OUR TIME PRESS | December 27, 2018-January 2, 2019

| From the Villa ge of Brook ly n |

OUR TIME PRESS THE L OCAL PAPER WITH THE G LOBAL VIEW

| VOL. 22 NO. 52

Since 1996

December 27, 2018-January 2, 2019 |

Will 2018 be Remembered as โ The Year Hope Almost Died?โ

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The View From Here

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ere at the end of 2018, it is becoming difficult to believe that there is a Promised Land on the other side of the mountaintop.

Those they call โ The Greatest Generationโ and the โ Baby Boomersโ are leaving a world where in only 31 years, by 2050, reports are that 50% of the mass in the oceans will be plastic, big and small. Bite-sized pieces such as those swelling the bellies of dead seabirds, and the trillions of microplastics created by either the weathering of large

pieces or in the lab with microbeads.

Microplastics are already being found throughout the food chain including in the flesh of fish humans eat. Unless emergency steps are taken, say โ goodbyโ to single-use plastic, this is a legacy that is inescapable.

Climate change is another legacy being left behind. Reports are by 2050, evermore intense weather events.

Species will die off and life in all its ฮฑ Continued on page

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OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

VOL. 22 NO. 52 DBG MEDIA Publishers of Our Time Press, Inc. 358 Classon Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11238 (718) 599-6828 Web site: www.ourtimepress.com e-mail: editors@ourtimepress.com Publisher DBG MEDIA Editor-in-Chief David Mark Greaves Copy Editor Maitefa Angaza Columnists Eddie Castro Victoria Horsford Michael Johnson Abigail McGrath Marlon Rice Reporters Akosua Albritton Margot McKenzie Contributors Lisa Durden Fern Gillespie Web Editor www.ourtimepress.com Liani Greaves -ȑACȧ+?L?ECP Joanna Williams

The First Step: In the Right or Wrong Direction?

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he First Step Act was signed into law last week

by President Trump amidst great fanfare and some razzes. The bill’s detractors point to its flaws and omissions: no state or local remedies, retroactivity, no persons convicted of violent felonies, etc.. We’re sharing the words of several policymakers, elected officials, advocates and activists, to get a rounded view, starting with people here in Brooklyn.

Dr. Divine Pryor is executive director of the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, an independent research, training and advocacy think tank applying Human Justice to achieve public safety, racial equity, community investment, human development and wellbeing in society. He weighs in first: “It’s a baby step, because the legislation is far from comprehensive. It only affects a small amount of folks on the federal level; it doesn’t really give the type of relief we would have wanted for drug offenses that could have resulted in some treatment – possibly probation, but certainly not jail time and not the extraordinary sentences that individuals received. It was part of a targeted effort allegedly to catch drug kingpins, but unfortunately caught up people who were drug users or selling small amounts of drugs.

“I’m the cofounder of the organization along with Eddie Ellis, who’s with the ancestors now. Nu Leadership, founded in 2004, is the nation’s first—and only – program of its kind

Dr. Divine Pryor

Sharon Content developed, designed and run by former incarcerated professionals representing every discipline from law to medicine.”

Sharon Content is the founder and president of the Bedford Stuyvesant based Children of Promise, NYC. The agency offers a unique after-school program, summer day camp and other services for over 1,500 children of incarcerated parents and their families.

It’s raised over $5 million in government and philanthropic funding for its programs. Content feels hopeful about the First Step Act. “In working with hundreds of families over the years, I’ve seen 300 young people each year directly impacted by this issue, having one or both parents incarcerated. We see firsthand the effects of parental separation from children on the entire family. These are real people in and real families affected. We should have the same level of empathy for these children as we do for children who have lost a parent through death, or been separated because of illness, immigration status or divorce.”

“The First Step Act allows us to have some hope. A child can now have interaction with a parent outside of prison walls. That’s very important to the child’s development. And it’s not just the next generation that is impacted; the benefits of this are passed on.”

Keith Wattley is an inaugural Obama Foundation Fellow and founder/executive director of Uncommon Law, a California based organization helping α Continued on page

The View From Here α Continued from page

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forms, insect, flora, aquatic, airborne and human will adapt, migrate or die. It is going to be a harsh time coming. And that’s before we even get to being Black in Donald Trump’s America.

Trump is a man we’ve seen before. An ag- Americans will fall to zero by 2053,” warns a gressively ignorant white supremacist incapable new report, and “By 2020, Median Black and of empathy and capable of any inhumane act. Latino Households stand to lose nearly 18% and He represents the rabid 36% or so of voters 12% of the wealth they held in 2013, respectively, gerrymandered into districts of like-minded while median white household wealth increases souls, electing representatives who speak to their by 3%,” the report states. At that point, “white whiteness and fear that reports of the country households are projected to own 86 times more being minority white by 2045 are true. They can wealth than Black households, and 68 times feel it in their bones and they can see it in the more wealth than Latino households.” This is Brown people at the border. And what has been why the neighborhood is changing and a small revealed is a side of America Black folks already cup of coffee can still cost $1.00 at the bodega, know, there is an inhumanity here. It was here or multiples of that at the new local cafes. during slavery and it has not left, and Donald Homes lost to foreclosures and predators, Trump exemplifies it. Whether it is an inability high-quality education needed to compete, still to console a widow mourning the loss of her hus- a dream for most. All connected to income band on patrol in Niger, or equating the life of a inequality, and again, emergency action must be journalist with the sale of arms, he has shown he taken. is an amoral monster who will now be put under All of these steps require political strength the pressure of multiple subpoenas and subjected and the power of the vote is the bottom line. to seeing more of his underlings becoming “rats” That’s why it is so actively suppressed, and why, rather than lie for him as in the past. The man is when in hand, it must be used specifically to going to freak out even further than we have seen address historical economic wrongs and for the so far and that cannot be good for the country or advancement of Black and Brown people. the world, which means real bad times for Black, As much as anyone can, the “Greatest” and Brown and non-Christian people. the “Boomers” must ready the next generations No one can predict where we are headed for the challenges ahead and repair what damage in the next year, except to say it will be some- we can before we all leave. where between a fitful, erratic, but eventually safe journey to a widely recognized legal ending, or Trump’s “ S e c o n d Amendment people” forming militias around statehouses and moving around the country like the Taliban.

Maybe that’s extreme. Maybe.

And then there is the 2017 headline, “Median El Hajj Malik El Shabazz / Malcolm X Wealth of Black

VOL. 22 NO. 52

OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

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A small press gathering was held by Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY (8th CD), the Democratic Caucus Leader-Designate (putting him in line to be Speaker of the House), for local media in his office at the Shirley A. Chisholm Office Building. In Part 1 we had the congressman’s thoughts on Democratic strategy, criminal justice reform the Muslim ban and affordable housing. Here he speaks about climate change, and working with a broad spectrum that makes up the Democratic Caucus.

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries Speaks to the Local Press

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Part 2

he reports are that by 2050 50% of the mass in the oceans will be plastic and the climate will be radically different than what we now see. We asked Congressman Jeffries what plans the Democrats had in the face these two threats to the planet. He said that Leader Nancy Pelosi was already in conversations with “chairs of the relevant committees, including Science, Space and Technology as well as Energy and Commerce” to appoint a select committee that will analyze the problems and “propose legislative remedies that can subsequently be acted upon by House Democrats.”

Because these are issues that affect everyone, from Super Storm Sandy in the East, Hurricane Harvey in Texas to wildfires in California, Jeffries hopes that these are issues to which bipartisan solutions could be found, “notwithstanding the significant opposition that exists from some powerful special interests in Washington anchored in the fossil fuel industry, we have to find a way to come together and confront climate change in a bipartisan way and a select committee is a good beginning for House Democrats.”

Regarding the Green New Deal that is being proposed, Jeffries said he did not know the particulars, but certainly agrees that there is a need to “go big” to address the problems of climate change, infrastructure and income inequality, and that there needs to be a “strategic approach to accomplishing concrete things in the legislative process.”

