Second Chance Act

Hat Tip to Eddie Griffin,

Please take action to give offenders a second chance and help keep our brothers and sisters out of jail This is VERY IMPORTANT. Please visit this link to read more http://www.justicefellowship.org/generic.asp?ID=2225

This is the action alert...

Dear Friends,
We need your help immediately to pass the Second Chance Act, HR 1593. The bill is ready to be brought to a vote on the floor of the House. Yet, the poisoned partisan atmosphere may keep it from ever getting voted upon.
Leaders from both parties have reached agreement on virtually everything that will be in the bill, but there remains some Republican opposition. The Democratic leadership is reluctant to schedule a vote if it turns into a donnybrook on the floor. However, they will schedule a vote next week if they are assured that the bill has the support of at least 100 Republicans.
Therefore, I urge you to call your representative and tell them how important it is that this bill passes. If your legislator is a Republican, please ask them to call Rep. Chris Cannon, the lead Republican sponsor, and let him know that they will vote for the Second Chance Act. It is important that they let Mr. Cannon know by tomorrow (Thursday) so that it can be scheduled for a vote next week. If your legislator is a Democrat, please ask them to tell Rep. Hoyer, the Democratic Whip, that they support the bill.
The Second Chance Act will help ex-offenders with their transition to life on the outside—specifically, in five key areas: jobs, housing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and strengthening families.
You can find out more about this bill at Justice Fellowship's Legislative Action Center, where you can also find out the name and phone number of your representative. Please do not close this email before you call your representative. It is that important to the bill.
In His service,
Pat Nolan
Vice President, Prison Fellowship



Second Chance Act is on the schedule for Tuesday Nov, 13th

http://www.majorityleader.gov/links_and_resources/whip_resources/weeklyleader.cfm?pressreleaseID=2091

Spotlight: Cecil Washington

Cecil Washington is the editor and Publisher of Creative Brother , a magazine that publishes and explores speculative fiction about the black culture. I recently interviewed both Cecil and Frank Creed. See my post on marginalized scifi below.

Creative Brother is a zine that contains fiction, opinion essays, poetry, and sometimes analysis of issues at the juncture of speculative fiction and Black culture.

Authors included in Issue #10, which I believe is the latest issue, include Paul Blakeford and Malon Edwards.

Creative Brother doesn't shy away from controversial issues, two of which are included in this issue.

The first is: The Sophia Stewart plagiarism lawsuit against the Brothers Wachowski asserting they stole the Matrix idea from her. (I've heard a lot about this lawsuit and honestly I don't know what to think about it. It's possible they used her short story as a seed for the movie but where does influence begin and plagiarism end?) Mr Washington seems to have taken up her cause. I'll stand mute. If you wish to read more about the lawsuit, you can check out Sophia's website. www.sophiaoracle.com She's pretty angry...and if she is indeed right about being plagiarized, she has every right to be angry. If, if, if. Whatever the outcome of the courtcase, it certainly should make writers pause about sending their unpublished novels off to folks in Hollywood.


Another controversial topic mentioned in Creative Brother is the philosophy of Dr Frances Cress-Welsing and Neely Fuller, Jr. In fact it takes up much of this issue. If you don't know what the United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept is, you can either count yourself unlucky (according to Felix) or lucky (in that you just don't get into such far reaches of racial flakiness.) Sorry, Felix, but honestly! I consider you a great writer and I'm not particularly wimpy about racism...but I seriously wonder how anyone could believe in that entire Cress-Welsing concept.

The ezine also contains a great segment on black scifi resources on the web and in print. If you want to read some race-based scifi...or if you want to get an somewhat biased analysis on the Sophia Stewart case or the Cress-Welsing/Fuller philosophy, check out the zine:

Creative Brother Website



Other bloggers taking part in the tour are:


Interview with Cecil Washington

Check out the spotlight of Cecil on:
Spotlight on moondancerdrake's livejournal

Gregory Banks' website

Rachel Lindley

Plus I did an earlier interview with Cecil and Frank Creed, another writer of marginalized speculative fiction.


Cecil's websites are:
http://www.cecilwashington.com/

Creative Brother Website


-Carole

The First 48

If you’ve ever seen The First 48 on A&E, you probably – as I do – have found yourself avoiding dramatic cop-shows such as Law and Order. Praised and time-honored as the Law and Order franchise might be, their storylines are pretty much crock. Their bad guys are over-the-top truly villainous people whose crimes are planned around L&O’s need for ratings and penchant for preachiness.

The First 48 however, is the real thing. Painfully, terribly so. It’s a reality show, of course! But what a reality! The premise for the series is this: the first forty-eight hours after a homicide are the most crucial. Evidence, witnesses, and the bad guy can simply disappear, fade, or be forever lost.

Each episode focuses on two homicide squads, in different cities. On any Thursday night the viewer might find herself involved in the investigation of a murder in Dallas, Kansas City, MO, Las Vegas, Memphis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, or Miami.

Of course, we develop favorites. The Memphis and Miami squads are superb and stand-outs are Sergeant Caroline Mason, Sergeant Doreen Shelton, Sergeant Tony Mullins, Sergeant Mitch Oliver, Sergeant Eunice Cooper, Sergeant Ervins Ford, Detective Kevin Ruggiero, Detective Emiliano Tamayo.

We see these cops in their humanity. We see the adrenalin pumping in the adrenalin junkies who live to get the bad guy. We see the grief when they have to inform a family member that their loved-one has been murdered. We see their grief for both the victims and the victimizers.

That’s probably the strangest thing about The First 48. These cops know something that most TV cops don’t know: that murderers are not particularly evil. They aren’t even smart. The murderers are generally kids who haven’t got a lick of sense, who get involved in something that goes awry, who gave the devil a finger and the devil took the whole hand. The cops are educated, and mature. They understand common sense and they come in all sizes and shades. The murderers, on the other hand, unfortunately are of a darker hue: hispanic and black, they are often involved in gangs, fighting over the little 1% of the American dream the rich have allowed to trickle down.

When Sergeant Caroline Mason of the Memphis PD is on the case, she shows us that being a cop involves being part spiritual counselor, part trickster-manipulator, part maternal voice of the community, and part investigator. Yet, she’s got to be one of the most ultra-feminine cops you’d ever see. The woman has style, but she also has heart. A young criminal is like putty in her hands. At the end of the investigation, he is usually blubbering as much as we are.

He knows he’s wasted his life. He knows he’s not being the good Christian kid his mom wanted him to be. He knows that one moment of stupidity has cost him his future and possibly his life. If it’s a girl who was playing one guy against another, she knows how volatile hormones can be. And, most importantly, the murderer knows that another human died and didn’t deserve to.

Okay, I’m sounding a bit like a bleeding-heart liberal with a Law and Order fixation. But I can’t help it. The show makes even hard hearts weep. I kid you not. I find myself watching the programs and shouting at those young stupid murderers, “My people! My people! What are you doing to yourselves! And for what? The little cash a drug deal will bring?”

I know many parents don’t feel like sitting their kids down to watch documentaries or straight-up reality shows. But I’m the kind of parent who forced my son to watch Maxed Out, a film about the evils of credit cards; and SuperSize Me, a film about the horrors of fast-food addiction.

So, okay, I’m telling you to plunk your kid down in front of this show. Especially if the kid – like many teenagers in the hood – still doesn’t know how to think before he acts.