MONTGOMERY COUNTY SEEKS ELECTION JUDGES 4
Student death sheds light on Black people’s dirty secret about depression Page 8
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May 1 - May 7, 2014
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Volume 13 Issue 37
6
Editorial
Time to bail students out of $1 trillion debt
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College tuition level rises, student loan bubble grows and students are faced with opting out of college or taking on debt.
By James Clingman
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(TriceEdneyWire.com) -- We may as well call it “edu-pay-tion,” as far as many prospective students are concerned. The cost of a college degree has risen 1,120 percent since 1978, but wages have increased a mere 6 percent during that same period. The national collective college debt is more than $1 trillion! We have college grads mired in $29,000 of debt, on average, while they are looking for jobs that do not exist. Parents and grandparents of those grads are also saddled with much of that debt, which is immune to bankruptcy, and they will have to make the payments until they die. What have we gotten ourselves into? The greed that accompanied those easy-to-obtain, just-sign-here college tuition loans, borders on immoral. Financial institutions were like Black Friday crowds, trampling one another to get in on the act. New lending operations cropped up every day, and new proprietary colleges and universities opened their doors throughout the nation, advertising their degrees and easy to get loans for tuition. What would happen if students and parents just stop paying on that $1 trillion debt? Who would pay then? Bingo! I can see another bailout coming, and this time it will be for student loans. Ethical implications exist on both sides -- the lenders and the bor-
rowers, but no matter what side you take the problem is still here and is looming as yet another bubble about to burst in the near future. As many schools are raising their tuition costs, despite the ominous specter of a meltdown, many prospective students are opting out of their plans to attend college. But where does that leave them in today’s “jobless market?” Sounds like a catch-22. This nation trails many other countries in various fields of education, and we will find ourselves even further behind if this tuition bubble is not deflated very soon. Our young people will not be able to compete on a national level, much less on an international level, without access to adequate, relevant, and higher educational experiences. In other words, the famous mantra, “Leave no child behind” will soon become, “Help every child catch up.” We have smart bombs and dumb children. We have the ability to kill people with drones without even seeing them, but we cannot -or will not -- provide adequate education for our children whom we see every day. We have spent trillions of dollars destroying and rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, but a relative meager amount to secure the future of our own youth. Now we are sending money to Ukraine, along with all the other places to which our dollars flow, while our young people slip further down the education scale.
Our priorities are all screwed up. This is not to say that money alone will solve all of our education problems, but more of it, pointed in the right direction, sure would make a positive difference in our current educational crisis -- and that’s exactly what it is. Simply throwing money at a problem only results in it being caught by folks for whom it is not meant. The students are at the bottom of the food chain and see little or no benefit from money meant to help them. Prospective students should start looking at less expensive alternatives to attain their college degrees. For instance, go to a local school and live at home (I know that’s a tough one, but it beats having to go back to live with your parents when you graduate); stop treating your student loan like it’s a free monthly check that you can use to buy everything but educational necessities; and, here’s a novel idea: work while you are in college. Banks were too big to fail and had to be helped with $780 billion or so. Aren’t our children too important to fail? Banks, proprietary schools, and government officials should get together and stop the madness that has led to $1 trillion in student loan debt while graduates cannot get commensurate employment and cannot compete in a global society. We have to stop education from turning into “edu-pay-tion.”
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eterans, local members of the military, family members, and the public are invited to the second annual Veteran Resource and Community Volunteer Fair on Saturday, May 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Glen Echo Park. Participants will meet with local veteran service officers and organizations that provide financial and employment assistance to learn about volunteer opportunities. There will be live music during the event, as well as free carousel rides and The Puppet Co. tickets available on a first come, first served basis. Attendees can also participate in an art-based service project honoring veterans. The event is a partnership of the Montgomery County Veterans Collaborative, the Glen Echo Partnership for Arts and Culture, Inc., and the Governor’s Office on Service and Volunteerism. The Veterans Collaborative is a joint initiative of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services and the Serving Together: Troops, Veterans and Family Care Project, a project of the Mental Health Association of Montgomery County, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, local funding partnerships and other valued community partners.
