Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 1-20-17 Edition

Editorials/Columns
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
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S. KAY ANDREWS, PUBLISHER C. BLYTHE ANDREWS III, PRESIDENT/CONTROLLER ALLISON WELLS-CLEBERT, CFO GWEN HAYES, EDITOR IRIS HOLTON, CITY EDITOR BETTY DAWKINS, ADVERTISING DIRECTOR HAROLD ADAMS, CIRCULATION MANAGER TOYNETTA COBB, PRODUCTION MANAGER LAVORA EDWARDS, CLASSIFIED MANAGER
Opinions expressed on editorial pages of this newspaper by Columnists or Guest Writers, do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of The Florida Sentinel Bulletin or the Publisher.
Are You Ready For Tomorrow?
icture this scenario for a
minute. You call Uber for a ride and a car shows up to your door in five minutes.
When you step into the vehicle you discover that there is no driver. Instead of telling someone where to take you, you simply text Uber the address and the car pulls off headed into that di- rection.
During your trip you re- member something you needed to pick up from the market. You text Uber again and the car is instructed to take a new route to the near- est superstore.
Pressed for time, once you arrive at the store, you jump out of the vehicle with your smart phone, run inside, grab what you need from the shelf and immediately exit the building. Did you just shoplift? Of course not. The store you entered was in- stalled with sensors that au- tomatically connected with your phone the minute you entered the establishment.
As soon as you removed the item from its display and left, the cost of the product was deducted from your ac- count. No checkout lines or clumsy cash exchanges. Only the ease and convenience of the ultimate shopping experi- ence.
Finally, you arrive to your original destination. It is a ge- netics lab that will take sam- ples of your DNA so that scientist can reprogram your white blood cells to more ef- ficiently fight off such ail- ments as cancer, HIV and hepatitis before placing them back into your bloodstream and making you genetically retrofitted. Your life span now increased by, approxi- mately, 20 years.
If any of this sounds to you like some futuristic, dystopian, dream world cre- ated by Hollywood screen- writers, think again. The foundation for everything I mentioned is being created as you read this and is expected to be a normal part of our
lives going forward within the next five years.
Uber is already experi- menting with driverless cars in several cities across the country.
Amazon's first fully auto- mated store is currently open for business in San Francisco.
And geneticists all over the world are using a technol- ogy called CRISPR that has allowed them to have success in everything from making fish grow larger and remov- ing deadly transmittable pathogens from mosquitoes to breeding dogs with exag- gerated muscularity. Making us all (at least those of us who can afford the procedure) for- ever youthful and healthy super humans is, inevitably, the next logical step in man's continuing quest to become more God like.
The future, as they often say, is upon us. Now the question we have to ask our- selves is whether or not we're mentally, skillfully or finan- cially prepared to take advan- tage of all of the possibilities it presents.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. You can write to Mr. Barr at: Clarence Barr 43110-018, Oakdale F. C. I., P. O. BOX 5000, Oakdale, LA 71463.
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American Contradictions
ace it. America is a hotbed of contradictions, double
standards, stereotypes, and double-speaks . . . a condition that has escalated since 2016 and promises to reach epidemic proportions during 2017.
Here’s why. In America, it’s crystal-clear that we have a legacy of saying one thing, then doing another thing depending on who is doing the saying. For in- stance, President Obama was skewered in 2008 for comments someone else made (his former pastor Rev. J Jeremiah Wright made comments during several of his sermons regarding “chickens coming home to roost” when the September 11th attacks on America occurred).
But President Obama was treated as if he said it. Pre- posterous, you say? Yet, we turn right around and elect a president who has potential conflicts in unrevealed Russian business deals, who carries on a “Bromance” with America’s arch-enemy, who he has invited to hack America’s e-mail. Surely, the Rev. Wright-Obama/ Vladimir Putin-Don Trump comparison doesn’t hold up.
Republicans pitched the American electorate a line about “lying Hillary,” yet, Donald Trump was shown to have told lies twice as much as Hillary ever dared (67% to 32%) by Politifact. Then, touting Clinton’s lack of ethics, the first agenda item of Congress last week was to scuttle the power of the Independent Ethics Commit- tee that would monitor Republican Congressional mem- bers’ unethical behaviors in a highly unethical act.
