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Week of Non-Violence: Group Expresses 'Outrage', Demands Action Against America's Homicide Rate by Hazel Trice Edney

Week of Non-Violence: Group Expresses 'Outrage', Demands Action Against America's Homicide Rate
By Hazel Trice Edney

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Black Women for Positive Change (BW4PC) announces National Week of Non-violence August 16-23. Pictured left to right are
BW4PC Chaplain Dr. Barbara Reynolds; Alexandria, Va. Mayor William Euille; BW4PC President Stephanie Myers (speaking); 
Rabbi Batya Steinlauf of the Jewish Community and Relations Council; DC NAACP youth representative, Marcus Hughes; and 
 Imam Talib Shareef, president of the Nation’s Mosque Majid Muhammad. PHOTO: Roy Lewis

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The total is 12,765. That was the number of murder victims across the U. S. in the year 2012, the most recent official count from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That number for one year is nearly twice the total number of American troops who have died in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan put together – approximately 7,000.

Of those 12,765 murder victims, approximately 1,100 were children under the age of 18. Sixty-five of the victims were between 9 and 12 years old. Ninety-six of the victims were between 5 and 8 years old. About 260 were between 1 and 4 and about 144 were just infants under the age of 1. African-Americans, at only 13 percent of America's population, made up more than 50 percent of the 2012 homicide victims.

But, one little girl who was struck by a bullet May 20 and is still recovering has sparked a movement by asking why she was shot. The story of 6-year-old Khalia, who fled despite being shot in the left leg while playing on a playground among 20 other children in the North West area of the nation’s capital, caused Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds to convince Black Women for Positive Change (BW4PC), to take action by calling for a “National Week of Non-violence” August 16-23.

“We cannot turn our eyes away. We cannot act like this question has not been raised. We have to say that we are here and that we will be here standing strong and standing long until we get some answers,” said Reynolds, a renowned journalist and BW4PC chaplain at a press conference June 16.

Standing in sweltering mid-morning heat on another North West D.C. playground with dozens of children playing only yards away, Reynolds and other BW4PC members and associates, vowed to do everything possible to make a difference in the nation’s homicide rate.

“We are really outraged. I think that sums up how we feel and why we’re standing here in the heat,” said Dr. Stephanie E. Myers, national co-chair of BW4PC. “We are outraged because every day you turn on the news, the first thing you hear is about another beautiful young person with potential and promise being shot or mowed down.”

Despite community uprising and outrage over homicide rates for decades, Myers said, there can never be enough until the violence ends. Standing alongside police officers and representatives of the Jewish and Islamic communities, she said the goal of the national week of non-violence will be to start changing “the culture of violence in America” which she said has largely become accepted and played out through television programs watched by children as well as in video games, movies and the entertainment industries. 

“We [as a nation] applaud guns for whatever reasons,” she said. “We want every American, every mom every dad every aunt, every grandmother to get real and realize our 6-year-old boys and girls deserve to be able to go on a playground and not get shot. We are outraged…Hip hoppers, rappers, bloggers, we’re talking to you too. Gang members, people out here who are returning from prison, we’re talking to you too. If you have been incarcerated, your child is at risk.”

Between August 16-23, Myers said the organization is asking individuals and organizations to host an anti-violence event to help teach young people the power of non-violence. Noting that the event could be big or small, Myers said it could be just a dinner party, back yard, park, or playground conversation. The point is to educate, she said. She added that she also wants legislation on gun control, mental health issues as well as opportunities for training in conflict resolution.

She issued a statement listing about three dozen elected officials across the nation who have issued proclamations for a “National Day of Non-violence” August 22. They include Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.; Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland and Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. The list also includes Mayors Vincent Gray of D.C.; Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, and Michael Nutter of Philadelphia.

Assistant U. S. Attorney of D.C. Leutrell Osborne II and Alexandria, Va. Mayor William Euille, also attended the press conference.

“Just because we don’t have the problem in Alexandria doesn’t mean we won’t have it in the near future. So when we all collaborate as partners and work together, we address this issue and we would solve it,” said Euille. He said he would continue to lobby the U. S. Conference of mayors to spread the word during its upcoming annual convention, starting in Dallas June 20.  “I was one of the first members as a mayor to sign onto the U. S. Conference of Mayors’ illegal gun initiative back in 2007 and have continued to work with the organization against non-violence."

