Category: Racism

WE WERE CHILDREN | Full Documentary | National Film Board of Canada

I got up because I couldn’t sleep.  But YouTube in their wisdom of algorithms had this in my feed.  I watched it.  At one point the man Glen talks of how it stays with you.  It does.  Always.  Now I will try to work.  Hugs

Ripped from their families at a young age, two survivors reveal the harrowing truth of Canada’s residential school system.

As young children, Lyna and Glen were taken from their homes and placed in church-run boarding schools. The trauma of this experience was made worse by years of untold physical, sexual and emotional abuse, the effects of which persist in their adult lives. In this emotional film, the profound impact of the Canadian government’s residential school system is conveyed unflinchingly through the eyes of two children who were forced to face hardships beyond their years. We Were Children gives voice to a national tragedy and demonstrates the incredible resilience of the human spirit.

Directed by Tim Wolochatiuk and written by Jason Sherman, We Were Children is produced by Kyle Irving for Eagle Vision Inc. and David Christensen for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Warning: this film contains disturbing content and is recommended for audiences 16 years of age and older. Parental discretion, and/or watching this film within a group setting, is strongly advised. If you need counselling support, please contact Health Canada.

Let’s talk about how Trump, Bragg, names, and what’s next….

Peace & Justice History for 2/11

February 11, 1790

The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, composed mostly of Quakers and Mennonites, petitioned Congress for emancipation of all slaves. Benjamin Franklin had become vocal as an abolitionist and in 1787 began to serve as President of the Society which not only advocated the abolition of slavery, but made efforts to integrate freed slaves into American society.
The proposed resolution was immediately denounced by pro-slavery congressmen and sparked a heated debate in both the House and the Senate.
More on early Abolitionist and Anti-Slavery Movements 
February 11, 1916
Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control, presumed a violation of the 1873 Comstock Law which prohibited distribution of literature on birth control, considered obscene under the act.
Goldman considered such knowledge essential to women’s reproductive and economic freedom; she had worked as a nurse and midwife among poor immigrant workers on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1890s. She also organized for womens’ suffrage, later opposed U.S. involvement in World War I, and was imprisoned for allegedly obstructing military conscription.
Emma Goldman speaking on Birth Control -Union Square, New York City May 20, 1916
“. . . those like myself who are disseminating knowledge [of birth control] are not doing so because of personal gain or because we consider it obscene or lewd. We do it because we know the desperate condition among the masses of workers and even professional people, when they cannot meet the demands of numerous children.”
– Goldman letter to the press following her arrest

Emma Goldman’s courageous efforts
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February 11, 1937
Forty-eight thousand General Motors workers won their 44-day sit-down strike in Flint, Michigan. On December 30 workers at Fisher Plants 1 & 2 sat down and refused to leave, forcing workers around them to stop work and preventing the next shift from starting.

The sit-down strike ended when the company agreed to recognize the United Automobile Workers union as the representative bargaining agent for the striking hourly employees. Other automakers gradually accepted the legitimacy of the union. The success of the sit-down was an inspiration to workers in other industries to organize their own unions.
Nearly 100 images on the Flint sit-down from
Detroit’s Wayne State University Walter Reuther Archive
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February 11, 1978
Native Americans began The Longest Walk, a march from Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay to Washington, D.C.
Native American Activism: 1960s to Present

A Brief History of the
American Indian Movement


photo Ilka Hartmann
The Walk was intended to be a reminder of the forced removal of American Indians from their homelands across the continent, and drew attention to the continuing problems plaguing the Indian community, particularly joblessness, lack of health care, education and adequate housing.
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February 11, 1979
Poet John Trudell, a former national chairman of the American Indian Movement (AIM), burned an upside-down flag and spoke from the steps of the FBI building in Washington, D.C. during a vigil for Leonard Peltier. Peltier, also a leader of AIM, was imprisoned (and is still today after 30 years,) and is considered a political prisoner by Amnesty International. (NOTE: Leonard Peltier’s sentence was commuted to home confinement in 2025.)
Twelve hours later Trudell’s wife Tina, her mother, and their three children died in an arsonist’s attack of their home on the Duck Valley Reservation in Nevada. The FBI did not investigate even though the crime fell under its jurisdiction.
Learn about Leonard Peltier 
Remembering John Trudell 
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February 11, 1990

Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in a South African prison following months of secret negotiations with South African President F.W. (Frederik Willem) de Klerk.
In 1952, Mandela became deputy national president of the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest black political organization in South Africa, having joined as a young lawyer in 1944.
He advocated nonviolent resistance to apartheid – South Africa’s institutionalized system of white supremacy, black disenfranchisement and rigid racial segregation.
However, after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Mandela helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.


