Yes, the tragedy in Haiti is epic and the suffering is immeasurable.

A need that no one seems to be addressing is the inevitable and immediate need for blood and blood plasma. This is one humanitarian gesture that requires a little more than a text message or a checkbook. It will take 20 min of your time and the use of your arm to save lives. The tragic H.I.V. epidemic in Haiti only exacerbates the problem thus making the need for individual sacrifice of critical importance.
If you …

People.
There’s trouble in our ‘hood.

Our neighbors are bleeding.
Our neighbors need our help.

Please do whatever you can.
Here’s what you can do:
Salvation Army – Haiti Earthquake Relief

American Red Cross – Haiti Earthquake – Red Cross Sends Aid and is seeking volunteers to go. Can you do it?
Via blackperspective.net:
Yobachi Boswell writes: “Food For The Poor is the organization I donated through in 2008, and I was happy with them.” At Yobachi’s urging I, too, donated to Food for the Poor in 2008 and the follow-up was very good.
Yele Haiti is Wyclef Jean’s …

This post is one of many posted in this weekend’s blogging campaign encouraging all of us to remember that we can do better to get our points across than to use simplistic and hateful speech or resort to violence to get our points across. The cartoon of Judge Sotomayor and the murder of Dr. George Tiller brought the sad power of racist marginalization and dehumanizing rhetoric right up to our eyes where we cannot ignore it.

Let me be very clear about why I am offended by Chip Bok’s characterization of …

There are a number of dynamic and informative sites on the web that focus on Latino issues. But a brand new site, PRESENTE.org, aims to become the preeminent powerhouse of Latino online organization and political action. From Presente.org’s announcement:
Latinos have long been a driving force behind the economy of the United States, but we have yet to speak with a unified political voice that forces our government to do right by all of us. We can?and starting today, with your help, we will.
That’s why we’re launching Presente.org. Our goal is …

Following an earlier post about the problem of death-by-taser, some commented that extra-judicial execution was an insignificant issue because there should be more concern about black criminals killing black people than police officers killing black people. I argue that we should be concerned about both. And we need to sound alarms because those who stand on the thin blue line take an oath to protect and serve us; we the people. Officers of the law must be held to the highest standards of protocol and at the very least, officers …

To be blunt, because there is no time for niceties, I am sick and tired of black leaders, secular and religious, not talking about sexual practices in the black community and not talking about how HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are ravaging the black community.
Now those ’speak no evil’ types will have little choice but to break their silence because it’s official. It is confirmed that, at least in Washington DC, HIV/AIDS is epidemic:

During my appearance on the Bloggers’ Panel at Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union on Saturday, I asked the audience to go home or to the library, get on the web and begin to become familiar with the internet. If the first steps are to type in www.google.com and put a question in the box, then that is a great start. But immediately following our panel, I was approached by dozens of people who were intrigued by the idea of blogging and wanted to understand the ‘how to’s’. I …

Color of Change is mounting a campaign to make sure justice is pursued in the cases documented by AC Thompson.
Sign the petition here. From Color of Change:
Call on state and federal officials to investigate
In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, White vigilantes hunted down Black men who entered Algiers Point and even tried to expel their Black neighbors. Louisiana’s broken law enforcement agencies have refused to investigate these crimes.
Tell Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the racist shootings, and to …

I found the request below interesting. I do not know Calisha Myers personally, but I am sure on board with the cause.
So, please check out her proposal, share any ideas you have with her and cast your vote. Also, forward this post on to anybody who might be able to help.
We have to support each other in trying to craft solutions as often as we can.
Cheers!
Carmen
—————————————————————————————————————–
CMyers
mediaforchange@gmail.com
I need your help. I have submitted a proposal–”Media for Change”– to the Ashoka Changemakers “The Power of Us: Re-Imagine Media” competition. The …

December 2nd is UN Slavery Abolition Day and we should take notice. It is estimated that there are at least 27 million people enslaved around the world today. At 27 million, more human beings are in bondage than at any other time in history. According to the Christian Science Monitor:
Slaves are cheap these days. Their price is the lowest it’s been in about 4,000 years. And right now the world has a glut of human slaves – 27 million by conservative estimates and more than at any time in human …

I had a hard time sleeping last night, I kept thinking about mothers of missing children this Thanksgiving week. My blog amigo Yobachi asked me if I knew anyone here on the west coast who could spearhead an effort to get the word out about Chioma Gray, a beautiful, smart, kind and ambitious young girl now missing for almost a year. I don’t know anyone like that, but I can lend my voice to the effort to find Chioma Gray and to bring her home to her family. Here is …

Don’t get it twisted, America is one of the richest countries on earth. Even as our financial meltdown accelerates, the global markets follow us. Our dollar is getting stronger as the greenback is still popular in a time of global instability. And yet, we as a nation, do not make feeding each and every child who lives here a priority. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA):
Children as well as adults experienced instances of very low food security in 323,000 households (0.8 percent of households with children) in 2007, …

I completed and mailed my ballot yesterday. Remember, to be safe, send in your vote-by-mail ballot right away. If it is not in the hands of the election officials by November 4th, then your vote will not be counted.
Obama/Biden *check*
NO on Prop 8 *check*
And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men (and women) who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t …

One of the saddest realities of this political season is that Barack Obama or John McCain will become the next President of these United States without being asked a single serious question about their thoughts on the state of America’s “justice system.” We only have ourselves to blame for that omission. We are so caught up in our allegiances to our political party or chosen presidential candidate that we take what we get from them, even if we don’t much like what’s served and are left wanting. And even though …

My fellow Afrospear blogger, activist D. Yobachi Boswell, has started a chain I want to continue over here. In his post “A little help can go a long way”, he puts it like this:
I’ve been telling you the last couple of weeks about the absolute devastation in Haiti from being hit by 4 tropical storms and Hurricanes with in less than three weeks. If you missed that, you can read here and here as well.
This morning I made a donation to Food For The Poor, directed to Haitian relief. It …