Arlington County Arlington Public Schools system plans to extend
4 | May 1 - May 7, 2014 | District Chronicles
Arlington Public Schools and Arlington County have decided to retain its Wilson Boulevard property in westerna Rosslyn for possible redevelopment as a new secondary school. Retaining the Wilson property will help the public school system address its critical shortage of seats for students in a timely manner according to School Board Chair Abby Raphael. “As we develop our 2015-24 Capital Improvement Plan,
Sign language interpreters and other auxiliary aids or services will be provided upon request, with advance notice of at least three business days before the event. Contact Rich Schiffauer at 240-777-1724 or send a request to Richard.schiffauer@montgomerycountymd.gov.
Election judges needed for June primary Montgomery County’s Board of Elections is seeking registered voters to serve as election judges at polling places for the gubernatorial primary election to be held on June 24, 2014. In accordance with the election code, to serve in this paid position on Election Day or during Early Voting, an election judge must be registered to vote in Maryland. They must also be able to speak, read, and write the English language, and while acting as a judge must not hold, or be a candidate for, public or party office. In addition, election judges may not serve as a campaign manager for a candidate or as treasurer for any campaign financial entity. Election judges are needed in Districts 6, 7, and 10 which include Chevy Chase, Bethesda, North Bethesda, Potomac, and Cabin John. Voters registered as Republican or unaffiliated are especially needed for these areas. Bilingual election judges, particularly in Spanish, and election judge alternates are needed throughout the county. The application process requires both an online we will explore options to construct a 1,300-seat secondary school on the site,” said Raphael. “This decision demonstrates the continued priority both boards place on using our limited public land to meet the school division’s future capital needs and to provide open space for the community.” The More Seats for More Students Initiative Arlington public school system has experienced significant overcrowding for a number of years. Since 2006, student enrollment has grown by more than 4,850 students, or 26
quiz and completion of hands-on training. All applicants who are selected for these positions will be compensated at rates that vary based on the position. To apply online, or for more information, go to www.777vote.org and select the election judges’ link. For other election information, call 240.777.VOTE or visit the Maryland State Board of Elections’ website at http://elections.state.md.us.
Census Test program needs temporary staff Through the smart use of technology and existing government data sources, the 2020 Census hopes to provide substantial taxpayer savings while maintaining the highest quality and accuracy standards mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The 2014 Census Test will allow the Census Bureau, on a small scale, to test a variety of new methods and advance technologies under consideration for the 2020 Census. The 2014 Test will take place June 23, through September 25, with Census Day on July 1, 2014. The test will be conducted in portions of Washington D.C., and Montgomery County, Md. The Census Bureau will open a temporary Local Census Office (LCO) in Silver Spring, MD to conduct the 2014 Census Test and is hiring field staff for temporary positions. Pay ranges from $14-$21.50 an hour. Call 1.888.480.1639 for information on how to apply. percent, reaching a current high of 23,717 students to date. School officials project that over the next decade, APS enrollment will surpass 30,000 students, a 63 percent increase since 2006. Since 2009, the system has been aggressive in maximizing the capacity of existing facilities and identifying creative solutions to respond to the ever-growing demand for space in schools. As part of its planning, the system will evaluate the Wilson location for a possible 1,300-seat, urban model secondary school with a large open space available to the community. For more information, go to: www.apsva.us/moreseats.
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Handshaking in the U.S. poses dilemma for Muslim women
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Islamic teaching prohibits women to shake hands with members of the opposite sex, unless they are related or married.
