Page 5 - 7-14-15 Tuesday's Edition

Editorials
Be Aggressive
South Carolina Gets It Right; Marion County Gets It Wrong!
T ell us. How could the state of South Carolina do the right thing by removing the Confederate flag from its capitol while Marion County, Florida’s (Ocala) county commission voted unanimously to (you guessed it) continue to fly the Stars and Bars battle flag in front of a county government building? Under what circumstances did Marion County manage to discuss returning the flag to the county building without one voice of protest? That’s right. Obviously, there wasn’t even one Black person, or one person of conscience attending the Marion County Commission meeting, and the NAACP president said he didn’t know the commission
would be discussing the issue.
We applaud the action of the South Carolina Legislature
and believe removing the Stars and Bars will most certainly help that state to heal centuries of bruised feelings. On the other hand, Black citizens of every county in Florida should not rest until the Confederate flag is removed from all prop- erties receiving taxpayer dollars, or every government offi- cial who supports the flag is removed from public office.
By the way, what part of Southern heritage does the Con- federate represent? It represents four years of bitter fight- ing to retain Slavery, nothing more!
It was a battle flag flown by traitors during battles against Union troops in its supporters’ attempt to maintain the sys- tem of human bondage.
If you believe the flag represents courage, mint juleps, cornbread, and other Southern delicacies, perhaps you need to open your eyes and change your diet.
P erhaps, former Desperate Housewives diva Eva Longoria was the only one who saw it. So, she hammered the nail on the head by comparing a bellicose billionaire stand-up comedian Donald Trump to another bellicose stand-up co- median-turned world-demigod by the name of Adolf Hitler.
Was she wrong in what she saw?
When Trump depicted the majority of Mexican illegal im-
migrants as murderers, thieves, thugs, and general sub-hu- mans then continued by saying, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best . . . They’re sending people who have lots of problems . . .,” most certainly, ac- tress Longoria had every right as an informed person on planet earth to see the comparison between Trump’s lam- bast against Mexicans and Hitler’s bombast against Jews.
For her courage and common sense, we thank Eva as we also thank various Republican leaders for coming to their senses, calling Trump up in the middle of the night, and ask- ing him (point-blank), “Fool, have you lost your blankety- blank mind?”But we also know that not everyone booed Trump’s bald-faced comments. No doubt, numerous so- called Conservatives did indeed, call him on the phone and wrap him on the back for saying what they were morally afraid to say. No, Trump is no clown. He has allies as did Adolf Hitler before he became leader of a rabid Nazi night- mare.
So, what’s this editorial got to do with Black folks? The an- swer is it has everything to do with us. Just remember Mar- tin Niemoller’s sobering poem, “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out/ Because I was not a So- cialist . . ./Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out/ Because I was not a Jew./ Then they came for me . . .” and you can imagine the rest. “First they came for the Mex- icans . . .” Who do you believe would be next?
Be aggressive and steadfast in pursuit of your dreams.
Empowered Greetings
AGGRESSIVE - is the one word that popped out to me as I was passing a billboard one day. It reminded me of when I was a cheerleader; we had a chant entitled “Be Ag- gressive.” What I liked about the chant is - that it was ver- satile. There were times when we needed our defense to be aggressive. However, there were also times when we needed the offense to be ag- gressive and make the plays happen. Either way we en- courage the players to be ag- gressive. Today, I want you to remember, that you must be
A few days ago, someone sent me a story from a Tampa Bay area daily newspaper that detailed the repercussions being felt by the families of the women who have been con- victed of the elaborate tax fraud scheme once known as the Drop. And, I have to admit, what I read left me feeling both sad and repulsed simultaneously.
Some of the accounts in the piece, describing what the children of these women have gone through in the absence of their mothers, were pretty disturbing. From a 2-year-old being abandoned by her fa- ther inside of a wrecked car at a crash scene that resulted in death; to the children of an- other woman, who is currently incarcerated, being temporar- ily homeless while family members tried to figure out what to do with them. What these kids allegedly had to en- dure is nothing short of heart- breaking.
