From The Final Call Newspaper

America’s firm, bitter divisions exposed
By William P. Muhammad
- June 20, 2022





Irreconcilable rifts continue in wake of congressional hearings

The country remains bitterly divided over who should be held accountable for violent insurrectionists breaching the grounds of the United States Capitol. The hearings of “The U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol” commenced in early June amid the backdrop of a nation that remains at odds with itself.

As witnesses ended a second week of testimonies before the select committee investigating the attacks of January 6, 2021, that occurred just weeks before the election winner was to assume office, questions remain about what if anything will come from the investigation? What has transpired also serves as further evidence of America’s continued downfall and unraveling.

As the hearings continue unfolding before a country reeling from economic woes brought on by skyrocketing gas prices, supply-chain problems impacting the availability of food and other necessities, it bears witness to the divine teachings and warning of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam.

 



In 1965, Mr. Muhammad warned in his seminal book, “Message to the Black Man in America,” that truth would eventually expose the wicked and their rule over the world and that His words should be taken seriously.

“Do not take what I am teaching and writing lightly,” Mr. Muhammad wrote on page 100 of his landmark book. “It is the truth from your God and you shall soon bear me witness that it is the truth. Allah has said to me that we are living in the end of the world of White rule, a race whom Allah has made manifest to you and me as being real devils,” He said.

His top student and National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, has warned what is happening signifies the ongoing fall of America as taught by his teacher and the unraveling of a great nation. “The condition of America is puzzling. The world is looking at a country going to hell,” the Minister warned in February 2020 ahead of the pandemic and national elections.

Anger and political contention

Infuriated by his loss in the 2020 presidential race to current President Joe Biden, former-President Donald J. Trump encouraged his supporters—enraged over the certification of electoral votes by Congress—to march on the Capitol, making chaos and violence the primary highlight of their ‘Stop-the-Steal Rally.’

Day three of the select committee hearings, broadcast live on June 16, opened with an explanation of the vice-president’s role during presidential elections. “The Constitution says that the vice-president of the United States oversees the process of counting the Electoral College votes, a process that took place on January 6, 2021,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said. “Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do something no other vice-president has ever done,” Rep. Thompson began, referring to the former vice-president.

“The former president wanted Pence to reject the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states to be counted again. Mike Pence said no,” Rep. Thompson said during his remarks.

Violent rioters supporting President Donald Trump storm the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. When a mob loyal to the former president forcibly overtook the U.S. Capitol in 2021, conservative bloggers and social media commentators scrambled to fabricate a different story: that the day was nonviolent, a false flag by Democrats or the brainchild of undercover federal officials. A year later, thousands on social media echoed those falsehoods in their attempts to minimize the day’s events and deflect blame from Trump supporters. Photo: AP Photo/John Minchillo, File

“That courage put him in tremendous danger when Mike Pence made it clear that he wouldn’t give in to Donald Trump’s scheme. Donald Trump turned the mob on him, a mob that was chanting: ‘Hang Mike Pence.’ A mob that had built a hangman’s gallows just outside the Capitol.”

Committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) added that witness statements over the first two days of the hearings provided clear testimonies that President Trump was told his election fraud allegations were false. “We heard this from members of the Trump campaign, we heard this from President Trump’s campaign lawyers, we heard this from President Trump’s former Attorney General, Bill Barr,” she stated while reading off a long list of White House insiders who disagreed with the former president’s stance.

Vice-President Pence’s words before the Federalist Society, a Conservative group dedicated to limited government, confirmed Ms. Cheney’s statements on day three of the hearings. “President Trump said that I had the right to overturn the election, but President Trump is wrong,” Mr. Pence said in a video clip presented as additional evidence for the public record.

“How did we get to this point? How did we get to the point where President Trump’s most radical supporters led a violent attack on the Capitol and threaten to hang President Trump’s own vice-president?” asked Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.).

“The violence was no accident, it represents President Trump’s last stand, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power,” said Rep. Thompson during his opening remarks on day one of the nationally televised hearings.

The first televised hearing attracted about 20 million people tuned in to 11 different networks, according to Nielsen.

