Florida Courier - September 20, 2013

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SEPTEMBER 20 - SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

VOLUME 21 NO. 38

THROUGH THE CRACKS

Despite arrests and evidence of mental illness, a Navy veteran had ready access to a secured military facility that allowed him to randomly kill 12 people.

fits while working with a Florida-based Navy contractor.

COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON – A gunman who had been discharged by the Navy in 2011 after what an official described as a “pattern of misconduct” staged a two-hour rampage Monday at the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people and injuring eight before being shot to death by law enforcement officials.

Officials identified the man as Aaron Alexis, 34, a Aaron Navy veteran who had reAlexis cently moved to three different hotels one night to escape voices and “some sort of microwave machine” that kept him from falling asleep. Alexis collected $395 per month in disabled vet’s bene-

Provoking terror Alexis’s arrival on the base shortly before 8:15 a.m. Monday morning set off hours of terror and mayhem.

More than 3,000 workers were locked down in their offices while police officers, Navy security guards and FBI agents fought a running gun battle with the shooter, who was armed with a shotgun with the phrases “Better off this way” and “my ELF weapon” carved into it. It was hidden in his car, which was not subject to search because of his security clearance.

Alexis used the shotgun and a handgun OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT; FORT WORTH POLICE DEPARTMENT taken from a security guard to shoot his VIA FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM/MCT way through two floors of the headquarters Law enforcement personnel responded to an attack on office workers at the WashSee ALEXIS, Page A2

ington Navy Yard Monday morning in which Aaron Alexis shot 12 people to death.

Crushed to death

BETHUNE-COOKMAN VS. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL

Church deacon dies in construction mishap

BY THE FLORIDA COURIER STAFF

Clayton Bailey, a native of Jamaica who emigrated here, became an American citizen, and started a new life, died Monday after being allegedly crushed by construction materials as he worked on an infrastructure project in MiamiDade County. He was 38.

Bailey was employed by Ric-Man Construction Florida, Inc., a heavy construction company located in Deerfield Beach, where he had worked as a pipelayer for almost nine years. According to the company website, Ric-Man “excels in heavy underground and tunnel construction and delivers nothing but quality and expertise.”

Ric-Man is affiliated with Mancini Companies, which was originally founded in 1965 in Michigan and specializes in industrial, commercial and residential development in Michigan and Florida. The company has been working in Florida since 1981.

Probes underway KIM GIBSON / FLORIDA COURIER

On the run

Bethune-Cookman University quarterback Quentin Williams kicks up dirt while being chased by the Florida International University defense. A sizeable B-CU crowd followed the Wildcats to Miami to see them beat FIU 34-13 last week and remain undefeated.

Bailey’s death set off a number of investigations that are still running their course, thus leaving his grieving family in the dark as to the exact circumstances of his death.

Since the fatal event occurred in Miami-Dade, the county’s medical examiner’s office is involved, as is the MiamiDade Police Department’s homicide division.

The Fort Lauderdale office of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has also launched See DEACON, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Florida at bottom in providing health care for poor

BY NOAM N. LEVEY TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU (MCT)

Making a case for medical marijuana NATION | A6

FINEST | B5

Advocates quietly challenging voter ID law

Meet Monique

FOOD | B4

Culinary delights families can create

ALSO INSIDE

Access to affordable, quality health care for poor Americans varies dramatically among the states, according to a new study that found a wide disparity in measures of health between states with the best health care systems and those with the worst – such as Florida.

The disparities highlighted by the report – titled “Healthcare in the Two Americas” – were supposed to shrink under President Obama’s healthcare law, which was designed to guarantee health care access for all Americans no matter where they live.

But many states with Repub-

lican leaders like Florida Gov. Rick Scott are fighting the law, and nearly half have declined federal aid to expand insurance coverage to their poorest residents through the government Medicaid program. GOP officials in these states say the law is too costly and imposes too many federal regulations.

Texas is worst In Texas, for example, 55 percent of working-age adults who make less than twice the federal poverty level lack health insurance, the highest rate in the nation. Texas Gov. Rick Perry SANDY HUFFAKER/KRT/MCT is a leading critic of the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Richard Butcher checks the blood pressure of patient The uninsured rate for low- Robert Farrell at the Care View Medical Group in San See CARE, Page A2

Diego, Calif.

COMMENTARY: LUCIUS GANTT: COPS IGNORE THE BAD DEEDS OF THEIR COWORKERS | A4 COMMENTARY: BEN JEALOUS: HISTORY CAN MOVE IN TWO DIRECTIONS AT ONCE | A5

FOCUS

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SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Black freedom and the gun control debate As almost every other issue in the U.S., the racial dimensions of gun control cannot be dismissed.

A slave-holding society fought to prevent enslaved Africans access to weapons to resist and increase potential for insurrection. After emancipation, Blacks sought arms not only to hunt, but also to protect themselves from White supremacist terror. Gun ownership was associated with citizenship and liberty and as a means to protect those principles.

The segregationists continued slave-holding society’s practice of attempting to disarm Blacks.

Ultimately, Blacks utilized armed self-defense to protect activist leadership and their communities from White terrorist violence.

Survival, defense It was a rite of passage for rural Black families taught children to use arms as a means of survival; for food and for protection.

Black female youth were trained to shoot for defense from White rapists.

I have the utmost respect for Congressman John Lewis due to the sacrifice he made during the civil rights movement in the Deep South. In responding to those opposing President Obama’s gun control proposals, Congressman Lewis offers that he and his colleagues in the civil rights movement “…believed

DEACON

No details Ric-Man’s Deerfield Beach office manager, Rusty Ewing, refused to give a Florida Courier reporter any details about Bailey’s death. Ewing would only confirm that a fatal accident occurred.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to the Bailey family at this time,” he said. “Information is still being gathered. The company is fully cooperating with law enforcement and OSHA investigators.”

Meanwhile, Bailey’s wife of more than eight years, Patdrica, is still in shock. The couple has five children; two each from previous relationships

building of the Naval Sea Systems Command before being shot dead by police.

The dead ranged in age from 46 to 73. All were civilian Navy employees or contractors.

Years of problems Alexis, a New York City native who had recently moved to Washington from Fort Worth, Texas, had a record that included at least two arrests in the last decade involving firearms.

One of the previous incidents occurred in 2010 in Fort Worth, when Alexis shot through the ceiling of his apartment. Tarrant County prosecutors said Monday they had not prosecuted the case after Alexis told them the gun had discharged accidentally while he was cleaning it.

In the other case, Seattle police arrested Alexis in 2004 after he purportedly shot out the tires of another man’s vehicle in what he later described to detectives as an anger-fueled “blackout.” Detectives spoke with Alexis’ father, who, according to the police department blog, told police Alexis had “anger management problems.”

the only way to achieve peaceful ends was through peaceful means. We took a stand against an unjust system, and we decided to use this faith as our shield and the power of compassion as our defense.”

Nonviolent mythology The notion that the civil rights movement was exclusively nonviolent is a popular mythology.

In dozens of Southern communities, Black people picked up arms to defend themselves. In particular, Black people relied on armed self-defense in communities where federal government officials failed to safeguard Movement activists and supporters from the violence of racists and segregationists, who were often supported by local law enforcement.

Congressman Lewis’s statement is true for a small number of committed activists who engaged in civil disobedience and voter registration in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. These activists were often protected by grassroots Black people armed with shotguns and rifles. Some members of Lewis’s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

‘Unstable elements’ armed The access to automatic weapons and assault rifles paralleled the crisis in Black communities.

Increased access of weapons to the most criminalized and unstable elements of the Black community only accelerated the crisis. Unlike generations of youth who were trained by their elders to protect their families and communities from emancipation through the civil rights and Black Power eras, large numbers of Black youth were supplied weapons in the underground economy.

As a youth growing up in

Self-defense The growth of White supremacist and right-wing paramilitary formations and militias since the 2008 election of Barack Obama and the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin have done nothing to decrease the fear of White violence in the Black community. Several elements of the Black community recite the lyric of the late popu-

In an exclusive interview with the Florida Courier, she spoke about how her life and the lives of her husband’s family and friends changed forever in the course of a few hours.

“There was nothing unusual on Monday morning,” she explained. “He took out the garbage and left to go. I left to drop off my daughter at school.

Then I had jury duty from 8 a.m. about 1:15 p.m.”

According to her, it was her husband’s first day on the Miami-Dade jobsite.

“He had gotten a call from another Ric-Man employee who wanted him to work at the Miami-Dade jobsite. He said no,” she said. “Then later he got a call from Brian Baribeault, a Ric-Man foreman, that he should report to Miami-Dade on Monday morning.

“He did. And I never saw him alive again.”

Patdrica Bailey is a secretary at McNicol Middle School in Broward County. She explained that Clayton usually picked up Trinity after school. She texted him Monday afternoon, with no response; she made other arrangements for Trinity.

She went on to attend leadership classes after work when, at about 8 p.m., her niece and her stepdaughter told her that

A Navy official said that Alexis, who had served for four years as an aviation electrician’s mate, had multiple disciplinary infractions before his discharge in January 2011.

But the incidents were not serious enough to prevent him from getting a job as an information technology worker on a Navy contract that involved equipment used by the Marine Corps Intranet network.

‘Not full disclosure’ The head of the company that Alexis worked for as a government contractor told The Washington Post he wouldn’t have hired Alexis if he had known about these issues.

He said many contracting firms rely on the military to approve the security clearances of their employees, and he wishes the military had shared more about Alexis’ history.

“None of this was made aware to us or to the company,” Thomas Hoshko, chief executive officer of South Florida-based The Experts, told The Post. “If there’s not full disclosure on this, how do they expect us to make good decisions about who to trust and hire?”

The company did two background checks and checked his security clearance twice, most recent-

lar artist Gil Scott-Heron: “When other folks give up theirs, I’ll give up mine.”

Gun control for Black activists must be an issue of self-determination, self-reliance and selfdefense. Black people will never disarm in a political and social environment where Black life is still challenged and not valued.

The Black community must advocate for policies that take weapons out of the hands of unstable elements (e.g., checks for mental illness), but be vigilant to make sure these policies do are not utilized in a manner to weaken the capacity of our community to defend itself from White supremacists. At the same time, more solidarity and grassroots organization of Black communities is needed to gain control and socialization of unstable elements of our community.

Cooperative economic projects provide alternatives to those trapped in the drug economy.

The fight for the decriminalization of drugs and quality and culturally relevant education for our youth is another pillar in the fight to bring back community integrity and solidarity and a safer community.

Akinyele Umoja is an associate professor and chair of the Department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

CARE

A typical day

its own investigation to determine whether Ric-Man Construction complied with all federal rules and regulations on the construction site.

