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SILVER SPRING TO HOLD AMA TU VIDA HEALTH FESTIVAL 11
Greenbelt man, once a part of the problem, helps to fight domestic violence Page 4 June 4 - June 10, 2015
BSU class of 2015 celebrates graduation Page 12 www.districtchronicles.com
Volume 14 Issue 41
6
Editorial
‘Ain’t no crystal stair’: a message to the class of 2015 Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it And splinters And boards torn up And places with no carpet on the floor –Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on And reachin’ landin’s And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. So, boy, don’t you turn back Langston Hughes, “Mother to Son,” 1922
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2 | Jun. 4 - Jun. 10, 2015 | District Chronicles
Gordon Parks
Customized solutions for independent living By Marc H. Morial NNPA Columnist (NNPA) – A diploma will generally be described as the proof of your successful completion of a course of study. Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that that single document occupying a prominent space on a wall, or waiting to be pressed into your eager hand is so much more than the sum of your years-long efforts to be where you are today. Your degree is a key that opens a new door, a new phase of life and a new set of challenges. Your life’s journey – and its achievements – does not end here. Celebrate, because you’ve earned it. Bask in your well-earned feeling of accomplishment today, because tomorrow you will find that there is much work to be done on the other side of this new door. On the other side is a staircase, and it may not be fashioned from crystal with smooth, reliable, clearcut steps. Obstacles may slow or impede your climb. There may be tacks, broken floorboards and torn up carpet that would trip, or at worst, defeat someone without the training you have been so fortunate to attain. There is no shortcut here, no elevator, or bypassing of these difficult steps and turns. There is, however, the choice to apply the perseverance and com-
mitment to excellence you have already shown in your higher education journey. There is much to celebrate in our country when it comes to academic achievement in African-American communities. Today, we enjoy the highest high school graduation rates in history. More students of color are in college, and dropout rates are at historic lows. But the wealth and unemployment gap between Blacks and Whites remains wide. While the Black unemployment rate has finally dipped into the single digits, it stubbornly remains more than twice as high as the rate for Whites. As our country’s economy continues to make steady gains after the debilitating 2008 recession, millions in Black and Brown communities are being left behind. In this countryfounded largely on the principle of economic progress through hard work, the American dream of upward mobility remains only a pipedream for too many of its citizens. Your education, drive and diploma, may shield you from the harsh economic realities experienced throughout communities of color. This does not strip you of an obligation to be an actor, rather than a spectator, in our country’s struggle to create one nation with liberty, justice and economic opportunity for all. No one gets to where they are
alone. You have parents, grandparents, friends and family members who invested in your future success, put you on this path and made sure you stayed the course. How will you repay their commitment to you? How will you choose to compensate your ancestors for their struggles? Among you are the teachers who will lift the standard of education in poor communities and begin to close the achievement gap. Among you are the preachers who will heal the wounds of communities torn apart by violence. Among you are the elected officials who will institute laws and policies that promote social and economic fairness for all of America’s citizens. The answer our nation has been searching for is you and your talent, put to a higher purpose. I cannot promise you that your climb to success in this life will be a crystal stair. You may very well encounter dark corners and obstacles. What I can promise is that you have been prepared to meet these challenges head on, and do more than meet these challenges. You have also been prepared to be an actor in solving so many of the longstanding issues and inequities facing our nation, so don’t you turn back. Marc H. Morial, former mayor of New Orleans, is president and CEO of the National Urban League.
Finance
Better pay comes when we demand it
Barry Solow/Creative Commons
Protestors demanding increase in minimum wage rally in New York in April.
