#First Ministers Conference 1985

[kerrycoast]

Archive Quarterly ~ journal of the west wasn't won archive project. Spring 2025 edition

[atotaltaitaitale]

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Wednesday Wanderings and Wonderings - Journées Européenne du Patrimoine* Edition.

Got to visit the beautiful building of La Cour des Comptes (Cour of Audit) and learn about the ins and outs of the institution.

The Cour des Comptes ("Court of Accounts") is France's supreme audit institution, under French law an administrative court. As such, it is independent from the legislative and executive branches of the French Government. However, the 1946 and 1958 French constitutions made it the Court's duty to assist the Cabinet and Parliament in regulating government spending. The Court thus combines functions of a court of exchequer, comptroller general's office, and auditor general's office in common-law countries. It is also a Grand Corps of the French State and mainly recruits among the best-ranked students graduating from the Ecole nationale d'administration.

*European Heritage Days (EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission involving all 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto, Europe: a common heritage. The annual programme offers opportunities to visit buildings, monuments and sites, many of which are not normally accessible to the public. It aims to widen access and foster care for architectural and environmental heritage. The event began in France in 1984, with La Journée portes ouvertes dans les monuments historiques, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture. In 1985, in Granada, at the 2nd European Conference of Ministers responsible for Architectural Heritage, the French Minister of Culture proposed that the project be internationalised under the Council of Europe. The Netherlands held their first Open Monumentendag in 1987. Sweden and the Republic of Ireland joined in 1989, as well as Belgium and Scotland in 1990. In 1991 these events were united as European Heritage Days at the initiative of the Council of Europe, supported by the EU. By 2010, 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention had joined the EHDs.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.4 (after 1900)

1901 – McKinley inaugurated president for second time; Theodore Roosevelt is vice president. 1908 – The Collinwood school fire, Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people. 1909 – U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution's Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State. 1913 – First Balkan War: The Greek army engages the Turks at Bizani, resulting in victory two days later. 1913 – The United States Department of Labor is formed. 1917 – Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives. 1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the 32nd President of the United States. He was the last president to be inaugurated on March 4. 1933 – Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet. 1933 – The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure – Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates an authoritarian rule by decree. 1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands; the first large scale British Commando raid. 1943 – World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the south-west Pacific comes to an end. 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Fardykambos, one of the first major battles between the Greek Resistance and the occupying Royal Italian Army, begins. It ends on 6 March with the surrender of an entire Italian battalion and the liberation of the town of Grevena. 1944 – World War II: After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin. 1946 – Field Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim, the 6th president of Finland, resigns from his position for health reasons. 1955 – An order to protect the endangered Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) is legalized. 1957 – The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90. 1960 – The French freighter La Coubre explodes in Havana, Cuba, killing 100. 1962 – A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 – the worst crash of a DC-7. 1966 – A Canadian Pacific Air Lines DC-8-43 explodes on landing at Tokyo International Airport, killing 64 people. 1966 – In an interview in the London Evening Standard, The Beatles' John Lennon declares that the band is "more popular than Jesus now". 1970 – French submarine Eurydice explodes underwater, resulting in the loss of the entire 57-man crew. 1976 – The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London by the British parliament. 1977 – The 1977 Vrancea earthquake in eastern and southern Europe kills more than 1,500, mostly in Bucharest, Romania. 1980 – Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister. 1985 – The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for HIV infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States. 1986 – The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus. 1990 – American basketball player Hank Gathers dies after collapsing during the semifinals of a West Coast Conference tournament game. 1990 – Lennox Sebe, President for life of the South African Bantustan of Ciskei, is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by Brigadier Oupa Gqozo. 1994 – Space Shuttle program: the Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-62. 1996 – A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin (USA) causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days. 1998 – Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex. 2001 – BBC bombing: A massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring one person; the attack was attributed to the Real IRA.

[lboogie1906]

Prime Minister Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham (February 20, 1923 - August 6, 1985) Prime Minister of Guyana (1966-80), and President of the nation (1980-85) was one of the Caribbean region’s most controversial political leaders. He was Prime Minister of Guyana during the last years of British colonial rule (1964-66).

He was born in Kitty. He won a scholarship to study at the University of London and received a JD.

He was a descendant of formerly enslaved Africans who were brought to what was British Guiana.

He would emerge as the leader of the Indo-Guyanese people while he led the Afro-Guyanese. British colonial administrators, afraid of the more radical Jagan, made him the Premier of British Guiana during the last years of their rule.

They were bitter rivals, both British and US intelligence services fearful that the more radical Jagan might become the new nation’s leader, they helped engineer a constitutional conference in London involving Guiana’s political leaders who agreed to proportional representation voting.

Jagan’s party received 45 percent of the vote and his PNC received 40 percent, but the new constitution required a 50 percent majority of votes for a party to form a government. He and the PNC allied with a small conservative party and formed a coalition government, allowing him to become Premier.

He changed direction and promoted Guyana’s alliance with Cuba, the Soviet Union, and other communist nations. He declared Guyana a “cooperative republic,” nationalized all foreign-controlled major industries, and banned all imports into the nation. He led Guyana as a dictator supported by his People’s National Party. He won the first presidential election despite large defections even from his Afro-Guyanese supporters.

He left behind his second wife, Viola Burnham, and six children. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[currentmediasstuff]

These 5 People Have Been Awarded Bharat Ratna This Year

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced that former prime ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh and agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan will be conferred Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award.

Usually, three Bharat Ratna awards are given in a year. However, this year, the government has named five people for Bharat Ratna, including veteran BJP leader LK Advani and former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur.

PV Narasimha Rao served as the prime minister from June 21, 1991 to May 16, 1996.

He was born in 1921 in Andhra Pradesh’s Karimnagar and studied at Osmania University in Hyderabad, Bombay University, and Nagpur University.

An agriculturist and an advocate, he also served as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

These 5 People Have Been Awarded Bharat Ratna This Year PM Modi has announced that Narasimha Rao, Charan Singh and MS Swaminathan will be conferred Bharat Ratna

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced that former prime ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh and agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan will be conferred Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award.

Usually, three Bharat Ratna awards are given in a year. However, this year, the government has named five people for Bharat Ratna, including veteran BJP leader LK Advani and former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur.

PV Narasimha Rao PV Narasimha Rao served as the prime minister from June 21, 1991 to May 16, 1996.

He was born in 1921 in Andhra Pradesh’s Karimnagar and studied at Osmania University in Hyderabad, Bombay University, and Nagpur University.

An agriculturist and an advocate, he also served as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

He was also the Minister for External Affairs from January 14, 1980, to July 18, 1984, the Minister of Home Affairs from July 1984 to December 1984, and the Minister of Defence from December 1984 to September 1985.

Charan Singh Born in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut in 1902, Charan Singh served as the prime minister from July 28, 1979 to January 14, 1980.

He was first elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1937 from Chhaprauli. He represented the constituency in 1946, 1952, 1962 and 1967.

MS Swaminathan Born in 1925, MS Swaminathan is popularly known as the father of the Green Revolution in India.

He obtained a BSc degree in Zoology from the Maharajas College in Thiruvananthapuram, and also in Agricultural Sciences from the Coimbatore Agricultural College.

He also got his MSc degree in Agricultural Sciences (specializing in genetics and plant breeding) from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), and PhD degree from Cambridge University, UK.

LK Advani BJP leader LK Advani had been the BJP national president from 1986–90, 1993–98, and 2004–05.

Capping a parliamentary career of nearly three decades, Mr Advani was first the Home Minister and later, the Deputy Prime Minister in the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet from 1999 to 2004.

Karpoori Thakur Born in Bihar’s Samastipur District in 1924, Karpoori Thakur served as the chief minister of the state twice, first from December 1970 to June 1971 and then from December 1977 to April 1979.

He had been a mentor to many current generation leaders of the state, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Bharat Ratna was instituted in 1954 and any person without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex is eligible for these awards.It is awarded in recognition of exceptional service or performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour.

The recommendations for the award are made by the Prime Minister himself to the President. On conferment of Bharat Ratna, the recipient receives a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion.

[charleswebsterbaer]

song jian

song jian , the first and best depopulationist , according to charles webster baer of redmond oregon usa in 2024 . . . .

Song Jian

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In this Chinese name, the family name is Song.

Song Jian宋健

Song jian 1989State Councilor of the People’s Republic of ChinaIn office 1986–1998PremierZhao Ziyang→Li PengDirector of the State Science and Technology CommissionIn office 1985–1998Preceded byFang YiSucceeded byZhu LilanPresident of the Chinese Academy of EngineeringIn office 1998–2002Preceded byZhu GuangyaSucceeded byXu KuangdiPersonal detailsBorn29 December 1931 (age 92) Rongcheng, Shandong, ChinaPolitical partyChinese Communist PartyAlma materHarbin Institute of Technology, Beijing Foreign Language Institute, Moscow State University, Bauman Moscow State Technical University

Song Jian (Chinese: 宋健; Wade–Giles: Sung Chien; born 29 December 1931) is a Chinese aerospace engineer, demographer, and politician. He was deputy chief designer of China's submarine-launched ballistic missile (JL-1) and one of the country's leading scientists in the post-Cultural Revolution era. After a decade of two-child restrictions in the 1970s, and following the Chinese government's announcement in 1979 to advocate for one child per family, he became a leading advocate for rapid implementation and broad coverage of China's one-child policy.[1][2][3][4] He served in high-ranking political positions including Vice Minister of Aerospace Industry, Director of the State Science and Technology Commission (1985–1998), vice-premier-level State Councillor(1986–1998), President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Vice Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

[bobmccullochny]

History

December 4, 1791 - The Observer, now the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world, was first published in Britain.

December 4, 1829 - The British banned the practice of "suttee" in India in which Indian females traditionally burned themselves to death on their husband's funeral pyre.

December 4, 1918 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed.

December 4, 1943 - During World War II, the second Cairo Conference took place, attended by Prime Minister Churchill, President Roosevelt and President Inonu of Turkey.

December 4, 1991 - The last American hostage held in Lebanon was released. Journalist Terry Anderson of the Associated Press had been kidnapped on March 16, 1985 and held for 2,454 days by Islamic Jihad (Holy War) captors. He was one of 15 Americans held hostage for periods ranging from two months to more than six years. Three of the hostages; William Buckley, Peter Kilburn and Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, were killed during their captivity. The others were released one or two at a time.

Birthday - Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was born in the village of Ecclefechan, Scotland. He wrote a three volume history of the French Revolution. Other works included; Heroes and Hero-Worship, Life and Letters of Oliver Cromwell and Frederick the Great.

