Daily Best Articles

When I think about spreading love, I hear the sound of Take 6 in my head. They burst onto the scene with their self-titled first album in 1988 and have never looked back. Once described by Quincy Jones as the “Baddest vocal cats on the planet,” Take 6 is an a cappella powerhouse with the awards to prove it.

Take 6 has come a long way from their days at Huntsville, Alabama’s Oakwood College where Claude McKnight formed the group as The Gentleman’s Estates Quartet in 1980. When tenor Mark Kibble heard the group rehearsing in the dorm, he joined in the harmonies and performed on stage that night. When Mervyn Warren joined shortly afterward, they took the name Alliance. Yet, when they signed to Reprise Records/Warner Bros. in 1987, they found that there was another group with the same name, so they became Take 6. Says McKnight: “Take 6 was all about a democratic process of sitting in a room together and throwing a couple of hundred names at each other and Take 6 was the one that got the most yay votes [laughing.] It pretty much was a play on the Take 5 jazz standard and the fact that there are six of us in the group, so it became Take 6.” Their self-titled debut CD won over jazz and pop critics, scored two 1988 Grammy Awards, landed in the Top Ten Billboard Contemporary Jazz and Contemporary Christian Charts — and they’ve never slowed down.

What makes the music and the group last this long? The answers are direct and simple: faith, friendship, respect, and love of music. The multi-platinum selling sextet says of their longevity, “We are family in the sense that we care deeply about each other, which helps keep us together. We have times when it gets tough, but we pull together because of the love and respect we have for one another.

In 2020, they issued a “Spread Love Challenge.”

Lyrics:

Seems like everything we hear is just a tale
But I’ve got something that will never, ever fail
It’s called love
Spread love, instead of spreading lies
Spread love, the truth needs no disguise
I’ve often said love could open any door
Oh, but I wish we had much more
More love is what we need

Due to COVID-19, Take 6 canceled a 2021 European tour in 2021. Thankfully, we can always listen to the group via their YouTube channel. 

In the tradition carved out by the Christian a capella groups that came before them, Kings Return, just like Take 6, was birthed out of a church in Texas; the group was recently featured on NPR.

Back in early 2021, before COVID-19 vaccines were readily available, half of the group tested positive for COVID-19, forcing them to cancel shows and delay recording sessions. Kings Return has continued to delight and uplift listeners with videos of their stairwell performances. Their performance of “Ave Maria” went viral.

In a big surprise for their growing list of followers, Kings Return chose to do a cover of the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love,” which they elevate to another realm.

Last but not least, I’d like to introduce you to Stanford Talisman.

We are Stanford Talisman, a group of singers on Stanford’s campus who since our origins have sung music stemming from Black liberation struggles across the world. Our alumni and current group came together to create a virtual choir of Lift Every Voice and Sing, the Black National Anthem in America. We’ve also been raising funds for organizations contributing to the movement for Black lives in America. You check out pb-resources.com for a list of further resources compiled by Alexis Williams, a 19-year-old Computer Science major at New York University. She is an African American and Latina coder committed to seeing change through action. Her website is a comprehensive source featuring educational resources, petitions to sign, a list of organizations seeking donations, and more.

Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our God,
True to our native land.

Let us all come together this year, to lift our voices in song, to give us the strength and the will to carry on, against COVID-19, against racism, and discrimination in any form it takes.

Yes. Let us march on, and sing on, till victory is won.

Join me in the comments below for more powerful music, and I look forward to hearing the music that lifts your spirits.

Robert Barnes of The Washington Post reviews Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’s year-end 2021 report on the federal judiciary.

In his 2021 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, the chief justice did not mention President Biden’s commission on reforming the Supreme Court or react to nascent congressional proposals to make drastic changes, such as expanding the number of justices or ending their lifetime tenure.

But he said the judiciary’s independence is best maintained by remaining free of interference from the political branches.

“The Judiciary’s power to manage its internal affairs insulates courts from inappropriate political influence and is crucial to preserving public trust in its work as a separate and co-equal branch of government,” Roberts wrote.

In the report, Roberts addressed “topics that have been flagged by Congress and the press over the past year.” Those included the failure of some judges to recuse themselves from cases in which they had a financial interest, and concerns about how the judiciary handles allegations of workplace harassment and discrimination.

Peggy Drexler of CNN says that now everyone must do personal risk assessments of how we live with COVID-19 for the foreseeable future.

