

  22. Stevie Wonder takes on Texas: Changing education on slavery is ‘unacceptable’

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/06/stevie-wonder-takes-on-texas-changing-education-on-slavery-is-unacceptable/

    Singer Stevie Wonder took a moment during a panel discussion hosted by MSNBC’s Al Sharpton on Friday to criticize the Texas Board of Education’s attempt to gloss over the U.S. slave trade.

    “We really have to confront the educational system. Every single American must feel and know that they were a part of this United States,” Wonder said. “I think, that [school] books have to be rewritten — the whole notion of changing what happened during slavery time to saying it’s a fantasy — Texas — is unacceptable.”

    The board approved the redesignation of the slave trade as the “Transatlantic Slave Trade,” after flirting with the name “Atlantic Triangluar Trade” as another possible name for the industry.

    Though he clarified that he did not want to offend his fans in Texas, Wonder said, “I just feel that we can’t act like something that truly happened didn’t happen. It’s real, confront it. Deal with it and make the difference by changing it.”

    • Yahtc says:

      Don’t Know Much About History

      Controversial changes may be in store for your textbooks, courtesy of the Texas state school board.

      by Tim Walker

      History, Winston Churchill famously said, is written by the victors. Don McLeroy no doubt agrees.
      McLeroy is a dentist from Bryan, Texas, a self-described Christian fundamentalist, and an outgoing member of state school board of education (SBOE). Over the past year, McLeroy and his allies formed a powerful bloc on the 15-member elected board and pushed through controversial revisions to the statewide social studies curriculum.
      “Sometimes it boggles my mind the kind of power we have,” McLeroy recently boasted.
      To many Texans, however, what’s more mind-boggling are some of the revisions. Critics charge that they promote Christian fundamentalism, boost conservative political figures, and force-feed American “exceptionalism,” while downplaying the historical contributions of minorities. (See slideshow below for examples of the changes.)
      “The circus-like efforts of right-wing board members,” Haecker said, “to impose their own religious and political beliefs on the public school curriculum have been and still are a national embarrassment.”
      The standards will guide textbook purchases and classroom instruction over the next decade – and maybe not just in Texas. National publishers usually cater to its demands because the school board is probably the most influential in the country. Texas buys 48 million textbooks every year. No other state, except California, wields that sort of market clout.
      But Jay Diskey, executive director of the Association of American Publishers’ School Division, says fears of a Texas-style national social studies curriculum are overblown because publishers are more accustomed nowadays to producing customized textbooks for different states.
      But California isn’t taking any chances. A bill recently introduced in the state legislature seeks to prevent Texas-approved changes from seeping into textbooks in the Golden State.
      Even if their reach is limited to Texas, will the new standards capsize social studies classrooms across the Lone Star state? Probably not, says Kirk White, a middle school social studies teacher in Austin.
      “Are there some things in there that don’t belong? Sure, but I hope teachers don’t buckle and interpret the language too narrowly,” White says. “If we have to talk more about our so-called ‘Christian nation’ in class, then let’s talk about it– the good and the bad. A good teacher will know how to take advantage of this situation.”

      You can see a slideshowof examples of the changes below the article at this link:

      http://www.nea.org/home/39060.htm

    • Yahtc says:

      Historians speak out against proposed Texas textbook changes

      By Michael Birnbaum
      Washington Post Staff Writer
      Thursday, March 18, 2010

      Historians on Tuesday criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum, saying that many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state’s borders.

      The changes, which were preliminarily approved last week by the Texas board of education and are expected to be given final approval in May, will reach deeply into Texas history classrooms, defining what textbooks must include and what teachers must cover. The curriculum plays down the role of Thomas Jefferson among the founding fathers, questions the separation of church and state, and claims that the U.S. government was infiltrated by Communists during the Cold War.
      Because the Texas textbook market is so large, books assigned to the state’s 4.7 million students often rocket to the top of the market, decreasing costs for other school districts and leading them to buy the same materials.
      “The books that are altered to fit the standards become the bestselling books, and therefore within the next two years they’ll end up in other classrooms,” said Fritz Fischer, chairman of the National Council for History Education a group devoted to history teaching at the pre-college level. “It’s not a partisan issue, it’s a good history issue.”
      Each subject inTexas’s curriculum is revised every 10 years, and the basic social studies framework was introduced by a panel of teachers last year. But the elected state board of education, which is comprised of 10 Republicans and five Democrats, has made more than 100 amendments to the curriculum since January.
      Discussions ranged from whether President Reagan should get more attention (yes), whether hip-hop should be included as part of lessons on American culture (no), and whether President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address should be studied alongside Abraham Lincoln’s (yes).
      Of particular contention was the requirement that lessons on McCarthyism note that “the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government.”
      The Venona papers document communication between the Soviet Union and its spies. Historians dispute the extent to which transcripts show Soviet involvement in American government.
      Also contentious were changes that asserted Christian faith of the founding fathers. Historians say the founding fathers had a variety of approaches to religion and faith; some, like Jefferson, were quite secular.
      Some textbook authors expressed discomfort with the state board’s changes, and it is unclear how readily historians will go along with some of the proposals.
      “I’m made uncomfortable by mandates of this kind for sure,” said Paul S. Boyer, emeritus professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of several of the most popular U.S. history textbooks, including some that are on the approved list in Texas.
      Boyer said he had not fully reviewed the Texas curriculum and did not know how he would respond to it. But he added that in theory, changes in his text could be required that would make him uncomfortable endorsing his own book.
      Texas school districts are able to buy books that the state board rejects but designates as containing at least half the required curriculum — but they’ll have to use their own money to do so. Almost all currently use state funds to buy textbooks off the approved list, said Suzanne Marchman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.
      One publisher said Tuesday that changes in technology, including the introduction of online components, make it easier and cheaper to tailor textbooks to specific states and requirements, and downplayed the impact that Texas’s decisions would have on the rest of the country.
      “We now have the ability to deliver completely customized content” to different states, said Joseph Blumenfeld, spokesman for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of three major publishers that supply Texas with most of its social studies textbooks.
      But some historians weren’t so certain. Fischer, who is a historian at University of Northern Colorado, noted that first-year teachers fall back on what’s most readily available to them — their textbooks.
      “Teachers have a lot to do and a lot on their plate, and if there’s a nice big textbook that the kids have been taking home, they’ll use it,” he said.

