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Peace on Earth and Good will towards all Men

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In a world where it seems like all love and appreciation for different cultures, religions, and races has gone haywire, where hate, intolerance, indifference, disrespect, and unspeakable violence reign, I am happy to report that the local Portland branch of the NAACP was invited to have dinner and attend the annual Christmas presentation of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City Utah. Thanks to the work of our local Pastor Dr. Reverend Hennessee and the leadership of the renowned national board member of the NAACP, Dr. Reverend Amos Brown out of San Francisco, historical barriers and misunderstandings between the black community and the Mormon faith have evolved into reconciliation and collaboration. At the invitation of the local LDS representative Allen Oyler on Thursday of this week, my wife and I were privileged to attend this awesome Christmas event.

Praise be to God. Peace on earth, and goodwill towards all men. 

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Mike Green nails it.

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Wake up Black America. Mike Green nails it.  

Don’t be confused runing around chasing rabbits. Mike Green will help keep us focused. Thank you Mike

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For those who think Trump is an authoritarian leading a cult following, perhaps this piece I wrote will change your mind. Before Trump became POTUS, I argued that Trump was the logical choice by a growing movement that isn’t interested in so-called “democracy” but rather defending, conserving and protecting white power, domination and supremacist ideology that fuels the national narrative of a Great White America.

There is no other Republican candidate who comes close to Trump’s overt and covert defiance of all presumed political ideals to prioritize the defense of white supremacy and the taking back this nation from those who seek to change it … at all cost.

Trump was recruited by the supremacist wing (aka “far right”) of the GOP to achieve the goals that a majority of White Christian Conservatives established and fought for with a century of violence (starting in 1868 – backlash to the impeachment of white supremacist President Andrew Johnson … to 1968 and the assassinations of MLK and Bobby Kennedy followed by a landslide election of white supremacist President Richard Nixon).

Today, despite Trump’s lifelong background of corruption and criminal-minded collaborations, he stands alone as the Republican Party frontrunner because, as he continues to remind us all, he alone can salvage the hope his supporters have in putting the brakes on the encroachment of multiculturalism and preserve the domination of white power and control over America’s institutions of power, wealth and influence. This message, and none other, is why Trump remains today the favorite candidate among a majority of White voters … both White men AND White women.

Sadly, the only way to stop this movement is to persuade a majority of White women to align their voting support with the majorities of all nonwhite populations. White women are the nation’s largest voting bloc and they serve as the fulcrum upon which the 2024 election will balance.

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A Vessel of hope

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A Vessel of HOPE

A Vessel of hope 11I decided to run for the President of the local  Portland branch the NAACP.  The election is in a few hours and I hope folks vote for me.  But win or lose I know this organization is still relevant in spite of the local branch’s reputation. If I am elected I hope to change all that because we need every tool in the tool kit to help rebuild our community. Thank God everybody knows that black people in America are the most resilient people on the planet. Let’s see if can make the Portland branch a powerful instrument in the fight for justice, equity and anti-discrimination.  As Jesse would say ” Let’s keep HOPE alive”A Vessel of hope 15

See my campaign information:

Campaign Statement and Profile_Portland Branch NAACP Members-final

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CountDown

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If I ever decided I would join a Cult it would be headed by Keith Olbermann. What a brilliant provocative Dude. He use to be on MSNBC headlined as CountDown. Now I see why no major network has picked him up. He voraciously tells the truth. Thanks, IHeart Radio for rescuing him.

Check his Podcasts out: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-countdown-with-keith-olbe-99705496/

If only I could be like Keith:

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A Credit to their RACE

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A Credit to their RACE

The past few weeks have been an inspiration to me looking back at the many battles for equity and inclusion in the construction industry and the present/future explosion of opportunities in Portland, I felt like the biblical Job, knowing that God would eventually bring us through. The battle is not ours, It’s the LORD’S.

More than a week ago, thanks to Angela Hill with support from the new Soul Restoration Center we celebrated the 81st birthday of O.B. Hill and Gloria McMurtry. At the event, I tried to explain that O.B. and Gloria were more than just the founders of Reflections Coffee/Book store and promoters of Portland’s black renaissance culture.  O.B. and Gloria are icons of the struggle and promise black people face everywhere. They dared to fight in the trenches while others reaped the benefit of their constant pressure demanding economic opportunity for black people in Portland. In the late 80s and early 90s, they protested the exclusion of black contractors and workers on the expansion of I-84 (known as the Banfield). They held ODOT’s feet to fire at every opportunity. They were part of the lawsuit against TRI-Met protesting the use of a “Front” minority company from Colorado Tri-Met proposed to use to build the Hillsboro light rail. Tri-Met finally realized the evil of their ways and provided significant opportunities for blacks on the Interstate light rail. Their advocacy extended to the Convention Center, the Rose-Garden Coliseum project, and many more.

You can see their efforts as the foundation and building blocks of what we see today with the large-scale success of Black Contractors achieving leading roles in the building of the expansion of the Rose Quarter I-5 projects, partnership in the remodeling of the Convention Center, key positions in the remodeling of Portland Public School projects and low-income housing projects.

Likely, O.B. and Gloria will never get the respect and appreciation they deserve, but God knows and history will record, that they are an absolute true credit to their Race. And because they have paved the way, our children will have a smoother economic road to travel. We owe them a lot.