As of the Florida Courier’s press time late Wednesday night, none of the investigative reports had been completed.

The OSHA investigation may take up to six months, since a fatality is involved.

Meanwhile, Bailey’s family continues to wonder exactly what happened. Ric-Man Construction has little to say.

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GUEST COMMENTARY

Compton, Calif. in the early 1970s, I heard a plethora of rumors of elements external to the Black community providing caches of military weapons that contributed to the fratricidal war between the Crips and the Bloods in Compton, Watts, and South Central LA. While this sounds like a wild conspiracy theory, it has been well documented that the FBI and local police agencies utilized “divide and conquer” tactics to incite fratricidal conflict between the Black Panther Party and the Us Organization in the same streets that the Crips and Bloods would inhabit a few years later.

The dilemma of the criminal use of guns still poses a challenge in several urban and rural places today. This situation has motivated support for gun control in our communities. Other politically and socially conscious elements challenge the gun control position based on the history of White supremacy in the US and the desire of racists to disarm Black communities.

and a six-year-old daughter, Trinity, that they had together.

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ALEXIS

AKINYELE UMOJA

picked up weapons and worked with community people to defend their lives against White terrorists.

The post-civil rights and Black Power era brought a new dimension of this issue for Black communities. A crisis in Black families resulted from welfare policy, increased individualism, and the decline of the manufacturing economy that employed significant numbers of Black males.

The federal, state, and local COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) assault on activist Black leaders, organizations, and institutions weakened solidarity and Black political consciousness in the 1970s. Black communities experienced a growth in gang activity and an influx of drugs in this period.

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understand what happened.”

income adults also tops 40 percent in Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia and Wyoming.

These states have refused to expand their Medicaid programs to cover more poor residents under the health care law.

By contrast, seven of the eight states where the uninsured rate for low-income adults is 30 percent or lower are implementing the new health law with expanded Medicaid programs.

These states include Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Vermont. Of them, only Maine, which has a Republican governor, is not opening its Medicaid program to all of its poorest citizens.

In Jamaican military

Poor are healthier

COURTESY OF THE BAILEY FAMILY

Deacon Clayton Bailey, center, poses for a church portrait with wife Patdrica and daughters Trinity and Jahnelle.

“Clayton was in a fatal accident,” and that “something fell on him.”

She thought it was a joke.

‘Best worker’ “I was shocked. I’m still shocked,” she observed. “He was the best worker they had and he knew everything on the jobsites. They sent him everywhere. He’s so careful about his job – quick and on-point.

“I’m upset and in disbelief.

He was killed just after 12 noon and I was contacted at night, eight hours later, by family and friends and not the company. I don’t understand how it came about. I’m stunned and don’t

ly in June. He came back clear except for a minor traffic violation, the company said.

Complex image emerges Alexis feared people were following and tormenting him, he told police during a business trip to Rhode Island in early August.

He denied then that he had any history of mental illness. Yet that same month, Alexis began receiving treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs for mental problems, including paranoia, hearing voices and a sleep disorder, officials said Tuesday.

That discrepancy is among several contradictions that paint Alexis as a Buddhist convert who quietly struggled with mental illness while repeatedly running into trouble with the military and the law.

Prayed, then partied Friends say Alexis regularly prayed and meditated at a Buddhist temple in Fort Worth. But his friend, Michael Ritrovato, said Alexis didn’t keep the lifestyle, often drinking to excess and playing violent video games.

“A Buddhist wouldn’t go out and party,” he said. “A Buddhist wouldn’t tell dirty jokes. A Buddhist wouldn’t play those video games.”

Ritrovato said Alexis talked seriously about becom-

Clayton Bailey was born Dec. 4, 1975 in Mandeville, Manchester Parish, Jamaica.

He attended school there and was a member of the Jamaican military before coming to America and starting his career as a landscaper, handyman and car mechanic, then became an American citizen.

He joined St. Ruth Missionary Baptist Church of Dania Beach in 2006 and proudly served as a deacon there from 2008 until his death.

Homegoing services are set for Sept. 28 at St. Ruth.

ing a Buddhist monk, but backed off when he heard about the requirements, such as celibacy.

Common factors “He (Alexis) did have some of the common factors that we see in adult mass murderers,” said Kathy Seifert, a Marylandbased psychologist who’s studied mass shooters for more than 30 years.

“He had a history of aggression,” she said, noting the police reports in Fort Worth, in Seattle, and a disorderly conduct charge in DeKalb County, Ga. Seifert said common characteristics of the mass killers she’d studied included aggression, mental health issues, difficulties on the job, difficulty getting along with people, anger issues and emotional outbursts.

Asked what would trigger a killing spree, she said, “There is often a stressor that person is not able to manage.”

‘Social reject’ “The pattern is a person who is a social reject, who failed at intimacy and could not connect with people,” said Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist who’s interviewed many mass killers. The killings, Welner said, are a re-

In the highest-performing states, lowincome, less educated residents are more likely to be covered by health insurance, to have a regular source of medical care and to get recommended preventive care, such as cancer screenings.

These Americans were also less likely to die prematurely or end up in the hospital for conditions such as diabetes and asthma, the report from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund found.

The report, a scorecard based on 30 indicators, does not analyze the potential effect of the 2010 health care law, but it shows that states resisting the law already have among the weakest health safety nets.

sponse to blaming everyone else for the shooters’ problems.

“Destruction is an exaggerated expression of masculinity,” he said. “Mass killing always has a motivation, and the mass killer always wants you to know it.”

Jack Levin, a co-director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University, said, “Almost every mass killer is motivated to get revenge.

“The more random the massacre, the more likely the killer has serious mental health issues,” said Levin, a psychologist. If Alexis was, as Levin thinks, suffering from serious mental illness, that would be consistent with mass killers who try to kill as many people as possible.

“They are seeking revenge against all mankind,” Levin said. “In this case, everyone in the Navy.”

As for reports that Alexis was an avid player of violent video games, Welner and Levin said the games served to “desensitize” people to death.

“This is part of the training,” said Welner, who cites the killings of 77 people in Norway in 2011 by a video game-obsessed shooter.

“It enables them to detach from the victims. It dehumanizes them in violence.”

Mother apologizes On Wednesday, Cathleen Alexis, joined by two bishops from the Brooklyn Clergy-New York Police Department Task Force, choked up as she read a statement in the living room of her BedfordStuyvesant brownstone.

She did not want her face to be seen.

“Our son, Aaron Alexis, has murdered 12 people and wounded several others,” Alexis said in the statement. “His actions have had a profound and everlasting effect on the families of the victims. I don’t know why he did what he did and I’ll never be able to ask him why.

“Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that I am glad. To the families of the victims, I am so, so very sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken.”

David Cloud, Richard Serrano and Richard Simon, Tribune Washington Bureau; Sarah Mervosh, Tristan Hallman and Jeff Mosier/The Dallas Morning News; Maria Recio, McClatchy Washington Bureau; and Chau Lam/Newsday (MCT) all contributed to this report.

SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

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FLORIDA

Making a strong case for medical marijuana Proponents say legalizing use in Florida would help residents who often suffer with debilitating pain

6-year-old Colorado girl whose story was featured on CNN and helped to turn the network’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, into a medical marijuana convert.

Hope for family

BY LUDMILLA LELIS ORLANDO SENTINEL (MCT)

ORLANDO – For 20-yearold Michael Budzynski, the good days are when he doesn’t suffer the terrible seizures that ruined his mind, leaving him with the mental capacity of an 18-month-old.

On those days, the Eustis man isn’t enduring migraines, and his restless leg isn’t thrashing. His mother, Marilyn, sees glimpses of the bright, fearless little boy she knew before he was devastated by Dravet syndrome, a severe and incurable form of epilepsy that targets children.

She is convinced that medical marijuana — used successfully on 40 other people nationwide with the same syndrome — could give her son more good days. It’s banned in Florida, but that could change if a statewide ballot initiative to make it legal succeeds.

“It gives me new hope that I haven’t had in a long time. Our Michael has deteriorated to a miserable state,” Marilyn Budzynski said. “We should not be denying people who could benefit from a chance at a better quality of life.”

Championed by prominent attorney Medical marijuana has been legalized in 20 states and the District of Columbia for a wide range of medical conditions — cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS and Lou Gehrig’s disease, as well as epilepsy.

Although it’s illegal under federal law, Justice Department officials have said that prosecuting medical marijuana cases in states where it’s legal is not a priority.

Orlando trial attorney John Morgan is championing the drive to make it legal in Florida through a state system that would license

TOM BENITEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

Michael Budzynski, left, is pictured with his mother, Marilyn, at home in Eustis on Sept. 6. He suffers from Dravet Syndrome. His parents believe his pain and suffering would greatly improve with the use of medical marijuana. treatment centers and register patients. The petition drive, run by People United for Medical Marijuana, needs nearly 700,000 verified signatures by February to make it onto the November 2014 ballot.

The group already has more than 100,000 signatures, enough to trigger a Florida Supreme Court review of the ballot language.

Benefits questioned Opponents counter that medical marijuana could pave the way for recreational use and further drug abuse.

Morgan said medical marijuana helps his brother, Tim, a quadriplegic who would otherwise take eight Percocets a day to relieve severe spasms. He saw how it eased the pain for his father, who died 25 years ago this month from cancer and emphysema.

“I know it works, and I know if it became legal in Florida, it would help tens of thousands of people,” Morgan said. “Why would we deny someone who is terminally ill the most compassion and the most mercy at the end of their lives?”

Anecdotal evidence and a growing body of studies show medical benefits from marijuana as a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory drug that is less addictive and has fewer side effects than other pain medications already available by prescription.

However, opponents of legalization question the medical benefits of marijuana. The Florida Medical Association is opposed to medical marijuana and advises doctors to refrain from prescribing it unless its use is approved in the future by the Food and Drug Administration.

Law enforcement nightmare?

The Florida Police Chiefs Association also remains opposed to legalization.

Such a change could open opportunities for abuse, addiction and crimes related to marijuana use, the association contends.

“As a career law-enforcement officer, I do not want to have to deal with the effects that impaired individuals cause to other people,” said Philip Thorne, chief of police in the Panhandle town of Springfield and president of the po-

lice-chiefs organization. “It creates all kind of issues associated with marijuana in general.

“Everybody and their brother would abuse the system to get marijuana.”

Florida proponents want to set up a tightly controlled system to regulate the use of medical marijuana, hoping not to repeat problems with California’s law, which is more lax.

But Morgan strongly disputes that characterization.

“For people with cancer, the nausea is debilitating, and the pills they give you don’t work. But marijuana works,” he said. “The only gateway drug for these people is the morphine they will receive at hospice.”

