Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

Chris Rock in FargoPhoto: Elizabeth Morris / FXTV ReviewsAll of our TV reviews in one convenient place.

Its good to be back in Fargo, which has always served as more of a feel or state of mind than a location in Noah Hawleys TV adaptation of Joel and Ethan Coens film of the same name. The wait between seasons three and four has felt nigh-interminableand that was before production shut down due to concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. While absence has almost certainly made the heart grow fonder, the combination of another stellar cast and richly detailed storytelling proves a much greater lure. If Fargos ambitions get the better of it sometimes, at least its in keeping with season fours exploration of the elusive (for most) American dream.

The fourth season marks a few departures for Fargo, as the action travels to Kansas City, Missouri, over 700 miles from the series Minnesota birthplace. The tone of the new episodes is often bleaker than in previous installments: The winters in Kansas City may be milder than in Minneapolis, but the prospects for our central players are far from sunny. Which isnt to say that the show has lost all of its whimsy; the usual roster of delightful character names is very much present (theres even a U.S. Marshal named Dick Wickware). But aside from the occasional cacophonous fart fit, humor rarely ever breaks the ever-escalating tensions between the factions trying to rule this Midwestern city. By the end of the nine episodes available for review, the show has even been drained of its muted autumnal palette, shifting to black-and-white cinematography in a standout entry.

B

Noah Hawley; based on Joel and Ethan Coen's movie of the same name

Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Glynn Turman, E'myri Crutchfield, Ben Whishaw, Salvatore Esposito, Jessie Buckley, Jeremie Harris, Andrew Bird, Anji White, Timothy Olyphant

Sunday, September 27 at 9 p.m. ET on FX

Hour-long crime drama/anthology series; nine episodes watched for review

And for the first time, the title cards that claim the story unfolding is a true one are more than cheeky openers. Kansas City might not call to mind organized crime as readily as New York City and Chicago do, but Hawleys clearly taken inspiration from that metropolis history of crime families. In his telling, the Jewish-led Moskowitz Syndicate stakes their claim to Kansas City at the turn of the 20th century, but ultimately fall to the Irish-led Milligan Concern, who then attempt to broker peace with the Italian Fadda family. By the 1950s, the Fadda family contends with a new challengerthe Cannon Limited, an organized crime outfit not unlike the Moskowitz Syndicate or the Milligan Concern. The difference being, the Cannon group is made up of Black Americans who left the Jim Crow South, like the Exodusters, seeking new opportunities in more northern states.

Chris Rock stars as Loy Cannon, who heads up what our perspicacious narrator describes as the latest group ready to get rich the old-fashioned wayin a country built on stolen land and with stolen labor, this means more stealing. A family man, Loy doesnt revel in behaving badly, but he rarely balks at it, either. Hes the type of ambitious, conflicted man whos often at the center of these tales of the seductiveness of power. But he isnt the hero of this piece; another divergence from seasons past is a refusal to dub any of its new characters good guys or outright villains. Hawley ventures deep into the moral grays, where hes previously thrived, finding new shades of slate and limestone. As befits real-life calls for police reform (if not abolition)not to mention working with Black writers like Stefani Robinsonsporting a badge isnt tantamount to being a white hat. The innocent dont stay that way for long; neither do the guilty.

Early on, that ambiguity costs the new season some of its cohesion, something that is also hindered by the ever-expanding cast. The premiere is welcome and witty, with inventive ritualswarring families trade their youngest sons as a way to foster peace and cultural understandingbut paired with the second episode (also helmed and written by Hawley), it can feel like the show is running through its call sheet. We meet Josto Fadda (Jason Schwartzman, as the Little Lord Fauntleroy of the manor), who represents Loys competition, but is himself beset by a brother Gaetano (Gomorrahs Salvatore Esposito) who has come to America from the old country to take his (arguably) rightful place at the head of the family. Josto crosses paths with Oraetta Mayflower (Jessie Buckley), a nurse and angel of death by day; Oraetta sizes up her young neighbor, Ethelrida (vibrant newcomer Emyri Crutchfield), whose intelligence makes more trouble for her at school than actual acting out would. Then theres the stately Doctor Senator (the equally stately Glynn Turman), Loys right-hand man; Constant Calamita (Gaetano Bruno), Jostos heavy whos on loan to Gaetano; Karen Aldridge and Kelsey Asbille as a pair of lesbian lovers who do crimes; and oh yes, Jack Huston as a guilt-ridden detective and Timothy Olyphant as the aforementioned Dick (who actually goes by Deafy), a federal marshal and a Mormon.

Thats but a fraction of Fargos playerswe havent even gotten to Dr. Harvard (Stephen Spencer), who mocks rubes in Minnesota in one of several callbacks, or the haunted Rabbi Milligan (Ben Whishaw), whos already seen so much upheaval in K.C.s demimonde, and whose last name may or may not establish a connection to season two. The shows most compelling characters still manage to come to the fore, but even the detours are a surprising amount of fun, thanks to wonderful performances across the board. As Josto, Schwartzman has the best grasp of the humor thats always on the verge of going pitch-black, and he can be formidable when needed. Ethelrida is the closest to a moral compass that we get this season, and Crutchfield shows considerable range playing her as a searching adolescent. Huston makes Odis flop sweat as palpable as his post-traumatic stress, while Olyphant radiates rugged charm as he effectively channels Raylan Givens.

Rock holds his own in a rare dramatic role: Loys speeches about who is allowed to achieve the American dream are tinged with the comedians familiar cadence from his previous onstage railing. But Rock comes to inhabit the role of Loy, someone whose ruthlessness and geniality inspire loyalty from his men in equal measure. He falters a bit in some of the quieter scenes, but when Loy visits his youngest son, Satchel (Rodney Jones), at the Fadda home, Rock shows some inspired character work, tenderly touching his sons hair, which, along with his dietary needs, is hardly being looked after. Instead of racing to hit the highest dramatic register, he seeks out the notes in between.

Fargo season four is similarly studious, filling its world with pieces of this countrys history, including migration, immigration, colonizationeven xenophobic legislation like the Mormon Extermination Order. In a sense, the themes of Fargo remain in place, but the scope has been widened greatlythis isnt the story of a flawed individual, but of flawed governance. These are not the sins of a few corrupt people, but of an entire nation. That would be a tall order for a more straightforward drama, and Fargo occasionally strains under the weight of what its attempting to accomplish: a lively examination of the history of different groups of Western European immigrants who have gradually been granted whiteness, and the many Black Americans, whose ancestors were brought here by force (and greed), but are now, as Doctor Senator puts it, a part of this land, like the wind and the dirt. While that doesnt offer the same hook as a possible UFO sighting in Minnesota, it still has the potential to be Fargo at its best.

Reviews by Zack Handlen will run weekly.

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Chris Rock commands the moral gray areas of Fargo season four - The A.V. Club

Ill confess: There was a time when I would have considered the question facing Republicans a no-brainer. Of course they should seize this opportunity to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a conservative. Moving the courts especially the Supreme Court rightward has been a conservative lodestar for generations. It remains one of the last tenets of pre-Trump conservatism that still largely unites the right.

