31 minute read
Education
With Loss of Head Start Funds, Takoma EC Parents Fear Less Accountability
By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins
Long before the D.C. Public Schools’ (DCPS) central office relinquished $14 million in Head Start grant funds, some parents said they saw the proof in the pudding during what they described as the central office’s attempts to keep them unaware of key changes and neglect incidents that took place at some of the District’s more than 50 Title 1 elementary schools.
For years, through a Head Start-mandated parent policy council, parents such as Chioma Oruh had been able to express concerns and secure behavioral health support for students, along with resources for families homeless and non-English speaking families.
Oruh said the central office’s recent decision not only jeopardizes the District’s path to universal Pre-K, but threatens to dismantle what had become the most powerful parent-led watchdog of DCPS.
“You’re exposing families with less federal protection. It’s not just about the money. It’s the accountability,” said Oruh, an active Takoma Education Campus parent whose son attended Head Start between 2016 and 2018.
During that time, Oruh chaired the Subcommittee for Behavioral Health and Special Education, and briefly served as head of the Early Childhood Education Council. She said that experience revealed the difficulty of advancing the interests of nonwhite and economically disadvantaged families over that of white parents who had more political power and flexible schedules.
“There was a level of serious power at the preschool level,” Oruh told The Informer as she stressed the need for a parent council, much like what Head Start required for its grantees, in the new preschool model that DCPS chooses to adopt.
“When you get a bunch of parents in the room, you give us power and you’ll see some results,” she said. “A lot of the issues came from [DCPS officials] not bringing in the parent body. They would’ve had to work with us.”
Head Start, a federal program that has been in existence since 1965, originally started as a summer school for young people entering elementary school. It has since expanded in scope, providing millions of children across the United States with health screenings, dental checkups, and social-emotional development. Whether DCPS had been able to do that adequately became a point of contention in the 11 years since the District expanded pre-kindergarten.
So much so that, rather than risk an audit of funds, the central office decided to forego its grant, sources familiar with the process told The Informer on the condition they remain anonymous.
The fallout from the Head Start funding loss comes amid a global pandemic that has brought economic and social activity to a standstill, and D.C. public and public charter school students to their homes where they’ve engaged in distance learning programs. During the latter part of last month, parents who participated in the school lottery process, through which pre-kindergarten seats get filled, received their youngsters’ assigned schools.
In DCPS Chancellor Lewis D. Ferebee’s April 15 letter to families, he said that, after conversations with Head Start earlier in the year, officials expected a 50 percent reduction in funds, due to shifting demographics within some of the Head Start programs. He later told reporters on a phone call about safety concerns stemming from instances where preschoolers wandered beyond the playground or their designated area.
Regarding to enrollment, Ferebee said that the central office’s decision wouldn’t reduce pre-kindergarten seating of 7,000 for the 2020-2021 school year. However, schools that experienced a drop in Title 1-eligible students lost some family services and instructional coaching — what amounted to more than 80 jobs.
DCPS officials said they would recoup those losses with elementary-level wraparound services and collaborations with community partners. Ferebee also revealed his intentions to align DCPS’ early child care model with the instructional model that immerses three and four-year-olds in a classroom setting rather than what’s been likened to a daycare.
Since the District first committed to expanding its pre-kindergarten offerings, education experts had heralded the city as a beacon in the national battle for universal pre-kindergarten — even as officials in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services raised doubts about the school system’s ability to manage Head Start funds.
A 2018 report by the Center for American Progress asserted that more mothers from low-income communities had been able to incur significant cost savings and enter the workforce since the District expanded pre-kindergarten enrollment.
With the loss of Head Start funds comes the question of how, and even if, parents can provide the money for school supplies and field trips. Even parents at Takoma EC, an upper Northwest campus with ethnic and economic diversity, admit their struggle to combat their newfound dilemma.
“You can’t take $100,000 and things [continue to] be normal,” said Marc Cevasco, a parent of a Takoma EC first grader and preschool student whose wife serves as treasurer of the school’s parent-teacher organization. “It’s going to have a tangible effect on the resources.
