Oct. 6, 2019

(TriceEdneyWire.com)  – Each day I get up I’m thinking things with our government can’t get any worse.  Despite my hope for a better day, things do get worse.  All too often another Trump official seems to be coming under fire for some bad act such as allegations of peddling influence, ignoring the bad acts of members of the President’s staff and/or associates, some new allegation about President Trump or his family and on and on! 

How could one man have so much smoke around him without there being fire somewhere? One has to wonder what dirt Donald Trump has on some of these people that allows them to either seal their lips or outright defend his apparent corrupt behavior.  In nearly three years of his selection, and I say selection because no rational person could believe a majority of the American people would elect someone so unqualified to follow in the footsteps of President Barack Obama who had the right credentials, right temperament, right family, right values to be President.

The tragedy of what’s happening with our government is that Donald Trump seems convinced that he’s the smartest man in the world. He believes he’s doing a great job.  No matter how many crooked things he does, he believes everybody else is the crook! The other day I heard someone say, “When you work for a crook (and stay) you, too, become a crook.”

At one time Rachel Maddow on MSNBC was keeping a board that listed all who exited the Trump Administration either by being asked to leave or volunteering to leave after getting a taste of what was going on around the White House and various government agencies. The list has gotten so long that Rachel can’t seem to find space to place anymore names on the board.

A few months ago, those who judge truth from lies indicated that Trump had told over 10,000 serious lies.  They’ve been coming so fast lately that no new numbers are being given! Many of us try to teach young people right from wrong, teach them to be truthful and teach them to be respectful.  What can we tell them that makes sense about how this President gets away with so many violations of decency, of our Constitution, of diplomacy and of just plain old common sense?

We deserve to have leaders who play by the rules, and we’ve always been taught that ignorance of the law is no excuse for wrongdoing.  When I look at the behavior of certain Members of Congress, I wonder how they sleep at night and what their own children think of them when they see their parents defending this President or remaining silent in the face of gross behavior. Some of them give such silly arguments and defenses in support of this man that it’s mind boggling.  This man is bringing this country so far down that we may not be able to emerge from the sorry depths to which he has taken us in our lifetime.

Normally, someone rises up to say, we shall not continue to allow this foolishness but where is that person who has the power to do so now? We deserve better than what we have running our government. The 2020 election seems so far away to wait for a resolution.  Impeachment alone is not good enough if Republicans in the Senate are not willing to show some courage to get our country back on the right track. Let us pray that all is not lost and that Republicans will have an awakening before too long. In the meantime, let us not sit still and wait. Let’s do something that makes a difference.
 

Dr. E. Faye Williams is National President of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc.  She is also host of Wake up and Stay Woke on WPFW-FM 89.3.

Oct. 1, 2019

Former Dallas Cop Guilty in Deadly Shooting - Sentenced to 10 Years

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A  jury has found former Dallas Police officer Amber Guyger guilty of murder in the 2018 shooting death of Botham Jean, a Black man, in his own apartment. The jury sentenced Guyger to 10 years in prison, meaning she will be eligible for parole in five.

Guyger mistakenly entered Jean’s home in the same apartment complex and immediately assumed he was a burglar.Jean was sitting on the couch, watching television and eating vanilla ice cream.Guyger testified through tears while shaking her blonde hair, Jean walked towards her in a manner she deemed malevolent.Guyger claimed she feared for her life, an excuse cops are trained to use before firing their service revolvers.

She fired, shooting him in the heart. He died later at Baylor Medical Center.The jury could have found Guyger guilty of murder, manslaughter or acquitted her.After Judge Tammy Kemp read the verdict, loud cheers erupted throughout the court building. Guyger, who had been fired by the police department following the shooting, sat stoically.

She later wiped tears from her eyes. Jean’s family traveled from his native St. Lucia for the two-week trial, cried tears of joy. Allison Jean, Botham’s mother joyfully raised her hands in the air.Guyger faces five to 99 years in prison.Although some view Guyger’s conviction—a white woman cop convicted of murdering an unarmed black man— as a milestone. It is and it isn’t. 

