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RHETTA ANDREWS BOWERS page 3
NOTORIOUS
Serving North East Texas
My Truth Publisher Cheryl Smith
Please, please, please, please I know what it’s like to be stubborn. There were times, as a child, that no matter how much I wanted to do something, if you yelled at me or ordered me to do it, I’d probably defy you. Just the idea of someone bossing me around was enough for me to rebel. There’s also my rational side. Ask me and I’m easy. No big deal. Explain why, and I’m good. If I ask questions, answer, and if you make sense, we’re cool. Prove me wrong. State your case. Provide a historical perspective. Which brings me to my truth. Every year of my adult life, someone has asked me a variation of the question, “how can we get more people to vote?” Now I’ve been known to have a vivid imagination and some of the gimmicks I came up with went from intellectual to illegal. This is after explaining, lecturing, begging, cussing, threatening, bribing and shaming; all to no avail. There was no persuading those who had their minds made up that their vote didn’t matter. Save the many stories of those who died for this precious right, because naysayers didn’t care. So as we move forward, the billion dollar question still looms, “how?” I know what it takes to get me to do something. I know I want a better world, not just for my descendants; but for me too! There are things that I do today that I will not benefit from and that’s okay. It’s not okay for me to not care about future generations. It’s just not right. As I shake my head, I just have to keep talking about the value of a vote and provide encouragement. I can’t help but think about all the negative things we do in life, and without encouragement. November 3 is election day. About voting, in the words of the great philosopher James Brown, “please, please, please, please!”
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VOL X ISSUE 2
Justice Ginsburg’s death could prove fatal to American Democracy By STACY M. BROWN NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia Ruth Bader Ginsburg – affectionately known as The Notorious R.B.G. (after the famous moniker of the late hip-hop star, The Notorious B.I.G.) – held on as long as she could while fiercely battling metastatic pancreatic cancer. At 87, the popular Supreme Court Justice had battled cancer and several other maladies, for some time. Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
new president is installed.” Echoing the sentiments of many, both inside and outside of the po-
litical spectrum acclaimed novelist Terry McMillan stated, “I was praying she could hold on.” The author and many others realized that, in sphere of today’s of American politics, where one of the two dominant parties is essentially wholly controlled by President Donald Trump and the hard-hearted Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, if they choose to ignore the Justice’s dying wishes, the Republicans, who control the Senate, have the votes to quickly confirm Ginsburg’s replacement. This is the case even as the president – and possibly McConnell –
Alopecia Month Series
MOVIE REVIEW: ANTEBELLUM p6 Black Lives Matter T-Shirts and masks - who profits? p4
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020
I was just
Thinking Norma Adams-Wade
Black students, always take two sets of notes Author, filmmaker, poet, rapper, and professor M. K. Asante Jr., had it right when he said “Black students, (should) always take two sets of notes.” I spent some time researching this “woke” young tenured professor the other day. His life story – even though comparatively young – is an impressive example of how learning and education can transform a life.
Grand Jury ruling in shooting of Breonna Taylor leads to more protests By ASHLEY MOSS Texas Metro News Hours after a Kentucky grand jury indicted a former police officer on charges related to the shooting of Breonna Taylor, protesters in Dallas took to the streets, expressing outrage and dismay that the charges did not go far enough. Wednesday afternoon, a Jefferson County (Ky.) grand jury indicted former Louisville Metropolitan Police detective Brett Hankison on three counts of first degree “wanton endangerment” in the Breonna Taylor case. According to the grand jury, Hankison wantonly fired shots into an occupied apartment next door to Taylor’s on the night she was shot and killed. Wanton endangerment is a Class D felony in Kentucky and carries a sentence of up to five years, if convicted. The grand jury chose not to indict two other officers involved in Taylor’s shooting, Louisville Police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly
see BREONNA TAYLOR, page 3
Breonna Taylor
Garland Emergency Residential Assistance Program The City of Garland has partnered with Catholic Charities of Dallas Inc. to provide emergency mortgage and rental assistance to those City of Garland residents impacted by COVID-19. Catholic Charities Inc. is processing applications on a first-come, first-served basis. While we are committed to processing as many applications as we have funding for, we do anticipate a high demand, so please be patient. Completing the application is not a guarantee that a resident will receive a call for the next stage. Please review all information before applying. Catholic Charities is now offering in-person application assistance. Call 214-613-3164 to schedule an appointment.
