People are talking about “The New Jim Crow,” the term proposed by Michelle Alexander in her book with that title. According to a documentary about this, the “discrimination that was legal in the Jim Crow era is today illegal when applied to black people but perfectly legal when applied to ‘criminals.’ Since the rise of the drug war and the explosion of the prison population, and because discretion within the sys­tem allows for arrest and prosecution of people of color at alarmingly higher rates than whites, pris­ons and criminal penal­ties have become a new ver­sion of Jim Crow.”

In a column in today’s Times of Trenton, meet Barbara Flythe, who is on the New Jim Crow task force. She leads the discussion at Witherspoon Presbyterian Church on first Sundays, i.e. Sunday, February 4, 11:45 a.m.   

On Wednesday, February 6, at 7 p.m., at the Princeton Public Library, see the documentary mentioned above, Matthew Pillischer’s “Broken on All Sides.” Pillischer will be there for the discussion. 

POSTPONED due to storm On Friday, February 8, at 6:45 p.m., at the Lutheran Church of the Messiah, 406 Nassau Street, Mark Taylor, a professor at the seminary, will lecture on “I Was in Prison: Remembering Jesus in the U.S. Lockdown. Taylor, the author of “The Executed God,” has been active on issues involving incarceration for many years and is a compelling speaker. 

February is of course a time when many organizations try to focus on issues experienced by people of color. This year, the criminal justice system is the focus for many of these events. Here is a partial calendar from the Not in Our Town Princeton website.

Not in Our Town  invites anyone/everyone to Continuing Conversations on Race on first Mondays at 7:30 p.m. at the Princeton Public Library. 

The fundamental devaluation of dark skin — 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation — is surprisingly resilient, says Charles M. Blow in an op-ed in the New York Times.  

Anti-black sentiment has risen around the country, according to the polls.

Blow quotes Herman Cain to illustrate how using slavery as an analogy may have become “subversively chic.” Cain, running as a Republican presidential candidate, built an entire campaign around this not-so-coded language, saying that he had left “the Democrat plantation,” calling blacks “brainwashed” and arguing, “I don’t believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way.”   
  
Issues like these are on the table every month at the  Not in Our Town sessions, held on first Mondays at the Princeton Public Library. The next Continuing Conversations on Race, is set for Monday, January 7, at 7:30 p.m.

For this month, the focus is on the values honored by those in higher education. Some believe that everyone has equal opportunity at, for instance, Princeton University. Others may differ. Roberto Schiraldi and Fern Spruill will lead the discussion, focusing on such topics as minority employment, education, and the retail experience. All are welcome to share their views in an open, friendly, and confidential session. 

Nationally, more people are expressing anti-black sentiments. This discussion, as with all of Not in Our Town Princeton’s activities, focuses only on Princeton.  

The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) gets four stars on the report card provided by  Charity Navigator; it earns 69.13 points out of 70. So Dennis Micai, executive director of TASK, will be able to share that good news at a breakfast at Princeton United Methodist Church (PUMC), Nassau and Vandeventer, on Sunday, January 13 at 8 a.m.

PUMC volunteers have been serving at TASK in Trenton for two decades, but last June the church and TASK began a new partnership to serve meals in Princeton to more than 50 people every Wednesday. Some come for the food, some for the fellowship, and dozens of volunteers from both the church and the community are helping. TASK cooks most of the meals but outside organizations (the restaurant Zorba’s Brother cooked a turkey dinner last month) have also contributed. TASK has a similar partnership in Hightstown.

This job of keeping our children safe, and teaching them well, is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, the help of a community, and the help of a nation.  And in that way, we come to realize that we bear a responsibility for every child because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours; that we’re all parents; that they’re all our children. 

This is our first task — caring for our children.  It’s our first job.

You will recognize these words, spoken by President Obama, comforting the nation after the Newtown massacre. I came across them this morning, on the website of Obit magazine, one of Bob Hillier’s several publications. 

Reread the speech here.

Being a parent, he said, is “like having your heart outside of your body all the time, walking around.” He praised the teachers who gave their lives, the teachers who saved lives with encouragement “wait for the good guys, they’re coming”; “show me your smile,“ the first responders, the courage of the children. 

Where am I in this endeavor, where are you? What are you doing, what are we doing, to keep children safe and teach them well? How are we helping create a world where our children can grow up to be “self-reliant and capable and resilient, ready to face the world without fear?”

We each must come up with our own answer, our first resolution for 2013. I’m still pondering mine, trying to discern God’s plan. And you? 

Every Christmas, U.S. 1 Newspaper devotes the issue to good deeds done in the community. This year, the Helping Hands issue highlighted the proprietors of  Smith’sAce Hardware and Shop Rite who reach out to Crawford House, a halfway home for recovering women, to offer employment. These businesses, along with ten others, were recently honored for offering employment to the women. They include  Bon Appetit, McCaffrey’s Markets, Jordan’s Stationery and Gifts, Chez Alice, Chartwell’s Dining Services, the Red Oak Diner, Nelson’s Corner Pizza, and Wendy’s.Read the U.S. 1 story here.

You may not realize that any corporate donation to a Princeton-area charity can be featured in the columns of U.S. 1 Newspaper under the heading of Corporate Angels. If you run a charity – or if your company has made a donation – send that item to info@princetoninfo.com.

For instance, Wegman’s has made a very generous donation to a fundraiser for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Set for January 26 in Levittown, Pa, and put together by  Tehmina Jovindah, this is a $50 plate dinner, complete with live music by David Brahinsky and others, and all of the ticket price will go to TASK. The corporate donors for this event, including Wegman’s and the Ramada in Levittown, will see their names in U.S. 1 Newspapers Corporate Angels column. 

Everyone knows TASK feeds the hungry in Trenton, but there are people in need of food in Princeton as well. To help meet this need, the Cornerstone Community Kitchen at Princeton United Methodist Church opens its doors from 5 to 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday.  Some come for the food, some for the fellowship, all are graciously served a hot meal complete with a decorated table and a piano player in the background.

Interfaith Gathering for Remembrance, Unity, and Hope

In response to the Newtown, CT shooting, the Princeton Clergy Association along with Princeton University’s Office of Religious Life, Fellowship In Prayer, Palmer Square and the Nassau Inn is sponsoring an Interfaith Gathering for Remembrance, Unity, and Hope from 5:30-6:15 PM on Thursday, December 20 on the Green in front of the Nassau Inn at the rear of Palmer Square in Princeton. Leaders from different faith traditions will share their reflections. Please bring a candle.

Winter Solstice: Longest Night Service 

 In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, Princeton United Methodist Church will hold its annual Longest Night Service on Friday, December 21, at 7:30 p.m. This elegantly designed service of worship and remembrance was planned for those who find themselves in the shadows of painful holiday memories at the time of the Winter Solstice.