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MY COMMENT The black people of Lowndes county not Black Alabamians. The USA's media, white or black or other , love's grandiosing every single positive thing don't they. One county in Alabama is getting a little help from the Biden Administration for environmental needs and that is deemed justice. I love how in the usa, dead people can gain justice for the crimes applied to them by whites. A truly historic day will be when most Black people in the USA or one of its states actually gain something positive. From MArijuana in NYC to Alabama Septic systems, a few Black people are getting and these things are being touted by whites or blacks like the gateway t the spiritworld is opening up, and we can see the ancestors dancing... I am happy for the Black people of Lowndes county. but I continue to ponder a simple question. Has the choice by Black people to be nonviolent or integrated to whites in the usa been worth it for the Black DOS populace? I know it has been worth it for a Black 10% but for the majority of the village, has it been worth it? ARTICLE CONTENT Black Alabamians endured poor sewage for decades. Now they may see justice. Story by Brady Dennis • Yesterday 1:14 PM Officials in Alabama discriminated against Black residents in a rural county by denying them access to adequate sanitation systems, imposing burdensome fines and liens, and ignoring the serious health risks plaguing the community, according to a landmark environmental justice agreement announced Thursday by the Biden administration. “Today starts a new chapter for Black residents of Lowndes County, Ala., who have endured health dangers, indignities and racial injustice for far too long,” Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in announcing the agreement with local health officials and the Alabama Department of Public Health. Monday’s agreement comes 18 months after the federal government launched an investigation into the situation in Lowndes — and after years of complaints from civic activists about sewage backups caused by failing septic tanks and exacerbated by climate change, including increased flooding. “Overall, it’s a great day,” Catherine Coleman Flowers, who founded the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice and has long worked to improve the sanitation problem in Lowndes, said in an interview Thursday. “It’s one step. And Lowndes County is just one of the many counties across the United States that is grappling with this particular issue. … It’s a first step. But it’s historic.” Investigators from the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services found that ADPH’s enforcement of sanitation laws “threatened residents of Lowndes County with criminal penalties and even potential property loss for sanitation conditions they did not have the capacity to alleviate.” Their investigation also found that officials engaged in a “consistent pattern” of inaction and neglect concerning the health risks associated with raw sewage that permeated the soil and lingered near numerous homes. Alabama health officials were aware of the “disproportionate burden and impact” the problems imposed on Lowndes residents, investigators said, but they “failed to take meaningful actions to remedy these conditions.” In a statement Thursday afternoon, ADPH underscored that it cooperated with the federal investigation and “maintains that it has never conducted its on-site sewage or infectious diseases and outbreaks programs in a discriminatory manner.” “ADPH is pleased to have been able to reach this agreement, and looks forward to its implementation to benefit residents of Lowndes County,” the agency wrote. For now, the central problem that led to the federal probe remain. “In this community, literally, kids can’t go play outside. … You can’t step outside without seeing and smelling what is happening, in a way that affluent, White communities do not face,” Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of HHS’s Office for Civil Rights, said in an interview Thursday. “The fact this has gone on so long without action is significant.” A litany of actions could now be on the way for the nearly 10,000 residents in Lowndes, a sparsely populated county located between Selma and Montgomery, where many people live in unincorporated areas that are not connected to municipal sanitation systems. Nearly three-quarters of residents are Black, according to the latest census, and large numbers lack access to even the most basic municipal sewer systems — a consequence of years of underinvestment in infrastructure in poor and minority communities, environmental advocates said. On rainy days, septic systems that residents rely on to treat waste often fail to drain properly into the region’s heavy clay soil. Raw sewage bubbles up into yards and homes. Federal officials said the high cost of purchasing septic tanks has led some residents to instead rely upon inadequate and stopgap measures, including using crudely constructed pipes or ditches to redirect wastewater away from their homes. Some residents have been found to have hookworm, an intestinal parasite once thought to be largely eradicated in the South that hatches in moist soil and latches onto barefooted humans. Federal officials said they hope Thursday’s voluntary agreement will begin to alter that reality in Lowndes. In announcing the agreement, investigators said ADPH “fully cooperated” with the federal inquiry, and that the Justice Department and HHS agreed to suspend their ongoing investigation if Alabama officials follow through on a series of promised actions. Those include: Suspending the enforcement of sanitation laws that result in criminal charges, fines, jail time and potential property loss for Lowndes residents who lack the means to purchase functioning septic systems. Undertaking a “comprehensive assessment” of the septic and wastewater needs for residents in Lowndes, and outlining a “meaningful path” to improve access to adequate systems. Working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess health risks to different populations from exposure to raw sewage, and working with the CDC to adopt any public health recommendations. Developing a public health awareness campaign using radio, print ads, fliers, mailers and door-to-door outreach, in an effort to “ensure residents receive critical health and safety information.” Creating a “sustainable and equitable” plan within one year to improve public health and infrastructure in Lowndes County. The focus will be on improving access to adequate sanitation systems and alleviating health risks that come with exposure to raw sewage. Transparency and collaboration with the local community. The agreement compels ADPH to “consistently engage with community residents, local government officials, experts in wastewater, infrastructure, soil and engineering, and environmental