By Rev. Jesse Jackson (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Los Angeles just voted to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. The nation’s second-biggest city joins Seattle, San Francisco and little Emeryville, California, in forging the way to a decent minimum. Similar measures are now being considered in New York City, Kansas City, Missouri, and Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital. Facebook is now paying its workers a $15 minimum and joins Apple and Microsoft in demanding that its contractors pay a $15 minimum and offer paid leave days. These victories are a product of the demonstrations and protests of fast food and other low-wage workers. They risked their jobs to demand decency. They put a human face on workers who labor full time but can’t lift their families out of poverty. They exposed the lie that these were transitory jobs for the young while they went to college or high school. Their demonstrations – organized under the hashtag slogan #FightFor15 – drew national press attention. Their struggles touched the hearts of citizens of conscience. They built the coalition that forced the politicians to respond. The Rev. Martin Luther King taught us that “freedom is never
voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” There are three ways to respond to repression, he told us. The first is acquiescence, adjusting quietly to injustice and becoming conditioned to it. “Been down so long it feels like up to me.” Acquiescence, he warned, turns people into part of the problem. The second way to respond is with physical violence and corrosive hatred. But violence never solves problems; it simply creates more difficult and complicated problems. An eye for an eye, he warned, would leave us all blinded. The third way is nonviolent resistance. Nonviolence rejects acquiescence and violence. It confronts the oppressor, gives voice to the oppressed, and exposes the injustice. It starts always against the odds, so it requires faith. “Faith,” King wrote, “is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” The #FightFor15 workers had faith. They chose to resist, not accept their poverty wages. They demonstrated for decency. And they have created a movement that surely will spread across the country. California is one of eight states that bans the subminimum wage that is inflicted on so-called “tipped workers,” the wait staff and service
workers that serve our food, clear our plates or carry our bags. California also voted to start publishing the names of companies that have more than 100 workers on Medicaid and the costs that they force on the states. Informed customers may well prefer to do business with high-road employers rather than those profiting from a low road. Most of our news coverage follows the frozen partisan politics of Washington. There, Republican leaders in Congress won’t even allow a vote on a modest Democratic proposal for a $12-an-hour minimum wage. The only time Congress seems to act is when the corporate community wants a tax break or a trade deal passed, or when the Pentagon demands more money to waste. But across the country, people are beginning to stir. Blacks and Whites are joining together to demonstrate that #BlackLivesMatter. Latinos are demanding immigration reforms that will bring millions out of the shadow economy. Gays and lesbians are demanding equal rights. Women are demanding equal pay, and men and women are insisting that the decision to have a child has to be one that they and not politicians make. Change will come, but only when people demand it and force their politicians to salute.
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Call 202-806-9401 to advertise in the districtchronicles.com District Chronicles. District Chronicles | Jun. 4 - Jun. 10, 2015 | 3
Neighborhood
Former abuser speaks out against domestic violence
NBC Washington
Che Sayles (left), a self-professed former bully, speaks out against domestic violence.
By Francisca Fournillier Howard University News Service
C
4 | Jun. 4 - Jun. 10, 2015 | District Chronicles
he Sayles said he used to beat his first wife. He was a wife batterer, a man who consistently felt it was okay to punch and slap his spouse. And when he wasn’t doing that, he would verbally abuse her. He was a bully. In fact, if he had done to a man what he did to his wife, police would have taken him to jail, said Sayles. “You have same-sex relationships where men [are] abusing other men, but when you call the police, they don’t write it up as maybe as domestic,” he said. “They write it up as assault.” Sayles is now remarried and reformed. These days, he speaks out against domestic violence. It’s really a human issue,” he said. “It’s a how-do-you-dealwith-conflict with anyone you run into [issue].” Sayles urges women who are in an abusive relationship to seek professional help. “Don’t tolerate it,” he said. “Get help and get out.” Sayles is targeting men specifically, and pointed out there was a lack of teaching men how to man-
age their conflict, he said. “People will always say, ‘Hey, never put your hands on a woman,’” he said. “You hear that growing up, but no one will actually tell you the tools or how do you do it – ‘Don’t raise your voice. Don’t put your hands up. Walk away. Only speak when you’re in a calm place.’ They don’t give you those specific tools.” One of these tools Sayles is currently working on is a 10-point guide on non-violence for men. He hopes the handbook will be introduced to middle schools all across the country in order to give some basic instructions on how to address domestic violence. He also works with the Prince Georges County Crisis Center, and is currently in the process of working with Still I Rise, an upcoming organization in Prince George’s County. Sayles married his current wife, Kanija Sanford Sayles, six years ago after meeting her while she was on vacation in Bowie, Maryland. Despite Sayles’ history, his wife said she never questioned whether she would have to deal with her husband’s past ways, and he has never lifted a finger toward her. “It was more of an isolated inci-