Some of that strategic approach is within the Caucus that he will lead. From progressives such as Antonio Delgado in upstate New York, to so called “Blue Dog Democrats” from conservative states and who have to vote the issues as their constituents see them. “It's a popular misconception that the most recent election represented the emergence of just one particular block of Democrats in the House of Representatives,” Jeffries said, “when the reality is the overwhelming majority of red to blue candidates who defeated Republicans in Trump-leaning districts are more centrist and moderate in their orientation or else they would not have been elected.” Jeffries said that as chair of the House Democratic caucus, his most important task, to use a football analogy, is to “allow for a meaningful huddle to take place each and every week where Democrats across

the ideological Congressman Hakeem Jeffries Dem. 8 CD, talks spectrum can come about climage change, religious freedom and the together, hash out broad spectrum of the Democratic Caucus which issues, and then fighe now leads. ure out what plays we're going to execute on behalf of the American people.” clause which is designed to make sure that Immigration is a problem that has government doesn’t inhibit the ability of been a thorn in congress’ side for some religious people or non-religious people time. Jeffries said he hopes that with the to engage in the free exercise connected next term, the congress can work to fix the to their religious and/or secular beliefs.” “broken immigration system starting with It is striking the balance here in Jefferies’ providing a pathway towards citizenship for “big tent” Caucus, that will be one of the the Dreamers.” challenges he faces. His bottom line was The congressman’s stance on the that while as a congressman from the 8 CD Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the he can speak for his constituents, however ability for private businesses to deny service “as someone who will be serving as the because of their religious beliefs, such as a fifth highest-ranking Democrat in the new cake maker not wanting to make a cake for House, it will be irresponsible for me to a same-sex wedding was asked about and he jump out ahead of the caucus,” and had to said he had not studied it , however he did allow for a “robust discussion” of the issue say that the right balance had to be struck from the different perspectives “on somebetween the “First Amendment protections thing that would be so meaningful from a anchored in both the free exercise clause legislative standpoint.” and the establishment clause.”

And regarding President Trump, “Let Meaning that there can be no state=- Bob Muller be Bob Muller.” Let the insponsored religion, and religious values vestigation run its course and the make the cannot be “infused into our public policy.” assessment of next steps with our president.

At the same time “there's also a free exercise David Mark Greaves

The First Step: In the Right or Wrong Direction? α Continued from page lifers get parole. It provides legal representation and “healing-centered mental health and legal counseling” and trains attorneys, social workers and therapists to work with inmates and parolees. Wattley’s team has gotten 205 clients released, with only one having returned to prison. In a recent New York Times OpEd he addressed the First Step Act’s exclusion of those who’ve committed violent crimes.

“While it is tempting to believe that we keep our communities safe by locking up people convicted of violent crimes as long as possible and denying them time-reducing credit, the reality is that the people our society fears the most — people convicted of murder

Keith Wattley

recently on Ron Daniels’ WBAI-FM radio show “Vantage Point”: “Van Jones is almost having orgasms on CNN about this and it’s really not all that,” said Barron. ”They passed it in the House as prison reform with no sentencing reform. So some of the Senators, like Kamala Harris, Sheila Jackson Lee and Elizabeth Warren, said, ‘No, no, no!’ That’s what Jeffries and others tried to push on the Senate, but it was rejected. Now the Senate passed some sentencing reform, sent it back to the House and Trump signed it.

“But listen: first, there are 2.2 million people incarcerated in America.

This bill only covers the federal level, +GAFCJJCȩ JCV?LBCP 186,000 inmates and all released have and who have been paroled on a life to wear monitors. Can you imagine sentence — are actually walking around with a dehumanizthe least likely to return to ing monitor trying prison even for a minor to do jobs?! infraction. Their return rate “What’s the is roughly one percent. sense in releasing We should not accept their a few people early categorical exclusion from sentence-reducing measures if you haven’t that would permit their earlithe economic er return to the community, development and where they can be the next opportunities for generation of violence the communities that they go into?... interrupters.”

Then they’re gonAssemblyman Charles na be right back Barron is a longtime activist QQCK@JWK?Lȩ and elected official. a human in there. So it’s a Charles Barron rights activist. He was sham!”

BP Adams on the Passing of New York State Supreme Court Justice William C. Thompson, Sr. “I join all Brooklynites in mourning the passing of retired New York State Supreme Court Justice William C. Thompson, Sr., a man who I have been honored to call a friend and confidant for so many years. A proud graduate of Brooklyn College and Brooklyn Law School, he served our nation with distinction in World War II as a member of the Army’s William Thompson Sr., ‘Buffalo Soldiers.’

PMMIJWL QȩȏPQRȩ DPGA?L “Justice Thompson KCPGA?LȩQR?RCȩQCL?RMPȩ broke barriers as our in 1965, has died at the borough’s first Black state age of 94. senator and continued to break barriers as he ascend- advance quality child care, ed the ranks of our judicial combat breast cancer, mentor system. Across five decades, young law students, as well Justice Thompson was the as bring together our Africanembodiment of the princi- American and Jewish comples we expect out of public munities. Our One Brooklyn service, values he imparted family will collectively carry to his children Bill and Gail. Justice Thompson’s torch in His legacy of public good the struggle for justice going includes meaningful work to forward.”

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OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

WHAT’S GOING ON Ό

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THE YEAR 2018

This was the year that was a veritable roller coaster from beginning to end, especially while living in America, almost indistinguishable from the republic that existed pre-January 2017. Don’t know how good Trump is for the national health.

Hopefully, Obamacare survives so that millions of deserving Americans can get the medical attention needed for the stress endured during two chaotic years of the Trump era. During that time, America has alienated its friends and allies and has befriended long-standing enemies like Russia and North Korea. The Trump tweets and policies have wreaked havoc with the 2018 American stock market.

The NY Times reports: “Stocks continued marching toward their largest December declines since the 1930s with the S&P 500 closing down 2.7% on 12/24.”

The US trade policies, especially tariffs, have had devastating effects throughout the globe.

Shutting the government down while standing his ground with Congress for a $5 billion wall on the US Southern border is an exercise in futility. The erosion of civil rights and human rights for Americans of color is unrivaled during AG Sessions’ watch.

Trump cabinet and White House West Wing personnel turnover count is innumerable in multiplicity. Wasn’t Trump supposed to clean the federal government

La Tanya Richardson swamp? He has abused power, ignored the constitution and corruption runs rampant in US domestic and foreign policy.

There is light at the end of the tunnel for our collective despair.

Hope, in its manifestation of the Democratic Congress, convenes next month.

The Democrats will hold the majority reins of the House of Representatives, assuring, to some extent, a return to the balance of power between the Legislative and the Executive branch of American government.

They can order investigations of the blatant corruption extant under President Trump. Those investigations, coupled with

the Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation, could actually trump Trump, whose end could be imminent.

Women will be “front and center” of the 116th Session of Congress, comprising AfricanAmericans, Latinos, a Native Americans and Muslims, including PalestinianAmerican Rashida Tlaib from Detroit and SomaliAmerican Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who wants to change House floor rules so that she can wear a hijab, Muslim veil or headscarf, to work.

Elections were stolen from Black candidates for governor, Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Andrew Gillum in Florida. However, they remain popular,

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VOL. 22 NO. 52

Ilhan Omar fortysomething elected officials who are driven for victories in 2020 and beyond in the Deep South.

WORLD OF BUSINESS

Jeff Bezos’ AMAZON is not the only tech giant that takes up residency in NYC. GOOGLE, who has a longtime New York presence, announced that it would expand its local operations. Is New York City the Silicon Valley East? Wonder how many jobs will be allocated to African-Americans, some of the biggest consumers of the IT world. Will these tech giants train, then hire, locals or offer internships? Will they work in concert with local unions, perhaps discuss retraining personnel in tech-intensive jobs?

Just common-sense questions that Messrs. Cuomo and de Blasio could ask tech moguls.

Read a NY Times story about a Black American Cornell senior on scholarship who does not

Islands, Singapore and United Arab Emirates.

NEWSMAKERS

The winter solstice gives birth to the zodiac sign Capricorn.

Special CAPRICORN birthday greetings to its natives: NY Democratic leader William Allen, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Kwame Brathwaite, Bill Burgess, Ronald Caldwell; Barbara Daniels, Esq.; Laurent Delly, Ideacoil; musician/author JaRon Eames; real estate developer Walter Edwards; Mary Flowers; Wallace Ford, Esquire; NY MTA/OHBM Prexy Michael Garner; Marilyn Gobern, RN; Wallace Gossett, Esq.; NFL-bound Michael Horsford; philanthropist Mae Jackson; NYS Senator Robert Johnson; media entrepreneur Rafee Kamaal; gallerist June Kelly; John Legend; UniWorld founder Byron Lewis; publicist Steve Manning; Lucille McEwen, Esquire; public relations maven Carolyn McClair; First Lady Michelle Obama; Dwyane Wade; Tiger Woods; Nathanael Wright, Esquire; and arts doyenne Camille Yarborough.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Byron Lewis have enough money to eat after paying a university-mandated insurance plan. He wants to be an entrepreneur. Why hasn’t Cornell arranged for him to attend its Roosevelt Island campus, NYC?