[love-bookrelease]

Behold the Lion of Judah Which Cometh to Rule the World  by Tom Watinga

About the author

Tom Watinga is an Assemblies of God Church, PNG ordained Pastor who has ministered the Gospel of Christ since he was born again in 1985. He has been serving as an associate Pastor at the AOG Cornerstone Gateway Church in Port Moresby, under the leadership of Reverend Anthony Dalaka since 1996. Tom and Gouli, his wife of 32 years have six children and 2 adopted sons and one son-in-law. He has in the recent decade, traveled the world in search of biblical prophecies fulfilments. Some of these places include the Great Wall of China, Poland’s Auschwitz and Treblinka Concentration camps, and the Lake Wansea conference room near Berlin, Germany. Tom also traveled to Turkey to see the seven churches in Asia Minor and passed through Jordan’s Mt. Nebo where Moses died. He has made seven trips to Israel between the years 2009 through 2020 combing almost the entire land of Israel. Tom’s education qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree in Science (BSc) from the University of Papua New Guinea, a Master’s in Business Management (MBA) from Southern Cross University, Australia, and a Diploma with Distinction (Dip-AM) from IATA, Geneva, Switzerland.

About the book 

BEHOLD THE LION OF JUDAH WHICH COMETH TO REULE THE WORLD (He first came as the lamb of God to take away the sin of the world)CHRIST SOON RETURNING - JESUS CHRIST IS RETURNING SOON TO DEAL WITH THE NEW WORLD ORDER GOVERNMENT, ANTI-CHRIST WORLD LEADER AND FALSE PROPHET, ARE AMONG THE FINAL PROPHECIES TO BE FULFILLED. THE COVID-19 DECEPTION - MYSTERIES OF COVID-19 DELIBERATELY CREATED TO LAUNCH THE GREAT RESET PLAN FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER GOVERNMENT (NWOG) WHICH WILL FUSION OUR PHYSICAL, DIGITAL, AND BIOLOGICAL (DNA)COMPUTER IDENTITY - THE MARK OF THE BEAST, THE NUMBER 666 WITHOUT WHICH NO ONE WILL BUY AND SELL. FINAL BIBLE PROPHECIES - MAJOR BIBLE PROPHECIES ARE BEING FULFILLED. THE ANCIENT ROMAN EMPIRE HAS EVOLVED TO BE ALIVE THROUGH THE WESTERN EUROPEAN NATIONS NOW COMING TOGETHER THROUGH G7, G10, EU, NATO, AND THE UN TO FORM THE FINAL GOVERNMENT OF THE ANTI-CHRIST ORCHESTRATED DRIVEN BY THE SATANIC GROUPS; THE ILLUMINATI AND FREEMASONS WHO HAVE FORCEFULLY TAKEN OVER THE MIGHTY USA AND ENDTIME BIBLE PROPHECY OF THE NWOG OF THE ANTI-CHRIST BEING FULFILLED BEFORE OUR EYES. JEWS WAKING UP - THE JEWS ARE STILL LOST WAITING FOR THEIR PROMISED MESSIAH WHICH WILL SURELY TURN OUT TO BE THE ‘ONE WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED’ AND SOON WILL MAKE SENSE OF WHAT CHRIST HAS ACCOMPLISHED WHEN HE WAS ON EARTH. CHRIST CLOSED THE OLD COVENANT WHERE SALVATION FOR ONLY JEWS WAS PROVIDED AND INTRODUCED THE NEW COVENANT WHICH CATERS FOR ALL MEN INCLUDING GENTILES. ISRAEL REMAINS GOD’S CHOSEN NATION TO CARRY OUT SPECIFIC TASKS STILL VALID TODAY. GATES OF HELL AGAINST CHURCH - HOW THE ROMAN GATES OF HELL PREVAILED AGAINST THE PENTECOST CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF POWER, WHICH THE GLOBAL CHURCH NEEDS TO BE REFORMED TO BRING BACK THE PENTECOST HOLY GHOST EMPOWERED CHURCH OF POWER. CHURCH REFORMATION IS NEEDED URGENTLY TO BRING BACK THE BLUEPRINT DOCTRINES, JESUS CHRIST AND APOSTLES TAUGHT IN ORDER TO BRING DOWN THE SAME PENTECOST HOLY GHOST POWER RESULTING IN THE GREATEST GLOBAL REVIVAL EVER TO SEE THE GREATEST HARVEST OF SOULS EVER SEEN IN HUMAN HISTORY BEFORE CHRIST RETURNS. WHEN THE PATTERN IS RIGHT, HIS GLORY WILL FALL. RAPTURE AND SECOND COMING - WHEN WILL CHRIST APPEAR IN THE SKY TO TAKE THE CHURCH IN THE RAPTURE? WHEN CHRIST WILL RETURN WITH ALL THE SAINTS IN HIS SECOND COMING TO RULE THE WHOLE EARTH FOR 1000 YEARS? HOW EVERY MAN WILL APPEAR BEFORE CHRIST ON JUDGEMENT DAY? WHEN WILL THE OLD HEAVEN AND EARTH FLEE BEFORE CHRIST, AND WHEN AND HOW THE NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL APPEAR WITH NEW JERUSALEM? WHAT TO DO - THESE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TO WHAT ANY PERSON MUST DO TO BE SAVED AND PREPARE FOR THE INEVITABLE RETURN OF THE JEWISH KING 

Shop now from Amazon, Flipkart, and BlueRose Online.

[ceescedasticity]

On inbreeding:

True -- pretty much all cultures everywhere ever frown on incest (except for certain exceptions involving royalty and/or religion).

Also true -- historically, many cultures have had some sort of prohibited degree of consanguinity or affinity. They varied by separation required, whether relatives by marriage were included, and how strictly they were enforced. (Clearly a lot of them weren't enforced.)

But (emphasis added):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_law_in_the_United_States#History

Cousin marriage was legal in all states before the Civil War.[167] Anthropologist Martin Ottenheimer argues that marriage prohibitions were introduced to maintain the social order, uphold religious morality, and safeguard the creation of fit offspring.[168] Writers such as Noah Webster (1758–1843) and ministers like Philip Milledoler (1775–1852) and Joshua McIlvaine helped lay the groundwork for such viewpoints well before 1860. This led to a gradual shift in concern from affinal unions, like those between a man and his deceased wife's sister, to consanguineous unions. By the 1870s, Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) was writing about "the advantages of marriages between unrelated persons" and the necessity of avoiding "the evils of consanguine marriage", avoidance of which would "increase the vigor of the stock". To many, Morgan included, cousin marriage, and more specifically parallel-cousin marriage was a remnant of a more primitive stage of human social organization.[169] Morgan himself had married his cousin in 1853.[170]

In 1846, Massachusetts Governor George N. Briggs appointed a commission to study mentally handicapped people (termed "idiots") in the state. This study implicated cousin marriage as responsible for idiocy. Within the next two decades, numerous reports (e.g., one from the Kentucky Deaf and Dumb Asylum) appeared with similar conclusions: that cousin marriage sometimes resulted in deafness, blindness, and idiocy. Perhaps most important was the report of physician Samuel Merrifield Bemiss for the American Medical Association, which concluded cousin inbreeding does lead to the "physical and mental deprivation of the offspring". Despite being contradicted by other studies like those of George Darwin and Alan Huth in England and Robert Newman in New York, the report's conclusions were widely accepted.[171]

These developments led to thirteen states and territories passing cousin marriage prohibitions by the 1880s. Though contemporaneous, the eugenics movement did not play much of a direct role in the bans. George Louis Arner in 1908 considered the ban a clumsy and ineffective method of eugenics, which he thought would eventually be replaced by more refined techniques. By the 1920s, the number of bans had doubled.[172] Since that time, Kentucky (1943) and Texas have banned first-cousin marriage and since 1985, Maine has mandated genetic counseling for marrying cousins to minimise risk to any serious health defect to their children. The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws unanimously recommended in 1970 that all such laws should be repealed, but no state has dropped its prohibition.[173][174][175]

In the U.S., opposition to and distaste for consanguineous marriage is a first cousin (ha ha) to the eugenics movement. (Look at the table at the link -- several states allow first-cousin marriages if they provide proof of sterility, and one allows it only after ~genetic counseling~.)

And as far as notorious inbred nobles go, look at Charles II -- the page describes him as suffering numerous consequences of inbreeding then goes on to say that actually that's not very well-supported (his sister didn't suffer any of them, most didn't really show up in the rest of the still-very-inbred family, and several were almost certainly caused by something else; the best-supported is the 'Hapsburg jaw' problem, which seems to have been exacerbated by inbreeding but is also linked to a dominant gene).

So is it kind of funny that basically all European royalty is/was one big unhappy family, with ludicrously convoluted family trees? Sure.

But I don't think U.S. sneering about aristocratic inbreeding is coming from anywhere good -- or doing anything good, since most cultural groups who currently practice consanguineous marriage are pretty discriminated against already.

[kalyan-gullapalli]

Post # 139

A Servant of God...

On Christmas eve, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. For the next 9 years, until it withdrew in 1989, Afghanistan was a daily battlefield between the Afghan mujahideen and the Soviets. The mujahideen cause was supported by a coalition led by the US, UK and other Islamic Gulf countries, which used Pakistan as a military training, espionage and infiltration base for their soldiers. So, the Khyber pass, the de-facto Pakistan-Afghanistan border, was a high activity area for that duration.

However, on 20th January, 1988, both sides decided on a ceasefire for one day, and the border was open for civilians to move between Peshawar in Pakistan and Jalalabad in Afghanistan, to allow them to attend the burial of a 98 year old man. Even visa restrictions were lifted for the day! 200,000 mourners attended his funeral in Jalalabad. His name was Abdul Gaffar Khan. He was also called Badshah Khan or Baccha Khan. And he was revered in Afghanistan as Fakhr-e-Afghan (Pride of Afghans).

Rajiv Gandhi, then Indian prime minister, broke diplomatic protocol and went to Afghanistan to attend to his burial, despite protests from Pakistan's General Zia Ul Haq. Such a privilege was offered to the likes of Heads of State only. And though this 98 year old dead man was not one, he was extremely respected and revered in India too. He was affectionately called the Sarhadi or Frontier Gandhi by Indians. In 1987, he was conferred with the prestigious Bharat Ratna by the Government of India.

And yet, from 1948 till his death in 1988, he was a citizen of Pakistan, and lived his life either in jail or in exile or in house arrest. Infact, he died in Peshawar while under house arrest.

Have you heard of him? If yes, your history is ok. If not, therein lies a tale.

Abdul Gaffar Khan was born as Baccha Khan on 6th February, 1890, in a Pashtun family hailing from Utmanzai, in the Peshawar Valley of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of British India. Right from his early days, he wanted to make a difference and uplift the lot of his fellow Pashtuns. And he had seen enough failed revolts against the British to realise that his path would have to be a path of social activism and reforms, not of armed activism. He focused on education. At the age of 20, he opened a mosque school in his home town of Utmanzai. Five years later, the British banned it. From age 25 to 30, he visited 500 villages in all part of the settled districts of NWFP, propagating education and social reform in Pashtuns. It was in this frenzied activity that he became known as Badshah Khan.