dent than a past of patterns,” said Kanija Sayles. “So I took it as an isolated incident. In the sum total of the entire person, it was a nonissue.” Sayles said community outreach and speaking out against domestic violence are very important to him. “You never know exactly who you’ve touched,” he said. “I spoke at University of Maryland. I spoke at Howard, and when I spoke at Howard, I did a program with the [Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority] and people in the audience cried.” Sayles said he decided to speak out because he felt it could make the difference. “Breaking that silence became part of the answer for me,” he said. “So, I said, ‘Well if that’s part of the solution and the answer for me, then maybe that can be part of the solution for so many other people.’ It’s just actually being able to say it.” Sayles advises men who are abusive to seek professional help, and he urged people to be more vocal about the issue. “Domestic violence can’t be a whisper issue,” he said. “It’s one of those things that people whisper behind people’s back, and we have to get away from that.”
Divine Intervention Religious groups react to lifting ban on gay leaders. By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service
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he phone calls and emails have been pouring in at Trail Life USA since Boy Scouts of America President Robert Gates said his organization should remove its ban on gay leaders. “I think this is the major public turning point,” said John Stemberger, chairman of Trail Life USA, which bills itself as a Christian alternative to the Boy Scouts. “The handwriting is on the wall.” After Gates’ remarks, Trail Life’s Facebook page “likes” increased by more than 3,000. The group that began with almost 500 troops in January 2014 now has 567 troops in 48 states. Another 200 are in the process of joining. Meanwhile, leaders of faith groups, which sponsor 70 percent of Scouts’ units, had mixed reactions. Catholics and Mormons appear to be taking a wait-and-see attitude, Methodists plan to mull the next steps with BSA officials, and some progressive groups are welcoming the possible change but say it may take an actual revision before they see a significant boost in participation. In a letter to “fellow Catholic Scouters” posted on Facebook, Edward P. Martin, national chairman of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, said his group supports the “viable form of youth ministry” it provides with the BSA. “We will continue to pursue that mission until such time BSA rules conflict with Catholic teaching,” he wrote. “That hasn’t happened yet, nor do we expect it to happen.” Martin noted that Gates said in his May 21 comments that organizations with BSA charters should be permitted “to establish leadership standards consistent with their faith.” R. Chip Turner, chairman of the BSA’s Religious Relationships Committee, hopes more faith groups will take the Catholic committee’s approach. “Let’s wait and find out what is actually proposed,” he said he tells groups that are wondering about leaving the BSA.
Boy Scouts of America president Robert Gates recently called for an end to the policy that bans gays from leadership positions.
The BSA said its Executive Board is expected to make a decision by October. The Scouts have seen a decrease in membership since their 2013 policy change permitting gay Scouts. Overall, 2.4 million youth participated in BSA programs in 2014, a decrease of about 7.4 percent from 2013. Turner said that “in a number of cases,” units have moved from a local congregation that no longer wanted to affiliate with the BSA to another affiliated faith group. While some councils, or local groups of Scouts, have seen membership growth for years, others “had some fairly significant losses.” He could not name a specific faith group that has altogether left the BSA. But a BSA report on trends in membership of faith-based chartered organizations shows that most listed groups saw a decline in youth membership from 2012 to 2013, ranging from 0.4 percent in the Episcopal Church’s affiliated groups to 14.2 percent among Baptist churches. The only exception to the decline was the Mormon church, which had an increase of 1.5 percent. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will, of course, examine any such changes very carefully to assess how they might impact our own century-long as-
sociation with the BSA,” the Utahbased faith group said in a statement after Gates’ speech. “We will be in conversation with the BSA relative to Dr. Robert Gates’ remarks,” said Larry Coppock, national director of the United Methodist Church’s Scouting office. Last week, the Liberty Counsel, a legal and policy organization dedicated to religious freedom, asked its supporters to sign a petition to the BSA that declares “No compromise! Keep troop leaders and scouts morally straight!” “We strongly encourage you to keep the BSA organization and its members doing your duty to God and country, reaffirming your goal to be ‘physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight,’” reads the petition, which will be hand-delivered to BSA leaders on June 5. “Though we continue to be disappointed in their 2013 decision, we are not surprised that the trajectory set into motion two years ago continues to unfold,” said Roger “Sing” Oldham, spokesman for the SBC’s Executive Committee. As faith leaders of all perspectives await word on what the BSA will do next, some churches that affirm LGBT people have strengthened their ties with the Scouts since its 2013 decision to accept gay Scouts.
