By Ronald Webster-Bey, on June 25th, 2014 
Ronald Webster-Bey aka Moorman
I am writing this article about the heart because I suffered a heart attack. I stopped taking my daily dose of Simvastatin (40mg) for my high cholesterol because the side effect was memory loss. This side effect impacted my memory so badly that I could no longer retain anything I read from books, newspapers, or any other literature. So, I decided to try herbs and oatmeal. Though I tried to replace the synthetic heart medicine with these natural remedies, I did not maintain a truly nutritious diet. For instance, I continued to eat things like cookies, ice cream and the wrong type of butter, which I now know are the foods that caused clotting in my proximal lad and mid lad heart arteries.
I was helping a friend move on March 5, 2014 to a new apartment. On my second trip to his apartment to bring his clothes I became short of breath and decided to take a break to get my breath back. There was no improvement so I went out side. I told the other movers to take the remaining clothes. I said my Moorish American prayer and drove to the V.A. Hospital where I went to the emergency room. My breathing was light like using only half of my lungs and my chest was hurting like a toothache. The nurse gave me an aspirin and later a nitrogen tablet, but the pain was too great for the aspirin and tablet to have an effect. The doctors had to put a stent implant in my proximal lad and the mid lad artery of my heart.
I have faith in God and on Thursday the six of March a nurse told me that a patient with a similar problem like mine died. I know that the doctors can do all they can to save you, but it’s up to God if you live or die. I spent two days in the ICU where normally patients stay five to seven days. I drove myself back home; there I began to hear surreal stories surfacing about my alleged demise.
I work in Potomac Gardens as a greeter. When someone first comes into the building, I am there to give directions and a friendly smile to anyone who needs it. After I didn’t show up for work at the usual time at 11 AM, my coworker asked a neighbor about me who informed her that my van was parked outside. Another neighbor has a similar colored van, so to clear up who the van belonged to, the coworker asked a maintenance person to check inside my apartment. The Washington Post newspaper was outside my door. He told me later that he thought that I had passed away inside the apartment.
To read more of the MOORMAN’s story check back next week.
By Guest Contributor, on June 23rd, 2014 
Crossposted from the Huffington Post Written by Amanda Blackhorse
The Washington NFL team needs to change its name. I am a proud member of the Navajo Nation and it demeans me and other Native Americans. I find the casual use of the term r*dsk*ns disparaging, racist, and hateful. The use of the name and symbols used by the Washington football team perpetuate stereotypes of Native American people and it disgusts me to know that the Washington NFL team uses a racial slur for its name. If you were to refer to a Native American, would you call him or her a “redskin?” Of course not, just as you would not refer to an African-American as the n-word, or refer to Jew as a “kike” or a Mexican as a “wet-back” or an Asian-American as a “gook,” unless you’re a racist.
So how does the Washington NFL team defend its use of a racist name? One of their biggest claims is that a long tradition supports the use of the name. The team first began using the name in 1933, at a time when there was a great deal of racism in our country. In 1933, the segregation of African American people under the Jim Crow law was in full effect. The Navajo peoples’ livelihoods and sustenance were also threatened as the forced Navajo livestock reduction began. Just because something has gone on for a long time does not mean that the activity is a legitimate tradition. Not all traditions have carried on and many are harmful and repressive. Sometimes change is needed. In this case, the Washington NFL team name is an illegitimate racist tradition and it is time to change. Sports traditions are fun, but toying with racism is hurtful and should be condemned. If the use of the name continues, Native people and Native Nations will never be completely respected by fellow man so long as they are kept in what I refer to as a cultural prison.
In 2005, I attended a game between the Washington and Kansas City NFL teams, in Kansas City. I recall how the game was hyped as an “Indians fighting Indians” event, much like the “Cowboys versus Indians” hype when Dallas plays Washington. What I saw at the Kansas City-Washington game was depressing. I saw fans “playing Indian,” wearing outrageous and pathetic costumes that stereotyped traditional Native American regalia. While my friends and I held signs that said “we are not mascots,” we had all sorts of obscenities hurled at us, along with angry shouts of “get the hell out of here,” “get over it,” “go home,” and “go back to your reservation.”
Meanwhile, we were surrounded by imagery that mocked Native Americans and our cultures, in the form of posters, paraphernalia and even a portable toilet in the shape of a teepee. I did not feel safe. It was an ugly display of hostility and disdain toward my people. I remember being afraid for my well-being as well as the other protestors who remained quiet as we walked in unison around the stadium. We remained peaceful and observed our environment. I remember thinking, if upset enough, dedicated Kansas City or Washington fans, as hostile and as upset as they were, were very unpredictable and could act in a very unpredictable manner. I felt that I had stepped into a very dangerous world where my safety was at risk. At the same time, though, I need to point out there were many in the stadium who did express their support, which meant a lot to us.
While there seems to be much opposition to a name change, it has been very touching to see the outpouring of support for the Native American community from so many Americans of so many different backgrounds. I believe the tide is turning on this issue, and many people are now speaking out about just how inappropriate the team’s name is.
