Florida Courier - December 06, 2013

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VOLUME 21 NO. 49

Page B1

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DECEMBER 6 - DECEMBER 12, 2013

DECORATIONS, DISPARITIES

Another Civil War fight

As the first lady gets the White House ready for Christmas visitors, the president refocuses on income inequality and responds to a Chinese attempt to control airspace.

COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS

service programs to residents of a low-income area of Washington.

The event was organized by the Center for American Progress, a think tank with close ties to the White House that released a series of reports Wednesday showing that income inequality does not produce sustained economic growth.

Obama’s speech comes amid growing international attention on the issues that even included a wide-ranging document by Pope Francis denouncing the global financial system.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled the 2013 holiday decorations at the White House Wednesday, officially kicking off a season that will bring tens of thousands to the first family’s adopted home for a series of parties and tours.

Meanwhile, across town, her husband focused attention – again – on the growing income disparity between rich and poor that he says is a top problem for the country, but which persists five years into his presidency.

President Obama spoke at the Challenges GOP Town Hall Education Arts RecThe president called anew on reation Campus, which provides Republicans to embrace his preeducational, cultural and social scriptions of government help,

Rebel and Union descendants, supporters scrap over monument

BY MARGIE MENZEL NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT

First Lady Michelle Obama welcomes military families to a tour of holiday decorations at the White House on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, in Washington, DC. from jobless benefits to a higher minimum wage. Republicans said Obama’s policies make things worse, not better.

“I believe this is the defining challenge of our time, making sure our economy works for every

working American,” Obama said.

“That’s why I ran for president. It was the center of last year’s campaign. It drives everything I do in this office.”

His remarks follow a central See OBAMA, Page A2

WORLD AIDS DAY 2013

The White House remembers

LAKE CITY – The state parks system is on the hot seat and a House leader is calling for action over a proposed monument to Union soldiers at the site of the biggest Civil War battle fought in Florida.

The bid to add a Union monument to the Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park near Lake City has drawn a furious response, with about 100 people attending a Monday night public hearing at the Columbia County School District Auditorium. Representatives of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the state parks, moderated the hearing.

Passions ran high, at one point erupting in a spontaneous chorus of “Dixie” led by a Black man, H.K. Edgerton, who called Union soldiers “rapists” and wielded his large Confederate flag like a conductor’s baton as the audience sang.

‘Rest in peace’ Speakers blasted the proposal as disturbing hallowed ground in a rural community where most families stay for generations.

“Putting a Union monument at Olustee would be like placing a memorial to Jane Fonda at the entrance to the Vietnam memorial,” said Leon Duke.

“Men died there. Let their spirits rest in peace,” said Nansea Marham Miller, who is descended from a Confederate soldier who died at Olustee. “Let my grandfather rest in peace.”

The park is in the Osceola National Forest, 50 miles west of Jacksonville and 15 miles east of Lake City. It was the site of a four-hour battle on Feb. 20, 1864, in which Union forces were routed by Confederate troops.

First state park

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT

In 1909, the Florida Legislature acquired three acres there to build a memorial. In 1912, Olustee became the first state

A huge red ribbon hung on the North Portico of the White House in recognition of World AIDS Day on Sunday, Dec. 1.

Study: Fat and healthy is a myth

BY MELISSA HEALY LOS ANGELES TIMES / MCT

Your body mass index (BMI) says you’re obese, but you don’t have “pre-diabetes” – a mix of factors such as hypertension, high cholesterol and high glucose levels that indicates you’re on the road to metabolic illness. And you’re thinking you’ve beaten the odds, right?

Wait 10 years, a new study says. Odds are, you’ll be proven wrong.

New research finds that even when a person is “metabolically healthy,” being obese raises his BITA HONARVAR/ or her risk for cardiovascular ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION/MCT disease and premature death.

Judi Mason walks for exercise in PiedIt just takes a study that tracks mont Park in Atlanta. subjects for 10 years or more to

ALSO INSIDE

pick it up, says the study, pub- no means universal among lished this week in the Annals those with BMIs over 30.

Those findings had fueled of Internal Medicine. resistance to the nationwide assault on obesity from those Obesity is unhealthy The meta-analysis – a study who argued they were “fat but that aggregates the findings of fit.”

The latest study does less many well-designed studies in damage to the growing susan effort to distill larger truths – appears to dash hopes that for picion that it’s OK to be oversome, obesity can be a perfect- weight – with a body mass index between 25 and 30 – if ly healthy state.

In recent years, a welter of you’re metabolically healthy. research has suggested that the On average, cardiovascular disillnesses long linked to obesity ease and death from any cause – cardiovascular disease, Type was not higher among the 2 diabetes and certain cancers overweight-but-metabolically– might stem not from obesity healthy than it was for those of itself but from metabolic dys- normal weight who were metafunction, a condition more bolically healthy.

See STUDY, Page A2 common in the obese but by

See FIGHT, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Teens’ ‘sexting’ photos end up on porn websites Pinellas County supervisor, Detzner resolve dispute NATION | A6

MLK kids at odds with Young FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT | B5

Meet Kimberly

Braxton, Thicke win Soul Train awards

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: MARK MORIAL: AFFORDABLE CARE ACT A NEW WEAPON IN FIGHT AGAINST AIDS | A5

FOCUS

A2

DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

The ‘missing link’ between children, parents Recently, I was sitting around with a few friends of mine that could be described as seniors.

One guy told us about an old female friend of ours that lived alone that had been found dead in her home. Her daughter had been calling her for days and when she got no answer, the daughter called the police. They subsequently visited the house and found her mother.

Almost simultaneously, we all thought that if we died at home, we might lay there for months because our children seldom call us and almost never visit us or spend time with us.

And if they did try to contact us after months of noncontact and are told we are deceased, who would they tell what happened?

Lucius Gantt THE GANTT REPORT

Kids don’t know Our kids don’t know their parent’s friends. They don’t know our religious leaders or what place of worship we attend. They don’t know anything about who their parents are now, what they like now, how they want to be treated now or how they want to be remembered when their parents are gone.

Too many children forget everything good that their parents have done for them.

They cling to things about their parents that they do not like.

I once told my child about

all of the sacrifices, compromises and other things that I did for the child. I talked about how the child was never homeless, never hungry, never went without clothes, always had school lunch money, always got Christmas gifts and always had Sunday school donations.

But now, after they’ve lived the good childhood life and are grown, the response to what parents did for their children is, “It’s not about the money!” Easy to say when you have a good job and Mom and Dad are on fixed incomes or have no money at all.

Kids ‘lost minds’ People wonder why young people are disrespectful to their parents and other elders. It is because they have lost their

minds!

I don’t mean your children are crazy. I mean your mind is your children’s mind! When they stop trusting you, stop looking up to you, stop talking to you, stop listening to you, stop believing in you, stop respecting you and stop loving you, they have lost one of the most important relationships they will ever have.

Throughout human history, people of African descent have learned from their parents and grandparents. We discussed our history, we shared our history and we passed down our history from generation to generation. How in the hell do you think Alex Haley got information to write the book “Roots”?

Nowadays, if it isn’t on Facebook, it isn’t history, it

isn’t important. If you can’t hear it on 106 & Park or on the Tom Joyner Show it’s not worth listening to.

Parents aren’t perfect If you want to look for a reason to hate your Mom or Dad there is no need for an extensive search because parents are not perfect and are born in sin just like children are.

But if you look for a reason to love your parents all you have to do is look at yourself! If it wasn’t for your parents love and support you wouldn’t exist, let alone be who you are today.

“The Missing Link” is the time that you refuse to communicate with your parents, the time that you refuse to spend with your parents and the time that you refuse to help your parents

FIGHT park in Florida, and each February, a re-enactment of the battle is staged there. There was heavy debate during Monday’s meeting about whether the already-existing memorial is a Confederate memorial or is broader in scope.

Last February, DEP received a proposal from the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War to add a memorial specifically for Union officers and soldiers. The agency vetted the proposal and scheduled Monday’s public hearing to discuss possible locations at the park for the memorial.

State criticized

No Union memorial

OBAMA from A1 theme he has pursued ever since declaring his candidacy: harnessing the federal government to help those at the bottom or middle of the economic ladder.

He focused on the issue during a commencement address at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. before he was president and a speech in Osawatomie, Kan., in late 2011.

In August, he honored the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington by calling for economic equality – what he called a crucial step to long sought-after racial equality. He is expected to talk about the issue again in his State of the Union address early next year, according to White House officials.

‘Head-on’ “This is an issue that we have to tackle head on,” he said. “And if, in fact, the majority of Americans agree that our No. 1 priority is to restore opportunity and broad-based growth for all Americans, the question is why has Washington consistently failed to act?”

Much of the 50-minute speech touched on how changes in technology and globalization have hurt jobs and benefits for many, while enriching others. The top 10 percent of wage earners, who used to take in one-third of the nation’s income, now take in half, he said.

“There’s a dangerous and growing inequality

Excerpts from Gantt columns are now posted every week on The Gantt Report’s Facebook page; become a fan. Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.

Contact Lucius at www. allworldconsultants.net.

“Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

the way it was commemorated by those who established (it),” Baxley said.

He suggested getting the matter “off the table” by means of a bill that he would sponsor.

But Rep. Elizabeth Porter, a Lake City Republican, said she had spoken with DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard and that the public hearing –by getting local reaction onto the record – would help resolve the dispute.

She also disagreed with Baxley’s suggestion of a legislative remedy. “Does anyone here think the Legislature always has the right answer? I’m in it, and I don’t.”

from A1

Mike Farrell, a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, is also descended from a soldier who died at Olustee.

Farrell said he’s been a historical exhibitor at the park for years and proposed the new memorial as a result.

“I always have the visiting public approach me and ask me where the Union monument is on the battlefield, and I often tell them, ‘There isn’t any…’ What I’m talking about is a battlefield monument,” Farrell said.

Many speakers said the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which generated donations to match the state’s contribution, originally secured the land on which the current memorial is placed. The United Daughters

in the ways that they helped you when you couldn’t help yourself.

If you have children that don’t know many of their own relatives, those are children that don’t talk to their parents.

If you hate your parents, you hate yourself.

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

In 2006, H.K Edgerton supported a proposed Confederate heritage license plate, which failed.

This year, he opposes a monument to honor Union soldiers killed on the Olustee battlefield. of the Confederacy also administered the site until 1949, when the state took over.

‘Honors all’ Jamie Likins, president general of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and a fifth-gen-

and lack of upward mobility that has jeopardized middle-class America’s basic bargain: that if you work hard, you have a chance to get ahead,” he said.

Same solutions Obama said solutions draw on the actions of past presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who developed programs, such as land-grant colleges, Social Security and protections for workers.

He called on lawmakers to restore automatic spending cuts that he signed into law in 2011 in a failed bid to force Congress to enact some other way to cut the deficit and extend jobless benefits for 1.3 million long-term unemployed Americans that expire in a few weeks.

Obama did not recommend any new policies to help alleviate the income gap, but he pushed for programs he already had supported – an increase in the minimum wage, expanding preschool initiatives, rewriting the nation’s immigration laws and passing laws that would protect women and gays against discrimination – all of which have been met coolly by Republicans.

Obama challenged Republicans Wednesday: “You owe it to the American people to tell us what you are for, not just what you’re against.”