“You may hear those words and think, this is just another political attack on Donald Trump by people who don’t like him. That’s not the case,” Mr. Thompson said. “My colleagues and I all wanted an outside independent commission to investigate January 6, similar to what we had after 9/11.”

Yet, the full Congress would not authorize an impartial outside investigation, Rep. Thompson said, recalling how the world watched hundreds of mostly White insurrectionists, angered by Mr. Trump’s failure to secure a second term, stormed the U.S. Capitol building, smashing windows and breaking down doors, as they ransacked offices in search of documents, rampaging through its halls and threatening members of Congress.

Mr. Duncan Kirkwood, 37, who resides in New York as a global resiliency trainer, is a former lieutenant and platoon leader in the Army National Guard. He told The Final Call it is unusual for the government not to have gathered intelligence on and prepared for the presence of groups such as the “Proud Boys” and given the contentiousness of the political climate, for not having had the appropriate personnel on standby as a quick reaction force.

“My first thought was why are they not teargassing the crowds or deploying any crowd control measures like rubber bullets, CS gas, or flashbangs, or something?” Mr. Kirkwood said, referring to the high-profile nature of the U.S. Capitol building. “I know if those rioters were Black, there would have been bodies laid out across the ground, they totally would have treated them differently.”

The unraveling continues

The January 6attack on the Capitol raises additional questions not only on issues of greed and leadership’s state of mind, but also on how inordinate self-interest and the lust for power is sinking the country as the façade of American exceptionalism continues to unravel.

Aaron Dusso, Ph.D., is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at Indiana University. He told The Final Call that civil unrest and political discord is nothing new to the American experiment and although the country’s institutions are robust and have endured many conflicts up to and including the Civil War, they are not unbreakable.

He also said when people who are in office refuse to abide by what has been a standard method of political succession, it constitutes a clear and present danger to the entire system.

“One of the challenges of what was highlighted in the opening night of the hearings is that this is the first time in United States history that a sitting president has tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power, that’s something the United States hasn’t faced and it’s a particularly big challenge,” Dr. Dusso said the morning after the first hearing.

“People who are elected officials, who are running governments, who have real power, they have to be willing to relinquish power when elections don’t go their way, and when they try to stop elections from happening, that’s when the end of your democracy is coming closer.”

Agreeing that an erosion of the U.S. Constitution is detrimental to the American public in general, other scholars suggest that the adversarial nature of American politics, long maintained at the expense of Black, Brown, and poor people, can no longer countenance the inevitable demographic changes, projected by the U.S. Census, making Whites a minority population by the late 2060s.

 

Footage of rioters are pictured during the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol second hearing to present previously unseen material and hear witness testimony in Cannon Building, on Monday, June 13, 2022. Appearing from left, are Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., staff counsel, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Chairperson Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Dr. Gerald Horne, the Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, told The Final Call that Black Americans should regard the January 6violence as more than just an expressed desire among disaffected Whites to overthrow the government. He also said the attack is a serious warning for Blacks to reconsider the White liberal model that has called for Black social justice and political inclusion over economic justice and Black political independence.

“Mr. Trump has not been repudiated by the base of the Republican Party, in fact, he has been embraced,” Dr. Horne explained. “We know that Black people will be the primary victim(s) of an impending U.S. fascism which should call into question, once again, the kinds of methods and methodologies that our liberal friends in the Black community have been pursuing in order to vindicate our rights,” he added.

“The Republicans have made it clear that if they take control of the House in November, they plan to investigate the investigators and I’m sure at the top of the list will be Congressman Thompson,” Dr. Horne said. “We need to protect that brother because, obviously, he’s in the crosshairs, but the larger issue is a failed strategy over at least the last 75 years.”

Ray Winbush, professor and director of the Institute of Urban Research at Morgan State University, said Rep. Thompson, in defining the violence of that day as an attempted coup, essentially accused the former president of treason, prompting former officials and members of the Trump family to distance themselves from his assertions while loyalists to the former president doubled down their support.