Very soon, Baccha Khan realised that social change was not possible without independence. So he started promoting the idea of a united, independent, secular India. In this, he was deeply influenced by and hence forged a close, spiritual relationship with Gandhiji. Both of them had a deep admiration for each other and worked together for Indian independence.

Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan pioneered the concept of non-violent mass civil disobedience amongst Pashtuns in NWFP. To this end, he founded something called Khudayi Khidmatgar - literally meaning Servants of God. They were commonly also called Red Shirts.

The Khudai Khidmatgar was founded on a belief in the power of Gandhiji's notion of Satyagraha, a form of active non-violence. He used to tell its members:

"I am going to give you such a weapon that the police and the army will not be able to stand against it. It is the weapon of the Prophet, but you are not aware of it. That weapon is patience and righteousness. No power on earth can stand against it."

The organisation recruited over 100,000 members and became legendary in opposing (and dying at the hands of) the British-controlled police and army. Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan was hence called Frontier Gandhi.

Khudai Khidmatgar worked closely with the Indian National Congress, the leading national party fighting for independence, and Bacha Khan became a hugely respected member of the INC too. In 1931 the Congress offered him the presidency of the party, but he refused saying, "I am a simple soldier and Khudai Khidmatgar, and I only want to serve."

Bacha Khan soon became a hero in a society dominated by violence. His liberal views, his unswerving faith in non-violence and obvious bravery in leading from the front led to immense respect.

Like his spiritual guru, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan strongly opposed the idea of partition of India. By 1947, it was becoming clear that partition was inevitable and the British were proposing to give the people of NWFP the choice of joining either India or Pakistan, vide a referendum. So, seven weeks before partition, Bacha Khan, the Khudai Khidmatgars, members of the Provincial Assembly and other tribal chiefs demanded that the Pashtuns be given a choice of creating an independent state of Pashtunistan, comprising all Pashtun territories of British India, instead of being made to join either India or Pakistan. However, this demand was rejected.

The Congress party refused last minute compromises to prevent the partition, like Gandhiji's suggestion to offer the position of Prime Minister to Jinnah. As a result, Bacha Khan and his followers felt a sense of betrayal by both Pakistan and India. Bacha Khan's last words to Gandhiji and his erstwhile allies in the Congress party were: "You have thrown us to the wolves."

After independence, inspite of India's invitation to come and settle down in India, Abdul Gaffar Khan took the oath of allegiance to the new nation of Pakistan on 23 February 1948 at the first session of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. He pledged full support to the government and attempted to reconcile with the founder of the new state Muhammad Ali Jinnah. However, people jealous of his popularity spread rumours that he wanted to assassinate Jinnah. So the reconciliation never really took off and doubts regarding his allegiance persisted.

Following this, Bacha Khan formed Pakistan's first national opposition party, in 1948 - Pakistan Azad Party. He was placed under house arrest without charge from 1948 till 1954.

In 1958, the government attempted to reconcile with him and offered him a ministry in the government. He refused. He was rearrested and remained so till his illness in 1962. That year, he was named an "Amnesty International Prisoner of the Year". 

In 1973, he was arrested again by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's government because he described it as "the worst kind of dictatorship".

In 1984, he visited India and participated in the centennial celebrations of the Indian National Congress in 1985.

In 1987, he became the first non-Indian to be awarded Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.

As P.V. Narasimha Rao noted in an address to mark the centenary of Badshah Khan’s birth, he was of that generation of leaders who did not smile and wave to appease the crowds, but rather scolded them for their lapses, yet was all the more adored and applauded for it. 

This post celebrates a Khudai Khidmatgar - a servant of God - the Frontier Gandhi, Badshah Khan, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan.

[blackkudos]

Bernice King

Bernice Albertine King (born March 28, 1963) is an American minister and the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She was five years old when her father was assassinated. In her adolescence, King chose to work towards becoming a minister after having a breakdown from watching a documentary about her father. King was 17 when she was invited to speak at the United Nations. Twenty years after her father was assassinated, she preached her trial sermon. Inspired by her parents' activism, she was arrested multiple times during her early adulthood.

Her mother suffered a stroke in 2005 and, after she died the following year, King delivered the eulogy at her funeral. A turning point in her life, King experienced conflict within her family when her sister Yolanda and brother Dexter supported the sale of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change. After her sister died in 2007, she delivered the eulogy for her as well. She supported the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2008 and called his nomination as part of her father's dream.

King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 2009. Her elder brother Martin III and her father had previously held the position. She was the first woman elected to the presidency in the organization's history, amidst the SCLC holding two separate conventions. King became upset with the actions of the SCLC, amid feeling that the organization was ignoring her suggestions and declined the presidency in January 2010.

King became CEO of the King Center only months afterward. King's primary focus as CEO of The King Center and in life is to ensure that her father's nonviolent philosophy and methodology (which The King Center calls Nonviolence 365) is integrated in various sects of society, including education, government, business, media, arts and entertainment and sports. King believes that Nonviolence 365 is the answer to society's problems and promotes it being embraced as a way of life. King is also the CEO of First Kingdom Management, a Christian consulting firm based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Early life

Early childhood and tragedies

Bernice Albertine King was born on March 28, 1963, in Atlanta, Georgia. The day after she was born, her father had to leave for Birmingham, Alabama, but he rushed back when it was time for Bernice and her mother, Coretta, to leave the hospital. He drove them home himself but, in what was all too typical with the work he was doing, had to leave them again within hours. Following her birth, Harry Belafonte realized the toll the Civil Rights Movement was taking on her mother's time and energy and offered to pay for a nurse to help Coretta with the Kings' four children. They accepted and hired a person that would help with the children for the next five or six years. Her father died a week after Bernice's fifth birthday.

Once, she and her sister Yolanda thought it would be funny to pour water into their father's ear while he was sleeping. Their father, though, was furious. It was the first and only time he would ever spank them.

Later on, Coretta told Bernice that her father had celebrated her fifth birthday, knowledge that has been special to her since. King said she has only two strong memories of her father, one of him at home with their family and the other of him lying in the casket at his funeral. "I don't let people know this, but I think of my father constantly," King said at age 19. "Even though I knew him so little, he left me so much." When her father was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, Bernice was asleep. When she woke up, her mother told her that the next time she saw her father would be at his funeral. In the April 1998 issue of BET Entertainment Weekly, King reflected, "I was five when my father was assassinated, so I had no concept of who my father really was. I have been told, but imagine trying to really understand or put it in its proper perspective at that age. When it finally became clear to me around fifteen or sixteen, I was angry at him because he left me. So I didn't want to have anything to do with my father."

After her husband's death, Coretta Scott King took on the role of raising four children as a single mother. Family friends recall that she spent considerable time with Bernice, who feels that being raised by a single parent has given her special insight into single-parent homes. “I didn’t have a father to deal with about boyfriends. I didn’t have a father to show me how a man and woman relate in a family setting. Therefore I have given over my life to mentoring young people. I’m adamant about young people who have been denied a father/daughter relationship.”

Other tragedies followed. King's uncle, Alfred Daniel Williams King, drowned in a swimming pool when Bernice was six on July 21, 1969. Five years later, a mentally ill man shot her grandmother Alberta Williams King to death during a service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on June 30, 1974. King recalled of her grandmother's death, "I remember that day because I had recovered from having my tonsils removed, and I was really looking forward to getting back to Ebenezer, which was pastored by my grandfather on my dad's side of the family." Just two years later in 1976, her 20-year-old cousin Darlene King died of a heart attack. Her grandfather Martin Luther King Sr. also died of a heart attack on November 11, 1984. Also her other cousin Alfred King the second in 1986.

Finding strength through these childhood tragedies, King jokingly said, required "A lot of prayer. Some crying. Some screaming." Through all of her struggles, she has looked for someone to relate to in "moments" because "nobody fits the bill." Her sister, Yolanda, nearly eight years older, lived through parts of the Civil Rights Movement that she never did. On the other hand, she has written that she believes her brothers have had a life significantly different from hers because "Guys process things differently."

Call to ministry

Bernice has said that the deaths of her grandmother and uncle caused her to have anger issues since she was 16 years old. At that age, she saw Montgomery to Memphis, a documentary film on her father's life from the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 to his assassination in 1968, and "went through almost two hours of crying" and questioning. She had seen the film many times growing up, but the particular viewing "triggered an emotional explosion that later would thrust her into the arms of a loving God." King reflected: "When I saw the funeral scene, I just broke down. I ran out of the cabin into the woods, and for nearly 2-1/2 hours, I just cried." She credited the viewing with influencing her to become a minister like her father, who served as a minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

She was with her church youth group in Georgia mountains. King aspired to become the first female President of the United States at the time of seeing the documentary. Timothy McDonald brought the tape of the documentary and comforted her when she started crying. According to McDonald, he explained to her that it was good that she let out how she felt and called coming to terms with her father's death "a stepping stone upon which you will build the rest of your life”.King attended Douglass High School in Atlanta. Her brother Dexter Scott King attended the school as well and graduated when she was a sophomore. At 17, she was invited to speak at the United Nations in the absence of her mother. According to King, she also received a call to ministry that year.

Adult life

At the age of 19, she made her first major speech in Chicago, and stated that "We've come a long way. But we have a long way to go." In early 1983, King gave a speech at St. Sabina Church in Chicago. Many members of the audience said that she reminded them of her father. King attended Grinnell College in Iowa, and graduated from Spelman College, a historically black college in Atlanta, with a degree in psychology. King says she had thoughts of suicide before "God intervened."

King was arrested with her mother Coretta and her brother Martin Luther King III on June 26, 1985 with the offense of demonstrating in front of an embassy. They were participating in anti-apartheid demonstration in front of the South African Embassy. The three stayed in jail overnight. The youngest daughter of Martin Luther King, his widow and his eldest son were charged with a misdemeanor, demonstrating within 500 feet of an embassy.On January 7, 1986, King was arrested with her sister Yolanda and her brother Martin Luther King III for "disorderly conduct." Bernice and her siblings were arrested by officers deployed to the Winn Dixie supermarket. The supermarket had been subject to protest since September 1985, which was when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference began boycotts of South African canned fruit. It was the first time Bernice and her siblings had been arrested together at a protest. On January 15, 1987, what would have been her father's 58th birthday, King spoke in Chicago and told denizens to stay away from drugs.

On May 14, 1990, King became the second woman to be ordained at Ebenezer Baptist Church. She said that it was "the most humbling moment for me in my life." King insisted that she was "not worthy of this high calling. No blood, no sweat, no tears could earn me this high calling."On January 18, 1992, President George H. W. Bush visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. King spoke during his visit of the problems of racism, poverty and violence remained in America since her father was alive, but did not directly align any of the issues with President Bush.