LIFESTYLE AND TRAVEL

Essence Communications is again a Black-owned business which was bought by Richelieu Dennis, often called “Rich Dennis.” It is “a full-service communications agency specializing in public relations, events and partnerships for food and drink, travel and lifestyle.”

Essence is busy enhancing the brand. To that end, it will launch a beauty pageant in 2019 in three cities: New York City, New Orleans, Louisiana and a city to be announced shortly. Moreover, Essence magazine recommends five cities that are must-visits for Black women traveling solo. The cities are Bali, London, US Virgin

Theater is a great holiday culture outlet. On Broadway, there is “AMERICAN SON,” starring Kerry Washington, about an interracial couple at a police station in the South awaiting word about their missing teenage son.

“TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD,” a novel published in the 1960s then translated into a feature film, enjoys a new incarnation as a drama on Broadway. Headed

by Jeff Daniels, the play is set in the American South in the 30s and focuses on a white attorney who defends a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman.

Jeff Daniels portrays the lawyer.

LaTanya Richardson Jackson portrays a maid in a supporting role, which critics predict will attract Tony nominations. Reviews have been stellar… “ONCE ON THIS ISLAND,” a Broadway musical, an ill-fated love story set on a Haiti-like Caribbean island, won the 2018 Tony for Best Musical Revival… “LION KING,” a Broadway musical, is a theater staple set in Africa with a young lion prince who is destined to be king. It is theater magic, ingenuity with all the right sensory flourishes, great for children of all ages.

SEASONS’ GREETINGS! Happy Winter Solstice, Merry Xmas, Happy Kwanzaa!

VOL. 22 NO. 52

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OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

Thinkers Notebook

Why Kwanzaa? Ό

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mong the trending news this week was the story of the New Jersey High School wrestler who was forced to cut his dreads in order to compete in a match. A referee wouldn’t allow 16-year-old Andrew Johnson to compete with a headband pulled over his dreadlocks. The referee gave Andrew the ultimatum to either cut his dreadlocks or forfeit the match. Andrew chose to have someone cut his locks.

He eventually won his match, but pictures and video of the incident hit social media and created a firestorm of controversy over why this child was made to cut his hair.

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Fingers are pointed squarely at referee Alan Maloney. Reports state that Maloney was actually late for the weigh-ins for this event, which would have been his time to inspect the gear and headwear of the wrestlers. Reports also state that it was he who demanded that Andrew either cut his hair on the spot or forfeit. And while oversight organizations investigate the incident and social media activists drive this story as the latest example of white supremacy in action, my first questions about what happened had nothing at all to do with the referee. Here were my questions: 1) Was this kid wearing locks as a religious or cultural statement?

Or was it just a hair fashion to him?

2) Was winning the match more important to this kid than his hairstyle? Did he want to cut his hair? Or did his coaching staff pressure him?

3) What did the other Black people attending the wrestling event say or do in regards to seeing a white lady cutting the dreadlocks of a Black child?

4) Where were his parents and what have they taught him about himself?

I was raised in the Village of Brooklyn at a peculiar time,

post-civil rights and pre-digital age, where the generation before me passed down information, not in the form of memes or status updates, but in real time in real life. I was raised around devout Christians and Hasidic Jews, 5th-generation Italians and 1st-generation Caribbean families, Pan-Africanists, Five-Percenters, NOI Muslims and Sunni Muslims. Everyone around me had their own way of existing, their own self-styled wisdom which defined them. Defining yourself was very important in those days, even as children, and how the world viewed us was important. So, I get that I look at this wrestling incident with innate bias, knowing full well that at 16 years old, no referee would’ve been able to pressure me into doing anything I didn’t want to do. I just wasn’t raised that way.

However, I cannot in good faith blame this child for lessons he wasn’t taught, perspectives that simply were not instilled or reinforced in him by his parents or his community. Parents these days don’t parent the way they used to. This digital age is flush with access and data, but its light on seriousness. Phones raise kids now, not parental edict. Tolerance has made us all soft and flabby, that lean look of fundamentalism can only be found these days in “Throwback Thursday� posts. If you aren’t raising young

WC?P MJBȊ LBPCUȊ(MFLQMLȊU?QȊDMPACBȊRMȊASRȊFGQȊ dreadlocks in order to compete in wrestling event. warriors, then who’s going to protect your village after you’re too old to?

I’ll ask another way: If we aren’t raising Black children right now to recognize manipulation - racial or otherwise - then what will become of our communities in the days to come when guys like you and I are old and dying away? Yes, this kid is a wrestler, but who is preparing him to wrestle with society’s ills?

This whole ordeal has given me a renewed appreciation for Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba. I’ll tell you why. I’ve celebrated Kwanzaa for a long time now, and during the last week of every year my family and I go through the Nguzo Saba; reciting, discussing and even singing songs about the Seven Principles. It never occurred to me how internalized those principles have become with regards to my life. I sat in the audience last week as my daughter performed at her Kwanzaa event for her school, and as they sang about the Seven Principles they got to “Nia� and the song goes, purpose... purpose...I HAVE A PURPOSE. My daughter is 3. To hear her scream

those words makes me feel so good because she is proclaiming that her journey has a purpose even before her journey truly begins. Unity. SelfDetermination. Collective Work and Responsibility. Cooperative Economics. Purpose. Creativity.

Faith. Show me the lie! Show me an attribute among these principles that isn’t positive and empowering! You say them enough, year after year, and they become you. These principles become who you are, how you see the world, how you treat others and how you treat yourself.

Kwanzaa is important. It’s more than just a holiday. It is pertinent information codified into a celebratory paradigm so that through food, drink and coming together we can remind our children and ourselves how to live with one another and also how to live in the world.

As long as there are referees like Alan Maloney, there will be a need to empower our children so that they will be ready, willing and able to speak truth to power. The Nguzo Saba can provide the proper foundation. That’s why Kwanzaa!

ŠWill Bullas

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OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

In OUR TIME...

VOL. 22 NO. 52

Dr. John Henrik Clarke (born January 1, 1915-Died July 16, 1998) was recognized worldwide as a leading PanAfricanist and authority on African and African-American history. Our Time Press Publishers interviewed him in his book-lined Harlem brownstone, October 23, 1996. As we ring in the New Year, we are sharing his brilliance still meaningful and centering for all peoples.

An interview with: Dr. John Henrik Clarke

O

ur Time Press: Where are we now? Where are we going?

JHC: We are a loose nation searching for a nationality. The population of African people in the United States is far in excess of six small European nations. Where we are going? We have to go back as best we can to where slavery and colonialism took us from. And they took us from a concept of nation management and nation maintenance. We have been so long away from home that we, unfortunately, have forgotten how we ruled states before the foreigners got there. We did very well. We produced a state that had no worth for jails because no one had gone to one; no worth for prostitution ‘cause no one had ever been one. We did not produce a state with a whole lot of nonsense about rugged individualism, but we produced a collective state. You had to function in relationship with the total state. You didn't do your thing unless it was in keeping with the maintenance of the whole people. It wasn't a personal ego-personality type of thing that we have now. "I've got my rights. Mind your own business."

In a collective society, everybody's business is everybody's business. Your behavior determines, to some extent, the destiny of your nation and your group. Therefore, your group has a right and responsibility to preside over your behavior and you have a responsibility to make that behavior in a manner that does not endanger the group. This kind of collective society -- giving to each according to his need -- existed in Africa not only before Karl Marx, but also before Europe.

In the African matrilineal society, the lineage of the bloodline comes down through the female side. The Arabs who invaded East Africa and other parts of Africa reversed it to the patrilineal, where everything comes down through the male side and the woman has no basic rights except that which the male is willing to grant her. In a matrilineal society, a woman has basic rights that no one has to grant her, but you can't take

it away from her because the society is based on the concept that the life-giver is equal to those she gave the life to.

You can see in our churches most of the males are pastors. Most of the deacons are males. But if the woman withdrew her support from our churches, you'd have to close the doors. Yet, she doesn't shout about (what she does). She doesn't rant about it. She just goes ahead and does it. This is where our movement differs appreciably from the white woman's lib.

The white woman has never had the co-equal status that the African woman has had.

OTP: What's been the effect of racism?

How has it changed the mental structure of Black people?

