Thursday, July 30, 2020

John Lewis' last message

John Lewis, the civil rights leader and congressman who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death & requested that it be published on the day of his funeral. In accordance with his wishes, the NEW YORK TIMES included the following in its issue of July 30th, 2020...

Though I was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters, and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle. Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare. If we are to survive as one unified nation, we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could rob Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina of her brightest and best, shoot unwitting concertgoers in Las Vegas and choke to death the hopes and dreams of a gifted violinist like Elijah McClain.

Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life, I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.

When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression, and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers, and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.

Tuesday, June 09, 2020

Black Lives Matter: support

In the past two weeks, people around the world have stood up to affirm that Black lives matter and to demand an end to police violence and systemic racism. That these actions and conversations are happening globally, and have already contributed to real change, is heartening.

But the work doesn’t end after a week, a month, or a year. Kickstarter is committed to engaging with the issues and conversations that affect artists, creators, and our community, and we intend to continue speaking out about racial injustice, sharing anti-racist reading and resources, amplifying the voices and work of Black creators, and listening to our community to find out what we can do better. We hope you’ll join us in continuing to learn, grow, and resist.

Here are a few ways you can continue this crucial work today and in the future: You can support Black-owned businessesartists, and creators who directly support or center Black communities, and bail funds and racial justice organizations. You can attend protestssign petitions, and contact your representatives to demand an end to police brutality and racist institutions. You can educate yourselves about racism and what it means to be anti-racist. You can challenge friends and family members who dismiss the protests or say “all lives matter.” If you have children, you can talk to them about Black Lives Matter and police violence. And you can listen to and amplify the voices of the educators and activists who have been doing this work all along.

Together, we can demand justice and help make change happen.

White Folks Guide to Protesting

If you are a white person considering joining a protest this week, here is a list of rules. Friends of color, please add if anything is forgotten.

1, FOLLOW CALLS ONLY. Do not initiate or lead calls. Your job is to follow and add your voice when it is called for.

2. DO NOT TAKE SELFIES. Ask to take pictures or videos of individuals. You are there to witness only. Film the police as much as possible. Your goal is documentation to ensure that the true narrative is told.

3. BE HELPFUL. Hand out water and snacks. Make sure protest leaders are hydrated and fed. This is exhausting work, help keep their energy up.

4. FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. If a black person tells you to do something, you do it immediately without question. You respect the authority and the decisions of the black protestors at all times.

5. STAY IN THE BACK UNTIL YOU ARE CALLED FORWARD. If you hear “White people to the front” or “Allies to the front” step forward and link arms with other white people to form a human shield.

6. WHEN YOU ARE AT THE FRONT, YOU ARE SILENT. Your job is to be a body. You are there to support only. The only voices on the police line should be black voices.

7. REMAIN CALM AT ALL TIMES. This is difficult. You will be emotional and your system will be flooded with adrenaline. Remember this is life and death for the protestors. Save your emotions for home. DO NOT AGITATE.

8. DO NOT SPEAK TO THE MEDIA. It’s not your turn to speak. Direct the reporter to a black or brown person.

This is not a game. Joining a protest is a serious decision. Make sure you are there for the right reason. Support the safety of black protestors at all times.

Monday, June 08, 2020

Bernie Sanders on policing

Bernie Sanders calls on Democrats to embrace 8-point plan to end police brutality and protect communities. "We have got to act boldly to eradicate systemic racism and police violence. I am calling for sweeping policy reforms to protect people—particularly communities of color—who have suffered violence for far too long."


Amend federal civil rights laws to allow more effective prosecution of police misconduct by changing the standard from willfulness to recklessness;

Abolish "qualified immunity," so police officers can be held civilly liable for abuses;

Prohibit the transfer of offensive military equipment to police departments;

Strip federal funds from departments that violate civil rights;

Create a federal model policing program that emphasizes de-escalation, non-lethal force, and culturally competent policing in which access to federal funds depends upon the level of reform adopted. As part of this effort to modernize and humanize police departments we need to enhance the recruitment pool by ensuring that the resources are available to pay wages that will attract the top-tier officers we need to do the difficult work of policing;

Provide funding to states and municipalities to create civilian corps of unarmed first responders to supplement law enforcement, such as social workers, EMTs, and trained mental health professionals, who can handle order maintenance violations, mental health emergencies, and low-level conflicts to aid police officers;

Require agencies to make records of police misconduct publicly available;

Require all jurisdictions that receive federal grant funding to establish independent police conduct review boards that are broadly representative of the community and that have the authority to refer deaths that occur at the hands of police or in police custody to federal authorities for investigation. In addition, the boards would be authorized to report to federal authorities other types of abuses by police including patterns of misconduct. This would be supplemental to current federal authority to commence investigations. Clearly, we need to enhance federal funding for such investigations.

