While searching for funding opportunities for our nonprofit, we found a grant on www.grants.gov.
A few of us read the 39-page instructions and we knew that we had to submit the proposal on http://www.sam.gov but what we did not understand is that, although our grant writer had set up our account over nine months ago, all of the other steps were not taken. First, we had not registered the company this year. Second, we had not appointed an entity administrator, which required a notarized form letter signed by the appointee, then, scanned and uploaded to this site www.fsd.gov
Ironically, the people who I communicated with from Sam.gov were all either Black, African American, or some other title of a person of color born in the U.S.A. Their names were Earline Fair Edwards, Jaylin, and his supervisor was a young lady named Lucky.
I made sure that we were on a recorded line and told each of them that this system was either rigged to be difficult to prevent a mass amount of people from accessing the grant monies or some similar scenario. It too from June 1, 2022, until August to get my address changed in this system. That is ridiculous. Ms. Edwards had to go into my account, physically, with me on the phone to affirm that the change got done.
Each conversation I had with a representative was recorded and I am so sure my frustration bled through. Then, I went to YouTube, where you can learn how to do anything, and I found this video collection that is only six months old. I suppose they got enough complaints about the site to inform people how to navigate it. The problem is that you must be computer savvy, you must register with three different sites, and you must remember what to do and where to go to do it.
First, let me say that this is the most frustrating process that I have ever encountered.
I submitted our nonprofit to Sam.gov over nine months ago. It took two months just to get our address changed in this system. Now, I am trying to submit a NEH Grant and find out that our company is not verified. I uploaded a notarized letter appointing me as the Entity Administrator but it will take up to 6 days for someone to verify it. We need another person listed in order to upload the grant documentation.
Does that person need to have a notarized letter, too?
You cannot reach anyone at your office on the phone. Your instructions are click this, click that, click the other. This system is in sore need of simplifying. It is not user-friendly in any way at all.
I just called your number and was told the wait time is 63 minutes. That is absurd.
Can someone please call me at the number below, so I can get some help with this issue.
Then, I got a message that there was no address on our letterhead, which is not true. I’m just sayin’.
Do you see our address?
This is an impossible system managed by incompetent and arrogant people. Only Mrs. Edwards gets my thumbs up. The rest of the staff is belligerent, arrogant, and not serving their citizenry. They need to learn some soft skills like customer service. I say this because Lucky hung up, after saying, “Our agents cannot stay on the phone with you. Contact your tax accountant for help.”
Then, Lucky called me back and made sure I got everything done. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
What do you think?
I’m just sayin’!
This system needs an overhaul and the people working there need customer service training.
People come in all sizes and shapes but nowhere on them is a label that says, “Do not trust!” ~ Dr. JC
I have been defrauded by the handyman who has worked for me and my daughter for two years. He took my money and did not pay the people he brought in to do the work. Please see the attached statement for details.
September 7, 2022
John Hardgraves was working on my tiny house, in Clarendon NC. Someone stole my refrigerator, stovetop, and dishwasher from Lowe’s in Whiteville, on August 1, 2022, three weeks after my back surgery in Wilmington, NC. John had my Lowe’s credit card that he did not return to me. I gave it to him before I went to Wilmington. There was only $9 on it.
I spent $6,981 on materials and appliances. I reported it stolen and requested a new card for me and my daughter. Later, the Whiteville Detective discovered that the goods went missing from the Lowe’s warehouse. Lowe’s refunded all of the money on my credit card. Then, I read an article about Target and Lowe’s missing millions of dollars of inventory. So, I presumed that the warehouse manager took the goods.
The new contractor ex-state trooper Richard Capps insisted that I go to Lowe’s and see what they were holding for me. Two of five items showed on hold. Lowe’s records showed that three of five appliances on hold were picked up on August 1, 2022. I was recovering in an Airbnb in Fayetteville. The refrigerator, dishwasher, and stovetop are not in the house, nor the shed located at 194 Ed Ward Road, Clarendon, NC 28432.