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/17/AR2010031700560.html

    • Yahtc says:

      Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 07/09/2012

      Texas GOP rejects ‘critical thinking’ skills. Really.

      By Valerie Strauss

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html

  23. Yahtc says:

    Someone recorded this movie when on a visit to the Native American Museum in Washington, D.C. (This is why you hear the talking of the museum visitors in the background):

  24. Oglala Sioux Back Bill to Stop IRS Harassment of Tribes

    http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/09/05/oglala-sioux-back-bill-stop-irs-harassment-tribes

    On August 2, 2013, Representative Nunes, joined by Representatives Jenkins, Kind, Gerlach, Reichert, Boustany, Cole, Moore, Delbene, Cardenas, Kilmer, Valadao, McCollum, Mullin and Gosar, introduced H.R. 3043, the Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act of 2013. The Bill is designed to stop IRS efforts to tax tribal citizens who receive essential tribal government programs and services, such as housing, education, elder and child care, and cultural awards, among other things. Late in the game, the IRS has offered to provide guidance to its agents to respect at least some of our tribal government programs and services. That’s good, but we cannot leave Indian sovereignty and tribal self-government in the hands of IRS agents.

    H.R. 3043 is important because it recognizes that Indian nations and tribes, as native governments, have a right and duty to tribal citizens to provide government programs and services to our people make our Indian lands and reservations livable homelands. In McClanahan v. Arizona Tax Comm’n, the Supreme Court explained, “It must always be remembered that … Indian tribes were once independent and sovereign nations.” We remember and we remain sovereign nations.

    Our Lakota people were always free, and we fought for our freedom. In 1868, at the end of Red Cloud’s War, the United States entered the 1868 Treaty, pledging its honor to keep the peace. Chief Red Cloud burned the forts that the United States surrendered in the Powder River Country and signed our 1868 Treaty to end the war. Just a few years later, the United States broke its word, and came to take our sacred Black Hills for gold. As Chief Crazy Horse said,

    We had buffalo for food, and their hides for clothing and for our teepees…. We preferred our own way of living. We were no expense to the government. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers were sent out in the winter, they destroyed our villages.

    The United States’ taking of the Black Hills and our other lands left our people, who were happy and free, living in poverty. Today, as a result of the takings, we have 5 of the 10 poorest counties in the country on our Sioux reservations in South and North Dakota.

    • Leave them alone! You’ve caused enough suffering!

    • Ametia says:

      Hasn’t this been the case with Americans of all stripes & colors?

      THIS: “We had buffalo for food, and their hides for clothing and for our teepees…. We preferred our own way of living. We were no expense to the government. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers were sent out in the winter, they destroyed our villages.”

      And who are the BARBARIANS that come along and reek havoc, steal land, maim, burn, destroy, rape, and murder?

  25. On September 4, 1886, the great Apache warrior Geronimo surrendered in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, after fighting for his homeland for almost 30 years. He was the last American Indian warrior to formally surrender to the United States.

    http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/09/04/native-history-geronimo-last-native-warrior-surrender-151136

  26. Good morning, everyone!

    We wrap up our series on Native American Chiefs and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.

    • rikyrah says:

      Good Morning Everyone. This week’s series has been wonderful. Thank you so much

    • Yahtc says:

      Good Morning, SG2!

      Yes, I have enjoyed your wonderful series on Native American Chiefs this week! Thank you so much!

      I have just finished reading and watching the excellent links and video that you provided with your article on Geronimo today.

      I have also appreciated all of the photos that you found and posted this week.

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