Week 51 - New York Beacon

Transcription

New York’s
Beacon
website:
NewYorkBeacon.net
Vol. 19 No. 51
Showing the Way to Truth and Justice
December 20, 2012 - January 2, 2013
MERRY
CHRISTMAS
IN CHRISTMAS MOOD—CREATE Incorporated, a Harlem-based agency which has served the community, city and New York State since 1970, held its annual children party at its facility on 73 Lenox Ave., in
Harlem last week. For the St. Benedict’s Day Nursery,. the Franciscans supplied funds for the first
CREATE buildings and programs. Since then it has grown into a multi-service agency with funding from
various government and private sources. CREATE is a non-sectarian, non-profit organization.
(Gideon Mannasseh photo)
E-Mail
[email protected]
75 Cents
PRESIDENT OBAMA
VOWS TO END MASS
MURDER EPIDEMIC
VOW TO FIGHT GUN VIOLENCE — With tears running down his
cheeks, President Obama told a standing room only citizens of
Newtown, Conn., that he is going to use powers of his office to fight
epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. The President was in the Connecticut town for a prayer service for the 26 first graders and teachers killed by 20-year-old Adam Lanza in Sandy Hook Elementary
School mass killing spree. .
(See Story On Page 3)
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Cuomo unveils more than 74,000 jobs
openings are available on Jobs Express
BEACON, December 20, 2012 - January 2, 2013 newyorkbeacon.net
2
HARLEM’S NEW BANK —Standing in front of the new Spring Bank
are Brian A. Blake, Spring Bank CEO and officials of the new bank
New bank opens in Harlem
to serve the underbanked
Executives of Spring Bank,
the first bank to open headquarters in the Bronx in 25 years,
announced its expansion into
Manhattan with the launch of a
new branch at 2049 Frederick
Douglass Blvd (8th Avenue.) at
111th Street in Harlem. The opening of the Harlem branch on coincides with the change of its
name from CheckSpring Bank to
Spring Bank.
The new branch will place an
equal emphasis on meeting the
banking needs of Harlem’s small
businesses and retail customers. For consumers, the new
branch offers a unique suite of
transparent, low cost deposit
services to enable underbanked
New Yorkers to build savings,
tap mainstream financial services and establish credit. For
the small business community,
it offers traditional loans, operating lines of credit, and a competitive SBA Loan Program.
”We are excited to serve the
vibrant and diverse Harlem
community, one of the city’s
great cultural and commercial
centers,” said Brian A. Blake,
Spring Bank VP and CRA officer. “All of our customers have
direct access to our top manag-
ers, and we offer the right tools to
support the growth of small and
growing businesses here in
Harlem and throughout New York
City. We are committed to helping
our neighbors gain financial literacy and build assets,” said
Blake.
The Bronx branch has tripled
the number of retail customers
since 2009. Since Sept 2010, business checking accounts have
risen by 250% with business customers up 80% over the past 14
months.
With Harlem’s population at
half a million and $2 billion in purchasing power, Spring Bank is
working to help further small business growth uptown and throughout the five boroughs. Lia
SanFilippo, co-president of the
new Frederick Douglass Boulevard Alliance welcomed the new
branch to the neighborhood, “We
are excited to see Spring Bank
open in our community and look
forward to their support in the
continued revitalization of
Harlem.”
Under its new moniker, Spring
Bank will continue its mission of
providing low-cost, easy access
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 16)
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
has announced that Jobs Express, a website designed to help
New Yorkers who are seeking employment, currently has more
than 74,000 job openings available.
The site has helped more than
59,000 individuals find work since
its October 2011 launch. As extended unemployment benefits
expire for thousands of New Yorkers this month, the Governor
urges long-term unemployed,
now more than ever to apply for
these jobs.
“Jobs Express has been a resounding success for more than
59,000 formerly unemployed New
Yorkers who were able to find a
job,” Governor Cuomo said.
“More than 4,600 employers
across the state are hiring now
and I urge all New Yorkers who
are looking for work to visit Jobs
Express.”
Currently 4,614 employers
have 74,810 job vacancies available on Jobs Express. Since October 2011, when the Jobs Express site was launched, 5,843
employers who list their jobs on
the site reported more than 59,586
new hires. The Governor continues to encourage employers to
use the proven results of Jobs
Express to post new jobs and connect to skilled and ready to work
New Yorkers.
With extended unemployment
benefits expiring this week,
jobseekers are encouraged to apply for these jobs which are in a
wide range of entry level and professional fields and pay scale.
Jobseekers can also visit the Department of Labor’s 88 one-stop
career centers for expert assistance in job interview preparation.
Kathie O’Mara, associate director of Human Resources at Apex
Tool Group, LLC, said, “The Department of Labor has been our
go-to source for our hiring needs
for years. This year was a particularly busy one for us in the
Gov. Andrew Cuomo
area of recruitment. We hired 29
new hourly employees in our fa- in our hiring efforts.”
Wynn Kintz, owner of Kintz Plascility and wanted to extend our
thanks to the Department of La- tics, said, “Due to the specialized
bor for their assistance in finding nature of our work, it is not unusual
for us to have difficulty recruiting
us great talent.”
Kathy Watson, director of Hu- qualified employees. We are pleased
man Resources at Timeless to utilize Jobs Express and the DeFrames, Decor, and Expressions, partment of Labor’s recruitment exsaid, “Timeless Frames has devel- pertise to help us hire several promoped a very strong, positive, work- ising employees.”
The Jobs Express website takes
ing relationship with the Department of Labor over the past few thousands of jobs posted by emyears. We currently use Jobs Ex- ployers and sorts them by region to
press to post all of our positions help job seekers evaluate what inand with their assistance, have dustries are growing in their area and
been able to fill many of our va- find out what opportunities are availcant positions. We plan to con- able in specific economic sectors. To
tinue using this great service to visit Jobs Express, go to http://
give us a competitive advantage w w w . l a b o r . n y . g o v / j o b s /
regional.shtm.
Evers welcomes 12 outstanding new faculty in science, technology, math
Medgar Evers College President William L. Pollard and Provost Howard C. Johnson recently
announced the appointment of
17 new faculty members, including 12 whose specialties are science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (STEM). These
new faculty members, who were
welcomed at the recent State of
the College Address will enhance
an existing portfolio of business,
education, library sciences, and
STEM programs at the Brooklynbased campus that provides a
solid foundation for students
pursuing these areas of study.
“Medgar Evers College is very
proud to welcome its new faculty
members,” said President Dr. William L. Pollard. “We are fortunate
to have a group of educators who
are committed to their disciplines
as well as to moving our students
forward in preparation for success in a competitive and fastchanging world. They work hard
to provide our students with intellectually stimulating academic programs using a variety of instructional modalities, and bring a sense
of excitement and transformation to
our campus.”
Accomplished faculty from the
STEM fields of nursing and business are critical to the College’s mission of helping to inspire 21st century student success. The new faculty bring impressive academic and
professional credentials, research
backgrounds in venues as varied
as NASA, South Africa and Vietnam, and in disciplines as cuttingedge as stem-cell and energy research.
“Our faculty’s scholarly and creative works are globally recognized,” said Provost Howard C.
Johnson, “In fact, the College
proudly supports and acknowledges their research and creative
work, and also encourages students to work more closely with the
faculty in their own research ef-
Medgar Evers College President William L. Pollard
forts.”
Access to a global network resides at the College among the faculty who come from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. Among
the new faculty are: Dr. Chiyedza
Small, who earned her Ph.D. from
the CUNY Graduate Center in the
area of Medicine, Molecular, Cell
and Developmental Biology; Dr.
Christopher Boxe, an assistant
professor of Environmental Science earned his Ph.D. at Caltech,
who trained at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and researches
planetary and air quality modeling,
remote sensing of greenhouse
gases and renewable sustainable
energy; and Howard University
Ph.D. Dr. Najja Shakir Al-Islam,
who has done extensive research
in the areas of Numerical Analysis, Partial Differential Equations,
and Functional Analysis.
Other newly-hired professors
and academic leaders help to
strengthen the College’s offerings
and resources in nursing, social
work, business and library science.
They join a faculty and staff that
inspire students and colleagues by
bringing in millions of dollars in
prestigious research grants to enhance the College, the students,
and the community.
“As a new faculty member here at
Medgar Evers, I am proud to join a
team that is committed to moving students along a continuum of success,” said Chemistry Professor Dr.
Lawrence Pratt, who brought in a
National Science Foundation grant
of $223,000 in his first week at the
College. “The opportunity to reach
our students through the fascinating study of science continues to
inspire me to help see them succeed.”
Medgar Evers College, a senior
college within The City University of
New York, was established in 1970
with a mandate to meet the educational and social needs of the Central Brooklyn community. With a commitment to students who desire a
sound academic foundation as well
as an opportunity for personal development, MEC seeks to provide a
high quality, professional, career-oriented undergraduate degree programs in the context of a liberal arts
education.
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Susan Rice
Susan Rice withdraws her
name for Secretary of State
U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice
withdrew her name Thursday as
President Obama’s leading candidate for secretary of state, saying
the administration could not afford
a “lengthy, disruptive and costly”
confirmation fight over statements
she made about the extremist attack in Libya that killed four Americans.
Rice called Obama on Thursday
morning, before sending him a letter officially withdrawing from consideration. Rice said in an interview that she had concluded early
this week that what she and Obama
considered “unfair and misleading” charges against her over the
Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya,
would impede the president’s second-term agenda.
“This was my decision,” Rice
said. When asked if Obama had
tried to dissuade her, she said that
he “understood that this was the
right decision, and that I made it
for the right reasons.”
Her withdrawal leaves Senate
Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman John F. Kerry (D-Mass.)
with no apparent rivals to take over
from Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton. A senior administration official said that “something strange would have to happen” for Kerry not to be the choice.
The official also said that former
senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.)
has emerged as a “solid” candidate to run the Pentagon, although a final decision has not
been made. For the CIA, the official said, Obama is deciding between Acting Director Michael
J. Morell and deputy national
security adviser John O.
Brennan, who has yet to tell the
president whether he would accept the job.
As Obama assembles his second-term national security team,
formal announcements are due
as early as next week. National
security adviser Thomas E.
Donilon will remain in his job,
according to officials who spoke
on the condition of anonymity
to discuss internal White House
deliberations.
Rice said in the interview that
“after a long, grueling battle, in
all likelihood, I would be confirmed.” The assessment was
shared by White House officials
and by senior Democratic congressional aides who said they
were confident that a majority of
senators would have voted for
her.
“But I really came to believe
this would not be weeks, but
President Barack Obama is
vowing to use “whatever power
this office holds” to safeguard the
nation’s children, raising the prospect that he will pursue policy
changes to stem gun violence in
the wake of an elementary school
massacre.
“Because what choice do we
have?” a somber Obama said at a
Sunday evening vigil in the grieving community of Newtown,
Conn. “We can’t accept events
like this as routine. Are we really
prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage?
That the politics are too hard?”
The newly re-elected president
offered few specifics about how
he planned to proceed, saying
only that he will engage with law
enforcement, mental health professionals, parents and educators
in the coming weeks. Just days
after the shooting at an elementary school, Obama is already facing pressure from fellow Democrats and New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg to tackle gun
control legislation, a contentious
issue he avoided as he sought a
second term.
But Friday’s shooting, which
left 20 children and eight adults
A SAD DAY IN CONNECTICUT — Citizens of Newtown, Connecticut,
console each other following the senseless mass killings of 20 first
graders and six teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary school last week.
dead, appears to have spurred families of the victims and first resome soul-searching by Obama, sponders, Obama said Sunday that
who told Connecticut’s governor he had been reflecting on whether
that Friday was the most difficult
day of his presidency. Speaking to
Violence is ‘as American as cherry pie’
By George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – In
the late 1960s, Black revolutionary H. Rap Brown, now known as
Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, was often quoted as saying violence is
“as American as cherry pie.” More
than 40 years after the Student
Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) firebrand made that
pronouncement, the numbers
supports his assertion.
According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence,
nearly 100,000 people in the U.S.
are shot each year in murders, assaults, suicides, accidents or by
law enforcement officials. Of the
31,593 who died in 2008 from gun
violence, 2,179 were murdered;
18,223 killed themselves; 592 were
killed accidently; 326 were killed
during police intervention and 273
died, but the intent was unknown.
The report shows that 66,769
ing police intervention.
On average, according to the
Brady Campaign:
* Every day, 270 people in America,
47 of them children and teens, are
shot in murders, assaults, suicides,
accidents and police intervention;
* Every day, 87 people die from gun
violence, 33 of them murdered;
* Every day, eight children and teens
die from gun violence;
* Every day, 183 people are shot,
but survive their gun injuries and
* Every day, 38 children and teens
are shot, but survive their gun injuries.
Every time there is mass murder,
there are flashbacks to earlier killings: The University of Texas tower
sniper in 1966, the 1986 post office
shootings in Edmond, Oklahoma
that inspired the term “going
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
survived gun injuries, including postal,” the Columbine High mas44,466 who were injured in a gun sacre in 1999, the deadly shooting
attack; 3,013 were injured during a spree at Virginia Tech in 2007, the
suicide attempt; 18,610 were shot
accidently and 679 were shot dur(CONTINUED ON PAGE 15)
Black churches confront the AIDS epidemic
By Maya Rhodan
NNPA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Some
churches distribute food and clothing to the needy. But Rev. Edwin C.
Sanders, II, the Senior Servant and
founder of the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville,
Tenn. decided to distribute something
else – condoms.
Not to encourage more sexuality,
church leaders were quick to point out,
but because it is an effective weapon
to curb the spread of HIV, the virus
that leads to AIDS.
“We believe in radical love and love
to all in the community. We’re open
and honest. We distribute condoms
because our goal is a healthy community,” says Rev. Terry Terrell, a staff
minister.
Like many Black churches, Metropolitan was forced to act when
the disease could no longer be ignored in the church.
When the church was founded
in 1981, one of its 12 founding members was HIV-positive and later died
from AIDS. The leaders of the
church were then moved to address
the HIV and AIDS crisis through
service and education.
Twelve years later, the church
founded the First Response Center,
which provides health care and support services to those impacted by
or at risk for HIV. From medication
to assistance finding housing and
preparing for employment, the First
Response Center, headed by Rev.
Terrell, is open and able to provide
Rev. Edwin Sanders
to all, even the uninsured and uninsurable. And Rev. Sanders is a nationally-known leader in the fight against
HIV/AIDS.
Across the country, Black churches,
the pillar of the Black community, are
stepping forward to address HIV/
AIDS crisis in their community.
“The church has the largest consistent audience of African Americans,” says Paul Grant who created
the documentary The Gospel of Healing: Volume 1: Black Churches Respond to HIV/AIDS. “You can tell
how the community is doing by going to a church. We get our messages
there, that’s where our social norms
are set.”
The message of HIV/AIDS in the
Black community is a vital one.
According to the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention (CDC):
·
Although Blacks represent
only 12 percent or the U.S. population,
they accounted for 44 percent of all new
HIV infections in 2009 and are 44 percent of all people living with HIV.
·
Black women accounted for
57 percent of all new HIV infections
among women in 2009 and 64 percent
of all new AIDS diagnoses among
women. In 2010, 85 percent of Black
women were infected through heterosexual activities.
·
A similar picture is reflected
among teens. Although Black teenagers represented only 15 percent of U.S.
teens in 2010, they accounted for 70
percent of all new AIDS diagnoses
among teens.
3
President Obama vows to use executive
powers to end gun violence, mass killings
4
DiNapoli says NYC budget
balanced but risks loom
New York City’s budget is balanced for the current fiscal year,
but looming issues, including the
impending
fiscal
cliff,
Superstorm Sandy, unresolved
collective bargaining and delays
in the sale of taxi medallions pose
risks to the city’s budget, according to an analysis of the city’s
four-year financial plan released
by New York State Comptroller
Thomas P. DiNapoli.
