Jan. 26, 2016

Former Detroit Mayor Said Michigan Governors Knew About Flint’s Water Problems
By Frederick H. Lowe

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick claims Michigan’s governors knew about Flint’s water problems since 2004.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, claims Michigan governors Jennifer Granholm and Rick Snyder knew about Flint’s water problems long before they received national and international attention because of the water’s high lead content.

“Gov. Snyder is misleading people by saying he recently found about the issue,” Kilpatrick wrote in a Facebook post from a federal prison where he is serving 28 years.”More than likely, he is being viciously, aggressively and deliberately untruthful.” Kilpatrick is appealing his sentence.

Granholm was Michigan’s governor from 2003 to 2011.

He added that Gov. Granholm, Snyder’s predecessor, also was well aware of the issues with the Flint Water Department and their inability to produce contaminant-free water moving forward. He noted the state couldn’t afford the equipment and the technology to do so. Snyder has been governor since 2011.

Brookings, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization, said Flint has struggled to pay for needed maintenance on pipes and other facilities, which not only buckle under time and pressure in the form of widespread leaks, but also result in higher costs and declining water quality.

“As a result, Flint is now facing a total water bill of up to $1.5 billion and needs a host of different public, private and civic leaders to act to accelerate infrastructure improvements,” Brookins said.

The Detroit Water and Sewage Department talked about the problems of the Flint Water Department with respect to cleanliness, elimination of contaminants, mercury and lead levels, Kilpatrick said.

He noted that the problems with Flint’s water supply date back to 2004 despite Flint being with the Detroit Water and Sewage Department until 2014. Flint, a city of 99,000, is 60 miles northwest of Detroit.

In 2014, Flint began using drinking water from the contaminated Flint River instead of from Lake Huron, which supplies water to Detroit.  State officials first denied that Flint’s water had high levels of lead that adversely affect people physically and mentally for decades.

Jan. 24, 2016

By James Wright 

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is one of a few Black women mayors in the U. S. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News Wire

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Despite the high-profiled Black women office holders like D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) and the women of the Congressional Black Caucus, Black women hold few elected positions, particularly in statewide offices, according to a new report.

It was commissioned by Higher Heights, a non-partisan organization dedicated to getting Black women elected to public office. The report, authored by Kelly Ditmar and produced in conjunction with the Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics, said that Black women make up 7.4 percent of the nation’s population but only 3.4 percent of the U.S. Congress, 3.5 percent of state legislators, 1.9 percent of mayors in cities with more than 30,000 people and less than one percent of statewide elected officials.

Ditmar said that low numbers are discouraging given Black women’s level of voter participation.

“Black women have registered and voted at higher rates than their male counterparts in every election since 1998,” Ditmar said. “Moreover, they surpassed all other race and gender subgroups in voter turnout in 2008 and 2012. Black women also turned out to vote at a rate of seven percentage points higher than their Black male counterparts in the 2014 midterm elections, out-numbered Black men at the polls by over two million votes and are at the highest rate among any non-White group.”

There are only three Black female statewide elected officials in the country: California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D), Connecticut State Treasurer Denise Nappier (D) and Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton (R). Ditmar said that there are some “distinct hurdles” to Black women seeking political office.

“Black women are less likely to be encouraged to run for office and are more likely to be discouraged from running than Black men and White women,” Ditmar said. “Black women also navigate race and gender stereotypes and the intersections therein, while running for and serving in office. Finally, Black women represent less affluent districts and are less likely to be part of moneyed networks, posing hurdles to fundraising.”

D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (DAt Large), chairman of the D.C. Democratic State Committee, agrees with Ditmar’s conclusions. “Black women are often charged with taking care of their families so they don’t get involved as much as they want to,” Bonds said, who has served for decades in management levels in political campaigns, D.C. Council members offices and the District government. “They tend to look to the males for political direction.”

Nevertheless, Ditmar said that some Black women have succeeded despite the challenges.

“Black women have proven their capacity to overcome these hurdles and, even more, capitalize upon the distinct advantages that they bring to candidacy and office holding,” she said. “Black women’s confidence and political experiences in community work and activism have contributed to their political ambition and success.”

There are 18 Black women in the U.S. House of Representatives that includes delegates from thae District and the U.S. Virgin Islands and all of them but Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) are Democrats. There are no Black women in the Senate. The first, and so far only, Black woman to be elected to the Senate was Illinois’s Carol Moseley Braun, who served from 1993-1999.

