Return To Glory

“Any dummy can spew divisive rhetoric to get elected…we need to put words to work toward a common vision to strengthen America wherever we live, learn, work and worship.”

By Stephanie A. Walker and Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired

AMWS, January 1, 2016 Atlanta -- Authors Don Griffin and Joel Freeman co-wrote the book and also co-developed the script of the film, Return To Glory.  But, it was the transition of Original Montford Point Marine, Ozell Sutton from Earth’s labor to “Heaven’s scene” that brought national attention to untold "glory" behind #BlackLivesMatter and #MyBrothersKeeper.

Dr. Joel Freeman is also credited with the 123 minute DVD presentation entitled "A White Man's Journey Into Black History."  The founder of The Freeman Institute is committed to educating a nation on the value of her historically disadvantaged menfolk.  Friends connected as family through the National Basketball Association (NBA) know Freeman as the veteran chaplain of the NBA Washington Wizards for 19 years. 

More recently, the author and chaplain has been engaged in the #BlackLivesMatter and #MyBrothersKeeper movement as a healing asset for the 2016 Presidential campaign.  Freeman’s calming voice in neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson’s spirit offers the marginal and disenfranchised a unique path toward inclusion in that “more perfect union” envisioned in the U.S. Constitution.

As members of the Montford Point Marine Association celebrate the life of Congressional Gold Medal recipient Ozell Sutton, they could only imagine the fruits of their efforts would translate into economic security solutions for “Our Streets, USA.”  

The Montford Point Marines have been reaching out to investors in America’s future to engage them in national service at home.   Their “big picture” approach is embodied in The Marines’ Hymn, “…if the Army and the Navy ever look on Heaven’s scene, they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.” 


The Carson for President Campaign acknowledged the value of Montford Pointers in a national engagement strategy for #HealingAmerica.   The Montford Point Marines have not endorsed the candidate, but have fully committed to working with serious leaders committed to #HealingAmerica.  That includes faith and community leaders. 

The Montford Point Marines have called on fellow beneficiaries of “stolen peoples’ equity” to join forces in modeling “The Beloved Community” envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The worldwide African Methodist Episcopal Church has echoed the call with one for unity in the community, praying for healing during worldwide celebrations of “Freedom’s Eve.” 

In the six-state Atlanta Federal Reserve Region, the national 501c3 public charity Youth Achievers USA Institute has been calling on friends-n-kin to engage in increasing value where they live, learn, work and worship.   Already, Montford Point Marines in the Southeast United States and its Ladies Auxiliary have joined a movement toward developing America’s future leaders. 

A fully funded $1.8 million Montford Point Monument project evidences first fruits of engagement “in appreciation of a grateful nation.”   The City of Kennesaw, GA, Kennesaw State University, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Cobb County, GA are being challenged to forge the mettle it takes to truly honor one U.S. Marine.

Veterans of all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces in Cobb County are getting the call from one local Montford Point chapter as a call for #HealingAmerica.   The veteran-led, #WeAreKENNESAW local engagement initiative connects learning assets of a state university to earning, living and giving assets on Main Street, USA.

“The 2016 race for president can no longer be perceived as a joke,” said Stephanie A. Walker Stradford, CEO, YouthUSA.   “Any dummy can spew divisive rhetoric to get elected,” she said.   “We The People need to put our words to work on a common vision to strengthen America wherever we live, learn, work and worship.”

The Board Chair for Youth Achievers USA Institute is looking for youth and young adults to lead a National Learn-2-Earn campaign and demonstrate America’s commitment to healing thyself.  She has called on the clean comedy team of Willie Brown and Woody to engage the undecided in a campaign for #HealingAmerica.  Your vote for #Woody4President supported through #Gold4Goals is a demonstration of collective corporate will to make business as usual a practice of the past.

#HealingAmerica Events

December 31, 2015 – Any church, ministry or community based organization is invited to join the Montford Point Marines in corporate prayer for #HealingAmerica.   Contact any African Methodist Episcopal Church to “lift a collective community voice” in celebration of “Freedom’s Eve.” 