Biden in China After months of planning a trip to boost U.S. trade with Asia, Vice President Joseph Biden instead is leading an ur-

eration Floridian, noted that the idea for the monument had come from a member of her group whose husband had fought at Olustee.

“The Olustee monument is to the Battle of Olustee and honors all, both, Confederate and Union

gent diplomatic mission to calm tensions between China and its neighbors and to prevent a potential conflict.

After arriving here Wednesday, Biden closeted himself with President Xi Jinping for 5 1/2 hours in what U.S. officials described as an effort to reassure anxious allies in the region, and to prevent further escalation of the dispute over China’s recent declaration of an air defense identification zone over islands that Japan administers.

The White House hopes Biden can persuade Xi to rein in the assertive nationalism that has characterized his first year in office, one in which Chinese forays into the East China Sea and South China Sea have rattled its neighbors, including Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

U.S. officials said Biden’s closed-door discussions and working dinner with Xi in the Great Hall of the People covered both strategic and granular topics, from Iran and North Korea to Chinese interest rate liberalization and reforms. Aides say the two men, who have met repeatedly in the past, share a close personal bond.

But despite two lengthy exchanges, the pair did not resolve the thorny issue that has overshadowed Biden’s trip: China’s abrupt declaration on Nov. 23 that all foreign aircraft must seek Chinese permission to enter a broad area over the East China Sea, including over disputed islands called the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

“The vice president laid

soldiers,” Likins said.

House Judiciary Chairman Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said he was concerned that no elected body had reviewed the proposal.

“There is a sacred trust that’s being violated when you go in and change an historic site from

out our position in detail,” a senior administration official traveling with Biden told reporters. “He indicated … that we don’t recognize the zone, that we have deep concerns about it.”

modate 50,000 simultaneous users and more than 800,000 daily visitors. Offices expect a surge this month as people enroll in coverage in order to have insurance that begins on Jan. 1.

Defends Obamacare

Holidays at the White House

On Tuesday, Obama, stung by the enduring controversy over the Affordable Care Act, defended his signature program.

“What’s important for everybody to remember is not only that the law has already helped millions of people, but that there are millions more who stand to be helped, and we’ve got to make sure they know that,” the president said. “Our poor execution in the first couple months on the website clouded the fact that there are a whole bunch of people who stand to benefit.”

Obama, who has seen his approval rating plunge to the lowest levels of his presidency, will spend the next month on a renewed effort to tout the law’s benefits. He plans to stress how “Obamacare” will slow growth in health care costs, provide preventative care and assist those with pre-existing conditions.

Eighty-three volunteers began decorating the White House for the busy season beginning the day after Thanksgiving.

There are dozens of wreaths and thousands of ornaments as well as handmade decorations, stained glass and enormous flower arrangements.

The theme of the decorations this year is “Gather Around: Stories of the Season.” As in past years, the first lady opened the house to military families first.

Site improved More than 1 million people visited the Obamacare website Monday, more than doubling its typical weekday volume of users. Some were asked to return later because of the high volume.

The site, which serves as the portal for the federal health insurance marketplace, can now accom-

Military families honored An entire room is dedicated to military families, with a massive tree trimmed with holiday greeting cards drawn by military children from bases across the country as a way to celebrate their parents’ service.

Visitors will be able to fill out Operation Honor cards to write a note of gratitude in honor of our military families, service members and veterans.

Anita Kumar, David Lightman and Tony Pugh of the McClatchy Washington Bureau; and Barbara Demick and Paul Richter of the Los Angeles Times (MCT) all contributed to this report.

DEP officials also came in for some criticism for having allowed the proposal to come as a surprise to the locals, but Porter said they were just doing their jobs.

David McAllister of Tampa, however, wasn’t reassured. He said his great-grandfather had donated four acres in Wakulla County to commemorate the Battle of Natural Bridge, and he was worried that that site would also be tampered with.

“Is Natural Bridge next?” he demanded.

Other suggestions included incorporating the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War as donors and collaborators in a battlefield museum, with an exhibit of their own.

STUDY from A1 But even those findings left the question open: There was a trend in that direction. But it was not so robust that the researchers could be confident it wasn’t a statistical fluke.

Troubling trend In the end, that trend may be the most significant finding of all. When researchers used BMI to line up all of the 61,386 subjects who participated in the eight studies they pooled, they found that, as BMI rose, so did blood pressure, waist circumference and insulin resistance.

As BMI increased, levels of HDL cholesterol, thought to protect against heart attack and stroke, decreased.

Though overweight and obese subjects may not yet have reached the points that define metabolic illness, they appeared to be on that road as their weight rose.

“Increased BMI is not a benign condition, even in the absence of metabolic abnormalities,” the authors said in study released Monday.

The newest study does not give “normal weight” people a pass if they are metabolically unhealthy. In this aggregation of subjects from many different studies, the authors found that this group is just as likely as those who are obese and metabolically unhealthy to have a stroke or heart attack or die of any cause – a surprise, since it has long been assumed that the combination of obesity and metabolic dysfunction confers the greatest risk.

DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

FLORIDA

A3

Pinellas County supervisor, Detzner resolve dispute Elections chief wasn’t planning to follow secretary of state’s order on locations for absentee ballots NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Secretary of State Ken Detzner and Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark appear to have resolved their differences over where absentee ballots can be collected in the special election to replace the late Congressman C.W. Bill Young.

According to a letter from Detzner to Clark released late Tuesday, the two spoke earlier in the day and Detzner will not take the dispute to court to try to enforce a directive ordering supervisors that they should only accept completed absentee ballots at their offices.

“Again, as we discussed earlier, we believe that your quick work to amend your voting security procedures is essential prior to a single-county Special Election for Congressional District 13,” Detzner wrote. “I do not see the need for any further legal action at this time.”

Election in March Some supervisors, including Clark, have used secure boxes at locations like early voting sites to make it easier for absentee voters to cast their ballots.

Clark had said she would continue to do so in the special election. Voters are expected to go to the polls Jan. 14 for the primary to replace Young, who died in October. The general election is slated for March 11.

Detzner issued a direc-

tive Nov. 25, in response to what his office said are questions from some county supervisors about new language in the state’s voter-registration guide telling voters not to return their completed absentee ballots to early voting locations.

Some supervisors provide secure boxes at early voting sites for that purpose.

“Supervisors should not solicit return of absentee ballots at any place other than a supervisor’s office, except for the purpose of having the absentee ballots cancelled if the voter wants to vote in person,” Detzner wrote in the directive.

But in a response dated Monday, Pinellas County Supervisor Deborah Clark said she didn’t plan to follow Detzner’s order. She also laid out the security procedures that her office uses at the locations where voters can drop their ballots.

“They are specifically directed at ensuring the sanctity and integrity of both the ballots and the election,” Clark wrote. “Given my firm belief that my use of drop-off locations for absentee ballots as set forth herein is in full compliance with the law, I plan to continue using them, including in the impending special primary election.”

‘A little bit lacking’ A spokeswoman for Detzner’s office said the directive was issued in response to questions from two elections supervisors.

“The directive doesn’t change anything in the law,” said spokeswoman Brittany Lesser. “It’s a clarification of existing law.”

Ron Labasky, general counsel of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, said the organization was trying to figure out how to handle

SCOTT FISHER/SUN SENTINEL/MCT

Early voters wait in line to vote via absentee ballot outside the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office in suburban West Palm Beach on Nov. 5, 2012. Secretary of State Ken Detzner delivered a directive last month about locations for absentee ballots. some supervisors’ concerns about the directive.

Labasky said he was dubious about how Detzner was interpreting the law by tying together parts of the elections code, which doesn’t explicitly ban returning the ballots to early voting sites.

“I find that maybe the legal analysis is a little bit lacking,” Labasky said.

Clarification sought Questions also had emerged about what prompted the directive shortly before absentee ballots were mailed out in what is expected to be a hotly contested congressional election. In his directive, Detzner said his office was facing questions about the absentee ballot issue.

“The Division of Elections has been asked for clarification regarding the law governing the return of absentee ballots,” he wrote.

The supervisors that Detzner’s office appears to be pointing to, though, have

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said they were not asking for a directive or even an advisory opinion. Pasco County Supervisor Brian Corley, for example, has fired off emails to state officials and others saying he was simply trying to correct an apparent citation error in the voter registration guide.

“In actuality, my staff found an error in the DOE’s 2014 Voter Registration & Voting Guide and that was my referral to Gary Holland,” Corley wrote to Lesser. Holland is the assistant director of the Division of Elections. “ ... A simple ‘thank you’ from the Division would have sufficed for catching an error & bringing it to the Division’s attention in lieu of falsely relaying to the media that I put for a ‘request!’”

Emails and opinions Corley’s original email was forwarding an email from one of his employees dealing with the change.

“See below & advise,” he wrote to Holland. “Voters have always been afforded the option of turning in their ABS at an early voting site.

“The below voter reg guide references FS101.62 & I see no reference to this scenario. Thx! Brian,” he wrote, alluding to a section of Florida statutes.

In an email to Clark, Maria Matthews, the direc-

tor of the Division of Elections, seemed to concede that Corley wasn’t requesting an opinion.

“I misspoke, he did not ask for a formal opinion,” she wrote.

In an interview Monday, Corley questioned why Detzner issued the directive so close to the mailing of absentee ballots in Pinellas County.

“I’m embarrassed for them because it’s a new low. Clearly nobody asked for any clarification on this,” he said.

“Does it fire up my Irish temper a little bit? Sure it does. But it’s not that I get mad that they’re using me as a ruse for this silly directive…What makes me angry is I’m trying to figure out where’s this coming from? The timing is very unfortunate,” he said.

“I just am scratching my head trying to figure out what their motivation is. I’d like to think it’s not nefarious. I’d like to think it’s in the name of uniformity.”

Lawsuit in Leon?

In an email to a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, Clay County Supervisor Chris Chambless said he inquired about the standard but pushed back on the idea of a formal request.

“In my past experiences, an informal telephone conversation is in no way

the process with which a Supervisor of Elections would request an advisory opinion…, much less a directive from the Secretary of State,” he wrote.

Corley said Detzner’s directive was not binding on the supervisors, who are constitutionally elected officers and do not work directly for Detzner.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of supervisors follow the direction of Supervisor Clark,” he said.

However, under state law, Detzner could file a lawsuit against Clark in Leon County Circuit Court to try to force her to follow the directive. It wasn’t clear Monday whether the state had made a decision on whether to take that route.

Detzner’s directive was the latest salvo in an ongoing skirmish between Gov. Rick Scott and his administration and the state’s supervisors, going back to an election overhaul approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature and signed into law

by Scott in 2011.

The supervisors then were outraged by rankings of supervisors performed by Detzner but later dropped after the supervisors complained. And the local officials also balked at a flawed non-citizen purge of the voting list abandoned last year but revived

by Detzner this year.

Florida teens’ ‘sexting’ photos end up on porn websites

BY ARELIS R. HERNANDEZ ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

ORLANDO — The attention of a boy swayed a girl to make one of the most regrettable decisions of her young life.

She immediately felt sick to her stomach, but the Seminole County middleschooler pressed “send” on a text message containing a risque picture that circulated like spring fever among the boys at her school.

“He begged and begged for naked photographs until one day I finally gave in to his begging,” the student wrote in testimony used by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office to educate other girls. “No guy or girl is worth exposing yourself to or ruining your life for.”

The consequences of sexting are more than embarrassment — they can be criminal. And now, those compromising photos are finding their way to pornography websites where they can live forever.