The stackable washer and dryer and the shower door were still at Lowe’s. Someone took the refrigerator, dishwasher, and stovetop that added up to $2000, the exact amount of John’s last unpaid invoice. My daughter, Mimi, who hired him in 2020, fired him two weeks after the appliances had been picked up without my permission or knowledge. So, his actions may have been premeditated if he took them.
I made a police report at Lowe’s and waited for the police to report who picked up the refrigerator, stovetop, and dishwasher without my permission. At the end of June, July, and August, I called Lowe’s to ask for an extension of time to hold my five appliances. I received a call back from the manager, at the end of August. He said they could keep the appliances for another month only. We did not discuss the items being held, during this conversation, because I did not know that John Hardgraves has picked three of them up on August 1st, until the new contractor Richard Capps informed me that he went to Lowe’s to see what was being held for me. At Lowe’s, Capps learned that there were only two items not five on hold.
John Hardgraves threatened to file a mechanic’s lien. He had no contract. His work was that of a 12-year-old, according to the new contractor who reworked the electrical panel, water heater, and electrical outlets, and invoiced me $817 for the labor.
They are pulling the store video at Lowe’s. I’m pressing charges because we’ve paid John Hardgraves every dime that he invoiced us for since 2020. He overcharged for removing an old house. Nothing he did was right except mowing the lawn and his old cousin did that.
John Hardgraves invoiced me once for drywall, then another time for sheetrock, which is the same thing. The new contractor and another builder both said the drywall looked like it had been done by a 12-year-old. There is still a lot of drywall work to do to make the job right.
Hardgrave’s cousin Robbie and his son Hoss were supposed to be doing the work. But the last time I was at the house when they were there, Robbie told me that he worked a 10-hour job then came to do this work on my house. John was not paying the people who did the work for him. That’s why his cousin wound up coming to do the work. In addition, John’s nephew Timothy Marlowe was paid to do the plumbing. His quote was for $5,400. I paid him half to get supplies. He never finished the work.
The electrician we hired Anthony Lewis from Fuquay Electric never finished the work we contracted him to do, either. We never paid the final invoice for $338 because he did not come to finish the work. According to him, he did not answer to John who was a handyman telling him where to put the outdoor electrical panel. So, he dropped off the job. We paid John $338 to finish the outlets, but they were never done. Also, I paid for lighting fixtures that he picked up from Lowe’s, but they are nowhere to be found. That charge is on my credit card.
Around the time he took the appliances, we asked John Hardgraves to leave the keys because I thought I lost my set. But I found them hanging on my cooler. He asked us if we were firing him then. We said no because we did not intend to fire him.
So, he went and got my appliances because he had the order number and knew the people in the Lowe’s warehouse. told my daughter that he was a liar. Now, we know he’s a thief, too.
I’m exhausted from this process. I have been taken advantage of by people I paid to do a job for me. They left the house a mess. I paid Richard Capps to clean the house up and pay the electrician to repair and rearrange electrical apparatus in the amount of $1,000.
To date, this project has cost me $60,499.26. I paid John Hardgraves $6,690 from my account and $3,939 on credit cards for a total of $10,629. There is an outstanding invoice for $2,050.
My daughter was referred to John Hardgraves in 2020 by our realtor Kip Nance who sold us 9.5 acres of land without disclosing that at least 6 acres are in a flood zone. The 3.5 acres we put the house and sheds on perked. The rest of the land is in the flood zone. Kip referred only John to us. He did not give a list of professional contractors. John maintained the lawn, after the cornstalks were removed. We trusted John because we had a relationship with him. But he defrauded us in every way.
Dr. Joan Cartwright
Mimi Johnson
Clarendon, NC
Attachments:
Photos of the house before and after the new contractor cleaned up the house.
