Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Monday, 17 February 2014

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Monday, 17 February 2014
democracynow.org
Stories:
Untold History: More Than a Quarter of U.S. Presidents Were Involved in Slavery, Human Trafficking
As the country marks Presidents’ Day, we turn to an aspect of U.S. history that is often missed: the complicity of American presidents with slavery. "More than one-in-four U.S. presidents were involved in human trafficking and slavery. These presidents bought, sold and bred enslaved people for profit. Of the 12 presidents who were enslavers, more than half kept people in bondage at the White House," writes historian Clarence Lusane in his most recent article, "Missing from Presidents’ Day: The People They Enslaved."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: As the country marks Presidents’ Day today, we turn to an aspect of U.S. history often missed: the complicity of American presidents with slavery. The first person of African descent to enter the White House was most likely a slave. The nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., once hosted markets where human beings were sold for profit. Slaves built some of the country’s most famous landmarks, including Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, Boston’s Faneuil Hall, James Madison’s Montpelier. Last week, President Obama mentioned the role of slaves in building one specific landmark: Thomas Jefferson’s plantation estate in Charlottesville, Virginia. Obama was touring the home of America’s third president with French leader François Hollande. This is what Obama had to say about Monticello.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This house also represents a complicated history of the United States. We just visited downstairs, where we know that slaves helped to build this magnificent structure, and the complex relations that Jefferson, the drafter of the Declaration of Independence, had to slavery. And it’s a reminder for both of us that we are going to continue this fight on behalf of the rights of all peoples, something that I know France has always been committed to and we are committed to, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama speaking last week during French President François Hollande’s visit to the U.S.
We’re joined now by Clarence Lusane, who has documented the racial history of Washington, D.C., and the presidency. His most recent article is "Missing from Presidents’ Day: The People They Enslaved." Clarence Lusane writes, quote, "more than one in four U.S. presidents were involved in human trafficking and slavery. These presidents bought, sold, and bred enslaved people for profit. Of the 12 presidents who were enslavers, more than half kept people in bondage at the White House," he writes. Clarence Lusane is author of The Black History of the White House, a member of the D.C. Commission on African American Affairs, also professor at American University in Washington, D.C.
Professor Lusane, welcome to Democracy Now! So, talk about this history of slavery and U.S. presidents.
CLARENCE LUSANE: Well, I’m glad that you pointed out that President Obama, when he went to Jefferson’s home, pointed out the slave history there. But it’s also important to note that the most iconic building in the U.S., the one that represents the country to the world, the White House, also was a place where slavery existed. Not only that, it was built by slaves. And none of that has been publicly acknowledged. There is over a million people who visit the White House every year, who go on tours, who come for meetings, and you can go through that building and never have a sense of that important history.
And that’s critical because I think Presidents’ Day should be a period of critical reflection, not some kind of blind celebration, but it should be one where we really try to get a better sense of the country’s history. And part of that history, part of what I think resonates even to this day, is that, significantly, before the Civil War, nearly every U.S. president was a slave owner, which meant that they were compromised on the issue of slavery, and that had repercussions that, you know, redounded through history. So it’s really critical, I think, that we have that acknowledgment, because we grow up, we go to school, we have history classes, and none of that history is told to us.
AMY GOODMAN: So, give us a black history of U.S. presidents, as you call it.
CLARENCE LUSANE: Well, in looking at the White House—and I use that as the prism to try to look at this longer history that basically led up to President Obama—one of the things that we find that’s missing in that history is the voices of people, particularly African Americans, who were enslaved during that long, long, long history. And that was critical because when you think about George Washington, Madison, Monroe, all of the early presidents, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, they wrote the Constitution, they wrote the Articles of Confederation, all of these documents, these founding documents that extol the principles of democracy, liberty, equality, they were living a contradiction. And that contradiction is that every single day of their life, every moment in their life, they were surrounded by people who were enslaved.
Now, fortunately, because of some of the historic records that have been kept, we now know who some of those people were. George Washington, for example, when he was president and his presidency was in Philadelphia, had at least nine individuals with him who were enslaved—Oney Maria Judge, for example, who was a young woman of about 22 who escaped from George Washington. She escaped—this was in 1796, when she found out that Martha Washington was planning to give her away as a wedding gift. And she made contact with the free black population in Philadelphia, was able to escape. Now, this is remarkable because we’re talking about a young woman who basically traveled nowhere by herself, who escapes from the most powerful person on the planet, pretty much, certainly most powerful person in the United States. Her story is important because she lived—she outlived Washington. She lived to be, I believe, in her eighties and lived a life where she learned to read, became active in her community. You also had Hercules, who was Washington’s cook, who also escaped from Washington.
So there are people who we were in and around the White House who had stories to tell that are part of that history that we literally were never taught about for all of the years that, you know, we took schooling and we took classes in history. And so, I thought it was important, and there are others who have written to re-enter into the historic narrative the stories of these individuals, because they really are critical if you really want to understand the politics of George Washington or the politics of Thomas Jefferson or any of the other presidents who held slaves.
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us about Paul Jennings.
CLARENCE LUSANE: Paul Jennings, again, is another fascinating character. He was enslaved to the Madisons, to James and Dolly Madison. He was, in fact, the first individual to actually write about working in the White House. He published a memoir—this was in the late 1860s—that talked about the time when he was in the White House. And he was there in 1814. He was there when the British literally were burning down the city, and was part of the contingent of folks who were attempting to get materials out of the White House and preserve them before the British came. So he really had a fascinating history.
He was supposed to be free when James Madison died, but Dolly Madison basically reneged on the deal. So he—it took him a few years to buy his freedom, which he eventually did. And then he actually came to help Dolly Madison. She fell on hard times. She wasn’t wealthy. She wasn’t a wealthy person, and she wasn’t part of the social elite of Washington. And so, when she fell on hard times and her family and friends abandoned her, Jennings would often bring her food and bring her money and basically would look after her. But what was also important about James Jennings is that he also was—
AMY GOODMAN: Paul Jennings.