Holiday warning Mobile devices are sure to be on the holiday wish list of many teens eager for the latest and fastest Internet-enabled technology for sharing pics, tweets, messages, videos and games.

But law enforcement authorities caution parents to couple those gifts with a present for themselves: reconnaissance software to monitor every picture, text and piece of data their kids send electronically.

In recent years, Seminole sheriff’s Investigator Christie Register has identified at

least 22 current and former students who found their revealing pictures on sites where users have requested their photos by name.

“Every single one of them were giving these pictures away to somebody,” Register said about the victims.

“Once you give it away, that person can do whatever they want.”

Far from private There is little law enforcement can do because most of the websites are hosted on overseas servers.

Typically, girls are coerced by male schoolmates or a boyfriend to transmit the photos using smartphone apps such as Snapchat, whose “view once” feature promises to make the image disappear from the recipient’s phone within seconds.

Although the images were intended to be private, a simple screen shot can preserve them, Register said.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found in a 2013 online survey that one in five girls between the ages of 13 and 16 admitted to sexting or posting nude or semi-nude photos.

A quarter of them reported their sexually suggestive images were redistributed.

Felony charges possible In the Seminole County example, the female student was publicly shamed when her classmates received the photos and called her demeaning names.

Underage teens in Flor-

ida caught sending nude pictures to another minor could be found guilty of a noncriminal violation for the first offense — penalized by community service and a $60 fine.

But a second or third offense could result in misdemeanor and felony charges, according to state law.

One of the victims on Register’s list is a college student whose years-old naked photos appeared online.

“After locating the pictures I realized they have been on these sites for over five years,” the unidentified woman wrote in her testimonial for Register. “After looking more and more I found that most of the girls I went to high school with had pictures all over these sites too.”

The pictures, which were “supposed to be innocent,” were taken from a photosharing website with privacy settings that made the woman feel safe about posting them. But it was far from secure.

“Now as I continue my journey through college I worry that someone else may have come across my pictures who may be a potential employer,” the aspiring teacher wrote.

Register has traveled to schools throughout the county, hosted seminars at the Sheriff’s Office and participated in an online chat about the trend, warning families that once data is on the Internet, it can never be taken back.

“The bottom line is these are the dangers of sexting,” she said. “This is the worstcase scenario.”

EDITORIAL

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DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

What would Republicans do on health care?

Many ardent conservatives are critical of the Affordable Care Act or what they derisively call “Obamacare.” But what are they proposing that proves that they care about uninsured Americans?

The Tampa Bay Times’ “Pundit Fact” team discovered some interesting findings when they approached that question indirectly. Specifically, the newspaper looked at the main Republican alternatives to the Affordable Care Act and the patient diagnosis under the GOP proposals was not encouraging.

“Not all but most of the nine bills on our list use the tax code to put more money in citizens’ pockets on the condition that the money will be spent on health care,” the newspaper stated. “We found three basic approaches that potentially address insurance affordability.”

Overhauling health care tax de-

George E. Curry NNPA COLUMNIST

ductions; Refundable tax credits and Health Savings Accounts.

Health care tax deductions On overhauling health care tax deductions, the newspaper said, “The most generous proposal comes from the conservative Republican Study Committee, which put forward a bill with 100 cosponsors. H.R. 3121 would give a $7,500 deduction to individuals and a $20,000 deduction to families.

“We saw two big catches here.

You would need to have insurance in the first place. Plus, the

bill would eliminate the biggest tax break households enjoy today, the portion of their premiums paid by their employer. Getting rid of that $170 billion tax benefit would be a tough sell and a dramatic change to employerprovided insurance.”

Tax credits

As for the refundable tax credits, it was noted that they “are like tax deductions, with the big difference that you can claim the credit even if you don’t have taxable income. H.R. 2300 from Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., offers a maximum tax credit of $5,000 for families making up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $47,000 a year.”

The paper said, “The propos- Health accounts al from Price would make credThe third option – Health Savits payable in advance. In other ings Accounts – fared no better. words, you could use the federal The Tampa paper said, “Thomcredit even if you didn’t have the as Buchmueller, a health econo-

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: HOLIDAY SHOPPING

NATE BEELER, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 197 Reparations to Black Americans for slavery: Been spending more time on Facebook. My ‘friends’ there are young/ancient, church people/strippers, atheists/ Nation of Islam. Got into an online discussion about a college professor’s three-part reparations plan for every Black American: (1) fully funded, high-quality free education through college; (2) free, high-quality, cradle-to-grave health care; (3) no payment of income taxes for a time certain. (He doesn't mention direct cash payments to anyone.)

The most interesting responses where from Black people who didn’t think we “deserve” reparations, and from White folks who said it’s too late.

My thinking? Let the U.S. government consent that a debt is owed to EVERY descendent of any enslaved African. We can negotiate everything else. America has never asked collective forgiveness for slavery and the subsequent discrimination that was official government policy until the 1960s. And we ARE worthy of being made whole.

We are the first generation of Black people in America that has a chance to pass on intergenerational wealth. Every generation before us could have their assets stolen at whim with the active assistance of local, state and federal city councils, law enforce-

money up front to pay for insurance.

“While the details are different, this resembles the program put forward by President George W. Bush. A 2005 study of the Bush plan by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, found that ‘lower-income individuals experience the largest declines in uninsurance rates’ under the Bush proposal.

“However, of the 45 million people uninsured then, Bush’s $3,000 tax credit plan would have helped only about 2 million people who made less than 200 percent of federal poverty and just a bit over 3 million overall.”

quick takes from #2: straight, no chaser

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq. PUBLISHER

ment, and legislatures. That happened to my family.

In 1870-80, my great-grandfather, Stephen Barlow, Sr., amassed 100 acres of land free and clear outside of Americus, Ga. that was taken (stolen) by local Whites. Most of the family’s 19 children moved North and West during Black America’s “Great Migration,” and each started from scratch. It's taken four generations for my family get to a middle-class existence that is still precarious.

What's wrong with paying reparations for the "opportunity cost" Black families like mine had to pay? What is it about Black Americans that makes us think we don't deserve it when good things to happen to us? And why won't we make Frederick Douglass-style demands on power?

Contact me at ccherry2@gmail.com; holler at me at www.facebook.com/ ccherry2.

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.

THE CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESS The Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.

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However, current events received prior to deadline will be considered before any information that is submitted, without the Publisher’s prior approval, after the deadline. Press releases, letters to the editor, and guest commentaries must be e-mailed to be considered for publication. The Florida Courier reserves the right to edit any submission, and crop any photograph, for style and clarity. Materials will not be returned.

Charles W. Cherry, Sr. (1928-2004), Founder Julia T. Cherry, Senior Managing Member, Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Cassandra CherryKittles, Charles W. Cherry II, Managing Members Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Chief Executive Officer Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher Dr. Valerie Rawls-Cherry, Human Resources Jenise Morgan, Senior Editor Linda Fructuoso, Marketing Consultant/Sales, Circulation Angela VanEmmerik, Creative Director Chicago Jones, Eugene Leach, Louis Muhammad, Lisa Rogers-Cherry, Circulation Andreas Butler, Ashley Thomas, Staff Writers Delroy Cole, Kim Gibson, Photojournalists MEMBER National Newspaper Publishers Association Society of Professional Journalists Florida Press Association Associated Press National Newspaper Association

George E. Curry is editorin-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA.) Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Eager for a war with Iran Some of the responses by the Republicans and their friends to the Iran nuclear deal have been nothing short of amazing. The deal includes greater and closer inspections of Iranian sites, some relief from the sanctions, and the delay in certain steps that the Iranians had been contemplating. After six months this is to be reviewed.

The Israeli government and many of their Republican friends in the U.S. immediately attacked the deal, in some cases not even waiting to review the full text of the agreement. There is only one conclusion that can be derived from that approach: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his friends in the Republican Party here in the U.S.A. want a war with Iran.

For all of the rhetoric about increasing the sanctions, there are several ironies afoot. Israel, a country that has never been a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (and reportedly possesses at least 100 nuclear weapons), wants to cripple – if not attack – Iran, which is a country that signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has no nuclear weapons and has not been shown to actually be developing nuclear weapons.

Iran out of the loop The Israeli government, along with hawks in the Republican Party, along with some Democrats, have been beating the wardrums for years. Iran, which has a right to develop nuclear power, is being told, in essence, that it does not have such a right, though the Israelis have been permitted to secretly create nuclear weapons, some of which they developed in conjunction with apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.

The deal that the Obama administration signed with Iran, along with other major powers, steps back from the brink of war.

One does not need to be a fortune teller to know that heightened sanctions represent only one step away from all-out war. Thus, the question is whether one believes that war with Iran is justified. This needs to be put on the table and demagogues need not be permitted to walk around the issue.

BILL FLETCHER, JR. NNPA COLUMNIST

Prove it There are no demonstrable facts to indicate that the Iranians are developing nuclear weapons. You can believe anything that you want and see all sorts of possible dangers, but the evidence is not there. Instead, the Israeli government – which during the Iran/Iraq War supplied Iran with weaponry – wishes to play up fears and Islamophobia in order to discourage any sort of peaceful resolution of the conflict. In that regard it is important that you, the reader, ignore the flowery language that we hear from the Israeli government and the hawks here about their alleged desire for peace.

They are looking for what would amount to the complete surrender of the Iranians.

That is not going to happen.

War with Iran would be a game-changer.

The financial markets know it; the oil markets know it; and, my guess is that you know it. While I continue to believe that Iran – which has not invaded another country in more than 1,000 years – should be left alone, in the immediate this peace deal needs to be supported. War with Iran will be an endless war. And if you want to be reminded of some of the consequences, look at what has been happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and, by the way, open the paper to the weekly list of dead U.S. soldiers.

Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and the author of “They’re Bankrupting Us” – And Twenty Other Myths about Unions. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Governor Scott tries to fix a problem that never existed The State of Florida has a terrible record and reputation when it comes to voting. In the election of 2012, it took the Supervisors of Elections and the Secretary of the State three days to complete counting the ballots. It was extremely embarrassing to the state and an example of a dysfunctional system with no leadership.

In 2000, Ex-Governor Jeb Bush helped his brother Ex-President George Bush win the election, even though there were many counting and voting irregularities. There were three counties that Gore requested be counted by hand, and in Palm Beach a large number of ballots were spoiled. There was also a purge of voting rolls where 96,000 African American voters were identified as felons, and were turned away at the polls.

Florida’s voting system W W W.FLCOURIER.COM

mist at the University of Michigan, said it is a major undertaking to provide insurance to those who lack the money to pay for it. “’Tinkering with tax deductions and making health savings accounts more attractive is not going to change that basic fact,’ Buchmueller said. ‘Roughly half of the Affordable Care Act coverage gains come from expanding Medicaid. I don’t see anything in these proposals that would do much for the people who will gain Medicaid under the ACA.’” Like so many issues, Democrats and Republicans differ in fundamental approaches.

ROGER CALDWELL GUEST COLUMNIST

County. The directive says if a voter returns a completed ballot in person instead of by mail, it can only be returned to an election supervisor office.

Still upset at voter purge In the 2012 election in Pinellas County, there were 250,000 absentee ballots, because the county Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark has emphasized the convenience of this system. During this election there were 14 drop-off sites such as public libraries, tax collector branch offices, and other places. With this new change in absentee ballots, it has been estimated that there would be a low turnout, and this would likely favor the Republicans.