Nearly two years in (and for some, longer), few want to return to lockdown or miss out on spending important occasions with family and friends. Most, at least, see the pressing need to keep the economy going and address the social and psychological fallout from prolonged isolation. And many are resigned to the assumption that “we’re all getting it at some point” anyway. While this may be likely, it’s also true that what we know about Omicron is still changing. And it’s important to remember that assessing risk isn’t just about protecting oneself, but also about protecting others — including unvaccinated or unboosted children, older populations and those with autoimmune diseases or other conditions that put them at higher risk.

Certainly, it can be difficult to know what’s safe, beyond canceling everything. Government guidance on masks, isolation periods and tests keep changing. What’s considered “fully vaccinated” may soon change. Right now, “fully vaccinated” is defined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having received two shots of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or one of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but that definition is currently being debated as some health experts argue that the threshold for “fully vaccinated” should include a booster dose for those who are eligible.

Which is why, like it or not, a certain level of personal risk assessment is necessary for all of us, for the foreseeable future. Guidelines are just that — guidelines. Adhering to them doesn’t guarantee protection, nor does it guarantee that others will adhere to them, too. It’s important to consider your crowd and what you know of them (and are willing to ask of them) before making any decisions in the coming days and weeks.

Lizzie Widdicombe of The New Yorker notes that 2021 was one of the most active years of labor strife in recent times, paying specific attention to the strike by New York City’s yellow cab drivers.

During the second year of the covid-19 pandemic, the social side effects of the virus started to become more apparent. Amid continued mass demonstrations against lockdown measures, and worldwide civil unrest, the U.S. population broke out in hives of labor activism. Workers at corporate behemoths like Amazon and Starbucks attempted to form unions, with mixed results, and workers who were already unionized went on strike in order to demand better wages and working conditions. Employees walked out of John Deere plants in Illinois, Kellogg’s cereal plants in Michigan, Kaiser Permanente health-care clinics in California, and Nabisco and Frito-Lay snack factories in Oregon and Kansas. (The energy even found its way to this very publication, where, this summer, newly unionized employees reached a deal after two and a half years of negotiations.)

What was happening? Stephanie Luce, a labor scholar at cuny, explained that covid-19 appears to have lit a match beneath at least a decade’s worth of late-stage-capitalist tinder. “Wages have been mostly stagnant since the economic crash of 2008,” Luce said, adding, “People have been seeing the quality of their jobs deteriorate.” Then came the virus, and, all of a sudden, a dismal situation became life-threatening. Health-care and manufacturing workers found themselves ordered to work double shifts in dangerous conditions. Earlier this month, six people died at an Amazon warehouse, in Illinois, and another eight workers were killed at a candle factory, in Kentucky, after the facilities were hit by a tornado. (In both cases, employees allege that they were not allowed to leave work before the storms hit.) Meanwhile, corporate profits have continued to roll in. Luce explained the mindset of many employees this year: “They’re thinking, This company is making millions—billions—during a pandemic. Management’s not coming in—they’re in their second homes, while I’m here risking my life. For a lot of people, that was it.”

Walter C. Stern writes for The Hill that teachers of American history need to reclaim the idea of “patriotism” from the right wing when teaching the truth about American history.

The need to cultivate teachers and students who are brave — and patriotic — enough to think critically about the nation’s past could not be more urgent. Without independent thinkers who care enough about the nation’s well-being to wrestle with, rather than retreat from, its complex history, the country is ill-prepared to tackle current and future challenges. A society, after all, can’t solve problems whose existence it refuses to acknowledge.

That’s why Americans must reclaim patriotic education from the right. Universities have a key role to play here. Universities can train teachers who are uniquely positioned to do exactly what Republicans say they want to do: develop patriotic citizens. I know, because it’s how I and countless other professors teach.

[…]

The best classes end with more questions than answers: When does governmental power over education preserve liberty, and when does it suppress liberty? Why have some emphasized the university’s responsibility to prepare students for jobs, while others, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, emphasized its capacity “to be the organ of that fine adjustment between real life and the growing knowledge of life?” What is the purpose of education, and how can people in a democratic society determine the ends it should serve as well as the means for achieving those ends?

Marianne Lavelle and Nicholas Kusnetz of Inside Climate News discuss some of the executive actions that the Biden Administration has taken in lieu of the stasis of the Build Back Better legislation.

Although environmental groups for the most part are continuing their push for Build Back Better, many activists and Biden’s own team are focusing on what the president can do without new legislation from Congress.

