The Weekly Press Week of May 13, 2010

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THURSDAY, May 13, 2010

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Lena Horne An Elegant Trailblazer, Dies at 92

Bill Would Allow College Tuition Increases BATON ROUGE - Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposal that state lawmakers give up their authority over college tuition and fee increases has passed its first legislative hurdle.

The bill, called the Louisiana GRAD Act, would let schools substantially raise what they charge their students if the colleges meet certain performance standards.

The House Education Committee approved the bill Thursday. It heads next to the House’s budget committee, where it is expected to face a tougher time.

Four-year schools would have to increase admission standards and improve graduation rates, while community and technical colleges would have to improve getting students into jobs.

In exchange, schools could raise their tuition by up to 10 percent a year until they reach the average of similar schools. After that, they could boost tuition by up to 5 percent a year.

Ban on Smoking in Casinos Knocked Down BATON ROUGE - At the Capitol on Thursday it was a classic case of politics make strange bedfellows. A House committee snuffed out a proposal to ban smoking in casinos.

The House Health and Welfare Committee tossed a proposal to ban smoking inside casinos.

Representative Rickey Nowlin made an articulate argument in favor of the ban, but Louisiana Casino Association Executive Director Wade Duty was apparently more compelling.

“That’s all we really want to do is present the economic argument the impact to the programs that are already in place and again just remind them if we do well they do well,” said Duty.

Vol. 35 • No. 02

a people’s publication

Lena Horne jazz singer and actress died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Gloria Chin. Chin would not release any other details. She was 92.

NEW YORK – Lena Horne, the enchanting jazz singer and actress who reviled the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialize with them, slowing her rise to Broadway superstardom, died Sunday. She was 92.

Horne died at NewYorkPresbyterian Hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Gloria Chin. Chin would not release any other details.

Horne, whose striking beauty and magnetic sex appeal often overshadowed her sultry voice, was remarkably candid about the underlying reason for her success.

“I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept,” she once said. “I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.”

In the 1940s, she was one of the first black performers hired to sing with a major white band, the first to play the Copacabana nightclub and among a handful with a Hollywood contract.

In 1943, MGM Studios loaned her to 20th CenturyFox to play the role of Selina Rogers in the all-black movie musical “Stormy Weather.”

Her rendition of the title song became a major hit and her signature piece.

On screen, on records and in nightclubs and concert halls, Horne was at home vocally with a wide musical range, from blues and jazz to the sophistication of Rodgers and Hart in songs like “The Lady Is a Tramp” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.”

In her first big Broadway success, as the star of “Jamaica” in 1957, reviewer Richard

NATIONAL/state & Community watch

Business Return to Swan Street

By Stephanie Anthony The spirit of entrepreneurship is alive and kicking in Scotlandville in the person of Avery Walker. This native son believes his heritage and his destiny is in this segment of the community loved by some, honored by others, respected by most.

Avery Walker is the owner operator of College Quick Stop.

It is part of the family heritage in that a relative operated for years in that very spot and a cousin operates the establishment next door. Avery is proud of his choice to return to Scotlandville. Previously he ran an urban clothing store in the same spot. He had to learn about the tides that come and go based on the surrounding community and the university semesters. He lost money in the previous business so when he got an offer to manage a local club he closed up shop and moved to the night life.

Walker found success in an area where he had experience. He had been in the music business some years before and anybody who knows him says he has a knack for the entertainment field. Yet something was missing. He

longed to be his own boss and hold his own destiny in his hands. He returned to his Swan Street roots where his hands on style and quick smile makes him a favorite with customers and vendors.

Avery Walker seems right at home as he develops and plans in his neat establishment. Business is brisk coming up to the lunch hour. The cashier is like poetry in motion as he greets customers, offers compliments and checks them out. In the spotless kitchen the unmistakable smell of turkey wings under the attentive gaze of a master chef brings in hungry clients.

All has not been peaches and cream among the chips and milk. Today, customers drop in for snacks and a Tshirt with ease but not so very long ago the street and side walk were torn up for months.

Customers had to go through a dangerous, dusty and undesirable obstacle course to get in the College Quick Stop door.

Walker still bristles at the inconvenience and lack of planning with the whole See business, on page 3

Avery Walker

Oil Spill Poses Major Threat to Seafood Industry, Environment Special to the NNPA from the Louisiana Weekly

1942: Performing in the film Panama Hattie, the first of several movies she made with MGM early in her career.

Watts Jr. called her “one of the incomparable performers of our time.” Songwriter Buddy de Sylva dubbed her “the best female singer of songs.”

But Horne was perpetually frustrated with the public humiliation of racism.

“I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn’t work for places that kept us out ... it was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I

Local & State News

worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world,” she said in Brian Lanker’s book “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America.”

While at MGM, she starred in the all-black “Cabin in the Sky,” in 1943, but in most of her other movies, she appeared only in musical numbers that could be cut in the racially inSee lena Horne, on page 2

Business NEWS

(NNPA) - As oil from a massive spill caused by an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico continued to pour into Louisiana’s ecologically rich wetlands, elected officials and experts wondered about the long-term ecological and economic effects the accident will have on the state and its inhabitants. Those concerns were not eased as storms threatened to frustrate desperate protection efforts. Responding to a crisis that is threatening to spiral out of control, the Obama administration barred any new offshore oil projects until the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster that caused the spill is

other News

explained.

To underscore the severity of the spill, some have already compared it to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and the colossal Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Gulf Coast environmental groups working in the areas at greatest risk from British Petroleum’s catastrophic offshore drilling disaster, joined by Greenpeace USA, urged President Obama to accept their invitation, issued Thursday, to view the crisis with them.

“This is one of the worst environmental accidents in U.S. history,” said Anne Rolfes with the Louisiana Bucket BriSee oil spill, on page 2

health news

Earl K. Long Medical Center received the Silver Level 2009 Louisiana Hospital Quality Award from eQHealth Solutions for improving the quality of healthcare given to EKLMC patients...See Page 7

INDEX

SU Student wins Essay Contest Vincent Williams, president of LA Posse Trail Riders, Lacombe, Louisiana, was a first timer at the Southern University Ag Center’s annual horse show and trail ride this weekend. ....Page 3

Brittany Adolph, a senior at Southern University, is one of two winners of Johnson’s Baby Oil and Essence magazine’s “What’s Your Beauty Secret?” essay contest. Her prizes include a trip to New York and a photo shoot...See Page 3

Students Embark on Science Quest

More than 15 employee volunteers conducted the annual ExxonMobil Science Quest math and science festival for North Baton Rouge students at Southern University.This year’s event, now in its 18th year, boasted a new name and location ..See Page 5

Combat Patch Ceremony

Headquarters Company, 256th Infantry Brigade Combat conducted its former wartime service shoulder sleeve insignia ceremony at Camp Liberty, Iraq. Also known as the combat patch ceremony, it symbolizes a rite of passage...See Page 8

Local & State............................2 Commentary.............................4 Business....................................5 Religion....................................6 Health.......................................7 Other News..............................8

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Weekly Press • Thursday, May 13, 2010

Local&State

Southern University Professor, Elaine Barham, Receives Prestigious Teaching Award BATON ROUGE – Elaine Barham, an Assistant Professor in Southern University’s School of Nursing, received the Helen Creemens Johnson Excellence in Teaching Award at the Annual Celebrate Nursing Banquet held May 3rd by the Baton Rouge District Nurses Association.

This is the third consecutive year that a faculty member for Southern’s School of Nursing has received the prestigious award named in honor of the late nursing educator Helen Johnson Creemens, wife of retired journalist and newscaster, Carleton Creemens.

Carleton Creemens established

the award to honor his wife’s love for nursing and her career as a nursing educator.