None of the Supervisors of Elections received an early notice, or a meeting that the state would change the way absentee ballots would be handled. The supervisors are still upset over the sloppy effort Scott’s Secretary of State managed last year’s purge of noncitizens from the rolls. The purge started with 182,000 voters that were alleged to be illegal, which was cut to 2,600, and on Election Day there were only 192.

The state election supervisors know what they are doing, and the absentee ballot system is working. There is no reason to fix something when it is not broken. The supervisors of elections and the citizens of the state need to help Scott and his administration, so they can run an efficient election and not embarrass the state again.

Governor Scott is always saying that his job is to protect the integrity of the voting system in Florida, but it appears that count irregularities come from the state leadership of the election. There is always a pattern of confusion or corruption, when it comes to Florida’s voting system.

“Just before Thanksgiving, Secretary Detzner has issued an unwarranted directive which no Florida voter will be thankful for.

In a state where voting by mail has become increasing popular, it is unreasonable to restrict ballot drop-off locations to just Supervisors of Elections offices, and it is unclear why the state would seek this change –particular when it has not been solicited by local SOEs,” says Deirdra Macnab, President of The League of Women Voters of Florida.

As a result of this directive several elections supervisors have criticized the state’s position, and many political office holders are claiming our governor is making it harder to vote. Other political pundits and liberal advocates are questioning the Click on this story at www.flcourier. timing of this directive, because there is a special election on March 11, in Pinellas com to write your own response.

DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

Lynching as a misdemeanor “White society is incapable of acknowledging – or even perceiving, on the cognitive level – the violence that it daily perpetrates against Blacks.”

A 17-year-old Black student is set upon by four White males that inhabit the same suite of rooms on a college campus. Over a period of almost two months, his tormentors force him into a closet and twice fasten a “U” shaped bicycle lock around his neck, once chaining him for at least ten minutes and bruising his lip in the attack.

The whole time, the perpetrators prominently display a Confederate flag, a board scrawled with the word “nigger,” and a photo of Adolph Hitler, the mass exterminator of “lesser species” of humanity, while verbally assaulting the victim with racial slurs, calling him “three-fifths” and “fraction” to dramatize their view that he is nothing but a slave to Whites.

The victim would sometimes barricade himself in his room to escape the assaults.

The initial police report describes the assaults as “hazing.”

CNN insists on calling the prolonged attacks a form of “bullying.” Journalists refer to “threefifths” and “fraction” as the victim’s “nicknames.” Ultimately, the four Whites are charged only with a misdemeanor hate crime and simple battery, for which they face a maximum of one year in county jail and possible fines.

Oblivious society The criminal offenses committed against the unnamed victim at San Jose State University should, under California and federal law, constitute felonious battery, ter-

GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT

Anybody who lives in the ghetto knows that police and prosecutors routinely pile on layers of escalating charges, all stemming from one discreet crime. roristic threats (which, under California Penal Code section 422, can be charged whether or not the person making the threat has the ability to carry out the threat or even intended to carry out the threat), and, if the police were serious about deterring such atrocities, kidnapping.

If vigorously prosecuted in the penal dystopia that California has become, the four White boys would emerge from prison as middle-aged men, covered in Aryan Nation tattoos. But that’s not going to happen, because these are the children of a White society that is incapable of acknowledging – or even perceiving, on the cognitive level – the violence that it daily perpetrates against Blacks.

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. TRICE EDNEY WIRE

Don’t go there Although Cottle's comments have been refuted by numerous individuals who are more in-tune than Cottle is with the cultural imperatives that shape our First Lady’s perspectives, Cottle’s comments deserve, at least, one more castigation. I'm sufficiently incensed to be the one to do it.

For those who missed Cottle's column, as I interpret it, her comments criticize the First Lady for disengagement from real and vital feminist issues. Cottle seemingly trivializes my First Lady’s signature issues of a focus on commitment to personal

African-American enrollment was reduced by one back in 2008, when Gregory Johnson’s body was discovered in the basement of the Sigma Chi fraternity house.

The police ruled it a suicide by hanging, despite the wound in the back of his head. “He died like a dog,” said Johnson’s tearful mother, Denise, holding pictures of her son as students consoled her at the demonstration.

University President Mohammad Qayoumi, who had initially failed to even suspend the white supremacist assailants, presented words of contrition for his cognitive dysfunction. “By failing to recognize the meaning of a Confederate flag, intervene earlier to stop the abuse, or impose sanctions as soon as the gravity of the behavior became clear, we failed him. I failed him.”

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Qayoumi has assimilated the values of his adopted country. White supremacy oozes from the digital pores of Atlanta-based CNN, which peppered its coverage of the San Jose assault with links from an article on “bullying” that featured a photo of young white actresses from the 2004 movie Mean Girls: Are we too quick to cry “bully?” When friends become bullies and Bullying among boys easily dismissed? For CNN, racist assaults and threats of lynching are nothing more than white rites of adolescent passage – like “hazing,” the term used by Raw Story, the Los Angeles Times (“NAACP seeks harsher charges in San Jose racial hazing case”) and the San Jose police, themselves, to describe the crime. health and fitness, of a commitment to strengthening families and children, and of increasing access and attendance to college by lower income students. She describes Mrs. Obama using demeaning terminology suggesting a lack of courage, a greater willingness to play it safe than to address substantive feminist issues, and of assuming a more politically expedient role than breaking through "the conventional First Lady mold."

Black Feminism Cottle was even critical of Mrs. Obama’s stated position of assuming her role as mother to Malia and Sasha as her primary focus. As already addressed in rebuttals to Cottle, Cottle may wish to reexamine her critique of the First Lady through the lens of "Black Feminism."

Unlike many white feminists, Black feminists do not have the luxury of defining their positions in subjective "either - or" terms.

As we always have, Black feminists have had to concern our-

Affordable Care Act: A new weapon in fight against AIDS “Blacks account for more new HIV infections, people estimated to be living with HIV disease, and HIV-related deaths than any other racial/ethnic group in the U.S.” – Kaiser Family Foundation Sunday, December 1, marked the 25th observance of World AIDS Day. It was a reminder of how far we have come since 1981 when several previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles were found to be infected with a mysterious and fatal immune deficiency. In the three decades since, the disease has claimed more than 35 million lives and has become a global pandemic.

The World Health Organization reports that 35.3 million people worldwide are living with HIV today.

But, according to the United Nations, “New HIV infections among adults and children were estimated at 2.3 million in 2012, a 33 percent reduction since 2001… AIDS-related deaths have also dropped by 30 percent since the peak in 2005 as access to antiretroviral treatment expands”

Life expectancies increased Here in the United States, a little more than a million Americans are living with HIV infection today. Partly because of longer life expectancies for people with HIV, over the past decade, the number of people living with the infection in the U.S. has increased, while the annu-

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: APPROVAL RATINGS

A needed intervention

Oh, no she didn’t Growing up, I was taught that the best response to most insults was to ignore them - leave them unaddressed - as unworthy of further consideration. After all, we were taught that "Sticks and stones might break our bones, but talk wouldn’t bother us." I realize now that my mother, who taught me this lesson, had the greater purpose of reducing conflict in my life, as well as eliminating the potential that I would, to my own hardship, breech the social norms of the times.

More practically, as an adult, I've learned that some insults cannot be left unchallenged. The damage that they render is far too costly to allow, and their potential to misshape a larger public perception or to create a distorted influence is too great. Such is the critique of First Lady Michelle Obama as a "feminist nightmare" by the Politico writer Michelle Cottle.

EDITORIAL

Insurers forced to comply MARC H. MORIAL TRICE EDNEY WIRE

al number of new HIV infections has remained stable. But we should not mistake better manageability of the disease as an indication that it has become a minor problem. The pace of new infections continues at far too high a level – particularly among gay men, African-Americans and Latinos. And AfricanAmericans continue to experience the most severe burden of HIV, compared with other races and ethnicities.

Blacks represent approximately 14 percent of the U.S. population, but according to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), they account for an estimated 44 percent of new HIV infections and nearly half (44 percent) of people living with HIV infection. Since the epidemic began, more than 260,800 blacks have died of AIDS. Unless the course of the epidemic changes, at some point in their lifetime, an estimated 1 in 16 black men and 1 in 32 black women will be diagnosed with HIV infection. But more help than ever before is available, including new benefits in the Affordable Care Act that remove barriers to insurance coverage, and provide better coverage options for many people living with HIV.

Starting January 1, 2014, no one can be denied health insurance or charged more because of a pre-existing health condition, such as HIV. Insurers will also no longer be allowed to limit how much they will spend on a person’s medical care – over a year or a lifetime, including people living with HIV. And plans sold through the health insurance marketplaces must provide a minimum set of benefits that should prove helpful for HIV care, including prescription drugs, doctor visits, hospital care, mental health care and certain preventive services, including HIV tests.

The National Urban League also remains a major source of help. We are a partner organization in the Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative (AAALI), a network of national-level organizations that focus on AfricanAmericans, black men who have sex with men (MSM), and the Latino community. Launched in 2009 by CDC and the White House, AAALI is a five-year national campaign to combat complacency about HIV and AIDS in the United States.

While much progress has been made, the fight against AIDS is not over.

Marc Morial is president/ CEO of the National Urban League. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

ERIC ALLIE, CAGLECARTOONS.COM

The prosecutor in the San Jose case defended his decision to charge the four white students with misdemeanor crimes.

"While we understand the outrage of those calling for even stiffer charges in this case, the charges are not a reflection of the degree of their racism," said District Attorney Jeff Rosen. "The charges are a reflection of their criminal conduct."

Anybody who lives in the ghetto knows that police and prosecutors routinely pile on layers of escalating charges, all stemming from one discreet crime (and often charge defendants with every unsolved crime in the neighborhood). In the San Jose case, nearly two months of daily crimes that can easily and reasonably be charged as felonies were stripped down to the barest misdemeanors. The DA claims he is not alselves with removing barriers and obstacles to personal achievement while fighting the overt and covert violence directed at our community. While striving for equity in the workplace and fair pay on payday, we Black feminists have had to struggle to overcome the challenge of feeding a family with resources diminished by an economy floundering under the barbaric principles of Ayn Rand and the oligarchy of corporate elitists. We’ve had to deal with gender disparities, while watching the opportunities for both females and males in our community lessened proportionate to decreasing educational and training opportunities to students.

Even among the community's poorest residents, the correlation between successful social elevation and good parenting - especially good mothering - is clear. While she can be a devoted feminist, few Black mothers will prioritize anything over our children. When circumstances allow, even Black feminists will subordinate personal interests to those of our children. We

lowed to prosecute people simply for being racist – which is true.

But racism was the obvious motive for the white supremacist students’ physical assaults, terrorist threats, and kidnapping of the Black victim from August 20 through October 13 of this year. It is central to the crime. When the larger society dismisses or diminishes racism as an element of the crimes committed against Black people, it exposes us to an infinity of assaults.

That’s why we have the right and duty of collective self-defense.

Glen Ford is the executive editor of Black Agenda Report.

Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response. clearly understand the immediate impact of our actions on our children AND the long-term strengthening effect of our actions upon our community.

