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Editorials/Columns
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Let The Babies Live
love kids. This is why it al- ways brings my spirit down when I hear stories about them being abused or
murdered.
This type of despair came
over me after reading an ac- count of how 8-month-old Za- ynah Voss lost her life.
According to a coroner's report, her demise was the re- sult of multiple points of blunt impact to her skull that were allegedly inflicted by 25-year- old Jermaine McKinnley, the man who Zaynah's mother believed would keep her out of harm's way while she briefly went off to run er- rands.
It seems like every time we hear about one of these sense- less killings, it's almost always the same scenario: mother leaves her young child with a new boyfriend who winds up killing said child through pure recklessness.
For some reason, these young mothers continuously fail to realize that they can't leave their babies with just anyone. It never dawns on them that a person's cool fac- tor or ability to perform well in the bedroom doesn't automat- ically qualify him as a respon- sible caregiver for children.
Infants, in particular, be- cause of their fragility and temperament, should only be left with individuals who pos- sess an extreme level of pa- tience. And that's something you'll rarely, if ever, find with the average 20-something- year-old knucklehead.
Along with Zaynah's mother, I can't help but have sympathy for her father as well. Part of his long suffering grief will stem from him com- ing to grips with the fact that his daughter would probably still be alive if he'd simply made the sacrifice to become a
full-time parent.
The worse part of it all is
that while little Zaynah's family is in mourning, McK- innley is, more than likely, somewhere in the county jail participating in a prayer circle, hoping that God will spare his life even though he needlessly took someone else's. For him it hasn't set in that he'll not only have to deal with the severe consequences of his actions here on Earth as a known child-killer in a state prison but that, one day, he'll also have to explain to his creator why he felt it necessary to de- stroy such beautiful inno- cence?
Unfortunately, no one can bring Zaynah back. Her little soul is now part of the essence.
But, hopefully, other young mothers will learn a valuable lesson from her story so that her untimely death won't be in vain.
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C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
Give Thanks To Our Warriors
ay 29th of this year is the day when we Americans com-
memorate one of the most important yet, most trou- bling of our national holidays... call it “Memorial Day” ... that day when we celebrate the valor, vigor and often-times mar- tyrdom of our military heroes.
Based, perhaps, on Ecclesiastes 3:8 (“Remember... that there is a time to love, to hate, for peace and for war... ”), we African Americans have done as our other American bro- thers and sisters have done ... paid homage to those men and women who risked their lives in a military way so that we might enjoy freedom, democracy, and most of all, peace.
For, it seems, only through the benefits of war can we human beings experience the havens of peace, right or wrong?
Therefore, we take time to thank such warriors (hapless or willing) as Crispus Attucks, who stepped out of a Boston tavern and onto the pages of American History as being the first man (a Black man) to die for the American Revolution.
We thank the thousands of Black former slaves who risked death during the Civil War to fight for inalienable life; give thanks to Black Buffalo Soldiers who grabbed Teddy Roosevelt by the seat of his pants and dragged him victori- ously up San Juan Hill; give thanks to Black Doughboys dur- ing World War I who breathed mustard gas to free France; give thanks to the Black tank soldiers who rode with General George S. Patton, Jr., during World War II and saw genocide first hand; give thanks for Black soldiers who froze on the mountains of Korea; give thanks to 17 and 18-year-old Black gang members who served probation by fighting in the jun- gles of Vietnam; give thanks to Black men and women who swallowed the dust of Iraqi deserts and hunkered down in the ruined mountains of Afghanistan.
Wherever Black blood has been shed for peace, we give thanks.
M
TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2017 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5
Get Up And Get To Work
Empowered Greetings.
Get up and get to work! If you really want to ex- perience all that life has to offer, get up and get to work. Get up and get to work on de- veloping yourself. To improve the quality of your life you must improve the quality of
who you are.
Get up! Get to work! Give
rise to thought of becoming a better you. Draw encourage- ment from the notion that when you grow as a person three things will happen:
1. Your faith in your future will grow. Exposure to a new way of thinking shifts your view of seeing things as impos- sible to possible. It will remove the limits of rationalizing why something can’t be done to ex- ploring beyond the boundaries and contemplating on the no- tion of, “How can this be
done?”
2. Your finances will grow
because you position yourself to earn more when you learn more. Introduction to the right information by school or some other source can directly im- pact your ability to increase your income.
3. Your caliber of friends will grow. You will begin to gravitate toward people that are going where you’re going and thinking like you’re think- ing. You will understand the value of having great associa- tions by way of friends that bring about great assimila- tions.
Many people go to work on jobs for countless hours trying to make a better life for them- selves and their family, but still they can’t seem to get ahead. I want to encourage you to never work harder on a
job than you work on develop- ing you. It is said that what you or who you become is directly related to what you will get.
In order to have more and do more in life, you must be- come more. To become more than the person you were yes- terday, get up and get to work on you. Here’s how to work on you. Read, research and rein- vent. Reading and research gives you access to informa- tion. Information gives you ac- cess to ideas to take action on as you work on reinventing yourself to be the person you desire.
I hope this column has em- powered you to empower yourself to get up and get to work on you to become more than anyone ever thought was possible. To continue to be empowered for success let’s stay connected through social media.
Facebook: Selphenia Nichols Success Coach To Women
Instagram: Selphenia Twitter: queenofsuccess1
Website: Success- CoachToWomen
Now That School Is Out...
tart your child on a journey of reading every day by buy-
ing them a book for each week or by taking them to the public library each week to check out books to read. Indeed, the most successful children in school are those who love to read. Children who take time to read on a regular basis be- come excellent readers (trust us).
Just as there is a correlation between reading and per- sonal and professional success, there is also a correlation be- tween reading and academic failure, delinquency, crime, and violence.
In fact, 70 percent or more of inmates in American pri- sons cannot read above a fourth grade level. Therefore, poor readers have an increased chance of ending up in jail. Pa- rents, if for no other reason than to keep your child out of the
S
criminal justice system, encourage them to read for at least 30 minutes each day, and buy your children books, instead of toys.
Poverty and our address should not determine how well our children perform in school. A 2010 report found that “only 12 percent of Black fourth grade boys are proficient in reading compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of Black eighth grade boys are proficient in math compared with 44 percent of white boys.”
Yet, poor white boys do just as well as Black male youths who do not live in poverty. Thus, developing Black children’s reading skills and a love for reading will greatly enhance the chil- dren’s chances to succeed in school and in life.
In other words, “BOOK LOVERS ROCK!”