Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 4-15-16 Edition

Editorials
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
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Time For An Educational Power Shift
bout 25 years ago, local
school educators all over the nation began talking of a change in educational practices. The change they were talking about was really an educational power shift. For years, the federal govern- ment and the state govern- ment controlled what they expected of education on the local level. They even wrote some of the tests students had to take. Teachers and local of- ficials accused them of trying to legislate every aspect of stu- dent life in school.
Local people are asking these two branches of govern- ment to take their hands out of the pot, but leave their money in the pot. These two agencies
feel that they have invested too much money just to walk away.
Teachers feel differently about this. They see a bunch of lawmakers who are totally out of touch with schools. Many have not been in a school in 20 years. They don’t know the student of today. They don’t know about all of the block- ades that students face at home, in the streets and in the schools. All these factors com- bine to making education a task.
How is that supposed to happen?
The teachers say turn it over to a strong School Board. The Board should be com- posed of seven elected mem-
bers. Members should be elected from one of the dis- tricts and be required to live in the district from which they got elected. Each Board mem- ber will sit in on a class once a month. Board members will also use that day for a one-on- one with a teacher and the same with the principal. Mem- bers should be required to at- tend one PTA Meeting and two school activities each se- mester.
At the end of the first grad- ing period the school district shall provide a copy of the top elementary, top middle school, and top high school programs to the state and fed- eral government for review. That’s only fair since these agencies are putting up most of the money.
Show them what you are doing with the money. I would suggest that Hillsborough County refine this program. Talking about an Educational power shift, this would be it and our county could be lead- ing the way.
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2016 Election Mirrors 1968 Election
eportedly, Latinos are registering in record num-
bers in anticipation of voting in the 2016 presiden- tial election. Moreover, large numbers of Latinos are filing for American citizenship, hoping to become citi- zens in time to vote, this fall. Indeed, many of them admit to being influenced by the campaign hijinks and racist rhetoric of Donald Trump. We certainly hope Black Americans will follow suit and will register in increasing numbers for the fall election.
Consider, in 2012, Black Americans outvoted white Americans by proportion for the first time since 1968, when Richard M. Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and George Wallace ran for the U. S. presidency.
In fact, a United States Census Bureau report revealed that more than 66 percent of eligible Black folks voted in the presidential election, while only 64.1 percent of whites turned out to vote.
The number of Asians and Latinos who voted in- creased as well. Additionally, “the share of voters who were racial or ethnic minorities rose from just over one in six in 1996, to more than one in four in 2012. These sta- tistics are why the report credits President Obama’s win over Romney.
According to CNN exit polls, 93 percent of Black Americans, 71 percent of Hispanic Americans, and 73 percent of Asian Americans supported President Obama over Romney.
We certainly hope the voter turnout in 2016 exceeds that of the 2012. Indeed, the race between Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and George Wallace in 1968 is almost a carbon copy of 2016, except for one difference: Instead of segregationist George Wallace, another demagogue, Donald Trump, will be on the ballot.
Bracing For The ZIKA
et me start by saying that
I don't scare easily. After years of being placed inside of precarious situations (facing a federal judge being the worst of them) fear is not something that usually registers with me any- more. That being said, the prospect of what may be heading our way with the spread of the Zika virus is beginning to make my knees knock a little.
Part of the anxiety I'm feeling stems from the alleged un- knowns about this aggressive pathogen that scientists claim they have yet to figure out. Every week it seems as though they discover a new ailment that the virus causes that was previously undetected.
For example, when Zika first appeared on the scene, it was thought to only cause micro- cephaly (abnormally small heads) in infants. At that point the main focus of concern was centered around pregnant women who may have come in contact with mosquitoes that were believed to be the carriers of the disease.
Not long after it was re- ported that Zika could also cause something called Guillian-Barre Syndrome, a rare condition where the immune system at- tacks nerve cells and brings upon paralysis.
Somewhere around this
same time news started to sur- face that the virus could be transmitted sexually as well. It was this shocking revelation that made the idea of containing the situation even more compli- cated. Now, as of Tuesday, they're claiming that, along with everything else, the Zika can cause other neurological disor- ders and even blindness in an unborn fetus.
With each new discovery the story gets progressively worse. And, to me, that can only mean one of two things: Either they truly don't have a clue as to what this virus is capable of, or the truth they've discovered is so horrible they feel as though they need to drop it on us in bite- sized bits. Whatever the case, the bottom line is, it looks like we're in serious trouble.
According to the W.H.O. (World Health Organization), since its arrival two months ago, Zika has been found in 59 coun- tries including 30 U. S. states. And with the rainy season slowly approaching, which also means the re-appearance of millions of tiny blood-suckers that may have the virus in their systems, things could get ugly very quickly.
The most disturbing aspect of the looming Zika catastrophe is the mystery behind its origin. One of the theories circulating is
that it was created as a popula- tion controlling, biological weapon back in the 1940s by a man named Dr. Jordi Casals, who worked for the Rockefeller Foundation. Ironically, Dr. Casals is also the man behind the discovery of the deadly Lassa virus as well.
If all of this is true that means Zika's introduction into the environment probably was- n't by chance. And the fact that the epicenter of the contagion is in Brazil, the home of the 2016 Olympics, more than likely, isn't a coincidence either.
I mean, if a person wanted to infect the world with something that could slow down the global birthrate, what better way than to release it inside of a country where hundreds of thousands of people from across the planet will converge at one time? It is a plan whose genius is only out- done by its diabolicalness.
After everything we've sur- vived through the years, AIDS, Y2K, the 2012 apocalypse and the 2014 Ebola outbreak, this could be the one threat we won't be able to escape. Of course, there is always a chance that we'll be able to overcome this latest assault on our existence as well. But, with Zika presenting so many challenges from so many angles, it's hard to imagine pulling through this crisis with- out a significant number of us being harmed in the process.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: therealcbarr2@- yahoo.com.
America’s Prince Of Peace May Go To Hiroshima
n one fell-swoop, he pressed open the doors of a pos-
sible thawing of relationships between the United States and her sister nation the Peoples Republic of Cuba. And now, he’s contemplating going even a step fur- ther by doing that which no American President has ever done in the annals of modern history. As he visited Ha- vana, Cuba, the first Black President of the United States is now contemplating a visit to the scarred City of Hi- roshima, Japan.
The sheer weight of such a decision boggles the mind of history. Should he go, or should he leave it alone? President Barack Obama wasn’t born when the first atomic bomb was dropped. It was detonated, say its cre- ators, to bring a quick peace to a war that might have caused millions more to die.
But there are still places in Hiroshima where flowers won’t grow. Ghosts are real in that city and its sister city Nagasaki. So, what good, say our President’s detractors, would it do if he went there and stirred up the ashes of enemies past? The answer comes swiftly, but softly: Somehow, sometime, the wounds of the past must be healed . . . as they were healed in the war-torn country of
South Africa . . . as they are still trying to be healed in this volcanic democracy known as America.
But, if he goes to Hiroshima, his detractors will call him a traitor and apologist as they did when he went to Cuba. However, they refrained from making a similar accusation when President Reagan considered visiting the shrine of dead Nazi soldiers at Bitburg, Germany.
As President Obama continues to make up his mind, Secretary of State John Kerry has already visited Japan’s painful site, holding back tears as he travelled. So, regardless of critics, the process of healing has already begun, and we can be certain that History will be kind to an American Commander-in-Chief whose humanity and courage place him in the midst of our planet’s greatest statesmen.
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