In January 1994, King voiced her opposition to New Hampshire's refusal to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, calling the decision "racist and separatist." On May 21, 1994, she attended the African-American Women's Conference where she said that parents should not let their children listen to "gangster rap" because of messages in the lyrics.In 1996, King published a collection of her sermons and speeches called Hard Questions, Heart Answers. In 2000, she narrated a performance of Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. In January of that year, King joined Fred Shuttlesworth in headlining a two-week campus celebration of her father's life at Stanford University.

King said her mother heard Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and contacted her the following day over the senator's address, expressing her belief in Obama's political future. In June 2006, King told a teenage audience that she intended to do more to carry on the legacy of nonviolence espoused by her parents during the 20th annual 100 Black Men of America conference in Atlanta. "My desire is not to be a hypocrite," King said. "I want to make sure my life is not a contradiction when I take a platform."On January 30, 2007, one year after the death of her mother Coretta, King founded the Be A King Scholarship at Spelman College, her alma mater, in honor of her mother's legacy. On June 10, 2007, King acted as a presenter at the 2007 Atlanta H.U.F. Awards. Afeni Shakur said she was happy to have King and the other presenters "participating" that year.

She was an elder at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, but resigned in May 2011. King joined the church in 2002 and came to regard Bishop Eddie Long as her mentor and spiritual father. The church was the setting for her mother's funeral. Despite her leaving of the church coinciding with Bishop Eddie Long's settlement agreement in sexual misconduct lawsuits he had fought since September 2010, King said that she had planned to leave New Birth Missionary Baptist Church for weeks. "It has nothing to do with anything that's going on with Bishop Long," King said on May 25, 2011. "I always knew I would not be at New Birth forever. This is the time for me to leave." On May 25, 2011, King told an interviewer that her last time serving as a member of the church was the past Sunday. She has said her decision to leave was because of her desire to continue the legacy of her parents, which had grown stronger since the death of her mother. At the time that she chose to leave the church, she planned on starting her own ministry.

King donated $100,000 of her personal funds, while $75,000 was donated from Home Depot and $15,000 from New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. The scholarship will be awarded to two rising seniors at Spelman College who are majoring in music, education or psychology. On May 4, 2013, a rose was planted for King's mother, Coretta, at the Alabama Capitol. Bernice said that while her mother loved roses, she did not have much time to tend to them because she was continuing her husband Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy.

On April 29, 2014, King and her brother Martin Luther King III joined Governor of Georgia Nathan Deal while he signed legislation to provide a statue of their father. “We all know that monuments and statues are that, they’re things we put in place for people to remember and it's not always for our generation,” Bernice King said. “It’s really about the next generation.” On May 31, 2014, King accepted a $50,000 grant from Microsoft during the opening of its store at Perimeter Mall in Atlanta. Also in attendance to the ceremony were Mary Carol Alexander, Georgia Department of Labor Commissioner Mark Butler and Representative Tom Taylor. On June 24, 2014, King's parents were posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Bernice King stated in a statement released after the award was announced that the King family was "deeply honored" by her parents "being given this award in recognition of their tireless and sacrificial leadership to advance freedom and justice through nonviolence in our nation". King was the keynote speaker at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission 50th anniversary gala, held on August 14, 2014.

First sermon

At the age of 24, Bernice decided to become a minister, and she earned a Master's degree in Divinity and a juris doctor from Emory University. King is also a member of the State Bar of Georgia. During her college years, King considered a career as a television anchor. In May 1988, King was among the students of Emory charging that the college should hire more African-Americans as teachers and teach the works of African-American theologians in its courses. She said, "Black students on predominately White campuses have been ignored, humiliated, intimidated...and in many instances, eliminated." She said the students and people in general had excused the "insensitivity" of the administration and faculty "for too long." Bernice served as a student chaplain at the Georgia Retardation Center and Georgia Baptist Hospital as part of the requirements for her theology class and interned at the Atlanta City Attorney's office. She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, as was her mother.

On March 27, 1988, nearly 20 years after her father's assassination, King delivered her first sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The sermon's theme was "You've Got To Rise Above The Crowd." King said her decision to deliver the sermon as "affirming a call I received at 17." She also said, "At some point in our lives, comes the moment of decision. For me, that moment is now. I submit myself totally to the will of God." Andrew Young, who attended the sermon, compared her style to her father's and noted their similarities while calling listening to her speak "a very emotional occasion for me."

Young also said that King becoming a minister "almost makes you believe preaching is hereditary," after her service. By delivering an "acceptable sermon," King was given her license to preach by Joseph Roberts, pastor of Ebenezer who stated, "We rejoice with God, the angels and the archangels that another warrior, a peaceful warrior, is fighting under the spirit of her father, grandfather and uncle." Veteran members of the church said her style was similar to her father's.

King's mother said at the time that she was satisfied with her daughter's decision to become a minister and stated that they had become closer than ever in the months leading up to the sermon. She also said listening to her daughter delivering a sermon with the same fervor and intensity her father had "was a joyous occasion; a real thanksgiving." Also in attendance where all three of her elder siblings, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III and Dexter. King's maternal grandparents were reported by her mother to have also been moved by the speech. Her sermon was delivered the day before her twenty-fifth birthday.

King Center

In 2008, King and her brother, Martin Luther King III, filed suit over the alleged mismanagement of funds from the King Center against their brother Dexter Scott King, who then filed a countersuit against them. Dexter King articulated his distress over Bernice's conservative religious views as departing from their father's legacy. In October 2009 the lawsuits were settled out of court.

In January 2012, King was named CEO of the King Center. On May 19, 2012, King met with Aïssata Issoufou Mahamadou, First Lady of Niger and wife of Mahamadou Issoufou. Mahamadou's visit to the King Center was a priority during her trip to the United States, having been an ardent admirer of King's father and mother. King accepted a plaque bearing crucifix symbols from Mahamadou.

On September 26, 2013, Evelyn G. Lowery died at her home. The King Center released a statement from Bernice King in response to her death, with her saying "I am deeply saddened by the death of Mrs. Evelyn Gibson Lowery, and my heart goes out to her husband, Dr. Joseph E. Lowery and their three daughters, Yvonne Kennedy, Karen Lowery and Cheryl Lowery-Osborne. We are never prepared to say 'goodbye' to a loved one."When Vice President Joe Biden aligned with her in celebrating a "naturalization ceremony" for an estimated hundred immigrants on November 16, 2013, she displayed distaste for the terms "illegal aliens" and "illegals".

On March 28, 2014, in honor of King's 51st birthday, the King Center hosted a girl and women's empowerment event. The organization held a special screening of the documentary "Girls Rising." King herself said the experience was "designed to educate, empower and inspire young women to confront and overcome the obstacles they face in their struggles to fulfill their dreams and impact the global community.”

On August 13, 2014, King addressed the shooting death of Michael Brown and demonstrators reacting in response. She called on demonstrators to channel their responses into constructive nonviolent action, and mentioned witnesses giving conflicting accounts of the shooting. On August 19, King expressed her belief that the community of Ferguson, Missouri was crying out for help after years of neglect. It was reported that a small delegation from the King Center would travel to Ferguson and planned to meet with "every element" of the community.The following day, August 20, King released a statement on Michael Brown's death, sympathizing with his parents. On August 26, King addressed students at the Riverview Gardens High School. King told the students her father's legacy was "on the line" and if “this doesn’t turn out the right way, it could begin to have people question what happened years ago.”

Public speaking

King was the keynote speaker at the Seminole County Prayer Breakfast in February 1998. Geoff Koach, spokesman for Strang Communications, said prior to the breakfast that there was an expectation to see "a lot more people of color there" and another reason for her being chosen to speak was to quell racial tensions in the county. He added: "We felt she could help unify citizens, the various organizations, government and church officials."In June 2006, five months after her mother's death, King made it known to a number of teenagers during the panel discussion at the 20th annual 100 Black Men of America conference in Atlanta that she intended to continue the legacy of nonviolence that had been attributed to her parents. That same year, King and her brother Martin Luther King III expressed interest in creating a civil rights museum near Ebenezer Baptist Church and the King Center, where both of their parents are buried.

On January 20, 2009, she joined her brother Martin Luther King III on CNN's The Situation Room to discuss the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.

On April 17, 2009, King delivered an address at Liberty University. LU Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. said that the university had been looking forward to King speaking all year. He said King helped "to bridge the divide that was created between different groups of students during the 2008 election season. For example, she gave a strong Gospel message today. African American Christians and white Christians have been separated into different political camps in the last generation or so but they share many of the same core values, especially when it comes to social issues like abortion, marriage and school vouchers." King said the university was a place for "kings-in-training." She told Liberty University students they were "very blessed and highly favored to be at an institution such as this." She called for students to accept “your identity. You’re a king. Don’t ever see yourself as a subject."

On July 7, 2009, King spoke alongside her brother Martin at the Staples Center in Los Angeles at a ceremony commemorating the life of Michael Jackson.

On October 16, 2011, King mentioned at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial opening that the memorial had been in the making for a lengthy amount of time and a "priority" for her mother. She and her brother Martin supported Occupy Wall Street protests. On January 13, 2012, King was the keynote speaker at the 24th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Dinner. On March 29, 2012, a month after the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin, King released a statement through the King Center. In her remarks, she referred back to the deaths of her father and paternal grandmother, who like Trayvon Martin, were killed by firearms. She concluded her statement by saying we "are still on the journey to the Mountaintop. Join me on the journey as we pray for Trayvon's family, the community of Sanford and all who are in danger of being victims of violence."

She made a public statement with regard to the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman verdict on July 15, 2013 via a CNN appearance with Wolf Blitzer. She clarified a tweet she had posted on Twitter, and explained that the handling of the verdict would "determine how much progress we've made". She spoke at a town hall meeting dedicated to Trayvon Martin and has admitted to having been "heartbroken" by the verdict. She said Trayvon Martin's death and Zimmerman's acquittal were a wake-up call for Americans.

On August 28, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington, in which her father took part, King spoke and related that the denizens of the United States were "still bound by a cycle of civil unrest and inherit social biases, in our nation and the world, that often times degenerates into violence and destruction". Despite this, she admitted to being pleased to see many young people and women at the event, noting that was not the case during the March on Washington itself. King alluded to the death of teenager Trayvon Martin in February 2012 and said "If freedom stops ringing, then the sound will disappear and the atmosphere will be charged with something else. Fifty years later, we come once again to this special landing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to reflect, to renew and to rejuvenate for the continued struggle of freedom and justice."

She spoke at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida fundraiser on October 29, 2013, where she encouraged involvement in the lives of children. King addressed the death of Nelson Mandela on December 5, 2013. On January 20, 2014, the year's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, King spoke at Ebenezer Baptist Church. King said there was "much work that we must do" and asked if we are "afraid, or are we truly committed to the work that must be done?"

On March 19, 2014, King gave a speech at Seminole State College of Florida as part of the school's Speaker Series. It focused on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After her address, King was presented with a key to the city by Sanford Vice Mayor Velma Williams. King spoke at Fontbonne University on September 17, 2014. She was joined by members of the King Center staff, who aided her in urging the community to not act out with violence.

