Page 5 - Florida Sentinel 1-29-16 Edition

Editorials
Making Tampa A Clean City
The Devil’s Work Is Never Done
Jameis Winston And Erica Kinsman: A Lesson Young Folks Must Learn
Years from now when the 21st century has long since been laid to rest, people will talk about Jameis Win- ston. They will celebrate his Heisman Trophy, regale the
day he led his FSU team to an unprecedented football championship in the year 2013; then they’ll recall his tri- umphs as one of a list of Tampa Bay Bucs star quarter- backs.
Then finally, long after Winston is dead and gone, peo- ple will bring back another name: Erica Kinsman, pretty, perky FSU coed, who accused Winston of raping her dur- ing the same year he led his alma mater to victory. And whenever people mention Kinsman’s name in reference with Jameis Winston, an uneasy silence will end the con- versation.
So, does it matter that FSU recently settled a federal Title IX lawsuit with Erica Kinsman, paying her nearly a million dollars? But now it’s up to history and rumor to decide. But let’s talk briefly to future Jameis Winstons and for the most part, future Erica Kinsmans. For, many lessons can be learned.
Black boys with something to lose, don’t be fooled by the Erica Kinsmans of the world. Also, if it looks like a set- up and it’s a stranger... it is not worth it. Then there is the ‘No’ factor. No means ‘No.’
Young folks (and older folks, too), don’t let your emo- tions ruin your life. Learn how to say and accept “No.” For, as a writer said, many years ago, “The evil men (and women) do lives after them, while the good they do is too often buried with their bones.” Don’t let that be you.
Ms. Kay Andrews,
Publisher of this paper and longtime Guardian of East Tampa is working on a timely and much needed concept. She noticed how unclean certain neighbor- hoods had become, espe- cially East and West Tampa. Trash littered yards and streets. Thrown away bags, food wrappers and cans were a large part of the litter.
Ms. Andrews decided something has to be done about it. Instantly, a blue print to make Tampa a Clean City is being formulated. Ac- cording to her, the program will involve our children. They must first be sold on the Clean City concept and that won’t be easy.
To staff and train the chil- dren volunteers, neighbor- hoods, businesses, churches,
One of the most disturbing stories dominating the news cycle currently is the environ- mental crisis occurring in Flint, Michigan where toxic levels of lead, which is known to cause brain damage, hair loss, learning disabilities and other neurological disorders when ingested into the body, has been discovered in the city’s drinking water.
The saddest part of the dilemma is that the town’s residents who are most phys- ically vulnerable to the con- tamination, the 8,000 children under the age of 6, have all, allegedly, tested pos- itive for elevated levels of the dangerous element inside of their blood streams.
What bothers me the most about this developing tragedy, that President Barack Obama has now declared a federal emergency, is that it was completely avoidable. But instead of treating the water, after the city decided to switch from using Lake Heron to the highly polluted Flint River as a main water supply, the officials in Flint over- looked that critical part of the process and allowed the poi- sonous fluid to flow through the faucets, bathtubs, sinks, toilets and sprinklers of every home within its boundaries.
schools, civic associations, groups recruiting, and the City of Tampa must all be asked to accept a role in Tampa’s cleanup. There are not too many things worse than passing through a garbage-ridden neighbor- hood or living in one.
I applaud this effort. It is a tremendous one that should take into account the adults who contribute big time to the litter, trash and garbage in our yards and our streets. Adults almost always throw beer cans, whiskey bottles and used car parts in yards. They are also respon- sible for the broken down cars and no longer in use fur- niture.
Yep, something must be done. Neighborhoods that are filled with the litter that I am talking about invite all
Causing them to be the or- chestrators of one of the worst man-made disasters in U. S. history.
It was an act of such great irresponsibility on the part of a city government that it’s hard to believe that it wasn’t, at least in part, intentional. I mean, how likely is it that a city’s water manager could forget to perform a procedure as important as making sure that the water being dispersed was safe for consumption after changing over to a source well known for its cor- rosion? Monitoring the water was his only job.
It wasn’t like the switch just occurred last month. They have been using the Flint River since 2013. And, in all of that time, no one took pre- cautions to make sure the water was safe?
A simple mistake? More like an act of terror that has been thinly disguised as an extreme example of poor mis- management. And the fact that Flint’s population of 99,000 is made up of mostly Black and brown people living in poverty makes the incident seem even more suspicious.
I mean, think about it. What better way is there to ensure that a group of indi- viduals, considered undesir-
types of crimes. Robbery, burglary, assaults and yes, even murder. Many of the kinds of people who commit the crimes don’t live in the community. These litter and crime-infested areas suffer economically because the property value goes down.
That is why few, if any- one, wants to build anything in these communities. It seems to me that people would get tired of living in these conditions and stand upandsayIamnotgoingto take it any longer.
After you have made your vow, join in with Ms. An- drews and her group. No- body is asking you to become crime fighters. All that you are doing is joining an effort to make Tampa a clean city.
This City definitely needs a cleanup and the time is now to launch a massive cleanup campaign. All com- munities don’t need cleaning up, but they would be wel- come to join in to make a clean city to live in.
Ms. Andrews has a wonderful idea. Who will help?
able to a class of elites, main- tains their working-class la- borer status than to introduce a toxin into their diet that has the potential of thwarting the mental development of the next generation? Sure the mess can be cleaned up and a obligatory “My Bad” apology issued. But that’s little conso- lation when the long-term damage is already done.
Of course some individuals will read this and think it a stretch to assume this level of diabolicalness. But when you consider such cases as the Tuskegee experiment, what happened to Ms. Henrietta Lacks, the King Alfred Plan, the air-bombing of cities like Tulsa Oklahoma (Black Wall Street) and the most recent attack on Voting Rights legis- lation, you can’t help but ar- rive to the conclusion that, when it comes to the extent those in positions of power will go in and attempt to erad- icate or slow the progress of Black and brown people, any- thing is possible.
If it was purposefully done to destroy the innocent I’m sure that whoever is responsi- ble will have a special place in hell waiting for them. Then again, since they were obvi- ously trying to do the work of their father, when they get there, they may receive a he- roes welcome instead.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bulletin Pub- lishing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityonice@yahoo.com.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A
Protect And Serve Versus
Comply Or Die (PART TWO)
C learly when “Americans as young as 4 years of age are being leg-shackled, handcuffed, tasered, and held at gun point for not being quiet, not being orderly, or for simply being childlike,” Rutherford Institute says, some-
thing is wrong with modern policing.
When a police officer shoots a 12-year-old and is dis-
covered to have failed policing jobs and examinations in at least five other police and sheriff’s departments, passed a psychological assessment, nationally standardized pre- employment screening and psychological examinations should most certainly be a mandated in America.
Reportedly, only 90 percent of law organizations re- quire psychological examinations (which do not deter- mine sanity). While psychological testing may focus on identifying undesirable traits such as lack of impulse con- trol, judgment, honesty, integrity, and other traits, more focus should be placed on anger management, integrity, ethics, and impulse control and implicit bias.
Given that 75 to 80 percent of self-identified white- Americans and Asian-Americans show implicit bias upon testing, logically 75 to 80 percent of law enforcement of- ficers could be biased.
So, disproportionate racial profiling, police shootings, resist arrests, bicycle rider detentions and other incidents involving Black males could be a naturally ingrained bias. Therefore, national standards for pre- employment screening of America’s law enforcement officers are a must.