By refusing to stand during the national anthem, San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick is making an important, bold rebuke of police violence against Black people. Kaepernick joins a long history of Black athletes using their platforms to advance racial and gender justice issues - like Tommie Smith and John Carlos giving the Black Power salute during the national anthem at the 1968 Olympics and Jackie Robinson writing that he could not salute the flag as “a Black man in a white world.” Colin Kaepernick is demanding that America live up to its own ideals and address the oppression of people of color. To express your support for this brave athlete, please add your name.

The actions on September 3, 2016 by the private security guards hired by Dakota Access endangered the lives of dozens of protesters, including many young children. Photos and videos released online show protesters, including a pregnant woman, were bit and bleeding. Security personnel were caught on video macing protesters, but denied it when confronted by the media. The guards had no uniforms, drove vehicles with out-of-state plates, and appeared to have little or no training. It's unclear whether or not they're even licensed to operate in the state. The actions of the security guards hired by Dakota Access have the public asking questions: - Who was the private security firm hired by Dakota Access? - Why aren’t the security guards wearing uniforms? - Are the guards properly trained and licensed by the NDPISB? The North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board is a governor-appointed board that licenses and regulates the private investigation and security industries. The board must investigate the actions of the private security guards hired by Dakota Access and ensure they are properly trained and licensed to operate in North Dakota.

Our nation is one that is very diverse in its complex constellation. The national anthem in its full text, celebrates (and calls for) the death of slaves in verse three. When we stand to respect this nation with hands over our hearts, we are directly supporting the spirit of the poem and its author, Francis Scott Key, who was himself a slaveholder as well as a prosecutor of abolitionists. We can no longer in good conscience, stand for a song who denigrates historically or otherwise, any one of our fellow American citizens.

It is upsetting to see an athlete being targeted on being anti-American for standing up for people of color in the mainstream media, while Donald Trump is not being questioned on all the awful, racist, anti-Semitic remarks that is seen on the news daily.

On September 6th and 7th, the anti-Muslim group ACT for America will host its annual conference, bringing right-wing activists from around the country to our nation’s capital to advance an agenda that targets Muslims and harms us all. ACT—a group that calls itself the “NRA of national security”—has once again invited elected leaders in Washington, D.C., and from around the country to speak at the conference and hear from its members. Last year, at least 15 members of Congress spoke at the national security briefing. But this year, unlike in the past, ACT is keeping the names of participating lawmakers secret to avoid scrutiny. What do they have to hide? While claiming to uphold civil liberties, including religious freedom, ACT for America’s leader has said that a “practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.” ACT is lobbying lawmakers to lead with fear. The group is calling for unwarranted surveillance, inhumane policies on immigration and refugee resettlement, biased law enforcement trainings, and unconstitutional opposition to mosque construction. We must not embrace this blatant anti-Muslim bias nor the policies that spring from it. If elected leaders do not denounce ACT’s dangerous rhetoric, they are not only implicitly endorsing anti-Muslim bigotry, but also a vision for this country that denies fairness and equality to us all. We cannot afford silence. Tell members of Congress and all elected leaders to reject ACT for America’s invitation to anti-Muslim hate.

I feel that allowing various groups to give a 3 minute inspirational message at the city council meetings would help my lovely city be more tolerant. Certainly allowing only the Baptists to give invocations is a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Last week, Donald Trump put out a call on his website for "election observers" to keep Hillary Clinton from "rigging" the election. This focus on trumped up spectres of election fraud as a tool for intimidating voters is nothing new for the Republican Party. During the 1970s and 1980s, after people of color in low-income neighborhood were harassed and intimidated at the polls, the Republican National Committee (RNC) was barred from a practice called “voter caging”—challenging voters’ eligibility to cast ballots at their voting site. And now, Trump's “election observers” could be the next wave of voter intimidation based on bogus charges of voter fraud. The Brennan Center’s ongoing examination of voter fraud claims have found that “voter fraud is very rare” and “voter impersonation is nearly non-existent.” What is not rare, however, is our country’s legal history of blocking people from voting. The Fifteenth Amendment and the Nineteenth Amendment—which gave people of color and women the rights to vote, respectively—were ratified after years of campaigning, organizing, and sacrifice. Jim Crow laws kept Black Americans from voting until the civil rights movement fought for and secured the passage of the Voting Rights Action, signed into law in 1965. We cannot allow Trump supporters to harass voters—our country has come too far to be pulled backward.

How can we build community trust and confidence when we have public safety officers with this mindset?

Facebook just took away one of the most important tools we have to help hold police accountable – social media. Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook, at the request of police, deactivated the social media accounts of Korryn Gaines, a 23-year old Black woman shot to death by Baltimore County police last Monday. She was broadcasting the standoff on Facebook that led to police shooting her 5-year-old son and killing her. Social media and shareable videos have been crucial not just for raising awareness about the injustices Black folks like Korryn and her son face every day from police, but in allowing us to control our own stories and narratives. Without access to social media, the police control the narrative. And when police control that narrative we’re always portrayed as people who deserved to die. This is a dangerous precedent. To keep our message from getting out, police are going to keep taking our social media out. Demand Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stop censoring users at the request of the police.

The American voter should be able to hear from all viable candidates. DNC and GOP committees need to change their rules to allow this to happen.

BLACK LIVES MATTER in Cuyahoga County is starting this petition because our nation will never become safe and just as long as police officers are allowed to operate ABOVE THE LAW. Police officers need to FOLLOW THE LAW in order to create a safer environment for everyone. Officer Michael Brelo's behavior -- standing on the hood of a car as he and dozens of other police officers fired 137 shots into the bodies of two innocent, unarmed African-Americans -- raises two suspicions: 1) Officer Brelo was likely hyped up on drugs during these tragic murders. 2) Officer Brelo knew that the political power of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association gave the officers involved the green light to murder two innocent, unarmed minorities in broad daylight -- even if the killings had been captured on videotape.

USAToday reported: Michelle Obama delivered a powerful speech during the Democratic National Convention on Monday, as the first lady shed light on the historical significance of her family's eight years at the White House as its first African-American family. "I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves," Mrs. Obama said in her keynote address. "I watch my daughters — two beautiful, intelligent, black young women — playing with their dogs on the White House lawn." As it turned out, one person was not entirely amused and went so far as to "fact check" the first lady's comments. FOX News personality and political lightning rod Bill O'Reilly defended the working conditions slaves faced while building the White House by offering the following explanation during The O'Reilly Factor on Tuesday: "Slaves that worked there were well-fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government, which stopped hiring slave labor in 1802. However, the feds did not forbid subcontractors from using slave labor. So, Michelle Obama is essentially correct in citing slaves as builders of the White House, but there were others working as well. Got it all? There will be a quiz." How dare O'Reilly defend the practice of slavery!? He must be fired and/or resign for saying something so ignorant.