March against same-sex marriage

On December 11, 2004, King participated in a march against same-sex marriage in Atlanta. This action was in contrast to the advocacy of her mother, Coretta, and her older sister Yolanda, both longtime, outspoken supporters of gay rights. She was joined by senior pastor at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Eddie Long, who said in a written statement that the march was not "to protest same-sex marriage, but to present a unified version of righteousness and justice." At the time of the march, King said she had become a "spiritual daughter" of Eddie Long and the issue of same-sex marriage legalization had left many divided. "The question is, how do you overcome that pain?" she said. "It may be the wedge that stays with us for a long time. We have to get to a place where it does not become the most defining issue of our time."

She incorporated the King Center and the eternal flame at her father's tomb into the march. The King Center denied her permission to begin the march at her father's tomb and accused her of doing so to "provide support for her own personal cause" and "to enhance her personal standing in New Birth." The event was also criticized by gay rights organizations, which stated it betrayed the legacy of her father. Chuck Bowen, a spokesman for Georgia Equality, stated that he was surprised to learn of the march. "I think it's very sad," Bowen said. "I think she's abusing the good name of Dr. King and the work he did creating equality for all Americans."

Deaths of mother and sister and King Center sale

King's mother, Coretta Scott King, had a stroke in August 2005. She died on January 30, 2006. King delivered the eulogy at her funeral. King called her mother's death a "major turning point." She felt that her mother's death was a "rebirth" for her, "in terms of understanding that I come from roots of greatness and I am called to greatness and there's nothing I can do but try to be my best self." On October 24, 2005, Rosa Parks died of natural causes. Her funeral took place on November 2, 2005. Bernice King attended the funeral and delivered remarks on behalf of her mother. Bernice was the only one of the four King children to be with Coretta Scott King when she died and learned that her mother's remains could not be transported back to Georgia, since Mexican authorities required an autopsy first.

In the months between her stroke and death, Bernice and her brother Martin Luther King III vowed to fight the sale of the King Center to the National Park Service. The siblings were put against their brother Dexter and sister Yolanda, who supported and voted in favor of the sale in early December 2005. On December 30, 2005, King and her brother Martin stated that their priority was to preserve their "father's legacy and their mother's dream." Bernice stated of her mother's opinion on the sale that "She felt at some point that it may, in fact, end up with the government, but she never envisioned that in her lifetime." Andrew Young said transferring power would allow the family to focus more on Martin Luther King's message of nonviolence and less on maintaining the grounds. Bernice King said government ownership, which would befall the King Center if it were sold to the National Park Service, would result in "a loss of ideological independence." Martin Luther King III stated that Bernice had been removed as secretary and that he had been replaced as chairman by their brother Dexter.

16 months later, on May 15, 2007, King's sister Yolanda King died after collapsing and was unable to be revived. King delivered the eulogy at her sister's memorial on May 24, 2007. During Yolanda King's eulogy, King admitted that her death was even more difficult than her mother's and said her sister often addressed her as her "one and only sister." She added, "It's very difficult standing here blessed as her one and only sister. Yolanda, from your one and only, I thank you for being a sister and for being a friend." She joined her brothers in lighting candles in their sister's memory.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

With her brother Martin Luther King III, she has played an active part in reforming the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) once led by her father. When she was elected President and CEO of SCLC on October 30, 2009, a position previously held by both her father and brother, she became the first woman to lead the group, but discord in the organization has prevented her taking that position. King's election was won by a 23-to-15 vote, allowing her to defeat Arkansas judge, Wendell Griffen. Specialists said King would need to move beyond her family history when she took the position the following year. Andra Gillespie, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said King could hark back to her father's legacy, but that she was going to have to "redefine" it. Gillespie also stated that King would have to "figure out a way to push that legacy forward so we don't perpetuate a stagnant, chauvinistic civil rights agenda."

Despite her excitement being "high", King noticed the SCLC's board of directors had started "ignoring" suggestions she made to "revitalize" the organization. King said that she had made suggestions to the SCLC about how the presidency might operate in October 2010, but was not contacted formally until January, three months later. She stated that she felt "disrespect" by the three months in between her suggestions to the organization and their response. Despite this, she said that she would continue to "pray for them to move in a positive direction". On October 1, 2010, she led a prayer to an audience of around 200 people that had come to pray for healing and reconciliation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Through prayer, King said, they would "seek to destroy the work of the enemy." King called the SCLC preparing to hold two separate conventions "an unfortunate turn of events." In January 2011, three months after making the plea, she declined to be SCLC's president. While in Birmingham, Alabama on August 11, 2014 for the national convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King endorsed having the 2016 Democratic National Convention be held in Birmingham, reasoning the "golden anniversary of civil rights events throughout the south and Birmingham in particular offers added significance" to it being held there.

Legal issues

King and her brother Martin Luther King III accused their brother Dexter of having disengaged them from decisions and shareholder meetings. They alleged that their brother had done this since 2004. On October 12, 2009, the dispute was settled out of court. The King siblings spent the entire day of October 12 locked away. The purpose of the lockdown was for the three to settle on a deal. Following the completing of their meeting, Bernice and her brother Martin said outside the Fulton County Courthouse that the results of the settlement seemed positive.

Book deal

Bernice King and Martin also opposed the giving up of photographs, personal letters and papers of their mother to a biographer. Their brother Dexter asked a judge to force them to comply. The biographer, Ms. Reynolds, met Coretta Scott King in 1972 and said that the widow had asked for her to write a follow up to her 1969 memoir. King and her brother's lawyer stated that their mother had changed her mind about the biography citing Mrs. King's apparent disapproval of Reynolds's writing style. A judge ordered the Kings to appear in court on October 14, 2008. David J. Garrow, biographer of King's father, said that it was "sad and pathetic to see the three of them behaving in this self-destructive way.”

By September 2009, the book deal was defunct and a judge ordered the three siblings to have a meeting. On September 14, King and her brother Martin sat through court motions, testimony and proceedings for more than 13 hours. In a separate hearing, Dexter Scott King's attorney Lin Wood argued that Bernice King willingly ignored a court order. He reasoned this because Bernice did not reveal the contents of the safe deposit box.

Wood also said King's brother Martin and one of Bernice's lawyers, who was no longer on the case, was aware of the letters and refused to reveal them. Bernice's attorney Charles Mathis said she "did not conceal anything" and said "She thought she was doing what she was supposed to do when she told her first lawyer. There was not an intentional failure to disclose."

The next day, Dexter Scott King's lawyers contended that Bernice was legally compelled to turn the letters over to Dexter, but ignored the order. Dexter's attorney Wood said "Regardless of what your last name is, if you have willfully withheld then you must suffer the consequences." Wood noted that Bernice denied the existence of the safety deposit box several times while under oath, which she said she found after the death of her sister Yolanda, who once owned it.

Mishandling of memorabilia

On August 28, 2013, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington, the King estate filed a lawsuit against the King Center alleging that it had been careless with its handling of Martin Luther King, Jr. memorabilia. The lawsuit also claimed that attempts to resolve the issue with King Center CEO Bernice King have failed and that there had been a "total breakdown in communication and transparency." The King estate sent a 30-day notice to the Center in August 10, 2013. It notified the center that the licensing agreement for the King memorabilia was being terminated and that the center could avoid this by placing Bernice King on administrative leave and pulling Andrew Young and Alveda King from the board. According to the estate, Alveda King tried to "impede" the audit.The estate sought a court order barring the center from using the memorabilia after the license expired.

Bernice King announced in a statement on January 22, 2015 that the estate of her father, run by her brothers, had voluntarily dropped the lawsuit. She said the King Center's positions on its legal rights were vindicated by the estate's dropping of the lawsuit and that the action was a sign that the siblings' feud was on the road to reconciliation.

Belafonte documents

Harry Belafonte filed a lawsuit in October 2013, where he asked to be declared the owner of three documents given to him by the Kings and for their daughter Bernice King to be barred permanently from trying to claim ownership. The documents are Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Casualties of the War in Vietnam", which Belafonte stated he had been in possession of since 1967, the undelivered "Memphis Speech" found in Martin Luther King's pocket after his assassination and a letter of condolence sent by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the then-newly widowed Coretta Scott King. The King estate and Bernice King disputed Belafonte's ownership of the documents when in 2008, he took the items to Sotheby's auction house in New York to be appraised and put up for sale. On April 11, 2014, Belafonte and the King estate said in a joint statement that a confidential compromise "resulted in Mr. Belafonte retaining possession of the documents."

Bible and Nobel Peace Prize family dispute

King's brothers Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King are interested in selling their father's Nobel Peace Prize and his Bible, which was later used by Barack Obama during his second presidential inauguration in 2013. Her brothers filed a lawsuit against her, complaining that she had "secreted and sequestered" the two items of interest in violation of a 1995 agreement that gives the brothers sole control of all of their father's property. King said in her defense, "I take this strong position for my father because Daddy is not here to say himself my Bible and medals are never to be sold."

Martin Luther King III was reported to have sent her, on January 20, 2014, the year's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a letter requesting a meeting to "discuss and vote on whether to offer for purchase at a private sale the Nobel Peace Prize and the King Bible.” On January 22, 2014, Dexter Scott and Martin Luther King III voted as board members of the King estate to pursue the sale of their father's award and Bible. The items had been in Bernice's care since the death of their mother, Coretta Scott King, in 2006. Bernice's position had support by members of the civil rights community, including C. T. Vivian, Andrew Young, and Joseph Lowery. King's cousin, Alveda King, was also supportive of Bernice. She said, "I am standing with her because I do believe we can't have a sale to the highest bidder with those family heirlooms."

On February 4, 2014, Bernice King stated that she would protest the sale of her father's Bible and Nobel Peace Prize and as a result, oppose her brothers. She said profiting from the Nobel Peace Prize's sale would be "spiritually violent" and "outright morally reprehensible." On February 6, 2014, King asked in a press conference in Ebenezer Baptist Church for the media to “refrain from grouping me with my brothers.” On February 19, 2014, a judge ordered her to give up the items, and had them kept temporarily in a safe deposit box under the name of the King estate. The judge will remain in possession of the key until the matter is settled.

The judge compared King's stance against the sale of her father's Bible and Nobel Peace Prize to Coca-Cola not wanting to sell its recipe, and later noted that he was not trying to trivialize the value of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s possessions by making the comparison. While King said that people had urged her to retain the Bible and Nobel Peace Prize and go to prison instead, she complied with the judge's order. On March 6, 2014, she asked her brothers to hold another vote and said she hoped one of them would change his mind. Despite facing an estrangement from her brothers, she hoped that she would be able to reconcile with them on the matter and said she is open to an out-of-court settlement. She appealed to anyone who would consider purchasing the bible and Nobel Peace Prize should they be put on sale to take the moral high road by leaving the "sacred in its sacred state." While she was given a deadline of turning them over by March 3, it was extended another five days, according to one of Bernice's lawyers.

