The Washington Informer - November 26, 2015

Page 1

I N S I D E

Body-Worn Camera Program County Residents Hold on Fast Track Page 10 Pro-Police Rally Page 12

VOL. 1, NO. 10

NOV. 2015

Don’t Miss This Month’s WI Bridge - CENTER SECTION

Web : http://washingtoninformer.com/news/wi-bridge/

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Theater Alliance Brings ‘Black Nativity’ to Southeast Page 29

District Officials Favor Accepting Syrian Refugees

EXODUS

Email : wibridge@washingtoninformer.com

Protests Spark Howard to Pay Band Scholarships Page 23

Instagram : WashInformerBridge www.instagram.com/washinformerbridge

By Stacy M. Brown WI Senior Writer

Despite the House easily passing a bill that would suspend the program allowing Syrian and Iraqi refugees into America until key security agencies certify that they don’t pose a security risk, District area lawmakers and officials said they’d still welcome those from the worntorn, terrorist hotbeds. “I feel strongly that we should be welcoming refugees from all over the world, as is our country’s proud heritage,” said D.C. At-large Councilman David Grosso, an In-

The Nov. 19 passage of a House bill threatens to prohibit refugees from entering the country. / Photo courtesy Downtrend.com

dependent. “I am very disappointed in other local elected officials who are demonizing those fleeing violence – refugees – as perpetrators of violence. Whether a refugee is from Syria, Eritrea, Honduras, or somewhere else, in D.C. and the country broadly we should be doing more to welcome them and help them be safe,” said Grosso, 44. The anti-refugee rhetoric advanced by leaders in several states across the country is shameful and the District takes pride in being a

SYRIA Page 8

Residents Give Thanks, Share Blessings By William Ford, D. Kevin McNeir and Sarafina Wright WI Staff Writer, Editor and Staff Writer From Ward 8, where Council member La Ruby May continued a tradition in Southeast on Monday, Nov. 23, established by the late Marion Barry, who served the District for over 30 years as mayor and council member, to the Verizon Center where nonperishable food donations poured in to support a community effort to feed over 3,000 families in the Greater Washington Area, giving thanks and helping those less fortunate remained the focus as Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 26, ap-

proached. And while the national holiday, celebrated in both Canada (in October) and in the U.S. (November), as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year, traces its historical roots in long-established religious and cultural traditions, it has also been recognized in secular manners as well. In the U.S., the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition can generally be traced to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts prompted by a good harvest for the Pilgrims and Puritans who began leaving England in the 1620s and carried the tradition of Days of Fasting to New England. Up until

1682, Thanksgiving proclamations were mostly made by church leaders in New England and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America, marking Nov. 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.” In modern times, the U.S. president, in addition to issuing a proclamation, also pardons a turkey, which spares the bird’s life and ensures that it will spend the duration of it roam-

BLESSINGS Page 11

Celebrating 51 Years of Service / Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area

5 OMoxie Coleman-Miller, 10 and Alicia Gayle, 10, sort food at the All Souls Unitarian Church food drive on Sunday, Nov. 22. / Photo by Nancy Shia

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