“Clearly, the insurrection on January 6 consisted of people who are preparing for a race war. Last night, Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson both referred to the Proud Boys. There is no doubt they are a White supremacist group and what we saw there was like a lynch mob,” Professor Winbush stated after the first hearing aired. “They literally wanted to lynch (former vice-president) Mike Pence and I think what we’re missing as Black people is how serious the White supremacists are in this country (toward) igniting a race war,” he added.

Stating that Mr. Trump’s advisors told him prior to the January 6attack that President Biden had in fact won the 2020 election, Rep. Cheney placed the violence of that day at the feet of the outgoing president and said much of the chaos leading to the violence was premeditated.

“The Trump campaign legal team knew there was no legitimate argument, fraud, irregularities or anything to overturn the election, and yet, President Trump went ahead with his plans for January 6anyway,” Rep. Cheney said. “Hundreds of our countrymen have faced criminal charges, many are serving criminal sentences because they believed what Donald Trump said about the election, and they acted on it.”

Mid-Atlantic Regional Student Minister Abdul Khadir Muhammad of the Nation of Islam’s Washington, D.C. Mosque No. 4, told The Final Call that the peace and love displayed by the 1995 Million Man March, the 2000 Million Family March, the 2005 Millions More Movement, and the 10-10-15 Justice or Else March, when compared to the chaos of the insurrection,reveals the nature of incoming and outgoing worlds.

“There’s no comparison, all of what we have done in the name of Master W. Fard Muhammad, and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, led by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, and all the people that came to help him, we had a great and tremendous positive turnout,” Student Minister Muhammad stated.

“When I found out what (Trump supporters) were in town for, we stayed clear of all the foolishness. You just have to follow the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s instructions and get out of the way,” he said. “Satan is casting out Satan and his kingdom is not standing.”

From The Final Call Newspaper

U.S. missiles to Ukraine add more fuel to the fire of war
By Brian E. Muhammad, Staff Writer
- June 7, 2022

A Ukrainian serviceman fires an NLAW anti-tank weapon during an exercise in the Joint Forces Operation, in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. While the U.S. warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day, the drumbeat of war is all but unheard in Moscow, where pundits and ordinary people alike don't expect President Vladimir Putin to launch an attack on its ex-Soviet neighbor. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)


While the Biden administration insists armaments given to Ukraine are aimed at ending bloody fighting in Eastern Europe, there is fear the opposite is happening: especially with a declaration from Moscow that the latest weapons of war supplied to Ukraine are increasing and extending conflict.

“We believe that the U.S. is deliberately pouring oil on the fire. The U.S. is obviously holding the line that it will fight Russia to the last Ukrainian,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov recently told reporters.

President Biden announced a new $700 million weapons package for Ukraine, June 1, that included high mobility artillery rocket systems that can accurately hit targets as far away as 50 miles.

The rockets are the centerpiece of more massive aid contained in the 11th U.S. package approved since the beginning of the war. America has given over $54 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The Ukraine had long requested the weaponry, but America was reluctant to provide the missile system fearing its use against targets inside Russia.

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Washington says Kyiv has promised this will not happen. But analysts and observers say the move means increased war.

“We see this as a dangerous escalation,” said Ajamu Baraka, national organizer with the Black Alliance for Peace. “It is in fact adding fuel to a fire that was lit by the U.S. and the West. A fire that did not have to be lit.” Mr. Baraka stated the action helps move a deteriorating situation closer to an existential threat to humanity because both Russia and America are nuclear powers.

“When Russia says that this represents a line of demarcation, they’re serious, because the U.S. can’t pretend that they are not party to the conflict because they don’t have boots on the ground,” Mr. Baraka warned.

Providing lethal weapons to Ukraine that can strike Russian territory brings America another step closer to the possibility of direct military conflict with Russia.

“Because if there’s an attack into Russia, the Russians have a right to respond and who knows where that might go at that point,” said Mr. Baraka.

 

U.S. Marines conduct live-fire training with a Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) during Emerald Warrior 22.1 at Avon Park, Florida, May 10, 2022. Emerald Warrior provides annual, realistic pre-deployment training encompassing multiple joint operating areas. The exercise prepares special operations forces, conventional force enablers, partner nations and interagency elements, to integrate with and execute full-spectrum special operations around the globe. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joseph P. LeVeille)

Ukraine’s “assurances” American missiles won’t cross Russian borders can’t be for certain, continued Mr. Baraka. There is no guarantee there is operational control of all of the units on the ground in Ukraine, he said. Instead of pouring more lethal weapons into Ukraine, America should recognize they have “created a debacle for themselves,” and seriously move toward a negotiated settlement, he said.