“This year’s budget is balanced and next year’s budget gap
appears manageable, but there
are a number of unresolved issues that could increase the size
of projected gaps in the years
ahead,”DiNapoli said. “There are
bright spots in New York City’s
overall economic recovery, including a strong third quarter for
Wall Street. However, challenges
remain and until the disaster aid
from the federal government is
authorized, we do not yet know
what the impact of Superstorm
Sandy will be on the city’s finances.”
Because of legal challenges,
the city no longer anticipates the
receipt of any proceeds in the current fiscal year from the sale of
2,000 new taxi medallions, but it
is counting on realizing $1.5 billion during fiscal years (FY) 2014
through 2016 from medallion
sales. Mayor Michael Bloomberg
has proposed a gap-closing program of $1.5 billion over the next
18 months to offset the loss of the
taxi sale proceeds in FY 2013 and
to narrow the out-year budget
gaps. As a result, the city’s updated financial plan projects a balanced budget in FY 2013, a reduced
budget gap of $1.2 billion in FY
2014 and out-year gaps of about
$2.7 billion.
To offset the costs of recovering from Superstorm Sandy, the
President has requested a supplemental budgetary appropriation of
$60 billion for the tri-state region,
but the timing and amount to be
approved by Congress is uncertain given the focus on reducing
the federal budget deficit. While
the city has estimated costs at $4.5
billion to city agencies for storm
clean up and repair, most of this
cost may be reimbursed by the federal government.
“The expiration of federal tax
cuts and automatic spending cuts
scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2013 could bring about a severe fiscal shock that could send
the national economy back into
recession.” DiNapoli said. “My
office has estimated that New York
State residents could pay an additional $43 billion in federal taxes if
no action is taken by Congress.”
Alternative options to mitigating the effect of the ‘fiscal cliff’ are
under negotiation and until that
time, the impact on the state and
city budget also remains unknown.
Complicating the city’s fiscal
outlook is the lack of new labor
agreements with the city’s unions.
The city assumes that municipal
employees will not be compensated for wage freezes imposed
during the recession and will agree
to annual wage increases of 1.25
percent, which is less than the projected rate of inflation. The receipt
of $250 million in state education
aid in FY 2013 is dependent upon
the city and the teachers’ union
reaching agreement on a teachers’
evaluation program by January 17,
2013.
Despite the risks, the city re-
Thomas DiNapoli
NYU Medical Center approved
for $35.5 million FEMA grant
New York University’s
Langone Medical Center in Manhattan has been approved for two
FEMA grants totaling $35.5 million to defray costs associated
with Hurricane Sandy.
These FEMA grants are in addition to an award of $114 million
for the facility that was approved
earlier in December for emergency repairs, patient evacuations and other disaster-related
expenditures. This brings the total FEMA has awarded to the institution to $149.5 million.
The grants are for $9.2 million
and nearly $25.9 million. The first
represents 75 percent of the expected costs associated with removal and disposal of wastewater from seven of the center’s
buildings along with cleanup of
the fuel oil that leaked throughout the flooded area.
It will additionally cover the
cost of removing damaged equipment from the Smilow Research
Center.
The second award covers 75
percent of the estimated outlays
for relocating and replacing critical equipment like MRI and CAT
scanners, setup of a temporary
emergency room, rental of premises for classrooms and a kitchen,
mobile data centers and relocating
medical-research laboratories to
newly leased facilities in the East
River Science Park.
The funds are being provided
under FEMA’s Public Assistance
program, which defrays disaster
costs incurred by certain nonprofit
organizations.
The NYU Medical Center is a
private, nonsectarian, nonprofit
healthcare and research entity at
First Avenue and 34th Street.
Under FEMA’s authorizing legislation, known as the Stafford Act,
private nonprofits can be eligible
for federal disaster-relief funds if
they provide critical services of a
governmental nature.
- Music mogul Russell Simmons, poses with Wilmington Ten members Wayne Moore and Dr. Ben Chavis
in New York recently. Last week, Simmons asked his over 2.2 million followers on Twitter to go to the
NAACP’s Wilmington Ten petition page at bit.ly/XiUyz8 and sign it to support the pardons of innocence
effort.
Letters from Wilmington Ten prosecution
witness confirm defendants were framed
By Cash Michaels
direction of prosecutor Stroud.
Special to the NNPA from the
“Will my love (sic) ones have a
Wilmington Journal
bad time for me [if] I tell on Chavis
[?],” Hall writes. “My mind is goIn 1972, Hall was the star wit- ing up and down, and around,
ness for the prosecution in the when will it stop. How many times
conspiracy trials against the will I ask my self this over and
Wilmington Ten – ten civil rights over [?]”
activists, led by the Rev. Benjamin
By the end of the three-page
F. Chavis – falsely accused of letter, Hall is literally begging
firebombing a white-owned gro- Stroud to let him see either
cery store during the height of ra- Deborah or another apparent girlcial violence in Wilmington in friend, “Antionette.”
1971.
Hall closes the letter by writAccording to New Hanover ing, “I will be a good nigger.”
County prosecutor Jay Stroud,
Hall signs it, “From Allen GraHall, a convicted felon, had the ham, or Stroud Jr.”
goods on Chavis and the others,
It was clear from the letter that
and could confirm details of the Stroud’s star witness was emoarson conspiracy.
tionally attached to the white prosThere was just one problem – ecutor.
in order to get Hall to falsely tesNewly revealed Stroud file
tify, Stroud had to keep the young documents show the prosecutor’s
troubled black man happy.
efforts to move Hall, and another
How happy?
state’s witness, from different
In a forty-year-old prison let- prison camps by the Onslow
ter dated Aug. 16, 1972 – a copy County Sheriff’s Department, to
obtained exclusively by the the beach house where they
Wilmington Journal newspaper stayed during the trial.
last week from prosecutor
Official documents also show
Stroud’s infamous Wilmington police officers and Sheriff’s depuTen court files being kept at UNC- ties were used to guard Hall, and
Chapel Hill’s Wilson Library – detailed efforts, “…to transport a
Allen Hall wanted the prosecutor young girl, along with her mother,
to keep him happy.
to the beach [house] because Hall
“Just a few lines to tell you that said that the two of them were in
I need a woman,” stated the very love and he needed to see and
first sentence of the letter from talk with her,” according to ParOnslow County prison inmate Hall dons Project attorney Irving
(who was known as “Allen Gra- Joyner.
ham” behind bars so that other
But it was also clear from notes
inmates wouldn’t know he was in Stroud’s own handwriting –
working with a DA) to prosecutor which he has recently claimed as
Stroud.
his – that he was having trouble
Later in the missive, Hall tells keeping the young black conthe prosecutor, “You feel like a fa- victed felon on his proverbial
ther to me, and that is why I call leash.
on you so much when I need
In June 1972, when Stroud was
someone.”
contemplating forcing a mistrial in
Saying that he didn’t have a fa- the first Wilmington Ten trial bether when he was growing up, Hall cause the jury ended up not bewrites Stroud, “You make me know ing the “KKK and Uncle Tomthe real Allen, and what life is type” that he sought, but rather
about. But the love that what (sic) ten blacks and two whites, the
I have for you is what a son have prosecutor drew up a list of “Disfor a father. To me you are that advantages and Advantages of a
father I never had.”
Mistrial” on the back of a legal
Hall writes about not caring pad.
what black people in Wilmington,
The number two reason on the
or apparently one of his girlfriends, “disadvantages” side was,
“Deborah,” thinks about his tes- “…could effect Hall’s attitude and
tifying against Ben Chavis. And other witnesses.”
yet, Hall openly struggles with the
The number seven reason on
idea that he will, and how it could the “advantages” side was “…to
hurt his family, apparently at the keep out Hall’s letter”…from the
trial, apparently one of many Hall
had written, that would somehow
cast doubt on his witness’s testimony, and confirm that Stroud was
putting Hall up to it.
When the first Wilmington Ten
trial was indeed aborted because
Hall feigned “sickness,” and the
second trial commenced in Sept.
1972, Hall did testify against the
defendants.
According to the legal
Wilmington Ten pardon petition to
NC Governor Beverly Perdue submitted last May by Pardon Project
attorney Joyner and lead defense
attorney James Ferguson, “Hall’s
testimony, which was given during
a week of heated and contentious
testimony, was the only alleged eyewitness account of criminal conduct by any Wilmington Ten member during the events from February 4 th through February 7 th
[1971]…”
The petition continued, “Hall’s
testimony was peripherally supported by Jerome Mitchell, a convicted felon and seventeen year old
high school dropout, and Eric
Junius, a twelve-year-old Junior
High School drop-out. As recognized by the Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals (Dec. 1980 decision):
“When the trial record is examined,
it is readily apparent that North
Carolina’s case depended entirely
on Hall’s credibility.”
In that US Fourth Circuit 1980
decision, it was determined that all
three state’s witnesses had all been
paid in some form or fashion by the
prosecutor.
The state’s star witness job –
convict the Wilmington Ten on the
stand.
“During Hall’s trial testimony, he
was repeatedly and vigorously
cross-examined by defense attorneys who confronted Hall with numerous significant contradictions
between his trial testimony and
statements which he made in prior
written statements to the Prosecutor,” the legal petition continued.
“When repeatedly asked by defense attorneys to reconcile the discrepancies, Hall testified that he
had amended the earlier statements
with the State’s Prosecutor. Efforts
by defense attorneys to obtain copies of the amended statements were
5
6
Editorial
Black to the future
Beacon
By Bill Fletcher, Jr.
NNPA Columnist
Walter Smith: Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Miatta Haj Smith: Co-Publisher & Executive Editor
William Egyir: Managing Editor
Will America now find the will
to take a stand against guns?
By Nick Chiles
Yesterday felt different though.
Special to the NNPA from the At- When Adam Lanza opened fire on
lanta Black Star
his mother’s classroom of kindergartners, spilling what some
Perhaps there is something spe- counted as at least 100 rounds in
cial about a presidential tear. the Sandy Hook Elementary
Maybe this time, a line has been School, killing at least 20 babies,
crossed, a threshold has been in addition to six adults—includbreached, and our commander-in- ing his mother, Nancy Lanza—bechief, our senators and represen- fore turning the gun on himself, a
tatives and lobbyists and White line had been crossed. Just like
House officials and the execu- September 11, 2001, instructed the
tives of the National Rifle Asso- world that the U.S. was now vulciation will wake up this morning, nerable to attack in a way we all
their hearts still weighed down by thought unimaginable, Lanza just
the events in Newtown, Connecti- told us that not even our babies
cut, and they will resolve to come are safe from the haunting destructogether to save America from it- tion of firearms.
self.
Of course in certain neighborPerhaps there is something ac- hoods, places like the southside
tionable in a presidential tear. of Chicago and the westside of
These horrific gun events have Atlanta, people have known this
been coming at such a fast and for a long time, that the babies
furious pace, we can’t help but aren’t safe from the guns. Presithink that this December has been dent Obama wisely included the
the national equivalent of a psy- “street corners of Chicago” yeschotic break—a snapping of the terday in his litany of gun tragsocial contract, writ large and ex- edies. But hell, you don’t even
plosive.
have to go into the hood to find
Kansas City Chief Jovan babies who were killed by firearms.
Belcher murdered a 22-year-old Seems like every other week we’re
woman, leaving a three-month old reading about some kid who got
motherless, then he blasted him- his hands on his daddy’s gun and
self in the head at his stadium, in made very bad things happen.
front of his coach. Shocking. But
It is tempting to throw up our
in America in 2012, not that un- hands and conclude that with milusual.
lions of guns already on the
Jacob Roberts viciously streets—let’s not forget the explomowed down shoppers at a mall sion of sales that accompanied the
outside of Portland, killing at least election of Barack Obama in 2008,
two people and himself. There as if his enemies were secretly armwere 10,000 people shopping in ing a militia, and surely the same
that mall, cowering behind Christ- sales explosion is going on this
mas displays and sunglass kiosks very morning as I write this—it’s
to hide from him. Devastating. But too late. The horse is out of the
we’ve been there before.
barn. But we have to take this on.
We owe it to our kids, to our sanity, to the future viability of our
social contract.
Just think about how much of a
difference the mechanics of the
weapon actually makes. When
Charles Whitman went up on the
bell tower of the University of
Texas in 1966 and killed 13 people,
plus an unborn child, and
wounded 32 others, he was using
rifles that enabled him to get off
one shot at a time. That’s why he
was called a sniper. We don’t even
use that word anymore because
the description no longer fits the
act.
Imagine how differently this
event in Connecticut might have
gone down if Lanza had to point
his rifle at each child, making eye
contact with these precious little
people as he took their lives. One
by one. Perhaps his psychosis
was so far gone, he was so far over
the edge that he might have been
able to do it, but I’m guessing that
even inside the most monstrously
disordered brain, there remains a
shred of human decency that
doesn’t allow you to pick up a rifle
and point it 20 times at a room full
of 5-year-olds and pick them off,
one by one. Maybe you could do
a couple, but well before you get
to 20 you will be overcome by that
little shred of humanity, that whispering voice speaking in your
brain as your ears register the
pleading cry of a baby asking you
not to kill her.
That’s what this would have
looked like 40 years ago. But in
2012, Lanza can walk into a class(CONTINUED ON PAGE 16)
I was recently in South Africa
for a conference. While there, I had
two interesting experiences that
raised the complications and politics of race.
In the first case I was on a
shuttle bus. The driver, ethnically
South Asian but a South African,
was very friendly. We started up a
conversation during which he
asked me about life in the U.S.A.
Among the things that I noted
was the continued existence of
racist oppression in the U.S.A. He
then made this interesting comment: “Yeah, that’s the way it is
here. If you are not Black then you
do not get considered for jobs.”
I was a bit stunned by the comment. First, the driver felt completely comfortable saying this to
me, which meant that he, apparently, did not see me as Black, or
at least not like a Black South African. Second, when we continued
the conversation and discussed
apartheid and how the African
majority had been suppressed and
disenfranchised and that there
need to be steps taken to repair
this damage, he said absolutely
nothing. His silence was deafening. He then changed the topic.
The second incident was in the
context of a discussion with an
Arab from Lebanon. I spoke about
African Americans and at a certain point said something like
“…we Blacks…” The gentleman
looked at me and responded: “Bill,
you do not look particularly
Black.” He did not say this in an
insulting manner but rather in a
very matter of fact manner. I replied that what was interesting
about his comment is that while I
may look like I come from any
number of places, e.g., North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Cape
Verde, when my plane lands in
New York there is no question but
that I am Black.
When one is outside of the
U.S.A., you are reminded that race
is not scientific; it is not genetic;
it is not hard-and-fast. Rather it is
both social and political and very
much defined by the history of
one’s location and that location’s
experience with Western colonialism.
The shuttle driver apparently
thinks that “Black” refers to the indigenous African majority in South
Africa. That was not the way that
the anti-apartheid movement saw it,
by the way. For most of the antiapartheid movement in South Africa, “Black” was a political term that
included all who were not White and
were not in some honorary category
(e.g., the Japanese). In other words,
it referred to those who were the victims of systemic racist oppression,
within which you could find indigenous Africans, so-called Coloreds
(mixed race), and ethnic South
Asians. The shuttle driver was looking at me as a foreigner, and one
who was not black. A light-skinned
person of African descent was, apparently, something else.
For the Arab, there was something very similar in play. The individual was a progressive trade union
activist, but race, for him, did not
look the way that it does for us.
“Black” meant dark. It had no political meaning at all. If you were lightskinned you could not be Black. This
was not seen as offensive but more
a perception of reality.
Why is this important? The short
answer is that race changes forms
in different countries but also within
different historical periods. In the
U.S.A, people who are frequently
considered White today would not
necessarily have been considered
White 150 years ago, e.g., Jews,
Irish, Sicilians. Race gets revised and
reconstructed over time to service
those in power who wish to instill
divisions among people at the base
of society. How that appears depends entirely on what that population looks like; ethnic tensions; and
methods of controlling the total
population.
