On Gun Violence - New York Beacon

Transcription

New York’s
Beacon
website:
NewYorkBeacon.net
Vol. 20 No. 31
Showing the Way to Truth and Justice
August 1, 2013 - August 7, 2013
E-Mail
newyorkbeacon@yahoo.com
75 Cents
JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!!!
It’s still issue 50 years after historic DC march
CIVIL RIGHT LEADERS —Al Shaprton and other voting rights advocates speak with press after meeting with President Obama (NNPA Photo by Freddie Allen).
(See Story On Page 11)
CBC takes a stand against ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws
(See Story On Page 3)
United African Movement marks
anniversary with rally for Brawley
BEACON, August 1, 2013 - August 7, 2013 newyorkbeacon.net
2
ByYusef Salaam
Valerie Harrison
Lincoln appoints Valerie
Harrison general counsel
The Lincoln University announces that Valerie I. Harrison
has been appointed general
counsel. She will assume the
position on Aug. 5, 2013.
Harrison comes to the institution from Arcadia University
where she served as vice president for legal affairs and general
counsel. Prior to this position
she served for 14 years as associate university counsel at
Temple University. She has also
served as senior counsel at Arco
Chemical Company in Newtown
Square, Pennsylvania, senior attorney at Joseph E. Seagram &
Sons, Inc., of New York, associate in the Labor and Employment
Section of Morgan, Lewis &
Bockius of Philadelphia, PA and
was a legal intern to the Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.,
of the U. S. Court of Appeals for
the Third Circuit.
“We are so pleased to have Attorney Harrison join us,” said
President Dr. Robert R. Jennings.
“I am confident that a person of
her skill, intellect and experience
will assist us in strengthening the
University and continuing on our
path as one of the great citadels of
learning in the nation and world.”
Harrison has also served as an
adjunct professor of Race & the
Law as well as legal issues in Communication Management at the
Beasley School of Law and the
College of Liberal Arts at Temple
University.
Active in civic and community
affairs, Ms. Harrison serves on the
board of directors of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia,
the Art Sanctuary and is a past
member of the Board of the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group. She
is a member and former Trustee of
Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church of
Philadelphia. She has several publications to her credit and is in great
demand as a speaker.
A graduate of the University of
Virginia where she received the
Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, she holds a Masters of Liberal
Arts degree from Temple University and a Doctor of Jurisprudence
degree from Villanova University.
Ms. Harrison expects to complete a Ph. D. degree in AfricanAmerican Studies at Temple University in December 2013.
The United African Movement
(UAM), which is celebrating 25
“year of protracted struggle,” recently sponsored a rally for
Tawana Brawley at the Brooklyn
Christian Center.
A full house listened as speakers offered analysis and clarity on
vital issues such as George
Zimmerman being found not
guilty of murdering 17-year-old
unarmed Trayvon Martin, and
former Dutches County prosecutor, Steven Pagones, who has filed
to garnish Tawana Brawley’s employment check because she allegedly defamed his name when
she fingered him as one of the six
White men who kidnapped, gangraped, and assaulted her 26 years
ago in an wooded area in
Wappingers Falls, NY as the then15-years-old adolescent was
walking home.
Michael Greys, a co-host of the
MNN talk show, “Community
Cop”, was the guest speaker. His
focus was on the George
Zimmerman case; six female jurors
concluded that Zimmerman shot
the African teenager to death in
self-defense on February 26, 2012
in Sanford, Florida. The favorable
verdict for Zimmerman is rooted
in Florida’s controversial Stand
Your Ground law.
Greys noted the racial makeup
of the court was suspicious,
meaning the White jurors, (one
of them “White by proxy” as it
was remarked), the White judge,
and White prosecutor. Greys
pointed out that the jury and the
other Whites saw the 28 year-old
mulatto-looking Zimmerman as an
honorary White. They viewed
Martin as someone they hated,
he declared. He argued that by
initially identifying Martin’s remains as “John Doe gave Governor Rick Scott, Attorney General
Pamela Jo Bondi, and State Attorney Angela Corey (whom Scott
appointed special prosecutor),
and Sanford law enforcement officials time to organize strategy”
on how to handle the case in favor of Zimmerman. He said that
the trail was a mockery of justice,
Tawana Brawley
“theater.”
The speaker said that Corey, in
following her script, failed to
present Martin’s side of the story
in a convincing manner. “She allowed Zimmerman’s narrative to
dominate the trail.”
After the audience sang “Lift
Every Voice and Sing,” and a roll
call was offered in the memory of
unarmed African Americans
who’ve been slaughtered by
White cops and White civilians,
Alton Maddox, chairman of the
UAM, briefly corrected a popular
misunderstanding regarding why
he’s not allowed to practice law. “I
was not disbarred,” he said although sources report that there’s
been movement to disbar him because he continues to be an outspoken activist regarding injustices perpetrated against African
Americans. “I was barred, not disbarred. When you’ve been disbarred, it’s because you’ve done
something illegal like stealing
money from a client.”
He said that he’s still eligible to
be a member of the New York State
Bar as long as he pays his annual
dues. He said that the recommendation for him to be barred came
from the New York State Legislature. He stated that he was barred
because “I was a watchdog for
justice.”
Twenty-three years ago, thenNew York State Attorney Robert
Abrams and Governor Mario
Cuomo set the stage for Maddox’s
indefinite banning when he re-
fused to reveal privileged attorneyclient information during his tenure
as legal representative of Tawana
Brawley along with now-disbarred
Vernon Mason. Reverend Al
Sharpton was the teenager’s spokesperson. Abrams concocted a grand
jury that ruled Brawley had lied and
that she and her advisors had created a hoax although an Orange
County gynecologist, hired by
Maddox’s team and who’s identity
was unknown to him, had examined
the teenager and rushed her to
Westchester County Medical Center, where it was documented that she
had been raped.
Abrams put those files and other
records pertaining to the case under
permanent lock and key; included in
those files is the autopsy report of
Harry Crist, Jr., a cop whom Brawley
identified as one of her attackers. The
public report is that Crist committed
suicide 48 hours after Brawley was
found with dog feces smeared over
her body and KKK printed on her
with the feces.
But, Dr. Alexander Aplosca, who
examined his body, said he never
documented a self-inflicted wound
and that his findings were inconsistent with suicide; during the
Abrams’s grand jury hearing, Dr.
Michael Baden testified that Crist
had committed suicide although
Baden had not examined Crist’s remains.
Maddox reminded the audience at
the Brooklyn Christian Center that a
mostly White “petit jury in Duchess
County, after nearly a year-long trial,
found that Pagones had indeed kidnapped and raped Tawana Brawley.”
He wrote in the United African Movement newsletter that Pagones must
be “prohibited by law from picking
Tawana’s pocket.”
A Surry, Virginia court, in conjunction with New York, ruled to tax $300
from Brawley’s bi-weekly check payable to Pagones for the rest of her
life because she defamed his name.
He told the crowd, “Tawana has not
had a hearing regarding the garnishment. We intend to take this case to
the Supreme Court.” He said that he
viewed Pagones latest act against
Brawley as financial rape. He inferred
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 14)
Group wants Queens principal probed for ‘bias’ against Blacks
Over 36,000 people have signed
on to a popular Change.org petition calling on the New York Department of Education to terminate Minerva Zanca, principal at
the Pan American International
High School in Queens, NY, who
reportedly made racist comments
about and fired the school’s African-American high school
teachers.
According to Assistant Principal Anthony Riccardo, Zanca
called two African- American
teachers, John Flanagan and
Heather Hightower, “big lipped,”
“nappy haired,” and “gorillas” in
a conference with him. Flanagan
and Hightower filed complaints
with the New York City Depart-
ment of Education in the spring and
were subsequently fired at the end
of this school year.
A third African-American
teacher, Lisa- Erika James, who ran
Pan American’s successful theater
program, resigned when her program was defunded without explanation after Zanca began working
at the school.
“The decision to cut the theater
program’s resources so drastically
seemed irrational. The children and
their families pushed back, and
Mrs. Zanca’s response was that it
was due to budget but that was not
the case. I read the budget and saw
the numbers. Principal Zanca was
retaliating against my highly successful program based on the color
of my skin,” said James. “Heather
and John, my colleagues who are
also African-American, received
satisfactory ratings as teachers
every year since they began
teaching. Suddenly this year
when Mrs. Zanca reviewed them,
their ratings dropped so dramatically. They were the only two
teachers who were recommended
for a discontinuance, which
means that their licenses to teach
could be removed forever.”
A longtime friend of James,
Kevin Powell, started the petition
on Change.org after learning
about the discrimination his
friend was facing at Pan American. More than 36,000 people
have signed on to the petition,
including parents and community
members.
“I find it unacceptable that a
principal can engage in this kind
of conduct without any repercussions,” says Powell, who started
the petition on Change.org. “We
are not going to stop until due justice and process is served here.”
New signatures on the petition
are sent to Dennis Walcott, chancellor of New York City’s Department of Education as well as the
Office of Equal Opportunity and
Diversity Management. On July
8, over 150 supporters, including
alumni, parents, teachers, and the
United Federation of Teachers,
protested outside the Department
of Education carrying signs and
megaphones, calling for the termination of Principal Zanca. City Council
Representative Julissa Ferreras and
Assemblyman Francisco Moya
joined the demonstration in support
of the fired teachers.
“We call for an immediate swift,
fair and thorough investigation,” said
Janella Hinds, vice president for
Academic High Schools for the
United Federation of Teachers. “We
expect everyone in the school community to be treated with dignity,
fairness and respect in the workplace.”
Since the protest, NY State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has
stated he is looking into the case and
investigating the possible violation
of teachers’ civil rights.
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By George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
Sybrina Fulton
Trayvon’s mother: ‘Use
my broken heart’ to
prevent future tragedies
By George E. Curry
PHILADELPHIA (NNPA) –
With her voice laced with emotion,
Sybrina Fulton, the soft-spoken
mother of Trayvon Martin, urged
delegates to the National Urban
League’s annual convention here
to use her personal tragedy to prevent the recurrence of unjustified
youth killings in the future.
Fulton’s 7-minute speech to the
delegates on Friday came 13 days
after a jury in Sanford, Fla. acquitted George Zimmerman, the acknowledged killer of the unarmed
17-year-old high school student,
of second-degree murder charges.
Martin, who was returning to a
residence he and his father were
visiting in Sanford 18 months ago
after purchasing a bag of Skittles
and a can of Arizona iced tea at a
nearby 7Eleven convenience store
when he was followed and fatally
shot by Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain who claimed
self-defense.
Fulton told an wildly cheering
crowd, “My message to you is
please use my story, please use
my tragedy, please use my broken heart, to say to yourself,
‘We cannot let this happen to
anybody else’s child.’”
There was no table chatter as
delegates paid rapt attention to
the mother who is still grieving
her son’s death.
“I speak to you as Trayvon’s
mother,” she said. “I speak to
you as a parent [receiving] the
absolutely worst telephone call
you can receive as a parent is to
know that your son – your son
– you will never kiss again. I’m
just asking you to wrap your
mind around no prom for
Trayvon. No high school graduation for Trayvon. No college for
Trayvon. No grandkids coming
from Trayvon. All because of a
law that has prevented the person who shot and killed my son
to be held accountable and to
One of the primary goals of the
1963 March on Washington was
finding or creating jobs for
Blacks. At a panel discussion
during the annual convention
of the National Urban League,
jobs was mentioned more frequently than any other topic as
leaders discussed the famous
march 50 years ago and an upcoming one planned for Saturday, Aug. 24.
Barbara Arnwine, president
and executive director of the
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law, said employers are increasingly using measures that have nothing to do
with job performance that disproportionately limits the ability of African-Americans to
gain employment.
“I need you to make sure
that your state has a law that
says very clearly that you cannot use the fact that somebody
has been arrested as a reason
not to employ them,” she told
Rev. Al Sharpton
convention delegates. “A mere
arrest tells you nothing.”
Sounding more like an evangelical preacher than the lawyer
that she is, Arnwine drew loud
applause when she said, “You
need a state law that says to
employers that credit checks
have nothing to do with your
ability to work. If your credit is
bad, it’s because you don’t have
a job. Get real.”
Al Sharpton, president of the
National Action Network, said
the private sector needs to assume a larger role in reducing
Black unemployment, which
stood at 12.7 percent when
Obama took office and rose to
13.7 percent in June, twice the
White employment rate of 6.6
percent. According to the Department of Labor Statistics,
more than 2.5 million Blacks are
unemployed.
“Ever since President Obama
has been in, there has been an
increase in jobs in the private
sector, but Black unemployment
has not decreased. Why? Because we work [disproportionately] in the public sector,” he
explained. “So while the private
corporations who now don’t
have to deal with us because the
Supreme Court is knocking down
affirmative action, they are not
hiring us. The public sector is
being cut down with agencies
and programs – we’re being mini(CONTINUED ON PAGE 16)
CBC takes a stand against
‘Stand Your Ground’ laws
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Instead of waiting for the Justice
Department to decide whether it
will bring federal charges against
George Zimmerman trial, a neighborhood watchman who was acquitted of second-degree murder
charges in connection with the
killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teen visiting with his
father in Sanford, Fla., the Congressional is already acting.
It held a hearing on “The Status of Black Males: Ensuring Our
Boys Mature Into Strong Men”
that featured a number of Black
leaders who addressed the issues
(Left to right) Trayvon Martin’s father,Tracy Martin; Attorney Benjamin Crump and D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton
(NNPA Photo by Freddie Allen)
Morial calls for new civil rights movement
By George E. Curry
PHILADELPHIA (NNPA) – National Urban League President
Marc H. Morial has called for “a
new civil rights movement,” one
that will focus on economic empowerment and justice.
Morial, now in his 10th year as
president and CEO of the nation’s
second-oldest civil rights organization, announced his proposal
last Wednesday nights at his
group’s annual convention here.
After citing tremendous
progress made over the past 50
years, Morial said, “The challenge
before us now is to create a new
‘Civil Rights Movement for Eco-
nomic Empowerment and Justice.’ If 1963 was about jobs and
freedom – two, zero, one, three
is about economic empowerment
and justice…a continuation
movement standing on the
shoulders of progress in which
a new generation of Blacks,
whites, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, Jews, Gentiles,
Protestants, Catholics, Hindus,
Muslims – people from all walks
of life, dispositions and orientations coalesce around working
together to ensure that the
promise of life, liberty and economic opportunity becomes real
for this generation. We started
it 50 years ago, and it’s time to
finish our business.”
Morial said, “Now, let me be
clear. I do not naively believe that
this happens overnight. But when
we are all committed to the kind of
progress that can advance our nation and our democracy toward the
‘land of equal opportunity’ that we
can be, our shared vision can certainly outweigh our superficial differences.”
With a March on Washington
planned for Aug. 24, the National
Urban League leader said just as
Blacks have fought for basic rights
in the past, such as the right to vote
and have full access to public accommodations, African-Americans
are now in another fight to preserve
those gains.
Marc H. Morial
3
Jobs are still a key issue 50
years after historic D.C. march
Sen. Schumer calls on shops to stop
monitoring and tracking shoppers
4
City Comptroller John Liu
Comptroller Liu urges
hike in minimum wage
By J. Zamgba Browne
Special to NY Beacon
City Comptroller John Liu predicted this week that the State’s
minimum wage hike could harm
low-wage workers in New York
City . He renewed his call for an
$11.50-per-hour minimum in the
Big Apple.
Comptroller Liu said this would
make employers ineligible for the
harmful tax credit and help many
more workers make ends meet in
the most expensive major city in
the nation.
“State lawmakers did their best
to craft a minimum-wage hike that
would help workers in Rochester
and Buffalo , but a tax credit for
employers they included as part of
that deal may actually harm lowwage New York City workers,” said
Comptroller Liu.
He said this is yet another good
reason why “we need to raise the
New York City minimum wage to
$11.50 an hour. Not to mention that
New York City is just so much more
expensive to live in.”
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer
has revealed that major national
retailers are increasingly using
sophisticated monitoring software
to track every movement shoppers
make while in their stores, and then
often times save that data in perpetuity. The technology allows
shoppers to be tracked, moment
by moment, through signals put
out through their smart phones,
allowing a retailer to learn in what
part of the store they spent time
in, what products they’ve considered buying, and how long
they’ve spent looking at those
products. If a shopper doesn’t
want to be tracked, their only option is to turn off their phone’s WiFi, or leave their phone at home.
And most of the time, that isn’t
even an option because consumers don’t know the tracking
is occurring.
To combat this invasion of
privacy, Schumer asked the
Federal Trade Commission to
require that retailers give shoppers a clear and obvious opportunity to “opt-out” before
tracking them. Schumer said
that a consumer’s personal cell
phone is just that – personal.
It shouldn’t be used as a tracking device by retailers without
a c o n s u m e r ’s p e r m i s s i o n .
Schumer suggested the FTC
require that stores send electronic notices to the phones
they are about to start tracking,
and give the owners of those
phones a chance to opt-out.
“Cell phone tracking is intrusive and unsettling - it’s as if
you are being followed around
while shopping at the mall, with
someone looking over your
shoulder at every product
you’re considering,” said
Schumer. “If you’re shopping,
you expect to be the one doing
the reviewing, but stores are
flipping that on its head, and
treating the consumers as the
products. If stores are going
to track you footstep by footstep, you should be alerted in
no uncertain terms, and be
given the opportunity to de-
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer
cline. Personal cell phones are
just that - personal. They
shouldn’t be used as some
James Bond-like tracking
device without the shopper ’s
knowledge.”
According to published reporters, retailers like United
Colors of Benetton, American
Apparel, Swatch and Family
Dollar gain access to the
shopper’s unique cell phone ID
and acquire information about
shoppers without their permission. Retailers may use this information to find out how shoppers navigate through their
store and how long they look
at specific merchandise before
purchasing. Currently, in order
to prevent these stores from
tracking you via a cell phone,
you must shut off the Wi-Fi on
your phone or leave your phone
a t h o m e o r i n t h e c a r.
And frequently even that is
not an option, since consumers don’t know they are being
tracked.
Retailers can then combine
the data they’ve collected with
data found online, creating an
incredibly detailed profile of
e a c h s h o p p e r.
Schumer
pointed out that consumers have
no say over how that data is
used, who it’s sold to, where it’s
stored, or how it’s secured.
Retailers purchase this tracking
technology from third-party technology companies like Cisco,
Euclid Analytics and Path Intelligence, a British company that
provides its services to retailers
and malls across Europe and
Australia.
Schumer has highlighted concerns about cell phone tracking
in the past. In 2011, two U.S.
malls halted their experimentation with the technology after
Schumer raised privacy concerns.
Schumer today urged the FTC to
allow shoppers to opt-out of this cell
phone tracking program. Schumer
explained that this is a deceptive
trade practice because shoppers are
unaware that their movements are
being tracked and urged the FTC to
make retailers notify shoppers if they
use this technology. Schumer suggested that the FTC consider requiring retailers to send text messages
or other electronic messages to the
phones they are about to start tracking, and give the owners an opportunity to opt-out of the tracking.
Bronx car wash workers unionize against ‘notorious’ car wash kingpin
Workers at the WCA Car Wash
in Soundview voted unanimously
to join the Retail, Wholesale and
Department Store Union
(RWDSU), UFCW, becoming the
seventh car wash in the city
where workers have voted to
unionize.
