Raise Your Voice: Babies of the World Unite!
By PETER MOLENAAR
Smith Foundry,
November 10, 2023:
Joe Vital of the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute had alerted me to a 5:00 pm rally at the front entrance to my place of longtime employment. Yes, I too was appalled that federal inspectors had seemingly been compelled to intervene after years of disrespect leveled at our community by the state agency (MPCA). I would enter the scene with mixed emotions and some trepidation.
Note:
The splendid rally was, in no small measure, the handiwork of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. FRSO has been at odds with the CPUSA (Community Party of the USA)for many years. However, they mostly greeted me with warm affection. So, perhaps there is hope.
As it happened, I asserted myself and the gatekeeper to the speaker’s list gave me a pass. My co-workers were to be commended for having sacrificed their health and longevity for the sake of their families. On the other hand, nobody has the right to diminish the development of children born to this community.
I closed by confessing that, years ago, I had made the molds for the giant drill bits, which are now again being deployed in Minnesota’s boundary waters to determine the range of copper/nickel deposits there.… Read the rest “Raise Your Voice: Babies of the World Unite!”
Movie Corner: Rustin
4.5 Stars
Higher Ground Productions 2023
Drama/Biography/History
By HOWARD MCQUITTER II
Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo) is a name relatively unknown in the fabric of American history, especially in regard to the Black history. Far too long, great contributions to American society – and to the world – by people of color, women and gay people have been put on (or beyond) the margins. I remember the name Bayard Rustin as an adolescent African American boy growing up in the times of the civil rights movement, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, the Vietnam War, Gilligan’s Island, great R&B artists, and eight- track tapes. There is so much to be said for the man, Rustin, a true hero, warrior and orator. And Mr. Colman Domingo plays the role of Rustin beautifully, not to mention his likeness to the man appears on screen as if he’s still alive. Back in 1940, Rustin tried to organize a March on Washington, collaborating with A. Philip Randolph, labor and civil rights activist, to protest segregation in the Armed Forces and government jobs.
I fast forward to the early 1960s, because that’s where the film starts (with a few flashbacks of white police officers beating Rustin on a bus for not giving up his seat to a white person, or arresting him in the midst of an illegal sex encounter with another man).… Read the rest “Movie Corner: Rustin”
