July 22 - July 28, 2013
Vol. 40 No. 30 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Protesting the verdict By Harry Colbert, Jr. Contributing Writer An estimated 3,000 citizens rallied and marched in the streets of downtown Minneapolis to protest the not guilty verdict of the man who killed Florida teen, Trayvon Martin. Widespread outrage has been expressed since the July 13 verdict that acquitted George Zimmerman of all state charges associated with the Feb. 26, 2012 shooting death of Martin. The 17-year-old Martin was unarmed and returning to a residence where he was staying after what was supposed to have been a quick trip to a neighborhood store. Martin encountered Zimmerman and was shot one time in the heart. Zimmerman, who was 28 years of age at the time of the shooting, claimed he shot Martin in self-defense and was in fear for his life. The sixmember all female jury agreed with Zimmerman’s account and acquitted him on seconddegree murder and manslaughter charges. “(The verdict) is a wake up
call to us all,” said civil rights attorney and director of the Community Justice Project, Nekima Levy-Pounds. “As a civil rights attorney who knows the law, I was shocked at the verdict.” Levy-Pounds said justice will only come if the people who are outraged by the verdict remain vigilant. “A lot of us will leave a rally like this, go home, turn on the TV and act like nothing happened,” said Levy-Pounds. “It’s time to say enough is enough. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. We need to refuse to be refused.” The rally was co-billed as a rally for Martin and also for Terrence Franklin, who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police on May 10. Franklin was accused of burglary and during his arrest officers claim he disarmed an officer and that they shot him in self-defense. Many community activists dispute the officers’ account and are calling for an independent investigation into the shooting.
RALLY TURN TO 2
Harry Colbert, Jr.
Verdict shows there is still much work to be done Gateway to excellence By Scott Gray
Dr. Irma McClaurin
McClaurin joins staff at Federal Executive Institute Dr. Irma McClaurin, anthropologist, administrator, and writer, completed the four-week Leadership for a Democratic Society Executive Training Program at the Federal Executive Institute (FIE) in Charlottesville, Va., this past of June. Sworn in at the end of May 2013 as a federal employee, McClaurin is the newest faculty member to join FEI, which began in 1968 as the brainchild of President Lyndon B. Johnson. His vision was to establish an advanced study center that would increase the capacity of top civil service executives and professionals in order to improve the quality of government for the American people. Since its beginning, FEI has shepherded more than 20,000 federal executives through its executive training program. As an FEI faculty
MUL President/CEO Last week a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman,
the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin. As a father of two black boys, a leader in this community, and a citizen in this nation, I am saddened and deeply concerned by the verdict in the case. For those of us who wanted to see Justice served, we feel betrayed and outraged. This verdict illustrates how the deep-rooted ugliness of bias can be masked in a system that rarely protects those
who it was not designed to serve. When you consider the many advancements we have witnessed in our lifetime, it is disappointing that our country is not as far ahead as we would hope. These actions confirm our work is far from over and we must continue to persist every day to achieve equality for all. In a tragic situation like this, we are compelled to act and what I’m advocating is taking
productive action. When we become part of a productive process, we are much more successful than when we stand on the sidelines. I’d like to share some ideas that can help empower us to build communities that work for all. Take a stand I was encouraged to see the hundreds of people, many of them young, who organized
and marched in protest in the “Hoodies up for Trayvon” rally at the Hennepin County Government Center last week. As citizens we can demand action when we see an injustice. This case was brought to the national light because of the local leadership from Trayvon Martin’s parents, their attorneys
GRAY TURN TO 11
Why Morsi fell…in Egypt By Ahmed Tharwat
MCCLAURIN TURN TO 4
Rep. Michele Bachmann, no stranger to outlandish claims, once said, “It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government” by the Muslim Brotherhood. At the time, a member of the Brotherhood responded to the Minnesota congresswoman’s rant by quipping, “We can’t even penetrate our own government.” He was right; they couldn’t. But they tried, too hastily and too fast, to take control of strategic positions and institutions in Egypt – justice, education, culture, security, tourism – replacing former dictator Hosni Mubarak’s
Mohammed Morsi
corrupt “deep state” with a Brotherhood shallow state. Incompetent and parochial, what the opposition called the “brotherization of Egypt” under Mohammed Morsi, his rule brought more protesters out into the streets after just one year than Mubarak brought forth after 30 years of dictatorship. Why did so many Egyptians suddenly want to oust the first civilian elected president in their long history? It isn’t so much what Morsi did or didn’t do – it is what Morsi represents. Morsi was accused of all sorts of failures that he actually inherited from Mubarak’s 30year legacy – a ruined economy and a bankrupt country, where Egyptians suffer daily blackouts and long lines for gas – along with absurd accusations about selling the Suez Canal to Qatar,
and Sinai to Hamas. But the real downfall of Morsi and the Brotherhood was an image problem that the more Westernized, secular, liberal elite in Egypt feared. This was magnified and propagated by the privately owned sellout media and keyboard worriers of Facebook and Twitter. Morsi for them represents everything they hate about themselves and their traditional matriarchal society. As one activist at Tahrir tweeted, “Egyptians are the only people on earth (who will) put their lives on the line in Tahrir, but will be afraid to tell their parents where they are going.” It is ironic that those in the liberal secular elite in Egypt
EGYPT TURN TO 4
Edelman
Harper
Business
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YWCA says group fitness helps attain goals
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