Think about this the next time
you encounter an immigrant who
“looks black.” Keep in mind that
they come from a different history than yours and that their
response to race and racism will
be more influenced by the history of their homeland than our
reality here in the USA, at least
in the beginning.
Dear God! when will it stop?
By Marian Wright Edelman
Child Watch
The horrendous news from
Newtown, Conn. has pierced our
hearts. A black-clad man in his 20s
armed with two semi-automatic
handguns, entered the Sandy
Hook Elementary School and
made an elementary school for
kindergartners through fourth
graders the scene of the worst
mass shooting in a public school
in American history. Twenty children were shot and killed. Six
adults were shot and killed. We
don’t yet know how many were
wounded. We do know dozens of
parents are experiencing the worst
nightmare any parent could imagine. We do know more than 500
young children in the school are
traumatized.
Once again we are faced with
unspeakable horror from gun violence and once again we are reminded that there is no safe harbor for our children. How young
do the victims have to be and how
many children need to die before
we stop the proliferation of guns
in our nation and the killing of innocents? The most recent statistics reveal 2,694 children and teens
were killed by gunfire in 2010 –
1,773 of them were victims of homicide and 67 of these were elementary school-age children. If
those children and teens were still
alive they would fill 108 classrooms of 25 each. Since 1979 when
gun death data were first collected by age, a shocking 119,079
children and teens have been
killed by gun violence. That is
more child and youth deaths in
America than American battle
deaths in World War I (53,402) or
in Vietnam (47,434) or in the Korean War (33,739) or in the Iraq
War (3,517). Where is our anti-war
movement to protect children from
pervasive gun violence here at
home?
This slaughter of innocents
happens because we protect guns,
before children and other human
beings. Our hearts and prayers go
out to the parents and teachers
and children and the entire
Newtown community that has
been ripped apart by each bullet
shot this morning. We know from
past school shootings and the relentless killing of children every
day that Newtown families and
the community will never be the
same. The Newtown families who
lost children today will never be the
same. The families of the teachers
who were killed will never be the
same. Every child at the Sandy Hook
Elementary School this morning will
never be the same.
Each of us must do more to stop
this intolerable and wanton epidemic of gun violence and demand
that our political leaders do more.
We can’t just talk about it after every mass shooting and then do nothing until the next mass shooting
when we profess shock and talk
about it again. The latest terrible
7
One week, two sides of President Obama
By George E. Curry
NNPA Columnist
Over the span of one week, two
different sides of President
Obama emerged in different yet
unforgettable terms. This first was
political, involving Susan Rice’s
decision to withdraw her name as
a candidate for Secretary of State.
The second was deeply personal
in the wake of mass murders in a
Newtown, Conn. elementary
school.
In a column explaining her decision to withdraw her name, Rice
said:
“ …As it became clear that my
potential nomination would spark
an enduring partisan battle, I concluded that it would be wrong to
allow this debate to continue distracting from urgent national priorities — creating jobs, growing
our economy, addressing our
deficit, reforming our immigration
system and protecting our national security.”
That was the public perception: A loyal UN Ambassador declining to fight for a promotion so
that an embattled president could
avoid a showdown with Republican hypocrites in the Senate.
Just as Rice withdrew her name
to give Obama a way out, I believe
that if the president had insisted,
Rice would have kept her name in
the ring and ultimately would have
been confirmed by the Senate to
succeed Hillary Clinton as the next
Secretary of State. But evidently
Obama would rather switch than
fight, to paraphrase an old cigarette commercial.
According to the Washington
Post, “When asked if Obama had
tried to dissuade her, [Rice] said
that he ‘understood that this was
the right decision, and that I made
it for the right reasons.’”
In his statement accepting Rice’s
decision, Obama said, “While I
deeply regret the unfair and misleading attacks on Susan Rice in
recent weeks, her decision demonstrates the strength of her character and an admirable commitment
to rise above the politics of the
moment to put our national interests first…”
Obama didn’t demonstrate any
strength of character when he
abandoned Rice. And this is one
of the troubling things about
Obama: He frequently caves in to
Republican extremists, even when
he has public opinion on his side.
When Obama first defended
Rice, we all thought he had finally
discovered some political backbone. He said at a news conference, “If Senator McCain and
Senator Graham and others want
to go after somebody they should
go after me. For them to go after
the UN ambassador who had
nothing to do with Benghazi…to
besmirch her reputation is outrageous.”
Game on. Or so we thought.
Had Obama chosen to fight, it
would have set the tone for his
second term. Instead, he retreated
behind the comfort and safety of
Susan Rice’s loyalty rather than
standing up to conservative bullies. Republicans not only have
Rice as a political trophy, but if
Senator John Kerry is the eventual nominee as expected, they will
get a chance to replace him with
Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts.
This is not the first case of political timidity by Democrats. Republicans nominate – and fight for
– for extreme ideologues to serve
on the Supreme Court. Antonin
Scalia, Clarence Thomas and
John Roberts are but three examples. But weak-kneed Demo-
crats are afraid to fight for liberal
justices and instead settle for
centrist nominees who will be
“accepted” by Republicans. The
end result is a more conservative
Supreme Court because Republicans nominate far-right conservatives and Democrats don’t
have the guts to offer a liberal
counter-balance. This was true of
both Bill Clinton and Barack
Obama.
While President Obama refused to fight for a Susan Rice
nomination to be Secretary of
State, he demonstrated in
Newtown, Conn. that he is at his
best when serving as Comforterin-Chief to a bereaved nation.
The president visited the city
two days after the massacre of 20
young children and six adults at
Sandy Hook Elementary School.
According to authorities, Adam
P. Lanza, a 20-year-old gunman,
inflicted the carnage before killing himself.
“I can only hope it helps for
you to know that you’re not
alone in your grief; that our world
too has been torn apart; that all
across this land of ours, we have
wept with you, we’ve pulled our
children tight,” President Obama
said. “And you must know that whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide; whatever portion of sadness that we can share with
you to ease this heavy load, we will
gladly bear it.”
Obama noted that he has attended
similar services in three other cities.
“Since I’ve been president, this is
the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by a mass shooting.
The fourth time we’ve hugged survivors. The fourth time we’ve consoled
the families of victims,” he said. “And
in between, there have been an endless series of deadly shootings
across the country, almost daily
reports of victims, many of them
children, in small towns and big
cities all across America – victims
whose – much of the time, their
only fault was being in the wrong
place at the wrong time.”
George E. Curry, former editor-inchief of Emerge magazine, is editorin-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.
Right to Work: Violation of contract and free ride for scabs
By Kevin Carson
Watching the news Tuesday
after Michigan Governor Rick
Snyder signed a “right to work”
bill into law, I was amused to see
Snyder defend the
law as not bad for unions at all,
but “pro-worker.” They were, he
said, an opportunity for unions
to thrive by improving their services:
“[U]nions need to be in the position to present a good value
proposition.” The law “leaves it
up to the union to decide and innovate as to what their value
proposition is.”
Shortly thereafter, some clown
from the Heritage Foundation repeated almost identical talking
points on the Chris Matthews
show. Unions would have to start
competing for workers by offering them a better deal.
Those who make these arguments are either extremely stupid
or just flat-out liars. Unions
CAN’T compete for workers by
offering them a better deal under
the terms of a “right to work” law.
One of the central provisions of
these laws is that a union local
has to provide the exact same collective bargaining services to everyone in the bargaining unit, regardless of whether or not they
pay union dues. Any contract
negotiated by a union applies to
every worker in the bargaining
unit.
So with a “right to work” law in
place, the quality of services the
union provides has absolutely
nothing to do with attracting
members. No matter what fancy
new services the union comes up
with, all they amount to is adding
new dishes to a free all-you-caneat buffet for scabs.
Under the terms of a “right to
work” law, the union is forced to
represent everyone in the workplace as their collective bargaining agent. Everyone in the workplace is entitled to the wages and
benefits negotiated by the union,
and to avail themselves of the
grievance procedure negotiated
by the union. They just don’t have
to pay for it.
As a matter of fact, under the
terms of union contracts negotiated in most Detroit auto factories
without “right to work,” workers
were not compelled to join the
union or pay union dues. The terms
of the union shop contract required
only that they pay a lower monthly
sum covering the actual costs of
union representation in collective
bargaining and grievances.
Bear in mind that the authority
of a union shop clause derives not
from the government, but from the
terms of a contract negotiated between the employer and the bargaining agent. A “right to work”
law actually prohibits employers
from negotiating a contract with
the union that includes that kind
of clause.
While we’re at it, let’s take a look
at all these assorted Koch-funded
interests who are so beside themselves over the poor worker being
bullied into joining the union as a
condition of employment. Can
anyone think of one other case –
anything at all — where any of
these people ever objected in principle to employers requiring work-
ers to do anything as a condition
of employment? How about I go
away for a few minutes and give
you time to think about it?
OK, I’m back. I hear crickets
chirping. Really, nothing? Apparently the Koch Brothers and the
think tanks they bankroll don’t
support laws forbidding employers to monitor their workers’
smoking and drinking habits.
They’re not pushing a law prohibiting employers from monitoring workers’ political affiliations
or their activities on social media. They’re not lobbying for
laws to protect workers from
being required to pee in a cup
as a condition of employment.
Their blanket response, in all
these cases, is “Freedom of Contract is Sacred! If they don’t like
it, they can go work somewhere
else!” The one and only workers’
right they care about enough to
violate the sacred Freedom of
Contract is the right not to join a
union.
You’d almost think there was a hidden agenda here.
Passionate about the wrong things
By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA Columnist
I was in a cab just the other day
when the driver chided me for not
knowing football. He was a big
Redskins (I call them the
Deadskins because they need to
change their name) fan, and was
obsessed with RG III. I must confess that I did not know who RG3
III was until the driver informed
me and told me that I was culturally deficient because I lived in
Washington, D.C. and did not follow football.
I observed his passion as I
would poke and probe at a sociological phenomenon. The brother
was intense, focused, and annoyed by the fact that somebody,
anybody, was not caught up in
the football drama. At some point
I became silent, to see how long
the rant would last. And it lasted
through the whole 20 minutes of
my ride, through stalled traffic and
long lights. The man was on a mission.
I understand that folks have to
have valves to release the tension
of everyday life. Maybe it’s sports,
reading, or music. Still, I wonder if
we could ever garner these passions for our children, for their
needs, for ways that education can
build a path to the future.
I’d be overjoyed if a taxi driver
told me that he was so excited
about education that he could not
move. I’d be thrilled if one of them
questioned me about education as
intensely as he did about football.
I could imagine the questions.
Why are test scores so low? Why
are children not going to college?
Why are so many young Black
men (and women, but men pose a
special set of issues) alienated
from the system? What can we do
to provide job opportunities for
them?
What if someone had passion
for our eating habits? Nearly half
of the Black population is obese
because pork, grease, and artificial snacks are staples of some diets. Why don’t we make healthy
living a priority and be as passionate about that as we are about football? Why can’t we teach about
ways to be healthy?
What about housing? As African
Americans are being put out of their
homes, there have been feeble attempts to modify loans. Those who
are working on this have insufficient
resources, and just a fraction of
those who qualify. Nearly $200 billion of Black wealth has been compromised by foreclosures, yet too
many are silent about promises unfulfilled.
Shootings in Oregon and Connecticut are heartbreaking manifestations of the violence that pervades in our nation. Anybody with
an attitude and a gun can shoot into
a crowd and cause major damage.
Why have a couple of fools targeted
an elementary school in Connecticut leaving dozens dead. Why does
the National Rifle Association work
so hard to maintain the right to bear
arms? Why aren’t more legislators
working to limit this so-called right?
Why do we continue to leave our
population vulnerable to nuts with
guns? I’d love to see some passion
channeled to this issue? Why are
we okay with these massacres?
I’m not so angry at the football
Opinion
8
Central State professor and student find snake venom retards growth cells
chemistry of proteins at Texas Tech
School of Pharmacy in Amarillo,
Texas prior to joining the faculty at
Central State University.
“While studying the ecology of
snake venom, it was interesting to
find that when a poisonous snake
bites a prey, it doesn’t kill the prey.
It is the digestive juices that enter
the circulation system of the prey
and paralyze it. The digestive juices
reach every cell of the body. Thus,
digestion really starts from the inside out. Once the snake swallows
the prey, the digestion further proceeds and when the snake defecates, the only things that weren’t
digested are the nails and the hair.
That experience made me want to
learn more about snake venom and
how it works,” he explained.
“We are one of a few universities, and the only historically black
university conducting research
with snake venom to find a cure for
prostate cancer,” said Dr. Krishna.
“Snake venom is a concoction of a
variety of proteins. In the course
of our research, we extract venom
from various rattlesnakes and break
down that venom into different proteins. Each protein has different
properties. During our research, we
isolated a couple of protein fractions and identified properties that
could stop growth in normal cells.
Our research compares the time
frame for normal cell growth and
multiplication via doubling in an
hour with a normal cell treated
with the venom protein fraction
that takes six hours or more.
There was a significant reduction in the rate of normal cell
growth. Now the real work begins,” he said.
“Presenting our work at an international conference is a very
big deal that comes with a whole
wealth of opportunities.” explains Ms. Smith. “It is not often
that as an undergraduate, you
get to design and carry out your
own experiments, let alone
present your research at international conferences. The network
of people who will hear about my
work, and offer quality suggestions is amazing. To get my work
accepted into professional conferences and have the opportunity to bounce ideas off postdocs and fellows in my disciple
is very gratifying, very humbling.
Like all my long weeks and weekends in the lab with just my cells
are finally paying off.
“This research will allow me to
build a bridge from Central State
and our research and link to
other institutions of higher learning. After this year I will be done
with my degree, and am applying
to post-bachelorette internships
throughout the country that will
allow me to continue my research.
Ultimately, I want to go to medical
school and obtain a dual Doctor
of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy degree. My mentor and
the CADRE department are helping me to actualize this,” she said.
“Through continuous research
and further testing, we have to
characterize the protein molecules
and examine its effect on growing
cells. In another five years, we
should be able to definitively state
that a particular protein structure
retards the growth of cancer cells.
The degree to which that growth
is retarded can be a significant factor in developing a cure for prostrate cancer,” Dr. Krishna said.
“Dr. Krishna ‘s research is one
of the three subprojects being
conducted as part of the Center
for Allaying Health Disparities
through Research and Education
(CADRE),” notes Mr. Morakinyo
Kuti, the director of Central State
University’s Office of Sponsored
Programs and Research.
CADRE is a collaborative
multidisciplinary, five-year, $4.2
million project funded in 2008 by the
National Institute on Minority Health
and Health Disparities, of the National Institutes of Health to increase
Central State University’s research
capacity to help eliminate minority
health disparities in the United
States.
“CADRE has increased CSU’s capacity by establishing a Human Exercise Performance Laboratory, a Cell
Culture Laboratory, an Animal Care
Facility, a Geospatial Database Center for Minority Health Disparities,
and a Psychology Testing Laboratory,” said Mr. Kuti. “These facilities are enhancing the capabilities of
students and faculty to conduct research and have improved classroom
learning.
Other research being conducted
includes empowering African American elder patient-doctor relationships using web-based technology
and, creating cell-extracellular matrix
interactions in tissue engineered cartilage.
“Results from the CADRE project
are published in peer reviewed journals and CADRE faculty and students have made presentations at
national professional meetings.
CADRE has also assisted in increasing CSU student matriculation into
graduate school,” he said.
More Americans want marijuana smoking legalized, youngers agree
By Dennis Levy
A new Quinnipiac University
poll released early Wednesday
shows a majority of people favor
legalizing marijuana, with younger
voters strongly supportive of
such a policy. Overall, 51 percent
of voters think the use of marijuana should be made legal in the
United States, while just 44 percent oppose legalization. Twothirds of voters under age 30
think it should be legal, but only
35 percent of those 65 and older
agree.