Their ordeal is the unglam- orous part of the criminal lifestyle seldom depicted on the big screen or bragged about in rap lyrics. When things don’t work out as planned and people either find themselves killed or hauled off to prison, the indi- viduals who end up holding the shortest end of the stick are usually the little ones who are left to contend with the af- termath.
aggressive in pursuing your dreams.
As you look down the road to success, your dreams may appear to be outside of your reach, but they are not. If you dreamed them-you can achieve them. However, you must be aggressive in order to do so. Be aggressive and take fundamental steps that will get you closer to your dreams.
It doesn’t matter how big or small your dreams are- nor does it matter who agrees with them and who does not - you can accomplish them as long as they remain your focal point. Be aggressive to put in the necessary time and effort that is needed to get things done. You may occasionally need to burn the midnight oil. Although you may tired, don’t
For some reason this factor of the equation never crosses a person’s mind when they’re taking penitentiary chances in the pursuit of fast money. It is not until the handcuffs are slapped onto their wrists and a judge breaks down the time being faced, does it suddenly dawn on an individual that, somewhere, the well being of his or her children is in jeopardy.
For me, that “Oh S—-” mo- ment came when a federal public defender attempted to convince me to take a plea by telling me, “At least if you take what they’re offering, you’ll be able to make it home in time to be a grandfather to your grandkids.....” Her exact words.
At that second, when the world around me seemed to come to an abrupt stop, it hit me. My actions had placed me in a position where I was about to miss everything when it came to the lives of my children. Football practices, dance recitals, first dates, driving lessons, proms and maybe even weddings, all lost to poor decision-making. The worse part being that all of the material possessions gained in the process weren’t nearly worth the price paid.
But even while I feel the pain that these women are ex- periencing as they’re forced to watch their offspring struggle to survive from a distance, I’m
give up and don’t give out, payday is coming.
Be aggressive in the good times. Don’t slack off and be- come complacent when things are going well. Re- member, seasons change. With that being said, be 10 times more aggressive in the bad times so that you can sus- tain yourself and make it to a better day. Despite things get a little rough, you may feel like calling it quits, hang on in there, knowing that “failure is not an option” because “the best is yet to come.” Be ag- gressive, pursue your dreams.
Stay connected with Selphenia Nichols and let her help you pursue your dreams aggressively. Visit the website and sign up for free newsletter at SuccessCoach- ToWomen.com. Visit her on Instagram: Selphenia, follow her on twitter at @queenofsuccess1 or on Facebook: Selphenia Nichols to schedule Selphenia to speak or train at your next event. Call or text 813-956-0185.
not quite ready to give them a pass for the role they played in the misfortune now being heaped on the life of the kids they were suppose to protect. This is mainly because they had a chance to prevent it all from happening.
At the end of the day, the reality is, what these women were involved in allowed most of them to see upwards of a half-a-million dollars in cash at their fingertips. More than enough to make sure their children were well taken care of in the off chance that some- thing were to take them from the scene. But, for some rea- son, those types of arrange- ments must not have appeared to be all that impor- tant.
Instead, I imagine they thought it was a better idea to make sure that the kids inside of the Fendi, Prada and Gucci households didn’t go hungry. Now, like the many who’ve come before them who were just as negligent, they have no choice but to accept full re- sponsibility for whatever hap- pens to their children during their time away.
Fortunately, for most of these women who are learning their lesson the hard way, they’re still young enough and their sentences are short enough for them to recover from their mistakes. Though they’ll never be able to get back the days, hours and sec- onds that they’ve missed, maybe next time around, they’ll fully understand the concept of priorities first.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bulletin Publishing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityonice@yahoo.com.
Unintended Consequences
First, They Came For The Mexicans
TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5