Fear of ‘resegregation’ fuels unrest in N.C. – Source: Rocky Mount Telegram (Different Opinions Good Article)

RALEIGH — In the annals of desegregation, Raleigh is barely a footnote.

Integration came relatively peacefully to the North Carolina capital. There was no “stand in the schoolhouse door,” no need of National Guard escorts or even a federal court order.

Nearly 50 years passed — mostly uneventfully, at least until a new school board majority was elected last year on a platform supporting community schools. (Read more @ The Rocky Mount Telegram)

See related:

Wake County Public Schools

NBA PLAYER RASHAD McCANTS, SON OF A BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR, ON A MISSION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND BRING AWARENESS TO BREAST CANCER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2010

CONTACT:
John Adam
Shoot For The Cure
info@shootforthecurefoundation.org

NBA PLAYER RASHAD McCANTS, SON OF A BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR, ON A MISSION TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND BRING AWARENESS TO BREAST CANCER

Rashad McCants (center) with supporters of the Shoot For The Cure Foundation

Los Angeles, CA (BlackNews.com) — Rashad McCants, son of a breast cancer survivor, Brenda McCants. On the court, NBA player Rashad McCants plays hard, loves to win, keeps his game face on, and looks pretty intimidating with his arms filled with tattoos. On the other hand off the court, Rashad is full of love and compassion; he’s soft-spoken, easy going and generous when it comes to helping others especially his mother. Many times he has had to miss out on career opportunities to be by his mother’s bedside as she fights breast cancer.

McCants is not only one of the best shooting guards in the NBA; he’s loyal and understands the importance of sacrifice. He says that as a kid his mother has always sacrificed for him and as an adult, he would like to do the same for her.

Rashad McCants, Generation 1, and Shoot For The Cure Foundation’s mission is to help make a difference in the lives of people affected by breast cancer by bringing awareness of the disease, educating families among those breast cancer survivors, supporting walk/run events and raising money for research, cure and the affected families. McCants says that Shoot For the Cure helps people to realize the importance of early detection and how it saves lives.

When asked how does he deal with his mother’s illness, McCants replied, "I take it one day at a time. I’m grateful for everyday that I can talk to my mom or see her. I’m in the gym every day when I’m not with my mother. I’m focused, I’m thankful for my health and I’m a strong believer that God won’t give us anything that we can’t handle. I love my mother so much because she taught me how to smile, how to be thankful, and how to appreciate life. She always taught me that hard work pays off. When I got drafted to the NBA she told me to be the best player that I could be. Even though she’s a strong woman, I realize that breast cancer is a disease that does not discriminate. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among African American women and more likely than all other women to die from the disease."

For more information, go to www.Generation1Foundation.org or www.ShootForTheCureFoundation.org

A Smell of Pot and Privilege in the City

By JIM DWYER

Published: July 20, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/nyregion/21about.html?_r=1

The Bloomberg administration has quietly been fixing up its sons and daughters with cool summer internships, as reported Tuesday in The New York Times. Which is probably fine: It is hard to see nepotism as much of a sin when it is really just another chapter of Darwinism, the drive possessed by all creatures to finagle a better future for their offspring.

Related

• To Get an Internship at City Hall, It’s Not Always What You Know (July 20, 2010)

• Police Cite Help From Stop-and-Frisk Data in 170 Cases (July 17, 2010)

• A Few Blocks, 4 Years, 52,000 Police Stops (July 12, 2010)

Readers’ Comments

Share your thoughts.

• Post a Comment »

No matter how much Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg preached about meritocracy, no one expected that the laws of nature would be repealed when he was elected.

Sure enough, a Freedom of Information Act request showed that tucked among hundreds of summer interns picked through a competitive process were dozens of the children of City Hall insiders or of Mr. Bloomberg’s friends. They reflected the mayor’s social and political circles: mostly white, many quite wealthy, coming from private high schools and Ivy League colleges.

In short, these are not residents of Stop and Frisk New York.

Mayor Bloomberg promised to lead a government that looked like the city; in reality, he leads one that looks like his mirror, an administration in which key managers are overwhelmingly white and male. It is one thing if this means the annual crop of interns is heavily salted with young Bloombergians.

It is quite another when those managers are shaping policies that wind up leading to the deprivation of liberty of people who do not look like them.

Among the biggest but least discussed expansions of government power under Mr. Bloomberg has been the explosive increase in arrests for displaying or burning marijuana.

No city in the world arrests more of its citizens for using pot than New York, according to statistics compiled by Harry G. Levine, a Queens College sociologist.

Nearly nine out of ten people charged with violating the law are black or Latino, although national surveys have shown that whites are the heaviest users of pot. Mr. Bloomberg himself acknowledged in 2001 that he had used it, and enjoyed it.

On the Upper East Side of Manhattan where the mayor lives, an average of 20 people for every 100,000 residents were arrested on the lowest-level misdemeanor pot charge in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

During those same years, the marijuana arrest rate in Brownsville, Brooklyn, was 3,109 for every 100,000 residents.