CLARENCE LUSANE: Paul Jennings, I’m sorry, is that he was also central to the largest attempt at escaping from slavery that happened in Washington, D.C. This happened in 1848. For a number of reasons, the escape attempt failed, but Jennings was never brought in. He was never seen as being part of it. And it was only literally after his death that it was revealed that he had played a very critical role in that. So, my point is that you had these individuals who were enslaved to presidents, who really had fascinating kinds of stories and fascinating kinds of lives that we should know about, because they really are also a part of the history of the White House and the history of the presidency.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to play a clip from the trailer of the film Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg, released last year, about President Abraham Lincoln and the fight to end slavery in the United States. In this clip, you first hear Abraham Lincoln, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, followed by the voices of Thaddeus Stevens, the congressmember from Pennsylvania, and Mary Todd Lincoln, the first lady. Let’s go to that clip.
PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN: [played by Daniel Day-Lewis] We’re stepped out upon the world stage now, the fate of human dignity in our hands! Blood’s been spilt to afford us this moment! Now! Now! Now!
THADDEUS STEVENS: [played by Tommy Lee Jones] Abraham Lincoln has asked us to work with him to accomplish the death of slavery.
MARY TODD LINCOLN: [played by Sally Field] No one’s ever been loved so much by the people. Don’t waste that power.
AMY GOODMAN: That was an excerpt of Lincoln. Clarence Lusane, talk about Abraham Lincoln and slavery.
CLARENCE LUSANE: Lincoln was—the Lincoln administration was a turning point in terms of the history of the relationship between African Americans and the White House. It was during Lincoln’s tenure that the first meeting took place between a U.S. president and leaders of the black community. This happened in 1862, I believe. Now, this was critical because up until that point, although African Americans, particularly free African Americans in the North, had been organized and had been raising issues, policy issues, issues around slavery, they simply had no access to the White House or to policymakers. Lincoln, however, opened up some of that space.
And part of what I think moved Lincoln from being not just simply anti-slavery, but ultimately to recognizing that you had to eliminate slavery, that abolition was the only path forward, in part, came because of his discussions with black leaders, not only church leaders, but people like Frederick Douglass, but also—and this is in the film—discussions with Elizabeth Keckley. In the film, she’s the woman who’s often seen with Mary Lincoln. She’s played by Reuben, Gloria Reuben, in the film. And the film is a little bit disingenuous in that you could think that maybe she was a servant, but in fact she was an independent businesswoman who had become basically best friends with Mary Lincoln, but also she spent a great deal of time at the White House having discussions with Abraham Lincoln about race, about slavery, about the future of the country. And again, her story is important to be told because she, again, was part of a contingent of African Americans who thought to influence the presidency and to address issues that needed to be dealt with. And so, the movie Lincoln doesn’t quite take you there to show you that side of the people who influenced Lincoln, but it’s an important part of understanding what happened in the Civil War and how Lincoln actually got to the point where he said the only way out of this situation is that slavery has to end.
AMY GOODMAN: Then that moment, that meeting, August 14th, 1862, Abraham Lincoln does something unprecedented: He meets with a small delegation of black leaders, clergy.
CLARENCE LUSANE: Right. And at that point, Lincoln had already decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. There was some debate about which date to issue it on, but he was already moving in a position where he saw the country’s future as a future without slavery. And these leaders that he met with were people who mostly were tied to the black church community, but people who also had ties to abolitionists, to people who were active in the other kinds of issues around the country. So that really was kind of a turning point. And since that point, there has been a considerable amount of effort on the part of African Americans to negotiate and to meet with and to lobby not only in Congress, but the president themself.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the buildings, these iconic structures that kids, adults go to in Washington, D.C., to honor this country—the White House, the Capitol. Who built it?
CLARENCE LUSANE: This is really important, because I think there may be some sense, more generally, that Washington owned slaves and Jefferson owned slaves, but I think there’s a general ignorance about the role of people who were enslaved in actually building the nation’s capital. In 1790, after the country was founded, the Congress passed legislation to build a capital. Washington, D.C., did not exist. And so, there was a decision that land that was ceded from Maryland and from Virginia would become the nation’s capital, and it had to be built, and it would take 10 years. This is why Washington spent all of his presidency either in New York or in Pennsylvania. But to build Washington, D.C., you needed labor. And George Washington, who was more or less in charge of the project, initially wanted labor to come from Europe, but it was very, very difficult to get people to come all the way over on these really harsh trips to work in basically a jungle. So they basically relied on enslaved labor, which meant cutting down trees, moving rocks, digging holes—you know, all of the harsh, harsh labor that had to be done literally to clear the area. But it also included skilled labor, people who were carpenters and plasterers. We know for a fact that both at the White House and—the building that became the White House and the U.S. Capitol, there were at least five highly skilled carpenters who worked for years to build those two buildings.
And again, this needs to be acknowledged, because it reflects that ongoing contradiction, what President Obama talked about with President Hollande, of this conflict between the principles of equality and democracy, and the reality of slavery. Now, in the Capitol a few years ago, there were two plaques that were put up to honor or to acknowledge the people who were enslaved that built the Capitol. One is on the House side, and one is on the Senate side in the Rotunda. And in Philadelphia, at the pavilion where the Liberty Bell exists, the new Liberty Bell Pavilion was actually built over the old house where—or the land where George Washington lived when he was president. There is also a plaque there that acknowledges the people who were enslaved to Washington during the time of his presidency. What we do not have yet, and it actually may happen, is something in the White House that will have that kind of acknowledgment.
AMY GOODMAN: Final comment, Clarence Lusane, about what you think we should understand on this Presidents’ Day? And take it all the way—you write about Teddy Roosevelt.
CLARENCE LUSANE: Yeah, I think that the most important thing is to understand that there is a long and rich history of African Americans in the White House long before President Obama. And all of that history tells us a great deal, I think, about the current situation we face, where we continue to see racial disparities and racial discrimination pretty much across the board. The story you did earlier about the shootings in Florida, for example, I think, in part, reflect an unawareness of this history and the degree to which the country still has not acknowledged and reconciled this past. A year ago, I went with students to Rwanda, and we visited a great—a large number of memorials. And it became so clear to me that the degree to which the country acknowledges its past in an honest and straightforward way goes a long way towards healing and reconciliation. It doesn’t necessarily end up with all the justice that needs to be happening, but it certainly is a first step, that acknowledgment and recognition of your history becomes really important.