In fairness, the conservatives who take these matters seriously would say the issue isnt so much moving the courts rightward as it is restoring the courts to their proper role. They we believe the primary reason these fights have become so ugly is that the judiciary has taken upon itself legislative functions it does not have. (This is why even pro-choice conservatives, and even pro-choice liberals like Ginsburg, believe Roe v. Wade was deeply flawed.) When Supreme Court justices do the job of politicians, it shouldnt be a surprise that confirmation battles resemble political campaigns.

One of the benefits of this high-stakes moment is that many conservatives have shelved the old arguments about Senate precedents and hypocrisy and stated the matter clearly.

In reality, there are only two rules, both set forth in the Constitution, writes National Reviews Andrew McCarthy. A president, for as long as he or she is president, has the power to nominate a person to fill a Supreme Court seat; and that nominee can fill the seat only with the advice and consent of the Senate. Thats it. Everything else is posturing. Everything else is politics.

As is often the case, McCarthy is right.

But this argument is also why Im going wobbly. One of the reasons we are where we are is that then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took this position when he invoked the nuclear option in 2013 i.e., lifted the filibuster for appellate judges. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader at the time, warned that doing so would invite a response in kind. In 2017, now-Majority Leader McConnell was true to his word. He lifted the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees.

In other words, what happens when both parties embrace the doctrine of do whatever you can get away with?

Even before Justice Ginsburgs demise, Democratic support was building not just for packing the Supreme Court by increasing the number of justices (which Ginsburg opposed), but also for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rican statehood and the abolition of the legislative filibuster. Now, Democrats are all but vowing to go through with expanding the court in response to a rushed replacement for Ginsburg.

What will be the GOPs argument against such schemes?

What some now dismiss as politics and posturing are actually important considerations that honor the conservative distinction between can and should and fall under such antiquated notions as statesmanship, prudence, legitimacy, consistency and precedent. These concepts put maintaining the long-term health of our institutions above the demands of the moment.

Take Sen. Lindsey Graham, who promised in 2016 that if an opening were to come in the last year of President Trumps term, a nominee would not be considered until after the election. By going back on that promise in such spectacular fashion, Graham isnt merely debasing himself, hes also teaching people that nothing politicians say matters.

Moreover, merely on the level of realpolitik, abandoning all considerations other than what you can get away with amounts to preemptive disarmament for the wars to come. The pernicious logic of apocalyptic politics works on the assumption that the long term doesnt matter. But the long term always becomes now eventually.

This is why the Senate could have used more posturing and politics, not less. Republicans have the ability to fill Ginsburgs seat before the election or immediately after in a lame-duck session. Thats a huge bargaining chip, and given that the GOPs Senate majority is so slim, its a chip that could have been traded by even a handful of Republican senators.

A few Republicans could have agreed to postpone the process until after the election in exchange for a few Democrats agreeing never to vote for a court-packing scheme, giving voters some buy-in for whatever happens next. If no Democrats agreed, then their issue is really with the system, and Republicans would have been free to vote for Trumps pick, even in a lame-duck session. Im using the past tense, because on Tuesday morning, McConnell collected enough GOP votes to proceed with a fast-tracked process that will surely invite tit-for-tat reprisals down the road.

I had high hopes such a deal could work. I was naive. After all, such a bargain required politicians to trust other politicians to keep their word and stand up to the bases of their own parties for the long-term good of the country. I should have realized everyone is too out of practice with that sort of thing.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.

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Deal on court vacancy would make sense but will never happen | Jonah Goldberg - News-Herald.com

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On September 23, a grand jury moved to indict only one officer involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, who was asleep in her own home when police barged in to carry out a botched raid. Sgt. Brett Hankison was charged with "wanton endangerment" because some of the 10 shots he fired during the deadly encounter ended up in a neighboring apartment. He wasn't actually charged with anything directly related to Taylor's death and faces a maximum of five years in prison. No criminal charges were brought against officer Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly.

After a summer defined by loss and protests for Black Lives Matter, this indictment is understandably disappointing to so many. Sadly, it's not at all surprising. As defeating as this is, it's important to press on and continue to fight for Black Lives and demand justice for Taylor. We must. If you're thinking, "well, what now?" here are some actionable steps you can take:

As the Louisville chapter of Black Lives Matter noted, "There isnt a verdict in the world that will remove white supremacy from #louisvillethats up to us as a community." Allies especially white allies who benefit from systemic racism and their privilegecan help by donating and paying reparations so that Black families in Louisville can "have the resources they need to heal and survive in the midst of this ongoing nightmare."

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Donate here, and continue to contribute to national organizations like the National Action Network, the NAACP, Equal Justice Initiative, Colin Kaepernicks Know Your Rights Camp, and Unicorn Riot.

You can also direct funds to the official GoFundMe that Taylor's family set up. Donations to that link will go toward advocating for police reform, various charities, women who want to start their own businesses, and scholarships for people who want to become emergency medical technicians and registered nurses.

Ahead of the grand jury decision, the city of Louisville imposed a curfew and declared a state of emergency, which could mean a bigger police presence at protests. It's so important to support the protestors who are brave enough to go out and take a stand in the coming days. As was the case when the Black Lives Matter protests gained steam earlier this summer, make sure you donate to national and local bail funds to ensure that those who are arrested for protesting and exercising their constitutional rights won't fall victim to the predatory bail system and legal fees.

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Consider donating to The Louisville Community Bail Fund, The Bail Project National Revolving Bail Fund, LGBTQ Fund, Emergency Release Fund, and Trans Justice Funding Project.

Seriously, this isn't just a clich. No, voting won't automatically end police brutality or make systemic racism go away, but here's why it matters: When you vote for people who, for example, support your stance on police abolition or reform, they can help introduce legislation that has the ability to impact our communities. (The Minneapolis City Council recently submitted a proposal to disband the city's police department, for example.)

Plus, state positions like the Kentucky Attorney General are elected. Mind you, the current AG, Daniel Cameron, is up for re-election in 2024 and is the same guy who said the officers were "justified in their use of force" against Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend. And Cameron is on Donald Trump's short list to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, so keep that in mind when it's time to vote.

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This might sound like a broken record at this point, but it bears repeating: Take care of yourself first and foremost. It's been a centuries-long journey to get to where we are today, and there's still so much more that needs to be done to achieve true equality and justice for slain Black people like Taylor. But you can't be of service to anyone else if you're not looking after your mental, physical, or emotional health. (For mental health resources for Black women, check out this guide.) If you need time, rest. Then, come back stronger and ready to work.

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Here's How to Continue to Demand Justice for Breonna Taylor After the Grand Jury Indictment - Cosmopolitan.com

Daniel Woolf has been in his current role as Senior Policy Adviser for Infrastructure and Energy at the CBI since January 2018. Last year, in coordinating the CBIs response to the governments Infrastructure Finance Review, Woolf and his colleagues outlined the barriers to businesses investing in and financing UK infrastructure. At the time, those barriers included political uncertainty, the perception of politicised regulators, negative procurement practices, government handling of risk transfer, the lack of a championed infrastructure finance delivery model and fragmented governance structures.

While collating the CBIs response to the government consultation, Woolf produced recommendations to address these challenges, and this year he has spent a great deal of time producing a new CBI report on Infrastructure Finance titled, Investing in infrastructure, published in early September.