Unity and respect in spite of differences appeared to be the over-riding theme expressed by participants at the press conference.

“Let’s turn this culture around. Let’s change this culture of violence. We can do it,” encouraged Rabbi Batya Steinlauf, director of social justice and interfaith initiatives at the Jewish Community and Relations Council. “We must make it clear that violence is not a norm. We will not accept this in our society. We are better than that. We are more than that.”

Muslim Imam Talib Shareef, president of the Nation’s Mosque Majid Muhammad, made it clear that the Week of Non-violence is not only focused on street crime but domestic violence and bullying. “We say in many prayers now, ‘thy will be done’ God’s will is for us to have peace and move away from violence. Coming together will begin to do that,” he said.

Marcus Hughes, a youth advisor for the DC Branch of the NAACP said he is working to spread the word throughout the NAACP’s Youth and College Division as well as high schools and youth centers “about thinking twice before they act and about the consequences of their actions.”

DC Police Offers Douglas Berin and Derrick Ferguson also attended the announcement.

Berin said he can attest that change can be made with efforts by bigger police presence and community involvement.  He said the playground area where the press conference was held “was basically an open-air drug market” at one point. But, now, “It’s changed a lot and a lot safer place to be.”

Ferguson stood at the conference as both a law enforcer and a person who has known the emotional pain of crime and violence. On Dec. 9, 2012, his daughter 20-year-old Selina Brown was killed in a domestic violence incident as she attempted to board a Metro Bus. Her daughter in her arms, not even 2 years old, was also shot and is still recovering.  The shooter was the child’s father, Javon Foster, who then fled to New York and committed suicide, Ferguson said.

“It’s really trying because she has a lot of psychological issues pertaining to abandonment. She witnessed it because she was facing her father when it happened,” he said. “We do speaking engagement so she’ll know what we stand for…During the National Week of Non-violence we will do a different speaking engagement for every day of that week. We want to eliminate meaningless violence all together.”

This is the kind of scene that happens far too often across the nation, says Myers. She said BW4PC is sharing a special video that can be played to start conversations during the Week of Non-Violence. The educational video, titled “On Second Thought”, can be found on the organization’s website at www.blackwomenforpositivechange.org.

“America knows the power of non-violence because of Dr. Martin Luther King. And Africa knows about the power of non-violence because of President Nelson Mandela, and the whole world knew about Mahatma Gandhi,” Myers said. “Let’s get business people. We have to teach our children about, non-violent conflict resolution and anger management. You can be angry with someone, but you don’t have to shoot them!”

 

 

 

 

Southern Poverty Law Center: Deadly Attacks by White Supremacists on the Rise by Frederick H. Lowe

June 15, 2014

Southern Poverty Law Center: Deadly Attacks by White Supremacists on the Rise

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder revitalizes group to monitor domestic terrorism


By Frederick H. Lowe

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Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The recent murders in Nevada constituted the second act of domestic terrorism by antigovernment extremists within four days, Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, wrote in a letter to supporters dated June 9.

On June 8, Jared and Amanda Miller, two White supremacists who were members of the anti-government Patriot party, shot and killed three people, including two police officers, in Las Vegas.

The previous Friday, June 6, an extremist attacked with guns and explosives people inside the Forsyth County Courthouse in suburban Atlanta, apparently intent on taking hostages.

Dennis Marx, who described himself as a 'Sovereign Citizen,' wounded a deputy before being shot to death, Cohen said. Marx was due in court to face weapons and marijuana charges.

Those violent acts follow a deadly shooting this spring.

In April, Frazier Glenn Miller, a Klu Klux Klan leader, was arrested for three deadly shootings outside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and the Village Shalom, a senior living home. Both facilities are located in Overland Park, Kan.

"These attacks do not occur in a vacuum. They are the predictable result of a toxic climate of racism and far-right extremism that encourages and emboldens potential terrorists," Cohen wrote.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is based in Montgomery, Ala., has documented a dramatic resurgence of militias and like-minded Patriot groups --- a more than 600 percent increase---since 2008, the year President Barack Obama was elected the first African- American president.