JHC: It has changed the mental structure of the whole world because it presupposes that God, in his lack of mercy, has made one people better than the other. To make one people better than the other would be ungodly in the first place. If God is love, then God has no stepchildren to love. The impact of racism has changed our look at ourselves because basically racism was meant to make us look unfaithfully at ourselves, and to not treasure our institutions.

People rise and fall on the basis of the makings of institutions.

OTP: You speak to groups. You speak to individuals who have a level of consciousness that brings them to your lectures. But there are those -- when you leave your house in Harlem -- who you pass who just don't have a racial consciousness that moves them towards empowerment of themselves and their people.

JHC: That's because they have been programmed in thinking that hope is integrated into something belonging to someone else other than something that is distinctly their own.

Now, Jews integrate but they don't destroy their institutions. They don't close the synagogue. They don't stop having special Jewish graveyards. They don't stop having special Jewish holidays. Why can't we understand that we can have things special to us and still

comingle and integrate with others. But the one thing you never integrate at the ruin of your own pleasure is your institutions. This is what's bothering me right now. The southern white Baptists now want to integrate with the Black Baptist church. I say that would be the end of it.

In the first place, most white Southern Baptists can't preach, their intentions are not that good and we make a different joyful noise unto the Lord than white people. When we say, "Lord Jesus, personal savior," we may not mean the same thing as what they mean. …If people do not know where they have been and what they have been they don't know what they are. They don't know where they are going to have to go or where they still have to be. History is like a clock, it tells you your time of day. You look at a clock and it tells you it's eight o'clock, you know the number of hours that have been before eight, you know the number of hours you've got after eight. You can now measure your time to see if you can get done a number of things you've got to get done. History serves the same purpose. It's a compass that you locate yourself on the map of human geography, politically, culturally, financially.

OTP: This is the closing out of 1996. In three years, there is the Millennium. What about Black folks?

JHC: I say if Black people don't unite and begin to support themselves, their communities and their families, they might as well begin to go out of business as a people. Nobody's going to have any mercy. And nobody's going to have any compunction about making slaves out of them.

No more religion anymore. No more of who's a Muslim and who's a Protestant. I have no faith in much-organized religion because I think it's by a bunch of hypocrites and practiced by a bunch of hypocrites. They don't mean what they say because all of them are in the slave trade one way or the other.

OTP: What about the whole issue of violence as it relates to our people in this society?

JHC: Violence among all people is based

on dissatisfaction, frustration and crushed ambition and people who don't know who to strike at and who to blame are not willing to blame themselves.

OTP: How do we counteract it all?

JHC: We counteract it by getting closer to our children. By talking to them. Someone asked me the same question one time when I was out lecturing and I gave them a true answer I still believe in. Break all the TVs, burn all the Bibles. Maybe you'll get their attention. …

Educating a child won't be difficult if you get through to the parent. You have to convince the adults that if a child is to learn his culture, he or she will have to see his mother and father reading about it and explaining it to him. Then it gets a legitimacy it otherwise would never have.

Until then, his learning is limited.

I came from a very poor background, a very loving home. My mother died when I was 7 or 8. My father was a sharecropper and he moved from Alabama to Columbus, Ga., hoping to make enough money to go back and buy land.

My mother really held the family together. She was a perfect example of the kind of Black woman I would love to see again. She ruled my father with an iron hand, yet she barely ever raised her voice above a whisper. She would say, "John, I suggest...". She would congratulate him for having the wisdom of such an idea as though it was his in the first place. She never impinged on his manhood. The worst thing I would hear was "Behave yourself. Wait ‘til your father gets home." I could pull all kinds of games on her. I couldn't pull any games on my father.

I attended a Baptist church as a child and was an avid reader starting with the Bible.

I taught the Junior Bible Class and Sunday School in Columbus, Georgia at age 10. I was always active. Attending church is one thing, belonging is another. I believe in spirituality which is out there. I believe in doing good for goodness’ sake. Service is the highest form of prayer, as far as I am concerned.

Angela Davis: We Owe It to People Who Came Before Us to Fight to Abolish Prisons

A

Courtesy of democracynow.org

ngela Davis is a leading advocate for prison abolition, a position informed by her own experience as a prisoner and a fugitive on the FBI’s top 10 wanted list more than 40 years ago.

Once caught, she faced the death penalty in California. After being acquitted on all charges, she spent her life fighting to change the criminal justice system. Amy Goodman sat down with Angela Davis at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., in October to talk about the prison abolition movement.

(Speaking of Davis’ release from prison) AMY GOODMAN: You walked out into the sunlight, and the next chapter of your life began.

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, you know, we had a party that night, and champagne. It was great. And then, you know, the jurors wanted to get together, so I got to—so I actually became really good friends with the foreperson of the jury, whose name was Mary Timothy.

But then, the very next day, we got together and decided that something had to be done to keep the whole apparatus together that was responsible for organizing around the demand for my freedom, because,

initially, it was National United Committee to Free Angela Davis, and during the time I was in jail, I looked at all of the women who were there, who had no resources, who had no access to attorneys, and I said, “This can’t just be about me.” And so, the name was changed: the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners.

And so, the very next day, after we had partied all night, we had a meeting to figure out how we could begin to move to a new phase, how we could create a new organization. We created an organization called the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Some of the first cases were the Attica Brothers, because the Attica rebellion had happened in 1971, September, right after George was killed. There was the case of Reverend Ben Chavis and the Wilmington 10. There were so many cases.

Lolita Lebrón, who was still in prison at the time. So we immediately— AMY GOODMAN: The Puerto Rican independence activist.

ANGELA DAVIS: Yeah. So we immediately began to do that work. And I mention it because, you know, oftentimes we don’t get to see the history, the trajectory that

makes it possible to engage in certain kinds of political actions 20, 30, 40 years later.

And so, I think that we were helping to lay the foundation for movements against racist police violence today. As a matter of fact, we had a caucus within the organization that was very specifically concerned with stopping police violence.

AMY GOODMAN: Forty-seven years ago, George Jackson was killed. And on the 47th anniversary, this year, 2018, the prison strike lasted three weeks, from the gunning down of George Jackson to the Attica uprising. And prisoners around the country, once again, in this year, rose up, at great possibility of retribution against them, went on hunger strike, went on work strikes.

ANGELA DAVIS: Yeah, that national prisoner strike was so important. We often don’t recognize the degree to which the historical memory, that I was talking about before, plays such an important part in the lives of prisoners. Prisoners, even young people who have been recently arrested and sentenced to prison, are politically educated.

They learn from the old-timers about, you know, all of the events that have happened over the years, the significance of George Jackson, all of the campaigns that took place

in the 1960s and the 1970s. They actually do a much better job than people in the free world of preserving history. And, of course, the fact that we now can openly call for the abolition of imprisonment as the existing mode of punishment, and the abolition of policing as the major form of security in our worlds, we owe that to people who stood up many decades ago. I’ll never forget that.

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VOL. 22 NO. 52

OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

We reprinted these excerpts by the late Dr. Amos Nelson Wilson (February 23, 1941 - January 14, 1995) because they seem appropriate for the new year. Wilson was an African-American theoretical psychologist, social theorist, Pan-African thinker, scholar and author.

Amos Wilson “I’m often somewhat amused and taken aback by the number of people in this society who claim that slavery occurred somewhere back then. …And you see them ultimately justifying the poverty of African people and justifying the political and social and economic subordination of African people in the name of some kind of higher principle. So, the experience of slavery is not supposed to be operating in the mentality of Black folks.

You hear a lot of youngsters saying that as well. “Why do you talk about slavery? That was back there.” Or you hear whites say, “Slavery was back there. We don’t have anything to do with that anymore.” This is an amazing situation because we have to remind them that you’re still living off the interest of the wealth that your forefathers earned from slavery.

You’re still enjoying the accumulated wealth that began with the enslavement of our people.

And if you’re going to enjoy the wealth that was generated by evil then you must take the curse that comes along with it."

“Now we’re going to talk a little bit about African-centered consciousness, personality and culture as instruments of power.

Because ultimately this is what this whole struggle is about.

Power. Not loving one another and all those things we hear.

Power. To a great extent, the problems that we are confronted with today as African people and African people in America, flows from our powerlessness, or our inappropriate use of power. We’ve been made to think that power is sinful, and that to pursue it is a sinful pursuit, and that it’s wrong. But you cannot exist without power.

Without power there is no life.

A battery without power is

dead. You need power to act, to behave in the world.

And consequently then, we must interpret what we are about in terms of power.

