Breaking Barriers to the Ballot

“. . . the right to vote is too precious, too fundamental to be so burdened or conditioned." - From Harper, et al. v. Virginia Board of Elections, et al., decision of Mar. 14, 1966 (Evelyn Thomas Butts and her suit to end Virginia’s Poll Tax)  

 “. . . a law which burdens a citizen from access to the franchise is a wall that must come down.” -Judge Wisdom in United States v. Louisiana 

The Casted Votes Felt Around The World. . . 
Do you remember that Tuesday night in November 2008, when the majority of the people in our country voted for Barack Hussein Obama, the first person of color elected as President of the United States of America? The world felt smaller, more connected, and united. The record voter turnouts revealed that many Americans, who had not previously voted, exercised their right to vote. Many people and countries around the world celebrated with us. Our accomplishment of electing an African American as the President of the United States was empowering and demonstrative of a well-functioning representative democracy; when citizens vote, they are able to affect great change! The power of our individual votes had been collectively felt around the world. 

Our Country’s Founding Principle: A Representative Democracy 
Our country’s recent celebration of 237 years of independence is a noteworthy reminder of how much of our country’s origin and evolution is grounded upon our fundamental civil right to vote for our elected representatives. Each eligible citizen participates equally by casting one vote. In the early American political system, the right to vote was reserved for white males over the age of 21 who owned land. In 1920, after the passage of the 19th Amendment, it was extended to women nationwide. In 1868, the right to vote was technically extended to African Americans with the passage of the 14th Amendment (and subsequent constitutional amendments) that was effectively enforced only with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And, in 1971, Congress lowered the legal voting age to 18. Of course, in all but two states, this can be totally irrelevant if you are an ex-felon, even if you have completed your sentence. 

Your Ability to Exercise Your Fundamental Right to Vote Is Under Attack. . . 
The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has opened the door for states to enact restrictive voter laws that effectively discourage or prevent participation, which disproportionately impacts people of color and the poor. These potential laws include strict photo identification laws, English language-only ballots, and elimination of early voting [i]. 

We Need Your Help To Ensure Everyone Can Freely Exercise The Right to Vote 
The Trinity UCC Justice Watch team is in the early stages of developing an actionable strategy to begin the fight for everyone’s right to vote. Even while these plans are being formalized, you can begin to fight right now! 

• Sign this petition, http://tinyurl.com/MyRightToVote, to get a constitutional amendment passed that guarantees voting rights for every American 
• Write letters of support to your congressman and state representatives to demand legislation that assures full democratic participation; find them here http://tinyurl.com/FindMyPoliticians 
• Stay vigilant and politically informed of efforts to enact voter registration laws and voter suppression throughout the U.S. Be sure to follow Trinity UCC on Twitter and “friend” us on Facebook and share our updates with your friends! 
• Be ready to join the B³! Project (Breaking Barriers to the Ballot!). More info to come later 

Protecting voting rights is absolutely essential to a just society. Your support is critical to protecting voting rights. 

Attorney Angela Richardson-Bryant

Trinity UCC Justice Watch Team

[i] Following the passage of Indiana's photo ID law, a dozen elderly nuns were turned away from the polls because they did not possess the required photo ID. I understand that several of them held expired photo IDs that were not sufficient under Indiana's restrictive law.  . .Beyond formal voting restrictions, in recent elections we have witnessed overt threats by armed vigilantes attempting to intimidate Hispanic voters at the polls in Arizona. We witnessed cross burnings intended to intimidate African-American voters on the eve of an election in Louisiana. We also saw organized efforts in Maryland to deceive minority and low-income voters with false information about polling locations and phony endorsements.

September 8, 2011 Testimony of Senator Dick Durbin before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights can be accessed by clicking here.

Prayer for Our Family in Kenya

Family,

Building relationships across the Diaspora means more than merely traveling to enjoy the sights, sound, and food of our ancestral beginnings in the Motherland. Here at Trinity UCC, we strive to maintain a connection that puts our eyes and ears to the ground so that our prayers and thoughts are consistently and constantly lifted up for the empowerment and uplifting of our distant families. Sometimes, this also occurs through the building of relationships through various advocacy organizations who actually do great work in the various regions of Africa where support and edification is needed the most.

The Mombasa Relief Initiative (“MRI”) is one of those such organizations as they have made it their mission to support the children of Mombasa in three key areas: education, economic development, and health. 