After the cleanup by the new contractor
The moral of the story is “Do not trust anyone, especially workmen who take your money and promise to do the work but hire incompetent people whom they do not pay. This is a harrowing experience. Check and double-check anyone you hire to work for you. People, today, are desperate, greedy, and deceitful. They have no respect for seniors, women, or anyone they think they can bilk for money.
Needless to say, I am making every effort to resolve this issue. Today, I spoke with a Whiteville Police Department Detective. Last night, I submitted this statement to the Columbus County District Attorney. Now, I need to file a report with Columbus County State Troopers. It’s an ordeal but must be done.
When will we have enough of white men working steadily to wage war on women, people of color, government, the economy, the environment, ecology, and the planet?
Let’s focus on:
Mississippi voter’s rights and water
Past presidents who abuse their privilege to run the country
Dumbing down of students who cannot read, write, think, or converse
Generational wealth through real estate ownership
A damaging economy that enables cheesy, greedy landlords to raise the rent and cause whole families to become homeless
Eastern wars on their own people
The right for people to live and love how and whom they please
The incoming Biden-Harris administration reflects the diversity of Americans.
“I did my brother a grievous wrong, and I will never forgive him!” When I first read that statement years ago in Utne Magazine, I was baffled. If I did my brother wrong, wouldn’t it be me that needed forgiveness? Reading on, I saw the meaning which I think it is incredibly relevant to America today: When you’ve acted inhumanly to your fellow members of the human race, you can repent it OR you can keep insisting that THEY MUST HAVE DESERVED IT. Otherwise you, an upstanding member of society, could never have acted that way. So you have to keep piling coals of fire upon your brother’s head to justify your actions and avoid being repulsed by yourself. Today we are seeing a culmination of 400 years of misplaced blame in America. “We have to take our country back!” is a macabre example, considering that the people uttering those words descend from those who massacred millions of indigenous people that were here long before Europeans invaded. “They’re going to take our jobs and give them to the lazy Blacks!” is another common mantra. Disrespect reigns for anyone not white, such as that expressed even by someone as privileged as a member of the board of the Naval Academy Alumni Association, who unwittingly broadcast himself saying hateful slurs. As a Black woman who has learned America’s history at the pivotal places where it happened in the National Park System, I confess I sometimes feel a little smug. Because it requires an astounding lack of knowledge about our country’s history to claim that it was once “white” and a colossal level of self-deception to pretend that non-white Americans are lazy. Could it be that revulsion to their ancestors’ actions at events such as the massacre at Sand Creek force today’s racists to maintain their antipathy towards their non-white brothers and sisters? Could the need to be able to stomach or excuse the actions of their forebears propel them to claim a shallow ‘superiority?’ Because it is stomach churning: “… in late autumn of 1864, about 1,000 Cheyenne and Arapaho lived in tepees here, at the edge of what was then reservation land. Their chiefs had recently sought peace in talks with white officials and believed they would be unmolested at their isolated camp. “When hundreds of blue-clad cavalrymen suddenly appeared at dawn on November 29, a Cheyenne chief raised the Stars and Stripes above his lodge. Others in the village waved white flags. The troops replied by opening fire with carbines and cannon, killing at least 150 Indians, most of them women, children and the elderly. Before departing, the troops burned the village and mutilated the dead, carrying off body parts as trophies. . .” I need not document the industriousness of African Americans in farming, building, metalwork, defense and even saving America’s economy. and instead refer you to some of those parks that commemorate that history at the places where it happened, African American Heritage. Americans of every race and ethnicity contributed to the development of our country and can find sites in the National Park System where their contributions were pivotal to getting us where we are today. The humanity of white Americans is similarly on display. I’m not a psychologist (though I could play one on TV.) But I believe it’s important to investigate all the potential triggers that are leading our white brothers and sisters to act out in such a paroxysm of rage. A few cautions I might share from the System which protects the “natural, cultural and historic” treasures of our great Republic: A civil war is no joke, as the graves at these national parks attest, and the suffering recorded at sites such as Andersonville National Historic Site place them off my list, (although my life goal is to visit all 400-plus units in the system.) 750, 000 dead and untold numbers injured. For what purpose would the losing side want to repeat that in 2021?! I read about a tribe in Africa where, when a member has transgressed, the elders take them out into the village square. There, the villagers sing and dance around them, reminding them how good they are and that they are a vital part of the community. When the transgressor has repented, the tribe takes him back into the village. I wish we could do that for these American transgressors. Because a house divided against itself cannot stand. I’d tell them, “Your brothers and sisters who’ve been so terribly wronged don’t hold it against you. We just want to move on as humans together on a level playing field, to make real what we Americans committed to centuries ago, ‘with Liberty and Justice for all.’ ” How about it? There’s a brighter day in view and I embrace it wholeheartedly.
