The website is "Off the Chain" but how do we make it more?

[Jonathan Lewis]

I agree Juan. The best way for us to make this website better is not to expand but to do better with what we have. Juan asked a great question,” How do we connect strategically with people who are all ready on the website?” He goes on to mention that it is not the numbers that matters, Face book & MySpace are there for that. This website is here to empower each of us to express our opinions in a constructive way with like spirited people. “Like spirited”, in this context means that we all desire a loving change to come over our hearts, minds, and that compassionate change to be reflected in our community. The Great leaders of the past did not have the internet or cell phones. I make this statement because we have made technological advance however we have not found solutions to the same social issues that have been plaguing our underclass, our underprivileged, our defenseless, and our children for generations. Like the cell phones were a change that shifted the earth as we knew it. What new invention will we come up with that will change our communities for the better and in a way that Dr. King’s Dream and the Dreams of our of our ancestors our honored. How will we move the struggle to the next level? What problem of today will we come up with a collective solution so our children will not have to be effected by that same problem or the solution we implemented? I know things our tuff today for all of us and I am not saying things are perfect but there are certain issues that we don’t have to deal with anymore because the community changed the culture of how our business was done. What change or better yet how will we enhance the quality of life for all humans. How are we going to makes sure that future generations of children do not have to be effected by the destructive juvenile justice policies, and health/human services policies of today when their Universally given tomorrow arrives.

So I throw a few question to all who our apart of my Gathering Network.

If you could ask the leaders of this country and of the world for anything what would it be? Why?

How are you going to spend Thanksgiving?

Who is going to be at dinner?

What are you going to eat? Is there something special to your culture that may be different from others?

What inspirational books do you like?

Are you willing to do the work that is needed to create the space needed for the leaders of this country and of the world to make the changes that we want to see? If you said you were willing, my next question to you is what your personal and organizational plan of action is?

The Gathering for Justice's cyber network is just below 600 and my friends list just below 100 so I would like to ask others to foward this message to the others in your friends network so we can see what type of communicattion wave we can create. I want to thank Paradise and all others invovled with the creation and upkeep of the website.

POSITIVE PEACE,

Jonathan Lewis

[Nia]

So I am gonna send my "Thanksgiving," weekend catching up on work. Though I often gather with family at this time, cause people have time off, we don't do anything big or fancy. Some of my closest Durham family will be gathering for dessert, after spending time with our birth families, to hang out watch movies and stuff. I'm very excited about that cause if case y'all didn't know, Durham NC is the center of the universe :- ).

Inspirational books - Anything by Octavia Butler, Audre Lorde, June Jordan...

As far as the work goes I'm in it pretty thick right now. We recently had an attorney come in and speak to our young people about their rights (or lack of them). This got them all fired up. Its hard to believe that the police stop these kids on their front porches say "you know the routine" and go through their pockets on a regular basis.
It broke my heart to hear an attorney tell them that, although the police really have no right to search them, these young men should comply because, and I quote, "each encounter with the police is a life or death situation for you."
To say that a visit that was supposed to enlighten them, only contributed to their feelings of powerlessness is an understatement.
I later went to a meeting where a woman with, I'll say a different class background, expressed the sentiments of her peers who didn't understand why calling the police on these young people was so bad. "Sometimes," she said, "it gets them the help they need." I wanted to scream!
But back to the kids...
As an immediate reaction my students are thinking about distributing "know your rights" propaganda throughout the community. They want to make t-shirts that say "I do not consent to a search."
On a larger scale they are beginning to discuss ways to make their own communities less of a target for Police to role through every hour on the hour. Their first thoughts were to get help for the addicts in their neighborhoods. They felt like if the addicts get clean they will 1) take better care of their children and 2) drive the drug dealers out of business.
These kids are very insightful and we are doing our best to follow their lead in this thing because they know where they wanna go. We just need to get out from in front of the door.
Thats all I got for now, lots more exciting stuff happening in Durham, and I gotta get to work on it!