THE
It List 2013
January 6 - January 12, 2014
Vol. 41 No. 2 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Cora McCorvey
Intent, purpose & grace By Maya Beecham While deeply entrenched in public service, Cora McCorvey developed a desire to write a book about her life. In fact she started an outline and the memories began to flow. In a quick read of the pages one might learn that McCorvey was born in Illinois, lived in Indiana in her formative years, graduated high school one year early, is a mother of four children, grandmother of 12 and has successfully served as the first executive director/ CEO of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) since 1991. At that time, MPHA separated from the community development
arm of Minneapolis and was established as an independent agency. However, without turning a page of the planned memoir, an observer can watch McCorvey walk into the employee entrance at 1001 Washington Ave., north Minneapolis, with a gait of intention, purpose and grace. When she speaks with various members of community including her staff, former fellow board members, travel companions to Ghana and even her children’s childhood friends; one notices a common denominator. When people say her name their words are overcome with a deep respect and admiration for her character.
MCCORVEY 3 TURN TO
Cora McCorvey
U.S. winning war on poverty By Jazelle Hunt NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Nearly 50 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty, a new report finds that robust social safety net programs are slowly leading the nation to victory. According to the report, “Trends in Poverty With an
Anchored Supplemental Poverty Measure,” the poverty rate has dropped 40 percent since 1967, as a result of provisions such as housing vouchers, free school lunch unemployment benefits, Social Security, food stamps, and more. Without these programs, the researchers find, the percentage of Americans living in poverty would be twice as high.
POVERTY TURN TO 4
... tax breaks and safety net programs have saved 13 percent of lower-middle income Americans from poverty.
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ENVIRONMENTALIST
Della Schall Young By Harry Colbert, Jr. Contributing Writer In Minnesota most of us take water for granted. After all this is the land of 10,000 lakes. We are surrounded by water. But Della Schall Young is not most of us. She knows the true value of water. As a youth, Schall Young would travel to Liberia, where her grandmother lived, and would have to process the water to make sure it was safe to drink. That experience in many ways shaped Schall Young, helped define the person she is today and ignited her career path. “That experience always stuck with me and I knew I wanted to do something to protect that (water) resource,” said Schall Young, who recently accepted a position as a regional manager with Burns & McDonnell, an engineering, architectural, construction, environmental and consulting services firm headquartered in Bloomington. “Now my focus is overall lake and river health, both for consumption and recreation.” Schall Young joined Burns & McDonnell this past July, following positions with the engineering consulting firm of H.D.R., MnDOT and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. With
Courtesy of Burns & McDonnell
Della Schall Young
Burns & McDonnell, she is responsible for helping businesses and municipalities navigate regulations such as the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) program as well as those associated with restoration and protection of water and native land resources. Schall Young is doing her best to get young people – and particularly young people living in urban environments – to appreciate the state’s natural resources. As the troop leader of Girl Scout Troop 15981, Schall Young engages her girls in a variety of nature outings. “Whether it’s going on a canoeing trip or hiking at Ft.
YOUNG TURN TO 9
Preserving Nelson Mandela’s legacy ANC, and who fought tooth and nail to keep South Africa a racist pariah state, now claim Nelson Mandela as their own.” In trying reclaim Mandela as their own, many Whites are trying to sanitize him image, Jackson argues. Part of that effort begins with attributing many of Mandela’s outstanding qualities to his 27 years in prison. For example, television commentators in the U.S. and in Africa say Mandela learned to love his enemies in jail and cite his forgiveness of his former jailers as evidence to support that assertion. However, Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, traces that lesson back to his youth. “On this first day of classes I was clad in my new boots. I had never worn boots before of any kind, and that first day, I walked like a newly shod horse. I made a terrible racket walking up the steps and almost slipped several times. As I clomped into the classroom, my boots crashing on that shiny wooden floor, I noticed two female students in the first row were watching my lame performance with great amusement. The prettier of the two leaned over to her friend and
Opinion
By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief PRETORIA, South Africa (NNPA) – Nearly a month after his death, there is a bitter struggle to define – and, in many instances, re-define – the legacy of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically elected president. “There is an attempt to do in his death what they could not do in life – take away his story,” Jesse Jackson said in a speech at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg. “… He did not go to jail as some out-of-control youth who needed to be matured. He went in as a freedom fighter and came out as a freedom fighter.” The effort to soften the image of Mandela as a freedom fighter began long before his death. Speaking at an African National Congress (ANC) celebration a year before Mandela’s death, South African President Jacob Zuma said, “Inside our country, even those who were are who are still, fundamentally opposed to the
NNPA Photo by George E. Curry
Mandela’s statue, at 24 feet, towers above others
MANDELA TURN TO 10
Commentary
Lifestyle
Insight 2 Health
Education
Extend emergency unemployment insurance benefits now
Overcoming personal stress with pending uncertainty
Obesity: The definition and its health risks
Friendship Academy of the Arts students give back to the community
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