Thanks to Audrey Peterman of Earthwise Productions, Inc. in Fort Lauderdale for permission to repost this message.
The year 2020 brought devastating events that shook the foundations of nations, worldwide. Aside from the political ranting of a narcissistic leader, the United States suffered catastrophic deaths due to COVID-19.
Hellish fires in California destroyed thousands of residences, leaving thousands of people homeless, and increasing the number of homeless in America.
This message was in my email, today. It outlines some solutions to the economic disparity experienced by people of color in the USA, during the pandemic.
Dear All People’s Day friends,
Wednesday night Elliott and I were on an NAACP call that included Nancy Pelosi and other congressional officials who are trying to help in this time of need. We learned that people of color are the largest group impacted by the Coronavirus. Many are the most exposed because their jobs are considered essential and they won’t get paid if they don’t go to work. Jim Crow laws hadn’t allowed them to save funds for a rainy day and stay home plus many people of color have compromised health issues because of prejudice against them in the health system. I have heard many stories about this neglect throughout the years but no one has amassed scientific data. Thus, people of color have the highest death rate from the Coronavirus in the US.
In the spirit of All People’s Day inclusion, here is a way you can help them and everyone in this time of need.
Call Governor Ron DeSantis 1(850) 717-9337
Senator Marco Rubio (561) 775-3360
Senator Rick Scott (202) 224-5274
Congresswoman Lois Frankel (561) 998-9045
Ask them to support the following issues:
THESE ARE ISSUES THAT WILL BE HELPFUL IN OUR BATTLE AGAINST THE CORONAVIRUS
Expand Medicaid throughout the country
Since people of color have the highest death rate keep track of racial demographics about people with the virus so zip codes can pinpoint testing sites. Also, make public transportation to the sites available.
Increase the amount of Food Stamps.
In the next cash infusion: a) Include small businesses owned by people of color that have not been able to get the stimulus loans because they cannot afford to use a bank that requires a certain balance. b) Other institutions like Credit Unions should be approved for distributing the money. c) 501c3 nonprofits and churches should be treated like small businesses for the loans. If 75% is given to workers the business loans are forgiven.
Vote by mail for all states due to the Coronavirus
The End of the European Union
The NO-Brexit-Deal
The start sign for RV-implementation
Knowledge is Power
Source: Final Wakeup Call
More than 20 years ago over 200 nations agreed to reestablish the value of all currencies of all nations. They all agreed to change it from the production of profits from earning of the nation to the actual in-ground unmined assets precious metals, oil natural gas, and many other rare earth assets. Today, 209 nations are in agreeance. Some countries have honest objectives, while some have criminal objectives making it a very slow process that is finally about to be completed. RV stands for “revaluation” of internationally recognized currencies in relation to the new gold standard re-instituted to solve the global debt crisis, quietly, via international treaty and soon to be announced.
