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Bay View dubs 2009 the year of the freedom fighter

Free Gaza! Free Haiti! Free Congo! Free political prisoners! Free ‘em all! This is the year we have a shot at freeing everyone we can from tyranny, exploitation and poverty.

Kwanzaa calls is Kujichagulia, or self-determination. Malcolm said, “We should own and operate and control the economy of our community.”

Obama promises change. Dr. King cautions, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle,” echoing Frederick Douglass’ “If there is no struggle there is no progress. … Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will.”

We are the change agents. We are the freedom fighters. Obama is opening the window to new ideas – see www.change.gov. With solidarity we can unlock the doors, throw open the gates, tear down the walls, stop the genocide and the land grabs and restore sovereignty to the people.

Lofty goals? Why not? With the world in unprecedented crisis, we can make dramatic progress. Your freedom fighting ideas are welcome at the Bay View.

The January Bay View hit the streets Friday. Subscribe for $24 a year and we’ll mail you one. Donate to the Prisoners Subscription Fund and we'll mail one to a prisoner hungry for a taste of freedom. For those of us with internet access, all the stories in the paper are posted at www.sfbayview.com, and new stories are posted there daily.

In his January editorial, Bay View publisher Willie Ratcliff is determined to push open the door that has locked Blacks out of construction for over a decade. Read about his progress in ‘Change … comes through continuous struggle’ – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Reginald James pays tribute to another great Bay Area Black publisher in Bay Area mourns Black Business Listings publisher and Black Expo producer Dr. C. Diane Howell. Her memorial service is Monday, Jan. 5, 11 a.m., at the Oakland Marriott Convention Center, 1001 Broadway.

Bay View Arts Editor Wanda Sabir reveals who really created Kwanzaa in Wanda’s Picks for Jan. 2, where you’ll also find her super comprehensive list of Martin Luther King Day activities and all her picks for January, mixing politics with culture.

Bay View Health and Environmental Science Editor Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai tells us how to achieve the health and strength we need to be freedom fighters in Sustenance.

One of our greatest freedom fighters tells of facing death Dec. 30 in Israeli gunboats ram boat carrying Cynthia McKinney, the people’s secretary of state.

Coyote, a freedom fighter behind enemy lines in the tradition of George Jackson, writes of his friend Ikemba (Marritte Funches) in They can’t kill a revolutionary.

Friends of the Congo Maurice Carney and Kambale Musavuli give historical context to the resource war that has taken 6 million Black lives in the last 12 years in Congo: One hundred years of colonialism, dictatorship and war (1908-2008). And Mumia adds his insight to that of Frantz Fanon in From Fanon to Africa, with love.

Here are the rest of the stories posted since the last update on Christmas Day:

The rains of death in Gaza
As bombs rain down, Palestinians call on all ‘freedom loving people to act immediately in any possible way to put pressure on their governments to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute sanctions against it.’

Blacks built the White House
When the new First Family takes up residence in the White House in January, Barack and Michelle Obama and their daughters will be living in a historic mansion that was built in large measure with slave labor.

A great opportunity to integrate the construction unions
This is a great time to make a long overdue change. Construction unions are the most racist organizations in the nation. Let’s make them integrate.

Black state legislators want economic bailout – ‘in the neighborhood’
Dropout rates, infant mortality rates and incarceration rates – all often associated with economic injustice – are skyrocketing in cities and states across the nation.

Politics make strange bedfellows
Conservative Christian leaders and gay activists have become bedfellows in their criticism of the choice of Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration.

Five bailout lessons from Katrina
Year end bonuses continue while foreclosures increase? The needs of the poor must take priority over the wants of the rich.

Yes we did
They became their brother’s keeper in making sure that all their pot’nas registered to vote. They texted, they myspaced, they facebooked, they put the word out. They made it uncool to NOT be registered to vote.

Cancerous air: Born under a bad sky
In San Francisco the average infant will exceed the EPA’s lifetime exposure to toxic air pollutants in 19 days. In LA, it takes only 12 days.

Homelessness on the rise in San Francisco
“A guy was lying on the sidewalk. I leaned down and asked him if he wanted something to eat. He pulled the blanket down and there was a 5-year-old little boy lying with him.”

Method of execution
I will continue the ardent struggle from the “inside out.” As you fight to abolish the death penalty from the “outside in,” may we intersect in success!

Black Repertory Theatre presents … Paul Mooney
Paul is as real as real can get. “Forget saying ‘pulling the race card’; I’m pulling the reality card,” Paul yelled from the center of the stage during his show.

News you can use
News on digital TV conversion; money-saving, child-pleasing nutritious home-cooked meals; assistance with energy bills; Medi-Cal eligibility for HIV-positive people who don’t have AIDS.

For news and ideas you won’t find in the Chronicle or on CNN, make a daily habit of checking Media Freedom, where all the headlines in the best of independent media, from Democracy Now to Al Jazeera and BBC to the Bay View, are posted every day. And when you discover a great story, Digg it, Buzz it up or share it on Facebook. See – even an armchair freedom fighter can change the world!

Happy 2009, dear friends!

Mary Ratcliff, editor@sfbayview.com

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