Brad Pitt donates to pediatric center in Missouri

I love it when a celebrity and/or entertainer uses their fame or money to help the public. This is even better when the action they take benefits children. Such is the case with Brad Pitt and his family.

Brad Pitt and his siblings have joined together and donated $1 million to open a pediatric cancer center at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Mo. This center will be on of 6 St. Jude's affiliates, and will be the only hospital in the Southwest Missouri that has a child cancer and blood specialist.

The center will be named after the mother of Brad and his siblins. The Jane Pitt Pediatric Cancer Center will open this summer. Obviously Mrs. Jane Pitt instilled a great sense of civic purpose in her children. Which is a great thing.

Brad Pitt has always been a standout among most entertainers. He has helped raise money for those in need in Darfur. He has helped to rebuild homes for families that suffered from Hurricane Katrina in Louisianna. There are multiple donations and organizations that he has given money, time and support to that help children in this nation and across the globe. Even if he was ot a solid actor, I would count him among my favorites just because of what he does.

I wish more celebrities and entertainers could be as thoughtful and generous as Pitt is.

NJ considers apology for slavery Part 4 - 1.3.2008.4

Concluded from NJ considers apology for slavery Part 3...

Should New Jersey, Georgia, Missouri, and every single state (with the exception of perhaps Hawaii and Alaska) make an apology, I think so. Each and every one has benefited and could not exist without the efforts of slaves and Jim Crow era African Americans.

Should the American government make an apology? I cannot see a justification why it has not already. Nor can I find a single reason why reparations have not been made as precedence exists.

“Yet reparations have been made to Japanese Americans and Native American Indians, at least to some degree."

and a means of reparation exists. Not only the one I outlined at Black & White Blog (where I am co-author), which was challenged and questioned as any controversial idea should be – but it must be discussed, but also elsewhere.

We can do a lot of things. But the first thing must be acknowledging the wrongs done and APOLOGIZING for them. And along with that must be the major media and news covering this issue and presenting it to the American public.

Skeletons in the closet may be a reality of life, but they never benefit anyone. They always come out, and in doing so strife is usually attached when they are forced out against our will. There is no difference in governments and people in this regard.

NJ considers apology for slavery Part 2 - 1.3.2008.2

Continued from NJ considers apology for slavery Part 1 ...

Now as of today, Virginia, Alabama, and Maryland have each announced “profound regret” for the slavery they allowed in their past.. North Carolina has announced “profound contrition”. Georgia discussed the issue last year, with the disapproval of Governor Perdue. And there is Missouri and New Jersey as stated above.

As for all the Presidential candidates of 2008, only Dennis Kucinich has ever mentioned the issue, and expressed a need for the nation to apologize and make reparations. The ONLY one.

This is pitiful.

Name one thing in America that has not been built with the foundation of slave labor. Name one company, in existence since at least 1865, which has not benefited from slavery. Even JP Morgan and its shareholders acknowledged the connection.

“We apologize to the American public, and particularly to African-Americans, for the role that Citizens Bank and Canal Bank played during that period," said the company on its website. "Although we cannot change the past, we are committed to learning from and emerging stronger because of it."

In addition to the apology, JP Morgan created a $5 million scholarship for African Americans in Louisiana.”

Please notice that JP Morgan APOLIGIZED. Not regret - an intelligent (and/or emotional) dislike for personal past acts and behaviors. Not contrition - sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation.

The fact is that even now, some 400 years after the first documented slave was forced to America, not one American governmental body has apologized for their part in slavery. None. They are sorry for its existence, and upset that untold millions were slaughtered, but they are not losing sleep over it. In fact many are fighting against it.

There are many like

“The disappointment comes from the statements “I'm not sure what we ought to be apologizing for” voiced by Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson and others.”

Continued in Part 3...

NJ considers apology for slavery - 1.3.2008.1

When you see this image what do you think?


To many this is a symbol of pride, the South, and a glorious and romanticized time in America.

To me and other African Americans, it is a reminder that America explicitly endorsed the belief that we were less valued and important than furniture at one time. It is a subtly and implicit reminder that we are second-class citizens, that we are separate, and that many still feel we are not American. It says America is proud of the days when picking cotton, torture, mental and sexual abuse were the only obligations available to Blacks. That every wrong done to African Americans was justified.

Obviously there is a big difference in what Blacks and Whites see in the Confederate Flag. The flag waves besides the American flag in courthouses and official government buildings across the South. It’s been highlighted in movies and television. And few Whites grasp the impact it makes, the statement it represents.

Because slavery is a taboo subject in this nation. As unspoken as the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII and the virtual extinction of Native American Indians.

When you see this image what do you think?


Most every American will say either the Civil War or freeing the slaves first, but both will be the likely answer. It is this image that sums up, and is the only, form of apology ever made by the American government about slavery.

I have said all this because slavery, and reparations, is finally being spoken about in this nation. Potentially we will hear about them in this election if the trend continues. That is if it continues and the major news media picks it up and tells anyone about it.

Today it has been reported that New Jersey is considering making an apology about slavery. This follows Missouri thinking about the same thing in December. I’m willing to bet most Americans never heard a word about this.

Mind you, they are only talking about an apology. Reparations are something every state fears, and none are willing to even discuss the issue. I kind of see that like the saying

“If everyone is saying your idea is wrong, you probably are on the right track to do something never done before.”

Continued in part 2...