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Messiah and Friends at G2 Lounge 10-21-11. See more photos at flickr.com/amgunited.
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District Chronicles | Jun. 4 - Jun. 10, 2015 | 5
Cover A call to stop the spread of charter schools By Freddie Allen Senior Washington Correspondent
EmpowerDC.org
(NNPA) – The pressure is on for civic leaders to end the expansion of charter and contract schools in Black and Latino communities across the nation. Jitu Brown, national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, claims that the fight for public education – which suffers with the expansion of charter and contract schools – is a human and civil rights issue. As voices from the community were increasingly drowned out by philanthropic groups seeking wholesale educational reform, corporate charters and appointed school boards have become the status quo, said Brown. According to an article in Education Week, a magazine published by Editorial Projects in Education, more than 60 percent of philanthropic donations funneled into educating young people in the United States went to charter and contract schools in 2010. Less than 25 percent of funding went to those
programs about 15 years ago. “What would actually be revolutionary, brand new and fresh is if community wisdom was listened to and [corporations] worked with the people who are directly impacted by the institutions that they have to live with everyday,” said Brown. Daniel del Pielago, education organizer of the grassroots group Empower DC, agrees. Pielago asserts that when communities work together, and when they’re given the chance to put together solutions that work, they find success that doesn’t require corporate intervention. That success is embodied by the community school model championed by groups such as the Journey for Justice Alliance. According to the Coalition for Community Schools, community schools feature an “integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development and community engagement” that promotes “student learning, stronger families and healthier communities.” Helen Moore, the co-chairper-
Empower DC’s Daniel del Pielago says that there are solutions to public education that do not require corporate intervention often associated with charter schools.
son of the Keep the Vote/No Takeover Coalition in Detroit, Michigan, said that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently working its way through a Republican-led Congress still at odds with Obama, should give communities the power to control the destinies of their children. Moore said that neither the “No Child Left Behind” Act or President Obama’s “Race to Top” fulfilled what was supposed to really happen: giving Black and Brown school systems the power and resources they needed to implement high-quality educational programs
for their children. “What’s lost in the minutiae of school closures is the dismantling of good neighborhood schools,” said Brown. “There were actually solid well-performing schools in our community that were receiving schools for students that lost their schools due to closures.” Two years later, Brown said, those schools often saw their test scores plummet, creating a cascading effect. Overcrowded classrooms make it harder for teachers to do their jobs, lowering morale and having a negative impact on an already stressful learning environment. “One of the casualties of corporate education interventions is the removal of Black teachers, a significant part of the Black middle class. And who are they replaced by? They are replaced by newer, younger, Whiter and more transient teachers. “We are all for teaching diversity, but we also know that that is a civil rights issue. Children have the right to look at their teachers and dream that they can be that; they should be able to see themselves,” said Brown.
