LOCAL NEWS: Free Parent / Child Workshops
HEALTH: Special Olympics Young Athletes Kicks Off Season
SPORTS: Should High School Football Be Banned?
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Thursday, January 14, 2016 - January 20, 2016
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COMPLIMENTARY COPY VOLUME 20, NO. 2
Celebrating a Dream and a Life of Nonviolence Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday Is Friday – Where Are We in Race Relations Today?
BY TERRY MILLER As we pause and reflect on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Jan.15, 1929) one cannot help but wonder how far, in fact, we have come in the United States. During the less than 13 years of Dr. King’s leadership of the modern American civil rights movement, from December 1955 until April 4, 1968 when he was assassinated, African-Americans achieved more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350 years had produced. Dr. King is widely regarded as America’s pre-eminent advocate of nonviolence and one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world history. But how does 1960s philosophy translate in today’s modern world? Well, that depends on many factors and how you feel about socialism. Despite his fear of backlash - calling for both racial integration and the explicit overturning of capitalism was bound to make him too threatening or fringe - socialism remained important to him, and by the end of his career, it was an open and
inextricable part of his dream for a better America. Drawing inspiration from both his Christian faith and the peaceful teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King led a nonviolent movement in the late 1950s and ‘60s to achieve legal equality for African-Americans in the United States. While others were advocating for freedom by “any means necessary,” including violence, Dr. King used the power of words and acts of nonviolent resistance, such as protests, grassroots organizing, and civil disobedience to achieve seemingly-impossible goals. He went on to lead similar campaigns against poverty and international conflict, always maintaining fidelity to his principles that men and women everywhere, regardless of color or creed, are equal members of the human family. One of the seminal moments of the civil rights movement - and the one that made Dr. King a household name - was the 1963 March on Washington. Not everyone remembers that the march was “for jobs and freedom,” in that order. Among its demands were a national minimum wage and “a massive
Bob White Retires From Foothill Unity Center
Bob White was on the founding Board of Directors of the Foothill Unity Center more than thirty years ago. In that time he has held various offices on the board including several terms as its president and has also worked in almost every capacity at the center. At his retirement last week he joked that the only role he had not played at the center was as a client. With that in mind, Bob made a very special request at his party, not for a gift for himself, but rather for the center.
In honor of his retirement, he sends the following message to the community he has served for so many years: “As we wrap up our 35th year of service to the community, I ask your help in celebrating my retirement by supporting the Team 35 Challenge in honor of my years of service. “Foothill Unity Center has truly grown to become a place offering real hope and possibilities for those impacted by
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federal program to train and place all unemployed workers - Negro and white - on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages.” After President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, “King kept moving leftward, to confront the racial and economic injustice that had created and maintained the black ghettos of the north, and the national hubris that had led America into the quagmire of war in southeast Asia,” says Lee A. Daniels of the New Pittsburgh Courier. When he was killed, Dr. King had been planning to “stage a multiracial Poor Peoples March on Washington and involve himself in the bitter sanitation worker’s strike in Memphis,” Daniels adds. Those were hard years for Dr. King, his push for the working poor costing him the support of former allies, but they were “King’s finest hours,” Daniels says. In 1964, at 35 years old, SEE PAGE 7
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Local Realtor Achieves National Recognition Sylvia Ramos with Century 21 Village Realty has been awarded the Accredited Buyer’s Representation (ABR) designation by the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (REBAC) of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Sylvia Ramos joins more than 30,000 real estate professionals in North America who have earned the ABR designation. All were required to successfully complete a
comprehensive course in buyer representation and an elective course focusing on a buyer representation specialty, both in addition to submitting documentation verifying professional experience. Ramos is a veteran realtor with years of experience assisting clients in the listing and selling of residential properties by utilizing sound planning, professional ethics, persuasive skills, and a
strong company support system. Managing broker, Andy Bencosme, stated that, "Sylvia provides exceptional service, by analyzing ever-shifting market conditions and effectively communicating it to buyers and sellers. Her obtaining the ABR Designation will only enhance the great things she already does." Ramos specializes in all aspects of real estate SEE PAGE 19
Sylvia Ramos.
- Courtesy Photo