D.C. Council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large) said that it will take some generational mending for Black women to become the political force that it has the potential to be. She said, “This younger generation of Black women doesn’t think you can make a difference in the lives of people by being a politician. For example, I have four granddaughters and they are more interested in business and entrepreneurship and see that route as serving their community rather than going into politics.” 

Jan. 26, 2016

The End of an Era: Civil Rights Veterans Dying Off 
By Maynard Eaton

Willie Bolden at City Hall on 50th Anniversary of Selma to Montgomery March. Rev. Willie Bolden [foreground] along with other civil rights veterans were honored by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Atlanta City Council members on the 50th Anniversary of of the Selma to Montgomery March last year. Photo: Maria Boynton

Rev. Willie Bolden in the 1960/NOW art exhibit. Photo: by Sheila Pree Bright

Willie Bolden as Wagon Master for the mule train during the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. Photo: special

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from The Saporta Report

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The celebrated civil rights movement and its cadre of fearless pioneers that marched and protested throughout the South to transform America is fading fast. Most of those who worked for and with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr are either elderly or passed away.

“Those of us who worked with Dr. King, the list is getting shorter and shorter,” says Lula Williams, who became the first female member of the vaunted Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) ground crew in 1964. “You can almost count the remaining field staff on one hand.” 

Though some are still active in their 80s and even 90s, they are scarce. 

“We are very close to losing that last generation of warriors,” says civil rights activist and former State Rep. Tyrone Brooks. “When you talk about the SCLC staff still alive when Dr. King was assassinated, few of us are still living. Most of us are deceased; they’ve gone on.”

The latest to transition was Rev. Willie Bolden who passed January 19 at age 77 from heart disease. Bolden was such a charismatic figure and dynamic organizer that he was personally recruited to the SCLC field staff by Dr. Martin Luther King when they met in a Savannah pool room in 1961. He often recalled how he “was beaten everyday” during the St. Augustine, Fla. campaign. He was also famous for his courageous role as the “Wagon Master” of the mule train on the Poor People’s campaign that traveled from Marks, Miss. to Washington D.C.  It was a herculean month-long feat.

“Bolden was a lightening rod, says Brooks. “We marched, picketed and went to jail in little towns all across Georgia and the south. He was my big brother in The Movement. He was one of Hosea Williams’ boys. He had a magnetic personality and was a genius at organizing.

Brooks says he, Bolden and several others were arrested in DC because of the mule train and spent 30 days in Lawton Federal Prison.

 “We were put into solitary confinement because we refused to work in the prison and we fasted on bread and water,” Brooks recalls. “When we came out we looked like little skeletons.”

“Bolden and I resonated together; we were twin spirits. He was a true freedom fighter,” says 78-year-old fellow foot soldier J.T. Johnson. “We worked every project that SCLC had for 18 years but St. Augustine was the toughest place we ever worked.”

Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Dr. C.T. Vivian recalls Bolden as a hero.

“We did wade in the pool demonstrations in St. Augustine, and Willie saved my life because a guy was drowning me,” says Vivian. “Bolden was one of the best guys in The Movement, and he was really committed to Martin King.”

Bolden later earned an Masters Degree in education from Harvard in 1972. He was an organizer for the AFSME labor union from 1973-79 and worked as director of personnel with the Atlanta Public Library until 1983. Following that he became a popular Baptist minister. In 2012 Bolden was inducted into the Trumpet Awards International Walk of Fame.

“Bolden was one of the few people who went to Harvard University’s Masters Degree program without an undergraduate degree,” says SCLC Board Chairman Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr. “Two weeks after they admitted me, I became assistant Dean of Admissions. The first person I recruited was Willie Bolden because he had certain skills that a person with an undergraduate degree would not likely have."

But Bolden is literally one of the last of a dying breed. Rev. Joseph Lowery is 94, Dr. Vivian is 92, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young is 83, Dr. LaFayette is 78, Juanita Abernathy is in her 80’s and the list goes on.

Some young professionals and community activists like Traymone Deadwyler, the director of Social Innovation with the Think for Good creative outfit, question whether the old school civil rights types have failed to pass the baton.
 

“In many of our circles, the question is asked why it seems that there is rarely a person or group of people groomed by these icons to take their place,” Deadwyler says. “Where is the succession plan?”

Businessman Jim Welcome, 67,  opines,  “Their era ended a long time ago but they’ve held on...All these guys should have been retired. We need a changing of the guard. You’ve got a lot of new cats who could take us to the next level, but we are stagnant and stuck in place. Black America is poised waiting on the next generation of political, academic, business and artistic leaders.”