Alarmingly, after winning hard-fought-for women’s rights and health choices, women elected male con- gressmen and a president who wanted to take those same achievements away.
Moreover, Republicans mesmerized working class Americans into believing they would bring jobs back to America. Yet, they killed a 2014 Bring Jobs Home Act because the bill would end tax breaks for outfits who outsourced jobs to other countries. Somebody please wake up. The coffee’s burning.
How We Feel About Jennifer Holiday And Her Decision Not To Appear At The Trump Inauguration
he has sung at the inaugurations of four American Presidents, this luminary, Jennifer
Yvette Holiday, world renowned actress songstress, and goodwill ambassador for her nation, her color, and her God. Her career includes the Broadway musicals Dreamgirls and Your Arms Too Short to Box with God; she is the proud recipient of a Tony Award; Grammy Awards for the most-Outstanding Actress in a Musical festoon her walls while Grammies for such songs as “I Am Love,” “Givin’ Up,” “A Woman’s Got the Power,” and the anthem “I Want to Know What Love Is” (that features her voice) glitters in platinum, but pop music and Broadway melodies are only part of her repertoire, for, Jennifer Holiday stands equal beside such icons as Mahalia Jackson and Shirley Caesar.
Indeed, space isn’t ample enough to provide the numerous accomplishments of this African American statue of Liberty, that is, until recently when she was asked by President- Elect Donald Trump to sing at his inauguration, she said “Yes,” and all hell broke loose.
What followed was a nightmare that included death threats and cat calls, many from the Black community. On a nationally syndicated talk-show (The View), Holiday held back tears as she related late-night Facebook hoots and taunts where many fellow Black Americans even referred to her as “N----r!”
So, she dropped out.And why not, say some, for, who would want his or her name plas- tered next to the name of a racist-sexist-demagogue such as Trump has shown himself to be. However, as of midday January 20th, he will also be America’s 45th President. In the face of fact, where does the resentment end? Therefore, we congratulate Donald Trump and with every ounce of humility within us, we apologize to Jennifer Holiday.
BREAKING NEWS!! BREAKING NEWS!! BREAKING NEWS!! BREAKING NEWS!!
CAUGHT: Markeith Loyd Is Walked Into Police Headquarters After Finally Being Arrested
Markeith Loyd was obvi- ously beaten after being found. Loyd killed his ex-girl- friend, unborn baby and an Orlando Police officer.
Markeith Demangzlo Loyd was captured Tuesday evening, nine days after an Or- lando police officer was gunned down.
Loyd is accused of killing Lt. Debra Clayton and shooting at a deputy who chased after him on Monday. A different Orange County Sheriff's Deputy, Nor- man Lewis, was killed during the manhunt in a traffic accident.
Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton's nephew drove by the Carver Shores home dozens of
times in the past week while on the way to his grandmother's house to grieve Clayton's death.
What he didn't know is that his aunt's accused killer, Loyd, was hiding inside the abandoned one- story home at 1157 Lescot Lane. Loyd was captured on video say- ing the officers ‘beat me up’ when taken into custody.
Loyd, 41, was transported to the Orange County Jail in a cor- rections van on Wednesday evening after spending most of the day at Orlando Regional
Medical Center receiving treat- ment.
About a dozen people crowded outside the hospital to watch Loyd get loaded into the van.
A law enforcement official, who did not want to be identified, said Loyd had undergone at least one surgery at ORMC. When he was taken into custody Tuesday night, Loyd's face was bloodied, and his eyes and lips were swollen. The injury to his left eye suffered during his arrest could
leave him blind in that eye, the official said.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman An- gela Starke said the agency only investigates incidents of deadly force used by law enforcement of- ficers and hasn't been asked to look into Loyd's injuries.
Loyd made his first appear- ance on Thursday morning, to hear charges related to the death of his pregnant ex-girlfriend. He is expected to face additional charges in Clayton's death.
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2017 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A
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