January 5, 2016 – Formal launch of #WeAreKennesaw as a veteran-led community-engagement campaign in support of #HealingAmerica.

January 18, 2016 -- Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday Parade in Cobb County, GA will honor Original Montford Point Marines as The Grand Marshall’s Detachment.  Any veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces is invited to march or ride in MLK Day Parades in solidarity of #HealingAmerica.

February 27, 2016 --  #WeAreKennesaw will be honored at the SCLC Cobb Annual Gala by the Cobb SCLC Freedom and Justice Fund as a Community Engaged for #HealingAmerica.

"OR ELSE" -- BLUEPRINT FOR ENDING POVERTY

SHARED VIA FACEBOOK By H. Ben Williams, Ed.D.

AMWS, Oct. 14, 2015, Atlanta --  Youth Achievers USA Institute, a national 501c3 public charity, will invest in low income youth beneficiaries to support their economic inclusion.   During the October 10, 2015 A BLUEPRINT FOR ENDING POVERTY AND WANT has been published and made available to supporters of a MILLION MAN MOVEMENT.

The "JUSTICE OR ELSE" theme for the October 10, 2015 20th Anniversary of The Million Man has drawn initial support from local groups such as the Atlanta Local Organizing Committee.  The Reverend Samuel F. Mosteller published recommendations to identify specific "or else's" or issues proposed for collective action.

The recommendations and the “or else’s” listed below were developed out of the Issues Committee of the Atlanta Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for developing the support to the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March held on 10-10-15 on the national mall in Washington, D.C. The Issues Committee was chaired by Reverend Samuel Mosteller and 25 other community leaders.

“……OR ELSE”

Education

• Or else, we will pull our children out of public schools one day per week to give our children a tutorial of true history; who they are according to their ancestry and DNA (Dr. Henry Louis Gates); and help them chart their future.
• Location will be the local churches, synagogues, and mosques
• The tutorial will be a standardized packet of instruction released from a central authority.
• Or else, by legislation demand the veracity and truth of all textbooks used in education with particular focus on slavery, immigration and segregation policy.

Criminal Justice

• Or else, we will start a movement across the country exempting felons who cannot vote from paying any taxes (sales, income, property) Taxation without Representation
• Or else, we are going to exercise our right to a trial by jury for all people of color on every charge across the nation.
• Or else, we will assign people of color to monitor every courtroom every day that court is in session.
• Or else, we will recommend each defendant seek pro-bono representation.
• Or else, we will work to codify the separation of the public defender from the prosecutor’s office and the district attorney’s office.

Economics

• Or else, we will boycott every major holiday beginning with Black Friday, continuing thru Xmas, New Years, and MLK Day. We will buy no clothing, no cars, no jewelry, no large appliances.
• Or else, we will pull our money out of every bank and deposit in Black banks or keep it at home like the Mexicans.
• Every Black family will grow a home garden with a goal of reducing the food bill by 25%.
• Or else, we will stop giving out Black residential information at Point of Sale (POS) because they close the stores more convenient to our residence because they determine how far we will travel to shop.

Politics

• Or else, we are going to ask each Black person to be responsible for getting 5 non-registered voters registered, educated on issues, and mobilized to the polls.
• Or else, we are going to target every politician who does not support our community infrastructure development and/or redevelopment by policy.
• Or else, we will target and recall every politician (Black or White) who is not supportive of Black community issues. We will ensure that they are not re-elected
• Or else, craft court cases to eventually come before the Supreme Court to remove part of personhood of corporations under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
• Or else, craft legislation requiring all native-born Americans to be automatically registered to vote on their 18th birthday
Health
• Or else, we will teach the true history and current methodology of health research using Black people as guinea pigs or subjects.
• Or else, we will demand that all those used as guinea pigs in research specifically Tuskegee experiments and Black women reproductive research that they or their families be financially compensated immediately.
• Or else, we will develop a national oversight structure to record and litigate untoward doctor patient irregularities.
• Or else, design a health mandate to make Medicaid Expansion nationwide and mandatory for all states by including this mandate in the Affordable Healthcare Act.

