Standing 6 feet apart so African American Alabamians will not be 6 feet under #COVID19 #ExpandMedicaidNow

"Stand up and fight back Don't let them stop us God has not given us the spirit of fear but the power and a sound mind, Forward together not one step back. Now we must fight back just to stay alive. Wake-up everybody. "

Members of the Save Ourselves for Justice and Democracy Movement are fighting back against Governor Kay Ivy's dangerous gamble putting Black Alabamians at risk.

Attorney and former State Senator Hank Sanders said: “I was here 55 years ago today when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked the question, “How Long?” about voting rights and other rights. I and the rest of the massive crowd responded, “Not Long!” We are here today standing six feet apart so that Alabamians will not be lying six feet under. Dr. King asked, “How Long?” 55 years ago, and today we are asking, “How Long” will it be until Alabama expands Medicaid so that the working poor can have health insurance and health care so they can stand a chance to be tested and treated, not only during the coronavirus pandemic but afterwards? I hope and pray the answer to “How Long? is “Not Long!”

B-But every life is precious.....

“When it hits the black belt, when you see how few clinics and hospitals are in those rural areas, there’s no way in the world you’re going to be able to deal with all those cases,”

Residents in the #BlackBelt are already underserved

“We have a very serious problem with medical care and accessibility to it. Our rural transportation services can help, but it’s very difficult for a lot of our citizens not only in Macon but as far west as Sumpter and Green County, they’re having the same problem," said Lee. "So, counties across the Black Belt are experiencing extreme difficulty getting health care, even before this epidemic.”

Its time to stop playing petty partisan politics with people's lives. 

Therefore, we are here, standing six feet apart so fewer Alabamians will not be lying six feet under. We know we take a risk by being here, even with all of our precautions, but the risk of not standing up and speaking out now and not expanding Medicaid now is profoundly greater. That is why we are here.

Plans for Two Separate #Selma Bloody Sunday Marches Cancelled as Groups Unify! Mission Accomplished!

Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, said Friday he had hoped President Barack Obama would move his planned visit to Selma from Friday, March 7 to Sunday, March 8 to better accommodate local commemorations of the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” Sanders was joined by (left to right) Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery; Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery; Rep. Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery and Alabama Democratic Conference chairman Joe Reed.(Photo: Brian Lyman/Advertiser)

Hallelujah!  Organizers of the annual  Bridge Crossing Jubilee in #Selma, AL prevailed against an attempt by the largely White-run, Faith and Politics group, enabled by Rep. John Lewis (D. GA), to hijack Bloody Sunday for their own  partisan political gain.

The annual march, usually held on a Sunday in the first week of March, has been planned by state Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, and others annually since the 1970s. Sanders and other leaders said they were blindsided by Obama's announcement -- made in conjunction with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. -- that the president would march on the anniversary date: March 7.

, and the largely White-run The Faith & Politics Institute, - See more at: http://www.afro.com/plans-for-two-separate-selma-marches-cancelled-as-groups-unify/#sthash.JamYsTEM.S0qzrYOZ.dpuf

and the largely White-run The Faith & Politics Institute, - See more at: http://www.afro.com/plans-for-two-separate-selma-marches-cancelled-as-groups-unify/#sthash.JamYsTEM.S0qzrYOZ.dpuf

Alabama's Black leaders and march organizers were right to be upset.

Sanders said there is a very specific reason for a Sunday march -- to commemorate "Bloody Sunday," that day on March 7, 1965, when state police beat marchers attempting to walk from Selma to Montgomery.
The marchers were stopped on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and driven back. The incident was recently captured in the Paramount film, "Selma."
Sanders said it has always been especially poignant that the civil rights marchers were beaten on a Sunday.
The 1965 march, which was eventually successful later in March 1965, was seen as helping pass the U.S. Voting Rights Act, which invalidated state laws designed to keep blacks from voting.
Sanders said any attempt to hold two marches, one on March 7 and one on March 8, would be "divisive," and would send the wrong signals to the world.