During their annual trip to Kenya, they recently reported on the challenges of the election cycle this year. It is through this report, that I have been stirred to request of our congregation that we lift our voices and open our hearts in prayer for the safety and stability of our sister-nation of Kenya. The clip below, from a Reuters report, provides a bit more detail of the situation: 

NAIROBI/MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - At least 15 people were killed in attacks by machete-wielding gangs on Monday as Kenyans lined up to vote in a presidential election they hope will rebuild the nation's image after a disputed 2007 poll unleashed weeks of tribal bloodshed. Just hours before the start of voting and with long lines across the east African country, at least nine security officers in Kenya's restive coastal region were hacked to death, and six attackers were also killed, regional police chief Aggrey Adoli said. The total toll had earlier been put at 17 . . .

The struggles of our people across the Diaspora is ongoing, and often logic just doesn't apply. But we do know God! We know that God has the final word. God’s heart will bend to hear the cries for liberation and justice for the people of God. 

In this time of strife, I am asking each of you to join us in prayer for the safety and justice of our extended families in Kenya during this 2013 election cycle.

Lynda Holiday Lawrence

Africa Ministry

Support Walmart's Striking Workers

Family,

Of the many unfair business tactics Walmart employs, their treatment of workers seeking to organize is one that speaks loudly and clearly. As far as Walmart management is concerned, unions will never be allowed in their stores!

Even as unions in American have been the great equalizer: It can be argued that there would be no middle class without the union movement. Imagine working 40, 50 or even 60 hours a week in a steel plant in the 1950's, and still not being able to afford a home or automobile, or to send your children to college . . . without unions, that most certainly would have been the case. Collective bargaining is a cornerstone of what fairness exists in employer/employee relationships. Even in companies without unions, their pay and benefits are influenced by those achieved through bargaining at other companies.

That Walmart, the largest employer in America, would forbid unions is understandable. Providing fair wages, reasonable benefits and union protections would reduce profits; however, it would also lift thousands out of poverty and reduce the burden on state and federal governments that now fund the safety net for Walmart employees, providing food stamps, health services, housing assistance, etc.

This year, on Black Friday, the group, Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), has planned strikes throughout the country. Please take a few moments to sign their petition at Color of Change by clicking here.

Also, click here to see other ways to support our brothers and sisters at Walmart on Black Friday, as recommended by the UFCW Minority Coalition through the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference.

It's a small thing to do, but if millions of us do it, we can make a difference.

Rev. Rochelle Michael and Daryle Brown
Trinity UCC Justice Watch Team

PS And of course, DON'T SHOP AT WALMART!

Does Brother Ed Gardner Stand Alone?

When the American economy sneezes, the African American community catches pneumonia.

But what happens when the American economy catches pneumonia?

In the midst of our presidential election we are bombarded with the tragedy of a national unemployment rate of 8.2%. Of course, when unemployment was 6% or even 5%, there was no national panic concerning urban unemployment that often hovers near 50% for young black men. In a report from the Economic Policy Institute, unemployment for blacks in Chicago stood at 19%, higher than Detroit, and with only Las Vegas and Los Angeles with higher rates (at over 22%), as of July 2011.

Into this gap enters brother Ed Gardner a retired African American business man, now 87 years old. Mr. Gardner, the former President of Soft Sheen Products, whom was recently honored with a street sign by Mayor Emanuel and the City of Chicago, was infuriated when he came across a construction site at 2210 West 95th Street and there were no Black workers. He made quite a ruckus, threatening to "wallow in the wet concrete" until he was talked out of it by Alderman Bookins, Alderman Rugai and several police offices. That, however, did not end his indignation or his intent to do something about it.

As a result of Brother Gardner's fury, he has begun to organize protests of the construction activity, and specifically the lack of African American works, and the latest one, at which we encourage your participation is as follows:

Construction Jobs March and Rally 

Sunday, September 30, 20122:30 pm - Starting from the West corner of 95th Street & Western Ave. The group will walk in unison to 92nd and Western Ave.
3:00 pm - Rally

Please inform yourself on this issue:

• Read Mary Mitchell's editorial in the Chicago Sun Times by Clicking Here.
• Read Huffington Post story by Hermene Hartman by Clicking Here.
• Watch story from ABC Chicago by Clicking Here.

See you at 95th & Western!

Kevin Tyson & Daryle Brown
Trinity Justice Watch Team

Register NOW! AND VOTE!

Family,

It's that time of the year, when our airwaves are flooded with political messages and candidates are vying for our attention through every media tool ever invented. While billions of dollars are begin spent to convince us how to vote, there are also millions of dollars being spent to keep many of us from voting. 

Did You Know?