“Using executive authority—and boldly—may be the only way that Biden will get anything done, as long as Manchin (and, perhaps, [Sen.] Kyrsten Sinema [D-Ariz.]) block effective legislative action, alongside a solid phalanx of fifty Republicans,” wrote Bill McKibben, founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, in The New Yorker.

There are signs that the courts may stand in the way of some executive actions by Biden, especially on big items like clean power. But from the start, Biden has talked about mobilizing an “all-of-government approach” to fight the climate crisis. Here are some examples of how his administration has begun to implement climate policy that have not gotten as much attention as the fight on Capitol Hill. Climate activists say in nearly every case, Biden could be doing even more.

Lili Bayer of POLITICO Europe writes that upcoming parliamentary elections in several European Union member states will be critical in halting the degradation of the rule of law.

Hungary will hold a parliamentary election this spring, and for the first time, Orbán’s opposition has united in an effort to pose a real challenge to his power. While the alliance grapples with internal divisions and an uneven playing field, the prime minister’s opponents hope to capitalize on concerns over high-level corruption and economic challenges to reach undecided voters.  

An opposition win would change not only rhetoric and policies in Budapest but also the dynamics in the Council of the European Union, where Hungary has often played the role of the rebel. It would also have geopolitical implications for the region: Orbán has nurtured ties with Beijing and Moscow, and a new government would likely make a U-turn and align more closely with the EU, the United States and NATO. An Orbán victory, on the other hand, would cement the veteran leader’s power and allow him to continue building an alliance of far-right and Euroskeptic forces across the Continent.

In Poland, 2022 could bring intensified competition between Law and Justice and its rivals, in particular former Prime Minister Donald Tusk. With tensions deepening between Warsaw and Brussels, the rival camps will likely clash on both rule of law at home and policy toward the EU. Law and Justice — which, unlike its Hungarian counterpart, depends on occasionally unpredictable coalition partners to govern — will face internal and external pressure ahead of an election expected in 2023, if the ruling alliance doesn’t collapse earlier.

Finally today, the Drunk New Year’s Gays of CNN has become must–watch programming for New Year’s Eve.

Ya think?

I’m not a big Andy Cohen fan but that was EPIC.

Don’t think that Don Lemon was outdone by Cohen, because he wasn’t!

I only wish that Lemon could have been a little more explicit, shall we say, than “you can kiss my behind.” Maybe he wasn’t drunk enough? 

But Lemon wasn’t finished.

It wasn’t just Lemon and Cohen spouting off, either.

And Anderson Cooper could do nothing but giggle as only Anderson Cooper giggles, of course.

We’ve moved far past the days of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.

Have a great day, everyone, and Happy New Year!

McClain was wearing a ski mask and dancing on his walk home from a convenience store on Aug. 24, 2019 when someone called 911 to report that he “looked sketchy,” The New York Times reported. Officer Nathan Woodyard was the first to arrive on the scene. He ordered McClain to stop, according to the indictment.

“Woodyard did not see Mr. McClain with any weapons, but he noted a grocery bag and that, in his opinion, Mr. McClain was ‘suspicious,'” officials said in the indictment. When officer Randy Rosenblatt, who no longer works for Aurora police, joined Woodyard, the “stop quickly turned physical.” Officer Randy Roedema told investigators “that in Aurora, as opposed to other police departments, they tended to ‘take control of an individual, whether that be you know, a[n] escort position, a twist lock, whatever it may be, we tend to control it before it needs to be controlled.'”

Officials described in the indictment officers grabbing McClain’s arms and forcing him to a grassy area, where they threw his bag of canned ice tea to the ground. Amid a struggle with McClain, Roedema allegedly told Rosenblatt that McClain had reached for “your gun.” Rosenblatt stated he didn’t feel any contact with his weapon.

“Officers are instructed that, to perform a carotid control hold, an officer uses his or her bicep and forearm to apply pressure to the carotid arteries on the sides of a subject’s neck, thereby cutting off blood flow to the subject’s brain and causing temporary unconsciousness for the purpose gaining compliance or control,” officials stated in the indictment. “Rosenblatt stated that he applied an unsuccessful carotid control hold to Mr. McClain, and Woodyard then applied a carotid control hold that resulted in Mr. McClain going unconscious and snoring.”

Before he was rendered unconscious, the body-camera video showed McClain telling officers he was trying to turn his music off so that he could hear them.

“When medical responders arrived, after about 15 minutes, paramedics injected him with ketamine, a powerful sedative,” New York Times journalist Lucy Tompkins wrote.