Arab American News DEARBORN -- Many Muslim women who wear the hijab will tell you they have experienced that awkward moment. A man will reach out his hand to greet her in a professional setting, and she will have to make an impulsive decision on whether she should reciprocate the gesture. For Muslims living in the U.S., greeting the opposite sex by shaking hands could create a dilemma. Many Muslims believe that shaking hands with members of the opposite sex is not permissible, unless the two individuals are blood related or married. While this Islamic teaching has been enforced in the religion for hundreds of years, in modern day society, some Muslims will make exceptions to adapt to their westernized settings. “I’ve been put in awkward situations myself, I know it can get uncomfortable,” said Noha Beydoun, a local Dearborn resident. Beydoun, now in her mid-20s, made her journey to Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, when she was 19. Growing up in Dearborn, she said she would always greet the opposite sex by putting her hand on her heart. However, after graduating college and entering a professional setting, she concluded that shaking hands with a male may be permissible at times. “Because we live in the U.S., we can scare people away from this amazing, sweet, welcoming religion by doing something that a Western person is not used to,”
noted Beydoun who will often wear a glove in order to shake hands and spare embarrassment. Another local Muslim woman, Suehaila Amen, said that she has always greeted non-Muslims of the opposite sex with a handshake in a professional setting. “I don’t have the time while I’m networking to have to explain to somebody why it is I won’t shake their hand. Because I know their intention is nothing more than a professional greeting, I will shake hands and keep going.” Amen said that in some instances, if she does have a moment to explain the rules to people, she will do so, but only after shaking their hands. She said it’s the best way to avoid offending people while educating them to avoid the mistake in the future. “I don’t have that fear that God is going to judge me because I shook somebody’s hand, when I only did so to not allow a person to have a negative feeling towards me,” added Amen. However, Amen noted that in the last year she has decided to enforce the rule upon herself, after performing the Hajj in 2013. Amen said she no longer wants to shake hands with community members of the opposite sex, because she expects them to already know the rules. Muslim women are expected to put their hands on their heart, but Muslim men always seem to get a free pass if they decide to shake hands with the opposite sex. Others who argue against the practice also tend to point out that
the Quran doesn’t specifically state that members of the opposite sex shouldn’t partake in a handshake. One hadith, however, translates as: “It is better for you to be stabbed in the head with an iron needle than to touch the hand of a woman who is not permissible to you.” Imam Abdul Latif Berry, leader of a religious authority in the U.S., said the only time members of the opposite sex should come in contact is when one is facing hardship. “They shouldn’t be shaking hands at all. There are very exceptional situations ... If a woman needs to solve a health problem with a doctor or needs to be taken to the hospital, then it becomes an exception,” said Berry. “At that point, it becomes very necessary to touch a woman because she needs help in an emergency.” Berry references the Quran, which forbids women and men to look at each other with desire. Most religious scholars use it as a reference point to conclude that if looking at each other is unacceptable, then touching is too. “There are some scholars who have come up with new rulings on this matter,” said Imam Mohammad Elahi, leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights. “Based on the new approach among some of our scholars, shaking hands is permissible under a necessary situation, if there is an urgency to do so. For example if you are called for a job interview and by not shaking hands you are in risk of losing your job, that can be understandable.”
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Cover
‘Racist’ LA Clippers owner banned, fined $2.5 Million
By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief
can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games… “I’m just saying, in your lousy f******* Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people…Don’t put him (Magic Johnson) on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.” Magic Johnson was not amused. He took to Twitter to say, “”Cookie and I will never go to a Clippers game again as long as Donald Sterling is the owner. I feel sorry for my friends Coach Doc Rivers and Chris Paul that they have to work for a man that feels that way about African Americans.” The NBA conducted a three-day investigation to verify the voice on the tape was that of Sterling. “The central findings of the investigation are that the man whose voice is heard on the recording and on a second recording from the same conversation – that was released on Sunday – is Mr. Sterling, and that the hateful opinions voiced by that man are those of Mr. Sterling,” Commissioner Silver said at the news conference. On another side of the world, at
NBAtv
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – After Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling was sternly denounced for racist comments by a spectrum of individuals, ranging from President Barack Obama to NBA superstar LeBron James, NBA Commissioner Alan Silver on Tuesday fined Sterling $2.5 million and banned him from the NBA for life. At a news conference Tuesday, Silver said he will ask the NBA Board of Governors to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, an action that would require a three-fourths approval. The fine, the maximum allowed under the NBA’s constitution and bylaws, will be donated to anti-discrimination and tolerance organizations jointly selected by the NBA and the NBA Players Association. “The views expressed by Mr. Sterling are deeply offensive and harmful. That they came from an NBA owner only heightens the damage and my personal outrage,” Silver said at the news conference in New York City. “Sentiments of this kind are contrary to the principles of inclusion and respect that form the foundation of our diverse multi-
cultural and multi-ethnic league. “Accordingly, effective immediately, I am barring Mr. Sterling for life, from any association with the Clippers organization or the NBA. Mr. Sterling may not attend any NBA games or practices, he may not be present at any Clippers facility, and he may not participate in any business or player personnel decisions involving the team.” This was Silver’s first major crisis since succeeding David Stern as commissioner in February. About 75 percent of the players in the NBA are Black. The firestorm that culminated in Silver placing a lifetime ban on Sterling was touched off Saturday after celebrity website TMZ posted nine minutes of an audio tape of a secretly-recorded conversation between Sterling and Vanessa Stiviano, his mistress who describes herself as a descendant of Mexicans and African Americans. Another website, Deadspin, posted a 15-minute version of the tape on its site. On the tape, the man identified as Sterling, told his mistress, “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?…You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver levied one of the most severe punishments on a professional sports owner and will try to force Sterling to sell the Clippers team.