‘Gateway’ drug characterization

Mary Anne Meskis, executive director of the Dravet Syndrome Foundation, said the concern about medical marijuana as a gateway drug also doesn’t apply to patients such as Michael Budzynski who suffer from extreme seizures.

“Our kids will never lead a normal life,” Meskis said.

“They will never be out and about trying recreational drugs.”

In fact, the successful uses of medical marijuana among Dravet syndrome patients involve a distilled form, administered as a liquid and made from a strain of marijuana low in THC, the psychoactive chemical that causes the marijuana high.

That’s the strain being used by Charlotte Figi, a

The Florida referendum would require special ID cards for patients who receive physician’s prescriptions to buy the drug through state-licensed treatment centers. The proposal would not allow people to grow their own.

“They don’t want California, where with a wink and a nod, a witch doctor could give out a prescription,” Morgan said. “People are OK with it, but they want it highly regulated.”

One of the biggest arguments against marijuana legalization is its potential as a “gateway” drug, in which marijuana users progress to more addictive illegal drugs, such as heroin or cocaine.

Dravet Syndrome effect

College presidents: Congress should pass immigration reform this year

BY MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Florida college and university presidents are calling on Congress to pass immigration reform this year, saying it would be better for the state’s economy if foreign students could stay after graduation, instead of being forced to take their diplomas and leave.

The “brain drain” of U.S.-educated foreign students is worrying economic and education leaders who say the students soon become competitors.

In a conference call with reporters Monday, University of Miami President Donna Shalala said a high percentage of non-citizens earn degrees in the highpaying STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – and then depart.

“Half of all of Ph.D. and masters students in the STEM fields in our research universities are students who come from other countries,” Shalala said. “Many of them would like to stay, and we need immigration reform to give them that opportunity and to capture the talent that we’re educating.”

‘Makes no sense’ In a Sept. 16 letter to Florida’s Congressional delegation, Shalala and the other presidents wrote that in 2009, 53 percent of students earning masters or doctoral degrees in STEM fields from Florida’s research-intensive universities were non-citizens. More than 60 percent of students earning recent doctorates in engineering were non-citizens.

“As soon as we hand them their diploma, we also basically are handing them an airline ticket and saying, ‘Thanks very much for coming here – go home,’” said Ed Moore, president of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida.

What’s worse, he said, is that those students usually end up working for Florida’s competitors in the global economy.

ANDRE CHUNG/MCT

Approximately 100 women, many undocumented, block the intersection at New Jersey and Independence Avenues in front of the Capitol in D.C. on Sept.

12 to demand action on comprehensive immigration reform.

“Say they’re from China. They may end up being hired by a company in Brazil or a company in Italy or a company in England,” Moore said. “They go there and work to compete against American industry on the global market. It makes absolutely no sense.”

More potential businesses The Democratic-led U.S. Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill in June. It includes a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, a temporary worker program and more visas for skilled non-citizens. But the measure is stalled in the Republicanled House of Representatives.

Conservative opposition is fierce. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has played a leading role in the debate, was booed at the Americans for Prosperity conference

in Orlando last month, taking the stage to shouts of “No amnesty!” – a reference to allowing illegal immigrants to become U.S citizens.

In their letter to Florida’s U.S. House members, the presidents noted that a recent study by the Partnership for a New American Economy and the American Enterprise Institute found that for every 100 foreign-born graduates of a U.S. graduate program who stay in the country, working in a STEM field, 262 jobs are created for American workers.

“Immigrants are more than twice as likely to start a business, and immigrantowned businesses in Florida generate about $13.3 billion in income for the state each year,” they wrote. “But in Florida our share of foreign-born STEM advanced degree holders working in STEM fields decreased by 17 percent between 2000 and 2010.”

Marilyn Budzynski has been in touch with the Figi family and has been moved by the girl’s dramatic improvements. With the marijuana treatment, Charlotte doesn’t have violent seizures and is a playful, active child.

That’s how Budzynski remembers Michael, when he was 4 years old and still swimming and climbing and enjoying amusement park rides. He loved reading his favorite books aloud. He used to run with abandon in their yard, laughing and playing with his siblings.

Michael suffered his first seizure when he was 6 months old, suddenly twitching on an August night for no apparent reason. He continued to grow, but the seizures didn’t stop, despite different drugs, diets and therapies.

By age 4, the seizures took their toll, and he started regressing. He started losing the dozens of words he could speak. One day, Michael blanked out when he was supposed to say his prayers. He stopped walking at age 9 and has had a lifetime of emergency room trips and complications.

He still has seizures about three times a week, daily migraines and frequent vomiting, likely an effect of harsh medications. He has lost 20 pounds in the last year and now weighs 78 pounds. He rarely speaks and can’t care for himself.

Although he has lived longer than most Dravet patients, there is no hope for a cure.

His mother wishes she could see her son make the progress that Charlotte Figi has made.

“Our kids have such severe conditions, they have a lot more to gain,” she said.

“This is not about giving our kids a drug to smoke.

It’s about giving them quality of life.”

Director of Dream Defenders to address Tampa’s Black journalists Phillip Agnew, executive director of the Dream Defenders, will be the guest speaker at the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists’ eighth annual Griot Drum Awards and Scholarship Banquet on Oct. 12. The Dream Defenders made national headlines following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

Under Agnew’s leadership, a revolving door of celebrities and lawmakers were inspired to join a 31-day campout at the Florida Capitol, in which the statewide Dream Defenders’ coalition of students and young professionals urged Gov. Rick Scott to address racial profiling and the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law.

Agnew will join a banquet of about 250 of Tampa Bay’s journalists, business leaders, educators and media figures.

Nielsen to host event The ceremony begins at 7 p.m. at media research giant Nielsen’s national Phillip headquarters, 501 Brook- Agnew er Creek Blvd. in Oldsmar.

Nielsen is the title sponsor of the event. Entertainment and an opening meet-and-greet reception will be held from 6 to 7 p.m.

The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists (TBABJ) will present thousands of dollars in college scholarships to students studying journalism and communications, along with about two dozen awards to area journalists and media outlets who excelled in covering people of color in 2012.

Scholarship applications are still being accepted for students aspiring to be journalists.

For more information and tickets, visit www.tbabj.com.

EDITORIAL

A4

Cuts in SNAP: No food for the hungry Steven and Laurie, a White married couple that live near Richmond, Va., work at a big box store.

She as a cashier; he in the storeroom. Each earns about $9 an hour but neither works 40 hours a week.

Indeed, they are lucky to pull 40 hours a week combined.

Sometimes they are fortunate enough to pull 45 hours a week between them. Some weeks their combined hours are just 30. I met Steven and Laurie (not their real names) on a telephone press conference back in April. They said they had three children and also mentioned that they were White because “everybody thinks only Black people get these benefits.”

No insurance Because neither works enough hours, neither Steven nor Laurie qualified for health insurance.

Their combined incomes are so low – between about $16,000 and

DR. JULIANNE MALVEAUX TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

$21,000, that they are officially poor (the poverty line for a family of five is $27,540). They qualify for food stamps, (called SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and they consider them the blessing that helps them make ends meet.

Sometime this month, though, Congress will come up from the Syria conversation to, perhaps, cut allocations for SNAP. The cut of $40 billion would deny between four and six million people food stamps. The new legislation would also allow states to require SNAP recipients to work.

Some of the 12 million unem-

SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013 ployed may not qualify for SNAP assistance, nor will childless adults who do not have work. Some restrictions may also limit SNAP assistance to three months every three years. While some states have waived SNAP requirements because of their high unemployment rates, federal legislation may prevent such waivers.

The proposed cuts in SNAP is twice those proposed back in May. These cuts are being driven by Republicans who, in their budget cutting frenzy, have been indifference to poverty. After all, the “p” word is used to infrequently in political debate, that one might think that poverty has magically gone away. Or, perhaps our legislators just don’t care.

The people who receive SNAP assistance don’t conform to any stereotypes. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, about twenty percent of those receiving SNAP have college degrees.

Half of the recipients are White. A third of the women who get help from SNAP are over 40. Fifty thousand of those who receive SNAP assistance are veterans.

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: RETURN OF PAULA DEEN

RANDALL ENOS, CAGLE CARTOONS

What ‘sanctions’ are expected in Syria?

President Obama still wants his war in Syria. To get him what he wants, the language in the agreement signed by the U.S. and Russia over chemical weapons in Syria is sown with vague terms having multiple and contradictory definitions and nearly un-meetable conditions, all presented in a framework of blatant lies.

The language in the framework agreement says the Syrians must hand over not just their chemical weapons, but all “delivery systems” for such weapons. Is this a reasonable condition in an era when virtually every artillery piece from mortars on up can be loaded with chemical weapons? Is the Syrian army supposed to strip itself down to rifles and small arms to somehow prove a negative – something they will no more be able to do than Saddam Hussein could?

Most glaringly of all, there are pockets of Syria under control of the so-called rebels, many of them mercenary jihadists, armed, supplied and financed by the U.S., the Saudis, the Turks and the Israelis.

Who will inspect the rebel zones and what, if any, sanctions will be applied if they do not surrender any chemical weapons in their possession? While the

BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT

U.S. says its clients are only the victims of chemical weapons, not their users, its evidence remains classified, with even U.S. intelligence officials admitting that it's “no slam dunk.”

There's a global treaty for the abolition of chemical weapons, under which the U.S. is obliged to destroy its own chemical weapons. But the Pentagon says this will take 10 years, despite the existence of mobile units which are supposed to do the job in Syria in a mere six months.

The danger of war is not yet averted, and the agreement as it exists may yet give President Obama the excuse he needs to drop his bombs.

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.

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Food insecure So many families are food insecure because of the employment situation. The unemployment rate dropped just a tick in August, slipping from 7.4 to 7.3 percent. Still, there are 11.3 million unemployed people. More than 4.3 million people have been unemployed for more than half a year. These folks, still looking for work after more than 27 weeks, would be no longer eligible for SNAP assistance.

The unemployment rates, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, clearly understate unemployment. When we count people who work part-time but want full time work, those who are marginally attached to the labor force, the overall unemployment rate rises from 7.3 percent to 14.6 percent.

Black unemployment, reported at 13 percent, soars to 26 percent, a depression level of unemployment. It is undeniable the unemployment rate is improving, with overall unemployment dropping from 8.1 percent a year ago to 7.3 percent today. But the downward pace has been glacial, with the level of job creation (169,000) too slow to keep up with job loss. Mil-

lions will remain unemployed for the next six months or so.