AMY GOODMAN: Thanks so much for being with us, author of The Black History of the White House . We’ll link to your piece, "Missing from Presidents’ Day: The People They Enslaved" at democracynow.org. Clarence Lusane is also a professor at American University. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Back in a minute.
~~~~~~~
The Killing of Jordan Davis: Michael Dunn Faces 60 Years After Split Verdict in 'Thug Music' Trial
A Florida jury has convicted Michael Dunn of three counts of attempted murder for opening fire on a car of unarmed black teenagers during an argument over loud rap music at a gas station. But the jury deadlocked on the most serious charge, the first-degree murder of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial on that count. Dunn, who is white, shot at the vehicle carrying Davis and his friends 10 times. He then fled the scene, went to a hotel with his girlfriend and ordered pizza. He never called the police. Citing Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, Dunn’s attorneys had claimed the shooting was justified because he had felt threatened by the teenagers. But prosecutors said the teenagers were unarmed and never left their vehicle. Legal analysts say Dunn could face at least 60 years in jail for the attempted murder convictions against the three other teens. The jury in the trial was 2/3 white and did not include any black males. The verdict was reached on Saturday, one day before what would have been Davis’ 19th birthday. We speak to Michael Skolnik, editor-in-chief of GlobalGrind.com, who attended the trial.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: A Florida jury has convicted Michael Dunn of three counts of attempted murder for opening fire on a car of unarmed black teenagers at a gas station during an argument over loud rap music. But the jury deadlocked on the most serious charge, first-degree murder of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial on that count.
Dunn, who’s white, shot the vehicle carrying Davis and his friends 10 times. He then fled the scene, went to a hotel with his girlfriend and ordered pizza. Citing Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, Dunn’s attorneys had claimed the shooting was justified because he had felt threatened by Davis, who he claimed was [armed]. But prosecutors said the teenagers were unarmed and never left their vehicle.
Legal analysts say Dunn could face at least 60 years in jail for the attempted-murder convictions against the three other teens. The trial drew comparisons to the George Zimmerman trial, when he was found not guilty in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. After the verdict was announced, Jordan Davis’s father, Ron, told reporters that children should never be collateral damage.
RON DAVIS: He was a good kid. He was—it wasn’t allowed to be said in the courtroom that he was a good kid, but we’ll say it: He was a good kid. There’s a lot of good kids out there, a lot of good nephews, a lot of good grandsons, granddaughters, nieces, and they should have a voice, that they shouldn’t live in fear and walk around the streets worrying about if someone has a problem with somebody else, that if they get shot it’s just collateral damage. There is no such thing to parents that their child suffered collateral damage. We, as all human beings, we love our children, we love our families, and we don’t accept a law that would allow collateral damage to our family members. We raise them not to fear each other. We raise them to be good citizens in America. And we expect the law to be behind us and protect us. And that’s what I wanted the law to do, is protect Jordan as we protected Jordan.
AMY GOODMAN: Ron Davis, the father of Jordan Davis. Sunday would have been Jordan’s 19th birthday.
For more, we’re joined by Michael Skolnik, who attended the Michael Dunn trial last week, editor-in-chief of GlobalGrind.com, also on the board of directors of the Trayvon Martin Foundation.
Michael Skolnik, welcome to Democracy Now!
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about the significance of this split verdict. It was a hung jury on—or mistrial, the mistrial on the most serious charge, but could face up to 60 years in prison for the attempted-murder charges.
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: Yeah, this was a very long deliberation, Amy. We went 31 hours-plus in deliberation of this jury. It was obvious in the second day the jury was sort of confused on how they could charge Michael Dunn on self-defense on one charge, not the other charges. At the end of the day, after three-and-a-half days of deliberation, this jury came back with a mistrial of murder one of Jordan Davis, but also found him guilty of the attempted murders on the three other boys. Michael Dunn looks at a minimum of 60 years in prison, a maximum of life in prison. However, there still could be another trial of Jordan Davis’s charge, and it looks like there will be.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Angela Corey said she will rebring the case. Now, Angela Corey, of course, was the prosecutor, the chief prosecutor, they shouldn’t argue it in court, in the case of George Zimmerman.
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: Yes, and she also was the chief prosecutor who argued against Marissa Alexander. So, Angela Corey is certainly the complicated figure in all of this, but she did—
AMY GOODMAN: And Marissa Alexander, just to remind our audience?
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: Is the young lady who shot a gun into the air against her abusive husband and got a 20-year sentence under the Stand Your Ground law. She claimed Stand Your Ground, and they found her guilty of a 20-year sentence. And now she will be retried. But I do think that this is a complicated case, because we will see another trial in probably three to six weeks again, have to relive what we just lived through the past four weeks of Jordan Davis’s trial, and with the same witnesses on the stand.
AMY GOODMAN: In closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney John Guy urged jurors to convict on all of the charges.
JOHN GUY: If Jordan Davis had a gun, that defendant would have never left the scene. If Jordan Davis had a gun, he would have called the police. If he was truly acting in self-defense, he wouldn’t have been running from everybody, he would not have lied to the police, he wouldn’t have changed his story.
AMY GOODMAN: During his testimony last week, Michael Dunn admitted he shot Jordan Davis. He claimed he feared for his life.
MICHAEL DUNN: When this "I should kill that [bleep]" comes through, now I’m paying attention to what they’re saying.
ATTORNEY: OK, that kind of got you to perk up?
MICHAEL DUNN: Yes. And in an even more elevated voice, I hear, "I should [bleep] kill that [bleep]!" And now he’s screaming. But he said he was going to f’ing kill me, but after he opened the door, then he looked at me and said, "You’re dead, [bleep]!" I became even more fearful at that point. OK, say over here is my glovebox. I’m looking out the window, and I said, "You’re not gonna kill me, you son of a [bleep]!" And I shot.