a press conference Monday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, President Obama called the comments “incredibly offensive racist statements.” He told reporters, “When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t really have to do anything, you just let them talk.” Sterling’s long-time estranged wife, known as Shelly, also denounced her husband. “Our family is devastated by the racist comments made by my estranged husband,” she said. “My
children and I do not share these despicable view or prejudices.” In fact, one daughter, Joanna Sterling Miller, told TMZ Sports, “I am devastated and saddened by the cruel and insensitive comments expressed in these audio tapes.” Her husband, Eric Miller, who works in the team’s front office, told TMZ, “I find the statements and representations made by the Clippers’ team owner to be deplorable and disgusting. There is no room in sports or society in general, for racism.”
New tobacco ‘apology’ ads plan still excludes most Black media By George E. Curry NNPA Editor-in-Chief WASHINGTON – A revised plan for major tobacco companies to purchase court-ordered ads to admit that they deliberately misled the public about the dangers of smoking would add nine White-owned newspapers to the list of publications carrying tobacco “apology” ads but shut out more than 90 percent of Black newspapers and all Black-owned radio and television stations, according to documents filed in federal court. “If they had asked, we could have helped them develop a better plan than this,” said National Newspaper Publishers Association Chairman Cloves Campbell. “They didn’t consult us and the end result is that we’re back to where this process started last year. What they have put on the table is totally unacceptable.” After being sued by the Justice Department and the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, the major tobacco
manufacturers were found guilty in 2005 of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations Act (RICO) when they deliberately misled the public about the dangers and addictiveness of smoking. U.S. Judge Gladys Kessler ordered them to halt the offending practices and place a series of full-page ads in newspapers and commercials on network TV during prime time for a year, reported by Target Market News to be valued between $30 million and $45 million, acknowledging their wrongdoing. The defendants – Philip Morris USA, Inc., Altria Group, Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (in its own capacity and as successor to Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation and American Tobacco Co.) and Lorillard Tobacco Company – went along with a plan proposed by the judge that excluded all Blackowned newspapers and broadcast companies. The tobacco companies submitted a revised plan last week after the
6 | May 1 - May 7, 2014 | District Chronicles
National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB), two trade associations whose member businesses reach more than 95 percent of all African Americans, filed a friend of the court brief challenging the original plan to run court-ordered ads only in White and Latino publications and on the three major television networks. In an amicus brief supporting the Black Press, the NNPA said, “To rectify the damage created by Defendant in their targeting of African American communities, this Court should require Defendants to use NABOB and NNPA member organizations to fulfill its remedial order. Black-owned print and visual media remain a primary method of receiving information for African Americans.” Among those joining the action were Fox Network News, Viacom (the parent company of BET. MTV and VH1), Univision, TV One, Ra-
dio One, CW Network and A&E Television Networks. Under its latest plan, the tobacco firms propose advertising in only 14 of approximately 200 Black newspapers. TV One would technically be eligible to receive commercials, but probably won’t get them because they can’t match the audience numbers available on ABC, CBS and NBC. No proposal was made to advertise on radio or magazines in either the original or revised plan. Campbell, chairman of the NNPA, said the Black media remains deeply dissatisfied. “What they have done is include some key cities that were ignored in the original proposal and assigned them to White papers while again bypassing local Black newspapers that were subjected in the past to heavy tobacco advertising aimed at Blacks,” he explained. “Tobacco companies can’t have it both ways. They can’t say we were effective advertising vehicles when they were peddling life-threatening cigarettes,
but when it comes to correcting the public record under court order, they want to leave most of our papers on the sidelines.” Tobacco companies plan to place ads in states where the Black population is sparse. For example, they propose placing ads in the Omaha Star. There are only 82,865 African Americans in the entire state of Nebraska, representing 4.5 percent of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. On the other hand, New York City, Atlanta and Chicago each have more than 20 times as many African Americans living in their local communities yet have been rejected for ads. “The tobacco companies considered us effective when they were targeting us for their products,” said the NNPA chairman. “If anything, with our stronger circulation, digital platforms and our use of social media, we are even more effective in delivering messages to African Americans today than we were when they willingly patronized us.”