And we have the power ladies and gentlemen. We have the possibilities. We just need to reorganize ourselves. We organize our consciousness and our personalities and our culture and see them as instruments of power, and use them as instruments of power to transform our situation. So should not look at consciousness as some abstraction.”

7

8

OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

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LEGAL NOTICES NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF KINGS U.S. BANK TRUST, N.A., AS TRUSTEE FOR LSF9 MASTER PARTICIPATION TRUST, Plaintiff, Against Index No.: 6482/08 RICHARD BUCKHEIT, ESQ. AS PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR OF KINGS COUNTY ON BEHALF OF THE ESTATE OF GREGORY BISCOMBE; et al, Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale, duly entered on 1/17/2018, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction, in Room 224 of the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, on 1/31/2019 at 2:30 pm premises known as 40 Weirfield Street, Brooklyn, NY 11221 and described as follows: ALL that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, and designated on the tax maps of the Kings County Treasurer as Block 3401 and Lot 24 The approximate amount of the current Judgment lien is $723,250.09 plus interest and costs.

The Premises will be sold subject to provisions of the aforesaid Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale; Index # 6482/08. Angelique Moreno, Esq., Referee. STIENE & ASSOCIATES, P.C. (Attorneys for Plaintiff), 167 Main Street, Northport, NY 11768 Dated: 11/27/2018 File Number: 201202875 LF NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF KINGS, WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR WINSTED FUNDING TRUST 2015-1, Plaintiff, vs. ALDURELL CHARLES, ET AL., Defendant(s). Pursuant to an Order Confirming Referee Report and Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly filed on December 11,

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Approximate amount of judgment is $813,905.94 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 8717/14. α Continued on page

VOL. 22 NO. 52

9

OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

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That’s apparently what NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer thought might be the case.

His office issued an audit, which ended up detailing the shortfall, but the agency in question sees no need for the extra help.

Really?

Stringer’s office issued an audit report on the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) capacity to accomplish the annual initial inspections (or comprehensive annual inspections) of Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) programs operating from group child care centers (1,035 centers) and school-based child care centers (1,714) which number 2,749 for FY 2017. Entitled, “Comptroller Stringer Audit Reveals DOHMH Skipped Mandatory Inspections at Hundreds of Child Care Centers,� the report was issued on December 19th. For FY 2017, 958 centers were inspected but 48% did not receive either of the mandated assessments. At first read, one would suspect the inspectors were derelict in their duties.

The initial inspections consist of two operations. There is the one performed by the Early Childhood Education Consultants (ECECs), who examine the curriculum and competency of staffing, and the other is performed by the Public Health Sanitarians (PHSs), who check the physical conditions.

The audit uncovered that “73 group child care centers* did not receive an initial inspection by a PHS or an ECEC; 53 of the 73 uninspected centers had previously been issued 324 violations in the preceding year; 41 violations were classified as public health hazards and 116 classified as critical (serious violations needing correction within 14 days).�

The audit goes on to expose that “DOHMH records show that during FY 2017, a total of 531 of the 1,035 group child care centers failed to receive at least one required inspection. Specifically, 312

centers did not receive an inspection from an ECEC; 146 centers did not receive an inspection from a PHS.� To further complicate the situation, DOHMH supervisors were found unable to use the online system to track inspections. Rather, they relied on MS Excel to input inspection data for the centers for which they are responsible. This would suggest the inspectors did not receive training in order to access this tool The crux of the matter is insufficient staffing. DOHMH employs 18 Public Health Sanitarians and 18 Early Childhood Education Consultants to inspect all 2,749 group child care centers and school-based centers. There are also seven supervisors.

The ECEC inspection can take one to two days, based on the completeness of a center’s storage access system. Where issues with the curriculum or physical plant exist, a compliance inspection is required within 45 days of the initial inspection. Further, the inspectors must also check 170 summer camps and 380 after-school programs. Below are charts depicting manpower and caseload for Brooklyn only: The report closed with recommendations from the auditor wherein DOHMH responded indicating agreement, disagreement or an alternative solution. There was also a place for the auditor to provide additional rationale for the presented recommendation.

Two recommendations follow: DOHMH should ensure the PHS and ECEC inspectors immediately inspect those centers that have not received an initial inspection within the last three years.

Agency Response: DOHMH suggests substituting the compliance and monitoring inspections for the initial inspections.

Auditor’s Response: DOHMH’s suggestion to substitute the compliance and monitoring inspections for the initial

GCC Centers

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DOHMH should review its inspection tracking tools, including management reports and make any necessary changes to these tools, reports and oversight processes, in general, to better ensure that all initial inspections required as per DOHMH are performed.

Agency Response: It is in agreement.

The fourth recommendation addressed staffing wherein “DOHMH should conduct a study to determine adequacy of its staffing and structure vis-a-vis the number of child care centers overseen and adjust staffing levels as warranted.� The agency disagrees with this recommendation. The agency “determined that it has the level of staff to perform its work.� The public may wonder if a study is required. Does DOHMH need to conduct a study when it is found that out

BROOKLYN Caseload for Inspectors as of April 30, 2018 SchoolPHS ECEC PHS Caseload ECEC based CCC & Caseload Centers School- based (GCC Only) 224 6 5 173 163

of 2,749 group child care centers and schoolbased child care centers, only 958 centers got inspected for FY 2017, utilizing a workforce of seven supervisors, 18 PHS staff and 18 ECEC to cover all five boroughs? Can the backlog be explained completely by employees not working diligently? *30 in Brooklyn of which 25 either received a violation in FY 2016 or received complaints between FY 2016 and FY 2017; 27 in the Bronx of which 26 either received a violation in FY 2016 or received complaints between FY 2018 and FY 2017; 13 in Queens of which 10 either received a violation in FY 2016 or received complaints between FY 2016 and FY 2017; two in Manhattan received 1 violation in FY 2016 and received 12 complaints between FY 2016 and FY 2017; and one in Staten Island received 1 violation in FY 2016.

10

OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

NEW BUSINESS FORMATIONS

VOL. 22 NO. 52

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LEGAL NOTICES

2019 at 2:30PM, premises known as 235 VERMONT STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11207: Block 3706, Lot 10: ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, WITH THE BUILDINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS THEREON ERECTED, SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN, COUNTY OF KINGS, AND STATE OF NEW YORK. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 513568/2016.

Jacob N. Gelfend, Esq. - Referee. RAS Boriskin, LLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. For sale information, please visit www.auction.com or call (800) 280-2832.

α Continued from page For sale information, please visit Auction. com at www.Auction.com or call (800) 280-2832 Aaron Maslow, Esq., Referee Greenspoon Marder, 100 West Cypress Creek Road, Trade Centre South, Suite 700, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33309, Attorneys for Plaintiff NOTICE OF SALE Supreme Court County Of Kings Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as Trustee, on behalf of SASCO 2007MLN1 Trust Fund, Plaintiff AGAINST Neville Romain a/k/a Neville Roman, David Cohan, et al, Defendant Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly dated 5/7/18 and entered on 5/24/18, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction at the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY on January 24, 2019 at 02:30 PM premises known as 2049 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11233. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the County of Kings, City and State of New York, BLOCK: 1565, LOT: 44. Approximate amount of judgment is $817,845.11 plus interests and costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 506073/2014.

Doron A. Leiby, Referee FRENKEL LAMBERT WEISS WEISMAN & GORDON LLP 53 Gibson Street Bay Shore, NY 11706 NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF KINGS HSBC Bank USA, National Association as Trustee for Wells Fargo Asset Securities Corporation, Mortgage Asset-Backed Pass-Through Certificates Series 2007AR7 Plaintiff -against-Mohammad M. Rahman Mohammed M. Hossain, Ahmed H. Bhuiyan, New York City Parking Violations Bureau, New York City Environmental Control Board, New York City Transit Adjudication Board, United States of America- Department of the Treasury - Internal Revenue Service, New York State Department of Taxation & Finance, Workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Compensation Board of the State of New York, Discover Bank, American Express Bank, Midland Funding NCC-2 Corporation, Nancy T. Sunshine â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Commissioner of Jurors, Metro Portfolios Inc., Citibank (South Dakota), NA, Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, RAB Performance Recoveries, LLC, Capital Equity Management LLC, Capital One Bank, Cypress Financial Recoveries, LLC, Palisades Collection LLC, Empire Portfolios Inc., Colorado Capital Investments, Inc., Criminal Court of the City of New York, LVNV Funding LLC APO American Express, Department of Housing Preservation & Development, Arrow Financial Services, LLC, NY Institute of Technology, FIA Card Services NA, CACH

of Colorado LLC, Advantage Assets II Inc., T-Collection Inc. SUCC ASSOC FINCL SVS, Sage Financial LTD., OFM Group Inc., Great Seneca Financial Corp., Presidents TR CO SUCC INT Bank NA, Hassanba WA/ RO P SO TH Hempstead, National Credit Acceptance Inc., NIF ND CCR Partners as Assignee, Velocity Investments, LLC, Summit Recoveries Inc., Unifund CCR Partners as AAO Citibank, ORI Financial Services Inc., Jane Smith (Name Refused), Bibi Khan, Aki Khan Defendant(s) Pursuant to a judgment of foreclosure and sale entered on November 19, 2018 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction to the highest bidder at ROOM 224 F/K/A ROOM 274 OF KINGS COUNTY SUPREME COURT, 360 ADAMS STREET, BROOKLYN,, NEW YORK 11201 on January 24, 2019 at 2:30 PM premises known as 133 Hale Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11238-1251. ALL that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of KINGS and State of New York.