#JusticeForBre

Rooting out anti-Blackness and police violence gets lots of talk, but too little action.


Breonna Taylor was "an award-winning EMT and first responder in Louisville, KY, who loved helping her patients and her community." The group demanding justice for her want:


The Mayor and City Council address the use of force by LMPD.


Fire and revoke the pensions of the officers that murdered Breonna. Arrest, charge, and convict them for this crime.


Provide all necessary information to a local, independent civilian community police accountability council #CPAC.


Create a policy for a transparent investigation process due to law enforcement misconduct.


Drop all charges for Kenneth Walker, Breonna’s boyfriend, who attempted to defend them and their home. [DEMAND MET]


Release the 911 call to the public for accountability. [DEMAND MET]


Eliminate No Knock warrants

Thursday, June 04, 2020

IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH by James Mattis

I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand — one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values — our values as people and our values as a nation.


When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.


We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.


James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.


Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us ... was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis — confident that we are better than our politics.


Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.


We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.


Only by adopting a new path — which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals — will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.

Friday, December 13, 2019

Raymond Cornelius Cone, 1888–1947

BIRTH 16 NOV 1888 • Wilson, North Carolina
DEATH 06DEC1947 • Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Father: Willis C Cone Aug 1837•Nash, North Carolina (son of Jacob and Charlott)

Marriage 1865 or 26 Oct 1869•Nash, North Carolina

Death 20 Nov 1918•Wilson, North Carolina

Mother: Sarah Eatman b. Nov 1850•North Carolina

Death 5Feb1935•Wilson, N.C.



Raymond's siblings: 1 Source Kindred Cone(1871–) Kincaid Cone(1873–) Junius Cone(1875–) William Cone(1877–) Joseph I. G. Cone(1880–) daughter Gertrude Lillie Cone(1885–1976) Jimerson Cone(1886–1963) Avon Cone(1892–) son Willie M Cone(1893–1960) Armincie Cone(1895–1974) f Birth

16 Nov 1888 • Wilson, North Carolina

3 Sources

1888





Birth (Alternate)

16 Nov 1884 • Wilson, North Carolina

1 Source

1884





Birth (Alternate)

Oct 1888 • Wilson, North Carolina

1 Source

1888





Residence

1900 • Taylor, Wilson, North Carolina, USA

Marital Status: Single; Relation to Head: Son

Willis Cone b 1835 in NC m Sarah A Cone (b 1849) in 1869





Marriage

1 Feb 1908 • Wilson, North Carolina, USA

Allena Hagans

(1891–1918)

1 Source

1908



Birth of Daughter Lessie Cohen(1910–)

abt 1910 • Wilson CO, North Carolina





Residence

1910 • Old Fields, Wilson, North Carolina, USA

Marital Status: Married; Relation to Head of House: Head

1910



Birth of Son Carl Lorenzo Cone, 1915

m. Aurthetta Marie Baldwin 1944 in NYC

d. 1992 in Bronx, NY)

21Sept1915 • Wilson North Carolina



Other children

Albert ( d in the 1990s NYC)

Mary





Name: RC Cone

Age: 31

Birthplace: North Carolina

Home in 1920: Norfolk Jefferson Ward, Norfolk (Independent City), Virginia

Street: Chartworth

Residence Date: 1920

Race: Black

Gender: Male

Relation to Head of House: Lodger

Marital status: Widowed

Occupation: Solicitor

Industry: Photographer

Employment Field: Own Account

Able to Read: Yes

Able to Write: Yes

Household Members:

Sarah J Quetrell, 60

Helen J Quetrell, 29

William James, 21

Elsie L James, 21

R C Cone, 31



Raymond Cone

Negro, Age in 1930 - 40

Marital Status: Married

Home in 1930: Delaware, Delaware, Ohio, USA Street Address: 136 Washington; Ward of City Two

Home Owned or Rented - Rented

Age at First Marriage - 29 (?)