Politics
Donald T. Sterling is no aberration
AMG | PHOTOGRAPHY
KTTV
An audio recording released to the public last week revealed L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s racist comments.
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson New America Media
L
os Angeles Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling is no aberration. On an audio recording that allegedly captures Sterling telling a girlfriend that he doesn’t want African Americans at “my games” ignited a furor. But it’s part and parcel of an increasingly rotten and ugly saga that has become all too familiar in recent days. In quick succession, GOP rocker and pitchman Ted Nugent maligned President Obama as a “subhuman mongrel,” GOP House representative Paul Ryan, chair of the House Budget Committee, virtually called Blacks and Hispanics lazy as the cause of their chronic high joblessness, and South Dakota GOP state representative Phil Jensen publicly said it was OK for businesses to exclude Blacks from service. Their outbursts could be chalked off to the rants, or ignorance of a few named GOP luminaries and some top GOP officials did chastise at least Nugent for his bone-headed cracks. And then there are the even more outrageous digs by Nevada rancher and grazing rights protestor Clive Bundy who flatly and very unapologetically implied that slavery was not such a bad thing after all for African Americans. His crackpot remarks did set off a mad dash by his legions of Republican supporters to distance themselves from him. But they distanced
themselves only from his screwball cracks, not his conservative, neo-states’ rights philosophy. His remarks were an embarrassment. But what he represents isn’t to them. The core of that is naked bigotry. The distance between his remarks, Bundy and now Sterling in their putdown of Blacks are less than paper thin. Ryan, Bundy and Sterling can say what they please with relative impunity knowing that once the momentary outcry passes, there will be no lasting repercussion for their bigotry. That is if they even acknowledge their racism. Clipper officials have gone through gyrations to duck, deny and discredit TMZ for disclosing Sterling’s racist rants. An AP survey on racial attitudes toward minorities in October, 2012 found that in the four-year period from a prior AP survey on racial attitudes in 2008 a clear majority of Whites (56 percent) expressed animus toward Blacks. The jump in anti-Black racial sentiment came despite nearly four years in office of an African-American president. The reasons given for the climb ranged from voter polarization to racial denial by policymakers. Before Sterling’s latest racist rant, he had been sued, verbally lambasted, reprimanded, hit with reams of bad press, and threatened with pickets for these racial wrongs. Yet, the Los Angeles NAACP chapter gave Sterling its highest honor, a lifetime achievement award in 2009. The shame, absurdity, and contradiction of
the award to a man who in word, deed, and symbol is the diametric opposite of everything the nation’s premier civil rights group stands for and has fought for is enough to draw a gag. A Google search with the name Donald Sterling and racial discrimination at the time he was sued and settled for racial discrimination found thousands of results. Not one of them even remotely had Sterling doing anything to further racial goodwill. The checklist of reported Sterling racial escapades include a Justice Department housing discrimination lawsuit and forced settlement, slurs and gaffes against Hispanics and African Americans, and that includes two high-profile Clippers players, the shooing of minorities away from his pricey Beverly Hills condos and rentals, and an overblown and failed promise to build a homeless shelter on Los Angeles’skid row. Sterling like others who openly express their bigotry is secure in the knowledge that after the brief firestorm of malodorous publicity and anger from civil rights leaders and African-Americans, it will be business as usual. That business is as always in their world and the world of millions of other Americans naked, unvarnished bigotry. Sterling is no aberration. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author, political analyst and co-host of the “Al Sharpton Show” on American Urban Radio Network. Follow him on Twitter at @earlhutchinson.
