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Success! We Canvased the Neighborhood to Pass out Fliers for Event

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Today, UNIA members assisted Masjid Al-Taqwa in passing out fliers for their upcoming event on Saturday, October19, 2013. This is the Grand Event -- 1st Aunnal Community Pride Cookout!. So we hope to see lots of faces from 2:00pm-6pm. There will be free food, music, spoken word, games, and more.

In addition, UNIA-ACL will have its African Market with Masjid so look for vendors of all kinds.

We were able to pass out all of the fliers for our targeted area. It was a wonderful experience, meeting community residents and all working together for a common goal -- a successful event. One of the most wonderful results was building relationships even though we all had so many different spiritual belief systems. What was most important was working toward a common goal -- improving the community through building relationships with those who live there.

May Peace and Blessings be upon us all.

Details from our weekly Thursday Meeting -- October 10, 2013

UNIA-ACL will walk through the community with  Masjid Al-Taqwa Saturday 12, 2013 around 11:00am to inform everyone of the 1st Annual Community Pride Cookout on October 19, 2013 from 2-6 pm at Masjid Al-Taqwa 5403 Virginia Ave. Contact Glenn Simmons, Jr. (615) 375-6445 / (318) 636-1215 for more information.

Hope to see you there.

Update for UNIA-ACL Meeting Thursday, October 3, 2013

The meeting tonight was a great success. We have a more permanent meeting place thanks to Glenn and Shirdell Simmons. Starting next Thursday, we will be meeting at Masjid-Al-Taqwa 5403 Virginia Ave., Shreveport, LA 71108. This is next to Blalock's Beauty College.

The 1st Annual Community Pride Cookout! will be held at Masjid-Al-Taqwa on October 19, 2013 beginning at 1:00pm. In conjunction with the cookout, UNIA-ACL will have its African Market there. Wow! This is going to be fun so we hope to see you there.

At the meeting tonight, we gave an update on expanding our media presence to internet radio. We will have more news on that, later. We also discussed community radio. Colorforchange.org has a campaign promoting community radio broadcasting. They have some effective ideas that we are exploring. One of them includes gaining a license through the FCC; however, due to the federal government shutdown as of October 1, 2013, all applications are now placed on hold. We had hoped to take advantage of the October 15, 2013 opportunity to submit an application for licensing. Thank goodness there is always more than one way to skin a cat. Internet radio is still a viable option that we intend to use.

Well, that's it for the update. Thanks for reading. Blessings.

Town Hall Meeting for Trayvon Martin Coalition -- Cooper Rd.

The Town Hall meeting was a great success last night. The photo to the left  features most of the attendees, including Front Row (L to R): Pamela Hamilton, Milikyah Etihw. Back Row (L to R) Demetrius Norman, Marvin T. Muhammad, Lester Smith, City Council member Rose McCulloch, Shannon Livingston.

Here's what we accomplished. We agreed to support the efforts of State Representative Roy Burrell in amending the La version of the "Stand Your Ground" law. He needs signed petitions and we agreed to assist with that.

The petitions should be ready and available for the next town hall meeting. This will be in weeks in Cedar Grove. We will keep you posted on the details.

(L to R) UNIA-ACL President Benny McCulloch, Lester Smith, Marvin T. Muhammad, Demetrius Norman

12 Things to Consider When Thinking about Those in Power

12 Things to Consider When Thinking about Those in Power

1.       Bankers and corporations fund politicians through PACs (Political Action Committees). See 60 Minutes interview with Jack Abramoff: The Lobbyist’s Playbook,November 6, 2011.

2.       Politicians vote into law the policies of bankers and corporations. Bankers and corporations have been gambling away both public and private monies entrusted to them, namely bonds. See “U.S. Cities Get Fleeced in Libor Scandal”

3.       Because the derivatives scandal of Libor can no longer be hidden, cities, states, and countries are now claiming to be bankrupt.