Understand first Unlike many White feminists, who view the world from a position of comfort, Black feminists and those who come from backgrounds of lower incomes and greater social liabilities cannot reject the fundamental survival issues of our communities to the exclusion of issues approved by "the feminist mindset." Nor should my First Lady have to suffer the castigation and criticism of fellow-travelers who have little or no conceptual understanding of the facts of life that shape her perspective.

Dr. E. Faye Williams is National Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. www.nationalcongressbw.org.

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

Why arguing with people is usually a waste of time I enjoy good conversations and I enjoy thinking. In academia, there was a term called “mental m@sterbation,” which means that you basically think just for the sake of thinking: Why is the sky blue? Why do black women love Scandal so much? Why do people think that Martin Luther King was a saint?

The list goes on and on.

But, while I enjoy thinking things through, I find it increasingly difficult to sit and debate/argue with people for long periods of time.

It just doesn’t seem worth it anymore. mean, a great conversation is always valuable. But arguing all day with someone who is already stuck in their point of view usually doesn’t seem to have much payoff.

All about perspective Most of the time, if someone is deeply entrenched in their viewpoint, you’re not going to change their mind. Secondly, many people’s opinions are shaped by their incentives (i.e. they benefit personally from being a Republican, or a public figure is being paid to believe that all unions are good).

Third, if you do succeed in changing their mind, you’re only changing the mind of one person when you could be talking to a larger audience.

I won’t even go into areas like politics and religion, where blind faith almost always supersedes any form of logic. You might as well leave those topics alone altogether.

So, when people come at me and rant from a particular perspective, I pretty much just listen and try to understand their point of view.

Dr. Boyce Watkins GUEST COLUMNIST

Then, I end by saying, “Hmmm, that’s interesting.” I get the sense that the person is seeking to be heard (and I am truly listening), and that my trying to change their opinion is only going to lead to a long, draining conversation that leaves both of us frustrated.

Drained I had a professor friend from long ago who used to argue with me to the ends of time about the most meaningless issues and it made me so tired and angry that I couldn’t do my work after the argument was done. He is no longer my friend.

Now, I just enjoy listening, especially when someone seems to be deeply invested in his or her belief system. That’s how I get a chance to do some productive learning in the conversation and stretch my brain to try to see other perspectives. Arguing, unless the goal is to achieve joint understanding, is usually a complete waste of time.

OK, that’s my thought for the day. Proceed on to things that are more important.

Dr. Boyce Watkins co-stars in the Janks Morton Film “Hoodwinked.” Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

TOj A6

NATION

DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

MLK children now at odds with Andrew Young FROM WIRE REPORTS

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Andrew Young, a civil rights activist and top aide to King, shared a common goal: the tireless fight for civil rights. Side by side they met, talked, shared, slept, dreamed and more. Now, the family of the slain civil rights leader has put that relationship in jeopardy. They have an issue with Young, and as a result, have issued a lawsuit.

The points of legal contention are who has the rights to King’s words and image, and how far do those rights extend. Young is facing the wrath over footage of King that shows up in a series produced by his foundation.

And Young is not alone in these legal negotiations, actor Harry Belafonte also has issues with the children; albeit in a separate case, where he, too, is debating ownership of some King documents.

Young has said the following in an Associated Press story: “The question is whose legacy is it? And I agree that it’s their legacy, and that the copyright images of their father need to be protected by them, but I also feel that I’m doing the same thing for nothing and I will not give up my right to the legacy for their right to the legacy.’’

Estate vs. center At the heart of the conflict is the lawsuit filed by King’s sons, Martin Luther King III and Dexter King, who as chairman and president/CEO control their father’s estate. This includes his image and his papers, versus The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which is run by King’s daughter, Bernice, where Young serves as a member of the board.

The estate’s suit requests that

ANDREW CHUNG/MCT

Ambassador Andrew Young speaks during the “Let Freedom Ring” ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall on Aug. 28, 2013 the center be stopped from using King’s image and likeness unless certain conditions are met. Among those conditions is that Young be removed from the center’s board of directors over allegations that he used footage of King in a documentary without permission.

The lawsuit was filed Aug. 28, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington where King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Young, a King confidante who helped coordinate civil rights efforts throughout the South, takes issue about his use of footage in which both he and King appear.

“They said I infringed on their copyright. Well, I don’t think so, because I think it was my right — it’s mine also.”

Why a lawsuit?

But despite facing legal action from people he has been close to for years, Young was philosophical.

“I understand the reason for

it. I think it’s the way things go, and the way probably they ought to go,” the former Atlanta mayor, congressman and United Nations ambassador said. “We took many cases to court, simply to have the doctrines clarified and to have a court consider the merits.”

A lawyer for the King estate, Miles Alexander, declined to comment on any litigation.

Why is a lawsuit happening anyway? Jelani Cobb, history professor and director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut, has her own theory on that.

“The legal action Dr. King was concerned about was about broadening access,” Cobb said.

“The legal action that we see most prominently from the King children is about broadening their own financial possibilities and protecting their copyright.”

A Eurweb.com story was used in compiling this report.

Shoppers accuse Buy Buy of racial discrimination

BY RUTH MANUEL-LOGAN BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM

Damon and David Harvey, two cousins, went into a Buy Buy Baby retail store in Garden City, N.Y., to purchase some big-ticket items for a relative’s baby shower.

When a cashier totaled up their purchases, which came to $1,173, their money was allegedly refused and deemed counterfeit.

Now the men have reported their experience to the Division of Human Rights (DHR), who will argue their case of alleged discrimination before a judge, according to NBC New York.

The cousins went to the allthings-baby mecca to buy a crib, stroller and car seat for their cousin’s baby girl. When the Harveys approached the register and the amount for their items totaled over $1,100, they decided to pay with cash. Upon handing over the mostly $100 bills to the cashier, she examined them and informed the men that larger denominations have to be inspected by her supervisor.

Wouldn’t budge When the cashier returned to her station, she allegedly told the cousins she could not accept their money and asked for another form of payment.

The duo also allege that the cashier and store manager accused them of using counterfeit money to pay for the items. The store manager reportedly told them that their money was “not real” and “didn’t meet certain requirements.” The unnamed supervisor then threatened to call police on the two, who refused to budge from their spot and even welcomed the idea of summoning them.

When police arrived at the store and reviewed the men’s money, they surmised that the cash was valid. However, after the officers left, the supervisor still would not allow the men to purchase the

Damon and David Harvey tried to pay cash for baby items, but were turned down. items they had selected.

“I just don’t want anyone to experience what we did that day — it’s a terrible, terrible feeling,” Damon Harvey lamented to NBC New York.

Workers’ actions supported A Buy Buy Baby spokesperson, Jessica Joyce, told NBC New York that the retailer was just exercising caution and that no racist practice was involved at all. Apparently, there were some counterfeit bills being distributed in the area at the time David and Damon had shopped at the store.

“Our associates were following specific company policies which were implemented to detect and deter sophisticated counterfeit currency techniques that pass highlighter tests,” said Joyce. The store’s spokesperson is also certain that once the state inquiry is done, the evidence will prove that prejudice was not involved with regards to the men.

Meanwhile Damon and David, who referred to their shopping experience as “humiliating,” sent another cousin back to Buy Buy Bay with a debit card to make the purchases for them. No matter how their case against the store turns out, the men claim the experience is one that is forever burned into their memories.

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HEALTH FOOD || HEALTH TRAVEL | |MONEY SCIENCE | BOOKS | MOVIES | TV | AUTOS LIFE | FAITH | EVENTS | CLASSIFIEDS | ENTERTAINMENT | SPORTS | FOOD COURIER

IFE/FAITH Lots of Oscar buzz about Black actors See page B5

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

December 6 - December 12, 2013

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ named Soul Train’s best song of year See page B5

|

www.flcourier.com

“You can’t tell us we’re sick; you have to show us we’re sick.

You have to show people.

That’s what my family did.’’

What is schizophrenia Editor’s note: The following information is provided by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia years ago, Swiyyah Muhammad is sharing her story to help others understand the illness

BY JENISE GRIFFIN MORGAN FLORIDA COURIER

S

Armed with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of South Florida, the St. Petersburg native was on her way to becoming a psychiatrist. But it didn’t take long for her to realize it wasn’t going to happen.

She was assisting a therapist with her rounds when her life started to unravel.

“I started my career and it was so stressful going from house to house listening to what people were going through. It was too much,’’ she told the Florida Courier.

She left that job and moved to Orlando with her fiancé. Life was good for a short while until she started hearing music in her head. And then her fiance’s mom began hassling her about when she was going to get a job.

Strange things began to happen. She saw a teddy bear hovering over her head. Buildings looked strange and futuristic, she said, “like on ‘The Jetsons’ animated TV show.’’ She saw things that didn’t exist like a row of red cars emblazoned with Avon on the side. At the time, her mother was selling Avon cosmetics products.

Got help And there was the Hitler documentary on TV.

TOJ

PHOTO BY DEMORRIS A. LEE/ SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Don’t call her crazy

Life got strange

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Swiyyah Muhammad’s goal is to show that with treatment and medication, someone living with a mental illness can have a happy and productive life.

– Swiyyah Muhammad

wiyyah Nadirah Muhammad talks openly and even laughs heartily nowadays when she describes some of her psychotic experiences.

Like the day she thought she was Adolf Hitler.

She had been watching a TV documentary about the Nazi dictator and, in her mind, she was Hitler. She remembers vividly walking around imitating his salute.

That was in May 2003 and she ended up in a mental health hospital in St. Petersburg for a week.

Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia that week began a long journey for the 37-year-old who has made it her mission to educate others about mental illness. Since 2003, she has been hospitalized six times – all relating to her mental illness.

Molested as a child by her brother, who later committed suicide, and abused by her stepfather led the St. Petersburg woman to seek a degree to help others deal with their pain and suffering.

SECTION

Swiyyah Muhammad’s family snapped the photo of her on the right during one of her episodes. The author of “Don’t Call Me Crazy’’ says the photo is a reminder of how far she has come.

“I thought I was Hitler so when I got to the hospital, I was saluting like Hitler, she said with a laugh. “I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it wasn’t funny. I was never violent, so that’s good. With all of that going on and with my past history, I just got sick.’’

At her mother’s urging, she was taken back to St. Petersburg and ended up at Personal Enrichment Mental Health Services (PEMHS), a private, non-profit behavioral health care facility in Pinellas County where she stayed a week.

Her reaction to the diagnosis was typical. She denied it. Over the years, she would take the medicine, start feeling better, then stop taking it months later when she thought it was under control.

Wrote about it For the past few years, Muhammad has been doing well. She’s now on the right medication, has had some therapy, has learned to take care of herself better, and has become an advocate for mental illness in the Tampa Bay community.

She also has written a novel titled “Don’t Call Me Crazy: I’m Just in Love,’’ a love story that chronicles the life of a young woman diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

A teacher at St. Petersburg College added “Don’t Call Me Crazy’’ to her students’ required reading list and it has been on a suggested reading list for psychology students.

As a motivational speaker with a focus on mental illness, Muhammad tells her story to anyone who will listen. In classrooms, at health fairs, community programs and events throughout St. Petersburg and Tampa. Last year, she was chosen as one of Bay News 9’s “Everyday Heroes’’ for being a mental health advocate. Bay News 9 is a Tampa Bay-based TV news network.

Working on documentary Muhammad’s goal is to show that with treatment and medication, someone living with a mental illness can have a happy and productive life.

Success once seemed fleeting for Muhammad who was told by an employment counseling that she was “crazy’’ and would never find a job and belonged in a mental institution.

