Jan. 9, 2023

EDITORS, THIS COLUMN ALSO APPEARS AS A NEWS ANALYSIS IN THE LEAD STORIES SECTION. PLEASE USE AS DESIRED.
By David W. Marshall

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The first speech given by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to the newly-seated 118^th Congress was a proud moment in history. In life, our elders often play important roles in our development and the fulfillment of our purpose. We often look to those elders for wisdom, knowledge, and direction when elevating to the next levels of life. For Jeffries, those elders include but are not limited to Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Jim Clyburn, who played critical roles in his progression to the next level as house minority leader. Early in his speech, when acknowledging them, he said, “Thank you, Madam Speaker for all that you have done. It’s an honor to stand on your broad shoulders as well as the shoulders of the great Steny Hoyer and the great Jim Clyburn. Two consequential leaders in their own right.” As the American people witness the continuation of great legacies, we should sincerely appreciate those who paved the way before us.

After 14 failed ballots to elect the next House speaker, the contrast between the Democratic and Republican caucuses cannot be any clearer. Unity and professionalism were seen on one side versus infighting and dysfunction on the other. The message is evident: the Democratic caucus is in good hands due to the smooth transition of leadership. It is also clear that Hakeem Jeffries is a true and inspiring leader. True leaders often work to build productive partnerships with individuals and groups representing diverse interests. Jeffries made it clear that the Democrats will look to find common ground with the Republicans on behalf of the American people. Time will tell if any number of Republicans accept the offer when the nation’s best interests call for compromise. A true political leader understands that despite having two major political parties that differ in ideology, America is a melting pot where our diversity is a strength. The nation’s diversity should never be downplayed or ignored. We benefit when people representing all backgrounds and cultures are allowed to contribute their best. Jeffries’ speech spoke of how the late John Lewis reminded members of Congress that we might have come over on different ships, but we are all in the same boat now.

He continued by listing what can be referred to as the ABCs of democracy. Jeffries said, “House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism, governing over gas-lighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, “Yes we can” over “You can do it” and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation.” While the story of the 118^th Congress is just beginning, it is a moment of transition, and Hakeem Jeffries has already given the Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters much to consider for 2024.

What happens in Congress during the next two years of Republican control should concern all Americans. Individuals who support and sympathize with the reasons and purpose behind the Jan. 6 insurrection are not limited to the foot soldiers who vandalized the Capitol building. Supporters and sympathizers also include members of Congress whose power and influence have gone unchecked by Kevin McCarthy. In an interview, Michael Fanone, a former Washington D.C. Metropolitan police officer present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, said then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told him that he couldn’t “control” the fringe members of the GOP regarding their opinions of the insurrection. As a result of concessions made by McCarthy in exchange for the speakership, members who downplayed the reality of that day are now in line to have more representation on House committees, including the influential House Rules Committee. They can offer more amendments on the House floor. They can now create an investigative committee to probe the “weaponization “of the federal government. One of the most disturbing concessions allows any member to call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. After days of begging, pleading, and bartering, the most rebellious group in the GOP controls the House speaker and the Republican Party. To avoid having a House speaker beholden to the most hardline Republicans, it would have taken only six moderate Republicans to switch their votes for Hakeem Jeffries.

The destruction to the Capitol building by rioters has since been repaired. Walls, doors, and windows can easily be fixed. But can the potential damage to Congress as an institution and functioning governing body be repaired as easily after the next two years? Or will two years become four years? In this toxic environment, it was never realistic to believe six Republicans would turn and support Jeffries as House speaker. After two years of chaos, thereby making the political contrasts even more apparent, it is not that hard to believe enough Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters will find a way to make Hakeem Jeffries House Speaker after the 2024 elections.

David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America. He can be reached at www.davidwmarshallauthor.com.

Nov. 30, 2022
By Toni Odejimi

Senator Raphael Warnock poses with his supporters in Omni Coffee and Eggs. 
PHOTO: Toni Odejimi

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Howard University News Service

ATLANTA (HUNS) -- It was all about early voting again for Sen. Raphael Warnock who recently spoke at Omni Coffee and Eggs in Atlanta as a part of his “One More Time” runoff campaign.

This is especially true on the cusp of his lawsuit win against Georgia state officials. Warnock and the Democratic Party of Georgia filed a suit against the provision that prohibited early voting on Nov. 26, and won. This allowed for early voting to occur in various participating counties, like Rockdale, Cobb and Gwinnett. Douglas and DeKalb counties started early voting earlier in the week. Early voting across the state will begin on Monday.

Warnock was pretty candid that the Nov. 23rd event wasn’t to encourage the people standing in front of him to vote. No, he already knew they were going do that.