That means the chances of getting arrested on pot charges in Brownsville – and nothing else – were 150 times greater than on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

No doubt this is, in large part, a consequence of the stop-and-frisk practices of the Police Department, which Mr. Bloomberg and his aides say have been an important tool in bringing down crime.

Nowhere in the city is that tactic used more heavily than in Brownsville. On average, the police conducted one stop and frisk a year for every one of the 14,000 people who live there, an analysis by The New York Times found. More than 99 percent of the people were not arrested or charged with any wrongdoing.

Brownsville has the highest marijuana arrest rate in the city. The top 10 precincts for marijuana arrests averaged 2,150 for every 100,000 residents; the populations in those precincts are generally 90 percent or more nonwhite.

Mr. Bloomberg’s neighborhood has the lowest rate of marijuana arrests; the 10 precincts with the lowest rates averaged 67 arrests per 100,000 residents. The population in most of those neighborhoods was 80 percent white.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Bloomberg talked about proposals that would allow marijuana to be distributed for putatively medical purposes.

He said it was a Trojan horse for complete legalization.

"I mean, the idea of medical marijuana, we all know what that means: It means everybody is going to qualify," he said. "The worst thing is the hypocrisy of saying it’s medical marijuana. If you want to legalize it, let’s have that debate, but that’s what you’re really talking about. It has nothing to do with medicine."

In truth, in New York, the debate was over before it began.

For blacks and Latinos, it is very, very illegal.

But not in Mr. Bloomberg’s neighborhood.

E-mail: dwyer@nytimes.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd_3HowvKlA

drug war video

Clifford Thornton – Efficacy Board of Directors

Efficacy
PO Box 1234
860 657 8438
Hartford, CT 06143
efficacy@msn.com
www.Efficacy-online.org

Working to end race and class drug war injustice, Efficacy is a non profit
501 (c) 3 organization founded in 1997. Your gifts and donations are tax
deductible

See related:

Drug War

Board member Sutton wants Raleigh police apology – Source: WRAL

Raleigh, N.C. — A Wake County school board member almost arrested in a scuffle between protesters and police said Wednesday he’s owed an apology.

Keith Sutton, who represents East Raleigh District 4, said Wednesday that police officers grabbed him during a break at Tuesday’s school board meeting while he was caught in a protest against a controversial change to the county’s student assignment policy. (Read more @ WRAL)

Note: Damn now Margiotta board chair wants to speak for Sutton. Margiotta said, “But school board Chairman Ron Margiotta defended the increased security presence and said he thought Sutton might have been trying to get arrested.” Margiotta wants to speak for the NAACP also.

See related:

Wake County Public Schools

 

WAKE SCHOOLS CHAIR: NAACP PROTESTS ‘SAD’ – Source: WRAL

Raleigh, N.C. — The head of the Wake County Board of Education on Wednesday called a disturbance and nearly 20 arrests at Tuesday’s school board meeting "sad" and called the state NAACP "irrelevant."

"You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to recognize that there are other motivations other than what’s going on in the Wake County Public School System," board Chairman Ron Margiotta said. "That’s a sad commentary, because the ones that are being punished will be the children and the families of this county." (Read more @ WRAL)

Note: This damn fool says the NAACP is “irrelevant.” Where in the hell has he been for the past ever how many years old he is? I know damn well he has heard about the NAACP before now. Oh maybe he has not. Well sir I want you to know that the NAACP is just as relevant today as it was over 100 years ago.

I totally agree with you that the children and the families of Wake County are being punished but due to the mission of the Wake County Public Schools and not the mission of the NAACP.

How ignant to think that there are not other battles that the NAACP are working on as if the battle with Wake County Public Schools is the only issue that is relevant. You sir need to do some research on the NAACP not only local but national level.

Sir you need to stay in your lane and speak for the Wake County Public Schools Board and not the NAACP because we have a spokesperson and you ought to know that by now. Oh just in case you don’t know his name is the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II.

See related:

Wake County Public Schools

 

BREAKING NEWS – NC NAACP Pres. Rev. Barber and Wake School Board member John Tedesco both appear on CNN Thursday morning

BREAKING NEWS – NC NAACP Pres. Rev. Barber and Wake School Board member John Tedesco both appear on CNN Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m. Rev. Barber was on the Ed Show on MSNBC this evening! Spread the word!

Note: Thanks Cash Michaels for sharing.

See related:

Wake County Public Schools

Shirley Sherrod: Obama Administration Too Sensitive to the Right – Source: CBS News

The debacle over Shirley Sherrod’s ouster from the USDA reveals the White House’s misplaced sensitivity to conservative criticism, Sherrod told CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford today.

