Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 11-8-16 Online Edition

Editorials/Column
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
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It Starts With One Child
ovember is National Adoption Month. Chil- dren across the state of
Florida are waiting for someone to become their heroes through foster care or adoption. Every child deserves a safe and loving upbringing. Children need a home where caregivers invest in their lives and respectfully guide them toward becoming success- ful adults. Yet, many children grow up in homes where such a positive atmosphere isn’t a real- ity.
Only six out of 10,000 adults choose to become foster parents, yet hundreds of children throughout Florida can be given a safe home through foster care or adoption. How can you be part of providing stability for these children during the most formative years of their lives?
It starts with one child.
We have been football coaches for a combined 52 years — from youth development teams to Super Bowl Champi- ons. Through those experiences, we both have seen the power of teaching men at every age life lessons on and off the field. Nothing is more satisfying than molding men at every age.
We both have seen lives transformed through the literal and figurative adoption of these young men. Tony has seven adopted children and he and his wife have served as foster par- ents. Mike also is an adoptive parent and has served the Florida Department of Children and Families for more than 26 years, helping oversee the adop- tions of thousands of Florida kids.
All Pro Dad and the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) are seeking to rally parents across Florida to provide loving homes and envi- ronments through foster care or adoption. This might sound daunting or difficult, especially when we tell you a child’s life and future are hanging in the balance. But, we can each do for one what we wish we could do for every one of these children. And together we can take on this task. Just like a football game is won, one first down at a time, the overwhelming number of children who need a loving home can dwindle, one child at a time.
You can change the life of one child because you are not
alone when you take on this en- deavor. All Pro Dad and DCF have resources to help. Inter- ested parents can download “The 4 Joys of Foster Parenting” and “Overcoming the 6 Fears of Foster Parenting” at www.All- ProDad.com/Foster to start the conversation on how you and your spouse can help change a child’s life. To see the amazing kids available for adoption in Florida. visitwww.adoptflo- rida.org/.
One of the greatest joys in life is having the opportunity to watch a child develop and grow. Join us in stepping up for Florida’s children. We can both say from personal experience that the investment you make in one child’s life will positively transform your life more than you could ever imagine.
If you’re considering foster care or adoption, call 1-844- 4FL-KIDS (1-844-435-5437) to take your next steps towards being a hero in a child’s life.
Tony Dungy serves as the national spokesman for All Pro Dad, a national fatherhood or- ganization. Tony was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August. For more in- formation on All Pro Dad, please visit allprodad.com.
Secretary Mike Carroll has devoted his entire state ca- reer of more than 26 years serv- ing the Florida Department of Children and Families. During his tenure, he has driven nu- merous improvements to the way Florida serves and protects vulnerable children and fami- lies.
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Vote For Your Children!
nd what will you tell your children if they should ask
you if you voted in this recent presidential election? If the answer is “yes,” then at least your explanation as to why you voted and for whom you voted will probably hold water. But what if the answer is “no?” How will you explain your- self? Will you say, “I got caught up watching the Bucs lose and just forgot about it all?” Or maybe you’ll be a bully and growl, “I’m the parent. I don’t have to tell you anything!”
The truth, of course, is you really have no explanation as to why you recently helped your nation commit electoral sui- cide by being one of thousands of Black Floridians who turned over in bed and went back to sleep rather than to go out and vote. And that’s why you had no excuse for not show- ing up at an election poll that was literally right across the street from where you live.
Then again, maybe you really believe that nobody gives a fig about what you think. If so, such is the legacy you’ll pass on to your children. But we can’t believe you’d be so foolish, even about yourself.
Just as we refuse to accept the addle-brained argument that nothing you’ve heard or no one you’ve seen in the past year has made you think about the well-being of your home, your nation, or your planet, we refuse to repeat what a writer observed years ago, that “the people are sheep!” So, for one last time, we beg you to get up off your comfort-zone and vote. Your city and county need you.
Your country needs you. But most important of all: YOUR CHILDREN NEED YOU! (Don’t let them down.).
Do You Want The Status Or Stuff
mpowered Greetings.
Will you honestly answer this question? Do you want the true status of being financially wealthy or the stuff that you think represents financial suc- cess? There’s a look that most non-wealthy people seem to conceive in their imagination of wealthy people. A person of wealth is thought to drive the most current model of some sort of luxury vehicle.
They are presumed to live in the most affluent neighbor- hoods. Certainly, they dress in the most popular name brand attire; have expensive things
surrounding them and attend the best private schools. While this is true for some it’s not true for all.
There are those that have the look of being wealthy but they really don’t have the status. They just have the stuff. In other words, they have a lot of stuff but a little bit of money. This in- cludes celebrities, entertainers and other top public figures.
Too often, people get caught up trying to get the stuff and have no real desire to obtain the status. This is why people will sell drugs, rob banks, steal, scheme, plot and plan to get
money just to buy stuff from people that really don’t value them as a person. Our prisons are full of people that wanted the stuff and not the status. The peo- ple that have the status are the ones that will profit off of the poor decision of the junkies of the stuff. (i.e. private and public prisons for profits)
There are people working 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs, barely sur- viving, but yet spending their hard earned money on stuff that makes them look successful. When the reality is, they are liv- ing paycheck to paycheck and if they miss a check their life and style would be in shambles. Again I ask, do you want the sta- tus or the stuff.
If you seriously want to be fi- nancially wealthy, you must go beyond striving for the look by obtaining stuff and take the nec- essary steps to achieve the sta- tus. No one can do it for you but you. Don’t wait for any hand- outs, hand-ups or permission to move into your wealthy place.
Still The Same Old Trump
We can’t imagine why Black folks are voting in smaller numbers during the 2016 elections, but we do know that this election is reminiscent of Reconstruction and
Blacks need to vote in greater numbers than we did for Pres- ident Barack Obama. Among troubling trends during this election is that Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white suprema- cist groups show up at Trump rallies and have endorsed him for president.
This scenario reminds us of the adage, “a mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of people he attracts.” Indeed, hate groups have been drawn to Trump by his racist, sexist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-Mexican anti-immigrant and dog-whistling rants.
One white supremacist threatened harm to liberals and Blacks if Trump loses the election. Moreover, an American Nazi Party official was quoted as writing “We have a won- derful opportunity here folk --- Donald Trump’s campaign statements, if nothing else, have shown that our views are NOT so unpopular as the Political Correctness crowd have told everyone they are.”
Furthermore, a national organizer for the Knight’s Party admitted the KKK had begun using conversations about Trump’s candidacy to recruit followers.
By now Back people should recognize that Trump has not
changed. He is the same person who did not want to rent apartments to Blacks in the 1970s; who said he did not like a Black male employee “counting my money;” whose Black Atlantic City casino employees were taken off the floor and sent to backrooms whenever he visited the casino; who staged a divisive New York City media campaign against Black youth falsely ac- cused of rape; and who is alleged to have used the n-word while waiting to tape a segment of The Apprentice...
We therefore, believe that Trump has not changed and is a danger to all Americans espe- cially minorities, immigrants, Muslims and women.
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PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2016