“We have raised a lot of money over the years to supplement things that should be provided by the school,” he said “The idea that we’re going to lose $6,000 for school supplies is a big hit and not something the [parent-teacher organization] can resolve. This is not a community where everyone can spend a couple hundred extra for addons to their child’s education.” WI
5 With COVID-19 will holding hands be a thing of the past? (Courtesy photo)
Apple MacBook Airs, iPads and iMacs Two Rivers Public Charter School intends to enter into a sole source contract with Apple, Inc. to provide technology equipment consisting of MacBook Air laptops, iMac desktops, and iPad tablets. The cost of this contract will be approximately $94,208. The decision to sole source was made because Apple, Inc, is uniquely qualified to provide technology equipment due to proprietary design of their equipment. Two Rivers’ existing technology is Apple-product based and the organization wants to continue with the current infrastructure. Please contact Two Rivers with any questions at procurement@tworiverspcs.org.
Environmental and Character Education Program
Two Rivers Public Charter School intends to enter into a sole source contract with NorthBay to provide a week-long sleep-away environmental and character education program to 6th graders. The cost of this contract will be approximately $30,600. The decision to sole source was made because NorthBay is uniquely qualified to provide a week-long sleep-away program that matches Two Rivers’ emphasis on experiential learning and social-emotional education. Please contact Two Rivers with any questions at procurement@tworiverspcs.org.
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HEALTH
Calming Community Amid COVID-19, Cannabis Entrepreneur Sees Spike in Sales Linda Greene Continues Her Mission to Serve District’s Lowest-income Area
By Curtis Bunn Zenger News
Linda Greene’s cannabis business rests two blocks from her house in the District and across the street from the home of abolitionist Fredrick Douglass. That was intentional.
Anacostia Organics [AO] serves the southeast quadrant of the nation’s capital, a long-underdeveloped area now undergoing gentrification like much of the city.
Still, most of that section of the city remains Black and low-income, demographics that find Greene’s business a respite, especially from the stress of the coronavirus outbreak.
5 The ribbon-cutting for Linda Greene’s D.C. marijuana dispensary, Anacostia Organics brought our city officials including Mayor Muriel Bowser and Ward 8 D.C Councilmember Trayon White. (Courtesy photo)
Prior to AO opening its doors – amidst much fanfare that included a ribbon-cutting ceremony with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other local officials – residents from the area had to use public transportation to cross the Anacostia River for their cannabis needs.
The district decriminalized marijuana in 2014 and it became legal in 2015 for residents 21 and older to possess up to two ounces for personal use. D.C. residents can only use marijuana on private property and cannot sell the drug, which remains illegal under federal law.
At AO, clients’ needs are met in minutes, in their community. For Greene, who has owned a public relations firm for 30 years that has represented MC Hammer, Dionne Warwick, singer Jonathan Butler,
DC 420 Page 17
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the Republic of Gabon in West Africa and who was the chief of staff to former Mayor Marion Barry, the symmetry is intoxicating.
“It’s exciting for me because that’s what Anacostia Organics was intended to do: serve the community,” she said. “It’s a tough business. And it’s a very expensive proposition. But, in the end, it’s been such a blessing because of the support.”
The city’s April 1 stay-at-home order and the deadly nature of COVID-19 have led to AO tripling its normal business, Greene said.
“There’s so much anxiety that comes with coronavirus,” she said. “People want and need to be calm, so they stock up on their medication. And we are what we are supposed to be: Here for them.”
Greene’s business occupies a building that had been abandoned for 20 years. She found the owner, took him to lunch and formed a partnership. Greene also made sure that all of her employees lived in the community.
All clients must have a medical cannabis card to enter. Once inside, they find an array of products aimed to aid, soothe and heal. And the business offers discounts to low-income customers, seniors, veterans and residents of Wards 7 and 8, which comprise the neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River, long some of the district’s poorest.
“It’s been rewarding to see some customers go from wheelchair to walking with a cane in a matter of months,” Greene said. “I’m a fighter and a warrior for our people. And it’s special to get their support.”
LOCAL PATRONS LAUD THE BENEFITS
John Johnson, a poet who lives nearby, was diagnosed two years ago with Stage 3 colon and rectal cancer. He went through chemotherapy, radiation and two surgeries.
The medical marijuana he purchases from Greene’s business has been “a blessing,” said Johnson, 39, who added his post-surgery pain and anxiety were significant.