ATTORNEY: OK. And do you even recall how many times you shot?
MICHAEL DUNN: I do not.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Michael Dunn. And again, explain the sequence that is not disputed about what happened after he shot into the car.
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: Yeah, there is no dispute that Michael Dunn shot Jordan Davis. Tommy Storns, who was Jordan Davis’s friend who was driving the car, is a hero. He drove the car backwards and then tried to drive away as Michael Dunn was shooting. Michael Dunn gets out of the vehicle, onto the ground in a police stance, shoots at the car again as the car is driving away. The young men get away. Michael Dunn’s girlfriend comes out of the convenience store, the gas station convenience store.
AMY GOODMAN: She had been buying stuff.
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: She had been buying a bottle of wine and a bag of chips. They get in the car. They drive to a hotel three miles away. They spend a night at the hotel, order pizza, watch a movie, drink rum and coke, walk their dog, leave the gun in the car. He claims he was so afraid these guys were going to come find him. He leaves his gun in the car. The next morning, as they see the news reports that Jordan Davis was killed, in fact, they get in the car, they drive two-and-a-half hours home to Satellite Beach. He claims—Michael Dunn claims that he called his law enforcement neighbor friend, which he didn’t; in the court they proved the neighbor friend called him, asking him if he wanted to hang out that night. Michael Dunn said, "No, my girlfriend’s not feeling good." And the police—because of the young homeless man in the gas station who wrote down his license plate number, the police knew where Michael Dunn lived, went to his house and brought him out of the house in handcuffs.
AMY GOODMAN: As with the George Zimmerman trial, prosecutors largely ignored the issue of race during the proceedings. Damning letters written by Michael Dunn during his pretrial imprisonment were never introduced to the jury. Dunn wrote family members that he thinks the justice system is biased in favor of African Americans. He wrote, quote, "This jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs. This may sound a bit radical, but if more people would arm themselves and kill these [bleeping] idiots when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior." But that was never brought up in court, Michael Skolnik.
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: No, it wasn’t brought up in court. I think that there is a great sensitivity to bring up race in both the Zimmerman case and in this case. We have to ask a lot of questions why. Certainly as New Yorkers, we want to talk about these issues, but as I was in Jacksonville—this is the South—they are not ready to talk about these issues. I think the state prosecutor was a little concerned to bring these issues up. However, I would say this, Amy: These statements and Michael Dunn’s actions showed the judge that he was a threat to society, and that’s why he’s been in jail ever since he killed Jordan Davis. It is a good thing that he will serve at least 60 years in prison, because from these statements that he’s made to his daughter and his fiancée and his grandmother, it is clear that he’s a threat.
AMY GOODMAN: The attorney for Jordan Davis’s family released a video interview of Charles Hendrix, who was Michael Dunn’s former next-door neighbor. Hendrix said Dunn was a man with a history of violent behavior, insurance fraud, cocaine use. The neighbor claimed Dunn had once bragged about putting a hit out on someone and that his first wife said he had held a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. This is an excerpt of Dunn’s former neighbor’s interview.
CHARLES HENDRIX: An attitude about him like he was smarter than everybody else. And I found that not only annoying, but quite amusing, because I didn’t find him as near as intelligent as he thought he was. He knew about computers, but he didn’t appear to know a lot about interpersonal relationships and how to get along with people. That was just my perception. He had an air where he was light and friendly, and he laughed, but if you disagreed with him, he would get boisterous and try to be overbearing and try to intimidate people with his size and his voice. He appeared to me to be very selfish, and that there wasn’t much that he wouldn’t do to get what he wanted or get his way.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Charles Hendrix, Michael Dunn’s former next-door neighbor, more of the interview.
CHARLES HENDRIX: I think that there’s entirely too many people in this country that are getting killed needlessly because people that should never, ever get their hands on guns are able to get them. And Michael Dunn is one of those people. I believe that if he had been subjected to some sort of psychological evaluation or if they had really done a background investigation on him to find out his propensity to be violent and a bully, that possibly—possibly, not 100 percent, but possibly—he would have never gotten his hands on a weapon.
There are several times where he made comments that "I can’t wait for somebody to try something with me when I have my gun." I’m the type of person, that’s the last thing I’d want to be contemplating. You know, I don’t want to have a confrontation with somebody while I have a gun. Anybody that does, they’re predisposed, in my opinion, to kill somebody. If you’re looking for a confrontation just because you have a gun—there’s no question in my mind that people that are looking for problems when they have a gun someday are going to find it. And when I heard about this incident with Michael Dunn, I said, "There you go. I knew it. Sooner or later he’s going to kill somebody." I had said that to my wife. I had said it to my daughter. "Sooner or later, this guy is going to kill somebody. He thinks that a gun makes him safe and makes him all-powerful."
AMY GOODMAN: That was Charles Hendrix, Michael Dunn’s former next-door neighbor, in a video released by Jordan Davis’s family. Michael Skolnik, so they never saw this video, and they never saw the letters that Dunn wrote from jail.
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: No, they didn’t. They never saw this video. Part of the reason, he was on the witness list, Mr. Hendrix was. He was in an area of the country where they got hit by a huge snowstorm last week, so it was an issue of travel, getting him to Florida, if they were going to call him. But also, much of what he said is hearsay and not really admissible in court, so I’m not sure how much of that testimony we just heard would be admissible in court. It’s part of the reason why they didn’t play that interview or bring him onto the witness list—on the witness stand.
AMY GOODMAN: And to explain the scene at the gas station, when there was the car of Michael Dunn, his girlfriend goes into the store to buy stuff, into the gas station convenience store, and the teenagers are in the next car. They’re in a car playing music.
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: They’re in a car a foot and a half away from Michael Dunn’s car. So the idea that Jordan Davis got out of his vehicle and approached Michael Dunn with a gun seems absurd and almost seems physically unable to actually do that, because the cars were so close to each other. Michael Dunn shot basically point-blank into Jordan [Davis’s] car.
