Opening Doors To Being Free

Ari Merretazon's Blog (17)

Urgent Open Letter to First Lady Michelle Obama

Dear Mrs. Obama: It is with highest homage and admiration to you that I write this letter. I am the Northeast Regional Representative, and Board Member, for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. The Reparations Movement, of which N’COBRA is a member, implores you to start a national dialogue on a reparations accord for Blacks in America. This national dialog must be firmly rooted in the historical context of the “trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the “holocaust” o… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on December 9, 2009 at 4:50pm — No Comments

N’COBRA Northeast Region and historical society establishes a collaboration for racial healing

N’COBRA Northeast Region and historical society establishes a collaboration for racial healing by Ari Merrretazon If you missed the N'COBRA's November 20th REOS (Reparations Education and Organizational Spotlight) at the Cliveden Museum House in Philadelphia , believe me someone you know was there. It was a day of recognition, education, and the official signing of the memorandum of understanding between the national Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America , known as N'COBRA, and the Cl… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on November 30, 2009 at 1:33am — No Comments

Activists want regulations on Cliveden House history

Written by Robert Hightower Thursday, 13 August 2009 22:59 Philadelphia Tribune Local activists want to have a say in how officials at the Cliveden House educates the public about the history of the estate. After endless digging and research by the members of the Cliveden of the National Trust, papers detailing the trade and ownership of slaves by the house’s owner, Benjamin Chew, were recently discovered. Members of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America sat down with o… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on August 14, 2009 at 10:02pm — No Comments

Reparations Accord for Blacks in America

What is it? An agreement between representatives of the reparations movement and the U.S. Congress, and others, to settle the long standing reparations dispute in the form of agreed upon payment forms and methods. Legal Definition An accord being a contract, the requirements of mutual assent and consideration must be made. An agreement whereby one of the parties undertakes to give or perform, and other to accept, in satisfaction of liquidated or disputed claim arising in contract or tort somet… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on July 27, 2009 at 3:47pm — No Comments

Evidence of the destruction of the property right to our minds: Michael Joseph Jackson

For all who are in denial: Michael Joseph Jackson is a clear example and evidence of how the property right in our own mind, culture, and human possibilities as a people were reconstructed through the terror of chattel enslavement from generation to generation. Our ancestors were terrorized by injustices codified in the Constitution of the United States by America�s founding fathers and carried out by religious organizations, corporations, and units of government. Left unchanged, this collabora… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on July 7, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

Rothschild and Freshfields founders linked to slavery

Click or paste link to 3 minute movie: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c0f5014-628c-11de-b1c9-00144feabdc0.html Published: June 26 2009 23:32 | Last updated: June 26 2009 23:32 Two of the biggest names in the City of London had previously undisclosed links to slavery in the British colonies, documents seen by the Financial Times have revealed. Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the banking family’s 19th-century patriarch, and James William Freshfield, founder of Freshfields, the top City law firm, benefite… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on July 1, 2009 at 9:04pm — No Comments

Congressional apologies are not enough, reparations accord for Blacks is needed, now!

For Immediate Release National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) Contact: Ari S. Merretazon, Northeast Regional Representative; 215-850-1699 merretazon@verizon.net Barbara Baker, Midwest Regional Representative 312-720-0648 Bbaker601@att.net Kamm Howard, Board Member At Large, 773-520-0369 khoward.amenta@sbcglobal.net Congressional apologies are not enough, reparations accord for Blacks is needed, now! We don’t think it is coincidental that, at the same time the… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on June 30, 2009 at 5:30pm — 4 Comments

IBM ThinkPad for Active Communicators

The ThinkPad R51 is a modern, sleek notebook that is highly reliable and delivers long battery life. Chances are you've seen the damage a dropped notebook can suffer. That's why IBM developed the IBM Active Protection System for hard drives. When a fall is detected, this integrated technology can actually park the hard disk drive head. Advantages: Fast mobile performance; big, 15-inch screen; wide, comfortable keyboard; Wireless standard: Intel 802.11bg and Bluetooth Network card: Integrated Int… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on June 26, 2009 at 3:30am — No Comments

Black History, R. I. P.?