“There’s no way in the world I would have been able to make it without Linda’s business,” he said. “The drugs the hospital wanted me to take would have turned me into a zombie. To have a quality business right in my neighborhood has al
5 Linda Greene, owner of DC marijuana dispensary Anacostia Organics, speaks at the “Women Gro Leadership Summit” in June, 2019. (Photo courtesy Anacostia Organics)
lowed me to manage pain and any uneasiness is a comfort.
“For her to pull off that business in this neighborhood, well, only she could do it.”
Greene garnered support partly because she has been a staple in the community. She hosted “Convos at Linda’s” for months before the store opened to meet her new neighbors as the community transitioned. Politicians and movers-and-shakers attended and shared invaluable information about government. She built trust.
The idea for the business was born over wine with friends and partners Yolanda Carraway and Sherri Blount. A month later, they formed BCG Holdings, Inc., and Greene took on the challenge.
“I threw myself into it,” she said. “But it was a tough journey.”
DOING HER HOMEWORK RESULTS IN DIVIDENDS
Greene attended cannabis conferences across the country, using her effusive, engaging personality to meet everyone she could, including the top figures in the game. Often, she was the only Black woman around.
Using her political background, she challenged legislation and helped craft new laws regarding the evolving industry. It was a seven-year journey from inception to opening reception. “I was overwhelmed by her warmth and willingness to devour information, to help and the advance the cause, which was (and is) creating more meaningful opportunities in the cannabis industry for people of color,” Jesce Horton, co-founder of the Minority Cannabis Business Association. “It took a lot of work for her to open up her store. I heard about it out here in Oregon. But she made it happen.”
When she went to her first MJBiz Conference – the largest annual cannabis convention, held in Las Vegas – there were no more than 15 African Americans, she said, of 2,000 attendees.
That was six years ago. Last year, there were 45,000 at the conference, and Greene, 68, was one of the featured speakers. Indeed, she is entrenched in the cannabis world.
She sits on the executive team of the Cannabis Trade Federation, working closely with the Board of Directors and chief executive officer. Additionally, she is the chairwoman of the federation’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force, which includes civil rights leaders and minority industry executives.
She used her knowledge of politics to change the industry in D.C and she held the city’s first Cannabis Job Fair. It’s the latest in a record of service that includes service on boards that advocate for human rights, cancer cures, music, among countless others.
“She’s a special woman doing special things,” Johnson said. “If nobody else, our community respects and appreciates her.” WI
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EDITORIAL
America’s nurses took to Capitol Hill earlier this week, led by the leaders of the unions representing 230,000 of their colleagues nationwide to send a message to Donald Trump, Congress and the healthcare system.
What did they say and why were they protesting? “Our members are dying. We demand protections now!” they said.
As COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket in the U.S., the nurses’ unions across the U.S. have ramped up efforts and joined forces, demanding hospitals and the government to immediately provide them with optimal personal protective equipment, including N95 respirators or higher. Their demands come at a time made even more dire given the fact that nurses are now dying from the coronavirus.
The numbers reported continue to rise with an estimated 60 across the U.S. having already losing their lives but more are expected to succumb to the disease without changes.
They now wonder, “how many more nurses have to die before the richest country in the world will act to protect us, so we can protect our patients?” They further maintain that while they’re among those who stand on the frontline, that they are now “bear[ing] the full brunt of a healthcare system rendered dysfunctional after relentless funding cuts for public health, while generating obscene profits for corporate interests.”
We stand behind our nurses who remain the nation’s largest healthcare professionals with 3.8 million registered nurses. In a few days, on May 6, America will celebrate National Nurses Day – an annual observance that will mark the beginning of National Nurses Week. Their leaders say they want – rather need – several things: safe nurse-to-patient staffing ratios; protections from an epidemic of violence; the power of their collective voice; and Medicare for all.
But more than that, they deserve to have their months-long demands to their employers and elected officials answered and fulfilled – to ensure safe workplaces that will protect nurses, their patients and the public, instead of sending nurses into battle – “to the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic with bandanas, scarves and trash bags as protection.” WI U.S. Nurses Are on the Front Line – Why Aren’t They Being Better Protected?
Educating Children Post-COVID-19?