America and Western European nations have been backing Ukraine with military, humanitarian, and financial aid since Russia attacked Ukraine over 100 days ago.

“Such supplies do not contribute to the Ukrainian leadership’s willingness to resume peace negotiations,” said the Kremlin spokesman.

The Biden administration is causing the war to be protracted, according to Richard Becker of the Act Now to End War and Racism (ANSWER) Coalition.

Sending this kind of massive shipment of advanced weaponry is meant to “prolong the war” and as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated “to weaken” Russia, he argued.

“Anyone who’s looking soberly at this can see that this could escalate into a global war. It could be World War III,” said Mr. Becker.

President Biden wrote in a New York Times opinion piece May 31 that America does not seek a war between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and Russia, nor is it trying to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin.

1st Lt. Ryan Rogers assigned to 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), fires the Javelin shoulder-fired anti-tank missile during platoon live fire exercise at Fort Campbell, Ky. Jan. 30, 2019. (U.S. Army Photo by Capt. Justin Wright)

“So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces,” wrote Mr. Biden.

Critics say the U.S. president’s words against direct conflict with Russia while doubling down with more lethal aid to Ukraine are a contradiction.

The central component of U.S. foreign policy is there must be only one superpower that dominates the globe and that is America, said Mr. Becker.

He told The Final Call the world is at a time of “major party competition,” primarily America versus Russia and China who have come closer together in recent years.

“The U.S. policymakers, imperialist leaders, I would say, don’t want to see either of those countries … in combination rise to challenge U.S. domination of the world,” explained Mr. Becker. “It’s not that they want war with the U.S., they don’t. But the U.S. wants to put them in positions where they perhaps don’t have a choice, or very limited choices,” said Mr. Becker.

For Russia, America, the Ukraine and the collective of Western nations involved in war, there will not be any winners at the end of the day.

In his illuminating book called “The Fall of America,” the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the eternal leader of the Nation of Islam, wrote these events are occurring at the end of White world rule, the fall of America, and the establishment of the kingdom of God.

“We do not hope for peace as long as we add to the war that which serves as fuel to a fire,” he wrote. “The fire cannot go out as long as we keep it burning by adding more fuel. A dying, burning fire is increased when more fuel is thrown into it.”

His book was originally published in 1973.

U.S. Marines load an M777 towed 155 mm howitzer into the cargo hold of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at March Air Reserve Base, California, April 21, 2022. The howitzers are part of the United States’ efforts, alongside allies and partners, to identify and provide Ukraine with additional capabilities. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Austin Fraley)

“How can we expect peace where the method used to bring about peace is the same method that started the war—instead of finding a right solution and then practicing the right solution?” he asked.

These times were foretold in the scriptures, which say there is no peace for the wicked and the world is in a time of reaping what was sown, he said.

His National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, has been warning nations, in particular America, of divine judgment and divine destruction for evil done. The source of God’s anger and wrath is not just U.S. foreign policy, but the evil and murderous U.S. history against Blacks ripped from Africa and Native Americans.

Minister Farrakhan delivered a near five-hour presentation Feb. 27 at Saviours’ Day 2022 in Chicago at Mosque Maryam. His address was titled “The Swan Song.”

He warned that the war in Ukraine would draw the United States in and the final result would be the breaking of U.S. and Russian power. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said U.S. soldiers would go away to war in the thousands and come back in the tens, added Min. Farrakhan.

“Have you been reading the news? Russia struck Ukraine. What does that mean? It means the war to end all wars has started,” the Minister warned. “Do you know how the War of Armageddon starts? It starts with a Messenger of God teaching people the truth. Then people fall on either side; if you disbelieve the truth then you will continue in your way.