Under the circumstances, there
is no reason to not legalize marijuana in New York. Indeed, the
facts say most people act like
marijuana is legalized. Marijuana
is the third most popular recreational drug in America (behind
only alcohol and tobacco), and
has been used by nearly 100 million Americans. According to
government surveys, some 25
million Americans have smoked
marijuana in the past year, and
more than 14 million do so regularly despite harsh laws against
its use. Here are more startling
facts:
First, marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco.
Around 50,000 people die each
year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths
each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison,
marijuana is nontoxic and cannot
cause death by overdose. According to the prestigious European medical journal, The Lancet,
“The smoking of cannabis, even
long-term, is not harmful to health.
... It would be reasonable to judge
cannabis as less of a threat ... than
alcohol or tobacco.”
Marijuana, or cannabis, as it is
more appropriately called, has
been part of humanity’s medicine
chest for almost as long as history has been recorded. Of all the
negative consequences of marijuana criminalization, none is as
tragic as the denial of medicinal
cannabis to the tens of thousands
of patients who could benefit from
its therapeutic use. Medical researchers have found that cannabis
is a valuable aid in the treatment of
a wide range of medical conditions.
These include pain relief –particularly of neuropathy pain (pain from
nerve damage), nausea, glaucoma,
and movement disorders. Marijuana is also a powerful appetite
stimulant used by patients suffering from HIV/AIDS and Cancer.
Second, the NYPD arrested and
jailed nearly 400,000 people for possessing small amounts of marijuana
between 1997 and 2007, a tenfold
increase in marijuana arrests over
the previous decade, according to
a report released by the New York
Civil Liberties Union. In 2011, NYPD
made upwards of 60,000 arrests for
Marijuana Possession and Blacks
and Latino comprise 85% of arrests
even though White youth were
more likely to use marijuana. Governor Cuomo said that the present
law is “incongruous” and “disproportionately” effects black and Hispanic youth. The pending bipartisan legislation - Senate Bill 5187 and
Assembly Bill 7620 - would equalize minor marijuana possession
penalties to a non-criminal, fineonly offense. According to the Associated
Press,
Cuomo’s
proposaldiffers slightly from these
measures because it would retain
criminal misdemeanor penalties for
cannabis smoking in public. More
than 750,000 people were arrested
for last year for simple possession!
Driven by the fake Drug War, the
U.S. prison population is six to ten
times as high as most Western European nations.
The question that frightens a lot
of parents is whether legalization of
marijuana will encourage a whole lot
more kids to use pot. Here are the
facts.
83.9% of high school seniors say
it’s “fairly easy” or “very easy” to
get pot. Nearly 42% of them in the
US report have used marijuana at
least once in their lives. Nevertheless, the government estimates 5% of high school seniors
are regular pot smokers.
Last year, a small group of
Marijuana advocates organized
the‘New York State Committee to
Legalize Marijuana’. Our mission
is to support legislation that ‘Legalizes, Regulates, and Taxes
Marijuana like alcohol and cigarettes’ in New York State. Our
committee began organizing on
Facebook and quickly attracted
hundreds of people to our page
who support our mission. Based
on that success, we want to do
grassroots outreach in New York
City Communities by setting up a
“Marijuana Table” on street corners to distribute information on
Marijuana to the community. The
outreach will be extended to Albany, Buffalo, and Syracuse next
year. Polls show that victory is
within our grasp in New York especially since Colorado’s Amendment 64 and Washington’s I-502
has made marijuana legal in those two
states.
Help us raise awareness for legalization in New York. Let your friends
and family knows that you stand for
rational reforms to marijuana policy
and remind them to get out and vote!
Dennis Levy is a community organizer with over 30 years of organizing experience in the community. He
is one of the founders of ‘New York
State Committee To Legalize Marijuana’. For more information-Mail
: [email protected]
NAACP religious leaders urge
resolution on Fiscal Cliff crisis
Members of the NAACP Religious Leaders Roundtable sent a
statement to congressional leaders and President Obama calling
for a resolution of the fiscal cliff
crisis that ensures the common
good of the country and meets
the needs of the nation’s poorest
and most vulnerable.
“It is time for the leaders of our
nation to focus on the task at
hand,” stated NAACP Chairman
Roslyn M. Brock. “Any resolution surrounding the fiscal cliff
must be inclusive of all the people
in this nation, assuring job stability and economic stability for
all.”
The faith leaders hope that the
final resolution will maintain a fair
and equitable tax plan, and reject
and option that would cost jobs,
reduce benefits for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, or
damage the nation’s safety net.
The group also opposed any extension of the Bush tax cuts for
the richest two percent of Americans.
The NAACP hosted a threeday National Religious Leaders
Summit in Atlanta, Georgia this
week to help move the faith com-
Roslyn M. Brock
munity back to its long-held leadership role in matters of social justice. The Roundtable will send the
letter to each of the leaders who
were present at the summit and
those who were not able to attend,
asking them to share it with their
database of constituents. They will
be encouraged to distribute these
letters on their websites and in
newsletters and letters to their
churches and organizations.
“The faith leaders attending this
summit witness the impact of
America’s socio-economic problems
in their places of worship and communities each day,” stated Rev.
Nelson Rivers III, vice president of
Stakeholder relations with the
NAACP. “They have the responsibility, the resources, and the power
to reach out to their colleagues and
influence government in a way that
supports the people of this nation.”
The letter was signed by the following members of the NAACP Religious Leaders Roundtable: Rabbi
David Saperstein, director, Religious
Action Center of Reform Judaism;
Rev. Patricia Maples, president, National Convocation of the Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ); Bishop
Dennis Proctor, president of the
Bishop’s Council, AME Zion Church;
Dr. Stephen Thurston, president,
National Baptist Convention of
America, Inc.; Dr. Carroll Baltimore,
president, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.; Elder Bernard
C. Yates, president, Primitive National
Baptist Convention, Inc.; Mr. James
Salley, Board of Directors, Black
Methodists for Church Renewal
(BMCR); Dr. Charles Mock, executive
secretary, Home Mission Board, National Baptist Convention USA, Inc.
9
Prostate cancer is the most
common type of cancer found in
American men, other than skin
cancer and the second leading
cause of death, behind lung cancer. According to the American
Cancer Society, one man in six will
get prostate cancer during his
lifetime and one in 36 will die of
this disease.
A noted expert on snake ecology from Central State University is conducting research that
may potentially impact those statistics and save hundreds of
lives.
Before Dr. Sharath Krishna, assistant professor of biology and
Rachel Smith, a senior biology
major, depart for Christmas break;
they will present their findings on
snake venom to the 13th Research
Centers in Minority Institutions
(RCMI) International Symposium
on Health Disparities in San Juan,
Puerto Rico this month.
Dr. Krishna and Ms. Smith
have been extracting venom from
rattlesnakes, separating the
venom into different proteins, and
researching how the protein compounds react to cellular growth.
Dr. Krishna studied the ecology of snakes at Mangalore University in South India and the bio-
10
AUDREY'S
SOCIETY
WHIRL
National Urban League Guild celebrates
70 years at Vanguard Award Luncheon
Vickie Powell, president, NY Club,
accepted the Guild’s award to Business & Professional Women’s
group as Marc H. Morial and
Donald Woods look on
ByAudrey J. Bernard
Lifestyles & Society Editor
The National Urban League Guild
Vanguard Award honors extraordinary achievements and contributions
of individuals who motivate, inspire
and encourage others through professional careers and service to the
community. This year was a very
special celebration as the Guild officers and members under the exceptional leadership of its president
Donald Woods celebrated its 70th anniversary luncheon (1942-2012).
The celebratory event took place
on Saturday, October 27, 2012 at The
Alhambra Ballroom in Harlem, New
York. Emmy award winning Tracie
Strahan, reporter, WNBC4 New York,
served as Mistress of Ceremonies.
Following a hearty invocation from
The Reverend Dr. Thomas D.
Johnson, Sr., senior pastor, Canaan
Baptist Church, guests started the
lovely luncheon by singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
While an insightful video tribute to
the work of the Guild played on a large
screen guests enjoyed a soulful
lunch. Then, it was award time and
president Woods was joined by
Marc H. Morial, president & CEO,
National Urban League, in presenting the coveted Vanguard Awards to
four phenomenal women organizations.
The 2012 Vanguard Awards were
presented to: Greater New York Chapter, Links, Inc. (accepted by Rhonda
Joy McLean, vice president); The
New York Coalition of One Hundred
Black Women (accepted by Avalyn
Simon, president); The New York
Club of the National Association of
Negro Business and Professional
Women’s Clubs, Inc. (accepted by
Vickie Powell, president); and the
Staten Island Alumnae Chapter, Delta
Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (accepted
by Beth Coleman-Oliver, chapter
president).
The iconic work of the Guild did
not go unnoticed by two powerful
political organizations. Geoff Eaton
representing Congressman Charles B.
Rangel presented the Guild with a
congressional proclamation; and
Leslie Wyche representing City Council member Inez Dickens presented
the Guild with a proclamation for their
outstanding work.
This was a milestone anniversary
for the Guild and hats off to its officers and members for years of exemplary service with special mention to
the 70th anniversary luncheon committee chaired by Jean Dixon West
and co-chaired by Mary Draffen and
John Holmes with special assistance
from Eladia Riggs Bing, John Cardwell,
Geri Woods Coles, Edith Matthews
and Maxine McCrey Montano. (Photos by Gideon Manasseh)
National Urban League Guild officers and members
Bob Tate, Barbara Bolden
Delta Sigma Theta’s Staten Island Alumnae chapter received a Guild
Community Service Award accepted by Beth Coleman-Oliver (center),
chapter president as Marc H. Morial and Donald Woods look on
Donald Woods (2nd, left) accepts proclamation from Leslie Wyche,
representing City Council member Inez Dickens. Guild treasurer
Rosa Burrowes (far left) offers support along with Jean Dixon West
and Tracie Strahan
Avalyn Simon (left) president, NY Coalition 100 Black Women that
accepted award on behalf of the organization poses with Jean Dixon
West, Marc H. Morial, Tracie Strahan and Donald Woods
Geoff Eaton (left) presented the Guild with a Congressional Proclamation from Congressman Charles B. Rangel accepted by Marc H. Morial
Rhonda Joy McLean (2nd, left), vice president, The Greater New York and Donald Woods, president, National Urban League Guild
Chapter of Links, Inc., accepts a Guild Community Service award on
behalf of The Links as Marc H. Morial, Conn. Link and Donald Woods
look on
Maxine McCrey Montano, Eladia Riggs Bing, Rosa Burrowes, John
Cardwell, Edith Matthews, Jean Dixon West, Claire Theobald, Marion John Holmes, Edith Matthews, Marc H. Morial, Tracie Strahan, RevBondurant, Donald Woods, Geri Woods Coles, John Holmes
erend Thomas D. Johnson, Sr., Jean Dixon West, Donald Woods
Swellegant Society Soirees with Lifestyles & Society Editor Audrey J. Bernard
11
Webster’s Dictionary describes
the word “link” as “One of the
rings or loops forming a chain. An
association; a relationship.” The
powerful word is the definitive
description for one of the nation’s
leading and most revered
women’s organizations – namely,
The Links, Incorporated – which
is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1946. The international organization spawned The
Metro-Manhattan (NY) Chapter
of The Links, Incorporated in
1988 that amplifies the outstanding work of the parent organization.
Since its inception, The MetroManhattan Links continues the
great mission of the parent organization through a variety of
unique initiatives, programs and
grants that focus on five areas:
services to youth, the arts, national trends and services, international trends and services and
health and human services.
Every two years, The MetroManhattan Links host an exclusive annual gala that is heavily
attended by the crème de la crème
of affluent socialites. This year’s
event took place on Sunday, December 9, 2012, at the beauteous
Cipriani 42nd Street, New York
City and featured a cocktail reception, dinner, dancing and an auction coordinated by Links auction
committee members Diane
Greene and Jessica Isaacs.
This opulent venue was the
perfect place for this well travelled
elite crowd who were buoyed by
Cipriani’s breathtaking Italian Renaissance ambiance that transported them to Italy. The venue
featured towering marble columns, soaring ceilings, magnificent inlaid floors and glorious
chandeliers that the trendsetters
marveled over during an amazingly friendly networking cocktail
reception.
Participants in the brief program consisted of warm welcoming remarks from event gala committee chair LaShann DeArcy
Hall and greetings from Inez
Richardson, gala honorary chair
and president, Metro-Manhattan
Chapter and a rousing invocation
by the Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn
Richardson, senior pastor, Grace
Baptist Church.
More than 600 dressed to the
nines guests were buoyed by
Cipriani’s distinctive cuisine and
classic service with touches of
old world charm as they dined on
Shrimp (the size of miniature
steaks) and String Bean Salad;
Warm Cipriani Rolls (baskets of
homemade breadsticks); Chilean
Sea Bass wrapped in Zucchini
Topped with Tomato Concasse,
fresh seasonal Ratatouille and
Rosemary Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes; Apple Pie with Cinnamon
ice cream. Fine wines were served
throughout dinner.
In a tribute to the chapter’s
work and accomplishments in
serving the Greater Harlem community the gala theme was titled
“Realizing the Dream: Celebrating Excellence in Education and
Leadership.”
Proud of the impressive track
record of JPMorgan Chase’s philanthropic investments in Harlem
and worldwide, The Metro Chapter of Links presented its prestigious biennial corporate award to
JP Morgan Chase for the firm’s
The Metro-Manhattan (NY) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated
members
Robin Alston, Nissa Booker, Kim
Caoxum, Danyale Price
Valerie Lancaster Beal, Inez Richardson, Anna Maria Bishop,
Martha Cameron, Hazel N. Duke
Caroline Taylor Ellerson,
LaShann DeArcy Hall, Monica
Azare Davenport
Rev. Al Sharpton, Congressman Charles B. Rangel, Rev.
Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson
LaShann DeArcy Hall, Inez Alma Rangel, Congressman Candice Cook, Len Burnett , Cheryl
Richardson, Kimberly Davis
Charles B. Rangel
Joyner
Brenda Blackmon
commitment to meaningful and
sustainable change in the highestneed neighborhoods and communities across the globe.
“`Leading with excellence, serving with grace and the MetroManhattan Links’ theme, `Celebrating Excellence through Education and Leadership,’ are exactly
what we are striving to achieve
philanthropically in our firm so we
can then leverage the assets we
build in communities to create de-
Michelle Patterson
Earl G. Graves, Sr., Rev. Dr. W. Keith Davis, Kim Jasmin, Kim Davis, St. Clair
Franklyn Richardson
Davis
mand for and deliver the full capabilities of our business,” said Kim
Jasmin, who accepted the award
on behalf of JPMorgan Chase.
Gala proceeds will support the
chapter’s hands-on programs and
initiatives to prepare students for
college-readiness, reduce health
disparities, advance arts education and build leadership in the
Greater Harlem community.
In her profound closing remarks,
Richardson commented, “I’m
deeply grateful for the generosity of each and everyone in this
room and beyond. Your support
goes towards improving the quality of life for children and families in the village of Harlem.”
Richardson thanked the event
sponsors with special mentions
to Filament Designs; Regina
Fleming Photography; SBG Communications; Star Group Productions and The Color of Magic.
In addition, she also had glow-
George Faison
ing acknow-ledgements for the Realizing the Dream 2012 gala committee:
Monica Azare Davenport, Kimberly Davis, Hazel N. Dukes,
Caroline Taylor Ellerson, Toni Fay,
Carla Harris, Brenda Neal,
Chrystie B. Price and Danyale
Price. Guests danced the night
away to the soul-stirring and high
energy music performed by Breaking Point.
