My Letter to UC Irvine School of Humanities Re: Sekou Odinga

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

This week I posted an article on the speaking appearance at UC Irvine by Sekou Odinga aka 

Nathaniel Burns.

Below is how the School of Humanities represented Odinga in their event announcement.

https://www.humanities.uci.edu/SOH/calendar/events.php?recid=5615&dept_code_val=all&event_cat=current&file_name=events

Below is the text of an email I have sent the School of Humanities this morning.

Speaker, Sekou Abdullah Odinga 
 
Department: African American Studies 
 
Date and Time: February 10, 2016 - 4:00 PM 
Event Location: HIB135 
 
Event Details 
 
"Sekou Abdullah Odinga grew up in Jamaica, Queens-New York in a family of nine. 
He is a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.  He was inspired by 
the revolutionary principles of Malcolm X when he joined the Organization of 
Afro-American Unity, followed later by the Black Panther Party and the Black 
Liberation Army. He is a Muslim, a citizen of the Republic of New Afrika and for 
thirty-three years was a U.S. held political prisoner of war. In 2009, Sekou 
reached his mandatory release date for his federal conviction in connection to 
the Liberation of Assata Shakur - living in exile in Cuba - and was "paroled" to 
the New York State prison system. After five years, he won a parole hearing and 
was released on parole on November 25th, 2014 from the New York State sentence." 
 
 
"Really? 
 
Let's set the record straight. Odinga was connected  to the 1981 Brinks truck 
robbery in Nyack NY that left two police officers and a Brinks guard dead. Two 
days later, he was arrested during a shootout with police who were looking for 
the killers. He was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 33 years in 
prison. He was not a political prisoner of war. 
 
Odinga is free to exercise his First Amendment right of free speech wherever he 
likes, but let us not misrepresent who he is." 
 
Gary Fouse 
Adjunct teacher 
UCI Ext