"Each generation, coming out of obscurity, must define its mission and fulfill or betray it." Frantz Fanon - The Wretched of the Earth”
in conversation with Grace Lee Boggs and Immanuel Wallerstein from Mark Dworkin on Vimeo.
Our 21st Century Growing Pains By Larry Sparks, Guest Columnist Michigan Citizen, August 29- Sept. 4. 2010 In these times of troubles, most Americans are unaware of the potential in our everyday decisions. The challenges we face are the consequences of the courage or cowardice shown in the everyday choices made by our ancestors and elders. Our everyday decisions and choices are our gifts to our children and friends. We are now in a very puzzling and historic time of doubt and questioning of all our values. Millions of us are cultural creatives who have come to realize that what exists is based on choices that value things more than people. read more 
LIVING FOR CHANGE By Grace Lee Boggs Michigan Citizen, Aug. 22-28, 2010 I won't be marching with Jesse Jackson in the March called by the UAW and the NAACP to commemorate the August 28, 1963 March on Washington. That's not only because at 95 my marching days are over. As early as 1963, Malcolm X called the "I have a Dream" March a "Farce on Washington" because John Lewis had been forced to delete from his speech any references to Revolution and Power by the MOW's "Big 6 " organizers: A..Philip Randolph, Dr. King/SCLC, Roy Wilkins/ NAACP, James Farmer/CORE, Whitney Young/Urban League, John Lewis /SNCC,. Marchers were also instructed to carry only official signs and allowed to sing only one song 'We shall overcome,'" (see p. 127, Living for Change). read more James Boggs Reader By Frank Joyce Lifelong labor and political activist Frank Joyce is writing a book expanding on these ideas. This article is adapted from "We Are in the Middle of Transformational Change: It's Time the Debate Matches up with the Huge Challenges Ahead of Us," published at AltNet.org. Currently Michigan Coalition for Human Rights (MCHR).President, Frank can be heard every Sunday, 4:-5 pm ET on Dave Marsh's Live from the Land of Hopes and Dreams radio show on Sirius 146 and XM 167. Much of the conversation these days is about what the President (or somebody) ought to do about jobs. But isn't that the wrong conversation altogether? As it always has been and always will be, there is plenty of Work that needs doing -growing food, moving people and goods around, teaching young people, manufacturing various kinds of stuff, curing sick people and so on. But the 20th century "jobs" method of connecting those needs to individuals, families and communities has been seriously out of whack for quite some time. What was once mostly a W-2 economy is now a mashed up "system" of W-2, 1099, underground and prison-industrial "employment." That economic reality is reflected in our exorbitant rate of incarceration, massive school dropout, high crime rates and perpetually high unemployment. read more
The Next Development in Education By James Boggs University of Adult Education, I want to thank you for inviting me here to speak to you, especially since I have not come to extol you for the sacrifices which you are making in the pursuit of knowledge. Actually, I believe that the way most of you are pursuing knowledge is incorrect because you are pursuing what I call "received" knowledge. That is, you are trying to absorb information, facts, theories, etc., which have already been discovered or created by others, in the belief that if you can just absorb enough of this knowledge, you will qualify as "educated". This means that you think of education as a "thing" which is stored up somewhere. All you have to do is open the Pandora's Box, get a good look at its contents - and presto, you are educated. read more |
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THINKING FOR OURSELVES By Shea Howell Michigan Citizen, August 29- Sept. 4. 2010 The next few months are critical for the future of Detroit. Mayor Dave Bing has announced that he will begin a series of public hearings that will culminate in establishing a land use policy for the city. Carefully avoiding the terms "rightsizing" or "downsizing, " the Mayor said, "Right now it's all about ideas. That's why we want to engage the community." Mayor Bing is right when he says, "This plan really sets the stage for the next 20, 30, 40 years so I don't want to be rushed into a final decision without input from the community or the leadership around the table. There are a lot of people who would say you're moving too slow. That's not the approach we want to take. This has to be well thought out. We can put a plan together, the problem will be the implementation of the plan. Everybody needs to come to the table on this." While we welcome the planned series of discussions about the future of our city, we have no illusion that five meetings, spread across a city of 139 square miles and nearly a million people, come anything close to real input and discussion. We need to hold the Mayor to his words. It is a mistake to move too quickly on such important decisions. It is a really big mistake to move without genuine debate and decision-making within the community. read more
Coalition Against Police Brutaltiy |
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Coming
November 2010 
Boggs Center 3061 Field St. Detroit, Mi 48214 by appointment email boggscenter@boggscenter.org
Site created maintained by Larry Sparks - larry@boggscenter.org
August 28, 2010