(Photos by Regina Fleming)
Scores of societal swells attend Metro-Manhattan Links, Inc. biennial soiree
12
Beacon On
Stars come out for NBC 4 New York
Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting ceremony
ByAudrey J. Bernard
Lifestyles & Society Editor
New York City is a beautiful town
and tourists come from all over the
world to soak up the magic of New
York City especially during
Christmastime where the gorgeous
decorations and annual Yuletide
festivities set the city apart from
others. One of the most anticipated
events during the Christmas Holiday Season is the annual tree lighting ceremony that took place on
Wednesday, November 28, 2012.
Thousands of people attended
NBC 4 New York’s 80th annual
Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting
ceremony in Rockefeller Center,
New York City. For some, the celebration took place inside the Rock
Center Café where specially invited
guests hobnobbed with the brass,
staff, talent and newscasters of
NBC 4 New York at a private holiday party featuring holiday spirits
and dinner and where they saw the
show up close and personal from
the Concourse Level. Outside,
thousands of people lined the
streets for the countdown.
The two-hour ceremony was televised live, locally on WNBC 4 New
York from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. and nationally on NBC from 8 p.m. – 9 p.m.
The first hour of the star-studded
holiday special featured mega musical guests Trace Adkins, Cee Lo
Green (NBC’s “The Voice”), Victoria
Justice, Chris Mann, Rod Stewart,
Il Volo, Brooke White, Tony
Bennett, Scotty McCreery and the
Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.
The holiday festivities continued
in the 8 p.m. hour as NBC presented
the 15th annual Christmas in
Rockefeller Center special hosted
by the Today Show’s Al Roker and
Savannah Guthrie. Mega superstar
Mariah Carey joined the other musical guests during this hour with
special appearances by Billy Crystal and Bette Midler.
This year’s tree — an 80 year old,
80-foot Norway Spruce from Mount
Olive, N.J. — is illuminated with
30,000 environmentally friendly
LED lights and adorned with a 550pound Swarovski crystal star. Tree
lighting partygoers received a fabulous gift bag containing a replica of
the Swarovski crystal star commemorating the 80th tree celebration.
The tree will be on display through
January 7, 2013.
NBC 4 New York is a part of NBC
Owned Television Stations. In addition to NBC 4’s main channel,
there are a variety of multi-platform
programming outlets including the
station’s 24/7 cable news and information station, and out-of-home
platforms including TV screens in
taxi cabs and N.J. PATH trains. NBC
4 New York’s award-winning broadcasts feature news, entertainment,
lifestyle and sports programming.
For more information, visit
www.nbcnewyork.com. (Photos by
Margot Jordan)
Frank Comerford, chief revenue
officer of NBC owned television stations, NBC 4 New York’s Pat Battle
and NBC 4 New York president &
general manager, Michael Jack
Reverend Al Sharpton
NBC 4 New York’s Chuck Scarborough and Shiba Russell, co-anchors, 11pm News
NBC 4 meteorologist Janice Huff,
“Deception” star Laz Alonso and
NBC 4’s “New York Live” co-host
Jacque Reid
On Wednesday, November 28th, 2012, NBC 4 New York celebrated
the 80th annual Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony with a special live broadcast of the events.
NBC 4 New York co-anchor Shiba
Russell and star of NBC’s upcoming series “Deception,” Laz Alonso
NBC 4 New York’s sportscaster
Bruce Beck, Telemundo 47’s
Veronica Contreras, NBC 30
Rock’s Jack McBrayer, NBC 4
meteorologist Janice Huff,
Telemundo 47’s Andrea Romero,
Jorge Ramos and Nathalia Ortiz
NBC 4 New York’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center featured performances by musical guest, Cee Lo Green, from NBC’s The Voice
From Real Housewives of New Jersey, Caroline Manzo and husband
Albert Manzo
Mary Rice-Boothe, Zora Boothe,
Arva Rice
NBC 4 New York’s Christmas in Rockefeller Center featured per- Stephen Baldwin and daughter
formances by musical guest, Victoria Justice
Hailey Baldwin
Mariah Carey rocks Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting!
Mariah Carey stunning in silver gown trimmed in fur
Pop diva Mariah Carey was a
day early for New York City’s
R o c k e f e l l e r C e n t e r Tre e
Lighting ceremony on Tuesday, November 27, 2012. In a
pre-taped performance of her
participation in the annual
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting held at
Rockefeller Plaza, Carey was
as stunning as the Christmas
ornaments and decorations
as she lit up the stage wearing two stunning outfits during her glistening performances of her holiday hit “All
I Want for Christmas Is You”
and her new Christmas single
“It’s Christmas Time Again.”
She also performed an a
capella version of “We Are
Family.” Standing below the
80ft tall Norway Spruce —
which was lit on Wednesday
night November 28 — with
Santa Claus by her side,
Carey’s high octave voice
resonated throughout the
Rockefeller Center area to the
delight of the crowd. The
fashionista wore two Pavoni
dresses, Jimmy Choo shoes,
an Anne Fontaine cape, and
Joan Boyce jewelry. (See Page
12 for more Tree Lighting
coverage.) (Photos courtesy
Jackson Lee / Splash News) Mariah Carey performs on stage accompanied by Santa Claus
The Scene
13
BEACON,
20,20,
2012
- December
2012 newyorkbeacon.net
newyorkbeacon.net
BEACON,December
December
2012
- January 26,
2, 2013
14
AUDREY’S REEL WHIRL with film reviewer Audrey J. Bernard
Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables has
splashy New York City premiere
On Monday, December 10, 2012,
ahead of the musical’s Christmas
Day release, the cast of the lavish musical Les Misérables, attended a splashy – literally as it
poured – New York City premiere
to promote their much-anticipated
film at the Ziegfeld Theatre on
West 54th Street. Les Misérables
is about ex-prisoner Jean Valjean
who’s hunted for decades by the
ruthless policeman Javert after he
breaks parole. When Valjean
agrees to care for factory worker
Fantine’s young daughter,
Cosette, their lives change forever. The film’s megawattage cast
attended the stunning star-studded premiere including the film’s
director Tom Hooper and Hugh
Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne
Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried,
Paul Dano, Aaron Tveit, Zach
Braff, Zoe Kazan, Isabelle Allen
and Daniel Huttlestone. All of
the ladies were stunning but
fashionista Hathaway stole the
show in a Tom Ford original. Les
Misérables – which is the gift that
just keeps giving — stars Hugh
Jackman as Jean Valjean, Anne
Hathaway as Fantine, Russell
Crowe as Javert, Sacha Baron
Cohen as Thernardier, Eddie
Redmayne as Marius, Aaron
Tveit as Enjolras, Amanda
Seyfried as Cosette, Samantha
Barks as Eponine, and Helena
Bonham Carter Madame
Thenardier with Isabelle Allen as
a young Cosette and Daniel
Huttlestone as Gavroche. Les
Misérables is coming to theaters
December 25, 2012. (Photos by
Evan Agostini / Associated Press)
Daniel Huttlestone, Isabelle Allen
Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe
Amanda Seyfried, Eddie
Redmayne, Samantha Barks
(Photo by Jamie McCarthyWireImage)
Sacha Baron Cohen
Aaron Tveit
Anne Hathaway (back)
Anne Hathaway (front)
Tom Hooper
(from Page 3)
the country was doing enough to
give its children “the chance they
deserve to live out their lives in
happiness and with purpose.”
“And if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We’re
not doing enough, and we will
have to change,” Obama said.
Sunday marked the fourth time
in Obama’s presidency that he has
traveled to a community shaken
by a mass shooting. Just this summer, he made a similar visit to Aurora, Colo., where a dozen people
were killed in a movie theater attack.
Drawing on his past experiences, Obama said he was mindful that mere words would not be
enough to heal the depths of
Newtown’s sorrow.
“I can only hope that it helps
for you to know that you are not
alone in your grief,” Obama said
during the vigil, which followed
his private meeting with families
of the victims.
The president closed his remarks by reading the first names
of the kids, slowly, in the most
wrenching moment of the night.
Cries and sobs filled the room.
Said Obama of the girls and
boys who died: “God has called
them all home. For those of us who
remain, let us find the strength to
carry on and make our country
worthy of their memory.”
Inside the room, children held
stuffed teddy bears and dogs. The
smallest kids sat on their parents’
laps.
There were tears and hugs, but
also smiles and squeezed arms.
Mixed with disbelief was a sense
of a community reacquainting itself all at once.
One man said it was less mournful, more familial. Some kids chatted easily with their friends. The
adults embraced each other in support.
“We’re halfway between grief
and hope,” said Curt Brantl, whose
daughter was in the library of the
elementary school when the
shootings occurred. She was not
harmed.
Police and firefighters got hugs
and standing ovations when they
entered. So did Obama.
“We needed this,” said the Rev.
Matt Crebbin, senior minister of the
Newtown Congregational Church.
“We needed to be together to
show that we are together and
united.” The shootings have restarted a debate in Washington
about what politicians can to do
help — gun control or otherwise.
Obama has called for “meaningful
action” to prevent killings.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,
said Sunday she will introduce legislation next year to ban new assault weapons, as well as big clips,
drums and strips of more than 10
bullets.
Police say the gunman, Adam
Lanza, was carrying an arsenal of
ammunition big enough to kill just
about every student in the school
if given enough time. He massacred 20 students and six teachers
and administrators before shooting himself in the head just as he
heard police drawing near, authorities said.
A Connecticut official said the
gunman’s mother was found dead
in her pajamas in bed, shot four
times in the head with a.22-caliber
rifle. The killer then went to the
school with guns he took from his
mother and began blasting his
way through the building.
“There is no blame to be laid on
us but there is a great burden and
a great challenge that we emerge
whole,” First Select Woman
Patricia Llodra said. “It is a defining moment for our town, but it
does not define us.”
Violence is ‘as American as cherry pie’
(from Page 3)
Fort Hood Texas mass murder in
2009, the weird-look on the face
of Jared Loughner after he fatally
shot six people and injured 12 others last year, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in Tucson.
This year has seen an unusual
number of high-profile shootings.
In April, three Black people were
killed and two more injured in
Tulsa as part of a hate crime. In
July, 12 people were killed and 58
were injured in Aurora, Colorado
at the midnight premier of the
Batman movie, “The Dark Knight
Rises.” And in August, seven
people were killed at three injured
at a Sikh temple in a Milwaukee
suburb.
Other terrorizing acts also come
to mind, including Timothy
McVeigh’s 1995 bombing of the
federal building in Oklahoma City
and Ted Kaczynski, the Harvardeducated “Unabomber,” who was
sentenced to eight consecutive
life sentences in 1998 for killing
three people and injuring 23 others over a 20-year period.
And, now a mass slaughter at
an elementary school.
At a prayer vigil Sunday night
in Newtown, Conn. for the 20 children, most of them 6- or 7-yearsold, and six adults, President
Obama said it is time to explore
what can be done to curb gun violence.
He said, “Can we honestly say
that we’re doing enough to keep
our children – all of them – safe
from harm? Can we claim, as a na-
tion, that we’re all together there,
letting them know that they are
loved, and teaching them to love
in return? Can we say that we’re
truly doing enough to give all the
children of this country the chance
they deserve to live out their lives
in happiness and with purpose?
I’ve been reflecting on this the last
few days, and if we’re honest with
ourselves, the answer is no. We’re
not doing enough. And we will
have to change.”
In the wake of the latest shooting spree, even some longtime National Rifle Association supporters
are saying we need more stringent
gun laws.
Senator Sen. Joe Manchin (DWest Va.) – who has an “A” rating
from the NRA – said: “I just came
with my family from deer hunting,”
Manchin said on MSNBC’s
“Morning Joe.” “I’ve never had
more than three shells in a clip.
Sometimes you don’t get more
than one shot anyway at a deer.
It’s common sense. It’s time to
move beyond rhetoric. We need to
sit down and have a commonsense discussion and move in a
reasonable way.”
Even Rupert Murdock, CEO of
News Corp., asked rhetorically on
his Twitter account, “When will
politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons?” Murdock’s
media empire includes Fox News,
which strongly advocates pro-gun
positions.
Although it may not seem like it,
America is less violent than it was
two decades ago, according the
FBI crime statistics. The homicide
rate, which peaked at 10 per 100,000
in the early 1990s, is now about half
that rate. However, the same can’t
be said of mass murders, defined
as involving the deaths of at least
four people.
James Alan Fox, professor of
criminology, law and public policy
at Northeastern University in Boston, said there is no pattern with
mass murders. He said there were
645 mass-murder events between
1976 and 2010.
Even at its greatly reduced
level, the U.S. is far more violent
than other high-income countries.
Data from the World Health Organization for 2003 from 23 heavily
populated high-income countries
showed that the U.S had far higher
rates of firearm deaths than the
other 22 countries studied.
In fact, of the 23 countries examined, 80 percent of all firearm
deaths occurred in the U.S., 86
percent of all women killed by firearms were females living in the
United States and of all children
14 and under killed by firearms, 87
percent of them were in the U.S.
Speaking in Connecticut,
Obama said, “Since I’ve been
president, this is the fourth time
we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn
apart by a mass shooting. The
fourth time we’ve hugged survivors. The fourth time we’ve consoled the families of victims. And
in between, there have been an
endless series of deadly shootings
across the country, almost daily
reports of victims, many of them
children, in small towns and big
cities all across America – victims
whose – much of the time, their
only fault was being in the wrong
place at the wrong time.”
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237 W. 37th Street,
Suite 203 New York, New York 10018
Tel: (212) 213-8585
(from Page 3)
·
A study in five major cities
found that 46 percent of Black men
having sex with other men were infected with HIV, more than double
the 21 percent of White men exhibiting similar behavior.
“We have a health crisis within the
African-American community that is
impacting every facet,” says Rev.
Terry Terrell, the chief operating officer of the First Response Center at
Metropolitan Interdenominational
Church in Nashville. “If healing is
going to happen within the community, it will have to come from within
the community.”
More than 800 miles away in
Wilmington, Del., the leadership of
Bethel AME Church also believes in
healing from within the community.
In the lower level of the church,
what began as a small AIDS ministry
in 1994, a year after Rev. Silvester
Beaman and his wife, Renee, relocated from Bermuda to lead the
church, has grown to be the leading
HIV test site in the state of Delaware.
While on the island, Mrs. Beaman
she served as a nurse at a local hospital where she encountered many of
her church members and neighbors
infected with the virus.
“The nursing director gave me a
little black book filled with names and
addresses,” Beaman recalls. “These
were all of the people on the island
with HIV—there were members of the
church, political leaders.”
She wanted to tell her husband the
information, but new she couldn’t
disclose the information. Instead she
told him they needed to start a ministry to promote HIV/AIDS awareness
and prevention from within the
church.
In 2001, the ministry expanded to
include Beautiful Gate Outreach Center, which now provides testing, patient care, education, and other services to their predominately Black
community, which has some of the
highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the city.
When Mrs. Beaman first opened
the center, it took nine months before
anyone came in.
“No one came in, all the calls were
wrong numbers,” Beaman recalls.
“But, after those nine months, we ran
out of space for everyone.”
She added, “The thousands of
people that we’ve tested, the number of people who were found were
positive and got into to care have
validated us as a full-fledged HIV ministry. We’re making an unbelievable
difference.”
Rev. Keron Sadler, the NAACP HIV
and AIDS health program manager,
says
“We don’t just want churches to
create health ministries, we want to
change systems,” Sadler says. “
Black faith leaders have great power,
people really respond to the voice of
their leader, so we begin with the
leader.”
Not every church leader was quick
to join the campaign against HIV/
AIDS.
“Churches are hesitant to talk
about HIV because they’re hesitant
to talk about modes of transmission.
They don’t want to talk about sex,
they don’t want to talk about homosexuality, they don’t want to talk
about incest and rape,” says Sheila
Sullivan, the project coordinator at
Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland.
Sullivan works with a network of
16 churches throughout Cleveland
that are educated on HIV prevention,
treatment and works to keep congre-
gations and leadership open to talking about the disease in the church.
Over the past five years, Sullivan has
serviced over 50 church communities
outside of the network providing onsite testing, attending health fairs, distributing information, and conducting
presentations on HIV/AIDS and its
effect on the Black community.