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the revitalization of the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee, which will focus on domestic terrorism.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, had urged the committee's revitalization six months before Timothy McVeigh, militia movement sympathizer, detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, that killed 168 people.

Cohen said, "In his recent announcement about the revitalized Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee, Attorney General Holder echoed many of our points. The many attacks, plots by far-right extremists in recent years -remind us that the threat is very real." 

Records Snafu Adds to Concerns Over McGuire VA Hospital in Virginia by Jeremy M. Lazarus

June 16, 2014

Records Snafu Boosts Concerns Over Veterans' Hospital in Virginia
By Jeremy M. Lazarus

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Army veteran Steffani Lynn Yates

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After a few days of feeling weak and nauseated, Army veteran Steffani Lynn Yates went to the medical center shetrusts with her health care — the McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center in South Side Richmond, Va.

On her second visit a few days later after the problem did not clear up, Mrs. Yates was surprised when the doctor examining her in the emergency room asked her if she had taken any illegal drugs.

“I don’t use drugs. I never have. I don’teven know what they look like,” said the 60-year-old South Side resident who is employed as a sandwich maker for a company that supplies supermarkets. When she asked the physician for an explanation, “he told me my medical records showed I had a history of cocaine use. I was shocked. And he said my records showed that I had tested positive for marijuana use in 2000. There’s just no way.”

Leaving in a huff, she placed a request for a copy of her medical records with the hospital on June 2. She was told it would take 20 days, but just three days later a package was delivered to her home on nearby Royall Avenue, where she lives with her truck driving husband.When she opened it, she found a letter from the hospital’s Record Processing Unit stating the enclosed paperwork was a response to her request.

As the Free Press has confirmed, there was one big problem with the paperwork: “The records I received were for someone else, actually a male individual I have never met,” she said, quipping, “I went to the hospital a woman and came out a man.”

For her, it was nothing unusual. She said the hospital sent her the wrong records the last time she requested her paperwork about five years ago. The hospital did not respond to a request for comment about this snafu, which appears to be an egregious breach of patient privacy laws — raising questions about McGuire’s ability to handle record keeping.

For the hospital, this snafu couldn’t have come at a worse time. Yates provided her story amid a huge uproar over patient services at McGuireand other Veteran Administration (VA) hospitals.The hospitals are now having to defend themselves from claims they are keeping patients, particularly new patients, waiting for months to see a doctor.

An audit the Veterans Administration released this week added fuel to the fire. According to the report, McGuire keeps new patients waiting up to 72 days to see a primary care physician, among the longest wait times among the 731 hospitals in the VA system.The average wait at Richmond’s VAcomplex is apparently the worst among Virginia VA hospitals. The average waits to see doctors at VA hospitals in Hampton and Salem averaged 68 days and 34 days,respectively, according to the audit.

Nationally, 57,000 patients have been on waiting lists for three months or more and have yet to get their first appointment, the audit found. These patients, the audit acknowledged, represent only about 2 percent of more than 2 million patients the hospital system see in a given year. McGuire officials are disputing the accuracy of the audit’s figures. According to spokeswoman Darlene Edwards, the wait time for an appointment currently averages no more than 37 days,and could be lower.The wait time for new patients requesting primary care has been and continues to be a focus of our staff,” she responded in a statement.

“We continue to address this through adding new staff members, additional clinic appointments and rural health outreach initiatives.” And veterans appear to support the hospital’s view. There has been no groundswell of complaints from veterans who use the hospital about long waits for an appointment. Indeed, the hospital is most notorious for the findings of racial bias against the management. Employees have repeatedly had their complaints of discrimination upheld, including a class action lawsuit that found the hospital favored White employees when it came to merit awards.The hospital also has faced its share of lawsuits over the care and treatment of patients.

Two Days After Death, Black Press Editor Wins Economic Justice Fight by Joey Matthews

June 15, 2014

Two Days After Death, Black Press Editor Wins Economic Justice Fight 
By Joey Matthews

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Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Raymond H. Boone has scored anothe rvictory. In the same week the Free Press editor/publisher died Richmond, Va. Mayor Dwight C. Jones, using the theme “A Taste of Richmond,” announced that two popular local black owned eateries would sell food and soft drinks inside the Washington professional football team’s training camp in Richmond this summer. They are the Croaker’s Spot and Big Herm’s Kitchen, both popular for their fish and chicken.