“The liars are so thick that you can tell the truth and the truth does not seem to move the lie. Do you know why? Because the forces that uphold the lie are upholding the lie with their power. So, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, my teacher, said that means that it has to be physically removed. It is about to happen,” the Minister continued.

Min. Farrakhan has also warned his teacher has taught that the war in Europe would start with conventional weapons but would eventually involve nuclear weapons.

“For the past four thousand years and more Allah (God) has already given the prophecy through the mouth of His prophets of the doom of the wicked. Now is the time and we cannot do anything but take it, and it is dangerous to add fuel to an unwanted fire. THE FIRE IS THE WAR,” wrote the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.

From The Final Call Newspaper

War, conflict is fueling famine abroad, fear at home

By Brian E. Muhammad, Staff Writer
- May 31, 2022





“O people, keep your duty to your Lord; surely the Shock of the Hour is a grievous thing.

—Holy Qur’an 22:1

Global food shortages are causing panic and concern as a grim reality is setting in for the United States. The impact of shortages of grain, wheat and other critical food supplies resulting from the Russia-Ukraine war is still raging and growing more dire day by day.

Global trade held up in the war-ravaged area is dangerously compounding existing economic troubles enveloping Europe and food security issues in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. No corner of the Earth is seemingly spared, including America, the top worldwide economic power.

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Many countries, including some of the world’s poorest, count on Russia and Ukraine—which combined, accounts for nearly one-third of the global wheat supply—for more than half of their wheat imports.

Russian forces have effectively tied up trade traffic in the Black Sea, the key waterway of shipping Ukrainian grain and goods to world markets. Regions from Europe to Africa, the Middle East as well as America have been adversely impacted. The war and Western sanctions on Russia have sent the cost of grain, cooking oil, fertilizer, and energy surging. America and western nations say Russia is to blame for invading its neighbor. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling on western powers to impose more sanctions on Russia calling the sea blockade a “new threat to everyone on our continent.”

“It’s impossible, utterly unrealistic in the modern world” to isolate Russia, said Russian President Vladimir Putin, virtually addressing members of the Eurasian Economic Forum. Those who try would “primarily hurt themselves,” he said referring to the food supply chain crunch.

Gaylord resident Stephanie Kerwin, center, holds her baby Octavius in one arm and dog Pixie in the other as she and her family carry what they could salvage from her home n Nottingham Forest Mobile Home Park, seen here on Saturday morning, May 21, 2022 in Gaylord. At least two people died, both in their 70s, after a tornado touched down in Nottingham Forest Mobile Home Park. An additional 44 injured after the May 20 natural disaster according to Michigan State Police. “This morning is when it first hit me — I could have lost people that I really love. I am so grateful,” she said. (Jake May | MLive.com)

Moscow urged the West on May 27 to lift debilitating wide ranged sanctions placed on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Moscow “is ready to make a significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis through the export of grain and fertilizer on the condition that politically motivated restrictions imposed by the West are lifted,” said a Kremlin readout of a call between Mr. Putin and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

A growing international food crisis has been worsened by Ukraine’s inability to ship millions of tons of grain and other agricultural products during the war.

Meanwhile the Russian Defense Ministry said on May 25 that it had finished demining the port of Mariupol in Southeastern Ukraine where tense fighting took place in recent weeks.

Defense officials said foreign ships stuck there will be able to leave, reported Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a press briefing that the port had started “to function normally.”

However, Western nations and America are scrambling to mitigate the precarious position Russian control of the Black Sea ports has placed them in. Despite the massive American led economic sanctions and political isolation heaped on Russia, the reverberation has been global food insecurity and intensified war.

More than 22 million tons of grain are stuck in silos and zero room to store Ukraine’s harvest.

“And while there will be a food crisis unfolding in some parts of the world, Ukrainian grain will be getting rotten under open skies,” said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister on May 25.

“If this problem is not resolved, Ukrainian farmers will not plant another crop and the whole agricultural cycle in Ukraine will be interrupted, and that will mean a multi-year food crisis,” he said.

European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen called for talks with Moscow about unblocking wheat exports trapped in Ukraine.

“Russian warships in the Black Sea are blockading Ukrainian ships full of wheat and sunflower seeds,” Ms. von der Leyen told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on May 24.