Attended School - No

Able to Read and Write - Yes

Father's Birthplace - North Carolina

Mother's Birthplace - North Carolina

Able to Speak English - Yes

Occupation - Minister

Industry - A M E Church

Class of Worker - Wage or salary worker

Employment Yes

Neighbors Anna Cone (33 yrs) wife, married at 33 Married 26 Aug 1929 • District of Columbia, USA

Billie Cone (10 yrs)

Collection 1930 U.S. Federal Population Census





U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 for Raymond Cornelius Cone

Residence: 163 Morningside Ave

New York, NY

Age 52

Born: Wilson, NC, Nov 18, 1888

Employer: Heard Memorial A.M.E. Church

163 Morningside Ave

Person who knows where he is: Lessie McCann (Lossie McConn?), 79 W 141st St NYC





Residence 1942 • New York, New York, USA





Rev. Raymond C Cone

Residence Year: 1946

Street address: 163 Morngsid Av MO numnt 2-4533

Residence Place: Manhattan, New York, USA

Publication Title: Manhattan, New York, City Directory, 1946



Death

06Dec1947 • Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, mentioned on front page of the The New York Age (New York, New York) · 13 Dec 1947, Sat · Page 1 , Children are Albert, (Carl) Lorenzo and Mary Cone, and Lessie McCain,

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Sanctuary Cities List, as of April 16, 2019

States



California
Colorado
Illinois
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New Mexico
Oregon
Vermont


Cities and Counties

California

Alameda County, Berkley, Contra Costa County, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, Monterey County, Napa County, Oakland, Riverside County, Sacramento County, San Bernardino County, San Diego County, San Francisco, San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Santa Ana, Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County, Sonoma County, Watsonville



Colorado

Arapahoe County, Aurora, Boulder County, Denver, Denver County, Garfield County, Grand County, Jefferson County, Larimer County, Mesa County, Pitkin County, Pueblo County, Routt County, San Miguel County, Weld County



Connecticut

East Haven, Hartford



Florida

Alachua County



Georgia

Clayton County, DeKalb County



Iowa

Benton County, Cass County, Fremont County, Greene County, Ida County, Iowa City, Iowa City (Johnson County), Jefferson County, Marion County, Monona County, Montgomery County, Pottawattamie County, Sioux County



Illinois

Chicago, Cook County



Kansas

Butler County, Harvey County



Louisiana

New Orleans



Massachusetts

Amherst, Boston, Cambridge, Concord, Lawrence, Newton, Northhampton, Somerville



Maryland

Baltimore, Montgomery County, Prince George's County



Michigan

Ingham County, Kalamazoo County, Kent County, Wayne County



Minnesota

Hennepin County



Mississippi

Jackson



Nebraska

Hall County, Sarpy County



New Jersey

Newark



New Mexico

Bernalillo County, New Mexico County Jails, San Miguel



Nevada

Washoe County



New York

Albany, Franklin County, Ithaca, Nassau County, New York City, Onondaga County, St. Lawrence County, Wayne County



North Carolina

Buncombe County, Durham County, Forsyth County, Mecklenburg County, Orange County, Wake County



Ohio

Franklin County



Oregon

Baker County, Clackamas County, Clatsop County, Coos County, Crook County, Curry County, Deschutes County, Douglas County, Gilliam County, Grant County, Hood River County, Jackson County, Jefferson County, Josephine County, Lane County, Lincoln County, Linn County, Malheur County, Marion County, Marlon County, Multnomah County, Polk County, Sherman County, Springfield, Tillamok County, Umatilla County, Union County, Wallowa County, Wasco County, Washington County, Wheeler County, Yamhill County



Pennsylvania

Bradford County, Bucks County, Butler County, Chester County, Clarion County Delaware County, Erie County, Franklin County, Lehigh County, Lycoming County, Montgomery County, Montour County, Perry County, Philadelphia, Pike County, Westmoreland County



Rhode Island

Providence, Rhode Island Department of Corrections



Virginia

Arlington County, Chesterfield County, Fairfax County



Vermont

Burlington, Montpelier, Winooski



Washington

Chelan County, Clallam County, Clark County, Cowlitz County, Franklin County, Jefferson County, King County, Kitsap County, Pierce County, San Juan County, Skagit County, Snohomish County, Spokane County, Seattle, Thurston County, Walla Walla County, Wallowa County, Whatcom County, Yakima County