Ya think?  The end result, President Obama will speak in Selma on March 7, but there will be no march.  The one and only march will take place on SUNDAY, March 8, 2015.

 “Senator Barack Obama came to Selma and marched on Bloody Sunday when he was seeking to be President. President Bill Clinton came to Selma and marched on Bloody Sunday on March 5, 2000, on the 35^th Anniversary. Vice President Joe Biden came to Selma in 2013 and marched on Bloody Sunday. Attorney General Eric Holder came to Selma and marched on Bloody Sunday. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Selma and marched on Bloody Sunday. They and so many others all recognized the sacredness of Bloody Sunday in their pilgrimages to Selma. Many leaders, civil rights and otherwise, have come to Bloody Sunday every single year for decades. Bloody Sunday is sacred. The Bloody Sunday March is sacred and cannot be aborted or redirected. It must be commemorated. It must be reenacted. It must be respected. It must be lifted. And it will on Sunday, March 8^th,” said Sen. Sanders.

The Bloody Sunday march is about something far greater than a presidential visit, rescheduling the observance to fit the schedule of a dignitary is unreasonable. State Sen. Hank Sanders, Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford and others who have stood firm on the scheduling should be commended.

Consider this your commendation.



One day when the Glory comes it will be ours....

The end result is that President Obama will speak in Selma on March 7, the actual anniversary of the Bloody Sunday, but there will be no march in Selma that Saturday or in Montgomery on Sunday. - See more at: http://www.afro.com/plans-for-two-separate-selma-marches-cancelled-as-groups-unify/#sthash.JamYsTEM.dpuf

Organizers of the annual Bridge Crossing in #Selma are upset President Obama is having a seperate but equal march on Friday to commemorate Bloody Sunday

Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, said Friday he had hoped President Barack Obama would move his planned visit to Selma from Friday, March 7 to Sunday, March 8 to better accommodate local commemorations of the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” Sanders was joined by (left to right) Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery; Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery; Rep. Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery and Alabama Democratic Conference chairman Joe Reed.(Photo: Brian Lyman/Advertiser)

 Let's recap.

The White House announced President Obama plans to visit #Selma on March 7, 2015 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the signing of the Voting Rights Act, which was gutted under his administration, but I digress.  There is just one little problem....the organizers of the annual event are upset President Obama decided to come to #Selma on Friday, March 7, instead of  Sunday, March 8.  As a matter of fact, organizers didn't even know the President was planning to attend until they heard about it from via the media.  That's a nice way of saying he invited himself, which is fine, he is the President of the United States of America, but it seems like he's making it about politics and not about the substance of the annual occasion.

The annual march, usually held on a Sunday in the first week of March, has been planned by state Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, and others annually since the 1970s. Sanders and other leaders said they were blindsided by Obama's announcement -- made in conjunction with U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. -- that the president would march on the anniversary date: March 7.
Sanders said there is a very specific reason for a Sunday march -- to commemorate "Bloody Sunday," that day on March 7, 1965, when state police beat marchers attempting to walk from Selma to Montgomery.
The marchers were stopped on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and driven back. The incident was recently captured in the Paramount film, "Selma."
Sanders said it has always been especially poignant that the civil rights marchers were beaten on a Sunday.
The 1965 march, which was eventually successful later in March 1965, was seen as helping pass the U.S. Voting Rights Act, which invalidated state laws designed to keep blacks from voting.
Sanders said any attempt to hold two marches, one on March 7 and one on March 8, would be "divisive," and would send the wrong signals to the world.

You think?  I agree with what Hank Sanders said:

"We are always glad when the president comes, but the Bloody Sunday march is sacred," said Sanders, joined at the podium by Democratic Montgomery representatives Alvin Holmes, John Knight and Thad McClammy; Alabama Democratic Conference chairman Joe Reed and Tuskegee mayor Johnny Ford. "It's sacred of that blood that was spilled on that Sunday . . . it's sacred because it's been commemorated every year, for 40-some years, and we intend that sacredness shall be preserved."