WCA Car Wash, more affectionately known to the workers
as the Rico Pobre Car Wash, is
owned by John Lage, who is by
far the largest car wash owner in
New York City, owning more than
20 car washes in the metropolitan area.
Omar Pineda, a 35-year old Rico
Pobre worker from El Salvador,
said: “My coworkers and I are
thrilled with our victory and feel
very grateful for all the support
from the community. Just as we
won our election we are going to
win a just contract. We hope that
with the union contract we will
win the respect we deserve and
some benefits as well, like better
salary, job security and protection against the chemicals.”
Pineda was a former worker from
the Soho Car Wash who was transferred to Rico Pobre after it was
closed down. He has been with the
company for 13 years.
Lage has been under investigation by the New York State Attorney General’s office for serious allegations of wage-and-hour violations. In 2009, Lage was forced to
pay $3.4 million to workers for back
pay and damages after a federal
lawsuit. A recent report by
RWDSU, New York Communities
for Change (NYCC) and the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD)
found that businesses owned by
Lage and his associates could generate as much as $34 million a year
in revenue, while paying workers
minimum wage salaries or less.
“We feel great with our victory,” said Jorge Linares, a 32-year
old Rico Pobre worker from El Salvador. “My coworkers and I hope
to win a contract that will guarantee some of the benefits we deserve, like better pay, paid vacation and sick days, and protection
against chemicals. We hope to
continue to struggle and hope
other car washers join us.”
This victory comes on the heels
of the launch of the WASH New
York campaign, a broader project
to raise community concerns
about widespread mistreatment in
the car wash industry, was
launched earlier this year as a joint
effort between Make the Road
New York (MRNY) and New York
Communities for Change (NYCC)
and supported by the RWDSU.
With over 200 car washes in New
York City and 5,000 low-wage employees, the industry has exploited its workforce with wages
that are low and too often illegal.
“The RWDSU has long been
dedicated to improving the lives
of low-wage workers, and we are
proud of the employees at Rico
Pobre, who have taken a significant step toward improving their
jobs and their lives by voting to
join the union today,” RWDSU
President Stuart Appelbaum
said. “These brave workers
fought back against their employer, like David slaying Goliath.
Across the city, car wash workers
are standing up, speaking out and
demanding that they be treated
with dignity and respect. This is
a building movement.”
T h e WA S H N Y
campaign has quickly gained
momentum, with the RWDSU
winning six National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) car wash
elections to unionize throughout New York City, winning a
successful strike at the Sunny
Day Car Wash in the Bronx,
saving the jobs of workers at
the Soho Car Wash, ratifying
two union contracts at Sunny
Day and Astoria Hi-Tek Car
Wash & Lube. This campaign
has brought about significant
change in how workers are
treated, even at washes the
union hasn’t yet organized.
“Today’s vote is further proof
that the WASH New York campaign has taken hold across the
city,” said Deb Axt, co-director of
Make the Road New York. “John
Lage and other car wash owners
should take note and start negotiations with their workers.”
A recent WASH New York survey
of 89 workers at 29 different car
washes found that more than 71%
of the workers put in at least 60 hours
a week – and some worked 105 hours
a week. Despite the long hours,
75% of the workers didn’t get overtime pay for exceeding 40 hours.
When workers did get overtime pay,
it was often less than the legally
mandated rate of time-and-a-half.
Some 66% of the workers said they
often received less than minimum
wage. Only five workers said they
were paid the difference to make
minimum wage if their earnings with
tips were less than the legal rate.
“We congratulate the brave car
washers at WCA on their decision
to join RWDSU,” said Jonathan
Westin, executive director of New
York Communities of Change. “I’m
confident that workers at many more
car washes across the city will follow their lead.”
5
6
Editorial
Let’s rebuild Detroit
Beacon
By Harry C. Alford
Beyond the Rhetoric
Walter Smith: Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Miatta Haj Smith: Co-Publisher & Executive Editor
William Egyir: Managing Editor
Student loan ‘solution’
is not good enough
By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA Columnist
The United States Senate finally stepped up to ensure that
student loan rates would not
double. There have been weeks
of back and forth, but now
Senators says they will tie student loan rates to the federal
funds rate, which means that in
the short-run the lowest student
loan rates will be 3.86 percent, up
slightly from 3.4 percent. The bad
news is that these loan rates may
rise up to a rate of 8.25 percent,
depending on prevailing interest
rates. All other loan rates, including those for graduate student,
for Parent PLUS loans, and others, will rise as well.
It may seem a victory that student loan rates don’t rise much
higher than they were in June.
The connection of rates to the
federal funds rate, however, connects the notion of supporting
student to the oscillations of the
economy. We need talented students to enter the labor force, as
encumbered as they might be,
whether the economy is rising or
tanking. The notion that student
loan rates will be tied to the federal funds rate offers students no
security.
One might argue that many
have no economic security. The
mortgage holder with a variable
mortgage is subject to interest
rate fluctuations as they manage
a balloon payment. Those with
underground mortgages are victims of interest rate variables as
they try to dig themselves above
ground. Surely, though, students
who are financing their education
in order to invest in the health of
our nation should have different
rules. When I graduated from college in 1974, interest rates hovered
between 9 and 10 percent. The
student loan interest rate was 2
percent. Why? My cohort was
no more or less brilliant than any
other. We were part of our nation’s
plan for its future, which should
be the case for today’s young
people.
Many hoped that the deal on
student loan interest rates would
take into account the federal
funds rate (the rate to which the
Federal Reserve Bank offers to
banks) is well below 1 percent.
From that perspective, even the
existing rate of 3.4 percent suggests that the government is taking in more than it gives out. It’s
complicated – there are other
costs that must be considered in
the lending process. It’s complicated, but shouldn’t our students
get as close to the same deal that
banks and others get?
Allowing student
loan interest rates to fluctuate, to
the detriment of students in
an environment when rates are
certain to go up is to slap our students in the face. President
Obama says he wants more students to graduate from community
college or four-year institutions;
we need more graduate and professional students in the science,
technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) programs.
It seems hypocritical to articulate these needs and then to undercut the means to meet them.
There are more than one 1 trillion
dollars outstanding in student
loan obligations. The average student graduates with $27,000 in
debt. Since nearly half of all
students graduate with no debt at
all, this means that the average
debt for those who borrow is
closer to $40,000.
Many students with a talent for
organizing, human resource allocation, or classroom teaching are
diverted from their goals because
their first priority is to pay student loan debt. We are starving
our civil society institution, and
those who would serve them, by
placing money over affinity and
creativity. This has been happening for decades, but the current
student loan dustup reminds us
that we have not provided the safe
space for our young people that
we should.
The Senate bill passed 80-18
with some Democrats rejecting
it because of its flaws. Others,
like the progressive Senator
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.),
elected as a financial whiz and
people’s advocate, chose to go
with the one-year “okeydoke” rather than dig her heels
in for the long run fight.
In some ways, Warren is
right. The finger in the dike
approach saves students this
year, and so it is better than
nothing. When, though, is
better than nothing simply not
good enough. Stay tuned. The
vote on reauthorization of the
Higher Education Act will happen next year. Are students
waiting and watching? What
about parents? Is there a political lobby to turn this mess
around?
Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C.-based economist
and writer. She is President
Emerita of Bennett College for
Women in Greensboro, N.C.
It has been a long and rocky ride
down the economic slope for the
Motor City, a city I know well.
Procter & Gamble hired me out of
the University of Wisconsin after
I graduated in 1970. Knowing I
was about to be drafted, they
placed me in Toledo, Ohio for
training and assured me that I
would be placed in Detroit after I
completed my service. I was just
discharged from the United States
Army as a 2nd Lieutenant and was
motivated to excel in my new civilian career
When I was discharged in 1974,
I learned that he sales office had
moved from Detroit to suburban
Dearborn. This was part of a big
migration by corporate Detroit
which had given up on the city
and Coleman young, its firebrand
mayor.
That was the beginning. Year
after year and decade after decade,
the businesses, White middle
class and then Black middle class,
left for the suburbs or beyond. The
declining tax base, increasing
crime rate, blight and debt beyond
belief became too common for any
good. Authorities kicked the can
down the street on an annual basis (pretty much like our federal
government today). Now, Detroit
is in very dire straits. It has a debt
of $20 billion and can only generate about $1 billion per year for its
annual costs. Bankrupt indeed!
I am glad to see the bottom because now we can only go up.
Detroit is too big of a city with a
great heritage for us to turn our
backs on it. This is the stuff great
things are made of. What we need
now is a Project New Detroit Commission appointed by the Michigan governor. Members of this
panel should be made up of
nonpoliticians and credible business managers. If I ruled this matter, here is how I would throw
down on the bleak situation.
There is rampant corruption. All
city officials involved in any process where money is involved
such as licensing, procurement,
taxation, etc. should take a lie detector test and undergo a background check (revenue exceeds
noticeable income). If anyone resists, it should be considered a
resignation. This should be
handled by the prosecutor’s office
after he and his office goes through
the same scrutiny.
Gangs are the biggest distributors
of drugs and the violence and crime
related to it. Gang leaders (captain
level and above) are to be identified
and then prosecuted for racketeering under the RICO statutes. No
more leaders, no more gangs. Good
riddance!
More than half the property tax
owners do not pay their tax bills.
Give them 90 days to catch up or
make strict arrangements. Failure
should lead to property seizure and
quick auctions. This cash flow is
critically needed for the city treasury.
The school system of Detroit is
one of the worst in the nation. Effective immediately, there should be
a charter school licensing system.
All tax-funded charter schools
should be compelled to teach literacy and mathematics; some science to be added, beginning with
first through 12th grades. Elementary public schools can be replaced
with these charter schools whenever
practical. High schools should be
considered for merger with others
or just closed when literacy and
math levels are inferior. Libraries will
be privatized. You can’t have a great
city without a quality workforce.
Detroit is the capital for unions.
This will end. All city-related union
contracts should be voided immediately and payroll and benefits will
be in accordance with the Bankruptcy Committee and the ability to
pay by the employers and shareholders.
The city will no longer be responsible for the parks and recreation
facilities. The ownership remains
with the city but the maintenance,
grounds keeping, security, etc. will
be privatized via a request for proposal process (3-year terms).
All utilities and hospitals will be
privatized. RFPs will be renewable
on 10 year terms. City or county
commissions will provide oversight
and regulatory enforcement.
In regards to empty buildings and
vacant lots, proposals will be accepted and reviewed. If viable and
up to code, proposals will be approved deeded for $1. Development
must begin immediately. Ninety percent of the workforce during the
Focus on poverty, not the middle class
By George E. Curry
NNPA Columnist
Several of us were sharing our
views on radio Sunday night with
Gary Byrd when my friend and
colleague Cash Michaels urged
us to remember that Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. was assassinated
while organizing poor people.
This is a good time to remember that as President Obama seeks
ways to strengthen the middle
class and civil rights leaders focus on celebrating the 50th anni-
versary of the Aug. 28, 1963 March
on Washington.
The idea of organizing a Poor
People’s Campaign was discussed
during a Nov. 27-31, 1967 Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) planning session in
Frogmore, S.C. With the nation’s
attention focused on the Vietnam
War, Dr. King wanted to redirect
the conversation to what the Bible
calls the least among us by focusing on jobs and income.
Dr. King’s idea was to bring
poor people from all over the coun-
try to Washington, D.C. in order
to put a face on the suffering of
people. While still firmly committed to nonviolence, his plan was
for a dramatic presence that would
disrupt traffic and shut down the
nation’s capital.
“We ought to come in mule
carts, in old trucks, any kind of
transportation people can get
their hands on. People ought to
come to Washington, sit down if
necessary in the middle of the
streets and say, ‘We are here; we
are poor; we don’t have any
money; you have made us this
way,’” King said. “And we’ve
come to stay until you do something about it.”
Just as his close advisers had
urged him not to give his “I Have
a Dream Speech” in 1963, variations of which they had heard earlier, most of Dr. King’s inner circle
disagreed with his decision to
embark on a Poor People’s Campaign.
Children activists and former
civil rights attorney Marian Wright
Edelman recalled in her book, Un-
finished Business, “William Rutherford, who had organized the Friends
of SCLC in Europe in 1966 and was
appointed executive director of
SCLC during the summer of 1967,
declared that, ‘basically almost no
one on the staff thought that the
next priority, the next major movement, should be focused on poor
people or the question of poverty
in America.’ At the time James Bevel
wanted to remain focused on combating slums in northern cities,
7
We must do better: Look at the facts
By Marian Wright Edelman
Child Watch
Nearly 2,000 people attended
Molly Conley’s funeral last month
to mourn the young humanitarian who was the victim of a random drive-by shooting the day
after her 15th birthday. She was
shot in the neck while walking
with friends to a sleepover in a
residential neighborhood in Lake
Stevens, Washington. Molly was
a 4.0 student best known for her
kindness which she used to encourage her parents to care for
infants waiting for foster families
and to start a group called
“Mother’s Helper” that raised
money to aid victims of domestic
abuse.
Caldwell County, Mo. sheriff’s
deputies went to the home of the
Curtis family after receiving an
emergency call on January 11,
2012. Their 12-year-old son,
Steven, had mishandled a gun and
accidentally shot himself in the
head. Steven loved playing football and being outside. He also
spent a great deal of time hunting
and grew up learning about gun
safety and had a hunter’s safety
certification from the Conservation
Department. In Breckenridge, Mo.
—a town of just 450 people—hunting safety is an important part of
the middle school’s agricultural
curriculum. Steven’s father didn’t
know how his son got the gun from
a locked cabinet that was in their
living room.
Eleven-year-old Tayloni
Mazyck was walking near her
apartment building in Brooklyn,
N.Y. on May 31, 2013 with her
mother and niece when she was
caught in gang-related crossfire. A
bullet crashed into innocent
Tayloni’s chin and lodged in her
spine. According to Brooklyn
prosecutor Jordan Rossman, she
will be paralyzed for life. Instead
of walking in her fifth-grade graduation ceremony, Tayloni was transferred to Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine for the summer.
Her mother says some days
Tayloni is in intense pain and easily frustrated because she can’t do
simple things such as scratch her
nose; other days she is convinced
she will walk some day in the future. Tayloni suffers from post trau-
matic stress, says she is too
scared to go home, and wakes up
crying from flashbacks of that terrible night.
These are three of the child and
youth stories shared in the
Children’s Defense Fund
(CDF)’s new report Protect Children, Not Guns 2013—three of
the 18,270 children and teens
killed or injured by guns in
America each year. Like Molly,
Steven, and Tayloni, every one of
these children deserved to live
their whole lives. We can and must
do better. CDF’s new report documents the truth about guns and
the facts about the preventable
gun violence epidemic in our nation including the economic cost
of gun violence; a state-by-state
breakdown on gun deaths among
children and teens; comparisons
on gun violence rates between the
United States and other high income countries; positive and negative state actions on gun violence
prevention, and more. It also documents the progress made since
the Newtown massacre and lists
steps for continuing action with
urgency and persistence.
What can you do? Urge your
members of Congress to protect
children from gun violence by supporting this year common sense
gun violence prevention measures including universal background checks and limits on assault weapons and high-capacity
ammunition magazines. We also
need policies that support consumer product safety standards
for all guns, public funding for gun
violence prevention research, and
resources and authority for law
enforcement agencies to properly
enforce gun safety laws. Parents,
consider removing guns from your
home and be vigilant about where
your children play. Boycott products and places that glamorize and
normalize dangerous weapons
and violence.
Have we been fighting the
wrong wars to keep our children
safe? Nearly five times more
children and teens were killed
by guns in 2010 than U.S. soldiers killed in action that year
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
America’s military and law enforcement agencies have 4 million guns. Our citizens have 310
million. And we have no idea
how many of those guns were
purchased without a background
check. The gun lobby has been
enriching gun manufacturers at the
expense of our children’s safety for
far too long. For years the National
Rifle Association has blocked the
truth and actively fought against
the passage and enforcement of gun
safety laws. Please use the resources in Protect Children, Not
Guns 2013 to find the latest research and actions you can take to
protect children, not guns, in your
home, in your community, and as a
citizen to help create a better, safer
America for all children. Together
we can—and must—do better right
now. So many child lives depend
on it.
Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund
whose Leave No Child Behind®
mission is to ensure every child a
Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair
Start, a Safe Start and a Moral
Start in life and successful passage
to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For
more information go to:
www.childrensdefense.org.
Viewing trends from coast to coast
By Cheryl Pearson-McNeil
NNPA Columnist
Have I told you how much I
love being part of the cutting edge
research of the latest and greatest in technology and how consumer trends and behaviors impact that technology; or how
much I especially love sharing
that knowledge with you? It is
empowering to know that our tech
savvy world we live in continues
to evolve at rapid speeds, largely
because of our preferences as
consumers.
It’s interesting, too, that our
tastes and trends vary, not only
by our rich diversity of race, gender and age, but by where we live
in the country. Nielsen recently
released its first Local Watch
Report, which explores the media
consumption trends of U.S. consumers, depending on where they
live. Y’all know I’m always saying we are spoiled rotten because
we can now entertain ourselves
with whatever we want to watch,
whenever, wherever and however
we want to watch it. According
to the latest Nielsen insights, the
cross-platform, or multiple viewing options we have gets even
more specific by region.
Let’s begin with traditional TV,
which is still the way most of us
watch our favorite programs.
Viewership on this medium is actually up in several markets over
the last year. As a group, Blacks
log more TV viewing hours, about
six and a half hours a day, (including both live TV and DVR
playback) than any other demo-
graphic. But, what’s also interesting, is the viewing time, detailed
what area you live in these great
United States. The leading cities
in live TV consumption in daily
hours and minutes are: Pittsburgh
(five hours, 28 minutes, up 21 minutes from 2012); St. Louis (five
hours, 23 minutes, up 15 minutes
from 2012); Baltimore (five hours,
19 minutes, up eight minutes from
2012); Philadelphia (five hours, 18
minutes, and that’s down 11 minutes from 2012) and Detroit (five
hours, 15 minutes, up six minutes
from 2012).
Consumers are watching the
least amount of TV in San Francisco (two hours, 57 minutes, down
eight minutes from 2012); followed
by Los Angeles (three hours, 39
minutes, down 15 minutes from
2012); Denver (three hours, 45 minutes, down 11 minutes from 2012);
Seattle (three hours 50 minutes,
down 24 minutes from 2012) and
Minneapolis (four hours, also
down 24 minutes from 2012).
When we talk traditional TV, we
also have to keep in mind the other
times-shifted choices. In addition
to live TV, DVR playback, VOD
(video on demand) and viewing
over-the-top content (video delivered via the Internet) are also measured.
Let’s get back to that over-thetop content viewing for a minute.
Smart TV (also known as connected or hybrid TV, a television
set that integrates the use of the
Internet or is connected to a settop box (signal receiver), Blu-Ray
player or game console) ownership is experiencing some growth
in popularity. The largest penetration of these Smart TVs with their
over-the-top video streaming capabilities is in San Francisco,
where there is eight percent ownership. On the other hand, Smart
TV ownership is lowest in Charlotte with 2.9 percent.
