Voting is powerful. It’s the difference in being spoken for by others and speaking for ourselves. It’s the difference between being half a citizen and being a whole citizen. It’s the difference between being recognized as fully human as opposed to being a little less than human. Voting is that powerful. [...]
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 Posted by Danny, on February 24th, 2011, at 12:05 amJubilee time is a coming. Voting Rights Celebrations are a coming. People get ready. Joyful but meaningful times are a coming. The National Voting Rights Celebration (Celebration) starts the third Sunday in February, 2011 [...] Posted by Danny, on February 16th, 2011, at 5:59 pmWe are tuning up for the 2011 Regular Legislative Session. The buzz was emanating from last week’s Joint Legislative Interim Budget Hearings. The hearings were revealing by what was and was not provided. The buzz tells us that trouble lies ahead. [...] Posted by Danny, on February 10th, 2011, at 5:14 amHistory is powerful. It tells us that which once seemed impossible became possible, then probable, then reality. It also tells us that which seems impossible now, can become possible, then probable, then reality. History is a road map of the past and of overcoming. If we use history, it becomes a guide to the future and a force for our coming new challenges. Black history is also history and therefore powerful in the same way. [...] Posted by Danny, on February 3rd, 2011, at 5:22 am“Senator Sanders, have you heard, and if so, what do you think about Governor Bentley dissolving the Black Belt Action Commission and the Alabama Rural Action Commission and putting those functions in the Alabama Office of Rural Development under Ron Sparks?” Those may not be the reporter’s exact words, but they are as close as I can recall. There were so many questions encased in this one big question. I don’t recall my exact response but I want to share what I would like to have said. [...] Posted by Danny, on January 27th, 2011, at 5:19 amHope is powerful. It allows us to go on even when circumstances say there is no real reason to go on. I sense a strong yearning for hope everywhere I go these days. But I have hope in abundance. However, my basis for hope goes deeper than what I see around me. During the Dr. Martin Luther King Birthday celebrations, I shared with various audiences how I keep hope alive in spite of adverse circumstances. [...] Posted by Danny, on January 21st, 2011, at 5:14 amDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The very sound of the name raises powerful images in our minds. The images vary from person to person and group to group. But each is powerful in its own way. I also have my images. One of the enduring images for me came at the end of the Selma to Montgomery March on March 25, 1965. Some of us students from Talladega College stuffed ourselves into a Volkswagen Beetle and journeyed to St. Jude just outside the City of Montgomery to join the last leg of the March. We marched from St. Jude to Dexter Avenue, but we were so far down the street we could not see Dr. King’s facial features as he spoke. But I still have a powerful image of the moment. [...] Posted by Danny, on January 12th, 2011, at 5:11 amIt was Nia, the fifth day of Kwanzaa. We had eaten; we had sung; we had talked one with another; and we had acknowledged the ancestors. Now it was time for the Kwanzaa Principles. First, let me explain that we do not follow the exact practices of Kwanzaa. If we did, we would do it over seven days, with one principle being discussed each day. [...] Posted by Danny, on January 5th, 2011, at 5:09 amI want to follow up on last week’s Sketches about giving. I want to share an experience with you. It touched and enlightened me. I hope it touches you. As my family sat around the dinner table after a good meal, I asked the question, “What is it that you would like me to give each of you that is not material?” One person explained the “not material” as something you cannot “buy with money” since at least one participant was a pre-teen. The giving table was set. [...] Posted by Danny, on December 29th, 2010, at 12:07 amGiving is powerful. I write this partly because we say that this is the season to give. However, I write to say that every season is the season to give. Every day in every season is a time to give. Some of us know how to give but don’t know how to receive. Too many of us know how to receive but don’t know how to give. The real challenge is to give and receive with equal facility for they are truly bound together. [...] Posted by Danny, on December 24th, 2010, at 5:07 amThis Sketches is incomplete but I am sending it anyway because I want you to have it before Christmas. It’s my gift to you. Giving is powerful. I write this partly because we say that this is the season to give. However, I write to say that every season is the season to give. Every day in every season is a time to give. [...] Posted by Danny, on December 23rd, 2010, at 5:02 amWhen we dig a hole for someone else, we may as well dig two for we will surely fall in the first one we dug. I heard these words from my mama and other wise old folks. There was such wisdom in the saying I drew on it during my turn at the podium of an extended debate on Senate Bill 2, which stripped AEA (Alabama Education Association) and several other employee organizations of effective membership privileges. [...] Posted by Danny, on December 15th, 2010, at 12:02 amI was hoping I was wrong. I was hoping that this special session was not really about reducing the power of some and increasing the power of others. I was hoping that I was wrong about this special session being ostensibly called about ethics when it was in reality a pure power play. I was hoping against hope. The first indications came with who sponsored what bills. [...] Posted by Danny, on December 9th, 2010, at 12:02 amWe are going into a special session of the Alabama Legislature on December 8, 2010. This is a special session that really makes me wonder. But I am going anyway. The special session will cost the Alabama taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The general fund, which provides the revenue for most state government except education, is already in terrible shape. In fact, revenue is [...] Posted by Danny, on December 2nd, 2010, at 5:26 am“Hank, the Black Farmers appropriation passed the U. S. Senate. Isn’t that wonderful? I am celebrating!” Those words burst forth over the phone from Heather Gray of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund. It was indeed a moment worth celebrating. I celebrated as well. The appropriation had passed the U. S. House of Representatives many months ago. The U. S. Senate had tried to pass it five or six times to no avail. This was the last real opportunity. [...] |
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