A part-time employee at a media research company, she also is working on another book and documentary about her life. And her quest is to share her story beyond Tampa Bay. Please see schizophrenia, Page B2

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that interferes with a person’s ability to think clearly, manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others.

Research has linked schizophrenia to changes in brain chemistry and structure.

Individuals with schizophrenia have two or more of the following symptoms occurring persistently.

However, delusions or hallucinations alone can often be enough to lead to a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Positive symptoms are also known as “psychotic” symptoms because the person has lost touch with reality in certain ways.

• Delusions or the belief in things not real or true.

• Hallucinations are hearing or seeing things that are not real.

• Disorganized speech expressed as an inability to generate a logical sequence of ideas.

Negative symptoms refer to a reduction of a capacity, such as motivation.

• Emotional flatness or lack of expressiveness.

• Inability to start and follow through with activities.

• Lack of pleasure or interest in life.

Cognitive symptoms pertain to thinking processes.

• Trouble with prioritizing tasks, memory and organizing thoughts.

• Anosognosia or “lack of insight” being unaware of having an illness.

What causes schizophrenia?

Research strongly suggests that schizophrenia involves problems with brain chemistry and structure and is thought to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, as are many other medical illnesses.

One percent of the world’s population or one in every 100 people will develop the disorder in their lifetime. The most common onset is in the teens and 20s. It is uncommon for schizophrenia to be diagnosed before 12 years of age or after the age of 40.

The treatment of schizophrenia requires an all-encompassing approach that includes medication, therapy and psychosocial rehabilitation. Medication is an important aspect of symptom management.

For more information, call 800950-6264 or visit www.nami.org.

CALENDAR

B2

DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

TOJ

Civil rights leader, Baptist leader Rev. T.J. Jemison dies at 95 TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

D.L. HUGHLEY AND KELLY ROWLAND

D.L. Hughley will host the ninth annual Jazz in the Gardens March 15-16 in Miami Gardens. Artists will include Kelly Rowland. More information: www.jazzinthegardens.com.

SINBAD

A show featuring Sinbad is scheduled at 8 p.m. Dec. 20 at Hard Rock Live Orlando.

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Eatonville: Zora! Festival 2014 will feature Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly. The festival in Eatonville is Jan. 25- Feb. 2. More information: www. zorafestival.org.

Tampa: The Ohio Players and Pieces of a Dream will give free performances during the Tampa Black Heritage Festival. The event is Jan. 16-25. See schedule at www. tampablackheritage.org.

Jacksonville: A Night in Paris is scheduled Dec. 8 at the Knights of Columbus, 1509 Hendricks Ave. It will be hosted by V101.5’s Jo-Jo. More information: Call 904-2943397 or 904-401-5421.

Tampa: The Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority will host its Sixth Poinsettia Ball – Dancing through the Decades

on Dec. 7 at the Tampa Airport Hilton Westshore, 2225 Lois Ave. Cocktail hour begins at 6 p.m. More information: www.tampametrodst.org, call 813-778-5212 or email poinsettiaball@tampametrodst.org.

Lakeland: The Mu Zeta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. will host its annual Founders Day celebration and scholarship banquet on Dec. 6 at the Magnolia Building. For tickets and more information, call 863-834-6566 or email muzetalambda@yahoo.com.

Tickets can also be purchased online at www.polkcountyalphas.com.

St. Petersburg: “The Chocolate Nutcracker’’ is now “The Nutcracker Twist.’’ The performance is Dec. 31 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at The Mahaffey Theater.

Fort Lauderdale: The African-American Research Library & Cultural Center is seeking vendors for its annual Kwanzaa on Dec. 28. Contact Pearl Woolridge at 954-357-6207 or email pwoolrid@browardlibrary.org.

The Rev. T. J. Jemison, a longtime Louisiana pastor, pioneering civil rights leader and founder of one of the nation’s met effective faith-based civil rights organizations, has died. The contributions of the 95-year-old were felt from the grassroots community to the White House.

“Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Reverend T. J. Jemison. With visionary spirit and charisma, he led the country’s first boycott of segregated seating on public buses 60 years ago, and he went on to help eradicate legal segregation and improve voting rights laws for Rev. T.J. disenfranchised Jemison Americans,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.

“As a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and former president of the National Baptist Convention, he inspired Americans across our country with the courage of his convictions and the depth of his faith.

“As we mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice, we remember the legacy of trailblazers like T.J. Jemison, and commit ourselves to carrying that legacy forward in the years to come. Our nation is a better place because of Reverend Jemison’s struggle and sacrifice, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and loved ones.”

Family of ministers Jemison’s son, Ted Jemison, told the Associated Press that his father, who once served as president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., died Nov., 15

of natural causes at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center.

Theodore Judson Jemison was born in 1918 in Selma, Ala., where his father, the Rev. David V. Jemison, was the pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church. He came from a family of prominent ministers and strong churchgoing women. He attended local segregated schools.

Jemison earned a bachelor’s degree from Alabama State University, a historically Black institution, where he pledged Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Jemison earned a divinity degree at Virginia Union University to prepare for the ministry, and later enrolled in graduate courses at New York University.

In 1953, while serving as pastor of Mount Zion First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., a post he held for 54 years, Jemison helped lead the first civil rights boycott of segregated seating on public buses.

The organization of free rides, coordinated by churches, was a model used later in 1955-1956 by the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama. Jemison was one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.

Gave advice to MLK Although the critical role Jemison played in laying the foundation for King’s successful boycott are still not widely known or celebrated, in 2003, the city of Baton Rouge commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Baton Rouge bus boycott.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sought Jemison’s advice when organizing the famous bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., two years later, Ted Jemison said of his father.

One thing King wanted to know was how the leaders of the Baton Rouge boycott arranged carpool

rides for Blacks so they could avoid using the buses, Ted Jemison told The Advocate.

King wrote about the Rev. T.J. Jemison in his book, “Stride Toward Freedom.’’

When King became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was founded in New Orleans, T.J. Jemison was the organization’s first secretary, his son said.

“He came up in a time when there was overt racism, but he always preached togetherness. He also believed that everybody deserves a fair share. I think that’s one of the greatest things about him. He never changed his tune.

He believed in a man’s worth, regardless of skin color,” Ted Jemison noted.

Service held Nov. 23 Jemison served as president of the National Baptist Convention USA, the largest Black religious organization in the U.S. from 1982 to 1994, and met with seven U.S. presidents during his lifetime, his son said.

He is credited with overseeing the building of Baptist World Center in Nashville, Tenn., the headquarters of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., during his tenure as president.

Jemison was laid in repose at the State Capitol Rotunda in Baton Rouge on Friday, Nov. 22. His wake was held that evening at Mount Zion First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. His funeral was held Saturday, Nov. 23, also at Mount Zion.

This story is special to the Trice Edney News Wire from The Louisiana Weekly.

Reggae singer Junior Murvin dies in Jamaica

Junior Murvin

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) – Reggae singer Junior Murvin, best known for the hit song ``Police and Thieves,’’ has died in Jamaica.

Son Keith Smith says the 67-yearold performer died at Port Antonio Hospital on Monday. He had been hospitalized recently for diabetes and high blood pressure but the cause of death will be determined at an inquest.

Born Murvin Smith, he began his career as a lounge singer in Portland parish, east of Kingston. He released “Police and Thieves’’ in 1976 after he was picked up by famed reggae producer Lee “Scratch’’ Perry.

“Police and Thieves’’ became a hit in Britain and is considered among the top reggae songs. The Clash recorded a well-known cover version.

Murvin never had another big international hit.

He is survived by five children and eight grandchildren.

schizophrenia from B1 “I also want to start my own record label and provide mentorship to future authors. I hope my story can help end the stigma on mental illness. People don’t think we can become successful,’’ she offered

Brother’s suicide Muhammad gets serious while reflecting on the dark period in her life, which started early.

She doesn’t mince words when describing what happened to her at age 5 and her brother was 10.

“He would get on top of me and hunch me,” she said, adding that she had on clothes during those times. “A girl did that to him when he was 13 and he was 8.’’ She explained that “a lot of times’’ he would walk in the room she shared with her sister while she was asleep. One time he tried to approach her when she had on no clothes, but her mother walked in. “ ‘I’m lusting my own sister.’ I remember him saying that. He was ashamed,’’ she added.

Her brother, Jameel, shot himself in the head outside of his wife’s home in 1997.

He was 23. Muhammad said he had attempted suicide before with pills.

“I believe he never forgave himself for molesting me. He was abused really bad by my stepdad. He got it bad,’’ she related.

No pills to swallow As a child, Muhammad had slurred speech and was bullied by her peers. At age 8, she wanted to kill herself

because a girl wanted to fight her. She couldn’t find pills to take in the medicine cabinet that would end her life.

As a teenager, she was physically abused by her stepdad, who is no longer a part of her family. The beatings were so severe, she said, that much of her childhood is blocked from her memory.

“I can remember only one or two things that was positive,’’ she said. One was when her abusive stepdad took the family out to a dinner.

“I can’t remember field trips. I can’t remember any fun I had,” she noted.

One of seven children, Muhammad prefers to refer to her real father as Brother John because that’s how he was known in St. Petersburg back in the day while a salesman in the area.

He left the family when she was 3 years old.

Muhammad credits her mother, Halaimah Kencler, with saving her life.

“I’m grateful that I have a one-in-a-million mom who stood by me every step of the way,” she remarked.

A photograph taken of Muhammad off her meds shows a dazed woman sprawled on the floor years ago at a sibling’s wedding reception. It barely resembles the poised, welldressed, well-spoken and confident woman Muhammad is today. Her mother and siblings took the photos and a video to prove to her what she’s like without her medicine.

“You can’t tell us we’re sick; you have to show us

PHOTO BY DEMORRIS A. LEE/SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Swiyyah Muhammad is shown with her mother, Halimah Kencler. Muhammad says her mother’s support is the primary reason she’s doing so well today.

Swiyyah Muhammad speaks while a guest on the TV program, “Real Talk with Kisha Jordan.’’ we’re sick. You have to show people. That’s what my family did,’’ Muhammad related.

Mom’s point of view Kencler told the Courier that her daughter is a different woman now.

“When she got sick, she would be rattling off a lot of different things. Nonstop talking, non-stop moving. She always wanted to

be going somewhere. She couldn’t settle down to eat.

I would fix her plate, and she would go to the stove and try to eat out of the pot,” Kencler explained.

“She wasn’t concerned about her personal hygiene and she was afraid all of the time. Afraid of people. She was afraid of what someone might do to her.’’

But then again, her mother said, her daughter was always trying to do some-

thing to help someone.

Kencler, who has been working in health care since 1973, urges parents to look for signs early and to act on them.

“Families just have to observe and continue to be on the alert. Any time a family member says something is out of the order, you have to start doing something,’’ she advises.

‘Not the end’ Kencler believes her health-care training was essential to coping with two children with mental health issues.

“I was able to handle it,” she said. “I felt like this is the reason why God led me to that particular field. I was due to have children’’ with mental health issues.

She added, ‘’Mental illness does exist like having pneumonia, tuberculosis.

This is a sickness. ‘’

Kencler said her daughter is doing well because she was able “to get balanced years ago.’’

She added, “Being diagnosed is not the end. You can still accomplish a lot of great things in your life.

Just like Swiyyah has done.

It’s not the end of the world; you can still live a normal life.’’