Steve and Laurie are good, hardworking, and just like millions of others. They work part time for economic reasons, preferring full time work. They need food stamps, and it is not clear, under proposed legislation, whether they will qualify for them.

People uprise I worry about the 11.3 million unemployed people, the 4.3 million who have not worked in half a year, and the two to four million families who will not qualify for SNAP. Worry is not enough, though.

This is yet another reason why a people’s uprising is necessary.

The uprising must transcend race lines – it ought to reflect Dr. Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign. Congress won’t change its indifference to the poor unless somebody makes them.

Julianne Malveaux is a D.C.based economist and author.

Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Cops ignore bad deeds of their coworkers Every single AfricanAmerican living in the United States of America has a family member, a coworker, a friend or a neighbor that has been the victim of law enforcement misconduct.

They may have been wrongfully arrested, they could have been overcharged, their comments and statements may have been misquoted, twisted or changed and used against them or they may have been verbally abused when they were referred to as an N-word, a thug, a drunk or a trouble maker.

Policemen, prosecutors, judges and other law enforcers are rarely questioned. People love to point to police reports as absolute truths but cops will and can lie like everybody else.

Poor people, disabled people or mentally handicapped citizens probably are victimized more than others. The people that need the most protection by law enforcers are usually the ones that are beaten the most, jailed the most and hurt the most by people paid by tax payers to comfort, protect and save us.

Mistreated No one will believe a Black person that says they were mistreated by law enforcers.

Even if you have video or audio evidence that proves misconduct the governing bodies and government lawyers that oversee law enforcement departments will seek to cover up misconduct problems rather than to see how misconduct issues can be resolved.

“Internal Affairs” offices are a bad joke. Citizens are told to file law enforcement complaints about misconduct with Internal Affairs.

That is where law enforcers

Lucius Gantt THE GANTT REPORT

get together to devise the cover up.

In most, if not all, cases about misconduct, phone records disappear, video evidence is somehow lost, documents are shredded and testimony is fabricated in order to fit the cover up scheme.

But guess what, when a White woman, or man, gets brutalized by police, misquoted by police or over changed by police then the misconduct story is flashed all over the front pages of the towns major daily newspapers and become lead stories on television and radio news.

White victims If it is true that White law enforcers will cause serious injury to a White woman what in the hell do you think those kinds of cops will do to non-whites?

I think every police department or sheriff’s department should have an independent ombudsman that will take a look at police complaints. This person should not be hired by the law enforcement agency. Perhaps they could be hired by a community governmental advisory group.

You have to have independent eyes to see what is really going on in law enforcement disputes. If all you have to say is “I beat him or her half to death because they resisted” then everyone stopped by a cop can be considered for a beating.

Also, officers that get

multiple complaints time after time should be dismissed. When you cover up misconduct by bad cops all you do is empower someone with devilish intent to do more misconduct.

Twenty years ago when I was accused of felony assault on a law enforcement officer, I testified in U.S. Federal Court that elected officials should be held liable when law enforcers that work for them abuse their power and mistreat citizens whose taxes pay their salaries.

Cover up Today, no matter how much campaign money you contribute, no matter how many times you vote, if a politician has to choose between helping you and covering up misconduct the choice is not going to be to help you.

Citizen victimization by bad cops is not just a Rodney King thing or a Black community problem. It is a problem for the whole community and White kids and White women that live in the suburbs can get beat up just like the people that live in the ghettos and barrios.

Don’t get me wrong. The overwhelming majority of people in law enforcement are good guys and good cops. Their only problem is adhering to the “code of silence” where they ignore bad deeds by their coworkers.

I love and support good law enforcers but I hate beasts with badges!

Buy Gantt’s book “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” and contact Gantt at www.allworldconsultants.net. Click on this story at www.flcourier. com to write your own response.

Saving Syrian children If the Obama administration really wants to do something constructive, productive and humanitarian about the civil war in Syria, I have a suggestion of something that I strongly believe would have an enormous impact on world opinion.

Instead of threatening to send cruise missiles into Syria, the administration and the United Nations should ask the Assad government and the Syrian rebels to declare a three-day ceasefire so that all children in that country, 16 years of age and under, can be removed to a more secure location.

Preferably, they would be moved by bus, train and airplane outside of Syria and sent to locations where caring, nurturing volunteers from throughout the world can look after them until Syrian adults stop slaughtering each other.

A. Peter Bailey TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

safe and secure, combatants on both sides can either continue the ceasefire or return to slaughtering each other to their hearts’ content. What’s happening in Syria is a family fight between various factions of Arabs.

A Sept. 9 lead article in The Washington Post said that Saudia Arabia and Qatar support U.S. military intervention in Syria. It further quoted Qatar’s foreign minister as calling for foreign intervention “to protect the Syrian people,” and Secretary of State John Kerry has been quoted as stating that other Arab countries would be making “their own announceFamily fight ments of support in the Once the children are next 24 hours.”

If Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other members of the Arab League really believe that military intervention is necessary, they are the ones who should be prepared to intervene militarily. There is absolutely no reason for any other group or country to step into the middle of an intra-Arab family fight.

The important question that the Arabs should be asking themselves is who benefits when they, encouraged and helped by people of European descent, the Russians and the Americans, continuously slaughter each other and their precious children throughout the Middle East?

Peter Bailey is editor of Vital Issues: The Journal of African American Speeches. Click on this story at www.flcourier. com to write your own response.

SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

EDITORIAL

Stand up to the bully that is Uncle Sam The United States is the clear loser in the battle to destroy the Syrian government. For the past two weeks the president and the secretary of state have publicly said that a military attack on Syria was imminent.

They kept up the steady drumbeat of claims that the Syrian government committed atrocities against civilians and they tried to round up support for military action both in the American congress and around the world.

Now the president has announced that he is postponing a congressional vote and sending John Kerry off to Russia to talk to the Russians who so shrewdly stopped them in their tracks.

The support part of the equation didn’t quite work out the way they planned. First the British parliament refused to take part in the scheme. The ghosts of Tony Blair and George W. Bush had yet to be exercised and the representatives of the British public were unwilling to give another American president carte blanche to include them in an act of criminality.

Sick of war The feelings of the American people range from skepticism to outright hostility to the idea of yet another military action. Their reasons may not have the purity of opposition to American aggression and notions of supremacy, but as the president and secretary of state repeated ad nauseam, people are sick of war and they weren’t shy about telling

MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT

their elected representatives how they felt.

Fortunately for everyone on planet earth, there are nations willing and able to resist the American empire. President Assad’s army was able to resist the American and gulf monarchy onslaught, which is why the Syrian president now stands accused of carrying out the chemical weapons attack.

Humanity is also fortunate that Assad has a reliable ally in the Russian Federation, which used diplomatic skill and American stupidity to get the administration to back off from its plan to kill more Syrians.

Sketchy claims Evidence of sketchy claims and lack of support for them came very early on in the propaganda process. The president and secretary of state made their initial appeal by claiming there would be no “boots on the ground.”

The horrendously Orwellian phrase was meant to give them cover from criticism and get hesitant congress members on board.

But when asked at a Senate hearing, Kerry hedged. “ I don’t want to take off the table an option that might or might not be available to a president of the United States to

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: RED-LINERS

secure our country.” The so-called gaffes were constant. When a reporter asked if the United States would be amenable to forsaking an attack if Assad gave up weapons, Kerry initially said it would be acceptable.

“Sure, if he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community, in the next week, turn it over.

All of it, without delay and allow a full and total accounting for that, but he isn’t about to do it, and it can’t be done, obviously.”

Back pedaling The White House and State Department back pedaled furiously from Kerry’s comment. His own spokesperson said that the secretary “was not making a proposal.”

The evil doers had exposed themselves as the aggressors that they are.

They admitted to the world community that the stated reason for going to war is a sham and that there is nothing Assad can do to call off the dogs. Even if a diplomatic process begins, the United States and the other NATO nations will try something else to bring about the regime change that they claim not to want in Syria.

Assad must know this better than anyone else. He watched Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi give up efforts to achieve nuclear capability, only to be picked off when the United States determined it was time for them to go.

NATE BEELER, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Defending Syria The Russians aren’t stupid either and it is their insistence on defending Syria which has brought the world from the brink and forced the president to postpone the congressional vote that he so badly wanted.

Assad lives another day but our government is desperate to continue making war. Notions of good and bad must be forgotten if the world is to be free of American aggression. The former head of the KGB, Vladimir Putin, is trying to stop a wider war but the Nobel Peace Prize winning Barack Obama is trying to start one.

The supposedly evil Russians offered to assist in giving up Syrian chemical weapons but the virtuous Americans initially said no to the offer. The ironies abound.

The common phrase among

American politicians is that Russia “sticks its finger in America’s eye.” That is true and something to be grateful for. We must be grateful for our own opposition within but also to the people outside of our country who will stand up to the bully that is Uncle Sam. The sight of an American president coming on television and announcing that there won’t be a war is a singular event. It is not what our system demands but then we all live to see another day.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in Black Agenda Report.

She can be reached via e-mail at Margaret.Kimberley@BlackAgendaReport.com. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

History can move in two directions at once In my time as an organizer, I have been guided by the words of many people - activists and authors, colleagues and friends. But the most powerful lesson I ever received about the struggle for civil and human rights came in 1993, when my grandmother taught me that history could move in two directions at once.

I was in college, celebrating a friend’s 21st birthday. A round of toasts went up. One friend raised his glass to honor the memory of all those we knew who had been killed or sent to prison before they reached the age of 21.

Another friend lifted his cup to toast to the fact that one more of us had lived long enough to reach the quintessential age of adulthood. I could not raise my glass on that last toast.

In fact, it felt as if the motion cut me like a knife. The notion that a man of any race, of any age, in the world’s greatest and wealthiest democracy, could think it an accomplishment to simply breathe past the age of 21 - it cut me to the core. After so many historic civil rights victories, how could it be that my generation had grown up just in time to find itself the most murdered generation in the country and the most incarcerated generation on the planet?

In her simple way, my grandmother spoke BEN JEALOUS TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

So I did what I always did when I am stuck. I went to my grandmother’s table and I laid my burdens down. I said, “Grandma, you told me that my generation was supposed to be the first generation to be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. Not because of what we are or where we come from - but because of who we are and where we are headed. What happened?”

What happened?

My grandma got real quiet. She looked at me with sad eyes and then she said, “Son, it’s sad but it’s simple. We got what we fought for, but we lost what we had.”

Those are wise words to remember in times like this. We got the right to be police officers, but we lost the right to live in safe communities. In Chicago, a culture of poverty-fueled gang violence has reinforced the notion that living until 21 is an accomplishment.

volumes about our history and issued a subtle admonition for the path forward. She reminded us that we must be clear on both what we are fighting for, and how we will protect what we already have.