“I didn’t come this morning to convince y’all to vote,” Warnock explained. “I came to convince you to convince others.”

This push to re-energize voters came after the 2022 midterm elections saw Democratic candidates lose up and down the ballot. Even Eshé Collins, the chair of the Atlanta Board of Education, understood that some voters were feeling reluctant to hit the polls again. She stressed that voters, particularly the 18-35 and 65+ crowd, need to run it back and vote.

Despite the push to get voters back to the ballot box, Warnock’s supporters in attendance didn’t see this runoff as a time to despair. No, they saw it as a time for hope. They were aware of the voter fatigue, some of them even admitted that they have it. But, to Takara McGee, there’s quite literally no other choice.

“He has to win,” McGee said. “There’s no other choice as far as Black people, women.”

McGee was referring to Herschel Walker, who believes that abortion should be illegal regardless of the reason as he denies allegations from women that he has encouraged and paid for their abortions.

In his speech, Warnock maintained his stance on keeping politicians out of the abortion clinic. He also criticized Walker’s comments on how diabetes can be avoided with proper nutrition and exercise in reference to insulin pricing. Warnock has been pushing to reduce insulin’s cost, which he eventually did by lowering it to $35 for people covered under “traditional Medicare.”

But insulin and attacks at his contender aside, Warnock still holds faithful that he’ll win his reelection.

“We have a lot of momentum behind this race. And we’re going to win,” Warnock said.

Nevertheless, Davida Huntley, a Warnock supporter and former candidate in a school board election, said turnout for this year’s midterm was disappointing.

Huntley said more people should have turned out for early voting, especially with the money spent on campaigning, which she described as “deplorable.” Overall turnout in Georgia was 3.96 million, or 57 percent, of the 6.95 million registered voters, according to the Secretary of State. About 2.9 million voters cast early ballots in person.

Why are these voters not coming out? Huntley thinks it’s down to a lack of faith within the election system. And she has some words for that.

“Everything you do is political,” Huntley said. “There is no such thing as ‘I’m not political. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t affect me.’ If you’re living and breathing, if you have a heartbeat, you are a part of the political process. And as long as you’re of the correct age, you should participate.”

Toni Odejimi is a student at Georgia State University and reporter for HUNewsService.com. She is part of the election team and has been covering the Warnock-Walker race.

August 16, 2022

Declaring a “State of Emergency” Black Civic Organization Calls on Voters to Fight in Midterm Elections:
‘Everything we love is on the line’
By Hazel Trice Edney

Melanie Campbell

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – As the summer vacation season winds down and the fall political season is about to heat up, the nation’s premier national Black voter organization is calling on Black America to start fighting now to elect the candidates that positively impact the Black community during midterm elections Nov. 8, 2022.

“This summer, our nation has witnessed a series of disturbing milestones. From the rollback of gun safety measures amidst back-to-back massacres, to the historic repeal of Roe v. Wade, to the stripping of EPA powers to protect our planet despite the existential threat of climate change, one reality stands out: our freedoms are under attack,” states Melanie L. Campbell, president/CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR). “All the while, conservative lawmakers are preparing to further dismantle our democracy by elevating states’ rights over federally protected individual rights and enshrine these disastrous decisions into law. Make no mistake: this represents only the beginning for this increasingly conservative court and the rightwing machine that installed it — and the clock keeps ticking to change the course set for our country. With under 90 Days until the November 8th midterm elections, the stakes could not be any higher.”

Campbell concludes, “For all our movements, everything that we love is on the line. We are in a state of emergency that requires the civil rights, women’s rights, labor, environmental and social justice communities to work together during a summer of activism. So, where there’s life there’s hope — but only if we fight for a future worth hoping for.”

Campbell’s declaration, distributed to media across the country breaks down the significance of some of the nation’s most important issues to the Black community.

• “Nearly 40 percent of all abortions in America since Roe vs. Wade have been by Black women. Who pays the price when abortions are outlawed? Poor women, women of color, and the millions of women who already face limited access to high quality healthcare.”
• “From Charleston to El Paso to Buffalo, the past decade reveals that racially motivated shootings and domestic terrorism is on the rise — with Black and brown communities in the direct line of fire. Who pays the price when common sense gun legislation is held up and rolled back while white nationalists are emboldened to emerge from their hiding places? Black, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, Jewish and Muslim people.”
• “The climate emergency means hotter summers, more destructive tornadoes, stronger hurricanes. Who bears the brunt of this crisis? Black and brown communities living in neighborhoods devastated by environmental racism. As our communities choke on toxic air and dirty water, drown in Southern floods, and are forced into displacement because of increasingly hostile and extreme weather patterns, our lawmakers are happy to fill their pockets with donations from the same harmful corporations who are facilitating this catastrophe.”