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In with “The Future:”

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How we see it, Uncategorized

We love our Veterans “really”

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We love our Veterans “really”.

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We love our Veterans “really”.

This Memorial Day as a twenty-year Air Force service veteran I was sitting down missing my Vietnam-era Army veteran brother, Jerry Posey. He died in December 2020 after a long series of injuries attributed to being shot in the Back in Vietnam. He barely survived the war but eventually was overcome by its consequences.

I just want everybody to know that even though your country talks a good talk about how they support Veterans, there is a downside few want to talk about.

After all the ceremonies and hoopla thanking veterans for their service, today sit down and write your public officials, President, Congressional people, etc,  about the following issues on behalf of all veterans:

  • Unwilling to inform and accommodate key family members at critical points in the illness
  • Lack of communication and individualized treatment plans to share with all involved in treatment efforts
  • Uncoordinated treatment access and integrated processes and procedures
  • Third-rate treatment facilities at many stages. Some animal shelters might be rated better.
  • Enabling additive and harmful pharmaceutical treatment regimens and drug therapy
  • Bureaucratic delays and obstruction to timely treatment resources and information
  • No sense of service oversite or evaluation of the performance of staff and program outcomes in all program areas.
  • No holistic approach to psychological /physiological patterns of behavior of patient as seen by family or recommended and presented by various providers.
  • Failure of outcomes not adequately addressed.
  • Lack of support for external family members in recovery and healing processes.
  • Lack of professional social workers and behavioral professionals necessary to address ongoing and advancing illness.
  • No end-of-life counseling or planning for anticipated death consequences.
  • No method to provide levels of transparency to families
  • A general alienation of family and support groups. Sometimes using intimidation tactics to avoid interventions.
  • Financial care resources/benefits are not adequate to provide end-of-life care commiserate with commercial market prices and services. The veteran must be declared indigent to be qualified for inpatient services.
  • Oh I forgot, black veterans face persistent ongoing racism into the grave!!!!!!!!

 Yeah, we love our veterans.

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How we see it, Uncategorized

NOT THIS TIME JoAnn

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NOT THIS TIME JOANN

I knew at some point, I had to address my opposition to JoAnn Hardesty’s reelection for Portland City Commissioner. Since we have only a few days before the May election I had to let our community know my thoughts. Most do not know I served as a fundraising Co-Chair for her last campaign. Let me say at the outset I do not know her opponents well, but my God, they couldn’t be any worse than JoAnn. You would have to be blind not to recognize that all of the City Commissioners are on the hot seat given Portland’s deplorable condition right now.

 

Besides the obvious, there are several reasons why she shouldn’t be re-elected and they are as follows:

  1. She is a stone-cold bully and drama queen and most people know it. Most of us who have personally been in meetings and public conversations with her have to acknowledge these faltering traits. It’s her way or the highway and not to dare promote an opposing point of view. This was in full display in October of 2019 when she bullied her way into the nominating committee chair to elect and install E.D. Mondaine as the President of the Portland Branch of the NAACP following her election to City Council. She was warned that E.D. was a freak and she ignored the facts and proceeded to promote and leverage him throughout government and with other influential people and organizations.

 

  1. She is ruthless and vindictive. What I originally thought was courage, turns out to be the insistence on being right and in control at all costs. If you oppose her you can be guaranteed to be blackballed and ostracized to the margins. If it doesn’t fit into her worldview, it doesn’t exist. If that wasn’t bad enough, she is genuinely toxic, polarizing, and disruptive.

 

 

  1. She is willing to shave moral principles to get what she wants regardless of who is harmed in the process. She had to know that suing the City and the police union regarding the union’s false report would only inflame the already impaired and degraded relationship with the Portland police. We are all less safe, particularly black males as a result of JoAnn’s unbalance assault on law and order. Stevie Wonder can see how this City is consumed with lawless behavior across-the-board. Her willingness to skirt moral imperatives also showed up in her administration of NAACP business when she was President of that organization. These are items her endorsers would not have a clue about.

 

  1. She has an enormous big head. You have to notice that she is willing to take credit for anything successful she is vaguely associated with. She is always clambering to be in the media and promote her agenda, excluding or minimizing the work of the other commissioners. One would think the City of Portland was her private property and she had some unilateral power to control decisions. In other words, she is a power control freak. She does things like exaggerating her military service. You would think that she commanded a battleship in the Navy when it is clear she was only a low-level secretary type, barely separating with an honorable discharge if that.

 

  1. She has some personal life skill control issues well documented in the media. If you can’t manage personal business issues, how can you be expected to manage the City’s business? We can’t afford another four years of her insane drama. Character Matters. While she tries to associate herself with Avel Gordly, in truth she is the polar opposite.

 

  1. We have to take another critical look at her previous background and positions of influence; the NAACP, ACTION, former State Legislator, and private business experience. There are dysfunctional patterns on display and the broader media needs to tell the full story, especially WW.

 

I won’t criticize her for being poorly educated because of the racist history of the miseducation of black people in America.  And we know the supposedly highly educated are making fools of themselves too. Nevertheless, I find myself struggling to oppose a black woman in a most prominent position, but the truth is the truth and she must go for the sake of the entire community.