For more information about Swiyyah Muhammad and her book, visit her website at www.dontcallmecrazy.com.

Florida Courier Senior Editor Jenise Griffin Morgan is a recipient of a 2013-2014 Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism. She is writing a series of stories exploring the stigma, misunderstanding and lack of information about mental health and mental illness among AfricanAmericans.

STOJ

DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

Jaisean Woodso, 9, smiles as he enjoys his turkey dinner as volunteers and Union Rescue employees serve 4,000 turkey dinners in the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles on Nov. 23. Donating to a mission or soup kitchen is a great way to give back during the holidays.

ANNE CUSACK/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT

Consider gifts that give back this holiday season STATEPOINT MEDIA

Work at a soup kitchen

Rescue gifts

While the latest video game can make a big hit, the most meaningful gifts are often ones that help those in need. The holidays are the perfect time to give a charitable gift that could make a profound difference in someone’s life.

Donating your time or money to a charity in honor of a loved one is a great way to reach out and help others this holiday season.

Many people have made working at a soup kitchen a holiday tradition. Something as simple as giving the homeless and hungry a hot meal and a full stomach can make a person’s day. Contact your local soup kitchen to see how you can volunteer.

If you don’t have time to help out in person, consider donating non-perishable goods, as many soup kitchens have a food pantry as well.

You can also help provide essentials for people in need by giving a “Rescue Gift” in the name of friends and family. These are charitable gifts that support humanitarian aid work and represent the kinds of emergency relief and services that the International Rescue Committee (IRC) provides to refugees and others uprooted by war and disaster.

Rescue gifts, such as a pair of baby goats, can help put a family

B3

HOLIDAY

in drought-ridden Somalia back on the road to recovery by helping to start a new herd. Or the gift of a year of school can help supply the tuition, books and other materials to send a young Afghan girl to school.

First nativity scene in modern history unveiled at Capitol

Help children

NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

The perfect gift can help brighten up the life of a child in even the most dire situations. There are an estimated 45 million people around the world who have been uprooted from their homes by war, persecution and disaster, many of them children. Sometimes, the need for love and reassurance is just as great as the need for food and shelter.

Consider giving the International Rescue Committee’s Teddy Bear and Creativity Kit to a child on behalf of friends or family as a gift this holiday.

In crisis zones like Syria, children hold tight to their beloved teddy bears, finding emotional support in a simple toy. A gift like the Teddy Bear and Creativity Kit can provide three children with their own teddy bears, as well as a toy and coloring kit that will help them cope with the psychological distress of war and upheaval.

“Support from the purchase of Rescue Gifts allows the IRC to address crisis places like Syria, in addition to offering ongoing support and lifesaving care for people around the world affected by catastrophes that have slipped from the headlines,” says Nancy Haitch, vice president of External Relations at the IRC. For more information, visit www.Rescue.org/Gifts.

For the first time in modern Florida history, a nativity scene depicting the birth of Jesus Christ will be on display in the state Capitol throughout December.

Religious leaders and schoolchildren prayed and sang Christmas carols at the unveiling on the first floor of the Capitol rotunda Tuesday.

Event organizer Pam Olsen, president of the Florida Prayer Network, said the display does not reflect a state-sponsored religion, since it was funded with private money. She also noted a Jewish menorah about 20 feet away.

“Freedom doesn’t mean just freedom for me as a Christian, or freedom for Jewish people as Jews, or any other groups,” Olsen said. “It’s freedom for all. Isn’t that what’s awesome about America?”

But Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said no religious symbols, including a menorah, should be displayed in government buildings. “And I’m not sure the people who manage the state Capitol fully appreciate the door that they have opened,” he said. “They’re not going to be able to say ‘no’ to the group that they don’t favor and ‘yes’ to today’s group that they obviously do favor.”

a million reasons to

Bring your stamped letter to Macy’s addressed to Santa At The North Pole, and drop it into our special Santa letterbox. We will count them up, and for each letter received, we’ll donate $1 to Make-A-Wish® up to $1,000,000... and we’ll deliver them to the Post Office.

Share your holiday spirit with us! #MacysBelieve

TOj B4

StOJ

DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

For the person always out of juice Powerocks Super Magicstick 2800 is a great portable charging solution. With 2800mAh of power, you can charge just about any portable electronic gadget with a USB connection. The pocket-sized device measures just 3.5- by 1-inch round (it looks like a small flashlight) and has an LED indicator to view the status of your charge and the remaining capacity of the battery. It is available in many color choices and includes a velvet carrying bag.

Details: $39.99; www.powerocksusa.com

When it comes to technology and holiday shopping, my best advice is to choose something useful. Remember, just because you think something is cool, new or great doesn’t mean it will be an appropriate gift. As usual, this season offers an endless number of gadgets to choose from. Here are a few useful picks to fit almost any user and budget.

— Gregg Ellman, McClatchy-Tribune

For the music lover The Minx Go is a portable wireless speaker good for any age in any room of the house. It’s an amazing sounding desktop speaker, which uses Bluetooth to broadcast your audio from any Bluetooth-enabled device. The setup takes seconds; just press the power button once to turn it on and a second time to activate the Bluetooth setup. You can connect up to eight devices at once, and you’ll get 18 hours of music before the speaker needs a charge or, if you leave it in one place all the time, just use the included power cord.

Details: $149, available in black or white; www.cambridgeaudio.com

The Moshi Revolt Duo USB car charger has a pair of high-output USB ports and comes with a detachable Apple Lightning charge/sync cable for the latest iOS devices. It plugs into any car’s 9V (cigarette lighter) outlet and gives fullspeed charging of smartphones, tablets or any other device that charges via a USB cable.

Details: $45; www.moshimonde.com

For the student — or the rugged professional PK Paris has a new USB 2.0 key ring flash drive built into a carabineer so it can be clipped or unclipped to most anything, including tunnel- equipped earlobes. The K’lip weighs just 0.529 ounces and is stainless steel, making it durable in any weather. The pin and spring have been company-tested to be opened up to 10,000 times.

Details: 16GB, $26.76; 32GB, $40.22; www.pkparis. com

For the constant traveler

For the early adopter There’s going to be an iPad Air in almost every house this holiday season, and Kensington has the perfect accessory to go with it — the KeyCover ($79.99). It’s a hard shell cover built with a wireless Bluetooth backlit keyboard inside. The case can hold your iPad Air hands-free in both vertical or horizontal positions. A big brother model, the KeyCover Plus ($99.99), lets you order and personalize your case in a choice of seven colors. With both models, if you order before Dec. 31 of this year, you’ll get a promo code for a free SkinIt vinyl sticker covering.

Details: www.kensington. com

For those always on the go

Go with one SmallHands or TwoHands with the Felix smartphone and tablet stands. The SmallHands ($14.99) is a portable stand good for holding smartphones in horizontal or portrait positions. For bigger tablets, the TwoHands ($24.99) will also hold them hands-free in both positions.

Details: Available in six different colors; www.felixbrand.com

For the perennial entertainer For the former Boy Scout The LifeLink is described as the world’s thinnest smartphone cable, measuring 3.35-by-0.98-by-0.87 inches and weighing just 0.21 ounces. It’s so portable you can just carry it in a wallet and is available in microUSB, Apple Lightning or 30-pin cable connections.

Details: Preorder for $14; www.getlifelink.com

For the outdoor partier Soundcast Systems Melody wireless speaker produces simply amazing sound coming from a rugged 360-degree speaker. Inside are four full-range speakers for sound in any direction with a weather-resistant enclosure enabling it to operate indoors or outdoors. Connect your music via Bluetooth or plug it in with the auxiliary input port. The 9-pound speaker has a carrying handle and a high capacity lithium-ion battery that should give you about 20 hours of sound before a charge is needed.

Details: $449; www.followmelody.com

For someone with a friend — and a movie

For the gadget guru who needs it all

Simple, cool, wireless and reasonably priced are how I would describe the HMDX Jam Fusion Bluetooth stereo headphones. What makes them unique is if you have a pair of them, you can connect them both to listen to the same music source wirelessly via Bluetooth. They have a built-in mic for hands-free calls and a rechargeable battery that lets the music play for six hours before a charge is needed.

Details: $89.99, available in black, purple, red and white; www.hmdxaudio.com

Urban Xplorer’s HalfPack RT messenger bag, which can also work as a backpack with attachable straps, is an attractive over the shoulder bag made with nylonUX ballistic fabric. It has a seemingly endless number of pockets, compartments, zippers and storage areas for more electronics gadgets and accessories than any tech head would need to carry.

It’s described perfectly by the company as “a classic bag that incorporates modern day functionality with vintage style.”

Details: $198, available in bronze, black and burnt orange; www.xplorerbrand.com

The ThinkGeek Radioactive Elements Glowing Coasters are a set of four 3.75-inch squares; each glows in a different color (green, red, purple and yellow) when you place your drink on it. A small replaceable battery comes in each, good for about 4.5 hours of constant use.

Details: $19.99; www.thinkgeek.com

For the oversharer The MeCam is a wearable hands-free video camera that comes in 4GB ($49.99), 8GB ($59.99) and 16GB ($69.99) capacities. It measures just short of 2-inches around and has built-in LED infrared technology, which enables it to be used in still or video modes in lowlight or daytime. All control buttons are on the side; the rechargeable battery is good for about 80 minutes of use; video is taken at 720p or still images at 5 megapixels.

Details: Available in five colors; www.mecam.me

Stoj

DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA'S

finest

submitted for your approval

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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.

kimberly nathan

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

Kimberly Nicole originally appeared as one of Florida’s Finest in May 2006.

Nathan Williams originally appeared as one of Florida’s Finest in January 2011.

Multiple Black Oscar nominees in multiple categories?

Plethora of great films this year with great performances has sparked awards buzz

BY CARY DARLING FORT WORTH-STAR TELEGRAM/MCT

It started with Jackie Robinson rounding the bases for home in “42” in the spring and is ending with Nelson Mandela leaving jail for home in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” in the winter. In between, there have been so many Black-themed films that have reached a crossover audience that 2013 is going to go down as a banner year for Black actors and directors.

“Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Fruitvale Station” and, to a lesser extent, “42” were critically well-received, but the kicker is that they also performed well at the box office. Together, “The Butler” and “42” brought in more than $200 million.

Along with this week’s “Black Nativity,” a Christmas-themed musical based on the work of poet Langston Hughes that stars Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson, and “Mandela” starring Idris Elba, there is so much Oscar buzz around these films that this may be the year of the rarest of occurrences: multiple Black Oscar nominees in multiple categories.

‘Pretty hot’ The result could be that the 2014 show overshadows previous years that were pointed to as racial breakthroughs: 2002 (when Denzel Washington and Halle Berry took acting honors for “Training Day” and “Monster’s Ball,” respectively), 2005 (statues for Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman for “Ray” and “Million Dollar Baby”) and 2007 (wins for Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker for “Dreamgirls” and “The Last King of Scotland”).

The likes of Elba and “12 Years a Slave’s” Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o may become household names by the time the Oscars statues are handed out in March.

There’s a chance, however slim, that there

Tamar Braxton, Robin Thicke win Soul Train awards FROM WIRE REPORTS

Michael B. Jordan stars as Oscar Grant in “Fruitvale Station.’’ The movie begins with grainy cell phone footage of the shooting and then steps back to retrace the last 24 hours of Grant’s life. could be three African-Americans up for Best Director: Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”), Lee Daniels (“The Butler”) and Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”).