• In Chicago there are over 320,000 eligible voters that are not yet registered?
• Just on the South Side of Chicago, there are over 125,000 unregistered, eligible voters?
• Registering is as easy as filling out a form and mailing it in. CLICK HERE to register or go to tinyurl.com/TrinityVotes. Forms must be delivered or post marked by October 9, 2012.
• In 10 tightly contested states, there are 12.1 million unregistered, but potentially eligible Latino adults . . . In Florida alone there are 1.4 million.
• Voter suppression laws have been passed in 14 states, and laws are pending in 8 others . . . Check out this video CLICK HERE.
• In Florida, more people have been attacked by sharks in the last 4 years (72), than have committed voter fraud (49).

Don't let your rights be stolen. Don't suppress your own vote. This is YOUR country. GET REGISTERED AND VOTE!

Trinity UCC Justice Watch Team

Genocide By Another Name

Gun violence is probably the most debated issue in the United States. There are numerous calls and petitions for both the right to carry arms as a deterrent to street urban violence, and more strict gun control laws that would prevent "straw gun" purchases. 

For Black America, the fear of gun violence is common place. I would seriously doubt if any Black person that lives in a major city has not personally (or a family member or friend) had  a confrontation with a handgun, either as a victim, or a witness . . . maybe even as a perpetrator. Gun violence in Chicago has fractured communities like never before, to the point where we have become immune and accepting of violence being part of urban culture. 

While some activists correctly place the blame on gangs, drugs, and the economic environment, for the rise in gun violence, we must also look at public policy that has allowed gun manufacturers and merchants to create a Wal-Mart and eBay climate for gun distribution: buy in bulk for more savings, and if you do not qualify, buy through a third party. At some point, we must realize that Black and Latino communities are under siege from gun policies that contribute to an escalating homicide rate and renders our streets unsafe. We are looking at the extermination of a young generation that will know guns better than mathematics. It's time we change public policy to suppress the sales and distribution of handguns and assault weapons, and begin to place more emphasis on deterrents to violence through peaceful means. It is hard to imagine that more guns in the hands of "law-biding citizens" will deter gun violence. The end result of our current approach is a dead community and a dead generation.

In an effort to curb gun violence in our community we have joined with the Faith Community of  St. Sabina, as well as other faith based and community organizations, to demand common sense gun legislation be passed. Please take a few moments to sign this petition to Governor Quinn asking support for legislation that requires handguns be titled like automobiles, and that prohibits the purchase and possession of military style assault weapons. Find out more about this interfaith effort by visiting www.passthebill.us.



Kevin Tyson
Trinity UCC Justice Watch

Anti-Incarceration Sunday, May 5, 2012

Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.  Hebrews 13:3

Family,

Out of any three African Americans,  chances are that one of you three has a loved one currently under control of the criminal justice system–national, state or local– either in jail/prison, on probation or parole.

There is an epidemic rampaging right before our eyes, ripping through our families, leaving children with one and often no parent to raise them, that is crushing our communities and destroying any semblance of social fabric. It is sweeping young black and brown men of color off our streets, affecting the poor and disadvantaged disproportionately, and increasingly affecting young ladies and women.

What is so insidious, so heart wrenching, about this epidemic is that it is imminently curable . . . if only enough people cared! In fact, if this epidemic was occurring anywhere else but the black and brown and poor neighborhoods of our country, all of our greatest scientists, researchers and, yes, even politicians, would be in a mad rush to find a cure.

I’m not talking about a new flu strain, or STD, or some antibiotic resistant microbe, the epidemic I am talking about is mass incarceration. Today, as the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference has called May 6th, Anti-Incarceration/Justice Sunday, below are a few alarming facts:

• In the 1970’s prison activists were horrified that there were over 250,000 people in U.S. prisons, yet today there are more than 2.3 million people incarcerated . . . the vast majority of them black, brown or poor
• America leads the world in incarcerating our people, at rate of 743 per 100,000, more than Russia, than China
• And racial disparities are astounding and indefensible! Black men are incarcerated at 5 times that of white men and Latino men twice that of white men, and for Black men between the ages of 25 and 29 . . . the number is 15 times that of white men

As tragic as these figures are, it doesn’t end there. Even after our brothers and sisters complete their sentences, parole and probation obligations; there is a blazing red “F” attached to them for the rest of their lives. Depending on where you live, an ex-felon can be legally discriminated against in various ways: voting restrictions, disqualified for public benefits like food stamps, federal housing or student loans, even disqualified for jury duty.

The hard work dismantling our broken justice system has begun. One way you can join the fight is by contacting the Trinity UCC Prison Ministry and The Next Movement committee at prison@trinitychicago.org.

Daryle Brown
Trinity UCC Justice Watch Team