He and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1993 “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.”
Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/11/newsid_2539000/2539947.stm

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february11

Any doubt the family did not pass this feeling teaching down to Emo Boy Musk.

Why Elon Musk’s Family Moved from Canada to South Africa in 1950

Peace & Justice History for 2/6

February 6, 1899
Spain agreed to abandon all claims of sovereignty over Cuba, the cession of Puerto Rico and Guam, the cession of the Philippine Islands; and in exchange the U.S. agreed to pay $20,000,000 in a treaty ratified by the U.S. Senate on this day.
The previous July the U.S. took control of Gantanamo Bay, blockaded Cuba’s other ports and destroyed the Spanish fleet at Santiago Bay.
The U.S. Army, landed at Guanica, near Ponce, Puerto Rico, and shortly took possession of the island with the exception of San Juan.
The Spanish Pacific fleet was destroyed and the U.S. took control of Manila, the capital, and Luzon, the main island of the Philippines a few weeks later.
February 6, 1943
The U.S. government required the 110,000 disposessed Japanese Americans forcibly held in concentration (internment) camps to answer loyalty surveys.

Some of the interned were U.S. citizens, and some volunteered to serve in the armed forces during the war with Japan.
The Nisei, as they were known, were kept in the camps until the end of World War II.

The Manzanar Relocation Center, a one of the concentration camps where Japanese-Americans were forced to live throughout World War II.
February 6, 1956
Autherine Lucy was excluded from classes just three days after becoming the first black person allowed to attend the University of Alabama. Her suspension “for her own safety” followed three days of riots over her Supreme Court-ordered enrollment.

Autherine J. Lucy and her attorney Thurgood Marshall
Crowds of students, townspeople and members of the Ku Klux Klan shouted, “Kill her!” among other things. It is unclear why the University did not suspend the students who were among the rioters.
Lucy had originally applied for graduate study in library science in 1952, and had been accepted until the University realized her race, and claimed state law prevented her admission.
A graduate of traditionally black Miles College, she was only admitted with the help of the National Association for Colored People Legal Defense and Education Fund (NAACP-LDEF) and lawyers Thurgood Marshall (later a Supreme Court justice), Constance Baker Motley (future federal judge) and Arthur Shores (elected to Birmingham City Council).
Read more  
February 6, 1959
The United States successfully test-fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), known as Titan, from Cape Canaveral. It was a two-stage rocket designed to carry nuclear warheads.Titans were also capable of boosting satellites and spacecraft into orbit. Before the last was produced in 2002, they launched several two-man Gemini missions in the 1960s and launched the first spacecraft to land on Mars.

First test launch of Titan booster rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
February 6, 1961
The civil rights jail-in movement began when ten negro students in Rock Hill, South Carolina, were arrested for requesting service at a segregated lunch counter. They refused to post bail and demanded jail time rather than paying fines, refusing to acknowledge any legitimacy of the laws under which they were arrested.
More about Charles Sherrod 
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote to Charles Sherrod, Diane Nash
and the others in jail:
‘‘You have inspired all of us by such demonstrative courage and faith. It is good to know that there still remains a creative minority who would rather lose in a cause that will ultimately win than to win in a cause that will ultimately lose.’’
February 6, 1985
The Molesworth Common Peace Camp, just outside the Royal Air Force Base there, was evicted by the British Army. The 300 inhabitants and their many supporters had been nonviolently protesting the siting of nuclear-tipped U.S. cruise missiles at the base. Peace camps were established at several locations in Europe in the early 1980s to protest the destabilizing nuclear weapons buildup.

Molesworth Common peace camp

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february6

Some TizzyEnt clips. They are mostly short with the longest a few seconds over 5 minutes.

Observing Black History Month, Because This Is The Fkn’ US, Dammit!

The Negro’s “America” by Frank Barbour Coffin 1870–1951

My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
     Would I could sing;
Its land of Pilgrim’s pride
Also where lynched men died
With such upon her tide,
     Freedom can’t reign.

My native country, thee
The world pronounce you free
     Thy name I love;
But when the lynchers rise
To slaughter human lives
Thou closest up thine eyes,
     Thy God’s above.

Let Negroes smell the breeze
So they can sing with ease
     Sweet freedom’s song;
Let justice reign supreme,
Let men be what they seem
Break up that lyncher’s screen,
     Lay down all wrong.

Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
     To Thee we sing;
How can our land be bright?
Can lynching be a light?
Protect us by thy might,
     Great God our king!

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on February 1, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

As always, click the title to get more about the poet and their work. Today’s background is especially poignant, and work the click.

MAGA And The Danger Of Empathy

Migrants, Prisoners, The Poor; No Conditions On Our Love

Some more abuse by republicans

ICE Detains Native Americans, Questions Tribal IDs

ICE is now detaining Native Americans. Several members of the Navajo nation have been detained. Fuck this country.. @kaffnews.com http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/l…

— Tyler. 🚩🏴🍞 (@covidzero.bsky.social) 2025-01-25T01:23:27.010Z

This is a pretty good indicator that it is not about going after immigrants, just Brown people in general.