Sout hern’s School of Nursing Assistant Professors Latricia Greggs, Trudy Williams, Thais Lavalais and Adjunct Professor Carol Backstedt also received the “Celebrate Nursing Award” at the banquet.

Barham is a member of the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation Learning and has played a pivotal role in incorporating simulation learning into the clinical teaching at the School of Nursing. She is responsible for organizing faculty work-

Elaine Barham

shops on simulation learning and the use of this innovative teaching methodology.

Barham has also developed simulation modules utilized in student learning activities.

Barham, a member of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, promotes organ and tissue donation. She is also a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and the Baton Rouge Oncology Nursing Society.

Sout hern’s School of Nursing has been named the 2010 “Nursing School of the Year” by the Louisiana Nurses Foundation and the Louisiana State Nurses Association.

Lena Horne from page 1 sensitive South without affecting the story. These included “I Dood It,” a Red Skelton comedy, “Thousands Cheer” and “Swing Fever,” all in 1943; “Broadway Rhythm” in 1944; and “Ziegfeld Follies” in 1946.

“Metro’s cowardice deprived the musical of one of the great singing actresses,” film historian John Kobal wrote.

Early in her career Horne cultivated an aloof style out of self-preservation, becoming “a woman the audience can’t reach and therefore can’t hurt” she once said.

Later she embraced activism, breaking loose as a voice for civil rights and as an artist. In the last decades of her life, she rode a new wave of popularity as a revered icon of American popular music.

Her 1981 one-woman Broadway show, “Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music,” won a special Tony Award. In it, the 64-year-old singer used two renditions – one straight and the other gut-wrenching – of “Stormy Weather” to give audiences a glimpse of the spiritual odyssey of her five-decade career.

A sometimes savage critic, John Simon, wrote that she was “ageless. ... tempered like steel, baked like clay, annealed like glass; life has chiseled, burnished, refined her.”

When Halle Berry became the first black woman to win the best actress Oscar in 2002, she sobbed: “This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. ...

It’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color who now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.”

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, the great-granddaughter of a freed slave, was born in Brooklyn June 30, 1917, to a leading family in the black bourgeoisie.

Her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, wrote in her 1986 book “The Hornes: An American Family” that among their relatives was a college girlfriend of W.E.B. Du Bois and a black adviser to

Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Dropping out of school at 16 to support her ailing mother, Horne joined the chorus line at the Cotton Club, the fabled Harlem night spot where the entertainers were black and the clientele white.

She left the club in 1935 to tour with Noble Sissle’s orchestra, billed as Helena Horne, the name she continued using when she joined Charlie Barnet’s white orchestra in 1940.

A movie offer from MGM came when she headlined a show at the Little Troc nightclub with the Katherine Dunham dancers in 1942.

Her success led some blacks to accuse Horne of trying to “pass” in a white world with her light complexion. Max Factor even developed an “Egyptian” makeup shade especially for the budding actress while she was at MGM.

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“I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become,” Horne once said. “I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.”

Horne was only 2 when her grandmother, a prominent member of the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, enrolled her in the NAACP. But she avoided activism until 1945 when she was entertaining at an Army base and saw German prisoners of war sitting up front while black American soldiers were consigned to the rear.

That pivotal moment channeled her anger into something useful.

She got involved in various social and political organizations and – along with her friendship with Paul Robeson – got her name onto blacklists during the redhunting McCarthy era.

By the 1960s, Horne was one of the most visible celebrities in the civil rights movement, once throwing a lamp at a customer who made a racial slur in a Beverly Hills restaurant and in 1963 joining 250,000 others in the March on Washington when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. Horne also spoke at a rally that same year with another civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, just days before his assassination.

It was also in the mid’60s that she put out an autobiography, “Lena,” with author Richard Schickel.

The next decade brought See Lena horne, on page 5

Chit Chat

MARGE’S CHIT CHAT THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Caring is the best trait in the world. Kirei NOW THAT MOTHER’S DAY IS OVER, sincere thanks and appreciation goes to all children who remembered their moms and grand Marge moms, and especially the surrogate moms.

Lawrence Thanks again mom for all you do!

LITTLE DAVON WRIGHT is being congratulated for his efforts to help the people in Haiti. “When I first heard about the tragedy going on in Haiti, I had to figure out something to do,” he said. He then asked his principal to have a “dress down” or “free dress” day and the proceeds would go to Haiti. It worked and the fundraiser raised $320.00 which was earmarked for Haiti. Thanks to Davon and his desire to help. He attends Lowery Elementary in Ascension Parish.

The Air Force JROTC 2009 -2010 Distinguished Unit Award has been awarded locally to Donaldsonville High School. The Junior ROTC unit has performed above and beyond normal expectations. It distinguished themselves throughout the community for outstanding service. Congratulations!

The Alpha Male Society held its inaugural meeting at a local library. The organization’s motto is “Preparing Leaders of Today for a Promising Tomorrow.” Ten young men ranging from 9th through 12th grades, along with their parents were in attendance.

The Society’s quest is to instill integrity, brotherhood, spiritual growth and citizenship in the hearts and minds of today’s young men. Sounds like a winner!

THANKS TO ALL THE VOLUNTEERS who conducted voter registration and educational drives throughout the parish. It was National Voter Registration Week this week and voters were encouraged to register others, update their own records, change party affiliation, and help others to know the importance of casting their ballot.

THURSDAY, MAY 6 WAS THE NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. Would you believe there is some controversy about prayer in an ecumenical setting? All people need to pray in their own way, no matter what their religious preference.

ATTENTION TO ALL HIGH, MIDDLE AND ELEMENTARY STUDENTS! Now that school is about to be over, and 2009-2010 is almost history, please keep a level head about your summer plans.

It is not a badge of honor to go home for the entire summer and not read (books, magazines, newspapers), join the summer book club at the library, or enroll in a summer academic camp. Some students brag that they will do absolutely nothing academic during their summer months, with the exception of swimming, playing sports, or traveling. Moreover, it is ill-advised to believe that you will get important information for these high states our state just by looking at the rap artists and entertainers on TV. It won’t happen!! Keep abreast of what you need by deliberately studying systematically daily. Get a schedule and maintain it throughout the summer, and thereby, you will be prepared for the next year and not just wait for your teacher to present information.

THE COUNCIL OF THE AGING has designed some of the following activities for seniors this week. These activities may be at your center, also, including, movie day, Bible study, Karaoke, exercise, beading class, pilates, bridge, recipe and coupon exchange, and community singing.

GET WELL WISHES to Ms. Seimone Augustus and Sherman Stewart.

WITH LOVE AND SYMPATHY to the Ed Buggs, Sally Jacobs, and Kirk Bennet families.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Ms. Marcia Speed and Ms. Shonel Branch - LeDuff.

Have a super weekend. Is Marcus Russell coming to join the Saints?

With a blessed weekend in mind, just for you, Love, Marge

Oil Spill from page 1 gade. “We need the President’s attention.”

Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao has called on his colleagues in Congress and the Obama administration to direct every available resource to contain the huge oil slick now beginning to wash ashore along the Louisiana coast.

The Congressman flew over the slick on a U.S. Coast Guard air-

plane with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

The absence of an effective response would result in “the worst environmental disaster in Louisiana history, and possibly the history of the nation.

See oil spill, on page 7

BEEN HURT IN A CAR WRECK? x

The Weekly Press Newspaper is a published weekly in Baton Rouge and distributed every Thursday with a circulation of 7,500. Subscription rates are $38.00 per year for Louisiana residents; $42.00 for one year for out-of-state residents; half price for six months subscription: and $1.00 per single copy.

But in his book “Gotta Sing Gotta Dance: A Pictorial History of Film Musicals,” Kobal wrote that she refused to go along with the studio’s efforts to portray her as an exotic Latin American.