The EU chief argues Russia is weaponizing food supplies with global repercussions, like it employed in the energy sector.

Fighting has already placed indirect pressure on global grain prices. While the threat of Russia’s naval blockade continues to deter access by commercial shipping to Ukrainian ports, the resulting supply shortfalls will further increase the price of many staple products worldwide.

Russia-Ukraine conflict compounding problem

 

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged Russian authorities to unstop the shipping ports to avert global food shortages. He warned the world hunger crisis would worsen for years to come if the state of affairs compounded by the Russia-Ukraine war is not reversed soon.

The UN head said he has had intense contact on the issue with Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, America, the European Union and several other key countries. He said it will take goodwill on all sides to reach a package deal and pull through the crisis. Mr. Guterres would not publicly elaborate on the details of such an agreement, saying it could undermine the chances of success.

Food insecurity and U.S. policy

This is a time of reaping what has been sown at home and abroad warned the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, and His student the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Both men have warned, what is being witnessed overseas will touch the shores of America.

Pestilence and calamities are engulfing the world and have targeted America in particular with the worst yet to come.

The scriptures states that the shock of the hour is a grievous thing. It’s the consequence of ignoring right guidance after repeated warnings from prophets, messengers, and warners about impending doom for refusing to answer the call to repentance and justice for a history of exploitation, oppression and slavery.

The downfall is clear. America has been in the throes of adverse weather events, loss of global friendship, and diminished stature as the world’s most influential power. Since the bloody conflict between Russia and Ukraine started earlier this year involving America and European nations, some of America’s own vulnerabilities are being exposed, including the looming threat of hunger and food insecurity.

America was in trouble well before February 2022 when war broke out in Eastern Europe between two of the world’s main breadbaskets and suppliers of material needed for agriculture. At the same time, negative effects on supply chains and food shortages driven by the Covid-19 pestilence drove many Americans to food banks. According to Feed America, a national food bank organization, in the wake of the pandemic, unemployment and food insecurity soared. In 2020, over 60 million people turned to food banks and community programs for help putting food on the table.

Two years later, along with the domino effect of war, the world still mitigates the economic destruction of the pandemic. America, which touts itself as the land of the free and home of opportunity, continues waning to a place where people must make trade-offs. Do they buy food for their children or pay for utilities, rent, and medicine?

Today out of 332.2 million people, 38 million face hunger in the U.S.—including more than 12 million children, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Hunger knows no boundaries—it touches every community in the U.S.

A fact sheet by “Feed America,” a national food bank, said many households experiencing food insecurity do not qualify for federal nutrition programs and visit local food banks and other food programs for extra support.

Hunger in Black, Latino, and Native American communities is higher because of systemic racial injustice. To achieve a hunger-free America, we must address the root causes of hunger and structural and systemic inequities, said Feed America.

In America, COVID-19 presented a particular shock of the hour that compounded food insecurity replete with reduced incomes and disrupted supply chains.

“I think one of the things that was noticed the most is just the need for food greatly rose, just in communities, and people were losing their jobs,” said Tony Cartegena, public relations and communications coordinator at Feeding America-Eastern Wisconsin. “When you’re budgeting, you have to account for certain things and food is one of those things that is kind of nonnegotiable,” added Mr. Cartegena.

The food bank is Wisconsin’s largest and serves 35 counties, and supplies food to over 400 food pantries statewide.

Mr. Cartegena told The Final Call that food banks nationwide probably found that more people were attending food distribution and food pantries to receive groceries for the week. “There was definitely an increase in the number of people that needed assistance,” he observed. “We also see that, in the amount of just pounds of food that we had to order during the pandemic.”

But on the other side of the scenario was the increase in generosity of the community. The high demand of the food bank services was met because members of the community stepped up to donate their time, disposable income or donate food to help make ends meet for others, said Mr. Cartegena.

However, on other levels America continues to show signs of trouble. Tumultuous events on the world stage are occurring at a time America is facing negative impacts on food production and potential famine and hunger issues.