The world’s poorest nations in Africa and Asia have the most valuable deposits of very valuable minerals, metals, and rare earth. Some of these poor nations will become some of the worlds wealthiest nations overnight when their currencies are revalued according to there in-ground assets. Three currencies that are expected to rise tremendously are in Zimbabwe (Zim), Iraq (Dinar), and Vietnam (Dong). As a result, world financial power will change, tremendously, in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy of the wealth of the unrighteous being stored up for the righteous (Proverbs 13:22 and Job 27:17).
When honest people of the world benefit and poverty is eliminated, humanitarian projects will be the norm.
Long before NESARA, a project was born to restore the United States of America to its original Constitution of the Republic, and to remove the structure of the Corporate United States. This project began in the early 1950s and involved intelligent and patriotic minds of both civilian and military background. These people over the years became known as the White Knights. Out of this restoration process came the Prosperity Programs, the Farmer Claims, and finally NESARA.
The children of the wealthy families on our planet became concerned about the future of our civilization when they observed the poverty, disease, starvation, and suffering of the masses. They saw the imbalance between the wealth of the few and the destitution of the many and agreed among themselves to try to correct it. One hundred of these wealthy children, who came to be known as “wealthy visionaries”, put one million dollars each, of their money, into investment programs in the 1980s called “roll programs” to generate funds to be used for humanitarian purposes. Thus, the Prosperity Programs were born. Gradually, news spread to the public and millions of people invested small amounts of their meager funds to aid in the success of these various Prosperity Programs.
Also, during the 1970s and 1980s, many U.S. farmers were losing their land, machinery, buildings, and cattle due to fraudulent foreclosures by the Federal Reserve Banks, in cooperation with the IRS. Many farmers joined forces and brought a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Government, the non-federal Federal Reserve Bank, and the IRS, for fraud against the farmers.
GESARA
The Global Economic Security and Reform Act is a global prosperity program on the verge of being announced and activated. This program is backed by precious metals deliverable well above quattuordecillion of US dollars (40 zeros).
All 8 billion of the human population will benefit from GESARA and the Earth will finally be free to experience itself as the abundant planet it was created to be. Few realize that there is more than enough gold to make all human currencies in circulation. This means that any and every human being could become a multi-millionaire instantly without debt of any kind if only given the resources.
GESARA is about sharing the gold resources saved from humanity to humanity with humanity for humanity around the planet in a fair way without any individual on Earth being out of reach of GESARA wealth redistribution program. And no individual or organization anywhere on Earth will be able to stop GESARA once it starts.
The volume of GESARA will cancel all debts of credit cards, mortgages and other bank debts due to the illegal and corrupt form of banking and government activity around the world. The income tax will be abolished as well, as GESARA will make personal taxes monetarily unnecessary.
A new 14% single rate tax on new non-core items will provide a sustainable revenue stream for all national governments after GESARA. There will be greater benefits for the elderly and children after GESARA.
Thus, after the announcement of the GCR / RV, we will be exchanging ZIM, DINAR, Ruphia, Dong with all the humanitarian aid projects required to participate in the larger NDA rates. You can participate in this great humanitarian project of prosperity, your registration will be on the first list of beneficiaries.
For this, you must register. Soon the payments must be announced and you are no longer able to register. After registration, you will get real-time GCR/RV updates. For your currency holder ZIM, DONG, DINAR, after your registration, we will be passing all exchange instructions. Register here
What is this all about?
BREXIT will grant every nation their own tools to abandon the Eurozone straightjacket rules. In turn, nations will regain their sovereign independence, instead of dictating the severe restrictions on freedom of action or expression by the unelected EU-clowns. All nations will be able to rightly reclaim what never should have been sacrificed in the first place, the right to govern themselves.
The Cabal was the name given to five ministers who advised Charles II after the dismissal of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. The title ‘Cabal’, despite its sinister overtones term-wise, came from the surnames or titles held by the five men in the Cabal. The Cabal operated between 1667 and 1673.