This year has been challenging for the industry, Woolf says: It has been a very turbulent time and the infrastructure sector has been hit really hard by COVID-19. Members have told us about quite a few projects that have been delayed, with the construction sector in particular faced with real difficulties including whether to stay open and how to continue to operate safely. Members tell us that while around 90 per cent of sites have reopened, they are in many cases still making a loss due to adaptations they have had to make to ways of working.

He adds: Our members are consistently positive about the relationship with the public sector, with Highways England, for example, continuing with meaningful upgrade work. The notice to proceed that was recently issued on HS2 has also started to inject some much-needed cashflow into the supply chain.

Woolf says that prior to COVID-19, it was clearly important to the government to encourage private investment into UK infrastructure, which led to the Treasury and Infrastructure and Projects Authoritys consultation process about attracting private money into the sector. But we are still waiting for the publication of the governments response to that consultation, and that should be the priority now. It is our view that the pandemic has served as a really important moment in highlighting how important the private sector is to the governments aim of delivering the infrastructure that the country needs.

In March 2020, the government made its historic pledge of 640 billion to build UK infrastructure, which was a huge commitment. Since then, the government has had to spend billions to keep the economy afloat, says Woolf, so those commitments have clearly become more challenging as a result. I am increasingly of the view that the private sectors role is more important than ever.

The CBI does not see any evidence of a drop-off in the private sectors appetite to invest into infrastructure, so the government must now focus on facilitating that investment. It is our view that to increase private investment into UK infrastructure the government should focus on an attractive investment environment starting with creating a stable and enabling regulatory regime, says Woolf.

That means retaining the key regulatory principles that have facilitated the swathes of investment into the regulated utilities over the past 30 years, including evidence-based decision-making and keeping at arms length from short-term political considerations. It also means making decisions subject to a proportionate but robust appeals regime.

Other barriers that continue to put off private investment include an overly complex and fragmented governance regime, and the lack of clarity on finance delivery models. Woolf says, At the end of 2018, following the abolition of PFI and PF2 contracts, there was an expectation from our members that a new delivery model would be championed or proposed, and that didnt happen. That essentially signalled to the private sector to banks and investors that the UK government, at that time, was not really serious about attracting private finance into infrastructure.

He says CBI members are now keen for a clear departure from the notion that you can have a one-size-fits-all model: We would rather see the government outline, as part of the publication of the national infrastructure and construction pipeline, a series of models that they would permit for different sectors and different projects, he says.

The CBI also feels that the government should now consider setting up an infrastructure bank, similar in function to the British Business Bank, to plug the gap in funding lost by the conclusion of the UKs involvement with the European Infrastructure Bank. Plans for such a bank are rumoured to be in place.

We think a British infrastructure bank could play a similar role to the Canadian Infrastructure Bank, says Woolf, which allows the Canadian government to explore projects that would otherwise be difficult to bring to market. In Canada there is sufficient liquidity to finance many of their planned infrastructure projects, so there was a fear that the bank would crowd out private finance. But, our members have told us that it assists the market as a vehicle to present innovative and unsolicited proposals, to help manage risks that the private sector cannot accept, and to provide competitive financing when a project is too large for the market.

Such a model could serve to bridge the gap between the public and private sector on complex projects that require innovative solutions, he argues.

In the UK, the appetite from the private sector to invest in infrastructure has only grown with the advent of COVID-19, while the governments need for private capital to deliver its objectives is also clear. Woolf hopes Whitehalls response to last years consultation will soon start to unlock the standstill.

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In the second interview of the series, Daniel Woolf of CBI shares his recommendations on addressing the challenges of investing in infrastructure -...

by Xing Hey

Many years ago, I sat dejected as a judge sentenced me to life in prison for crimes committed as a 15 year old. At the time, I felt as if the world was falling away and I was hanging on without a parachute or a place for a soft landing. The arms of somebody that would catch and hold me couldnt be found. I never felt so alone as I did in that moment. Aside from three random strangers, the packed courtroom on that day was there to encourage the punishment of a criminalized teenage me. When the punishment was officially announced, the satisfaction of the audience in that room was eerie. I still feel the chills from that day years ago today.

On a grey overcast Thursday in a Seattle Courthouse on August 6, 2020, King County Superior Court Judge ODonnell, sentenced James and Jerome Taafulisia to 40 years in prison for crimes they committed when they were 16 and 17. As I had once been a teenager given such a sentence, as an adult I felt helpless and heartbroken upon hearing the punishment handed down to James and Jerome. The feelings when being told you are going to spend the rest of your life in prison as a teenager are indescribable, but those feelings came rushing back as I heard the judge attempt to justify sending James and Jerome to languish in prison for a lifetime. I sympathized with how they were feeling after being told that they were no longer fit to be a part of society.

Although James and Jerome have put on a tough facade to survive the trauma of abuse and neglect throughout childhood, on that day I witnessed emotions from them for the first time. James burst into tears, while Jerome burst into an original song declaring his unconditional love for his brothers. Despite the indisputable tragedy of the lives of these two young people, Judge ODonnell sentenced them to prison for a lifetime for mistakes and choices they made as traumatized youth.

Everyone in the courtroom grieved for James and Jerome that day. Everyone, it seemed, except the judge, prosecutors, and maybe even the lawyers defending them. For these agents of the system it appeared to be business as usual which, in this current moment in history, is the biggest tragedy. They simply smiled and shook hands, as if the totality of the situation was a normal function of the system. At the end of the day, they got to go home to children and families, while the systems victims, including families and friends of Jeannine Zapata, James Tran, as well as James, Jerome, Joseph (the youngest brother accused in this incident) and others, will continue to grieve the lives lost and live with the harms which the system ultimately caused. Every single individual impacted by the tragedy on January 26, 2016 in the homeless encampment known as the Jungle, will live with scars or resolution of some sort, but will never actually be healed by the remedy prescribed by the state.

Sadly this is the typical narrative in the history of law and justice in the United States of America where children, BIPOC community members, and houseless folx disproportionately make up the population of those oppressed, criminalized, and neglected by the state. For James, Jerome, and Joseph, the Washington State system of Child Protective Services (CPS), had been their legal guardian since they were toddlers. With no accountability, this state institution failed to provide them with the safety and protection that all children deserve. Yet the remedy imposed by the state for children they helped traumatize and forced into homelessness, was to punish them in the form of incarceration.

So it shouldnt surprise us when harm occurs in our communities, when our children are hurting and crying, their pain is customarily met with indignation rather than empathic understanding. The cries of our children sound different to those tasked with upholding the system. Just like us, our children are dangerous to them, deserving of criminalization and punishment. No matter what personal testimony or scientific evidence is put in front of them about the effects of childhood trauma and compromised brain development, our childrens behaviors and actions are criminalized and punished. Instead of treatment and restorative remedies, they increase the structure and capacity of the criminal legal system to punish us by investing in more policing, more prosecutors, more jails, and more prisons.

Accordingly, those responsible for creating and maintaining the legal system have always found a way, reformed a way, to lock us up and throw away the key. Time and again, throughout the history of this criminal justice system, they have found a way to kill us, while convincing us that they will reform the systems that are killing us. However, whether in prison or on the streets, we keep dying. We just keep on dying and they keep on convincing us we will be okay. They often dupe us with progressive narratives and strategies then push forward proposals and legislation that supposedly will fix the problem of our deaths by this system.

