Horrors! College Student Forced to Watch Global Warming Movie!
Stephen Colbert rants on the horrors of liberal university science classes and how one student was forced to watch An Inconvenient Truth! What is the world coming to when a young person is coercively exposed to information with which he disagrees? See the shocking, terrible, world-shattering answer here.
Brownback, Obama & Darfur
As Melissa Rogers relates here, at least 2 U.S. presidential candidates, one from each major political party, are showing some true integrity in matters of human rights. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) have both sold off millions of dollars in mutual funds in order to avoid investing in any companies that do business with Sudan until the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region is ended. When concern for human rights reaches a politician’s personal pocketbook, you know they actually get the point. Melissa asks the most pertinent question: Will any of the other candidates follow suit? Will they take steps to prevent any campaign contributions coming from such businesses? Let’s ask them. Let’s go to their various websites and pose just that question–and then ask the question publicly in letters to editors of local papers.
Yolanda King dies at 51
Yolanda Denise King (17 Nov. 1955-15 May 2007) collapsed and died suddenly in Santa Monica, CA on the doorway of her brother, Dexter King’s home. Cause of death has not yet been revealed, but family members suspect a heart attack–Yolanda had become a large woman in recent years and, on average, African-Americans have been more susceptible to high blood pressure and other heart-related conditions.
A public memorial is being planned for Ms. King next week.
The oldest of the children born to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, Yolanda King was born in Montgomery, AL and had become a human rights worker, actor, and the founder of a production company. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta, GA, and was founding director of its Cultural Affairs Program. She served on the Partnership Council of Habitat for Humanity, was a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (founded by her father), and a life-member of the NAACP, and a sponsoring member (like her mother before her) of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
Yolanda King earned a B.A. (with honors) from Smith College and a Master’s degree in Theatre from New York University.
In 1978, she played Rosa Parks in the TV mini-series King. Other films and TV show appearances included Hopscotch (1981), Death of a Prophet (1981) playing Betty Shabazz, wife/widow of Malcolm X, Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), and Selma, Lord, Selma (1999) along with many others. She founded and ran the production company, Higher Ground Productions.
A faithful Baptist Christian active in Progressive National Baptist and American Baptist circles, Ms. King was no stranger to controversy. Along with her mother, Coretta, Yolanda supported the work of Soulforce in ending religious discrimination against sexual minorities. She supported her younger sister, Bernice’s ordination to the gospel ministry, but opposed the campaign that Bernice and her pastor, launched against GLBT folks, and publicly rebuked Bernice for using their father’s name in such a campaign, pointing to the crucial role of gays like Bayard Rustin played in the Civil Rights Movement. Nevertheless, when Coretta Scott King died in January 2006, it was Yolanda who played family peacemaker and arranged to have the memorial service at Bernice’s church, with Bernice presiding.
Another powerful Christian voice for justice, peace, and human rights has passed from the scene. We the living must take up the burdens that Yolanda has now laid down. Rest in peace, good and faithful servant of the One Servant.
About
Michael L. Westmoreland-White, Ph.D. I live in Louisville, KY USA with my wife, Kate, and our two wonderful daughters. My wife, Kate, is a Baptist minister who works at a Catholic charity (the Society of St. Vincent de Paul) to provide assisted housing to homeless people. Our daughters are Molly (’95) and Miriam (’99). I am a former soldier converted to gospel nonviolence and a once (and future?) academic theologian turned peace activist, author, and peace educator. Contact me at [email protected]
The Levellers were a 17th C. movement during the English Civil War. They were a religiously-inspired political movement for democracy, human rights, justice for the poor, and peace. Their strongest leader was Richard Overton, a pacifist General Baptist influenced by Dutch Mennonites. Although I write on a wide range of topics, most often this blog deals with the intersection of faith, especially Christian faith, and work for social justice and peace. So, I have named the blog and dedicated it to the spirit of Richard Overton and the 17th C. Levellers.
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