4.       The solution of politicians is to sell off public land and services to the bankers and corporations who probably gambled the bonds away in the first place. These corporations will probably receive incredible tax breaks through loopholes placed by the banker/corporate-funded politicians who made the laws in the first place. Privatized services are less accountable to government regulations so the threat of cutting services is really a promise that has already been made on your behalf. See Sen. Bernie Sanders “The American People Are Angry”

5.      A better solution may be taking a look at the second set of government books that citizens are not supposed to know about. Cities like Detroit are unable to file for bankruptcy because the second set of books pops up in audits showing a huge surplus. Here is how it works. The first set of books is what the government shows the public in news stories, its operating budget. The second set of books disclose total assets in an annual report called the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). You can look it up state-by-state or city-by-city or parish/county-by-parish/county or school board-by-school board, etc. The more you look, the more money you find. Supposedly, it is money put away for a rainy day, but it is a nesting ground for corruption and expense accounts. See Government Corruption Hidden In Plain Sight, Documents Known As Comprehensive Annual FinancialReports (CAFRs) .

6.      Neither the US, Louisiana, nor Shreveport are broke, yet they sell off public property and services to private corporations. Consider:

a.       Who owns the post office?

b.      Who owns the La DMV?

c.       Who owns prisons?

d.      Who owns medical systems?

e.       Why are these companies given monopolies, forcing citizens to pay for their services?

f.        Is selling public properties and services legal?

g.       Who owns the government?

h.       Which systems can we really trust?

7.      What I am describing is an international trend affecting every level of government. Telling the public that governments are broke, showing budgets without showing total assets, scaring the public into giving up public rights, services, and properties while cutting remaining services. All of these things and more are called austerity measures. The second set of books remains safely hidden while citizens are told to suffer for the good of the government. Laws are put into place to make sure that that is what happens.

8.      Another solution to the problem is to use the law and social media to expose politicians, budgets, and government regulators who have betrayed our public trust. Their names are a matter of public records. We’re talking about national legislators, governors, state legislators, city council members, mayors, commissioners, judges, district attorneys, everyone who uses PAC money to get elected or who votes PAC-sponsored legislation into law in hopes of getting PAC money.

9.      Here is more to think about. The Bill of Rights -- the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution -- were designed to protect the citizens from the government. It was never the government’s job to protect us. The government was designed to help keep us in balance so that we could live together in peace and harmony. Throughout the centuries, bankers, corporations, and politicians have been very good at creating catastrophes that generate so much fear that citizens slowly, but steadily, have handed to them public trust in exchange for their protection until now most citizens believe that governments are supposed to protect them. The derivatives scandal, however, is so large that they can no longer suck money anywhere else, but from citizens in Western countries. The usual course of action would have been to start a war. That is why Syria is so important. Supposedly, a war would not only generate funding, but restore the public’s trust in government protection.

10.  Governments are only entities set into motion whose systems we citizens are responsible for maintaining by asking questions, calling for audits, closing loopholes, demanding that regulators do their jobs, especially with transparency, and, here’s the big one, seeing each other as neighbors. If we weren’t so scared of each other, we never would have recognized a need for protection from those who do not have our benefit at heart.

11.  Divide and conquer – rich/poor, black/white, right/wrong – these are the tactics of those in power. It explains how they got into power and stay in power, feeding us a steady diet of confusion and chaos. It’s easy to implement scenarios of fear when you’re already confused. However, if it is clear to you that you love yourself, your family, your community, your neighbors around the globe and all creatures on the earth, then you know that you can work together with everyone to mend what is broken and solve what needs solving and that fear need not play a part in it.

If we rely on just a few people who declare themselves our superheroes and who alone have the solutions to our problems then they can hold us hostage by betraying our trust and that is exactly what has happened.

12.  No one person or small group of a privileged few can restore us to freedom. We must all work together as equals. Who is right and who is wrong are trivial to what is at stake and what is at stake is the freedom of the human race.

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