The mayor also said Friday that local vendors “offering a variety of food options” will be allowed to bid to set up six food trucks on Leigh Street outside the camp. The announcement was made the same day the mayor gave the D.C. team’s new coach Jay Gruden a tour of the $10 million training camp facility.

“This seems like a very, very positive opportunity,” Herman Baskerville, owner of Big Herm’s, told the Free Press. “Last year, it raised a stink when no local vendors could sell inside the camp. I’m glad I wasone of the ones who was chosen.”

The vendor deal was made public three days after Mr. Boone died Tuesday, June 3. It’s likely city officials had tired of being pounded for months by Mr. Boone in the Free Press. He decried the racist and discriminatory deal brokered by themayor and supported by Bon Secours Health Systems of Virginia that denied local vendors last summer from selling concessions inside the camp that bears the team’s racist nickname.Only national White-owned chains —Papa John’s, Johnny Rockets and Famous Dave’s — were allowed inside the camp,officials said, because they had contractswith the D.C. team that gave them sole rights inside the camp.

That infuriated local vendors, who said the city denied them the opportunity to compete for profits from the more than150,000 fans who attended last year’scamp. Byron Marshall, the city’s chief administrativeofficer, told the Free Press in February the city was negotiating with the D.C. team to allow local vendors inside the camp this summer. Baskerville said he is currently negotiating terms of the vending agreement with the D.C. team. He said he will have to give the team a percentage of his sales and did not know if he would have to pay a fee as well. He said he contacted the D.C. team when he heard they were looking for local vendors to sell inside the camp. He said D.C. officials responded, and dispatched employees to eat at his restaurant in Downtown.Calls to the owner of Croaker’s Spot for comment were not returned.

The mayor said the six other vendors would be required to pony up $2,500 in fees to set up trucks outside the training camp.Those fees would go toward the $547,685 local contribution the city and the Richmond Economic Development Authority are required to give the D.C. team in services, goods or cash each year as part of the eight-year training camp deal.

Richard Johnson, chair of the EDA’sboard, defended last year’s discriminatory deal that excluded local vendors from the camp.

“The city and EDA don’t control inside the gate,” he said, last Friday. “[The team has its] own relationships on both a national and regional basis. The (racist nickname) put their program together.”Mr. Johnson also said the fees are part of the cost of doing business at a high-profile location.

“There’s a significant cost to closing off the (Leigh) street and making that space available,” he said. “It costs to address safety concerns and barricade the street.” He praised the mayor and his administration for taking steps to open the camp to local vendors.

“I think it’s a case of extraordinary responsiveness,” he said. “This is only the second year, and the city worked to address the complaints from some local businesses. This thing has worked like a charm in my mind.” Boone also staked a claim against the D.C. team’s racist nickname last year. He announced the Free Press would no longer use the hateful nickname in the newspaper, joining a nationwide cry for billionaire owner Daniel Snyder to change the D.C. team’s mascot. Boone also called for the resignation of Roslyn M.Brock, the national NAACP chair and a Bon Secours vice president, for supporting the team’s racist nickname and the Bon Secours-sponsored discriminatory training camp deal.

With Cantor Gone in Virginia's 7th, Do Democrats Stand a Chance? by Frederick H. Lowe

With Cantor Gone in Virginia's 7th, Do Democrats Stand a Chance?
By Frederick H. Lowe

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's defeat June 10 was an earthquake in Virginia's heavily Republican 7th Congressional District, but will it be enough to put a Democrat into Cantor's old seat?

Dr. David Bositis, a political scientist, formerly associated with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C., doesn't think so.

"If this were a presidential election year, I'd say the Democrats might have a shot at VA-7, but it's not and so I suspect it's very unlikely," Bositis wrote in an email to The NorthStar News & Analysis.

David Bratt, a Tea Party Republican, who K.O.-ed big bucks Cantor, will face Democrat Jack Trammell.
Bratt is chair of the department of economics and business at Randolph-Macon College, which is in Ashland, Va.

Trammell is an associate professor of sociology at Randolph-Macon College. He is author of seven books, including "The Richmond Slave Trade: The Economic Backbone of The Old Dominion." Trammell worked on the presidential campaigns of Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton.

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