Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 11-20-20

Editorial/Columns
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
(USPS 202-140)
2207 21st Avenue, Tampa Florida 33605 • (813) 248-1921 Published Every Tuesday and Friday By
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHING Co., Member of National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)
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
Subscriptions-$44.00-6 Months Both Editions: $87.00-Per Year Both Editions.
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.
No Change In The Business Of Slavery
ohn Bailey has serious
problems. The main one being that he's 76-years-old and serving time inside of a Florida state prison.
To make matters worse, Mr. Bailey is dealing with a number of health issues. Some of those ailments, for a man his age, are so lifethreatening that they could turn whatever time he was given into a possible death sentence.
Unfortunately for Mr. Bailey, even though he's a non-violent offender who has a legitimate claim that could potentially open the gates for him, he's been barred from filing any pro se motions to the court. According to Mr. Bailey, the judge ordered that nothing could be filed on his behalf unless it's submit- ted by an actual attorney.
This, of course, adds an additional road block for Mr. Bailey to overcome. Since he is financially desti- tute and the public de- fender's office doesn't handle post-conviction relief efforts, unless authorized by the state to do so, it's impossible for Mr. Bailey to acquire
the representation he des- perately needs.
This means that, for the foreseeable future, Mr. Bai- ley will be stuck behind bars. It isn't because he deserves to be there, but because a toll booth has been erected on the avenue that could lead to his potential release.
As sad as this story may sound, it is far from uncom- mon. There are thousands of men and women just like Mr. Bailey in prisons across the country who have winnable issues that could set them free. But, due to the fact that there are no state or federally funded legal mech- anisms in place to assist with post-conviction efforts, many people who shouldn't be locked up remain incarcer- ated simply because they can't afford what it would cost to get them out.
Some may point to these, seemingly, unfair circum- stances as further proof of just how broken the system has become. But, the truth is that, there has never been any malfunction in the way the system operates... It was created to work the way it
does by design.
When people look at the
statues of the blindfolded women holding the scales of justice outside of court- houses, what they often fail to recognize is that the scales aren't level. They lean a little more to one side than the other. And seldom, if ever, does that favoritism fall in behalf of the cash-strapped individuals who've been summoned for judgment.
Mr. Bailey, like so many others in prison, has his life literally hanging in the bal- ance of procedures, protocols and price tags that were put in place for the sole purpose of keeping him in bondage. As it was during slavery over 160 years ago, his freedom, regardless of how warranted, can't be obtained unless he's able to pay what his captors feel it's ultimately worth. And that means forcing him to contribute heavily to someone else's bottom line.
It all just goes to show that, though the look of the plantations may have changed over the years, with buildings and barbed wire fences standing where there were once cotton fields, to those who inherited the land it's still the same business where human captivity and profits go hand-in-hand.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. You can contact Mr. Barr at: cbar- ronice@gmail.com.
POSTMASTER: Send Address Change To: Florida Sentinel Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3363 Tampa, FL 33601 Periodical Postage Paid At Tampa, FL
C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
Never Again
Never again should America repeat the history of events played out in America over the past 30 days. The 117th Congress owes it to American citizens to put protocols and legislation in place that prevents any other American president from having the ability to hijack our government and to ignore the will of the people by sabotaging our form of government because the president does not like how Americans voted. There should be no reason to withhold funds for plan- ning the inauguration of a president-elect.
An outgoing president should not be able to inter- fere with the President-elect’s ability to receive domes- tic and international security briefings. Whether the outgoing president concedes the loss of an election or not, the President-Elect should have available to him/her all the information and funds appropriated for the President-Elect’s inauguration.
In the future, no president should be able to with- hold funds legally authorized to another country or any organization without Congressional approval. Presidents should not be able to use personal friends and family members to conduct rogue business of the President or U. S. government without legally written contracts available for review by American citizens and Congress.
The President-Elect and President should be re- quired to hold open meetings and to provide transcript records of all meetings with the leaders of other coun- tries. Presidents must provide factual, accurate and truthful information to the public about health pan- demics, health prognosis and impact of the severity of viruses, bacteria and other pathogens of sickness and/or death. Certified health officials should be charged to provide information, advice and direction to American citizens during medical catastrophes.
Among other actions future presidents should not be able to do is to enact or terminate regulations that protect the environment, waterways and air quality. Electing Donald Trump as president showed us all just how vulnerable and close, we can become a country with a dictator, something that needs to never happen again.
J
PAGE 4-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2020