Most Americans have accepted the fact that once the COVID-19 pandemic curve flattens, they will have to adjust to a new normal. The way they live, work and relate to colleagues, friends, and loved ones will not be the same as it was pre-COVID-19, at least not for some time. For adults, it will be an adjustment, unlike no other, but memories of how things used to be may provide a degree of solace for them. But for children, it’s going to be an altogether different story.
Just as the nation’s school-aged children were preparing for spring break, the rug was pulled from under them, and schools all across the country closed down, leaving many of them feeling lost, confused, and abandoned by their teachers, classmates, and a daily routine. The disruption is still not fixed, as students returned to a stay-at-home classroom after spending a stay-at-home spring break with limited activities or contact with individuals outside of their home.
The adjustment for most adults has not been an easy one, but for some children, the pandemic lifestyle has been traumatic. More important, educators across the country are looking to other nations, and school districts, to see who has the answer to what education will look like once schools reopen. Will students spend whole days or half days in the classroom? Will school hours or the school year be extended? How will classrooms accommodate students who may still be required to practice social distancing? And, what resources will be available to students who have fallen behind, keeping in mind that nearly every child will fit that description?
Educators are concerned that there are more questions than answers as they begin to map out scenarios and academic plans to match them. There’s no playbook for them to follow because they’ve never had to respond to a situation like this before. And, an added concern is how to address the social and emotional needs of children when they return. As one educator suggests, “children’s social and emotional health is more important than actual classroom instruction.”
While President Trump and lawmakers seek ways to put adults back to work, it is critically important not to lose sight of bringing back quality education for all children who represent the workforce of the future. WI
TO THE EDITOR
God Help Us
Anything else going on besides the coronavirus and how it’s upending our lives? Maybe you all can extend the religion section? I’d love a good reading of the Word in these trying times.
Yolanda Felder Laurel, Md.
Facebook Friends
Just wanted to say I’ve really been enjoying the new Washington Informer News broadcast you all have been doing with your lovely publisher Denise Rolark Barnes. I’m hoping one day you guys will make it to the big screen! For now, I’ll just listen in on Facebook.
Gerald Hines Washington, D.C.
Readers' Mailbox The Washington Informer welcomes letters to the editor about articles we publish or issues affecting the community. Write to: lsaxton@washingtoninformer. com or send to: 3117 Martin Luther King Jr Ave., SE, Washington, D.C. 20032. Please note that we are unable to publish letters that do not include a full name, address and phone number. We look forward to hearing from you.
OPINIONS/EDITORIALS Guest Columnist
By Alexis M. Herman
Remembering Dr. Dorothy Irene Height
April 20, 2020, marked the 10th anniversary of the death of our gentle but fearless leader and mentor, Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. This significant anniversary offers us an opportunity for reflection during these unprecedented times we are living in today.
Dr. Height undoubtedly was a creative, compassionate and visionary leader. Her scholarship, travels and experiences shaped her understanding of power and how to navigate it with competence and kindness. Through the programs and initiatives she developed, she used her power to empower poor women and girls around the world.
During the early civil rights movement when women worked behind the scenes, her quiet power brought wisdom and a social worker’s perspective to deliberations and strategies of the “Big Six” civil rights leaders. With an understanding of the importance of power of location, she purchased a building in Washington, D.C., between the White House and the Capitol, the only African American-owned building along that corridor of power.
For decades, her political power was put to use serving as an adviser to five U.S. presidents. She led some of the largest and most influential women’s organizations in American history, including her beloved National Council of Negro Women. And she achieved these accomplishments always wearing fabulous hats and an engaging smile.
While those achievements were immense, they pale in light of her greatest and most enduring accomplishments. During the turbulent times and critical issues that prevailed throughout her lifetime, Dr. Dorothy Irene Height was “A Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” Her activism started as a teenager by bringing her peers together to nonviolently protest policies that prohibited African American children from swimming, debating or going to school with Caucasian youth.
She bravely confronted and navigated the injustices and engaged adults who had the power to make changes. Over the years, issues such as racism, the struggle for economic and social justice, women’s rights, voter’s rights, equal access to education, healthcare and jobs, fair wages and dignity for all, brought purpose and passion to her life.
When she walked into a room, wisdom, humanity and hope arrived with her. She was the bridge to alignment and unity to many civil rights organizations and leaders. To African American, Caucasian, Latina, Asian and Native American women organizations, she served as a bridge of vision
HERMAN Page 33
Guest Columnist
By George Askew
No Surprise – People of Color Taking Brunt of COVID-19 Punishment
I am not surprised to learn that Black and brown people are being hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and neither should anyone else be.