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Thursday, May 13, 2010 • The Weekly Press • Page 3

SU Student wins Johnson’s/Essence Trail Riders Enjoy Horse Competition at Southern University Show Beauty Secrets Essay Contest BATON ROUGE - Brittany Adolph, a senior at Southern University, is one of two winners of Johnson’s Baby Oil and Essence magazine’s “What’s Your Beauty Secret?” essay contest. Her prizes include a trip to New York and a photo shoot for the national magazine.

“I can’t believe it,” the 22-year-old Baton Rouge native said, adding that this was her first time entering any kind of contest.

Johnson’s Baby Oil asked participants to “tell us your favorite Johnson’s Baby Oil beauty secret” in 200 words or less for a chance to win the prize package. The 2005 Broadmoor High graduate said she submitted her beauty secret essay about three months ago.

Adolph said her beauty secret is placing a few caps of Johnson’s baby oil in her bath water. Adolph wrote, in part, that “Ever since I was a baby, my mother put a few caps full of baby oil in my bath water and I think it locks in moister and leaves your skin radiant,” adding that she has never had problems with dry skin.

The history major, who is working toward becoming a college professor, is all smiles when she describes what she has won. She gets a prize pack which includes a first-class flight to New York, a hotel suite, a Johnson’s gift basket with $200 worth of items, a makeover with a professional make-up artist and a photo shoot with the other winner for a Johnson’s

Vincent Williams, president of LA Posse Trail Riders, Lacombe, Louisiana, was a first timer at the Southern University Ag Center’s annual horse show and trail ride this weekend.

Williams is 1992 SU alumnus and has been showing horses and trail riding for more than 30 years. He found out from other riders about the SU show and decided to join the fun. Now, he plans to return next year because “it was a pleasure”.

He joined more than 400 horsemen, women, and youth who gathered at the M.A. Edmund Livestock Arena for the annual competition that is organized by the Center’s Livestock Show Programs Office.

For more information on the horseshow, contact Christie Monroe, assistant director, livestock show programs, at (225) 771-2242 ext. 330 or christie_monroe(at)suagcenter.com.

(Photo by Bridget Udoh)

Brittany Adolph

advertisement that will be published in an upcoming issue of Essence magazine. An excerpt of her essay will be published in Essence.

“This was my first time entering any kind of contest,” said Adolph. “I had a friend who told me her mother likes to enter contests and has won two contests in her lifetime.

That inspired me to enter a contest.”

Adolph said she looked for a contest that suited her and found Johnson’s contest. “I’m excited because it’s a new experience,” said Adolph. “Just knowing that thousands of people applied for it and I won.”

“Whenever you see something that you want to do, go for it, because you never know what door will be opened or what God is going to do.”

Hosea’s Cleaners, Inc.

Business from page 1 street renovation process. He is still calling for a stronger merchants community now to ward off future business busting events which could threaten their livelihood and send them

with a united and well plan front. Walker thinks strategically and his long locks belies his depth of conservatism. He is a small businessman living the American dream. Low and behold he feels all his dreams can come true in no better place than Scotlandville.

Boyd ’s • 3 Tier Wedding Cake • 8 x 12 Groom Cake • 48 Cake squares • 1 Set of columns per cake

Bakery

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1659 N. Acadian Thruway West Baton Rouge, LA 70802

Drycleaning • Laundry • Expert Alterations

Alvin R. Henry, Sr. President 841 N. 22nd Street • Baton Rouge, La. 70802 • 225-387-1717

0 BP Products North America Inc.

under. William Jones is one of Walkers idols. Forward thinking, organized the legendary owner of Fill In Grocery finds time to talk with the younger merchant on the perils and the

joys of being in business in Scotlandville.

Like Jones, Walker is politically astute and really thinks the neighborhood should get ready to get saturated in its own well being and vocal in its best interests. He firmly believes they can make giant accomplishment

(225) 343-5070

The Gulf Oil Spill Response.

How to find out more. Where to find help. How to volunteer.

Since the tragic accident on Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon rig

For current information on the spill and response plan,

first occurred, BP has done and continues to do everything possible

please go to the following websites:

to respond to the situation. BP has taken full responsibility for dealing with the spill, and is mobilizing its full resources to fight

www.bp.com/gulfofmexicoresponse

against it in the Gulf of Mexico. www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com More than 2,500 of BP’s operational and technical personnel from around the world are working with many federal, state and local

For assistance or information, please call the following

government agencies, local communities and industry experts.

24/7 hotlines:

Using hundreds of vessels, they are involved in efforts to protect the shore of the Gulf coast, to contain the spill offshore, and to stem

To report oil on the shoreline: (866) 448-5816

the flow of oil from the sub-sea well. Staging posts to help protect the shoreline are in operation at six critical areas, supported by

To report impacted wildlife: (866) 557-1401

command posts in Houma, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; and St. Petersburg, Florida. Thousands of volunteers are being

To make spill-related claims: (800) 440-0858

trained to help with the cleanup.

For volunteer information: (866) 448-5816 We are grateful for the support of the many volunteers, federal, state, and local government officials, and emergency responders.

We are determined to leave nothing undone in the effort to stop the flow and minimize any potential impact.

Commentary Thursday, May 13, 2010 • The Weekly Press • Page 4

The Way I See It

How About a Nationwide Black Litigation Agenda? last thirty years the Judicial Branch has No country in the contributed mighty Western world confers to the advancement so much power on its of American Black courts as does in the people.

United States. When Thank God, on constitutional issues numerous occasions, are raised, federal the Supreme Court courts are empowered has stretched the Conto reverse the legislastitution to the limit to William tive commands of remove racial barriers Jones Congress. When funin public education, damental civil rights political participation, are at issue, courts have the and employment. constitutional authority to counIn some instances, these termand orders of the nations judicial decisions counterpresidents. manded and ran contrary to According to my learn- the expressed wishes of some ing in a criminal justice course, former Presidents, some in the the Supreme Court has power, elected Congress and many, and often uses it to establish many White Americans. We still public policy on critical racial have unfinished business. issues such as school segregaMy suggestion is that the tion, compensatory employment Congressional Black Caucus practices including voting rights should link up with the Legal and the last say with reference Defense Fund and plunge forto the healthcare bill that some ward on so many unfinished states see fit to go through court issues that are facing Black proceedings to nullify it.

America.

I will say that for the That Is The Way I See It.

By William Jones

A Word for Graduates: Let It Shine

By Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist

(NNPA) - If you ever attended a National Council of Negro Women event, you ended up singing “This Little Light of Mine” at the end of the event. It was Dr. Dorothy Irene Height’s favorite song, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine”.

The civil rights pioneer, Fannie Lou Hamer, also loved to sing “This Little Light of Mine”, and it is easy to see why. The song encompasses humility and empowerment, the recognition that each light is little, but that in choosing to allow it to shine, to amplify, it can be great. Dr. Maya Angelou wrote, “Fannie Lou Hamer knew that she was one woman and only one woman.

However, she knew she was an American and as an American she had a light to shine on the darkness of racism. It was a little light, but she aimed it directly at the gloom of ignorance.”

Dr. Dorothy Height and Fannie Lou Hamer embraced their light and shone it at our nation’s deficiencies. On Saturday, I asked the 80 women who graduated from Bennett College how they might allow their light to shine. In so many ways, this is the issue that confronts young people, and indeed the issue that confronts us all. What is our passion? How will we transmit it? How will we let our light shine?

In the weeks since Dr. Dorothy Height’s death I have been thinking of the many ways she let her light shine. She shone light on issues of equal pay, workplace inequities, global issues of gender inequity, health disparities, and other issues. And by her very presence she tackled racism, sexism, classism, and ageism, refusing to be marginalized because she was nearly one hundred years old. She didn’t elbow her way to the table, but in her dignity she insisted on space. By just coming to work every day, well after the retirement age of 65, she shone her light on the capabilities of older Americans.

