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Editorials/Columns
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
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Enthusiasm Down In Ferguson
fter a number of protests
in its streets marked by the killing of an unarmed Black youngster by a white police- man, the resignation of two key lawmakers and the shoot- ing of two policemen, the pre- dominantly Black town of Ferguson, Missouri has a chance for a historic day.
You know the town of Fer- guson. It has been in most every news media in this coun- try. The city took it on the chin recently when a Department of Justice investigation revealed mass amounts of discrimina- tion. This was a bad day for Ferguson. The police depart- ment was the center of this open and wide spread racism.
A brighter day lay just ahead for the citizens of Fergu- son. I should point out that two thirds of that city’s population is Black, but one elected official
is Black. The reason for that has been attributed to the re- fusal of Blacks to vote.
In one woman’s opinion the city’s biggest problem isn’t get- ting Blacks to register, the hard job is to get them to come to the polls and be a part of his- tory. Every registered voter should mark their calendars.
They should mark them for April 7th, 2015.
That day is Election Day in Ferguson. There is something different about this election and it is the first time Blacks have had the chance to elect three members to the six mem- ber City Council. If that should happen Blacks would have won three of the available seats. A Black already holds a seat on the Council.
Now, what Black wouldn’t want to be a part of this mo- mentous occasion? Well, with
good news comes bad news. The bad news is that not all Blacks are enthused over this election.
Less than 300 new voters registered over the last six months before the deadline. A loud mouth bearer of bad news is spouting that having Blacks in office won’t make any differ- ence. They will be just as bad as the ones already there.
One of Ferguson’s top African American businessmen is a voter in Chicago. He also said he doesn’t notice any ex- citement over the election. Folks sure aren’t talking about the election, he added.
Even though I don’t live in the city and I can’t vote, I saw this as a chance for Blacks to rise up and do better as a com- munity. I certainly hope that happens to the town of Fergu- son.
For the rest of us who don’t live in that city, let us take time to pray that things work out for the citizens of Ferguson. Let’s pray for those that will vote, those who can’t vote and those who won’t vote. Just remember that April 7th is a historic day for Ferguson, no matter what happens.
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Black America To Secret Service Chief: ‘Pretty Please!’
ne almost felt sorry for Top Secret Service man Joseph Clancy as Congress members tore into him as if they were pit-bulls and he was a piece of raw meat. Pink as
a strawberry though he might have been, Clancy’s apoplexy came not simply from the bites of Congressional blood- hounds, but boiled over as part of a question far more scan- dalous than anything currently crumbling on Capitol Hill.
The Secret Service Director’s dismantling came straight from a surprisingly unasked question: “Can you or can you not protect the current President of the United States of America?”
“If not, then what is your problem?” As we glued our- selves to the two-minute joust between Clancy and his adver- saries, a highly perplexed Southern Democrat and a downright disgusted Congresswoman Lowey from New York who spat words like a Bronx machine gun, we were reminded of a comment made by Louis Farrakhan who with a faint smile said to a TV news reporter, “Please, don’t let anything happen to our President.”
We remember how he paused and stared meaningfully into the camera, and then said no more. But everybody in the world knew what his silence meant. Should anything beyond a common cold befall our current President because of human stupidity, American society would last one minute. Therefore, our enemies pray that the Secret Service will con- tinue to play ‘Keystone Cops.’
Perhaps, the embarrassment of protecting America’s first Black Chief Executive has proven too much. Maybe, the FBI needs to take over. If so, speak now, Joe Clancy, before an accident occurs that cannot be quelled by “Oops!” And as you consider this editorial, remember Farrakhan’s words, “Please, pretty please, don’t let anything happen to our Presi- dent.”
When In D. C. ...
n this life you can't afford
not to be cautious. For me that means mentally noting everything I hear or see and determining whether or not engaging in certain activities will prove beneficial or set me back a few paces.
This kind of thought process is the main reason why I never got into riding motor- cycles or picked up smoking as a habit. After watching friends crash their bikes and becoming permanently injured and wit- nessing the health problems my grandparents dealt with, following a lifetime of inhaling tobacco fumes, I learned that neither one of those activities were worth paying the cost that would inevitably come later.
