June 26, 2018

The Question in November: ‘What Kind of Country Do We Want to be?’ 
By Jesse Jackson

NEWS ANALYSIS

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - For President Trump, the campaign never ends. He is on the stump, in full campaign mode now.  He is intent on nationalizing this fall’s congressional elections.  As Steve Bannon put it, “Donald Trump will be on every ballot.” The choice will be for Trump or against. Trump is even prepared to scar thousands of toddlers and infants — many of them permanently — by separating them from their parents at the border in order to frame that choice.

The question this fall won’t be simply about who controls the House or the Senate or the statehouses. It will be a choice of what kind of country, what kind of people we are. Trump has and will put the question directly, brutally and inescapably. He isn’t really interested in policy. His lack of knowledge and attention is infamous, even among his own aides. He isn’t really interested forging a majority in Congress and actually passing reforms. After creating the human horror at our border, he said only Congress could change it. When it became apparent that Americans couldn’t abide torturing children, he changed it overnight, and told Congress they were wasting their time trying to deal with immigration policy before the next election. He wants immigration to be a threat, an issue, a club for the election, not something addressed by a bipartisan compromise. 

Immigration flows into this country are down. The record long economic recovery that began under President Barack Obama has driven down unemployment.  It is hard to argue that immigration is still about the threat of those people taking our jobs. Trump uses immigration to rouse racial fear; immigrants “infest” our country, he charges. They are criminals, rapists, murderers and gang members. Democrats, he slanders, want open borders. Nancy Pelosi wants to open the country to MS-15 gang members. 

That these are lies and libels is irrelevant. Trump is using the same scurrilous tactics made famous in the Jim Crow South — paint “those people,” the other, as a fearsome threat to rouse fears and gain support. It was ugly then and it is grotesque now. It was effective in the old South; it remains to be seen if it will work again in today’s America. But that’s the gamble that Trump is making, and he will stick to it. Trump will ensure that this will be one of the most vile and poisonous election campaigns in memory. Trump is on a rampage on immigration and posturing on trade to reinforce his biggest con, that he somehow is a populist champion for working people.

The reality, of course, is much different. He’s provided the bumptious cover for the traditional Republican agenda for corporations and the rich. His administration’s major accomplishment — the tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the rich and the corporations — is already unpopular. Dismay will spread as Republicans use the deficits the tax cut exploded to justify cuts in basic security programs — Medicare and Medicaid, health care, food stamps, investments in schools, and more. Meanwhile, the administration’s claim to be cleaning out the swamp turns out to mean allowing lobbyists to savage protections for workers, consumers and the environment. This isn’t a “populist agenda.”

It is a plutocrat’s agenda, with a populist sales pitch and Trump as the lead huckster. Most of this is about turnout in what are traditionally low-turnout, off-year elections. Trump wants to rouse his base. He believes that the politics of fear, featuring poisonous, racially charged libels and slanders directed at immigrants will turn more supporters out than off. The tax cuts consolidate support among the affluent that tend to vote; the venom rouses and distracts those whose interests are being trampled. Trump does make the stakes this fall clear.

If Republicans — almost universally cowed into echoing the president — sustain their majorities, we’ll get more of the same: action that serves the rich; rhetoric that divides the rest. If instead Trump’s foul politics rouse more opposition than support, the rebuke will attest to what kind of country we are. All of us are complex. We have our better angels, our ideals and aspirations; we harbor fears and anxieties. Good leaders can appeal to our better angels, bring the country together and unleash energy. Dark leaders can evoke horrors, drive the country apart and unleash hatred. Trump has chosen the latter, over and over, in greater and greater extremes. In the fall, citizens will have to choose: Is that the kind of leader we want? Is that the kind of nation we are? Donald Trump may find out that we are a better people than he assumes.

June 18, 2018

Hate Thy Neighbor colors Sessions’ Immigration Practices
By Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds and Rev. Dr. Keith Magee

NEWS ANALYSIS

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions has reached down into the garbage can of history to twist passages of Holy Scripture, once used by segregationists to perpetuate slavery, segregation, White nationalism and Jim Crow, to justify separating immigrant children from their parents, many of whom Donald Trump dehumanizes as criminals.

Reports show that thousands of children are being tragically and traumatically separated from parents and held in cage-like structures, according to Democratic U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley. Some have traveled thousands of miles to flee death threats , gangs and rapes in their countries.

Is the ‘make America great’ rhetoric now calling them to thump the Bible, stand self-righteously and piously practicing a new breed of spirituality that encompasses “hate thy neighbor”?

Paul, who wrote around A.D. 60, was an apostle of love reflecting the virtues of Jesus Christ. He wrote: “if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, love thy neighbor as thyself. Love works no ill to his neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.”

In Romans 13 Paul writes that Christians are both citizens of the state and the church having a duty to obey both. Sessions uses that passage to justify punishing immigrants—most of whom are brown or Black, coming from where Trump has labeled “sh*thole countries.” Very boldly, however, Paul clearly states in that same passage that love is the foundation of the Gospel, which supersedes all other man-made laws.