AMY GOODMAN: So, first Dunn gets—asks them to turn down the music. They do. Then they turn the music up, and then he gets—
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: And then they get into a verbal conversation. Michael Dunn says to him—
AMY GOODMAN: Where the kids don’t get out of their car.
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: The kids do not get out of their vehicle, and Michael Dunn says to them, "You don’t talk to me like that," and then shoots Jordan Davis three times into his car. The kids drive away. He keeps shooting. One thing I think is important, Amy, about the Mr. Hendrix interview, the significance of him leaving the scene, not going into the store and saying, "Oh, my goodness, a kid with a gun in the SUV was just going to shoot at me. They drove away. Someone, call the cops. Someone, go out and get a license plate number." If he didn’t leave the scene, would he have been drug-tested? Would he have taken an alcohol test? He had four drinks at the wedding, which he admitted to, that he had just come from. Mr. Hendrix says he had used cocaine in the past. Was he high? Was he drunk? Did he go back to the hotel to sober up? If the jury knew that information, would we have a different verdict now?
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to an article from Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic called "On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn." In it, Coates writes, quote, "Jordan Davis had a mother and a father. It did not save him. Trayvon Martin had a mother and a father. They could not save him. My son has a father and mother. We cannot protect him from our country, which is our aegis and our assailant. We cannot protect our children because racism in America is not merely a belief system but a heritage, and the inability of black parents to protect their children is an ancient tradition. ... I insist that the irrelevance of black life has been drilled into this country since its infancy." Your response?
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: Sadly, I think it’s true. I would say this: I spent a lot of time with Lucy and Ron over the past, you know, four or five days. And as we saw in the opening clip of Lucy talking about praying for Michael Dunn.
AMY GOODMAN: Lucy, Jordan’s mother.
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: Lucy is Jordan’s mother—talking about praying for Michael Dunn, we prayed for Michael Dunn in the family room. We prayed for Jordan. We prayed for the other three families, the young men who were shot. I would say this: As certainly we are upset over this verdict, but there were people in that jury room who were fighting for Jordan Davis. There were jury members who were fighting for Jordan Davis. The three young men who got shot at, who were—Michael Dunn tried to kill them, as well—are lucky to be alive, and they also have justice for the families.
AMY GOODMAN: And how do you know that Jordan Davis—that Michael Dunn will be sentenced to at least 60 years in prison?
MICHAEL SKOLNIK: Well, under the law, attempted-murder charge is a mandatory minimum of 20 years. He got three of them convicted. You have to serve them consecutively, so it’s 20, 20 and 20, which is 60 years, and then it could go to life. There’s one more charge he got convicted of, which is shooting bullets into a moving vehicle. That’s a 15-your charge. There’s no minimum on that, but it looks like probably at least three. So he’s looking at at least 63 years in prison. He’s 47 years old. He’ll die in prison.
AMY GOODMAN: Michael Skolnik, head of GlobalGrind.com, thanks for being with us. He was at the trial, editor-in-chief of Global Grind, also on the board of directors of the Trayvon Martin Foundation. Let’s end with Jordan Davis’s mother, Lucy McBath, who spoke Saturday after the verdict.
LUCY McBATH: It’s sad for Mr. Dunn that he will live the rest of his life in that sense of torment, and I will pray for him, and I’ve asked my family to pray for him. But we are so grateful for the charges that have been brought against him. We are so grateful for the truth.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back, on this Presidents’ Day, who’s missing? We’ll look at the black history of the White House. Stay with us.
~~~~~~~
Former FCC Commissioner Warns About Comcast-Time Warner Merger, "Mindless" Media Consolidation
Comcast has announced plans to buy Time Warner Cable at a cost of more than $45 billion in stock. The takeover would allow Comcast to provide cable service to a third of American households and give it a virtual monopoly in 19 of the 20 largest media markets. While Comcast has claimed the deal will be "pro-consumer," the group Free Press warns the deal would be a "disaster" for consumers. Analysts predict Comcast will launch a lobbying blitz similar to when it won approval to take over NBCUniversal in 2011. Comcast has already hired FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, who signed off on its NBC deal. We speak to another former FCC commissioner, Michael Copps. He now leads the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We end today’s show with the news that the nation’s two largest cable providers plan to merge. Comcast has announced plans to buy Time Warner Cable at a cost of more than $45 billion in stock. The takeover would allow Comcast to provide cable service to a third of American households and give it a virtual monopoly in 19 of the 20 largest media markets.
Consumer groups say they’ll oppose the deal. Free Press said, quote, "In an already uncompetitive market with high prices that keep going up and up, a merger of the two biggest cable companies should be unthinkable. This deal would be a disaster for consumers and must be stopped," Free Press said. But Comcast CEO Brian Roberts appeared on CNBC and praised the deal as "pro-competitive" and "pro-consumer."
BRIAN ROBERTS: We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. It’s a really special transaction for both Time Warner Cable and for Comcast—shareholders, our employees, and mostly our customers. The deal is pro-competitive. It’s pro-consumer. We’re going to be able to bring better products, faster Internet, more channels, on-demand, TV everywhere, and a national local platform that’s really special. So, we’re optimistic we can get this approved.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.
For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Michael Copps, member of the Federal Communications Commission from 2001 to 2011, now leads the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative at Common Cause.
Michael Copps, welcome back to Democracy Now! Talk about the significance of this—well, still it’s a possible merger; it’s not a done deal.
MICHAEL COPPS: Good morning, Amy. It’s great to be with you again.
This is just such a far-reaching deal, it should be dead on arrival when it gets to the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission for approval. This is the whole shooting match. It’s broadband. It’s broadcast. It’s content. It’s distribution. It’s the medium and the message. It’s telecom, and it’s media, too. And it just would confer a degree of control over our news and information infrastructure that no company should be allowed to have. And all of this is happening in a market where consumer prices are going up and up and up, and competition is going down, down, down.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, Comcast just bought NBCUniversal. Explain how this works.