A reformist agenda is when a judge in the traditional criminal system of justice can attempt to convince us that sentencing James and Jerome to only 40 years was doing them a favor, stating that the time they will spend in the state system of corrections will give them a better opportunity to change themselves; ironically an opportunity to change themselves in a system that has never been kind to them, an opportunity they have never been given while free in society.

Reform of the criminal legal system has been shown not to work for us. Progressive promises to close down the youth jail within 5 years, Miranda Rights ordinances with young people, auto-decline legislation, zero youth detention, and Miller v. Alabama only matter on the surface if the system is going to continue to criminalize the traumas of our children. The truth is, if they cant put our children in youth jails, they will find a way to put them in adult prisons. They will always find a way. Reform is a strategy that will make us forget and be convinced. Reform results in a policy where King County Superior Court Judge Sean ODonnell, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, and King County Deputy Prosecutor Maria Barbosa, after the overwhelming evidence of childhood trauma presented, could make an argument that a 40-year prison sentence for James and Jerome is justice in light of the sentence they could have given. In good conscience, they actually believed that such a sentence would be in James, Jeromes, and societys best interest.

Unfortunately, though today we grieve the lives lost to the brutality of the police and the criminal justice system, tomorrow we will forget. While James and Jerome are sitting at Green Hill School pondering how to survive a 40-year prison sentence and all the additional traumas that come with it, we will go on with our lives. Months or years from now, we will forget about James and Jerome, as we have forgotten about the multitudes of young BIPOC men and women from our communities sentenced to die in prison. As we forget, more tragedies of state-sanctioned violence by the system will continue to happen to the young people of our communities.

As with James, Jerome, myself and many others, this system is working exactly the way it was built to work. My story, James and Jeromes story, is not unique when it comes to law and justice in America. There is no justice in this system for us. Our cries dont matter to them. Never have. The oppression of BIPOC bodies continues to maintain white Americas status quo.

Therefore, if we truly care about BIPOC bodies broken by the system, we must imagine a world where the systems that cause harm to individuals with those identities do not exist. We have to educate ourselves and our surroundings about the history of Black, Brown, and Indigenous liberation, and understand how an abolitionist imagination is key in that liberation. If Black lives truly mattered to us, then a world of abolition, where a carceral system of policing and prisons is not our default solution to social problems, should matter as well.

Imagine instead of criminalization and punishment, the likes of James, Jerome and I would have been provided the support and resources we needed to thrive as young people. Instead of further marginalization, imagine when I was suspended from school, dropped out of the 7th grade, or was a runaway, I was provided preventative support and resources I needed. Instead of further criminalization, imagine when James, Jerome and Joseph, were homeless teengaers doing what was neccesary to survive on the streets, they were given the preventative support and resources they needed. How might things have been different if we had caring and nurturing adults to intervene at some point, if community-based youth organizations had the resources to reach out to us? Part of an abolitionists imagination is the belief that we have the ability and brilliance to take care of each other, that we can keep us safe, without the complicity of the state. However, if we cannot begin to have such an imagination, how can we possibly protect our children from the harms the state can do to them?

Our accountability to the likes of James and Jerome is to not forget about them. Our accountability is in our willingness to hold such a reformist system accountable by not being easily convinced of the progressive promises and policies that end up killing us and our children.

We are in September now. Summer is over. After months of protest and civil unrest, we are still here: Jacob Blake, Dijon Kizzee, and thirteen-year-olds being charged as adults by a so-called progressive King County Prosecutors Office, not to mention countless other unnamed BIPOC community members dying from the injustices of this system. There is no time better than now that we come together and imagine a new way to restore humanity into our youth and wholeness to our communities. Abolition must be an initiative and policy now. The more we wait, the more we will continue to grieve the lives of our community members lost to this system.

Connect with James and Jerome:

James Taafulisia 848290Green Hill School375 SW 11 StreetChehalis, WA 98532

Jerome Taafulisia 851094Green Hill School375 SW 11 StreetChehalis, WA 98532

Connect with our abolition work:

http://www.Facebook.com/FreeThemAllWA/

http://www.Facebook.com/covid19mutualaid/

Xing Hey is a community organizer, youth advocate, educator, student, abolitionist and a member of APICAG (Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Awareness Group). Hes called Tacoma/Seattle home his entire life.

Featured image is attributed to Dennis Sylvester and belongs to the Public Domain under a CCO 1.0 Public Domain Dedication.

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OPINION: The Limits of ReformNo Justice for James and Jerome Taafulisia - southseattleemerald.com

At least 100 people marched in downtown Toronto to celebrate Emancipation Day and to call for an end to anti-Black racism in government institutions in Canada.

Emancipation Day, markedevery year on Aug. 1, commemorates the abolition of slavery across the British Empire.

Marchers called for an end to anti-Black racism in such areas aschild welfare, policing, the criminal justice system, arts and culture, education and health care.

Yvette Blackburn, a spokesperson for theGlobal Jamaica Diaspora Council, said people marchedto celebrate freedom but also to demand that real change take place to improve the lives of Black people.

"What is freedom? Freedom comes at a cost. And right now, it'sthe cost of the lives and the interactions that we, as Black people, have to deal with every day in society," Blackburn told reporters.

"With the push of anti-Black racismand the recognition of our value and our work, we must be here to walk on this day to say that changes have to be implemented so that we get rid of anti-Black racism and the institutional discrimination that has been happening."

The march began at the Children's Aid Society of Toronto, 30 Isabella St., and ended at the Ontario legislature.

Along the route, marchersstopped at a number of points, including the Toronto Police Service headquarters, 40 College St., and the Ontario education ministry, 438 University Ave.

"It is our children thatare being impacted at a greater rate, at being institutionalized, at being displaced from families, having to deal with the educational system. The bonds and chains are no longer holding us, however, we are still bridled by the fact of discrimination and racism that exists in the institutions and the systems. We have to break those," Blackburnsaid.

"By being here on Emancipation Day, it's to say thatwe need to look structurally into the frameworks of discriminationand racism that are impacting us across the board."

Blackburn said activists arecallingonPrime Minister Justin Trudeau to apologize to Black people in Canada for slavery.

"There's never been an apology issued. I think it's time. Emancipation should be everywhere," she said.

Bishop Ransford Jones, lead pastor at the Destiny Gospel Centre in Markham, said that Emancipation Day is a historic day in Canada.

"Today is a very significant day. It is a solemn day. It is a sacred day for the abolition of slavery," he told reporters during the march. "We have to come to ensure that we use ourfreedom of today toensure the freedom for people oftomorrow."

Jones said he wants his two young children to live in a fair, free and equitable society.

"The key messagetoday is that we want to ensure systemic institutionalized racism in Canada is dismantled so that all people can live free."

Jones added that the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked street protests around the world,has led to a "greatawareness" and a new momentum against anti-Black racism.

"People are recognizing that the systems that have been entrenched over time donotservemarginalized, racialized, especially Black people. We want to ensure that those systemsare torn down and that things will change for the betterment of our people and society in general,"he added.

At a rally before the march, he told the crowd: "We are appealing to those in authority today that you must take your knees off people's necks and let them breathe in our spaces and in our places so we can all enjoy all this great country of Canada."