Earlier this month, the Alliance hosted a conference in Newark, New Jersey in an effort to strengthen national networks and equip citizens with the tools to organize and combat myriad inequities that exist in public school systems nationwide. They also advocate for more penalties for schools that lean too heavily on zero tolerance policies, which causes disproportionate suspension and expulsions of students of color for minor infractions. It favors more federal support for schools that implement restorative justice and student leadership development programs. Although Brown said that he supports parents who seek innovative educational alternatives for their children, he called for a federal moratorium on all charter and contract school programs. “The prerequisite to choice is stability,” said Brown. “You can’t anchor a community with schools where people have contracts to run them. [School] privatization and community schools cannot coexist. They are like oil and water.”
NAACP applauds indictments in Freddie Gray case By Hazel Trice Edney (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Following major protests after grand juries refused to indict police officers who killed unarmed Eric Garner in New York and Ferguson, Missouri’s Michael Brown, the NAACP is applauding the grand jury indictments of six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. “The grand jury’s decision to indict the six officers involved in the arrest and subsequent death of Freddie Gray is emblematic of the type of action we need to see in cases where unarmed citizens are met with excessive and oftentimes fatal force,” said NAACP President/CEO Cornell William Brooks in a statement. “While this indictment is encouraging, it is only a first step in what will likely be a long judicial process and the NAACP will be closely monitoring the proceedings as we continue to seek justice for Freddie Gray and his family.” Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced the
indictments May 21. The grand jury indictments are slightly different than the original charges announced May 1. Mosby said in a press conference that charges were altered based on the discovery of “additional information.” However, the indictments still serve to underscore the continuation of justice that she promised when first announcing that the police officers had been arrested and charged. The most significant change was the drop of the charge of false imprisonment. A debate over the legality of a knife Gray was carrying appeared to make the legality of the arrest debatable. Police chased Gray after he ran from them after looking their way. The knife, the only charge that police mentioned against Gray, was discovered during the arrest. Gray died a week later from a severed spine now believed to have occurred either during the arrest or in the police paddy wagon where he lay handcuffed, but not secured. Some of the charges are also related to the officers’ refusal to seek medical help for Gray as he obviously suf-
6 | Jun. 4 - Jun. 10, 2015 | District Chronicles
Charges for Baltimore police officers remain largely the same
Lt. Brian W. Rice (White): Manslaughter (involuntary) (10 years); second degree assault (10 years); two charges of misconduct in office (departmental discipline); reckless endangerment (five years);
All six officers, three Black and three White, are set for arraignment July 2. According to Mosby’s office, the charges and maximum sentences are as follows:
Officer Edward M. Nero (White): Second degree assault (10 years); two charges of misconduct in office (departmental discipline); Reckless endangerment (five years);
Officer Caesar R. Goodson, Jr. (Black): Second degree depraved heart murder (30 years); involuntary manslaughter (10 years); second degree assault, (10 years); manslaughter by vehicle (gross negligence) (10 years); manslaughter by vehicle (criminal negligence) (three years); misconduct in office (departmental discipline); reckless endangerment (five years); Officer William G. Porter (Black): Involuntary manslaughter (10 years); second degree assault (10 years); misconduct in office (departmental discipline); reckless endangerment (five years); fered and pleaded for help. Mosby apparently decided a false imprisonment charge was not needed in order to prove charges related to Gray’s death. The charges and indictments drew additional relief from civil rights leaders, protestors and citi-
Officer Garrett E. Miller (White): Second degree assault (10 years); two charges of misconduct in officer (departmental discipline); Reckless endangerment (five years); Sgt. Alicia D. White (Black): Involuntary manslaughter (10 years); second degree assault (10 years); misconduct in office (departmental discipline); reckless endangerment (five years).
zens in general. Before charges were announced May 1, uprisings led to the burning and destruction of property that officials say could take up to $23 million to replace. “We commend the leadership of Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby as well as the grand
jury’s careful deliberation and determination in holding these six officers accountable for the death of Freddie Gray,” said Brooks. “We look forward to the cessation nationwide of police misconduct and to the swift passage of the End Racial Profiling Act.”