Police Officer Betty ShelbyIn 2016, Betty Shelby, a former Tulsa, Oklahoma, cop shot to death Terence Crutcher, an unarmed motorist. Crutcher had his hands raised in air after his car had broken down alongside the road. A jury found her not guilty of manslaughter. Shelby went to work for another police department.In another deadly shooting by police of an unarmed black man in Sacramento, California, police officers returned to duty after not being charged in the murder of Stephon Clark. 

Stephon Clark and his familyThe U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California and the FBI found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges against Terrance Mercadal and Jaret Robinet in the shooting death of Clark who was standing in his grandmother’s backyard holding a mobile phone which the cops took to be a pistol. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office issued the ruling September 27.Mercadal and Robinet shot Clark, the father of two, seven times on March 18, 2018.

However, an independent autopsy showed that Clark was shot six times in the back.

Oct. 6, 2019

Fannie Lou Hamer Died of Untreated Breast Cancer
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the proliferation of pink ribbons is about to start. Predatory capitalists will make breast cancer their cause, producing pink t-shirts, pocketbooks, everything. It's a mixed blessing, this awareness, because too many will make this both a marketing and a profit-making opportunity, while others will wonder how they can use their health insurance to afford a mammogram. Health equity is a major issue, and there is a gap in health care and health access. It is especially sharp when we address the issue of breast cancer.

While Black women get breast cancer at a lower rate than white women, we are 42 percent more likely to die from it. And young Black women, those under 35, are twice as likely as white women to get breast cancer, and three times as likely to die from it. Black women are also three times as likely as white women to get triple-negative breast cancer, an especially aggressive form of breast cancer.

I am privileged to know Ricki Fairley, a triple-negative breast cancer survivor, and marketing maven who now holds a leadership role at the nation's oldest and largest Black women's breast cancer network group. Sister's Network, describes itself as a "survivorship organization" that provides support for Black women who are diagnosed with breast cancer. Ricki only recently joined the organization as its Vice President for Strategic Partnerships and National Programs, and she is on a mission to raise awareness about breast cancer in the African American community. Propelled by her own survivorship story, but also by the many women she has provided support for, she is passionate about the reasons that African American women must be informed and engaged around breast cancer issues.

Our civil rights icon, Fannie Lou Hamer, died of untreated breast cancer. She was just 59 when she made her transition, and one can only speculate about why this fearless leader had an untreated disease. Her untreated breast cancer was not the first collision she experienced with our racist health care system. At 44, she had surgery to remove a tumor, and the hospital also gave her a hysterectomy without her consent.   These unconsented sterilizations happened to lots of Black women in southern states. It eroded the trust that many Black women had in our health care system. Had Fannie Lou Hamer noticed a lump, would she be inclined to return to the health care system that had already oppressed her? Probably not.

Fannie Lou Hamer was poor and vocally Black in the South. Serena Williams is wealthy, Black and an international superstar. Despite her privilege, Williams also experienced the differential way the health care system treats Black women. Serena might have died giving birth to her daughter, Alexandra. Because Williams was gracious enough to share her story, we are reminded that Black women are all too often ignored or dismissed by health care providers. Racial bias in the medical field is not only real, but also life-threatening. Reference Fannie Lou Hamer. Ask Serena Williams. Consider the thousands of Black women that are being sidelined by a health care system that does not hear our voices.

What must we do to ensure that Black women don't carry the heavy burden of health disparities? We must be mindful and aware of the risks of breast cancer. We must talk about breast care with our sisters and our young 'uns. We must engage in a policy conversation about the ways health insurance can support our breast health. Too often, health insurance covers some, but not all, of the cost of screening. We must engage our civic organizations in breast health education.

We must remember Fannie Lou Hamer, who said she was "sick and tired of being sick and tired." That means as tired as we are of being tired, we must also be committed to taking care of ourselves. Too many studies say that Black women ignore self-care for the care of others.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest project MALVEAUX! On UDCTV is available on youtube.com. For booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visit www.juliannemalveaux.com

Oct. 1, 2019

With a Growing Number of Children Shot Each Year, This Group Fights the Normalization of Violence
By Barbara Reynolds

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - On average, about 19 children are shot daily in America and about 1,300 youths under age 18 die yearly from firearms with about 6,000 going to the hospital for non-fatal gun injuries, says the 2017 Journal of Pediatrics.