As for other options to view
content portable is also the way
to. For example, we love our
smartphones, because 69 percent
of African-Americans own them.
It appears that we are taking a little
longer, though, to warm up to tablets – about 11 percent of us overall own these gadgets. And, just
as we watch the most TV, we use
our mobile devices for watching
video at a 30 percent higher rate
than the rest of the population.
The percentages of our device
ownership tend to jump, however,
when we check out the numbers
market by market. These are the
top African-American Markets for
smartphone penetration: Chicago
(75 percent), Washington, D.C. (73
percent), Atlanta (72 percent), New
York (72 percent) and Dallas (72
percent).
Here are our top areas for tablet
ownership: Tampa (28 percent), Atlanta (27 percent), Boston (26 per-
cent), New York (26 percent) and
Washington, D.C. (26 percent).
What does all of this mean to any
of us? It means that marketers and
manufacturers have a myriad of opportunities to understand, appreciate and reach you as unique and
diverse consumers in locations (as
equally diverse) each with their own
personalities. Best of all, you get
to choose. So, you drive the market.
Cheryl Pearson-McNeil is senior
vice president of Public Affairs and
Government Relations for Nielsen.
For more information and studies
go to www.nielsenwire.com.
On gun violence
By Assemblymember Walter. T.
Mosley
As a state representative, a father, and native Brooklynite, I am
horrified by the increase gun violence we have seen in our communities this summer. I am proud
to say that my first vote as a lawmaker was in favor of passing the
NY SAFE Act, which enacted the
toughest gun laws in the country
right here in New York State.
In the shadow of the verdict from
the Trayvon Martin trial, we are
reminded that daily incidents of
violence have not been exclusive
to one community or district but
rather have become a trend in
most urban areas.
As lawmakers, we are tasked
with being a catalyst for change
and finding innovative and efficient ways to address the grow-
ing problem of gun violence.
The NY SAFE Act was an incredibly powerful first step – banning military style assault weapons, ensuring that all gun purchases are subject to a background check and keeping guns
away from convicted felons and
those who pose a danger due to
mental illness. But we cannot stop
there. The scope of the NY SAFE
Act must be expanded to address
the rampant and flagrant use of
handguns, which have been the
weapon of choice in many of these
recent shootings. We need to engage and empower our communities by conducting regular gun buy
back programs that provide a safe
and anonymous space to help get
weapons off the street.
I urge all my fellow elected officials to foster closer relationships
with their local precincts to improve
community policing tactics that are
necessary to discourage open violence on our streets.
And I especially urge our congressional representatives to push
for legislation that strengthens the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and
make sure it has the tools, oversight
and authority to enforce existing
laws and truly regulate the expansive, nationwide gun market. This
is crucial because we know that New
York State remains vulnerable as
long as less restrictive laws exist in
surrounding states.
I will continue to work with my
colleagues as part of the SLAIG
(State Legislators Against Illegal
Guns) Coalition and make sure that
we stand together in keeping all New
Yorkers safe on the streets.
Opinion
8
African Scene
France praises Mali’s election as Keita leads
France has hailed Mali’s presidential election, the first since a
coup and an Islamist-led insurgency which it helped repel, a
“great success”.
Ex-Prime Minister Ibrahim
Boubakar Keita’s supporters celebrated in the capital, Bamako, as
they predicted an outright win for
him in Sunday’s vote.
The state broadcaster said Mr
Keita was in the lead, as votes are
counted.
He had pledged to restore
Mali’s honour after it was forced
to rely on France to fight the Islamists.
France sent more than 4,000
troops in January to regain control of northern towns and cities
from al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Congratulations are in order
that the Mali elections went off
well”
The Islamists had captured territory with the backing of Tuareg
separatists in 2012, but their alliance quickly crumbled.
They had taken advantage of a
coup in Bamako after the army accused the civilian government of
not doing enough to repel their
offensive.
A UN peacekeeping force was
deployed to Mali earlier this
month to pave the way for elections, as France began to withdraw its troops from its former
colony.
The elections are intended to
reunite the north and south.
Observers said voter turnout
was high in Bamako, but lower in
the north.
French Prime Minister JeanMarc Ayrault said France did not
act out of “paternalism” and
wanted Mali to become a “democratic independent nation”, AFP
news agency reports.
“Congratulations are in order
that the Mali elections went off
well... For France, it is a great success,” Mr Ayrault is quoted as
saying.
The BBC’s Alex Duval Smith reports from Bamako that support-
Archibishop Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Tutu ‘would not
worship a homophobic God’
Woman casts her vote in Mali election
ers of Mr Keita partied throughout Sunday night after state
broadcaster ORTM reported that
he might win outright, averting a
run-off vote on August. 11.
The government had earlier said
it would need five days before issuing the result.
European Union election observation mission chief Louis Michel
said the election had gone off well
and was marked by enthusiasm
among voters.
Mr Keita, or “IBK” as he is
popularly known, has a reputation
of being a strongman, our correspondent says.
Aged 69, he ran his campaign
under the banner of ‘’For Mali’s
honour’’, playing on the fact that
Malians felt humiliated by having
to call for France’s help to prevent
their country from breaking up, our
reporter says.
Prominent religious leaders in
the mostly Muslim nation called
on people to vote for him; he is
also considered the favourite of
the military, including last year’s
coup leaders, she adds.
His biggest rival is seen as
Soumaila Cisse, who founded the
Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD) in 2003.
Mr Cisse has called for the
junta that seized power in 2012 to
be cleared from the political
scene.
The election was contested by
27 candidates. Some 6.8 million
people were eligible to vote at
21,000 polling stations across the
country.
Turnout in a presidential election in Mali had never reached
40% and about 25% of the
capital’s registered voters took
part in the last presidential race
in 2007, Reuters news agency reports.
South Africa’s Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu
says he will never worship a “homophobic God” and will rather go
to hell.
The retired archbishop was
speaking at the launch of a UNbacked campaign in South Africa
to promote gay rights.
Despite same-sex relationships
being legal in South Africa, it had
some of the worst cases of homophobic violence, UN human
rights chief Navi Pillay said.
Archbishop Tutu, 81, is a longstanding campaigner for gay
rights.
in 1996, but has remained the moral
conscience of the nation, correspondents say.
I am as passionate about this
campaign as I ever was about
apartheid”
Same-sex relationships are illegal in more than a third of countries around the world and punishable by death in five, Ms Pillay
said.
In Africa, homosexual acts are
still a crime in 38 countries, according to the rights group Amnesty
International.
“I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say
sorry, I mean I would much rather
go to the other place,” Archbishop
Tutu said at the launch of the Free
and Equal campaign in Cape Town.
“I would not worship a God who
is homophobic and that is how
deeply I feel about this.”
Archbishop Tutu said the campaign against homophobia was similar to the campaign waged against
racism in South Africa.
“I am as passionate about this
campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level,”
he added.
Ms Pillay said gay and lesbian
people in South Africa had some of
the best legal safeguards since
apartheid ended in 1994, but they
still faced brutal attacks.
Last month, a lesbian was found
dead, having been sexually assaulted with a toilet brush.
“People are literally paying for
their love with their lives,” she said,
AFP news agency reports.
The UN would push for gay
rights to be recognised in countries
where they are illegal, Ms Pillay said.
“I constantly hear governments
tell me, ‘but this is our culture, our
tradition and we can’t change it’...
So we have lots of work to do,” she
added.
Archbishop Tutu won the Nobel
peace prize in 1984 for campaigning
against white minority rule in South
Africa.
NMA president happy with mission to help people of Liberia
Dr. Rahn Kennedy Bailey has
expressed satisfaction with the
outcomes to date of the National
Medical Association’s (NMA)
Liberia medical mission project,
which was implemented with the
support of Her Excellency Madame Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president, Republic of Liberia, along
with Drs. Marsha and Frank
Glover, who covered all hotel and
travel expenses for the delegation
from their personal resources.
NMA incurred no expenses in
connection with the delegation’s
travel to Liberia.
Led by me as NMA’s 113th
president and NMA member Frank
Glover, M.D. (SHIELD - Strategic
Healthcare Initiative Emphasizing
Local Development), the first trip
(November 10-17, 2012) included
eight NMA physicians who
trained and taught Liberian medical students and physicians while
examining patients in need of
healthcare. “We assessed the
needs of the Liberian healthcare
infrastructure to determine strategies to assist. These strategies will
include developing joint projects
with NMA, SHIELD, the Liberian
government, and the U.S. historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)”.
The second NMA Liberian trip
took place Feb. 23-March 2, 2013,
with 37 NMA physicians, to assist in re-building/building the
Liberian healthcare infrastructure.
This effort enabled Liberia to go
from 15 trained specialists to expected more than 140 in five years,
and dramatically decrease the
maternal and infant mortality rates,
which are currently among the
highest in the world.
The areas of need identified by
the postgraduate task force of the
Liberian Ministry of Health are: medicine, pediatrics, surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology. The goal of this
effort is for every county hospital
in Liberia to be staffed with all of
the necessary specialists within five
years by establishing a new medical school and research facility in
Tapeta and upgrading the existing
medical school in Monrovia.
The NMA delegation of doctors
worked in JFK, ELWA, Grant, and
JFD Hospitals and clinics. They
gave lectures to medical students
and residents, performed surgeries,
provided care for hundreds of patients, conducted ACLS and PALS
training for doctors and nurses, neoMedical group and Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Benjamin Todd Jealous
NAACP resolution urges
workers collective bargaining
During the NAACP’s 104th annual convention, delegates
unanimously passed a resolution
reaffirming
the
Association’s commitment to
fair labor practices and calling
for foreign automakers to allow
employees to organize a union
and engage in collective bargaining. The resolution was put forward by the Mississippi State
Conference of the NAACP.
“The American middle class is
the engine of our economy and
deserves fair wages and treatment in the workplace,” stated
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “This resolution reaffirms our commitment
to ensuring that employees of
foreign automakers are not
treated as second-class citizens.”
The resolution states, in part
that, “…the NAACP requests that
Nissan, and other foreign
automakers, abandon their antiunion agenda and treat American
workers with the same human
rights to organize a union and engage in collective bargaining that
they provide around the world…”
Support for the resolution coincided with the convention
t h e m e “ We S h a l l N o t b e
Moved,” and discussions centered on modern day attempts to
roll back the progress of the civil
rights era and the efforts of civil
and human rights advocates to
combat these efforts.
“We are proud of this
longstanding partnership with the
civil rights community and our
shared commitment to fairness for
all,” said UAW President Bob King.
“This sends strong message of
support to the struggling Nissan
workers in Canton who want a solution that gives them dignity and
fairness on the job as they create
quality products at the best value
for customers.”
The resolution stems from the
associations growing concern
about fair labor practices by foreign
automakers.
House votes to uphold
NSA domestic spying
Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens
issued the following statement on
the defeat of the Amash amendment that would have defunded
the NSA domestic spying program in the House of Representatives:
“The NSA domestic surveillance program on every American
was very nearly defunded in a
narrow vote in the House, with a
mere seven vote swing deciding
its fate. Despite the disappointing outcome, the narrow margin
is very good news for the American people, for now they have a
political problem that can be dealt
with via elections.
“The 205 representatives of
both parties that voted to stop
the spying program voted to uphold the Fourth Amendment and
the original intent of Section 215
of the Patriot Act, which never
authorized blanket, suspicionless
surveillance of every single
American.
“The 217 representatives who
voted to defeat the Amash
amendment have upheld the indiscriminate collection of phone
and email records on everyone —
just in case intelligence agencies
might need that information later.
This was a vote against the Fourth
Amendment that protects against
unreasonable searches and requires
that warrants only issue but upon
probable cause. To suggest the
American people have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their
phone and digital records against
searches when no crime has been
committed is to suggest that the
Fourth Amendment no longer applies.
“The fact is, the government’s
interpretation of Section 215 of the
Patriot Act does something that has
never been done before — which is
assert that because you might commit a crime or engage in terrorism,
you can be subjected to a search.
Every case of searches of third party
vendors’ phone and bank records
were all relevant to investigations
into specific persons regarding specific crimes. These are just general
warrants searching everything and
everyone. Every member who voted
in favor of the surveillance state
being built must now explain to their
constituents what other freedoms
they’re willing to sacrifice on this
altar of false security.”
City Comptroller John C. Liu’s
office raised concerns about the
economic damage that could result from another standoff over
the federal budget and debt ceiling, which many observers believe is likely to occur this fall.
“We wish Washington’s days
of irresponsible, high-stakes
brinkmanship were in the past, but
they seem to be looming on the
horizon once again,” said Comptroller Liu. “Another outbreak of
‘Washington mania’ over the
debt ceiling or budget would significantly hamper economic
growth in New York City and beyond.”
The warning was made in a
post on 1CentreStreet.com, a blog
recently launched by the
Comptroller’s Office to examine
important and underreported
economic and public policy issues related to New York City. The
post was written by Chief Economist Dr. Frank Braconi, who cautioned that rosy economic
growth predictions for 2014
would have to be sharply revised
if a deadlock occurs this fall.
“The optimistic view that quickening momentum in the national
economy would assert itself in
2014 was supported by a belief that
neither political party would see
advantage in further antagonizing
voters with more budget theatrics,” Dr. Braconi wrote. “Unfortunately, storm clouds are now
gathering over the 2014 budget
process, suggesting that the
economy may again fall victim to
political gamesmanship.”
The post details elements of
Comptroller Liu’s comments on the
City’s Adopted Budget for Fiscal
Year 2014, which he delivered this
week at the NYS Financial Control
Board annual public board meeting.
The 1 Centre Street blog
serves as a venue for members
of the Comptroller’s Office to
explore topics as varied as the
definition of “rich” in New York
City and getting stuck behind
a garbage truck while driving.
The posts, which are written by
staff economists and policy experts, are intended to foster
public debate and do not nec-
essarily constitute official views
of the Comptroller’s Office. Some
of the other issues discussed on
1 Centre Street include:
* What immigration reform and a
higher minimum wage would mean for
New York City’s restaurant industry.
* Whether a composting program
makes sense in New York City.
* The New York State policy that increases the risk of homelessness
among those with HIV/AIDS.
* Why the NYPD unit that investigates vehicular crashes should be
expanded.
* What the United Neighborhood
Houses’ “Blueprint for Neighborhoods” report has to offer
policymakers.
Comptroller Liu encouraged the
public to become part of the conversation by visiting 1CentreStreet.com
and commenting on the posts on
Twitter by using the hashtag
#1CentreSt.
Visit www.comptroller.nyc.gov for
the latest news, events and initiatives. Follow Comptroller Liu
on Twitter. To receive Twitter updates
via text message, text “follow
johncliu” to 40404.
Ausar Auset Society to mark
40th anniversary with gala ceremony
The Ausar Auset Society International will welcome several
African kings, or their representatives, and queen mothers from
Ghana, West Africa and the
Asanteman Association of USA
to its 40th anniversary gala celebration on Aug. 3 at the Brooklyn Marriott Hotel. Representatives from the Nkonya, Assin
Apimanim, and the Ejisu traditional regions are among those
expected to attend.
Relationships with Ghanaian
kings were established in 1985
when 55 members of the Society
were honored at a durbar for the
Ashanti kings in Accra and since
that time, the Society has received
international acclaim for its success in bringing practical spiritual teachings to the world.
Nana Imhotep Gary Byrd,
award-winning broadcaster, poet,
songwriter, and executive producer; Dr. Molefi Asante, renown
scholar, historian, Temple University professor, and author of topics related to African history and
Africentricity; and Nana Camille
Yarborough, esteemed perfor-
mance artist, author, cultural activist, and TV program host of
Ancestor House will each receive
a prestigious award for continuous and noteworthy contributions
to the African American community. Royal Magazine publisher,
Nana Osei Akoto, along with a reporter, plan to attend. Cultural presentations, citations, entertainment, and addresses from guest
speaker, Imhotep Gary Byrd and
keynote speaker, Ra Un Nefer
Amen, leader of the Ausar Auset
Society and CEO of Taui Network
are programmed for the evening.
Ausar Auset Society International, a Pan-African cultural and
spiritual organization based in
Brooklyn, NY, began serving Black
communities in 1973 and currently
offers spiritual and health classes
spanning topics that include ancient Egyptian history, Bazi astrology, Qi Gong exercise, parenting,
and male-female relationships in
more than 35 international locations, including the UK, Toronto,
Bermuda, Trinidad, South Africa
and Ghana. Its governing practices follow the traditional African
kingship model recognized in modern Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa
and in various cultural organizations
of the Diaspora.
The Aug. 3 celebration highlights decades of achievements,
foremost among them the training
of men and women dedicated to
the spiritual tradition of ancient
Kamit. Ra Un Nefer Amen (also
referred to as Shekhem Ur
Shekhem)—founder, chief priest
and leader—has not only trained
the Society’s priests and priestesses, but has also personally
counseled members of the Black
community, who have asked for
his support, guidance and enlightenment.
Shekhem Ur Shekhem is the noted
author of the Metu Neter Volumes 1
– 7 and a host of other publications
that include books on African spirituality, health and natural healing,
meditation, Qi Gong and oracle systems. Through his transformative
teachings, Ra Un Nefer Amen, the
leading global expert on Kamitic spirituality, continues to show the world
how to navigate the paths of life,
successfully.
Mayor pledges support for immigration reform
By J. Zamgba Browne
Special to NY Beacon
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has
added his voice to chorus for comprehensive immigration reform. He
pledged his support at a recent
gathering of the Faith and Politics
Institute at Gracie Mansion.
The Mayor said now is the time
for reform because America needs
a modern immigration that welcomes the entrepreneurs and the
hard workers that will grow the
nation’s economy and create jobs
and keep its citizens competitive
on the world’s stage.
“I think it is fair to say we have
never been closer to achieving that
goal, but it’s like jumping 95 percent
of the way across the Grand Canyon – unless you jump 100 percent
it’s all for not and we have got to
make sure that Washington hears
us and understands that we just
have to pass reform this year,” he
added.
As I pointed out earlier, immigrants really do make a huge impact
on our economy. “New York City is
a city of immigrants. Almost half of
the small business owners in our
city are immigrants, Immigrant workers generate close to a third of our
city’s gross city product,” said
Mayor Bloomberg.
He also said these immigrants are
more than half the city’s registered
and practical nurses, nearly half of the
medical doctors and surgeons, and 60
percent of homeowners in New York
City are also immigrants.
Mayor Bloomberg also said New
York’s story incidentally, is not unique.
“Across the U.S., immigrants are named
on roughly three-fourth of the patents
granted at top technical universities.
Nationwide, according to Mayor
Bloomberg, immigrants start more than
a quarter of new businesses. He also
emphasized that because of immigrant
homeowners, the value of housing in
the nation has increased by some $4
trillion since 1970.
Immigrants really are the key to the
future of New York – and to the prosperity of our nation,” he added.
9
Looming fall standoff over debt
ceiling could deal economy setback
10
THE ADAMS REPORT
Fashion, Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .& Stuff
By Audrey Adams
Gone fishing!
Audrey Adams
After spending the entire year
working; I have decided that it
is time for a much needed break!
Hopefully you are not like me. I
tend to work hard all the time and
leave precious little time for myself. Miracle of miracles; a friend
asked me to go with her to the
Hampton’s to attend an event.