Family

• Or else, we will set-up a structure to have at least one entrepreneurial element financed nationally for each Black family.
• Or else, we will have continual forums and seminars on financial literacy, estate planning to financially stabilize all families of color.
• Or else, we will change the language regarding single parent families.
• Or else, we will develop a comprehensive support system for single parent families to include daycare, afterschool, and mentoring.

Economic Security for a Million Man Movement

The National Need For Economic Security (...in order to form a more perfect union)

October 10, 2015 -- This week, historically disadvantaged Americans mark the 20^th anniversary of the Million Man March.  Inspired by Minister Louis Farrakhan, a leading group of civil rights activists and the Nation of Islam, working in conjunction with scores of civil rights organizations, including many local chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People formed the Million Man March Organizing Committee. 

On October 16, 1995, the Million Man March event welcomed participants from across the United States to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.   March organizers believed that politicians were failing the black community by “papering over the most vital dimensions of the crisis in international capitalism” and blaming urban blacks for “domestic economic woes that threatened to produce record deficits, massive unemployment, and uncontrolled inflation.”

At the time of the march, African Americans faced unemployment rates nearly twice that of white Americans, a poverty rate of more than 40%, and a median family income that was about 58% of the median for white households. More than 11% of all black males were unemployed and for those aged 16 to 19, the number of unemployed had climbed to over 50%.  

Further, according to Reverend Jesse Jackson’s speech at the March, the United States House of Representatives had reduced funding to some of the programs that played an integral role in urban Americans’ lives. “The House of Representatives cut $1.1 billion from the nation’s poorest public schools,” and “cut $137 million from Head Start” effectively subtracting $5,000 from each classroom’s budget and cutting 45,000 preschoolers from a crucial early education program.

In the 20 years since the historic demonstration, America has consistently fallen short of its own constitutional vision for “a more perfect union.”   A brutal wake-up call on Sept. 11, 2001, quickly matured into a vast Federal bureaucracy for the protection of the Nation.  Public law 107-56 defines critical infrastructure as systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that “their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters.”

From a Million Man March perspective, such a threat exists.  It is evidenced by the reality of a Cradle to Prison Pipeline, a Digital Divide, and Economic Exclusion.  From a legal context, such realities reflect crimes punishable under Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970.   The “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act” or RICO Act offers existing provisions for the recovery of stolen assets.

America’s critical infrastructures are the foundation for the nation’s economic and social vitality, national security, and way of life. They frame citizens’ daily lives and support one of the world’s highest living standards.  The nation’s basic, critical infrastructures must be as robust as possible. Regardless of circumstances, these systems must continue to support the health and well-being of the general population while also enabling basic functionality.

The rollout of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security responded in part to international terrorist threats while perpetuating a culture of fear and intimidation on some historically disadvantaged Americans.   One in a million Black men has assessed this threat as a “gulf of mistrust” between some citizens empowered to enforce homeland security and citizens valued as “minorities” or less than equal. 

As President of the United States of America, the Honorable Barack H. Obama can immediately respond to economic security concerns of a million Black men by commissioning an alternative vision of America’s future.   Among the numerous resources available to the President is the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center.   NISAC was created under a program of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate.  NISAC is a modeling, simulation, and analysis program within DHS comprising program management and outreach personnel in Washington, D.C., and technical staff from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL).

NISAC personnel have examined many sub-systems of the national infrastructure, including energy, water, telecommunications, transportation, and public health. NISAC looks at the interdependencies between these systems to understand how failures in one could disrupt others.  But no NISAC discipline addresses constitutionally sanctioned human rights violations to free Africans in the United States.  Up to now, NISAC has produced no evidence of an inclusive economic security simulation.  

A NISAC simulation based on historical attitudes and behavior concerning “minorities” might establish datasets to address historic disparities.

The Critical Infrastructures Protection Act of 2001 declares it is U.S. policy:

(1) that any physical or virtual disruption of the operation of the critical infrastructures of the United States be rare, brief, geographically limited in effect, manageable, and minimally detrimental to the economy, human and government services, and U.S. national security;

(2) that actions necessary to achieve this policy be carried out in a public-private partnership involving corporate and non-governmental organizations; and

(3) to have in place a comprehensive and effective program to ensure the continuity of essential Federal Government functions under all circumstances.