The Hank Stewart Foundation might be among the answers and may prove to be a pipeline for future civil and human rights leaders. Co-founded by poet and inspirational speaker Hank Stewart and his business partner, Gwen Mason, their foundation is dedicated to raising new young leadership.

“We are enjoying the shade from trees that Bolden planted. He really loved our people and was not afraid to stand up for justice and equality,” says the 52-year-old Stewart. “They’ve done their part. It is our time, it’s our turn and if we don’t do anything then it is our fault. We’ve been trained by the best.”

Stewart regularly attends The People’s Agenda weekly community meetings launched and led by Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Dr. Joseph Lowery. He cites young activists such as Lois Keith, Daniel Blackman, Janis Mathis, Don Rivers, Caesar Mitchell and Dr. Nataki Osborne Jelks as among those destined to make their mark.

“These are some of the rams in the bush,” he says. “Janis is ready to change the world now that she is executive director of the National Council of Negro Women.”

Sheila Pree Bright was the last person to have a photography session with Willie Bolden. It was for a unique art exhibit traveling the country called 1960/NOW, where she visually compares civil rights foot soldiers like Bolden and Ralph Worrell among others with today’s young Black Lives Matter activists.

“I feel like it was very important to have the unknown civil rights veterans share their often untold stories. We don’t hear about them,” she says. “Young people feel like they are continuing the same fight that their parents and grandparents were fighting. We have a new generation of freedom fighters but the fight is still the same. Some are coming and some are going.”

Jan. 24, 2016

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - "We will carpet bomb [ISIS] into oblivion. I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out…" Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rising Tide Summit Convention 

As the nation moves closer to the Feb. 1 Iowa Caucus and the Feb. 9 New Hampshire Primary, Americans are being subjected to the absolute worst of the political process instead of the best of what America has to offer.  Republican candidates such as Donald Trump, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) continue to play to the divisive and negative least common denominators of bigotry, hatred, and fear of the mythical “Islamic terrorists” instead of a more positive and inclusive message .

Their jingoistic rhetoric and lies are not making America stronger. Instead, they are making the problems worse. We are all aware of Trump’s now infamous comments about Mexican immigrants:  “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you…They’re sending people that have lots of problems…They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people!”  

Trump conveniently ignores the fact that American foreign policy has exacerbated if not caused the migration problem.  One just has to reflect upon the Reagan Administration’s violent and immoral involvement in El Salvador or Reagan’s illegal support of the Contras in Nicaragua to understand the “Blowback” from America’s intervention in the politics south of the border.  More recently, NAFTA has wreaked havoc on Mexico’s economy.  According to The New York Times, because of NAFTA “…the country’s annual per capita growth flat-lined to an average of just 1.2 percent - one of the lowest in the hemisphere. Its real wage has declined and unemployment is up.”

Trump has also called for the “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”  With his doublespeak, Trump says, “The Quran is very interesting. A lot of people say it teaches love … But there’s something there that teaches some very negative vibe … Now I don’t know if that’s from the Quran. I don’t know if that’s from someplace else. But there’s tremendous hatred out there that I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

How does Trump’s intentional misrepresentation and demonization of the Holy Koran play to the over 1.6 billion Muslims around the world?  As a result of his anti-Muslim rhetoric and his support for warrantless searches as a part of his plans for increased surveillance of the nation’s Muslims, according to Reuters, “British lawmakers…debated a petition to ban U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from Britain over remarks on Muslims…” calling his remarks "crazy" and "offensive".

It does not portend well to have America’s strongest ally debating a ban of the leader for the Republican nomination for the highest office in America.  It’s also important to remember that according to a Pew Research Center estimate, Islam is currently the world's second-largest religion after Christianity. It is the fastest-growing major religion and Muslims make up roughly 23 percent of the world’s population. As members of the Obama administration negotiated the Iranian nuclear deal, Cruz, Rubio and a host of others criticized President Obama.

It has been a long held tradition in this country that “politics stops at the water’s edge”. Some Republicans have chosen to ignore that tradition in its dealings with the Obama administration. Ted Cruz said if the Iran deal passed through Congress, "the Obama administration will become quite literally the world's leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism."  This was before the administration had even announced the details of the agreement.  Marco Rubio went as far as to say, the deal with Iran on its nuclear program could result in war.