and public health experts and advocates” — and to inform the community at least quarterly on what progress is being made. The effort to create a fairer and less toxic system for residents in Lowndes is in line with President Biden’s broader push to right long-standing environmental injustices around the country, which disproportionally fall upon low-income and minority communities. Biden has ordered that all federal agencies take environmental justice into account in their decision-making, and he established a White House advisory council on the issue made up of veteran activists and experts. The administration also has said that it plans to ensure that 40 percent of new federal investments in clean energy and other climate-related initiatives go to communities that historically have been marginalized and overburdened by pollution. Earlier this year, the administration began to roll out the first $100 million in environmental justice grants made possible by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. The grants, which will be overseen by a new office of environmental justice and external civil rights at the Environmental Protection Agency, are among the first of an anticipated $3 billion in block grants that Congress created in August as part of Biden’s landmark climate bill. “Unacceptable,” was how EPA Administrator Michael Regan described the situation in Lowndes after a visit last year, calling access to safe drinking water and sewer systems a basic right. In a speech the following day, Regan said the struggles in Lowndes show “injustices that folks have been living with for decades — pipes protruding from the side of their homes, spilling waste into the same places where their children play.” “The good people of Lowndes County show us that the fight for civil rights is inseparable from the fight for environmental justice, for health justice, for racial justice, for economic justice,” Regan added. “We cannot be for one without the other.” Fontes Rainer said she believes Thursday’s agreement is a tangible step toward long-overdue justice for residents in Lowndes, but that it won’t be the last place where historic wrongs must be reversed. “I hope that this agreement will serve as a warning sign and a notification to communities everywhere that this is not acceptable,” she said. URL https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/these-black-alabamians-endured-poor-sewage-for-decades-now-they-may-see-justice/ar-AA1aKhn9?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=feffda06249b47af8d4c79e0d9965600&ei=13

The following was excerpted from "African Writing Systems – Where Do We Go From Here?" by Amenuti Narmer. I discovered this article in the Blacknificent Life Newsletter, which you may subscribe to here. You can learn about these two sites and hundreds of more Black owned sites here. Ancient Africa has the world’s oldest and largest collection of ancient writing systems. Evidence of such dates to pre-historic time, and can be found in various regions of the continent. By contrast, continental Europe’s oldest writing, Greek, was not fully in use until c. 1400 BC (a clay tablet found in Iklaina, Greece) and is largely derived from an older African script called Proto-Sinaitic. The oldest Asian writing, Proto-Cuneiform, dates to around 3000 BC (clay texts found at Jemdet Nasr). However, the oldest known African writing systems are several centuries older. Proto Saharan (5000 – 3000 BC) The ancient Proto-Saharan script was a logo syllabic system. The words used to write this script were monosyllabic. Perhaps the world’s oldest known form of writing and are inscriptions of what some archaeologists and linguists have termed, “Proto Saharan” near the Kharga oasis west of so-called “Nubia” that date to at least 5,000 BC. The writings under the image that looks like the Nilotic god Seth show similarities to later writing systems such as Tifinagh and Vai. Nsbidi (5000 BC – present) Nsibidi is an ancient script used to communicate in various languages in West Central Africa. Most notably used by the Uguakima and Ejagham (Ekoi) people of Nigeria and Cameroon, Nsibidi is also used by the nearby Ebe, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo, and Uyanga people. The script is believed to date back to 5000 BC, but the oldest archaeological evidence ever found dates it to 2000 BC (monoliths in Ikom, Nigeria). Similar to the Kemetic Medu Neter, Nsibidi is a system of standardized pictographs. In fact, both Nsibidi and Medu Neter share several of the exact same characters. Medu Neter or Ta Merrian “Hieroglyphs” (4000 BC – 600 AD) The word Medu Neter (MDW W NTR) literally means “tongue of God” or more loosely, “God’s words.” The English word, “hieroglyphs,” is derived from the Greek word, “hieroglyphikos,” which means “sacred engraving,” similar to the basic meaning of “Medu Neter.” This script is an elaborate a logosyllabic writing system in which symbols represent either words (concepts) and consonantal phonetic sounds, or both, depending on the context. The oldest known evidence for this writing system come from pre-dynastic pottery at Gerzeh (c. 4000 – 3500 BC; “Gerzean culture”), which is located about 100 miles south of Ha Ka Ptah (Giza), and from inscriptions found at Gebel Sheikh Suleiman (Wadi Halfa; 4000 – 3500 BC; “Nubian A-Group culture”) in so-called “Nubia.” The next oldest form of Medu Neter dates between 3300 and 3200 BC and found in Abdu (tomb of the so-called “Scorpion” suten in Abydos) on clay tablets that recorded oil and linen deliveries. Read the rest of this article.

Hi @Kathleen I see this your 4th post, but the first one I've read, so please excuse my tardy welcome to the forums 🙂 College teaches you how to work for someone else, to be an effective corporate tool. Learning to change the system, or even understanding why it needs to be changed is not part of the program. @Pioneer1 your comparison between the past and today's opportunities resonates. I also believe there is some grade inflation going on: Someone who graduated from high school in the 50's is as well "educated" as someone with a college degree in the humanities today. Don't ask me to cite a study or prove what I just wrote; it just seems that way. Maybe @Cynique can provide some insight on this observation. Meanwhile, colleges have lost their way; for example, It is obscene what many schools spend to field a football team, while charging exorbitant tuition and fees to students. Many of these students don't graduate or come away with a degree that does not server them in the marketplace or for staring their own business. I have two masters degrees (engineering and business). I have never had a job that actually required anything I learned in college. For me the degree was a credential required to get in the door -- one many of my white peers did not require. I learned everything I needed to know on the job.