The old traditional view was that Charles took the opportunity after the dismissal of Clarendon to extend his own power at the expense of Parliament. However, the more modern view is that Charles needed Parliament for financial reasons and could not dispense with them but that he used domestic and international problems to his advantage when given the opportunity to do so. In this, he was no different from other recent monarchs – through the end of his father, Charles I, meant that Charles II had to tread carefully.
The five men who Charles gathered around him to push for what he wanted were:
Thomas Clifford
Sir Henry Bennet, Baron Arlington
George Buckingham
Anthony Ashley
John Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale
These men should have been united in what they sort to achieve. However, the politics of the day meant that the five men in the Cabal were keen to assist the king but as keen to be seen by him as being the most important member of the Cabal with the most influence. Therefore, infighting between the men and political intrigue was common.
“The ministers had no common policy or aim and their greatest concern was their own advancement and that of their supporters. To achieve this they were more than willing to discredit each other.” (N Fellows)
The two most dominant members of the Cabal were Clifford and Arlington. The latter was a Member of Parliament and held a number of important political positions, including sitting on the Committee for Foreign Affairs. Despite its title, this committee also dealt with internal security and members on it would have been privy to a great deal of confidential information.
There is little doubt among historians that a pecking order existed within the Cabal. Each man presumably wanted to advance his own influence and that could only have occurred at the expense of the other four. With all five members of the Cabal doing the same, it is doubtful if they could have fully focussed their attention on what they were meant to be doing – advising the king on policy issues.
“The council (Cabal) consists of ministers with a mortal hatred of one another, who seek only to be avenged upon each other at the expense of their master’s service; this means that there is great uncertainty in the resolutions which are taken that one can never be sure of anything.” (French Ambassador to England)
The WSP has wrecked havoc around the planet since its inception. “The first signs of patriarchy were the ancient humans of the Neolithic Era, which encompassed from about 10,200 BCE to between 4,500 and 2,000 BCE, who relied on a system where men were the hunters of a tribe and women the gatherers” [Source].
The idea of ownership and stewardship might have been a good one at the time it was first developed. But the idea has spiraled into a disease all over the planet for non-male, non-white people.
“During this time, the realization occurred that it took a male and female to produce offspring. It is theorized that with this realization, these Neolithic men first became aware in their role in paternity. These same men also began to take private ownership over their individual herds. Prior to this development, the people of the Paleolithic Era had shared both land and supplies. With this new concept of ownership came the desire to have private herds left to the descendants of the owner. Because of this new desire, it became necessary for women to be virgins before marriage and for them to abstain from adultery after marriage so that men could have the reassurance that their offspring were their own (Lerner). With this new control over women began the earliest patriarchal families” [Source].
Here we are in 2018, over 12, 000 years later and NOTHING has changed???
What is wrong with women? Are they simply afraid of men? White women support the White Supremacy Patriarchy. Why? We need to find the answer and change this paradigm, NOW! Black women have known since slavery that they could not rely on being protected by black men. Asian men made laws to drown the first child if it is a girl. This is absolute insanity!
If they are blind to the terror and torment they have caused on the planet, perhaps, it is time women pluck out men’s eyes and feed them to the fish!
We need conscious teachers who will teach our girls to be truthseekers and defenders of the rights of all people. We need teachers who will teach our boys to play fair and respect the rights of all people.
If this doesn’t happen soon, the women of the world will lose the fight for equality, equal pay, and respect for their bodies. Meanwhile, white men will continue to marginalize everyone until they are stranded in a sea of irrelevance.
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY MORE TIMELY THAN EVER
By Dinizulu Gene Tinnie
It is a fair guess that most Americans consider slavery to be a thing of the past, officially ended in the US in 1865, although more thoughtful minds among us are keenly aware that “the peculiar institution” of slavery, which defined most of this country’s history, lives on today in many forms, such as the prison system, sharecropping, migrant labor camps, under the cover of the foster care system, and among the millions of workers who are not paid a living wage.