As clear-cut are the writings of Paul, Christians must look to a higher source, asking what would Jesus do? The Bible shows Jesus condemning the “sin” of legalism. Legalists can quote, pound and thump the Bible, while being ignorant or oblivion to the spirit of the Law which infuses the soul and conscience to be kind, merciful and charitable.

Legalists most often overlook the sinful practices of corporate greed and the current EPA policies of allowing corporations to leak or belch harmful chemicals into poor neighborhoods or Trump using the budget to deny healthcare to the medically indigent, who are at risk of dying because of that lack of access. These kinds of tactics, no doubt, are why Jesus declares that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich person, who thinks that wealth alone, gives them access to heaven.

Jesus’s social gospel was to awaken the Pharisees of his day, namely the lawyers and legalistic communities. Having a heart for the injustices of humanity, Jesus condemned that group as “hypocrites for “straining at gnats and swallowing camels” and omitting the more important areas of the law, which are “judgment, mercy and faith.”

Sessions and his group - Pharisees of today - go to Scripture to find passages to support their harmful anti-Black, anti-women, anti-poor policies, which are so void of love and kindness they have no relevance for today.

Trump’s Attorney General clearly misses the a fundamental message of Scripture which Jesus quoted as Good News, not the lies, harsh words and the meanness we see today. Declaring his mission in Luke 4:18, Jesus said that he was anointed to preach the Gospel (good news) to the poor, heal the broken-hearted, and preach deliverance to the captives to set at liberty them that are bruised.

Do the Sessions policies have anything to do with the Good News, Jesus, the Bible or anything sacred that is a part of the Jewish, Christian, Islamic faiths?

In fact, the bad news of Sessions is at odds with the official declarations of his own United Methodist Church. In 2016, it said, “The fear and anguish so many migrants in the United States live under are due to federal raids, indefinite detention, and deportations which tear apart families and create an atmosphere of panic. Millions of immigrants are denied legal entry to the US due to quotas and race and class barriers, even as employers seek their labor. With the legal avenues closed, immigrants who come in order to support their families must live in the shadows and in intense exploitation and fear. In the face of these unjust laws and the systematic deportation of migrants instituted by the Department of Homeland Security, God’s people must stand in solidarity with the migrants in our midst.”

So why are so many preachers, pastors, bishops, megachurch leaders, not pushing back, defending the sacred text and taking these Pharisees to task, not only for their punitive practices toward immigrants, but also the transference of billions of dollars from the needy to the Trump oligarchy?

Isn’t sacred text worth defending? How long will loving and moral Americans tolerate hypocrisy, cruelty and sins against humanity? Is it time for Sessions to have a Damascus road experience so that he can get knocked down off his high perch to see the light of Jesus’s love for the least of these?

As is often said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Keith Magee is a public intellectual, ordained minister, and, serves as, Senior Fellow in Culture and Justice, University College London. Barbara Reynolds is an ordained minister, former startup editor and columnist for USA TODAY and author of seven books, the latest The Life, Love and Legacy of Coretta Scott King. They are mother and son.

June 25, 2018

Richmond, Va. School Board Changes Confederate Named School to Barack Obama Elementary
By Ronald E. Carrington 

The name of slavery-supporting Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart will be removed from this Richmond, Va. elementary school to be replaced by the name of the nation's first Black President Barack Obama.

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Barack Obama in. J.E.B. Stuart out. The Richmond School Board voted this month to change the name of J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School to Barack Obama Elementary School.The new name for the school at 3101 Fendall Ave. in North Side Richmond should be in place by August for the new school year, officials said. “Students will now have the opportunity to attend a school that honors a leader who represents the great promise of America,” said Superintendent Jason Kamras.

“In the former capital of the Confederacy, we decided to stop honoring an individual who fought to preserve slavery and to begin honoring our first African-American president instead.”

Roughly 18 schools in 14 states have either been named for former President Obama or are proposed to be named for him.

Among them is Barack and Michelle Obama Elementary in St. Paul, Minn., and Barack and Michelle Obama Academy in Atlanta, both of which are public schools. The change ends six months of debate in the region about changing the names of schools named for Confederates. In February, the Petersburg School Board voted to rename three elementary schools, while the Hanover County School Board in April voted to retain the names of a high school and middle school named for Confederates. 

In Richmond, the only school named for a Confederate was J.E.B. Stuart, which was opened in 1922. It serves nearly 500 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. About 95 percent of the students are African-American.Board member Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, voted against the name change, saying she wanted the vote delayed so the board could consider other names.

“There’s no local person on the finalist list,” Gibson said. “This is Richmond. We are about history and we have so many great local stories to tell. Our local stories are so important to cherish.” Absent from the meeting were board members Jonathan Young, 4th District, and Dr. Patrick Sapini, 5th District. After signaling its desire to rename the North Side school, the School Board held several community meetings to get recommendations.

