Author Archive
“Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners”
SOMETHING I SAID By DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes There are times you have to question how seriously black folk take our own history. Two examples are the films currently arching eyebrows, turning heads and topping just about everyone”™s must-see list, “Judas and the Black Messiah,” and 2012”™s “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” (LionsgateDVD). When you consider what Fred Hampton, chair of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Illinois Chapter and iconic activist Angela Davis went through so the bourgeoisie could blithely change its tune from “We Will Overcome” to “I have overcome” it truly is saddening. The plain facts are that even in the 60”™s, while even middle class blacks rallied around Martin Luther King”™s social protest, freedom fighters like Hampton, Davis and Malcolm X weren”™t socially acceptable. They were too angry for assimilationists. Today, scores [...]
Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetary
By Sue Hunter Weir 186th in a Series Annie Erwin: She Loved Not Wisely Annie Erwin is one of the more intriguing stories in the cemetery although it”™s hard to judge how much of it is true. The source of much of the information about her was an unnamed man who claimed to have been told about Annie by her former lover. This unnamed man, in turn, shared that story with the press. His third-hand account was picked up by the Chicago Tribune on October 21, 1866, two weeks after Annie died. Pollinator alert! Spring is just around the corner. Watch for the cemetery”™sannual opening (weather permitting) around April 15th. Themarker in the forefront of the photo belongs to Magnus Norquist (1822-1901) and his wife Kiasa (1822-1910).PHOTO BY: TIM MCCALL According to Annie”™s lover she was born in England where her family had become members of the Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Annie appeared to be losing faith in her religion so her [...]
Letter to the Editor
How the Militant Right Are Destroying Our Nation and the Anarchist Left Are Destroying Our City My hope and prayer is that our nation is learning some lessons from forty years of unfettered Republicanism that ended up creating unfettered Capitalism. This year it culminated in what we witnessed in Texas, where from the time of the George W. Bush governorship to the present, the Republican Texas state lawmakers put their trust in the “hidden hand of the market” to provide their citizen”™s utilities, just one of the many human disasters caused by far-right Republican policies, leading to the unfettered Capitalism that will destroy our nation. For several years Donald Trump with the help of news networks like Fox has continued to perpetuate an alternative reality to his base that has strengthened and sustained a militant far-right constituency. The nation looked on in horror as this far-right, militant, terrorist [...]
