Your Community Connection
Including Inglewood Airport Area • Baldwin Hills • Crenshaw/LA • Ladera Heights VOL. 23, No. 8
February 20, 2014
Black Winter Olympians Make Slow, Sure History
I
n the Disney movie, “Cool Runnings” (based on true events), people laughed at the idea of a Jamaican team making a serious run for Olympic gold in bobsledding. They’re not laughing now. The U.S. bobsled team Five of the six athletes competing on Team USA in women’s bobsledding are African-American. On Feb. 19, track star Lauryn Williams became the fifth Olympian to ever medal in both the Winter and Summer Games, Yahoo! Sports reports. Williams took the silver medal, with partner Elana Meyers, in the two-woman bobsled event in Sochi, Russia—missing gold to
Williams won a gold medal in 2012.
On The Inside: • News • Community • Entertainment • Health • Real Estate • Business
Dalai Lama to Speak at Forum
N
ext week, on February 25, His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama will appear in person at the newly renovated Fabulous Forum in Inglewood. Honoring his commitment to promoting peace and nonviolence, the Dalai Lama will deliver an uplifting speech on topics such as the effects of compassion in the 21st Century. The talk will begin at 12:15 pm. The Forum is located at Lauryn Williams is the fifth Olympian to medal in both Winter and Summer Games. 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., the Canadian team by just Beijing Summer Olympics their bobsled run in 11th Inglewood. .1 seconds. She won a gold in 2008 and London in 2012, place. just two years before in the did the same. According to Yahoo! 2012 London Games, with The day before her win, Sports, if Williams and Meythe U.S. relay team. Williams became the ninth ers had won the gold, WilTeam USA also took American ever to represent liams would have been the home the bronze, with Ja- Team USA in both the Sum- first woman in Olympic hismie Greubel and Aja Evans mer and Winter Olympics, tory to do so for both games. coming in just behind their when she climbed into her Jones is as well known for teammates. bobsled in the first heat of her beauty and triumph over Aja Evans, who was named her two-woman competition. poverty, as her Olympic perUSA Bobsled’s Rookie of Jones became the 10th formances. In 2008, she had the Year, and sprinter gold when she teamed with the heartbreaking experience Dalai Lama medalist Williams served Jazmine Fenlator in the of clipping a hurdle in the The line of Dalai Lamas as brakemen. Lolo Jones, a United States’ third sled. final stretch. She came in (Continued on page 6) began as a lineage of spiritual hurdler who competed at the Jones and Fenlator ended teachers; the 5th Dalai Lama assumed political authority over Tibet. Uniting different worlds under one language, the 14th Dalai Lama has conBy Thomas Bunn sistently advocated policies s we move closer of non-violence, even in the to the end of the face of extreme aggression. In shortened month 1989, he was awarded the Noof February, concluding bel Peace Prize for his nonvioBlack History Month, I’d lent struggle for the liberation like to take a look at indiof Tibet. He has also received viduals whose names we the Congressional Gold Medal may not know. Nonethein 2007 and the 2012 Templeless, they are pushing our ton Prize. culture and communities “Through his message of forward with their drive, universal compassion and passion and fearless comnonviolence, His Holiness (Continued on page 2) (Continued on page 2) Brittney Exline
Young, Black and Gifted
A
VOTE TODAY • Visit www.inglewoodtoday.com
Would you like to see NFL Football in Inglewood?