Jacqueline Edwards, president of Association of Black Law Enforcers, said Black people who work in law enforcement are trying to change the system from within. Edwards works for Correctional Service of Canada.

"We want the community to know that while there are problems within our systems, there are a number of us as well that are part of that system that arecarrying ourselves the right way and that are acknowledging the needfor change," Edwards said.

What is new in the anti-Black racism movement is the collaboration for change, not the recognition that change is necessary, she added.

"Everybody needs to take an active role in stomping out racism," she said.

Marchers chanted "No Justice, No Peace!" and "Peace on the left, justice on the right!" and "When Black lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!"

The Slavery Abolition Act received royal assent on Aug. 28, 1833 and the legislation cameinto force across the Empire and its colonies onAug. 1, 1834.

Since that time, Canadian communities have staged events to celebratethe abolition of slavery.

Organizations that supported Toronto'smarch are: A Different Booklist Cultural Centre, Black Artists' Networks In Dialogue, Black Health Alliance, Black Medical Students' Association at University of Toronto, CareMongering-TO, Destiny Gospel Centre, Global Jamaica Diaspora Council, Jamaican Canadian Association, Ma'at Legal Services, Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators, Unifor and Zero Gun Violence Movement.

Read more:

Marchers in Toronto call for end to systemic anti-Black racism on Emancipation Day - CBC.ca

HONG KONG When Tian Feilong first arrived in Hong Kong as demands for free elections were on the rise, he said he felt sympathetic toward a society that seemed to reflect the liberal political ideas he had studied as a graduate student in Beijing.

Then, as the calls escalated into protests across Hong Kong in 2014, he increasingly embraced Chinese warnings that freedom could go too far, threatening national unity. He became an ardent critic of the demonstrations, and six years later he is a staunch defender of the sweeping national security law that China has imposed on the former British colony.

Mr. Tian has joined a tide of Chinese scholars who have turned against Western-inspired ideas that once flowed in Chinas universities, instead promoting the proudly authoritarian worldview ascendant under Xi Jinping, the Communist Party leader. This cadre of Chinese intellectuals serve as champions, even official advisers, defending and honing the partys hardening policies, including the rollout of the security law in Hong Kong.

Back when I was weak, I had to totally play by your rules. Now Im strong and have confidence, so why cant I lay down my own rules and values and ideas? Mr. Tian, 37, said in an interview, explaining the prevailing outlook in China. Witnessing the tumult as a visiting scholar in Hong Kong in 2014, Mr. Tian said, he rethought the relationship between individual freedom and state authority.

Hong Kong is, after all, Chinas Hong Kong, he said. Its up to the Communist Party to clean up this mess.

While Chinas Communist Party has long nurtured legions of academics to defend its agenda, these authoritarian thinkers stand out for their unabashed, often flashily erudite advocacy of one-party rule and assertive sovereignty, and their turn against the liberal ideas that many of them once embraced.

They portray themselves as fortifying China for an era of deepening ideological rivalry. They describe the United States as a dangerous, overreaching shambles, even more so in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. They oppose constitutional fetters on Communist Party control, arguing that Western-inspired ideas of the rule of law are a dangerous mirage that could hobble the party.

They argue that China must reclaim its status as a world power, even as a new kind of benign empire displacing the United States. They extol Mr. Xi as a historic leader, guiding China through a momentous transformation.

A number of these scholars, sometimes called statists, have worked on policy toward Hong Kong, the sole territory under Chinese rule that has been a stubborn enclave for pro-democracy defiance of Beijing. Their proposals have fed into Chinas increasingly uncompromising line, including the security law, which has swiftly curbed protests and political debate.

We ignore these voices at our own risk, said Timothy Cheek, a historian at the University of British Columbia who helps run Reading the China Dream, a website that translates works by Chinese thinkers. They give voice to a stream of Chinese political thought that is probably more influential than liberal thought.

As well as earnestly citing Mr. Xis speeches, these academics draw on ancient Chinese thinkers who counseled stern rulership, along with Western critics of liberal political traditions. Traditional Marxism is rarely cited; they are proponents of order, not revolution.

Many of them make respectful nods in their papers to Carl Schmitt, the German legal theorist who supplied rightist leaders in the 1930s and the emerging Nazi regime with arguments for extreme executive power in times of crisis, Ryan Mitchell, an assistant professor of law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, documented in a recent paper.

Theyve provided the reasoning and justification, Fu Hualing, a professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, said of Chinas new authoritarian scholars. In a way, its the Carl Schmitt moment here.

Chinas ideological landscape was more varied a decade ago, when Mr. Tian was a graduate student at Peking University, a traditionally more liberal campus. Censorship was lighter, and universities tolerated guarded discussion of liberal ideas in classrooms.

Many scholars, including Mr. Tians dissertation adviser, Zhang Qianfan, argued that Hong Kong, with its robust judicial independence, could inspire similar steps in mainland China. I had also been nurtured by liberal scholars. Mr. Tian said.

Such ideas have gone into sharp retreat since Mr. Xi took power in 2012. He began a drive to discredit ideas like universal human rights, separation of powers and other liberal concepts.

Dissenting academics are maligned in the party-run news media and risk professional ruin. Xu Zhangrun, a law professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, was detained in July and dismissed from his job after writing a stream of essays condemning the partys direction under Mr. Xi.

The education authorities generously fund pro-party scholars for topics such as how to introduce security laws in Hong Kong. Chinese and foreign foundations that once supported less orthodox Chinese scholars have retrenched because of tightening official restrictions.

More than fear and career rewards have driven this resurgence of authoritarian ideas in China. The global financial crisis of 2007, and the United States floundering response to the coronavirus pandemic, have reinforced Chinese views that liberal democracies are decaying, while China has prospered, defying predictions of the collapse of one-party rule.

China is actually also following a path that the United States took, seizing opportunities, developing outward, creating a new world, Mr. Tian said. There is even a fervent hope that well overtake the West in another 30 years.

Chinas authoritarian academics have proposed policies to assimilate ethnic minorities thoroughly. They have defended Mr. Xis abolition of a term limit on the presidency, opening the way for him to stay in power indefinitely. They have argued that Chinese-style rule by law is inseparable from rule by the Communist Party. And more recently they have served as intellectual warriors in Beijings efforts to subdue protest in Hong Kong.

For them, law becomes a weapon, but its law thats subordinated to politics, said Sebastian Veg, a professor at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris who has studied the rise of Chinas statist thinkers. Weve seen that at work in China, and now it seems to me were seeing it come to Hong Kong.

For Hong Kong, these scholars have supplied arguments advancing Beijings drive for greater central control.

Under the legal framework that defined Hong Kongs semi-autonomy after its return to China in 1997, many in the territory assumed that it would mostly manage its own affairs for decades. Many believed that Hong Kong lawmakers and leaders would be left to develop national security legislation, which was required by that framework.

But Mr. Xis government has pushed back, demanding greater influence. The authoritarian scholars, familiar with both Mr. Xis agenda and Hong Kong law, have distilled those demands into elaborate legal arguments.

Several Beijing law professors earlier served as advisers to the Chinese governments office in Hong Kong, including Jiang Shigong and Chen Duanhong, both of Peking University. They declined to be interviewed.