At first I resisted the rather
juicy sounding invitation and
she didn’t press me because she
knows how stubborn I can be
(smiles). She gently reminded
me that “all work and no play”
isn’t the best thing for anyone
and that I was the only person
hell-bent on working. So I went,
reluctantly. It was hard for me
though, to stop thinking about
all the work that would be waiting for me when I returned . . .
that is, until I sat on the beach
with a glass of champagne!
Then it was over. All thoughts
of work, New York etc . . . were
washed away in one fell swoop.
All I could do was think about how
fortunate I was to be sitting on the
beach, enjoying, relaxing and taking in the fresh air. I looked up at
the sky and marveled at the clouds
drifting by, heard the squeals of
laughter from children playing in
the water, almost felt the swoop of
a seagull’s wing! Okay that might
be stretching it, but I kid you not .
. . those two days were what made
me decide that I was indeed socially and vacation-ally challenged.
So I have made a decision. I am
going on vacation!
So, it’s time for you to come out
of your cave and live! Give yourself permission to enjoy your life.
Have fun. Summer is almost over.
What are you going to do? If you
haven’t made any plans then you
are short-changing yourself. Life
is sailing right past you. Refuse to
lift your head up and see the opportunities in front of you; and the
boat will slip silently through the
channel and out to sea, leaving
you at the shore, land-locked and
alone.
Are you afraid to poke your
head out of your cave? Call a
friend and invite them to join
you. Don’t know what to do?
Do anything! Do something
that will force you to interact
with people. Don’t have any
friends? Wrong! Everyone
has friends and acquaintances in their life, maybe you
haven’t made the effort to
connect with anyone.
Give it a try; you will be
surprised at how receptive
people can be when you step
outside your comfort zone.
Maybe you have a friend who
needs your help. Offer your
hand in friendship. Show a
sister/brother some love. Me,
I’m going fishing with a
friend. Hope you will too.
Think about it. See you in
September.
Visit my website,
TalkwithAudrey.com and checkout my online radio and TV
show, Talk! with Audrey for a
series of interviews that will inform, motivate and inspire you.
Audrey Adams, former director of corporate public relations and fashion merchandising for ESSENCE continues to
motivate and inspire women
through her syndicated columns
and motivational speaking engagements. THE ADAMS REPORT©
NAN exec debunks Bill O’Reilly
‘misstatements’ on Sharpton book
Tamika D. Mallory, national executive director of National Action Network (NAN) and head of
the Decency Initiative, says it is
a blatant contradiction that Bill
O’Reilly would question Rev. Al
Sharpton writing a book on the
evolution of his principles and
ideas, detailing among other
things why he is against certain
lyrics in hip-hop and has stopped
himself from using specific
words.
“Being published by Simon &
Schuster in a joint venture with
the parent company Cash Money
Content, which itself has a relationship with the parent company
of Cash Money Records, I find
Mr. O’Reilly’s assertions a contradiction because I sit on the Diversity Council of News Corp
that owns Fox News and the New
York Post in the seat designated
for National Action Network.
Both of these media are frequent,
consistent critics of Rev.
Sharpton and NAN, and have
done things that many of us disagree with in terms of aspirations
of the Black community.”
“News Corp also continues to
support National Action Network functions and events financially, so if Rev. Sharpton can say
we disagree with the News Corp
entity, but should be open to dialogue, by what standards might
he say to Simon & Schuster, that
we are not open to doing business with Cash Money, especially since he can express his
Tamika D. Mallory
problems with lyrics and language ing is a blatant lie. The fact rein the book? Either we have one mains that Pepsi had still withstandard or not.
drawn any relationship with Lil’
“Secondly, I was in the meet- Wayne, so what would there be a
ing between Pepsi executives, the deal around? The book deal with
family of Emmett Till and Rev. Simon & Schuster and Cash
Sharpton. There was nobody Money Content was signed
from Cash Money in that meeting through Massenburg Media and
because Pepsi had severed all ties Rev. Sharpton last year and the
with Lil’ Wayne, and Cash Money book was in publication even beand had done so at the urging of fore the Lil’ Wayne/Pepsi controboth the Till family and Rev. versy occurred. The evidence of
Sharpton. The purpose of the that is that the galleys are already
meeting was for Pepsi to assure out.
the family and Rev. Sharpton they
“Finally, as Rev. Sharpton often
were not going to reinstate the Lil’ says, “We can have different
Wayne deal. To insinuate that opinions, but we can not have difthere was some deal in the meet- ferent facts.”
Dr. Amy Baxter
School immunizations
made easier with Buzzy
For many, back to school time
means time to update vaccinations. In the close quarters of the
classroom, being fully vaccinated
is important for younger kids,
older kids, teens, and even college students. While vaccines
keep your children protected from
serious diseases (and their
friends, classmates and others in
the community) it can add drama
for an already grumpy kid not
ready to leave summer. Although
needle pain from a shot may not
seem like a big deal, needle sticks
are the most common and most
feared cause of medical pain in
the wo rld. The simple-to-use, innovative Buzzy makes back to
school immunizations a breeze.
Inspired by her son’s traumatic
— and completely avoidable —
shot experience, Dr. Amy Baxter
set out to find a solution to help
the 23% of adults and 63% of kids
with needle phobia. Her “a-ha”
moment came from noticing her
numb hands from gripping the
vibrating steering wheel after driving home from work one night.
Working from her basement, Dr.
Baxter eventually tested her idea
using a personal massager and a
bag of frozen peas…and it
worked. 26,000 Buzzies later, Dr.
Baxter is putting personal pain
control into the patient’s hands
and empowering children of all
ages to have no fear when getting shots at the doctor.
“For young children, pain is
punishment and scary, so addressing fear is an important first
step to making shots less of a big
deal. Children are less fearful
when they know what’s happening
and feel in control. We see children
crying and screaming as much from
the cleaning swab as from the poke
that actually hurts,” shares Dr.
Baxter.
Dr. Baxter’s pointers on preparing
kids for a shot include:
When asked “am I going to get a
shot?” focus on the benefit. “Yes,
they have medicine that keeps you
healthy.”
Never promise they won’t get a
shot unless you intend to follow
through and come back another
time if they’re due for one
Never threaten with a shot if children don’t behave
Establishing a needle as punishment or you as untrustworthy will
guarantee a bad experience. If the
child’s question is, “Is it going to
hurt?” avoid using the words pain
or hurt. Instead, use the word
“bother,” and answer this way: “Actually, a lot of kids aren’t that bothered by shots. Before you get them,
I’ll show you how we will make getting them not a big deal.” If they’ve
had a bad experience in the past, say
“I found out about some new cool
things we can do to make them
much more comfortable.”
Another “cool thing” from the
personal pain company MMJ Labs
(buzzy4shots) is a set of BeeStractors DistrACTION(R) cards.
By finding hidden monkeys or the
sleeping space kitty, even teenagers are proven to focus away from
the needle and pain. Used together
with Buzzy, these pain management
solutions can effectively protect
children from traumatic medical experiences.
March on Washington
to spotlight Trayvon
and voting rights issues
Just one week after National
Action Network organized the
nationwide “Justice for Trayvon”
vigils in over 100 cities across the
country to press the federal government to investigate civil rights
charges
against
George
Zimmerman, several local preachers and activists, led by Rev. Al
Sharpton and NAN will gather today at Metropolitan Baptist
Church, presided over by Rev. Dr.
David Jefferson. At the church,
NAN will renew a call for mobilization for the Saturday, Aug. 24
national action to reclaim the
dream march on Washington that
Rev. Sharpton and Martin Luther
King, King, III, are leading.
Fifty years after the 1963 March
on Washington, Voting Rights, and
the Justice for Trayvon Martin
movement are key civil rights rallying issues and the Aug. 24, 50th
anniversary March on Washington
will focus on voting rights and ending state laws like Stand your
Ground and Stop and Frisk. It will
be the first national march since the
acquittal of George Zimmerman.
According to Rev. Al Sharpton and
NAN, Dr.King’s dream has been
undermined by both the Supreme
Court Voting Rights decision and
the acquittal of George
Zimmerman.
By George E. Curry
Fulfilling a pledge to aggressively
protect the voting rights of
people of color in the wake of the
Supreme Court striking down a
key section of the Voting Rights
Act, Attorney General Eric H.
Holder, Jr. has announced that the
Justice Department will sue the
state of Texas to compel it to
preclear any planned changes in
its voting procedures before they
can go into effect.
In Shelby County v. Holder, a
sharply divided Supreme Court
gutted Section 4 of the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, the part of the
law that describes the formula to
be used to determine which states
or political subdivisions are subjected to preclearance requirements. President Obama has
stated that his administration will
press Congress for new legislation that will override the court’s
decision that weakens the landmark legislation.
Holder called the court’s 5-4
vote “a deeply disappointing –
and flawed – decision.”
Speaking at the National Urban
League’s annual convention here
last Thursday, Holder said, “And
today I am announcing that the
Justice Department will ask a federal court in Texas to subject the
state of Texas to a preclearance
regime similar to the one required
by Section 5 of the Voting Rights
Act. This request to ‘bail in’ the
state – and require it to obtain
“pre-approval” from either the
Department or a federal court before implementing future voting
changes – is available under the
Voting Rights Act when intentional voting discrimination is
found. Based on the evidence of
intentional racial discrimination
that was presented last year in the
redistricting case, Texas v. Holder
– as well as the history of pervasive voting-related discrimination
against racial minorities that the
Supreme Court itself has recognized
– we believe that the state of Texas
should be required to go through a
preclearance process whenever it
changes its voting laws and practices.”
In its Shelby County v. Holder
ruling last month, the Supreme
Court struck down the requirement
that nine states, most of them in the
Deep South, and portions of others
to obtain permission from the Justice Department or a federal court
before changing election procedures.
Under the Voting Rights Act,
states can ‘bail out’ of the
preclearance provision if they can
prove that they have not discriminated against disadvantaged
groups in a decade. Under the rarely
used Section 3 ( c ) of the law, which
was not overturned by the court,
states not previously covered by
the Voting Rights Act can be added
or bailed in if it is proven that they
are discriminating on the basis of
race or ethnicity.
Within two hours after the Supreme Court ruling, Texas Attorney
General Greg Abbott announced
that he will restore a controversial
Voter ID requirement that was frozen by the Justice Department. Under the provision, student IDs are
not accepted to verify the identities of voters, but gun registration
is an accepted document.
Abbott, who is running for governor next year to succeed outgoing Rick Perry, also announced that
the state will implement a controversial redistricting plan that dilutes
Black and Latino political clout.
Texas appears to be an ideal target for the Justice Department because a federal court in Washing-
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
Voting Rights Act in light of the
Court’s ruling, we plan, in the
meantime, to fully utilize the law’s
remaining sections to ensure that
the voting rights of all American
citizens are protected.”
After Texas, the next likely
showdown will be between the
Justice Department and the state
of North Carolina.
The state legislature there had
passed legislation that, if enacted,
would cut early voting by a week,
eliminate same-day registration,
require strict voter ID and end a
popular program that pre-registers
high school students before their
18th birthday.
ton ruled last year that the state
had intentionally discriminated
against Latinos when it re-drew
its congressional districts. The
court threw out the map saying
both parties had “provided more
evidence of discriminatory intent
than we have space, or need, to
address here.”
In announcing his upcoming
action against Texas, Holder told
delegates to the National Urban
League convention, “This is the
Department’s first action to protect voting rights following the
Shelby County decision, but it
will not be our last. Even as Congress considers updates to the
According to Bob Hall, executive
director of Democracy North Carolina, House Bill 589 also:
* Eliminates flexibility in opening
early voting sites at different hours
within a county;
* Eliminates straight party ticket
voting;
* Authorizes vigilante poll observers, lots of them, with expanded
range of interference;
* Expands the scope of who may
examine registration records and
challenge voters;
* Repeals out-of-precinct voting;
* Makes it more difficult to add sate*
Limits who can assist a voter adjudicated to be incompetent by court;
** Raises contribution limits to
$5,000; and the limit increases every two years with inflation and
* Repeals some of the disclosure
requirements of outside money.
The measure, rushed through in
the closing days of the legislative
session, was sent to Republican
Gov. Pat McCrory for his expected
signature.
In his address to the National
Urban League, Attorney General
Holder said, “Although mandated
by the Constitution, voting rights
are not always guaranteed – in practice – without robust enforcement.
That’s why, despite the court’s decision, I believe we must regard this
setback not as a defeat, but as an
historic opportunity: for Congress
to restore, and even to strengthen,
modern voting protections.”
The 1965 Voting Rights Act expired after five years, but was extended by Congress in 1970, 1975,
1982 and for another 25 years in
2006. The last time, it passed the
House 390-3 and the Senate 98-0.
However, in the current political
climate, many are worried if Congress will continue to act in a bipartisan manner on voting rights.
Civil rights leaders meet with President Obama on Voting Rights
neutering what many called the
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspon- crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement. Section 4 required all or parts
dent
of 15 states with track records of voter
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The discrimination to get “preclearance”
Voting Rights Act is down, but not from the Justice Department or a fedout and civil rights leaders joined eral court for any changes they
President Obama and Attorney wanted to make to voting laws. Within
General Eric H. Holder, Jr. at the hours after the Supreme Court ruling
White House Monday to discuss in Shelby County v. Holder, a numrenewed efforts in the fight against ber of state lawmakers from previously covered states announced
voter discrimination.
In a statement released after the plans to move forward with restricmeeting, Al Sharpton, civil rights tive voting laws that disproportionactivist and president of the Na- ately affect minorities, the elderly and
tional Action Network said: “To- young voters.
Texas is one of those states.
day the United States President
The Lone Star State has a history
and Attorney General met with a
broad coalition of civil rights and of voting discrimination, the latest
voting rights leaders to assure us entry due to redistricting plans that
that they will continue to work with disproportionately affected minority
us to protect every American’s voters.
During a speech at the National
right to vote.”
Sharpton continued: “We had a Urban League’s annual convention
great alarm when the Supreme Attorney General Eric Holder said
Court ruled against Section 4 of the that, “the State of Texas should be
Voting Rights Act but after meet- required to go through a preclearance
ing with the President and the At- process whenever it changes its vottorney General we were assured ing laws and practices.”
Holder plans to use remaining secthat the Voting Rights Act may be
wounded but it is not dead. It is tions of the law go after states that
not even critically wounded; it can continue practices that intentionally
discriminate against voters.
and will be revived.”
Barbara Arnwine, president and
Last month, the Supreme Court,
struck down Section 4 of the Vot- executive director of the Lawyers’
ing Rights Act of 1965, effectively Committee for Civil Rights Under
President Obama
Law, said that uncovering and
fighting voter discrimination in the
current landscape is a daunting
task, but she was encouraged to
see how much the Department of
Justice is strategizing and positioning itself to be a real force in
combating racial discrimination.
Kasim Reed, mayor of Atlanta
said that civil rights leaders and
voting rights advocates will be
doing more education than ever.
“While there are a number of
adverse tactics being used to un-
dermine the right to vote,” said
Reed. “While there are a number of
adverse tactics being used to undermine the right to vote, if we do
our job we will make sure that people
maintain access to the ballot.”
Reed said that he plans to work
with mayors across the nation to
form partnerships with civil rights
organizations to assist in voter engagement and education.
Marc Morial, president and CEO
of the National Urban League, said
that voters must “be particularly
vigilant on proposals in state legislatures when they happen, not
when they gain momentum, but
when they happen.”
Arnwine said that her group will
be looking at all the states and plans
to conduct hearings nationwide to
assist Congress in obtaining the
data that will be necessary to create a new voting map.
“[President Obama] is committed
to making sure that the right to vote
is secure and strong and that he’s
also calling on people to do everything they can to protect their right
to vote,” said Arnwine. “Ultimately,
it’s about what the citizens will do.”
Arnwine’s group is part of a larger
coalition formed to assist embattled
voters around the nation (The Election Protection Website is
www.866ourvote.org; telephone,
866/OURVOTE).
Melanie L. Campbell, president and
CEO of The National Coalition on
Black Civic Participation, said that
young voters have increased their
civic engagement, rallying around recent Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and the Voting Rights
Act.
“Our young people are connecting the dots,” said Campbell. “They
connect the Stand Your Ground law
to the voting rights law, so part of
what’s going to happen during the
50th anniversary of the March on
Washington, you will see young
people coming here for training and
teach-ins, because they understand
that the rights that need protecting
all center around the Voting Rights
Act.”
The commemorative march in
Washington will be on Saturday, Aug.
24.
“The Supreme Court decision has
had a catalyzing effect. The Trayvon
Martin tragedy combined with the
Supreme Court decision [in Shelby v.
Holder] really has energized people,”
said Morial. “You’ve got Moral
Mondays in North Carolina the
Dream Defenders in Florida. The great
thing about the Dream Defenders is
seeing young people that are engaging and they’re not looking for permission.”
11
Holder seeks to force Texas to ‘preclear’ voting changes
12
Beacon On
An Elegant Affair
Double ring and double wedding ceremony
for the Southerland-Anekwe families in Bklyn
Bishop Guy Sansaricq and (Bride and Groom) Rev. Alexis Yvonne Southerland and Dr. Obiora Nnamdi
Anekwe
(Photos: Tanya Ndip & Hitomi Abe)
The historic Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in
Brooklyn was the setting on
June 29th for the wedding of Rev.
Alexis Yvonne Southerland and
Dr. Obiora Nnamdi Anekwe. The
exchange of rings and vows, as
well as the Unity Candle lighting were all part of the traditional
service.
The beauty of the ceremony
was enhanced by the soft glow of
Tiffany stained glass windows, traditional music played on the famous
Austin pipe organ and the Henry
Prussing murals.
The officiants of the Saturday
ceremony were Rev. Kenneth Bogan
and Rev. Sylvia Gayle Kinard; the
liturgist was Rev. Bettye Bogan and
the organist Gregory Eaton. Serving as maid of honor was Danielle
Summers with Tori Baker and
Sharon Jean-Pierre as bridesmaids.
The junior bridesmaid was
Enuma Anekwe with flower girls
Taylor Jackson and Kendall Jackson. Dr. Ejinkonye Anekwe was
best man for his brother with Dr.
Timothy Onyiuke, and Tochi
Duhu as groomsmen.
The wedding mass was held on
June 30th at St.Gregory the Great
Roman Catholic Church also in
Brooklyn, at which the officiant
was Bishop Guy Sansaricq. Serving as witnesses were Emma
Jeanette Anekwe, mother of the
groom and Yvonne Southerland,
mother of the bride. Standing with
the bride was Danielle Summers,
and with the groom Dr. Ejinkonye
Anekwe. Again the sanctuary was
awe-inspiring with the high marble
altar and columns.
Rev. Southerland graduated
from the Emma Willard School in
Troy, New York, the oldest school
for girls in the United States and
made her debut at the Sigma
Gamma Rho Cotillion in Atlanta
where she was crowned cotillion
queen. While a student at
Spellman
College,
Rev.
Southerland participated in the
Junior Year Abroad program,
studying at St.Edwards Hall at
Oxford University, Oxford England. She graduated from
Spellman with honors. She holds
a Master of Divinity degree from
Union Theological Seminary, and
a Master of Science in Teaching
from Fordham University. She is
employed as a unit coordinator
with the New York City department
of Education and serves as the
pastor of Discipleship at the
Greater Restoration Baptist
Church in Brooklyn, New York.