King said that she would never support her brothers in selling the Nobel Peace Prize and Bible. She said that if her father was alive, he would say, "my Bible and my medal are never to be sold, not to an institution or even a person.” On March 10, 2014, King turned over the Nobel Peace Prize and Bible to Martin Luther King III for placement in a safety deposit box in a meeting that lasted five minutes. A lawyer involved in the dispute said few words were exchanged while Bernice surrendered the items. Eric Barnum, an attorney of Bernice King, said that his client "complied with the court order."

On March 14, 2014, Ron Gaither, one of Bernice King's lawyers, argued that William Hill, lawyer of Martin Luther King III and Dexter King, should not have any role in the case because of his involvement in the 2008 dispute between the King children. A judge appointed Hill as Special Master in 2008. Lawyers of Bernice King in a court hearing said that "Hill played a vital and substantial role in adjudicating a multitude of disputes that arose between the parties." The lawyers argued that this gave Hill an advantage while putting Bernice at a disadvantage. Hill's defense of himself was that he only had access to documents related to Coretta Scott King's estate and that Bernice King's lawyers were using a stalling tactic by trying to disqualify him. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney stated that he would soon issue a ruling on whether Hill would be disqualified.

McBurney granted Bernice King's lawyers request and disqualified Hill. A full hearing is scheduled to take place in late September.

Honors and awards

On December 14, 2007, at the State Bar of Georgia Headquarters, King was honored by the Georgia Alliance of African American Attorneys with the "Commitment to Community" award for her work as an attorney and community leader.

On October 7, 2009, King received an award for her "lifetime of service to women and other causes" at the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Convention.

On November 7, 2013, as part of the "Celebrating the Dream”, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the I Have a Dream speech done by her father, King received the Legend Award as a tribute to his legacy and after she delivered a speech.

Ebony magazine named her one of their Ten of Tomorrow future leaders of the black community.

Views

Gay rights

In 2005, she led a march to her father's gravesite and at the same time called out for a constitutional ban on gay marriage. She once said to LGBT supporters that her father did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage.

During Atlanta's 2012 Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally, King included LGBT people among the various groups who needed to come together to "fulfill her father’s legacy." When speaking at Brown University in 2013, King made statements regarding her beliefs about the origins of marriage: "I believe that the family was created and ordained first and foremost by God, that he instituted the marriage, and that's a law that he instituted and not... that we instituted" and about the origins of same-sex attraction: "I also don't believe everybody's born that way. I know some people have been violated. I know some people have unfortunately delved into it as an experiment". King has publicly stated that her father would have been against gay marriage.

However, by 2015, it appeared she had changed, as she issued a press release as CEO of the King Center supporting the Supreme Court's Same-Sex Marriage ruling.

Abortion

King is opposed to abortion. She believes that life begins and should be protected by law at conception. On August 22, 2013, King expressed her belief that "life begins in a woman’s womb.”

[pictureamoebae]

idk how i'm supposed to reconcile my desire to not see the tories in office with my continually reinforced belief that labour leadership in general and jeremy corbyn in particular actively despise jewish people and wish me and my kind harm. there's been too many incidents, each one fouler than the last, over the past months. i want johnson out but i have no faith in the alternative's desire to keep me safe either and idk what to do

Politics.

A simple answer to a complex problem. And now a complex post to a simple question.

This will be very long, but I’m not going to put it behind a cut because it’s too important.

Nothing I say here will cut through to make you feel any more or less safe. What I want to do first is to say I do not doubt for one moment you have fears. Whatever I say next comes from as much a place of wanting you to be and feel safe as anything else. Please keep that in mind if you at any point think I’m attacking your deeply-held fears. I am not. If I’m attacking anything, it’s those who seek to weaponise your fears for their own gain.

While I continue, I’d ask you to keep asking these questions: who is saying things against Corbyn, what are their politics, what kind of world do they want to see, who do they want me to vote for, what are their interests (not as in, do they like music, but as in where do their political interests lie, how do they benefit from society under different governments)? These are good questions to ask when you hear any kind of political claim being made, whether it’s a manifesto pledge, a jibe at a political opponent, or an otherwise seemingly ‘neutral’ article in a newspaper. Everything is stated from a political position, no matter how hard someone works to hide that. And some people work very hard to hide it. Why?

First, I’ll talk about Jeremy Corbyn and his beliefs. You’ll have seen, no doubt, the picture of him being arrested for protesting against apartheid in South Africa? I’ll use this as a jumping off point because it’s in the news today. It’s emblematic of Corbyn’s lifelong approach.

One of the things that Corbyn’s supporters love about him in particular is that he’s a peacemaker. It’s also one of the things that frustrates us the most. 

Love: because his approach to foreign policy has always been one of recognising the necessity of dialogue. It proves an easy stick to beat him with because it’s seen him working to bring all sides together in Northern Ireland (something the Conservative government at the time was also doing in their own way, along with others in Labour), or trying to diffuse tensions and encourage constructive talks in the Middle East, for example. It’s why he was so outspoken in his opposition to illegally invading Iraq (we hit upon one reason here why Tony Blair might have a personal interest in discrediting Corbyn: his involvement in Iraq would be under more scrutiny with a Corbyn-led Labour Party in charge). The list is endless, and he has been proven time and time again to be on the right side of history when it comes to his desire to make peace, not war.

Frustrates: because his natural desire to make peace sees him be far too conciliatory when it comes to both internal Labour Party matters and his approach to media hostility. Backing down on open selection (also known as mandatory reselection) will be seen as one of the biggest mistakes of his leadership in years to come. Time and time again he’s held out the olive branch because his opponents demand it, only to see them set fire to the branch, crush the ashes beneath their heels, and then turn around and say “pass us an olive branch”. One criticism we hear a lot is “Corbyn isn’t a leader”, and the only time I will ever agree that his leadership has been lacking is on this matter. He should have been more forthright and stood his ground. But such is the contradiction at the heart of what makes him the good person he is: that’s not his style. He’s a peacemaker.

Back to his arrest for protesting against South African apartheid. Corbyn served on the national executive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement that was “a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa’s non-White population who were persecuted by the policies of apartheid.” At the time, the Tories were pro-apartheid, and could even sometimes be found wearing “hang Nelson Mandela” stickers at their conferences and party events. Standing up so proudly against apartheid wasn’t a popular position to hold at the time. And yet he did it, because it was right.

In 1985 Corbyn was appointed national secretary of Anti-Fascist Action. I don’t know how old you are or your familiarity with British political history, but anti-fascist action in the UK has always centred around defending Jewish people from fascist groups and attack. In the 1970s he organised a demonstration against a National Front march through Wood Green. The National Front were on the rise in the 70s, and it’s seen as something of a golden era by today’s fascists in groups like the EDL who would take us back to that, and go beyond it, if they could. This is just one example of Corbyn directly putting his body on the line to defend Jewish people and others against fascists, following in the footsteps of his mother, who was at the Battle of Cable Street. In his role as parliamentarian, he signed numerous Early Day Motions condemning antisemitism, stretching back decades before he became leader, something that has been recognised in the Times of Israel. In 1987 Corbyn joined Jewish campaigners to stop the demolition of a Jewish cemetery by Islington Council (the demolition was, I note, supported by Margaret Hodge). More recently, in 2010, he petitioned parliament to help resettle Yemeni Jews fleeing from conflict. 

There are countless other examples of his work to support Jewish people, as well as him being a friend to pretty much every other minority people you can think of. It’s not just empty words and platitudes, it’s real action, for decades.

Let me give you an extract from an ‘expose’ meant to discredit Corbyn, and tell me what you think of him after this:

“Dressed in a dirty jacket and creased trousers, Jeremy Corbyn arrived in Westminster as a new MP in the summer of 1983.

He immediately told friends that Parliament was ‘a waste of time’ with no relevance to his Islington constituents, especially the immigrant communities.

To meet them, he set up offices in the Red Rose Centre in Holloway where his door was always open to a tide of human misery: Cypriots, Jamaicans, Indians, Pakistanis, South Africans, South Americans, Somalis, West Saharans and Kurds all sought his help.

The procession of petitioners reinforced his conviction that Britain should allow unrestricted immigration – and offer the world’s destitute an open invitation to share our wealth.

In his opinion, all immigrant communities were victims of white imperialists, and the British state owed them a financial obligation. Anyone who disagreed was racist.”

This was intended as a ‘gotcha’ to prove to right wing readers what a dangerous man Corbyn is. They’re right, he is dangerous. Dangerous to fascists. Dangerous to racists. Dangerous to anyone who wants to take away your liberty, to anyone who wants to harm the vulnerable in society.

So how do we align all of this with what we’ve heard in the press over the past five years? Hopefully the extract above, which was printed in the Daily Mail, starts to make it clear what’s going on. Corbyn has always, throughout his career and before he was elected to parliament, fought tirelessly for peace, for reconciliation, for minority populations here and around the world, including Jewish people. Even before he became leader (outshining even Blair’s popularity at his height among party members), there were people of all political stripes who wanted to discredit him, not even necessarily because they disliked him, but because they despised what he stood for and continues to stand for. 

We’re not just talking about people who want to be able to say and do racist things, but people who have an interest in our political and economic system continuing as it has so they can maintain their economic, social, cultural, and political power. It’s impossible to overstate how important and crucial this point is. It cuts to the heart of everything.

Look at this, from the Labour manifesto that was launched today:

Introduce a War Powers Act to ensure that no prime minister can bypass Parliament to commit to conventional military action. Unlike the Conservatives, we will implement every single recommendation of the Chilcot Inquiry.

Conduct an audit of the impact of Britain’s colonial legacy to understand our contribution to the dynamics of violence and insecurity across regions previously under British colonial rule.

Invest an additional £400 million in our diplomatic capacity to secure Britain’s role as a country that promotes peace, delivers ambitious global climate agreements and works through international organisations to secure political settlements to critical issues.

Establish a judge-led inquiry into our country’s alleged complicity in rendition and torture, and the operation of secret courts.

Issue a formal apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and hold a public review into Britain’s role in the Amritsar massacre.

Allow the people of the Chagos Islands and their descendants the right to return to the lands from which they should never have been removed.

Uphold the human rights of the people of West Papua and recognise the rights of the people of Western Sahara.

Immediately suspend the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen and to Israel for arms used in violation of the human rights of Palestinian civilians, and conduct a root-and-branch reform of our arms exports regime so ministers can never again turn a blind eye to British-made weapons being used to target innocent civilians.

Reform the international rules-based order to secure justice and accountability for breaches of human rights and international law, such as the bombing of hospitals in Syria, the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, the use of rape as a weapon of war against the Rohingya community in Myanmar and the indiscriminate bombardment of civilians in Yemen.

We will work through the UN and the Commonwealth to insist on the protection of human rights for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil and Muslim populations.