“I remember going to churches that
were hesitant, but are now very open.
I have churches that have condoms in
their vestibule, not because they’re
promoting sex, but because they’re
promoting safety,” Sullivan explains.
Parnessa Seele is the founder and
CEO of the Balm in Gilead. Through
the organization she builds the capacity of faith communities by providing
information on HIV to help address
stigma and get people preventing, testing for, and treating the disease.
In her work, Seele has seen a number of churches open up to the idea of
protecting the community from HIV/
AIDS, but just as many who want nothing to do with it.
“We still have some churches that
don’t want anything to do with it because they believe HIV stems from
people living in sin,” Seele says. “Today we have to work to educate our
congregations that HIV is still real.”
No one knows that better than Rae
Lewis-Thornton, who has been living
with AIDS for 20 years. In 1994, she
was the focus of Chicago’s CBS affiliates feature series “Living with AIDS,”
during which she gave viewers a
glimpse into her day-to-day experiences as a woman with the virus which
was then seen as a death sentence.
She remembers sitting in a pew of
Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church
on the city’s southwest side one Sunday when her pastor called out to her
in the middle of service.
“Lewis, was that you I saw on TV?”
she remembers Rev. Clay Evans asking. She responded, “Yes, pastor.”
She had been too scared to disclose
her status to her pastor, so she kept
the fact that she had AIDS a secret
within the walls of the church.
So when her pastor said “good
work,” she was surprised, but not as
surprised as she was when she asked
him to write her a letter of recommendation to a seminary school. After the
application sat on her desk for months
– again, out of fear – she finally built
up the nerve to approach Rev. Evans
about her call to ministry. She remembers him laughing at her and saying,
“I know, I was just waiting for you to
figure it out.”
Lewis-Thornton still waited 13 years
after being licensed to get ordained to
minister. Now, as a member and pastor
at Westpoint Missionary Baptist
Church in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, Lewis-Thornton is excited to
share information on the virus she
fights every moment her life – from the
pulpit.
“Everyone is going to be talking
about HIV and AIDS in my church,”
says Lewis-Thornton, who refers to
herself as a “diva living with AIDS.”
She explains, “You can’t do a public
ministry the way I do and not have a
pastor who supports it,” Thornton
says. “The fact that God has given me
a place that I can worship and do ministry inside those walls for the church,
outside the walls for the church and in
the community without any shame or
friction is a blessing.”
Beaman, the Bermuda native who
moved to Wilmington, Del., observes:
“To know that there is a church that is
really caring about it and not condemning HIV and AIDS is so important.”
15
President Obama vows to use executive Black churches confront
powers to end gun violence, mass killings the AIDS epidemic
16
Letters from Wilmington Ten prosecution witness confirm defendants were framed
(from Page 4)
resisted by the Prosecutor and
upheld by the Trial Judge.”
“At one point during Hall’s
cross-examination,” the legal petition adds, “… he became so
enraged at the insistent and grueling questioning by Defense Attorney James Ferguson that he
rushed from the witness stand
and attempted to physically attack Ferguson in open Court.”
The judge didn’t sanction Hall
for the violent outburst, however. Instead, the judge chastised
defense attorney Ferguson for
asking such tough questions.
In October 1972, the
Wilmington Ten were all convicted and sentenced to 282
years in prison, thanks to Allen
Hall’s false testimony.
But according to the Wilmington
Ten pardons legal petition, it didn’t
end there.
“In 1975, soon after the [US]
Supreme Court refusal to grant certiorari to review the convictions,
Allen Hall recanted his trial testimony and publically admitted that
he lied as a result of inducements
and promises which were made to
him by the State Prosecutor,” attorneys Joyner and Ferguson
wrote to the governor. “Following
Hall’s recantation, Jerome Mitchell
and Eric Junius also recanted their
testimonies.”
In a letter that Hall sent to The
Wilmington Journal when he was
apparently serving time for another crime years after the trial, he
titled it, “A Cry for Help,” indicating that he now feared for his life
behind bars.
“I have told you the people
what they would do to me, to try
and stop me from telling you the
lies that [District Attorney] Allen
Cobb and them made [me] tell in
court on Rev. Chavis an (sic) the
Wilmington Ten,” Hall wrote to
then Journal publisher Thomas
Jervay Sr.
It was revealed in the Fourth Circuit decision that Allen Hall suffered from a mental illness, and
prosecutor Stroud knew it. Stroud
“failed” to disclose that, and the
fact that Hall had gotten medical
attention for it, to the Wilmington
Ten defense for fear that it would
have disqualified his star witness’s
testimony. No Hall, no case.
“These convictions were reversed by the Fourth Circuit Court
Will America now find the will
to take a stand against guns?
(from Page 6)
room and remain as detached
as the kid playing the video
game, squeezing the trigger and
spraying the room in an instant,
disconnecting himself from the
screams.
He doesn’t have to look anyone in the eye, his humanity remains untouched. This mass
killing machine, designed to
produce human carnage, intended for soldiers at war, al-
lows Adam Lanza to destroy 20
little lives in the blink of an eye.
I pray that when Lanza crossed
over that line and produced a presidential tear, he created some courage and resolve in the hearts of
those men and women we elect to
represent us. And maybe Lanza
brought some NRA executive to
his knees, forcing him to talk to
God, to ask himself why he continues to fight for Adam Lanza’s right
to equip himself with a mass killing
machine.
Something feels different this
morning in America. But let all of
us fall to our knees and pray that
it’s not just a mirage, a tease. Let
us all pray for courage and resolve,
not just in our elected officials, but
in ourselves.
Because ultimately, it is us who
they answer to. We hold the keys
to our collective future. If America
wanted to end the legal sale of automatic weapons, it would happen
tomorrow. Are you willing to take
a stand for our babies?
DiNapoli says NYC budget balanced but risks loom
(from Page 4)
mains in a strong financial position.
As of October 2012, the city
had gained more than 150 percent
of the jobs it lost during the recession, although job growth has
been concentrated in lower-pay-
ing industries and the unemployment rate remains high at 9.3 percent. The city’s tourism agency
predicts another record year in
2012, with a projected 51.5 million
visitors.
Recent news that Wall Street
earned $17.6 billion through the
third quarter was an unexpected
positive development. The New
York Stock Exchange member firms
are on pace to exceed $20 billion in
profits for the year, twice the
amount assumed by the city and
among the highest on record.
DiNapoli’s analysis estimates that
the higher Wall Street profits will
boost business tax revenues by
$100 million in the current fiscal
year.
Dear God! when will it stop?
(from Page 6)
tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School is no fluke. It is a result of the senseless, immoral
neglect of all of us as a nation to
protect children instead of guns
and to speak out against the pervasive culture of violence and
proliferation of guns in our nation. It is up to us to stop these
preventable tragedies.
We have so much work to do
to build safe communities for our
children and need leaders at all
levels of government who will
stand up against the NRA and
for every child’s right to live and
learn free of gun violence. But
that will not happen until mothers and grandmothers, fathers
and grandfathers, sisters and
brothers, aunts and uncles, and
neighbors and faith leaders and
everybody who believes that
children have a right to grow up
safely stand up together and
make a mighty ruckus as long as
necessary to break the gun
lobby’s veto on common sense
gun policy. Our laws and not the
NRA must control who can obtain
firearms.
It is way past time to demand
enactment of federal gun safety
measures, including:
* Ending the gun show loophole
that allows private dealers to sell
guns without a license and avoid
required background checks;
* Reinstating the assault weapons
ban that expired in 2004; and
* Requiring consumer safety standards for all guns.
Why in the world do we regulate teddy bears and toy guns and
not real guns that have snuffed out
tens of thousands of child lives?
Why are leaders capitulating to the
powerful gun lobby over the rights
of children and all people to life and
safety?
I hope these shocking Connecticut child sacrifices in this holy season will force enough of us at last
to stand up, speak out, and organize with urgency and persistence
until the president, members of
Congress, governors and state
legislators put child safety ahead
of political expediency. And we
must aspire and act together to
become the world leader in protect-
ing children against gun violence
rather than leading the world in
child victims of guns. Every child’s
life is sacred and it is long past time
that we protect all our children.
Albert Camus, Nobel Laureate,
speaking at a Dominican monastery in 1948 said: “Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being
a world in which children are tortured.
But we can reduce the number
of tortured children.” He described
our responsibility as human beings “if not to reduce evil, at least
not to add to it” and “to refuse to
consent to conditions which torture innocents.” It is time for a critical mass of Americans to refuse to
consent to the killing of children
by gun violence.
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.
of Appeals in December 4, 1980
as a result of that Court’s studied
determinations that prosecutorial
misconduct and other constitutional violations occurred during
the Wilmington Ten prosecutions
and trials,” attorney Joyner
wrote. Supporters of the
Wilmington Ten – over 14,000 of
whom have signed pardon petitions nationally thus far, say based
on these facts, people should be
writing NC Gov. Beverly Perdue,
asking that she pardon all of them
before she leaves office Dec. 31.
Allen Hall died several years ago in
Pennsylvania. Only his many letters from prison speak for him now.
New bank opens in Harlem
to serve the underbanked
(from Page 2)
products and services that help
underbanked customers make
the transition to mainstream
banking. It is reported that New
Yorkers spend almost $200 million a year on check cashing fees.
At Spring Bank, customers who
would otherwise pay up to $9.55
to cash a $500 check at the other
check cashers, pay only $1 on
checks up to $1,000.00 (and 1%
on checks over $1,000). These
customers are also offered the
option of opening bank accounts with no minimum requirements.
According to the 2011 FDIC
National Survey of Unbanked
and Underbanked Households,
20% of US households are
underbanked. This represents one
in five households, or 24 million
households. Spring Bank is determined to serve neighborhoods
with large numbers of
underbanked consumers. According to Blake, “These are national
problems that demand hyper-local, New York-style solutions.”
Spring Bank was an early participant in programs to help its retail customers achieve economic
stability. These include $aveNYC
(now $SaveUSA) and the NYC
SafeStart Account in partnership
with the City’s Office of Financial
Empowerment at the Department
of Consumer Affairs, as well as
Bank on Manhattan, a public/private partnership led by Manhattan Borough President Scott
Stringer.
Passionate about the wrong things
(from Page 7)
(baseball, basketball) aficionados, but I am concerned that so
much passion is channeled in one
direction but not in others. The
passion for sports is so rabid that
I’ve listened to preachers pray for
victory for their teams from their
pulpits, never mind that those on
the opposing team are God’s children, too.
Can a preacher or two not only
throw down on education but
also provide vehicles for parishioners to get involved in educating our children? Passion and
intensity are important elements
of our lives. Without passion we
fade into the periphery, ground
down by the minutia of everyday
life. Get kids to school, go to work,
come home for dinner, and relax. If
that isn’t your pattern, you’ve got
one, and the only thing that pulls
you out of pattern is passion.
There is nothing wrong with a
passion for football. Can we channel some of that passion, though,
that can transform our world by generating safety, education and job
opportunities? That’s the kind of
passion that could rock our world.
Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C-based author and economist.
Susan Rice withdraws her
name for Secretary of State
(from Page 3)
potentially
months,
and
in-cred-ibly distracting and disruptive,” Rice said. The first few
months of any president’s second
term, she said, are “your high-water mark of influence.”
“If my nomination meant that
the odds of getting comprehensive immigration reform passed or
any other major priority were substantially reduced, I couldn’t live
with myself,” she said.
Rice’s withdrawal was a retreat
by Obama, who had repeatedly
voiced support for her. In a statement issued by the White House,
Obama described her as “an extraordinarily capable, patriotic,
and passionate public servant.”
But her removal from the scene
is unlikely to quell the controversy
that led to it: the extremist attack
on the U.S. diplomatic mission in
Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador
J. Christopher Stevens and three
other Americans.
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and
Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) have
focused on what they called Rice’s
intentionally misleading description, in television interviews five
days after the attack, of an antiAmerican demonstration that
turned violent. The administration
later revised that assessment, using what it said was updated intelligence information, to blame organized extremists.
Subscribe and Advertise in the
New York Beacon
237 W. 37th Street,
Suite 203 New York, New York 10018
Tel: (212) 213-8585
By Victoria Horsford
LOOKING AT 2013
Next year will be innumerable
with celebrations in the United
States of America. January 1
marks the 150th Anniversary of
the Emancipation Proclamation,
which ended the dark chapter
of American history when
people of African descent were
enslaved and which gave birth
to the African American. January 21 is the date of the second
inauguration of America’s first
African American President
Barack Obama, the same date
that the Martin Luther King
Holiday will be observed. August 28, 2013 will be the 50th Anniversary of the historic March
On Washington.
The NJ based Positive Community Magazine launched its
COUNTDOWN TO FREEDOM
initiative a year , which embraces knowledge of the African American ‘s “cultural narrative” that attends the 2013
anniversaries. To that end, it
has published many articles
that underscore the importance
of knowing the African American narrative , its history and
traditions, and educating the
next generation about same.
Moreover, The Positive Community has been collaborating
with the Grand Jubilee Committee of NJ to launch a year-long
observance and commemoration of The Great Emancipation, which would begin at the
end of the New Year’s Eve
“Watch Night” service, which
is the beginning of the New
Year. NJ and NY African American churches have been asked
to follow a format for Watch
Night, which includes prayers
of praise for our ancestors; engaging children in the cultural
narrative; vocalize the Negro
National Anthem, “Lift Every
Voice And Sing” and leaving the
service singing “We’ve Come
This Far By Faith.’ So, what
are you doing New Year’s Eve?
WHITE HOUSE FELLOWS, a
leadership and public service
program, a paid, year- long fellowship working full time with
Sr. White House staff, the VP,
Cabinet Secretaries and other
government officials. Candidates for the WH Fellow should
be between 26 to 38, who has
finished undergraduate studies
and who is working in special
field on interest. Applications
must be filed by 1/15/13 for the
next WH Fellows program beginning September, 2013. Go to
www.whitehouse.gov, then go
to WH Fellows or call 202
395.4522.
NEW YORK, NY
On December 17, the NYS
Senate Democrats voted to
oust their Leader Senator John
Sampson of Brooklyn and replaced him with Senator Andrea
count on orders placed by 1/15.
Visit:
www.huemanbookstore.com .
Stewart-Cousins of Westchester.
This vote will not get the 5 renegade Democratic Senator who
decided to caucus with the NYS
Republicans to return to the
fold. Senator Andrea StewartCousins becomes the first
woman to head a conference in
the NYS Legislature. The Democrats Senate Democrats actually
won a majority of the seats in the
Senate in last month’s election.
The renegade Dem Senators
who will caucus with the GOP
deprived their party of majority
state. It is a mess, worst than US
Senate dysfunction.
PEOPLE
HOLIDAY PARTIES/GIFT
IDEAS
Councilwoman Inez Dickens
really knows how to throw a
good Xmas Party which was held
at the Kennedy Center in Harlem
last week. And everyone attended, politico brass and constituents alike. I spied Assemblyman Keith Wright, Mayoral
hopeful Bill Thompson and
Councilman Robert Jackson,
who will run for Manhattan Borough Presidency next year, all of
whom really can boogie. However, the men were no match for
the indefatigable Councilwoman
Dickens, who truth to tell is really “Dancing With The Stars”
material. The atmosphere was
electric and the spirits were joyous, thanks also to the deft talents of the DJ who kept the festivities at fever pitch Spirits were
high and joyous and a competent DJ kept the festivities at fever pitch.
HARLEM HABERDASHERY,
located at 245 Lenox Avenue,
122/123 Street, is the retail component of 5001 Flavors, a custom-made apparel company,
which has been creating
fashionista statements for celebrities and the sports legends,
for more than 20 years. The
handsome Harlem Haberdashery
coat of arms speaks volumes
about the boutique’s unique
fashion possibilities. It is a great
place for holiday shopping and
gifts. Visit:
harlemhaberdashery.com or call
646.707.0070.
