It's odd how life just goes on and four years pass but it feels like yesterday when I couldn't believe you were gone!
How wonderful your boy is - handsome, kind, thoughtful - and I want to spend more time with him! How incredible your wife is - she moves with such grace and joy even as I see the sadness that she continues to carry....
Tomorrow we have a tour we are hosting in Oakland. I wrote about it on Facebook:
The first event hosting Nurse Midwife Mary Koroma is tomorrow.
I'm asking friends of mine for you to come. If you can't come, maybe you can make a donation.
Mary Koroma is from Sierra Leone and leads the maternal and infant health clinic and economic development programs.
Through her work, she has directly challenged the fact that African women in Sierra Leone are dying in childbirth - one out of eight! Also, in Sierra Leone, due to the conditions originating from Europe's attack on African and ongoing colonial exploitation, the people in Sierra Leone live on average only 39 years.
This is on land that is rich in minerals, including the "purest" diamonds in the world. The work of the All African People's Development and Empowerment Project, which is part of the Uhuru Movement, is so significant because it is not some single issue about birth, but is about transforming all the different ways that African people are suffering on their own continent and is tied to a strategy to unite African people across borders to control their own land and resources. That is what will ensure the future for an African women, child and man.
Tomorrow also marks four years since we lost my brother in a plane accident. Losing my brother was terrible and we miss him every day. He was almost 39. He was a young man. He had a great life and he also had so much ahead of him, having just had a child. I can't imagine that being the norm and for people to face, on a daily basis, that kind of loss.
My brother didn't fully understand my political involvement in a movement for African liberation. It's unique. There aren't other organizations that a white person can join that isn't a charity, that welcomes white people and yet challenges us to go deep, to take a principled stand. It's not easy. It is a struggle, because there are so many other forces that pull us into a self-centered, individualistic, mind numbed existence. The Uhuru Movement forces us out of that and helps us see the world as it really is, not how we would like it to be. There is so much struggle needed to build a larger movement and yet, I feel that people are more open. People are ready. Many white people have had enough of just sitting idly by while the young Trayvon Martins get shot and killed, while the NYPD attacks the black community with racial bigotry and while the US continues to kill and maim Pakistani and Afghani men, women and children with drone attacks or US soldiers "going crazy." So much transformation needed in this "post-racial" America.
Four years ago, my brother was starting to understand and recognize the value of not just caring about the world in the abstract, but in being directly involved in change. There aren't proper words for me to express my sadness at not having had more time with him to connect and share with him about all these issues. I have so much appreciation for the kind soul who was/is my brother and the wonderful family that he made Vicki Snyder
And much love to the leadership of the Uhuru Movement for bringing great, tumultuous change to make the world a better place.
Everyone is invited to be a part of it!
I'm asking friends of mine for you to come. If you can't come, maybe you can make a donation.
Mary Koroma is from Sierra Leone and leads the maternal and infant health clinic and economic development programs.
Through her work, she has directly challenged the fact that African women in Sierra Leone are dying in childbirth - one out of eight! Also, in Sierra Leone, due to the conditions originating from Europe's attack on African and ongoing colonial exploitation, the people in Sierra Leone live on average only 39 years.
This is on land that is rich in minerals, including the "purest" diamonds in the world. The work of the All African People's Development and Empowerment Project, which is part of the Uhuru Movement, is so significant because it is not some single issue about birth, but is about transforming all the different ways that African people are suffering on their own continent and is tied to a strategy to unite African people across borders to control their own land and resources. That is what will ensure the future for an African women, child and man.
Tomorrow also marks four years since we lost my brother in a plane accident. Losing my brother was terrible and we miss him every day. He was almost 39. He was a young man. He had a great life and he also had so much ahead of him, having just had a child. I can't imagine that being the norm and for people to face, on a daily basis, that kind of loss.
My brother didn't fully understand my political involvement in a movement for African liberation. It's unique. There aren't other organizations that a white person can join that isn't a charity, that welcomes white people and yet challenges us to go deep, to take a principled stand. It's not easy. It is a struggle, because there are so many other forces that pull us into a self-centered, individualistic, mind numbed existence. The Uhuru Movement forces us out of that and helps us see the world as it really is, not how we would like it to be. There is so much struggle needed to build a larger movement and yet, I feel that people are more open. People are ready. Many white people have had enough of just sitting idly by while the young Trayvon Martins get shot and killed, while the NYPD attacks the black community with racial bigotry and while the US continues to kill and maim Pakistani and Afghani men, women and children with drone attacks or US soldiers "going crazy." So much transformation needed in this "post-racial" America.
Four years ago, my brother was starting to understand and recognize the value of not just caring about the world in the abstract, but in being directly involved in change. There aren't proper words for me to express my sadness at not having had more time with him to connect and share with him about all these issues. I have so much appreciation for the kind soul who was/is my brother and the wonderful family that he made Vicki Snyder
And much love to the leadership of the Uhuru Movement for bringing great, tumultuous change to make the world a better place.
Everyone is invited to be a part of it!
That's what I wanted to share with the world today.
Love Your Sister Always,
Wendy