Politics Cleveland activists not hopeful for change By Richard B. Muhammad and Charlene Muhammad Special to the NNPA from The Final Call
A history of police violence? The 2012 high-speed chase prompted an 18-month Justice Department investigation. The DOJ report required the city to work
Erik Drost/Creative Commons
(FinalCall.com) – Protests were largely peaceful, calls for calm were plentiful and pleas for the city of Cleveland to be a model for dealing with deadly Black-police encounters and tense police-community relations were prominent. But besides those voices was also a seething anger, outrage not quenched by promises of reform as some felt the time to give America’s systems a chance is over. Judge John P. O’Donnell’s acquittal of Officer Michael Brelo on involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault charges in the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams in November 2012, was the final straw, these activists said. The United States will never give justice to Black people and, the activists bitterly added, this is not a country where Blacks can live with Whites in peace. Their voices may not reflect a majority of opinions but do reflect a strong sentiment and growing disgust as Blacks lose their lives to police officers and nothing is done about it. Officer Brelo stood on the hood of the car driven by Russell and fired 15 shots into the windshield. His shots punctuated a 137-shot police barrage into the car carrying the two Black, unarmed suspects. The couple had committed no crime. Their car backfired and cops thought shots had been fired, officials said. A high speed chase followed and the bullet-riddled bodies and car were the result.
There were so many deadly shots, the judge ruled that it was impossible to say Officer Brelo’s shots took the lives of the victims. Thirteen officers fired into the car. “The blood of these brothers and sisters are crying out and we are seeing how people are wasting their blood and they’re acting like we have no value. I believe in my heart we are at a point of civil war and revolution and the young generation that’s coming up is going to take the reins on that,” said Mariah Crenshaw, a Cleveland activist. Cleveland also awaits the outcome of investigations into the fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, gunned down in seconds by an officer who pulled into the park where the Black boy was playing with a toy gun. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge, who represents Cleveland and is an established leader, seemed fed up herself. “The decision of Judge John P. O’Donnell to acquit Officer Michael Brelo is a stunning setback on the road to justice for Timothy Russell, Malissa Williams and the people of Cleveland ... Today we have been told—yet again—our lives have no value,” the House Democrat said in a statement. “By any measure, the firing of more than a hundred rounds of ammunition by the Cleveland Police Department toward two unarmed citizens was extreme, excessive, and unnecessary.”
Protestors take the streets of Cleveland after police officer Michael Brelo is acquitted in the deaths of two unarmed Blacks.
with community leaders and other officials to devise a plan to reform the police department. The Justice Department’s report spared no one in the police chain of command. The worst examples of excessive force involved patrol officers who endangered lives by shooting at suspects and cars, hit people over the head with guns and used stun guns on handcuffed suspects. The Justice Department said officers were poorly trained and some didn’t know how to implement use-of-force policies. Two other high-profile policeinvolved deaths still hang over the city: Tamir Rice the boy holding a pellet gun fatally shot by a rookie patrolman, and Tanisha Anderson, a mentally ill woman in distress who died after officers took her to the ground and handcuffed her.
Failure of Black elected officials? “The majority of the city is 60-65 percent Blacks. We have a Black mayor, a majority Black city council, and our political representatives are a part of the problem and not the solution,” charged John Boyd, another Cleveland activist. Black politicians are too busy trying to appease Whites and show they’re not giving preferential treatment to Blacks, rather than leading and rebuild the fabric of the Black community, he said. Boyd added, Black politicians act like it’s okay for Whites to advocate for their people but not for Blacks to advocate for Blacks. He disagrees with that. “We’re at a point now where America, White supremacy, Europeans have let it be known that African people are an overstocked
item that has expired a long time ago and there is no use,” said Boyd. Adding insult to injury, nine White Cleveland cops filed a federal racial discrimination lawsuit against the city, claiming they are racially discriminated against when they shoot Blacks. The officers (eight White and one Hispanic) alleged they were denied overtime pay and subject to boring menial tasks while placed on administrative leave following the shooting. “It does not surprise me that they would have the temerity to do something like that. They always seem to want to try to take advantage of the laws that prevent and preclude them from their mistreatment of us and try to flip it back on us and call it reverse discrimination,” said Boyd.