Theater, film and TV actress
Anna Maria Horsford’s jewelry
and accessories collection of
earring, necklaces, bracelets, and
rings are a motley mix of fine and
costume jewelry, customized and
rtw, composed from crystals
and semi precious stones, and
accessories is marketed as the
AMHCOLLECTION. View her
e-commerce shop at:
www.amhcollection.com.
Journalist/author Harriette
Cole recently launched her
eponymous Collection, 108
STITCHES, a luxury crochet line
which offers hats, shawls, ponchos, scarves made from cashmere, mohair, silk, suede, and
Japanese boiled wool, which may
be considered wearable art. View
the Harriette Cole Collection at
www.108stitches.biz.
The brick and mortar HUEMAN BOOKSTORE closed, but
it remains a major internet retailer.
Use
the
code
REBOOTHUE and get a 20% dis-
Denzel Washington
Gabby Douglas
Harriette Cole
SC Governor Nikki Haley names
African-American Congressman
Tim Scott to replace US Senator
Jim DeMint, who is retiring. A darling of the GOP far right, Scott becomes the first uh?! Black US Senator from the South since the 19 th
Century. Did the GOP learn anything last November?
CAPRICORN, earth, the 10th
sign of the zodiac. Birthday
shoutouts to Debbie Allen, Mary
J. Blige, Geoffrey Canada, Morris
Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Gabby
Douglas, Lee Daniels, Junot Diaz,
Mary Flowers, George Foreman,
Tyrese Gibson, Cub Gooding, Jr.,
Steve Harvey, LeBron James,
James Earl Jones, R. Kelly, John
Legend, Byron Lewis, LL CoolJ,
Cheryl Mills Carroll, Bill Maher,
First Lady Michelle Obama, Elayne
Richard, Voza Rivers SADE,
Dwayne Wade, Denzel Washington,
NY based theatre denizen Darryl
Lacy has been nominated for an
NAACP Image Award, in the Debut Author In The Outstanding Literary Work category for his new
book NIKKI G: A Portrait of Nikki
Giovanni In He Own Words, which
is a stage drama about the life of
the world renown poetess. Image
Award Winners will be announced
on NBC-TV Special on 2/1.
RIP: Daniel Inouye, 88, a US
Senator from Hawaii, died on 12/
17. The first Japanese American to
serve in Congress, where he was a
member since 1959, the year of
Hawaii’s statehood, he a Representative before becoming a Senator.
Ravi Shankar, 92, India-born sitar virtuoso, died. Considered “the
godfather of world music,” Shankar
played with musicians of all genres,
from jazz icon John Coltrane to the
Beatles. India’s Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh references
Shankar as a “national treasure.”
TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY
The ageless Baby Boomers Fred
Jewell and Tyrone Scott and their
Season’s Greetings posse, Pepe
Sutton, Michael Churchill, Marilyn
Hodge, Janie Washington and
Deborah Whitfied-Small, co-host
their annual “Jammin’ Holiday Celebration on Thursday, 12/ 20, at
the Hudson River Café, located at
697 West 133 Street, on 12th Avenue, Harlem. Dancing, Hors
d’oeuvres, 3 bars, and free parking. The fun begins at 7 pm until.
Unlimited Contacts’ The Bob
Tate/Dedra Tate host a Holiday
Appreciation Toy Drive Party –dinner, dancing, DJ and live entertainment - will be held at Tian Restaurant at Riverside Drive at 145 Street,
Harlem on Saturday, 12/ 22, from 8
pm to 2 am. Call 917.217.2222.
A management consultant,
Victoria Horsford is a pop culture
historian who is reachable at:
[email protected]
Anna Maria Horsford
BEST WISHES FOR A JOYOUS
HOLIDAY SEASON: MERRY
XMAS, HAPPY KWANZAA AND
A HAPPY 2013, A YEAR TO BE
FILLED WITH PEACE!
WHAT’S GOING ON
17
18
NNPA Award Winner
Enter tainment
By Don Thomas
Disc Chat
Martha Wash: The undisputed ‘Queen of
Clubland’ reclaiming her 40 year legacy
Men” went on to receive a
Grammy nomination, an
achievement Wash considers
the most memorable moment
in her career.
In 1984 The Weather Girls
lent their voices to Rebbie
Jackson’s hit, “Centipede.” By
the late ‘80s they went their
s e p a r a t e w a y s , a n d Wa s h
forged ahead as a solo artist.
Although she’s recorded several ballads, including her #1
R&B duet with Luther
Vandross, “I Who Have Nothing,” Wash has been labeled
a dance artist.
Proving she is much more,
“Something Good” finds
Martha taking chances and
singing skillfully crafted pop/
adult contemporary songs.
The first single is the beautiful ballad “I’ve Got You.”
Written by Rony Goffer and
Zach Adam, winner of the Billboard Songwriting Contest
Pop Award, it’s a song Wash
says speaks to everyone.
Initially she had reservations about performing material her audiences wouldn’t
expect, but realized that as an
artist, she could no longer
play it safe.
“I’m just spreading my
wings more and moving in another direction. As long as
you live you’re going to get a
little older. Are you going to
keep doing the same things
you were doing in your 20s
when you get into your 50s?
It’s about advancing and moving on,” says Wash.
Martha hopes the eight
songs from the project which
she calls empowering, will inspire others to find their
The late great Sylvester
strength inside and follow their
destiny.
“Whatever song they listen
to, I hope they get something
positive out it. I want them to
think about themselves and
about helping others,” she
says.
“Something Good” comes
on the heels of the 30 th anniversary of “It’s Raining Men.”
It seems impossible to compreh e n d t o d a y, b u t B a r b r a
Streisand, Donna Summer, Cher,
and Diana Ross all passed on
the iconic song written by Paul
Jabara and Paul Shaffer.
Wash says people still love
the song because it’s fun. She
doesn’t deny that it’s campy,
but when she sees that older
people know it, their children
know it and sometimes their
grandchildren know it. I can’t
be mad about that!,” she says.
Martha Wash still loves every minute of performing. While
her fans revere her the time has
come for her to receive the accolades she’s earned from all audiences.
The truth is in the new ballad
“Proud” as Martha sings “I’ll
make you proud of loving me.
You won’t regret that you believed. How did you see what
no one else could see in me?”
If you don’t know who
Martha Wash is by now, you’re
missing out on something good.
Martha Wash new CD will be released the beginning of the year. She
was honored along with Sylvester posthumously, a statue was unveiled in their Honor.
(Photo: Sean Black)
Thirty years after proclaim- “Where have I been? I’ve been
i n g “ I t ’s R a i n i n g M e n ! ” r i g h t h e r e — w o r k i n g ! , ” s h e
Martha Wash is still going [laughs]. Year after year Wash
strong. In a career that has is in demand, sought after to
spanned nearly four decades, headline concerts worldwide,
Martha’s voice can be heard and most recently returned from
singing some of the biggest Montreux Jazz Festival in Swithits in dance music, including zerland, where she performed a
t h e c h a r t - t o p p i n g “ G o n n a tribute to dance music at the reMake You Sweat (Everybody quest of Nile Rogers, Quincy
Dance Now)” and the inspira- J o n e s , a n d f o u n d e r C l a u d e
Nobs.
tional “Carry On.”
In an age where artists come
However, as Wash once
put it, “Unless you are a die- and go, Wash is a proven surhard fan, you wouldn’t know v i v o r. A l o n g w i t h I z o r a
who I was.” Now, “The Queen Armstead, she began singing
of Clubland” is reclaiming her background for the late great
legacy. After earning eight #1 Sylvester under the name Two
hits and an additional eight Tons O’ Fun. Together, their
Top 10s on various Billboard dynamic, soulful voices can be
Charts, she is releasing “Some- heard on his signature song,
thing Good,” her first collec- “You Make Me Feel Mighty
tion of all new material in al- Real.”
E v e n t u a l l y Wa s h a n d
most 20 years.
“I’m trying to move my ca- Armstead released their own rereer forward. I’ve been work- cordings, including three Top
i n g a l l a l o n g , b u t p e o p l e 5 Billboard dance singles, “I
weren’t really seeing me un- Got the Feeling,” “Earth Can Be
less they were coming to my Just Like Heaven” and “Just
shows. People know the mu- Us.”
sic, but they need to see me,”
In 1982 the duo announced,
Wash says about why she re- “Hi, we’re your weather girls
turned to the studio.
and have we got news for you!”
But don’t call “Something Within the blink of an eye, Two
Good” a comeback as Martha To n s O ’ F u n b e c a m e T h e
Wash has never gone away. Weather Girls and “It’s Raining Martha Wash and the late great Izora Armstead (The Weather Girls) formerly (2 Tons O Fun)
Louis Armstrong House Museum
celebrates second swinging soiree
Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong
The Louis Armstrong House
Museum Gala took place on
Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at the
Manhattan Penthouse, 80( Fifth
Avenue, New York City. The
swinging soiree — which attracted Louis Armstrong lovers
from around the world who gathered to celebrate Armstrong’s
legacy and raise funds for the
— began with a jazzy cocktail
hour followed by dinner and the
awards ceremony.
Michael Cogswell, 21-year director of the Museum and a
former musician, served as Master of Ceremonies and welcomed
guests to the second anniversary
gala while thanking and acknowledging everyone responsible for
their generosity.
The gala celebration honored
a trio of notable jazz preservationists namely Stanley Crouch, distinguished author and president
of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation; Jimmy Heath,
saxophonist, composer, arranger,
and Queens College professor
emeritus; and George Wein, legendary jazz impresario and chairman of the Newport Festivals
Foundation, for their pioneering
work to preserve and promote the
cultural legacy of Louis Armstrong. Each honoree received a
“Louie” award. Jazz great
Wynton Marsalis surprised the
crowd joining the festivities to
introduce Crouch.
After the awards ceremony,
David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Centennial Band gave a
performance that had the crowd
cheering. Heath sat-in on soprano saxophone and performed
“What a Wonderful World.” to
the delight of the crowd.
Museum is the perfectly preserved home of Louis and Lucille
Armstrong in Corona, Queens.
The Museum’s programs feature
house tours, jazz concerts, educational events and community
outreach. It is a National Historic
Landmark and New York City
Landmark; and what was once a
stack of 72 shipping cartons of
“Satchmo’s stuff” has grown to
become the largest research archives in the world for any jazz
musician.
The Museum is located at 3456 107th Street in Corona,
Queens. Thanks to the vision
and funding of the Louis
Armstrong Educational Foundation, the Louis Armstrong House
Museum welcomes visitors from
all over the world, six days per
week, 52 weeks per year. More
information about the Louis
Armstrong House Museum can
be found online at:
www.LouisArmstrongHouse.org
or by calling the Museum at (718)
478-8274.
Stanley Crouch is an awarding-
(front row) Jimmy Heath, George Wein, Stanley Crouch (back row)
Wynton Marsalis, Michael Cogswell, Jerry Chazen
The Louis Armstrong House (Photo by Jen S.)
Louis Armstrong Japanese-inspired garden grounds (Photo by Jen S.)
Jimmy Heath
winning writer and co-founder of
Jazz at Lincoln Center. Henry Louis
Gates, Jr. has written about Mr.
Crouch: “Each generation has a
moment, or an embodiment, of hardearned integrity and the keenest
insight. Among our generation of
writers, Stanley Crouch is that moment.” Crouch’s writings on Louis
Armstrong are considered some of
the finest in the literature of music.
He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Museum.
Jimmy Heath was named an NEA
Jazz Master, Jazz’s highest honor,
in 2003 for his monumental contributions to Jazz as a saxophonist,
composer, and arranger. He
founded the graduate program in
Jazz Studies at Queens College in
1987 and retired in 1998 as Professor Emeritus. He was an early advocate for the establishment of the
and a charter member of the
Museum’s Advisory Board.
George Wein, legendary producer, promoter, founder of the
Newport Jazz Festival, and chairman of the Newport Festivals
Foundation, invented the concept
of the jazz festival. In recognition
of the thousands of jazz performances that he produced, he was
named an NEA Jazz Master in
2005. He has been called “the
most famous jazz impresario” and
“the most important non-player...
in jazz history.” A decades-long
Armstrong fan, he produced some
of Armstrong’s most notable concerts and is a member of the
Museum’s Advisory Board.
The world’s most famous
jazz musician was an international celebrity who could
have lived anywhere. Yet in
1943, he and his wife, Lucille,
settled in a modest house in
Corona, Queens, where they
lived for the remainder of their
lives. No one has lived in the
Wynton Marsalie, Queens College president James Muyskins
house since the Armstrongs,
and the house and its furnishings remain very much as they
were during Louis and Lucille’s
lifetime.
Today, the Louis Armstrong
House Museum is open to the
public, offering guided tours of
Louis’s longtime home. On the
tour, audio clips from Louis’s homemade recordings are played, and
visitors hear Louis practicing his
trumpet, enjoying a meal, or talking with his friends. Visitors also
get to enjoy an exhibit on Louis’s
life and legacy, and the
Armstrongs’ beautiful Japaneseinspired garden.
Museum is the modest home of
Louis and Lucille Armstrong in
Corona, Queens. The Museum’s
programs feature house tours, jazz
concerts, educational events and
community outreach. I t is a National Historic Landmark and New
York City Landmark; and what was
once a stack of 72 shipping cartons
of “Satchmo’s stuff” has grown to
become the largest research archives in the world for any jazz musician.
Museum, a National Historic Landmark and a New York City landmark,
is a member of the American Association of Museums, the Association of African American Museums,
NYC & Company, the National
Trust for Historic Preservation, and
the Metropolitan Historic Structures Association; and is a constituent of the Kupferberg Center for
the Arts at Queens College.
The House property is owned
by the New York City Department
of Cultural Affairs and administered by Queens College
through a long-term license
agreement. (Photos courtesy
Museum)
19
KICKIN’ IT with Lifestyles & Society Editor Audrey J. Bernard
Off-Broadway
20
‘A Piano Lesson’ opens with familiar conflicts
Wilson’s dialogue, heavily peppered with Black English. He
conjures up Doaker’s beloved
Corrine, Bernice’s deceased
h u s b a n d C r a w l e y, e v e n t h e
whites who owned slaves, and
those ancestors who were enslaved.
Some of the most engaging talk
is between by the men folk as
they share Doaker’s liquor. They
start remembering the beloved
women in their lives, frankly
and without irony or humor.
“She held me,” Wining Boy says
of Cleotha, vying with Doaker’s
sweet memories of his Corrine.
Because “The Piano Lesson” is
so much about contrasting and
clashing values, director
Reuben Santiago-Hudson,
makes the most of physical ac-
By Ernece B. Kelly
Drama Critic
“I don’t want all this
carryin’-on,” Bernice (Roslyn
Ruff) insists when she’s awakened by her rowdy brother, Boy
Willie (Brandon J. Dirden), and
his follow-the-leader sidekick
Lymon (Jason Dirden). Having just driven up from the
South, they’re not welcome,
especially not with their truckload of watermelons parked in
front!
And so August Wilson’s vibrant drama, “The Piano Lesson” opens with the familiar
conflict between citified and
countrified Negroes.
Bernice is raising her young
daughter Maretha (Alexis
Holt) in a house shared with
her Uncle Doaker (James A.
Williams) a long time railroad
worker. And, while she cares
for Boy Willie, she feels he
brings “trouble” wherever he
lands.
The family lives in the Hill
District of Pittsburgh—the
setting for most of Wilson’s
plays—and their middle-class
aspirations are apparent in the
carefully appointed living
room with its subdued rug and
comfortable furniture. Off to
the side is a piano with elabo-
‘A Piano Lesson’ cast
rate wood carvings.
This will become the battleground as Bernice and Boy
Willie vie for ownership of this
strikingly, handsome family
heirloom.
By the end of the two-act
play (it’s long—clocking in at
over two hours), three other
characters appear, Uncle Wining Boy(Chuck Cooper) who
only stops by when he needs
m o n e y, Av e r y ( E r i c L e n o x
Abrams) the minister who’s
courting Bernice, and making
what are best described as
“cameo” appearances for comic
relief, a woman named Grace
(Mandi Masden).
