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Five MLBbros were recently nominated for one of the most prestigious honors in baseball—the Roberto Clemente Award.

Aaron Judge, Tony Kemp, Josiah Gray, Marcus Stroman, and Hunter Greene are among the players under consideration.
The award annually recognizes “the player who best represents the game through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy, and positive contributions, both on and off the field,” according to MLB.com.
Clemente, an Afro Latino from Carolina, Puerto Rico, is widely viewed by baseball historians as one of the greatest players of all-time, spending his entire Major League Baseball career, spanning from 1955 to 1972, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was also a revered humanitarian who died at the age of 38 in a plane crash on December 31, 1972, on a mission to deliver aid to Nicaragua after a massive earthquake shook the country.  
While the five Black candidates for Roberto Clemente Award have had success on the field, the work the players have carried out off the field has also been lauded. The last Black player to earn the accolade was Curtis Granderson in 2016 when he was a member of the New York Mets. Andrew McCutchen won the award the prior year while playing for the Pirates.

Aaron Judge, New York Yankees

The 2022 AL MVP’s ALL RISE Foundation was created in 2018 and has helped more than 2,000 children in New York and his hometown of Linden, California. The organization has a mini-grant program that helps pay for registration and transportation to leadership conferences. The New York Yankees outfielder holds baseball camps as well.

Tony Kemp, Oakland Athletics

Kemp is on the player committee of Players Alliance, a collective of current and retired baseball and softball players, endeavoring to increase opportunities for Black communities in every aspect of baseball.

One of the initiatives in which Kemp is involved is the +1 Effect campaign, which aims to combat social injustice. He also is a avid supporter of the non-profit HCP Cureblindness

 Josiah Gray, Washington Nationals

Gray is a player ambassador to the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy. In that role he helps with fundraising efforts and serves as a mentor to the participants of the program.

Marcus Stroman, Chicago Cubs 

Stroman’s Height Doesn’t Measure Heart Foundation provides opportunities for young people facing adversity in various aspects of their life. At only 5 foot 8 inches tall, the Long Island native and former New York Met beat the odds as his physical stature did not deter him from becoming a star pitcher for Duke University, two-time MLB All-Star, and 2017 World Baseball Classic MVP.

Hunter Greene, Cincinnati Reds

In his young MLB career, Greene has already become a prominent presence in communities across Cincinnati. One of his signature initiatives is an annual camp named the Hunter Greene Baseball Camp.

Fans can vote for the nominees until October 1 using the link http://mlbtogether.com/clemente21,

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* This article was originally published here

Radical Elders (RE) will have a contingent marching at the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17th in front of the United Nations. 

RE members who spoke with the Amsterdam News say they are excited to take part in the march––and looking forward to, for the first time, physically meeting some of their fellow organizational members.

Following several discussions and ideas about forming some sort of activist group for people over the age of 55, the RE established itself as a national organization and held its first official meeting virtually, on Oct. 27, 2021. 

Writer Maritza Arrastia, a Puerto Rican independence and socialism movement activist, is one of  RE’s founders. “When I was a young activist, I intended to be a lifelong activist,” she said. “And it seemed like there were so many radical elders, and that it would be great if [we] could come together, bring all of our experience, and try to be part of using the opportunity of the current period to maybe change everything.

“I think not only are we elders, but that the planet has been forcefully turned into a kind of elder planet by climate change. So, it seemed like getting active at this period in our lives was key and I wanted to be part of that.”

The initial Radical Elders meeting kicked off with a pre-recorded welcome from the activist-journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Then the groups’ discussion turned to the plight of today’s elders––and how they are treated as a group in the U.S.

Writer Alfredo Lopez, a former leader of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, told those in the meeting that the way elders are treated is in many ways a signal of how all people will soon be dealt with in our society. “As capitalism continues to collapse, it’s not only that we are threatened, but our knowledge is lost,” he said. “One of the reasons societies keep older people around is because we have knowledge, we have experience. All that gets lost, it gets lost in society; the perspectives that we bring to life, that’s obliterated. Because on the one hand, we’re dying more early than we could. We’re incapacitated more early, and, in many cases, for a substantial amount of our lives. We’re so freaked about having to survive, [that] we don’t think about being able to contribute.”

When society misses out on what elders can provide it’s not just a shame, it can be detrimental, said Zakiya Alake, a community activist from Boston. She said the importance of passing on historical knowledge, as an elder, is vital. 

Alake’s oldest son is 49 and she says she wants him to understand that “Social Security didn’t just magically appear because President Franklin Delano Roosevelt waved his pen. No, it was really [the] radical, militant, largely working-class action in the street that brought us the minimum safety-net programs that we have. And this is important because if we don’t inoculate them…talk about a vaccine! We’ve got to inoculate the successive generations with the spirit to fight for what they need: intelligently, with critical thinking and base-building skills.”

As part of the March to End Fossil Fuels, the Radical Elders––the majority of whom are older than 65––will see many of its members travel to New York and march for a mile and a half to demonstrate their anger with how the U.S. government is tackling climate instability. The goal is to push President Biden to permanently end the use of fossil fuels.

RE members want to have a large presence on September 17th to show they’re concerned about climate change. 

And RE members say they want to remain active and pass on important, activist information to others. The organization remains open to new members who want to be part of a group that is designed to be led by people from the global majority: Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.

“It’s funny, you know, I would get on to the Radical Elders webinars and interact with folks, and it’s not so much that I would hear very left-wing politics espoused,” Alake said. “But it’s in the work that we’re doing. 