One Nation Under God Engaging 2.1 Billion Homeland Security Assets

VISION OF THE FUTURE as Three-fifths of a whole person – Conversations among seven republicans elected to the 41st and 42nd U.S. Congress perhaps shaped “the conversation” for constitutional conservatives in generations to come.  Currier and Ives original 1872 image.

By Stephanie A. Walker Stradford and Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired

AMWS, June 30, 2015, Main Street, USA - WE THE PEOPLE lifted a voice last night and gave Washington a piece of our collective mind.  Under a cloud of the latest terrorist threat, freshman Congressman Barry Loudermilk, R GA 11 listened to faithful constituents at his first Main Street, USA Town Hall Meeting.

High on Loudermilk’s to do list is reducing an $18 trillion national debt and increasing the embarrassing low 18% public approval of the 114^th U.S. Congress.  One citizen suggested that Cyber Security might be a good place to start.  Barry’s first bill H.R. 1633 passed the House.  But, this and future bills must find enough trust in the Senate to make it to the President’s desk.  Then, The White House will need to muster some trust before this and future bills are signed into law.  

Trust, or the lack of it, continues to feed a “them vs us” mentality between the three branches of federal government. It divides and does not unite us as one.  A Congress, desperate to bridge a “gulf of mistrust” will need to get busy with “the will of the people” and overcome the label, “do nothing Congress.” 

This won’t be the first national debate about trust.  On February 8, 1954, Rep. Charles Oakman (R-Mich.), introduced a bill on Capitol Hill.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.  Eisenhower declared, "From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.... In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource, in peace or in war." 

The phrase "under God" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, by a Joint Resolution of Congress amending § 4 of the Flag Code enacted in 1942.  The same republican president addressed trust issues in 1954 by declaring the United States of America “One Nation Under God.”

President Eisenhower had recently been baptized a Presbyterian.  He went to church, slept on a conversation that had taken place there, and put faith to work the next day.  A Joint Resolution, passed by the 84th Congress and approved by the President on July 30, 1956, declared IN GOD WE TRUST the national motto of the United States.   Public Law 84-140 might have reflected a Christian’s perspective on the will of God. But, Congress compromised again and again.

Throughout American history, a nation’s greatest achievements have followed one simple act.  Trust God.  If the Homeland is truly One Nation Under God (with liberty and justice for ALL), then 2.1 billion Christians on the planet and one superhero in Heaven has our back. 

Loudermilk, the elected Georgia representative, can start #HealingAmerica where we live, learn, work and worship.  “I don’t trust this president,” stated Loudermilk.  A simple change of heart and message by this Christian might be his first step in championing Main Street’s vision of America’s future.  A problem that seems too big for us as ordinary men and women can become a 21^st century prototype for Congressional leadership.  Each American can choose to believe “One Nation Under God” is possible as a common vision for America’s future. 

A new attitude for political leaders in One Nation Under God follows one business example.  “Feel, Felt, Found” is one response for #HealingAmerica.  “I know how you FEEL. I FELT the same way, too. Then I FOUND.”  Instead of “I don’t trust the president,” try, “I know how you feel. I didn’t trust the president, either. Then, I was elected by WE THE PEOPLE to go to Washington, DC. to establish a more perfect union.  I found that the will of ALL the people impacts my will, and the will of God ultimately impacts the vision of our future.”

In reality, today, America is divided and does not see the vision.  Contrary to the belief of some, too many Americans perceived a “Contract for America” as a “Contract On America.”  Too many Americans saw the “New Deal” as a “Raw Deal.” And, too many Americans see the American Dream as a “Dream Deferred.”

“Every day, Americans are losing more and more of our freedoms. The Founders understood that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. As we approach Independence Day, it is important to be reminded that our Founders believed trust in God and a firm commitment to the cause of freedom is what would preserve our nation,” stated Loudermilk. 

So, as one in 2.1 Billion believers in Jesus The Christ, what is your vision for America’s future?