We got the right to send our children to any school, but we lost the right to assume that they would receive a good education at whatever school they attend. In Philadelphia, the school system is facing a $300 million budget gap that already delayed the start of the school year and threatens to devastate support staff at schools in the most underserved communities.

We got the right to live in any community, but we lost the right to know that our children would be protected by the police - or the community watch volunteers - who are supposed to serve them. In 2011, before New York City passed a racial profiling ban with teeth, the New York Police Department made more stops of

young Black men between the ages of 14 and 24 than there were young Black men between 14 and 24 in the city.

Speaking volumes In her simple way, my grandmother spoke volumes about our history and issued a subtle admonition for the path forward.

She reminded us that we must be clear on both what we are fighting for, and how we will protect what we already have.

What are we fighting for? First and foremost, we are fighting for our children: for their futures to be robust, their equality to be affirmed and their lives to be protected. That is why the civil rights community lifts up education over incarceration, and economic

liberation over discrimination.

What do we need to protect?

If each of us has anything - even those of us who don’t have a house, or a car, or a family to feed, or any earthly possessions at all as soon as we turn 18, we have the right to vote.

Voting rights This is the right that has been won and expanded through the American Revolution, Civil War, the women’s suffrage movement and the civil rights movement because we have always understood that we are ultimately rendered defenseless when our access to the ballot box is diminished.

So while voting rights may not be the most important issue to any one of us, it needs to be the most important fight for all of us.

My grandma’s words have guided me over the years, and they will continue to guide me throughout my career. We should heed her important reminder that history can, and often does, move in two directions at once.

Benjamin Todd Jealous is the president and CEO of the national NAACP. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Economic crimes we commit against ourselves We talk a lot about criminal justice and crime in the streets, especially among Black people. Mass incarceration of Black men, disparate sentencing, private prisons, legal slavery inside prisons based on the 13th Amendment, and all the other plagues that beset us vis-à-vis our criminal justice system and prison industrial complex, dominate our conversations regarding crime and punishment.

But, there is another take on crime that we often overlook or simply ignore; it’s the economic crimes we commit against ourselves.

Amos Wilson posed two questions in his book, Black on Black Violence: “Does the AfricanAmerican community, by continuing to permit itself to be ‘legitimately’ economically exploited by non-African-American communities thereby de-legitimize itself and permit itself to be criminalized while de-criminalizing its exploiters?

Has the African-American community – addicted to wasteful and nonsensical consumerism, with its unwillingness to invest its wealth and human resources in itself, in America, and uncommitted to controlling its own internal markets – contributed in

JAMES CLINGMAN NNPA COLUMNIST

no small way to the criminalization of its sons, to the increasing impoverishment of its children, to the violence which prevails within its households and neighborhoods?”

If you are familiar with Amos Wilson’s work, you know he wrote very long sentences, but I believe it was because he had so much to say (See the volume of work he compiled in “Blueprint for Black Power,’’ and he knew the urgency with which he had to say it.

Declarative questions Wilson’s questions are not only interrogatory, they are declarative as well. They paint a dismal picture of who we are and what we are about when it comes to crime and punishment. They suggest, of course, that Black folks are not taking care of our business economically, thus, actually causing much of the crime we lament in our neighborhoods.

It is indeed a crime to “allow” ourselves to be economically ex-

ploited, and we can be considered sick if we simply consume the products made by others but never invest in producing and purchasing products of our own. We commit economic crimes against ourselves; our children commit violent crimes against one another; and we are collectively punished as a result of such crimes.

Are we able to break this vicious cycle of self-annihilation?

Self-annihilation Our being both the perpetrator and the victim of the same economic crimes is totally unreasonable and just downright stupid.

We commit the crimes of waste and conspicuous consumption, and then we are punished because of it. We refuse to develop, grow, and support our own businesses, and then we are punished by having to depend on someone else to fill our basic needs.

We fail to help provide jobs for our youth, and they end up committing crimes against us and one another, while their unemployment rate nears 50%. Economically, our own actions accuse us, indict us, convict us, and punish us.

How can we demand respect when we are begging others to fill needs that we can fill for our-

selves? What must our children Widening gap think of us, as we show them we The situation we are facing is can’t take care of them? Some of an ever widening gap between us don’t even know how to grow those who have a lot and are selfa tomato for our families, and we reliant, and those of us who are want “respect.” dependent upon and beholding Carrying the load to them. Much of the information There is no denying that many we allow to permeate our brains of us are doing well and “doing is meaningless, useless, non-regood” at the same time. There cyclable trash. are many conscious Black busiThe vicarious nature of many ness owners across the country of our lives will profit us little. My that are carrying probably 90 percent of the load for us by doing suggestion is that, first, we drop the right thing; they get up each down and send up some serious day determined to help empower “knee mail,” and then get up and us in some way. Hats off to them! get to work to stop our own crimes They certainly deserve our ku- and punishment. dos. But it’s the rest of our people, Amos Wilson also said, “When the vast majority of us, who are the Black community squanders in jeopardy of falling off the ecothe economic inheritance of its nomic cliff.

These are trying times. We are own children while it fills to overin serious trouble, and far be from flowing the coffers of the children me to downplay that reality. And of other communities…it gets the it’s not about whether the glass crime it deserves.” is half full or half empty; this is about survival.

Jim Clingman is an adjunct This is about economic crimes professor at the University of and the resulting punishment Cincinnati and can be reached that ensues to Black people because of our inappropriate behav- through his website, Blackoior and the inordinate amount of nomics.com. Click on this story time we spend on “nonsense”, as at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Maria Stewart once said.

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NATION

SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Advocates quietly challenging voter ID law November date set for challenge in Wisconsin

BY ZENITHA PRINCE SPECIAL TO THE COURIER

The first legal challenge to an elections law under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), since the United States Supreme Court shot down preclearance protections under Section 5 of the VRA in June, is under way with little to no fanfare.

On Nov. 4, 2013, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman will hear a challenge to Wisconsin’s voter identification law brought by Advancement Project, a civil rights advocacy group, and pro bono counsel Arnold & Porter.

In 2011, the state’s Republicanled legislature passed a law that would require voters to present a government-issued ID in order to cast a ballot in local, state and federal elections. The new measure would have counted Wisconsin among nearly three-dozen states with voter ID laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

What detractors say Republican proponents say such laws protect against voter fraud. But Democrats and other detractors argue there is little evidence of rampant voter fraud to support the need for such changes, but instead, the laws unfairly hinders minorities, the elderly and the poor from participating in elections.

“As the leading democracy of the world, the U.S. should work to keep our voting system free, fair, and accessible to all Americans,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Penda Hair in a statement. “Yet we are witnessing the greatest assault on voting rights in decades.”

In March 2012, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Richard G. Niess ruled in favor of the League

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT

Demonstrators stand outside the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25, the day the court ruled on the Voting Rights Act striking down portions of the law. of Women Voters and others, who claimed Wisconsin’s new law erected barriers to full citizen participation in the voting process.

Another challenge In May of this year, the Fourth District Court of Appeals overturned Niess’ ruling, saying, among other things, that the League “makes no effective argument that, on its face, the [voter ID] requirement makes voting so difficult and inconvenient as to amount to a denial of the right to vote.”

Even with that victory, Wisconsin faces another challenge in the face of the Advancement

Project’s motion, which alleges that the law is discriminatory as determined by Section 2 of the VRA. According to evidence submitted to the court, the group said, close to 28,000 African-American and 12,000 Hispanic voters lack a driver’s license or state ID. The numbers equal roughly 16 percent of African-American and 25 percent of Hispanic voters, compared to 10 percent of White voters, who may face difficulty casting a ballot because they lack the required documentation.

The numbers reflect what civil rights groups have been saying all along—that these new laws unjustly target minorities.

Test coming Restrictive voter ID laws were among a wave of regressive voting policies that swept across the country in the two years leading up to the 2012 presidential election. Cuts to early voting, voter roll purges, proof-of-citizenship demands, and voter challenges at the polls increased across the country.

And voters of color were disproportionately impacted, activists said, since they were less likely to have state-issued photo ID, more likely to use early voting, more likely to be naturalized citizens, and more likely to be targeted for polling place intimidation.

And the Supreme Court’s June

2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which blocked the U.S. Justice Department’s ability to defend citizens from discriminatory voting practices under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, simply empowered even more states to pursue those laws.

“After Shelby, Section 2 provides one of the last lines of defense against legislatures that would disenfranchise voters of color,” Hair said. “The strength of that defense will be tested for the first time in this case and we are confident it will prevail.”

This story is special to the Courier and Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper.

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Film to put spotlight on

‘silent killer’

Central Florida stroke survivors to be featured in documentary about high blood pressure and African-American community FROM STAFF REPORTS

R

oger Caldwell, owner of On Point Media, and My Christian Films are collaborating on a Central Florida documentary that will highlight prominent local African-American residents who are recovering stroke survivors.

The documentary, “High Blood Pressure: A State of Emergency in the African American Community,” reveals strokes as a “silent killer’’ and urges the community toward a new paradigm of prevention.

“In the African-American community, one out of every two adults has high blood pressure, and this is a huge health crisis,” said Caldwell, who lives in Orlando. “The medical profession has no definitive answer or explanation why the numbers are so high, yet we believe strokes are 80 percent preventable.”

As the problem is most Roger pervasive with AfricanCaldwell Americans, Caldwell’s goal is to inform and educate the Black community that they can control their blood pressure, and have the ability to prevent strokes.

Former anchor among participants Caldwell, a stroke survivor, said he neKEN LAMBERT/SEATTLE TIMES/MCT glected his health and did not understand Simon Mendoza, who graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, taught students this summer in Seattle the importance of knowing his blood how to take blood pressures.

A documentary produced in Central Florida on Blacks and high blood pressures is due to pressure numbers and what they represent. His neglect led to a massive stroke in be released by the end of this year.

2004, where he was completely paralyzed on one side of his body and almost died.

Prominent Central Florida AfricanAmericans who have agreed to participate in the project include former CBS News weatherman and anchor Mark McEwen; nationally renowned Jazz singer Jacqueline Jones; the Rev. Randolph Bracy, former president of the Orange County Branch of NAACP and founder of New Rev. Randolph Jacqueline Mark Covenant Baptist Church; along with loBracy Jones McEwen cal political activist Barbara Young. All of them have had strokes.

“We are extremely excited about this project, because very few people in our community are talking about this crisis,” FILM FUNDRAISER SEPT. 21 said McEwen, who suffered a stroke in November 2005. McEwen wrote a book A fundraising event is scheduled from about the experience titled, “After the 2 to 4 p.m. Sept. 21 at The Draft Global Stroke: My Journey Back to Life.’’

