Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 4-1-16 Edition

Editorials
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Judge, Justice, Judge
hen Supreme Court
Justice Antonia Scalia died unexpectedly, be- fore they could get him to the funeral home there was talk on
how to replace him.
The U. S. Constitution pre-
scribes a method, but the two major parties have turned the process into a political foot- ball.
The President is supposed to nominate a justice and the Congress confirms the nomi- nation. In the case of Justice Scalia, the Republicans are showing that they don’t want President Obama to nomi- nate a candidate. The reasons have nothing to do with the president. Instead it is strictly political.
A full Supreme Court has nine members. A vote on an issue before the court needs
five votes to pass. That is why that fifth vote is so important. The party with the most votes controls the Supreme Court. The Court is going to be locked in a fiery battle to replace the late Justice Scalia.
I want to offer a suggestion that may be a way to always fill a vacancy on the Court. Now could be the ideal time to try my suggestion. Right now no party controls the courts. In such situation the President chooses a candidate for the court who is neither Republi- can or Democrat nor Liberal or conservative.
These are the only kind of judges that should be recom- mended or appointed. This is the only way we can eliminate most of the party partisanship that surrounds the Supreme Court. Supreme Justices are
appointed for life.
Today, there is talk of
changing that policy. I don’t know what good that will do, but the talk is out there. The two numbers that are most talked about are term limita- tion of 10 or 25 years. There have been no other out cries for change to the court. I don’t believe no changes have been made to the Supreme Court in 75 years.
I do know one thing about the Supreme Court and that something needs to be done about modernizing it. Today, the Court has become a little more than a puppet for the controlling party. It will con- tinue to be that way as long as you have one party control.
Just think, here is the Supreme Court, the most pow- erful law in the land and the controller of human life is out of date. Congress doesn’t seem to be in no hurry to make any changes to the Court. The thing left for citizens to do is to fold their arms and just hope we come up with some good justices.
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Voting By The Numbers
here is no doubt that Asian Americans, Black Amer-
icans, and American-Hispanic voters contributed to the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. The voter turnout for Blacks was its highest in 2008 and 2012 at 70 percent rate in 2008 and 68 percent in 2012.
In fact, the voter turnout rate for Black Americans was higher than non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics and other groups. Together, these ethnic groups made up 28 percent of voters who made a presence in 2012, giving President Obama a decisive victory over Mitt Romney.
Now, if Blacks, Hispanics, and other ethnic groups would commit to increasing the number of registered and voting members in 2016, these groups could sway the presidential election once again. Political forecasts con- tend that an increase in such groups’ registration and voting turnout in 2016 can likely increase the Democrats’ lead in the national popular vote.
We encourage our readers to make certain every per- son you have the opportunity to talk to in the future is a registered and active voter.
Furthermore, we urge those of you who have not voted since 2008 to check on your voting status with the Supervisor of Elections office.
Finally, we encourage all of our readers to spread the word about how important it will be for Blacks, Hispan- ics, and other ethnic groups to strive for a 100 percent turnout vote.
Free Thinking
or two weeks now it
seems as though we've been inundated with news sto- ries about unbelievably brutal terrorist attacks occurring across the globe. It started with the suicide bombings in Brussels, Belgium, continued with another bombing at an Easter Sunday celebration at- tended by children in Pakistan and at some point, in the midst of these chaotic episodes, it was reported that a Catholic priest was kidnapped from his church in Yemen and crucified on a cross. Each event stand- ing as a testament to the limit- less level of cruelty that those responsible are willing to in- flict in an attempt to further their cause.
Since 2014, as incidents like these have increased in fre- quency, we've been told that the perpetrators behind the vi- olence are members of, or in- dividuals who've pledged allegiance to, the organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a group that is more commonly referred to as ISIS.
In almost every instance we're led to believe that what we're witnessing is the work of so-called "Islamic extremists." It is an idea that has been force
fed to us so often that when- ever something bad does hap- pen we've automatically been programmed to visualize the culprits as black flag waving zealots. But the question that I've recently begun to wonder is if that image is as accurate as it seems?
Even though I'm fully aware that there are religious radicals from the Middle East region who are capable of pulling of such egregious acts, with the amount of attention being fo- cused on this one entity, the reality is that anyone could or- chestrate one these deplorable acts of terror under the guise of it being an ISIS operation and we wouldn't think twice about it not being the case. I mean it isn't like we can inves- tigate the truth for ourselves.
We are solely dependent upon the media for all of our information. And, unfortu- nately, they in turn place their faith in what they gather from government agencies whose trustworthiness has proven to be highly questionable.
This is far from a revelation. From the Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro) of the Sixties, to the Iran-Contra scandal of the Eighties, to the mysteries behind the Septem-
ber 11th attacks in 2001, our government has a long history of being less than completely honest. And, with that being the case, how do we know that what we're seeing now isn't more of the same type of de- ception?
Think about it. What if this madness is all a part of a ploy designed to stoke our fears so that a greater agenda can be achieved, a plan that involves creating a living environment so frightening that we feel compelled to sacrifice our free- doms for our safety while jus- tifying a war against a powerful enemy that must be vanquished?
It isn't like it hasn't hap- pened before. The ancient Roman Emperor Nero set fire to his own capital city and blamed it on the Christians just so he could persecute them. Is it really such stretch to believe that a new Roman empire could be capable of doing the exact same thing?
Of course this is all conjec- ture. There are only a select few who actually know what's really going on behind the scenes. But, by thinking out- side of the box and not buying into a ready-made narrative, we open our minds to so many possibilities that whatever truth comes to the light shouldn't be too surprising.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bulletin Publishing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at:
therealcbarr2@ yahoo.com.
Cuba And Her Forgotten Black Revolutionaries
nce again, we congratulate President Barack
Obama for his courageous attempt to repair the rift between the United States and Cuba. In his opinion as well as in ours, it makes good sense for two nations who live so close to become good neighbors.
But an 89-year-old Fidel Castro is not so certain, citing America and Cuba have too much bad blood to let by- gones be bygones. And perhaps, Fidel is not the only one who thinks so. At present, as many as 70 Americans are fugitives in Cuba; many of them are Black revolutionar- ies.
Most celebrated and still most-wanted is former Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur (no rela- tion to Tupac Shakur) whose conviction of first degree murder of a New Jersey state trooper and subsequent es- cape from prison took her to Cuba in 1973 where she has resided ever since and where New Jersey Governor Chris Christie still wants her return.
She is joined by Charlie Hill, former member of the Republic of Afrika, who in 1971, killed a New Mexico state trooper, hijacked a plane in Albuquerque, and ended up in Cuba. We also mention Ishmael LaBeet, a Black Viet- nam veteran who, having received 8 life-sentences for committing 8 murders, hijacked a jetliner to Cuba in 1972 where he resides to this day.
Cuban officials refuse to consider any ideas of fugitive exchange, which they claim is their governmental prerogative. But what about the fugitives themselves? Would re- paired relations between America and Cuba be an opportunity to heal old wounds or would it be a renewed Pandora’s Box for so-called retired Black freedom fighters?
Only time will tell, but for revolutionaries, caught up in a struggle that the world has all but forgotten, a jury of old age is in session, and time is running out.
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