“I would argue that a bad deal almost guarantees war, because Israel is not going to abide by any deal that they believe puts them and their existence in danger…” Again, this was before the details of the agreement were made public. Recently, when American sailors were temporarily detained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and held at gunpoint for sailing into Iranian waters, Cruz, Rubio, Trump and others tried to fan the flames of anti-Iranian sentiment with misinformation and lies.Cruz said on FOX news, “Any nation that captured our military officers, captures our soldiers, should face serious repercussions.”  

When Chris Wallace pointed out that the sailors were released unharmed after 14 hours, Cruz replied, “The only reason they were seized is because of the weakness of Barack Obama.” Rubio said, "They took pictures of them on the deck of a ship with their hands behind their back. Then they put them in a jail pen, and they made the female sailor cover her head in a scarf. They took pictures of them and video and put it up on Iranian television as if to say, look what we can do to America, we can capture their sailors, we can make them get on their knees, we can humiliate them.”

What is really humiliating is people like Senator Rubio ignoring history and facts and using what could have been a very tense, dangerous and volatile situation for political gain. First, the brief history.  What gets conveniently left out of the conservative narrative about US/Iranian relations is that in 1953 the U.S. orchestrated a coup d’état and overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran,  Mohammad Mosaddegh.  The U.S. then oversaw the reinstallation of the Shah.  The Shah’s secret police, domestic security and intelligence service called the SAVAK tortured and executed opponents of the Shah with the help of the C.I.A.  

While there are still facts that have yet to surface regarding the recent issue with the U.S. sailors, we do know that Iran is a sovereign country.  Just like the United States, Iran has total control of its boarders (land, sea and air).  When their territorial waters are violated they have every right to capture those in violation of their territory and hold them until they can determine the nature and cause of the violation.  In Iran, all women must cover their heads.  The female sailor was not forced to wear a hijab or a burka. But, in keeping with Iranian law, she wore a scarf over her head.  

Oh, the horror. The U.S. sailors violated Iranian territorial waters.  They were detained for 14 hours, questioned and released unharmed.  One of the sailors apologized to Iran for their “mistake”. Remember when Rubio was complaining that the Iranian nuclear deal was a weak negotiation because the freedom of the American hostages was not part of the deal?  He sent President Obama two letters stating that very point. Now that the four hostages that Rubio mentioned in his letters were recently released by Iran, where are the congratulations from Rubio? Are the Republican candidates so anti-Muslim and anti-Obama that they refuse to acknowledge these positive examples of diplomacy? I guess if your only solution is a bomb, every problem is a war.

Oh the hypocrisy. What we also know is with the Obama administration’s assassination of Gaddafi in Libya and George W. Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq, America does not care about national sovereignty.  When a U.S. Senator like Cruz, with no military service, says that he would, “carpet bomb ISIS into oblivion” Americans should take notice. Even Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul Selva said that “carpet bombing” enemies “is not the way that we apply force in combat. It isn't now, nor will it ever be”. Cruz’s response?  “I apologize to no one”. 

Regarding money being exchanged as part of the deal with Iran, contrary to erroneous claims by Trump, Cruz, Rubio and others that the US is “giving” Iran “billions of dollars” in the nuclear deal, the fact is that US taxpayer’s dollars are not going to Iran. According to Politifact,  “the money already belongs to Iran; Iran just hasn’t been able to access it…the $100 billion figure has referred to the dollar amounts of Iran’s foreign assets that could be unfrozen when sanctions are lifted.”

Cruz, like his counterparts Trump and Rubio, are not concerned with facts.  For them it’s irresponsible uber-hyperbolic or “uberbollic” rhetoric that fits best in their irrational jingoistic narratives.When a Sen. Rubio would rather use military force than diplomacy to solve international disputes, we have a problem. When Trump wants to ban Muslims from the US even though we need all allies from Muslim countries to solve the serious problems in Africa/Middle East and other countries around the world, we should be alarmed. When Cruz lies about ISIS is “right now crucifying Christians in Iraq, literally nailing Christians to trees”, we should be very concerned. When Trump would willingly violate the US Constitution with warrantless wiretaps on American Muslims in mosques, we should pause for serious debate. When all the Republican Party can offer America is bigoted, fearmongering, xenophobes like Rubio, Trump and Cruz as its frontrunners to the approval of the Republican electorate; America is standing on the proverbial slippery slope.  It’s playing with a loaded gun. It’s playing Russian roulette with three rounds already in the chamber. 

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with Leon,” on SiriusXM Satellite radio channel 126. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. www.twitter.com/drwleon and Dr. Leon’s Prescription at Facebook.com