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District Chronicles | Jun. 4 - Jun. 10, 2015 | 7
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here is a bee that hovers by my mailbox. I have never had this experience. When I approach the mailbox, it flies in out of nowhere and hovers by the box. It does not attack me but makes sure that I know of its presence. When I walk away, the bee either flies off or remains in place hovering. It is one of the most unusual experiences I have ever had. It is as if the bee is trying to communicate something to me. If the bee is trying to communicate something it may be that there is a crisis facing bees. There has been a 40 percent loss of honeybees as hives collapse. There are many theories as to why this is happening, and none of them are good. It very likely has something to do with a combination of climate change along with devastation brought about by pesticides. In either case, the loss of these bees will have profound implications for agriculture since humans rely on bees to pollinate. President Obama has announced that he wishes for the federal government to take some steps to address this crisis. As important as is this announcement, we should recognize the loss of bees as evidence of the larg-
er environmental catastrophe we are experiencing. While climate change denial seems to be declining, it is being replaced not by climate change activism, but something more akin to climate change fatalism, i.e., the belief that there is nothing that we can do, that this situation is out of our hands. The 40 percent loss of bees is a national “canary in the coal mine” moment. It is telling us that there is a much larger danger facing planet Earth. We have time to get out of the “coal mine,” but it will necessitate dramatic global, national, state, local and personal action. For everyday people, this can mean stepped up pressure on elected officials to demand steps taken, including regulations that are focused on protecting the environment and attempting to reverse the environmental crisis. It may be my imagination that the bee at my mailbox is trying to communicate something. But every day when I see that bee, I a m
keenly aware that the time may arrive when its disappearance signifies more than the loss of one bee, but actually something transpiring on a scale that only a few years ago I would have found unimaginable.
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Metro Briefs: Notable news in and around Washington Prince George’s Prince George’s County Council adopts $2.95 billion FY’16 budget
T
he Prince George’s County Council has adopted a $2.95 billion balanced county budget for Fiscal Year 2016, effective July 1, 2015. “This has certainly been a trying budget season, perhaps one of the most challenging in our county’s history,” said Council Chairman Mel Franklin (D) – District 9. “Consistent throughout our budget debates, however, has been a strong and passionate commitment to the future and promise of Prince George’s County. The active participation of our residents in the council’s budget process has been a critical factor in our decision-making, and represents a tremendous source of pride for our county.” The budget reduces the proposed 15.6 percent increase in property taxes in the County Executive’s budget to 4 percent, and invests $34 million in additional Board of Education funding for Prince George’s County Public Schools, an amount directly tied to the unfunded mandate adopted by the State of Maryland in 2012 which shifted state teacher pension costs – approximately $30 million in Fiscal Year 2016 and $42 million in Fiscal Year 2017 – to Prince George’s County. “While we appreciate the boldness and aggressiveness of the Prince George’s County Public Schools’ Strategic Plan and the County Executive’s proposed 15.6 percent tax increase to pay for it, the County Council determined that a 15.6 percent increase in property taxes is unaffordable for the working families of Prince George’s County,” said Chairman Franklin. The County Council and the school system will proceed with an outside performance audit of the school system for the first time in 18 years to study how existing tax dollars are spent, and recommend potential cost-savings in existing programs. In addition, the audit is designed to increase confidence among constituents in the county school system. The audit is scheduled to begin
this summer. The budget also averted proposed furloughs and layoffs for county employees during FY’16. “The Council will safeguard the level and quality of those services, especially for public safety,” said Franklin. “Council-initiated spending control measures applied across all agencies approved in the FY 2016 Budget generate $14.86 million in cost-savings to eliminate proposed layoffs and furloughs.” The budget also includes additional public safety classes and a commitment to heightened oversight of public safety agencies for better management of overtime spending. Additionally, to address the county’s longstanding structural deficit and related fiscal challenges, the County Council will adopt a spending control measure that requires each noneducation County agency to reserve 2 percent of