From the beginning of time, the "Defender of good and evil" has been in existence. For this reason, the world will be a better place for all mankind. There has been a struggle to the present for control, to have power over all nations and to rule over mankind. There has been constant conflict between good and evil in our world throughout history. The "Defender" has become the peacemaker, the balance between this good and evil. John Ackerman's great, great grandfather brought the "Defender" to America, from southwestern Germany, on a Packet Ship, in the late 1700's. Undisturbed, and hidden by some old pictures and clothes, in the attic of John's and Josephine's home, a worn hump-back trunk held the "Defender." The couple knew, if they ever needed it, all they had to do was take the "Defender" out. Only to be used for good, and never for evil, the instructions were written on an old piece of dried animal skin laid on top of the golden box that housed the "Defender." Hold it in a left hand and concentrate on a special need; something one of them wanted to make their life better, or deemed necessary to fulfill their needs. Over time, never having a need to use it, they forgot about the "Defender." Josephine died at the wonderful age of 105, and John lived to be the ripe old age of 107. Rediscovered in the old trunk in the attic after their deaths, it gives me great pleasure to share with you the rest of the story.

During its golden years, the twentieth-century black press was a tool of black men's leadership, public voice, and gender and identity formation. Those at the helm of black newspapers used their platforms to wage a fight for racial justice and black manhood. In a story that stretches from the turn of the twentieth century to the rise of the Black Power movement, D'Weston Haywood argues that black people's ideas, rhetoric, and protest strategies for racial advancement grew out of the quest for manhood led by black newspapers. This history departs from standard narratives of black protest, black men, and the black press by positioning newspapers at the intersections of gender, ideology, race, class, identity, urbanization, the public sphere, and black institutional life. Shedding crucial new light on the deep roots of African Americans' mobilizations around issues of rights and racial justice during the twentieth century, Let Us Make Men reveals the critical, complex role black male publishers played in grounding those issues in a quest to redeem black manhood.

This book assesses the construction, operation and effects of the international protection regime for human rights defenders, which has evolved significantly over the last twenty years in response to the risks people face as they promote and protect human rights. Drawing upon the experiences of human rights defenders who continue to persevere in their activism in Indonesia, Egypt, Kenya, Mexico and Colombia, this edited collection examines the ways in which formal protection mechanisms by state and civil society actors intersect with self-protection measures and informal protection initiatives by families and friends. It highlights that protection practices are most effective when they are designed to address the specific risks that human rights defenders face (which are gendered and intersectional); reflect how defenders understand ‘risk’, ‘security’ and ‘protection’; and are appropriate for the dynamic sociopolitical and legal contexts in which defenders operate. This book proposes ways in which the protection of human rights defenders at risk should be reimagined and practised. This book will be a thought-provoking guide for students and scholars of politics, international relations, law and human rights, as well as to practitioners engaged in the protection of human rights defenders at risk.

Welcome to Billy Graham?s Naenae Boxing Academy. Where young men?s lives are changed forever. Boys have entered with nothing: hungry, no self-belief, little hope. But they have left as confident young men looking forward to the future. Making Champion Men reveals the secrets behind one of the most remarkable success stories in New Zealand youth work and teaches some important lessons. The lessons have been learnt the hard way: Billy Graham had a tough childhood, in trouble with principals and police, until he found boxing. He went on to become a national boxing champion, and then a globally recognised motivational speaker, winning a standing ovation at the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table convention in Atlanta. Billy came home to Naenae to set up the boxing academy and has never looked back. Awards have flowed, local police say youth crime is down 30 percent, and a Massey University study has confirmed the academy?s amazing ability to turn troubled boys lives around. In Making Champion Men Billy shares his journey and tells, with passion and humour, how to work the same miracles in your home or community. He tells, through experience, what boys need: encouragement and kindness, discipline and rules. They need male role models and to learn the consequences of their actions. Most importantly, they need someone to believe in them.

Dante is a collection of lectures about the work of an Italian poet known widely to have directly influenced American literature. Dante Alighieri, probably baptized Durante di Alighiero Degli Alighieri and often referred to simply as Dante, was an Italian poet, writer, and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.

Should a Christian doctrine of salvation be concerned with this life or the life to come? With forgiveness of sins or deliverance of sinners? With the saving of the soul or the healing of the body? Should it focus on the person and work of Jesus Christ or on the presence and power of Holy Spirit? To all these questions (and more), Tony Richie's Saved, Delivered, and Healed: Introducing a Pentecostal Doctrine of Salvation answers "Yes!" Then it proceeds to present from the Scriptures, from Pentecostal theology and spirituality, and from decades of pastoral and personal experiences and academic insights an energetic and holistic view of salvation grounded in the wisdom, goodness, and power of God. Its constant focus is God's ultimate redemptive purpose in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit for the lives of real human beings living in the real world. If you have ever wondered what Christian salvation actually means and how it actually works, then this book is for you.