Appoint human-rights advisers to work across the Foreign Office and government to prioritise a co-ordinated approach to human rights.

Advocate for human rights at every bilateral diplomatic meeting.

There are an awful lot of consequences to carrying out these policies. For example, Tony Blair and David Miliband are implicated in rendition, and it stands to reason they will do everything in their power to ensure they aren’t brought to justice for it, or even exposed to scrutiny over it. On the matter of arms sales, not only does it have ramifications for one of the most profitable industries, it also cuts straight to the heart of how and why we choose the international allies we do, and the power relationships inherent in that. This isn’t just a disagreement of opinion, this is threatening to change how we’ve done international politics for a generation or more. It doesn’t get more serious than this. As far as anyone who has an interest in things staying as they are, he must be stopped, by any means necessary.

Let’s talk about antisemitism. Labour is a broad party that reflects a wide range of people and a wide range of opinions from all walks of life and from all corners of the country. It stands to reason that every opinion, thought, and position you can imagine exists in wider society will be found somewhere among Labour members, by virtue of it being a mass membership party. There are terfs in the Labour Party, there are racists in the Labour Party, there are homophobes in the Labour Party, there are sexists in the Labour Party, there are antisemites in the Labour Party – because there are all those kinds of people in our country. There are all those kinds of people in the SNP. There are all those kinds of people in the Tory Party. There are all those kinds of people in the Green Party. There are all those kinds of people in the Lib Dems. What it speaks to, primarily, is the work we have to do, as a country, to educate and counter those bigotries across society. Where they rear their head within the party they must be stamped out immediately. It must be made clear that a socialist party is no place for bigotry and hatred. I think I’ve made it clear above that Corbyn is not an antisemite, and in fact has spent his entire life fighting against antisemitism, including putting his body on the line.

It has become increasingly striking that, over the past five years, Labour has been held to a far greater standard than any other party when it comes to antisemitism or any other kind of bigotry. Boris Johnson’s comments about watermelon smiles and letterboxes get passing comment, Sayeeda Warsi saying that Islamophobia is rampant in the Tory Party and she doesn’t feel safe there is quickly swept under the carpet. Compare the endless months of hand-wringing over Labour’s discussions over adopting the IHRA working definition of antisemitism to the Conservative’s refusal to adopt similar recommendations by the Muslim Council of Britain over anti-Muslim bigotry.

Yesterday a prominent political journalist tweeted that a Tory candidate had been expelled for antisemitism, and in the same tweet she said that a chair of a local CLP (constituency Labour Party – CLPs are the local organising groups for each constituency in the country) had resigned. In the tweet she linked to a BBC article about the CLP chair resignation. Let’s look at what’s going on here. Firstly, she gave both of these news items the same weight by putting them together in the same tweet. Second, she only linked to the story about the CLP chair, suggesting that was the more important of the two. The CLP chair resigned not over antisemitism or anything like that, but because they were disgruntled at how the selection for their local parliamentary candidate went. If you’ve ever been to a CLP meeting you’ll know that everyone is disgruntled about something. It’s hardly national news. But of course, it is. Because it was decided at some point over the past five years that everything that happens in the Labour Party must be forensically dissected and assessed as a real blow to Corbyn, or proof that Corbyn is terrible. Whereas the real story, that a Tory candidate was expelled for antisemitism, is barely a footnote. Why? Keep asking why.

I don’t know what your opinions are about politics in the United States, or whether you follow it at all, but when asking ‘why?’ it might be useful to think about what’s happening over there and how it compares and contrasts to what’s happening over here. Think about the reaction to Ilhan Omar, the inherent anti-Muslim sentiment and racism in opposition to her, and the way her critics have tried to suggest she is antisemitic. Think about those progressives in the UK who support her and see it as ridiculous scaremongering with a political motive, and how some of those are the same people who throw as much invective at Corbyn as they can. Think about the differences in how progressive politics in the US and progressive politics in the UK are presented. Think about how the same accusations of antisemitism are made against Bernie Sanders, a Jewish man who is open about his support for Israel. Think about those things and ask whether, perhaps, the wider politics of those involved might be behind some of what’s going on.

I’ll end by telling you about me and where I live. I live in Stoke-on-Trent. We have three MPs across the city: Gareth Snell here in Stoke Central, Ruth Smeeth in Stoke North, and a Tory in Stoke South, who in 2017 very narrowly beat Rob Flello, who had been the Labour MP there for quite a while. Rob is a Catholic, and has centred his Catholicism in a lot of his politics. Ruth is Jewish, and has been one of the high profile voices to speak against Corbyn. Despite going to university with Gareth and my husband working with him for years in our previous MP’s office and being his close friend, I don’t know his religious affiliation, if he even has one. I disagree with all three of them on the basis of their politics. 

I’m very glad Rob is no longer in the party, he was an embarrassment, and should have gone years ago. Rob used his Catholicism as an excuse to pursue some awful political positions (against abortion, for example), all the while being an enormous hypocrite (I won’t spill the tea about his personal life, it would be unbecoming). I think you’d agree that it’s possible for me to disagree with his politics, and to even discuss how they intersected with his version of Catholicism, without being bigoted towards Catholics or wishing them harm or wanting Catholicism to be wiped out. My mother is Catholic. (I’m forever grateful her and my dad decided not to assign me a religion, instead leaving it up to me. Their one moment of progressive thinking!)

I disagree with Gareth’s politics, despite as I explained my and my husband’s history of friendship with him, and will be eternally angry with myself for signing his nomination papers in 2017 when he was selected as our candidate to stand against Paul Nuttall of UKIP in the infamous Stoke Central by-election. What’s important here, in our relationship and out of it, is the politics. My anger isn’t at his life, his family, or whatever faith he does or does not hold, but rather at his deceit towards us in the CLP, and his awful, awful approach in parliament towards Brexit.

I disagree with Ruth’s politics, as does my husband, despite him campaigning very hard and being instrumental locally for getting her selected as the candidate for Stoke North back in the day. I disagree with her handling of Brexit, which follows the same line as Gareth’s. They’re both at risk of losing their seats at the election, and have calculated that by doing all they can to seem as though they are Brexit MPs they’ll claw back the support Labour has already lost to the Tories and Brexit Party, not realising that support left long ago and won’t come back just because they personally keep voting against the Labour whip. In the meantime they’re making it increasingly difficult for us to oppose no deal or Johnson’s hard Brexit. I also disagree with Ruth because she’s helped weaponise instances of antisemitism as a way to discredit the left. Just as I disagree with any MP who has done that, regardless of their ethnicity or religion. Because, as I have said before, it’s the politics that matter. Just as I can disagree with Rob, even on matters that centre his Catholicism, without it being an attack on Catholics, so too can I disagree with Ruth, even on matters that centre her being Jewish, without it being an attack on Jewish people. And this is where we get into the nuts and bolts of the thing.

I met Chris Williamson a while back, bumping into him at Derby train station. My husband knows him (he knows everyone in the Labour Party, social butterfly that he is), and so we went to say hi. It was the first time I’d met him. I was very clear that, despite my anxiety and hate of confrontation, were he to say anything diminishing antisemitism I was going to speak out. And I did, because he did. The weird thing about Chris is that he was long known as a wonderful anti-racism campaigner and a true friend of the vulnerable and minorities. Something twisted him. Over the past few years it’s like he decided to court controversy, to push as many buttons as he could, to see how far he could go, digging his heels in no matter the cost. I think he should have been kicked out a long time ago, once he made it clear he didn’t care about the damage he caused, either to the Party or to Jewish people, because he was on his own political crusade. I don’t believe he is personally antisemitic, but there comes a point where his actions speak louder than his words, and the effects of his behaviour might as well have an antisemitic root for the harm they cause. I’m glad he was finally kicked out, and I’m furious he’s standing as an independent, risking turning Derby North Tory at a time when the very people he says he cares about, the poor, the vulnerable, migrants, disabled people, need a Labour government more than anything else and cannot survive another five years of Tory rule.

The very real fears Jewish people hold have been weaponised by the right, who always try to seed fear over hope because it gets them votes, and likewise the whole resulting situation has been further exacerbated by people like Chris. I’m infuriated by it all, not least because I don’t doubt that a high proportion of British Jewish people genuinely are scared. But because of political interests and political positioning, their fears are being exploited and redirected away from where they should be to precisely where they shouldn’t. It should be clear to you from what I’ve posted above that you’d be hard pressed to find a non-Jewish MP who has worked more tirelessly than Jeremy Corbyn to protect and defend Jewish people against fascists, just as he has worked tirelessly to defend all minorities. At a time when the far right is on the march, burning synagogues, shooting gay people and Sikhs and Muslims, to have our attention diverted away to focus on the best hope we’ve had in generations to stop it is madness. It’s motivated by political interest, whether that’s on behalf of the Conservative party and general right wing politics (let’s not forget some important points here, like Stephen Pollard being a staunchly right wing Conservative supporter, or like Maureen Lipman announcing her ditching Labour not once, but twice – the first time being under Ed Miliband’s leadership (himself Jewish), because of his support for Palestinian rights). Politics is at the heart of it all. 

Politics is at the heart of it all.

Politics is at the heart of it all, and just as working class people are used as pawns, pitted against migrants and having their fears about precarity and poverty and security weaponised to divert attention away from the real causes of their immiseration, so too are Jewish people being used as pawns, having their real fears exploited to discredit the only chance we’ll have in our lifetimes of defeating the right.

As I said at the start, I don’t expect what I’ve written here will make you feel any more safe. I hope it doesn’t make you feel any less safe. I just ask that you think about the politics of it all, and remember those questions I asked at the beginning: who is saying things against Corbyn, what are their politics, what kind of world do they want to see, who do they want me to vote for, what are their interests, how do they benefit from society under different governments? I ask you to remember that everything is stated from a political position, no matter how hard someone works to hide that. And that some people work very hard to hide it. Why?

Lastly, I want you to know that the very core of my politics is justice. Justice, empathy, fairness. I couldn’t be a socialist without those tenets at the centre of it all. Our world is burning. Our people are dying. This is all only going to get worse. Official figures are that 130,000 people have died unnecessarily as a direct result of Tory austerity. Those figures were released some time ago, so it is surely more now. Millions have already been displaced around the world as a result of the climate catastrophe. Millions more will be displaced, in ever more horrific events, over the next few years. As people have to move around the globe we will see increasing international tensions, bloody clashes, inhumane national policies aimed at keeping those people away, more bodies in trucks, more children washed up dead on beaches, more people killed in sectarian wars. If we continue to turn a blind eye to the rise of the right, we’re condemning millions to untold suffering. If we re-elect a Tory government we’re condemning millions to untold suffering. If we turn to centrism, a system responsible for that rise of the right, a system that has no answers and wants to simply manage things around the edges, we are condemning millions to untold suffering.