We have an overwhelming collection of evidence from epidemics, pandemics and natural disasters to show us that people who were facing the most significant social, economic and health challenges BEFORE the catastrophic events are those who will suffer disproportionately more as a result of the event.
Our country’s continuing history of structural and institutional racism, that in many places has gutted the Health and Human Services infrastructure of communities of color, the poor, and the socially disenfranchised, has contributed greatly to the disproportionate incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and other morbidities that in time of catastrophic events like this are magnified.
Let’s not fool ourselves. Yes, COVID-19 is an equal opportunity killer — it doesn’t care if you are black or white, rich or poor, Republican or Democrat — but it is also an “opportunistic” killer. It will and has preyed more on those who were least equipped prior to its appearance to survive its wrath.
As we look to target communities who need our help today during this outbreak, let’s not forget those communities when we emerge from this pandemic. They will need our attention and investment even more.
This will not be the last catastrophic event many of us will see. I hope in future events we are prepared to address them without the specter of disparity and inequality peering over our shoulders.
That’s a surprise I would welcome with open arms. WI
Guest Columnist
By Sandra Edmonds Crewe
African Americans Disproportionately Affected by COVID-19: Let’s Not Let It Become Yesterday’s News
As a social worker, I watched with dismay and sadness the myriad of news reports announcing to the nation and the world that African Americans were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that is taking lives and changing the way we live. My dismay was not the breaking news, but the reaction to the breaking news.
African Americans receiving disparate health care is certainly no new news to most. For many decades data have documented that African Americans suffer more from chronic conditions. The death rate for African Americans is generally higher than whites for heart diseases, stroke, cancer, asthma, influenza and pneumonia, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS. And while life expectancy is increasing for Blacks, there is still a gap of four years. And when zip codes are considered, this gap is even larger. As far back as the late 1990s, I recall teaching students in social gerontology and research about the difference in life expectancy by zip code in the District of Columbia metropolitan area. Today, in the District of Columbia, life expectancy for residents of the District of Columbia can vary up to 27 years based upon their zip code that is correlated with race and poverty. These are not new facts. In fact, a widely distributed 2002 report, “Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care,” by the Institute of Medicine Committee on Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care clearly addressed the social determinants and made recommendations to address the disparities.
The underlying factors to these inequalities are also known and well-documented. Any search on the internet will yield numerous articles that document the contributors to the disparities including poverty and its correlates access and quality of care. African Americans working in essential frontline and highly interactive positions also contribute to this harsh imbalance. Added to this are health beliefs that are culturally based and passed on from generation to generation. And finally, behaviors can be added to the list of social determinants. What is too often left out of the discussion about behaviors are the structural inequalities that may push individuals to rely upon substances and other harmful practices. Yet, how we handle the coping behaviors as a society is very different. I recall that the public policy associated with crack addiction in the 1980s was to criminalize the behavior. I was then a director of a housing authority and watched individuals become quickly addicted with families torn apart because of the incarceration of users and sellers. Yet, with the current opioid addiction epidemic, a public health crisis has been declared with primacy being given to treatment. The difference between a crime and a public health crisis is also a factor of zip code that is a proxy for race and
Guest Columnist
By Roger Caldwell
Political, Health Care Systems in America are Broken and Corrupt
This week, we have a chance to make a difference in a second federal stimulus package now under discussion in Washington — if we act now. In the last package, the multitrillion-dollar CARES Act intended to help struggling small businesses, many Black-owned businesses were left out. That’s because the CARES Act requires business owners to have existing relationships with banks. Most Black-owned businesses don’t have those relationships. What they have are triple the denials for loans that banks give to non-minority businesses. Last year, 2.6 million Black-owned businesses generated $150 billion in revenue and supported 3.56 million jobs. Yet the Republican Senate stubbornly pushes back on Democrats’ insistence to target economic relief to those who need it most, including Black-owned businesses, in the second aid package now being negotiated.
There is fierce urgency to take a stand. Despite the horrible plague of coronavirus, and the plagues of loneliness and separation, we need not be hopeless. Within our collective vulnerability is a collective strength. We need to apply pressure on our senators to see us, hear us, listen to us when we say don’t overlook us again.