The NCBCP and the BWR, both non-partisan organizations, have traditionally led the national push for Black voter activism, including through its annual meetings during the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference. With the possibility of conservative politicians about to take over the U.S. House of Representatives, this could mean even more roll backs on voting rights and other significant issues in the Black community.

Despite the significance of mid-term elections, voters often stay home and wait to vote in presidential elections every four years. But this moment is too urgent to stay home, says Campbell, stressing the fact that conservative lawmakers, who already have control of the U. S. Senate, could place even more conservative judges on the U. S. Supreme Court if the opportunity arises.

“Enough is enough,” she says. “We urgently need to elect leaders who will fight to cure what ails our damaged democracy and codify our sacred rights into law. That entails voting for lawmakers who will work for us, not conservative, reactionary, bought-and-paid-for forces that are weaponizing the courts in order to execute an unconstitutional power grab. Because let’s be clear: when radical conservatives take power, marginalized and low-wealth communities suffer most.”

With hundreds of thousands of Black voters still qualified, but unregistered to vote, Black organizations have their work cut out. The key will be to inspire prospective voters with issues that hit home and let them know the power is in their hands.

“From the 1964’s Freedom Summer to the 2020 protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbury & Brianna Taylor, we have always demonstrated our perseverance in the face of injustice,” Campbell says. “We stand at a perilous crossroads…Elections matter. If voting did not matter, too many conservatives and White nationalists in Congress, in courts, gubernatorial offices and state legislatures across the nation wouldn’t be working so hard to take our rights and freedoms away to maintain white power and privilege for a few, at the expense of everyone else. Our freedom is in danger — but we will not go silently in the night. We have 90 days to organize, mobilize and vote like our lives depend on, because it does. Now is the time to live out the movement chant in your community that states, “When Our Lives Are Under Attack, what do we do? Stand Up, Fight Back! Let’s fight back together.”

January 25, 2020

To Be Equal 
Newly Inaugurated, President Biden And Vice President Harris Face Confront Historic Challenges Of Pandemic, Racial Justice

By Marc H. Morial 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer. A cry for survival comes from the planet itself. A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear. And now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront, and we will defeat.  o overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity.” – President Joe Biden, Inaugural Address

I had the honor of attending the Inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris.

It was an inauguration unlike any in my lifetime, and perhaps unlike any in American history.

The twin pandemics that plague our nation – COVID-19 and racially-motivated violence – meant there were no cheering crowds of hundreds of thousands. Those of us who were invited to attend were tested for COVID and required to wear masks. 25,000 National Guard members were on hand to prevent a repeat of the deadly riot of January 6.

But the inauguration was historic for other, more hopeful reasons, as well. Kamala Harris became the first woman, the first African American, and the first person of South Asian descent to hold the office of Vice President.  A 22-year-old Black woman, the nation’s first Youth Poet Laurate, captivated the nation with her vision of hope and healing.

It was a ceremony that was at once uplifting and weighty with the life-and-death challenges that face the new administration.

Among the very first actions he took upon assuming office – after mandating masks and social distancing on federal property –was directing every federal agency to review its state of racial equity and deliver an action plan within 200 days to address any disparities in policies and programs.

The Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government reads, in part, “The Federal Government’s goal in advancing equity is to provide everyone with the opportunity to reach their full potential.  Consistent with these aims, each agency must assess whether, and to what extent, its programs and policies perpetuate systemic barriers to opportunities and benefits for people of color and other underserved groups.  Such assessments will better equip agencies to develop policies and programs that deliver resources and benefits equitably to all.”

The order also rescinds the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission, which “sought to erase America’s history of racial injustice,” as well as Trump’s order preventing federal agencies and contractors from holding diversity and inclusion trainings, which the National Urban League sued to overturn.

It was an encouraging sign from a President who campaigned on a promise to bridge the nation’s racial divide. He has assembled the most racially diverse presidential Cabinet in U.S. history, with people of color making up half of the nominees for Cabinet positions and Cabinet-level positions.

In a memo issued Saturday, the President’s chief of staff promised “significant early actions to advance equity and support communities of color and other underserved communities.” He was not specific about these actions, but President Biden has promised he would create a national police oversight commission in his first 100 days.

The National Urban League stands ready to assist and support President Biden and Vice President Harris as they tackle what the memo called the “four overlapping and compounding crises: the COVID-19 crisis, the resulting economic crisis, the climate crisis, and a racial equity crisis.”

We also stand prepared to hold the Administration accountable to its commitments.

In the words of our Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, ”We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be, a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce, and free.”