Appointments are available Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Garland’s Central Library. No walk-ins, please. Bring documents listed below to your appointment. To qualify, City of Garland residents must: • Show proof of Garland residency; • Not have received additional housing assistance from the federal stimulus program knows as CARES from another agency; • Make less than 120% of the area median household income, which is as follows: • 1 person household $72,400 • 2 persons - $82,750 • 3 persons - $93,100 • 4 persons - $103,450
• 5 persons - $111,700 • 6 persons - $120,000 • 7 persons - $128,250 • 8 persons - $136,550 Participants must provide documentation of the impact of COVID-19 to their circumstance, including but not limited to the following: • Proof of job/income loss, temporary or permanent • Reduction in work hours/income • Increased healthcare, childcare and household expenses directly related to COVID-19 that attributed to insufficiency of rent/mortgage payments
see ASSISTANCE PROGRAM, page 3
Longtime school social worker Lisa Vernon launches MarloJoy Solutions By EVA D. COLEMAN Lifestyle and Culture Editor
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see NOTORIOUS, page 2
Count it all joy
Inside
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Longtime school social worker Lisa Vernon launches MarloJoy Solutions Lisa Vernon has connected resources for underserved and vulnerable populations in the Frisco area for numerous years. The licensed social worker, educator, public speaker and creative director officially launched her multifaceted company, MarloJoy Solutions, LLC, during two backto-back, socially-distant sessions on Sept. 26, 2020 at One River School in Frisco, Texas. The art and design school
served as the perfect sponsor and backdrop for Ms. Vernon’s event. As a widely-known dancer with emphasis on the arts, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduate, who holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in social work, has partnered with them on various occasions, connecting others with culture and creativity through personal awareness. A proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, Ms. Vernon acknowledged her “sisters” in the room and everyone else individually too, expressing deep appreciation for her network of supporters.
Lisa Vernon
With MaloJoy Solutions, Ms. Vernon strives to make a difference in the lives of others through healing and advocacy. Services provided include: Counseling & Life Coach, Social Justice, Talent Acquisition, Movement & Artistic Integration and Curriculum Writing. For more information, visit www.marlojoysolutions.com
M. K. Asante, Jr.
Credit: Morgan State University
Asante recalls his troubled youth in the wildly popular book Buck: A Memoir. The award-winning coming-of-age remembrance was published in 2013 when the author was 31 and realizing that his over-comer journey could and should help redirect other misguided youths. Later, he helped make the book a film. Conflicts with his college professor father; concern for his mother, a choreographer struggling with self-destructive depression; a brother in prison; being sent to alternative schools, and an attraction to bad influences on the wild streets of Philadelphia combined to take young Asante swiftly down wrong paths as a teenager. But he found his salvation in writing and ultimately, at age 26, became the nation’s youngest tenured professor at historically-Black Morgan State University in Baltimore where he teaches creative writing and film-making. During one part of his journey, the legendary Maya Angelou was his mentor. Today, at age 37, Asante has written several books, made various films, recorded rap music, lectured and given commencement addresses at distinguished universities including Southern Methodist University, Vassar, and Harvard. For many years, his signature appearance in the classroom was t-shirts and long dreadlocks. His teaching style has been described as freewheeling, promoting discussion and pushback from his students, provoking thought and examination at every turn. “Two sets of notes” is one of his most quoted utterances. The poem by that same title is in the professor’s book entitled It’s Bigger than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post Hip Hop Generation. In the poem, he deftly castigates American text books and robot teachers who only regurgitate what’s on the page. He says because of long-standing, bureaucratic policies, these educators and the books they use teach students supposed “facts” that under scrutiny are mostly myths or devised imaginings. He says these portrayals come from the minds of mainly white history writers who record the past only the way they interpret it, not the way it really happened. Asante Jr. offered the perfect formula for how students can succeed in the classroom – even while knowing that much of what they are hearing is only one person’s likely distorted view of the world in which we all live. “I always take two sets of
see BLACK STUDENTS, page 5