She is the daughter of Yvonne
Foster Southerland, artist, author
and retired art educator with the
former New York City Board of
Education, who also taught at the
American School in Gelnhausen,
Germany and the American School
of Languages in Florence, Italy.
The bridal party and mothers strike a fashionable pose
Her father is the late Rev. Plato
Southerland, formerly associate
pastor at Brown Memorial Baptist
Church of Brooklyn, and administrator with the former New York City
Board of Education.
Dr. Anekwe graduated with honors from Grace Christian School of
Columbus, Georgia, and received a
Bachelor of Arts in Mass Media with
honors from Clark Atlanta University. He received a Master of Education in Counseling and Student
Development from Tuskegee University where he served on the faculty for several years and a Doctor
of Education from Auburn University.
During his doctoral studies at
Auburn, he conducted and presented research in education, ethics and philosophy at the International University Bremen in Bremen,
Germany; John Cabot University in
Rome, Italy; Cracow University of
Technology in Cracow, Poland, and
the University of Sterling in Sterling,
Scotland. He is presently pursuing
a Master of Science degree in Bioethics at Columbia University, and
is a teacher with the New York City
Department of Education.
The groom is the son of Emma
Jeanette Anekwe, a retired teacher
with the Muscogee County School
District, Columbus Georgia, and Dr.
Gregory Ejinkonye Anekwe, who
was formerly chairperson of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Lagos, College of Medicine. He retired as a professor from
the Department of Biochemistry,
Faculty of Medicine, University of
Jos. After a wedding trip to the
Dominican Republic, the couple will
reside in Brooklyn, New York. (D.T.)
McDonald’s 365Black Awards ceremony
celebrates pride, heritage and achievements
McDonald's 365Black Awards
By Audrey J. Bernard
Style & Society Editor
McDonald’s 365Black Awards was launched in
2003 as an extension of the company’s 365Black platform, created to celebrate the pride, heritage and
achievements of African Americans year-round. The
awards are given annually to salute outstanding individuals who are committed to making positive contributions that strengthen the African American community. The award ceremony has become the centerpiece of the annual Essence Festival in New Orleans,
LA.
On Saturday, July 6, 2013 at the Theater in the New
Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, luminaries walked the long and winding gold carpet to
attend McDonald’s 10th annual 365Black Awards
hosted by award-winning actress Taraji P. Henson.
Actress/comedian Kym Whitley covered the celebrity action from the “golden” carpet.
The star-studded audience blended with 365Black
guests and VIPs as they celebrated the heritage and
achievements of African Americans who remain
Deeply Rooted in the Community® all year long, recognizing those whose contributions and accomplishments were truly exemplary. Watch what happened
by tuning in to BET® (Black Entertainment Television) on August 25, 2013 at 11pm EST/10pm CST.
This year’s stellar honorees included Grammy
Award-winning singer-philanthropist Gladys Knight,
supermodel Beverly Johnson, education leader Steve
Perry, Chicago White Sox Executive Vice President
Kenny Williams, McDonald’s owner Roland Parrish,
teen entrepreneur Leanna Archer, and youth environmentalist Charles Orgbon III. “These honorees
have inspired others by employing their talents and
resources to improve their communities, while also
laying the groundwork for future growth and development,” stated McDonald’s U.S. Marketing Director Rob Jackson.
The event also recognized the achievements of
exceptional McDonald’s Black owners/ operators.
This year 365Black proudly recognized the achievements of Deborah Allen, Henry L. Coaxum Jr., Mary
Redmond, Carolyn Hunter, Leon Goodrum, and Geta
& Janice Asfaw. Their ability to proudly and respectfully represent the McDonald’s brand day after day
is one of the reasons the company has achieved its
unprecedented level of success.
“We applaud this year’s honorees for their tireless
dedication to serving others. Truly, the contributions of these individuals are integral to strengthening communities on the whole,” added Jackson.
“From McDonald’s owner/operators to global superstars, past and present 365Black Awards recipients
prove that benevolent work yields positive results.”
“It is an honor to be recognized alongside these
remarkable individuals,” said the Empress of Soul
Gladys Knight. “By lending a hand to others, we can
all help create environments of strength and compassion that enrich our neighborhoods, regardless
of who we are or where we live.”
Celebrated presenters included R&B singers
Brandy and LeToya Luckett, Ray Ellis, Omari Hardwick
and Robinne Lee. Comedian Jonathan Slocumb
proved to be more than an audience warmer. He was
so spot on funny that he was offered an “opening
gig” from Knight herself! When not cracking up the
crowd, Slocumb introduced special performances by
recording artists Yolanda Adams, Erica Campbell,
Deborah Cox, Estelle, Jordin Sparks and Angie Stone.
(Photos by Chris Mitch)
Honoree Beverly Johnson
Honoree Leanna Archer
Honoree Gladys Knight
Honoree Roland Parrish
Honoree Kenny Williams (center)
Host Taraji
P. Henson
McDonald’s Kevin Newell
Estelle performs
Erica Campbell performs
Honoree Charles Orgbon III, gold
carpet host Kym Whitley
Honoree Dr. Steve Perry & wife
Jordin Sparks performs
Deborah Cox, Yolanda Adams, Angie
Stone perform
LaToya Luckett, Gladys
Knight, Brandy
Comedian
Jonathan Slocumb
The Scene
13
14
CBC takes a stand against ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws
(from Page 3)
facing Black men living in the
United States of America
“The loss of 17 year-old
Trayvon [Martin] has focused
attention on Black males as nothing else has in decades,” said
Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-Washington, D.C.).
Tracy Martin, the father of the
slain teen addressed the need to
seek the positive in an event
marred by negatives.
“I always said Trayvon was my
hero, he saved my life,’” he said.
Tracy Martin said that it was
heart-breaking for him to not be
there during his son’s final moments of life.
Martin said that he hopes that
the president’s recent remarks
about the case and race relations,
“sparks a conversation in every
household over the dinner table
and that conversation is: What
can we do as parents, what can
we do as men, what can we do as
fathers, what can we do as mentors to stop this from happening
to your child?”
Martin added: “I think that’s
where the conversation begins.”
Martin said that the Trayvon
Martin Foundation would advocate against senseless crime and
senseless gun violence, develop
mentoring programs, and work
on educating people on the
Florida statutes and the Stand
Your Ground laws.
“There’s nothing that we can
do to bring Trayvon back but
there’s something that we can do
under the foundation to keep
other families from going through
this, then we will,” said Tracy
Martin.
Benjamin Crump, family lawyer
for Trayvon’s parents, Tracy
Martin and Sybrina Fulton,
posed a simple question: “Can a
private citizen with a 9 mm gun
profile our children, get out of his
car and follow our children and
confront our children?”
Crump said: “We believe that
there should be an amendment
to the Stand Your Ground law that
simply says you can not be the
initial aggressor, you can not start
a confrontation, you can not pick
the fight and then shoot that person then put your hands in the air
and say, ‘I was standing my
ground.’”
David Johns, executive director
of the White House Initiative on
Educational Excellence for African
Americans, addressed the needs
of young Black boys often stigmatized at birth.
“By the third grade, children
from low-income families who are
not reading at grade level are six
times less likely to graduate from
high school than those who are
proficient in reading,” said Johns.
“We cannot solve the employment
or education crisis facing Black
boys and men and America without first ensuring that they all
have access to high quality early
education.”
Jones also noted that by age 4
less, than 30 percent of Black children were proficient in letter recognition, compared to 40 percent
of White children. According to
Jones, 55 percent of Black children
were proficient at color and shape
recognition compared to 70 percent of White children.
“Access to high quality early
education for African American
boys especially can be the difference between the pathway that
leads to the White House and one
that leads to the jailhouse,” said
Jones.
Michael Eric Dyson, a sociology professor at Georgetown University and MSNBC contributor,
acknowledged that Trayvon Martin and many who look like him
suffer from stereotypes that predated them by centuries
“Black teens’ inherit suspicion
and skepticism about their humanity and their inheritance, that’s
what they deal with on the daily,”
said Dyson. “Has some element
of hip hop culture glorified and reinforced the devaluing of Black
life? Of course, it has. But it has
also spoken against it. They are
combating the vicious misrepresentation of Black masculine
identity by resorting to the very
violence that is critical to American culture and American identity and the sense of machismo
that young Black people appropriate has been given to them by
a culture that creates laws like
Stand Your Ground.”
Dyson added: “They didn’t invent the game, they’re playing it
in their own way.”
Professor Dyson said that educators need to adjust to the
unique learning styles, that would
covet legendary hip hop MCs
such as Nas and Jay Z instead of
shunning them.
“As the president of the United
States of America, your skin
speaks before your mouth opens,
the authority and the dignity that
you possess as the most powerful person in the world gives you
a leverage,” said Dyson. “Just as
the president has been unafraid
to go to Morehouse to challenge
those Black men in public, be unafraid to stand before the rest of
America to challenge them, too.”
Kwesi Mfume, a former Democratic congressman and ex-president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), said
that it’s up to Black men to take
responsibility for mentoring
young Black boys.
“We reaffirm to ourselves as
men, when we get to that stage,
‘to the day I die I’m gonna make
my body a bridge so that somebody can run across it,’” said
Mfume. “We reaffirm that we have
no other obligation in life, accept
to try to make it better for the
group running behind us.”
Mfume suggested anti-stand
your ground laws, federal legislation that would make it “ it illegal
to profile, pursue, accost and
eventually kill somebody,” and
taking a closer look at mandatory
minimum sentencing.
Mfume said that members of
the Congressional Black Caucus
should consider an urban “Mar-
shal Plan” and direct existing resources towards urban investment to employment and education, a suggestion made by many
over the years.
“We can’t depend on the Justice Department to do it for us, we
don’t know what they’re going to
do, but there is lots that we can
do for ourselves,” said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
(D-Washington, D.C.). “Some of it
[we can do] within the African
American community, some of it
within the United States Congress
and state and local governments.”
Norton continued, “If we do not
focus on a living, long-term legacy,
this will go away. We’ll go on to the
next kid who has been murdered,
said Norton. “I want to see something real happen.”
Trayvon’s mother: ‘Use my broken
heart’ to prevent future tragedies
(from Page 3)
pay for this awful crime.”
The acquittal of George
Zimmerman on second-degree
murder charges touched off protests around the country and
sparked a national movement to
repeal Stand Your Ground laws
that allow an individual to invoke
self-defense even when being the
aggressor.
Public opinion polls also revealed a deep racial divide. A
Washington Post/ABC News poll
found that 86 percent of Blacks
disapproved of the verdict, practically all of them strongly opposing the jury’s decision, and only
31 percent of Whites opposing
the verdict; 51 percent of Whites
approved the decision.
“The verdict is not going to
define who Trayvon Martin was,”
his mother said. “We will define
his legacy. We will define who he is
and what he was all about.”
Like Mamie Till Mobley, whose
14-year-old son, Emmett, was brutally murdered in 1955 near Money,
Miss. for allegedly whistling at a
White woman, Fulton sees her son’s
death as serving a larger purpose.
In a 1995 interview with Emerge
magazine, Mobley said: “The Lord
spoke to me and said that Emmett
didn’t belong to me in the first
place, that I had been chosen to be
his mother while he was on earth
and he came here with a specific
purpose. He’s done what he came
here to do.”
Sybrina Fulton expressed similar sentiment when she said, “At
times, I feel like I am a broken vessel. At times, I don’t know if I’m
going or coming. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God
is using me and God is using my
family to make a change, to make a
difference.”
United African Movement marks
anniversary with rally for Brawley
(from Page 2)
that Pagones does not want to
meet Tawana in a court of law regarding his defamation claim because of his link to her assault in
Wappingers Falls.
The legal expert/activist said
that he has been to Virginia and
was met with hostility by officials
because he intends to free Tawana
from her plight as an “indentured
servant.” The chairman called for
the end of the “legitimate rape” of
Black women like Brawley and
Nafissatu Diallo, an African hotel
housekeeper whom a New York
criminal court deemed a hoaxer regarding her charges of sexual assault, attempted rape, and unlawful
imprisonment against French politician, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Morial calls for new civil rights movement
(from Page 3)
“But there are extreme forces
– not from Main Street or the
mainstream for that matter – that
seek to turn back the clock on 50
years of progress,” he stated. “A
small group of people with very
loud voices and deep pockets are
putting the rights of gun owners
over the safety of our streets and
the lives of our children. Those
same people criticize our First
Amendment right to peacefully
assemble to express our grievances, yet favor those senseless
Stand Your Ground laws that
make our streets less safe, perpetuate ongoing conviction and
incarceration disparities and lead
to tragedies like the shooting
death of Trayvon Martin.”
Martin, 17 and unarmed, was
shot to death by George
Zimmerman, a neighborhood
watch captain in Sanford, Fla.,
as he was returning to the home
of one of his father’s friends after purchasing a bag of Skittles
and a can of Arizona Tea from a
local convenience store.
“I was saddened as most of you
when the verdict was announced.
I’ve said it before, and I will repeat it here – with the not guilty
verdict in the trial of George
Zimmerman, the tragedy of
Trayvon Martin’s death has become a travesty and miscarriage
of justice. We must accept the
jury’s decision under the due process of our legal system. But we
have made it clear that this is far
from over” said Morial, an attorney and former mayor of New Orleans.
He noted, “On behalf of the National Urban League and Urban
League Movement, many of us
have joined the leaders of the
NAACP, National Action Network, the Black Women’s
Roundtable, La Raza, and others
in calling on and commending the
Department of Justice for pursuing a federal criminal civil rights
investigation in an effort to determine whether any federal laws
were violated by George
Zimmerman in connection with
the death of Trayvon Martin.
Stand Your Ground laws – and
those similar to them – must be
reviewed and rejected.”
Some conservative commentators have accused civil rights
leaders of being concerned when
a Trayvon Martin is killed by a
George Zimmerman, who has
White and Latino lineage, but
not when Blacks kill other Blacks.
Conservative TV host Bill
O’Reilly said, “It was wrong for
Zimmerman to confront Martin
based on his appearance. But the
culture that we have in this country does lead to criminal profiling
because young Black American
men are so often involved in
crime.”
He also said, “When was the
last time you saw a public service ad telling young Black girls
to avoid becoming pregnant? Has
President Obama done such an
ad? How about [Jesse] Jackson
or [Al] Sharpton? Has the Con-
gressional Black Caucus demanded an ad like that? How
about the PC pundits who work
for NBC News?”
O’Reilly continued, “White
people don’t force Black people
to have babies out of wedlock.
That’s a personal decision. A decision that has devastated millions of children and led to disaster, both socially and economically.”
Morial said conservatives are
misstating the facts.
”I am outraged when Black
teens kill Black teens or when
gangbangers take the lives of another gangbanger and all too often, innocent bystanders. I am
outraged at the violence that has
taken far too many of our nameless, faceless and now forgotten
young people…whether in Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, New
Orleans or any other city,” he
stated.
“I am outraged by underachievement and low test
scores…by parents that won’t
live up to their responsibilities.
So, for anyone who says we
have no concern about what’s happening in our communities every
day, they are not in our churches
to hear our prayers. They are not
in our community meetings to hear
our conversations and see us working toward solutions. They are not
in our kitchens to feel the anguish
and the pain when yet another one
of our loved ones is senselessly
taken from us,” Morial said, with
his voice dripping with emotion.
“They are not part of this organization or others that work on a
daily basis to impact the legislation
that perpetuates inequality, or to
develop the programs that ensure
our children are ready for college
and careers, or to work with those
whom society has flippantly discarded and denied a second
chance.
Quite simply, they are not there.
However, we invite them along this
journey with us should they ever
choose to trade in uninformed criticism for constructive action.”
By Audrey J. Bernard
Style & Society Editor
Proctor & Gamble’s My Black
is Beautiful (MBIB) hosted one
of the most lavish events during the 2013 Essence Festival in
P&G’s My Black Is Beautiful hosts VIP
screening of Imagine a Future documentary
New Orleans on Thursday, July
4, 2013 at a private screening followed by a lovely NOLA’s style
dinner of the critically acclaimed
Imagine a Future documentary
in conjunction with the Tribeca
Film Festival co-directed by Shola
Lynch and Lisa Cortes. Guests
joined the cast and creators of the
thought-provoking film at
NOLA’s trendy hotspot Manning’s
Restaurant where after seeing the
30-minute documentary — which
provided lots of food for thought
— dined on mixed green salad,
baked mac & cheese, local vegetable, herb roasted chicken
breast, natural jus slow stewed
beef tips with mushrooms and
creamy pasta primavera followed
by delicious bread pudding.
P&G’s MBIB celebrated its sixth
year as one of the title sponsors
of the Essence Festival. The film
aims to empower African Ameri-
can women and addresses such
complex issues as beauty, selfesteem, and skin tone.
“I didn’t look like what I saw
in a magazine,” says teenager
Janet Goldsboro, who is in the
documentary. “I look different
from all my cousins. I had dark
features, dark hair, dark eyes, big
nose and big lips, and I used to
get made fun of because of how
I looked.” She adds: “Boys say,
‘I like the light-skinned girls,’ or,
‘I like white girls because I want
my baby to come out pretty.’
And that hurts you because it
makes you feel like you’re ugly
looking.”
The film also follows Goldsboro’s visit to South Africa and
includes interviews with such
dynamic women as writer/cultural critic Michaela Angela
Davis, Olympic gold medalist
Gabby Douglas, and Melissa
Harris-Perry, the MSNBC host.
“This year, we are also happy
to bring our first-ever documentary, Imagine a Future, directly
to our extended family in New
Orleans -- where Imagine a Future all started,”stated MBIB rep.
One year after unveiling the
Imagine a Future initiative -- in
conjunction with educational
leader UNCF and community
partner Black Girls Rock! -MBIB presented its namesake
documentary to the local community in New Orleans through
a partnership with Girl Up
NOLA.
With the help of Walmart,
MBIB gave over 200 local New
Orleans’ girls an exclusive opportunity to be one of the first
to view the documentary before
the national BET premiere.
Screening attendees learned
about Goldsboro’s story of self-
acceptance and self-discovery as
she traveled from Delaware to
South Africa. Goldsboro was a
hit with young audience members
who, after the viewing, engaged
in conversation with her and the
film’s creative team with an indepth Q&A panel discussion
hosted by MBIB spokesperson
and well-known actress, Tatyana
Ali.
During the four-day festival,
once again, the MBIB booth at the
Convention Center was one of the
festivalgoer’s favorite meeting
places where they received personal care and beauty experiences
and personal care products and
beauty brands; as well as minimakeovers and consultations in
the MBIB Studio. Additionally,
booth attendees enjoyed meeting
scores of celebrities who stopped
by for their own personal
touchups.
From left to right, Director Shola Lynch, Executive Producer Beverly Bond, documentary lead Janet Goldsboro, actress Tatyana Ali and Director and Producer Lisa Cortes
help P&G’s My Black is Beautiful kick off ESSENCE Festival weekend with a screening of the Imagine a Future documentary on July 4, 2013 at Mannings Restaurant.