McClain was taken to the University of Colorado Medical Center, declared brain dead on Aug. 27, 2019, and taken off of life support three days later.

Former District Attorney Dave Young, who chose not to charge officers who detained McClain, said in a 2020 statement that “the pathologist who conducted the autopsy stated that he was unable to conclude that the actions of any law enforcement officer caused Mr. McClain’s death.”

“Based on the facts and evidence of this investigation I cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers involved in this incident were not justified in their actions based on what they knew at the time of this incident,” Young said in the statement CBS Denver obtained. He went on to work for the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office, according to The Gazette.

Following nationwide protests, Roedema, Woodyard, Rosenblatt, and Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were indicted by a statewide grand jury, according to the office of Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.

“After we were appointed to take on this important responsibility, we took it very seriously,” Weiser said in a news release on Sep. 1.

“We have the solemn duty to prosecute this case and recognize that it will be difficult to prosecute—these types of cases always are. Our goal is to seek justice for Elijah McClain, for his family and friends, and for our state.

“In so doing, we advance the rule of law and the commitment that everyone is accountable and equal under the law.”

Independent investigators released 157 pages of findings on Feb. 22 in their probe of the encounter. Investigators wrote:

First, the interviews conducted by Major Crime were neither probing nor objective. The officers involved were not asked key questions about their conduct or the justification for their actions. At times, questions appeared designed to elicit specific exonerating “magic language”from the case law.855 In addition, the report of the Major Crime Unit stretched the record to exonerate the officers rather than present a neutral version of the facts. For example, the report stated that the officers were there to “check on his well-being,” that they “attempted to explain toMcClain why they wanted to talk to him and determine if he needed medical assistance,” and that the officers attempted verbal de-escalation throughout. 856 Nothing in the video or interviews support these assertions. The closest evidence in the record is Officer Woodyard’s statement that he would have stopped Mr. McClain even absent the call because he was acting strangely. 857 None of the officers ever appeared to express a concern that he might need medical help and EMS appears to have been summoned in compliance with the carotid control hold policy.

What’s worse is that such a culture exists in the Aurora Police Department that three officers felt safe to mock McClain’s death. Officers Erica Marrero, Kyle Dittrich, and Jason Rosenblatt were fired in July 2020, and their terminations were upheld by a three-person commission in February, according to The Washington Post.

Read the indictment below:

RELATED: Charges filed against Aurora officers, paramedics in Elijah McClain’s death

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Williams was the first Black member invited in by the American Institute of Architects, KABC reported in February. He was also the first Black member to earn the institute’s most esteemed honor, the Gold Medal, which Williams received in 2017. The Getty Research Institute and the USC School of Architecture acquired an archive of almost 60 years of his work. “His signature is on 3,000 buildings in Los Angeles and is literally on the Beverly Hills hotel: the sign is in his own handwriting,” KABC posted in a subheadline for its story on Williams.

Photographer Janna Ireland featured Williams’ work in her book, Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer’s View. “When you enter one of his spaces, it seems that nothing is accidental,” she told KABC. “Everything is the way it is supposed to be, everything is done according to a plan.”

Los Angeles Times columnist Carolina Miranda wrote in January that “the renewed attention to Williams couldn’t come at a more critical time.” She wrote: “At a moment in which violent white supremacy is ascendant, Williams’ buildings are a reminder that Black people not only helped build U.S. cities — they also designed them.” 

Miranda wrote of how Williams’ death on Jan. 23, 1980 at the age of 85 was treated as a footnote by local media. “Buildings he designed were torn down; others, remodeled beyond recognition,” Miranda wrote. “The work of an architect whose firm was responsible for thousands of structures in Southern California, who was name-checked in real estate ads as ‘world-famous,’ who shaped L.A. through civic roles including a seat on the City Planning Commission — a position he assumed in 1921 at the tender age of 27 — was in danger of fading away.”

LeRonn Brooks, head curator for the African American Art History Initiative at the Getty Research Institute, told Miranda that in this one man’s life lay “all the contradictions and the struggles of American history.”

“You can trace the history of democracy through the story of Paul Williams,” Brooks said. Miranda described it in these terms:

“To consider Williams’ work is to consider the lives of a postslavery generation shaped by segregation, the civil rights movement and various civil uprisings. It is also to consider the peculiar position of Los Angeles, where the codes that governed race were just loose enough to let a Black architect triumph.”