Voldemort: We Don’t Have To Obey Laws On Firing Federal Workers, Trump’s Power Is Absolute [VIDEO]

“The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I’ve just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away…. The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line.”
-Tarkin

==============================================================

tRump hates the Kennedys as much if not more than he hates the Obamas, and has forever.   He hates that those families are more respected and called American royalty rather than his.  Remember he told the Queen of England that his kids were equal to hers because he was American’s version of royalty just as she was England’s.   Remember he demanded that the famous rose garden credited to Jackie Kennedy be destroyed, torn out and replaced with a horrible garden insisting it be credited with his third wife’s name he wanted to be as famous and acclaimed as the wonderful Jackie’s was.   It never was because instead of beautiful like the rose garden was the one that replaced it was a nightmare of bad taste and ugliness.  So he needs to destroy the Kennedy legacy and anything with their name on it as he has tried to do to Obama, and now Biden.   Hugs

Trump: I’ll Repaint Air Force One To “Power Blue”

As has been widely reported, the underbelly of Air Force One is painted “baby blue” because that makes the aircraft blend in with the sky, rendering it less visible to potential rocket attacks launched from the ground. Last month Trump raged that the Air Force One replacement currently under construction will not be completed until after his term. Also, contrary to his claim to reporters, Trump indeed golfed today.

AF1 livery is beautiful and iconic and the new livery in progress is exquisite. Of course he’ll destroy it.

Thumbnail
State TV Host: Tariffs Will End Rapes On NYC Subway

NBC had news today that of the 1200 people detained by ICE this Sunday, 50% had no criminal record at all.

You know how cops would rather pull over law abiding citizens for minor traffic infractions than chase dangerous criminals? What do you think ICE would rather do, arresting helpless people who volunteered their information and will not resist, or arresting known criminals who might have weapons and try to fight back?

 

The game is kind of becoming clear, isn’t it?

Trump has no plan to handle inflation, and in fact, his three main things, are all going to increase costs.

Deporting the work force, tariffs, tax cuts for the wealthy – all massively inflationary.

the plan seems to be to lie about crime coming down as the price, and of course, real patriots have no problem paying more…..

OK Public Schools Chief: I’ll Help ICE Deport Students
Budget Nominee: “The 2020 Election Was Rigged”

Vought is an avowed Christian nationalist and former Heritage Foundation executive.

Peace & Justice History for 1/31

January 31, 1865
The U.S. House of Representatives passed (119-56) the 13th constitutional amendment which abolished slavery, and sent it to the states for ratification (three-quarters of the states would do so by the end of the year). The Kentucky legislature didn’t vote to ratify until 1976. Mississippi’s legislature finally ratified it in 1995 but failed to submit the paperwork to the federal government until 2013.
Text of the amendment: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
More about the 13th Amendment 
January 31, 1876

Sitting Bull: One of several chiefs who refused to comply.
The U.S. government ordered that all Native Americans had to move to reservations by this date or be declared hostile. Most Sioux did not even hear of the ultimatum until after the deadline.  
January 31, 1945

Eddie Slovik
Private Eddie Slovik became the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion, and the only one who suffered such a fate during World War II.Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered Slovik’s execution be carried out, he said, to avoid further desertions in the late stages of the war.

Eisenhower
January 31, 1950 
U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announced his decision to support the development of the hydrogen (fusion) bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic (fission) bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.
January 31, 1971
The Winter Soldier Hearings began in a Howard Johnson’s motel in Detroit. Sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the three days of hearings were an attempt by soldiers who had served in Vietnam to inform the public of the realities of U.S. conduct in the war.
The veterans testified that the My Lai massacre was not an isolated incident, and that some American troops had committed atrocities.
Among those who spoke about aspects of their service in Vietnam was John Kerry, a former Navy lieutenant and future senator and presidential candidate. More than 100 veterans testified to sometimes brutal acts. Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield later entered the transcript of the Winter Soldier hearings into the Congressional Record but, otherwise, the proceedings captured little attention.

The term “winter soldier” is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776. He spoke of the “sunshine patriot and summertime soldiers” who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough.
Winter Soldier film watch the trailer (appox 4 minutes) 
watch the entire movie (1:35)
VVAW/Winter Soldier Organization 
January 31, 1993
300,000 Berliners rallied to protest attacks on immigrants, and against racism and renewed support for Nazism on the 60th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. During the previous year there had been 2,285 racially motivated attacks, including 77 against Jewish sites, and the death of two young Turkish girls in an arson attack.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january31