The list of 38 recommendations was narrowed to seven names, which were presented to students at the school for a vote earlier this month.They were Barbara Johns Elementary for the 16-year-old who led a student strike at her Farmville high school in 1951 that led to the desegregation of public schools; Oliver W. Hill Sr. Elementary for the late Richmond civil rights attorney who led Ms. Johns’ legal case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court; Albert V. Norrell Elementary for the longtime Richmond educator; Henry L. Marsh III Elementary for Richmond’s first African-American mayor, former state senator and noted civil rights attorney; Northside Elementary for the school’s location; Wishtree Elementary for the children’s book that celebrates different cultures in a diverse neighborhood; and Barack Obama Elementary. Among students, Northside Elementary was the leading vote-getter with 190 votes, while Obama Elementary won 166 votes and Wishtree, 127 votes.

The three top names then were sent to the School Board for the final selection. Kamras told the board he recommended the school be named after former President Obama. Kamras, who was named the 2005 National Teacher of the Year, served as an adviser on education issues to the former president’s 2008 campaign. RPS officials estimated that the renaming will cost $26,000, which includes $10,000 for the new name to be put on the school’s stone façade; $4,000 for a bronze plaque; $5,000 for a new sign outside the school and a new marquee; $4,500 for new mats, stationery and office supplies; $2,000 for T-shirts with the new name for students and staff; and $500 for a banner.

June 12, 2018

Black Men Share Their Lessons from Fatherhood
By Kenae Damon

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Educator, author and speaker, Dr. Jawanza Kanjufu, says, “We encourage every man to be a responsible father. There has never been a time when we did not need our fathers.”

As Father’s Day rolls around we reflect on the brothers, uncles, cousins, and friends who have become dads over the years and vowed to take care of their children. In interviews this week, we talked to Black men on their perspectives on fatherhood, what they want their children to learn from them and the most essential lessons they learned from their own Dads.

Howard John Wesley, 42, is a born and raised native of Chicago. He moved to Washington D.C. to become the pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia. Despite his service to his nearly 10-member congregation and to the community, it is fathering his sons that’s among his most greatest callings.

Rev. Wesley is a father of two young boys, 13 and 6. “Being a father is one of the best roles I have, it is an honor to raise my two sons and no matter how trying being a Dad may be sometimes, I always do my best to remember that,” Wesley said.

Charles Reyes, 43, is an assistant principal of a high school in Philadelphia. He has been a father for 19 years and is the proud father of five kids. He grew up in a two-parent home and had a close and personal relationship with his father. Reyes appreciates his father for setting the tone and being a strong man of the house hold. When asked how his relationship with his father affected his personal relationship with his kids he said, “I am the kind of father I am today because of the sacrifices my father made for me years ago.”

Also, from Philadelphia, Wade Gordon, 55, has been a father for 31 years and is a father of two adults children. His father passed away when he was very young, but he has amazing memories of him. On this upcoming Father’s Day, his advice to all the fathers is to “always cherish the time you have with your kids because you never know when that time will be no longer. I always do my best to be extremely proactive in my kids’ lives.”

Three fathers in particular stood out the most in interviews. They are Cortez Holland, 23, Tracy Garrett, 56, and Kirk Riley, 51. All three of these dads experienced unique and traumatizing situations with their children.

Cortez Holland had his 5-year-old daughter when he was just a teenager. He says nothing was planned. But his daughter has become his world.

“Having a daughter at a young age forced me to grow up and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a wakeup call for me and her mother.” He and the mother didn’t always get along at first and with both being very young, raising a child alone was a struggle. He said his relationship with his father was not the best because his father was not around. But that only encouraged him to be the opposite.

Tracy Garrett on the other hand had a pretty good relationship with his father and says he has an outstanding relationship with his son. He always pushed his son to follow his dreams and when asked what important lesson he wants his son to always remember him by, it is to never let anyone stop you from your success. Garrett’s father has always been an advocate for higher education so when his own son received an acceptance letter from Howard University he was thrilled. A year into his son’s college career he became aware that his son’s GPA had dropped severely and that he could no longer attend school.

His son being a college dropout definitely put a strain on their relationship. But Garrett now looks at it as an unexpected blessing. He said the situation forced him to be less hard on his son and through it all, he discovered his son’s hidden love for music. His son, Trey, enrolled in classes at community college and now Garrett is working hard to pay for his sons’ music lessons.

And then there’s Kirk Riley, born and raised in New York City. Riley is a father of four and recently experienced one of the most heart-breaking stories a parent can go through. A few months ago, his 21-year-old daughter, Joy Riley, was in a terrible car accident where her entire body went through the front windshield and she was hospitalized for three months.

“When I got the call, my heart dropped. Me and her mother co-parent and we are no longer together. But this accident brought the entire family together. I called her mother up and she was on the next bus to New York. I prayed every hour- night and day - and I never left her bed side. Now that she is healed I hope and pray if she learned nothing else from me as her father, she knows the power of prayer and her relationship with God is greater than all.”