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Health
Mental illness is our dirty little secret By Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist
I
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8 | May 1 - May 7, 2014 | District Chronicles
’m tired, my sisterfriend said. I don’t know how much longer I can hold on. As I hear her, I have a couple of choices. One is to tell her to get with her pastor and pray; the other is to tell her to get real with her illness. Running her to her pastor takes her to a familiar place. Pushing her to help takes her out of her comfort zone. When my beloved brothers and sisters share that they are stymied in the way they live their lives, I don’t mind praying and encouraging spiritual counsel, but I do mind ignoring the medicinal help that could assist my sisterfriend. So my sister is sighing her pain, and I am wondering what to do. There are few that will hear a Black woman in a Black community, strumming her pain, questioning her faith. According to the National Associations of Mental Health more than 4 percent of African Americans have considered suicide. Most of them are AfricanAmerican women. Mental health is our nation’s dirty little secret, and if it is whispered in the nation at large, it is a silent scream in the African-American community. We are afraid, ashamed, frightened to own up to it, using our own lingo (s’kerd, shamed) to wrap ourselves around the fear that goes with “coming out” on mental illness. So we are silent, even when we lose a warrior. Karyn Washington was a 22-year-old Morgan State University sister who committed suicide, last month. This young and brilliant one turned her pain into power when she created a website, www.forbrowngirls. com that lifted up and affirmed our girls. Karyn was a colored girl whose mental issues were apparently so severe that she chose to take her own life while affirming those of others. From all accounts Karyn experienced depression. How many feel it and don’t say it? How many nod and just don’t mean it? How many exhale, inhale and really reach out to a brother or a sister to listen, have a cup of tea, take a walk, or just reach out and touch?
Karyn Washington, Morgan State University student and creator of the Black uplifting blog “forbrowngirls.com,” committed suicide last month.
The poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote, “We wear the mask that grins and lies that hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.” Many in our nation, especially African Americans, wear the mask. I chose to focus on this because in one scant week I have spoken to African-American women who have experienced depression or feel shackled by other mental health issues. They walk like they hold the world in their hands; sway like they are hearing drums from another continent, yet cry behind closed doors, like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. They are sad, ground down, depressed, and we play off their pain, trivialize it, instead of responding to it. We are losing too much genius when we play off the scourge of mental illness. We decide that it is their problem, not the problem of a nation that would inflict, rather than attempt to fix, mental illness. For all the care the Affordable Care Act has offered, we must ask if it has offered enough to combat mental illness. We in the African-American community have paid more and received less to be perceived as “normal” members of society. Despite injustices in our nation, we have been expected to show up, with amazing dignity, ignoring the massacre of our sons or daughters
with well-modulated emotion. Too many of us fear or fail to speak our pain. Poverty and mental health are correlated, yet the poorest of us see our pain as “par for the course” and we don’t speak about it. Whether African Americans are wealthy or financially challenged, mental health is elusive for some. And faith without works is dead, which means fall on those knees if it comforts you, then run to the doctor who may help you with medication and therapy. Baby girl Karyn Washington inspired this column, and as I thought of her, others kept reminding me of their own pain and the ways it has been ignored. If you don’t get it, read from Terrie Williams’ “Black Pain.” And if you read it, remind folks that this is not a sympathy issue, this is a public policy issue. So weep sister soldier, brother warrior. Those who bear the scars of mental illness have often fought longer, harder, and with the chemical imbalance that makes them feel it all so much more intensely. Mental health is not an embarrassment; it is a national health issue. It is a silent killer that we have yet to acknowledge. Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C.-based economist and writer. She is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.