Block: 3931 Lot:3 Approximate amount of lien $554,266.75 plus interest and costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed judgment Index # 505521/2014 Steven Naiman, Esq., REFEREE STEIN, WIENER AND ROTH, L.L.P., ATTORNEYS FOR THE PLAINTIFF ONE OLD COUNTRY ROAD, SUITE 113 CARLE PLACE, NY 11514 DATED: December 19, 2018 FILE #:WELLS 69684 SUPREME COURT, COUNTY OF BRONX, JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, vs. Patricia Campbell, Chase Manhattan Bank USA, N.A. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as nominee for Alliance Mortgage Banking Corp., New York City Environmental Control Board, New York City Parking Violations Bureau, New York City Transit Adjudication Bureau, People of the State of New York, Chase Bank FKA The Dime Savings Bank of NY FSB, Anthony Harris, Kemeisha Robinson, Sandra Tyndale, Trevor Grant, Donald Lee Davenport, Defendant(s).Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated November 5, 2018 and duly entered thereafter, Steven B. Shapiro, Esq., the court appointed Referee will sell at public auction in Room 224 of the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 on Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 2:30 p.m., the premises known as 1301 St. Johns Place, Brooklyn, NY 11213; all that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the County of Kings, City of New York, and State of New York Block 1377, Lot 149. Approximate amount of judgment is $1,037,948.72 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of said Judgment Index No. 27873/2009. Steven B. Shapiro, Esq., Referee Lawrence & Walsh, P.C., 215 Hilton Avenue, Hempstead, NY 11550, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF KINGS, WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT AS TRUSTEE FOR PRETIUM MORTGAGE ACQUISITION TRUST, Plaintiff, vs. DOROTHY ALEXANDER, ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly filed on May 24, 2018 and an Order Pursuant to CPLR 2004 Extending the Time to Set Sale and to Ratify Sale Nunc Pro Tunc duly filed on November 29, 2018. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Kings County Supreme Court, Room 224, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY on January 24, 2019 at 2:30 p.m., premises known as 420 Autumn Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, Block 4170 and Lot 25. Approximate amount of judgment is $465,190.34 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 512372/2015. Helene Blank, Esq., Referee Knuckles, Komosinski & Manfro, LLP, 565 Taxter Road, Suite 590, Elmsford, NY 10523, Attorneys for Plaintiff Cash will not be accepted.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT: KINGS COUNTY. NATIONAL PAYMENT RELIEF LLC, Pltf. vs.

ELESHA CAMPBELL, et al, Defts. Index #12400/13. Pursuant to judgment of foreclosure and sale dated Nov. 5, 2018, I will sell at public auction in Room 224 of the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams St., Brooklyn, NY on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019 at 2:30 p.m., prem. k/a 155 Legion St., Brooklyn, NY a/k/a Block 3536, Lot 8. Said property located at a point on the easterly side of Barrett St. distant 150 ft. 5 ½ in. northerly from the corner formed by the intersection of the easterly side of Barrett St. with the northerly side of Blake Avenue; being a plot 100 ft. x 25 ft. Approx. amt. of judgment is $137,194.33 plus costs and interest. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed judgment and terms of sale. LEO SALZMAN, Referee. THE MARGOLIN & WEINREB LAW GROUP, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 165 Eileen Way, Ste. 101, Syosset, NY. #96098 SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK - COUNTY OF KINGS NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC, V. FARVEZ HOSSAIN; ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated September 13, 2018, and entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Kings, wherein NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC is the Plaintiff and FARVEZ HOSSAIN; ET AL. are the Defendants. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the KINGS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 360 ADAMS STREET, ROOM 224, BROOKLYN, NY 11201, on January 17,

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF KINGS, BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., Plaintiff, vs.

JEAN ROBERT SELAMY, JEAN GUY SELAMY, ET AL., Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly filed on April 06, 2016, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Kings County Supreme Court, Room 224, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY on January 17, 2019 at 2:30 p.m., premises known as 1315 Troy Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, Block 4978 and Lot 64. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 13825/09. Deborah M. Marshall, Esq., Referee Berkman, Henoch, Peterson, Peddy & Fenchel, P.C., 100 Garden City Plaza, Garden City, NY 11530, Attorneys for Plaintiff NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF Kings, Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB, doing business as Christiana Trust, not in its individual capacity, but solely as legal title trustee for Bronze Creek Title Trust 2013-NPL1, Plaintiff, vs. Frederick H. Townsend, ET AL., Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Decision and Order duly filed on September 17, 2018 and Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly filed on May 08, 2009, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Kings County Supreme Court, Room 224, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY on January 10, 2019 at 2:30 p.m., premises known as 662 Georgia Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, Block 4296 and Lot 20. Approximate amount of judgment is $431,660.27 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 33873/07.

Helene Blank, Esq., Referee Knuckles, Komosinski & Manfro, LLP, 565 Taxter Road, Suite 590, Elmsford, NY 10523, Attorneys for Plaintiff Cash will not be accepted.

VOL. 22 NO. 52

Saturday, December 29th DR. MAULANA KARENGA’S 52ND ANNUAL KWANZAA ADDRESS,

JHS 258, 141 Macon St., 4-8PM (doors @ 3), $15/adults, $10/seniors & kids under 12 FREE. The NY Chapter of the National Association of Kawaida Organizations & the International African Arts Festival host Dr. Karenga, with this year’s Founder’s Message: “Reimagining and Remaking the World: A Kwanzaa Commitment to An Inclu-

Kwanzaa Marketplaces es. The Apollo's celebration is a joyful evening of dance and music honoring the Kwanzaa principles of family, community and culture.

Sunday, December 30th THE KWANZAA ALTAR, COLORLAB: KWANZAA AND HOLDING HISTORY,

Q?QCȩ7??ȩ"?LACȩ2FC?RCP sive Good.” Featuring the Donald Smith Quartet & Asase Yaa African-American Dance Theater with a Kwanzaa vendor marketplace and catering by Neighborhood Bakery.

“OUT OF AFRICA”- A KWANZAA CELEBRATION,

276 Fenimore St., 3-9PM, FREE. Learn about the history, customs and traditions of Kwanzaa. There will be arts and crafts, dancers, poets, a fashion show, drummers, African and Caribbean food, raffle prizes, face painting, an African marketplace and more. This is a family-friendly, cultural event hosted by the Higher Education Committee.

Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave., various times from 11:30AM-4:30PM, $11, children under 12 FREE. Join an interactive presentation on Kwanzaa symbols and principles and share dried fruits from the altar, from 11:30-noon. From noon1PM visit Collections Central. Interact with African Diaspora artifacts and learn about objects important to the celebration. Explore Kwanzaa through art and music. Make an mbira, weave with colorful strips of cloth and build a BCM community altar (11AM-4:30PM thru the day).

QUILT SHOW AND PAPER QUILT WORKSHOP,

wisdom to have an “uncomfortable” staff discussion about ‘race.’ They are deficient in the area of ethical leadership skills that would lead to professionally developing teachers into taking some responsibility for helping students to learn: “How we should treat and take care of each other in this school.”