In the past two months, the mayor of Washington, D.C., Vincent Gray, stated that if the team wants to move back to D.C. from Maryland, there will need to be serious discussions over the team name. In addition, over the past two months, leading columnists for The Washington Post, including Courtland Milloy, Mike Wise, Sally Jenkins and Robert McCartney, have written powerful articles calling for the team to change its name. Miami University of Ohio and many other high schools such as Cooperstown Central in New York have stopped using “R*dsk*ns” for their teams’ name. . . . → Read More: Why the R*dsk*ns Needs to Change Their Name
By Grassroots DC, on June 9th, 2014 
cross-posted from the Washington Peace Letter written by Will Merrifield
The exploding housing costs that have accompanied the influx of new residents into DC have brought mass displacement of life-long residents and a subsequent spike in family homelessness. Currently, in the District, a person making minimum wage must work approximately 132 hours per week, 52 weeks a year, or earn $27 an hour at 40 hours per week to afford a 2 bedroom apartment at “Fair Market Rent”.
The reality of this housing market is that if you are a senior citizen on a fixed income, a person with a disability, or a low to medium wage worker, odds are, you cannot live in DC without some sort of housing subsidy or other support. In other words, there needs to be a way to fill the gap for these individuals between what they can spend on housing and the current market rate.
The most effective way to fill this gap is funding public housing and rent subsidy programs in the long term. Unfortunately, the District’s subsidized housing waitlist is currently closed and numbers approximately 70,000 households. While the number of low cost rental units has dropped by 50% since 2000, the number of rental units in the city costing more than median rent has tripled. DC government claims these issues are due to a lack of resources and are largely out of their control.
However, while DC officials are telling the community that they do not have enough revenue to adequately invest in affordable housing, they are routinely sacrificing public resources in the interest of “smart growth.”
In the past year, plans to help DC’s soccer team, DC United, materialized. Mayor Gray proposed to trade away the Reeves Municipal Center, at 14th & U St. NW, in order to help the soccer team build a new stadium at Buzzard Point. In addition to the land swap, the city would put up about $150 million in tax incentives to acquire the property, trading the government building in a prime location and essentially absorbing the stadium’s financial risks through dubious tax deals.
The Reeves Center land swap that may occur in our city’s next mayoral term is just one example of the District’s subsidization of large-scale commercial developers to the tune of billions of dollars through real estate devaluations and public land giveaways.
Meanwhile, the city is taking in budget surpluses of over 100 million dollars each fiscal year. The city government is gambling our tax dollars in the interest of developers and building a city for people who do not yet live here, and likely will not stay.
The net result of these decisions can be seen on every street corner as market rate affordable units are being converted to luxury condos. These policies have led to the mass displacement and homelessness described above.
As of February 2014, there were 2,527 homeless children in DC Public Schools. That number excludes the countless families that are not technically homeless but instead rely on others to take them in night after night. Furthermore, these policies have the effect of dehumanizing and further marginalizing low to medium income residents of Washington, DC. This past winter, the city completely ran out of shelter space and was housing families in rec centers, which is usually reserved for natural disasters. Essentially, the District is telling these residents that they are not wanted and have nothing to offer the City.
We as a community must take a stand to end this cycle of displacement. DC is not a playground for “young professionals”. Economic development that prioritizes amenities for these individuals over affordable housing is both unsustainable and immoral.
Change will not come from the top down. Real change will have to be led from the bottom up and must prioritize the needs and realities of the most marginalized and disaffected residents of the city. This change must start in community meeting spaces where residents can talk to one another with the ultimate goal of creating their own vision of DC and how it should develop in the future. It’s critical that organized communities and activist groups work to share more resources to strengthen the impact of these efforts.
Through this process directly impacted communities can develop their own leaders, create meaningful political coalitions and generate the necessary political will to make their vision a reality. But that process must start now and must be urgent. As any minimum wage worker, disabled senior citizen, or recently homeless family can . . . → Read More: The True Cost of Gentrification
By Grassroots DC, on June 6th, 2014
By Liane Scott, on June 5th, 2014 
Yesterday, we posted about tonight’s School Discipline Community Forum–All Souls Church, 1500 Harvard St. NW, 6:30PM. If you want to know more about how DC public school administrators typically discipline our students, watch the video below. Produced by this year’s Critical Exposure fellows, the video lobbies for the implementation of restorative justice programs in DC Public Schools. These programs could go a long way to clogging up the school-to-prison pipeline.
Final Fellowship SE 2014 from Critical Exposure on Vimeo.
Critical Exposure is a DC-based nonprofit that trains youth to use photography and advocacy to make real change in their schools and communities. Grassroots DC member Lishan Amde and I were very proud to work with the Critical Exposure Fellows Anaise Aristide, Malik Thompson, Delonte Williams, Maya Simms and Nadia Upshur-Richardson in the production of this video. Watch and learn what you can do to help bring restorative justice programs to DCPS.
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