She didn’t just shine her light, she was incandescent.

This is a challenging time to claim light. The unemployment rate, at 9.9 percent, is up from last month. The African American unemployment rate is much higher, of course, and a young person entering today’s job market will face nothing but challenges. Too many of our Bennett students, like students from other colleges, step away from graduation with uncertain plans.

They are waiting to hear about internships, jobs, and graduate

school possibilities. They are shackled by an economy that has fewer jobs available today than it did in 2003.

And yet, they have this little light, this small thing that ignites them. For that, they cannot allow circumstances diminish that light, steal their joy, and dampen their enthusiasm. The same tenacity and persistence that propelled them through graduation exercises must now also propel them into the next chapter of their lives. This is the tenacity, persistence, and perhaps incandescence that will maintain their light.

I think of light when I think of the recent passing of Lena Horne, a woman whose utter image was one of elegance and dignity. She lit up a screen, and she it up our world, not only with her performances but also with her commitment to the civil rights struggle. She found her light and she shone her light, and in doing so, she reminds us all of what our possibilities might be.

No one else will be Lena Horne, or Dorothy Height, or Fannie Lou Hamer. Each of us has a special light that we need to claim and hold, a light we need to let shine. Tens of thousands of African American young adults will graduate during this season, tens of thousands of lights that need to shine. Those of us who are seasoned, who are elders, need to ask what we can do to ignite the light. And our new graduates must embrace and excite the light they have.

Fannie Lou Hamer so embraced her light that she endured a beating that would shorten her life. With the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, she took on Southern segregation and the entire Democratic Party when it met in Atlantic City in 1964. A warrior who wore battle scars until the end of her life, Mrs. Hamer, a native of Ruleville Mississippi spoke truth to power with no fear of consequences.

She was badly beaten because she tried to register voters; she carried her injuries for the rest of her life. And yet she shone her light.

Before hotels had fire codes, some organizations lit candle to candle to signify the light that we must shine. Now we have these battery-powered things that minimize the possibility of real flame but maintain the symbolism. The fact is that we all have light, and we gotta let it shine. Kudos to the graduates of the class of 2010.

Julianne Malveaux is president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.

Celebrating Women Beyond Mother’s Day

By George E. Curry NNPA Columnist At the invitation of Michael McMillan, I traveled to St. Louis last week to address the annual Salute to Women Leadership awards luncheon.

For seven years, McMillan has been sponsoring this extravagant event. The fact that a man would sponsor it and have the temerity to invite another man to serve as the event’s keynote speaker makes a significant public statement: It’s fine for women to honor one another, but it’s equally important that males honor and respect women.

Violent assaults on elderly women, rape, offensive rap lyrics that refer to women as synonyms for female dogs and garden tools, domestic violence and lack of basic manners are all deeply rooted in male attitudes toward females. And there’s no better way to change such negative attitudes than by instilling in males, beginning at an early age, a respect for the opposite sex. After all, they all have mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, girlfriends or wives whom they would like to see respected by males.

McMillan is the license collector of St. Louis, but operates his glowing tribute to women in his unofficial capacity. He is unopposed in this year’s elec-

tion and therefore is Each honoree not seeking any poreceived 32 gifts, inlitical gain from his cluding a dozen roses, decision to recognize monogrammed chocosuccessful women lates, wine, chamor his other events pagne, a designer hat, to spotlight educaa custom-designed tion and the plight necklace, a field pass of poor people. to a St. Louis Rams George This year, 14 football game with E. Curry “ s h e - ro e s ” w e re access to the owner’s honored: Olympic suite; a mink monostar Jackie Joyner-Kersee; grammed draw string purse, Gwendolyn D. Packnett, di- a Neiman Marcus gift set, free rector of the Office of Multi- use of the Cabanne House in cultural Relations at the Uni- Forest Park and a White House versity of Missouri-St. Louis; pen set and tote bag.

Donna Wilkinson, a local fundI speak at events around raiser and wife of legendary the country, but I’ve never atUniversity of Oklahoma foot- tended one that comes close ball coach Budd Wilkinson; to matching this one. As elMerdean Fielding-Gales, a egant as this event was, we prominent gospel music leader cannot lose sight of Michael and co-host of the Bobby Jones McMillan’s original vision, Gospel Hour; Debbie Pyzyk, which was to honor women. a realtor with offices in eight Society can’t be reminded states; Carol Daniel, a local TV enough that African-American host; Pat Shannon-VanMatre, women carry the dual burden a St. Louis restaurant owner; of being Black and being feCheryl D. Polk, a United Way male, earning less than all official; Alderwoman Marlene males and White women.

E. Davis; Comptroller Darlene Despite passage of the Equal Green; Thelma E. Steward, a Pay Act of 1963, White females registered nurse and tireless earn 73.5 percent of what White civic volunteer; Lois D. Conley, males are paid; Black males an expert on African-American earn 72.1 percent; followed by history; Sister Mary Jean Ryan, Black women at 63.6 percent CEO of SSM Health Care and or less than a third of the pay educator Johnetta R. Haley, of White men; Latino men rethe first female president of a ceive 57.5 percent and Latino Southern Illinois University women, 51.7 percent. campus.

Black girls suffering from

poor self-images would benefit from seeing successful women like those honored in St. Lois. We all know about the ground-breaking experiment that Kenneth B. Clark and his wife, Mamie, conducted in 1939. They administered a doll test to African-American kids, ages 6-9, showing them dolls that were identical in respect except color. Most of the children picked the White doll as being nicer than the Black doll. The couple’s research was used in the landmark Brown v.

Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

In 2005, Kiri Davis repeated the doll experiment with children in Harlem. Although she used a small sample, 71 percent of the children said the White doll was nicer.

In 2009 year Barack Obama was inaugurated as president, ABC-TV decided a conduct a similar test, this time altering the question to: Which doll is pretty? In that test, 47 percent of the girls described the White doll as the pretty one.

Clearly, there is plenty of work to be done among both girls and boys. Perhaps in our various manhood training and rites of passage programs, we should add a component that focuses on respect toward females. Organizations such 100 See women on page 5

Take Racism Out of Immigration Reform

By Ron Walters NNPA Columnist (NNPA) - For my money the debate over immigration reform is far too narrow. Our civil rights leaders have followed the predictable dynamic created

by Hispanics who have justly mobilized to normalize their status in America. We should support them because the stakes of strengthening our coalition at this moment in history will bear substantial fruit as both groups become a larger part of American society, its political system and its economy. So, it is a civil rights struggle to oppose the racist law passed by the Arizona legislature to profile Hispanics and relate any illegal acts to their immigration status.

Nevertheless, it is also a civil rights struggle to use this moment to finally eliminate the racism in immigration law in general. This means that our take on immigration reform should be addressed more clearly and forcibly to creating fair opportunities for people of African descent to enter this Country along with everyone

else.

Africans is among the Over the years highest in the nation some progress has second only to Asians. been made. For exThe second generaample, the initial tion of African born quota established in immigrants in the US 1924 which allowed are now prominent in 1,100 Africans to enter American universities a year, increased to and in many areas of 1,400 by 1952. After corporate and human Ron African countries service occupations.

Walters became independent The situation of in the 1960s, immiHaitian immigrants, gration to the US increased, long a source of vexation to reaching 40,000 per year by many, was exposed again by 2000. Between l960 and 2008 the recent hurricane as blatantly African immigration to the US racist. Some Haitians who suramounted to 1.4 million, Still, vived the hurricane and made this constituted only 3.8 percent it to the US found themselves of the total foreign population locked up in detention centers of 38 million in that period. in Miami for the lack of visas.