MICHAEL COPPS: Well, it works because of a combination of private-sector consolidation that we’ve seen for 15 or 20 years now with this long cycle of approvals by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice blessing all of—all of these deals. So, you’re right. Comcast just got through absorbing NBCUniversal last year, and now it’s got enough money to go out and buy the second-largest cable company in the United States of America. You know, they might think it’s good, and it is good for business, but what this amounts to really is the cable-ization of the Internet. And if we who are reposing so much confidence in the Internet to create opportunity in this country, to open the doors of opportunity to everybody, are going to allow the Internet to be cable-ized and to be controlled by a few gatekeepers, who not only do the distribution, but control the content and can block websites, we are just doing irreparable damage to the opportunity-creating potential of broadband and the Internet.
AMY GOODMAN: Analysts predict Comcast will launch a lobbying blitz similar to one when it won approval of the takeover of NBCUniversal in 2011. It’s already hired FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, who signed off on its NBC deal.
MICHAEL COPPS: Right, right.
AMY GOODMAN: Your colleague. Meanwhile, the news website Republic Report has revealed at least two of the officials who oversee antitrust enforcement have close ties to Comcast. The head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, William Baer, was a lawyer representing NBC in its push for the merger with Comcast. And Maureen Ohlhausen, one of four commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission, provided legal counsel for Comcast as an attorney just before joining the commission. Michael Copps?
MICHAEL COPPS: You don’t need an analyst, and you don’t need a prediction to that, that lobbying team. Wheelbarrows full of money, legions of lobbyists are at work on this. Our society right now is controlled more by money, I think, than in any era since the notorious Gilded Age back at the end of the 19th century. What we all need to realize in this country is if there’s—there’s never going to be democracy now until we have media democracy now, and we’re not going to get media democracy now until we put the brakes on this mindless consolidation we’ve been going through for the last 15 or 20 years, and put the Federal Communications Commission back in the business of protecting the public interest.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, I mean, this is different from other mergers, because these are media organizations, so, yes, they’re hiring all the very powerful lobbyists, but they’ve got networks. I mean, watching MSNBC—
MICHAEL COPPS: Well, exactly.
AMY GOODMAN: —the day this was announced, they were hailing this from top to bottom. Of course, they’re all going to be employed by him.
MICHAEL COPPS: That’s right. This is content and distribution. This is the John D. Rockefeller recipe for monopoly control. You’ve got the whole thing, when you’re controlling the programs, designing the programs and distributing them, or deciding whether they’re not going to be distributed. When you have the power to block a little website or to block Democracy Now!, you’re in control of the civic dialogue of this country. And we have already gone to dangerous places with the civic dialogue in our country, because we don’t have the news and information that we used to have, we don’t have the journalism we used to have. And a lot of that is because of this consolidation and because of the FCC being absent without leave from its public-interest oversight capacities. This will be a good test to see if that new FCC can really begin to represent the common good.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democratic Senator Al Franken. He was with CNN’s Jake Tapper on a very cold last Thursday in Washington. Inexplicably, they were standing outside. Comcast has already—Franken said Comcast has already failed to comply with conditions it agreed to in its purchase of NBCUniversal.
SEN. AL FRANKEN: CNN is a cable network news.
JAKE TAPPER: Yes, cable, cable network.
SEN. AL FRANKEN: It’s what it is.
JAKE TAPPER: Yeah.
SEN. AL FRANKEN: OK. There’s a thing called neighborhooding. You know what that is, right? That—well, it means that CNN and MSNBC and Fox News—
JAKE TAPPER: Put them all near each other.
SEN. AL FRANKEN: All near each other. Well, they were supposed to put Bloomberg in the same neighborhood, but because Bloomberg competes with CNBC, which is a financial news network, Comcast didn’t comply with that. And they finally had to be ordered to do that. But they fought it, tooth and nail.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Democratic Senator Al Franken. Michael Copps, your response? And since we only have this last 45 seconds, also talk about the current FCC law to require sponsorship disclosure of political ads.
MICHAEL COPPS: Well, this is really important. You know, Congress is not going to pass any act helping us reform the role of big money in politics. But there exists right now at the Federal Communications Commission, since the 1920s, sponsorship identification laws which require not just commercial, but political sponsors to divulge who’s really paying for these ads. So when you see an ad saying, "Brought to you by Citizens for Purple Mountain Majesties and Amber Waves of Grain," you don’t have a clue who that is. It might be a chemical company dumping sludge into the Great Lakes. Section 317 should be employed to demand the names of the people who are really behind that ad. The FCC can do that itself. It can update these rules that have been on the books for ages. And we can begin to have some political money reform in this country. We can shine some sunshine on who’s sponsoring these ads.
AMY GOODMAN: Michael Copps, we want to thank you for being with us, former member of the Federal Communications Commission for more than a year. He was the seventh-longest-serving FCC commissioner in the agency’s history.
~~~~~~~
Headlines:
Jury Deadlocks on Murder Charge in Michael Dunn Trial
A Florida jury has convicted Michael Dunn of three counts of attempted murder for opening fire on a car of unarmed black teenagers during an argument over loud music at a gas station in Jacksonville. But the jury deadlocked on the charge of first-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, causing the judge to declare a mistrial on that count. Davis’ mother, Lucy McBath, reacted to the verdict.
Lucy McBath: "It’s sad for Mr. Dunn that he will live the rest of his life in that sense of torment, and I will pray for him, and I’ve asked my family to pray for him. But we are so grateful for the charges that have been brought against him. We are so grateful for the truth."
After shooting Davis, Dunn, who is white, fled the scene, went to a hotel with his fiancée and ordered pizza. He never called the police. Dunn claimed he saw Davis brandish a shotgun, but police never found a gun, and Dunn’s fiancée testified Dunn never mentioned a shotgun before his arrest. The jury in the trial was two-thirds white and did not include any black men. We’ll have more on the case after headlines.
~~~~~~~
Syria Talks End with Little Progress
The second round of peace talks aimed at resolving the Syrian conflict has ended in deadlock in Geneva. U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi apologized to the Syrian people.