Businesses are the beating heart of any community. The 2018 U.S. Mayors report noted that small Black-owned businesses have twelve times the growth and wealth of many non-minority small businesses and that Black women-led firms grew by 74 percent in the past decade. Until they were shuttered, most of these businesses were thriving. They deserve to be recognized in the second federal aid package, and to benefit from it. Congressional Democrats would not rubber-stamp the Senate’s second aid package as it stands because once again Black-owned businesses were orphaned. We need to help
CALDWELL Page 34
Guest Columnist
By Vincent C. Gray
COVID-19 Highlights Racial Inequality
African Americans are dying from COVID-19 at rates well above non-Hispanic white residents. In the District, despite being less than 47 percent of the city’s population, over 75 percent of the residents who have died due to complications related to COVID-19 were African American. While the virus does not discriminate on the basis of race, our history of being slow or unwilling to ensure African Americans have equal health, food, and housing outcomes are the reasons coronavirus has had a devasting impact in every major city with a significant size African-American population.
I am horrified by these grim statistics but even more perplexed as to why many people outside of Wards 7 and 8 are only now waking up to the fact that these disparities exist. COVID-19 has an insidious way of attacking people with pre-existing health conditions.
A 2016 report from the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies on the Health of the African-American Community in the District of Columbia showed that the residents of Wards 7 and 8 have health outcome disparities in every statistical category including: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, smoking-related respiratory illnesses, cancer, etc. So, while we must do everything possible to communicate with vulnerable communities of color on how best to protect themselves from COVID-19, even our best efforts will not be able to eliminate the disproportionate, adverse impact COVID-19 will have on African-American communities.
When I returned to the Council, I specifically asked to chair the Committee on Health. In this role, I have been fighting for a state-of-the-art community hospital that anchors a true health care system for Wards 7 and 8, equitable access to full-service grocery stores and universal birth-to-three education. We have made enormous progress in these areas. We have been able to reassemble $325 million to build a state-of-the-art community hospital on St. Elizabeth’s campus. This new hospital will serve as the catalyst for a true interconnected health care system of emergency care, urgent care, specialty care, ambulatory care, primary care, medical offices, independent physicians and dentists. Already we are seeing pieces of this health system come together: a new urgent care system will be operated by MBI Health Services; Howard University Hospital and Unity Health Care are partnering for a new health center at 4430 Benning Road, NE; a medical office building will be coming to Skyland; and Unity Health Care and Sibley Memorial Hospital jointly established a cancer care clinic within Unity’s Parkside Health Center.
In addition to building a health
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Askia-At-Large
By Askia Muhammad
Back to ‘Normal’ Not Good Enough
This COVID-19 pandemic has us all so anxious and frightened, most of us long for the time when life around the world “gets back to normal.” But I have to say — and I hope most will agree — back “to normal” is not OK with me.
These Trumpistas and gun fanatics are mistaken in their belief that victory over the internal enemy alone is sufficient in troubled times. They can pack the Supreme Court 9-0. They can stack the Senate 99-0. Their rulings will be meaningless against a noncompliant people.
The Trumpistas are mistaken when they presume that their internal enemies whom they ruthlessly crush at every opportunity, will rally round their flag when an existential external threat arrives.
When the slave master’s house caught on fire, Brother Malcolm X reminded us, the house slaves would help put the fire out, but the field slave would pray for a strong wind. Lots of folks are praying for a strong wind, after this novel coronavirus blows over.
The spring outside my window looks normal. But it’s not. Like millions of others around the globe, I’m trapped inside a prison of my own making. Dread that I might not get to see my dreams come true. We cannot, we will not return to the “normal” life of 2019, ever again.
Aside from the social distancing changes that will never be the same again, who wants to go back to “normal” if that means: If you’re Black, get back. If you’re white, you’re right. If you’re brown, stick around. If you’re yellow, you’re mellow? Who wants to go back to those days?
The idea that the quick and vigorous revival of the economy is, in fact, more important than protecting the lives of citizens, especially the elderly in this COVID-19 deal, is patriotic Republican talk. But let me say, right off the bat, that is absurd and ludicrous.
But a “Remember the Alamo” GOP diehard, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, suggested last month that American seniors ASKIA Page 34