The result of such a restric- This is consistent treatment of tive entry policy for Africans Haitians who have been rouhas been that largely those with tinely and vigorously turned economic resources have been away from US shores while eligible to apply for immigrant white Cubans have enjoyed a status. Thus, while 23 percent Cold War policy that has priviof Americans in general have leged their immigration to the college degrees, 51 percent of US. Between 1980 and 2008 African immigrants have college total Haitian immigration to degrees. This has also meant the United States was 535,000 that while the myth of the Af- but Cuban immigration during rican cabdriver persist, the real that same period was nearly one story is that the average wage of million.

The arrangement for Cuban immigrants was always based on a political fiction because Cuba has been no real threat to the United States, so the comparative treatment of Haitians and other Afro-Caribbean immigrants must be justified on the basis of a racial prohibition.

The test is that if Cubans immigrants had been black instead of white would they have been allowed to come?

Apparently, the US was paying no attention to Mexican/ Latin American immigration as Latin American immigration in that period constituted 53 percent (32 percent Mexican ) of all sources, with over 10 million undocumented people from that region in the country. Meanwhile it paid attention to Haiti, since only 76,000 immigrants were “unauthorized” from Haiti in that same period.

One of the routes to the stabilization of Haiti in the post-hurricane era would be to allow humanitarian immigration. How would it look to have satisfied the Latin AmeriSee reform, on page 5

The views expressed in the editiorial columns are not necessarily the veiws of The Weekly Press or its staff. Address all opinions and comments to: Letters to the Editior, P.O. Box 74485 Baton Rouge, La. 70874 or E-mail them to: theweeklypress@yahoo.com

Thursday, May 13, 2010 • The Weekly Press • Page 5

Lena Horne from page 2 her first to a low point, then to a fresh burst of artistry.

She had married MGM music director Lennie Hayton, a white man, in Paris in 1947 after her first overseas engagements in France and England.

An earlier marriage to Louis J. Jones had ended in divorce in 1944 after producing daughter Gail and a son, Teddy.

In the 2009 biography “Stormy Weather,” author James Gavin recounts that when Horne was asked by a lover why she’d married a white man, she replied: “To get even with him.”

Her father, her son and her husband, Hayton, all died in

business North Baton Rouge Students Embark on Science Quest with ExxonMobil

1970-71, and the grief-stricken singer secluded herself, refusing to perform or even see anyone but her closest friends. One of them, comedian Alan King, took months persuading her to return to the stage, with results that surprised her.

“I looked out and saw a family of brothers and sisters,” she said. “It was a long time, but when it came I truly began to live.”

And she discovered that time had mellowed her bitterness.

“I wouldn’t trade my life for anything,” she said, “because being black made me understand.”

More than 15 employee volunteers conducted the annual ExxonMobil Science Quest math and science festival for North Baton Rouge students on Sat., May 1 at Southern University.

This year’s event, now in its 18th year, boasted a new name and location thanks to the generosity of Southern University. Aimed at increasing students’ interest in math and science, Science Quest involved five hands-on math and science activities led by volunteers. Approximately 30 sixth - eighth grade students from Crestworth Learning Academy, Progress Elementary and Scotlandville Middle participated in these math and science competitions with prizes going to the winners. The airplane challenge determined which student-constructed paper airplane could fly the farthest, and the boat float contest involved building a boat of our aluminum foil to determine which held the most weight. Said one of the students, “We had to work together to figure out the best design for our boat. It was also really important how we put the weight in the boat.”

Women from page 4 Black Men should also host programs that honor the hundreds of females in their local community. It’s not enough for women to honor women. It’s time that men break the gender barrier and realize how all of us benefit from women being honored and respected.

George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com You can also follow him at www.twitter. com/currygeorge.

Reform from page 4 can dimension of the immigration problem on those grounds while the African dimension of it festers? Generally, I believe that there can be no “comprehensive immigration” solution that does not take into consideration people of African descent. The Obama administration should try to eliminate the racial dimension of immigration policy, but then it may be banking on not having another problem. But it is also fair to ask why there is no problem created by African American mobilization on this matter, why no mobilization by African born or Haitian born immigrants?

One source of the future expansion of the “African American” population is by natural birth rates, but another is by immigration, to miss this opportunity to elimination racist

immigration is to limit the future power of our community.

Dr. Ron Walters is a political analyst and professor emeritus from the University of Maryland College Park. His latest book (with Toni-Michelle Travis) is Democratic Destiny and the District of Columbia (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers)

ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Polyolefins engineer Ty’Lisha Moore watches with interest as students make plans to build their aluminum foil boat for the boat float contest.

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Weekly Press • Thursday, May 13, 2010

“Thinking of Others”

By Ida London One morning while rushing out to get the bus to go to work, I looked to my right and there were an elderly lady standing nervously with a metal cane.

I stopped a moment and asked, “How are you doing?”

In a child like trembling voice, she said, “I’m doing fine,” with a wide smile and glarey eyes.

As I began to walk away and cross the railroad track, I hesitated, I wondered, “Why was she out here a 6:30 in the morning by herself?

She began to make small baby steps with the support of her cane.

I tried to look for the bus and take notice of her at the same time. The bus turned the corner, I ran across while keeping my attention on the lady. I continued praying that God would give her strength as she crossed the track.

The moment I turned my head, she fell in the jagged rocks near the the railroad track. At that moment I didn’t care if I was late for work, another bus would arrive later. There were no way I was going to leave her.

She was as small as a child, but she was heavy. She tried to help me lift her up with the little strength she had, but she was too weak.

When the driver stopped the bus at the light, he saw me trying to pick up something. He said he thought I was trying to pick up some heavy bags, but to his surprise, I was trying to pick this lady from off the rail-

Religion

road track.

He asked who was she, I shrugged my shoulders. I said I don’t have a clue to who she is.

While getting her up, she still had that unusual smile on her face, she showed no signs of being in pain from the fall.

I insisted that we call the police to help her get home. She was strongly against calling the police. She continued to repeat, “I need to see my daughter-inlaw in the hospital.”

When asking her where she lived, she was totally confused. She said, “I live right there, down the street,” but the direction where she told us was miles away from where she was.

She appeared to be suffering from Alzheimer.

The bus driver called the police anyway. Before the ambulance or police showed up, we check to see had she broken any bones or cuts. She was fine.

She only had a scratch on her elbow.

Another amazing thing happened, as soon as the driver helped me get her across the street. His brother drove up.

He was going to leave her with him to attend her until help came, but as soon as she braced herself against the track to keep from falling, the fireman showed up.

We gave them of what little information we could about her.

The driver and I got on the bus and resumed his route and he still arrived at the bus terminal on schedule.

While sitting at the termiSee others, on page 7

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love.

By Donald Lee The New Living Translation of the Bible reads like this in Proverbs, chapter five (verses 1-23): My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen carefully to my wise counsel. Then you will learn to be discreet and will store up knowledge.

The lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But the result is as bitter as poison, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. For she does not care about the path to life.

She staggers down a crooked trail and doesn’t even realize where it leads. So now, my sons, listen to me. Never stray from what I am about to say: Run from her! Don’t go near the door of her house! If you do, you will lose your honor and hand over to merciless people everything you have achieved in life. Strangers will obtain your wealth, and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labor.

Afterward you will groan in anguish when disease consumes your body, and you will say, ‘How I hated discipline! If only I had not demanded my own way! Oh, why didn’t I listen to my teachers? Why didn’t I pay attention to those who gave me instruction? I have come to the brink of utter ruin, and now I must face public disgrace.”

Drink water from your own well --- share your love only with your wife. Why spill the water of your springs in public, having sex with just anyone? You should reserve it for yourselves.

Don’t share it with strangers.

Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a loving doe, a graceful deer. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her

Wisdom for Men

the car with the wife Why be captiand not worry about vated, my son, with an sweatin’ bullets when immoral woman, or emthe cell phone rings brace the breasts of an (and it’s the “immoral adulterous woman? For woman” on the other the LORD sees clearly end of the line)? Can’t what a man does, exwe agree that it feels amining every path he good to know that takes. An evil man is you don’t have to Donald held captive by his own argue over why you Lee sins; they are ropes that refuse to answer that catch and hold him. He annoying, ringing will die for lack of self-control; cell phone? Of course we can he will be lost because of his agree. incredible folly.

Can we agree that it’s much Today, ladies, I’ve got a better to have sex, or engage in word specifically for the broth- physical intimacy, with the wife ers. But don’t kid yourself into than it is to be that intimate with thinking this very same scripture any other woman? I mean, think reference can not apply to you about it. Is (illicit) sexual pleaand how you conduct yourself sure really worth the heartache in your own marriage. And if and headache that it causes all you’re not married, I highly parties involved --- you, your recommend you ask the Holy wife, the other woman, the Spirit to give you revelation on unborn child, the children you how this column applies even already have with your wife? to you. Trust me when I tell you Everyone is affected, and to a there’s enough Word in Prov- great degree, everyone is hurt. erbs chapter five to last us all Now, the issue surfaces rean eternity. garding child support payments Brothers: As you read this --- money that should be spent column, cross-reference what on family matters instead of an I’ve written with what is writ- obligation because of an outside ten in your Bible. And then affair, or adultery. And the truth cross-reference that with what be told, one must remember that the Lord already has written in the devil, himself, has staked your heart. What you will find, out many a man, becoming if you’re honest with yourself, is aware of certain weaknesses, that everything you ever need especially where it relates to the in a woman is in the very one lust issue (Judges 16:1,4; Judges you’re married to.

16:5,6,15-21).

Here’s what I’m saying.

In other words, the enemy, Can’t we, for starters, at least Satan, will not send anything agree that there’s an enormous your way that won’t at least degree of comfort ---- total cause you to pause and consider comfort, actually --- in know- it. If you’re a man, and you’re not ing that you don’t need a con- into other men, the devil won’t dom to protect yourself from waste his time sending a man a sexually transmitted disease, your way to consider having an because you’re with your wife affair with. On the other hand, if and you’re being intimate within another woman can at least get the God-ordained parameters your attention, the enemy will of holy matrimony? see to it that you’re presented Can’t we agree that it with the opportunity to taste her feels good to be able to ride in lips, tailor-made to be as sweet

as honey, with a mouth tailormade to be “smoother than oil” to you.

To break it down further, this woman will tell you everything you wanna hear (James 1:13-15). It all sounds sweet and captivating, but it’s all part of a demonic plan to ensnare you and lure you away from God’s purpose and plan for your life.

(Quick message to the wives: whatever reasonable request your husband makes that you decline is the one the “immoral woman” offers to fulfill. Believe that.)

What these scriptures are saying to the brothers is, before you let your mind drift away to fantasy island, remember the wisdom that is being shared with you now. A woman who doesn’t have your best interest at heart will ultimately help you wreck your marriage and possibly end your life after demolishing your once good name.

Pastor Donald Lee is founder of the multi-ethnic, Word-based Kingdom Living Christian Center (KLCC) in Dallas, Texas. For more information about Pastor Lee’s ministry, he may be contacted at (225) 7732248 or pastordonjlee@yahoo. com. Brothers, whenever you’re in the Dallas area, please make it a point to come and worship with us at KLCC is from 10 a.m. to noon every Sunday in the Residence Center at Aborstone Apartments, 6500 S. Cockrell Hill Road, Dallas, TX 75236. Intercessory prayer service is from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays. And to join Pastor Lee for global intercessory prayer at 4 a.m., seven days a week, please call toll-free (712) 432-3100. Once you’re on the line, the conference code to chime in to prayer is 340101. Financial donations may be sent to Kingdom Living Christian Center at P.O. Box 211186, Dallas, TX 75211-4303.

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burdens to him.

ChildRen from page 4 Oering il allSchildren. pill from page 2

the citizens of the nation must the CDF Action Council, build- demand that our leaders free our “BP administrapremature to ing on theand bestthe practices in states catastrophic. children from It theisfalse ideological tion must understand is catastrophic,” and lessons learned aboutwhat’s children say andthis political tugs of war Coast among atfalling stakethrough for our the wetlands, our Guard Admiral Mary Landry bureaucratic those who put excess profits ahead commercial fishingand industry the Christian cracks of Medicaid SChiP, told of children’s lives.Science Moniand our economy,” he added.

Wednesday.

“I will say this strongly urged Congress to enact tor how well did Congress protect “There no overestimating the ischildren very serious.” the Allishealthy Children Act, in 2007? Not well enough: devastation this1688, spill could have in boats were paS. 1564/h.r. introduced 276Crews Members of Congress had ifby it is allowed to penetrate our trolling coastal marshes representative Bobby Scott good CDF Action Councilearly Con(D-VA) in the house and Senator gressional Scorecard scores of 80 already-fragile wetlands, starv- Friday looking for areas where Bernie Sanders inlife theand Sen- the percent or higher, those ing oxygen from(i-Vt) aquatic oil has flowedand in,198 theof Coast ate. the measure provide Guard had stellar killing more coast. would The potential said.scores of 100 percent. comprehensiveare benefits But 231 scoredWeather 60 percent consequences trulyincluding scary.

Themembers National dental andyears mental health, simpli- Service or lower—a failing grade from our “Five ago, the federal predicted winds, high fied bureaucracy, andusa during national tides school days. government failed and waves through May eligibility plan for families Whether Congress Hurricane Katrina.

I will up notto 2 that couldMembers push oilof deep into 300 percent poverty the arealready liberal, fragile conservative modstand by andof letthe thefederal government inlets,or ponds level. thank the 62 house co- and erate; Democrat, fail us We again.” lakes along therepublican coast south-or sponsors forone theirofficial support. how- east independent, all of At least warned Louisiana.children Wavesneed reaching ever, wegloomy regret that neither aofsingle them to vote,feet lobby, speak for and against forecasts the six to seven were pushing house nor any other tides protect them. Adults need tonorlisten oil spill’srepublican long-term implications several feet above Senator joined them to push for carefully to what candidates say for the Gulf Coast. mal toward Louisiana’s coast, coverage children.ahead compounded they will do forby children and fami“Youfor areallgetting the continued the CDF Action Council strongly lies and, they are in office, of yourself a little when you threat of once thunderstorms over supports long overdue health covwe need to hold try to speculate and say this is the weekend. them accountable. erage for everyone in America as Please thank your Members of Consoon as possible—because children gress with scores of 80 percent or cannot wait. As SChiP comes up above and let those with scores of thers from page in6 early 60 percent or below know you are again for reauthorization 2009, we hope every Member of dissatisfied with their performance.

Congress on covering And please convey that same mesnal waitingwill oninsist the other bus to about helping people in genevery child and pregnant mother sage toThe eachworld presidential arrive, that incident was like an eral. doescandidate. not renow byreplay enacting and adequately We must demandus. thatGod our leaders instant going through volves around bless funding the provisions of the All commit to children as a my mind, then I thought to us so that we can be condition of help healthythe Children our vote. myself, driverAct. could have toofothers.

Specious thatme, we but could ignored the claims lady and I When we become partial, not find thethat money—$70 Wright Edelman is Presithank God he didn’t.billion weMarian become selfish.

Whatever overWhen five years—to cover all dent of the Children’s Defense I got to work, I we do to others, we doFund to children is belied by that amount and its Action Council whose Leave wasn’t really late, because man- Christ, Himself. spent in eleven months cuts No Child mission is to agement was not therefortotax open For I Behind® was an hungered, for the top one percent of richest ensure every child a Healthy Start, the store, so everyone clock in and ye gave me no meat, I Americans and in seven months a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe late at the same time. was thirsty, and ye gave me for the iraq War. We do not have Start and a Moral Start in life and I envisioned that elderly no drink. a money problem in America: We successful passage to adulthood lady that whole day. I though I was a stranger, and ye have a priorities and political will with the help of caring families about the strange appearance, took me not in, naked, and deficit. it is time for all adults to and communities. the smile and the glare in her ye clothes me not, sick, and protect the health of our children. eyes. I was still trying to figure in prison, and ye visited me how did she get at the street? not.

