What Up Kid? I Heard It’s Rough Doing Your Bid!

You got people in jail?  I do.  Ever since I can remember my friends, family and neighbors have been spending time locked up. I am not alone.  Today, there are nearly 7 million Americans behind bars.

And while bad people definitely need to be in prison, the truth is that for the last 30 years young people and people of color have suffered disproportionately in the American judicial system.  People don’t like to talk about it, but the War on Drugs and the over policing of inner city communities has created a generation of incarcerated scar-faces.

One of the sad realities of prison life is that you are disconnected from your people.  And it doesn’t matter how many letters you write or how many times you visit, the distance is most times unbearable.  That’s why AppalShop, a media justice organization in Whitesburg Ky, came up with a project called Thousand Kites. Every week this unique radio program brings the voices of prisoners’ families to the airwaves and gives them an opportunity to communicate to their loved ones via FM radio waves.

Check out today’s action video, I bet you’ll be inspired to do something for your people behind bars.

Got a story to tell? Drop it on our wall to the right, or email us at 99problems.org@gmail.com

Today’s Artist: Johnny Cash

We’re bringing ya back a few decades on this one. Johnny Cash was a revolutionary, rebellious figure who famously empathized with the imprisoned population when it was considered extremely taboo to do so. Prison destroys men and women, and in this song, San Quentin, Cash defines the disdain that men have for that famous prison.

Posted by:

Biko Baker

Power Shift 2009

We’re getting psyched about this.

In 2007, the Energy Action Coalition put together the original Power Shift. Thousands of kids from around the country descended on Washington for 3 days in November, and the energy they brought to the green jobs movement was 100% renewable.

In 2009, we’re going back to D.C. for Power Shift 09. Our government made us a promise, and we’re gonna make sure it’s kept. Power Shift is going down February 27th through March 2nd. 99problems.org is going to be all over the scene, bringing you exclusive video, blogs, and photos of America’s brightest activists and artists.

Looking to learn a bit more about Powershift?
We got the info for you!
Got a Facebook? BAM!
How ’bout a Myspace? POW!
Thinking about attending AND JOINING THE 99PROBLEMS TEAM AT THE CONFERENCE IN DC? KACHOW!

Today’s Artist: Guster

Adam Gardner from Guster is a huge green energy advocate. Today’s Artist post isn’t a music one, but instead, it’s an artist giving testimony about his actions in the environmental awareness community. Fun fact: Adam Gardner and Guster will be speaking at the Keynote at Powershift!

Posted by:

Sam Patton

Be a Role Model

In millions of households nationwide, many young men and women grow up without a solid sense of guidance in their lives.

Many professional psychologists decry the number of kids who are babysat by the television but it seems that more often than not, there is no other option. In a 2000 survey, it was estimated that 13.8 million children live in single-parent households and most of those parents have a full time job. These kids are highly at risk for falling through the cracks of our system.

However, there is hope. Big Brothers, Big Sisters is a national program that matches up kids in search of a mentor with volunteers. As we become the older generation, it is our responsibility to act as mentors to these minds. Mentoring has been recognized as a mutually beneficial activity: many older mentors describe their experience as enlightening and emphatically state that they learn incredible lessons from the kids they work with.

The Wu Tang Clan is not just one of the illest hip hop groups that’s ever existed. Since they bust on the scene in the early 90s, Wu Tang has been relentless critics of the system that keeps so many people down.

Posted by:

Steve Romain

You Gotta Be The Change

For the last several weeks we here at 99problems.org have focused on the nation’s biggest problems. When our government is throwin’ around numbers like 2.5 trillion dollars, it’s easy to think that change has to be that big, has to come down from the top.

We know that’s wrong. We know that the latest drastic measures are another symptom of our social malaise. Day to day, we aren’t taking care of each other. We need an inspiration that isn’t government mandated. We need each other to make it through the storm.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to introduce a young man by the name of Valentino Grey. 

Like so many other young people living in urban areas across the country, Valentino got into a bit (okay more than a bit) during his teenage years. A product of Milwaukee, WI’s post industrial inner city, by his early teens he had become a stick up kid, who was robbing dope houses to keep money in his pocket.

By the time he was 17, Valentino’s night time activities caught up with him. Never mind that he was a multi-talented artist who spent his days as a student at the city’s most prestigious art school; to the law, he was just another punk.

3 years in a lockbox is the fuel for his fire. Today, a free man, Tino has given up on the streets to become an organizer. Using his gifts as a song writer and vocalist, Valentino uses his talents to edutain people in his community. He realizes that no matter what he has done in his past, that he is not a thug. He is learning to give up on the pains of his child and is ready to become a leader.

We think he is the perfect example of what change looks like: from convicted to conviction, Gray uses his music to build a community based on love. He’s too busy looking forward to waste time dwelling on the past.

Posted by:

Biko Baker

The Right To Remain Safe

In Oakland, California, a daughter has lost her father, parents have lost their son, a girlfriend has lost her lover and many have lost a friend. On New Years Eve 2008, Oscar Grant was beaten by police officers and then shot at point blank range in the middle of a crowded train station. Grant had been involved in a fight with another passenger of the train. Even though Grant was restrained and completely unarmed, the officer opened fire on the young man.

Police brutality is a rotten, stinking issue plaguing our society, tainting the pursuit of justice and freedom in America. Oscar Grant was not just a victim of police brutality – he was the victim of an execution. This has caused an uproar of anger, pain and sorrow in the communities of the Bay Area. Some of that anger has fueled the violent protests, reminiscent of the 1992 LA Riots, the have broken out as a response to Grant’s murder.

Grant is not alone - for too long, minorities have been victims of police brutality and racial profiling. In the minds of many, this alters the perception of police from protectors to oppressors, leading to widespread fear of those who are meant to protect. Therefore, it is up to the community to keep them in check in a lawful manner. A nationwide organization, CopWatch, is doing just that. Today’s action is a short biography of the organization, which attempts to keep police officers accountable by monitoring their activities and effectively calling them out in cases of misconduct and unsubstantiated assault.

It is up to us to put an end to police brutality by keeping police officers accountable for their actions. By doing so, we build a sense of community strength, morality and faith for a better tomorrow.

Today’s Artist: Saul Williams

Saul Williams is a modern renaissance man. He’s a poet, actor, writer and musician, who blends politically-tinged poetry effortlessly with a hip-hop mentality.

In today’s video, Saul Williams covers U2′s “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, using wonderful artistic imagery that evokes a visceral reaction. Saul takes the Irish protest song, which is about the murder of civil rights activists by armed forces, and adapts it to scenes in modern day LA. The result is a penetrating evaluation of police brutality in the modern world.

Posted by:

Steve Romain