(Photo: Business Wire)
Beverly Bond has blazed trails in the
music, entertainment and social entrepreneurship industries. Her body of
work, across sectors, has made her one
of the most celebrated DJ’s, and social innovators of our time. A true
music connoisseur, Bond’s passion for
music and her uncanny ability to read
the crowd has solidified her as one of
the premier DJ’s in the world. In 2006
Bond founded Black Girls Rock! a
youth empowerment mentoring organization while simultaneously creating
the annual Black Girls Rock! Awards
to celebrate the accomplishments of
exceptional women of color who have
made outstanding contributions in
their careers and stand as inspirational
and positive role models in the community. In 2010, Bond partnered with
BET to share her Black Girls Rock!
vision with the rest of the world. As
the creator and executive producer of
the televised show, Bond crafted a
program that was groundbreaking in
its approach to exhibiting the breadth
and depth of talent celebrated by
women in the African Diaspora. The
premiere of Black Girl s R o c k !
Awards on BET, was magnanimous
in regards to its motivational impact as well, drawing an impressive
2.7 million viewers and commanding the No. 1 spot on the chart for
Black households.
Lisa Cortés is a versatile producer with
deep roots in both the film and music industries. Executive producer of the
Academy Award® winning
film
Precious, the Yale graduate has worked
with actors such as Helen Mirren, Halle
Berry, Cuba Gooding Jr., Mo’Nique, Kevin
Bacon, Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Paula
Patton and Gabourey Sidibe and is known
for producing films with difficult and provocative themes. She a special talent for
giving light to expressive voices not often heard and stories not often told. As
senior vice president of production at Lee
Daniels Entertainment, she produced and
developed numerous award-winning films
including The Woodsman, Shadowboxer
and Tennessee. Prior to her film
career, Cortés worked with Russell
Simmons and Rick Rubin to launch the
iconic Def Jam brand. She was vice president of artist and repertoire at Mercury
Records, where she worked with many
multi-platinum and Grammy Award winning artists. Cortés became the first African American woman to have her own label deal at a major record company when
she founded and served as president of
Loose Cannon Records, a subsidiary of
Polygram Records. Cortés launched her
own production company, Cortés Films,
in 2010 and has several projects now in
production. She is also series producer
on the new crime investigation television
series, Celebrity Crime Files
Shola Lynch is an award-winning American filmmaker who burst on the scene in
2004. Her eagerly anticipated second
feature documentary Free Angela & All
Political Prisoners is a first- hand account of the events that thrust Angela
Davis into the national spotlight from a
young college professor to a fugitive on
the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. The
film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically in the U.S. by Code Black and
Lionsgate exclusively in AMC theatres.
Lynch’s first independent feature documentary, Chisholm ’72 – Unbought &
Unbossed, about Congresswoman
Shirley Chisholm’s historic run for president in 1972, premiered at the Sundance
Film Festival, aired on PBS’s POV series, and garnered two Independent
Spirit Award nominations and a prestigious Peabody for excellence. Lynch
honed her filmmaking skills as a visual
researcher and associate producer for
Ken Burns and Florentine Films. Her
work on the two-part Frank Lloyd Wright
documentary and the ten-part Jazz series inspired her to pursue the craft of
storytelling. Since then she has produced and scripted stories that have
aired on BET, CNN, ESPN, HBO Sports,
and PBS. Lynch also holds a graduate
degree in journalism from Columbia University and is working on a book based
on her new film.
Janet Deanna Goldsboro, a 17 year old
student at Caesar Rodney High School
in Dover, Delaware, is the daughter of
Nathan and Tamatha Goldsboro. Her
family also includes her older brother
Nathaniel, and twins Angelia and
Emmanuel. As a young African American teenage girl, she struggled with low
self-esteem beginning in her childhood.
She always felt God made a mistake
when he created her with dark features,
long jet-black hair, full lips and a wide
nose. In her mind, this was not the standard of beauty and felt that society
agreed. She felt she had to change all
she was in order to be loved. Her perception changed one night while watching the “Black Girls Rock!” Award
Show where she saw Black women encouraging and empowering other Black
women. In that moment her perception
on beauty transformed. Later that night
she prayed and asked God to help her
learn how to love herself. The first step
she took was being positive and uplifting her own spirit. The next was to put
all that newfound positive energy into
her dream of starting a magazine that
she would name Nubian Beauty in
which she would celebrate both the inner and outer beauty of all girls of color.
Leveraging the tools she learned from
Black Girls Rock! and My Black Is Beautiful, Goldsboro will be the voice of
unity for her generation.
15
AUDREY'S
SOCIETY
WHIRL
16
Jobs are still a key issue 50 years after historic D.C. march
(from Page 3)
mized in the public sector.”
But Sharpton said Blacks
have the economic leverage to
force companies to hire more
African-Americans.
“We need to renegotiate
Black America’s understanding – we called them covenants – with the private sector,” he said. “The court can
say all it wants about affirmative action, we have the consumer power to say to companies that do business in our
communities that, ‘You must
have targets of doing jobs in
our community.’ They can’t
make us buy from those who
won’t hire us.”
Jesse Jackson said that all
levels of government should
also be held accountable.
“In Chicago, there are
81,000 vacant lots,” he stated.
“They cut public housing and
they foreclosed on private
housing. They’ve cut public
transportation, cut trauma
care. Cut public schools.
There is no present plan to
bring us out of that isolation.
And I think the government
has some obligation.”
Especially a government
and nation as rich as the U.S.,
according to Marc Morial,
president and CEO of the National Urban League.
“We’ve got a $15 trillion
economy in the United States
o f A m e r i c a , t h e l a rg e s t
economy in the world,” he
stated. “And it is unacceptable – Dr. King talked about it
and Whitney Young talked
about it – for there to be these
vast oceans of poverty amid
all the plenty. So many are doing well and so many people
are left behind.”
He said many U.S. tax and
trade policies are misguided.
“American public policy is
focused on job creation,” Morial
said. A significant part of it is
focused on job creation in the
wrong places. For example,
there’s a huge infrastructure rebuilding program that the
people of the United States are
paying for. The problem is it’s
for the reconstruction of and rebuilding of Bagdad. It’s for the
reconstruction
of
Kandahar…Your and my tax dollars are being invested. That
could be and should be redirected to Philadelphia, to Baltimore, to Boston. Secondly,
United States trade and tax policies are encouraging job creation. But they are encouraging
job creation in China, in India
and overseas.”
Closer to home, far away from
I r a q a n d A f g h a n i s t a n , R e v.
Lennox Yearwood, Jr., president
and CEO of the Hip Hoop Caucus, said that unlike civil rights
veterans, many youth are not
eager to participate in marches.
“My generation just doesn’t
want to march for marching’s
s a k e , ” h e s a i d . “ We g o t t o
march for a reason. Trayvon is
one reason. Voting rights is one
r e a s o n . We m u c h p u s h f o r
policy.”
Proving Yearwood’s point, a
young member of the audience
gnetly questioned the value of
marching.
“I’m concerned about those
who are tired of marching who
have never marched,” Jackson
said. He noted that all demonstrations were undertaken with
specific goals in mind and
marching is simply a means to
an end.
Sharpton agreed.
“You say why march about
voting?” he asked, rhetorically.
“Well, that’s how we got it the
first time. We did not get voting rights at a cocktail sip, trying to have racial harmony sessions. We got it by organizing
and galvanizing and the only
way we are going to make
changes is by organizing and
galvanizing.”
Morial said recent changes in
federal student loan programs
are threatening the existence of
some historically Black colleges.
Recalling a recent conversation with Norman Francis, who
has been president of Xavier
University in New Orleans for
45 years, Morial recounted, “He
said that the effect of the
changes to the student loan
program cost the member colleges of the United Negro College Fund $50 million.”
Morial said he heard similar
stories from other HBCU presidents.
“I spoke the other night to
the president of Lincoln University [in Pennsylvania]. This
was a stunning piece of information. He said, ‘I’m going to
lose half of my freshman class.
They cannot come back.
“There is something deeply
flawed when young people who
have gone to high school,
graduated from high school,
gotten admitted to colleges and
universities, successfully completed one year and cannot go
back even if they have A’s and
top-level scores. They can’t go
back because of money.”
Morial said if the Federal
Reserve can lend money to
banks at zero interest rates,
similar accommodations need to
be made to save HBCUs.
In response to a question
from a convention delegate
about whether there should be
a national boycott of Florida,
Sharpton said he would sup-
Focus on poverty, not the middle class
(from Page 6)
Hosea Williams promoted voter
registration campaigns in the
South, Jesse Jackson wanted to
continue to develop Operation
Breadbasket, and Andrew Young
worried that SCLC’s budget of
under a million dollars necessitated smaller campaigns in the
South.”
But Dr. King forged ahead, calling for $30 billion to be spent on
anti-poverty measures, employment and housing construction.
King was helping organize garbage workers in Memphis when
he was assassinated. Ralph D.
Abernathy, his successor and
close friend, continued with
plans for the Poor People’s Campaign.
Instead of the militant protest
Dr. King had envisioned, however, the highlight of the Poor
People’s March to Washington
was not shutting down the capital, but the erection of Resurrection City, a collection of tents
pitched in D.C. Various executive
agencies were lobbied on behalf
of the poor and leaders called for
an Economic Bill of Rights. The
shantytown was disbanded after
six weeks.
In the view of many observers,
Dr. King posed a greater threat to
the power structure when he began organizing poor Blacks and
Whites. But there is an even better
opportunity to unite poor people
today because so many Whites
have become impoverished as a
result of a recession and high unemployment.
Poverty is officially defined as a
family of four living off of $23,021
or less a year. Today, a record 46.2
million people –15 percent of the
U.S. population – are considered
poor. The Associated Press reported:
·
For the first time since
1975, the number of White singlemother households living in poverty with children has surpassed
or equaled Black ones in the past
decade.
·
Since 2000, the poverty
rate among working-class Whites
has grown faster than among
working-class non-Whites, rising
3 percentage points to 11 percent.
Still, poverty among workingclass non-Whites remains about
double that of Whites.
Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, believes Dr. King was on to something when he sought to unite poor
people across racial lines.
“Poverty is no longer an issue
of ‘them,’ it’s an issue of ‘us.’ he
told the Associated Press. “Only
when poverty is thought of as a
mainstream event, rather than a
fringe experience that just affects
Blacks and Hispanics, can we really begin to build broader support
for programs that lift people in
need.”
This is no time to keep Dr. King
frozen in the memory of the 1963
March on Washington or his “I
Have a Dream” speech while neglecting his true calling to eradicate poverty five years later. As he
said, “If you can’t fly then run, if
you can’t run then walk, if you
can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep
moving forward.”
George E. Curry, former editorin-chief of Emerge magazine, is
editor-in-chief of the National
Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA.) He is
a keynote speaker, moderator,
and media coach. Curry can be
reached through his Web site,
www.georgecurry.com. You can
also
follow
him
at
www.twitter.com/currygeorge and
George E. Curry Fan Page on
Facebook.
port a boycott if it were “directed, disciplined and focused.” He said it should be
carefully planned, saying,
“You got to hurt who has hurt
us.”
Jesse Jackson was less nuanced.
“I would make the case that
when Stevie Wonder and those
a r t i s t s s a y l e t ’s b o y c o t t
Florida, boycott it,” Jackson
said to loud applause. “If we
can boycott South Africa and
bring it down, we can surely
boycott Florida and bring it
down.”
The death of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old African
American shot to death by
George Zimmerman, was mentioned throughout the panel
discussion as some leaders
discussed how best to strike
down Stand Your Ground laws,
like the one in effect in Florida
that imperils the lives of young
Black men in particular.
“We are now right back where
we were 50 years ago, where
states are superseding our federal civil rights,” Sharpton said.
“Trayvon Martin had the civil
right to go home. State law gave
Zimmerman the legal right to say,
‘I can move without any resistance and kill him.’ The federal
government must supersede
that.”
Jesse Jackson, quoting the
first Black Supreme Court justice,
added: “As Thurgood Marshall
said, the law enslaved us, the law
freed us, the law segregated us
and now the law is leaving us unprotected.”
Holder seeks to force Texas
to ‘preclear’ voting changes
(from Page 11)
Holder explained, “… This has
never been a partisan issue. Every reauthorization of the Voting
Rights Act was signed into law
by a Republican president. It’s a
question of our values as a nation. It goes to the heart of who
we are as a people. And it’s incumbent upon Congressional
leaders from both parties to guar-
antee that every eligible American
will always have equal access to the
polls; to ensure that we will never
turn our back on the hard-won
progress of the last hundred years;
and to consider new solutions that
are equal to the challenges of the
21st century. As this debate unfolds, it’s important for all Americans to note that – despite the Supreme Court’s flawed ruling – our
voting rights
NMA president happy with mission
to help people of Liberia
(from Page 8)
natal resuscitation training for
midwives, and school children
physicals.
A highlight of the NMA’s medical mission was meeting Her Excellency Madame Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf, president, Republic of
Liberia, the world’s first elected
black female president, Africa’s
first elected female head of state.
In 2011, she was one of a trio of
women to win the Nobel Peace
Prize awarded “for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of
women and for women’s rights to
full participation in peace-building work. During her first tenure
as president of Liberia, she focused on safety and security regarding weapons and gun violence. During her second tenure,
her focus was mainly on
healthcare reform- building new hospitals, and educating, training and
recruiting more doctors. She encouraged Liberian doctors trained in the
US and other countries to return
home and train local doctors
through a loan forgiveness program.
The support she gave to NMA to
improve the quality of healthcare
meets NMA’s mission, “To advance
the art and science of medicine for
people of African descent through
education, advocacy, and health
policy to promote health and
wellness, eliminate health disparities, and sustain physician viability.”
In July, on NMA’s third trip to
Liberia, it was my honor as the 113th
president of NMA to present an
outstanding service humanitarian
award to Her Excellency Madame
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Let’s rebuild Detroit
(from Page 6)
developmental stage and permanent hirees thereafter must be residents of Detroit.
City and schools bus systems
will be privatized as soon as possible. Revenue sharing will be
between the new owners and the
city. Ownership can be for the
entire city or particular zones.
The new Department of Transportation will be responsible for
upkeep and repair of city streets,
alleys, roadways and snow re-
moval. A multiple or single
privatization process will be applied
with oversight done by a citywide
commission.
Well, I think the above is a good
start. Any comments or additions
are welcomed. Here’s to a safe, vibrant and family friendly Detroit –
devoid of corruption and blessed by
our Lord.
Harry C. Alford is the co-founder,
President/CEO of the National
Black Chamber of Commerce.
Website: www.nationalbcc.org.
Email: halford@nationalbcc.org.
By Victoria Horsford
NYC EMPLOYMENT OPS
There will be an August 1
hiring event. The Bureau of
the Census is hiring Surveyors
at the NY Public Library located at 224 East 125 Street.
Applicants must be 18 years,
an US citizen with some customer service experience, who
must submit to a federal background check. HS diploma or
GED preferred. US. Military
veterans are encouraged to
apply. Bring a current resume.
Be prepared for an interview
and testing on 8/1. For preregistration, call 212.534.5050.
Harlem Week 2013 partners
with the MTA Job and Career
Fair which will be held at Columbia University, Lerner Hall,
2920 Broadway, Harlem, 10027,
on August 8, from 10 am. to 2
pm. There are numerous job
openings at NYC Transit, LIRR,
Metro North, Capital Cons t r u c t i o n C o , a n d M TA
Bridges and Tunnels. Dress for
success and bring resumes. For
more info, visit www. mta.info/
mta/employment.
THEATRE NEWS
The American theater classic
THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL ,
now in revival on Broadway,
starring Cecily Tyson, with
Cuba Gooding Jr. and Vanessa
Williams, originally scheduled
for a limited engagement, will
be extended through October
9 at the Stephen Sondheim
Theatre.
Tony award actor, Denzel
Washington, returns to Broadway next year in a revival of A
RAISIN IN THE SUN. The
glamorous, ageless Diahann
Carroll will play his mother.
D e n z e l ’s l a t e s t m o v i e , “ 2
GUNS” with Mark Wahlberg
opens this week.
The John Grisham novel, A
TIME TO KILL, a legal thriller
was made into a movie, starring Samuel Jackson, during its
second incarnation.
The
story, one of my favorite Jackson films, set in contemporary
Mississippi, is about a Black
man who takes the law into his
hands in dealing with a white
man, who violated his young
daughter, is Broadway bound.
It is a strange but psychologically satisfying piece in
today’s America. No casting
has been announced.
BLACK ENTERPRISE
According
to
allthingsdigital.com, Nigeriaborn Chinedu Echeruo, the
founder of Hopstop.com which
allows users to find their way
around worldwide capitals via
public transportation. The site
also has mobile apps for iOS
and Android. Echeruo sold the
company to Apple for an un-
disclosed sum, believed to be
upwards of $1 billion, which is
amount Google paid for Israel’s
Waze. A Harvard B-School
alum, Echeruo worked in
merrgers and acquisition on
Wall Street before launching his
entrepreneurial career and
raised $8 million to launch his
hopstop.com
and
tripology.com. He is a partner
of the Principal Investing
Group, which is based in West
Africa.
Entrepreneur Armstrong Williams, conservative GOP commentator/writer, plans to buy
WMMP-TV, in Charleston, SC,
from the Sinclair Broadcast
Group, Inc. Earlier this year
Sinclair agreed to sell two other
TV stations to Williams’ company, Howard Stirk Holdings.
Will Armstrong use these stations for his special brand of
conservative advocacy journalism?
Oprah Winfrey
NEWSMAKERS
Congrats to New Yorkers Susan Taylor and Ambassador
Suzan Johnson Cook who were
named honorary Delta Sigma
Theta sorors as were actress
Angela Bassett; former EPA
chief Lisa Jackson and former
NBC-TV senior management executive, Paula Madison. The
new honorary sorors were
named during the DST convention in Washington DC this
month. Delta Sigma Theta is the
nation’s largest African American women’s organization and
it celebrates its centennial this
year.
Ruled by the sun, LEO is a fixed
fire sign. Special birthday
shoutouts to Leos: President
Barack Obama, Halle Berry, Usain
Bolt, Barry Bond, Kobe Bryant,
Sandra Bullock, Bob Cambridge;
Chuck D; Sarah Dash; Viola
Davis; Ambassador Alice Dear;
Robert DeNiro; Michael Ealy;
Jocelyn Elders, MD; Patrick
Ewing; Viveca Fox; Lorraine
Gobern; Ramona Grey Harris and
Barbara Harris; IMAN; Earvin
Magic Johnson; Vernon Jordan;
Jennifer Lopez; Madonna; Ken
Norton; Alex Rodriguez; Soulja
Boy; Winifred Walker; Rev Wyatt
Tee Walker; and Weslie Snipes.
REST IN PEACE: Inveterate
New Yorker and beloved family
matriarch, Gloria Wingate Taylor, died on July 29 in Richmond
Virginia, her post-retirement
home.
Usain Bolt
Armstrong Williams
Diahann Carroll
venues like the Apollo, the Studio
Museum In Harlem and Harlembased NYC parks.
Vi s i t
www.Harlemweek.com or call
877.427.5364.