Shealk was someone’s mother.

Then shall they also anadio from page 4 How could they let her won- swer him, saying. “Verily, I der about? As the commercial say unto you, “In as much as all funny or remotely appropri- we forget o’reilly’s less-thansays about the toosie roll pop; ye did it not to one of the least ate about the use of a lynching informed comments regarding a How many licks do you have to these, ye did it not to me. reference about Michelle obama,’’ dinner he shared last year with to get to the center of the tossie (Matthews 25:42-45 KJV). he said. ‘’it’s - i’m speechless.’’ Sharpton at Sylvia’s in harlem? rollAs pop, the world never Keep this insurprise mind, over “If President Bushmay pointed out o’reilly expressed know.

I will never know what you hurt or neglect others, so eloquently during the Black how similarSylvia’s was to other happened to her. you thinkYork they are history Month event, the noose because restaurants in New restauAs days went by, it not good enough, don’t mearepresents ‘’more than a tool of rants. seemed asa if I of had awaken sure up to wasn’t you, because theyin murder but tool intimidation’’ ‘’there one person up from a dream, still trying don’t posses what possess to generations of African-AmeriSylvia’s who wasyou screaming, tocans. make sense of what youi want possess and in tea,’’’ you Nooses not only robbedhapsome what ‘M-Fer, more iced pened. mind, you think of them of of their lives but many of their he said.

Well, in all essence, when being nothing, take a minute peace of mind.

As the Washington Post’s robit comes helping people, it’s toinson think about whatonyou are ‘’As atocivil society, we must sadly observed MSNBC not about who we know, it’s doing to Jesus. understand that noose displays in February, ‘’All you can go by and lynching jokes are deeply is his words and his actions. And offensive. they are wrong. And he keeps saying these things that they have no place in America sound pretty darn racist to me.’’ today,’’ he said. has talk radio learned anything Neither o’reilly nor ingraham from imus’ decline and fall? of has been reprimanded by their re- course not, because it didn’t take spective employers even though imus too terribly long to get a the Fox News personality did offer new gig. a half-hearted apology. our nation’s media outlets At least ingraham didn’t drop should not provide a platform for the l-word but her suggestion that racialhostility and hateful speech Sharpton, a former presidential now or in the future. What kind of candidate and respected member of messageare we sending to our chilthe African-American community dren, our nation and our world? and beyond, is a petty thief reeks in such an historic election year, of race-baiting and negative ste- we cannot stand aside and allow reotyping of African-Americans individuals to use the airwaves and black men in particular. as an outlet for insensitive and But it’s hardly the first time ei- misguidedcommentary. if you ther has ventured into questionable hear something that offends you, and offensive territory. how can speak up.

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The Weekly Press

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strengthen their cognitive health.

“What’s good for your heart is good for your brain,” says Jennifer Manly, Ph.D., Alzheimer’s Association spokesperson. “every healthy heartbeat pumps about one-fifth of your blood to your brain to carry on the daily processes of thinking, problem solving and remembering.”

“By the year 2030, the number of African Americans age 65 or older is expected to more than double to 6.9 million,” said emil Matarese, M.D., American heart Association spokesperson. “Although Alzheimer’s is not part of normal aging, age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. So it is important that African Americans take steps now to decrease their risk of heart disease, which research has shown could also decrease the risk of cognitive decline.”

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Manage Your Risks

• Watch numbers. remember Thursday, May 13, 2010 • Thethe Weekly Press • Page 7 that desirable blood pressure is less than 120/80 mmhg. Keep your body weight in the recommended range and make sure that the total cholesterol is less than 200mg/dL. • healthy lifestyle choices include staying mentally and physically active, staying socially involved, reducing your intake of fat and cholesterol and not smoking.

Visit www.alz.org/heartbrain or call the American Stroke Association, a division of the American heart Association, at (888) 478-7653 or the Alzheimer’s Association at (800) 272-3900 and you’ll receive a brochure with heart and brain health information and a free pedometer, while supplies last.

HEALTH Earl K. Long Medical Center Receives Award for Quality Improvement Research shows a link between heart and brain health, which means impaired heart function could lead to impaired brain function.

BATON ROUGE – Earl K. Long Medical Center received the Silver Level 2009 Louisiana Hospital Quality Award from eQHealth Solutions for improving(NAPSi)-here’s the quality ofanhealthcare alert worth ness of diabetes, particularly when increased physical activity can help able in english and Spanish by callgiven EKLMCto:patients. payingtoattention According to it is left undiagnosed and untreated. delay or prevent the onset of type 2 ing the ADA at 1-800-DiABeteS The award indicates that the day is held on the fourth tuesday diabetes. the American Diabetes Association (1-800-342-2383) or online at www.

EKLMC achieved significant (ADA), learning your risk for type 2 of every March.

Among the primary risk factors diabetes.org/alert. clinical improvement diabetesquality could save your life. in on that day, people are encour- for type 2 diabetes are being overthough the Alert is a one-day allDiabetes but two isclinical topics applia serious disease that aged to take the Diabetes risk test, weight, sedentary, over the age of call to action, awareness about type cable its inpatient population. strikesfornearly 21 million children either with paper and pencil or online. 45 and having a family history of 2 diabetes is important anytime of the EKLMC is one of only hos- the risk test requires users to answer diabetes. African Americans, Latinos, year, so free Diabetes risk tests are and adults in the U.S. it is17named pitals in the statebecause to receive this seven simple questions about age, Native Americans, Asians and Pacific available online and by calling ADA the “silent killer” one-third honor.

Solutions is the6 weight, lifestyle and family history-- islanders are at an increased risk, as all year long. of thoseeQHealth with the disease--more than Medicare Improvement million--doQuality not know they have it. all potential risk factors for diabetes. are women who have babies weighing A free Diabetes risk test is availOrganization for Louisiana For many, diagnosis may come People scoring 10 points or more are more than 9 pounds at birth. able all year long to determine the risk Hospital Quality Award sevenThe to 10 years after the onset of at a high risk for type 2 diabetes and the Diabetes risk test is avail- for developing type 2 diabetes. honors Louisiana hospitals that type 2 diabetes. early diagnosis is are encouraged to talk with a health successfully implement qualcritical for successful treatment and care professional. ity directed toward caninitiatives delay or prevent some of the An estimated 54 million Ameriimproving carediseases, in the cans have pre-diabetes. those with complicationspatient such as heart hospital The award blindness,setting. kidney disease, strokerecand pre-diabetes have blood glucose levognizes those facilities that are els higher than normal but not high amputation. that’s one reasonin theimproving ADA holds The enough to bereceived diagnosed with type actively engaged following the Silver Level 2009 Louisiana Hospital Quality Award on behalf of Earl K. Long Medical Cente : the American Diabetesareas: Alert®acute Day, Faye 2 diabetes. care in the following Jones, RN House Manager, Nursing Administration; Corlis Lewis, Program Manager, Quality Management; Athena a one-day wake-up call to(heart inform atthe Porch, early via lifestyle myocardial infarction RN,intervention Quality Management; and Calantha Kemp, Administrative Program Specialist A, Quality Management.

American public aboutpneumonia the serious- Lauren changes such as weight lossImprovement and tack), heart failure, Haygood, RN, is Quality Specialist with eQHealth Solutions. and surgical care.