I dont think theyre necessarily setting the party line, but theyre helping to shape it, finding clever ways to put into words and laws what the party is trying to do, said Mr. Mitchell, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This is all happening through legislation, so their ideas matter.

A Chinese government paper in 2014, which Professor Jiang is widely credited with helping write, asserted that Beijing had comprehensive jurisdiction over Hong Kong, dismissing the idea that China should stay hands off. The framework that defined Hong Kongs status was written in the 1980s, when China was still weak and under the sway of foreign liberal ideas, he later said.

They treat Hong Kong as if it were part of the West, and they treat the West as if it were the entire world. Professor Jiang recently said of Hong Kongs protesters. Chinas rise has not, as some imagined, drawn Hong Kong society to trust the central authorities.

After protesters occupied Hong Kong streets in 2014, he and other scholars pressed the case that China had the power to impose national security legislation there, rejecting the idea that such legislation should be left in the hands of the reluctant Hong Kong authorities.

The survival of the state comes first, and constitutional law must serve this fundamental objective, Professor Chen, the Peking University academic, wrote in 2018, citing Mr. Schmitt, the authoritarian German jurist, to make the case for a security law in Hong Kong.

When the state is in dire peril, Professor Chen wrote, leaders could set aside the usual constitutional norms, in particular provisions for civic rights, and take all necessary measures.

Professor Chen submitted an internal study to the partys policymakers on introducing security legislation for Hong Kong, according to a Peking University report in 2018, over a year before the party publicly announced plans for such a law.

Since Chinas legislature passed the security law in late June, he, Mr. Tian and allied Chinese scholars have energetically defended it in dozens of articles, interviews and news conferences. Chinese intellectuals, Mr. Tian suggested, will next confront worsening relations with the United States.

We have to choose what side were on, including us scholars, right? he said. Sorry, the goal now is not Westernization; its the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Amber Wang contributed research from Beijing.

See more here:

Clean Up This Mess: The Chinese Thinkers Behind Xis Hard Line - The New York Times

This piece, written by a historian and biographer of John James Audubon, is the first in a series of pieces on Audubon.org and in Audubon magazine that will reexamine the life and legacy of the organizations namesake as we chart a course toward racial equity.

John James Audubon was a man of many identities: artist, naturalist, woodsman, ladies man, storyteller, myth maker. A now-legendary painter who traveled North America in the early 19th century, in an epic quest to document all of the continents avian life, he is above all known as a champion of birds. Today we see that legacy preserved in the National Audubon Society, but also in the cities, streets, and even birds that bear his name.

Audubon was also a slaveholder, a point that many people dont know or, if they do, tend to ignore or excuse. He was a man of his time, so the argument goes. Thats never been a good argument, even about Audubons timeand certainly not in this onebecause many men and women in the antebellum era took a strong and outspoken stand for the abolition of slavery.

Audubon didnt. Instead, he dismissed the abolitionist movement on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1834, he wrote to his wife, Lucy Bakewell Audubon, that the British government had acted imprudently and too precipitously in emancipating enslaved people in its West Indian possessions. It was with remarkable understatement that one of Audubons earlier biographers wrote that Lucy and John Audubon took no stand against the institution of slavery.

They took a stand for slavery by choosing to own slaves. In the 18-teens, when the Audubons lived in Henderson, Kentucky, they had nine enslaved people working for them in their household, but by the end of the decade, when faced with financial difficulties, they had sold them. In early 1819, for instance, Audubon took two enslaved men with him down the Mississippi to New Orleans on a skiff, and when he got there, he put the boat and the men up for sale. The Audubons then acquired several more enslaved people during the 1820s, but again sold them in 1830, when they moved to England, where Audubon was overseeing the production of what he called his Great Work, The Birds of America, the massive, four-volume compendium of avian art that made him famous.

The Birds of America was a tremendous artistic and ornithological achievement, a product of personal passion and sacrifice. Audubon thought big from the beginning, making his work ambitious in its reach, with 435 engraved images of some 490 species, and impressive in its scale, with each bird depicted size of life. Audubons avian images can seem more real than reality itself, allowing the viewer to study each bird closer and longer than would ever be possible in the field. The visual impact proved stunning at the time, and it continues to be so today.

Although never fully acknowledged, people of colorAfrican Americans and Native Americanshad a part in making that massive project possible. Audubon occasionally relied on these local observers for assistance in collecting specimens, and he sometimes accepted their information about birds and incorporated it into his writings. But even though Audubon found Black and Indigenous people scientifically useful, he never accepted them as socially or racially equal. He took pains to distinguish himself from them. In writing about an expedition in Florida in December 1831, Audubon noted that he set out in a boat with six enslaved Black menhands, as he called themand three white men, his emphasis clearly underscoring the racial divide in the boat and his place on the white side of it.

Audubon also, through his writing, manipulated racial tensions to enhance his notoriety. The tale of The Runawayone of the Episodes about American life he inserted into his 3,000-page, five-volume Ornithological Biography, a companion to Birds of Americaspins the tale of an encounter with a Black man in a Louisiana swamp. Audubon, who had been hunting Wood Storks with his dog, Plato, had a gun, but so did the Black man; after a brief face-off both men put down their weapons. Even as he described the tension easing, Audubon had already hooked into the fears of his readers. Published three years after Nat Turners slave rebellion in 1831, The Runaway presented the most menacing image imaginable for many white peoplethe sudden specter of an armed Black man. Audubon knew how to get peoples attention.

He also knew how to put himself in the most favorable light. The man and his family had escaped slavery and were living in the swamp, and as the tale unfolds, Audubon spent the night at the familys encampmentcompanionably but also quite at their mercy. It was the fugitives, however, who were really most vulnerable. The next morning, Audubon took them back to the plantation of their first master and convinced the planter to buy the enslaved people back from the masters to which the family had been divided and sold. And that was that: Reunited but still enslaved, the Black family was rendered as happy as slaves generally are in that country. (Exactly what happy meant, Audubon did not say.) In the span of a single storytrue or not, and many of Audubons Episodes were notAudubon portrayed himself as both a savior of a fugitive family and a defender of slaveholders claims to human property rights.

There have long been lingering questions about Audubons own racial identity. His birth in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) to one of his fathers two mistresses on a sugar plantation suggests he may have shared some measure of African descent. The truth of that may be impossible to know for sure even now. Audubon may not have known for sure himself, yet he took care to leave a specific impression.In an essay written for his sons, he described his birth mother as a lovely and wealthy lady of Spanish extraction from Louisiana, who went back to Saint-Domingue with Audubons father and became one of the victims during the ever-to-be-lamented period of negro insurrection on that island. Neither part is true, but both could have been useful to Audubon: Having a European mother killed by Black rebels reinforced a white identity, and in an American society where whiteness proved (and still proves) the safest form of social identity, what more could Audubon need?

Audubon made his place in American culture by creating a self-identity as outsized as his images of birds. Much of that is justified: As an artist he set a bar for realism in nature art that raised the worlds standards and continues to influence artists today. His paintings of birds and other wildlife were remarkablefull of exacting detail and often exciting drama, both of which make his work so vibrant and valuable. Although the veracity of his science has sometimes been called into question, his major written work, Ornithological Biography, remains a valuable resource and a very good read. And he left in his wake a movement of people ardent in their passion for identifying and protecting bird life, including the founders of the first Audubon societies, which took his name long after he died. But if we look at John James Audubon as a figure in history, not as a figure of his own myths, we come away with a truer picture of the man himself.