Lakhdar Brahimi: "I’m very, very sorry, and I apologize to the Syrian people that their hopes, which were very, very high, that something will happen here — I think that the little that has been achieved in Homs gave them even more hope that maybe this is the beginning of the coming out of this horrible crisis they are in. I apologize to them that, on these two rounds, we haven’t helped them very much."
~~~~~~~
Bahraini Activist Zainab Alkhawaja Released; Protests Mark 3rd Anniversary of Uprising
In Bahrain, human rights activist Zainab Alkhawaja has been released after nearly a year behind bars. Her release came on the heels of rallies marking the third anniversary of the pro-democracy protests that began on February 14, 2011. Protests against the Sunni regime have been crushed by martial law and a U.S.-backed invasion of Saudi Arabian forces. Scores of people were arrested ahead of protests on Friday, when police fired bird shot and tear gas at demonstrators. Tens of thousands of people defied the crackdown to march on Saturday. Zainab Alkhawaja is the daughter of activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, who remains in prison serving a life sentence. After her release, Zainab Alkhawaja told journalists, including the Associated Press, that global attention should focus, not on her, but on Bahrain’s estimated 3,000 other political prisoners. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and is a close ally of the United States.
Ethiopian Pilot Diverts Plane to Geneva in Bid to Seek Asylum
Facebook_20  Twitter_20    Reddit_20  Email_20  Addthis_20
Police in Switzerland say the co-pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Rome took control of the plane and landed it in Geneva earlier today in a bid to seek asylum. The unarmed co-pilot reportedly locked himself in the cockpit when the pilot went to use the bathroom. He could face charges of hostage taking that carry up to 20 years in prison.
~~~~~~~
Trapped South African Miners Refuse to Be Rescued Due to Fear of Arrest
In South Africa, a dozen miners were rescued and then arrested Sunday after they became trapped while working illegally in an abandoned gold mine. A number of other miners have refused to be rescued out of fear they will also be arrested. There were reports more than 200 miners may still be inside.
~~~~~~~
Report: NSA Played Role in Spying on U.S. Law Firm amid Trade Dispute with Indonesia
A new report based on leaks by Edward Snowden reveals the National Security Agency played a role in the monitoring of a U.S. law firm that represented the Indonesian government during trade disputes with the United States. According to The New York Times, the NSA’s Australian counterpart told the NSA it was spying on trade talks between the United States and Indonesia, including potentially privileged communications between Indonesian officials and the U.S. law firm, Mayer Brown. The document notes the Australian agency "has been able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested U.S. customers." The report by James Risen and Laura Poitras bolsters claims by Snowden and others that the NSA and its allies conduct spying for economic gain.
~~~~~~~
Kerry Compares Climate Change Deniers to "Flat Earth Society"
Secretary of State John Kerry is in Indonesia, where he has sought to downplay the reports of spying on Indonesian officials. On Sunday in Jakarta, Kerry urged Indonesia to take action against climate change, calling it "perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction."
John Kerry: "Now, President Obama and I believe very deeply that we do not have time for a meeting anywhere of the Flat Earth Society."
Indonesia is the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States. Kerry’s remarks followed a spate of extreme weather that scientists say is fueled by climate change. A snowstorm blanketed parts of the northeastern United States with more than a foot of snow on Saturday, following an earlier winter storm that killed at least 25 people.
~~~~~~~
Anti-Drone Activist Says He Was Tortured During Captivity in Pakistan
A Pakistani anti-drone activist and journalist who was abducted from his home earlier this month says he was tortured while being kept blindfolded in a basement cell. Karim Khan went missing just before he was due to travel to Europe to speak out about U.S. drone strikes, one of which killed his brother and son in 2009. He was taken captive by up to 20 men, some in police uniform. He was released on Friday. Khan told Al Jazeera his captors hung him upside down, hit his feet with a leather strap and beat him. But he vowed to continue speaking out against U.S. drone strikes.
Karim Khan: "My mission, you know, I will, inshallah, continue it, and I will not leave it, and if anybody do anything, I will never leave this, my mission."
Watch our reports about Karim Khan, including clips of him from the film, "Wounds of Waziristan."
~~~~~~~
Report: U.S. Seeking New Drone Bases in Central Asia
A new report says the Obama administration is making plans to launch drone strikes from bases in Central Asia in case the United States is forced to withdraw from Afghanistan this year. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has so far refused to sign a long-term deal to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Unnammed U.S. officials told the Los Angeles Times the CIA’s ability to launch drone strikes in Pakistan would be greatly hindered by the loss of drone bases in Afghanistan. The plan to shift to bases further north could involve the use of a new jet-powered drone called the "Avenger," which is faster than the current Predator and Reaper drones.
~~~~~~~
Ugandan President to Sign Anti-Gay Bill; Anti-Gay Mob Attacks 14 in Nigeria
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has indicated he will sign a bill punishing repeated homosexual acts with terms of up to life in prison. U.S. evangelicals have helped spur anti-LGBT fervor in Uganda, with some even reportedly helping to draft the new law. President Obama has warned Museveni that signing the law could "complicate" relations with the United States. A similar law recently passed in Nigeria, where an anti-gay mob attacked 14 men on Saturday in the capital Abuja.
~~~~~~~
Michael Sam Supporters Form Human Barrier to Block Anti-Gay Protest
In the United States, students at the University of Missouri formed a human barrier to silently block a protest by the right-wing extremist Westboro Baptist Church against football player Michael Sam, who recently announced he is gay. Wearing "Stand with Sam" pins, hundreds of Sam’s supporters lined up along the sidewalk near the campus football arena. University of Missouri sophomore and protest organizer Kelaney Lakers spoke to local news station KRCG.
Kelaney Lakers: "We’re both Christians. And the thing is, is that God is love. God is love. And what they’re doing is hateful, but just the fact that they are being hateful and that that is a sin, we’re also supposed to show love to them."
Sam is poised to become the first openly gay player in the NFL.