“We’re saying, it’s not our official tagline, but many of us say, either ‘We’re not done yet,’ or ‘We ain’t finished yet.’ ‘We still have miles to go before we sleep.’”
For more information on  the Radical Elders, see their website https://radicalelders.net/ or email them at: info@radicalelders.net

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* This article was originally published here

This year marks 22 years since September 11, 2001, a day that forever changed New York City. Amid the annual memorials for fallen men and women, the city announced two newly identified victims who died as a result of the terrorist attacks.

Everyday New Yorkers, surviving family members, and elected officials of every caliber paused to offer heartfelt support for those lost and promised to never forget. 

“On one of the most horrific days in our nation’s history, thousands of first responders leapt into action and ran towards danger to save their fellow Americans,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a statement. “Hundreds lost their lives and many continue to suffer from illnesses from their service at Ground Zero on that fateful day. They represent the best of us and House Democrats are committed to ensuring that these brave men and women receive the support they deserve.” 

In a series of interviews, Mayor Eric Adams spoke about where he was and what he was doing back in 2001. He was an NYPD lieutenant in the 88th Precinct at the time and his younger brother was a sergeant. He said he was on the Upper West Side in Manhattan helping out with a campaign on the morning of the attacks. He got stranded when the attack shut down the subways, so he opted to walk downtown. 

“And when I started to get across the bridge, the Manhattan Bridge at the time was closed down. I just saw people in all sorts of dust and particles [of debris]. [There was] the realization that the buildings collapsed [and] had not settled in yet,” said Adams in describing the scene. “I just thought it was the smoke and the soot coming from the airplanes hitting the buildings.”

It is estimated that nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon locations. At least 2,753 people were lost in New York City, but 22 years later, remains are still being identified. Adams and Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) Dr. Jason Graham announced two new identifications—a man and woman whose names are being withheld at the request of their families—as the 1,648th and 1,649th individuals to be found using advanced DNA testing. 

“We hope these new identifications can bring some measure of comfort to the families of these victims,” said Adams in a statement. “The ongoing efforts by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner attest to the city’s unwavering commitment to reunite all the World Trade Center victims with their loved ones.”

Some 1,104 victims—40% of those who died in the attacks—remain unidentified, said the city. 

“More than 20 years after the disaster, these two new identifications continue to fulfill a solemn pledge that OCME made to return the remains of World Trade Center victims to their loved ones,” said Graham. “Faced with the largest and most complex forensic investigation in the history of our country, we stand undaunted in our mission to use the latest advances in science to serve this promise.”

Adams said that he was afraid on that day, but committed to keeping the city safe and seeing it get back on its feet—a sentiment he has very much made the bedrock of his administration.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.

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* This article was originally published here

Advocates for immigrant rights held a conference to discuss some of the obstacles parents need to be aware of as nearly 19,000 migrant children attend New York City public schools this fall.

The new school year kicked off last week on Thursday, September 7. There are many issues immigrant and asylum seeker families need to navigate, including getting accurate information on enrollment, language access, getting vaccinated, childcare, and most pressingly, the potential bus strike. 

New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) Director of Economic Justice and Family Empowerment Liza Schwartzwald said that even before the asylum seeker crisis began last year, at least “1-in-2 students was a child of an immigrant family.” She said all groups of English Language Learner (ELL) students and immigrant students, both old and newly arrived, deserve access to quality education.

“These students are the future of the New York City educational system and it is critical that we support them,” said Schwartzwald.

She added that the city is prepared to issue emergency MetroCards, pre-paid rideshares, and transportation reimbursement where necessary in the event of a bus strike. She said families will receive four trips on trains and city buses to get from and to school, and they will receive notification if their route is affected.

The last New York City public school bus strike was in 2013, when bus drivers held out for a month on the picket lines in cold weather until union officials called off the strike.

Just before the school year began this year, several families of school bus riders rallied outside the Department of Education (DOE) headquarters on Tuesday, September 5. They were upset about overdue labor contracts for bus drivers, prompting worries of another potential strike. The group reportedly said that school bus drivers need safe service, adequate training, proper wheelchair harnesses, and better pay to avoid turnover. 

“Passively sitting out these negotiations when you have the power to step in, means actively enabling the destruction of the school bus service that thousands of our kids depend on to get their education,” said Parents to Improve School Transportation (PIST NYC) Co-Founder Sara Catalinotto in a statement.

The rallying group also had the support of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. “Today we stood with @pistnyc and families to demand a fair contract for bus drivers, and for the rights of students—including those with disabilities and in temporary housing—to be protected,” Williams posted on social media. “Whenever profit is the top priority, people suffer, and that’s what will happen here.”

Despite the rally, drivers promised to bus students in the first week of school while the union continued negotiations with the city. NYIC said up to half of current bus routes may be affected by a potential bus strike. 

For updates, contact the Office of Pupil Transportation Call Center at 718-392-8855, or email NYC’s Department of Education at transportation@schools.nyc.gov.

Groups like Advocates for Children and LSA Family Health Service, also disseminated information about how to enroll kids into 3K and Pre-K, as well as elementary, middle, or high school. They emphasized that translation and interpretation services are and should be available at a family’s request.

Until Sept. 22, certain Family Welcome Centers will temporarily relocate to nearby schools and updated locations can be found in digital flyers available in multiple languages. Normal hours and locations will resume on Sept. 26. For the latest updates on hours and locations, please visit schools.nyc.gov/FWC. Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1

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* This article was originally published here

The New York Public Library is offering new, special-edition Hip Hop 50 library cards that feature imagery from the soundtrack cassette of the iconic 1983 film “Wild Style,” directed by Charlie Ahearn—widely considered to be the first film dedicated to hip hop.

You can apply online or at a local branch for a new hip hop library card at any NYPL location near you. Call 917-ASK-NYPL (917-275-6975) for more information.

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* This article was originally published here