Beer Lounge & Grill, 301/333 W. Church

‘Movement toward real change’ Caldwell noted, “All around the Central Florida area there are miraculous stroke and hypertension stories that need to be shared and told, and this documentary will shed light on relatable stories of hope within our communities. Hypertension and high blood pressure will continue to destroy the health of the African-American community until there is a consensus to change. We aim to begin the movement toward real change – starting in our own Central Florida communities.’’

Every stroke is different and unique, and it is essential to know the sign and symptoms of a stroke. In the case of McEwen, he had a massive stroke followed by a smaller stroke two days earlier that left him feeling weak and nauseated.

The symptoms drove him to an emergency room at a Baltimore area hospital, where a doctor misdiagnosed him with stomach flu, and sent him home. Two days later he had a massive stroke, where he almost died.

Purpose of film Caldwell said McEwen was like most Americans who know very little about strokes and high blood pressure until it happens to them.

“The objective of the documentary is to initiate a lifestyle transformation within our communities, heighten the awareness of high blood pressure, and encourage those at risk to visit doctors and become proactive about their health,’’ Caldwell explained. “We all have the opportunity to live a life of optimum health, if we make the right choices.”

These 10 distinct online programs are designed to Complete modules St., the Orlando.

Fortoday moreatabout the event improve stroke patientOFcare and outcomes by www.stroke.org/strokenurse.

PHOTO COURTESY FLORIDA HOSPITAL PENINSULA and the film, visit the website www. providing evidence-based and best-practice nursing Members of National Stroke Association’s Former CBS News weatherman andeducation anchoracross MarktheMcEwen addresses a strokemovie.com email Roger professional membership or programs receive stroke-care continuum. These crowd at Florida Hospital Peninsulamodules in Ormond Beach.

He spoke July 18 at Caldwell at jet38@bellsouth.net. are the easy and affordable answer for your free and discounted access to the Stroke Nurse Education Modules. Contact us at stroke team members to meet their continuing the open house of the hospital’s inpatient rehabilitation facility. memberships@stroke.org to find out how! education requirements.

Stroke Risk Scorecard Each box that applies to you equals 1 point. Total your score at the bottom of each column and compare with the stroke risk levels on the back.

Risk FACToR

HigH Risk

CAuTion

Low Risk

Blood Pressure

>140/90 or unknown

120-139/80-89

<120/80

Atrial Fibrillation

Irregular heartbeat

I don’t know

Regular heartbeat

smoking

Smoker

Trying to quit

Nonsmoker

Cholesterol

>240 or unknown

200-239

<200

Diabetes

Yes

Borderline

No

Exercise

Couch potato

Some exercise

Regular exercise

Diet

Overweight

Slightly overweight

Healthy weight

stroke in Family

Yes

Not sure

No

ToTAL sCoRE

High Risk

Caution

Low Risk

CALENDAR

B2

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR

SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

TOJ

DR. ROBIN SMITH & DONNA RICHARDSON

Psychologist and author Dr. Robin Smith along with fitness expert Donna Richardson will be the guests at the “Take Back Your Life” Mind, Body and Soul Women’s Retreat Oct. 12 at Rejoice in the Lord Ministries in Apopka. More information: www.tbyl.net.

Tampa: The George Edgecomb Bar Association and the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church are co-sponsoring the 2013 Learn Your Legal Rights–Community Workshop on Sept. 28 at New Hope Church, 3005 E. Ellicott St. RSVP to Attorney Henry G. Gyden at 813- 813 280-1385 or hgyden@ haaslewis.com.

FENCES

The African American Performing Arts Community Theatre (AAPACT) will present its production of Fences, written by August Wilson, on Oct. 16 through Nov. 3 at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, 6161 NW 22nd Ave., Miami. Show times and more information: www.aapact. com.

Jacksonville: The city of Jacksonville has scheduled a First Coast AIDS Walk on Sept. 28. All funds above expenses will support the Northeast Florida World AIDS Week Committee and the Vicki Hitzing Fund. More information: www.firstcoastaidswalk.org.

St. Petersburg: Def Jam rapper YG is scheduled Sept.

20 at Jannus Live. His debut studio album “My Krazy Life’’ will be released in November.

Jacksonville: Comedian and actor Eddie Griffin will be at the Times Union Center for the Performing Arts on Sept.

27.

Jacksonville: Chris Tucker will be at the Florida Theatre Jacksonville on Sept. 27.

Orlando: Federation of Families of Central Florida will host its first Black Tie gala on Oct. 10 at the Rosen

PHOTO COURTESY OF JUAN E. CABRERA

Centre, 9840 International Drive. More information on tickets and sponsorships: Visit www.ffcflinc.org, email jsheffield.ffcfl@gmail.com or call 407-334-8049.

Clearwater: John Legend and Tamar Braxton are scheduled at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Nov. 4.

Tampa: The Isley Broth-

ers with Kem and Nephew Tommy are coming to the University of South Florida Sun Dome on Oct. 5 at 8 p.m.

St. Petersburg: Stephen “Ragga’’ Marley will perform Oct. 17 at Jannus Live.

Orlando: Soulbird will present a SongVersation with India.Arie on Oct. 11 at the

Daytona Beach: A Southern Soul Blues Concert featuring Mel Waiters, Sir Charles Jones and Bigg Robb is scheduled Oct. 5 at the Mary McLeod Bethune Performing Arts Center.

7 to 11 can enjoy a night of football, kickball, ping-pong, foosball, video games and dance parties during “Freestyle Fridays” at the Fossil Park and Willis S. Johns Center, 6635 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. First visit free; $6 each following visit. More information: 727893-7756.

St. Petersburg: Youths ages

St. Petersburg: First Fridays

House of Blues Orlando and Oct. 17 at the Florida Theatre Jacksonville.

are held in downtown St. Petersburg at 250 Central Ave. between Second and Third Avenues from 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. More information: 727-393-3597.

St. Petersburg: Tickets are on sale for a concert at the Mahaffey Theater with Maze featuring Frankie Beverly.

The show has been changed to Sunday, Sept. 27.

Laymon takes on culture, racism “ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES in novel and book of essays

BY DR. GLENN ALTSCHULER SPECIAL TO THE COURIER

Born and raised in Jackson, Miss., Kiese Laymon saw himself as an unrefined “Black Boy looking for both acceptance and something to resist anywhere I could find it.” Acceptance began at age 20 with the award of “a boatload of financial aid” to Oberlin College and, in time, with an MFA from Indiana University and appointment as a professor of English and Africana Studies at Vassar.

“Saying yes to life,” however, has been slowed and often stopped by the settled conviction that “parts of my state, much of my country, my heart, and mostly my own reflection, had beaten the dog shit out of me.”

Sharp and funny Laymon wishes that he could get his “Yoda on right now” and formulate a “clean socio-political analysis” that reflects “supreme knowledge and absolute emotional transformation.” But, he writes, the best he can do – in a recently published novel and a collection of essays – is to make a “lame attempt at remembering the contours of slow death and life in America for one Black American teenager under Central Mississippi skies.”

“How to Slowly Kill Yourself in America’’ is often sharp and funny. Laymon imagines a “lost” debate between Barack Obama, “a slightly better president than the nation deserves,” and a clueless Mitt Romney.

He has interesting things to say about hip-hop, Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur and Kanye West. He illuminates the role of religion, sexuality and violence in contemporary America. And he’s tough on himself as “a walking regret, a truth-teller, a liar, a survivor, a frowning ellipsis, a witness, a dreamer, a teacher, a student, a failure, a joker, a writer whose eyes stay red.”

Suffused with sadness, anger Laymon wants to avoid “a woe is we narrative,” identify healthy choices for Black Americans, and affirm life. He writes movingly of his grandmother, who remained responsible, loving, spiritual, and committed to justice in the face of “servitude, sexual assault, segregation, poverty, and psychological violence.”

Nonetheless, his work is suffused with sadness and anger. “No matter how patronizing, unashamed, deliberate, unintentional, poor, rich, rural, urban, ignorant and destructive, White Americans were,” he claims, they encouraged Black Americans “to work for them, write to them, listen to them, talk with them, run from them, emulate them, teach them, dodge them, and ultimately thank them...”

Following supposed political and policy wins, he writes, Black Americans “have always borne the brunt of domestic economic terrorism.”

Indeed, “the American story” involves “the ways that Black American ambition, unchecked by healthy doses of fear, would lead to slow, painful death.” And “it was” (and, he implies, still is) “inevitable” that

Review

OF THIS, OR ANY, YEAR.” Pete Hammond, MOVIELINE

How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays. By Kiese Laymon. Bolden.

148 pp. $15; Long Division: A Novel. By Kiese Laymon. Bolden. 270 pp. $15. when enough “rusty bullets” are fired at moving Black targets, “the targets would cease to exist.”

Layman’s ‘Long Division’ “Long Division’’ deals with the same subjects and themes. Set in Melahatchie, Mississippi in 1985, the novel follows 14-year-old Citoyen Coldson as he gives an answer during a Can You Use That Word in a Sentence? contest that lands him on YouTube and launches him on an adventure that moves him back to 1964 and forward to 2013.

Time travel provides Laymon an opportunity to examine the history of racial oppression and the civil rights movement, as “City” and his friend Shalaya Crump struggle to make America “love itself and the kids coming after them.”

And for Laymon to establish (in two sentences written in sawdust in a shed in 1964 that resonate with the Trayvon Martin case) that “We are real black characters with real character, not the stars of American race spectacle. Blackness is not probable cause.”

“Long Division’’ is, by turns, powerful and preachy, comical and confusing. It is at its satiric best when LaVander Peeler, City’s classmate and rival, uses “chitterlings” in a sentence and City stumbles on the word “niggardly.”

Fierce assault on US When his grandmother gives him a whupping., and when City and Shalaya discuss whether it’s good to be so “long division,” i.e. providing the background to a story instead of “getting in and getting out.”

Laymon’s assault on racism in America, in 1964, 1985, and 2013 is fierce and unremitting. It remains unclear, however, especially in light of the pervasiveness and power he attributes to race prejudice, how seriously he takes – or wants us to take – the claim (readily reduced to a cliché) that “past, present and future exist within you and you change them by changing the way you live your life.” Or whether he believes that “knowing everything about something” rarely ends up being good for you.

As Citoyen’s journey concludes, he feels as close to a “real character” as he has ever felt. City and LaVander Peeler think they know all they need to know “about how to survive, how to live, and how to love in Mississippi.” It’s important to remember, however, that they are only 14 years old.

And that this is Kiese Laymon’s first novel.

Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He wrote this review for the Florida Courier.

A RON HOWARD FILM

CHRIS HEMSWORTH

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STOJ

SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

B3

HEALTH

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL LAUGHLIN/SUN SENTINEL/MCT

Marilyn Lopes, from left, Kavina Patel, Manju Patel and Meera Mahabir toast before downing drinks containing collagen at a party in Hollywood on Sept. 5.

Collagen the drink of choice at these new beauty parties Hot trend nowadays is events that focus on ingestible product that’s supposed to restore hair, skin, nails

only in the past few years has it reached American shores, industry watchers say. And South Florida women have begun embracing the product the best way they know how — with a party.

Tastes like orange juice

BY NICOLE BROCHU SUN SENTINEL (MCT)

FORT LAUDERDALE – So long, cosmos. Hello, collagen drinks.

A new breed of cocktail parties has some women pounding shots — but instead of alcohol, they’re infused with beauty treatments. Packaged in one-shot bottles sold over the Internet, ingestible collagen is said to restore luster in hair, skin and nails.

“It’s a hot trend because the parties are a fun fantasy that women can afford,” said Bonnie Ceja, 37, a housewife who hosts monthly “drink your beauty” parties at her Wellington home. “It sounded like something the girls on ‘Sex in the City’ would do, and that would definitely add some fun into my regular routine.”

Ceja’s parties start out with healthy appetizers, followed by a wheatgrass shot, a concentrated juice packed with vitamins and nutrients. Since the collagen shot is designed to be tak-

Sold in prepackaged doses, ingestible collagen claims to restore luster to hair, skin and nails. en before bed, when the absorption rate is higher, Ceja and her friends end the night by toasting with a 1.7-ounce glass of the beauty brew.

This type of ingestible collagen has been all the rage for years in Asia, where the beauty beverages are manufactured. But

Costs vary by product, but a 24day supply of the U.S.-distributed Lac Taut brand goes for $220, according to the company website.

The fact that only limited research has been done on ingestible collagen, or that its benefits are unproven, has not dampened the enthusiasm.

“It’s a nice, fun way to get together,” said Fort Lauderdale personal trainer Kacy Shaw, 33, who started her parties to introduce friends to a product she found effective in improving the health of her nails and hair. “It’s amazing.

It tastes just like orange juice.”

At Coral Springs, parties hosted by physical therapist Nancy Chang, massages and manicures are also in the offing.

But unlike the parties of their youth, these so-called “drink your beauty” parties typically exclude alcoholic beverages of any kind, because alcohol is believed to offset the fortifying and hydrating benefits collagen drinks tout.

Consulted with doctor That’s fine for new mom Chang and her stay-at-home-mom neighbors.

“No one drinks alcohol anymore because no one would make it through the (night) feedings,” said Chang, who called the beauty parties a fun way for moms with few child-care options to get together and pamper themselves at the same time.

“I find that more and more women are taking things into their own homes and into their own hands,” said Chang, 40, a Chinese-American who grew up on herbal medicines. “We (Asian women) are definitely accustomed to drinking our health, and our beauty, for that matter.”

Before sharing the collagen drinks with her friends, Chang said she consulted with her dermatologist to make sure ingesting the stuff was safe. She was told it didn’t appear to be harmful, though her doctor wasn’t convinced it had any true health benefits.

It’s an assessment Fort Lauderdale-area nutritionist Sandra Frank shares. Though collagen is made in our bodies, the ingestible version — made from fish or animals — is broken down by the

digestive system, where it tends to lose its restorative properties, she said.

“It sounds like a nice idea, but the science is shaky,” Frank said.

Replacing Botox parties Nutritionist Nicolette Pace said she has seen research suggesting that in the “worst-case scenario,” some ingestible collagen may contain estrogen components.

“Just because it’s put in a fancy bottle with all the allure, who knows what’s in it?” Pace said.

Pace lives and works in Great Neck, N.Y., but travels to South Florida every winter on business.

It was here, at a local hotel, where she said she first overheard women talk about collagen drinks.

“It’s really a hot trend right now,” she said. “Botox parties are being replaced by drinkable collagen parties.”

Larry Pederson can attest to that. He’s the founder of RenewAlliance, a Seattle, Wash.based nutricosmetics company that recently began distributing the Japanese-made Lac Taut ingestible collagen shots in North America.

The company’s second-largest market, behind southern California? That would be South Florida, which accounts for about 40 percent of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in online sales logged since June, Pederson said.

“South Florida is the land of beautiful people who want to live forever, who want to look great up until the last day,” he said.

“And why shouldn’t they?”

Peer specialists easing mental health worker shortage

BY CHRISTINE VESTAL STATELINE.ORG (MCT)

WASHINGTON — When he was 44, Ben Achord recently recalled, he was “the picture of success.” Married with three kids, he was a manager at a Charlotte, N.C., manufacturing company and owned a handsome fourbedroom house.

What he didn’t know was he was suffering from schizoaffective disorder, a serious mental illness that can cause severe depression, delusions and hallucinations. Unaware of his condition, he self-medicated with alcohol, and before his 45th birthday he had lost everything — his family, his job and his house.

He lived on the streets, twice attempted suicide and spent several months in a mental hospital in Georgia.

Twenty-five years later, Achord is helping others with mental illness as a “certified peer specialist” licensed by the state of Georgia. Armed with non-clinical training from the state, Achord helps people with mental illness stay on their medications, find jobs and housing, and build social support networks.

Surge in demand Peer programs such as Georgia’s could become especially important once the Affordable Care Act takes effect early next year.

The federal health law will require Medicaid and all oth-

er health plans to cover mental health services on par with insurance coverage of physical illnesses. It also will add an estimated 8 million people to the Medicaid rolls in the first year, many of whom will have untreated mental illnesses. Another 7 million people are expected to get federal tax subsidies to purchase health insurance, many for the first time.

That surge in demand, combined with an already severe shortage of mental health workers, has many worried there won’t be enough providers to serve everyone in need. States have deployed a variety of strategies to alleviate the longstanding shortage of mental health professionals. But experts agree peer specialists are the most successful.

Mental health peer specialists In 31 states, Medicaid pays for licensed peer specialists, counselors recovering from severe mental illness or substance abuse who are trained to help others with similar conditions.

States where Medicaid pays for peer specialists

R.I. Conn.

Del. D.C.

Important new addition Research shows that by using peer specialists, states can save mental health money by reducing hospitalizations and other emergency interventions. And people with mental illness who are helped by peers tend to experience more thorough and longer-lasting recoveries.

“They are a terribly important new addition to the workforce,” says Bob Glover, director of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors. “When peers are involved, outcomes are dramatically better across the board,” he says.

Achord believes that if it weren’t for his 23-year-old daughter, who

NOTE: In Georgia, Medicaid pays peer specialists to provide “whole helath” counseling

retrieved him from Georgia’s Central State Hospital and took custody of him, he would still be hospitalized — or dead. “It only takes one person,” Achord says, “to make a difference in someone’s life.”

For hundreds of years, peer support has been a recovery strategy for people wrestling with alcoholism or post-traumatic stress — Native Americans were utilizing it as far back as the 18th century. But the U.S. health sys-

© 2013 MCT Source: OptumHealth and Appalachian Consulting Group Graphic: Adam Rotmil, Christin Vestal, Stateline.org

tem didn’t fully embrace peer support for people suffering from mental illness until less than a decade ago, when multiple staterun Medicaid programs began to pay for it.

Success in Georgia In 1999, Georgia became the first state to get federal approval to pay for peer services through Medicaid.

The program was such a success that by 2007, the federal

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) urged other states to follow Georgia’s lead.

Since then, at least 30 states and the District of Columbia have launched peer programs. Several others are seeking federal approval.

Beyond Medicaid, at least as many states are spending scarce mental health dollars to train and certify peer specialists to work in a variety of public and private settings. One such program, called peer mentoring, assigns a peer specialist to an individual who is discharged after a long-term stay in a state mental hospital. By helping discharged patients find housing, employment and social support, peer specialists have succeeded in lowering readmissions.

Private insurers and other public programs such as the Veterans Administration are also ramping up their use of peers, in part to fill a widening gap in the number of clinically trained mental health workers.

“Peer support is absolutely part of a national strategy to get more boots on the ground quickly,” says Sita Diehl, who heads state policy for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “Because of their life experience and their relatively low cost, they can provide more face time for people with serious mental illness.”

TOj B4

FOOD

Culinary creations by (and for) FAMILIES

Peanut Butter Pear-ot Peanut Butter Pear-ot Makes: 2 Sandwiches 2 tablespoons Jif Natural Creamy Peanut Butter 1 pear, shredded 1 medium carrot, shredded 1 celery stalk, sliced thin 1/4 cup dried cranberries 2 whole wheat flatbread wraps 2 tablespoons Jif Chocolate Flavored Hazelnut Spread 1 teaspoon chopped dry roasted peanuts Mix peanut butter, pear, carrot, celery and dried cranberries in medium bowl.

Diviade mixture between two flatbread wraps. Wrap snugly. Cut each wrap in half.

Spread hazelnut spread on cut halves of wraps, and sprinkle on chopped peanuts.

Prepare to delight your taste buds. Don’t forget to share with a friend.

Bananas Foster PB & B Bananas Foster PB & B Makes: 1 Sandwich 4 tablespoons butter 2/3 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract Bananas 2 thick slices of bread 2 tablespoons Jif Creamy Peanut Butter Crispy cooked bacon Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.

Peel and slice bananas in half, then slice again lengthwise.

Once it begins to bubble, put in slices of banana and cook until bananas are warm, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Toast bread. Spread 1 table­spoon peanut butter (or more, if desired) on each piece of toast.

Place bacon slices on one side of toast.

Gently place warm banana slices on top of other piece of toast.

Close sandwich and slice in half.

TOJ

SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Apple Fries Peanut Butter Surprise Makes: 1 Sandwich 1 8-inch flour tortilla 3 tablespoons Jif Creamy Peanut Butter, divided 1 tablespoon granola (small chunks) 1 tablespoon mini chocolate chips 1 large apple Lay tortilla flat on plate. Spread 2 table­spoons peanut butter in 4-inch circle in top center of tortilla (start about 2 inches down from top).

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of granola and 1 tablespoon of mini chocolate chips on top of peanut butter. Lightly press in.

Cut one apple to look like French fries. Lay apple fries vertically on top of the peanut butter circle. Place all apple fries on top of peanut butter; stack if necessary.

Spread remaining 1 tablespoon peanut butter to line edges of entire bottom half of tortilla.

Fold up bottom half of tortilla to cover half of apple fries. Take right side of tortilla and fold in. Take left side and fold in as well, overlapping the right side. Dab some peanut butter to “glue” sides together.