Navigating this earthly ex- perience, while constantly ap- plying this kind of logic, is also why I've recently come to the conclusion that dealing ro- mantically with any woman who once called Washington, D. C. home wouldn’t be a good look either. Mainly because, like motorcycles and ciga- rettes, they’re potentially just as hazardous to your health.
I know that's a bold and controversial statement to make. But I say that because the women in D. C. are exten- sions of their notoriously reck- less male counterparts.
Anyone who has ever been around a large group of guys from that city knows that they're a different breed. They are easily identifiable by the way they flaunt their well-
known bi-sexuality as a badge of honor.
They never shy away from admitting their fondness for “boys” as well as girls because, as far as they're concerned, sex is sex regardless of who hap- pens to be their partner of choice. Of course, this doesn't apply to every man from the District. I have met a number of men from that area who are just as dumbfounded by the swinging door culture around them as everyone else. But if I had to guess a percentage based on the ones I've been around, It wouldn't be hard to imagine over 50% of the Black male population fitting the "homo-thug" profile.
In a different day and time, this may not have been an issue. But considering that D. C. also has the unflattering dis- tinction of being the city with the highest recorded cases of HIV infections among Black men (1 out of every 4), I believe there's a very good reason to raise a super-sized red flag.
All of this has led me to the conclusion that trusting any woman, who lived in D. C. for a period of time, may be a dan- gerous gamble. Not only due to fact that she lived in that area, but because she may have been down with the "Boy-on-Boy" program.
I discovered that this could often be the case after asking a guy from D. C., who was known for frolicking with ho- mosexuals, if the wife he al- ways bragged about having on the streets, knew he slept with
men on a regular basis.
To my surprise, not only
did he not get upset with my inquiry, he confirmed that she indeed knew what was going on by telling me: "Yeah slim. Wifey knows this is what I do. She be asking me to chill with it. I try. But, you know, it is what it is..."
The look you have on your face after reading that last sen- tence is the same look I had after hearing those words spo- ken. At that moment I knew that the world I thought I knew was suddenly a place I didn't know at all.
The revelation, if he was telling the truth, was a wake- up call. The realization that some of the women, who I thought were being victimized by down low brothers, were willing participants in their possible infections changed my entire outlook on the situation.
I mean, I'm quite sure that this guy's wife isn't the only woman from that area who condones that kind of high risk behavior. And, if any woman living in a city overly contami- nated with HIV doesn't care if her husband or boyfriend sleeps with other men who may have the deadly virus, how am I expected to feel sorry for her?
While there's no doubt that none of the craziness I men- tioned is restricted to the D. C. area, there's something to be said about the value of identi- fying a place as a certified hot zone. I believe knowing where to take extreme precautions goes a long way towards help- ing the rest of us make it to a ripe old age.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityonice@- yahoo.com.
‘What’s Going On?’
other, mother, there’s too many of you crying.
Brother, brother, brother, there’s too many of you dying. You know we’ve got to find a way . . .To bring some loving here, today. .” ring the lyrics to Marvin Gaye’s 1971 protest plea for love and peace in our world.
While Marvin’s song “What’s Going On?” was inspired by a police brutality incident during a Vietnam War protest in 1970, the lyrics are appropriate today as we continue to bury our teenagers and young men with regularity because of rampant gun violence. We extend our condolences to all Bay Area mothers and fathers who have lost children to gun vio- lence. Indeed, your children’s lives do matter to us and mil- lions of others.
Far too many of our Black youth are dying on our streets at the hands of other young men because of a senseless “tit- for-tat” mentality and gang violence. The tragedy of it all is the “no snitch” culture allows murderers to go unpunished and the shootings to escalate in a domino fashion from one side of town to another.
Somehow, we must reclaim our children from street and gang violence, which is on the rise across the country.
Educating our parents and the community to the reasons our youth are attracted to gangs and recommendations for developing prevention strategies to save our children’s lives are initiatives we will discuss in our next issue. But in the meantime, remember Marvin Gaye’s question.
FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A
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