That's a nice way of saying you are hurting and not helping Mr. President Obama, Sir.

The anniversary date is something Sanders said the march organizers never focused on in their decades of commemoration. Instead, the march organizers focused on a Sunday march near the date of March 7.
And it's that tradition that people have planned around for the last year, Sanders said -- targeting March 8 for the 50th anniversary march. Sanders said Obama's announcement has thrown things into a state of confusion, and that people from all over the nation -- people with plans, reservations and travel schedules -- have been calling local organizers with questions.

Bloody Sunday is not about celebrating President Obama, it's about remembering the blood, sweat, tears, and personal sacrifice of those who suffered  and died so an African American could someday be elected President of the United States.  Selma is not about a photo op.  It's about HOPE for CHANGE we can believe in.

Now if President Obama is coming to Selma on Friday to pardon for former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman that's another story....

Update~ 50th Anniversary March is History-Now What?

The right to childhood should be protected

TheSkeptikOne: 50th Anniversary March is History-Now What?

 It's done, we marched, we shouted, we sang, we cried, we vented, some of us shared our memories of the first march, many of whom, like me, were alive, but too young to take part. Others who took part, wanted and desperately needed to recapture the moment. We needed to feel the energy. For whatever reason, we were compelled to be there. We needed to believe we were making a difference, again, and that people were listening to us, and that great things such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act were just around the corner, maybe this time signed by a Black President. That would truly be history and fulfillment of the dream as well as a direct answer to those determined to resurrect Jim Crow and nullify the rights of all minorities once again.

Now what indeed?  Let me say right now, If President Barack Husein Obama doesn't turn talk into action after his speech at the Lincoln Memorial today I'm going to be pi$$ed.  I never expected President Obama to be the President for/of Black Folks and only Black Folks, but never did I dream he would be the President for/of everybody except black folks.  It's time for President Obama to channel his inner African/American and do something about the condition of a race of people who are under constant attack.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King was not referring to people when he made this statement, he was referring to a system of, institutional racism.

 In other words, I've seen and heard instances where the phrase "content of their character" is often used to implicitly reinforce one's prejudices and preconceived notions of a particular group. During my brief lurkings at the Free Republic, I ran into constant examples of people denigrating a certain segment of black Americans as criminal-minded and predisposed to general thuggery, only to claim that they were merely looking at "the content of their character, as Dr. King would have them do."

The Trayvon Martin case is the perfect example of when white people judge black people. George Zimmerman, his defense (sic) team,  and the all female, 0% African American jury viewed unarmed teen Travyon Martin as a threat.  Compared to Antoinette Tuffs, who viewed heavily armed Michael Brandon Hill as a human being.


We still have a long way to go to reach the American Dr. King preached about about.  The Trayvon Martin case is another reminder that black life still has no value in America. He is our generation's Emmett Till. 

I agree with these reflections of a Clark Atlanta University student posted on facebook : "We need to step it up, get out there & stand up for what we believe in....because its one thing to talk about it but we need to BE about it!"

Martin Luther King, Jr  believed that radical activism, even at the risk of arrest, was more important than moderation and compromise. Principle over popularity.

Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around,  because we have a mighty long way to go before the dream becomes a reality.

*Long Sigh*

Legal Schnauzer: Macon County Residents File Federal Lawsuit Alleging Voting Rights Violations From Bingo Raids

Legal Schnauzer: Macon County Residents File Federal Lawsuit Alleging Voting Rights Violations From Bingo Raids

The Macon County lawsuit shines new light on racism in high places--and the Alabama mainstream press clearly wants no part of telling that story. ~Legal Schnauzer

Nope, the "Alabama mainstream press", and I use that term lightly,  wants no part of telling that story, because they are too busy reporting on the democratic cat, I mean, infighting while providing a weapon of mass distraction for the AL GOP.