What kind of world do you want to see? What kind of world do those who disparage Corbyn despite his well-documented history want to see?

Politics. The simple answer to the complex problem.

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Today in LGBTQ+ History

July 23rd



(1726) Margaret Clap is convicted of “keeping a disorderly house of the entertainment of sodomites.” Homosexuality was still a crime at that point, and Clap ran what was referred to as a "molly house," 'molly' being slang for 'gay man,' a place where the gay community could fraternize and solicit sex or relationships.

(1899) Ruth Charlotte Ellis, openly lesbian and prominent in LGBTQ+ and African American activism, is born. She came out as a lesbian at 16 years old and graduated from Springfield High School in 1919. Less than seven percent of BPOC graduated from secondary school during that time period. In the 1920s, she met her longtime partner and the only woman she ever lived with, Ceciline “Babe” Franklin. They moved to Detroit, MI in 1937, where Ellis became the first American woman to own a printing business in the city. She made a living printing stationery, fliers, and posters out of her house. Ellis and Franklin’s house was also known in the Black community as the “gay spot”. It was a central location for gay and lesbian parties, and also served as a refuge for African American gays and lesbians. She died peacefully at age 101, in October 2000.

(1975) Evangelist Billy Graham comes out in favor of gay men allowing to serve as ministers.

(1985) Custody of Sharon Kowalski, severly disabled after an accident, was granted to her father rather than her lover, Karen Thompson. This resulted in Thompson being barred from visitng Kowalski, as her family did not approve of their relationship. She would continue the legal battle with a string of appeals, after which she was finally successful in reuniting with her partner.

(1987) 1. Dignity, a Catholic gay organization, hosts a conference challenging and decrying the Vatican's Ratzinger letter. In this letter, the Church declared homosexuality to be “a strong tendency to behavior which is intrinsically evil.” It also claimed gays and lesbians should expect to be victims of violence, that the LGBTQ+ community should not have civil rights, and that all organizations that disagree with the church's teachings on homosexuality should not be allowed to use church facilities.

2. Several groups protested the Pope's visit to San Francisco, including survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

3. President Ronald Reagan forms a presidential commission on AIDS. Our current president must have taken a leaf from his book about appointing people to positions, as none of the people appointed to this commission were knowledgeable about the illness, and there was one gay man, who happened to be a medical researcher, a decision bringing scorn from conservatives. Surprisingly (or actually not), they were totally fine with the homophobic Archbishop John Cardinal O'Connor from New York. This presidential committee was widely considered to be a fiasco.

(2015) The Gender Accordance Act is passed in Poland, allowing transgender people to change the gender appearing on their IDs.

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Events 3.17 (after 1960)

1960 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion. 1960 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 crashes in Tobin Township, Perry County, Indiana, killing 63. 1963 – Mount Agung erupts on Bali killing more than 1,100 people. 1966 – Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the DSV Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb. 1968 – As a result of nerve gas testing by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps in Skull Valley, Utah, over 6,000 sheep are found dead. 1969 – Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel. 1973 – The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family, which came to symbolize the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War. 1979 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers. 1985 – Serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka the "Night Stalker", commits the first two murders in his Los Angeles murder spree. 1988 – A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143. 1988 – Eritrean War of Independence: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet. 1992 – Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires: Car bomb attack kills 29 and injures 242. 1992 – A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%. 2000 – Five hundred and thirty members of the Ugandan cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God die in a fire, considered to be a mass murder or suicide orchestrated by leaders of the cult. Elsewhere another 248 members are later found dead. 2003 – Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council, Robin Cook, resigns from the British Cabinet in disagreement with government plans for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 2004 – Unrest in Kosovo: More than 22 are killed and 200 wounded. Thirty-five Serbian Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Serbia are destroyed. 2016 – Rojava conflict: At a conference in Rmelan, the Movement for a Democratic Society declares the establishment of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.

[lboogie1906]

Rev. Philip Alford Potter (August 19, 1921 – March 31, 2015) was a leader in the Methodist Church and the third General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (1972–84).

He was born in Roseau, Dominica, West Indies into a Christian family with a Protestant mother and a Catholic father.

He was active in church matters from an early age, and became a lay pastor and ordained minister. He worked on the island of Nevis and with Creole-speaking people of rural Haiti, on the staff of the Methodist Missionary Society in London. He represented the Jamaica Student Christian Movement at the 1947 World Conference on Christian Youth in Oslo, he was a spokesperson for youth at the first two assemblies of the World Council of Churches at Amsterdam and Evanston. He received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University.

He moved to Geneva to work in the WCC’s youth department and remained with the WCC until his retirement. He was the chairperson of the World Student Christian Federation. He served as the WCC’s General Secretary. He was the first president of WSCF’s Centennial Fund. He is considered a leader in world ecumenism.

In a speech on the occasion of his 85th birthday, at the WCC’s 9th Assembly at Porto Alegre, Brazil, Samuel Kobia remarked, “Great strides were taken by the World Council of Churches under Philip Potter’s leadership; among the most memorable was the development of the theological consensus document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, the continuation of a courageous campaign against apartheid in southern Africa and other forms of racism throughout the world, a vigorous debate on the nature of post-colonial Christian mission, a co-ordinated witness for peace amid East-West tensions and the threat of nuclear annihilation, as well as an exploration of new forms of spirituality, worship and music drawing on the diverse traditions of the churches.”

In November 2009 the WSCF launched the Philip Potter Fund. This Fund is to support the Ecumenical Leadership Formation of young people through the WSCF.

His first wife, Doreen, died in 1980. He married Bärbel Wartenberg (1985). #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

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Space Station 20th: Expedition 1 Crew Named

ISS - International Space Station 20th Anniversary patch / ISS - Expedition 1 Mission patch. Jan. 30, 2020

International Space Station (ISS) 20th banner

During a Jan. 30, 1996, press conference in Washington, DC, US Vice President Albert A. “Al” Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin announced the assignment of American astronaut William M. Shepherd and Russian cosmonaut Sergei K. Krikalev to the first team of crewmembers to occupy the International Space Station (ISS). Shepherd had completed three Space Shuttle missions and Krikalev had flown two long-duration missions aboard the Mir space station as well as on STS-60, becoming the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard the Space Shuttle. At the time of the announcement, Shepherd and Krikalev planned to launch to ISS in May 1998 with a third crewmember, another Russian cosmonaut. Initially, the Russians designated Anatoli Y. Solovyev, a veteran of several missions to Mir, as that third crewmember but they ultimately replaced him with Yuri P. Gidzenko, also a Mir veteran. The partners later announced a backup crew composed of veteran Shuttle commander Kenneth D. Bowersox, Mir veteran Vladimir N. Dezhurov, and space rookie Mikhail V. Tyurin. The primary tasks expected of the Expedition 1 crew included activating various systems on board the station, unpacking equipment that had been delivered, and hosting three visiting Space Shuttle crews and two unmanned Russian Progress resupply vehicles. The Shuttles planned to deliver new components to ISS including the first set of US solar arrays and the US Laboratory Module. Although the crewmembers would remain busy with the high-priority commissioning tasks, time would be set aside to conduct the first research experiments aboard ISS. Prime Crew

  Astronaut William M. “Shep” Shepherd   Expedition 1 Commander   Birthdate: July 26, 1949   Birthplace: Oak Ridge, Tennessee   Selected: May 1984   Spaceflight experience: STS-27, STS-41, STS-52   Time in space: 18 days, 8 hours, 12 minutes   No. of EVAs/EVA time: None

  Cosmonaut Sergey K. Krikalyov   Expedition 1 Flight Engineer   Birthdate: August 27, 1958   Birthplace: Leningrad (now St. Petersburg)   Selected: September 1985   Spaceflight experience: Mir-4, Mir-9/10, STS-60 (flew on STS-88 between his selection   and   Expedition 1)   Time in space: 472 days, 1 hour, 20 minutes (not including STS-88)   No. of EVAs/EVA time: 7/36 hours, 10 minutes

  Cosmonaut Yuri P. Gidzenko   Expedition 1 Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander   Birthdate: March 26, 1962   Birthplace: Yelanets (now in Ukraine)   Selected: March 1987   Spaceflight experience: Mir-20   Time in space: 179 days, 1 hour, 42 minutes   No. of EVAs/EVA time: 2/3 hours, 35 minutes Backup Crew

  Astronaut Kenneth D. Bowersox   Expedition 1 Backup Commander   Birthdate: November 14, 1956   Birthplace: Portsmouth, Virginia   Selected: June 1987   Spaceflight experience: STS-50, STS-61, STS-73   Time in space: 40 days, 15 hours, 11 minutes   No. of EVAs/EVA time: None

  Cosmonaut Vladimir N. Dezhurov   Expedition 1 Backup Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander   Birthdate: July 30, 1962   Birthplace: Yavas (now in Moldova)   Selected: March 1987   Spaceflight experience: Mir-18   Time in space: 115 days, 8 hour, 43 minutes   No. of EVAs/EVA time: 5/18 hours, 57 minutes

  Cosmonaut Mikhail V. Tyurin   Expedition 1 Backup Flight Engineer   Birthdate: March 2, 1960   Birthplace: Kolomna   Selected: April 1994   Spaceflight experience: None   Time in space: None   No. of EVAs/EVA time: None After delays in the launch of the Zvezda Service Module that included living quarters, Shepherd, Krikalev, and Gidzenko launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 31, 2000. Two days later they docked with ISS, then composed of the Zarya, Unity, and Zvezda modules, to begin their 136-day stay aboard the station. With a permanent crew of three on board, assembly truly began in earnest to develop the station’s capabilities. The Z1 truss segment added to the top of Node 1 added a communications capability while the P6 truss segment brought the first set of US solar arrays to significantly increase the available power. With the additional power, the US Destiny laboratory module came next along with the first research racks. The first of many crew rotations replaced the Expedition 1 crew with a new crew, a scenario repeated many times in the life of ISS.

Left: Official photo of the ISS Expedition 1 crew (left to right) Krikalev, Shepherd, and Gidzenko.

Today, ISS is the largest space vehicle ever built and a unique microgravity laboratory for conducting research in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. Including its solar arrays, it is as large as a football field. The habitable volume in its various international modules is larger than a six-bedroom house. Since November 2000, more than 230 individuals from 19 countries have visited ISS. As a laboratory, ISS has hosted more than 2,700 scientific investigations from more than 100 countries.

Top: ISS as it appeared when the Expedition 1 crew took up residence. Down: Expedition 1 crew (left to right) Gidzenko, Shepherd, and Krikalev aboard ISS.

Related article: NASA Counts Down to Twenty Years of Continuous Human Presence on International Space Station https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/11/nasa-counts-down-to-twenty-years-of.html 20 memorable moments from the International Space Station https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/11/20-memorable-moments-from-international.html Related links: NASA History: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/index.html Historic Missions: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/index.html International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images, Text, Credits: NASA/Kelli Mars/JSC/John Uri. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article