In one bloody weekend in Chicago this year, 60 people were shot, seven murdered, in all 1,998 people shot and 393 dead from firearms so far this year. In DC, home of the Pentagon that safeguards the world, 98 people were murdered this year with six of the victims younger than 18; one, bludgeoned to death, was only 2 years old.

To some, these are just numbers, statistics, nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary - if their significance can be judged by the time spent on these tragedies in presidential debates, news coverage or from the pulpits.

Such tragedies falling beneath the care line, are what keeps Stephanie Myers trying to shine the spotlight and national attention on violence, an urgent matter of life or death. It is why, as co-founder of Black Women for Positive Change, she is co-hosting a town hall meeting on October 19 seeking solutions. The panel is called Violence is Not Normal—which raises the quick question of why it has become so normal, so accepting, that the idea that it is normal has to be refuted.

Looking deeper into the statistics, it is easy to see why Myers and others might wonder is race the reason for the apathetic response? The same Journal of Pediatrics’ Study shows that black children suffer the most from gun violence overall, making up 35 percent of its child victims in the United States, even though only about 13 percent of Americans are black. “About 400 black children under the age of 18 are thought to be killed in firearm homicides each year. In fact, black children are about 10 times more likely to die in gun murders as their white and Asian-American counterparts.”

Despite these heartbreaking facts, what pulls black murders out of the no-news file are when they serve a larger politicized issue, such as a white cop shooting an unarmed black person, but when its black on black homicide, the tears and hurts are hidden behind a wall of apathy, shame, fear or frustration.

Stephanie Myers is trying to break through this wall by making “violence is not normal, “a household word that becomes the mantra of teens, law enforcement, faith institutions , schools and all parts of society. Myers, along with Daun S. Hester, are co-chairs of Black Women for Positive change and the Positive Change Foundation. Their Town Hall will meet from 2:30 – 5:00 pm/EST on the D.C. campus of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, 1100 Alabama Avenue, S.E.

Myers is hoping that her national group of partners can help create a platform that each murder will be treated with the sensitivity that the fallen could be our own mothers, our daughters or sons, “While some of us have not suffered personally from the tragedies, we do not want this to get to our homes before we take it personally enough to act,” she says.

Susan Bro is one of the panelists. Her daughter Heather Heyer was murdered when a member of the Klan-Nazi hate group ran an automobile into the crowd of peaceful protestors in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia .

Other speakers include: Dr. Bahiyyah Muhammad, Howard University Professor. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Attorney Donald M. Temple, Kent Alford, director of Prince Georges Capital Region University Medical Systems and Care and Queen Afi, mental health/Domestic Violence consultant.

Youth will also participate from the Jim Vance Media Program at Archbishop Carroll High School, Luke Seymour Academy and the Purpose Program.

The town hall meeting is one of many events Myers and Hester, along with Good Brothers, such as Frank Malone head of 100 fathers, have led in an effort to Change the Culture of Violence nationally and globally. This year they will be holding their eighth annual Week of Non-Violence, which has chapters in eleven states as well as the UK.

Over the years the group has produced three films, On Second Thought, the Red Flags of Domestic violence and The Drop, stressing the importance of youth getting an education, was viewed in 52 schools in 18 states. Their work shops, media events, Congressional meetings, film screenings and essay contests all seek ways to de-escalate    violence, control anger, eliminate racism and to respond to implicit bias.

Nationwide, the public is invited to participate in the free annual Week of Positive Change, nonviolence and Opportunities, October 12-20, 2019. Honorary Chair is former U.S. Atty. Gen.         Eric Holder; Vice Chair is Rep. Gwen Moore (WI); and Honorary Co-Chairs are MSNBC reporter Michelle Bernard, Esq., Social Justice Activist Kemba Smith, and Dr. Charles, Steele, President/CEO of SCLC.

The week’s activities in cities around the nation, will provide opportunities for individuals, organizations, youth, millennials, faith institutions, business leaders, athletes and educators to organize large and small events, around the United States and the world that promote non-violence, de-escalation, peace and getting along.

To register Sign Up at ww.blackwomenforpositivechange.org