community

Dr. Robert Franklin, public theologian and Morehouse College's 10th President, discusses his book "Crisis In The Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities." We also discuss Dr. Franklin's vision for Morehouse College to encourage young men to learn and to act with courage to fulfill their commitment to community. Solutions to the crisis in AFrican American communities include reviving a culture of healthy relationships. Don also presents a special candle-lighting ceremony to commemorate this special "candle-in-the-dark" interview.

As the community around the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia mourns its dead and papers report that miners are not being allowed to attend their friends' funerals, S&P Equity Research upgraded the company's stock from a "hold" to a "buy." Just another example of profits before people, notes Jeff Biggers, author of "Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland." Biggers joins us via Skype to talk about the tragedy at the Massey Energy mine and the legacy of coal, and warns that while it might be easy to point fingers at Massey's egregious violations of safety rules and its grandstanding CEO Don Blankenship, the entire mining culture is fraught with the same problems. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.

We've all seen the headlines about record bonuses on Wall Street just a year after record bailouts with taxpayer dollars. And we all know that the rest of the country is hardly feeling the recovery. But even right here in New York City, recovery hasn't yet trickled down, and inequality is just getting worse. To discuss real economic recovery for New York's working class (and the people in urban centers around the country) we invite Mark Winston Griffith, executive director at the Drum Major Institute and 2009 candidate for New York City Council, Matt Ryan, campaign director with Jobs With Justice New York, and Jonathan Hicks, former reporter with the New York Times and senior fellow at the DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy. Bill Clinton, explaining the U.S.'s hand in Haiti's crumbled infrastructure. Queen Elizabeth, apologizing for colonialism. Has the world turned upside down? No, it's the Yes Men, putting some words in the mouths of world leaders that we'd like to see. Rev. James Forbes took part in sit-ins at Woolworth's lunch counters in his youth, and in his new book, Whose Gospel?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Protestantism, he shares his prescription for a way to build progressive communities through spiritual support and understanding one another's worldview. The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission will allow unprecedented corporate money to influence United States elections -- essentially giving corporations free speech rights. Free Speech for People is calling for a movement to amend the constitution to keep corporate money out of our election process, and in this video they ask people whether corporations should be given the same rights as they have. Finally, as a result of policies around the tar sands in Alberta, the Royal Bank of Canada has been deemed the World's Most Environmentally Irresponsible company. This video from the Rainforest Action Network explains why.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was recently stripped of his federal authority to make immigration arrests after repeated complaints that he abuses power and uses racial profiling to target Latinos in his Arizona community. Salvador Reza, U.S. Air Force veteran, community organizer and renowned immigrants rights activist, joins Laura for an exclusive interview on Arpaio's ongoing abuses. Dennis Gilman brings us video footage from an Arpaio raid and from protests in Arizona, where white supremacist groups showed up to support Arpaio's policies. The National Book Awards were announced this week; Colum McCann was honored for his fiction work "Let the Great World Spin: A Novel," and T.J. Stiles' biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt won the nonfiction prize.