One way that students will learn the rubrics or rules of conduct for the school’s approach to kindness is by watching how teachers treat their fellow students, and particularly those children that society has relegated and demoted to the status of “other.” Did some teacher at McKenzie’s school (or, I am afraid to ask, school administrator) notice McKenzie being racially bullied and just told her tormentors to “cut it out” and then moved on? Was some adult not fully aware of the enormous revelation of the school’s true cultural beliefs on display by

Monday, December 31st COUNTDOWN TO 2019,

Prospect Park at Grand Army Plaza, 10:30PM-12:30AM, FREE. The Office of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and One Brooklyn Fund, Inc. once again hosts Brooklyn’s countdown to the New Year. Bring the family to see the fireworks and live entertainment.

Dress warm and bring your warm spirit

Sledding in the Park many other animals, attractions and learning opportunities at the zoo, including the Discovery Center and the Hall of Animals.

Thursday, January 3rd SLEDDING IN THE PARK,

Lincoln Terrace Park, between Buffalo and Rochester Avenues, adjacent to the Eastern Parkway service road. 11AM-7PM are the generally suggested open times for city parks. FREE. Take the kids out for a memorable winter experience. Listed as one of the five best sledding spots in Brooklyn, Lincoln Terrace Park in Crown Heights is a less-crowded fun time. Dress warm!

Sunday, January 6th HAPPY ZOO YEAR,

,CUȩ7C?P Qȩ#TCȩGLȩ.PMQNCARȩ.?PI to sing, dance and celebrate with your neighbors.

3 WOMEN & THEIR MUSIC: NYE JAZZ VESPERS,

Emmanuel Baptist Church, 279 Lafayette Ave., 6-7:30PM, FREE. Stop by before your New Year’s Eve celebrating to enjoy some live music by three talented women.

Madame Pat Tandy sings the blues, Patsy Grant sings jazz and Stephanie Bates sings R&B.

Prospect Park Zoo, 450 Flatbush Ave., 11AM-3PM, adults $9.95/children 3-12, $6.95/seniors 65 & up, $7.95/children 2 & under FREE. Explore the wintry outdoor trail and be toasty-warm while discovering who at the zoo loves the cold and who doesn’t. The Discovery Center has fun for animal lovers of all ages, with special sensory stations for toddlers. The Conservation Station in the Hall of Animals offers experiments (why ice melts and its effect on the environment), bat biofacts (about bat hibernation) and migration (hibernation, adaptation games). Tix online or on the line.

SEA LION TRAINING SESSIONS,

/SGJRȩ1FMUȩ?Rȩ*CȎCPRQȩ&GQRMPGAȩ House

A Black Child is Racially Bullied α Continued from page

Lefferts Historic House, Prospect Park, 452 Flatbush Ave., 12-4PM, FREE ($3 suggested donation) Join Prospect Park Alliance and see the wonderful work of The Brooklyn Quilters' Guild while their small quilt exhibit is on display. This year features the artists’ personal interpretations of Prospect Park. The original creations range from traditional to contemporary, to mixed-media fiber art.

From 1-3PM try your hand at making your own paper quilt collage or add to our community paper patchwork quilt!

Wednesday, January 2nd

KWANZAA CELEBRATION: REGENERATION NIGHT,

The Apollo Theater, 253 W. 125th St., Manhattan 2PM & 7:30PM, $25. The Apollo Theater’s annual Kwanzaa event features Abdel Salaam's Forces of Nature Dance Theatre. With Special Guest Sonia Sanchez and other guest performanc-

11

OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

these racial taunting behaviors? Or, was the severely painful implications of the actions of the tormentors on the psyche and personhood of McKenzie? Were McKenzie’s white assailants suspended with the speed, efficiency and severity level by which so many Black students in this nation are chronically over-punished in schools?

I have unfortunately heard too many educators claim proudly: “I don’t see color.” But that assertion is not only ignorantly false, it is also as we see in these types of tragedies, dangerously false because it translates into: “I don’t protect what I don’t see!” As a principal, I made a conscious and deliberate effort to see my students who were: Asian, Black, Latino, White, LGBTQ, introverted-quiet, the artistically (and perhaps slightly or a lot eccentric) creative kids, young people who were “engaged” with the criminal justice system, the “504’s” and/or those students suffering from chronic debilitating

Prospect Park Zoo, 450 Flatbush Ave., 11:30AM, 2PM & 4PM (zoo opens 10-4:30, last entry @ 4), sessions w/ adm.: adults $9.95/children 3-12, $6.95/ seniors 65 & up, $7.95/children 2 & under FREE. See the feeding & training of the full-of-personality sea lions and enjoy the

&?NNWȩ8MMȩ7C?P

diseases, students who themselves were parents, English-language learners, Special Education students, children with one or both parents incarcerated, Black or Latino kids who enjoyed engaging in non-stereotypical interests, sports or social activities, students who for very different and difficult reasons were being raised by grandparents, Muslims, the “nerds,” children who were homeless, students with military parents deployed in war zones, students living in group homes, students who themselves and/or their parents were undocumented US residents, those in foster care, Black boys who wanted to be smart, girls who had the ability but were hesitant about pursuing a STEM major in college, the newly arrived to America, etc. I saw them all because I wished to extend an extra institutional wing of protection over them, I needed them to feel welcomed and empowered, to experience the feeling of being safe, if nowhere else, to at least feel safe in their own school. My wish was that all of these students would succeed as their best selves would allow. I did not want them to die.

But how could I succeed in protecting these students if I pretended not to see them? Did the principal at McKenzie’s school see her?

Educators who can’t “see” students--meaning seeing their challenges, the discriminatory and prejudicial beliefs and practices they are subject to--the socioeconomic barriers they are forced to overcome can’t effectively advocate for these children.

And when the school itself is the “hurting and harming agent,” then the disenfranchised and marginalized members of the student body, like McKenzie, are in “grave, physical and failing to learn” danger.

Students take their “how to treat others” cues from the adults in the building, the staff members take their empathy and efficacy cues from the principal. The principal who is unable or unwilling to make their school a physical and learning safe zone for all children should check in with their professional moral compass, or at least start the process by acquiring one. For only then will they be able to see the many McKenzie’s living hurt in their school’s societally assigned hurting seats.

12

OUR TIME PRESS December 27, 2018 – January 2, 2019

VOL. 22 NO. 52

Students’ Black History Month Silent March Speaks Volumes

T 2018, the Year in Headlines he future looks bright and we can see the signs – which earlier this week were being carried by elementary school students demonstrating trating pride in their heritage and resp pect for th he fore orebea be rs who inspi be p ree them. During D tth heir Black ack c Hiisto tto ory y Mo Mon M oonnth h Silent March M on nT Tu ueesd day aay, y stude sttu ude deents ents ttss frrom om P.S. 270 0 walked the streets surrounding their Cliinton Hill school with signs feaaturing thhe faces and words of heroic an nd visionarry Black people.

Princcipal Alyssa Roye met with the Studentt Council, comprised of four fifth-graders, d tto di discuss hhow th the school h l would celebrate Black History Month this year. Council Treasurer surer Cr Craig aaii Sttevenson Ste S vveen ven enssonn pr propo ropo oposed op sed ed th the Sil ilen il ent nt March nt Maarc M rch ch h, fee eeel e ing i it would allow w the Pr Pre-K re-K e-K eK to Fifth-graadee sst stu ttuuden nttss March to share the wisdom and accomplishments of their people in an impactful way. The march delivered on its promise with student-created posters.

It was moving, meaningful and powerful, and the children felt proud, not only of their history, but of themselves.

October 25-31

22-28

This was the year that was a veritable roller coaster from beginning to end, especially while living in America, almost indistinguishable from the republic that existed pre-January 2017.

There is light at the end of the tunnel for our collective despair.

Hope, in its manifestation of the Democratic Congress, convenes next month. Victoria Horsford, What's Onalso confisbeen made painfully apparent by recent about Frederick Going Douglass. She

une 6 May 31-J

Black History in NY Schools: A Ship That Never Sailed

N Ό

By Maitefa Angaza

ew York is one of several states, along with New Jersey, Illinois, Arkansas, Rhode Island, Florida and Misssissippii, that att mandates th the teac te hingg of Blacck Historry in scho ho ool ols ls – on ls n pap paper pa er att least. T There is an Ov O ers ers rsigh igh ht Committ ittttee – itt the Am mistad Commission – in New York, New Jeersey and Illinois—that gives stat tate ta ae authoritty to make sure that this happen pens pe pen ens. en But the NY Amistad Commission website appearss to serve primarilyy as as a nnews ews ew ws andd events hub, h with little els lsse gooin oiiing ng on. It It s It’ been saaid that the commission, sponsored

by Assemblyman Keith Wright and made law w in 2006, has sstalled for over a decade because authority y was given, n, but not fund funding g or ot other h resou sources. sou Fasst-forw waard arrd rd to o 20 018 and thhe lack of Blaackk History y edu ducaation n in o ouur our ur sc s hoo hoo ols ls has has ha as

events in the news. At Middle School 118 in the Bronx, white teacher Patricia Cummings recently instructed three Black students to lie on the floor, then reportedly (according to on oone n of her stu tu ents) steeppe tud p d on theirr baack acc s aask skking in ng,, “Yo Youu se You see how see how w it it feels lss to to b bee a slav s ave? e?

