Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 7-31-18

Obama News
Group Plans To Celebrate ‘National Obama Day’
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
For several months, James Ford, a resi- dent of Detroit, Michigan, and others have been planning to celebrate Saturday, August 4th, as “National Obama Day.” And, he wants people around the country to join them in the celebration.
The celebration is in honor of former Pres- ident Barack Obama, who will turn 57 on August 4th. A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, he became the first African American to be elected president of the United States in 2008. He won a second term in 2012.
Ford said, “If anyone can think of a better role model, then I would like to see them. If we don’t celebrate his legacy, we may never see another minority president in our lifetimes. By celebrating his legacy, a lot of kids will be in- spired to follow his example.
“We need to celebrate while he is alive. Give children and young adults a living example as a role model. Kids need motivation.”
However, Ford said, the day is not to be confused with anything other than its purpose. “This is not a political day. It’s a day of moti- vation. Cities all over the country are preparing
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
for this day. We hope it will spread to others,” Ford said.
“This is a progressive movement and we want to unite everyone in the country. His legacy should be passed down by us because no one else will tell our kids about a Black man who was the most powerful person in the country for 8 years,” Ford said.
For more information, contact Ford at (586) 918-3061, or visit the website at www.obamadayaug4.com.
Barack Obama Says He's Surprised By How Much Money He Has
Former President Barack Obama delivered a speech in Johannesburg, South Africa recently, to com- memorate the centennial an- niversary of the birth of former South African Presi- dent Nelson Mandela, who passed away in 2013. In it, the subject of wealth in- equality in the United States came up, and Obama said, with some mixture of humor and sincerity, that even he is "surprised" by how much wealth he's been able to accu- mulate over the course of his life.
The Hill reports that dur- ing his speech Obama went on to say that a person of his wealth or even much greater riches should be more than happy to be taxed at higher
marginal rates in order to help those less fortunate:
"There's only so much you can eat. There's only so big a house you can have. There's only so many nice trips you can take ... I mean, it's enough. You don't have to take a vow of poverty just to say, 'Let me help out a few of the other folks' ... Let me look at that child out there who doesn't have enough to eat or needs some school fees — let me help them out. I'll pay a little more in taxes ... It's OK, I can afford it. I mean, it shows a poverty of ambition to just want to take more, and more, and more, instead of saying, 'Wow, I've got so much, who can I help? How can I give, more, and more, and more?'"
Valdosta Residents Want To Rename Street For
Barack Obama
The civil rights group needs to get 60 percent of Forrest Street's residents to sign a petition before they bring the proposal to change it in honor of Obama before City Council.
A civil rights group in Val- dosta wants to change one of the south Georgia city’s streets to Barack Obama Boulevard.
Back in 2014, a local racial justice group, the Mary Turner Project published re- search on several Valdosta streets named for slaveown- ers. The list included Forrest Street, named after Confeder- ate General and subsequent Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Now, a Valdosta civil rights group, the People’s Tri- bunal, wants to rename it for former President Barack Obama. The Rev. Floyd Rose, the group’s president, said this is the first time
they’ve tried to change a street name, but there are others around town.
“We want to do one at a time,” he said. “We want to get Barack Obama’s name down first.”
Mark George is with the Mary Turner Project, which did the original research.
“The two streets that run north and south, the main roads through Valdosta are Patterson and Ashley Streets, and they both were Confeder- ate veterans who were both slaveowners,” he said.
“Most of the streets here are named after either former slaveowners or Confederate generals,” Rose said. He pointed out that his own church is on Lee Street, named for Robert E. Lee.
George said it’s hard to tell why now is the time some of his group’s research is catching on.
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