Fitting together this vivid
ensemble with a large cast of
unseen characters from both
the recent and distant past, is
achieved thru the magic of
Introducing
Malindy Music, Inc. discovers new talents
Compiled By Don Thomas
The goal of Malindy Music, Inc. is to discover, groom,
and introduce new artist to
the real world of music by
creating, playing, and performing live music. After
many years of managing and
producing
acts,
John
Swanson, CEO of Malindy
Music, Inc. conceived the
notion that with the mere talent that surrounded him, he
could go into any studio and
achieve and independent
commercial product that
would rival any of today’s reproductions of original R&B
and/or Jazz music.
“Malindy first effort includes The Said Whatt Studio Band, Cal Bennett John
Swanson’s Rent Party, and
Augie’s Side Effect About
Time album. Augie’s Side Effect, once again raises the
bar on “A Smooth Review”
with his production on “Slow
Dancin.”
“I Won’t Let My Baby
Down,” displays soulful
Rawshaw delivering fine vocals that motive the listener
to a level of total contentment. Bosa Nova underscor-
Lina
ing yields Lina performance on
“Breakthrough” and her soulful prowess displayed on
“Through The Night,” could
easily become a soulful anthem.
Trevor House redefines the
definition of Blue eyed soul, on
“Over Me,” and Smooth jazz
artist Cal Bennett with his even
tempered style of playing
rounds out what is clearly a
perfect example of what can
still be.
“Albeit our current music is
classified as R&B/Jazz, and
adult contemporary with a
Latin funk flavor, our future
endeavors may include Gospel,
Blues, Rap, and Country,” says
Swanson.
Malindy Music, Inc. was
founded and first named Bullet Proof Productions, Inc.
The first act signed to company was the Sai Whatt
Band. Under the guidance of
the founder, John Swanson,
the Band was signed to a major recording deal with the
To t a l E x p e r i e n c e R e c o r d
Company.
Their label mates were the
G a p B a n d , Ya r b r o u g h &
Peoples, Switch, Pennye
Ford, Billy Paul, and Goodie.
Songs out of the Bullet Proof
camp were produced and recorded on the Gap Band,
Ya r b r o u g h & P e o p l e s ,
Pennye Ford, Prime Time,
Klique, and Ganiyu Gee Bello.
Currently Malindy Music
has added Augie’s Side Effect, T-House, and Lewis
Shaw (Raw Shaw) to the roster. Contrary to popular beliefs, R&B music is not dead!
John Swanson, the creative
force behind Malindy Music
is out to prove it! His roster
includes R&B/smooth jazz
artists on the music scene
today. They represent the
sounds and talents of era
many choose to believe are
long gone.
tion.
Boy Willie practically stomps
into the house initially, and his
wrestling with the ghost of Sutter
is so vigorous and extended that
it almost pushes the drama out
of its realistic grounding into
surrealism. It’s jarring, feeling
over-done.
But that’s a quibble given the
overall brilliant acting (especially
the regal performance turned in
by Ruff as Bernice), the clever
two-level set design of Michael
Carnahan, and the arresting music from sound designer David
Van Tieghem and musician Bill
Sims Jr.
“The Piano Lesson” is at the
Signature Theatre on West 42 nd
Street, Manhattan thru January
13 th .
On Stage
21
By Vinette K. Pryce
Special Assignment
Caribbean nationals believe their
stories are not usually presented
with authenticity in mass media.
Some are convinced television and
films often portray them in one-dimensional images of reggae-loving,
dreadlocked-wearing, weed-smoking individuals who regularly sport
red, gold and green and rarely ponder any other issues than carnival
and calypso.
Their virtual absence in productions on Broadway could also compound the belief that audiences
might be eluded by the vernacular,
culture and lifestyle of a population
residing south of the Florida peninsula.
Jamaica-born Andrew Clarke understands this concept when he
founded the BRAATA Theatre
Workshop and dedicated his company to presenting quality Caribbean productions.
After years of staging musically
enchanting productions throughout the outer boroughs, Clarke recently took a giant step into
Manhattan’s theater district where
fierce competition proliferates on
nearly every corner.
It is rare that a Caribbean artistic
director, playwright and actors manage to collaborate on Caribbean-focused productions this close to
Broadway.
However, their leap of faith fostered by the brilliant writing from
Karl O’Brian Williams a stellar engagement manifested just blocks
away from Times Square. In some
circles Williams is regarded as one
of Jamaica’s best exports to the
United States.
The actor and playwright , already acclaimed in his homeland for
winning the equivalent of a Tony
Award — Actor Boy, the nation’s
highest accolades in theater — for
Best Jamaican plays in 2005 and
2006 Williams teamed with Clarke
to take his consecutive winner “Not
About Eve” to New York’s proving
ground.
With less than a month to showcase their prowess at the Roy Arias
Stage, the winning duo invited three,
dynamic thespians to illuminate the
intricacies of the Caribbean, comedic drama.
While that may seem a daunting
task, the acceptance of Actors Equity associated thespian Sharon
Tsahai King to execute the matriarchal role proved a major enhancement to the challenging prospect.
King made no mistake in accepting
the role. She invested in the
intergenerational storyline to place
herself at the center of a controversial domestic dilemma where she is
Mama and eldest in the Shields
household.
With daughter Katherine (portrayed by Ilana Warner from St.
Kitts) and granddaughter Kimberley
(Stacy Ann Brissett from Jamaica)
the three live in constant disharmony. Their address is somewhere
in the capital city of Kingston, Jamaica where uptown businesswoman Katherine maintains a
townhouse.
Needless to say, the upstairs
garden terrace provides refuge to
Mama Agatha who toils to recreate
the Garden of Eden she created
while living in the rural countryside.
There with her husband Tom Roch-
Lessons on letting go of grudges;
the dangers of keeping secrets, 21st
versus 20th century issues and other
world-wide, family conflicts are also
boldly addressed. “I will never be
your garden,” Kimberley told her defiant mother. “I have to create my
little Garden of Eden.” Here she
added “I only decorate.”
This NYC debut should be a viable contender for the 41st VIV
Awards.
Only if Black theater’s Audience
Development Committee (AUDELCO) deliberately ignores this presentation will it fail to shine at next
year’s uptown, awards which honor
the legacy of Founder Vivian
Robinson. According to Clarke, the
purpose of BRAATA is to present
quality Caribbean dramatic productions. With “Not About Eve” it has.
Clarke and company are closer to
realizing the goal of mounting a production along the Great White Way
that diverse audiences might appreciate, Caribbean nationals could be
proud to claim and perhaps, a more
Stacy Ann Brissett who portrays (Kimberley) soaks in the love from (Mama Agatha) depicted brilliantly realistic view might prevail.
by Sharon Tsahai King
ester, she raised three children, Tony, turing blooms of Morning Glory, croGreg and Katherine. But her spouse ton, cocoa and other greenery.
died 15 years ago and the boys miWhile her love for her grandgrated to foreign North American daughter is unquestionable she worcountries to find their fortune.
ries that she might never settle down
At age 18, Katherine looked to to marriage and child-rearing. She is
Kingston to sow her seeds. She also frustrated with life in the city,
left the parish with Glen, married, her playgirl daughter, the departure
gave birth to Kimberley and on the of her two sons and the secrets harseventh anniversary of Glen’s death bored by her granddaughter. Thereis hosting a media event that could fore, the matriarch relies on Biblical
change her profile in the public rela- verses to carry her through each day.
tions market.
Often cantankerous, nosey and
Although, inheritance from his interfering she means well but uses
construction business cements a old-fashioned teachings to teach
concrete status in the uptown com- modern day lessons. One of her tacmunity, Katherine would rather be tics is to drown out negative talk by
accomplished for being an event co- singing “Blessed Assurance,”
ordinator and public relations expert. “Amazing Grace” or hymns that dig
She juggles both professions to live at convictions.
the uptown lifestyle but find conThe story is poignant. There is
flict at home with mother and child. an abundance of humor. TrailerMama does not approve of the loads of pure Jamaican dialogue
lavish, showy façade. She prays ooze like honey. And a diverse authat her only daughter would refrain dience might find ease in watching
from constantly texting on her cell a reflection depicted from this tropiphone. She disdains her obsessive cal mirror. The playwright sows
occupation with a laptop, night life, seeds that could sprout a blooming
yoga and exhibition of the most fash- landscape for Caribbean producion-forward outfits.
tions to occasionally travel along
What also irks the dominating el- The Great White way, theater’s main
der is that she desperately wants highway to stardom.
her daughter, Katherine to devote
“Not About Eve” places Daphne
more attention to her granddaugh- Sicre in the director’s chair. From her
ter, Kimberley, who does not see eye- seat, she sets a stage that beckons
to-eye to her pretentious mother. Caribbean warmth. Placing adornShe sees her mother as a yoga-prac- ments of peacocks, petunias and
ticing, hypocrite who is “smoking wind-chimes to the upstairs terrace,
and puffing her life to euphoria.”
her Latino and African-American
Artistic and creative, Kimberley perspective curries favor and amenjoys making organic treasures. plify the Caribbean décor and geogHer mother perceives them as “jew- raphy. There is also eye-candy and
elry out of rock-stones.” But throw-backs to Caribbean life.
Kimberley’s ambition is to own a
Mama Agatha’s standard house
boutique where her creations of dress, two gold bangles, head-tie,
wind-chimes, jewelry and other abundance of dusting powder,
crafts could be sold.
Bible-clutching and vernacular proNeither her mother nor grand- vide surreal authenticity to the charmother fully grasps the aspirations acter. With topical, generational,
of the youngest of the household. references, the play dangles on a
Her mother wants her to take a job, gender cliff to register the ignorance
any type, even one in the second and pervasive clueless attitudes tocity of Montego Bay where she wards sexuality.
would work in a friend’s store sellAlthough, the playwright seems
ing the work of other artisans and willing to frame those attitudes with
craftspeople.
adjectives of being “unaware,” he
Mama Agatha would also rather also gingerly provides hope that atpray that the 22-year-old “ask God titudes may be changing and hopes
to send you a good man.” Since might be evident. References to
moving from the far corner of the past, present and future provide enisland, Mama takes comfort in read- lightening spotlight to feature in this
ing The Bible, singing hymns, nur- three, generation stage production.
December27,
20,2012
2012--January
January2,2,2013
newyorkbeacon.net
BEACON, December
Caribbean life unfolds in Times Square Theater
BEACON,
newyorkbeacon.net
2, 2013
January 2,
2012--January
27,2012
December20,
BEACON,December
22
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Marc Rasbury
SPORTS
No playoffs, are you kidding me?
By Marc Rasbury
Do you remember when the
former Indianapolis Colts head
coach, Jim Mora, responded to a
reporter asking him about his
team’s chances of making the playoffs one year? His response was,
“Playoffs are you kidding me?
Playoffs?” Well that is my thinking about the current situation for
our local NFL teams but in reverse. If you would have bet me
that neither our beloved New York
Giants nor New York Jets would
make the playoffs in September, I
would have laughed at you. But
that may be the reality of the situation, as the Jets were eliminated
on Monday and the Giants playoff hopes are on life support.
Most folks felt that the Jets
would sneak in the post season
as a wildcard team while the defending champs were considered
a shoo-in to make the dance once
again this year. But when the Giants got blown out this weekend
down in Atlanta, 34-0, and the Jets
got humiliated at home Thanksgiving Night, the thought of both
sitting home for New Year’s became a reality.
After enjoying a nice Thanksgiving meal, I got ready to watch
our Jets take on their arch rivals
the New England Patriots. They
took them to overtime a few
weeks back so I thought that this
would be a competitive game.
However, by half time, the male
members of my family turned the
TV over to the teenage girls of
the clan so that they could watch
Glee. It was so embarrassing that
the die-hard football fans of my
family could not take it anymore. I
suggested that my immediate family load up the car and break out
just prior to the start of the third
quarter. I preferred to face the
Thanksgiving traffic than watch
the second half of the Boston
Massacre.
The Pats scored 21 points on a
comedy of errors committed by
Gang Green within a time frame of
52 seconds. The highlight of that
period was quarterback Mark
Sanchez running into right guard
Brandon Moore’s 350 lbs. behind
and fumbling the ball. That justified me excusing myself from my
front row seat to join the bid whist
tournament that was starting upstairs. How can a team look so
good against Buffalo and St. Louis
and look so bad against New England, Miami and San Francisco.
Well the Football Gods mercifully ended the Jets’ playoff hopes
Monday night as Sanchez threw
four interceptions in Gang Green’s,
14-10 defeat in Tennessee to the
Titans. The Jets didn’t deserve to
make the playoffs this season and
it would have been a travesty had
they played beyond the regular
season.
Then we have our beloved Big
Blue. Here is a team that less than
a year ago, brought home the
franchise’s forth Super Bowl championship trophy. Well, the way
they played on Sunday, it seemed
as if they have not won anything
since the Nixon Administration,
when they got hammered in At- Sanchez’s days may be numbered
lanta. It looked as if General Lee got
his revenge as the Boys from below the Mason Dixon Line took
apart Eli Manning and Co.
It was not a good sign when
Manning was intercepted on the
Giants second play from scrimmage
and it just got worse from there. In
a span of two weeks, Big Blue put
up Madden-like numbers against
Green Bay and New Orleans and
blew out San Francisco on the road
back in October.
This team has a Dr Jeckle-Mr.
Hyde personality. You never know
which team is going to show up to
anyone game. It’s truly feast or famine with this squad. I know that
Head Coach Tom Coughlin is losing a lot of sleep this season. I know
I have. You truly have to be a big
fan of Big Blue to stay on this roller
coaster.
The sad thing about this is there
is a good chance that the Giants will
miss the post season as well. After
having secured a lead for most of
2012 campaign, the Giants could be
on the verge of being on the outside looking in come January. Even
if they win their last two games, they
will need both the Cowboys and the
Redskins to lose because those two
teams hold the division tie breakers
and the wild card situation is
anyone’s guess.
This has been one unpredictable
season in the NFL and nowhere has
that been more demonstrated than
here in New York. You do not know
what expect from each team from
week to week. But one ting is for
sure. Both teams may be home beyond the Holidays!
Are struggles ahead for
the New York Knicks?
By Derrel “Jazz” Johnson
Amar'e Stoudemire
The New York Knicks lost
their first home game on Monday night to the Houston
Rockets, and if the Brooklyn
Nets have anything to say
about it, they will have their
first losing streak at home
Wednesday night, when the
Nets play at Madison Square
Garden against the Knicks for
the first time this season.
With Carmelo Anthony missing the last two games, the
Knicks haven’t been as sharp
on the offensive end, and it
isn’t surprising.
When Anthony was injured in the game against the
Los Angeles Lakers after receiving a hard foul from center Dwight Howard (who, as
always, looked at the referee
as if he hadn’t done anything
to warrant the foul call) he
completed his two free
throws, but has not been seen
on a basketball court since.
This is unfortunately too
bad for those watching, as
Anthony was having his best
offensive streak as a Knick.
After scoring 45 points in
Brooklyn last week to beat the
Nets on 15-24 shooting, Melo
had 30 points against the Lakers in 23 minutes on 10-15
shooting. It would have been
quite enjoyable to see how
long one of the most talented
scorers in the NBA would
have gone on this hot streak,
but it has ended.
Along with it, so has the
Knicks home winning streak.
Now, the Brooklyn Nets look
to extend their home losing
streak.
Help is on the way though,
as Carmelo is listed as dayto-day. All star power forward
Amar’e Stoudemire is set to
practice Tuesday with the
Developmental League team,
and if all goes well, will practice with the team. The Knicks
could potentially have their
two all-star forwards back
playing together, and the rest
of the NBA should take notice.
BEACON
24

Week 51 - New York Beacon

Transcription

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