How H Ho o do does iitt ffee eeell?” l??” ?” Sh She was rrea eass sssigneed. d Malcol co m Xavier Combs, a 17-year-old co stttuuden stu studen dentt at Chri de hristt thee Ki hr King ng Hi Hiigh Scho Hig ch ho h oo oll in in Queens Que Qu ennns req ens, eqquuuest equ est es sstted eedd too have havve hiiss nam ha hav naame prin riinnte ted eed as “Ma M lcolm lm X” on his senior sweater. But lm iins in n tea eaad, d he h go ggot o a le leectur lec ture ure from m As A sis istan is taan ant P nc Pr Pri nnci cipa ppal a Ve Veeron ronica ro ron o caa A Arrbbit biiittell ello, ello, el o, who who wh ho hee saays yss, ys, told him that he “didn’t want to be associated with that name.”

At Intermediate School 224 in the Bronx, white Principal Patricia Catania took exception to teacher teac Mercedes LirianoClark’s lesson plans, telling herr not to teach le sons about the Har le les Haarlem le Renaissance orr

the State Senate but is presently stalled in December 27, made 2018by the House. cated a poster about Lena Horne two students at the 95% Black school.

“The Black History bill will create Then at P.S. 118, the Maurice Sendak change and confidence in our youth by School in Park Slope, a flyer for the school school’ss providing role models outside of sports sport and upccomi om m nngg annual ga g la featured vintag ttagge pho- ent ta nntter errttain ert inment. I commend Senator Ham milton toss of w tos wh hite te m te meen in bblac lac acckfa kffaace, k ce, encou ce co rag ging ngg aan and n As A sem sem embly bly bl b l wom o an om a Ric iichar h dson,”” said parent ent ntts to come n o om outt a h haavee a gran an nd time ime. McC McC cCall C ll ll earli lliier. i This,, at a time when mul ulltip u t le studen den de e ts Hamilton and Richardson were juust as hav h ha a e rrepo eppo epo porte teed beinng raci acci cial ciall al y haraasse all sseed at the ss he poi pointe po inte nted d at the rally. sch chool ch oo o ool.

“W “We Wee will not allow Black history to be W At a rece cent ce en rally, lyyy,, Senator Jesse Hamilton erased, to be denigrated or to be put to the an and nd d Assem Assse seemblyywom sem wom man an Dia iana na Ric na Ric Ri ichar ichardso ha dso har ha dson sideli dson ds sid id deli elliinee b by y ign ig g ora gn rance ra n ,” said Hamilton n. joi oined oi d paren paarents, p ren nts, ts,, te ts teachers accher ach errss and ers and studen an tu tud ud u den ent ent ns “IIt “It It’ss im iimp mp mpor ortant nt for our children to know nt out ou o u side the Dr. Betty Shabazz School in that their history is greater than just sllavery Brownsville. The elected officials, along and it’s just greater than one month,” said with the Rev. Kevin McCall of the National October Richardson.25-31 Action Network, are spearheading the New York State students and parents are Black History Class bill calling for year- seeking signs of long-overdue momentum round Black history education in the K-12 on this issue. A resuscitation of the Amistad curriculum. um. The bill has thus far passed in Commission may be the place to start.

A Life Well-Lived: Politicians and Community Members Gather to Honor Community Cult Cullturre Keeper Dr.. Sam Pinn α Continued from page 8 having worked intimately with Pinn for many decades on several social activist and community upliftment efforts. He began his tribute with a popular rallying cry dating back decades ago, that he and Pinn utilized to mobilize community membe membe mbeerrss to action. mb The chant nt we nt went nt lik liike th his is: “We’ We rree fire firred upp,” fired ,”” and many aud udiien ud udien en nce ce member b s responded, “Ain’t going ttoo take kee it nnoo mor mo ore.” e.. Af Afte ter e a while,, ev ven en th ttho h see who may maay not m not ot be be famili fam am mili illiar a with the chant, caught on and consequently the entire room was fired up yet again all these years llater. Rev. Daughtry reflected on Pinn’s work with the National Black United Front, in addition to his being an independent candidate for the state Senate.

Rev. Daughtry also spoke briefly about the moment in history that ignited some of Pinn’s activist work, namely the killing

of Randy Evans in November of 1970. In closing, Rev. Daughtry remembered getting news of his friend’s death and said, “If I had my way, every cruise, every school, every car would stop and revere Sam Pinn.” He added, ed, “Some Some people never die, theirr memm ory y lives ves onn fo forev orever rrev ev ver err.” er.

Th Ho The Honor Honor noorrab no norabl abbllee Leti abl Leti eti titi tiiaa James tia Jaa e , Publ b ic i Advocate and commu mu y daug mu munity ug u g te ghte ter er tto o An ette Ann ettte R ett Robi obin n, obinso obi n, als also ggave avee re ave remar ema ma ks marks. mar ks. k s. Sh She She rem re ememb ememb beredd Dr. Pinn being “a man of few words…sturdy, del e ibe elibe el iberat ib ratee ssile rat ilence ile nce… nc nce … did not have to fill up the th air with empty words.” The Public Advocate also reflected eflected on Dr. Pinn’s “quiet strength, stead dy gaze azze aze ze and warm smile,” and understanding ing that th hat hat ha at “the ties that bind us as a community must never be broken.” She also commented that “spirituality, religion, music and jazz” are all “central tenants in the life of

African-Americans.” It is for that reason that Public Advocate James stressed that the Fort Greene Community Council, “a place where you breathe life into Black people,” must remain emain open. She concluded in saying about Dr. Pinn nn n n, in ess ssence sse n , “His His Hi leegacy leg e aacy eg cy y mu mustt con ntin tinue, uee an u and nd w wee chil illdre drre d ren of dreamers mus mu t protect e these in nsti s tutions… s… … and nd [p nd prrot ro otec eect c ] Cent Cen ent nttral n ral rra a Brrook ooklyn oo lyn lyn ly n ag gain ainsst th the hee h forces fo for ce th ces that that at thr hrreat h e ten to des ea d troy us.”

Dr. Pinn also served for 34 years as an esteemed esteem est eem eem e ed Professor at Ram Ramapo C College l in New Jersey. As a representative of the college w who knew of Pinn’s work, stated sta taatedd, “An An end end en n owm ow w ent will be b created cre reeated in re D Saam Pinn’s Dr. innn inn n’s ’s ho honor hon or and ndd le legac gaaccy”” at at th tthe h institution i where Dr Dr. Pinn worked wo k d ffo or deor d cades. Others that spoke and reflected on the glorious life of Dr. Sam Pinn include Wynton Marsalis, Jr., who gave a statement

on behalf of his father, Wynton Mars rssaal ali l s, Sr. and NYS Regent Dr. Lester Young, M a y 1 7 -2 3 lf of Dr Jr., who gave a statement on behalf Dr. Adelaide Sanford. In addition it to Pinn’s children and an grandchildren, an g andchildren also present gr weree Boro wer orough rough u h Pr Pre dent Ericc Adams, State Presi C mit Co Com i teewoman Olanike Alabi, Judge Ell llen enn Edw Edward Ed arrd ar ard ds, s, Jo Job ob Ma Marsharik ki, co-founder off Black Bla Bla l ckk Vet Veetera eera er rans rans ns ffor fo o Social Justice, NYS Senator Velmanette Montgo omery, Roger Green, Councilwoman ouncilwoman Inez Barron and -31 25 er tob Oc Assemblyman Charles Barron, D.A. Eric Gonzalez and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries.

Priscilla Mensah covers topics related tto o improv imp m ro mp rov oving ov ngg h heealth,, wel eelllne l sss and overall commun com munit mu munit itty em empow powerm po erm erment rm men eent nntt. Shhee is is als alsoo a foral mer H Health alth Reporting Fellow l att th tthe he C CUNY UNY Graduate School of ve Journalism and can be No mber 17 reached at pmensahbrooklyn@gmail.com.