A reception/fundraiser will be
held for Newark Mayor Cory
Booker’s bid for the US Senate, on
Thursday, August 1, at the Liberty House Restaurant, located at
76 Audrey Zapp Driver, Jersey
City, NJ. Media mogul Oprah
Winfrey will attend as a special
guest. General admission is $1000
per person or $2600 per person
for a photo-op
A Summer Stage music/theater
work DIABLO LOVE, will be performed at Brooklyn’s Von King
Park on August 3 at 8 pm. The
show is dedicated to AfricanAmerican blues singer, Howlin’
Wolf, who ranks #51 on Rolling
Stone’s List of 100 top artists. African American Tomas Doneker is
the DIABLO LOVE music director.
Rev Dr. Renee Washington Garner,
Sr. Pastor of Harlem’s historic Memorial Baptist Church, located at 141
West 115 Street, announced its SUMMER REVIVAL 2013 with Rev. Dr.
Lance Watson of Richmond Virginia,
host of “Positive Power” program, on
the WORD TV Network who will
preach for 3 nights, August 5/7, and
Bishop Liston Page Jr. of Paterson,
NJ, who opens the REVIVAL on August 4. Call 212.663.8830 or visit
mbevision2000@aol.com.
The 2013 Harlem Fine Arts
S h o w ( H FA S ) s u m m e r s o n
Martha’s Vineyard at the MV Regional H.S, complete with 20-odd
galleries showcasing works by
worldwide artists. The HFAS preexhibit events includes an 8/5
Martha’s Vineyard Golf Classic
and an 8/6 HFAS Brunch and chat
w i t h To u r e , m o d e r a t e d b y
fashionista/writer Harriette Cole.
The HFAS MV Expo dates are
August 7-11. Visit www.hfas.org
or call 914.450.4269.
The Association of Black Sociologists hosts it 43 rd Annual ABC
Conference in NYC from August
8/10 and will be headquartered at
the InterContinental Barclay Hotel on the East Side. For ABC Conference calendar of events, visit
associationofblacksociologists.org.
A management consultant,
Victoria Horsford is a New York
based writer and pop culture historian who can be reachable at
victoriahorsford@yahoo.com
SUMMER PLEASURES
HARLEM WEEK, the monthlong celebration of arts, culture, commerce and community,
began on July 28 with its trademark A Great Day In Harlem
party at Grant National Memorial Park, which was a preview
of the characteristic festivities,
and continues through August
24. Now in its 39 th year, the
Harlem Week Festival boasts
more than 100 events like an
Outdoor
film
festival,
Jazzmobile, a Tennis Classic, an
auto show, an Economic Development Day, a Sr. Citizens Day,
and an HBCU College Fair, at
Alice Dear
Chinedu Echeruo
WHAT’S GOING ON
17
18
NNPA Award Winner
Enter tainment
By Don Thomas
Apollo Amateur Night
Celebrates HARLEM WEEK 2013 with special guests
Hip-Hop pioneer Kool Moe Dee; R&B singer Jeff Redd
This August, the landmark
Apollo Theater, located on West
125th Street in the Village of Harlem
will celebrate HARLEM WEEK
featuring two exciting editions of
Amateur Night at the Apollo. The
world famous venue will kick off
its celebration on Wednesday,
August 14th with Hip Hop pioneer
Kool Moe Dee.
The celebration will conclude
on Wednesday, August 21st with
R&B artist Jeff Redd. In addition
to special guest artists, there will
be scholarship and donation presentations made to area students
and community organizations.
This year’s Amateur Night
Kool Moe Dee
HARLEM WEEK celebration includes special guest acts that represent the range and vibrancy of
Harlem’s community.
Nearly 40 years ago, Harlem
leaders created HARLEM WEEK
to celebrate the rich legacy of the
community. Since its inception
in 1934, Amateur Night has been
one of New York City’s most
popular live entertainment experiences, launching the careers of
thousands of performers and attracting audiences from all over
the world.
The Apollo Theater’s Amateur
Night has long been revered by
artists as a transformative experi-
Jeff Redd
ence where up-and-coming talent
feels the power of the legendary
performers who have come before
them, and where audience response
can help make or break a career.
Harlem residents will receive
the benefit of experiencing Amateur Night at the Apollo shows
on August 14 th and August 21 st,
for half-price. To receive this
special offer, residents must
present a valid photo ID and
proof of residence when purchasing tickets at the Apollo
Theater Box Office. Only two
half-price tickets per Harlem resident, per show. Other restrictions may apply.
Disc Chat
Charles Wright’s CD ‘Let’s Make Love
Tonight,’ dedicated to soulful music lovers
According to the “free online
dictionary,” the word expression
means: The act of expressing, conveying, or representing in words,
art, music, or movement; a manifestation: an expression of rural
values. If you read further, you
will certainly find the name
Charles Wright associated with
this interpretation!
“Let’s Make Love Tonight,” is
the newest recording by Wright,
a producer, writer who has been
heard the airwaves for more than
50 years. His current disc is receiving attention throughout the
southeast, south and Midwestern
parts of the United States.
“I’m in Love,” and “Unseen
Dirt,” are rapidly becoming favorites at Urban Radio stations.
Charles’ “Let’s Make Love Tonight,” is dedicated to those who
love soulful music, and can be
used as a tool to rekindle the
hearts of lovers everywhere. “I
was especially pleased with the
lyrics in this superbly orchestrated collection of songs that
exude a persuasive sense of loving,” says Wright, the founder and
leader of the legendary Watts
103rd Street Rhythm Band, who
penned the million-selling hit “Express Yourself.”
Wright songs have been covered by legendary artists such as
Ray Charles, Les McCann, Della
Reese, Rodger Troutman & Zapp,
Musiq (Soul Child), former
Monkey’s Mickey Dolenz, The
Ohio Players and The Swiss Longtime Symphony Orchestra.
During the rise of Hip Hop in
the 80s many rap artists lifted
chunks of funk from Wright’s wax,
including N.W.A., Brand Nubian
Funk, Naughty By Nature, Gang
Starr and Sean P. Diddy Combs.
The Los Angeles Lakers showcased “Express Yourself” at their
start-up games and the NBA featured the classic song in its 2004 “I
Love This Game” TV Champaign.
Kinko’s uses “Express Yourself” in
its international marking strategy
and Kohl’s Clothing Stores chose
the tune for its Spring Fashion
Champaign while the Jenny Jones
Show used it as their theme for one
entire season.
“Express Yourself” also provided the theme for both the
Democratic National Convention and the 2004 Olympic
Games Celebration. By mid 2010
Coffee Mate had TV viewers
stirring it up to the tune of “Express Yourself.” Other compliment to the unforgettable tune
includes The PGA, U Draw; Tide
Soap, Nike, Burger King, Singer
Sewing Machine and the list
goes on and on. Yet another
compliment was made to the
timeless appeal of “Express
Yourself” when Good Morning
America used it as a theme for
their Advice Guru Talent Search.
Whenever a motion picture film
calls for an instantly recognizable
sound track, Charles Wright classics have been utilized in films such
as “Panther,” “The People vs.
Larry Flint” and many others. His
hit song “Do Your Thing” set the
stage for a chilling plot turn in the
1970’s pornographic study of
“Boogie Nights.”
Wright’s music has been used
not just in action films but in the
comedy films because it makes the
audience feel good. Movies such
“Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “Cheaper By
The Dozen” and “The Little
Fockers.” He re-arranged a version
of “Express Yourself” with a message to youth to “Protect Yourself”
from sexually transmitted diseases.
He performed the tune for an audience at the first AIDS Walk Circle
of Life Concert at the Los Angeles
Greek Theater last year.
Wright’s produced the
documentary “Bring Back The
Harmony” and the concert presentation of Live at the Ford
Theater. Headed for the airwaves is his latest venture Express Yourself TV Show featuring guests Little Richard,
Brenda Lee Eagar, Hank Dixon
Charles Wright
of The Originals and Charles
McCormick of the group Bloodstone. The show will cover legends from various fields including entertainment.
AUDREY’S REEL WHIRL with film reviewer Audrey J. Bernard
Fruitvale Station poster
Recently, the National Urban
League hosted a Special Town
Hall on Hip Hop Culture: Exploitation & Empowerment, as a part
of its annual conference. The
centerpiece of this discussion
was Fruitvale Station’s phenomenal director Ryan Coogler along
with Jeff Johnson (Politics365),
MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane, Aisha
Winfield (Blues Babe Foundation), Dr. Michael Eric Dyson,
Lita T. Rosario, Esq, Wise Intelligent and moderator Rev. Lennox
Yearwood (President, Hip Hop
Caucus).
Coogler was embraced by an
audience that’s mostly victimized
by his account of a contemptible
happening at Fruitvale Station
which has shaken up race relations in America. Fruitvale Station is a gripping real life happening that follows the true story
of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan), a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and
feels something in the air.
Not sure what it is, he takes it
as a sign to get a head start on
his resolutions: being a better
son to his mother (Octavia Spencer), whose birthday falls on New
Year’s Eve, being a better partner
to his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie
Diaz), who he hasn’t been completely honest with as of late, and
being a better father to Tatiana
(Ariana Neal), their beautiful four
year-old daughter.
Crossing paths with friends,
family, and strangers, Oscar
starts out well, but as the day
goes on, he realizes that change
is not going to come easily. His
resolve takes a tragic turn, however, when BART officers shoot
him in cold blood at the Fruitvale
subway stop on New Year’s Day.
Oscar’s life and tragic death
would shake the Bay Area – and
the entire nation – to its very core.
Coogler’s account of a real life
story whose time has come will
hopefully conjure up more dialogue and shed more light on
how Black men in this country
are unfairly targeted and how the
unfortunate action of one trigger
happy police officer stops short
a fruitful life by shooting him
dead. Coming right on the heels
of the Trayvon Martin case,
Fruitvale Station serves as a reminder of what young Black men
face every time they walk out of
their homes.
Of the despair Black parents
face not knowing once their child
leaves home if they’ll ever return.
What happened in Fruitvale Station should never happen again.
But it did in the Martin case.
Michael B. Jordan, Producer Nina Yang Bongiovi, Melonie Diaz
Octavia-Spencer, Ryan Coogler, Melonie Diaz, Michael B. Jordan
Cuba Gooding Jr., Michael B.
Jordan
Harvey Weinstein, BET's Debra
Lee
Harvey Weinstein, Michael B. Jor- Michael B. Jordan and his proud
mom Donna Jordan
dan
Khalid Jordan, Michael A. Jordan, Michael B. Jordan, BET's Debra
Lee
Again, one more young promising
Black man gone too soon. And the
killer walks free. Shameful!
The acclaimed cast attended the
New York Premiere hosted by The
Weinstein Company, BET Films and
CIROC Vodka at the Museum of
Moving Image (MOMA). Joining
director Coogler were actors
Michael B. Jordan, Octavia Spencer, Melonie Diaz, Trestin George,
producer Nina Yang Bongiovi, and
Harvey Weinstein. The thoughtprovoking film attracted A-List
invitees including Motown musical
director Charles RandolphWright, Tony Award winner Patina
Miller, Malik Yoba, Omari
Hardwick, Candice Bergen, rapper Fabolous, BET’s Debra Lee
and Stephen Hill, Judy Marte,
BeBe Winans, Bryan Terrell
Clark, Bazaar Royale, Beverly
Bond, Brian D’Arcy James,
Julito McCullum, Vinny Chase,
Kid Art, DJ MOS, and Heather
B.
Already, Fruitvale Station has
won both the Grand Jury Prize for
dramatic feature and the Audience
Award for U.S. dramatic film at the
2013 Sundance Film Festival and
will be a strong contender at this
year’s Academy Awards. Bravo
Coogler! (Photos by Wilson Morales / Black Film.com)
Gripping Fruitvale Station
leaves an indomitable mark
19
20
Review
Sarah Dash is still a chameleon
of the most musical kind
By Christian John Wikane
“Chameleon” (1976) was the
last album that Labelle recorded
in the ‘70s before group members
Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx and
Patti LaBelle pursued solo careers
in 1977. The back cover photograph depicted how, even
through a cardboard sleeve, the
group radiated a unique power.
Music seemed to emanate from
each of their faces. Sarah Dash,
in particular, wore an expression
of joy and elation on her flawless
visage.
Decades later, that same smile
illuminated the second of Dash’s
recent two-night stand at 54 Below as she opened her set with
“I’m Still Here”, a self-penned ode
to survival and perseverance.
From the very first line—“Been
through so much in my life, everyday a different fight”—the
singer had a story to share.
Accompanied by music director/pianist Terry Burrus, bassist
Lonnie Plaxico and drummer Craig
Holiday Haynes, Dash filled the
room with a full-bodied tone.
Hers was a voice that hardly
needed amplification. The dozen
white roses sitting atop the piano were a fitting backdrop for “I
Only Have Eyes For You.” Each
word fell sumptuously from
Dash’s lips.
“Millions of people go by, but
they all disappear from view.” The
way she caressed “from” made
the well-known standard a delecThe comparable Sarah Dash
table gift from Dash to the audience. Visiting the Cole Porter ecdote involving hairspray, hunt- the whole story).
“I love Paris in the winter when
songbook, Dash prefaced “I ing, and a Louis Vuitton bag (see
Love Paris” with an amusing an- one of her future shows to hear it drizzles/I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles,” she sang turning “I” into a polysyllabic wonder. Porter himself would have
been smitten by Dash’s interpretation of his song. Count Basie
vocalist Helen Humes also would
have been pleased by the singer’s
sassy rendition of “Million Dollar
Secret”, a tune that gave Dash
plenty of occasions to inject some
humor into the proceedings.
A medley of “I Thought About
You” and “What a Diff’rence a
Day Makes” honored Carmen
McRae, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah
Washington—three artists that
Dash said had “a profound effect
on my life.” The singer’s tribute
to three of jazz music’s most influential vocalists was one of the
evening’s highlights. Through
hand gestures and eye movements, she took no word or line of
lyric for granted.
Her trio summoned an appealing, late-night jazz club ambience
while golden stage light signified
the dawn of a new morning on
“What a Diff’rence a Day Makes”.
Towards the medley’s conclusion,
Dash seamlessly intertwined the
lyrics and melodies of the two
songs.
At moments, Dash’s concert
seemed part of a larger show that
could have been titled The Sarah
Dash Story, for many songs
seemed to hold a personal significance for the singer, whether lyrically or by virtue of representing
a distinct time in her life. Her heartstopping performance of Laura
Nyro’s “Buy and Sell” exemplified
the latter.
Dash recalled when Labelle met
the singer and worked with her on
the Gamble and Huff-produced
“Gonna Take a Miracle” (1971).
“She was just as eclectic as we
were,” she said. “She wrote stories about when she lived on 8th
Avenue. She wrote a song that
says it all.” Dash took the very
personal lyrics from “Buy and Sell”
and rendered them like a snapshot
of old New York. Terry Burrus captured the soul of Laura Nyro on
piano. Sarah Dash captured her
heart.
To the sound of boisterous applause, Dash dedicated the next
sequence to her years with Nona
Hendryx and Patti LaBelle in
Labelle. “We were the first Black
group to play the Metropolitan
Opera House,” she said, recalling
the 1974 concert where audience
members were attired in “something silver,” leading to a shortage
of silver fabric throughout New
York.
“They had to buy rolls and rolls
of aluminum foil.” Dash performed
a trio of songs from the group’s
classic mid-‘70s period that paved
the way for theatrical artists like
Janelle Monàe and Lady Gaga
(though Labelle’s singular musicality has yet to be matched).
Dash began the medley with
“(Can I Speak to You Before You
Go to) Hollywood”, a song penned
by Hendryx that was often the emo-
tional centerpiece of Labelle’s
concerts. Singing the solo verses
that she and Hendryx recorded on
the original Pressure Cookin’
(1973) version, Dash proved that
she’s retained every bit of vocal
power that still makes the song
so compelling 40 years later.
“What Can I Do for You” and
“Lady Marmalade” followed (“I
know you know this lady,” Dash
quipped). As a three-member unit,
Dash’s musicians approximated
the Meters’ original groove on
Nightbirds (1974) to remarkable effect. Dash broke “What Can I Do
For You” down, and prompted the
audience to echo the song’s
“love, love, love” refrain. Little
cajoling was needed.
Dash followed the Labelle medley with a stirring version of “Ballad of the Sad Young Men”, a
song whose meaning has only
multiplied over the years since its
debut in The Nervous Set, the illfated Broadway musical inspired
by the Beat generation that only
ran for 23 performance in 1959.
Vocalists have not only adopted
“Ballad of the Sad Young Men”
as a tribute to war veterans but
also as a comment on pre-Stonewall gay subculture.
Dash explained that the song
“applies to our everyday situations” and also noted that it will
appear in Continental (2013), a
documentary she participated in
that traces the history and impact
of the Continental Baths.
The somber tone of “Ballad of
the Sad Young Men” shifted to
the singer’s more lighthearted rendition of “Make Someone
Happy”.
She seemed to taste the
words as she sang, savoring
the flavor of lines like “once
you’ve found it, build your
world around it”. The life-affirming sentiment of the song
also carried through to her encore, an inspiring version of
Doc Pomus’ “There Is Always
One More Time”.
However, Sarah Dash did
not disappoint those awaiting
the song that fans consider
her signature number, “Sinner
Man”. The 1978 club hit came
alive in the hands of the
singer’s trio while she intoned
t h e s o n g ’s s c a l e - d e f y i n g
notes. Two members from the
audience even joined Dash
onstage for an impromptu dramatization of the lyrics.
The song was especially
appropriate given that 54 Below is actually the basement of
the original Studio 54, where
“Sinner Man” was often incorporated into set lists by the
club’s most popular DJs.
Few artists could so effortlessly navigate disco, glam
funk, Broadway gems, jazz
standards, and original compositions in one set (and kudos
to 54 Below for supporting
such versatility). Just like the
title of that classic Labelle album intimated so many years
ago, Sarah Dash is a chameleon
of the most musical kind.
KICKIN’ IT with Lifestyles & Society Editor Audrey J. Bernard
New Orleans was on fire during the Essence Festival 2013
over the July 4 th weekend and Hennessy – everyone’s favorite brown booze — added to the heat with two blistering gatherings. First, actors Laz Alonso and Lance Gross
hosted the scorching hot Hennessy V.S and London Boy
Productions All White Affair at Republic. Gross was accompanied by his long time girlfriend, stylist Rebecca
Jefferson. The two snapped photos together the entire
night while they partied with their crew. Alonso was a fan
favorite posing for many photos with them. Actor Pouch
Hall was also in attendance and played emcee for the night
welcoming people to the event over the microphone. The
second event bringing the heat was the “Hennessy V.S Very
Special Brunch” at New Orleans’s trendy International
House where singer Avant surprised the crowd and performed his hit song, “Good Love.” Avant’s upcoming album, “Face the Music,” will be released in February, 2014.