That is an important exercise, and not only for historians. Audubons Runaway could not escape the long reach of slavery, and neither should heor any of us. In this critical time of reckoning with racism, we must recognize that the institution of slavery in Americas past has a deep connection to institutions in the presentour governments, businesses, banks, universities, and also some of our most respected and beloved organizations. Audubon didnt create the National Audubon Society, but he remains part of its identity. As much as we celebrate his environmental legacy, we need to grapple with his racial legacy. If we could train our binoculars on history, now is the time to do so.

Gregory Nobles is author ofJohn James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). He is also a member of the National Audubon Society and two local chapters, Atlanta Audubon and Michigan Audubon.

See the rest here:

The Myth of John James Audubon | Audubon - National Audubon Society

In these tumultuous times, an event meant to promote understanding among people may be just what your soul needs.

Enter Candles on the Water, an annual program that advocates for peace and harmony by commemorating the bombings of the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

This year marks 75 years since the bombings, and a local group plans a program of music, prayer and public proclamations, concluding with a launch of lantern boats into the Susquehanna River at sunset.

On August 6, 1945, a uranium atomic bomb called Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima. About 140,000 people were killed and thousands of others died within months from burns and radiation sickness. Just three days later, a plutonium bomb called Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, where 70,000 were killed.

As a member of Pax Christi, a Catholic organization that rejects war, preparation for war and every form of violence and domination, Ann Marie Judson has been involved with Candles on the Water for about 20 years.

Judson explained that the idea began taking shape in 1982 at a session on nuclear disarmament held at the United Nations. At the time, Mayor Araki of Hiroshima proposed a new program to promote the solidarity of cities toward the abolition of nuclear weapons. Harrisburg was one of the first to sign on. Today, the Mayors for Peace movement totals 7,905 cities in 163 countries and regions.

Judson said that Harrisburg peace activists Deborah Davenport and Milton Lowenthalheld the first event in the 1980s.

Lowenthal was instrumental in Harrisburg becoming a member city of Mayors for Peace, she said.

Judson described the event as an ecumenical effort to help unify people and bring attention to the cause.

It represents solidarity with Hiroshima and Nagasaki and our common desire for the abolition of nuclear weapons, she said.

Judson said that Bill Dallam of Mechanicsburg will address the crowd during the event. Dallam was on site just three weeks after the bombings, she said. As a member of the military, it was his job to measure radiation.

He was told it was a classified, secret mission, she said. They didnt want anybody to know all the damage we caused.

Judson explained that Dallam encouraged his wife, Mary Lou, to paint a depiction of the devastation. The painting reads, Never Again, and has been used on the front Candles on the Water program schedule.

Peace Garden

The Peace Garden is another permanent reminder of the bombings and is located above the eastern bank of the Susquehanna River between Maclay and Emerald streets.

We brought the idea back from Hiroshima after the international conference, said retired Harrisburg pediatrician Dr. Jim Jones.

The two-block area includes three large sculptures inspired by the destruction in Hiroshima and the hope that followed. The sculptures are the work of Dr. Frederick Franck, a writer, artist and oral surgeon who once worked with Dr. Albert Schweitzer in Africa.

Among the sculptures are flowers, trees and plaques containing sayings that promote peace, hope and renewal. A pole among the brightly blooming flowers bears messages of peace written in four languages.

Jones and Judson are thankful that the city provides the water for the Peace Garden and for the hard work of volunteers who are responsible for the upkeep, along with the dedication of organizations like the Physicians for Social Responsibility, which plant 1,200 annuals every spring.

Judson stressed the importance of keeping history in mind as we move forward.

Ive been dedicated to the cause of peace and Candles on the Water for many years because it reminds us that nuclear weapons should never again be used, she said.We are all brothers and sisters on this planet, and the abolition of nuclear weapons is a critical necessity.Never again!

Candles on the Water will take place on Sunday, Aug. 9, at 7 p.m., with attendees meeting in Riverfront Park in Harrisburg across from the John Harris Mansion. Please bring lawn chairs or blankets. For more information, email annmarie512@aol.com.

Originally posted here:

A Shimmering Peace: Candles on The Water offers hope on 75th anniversary of nuclear bombings - The Burg News

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Emancipation Day is rightly celebrated as one of the most important anniversaries for Jamaicans. Sadly, this year's was not our traditional Augus'1 jubilee style commemoration. Last year this time celebrators had settled into their north coast resort accommodation, done the Saturday night party bit, and booked time out for Caymanas Park, cricket matches, beach outings, and family gatherings.

The West Indies team was struggling against a well-oiled Indian side (sounds familiar), Denbigh was summoning farmers from labour to refreshment, and for many a Red Stripe and a game of dominoes was sufficient to while away the time and reflect, oh so briefly, on the reason for the holiday.

That was last year, 2019. But this year COVID-19 has put paid to all that excitement and everything is now on virtual reality. A great effort has been made to bring the shows into our living rooms, but so much is missing from these events without the crowd excitement.

What a change we have witnessed when, in six months, January to July, a blanket of soberness and containment has curtailed the world's normal behavioural patterns as we seek to shield humanity from the scourge of the coronavirus pandemic.

The celebrations we indulged in last year have been toned down and, although we still danced, we danced with one eye open for the security forces who were placed on anti-COVID-19 alarms and crack down duties.

The Government allowed 'let up' to some extent, but to my mind the almost total abandonment of masks and social distancing which has reached peak during this holiday period makes it obligatory for a return to some of those restrictions, advisories, and guidelines issued by the Government and the World Health Organization at the start of the pandemic.

Comparing the lock down we went through at Easter to the wild abandonment we are revelling in at Emancipation makes one shudder to think that we could be laying ourselves open for the coming of that dreaded second wave we have been warned against.

The practice of wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing must be followed strictly. We have been through the initial importation, cluster and community stages, and the cycle has turned full circle as, with the reopening of our borders, we are right back into the importation stage.

There is one other stage we don't speak about much, and it's the complacency stage. The belief that, in spite of the increasing numbers (importation), Jamaica is doing so well that we can drop our guard. The complacency stage can be the most dangerous stage of all.

As was said earlier in this column, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has taken on the mandate of leadership and is not letting us down. He has been very much in charge; forthright and decisive.

Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton has taken on the responsibility for one of the heaviest burdens ever cast on a minister of government in the history of Jamaica, and continues to do exceedingly well.

Indeed, the latest Bill Johnson polls commissioned by this newspaper have given a vote of excellence to the Government for the job they are doing to protect Jamaica from the effects of the virus.

This vote of confidence must be shared by the unflappable Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, whose style we find to be engaging, comforting, compassionate, and, most importantly, inspires trust.

These three have been leading the fight for Jamaica, supported by Cabinet ministers, medical officers, the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the police, as well as thousands of workers stretched to the max across the country. Altogether they have earned the confidence of the people they lead.

