The Colonization of Puerto Rico & The History of African-Americans: 
Same Struggle, Same Fight 
and the Imperative to Free Oscar López Rivera
with
. Jose López, Ex. Dir. Puerto Rican Cultural Center, Chicago IL., 
brother of political prisoner, 70-year-old Oscar  López Rivera
. Dr. Cornel West, America’s most renowned public intellectual, 
author of over 20 books and activist 
. Dr. Samuel Cruz, sociologist of religion, race, Latino studies, 
sexuality and gender, Senior Pastor, Trinity Lutheran Church.   

Cornel West and Samuel Cruz are joined by Jose López to continue the groundbreaking ‘Common Ground and Common Hope: Black & Latino Dialogue’ of 2012 and in the aftermath of their historic trip to Puerto Rico discuss the impact of their recent talks and  connect many of the most pressing moral, spiritual and political issues raised to the ongoing struggle to liberate Oscar López Rivera, a Puerto Rican political prisoner who has been incarcerated for over 32 years.  They draw on Dr. King’s ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ written in April 1963, where he defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism, arguing that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws.  Oscar  López Rivera has been imprisoned since 1981 for seditious conspiracy, directly related to his commitment to the independence of Puerto Rico.  He was not accused of causing harm or taking a life.  He is the longest-held political prisoner in the history of Puerto Rico and Latin America, and among the longest-held political prisoners in the US. He is a caring community organizer; a creative, self-taught artist; a voracious reader; and a  brilliant thinker whose imprisonment constitutes an ongoing human rights violation.

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Hey Gov. Cuomo Your Budget’s Wrong!
with 
Frederick Floss, Executive Director, Fiscal Policy Institute 

When it comes to the state budget  Cuomo's approach is out of focus and falls far short in making the essential public investments to expand opportunities for the millions of New Yorkers in poverty or still struggling to pull away from the great recession of 2008-9. New York State has gone through six years of austerity and that has stretched the financial capacity of its municipalities, schools and agencies to the limit. This isn’t the time for large, multi-year tax cuts paid for with projected surpluses and substantial, unspecified out-year budget cuts.  We’ll shovel through the "budget" and uncover how the steep tax and spending cuts will seriously erode the state’s ability to invest in its people, communities and the infrastructure.

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New York Has the Financial Muscle to Leverage to Combat Inequality 
with 
Connie Razza, Research Dir., Center for Popular Democracy 
and
Arthur Cheliotes, Pres. Local 1180, Communication Workers of America

New York is among the most unequal cities in the US.  This inequality has become the most pressing issue in New York City and New York State.  The good news is New Yorkers are demanding action - and now a broad coalition of organizations has a plan to help create a new economy that serves the needs of working families and their communities.  New York City is uniquely positioned to lead the way in holding Wall Street to a new standard.  The city and its related authorities and has the financial leverage and economic power to demand that Wall Street fundamentally change how it relates to our communities.  New York City should not be a passive participant in a market that is rigged by the financial sector.  With hundreds of billions of dollars to shop on financial services, the City can shape the market.
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State Owned Banks Can Help Revive the Economy
with
Ellen Hodgson Brown 
Chairman and President Of the public banking institute 

Hodgson Brown explains the rationale behind state owned banks. For Michigan, California, Florida, and other states looking to solve their economic problems, the state owned bank model, and the Bank of North Dakota in particular, should be studied in depth, as such a bank could provide the credit needed within that state 
economy during depressions and other tough economic times.

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Part 2 of The Homecoming Tribute for Amiri Baraka Featuring the Euology of his Son Ras Baraka , the Next Mayor of Newark, NJ

The Homecoming tribute of writer and revolutionary icon Amiri Baraka shut down a section of one of downtown Newark’s main streets, dignitary style. African drummers flanked the entry to Newark Symphony Hall, greeting each attendee with ancestral rhythms and setting the tone for what would be a service filled with music, poetry, remembrance and fire; the fire you light when a world-changing, shape-shifting native son has left us.   

Inside, every seat was taken by those who came from around the corner and around  the world for Amiri Baraka, beat poet, Black Nationalist, Marxist, Griot, Shaman, Lighter of Fires; a man whose intellectual and spiritual breadth was reflected in his perpetual search for his truest place in the world and to free others to realize theirs. 

Poet Saul Williams intoned “This is a stick up. Amiri get out of the coffin”– and with that  he conjured up Amiri Baraka’s spirit and lifted ours as did Woody King Jr. and Danny Glover, Asha Bandele, Michael Eric Dyson, Jessica Care Moore and Tony Medina.  And Sonia Sanchez was there with an offering from Maya Angelou. And Sister Souljah was there. And Haki  Madhubuti was there. And Cornel West was there. And Larry Hamm was there.  Oliver Lake, Kevin Maynard and Avery Brooks were there. And Glynn Turman was there. And Ras Baraka was there; the son. The chosen son, the next Mayor of Newark, rhapsodizing, channeling the spirit of his father in an epoch offering - Amiri announcing from the grave the power of a father to shape his son into a reflection of himself and into his own man.

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