~~~~~~~
Actress Ellen Page Comes Out as Gay, Gets Standing Ovation at Human Rights Campaign Conference
The actress Ellen Page, known for her roles in the films "Juno," "Inception" and "The East," has become the latest celebrity to come out as gay. Page received a standing ovation when she made the announcement during a speech at a Human Rights Campaign conference in Las Vegas on Friday.
Ellen Page: "Loving other people starts with loving ourselves and accepting ourselves. And I know many of you have struggled with this, and I draw upon your strength and your support in ways that you will never know. And I am here today because I am gay."
~~~~~~
Volkswagen Workers Reject Union in Blow to U.S. Labor
In a blow to organized labor in the United States, Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have voted against forming a union. The United Auto Workers had sought to represent plant workers in what would have been its first presence at a foreign-owned U.S. factory. But the union faced intense opposition from Republican lawmakers, including threats suggesting the plant might miss out on future subsidies or on a new SUV line if the union succeeded. Outside groups also played a role; the D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform funded more than a dozen local billboards urging an anti-union vote.
~~~~~~~
Greenwald, Poitras Among Winners of 2013 George Polk Award
Four journalists who revealed the National Security Agency’s vast web of spying have been awarded the 2013 George Polk Awards in Journalism. Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Ewen MacAskill of The Guardian and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post were among the winners announced on Sunday. Other winners include Matthieu Aikins, for uncovering "convincing evidence" that a U.S. Army Special Forces Unit killed 10 Afghan civilians in Wardak Province. Aikins spoke about his report for Rolling Stone, called "The A-Team Killings," on Democracy Now! in November.
Matthieu Aikins: "But the question really is: Who else knew about these incidents beforehand? How is it possible that at least one level in the chain of command above this unit could not have known that there were war crimes? There was serious evidence of war crimes in Wardak province. And if they weren’t involved in a cover-up, then they must have at least been willfully blind."
Search our website to watch all of our recent interviews with Aikins, Greenwald and Poitras.
~~~~~~~
Lawyer for Edward Snowden Detained at Heathrow Airport
Even as the journalists who broke the stories based on Edward Snowden’s leaks were awarded one of journalism’s highest honors, a lawyer who represents Snowden was detained while going through customs at London’s Heathrow Airport. Jesselyn Radack told Firedoglake she was subjected to "very hostile questioning" about Snowden and her trips to Russia. Radack was also told she was on an "inhibited persons list," a designation reportedly used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to require further vetting of certain passengers. Last August Glenn Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, was detained for nearly nine hours at Heathrow under a British anti-terrorism law. After the George Polk awards were announced, Greenwald tweeted, "In the U.K. government, this is known as the George Polk Award for Excellence in Terrorism."
~~~~~~~
Thursday, February 2014
People of Color Are Losing Their Right to Vote by Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan
“I found myself standing in front of railroad tracks in South Florida. I was waiting on the train to come so I could jump in front of it and end my life.” So recounted Desmond Meade, describing his life nine years ago. He was homeless, unemployed, recently released from prison and addicted to drugs and alcohol. The train never came. He crossed the tracks and checked himself into a substance-abuse program. He went on to college, and now is just months away from receiving his law degree.
Meade, however, will not be able to practice law in Florida. As a former felon, he cannot join the bar. That is one of his rights that has been stripped, permanently, by Florida’s draconian laws. In a democracy, if one wants to change a law, you vote for lawmakers who will represent your views. Yet, as an ex-felon in Florida, Meade also has lost the right to vote for the rest of his life.
It’s called “felony disenfranchisement,” and is permanent in 11 states: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming. It’s enforced in differing degrees, like a patchwork, across the U.S. In 13 states and the District of Columbia, you get your rights back upon release from prison. In others, you have to get through your probation or parole. In Maine and Vermont, prisoners retain the right to vote, even while incarcerated.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the issue this week at a legal symposium at Georgetown University:
“Across this country today, an estimated 5.8 million Americans—5.8 million of our fellow citizens—are prohibited from voting because of current or previous felony convictions. That’s more than the individual populations of 31 U.S. states.” Close to 6 million Americans, denied the basic right to vote. Because of the racial disparities in our penal system, African-American and Latino men are vastly disproportionately denied the right to vote. Holder continued, “The current scope of these policies is not only too significant to ignore—it is also too unjust to tolerate.”
The Georgetown event was co-sponsored by The Leadership Conference, a coalition of civil-rights, legal and human-rights groups. Last September, the group released a report titled “Democracy Imprisoned.” In it, the group writes, “Florida’s disenfranchisement rate remains the highest and most racially disparate in the United States.” It is no coincidence that this key swing state is home to more than 1 million of the nation’s nearly 6 million disenfranchised.
Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist eased the laws, making the application for the reinstatement of rights automatic. But in 2011, his successor, Republican Gov. Rick Scott, imposed a waiting period of at least five years for anyone to apply to the clemency board. Meade told us on the “Democracy Now!” news hour: “Even after applying, the processing time for the application takes upwards of six years. So, in reality, an individual will have to wait anywhere between 11 to 13 years just to see if they have a chance, a shot, at getting their rights restored.” Crist has switched parties to run for governor as a Democrat against Scott.
Law professor Michelle Alexander opens her groundbreaking book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” with the story of Jarvious Cotton: “Cotton’s great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Ku Klux Klan for attempting to vote. ... His father was barred from voting by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Jarvious Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole.”
At a national level, bills are being proposed that would guarantee voting rights for ex-felons, with both Democrat and Republican support. After Holder, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky spoke at Georgetown, advocating for full voting rights. But it is still an issue over which states exert enormous control.
Desmond Meade is not sitting around waiting for his rights to be handed back to him. He is organizing. He currently serves as the president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, with close to 70 groups pushing for reforms of the state’s disenfranchisement laws:
“It’s about humanity. It’s an all-American issue. It’s not about Democrat or Republican. It’s about the common decency of letting an individual or helping an individual to reintegrate back into their community so they can become productive citizens and enjoy life.”
We can all be thankful that the train he was waiting for that fateful day never came.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,200 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “The Silenced Majority,” a New York Times best-seller.
© 2014 Amy Goodman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
~~~~~~~