Unfortunately, with an election prognosis now turning up the volume, it's going to be almost impossible to keep politics out of this health crisis. The ungracious and unworthy politicking that has crept in can be a diversion from the real issues that face us.

We simply cannot play politics with coronavirus, and where it has happened and is likely to continue to happen we must rein it in. Please don't play games with life and death.

Our big brother, the USA, has been involved in some amount of turmoil in that regard as it too prepares for elections in November. The excitement and enthusiasm around conventions and public rallies have been crowded out by the coronavirus outbreak and coloured by the Black Lives Matter movement spurred by the killing of George Floyd.

America has only itself to blame for allowing racism to play such a dominant role in the decision-making process to select a Government in the world's largest democracy. And, in 2020. A lot of battles have been fought and won down that road. The Civil War 1861-65, which ended in victory for the Northern states and the abolishment of slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which legally ended the segregation that had been institutionalised by the Jim Crow laws, the decline of the Ku Klux Klan, the civil rights movement, and the historic march on Washington in 1964, all of which were important milestones on the way to eradicating racism in America.

But those accomplishments and seminal victories have not proven to be decisive enough. A 2013 report published by the Economic Policy Institute, which assessed the progress made by the original March on Washington, contended that the attainment of civil rights alone cannot transform people's quality of life unless accompanied by economic (and social) justice. It pointed out that much of the primary goals of all these historic victories listed above (housing, integrated education, and widespread employment at equal wages) have not been met. They further argued that, although legal advances were made, black people still live in concentrated areas of poverty, where they receive inferior education and suffer from widespread unemployment; hence, the unsettled, restless situation in America and the anger and pain now manifesting itself in mass protests all over the United States.

I was surprised to learn that there is no national public holiday declared in the USA to mark Emancipation. The District of Columbia observes a holiday on April 16 to mark the anniversary of the signing of Emancipation Act. Elsewhere in the United States, the emancipation of slaves is celebrated in sections of several states and on different days, including Florida (May 20), Puerto Rico (March 22), Texas (June 19), and in Georgia (Saturday closest to May 29), Mississippi (May 8) and Kentucky (August 8).

In contrast, Jamaica has long recognised August 1 as a day for national celebration. And even when Emancipation Day, for a while, has been subsumed by the August 6 Independence celebrations 1962 to 1998 Jamaicans still continued to honour and observe August 1 in communities all over the country with sporting tournaments, parties, fairs and picnics.

The holiday is more than just a welcome break from work when one can lounge around and relax in preparation for Independence Day. For Jamaicans, the day is a very important date in our history as a people, as it represents the time when our forebears were 'freed' from the shackles of chattel slavery.

On this day, August 2, 2020, let us spare a sobering thought for what took place in Jamaica on the night of July 31, 1834.

On that night, 186 years ago, thousands of enslaved Africans flocked to places of worship all over Jamaica to give thanks for the abolition of slavery.

In 1834 many of the slaves could still recall the time when they were uprooted from their peaceful villages and forcefully taken to a port of departure, where they awaited the arrival of a slaver.

The journey to the West Indies was horrible. The ships were overcrowded and unsanitary, resulting in the breakout of various diseases. Many of them died. Others thought least likely to recover were chained, ankle by ankle, and thrown overboard, weighed down with cannonballsalive.

Those who endured the journey were then forced on to the plantations to begin their sentences of slavery, with multiple whippings, torture, and instances of sexual abuse. Many were killed for daring to seek freedom. The enslaved African was now mere chattel.

So here comes freedom in 1834 from all these unspeakable horrors. Their joy was not to be just another Red Stripe beer, a day at the track, or a Sunsplash night at the park. This was genuine, heartfelt, deeply emotional joy and thanksgiving celebrations: That overwhelming feeling of thanksgiving to the Almighty God who had intervened in the machinations of man and had finally set the captives free.

The Emancipation Day holiday, as we celebrate it in 2020, can never fully pay tribute to, or recall the passions and the immensity of the feelings that must have overwhelmed the Africans who, that night, were to hear the proclamation of liberty to the captives, and experience for themselves the opening of the prison doors to them that were bound.

And can you imagine how our forefathers and mothers celebrated? And did they not have more cause for natural joy than we have today? Those former slaves, yes, our 'owna' family, set the pace for grand times to be had by all when they left church that night to spill out into the streets for joyous celebrations and thanksgiving.

Queen Victoria gi wi free, tiday fus a Augus', tenky Massa, they sang, as the women paraded around the rural neighbourhoods in their tailored petticoats with tashan lace edging. The Bruckins party songs and dances which have been handed down to the present generation were the highlights of any celebratory gathering: Jubilee, Jubilee, this is the year of Jubilee...

We are fortunate to get a first-hand description of what took place in the churches that night from a parson, Reverend Henry Bleby, who was an eyewitness to the event, and who actually conducted the service of thanksgiving and freedom in one of the churches in his charge. From an address which Rev Bleby gave to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1858 we glean how he remembered, in detail, every second of the service, every sob, every gasp, and, at the end of the night, every soulful prayer that sang and ran through the congregation.

Sirs, he told his audience, I was there when slavery was abolished. I saw the monster die. This day, 24 years ago, I stood up late at night, in a very large church (unnamed), and the aisles were crowded, and the gallery stairs, and the communion place, and the pulpit stairs were all crowded, and there were thousands of persons looking in. This was at 10 o'clock at night, on the 31st of July.

I took my text from Leviticus 25: 10. By and by, the midnight hour approached. When it was within two minutes of the first of August, I requested all the people to kneel down, as befitting the solemnity of the hour, and engage in silent prayer to God.

A moment of the highest drama was approaching.

By and by, the clock began to strike: It was the knell of slavery. It was the stroke which proclaimed liberty to 800 souls. And, Sirs, what a burst of joy rolled over that mass of people when the clock struck, and they were slaves no longer.

Over at the Baptist church in Falmouth a similar procession of time in motion. As the clock started to strike the first chime of midnight, Rev William Knibb said quietly, The hour is at hand, the monster is dying. There was silence. Then when the church bell outside struck midnight, he shouted: The monster is dead: The Negro is free!

At Rev Bleby's church there was also a heavy silence that had gripped the congregation. Then when the midnight hour struck a burst of joy rolled over that mass of people as they realised they were slaves no longer. He told them to rise from their knees, And, Sirs, it was really affecting to see, in one corner, a mother, with her little one whom she had brought with her, clasp her baby to her bosom. And there was an old, white-headed man, embracing a daughter. And, here again, would be a husband congratulating his wife.

This is what you call unspeakable feelings. One great, large, significant, unforgettable moment in history. Outside the churches the people gathered to bury the chain shackles all over the countryside.

Rev Bleby, again, takes the platform. I cannot tell you the feelings which with which those people, just emerging from freedom, shouted. And they literally shouted the hymn which was sung in the church that night:

Send the glad tidings o'er the sea,

His chains are broken, the slave is free

This is the Negro's jubilee...

Lance Neita is a public relations consultant and historian. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or to lanceneita@hotmail.com.

Now you can read the Jamaica Observer ePaper anytime, anywhere. The Jamaica Observer ePaper is available to you at home or at work, and is the same edition as the printed copy available at http://bit.ly/epaperlive

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'This is the Negroes' Jubilee' - Jamaica Observer