Fellow singers Glenn Lewis and Houston rap legend Bun B
were on hand for the sexy performance. (Photos by Collins
Metu & Marlen Adams Photography & Graphic Design)
Laz Alonso, Lance Gross at
White Party
Lance Gross, Hennessy Girls at White Party
Avant performs at Hennessy brunch
Pouch Hall at Hennessy brunch
Bun B at Hennessy brunch
Lance Gross, Rebecca Jefferson and friends at White Party
Lance Gross on stage at White Party
Glenn Lewis performs at Hennessy brunch
Avant, Rhonda Mcdonald from Hennessy and Glenn Lewis at Hennessy brunch
Very special cognac hosts very V.S
special events at the Essence Festival
21
Flick Chat
22
‘R.I.P.D.’ is a disappointing movie
in terms of action and comedy
By Kam Williams
Senior Movie Critic
Veteran detective Nick
Walker (Ryan Reynolds) is
very content between his 15year career with the Boston
Police Department and being
happily-married to the love of
his life, Julia (Stefanie
Szostak). However, his American Dream is irreversibly ruined the fateful day he is assigned to bring down a drug
cartel conducting business out
of an abandoned factory along
the waterfront.
For, greed gets the best of
h i s p a r t n e r, B o b b y H a y e s
(Kevin Bacon), after the ensu- (L-R) Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds in scene from “R.I.P.D.”
ing shootout, when they discover a stash of gold artifacts.
And instead of taking the antique ingots back to headquarters, he decides to shoot Nick
dead and blame the murder on
the bad guys. To add insult to
injury, Bobby consoles Julia
and even has the temerity to
put the moves on the grieving
widow.
Meanwhile, Nick finds him-
self neither in Heaven nor Hell,
but in a police purgatory where
a proctor (Mary-Louise Parker)
offers him a chance to return
to Earth as a member of a squad
of zombie cops called the Rest
in Peace Department (R.I.P.D.).
He leaps at the opportunity,
and is immediately paired with
a late, Old West lawman, a salty
cowboy named Roycephus
Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges).
The grizzled gunslinger
grudgingly agrees to work with
a partner for the first time, and in
the blink of an eye the two are
teleported back to Beantown to
round up renegade dead souls
who have somehow evaded the
afterlife. There, Nick conveniently also has an opportunity
to check in on Julia and plot his
revenge on Bobby.
Like a poor man’s version of
“Men in Black,” “R.I.P.D.” is a
disappointing action comedy
both in terms of action and comedy. Think “ghost” instead of
“alien” adversaries and you have
the basic idea of what director
Robert Schwentke is going for.
Unfortunately, the obsolete
special f/x leave a lot to be desired, and the corny jokes fall flat.
Another major structural flaw is
the lack of chemistry between
the protagonists, a no-no in any
unlikely-buddies adventure.
Ryan Reynolds looks lost opposite the drawling, generally unintelligible Jeff Bridges who behaves like he’s still on the set of
True Grit. “R.I.P.D.” is D.O.A.!
Fair (1 star). Rated PG-13 for
violence, profanity, sensuality
and sexual references. Running
Time: 96 minutes. Distributor:
Universal Pictures.
On the TUBE
Roland S. Martin to host News One Now
Roland S. Martin
TV One, which entertains,
informs and inspires Black
adult viewers, has announced
the creation of News One Now,
a live one-hour, weekday morning news program slated to
premiere September 2013.
Roland S. Martin, national
award-winning journalist, will
serve as host and managing
editor of the program that will
be a multi-platform experience
on radio, television, and
online.
News One Now, culled from
the third hour of a three-hour
radio program to be syndicated
on Radio One network stations, will provide viewers with
a morning news program that
for the first time in history, will
offer news and analysis of politics, entertainment, sports and
culture, from an African American perspective.
The morning show, based in
Washington, D.C., will feature
a broad spectrum of experts,
newsmakers and celebrities
who will share their insights on
current affairs with Martin.
Additionally, the program will
implement a “Skype Net” component giving various Radio
One hosts a platform to provide daily weigh-ins on News
One Now content, as well as
inform the audience on hot topics in their respective regions.
News One Now will be a
three-screen experience, allowing viewers and listeners to
experience the show on radio,
TV and through NewsOne.com,
a website from Radio One’s
web division, Interactive One.
Various studies show that African Americans have a high
usage of social media, and
News One Now will heavily in-
corporate social media throughout the show (#NewsOneNow),
allowing for a truly interactive experience with our audience.
Martin, the 2013 National Association of Black Journalists’
Journalist of the Year, most recently served as the host of TV
One’s long-running, award-winning weekly news program, Washington Watch with Roland Martin, which concluded its fouryear series run in May. Parallel
to the creation of News One Now,
TV One has signed an agreement
with Martin’s media company, Nu
Vision Media, Inc.
“We are delighted to announce the launch of News One
Now, which continues Radio One
and TV One’s pledge to serving
our audience with compelling,
quality coverage of current news
events, issues and trends affecting the Black community,” said
Alfred Liggins, chairman of TV
One and CEO and president of
Radio One.
“African Americans are some
of the most highly engaged cable
news consumers, and it’s vital
that we meet that thirst with a
daily morning show that speaks
to our issues, our concerns, from
our perspective. News One Now
will launch as the pre-eminent
destination for the pulse of Black
America,” said Martin. Craig
Henry will be the executive in
charge of News One Now on behalf of TV One. (D.T.)
Justin Timberlake
New York, NY– One of this
generation’s most-celebrated
entertainers — Justin Timberlake – will expand The 20/20
Experience World Tour with
new dates added in Brooklyn
(Nov. 6), Newark (Nov. 9),
Toronto (Feb. 13), and Chicago
(Feb. 16) by popular demand!
After dominating the global
charts with the release of his
acclaimed new album, The 20/
20 Experience, Timberlake will
bring his electrifying live
shows to fans with a worldwide tour that will run starting
this year on October 31
through 2014.
The Grammy and Emmy
Award-winning artist’s first
tour in six years will visit dozens of countries throughout
North America, Europe, South
America and Australia. The 20/
20 Experience World Tour is
promoted worldwide by Live
Nation Global Touring. The
musical journey started on The
20/20 Experience will continue with the worldwide release of the new album on September 30, 2013.
The 20/20 Experience World
Tour will kick off in North
America starting on October 31
in Montreal, Quebec. Tickets
for the newly added dates will
go on-sale Monday, July 29 at
10AM local time. Justin
Timberlake’s all-new fan club,
The Tennessee Kids (#TNKids),
will have access to a pre-sale
starting on July 24 at 10 AM
local time. Fans should visit:
thetennesseekids.justintim
berlake.comto register for the
fan club and receive a special
code to access the pre-sale.
A pre-sale for MasterCard
cardholders will also begin on
July 24 at 10 AM local time.
Cardholders will also have access to exclusive after shows in
select markets as a part of the
MasterCard Priceless Cities
program. Fans should visit:
w w w. p r i c e l e s s . c o m /
justintimberlake for more information.
A full list of cities, venues
and public on-sale dates is
listed below. For the latest information regarding pre-sale
and on-sale dates, please visit
www.justintimberlake.com or
www.livenation.com. Hashtag:
#JT2020TOUR
The 20/20 Experience is already hailed by critics as one
of the year’s best albums and
has seen massive US and international success. In the US
alone, the certified double platinum album is currently on top
in 2013 as the best-selling album, biggest Top 200, R&B album and Digital album debut,
is the only album this year to
surpass 2 million albums sold
and reached #1 across 7 SoundScan charts (Top 200, Top Digital albums, Top R&B albums,
Top Current albums, Top Vinyl
albums, Top Physical albums
and Top Internet albums).
Additionally, the album marks
Justin with the biggest male debut in 5 years as well as the biggest digital debut in US history
by a male artist. The album held
the #1 spot for both the Top 200
(3 weeks) and R&B album chart
(10 weeks). In just its first week
of release all 10 tracks charted
on the digital songs chart and
have sold over 5.2 million
tracks. The album has reached
platinum status in 3 other countries as well as gold status in 9
other countries. The soulful
single, “Take Back The Night”
has garnered rave reviews. Visit
www.justintimberlake.com to
hear “Take Back The Night.”
(AJB)
CLASSIFIED
Adoption
ADOPTION - Happily married, nature-loving couple wishes to adopt
a child. We promise love, laughter,
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Expenses
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Loving, nurturing home for your
baby. Expenses paid. Married
couple, Walt/ Gina 1-800-315-6957
ADOPTION: Affectionate, educated, financially secure, married
couple want to adopt baby into
nuturing, warm, and loving environment. Expenses paid. Cindy and
Adam. 800.860.7074 or
cindyadamadopt@aol.com
Help Wanted
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F r e i g h t ! ! H o m e We e k e n d s ! !
CALL DAN or JON @ 1-888-4770 0 2 0 E X T. 7 o r A P P LY
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AIRLINE CAREERS begin here– Get
FAA approved Aviation Maintenance Technician training. Financial
aid for qualified students– Housing
available.Job placement assistance.
Call AIM 866-296-7093
Help Wanted
Insurance Inspector. FT & PT for 5
Boroughs. Work independently in
the field to verify measurements and
condition of homes for insurance
companies. No sales with paid training! Computer experience, digital
camera,
car,
cell
phone
required. Knowledge of home construction and customer service experience a plus. Production based
pay, $15/hour. Very achievable $18$20/hour for motivated employees.
Apply at muellerreports.com.
HOME HEALTH AIDES: Immediate
Work! Free Training-Nassau/Suffolk
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Nassau 516-681-2300, Suffolk 631654-0789, Bronx 718-741-9535,
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Land For Sale
NY-VT BORDER: 40 acres only
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Bennington VT perfect mini farm,
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Vacation Rentals
OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND. Best
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Wanted
CASH for Coins! Buying ALL Gold
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Money, Entire Collections, Estates.
Travel to your home. Call Marc in
New York 1-800-959-3419
LEGAL NOTICES
SUPREME COURT OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORKCOUNTY OF NEW YORK
Index No. 306389/2013 —
Date Summons Filed: 5/23/13
– SUMMONS WITH NOTICEPlaintiff designates New York
County as the place of trial –
Basis of venue is Plaintiff’s
residence – Catherine Ko,
Plaintiff, -against- De Ming
Liang, Defendant.-ACTION
FOR DIVORCE- To the above
named Defendant: YOU ARE
HEREBY SUMMONED to
serve a notice of appearance
on the Plaintiff’s Attorneys
within twenty (20) days after
the service of this summons,
exclusive of the day of service (or within thirty (30)
days after the service is complete if this summons is not
personally delivered to you
within the State of New
York); and in case of your
failure to appear, judgment
will be taken against you by
default for the relief demanded in the notice set forth
below. Dated: May 22, 2013,
Leta Liou, Esq., The Law Firm
of Liou & Maisonet, PLLC,
Attorneys for Plaintiff, 124
Nassau Street, Suite 2, New
York, New York 10038, (646)
587-0188. NOTICE: The nature of this action is to dissolve the marriage between
the parties, on the grounds:
DRL Section 170 subd. (2) the abandonment of the
Plaintiff by the Defendant for
a period of more than one
year. The relief sought is a
judgment of absolute divorce
in favor of the Plaintiff dissolving the marriage between
the parties in this action. The
nature of any ancillary or additional relief demanded is:
That either party may resume
use of a prior surname; That
the Court grant such other
and further relief as the Court
may deem just and proper;
The parties have divided up
the marital property, and no
claim will be made by either
party under equitable distribution. NOTICE OF AUTOMATIC ORDERS. Pursuant
to domestic relations law section 236 part b, sec. 2, the parties are bound by certain automatic orders which shall remain in full force and effect
during the pendencey of the
action. For further details
you should contact the clerk
of the matrimonial part, Supreme Court, 60 Centre Street,
New York, NY 10007 Tel (646)
386-3010. DRL 255 Notice.
Please be advise that once
the judgment of divorce is
signed in this action, both
parties must be aware that he
or she will no longer be covered by the other party’s
health insurance plan and
that each party shall be responsible for his or her own
health insurance coverage,
and may be entitled to purchase health insurance on
his or her own through a
COBRA option, if available.
Name Change
23
Presenting Justin Timberlake
20/20 Experience World Tour
24
BEACON
Marc Rasbury
SPORTS
Tune into the next episode of…
By Marc Rasbury
For a sports journalist, this is the
story that keeps on giving. The sad
saga of Major League Baseball versus Alex Rodriguez is taking on a
life of its own. Sometime this week,
MLB is expected to hand out its
long-awaited decision regarding the
beleaguered superstar. As of this
moment (Tuesday, July 30, 2013), we
do not know the outcome of that
decision. The one thing that is for
sure, one of the parties involved,
Rodriguez, MLB or even the Yankees, will be very upset on how this
tale plays out.
Each of the aforementioned parties has a major stake in this outcome. A-Rod, who could face a lifetime ban for not only his steroid use
that violated several terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, but
for also violating baseball’s code of
conduct. The four-time MVP could
lose up to $120 million dollars if MLB
lowers the hammer on him.
Rodriguez has vehemently denied
any wrongdoing beyond his admitted
performance-enhancing drugs
(PEDs) use during his Texas Rangers playing days of the early 2000’s.
There are several reports
circulating out there indicating that
baseball has overwhelming
evidence that A-Rod has used several forms of PEDs since 2009. As
matter of fact, those same reports
claim that MLB has more evidence
against A-Rod than they had
against Ryan Braun, whom they suspended for the remainder of this season.
Now based on the PED provision
of the current CBA, MLB considers
that A-Rod has two strikes against
him, which would warrant a 100-game
ban. He tested positive while in Texas
and Commissioner Bud Selig has
enough circumstantial evidence from
the Tony Bosch Biogenesis case to
assume that Rodriguez used PEDs
since he has donned the pinstripes.
The 100-game ban seems to be the
minimum that could be handed down.
However, there is a sentiment out
there that MLB will go for the jugular
with A-Rod based on the fact MLB
feels that Mr. Rodriguez also attempted to tamper with evidence and
intimidate witnesses.
Once again there are reports out
there that the Rodriguez camp tried
to buy the incriminidating documents
from the Biogenesis employees.
When that did not work, they attempted to bribe and/or intimidate
them. This is a clear case of obstruction of baseball’s investigation,
which violates MLB’s code of conduct. In this case, Commissioner Selig
has the right to invoke any punishment he feels fit as long as it is in the
best interest of baseball. Many feel
getting rid of Alex
Rodriguez is in the best interest of
the game.
Although they claim that they want
A-Rod’s bat in the lineup, the team
has done everything in their power
to demonstrate the contrary.
Earlier in the season, Rodriguez
tweeted out that he was cleared to
play. That drew the ire of the Yankees general manager Brian
Cashman, who responded with a
four-lettered rant that was unbecoming of an individual in his position.
After his rehab stint, he appeared
Alex Rodriguez
to be ready to rejoin the Bronx
Bombers. Then a funny thing happened on the road to the Big
Leagues. A-Rod complained about
a slight pain in his leg. The team
sent him to
their medical staff for a MRI, which
surprisingly revealed a Grade-1
strain. Rodriguez was stunned with
the results and subsequently
placed
on the 15-Day Disabled List, delay-
ing his return to the Bronx. The third
baseman then went out and got a second opinion from a doctor that he did
not even meet in person. Not only did
this act violate the terms of his contract, since he did not request permission from the club to seek a second
opinion, it also made A-Rod look like a
desperate fool because he was hoping that a doctor who did not examine
him would claim that he was fit to return to action based on simply looking at his MRI.
One has to wonder why A-Rod did
not follow the normal protocol by going to the Players’Association and filing a grievance if he felt that the Yankees have an ulterior motive regarding
his return. Perhaps Rodriguez feels
that MLBPA does not have his best
interest in mind, nor do they support
him anymore. MLBPA President
Michael Wiener has already gone on
record stating that the Association will
not protect any player who has overwhelming evidence against them as regards to violating the PED provisions.
It did not help A-Rod’s cause when
the Captain Derek Jeter hit a home run
with his first swing upon his return
this past weekend. A-Rod just
cannot win!
Once again those same reports circulating out there claim that MLB is
negotiating with A-Rod to come to a
compromise on the lifetime ban.
Rodriguez’s lawyer David Cornwall
told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on Monday that no such talks have taken
place. Regardless of what has taken
occurred, we can expect MLB to come
down hard on Mr. Rodriguez. This
soap has more twists and turns than
an USA Network episode
of Suits.
A-Rod, Anthony Weiner: Birds of the same feather
By Derrel “Jazz” Johnson
Two figures have dominated
the media in New York City over
the last week, and should continue to do so in the immediate
future: Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Weiner. While they come
from different worlds, Rodriguez
a star baseball player for the New
York Yankees, and Weiner a candidate for mayor in New York City,
these two gentlemen have a lot
of similarities, and are birds of the
same feather.
We all remember A-Rod’s press
conference four years ago after it
was revealed he was on a list for
players caught using Performance-Enhancing Drugs, commonly known as PEDs. I remember watching it live on television,
not believing a word he said.
Rodriguez was only talking about
his use of PEDs because he was
caught, and he conveniently confessed to using them during the
period in which he was found to
be using them.
He said he had let the pressure
of his enormous contract of $250
million over 10 years force him to
use PEDs, but also added he
stopped when he was traded to the
New York Yankees, where he would
face more media attention and fans
in the biggest city in the nation.
That excuse didn’t fly with me, and
I’m sure it didn’t fly with others,
but nevertheless he was forgiven,
and praised for his play in the 2009
season, in which he led the Yankees to a World Series championship.
Anthony Weiner, who turns 49
in September, was a star politician
on the rise. He began his career in
politics as an aide to Chuck
Schumer, and then went on to serve
a successful term as a member of
the City Council in New York.
Weiner then was elected to the
House of Representatives, and
served the 9th congressional district for over 12 years. Unfortunately for New Yorkers who supported his political aspirations, he
was rocked with a sexting scandal
in a city that has seen numerous
politicians behaving inappropri-
Anthony Weiner
ately.
A-Rod, who turned 38 over the
weekend, is now playing defense,
waiting for Major League Baseball (MLB) to pursue discipline
against him for any of a series of
infractions. It should be to no
one’s surprise that he was using
PEDs again, but there are potential labor infractions that he may
be guilty of as well. There is talk
that MLB will seek to suspend him
for the rest of this season, as well
as the 2014 season, while other
reports suggest MLB will seek to
suspend the slugger for life.
These options appear to be just
fine with the New York Yankees,
who owe Rodriguez four and a
half years and well over $100 million after foolishly resigning him
to a 10-year contract worth $275
million in December 2007 that expires when he is 42.
Weiner, after leading the mayoral
race in some polls, was rocked by a
scandal again last week that saw him
again sexting a woman using the ridiculous name of Carlos Danger. As
with A-Rod, I am not surprised to
see that Weiner continued his inappropriate behavior. I must say I am
surprised that he lacked the creativity to come up with a poor name like
Carlos Danger, but to the shock and
dismay of many, Weiner has stayed
in the race.
The situations that Rodriguez and
Weiner have landed in are all
self-inflicted. Both are dishonest,
and both have fooled many around
them, and a good percentage of the
general public.
There is still a possibility of a
happy ending for both Rodriguez
and Weiner, with A-Rod returning to
Yankee Stadium to a standing ovation and entering the Hall of Fame
when his career concludes, and
Carlos Danger securing the Democratic nomination for Mayor, then
succeeding to run New York City.
What is more likely, however, would
be for A-Rod to never

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Early American Life

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DMRC and PUBLIC HEALTH - Diego Martin Regional Corporation

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