To eat: Pull out apple fries one by one, and/or eat like a sandwich.

Magnificent Mole Chicken Torta

FROM Family Features

E

ncouraging kids to get creative in the kitchen is a fun way to make great memories, meals and moments together. And for more than 10 years, Jif® has inspired parents to creatively collabo­rate with their kids in the Jif Most Creative Sandwich Contest™ for the chance to win a $25,000 college fund. Last year’s top entries ranged from a sweet and spicy sandwich to satisfying snacks and dreamy desserts. Inspire your family with these delicious recipes or check out www.jif. com for even more creative options.

Magnificent Mole Chicken Torta Jacob C., Morgantown, N.C. 2013 Grand Prize Winner Makes: 1 Sandwich Sauce: Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking spray 2 tablespoons minced onion 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic 2 tablespoons Jif® Chocolate Flavored Hazelnut Spread 1/3 cup condensed tomato soup Juice of half a lime (about 2 tablespoons) 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin 1/4 teaspoon dried cilantro 1/4 cup chopped green chili peppers Sandwich: 3/4 cup pulled rotisserie chicken, heated 1 bolillo roll, sliced lengthwise 1 slice Monterey Jack cheese, halved 3 avocado slices 1/2 cup thinly sliced lettuce 1/8 cup chopped tomato Dollop of sour cream (optional) Spray small sauce pot generously with no-stick cooking spray; sauté minced onion and garlic over medium-high heat until tender.

Stir in spread, tomato soup, lime juice, cumin, cilantro and green chili peppers. Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove sauce from heat. Toss half the sauce with pulled chicken; place mixture on bottom half of roll.

Top with cheese slices and place sandwich open-faced under toaster oven or broiler for 2 to 3 minutes until cheese melts. Remove sandwich from oven, and place sliced avocado on top of melted cheese.

Add lettuce, tomatoes, dollop of sour cream (optional) and top half of roll. Use remaining sauce as extra or to make another sandwich.

Our most recent champ, 9-yearold Jacob C. from North Carolina, impressed the judges with his savory Mexican-inspired sandwich using Jif Chocolate Flavored Hazelnut Spread.

Get Cooking! This year, your family can be a part of the excite­ment as Jif launched the 12th Annual Jif Most Creative Sandwich Contest on August 20, 2013. Parents can submit their kid’s creative sandwich recipes using at least two tablespoons of any Jif product (except Jif To Go®).

Visit jif.com for Official Rules and more infor­ma­tion. The Jif Most Creative Sandwich Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C. between six and 12 years of age by November 8, 2013. Void where prohibited.

Banutter Cream Sandwiches Banutter Cream Sandwiches Makes: 4 Sandwiches 2 ripe bananas 4 tablespoons Jif Creamy Peanut Butter 1 teaspoon honey 8 chocolate graham crackers Peel 2 ripe bananas and cut into 1-inch slices.

Freeze bananas for at least 1 hour, then remove from freezer and put into blender.

Add 4 rounded table­ spoons of peanut butter, 1 teaspoon of honey, and blend well.

Spoon mixture onto graham cracker and place another graham cracker on top (should make 4 sandwiches).

Put sandwiches in freezer until mixture is frozen solid.

Apple Fries Peanut Butter Surprise

STOJ

SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA'S

finest

submitted for your approval

B5

Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?

E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier. com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/ glamour/ fashion photography, please!) In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age. Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.

andre

monique

South Florida-based model Monique is this week’s female Florida’s Finest.

Andre is a Miami Beach resident and a retired computer specialist tech.

He models swimsuits from time to time and loves nature, gadgets and tech.

Contact him at nut4692000@yahoo.com.

10 new broadcast series worth your time-shift

BY ELLEN GRAY PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS (MCT)

There are people who’ll tell you there’s no such thing as a fall TV season anymore, that new television shows can pop up anytime, anywhere, and that the idea of releasing a few dozen of them at once and hoping they’ll catch on is so last century.

They’re right.

And wrong.

Yes, broadcast TV — which is what we’re really talking about when we talk about a “season,” since most of cable’s never played the September-May game — is moving closer to a year-round model, and even taking a cue from the competition by cutting some season orders to 13 to 15 episodes from the traditional 22, to reduce the number of reruns.

But networks still sell advertisers on a product that starts to roll out shortly after school starts. While a few fall shows won’t premiere until late October or early November, the onslaught began Monday, with the debut of Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow.” On Sept.

22, the Emmys kick off the networks’ official premiere week, and by mid-October, there’ll be nearly two-dozen new scripted shows (assuming that some haven’t already been canceled).

So the madness isn’t over yet.

Here are five comedies and five dramas that stand out so far.

THE COMEDIES ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Andy Samberg (“Saturday Night Live”) stars as a police detective who doesn’t color inside the lines and Andre Braugher (“Men of a Certain Age”) is the new guy in charge of his crayons in this NYPDset show from the produc-

Airing: 10 p.m. Mondays, NBC, starting Sept. 23.

ers of “Parks and Recreation.”

What I liked about it: Allusions to “Barney Miller” probably wouldn’t mean much to Fox’s target audience, so I’ll just say that Samberg’s irresistible force meets Braugher’s immovable object entertainingly, and that a hilarious ensemble seals the deal: Terry Crews (“Everybody Hates Chris”), Melissa Fumero, Stephanie Beatriz, Chelsea Peretti and Joe Lo Truglio (“Reno 911!”).

Airing: 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Fox.

‘The Crazy Ones’ Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar play an undisciplined genius of a father and his down-toearth daughter who run an ad agency in this show from David E. Kelley (“Ally McBeal”).

What I liked about it: Some of the season’s best (and worst) new shows focus on family ties, but only one co-stars James Wolk (Bob Benson, of “Mad Men”). Wolk’s ability to keep up with Williams’ antics takes a little pressure off Gellar, who’s still getting up to speed (but wins comedy points for singing in front of guest star Kelly Clarkson in the pilot).

Airing: 9 p.m. Thursdays, CBS, beginning Sept. 26.

‘The Michael J. Fox Show’ Fox’s real life is all over this show about a popular news anchor who took a few years off after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s and who’s now headed back to work.

What I liked about it: No one’s better than Fox at helping to guide people past the elephant in the room — yes, it’s OK to laugh, because he does — but he’s smartly surrounded himself with people like Wendell Pierce (“Treme,” “The Wire”), Betsy Brandt (“Breaking Bad”) and Ka-

‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’

EDDY CHEN/FOX/MCT

From Emmy Award-winning writer/producers of “Parks and Recreation” and starring Emmy Award winners Andy Samberg (second from left) and Andre Braugher (second from right), Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a new single-camera workplace comedy about what happens when a hotshot detective (Samberg) gets a new Captain (Braugher) with a lot to prove. The new single-camera workplace comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine premieres this fall on FOX. Also pictured from left Terry Crews and Melissa Fumero. tie Finneran, guaranteeing that he won’t have to be in every single scene. Also smart: Getting a 22-episode guarantee, because like the character, the show’s still struggling a little with the worklife balance.

Airing: 9:30 p.m. Thursdays, NBC, premiering Sept. 26 with episodes at 9 and 9:30.

‘Trophy Wife’ Malin Akerman stars as Wife No. 3 to Bradley Whitford’s divorced-dad character in a show loosely based on co-creator Sarah Haskins’ experience (as the wife of Julie Andrews’ stepson).

What I liked about it: A surprisingly charming take on the kind of family no one plans for, it gives nearly as much funny face time to the exes (Marcia Gay Harden and Michaela Watkins) as it does to the ridiculously gorgeous Akerman. Still, I’m waiting to see how they’ll keep Whitford’s character from seeming like a guy who trades in wives for younger models.

Airing: 9:30 p.m. Tues-

days, ABC, beginning Sept.

24.

‘Mom’ Anna Faris (“The House Bunny”) stars as a waitress and single mother whose recent sobriety is tested when her recovering alcoholic mother Allison Janney (“The West Wing”) reappears in her life in the latest sitcom from Chuck Lorre (“Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory”).

What I liked about it: It’s funnier than its premise — it would almost have to be — and its stars have chemistry.

Airing: 9:30 p.m. Mondays, CBS, starting Sept. 23.

THE DRAMAS ‘Hostages’ Toni Collette stars as a surgeon whose family’s taken hostage by a rogue FBI agent (Dylan McDermott) on the night before she’s to operate on the president.

What I liked about it: A 15-episode season feels just

Created by Joss Whedon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”), the comics empire’s first television series takes up where “The Avengers” left off and stars Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson (I know — you thought he was dead).

What I liked about it: Whedon’s humor permeates a pilot that doesn’t actually require viewers to have seen all those Marvel superheroes on the big screen. Fun for geeks of all ages.

Punctuation note: Yes, ABC’s spelling it “S.H.I.E.L.D.” Airing: 8 p.m. Tuesdays, ABC, beginning Sept. 24.

about right for this thriller, which won’t have to string us along until May. Not the best drama of the fall — that would be Showtime’s “Masters of Sex,” which premieres Sept. 29 — but, like ABC’s “Scandal,” “Hostages” is both cynical and romantic. And I love how a ski mask can’t disguise McDermott (who’s not to be confused, as he so often is, with Dermot Mulroney, who’s taking hostages in NBC’s midseason drama “Crisis”).

Airing: 10 p.m. Mondays, CBS, beginning Sept. 23.

‘Almost Human’

‘The Blacklist’

‘Lucky 7’

James Spader (“Boston Legal”) plays another of those rogue federal agents, a most-wanted fugitive who cuts a deal to help his former colleagues, but only if he can work with a newly minted FBI profiler (Megan Boone).

What I liked about it: Did I mention James Spader? I’m taking producers at their word that there’s more here than a mashup of “Alias” and “Silence of the Lambs,” but for now, it’s all riding on Spader.

Co-workers at a gas station in Queens strike it rich when their lottery pool buys a winning ticket. Based on a British series and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

What I liked about it: The cast’s diverse and the stories — rooted in the lives of people who don’t get much attention from TV — aren’t likely to involve government conspiracies, superheroes or robots.

Airing: 10 p.m. Tuesday, ABC, beginning Sept. 24.

Karl Urban and Michael Ealy star in a cop show set in a future in which humans and robots fight crime together.

What I liked about it: Ealy’s fun as the discontinued-model android whose new partner (Urban) is part-synthetic (and maybe part-Neanderthal), the ensemble includes Lili Taylor as their boss and it’s from “Fringe” producers J.J. Abrams and J.H. Wyman.

Airing: 8 p.m. Mondays, Fox 29, beginning Nov. 4.

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SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

STOJ