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Page 8 • The

Weekly Press • Thursday, May 13, 2010

National news

Louisiana National Guard’s Tiger Brigade Holds Combat Patch Ceremony

Louisiana National Guard Troops with the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, conduct their former wartime service shoulder sleeve insignia ceremony at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq. Tiger Brigade Commander Col. Jonathan T. Ball and Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth R. Wagner, both from Pineville, La., walked through the 256 IBCT Soldier formations applying the 256th fleur-de-lis brigade insignia. Ball and Wagner “patched” Troops Cpt. Daniel H. Fritts, Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander, from Prairieville, La. and 1st Sgt. Matthew W. Drees from Pensacola Beach, Fla., by slapping it onto their right shoulders.

Louisiana National Guard Troops with the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team conduct their former wartime service shoulder sleeve insignia ceremony at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq. Tiger Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Company’s 1st Sgt. Matthew W. Drees from Pensacola Beach, Fla., walked through the 256 IBCT Soldier formations to “patch” Troops. Drees applied the fleur-de-lis brigade insignia onto one Soldier by slapping it onto the right shoulder of Master Sgt. Errol M. Williams, noncommissioned officer in charge of logistics from New Orleans.

Louisiana National Guard Troops with the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team conduct their former wartime service shoulder sleeve insignia ceremony at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq. Tiger Brigade Commander Col. Jonathan T. Ball and Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth R. Wagner, both from Pineville, La., walked through the 256 IBCT Soldier formations applying the fleur-de-lis brigade insignia by “patching” their Troops. Spc. Thomas E. Guy, from Lafayette, La., with A Company, 2nd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment and Spc. Timothy M. Foret from New Orleans, with A Company, 1-141st Field Artillery receive their patches from Ball and Wagner.

Louisiana National Guard Troops with the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team conducted their former wartime service shoulder sleeve insignia ceremony, mat Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq. Tiger Brigade Commander Col. Jonathan T. Ball and Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth R. Wagner, both from Pineville, La., walked through the 256th IBCT Soldier formations applying the fleur-de-lis brigade insignia by “patching” the right shoulders of Troops. Staff Sgt. Paul R. Trucinski from Richmond, Texas, gets “patched” by Wagner. Trucinski is part of the Tiger Brigade’s private security detail.

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By Spc. Amy Barber 256th Infantry Brigade Unit Public Affairs Representative CAMP LIBERTY, Baghdad - Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 256th Infantry Brigade Combat conducted its former wartime service shoulder sleeve insignia ceremony at Camp Liberty, Iraq, on May 3.

Also known as the combat patch ceremony, it symbolizes a rite of

passage, capturing a Soldier’s connection with a particular unit during wartime. “Wearing the 256th patch has always meant a great deal to me,” said HHC Commander Capt. Daniel H. Fritts, of Prairieville, La. “I proudly wear it as my combat patch and it pleases me that I am a piece of the great history of this brigade.”

According to 256th Brigade Historian Maj. Thomas Mehl of Big Rapids, Mich., the wear of distinctive unit insignia in the U.S. Army dates back to the Civil War. “The first known use of a distinguishing unit insignia in the U.S. Army was in the Civil War during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862,” Mehl explained.

“Union Army General, Philip Kearny, adopted a red diamond to be worn on the kepi hat of Soldiers in his command for identification.” “What grew from this were the corps badges, which by the end of the war, every corps had their own distinctive unit insignia,” he continued. The corps badges became standard during the Spanish-American

War of 1898. During World War I, the shoulder sleeve insignia, still in use today, was adopted.

“The 81st Division adopted the Wildcat patch, which the unit wore in France during their service in World War I,” the 22year Veteran said. “Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing determined that, although there were some leaders who frowned upon the distinguishing insignia, that it created unit cohesion and esprit de corps among the fighting divisions. He then ordered that each division create their own unit-specific patch.” More than a century later, while deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Tiger Brigade Commander Col. Jonathan T. Ball and Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth R. Wagner, both residents of Pineville, La., continued this ritual by walking through the 256 IBCT Soldier formations applying the fleur-de-lis Brigade insignia onto their Troops’ right shoulders. “I consider it a privilege to participate in this time-honored tradition and to see the smiles on the faces of both our combat Veterans and ‘first-timers’ alike,” stated

Ball. “Earning a combat patch is a milestone in any Soldier’s career and it validates the many years of training and hard work our Soldiers go through.”

Today, deployed Soldiers of all Army components may permanently wear former wartime service shoulder sleeve insignias of the unit with which they deployed.

“The SSI for former wartime service we can trace to an incident at the end of WWII when some Soldiers of the highly-decorated 3rd Infantry Division were transferred to another division,” explained Mehl. “The 3rd ID, which was the only U.S. Army division to fight the Germans in 10 campaigns, was told to remove their famous ‘Rock of the Marne’ patch from their left shoulder.

Needless to say, in the effort to maintain their history, the Soldiers were allowed to rotate the patch to the right shoulder and wear the current unit of assignment on the left.” For additional news releases and photos from Louisiana’s Tiger Brigade, visit http://www.dvidshub.net/ units/256BCT-LAANG

Fourth New Orleans Police Officer Pleads Guilty in Shooting Cover-up Special to the NNPA from the Louisiana Weekly (NNPA) - A fourth former New Orleans police officer has pleaded guilty to helping cover up deadly police shootings of unarmed residents after Hurricane Katrina. Robert Barrios faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Police shot and killed two people and wounded four others on the Danziger Bridge less than a week after the August 2005 storm.

The 29-year-old Barrios was accused of conspiring with other officers to give false accounts of the shootings to detectives.

Three former officers already have pleaded guilty to a cover-up that included a planted gun and phony witnesses.

Marion David Ryder, a civilian, also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the shootings.

Ryder, 45, of Opelousas faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and $500,000 fine after pleading guilty Wednesday to making false statements and a federal firearms charge.

His sentencing is set for August 4.

As prosecutors secured a guilty plea from Barrios Wednesday, a second member of the Danziger 7, the attorney for a third

Danziger officer told a local news station that he has had extensive plea negotiations with federal authorities on behalf of this client, NOPD officer Ignatius Hills.

In addition to the officers involved in the shooting itself, two former NOPD lieutenants - Michael Lohman and Jeffrey Lehrmann “ previously confessed to the participating in the coverup, agreeing to plead guilty in exchange for their cooperation against their fellow officers.

Attorney Robert Jenkins said he has had hours of discussions with federal prosecutors about his client’s role in the case.

“We’re not there yet,” Jenkins told WWL-TV, declining to provide details about the negotiations.

Jenkins took on the case after Hills fired his previous attorney, Bruce Whittaker. Plea negotiations began almost immediately afterward, Jenkins told WWLTV. “From the pattern you’ve seen, the government is focusing on individuals who obstructed justice - that is covered up what happened. They’re moving in closer and closer to the shooters,” former U.S. Attorney Harry Rosenberg told FOX8 News.

In other NOPD-related news, a former high-ranking New Orleans police officer and two top officers from other law

enforcement agencies have made the short list to replace NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley.

A search committee appointed by Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu narrowed the list of candidates to three men: Ronald Davis, police chief of East Palo Alto, Calif.; John Harrington, who is retiring as chief of police in St. Paul, Minn.; and Ronald Serpas, the former New Orleans officer who now heads the Nashville Police Department.

Members of the search committee quizzed six semifinalists over several hours April 27. The committee then whittled the list to three and recommended them to Landrieu, who takes office Monday.

Landrieu interviewed the finalists and will name the next superintendent, though he has said if he’s unsatisfied, he’ll reopen the search.

Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu hit a sour note last week when he used a back door to avoid media questions about his selection for police chief.

Landrieu, whose selection of a new police chief may be the most important decision he makes as mayor, reportedly left a Wednesday afternoon press conference and sped away before reporters could ask him anything about his decision regarding the city’s next police chief.