Everybody is affected, from grain dealers to grain growers down to the consumers. The price of fuel is clocking in at record highs and having a debilitating impact across the board. The increase in fuel prices comes against the backdrop of rising world oil prices. American industry leaders said U.S. policy changes are needed.

“High fuel prices are really increasing the cost of shipping,” said Stu Letcher, executive vice president of North Dakota Grain dealers Association. Fuel surcharges are taxed on North Dakota grain shipped to market by railway that is increasing the cost of shipping. “So that’s one thing that’s having a big effect on, probably agriculture in North Dakota as a whole,” Mr. Letcher told The Final Call.

From Mr. Letcher’s standpoint, the government can do more to address the problem of fuel price increases. He advocates opening up the oil reserves within America to offset the crisis.

“It’s policy, I mean, change the policy. Open it up … you’ll see fuel prices drop overnight,” said Mr. Letcher.

Behind Texas, North Dakota is the number two oil producer in America. There shouldn’t be an energy shortage because there are hundreds of years of oil reserves in the ground, he added.

Before the war America imported $1.28 Billion in Russian fertilizers during 2021, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

Everything revolves around petroleum fertilizers and now chemicals cost are higher for the farmer in the field. Farmers are seeing increased input cost, said Mr. Letcher.

Fuel for freight is one of the main pieces of cost moving products to market.

Freight is going through the roof because of fuel. Drop the price of fuel, you dropped the price of freight. You dropped the price on a lot of the inputs. “It’s not rocket science,” said Mr. Letcher.

Drought and looming effects of hunger

Earlier this year President Joe Biden cautioned a food shortage was coming as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war and the sanctions imposed by the West. At the time he said warnings about fertilizer and wheat scarcity were real.

“We did talk about food shortages. It’s going to be real. The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia. It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well including European countries and our country as well,” Mr. Biden said.

In addition to the global impact on America is the adverse weather patterns gripping the country. More than half of Kansas, a major U.S. wheat growing state, was classified under severe drought or worse as of March 8, the driest conditions since 2018, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.

Severe drought is also covering three-quarters of Oklahoma and more than two-thirds of Texas, both of which also are large wheat producers, said Reuters.

Major grain producers like the United States, Canada, France, Australia and Argentina are being closely watched to see if they can quickly ramp up production to fill in the gaps from lost Ukrainian and Russian supplies, said Associated Press. But farmers are facing the prospect of another year of drought, climbing fuel and fertilizer costs, and supply chain disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic. Major producers also are hamstrung by factors like legal limits on exports and farming patterns.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad warned that the calamities such as adverse weather conditions and famine entering America is Divine chastisement for wickedness and debauchery inside America and abroad. He compared the fall of America with the fall of Ancient Babylon, a scriptural city destroyed for its transgressions.

In early writings, Elijah Muhammad said America, like Babylon was rich, proud and her riches increased her corruption. She had every merchandise that the nations wanted or demanded; her ships carried her merchandise to the ports of every nation. She was a drunkard, filled with adultery and murder. Babylon persecuted and killed the people of God and His saints and prophets. Hate and filthiness, gambling and sports of every evil, as you practice in America were practiced in Babylon. Only America is modern and much worse.

“This people have gone to the limit in doing evil; as God dealt with ancient people—so will He deal with the modern Babylon (America),” said Elijah Muhammad.

“As God says: ‘Son of Man, when the land (people) sinneth against Me by trespassing grievously then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it.’ (Ezekiel 14:13).

Min. Farrakhan echoed his teacher’s warning that famine is imminent and the best and only solution for Black people is separation and doing for self, although many are not desirous to do so.

“But here is something to consider; for ‘the state of mind’ of our Black Leadership class is this: They cannot see themselves in any way being separated from their former slave masters and their children. They can’t see it; they don’t want to see it! And really, most don’t want it,” Minister Farrakhan said during an installation of his 2013 lecture series, “The Time and What Must be Done.”

Minster Farrakhan explained as long as Black leaders press Whites and government for all their needs rather than redirect their creative talent and capability shown in every field of human endeavor for self, White anger and race driven blood shedding will increase.

“And soon, you will see that it is The Time in History that we must be separated,” said Minister Farrakhan.