While democrats, and I use the term loosely,  were distracted and wasting time forming an anti Joe Reed and his bunch organization the AL GOP was hard at work.

Republicans approved a bill that would require drug testing of welfare recipients.

Republicans killed the workers compensation overhaul law.

Republicans approved a bill that specifies existing private school students are eligible for tax credits

Republican senate committee cut the size of teacher pay cuts.

Congress held a hearing about long term unemployment and one Congress Critter showed up.

President Barack Obama nominated former Alabama attorney general and current U.S. circuit judge Bill Pryor to be a commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.


 This is what happens when democrats take their eyes off the prize.

What Nancy Worley said all the damn way!

Worley said in a phone interview Monday it was unfortunate that Kennedy decided to resign and “take his toys and go home,” but she feels that people will return to the Alabama Democratic Party as they see the policies of the Republican supermajority in the Legislature “taking care of the rich” and how those decisions affect them.
“We’re looking at a golden opportunity in the upcoming election in 2014, because quite frankly the Republicans have so many negative situations they have created for the state that I think people are going to feel the pinch in their pocketbook and they’re going to vote Democratic, like they once did,” she said.

A house divided will not stand.  

RedEye's Post Election Blog Stroll

This is the Face of the Republican Party~Fist Dap to Mack Lyons who says, take a look at this face-The last time any "real" American looked this way is when the slaves were freed.

During the campaign cycle, I kept asking myself how in the heck does Romney think he's going to win without women, African Americans, labor, Hispanics, and the LBGT community? I mean there aren't that many old, rich white men/women in America, and although they tried to employ the Bush/Rove model (if you can't beat em suppress em) I knew they couldn't suppress that many people. Or could they......

Nope the media enabled, GOP infused, Tea Party just can't understand what went wrong with their plan to "take their country back" to the days of all war all the time so the rich could get richer while the rest got the shaft.  They honestly thought voters were going to fall for their b.s. and elect them??!! 

 There's no way anyone with even the remotest access to the internet—and its myriad polling aggregator sites—would think they were headed toward any sort of big victory. That's why conservative media worked so hard to convince their audience that the polling was "skewed". They willfully made themselves breathtakingly stupid.

The Skeptic One breaks it down:

Let's buy a vowel, shall we. The Republican Party of Lincoln is NOT the Republican Party of today. Hell, the Republican Party of today is not even the GOP of the 20^th Century. The current GOP must have secretly beamed down from some alien planet that is invisibly circling our sun, or passing through our universe, because these so called Republicans have absolutely no human or recognizable conservative attributes, what so ever.

To say Republicans are sore losers is an understatement:

 Ultimately, you won't learn anything. Because you're Republicans. And there's something tragically touching and almost poetically ignorant about stubbornly clinging to the anchor of your principles even as the ship sinks and everyone around you is saying to let it go and take a life preserver.

Yeah, now we to look forward to the inevitable endless investigations of meaningless things before the push for impeachment. Because you're Republicans. And that's just easier to do than actually govern.

And no, you cannot have your country back America is moving forward, with or without you. 

That’s the message voters sent the Republican Party and its Tea Party wing Tuesday night when they re-elected President Obama and strengthened the Democrats’ control of the Senate.
No amount of outside money or voter suppression or fear mongering or lying — and there was a ton of each — was enough to blunt that message.

Psst President Obama, those of us who live in the reddest of the red states need your immediate attention on a number of issues.  It's been hell to pay since you were elected the first time....they are really going to get those of us who voted for you again.

The election of Barack Obama was guaranteed to have far reaching, and long lasting implications for Alabama politics. The first election of an African-American President could not be anything other than a paradigm-shifting event. On the one hand, Obama’s presence on the ballot seems to have brought out the worst in white Alabama.

Today's Must Read
 A RedEye Rant about whining and complaining