“In terms of what’s hot in the marketplace, you have to be looking at AfricanAmerican films,” says Jeff Bock of Los Angeles-based Exhibitor Relations, a box-office tracking firm. “They are pretty hot in much the same way that low-budget horror films are really hot.”

Unprecedented year That’s not even taking into account the continuing success of decidedly out-ofOscar-contention movies from Tyler Perry (who has three films this year) or an escapist romantic comedy like “The Best Man Holiday,” which hauled in $30.5 million in its opening weekend, not far behind the much more expensive “Thor: The Dark World.”

For Arthur Knight, a professor of American studies and English at the College of William and Mary who specializes in American cinema, the wave is very visible in his town of Williamsburg, Va. “I can go see ‘12 Years a Slave’ or ‘The Best Man Holiday’ and we have an art cinema where ‘Fruitvale Station’ and ‘Blue Caprice’ (an indie film about the D.C. sniper attacks of 2002) played,” he says. “That’s unprecedented.”

What’s also striking about these movies’ success is that at least two of them — “12 Years a Slave” and “Fruitvale Station” — deal with the difficult issues of slavery and a police murder of an unarmed Black man, leaving the audience to feel the cultural reverberations that stem from these conflicts. “Slave” is especially tough to watch, yet it’s drawing a wide audience, pulling in $25 million in what was at first a limited release.

Facing tough issues Why this surge of interest from various crowds in Black-themed films is happening now — at a time when there seems to be so much racial division in the political and social spheres — may be for a variety of reasons.

In fact, Eric Deggans, NPR’s TV critic and author of a recent book about media and race, “Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation,” thinks that racial gap may not be as wide as it’s often portrayed.

“I’ve been going across the country to support my book and there are a lot of people (of all races) who want to talk about this stuff and want to deal with it,” he says.

Good timing Amy Corbin, a professor of media, communication and film studies at Allentown, Pa.’s Muhlenberg College, partially credits the star connections of Oprah Winfrey (who stars in “The Butler”) and Brad Pitt (who co-produced and plays a small part in “12 Years a Slave”).

“Their star power allows some of those films to gain prominence,” she says. “With ‘Fruitvale Station,’ that would not have gotten the attention that it got if it weren’t for some of the racial issues being discussed right now with the incarcerations (of young Black men) and the Trayvon Martin case.

Every year, there are good films made by African-Americans that don’t get released or just play the festivals. ‘Fruitvale’ might have been one of those, but its timing was good.”

Tamar Braxton took home three awards from this year’s Soul Train Awards, including the Chaka Khan Award for Best R&B/Soul Female Artist.

Other winners included Robin Thicke, who’s T.I. and Pharrell Williams-assisted hit single “Blurred Lines” took Song of The Year and Best Collaboration. Janelle Monae won Video of The Year for “Q.U.E.E.N.” featuring Erykah Badu, and Album of The Year went to Kendrick Lamar for his breakoutalbum, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.’’

The awards show aired Dec. 1 on BET and Centric.

List of winners Best New Artist – K. Michelle Best R&B/Soul Male Artist – Miguel Centric Certified Award – Luke James Video of the Year – Janelle Monae featuring Erykah Badu (Alan Ferguson) - “Q.U.E.E.N.” Best Gospel/Inspirational Performance - Tye Tribbett - “If He Did It Before…Same God” Album of the Year – Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year – Wale featuring Tiara Thomas - “Bad” The Chaka Khan Award for Best R&B/Soul Female Artist – Tamar Braxton Song of the Year – Robin Thicke featuring. Pharrell Williams and T.I. “Blurred Lines” The Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award – Tamar Braxton - “Love & War” Best Dance Performance – Ciara “Body Party” Best Collaboration – Robin Thicke featuring Pharrell Williams and T.I. “Blurred Lines” Best International Performance – Bunji Garlin - “Differentology” Best Traditional Jazz Performance – Nicole Henry - “Waiting in Vain” Best Contemporary Jazz Performance – George Duke - “Missing You” Best Independent R&B Soul Performance – Ashanti - “Never Should Have” Best Entertainment/Music Website or Blog: ThisIsRnB.com

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FOOD

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DECEMBER 6 – DECEMBER 12, 2013

Festive Peppermint Twists Dark Cocoa, Light Cocoa, Green or White Candy Melts Candy Peppermint Twisted Sticks Candy Assorted Holiday Sprinkles, including Holiday Nonpareils, Confetti and Jimmies, Red and Green Colored Sugars Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In Disposable Dipping Container or bowl, separately melt Candy Melts candy in microwave following package instructions.

Dip peppermint sticks into melted candy; tap stick lightly to smooth surface. Immediately add sprinkles.

Set on prepared cookie sheet; chill until set, 5 to 10 minutes.

Cheery Cereal Tree Treats Makes about 12 treats 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine 4 cups mini marshmallows Juniper or Leaf Green Icing Color 6 cups crisp rice cereal White Cookie Icing Jumbo Rainbow Nonpareils, Sprinkles or Sugars, as desired Prepare 3D Silicone Tree Mold and silicone spatula or wooden spoon with vegetable pan spray.

In large saucepan, melt butter. Add marshmallows; cook and stir until melted. Tint with icing color.

Remove from heat and add cereal; mix well. Press into prepared mold. When cool to touch, remove from mold. (If mixture becomes hard to work with, microwave at 50 percent power for 30 to 60 seconds to soften.)

Heat Cookie Icing following label directions.

Squeeze snow and garlands on trees; add sprinkles and sugars as desired. Let dry.

Christmas Candy Swirl Cookies Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar 1 egg 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional) Red and Green Sparkle Gel Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray Easy Decorate Swirl Cookie Pan with vegetable pan spray.

In small bowl, combine flour and salt.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Beat in egg and extracts; mix well. Add flour mixture; beat until well blended.

Press dough into pan cavities, filling 2/3 full. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown around edges.

Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn pan over; lightly tap pan to remove cookies.

Cool cookies completely. Decorate cooled cookies with Sparkle Gel. Let set, at least 30 minutes.

Festive Peppermint Twists, Cheery Cereal Tree Treats, Gingerbread House, Jolly Santa’s Treat Cookies and Christmas Candy Swirl Cookies

Sweet Snowmen Cookies

Make the season simple and sweet FAMILY FEATURES

Nothing says home for the holidays like the smell of treats baking in the oven and a crowded kitchen filled with loved ones. Whether making decades-old family favorites or starting new holiday baking traditions, you can create homemade holiday goodies in a (ginger) snap.

“The holidays are a time when families are in the kitchen at record rates to bake cookies, build gingerbread houses and create a wide variety of sweet treats,” says Nancy Siler, vice president of consumer affairs at Wilton. “The good news is, even if you only have 30 minutes to spare during this hectic time, you can make amazing desserts for gatherings or gifting.”

Try these easy treat ideas from Wilton to spread holiday cheer: • Holiday Helpers: Invite family and friends for a cookie decorating day to help prepare gifts for upcomJolly Santa’s Treat Cookies Makes about 3 dozen cookies 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar 1 egg 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon almond extract Red, Green and White Cookie Icing Red and Dark Green Colored Sugars White Sparkling or Pearlized Sugar White Sugar Pearls Preheat oven to 350°F. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powderand salt. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Add egg and extracts; mix well.

Add flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Do not chill dough. Divide dough into 2 balls.

On floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 inches diameter and 1/8 inch thick.

Dip Cookie Hugger or “Ho-Ho” Word cookie cutters in flour before each use.

Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 8 to 11 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.

Cool cookies completely.

Outline and fill-in cooled cookies with Cookie Icing. For “Ho-Ho” cookies, sprinkle with sugars; let set until icing is completely dry. For snowflake cookie, add white Cookie Icing detail to dried cookie; attach Sugar Pearls with dots of icing.

Merry Marshmallow Sticks White, Red, Green and Dark Cocoa Candy Melts candy Large Marshmallows Holiday Confetti, Nonpareils and Colored Sugars In Disposable Dipping Container or bowl, melt Candy Melts candy separately following package instructions.

Dip marshmallows in melted candy and place on cooling grid positioned over parchment-lined cookie sheet. If desired, sprinkle with sugars and sprinkles. Chill 5 to 10 minutes or until set.

Using candy decorating bag or disposable decorating bag, drizzle melted candy or pipe outlines, if desired; immediately sprinkle with sugars or nonpareils.

Attach confetti with dots of melted candy.

Chill 2 to 3 minutes or until set.

With point of sharp knife, carefully cut through candy on the marshmallow where stick will be inserted. Insert three marshmallows onto each Colored Lollipop Stick, securing with melted candy.

ing events. You provide the Sparkling Sugars and Sprinkles, Peppermint Twisted Sticks and red and green icing ... everyone else provides the creativity.

• Miracle on Your Street: Crunched for time with a party to attend? Pick up ready-to-eat cookies and artfully dip them in red and green Candy Melts candy for an elegant upgrade.

No one has to know how simple it was to create a customized dessert.

• Instant Snowman: Coat peanut butter sandwich cookies in white Candy Melts candy to create instant snowmen. Decorate with hats, scarves and, of course, carrot noses.

• It’s a Wrap: Turn your homemade treats into gourmet gifts. Stock up on holidaythemed gift bags and boxes, colorful tissue paper, ribbons and tags to transform made-from-theheart goodies into extra special gifts.

For more holiday ideas and inspiration, visit www.wilton.com.

Sweet Snowmen Cookies White, Red, Green, Black and Orange Candy Melts Candy Peanut butter sandwich cookies Holiday Confetti, Holiday and Snowflake Mix Sprinkles Cinnamon Drops Black Sugar Pearls Silver Pearlized Sugar Melt white Candy Melts candy following package instructions. Place cookies on cooling grid positioned over parchment-lined cookie sheet. Spoon melted candy over top surface of cookie; chill 5 to 10 minutes or until set. Turn cookies over, candy side down, on cooling grid. Completely cover cookies with melted candy; chill 5 to 10 min utes or until set. Repeat, if needed, to completely cover cookie.

To decorate snowmen, melt Candy Melts candy following package instructions as needed. Using red, green and white candy in candy or disposable decorating bag, pipe hats, earmuff band and scarves, adding colored sugar trim to candy before it sets. For ball cap, cut a Candy Melt candy wafer in half; attach with melted candy. Attach sprinkles for buttons, ear muffs and decorative accents using dots of melted candy. Using melted black candy and decorating bag, pipe facial features. Using melted orange candy and decorating bag, pipe nose.

Fast and Festive Christmas Cookies Green, Red, White, Light and Dark Cocoa Candy Melts Candy Assorted purchased readyto eat cookies Holiday Confetti, Nonpareils, Holly Mix, Colored Sugars and Sprinkles In Disposable Dipping Container or bowl, melt Candy Melts candy separately following package instructions.

Partially or completely dip cookies in melted candy. Place cookies on cooling grid positioned over parchment-lined cookie sheet. If desired, sprinkle with sugars and sprinkles. Chill 5 to 10 minutes or until set.

Additional decorating ideas: • Drizzle with melted candy in a contrasting color. Chill 3 to 5 minutes or until set.

• Attach sprinkles with dots of melted candy. Chill 3 to 5 minutes or until set.

• Pipe melted candy bows and other decorations.

Merry Marshmallow Sticks and Fast and Festive Christmas Cookies