And perhaps most Americans are vaguely aware of global worker exploitation to produce everything from raw materials and components for our most sophisticated technological gadgets to the cheapest novelties and trinkets possible, but few dare call this system of production by its truthful name of slavery.
It may also be easily forgotten that slavery, as we will recall from the history of the Middle Passage which forcibly brought millions of Africans across the ocean, also includes human trafficking, and the brutal, exploitative practices of that barbaric business, such as extortion of the wages of the survivors who find illegal employment in wealthy nations, not to mention those, often children, sold into sex trafficking.
A Day of Awareness
It is with such concerns in mind that the United Nations, has designated December 2 (a date known in American history as the anniversary of the 1859 hanging of Abolitionist John Brown) as an International Day of awareness to call global attention to the pervasive crimes of slavery in our time.
According to the UN, “The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, 2 December, marks the date of the adoption, by the General Assembly, of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution 317[IV] of 2 December 1949).”
The UN further explains:
Slavery is not merely a historical relic. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) more than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery. Although modern slavery is not defined in law, it is used as an umbrella term covering practices such as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking. Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power.
In addition, more than 150 million children are subject to child labour, accounting for almost one in ten children around the world.
Facts and figures:
• An estimated 40.3 million people are in modern slavery, including 24.9 in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriages.
• There are 5.4 victims of modern slavery for every 1,000 people in the world.
• 1 in 4 victims of modern slavery are children.
• Out of the 24.9 million people trapped in forced labour, 16 million people are exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture; 4.8 million people in forced sexual exploitation, and 4 million people in forced labour imposed by state authorities.
• Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors.
(Further information from the UN is available at these links:
While the International Day is welcomed for calling attention to the many forms and magnitude of modern slavery, it is even more important as an occasion for awareness of actions and solutions, as those who are victimized, directly or indirectly, find ways to address the problem.
For example, in a timely fashion, the regular “Building Bridges” program on independent nonprofit New York radio station WBAI-FM, shares this notice via the Internet:
Farmworker women launch their “Harvest Without Violence” campaign to end sexual violence in Wendy’s fast food supply chain featuring The Coalition of Immokalee [Florida] Workers
Now, amidst the stories that are surfacing about sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape against women, too often low-wage woman workers have been subjected to sexual violence against their person in their workplace, but their voices have oftentimes been eclipsed. And, we barely think about the workers who are responsible for the bounty of food on our tables.
So, “Building Bridges” is off to join the formidable farmworker women leaders of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (“CIW”) for a major “Harvest without Violence” march. The CIW Women’s Group traveled to the Big Apple to demand a meeting with Wendy’s Board Chairman and major shareholder Nelson Peltz to share their powerful stories and demand Wendy’s do its part to end sexual violence in the fields. Join the farmworkers in their Boycott Wendy’s march through Midtown Manhattan to Trian Partners, the multi-billion dollar asset management firm founded by Nelson Peltz, the non-executive chairman of The Wendy’s Company, based in New York. Declare that farmworker women should not have to surrender their dignity for the right to put food on their families’ tables!
Year-Round Awareness, Action, and Support
This single example, like the single day dedicated to the Abolition of modern Slavery, serves as a reminder of how many similar situations exist and how many more days of the year there are which demand awareness and resolve by thoughtful citizens everywhere to abolish all forms of modern slavery and ensure social justice, as articulated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In America, these concerns become increasingly timely as traditional jobs are increasingly lost to automation or shipped overseas, real wages remain flat while living costs increase, graduates enter limited job markets burdened with student loan debt, and the great divide between the wealthiest few and the vast majority continues to widen, aided and abetted by complicit political leadership, all of which threaten us with new, much broader forms of actual slavery by other names.
The incoming Biden-Harris administration reflects the diversity of Americans.
The End of the European Union
Words We Speak 