their operating budgets and $6 million of their overtime budgets in a contingency reserve fund. This will enable the Council, as the county’s fiscal authority, to provide greater assurance that County Government does not exceed the approved budget and to provide for funding to address any fiscal emergencies during the fiscal year. In further action, the Council presented CB-33-2015, legislation to reserve half of future MGM National Harbor gaming/tax revenue, up to $25 million annually, for education spending. This includes Pre-K through 12 education, Prince George’s Community College, Prince George’s County Memorial Library System. “During the referendum debate on bringing gaming to the County, our residents were told that this new project would generate revenue, in large part, for education. This legislation makes the county government fiscally accountable for that commitment,” said Franklin. In bi-county budget action earlier this month, lawmakers from Prince George’s and Montgomery counties unanimously adopted the FY 16 Operating and Capital budgets for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission; the Central Administrative Services budget of the MarylandNational Capital Park and Planning
Commission; and the budget for the Washington Suburban Transit Commission. The Councils approved the WSSC FY 2016 operating and capital budget of $1.3 billion, which includes a 1.0-percent rate increase for water and sewer customers. In order to support and sustain many of the County’s existing critical public recreation projects, the Council authorized a one and half cents rate increase, half of what was requested, for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which is also facing a structural deficit of recreation and planning expenses exceeding revenues on an annual basis.
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Montgomery County Ama Tu Vida Health Festival to be Held June 7 in Silver Spring Residents are invited to attend the Ama Tu Vida (Love Your Health) Health Festival on Saturday, June 7 from noon to 5 p.m. The festival will be held at Veterans Plaza, at Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street in downtown Silver Spring. The festival is co-sponsored by the Latino Health Initiative, part of the Department of Health and Human Services; the Office of Community Partnerships; the Silver Spring Regional Service Center; Montgomery County Recreation; Suburban Hospital and other local organizations. “The event is a commemoration of Latino culture and tradition and is part of an ongoing effort to inform, educate and empower the Latino community to adopt healthy lifestyles,” said Sonia Mora, senior manager of the Latino Health Initiative. The festival will include free blood pressure, cholesterol and vision screening provided by local hospitals, community clinics and health organizations. Entertainment will include Zumba, a cultural dance group and live music. Face painting and other activities will be happening throughout the event for adults and children. For information about the health festival, call 240-777-4173.
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In the Neighborhood Metro Briefs: Notable news in and around Washington District of Columbia Norton announces land transfer for St. Elizabeths DHS Campus
C
ongresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has announced another major step for consolidation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
at St. Elizabeths in Ward 8. The National Park Service has transferred eight acres in Shepherd Parkway to the U.S. General Services Administration to use to make infrastructure improvements needed to accommodate the next phase of DHS’s consolidation. Earlier this month, the National Capital Planning Commission and Commission on Fine Arts approved the land transfer.
“The transfer of these eight acres may seem a small matter, but these acres are essential for the DHS consolidation to move to the next stage,” said Norton. “GSA will now be able to move forward on the construction of a new access road parallel to I-295 that also will unburden the surrounding neighborhoods from the inevitable increase in car traffic, which is of special importance to the surrounding
Ward 8 community. The GSA construction will also rescue Shepherd Parkway from dumping, an issue the community has been working to eliminate for months to make Shepherd Parkway a pleasant park experience for the neighborhood. Norton got $144 million in the fiscal year 2015 omnibus appropriations bill for DHS Consolidation at St. Elizabeths and for GSA to
make infrastructure improvements there, including a new access road to support federal employee traffic into St. Elizabeths. The access road will be parallel to I-295 and connect Firth Sterling Avenue with Malcolm X Avenue and South Capitol Street. GSA will also provide improvements to the long-neglected Shepherd Parkway, including construction of a protected trail and bike path.
Bowie State University graduates are all beaming at commencement ceremony. Robert Eubanks/District Chronicles Robert Eubanks/District Chronicles
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12 | Jun. 4 - Jun. 10, 2015 | District Chronicles