by Dr. Pamela D. Reed Now that Barack Obama is President of the United States, why don't we just pretend that America wasn't built on slaveholding? If the spate of recent "post-racial" articles suggesting that we need no longer commemorate the African American struggle for freedom and equality in this country is any indication, this seems to be where we're heading.This is a classic case of the phenomenon called selective history/memory, or as some have termed it, historical amnesia. We've bee… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on May 13, 2009 at 8:30am — 1 Comment

Mumia & the D.A. candidates

By MILTON McGRIFF EACH of the candidates for Philadelphia district attorney recently told Daily Newscolumnist Michael Smerconish that, if elected, they'd pursue the death penalty for Mumia Abu-Jamal in the event of a new sentencing hearing or new trial. One, Seth Williams, noted that he'd attended hearings and studied court documents and trial notes before making his decision. Three police reports and a page one Daily News story (Jan. 9, 1982) on preliminary- hearing testimony aren't in the o… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on May 8, 2009 at 4:44am — 1 Comment

To The Reparations Movement:

The 2009 National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA) Conference will be in Dallas, Texas, June 18-21, 2009, at the Mt. Tabor Family Life Center, 3700 Simpson Stuart Road, Dallas, Texas 75241. I will be there because registration is only $60, and I got a cheap plane ticket (USAir) out of Philadelphia for $246 roundtrip! For more information call:214-723-6030. With the new strategic tactics of a post-racial America the Reparations Movement must make a course co… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on May 3, 2009 at 5:00am — No Comments

This is the Context Card to Deal and Play!

"Information is power, only if we use it!" Ari.S. Merretazon, M.S.CED Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Debuts at Emory 'Voyages' sheds light on hidden history of 12.5 million slaves Contact: Elaine Justice: 404.727.0643 Lea McLees: 404.727.0211 Visiting professor Jelmer Vos and geospatial consultant Stacey Martin use the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database to see a geographic display of the African regions and ports of the slave trade. A group of international scholars will gather at Emory D… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on May 3, 2009 at 4:00am — No Comments

America I am

Greetings: You have just received a video email greeting from ari merretazon. You'll see this personal greeting by visiting the web location listed below. Copy this url to your browser to access your greeting: http://video3.frontandcenterproductions.com/video_email/1E/08/49FC707A.asp Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on May 2, 2009 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Obama’s church selection, post-racial symbolism over substance

When will it end? I'm talking about America’s full-court media pressure to have President Obama to reject everything with a Black context with links to the horrific one-way relationship of enslavement – master and slave. The selection of a church-home for a president’s family has never been under such public pressure. The media and the body-politic of America is forcing Obama to be a post-racial symbol, without embracing and engaging what it would actually cost to be post-racial, i.e., a)Americ… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on April 28, 2009 at 3:30pm — 8 Comments

Reparations 101:The Context Card

Reparations 101:The Context Card By Minister Ari S. Merretazon, M.S.CED, Board Member, Northeast Representative, National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) Too many people in high, middle, and low places in America are still in denial about the crimes against humanity represented by the monstrous destruction of human life, culture, and human possibilities called The Holocaust of African Enslavement and Trade. This human tragedy covers a continuum from 1440 to the present… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on April 19, 2009 at 8:30pm — No Comments

The gun and ship of enslavement

The gun and ship of enslavement ["Like a machine it transformed the lives of Africans and Europeans alike. Europeans came to America freely with a design of a new way of life in their hearts and minds." Africans were kidnapped and shipped in chains with their life design already made, in the hearts and minds of Europeans. So terrifying was this technology that it forced Africans to worship Christianity/Jesus Christ."] The ruling classes of Western Europe were able to conquer the world b… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on April 14, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Reparations 101:The holocaust of enslavement was no that long ago

Prior to and since the first landing of the ship of enslavement, Africans were forcefully conditioned, their reasoning inverted, causing their perception and reality to be mangled and twisted. Europeanized and Americanized Africans are de-capitalized by White America’s unjust-enrichment from the holocaust of enslavement. Enslavement of Africans as chattel property was about more than economics. According to Dr. Maulana Karenga, African enslavement must be defined as holocaust. By holocaust he m… Continue

Added by Ari Merretazon on April 12, 2009 at 9:57am — 3 Comments