"This administration is definitely too sensitive to what the right is saying," Sherrod said in an interview this morning. "I definitely think the right has actually edited speeches that have been made to try and get their point over, when they know it’s a lie." (Read more @ CBS News)

Note: It is damn shame that since the Obama Administration has take office we are experiencing ignance at it’s best. It appears that since we have a black President that some folks have set out to not only destroy his character but other blacks in position at any level. The sad part is we are allowing these folks to take our focus off of the real thing and allowing them to lead. Oh hell no, while this administration is office I am going to hold them accountable for their actions just like I have those before now. At the end of the day, I will either vote for or against the administration. What I refuse to allow is for the tea party and those who think like them to mislead me. C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

See related:

Tea Party

The Psycho-Academic War Against Black Boys – Source: The Blacklist

The professional nomenclature has now become household words. Children as young as six can now speak of "Ritalin," and "ADHD" with stunning efficiency of what these words mean. Teachers and principals are telling single-parent mothers that their sons need "CYCLERT" and "ADDERALL." Special education children are telling their instructors that they cannot be suspended from school for more than ten days because they have an "IEP." Teenage boys are blaming their behavior on "I didn’t have my pill today." (Read more @ The Blacklist)

Note: I remember when I first heard about children being put on Ritalin I was mad as hell. Many children were on it because their parents receive a check once they are hooked on phonics, oh I mean drugs and everyone get comfortable. Poor parents sacrifices their child for the sake of a check. Mind you there are some who were not so to speak poor but did it anyway. What a damn shame. I wish someone would tell me that I need to put my child on some damn Ritalin. They will change that tune and say I am the one that needs it. LMBAO C. Dancy II – DCN Publisher

Vilsack, White House apologize to former USDA official – CNN

Washington (CNN) — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday he apologized to Shirley Sherrod for forcing her to resign based on incomplete and misleading reports of a speech she gave.

Vilsack told reporters that he alone made the decision regarding Sherrod, with no White House involvement.

He spoke to Sherrod earlier Wednesday and said he asked for her forgiveness, which she gave. Vilsack also said he offered Sherrod another job in the department, and she was taking a few days to think about it. (Read more @ CNN)

See related:

Tea Party

School Resegregation In Wake County, State NAACP President And Others Arrested. But What Is The Real Issue?

Both sides of the argument of promoting neighborhood schools vs keeping them diverse sounds good depending on who you ask. But the problem is, do everyone on both sides understand the real issue?

It is my opinion that folks just don’t get it. First to black folks do you remember when there were all black schools? Do you remember not having all the resources that white schools had? Do you remember getting the books and etc. that came from the white schools? But inspite of all of this black folks seemed to make a way and were some very smart people. I wonder if we were just born smart by nature. I say this especially since so many black folks did not finish school but were very successful. But now we know education is a must so black folks must go through the educational system in order to be considered a productive citizen of these United States. Remember they didn’t want us to be able to read but now you are almost considered a criminal if you can’t read.

To the white folks do you remember having all the resources that you needed to get an education that enabled you to go on and get all the good jobs? Just look around today at who are in the majority when it comes to management on a national level. Yes black folks are getting there but slowly. In my opinion it will be even slower if school districts take the approach that Wake County Public Schools have taken.

Yes in the idea world be one black, brown, white and/or other sending your child to a neighborhood school sounds like the right and best thing to do. Well I agree if the resources such as funding and etc. will be distributed equally. But the question is, will it?

So many times we forget that we need to make things simple so that everyday folks can get it. You see folks who are involved get it but the majority of the parents/others do not get it when they see it pop up on the news and hear others talking about it without the real issues being talked about.

I challenge the NAACP and all progressive thinking folks black, brown, white and other to stress what could happen to neighborhood schools. I do not think the message is being stressed to everyday people what is at stake in Wake County that will move on to other counties across the nation. The only thing everyone see is a bunch of folks going to jail because they are disrupting a meeting because they are creating (chaos), that they do not want to follow protocol and the real issue of why they are doing what they are doing is one of the best kept secrets.

Maybe I don’t get it.

Curmilus Dancy II
A Grassroots Effective Community Activist
A Life Fully Paid Member NAACP

See related:

Wake County Public Schools

 

Judge rules on trooper text messages – Source: News & Observer

RALEIGH — A Wake County Superior Court judge ruled today that personal text messages sent by a state highway patrol employee from her personal phone to her immediate supervisor on his state-issued BlackBerry are not public records.

Judge Paul Gessner issued his findings in a brief order that does not elaborate on his reasons for his conclusion. (Read more @ The News & Observer)

See related:

Governor Beverly Perdue

Obama signs sweeping financial overhaul into law – Source: WRAL

WASHINGTON — Reveling in victory, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression, a package that aims to protect consumers and ensure economic stability from Main Street to Wall Street. (Read more @ WRAL)

Board member Sutton wants Raleigh police apology

Raleigh, N.C. — A Wake County school board member almost arrested in a scuffle between protesters and police said Wednesday he’s owed an apology.

Keith Sutton, who represents East Raleigh District 4, said Wednesday that police officers grabbed him during a break at Tuesday’s school board meeting while he was trying to protect a young girl caught in a protest against a controversial change to the county’s student assignment policy. (Read more @ WRAL)

See related:

Wake County Public Schools