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Melrose A. Lewis Name of decedent
Notice of Appointment, Notice to Creditors and Notice to Unknown Heirs Robert J. Lewis II, whose address is 5342 Central Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20019, was appointed Personal Representative of the estate of Melrose A. Lewis who died on September 5, 2013, with a will and will serve without Court supervision. All unknown heirs and heirs whose whereabouts are unknown shall enter their appearance in this proceeding. Objections to such appointment shall be filed with the Register of Wills, D.C., Building A, 515 5th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington D.C. 20001, on or before 11.1.2014. Claims against the decedent shall be presented to the undersigned with a copy to the Register of Wills or filed with the Register of Wills with a copy to the undersigned, on or before 11.1.2014, or be forever barred. Persons believed to be heirs or legatees of the decedent who do not receive a copy of this notice by mail within 25 days of its publication shall so inform the Register of Wills, including name, address and relationship.
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Montgomery County Two Montgomery College students win Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarships
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ontgomery College students My Duyen (Grace) Le and Trinh Nguyen have been awarded a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (JKCF) Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship that will provide up to $30,000 each year for tuition, books and living expenses to use at the four-year transfer institution of their choice. The foundation provides scholarships for up to three years to the nation’s best low-income community college students seeking to complete a bachelor’s degree at an accredited college or university. This cohort is the largest in the program’s 13-year history, with 85 finalists selected from 3,705 applications representing 737 community colleges from 48 states, two U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. “Trinh and Grace exemplify what it means to be Montgomery College students and scholars, and today, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship winners,” said DeRionne Pollard, president of Montgomery College. “They immigrated to this country amidst challenges that could have made them wither. Instead, they persevered and are now shining stars with amazing futures before them. We cannot be more proud of these two extraordinary young ladies.” Scholars were selected based on high academic ability and achievements, persistence, leadership, and financial need. The average GPA of the incoming class is 3.98 and the scholars come from families with an average adjusted gross income of approximately $25,000. “The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has long been committed to helping outstanding community college students transfer to and succeed at the nation’s top colleges and universities,” said Emily Froimson,
Nguyen (left) and Le will use scholarship funds to complete their degrees in engineering.
vice president of programs at the foundation. “Since the program started in 2002, the foundation has supported 643 community college students directly, and thousands more through the foundation’s grant making initiatives.” Le was born in Vietnam, where her mother introduced her to community service and volunteerism. Le and her family immigrated to the U.S. after her father faced difficulties arising from his protest activities. She lived apart from her parents so that she could attend a better high school. It was a difficult and lonely time for her, but she overcame her challenges. “Enrolling at Montgomery College, I met other international students who shared similar experiences to mine,” said Le. “People saw me as an individual ... acknowledging my hard work in classes and inviting me to get involved with civic activities on campus.” Le is concluding her studies with a 4.0 grade point average. A chemical engineering major, she serves as an active leader on campus. She is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, serves as president of the student senate at the Germantown Campus, and also serves on the Student Advisory Council of the Maryland Higher Education Commission. Le is also a Montgomery College student ambassador, and president of the Engineering Club. She has been accepted to the University of Maryland, and is con-
sidering other universities as well. She plans to continue studying chemical engineering. Nguyen was also born in Vietnam. She and her family immigrated to the United States, leaving her father behind. Since her mother knew little English, Trinh took her father’s place, managing her family’s finances, applying for social services, and helping her brother adjust to school. “It was overwhelming, but I also learned many lessons during this time,” said Nguyen. “I became a good manager, developed skills to deal with challenging situations, and increased my confidence and independence. I was also proud to be able to help my family adjust to their new life.” A bioengineering major, Nguyen will conclude her studies with a 4.0 grade point average. She was a research fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., and also held a prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute summer internship at Georgetown University. She was vice president of the Engineering Club at the Germantown Campus, a member of Phi Theta Kappa, a participant in the S-STEM Scholars program, and volunteered for many campus organizations. Nguyen is considering Smith College, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Maryland and will major in biomedical engineering. For more information on the foundation, go to: www.jkcf. org.
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